The War in the Northwest 223 



tion of any provisions whatever, and, finally, the 

 soldiers were compelled to levy on all that they 

 needed. Todd paid for these impressed goods, as 

 well as for what the contractors furnished, at the 

 regulation prices one-third in paper-money and 

 two-thirds in peltries; and thus the garrisons at 

 Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes were supplied 

 with powder, lead, sugar, flour, and, above all, hogs- 

 heads of taffia, of which they drank an inordinate 

 quantity. 



The justices did not have very much work; in 

 most of the cases that came before them the plain- 

 tiff and defendant were both of the same race. 

 One piece of recorded testimony is rather amusing, 

 being to the effect that "Monsieur Smith est un 

 grand vilain coquin." 7 



Yet there are two entries in the proceedings of 

 the Creole courts for the summer of 1779, as pre- 

 served in Todd's "Record Book," which are of 

 startling significance. To understand them it must 

 be remembered that the Creoles were very ignorant 

 and superstitious, and that they one and all, includ- 

 ing, apparently, even their priests, firmly believed 

 in witchcraft and sorcery. Some of their negro 

 slaves had been born in Africa, the others had come 

 from the Lower Mississippi or the West Indies; 

 they practiced the strange rites of voudooism, and 

 a few were adepts in the art of poisoning. Ac- 

 cordingly the French were always on the look-out 



1 This and most of the other statements for which no au- 

 thority is quoted, are based on Todd's MS. " Record Book." 



