The troops from Illinois were to be joined by a body from Vincennes, but without waiting for them La Balme pushed on to the Miami towns, where he hoped to capture a British Indian trader who was especially hated by the French. The trader was not found, but his store of goods to the amount of one hundred horse-loads was seized. The expected reinforcements not arriving, La Balme felt too weak to attack Detroit and started to return. He was attacked by the Indians on the river Aboite, eleven miles southwest of the present Fort Wayne, and he and some thirty of his men were killed and at least one hundred horses, richly laden with plunder, were taken by the Indians. It was reported that disaffected inhabitants of Detroit had concealed five hundred stands of arms with which to assist the forces of La Balme in taking the place. Among La Balme’s papers, which fell into the hands of the British and are now in the Canadian archives, were addresses, in French, by M. Mottin de la Balme, French colonel, etc., to the French settled on the Mississippi, dated St. Louis, September 17, 1780; a declaration, in French, in the name of the inhabitants of the village of Cahokia, addressed to La Balme: “We unanimously request you to listen with a favorable ear to the declaration which we venture to present to you, touching all the bad treatment we have suffered patiently since the Virginian troops unfortunately arrived amongst us till now,” dated Cahokia, September 21, 1780; a note from F. Trottier, a member of the court of Cahokia, elected under the Virginia government, to La Balme, saying that no meeting can be held until Sunday next, when he hopes the young men will show themselves worthy the high idea La Balme has of them, but that at present there are only twelve entirely determined to follow him wherever he goes, although others may follow their example, and asking La Balme to receive depositions against the Virginians, dated Cahokia, September 27, 1780; a petition, in French, addressed to the Chevalier de la Luzerne, minister plenipotentiary from France to the United States, by inhabitants of Post Vincennes, dated Vincennes, August 22, 1780; and a commission to Augustin Mottin de la Balme as quartermaster of gendarmèrie, dated Versailles, February 23, 1766.(67) The British promptly set about promoting the Indian trader whom La Balme and the French had sought to kill, believing that he would be serviceable as a spy.(68)