England, by the peace of UTRECHT in April, 1713, obtained from France large but not well defined concessions of territory in America.

As early as 1720, a lucrative trade had sprung up between the Illinois country and the province of Lower Louisiana. In that year, MONSEUR BOISBRIANT, the commandant on the Illinois, removed his headquarters to the bank of the Mississippi, twenty-five miles below the village of Kaskaskia, where Fort Charters was built. Its walls were of strong masonry, but within a hundred years were overgrown with almost impenetrable vines and forest trees.

Soon after the construction of Fort Charters, the villages of Cahokia, Prairie de Rocher and some others sprung into note in its vicinity. All the settlements continued to extend and multiply. In 1721, the Jesuits had established a monastery and college in Kaskaskia, and four years later, the village became a chartered town. During the first twelve years of the eighteenth century, not less than twenty-five hundred settlers had been introduced in "Louisiana," and in 1717, the number of inhabitants was not more than seven hundred, including persons of every age, sex and color.

In 1711, the government of Louisiana, comprising all the "Illinois country," was placed in the hands of a governor-general - DIRAU D'ARTAGUETTE- with headquarters at the site of the present city of Mobile, where a new fort was erected. "Louisiana" was at this time held by France to embrace the whole valley of the Mississippi and all its tributaries, and to extend north to the great lakes, and the waters of Hudson's Bay, and, of course, included all of the present state of Wisconsin.

In August, 1718, eight hundred emigrants for Louisiana, attracted by visions of wealth to result from the "Mississippi Scheme" of JOHN LAW, landed at Dauphine Island, and made their way to lands that had been ceded them, and which had been selected by BIENVILLE, where is now the city of New Orleans.

In 1719, PHILIPPE FRANCIS RENAULT, "Director General of the mines of Louisiana," arrived in the Illinois country with two hundred miners and artificers. They made fruitless explorations for mines as far as the sources of the St. Peters, the Arkansas, the tributaries of the Missouri and even to the Rocky Mountains.

CHAPTER II.

WARS WITH FOX INDIANS.

The ability of the Outagamies to annoy the French and to war with their savage enemies, was materially affected by their futile attempt to destroy Detroit in 1712, and by the desperate fight which ensued near Lake St. Clair; yet their failure only added fresh and implacable inspiration to the savage spirit of hate and revenge which prompted them to resort to another locality for its gratification.

They collected their dispersed bands on the Fox river, where they robbed and butchered all travelers on this great highway of nature from the lakes to the Mississippi. The Sauks were their old and natural allies, and the Sioux were induced to openly join them, while many of the Iroquois were allied to them clandestinely. Indeed, the danger of a general alliance among the savages against the whites appeared threatening.

This threatened danger induced the French governor of Canada to propose a union of the friendly tribes with the French, in a war of extermination against the common enemy, to which these tribes readily consented. A party of French was raised, and the command of the expedition was wisely confided to the brave, energetic and discreet DE LOUVIGNY, the king's lieutenant at Quebec.

DE LOUVIGNY and his command left Quebec on the 14th of March, 1716, and was joined on his route by a number of savages, so that his force amounted to eight hundred men, resolved upon the total destruction of the Fox nation. He returned to Quebec on the 12th of October, and the next day gave to the council the following account of his expedition:

"After three days of open trenches, sustained by a continuous fire of fusileers with two pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar, they were reduced to ask for peace, notwithstanding they had five hundred warriors in the fort who fired briskly, and more than three thousand women; they also expected shortly a reinforcement of three hundred men. But the promptitude with which the officers, who were in this action, pushed forward the trenches that I had opened at only seventy yards from their fort, made the enemy fear the third night that they would be taken. As I was only twenty-four yards from their fort, my design was to reach the triple oak stakes by a ditch of a foot and a half in the rear. Perceiving very well that my balls had not the effect I anticipated, I decided to take the place at the first onset, and to explode two mines under their curtains. The boxes being properly placed for the purpose, I did not listen to the enemie's first proposition; but they

having made a second one, I submitted it to my allies who consented to it on the following conditions: That the Foxes and their allies would make peace with all the Indians who are submissive to the king, and with whom the French are engaged in trade and commerce, and that they would return to me all the French prisoners that they have, and those captured during the war from our allies. This was complied with immediately. That they would take slaves from distant natives and deliver them to our allies, to replace their dead; that they should hunt to pay the expenses of this war, and as a surety of the keeping of their word, they should deliver me six chiefs or children of chiefs, to take with me to M. LA MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL as hostages, until the entire execution of our treaty, which they did, and I took them with me to Quebec. Besides I have re united the other nations, at variance among themselves, and have left that country enjoying universal peace."

The scene of DE LOUVIGNY's engagement was at the Little Butte des Morts, some thirty-seven miles above Green Bay.

In 1725, DE LOUVIGNY, having gone to France, was there appointed governor of Three Rivers, and on his return the same year, lost his life by shipwreck near Louisburg on the night of August 27.

Gov. VAUDREUIL, in a letter to the council, dated October 30, 1716, speaking of "the manner in which the SIEUR DE LOUVIGNY put an end to the war with the Foxes," says of him:

"He has always served his country with much distinction; but in his expedition against the Foxes, he signalized himself still more by his valor, his capacity and his conduct, in which he displayed a great deal of prudence. He made the war short, but the peace which results from it will not be of short duration.”

The name, services and memory of the distinguished leader of this formidable military expedition into the very heart of Wisconsin, are necessarily and inseparably associated with its primitive history.

The confident belief of VAUDREUIL, that the expedition had "put an end to the war," and that the peace would "not be of short duration," soon proved to be without warrant.

The Foxes, whom BANCROFT characterizes as "a nation passionate and untamable, springing up into new life from every defeat, and though reduced in the number of their warriors, yet present everywhere, by their ferocious enterprise and savage daring," failed to send deputies to the governor general. He flattered himself for a long time that they would keep their plighted faith; but he was only taught by the renewal of hostilities that an enemy driven to a certain point, is always irreconcilable. During the twelve years that followed DE LOUVIGNY'S expedition, all the peaceable efforts of the French to restrain the hostile conduct of the Foxes were unavailing.

In 1728, the governor of Canada sent a force of four hundred French troops, and eight or nine hundred Indians, principally Iroquois, Hurons, Nepissings and Ottawas, under the command of Sieur MARCHAND DE LIGNERY, who, it is probable, had served under DE LOUVIGNY in his expedition. against the Foxes in 1716, and who was now commissioned to go and destroy the Fox nations.

DE LIGNERY had previously, on the 7th of June, 1726, held a council at Green Bay with the Foxes, Sauks and Winnebagoes in the presence of Monsieurs D'AMARITON, CLIGANCOURT and Rev. Father CHARDON, in which the chiefs of the three nations all gave their words that they would maintain peace. But these treacherous and lying savages paid no regard to their plighted faith, and continued their robberies and butcheries as they had done before.

The troops commanded by DE LIGNERY Commenced their march on the 5th of June, 1728, and taking the route of the Ottawa river and Lakes Nipissing and Huron, arrived at the fort at the mouth of Fox river on the night of the 17th of August. Father CRESPEL, who accompanied the expedition as almoner of the four hundred Frenchmen, and who wrote an account of it, says:

"Notwithstanding the precautions that had been taken to conceal our arrival, the savages had received information of it, and all had escaped with the exception of four. These were presented to our savages who, after having diverted themselves with them, shot them to death with their arrows."

The expedition continued up the Fox river as far as the portage of the Wisconsin; but none of the enemy could be found, except two women, a girl and an old man, who were killed and burned by the savages. DE LIGNERY learned that the Foxes had fled four days before; that the old men, women and children had embarked in canoes, and the warriors had gone by land. He urged his Indian allies to follow in pursuit; but only a portion would consent, the others saying the enemy had gone so far that any attempt to catch up with them would be useless.

The French had nothing but Indian corn to eat, the season was far advanced, and they had a distance of four hundred leagues to return, so that the safety of half the army was endangered by further pursuit. It was, therefore, decided to burn the Fox villages, their forts and huts, and destroy all that could be found in their fields- corn, peas, beans and gourds, of which they had an abundance. Messrs. BEAU

HARNOIS and DE ARGEMAIT, from whose letter to the French Minister of War of September 1, 1728, the foregoing facts are taken, add:

"It is certain that half of these natives, who number four thousand souls, will die with hunger, and that they will come in and ask mercy."

The want of success in this expedition of DE LIGNERY was severely criticised by the local authorities of Canada, although he does not appear to have lost the confidence of the French government, which he continued to serve in various commands until 1759, when he led a force of 850 French and 350 Indians to the relief of Fort Niagara, where the party was defeated, and he was wounded and taken prisoner, after which no further mention is made of him.

Subsequently, probably in the autumn of 1729, a party of over two hundred Indians -Ottawas, Chippewas, Menomonees and Winnebagoes — fell on a party of the Foxes, consisting of eighty men and three hundred women and children, who were returning from a buffalo hunt. The party was surprised, and all of the men except three, and all the women and children, were killed and burned, and twenty flat boats were destroyed.

The Sieur PERRIERE MARIN was a native of France of decided and energetic character, and was a prominent trader among the Sauks, and the Indians on the Mississippi. He had a place of deposit for goods and peltries on the left bank of the Mississippi, a short distance below the mouth of the Wisconsin, near what is now called Wyalusing, then called Fort Marin, and another near Mackinaw known by the same designation. Between these two places, MARIN found it necessary to conduct an extensive traffic on the highways of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers; and his boats. heavily laden with valuable cargoes were obliged oftentimes to pass the village and fort of the Foxes on the bank of the Fox river at the Little Butte des Morts, and as often to submit to the forced exactions of the Foxes, in the form of tribute.

He was probably in command of the fort of the Folles Avoine or Menomonees in 1730, and it is certain that he had great influence with the French and the Indians who were hostile to the Foxes.

These repeated piratical levies determined MARIN to drive the marauding savages from their position. The traditional and other accounts of his valiant exploits leave some doubt