260 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vou. iNUE. 
stool within. Twenty miles to westward lay the Ottawa village of 
L’Arbre Croche having a population of fifteen hundred Christian Indians 
principally engaged in agriculture. In fact the traders of the post were 
wholly dependent upon them for provisions both for their expeditions 
into the fur-country to the west and north and when returning to 
Montreal. 
A number of French families had already taken up their permanent 
residence on Green Bay near the mouth of the Fox river where they 
cultivated small farms and gained a comfortable living by selling their 
surplus products to passing traders. The Fox and Wisconsin rivers 
afforded an easy and tolerably direct passage to the Mississippi. 
The principal village of the Winnebagoes or Puants stood on an Island 
in the lake to which they bequeathed their name. The capital of the 
Sacs on the Wisconsin river was described by Carver as the largest and 
best-built Indian town he had ever seen in the course of his extensive 
experience. It consisted of about ninety houses, each of them large 
enough to shelter several families, built of hewn plank neatly jointed, and 
covered so securely as to be proof against the heaviest rains. The streets 
were regular and spacious. The inhabitants tilled their gardens ener- 
setically and grew such quantities of corn and vegetables that this was 
considered the best market to purchase provisions of any within several 
hundred miles. The male population of the tribes between Green Bay 
and the Mississippi was not believed to exceed 1200, divided in the 
~ following proportions—Menomonees, 110; Folles-Avoines, 100; Win- 
nebagoes or Puants, 300; Sacs, 300; Foxes, 320. 
An Indian village of almost three hundred houses occupied the site of 
Prairie du Chien and a considerable number of French traders made it 
their head-quarters. The neighboring tribes and even those living on 
the most remote branches of the Mississippi annually assembled there 
about the end of May with the furs they had obtained during the winter. 
A general council of the chiefs was then held to determine whether they 
should sell their peltry to the traders who came there to purchase or take 
them to the French posts in Louisiana. 
All of the smaller trading-stations to the north and west of Mackinac 
had been abandoned during the war except one occupied by J. B. Cadotte 
at Sault Ste. Marie. 
The Ottawas and Sioux and the Indians of Wisconsin generally, 
remained firmly attached to the French interests and it was from these 
hardy and warlike tribes that they obtained their most efficient auxiliar- 
ies. Picked bands of these Indians had defeated Braddock on the 
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