Excerpt from Illinois Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 8: 1925-1926 The undersigned, memorialist has the honor to represent to your excellency, that, from the moment of the conquest of Illinois by Colonel George Rogers Clark, he has not been backward in venturing his life on the many occasions in which he found that his presence was useful, and sometimes necessary, and at all times sacrificing his property, which he gave for the support of the troops, at the same price that he could have received in Spanish dollars, and for which, however, he has received only paper dollars, of which he has had no information Since he sent them addressed to the Commissioner of Congress, who required a statement of the depreciation of them at the Belle Riviere in 1783, with an express promise; in reply, that particular attention should be paid to his account because it was known to be no way exaggerated. In reality, he parted with his tithes and his beasts, only to set an example to his parishioners, who began to perceive that it was in tended to pillage them, and abandon them afterwards, which really took place. The want of seven thousand eight hundred livres, of which the nonpayment of the American notes has deprived him the use, has obliged him to sell two good slaves, who would now be the support of his old age, and for the want of whom he now finds himself dependent on the public, who though well served, are very rarely led to keep their promises, except that part, who, employing his time in their service, are supplanted by the secular power, that is to say, by the civil government. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.