SETTLEMENT OF SOUTHERN INDIANA - THE CRUELTY OF THE FRENCH.
(Transcribed from the book Pioneer History Of Indiana)

        During all the time from 1790 except the last part of the year 1794 and 1795 up to several years after the formation of Indiana Territory in 1800, the country now known as southern Indiana was completely at the mercy of the Indians, except a mile or so outside the fort of Vincennes, not much beyond the range of the guns of the few regulars stationed at that post. The great victory won by General Wayne over the Indians in 1794 on the waters of the Maumee had a very pacific effect on all the Indians of the Northwest Territory for a year or so, as nearly every section of that vast country had bands of young hunters in ‘that battle; but there were bands of roving Indians who were always watching for the white people coming to settle in this part of the country, The Indians were on or near the lines leading from their towns on White river to the Ohio river most of the time in spring, summer and fall months.
        It is frequently asked why all southern Indiana was so completely under the control of the savage bands of Indians at the close of the eighteenth century when there had been a post at Vincennes for sixty-five years and a fort with French regulars was there as early as 1702. It seems that the French people at that time who were as jealous of the settlement of the country by other people than their own, as were the Indians and that- they were either trappers or buyers of furs and did not want this country settled as it would do away with their vocation.
        There was no part of Indiana that was not owned by the Indians until 1803 except the strip ceded at Greenville in 1795 when General Wayne held a treaty with many tribes of Indians. The land ceded by that treaty commenced at Ft. Recovery on the west line of what afterward became the state of Ohio running thence in a southerly direction to the Ohio river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. This line was made thinking that the Ohio state link would come to that point instead of the mouth of the Miami river. The treaty made in l803 was a part of the Vincennes tract including quite a section of territory in the Illinois country, west of the Wabash river.
        The territory obtained by the treaty of 1804 commenced on the Wabash river at the south line of the Vincennes tract, running thence down that river to its mouth, thence up the Ohio river to Louisville; west from that point until that line intersected the line of the Vincennes tract, thence around that line on the south side to the place of starting. This last treaty gave to the United States all of southwestern Indiana and at once settlers commenced to come into that territory. Before that period they had been warned to keep off the Indians’ land both by the Indians and the commanders governing the Northwest and Indiana Territories. Many persons who had started from Virginia. Tennessee and the Carolinas, intending to settle in the Northwest Territory’ had stopped in Kentucky all along the southern bank of the Ohio near the river and were only waiting for an opportunity. When the United States had possession of the property to emigrate into that country. During the years 1805 and 1806 there was a large emigration settled in many parts of southern Indiana.
        The French were as relentless in their cruelty to the people of the colonies before they were defeated by the colonial and British troops as were the Indians. It is true that when General George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes in 1779 the French in these places were the Americans’ friends but the reason for this was that the French had been badly beaten by the colonial and English troops while the colonies were controlled by the English, losing their princely possession; Canada, and the Northwest Territory and they were ready to befriend and help anyone who was against the British.
        The former history of the French when they were the ruling power in all the country west of the Allegheny mountains and north of the Ohio river was full of bloody massacres in connection with their Indian allies, in some cases the French being more brutal and cruel in their treatment of the helpless people on the border settlements who fell into their hands than the Indians.
        In the massacre at Fort William Henry in 1757 by the French and their Indian allies, under Montcalm, the French outnumbered the Indians five to one. The Indians indiscriminately murdered the men and carried the women and children into captivity, not one of them ever returning to their homes. When Captain Beaujeau at Fort Duquesne with four hundred Indians and thirty Canadians won a complete victory over Braddock, these savages with their tomahawks killed the wounded and scalped them without protest. When they returned to the fort at night they were all loaded down with plunder and scalps and had fifteen prisoners with them who they stripped of their clothing and burned to death on the parade ground of the fort where their brutality was witnessed by one thousand regular French soldiers without a protest by any Frenchman. (Narrated by Colonel John Smith who was a prisoner at the fort at that time.) Again the French and Indians went from Montreal, Canada, in the depths of winter to Schenectady, New York, captured the town, killing all the men and carrying the women into captivity to a fate worse than death. This was very early in our country's history and is reproduced here to show that the savage acts of the French were not confined to a later period when the English had given them provocation.
        Lafayette was a brave, generous Frenchman who, of his own volition, espoused the cause of the United States against Great Britain. He was actuated by no hope of reward except the glory that would accrue to him if successful and though a very young man he had foreknowledge that was valuable to him. This country gave him princely presents and loaded him with all the honors due to his heroic actions.
        The alliance with France during our war for independence was brought about by our commissioners, mostly through the influence that Dr. Franklin had with the men of letters in France and through his great influence with the good natured king, Louis XVI. To the United States it was a great blessing in time of need and to France it was a great blessing to transfer her maritime war with England into the waters of her ally. The loans negotiated by Colonel John Laurans and others were all paid with a good premium and no doubt the French people expected that the United States would stand by her in any quarrel she might have with other nations. In 1793 when she was at war with Spain, M. Genet, the French minister to this country, tried to enlist men in Kentucky and elsewhere to capture Louisiana and after he had been recalled and Mr. Fauchit was sent as minister the French tried to involve us in her many wars with European nations and when she found that she could not do that, captured and confiscated some of our best merchant vessels. When our commissioners attempted to adjust the matter, France demanded tribute money for some trumped up claim and only released our ships when Commodore Truxton had captured two of her best war vessels.
        The United States owes nothing to England or France for when either of them had a chance with their Indian allies in front, they committed deeds of cruelty that will ever blacken the pages of history.


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