(seq. 153)

February 25.th

This day one Raimbault a young man who had served as
a volunteer with the Indians was brought into the fort with
a rope about his neck and his Judges were in the act of
hanging him, when some of the French from the Ilinois interposed
and he was taken down from the tree half strangled --

The instances of substantial Justice gave me no pleasing
prospect of what we might expect further from such Picarros --

Colonel Clarke told me this day, that if Charles Baubin &
Hypolite Baulon (who accompanied the Indians on the scout
to Kaskasquias, & had carried my letters) had done their duty
that he with 4 of his officers, would have been my prisoners
but that I had been betrayed // By this account, the reason
became sufficiently apparent why some of the gentry who went
off to Detroit, were so ingenious in framing excuses - //
The party of Indians had placed themselves in ambuscade, on
the road between Kaskasquias, & Cahokia & must officially
have served Colonel Clarke and his officers --

{Colonel} Clarke told me also some particulars of his march which
were very extraordinary -- He had left the Ilinois when the
waters were out & had marched for 15 days successively, his
people being exposed all that time to the inconveniences of marching
thro a flooded country -- They set out without provision trusting
entirely to the Buffaloe or other game they might chance to
fall in with on their route -- The greater part of his people
were half naked -- His powder was all damaged before he
arrived at St. Vincennes -- a nights frost must have destroyed
his whole party --