1764.] ST. ANGE DE BELLERIVE. 259 



In the summer of 1764, the military comman- 

 dant, Neyon, had abandoned the country in disgust, 

 and gone down to New Orleans, followed by many 

 of the inhabitants ; a circumstance already men- 

 tioned. St. Ange de Bellerive remained behind to 

 succeed him. St. Ange was a veteran Canadian 

 officer, the same who, more than forty years before, 

 had escorted Father Charlevoix through the coun- 

 try, and who is spoken of with high commendation 

 by the Jesuit traveller and historian. He took 

 command of about forty men, the remnant of the 

 garrison of Fort Chartres ; which, remote as it was, 

 was then esteemed one of the best constructed mil- 

 itary works in America. Its ramparts of stone, 

 garnished with twenty cannon, scowled across the 

 encroaching Mississippi, destined, before many 

 years, to ingulf curtain and bastion in its ravenous 

 abyss. 



St. Ange's position was by no means an enviable 

 one. He had a critical part to play. On the one 

 hand, he had been advised of the cession to the 

 English, and ordered to yield up the country when- 

 ever they should arrive to claim it. On the other, 

 he was beset by embassies from Pontiac, from the 

 Shawanoes, and from the Miamis, and plagued day 

 and night by an importunate mob of Illinois Indians, 

 demanding arms, ammunition, and assistance against 

 the common enemy. Perhaps, in his secret heart, 

 St. Ange would have rejoiced to see the scalps of 

 all the Englishmen in the backwoods fluttering in 

 the wind over the Illinois wigwams ; but his situa- 

 tion forbade him to comply with the solicitations of 



