



Produced by Christian Boissonnas and The Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)









                BRITISH POLICY IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY
                               1763-1768

                                  BY
                         CLARENCE EDWIN CARTER
                 A. M., 1906 (UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN)

                                THESIS
         SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
                                FOR THE
               DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY

                                IN THE
                            GRADUATE SCHOOL
                                OF THE
                        UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
                                 1908




  UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

  June 1 1908

  THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY
  Clarence Edwin Carter, A.M.

  ENTITLED British Policy in the Illinois Country, 1763-1768

  IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS
  FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in History

  Evarts B Greene

  HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF History.




BRITISH POLICY IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY

1763-1768


  CHAPTER I.—Introductory Survey.

  CHAPTER II.—The Occupation of Illinois.

  CHAPTER III.—Status of the Illinois Country in the Empire.

  CHAPTER IV.—Trade Conditions in Illinois, 1765-1775.

  CHAPTER V.—Colonizing schemes in the Illinois.

  CHAPTER VI.—Events in the Illinois Country, 1765-1768.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.—




CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY SURVEY.


In 1763 Great Britain was confronted with the momentous problem of
the readjustment of all her colonial relations in order to meet the
new conditions resulting from the peace of Paris, when immense areas
of territory and savage alien peoples were added to the empire. The
necessity of strengthening the imperial ties between the old colonies
and the mother country and reorganizing the new acquisitions came to
the forefront at this time and led the government into a course soon
to end in the disruption of the empire. Certainly not the least of the
questions demanding solution was that of the disposition of the country
lying to the westward of the colonies, including a number of French
settlements and a broad belt of Indian nations. It does not, however,
come within the proposed limits of this study to discuss all the
different phases of the western policy of England, except in so far as
it may be necessary to make more clear her attitude towards the French
settlements in the Illinois country.

The European situation leading to the Seven Years War, which ended so
disastrously to French dominion, is too familiar to need repetition.
That struggle was the culmination of a series of continental and
colonial wars beginning towards the close of the seventeenth century
and ending with the definitive treaty of 1763. During the first quarter
of the century France occupied a predominating position among the
powers. Through the aggressiveness of Louis XIV and his ministers
her boundaries had been pushed eastward and westward, which seriously
threatened the balance of power on the continent. Until 1748 England
and Austria had been in alliance against their traditional enemy, while
in the Austrian Succession France had lent her aid to Prussia in the
dismemberment of the Austrian dominions,—at the same time extending
her own power in the interior of America and India. In the interval of
nominal peace after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, preparations
were begun for another contest. The astute diplomacy of Kaunitz won
France from her traditional enmity and secured her as an open ally for
Maria Theresa in her war of revenge.[1] While the European situation
was giving occasion for new alignments of powers, affairs in America
were becoming more and more important as between France and England.
Here for over a century the two powers had been rivals for the
territorial and commercial supremacy.

In North America the pioneers had won for her the greater part of
the continent,—the extensive valleys of the St. Lawrence and the
Mississippi with all the land watered by their tributaries. The
French claim to this region was based almost entirely upon discovery
and exploration, for in all its extent less than one thousand
people were permanently settled. Canada at the north and the region
about New Orleans on the extreme south containing the bulk of the
population, while throughout the old Northwest settlements were few and
scattering.[2] Trading posts and small villages existed at Vincennes
on the Wabash River, at Detroit on a river of the same name, at
St. Joseph near Lake Michigan and other isolated places. Outside of
Detroit, the most important and populous settlement was situated along
the eastern bank of the Mississippi, in the southwestern part of the
present state of Illinois. Here were the villages of Kaskaskia, St.
Phillippe, Prairie du Rocher, Chartres village and Cahokia, containing
a population of barely two thousand people.

In contrast to this vast area of French territory and the sparseness
of its population were the British colonies, with more than a million
people confined to the narrow strip between the Alleghany mountains and
the Atlantic ocean. These provinces were becoming comparatively crowded
and many enterprising families of English, Scotch Irish, and German
extraction were pushing westward towards the mountains. Each year saw
the pressure on the western border increased; the great unoccupied
valley of the Ohio invited homeseekers and adventurers westward in
spite of hostile French and Indians. By the fifth decade the barriers
were being broken through by constantly increasing numbers, and the
French found their possession of the West and their monopoly of the fur
trade seriously threatened.

To prevent such encroachments the French sought to bind their
possessions together with a line of forts extending from the St.
Lawrence down the Ohio valley to the Gulf of Mexico. It had indeed been
the plan of such men as La Salle, Iberville, and Bienville to bring
this territory into a compact whole and limit the English colonies to
the line of mountains. New Orleans and Mobile gave France command of
the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River; Louisburg, Niagara, and
Frontenac afforded protection for Canada. The weak point for France was
the Ohio valley, in the upper part of which Virginia and Pennsylvania
settlers had already located. Celoron, who went down the Ohio in 1749,
burying plates of lead to signify French dominion, warning English
settlers and traders, and persuading the Indians to drive out the
invaders of their hunting grounds, saw the inevitableness of the
conflict. The American phase of the final struggle for colonial empire
was to begin in this region.[3]

In the early years of the war Great Britain and her ally met with
serious reverses every where, and it seemed probable that France would
be able to hold her line of defense in America. The French colonies,
however, were fundamentally weak. Being wholly dependent upon the
mother country, when the latter became absorbed in the continental
struggle to the exclusion of her interests in her colonial possessions,
defeat was inevitable. By 1758 the tide was turning in America; this,
together with the victories of Clive in India and Frederick the Great
at Rossbach and Leuthen, started France on her downward road to ruin
as a world power, and with the transference of the American struggle
to Canada by the capture of Montreal and Quebec the war was at an end.
In 1762 the financial condition of France became so desperate that
Choiseul was anxious for peace and he found George III and Lord Bute
ready to abandon their Prussian ally, and even to give up the fruits
of some of the brilliant victories of 1762 which brought Spain to her
knees.[4]

The definitive treaty of Paris was signed February 10, 1763,[5] by
the terms of which France ceded to Great Britain all of Canada and gave
up her claim to the territory east of the Mississippi River, except the
city of New Orleans, adding to this the right of the free navigation of
the Mississippi. Spain received back Havana ceding Florida to England
in return. A few weeks before signing the definitive treaty, France, in
a secret treaty with Spain ceded to her the city of New Orleans and the
vast region stretching from the Mississippi towards the Pacific. Thus
was France divested of practically every inch of territory in America.

The French colony in the Illinois country had been originally
established with the view of forming a connecting link between the
colonies in Louisiana on the south and Canada at the northeast. La
Salle himself had recognized the possible strategic value of such
an establishment from both a commercial and military standpoint.[6]
Before any settlements had even been made on the lower Mississippi,
he and his associates had attempted in 1682 the formation of a colony
on the Illinois River, near the present site of Peoria.[7] This the
first attempt at western colonization was a failure. The opening of the
following century saw the beginning of a more successful and permanent
colony, when the Catholic missionaries from Quebec established their
missions at Kaskaskia and Cahokia,[8] near the villages of the Illinois
Indians. They were soon followed by hunters and fur traders, and
during the first two decades of the eighteenth century a considerable
number of families immigrated from Canada, thus assuring the permanancy
of the settlement.

Meanwhile the contemporaneous colony of Louisiana had grown to some
importance, and in 1717, when the Company of the West assumed control
of the province, the Illinois country was annexed. Prior to this time
it had been within the jurisdiction of Quebec. This gave the Illinois
country a period of prosperity, many new enterprizes being undertaken.
Shortly after its annexation to Louisiana, Pierre Boisbriant was given
a commission to govern the Illinois country, and among his instructions
was an order to erect a fort as a protection against possible
encroachments from the English and Spanish. About 1720 Fort Chartres
was completed and became thereafter the seat of government during the
French regime. In 1721 the Company of the West divided Louisiana into
nine districts,[9] extending east and west of the Mississippi River
between the lines of the Ohio and Illinois rivers. In 1732 Louisiana
passed out of the hands of the Company of the West Indies, and,
together with the Illinois dependency, became a royal province.[10] It
remained in this status until the close of the Seven Years War. During
this period its relation with Louisiana had become economic as well as
political, all of its trade being carried on through New Orleans, and
the southern colony often owed its existence to the large supplies of
flour and pork sent down the river from the Illinois country.[11]




CHAPTER II.

THE OCCUPATION OF ILLINOIS.


By the treaty of Paris the title to the Illinois region passed to Great
Britain, but Fort Chartres was not immediately occupied. Detachments
of British troops had taken possession of practically every other post
in the newly ceded territory as early as 1760. The occupation of the
forest posts of Green Bay, Mackinac, St. Joseph, Ouitanon, Detroit,
Fort Miami, Sandusky, Niagara and others seemed to indicate almost
complete British dominion in the West. The transfer of the Illinois
posts, however, remained to be effected, and although orders were
forwarded from France in the summer of 1763 to the officers commanding
in the ceded territory to evacuate as soon as the English forces
appeared,[12] almost three years elapsed before this was accomplished;
for soon after the announcement of the treaty of cession, that broad
belt of Indian tribes stretching from the fringe of the eastern
settlements to the Mississippi rose in open rebellion.[13] This
unexpected movement had to be reckoned with before any thought of the
occupation of the Illinois could be seriously entertained.

Of the two great northern Indian families, the Iroquois had generally
espoused the English cause during the recent war, while the Algonquin
nations, living in Canada, and the Lake and Ohio regions, had supported
the French. At the close of the war the greater portion of the French
had sworn fealty to the English crown; but the allegiance of their
allies, the Algonquins, was at best only temporary. It was thought
that, since the power of France had been crushed, there would be no
further motive for the Indian tribes to continue hostilities; but from
1761 there had been a growing feeling of discontent among the western
Indians. So long as France and Great Britain were able to hold each
other in check in America, the Indian nations formed a balance of
power, so to speak, between them. England and France vied with each
other to conciliate the savages and to retain their good will. As soon,
however, as English dominion was assured, this attitude was somewhat
changed. The fur trade under the French had been well regulated, but
its condition under the English from 1760 to 1763 was deplorable.[14]
The English traders were rash and unprincipled men[15] who did not
scruple to cheat and insult their Indian clients at every opportunity.
The more intelligent of the western and northern Indians perceived
that their hunting grounds would soon be overrun by white settlers
with a fixed purpose of permanent settlement.[16] This was probably
the chief cause of the Indian uprising. There remained in the forests
many French and renegade traders and hunters who constantly concocted
insidious reports as to English designs and filled the savage minds
with hope of succor from the King of France.[17] Many of the French
inhabitance had since 1760 emigrated beyond the Mississippi, because,
as the Indians thought, they feared to live under English rule.[18]
This doubtless contributed something toward the rising discontent of
the savages. Finally the policy of economy in expenses, which General
Amherst entered upon, by cutting off a large part of the Indian
presents, always so indispensable in dealing with that race, augured
poorly for the Indians's future.

On the part of the mass of the Indians the insurrection was probably
a mere outbreak of resentment; but Pontiac, the great chief of the
Ottawas, had a clearer vision. He determined to rehabilitate French
power in the west and to reunite all the Indian nations into one great
confederacy in order to ward off the approaching dangers. During the
years 1761-1762 the plot was developed. In 1762 Pontiac dispatched
his emissaries to all the Indian nations. The ramifications of the
conspiracy extended to all the Algonquin tribes, to some of the
nations on the lower Mississippi and even included a portion of the
Six Nations. The original aim of the plot was the destruction of the
garrisons on the frontier, after which the settlements were to be
attacked. The attack on the outposts, beginning in May, 1763, was
sudden and overwhelming; Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Niagara alone held
out, the remainder of the posts falling without an attempt at defense.
Had the proclamation of 1763, which aimed at the pacification of the
Indians by reserving to them the western lands, been issued earlier
in the year, this devastating might have been avoided. Peaceful
pacification was now out of the question. During the summers of 1763
and 1764 Colonel Bouquet raised the siege of Fort Pitt, penetrated into
the enemy's country in the upper Ohio valley region and completely
subdued the Shawnee and Delaware tribes upon whom Pontiac had placed
every dependence. Previous to Bouquet's second campaign, Colonel
Bradstreet had advanced with a detachment along the southern shore of
Lake Erie, penetrating as far west as Detroit, whence companies were
sent to occupy the posts in the upper lake region. In the campaign
as a whole the Bouquet expedition was the most effective. After the
ratification of a series of treaties, in which the Indians promised
allegiance to the English crown, the eastern portion of the rebellion
was broken.

It now remained to penetrate to the Illinois country in order to
relieve the French garrison. Pontiac had retired thither in 1764,
after his unsuccessful attempt upon Detroit; there he hoped to rally
the western tribes and sue for the support of the French. But as we
shall see, his schemes received a powerful blow upon the refusal of the
commandants to countenance his pleas.

To what extent Pontiac was assisted by French intriguers in the
development of his plans may never be positively known. As has already
been pointed out, French traders were constantly among the Indians,
filling their minds with hopes and fears. That the plot included French
officials may be doubted; although Sir William Johnson and General
Gage seemed convinced that such was the case.[19] Their belief,
however, was based almost wholly upon reports from Indian runners,
whose credibility as witnesses may well be questioned. A perusal of the
correspondence of the French officials[20] residing in Illinois and
Louisiana, and their official communications with the Indians during
this period goes far to clear them of complicity in the affair.[21]

General Gage, who succeeded Amherst as commander-in-chief of the
British army in America in November, 1763, was convinced that the early
occupation of the western posts was essential,[22] since it would in
a measure cut off the communication between the French and Indian
nations dwelling in that vicinity. The Indians, finding themselves
thus inclosed would be more easily pacified. But the participation in
the rebellion of the Shawnee and Delaware tribes of the upper Ohio
river region precluded for a time the possibility of reaching the
Mississippi posts by way of Fort Pitt, without a much larger force than
Gage had at his command in the east; and the colonies were already
avoiding the call for troops.[23] The only other available route
was by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi River whose navigation
had been declared open to French and English alike by the treaty of
Paris. Little opposition might be expected from the southern Indians
toward whom a much more liberal policy had been pursued than with the
northern tribes. Presents to the value of four or five thousand pounds
had been sent to Charleston in 1763 for distribution among the southern
nations which counter-acted in a large measure the machinations of the
French traders from New Orleans.[24] The Florida ports, Mobile and
Pensacola, were already occupied by English troops, and Gage and his
associates believed, that with the co-operation of the French Governor
of Louisiana a successful ascent could be made.[25]

Accordingly in January, 1764, Major Arthur Loftus, with a detachment
of three hundred and fifty-one men from the twenty-second regiment
embarked at Mobile for New Orleans, where preparations were to be made
for the voyage.[26] A company of sixty men from this regiment were to
be left at Fort Massac on the Ohio River, while the remainder were to
occupy Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres.[27] At New Orleans boats had to be
built, supplies and provisions procured, and guides and interpreters
provided.[28] The expedition set out from New Orleans February 27.
Three weeks later the flotilla was attacked by a band of Tonica Indians
near Davion's Bluff, or Fort Adams,[29] about two hundred and forty
miles above New Orleans. After the loss of several men in the boats
composing the vanguard, Loftus ordered a retreat, and the expedition
was abandoned. Depleted by sickness, death and desertion the regiment
made its way from New Orleans back to Mobile.[30]

Major Loftus placed the blame for the failure of his expedition upon
Governor D' Abadie and other French officials at New Orleans.[31] There
is probably sufficient evidence, however, to warrant the conclusion
that his accusations against the Governor were without foundation.
The correspondence of D' Abadie, Gage, and others indicates that
official aid was given the English in making their preparations for
the journey,[32] and letters were issued to the commandants of the
French posts on the Mississippi to render the English convoys all the
assistance in their power[33]. There may have been some justification
for the suspicion of Loftus that the intriguers were at work, for the
French as a whole were not in sympathy with the attempt; the success
of the English meant the cessation of the lucrative trade between New
Orleans and Illinois. They were no doubt delighted at the discomfiture
of the English officer, for when some of the chiefs engaged in the
ambuscade entered New Orleans they were said to have been publicly
received.[34]

Granting, however, the machinations of the French, the reason for
the failure of Loftus may be found in part in the almost total lack
of precautions adopted before undertaking the journey. Governor D'
Abadie had given the English officer warning of the bad disposition
of a number of tribes along the Mississippi River, among whom Pontiac
had considerable influence, and had assured him that unless he carried
presents for the Indians, he would be unable to proceed far up the
river.[35] The policy of sending advance agents with convoys of
presents for the Indians was successful the following year when the
Illinois posts were finally reached from the east; but no such policy
was adopted at this time.[36] No action was taken to counter-act any
possible intrigues on the part of the French. D' Abadie's advice
was not heeded, and his prophecy was fulfilled. General Gage in his
official correspondence implied that he did not think sufficient care
had been exercised to insure success, and expressed his belief that if
Loftus would make use of the "necessary precautions" he might get up
to the mouth of the Ohio with little interruption.[37] This want of
judgement, therefore, accounts in a large degree for the unfortunate
termination of the plans of an approach from the south.

The news of the defeat of Loftus had two results. First, it gave
Pontiac renewed hope that he might be able to rally again the western
and northern Indians, and, with French assistance, block the advance
of the English. In the second place it led General Gage to determine
upon an advance from the east, down the Ohio River, which was made
practicable by the recent submission of the Delaware Indians.

Meanwhile the Illinois country in 1764 presented an anomalous
situation. St. Ange was governing, in the name of Louis XV, a country
belonging to another king. He was under orders to surrender the place
as soon as possible to its rightful owner; but the prospect for such an
event seemed remote. He was surrounded by crowds of begging, thieving
savages; and the emissaries of the greatest of Indian chieftains,
Pontiac, were constantly petitioning for his active support against
the approaching English. A considerable portion of the French traders
of the villages were secretly, and sometimes openly, supporting the
Indian cause, which added greatly to the increasing embarrasment of the
commandant. So distressing became the situation that Neyon de Villiers,
St. Ange's predecessor, called the latter from Vincennes on the Wabash,
and left the country in disgust, taking with him to New Orleans sixty
soldiers and eighty of the French inhabitants.[38] He had shortly
before indignantly refused to countenance the proposals of Pontiac, and
had begged the Indians to lay down their arms and make peace with the
English.[39]

The news of Loftus' defeat aroused Pontiac the thought of the
possibility of meeting and repelling the advance from the east as
it had been met and repelled in the south. In spite of the news of
the defeat of his allies by Bouquet and the report that preparations
were being made by his victorious enemy to advance against him,
Pontiac determined to make a last supreme effort. By a series of
visits among the tribes dwelling in the Illinois, on the Wabash and
in the Miami country, he succeeded in arousing in them the instinct
of self-preservation, in firing the hearts of all the faltering
Indians and in winning the promise of their co-operation in his plan
of defense. He was in this temper when he met and turned back Captain
Thomas Morris in the Miami country early in the autumn of 1764. Morris
had been sent by Bradstreet from the neighborhood of Detroit with
messages to St. Ange in the Illinois country, whence he was to proceed
to New Orleans.[40] After being maltreated and threatened with the
stake, Morris effected an escape and made his way to Detroit.[41] It
was during his interview with Pontiac that the latter informed Morris
of the repulse of Loftus, of the journey of his emissaries to New
Orleans to seek French support, and of his determination and that of
his Indian allies to resist the English to the last.[42]

A few months later, in February, 1765, there arrived at Fort Chartres
an English officer, accompanied by a trader named Crawford. They were
probably the first Englishmen to penetrate thus far into the former
French territory since the beginning of the war.[43] They had been sent
from Mobile by Major Farmer, the commandant at that place, to bring
about the conciliation of the Indians in the Illinois.[44] Instead of
following the Mississippi, they worked their way northward through the
great Choctaw and Chicksaw nations to the Ohio, descended the latter
to the Mississippi and thence to the Illinois villages.[45] Although
St. Ange received them cordially[46] and did all in his power to
influence the savages to receive the English,[47] the mission of Ross
was a failure. The Indians had nothing but expressions of hatred and
defiance for the English; even the Missouri and Osages from beyond
the Mississippi had fallen under the influence of Pontiac.[48] Ross
and his companion remained with St. Ange nearly two months; but about
the middle of April they were obliged to go down the river to New
Orleans.[49]

During the winter of 1764-1765 preparations were made to send a
detachment of troops down the Ohio from Fort Pitt to relieve Fort
Chartres. To pave the way for the troops Gage dispatched two agents
in advance. He selected George Croghan, Sir William Johnson's deputy,
for the delicate and dangerous task of going among the Indians of
that country to assure them of the peaceful attitude of the English,
to promise them better facilities for trade and to accompany the
promise with substantial presents.[50] The second agent was Lieutenant
Fraser,[51] whose mission was to carry letters to the French commandant
and a proclamation for the inhabitants.[52] January 24, 1765, Fraser
and Croghan set out from Carlisle, Pennsylvania,[53] followed a few
days later by a large convoy of presents.[54] During the journey, the
convoy was attacked by a band of Pennsylvania borderers,[55] and a
large part of the goods destined for the Indians were destroyed,[56]
together with some valuable stores which certain Philadelphia merchants
were forwarding to Fort Pitt for the purpose of opening up the trade
as early as possible.[57] Croghan therefore found it necessary to
tarry at Fort Pitt to replenish his stores and to await the opening of
spring.[58] But another matter intervened which forced him to postpone
his departure for more than two months. A temporary defection had
arisen among the Shawnee and Delaware Indians.[59] They had failed to
fulfil some of the obligations imposed upon them by Bouquet in the
previous summer, and there was some fear lest they would not permit
Croghan to pass through their country. His influence was such, however,
that, in an assembly of the tribes at Fort Pitt, he not only received
their consent to a safe passage, but some of their number volunteered
to accompany him.[60]

Meanwhile Lieutenant Fraser, Croghan's companion, decided to proceed
alone, inasmuch as Gage's instructions to him were to be at the
Illinois early in April.[61] On March 23 he departed, accompanied
by two or three whites and a couple of Indians,[62] and reached the
Illinois posts in the latter part of April, shortly after the departure
of Lieutenant Ross and his party. Here Fraser found many of the
Indians in destitution and some inclined for peace.[63] Nevertheless,
instigated by the traders and encouraged by their secret supplies,
the savages as a whole would not listen to Fraser; they threatened
his life, and threw him into prison, and he was finally saved by the
intervention of Pont