History as They Lived It: A Social History of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois

5. Under Three Flags

5 Under Three Flags By June 1763 the provisions ofthe Treaty ofParis became known. The details arrived by ship at New Orleans and as quickly as messages could be sent, the Illinois was informed. Communication being what it was, it was not until October that the commandant of Fort de Chartres, Neyon de Villiers, sent messages to the other northem posts concerning the surrender. A number ofinhabitants received permission to go down to New Orleans at this time in order to seek transportation back to France. The lack of personal diaries and letters is particularly frustrating for this crucial time of change. Official French documents discussed the treaty with dignity and in bureaucratic blandness. What was the reaction ofthe populace when the official notice was read at the church door after mass? Other than the fact that many habitants voted with their feet and left, we have no record. The colonists had not wanted separation from France; they considered themselves still Frenchmen, yet their country had abandoned them. The British had been the enemy and their trade competitor for years. England was anti-Catholic. Although a provision in the treaty allowed the French to keep their religion, there must have been great apprehension in the population. 151 History As They Lived It British Rule Although the French villagers had to accept their dispossession by treaty, many of the Indian nations were disinclined to have British rule and they did not acknowledge the right of the European governments to decide their fate. They noted the displacement ofeastern tribes by British settlers. Pontiac, chiefofthe Ottawa, was able to accomplish what no one previously had been able to do, to join the various tribes into a coordinated fighting force antagonistic to the British. Under his leadership the combined Indian nations went to war and drove the British out ofMichilimackinac, St. Joseph, Miami, Ouiatenon, and other posts. For the Illinois country, the direct impact of Pontiac's work was that Indian opposition prevented the British from reaching Fort de Chartres and establishing their rule for two years. Although in 1764 the Indians were defeated and the rebellion broken, not all tribes had submitted to the British. Villiers, isolated in Illinois and a faithful French officer, was trying to maintain peace and to obey the treaty. Respected by both the French and Indians, he managed to keep the Illinois country fairly stable despite the turmoil around it. Because Villiers stood firm on obeying the treaty, the new post of St. Louis across the river became a center for intrigue against the British. On June 15, 1764, Neyon de Villiers turned over the fort to Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, whom he had recalled from the post at Vincennes. Villiers left for New Orleans. Forty soldiers remained with St. Ange; the other troops and a few habitants went down to southern Louisiana. If the loss of the villagers' status as Frenchmen, and if becoming subjects oftheir hereditary enemy were not enough, the colonists were dealt yet another blow. Antagonism against the powerful and wealthy Jesuit order in Europe had come to a head in 1761. By royal authority the order was suppressed in France and their estates confiscated, with the hope that the moneys from these would help pay the debts ofthe Seven Years War. In 1763 Louis XV issued directives for the colonies also to seize Jesuit lands. The Jesuit lands in New Orleans and Illinois were taken; the priests were deprived of 152 Under Three Flags their support and expelled from the country.1 In November the six Jesuits in the Illinois departed for New Orleans: Philibert Watrin, Superior of the Illinois Mission; Jean Baptiste Aubert, cure at Kaskaskia; Jean Baptiste Salleneuve from Detroit; Sebastian Meurin, missionary to the Kaskaskia Indians; Jean Baptiste de la Morinie from Ste. Genevieve; and Julian Devernai from Vincennes.2 For the inhabitants to whom the church was the central focus of their lives, losing the priests was a blow even worse than that of being turned over to a foreign power. Although the parish ofSte. Aune would not have been affected by the ban, as it was under the seminary priests, the church had been lacking a pennanent cure since the death ofFr. Gagnon in 1757. Abbe Forget Duverger and the Recollect fathers , Hypolite and Luc Collet from Cahokia, had been performing services at Ste. Anne's, St. Joseph's, and the chapel ofthe Visitation.3...