their kinsmen, the Kickapoo and Mascouten, to do so, and they made no effort to deliver the slaves or goods that had been promised.

For several years following Louvigny's expedition of 1716 overt warfare between the French and the Foxes ceased; but the latter soon renewed hostilities against the Illinois, who had been since the time of La Salle the firm allies of the French. Since the Foxes had closed the Fox-Wisconsin highway between the Lakes and the Mississippi to the French, the control of the route by way of the Chicago and Illinois rivers had become a matter of pressing concern to them. This control was increasingly threatened by the raids upon the Illinois, until the Foxes came at length to dominate the second great waterway between Canada and Louisiana. In 1721, when Father Charlevoix, who had been sent to America to render a report to the king on the condition of French affairs there, passed down the Illinois, he devoted a considerable portion of his journal to the dangers encountered along the way. At Starved Rock he was filled with horror at the spectacle of the remains of two Fox prisoners whom the Illinois had recently burned. At Peoria he was informed by some Canadians that his party was in the midst of four Fox war parties: the Illinois had recently encountered one of them, and each party had taken a prisoner. The Illinois had promptly tortured theirs, and again the priest was shocked by the horrid spectacle presented by the remains. Although Charlevoix was attended by an armed escort, it was deemed dangerous for him to proceed and a delay ensued until the party could be strengthened. It then proceeded safely, but for a week the good Father's slumbers were disturbed by the contemplation of the horrors he had witnessed.

The following year the Illinois captured and burned the nephew of Ouashala, one of the principal chiefs of the Foxes, who had hitherto played the role of leader of the faction inclined to peace with the French. In a fury of passion he now headed a war band which laid siege to the Illinois stronghold of Starved Rock. The defenders were starved into surrender, when the Foxes, hoping to placate the French. spared their lives and Ouashala, on returning to Wisconsin, hastened to Green Bay and rendered a fresh account of his doings to the commandant. Although during these years the Foxes sedulously refrained from warlike acts against the French, the situation in the West became increasingly intolerable to the government. Divided counsels paralyzed its hand, however, and no effective measures were undertaken until the death of Vaudreuil brought a new governor to Canada, the Marquis de Beauharnois, in the summer of 1726.

CHAPTER IX

THE FOX WAR ENDS

Beauharnois came to his new station resolved to take effective action to crush the obnoxious tribe. Since the Foxes still maintained their alliance with the Sioux, and were on terms of intimacy with the Iroquois, the governor began by instituting measures for isolating them from these tribes, after which, it was expected, they might be crushed with impunity. The first step taken was the erection of a fort on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Pepin, where Perrot's fortified trading post had been abandoned three decades before. The expedition for this purpose left Montreal June 16, 1727,1 and reached the post of Green Bay August 8, following. After delaying here and at the Winnebago village on the lake of the same name, the party came a week later to the village of the Foxes, "a nation," writes Father Guignas, historian of the expedition, "so dreaded and really very little to be dreaded, to judge from all appearances. It is composed of 200 men at the most; but there is a nursery-garden of children, especially of boys, between ten and fourteen years old, well made and sturdy." The travelers were welcomed by the Foxes and the next day an amicable council was held. The journey was then resumed, to be concluded a month later, September 17, on the shore of Lake Pepin. Here a stockade 100 feet square was inclosed, within which suitable buildings for sheltering the garrison were erected. The fort was named in honor of the governor, Beauharnois, and on his fête day a grand celebration was held; it terminated with a display of fireworks, probably the first ever seen in the valley of the upper Mississippi. It so amazed the Sioux onlookers that the women and children fled in terror, "while the most courageous of the men cried for mercy, and urgently asked that the astonishing play of this terrible medicine should be made to cease."

While beguiling the Foxes by fair words into a sense of false security, Beauharnois was secretly laying his plans to destroy them, and the establishment of the fort among the Sioux marked the first stage

1 Narrative of Father Guignas, Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 22 ff.

in his program.2 Months after his announcement to the home government of his intention of "striking a signal blow" that would lower the pride of the Foxes, officials returning from Fort Beauharnois to Montreal passed through Wisconsin and reported the Foxes as resting quietly in their village.3

Their quiet did not continue long, for already the hostile war bands were assembling for what was to constitute the second formidable invasion of Wisconsin by the French. The expedition was ostensibly formed to attack the newly-established English post of Oswego, but once organized, it headed for Wisconsin, its real destination. Led by Lignery, it left Montreal early in June, 1728, and reached Mackinac two months later. The army consisted of 450 Frenchmen and nearly 1,200 savages, detachments being added to it at Mackinac and other points en route to Wisconsin. From Illinois, by way of the Chicago Portage, came 20 Frenchmen and 500 savages.

The outcome of the great effort was disappointing enough. A halt was made at the village of the Menominee, and this tribe, lured into opposition to the French, was defeated. The arrival at Green Bay was timed to occur at midnight, in the effort to surprise the Sauk village, which was supposed to contain a number of Foxes. The inmates had fled, however, with the exception of four, who, aged and infirm, were bravely seized and given over to the Indian allies of the invaders to be tortured. Rarely in military annals will be found a more humiliating record than the report made of this campaign by Lignery himself. The Foxes abandoned their villages to the invading army and these, together with their cornfields, were destroyed. Of the latter, Lignery reports that the quantity was so great "that one could not believe it without seeing." Then, fearing for the safety of his army, the commander beat an inglorious retreat, having first dispatched a message to Fort Beauharnois informing the garrison of the course of events. Thus warned, the inmates promptly abandoned the fort and after a series of exciting adventures made their escape down river to the French post among the Illinois. Lignery, in his retreat, burned the post at Green Bay, rightly judging that it could no longer be tenanted by the French. The expedition had destroyed no Foxes, other than a half-dozen squaws and old men, while on the other hand it

2 In justification of his course the governor wrote the French Minister he had been “informed that the English had sent messengers among all the tribes urging them to rise against the French, and that the Foxes had responded favorably to these overtures. Wis. Hist. Colls., XVI, 976.

3 Letters in Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 30, 36.

4 Printed in Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 31-35. Two other accounts of the expedition exist, one written by the governor and one by Father Crespel, a priest who accompanied it.

had caused the abandonment of the two stations hitherto held by the French in Wisconsin. The destruction of the villages and cornfields, Lignery affirmed, would be "advantageous to the glory of the King and the welfare of both colonies, inasmuch as one-half of those people will die of hunger." Yet he could not avoid confessing his failure, and begged the governor for his "protection" with the French ministry. He laid the responsibility for it upon the leader of the Illinois contingent, who, he asserted, should have come by way of the Wisconsin River, and thus have cut off the retreat of the Foxes.

The French now reverted with success to the policy they had vainly pursued prior to 1728 of stirring up their Indian allies against the Foxes. Urged on by the governor "to destroy the Foxes, and not to suffer on this earth a demon capable of confounding or opposing our friendly alliance," the Chippewa, Ottawa, Winnebago, and Menominee all engaged in forays against them. The Sioux and Iowa, with whom they had hitherto maintained friendly relations, now denied them an asylum and they were assailed from every side.

An affair which took place near Neenah in the spring of 1730 is typical of the warfare that now raged in Wisconsin. The Winnebago, who had long lived on terms of friendship with the Foxes, had turned against them and delivered two of their number to a Menominee war party to be slain. After this they absented themselves from their village on Doty's Island for some time for fear of the Foxes; now, having learned through scouts that the dreaded foe was not lying in wait for them, they ventured to return and encamp on a small island near their former village site. Here they were suddenly assailed by the Foxes, who opened the fight without giving warning. After a day or two of fighting, the Winnebago conceived the base design of placating their assailants by turning over to them several Menominee who were in the camp with them. They proceeded to cut off the heads of two of these unfortunates, and binding the remaining two led them out and proffered them, along with the heads, to the besiegers as a peace offering. To this the Foxes made answer that they had not yet had time to "taste the broth" they had given them to drink, and that there was not enough of it to satisfy them. They concluded by demanding that the Winnebago also deliver to them those of their number who had given up the two Foxes to the Menominee. This demand the besieged spurned as too insulting to be endured, and the siege went on, lasting in all a month and a half.

To eat the broth" of a foeman was a common figure of speech among the Indians, signifying to put him to death. Often it received a literal application, since the victors in Indian warfare often feasted on the bodies of their defeated foemen. It seems probable that such acts of cannibalism were invested with a certain ceremonial significance.

Vol. 1-11