A concrete example of the condition of the Indian fur trade and warfare during this period and their connection with the British trader and his government is given in the history of Miamitown between 1783 and 1794. Strong evidence indicates that despite the general decline in the fur trade, the region southwest of Detroit, and Miamitown especially, was extremely important for the British fur trade. In 1790, the British commander at Detroit, Major Smith, wrote to his superiors:
How far the loss of the Miamis Country, to the protection of His Majesty, will effect this Post and its trade, is a matter it would be presumptive in me to comment on. I think it however my duty to observe that it is a considerable mart of Indian Commerce uniting in this place.[85]
A month later Dorchester, Governor of Canada, warned the authorities in London that the loss of Miamitown to the Americans would bring grave hardships to the trade at Detroit.[86] In an earlier document he had estimated that 2000 packs of furs were taken yearly from the Miami region, bringing an income of some 24,000 pounds sterling. This far exceeded any other area south of the Great Lakes, doubling in fact the number of packs taken from the next most important area, that from Detroit north to Lake Huron.[87]
In the heart of the Indian country, Miamitown was also the principal point from which the Indian raiding parties harassed the frontier. Twenty-six war parties left Miamitown in a period of six months during 1786.[88] There is a strong tradition and some evidence to show that a secret society of Miami warriors of necessary courage and cunning met at stated intervals at Miamitown for the purpose of burning a captive and eating his flesh.[89] By its proximity to Detroit, Miamitown remained within the British orbit of trade. The merchants at Miamitown formed a loose association for their mutual benefit called the “Society of the Miamis”.[90] Business was carried on not only with Detroit and other English controlled stations, but also with Vincennes and the Illinois settlements, until Indian warfare and the animosity of the American settlers toward the traders made it virtually impossible to go to the lower Wabash.
Low market prices, bad fur seasons, and almost constant warfare by the Indians threatened to ruin the fur trade in the years immediately following the Revolution. Many of the small companies failed and the larger ones had difficulties. David Gray, a prominent trader at Miamitown, was advised not to come to Detroit, as his creditor, William Robertson, was awaiting Gray’s arrival.[91] The previous year, 1785, the same Gray had been requested to aid in collecting a long-standing debt from two of his fellow villagers, Rivard and LaBerche.[92] Larimier, another trader at Miamitown, failed because he could not meet the claims of his creditors.[93] There was constant danger that the British traders might lose all the export trade of the region to the Spanish at New Orleans. In 1787, the “Society” found it necessary to send “the Grandmaster to Vincennes to keep the trade from going to New Orleans.”[94] The Indians were also an uncertain quantity and at times were hostile even to the traders. Chapeau, a member of the “Society”, was killed by the Indians and George Ironside reluctantly told Gray at Vincennes to send the goods to New Orleans rather than risk shipping them up the Wabash.[95] Gray was repeatedly warned by Ironside to be most cautious on his return trip to Miamitown as he was in danger of losing his life. It is to the credit of the Miamitown traders that they traded only sparingly in liquor with the Indians. Their reasons were not altogether altruistic, however, as the price of liquor was exceptionally high.
The most candid description of the character of the trade at Miamitown has been left to us by Henry Hay, who wrote in his journal of 1790:
... but few skins comes in, and almost every individual (except the engages) is an Indian trader, everyone tries to get what he can either by fowle play or otherwise—that is by traducing one another’s characters and merchandise. For instance by saying such a one has no Blankets another no strowde or is damned bad or he’ll cheat you & so on—in short I cannot term it in a better manner than calling it a Rascally Scrambling Trade &c &c.[96]
Henry Hay, the writer, was an English trader and partisan who sojourned in Miamitown for a period of four months during the winter of 1789-90. His day-by-day account, obviously not intended for publication, gives us a cross section of life at Miamitown in all its aspects, both civilized and savage. Hay seems to have been in the employee of William Robertson, the Detroit merchant, although there is good reason to believe that he was also employed by Major Murray, the English commander at Detroit. Set off against the hard life of a trading post among Indian villages was the characteristic vivacity and gaiety of the French atmosphere prevalent in the town. The daily routine was by no means dull; drinking, dancing, and parties formed a constant round of entertainment in which the visitors gladly take part. Hay and John Kinzie (later the founder of Chicago) played the flute and fiddle for parties and dances, as well as for the ladies alone, and at Mass in the home of one of the oldest residents, Barthelemy. Their religion was an intricate part of the lives of the French inhabitants. During the four months Hay was at Miamitown, Mass was celebrated at Barthelemy’s house by Father Louis Payet, a missionary from Detroit. After playing at Mass on one occasion, Hay wrote, “The French settlers of this place go to prayers of a Sunday, morning and evening, ... the people are collected by the Ringing of three cow bells, which three boys runs about thro’ the village, which makes as much noise as twenty cows would.”[97]
Miamitown in 1790 had certain refinements not to be expected behind its rough exterior. Afternoon coffee and lunch was served in the home of Mrs. Adhemar on numerous occasions. Dinners were given in grand style. For the parties the men and women dressed in their finest apparel. Mr. Adhemar and Mr. DeSeleron made their appearance at a ball wearing very fine fur caps, “adorned with a quantity of Black Ostridge Feathers” and “Cockades made with white tinsell Ribbon, amasingly large.”[98] Less refining was the constant drinking. At different times, Hay and his companions became “infernally drunk”, “very drunk”, and “damned drunk”. One affair was memorable in that none of the men became drunk, “which is mostly the case in this place when they collect together”.[99] Dancing was also a favorite pastime, so much so, that after dancing three nights in succession, Hay found his feet too swollen to continue. It appeared as if dancing was never enjoyed more by anyone than by these French “habitants”. It became almost a passion; when they grew weary of the old steps, new ones were devised. The almost annual springtime flood seems to have been more severe than usual in the year 1790. But not even the flood dampened the gaiety, for before the waters had subsided, the ladies were taken for a row on the river to be serenaded by the flute and fiddle. Not all was fun and frolic, however, as business was transacted regularly by the traders.
In strange contrast to the minuet and “dance ronby” were the wild war dances of the Indians across the river in celebration of a victorious raid on the American settlements.[100] From the French village situated on the St. Joseph river where it meets the St. Mary’s, Hay could easily see these spectacles. Behind the traders’ houses, northward to Spy Run Creek, lived the band of Miamis under LeGris, one of the most prominent and intellectual chiefs of his time. Across the river, in the present Lakeside area of Fort Wayne, was the principal village of the Miamis under Pacan, who in his youth had saved Captain Morris.[101] Frequent discussions were held by the traders with Pacan, LeGris, Blue Jacket, and Little Turtle; LeGris and Little Turtle often ate and stayed at Hay’s house. The three Girty brothers, the terrors of the frontier, visited Miamitown on a number of occasions during Hay’s sojourn. James and George Girty lived only three miles from Miamitown, and came more often than their brother, Simon. It is noteworthy that Hay obligingly wrote a letter for George Girty to Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent, informing McKee that the Miamis had upbraided the Delawares by “telling them that the Ground they occupied now is not theirs and that ... the Delawares answered, they were great fools to fight for lands that was not theirs and consequently would not go to war against the Americans any more.”[102] Girty asked McKee to check the Delaware dissatisfaction.