Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/97

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 65 knowledge of the killing of the two Frenchmen on the Missis- sippi. The next day a chief came with three young men, one of whom wore in his ear a silver pendant. When asked how he obtained the ornament, he smiled but would not answer. St. Pierre then tore it from his ear, and found it was similar in workmanship to those sold by the traders, and placed him under guard. Ouakantape, an insolent Sioux chief, and a party of thirty-six men and their families, arrived and passed the fort, and visited some Puans, who were encamped in the vicinity. Some of his party burned the pickets around Father Guignas' garden. In May of 1737 a war party of jib ways appeared from the St. Louis river and Lake Superior and wished the Puans to unite with them against the Sioux, and threatened St. Pierre. Thus encircled by menacing foes, St. Pierre found pru- dence the better part of valor, and conferred with Sieur Linctot, the second in command (and son of the elder Linctot), Father Guignas, and some others, in regard to an abandonment. This consultation resulted in a conclusion to burn the fort, which w r as done, and on May 13, the French made their second abandon- ment and sailed down the river. St. Pierre did not, however, pass out of history, he being, it is believed, the commandant at Fort Duquesne, in western Penn- sylvania, who is knowm to every schoolboy in America, England and France as having been the officer to w r hom George Washing- ton, as a young man, bore the historic demand for French with- drawal from the Ohio valley. St. Pierre was in Montreal, in October, 1753. November 3, of that year, the Marquis Duquesne wrote to the minister of war in France that he had sent the Sieur de St. Pierre to succeed Marin in command of the army of the Ohio. St. Pierre reached the place, near where Pittsburg now stands, and where Fort Duquesne was built, the first week in December. Seven days after his arrival there, young George Washington came, bearing a letter from Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to the commander of the fort. After courteous treatment by St. Pierre for several days, Washington w r as sent back with the following note to Governor Dinwiddie : Sir : — I have the honor to be here the commander-in-chief. M. Washington delivered to me the letter which you wrote to the commander of the French troops. I should have been pleased had you given him the order, or that he has been disposed to go to Canada to see our general, to whom it better belongs than to me, to set forth the evidence of the incontestable rights of the king, my master, to the lands along the Ohio ; and to refute the pretentions of the king of Great Britain thereto. I shall transmit your" letter to M. le Marquis Duquesne. His reply will be law to me, and if he shall order me to communicate with you, you may