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Indiana University 
British negotiators he never mentioned the subject, it was 
doubtless one of the reasons back of his urgency to obtain 
this country. 
The cession of the country south of the Great Lakes to the 
new republic produced alarm and indignation among the 
merchants of Montreal. In spite of the treaty they deter- 
mined to make desperate efforts to hold their southwestern 
fur trade. At Detroit the value of one year’s collection of 
furs was half a million dollars, and it was paid for by goods 
of British manufacture.^® To hold this trade it would be neces- 
sary to hold the posts south of the lakes, and the British 
government willingly fell in with this plan. For the next 
few years Maumee and Wabash furs continued to go to De- 
troit and into the storerooms of British traders. 
In the list of Detroit merchants trading in the country to 
the southward we find the names of John MacPherson, George 
Sharp, and John Askin. In the Maumee-Wabash Valley was 
the great merchant David Gray, who traded at Miamitown 
(Fort Wayne), Muncie, and Vincennes. Of less importance 
was George Ironside, of Miamitown.-^ 
Askin sent his traders south for furs, and Francis Vigo, a 
Frenchman from St. Louis, gathered in the pelts around Vin- 
cennes and shipped them to him.®® 
Letter quoted in Cruikshank, “Fur Trade, 1783-1787”, in Royal Canadian Institute 
Transactions, V, 77. 
‘^Christopher B. Coleman (ed.), “Letters from Eighteenth-century Indiana Mer- 
chants”, in Indiana Magazine of History, V, 142-152 (December, 1909). 
3“ The John Askin Papers in 18 volumes are in the Burton Collection, Detroit Public 
Library. On June 22, 1786, Askin wrote to Todd and McGill, merchants of Montreal: 
“Mr. Vigo is here and has bought about 100 Packs ... he is allowed to be the 
best man towards the Post we have fitted him out & have great Reasons to think 
he will make a great . Stroke as we do not see any person who is both capable & 
Inclined to oppose us in that Quarter.” Askin, Papers, I. Two years later on April 
18, 1778, the Askin Papers have a “Copy of an Act [account] of Peltries Received from 
Mr. Vigo last summer as follows : 
3889 Deer Skins 1 
64 Fawns J ’ ' 
3 Tygers 
2 Wolves 
214 Otters 
729 1/2 bad Beavers 
264 Racoons 
7 6 Catts & foxes . . . 
139 Bears 
20 Cubbs 
.. 4/ 
777.16 
.. 4/ 
12 
.. 4/ 
8 
299.12 
.. 6/ 
218.17 
.. 3/ 
. . 5/ 
19. 
. .18/ 
125. 2 
..12/ 
12. 
N. Y. [Currency] 1,492.19 
Deduct 10% for bad 149. 4 
1 , 343 . 15 ” 
