,
Ouiatenon, and Vincennes, as feeders for this Detroit market by way of
the Wabash and Maumee valleys, is also made plain. A glimpse of the
activities at Miamitown (Fort Wayne), in the winter of 1789-1790, while
it was still under the domination of the British, shows the Miamis,
Shawnees and Potawatomi coming in with otter, beaver, bear skins and
other peltry, the presence of a lot of unscrupulous, cheating French
traders, who were generally drunk when assembled together, and who took
every advantage of each other, and of the destitute savages with whom
they were trading. At that time the French half-breeds (and traders) of
the names of Jean Cannehous, Jacque Dumay, Jean Coustan and others were
trading with the Indians at Petit Piconne, or Tippecanoe, and all this
trade was routed through by way of the Wabash, the portage at Miamitown,
and the Maumee, to Detroit. The traders at Ouiatenon, who undoubtedly
enjoyed the advantage of the Beaver lake trade in northwestern Indiana,
by way of the Potawatomi trail from the Wabash to Lake Michigan, were
also in direct communication with the merchants of Detroit, and depended
upon them. It is interesting to observe in passing, that the rendezvous
of the French traders at the Petit Piconne (termed by General Charles
Scott, as Keth-tip-e-ca-nunk), was broken up by a detachment of Kentucky
mounted volunteers under General James Wilkinson, in the summer of 1791,
and utterly destroyed. One who accompanied the expedition stated that
there were then one hundred and twenty houses at this place, eighty of
which were shingled; that the best houses belonged to French traders;
and that the gardens and improvements around the place were delightful;
that there was a tavern located there, with cellars, a bar, and public
and private rooms. Thus far had the fur trade advanced in the old days.

CHAPTER III

THE BEAVER TRADE

--_A description of the wealth in furs of this section at the close of
the Revolutionary War and the reasons of the struggle for its control._

Perhaps no country ever held forth greater allurement to savage huntsmen
and French voyageurs than the territory acquired by Clark's conquest.
Its rivers and lakes teemed with edible fish; its great forests abounded
with deer, elk, bears and raccoons; its vast plains and prairies were
filled with herds of buffalo that existed up almost to the close of the
eighteenth century; every swamp and morass was filled with countless