here under the influence of trade. But soon, whether by design
of the French and their allies or otherwise, hostilities broke out
against the Foxes and their allies. The animus of the combat appears in
the cries of the Foxes as they raised red blankets for flags and shouted
"We have no father but the English!" while the allies of the French
replied, "The English are cowards; they destroy the Indians with brandy
and are enemies of the true God!" The Foxes were defeated with great
slaughter and driven back to Wisconsin.[132] From this time until 1734
the French waged war against the Foxes with but short intermissions. The
Foxes allied themselves with the Iroquois and the Sioux, and acted as
middlemen between the latter and the traders, refusing passage to goods
on the ground that it would damage their own trade to allow this.[133]
They fostered hostilities between their old foes the Chippeways and
their new allies the Sioux, and thus they cut off English intercourse
with the latter by way of the north. This trade between the Chippeways
and the Sioux was important to the French, and commandants were
repeatedly sent to La Pointe de Chagouamigon and the upper Mississippi
to make peace between the two tribes.[134] While the wars were in
progress the English took pains to enforce their laws against furnishing
Indian goods to French traders. The English had for a time permitted
this, and their own Indian trade had suffered because the French were
able to make use of the cheap English goods. By their change in policy
the English now brought home to the savages the fact that French goods
were dearer.[135] Moreover, English traders were sent to Niagara to deal
directly with "the far Indians," and the Foxes visited the English and
Iroquois, and secured a promise that they might take up their abode with
the latter and form an additional member of the confederacy in case of
need.[136] As a counter policy the French attempted to exterminate the
Foxes, and detached the Sioux from their alliance with the Foxes by
establishing Fort Beauharnois, a trading post on the Minnesota side of
Lake Pepin.[137]

The results of these wars were as follows:

1. They spread the feeling of defection among the Northwestern Indians,
who could no longer be restrained, as at first, by the threat of cutting
off their trade, there being now rivals in the shape of the English, and
the French traders from Louisiana.[138]

2. They caused a readjustment of the