[315] Lettre du Père le Petit, in Lettres Édifiantes; Dumont, Mémoires historiques, chap. xxvii.
[316] "Nos soldats, qui semblent être faits exprès pour la colonie, tants ils sont mauvais."—Dépêche de Perier, 18 Mars, 1730.
[317] Mémoire de Bienville, 1730.
[318] For a curious account of the discovery of this negro plot, see Le Page du Pratz, iii. 304.
[319] Dépêche de Bienville, 6 Mai, 1740. Compare Le Page du Pratz, iii. chap. xxiv.
CHAPTER XIV.
1700-1732.
THE OUTAGAMIE WAR.
The Western Posts.—Detroit.—The Illinois.—Perils of the West.—The Outagamies.—Their Turbulence.—English Instigation.—Louvigny's Expedition.—Defeat of Outagamies.—Hostilities renewed.—Lignery's Expedition.—Outagamies attacked by Villiers; by Hurons and Iroquois.—La Butte des Morts.—The Sacs and Foxes.
The rulers of Canada labored without ceasing in their perplexing task of engrossing the fur-trade of the West and controlling the western tribes to the exclusion of the English. Every day made it clearer that to these ends the western wilderness must be held by forts and trading-posts; and this policy of extension prevailed more and more, in spite of the league of merchants, who wished to draw the fur-trade to Montreal,—in spite of the Jesuits, who felt that their influence over the remoter tribes would be compromised by the presence among them of officers, soldiers, and traders; and in spite of the King himself, who feared that the diffusion of the colony would breed disorder and insubordination.