intervening country was settled by prosperous traders
and planters who, including their four hundred negro
slaves, numbered not less than two thousand. But when it
was learned that all the territory east of the great
river had been ceded to Britain, the settlers began to
migrate to the opposite bank. The French here were hostile
to the incoming British, and feared lest they might now
lose the profitable trade with New Orleans. It was this
region that Gage was determined to occupy.

Already an effort had been made to reach Fort Chartres.
In February 1764 Major Arthur Loftus had set out from
New Orleans with four hundred men; but, when about two
hundred and forty miles north of his starting-point, his
two leading boats were fired upon by Indians. Six men
were killed and four wounded. To advance would mean the
destruction of his entire company. Loftus returned to
New Orleans, blaming the French officials for not supporting
his enterprise, and indeed hinting that they were
responsible for the attack. Some weeks later Captain
Philip Pittman arrived at New Orleans with the intention
of ascending the river; but reports of the enmity of the
Indians to the British made him abandon the undertaking.
So at the beginning of 1765 the French flag still flew
over Fort Chartres; and Saint-Ange, who had succeeded
Neyon de Villiers as commandant of the fort, was praying
that the British might soon arrive to relieve him from
a position where he was being daily importuned by Pontiac
or his emissaries for aid against what they called the
common foe.