Note 113 — II A Selection of George Croghan’s Letters and Journals Relating to Tours into the Western Country—November 16, 1750-November, 1765. (continued 2)

The date of the founding of Vincennes (Post or Port Vincent) has been varyingly assigned from 1702 to 1735; but Dunn, in his Indiana (Boston and New York, 1888), p. 54, shows quite conclusively that François Margane, Sieur de Vincennes, went thither at the request of Governor Périer of Louisiana in 1727, and founded a fort to counteract the designs of the English against the French trade. The French colony was not begun until 1735, and the next year the commandant Vincennes was captured and burnt by the Chickasaws, while engaged in an expedition against their country. Louis St. Ange succeeded to the position of commandant at Vincennes, which he continued to hold until 1764, when summoned to the Illinois. He left two soldiers in charge at Vincennes, of whom and their companions Croghan gives this unfavorable account. No English officer appeared to take command at Vincennes until 1777; meanwhile General Gage had endeavored to expel the French inhabitants therefrom (1772-73). It is not surprising, therefore, that they received the Americans under George Rogers Clark (1778), with cordiality; or that after Hamilton’s re-capture of the place, they were unwilling to aid the English in maintaining the post against Clark’s surprise (February, 1779), which resulted in the capture of Hamilton and all the British garrison. After this event, Vincennes became part of the Illinois government, until the organization of a Northwest Territory in 1787.—Ed.