[242] Ibid.; Virginia State Papers, I, 465.
[243] The stream at the mouth of which Michigan City, Indiana, now stands. Petite Fort has been said to have been near the Calumet River. I have not succeeded in locating it more definitely than is indicated above.
This comparatively insignificant affair, which terminated at Chicago's back door, as it were, was quickly followed by a second attack upon St. Joseph, the echoes of which were heard in distant Europe. The preparations which the English were making for a new descent upon St. Louis in the spring of 1781 excited the genuine alarm of Cruzat, the new Spanish governor.[244] Profiting, possibly, by the example set by George Rogers Clark, in his attack upon Vincennes, Cruzat determined to anticipate the blow. On January 2, 1781, less than a month after the disaster to the Americans at the Petite Fort, a Spanish expedition set out from St. Louis for St. Joseph.[245] It consisted in the beginning of thirty Spaniards from St. Louis and twenty residents of Cahokia. On the way across Illinois these were joined by a dozen Spanish soldiers who had been sent up the Illinois River in the preceding November to serve as an outpost against the British in that direction.[246] In addition to this, and of greater importance doubtless, the party was joined by two hundred Indians. Included in the latter were the "runagates" from Milwaukee under the leadership of Siggenauk and Nakewoin, whose tendency to side with the Americans had long disturbed the British commanders in the Northwest.[247] In 1779 De Peyster, then at Mackinac, had bribed a chief, Chambolee, to capture Siggenauk by fair means or foul and turn him over to the English, promising that in the event of success he would be "weall rewarded."[248] This attempt to secure the obnoxious chieftain proved vain, however. At another time, whether before or after this does not appear, De Peyster tried the plan of buying off the "Runagade chiefs," but this too proved futile.[249] Some time after the St. Joseph expedition, however, Siggenauk turned against the Americans.
[244] Missouri Historical Review, V, 223.
[245] Three detailed studies of this expedition have been made. The conclusions of the first, by Edward G. Mason, were generally accepted by scholars as valid until Professor Clarence W. Alvord's study appeared. His conclusions differ materially from those reached by Mason. More recently Frederick J. Teggart has challenged Alvord's conclusions. For his study, with references to the earlier studies and the sources, see "The Capture of St. Joseph, Michigan, by the Spaniards in 1781," in Missouri Historical Review, V, 214 9.
[246] Teggart, op. cit., 216.
[247] De Peyster's characterization of them as "a horrid set of refractory Indians" has already been mentioned (Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 384). Probably it was this band which had threatened to destroy the British force at Chicago retreating from St. Louis in the preceding summer. For a sketch of Siggenauk's career see Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 384.
[248] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI, 210.
[249] Michigan Pioneer Collections, X, 454-55.
