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INDIANA 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 VOLUME VII 
 
 % 
 1923 
 
Xn2- 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII 
 
 No. 1. SlEUR DE VlNCENNES IDENTIFIED. 
 
 By Pierre-Georges Roy. Pages 1-130 
 
 No. 2. Morgan's Raid in Indiana. 
 
 By Judge Louis B. Ewbank. Pages 131-184 
 
 No. 3. Reminiscences of the Early Marion County Bar. 
 
 By William Watson Woollen. Pages 185-208 
 
 No. 4. The National Road in Indiana. 
 
 By Lee Burns. Pages 209-237 
 
 No. 5. Early Indianapolis. 
 
 By Mrs. Laura Fletcher Hodges. Pages 238-267 
 
 No. 6. One Hundred Years in Public Health in Indiana. 
 
 By Dr. W. F. King. Pages 268-291 
 
 No. 7. Fort Wayne in 1790. 
 
 By M. M. Quaife. Pages 293-361 
 
 No. 8. Washington County Giants. 
 
 By Harvey Morris. Pages 363-447 
 
 No. 9. The Science of Columbus. 
 
 By Elizabeth Miller Hack. Pages 449-480 
 
 No. 10. Abraham Lincoln, Lawyer. 
 
 By Charles N. Moores. Pages 481-535 
 
P TERRE GEORGES ROY 
 
INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Vol. 7. No. 1. 
 
 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 BY 
 
 PIERRE-GEORGES ROY 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 C. E. PAULEY & COilPANY 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 On November 3, 1672, the Canadian fief of Vincennes was 
 granted to Francois Bissot. On his death it passed to his son, 
 Jean Baptiste Bissor, who died at the Indian village of Ki- 
 ki-on-ga, the site of Fort Wayne, in 1719. From that date 
 there has been found no official record of the ownership in 
 Canada until 1749, when it passed by judicial decree to Joseph 
 Roy. It is an interesting coincidence — for Indiana, a happy 
 coincidence — that the centennial year of Indiana's statehood 
 should have been made more memorable by the identification 
 of the Sieur de Vincennes, who succeeded Jean Baptiste Bissot, 
 and who founded the first permanent settlement in Indiana, by 
 a descendant of Joseph Roy. Ever since Americans began the 
 study of the early French history of this region, the identity 
 of this Sieur de Vincennes has been almost as mysterious as 
 that of the Man in the Iron Mask, or the author of the Letters 
 of Junius. Judge Law, the first American who undertook any 
 systematic investigation of the history of Vincennes, stated 
 that he signed his name ''Francois Morgan de Vinsenne" ; but 
 Morgan is not a Canadian or French name, and the fief was 
 in the Bissot family until 1749. But a sister of Jean Baptiste 
 Bissot married Séraphin Margane, which is the French name 
 most nearly approaching ''Morgan", and it has generally been 
 assumed that a son or grandson of hers must have been our 
 Sieur de Vincennes. It has remained for M. Pierre-Georges 
 Roy, an erudite Canadian writer, to unearth the conclusive 
 documentary evidence that our founder was Francois Bissot, a 
 son of Jean Baptiste Bissot, who was in the French military 
 service at the same time as his father; and that this Francois 
 Bissot's godfather was his uncle Francois Margane. This 
 clears the mystery, it being evident that Francois Bissot as- 
 
4 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 sumed his godfather's name, as was often done by the early 
 Canadians, to distinguish himself from his father, who signed 
 his name "Bissot de Vinsenne". The same document also 
 establishes the fact that the first French post in Indiana was 
 built at Fort Wayne in 1722, and gives us a definite point for 
 the beginning of European settlement within our borders, 
 although this post was not permanent, the post having been 
 destroyed by the Indians in 1747. 
 
 Pierre-Georges Roy, to whom Indiana is indebted for this 
 information, was born at Levis, across the St. Lawrence from 
 Quebec, October 23, 1870. He is the son of the Notary Leon 
 Roy and Marguerite de Lavoye, being the twelfth child in a 
 family of fourteen. One of his elder brothers was the dis- 
 tinguished J. Edmond Roy, President of the Royal Society 
 of Canada, and author of the History of the Seigneury of 
 Lauzon. M. Leon Roy was able to give his family good 
 educations, and Pierre-Georges graduated in turn from the 
 College of Levis, the Seminary of Quebec, and the University 
 of Laval. Literary by inclination, his first venture was the 
 establishment, in 1890, of Le Glaneur, a magazine for young 
 people, which was continued for two years. He then entered 
 journalistic work on the Quotidien, at Levis, and the Canadien, 
 at Quebec, and established Le Moniteur, at Levis, In 1894 he 
 was made deputy Clerk of the Court of Appeals at Quebec, 
 in which office he remained for twenty years, meanwhile con- 
 tinuing his historical and literary researches. In 1895 he es- 
 tablished Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, which has 
 been, and still is, the great arena for Canadian historical dis- 
 cussion, and is the recognized organ of the Société des Etudes 
 Historiques. In addition to editorial work, M. Roy is the 
 author of numerous publications among which, with their dates 
 of issue, are the following: 
 
 La Réception de Mgr le Vicomte D'Argenson, 1890; Pre- 
 mier Voyage de Jacques Cartier au Canada, 1890; Oraison 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 5 
 
 Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, 1895 ; Les Troubles de 
 L'Eglise du Canada en 1728, 1897; La Neuvième Législature 
 de Québec, 1897; Guide de Levis, 1898; Bibliographie de la 
 Poésie Franco-Canadienne, 1900; La Famille Taschereau, 
 1901 ; Notre-Dame de Bonsecours de LTslet, 1901 ; Sainte-Julie 
 de Somerset, 1901 ; La Dixième Legislature de Quebec, 1901 ; 
 Sainte-Antoine de Tilly, 1902 ; La Famille, Frémont, 1902 ; La 
 Famille Juchereau Duchesnay, 1903 ; La Famille D'Estimau- 
 ville de Beaumouchel, 1903; La Famille Taché, 1904; La 
 Famille Godefroy de Tonnancour, 1904; Un Procès Criminel a 
 Quebec au 17e Siècle, 1904; Oraison Funèbre de Mgr de 
 Pontbriand, 1905 ; La Famille DTrumberry de Salaberry, 1905 ; 
 La Famille Rocbert de la Morandière, 1905 ; La Famille des 
 Champs de Boishebert, 1906 ; La Famille Panet, 1906 ; Oraison 
 Funèbre de Mgr Briand, 1906; Les Noms Géographiques de 
 Québec, 1906; La Famille Renaud D'Avéne des Meloizes, 
 1907; La Famille Aubert de Gaspè, 1907; La Famille Bois- 
 seau, 1907; La Famille Adhémar de Lantagnac, 1908; La 
 Famille Jarret de Verchéres, 1908; La Famille Mariauchau 
 D'Esgly, 1908; La Famille Céloron de Blainville, 1909; La 
 Famille de Ramezay, 1910; Autour de la Buvette, 1910; Le 
 Grand Menteur, 1911; La Famille Bailly de Messein, 1911; 
 La Famille des Bergères de Rigauville, 1912; La Famille 
 Faribault, 1913; La Famille Bécard de Grandville, 1914; La 
 Famille Viennay-Pachot, 1915; La Famille Foucault, 1915; 
 La Famille Glackemeyer, 1915; La Famille Chavigny de 
 la Chevrotiér, 1,16; La Famille Margane de Lavaltrie, 1917; 
 La Famille Guillimin, 1917; Inventaire D'une Collection de 
 Pieces Judiciaires, Notariales, etc., etc., 2 vols. 1917; La Gla- 
 neur, 2 vols. ; Le Moniteur, 2 vols ; Le Bulletin des Recherches 
 Historiques, 23 vols, (1) 1895-1917. 
 
 These works are historical with the exception of Autour 
 de la Buvette and Le Grand Menteur, which are temperance 
 arguments, M. Roy being a stalwart prohibitionist. Among 
 
6 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 the recognitions of his literary work have been his election 
 to the Royal Society of Canada in 1904, the decoration of 
 Officier de L'Instruction Publique from the French Govern- 
 ment in 1905, the degree of Doctor of Letters from the Uni- 
 versity of Laval in 1906, and the appointment of Federal 
 Archivist of Quebec in 1915. For putting it in touch with M. 
 Roy, the Indiana Historical Society is indebted to Hon. Merrill 
 Moores, who visited Quebec in the summer of 1916, and 
 learned that M. Roy had made a collection of documents 
 concerning the Bissot family. Mr. Moores says of his visit : 
 
 "I went to Quebec for the purpose of finding a repre- 
 sentative of the Roy family, who I supposed would be still 
 in possession of the seignory. I went to Buffalo and down by 
 boat to Quebec, and was told by a priest on the boat that a 
 lawyer and also a historian, brothers who belonged to the 
 Roy family, which had possessed the seignory, were still liv- 
 ing in Levis, across from the city of Quebec, the one being 
 named Edmond and the other Georges. I crossed to Levis 
 and made inquiries as to both of these gentlemen, and found 
 that the lawyer, who had been a man of prominence, was 
 dead. I then, with some difficulty, located the house of the 
 man I had been told was a college professor and historian. 
 His house was temporarily vacant, but a neighbor told me 
 that I would find him at his country house to the east of 
 Levis. Being unable to get a cab, I took a trolley car as 
 far as it went and learned from a grocer where the country 
 house was, and started across a tremendous meadow in the 
 direction of the country house. In crossing the meadow I 
 met a gentleman walking toward the city of Levis with a 
 boy and a girl, of about eleven and nine years old. I spoke 
 to the gentleman in English and asked to be directed to 
 the residence of Mr. Roy. He told me in French that he 
 was Mr. Roy, and he and I walked back to Levis together 
 He told me that the seignory was several miles to the east 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 7 
 
 of where I had met him, and that his country house was 
 only about half a mile east of there, and was on land 
 which had belonged to the seignors, and was on the site of 
 the old family tannery. Returning, he showed me where 
 the bakery of the original Roy had been located. This had 
 long ago disappeared. It seems that Bissot was the principal 
 tanner and Roy the principal baker in early colonial days. 
 I had an invitation from Mr. Roy who took me to his office 
 at 23 Rue St. Louis, Quebec (which is a part of the old 
 mansion occupied by the Duke of Kent, father of Queen 
 Victoria, at the time when he was Governor General of 
 Lower Canada). I had a very delightful visit with Mr. 
 Roy, who, as I say, offered to drive me out to the old fief. 
 But Congress was in session and I had to go back and 
 could not get out. I have a promise from him, however, 
 to show me the fief on my next visit to Quebec. It is 
 between 600 and 700 acres, and is quadrangular in shape, 
 being perhaps a quarter of a mile on the river and running 
 back a considerable distance to the south of the river. It is 
 directly south of the Isle d' Orleans. It is in the county of 
 Bellechasse. The village of Beaumont is, I think, on the fief. 
 The old fief now belongs to a Quebec lawyer named Gra- 
 hame. I think his name is Stuart Grahame. Mr. Roy has 
 written a great deal of Canadian history, particularly with 
 regard to old Canadian families and early trials. He is not 
 a lawyer, but is a professor in Laval University, and is Pub- 
 lic Archivist of the Province. His cousin, Alfred Valère 
 Roy, is the Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly for 
 Quebec for the constituency of Levis ; and another relative 
 is Camille Roy, secretary of Laval University. Another is 
 Paul Eugene Roy, auxiliary bishop of Quebec. Still an- 
 other, Phillippe, is Commissioner of Canada, in France, and 
 has been and possibly still is a Senator in the Canadian Sen- 
 
8 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 The Society is indebted to Mrs. Charles W. Moores for 
 the translation of M. Roy's documents, which were in French; 
 and also to Miss Belle Noble Dean, for typewriting the trans- 
 lation. 
 The translations follow. 
 
 J. P. DUNN, 
 Secretary, Ind. Hist. Soc. 
 
SIEUR DE VINCENNES IDENTIFIED 
 
 PONT-AUDEMER, PLACE OF THE ORIGIN, In FRANCE, OF THE 
 BlSSOTS OF VlNCENNES. 
 
 The town of Pont-Audemer is today the chief place of 
 the district of the department of l'Eure. Its population is 
 a little more than six thousand souls. The actual town of 
 Pont-Audemer is situated on the site of an ancient military 
 post on the Roman road from Lillebonne to Lisieux. 
 
 After the Norman conquest, Pont-Audemer formed the 
 endowment of an important Norman family. One of the 
 lords of the town, Onfroi, built the walls and the castle. In 
 1122 the town was burned by Henry I of England, and the 
 castle suffered a siege of seven weeks. In 1203 the seigniory 
 of Pont-Audemer was confiscated by Richard the Lion-hearted. 
 Then it was attached to the duchy of Normandy by John 
 Lackland. The next year Pont-Audemer submitted to Philip 
 Augustus, who established and extended its communal liber- 
 ties. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries many provin- 
 cial councils were held at Pont-Audemer, notably in 1244, 
 1257, 1259, 1260, 1265, 1267, 1269, 1279, 1286, 1291, 1305, 
 13321. In the fourteenth century likewise many of the Nor- 
 man states held their councils at Pont-Audemer. 
 
 On the second of February, 1353, John the Good, among 
 other domains abandoned the viscounty of Pont-Audemer to 
 the king of Navarre, Charles the Bad. This town was then 
 by many seiges disputed between the troops of Navarre and 
 the royal armies. In 1378 Du Guesclin and admiral Jean de 
 Vienne took possession of it and razed the walls and the castle. 
 Charles the Third the Noble, son of Charles the Bad, re- 
 
10 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 nounced his rights over Pont-Audemer in consideration of a 
 sum of ready money. In 1418 Pont-Audemer fell into the 
 power of the English. In the following year, Dunois re- 
 occupied it in the name of the king of France. During the 
 religious wars the town was taken and retaken several times 
 by the protestants and the catholics. 
 
 Pont-Audemer was in the middle ages an important port. 
 It is said to have furnished sixty ships to the expedition of 
 William the Conqueror. Pont-Audemer is now no more than 
 a little river port frequented annually by about five hundred 
 ships of different tonnage. Since the eleventh century the 
 inhabitants of the town have been engaged successfully in the 
 manufacture of fabrics and the preparation of leather. The 
 making of paper was already flourishing in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. These three industries have continued at Pont-x\udemer 
 until our time. Francois Bissot de la Rivière, who introduced 
 tanneries so successfully in New France, had been then in a 
 good school. 
 
 Pont-Audemer still possesses some beautiful monuments. 
 Notably the church of Saint-Oeun, whose choir goes back to 
 the eleventh century ; the church of Notre-Dame du Pré, where 
 Francois Bissot de la Rivière was baptized, of which there 
 remains a nave which is considered to go back to the twelfth 
 century; the church of Saint-Germain la Campagne, which 
 has also a nave of the eleventh century.* 
 
 *This information about Pont-Audemer is taken from The History 
 of the Town of Pont-Audemer, from the Dictionaire Historique du 
 Department de L'Eure and from the Grande Encyclopédie. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 11 
 
 GENEALOGY OF THE FAMILY BISSOT DE 
 VINCENNES. 
 
 Francois Bissot de la Riviere. 
 
 Francois Bissot de la Rivière was originally from Pont- 
 Audemer, a town of ancient Normandy, which today forms a 
 part of the department of l'Eure. Born in the parish of 
 Notre-Dame des Prés, he was a son of "the honorable man", 
 Jean Bissot du Gommer and of Marie Assour. Bissot went 
 to New France before 1639. He died at the Hotel-Dieu 
 of Quebec on the 26th of July, 1673, age fifty-nine years, 
 and was buried in the cemetery of the hospital. 
 
 On the 25th of October, 1648, Francois Bissot de la 
 Rivière married at Quebec, Marie Couillard, daughter of 
 Guillaume Couillard and of Guillemette Hébert. Two years 
 after the death of Francois Bissot de la Rivière, on the 7th of 
 September, 1675, at Quebec, Marie Couillard married again, 
 Jacques de Lalande-Gayon, son of Pierre de Lalande-Gayon 
 and of Marie d'Arasne, of the town of Bayonne. Madame 
 de Lalande died at Saint-Pierre in the island of Orleans on the 
 22d of June, 1703, and was buried the next day in the ceme- 
 tery of this parish. Jacques de Lalande-Gayon, after the 
 death of his wife, was certainly settled in France for six 
 years. * From the marriage of François de la Rivière and of 
 Marie Couillard were born twelve children : 
 
 ♦Jacques deDalande-Gayon, however, went to Quebec iu 1704, 
 probably to arrange the inheritance of his wife but he soon returned 
 to France. From the marriage of Jacques de Lalande-Gayon and of 
 Marie Couillard there was born at Quebec a son on the 26th of June, 
 1677 : Jacques-Marie de Lalande-Gayon. He became captain of ves- 
 sel in the service of the king of Spain. By his will, received at 
 Bayonne on the 3rd of August, 1753, before the notary Duclercq, he 
 gave to his nephew, Louis de Lafontaine, the eldest son of M. de 
 
12 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 1 — Jean-Francois Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec the 6th of December, 1649; died in the 
 same place on the 25th of November, 1653. He was buried 
 the next day in the chapel of St. Joseph of the parish church, 
 on the right side of the altar. 
 
 2 — Louise Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec the 25th of September, 1651 ; married at 
 Quebec the 12th of August, 1668, to Séraphin Margane de La- 
 valtrie, lieutenant of a company of a regiment of Ligniéres, son 
 of Sebastien Margane and of Denise Tonnot, of the parish 
 of Saint-Benoit, town and archbishopric of Paris. 
 
 M. Margane de Lavaltrie died at Montreal May 16, 1699, 
 and was buried the next day in the parish church. Madame 
 de Lavaltrie survived her husband almost thirty-four years 
 before she died at Montreal, March 1, 1733.* From their mar- 
 riage eleven children were born : five sons and six daughters. 
 Two of their sons were killed in the service of the king. An- 
 other, after having lived in Labrador for many years and hav- 
 ing raised a family, became a priest. The one who continued 
 the line died at an advanced age after having served under 
 the crowns of France and England. The daughters all made 
 distinguished marriages. The family Margane de Lavaltrie 
 died out among us at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
 M. Benjamin Suite (Le Regiment de Carignan, p. 85) makes her 
 die in 1691. 
 
 3 — Genevieve Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec May 25, 1653 ; married at Quebec June 12, 
 1673, to Louis Maheu, son of the late René Maheu and the 
 
 Lafontaine de Belcour and of Charlotte Bissot, all his property, his 
 rights and law suits which he might have in Canada, on condition 
 that he lend assistance and aid to his sister with whom the said 
 testator recommended him to live on good terms and with friendship. 
 M. de Lalande-Gayon valued the property he left in this manner 
 to Louis de Lafontaine at the sum of eight thousand livres. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 13 
 
 late Marguerite Corriveau. M. Maheu died in his house in 
 the lower town of Quebec November 24, 1683, and was buried 
 on the 26th in the parish cemetery. M. J. Edmond Roy elates 
 an annoying adventure which happened to the widow Maheu ; 
 "Nicolas Daneau Sieur de Muy, captain of a company of in- 
 fantry, and who was to be later appointed governor of 
 Louisiana, courted her. He had promised marriage and the 
 terms of the betrothal had been solemnly agreed upon, when 
 one fine day suddenly the amorous one disappeared. It was 
 learned in the spring of 1687 that he was about to marry 
 at Boucherville a granddaughter of Pierre Boucher, the old 
 governor of Trois-Rivières. In spite of the protestations of 
 the discarded beauty, M. de Caumont, then missionary at 
 Boucherville, married the faithless one to Mile. Marguerite 
 Boucher. A law suit was begun in the court of the provost 
 at Quebec, and the priest who had celebrated the marriage 
 was summoned to explain himself. They were summoned to 
 the bishop's court, the pledges of the fickle officer were seized. 
 The situation threatened to become more and more compli- 
 cated when, to avoid too great a scandal, it was decided that 
 M. de Muy should pay a compensation of 350 livres to the 
 widow, and that the affair should be forgotten.* 
 
 We after that lose sight of the widow Maheu. 
 
 On April 4, 1869, the Covereign Council rendered an im- 
 portant judgment in a law suit begun by Francois Vianney 
 Pachot, merchant of Quebec, against the widow Maheu. She 
 had obtained the possession of the effect of the renunciation 
 which she had made to the common possession which had 
 existed between her and her late husband. She was, how- 
 
 *Historie de la seigneurie de Lanzon, vol. 1, p. 250. Concern- 
 ing Nicolas Daneau de Muy consult the Bulletin Des Recherches 
 Historiques, vol. X, p. 345. 
 
14 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 ever, sentenced to give back the sum of 240 livres and 10 
 deniers into the sum total of the personal effect of the said 
 common possession.f 
 
 4 — Catherine Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec March 6, 1655. Married at Saint-Joseph 
 de la Pointe-Levy Nov. 27, 1670, to Etienne Charest, son 
 of the late Pierre Charest and of Renée Marie of the parish 
 of Sainte-Radegonde, city and bishopric of Poitiers. Madame 
 Charest died at Saint-Joseph de la Pointe-Levy in 1694.* M. 
 Charest died at the same place May 5, 1699, and was buried 
 the next day in the parish church. Of the marriage of Etienne 
 Charest and Catherine Bissot were born ten children. One 
 of them, Etienne Charest, was, in 1763, sent to England as a 
 deputy of the people to beg the king of Great Britain to grant 
 his new subjects a bishop to be governor of the church of 
 Canada. The family Charest left Canada in 1765. 
 
 5 — Claire-Fra n coise B isso t . 
 
 Born at Quebec April 13, 1656. Married at Quebec Octo- 
 ber 7, 1675, to Louis Jolliet, son of the late Jean Jolliet and 
 of Marie d'Abancourt. Louis Jolliet died between May and 
 September, 1700, on one of the Mingan islands or on the 
 island of Anticosti. We know nothing definite on this point. 
 Madame Jolliet died at Quebec March 1, 1710, and was buried 
 the next day at the parish church. 
 
 Of the marriage of Louis Jolliet and Claire-Francoise Bis- 
 
 ÏJugements et Deliberations Du Conseil Souverain, vol. Ill, p. 313. 
 *The act of the burial of Madame Charest cannot be found in the 
 register, but an entry niade in the account book of the vestry board 
 allows no doubt of the date of her death. In the giving in of the 
 account of the church warden Guillaume Albert for 1694: "I have 
 received fromi M. Charest fourteen pounds which he owes for the 
 burial of his wife." The following year the church warden received 
 thirty-four pounds, the balance of the exepense of this burial." (A 
 note of M. Edmond Roy.) 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 15 
 
 sot there were born seven children. Their two sons Jean- 
 Baptiste Jolliet de Mingan and Charles Jolliet d' Anticosti, 
 have numerous descendants in the province of Quebec. Louise 
 Grignon, the daughter of Jean Grignon, who married Marie 
 Genevieve Jolliet, the eldest daughter of Louis Jolliet, became 
 the wife of the baron of Castelnau. 
 
 6 — Marie Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec July 3, 1657 ; married at Quebec December 
 5, 1682, to Claude Porlier, merchant, son of the late Claude 
 Porlier and of Marie-Madeleine Sylvain, of the parish of 
 Saint-Sévérin, city and archbishopric of Paris. 
 
 M. Porlier died at Quebec July 31, 1689, and was buried 
 in the parish church. Marie Bissot married again at Quebec, 
 February 26, 1691, Jacques Gourdeau, of Beaulieu, son of 
 Jacques Gourdeau de Beaulieu, citizen, and Eléonore de 
 Grandmaison. Madame Gourdeau de Beaulieu died at Quebec 
 July 23, 1719, and was buried in the parish church the next 
 day. M. Gourdeau de Beaulieu died in his turn July 2, 1721. * 
 
 Marie Bissot had children by her two marriages. The 
 Porlier family died out among us about the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century. The Gourdeau are still numerous in the dis- 
 trict of Quebec. Colonel Gourdeau ex- sub minister of the 
 Marine, is descended from Jacques G. de B. and Marie Bissot. 
 
 7 — Guillaume Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec September 16, 1661. 
 
 In the inventory of the property of François Bissot de 
 la Rivière made April 27, 1676, by the notary Becquet, it is 
 
 *Neither Mgr. Tanguay nor the registers of Notre Dame of Que- 
 bec mention the death of M. Gourdeau. We have found this informa- 
 tion in a request addressed to the Superior Council of Quebec in Octo- 
 ber, 1732, by Jacques G. de B., son of Jacques G. de B. and of Marie 
 Bissot, to obtain some letters of inheritance without liability to debts 
 beyond assets descended. 
 
16 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 said that Louis Jolliet is the guardian of the minor Bissots 
 among others Guillaume fifteen years old. 
 
 On the other hand, in the census by name of the colony 
 of New France made in 1681, there is no mention of Guil- 
 laume Bissot. From which one can conclude that he died be- 
 tween 1676 and 1681. 
 
 8 — Charles-Francois Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec February 5, 1654. 
 
 He was married at Montreal, February 28, 1699, to Anne- 
 François Forestier, daughter of Antoine Forestier, surgeon, 
 and of Marie-Madeleine Cavelier. M. Bissot carried on busi- 
 ness at Mingan for twenty years. In 1705 he turned his energies 
 toward the island of Terre Neuve where he had rented the 
 fief and seigniory of Port-à-Choix in order to carry on there 
 fishing and trading. We lose sight of him from this time. 
 It is possible that he died at Terre-Neuve and also his wife 
 and François Forestier. We know of one child Marie Made- 
 leine Bissot born at Montreal December 5, 1699; died at La- 
 chine March 22, 1718. 
 
 9 — Marie-Chario tic Bissot. 
 
 Marie-Charlotte Bissot, born at Quebec June 4, 1666. Mar- 
 ried at Saint-Joseph de la Pointe-Lévy, February 25, 1686, 
 to Pierre Benac, a native of Bayonne, merchant of Quebec. 
 In 1690 M. Benac was controller general of the farms of the 
 king in New France. M. Benac returned to France toward 
 the end of the 17th century. His wife followed him there 
 since our parish registers nowhere mention her burial. 
 
 Father Paul du Poisson, Jesuit, traveling in Louisiana in 
 the summer of 1727, wrote to his confère father, Louis Pa- 
 touillet: "We left the Chapitoulas on the 29th. Although a 
 larger canoe had been sent us, and in spite of the new ar- 
 rangement of our party, we had almost as much discomfort 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 17 
 
 as before. We had only two miles to go that day in order 
 that we might spent the night at Cannes Boulées, at the house 
 of M. de Benac, director of the concession of M. D'Artagnan. 
 He received us with friendship and regaled us with a Mis- 
 sissippi carp which weighed thirty-five pounds." 
 
 Could this M. de Benac who received so well the mission- 
 ary Jesuit be our Benac? At all events we have no trace of 
 M. Benac or of his wife after their departure from Canada. 
 
 10 — Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes. 
 
 Known by the name Jean ; was born at Quebec January 19, 
 1668. He was an officer in the troops of the detachment of 
 the Marine ; and died among the Miamis in 1719. 
 
 M. Bissot de Vincennes married at Montreal, September 
 19, 1696, Marguerite Forestier, daughter of Antoine Forestier, 
 surgeon, and of Marie-Madeleine Cavelier. Madame Bissot 
 de Vincennes died at Montreal September 27, 1748, and was 
 buried the next day in the parish church. Of the marriage 
 of Jean Baptiste Bissot and Marguerite Forestier there were 
 born seven children : 
 
 (1) Marie-Louise Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Mon- 
 treal June 20, 1697; married at Quebec, June 4, 1741, to Nico- 
 las Boisseau, chief clerk of the provost of Quebec, widower 
 of Marie-Anne Page de Quercy. She died at Quebec June 14, 
 1766. M. Boisseau died in the same place February 9, 1771. 
 
 (2) Claire-Charlotte Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Que- 
 bec May 6, 1698; a nun of the congregation of Notre-Dame, 
 under the name of Soeur de l'Ascension. Died at Montreal 
 April 25, 1773, and was buried on the 27th in the chapel of 
 the Infant Jesus of the parish church. 
 
 (3) François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Mon- 
 treal June 17, 1700. Officer in the troops of the detachment 
 of the Marines. Founder of the post of Vincennes. Burned 
 
18 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 to death by the Chicksaws on the Mississippi* on the 25th of 
 March, 1736. 
 
 He had married in 1733 Longpré, daughter of 
 
 Philippe Longpré of Kaskaskia. Of this marriage were born 
 two daughters, Marie Thérèse, who became the wife of M. 
 de LTsle and Catherine. 
 
 (4) Marguerite-Catherine Bissot de Vincennes — Born at 
 Montreal September 10, 1701. Died at the Hotel-Dieu at 
 Quebec May 3, 1767, and was buried the next day in the con- 
 vent cemetery. 
 
 (5) Catherine Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montreal 
 October 11, 1704. Died at the general hospital of the Gray- 
 Sisters at Montreal September 20, 1778, and was buried the 
 22d in the cemetery near the parish church. 
 
 (6) Michel Bissot de Vincennes — Born October, 1706. 
 Died at Montreal January 10, 1709. 
 
 (7) Pierre Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montreal Au- 
 gust 27, 1710. Died in the same place August 29, 1710. 
 
 11 — Jeanne Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec April 10, 1671. Married at Quebec April 
 7, 1687, to Philippe Clement du Valult de Valrennes, captain of 
 a company of the troops of the detachment of the Marine, 
 son of the late Antoine C du V. de V. and of Françoise De 
 Coeur of the parish of Saint-Germain de la Potherie, bishopric 
 of Beauvais. May 1, 1698, M. de Valrennes, weakened in 
 consequence of his severe campaigns, obtained his discharge. 
 He left for France with his wife in the autumn of 1698. 
 
 Madame de Valrennes was still living in 1708, since on 
 the sixth of June of that year the minister wrote to M. 
 l'Abbé de Mignon to ask him if the widow Valrennes whom 
 
 *According to the most probable opinion M. de Vincennes and his 
 companions were burned near Fulton in Lee County, Miss. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 19 
 
 he had recommended to him was French or Canadian, and if 
 she was of noble family. 
 
 12 — Francois-Joseph Bissot. 
 
 Born at Quebec May 19, 1673. Married at Quebec Febru- 
 ary 4, 1698, to Marie Lambert-Dumont, daughter of the late 
 Eustache Lambert-Dumont, who when he was living was a 
 citizen and merchant of Quebec, and of Marie Vanneck. M. 
 Bissot died at Quebec December 11, 1737, and was buried 
 the next day in the parish church under his pew. Madame 
 Bissot died at Quebec May 3, 1745, and was also buried in 
 the parish church. Of their marriage there were born nine 
 children : 
 
 (1) Louise-Claire Bissot — Born at Quebec June 23, 1701. 
 Married at Quebec, May 13, 1726, to Jean Fournel, son of 
 Jean Fournel and of Marthe Crespin of the parish of Saint 
 Caparacy, bishopric of Agen. M. and Mme. Fournel died in 
 France. 
 
 (2) Charlotte Bissot— Born at Quebec April 30, 1704. 
 Married at Quebec, October 24, 1728, to Jacques de Lafon- 
 taine de Belcour, son of Jean de Lafontaine, officer of the king 
 and of Bernardine Jouin, of the parish of Versailles. She 
 died at Quebec November 21, 1749, and was buried the next 
 day in the parish church. M. de Lafontaine de Belcour died 
 at Quebec June 18, 1765. They had several children. A 
 number of their descendants still live in the district of Quebec. 
 
 (3) François-Etienne Bissot — Born at Quebec May 26, 
 1708. Died in the same place February 7, 1726. Buried 
 in the parish cemetery. 
 
 (4) Jean Bissot — Born at Quebec November 30, 1711. 
 Died in the same place December 1, 1711. Buried in the 
 parish cemetery. 
 
 (5) Joseph Bissot — Born at Quebec September 4, 1713. 
 
20 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Died at Saint- Augustine November 3, 1713. Buried in the 
 parish cemetery. 
 
 (6) Marie Bissot — Born at Mingan December, 1715. 
 Died at Quebec August 18, 1720. Buried the next day in 
 the parish cemetery. 
 
 (7) Louise Bissot — Born at Mingan August, 1718. Died 
 at Quebec November 9, 1730. Buried the next day in the 
 parish cemetery. 
 
 (8) Angélique Bissot — Born at Quebec December 12, 
 1719. Married at Quebec, September 17, 1737, to Jean Bap- 
 tiste Poitevin de la Salmonais, son of the nobleman Henri 
 Poitevin-Desorme and of the late Jeanne-Olive Arsan, of the 
 parish of Saint Malo. This union was of short duration. In 
 the autumn of the same year 1737 M. Poitevin de la Sal- 
 monais set sail for Martinique on the ship Le Prudent, com- 
 manded by Charles Cotterelle of Maine. He died in the course 
 of this voyage. Of this marriage there was born a posthumous 
 child, Marie Angélique Poitevin de la Salmonais, born at Que- 
 bec the 11th of July, 1738. After the death of her husband 
 the widow Poitevin went to France to obtain the allowance of 
 her matrimonial rights. On September 3, 1743, by the inter- 
 vention of Jacques de La fontaine, her brother-in-law, she de- 
 manded from the Lieutenant General of the Provost of Que- 
 bec to call together an assemblage of her relatives in order to 
 select from among them a guardian and to allow her to re- 
 marry. The assemblage of her relatives took place the next 
 day and the widow Poitevin de la Salmonais received permis- 
 sion to marry a second time the sieur Alexander-Jean Devaux, 
 receiver of customs at Saint Malo, "or with any other who 
 presented himself and suited her''. In 1745 she was still a 
 widow and lived at Rouen. 
 
 (9) Marie-Charlotte Bissot— Born at Mingan March 4, 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 21 
 
 1722. Married at Quebec, October 3, 1736, Jean-Pierre-Fran- 
 çois Vederic, the son of François Vederic and of Julie Houet, 
 of the parish Notre-Dame de Havre de Grâce, the diocese of 
 Rouen. 
 
 The census of the parish of Quebec in 1744 shows us 
 that François Vederic navigator, thirty-five years old, and his 
 wife Marie Bissot lived at that time at Quebec. The census 
 gives them one child, Jacques François, seven years old. We 
 then lose sight of M. Vederic. The widowed Mme. Vederic 
 retired to the convent hospital of Quebec. She died in this 
 hospital June 7, 1772, and was buried the next day in the 
 cemetery of the nuns of the convent. 
 
 FRANCOIS BISSOT DE LA RIVIERE. 
 (Grandfather of François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes.) 
 
 The presence of François Bissot, sieur de la Rivière, is 
 noticed for the first time in an act of notary of 1647. He 
 might possibly have come to Canada before this year. Fer- 
 land, who is so conscientious an investigator that one rarely 
 finds him at fault, gives the name of Bissot in a list of colon- 
 ists who came to Canada between 1641 and 1647, without 
 giving precise information about it.* 
 
 François Bissot came originally from Pont-Audemer, a 
 town of ancient Normandy, which now forms part of the de- 
 partment de l'Eure. His family lived in the parish of Notre- 
 Dame des Prés. They were of good bourgeois stock, since 
 the documents of the period speak of the father of François 
 Bissot, Jean Bissot, sieur du Gommer, as "an honorable man." 
 
 *M. l'abbé Ferland is mistaken. Bissot was already in Quebec 
 in 1639. July 2, 1639, he was present when the Jesuits took posses- 
 sion of the island Aux Ruaux. See the Bulletin des Recherches His- 
 toriques, Vol. II, p. 88. 
 
22 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Bissot first placed his estate on the coast of Lauzon, on 
 point Levy. This seigniory, conceded since 1636, was still 
 wild and uncultivated. The exploration which Father Druil- 
 lettes made along the right bank of the St. Lawrence in 1646, 
 in going up the river from the falls of the Chaudière in order 
 to get to New England, seems to have given the fir^t im- 
 pulse toward establishments opposite Quebec. 
 
 The first house was built on Point-Levy the same year 
 that Father Druillettes returned, 1647. Bissot had gone into 
 partnership with one of his Norman compatriots, the fa- 
 mous interpreter, Guillaume Couture, to begin the develop- 
 ment of his land. In the summer of 1647 one could have 
 seen the former companion of Father Jogues wielding the 
 axe in the midst of the great forests which then covered the 
 coast. By autumn he had felled a certain number of trees 
 and finished a little hut, a rustic dwelling made of roughly 
 hewn timber. Bissot, who had contributed to the expense 
 and furnished the material for construction, arranged with 
 Couture to pay him two hundred livres for his work and 
 to allow him possession of the clearing until Michaelmas 
 1648. (Agreement signed November 4, 1647. Greffe Claude 
 Lecoustre.) 
 
 October 15, 1648, Jean de Lauzon, who then lived in 
 Paris, granted to these two first copyhold tenants the regu- 
 lar titles of concession. The estates of Bissot and of Couture 
 were neighboring. They each contained two hundred sur- 
 face acres, five acres of frontage on the river and forty acres 
 of depth inland. A little brook which flowed headlong into 
 the river near Indian Cove twenty paces from the station of 
 the Intercolonial separated the two estates. Couture lived 
 on the right bank of the brook ; Bissot occupied the left. The 
 brook was held in common by the two colonists. 
 
 Between the two farms a road eighteen feet wide was 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 23 
 
 to run toward the great royal road projected all the way 
 to the river. Jean Bourdon, engineer and surveyor, had 
 already traced its limits himself in 1647. Bissot was to pay 
 to his seignior each year twelve deniers of quit rent for each 
 acre cultivated and changed into arable land or into meadow 
 land, and to send to the fiscal agent at Michaelmas twenty- 
 five salted and well seasoned eels. He had to have his land 
 tilled within three years under penalty of revocation of the 
 title. On his side the seignior reserved the right of repur- 
 chase in case of sale according to the custom of Normandy. 
 
 Bissot went to France in 1649 and returned from there 
 in July. On August 9, 1653, Bissot was named deputy in 
 the syndic body of Quebec to represent there the post of 
 Lauzon. The seignior of Lauzon, absent from the country, 
 could not fulfil toward his tenants the obligations which the 
 feudal régime imposed upon him. Since 1655 Bissot had 
 had a mill on Point Levy where the colonists could bring 
 their grain to be ground. The brook which separated the 
 estate of Bissot from that of Couture turned the mill stone. 
 In order to have all the property rights of this stream of 
 water, Bissot arranged with Couture that he would grind 
 his grain gratuitously for twenty years. 
 
 Bissot de la Rivière, while he was clearing his land on 
 Point-Levy, lived most of the time in Quebec. In the cen- 
 sus of 1667 one finds on the farm at Lauzon three servants : 
 Jean Guay, twenty-eight years old; Martin l'Enfilé, twenty- 
 nine years old; Pierre Perrot, thirty-two years old. 
 
 He seems to have wished to group around his colonial 
 estate people from Normandy. Guillaume Couture, with 
 whom he had originally contracted a partnership for clear- 
 ing the land was Norman like himself and possessed, in 
 France, land situated at la Haye-Aubraye, fifteen kilometres 
 from Pont-Audemer. Among the compatriots of Bissot set- 
 
24 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 tied on Point-Lévy there was Louis Begin, the ancestor of 
 Cardinal Begin, who was originally from Lieurey, a little 
 parish in the suburbs of Pont-Audemer. François Becquet, 
 who bought a piece of land in Lauzon, April 6, 1660, was a 
 nephew of François Bissot. He came from Notre-Dame des 
 Préaux, a parish situated six kilometres from Pont-Audemer. 
 The families Lebieux, Chartier, Pourveau came likewise 
 from Normandy. 
 
 A letter from Governor Jean de Lauzon, dated Paris, 
 March 8, 1664, gives to Bissot a new concession of ten acres 
 of land fronting along the river St. Lawrence and forty in 
 depth. This concession touched on one side the rives des 
 Etchemins and on the other side Jean Adam. It took in all 
 the islands situated at the mouth of this river and the rights 
 of hunting and fishing. M. de Lauzon said in his letter 
 that he wished in this way to recompense Bissot for the good 
 services which he had rendered to the people of the seigniory. 
 
 Bissot, representing the tenants of Lauzon in the syndic 
 body, had indeed renedered them considerable service, but 
 the family of Lauzon owed him still more recognition. For 
 it was he who had discharged the obligation of building a 
 common mill, since the seigniory, sparsely settled, could not 
 yet yield a sufficient revenue to grind its own grain. He took 
 part also in the organization of seigniorial justice. He was 
 made fiscal agent toward the end of 1650 and succeeded 
 Charles Sevestre as provost judge. Bissot rilled this last 
 office until his death. 
 
 After the death of the governor of Lauzon and the tragic 
 disappearance of most of the members of his family, he took 
 the seigniory by farm-hold, in partnership with Eustache Lam- 
 bert, and gave himself up to its development. In 1668, when 
 the métropole ordered that the seignors render faith and 
 homage and make the avowal and enumeration of their lands, 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 25 
 
 Bissot presented himself to the controller and demanded allow- 
 ance for the minors of the Lauzon family. 
 
 In the autumn of 1672, November 2, Bissot obtained in 
 his turn a seignioral domain in the neighborhood of Lauzon. 
 This property consisting of seventy acres of frontage and a 
 mile of depth was bordered on the east by the seigniory of 
 Beaumont, which Talon granted on the same day to Couillard 
 des Ilets de Beaumont. It is this seigniory acquired in 1672 
 by Bissot which has since carried the name of Vincennes. 
 Bissot began clearing in 1670. November 24th of this same 
 year he sold to Jean Poliqnin four acres of frontage and 
 forty acres of depth in a place called la Petite-Pêche. The 
 brook of la Petite-Pêche crossed the ancient domain of Vin- 
 cennes, already inhabited by the family Faucher de Saint- 
 Maurice and had for a long time turned the wheel of an 
 old community mill built by the seignior Joseph Roy, father- 
 in-law of this Corpron, a partner of Bigot, who stored grain 
 there when Quebec suffered a most dreadful famine. 
 
 Formerly Pont-Audemer, the ancestral town of Bissot, 
 was noted for its maritime fisheries, and its fishers had no 
 equal in the salting of herring. Bissot all the time he was 
 cultivating his lands and clearing the forests of Canada wanted 
 to exploit the immense resources of our great river. In the 
 autumn of 1630 he formed a partnership with Simon Guyon, 
 Courville, Lespinay, de Tilly and Godefroy to go after seals 
 near Tadoussac. Beside fishing for seals the partners de- 
 sired to attract the savages at Tadoussac and to trade there 
 in beaver skins. Godefroy went to France to obtain the right 
 of this fishery from the company and to associate M. Rozée 
 for an eighth partner. Courville, Lespinay and Simon Guyon 
 had made a voyage on the Saguenay in the month of October 
 to enter into an alliance with the savages, and they had 
 
26 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 brought back from this first excursion about three hundred 
 beaver skins. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1663, M. d'Avaugour leased the 
 trading rights of Tadoussac for two years to François Bissot, 
 la Tesserie, des Cartes, Le Gardeur, de Tilly, Desprès, 
 Juchereau de la Ferté, Damours, Charron, Bourdon, Juche- 
 reau de Saint-Denis (Judgments et Deliberations du Conseil 
 Souverain, t. 1. p. 11), but this lease was broken in the Octo- 
 ber following by M. de Mésy. 
 
 Bissot, seeing the kingdom of the Saguenay closed to him, 
 directed his attention toward the desert regions of Labrador, 
 where up to this time only the Spaniards in company with 
 the Basques had dared to fish. 
 
 In the winter of 1661, on February 25th, Bissot obtained 
 from the Company of New France the island aux Oeufs, 
 situated below Tadoussac toward the Pellean mountains of 
 the north coast about forty miles from Tadoussac, with the 
 right of hunting and of establishing on the land in whatever 
 place he would find most convenient still fishing for seal, 
 whales, porpoises and other kinds of fish from the island aux 
 Oeufs to Sept-Iles and in la Grande-Anse, in the country of 
 the Esquimaux where the Spaniards were still fishing. He 
 obtained at the same time the right to take, in these places, 
 the woods and the land necessary to establish his estate there. 
 
 It is this island, so celebrated for the shipwreck of the 
 fleet of the English admiral Walker, on which Bissot began 
 to put down the foundations of his first establishment for 
 still fishing. It is nothing but a sterile rock, barren of all 
 vegetation, about three-quarters of a mile long. In the crevices 
 of the granite rocks they built huts for the fishers. 
 
 Bissoa had first established himself on the island aux 
 Oeufs in order to protect his property from the incursions 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 27 
 
 of the savage Esquimaux, the fiercest and most barbarous 
 of men. Later he carried his settlement to the extreme end 
 of the harbor of Mingan, and there constructed a little fort 
 of logs. Bissot directed these distant developments from 
 Quebec. Each spring his ships laden with outfits for fishing 
 and merchandise for trading left the little capitol, and only 
 returned once, when the season was finished. 
 
 During the year 1668 Bissot began a tannery on Point- 
 Levy, on the land which he had obtained in 1648 from the 
 seignior de Lauzon. The brook which was the border line 
 between the farms of Couture and of Bissot and which turned 
 the wheel of the mill was damaged. A large wooden canal 
 carried the water from it and took it to the tanning vats. The 
 intendent Talon during the year 1668 increased the "denier" 
 of the king to be employed in the construction of the build- 
 ings necessary to this new enterprise to a sum of 3,268 livres. 
 This advance considerable for the time was later reimbursed 
 in large part by the Bissot heirs. 
 
 The community to aid Bissot in his enterprise lent him 
 besides a sum of 1,500 livres at ten per cent, interest. This 
 tannery, the first which one could have seen in Canada, had 
 a great success. Much was expected of it, and the first at- 
 tempts succeeded perfectly. From the second year the profits 
 realized surpassed all expectations. 
 
 Bissot had set going three projects : the cultivation of the 
 land, fishing and the making of leather. All three kept pace 
 with each other, and Bissot was in a way to make his for- 
 tune. The little hut which he had had built by Couture in 
 the autumn of 1647 had disappeared long ago to make room 
 for a long, comfortable house. Beautiful golden harvests 
 covered the meadows. The mill wheel turned constantly on 
 the little babbling brook. The land produced grain as if 
 
28 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 by enchantment. The meadows of l'Etchemin furnished fer- 
 tile pasturage. Down there on the heights of Cape Saint- 
 Claude the seigniory of Vincennes began to be populated. 
 Each autumn on St. Martins day there was brought to the 
 great white house hidden under the elms of Point-Levy fat 
 capons, eels and the quit rent money. The road which led 
 to the Bissot dwelling became a sort of bridge d'Avignon 
 where everyone had to pass to go to the river and to the 
 town. A considerable business was also done there. 
 
 The development of the still fishing of Labrador went mar- 
 velously. This sort of industry was considered one of as- 
 sured profits. Talon wrote, that it was so, to the king in 
 1671, informing him of the success of Bissot. The seal fishery 
 exploited by Denis, Bissot and Riverin produced enough 
 oil for local consumption and for exportation not only to 
 France but to the Antilles. Talon, who wished to establish 
 favorable relations with these colonies, sent them shipments 
 of fish, of peas, of clap boards and of planks. 
 
 François Bissot de la Rivière died at Quebec on Sainte 
 Amies day, July 26, 1673. He was buried in the cemetery 
 of V Hotel-Dieu. 1 
 
 CHARLES-FRANCOIS BISSOT. 
 (Uncle of François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes.) 
 
 Born at Quebec, February 5, 1664, of the marriage of 
 François Bissot de la Rivière and Marie Couillard. 
 
 On November 3, 1672, M. Talon, intendant, granted to 
 François Bissot de la Rivière for his sons Jean Baptiste Bis- 
 sot de Vincennes and Charles-François Bissot (1), a fief of 
 seventy acres of land fronting on a mile of depth along the 
 
 i J. Edmond Roy, Francois Bissot, vein de la Riviere, pp. 31 
 et seq. ; 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 29 
 
 river St. Lawrence, from the land belonging to the Sieur de 
 la Citiere to the land not yet conceded. This formed the 
 fief or seigniory of Vincennes. 
 
 On May 16, 1689, Charles-François Bissot, heir to an 
 eighth in the succession from his father, sold to Etienne 
 Charest, his brother-in-law, all that belonged to him and was 
 to revert to him of the land, buildings, mills, and tannery of 
 Point-Levy. This sale was made for a thousand livres. 
 
 On March 5, 1694, Charles-François Bissot, heir to an 
 eighth of the land situated on the river of the Etchemins, 
 sold to Pierre Benac, his brother-in-law, the part and por- 
 tion belonging to him and reverting to him in the said land 
 of the river of the Etchemins. This sale was made for 
 forty livres. M. Benac was, however, to pay the seigniorial 
 due which might be charged to the said portion. 
 
 On March 21, 1695, Louis Marchand, part seignior of 
 the seigniories of Vincennes and Mingan, granted to Charles- 
 François Bissot, also part seignior of the seigniory of Vin- 
 cennes, dwelling on the coast of Lauzon, permission to carry 
 on trade, traffic and business in the land and seigniory of 
 Mingan and dependant places as well as fishing for cod and 
 other fish, for the space of three consecutive years beginning 
 in the spring of 1695, and also for all the time that the said 
 sieur Marchand should be absent from Quebec in the country 
 of the Ottawas, where he intended going the following spring, 
 in case that he should stay there longer than the said three 
 years. In return, M. Bissot was to pay him for each year a 
 sum of fifty livres. 
 
 On November 9, 1695, Charles-François Bissot, François 
 Joseph Bissot, Louis Jolliet and Charles Jolliet formed a part- 
 nership for the space of five years to go to Mingan and carry 
 on business on the property of the late Francois Bissot de 
 
30 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 la Rivière from the island aux Oeufs to the Bay des Espag- 
 nols. 
 
 On April 25, 1697, Charles-François Bissot and the other 
 heirs of François Bissot de la Rivière leased and farmed out 
 the seigniory of Mingan to Louis Jolliet for five years. After 
 the death of Louis Jolliet in 1700 Charles-François Bissot 
 and François-Joseph Bissot formed a partnership with the 
 sons of the discoverer to continue the enterprise at Mingan. 
 In 1703 François Hazeur advanced a sum of four thousand 
 livres to the partners in the business at Mingan to load the 
 ship Le Rosaire with merchandise necessary for their busi- 
 ness. 
 
 On May 9, 1705, Charles-François Bissot and Joseph Guion 
 du Rouvray formed a partnership for eighteen months to ex- 
 ploit at a common profit and a half of the loss or profit the 
 fief and seigniory of Port à Choix in the island of Newfound- 
 land, belonging to M. Hazeur, councillor in the Sovereign 
 Council. The partners were to carry on at Port à Choix traffic, 
 trading with the savages and commerce in fish. 
 
 It was understood that Joseph Guion Rouvray was to 
 spend the winter at Port à Choix with a man whom M. Bissot 
 was to send him in his stead, while he returned with their 
 ship to Quebec in the autumn of 1705 and to return in the 
 spring of 1706. Since his haste and the lack of time did not 
 allow M. Bissot to find the man in question, it was under- 
 stood that Guion de Rouvray should spend the winter alone 
 at Port à Choix with four hired men and a young boy. As 
 compensation M. Guion de Rouvray was to be paid from the 
 whole sum before it was divided an amount which should 
 be decided by two of their friends. 
 
 The same day Charles-François Bissot and Joseph Guion 
 de Rouvray acknowledged that they owed to François Bissot 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 31 
 
 and to François and Jean Jolliet the sum of 300 livres for 
 the freightage of the merchandise, victuals and tools which 
 they had loaded on the ship the Saint Rosaire belonging to 
 them and sailing to Port à Choix. It was understood that 
 the Saint Rosaire was to touch at Mingan on the way to 
 Port à Choix. Charles François Bissot was, however, to 
 take 60 pounds of these 300 livres to recompense himself for 
 the pain and care which he would take in guiding the said 
 ship. 
 
 This is the last known mention of Charles-François Bissot. 
 As we have just seen he ought to have returned from Port 
 à Choix in the spring of 1706. Did he die during this voyage? 
 We are led to believe that he did, since on March 30, 1708, 
 his brother François-Joseph Bissot and Joseph Guion de Rouv- 
 ray formed a partnership to exploit a new settlement on the 
 island of Newfoundland. His name does not figure in this 
 partnership, in spite of the fact that since 1695 the two brothers 
 had always been associated in all their enterprises. 
 
 JEAN-BAPTISTE BISSOT DE VINCENNES 
 (Father of François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes.) 
 
 Born at Quebec, January 19, 1668, of the marriage of 
 François Bissot de la Rivière and Marie Couillard. He was 
 baptized the 21st of the same month by M. Henry de Ber- 
 nieres, curé de Quebec. His godfather was M. Jean Talon, 
 intendant of New France, and his godmother Guillemette- 
 Marie Hébert, widow of Guillaume Couillard. 
 
 On November 3, 1672, the intendant Talon granted to 
 François Bissot de la Rivière for his sons Jean Baptiste Bissot 
 
 de Vincennes (godson of M. Talon) and Bissot, 
 
 seventy acres of land frontage, a mile of depth on the river 
 
32 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 St. Lawrence from the land belonging to the Sieur de la 
 Citière to the land not yet conceded in fief and seigniory. 
 This is the fief or seigniory of Vincennes. This concession 
 was made under the ordinary conditions; to bring faith and 
 homage to the chateau St. Louis, at Quebec, to hold or cause 
 to be held faith and place, to preserve the oak woods suitable 
 for the construction of vessels, to give information concern- 
 ing the mines and minerals and to leave open roads necessary 
 for passage, etc., etc., M. Talon declared that he granted this 
 seigniory to M. Bissot de la Rivière to give to his son Jean 
 Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes and Bissot more op- 
 portunity for establishing themselves.* 
 
 On November 10, 1676, Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes 
 entered the seminary at Quebec to pursue his education there. 
 The archives of the seminary say in regard to him: "not being 
 fit for the ecclesiastical state, he left November 18, 1680." 
 The seminary of Quebec was obliged to sue the guardian of 
 the young Bissot de Vincennes in order to be paid the price 
 of his board and lodging. October 19, 1682, correcting a 
 judgment of the Provost of Quebec, the Sovereign Council or- 
 dered Louis Jolliet, guardian of Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vin- 
 cennes to pay to the seminary of Quebec two years and a 
 half of board at the rate of 230 livres a year and eighteen 
 months at the rate of 150 livres a year. 
 
 On October 20, 1687, Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes 
 showed to the Sovereign Council that, having reached the age 
 of twenty years, and being on the point of going to France 
 for a situation, it was necessary for him to have the govern- 
 ment of his own property. He asked them to grant him his 
 letters of the right of majority. The Sovereign Council or- 
 dered immediately the relatives of the young Bissot, paternal 
 
 ♦Pieces et Documents Relatifs a La Tenure Seigneuriale, p. 297. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 33 
 
 as well as maternal, to meet before the lieutenant general of 
 the provost court to decide if he was capable of controlling and 
 administering his property.* 
 
 What was this employment that Jean- Baptiste Bissot de 
 Vincennes went to seek in France? The ambition of the sons 
 of good family under the French régime was to serve as officers 
 in the troops of the detachment of marines. In 1687 our old 
 friend the intendant Talon held a place of confidence at court. 
 We have no written proof of it, but is it not reasonable to 
 presume that the young Bissot went to France to obtain the 
 high influence of his godfather to enter the army? 
 
 On October 25, 1694, Jean-Baptiste Bissot sold to Louis 
 Marchand all the rights which he might have in the land and 
 seigniory of Mingan, not only his share in his father's estate, 
 the late François Bissot de la Rivière, of whom he was an 
 eighth heir, but also that which he might have later after the 
 death of his mother, plus the free half in the land and seigniory 
 of Vincennes. This sale was made under the charge of rights 
 and duties under which things sold could be charged for the 
 future and the price of 2,500 livres which the purchaser Mar- 
 chand promised to pay, 1,000 livres in one year, 1,000 in two 
 years and 500 in three years.* 
 
 On March 21, 1695, Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes, 
 eighth part heir in the succession of the late François Bissot 
 de la Rivière, his father, sold to Etienne Charest, his brother- 
 in-law, all that belonged and reverted to him in the land, 
 
 * Jugements Et Deliberations Du Conseil Souverain, vol. Ill, p. 189. 
 
 *Acte tie Chambalon, October 25, 1694. There was evidently a 
 subsequent transaction between Louis Marchand and Jean-Baptiste 
 Bissot, since the latter remained in possession of the seigniory of 
 Yineeuues, and since 15 years later, July 10, 1709, he sold his rights 
 in the seigniory of Mingan to Francois Bissonnet, wig maker of 
 Montreal. 
 
34 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Lauzon. M. Bissot de Vincennes reserved for himself only 
 buildings, mill and tannery of Point Levy and on the coast of 
 the part which belonged to him in the seven islands and the 
 land along the river of the Etchemins. This sale was made 
 under the charge of the quit rent, the rents and the seignioral 
 rights under which things sold could be charged toward the 
 seignior of the place, and to acquit the seller of the standing- 
 debts of the succession of his father that could be claimed 
 from him. M. Charest paid him moreover a sum of 500 
 livres.* The act of sale called M. Jean-Baptiste Bissot de 
 
 *Acte de Genaple, 21 Mars, 1695. 
 Vincennes "ensign in the detachment of the Marine in this 
 country." 
 
 In 1696 the military authorities of the colony gave to the 
 minister their opinion about the officers who served in the 
 troops of the detachment of the Marine. M. de Vincennes 
 was sub-ensign and the postscript "Good Officer" was added 
 to his name.f 
 
 The governor of Frontenac had always been of the opinion 
 that the best means of making the tribes of the west fight 
 against the Iroquois was to keep up garrisons at Michilima- 
 kinac and at the posts which were dependent on it. He wrote 
 to the minister if these garrisons are deserted, it will be im- 
 possible to control these tribes. In September, 1696, the am- 
 bassadors of the different tribes of the west met M. de Fron- 
 tenac at Quebec. He spoke to the delegates of each one of 
 these tribes through interpreters and dismissed them saying 
 to them: "I do not at all wish that you should return to 
 your home empty handed. Here are guns, powder and balls 
 which I give you. Make good use of them. They are not for 
 slaying beef and the roe buck, but they are to kill the Iroquois 
 
 fL'abbe Daniel, Aperçu Sur Quelques Contemporains, p. 44. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 35 
 
 who lack much more than you powder and lead. Remember 
 that there is nothing but war which can make true men note- 
 worthy, and war it is which brings it about that I recognize 
 you by your name. Nothing pleases me so much as to see the 
 face of a warrior. This is what I give you. You can go 
 when you will." 
 
 Then profiting by the favorable disposition of the tribe, a 
 little later M. de Frontenac sent M. d'Ailleboust d'Argenteuill 
 to Michilimakinac and M. de Vincennes to the Miamis. The 
 latter was to command the latter post.* M. de Vincennes 
 received thus his first command, but it is evident that he had 
 already made several journeys among the Miamis and that 
 he had even lived for a time among them. 
 
 On November 14, 1704, M. de Ramezay, governor of Mon- 
 treal, wrote to minister Pontchartrain : ''There is reason to 
 presume that the Sr. de Vincennes, petty officer, who was 
 sent this summer to the Miamis by way of the Detroit river 
 with three canoes laden with merchandise and brandy under 
 the pretext of going to patch up the quarrels of the savages, 
 and of others there which had been settled by M. de la Mothe, 
 spoke of the same disorders. Whereas Sr. Rabiston, who 
 descended from Detroit with fifteen men met the said Sr. de 
 Vincennes ten miles from Montreal, and who on his arrival 
 informed M. de Vaudreuil that he carried more than four 
 hundred jugs of brandy, of which he made a great boast. It 
 would have been easy to remedy this if the Sr. de Vincennes 
 had exceded his orders. He only had to send a canoe to look 
 for him which could have reached him in a day since the Sr. 
 de Vincennes was at the bottom of a cedar-covered hill, where 
 it was necessary to make portages of everything that was in 
 
 *De la Potherie, Histoire De L'Amérique Septentrionale, Vol. Ill, 
 p. 309. 
 
36 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 the canoes, which brought it about that he could not advance. 
 But instead of going to the source to prevent his wrong doing 
 he contended himself by feigning to be very angry. Since 
 this affair caused much comment he said publicly that he 
 would have him punished on his return. You will notice. 
 Monseigneur, if you please, that brandy sells at Michilimakinac 
 for forty and fifty francs a jug; Vincennes would therefore 
 thus have gained 20,000 livres or 10,000 ecus. He ran little 
 risk of losing his rank of petty officer in a place where little 
 was heard of the court. Since M. de Vaudreuil's adminis- 
 tration may be extremely prejudicial to the colony it is none 
 the less so for the government. One might almost say that 
 there will be no more peace. The Jesuits have re found their 
 kingdom.* 
 
 On November 14, 1704, M. de Lamothe-Cadillac sent to 
 Minister Pontchartrain a memoir on the establishment of De- 
 troit. Lamothe-Cadillac used the method of question and an- 
 swer. The minister was supposed to inquire and Lamothe- 
 Cadillac replied. In spite of its interest this memoir is too 
 long to be reproduced here in its entirety. We will content 
 ourselves in taking out of it the passages which relate to M. 
 de Vincennes. 
 
 "Answer. It is easy to see, Monseigneur, that you wish 
 to be instructed. I admire your patience which never tires 
 concerning that which relates to the service of the king. If 
 that which I have had the honor to relate to you merits 
 any attention the things of which you are about to be in- 
 formed deserve all your attention. This now is the very 
 plan which has been made to destroy Detroit, however I would 
 not dare go on if you did not order me to do it. 
 
 "Question. You may do it and count on my protection 
 
 ♦Archives du Canada. Correspondence Générale, Vol. 22. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 37 
 
 provided only that you make no false accusation and do not 
 alter the truth in any respect. 
 
 "Answer. I never depart from that principle. I have 
 never had any patron saint other than the truth itself, and 
 I have such great confidence in her that I believe myself in- 
 vincible as long as I fight under her standards. I am about 
 then to expose to you the facts on which you can draw what- 
 ever conclusions please you. The public has drawn its own." 
 
 Then M. de Lamothe-Cadillac speaks of M. de Tonty, of 
 M. d'Ailleboust de Manthet and of M. de la Découvert. He 
 then goes on to M. de Vincennes. 
 
 "The fourth case is that the Sieur de Vincennes was sent 
 to the Miamis with an order to go to Detroit, being sent 
 to Sr. de Tonty, the said Sr. de Vincennes having three canoes 
 laden with merchandise and more than four hundred jugs of 
 brandy, under the pretext of going to terminate the war begun 
 by the Miamis-Ouyatatanon against the nations settled at De- 
 troit and against the Iroquois. Observation on the fourth 
 act. 
 
 This quarrel being settled both M. the Governor General 
 and the intendant were informed that it was not natural to 
 send ensigns to settle the differences between nations in a 
 post where there was a commandant named by the court. That 
 is why, there being a question about the sending of Sr. de 
 Vincennes, he told me that M the Governor General had his 
 share in the merchandise which he was carrying. I declared 
 to him as I talked to him that he had replied to me that 
 he would discharge him because he had not permitted him 
 to take more than two canoes. 
 
 The twelfth fact is that the Sr. de Vincennes was actually 
 at Detroit with four hundred jugs of brandy where he had 
 a cabaret, having been the precursor of M. de Louvigny, major 
 
38 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 of Quebec, brother-in-law of de Lino superintendent de Nolan, 
 a dishonest clerk, a relative of Chatellereau, another clerk of 
 Detroit and the Cr. de Louvigny who was himself convicted 
 of having disobeyed the order of the king by an arrest of 
 the council. The said Sr. de Vincennes has also been pre- 
 cursor of Sr. Vincelot a sub-delegate of M. l'lntendent, who 
 informed me that in spite of my order not only had brandy 
 not been spared to corrupt the savages but they had not done 
 what they had been desired to do. This pretended sub-dele- 
 gate was a first cousin of Seignior Pinaud who is my partner 
 and belonging to a race of which I have already spoken.* 
 
 November 16, 1704, M. de Vaudreuil wrote to Minister 
 Pontchartrain : "I know Mgr. that your intention and the 
 welfare of the service of the king demands that neutrality 
 with the Iroquois nations be maintained as much as is pos- 
 sible. I dare moreover to assure you that I give to it every 
 care, and that I moreover dare to hope to succeed in spite of 
 all the efforts which the English are making to embroil them 
 with us, having found the secret of persuading the upper 
 nations, our allies, to begin war with them in order to oblige 
 us to declare ourselves and to take part. Since this affair is 
 of the utmost importance, we have believed, Sr. de Beauhar- 
 nois and I, that we ought not to neglect anything which would 
 arrest the consequences of it, and following this plan we have 
 had the honor to inform you in our common letter that we 
 sent Sr. Vaillant and Sr. de Jonquaire to the Sonnontouans, 
 and that I sent Sr. Vincennes to the Miamis, to whom I gave 
 my orders and speeches to make to them for me. Sr. de 
 Vincennes was formerly commandant among the Miamis by 
 
 ^Archives du Canada, Correspondance générale, vol 22; O'Cal- 
 laghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of 
 New York, vol. IX, p. 759. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 39 
 
 whom he was very much loved ; for this reason I chose him 
 in preference to another to make this nation realize the wrong 
 they had done in attacking the Iroquois, our allies and theirs, 
 without any other object. We permitted, Sr. de Beauharnois 
 and I, the Sr. de Vincennes to take with him certain goods 
 and six men and two canoes to make more speed. 
 
 Sr. de Lamothe coming from Detroit informed us that 
 he had met Sr. de Vincennes with three canoes and two men 
 in addition. This disobedience to the orders which I had 
 given him made me decide immediately to punish him, and 
 since he is a petty officer in the troops I resolved to discharge 
 him, and even asked M. the intendant to obtain some infor- 
 mation on the advice which had been given us. I still re- 
 main Mgr., of this opinion, if the generous action which he 
 has just done in Detroit and of which we told you in our 
 letter does not oblige me to write to you in his favor and 
 demand grace for him." 
 
 Speech of the Marquis de Vaudreuil sent to the Miamis 
 of the river St. Joseph through the agency of M. de Vin- 
 cennes : 
 
 "1. I arrive here, my brothers, to represent your father, 
 to tell you that he is surprised that the Miamis, whom he re- 
 garded as the most obedient of his children, have disobeyed 
 his orders. Tell me then, are you drunk; have you lost your 
 mind? 
 
 "Ought you roi to remember what we said when we made 
 a general peace with all the nations, that in the future you 
 would hunt peaceably, and that you would take the Iroquois 
 for your brothers, and that you would have but one fire, one 
 dish, one belt, one knife, and that you would drink together 
 the same soup every time that you met? You have however 
 broken your word ; you have reddened the earth with the blood 
 
40 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 of the Iroquois. I come then to demand of you why you have 
 broken your word, since he received you so well last winter in 
 his hunting cabins. 
 
 "2. I know, my brothers, that you received the first blow, 
 but you knew well enough that it was not the Iroquois who 
 had struck, but those brothers of the wolves, the English, 
 and when the Iroquois had struck you you ought to have come 
 to complain as you had all decided. You ought to have imi- 
 tated the Iroquois who allowed themselves to be struck by 
 you without defending themselves, and were content to carry 
 their complaint to their father Onontio. 
 
 "3. I come to bring back to you the mind which you have 
 lost and to show you your own interests. In order to ap- 
 pease your father, begin by sending me instantly all the Iro- 
 quois prisoners which are with your nation, and above all 
 those which were taken last winter. 
 
 "4. Take also the necessary measures to satisfy your 
 brother the Iroquois. He has a right to complain of you, 
 and you know well enough the wrong which you have done. 
 Do it in such a way that I may hear no more talk about it, 
 because I cannot be prevented from executing the terms of 
 the peace which you ought to remember. Reflect on this 
 speech."* 
 
 Nov. 17, 1704, MM. de Vaudreuil and de Beauharnois 
 wrote to Minister Pontchartrain : "The neutrality of the Iro- 
 quois being, Mgr., the subject in this country, to which we 
 ought to give the closest attention, in order to preserve tran- 
 quility, we have believed that we ought to neglect nothing 
 in order to content these nations and to hold them in our 
 interest. Since the Tsonnontouans seemed to us the most de- 
 voted to the French we judged it fitting to send to them Sr. 
 
 * Archives du Canada, Correspondance, générale, vol. 22. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 41 
 
 de Jonquaire and Father Vaillant. Sr. de Vaudreuil detached 
 Sr. de Vincennes, officer, who had formerly been in command 
 of the Miamis, and by whom he was still loved, to find out 
 the reasons they had had for attacking the Tsonnontouans, our 
 allies and theirs, and to make them give to the latter the satis- 
 faction which was their due. * * * 
 
 "Sr. Tonty, Mgr., who is in command at Detroit in the 
 absence of Sr. de Lamothe, advised us four days ago that a 
 Ottawa chief named Campanie who had taken out the party 
 against the Iroquois at Missilimakinac and who had made the 
 prisoners which he had taken from the Iroquois, and that 
 attack on Fort Frontenac had passed his fort with six 
 he had even had the effrontery to give the death-cry outside 
 the fort with the apparent design of causing the savages who 
 are of his nation to declare themselves for him. Sr. de 
 Tonty realizing the slight which he was putting the French 
 by this action, and knowing moreover our intentions judged 
 it proper, Mgr., to send Sr. de Vincennes to this savage, the 
 same man whom Sr. de Vaudreuil had detached to go to the 
 Miamis in order to settle the war which had just been 
 kindled between these two nations. He at the head of twenty 
 Frenchmen brought back four of their prisoners, although 
 almost thirty Ottawas from the fort had gone there to take 
 the part of their people. Sr. de Tonty received the two others 
 the next day and this affair was more advantageous to us 
 because without counting our obligations to the Iroquois it 
 made all the nations realize that we could not allow anyone 
 to mistreat our allies in our presence. In addition to the 
 fact that at the same time there were at Detroit some Miamis 
 who had come to take back three of their prisoners, as the 
 Sr. de Vaudreuil had commanded them, and to whom it was 
 of consequence to make known that they were not the only 
 ones whom we obliged to make satisfaction. 
 
42 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 "The action of the Sr. de Vincennes seems so fine that 
 in spite of the advice which had been given to Sr. de Vau- 
 dreuil and de Beauharnois that he had disobeyed the orders 
 written in his pass-port, and concerning whom Sr. de Vau- 
 dreuil had begged Sr. de Beauharnois to get information be- 
 fore forming himself the resolution to take from him on his 
 return the rank of petty officer which had been bestowed upon 
 him. They could not but see the need they had of him on 
 account of the influence which he had over the minds of the 
 savage Miamis, the services which he had rendered and the 
 deed which he had just done. They must show you, Mgr., 
 that they hope that you will approve their intention of pardon- 
 ing him." 
 
 October 19, 1705, Governor de Vaudreuil wrote to the 
 minister: "I had the honor last year of bringing to your 
 attention the fact that I regarded the continuation of peace with 
 the Iroquois as the principal affair of this country, and since 
 it is on this principle that I have always worked, it is also 
 this which obliged me to send Sr. Jonquaire to the Tsonnon- 
 touans, Sr. de Vincennes to the Miamis, and which obliged 
 me last spring to send Sr. de Louvigny to Missilimakinac to 
 bring back from there prisoners which these savages had taken 
 from the Iroquois at Fort Frontenac in the autumn. * * * 
 
 "The Iroquois chiefs arrived at Montreal about the be- 
 ginning of August and staid there until the 14th, when, having 
 no news, I resolved to send them away and to send them back 
 their prisoners for this purpose. * * * 
 
 "The Iroquois started to return to their country when Sr. 
 de Vincennes arrived and told me that he had come down 
 with one of the chiefs of Missilimakinac who was sending 
 him ahead to find out if they could appear before me in order 
 that they might confess their shortcomings, and detail the 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 43 
 
 manner in which they pretended to give satisfaction to the Iro- 
 quois. The speeches of the one and the others with my reply 
 will give you information of all that passed at Montreal dur- 
 ing their stay until they went away entirely content, after I 
 had given them all a banquet to renew their ancient alliance. 
 It gave me indeed a veritable satisfaction to have accomplished 
 your orders." 
 
 June 9, 1705, the minister blamed M. de Vaudreuil severely 
 for having sent M. de Vincennes among the Miamis and M. 
 de Louvigny to Missilimakinac, since both of them carried on 
 commerce openly. M. de Louvigny, said the minister, had 
 been punished, and M. de Vincennes ought to be likewise. Far 
 from doing it they had kept in a dungeon for six months the 
 man named Neveu, who had denounced him.* 
 
 June 17, 1705, the king had a letter written to M. de Vau- 
 dreuil: "His majesty has seen what he has written on the 
 subject of the Sr. de Vincennes. His majesty desires that 
 in consideration of the good action which he has done in 
 rescuing the Iroquois from the hands of the Ottawas who 
 had taken them prisoner, that they pardon the offense which 
 he committed in carrying brandy in defiance of Sr. de Vau- 
 dreuil on the voyage which he had made at his orders to the 
 Miami. " 
 
 June 9, 1706, Minister de Pontchartrain wrote to M. de 
 Vaudreuil : "The acknowledgment which you make of hav- 
 ing permitted Srs. de Manthet, de la Découverte and Vin- 
 cennes to take with them some merchandise on the voyages 
 which they gave made for you in the upper country is suffi- 
 cient to have given reason to the belief that they have carried 
 on commerce, above all, the said Sr. de la Découverte, who is 
 
 *Edouard Richard, Supplement du Rapport du Dr. Bryinner sur 
 les Archives Canadiennes, 1899, p. 375. 
 
44 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 an arrant traitor. Therefore, I beg of you to refrain as much 
 as you can from sending him into this country, since the ser- 
 vice demands absolutely that you choose for sending there 
 people of whose fidelity you are sure." 
 
 June 30, 1707, Minister Pontchartrain finding that without 
 doubt M. de Vincennes had been sufficiently punished, wrote 
 to M. de Vaudreuil to reestablish him in his duties : "I have 
 seen that to which you call my attention in relation to the 
 subject of the commerce which it is pretended that the Srs. 
 de Louvigny and de Vincennes have carried on among the 
 Miamis and the Missillimakinacs. I hope that what I have 
 written to you about it will cause you to give more attention 
 to the conduct of those whom you send to distant posts, and 
 that his majesty will receive no more complaints about their 
 trading. His majesty desires that you restablish Vincennes in 
 his duties of petty ensign which you have taken away from 
 him.* 
 
 July 10, 1709, Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes sold ta 
 François Bissonnet, merchant wig maker, living at Montreal, 
 the part and contingent portions reverting to him in the en- 
 tire extent of the concession belonging to his father and mother 
 situated on the river St. Lawrence, from l'Ile aux Oeufs to 
 Blanc-Sablons, with all the islands of Mingan and others con- 
 tained in all of the said extent. This sale was made under the 
 charges and reversions which this portion of the concession 
 could owe to the king at each change of ownership, and for 
 the sum of 150 livres. 
 
 In 1712 the Foxes formed a plot with the Five Nations 
 and the English to drive the French from Detroit. The Mas- 
 coutins and Kikapous were also of the party. M. de Du Buis- 
 son commanded at Detroit replacing M. de La Forest, suc- 
 cessor to M. Lamonthe-Cadillac, retained at Quebec. This 
 ^Archives du Canada, Série B. 29, 1. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 45 
 
 officer was brave and experienced, but he had under his order 
 only thirty French ; and to crown the disaster, the Ottawas 
 and the Hurons, their intimate friends at Detroit, had not 
 yet returned from their hunting expedition. The situation was 
 critical. On May 13, 1712, M. de Vincennes arrived at De- 
 troit from among the Miamis. He w r as a powerful aid to 
 M. Du Buisson. The two brave officers conquered the Foxes, 
 but after much weariness and prodigies of valor on the part 
 of the little garrison under their orders. In a letter dated De- 
 troit, June 15, 1712, M. Du Buisson relates the whole event 
 to M. de Vaudreuil. 
 
 "As I have believed that it was of great consequence to 
 inform you of the state of this post, by a canoe, as quickly as 
 possible. I have requested M. de Vincennes to make this 
 voyage, having assured him that this would be pleasing to 
 you, persuaded, as I am Mgr., that you are very solicitous to 
 know what goes on here. The fatigue I undergo day and 
 night in consequence of the public and private councils that 
 I hold with the Indians preventing me from sending you a 
 detailed account of all the circumstances. M. de Vincennes has 
 promised to forget nothing which has passed in order to com- 
 municate it all to you. 
 
 "The destruction of two Mascoutin and Outagamie villages 
 is one of the principal reasons w T hich induces me to send this 
 canoe. God has permitted these two audacious nations to 
 perish. They had received many presents and some belts 
 from the English to destroy the post of Fort Pontchartrain, 
 to cut our throats and those of some of our allies, oi whom 
 the Hurons and Ottawas lived on the Detroit river. Then 
 these wretches were to go back among the English and to de- 
 vote themselves to them in order to continually to do harm. 
 It is said that the band of Ouinetouan and that of Makate- 
 
46 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 mangouas have been received among the Iroquais and have 
 established a village among them. This information has been 
 brought by three canoes of Ottagamies who have been defeat- 
 ed by the Chippeways, within four leagues of this post. I 
 fear much for the safety of M. de Laforest, because being 
 no doubt upon his march to this place, he may fall in with 
 some of these bands of the hostile Ottagamies who have joined 
 the Iroquois. The band of the great chief, Lamyma and that 
 of the grand chief Pemoussa came early in the spring and 
 encamped, in spite of my opposition, about fifty paces from 
 my fort, never willing to listen to me, speaking always with 
 much insolence and calling themselves the masters of all this 
 country. It was necessary for me to be very mild having as 
 you know, M., but thirty Frenchmen with me, and wishing 
 to keep with me eight of the Miamis who were with M. de 
 Vincennes, and also to sow our grain and pasture our cattle. 
 Besides, the Ottawas and Hurons had not come in from their 
 winter hunt. I was thus exposed every day to a million in- 
 sults. The fowls, pigeons and other animals belonging to the 
 French were killed without their daring to say a word, and for 
 myself I was in no condition openly to declare my intentions. 
 One of them entered my fort to stab one of the inhabitants 
 named la Jeunesse and a grown daughter of Roy, another in- 
 habitant. I could then no longer restrain myself, but took 
 arms to prevent their accomplishing their wicked intention. 
 I compelled them to retire immedately, in order not to give 
 them time to increase their party, since they also were wait- 
 ing for the Kickapoos, their allies, that they might together 
 execute their nefarious project and be strong enough to retire, 
 fearing nothing, to the English and Iroquois. These wretches 
 waited but for a favorable moment to set fire to the fort and 
 to over-power us. It was an entirely different matter when 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 47 
 
 they learned that the Mascoutins who had wintered on the 
 headwaters of the St. Joseph had been killed, to the number 
 of 150 souls, mens, women and children, by Saguisma, a war 
 chief of the Ottowas and Pottawatamies. They immediately 
 determined to set fire to an Ottawa cabin which was near the 
 gate of my fort. I was informed of their intention by an 
 Ottagami Indian named Joseph, who long since left his people 
 and devoted himself entirely to the French. It was from him 
 I learned all that passed in the village of the Ottagamies and 
 the Mascoutins. He had the honor to be presented to you, 
 M., last year at Montreal. He informed me also that I was to 
 be burned in my own fort, and I immediately sent a French 
 canoe to the winter hunting ground of the Ottawas and the 
 Hurons to request them to hasten and come to join me. I 
 sent also another canoe to the other side of the lake to invite 
 the Chippaways, the Mississagues and the Amiquois to join 
 my party. 
 
 The church and M. Mallet's house were outside the fort, 
 and all the grain supply of our savages was stored there. The 
 contrary winds which blew all the time prevented all the sav- 
 ages who were our allies from arriving, which troubled me 
 much, as I felt myself hard pressed. I encouraged the few 
 Frenchmen who were with me immediately to bring the wheat 
 into the fort. And it was well we did so, for two days later 
 I would have had no supplies except for the moment, and 
 it would have been necessary to skirmish in order to take 
 possession of it, and much of it would even have been pillaged 
 from us. The most important thing was to pull down as quick- 
 ly as possible the church, the storehouse and some other houses 
 which were near my fort, and so close that the enemy could 
 have succeeded in setting fire to the fort whenever they wanted 
 to. And besides it was important to clear the place in order 
 
48 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 to defend ourselves in case of an attack which very soon took 
 place. We must return a thousand thanks to the Lord. We 
 should have been lost if I had not formed this intention. I 
 put on the best countenance I could, encouraging the French, 
 who were in consternation, believing themselves surely lost. 
 The fear I entertained, that some accident might happen to 
 the French who had not yet arrived and the necessity of sow- 
 ing our grain and pasturing our cattle, prevented me from 
 refusing them permission to enter my fort to trade, for fear 
 they should suspect that I knew their pernicious object. The 
 only thing I could do was to tell them that I apprehended that 
 the Miamis, who knew that I permitted them to remain so 
 near, would make war upon me, and therefore I was about to 
 repair my fort. They did not appear to give much credit to 
 my assertions. 
 
 It was necessary to fire our guns occasionally in order to 
 get some logs which were outside the fort and of which they 
 had taken possession. I set about, as quickly as possible, to 
 repair the fort, with those which I succeeded in taking away 
 from them. And I succeeded in strengthening it perfectly 
 well with material from the houses. I employed a ruse to ob- 
 tain possession of a pigeon-house which they wished to keep, 
 which might have given us much trouble and caused us much 
 loss of life. I placed it immediately opposite their fort and 
 pierced it with loop holes. I mounted two swivels on two 
 great logs of wood to serve as cannon in case of necessity. 
 
 The 13th of May, While I was impatiently waiting the 
 arrival of my allies, whom I had sent out to find, who were 
 the only aid I could expect, M. de Vincennes, arrived from 
 among the Miamis with seven or eight Frenchmen. He brought 
 me no news of the savages whom I was awaiting, which gave 
 me much trouble, as I now did not know on what Saint to call. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 49 
 
 But heaven watched over our preservation, and when I least 
 expected it there entered a Huron all breathless who said 
 to me: "My father, I ask to speak to you in secret. I am 
 sent to you by our old men." There were then in their villages 
 but seven or eight men, it seems that everything which hap- 
 pened was miraculous, for all the others, arrived two hours 
 afterwards and the Ottawas also. The messenger said "God 
 has pity on you. He desires that your enemies and ours 
 should perish. I bring you news that four men have just 
 arrived at our fort, not daring to enter yours on account of 
 the Ottagamies and Mascoutins who surround you. Makisabie, 
 war chief of the Pottawatamies the brother of Tekamasinon 
 and two others desire to speak to you. I begged M. de Vin- 
 cennes to meet them and he recognized the four Indians. He 
 came an hour later to reply to me and told me on the part 
 of Makisabie that 600 men would soon arrive to aid me, and 
 to eat those miserable nations who had troubled all the coun- 
 try. That it was necessary to keep myself on guard against 
 being surprised by the Ottagamies and Mascoutins who might 
 learn of the arrival of this assistance. 
 
 I begged M. de Vincennes to return to the Huron fort and 
 to find out from Makisabie if he could not find means to satisfy 
 himself with driving away the Mascoutins and the Ottagamies 
 and compelling them to return to their former villages which 
 was, Monsieur, your intention. But this could not be done, 
 for the Hurons were too much enraged. This great affair 
 had been too well concerted during the whole autumn and 
 winter with all the nations, and presents had been given. M. 
 de Vincennes perceiving that it would only irritate the Hurons 
 to speak of a reconciliation, dropped the subject, the more 
 readily as they said these wicked men had never kept their 
 word. We could only then be silent and put the best face 
 
50 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 on the affair, while we fought with them against our common 
 enemy. The Hurons even reproached us with being tired of 
 living, since we knew the bad intentions of the Ottagamies 
 and the Mascoutins. They said it was absolutely necessary 
 to destroy them and to extinguish their fire, and it was your 
 intention they should perish. They knew your views on this 
 subject at Montreal. 
 
 M. de Vincennes returned and told me it was usless to 
 talk of any reconcilation. And in truth I well knew that it 
 was a cause for fear to have so many nations around us of 
 whose good intentions we were not certain. I therefore closed 
 the gates of the fort and divided my few Frenchman into 
 four brigades, each having its brigadier. I inspected their 
 arms and amunition, and assigned them their stations on the 
 bastions. I put four of them into the redoubt I have just 
 constructed. I placed some of them at the two curtains where 
 there was the most to fear, armed with drawn swords. My 
 two cannon were all ready with slugs of iron prepared to load 
 them, which had been made ready by the blacksmith. Our 
 reverend father, on his side, bestirred himself, holding him- 
 self ready to give a general absolution in case of need, and to 
 succor the wounded if perchance there should be any. He 
 communicated also the Sacred Host. 
 
 Every arrangement being made and while we were waiting 
 with impatience I was informed that there were many people 
 in sight. I immediately ascended a bastion and casting my 
 eyes toward the woods I saw the army of the nations of the 
 South coming from that direction. They were the Illinois, the 
 Missouris, the Osages and other nations still more remote. 
 There were also with them the Ottawa chief, Saguima, and 
 also the Potawatamies, the Saks, and some Menomenies. De- 
 troit never saw so many people. It is surprising how much 
 
Sieur de Vincénnes Identified 51 
 
 all these nations are angered against the Mascontins and the 
 Ottagamies. This army marched in good order, with as many 
 flags as there were different nations, and it proceeded directly 
 to the fort of the Hurons, who said to the head chief of this 
 army "You must not encamp. Affairs are too pressing. We 
 must enter immediately into our father's fort and fight for him. 
 Since he has always had pity on us and since he loves us, we 
 ought to die for him. Do you not see that smoke also ? There 
 are three women of your village, Saguima, who are burning 
 there, and your wife is among them." Not another word was 
 necessary. There arose a great cry and at the same time they 
 all began to run headlong. The Hurons and the Ottawas 
 of this place at their head. The Ottagamies and Mascoutins 
 raised also their war cry and about forty of them rushed from 
 their fort all naked and painted, brandishing their arms in 
 every direction to meet our men and defying them in order to 
 make them believe that they feared them not at all. They 
 were obliged however to retreat immediately and to return to 
 their village. Our Indians asked my permission to enter my 
 fort, which I granted, seeing that they were much excited. It 
 was my plan to have them encamp near the woods, that they 
 might not be troublesome. All the Indian chiefs assembled on 
 the parade ground of my fort and spoke to me as follows : 
 
 "My father, I speak to you on the part of all the nations 
 your children who are before you. What you did last year 
 in drawing their flesh from the fire, which the Ottagamies 
 were about to roast and eat, well merits that we should bring 
 you our bodies, to make you master of them and to do all 
 that you wish. We do not fear death, when it is necessary 
 to die for you. We only beg that you pray the father of all 
 nations to have pity on our women and children, in case we 
 lose our life with you. We beg that you throw a blade of grass 
 
52 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 upon our bones to protect them from the flies. You see, my 
 father, that we have left our villages, our women and our 
 children to come as quickly as possible to join you. We hope 
 that you will have pity on us, that you will give us something 
 to eat and a little tobacco to smoke. We have come from a 
 distance and are destitute of everything. We hope that you 
 will give us powder and balls to fight with you. We don't 
 make a great speech. We perceive that we fatigue you and 
 the French by the ardor which you show for the fight." 
 
 I immediately answered them briefly : "I thank you my 
 children; the desire which you have to come and offer to die 
 with me is very agreeable to me and causes me much pleasure, 
 I recognize you as true children of the governor. I 
 shall not fail to render him an account of all you have done 
 for me today. You need not doubt that when any question 
 respecting your interests arises he will busy himself about it 
 with much ardor. I receive orders from him constantly to 
 watch continually for the preservation of his children. With 
 regard to your needs, I know that you want everything. The 
 fire which has just taken place is unlucky for you as well as 
 for we; I will, however, do all I can to provide you with 
 what is most necessary. I invite you to live in peace, union 
 and good will together as well among your different nations 
 as with my Frenchmen. This will be the best means of en- 
 abling us entirely to defeat our common enemies. Take cour- 
 age then. Repair your tomahawks, your bows and your arrows 
 and especially your guns. T shall presently distribute powder 
 and balls among you, and then we will attack our enemies. 
 This is all I have to say to you." 
 
 All the Indians uttered a loud cry of joy and of thanks, 
 saying: "Our enemies are dead from the present moment. 
 The heavens begin to grow clear and the Master of Life has 
 pity on us." 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 53 
 
 All the old men made harangues throughout the entire 
 fort to encourage the warriors, telling them to listen well to 
 my words and to obey me in all the manoeuvres that I was 
 about to have them perform. I distributed immediately pow- 
 der and ball among them and then we all together raised the 
 war cry. The very earth trembled. The enemy, who were 
 not more than a pistol shot away, raised also their war cry. 
 At the same time the guns were immediately discharged on 
 both sides and the balls flew like hail. We had to do as our 
 Indians did, in order to encourage them. The powder and 
 balls which you had the goodness to send us last autumn did 
 not last long. I was obliged to have recourse to the three 
 barrels that M. de Lamothe left with a certain Roy to sell, 
 leaving me not a single grain when he went away for the 
 defense of the fort in case of an attack. All mine was ex- 
 hausted, which had gone but a little way, as well as a quantity 
 which I had been obliged to purchase from some of the French 
 people. 
 
 I held the Ottagamies and the Mascoutins in a state of siege 
 during nineteen days, wearing them out by a continual fire 
 night and day. In order to avoid our fire they were obliged to 
 dig holes four or five feet deep in the ground and to shelter 
 themselves there. I had erected two large scaffolds twenty 
 feet high the better to fire into their villages. They could 
 not go out for water. Hunger and thirst exhausted them. I 
 had from four to five hundred men who blockaded their 
 village, day and night, so that no one could go out to seek 
 assistance. All of our Indians went to hide at the edge of the 
 wood whence they continually returned with prisoners who 
 were coming to join their people not knowing they were be- 
 sieged. Their pastime was to shoot them or to fire arrows 
 at them and burn them. 
 
54 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 The enemy which I had held besieged, thinking to intimi- 
 date me and by this means to oblige me to leave the field open 
 to them, covered their palisades with scarlet blankets and then 
 shouted to me that they wished that the earth was all covered 
 with blood. These red blankets were the mark of it. They 
 hoisted twelve red blankets as standards in twelve different 
 places of their village. I well knew that these signals were 
 English, and they fought for them. This indeed they shout- 
 ed to me, speaking from one fort to the other. They said 
 they had no father but the English, and told all the nations, 
 our allies, that they would do much better to quit our side 
 and join theirs. 
 
 The great war chief of the Pottawatamies after having 
 asked my advice and permission, mounted one of my scaf- 
 folds and spoke to our enemies in the name of all our nations 
 in these words : "Wicked nations that you are ; you hope to 
 frighten us by all that red color which you show in your 
 village. Learn that if the earth is covered with blood, it 
 will be with yours. You speak to us of the English. They 
 are the cause of your destruction, because you have listened 
 to their bad council. They are the enemies of prayer, and 
 it is for that reason that the Master of Life chastises them 
 as well as you, wicked men that you are. Don't you know- 
 as well as we do that the Father of all the nations, who is 
 at Montreal, sends continually parties of his children against 
 the English to make war upon them, and that they take so 
 many prisoners that they do not know where to put them? 
 These English who are cowards only defend themselves secret- 
 ly by killing men by that wicked drink brandy, which has 
 caused so many men to die immediately after drinking it. 
 Thus we shall see what will happen to you too for having 
 listened to their words." 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 55 
 
 I was obliged to stop this conversation perceiving that 
 the enemy had asked my permission to speak only to divert 
 us and to have a little time to go for water. Thirst dis- 
 tressed them much. I ordered our great fire to recommence, 
 which was so violent that we killed more than thirty men 
 and some women who had secretly gone out for water. I 
 lost, that day in my fort, twelve men, who were killed by 
 our enemies. In spite of me, the enemy had taken posses- 
 sion of a house, where they had erected a scaffold, behind 
 the gable-end which was made of earth. Our rifle balls could 
 not penetrate this defense and thus every day some of our 
 people were killed. This obliged me to raise upon one of my 
 scaffolds the two large logs upon which were mounted my 
 swivels. I loaded them with slugs and caused them to be 
 fired upon the gable-end which troubled me so much. The 
 first two discharges carried so successfully that we heard 
 the scaffold which they had built back of the gable fall in 
 ruins and some of the enemy were killed there. They were 
 so frightened by this shooting of the cannon that we heard 
 them utter cries and frightful groans, and toward evening they 
 called out to beg that I would allow them to come and speak- 
 to me. Immediately I assembled the chiefs of the nations 
 who were with me to find out their opinion, and we all agreed 
 that we ought to let them come, in order by some statagem, 
 to try and withdraw from their hands three women of our 
 people whom they had made prisoners some days before the 
 seige, one of whom was the wife of the great chief Saguima. 
 I shouted to them through my interpreter that they might 
 come in safety to speak to me, as I was perfectly willing to 
 give them that satisfaction before they died. 
 
 They did not fail the next morning to come. We were 
 very much surprised not to see their red flags in the village, 
 
56 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 but only a white one. The great chief Pemoussa was the 
 head of this first embassy. He came out of his village with 
 two other savages, a white flag in his hand. I sent my in- 
 terpreter to bring him to me and to protect him from insult 
 from any young warrior. He entered my fort. I placed him 
 in the middle of the parade-ground and then I assembled 
 all the chiefs of the nations, who were with me, to hear all 
 together. The ambassador spoke in these words, presenting 
 a belt of wampum and two slaves: "My father I am dead. 
 I see very well that heaven is clear and beautiful for you 
 alone, and that for me it is all dark. When I left my 
 village I hoped that you would listen to me. I beg of you, my 
 father, by this belt which I lay at your feet, that you have 
 pity on your children, and that you do not efuse them the 
 two days, that they ask you, in which there shall be no firing 
 on either side, that our old men may hold a council to find 
 means of softening your spirit. It is to you that I now speak, 
 you other children obeying the word of our father. This 
 belt is to pray you to remember that you are our kindred. 
 If you shed our blood, remember that it is also your own. 
 I pray you to soften the heart of our father, whom we have 
 so often angered. These two slaves are to replace, perhaps, 
 a little blood which you may have lost. I speak to you only 
 these few words until our old men take council together, if 
 you grant us the two days that I ask of you." 
 
 This, Monsieur, is what I replied to him: "If your hearts 
 were a little moved and if you truly considered the governor 
 as your father you would have begun by bringing to me the 
 three women whom you hold as prisoners. Not having done 
 this, I believe your hearts are still bad. If you wish that 
 I listen to you, begin by bringing them to me. This is all 
 I have to say." 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 57 
 
 All the chiefs who were with me cried aloud : "My father, 
 after what you have just said we have nothing to reply to 
 this ambassador. Let him obey you if he wishes to live." 
 
 The ambassador replied : "I am only a child ; I shall re- 
 turn to my village to render an account to our old men." 
 
 Thus finishing the council, I gave him three or four 
 Frenchmen to take him back, assuring him that we would not 
 lire during the entire day, as their old men had requested, on 
 condition that no one should leave the village to seek water, 
 and if any one saw them do it the truce should be at an 
 end and we would fire upon them immediately. 
 
 Two hours after two Mascoutin chiefs and a third, an 
 Ottagami, came, flag in hand, with the three women in ques- 
 tion. I made them enter the same place that the first had 
 entered, where were assembled all our savage chiefs. These 
 three messengers spoke as follows : "My father, here are 
 these three morsels of flesh you ask of us. We have not 
 eaten them, thinking you would call us to account for it. 
 Do what you please with them. You are the master. Now 
 we, the Mascoutins and the Ottagamies, beg that you cause 
 all the nations who are with you to retire in order that we 
 be free to seek provisions for our women and children. Many 
 die every day of hunger and of distress. All our village 
 regrets that we have angered you. If you are as good a 
 father as all your children, who are around you say you 
 are, you will not refuse the favor we ask of you." 
 
 Since I had the three women whom I asked, I did not 
 care longer to parley with them; I therefore answered: "If 
 you had eaten my flesh, which you have brought to me, you 
 would not be living at this moment. You would have felt 
 such terrible blows that they would have forced you into 
 the earth so deep that no one would any longer speak of 
 
58 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 you. So true is it that I love the flesh of the father of all 
 the nations. With regard to the liberty which you demand 
 of me, I leave it to my children to answer you. Therefore 
 I speak no more." 
 
 The head chief of the Illinois, whose name is Makouandeby, 
 was appointed by the chiefs of the other nations to speak in 
 these words: "My father, we thank you for all your kind- 
 ness to us. We thank you for it, and since you give us per- 
 mission to speak, we shall do so." 
 
 And then, addressing the hostile chiefs, he said: "Now 
 listen to me, ye nations who have troubled all the earth. 
 We well see, in all your words, that you seek only to sur- 
 prise our father and to deceive him again, in asking that he 
 would cause us to retire. We should no sooner do so than 
 you would again torment our father. You would inevitably 
 shed his blood. You are dogs who have always bitten him. 
 You have never been sensible to the favors which you have 
 received from all the French. You have believed, wretches 
 that you are, that we did not know all the commands you 
 have received from the English, to cut the throats of our 
 father, and of his children here, and then to lead the English 
 into this country. Go away then. For us we will not stir a 
 step; we wish to die with our father; and if he should tell 
 us to go away from you, we would disobey him, because 
 knowing your wicked heart, we do not want to leave him 
 alone with you. We shall see from this moment who are 
 to be masters, you or we. You have only now to retire, and 
 as soon as you shall reenter your fort we shall begin our 
 fire." 
 
 I sent an escort to conduct the ambassadors to their fort, 
 and we began to fire again as usual. We were three or four 
 davs without communication, firing constantly and briskly on 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 59 
 
 both sides. The enemy discharged their arrows so rapidly 
 that more than three or four hundred were flying in the air 
 at the same time. At their ends were lighted bombs and 
 others with fuses of powder with the object of setting us 
 on fire as they had threatened to do. I found myself very 
 much embarrassed. Their arrows fell in every direction on 
 the houses, which were only covered with straw, so that the 
 fire caught here and there, which so frightened the French 
 that they thought they were lost. I reassured them, telling 
 then that this was nothing, and that we must find a remedy 
 as quickly as possible. "Come then," said I to them, "take 
 courage, let us take the thatch from the houses and let us 
 cover them with bear skins and deer skins ; the Indians will 
 help us." I then had them bring in two large wooden pirogues 
 in which I poured twenty barrels of water and provided swabs 
 at the end of rods to extinguish the fire, if it should catch 
 anywhere, and hooks to pull out the arrows. I had four or 
 five Frenchmen wounded. I fell into another embarrassment 
 much greater than this first one. My Indians became dis- 
 couraged, and wanted to go away, a part of them saying 
 that we should never conquer this nation. That they knew 
 them well, and that they were braver than any of the rest; 
 that besides I could no longer furnish them with provisions 
 sufficient for their subsistence. The inconstancy of these na- 
 tions ought to teach us how dangerous it is to leave a post 
 so distant as this without troops. I then saw myself on the 
 point of being abandoned and left a prey to our enemies, who 
 would not have given us any quarter and the English would 
 have triumphed. The French were so frightened that they 
 said to me that they saw clearly that it was necessary that 
 we should retire as quickly as possible to Michilimakinac. I 
 said to them: "What are you thinking of? Can you en- 
 
60 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 tertain such sentiments? Can you abandon the post in such 
 a cowardly manner? Dismiss from your minds, my friends, 
 so evil a design. Do things appear to you so bad that you 
 should fear so greatly? You ought to know that if you had 
 done such a thing as to abandon me that the Governor Gen- 
 eral would pursue you everywhere to punish you for your 
 cowardice. What the Indians have just said ought not to 
 frighten you. I am going to speak to all the chiefs in private 
 and inspire them with new courage. Therefore change your 
 views and let me act. You will see that all will go well." 
 They answered that they were only pretending to retreat 
 without my consent and without me at their head, believing 
 that they could not hold the place if the savages abandoned 
 us. They begged me not to consider them faithless and as- 
 sured me that they would keep on doing all that I wished of 
 them. And truly I was afterwards very well content with 
 them. They did their duty like brave people. 
 
 I was four days and four nights without any rest and 
 without eating or drinking, striving all the time to secure to my 
 interests all the young war chiefs, in order to keep them firm 
 with me and to encourage all the warriors not to leave us 
 until we had entirely defeated our enemies. To attain my 
 end, I stripped myself of all I had, making presents to one 
 and another. You know, Monsieur, that with the Indians 
 one must not be niggardly. I flatter myself that you will 
 have the goodness to approve all these expenditures, which 
 for me are immense, and for the King of no consequence; 
 for otherwise I should be much to be pitied, being burdened 
 with a large family which causes me much expense at Quebec. 
 
 Having gained all the Indians in private, I held a general 
 council to which I called all the nations and said to them: 
 "What, my children, when you are just on the point of destroy- 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 61 
 
 ing this wicked nation, do you think of fleeing shamefully 
 after having so well begun? Could you lift up your heads 
 again? You would ever after be overwhelmed with confu- 
 sion. All the other nations would say: 'Are these the brave 
 warriors who fled so ignominiously after having abandoned 
 the French' ? Be not troubled ; take courage ; we will endeavor 
 yet to find a few provisions. The Hurons and the Ottawas, 
 your brothers, offer you some. As for me, I will do all I 
 can to comfort you and aid you. Don't you see that only a 
 thread holds your enemies? Hunger and thirst overpower 
 them. We shall quickly make ourselves masters of their 
 bodies. Will it not be very pleasant after this great defeat, 
 when you visit Montreal, to receive there the caresses and 
 the friendship of the father of all the Nations, who will thank 
 you for having risked your lives with me? For you cannot 
 doubt that in the report I shall make to him concerning all 
 of this I shall render justice to each of you in particular, 
 for all you have done for me. You must know also that to 
 defeat this nation is to give that life and peace to your women 
 and children which they have not yet enjoyed." 
 
 The young war chiefs whom I had gained did not give 
 me time to finish, but said to me : "My father, allow us to 
 interrupt you ; we believe there is some liar who has told you 
 falsehoods. We assure you that we all love you too much to 
 abandon you, and that we are not such cowards as is re- 
 ported. We are resolved, even if we are much more pressed 
 with hunger, not to quit you till your enemies and ours are 
 defeated." All the old men approved of these sentiments 
 and said : "Rush to your arms and prove that those are liars 
 who have reported evil of us to our fathers." Then they raised 
 a great cry and sang the war song and danced the war dance, 
 and a large party went out to fight. 
 
62 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Every day some Sacs who had formerly lived in the same 
 village with the Ottagamies left their fort and came to join 
 their people who were with me, who received them with much 
 pleasure. They made known to us the condition of the village 
 of our enemy, assuring us that they were reduced to the last 
 extremity. That from sixty to eighty women and children 
 had died from hunger and thirst, and that their bodies and the 
 bodies of those who were killed every day had caused an infec- 
 tion in their camp since they did not dare make any attempt 
 to bury them, on account of the heavy fire that we continually 
 kept up. 
 
 Under these circumstances the enemy demanded permis- 
 sion to speak to us which we granted them. Their messengers 
 were their two great chiefs, one of the village, the other of 
 war, the first named Allamyma and the other Pamousa. With 
 them came also two great Mascoutin chiefs, one named Kissis, 
 and the other Ouabimanitou. The great chief Pamousa was at 
 the head of the three others, having a crown of wampum on 
 his head, many belts of wampum on his body and hanging over 
 his shoulder. He was painted with green earth and accom- 
 panied by seven female slaves who were also painted and orna- 
 mented with wampum. The three other chiefs had each a 
 chichicoy in their hand. All of them marched in order, singing 
 and shouting with all their might, to the sound of their chichi- 
 coys, calling all the devils to their assistance and to have pity 
 on them. They even had little figures of devils hanging from 
 their girdles. They entered my fort in this manner among all 
 the nations, our allies, and spoke as follows : "My father, I 
 speak to you and to all the nations who are before you. I beg 
 life from you. It is no longer ours. You have made your- 
 selves masters of it. All the spirits have abandoned us. I 
 bring you my flesh in the seven slaves whom I place at your 
 feet. But do not believe I am afraid to die. It is the lives 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 63 
 
 of our women and children that I ask of you. I beg you to 
 allow the sun to shine, let the sky be clear, that we may see 
 the day and that hereafter our affairs may be prosperous. 
 Here are six belts that we give you, which bind us to you as 
 true slaves. We pray you to untie them as a sign that you 
 give us life. Remember, all of you, that you are our great- 
 nephews. Tell us something, I pray you, which can give pleas- 
 ure on our return to our village. ,, 
 
 I left it to our Indians to reply to these ambassadors. They 
 had become in so short a time so enraged against them that 
 they would not give them any answer. Eight or ten chiefs 
 asked only to speak to me in private. "My father, we come to 
 ask permission of you to break the heads of these four great 
 chiefs. They are the men who prevent our enemies from sur- 
 rendering at discretion. When these shall be no longer at 
 their head they will find themselves much embarrassed and will 
 surrender." 
 
 I told them that they ought to be very sure of themselves 
 to make me such a proposition. "Remember that they came 
 here upon my word and you have given me yours. We must 
 act with good faith and if I accepted this proposition how in 
 the future could you trust one another? M. the Governor 
 General would never pardon me. Dismiss this from your 
 mind. They must return peaceably. You see clearly that they 
 cannot escape us since you are resolved not to give them 
 quarter." 
 
 They confessed that I was right and that they were foolish. 
 The ambassadors were dismissed in all safety, without, how- 
 ever, giving them any answer on that which they had come to 
 ask of us. These poor wretches well knew there was no 
 longer any hope for them. 
 
 I confess, Monsieur, that I was touched with compassion 
 at their misfortune : but as war and pity do not well agree 
 
64 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 together and particularly as I understood that they were paid 
 by the English to destroy us, I abandoned them to their un- 
 fortunate fate. Indeed I hastened to have this tragedy 
 finished in order that the example might strike terror to the 
 English and their allies. The great fire recommenced more 
 and more violently. The enemy, being in despair, since they 
 were continually fired upon in their village and out of it, when 
 they wished to go for water or to gather a few herbs to appease 
 their hunger, had no other resource but an obscure night with 
 rain to make their escape. They awaited it with much impati- 
 ence and it came on the nineteenth day of the siege. They did 
 not fail to make use of it, decamping about midnight and we 
 w T ere not aware of it until daybreak. I encouraged our people 
 and they pursued them very vigorously. M. de Vincennes 
 joined in the pursuit with some Frenchmen and this gave much 
 pleasure to our Indians. 
 
 The enemy, not doubting that they would be pursued, 
 stopped at a little peninsula which is opposite Hog Island near 
 Lake St. Clair, four leagues from the fort, protecting them- 
 selves by tree branches cut across and logs cut lengthwise. 
 Our people not perceiving this at all, pushed on into their 
 retrenchment and lost there more than twenty men killed and 
 wounded. It was necessary to begin a second siege and to 
 encamp. The camp was regularly laid out. Every day a hun- 
 dred canoes brought provisions. There were Ottawas, Hurons, 
 Chippaways and Mississagues. The chief sent to me for my 
 two cannon, all the axes and mattocks that I had to cut down 
 the woods, that they might get through them, in order to 
 approach the retrenchment of the enemy, and above all to fur- 
 nish powder and balls. As for the Indian corn, tobacco and 
 seasoning, they were supplied as usual without counting all 
 the kettles of the French which were lost and for which I 
 had to pay. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 65 
 
 The enemy held their position for four days, lighting with 
 much courage and finally, not being able to do anything more, 
 surrendered at discretion to our people who gave them no 
 quarter. All were killed except the women and children, 
 whose lives were spared. One hundred and fifty men, who 
 had been bound, escaped. All our allies returned to my fort 
 with their slaves. Their pastime was to shoot four or five men 
 every day. The Hurons did not give quarter to a single one of 
 them. In this way, Monsieur, came to an end these two wicked 
 nations of such evil intent that they troubled all the country. 
 Our reverend father chanted a grand mass to render thanks to 
 God for having preserved us from this enemy. 
 
 The Ottagamies and Mascoutins had built a very good fort, 
 which, as I said before, was within pistol-shot of mine. Our 
 people did not dare to undertake to storm it notwithstanding 
 all I could say. There were three hundred men to defend it, 
 and our loss would have been great. But the siege would not 
 have been very long. Our Indians had lost sixty men, killed 
 and wounded, thirty of whom had been killed in the fort and 
 a Frenchman named Germain. Five or six others were 
 wounded with arrows. The enemy lost a thousand souls, men, 
 women and children. 
 
 I do not wish to forget to state to you that there were 
 about twenty five Iroquois who had joined the Hurons of 
 Fond-du-lac in this war. These two nations together distin- 
 guished themselves above all the others, therefore their loss 
 has been greater. They have received many caresses from all 
 the Indians and more particularly, since they have made satis- 
 faction for an old quarrel by presents of slaves and pipes. It 
 was I who brought them to this reconciliation. I dare venture 
 to assure, you, Monsieur, that this general assembly of all the 
 nations has put them at peace with one another and has re- 
 newed their ancient alliance. They all count on receiving 
 
66 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 great presents which they say, Monsieur, you have promised 
 them. 
 
 I have determined, with the consent of his nation to send 
 to you, the grand chief of the Illinois from Rock Village. His 
 name is Chachagouache. He is a good man and has much 
 authority and I trust that you will induce him to make peace 
 with the Miamis. This affair is of very great consequence. 
 The Miamis having sent me word, that if it is not brought 
 about, they will abandon their village and build another on the 
 river Ohio at the end of Lake Erie. This is precisely where 
 the English are about to build a fort, according to the belts 
 they have sent to the nations. They also said they would be 
 contented if you would send them, Monsieur, a garrison and a 
 reverend Jesuit father and some presents that, they say, you 
 promised them. Maquisabe, the Pottawatomi chief, has much 
 influence over the mind of this Illinois chief. He goes with 
 him. Joseph, who accompanies them, deserves your kindness. 
 I have had much trouble to save his life. 
 
 I venture, Monsieur, to beg you to take care that the 
 Indians who come with M. Vincennes return contented. Their 
 visit secures this post. Saguina has written to me that M. 
 Desliettes would not wait for him last spring, believing that it 
 was through neglect poor Otchipouac died this winter. It is a 
 loss for he had much firmness and was well disposed toward 
 the French. 
 
 We have another difficult affair which threatens to be diffi- 
 cult. The Kickapoos, who live at the mouth of the Maumee, 
 are about to make war upon us, now that our allies have left 
 us; about thirty Mascoutins have joined them. A canoe of 
 Kickapoos, who came from Detroit to speak to the three vil- 
 lages, has been destroyed by the Hurons and Ottawas. Among 
 them was a great chief whose head was brought to me with 
 the heads of three others. This blow was struck, out of resent- 
 ment, because, last winter, they had taken prisoners from 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 67 
 
 among the Hurons and the Iroquois. Besides they considered 
 him a true Ottagami. I believe that if M. de Vincennes had 
 not been at the mouth of the Miami at the time the Kickapoos 
 would have killed the two Hurons and the Iroquois. There 
 was every probability of it. These same people took prisoner 
 also, Langlois, who was on his return from the Miami coun- 
 try, and who carried many letters from the reverend Jesuit 
 fathers at the Illinois villages. All these letters have been 
 destroyed, which circumstance gives me much uneasiness as 
 I am sure there were some for you from Louisiana. They 
 dismissed this Langlois after robbing him of his peltry, telling 
 him to return and tell them the news, but he had no more 
 desire to do that, than I had to permit him. However, the 
 Ottawas might safely send there. The Kickapoos have among 
 them one of their women with her children. I will endeavor 
 to prevail upon the Ottawas to join with the Hurons in order 
 to make a reconciliation with this nation that we may have 
 peace here. 
 
 All the nations have gone away peaceably with all their 
 slaves. Saguina has left his village and gone to Michilimak- 
 inac. The Hurons also abandoned theirs and will either come 
 here or go to the Illinois. More than half of the Ottawas of 
 this place are going also to Michilimakinac. The Chipaways 
 and the Mississaguas will go to Topicanich. They have not at 
 all been disposed to give any satisfaction to the Miamis for 
 the murder of last year with M. de Tonty. The Miamis insist 
 upon knowing the reason why. I spare no trouble to induce 
 them to be patient and to persuade them that I labor constantly 
 for their interests. 
 
 I have the honor to inform you, Monsieur, that last autumn 
 I accomplished a measure that M. de Lamothe could never 
 effect during all the time that he was here, which was to 
 compel the Ottawas to make a solid peace with the Miamis. 
 and to compel them to visit the latter, which they have never 
 
68 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 been willing to do. I succeeded very happily, the Miamis hav- 
 ing received them as kindly as possible and they have made a 
 strong alliance. 
 
 I flatter myself, Monsieur, that it will be agreeable to you 
 to be assured that M. de Vincennes has faithfully performed 
 his duty and that he has labored carefully here, as well as on 
 his journey to the Miamis and Ouyatonons last winter. 
 
 If I am so happy, Monsieur, as to receive your approba- 
 tion of my conduct, I shall be fully compensated for my trouble 
 and shall experience no more dejection. My success has been 
 owing to the great influence I have over the nations. M. de 
 Vincennes is witness. I do not say this in order to gratify my 
 vanity or to claim any credit for truly I am very tired of 
 Detroit. 
 
 You can easily judge, Monsieur, in what a condition my 
 affairs must be in consequence of having no presents belonging 
 to the King in my hands. However, I dare to trust to your 
 goodness and to hope that you will not suffer a poor devil to 
 be reduced to beggary. 
 
 I have the honor to be with very profound respect, Mon- 
 sieur, your very humble and very obedient servant, 
 
 Dubuisson. 
 Au Fort du Detroit, Pontchartrain, June 15, 1712. 
 
 In his memoirs sur le Canada, Gedeon de Catalogne de- 
 scribes thus the destruction of the Foxes at Detroit in 1712. 
 It is at all times well to notice that M. de Catalogne was then 
 at Quebec. He tells his story by hearsay. He was not an 
 eye-witness. That explains the variations of his version from 
 that of M. Buisson. 
 
 "It is well to know that when M. de Lamothe was at 
 Detroit, wishing to attract the commerce of all the nations to 
 his fort, he sent belts to the Mascoutins and the Kickapoos to 
 invite them to set up their village at Detroit where a place was 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 69 
 
 offered them. They accepted his offer and having come to 
 the number of about forty families, they made a fort in the 
 place which was assigned to them. 
 
 "As this nation is feared and hated by the other nations, 
 by reason of its arrogance, a conspiracy began to be stirred up 
 against those who had settled at Detroit. And in 1712 S. de 
 Buisson being in command at Detroit, the conspiring Hurons 
 and the Outaouacs to the number of about 900 men repaired 
 to the French fort, to whom this commander opened the door 
 where they entered suddenly and ascending the bastions which 
 looked out over the fort of the Foxes on whom they fired 
 several rounds of musketry. 
 
 "One of the chiefs of the Foxes raised his voice and spoke 
 to the French in these words: 'What does this mean? You 
 have invited us to come and live near you and while your 
 word is still fresh in our ears you declare war upon us. What 
 reason have we given you for it? Apparently, my father, you 
 no longer remember that there are no nations, among those 
 who call themselves your children, who have not imbrued their 
 hands in the blood of the French. I am the only one to whom 
 you cannot make reproaches and yet you join our enemies to 
 eat us up. But remember that the Fox is immortal and if in 
 defending myself I spill the blood of the French, my father 
 must not reproach me. And remember several other facts.' 
 
 "His audience finished, which was often interrupted by 
 the musketry, The Fox responded in kind very well and worked 
 night and day to dig caves in their fort in which to place their 
 families under shelter from the fire of the armies. On the 
 fourteenth day the Fox, beginning to lack everything to sus- 
 tain life, raised his voice again in these words : 'My father, I 
 no longer address myself to you. I speak to those women 
 who are hidden in your fort that if they are as brave as they 
 are said to be, that they will select eighty of the best warriors 
 to whom I promise and you shall be witness of it, my father. 
 
70 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 that I will oppose against them only twenty, and if the eighty 
 conquer I consent to be their slave and if on the contrary the 
 twenty conquer the eighty warriors, they shall be our slaves/ 
 No reply was made to all his propositions except by musketry, 
 but no one was killed. 
 
 "The eighteenth day having come, and the Foxes being 
 entirely exhausted, since for six days they had eaten nothing, 
 they went out of their fort at night with their families without 
 being discovered. At daybreak the French were accustomed 
 to fire several discharges of musketry from their fort on that 
 of the Foxes, who replied on their side. But on this day, there 
 was no more firing from their fort, which caused the French 
 so much curiosity that they went to the fort of the Foxes, 
 where they found no one. At the time the chiefs asked M. de 
 Buisson that S. de Vincennes, with a number of Frenchmen, 
 should march at their head in pursuit of the Foxes. 
 
 "Since the Foxes were starving they stopped on a peninsula 
 to pasture their cattle. It was possible to get to them only by 
 a defile, which they had taken care to guard. When the be- 
 siegers arrived there, closing the Foxes' way of escape, firing 
 began on both sides. 
 
 "The Fox seeing himself cut off from escape, lifted his 
 voice again to speak to M. de Vincennes, who had already 
 shouted to them to surrender: 'We wish to surrender to you. 
 Reply to me immediately. Tell me, my father, if there is any 
 quarter for our families. Reply to me.' 
 
 "The S. de Vincennes shouted to him that he would grant 
 them their lives. Immediately the Fox put down his arms 
 and when he went to meet the allies in an instant they were 
 surrounded and all the Foxes cut in pieces before they could 
 reach their arms. The women and children were taken as 
 slaves and the greater part of them sold to the French. 
 
 "Thus perished the Foxes whom M. de Lamothe had in- 
 vited to Detroit. As soon as the Mascoutins and Kickapoos of 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 71 
 
 the great villages learned of this action they sent several parties 
 into the field, some to le Baye, others to Detroit and to all ave- 
 nues of approach, making all the other nations flee who did not 
 dare resist their approach, until M. de Louvigny besieged them 
 in their fort where they were well retrenched. Nevertheless, 
 on account of bombs, they were forced to surrender. Their 
 life was granted to them by M. de Louvigny in spite of the 
 opinion and advice of the other nations who wished to exter- 
 minate them." 
 
 M. de Vincennes, as we have just seen, had been sent to 
 Quebec by M. de Buisson to inform M. de Vaudreuil of the 
 success of the French arms against the Foxes. By a letter 
 from M. de Vaudreuil to the minister dated Quebec, Nov. 6, 
 1712, we see that M. de Vincennes returned the same autumn 
 of 1712 among the Miamis of the St. Joseph river.* 
 
 In 1715 a party of the Miamis of the St. Joseph river were 
 about to settle on the Maumee river near the actual site of Fort 
 Wayne, Indiana. M. de Vincennes, who commanded them, 
 followed them. From there he wrote to MM. de Ramezay and 
 Begon that the English of Carolina were having recourse to 
 every sort of expedient to persuade the Miamis to join them.f 
 
 From a resume of a letter of Governor de Vaudreuil sub- 
 mitted to the council of the Marine, June 28, 1716, we see that 
 the allied nations of the upper country lived then in harmony 
 and were well disposed toward the Foxes, their enemy. 
 
 M. de Vaudreuil said : "S. de Ramezay has been informed 
 by Sr. de Vincennes, officer detached to the Miamis and the 
 Ouiatanons that the Iroquais have sent belts to this nation 
 under the earth, which means secret signs by which they invite 
 them to seek the necessities of life at a post established on the 
 Oyo river. (This post is a new settlement of the English from 
 
 ♦T. Saint-Pierre, Histoire des Canadiens du Michigan, p. 109. 
 tO'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the 
 State of New York. vol. IX, p. 931. 
 
72 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Carolina.) That they will find there merehandise, a halt 
 cheaper than among the French who trrannize over them." 
 
 Sr. Vincennes replied that all the Miamis, fathers and sons, 
 were children of Onontio (the French governor) and that they 
 would never cease to obey him. The same Ouiatamons sent to 
 Sr. de Ramezay a young slave to repeat, to him, for them the 
 request which they had made last year for an officer to assist 
 in their council, for a missionary to instruct, and for a black- 
 smith to repair their arms. The Marquis de Vaudreuil ought 
 to grant their request, following the intention of the council. 
 He ought to take particular care to garrison all the posts. It 
 is of the last consequence, above all to establish firmly those 
 of the south where the English of Pennsylvania, Carolina and 
 Virginia are very anxious to enter. That would rain not only 
 the commerce of Canada but also that of Louisiana by means 
 of the communication of the rivers which flow into the great 
 river Mississippi." 
 
 June 26, 1717, the king ordered a letter written to MM. de 
 Vaudreuil and Begon that he was well pleased to learn that 
 M. de Vincennes had prevented the Miamis and the Ouiata- 
 mons from accepting the belts of the English. His majesty 
 hoped that the sending of scarlet cloth would turn the savages 
 away from commerce with the English. 
 
 We see from a letter from M. de Vaudreuil to the minis- 
 ter, Oct. 30, 1718, that M. de Vincennes was then at his post 
 among the Miamis.* 
 
 Oct. 28, 1719, M. de Vaudreuil announced to the Council of 
 Marine the death of M. de Vincennes. "It seems to me that 
 it is very necessary that M. de Buisson continue to serve in this 
 country, since he is more capable than any other officer of the 
 government. The Ouiatanons and the Miamis know him and 
 esteem him. He has a great reputation among them since the 
 defeat of the Foxes at Detroit where he was in command dur- 
 
 * Archives du Canada, Correspondence générale, vol. 39. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 73 
 
 ing the absence of Sr. Laforest and where the Miamis and the 
 Ouitatanons came to trade, their village being not far distant 
 from that post. These two nations have not yet made any 
 move to go, the one to the St. Joseph river and the other to 
 the Teatiky. They promised me, by speeches which I received 
 from them last summer, that they would not fail to go to those 
 places this autumn, but they have changed their mind, since 
 that time, because I learned by the last letters which have come 
 to me from the Miamis that the Sr. de Vincennes, being dead 
 in their village, the Indians have decided not to go to the river 
 St. Joseph, but to stay where they are."$ 
 
 The Miamis preserved for a long time the memory of M. 
 de Vincennes. Thirty years after his death, as we shall see by 
 the following little incident, the French used his name to work 
 upon the minds of these savages. After his arrival in New 
 France, in 1747, M. de la Galisonnière realized the importance 
 for France to have a road of communication between her two 
 colonies of New France and of Louisiana. With this object 
 in view, he decided to send an expedition to take formal pos- 
 session of the Ohio valley, which English traders were begin- 
 ning to frequent. He needed to accomplish this task, a capable 
 officer of tact and influence among the savages. Pierre- Joseph 
 Céloron de Blainville, captain of a company of troops of a 
 detachment of the Marine, had all these qualities. He was sent 
 into this distant region. The instructions which M. de la Gali- 
 sonnière sent him, were, to journey over this immense country, 
 to go among the different nations who inhabited it, to persuade 
 them to follow him, to be witnesses of what he did and above 
 all to allow no English to come to trade among them. 
 
 The expedition left Lachine, June 15, 1749. M. de Céloron 
 had under his orders, a captain, M. Pécaudy de Contrecoeur, 
 
 t Archives du Canada, Correspondence générale, vol. 40; O'Cal- 
 laghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of 
 New York. vol. LX. p. 894. 
 
74 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 eight subaltern officers, six cadets, twenty troopers, one hun- 
 dred and eighty Canadians and about thirty savages, Iroquois 
 and Abenakis. 
 
 Sept. 13, 1749, almost three months after its departure 
 from Lachine, the expedition arrived at the village of la 
 Demoiselle near la Roche river, inhabited by the Miamis. M. 
 de Celeron waited five days in this village for a Miami inter- 
 preter, whom he had requested from M. de Raymond, com- 
 mandant of the post of Kiskakon. The interpreter not arriving, 
 M. de Céloron decided to speak to the Miamis through an 
 Iroquois, who spoke their language well. M. de Céloron got 
 along very easily with the Miamis who were clever fellows. In 
 the name of the governor of New France, he offered them eight 
 strings of wampum. These presents were given to them to 
 leave the villages of la Demoiselle on the La Roche river and 
 Baril on the White river. 
 
 The interpreter accompanied the presentation with the fol- 
 lowing discourse: "My children, the fact that I am treating 
 with you in spite of what you have done to the French, to sup- 
 port your women and children ought to prove to you the attach- 
 ment which I have for you and the integrity of my sentiments. 
 I forget what you have done and bury it deep in the earth, 
 that I may never remember it again, persuaded that you have 
 done nothing except at the instigation of a nation whose policy 
 it is to trouble the earth and to ruin the mind of those who 
 communicate with them, and who rise, profiting by the mis- 
 fortune of others. These people you have allowed to get con- 
 trol of you. They have caused you to do wrong and have 
 persuaded you to evil deeds, without appearing themselves to 
 take in them any part, in order to separate you from me. I 
 am sending you my word to clear your minds. Listen to it 
 well and give your attention to it, my children. It is the word 
 of a father who loves you and to whom your interests are 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 75 
 
 dear. 1 extinguish by these two strings of wampum the two 
 fires which you lighted two years ago on the Rocky river and 
 the White river. I extinguish them in such a way that no 
 spark will ever rise from them again." 
 
 Always in the name of the governor of New France M. de 
 Céloron offered them a belt to the Miamis of the villages of 
 la Demoiselle and Baril. This new present, richer and more 
 important, was to ask the Miamis to return to their ancient 
 village where M. de Bissot de Vincennes died thirty years be- 
 fore. Let us listen to the interpreter speaking in the name of 
 M. de Galissonnière : "My children, I desire to tell you by 
 these strings of wampum that I have extinguished the fires that 
 you have lighted on the Rocky river and on the White river. 
 By these belts I lift for you your rush mats and I take you by 
 the hand to lead you to Kiskakon, where I will relight your 
 fire and settle you more firmly than ever. In this land, my 
 children, you will enjoy perfect tranquillity, where I am ready 
 every instant to give you signs of my friendship. In this land, 
 my children, you will enjoy the sweetness of life, being the 
 place where repose the bones of your ancestors and those of 
 M. de Vincennes, whom you have loved so much and who 
 always governed you, so that your affairs were prosperous. If 
 you have forgotten the councils which they gave you, these 
 ashes will recall them to your memory. The bones of your 
 ancestors suffer from your absence. Have pity of these words 
 which call you back to your village. Follow with your women 
 and your children. The chief whom I send you brings you my 
 word and will light anew your fire at Kiskakon so that it will 
 never be extinguished. I will give you all the aid you have 
 reason to expect from my friendship, and think, my children. 
 that I am doing for you that which I have never done for any 
 other nation." 
 
76 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 FRANCOIS-JOSEPH BISSOT. 
 (Uncle of François Marie Bissot de Vincennes.) 
 
 Born at Quebec, May 19, 1673, of the marriage François 
 Bissot de la Rivière and of Marie Couillard. 
 
 Nov. 9, 1695, François-Joseph Bissot, Charles-François 
 Bissot, Louis Jolliet and Charles Jolliet formed a five years' 
 partnership to go to Mingan to make a deal in the land of 
 François Bissot de la Rivière from Egg Island to the Bay of 
 the Spaniards. The partnership did not last long since the 
 following year the Bissot heirs, thinking that they could not 
 enjoy nor make profitable the shares which they possessed in 
 the seigniory of Mingan, rented and farmed out the seigniory 
 of Mingan to Louis Jolliet for five years. 
 
 After the death of Louis Jolliet in 1700 his sons formed a 
 partnership with Charles-François Bissot and François-Joseph 
 Bissot to carry on the enterprise at Mingan. On March 30, 
 1708, François Bissot, Jean-Baptiste Demeules and Joseph 
 Guion de Rouvray formed a partnership for five years to make 
 a settlement in a place called the Three Islands on the north 
 coast of Newfoundland where they were to hunt, to fish and 
 to trade. The hired men who were to make the voyage with 
 the partners were named Labarre, Argencourt, Rousseau, Bon- 
 homme, Paul Martel and Rasset. 
 
 Oct. 24, 1731, MM. Beauharnois and Hocquart wrote to the 
 minister : "Srs. Bissot and Cheron, merchants and navigators, 
 of the city of Quebec, have requested of us that it be per- 
 mitted to them to search for the anchors lost in this roadstead, 
 on the condition that those which they recover shall belong to 
 them, without their being compelled to pay the rights which 
 belong to Mgr. the Count of Toulouse, on account of the ex- 
 pense they will be under in recovering these old sea marks. 
 For their success is uncertain on account of the difficulty and 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 77 
 
 the risks which they may find. Nothing could be more ad- 
 vantageous to commerce than this enterprise. Wherefore I 
 beg you, Mgr., to authorize them to do it and to make his 
 highness agree to give up the third part which belongs to him 
 in everything that is brought up from the bottom of the sea 
 according to Article X of the first title of the first book of the 
 ordinance of 1681. The accidents which happened daily to 
 vessels by striking these lost anchors, which chafe and cut 
 their ropes and send them into the coast are the motives which 
 cause us to request of you orders on the proposition which 
 these men have made us." 
 
 In 1733, François-Joseph Bissot wrote to Minister de 
 Maurepas to obtain from his majesty his continuance in the 
 possession of the seigniory of Mingan granted to his late 
 father, François Bissot de la Rivière by the Company of the 
 Indies in February, 1661. M. Bissot explained to the minister 
 that since the retrocession of the colony by the company of 
 the Indies to his majesty, there had been established a domain 
 which at first was bordered by the concession of his father but 
 which later took in a third of his seigniory. M. Bissot said 
 further that the original title granted to his father in 1661 had 
 been destroyed in a fire of the lower city of Quebec. 
 
 The suppliant, added he, has recourse to Your Highness to 
 beg that you obtain from his Majesty that he be preserved in 
 the possession which he has, to keep his concession from the 
 limit of the domain which is at present from Cormorant Point 
 going down the river to the land granted, and the exclusive 
 privilege of maintaining there along his settlements and of 
 making new ones if it is possible. To kill seals, with the rights 
 of hunting and of trading with the Indians, which his late 
 father possessed and wheh he has enjoyed more than sixty 
 years. He dares, moreover, Mgr., to be sure of the justice 
 of your highness on this occasion, since the favor, which he 
 takes the liberty to ask, is the fruit of his labor and of the ex- 
 
7& Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 penditures which he has made in places which seemed inacces- 
 sible and where he has placed the little property which his 
 father left him. Having nothing else by which to support his 
 family it would be very sad for him, Mgr., to see disorder rule 
 in this place for several years among the savages, whom he has 
 always kept in sentiments of Christianity and who are only 
 under the authority of the French who come there by favor of 
 the permission they obtained to go fish for cod on the coast of 
 Labrador, and who by the commerce in brandy destroy entire 
 families and ruin at the same time the suppliant by the loss of 
 sums of money on the credit which he is obliged to give the 
 Indians to keep them from seeking their necessities from the 
 English of Hudson Bay, as they did before the suppliant 
 hunted them up for more than a hundred miles inland to attract 
 them to Ih sea coast. 
 
 Minister Maurepas had at that time too many important 
 affairs on his hands to concern himself with the request of M. 
 Bissot. It was put in his drawer and forgotten. 
 
 March 15, 1736, François-Joseph Bissot gave a lease on 
 the farm for nine years of all the rights possessed by him in 
 the seigniory of Mingan to Jean-Louis Volant d' Hautebourg, 
 a lawyer of Quebec. The latter promised to pay to M. Bissot 
 for each year of his lease a sum of twelve hundred livres. 
 
 In 1737 M. Bissot made a new effort to obtain from Min- 
 ister Maurepas the confirmation to the concession of Mingan. 
 In his own name and in that of the other heirs of the late 
 François Bissot de la Rivière he addressed a new petition to 
 M. de Maurepas. The considerations of this new petition were 
 almost the same as those of the one he had presented in 1733. 
 He finished by saying : "Monsieur, the suppliant has recourse 
 to your Highness to prevent a very great wrong being done to 
 him. He begs to be maintained in his possession of that which 
 remains to him of the land which extends from the cape of the 
 Dead Bodies. Especially since it appears by the ordinance of 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 79 
 
 M. Hocquart that it extends to the limit of the concession ac- 
 corded to Sr. de Lafontaine. It is very hard for him, that 
 after a possession of seventy years without interruption in 
 places that were up to his time inaccessible, he should see him- 
 self despoiled of it, little by little. The act of faith and homage 
 of which he has the honor to affix a certified copy proves that 
 this land was granted to his father. His possession of seventy 
 years and more, cannot be disputed. Therefore, Mgr., he dares 
 to hope that the justice of Your Highness will hasten to make 
 for him a new brevet of concessions from His Majesty of the 
 tract of land mentioned above. The ordinance of M. Hoc- 
 quart refers to it. His co-heirs appoint him to appear before 
 His Majesty to obtain this from him. He begs Your High- 
 ness not to refuse him this favor that he may in his old age 
 enjoy the tranquillity which his labors in these places ought to 
 allow him." 
 
 On April 9, 1738, Minister Maurepas brought the demand 
 of François Bissot to the attention of MM. de Beauharnois and 
 Hocquart and he added "if it should be agreeable to you to 
 verify the facts which he has shown and to inform me of them 
 giving me your advice about the request he has made, in order 
 that I may place His Majesty in a condition to decide that 
 which he may judge proper. If you judge that it would be 
 just to grant the confirmation requested, will you take care to 
 explain to me clearly the situation and the limits of the land. 
 But in the examination which you make of this affair, will you 
 care to propose nothing which could harm the domain of His 
 Majesty." 
 
 The letter of Minister de Maurepas to MM. de Beauharnois 
 and Hocquart arrived like mustard after dinner, since it came 
 to Quebec almost a year after the death of François Bissot. 
 He in truth had died at Quebec Dec. 11, 1737. 
 
 In a "Petition to justify the possession of the Bissot and 
 
80 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Jolliet heirs to the post of Mingan situated on the north shore 
 of the river St. Lawrence on terra firma" presented to the 
 Count of Halifax, secretary of state on Oct. 23, 1763, by M. 
 Lafontaine de Belcour, son-in-law of M. de Bissot, we read : 
 "After his death (François Bissot de la Rivière), Sr. François 
 Bissot, the eldest of his children, continued to live at Mingan 
 for forty years with his family and continued there the same 
 estates that his father had developed jointly with Sr. Jolliet, 
 who had married one of the sisters of François Bissot, whence 
 comes the right of the descendents of Sr. Jolliet in the post of 
 Mingan. In 1733, Sr. Bissot, the grandfather, retired to Que- 
 bec, rented the post to Sr. de Lafontaine, his son-in-law, a 
 lease which was not to last longer than a year. Then Sr. 
 Volant rented it from Sr. Bissot and the Jolliet heirs. 
 
 ACT OF THE MARRIAGE OF JEAN BAPTISTE BIS- 
 SOT DE VINCENNES AND OF MARGUERITE 
 FORESTIER. 
 
 (Montreal, September 19, 1696.) 
 
 On the 19th day of September, 1696, was made and solem- 
 nised the marriage between Jean Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes, 
 officer in the detachment of the marine, age 27 years, son of 
 François Bissot and of Marie Couillard, of the Parish of Notre 
 Dame of Quebec, and Marguerite Forestier, age 21 years, 
 daughter of Antoine Forestier, surgeon, and of Madeleine de 
 Cauclier, her father and mother of this parish. He has paid 
 for the three bans granted by M. Dollier, Grand Vicar. The 
 said marriage was made in the presence of Antoine Forestier, 
 father of the girl, Séraphin Margane, Sr. de la Valterie, Cap- 
 tain of the detachment of the marine, brother-in-law of the 
 groom; Charles le Gardeur, Esq., Sr. de ITsle, officer of the 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 81 
 
 troupes; jean Boudor, merchane, and Bernard Arnaud, mer- 
 chant. Robert le Cauclier, grandfather of the bride. 
 
 Vinsenne 
 
 LaValterie 
 
 J. Boudor 
 
 LeCavelier 
 
 Marguerite Forestier 
 
 Le Gardeur Delisle 
 
 Arnaud 
 
 A. Forestier 
 
 M. Caille, discharging the function of Cure. 
 
 ACTE OF THE BIRTH OF FRANCOIS-MARIE BISSOT 
 DE VINCENNES. 
 
 (Montreal, June 17, 1700.) 
 
 On the 17th of June, 1700, was baptised François-Marie, 
 son of Jean Bissot, Sr. of Vincennes, officer in the troops, and 
 of Marguerite Forestier, his wife. He was born the same 
 day of the said month and year. His godfather was Francois 
 Margane, esq., Sr. de Batilly, also officer in the troops. His 
 godmother was Marie Magd. Forestier, daughter of Sr. For- 
 estier, surgeon. 
 
 Batilly 
 
 M. Magdelaine Forestier 
 
 R. C. De Breslay P. I., acting as cure. 
 
 FRANCOIS-MARIE BISSOT DE VINCENNES 
 
 (Founder of Vincennes.) 
 
 Born at Montreal, June 17, 1700, of the marriage of Jean- 
 Baptist Bissot de Vincennes, officer in the troops, and of Mar- 
 gueritte Forestier. He was baptized the same day by M. l'abbé 
 
c'2 SlEUK DE VlNCENNES IDENTIFIED 
 
 do Breslay. His godfather was his cousin, François Margane 
 de Batilly, officer in the troops, and his godmother, his aunt 
 Marie-Madeline Forestier. 
 
 Here is the explanation of the error made by most of the 
 historians on the subject of the founder of Vincennes. Fran- 
 çois-Marie Bissot de Vincennes sometimes signed his name 
 Margane de Vincennes, whence the conclusion has been drawn 
 that it was not a Bissot de Vincennes but a Margane of Laval- 
 trie. Under the French regime a number of Canadians 
 adopted as a middle name the name of their godfather in 
 preference to those which they had received in baptism. In 
 signing his name Margane de Vincennes the founder of Indi- 
 ana was only honoring his godfather and following a com- 
 mon custom.* 
 
 After 1718 the young de Vincennes served with his father 
 among the Miamis as a cadet. On May 20, 1722, François- 
 Marie Bissot de Vincennes was made a half pay ensign of 
 Louisiana, t 
 
 On October 24, 1722, Governor de Vaudreuil wrote to the 
 Council of Marine : "I have received the letter which the 
 council has done me the honor to write to me on the four- 
 teenth of last June by which it had the goodness to inform me 
 that his royal Highness approved of the plans which I had 
 made to attract the savages to the St. Joseph river and to the 
 Teatiky to form settlements there, and of the part which I 
 have taken in sending M. de Buisson, captain, to establish a 
 post among the Miamis and to be in command of this post, 
 as well as of that of the Ouyatanons and to have him sent to 
 the Miamis, to prevent the effect of the practices which the 
 English continue to use, to attract the Indians to Orange. I 
 
 *This custom is still very much in vogue in our time, 
 f Alphabet Laffilard, vol. 11, p. 319. The same Alphabet gives also 
 the date Oeotber 19, 1722. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 83 
 
 tried to take the most just measures to stop these practices 
 or at least to render them useless and I hope to succeed by the 
 name of Sr. de Buisson who formerly wiped away the anger 
 of a part of these savages on an occasion when they were not 
 allowed to have any more French brandy. By his wisdom he 
 knew how to manage them in such a way that in the end he 
 succeeded in making them more docile than they were before. 
 
 "The log fort which he had built and which was finished 
 last May is the finest in the upper country. It is a strong fort 
 and safe from insult from the savages. This post which is 
 of considerable extent ought to have a missionary. One could 
 be sent there in 1724 if next year the council will send to 
 Canada the four Jesuits which I ask. 
 
 "The band of forty or fifty Ouyatanons who have settled 
 on the Teatiky decided to return to their ancient dwelling when 
 they saw that most of the nation did not wish to abandon it. 
 The Sr. de Vincennes' son, who is only a cadet in the troops, 
 is in command of this nation under the orders of Sieur de 
 Buisson. He has been there since 1718 and he is very useful 
 on account of the great credit which he has acquired among 
 these savages who preserve for him the same attachment which 
 they had for Sr. de Vincennes, his father. His services de- 
 serve that the council should desire to give him their atten- 
 tion. If I had foreseen the establishment which the king has 
 made this year of a second ensign in each one of the twenty- 
 eight companies that his Majesty maintains in Canada, I would 
 have had the honor to propose him to the council, to have one 
 of the places which were not yet filled by petty ensigns as they 
 are at present. But since there are three second ensigns with 
 letters of service who ought not to be received in this rank 
 except in those places which will come to be vacant in the 
 future, I beg the council very humbly to grant similar letters of 
 service to the Sr. de Vincennes in order that he may be 
 
84 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 received in the first place which may be vacant after the Srs. 
 Le Verrier, Sadrevois and Lignery have been received.''* 
 
 In 1723 when he was accused before the minister of not 
 lending aid and assistance to the government of Louisiana the 
 Marquis de Vaudreuil defended himself energetically. On 
 October 11, 1723, M. de Vaudreuil enumerated to the min- 
 ister all the means he had taken to assist louisiana. He used 
 the occasion to make known the merit of M. de Vincennes : 
 ''After what I have done in 1719, as well as in this year, to 
 prevent the Abenakis from going to live among the Foxes, for 
 which I was greatly thanked by a letter which Father Aubry, 
 their missionary, wrote me the third of this month, of which 
 I enclose a copy, I leave you to judge, Mgr., if one has any 
 right to say that I have no regard for what happens to the 
 government of Louisiana, as a thing to which I ought to lend 
 aid and assistance, and to prevent wars which could happen 
 there on the part of the nations which are dependent on me. 
 
 "Not only on these two occasions have I given my atten- 
 tion to this matter but I have done so in many others when the 
 Ouyatanons would have made war on the Illinois, if by the 
 orders which I have always given to Sr. Vincennes to keep 
 these two nations in peace he had not stopped the movements 
 of the Ouyatanons among whom he has all the credit imagin- 
 able, and had made several voyages with them to the Illinois."* 
 
 August 17, 1724, M. de Vaudreuil wrote to M. de Bois- 
 briand, commandant among the Illinois : 4i I am much pleased 
 with the advancement of Srs. St-Ange, father and son, but I 
 am surprised that you are thinking of taking Sr. de Vincennes 
 away from my government and that you have tried to make 
 him leave a post where he is very necessary, on account of the 
 credit which he has among the savage nations of this post, 
 
 ♦Archives du Canada, Correspondence générale, vol. 44. 
 "Archives du Canada, Correspondence générale, vol. 45. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 85 
 
 which you know does not belong in any way to the government 
 of the Mississippi. I would be very sorry to be obliged to 
 take my complaint to court, which I will, however, have to do 
 if you continue to try to take him away. I flatter myself, 
 Monsieur, that you will give your attention to this matter and 
 that you will reflect on the inconveniences which could come 
 from it. 
 
 "I wrote last year for the advancement of Sr. de Vincennes. 
 I hope that the court has paid attention to my representations 
 and that he will have his advance this year."* 
 
 On February 9, 1725, M. Dugué de Boisbriand, command- 
 ant among the Illinois, wrote to the company of the Indies : 
 "It would have been advantageous to establish a post on the 
 Wabash, but since up to now, they have not even kept up the 
 one among the Illinois, there is little likelihood that one could 
 undertake to establish this post. It is, however, much to be 
 feared lest the English take possession of it, which would lose 
 us entirely the colony of the upper country, since it would be 
 easy for them with the enormous quantities of merchandise 
 which they ordinarily carry, to gain all the savages of that 
 district. Will the company have the goodness to reflect well 
 on this matter ?"f 
 
 On May 11, 1725, the company of the Indies sent to M. de 
 Beauharnois, governor general of New France, a memoir in 
 which it asserted that the introduction of commerce on the 
 part of strangers into Canada would ruin it, do harm to the 
 kingdom and alienate the savages from the French. It sug- 
 gested as a means of obviating from the state, things so preju- 
 dicial, the establishment of posts commanded by competent 
 officers. It demanded also the severe punishment of those 
 
 -Archives du Canada, Series F., vol. 56. p. 147. 
 tPierre Margry, Mémoires et Documents pour servir a L'Histoire 
 <les Origines Françaises des Paj^s d'Outre-Mer t tome. vol. 16, p. 657. 
 
86 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 colonists who allowed the savages to carry merchandise to the 
 stranger. It also demanded that no Englishman be allowed to 
 settle at Montreal. 
 
 The company of the Indies said to M. Beauharnois that 
 M. de Vincennes was the most capable man to drive the Mi- 
 amis against the Foxes, if there should be occasion to make 
 war against them, but it added that it was necessary to pre- 
 serve the friendship and the dependence of all the savages, 
 who lived along the line of communication between Canada 
 and Louisiana in order to have nothing to fear from the Eng- 
 lish. And for this end it demanded the establishment of a 
 post at Wabash."* 
 
 On December 22, 1725, the company of the Indies wrote 
 to M. de Boisbriand: "It would be well for you to write to 
 M. Vincennes, who is among the Miamis, to beg them to come 
 to an understanding with the commandant of the Wabash in 
 regard to the savage nations which he commands, and to give 
 him information of the enterprises which the English could 
 start in that district. The company begs Mgr. Count de 
 Maurepas to be willing to send orders to Canada by the first 
 vessels which leave for Quebec, in order that Sr. de Vincennes 
 may be commanded to act in conformity, and that all the other 
 officers placed among the savage nations of the government 
 of Canada who live at the mouth of the Wabash river may 
 protect as much as they can the post, which the company is 
 establishing there, and shall join together with the command- 
 ant there to drive away the English, who may penetrate as 
 far as this river.f 
 
 On April 23, 1726, M. de Vincennes was promoted to be 
 second ensign.* M. de Beauharnois and Dupuy were told the 
 
 ♦Rapport sur les Archives Canadiennes for 1904, p. 16. 
 fPierre Margry, Mémoires it Documents pour Servir a l'Historic 
 des Origines Françaises des Pays d'Outremer, vol. 6, p. 657. 
 •Alphabet Laffilard, vol. 11, p. 319. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 87 
 
 news by the following letter of the council of Marines (May 
 14, 1726) : "The six vacancies in the rank of second ensign 
 have been granted to Srs. Desgly, Lorimier, de Vincennes, 
 Mouchy, d'Hocquincourt, Delage, and Malespine."f 
 
 On the 14th of May, 1726, the king informed MM. de 
 Beauharnois and Dupuy that the English had built two houses 
 and some store houses on a river which flowed into the 
 Ouabache, in order to trade there with the Miamis and the 
 Ouyatanons. He ordered them to give orders to M. de Vin- 
 cennes that he get into communication with M. de Boisbriand, 
 in order to place obstacles against the expansion of the English 
 in this district. J 
 
 On the 30th of September, 1726, the company of the Indies 
 sent to M. Périer, governor of Louisiana, the following me- 
 moirs on the measures which were to be taken by M. Vin- 
 cennes to observe the conduct of the English : "About 120 
 miles above the Arkansas there flows into the Mississippi the 
 Ouabache river formed of four other rivers, one of which rises 
 near Lake Erie and is called the St. Jerome or the Ouabache, 
 the other called the Ohio rises among the Iroquois, and the 
 two others called Tennessee and Cumberland rise near Vir- 
 ginia. The country which these rivers water abounds in wild 
 cattle and is not yet occupied by any European nation." 
 
 "Since the first of these rivers is the means of communica- 
 tion between Louisiana and Canada, and since this communi- 
 cation will be entirely broken if the Englsh form a settlement 
 at the confluence of one of these three other rivers, which 
 would expose, at the same time, the country of the Illinois and 
 place in danger all the upper country of the colony, the com- 
 pany has ordered the establishment of a post on the Wabash 
 river and has begged the governor of Canada to order the Sr. 
 
 tArchives du Canada, Série B., vol. 42. 
 
 ^Rapport sur les Archives Canadiennes for 1904, p. 72. 
 
88 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 de V incarnes who is in command among the Ouyatanon-Mia- 
 mis settled near the source of the Wabash, to get into com- 
 munication with the commandant of the new post, to make this 
 nation approach to protect this post and also to observe the 
 conduct of the English and to drive them away in case they 
 draw near. 
 
 "M. Perrier will see by the enclosed copies of the letter 
 written to M. de Boisbriand and of the memoirs sent to M. le 
 count de Beauharnois, what the company considers ought to 
 be done in this matter. M. de Boisbriand advises in reply that 
 the lack of merchandise prevents him from establishing the 
 said post and that he believes it necessary to give the com- 
 mand of it to M. de Vincennes, who is already half-pay lieu- 
 tenant of infantry at Louisiana and who can treat with the 
 Miamis better than any other. 
 
 "On the other hand the company learns through M. Des- 
 liettes, commandant among the Illinois, that Sr. de Vincennes 
 had come to find him and to tell him that he had learned that 
 the English had already formed a settlement near the source 
 of the Ohio river, and that he had sent the Sr. de Vincennes 
 with presents for the Indians, ordering him to make sure of 
 the truth of this news. If it is confirmed there is not a moment 
 to lose in having the lower part of the Ohio river occupied by 
 the Ouyatanons, and it is necessary immediately to establish 
 a fort on the Wabash near the place where the Cumberland 
 rivers flows into it. To place there in command an officer 
 who can live in harmony with the Sr. de Vincennes, whom it 
 will not do at all to remove from the Ouyatanons, if one 
 hopes to get from them the service which we desire. M. Per- 
 rier must consider well this affair and find out, if in giving 
 eight or ten soldiers to the said Sr. de Vincennes with the 
 missionary destined for Wabash, he will not find himself in 
 condition to assure, through the savages, the communications 
 between Louisiana and Canada, and of preventing the Eng- 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 89 
 
 lish from penetrating into our colony, without obliging the 
 company to construct in the lower regions of the Wabash 
 river a fort, the expense of the establishment of which, and 
 the maintenance of a garrison would be an object of con- 
 sequence. 
 
 "In order to persuade the Sr. de Vincennes to attach him- 
 self to the colony of Louisiana, M. Perrier advised him that 
 he would obtain from the company for him an annual stipend 
 of three hundred livres which would be paid to him along 
 with his salary of half-pay lieutenant."* 
 des Origines Françaises des Pays d'Outremer, vol. 16, p. 658. 
 
 In the list of officers of the troops of the detachment of the 
 Marine serving in New France signed at Quebec October 15, 
 1729, one reads: "Second ensign; Vincennes."f 
 
 On April 4, 1730, M. de Vincennes was confirmed half -pay 
 lieutenant of Louisiana. He had already served in this capac- 
 ity several years without having the rank. 
 
 On October 15, 1730, MM. de Beauharnois and Hocquari 
 wrote to the minister: "We have received the letter which 
 you have done us the honor to write to us, the second of last 
 March, sharing with us the reflections which you had made on 
 the means of preventing the commerce of the English with the 
 savages and concerning which it has pleased you to ask our 
 advice. 
 
 "To prevent this commerce it is necessary to stop it en- 
 tirely. Which means that precautions must be taken that the 
 post of Niagara and of Fort Frontenac are always well sup- 
 plied with merchandise for trading. That will be very easy 
 if the king's ship arrives in good season as it did this year. 
 
 "As regards the post of Detroit and equally the prevention 
 of commerce of the English with the savages, it will be im- 
 portant to follow the intentions which one had in mind in the 
 
 *Peirre Margry, Mémoires et Documents Pour Servir a 1' Histoire 
 tArchives du Canada, série F., vol. 51. 
 
90 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 first settlement and to accomplish it, it is necessary to estab- 
 lish there a good garrison in the beginning, in order that fol- 
 lowing the intention of the court, this post may be in a state 
 to maintain good order and to make respected the French and 
 the savages. 
 
 "It is certain that the intentions, which have been held 
 since the establishment of Detroit, were, in part, to break oft* 
 the liaisons of the English with the savages and to cause to 
 cease the commerce which they carry on among them. The 
 expedient which we use to carry out these intentions and to 
 prevent entirely the association of the savages with the English 
 might be, as you have done us the honor to point out to us, to 
 oblige the Miamis and the Ouyatanons to come to supply their 
 needs at Detroit, not allowing travelers to carry anything 
 among them. But we think that there is cause for fear lest 
 the English go among the savages, who will receive them, 
 thinking that the French have abandoned them. It is certain 
 that, if at present, we abandon one only of the posts which the 
 French occupy, that the English will establish themselves there 
 immediately. So we think that it is necessary, better to fortify 
 those which we have today, rather than to weaken them in 
 obliging one nation to go among another to find there the 
 necessities of life, the more, that it seems to us dangerous to 
 assemble different savage nations in the same place for fear 
 that they do not get along well together. 
 
 "The Ouyatanons have been led into the government of 
 Louisiana by the Sr. de Vincennes, who is entirely separated 
 from this government.* Sr. de V Beauharnois (to oblige 
 this nation to return among the Miamis to supply their wants) 
 at first intended to allow no traveler to come up from that 
 territory and he would have put his plan in execution, if he 
 had not found himself obliged to grant this permission to 
 Frenchmen in order to send missionaries to the Tamarois, and 
 
 *That is the government of Canada. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 91 
 
 they brought with them merchandise in great quantities which 
 they put on sale in the old post as usual. "f 
 
 In the plan of the state of the expenditures for the year 
 1731 one sees that the officer in command at Wabash was to 
 receive as a supplement to his salary, as well as for the main- 
 tenance of the fort during the last six months of the year 1731 
 a sum of 400 livres at the rate of 800 livres a year. The same 
 budget gives us the name of the officers who were at Quebec, 
 with the salaries which they were to receive: St. Jantzen, 
 lieutenant, 240 livres for the last six months; Sr. de Saint- 
 Ange, 240 livres for the last six months ; and Sr. de Vincennes 
 240 livres for the last six months.* 
 
 October 12, 1732, MM. de Beauharnois and Hocquart 
 wrote to the minister: "Sr. de Vincennes who is among the 
 Ouyatanons has been informed of the last arrangements made 
 for the transportation of Illinois cattle to Canada, and has 
 written to M. de Beauharnois, that, if His Majesty will grant 
 the same perquisite that he has to Sr. Gastineau, that is to say 
 1000 livres he will guarantee to send them alive to Canada. 
 As the arrangements were only conditional, we have replied 
 to him that he would be treated as Sr. Gastineau had been."f 
 
 In a list of officers of the troops of the detachment of 
 Marine in 1732, one reads Bissot de Vincennes, ensign, thirty- 
 four years old. J In reality M. de Vincennes was only thirty- 
 two years old in 1732. 
 
 In the budget of expenses of 1732 for salaries and per- 
 quisites of Louisiana one finds : "To M. de Vincennes, com- 
 mandant at Wabash for a perquisite 800 pounds. § 
 
 tArchives du Canada, Correspondence générale, série P., vol. 52, 
 p. 27. 
 
 *.T. P. Dunn, The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 297. 
 tArchives du Canada, sirie P., vol. 57, p. 73. 
 ÎL'abbe Daniel, Aperçu sur Quelques Contemporains, p. 52. 
 §J. P. Dunn, The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 307. 
 
92 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 In a letter that M. de Vincennes wrote on March 7, 1733, 
 to one of the officials of the department of the Marine in 
 France one finds interesting information about his post and 
 about these savages among whom he lived. "To reply to your 
 letter which I have had the honor to receive I begin by inform- 
 ing you that the Wabash is composed of five nations who 
 compose four villages of which the least has sixty men carry- 
 ing arms, and all of them could furnish from six to seven hun- 
 dred men if it were necessary to assemble them for the wel- 
 fare of the service and for their own welfare. On account of 
 the nearness of the English, it has been impossible for me to 
 bring together all these nations because there has always been 
 a lack of merchandise in this place. The fort which I have 
 built is about eighty miles in the Wabash country up the river 
 by which the English have been able to descend and open up 
 commerce with these nations. The place is very suitable in 
 which to build a great settlement which I would have done if 
 1 had had troops enough. In regard to the commerce which 
 one can carry on here, a traffic in skins could go on all year 
 to the extent of 30,000 skins. This is the only commerce, 
 Monsieur, which could be carried on for the present. 
 
 "I have never had a greater need of troops in these places 
 than at the present time. The savages, the Illinois, as well as 
 the Miamis and others are more insolent than they have ever 
 been, especially since the Foxes were defeated. The little 
 experience which I have acquired in the twenty years that I 
 have been among them, causes me to fear some evil trick on 
 the part of these nations and above all, of my own who seeing 
 a settlement which I had begun, did not seem to wish it to be 
 continued. Since for three years nothing has happened. Ex- 
 cept, Monsieur, the migration of all the nations not only of 
 the lakes but also of other places. 
 
 "You do me the honor to indicate to me that I send you a 
 statement of the work done and to be done. There is only one 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 93 
 
 fort and two houses within and it will be necessary very soon 
 to build a guard house with barracks in which to lodge the 
 soldiers. Nothing else is possible in this place with so few 
 troops. I need thirty men with an officer. I am more embar- 
 rassed than ever, in this place, by the war with the Chicasaws 
 who have come twice since spring. Only two days ago the last 
 party took away three people and since the French took up 
 tomahawks against them I am obliged every day to put up a 
 defense. I hope, that of your goodness, you will indeed wish 
 to give your attention to this place and to my difficulty for 
 myself as w r ell as for the little garrison which I have. This is 
 the favor which he awaits, from you, who has the honor to be, 
 with profound respect, M., your very humble and very obe- 
 dient servant, 
 
 VlNSENNE. 
 
 On March 21, 1733, M. de Vincennes wrote another equally 
 interesting letter to the same person : "I have just received a 
 packet from M. le marquis de Beauharnois which I have sent 
 to M. de Saint-Ange in order that you may have it as quickly 
 as possible. 
 
 "M. le marquis de Beauharnois sent me a belt and a pipe 
 for the Illinois which I sent to M. de Saine-Ange to insist that 
 the nations go and attack the Chickasaws. All the nations of 
 Canada and of the lakes start this spring to go there. Both 
 nations here have gone even their chiefs. Not a single man 
 remained in all these villages. And they all passed in front 
 of this post, which is not a favorable condition. 
 
 "I had the honor to inform you in my last letter that the 
 Chickasaws this autumn killed six Frenchmen in the Wabash 
 country who had come to this post and were living here. This 
 same party killed one of the savages of this post and his w r ife. 
 If they begin to come in these places it will be difficult to 
 travel. M. le marquis de Beauharnois indicates to me that he 
 
94 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 wishes absolutely to destroy the Chickasaws and their allies 
 and to prevent these nations from joining those of Canada. 
 
 "In this post we lack everything. I am obliged to borrow 
 from travellers and to give the little that I have myself to 
 take care of all the affairs which come up daily. I have the 
 honor to beg you, Monsieur, to give your attention to this 
 matter and to have me reimbursed for what I have furnished. 
 I realize that it has already cost me much. When these nations 
 return and when all the prisoners, which they have taken are 
 given to us, it will be necessary to pay for this sort of thing as 
 well as to look for the dead if we lose any one. I hope that 
 they will come this autumn and make the attack. At least I 
 will invite them here since they are all disposed to come. I am 
 about to go in a few days to their large village and if I find 
 everything quiet I may go down into Canada. M. le marquis 
 de Beauharnois tells me that he will allow me to make this trip 
 to attend to some family matters. I will not be longer than 
 five months on this voyage. I am writing to M. Saint-Ange 
 to send his son in my absence. I hope Monsieur that you will 
 not take it ill, that I make this trip because I will not do it 
 unless I see everything in good shape in this continent. I have 
 the honor to be 
 
 "With profound respect, M., your very humble and very 
 obedient servant, 
 
 VlNSENNE. 
 
 The fort of Wabash, March 21, 1733."* 
 
 On March 24, 1733, Count de Maurepas, president of the 
 Council of Marine, wrote to MM. de Beauharnois and Hoc- 
 quart that Sr. Gastineau having been unsuccessful in sending 
 the cattle from Illinois, it was not necessary to make arrange- 
 ments with M. de Vincennes, commandant among the Ouyata- 
 nons, since the experience of Sr. Cugnet did not give reason to 
 
 *J. P. Dunn, The Mission of the Onabache, p. 305. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 95 
 
 hope that one could obtain wool from them. There was there- 
 fore no advantage in domesticating these animals. f 
 
 On April 1, 1733, M. de Vincennes was made half-pay lieu- 
 tenant in Canada. J 
 
 On May 20, 1733, MM. de Bienville and Salmon wrote to 
 the minister : "By the same letter Sr. Saint-Ange says that he 
 is little assured of the fidelity of the Illinois, who often give 
 him alarm and seem likely to fear our resentment over their 
 past faults in order to have a pretext to make a disturbance. 
 
 "In another region Sr. de Vincennes who is in command 
 among the Miami calls attention to the fact that the savages 
 settled on the Wabash are not any more tranquil than the 
 Illinois. That he is in no condition to prevent their carrying 
 on commerce with the English since it is necessary to reunite 
 them all, and since he has no merchandise to attract them, since 
 moreover the garrison is too feeble to restrain these nations.* 
 
 In a memoir of M. de Bienville on Louisiana which seems 
 to be about 1733, it is said : "Sr. de Vincennes who com- 
 manded there (at Wabash) informed him that the Peangui- 
 chas who were settled near our fort desired to bring among 
 them a village of the same nation who had remained about 
 sixty miles higher up the river. Two reasons made him favor 
 this design, the first to fortify our settlement and the second to 
 take away from this village the facility of commerce with the 
 English who had established two stores among the Chanua- 
 nons on the Ohio River.f 
 
 In their letter to the minister April 8, 1734, MM. de Bien- 
 ville and Salmon wrote: "As concerns Wabash, M. de Vin- 
 cennes from whom we have had no news informs us by a mes- 
 senger, who has just come down from among the Illinois, that 
 
 tRapport sur les Archives Canadiennes for 1904, p. 169. 
 ^Alphabet Laffillard, vol. 11, p. 319. 
 *J. P. Dunn, The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 300. 
 tJ. P. Dunn, The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 308. 
 
96 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 the tort which he had built for the garrison which consisted 
 of only ten men is very small and in fairly good condition, that 
 it is necessary only to place around it a double wall of stone. 
 That he has had built within a house at his own expense for 
 his dwelling and that some of the soldiers on their part have 
 made barracks to live in, that immediately the garrison is to be 
 increased to thirty men, an order which M. de Bienville has 
 given to M. Dartaguiette.J 
 
 On April 13, 1734, in his letter to MM. de Beauharnois and 
 Hocquart, M. de Maurepas returning to the proposition of M. 
 de Vincennes approved that they had written to him not to 
 send cattle from Illinois, this enterprise appearing imprac- 
 ticable 
 
 July 20, 1734, the king had a letter written to M. de Beau- 
 harnois saying that he had learned by way of Louisiana that 
 the Foxes, after the unfortunate affair of the Bay of St. 
 Joseph, had retired on to the Wisconsin river and that M. 
 Dartaguettes had sent scouts after them to locate them and 
 to make the nation march against them. The king added that 
 Sr. de Vincennes, commandant at Wabash, had written to him 
 that the savage Peauguichias, settled near his fort, wished to 
 bring to themselves the greater part of their nation who were 
 sixty miles higher up. This would have given importance to 
 Wabash and would have taken away from the English the 
 commerce which they were carrying on with the Peauguichias 
 village. The savage Chouanons who had two English com- 
 mercial agencies established near them had the same intention 
 of going away, a party to Wabash and a party to Detroit. 
 
 July 27, 1734, M. de Bienville wrote to the minister : "Sr. 
 de Vincennes, who is in command at Wabash, advises him that 
 the Peauguichias, who have settled near our fort, desire to 
 attach to themselves a village of the same nation who remain 
 
 tT. P. Dunn, The Mission to the Ouabaehe, p. 308. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 97 
 
 sixty miles higher up. Two reasons make him favor this 
 design the first to fortify our settlement and second to take 
 away from this village facility of commerce with the English. 
 
 "This officer adds that it will not be difficult to take away 
 from them this nation who have only given them the prefer- 
 ence because it was not so easy to obtain their necessities from 
 us as from the English. He is sure that a party has the inten- 
 tion of going to Detroit and another of coming to him. If 
 Monsieur considers that these changes are advantageous, I will 
 give orders in consequence to M. de Vincennes. Moreover, 
 since the post of Wabash is one of the most important of the 
 colony, being a barrier which is opposed to the progress of the 
 English who have always frequented much these districts, he 
 has given orders to M. Dartaguettes to detach thirty men with 
 two officers to make up the garrison for it.* 
 
 On August 20, 1735, M. de Bienville wrote to the minister : 
 "Sr. de Vincennes who is in command of the fort of the Pean- 
 guichias has persuaded the savages of his district to declare 
 war against the Chickasaws and has secured from M. Darta- 
 guettes the argeement to march with them, with those of the 
 French which he can get together. Since this officer has much 
 influence over the minds of the savages M. de Bienville is 
 persuaded that he will encourage them to do their best/'j 
 
 The Chickasaws, a large and enterprising nation, very hos- 
 tile to the French and allied with the English with whom they 
 kept up continuous and important commercial relation, inhab- 
 ited all the country between the Illinois and the Choctaws on 
 the south. Each year they grew larger from the debris of 
 other tribes who came to unite with them and to bring to 
 them a new strength. Assured of the aid of the English, hav- 
 ing in their power a strong contingent of savages, they enjoyed 
 
 *J. P. Dunn, The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 329. 
 tJ. P. Dunn. The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 309. 
 
98 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 disturbing the French settled among the Tonicas and the Ar- 
 kansas. They attacked their convoys going up among the 
 Illinois and, what concerned much the governors of Quebec 
 and of New Orleans, they favored the establishment of colo- 
 nies from Virginia on the Ohio and on the Illinois rivers. 
 England very much desired this establishment, which was to 
 serve as a barrier between the two colonies of Canada and of 
 Louisiana, and was to weaken them in separating them. More- 
 over she hoped in this way to obtain possession of the trade in 
 skins from the south to the north of America, because the 
 savage tribes were persuaded, not without reason, that the 
 English couid more easily than the French bring plenty into 
 their country in giving to them at better rates their merchan- 
 dise from Europe and buying more dearly the product of their 
 hunting. 
 
 The aggressive and provoking attitude of the Chickasaws 
 could not long be endured. It was important to reduce their 
 power as soon as possible, if one wished to assure the free 
 possession of the Mississippi valley and to prevent the English 
 from opening stores between Canada and Louisiana. 
 
 The governor of Louisiana, M. de Bienville, summoned the 
 Chickasaws to bring him without delay the head of the Natchez 
 who had taken refuge among them. The chief replied "the 
 Natchez form one nation with the Chickasaws, we can not give 
 them up." Little content with this reply M. de Bienville de- 
 clared war against them. He ordered the commandant among 
 the Illinois, M. Dartaguettes, to levy as many soldiers as he 
 could among the Illinois, the Canadians and the French in the 
 Chickasaw country on May 10, 1736. He himself would unite 
 at Mobile all those available in Louisiana. He would ascend 
 the river of the same name by a flotilla of rafts and of boats 
 and would arrive at Tombeche (today Cotton Gin Port). 
 There 200 Choctaws awaited him with Father Beaudoin, their 
 missionary. The army would set on the march the next day 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 99 
 
 and on the evening of May 27 it would camp one mile from 
 the great village of the Chickasaws. 
 
 The arrangement made by M. de Bienville could not be so 
 secret that they were not discovered by the enemy. The Chick- 
 asaws, guided by the English, fortified their retrenchments and 
 awaited the French with assurance. Two assaults were made 
 the same day and vigorously repulsed. Unhappily the gov- 
 ernor, who did not think that he would need his artillery, 
 had left it seven miles away and he had no time to bring it up, 
 for the savages of other towns ran in great numbers to aid the 
 great village. He sent back the Choctaws with presents, or- 
 dered a retreat and took the road back to Mobile. 
 
 This expedition for which a two years' preparation had 
 been made culminating in so inglorious a manner diminished 
 perceptibly the reputation of the great captain. His friends 
 tried to make the blame fall on commandant Dartaguettes 
 who had not joined him, they said, as he had been ordered. 
 This defense was mistaken, for the commandant had invaded 
 the land of the Chickasaws on the ninth of May at the head of 
 130 French or Canadians, 100 Illinois M. de Vincennes' sav- 
 ages and some Iroquois. There were about 400 men. Ban- 
 croft says there were nearly 1,100. 
 
 For ten days M. Dartaguettes camped at the sources of the 
 Yalabusha and waited there futilely for M. de Bienville, to 
 the great discontent of the savages who became impatient, 
 murmured and threatened to desert. In this situation he took 
 the course which seemed to him wisest and most dignified. He 
 set his troops in movement, took possession of a village and 
 marched against another. There he hesitated, the French 
 scouts asserted that the village was defended by numerous 
 troops. The savages maintained the contrary. He believed 
 the latter and commanded an assault. A first and then a sec- 
 ond fort was deprived of its flag; at the assault of the third he 
 was wounded and fell. Discouraged, the savages betook them- 
 
100 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 selves to a precipitate flight except the Iroquois who accom- 
 plished prodigies of valor. With them, the officers and the 
 soldiers resisted the enemy until the moment when, heing out- 
 flanked, and succumbing to a greater number they were forced 
 to think of retreating. The greater part of the French and the 
 Iroquois succeeded in escaping and retiring in good order under 
 the guidance of Voisin, a soldier sixteen years old who made 
 himself officer and directed the retreat with the sang-froid and 
 the experience of an old captain. Followed by the Chickasaws 
 for 25 miles, he held them at a distance and made his men, 
 inspired by his example, run for 45 miles without food carry- 
 ing the wounded. 
 
 At the assault of the third fort some soldiers and the three 
 brothers Drouet de Richerville, distinguished officers, found a 
 glorious death. MM. Dartaguettes, de Vincennes, de Cou- 
 lange, the fourth brother de Drouet, Du Tisné, d'Esgly, de 
 Sainte-Ange, de Tonty and fifteen or sixteen soldiers were 
 made prisoners and led to a mound in the middle of the town. 
 There stripped first of their clothing, insulted and cruelly 
 beaten they were thrown on two pyres where they expired with 
 the most atrocious suffering. 
 
 With these heroes died, under the same tortures, the Jesuit 
 Antoine Sénat. He had arrived from France among the Illi- 
 nois in 1734, and M. Dartaguettes had attached him to himself 
 as a chaplain when he set out against the Chickasaws. . . . 
 He could have fled with Voisin and his companions; he was 
 advised to do it, he was even offered a horse but he refused, 
 his duty being to be with the French whom the enemy were 
 about to make captive. He was taken with them. With them 
 he marched to the place of martyrdom ; with them he submitted 
 to the last outrages and the bastinade. The dream of his 
 heart of an apostle was realized. He heard the last confes- 
 sion of his companions. He absolved them and exhorted them 
 to offer to God with courage and like true martyrs the sacri- 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 101 
 
 fice of their life. Before mounting the pyre, falling on their 
 knees they prayed, then they entoned in a linn voice the psalms 
 and the canticle and continued then in the midst of the flame. 
 Later, in relating this scene of martyrdom, the savages said 
 that the French sang as they went up ; and in seeing them die 
 they gave them this praise by these simple words "Truly these 
 Frenchmen are not women, but men."* 
 
 On what date and in what place were M. de Vincennes and 
 his heroic companions put to death by the Chickasaws ? Opin- 
 ions differ considerably about the date of the death of M. de 
 Vincennes. Several official accounts, those of the abbé Fer- 
 land, the R. P. de Rochemonteix and most of the authors who 
 come after them, say that this event took place the end of May, 
 1736. 
 
 They are mistaken. On April 13, 1736, Toussaint Loizel 
 wrote from Sainte-Ange among the Illinois to his brother who 
 lived at Montreal: "Before I finish I must send you a word 
 concerning the war which has been made against the Chicka- 
 saws where we have lost forty French. M. Dartaguettes com- 
 mandant of the said post has been killed with seven officers 
 of the troops, four of the militia. . . . 
 
 Then Loizel names to his brother some of the officers and 
 soldiers who have been killed by the Chickasaws : "MM. de 
 Sainte-Ange, son, Coulonge, Levillie, the young Declaude, 
 Vincennes, la Graviere with M. Belcour and another of his 
 brothers and the fourth with a broken shoulder, M. de Tonty. 
 d'Esgly, and the old Lalonde and Antoine Carrière, Louis 
 Langlois, M. Dutilly, son. The others are Frenchmen of Que- 
 bec, You do not know them."* 
 
 The letter from M. Loizel as we have just seen is dated 
 
 *Pere Camille de Rochemonteix, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle France 
 au XVIIIe siècle, vol. 1, pp. 361, et seq. 
 
 *M. Phileas Gagnon has published the letter of Loizel in the Bulle 
 tin des Recherches Historiques, vol. VI, p. 110. 
 
102 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 April 13, 1736. Therefore M. de Vincennes and his com- 
 panions were put to death before April 13. 
 
 But we have a contemporaneous authority who gives us 
 the exact date of the death of M. de Vincennes. 
 
 June 29, 1736, Father Mathurin LePetit, superior of the 
 Jesuits of Louisiana, wrote to the general of his order at 
 Rome : "Patrem Senate provincia tolosana qui in eadem re- 
 gione alteram illinensium missionem a 18 mensibus tantum 
 sed magna jam linguae peritia et majori studio excolebat, belli 
 casus nobis prepepuit die dominica palmarurn." 
 
 (On palm Sunday the fortune of war took away from us 
 Father Senat of the province of Toulousse. He had charge 
 of another mission of the Illinois in the same country for only 
 eighteen months but he already knew the language and was 
 still more remarkable for his zeal.)* 
 
 Two years later, June 25, 1738, Pierre LePetit, writing 
 again to the general of his order, repeated the fact that Father 
 Senat had been burned on Palm Sunday, 1736: 
 
 'Tost Multos rumores, tandem facti sumus certiores P. 
 Antonii Senat generosam caritatem gloriosa martyrii corona 
 fuisse donatam eo ipso die (dominica Palmarurn a 1736) quo 
 comprehensus fuit a babbaris nostraegentis hostibus vulgo dic- 
 tis Thikakas." 
 
 (After many rumors we are at last certain that Father 
 Antoine Senat has been recompensed for his generous charity 
 by the glorious crown of Martyr. On the same day (Palm 
 Sunday, 1736) that he was made prisoner by the savages ene- 
 mies of our nation commonly called Chickasaws.)f 
 
 Father Senat and M. de Vincennes being put to death to- 
 gether, it follows that the latter was burned Palm Sunday. 
 1736, that is March 25, 1736. 
 
 It is very difficult to establish the precise place where M. de 
 
 *The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. LXVIII, p. 80S. 
 tThe Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. LXIX, p. 28. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 103 
 
 Vincennes was put to death. However all witnesses seem to 
 agree in placing the forts of the Chickasaws near Fulton, Lee 
 County, Miss., U. S. 
 
 The sources to consult on the last campaign and the death 
 of Francois-Marie Bissot de Vincennes are : 
 
 Letter of M. Cremont to the minister, 1736. Original of 
 this letter at the Archives of the Marine, in Paris. A resume 
 of it is found in the Rapport sur les Archives Canadiennes for 
 1905, vol. 1, p. 542. 
 
 Account which Sr. Drouet de Richerville tells of the en- 
 gagement which M. D'Artaguette had with the Chickasaws in 
 the month of March, 1736. Original of this account at the 
 Archives of the Marine, in Paris. A resume of it may be 
 found in the Rapport sur les Archives Canadiennes for 1905, 
 vol. 1, p. 452. 
 
 Recital of the march and of the defeat of M. Dartaguiette 
 told under the name Parisien. Original of this recital in the 
 Archives of the Marine, at Paris. Resume in the Rapport sur 
 les Archives Canadiennes for 1905, vol. 1, p. 453. 
 
 Anonymous account of the defeat of M. Dartaguiette. 
 Original of this account at the Archives of the Marine, in 
 Paris. Resume in the Rapport sur les Archives Canadiennes 
 for 1905, vol. 1, p. 453. 
 
 Recital by M. de Bienville of his expedition to the country 
 of the Chickasaws, of the non success of his enterprise and of 
 his retreat. Original at the Archives of the Marine, in Paris. 
 
 List of the troops and militia who made the campaign 
 against the Chickasaws, 1736. Archives de la Marine, at Paris. 
 
 Banishment of the Jesuits from Louisiana, in Documents 
 Inédits of Father Carayon, XIV, p. 24. 
 
 Letter of the Jesuit father, Le Petit, to the general of the 
 Jesuits, New Orleans, June 29, 1736, published in Jesuit Rela- 
 tions and Other Documents, vol. LXVIII, p. 308. 
 
 Letter of the Jesuit father, LePetit, to the general of the 
 
104 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Jesuits, New Orleans, April 24, 1738, published in Jesuit Rela- 
 tions and Other Documents, vol. LXIX, p. 28. 
 
 June 21, 1737, M. de Bienville wrote to the minister: "The 
 Peanghikeas among whom we have a post where the late M. de 
 Vincennes was in command have almost all left their village 
 since his death, except about fifteen men who are still with 
 Sr. de Sainte-Ange. They have gone higher up on the Wabash 
 to another village. I foresee that if this station is deserted we 
 will be disturbed by the Chickasaws at this post where the 
 garrison is not strong. This circumstance and the recent and 
 repeated attempts of the English to penetrate into the colony 
 by way of the Ohio river by which they descend into the 
 Wabash country has determined me to replace this fort about 
 forty miles further down at the mouth of this river. I would 
 have done this sooner if the savages had been willing to fol- 
 low us there. It appears now that the Kickapoos and the Mas- 
 coutins who came two years ago to set up their village with 
 the Miamis do not get along well with them, and M. de la 
 Buissoniere assures me that if one should invite them, they 
 would settle there. I sent him orders for this change which 
 would not cost much and I hope that Mgr. will approve of 
 them. I only fear that Sr. de Linquetot, an officer of Canada 
 who is in command among the Miami and the Ouyatanons may 
 be opposed to letting the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins go, 
 because these two nations belong to his department. I will 
 write to him on this subject."* 
 
 On the next day, June 22, 1737, M. Salmon wrote in his 
 turn to the minister : "I learn through Sr. Delaloire that the 
 Sr. Sainte-Ange, son, who went up to the Wabash country to 
 take command of that post in place of the late M. de Vin- 
 cennes, reports to him that the savages who are his neighbors 
 desire to abandon him, that some of them have already gone 
 away to their ancient village of Vermillion to such a number 
 
 *J. P. Dunn. The Mission to the Onabache, p. 310. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 105 
 
 that there remain not more than twenty-five men. That if 
 they go away, as seems likely, he will be forced to disband the 
 garrison who will find themselves at the mercy of their ene- 
 mies. He adds that he has not seen, up to the present, that this 
 post was of great use and that it causes much expense. For 
 myself I think that truly it is more expensive than it is useful. 
 However it might be of consequence to preserve to prevent 
 the English from settling there which they will certainly do if 
 we abandon it."* 
 
 It has been written that François-Marie de Vincennes was 
 chevalier de Saint-Louis. No. __ In the official list of the of- 
 ficers killed by the Chickasaws on March 25, 1736, one reads 
 Chevalier de Vincennes. That does not mean that M. de 
 Vincennes was chevalier of Saint-Louis. Bescherelle says, 
 'The eldest son of a baron, the third son of a count, the fifth 
 son of a marquis were called chevalier without belonging to 
 any order of chivalry." 
 
 All that was imitated in New France. Here, generally, the 
 title of Chevalier was given to the younger brothers of a fam- 
 ily. François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes adopted the title of 
 chevalier probably because he belonged to the junior branch 
 of the Bissot family. 
 
 THE FAMILY MARGANE DE LAVALTRIE 
 SERAPHIN MARGANE DE LAVALTRIEf 
 
 Séraphin Margane de Lavaltrie was originally from Paris, 
 parish Saint-Benoit. He was the son of Sabastien Margane 
 
 *J. P. Diinu, The Mission to the Ouabache, p. 312. 
 fM. de Lavaltrie signed his name either "La Valterie" or "L- 
 Valtrie." It is written la Valterye, La Valtrye, La Vaitery, La Val- 
 terie, la Valterie, la Valtrie, and Lavaltrie. We adopt this last 
 orthography which is the most commonly used in our time and which 
 moreover approaches most nearly that employed by M. Lavaltrie 
 himself. 
 
106 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 and of Denise Jonnot. The father of Séraphin Margane was 
 an advocat in the parliament of Paris. 
 
 Lieutenant of the guard of Marshal d' Estrades, then lieu- 
 tenant of the regiment de Lignieres, M. de Lavaltrie took serv- 
 ice under M. de Tracy, in 1664 and went to New France as a 
 lieutenant in the regiment de Carignan in 1665. 
 
 When Louis XIV recalled Carignan's regiment back to 
 France he informed the officers and soldiers that he would be 
 well pleased to have a certain number of them settle in the 
 new country. Several officers and more than four hundred 
 soldiers adopted therefore Canada as their new fatherland. 
 The soldiers received a little sum of money to assist in their 
 settlement and the king gave the officers concessions of land. 
 M. de Lavaltrie was among those who stayed here. October 
 29, 1672, the intendant Talon granted to him an important con- 
 cession of land. 
 
 The conditions imposed on M. de Lavaltrie were the same 
 as those of all the grants of seigniorys at this time ; faith and 
 homage to the Chateau St. Louis at Quebec to maintain or 
 cause to be maintained residence and occupation on the con- 
 cession ; the preservation of the forests of oak ; a report to the 
 king or to the company of the West Indies of the mines and 
 minerals found in the seigniory, etc., etc. 
 
 In 1673 M. de Lavaltrie joined M. de Frontenac's expedi- 
 tion to Lake Ontario. The governor left Montreal toward the 
 end of June with a fleet of four flat boats and 120 canoes 
 which carried six cannon and 400 men. The principal object 
 of M. de Frontenac's voyage was to build a fort on the shores 
 of Lake Ontario, whence one could watch the movements of 
 the Iroquois. The fort was placed on the point near the mouth 
 of the Catarakoui river and received the name of Frontenac. 
 Today it is Kingston. They worked with such ardor that the 
 fort was built in several days. M. de Frontenac was even 
 able to leave a commandant with a little garrison. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 107 
 
 The official account of the expedition to Lake Ontario 
 mentions M. de Lavaltrie's name several times. 
 
 The census of New France made in the autumn of 1681 in- 
 forms us that M. de Lavaltrie was settled at his seigniory. 
 He was then thirty-eight years old, his wife twenty-nine, their 
 children Marie-Anne, thirteen, Charles eleven, François-Marie 
 nine, Genevieve seven, Louise five, Pierre three, and Barbe 
 eight months old. There were in the manor three guns and 
 two pistols. The stables contained ten horned cattle. M. de 
 Lavaltrie possessed twenty acres in cultivation. The eeus'.s 
 gives us also the names of the tenants of Seignior de Laval- 
 trie: Gabriel Gibault, François Bottou, Antoine Deseve, Jean 
 Cassavant, Pierre Guignet, Jacques Lafontaine, Pierre Le- 
 siege, Nicholas Prunier and Claud Bourgeois. 
 
 Nicolas Perrot writes in his "Memoir on the Manner, Cus- 
 toms and Religion of the Savages of North America." 
 
 "I was sent in the spring of 1685 to the Bay des Puants 
 with the commission of commander in chief of the furthest 
 countries of the east coast and moreover of those which I 
 might discover. M. de la Durantaye relieved M. de LavàMrie 
 who had been commandant in the country of the Iroquois." 
 
 If M. de Lavaltrie was commandant in the east before M. 
 de la Durantaye he remained there very little time, for from 
 1673 to 1685 one notices his absence almost continually at his 
 seigniory of Lavaltrie or at Montreal. 
 
 In 1687 in M. de Denonville's expedition against the Tspn- 
 nontouans M. de Callieres was commander general of the mili- 
 tia, divided in four groups as were also the king's troops, 
 commanded by MM. Berthier Becard de Grand ville, Le 
 Moyne, de Longueuil and Lavaltrie. Again in this expedition 
 M. de Lavaltrie showed his military qualities. On July 13 at 
 a little distance from the principle village of the Tsonnon- 
 touans he rendered a great service to M. de Longueuil by sav- 
 
108 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 ing the advance guard of his army from being surprised by 
 the Indians. 
 
 In 1690 when Sir William Phipps was about to lay siege 
 to Quebec, M. de Frontenac sent M. de Ramezay to M. de 
 Calliéres, governor of Montreal, to order him to have the 
 troops and the militia sent down. The recruiting of the troops 
 and of the inhabitants was made so rapidly that three days 
 later the contingent from Montreal arrived at Quebec. None 
 of the numerous accounts of the siege of Quebec tell us that 
 M. de Lavaltrie took part in the glorious defense of the Capi- 
 tol, but we have nevertheless the right to presume that M. de 
 Lavaltrie was of the party with the brave militia from his 
 seigniory. 
 
 November 12, 1690, M. de Frontenac, giving an account 
 of the raising of the siege of Quebec to Minister de Seignelay, 
 wrote: "I send you the rank of the officers which I have 
 replaced since the reform of last year, since I could not still 
 recognize them I have not acted in this matter except by the 
 light which Monsieur, the intendant, has given me. He has 
 considered it expedient, and I have, too, to find means of 
 satisfying by certain marks of honor, which will cost nothing 
 to the king those persons, who have rendered excellent service 
 in the preceding campaigns and to whom M. de Denonville had 
 promised a recompense. A fact which obliges me to add cer- 
 tain commissions to those who were captains, lieutenants and 
 half-pay ensigns, but AD HONORES only, in the hope that 
 you will not disapprove." 
 
 In the rank of which there is here question we see that M. 
 de Lavaltrie received a commission of lieutenant in the place of 
 M. de Louvigny who was made half-pay captain. M. de Fron- 
 tenac thus recompensed M. de Lavaltrie for his good conduct 
 in the expeditions of 1673. of 1687, and probably also at the 
 siege of Quebec. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 109 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie died at Montreal May 16, 1699, and was 
 buried the next day in the parish church. 
 
 He had married at Quebec, August 12, 1668, Louise Bissot, 
 daughter of Françoise Bissot de la Rivière and of Marie 
 Couillard. 
 
 October 20, 1699, MM. de Callieres and de Champigny 
 wrote to the minister : 
 
 "The sieur de Lavaltrie left a widow very poor with five 
 or six children to whom his appointments and a stipend of 150 
 livres gave the means of living. They find themselves entirely 
 deprived of it and, in consequence, of everything else. We 
 can not, in so desperate a situation of this poor family, fail to 
 beg His Majesty to continue at least the stipend in the name 
 of the widow. May 31, 1700, the king sent a reply that he 
 could not for the present grant to Madame de Lavaltrie the 
 pension which she demanded. A little later the governor and 
 the intendant returned to the charge and this time the king ac- 
 ceded to their demand. M. de Lavaltrie received a modest 
 pension until her death at Montreal, March 1, 1783. 
 
 Of the marriage of Seraphine Margane de Lavaltrie and 
 of Louise Bissot were born eleven children. 
 
 1. Marie Anne. M. de L., born at Quebec, June 20, 1668. 
 Married at Montreal, October 28, 1694, to Ignace Boucher de 
 Grobois. 
 
 In 1 725 Madame Boucher de Grobois still lived at Boucher- 
 ville. 
 
 2. Charles Séraphin M. de L., born at Montreal, August 
 5, 1669. 
 
 In 1691, the governor of Frontenac granted him a commis- 
 sion as ensign in the place of M. Boucher de Grandpré who 
 was made half-pay lieutenant. This commission was con- 
 firmed by the king March 1, 1693. 
 
 In 1693, M. de Frontenac entrusted M. d' Ailleboust d' Ar- 
 
110 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 genteuil with an important message for M. de Lavigny, com- 
 mandant at Michelimakinac. Recognizing- the braveness and 
 the cleverness of the young de Lavalterie, M. de Frontenac 
 gave him instructions to escort M. d'Ailleboust d'° Argenteuil 
 and his eighteen companions through the most dangerous pass- 
 ages. M. de Lavaltrie had under his orders twenty volunteers 
 and a certain number of savages from the Sault and from the 
 mountain. The voyage out was accomplished successfully but 
 on his return, in the first days of June, 1693, the escort was 
 suddenly attacked by a large band of Iroquois who were hid- 
 den on the shores of a rapid near the island of Montreal. M. 
 de Lavaltrie and three of his companions were killed. The 
 other members of the escort succeeded in escaping. 
 
 3. François-Marie Margane de Batilly. Born at Mon- 
 treal, November 13, 1672. 
 
 At the baptism of François Marie Bissot de Vincennes at 
 Montreal, June 17, 1700, he was called François Margane, 
 esquire, sieur de Batilly. He signed Batilly. 
 
 January 2, 1694, the young de Batilly was made ensign in 
 the troops of the detachment of the Marine. 
 
 In the winter of 1703 and 1704 governor de Vaudreuil 
 sent a party of 250 men against New England. He entrusted 
 the command to M. Hertel de Rouville, half-pay lieutenant. 
 This party ascended Lake Champlain and then Onion river. 
 They followed first the Connecticut river as far as Beerfield 
 which was the nearest settlement to Canada in this direction. 
 This village was defended by some irregular fortifications 
 and some redoubts which the snow covered. Deeriield had 
 a garrison of twenty soldiers. M. de Rouville approached dur- 
 ing the night of February 29. The patrols did not even sus- 
 pect the presence of the enemy. Two hours before dawn the 
 Canadians and their savage allies scaled the wall, penetrated 
 the village and surprised the inhabitants in their sleep. They 
 did not have time even to resist. The place was destroyed in 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 111 
 
 a few moments. Forty-seven persons were killed and 112 
 made prisoners. The village was reduced to ashes. The same 
 morning M. de Rouville took the road for New France with 
 his prisoners and his booty. The return journey lasted 25 
 days during which the hardy Canadians and their prisoners 
 had no other food than that which the hunt could provide 
 them. 
 
 M. de Rouville had lost only three Canadians and some 
 savages. The ensign de Batilly was killed during this bold 
 expedition. As M. de Vaudreuil relates in his account to the 
 minister of the exploit of M. de Rouville against Deerfield, 
 dated April 3, 1704. 
 
 "We have lost Monsieur only three Frenchmen and some 
 savages. Among these is Sr. de Batilly, ensign, a very brave 
 man, the second of his family to have been killed in the serv- 
 ice of the king. 
 
 4. Genevieve M. de L., born at Montreal, July 12, 1675. 
 Married at Montreal, January 3, 1696, Charles Le Gardeur de 
 Lisle. Died at Montreal, November 30, 1702. 
 
 5. Madeleine Louise, M. de L. Born at Lavaltrie, Novem- 
 ber 27, 1676. Married at Montreal, December 11, 1698, Paul 
 d' Ailleboust de Perigny, lieutenant in the troops of the de- 
 tachment of the Marine. 
 
 M. de Ailleboust died at Montreal February 3, 1745. Ma. 
 dame d' Ailleboust survived her husband many years. May 
 22, 1761, she entered in retreat among the gray Sisters at 
 Montreal. 
 
 6. Pierre Margane des Forets et de Lavaltrie, the ances- 
 tor of the present family. 
 
 7. Barbe M. de L. Born at Lavaltrie in February 1681. 
 Married at Montreal, November 27, 1719, to Etienne de Brage- 
 longue, chevalier. 
 
 8. Jean Baptiste M. de L. Born at Lavaltrie, November 
 3, 1683. He still lived in 1725. 
 
112 Sjeur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 9. François M. de L. Born at Lavaltrie September 9, 
 1685. 
 
 It is he whom the American historians and most of the 
 Canadian writers of history consider erroneously the founder 
 of Indiana, making him usurp the glory and the merit of his 
 cousin François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes. 
 
 About 1700 Augustin Le Garduer de Courtemanche, lieu- 
 tenant in the troops of the detachment of the Marine, well 
 known for his exploits in war and his bold journeys into the 
 east made an exploration of the coast of Labrador. Fishing 
 and hunting were so advantageous in this unknown region 
 that he decided to settle there. He made his settlement near 
 the river of the Eskimo. In order to hold the savages in awe 
 he also built a little fort in which he intended to place some 
 armed men in order to be prepared for whatever might happen. 
 
 The young de Lavaltrie lover of adventures of the chase 
 and of fishing followed his cousin M. Le Gardeur de Courte- 
 manche to Labrador. He was put in command of the fort of 
 Pontchartrain. 
 
 In 1711 young de Lavaltrie had the honor to come to an- 
 nounce to Governor Vaudreuil that the English had crossed 
 the sea with a formidable fleet with the intention of laying 
 siege to Quebec. Each summer, numerous vessels of the 
 French and of strangers came to fish in the waters of Labrador. 
 It was through one of these vessels that Minister Pontchar- 
 train communicated this serious menace to M. de Courte- 
 manche. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie, in the month of October of the same year, 
 announced to the population of Quebec the horrible shipwreck 
 of many of the vessels of the proud Admiral Walker on the 
 reef of Egg Island. The formal examination of M. de Laval- 
 trie before the provost of Quebec gives us the gloomy details 
 of this shipwreck which saved the colony. 
 
 "Today, October 18, 1711, at three o'clock in the afternoon,. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 113 
 
 before us, Paul Depuy, esquire, commissioner of the king and 
 his particular civil and criminal lieutenant in the court of the 
 provost and admiralty of Quebec, filling, by order of His 
 Majesty, the function of lieutenant general in the chair, in our 
 court, and in the presence of the king's prosecutor there ap- 
 peared François de Margane, Sr., de Lavaltrie, an officer serv- 
 ing at Fort Pontchartrain in Labrador. The same, after hav- 
 ing taken the oath before us in the usual manner to tell the 
 truth, has said and declared that on the third of last August, 
 he was sent from Fort Pontchartrain by M. de Courtemanche, 
 commandant of the said place to M. de Marquis de Vaudreuil, 
 governor general of this country, to advise him that this city 
 was in danger of being besieged by the English enemies of the 
 state, according to the advice which he had received from 
 Monseignor, Count Pontchartrain, and that some days after 
 his arrival in the said city the said governor general had 
 ordered him to return to his post and that if the enemy ap- 
 peared again to bring him news of them as soon as possible. 
 He reported that on the 18th of last September he returned to 
 Labrador in a canoe with two Frenchmen and a savage and 
 that on the first of this month having arrived at Egg Island, 
 which is seventy leagues away from this city, he perceived 
 signs of a shipwreck which compelled him to land and get out 
 on land where he found on the sand, four dead men, whom he 
 recognized as English ; that he discovered, at the same time, a 
 number of foot prints of men which he followed with his 
 comrades for a space of two miles along which road they 
 found only two good stranded ship-boats with seven or eight 
 others which could be repaired. Returning to their canoe, 
 they saw two men who were walking on the sand and whom 
 they recognized by their speech, to be French. Having ap- 
 proached them they knew them to belong to the crew of the 
 ship of a man named Vital Caron. They were guarding the 
 booty and picking up more, which consisted of coats, coverings, 
 
114 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 shirts, and other spoils which they showed to them and told 
 them of the ship-wreck which had happened to the English 
 fleet which was coming to besiege this city. Since they did not 
 wish to go to the city, they had stayed at the place, declaring 
 to him that they had seen seven English vessels on the point 
 of land toward the northern coast near the said Egg Island, 
 of which one was entirely broken up, two others half destroyed 
 and three others driven to the coast of which one held with 
 two anchors and the other which had three in her hull and 
 the seventh vessel, which floated at sea, lay at anchor, which he 
 believed was greater than any which are at present in the road 
 stead of the village. The others were smaller, however, he 
 estimated at about three or four hundred tonnage. The larg- 
 est, which lay at anchor, was swept away from its first bridge. 
 The iron frame work of those which were burned was on 
 the shore. That, he believed that, of these vessels, only the 
 largest one could be repaired. That they had seen, moreover, 
 on the shore fifty to sixty dead bodies among whom there were 
 about twenty women, some of whom had children at the breast. 
 That they had also seen on the sand, horses, sheep, dogs, fowls, 
 a quantity of pack saddles for the work horses, three or four 
 hundred great casks encircled with iron. They did not know if 
 they were filled. Many wheel barrows, even a hogshead of 
 wine, a keg and a half of brandy of which they had declared 
 they had drunk several times with the said two men of the 
 said Caron. That there were also on the shore, ropes, anchors, 
 sail, planks, joists of oak, hides, pikes, pick axes, oaken planks, 
 hinges and scrap iron of which they had seen heaps three feet 
 in height and which the said two men told him, that the said 
 Vital Caron had taken away two wagon loads of booty, which 
 ht had taken with him to the Seven Islands to divide among 
 the men of his crew made up of twenty-five men, and that one 
 of these had found twenty white sous in the pocket of one of 
 the ship-wrecked and another a gold watch. That all these 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 115 
 
 things and his duty had made him give up his voyage and the 
 profit which he could have made by doing as these others had 
 done by taking the wreckage of this ship in order to come to 
 this city to bring the news of it and to make his declaration of 
 it, which he had done as quickly as possible, arriving in fifteen 
 days in spite of the bad weather which he had during his voy- 
 age, which is all that he had to say. Demanding, moreover, 
 that there be accorded to him the rights that belong to an in- 
 former he had signed the original with us on the day and the 
 year above mentioned. So signed to the said original Margane 
 de Lavaltrie, Lespinay, Dupuy, and Rivet Greffier, the Under- 
 signed.* 
 
 May 9, 1712. M. de Lavaltrie married at Beauport, Angéli- 
 que Guyon-Desprès, daughter of François Guyon-Desprès, and 
 of Madeleine Marsolet. 
 
 Before he had even settled on his seigniory of Beauport, 
 Robert Giffard on March 14, 1634, created an arrière-fief in 
 favor of one his compartiots, Jean Guyon. Giffard and Guyon 
 were Percherons, but le Perche is next to Normandy. In eight 
 years MM. Giffard and Guyon had six law suits concerning this 
 arrière-fief. By his marriage with the grand daughter of Jean 
 Guyon, M. de Lavaltrie became one of the proprietors of the 
 arrière-fief Du Buisson. A veritable fatality was attached to 
 this property. He was obliged to carry on three or four law 
 suits to protect the little part of the seigniorial property which 
 his marriage had brought him. 
 
 Sept. 19, 1713, M. de Lavaltrie associated himself with 
 Bernard de Plaine to make a voyage to Cape Breton where M. 
 de Plaine had some property. The partners intended to carry 
 on there trading, fishing, and hunting. Since each partner had 
 furnished an unequal amount of merchandise it was under- 
 stood that he who had furnished the most, should take out in 
 
 ^Archives du Canada, Correspondence générale, vol. F. 32, p. 171. 
 
116 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 skins at the current price, the proportion which he had ad- 
 vanced. What was left should be divided half and half. 
 
 The partnership between M. de Lavaltrie and M. de Plaine 
 did not last long. Labrador with its inslands abounding in 
 game, its rivers full of fish attracted him. He soon returned 
 there. Only instead of being under the order of M. de Court- 
 emanche he fished and traded with the savages on his own ac- 
 count with the assistance of two or three hired men. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie had no concession in Labrador. The coun- 
 try was large, the rivers numerous so that MM. de Courte- 
 manche and Lavaltrie could easy carry on his exploits without 
 annoying the other. As long as M. de Courtemanche lived 
 there was no difficulty in this matter. 
 
 In June, 1717, M. de Courtemanche died at his estate on 
 Phelippeaux Bay. Sieur de Brouage, the son of the first mar- 
 riage of his wife, succeeded M. de Courtemanche as command- 
 ant of the post of Labrador. Young, ardent, jealous of his 
 rights, he did not tarry to find that the coast of Labrador, in 
 spite of its immensity, was too confined for him and M. de 
 Lavaltrie. 
 
 Sept. 9, 1718, he complained of M. de Lavaltrie to the con- 
 sul of the Marines. This complaint is found in the Archives 
 du Canada. Correspondance Générale. 
 
 The following year, Sept. 6, 1719, M. de Brouage put in 
 another complaint against M. de Lavaltrie. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie who saw that M. de Brouage would suc- 
 ceed in driving him from Labrador if he did not attain a con- 
 cession addressed himself to MM. de Vaudreuil and Begon. 
 They presented his demand to the minister. May 25, 1719, 
 the minister replied favorably to the governor and the intend- 
 ant. However, the consul of the Marines did not take up the 
 demands of M. de Lavaltrie until January 23, 1720. 
 
 Finally, May 26, 1720, the king signed the following con- 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 117 
 
 cession in favor of M. de Lavaltrie : "Today, May 26, 1720, 
 the king, being at Paris, having heard favorably the demand 
 which has been made of him by the Sr. de Lavaltrie for a 
 grant of land on the coast of Labrador, to establish there still 
 fishing for cod and for seal, his Majesty on the advice of M. 
 the duke d'Orléans, regent, has granted to him the harbor called 
 the St. Augustine River, on the coast of Labrador with two 
 miles of frontage on each side by four miles of depth inland 
 as well as the islands and the smaller islands adjacent to the 
 said harbor to be possessed by him during his life. On con- 
 dition that he will make the concession valuable by fisheries. 
 His Majesty wishes and intends that he alone shall have, in the 
 harbor and in the two miles granted to him as well as in the 
 adjacent islands, the right to fish for seal and other fish. He 
 is to do it with the vessels which shall come to the said harbor 
 and to the land and islands granted by the present brevet, which 
 allows him to trade with the savages who may be found on the 
 coast of Labrador, without being held bound to pay to his 
 Majesty or to succeeding kings any sum of money or indem- 
 nity. His Majesty has made him a gift by the present brevet 
 which shall be registered with the superior council of Quebec 
 and any other places where it is necessary. His Majesty in 
 witness of his desire wishes to sign with his own hand this 
 title counter-signed by me, secretary of state, and of his com 
 mand and finances. 
 
 Louis. 
 
 Fleuri ah.* 
 
 M. de Brouage, who did not know that M. de Lavaltrie had 
 obtained a concession from the king, complained bitterly of 
 him to the minister in 1720. 
 
 Oct. 22, 1720, Governor de Vaudreuil wrote to the minister : 
 "Concerning the complaints which Madame de Courtemanche 
 *Insinuations du Conseil Supérieur, en hier 5. 
 
118 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 and her son made to me last year against Sr. de Lavaltrie I took 
 pains to explain to him when I wrote to him last spring that 
 it depended on the command which Seignior Brouage had over 
 all the coast of Labrador and that, being under his order, he 
 ought to have for him the regard due to his rank. That, more- 
 over, he ought to do everything that he could to live on good 
 terms with the said Sr. Brouage and with the lady of Courte- 
 manche, who is his first cousin, since they are children of two 
 sisters. Then I ordered him to leave home as soon as he re- 
 ceived my letter to go and pay his respects to the said Sr. de 
 Brouage and his mother. To report to them what he had 
 taken in the boat which they had sent to him and to ask of them 
 their friendship. The said Sr. de Lavaltrie advised me by his 
 reply of July 17 that he was about to do promptly all that I 
 had ordered him. I hope that in the future no more com- 
 plaints from that quarter will come to the council. At least 
 that Madame de Courtemanche will not continue in the bad 
 humor on account of the jealousy, which she seems to have 
 that others beside herself should settle on a coast, which she 
 believes she ought to possess by herself. Being certain that 
 there is nothing but this jealousy which can keep up in her, the 
 bitterness which she shows against Sr. de Lavaltrie because 
 he attracts the savages to him. But on the contrary she has 
 treated him with much unkindness, not only in refusing him 
 the assistance of powder, bullets and biscuit of which he had 
 extreme need, but also in making her son forbid the captains 
 who were fishing along this coast to furnish St. Malo any/' 
 
 In 1725, M. de Lavaltrie, Zacharie Turgeon and Charles 
 Turgeon, his son, both residents of Beaumont, and Joseph 
 Filteau, resident of the isle of Orleans, formed a partnership 
 to cultivate by thirds the post of St. Augustine. Turgeon was 
 to furnish his boat called the Saint-Etienne of about twenty 
 tons and he was to have a third of the profits and a third 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 119 
 
 share of the expenses for three consecutive years. Sept. 0, 
 1726, the partnership was dissolved, the Turgeons, father and 
 son, retired on account of their share in the profits. The ship, 
 the Saint-Etienne, remained the property of M. de Laval trie 
 and Joseph Filteau, who continued together the exploitation of 
 the post of St. Augustine.* 
 
 On the death of his mother, March 1, 1733, M. de Lavaitrie 
 had inherited certain rights in the seigniory of Lavaitrie. Nov. 
 3, 1733, M. de Lavaitrie sold to his eldest brother, Pierre Mar- 
 gane de Lavaitrie, officer in the troops of the detachment of 
 the Marine, "His right of succession, mobile and immobile, 
 fruits and revenues, which he could have in the succession of 
 the late M. Séraphin Margane de Lavaitrie as well as in that of 
 the lady Louise Bissot, their father and mother, for the sum 
 of 2,200 livres."t 
 
 The Seigniors under the French regime were often as poor 
 as their tenants. It was not until four years later that the Sr. 
 de Lavaitrie was able to pay off his debt of 2,200 livres to his 
 brother. 
 
 Sept. 11, 1737, M. de Lavaitrie farmed out his post on the 
 River St. Augustine, on the coast of Labrador, for the time and 
 space of three years to Michel Petrimoulx, Charles Cheron and 
 Nicolas Cheron, the elder, all of Quebec. The three partners 
 were to carry on the business of fishing for seal of trading- 
 with the savages, of hunting, etc., etc., in the place of M. de 
 Lavaitrie. This lease was made for the sum of 250 livres a 
 year. The partners paid their first year's rent in advance. 
 
 In 1739, a sad event changed the destiny of M. de Lavaitrie. 
 On the 29th of December his wife, Angélique Guyon-Despres, 
 died at Beauport at the age of fifty-five years. She had given 
 him a son, Louis-François Margane de Lavaitrie, born at Beau- 
 
 *Acte de Lonet, September 6, 1726. 
 tActe de Adhemar, November 3, 1733. 
 
120 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 port, Jan. 28, 1713. Eleven months before the death of his 
 mother, on Jan. 22, 1739, at St. Thomas, young de Lavaltrie 
 had married Marie-Anne Couillard. Left alone in his home, 
 M. de Lavaltrie decided to become a priest. During the 1740 
 and 1741 he was busy arranging all his affairs and disposing 
 of his interests. 
 
 Dec. 9, 1741, M. de Lavaltrie rented, from Sept. 1, 1742, to 
 the same day of 1748, his estate commonly called St. Augus- 
 tine, on the coast of Labrador, to Jean Baptiste Pommereau, 
 lawyer of Quebec. M. Pommereau was to have possession dur- 
 ing his lease of all the privileges granted to M. de Lavaltrie 
 by the act of concession of May 26, 1720. This lease was 
 made for the sum of 250 livres a year. It was understood be- 
 tween M. de Lavaltrie and M. Pommereau that at the end of 
 this lease M. de Lavaltrie could not rent it to anyone without 
 giving the preference to M. Pommereau. 
 
 His affairs in order, M. de Lavaltrie entered the high 
 seminary of Quebec. He must have completed an excellent 
 course of study for he received all the orders in less than two 
 years. He was ordained priest by Mgr. de Pontbrîand Sept. 
 22, 1742. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie continued to reside in the seminary of 
 Quebec assisting the curé of Quebec in the functions of Holy 
 Minister. In Jan., 1746, Mgr. de Pontbriand appointed M. de 
 Lavaltrie curé of the parish of Cape St. Ignace. Raised to the 
 priesthood, when he was fifty-eight years old, sick and worn 
 out, M. de Lavaltrie was not in condition to assume the duties 
 of a Holy Minister in the country. In Sept., 1747, he returned 
 to the seminary at Quebec. Mgr. de Pontbriand made him 
 priest of l'Hôtel Dieu at Quebec though lie lived at the semi- 
 nary. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie died at the Hotel Dieu at Quebec, March 
 6, 1750, and was buried the next day in the cemetery of this 
 hospital. It is said in his act of burial that he died "fortified 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 121 
 
 by the sacriments of the church and after having suffered with 
 patience the pain of a long sickness and having given every- 
 one an example of great virtue." 
 
 A word concerning the son of M. de Lavaltrie. We have 
 been able to find neither the place nor the date of his death. 
 All that we can assert is that he died between Dec, 1743, and 
 Aug., 1744. His widow remarried at Beauport, July 3, 1747, 
 Louis Fournier des Carrières, cadet in the company de la 
 Martiniere in the troop of the detachment of the Marine. 
 
 By her marriage with M. de Lavaltrie she had had four 
 children. 
 
 1. Louis Francois Margane de Lavaltrie. Born at Beau- 
 port, April 6, 1740. In 1766 he was an officer in the troops 
 of Louisiana. 
 
 2. Marie-Louise-Michelle M. de L. Born at Beauport, 
 Sept. 19, 1741. Died at Quebec, May 17, 1784. 
 
 3. Marie-Anne M. de L. Born at Beauport, Sept. 19, 
 1742. Died at Quebec, Oct. 16, 1797. 
 
 4. Angélique M. de L. Born at Beauport, Aug. 27, 1744. 
 Died at St. Thomas, Jan. 4, 1768. 
 
 10. Catherine-Alphonsine M. de L. Born at Montreal, 
 March 11, 1690. Died Aug. 17, 1690. 
 
 11. Louise-Marguerite M. de L. Born at Montreal, Dec. 5, 
 1691. Married at Quebec, Oct. 28, 1713, to Claude-Charles Du 
 Tisne, ensign of a company of the troops of the detachment 
 of the Marine. 
 
 M. du Tisne, originally from Paris, of the parish St. Ger- 
 maine d' Auxerre, came to New France in the beginning of the 
 18th century. In 1714 he obtained permission to serve in the 
 troops of Louisiana. In 1722 he received the command of a 
 company and the following year the king gave him the com- 
 mand of a post among the Illinois. He died among the Illinois 
 in 1730. 
 
122 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 One of the sons of M. du Tisne was burned by the Chicka- 
 saws, March 25, 1736, at the same time of M. de Vincennes. 
 
 VI. 
 
 PIERRE MARGANE DES FORETS AND DE 
 LAVALTRIE. 
 
 He was born at Lavaltrie in 1679. He was admitted at the 
 age of fifteen or sixteen years as petty officer in the troops of 
 the detachment of the Marine. 
 
 Nov. 17, 1704, M. de Vaudreuil and Beauharnois wrote to 
 the minister: "A Sr. de Batilly, ensign, who distinguished 
 himself greatly in the party which Sr. de Vaudreuil sent this 
 winter against the English having been killed there we propose 
 to you Sr. de Forets, who has been a petty officer for a long 
 time, to fill the position of his brother, who is the second of the 
 family killed in the service of the king. He is a very good sub- 
 ject who deserves the honor of your protection. Both of them 
 are children of an ancient captain in the troops of this country 
 after having been in Carignan's regiment." 
 
 We must believe that the minister had many others to ad- 
 vance in rank before M. de Forets, since i't was not until eight 
 years later that he was promoted ensign. His commission is 
 dated June 21, 1712. He is still designated under the name of 
 M. des Forets. 
 
 In 1721 M. des Forets, or rather M. de Lavaltrie, for lie 
 had taken the name of his father in the interval, rose in rank. 
 He was made Lieutenant. The delay had this time been nine 
 years. M. de Lavaltrie, certainly took part in some of the cam- 
 paigns of the troops of the Marine during the period between 
 1712 and 1721, but we can find no mention of it. 
 
 May 12, 1739, M. de Lavaltrie received the command of a 
 company. 1 
 
 i Rapport sur les archives Canadiennes for 1904, p. 261. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 123 
 
 Aug. 12, 1746, M. de Lavaltrie assisted, at the Chateau St. 
 Louis at Quebec, at an important convention of the principle 
 officers of the colony, military as well as civil, and of the resi- 
 dents of Quebec. It was necessary to make a decision con- 
 cerning the importance of continuing or not the fortifications of 
 Quebec. Minister Maurepas was of the opinion that these 
 works were not necessary and that if they were undertaken it 
 should be at the expense of the residents of Quebec. Opinion 
 differed much. Most of the civil officers and of the mer- 
 chants pronounced themselves in favor of the destruction of 
 the work already begun. Some of them were in favor of sus- 
 pending the work until a new order from His Majesty. Finally 
 the majority was in favor of continuing the work. M. de 
 Lavaltrie was among this number. 
 
 In the month of Aug., 1746, M. de Rigaud received from 
 Gov. Beauharnois the command of a party of Canadians and 
 Indians, who were to make a sally into New England covering 
 Fort St. Frederic. He had under his orders 600 Canadians 
 and 300 savages. Among his officers were Captain de Laval- 
 trie. An account of this expedition may be found in the Arch- 
 ives of Canada, Correspondance Générale. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie was among the number of the officers of 
 this expedition recommended as the most worthy of promotion 
 and of the cross of St. Louis, which he received May 23, 1749. 
 
 In 1751, M. de Lavaltrie was at Fort Frontenac with M. de 
 Vercheres.* 
 
 By a letter from M. de Longueuil to M. de Rouillé, April 
 21, 1752, we discover that M. de Lavaltrie was then command- 
 ant at Fort Niagara. M. de Celeron, commander at Detroit, 
 had sent M. de Lavaltrie important dispatches begging him to 
 have a soldier carry them to Fort Rouille (Toronto) whence 
 they would be sent on to Montreal. This soldier disappeared. 
 
 *L'abbe Auguste Gosselin, Le Fondateur De la Presentation: 
 L'abbe Picquet, p. 21. 
 
124 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 He had probably been killed by the Indians. M. de Lavaitrie 
 took much trouble to find the dispatches of M. de Celleron fear- 
 ing that they had fallen into the hands of the English. 
 
 On Oct. 1, 1755, M. de Vaudreuil, governor of New France, 
 held a conference at Montreal with twenty ambassadors from 
 the Tsonnontouans. M. de Lavaitrie was among the officers 
 who assisted at this conference. The principle orator was the 
 chief Gaiachoton who presented several wampum belts to the 
 governor. M. de Joncaire who had been adopted by the tribe 
 was their interpreter. The savage etiquette demanded a cer- 
 tain delay between the presentation of the wampum belts and 
 the reply of the governor. On Oct. 3 the Indian ambassadors 
 received again M. de Vaudreuil and the officers who had as- 
 sisted at the former conference.* 
 
 Dec. 13, 1756, there was held a new conference again at 
 Montreal between M. de Vaudreuil and 100 ambassadors from 
 various Indian tribes. 
 
 M. de Vaudreuil in order to dazzle these important person- 
 ages surrounded himself with a brilliant staff. M. de Laval- 
 trie assisted at this conference also. The chiefs of the Iro- 
 quois of Sault Saint-Louis and of the Lake of the Two Moun- 
 tains were also present. The speeches were numerous and 
 long. M. Perthuis, who spoke Iroquois, as if it were his own 
 tongue, was the orator on this occasion. 
 
 In August, 1757, M. de Lavaitrie took part in the siege of 
 Fort William Henry situated at the lower end of Lake Saint- 
 Sacrament (today Lake George). The French and Canadian 
 troops were commanded by MM. de Montcalm and de Levis. 
 They accomplished prodigies of valor. The Indians also fought 
 valiantly. Colonel Monroe, commander of Fort William 
 Henry, capitulated Aug. 9, 1757, after having put up an in- 
 trepid defense for nine days. 
 
 *E-B O'Callaghan, Documents relative to the history of the Stnte 
 of New York, vol. X, p. 345. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 125 
 
 This glorious victory was, however, sullied by the massacre 
 which the allied savages inflicted upon the English prisoners of 
 war. There was, it would seem, imprudence on both sides. On 
 the French side not enough precaution was taken to protect 
 the English from the attacks of the savages. On the English 
 side the inconceivable imprudence was committed of giving rum 
 in abundance to the savages. 
 
 The following year on July 8, M. de Lavaltrie took part in 
 the glorious battle of Carillon, which was the fruit of the mil- 
 itary genius of Montcalm and of the valor of his troops. 
 
 Jan. 26, 1759, the king granted a pension of 400 livres to 
 M. de Lavaltrie. 
 
 From a letter from M. de Vaudreuil to Minister Berryer of 
 March 30, 1759, we see that M. de Lavaltrie passed the winter 
 of 1758 and 1759 near Fort Duquesne, watching the movements 
 of the English, with a certain number of Canadians and of 
 Indians. 
 
 In a general table of the officers of the Marine serving in 
 Canada, prepared in 1759 or in 1760 one reads : 
 
 "Lavaltrie Desforets infantry ensign in 1712, lieutenant in 
 1721 Captain in 1739." 
 
 In a postscript list of the officers of the troops of the de- 
 tachment of the Marine prepared in 1761 or 1762 one reads 
 concerning M. de Lavaltrie : "Rich, an honest man, a widower, 
 out of condition to serve. Has remained in Canada." 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie did not survive long the change of regime. 
 He died at Montreal Jan. 1, 1766. 
 
 He had married at Montreal Oct. 14, 1732, Louise-Charlotte 
 d'Ailleboust d'Argenteuil. Of their marriage were born four 
 children. 
 
 1. Louise- Jeanne M. de L. Born at Montreal, Aug. 8, 
 1733. Died Dec. 27, 1822, and was buried at Lavaltrie the 30 
 of the same month. 
 
126 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 2. Marguerite-Charlotte M. de L. Born at Montreal Feb. 
 28, 1735. Died in the same place June 7, 1735. 
 
 3. Marguerite-Charlotte-Stanislas M. de L. Born at Mon- 
 treal Nov. 13, 1739. Died at St Laurent April 29, 1749. 
 
 4. Pierre-Paul M. de L. Born at Montreal Aug. 14, 1743. 
 The continuer of the line. 
 
 Pierre-Paul Margane de Lavaltrie. 
 
 He entered in the troops of the detachment of the Marine 
 when he was thirteen years old. In 1759 when he was hardly 
 sixteen years old, he fought bravely against the English. After 
 the fall of Quebec and the capitulation of Montreal he went 
 to France in order to continue to serve in the French army. In 
 1765 he returned to this country, at the request of his father, 
 who was then eighty-seven years old and whose only son he 
 was, to whom he wished to leave his seigniory. 
 
 In 1775 faithful to the new masters of the country M. de 
 Lavaltrie took up arms to fight against the American troops 
 who had invaded the Canadian territory, and was on the list 
 of officers named in order of merit because they had shown 
 themselves to be good subjects. 
 
 In 1791 England granted us a new constitution. The anci- 
 ent province of Quebec was divided into two provinces, Upper 
 Canada and Lower Canada. Each one having a legislative 
 council and a chamber of the Assembly. The province of 
 Lower Canada was divided into twenty-one counties. 
 
 At the election of deputies to the new chamber in the sum- 
 mer of 1792, M. de Lavaltrie was chosen deputy of the county 
 of Warwick in which his seigniory was located. He kept his 
 seat to the end of the first parliament, until May, 1796. 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie died at his seigniory at Lavaltrie, Sept. 10, 
 1810. He was buried two days later in the church of Lavaltrie 
 under the seigniorial pew at the right hand side of the altar. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 127 
 
 M. de Lavaltrie married at Terre Bonne, March 31, 1766, 
 Marie-Angélique de La Corne de Chapt. She died at Lavaltrie 
 Feb. 26, 1815, and was buried the next day in the parish 
 church. Only one child was born of their marriage. Suzanne 
 Antoinette, who married Charles Gaspard Tarieu de Lanaud- 
 ière. Madame Tarieu de Lanaudière died at Lavaltrie, April 
 22, 1822, and was buried in the parish church under the chapel 
 of the Holy Virgin. With her death disappeared the last mem- 
 ber of the family of Lavaltrie, who had played so wonderful 
 a role in our country for a century and a half. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY of the works which have spoken of the 
 BISSOTS de VINCENNES, particularly of FRANCOIS- 
 MARIE BISSOT DE VINCENNES. 
 
 Alerding, History of the Catholic Church, Diocese of Vin- 
 cennes, p. 54. 
 
 Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biographies, vol. VI, 
 p. 298. 
 
 Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. Ill, p. 367. 
 
 Bibaud, Dictionnaire Historique des Hommes Illustres du 
 Canada, 1st edition, p. 342; 2d edition, p. 313. 
 
 Bouchette, Description Topographique de la Province du 
 Bas-Canada, pp. 523, 525. 
 
 Brice, History of Fort Wayne, p. 12. 
 
 Bryan, Indiana's First Settlement, Clark's Important Con- 
 quest of Post Vincennes, in The Magazine of American His- 
 tory, vol. XXI, p. 386. 
 
 Cauthorn, Brief Sketch of Vincennes, pp. 17, 25. 
 
 Charlevoix, History de la Nouvelle-France, vol. 11, p. 502. 
 
 Craig, Ouiatanon, A Study in Indiana History, p. 16. 
 
 Dillon, History of Indiana, edition of 1843, p. 61 ; edition 
 1859, p. 402. 
 
128 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Dunn, The Mission to the Oubache, In Ind. Hist. Soc. 
 Pubs., vol. Ill, pp. 303, 305, 309. 
 
 Dunn, The Founding of Post Vincennes, in The Magazine 
 of American History, vol. XXII, p. 143. 
 
 Dunn, Who Was Sieur de Vincennes? in Indiana Maga- 
 zine of American History, vol. XII, p. 131. 
 
 Eschmann, Kaskaskia Church Records in Transactions of 
 the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1914, p. 394. 
 
 Faul, Memorable Days in America Being the Journal of 
 a Tour in the United States. 
 
 Ferland, Notes Sur Les Registres de Notre-Dame de Que- 
 bec, 1st edition, p — ; 2d edition, p. 79. 
 
 Ferland, Cours D'Histoire du Canada, vol 11, p. 468. 
 
 Gagnon, Jean Bissot de Vincennes, in Bulletin des Recher- 
 ches Historiques, vol. VI, p. 109. 
 
 Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. 1, p. 333. 
 
 Judgments et Deliberations du Conseeil Souverain de la 
 Nouvelle France, vol. 11, pp. 799, 807, 810, 813, 834; vol. 111, 
 p. 189. 
 
 Langdon, The Pageant of Indiana. 
 
 Law, Address Before the Vincennes Historical and Anti- 
 quarian Society, p. 21. 
 
 Law, Colonial History of Vincennes, p. 121. 
 
 Law, Jesuit Missionaries in the Northwest, in Wisconsin 
 Historical Collections, vol. Ill, p. 100. 
 
 Mallet, Very Revd. Pierre Gibault, in The Washington 
 Catholic, Sept. 30, 1882. 
 
 Mallet, Sieur de Vincennes, the Founder of Indiana's Old- 
 est Tozvn. 
 
 Mallet, Le Sieur de Vincennes, Fondateur de L'Iniana. 
 
 Margry, Louis JoJUliet, in Revue Canadienne, vol. IX, 
 p. 219. 
 
Sieur de Vincennes Identified 129 
 
 Margry, Memories et Documents Pour Servir a L'Histoire 
 des Origines Françaises des Pays D'Outre-Mer, vol. 657, 658. 
 
 Mason, Kaskaskia and Its Parish Records, in The Maga- 
 zine of American History, vol. VI, p. 161. 
 
 Mason, Kaskaskia and Its Parish Records, in Michigan 
 Pioneer Collections, vol. 5, p. 104. 
 
 O'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History 
 of the State of New York, vol. IX, pp. 676, 759, 760, 761, 763, 
 766, 777, 778, 894, 931. 
 
 Poussin, De la Puissance Américaine, vol. 1, p. 183. 
 
 Rameau, Acadiens et Canadiens, p. 286. 
 
 Rawston, The Old Post. 
 
 Roy, Francois Bissot, Sieur de la Riviere, in Mémoires et 
 Compte Rendus de la Société Royale dl Canada, 1st series, 
 vol. X, p. 29. 
 
 Roy, Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon, vol. 1, pp. 49, 
 174, 228, 234, 239. 
 
 Schmitt, The Records of the Parish of St-Francis-Xavier 
 at Post Vincennes, Ind., Translated from the French, in 
 Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, vol. XII, 
 pp. 41, 193, 322. 
 
 Shea, Magazine of American History, vol. IV, p. 255. 
 
 Shea, Charlevoix's History of Nezv France, vol. VI, p. 122. 
 
 Shea. A T cw York Freeman's Journal, Jan. 26, 1884. 
 
 Shea, The Catholic News, Sept. 10, 1890. 
 
 Spalding, Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 39. 
 
 Suite, Histoire des Canadiens Français, vol. Ill, p. 11 ; vol. 
 IV, p. 94; vol. VI, 119; vol. VIII, p. 51. 
 
 Tanguay, Dictionnaire Généalogique des Families Cana- 
 diennes, vol. 1, p. 56; vol. 11, p. 299. 
 
 Thomas, Travels Through the Western Country, p. 190. 
 
130 Sieur de Vincennes Identified 
 
 Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. 
 LXX, p. 316. 
 
 Tuttle, History of Indiana, p. 316. 
 
 Wallace, The History of Illinois and Louisiana Under the 
 French Rule, p. 302.