he Spanish
commandant.(77) Upon Winston was also laid the chief blame for the
discontent of the French, he being charged with having told Montgomery
that the French were strangers to liberty and must be ruled with a rod of
iron or the bayonet, and that if he wanted anything he must send his
guards and take it by force; while, at the same time, he told the French
that the military was a band of robbers and came to Illinois for
plunder.(78) However, numerous and well-founded as the accusations might
be, both accused and accuser laid their claims for salary before the
Virginia Board of Commissioners for the Settlement of Western
Accounts.(79) Even the notorious Col. Montgomery presented before this
board his defence, which consisted of a recital of his meritorious deeds,
others being omitted.(80)

Another visitor to the Board of Commissioners was Francis Carbonneaux,
prothonotary and notary public for the Illinois country. Although he came
to get some private affairs settled, his chief mission was to lay before
the Board the confusion in Illinois, and the Board correctly surmised that
if Virginia did not afford relief the messenger would proceed to
Congress.(81) It was but natural that at this time, the people of Illinois
should be in doubt as to whom to present their petition, because Virginia
had offered to cede her western lands to Congress, although the terms of
cession were not yet agreed upon. Carbonneaux complained that Illinois was
wholly without law or government; that the magistrates, from indolence or
sinister views, had for some time been lax in the execution of their
duties, and were now altogether without authority; that crimes of the
greatest enormity might be committed with impunity, and a man be murdered
in his own house and no one regard it; that there was neither sheriff nor
prison; and to crown the general confusion, that many persons had made
large purchases of three and four hundred leagues, and were endeavoring to
have themselves established lords of the soil, as some had done in Canada,
and to have settlements made on these purchases, composed of a set of men
wholly subservient to their views. The Spanish traded freely in Illinois,
but strictly prohibited Illinois from trading in Spanish dominions.
Complaint was also made that the Board of Commissioners had not settled
the Illinois accounts in peltry according to the known rule and practice,
namely: that fifty pounds of peltry should represent one hu