St. Louis - The Fourth City, Volume 1. Walter Barlow Stevens

the 10th of March Piernas took charge of the fort, receipting to Rui for the property of Spain. But before he had completed examination of the inventories there came an order from New Orleans to turn over the fort to St. Ange. Having complied with the order Piernas came down to St. Louis. This is what occurred to shock the representative of Spain:

       Having remained there a few days for the adjusting of accounts and the preparation of food, there occurred the novelty of the justice or council of that settlement trying to lay an embargo on the effects of the king, and on some of the persons of the Spanish garrison in my charge, at the instance of three or four private resident traders, in order that they might collect the debts contracted by a Spanish storekeeper, who had fled beforehand, for the supplies of food which they had furnished for the sustenance of the fort, and which the above-said storekeeper received on his Majesty 's account and had not satisfied. Their demand having been presented by those persons to the council, the latter determined to execute the embargo.

      Piernas says that the St. Ange council ignored the protest that the property belonged to the Spanish king and was proceeding to sell it to pay off the claims held by the St. Louis traders.

       It would have been effected had I not opposed it and complained of their sentence to Monsieur St. Ange, as first judge of the council and military superior. I alone recognized him and directed myself to him, so that as such he might protect our right, sustain the right of the Spanish nation and have the respect due the interests of the monarch guarded, of which I made him responsible. Thereupon he suspended the recommendation of the council, and the premeditated embargo ceased and the sale of the effects was permitted on the king's account.

       Before effecting my departure the debts contracted by the royal treasury among the habitants who were creditors for the supplies of food and other effects for the sustenance of the troops and employees of the fort, both during the time of the command by my predecessor and that of my own residence were paid.

      Notwithstanding his opinion of the government and of the lack of respect shown to Spanish authority, Piernas, in his report, gave St. Louisans a good name for industry and enterprise:

       The number of citizens is somewhat greater than that of Misere (Ste. Genevieve), but there are less people in it as there are not so many slaves; for as it is the last settlement that has been formed, they have not yet acquired the means to have slaves. Notwithstanding, its habitants apply themselves industriously to the cultivation of the fields, which are excellent, of vast extent, and produce much wheat. If they continue with the energy that they have hitherto exhibited, they will soon obtain their increase and will make the settlement one of the most populous, extensive, well managed and respectable of all that have been established.

      This, it is to be remembered, was written of St. Louis on the 31st of October, 1769. Rui, who had returned to New Orleans and who also made a report to O'Reilly in October, 1769, said:

       All the above country is very fertile. It produces with great abundance whatever is planted. In my time (1768) there was a great harvest of wheat and corn, so that if its inhabitants were to bestow all their labor on the soil, I am of the opinion they would have enough flour for the greater part of this place (New Orleans).

      Rui, with the help of St. Ange and Lefebvre, reported twenty-eight Indian tribes which as early as 1768 were coming to St. Louis to receive presents and to trade. These Indians were from the Missouri, the Upper Mississippi, the Wabash, the Great Lakes as far north as the Straits of Mackinac, and as far south as the Ohio river. Piernas described the Indian trade as he observed it at St. Louis in the early part of 1769:

       The near and distant Indian tribes, both those of the Mississippi and those of the Missouri and its branches, whose names are contained in the enclosed report, gather here. The season for their greatest gathering is during the months of May and June. At that time they descend the rivers in numerous parties with their traders to declare the furs. That is their first object, although it is accompanied with the pretext of visiting the chief and ratifying the friendship that has been established. All the time of their stay provisions are furnished them at the expense of the king, these provisions being reduced to bread and corn, for they provide themselves with meat; and when they depart, one has to make them, as it is the established custom, a present, which is proportional to the number of each tribe. Most of the tribes, with the exception of some remote and distant tribes of the Missouri, are accustomed to the use of brandy and prefer a small portion of it to any other present of merchandise even of four times the value. If the savages are treated with kindness, reasonably, and with consideration, they are reasonable when in their right mind. But when drunk they are importunate, beggars, insatiable, tiresome. Yet the commandant must always be attentive to them, listen to them with patience, compose the differences and discords among the various tribes, sometimes make rulings and mediate in their peaces, with persuasions, sometimes with firmness, and most always with presents.

      St. Louis was not two years old when the British tried to secure a considerable part of Laclede's Indian trade. About $50,000 was expended. Mayor Loftus had failed in his expedition up the Mississippi to occupy Fort Chartres in 1764. He had 400 soldiers from Mobile and thought he was strong enough to fight his way through. At Davion's Bluff, the Tunica Indians attacked him, killed five of his men and drove the force back down the river. Major Farmer commanding at Mobile, adopted the trading policy of the French. He assembled at New Orleans a fleet of boats, loaded upon them $20,000 worth of Indian goods and, in the spring of 1765, started Lieutenant John Ross up the river. Farmer's official accounts showed that in outfitting this expedition to the Illinois about $40,000 was expended. The venture got the Mobile governor into trouble with his government. In 1766, Farmer was tried by court martial and one of the charges was "misapplication of 10,000 pounds said to be expended on Indian presents, and on the fortifications." Farmer was acquitted after a long trial. The presents may have aided the British to get into Fort Chartres; they did not prevent the Indian trade from seeking Laclede's settlement.

      In October, 1767, Edward Cole, the deputy commissary at Fort Chartres, wrote to his superior at Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, telling of the arrival of the expedition of Rui at the mouth of the Missouri and his apprehension that the British would lose to St. Louis the entire Indian trade of the Illinois country. He advocated the location of a British post at the mouth of the Illinois river:

       "The Arrival of the Spaniards Borne time past, may make a (Treat turn in affairs in this Quarter as I am convinced no pains or Expence will be Stuck at to Ingratiate themselves into the favor of the Savages, they have not only taken possession of the French Settlements but leave them to be commanded as before, and have gone to the Missouri river, to Erect two Forts, on the Points, where it emptys into the Mississippi by which means they will command both Rivers. What will the French not be capable of doing through these advantageous Situations aided and assisted by Spanish dollars, they will not only be able to engross the whole Trade, but Gain the Intire affections of the Indians unless timely prevented by our having a Strong Post at the mouth of the Illinois, a Small distence above them, and until that is done I fear the Indian accounts will be rather higher than Lower."

      St. Louis got into print for the first time in 1770. That year Captain Philip Pitman, a British engineer officer, published in London a book on his observations along the Mississippi. He described St. Louis as he saw the settlement in 1767, when it was just three years old. He showed that the judgment Laclede exercised in the location of his settlement was in strong contrast with that of the other town builders. He reported that "Cascasquias is by far the most considerable settlement in the Illinois country." Some of the people of Kaskaskia moved to St. Louis. Others went elsewhere. "The Paris of America," as it was called, and the first capital of Illinois crumbled and went into the river. Cahokia, Pitman described as "the first settlement in the country." In the year of the great waters, "Kaoquias" as Pitman called it, went under to a depth of several feet. Most of the habitants moved to St. Louis. Saint Phillippe was another town upon which the English engineer reported. When Pitman arrived