Agricultural pursuits appear to have been the chief labor to which the French put Indian slaves. Such pursuits, along with trading, formed the chief industry of the colonies.[266] But it was the general tendency of the French to prefer the novelty and excitement of the trader’s life, rather than the more quiet existence of the agriculturalist. Bienville complained much of this state of affairs, and sought to remedy it.[267] The consequence of this tendency was to make the price of labor high,[268] and the use of Indian slaves was a means at hand to solve the difficulty. In the simpler life of the inhabitants of the Illinois country, agriculture was the chief industry of the settlers until the close of the period under discussion.[269] And the farmers increased the results of their industry by the extensive use of Indian slaves.[270] Throughout the French territory in the military stations, both soldiers and frontiersmen found use for their Indian women slaves as cooks and in performing the other domestic labors of fort and camp.[271] The male slaves were used in erecting fortifications, performing other heavy labor, and as guides in military expeditions.[272] The custom of using Indian slaves as a bribe or reward was common. In either case the purpose of the whites was the same: to procure the friendship and alliance of the tribes. In the northwest the French demanded that certain subdued tribes bring them Indian slaves, which they might use to replace the members of the allied tribes whom the conquered tribes had killed during the war.[273] In the area where the claims of the European nations overlapped, alliance of the tribes was especially desired by each nation. These Indian captive slaves or slaves purchased from other tribes were often returned to their own tribes as a peace offering or as a token of friendship. Thus the alliance of the tribes was won, and a barrier created against the encroachments of the Spanish and the English.[274] Such use was made of slaves by de Bourgmont, in 1724, in the Kansas country. With a messenger sent from there to the Comanche, he sent also two Comanche slaves whom he purchased from the Kansas in order that his messenger be well received.[275] He also purchased some Padouca slaves in order to return them to their people.[276] In 1728, the king of France issued an edict regarding certain concessions of land, and required a tax of five livres on each slave, the proceeds of which were to be used in building churches and hospitals.[277] Thus the Indian slaves, along with the negroes, served as a property basis in this one instance, as they did many times in the English colonies. They were also regarded as property in all legal and business transactions and were classed along with negroes, domestic animals and real estate, which could be sold to satisfy their owners’ debts.[278]