254 THE ILLINOIS. [1764. 



Swarms of vagabond Indians infested the settle- 

 ments ; and, to people of any other character, they 

 would have proved an intolerable annoyance. But 

 the easy-tempered Creoles made friends and com- 

 rades of them ; ate, drank, smoked, and often 

 married with them. They were a debauched and 

 drunken rabble, the remnants of that branch of 

 the Algonquin stock known among the French as 

 the Illinois, a people once numerous and powerful, 

 but now miserably enfeebled, and corrupted by 

 foreign wars, domestic dissensions, and their own 

 licentious manners. They comprised the broken 

 fragments of five tribes, — the Kaskaskias, Caho- 

 kias, Peorias, Mitchigamias, and Tamaronas. Some 

 of their villages were in the close vicinity of the 

 Creole settlements. On a hot summer morning, 

 they might be seen lounging about the trading- 

 house, basking in the sun, begging for a dram of 



eries ; any one who has had any dealings with them must plainly see 

 that they are for the most part transported Convicts, or people who have 

 fled for some crimes ; those who have not done it themselves are the 

 oflspring of such as those I just mentioned, inheriting their Forefathers' 

 vices. They are cruel and treacherous to each other, and consequently 

 so to Strangers ; they are dishonest in every kind of business and lay 

 themselves out to overreach Strangers, which they often do by a low 

 cunning, peculiar to themselves ; and their artful flatteries, with extrava- 

 gant Entertainments (in which they affect the greatest hospitality) gen- 

 erally favor their schemes." 



Of the traders, he says, " They are in general most unconscious 

 (unconscionable) Rascals, whose interest it was to debauch from us such 

 Indians as they found well disposed towards us, and to foment and increace 

 the animosity of such as they found otherwise. To this we should alone 

 impute our late war with the Indians." 



He sets down the number of white inhabitants at about seven hundred 

 able to bear arms, though he says that it is impossible to form a just esti- 

 mate, as they are continually going and coming to and from the Indian 

 nations. 



