creole Rocheblave—­were to be treated with particular respect, and not suffered to want for any thing.  He was exhorted to use all his diligence and ability to accomplish the difficult task set him.  Finally Henry advised him to lose no opportunity of inculcating in the minds of the French the value of the liberty the Americans brought them, as contrasted with “the slavery to which the Illinois was destined” by the British.

This last sentence was proved by subsequent events to be a touch of wholly unconscious but very grim humor.  The French were utterly unsuited for liberty, as the Americans understood the term, and to most of them the destruction of British rule was a misfortune.  The bold, self-reliant, and energetic spirits among them, who were able to become Americanized, and to adapt themselves to the new conditions, undoubtedly profited immensely by the change.  As soon as they adopted American ways, they were received by the Americans on terms of perfect and cordial equality, and they enjoyed a far higher kind of life than could possibly have been theirs formerly, and achieved a much greater measure of success.  But most of the creoles were helplessly unable to grapple with the new life.  They had been accustomed to the paternal rule of priest and military commandant, and they were quite unable to govern themselves, or to hold their own with the pushing, eager, and often unscrupulous, new-comers.  So little able were they to understand precisely what the new form of government was, that when they went down to receive Todd as commandant, it is said that some of them, joining in the cheering, from force of habit cried “Vive le Roi.”

For the first year of Todd’s administration, while Clark still remained in the county as commandant of the State troops, matters went fairly well.  Clark kept the Indians completely in check, and when some of them finally broke out, and started on a marauding expedition against Cahokia, he promptly repulsed them, and by a quick march burned their towns on Rock River, and forced them to sue for peace. [Footnote:  In the beginning of 1780.  Bradford MS.]

Todd appointed a Virginian, Richard Winston, as commandant at Kaskaskia; all his other appointees were Frenchmen.  An election was forthwith held for justices; to the no small astonishment of the Creoles, unaccustomed as they were to American methods of self-government.  Among those whom they elected as judges and court officers were some of the previously appointed militia captains and lieutenants, who thus held two positions.  The judges governed their decisions solely by the old French laws and customs. [Footnote:  State Department MSS., No. 48, p. 51.] Todd at once made the court proceed to business.  On its recommendation he granted licenses to trade to men of assured loyalty.  He also issued a proclamation in reference to new settlers taking up lands.  Being a shrewd man, he clearly foresaw the ruin that was sure to arise from the new Virginia land laws as applied to Kentucky,