Travels with Henri de Tonti In February 1686, Pierre (Peter) Bisaillon was one of twenty-five men who went with
Henri de Tonti to search for
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle at the mouth of the
Mississippi, but they failed to locate him. They returned up the river and established the
Arkansas Post, the first European settlement in the lower
Mississippi River Valley, where traders would exchange French goods with the local
Quapaw for
beaver furs. They then returned to Montreal.
Early business venture, 1687 In 1687, Bisaillon entered into a partnership with Gédéon Petit and the Sieur de Salvaye, (Pierre Salvaye Tremont), two
coureurs des bois who were wanted by French authorities for breaking trading rules by trafficking with the English and Petit had managed a
brothel). The trading venture ended when their boat sank and their cargo was lost. and joined the
trading company of
Jacques Le Tort, a
Huguenot refugee. Le Tort was employed by the New Mediterranean Sea Company managed by
Daniel Coxe and
Matthias Vincent, who attempted to establish a colony of
French Huguenots in
East and
West Vincent Township, Pennsylvania and planned to create an empire in the Indian trade on the south shore of
Lake Erie. However, the colony failed as Huguenot families did not want to move from Philadelphia to wild lands along the
Susquehanna River, although Jacques Le Tort and his wife Anne established a
homestead there. Vincent died in 1687 and Coxe sold the company to the
London Company in 1692, but Bisaillon and other
coureurs des bois went on trading in Pennsylvania. Bisaillon eventually went to work for the Pennsylvania Company and its manager
Robert Quary. When a band of
Shawnees came into Pennsylvania in 1694, Bisaillon met his old friend
Martin Chartier, who had been on La Salle's 1679 expedition, but had
mutinied and fled. He had married a Shawnee woman and assimilated into her band. By the late 1690s, the Canadian fur trade network had become so well-developed that there was a glut of furs coming into Quebec, leading to a drop in prices. For a few years, Bisaillon, Chartier and Le Tort ran a smuggling operation, bringing furs from Detroit to Albany and Pennsylvania, where the English paid a higher price for them. On 4 May 1696, Casperus Augustine Herman, son of
Augustine Herman and Lord of
Bohemia Manor, wrote to the Maryland Provincial Council that: :"Peter Basilion does now live at St. John's, in
Chester County, Pennsylvania, but formerly lived thirty miles backwards from any inhabitants, where he treated with the Indians, and was then reported that...Capt. Le Tort, a Frenchman, does now live back in the woods in the same place where the said Basilion formerly lived, and trades with the Indians." They were harassed, arrested and imprisoned, often on false or minor charges.
Conspiracy trial, 1693-04 In response to rumors that Canada was preparing for an invasion, Mrs. Anne Le Tort, Peter Bisaillon, and a man named Captain Dubois were accused on 19 December 1693 before the
Provincial Council of Pennsylvania of having carried on a secret correspondence in the year before with "the strange Indians called the Shall-Narooners (Shawnees) and the French of Canada." The accusation, by Thomas Jenner and Polycarpus Rose, stated that Bisaillon's servant had left a packet of letters from Peter, wrapped up in a blue linen cloth, which was then picked up by "James the Frenchman." She stated that "a certain Indian king" had told her that Peter Bisaillon had said to him that "they were not like to hold the land much longer, for that they were not satisfied for it." Another witness testified that "there had been Severall letters & powders sent to Canada by Peter Bisailion." This was presented as evidence of conspiracy. Bisaillon, Mrs. Le Tort and Dubois were imprisoned by Pennsylvania authorities on charges of conspiring with local tribes and with the
coureurs des bois to seize control of Pennsylvania territory. After an investigation, Anne Le Tort was released but Bisaillon and Dubois were tried. As an added precaution, they were under constant surveillance.
Trafficking indictment, 1701 In 1701, William Penn and the Council considered the case of "Peter Basailion [and his brother, probably Michel], who have been suspected to be very dangerous persons in their traffic with the Indians, in this troublesome conjuncture of affairs." The Council decided "that it was absolutely necessary the said two Frenchmen should be confined, and restrained from inhabiting or trading amongst the Indians." which was an attempt to pressure him into obtaining a formal trader's license issued by the
Province of Pennsylvania.
Espionage charges, 1702 In 1702,
Robert Quary,
Surveyor General of the Customs for New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and a former employer of Peter Bisaillon, accused Bisaillon of having been sent to Pennsylvania from Quebec as a spy, and informed the Provincial Council that "the French are settling themselves on the back of Pennsylvania, about four days journey from
New Castle, and...offered this Article to show the danger of the Country for want of a due provision for their defence." At a hearing in London on 9 June 1702, Jacques Le Tort, Bisaillon's business partner, testified in Bisaillon's defense, describing their long friendship after Bisaillon's arrival in the Province: M. Le Tort, a Frenchman, who has lived many years in that country, was heard, at Mr. Penn's request. He said that ...Peter Bezallion, the pretended [spy], came to Pennsylvania poor and miserable, and hath been helped by him [Le Tort] and other Refugees to work for their living...having lived there about...13 or 14 [years]. He was obliged to give security bonds several times between 1700 and 1711. The mines referred to were supposed
veins of
silver ore reportedly discovered by the Swiss explorer
Franz Ludwig Michel on the
Potomac in 1707, and Michel engaged Chartier and
James Le Tort as well as Bisaillon in several unsuccessful attempts to find them again. In October 1708, Bisaillon was granted permission from Logan (who controlled the commissioners of property) to build a house and plant fields "on any of the Lands above
Conestoga not Possesst or made use by the Indians...paying One Deer Skin yearly for the privilege."
Imprisonment, 1710 In November 1709, James Logan was forced to flee to England after his arrest was ordered by the Pennsylvania Assembly, and without Logan's protection, Bisaillon was jailed again in March 1710 on accusations of loyalty to the French and plans to incite the Indians against the English. On August 22, 1711, after nearly eighteen months in jail, Bisaillon posted 508 pounds for
bail and was ordered to appear at the next court session in Philadelphia. After Peter's brother Michel became involved in military activities against Indian tribes supporting the English in 1715, Logan felt compelled to replace his French traders with English colonials. Bisaillon and Chartier went on to establish trading posts in
Paxtang, Pennsylvania. Chartier died in 1718. Seven hundred acres was surveyed for his wife Martha Bisaillon, and Peter built a home there. Logan's letter to Taylor says, in part: Loving friend. Thou wilt receive from Peter Bizaillon himself the warrants on orders for surveying a thousand acres of land to his wife and her brother, in executing of which I doubt it will be difficult to reconcile his and Anne Le Tort's expectations, but I request thee to use thy endeavours. Peter will talk high, but generally harkens to reason. However, his and M. Combs' conveniency are principally to be regarded, tho' on the other hand I am very desirous the old gentlewoman should have some land that she may be fixed, and leave something to her grandchildren. Pray see that it be laid out of a sufficient depth; I think a mile and a half or a quarter, at least, is little enough, but this is left to thee, and thou art by no means to produce or mention this letter...Keep this wholly to thyself. Thy real friend, J. LOGAN. Fluent in several Native American dialects, Bisaillon was employed as an
Unami language interpreter for the
Lenape at conferences in Philadelphia in 1717, 1720, 1721, He retired shortly afterwards on his estate of over 700 acres near
Conoy Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. ==Marriages and family==