LITMIR.BIZ

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for forming settlements."

      But more than he told to Neyon de Villiers, he said to the settlers. His courage in that critical period was splendid. His enthusiasm was infectious. Gradually it neutralized the spirit of exodus which at the time of Laclede's arrival was in a way to become a panic.

      Neyon de Villiers was much more than commandant at Fort Chartres. His authority extended over the garrisons of Fort des Pees on the Illinois river, Fort Massiaque on the Ohio, and Fort Vincennes on the Wabash. From these posts, de Villiers ordered the soldiers to come to Fort Chartres. That was to be the rendezvous preparatory to the departure for New Orleans. The commandant even called in the little force at Fort des Causes, although it was west of the Mississippi. He summoned back the officer he had sent some time before to build a fort on the Osage. His orders called for evacuation of the east side and delivery to the English when they came. De Villiers was taking from the west side the protection of the lead mining industry against the Indians. His policy jeopardized all of the trading plans of Laclede.

      As the troops assembled at Fort Chartres, Commandant de Villiers became more insistent that the settlers should abandon their homes and go with him.

      With tact Laclede opposed the influence of the commandant over the French settlers. During the midwinter weeks he pushed preparations for his own settlement. He assembled tools and provisions. He recruited a picked force of thirty men, "nearly all mechanics." Among them were joiners, millers, blacksmiths and farmers, most of them young and unmarried — men who were inspired with the founder's hopefulness and who turned their backs upon de Villiers' warnings. While he prepared for the forming of his settlement Laclede talked with the French habitants at every opportunity. He advised them not to leave the country where many of them had lived for years. If they were unwilling to be under British authority, he offered to provide them with homes in his settlement.

      A mild winter favored the founder. Early in February the channel partly cleared of ice. Navigation was possible. Into a boat were hastily loaded tools and provisions and some goods for barter. With the cordelle over their shoulders the thirty men bravely started along the river bank. To a boy of thirteen years and six months as he gave him charge of the thirty men and of "the first boat," Laclede said:

      "You will proceed and land at the place where we marked the trees. You will commence to have the place cleared. Build a large shed to contain the provisions and the tools, and some small cabins to lodge the men. I give you two men on whom you can depend, who will aid you very much. I will rejoin you before long."

      The start was made on the 10th of February. The distance was over sixty miles. Jagged edges of ice fringed the shore. Not so much as the trail of a tow path existed. Late on the 14th of February the toiling cordeliers reached the mouth of the gully at the head of which Laclede had marked the trees. They pulled the rope to the nearest tree and made fast. They did no more that day.

      "The morning of the next day," wrote Auguste Chouteau, "I put the men to work. They commenced the shed which was built in a short time. The little cabins for the men were built in the vicinity."

      Good reason Laclede had for sending Auguste Chouteau to the site as early as possible. The same reason prompted him to remain at Fort Chartres. All winter the founder stimulated interest in his settlement. He extolled the advantages of the location he had chosen. Neyon de Villiers saw his proposed depopulation checked. The pliant and the weak were disposed to go with the commandant and the soldiers. The determined and the adventurous showed increasing confidence in Laclede. De Villiers was resentful. Relations between the commandant and the founder became uncomfortable. Laclede maintained a courteous front but he lost no opportunity to firmly express his opinion counter to the commandant on the exodus policy. He did not leave Fort Chartres until spring was well advanced. Even then the trip he made to his settlement was a flying one. The conditions at the Fort and in the French villages still demanded his watchfulness. But some of the habitants on the east side were now ready to move to "Laclede's Settlement," as they called it. They wished to locate on the west side before the English came and de Villiers departed. To his settlement Laclede hastened. Further instructions were to be given to the boy leader and the thirty pioneers.

      "In the early part of April Laclede arrived among us," wrote Auguste Chouteau. "He occupied himself with his settlement, fixed the place where he wished to build his house, laid a plan of the village which he wished to found and ordered me to follow the plan exactly, because he could not remain any longer with us. He was obliged to proceed to Fort Chartres to remove the goods that he had in the fort before the arrival of the English, who were expected every day to take possession of it. I followed to the best of my ability his plan, and used the utmost diligence to accelerate the building of the house."

      The "plan" which was given to Auguste Chouteau is the basis of the map of St. Louis today. The Rue Principale of 1764 is the Main street of 1911. It was on the first plateau above the river. It paralleled the edge of the rocky bluff back some three hundred feet. On the west side of that street, near the approach through the gully to the river, Laclede located his house and the business headquarters of Maxent, Laclede and Company. He gave the directions for the cellar and for the assembling of material of which the house was to be built. And then he hurried back to the east side of the river.

      About this time Madame Chouteau and the children were moved from Fort Chartres to Cahokia. The oldest of the children was Pierre, who was seven. The family remained at Cahokia until fall, awaiting the completion of the stone house.

      Midsummer came before the critical situation at Fort Chartres was cleared up. Laclede had made two hurried trips to St. Louis. With great tact he avoided open antagonism. In June the commandant and the troops departed for New Orleans. The English had not arrived. St. Ange de Bellerive had come from Vincennes with his garrison. He was selected by de Villiers to remain at Fort Chartres to make the formal delivery of the post to the British who were expected daily. Here fortune favored Laclede, although he did not realize it at the time. To St. Ange, the commandant gave forty men, one captain and two lieutenants. A considerable number of the inhabitants of the two villages. Fort Chartres and Prairie du Rocher, followed the commandant. Neyon de Villiers promised to obtain for them free grants of land near New Orleans to compensate them for the sacrifice they were making. Ostensibly the commandant did all this persuading and promising to enable these people to settle in Lower Louisiana under the French government rather than to pass under the dominion of the English whom he called heretics.

      Years afterwards Auguste Chouteau wrote the story of those last eventful weeks at Fort Chartres, as Laclede told it to him. He pointed out the reasons which had prompted the commandant. He showed how much the efforts of Laclede to counteract the course of de Villiers meant to the settlement of St. Louis. This is what Chouteau set down in his Narrative:

       "The real motive of M. de Neyon was to take with him a numerous train and to descend the Mississippi in triumph, to make the government believe that all of these people followed him for the great esteem which they had for his person; thereby to gain the confidence of the authorities in order to obtain a place that he had in view. But when he learned on arriving in New Orleans that the country was ceded to Spain, he determined to return to Europe. He forgot all of the promises that be had made to these poor credulous people, who remained upon the strand without knowing where to lay their heads, and the government officials troubled themselves but little about them because they knew that the colony would soon change masters. 80 that these unfortunate people, who had abandoned the little property which they possessed in Illinois to go and live under the French government found themselves completely disappointed in their hopes. Some of them, in order to live, went with their families to Opelousas, others to Attakapas, where, however, they could not carry, on account of the want of facilities for transportation, the materials which they had brought down with them, and they were obliged to give them for almost nothing in order to procure a little maize and rice. Those, who having some means returned to Illinois, were very happy to find there M. de Laclede, who aided them in a great many ways, and observed to them that if they had been willing to follow his advice, as others had done, who had not wished to follow their evil destiny, they would not now be in the unpleasant situation in which they found themselves.

       "M. de Laclede, penetrating

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