In this same year the Foxes fell upon the Illinois and killed or carried off seventy-seven of them.[114] Veudreuil, the governor, had decided the preceding year that the Foxes must be destroyed and had intrusted the task to Louvigny, the former commander at Mackinac.[115] It was planned to establish peace between the Miamis and the Illinois, who were enemies in common of the Foxes, and then to lead all the northwestern tribes friendly to the French against the Foxes and their allies.[116] This project failed of execution, however, owing to the illness of Louvigny.[117] De Lignery was therefore substituted as the leader, and a more elaborate campaign was devised. The Miamis, Ouiatanons, Illinois, and Detroit Indians were to rendezvous at Chicago under French leadership in the summer of 1715, while the coureurs de bois, the Ottawas, and the other northern tribes were to be gathered at Mackinac under De Lignery. The departure of the forces from these places was to be so timed that both would arrive at the Fox fort at the end of August. The detachment which arrived first was to invest the fort and then await the arrival of the second corps before attempting its reduction. To complete the plan, agents had been sent to the Sioux to urge them not only to refuse the Foxes an asylum, but to join the French in making war upon them.
[114] Parkman, Half Century of Conflict, chap. xiv.
[115] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVI, 298.
[116] Ibid., 303-7; 319-20.
[117] Ibid., 312-14.
The campaign thus elaborately projected utterly miscarried, but its story deserves a place in the history of early Chicago, none the less. The choice of Chicago as the place of rendezvous of the southern tribes was due, aside from the obvious convenience of its location, to the game of all sorts which abounded here, on which the savages could easily subsist while awaiting the arrival of the Detroit contingent.[118] An epidemic of measles assailed the Ouiatanons, and the fickle savages promptly charged the deaths which resulted to the French, who had come to lead them to the place of rendezvous.[119] They were cajoled into promising, however, that such as were able would go to Chicago, and a half-dozen Frenchmen were left among them to insure their arrival by the tenth of August. The remainder of the French went on to rouse the Illinois and lead them to the meeting-place.
[118] Ibid., 319.
[119] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVI, 322-25.
Meanwhile the measles continued to afflict the Ouiatanons, the death rate mounting to fifteen or twenty a day. Instead of the two hundred warriors that had been promised, the little band of Frenchmen were forced to depart on the overland march to Chicago with only one-tenth as many.[120] Their food supply was scanty, and the savages were restrained from hunting along the way by their fear of the Foxes, whose war trails leading toward Detroit were encountered. When they reached Chicago they found the Illinois and Detroit savages had not yet arrived; nor were there any signs of the canoes which were to have come from Mackinac to inform them regarding the march against the Foxes from that point. To add to their troubles two of their party were attacked by the measles, whereupon the whole band of Indians deserted the Frenchmen and returned to their homes. The latter, after waiting four or five days beyond the time set for the arrival of their comrades with the Illinois contingent, set out to meet them. In this they failed because of their ignorance of the route, and the little party found rest for the time being with the Indians at Starved Rock.
[120] Ibid.