Further west, on the banks of the Miami, the
Wabash, and other streams, was a confederacy of the Miami and their
kindred tribes. Still further west, in the country of the Illinois,
near the Mississippi, the French had a strong stone fort called Fort
Chartres, which formed one of the chief links of the chain of posts
that connected Quebec with New Orleans.
The French missionaries and the French political agents had, for
seventy years, laboured hard to bring these Indian tribes into close
connection with France. The missionaries had failed signally; but the
presents, so lavishly bestowed, had inclined the tribes to the side of
their donors, until the English traders with their cheap goods came
pushing west over the Alleghenies. They carried their goods on the
backs of horses, and journeyed from village to village, selling powder,
rum, calicoes, beads, and trinkets. No less than three hundred men were
engaged in these enterprises, and some of them pushed as far west as
the Mississippi.
As the party of Celoron proceeded they nailed plates of tin, stamped
with the arms of France, to trees; and buried plates of lead near them,
with inscriptions saying that they took possession of the land in the
name of Louis the Fifteenth, King of France.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214