23 2 The Winning of the West 



Wabash; each member of the court in turn absent- 

 ing himself for the day on which his associates 

 granted him his share. 



This vast mass of virgin soil they sold to specula- 

 tors at nominal prices, sometimes receiving a horse 

 or a gun for a thousand acres. The speculators 

 of course knew that their titles were worthless, and 

 made haste to dispose of different lots at very low 

 prices to intending settlers. These small buyers 

 were those who ultimately suffered by the transac- 

 tion, as they found they had paid for worthless 

 claims. The speculators reaped the richest harvest; 

 and it is hard to decide whether to be amused or 

 annoyed at the childish and transparent rascality of 

 the French Creoles. 17 



In the Illinois country proper the troops, the 

 American settlers, speculators, and civil officials, 

 and the Creole inhabitants all quarreled together 

 indiscriminately. The more lawless new-comers 

 stole horses from the quieter Creoles; the worst 

 among the French, the idle coureurs-des-bois, voy- 

 ageurs, and trappers plundered and sometimes killed 

 the peaceable citizens of either nationality. The 

 soldiers became little better than an unruly mob; 

 some deserted, or else in company with other ruf- 

 fians, both French and American, indulged in furi- 

 ous and sometimes murderous orgies, to the terror 

 of the Creoles who had property. The civil authori- 

 ties, growing day by day weaker, were finally shorn 



17 State Department MSS., Nos. 30 and 48. Law's "Vin- 

 cennes." 



