the whole
country, from Lake Superior to the Tennessee, and from the Alleghanies
to the Mississippi, was ravaged by wars of extermination, in which
tribes, large and powerful by Indian standards, perished, dwindled into
feeble remnants, or were absorbed by other tribes and vanished from
sight. French pioneers were sometimes involved in the carnage, but
neither they nor other Europeans were answerable for it.[286]

FOOTNOTES:

[279] See Chapter I.

[280] _Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi_, in
_N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 885.

[281] _Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi._

[282] This paper is printed, not very accurately, in the _Collection de
Documents relatifs a la Nouvelle France_, i. 623 (Quebec, 1883).

[283] "Cri horrible, dont la terre trembla."--_Dubuisson a Vaudreuil, 15
Juin, 1712._ This is the official report of the affair.

[284] According to the paper ascribed to Lery it was only the eighth.

[285] The paper ascribed to Lery says that they surrendered on a promise
from Vincennes that their lives should be spared, but that the promise
availed nothing.

[286] _Dubuisson a Vaudreuil, 15 Juin, 1712._ This is Dubuisson's report
to the governor, which soon after the event he sent to Montreal by the
hands of Vincennes. He says that the great fatigue through which he has
just passed prevents him from giving every detail, and he refers
Vaudreuil to the bearer for further information. The report is, however,
long and circumstantial.

_Etat de ce que M. Dubuisson a depense pour le service du Roy pour
s'attirer les Nations et les mettre dans ses interets afin de resister
aux Outagamis et aux Mascoutins qui etaient payes des Anglais pour
detruire le poste du Fort de Ponchartrain du Detroit, 14 Octobre, 1712._
Dubuisson reckons his outlay at 2,901 livres.

These documents, with the narrative ascribed to the engineer Lery, are
the contemporary authorities on which the foregoing account is based.

CHAPTER XIII.

1697-1750.

LOUISIANA.

The Mississippi to be occupied.--English
Rivalry.--Iberville.--Bienville.--Huguenots.--Views of Louis
XIV.--Wives for the Colony.--Slaves.--La Mothe-Cadillac.--Paternal
Government.--Crozat's Monopoly.--Factions.--The Mississippi
Company.--New Orleans.--The Bubble bursts.--Indian Wars.--The Colony
firmly established.--The two Heads of New France.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century an event took place that was