14th.—The country we traveled through this day, appears the same as described yesterday, excepting this afternoon's journey through woodland, to cut off a bend of the river. Came about twenty-seven miles this day.
15th.—We set out very early, and about one o'clock
came to the Ouabache, within six or seven miles of Port
Vincent.[1] On my arrival there, I found a village of
about eighty or ninety French families settled on the east
side of this river, being one of the finest situations that can
be found. The country is level and clear, and the soil
very rich, producing wheat and tobacco. I think the
latter preferable to that of Maryland or Virginia. The
French inhabitants hereabouts, are an idle, lazy people, a
parcel of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse
than the Indians. They took a secret pleasure at our
misfortunes, and the moment we arrived, they came to
the Indians, exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder.
As the savages took from me a considerable quantity of
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- ↑ The date of the founding of Vincennes (Post or Port Vincent) has been varyingly assigned from 1702 to 1735; but Dunn, in his Indiana (Boston and New York, 1888), p. 54, shows quite conclusively that François Margane, Sieur de Vincennes, went thither at the request of Governor Perier of Louisiana in 1727, and founded a fort to counteract the designs of the English against the French trade. The French colony was not begun until 1735, and the next year the commandant Vincennes was captured and burnt by the Chickasaws, while engaged in an expedition against their country. Louis St. Ange succeeded to the position of commandant at Vincennes, which he continued to hold until 1764, when summoned to the Illinois. He left two soldiers in charge at Vincennes, of whom and their companions Croghan gives this unfavorable account. No English officer appeared to take command at Vincennes until 1777; meanwhile General Gage had endeavored to expel the French inhabitants therefrom (1772-73). It is not surprising, therefore, that they received the Americans under George Rogers Clark (1778), with cordiality; or that after Hamilton's re-capture of the place, they were unwilling to aid the English in maintaining the post against Clark's surprise (February, 1779), which resulted in the capture of Hamilton and all the British garrison. After this event, Vincennes became part of the Illinois government, until the organization of a Northwest Territory in 1787.—Ed.
