[313] A considerable number of the whites brought to Louisiana in the name of the Company had been sent at the charge of persons to whom it had granted lands in various parts of the colony. Among these was John Law himself, who had the grant of large tracts on the Arkansas. [314] Benard de la Harpe, 371 (ed. 1831). [315] _Lettre du Pere le Petit_, in _Lettres Edifiantes_; Dumont, _Memoires historiques_, chap. xxvii. [316] "Nos soldats, qui semblent etre faits expres pour la colonie, tants ils sont mauvais."--_Depeche de Perier, 18 Mars, 1730._ [317] _Memoire de Bienville, 1730._ [318] For a curious account of the discovery of this negro plot, see Le Page du Pratz, iii. 304. [319] _Depeche de Bienville, 6 Mai, 1740._ Compare Le Page du Pratz, iii. chap. xxiv. CHAPTER XIV. 1700-1732. THE OUTAGAMIE WAR. The Western Posts.--Detroit.--The Illinois.--Perils of the West.--The Outagamies.--Their Turbulence.--English Instigation.--Louvigny's Expedition.--Defeat of Outagamies.--Hostilities renewed.--Lignery's Expedition.--Outagamies attacked by Villiers; by Hurons and Iroquois.--La Butte des Morts.--The Sacs and Foxes. The rulers of Canada labored without ceasing in their perplexing task of engrossing the fur-trade of the West and controlling the western tribes to the exclusion of the English. Every day made it clearer that to these ends the western wilderness must be held by forts and trading-posts; and this policy of extension prevailed more and more, in spite of the league of merchants, who wished to draw the fur-trade to Montreal,--in spite of the Jesuits, who felt that their influence over the remoter tribes would be compromised by the presence among them of officers, soldiers, and traders; and in spite of the King himself, who feared that the diffusion of the colony would breed disorder and insubordination. Detroit, the most important of the western posts, struggled through a critical infancy in the charge of its founder, La Mothe-Cadillac, till, by a choice not very judicious, he was made governor of Louisiana. During his rule the population had slowly increased to about two hundred souls; but after he left the place it diminished to a point that seemed to threaten the feeble post with extinction. About 1722 it revived again; _voyageurs_ and discharged soldiers settled about the fort, and the parish register shows six or eight births in the course of the year.[320]