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Show 1836- 1837] Fogg's F* r West 149 and from that nation to the United States. In the spring of 1778 an attack was made upon the village by a large body of the northern Indians, at the instigation of the English. They were repulsed with a loss of about twenty of the settlers, and the year was commemorated as lt Uannee du grand coup" 1 ™ In the spring of 1785, the Mississippi rose thirty feet above the highest water- mark previously known, and the American Bottom was inundated. This year was remembered as " Uannee des grandes eaux" At that period commerce with New- Orleans, for [ 121] the purpose of obtaining merchandise for the fur trade, was carried on exclusively by keel- boats and barges, which in the spring started upon their voyage of more than a thousand miles, and in the fall of the year slowly returned against the current This mode of transportation was expensive, tedious, and unsafe; and it was rendered yet more hazardous from the murders and robberies of a large band of free- booters, under two chiefs, Culburt and Magilbray, who stationed themselves at a place called Cotton Wood Creek, on the Mississippi, and captured the ascending boats. This band was dispersed by a little fleet of ten barges, which, armed with swivels, ascended the river in company. This year was remembered as " Uannee des bateaux" "° All the inconvenience of this method of trans-m Spain letroceded Iiouigiana to France by the treaty of San Udefonso ( October 1, 1800). The latter transferred the territory to the United States by the treaty signed at Paris, April 30, 1803. The attack on St. Louis mentioned by Flagg, occurred May 26, 1780. The expedition, composed of Chippewa, Winnebago, Sioux, and other Indian tribes, with a Canadian contingent numbering about seven hundred and fifty, started from Mackinac See R. G. Thwaites, France in America ( New York and London, 1905), p. 290; and " Papers from Canadian Archives," Wisconsin Historical Col' lections, xi, pp. 152- 157.- ED. m Dangerous passes on the Mississippi were rendered doubly perilous to early navigators by the presence of bands of robbers. An incident occurred early in 1787, which led to a virtual extermination of these marauders. While ascending the river, BeausoUel, a wealthy merchant of New Orleans, was attacked near Cotton |