Native American Apology To Governor Of Detroit

Source (ca 1839)

Lewis Brothers At Braddock's Defeat

Beyond The Appalachians

Near Cumberland Gap

At the opening of the eighteenth century the image of the West beyond the Appalachian Mountains was very dim in the minds of those subjects of the British crown who inhabited the fringe of colonies along the Atlantic coast.  The unsettled forest no longer seemed, as it had to Michael Wigglesworth in 1662, a 'Devils den,'.....  Yet few English-speaking colonists had reliable knowledge of the interior of the continent.

Source - Routes Of Early French Explorations

In so far as the West had come under European control at all, it was French.  The English colonists had been engaged in war against this enemy as early as the 1690's, but not even the boldest prophet could imagine a day when the English power would extend over the unmeasured expanse of the Mississippi Valley.  The imperial development of Britain was moving in another direction, toward dominion over the seven seas rather than toward the blank and remote hinterland of North America. [Source - VIRGIN LAND] 

Ruled By France

Under the lily and the rose: A Short History Of Canada For Children:

Source - Une Petite Canadienne

Quebec is a long distance from Versailles. In the days of which I write it seemed far, so very far away, and oft-times the settlers longed for the sunny land of France which the older people still  remembered. The colony had fallen on evil days. Sickness and want had left their impress. Even the Governor was quite as helpless as the people, for they were still largely dependent on France for support. There were no factories either in Quebec, Three Rivers, or Montreal, and when the crops were poor the inhabitants were reduced to starvation.

About Catherine de' Medici

About Catherine de' Medici,  By Honoré de Balzac

The United Empire Loyalists

Source

Michigan Law Under British Rule

Michigan Under British Rule: Law and Law Courts, 1760-1796, By William Renwick Riddell:

Old Creole Families Of New Orleans

In The New Orleans Gardens

Creole Families Of New Orleans:

My Lady of Orange

Source

About the author.

All On the Natchez Trace

House In Natchez, Mississippi

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE...:

"All (on the Natchez Trace) merged in the march of pioneers...doomed men and men of destiny moved along it."  "Their movement was not merely geographical along a north-south trail.  It was also chronological through a history which included Indian resistance, French speculation in settlement, Spanish domination, and finally American expansion."

Why Had They Come To St. Malo?

Source

Under the lily and the rose...: 

Acadia

Source

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:


But direct action (destroying Oswego) would have meant re-opening hostilities and that far the French were not prepared to go. Instead, La Jonquiere turned his attention to a project of more immediate strategic value. The commissioners in Paris had another bone of contention in the north--the exact extent and ownership of Acadia, the peninsula now known as Nova Scotia. The French had never reconciled themselves to the loss of this part of their possessions at the end of Marlborough's wars in 1713. The British were requiring the inhabitants, still entirely French in blood and language, to take a simple oath of allegiance to George II. ....Threatened with excommunication by their own priests...and under fear of massacre by suborned Indians, more than two thousand Acadians were persuaded to move to the mainland rather than take the new oath of allegiance.

Detroit's Last French Commandant

Plat Map Of Detroit Circa 1708

A military expedition by Belestre was mentioned in the Journal of J. L., of Quebec, merchant,  By John Lees...

"Settlers took shelter at the time descent was made on the German Flatts in the beginning of the last War, by a party from Canada, under the command of *Captain Billeter."

*"Billeter--Francois Marie Picote de Bellestre was the last French Commandant at Detroit.  He died at Quebec about May 20, 1793.  At that time he was member of the legislative council of Lower Canada."

Adventures In Michigan Circa 1760

Mackinac Island In The Distance

Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures in the Years 1760-1776:

"He [M. John Baptist Leduc] informed me of his acquaintance with the Indian languages and his knowledge of furs and gave me to understand that Michilimackinac was richer in this commodity than any other part of the world. He added that the Indians were a peaceable race of men...".

The Sergeant Of Fort Toronto

The Sergeant of Fort Toronto,  By George F. Millner:

"I am waiting, McLeod."

History And Catherine de'Medici

Source

About Catherine de' Medici  By Honoré de Balzac:

In France, and that, too, during the most serious epoch of modern history, no woman, unless it be Brunehaut or Fredegonde, has suffered from popular error so much as Catherine de' Medici; whereas Marie de' Medici, all of whose actions were prejudicial to France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henri IV.; she never purged herself of the charge of having known of the king's assassination; her intimate was d'Epernon, who did not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was proved to have known the murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that she forced her son to banish her from France, where she was encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due solely to the discovery the cardinal made, and imparted to Louis XIII., of secret documents relating to the death of Henri IV.

Memoir of Jean Baptiste Faribault

Memoir of Jean Baptiste Faribault:

Bartholomew Faribault, the father of the subject of this memoir...was so prominent, that he received from the government the important appointment of Military Secretary to the French army in Canada, then under the command of Montcalm. He came to Canada, entered upon his duties, and continued to discharge them until the 12th September, 1759, the day which witnessed the defeat of the French under the walls of Quebec, by the British forces commanded by the gallant General Wolfe... .

Source - Eastern North America, 1763

Jean Baptiste Faribault was born in Berthier, Canada, in 1774, one of 10 children, 4 of whom reached adulthood.

It was only by the combined influence and persuasion of his kindred and friends, that he was prevented from encountering the hardships and dangers of a sailor's life, for which he had early manifested a decided inclination. While thus thwarted, and still uncertain as to his future mode of life, an incident occurred which but for the strong remonstrances of his friends, would have resulted in his entering upon a military career. 

Faribault went to work for the Northwest Fur Company, traveling to Montreal and then to Michilimackinac (Mackinac).

Mackinac Island In The Distance

The station or trading post to which young Faribault was assigned was...not very far from the present site of the city of Chicago. That region being under the jurisdiction of the United States, it was a necessary preliminary that a license to trade be obtained from the proper authorities (from Governor Harrison of the Northwest Territory). Faribault was promoted to a post on the Des Moines river.  He narrowly escaped assassination... .

During the third year of his residence at Little Rapids [yet another post], Mr. Faribault married a widow, the daughter [some sources say widow] of a Mr. Hanse, who had been previously Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This event precluded any idea of Mr. F.'s return to Canada.

The combined force of militia and Indians, upon their arrival at Prairie du Chien, made preparations to attack the American post. Mrs. F. supposed her husband to have proceeded to Mackinac, and had no idea that he was a prisoner in the hands of the attacking party.

The wife of Jean Baptiste Faribault died at Mendota June 19, 1847.

Faribault's son-in-law was Major [Stern H.] Fowler, the husband of daughter Emily.  Mr. Faribault died 20 August 1860 at his daughter's house.

United States Census, 1860

name:  Isan B Fauland [sic]

residence: , Rice, Minnesota

ward: Township Of Fanbault [sic]

age: 85 years

estimated birth year: 1775

birthplace: Canada E

gender:  Male

See de Salaberry post in War of 1812 for related information.

The Evolution Of Belle Isle

From Legends of Le Détroit:

The missionaries, indignant at this exhibition of idolatry, broke the statue in a thousand pieces and in its place erected a cross, at whose foot they affixed the coat of arms of France with this:

Taking the largest fragment of the broken idol the missionaries...towed it to the deepest part of the river so that it should be heard of no more. But the tradition says that after the fathers were far away a band of Indians coming to offer their homage to the deity found only its mutilated remains. Each took a fragment which he placed in his canoe as a fetish and it guided them to where the Spirit of the Manitou had taken refuge under the deep sombre shadow of Belle Isle.

 He bade them bring every fragment of his broken image and to strew them on the banks of his abode. They obeyed his order and behold each stone was converted into a rattlesnake, which should be as a sentinel... .

The Tugboat Hunter blog has a post with a view of the river from Belle Isle.

Pageant Of Old Detroit

Source

THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY

 1701

 PERSONS

 Chevalier Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac 

Antoine his son 

Captain Alphonse de Tonty 

Lieutenants Dugue and Chacornacle 

Surgeon Henri Belisle 

Pere del Halle Recollet 

Pere Vaillant Jesuit 

Jean Fafard Interpreter 

French soldiers, woodsmen, artisans, Indians 

Foreigners In Spanish Texas In 1804

Jim's Photo 

From Lots of Land:

In 1804, according to Mrs. Hatcher, there were sixty-eight foreigners living in Spanish Texas, of whom fifty had been there more than three years. Thirteen of them were Americans, among them William Barr and Samuel Davenport. There were nine Frenchmen and eight Irishmen living at Nacogdoches. None of

them held land titles from the Spanish, nor did Gil Ybarbo and his clan. But they were there, with deep roots in the soil, and they were never budged, not even twenty-odd years later when a foreign empresario sought to evict them.

See It Was Americans Who Broke Through from the same source at Relatively Fiction.