DUBUISSON

Au Fort du Détroit, Pontchartrain, June 15, 1712.

In his memoirs sur le Canada, Gedeon de Catalogne describes thus the destruction of the Foxes at Détroit in 1712. It is at ail times well to notice that ]M. de Catalogne was then at Québec. 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 Détroit, wishing to attract the commerce of ail the nations to his fort, he sent belts to the Mascoutins and the Kickapoos to invite them to set up their village at Détroit where a place was

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olïered them. They accepted his oiïer and having come to the number of about forty familles, they made a fort in the place which was assigned to them.

"As this nation is feared and hated by the other nations, by reaso-n of its arrogance, a conspiracy began to be stirred up against those who had settled at Détroit. And in 1712 S. de Buisson being in command at Détroit, the conspiring Hurons and the Outaouacs to the number of about 900 men repaired to the French fort, to whoni this commander opened the door where they entered suddenly and ascending the bastions which looked out over the fort of the Foxes on whoni they fired several rounds of musketry.

"One of the chiefs of the Foxes raised his voice and spoke to the French in thèse words : ' What does this mean ? You hâve invited us to corne and live near you and while your Word is still fresh in our ears you déclare war upon us. What reason hâve we given you for it ? Apparently, my f ather, you no longer remember that there are no nations, among those who call themselves your children, who hâve not imbrued their hands in the blood of the French. I am the only one to whoni 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 niyself I spill the blood of the French, my f ather 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 familles under shelter from the fire of the armies. On the fourteenth day the Fox, beginning to lack everything to sustain life, raised his voice again in thèse words : 'My f ather, I no longer address m.yself 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 sélect eighty of the best warriors to whom I nromise and vou shall be witness of it, my father.

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that I will oppose against them only twenty, aiid 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 ail his propositions except by musketry, but no one was killed.

"The eighteenth day having corne, and the Foxes being entirely exhausted, since for six days they had eaten nothing, they went out of their fort at night with their familles without being discovered. At daybreak the French were accustomed to fîre 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 numoer 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 défile, which they had taken care to guard. When the besiegers arrived there, closing the Foxes' way of escape, firing began on both sides.

"The Fox seeing himself eut oiï 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 familles. Reply to me.'

"The S. de Vincennes shouted to him that he would grant them their lives. Immediately the Fox put dov/n his arms and when he went to meet the allies in an instant they were surrounded and ail the Foxes eut in pièces 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 invited to Détroit. As soon as the Alascoutins and Kickapoos of

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the great villages learned of this action they sent several parties into the field, some to le Baye, others to Détroit and to ail avenues of approach, making ail the other nations flee who d'A 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 exterminate them."

M. de Vincennes, as we hâve just seen, had been sent to Ouebec by M. de Buisson to intorm M. de Vaudreuil of the success of the French arms against the Foxes. By a letter from M. de Vaudreuil to the minister dated Québec, 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 ubout to settle on the Maumee river near the actual site of Fort Wayne, Indiana. M. de Vincennes, who commanded them, folio wed them. From there he v/rote to MM. de Ramezay and Begon that the English of Carolina were having recourse to every sort of expédient to persuade the Miamis to join them.f

From a résume of a letter of Governor de Vaudreuil submitted 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 hâve 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 tlie Colonial History of the State of New York, vol. IX, p. 931.

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Carolina.) That they will iînd there merchandise, a half cheaper than among the French who trrannize over them."

Sr. Vincennes replied that ail 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 blacksmith 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 ail the posts. It is of the last conséquence, above ail to establish firmly those of the south where the English of Pennsylvania, Carolina and Virginia are very anxious to enter. That would min 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 v/ell pleased to learn that ?vl. de Vincennes had prevented the Miamis and the Ouiatamons from accepting the belts of the English. Flis majesty hoped that the sending of scarîet cloth would turn the savages away from com.merce with the English.

We see from a letter from M. de Vaudreuil to the minister, 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. 'Tt 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 ofïîcer of the government. The Ouiatanons and the Miamis know him and esteem him. He has a great réputation among them since the defeat of the Foxes at Détroit where he was in command dur-

*Archives du Canndî!. Correspondence générale, vol. 30.

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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. Thèse two nations hâve 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 hâve changed their mind, since that time, because I learned by the last letters which hâve corne to me from the Miamis that the Sr. de Vincennes, being dead in their village, the Indians hâve decided not to go to the river St. Joseph, but to stay where they are."$

The Miamis preserved for a long time the memory o£ 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 thèse savages. After his arrivai in New France, in 1747, M. de la Galisonnière realized the importance for France to hâve a road of communication between her two colonies of New France and of Louisiana. With this object in view, he decided to send an expédition to take formai possession of the Ohio valley, which English traders were beginning to fréquent. 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 ail thèse qualities. He was sent into this distant région. The instructions which M. de la Galisonnière sent him, were, to journey over this immense country, to go among the différent nations who inhabited it, to persuade them to follow him, to be witnesses of what he did and above ail to allow no English to corne to trade among them.

The expédition left Lachine, June 15, 1749. M. de Céloron had under his orders, a captain, M. Pécaudy de Contrecoeur,

tArcliives du Canada, Correspondeuce générale, vol. 40; O'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial Histoi-y of the State of New York, vol. LX, p. 894.

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eight subaltern officers, six cadets, twenty troopers, one hundred and eighty Canadians and about thirty savages, Iroquois and Abenakis.

Sept. 13, 1749, almost three months after its departure from Lachine, the expédition 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 interpréter, whom he had requested from M. de Raymond, commandant of the post of Kiskakon. The interpréter not arriving, M. de Céloron decided to speak to the Miamis through an Iroquois, who spoke their language v.ell. M. de Céloron got along very easily with the Miamis who were clever f ellows. In the name of the governor of New France, he offered them eight strings of v/ampum. Thèse présents were given to them to leave the villages of la Demoiselle on the La Roche river and Baril on the White river.

The interpréter accompanied the présentation with the following discourse: "My children, the fact that I am treating with you in spite of what you hâve done to the French, to support your women and children ought to prove to you the attachment which I hâve for you and the integrity of my sentiments. I forget what you hâve done and bury it deep in the earth, that I may never remember it again, persuaded that you hâve 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 misfortune of others. Thèse people you hâve allowed to get control of you. They hâve caused you to do wrong and hâve 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 g^ve your attention to it, my children. It is the word of a father who loves you and to whom your interests are

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dear. I extinguish by thèse two strings of wampum the tvvo 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 présent, richer and more important, was to ask the Miamis to return to their ancient village where M. de Bissot de Vincennes died thirty years before. Let us listen to the interpréter speaking in the name of M. de Galissonnière : "My children, I désire to tell you by thèse strings of wampum that I hâve extinguished the fires that you hâve lighted on the Rocky river and on the White river. By thèse 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 ara 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 bave loved so much and v/ho always governed you, so that your afïairs were prosperous. If you hâve forgotten the councils which they gave you, thèse ashes will recall them to your memory. The bones of your ancestors suiïer from your absence. Hâve pity of thèse v/ords which call you back to your village. Follow with your women and your children. The chief whom I send you bnngs you my Word and will light anew your fire at Kiskalcon so that it will never be extinguished. I will give you ail the aid you hâve reason to expect from my friendship, and think, my children, that I am doing for you that which ï bave never donc for any other nation."

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FRANÇOIS-JOSEPH BISSOT.

(Uncle of François Marie Bissot de Vincennes.)

Born at Québec, 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 Newfoundiand 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, Bonhomme, 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 Québec, hâve requested of us that it be permitted 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 expense they will be under in recovering thèse old sea marks. For their success is uncertain on account of the difïicuîtv and

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ihe risks which they may lind. Nothing could be more advantageous to commerce than this enterprise. Wherefore I beg you, Mgr., to authorize them to do it and to make his highness agrée 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 16S1. The accidents which happened daily to vessels by striking thèse lost anchors, which chafe and eut their ropes and send them into the coast are the motives which cause us to request of you orders on the proposition which thèse men hâve niade 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 rétrocession 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 tiile granted to his father in 1661 had been destroyed in a fire of the lower city of Québec.

The suppliant, added he, has recourse to Your Highness to beg that you obtain from his Majesty that he be preserved in the possession v/hich he has, to keep his concession from the limit of the domain which is at présent from Cormorant Point going down the river to the land granted, and the exclusive privilège 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 whch he has enjoycd more than sixty years. He dares, moreover, Mgr., to be sure of the justice of your highness on this occasion, since the favor, v/hich he takes the libertv to ask, is the fruit of his labor and of the ex-

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penditures v/hich he has made in places which seemed inaccessible and where he has placed the little property which his father left him. Having nothing else by which to support his faniily 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 corne there by favor of the permission they obtained to go fîsh for cod on the coast of Labrador, and who by the commerce in brandy destroy entire familles and ruin at the same time the suppliant by the loss of suins of raoney on the crédit which he is obliged to give the Indians to keep them from seeking their necessities from the Kngîish of Hudson Bay, as they did before the suppliant hunted them up for more than a hundred miles inland to attract them to th 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 w^as put in his drawer and forgotten.

March 15, 1736, François-Joseph Bissot gave a lease on the farm for nine years of ail the rights possessed by him in the seigniory of Mingan to Jean-Louis Volant d' LIauteb-ourg, a lawyer of Québec. 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 efïort to obtain from Minister 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 pétition to M. de Maurepas. The considérations of this new pétition were almost the same as those of the one he had presented in 1733. He fînished by saying: "Monsieur, the ':uppliant has recourse to your Highness to prevent a very great wrong being donc to him. He begs to be maintained in his possession of that v/hich remains to him of the land which extends from the cape of the Dead Bodies. Especially since it appears by the ordinance of

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M. Hocquart that it extends to the limit of the concession accorded to Sr. de La fontaine. It is very hard for him, that after a possession of seventy years vvithout interruption in places that were up to his time inaccessible, he should see himseîf despoiled of it, little by little. The act of faith and homage of which he has the honor to affix a certified copy proves thaï 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. Hocquart refers to it. His co-heirs appoint him to appear before His Majesty to obtain this from him. He begs Your Highness not to refuse him this favor that he may in his cld âge enjoy the tranquillity which his labors in thèse 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 décide 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 «îearly the situation and the limits of the land. But in the examination which you make of this afifair, 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 Québec almost a year after the death of François Bissot. He in truth had died at Québec Dec. 11, 1737.

In a "Pétition to justify the possession of the Bissot and

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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 samc estâtes that his father had developed jointly with Sr. Jolliet. who had married one of the sisters of François Bissot, whence cornes the right of the descendents of Sr. Jolliet in the post of Mingan. In 1733, Sr. Bissot, the grandfather, retired to Quebec, 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 MARRL\GE OF JEAN BAPTISTE BIS- SOT DE VINCENNES AND OF MARGUERITE FORESTIER.

(Montréal, September 19, 1696.)

On the 19th day of September, 1696, was made and solemnised the marriage between Jean Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes, officer in the detachment of the marine, âge 27 years, son of François Bissot and of Marie Couillard, of the Parish of Notre Dame of Québec, and Marguerite Forestier, âge 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 présence of Antoine Forestier, father of the girl, Séraphin jMargane, Sr. de la Valterie, Captain of the detachment of the marine, brother-in-law of the groom ; Charles le Gardeur, Esq., Sr. de l'Isle, officer of the

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troupes; Jean Boiicîor, merchane, and Bernard Arnaud, merchant. Robert le Cauclier, grandfather of the bride.

Vinsenne

LaValterie

J. Boudor

LeCavelier

Marguerite Forestier

Le Gardeur Delisle

Arnaud

A. Forestier

M. Caille, discharguig the function of Cure.