ed souls have passed [Fort Harmar, at Falls of Ohio] daily: the
people are all taken up with Col. Morgan's New Madrid.... The generality
of the inhabitants of Kaskaskias, and a number of those at Post Vincennes,
I am informed, have quit those villages, and gone over to the Spanish
side. The arrival of your Excellency amongst them, I believe is anxiously
expected."(130)

The Indians were very hostile, and it is noteworthy that by the middle of
1789, the comparative immunity of the French from attack had ceased. Only
negroes were safe, and they, probably, because they sold well.(131) Civil
government was at low ebb in the Kaskaskia region. By January, 1789, the
court at Kaskaskia had dissolved.(132)

The depopulation of Illinois led Hamtramck to write to Bartholomew
Tardiveau, at the Falls of Ohio, asking whether it were true that the
slaves of the French were to be free. Tardiveau responded that it was not
true, and that he had written from New York, the preceding December, to
Hamtramck and to Illinois concerning the matter, but that his letters had
been intercepted. The true meaning of the resolve of Congress was
published at Vincennes upon the receipt of Tardiveau's letter and was to
be published in Illinois at the first opportunity. The narration of these
facts was closed by the statement that if the governor or the judges did
not come soon, most of the people would go to the Spanish side, "for they
begin to think there are no such men as a Governor or Judges."(133)

In September, 1789, Hamtramck received the following petition from
Kaskaskia:

"To John Francis Hamtramck, Esqr., Major of the 1st U. S. Regt. and
commandant at Post Vincennes, &c. &c.

"The inhabitants of Kaskaskias, in the Illinois, beg leave to address you,
as the next commanding officer in the service of the United States, to lay
before you the deplorable situation we are reduced to, and the absolute
necessity of our being speedily succoured to prevent as well our total
ruin, as that of the place.

"The Indians are greatly more numerous than the white people, and are
rather hostilely inclined; the name of an American among them is a
disgrace, because we have no superior. Our horses, horned cattle, and corn
are stolen and destroyed without the power of making any effectual
resistance. Our houses are in ruin and decay; our lands are uncultivated;
debtors absconded and absconding; our little commerce destroyed. We are
apprehensive of a dearth of co