CHAPTER IX.
KASKASKIA.
During this evening and the following day we gained all the information concerning Kaskaskia which it was necessary Major Clarke should know.
These men who had come upon us so opportunely, were, as I have said, trappers from that outpost, and eager to do whatsoever they might toward overthrowing the rule of the Britishers on our frontier.
Such desire was only natural, as may be believed when I say that the king's officers pursued the policy of stimulating the Indians against the settlers, in order that such as were not willing to own allegiance to the king should be killed or driven from the country.
Monsieur Rocheblave, a Frenchman, had command of the British forces roundabout Kaskaskia, and the hunters reported him to be an exceedingly vigilant officer, who kept a large number of spies continually on the alert to guard against the approach of people from Kentucky who were known to have taken sides with the eastern colonists in the struggle for liberty.
There were eighty British soldiers in the garrison, and all the redskins nearabout were in the pay of the commandant, therefore it might be said that the force at this point was exceeding strong; but Simon Kenton's friends believed it might be taken by surprise, providing we could capture the spies sent out by Rocheblave.
Once our people appeared before the garrison, when the Indians were not there to lend their aid, the post must of a necessity surrender, and thus the work set for us to do might be accomplished without bloodshed.
That this renegade Frenchman was exerting himself to stir up the Indiana against the settlers there could be no question; in fact one of these hunters had good proof that such was the case, he having been present when the king's officer offered a certain reward in the shape of ammunition and blankets if the savages would surprise and massacre a number of families who had made a clearing on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Kaskaskia was founded, as I have read, after the visit of La Salle to the Mississippi in 1683, by Father Gravier, Catholic missionary among the Illinois Indians, and was the capital and chief town of the Illinois country so far as the French continued in possession of it. In 1763, it was ceded by the French to Great Britain, and such of the French officers as held possession were continued in the pay of the English king.