[227] Michigan Pioneer Collections, IX, 558.
[228] Virginia State Papers, III, 443.
[229] Montgomery says he went "to the Lake open on the Illinois River" (Virginia State Papers, III, 443). Peoria was variously designated at this time as the Pee, Pey, Opie, etc. This designation is said to have originated as a corruption of the French words au pied, used with reference to the foot of the lake. Montgomery's "Lake open" was, apparently, but another variant of the original French form.
The fortunes of the party led by Langlade by way of Chicago remain to be told. While proceeding down the Illinois it learned of the advance of Montgomery's force and thereupon beat a hasty retreat.[230] At Chicago the party was rescued from threatened destruction at the hands of a band of Indians in the "Rebel" interest by a relieving party which Sinclair had sent down Lake Michigan in two small vessels. Sinclair reported to Haldimand that five days after the vessels left Chicago two hundred Illinois cavalry arrived there,[231] but this was evidently a mistaken rumor caused by the advance of Montgomery's expedition, which, as has been seen, came no farther than Lake Peoria.
[230] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 411; Michigan Pioneer Collections, XI, 558.
[231] Michigan Pioneer Collections, XI, 558.
The fugitives from the St. Louis expedition had no sooner gained shelter at Mackinac than Sinclair began to plan for a new attack on the Illinois settlements[232] the following year. The services of Wabasha were engaged anew, and Sinclair assured Haldimand that one thousand Sioux would be in the field under his leadership by April, 1781.[233] To insure that secrecy the absence of which had proved so disastrous to the expedition of 1780, Wabasha came in person to Mackinac to make the necessary arrangements for the enterprise. But the attempt at secrecy proved futile for in December, Cruzat, the new governor at St. Louis,[234] was reporting to his superiors the news that Wabasha was returning to his tribe from "Michely Makinak" with a great quantity of merchandise to arouse his own and the neighboring tribes.[235] At the same time Cruzat announced that he had decided upon measures for checkmating the British design, but refrained from telling what they were until after they should be executed.
[232] The settlements on both sides of the Mississippi were referred to as the settlements of the Illinois. In Navarro's official report concerning the attack on St. Louis in 1780 that place is designated "San Luis de Ylinoises" (Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 407).
[233] Michigan Pioneer Collections, IX, 559.
[234] De Leyba had died shortly after the British attack of 1780 and before the arrival of the news that his government had promoted him for his conduct on that occasion (Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 410).