At this time the Creoles were smitten by a sudden epidemic of fear that their negro slaves were trying to bewitch and poison them.  Several of the negroes were seized and tried, and in June two were condemned to death.  One, named Moreau, was sentenced to be hung outside Cahokia.  The other, a Kaskaskian slave named Manuel, suffered a worse fate.  He was sentenced “to be chained to a post at the water-side, and there to be burnt alive and his ashes scattered.” [Footnote:  The entries merely record the sentences, with directions that they be immediately executed.  But there seems very little doubt that they were for witchcraft, or voudouism, probably with poisoning at the bottom—­and that they were actually carried out.  See Mason’s pamphlet, p. 59.] These two sentences, and the directions for their immediate execution, reveal a dark chapter in the early history of Illinois.  It seems a strange thing that, in the United States, three years after the declaration of independence, men should have been burnt and hung for witchcraft, in accordance with the laws, and with the decision of the proper court.  The fact that the victim, before being burned, was forced to make “honorable fine” at the door of the Catholic church, shows that the priest at least acquiesced in the decision.  The blame justly resting on the Puritans of seventeenth-century New England must likewise fall on the Catholic French of eighteenth-century Illinois.

Early in the spring of 1780 Clark left the country; he did not again return to take command, for after visiting the fort on the Mississippi, and spending the summer in the defence of Kentucky, he went to Virginia to try to arrange for an expedition against Detroit.  Todd also left about the same time, having been elected a Kentucky delegate to the Virginia Legislature.  He afterwards made one or two flying visits to Illinois, but exerted little influence over her destiny, leaving the management of affairs entirely in the hands of his deputy, or lieutenant-commandant for the time being.  He usually chose for this position either Richard Winston, the Virginian, or else a Creole named Timothea Demunbrunt.

    Disorders in the Government.

Todd’s departure was a blow to the country; but Clark’s was a far more serious calamity.  By his personal influence he had kept the Indians in check, the Creoles contented, and the troops well fed and fairly disciplined.  As soon as he went, trouble broke out.  The officers did not know how to support their authority; they were very improvident, and one or two became implicated in serious scandals.  The soldiers soon grew turbulent, and there was constant clashing between the civil and military rulers.  Gradually the mass of the Creoles became so angered with the Americans that they wished to lay their grievances before the French Minister at Philadelphia; and many of them crossed the Mississippi and settled under the Spanish flag.  The courts rapidly lost their