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69 In the fall of 1768, General Thomas Gage, the commander of British forces in North America, sent his superiors in England a curious report about the state of affairs in St. Louis and its environs. His informants in Illinois had told him of “a Strange Mixture of French and Spanish government on the opposite Side” of the river. While the French commandant, Louis St. Ange, exercised authority on the Spanish side of the Mississippi River, a Spanish officer held sway a few miles away, over the mouth of the Missouri River, and the two were said to operate entirely independently. Indeed, Gage’s informants suggested that the two officials were even prohibited from consulting with each other. In the British general’s view, this peculiar situation meant that there was “no knowing to whom the Country belongs.” He had heard that only a short time after Spain had begun to occupy this territory, the confused state of affairs was already having a negative affect on trade and settlement. He further reported that a newly constructed Spanish fort at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers had been destroyed almost immediately by floodwaters. “The French Inhabitants appear to be much disgusted,” noted Gage, adding “that it was expected many of them would become British subjects.”1 Gage’s accounts of a confused government and a disgruntled French population would have been very welcome in England. Despite Gage’s optimistic dream of a return migration of French colonists to British Illinois, such an exodus never came to pass. Much of Gage’s assessment amounted to little more than wishful thinking. The British clearly wanted settlers to populate the countryside Chapter 3 “A Strange Mixture” RULERS, MISRULE, AND UNRULY INHABITANTS IN THE 1760S 1. Gage to Hillsborough, October 9, 1768, in Alvord and Carter, Trade and Politics, 414–16. t h e Wo r l d , t h e F l e s h , a n d t h e D e v i l / 7 0 around their new Illinois posts, and they viewed the French and Spanish across the Mississippi suspiciously, as rivals for trade and empire. However wrong in some regards, Gage’s report did get one thing right: there was a “strange mixture” of French and Spanish government in place in Spanish Illinois, as the territory of Upper Louisiana was often called. An unusual mixture of people was present as well, with French colonists from Canada, France, Illinois, and New Orleans interacting with Spanish soldiers and officers, while a constantly changing population of Indians from many different nations came to St. Louis for temporary sojourns and longer stays. With incompetent rulers on one hand and an unruly assortment of colonists, soldiers, and Indians on the other—all of them attempting to achieve often-conflicting personal goals and agendas—St. Louis in the late 1760s was an unsettled, chaotic place. As a result, and perhaps predictably, the village was a site of uncertain governance, shifting sources of authority, and social, economic, and political instability. From their vantage point on the eastern side of the Mississippi River, the British were deeply interested in St. Louis from the moment of its founding in 1764. Once they had established a general peace with the indigenous inhabitants of the region in August and September of 1766— agreeing to peace terms with over a thousand Indian men representing twenty-five tribes—they were even more interested in the west bank and its French residents.2 Peace with the Indians opened the possibility of profitable trade, but obstacles remained. Since the moment the British had taken possession of Fort Chartres, their commercial efforts had been undercut by the French as surely as the fort’s site had been eaten away by the river. One British officer, George Croghan, complained that the biggest traders of Kaskaskia, Fort Chartres, and Cahokia had all “removed” to the opposite side of the Mississippi, where they settled in St. Louis. Sending men and goods up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, these rogue traders were carrying on a “most profitable,” albeit illicit, trade. “I am Convinced,” wrote Croghan, “it will be very difficult, if not impossible , except at a vast Annual expense in Presents, to retain the Indians in our Interest.”3 Eyeing their neighbors, the British sized up St. Louis and Pierre Laclède as key barriers to their ambitions. The existence of the village clearly had undermined British attempts to build up a colonial population in Illinois, and...

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