Even while Bouquet was making peace with the tribes between the Ohio and Lake Erie, Pontiac and his agents were trying to make trouble for the British among the Indians of the Mississippi.
French settlement on the Mississippi began at the village of Kaskaskia, eighty-four miles north of the mouth of the Ohio.

Six miles still farther north was Fort Chartres, a strongly built stone fort capable of accommodating three hundred men.

From here, at some distance from the river, ran a road to Cahokia, a village situated nearly opposite the site of the present city of St Louis.

The 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.