Jacques Legardeur De Saint-Pierre: Officer, Gentleman, Entrepeneur

Notes

122 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre NOTES 1. Etat des depenses au Detroit et aMichilimakinac, 1748, National Archives of Canada (hereafter cited as NAC) MG1, Archives nationales (Paris), Colonies (hereafter cited as AN Col.), CIIA, vol. 116, transcript pages 226-27 (excerpt); Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 20 vols. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1906; hereafter cited as WHq, 17:462, 464-65. 2. Depenses al'occasion de la guerre, 8 premiers mois 1747, Montreal, l"'septembre 1747, AN Col. CllA 117: £[303 recto-304 verso. 3. Cadis is a carded wool, serge-like cloth. 4. A mark (man) was a weight of eight Paris ounces, a little more than half a U.S. pound. 5. The term used here, mazamet, means twilled woolen serge having a nap on one side, according to Gregory A. Waselkov in Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys, John A. Walthall and Thomas E. Emerson eds. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), 47. 6. Dourgne is a town in France near the Pyrenees. Dourgne cloth is a low-quality red and violet cloth made with odd lots of wool (Calumet and FleHr-de-Lys, 46). 7. Callemande, a woolen fabric glossy on one side. 8. Carisfe (also carize), a coarse-ribbed woolen cloth; kersey. 9. The word used in the manuscript is matchicote, described as "a short skirt called a petticoat" (WHC, 17:193). 10. The word used here for fishing hook was ain, a word no longer used in French. A variant spelling was haim. Randle Cotgrave, compo A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (London: printed by Adam Islip, 1611; reprint, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1950): see under ain and haim. 11. Depenses al'occasion de la guerre, folios 304 verso-306 verso. 12. Melis (also spelled mrslis, and misspelled here as mely) referred to a kind of sailcloth made of natural hemp, manufactured at Rennes. Metis was also used to make tablecloths, towels, mattress covers and, as seen in this list, tarpaulins (Nicole Genet, Luce Vermette, et Louise Decarie-Audet, Les Objets familiers de nos atlcCtres [Montreal: Les Editions de I'homme, 1974], 162). 13. Probably Philippe Dagneau Douville de La Saussaye, officer and trader in the upper country. See Donald Chaput, "Dagneau Douville, Alexandre," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography (hereafter cited as DCB) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966-1991),4:192. 14. Etat des depenses, 1748, 01'. cit., pp. 226-27. 15. Fran<;:ois-Marie Picote de Belestre commanded Fort St. Joseph from 1747 to 1750, and Detroit from 1758 to 1760. 16. Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny, a relative of St. Pierre, commanded Fort St. Joseph in 1750-51. Michilimackinac, 1747-1749 123 17. Fran~ois Menard was king's interpreter at Michilimackinac in 1748. AN Col., CllA 118: folio 216. 18. Antoine Champagne,"Gaultier de La Verendyre de Boumois, Pierre," in DCB, 3: 244-45; WHC, 17:464-65. Depenses al'occasion de la guerre: folios 306 verso-307 verso list the equipment and supplies the two cadets were issued to see them through the winter at Michilimackinac. Subsequent folios in this document list supplies issued to Indians and Frenchmen returning on 31 August 1747 to Michilimackinac, the St. Joseph River, and Detroit. A succinct summary of some of these lists follows. Folios 311 verso - 313 recto: supplies to 91 Ottawas and 20 Chippewas who had been with La Corne, going to Michilimackinac; folios 313 verso - 314 recto: bread and beef for the habitants going with St. Pierre and La Verendrye to Michilimackinac; folio 314 verso: to 82 of the women and children of the Ottawa, Sauk, Menominee, Potawatomi, Fox and Illinois warriors who fought under La Corne, for about two weeks, 1,674Ibs. of bread, 1,116 lbs. of beef, 10 bushels of corn, and 6 bushels of peas; folio 315 recto: to 344 Ottawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Menominee, Fox, Sauk, and Chippewa warriors for 9 to 11 days after returning with La Corne's war party, 4,113 Ibs. of bread, 4,113 Ibs. of beef, 440 pots of wine, 210 pots of brandy, 15 bushels of corn, 12 bushels of peas, 70 lbs of tobacco, 1 bushel ofsalt, and 1 cow. The grand total of New France's expenditures for ammunition, merchandise, and provisions for the first eight months ofwarfare in 1747 was 335,023Iivres, an enormous sum (folio 320 verso). 19. WHC, 17:464-65,469. 20. WHC, 17:462,467-69,478. 21. The following excerpt is from La Galissoniere to the minister, Quebec, 23 October 1748, as translated in WHC 17:509, reprinted from E. B. O'Callaghan, ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, X (Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1858), 181-85. 22. Compte general du produit des Postes des pays d'en haut et de la depense Sur ce produit (1747-1749), Quebec, 17 septembre 1749, AN Col. CllA 116, ff 149 verso and 150 recto. 23. Compte general du produit des Postes des pays d'en haut et de la depense Sur ce produit (1747-1749), Quebec, Ie 17 septembre 1749, AN Col., CllA 116: ff. 144, 146 verso-147 recto, 148 recto, 149, 150 recto, 152 , 154 verso, 155 verso, 156 recto. 24. There is an omission of the mention of 700 livres here for a tenth canoe's conge, although the amount is included in the total. It is noteworthy that each of the other Michilimackinac conges was sold for only 400#, considerably below the usual price of at least 600#. The authorities required as compensation , however, that each of these canoes carry 800 pounds of the king's provisions to Michilimackinac. The tenth canoe carried only its own goods. The 124 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre price of conges was lowered during the difficulties of King George's War and the Huron Conspiracy due to the lack of enthusiasm of traders to risk their lives in the upper country and to the lack of trade goods. In 1747 the authorities had to give conges at no cost to traders in order to get them to go to Detroit (WHC, 17:470-71). 25. Memoire sur les Sauvages du Canada, Versailles, Ie 28 janvier 1748, AN Col., C l1E 13:162-63 recto, 3 pages. 26. Commission de capitaine de St. Pierre, Versailles, Ie 15 fevrier 1748, Archives du Seminaire de Quebec (hereafter cited as ASQ), Fonds Verreau, carton 5, no. 40, 1 page. 27. In the absence of governor-general-designate La Jonquiere who had been captured in a naval battle with the English, Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissoniere served as commandant general from 1747 to 1749 when La Jonquiere finally arrived in Quebec. 28. Jean-Frederic Phelypeaux de Maurepas was minister of Marine under Louis XV from 1723 to 1749. 29. For the complete details on this series of events, see La Galissoniere's letter to Maurepas dated 23 October 1748 in WHC, 17:508-12. La Galissoniere's last paragraph concludes, "Thus was lost, in a great measure, the fruit of Sieur St. Pierre's good management.... " 30. See appendix 3 for St. Pierre's voucher dated 30 July 1748 for the purchase of the slave. 31. La Galissoniere aSt. Pierre, Quebec, Ie 4 septembre 1748, ASQ, Fonds Verreau, carton 5, no. 53. 32. Possibly Jacques-Fran~ois Le Gardeur de Croizille (Croisille) de Courtemanche, second in command at Detroit from 1739 to 1743 (WHC 17:432, citing AN Col., CIIA 79:147, and WHC, 18:48n. 86). He was born around 1711, promoted lieutenant in 1748 and captain in 1756 (Bulletin des recherches historiques [hereafter cited as BRH] 43:239,58:196). Beauharnois wrote in his list ofrecommended promotions in 1737 that there were twenty-two Croizille brothers, only one of whom was alive after 20 October 1737 (NAC, MG1, AN Col. CllA 67: transcript, 147-50; Lettersji-om New France, 162-63). The identification of the Croizille in this 1748 letter is uncertain. 33. Jean Lechelle was a Montreal merchant and agent (commissionnaire). He was born in France in 1718 and married Marie Anne Decouagne in Montreal at the age of thirty-two. With his partners, Jean-Alexis Lemoine dil Moniere and LouisMathieu Damours de Clignancour, Lechelle leased from the French authorities the exclusive trade of the Green Bay post and its dependencies from August 1747 to August 1750 (WHC, 17:451-55; 18:7-10). Nancy N. M. Surrey, Calendar of Manuscripts in Paris Archives and Libraries Relating to the History of the Mississippi Valley to 1803, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute, 1926) places Lechelle at Michilimackinac in 1750. He became St. Pierre's agent when the Michilimackinac, 1747-1749 125 latter commanded the Western Sea posts from 1750 to 1753 (discussed in chaps. 5 and 6). 34. Louis Legardeur de Repentigny, who was related to St. Pierre and was also a descendant of the Repentigny family, was an ensign in 1748 who "served mainly in the region ofMichilimackinac" (Etienne Taillemite, "Legardeur de Repentigny, Louis," in DCB, 4:447-48). He was a son ofJean-Baptiste Rene Legardeur de Repentigny who in 1733 had been killed at Green Bay in his first year as commandant at Michilimackinac. He is often confused with his brother, Pierre, as both were referred to as Monsieur de Repentigny. See Dunning Idle's dissertation identifying Louis's brother, Pierre-Jean-Baptiste-Fran\=ois-Xavier Legardeur de Repentigny, as commander ofFort St. Joseph in 1750, and not Louis ("The Post of the St. Joseph River during the French Regime 1679-1761," University of Illinois, 1946, 224-25). Idle correcdy stated that Louis was sometimes called the Chevalier de Repentigny, the term La Galissoniere used in this letter to St. Pierre. 35. An Antoine Busquet is mentioned in "La Famille Petit de Levilliers," BRH 34:492. 36. Chibaouinani, also known as La Cloche, an island in Georgian Bay north of Manitoulin (WHC, 17:462n. 3, 508). 37. Acha8abinet (Achaouabeme) was an Ottawa chief of Saguinan loyal to the French. 38. Paul-Joseph Le Moyne de Longueuil, commandant of Detroit from 1743 to 1749. 39. Fran\=ois-Marie Picote de Belestre (Beletre) was commandant at Fort St. Joseph from 1747 to 1750. He commanded Detroit from 1758 to 1760 when it was turned over to the English. 40. See WHC, 17:509 for La Galissioniere's explanation that Saint-Pierre had held back "all the voyageurs and goods at Missilimakinac" in order to pressure the Indians to turn in the murderers to him. 41. According to the Mackinac register, Charles Hamelin was married at Michilimackinac in 1738 to an unknown woman whose name was on a torn-out portion of the register page. He married a baptized Chippewa woman there on 4 February 1748, being identified as a former voyageur (WHC, 18:470,475). 42. Commandant General of New France La Galissoniere arrived in Quebec from France on 19 September 1747. 43. Charles-Fran\=ois-Xavier Tarieu de La Perade had commanded the Miami post until 1741. In 1747 he was commandant of the Ouiatanon post, where he had been the trading post's leaseholder in 1743 (ASQ, Fonds Verreau, carton 3, no. 46). He was second in command, under Pierre-Joseph Celoron de Blainville, ofa convoy sent to resupply and reinforce Detroit in 1748. 44. Henri-Albert de Saint-Vincent, who had been in command at the Ouiatanon post in 1742, was in command of a convoy sent to resupply Michilimackinac in 1748 (WHC, 17:509). 126 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre 45. Memoire sur les Sauvages du Canada, Versailles, Ie 15 avril 1749, NAC, MG1, CIIA 94: transcript pages 73-74. 46. Vente d'une ile vulgairement appele l'ile St. Laurent par Jacques Legardeur de St. Pierre et Marie-Joseph Guillimin, son epouse, aJean-Baptiste Casse, de la riviere de Lassomption, ANQ-M, Greffe de Danre de Blanzy, Ie 22 aout 1749. This sale, in the total amount of 3,500 livres, gave the option to the purchaser to pay in three payments, the first of 500# and the second and third of 1,500#; or annual payments of 175#, which would be during a period of rwenty years. Apparendy Casse did not meet his obligations, for on 26 July 1751, Marie-Joseph Guillimin de St. Pierre, acting with full power of attorney for her husband who was then commandant of the Western Sea posts (see chapts. 5 and 6), rented the island for farming to Jacques Crevier dit St. Jean for a period of five years (Bail aferme de l'ile Saint Laurent par Marie-Josephe Guillemin [sic] aJacques Crevier dit St. Jean, habitant de Lassomption, ANQ-M, Greffe deDanre de Blanzy, Ie 26 juillet 1751). This lease is in extremely poor condition due to the ink having passed through the paper. 47. La Jonquiere au Ministre, Quebec, Ie 9 octobre 1749, NAC MG1, AN Col., CIIA 93: transcript pages 183-84, microfilm C2398. 48. St. Pierre aMonseigneur Rouille, sans date ni lieu (1749), NAC MG1, AN Col., CllA 93: transcript pages 190-96, microfilm C2398. 49. Charles Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil, then town major of Montreal, was in command of the Canadian detachment sent in 1739 to the Louisiana colony to aid his uncle, Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in his second war against the Chickasaws. Fort Assumption was located at today's Memphis, Tennessee, and served as Bienville's headquarters. Pierre-Joseph Celoron de Blainville, known as Celoron, was commandant at Michilimackinac from 1736 to 1742. His younger brother, Jean-Baptiste Celoron de Blainville, known as Blainville, commanded Michilimackinac during his brother's absence for the Chickasaw campaign of 1739-40. 50. The Duke d'Anville (1709-46), lieutenant general of naval forces, was in charge of a French fleet assigned to attack the English in Acadia and Newfoundland. The campaign failed (Etienne Taillemite, "La Rochefoucauld de Roye, JeanBaptiste -Louis-Frederic de, Marquis de Rouey, Due d'Anville," DCB, 3:356). 51. Note that for the first time in this petition St. Pierre uses the first person singular, I, not the formal third person singular, he, which he had been using, as he describes events that he remembers vividly. 52. Onontio (the usual spelling omits the h) was the generic Indian name for the French governor-general. 53. The printed transcripts of Lery's journals are found in Rapport de f'Archiviste de fa Province de Quebec pour 1926-1927 (Quebec: L.A. Proulx, Imprimeur de Sa Majeste Ie Roi), 331-405. The 1749 journal is on pages 334-48. The originals are in the ASQ, Fonds Verreau. Michilimackinac, 1747-1749 127 54. For an illustrated translation of Lotbiniere's journal which provides a detailed description of the fort in 1749, see Marie-Gerin Lajoie, trans. and ed., Fort Michilimackinac in 1749: Lotbiniere's Plan and Description, Mackinac History Series, Vol. 2, Leaflet No.5 (Mackinac Island, Michigan: Mackinac State Historic Parks, 1976). The original plan is in the Cartographic and Architectural Archives Division of the National Archives of Canada. The original manuscript, Relation tres abrege de Mon voiage de michillimakinac, is in the Library of the New-York Historical Society; a negative photostat is in the NAC, MG18, K3, vol. 3. 55. Bigot au ministre, Quebec, Ie 31 octobre 1749, AN Col., ClIA 118:326 verso331 recto, 8 pages. 56. Pierre Landrieve was the chief writer of the colony; Jean-Victor Varin de la Marre was commissary and controller of the Marine in Quebec. 57. La Jonquiere au ministre, Quebec, Ie 27 fevrier 1750, NAC, MG1, AN Col., CIIA 95: transcript pages 94-97, microfilm C2398. ...