n better chosen, and
there was no difficulty in mating them. Serious disputes sometimes rose
from the competition of rival suitors.--Dumont, _Memoires historiques de
la Louisiane_, chap. v.

[308] Prominent officials of the colony are said to have got wives from
these sources. Nicolas de la Salle is reported to have had two in
succession, both from the hospitals. Benard de la Harpe, 107 (ed. 1831).

[309] _Lettres patentes en forme d'Edit portant etablissement de la
Compagnie d'Occident_, in Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire de la Louisiane_,
i. 47.

[310] _Reglement de Regie, 1721._

[311] Saint-Simon, _Memoires_ (ed. Cheruel), xvii. 461.

[312] _De Chassin au Ministre, 1 Juillet, 1722_, in Gayarre, i. 190.

[313] A considerable number of the whites brought to Louisiana in the
name of the Company had been sent at the charge of persons to whom it
had granted lands in various parts of the colony. Among these was John
Law himself, who had the grant of large tracts on the Arkansas.

[314] Benard de la Harpe, 371 (ed. 1831).

[315] _Lettre du Pere le Petit_, in _Lettres Edifiantes_; Dumont,
_Memoires historiques_, chap. xxvii.

[316] "Nos soldats, qui semblent etre faits expres pour la colonie,
tants ils sont mauvais."--_Depeche de Perier, 18 Mars, 1730._

[317] _Memoire de Bienville, 1730._

[318] For a curious account of the discovery of this negro plot, see Le
Page du Pratz, iii. 304.

[319] _Depeche de Bienville, 6 Mai, 1740._ Compare Le Page du Pratz,
iii. chap. xxiv.

CHAPTER XIV.

1700-1732.

THE OUTAGAMIE WAR.

The Western Posts.--Detroit.--The Illinois.--Perils of the West.--The
Outagamies.--Their Turbulence.--English Instigation.--Louvigny's
Expedition.--Defeat of Outagamies.--Hostilities renewed.--Lignery's
Expedition.--Outagamies attacked by Villiers; by Hurons and
Iroquois.--La Butte des Morts.--The Sacs and Foxes.

The rulers of Canada labored without ceasing in their perplexing task of
engrossing the fur-trade of the West and controlling the western tribes
to the exclusion of the English. Every day made it clearer that to these
ends the western wilderness must be held by forts and trading-posts; and
this policy of extension prevailed more and more, in spite of the league
of merchants, who wished to draw the fur-trade to Montreal,--in spite of
the Jesuits, who felt that their influence over the remoter tribes would
be compromised by the presence among them of officers, soldiers, and
tr