Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/82

52 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY the goods in canoes, retreated down the Mississippi toward the Illinois river and were captured by allies of the Renards. The Sieur Jemeraye, early in 1729, abandoned the post, and nothing was done toward its re-establishment. In March, 1730, the Sieur Marin, a bold officer, moved against and had an engagement of the 'warmest character' with the Renards in Wisconsin; and in September of the same year another French force attacked them, killed many of their warriors and compelled them to escape. "After this defeat of the F»xes it was determined to build a new post on higher ground, yet in the vicinity of the first stock- ade, which had been destroyed. The new commandant was Sieur Portneuf. Linctot's son, Campau and several others were licensed to trade with the Sioux. Linctot passed the winter of 1731-32 at 'Mantagne Quitrempe Dans L'eau,' now corrupted to Trempealeau, and early in the spring of 1732 proceeded to the vicinity of Sandy Point, Lake Pepin, and found at the site of the old stockade ;i large number of Sioux awaiting his arrival. Select- ing a belter position, he erected a larger post, the pickets enclos- ing I2(i let square, and there were four bastions. The Sieur Linctot. jti 1733, asked to be relieved, and the able officer, Sieur Legardeur St. Pierre, was sent to command. Upon the 6th of May. ITMti. St. Pierre was informed by letters from Lake Superior of the dreadful massacre of twenty-one Frenchmen on an island in the Lake of the Woods by a party of Sioux. The 16th of Sep- tember there came to the Lake Pepin post a party of Sioux with some beaver skins as a pledge of friendship, and the next day another party, one of whom wore in his ear a silver pendant. When asked by St. Pierre how he obtained the ornament he refused to answer, and the captain tore it from his ear and found that it was similar in workmanship to those sold by the traders, and then placed him under guard. The Sioux, in December, were unruly, and burned the pickets around the garden of Guignas, chaplain of the post. In the spring of 1737 a war party of jib ways appeared from the St. Louis river of Lake Superior, and wished to attack the Sioux, and threatened St. Pierre; and after conferring with the son of Linctot, the second officer, in May. 1737, he set fire to the post and descended the Mississippi. "After a few years the Sioux begged that the French would return to Lake Pepin, and in 1750 the governor of Canada sent the great Indian fighter and stern officer, Pierre Paul Marin, to take command there, and Marin's son was stationed at Chagaua- migon, on Lake Superior. In 1752 Marin the elder was relieved at Lake Pepin and his son became his successor. The war between the French and English, which continued several years, led to the abandonment of the post at Lake Pepin. Captain Jonathan Car- ver, the first British traveler in Minnesota, mentioned in his book