30 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



1752 the supplies of peltry floated down the Mississippi to 

 New Orleans increased to a marked degree. The fur traffic 

 in that portion of Louisiana drained by the Missouri and 

 its branches was placed under the monopolistic control of 

 one Deruisseau, but the new official was not able to con- 

 trol his traders, who corrupted the savages by their evil 

 ways; these traders engaged in every excess, even stealing 

 and carrying away Indian girls, which provoked the Indians 

 to a murderous onslaught on one post, which they destroyed. 



In addition to misdeeds, "the Frenchmen defrauded the 

 savages most shamefully. For example, for 1,000 crowns' 

 worth of fine beaver skins they paid a small amount of 

 powder which they told the Indians was a new variety that, 

 if planted, would produce all the powder they would want. 

 As soon as the natives discovered that they had been de- 

 frauded they were infuriated against the French in gen- 

 eral." 10 



When hostilities began again with England in 1754, the 

 French were once again without goods for barter, and this 

 situation continued throughout the war period, with the 

 French losing the little hold that they had kept on the 

 Indian fur trade. But they clung to the great Illinois 

 country, and at the end of the struggle between the two 

 countries, the fur trade in this part of the province was 

 not only intact but actually growing. 



In 1762, "Ma'xent, Laclede & Co." of New Orleans re- 

 ceived a permit from Governor Kelerec to establish trading 

 operations on the Missouri river and preparations were 

 at once made to make the most of this grant, which included 

 the right to trade in all fur and peltries, excepting beaver 

 skins, and in September of 1763, the junior member of the 

 firm was ready for a trip into the north country. 



Two sons of New Orleans, Pierre Laclede Liguest and 

 Auguste Chouteau, by name, left the Crescent City for the 

 upper reaches of the Missouri under a grant that gave their 

 firm the right of exclusive trade with the Indians of that 

 stream, as well as the other savage natives west of the 

 Mississippi river. 



Surrey, c<,m merce of Louisiana, p. 363. 



