JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY
Donated by
The Redemptorists of
the Toronto Province
from the Library Collection of
Holy Redeemer College, Windsor
University of
St. Michael's College, Toronto
HOLY REDEEMER LIBRA{$" WINDSOR
*~^^~
Jrancfe $arfeman'»
NEW LIBRARY EDITION.
VOL. in.
FRANCIS PARKMAN'S WORKS.
Wefo ILtavg Etottton.
Pioneers of France in the New World I vol.
The Jesuits in North America I vol.
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West . . I vol.
The Old Regime in Canada I vol.
Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. I vol.
A Half Century of Conflict 2 vols.
Montcalm and Wolfe 2 vols.
The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after
the Conquest of Canada 2 vols.
The Oregon Trail I vol.
DOYERY 01
La Salle Presenting a Petition to Louis XIV.
Drawn by Adrien Moreau.
LA SALLE AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST, Frontispiece
[AN.
HOLY REDEEMER tlBRAfi# WiNOSO
LA SALLE
DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST.
FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN
NORTH AMERICA.
PAET THIED.
BY
FRANCIS PARKMAN.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1907.
HOLY REDEEMER LI BRARf WINDSOR
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
FRANCIS PARKMAN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
FRANCIS PARKMAN,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Copyright, 1897,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
Copyright, 1897,
BY GRACE P. COFFIN AND KATHARINE S. COOLIDQE.
Copyright, 1907,
BY GRACE P. COFFIN.
8. J. PABKHIH ft Co., BOSTON, U. 8. A.
TO
THE CLASS OF 1844,
?£arbartj College,
THIS BOOK IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED
BY ONE OF THEIR NUMBER.
PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
WHEN the earlier editions of this book were
published, I was aware of the existence of a col-
lection of documents relating to La Salle, and
containing important material to which I had
not succeeded in gaining access. This collection
was in possession of M. Pierre Margry, director
of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at
Paris, and was the result of more than thirty
years of research. With rare assiduity and zeal,
M. Margry had explored not only the vast de-
pository with which he has been officially con-
nected from youth, and of which he is now the
chief, but also the other public archives of
France, and many private collections in Paris
and the provinces. The object of his search
was to throw light on the career and achieve-
ments of French explorers, and, above all, of La
Salle. A collection of extraordinary richness
grew gradually upon his hands. In the course
viii PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
of my own inquiries, I owed much to his friendly
aid; but his collections, as a whole, remained
inaccessible, since he naturally wished to be the
first to make known the results of his labors.
An attempt to induce Congress to furnish him
with the means of printing documents so inter-
esting to American history was made in 1870
and 1871, by Henry Harrisse, Esq., aided by the
American minister at Paris ; but it unfortu-
nately failed.
In the summer and autumn of 1872, I had
numerous interviews with M. Margry, and at his
desire undertook to try to induce some Ameri-
can bookseller to publish the collection. On re-
turning to the United States, I accordingly made
an arrangement with Messrs. Little, Brown &
Co., of Boston, by which they agreed to print
the papers if a certain number of subscriptions
should first be obtained. The condition proved
very difficult ; and it became clear that the best
hope of success lay in another appeal to Con-
gress. This was made in the following winter,
in conjunction with Hon. E. B. Washburne;
Colonel Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland ; 0. H.
Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo ; and other gentlemen
interested in early American history. The at-
tempt succeeded. Congress made an appropria-
PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION. ix
tion for the purchase of five hundred copies of
the work, to be printed at Paris, under direction
of M. Margry ; and the three volumes devoted
to La Salle are at length before the public.
Of the papers contained in them which I had
not before examined, the most interesting are
the letters of La Salle, found in the original by
M. Margry, among the immense accumulations
of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies and
the Bibliotheque Nationale. The narrative of
La Salle' s companion, Joutel, far more copious
than the abstract printed in 1713, under the
title of " Journal Historique," also deserves
special mention. These, with other fresh mate-
rial in these three volumes, while they add new
facts and throw new light on the character of
La Salle, confirm nearly every statement made
in the first edition of the Discovery of the Great
West. The only exception of consequence re-
lates to the causes of La Salle' s failure to find
the mouth of the Mississippi in 1684, and to the
conduct, on that occasion, of the naval com-
mander, Beaujeu.
This edition is revised throughout, and in part
rewritten with large additions. A map of the
country traversed by the explorers is also added.
The name of La Salle is placed on the titlepage,
xii PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION.
director of the Archives of the Marine and Colo-
nies at Paris, whose labors as an investigator of
the maritime and colonial history of France can
be appreciated only by those who have seen their
results. In the department of American colo-
nial history, these results have been invaluable ;
for, besides several private collections made by
him, he rendered important service in the collec-
tion of the French portion of the Brodhead doc-
uments, selected and arranged the two great
series of colonial papers ordered by the Canadian
government, and prepared with vast labor ana-
lytical indexes of these and of supplementary
documents in the French archives, as well as a
copious index of the mass of papers relating to
Louisiana. It is to be hoped that the valuable
publications on the maritime history of France
which have appeared from his pen are an earn-
est of more extended contributions in future.
The late President Sparks, some time after the
publication of his Life of La Salle, caused a
collection to be made of documents relating to
that explorer, with the intention of incorporat-
ing them in a future edition. This intention
was never carried into effect, and the documents
were never used. With the liberality which
always distinguished him, he placed them at my
PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION. xiii
disposal, and this privilege has been kindly con-
tinued by Mrs. Sparks.
Abbe Faillon, the learned author of " La Colo-
nie Franchise en Canada/' has sent me copies
of various documents found by him, including
family papers of La Salle. Among others who
in various ways have aided my inquiries are Dr.
John Paul, of Ottawa, 111. ; Count Adolphe de
Circourt, and M. Jules Marcou, of Paris ; M. A.
Gerin Lajoie, Assistant Librarian of the Cana-
dian Parliament ; M. J. M. Le Moine, of Que-
bec ; General Dix, Minister of the United States
at the Court of France ; 0. H. Marshall, of Buf-
falo ; J. G. Shea, of New York ; Buckingham
Smith, of St. Augustine ; and Colonel Thomas
Aspinwall, of Boston.
The smaller map contained in the book is a
portion of the manuscript map of Franquelin, of
which an account will be found in the Appendix.
The next volume of the series will be devoted
to the efforts of Monarchy and Feudalism under
Louis XIV. to establish a permanent power on
this continent, and to the stormy career of Louis
de Buade, Count of Frontenac.
BOSTON, 16 September, 1869.
CONTENTS.
PAOI
INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER I.
1643-1669.
CAVELIER DB LA SALLE.
The Youth of La Salle: his Connection with the Jesuits; he
goes to Canada ; his Character ; his Schemes ; his Seigniory
at La Chine ; his Expedition in Search of a Western Passage
to India 7
CHAPTER II.
1669-1671.
LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS.
The French in Western New York. — Louis Joliet. — The Sulpi-
tians on Lake Erie ; at Detroit ; at Saut Ste. Marie. — The
Mystery of La Salle: he discovers the Ohio; he descends
the Illinois ; did he reach the Mississippi ? 19
CHAPTER III.
1670-1672.
THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES.
The Old Missions and the New. — A Change of Spirit. — Lake
Superior and the Copper-mines. — Ste. Marie. — La Pointe. —
Michilimackinac. — Jesuits on Lake Michigan. — Allouez
and Dablon. — The Jesuit Fur-trade . So
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
1667-1672.
FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION OF THE WEST.
PAGB
Talon. — Saint-Lusson. — Perrot. — The Ceremony at Saut Ste.
Marie. — The Speech of Allouez. — Count Frontenac ... 48
CHAPTER V.
1672-1675.
THE DISCOVERT OP THE MISSISSIPPI.
Joliet sent to find the Mississippi. — Jacques Marquette. — De-
parture. — Green Bay. — The Wisconsin. — The Mississippi.
— Indians. — Manitous. — The Arkansas. — The Illinois. —
Joliet's Misfortune. — Marquette at Chicago: his Illness;
his Death 57
CHAPTER VI.
1673-1678.
LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.
Objects of La Salle. — Frontenac favors him. — Projects of Fron-
tenac. — Cataraqui. — Frontenac on Lake Ontario. — Fort
Frontenac. — La Salle and Fenelon. — Success of La Salle:
his Enemies • 83
CHAPTER VII.
1678.
PARTY STRIFE.
La Salle and his Reporter. — Jesuit Ascendency. — The Missions
and the Fur-trade. — Female Inquisitors. — Plots against La
Salle : his Brother the Priest. — Intrigues of the Jesuits. —
La Salle poisoned : he exculpates the Jesuits. — Renewed
Intrigues 106
CONTENTS. xvii
CHAPTER VIII.
1677, 1678.
THE GRAND ENTERPRISE.
PAGE
La Salle at Fort Frontenac. — La Salle at Court : his Memo-
rial. — Approval of the King. — Money and Means. — Henri
de Tonty. — Return to Canada 120
CHAPTER IX.
1678-1679.
LA SALLE AT NIAGARA.
leather Louis Hennepin : his Past Life ; his Character. — Em-
barkation. — Niagara Falls. — Indian Jealousy. — La Motte
and the Senecas. — A Disaster. — La Salle and his Followers 131
CHAPTER X.
1679.
THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN."
The Niagara Portage. — A Vessel on the Stocks. — Suffering
and Discontent. — La Salle's Winter Journey. — The Vessel
launched. — Fresh Disasters 144
CHAPTER XI.
1679.
LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES.
The Voyage of the " Griffin." — Detroit. — A Storm. — St. Ignace
of Michilimackinac. — Rivals and Enemies. — Lake Mich-
igan. — Hardships. — A Threatened Fight. — Fort Miami. —
Tonty's Misfortunes. — Forebodings 151
CHAPTER XIL
1679, 1680.
LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS.
The St. Joseph. — Adventure of La Salle. — The Prairies. —
Famine. — The Great Town of the Illinois. — Indians. — In-
trigues. — Difficulties. — Policy of La Salle. — Desertion. —
Another Attempt to poison La Salle 164
xviii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIIL
1680.
FORT CREVECCEUR.
PAGX
Building of the Fort. — Loss of the " Griffin." — A Bold Resolu-
tion. — Another Vessel. — Hennepin sent to the Mississippi.
— Departure of La SaUe 180
CHAPTER XIV.
1680.
HARDIHOOD OF LA 9ALLE.
The Winter Journey. — The Deserted Town. — Starved Rock. —
Lake Michigan. — - The Wilderness. — War Parties. — La
Salle's Men give out.— Ill Tidings. — Mutiny. — Chastise-
ment of the Mutineers 189
CHAPTER XV.
1680.
INDIAN CONQUERORS.
The Enterprise renewed. — Attempt to rescue Tonty. — Buffalo.
— A Frightful Discovery. — Iroquois Fury. — The Ruined
Town. — A Night of Horror. — Traces of the Invaders. —
No News of Tonty 202
CHAPTER XVI.
168
TONTT AND THE IROQUOIS.
The Deserters. — The Iroquois War. —The Great Town of the
Illinois. — The Alarm. — Onset of the Iroquois. — Peril of
Tonty. — A Treacherous Truce. — Intrepidity of Tonty. —
Murder of Ribourde. — War upon the Dead 216
CHAPTER XVII.
1680.
THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN.
Hennepin an Impostor: his Pretended Discovery; his Actual
Discovery; captured by the Sioux. — The Upper Mississippi 243
CONTENTS. XIX
CHAPTER XVIII.
1680, 1681.
HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX.
PAO«
Signs of Danger. — Adoption. — Hennepin and his Indian Rela-
tives.— The Hunting Party. — The Sioux Camp. — Falls of
St. Anthony. — A Vagabond Friar : his Adventures on the
Mississippi. — Greysolon Du Lhut. — Heturn to Civilization . 259
CHAPTER XIX.
1681.
LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. j
His Constancy ; his Plans ; his Savage Allies ; he becomes Snow-
blind. — Negotiations. — Grand Council. — La Salle's Ora-
tory.— Meeting with Tonty. — Preparation. — Departure. . 283
CHAPTER XX.
1681-1682.
SUCCESS OF LA 8ALLE.
His Followers. —The Chicago Portage. — Descent of the Missis-
sippi. — The Lost Hunter. — The Arkansas. — The Taensas.
— The Natchez. — Hostility. — The Mouth of the Mississippi.
— Louis XIV. proclaimed Sovereign of the Great West . . 295
CHAPTER XXI.
1682, 1683.
ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS.
Louisiana. — Illness of La Salle: his Colony on the Illinois. —
Fort St. Louis. — Recall of Frontenac. — Le Febvre de la
Barre. — Critical Position of La Salle. — Hostility of the New
Governor. — Triumph of the Adverse Faction. — L» Salle
sails for France . 309
XX CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXII.
1680-1683.
LA BALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF.
PAGB
Difficulty of knowing him ; his Detractors ; his Letters ; vexa-
tions of his Position ; his Unfitness for Trade ; risks of Corre-
spondence ; his Reported Marriage ; alleged Ostentation ; mo-
tives of Action; charges of Harshness; intrigues against
him ; unpopular Manners ; a Strange Confession ; his Strength
and his Weakness ; contrasts of his Character 328
CHAPTER XXHI.
1684.
A NEW ENTERPRISE.
La Salle at Court: his Proposals. — Occupation of Louisiana.
— Invasion of Mexico. — Royal Favor. — Preparation. — A
Divided Command. — Beaujeu and La Salle. — Mental Condi-
tion of La Salle : his Farewell to his Mother , . 343
CHAPTER XXIV.
1684, 1685.
THE VOYAGE.
Disputes with Beaujeu. — St. Domingo. — La Salle attacked
with Fever : his Desperate Condition. — The Gulf of Mexico.
— A Vain Search and a Fatal Error . . 366
CHAPTER XXV.
1685.
LA SALLE IK TEXAS.
A Party of Exploration. — Wreck of the " Aimable." — Landing
of the Colonists. — A Forlorn Position. — Indian Neighbors.
— Friendly Advances of Beaujeu: his Departure. — A Fatal
Discovery ' . . . . 378
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVL
1685-1687.
ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS.
PACK
The Fort. — Misery and Dejection. — Energy of La Salle : his
Journey of Exploration. — Adventures and Accidents. — The
Buffalo. — Duhaut. — Indian Massacre. — Return of La Salle.
A New Calamity. — A Desperate Resolution. — Departure
for Canada. — Wreck of the "Belle." — Marriage. — Sedi-
tion. — Adventures of La Salle's Party.-— The Cenis. — The
Camanches.— The Only Hope. — The Last Fare well ... 391
CHAPTER XXVII.
1687.
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE.
His Followers.— Prairie Travelling. — A Hunters' Quarrel.—
The Murder of Moranget. — The Conspiracy. — Death of La
Salle: his Character 420
CHAPTER XXVHL
1687, 1688.
THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY.
Triumph of the Murderers. — Danger of Joutel. — Joutel among
the Cenis. — White Savages. — Insolence of Duhaut and his
Accomplices. — Murder of Duhaut and Liotot. — Hiens, the
Buccaneer. — Joutel and his Party : their Escape ; they
reach the Arkansas. — Bravery and Devotion of Tonty. —
The Fugitives reach the Illinois. — Unworthy Conduct of
Cavelier. — He and his Companions return to France . . . 435
CHAPTER XXIX.
1688-1689.
FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY.
Tonty attempts to rescue the Colonists : his Difficulties and
Hardships. — Spanish Hostility. — Expedition of Alonzo de
Leon : he reaches Fort St. Louis. — A Scene of Havoc. —
Destruction of the French. —The End 464
xxii CONTENTS.
APPENDIX.
PAGE
L Early Unpublished Maps of the Mississippi and the Great
Lakes 475
IL The Eldorado of Mathieu Sagean 485
INDEX „ . . , .491
LA SALLE
AND THB
DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST.
5*
•X
r^c"*
1&i**«af
•<
*-v " ' •>' ^
.J
LA SALLE
AND
DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST,
INTRODUCTION.
THE Spaniards discovered the Mississippi. De
Soto was buried beneath its waters ; and it was down
its muddy current that his followers fled from the
Eldorado of their dreams, transformed to a wilderness
of misery and death. The discovery was never used,
and was well-nigh forgotten. On early Spanish
maps, the Mississippi is often indistinguishable from
other affluents of the Gulf. A century passed after
l)e Soto's journeyings in the South, before a French
explorer reached a northern tributary of the great
river.
This was Jean Nicollet, interpreter at Three Rivers
on the St. Lawrence. He had been some twenty
years in Canada, had lived among the savage
Algonquins of Allumette Island, and spent eight or
nine years among the Nipissings, on the lake which
I>ear8 their name. Here he became an Indian in all
6 INTRODUCTION.
Mississippi and its great confluent the Missouri.
Two years later, the aged Jesuit Mdnard attempted
to plant a mission on the southern shore of Lake
Superior, but perished in the forest by famine or the
tomahawk. Allouez succeeded him, explored a part
of Lake Superior, and heard, in his turn, of the
Sioux and their great river the "Messipi." More
and more, the thoughts of the Jesuits — and not of
the Jesuits alone — dwelt on this mysterious stream.
Through what regions did it flow; and whither
would it lead them, — to the South Sea or the
"Sea of Virginia;" to Mexico, Japan, or China?
The problem was soon to be solved, and the mystery
revealed.
CHAPTER I.
1643-1669.
CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.
THE YOUTH OP LA SALLE: HIS CONNECTION WITH THE JESUITS;
HE GOES TO CANADA ; HIS CHAKACTER ; HIS SCHEMES ; HIS SEIGN-
IORY AT LA CHINE ; HIS EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OP A WESTERN
PASSAGE TO INDIA.
AMONG the burghers of Rouen was the old and rich
family of the Caveliers. Though citizens and not
nobles, some of their connections held high diplo-
matic posts and honorable employments at Court.
They were destined to find a better claim to distinc-
tion. In 1643 was born at Rouen Robert Cavelier,
better known by the designation of La Salle.1 His
father Jean and his uncle Henri were wealthy mer-
1 The following is the acte de naissance, discovered by Margry in
the registres de I'etat civil, Paroisse St. Herbland, Rouen: "Le vingt-
deuxieme jour de novembre, 1643, a ete baptise Robert Cavelier, fils
de honorable homme Jean Cavelier et de Catherine Geest ; ses par-
rain et marraine honorables personnes Nicolas Geest et Marguerite
Morice."
La Salle's name in full was ReneVRobert Cavelier, Sieur de la
Salle. La Salle was the name of an estate near Rouen, belonging
to the Caveliers. The wealthy French burghers often distinguished
the various members of their families by designations borrowed
from landed estates. Thus, Francois Marie Arouet, son of an
e x-notary, received the name of Voltaire, which he made famous.
8 CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1666.
chants, living more like nobles than like burghers;
and the boy received an education answering to the
marked traits of intellect and character which he soon
began to display. He showed an inclination for the
exact sciences, and especially for the mathematics, in
which he made great proficiency. At an early age,
it is said, he became connected with the Jesuits;
and, though doubt has been expressed of the state-
ment, it is probably true.1
La Salle was always an earnest Catholic ; and yet,
judging by the qualities which his after-life evinced,
he was not very liable to religious enthusiasm. It is
nevertheless clear that the Society of Jesus may have
had a powerful attraction for his youthful imagina-
tion. This great organization, so complicated yet so
harmonious, a mighty machine moved from the centre
by a single hand, was an image of regulated power,
full of fascination for a mind like his. But if it was
likely that he would be drawn into it, it was no less
likely that he would soon wish to escape. To find
i Margry, after investigations at Eouen, is satisfied of its truth
(Journal General de V Instruction Publique, xxxi. 571.) Family paper*
of the Caveliers, examined by the Abbe Faillon, and copies of soma
of which he has sent to me, lead to the same conclusion. "We shall
find several allusions hereafter to La Salle's having in his youth
taught in a school, which, in his position, could only have been in
connection with some religious community. The doubts alluded to
have proceeded from the failure of Father Felix Martin, S. J., to
find the name of La Salle on the list of novices. If he had looked
for the name of Robert Cavelier, he would probably have found it.
The companion of La Salle, Hennepin, is very explicit with regard
to this connection with the Jesuits, a point on which he had no
motive for falsehood.
1(166.] LA SALLE AND THE JESUITS. 9
himself not at the centre of power, but at the circum-
ference; not the mover, but the moved; the passive
instrument of another's will, taught to walk in pre-
scribed paths, to renounce his individuality and
become a component atom of a vast whole, — would
have been intolerable to him. Nature had shaped
him for other uses than to teach a class of boys on
the benches of a Jesuit school. Nor, on his part,
was he likely to please his directors; for, self -con-
trolled and self-contained as he was, he was far too
intractable a subject to serve their turn. A youth
whose calm exterior hid an inexhaustible fund of
pride; whose inflexible purposes, nursed in secret,
the confessional and the " manifestation of conscience "
could hardly drag to the light; whose strong person-
ality would not yield to the shaping hand ; and who,
by a necessity of his nature, could obey no initiative
but his own, — was not after the model that Loyola
had commended to his followers.
La Salle left the Jesuits, parting with them, it is
said, on good terms, and with a reputation of excel-
lent acquirements and unimpeachable morals. This
last is very credible. The cravings of a deep ambi-
tion, the hunger of an insatiable intellect, the intense
longing for action and achievement, subdued in him
all other passions ; and in his faults the love of pleasure
had no part. He had an elder brother in Canada,
the Abbe* Jean Cavelier, a priest of St. Sulpice.
Apparently, it was this that shaped his destinies.
His connection with the Jesuits had deprived him,
10 UAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1666.
under the French law, of the inheritance of his
father, who had died not long before. An allowance
was made to him of three or (as is elsewhere stated)
four hundred livres a year, the capital of which was
paid over to him; and with this pittance he sailed for
Canada, to seek his fortune, in the spring of 1666.1
Next, we find him at Montreal. In another
volume, we have seen how an association of enthu-
siastic devotees had made a settlement at this place.2
Having in some measure accomplished its work, it
was now dissolved; and the corporation of priests,
styled the Seminary of St. Sulpice, which had taken
a prominent part in the enterprise, and, indeed, had
been created with a view to it, was now the proprietor
and the feudal lord of Montreal. It was destined to
retain its seignorial rights until the abolition of the
feudal tenures of Canada in our own day, and it still
holds vast possessions in the city and island. These
worthy ecclesiastics, models of a discreet and sober
conservatism, were holding a post with which a
band of veteran soldiers or warlike frontiersmen
would have been better matched. Montreal was per-
haps the most dangerous place in Canada. In time
1 It does not appear what vows La Salle had taken. By a recent
ordinance (1666), persons entering religious orders could not take
the final vows before the age of twenty-five. By the family papers
above mentioned, it appears, however, that he had brought himself
under the operation of the law, which debarred those who, having
entered religious orders, afterwards withdrew, from claiming the
inheritance of relatives who had died after their entrance.
2 The Jesuitg in North America, chap. xv.
K66.] LA SALLE AT MONTREAL. 11
of war, which might have been called the normal
condition of the colony, it was exposed by its posi-
tion to incessant inroads of the Iroquois, or Five
Nations, of New York; and no man could venture
into the forests or the fields without bearing his life
in his hand. The savage confederates had just
received a sharp chastisement at the hands of
Courcelle, the governor ; and the result was a treaty
of peace which might at any moment be broken, but
which was an inexpressible relief while it lasted.
The priests of St. Sulpice were granting out their
lands, on very easy terms, to settlers. They wished
to extend a thin line of settlements along the front of
their island, to form a sort of outpost, from which an
alarm could be given on any descent of the Iroquois.
La Salle was the man for such a purpose. Had the
priests understood him, — which they evidently did
not, for some of them suspected him of levity, the
last foible with which he could be charged, — had
they understood him, they would have seen in him a
young man in whom the fire of youth glowed not the
less ardently for the veil of reserve that covered it;
who would shrink from no danger, but would not
court it in bravado; and who would cling with an
invincible tenacity of gripe to any purpose which he
might espouse. There is good reason to think that
he had come to Canada with purposes already con-
ceived, and that he was ready to avail himself of
any stepping-stone which might help to realize them.
Queylus, Superior of the Seminary, made him a
12 CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1666.
generous offer; and he accepted it. This was the
gratuitous grant of a large tract of land at the place
now called La Chine, above the great rapids of the
same name, and eight or nine miles from Montreal.
On one hand, the place was greatly exposed to
attack; and, on the other, it was favorably situated
for the fur-trade. La Salle and his successors became
its feudal proprietors, on the sole condition of deliver-
ing to the Seminary, on every change of ownership,
a medal of fine silver, weighing one mark.1 He
entered on the improvement of his new domain with
what means he could command, and began to grant
out his land to such settlers as would join him.
Approaching the shore where the city of Montreal
now stands, one would have seen a row of small
compact dwellings, extending along a narrow street,
parallel to the river, and then, as now, called St.
Paul Street. On a 'hill at the right stood the wind-
mill of the seigniors, built of stone, and pierced with
loopholes to serve, in time of need, as a place of
defence. On the left, in an angle formed by the
junction of a rivulet with the St. Lawrence, was a
square bastioned fort of stone. Here lived the
military governor, appointed by the Seminary, and
commanding a few soldiers of the regiment of
Carignan. In front, on the line of the street, were
the enclosure and buildings of the Seminary, and,
1 Transport de la Seigneurie de St. Sulpicc, cited by Faillon. La
Salle called his new domain as above. Two or three years later, it
received the name of La Chine, for a reason which will appear.
1(567.] LA CHINE. 13
nearly adjoining them, those of the H6tel-Dieu, or
Hospital, both provided for defence in case of an
Indian attack. In the hospital enclosure was a small
cl mrch, opening on the street, and, in the absence of
any other, serving for the whole settlement.1
Landing, passing the fort, and walking southward
along the shore, one would soon have left the rough
clearings, and entered the primeval forest. Here,
mile after mile, he would have journeyed on in soli-
tude, when the hoarse roar of the rapids, foaming in
fury on his left, would have reached his listening
ear; and at length, after a walk of some three hours,
he would have found the rude beginnings of a settle-
ment. It was where the St. Lawrence widens into
the broad expanse called the Lake of St. Louis.
Here, La Salle had traced out the circuit of a pali-
saded village, and assigned to each settler half an
arpent, or about the third of an acre, within the
enclosure, for which he was to render to the young
seignior a yearly acknowledgment of three capons,
besides six deniers — that is, half a sou — in money.
To each was assigned, moreover, sixty arpents of
land beyond the limits of the village, with the per-
petual rent of half a sou for each arpent. He also
set apart a common, two hundred arpents in extent,
for the use of the settlers, on condition of the pay-
* A detailed plan of Montreal at this time is preserved in the
Archives de 1'Empire, and has been reproduced by Faillon. There
is another, a few years later, and still more minute, of which a fac-
simile will be found in the Library of the Canadian Parliament.
14 CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1668.
ment by each of five sous a year. He reserved four
hundred and twenty arpents for his own personal
domain, and on this he began to clear the ground
and erect buildings. Similar to this were the begin-
nings of all the Canadian seigniories formed at this
troubled period.1
That La Salle came to Canada with objects dis-
tinctly in view, is probable from the fact that he at
once began to study the Indian languages, — and
with such success that he is said, within two or three
years, to have mastered the Iroquois and seven or
eight other languages and dialects.2 From the shore
of his seigniory, he could gaze westward over the
broad breast of the Lake of St. Louis, bounded by
the dim forests of Chateauguay and Beauharnois;
but his thoughts flew far beyond, across the wild and
lonely world that stretched towards the sunset. Like
Champlain, and all the early explorers, he dreamed
of a passage to the South Sea, and a new road for
commerce to the riches of China and Japan. Indians
often came to his secluded settlement; and, on one
occasion, he was visited by a band of the Seneca
Iroquois, not long before the scourge of the colony,
but now, in virtue of the treaty, wearing the sem-
1 The above particulars hare been unearthed by the indefatigajble
Abbe Faillon. Some of La Salle's grants are still preserved in the
ancient records of Montreal.
2 Papier $ de Famille. He is said to have made several journeys
into the forests, towards the North, in the years 1667 and 1668, and
to have satisfied himself that little could be hoped from explorations
in that direction.
1669.] SCHEMES OF DISCOVERY. 15
blance of friendship. The visitors spent the wintei
with him, and told him of a river called the Ohio,
rising in their country, and flowing into the sea, but
at such a distance that its mouth could only be
reached after a journey of eight or nine months.
Evidently, the Ohio and the Mississippi are here
merged into one.1 In accordance with geographical
views then prevalent, he conceived that this great
river must needs flow into the "Vermilion Sea;"
that is, the Gulf of California. If so, it would give
him what he sought, a western passage to China ;
while, in any case, the populous Indian tribes said
to inhabit its banks might be made a source of great
commercial profit.
La Salle's imagination took fire. His resolution
was soon formed; and he descended the St. Lawrence
to Quebec, to gain the countenance of the governor
for his intended exploration. Few men were more
skilled than he in the art of clear and plausible state-
ment. Both the governor Courcelle and the intendant
Talon were readily won over to his plan ; for which,
however, they seem to have given him no more sub-
stantial aid than that of the governor's letters patent
authorizing the enterprise.2 The cost was to be his
own; and he had no money, having spent it all on
his seigniory. He therefore proposed that the Semi-
1 According to Dollier de Casson, who had good opportunities of
knowing, the Iroquois always called the Mississippi the Ohio, while
the Algonquins gave it its present name.
2 Patoulet a Colbert, 11 Nov., 1669.
16 CAVELIER D$ LA SALLE. [1669.
nary, which had given it to him, should buy it back
again, with such improvements as he had made.
Queylus, the Superior, being favorably disposed
towards him, consented, and bought of him the
greater part; while La Salle sold the remainder,
including the clearings, to one Jean Milot, an iron-
monger, for twenty-eight hundred livres.1 With
this he bought four canoes, with the necessary sup-
plies, and hired fourteen men.
Meanwhile, the Seminary itself was preparing a
similar enterprise. The Jesuits at this time not only
held an ascendency over the other ecclesiastics in
Canada, but exercised an inordinate influence on the
civil government. The Seminary priests of Montreal
were jealous of these powerful rivals, and eager to
emulate their zeal in the saving of souls and the con-
quering of new domains for the Faith. Under this
impulse, they had, three years before, established a
mission at Quinte*, on the north shore of Lake
Ontario, in charge of two of their number, one of
whom was the Abbe* F^nelon, elder brother of the
celebrated Archbishop of Cambray. Another of
them, Dollier de Casson, had spent the winter in a
hunting-camp of the Mpissings, where an Indian
prisoner, captured in the Northwest, told him of
populous tribes of that quarter living in heathenish
darkness. On this, the Seminary priests resolved to
essay their conversion; and an expedition, to be
directed by Dollier, was fitted out to this end.
1 Cession de la Seigneurie ; Contrat de Vente (Margry, i. 103, 104).
1.369.] DEPARTURE. 17
He was not ill suited to the purpose. He had
been a soldier in his youth, and had fought valiantly
as an officer of cavalry under Turenne. He was a
man of great courage; of a tall, commanding person;
and of uncommon bodily strength, which he had
notably proved in the campaign of Courcelle against
the Iroquois, three years before.1 On going to
Quebec to procure the necessary outfit, he was urged
by Courcelle to modify his plans so far as to act in
concert with La Salle in exploring the mystery of the
great unknown river of the West. Dollier and his
brother priests consented. One of them, Galine'e,
was joined with him as a colleague, because he was
skilled in surveying, and could make a map of their
route. Three canoes were procured, and seven hired
men completed the party. It was determined that
La Salle's expedition and that of the Seminary
should be combined in one, — an arrangement ill
suited to the character of the young explorer, who
was unfit for any enterprise of which he was not the
undisputed chief.
Midsummer was near, and there was no time to
lose. Yet the moment was most unpropitious, for a
Seneca chief had lately been murdered by three
scoundrel soldiers of the fort of Montreal ; and, while
they were undergoing their trial, it became known
1 He was the author of the very curious and valuable Histoire
de Montreal, preserved in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, of which a
copy is in my possession. The Historical Society of Montreal has
recently resolved to print it.
2
18 CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1669.
that three other Frenchmen had treacherously put to
death several Iroquois of the Oneida tribe, in order
to get possession of their furs. The whole colony
trembled in expectation of a new outbreak of the
war. Happily, the event proved otherwise. The
authors of the last murder escaped; but the three
soldiers were shot at Montreal, in presence of a con-
siderable number of the Iroquois, who declared
themselves satisfied with the atonement; and on this
same day, the sixth of July, the adventurers began
their voyage.
CHAPTER II.
1669-1671.
LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS.
THE FRENCH IN WESTERN NEW YORK. — Louis JOLIET. — THE Sui*
PITIANS ON LAKE ERIE ; AT DETROIT ; AT SAUT STE. MARIE. —
THE MYSTERY OF LA SALLE: HE DISCOVERS THE OHIO; HE
DESCENDS THE ILLINOIS ; DID HE REACH THE MISSISSIPPI ?
LA CHINE was the starting-point; and the com-
bined parties, in all twenty-four men with seven
canoes, embarked on the Lake of St. Louis. With
them were two other canoes, bearing the party of
Senecas who had wintered at La Salle's settlement,
and who were now to act as guides. Father Galine'e
recounts the journey. He was no woodsman: the
river, the forests, the rapids, were all new to him,
and he dilates on them with the minuteness of a
novice. Above all, he admired the Indian birch
canoes. "If God," he says, "grants me the grace
of returning to France, I shall try to carry one with
me." Then he describes the bivouac: "Your lodg-
ing is as extraordinary as your vessels; for, after
paddling or carrying the canoes all day, you find
mother earth ready to receive your wearied body.
If the weather is fair, you make a fire and lie down
20 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1669.
to sleep without further trouble ; but if it rains, you
must peel bark from the trees, and make a shed by
laying it on a frame of sticks. As for your food, it
is enough to make you burn all the cookery books
that ever were written ; for in the woods of Canada
one finds means to live well without bread, wine,
salt, pepper, or spice. The ordinary food is Indian
corn, or Turkey wheat as they call it in France,
which is crushed between two stones and boiled,
seasoning it with meat or fish, when you can get
them. This sort of life seemed so strange to us that
we all felt the effects of it; and before we were a
hundred leagues from Montreal, not one of us was
free from some malady or other. At last, after all
our misery, on the second of August, we discovered
Lake Ontario, like a great sea with no land
beyond it."
Thirty-five days after leaving La Chine, they
reached Irondequoit Bay, on the south side of the
lake. Here they were met by a number of Seneca
Indians, who professed friendship and invited them
to their villages, fifteen or twenty miles distant. As
this was on their way to the upper waters of the
Ohio, and as they hoped to find guides at the villages
to conduct them, they accepted the invitation.
Dollier, with most of the men, remained to guard
the canoes; while La Salle, with Galine'e and eight
other Frenchmen, accompanied by a troop of Indians,
set out on the morning of the twelfth, and reached
the principal village before evening. It stood on a
1(69.] THE SENECA VILLAGES. 21
hill, in the midst of a clearing nearly two leagues in
compass.1 A rude stockade surrounded it; and as
the visitors drew near they saw a band of old men
seated on the grass, waiting to receive them. One of
these Veterans, so feeble with age that he could hardly
stand, made them an harangue, in which he declared
that the Senecas were their brothers, and invited
them to enter the village. They did so, surrounded
by a crowd of savages, and presently found them-
selves in the midst of a disorderly cluster of large
but filthy abodes of bark, about a hundred and fifty
in number, the most capacious of which was as-
signed to their use. Here they made their quarters,
and were soon overwhelmed by Seneca hospitality.
Children brought them pumpkins and berries from
the woods; and boy messengers came to summon
them to endless feasts, where they were regaled
with the flesh of dogs and with boiled maize seasoned
with oil pressed from nuts and the seed of sunflowers.
La Salle had flattered himself that he knew enough
Iroquois to hold communication with the Senecas;
but he failed completely in the attempt. The priests
had a Dutch interpreter, who spoke Iroquois fluently,
but knew so little French, and was withal so obsti-
nate, that he proved useless ; so that it was necessary
to employ a man in the service of the Jesuit Fremin,
whose mission was at this village. What the party
needed was a guide to conduct them to the Ohio ; and
1 This village seems to have been that attacked by Denonville
in 1687 It stood on Boughton Hill, near the present town of Victor.
22 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1669.
soon after their arrival a party of warriors appeared,
with a young prisoner belonging to one of the tribes
of that region. Galine*e wanted to beg or buy him
from his captors; but the Senecas had other inten-
tions. "I saw," writes the priest, "the most miser-
able spectacle I ever beheld in my life." It was the
prisoner tied to a stake and tortured for six hours
with diabolical ingenuity, while the crowd danced
and yelled with delight, and the chiefs and elders sat
in a row smoking their pipes and watching the con-
tortions of the victim with an air of serene enjoyment.
The body was at last cut up and eaten, and in the
evening the whole population occupied themselves in
scaring away the angry ghost by beating with sticks
against the bark sides of the lodges.
La Salle and his companions began to fear for their
own safety. Some of their hosts wished to kill them
in revenge for the chief murdered near Montreal;
and as these and others were at times in a frenzy of
drunkenness, the position of the French became
critical. They suspected that means had been used
to prejudice the Senecas against them. Not only
could they get no guides, but they were told that if
they went to the Ohio the tribes of those parts would
infallibly kill them. Their Dutch interpreter became
disheartened and unmanageable, and, after staying a
month at the village, the hope of getting farther on
their way seemed less than ever. Their plan, it
was clear, must be changed; and an Indian from
Otinawatawa, a kind of Iroquois colony at the head
1669.] LOUIS JOLIET. 23
of Lake Ontario, offered to guide them to his village
and show them a better way to the Ohio. They left
the Senecas, coasted the south shore of the lake,
psissed the mouth of the Niagara, where they heard
the distant roar of the cataract, and on the twenty-
fourth of September reached Otinawatawa, which
was a few miles north of the present town of
Hamilton. The inhabitants proved friendly, and La
Siille received the welcome present of a Shawanoe
prisoner, who told them that the Ohio could be
reached in six weeks, and that he would guide them
to it. Delighted at this good fortune, they were
about to set out; when they heard, to their astonish-
ment, of the arrival of two other Frenchmen at a
neighboring village.
One of the strangers was destined to hold a con-
spicuous place in the history of western discovery.
This was Louis Joliet, a young man of about the age
of La Salle. Like him, he had studied for the priest-
hood; but the world and the wilderness had con-
quered his early inclinations, and changed him to an
active and adventurous fur-trader. Talon had sent
him to discover and explore the copper-mines of
Lake Superior. He had failed in the attempt, and
was now returning. His Indian guide, afraid of
passing the Niagara portage lest he should meet
enemies, had led him from Lake Erie, by way of
Grand River, towards the head of Lake Ontario;
and thus it was that he met La Salle and .the
Solpitians.
24 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1669.
This meeting caused a change of plan. Joliet
showed the priests a map which he had made of such
parts of the Upper Lakes as he had visited, and gave
them a copy of it; telling them, at the same time, of
the Pottawattamies and other tribes of that region in
grievous need of spiritual succor. The result was a
determination on their part to follow the route which
he suggested, notwithstanding the remonstrances of
La Salle, who in vain reminded them that the Jesuits
had preoccupied the field, and would regard them as
intruders. They resolved that the Pottawattamies
should no longer sit in darkness; while, as for the
Mississippi, it could be reached, as they conceived,
with less risk by this northern route than by that of
the south.
La Salle was of a different mind. His goal was
the Ohio, and not the northern lakes. A few days
before, while hunting, he had been attacked by a
fever, sarcastically ascribed by Galine'e to his having
seen three large rattlesnakes crawling up a rock. He
now told his two colleagues that he was in no condi-
tion to go forward, and should be forced to part with
them. The staple of La Salle 's character, as his life
will attest, was an invincible determination of pur-
pose, which set at naught all risks and all sufferings.
He had cast himself with all his resources into this
enterprise ; and, while his faculties remained, he was
not a man to recoil from it. On the other hand, the
masculine fibre of which he was made did not always
withhold him from the practice of the arts of address,
U570.] SEPARATION. 25
and the use of what Dollier de Casson styles Idles
piroles. He respected the priesthood, with the
exception, it seems, of the Jesuits ; and he was under
obligations to the Sulpitians of Montreal. Hence
there can be no doubt that he used his illness as a
pretext for escaping from their company without
ungraciousness, and following his own path in his
own way.
On the last day of September, the priests made an
altar, supported by the paddles of the canoes laid on
forked sticks. Dollier said mass; La Salle and his
followers received the sacrament, as did also those
of his late colleagues; and thus they parted, the
Sulpitians and their party descending the Grand
River towards Lake Erie, while La Salle, as they
supposed, began his return to Montreal. What
course he actually took we shall soon inquire; and
meanwhile, for a few moments, we will follow the
priests. When they reached Lake Erie, they saw it
tossing like an angry ocean. They had no mind to
tempt the dangerous and unknown navigation, and
encamped for the winter in the forest near the penin-
sula called the Long Point. Here they gathered
a good store of chestnuts, hickory-nuts, plums,
and grapes, and built themselves a log cabin, with
a recess at the end for an altar. They passed the
winter unmolested, shooting game in abundance, and
saying mass three times a week. Early in spring,
they planted a large cross, attached to it the arms of
France, and took formal possession of the country in
26 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1670.
the name of Louis XIV. This done, they resumed
their voyage, and, after many troubles, landed one
evening in a state of exhaustion on or near Point
Pele*'*, towards the western extremity of Lake Erie.
A storm rose as they lay asleep, and swept off a great
part of their baggage, which, in their fatigue, they
had l<3ft at the edge of the water. Their altar-service
was lost with the rest, — a misfortune which they
ascribed to the jealousy and malice of the Devil.
Debarred henceforth from saying mass, they resolved
to return to Montreal and leave the Pottawattamies
uninstructed. They presently entered the strait by
which Lake Huron joins Lake Erie, and landing
near where Detroit now stands, found a large stone,
somewhat suggestive of the human figure, which the
Indians had bedaubed with paint, and which they
worshipped as a manito. In view of their late mis-
fortune, this device of the arch-enemy excited their
utmost resentment. "After the loss of our altar-
service," writes Galine'e, "and the hunger we had
suffered, there was not a man of us who was not
filled with hatred against this false deity. I devoted
one of my axes to breaking him in pieces ; and then,
having fastened our canoes side by side, we carried
the largest piece to the middle of the river, and threw
it, with all the rest, into the water, that he might
never be heard of again. God rewarded us imme-
diately for this good action, for we killed a deer and
a bear that same day."
This is the first recorded passage of white men
1670.] AT STE. MARIE DU SAUT. 27
through the Strait of Detroit; though Joliet had, no
doubt, passed this way on his return from the Upper
Likes.1 The two missionaries took this course, with
the intention of proceeding to the Saut Ste. Marie,
and there joining the Ottawas, and other tribes of
that region, in their yearly descent to Montreal.
T bey issued upon Lake Huron; followed its eastern
shores till they reached the Georgian Bay, near the
head of which the Jesuits had established their great
mission of the Hurons, destroyed, twenty years
before, by the Iroquois;2 and, ignoring or slighting
the labors of the rival missionaries, held their way
northward along the rocky archipelago that edged
those lonely coasts. They passed the Manitoulins,
acd, ascending the strait by which Lake Superior
discharges its waters, arrived on the twenty-fifth of
May at Ste. Marie du Saut. Here they found the
two Jesuits, Dablon and Marquette, in a square fort
of cedar pickets, built by their men within the past
year, and enclosing a chapel and a house. Near by,
they had cleared a large tract of land, and sown it
with wheat, Indian corn, peas, and other crops. The
new-comers were graciously received, and invited to
vespers in the chapel; but they very soon found La
S a lie's prediction made good, and saw that the Jesuit
fathers wanted no help from St. Sulpice. Galine'e,
1 The Jesuits and fur-traders, on their way to the Upper Lakes,
had followed the route of the Ottawa, or, more recently, that of
Toronto and the Georgian Bay. Iroquois hostility had long closed
tht Niagara portage and Lake Erie against them.
a The Jesuits in North America.
28 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1670.
on his part, takes occasion to remark, that, though
the Jesuits had baptized a few Indians at the Saut,
not one of them was a good enough Christian to
receive the Eucharist; and he intimates that the
case, by their own showing, was still worse at their
mission of St. Esprit. The two Sulpitians did not
care to prolong their stay ; and, three days after their
arrival, they left the Saut, — not, as they expected,
with the Indians, but with a French guide, furnished
by the Jesuits. Ascending French River to Lake
Nipissing, they crossed to the waters of the Ottawa,
and descended to Montreal, which they reached on
the eighteenth of June. They had made no discov-
eries and no converts ; but Galinde, after his arrival,
made the earliest map of the Upper Lakes known to
exist.1
We return now to La Salle, only to find ourselves
involved in mist and obscurity. What did he do
after he left the two priests? Unfortunately, a
definite answer is not possible; and the next two
years of his life remain in some measure an enigma.
That he was busied in active exploration, and that he
made important discoveries, is certain ; but the extent
and character of these discoveries remain wrapped in
doubt. He is known to have kept journals and made
maps ; and these were in existence, and in possession
of his niece, Madeleine Cavelier, then in advanced
1 See Appendix. The above narrative is from Recit de ce qui
s'est passe de plus remarquable dans le Voyage de MM. Dollier et Gali>
nee. (Bibliotheque Rationale.)
1669-70.] LA SALLE'S DISCOVERIES. 29
age, as late as the year 1T56 ; beyond which time the
most diligent inquiry has failed to trace them. Abbe*
Faillon affirms that some of La Salle's men, refusing
to follow him, returned to La Chine, and that the
place then received its name, in derision of the young
adventurer's dream of a westward passage to China.1
As for himself, the only distinct record of his move-
ments is that contained in a paper, entitled "Histoire
do Monsieur de la Salle." It is an account of his
explorations, and of the state of parties in Canada
previous to the year 1678, — taken from the lips of
La Salle himself, by a person whose name does not
appear, but who declares that he had ten or twelve
conversations with him at Paris, whither he had come
with a petition to the Court. The writer himself
had never been in America, and was ignorant of its
geography; hence blunders on his part might reason-
ably be expected. His statements, however, are in
some measure intelligible; and the following is the
substance of them.
After leaving the priests, La Salle went to
Onondaga, where we are left to infer that he suc-
ceeded better in getting a guide than he had before
done among the Senecas. Thence he made his way
to a point six or seven leagues distant from Lake
Erie, where he reached a branch of the Ohio, and,
descending it, followed the river as far as the rapids
at Louisville, — or, as has been maintained, beyond
1 Dollier de Casson alludes to this as "cette transmigration
c^lobre qui se fit de la Chine dans ces quartiers."
30 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1669-70.
its confluence with the Mississippi. His men now
refused to go farther, and abandoned him, escaping
to the English and the Dutch ; whereupon he retraced
his steps alone.1 This must have been in the winter
of 1669-70, or in the following spring; unless there
is an error of date in the statement of Nicolas Perrot,
the famous voyageur, who says that he met him in
the summer of 1670, hunting on the Ottawa with a
party of Iroquois.2
But how was La Salle employed in the following
year? The same memoir has its solution to the
1 The following is the passage relating to this journey in the
remarkable paper above mentioned. After recounting La Salle's
visit with the Sulpitians to the Seneca village, and stating that the
intrigues of the Jesuit missionary prevented them from obtaining a
guide, it speaks of the separation of the travellers and the journey
of Galinee and his party to the Saut Ste. Marie, where " les Jesuites
les conge'dierent." It then proceeds as follows : " Cependant Mr.
de la Salle continua son chemin par une riviere qui va de Test a
1'ouest ; et passe a Onontaque' [Onondaga], puis a six ou sept lieues
au-dessous du Lac Erie; et estant parvenu jusqu'au 280me ou 83me
degre' de longitude, et jusqu'au 41me degree de latitude, trouva un
sault qui tombe vers 1'ouest dans un pays bas, marescageux, tout
convert de vielles souches, dont il y en a quelques-unes qui sont
encore sur pied. II fut done contraint de prendre terre, et suivant
une hauteur qui le pouvoit mener loin, il trouva quelques sauvages
qui luy dirent que fort loin de la le mesme fleuve qui se perdoit
dans cette terre basse et vaste se reunnissoit en un lit. II continua
done son chemin, mais comme la fatigue estoit grande, 23 ou 24
hommes qu'il avoit menez jusques la le quitterent tous en une nuit,
regagnerent le fleuve, et se sauverent, les uns a la Nouvelle Hol-
lande et les autres a la Nouvelle Angleterre. II se vit done seul a
400 lieues de chez luy, ou il ne laisse pas de revenir, remontant la
riviere et vivant de chasse, d'herbes, et de ce que luy donnerent les
sauvages qu'il rencontra en son chemin."
* Perrot, Memoires, 119, 120.
156^-71.] THE RIVER ILLINOIS. 31
problem. By this it appears that the indefatigable
explorer embarked on Lake Erie, ascended the
Detroit to Lake Huron, coasted the unknown shores
of Michigan, passed the Straits of Michilimackinac,
a ad, leaving Green Bay behind him, entered what is
described as an incomparably larger bay, but which
was evidently the southern portion of Lake Michigan.
Thence he crossed to a river flowing westward, —
evidently the Illinois, — and followed it until it was
joined by another river flowing from the northwest
to the southeast. By this, the Mississippi only can
be meant; and he is reported to have said that he
descended it to the thirty-sixth degree of latitude;
where he stopped, assured that it discharged itself
not into the Gulf of California, but into the Gulf of
Mexico, and resolved to follow it thither at a future
day, when better provided with men and supplies.1
The first of these statements, — that relating to the
1 The memoir — after stating, as above, that he entered Lake
H uron, doubled the peninsula of Michigan, and passed La Baye des
Puants (Green Bay) — says: "II reconnut une baye incomparable-
ment plus large ; au fond de laquelle vers 1'ouest il trouva un tres-
bnau havre et au fond de ce havre un fleuve qui va de 1'est a 1'ouest.
II suivit ce fleuve, et estant parvenu jusqu'environ le 280me degre
df longitude et le 39me de latitude, il trouva un autre fleuve qui se
joignant au premier coulait du nordouest au sudest, et il suivit ce
fleuve jusqu'au 36me degre de latitude/'
The " tres-beau havre " may have been the entrance of the river
Chicago, whence, by an easy portage, he might have reached the
Des Plaines branch of the Illinois. We shall see that he took this
course in his famous exploration of 1682.
The intendant Talon announces, in his despatches of this year
that he had sent La Salle southward and westward to explore.
32 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1671.
Ohio, — confused, vague, and in great part incorrect,
as it certainly is, is nevertheless well sustained as
regards one essential point. La Salle himself, in a
memorial addressed to Count Frontenac in 1677,
affirms that he discovered the Ohio, and descended it
as far as to a fall which obstructed it.1 Again, his
rival, Louis Joliet, whose testimony on this point
cannot be suspected, made two maps of the region of
the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. The Ohio is
laid down on both of them, with an inscription to the
effect that it had been explored by La Salle.2 That
1 The following are his words (he speaks of himself in the third
person) : " L'annee 1667, et les suivantes, il fit divers voyages avec
beaucoup de depenses, dans lesquels il decouvrit le premier beau-
coup de pays au sud des grands lacs, et entre autres la grande riviere
d'Ohio; il la suivit jusqu'a un endroit oil elle tombe de fort haut
dans de vastes marais, a la hauteur de 37 degres, apres avoir ete
grossie par une autre riviere fort large qui vient du nord ; et toutes
ces eaux se dechargent selon toutes les apparences dans le Golfe
du Mexique."
This " autre riviere/' which, it seems, was above the fall, may
have been the Miami or the Scioto. There is but one fall on the
river, that of Louisville, which is not so high as to deserve to be
described as " fort haut," being only a strong rapid. The latitude,
as will be seen, is different in the two accounts, and incorrect in
both.
2 One of these maps is entitled Carte de la decouverte du Sieur
Joliet, 1674. Over the lines representing the Ohio are the words,
"Route du sieur de la Salle pour aller dans le Mexique/' The
other map of Joliet bears, also written over the Ohio, the words,
" Riviere par oil descendit le sieur de la Salle au sortir du lac Erie
pour aller dans le Mexique." I have also another manuscript map,
made before the voyage of Joliet and Marquette, and apparently in
the year 1673, on which the Ohio is represented as far as to a point
a little below Louisville, and over it is written, "Riviere Ohio,
ainsy appell&e par les Iroquois fe cause de sa beaute, par oh le sieur
H571.] THE MISSISSIPPI. 33
he discovered the Ohio may then be regarded as
established. That he descended it to the Mississippi,
he himself does not pretend; nor is there reason to
believe that he did so.
With regard to his alleged voyage down the
Illinois, the case is different. Here, he is reported
to have made a statement which admits but one inter-
pretation, — that of the discovery by him of the
Mississippi prior to its discovery by Joliet and
Marquette. This statement is attributed to a man
not prone to vaunt his own exploits, who never pro-
claimed them in print, and whose testimony, even in
his own case, must therefore have weight. But it
comes to us through the medium of a person strongly
biassed in favor of La Salle, and against Marquette
and the Jesuits.
Seven years had passed since the alleged discovery,
and La Salle had not before laid claim to it; although
it was matter of notoriety that during five years it
had been claimed by Joliet, and that his claim was
generally admitted. The correspondence of the
governor and the intendant is silent as to La Salle's
having penetrated to the Mississippi, though the
attempt was made under the auspices of the latter,
as his own letters declare; while both had the dis-
covery of the great river earnestly at heart. The
governor, Frontenac, La Salle's ardent supporter and
de la Salle est descendu." The Mississippi is not represented on
this map ; but — and this is very significant, as indicating the extent
of La Salle's exploration of the f ollowing^year — a rfmall part of
the upper Illinois i« laid down.
34 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1671.
ally, believed in 1672, as his letters show, that the
Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of California ; and,
two years later, he announces to the minister Colbert
its discovery by Joliet.1 After La Salle's death, his
brother, his nephew, and his niece addressed a memo-
rial to the king, petitioning for certain grants in
consideration of the discoveries of their relative,
which they specify at some length ; but they do not
pretend that he reached the Mississippi before his
expeditions of 1679 to 1682.2 This silence is the
more significant, as it is this very niece who had
possession of the papers in which La Salle recounts
the journeys of which the issues are in question.3
1 Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674. He here speaks
of " la grande riviere qu'il [Joliet] a trouve'e, qui va du nord au sud,
et qui est aussi large que celle du Saint-Laurent vis-a-vis de Que-
bec." Four years later, Frontenac speaks slightingly of Joliet, but
neither denies his discovery of the Mississippi, nor claims it for La
Salle, in whose interest he writes.
2 Papiers de Famille ; Memoire presente au Roi. The following is
an extract : " II parvient . . . jusqu'a la riviere des Illinois. II y
construisit un fort situe a 350 lieues au-dela du fort de Frontenac,
et suivant ensuite le cours de cette riviere, il trouva qu'elle se jettoit
dans un grand fleuve appelle par ceux du pays Mississippi, c'est a
dire grande eau, environ cent lieues au-dessous du fort qu'il venoit
de construire." This fort was Fort Crevecoeur, built in 1680, near
the site of Peoria. The memoir goes on to relate the descent of La
Salle to the Gulf, which concluded this expedition of 1679-82.
3 The following is an extract, given by Margry, from a letter of
the aged Madeleine Cavelier, dated 21 Fe'vrier, 1756, and addressed
to her nephew, M. Le Baillif, who had applied for the papers in
behalf of the minister, Silhouette : " J'ay cherche' une occasion sure
pour vous anvoye' les papiers de M. de la Salle. II y a des cartes
que j'ay jointe a ces papiers, qui doivent prouver que, en 1675, M.
de Lasalle avet de'ja fet deux voyages en ces decouverte, puisqu'il
7 avet une carte, que je vous envoye, par laquelle il e«*t fait men-
1*571.] LA SALLE'S DISCOVERIES. 35
Had they led him to the Mississippi, it is reasonably
certain that she would have made it known in her
memorial. La Salle discovered the Ohio, and in all
probability the Illinois also; but that he discovered
the Mississippi has not been proved, nor, in the light
of the evidence we have, is it likely.
tion de Pandroit auquel M. de Lasalle aborda pres le fleuve de Mis-
sissipi; un autre androit qu'il nomme le fleuve Colbert; en un
autre il prans possession de ce pais au nom du roy et fait planter
une crois."
The words of the aged and illiterate writer are obscure, but her
expression "aborda pres" seems to indicate that La Salle had not
reached the Mississippi prior to 1675, but only approached it.
Finally, a memorial presented to Seignelay, along with the official
narrative of 1679-81, by a friend of La Salle, whose object was to
place the discoverer and his achievements in the most favorable
light, contains the following: "II [La Salle] a este le premier a
former le dessein de ces descouvertes, qu'il communiqua, il y a
plus de quinze ans, a M. de Courcelles, gouverneur, et a M. Talon,
intendant du Canada, qui 1'approuverent. II a fait ensuite plusieurs
voyages de ce coste-la, et un entr'autres en 1669 avec MM. Dolier et
G:dinee, prestres du Seminaire de St. Sulpice. // est vray que le
situr Jolliet,pour le prevenir , fit un voyage in 1673, a la riviere Colbert;
mais ce fut uniquement pour y faire commerce." See Margry, ii.
285. This passage is a virtual admission that Joliet reached the
Mississippi (Colbert) before La Salle.
Margry, in a series of papers in the Journal General de V Instruction
Publique for 1862, first took the position that La Salle reached the
Mississippi in 1670 and 1671, and has brought forward in defence of
it all the documents which his unwearied research enabled him to
discover. Father Tailhan, S. J., has replied at length, in the copious
notes to his edition of Nicolas Perrot, but without having seen the
principal document cited by Margry, and of which extracts have
been given in the notes to this chapter.
CHAPTER III.
1670-1672.
THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES.
THE OLD MISSIONS AND THE NEW. — A CHANGE OF SPIRIT. — LAKE
SUPERIOR AND THE COPPER-MINES. — STE. MARIE. — LA POINTE.— -
MlCHILIMACKINAC. — JESUITS ON LAKE MICHIGAN. — ALLOUEZ
AND DABLON. — THE JESUIT FUR-TRADE.
WHAT were the Jesuits doing? Since the ruin of
their great mission of the Hurons, a perceptible
change had taken place in them. They had put forth
exertions almost superhuman, set at naught famine,
disease, and death, lived with the self-abnegation of
saints and died with the devotion of martyrs; and
the result of all had been a disastrous failure. From
no short-coming on their part, but from the force of
events beyond the sphere of their influence, a very
demon of havoc had crushed their incipient churches,
slaughtered their converts, uprooted the populous
communities on which their hopes had rested, and
scattered them in bands of wretched fugitives far and
wide through the wilderness.1 They had devoted
themselves in the fulness of faith to the building up
1 See "The Jesuits in North America."
1370-72.] REPORTS OF THE JESUITS. ET
of a Christian and Jesuit empire on the conversion of
the great stationary tribes of the lakes ; and of these
none remained but the Iroquois, the destroyers of the
rest, — among whom, indeed, was a field which might
stimulate their zeal by an abundant promise of suffer-
ings and martyrdoms, but which, from its geographi-
cal position, was too much exposed to Dutch and
English influence to promise great and decisive
results. Their best hopes were now in the North
and the West; and thither, in great part, they had
turned their energies.
We find them on Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and
Lake Michigan, laboring vigorously as of old, but in
a spirit not quite the same. Now, as before, two
objects inspired their zeal, — the "greater glory of
God, " and the influence and credit of the Order of
Jesus. If the one motive had somewhat lost in
power, the other had gained. The epoch of the
saints and martyrs was passing away; and henceforth
we find the Canadian Jesuit less and less an apostle,
more and more an explorer, a man of science, and a
politician. The yearly reports of the missions are
still, for the edification of the pious reader, filled
with intolerably tedious stories of baptisms, conver-
sions, and the exemplary deportment of neophytes,
— for these have become a part of the formula; but
they are relieved abundantly by more mundane
topics. One finds observations on the winds, cur-
rents, and tides of the Great Lakes ; speculations on
a subterranean outlet of Lake Superior; accounts of
38 THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES. [1670-72.
its copper-mines, and how we, the Jesuit fathers, are
laboring to explore them for the profit of the colony ;
surmises touching the North Sea, the South Sea, the
Sea of China, which we hope ere long to discover;
and reports of that great mysterious river of which
the Indians tell us, — flowing southward, perhaps to
the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the Vermilion Sea,
— and the secrets whereof, with the help of the
Virgin, we will soon reveal to the world.
The Jesuit was as often a fanatic for his Order as
for his faith; and oftener yet the two fanaticisms
mingled in him inextricably. Ardently as he burned
for the saving of souls, he would have none saved on
the Upper Lakes except by his brethren and himself.
He claimed a monopoly of conversion, with its
attendant monopoly of toil, hardship, and martyr-
dom. Often disinterested for himself, he was inor-
dinately ambitious for the great corporate power in
which he had merged his own personality; and here
lies one cause, among many, of the seeming contra-
dictions which abound in the annals of the Order.
Prefixed to the Relation of 1671 is that monument
of Jesuit hardihood and enterprise, the map of Lake
Superior, — a work of which, however, the exactness
has beon exaggerated, as compared with other
Canadian maps of the day. While making surveys,
the priests were diligently looking for copper.
Father Dablon reports that they had found it in
greatest abundance on Isle Minong, now Isle Royale.
44 A day's journey from the head of the lake, on the
1(570-72.] STE. MARIE DU SAUT. 39
south side, there is," he says, "a rock of copper
weighing from six hundred to eight hundred pounds,
lying on the shore where any who pass may see it; "
and he further speaks of great copper boulders in the
bed of the river Ontonagan.1
There were two principal missions on the Upper
Lakes, which were, in a certain sense, the parents of
the rest. One of these was Ste. Marie du Saut, —
tiie same visited by Dollier and Galine'e, — at the
outlet of Lake Superior. This was a noted fishing-
place; for the rapids were full of white-fish, and
Indians came thither in crowds. The permanent
residents were an Ojibwa band, whom the French
called Sauteurs, and whose bark lodges were clustered
1 He complains that the Indians were very averse to giving
information on the subject, so that the Jesuits had not as yet dis-
covered the metal in situ, though they hoped soon to do so. The
Indians told him that the copper had first been found by four
hunters, who had landed on a certain island, near the north shore
of the lake. Wishing to boil their food in a vessel of bark, they
gathered stones on the shore, heated them red hot, and threw
them in, but presently discovered them to be pure copper. Their
repast over, they hastened to re-embark, being afraid of the lynxes
a ad the hares, which, on this island, were as large as dogs, and
which would have devoured their provisions, and perhaps their
canoe. They took with them some of the wonderful stones ; but
scarcely had they left the island, when a deep voice, like thunder,
sounded in their ears, " Who are these thieves who steal the toys of
ny children ? " It was the God of the Waters, or some other power-
ful manito. The four adventurers retreated in great terror; but
three of them soon died, and the fourth survived only long enough
to reach his village, and tell the story. The island has no founda-
tion, but floats with the movement of the wind ; and no Indian dares
land on its shores, dreading the wrath of the manito. Dablon,
Delation, 1670, 84.
40 THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES. [1670-72.
at the foot of the rapids, near the fort of the Jesuits.
Besides these, a host of Algonquins, of various tribes,
resorted thither in the spring and summer, — living
in abundance on the fishery, and dispersing in winter
to wander and starve in scattered hunting-parties far
and wide through the forests.
The other chief mission was that of St. Esprit, at
La Pointe, near the western extremity of Lake
Superior. Here were the Hurons, fugitives twenty
years before from the slaughter of their countrymen ;
and the Ottawas, who, like them, had sought an
asylum from the rage of the Iroquois. Many other
tribes — Illinois, P Ottawa ttamies, Foxes, Menomonies,
Sioux, Assiniboins, Knisteneaux, and a multitude
besides — came hither yearly to trade with the French.
Here was a young Jesuit, Jacques Marquette, lately
arrived from the Saut Ste. Marie. His savage flock
disheartened him by its backslidings ; and the best
that he could report of the Hurons, after all the toil
and all the blood lavished in their conversion, was,
that they "still retain a little Christianity;" while
the Ottawas are " far removed from the kingdom of
God, and addicted beyond all other tribes to foulness,
incantations, and sacrifices to evil spirits."1
Marquette heard from the Illinois — yearly visitors at
La Pointe — -of the great river which they had crossed
on their way,2 and which, as he conjectured, flowed
1 Lettre du Pere Jacques Marquette au R. P. Superieur des Mif
sions; in Relation, 1670, 87.
2 The Illinois lived at this time beyond the Mississippi, thirty
1670-72.] MARQUETTE AND ANDR& 41
into the Gulf of California. He heard marvels of it
also from the Sioux, who lived on its banks; and a
strong desire possessed him to explore the mystery of
its course. A sudden calamity dashed his hopes.
The Sioux — the Iroquois of the West, as the Jesuits
call them — had hitherto kept the peace with the
expatriated tribes of La Pointe ; but now, from some
cause not worth inquiry, they broke into open war,
and so terrified the Hurons and Ottawas that they
abandoned their settlements and fled. Marquette
followed his panic-stricken flock, who, passing the
Saut Ste. Marie, and descending to Lake Huron,
stopped at length, — the Hurons at Michilimackinac,
and the Ottawas at the Great Manitoulin Island.
Two missions were now necessary to minister to
the divided bands. That of Michilimackinac was
assigned to Marquette, and that of the Manitoulin
Island to Louis Andre*. The former took post at
Point St. Ignace, on the north shore of the Straits of
Michilimackinac, while the latter began the mission
of St. Simon at the new abode of the Ottawas.
When winter came, scattering his flock to their
hunting-grounds, Andre* made a missionary tour
among the Nipissings and other neighboring tribes.
The shores of Lake Huron had long been an utter
days' journey from La Pointe ; whither they had been driven by
the Iroquois, from their former abode near Lake Michigan. Dablon
(Relation, 1671, 24, 25) says that they lived seven days' journey
beyond the Mississippi, in eight villages. A few years later, most
of them returned to the east side, and made their abode on the river
Illinois.
42 THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES. [1670-72.
solitude, swept of their denizens by the terror of the
all-conquering Iroquois; but now that these tigers
had felt the power of the French, and learned for a
time to leave their Indian allies in peace, the fugitive
hordes were returning to their ancient abodes.
Andrews experience among them was of the roughest.
The staple of his diet was acorns and tripe de roche,
— • a species of lichen, which, being boiled, resolved
itself into a black glue, nauseous, but not void of
nourishment. At times, he was reduced to moss, the
bark of trees, or moccasins and old moose-skins cut
into strips and boiled. His hosts treated him very
ill, and the worst of their fare was always his portion.
When spring came to his relief, he returned to his
post of St. Simon, with impaired digestion and
unabated zeal.
Besides the Saut Ste. Marie and Michilimackinac,
both noted fishing-places, there was another spot, no
less famous for game and fish, and therefore a favorite
resort of Indians. This was the head of the Green
Bay of Lake Michigan.1 Here and in adjacent
districts several distinct tribes had made their abode.
The Menomonies were on the river which bears their
name; the Pottawattamies and Winnebagoes were
1 The Baye des Puants of the early writers ; or, more correctly,
La Baye des Eaux Puantes. The Winnebago Indiana, living near
it, were called Les Puans, apparently for no other reason than
because some portion of the bay was said to have an odor like
the sea.
Lake Michigan, the "Lac des Illinois" of the French, was,
according to a letter of Father Allouez, called " Machihiganing " by
the Indians. Dablon writes the name " Mitchiganon."
1670-72.] THE GREEN BAY MISSION. 43
near the borders of the bay ; the Sacs, on Fox River ;
the Mascoutins, Miamis, and Kickapoos, on the same
river, above Lake Winnebago; and the Outagamies,
or Foxes, on a tributary of it flowing from the north.
Green Bay was manifestly suited for a mission ; and,
as early as the autumn of 1669, Father Claude
Allouez was sent thither to found one. After nearly
perishing by the way, he set out to explore the
destined field of his labors, and went as far as the
town of the Mascoutins. Early in the autumn of
1670, having been joined by Dablon, Superior of the
missions on the Upper Lakes, he made another jour-
ney, but not until the two fathers had held a council
with the congregated tribes at St. Francis Xavier;
for so they named their mission of Green Bay. Here,
as they harangued their naked audience, their gravity
was put to the proof; for a band of warriors, anxious
to do them honor, walked incessantly up and down,
aping the movements of the soldiers on guard before
the governor's tent at Montreal. " We could hardly
keep from laughing," writes DaMon, "though we
were discoursing on very important subjects ; namely,
the mysteries of our religion, and the things necessary
to escaping from eternal fire."1
The fathers were delighted with the country,
which Dablon calls an earthly paradise ; but he adds
that the way to it is as hard as the path to heaven.
He alludes especially to the rapids of Fox River,
which gave the two travellers great trouble. Having
i Relation, 1671, 43.
44 THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES. [1670-72.
safely passed them, they saw an Indian idol on the
bank, similar to that which Dollier and Galine'e found
at Detroit, — being merely a rock, bearing some
resemblance to a man, and hideously painted. With
the help of their attendants, they threw it into the
river. Dablon expatiates on the buffalo, which he
describes apparently on the report of others, as his
description is not very accurate. Crossing Winne-
bago Lake, the two priests followed the river leading
to the town of the Mascoutins and Miamis, which
they reached on the fifteenth of September.1 These
two tribes lived together within the compass of the
same enclosure of palisades, — to the number, it is
said, of more than three thousand souls. The mis-
sionaries, who had brought a highly colored picture
of the Last Judgment, called the Indians to council
and displayed it before them; while Allouez, who
spoke Algonquin, harangued them on hell, demons,
and eternal flames. They listened with open ears,
beset him night and day with questions, and invited
him and his companion to unceasing feasts. They
were welcomed in every lodge, and followed every-
where with eyes of curiosity, wonder, and awe.
Dablon overflows with praises of the Miami chief,
who was honored by his subjects like a king, and
1 This town was on the Neenah or Fox River, above Lake Win-
nebago. The Mascoutins, Fire Nation, or Nation of the Prairie, are
extinct or merged in other tribes. See "The Jesuits in North
America." The Miamis soon removed to the banks of the river
St. Joseph, near Lake Michigan.
1670-72.] THE CROSS AMONG THE FOXES. 45
whose demeanor towards his guests had no savor of
the savage.
Their hosts told them of the great river Mississippi,
rising far in the north and flowing southward, — they
knew not whither, — and of many tribes that dwelt
along its banks. When at length they took their
departure, they left behind them a reputation as
medicine-men of transcendent power.
In the winter following, Allouez visited the Foxes,
whom he found in extreme ill-humor. They were
incensed against the French by the ill-usage which
some of their tribe had lately met when on a trading
visit to Montreal ; and they received the Faith with
shouts of derision. The priest was horror-stricken
at what he saw. Their lodges, each containing from
five to ten families, seemed in his eyes like seraglios ;
for some of the chiefs had eight wives. He armed
himself with patience, and at length gained a hear-
ing. Nay, he succeeded so well, that when he
showed them his crucifix they would throw tobacco
on it as an offering ; and, on another visit which he
made them soon after, he taught the whole village to
make the sign of the cross. A war-party was going
out against their enemies, and he bethought him of
telling them the story of the Cross and the Emperor
Constantine. This so wrought upon them that they
all daubed the figure of a cross on their shields of
bull-hide, set out for the war, and came back victo-
rious, extolling the sacred symbol as a great war-
medicine.
46 THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES. [1670-72.
"Thus it is," writes Dablon, who chronicles the
incident, " that our holy faith is established among
these people ; and we have good hope that we shall
soon carry it to the famous river called the Mississippi,
and perhaps even to the South Sea."1 Most things
human have their phases of the ludicrous ; and the
heroism of these untiring priests is no exception to
the rule.
The various missionary stations were much alike.
They consisted of a chapel (commonly of logs) and
one or more houses, with perhaps a storehouse and a
workshop; the whole fenced with palisades, and
forming, in fact, a stockade fort, surrounded with
clearings and cultivated fields. It is evident that
the priests had need of other hands than their own
and those of the few lay brothers attached to the
mission. They required men inured to labor, accus-
tomed to the forest life, able to guide canoes and
handle tools and weapons. In the earlier epoch of
the missions, when enthusiasm was at its height,
they were served in great measure by volunteers,
who joined them through devotion or penitence, and
who were known as donnes^ or "given men." Of
late, the number of these had much diminished ; and
they now relied chiefly on hired men, or engages.
These were employed in building, hunting, fishing,
clearing, and tilling the ground, guiding canoes, and
(if faith is to be placed in reports current throughout
the colony) in trading with the Indians for the profit
i Relation, 1672, 42.
1670-72.] TRADING WITH INDIANS. 47
of the missions. This charge of trading — which, if
the results were applied exclusively to the support
of the missions, does not of necessity involve much
censure — is vehemently reiterated in many quarters,
including the official despatches of the governor of
Canada; while, so far as i can discover, the Jesuits
never distinctly denied it, and on several occasions
they partially admitted its truth.1
1 This charge was made from the first establishment of the mis'
sions. For remarks on it, see " The Jesuits in North America " an**
"The Old Regime in Canada."
CHAPTER IV.
1667-1672.
FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION OF THE WEST.
TALON. — SAINT-LUSSON. — PERROT. — THE CEREMONY AT SAUT STB,
MARIE. — THE SPEECH OP ALLOUEZ. — COUNT FRONTENAC.
JEAN TALON, intendant of Canada, was full of
projects for the good of the colony. On the one
hand, he set himself to the development of its indus-
tries, and, on the other, to the extension of its
domain. He meant to occupy the interior of the
continent, control the rivers, which were its only
highways, and hold it for France against every other
nation. On the east, England was to be hemmed
within a narrow strip of seaboard; while, on the
south, Talon aimed at securing a port on the Gulf of
Mexico, to keep the Spaniards in check, and dispute
with them the possession of the vast regions which
they claimed as their own. But the interior of the
continent was still an unknown world. It behooved
him to explore it; and to that end he availed himself
of Jesuits, officers, fur-traders, and enterprising
schemers like La Salle. His efforts at discovery
seem to have been conducted with a singular economy
1<)70.] SAINT-LUSSON AND PERROT. 49
of the King's purse. La Salle paid all the expenses
of his first expedition made under Talon's auspices;
and apparently of the second also, though the intend-
ant announces it in his despatches as an expedition
sent out by himself.1 When, in 1670, he ordered
Daumont de Saint-Lusson to search for copper mines
on Lake Superior, and at the same time to take formal
possession of the whole interior for the King, it was
arranged that he should pay the costs of the journey
by trading with the Indians.2
Saint-Lusson set out with a small party of men,
and Nicolas Perrot as his interpreter. Among
Canadian voyageurs, few names are so conspicuous
as that of Perrot; not because there were not others
who matched him in achievement, but because he
could write, and left behind him a tolerable account
of what he had seen.3 He was at this time twenty-
six years old, and had formerly been an engage of the
Jesuits. He was a man of enterprise, courage, and
1 At least, La Salle was in great need of money, about the time
of his second journey. On the sixth of August, 1671, he had
received on credit, "dans son grand hesoin et necessite'," from
Branssac, fiscal attorney of the Seminary, merchandise to the amount
of four hundred and fifty livres ; and on the eighteenth of Decem-
ber of the following year he gave his promise to pay the same sum,
in money or furs, in the August following. Faillon found the papers
in the ancient records of Montreal.
2 In his]despatch of 2d Nov., 1671, Talon writes to the King that
" Saint-Lusson's expedition will cost nothing, as he has received
beaver enough from the Indians to pay him."
3 Moeurs, Coustumes, et Relligion des Sauvages de I'Amerique Sep-
tentrionale. This work of Perrot, hitherto unpublished, appeared in
1864, under the editorship of Father Tailhan, S. J. A great part of
it is incorporated in La Potherie.
4
50 FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION, ETC. [1670.
address, — the last being especially shown in his
dealings with Indians, over whom he had great
influence. He spoke Algonquin fluently, and was
favorably known to many tribes of that family.
Saint-Lusson wintered at the Manitoulin Islands;
while Perrot, having first sent messages to the tribes
of the north, inviting them to meet the deputy of the
governor at the Saut Ste. Marie in the following
spring, proceeded to Green Bay, to urge the same
invitation upon the tribes of that quarter. They
knew him well, and greeted him with clamors of
welcome. The Miamis, it is said, received him with
a sham battle, which was designed to do him honor,
but by which nerves more susceptible would have
been severely shaken.1 They entertained him also
with a grand game of la crosse, the Indian ball-play.
Perrot gives a marvellous account of the authority
and state of the Miami chief, who, he says, was
attended day and night by a guard of warriors, — an
assertion which would be incredible, were it not
sustained by the account of the same chief given by
the Jesuit Dablon. Of the tribes of the Bay, the
greater part promised to send delegates to the Saut ;
but the Pottawattamies dissuaded the Miami poten-
tate from attempting so long a journey, lest the
fatigue incident to it might injure his health ; and he
1 See La Potherie, ii. 125. Perrot himself does not mention it.
Charlevoix erroneously places this interview at Chicago. Perrot's
narrative shows that he did not go farther than the tribes of Green
Bay ; and the Miamis were then, as we have seen, on the upper part
of Fox River.
1(571.] CEREMONY AT THE SAUT. 51
therefore deputed them to represent him and his
tribesmen at the great meeting. Their principal
chiefs, with those of the Sacs, Winnebagoes, and
Menomonies, embarked, and paddled for the place
of rendezvous, where they and Perrot arrived on the
fifth of May.1
Saint-Lusson was here with his men, fifteen in
number, among whom was Louis Joliet ; 2 and Indians
were fast thronging in from their wintering grounds,
attracted, as usual, by the fishery of the rapids or
moved by the messages sent by Perrot, — Crees,
Monsonis, Amikoue's, Nipissings, and many more.
When fourteen tribes, or their representatives, had
arrived, Saint-Lusson prepared to execute the com-
mission with which he was charged.
At the foot of the rapids was the village of the
Sauteurs, above the village was a hill, and hard by
stood the fort of the Jesuits. On the morning of the
fourteenth of June, Saint-Lusson led his followers to
the top of the hill, all fully equipped and under
arms. Here, too, in the vestments of their priestly
office, were four Jesuits, — Claude Dablon, Superior
of the Missions of the lakes, Gabriel Druilletes,
Claude Allouez, and Louis Andre'.3 All around the
great throng of Indians stood, or crouched, or
reclined at length, with eyes and ears intent. A
1 Perrot, Memoires, 127.
2 Proces Verbal de la Prise de Possession, etc., 14 Juin, 1671. The
names are attached to this instrument.
8 Marquette is said to have been present ; but the official &ct,
just cited, proves the contrarj. He was still at St. Esprit.
52 FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION, ETC, [1671.
large cross of wood had been made ready. Dablon,
in solemn form, pronounced his blessing on it; and
then it was reared and planted in the ground, while
the Frenchmen, uncovered, sang the Vexilla Regis.
Then a post of cedar was planted beside it, with a
metal plate attached, engraven with the royal arms ;
while Saint-Lusson's followers sang the Exaudiat,
and one of the Jesuits uttered a prayer for the King.
Saint-Lusson now advanced, and, holding his sword
in one hand, and raising with the other a sod of
earth, proclaimed in a loud voice, —
"In the name of the Most High, Mighty, and
Redoubted Monarch, Louis, Fourteenth of that name,
Most Christian King of France and of Navarre, I take
possession of this place, Sainte Marie du Saut, as
also of Lakes Huron and Superior, the Island of
Manitoulin, and all countries, rivers, lakes, and
streams contiguous and adjacent thereunto, — both
those which have been discovered and those which
may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and
breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the
North and of the West, and on the other by the
South Sea : declaring to the nations thereof that from
this time forth they are vassals of his Majesty, bound
to obey his laws and follow his customs ; promising
them on his part all succor and protection against the
incursions and invasions of their enemies : declaring
to all other potentates, princes, sovereigns, states,
and republics, — to them and to their subjects, — that
they cannot and are not to seize or settle upon any
1671.] ALLOUEZ'S HARANGUE. 53
£ -arts of the aforesaid countries, save only under the
good pleasure of His Most Christian Majesty, and of
him who will govern in his behalf; and this on pain
of incurring his resentment and the efforts of his
arms. Vive le Roi."1
The Frenchmen fired their guns and shouted " Vive
le Roi," and the yelps of the astonished Indians
mingled with the din.
What now remains of the sovereignty thus pom-
pously proclaimed? Now and then the accents of
France on the lips of some straggling boatman or
vagabond half-breed, — this, and nothing more.
When the uproar was over, Father Allouez ad-
dressed the Indians in a solemn harangue ; and these
were his words : " It is a good work, my brothers, an
important work, a great work, that brings us together
in council to-day. Look up at the cross which rises
so high above your heads. It was there that Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, after making himself a man
for the love of men, was nailed and died, to satisfy
his Eternal Father for our sins. He is the master of
our lives ; the ruler of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. It
is he of whom I am continually speaking to you, and
whose name and word I have borne through all your
country. But look at this post to which are fixed
the arms of the great chief of France, whom we call
King. He lives across the sea. He is the chief of
the greatest chiefs, and has no equal on earth. All
the chiefs whom you have ever seen are but children
1 Proces Verbal de la Prise de Possession,
54 FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION, ETC. [1671.
beside him. He is like a great tree, and they are
but the little herbs that one walks over and tramples
under foot. You know Onontio,1 that famous chief
at Quebec ; you know and you have seen that he is
the terror of the Iroquois, and that his very name
makes them tremble, since he has laid their country
waste and burned their towns with fire. Across the
sea there are ten thousand Onontios like him, who
are but the warriors of our great King, of whom I
have told you. When he says, ' I am going to war, '
everybody obeys his orders; and each of these ten
thousand chiefs raises a troop of a hundred warriors,
some on sea and some on land. Some embark in
great ships, such as you have seen at Quebec. Your
canoes carry only four or five men, or, at the most,
ten or twelve ; but our ships carry four or five hun-
dred, and sometimes a thousand. Others go to war
by land, and in such numbers that if they stood in a
double file they would reach from here to Mississa-
quenk, which is more than twenty leagues off. When
our King attacks his enemies, he is more terrible than
the thunder : the earth trembles ; the air and the sea
are all on fire with the blaze of his cannon : he is seen
in the midst of his warriors, covered over with the
blood of his enemies, whom he kills in such numbers
that he does not reckon them by the scalps, but by
the streams of blood which he causes to flow. He
takes so many prisoners that he holds them in no
account, but lets them go where they will, to show
1 The Indian name of the governor of Canada.
1071.] ALLOUEZ'S HARANGUE. 55
that he is not afraid of them. But now nobody dares
make war on him. All the nations beyond the sea
have submitted to him and begged humbly for peace.
Men come from every quarter of the earth to listen
to him and admire him. All that is done in the
world is decided by him alone.
" But what shall I say of his riches ? You think
yourselves rich when you have ten or twelve sacks of
corn, a few hatchets, beads, kettles, and other things
of that sort. He has cities of his own, more than
there are of men in all this country for five hundred
leagues around. In each city there are storehouses
where there are hatchets enough to cut down all your
forests, kettles enough to cook all your moose, and
l>eads enough to fill all your lodges. His house is
longer than from here to the top of the Saut, — that
is to say, more than half a league, — and higher than
your tallest trees ; and it holds more families than the
largest of your towns."1 The father added more in
a similar strain; but the peroration of his harangue
is not on record.
Whatever impression this curious effort of Jesuit
rhetoric may have produced upon the hearers, it did
not prevent them from stripping the royal arms from
the post to which they were nailed, as soon as Saint-
Lusson and his men had left the Saut; probably, not
because they understood the import of the symbol,
but because they feared it as a charm. Saint-Lusson
1 A close translation of Dablon's report of the speech. See
Relation, 1671, 27.
56 FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION, ETC. [1672.
proceeded to Lake Superior, where, however, he
accomplished nothing, except, perhaps, a traffic with
the Indians on his own account; and he soon after
returned to Quebec. Talon was resolved to find the
Mississippi, the most interesting object of search,
and seemingly the most attainable, in the wild and
vague domain which he had just claimed for the
King. The Indians had described it; the Jesuits
were eager to discover it; and La Salle, if he had
not reached it, had explored two several avenues by
which it might be approached. Talon looked about
him for a fit agent of the enterprise, and made
choice of Louis Joliet, who had returned from Lake
Superior.1 But the intendant was not to see the
fulfilment of his design. His busy and useful career
in Canada was drawing to an end. A misunder-
standing had arisen between him and the governor,
Courcelle. Both were faithful servants of the King;
but the relations between the two chiefs of the colony
were of a nature necessarily so critical, that a con-
flict of authority was scarcely to be avoided. Each
thought his functions encroached upon, and both
asked for recall. Another governor succeeded ; one
who was to stamp his mark, broad, bold, and inefface-
able, on the most memorable page of French-American
History, — Louis de Buade, Count of Palluau and
Frontenac.
1 Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672. In the Brodhead
Collection, by a copyist's error, the name of the Chevalier de Grand'
fontaine is substituted for that of Talon.
CHAPTER V.
1672-1675.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
JOLIET SENT TO FIND THE MISSISSIPPI. — JACQUES MARQUETTE.—
DEPARTURE. — GREEN BAY. — THE WISCONSIN. — THE MISSIS-
SIPPI.— INDIANS. — MANITOUS. — THE ARKANSAS. — THE ILLI-
NOIS.— JOLIET'S MISFORTUNE. — MARQUETTE AT CHICAGO: HII
ILLNESS ; HIS DEATH.
IP Talon had remained in the colony, Frontenac
would infallibly have quarrelled with him; but he
was too clear-sighted not to approve his plans for the
discovery and occupation of the interior. Before
sailing for France, Talon recommended Joliet as a
suitable agent for the discovery of the Mississippi,
and the governor accepted his counsel.1
Louis Joliet was the son of a wagon-maker in the
service of the Company of the Hundred Associates,2
then owners of Canada. He was born at Quebec in
1645, and was educated by the Jesuits. When still
very young, he resolved to be a priest. He received
the tonsure and the minor orders at the age of seven-
1 Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672 ; Ibid., 14 Nov., 1674.
2 See " The Jesuits in North America.0
58 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
teen. Four years after, he is mentioned with especial
honor for the part he bore in the disputes in phil-
osophy, at which the dignitaries of the colony were
present, and in which the intendant himself took
part.1 Not long after, he renounced his clerical
vocation, and turned fur-trader. Talon sent him,
with one P^rd, to explore the copper-mines of Lake
Superior; and it was on his return from this expedi-
tion that he met La Salle and the Sulpitians near the
head of Lake Ontario.2
In what we know of Joliet, there is nothing that
reveals any salient or distinctive trait of character,
any especial breadth of view or boldness of design.
He appears to have been simply a merchant, intelli-
gent, well educated, courageous, hardy, and enter-
prising. Though he had renounced the priesthood,
he retained his partiality for the Jesuits; and it is
more than probable that their influence had aided
not a little to determine Talon's choice. One of their
1 " Le 2 Juillet (1666) les premieres disputes de philosophic se
font dans la congregation avec succes. Toutes les puissances s'y
trouvent ; M. Tlntendant entr'autres y a argumente tres-bien. M.
Jolliet et Pierre Francheville y ont tres-bien r^pondu de toute la
logique." — Journal des Jtsuites.
2 Nothing was known of Joliet till Shea investigated his history.
Ferland, in his Notes sur les Re'gistres de Notre-Dame de Quebec;
Faillon, in his Colonie Franqaise en Canada ; and Margry, in a series
of papers in the Journal GSntral de I' Instruction Publique, — have
thrown much new light on his life. From journals of a voyage
made by him at a later period to the coast of Labrador, given in
substance by Margry, he seems to have been a man of close and
intelligent observation. His mathematical acquirements appear to
hare been very considerable.
1673.] MARQUETTE. 59
number, Jacques Marquette, was chosen to accompany
him.
He passed up the lakes to Michilimackinac, and
found his destined companion at Point St. Ignace, on
the north side of the strait, where, in his palisaded
mission-house and chapel, he had labored for two
years past to instruct the Huron refugees from St.
Esprit, and a band of Ottawas who had joined them.
Marquette was born in 1637, of an old and honor-
able family at Laon, in the north of France, and was
now thirty-five years of age. When about seventeen,
he had joined the Jesuits, evidently from motives
purely religious; and in 1666 he was sent to the mis-
sions of Canada. At first, he was destined to the
station of Tadoussac; and to prepare himself for it,
he studied the Montagnais language under Gabriel
Diuilletes. But his destination was changed, and he
was sent to the Upper Lakes in 1668, where he had
since remained. His talents as a linguist must have
been great; for within a few years he learned to
speak with ease six Indian languages. The traits
of his character are unmistakable. He was of the
brotherhood of the early Canadian missionaries, and
the true counterpart of Gamier or Jogues. He was
a devout votary of the Virgin Mary, who, imaged to
his mind in shapes of the most transcendent loveli-
ness with which the pencil of human genius has ever
informed the canvas, was to him the object of an
adoration not unmingled with a sentiment of chival-
rous devotion. The longings of a sensitive heart,
60 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
divorced from earth, sought solace in the skies. A
subtile element of romance was blended with the
fervor of his worship, and hung like an illumined
cloud over the harsh and hard realities of his daily
lot. Kindled by the smile of his celestial mistress,
his gentle and noble nature knew no fear. For her
he burned to dare and to suffer, discover new lands
and conquer new realms to her sway.
He begins the journal of his voyage thus: "The
day of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy
Virgin; whom I had continually invoked since I
came to this country of the Ottawas to obtain from
God the favor of being enabled to visit the nations on
the river Mississippi, — this very day was precisely
that on which M. Joliet arrived with orders from
Count Frontenac, our governor, and from M. Talon,
our intendant, to go with me on this discovery. I
was all the more delighted at this good news, because
I saw my plans about to be accomplished, and found
myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for
the salvation of all these tribes, — and especially of
the Illinois, who, when I was at Point St. Esprit,
had begged me very earnestly to bring the word of
God among them."
The outfit of the travellers was very simple.
They provided themselves with two birch canoes, and
a supply of smoked meat and Indian corn ; embarked
with five men, and began their voyage on the seven-
teenth of May. They had obtained all possible infor-
mation from the Indians, and had made, by means
2673.] DEPARTURE. 61
of it, a species of map of their intended route.
" Above all, " writes Marque tte, " I placed our voyage
under the protection of the Holy Virgin Immaculate,
promising that if she granted us the favor of dis-
covering the great river, I would give it the name of
the Conception."1 Their course was westward; and,
plying their paddles, they passed the Straits of
Michilimackinac, and coasted the northern shores
of Lake Michigan, landing at evening to build their
camp-fire at the edge of the forest, and draw up their
canoes on the strand. They soon reached the river
Mcnomonie, and ascended it to the village of the
Menomonies, or Wild-rice Indians.2 When they
told them the object of their voyage, they were filled
with astonishment, and used their best ingenuity to
dissuade them. The banks of the Mississippi, they
said, were inhabited by ferocious tribes, who put every
stranger to death, tomahawking all new-comers with-
out cause or provocation. They added that there
was 5 a demon in a certain part of the river, whose
roar could be heard at a great distance, and who
would engulf them in the abyss where he dwelt; that
its waters were full of frightful monsters, who would
devour them and their canoe; and, finally, that the
1 The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, sanctioned in our
own time by the Pope, was always a favorite tenet of the Jesuits ;
and Marquette was especially devoted to it.
2 The Malhoumines, Malouminek, Oumalouminek, or Nation des
Folles-Avoines, of early French writers. The folle-avoine, wild oats
or " wild rice " (Zizania aqualica), was their ordinary food, as also
^>f 01 her tribes of this region.
62 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
heat was so great that they would perish inevitably.
Marquette set their counsel at naught, gave them a
few words of instruction in the mysteries of the Faith,
taught them a prayer, and bade them farewell.
The travellers next reached the mission at the head
of Green Bay; entered Fox River; with difficulty
and labor dragged their canoes up the long and
tumultuous rapids; crossed Lake Winnebago; and
followed the quiet windings of the river beyond,
where they glided through an endless growth of wild
rice, and scared the innumerable birds that fed upon it.
On either hand rolled the prairie, dotted with groves
and trees, browsing elk and deer.1 On the seventh
of June, they reached the Mascoutins and Miamis,
who, since the visit of Dablon and Allouez, had been
joined by the Kickapoos. Marquette, who had an
eye for natural beauty, was delighted with the situa-
tion of the town, which he describes as standing on
the crown of a hill; while, all around, the prairie
stretched beyond the sight, interspersed with groves
and belts of tall forest. But he was still more
delighted when he saw a cross planted in the midst
of the place. The Indians had decorated it with a
number of dressed deer-skins, red girdles, and bows
and arrows, which they had hung upon it as an offer-
ing to the Great Manitou of the French ; a sight by
which Marquette says he was "extremely consoled."
1 Dablon, on his journey with Allouez in 1670, was delighted
with the aspect of the country and the abundance of game along
this river. Carver, a century later, speaks to the same effect, say-
ing that the birds rose up in clouds from the wild-rice marshes.
1673.] THE WISCONSIN RIVER. 63
The travellers had no sooner reached the town than
they called the chiefs and elders to a council. Joliet
told them that the governor of Canada had sent him
to discover new countries, and that God had sent his
companion to teach the true faith to the inhabitants;
and he prayed for guides to show them the way to
the waters of the Wisconsin. The council readily
consented; and on the tenth of June the Frenchmen
embarked again, with two Indians to conduct them.
All the town came down to the shore to see their
departure. Here were the Miamis, with long locks
of hair dangling over each ear, after a fashion which
Marque tte thought very becoming ; and here, too, the
Mascoutins and the Kickapoos, whom he describes
as mere boors in comparison with their Miami towns-
men. All stared alike at the seven adventurers,
marvelling that men could be found to risk an
enterprise so hazardous.
The river twisted among lakes and marshes choked
with wild rice ; and, but for their guides, they could
scarcely have followed the perplexed and narrow
channel. It brought them at last to the portage,
where, after carrying their canoes a mile and a half
over the prairie and through the marsh, they launched
them on the Wisconsin, bade farewell to the waters
that flowed to the St. Lawrence, and committed
themselves to the current that was to bear them they
knew not whither, — perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico,
perhaps to the South Sea or the Gulf of California.
They glided calmly down the tranquil stream, by
64 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
islands choked with trees and matted with entan-
gling grape-vines ; by forests, groves, and prairies, the
parks and pleasure-grounds of a prodigal Nature ; by
thickets and marshes and broad bare sand-bars ; under
the shadowing trees, between whose tops looked down
from afar the bold brow of some woody bluff. At
night, the bivouac, — the canoes inverted on the
bank, the flickering fire, the meal of bison-flesh or
venison, the evening pipes, and slumber beneath the
stars ; and when in the morning they embarked again,
the mist hung on the river like a bridal veil, then
melted before the sun, till the glassy water and the
languid woods basked breathless in the sultry glare.1
On the seventeenth of June they saw on their right
the broad meadows, bounded in the distance by rugged
hills, where now stand the town and fort of Prairie
du Chien. Before them a wide and rapid current
coursed athwart their way, by the foot of lofty
heights wrapped thick in forests. They had found
what they sought, and "with a joy," writes Mar-
quette, "which I cannot express," they steered forth
their canoes on the eddies of the Mississippi.
Turning southward, they paddled down the stream,
through a solitude unrelieved by the faintest trace of
man. A large fish, apparently one of the huge cat-
fish of the Mississippi, blundered against Marque tte's
canoe, with a force which seems to have startled
him ; and once, as they drew in their net, they caught
1 The above traits of the scenery of the Wisconsin are taken
from personal observation of the river during midsummer.
1073.] THE MISSISSIPPI. 65
a "spade-fish," whose eccentric appearance greatly
astonished them. At length the buffalo began to
appear, grazing in herds on the great prairies which
then bordered the river; and Marquette describes the
fierce and stupid look of the old bulls, as they stared
at the intruders through the tangled mane which
nearly blinded them.
They advanced with extreme caution, landed at
night, and made a fire to cook their evening meal;
then extinguished it, embarked again, paddled some
way farther, and anchored in the stream, keeping a
man on the watch till morning. They had journeyed
more than a fortnight without meeting a human
being, when, on the twenty-fifth, they discovered
footprints of men in the mud of the western bank,
and a well-trodden path that led to the adjacent
prairie. Joliet and Marquette resolved to follow it ;
and leaving the canoes in charge of their men, they
set out on their hazardous adventure. The day was
fair, and they walked two leagues in silence, follow-
ing the path through the forest and across the sunny
prairie, till they discovered an Indian village on the
banks of a river, and two others on a hill half a
league distant.1 Now, with beating hearts, they
invoked the aid of Heaven, and, again advancing,
came so near, without being seen, that they could
1 The Indian villages, under the names of Peouaria (Peoria) and
Moingouena, are represented in Marquette's map upon a river cor-
responding in position with the Des Moines ; though the distance
from the Wisconsin, as given by him, would indicate a river farther
rorth.
.
66 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
hear the voices of the Indians among the wigwams.
Then they stood forth in full view, and shouted to
attract attention. There was great commotion in the
village. The inmates swarmed out of their huts, and
four of their chief men presently came forward to
meet the strangers, advancing very deliberately, and
holding up toward the sun two calumets, or peace-
pipes, decorated with feathers. They stopped
abruptly before the two Frenchmen, and stood gaz-
ing at them without speaking a word. Marquette
was much relieved on seeing that they wore French
cloth, whence he judged that they must be friends
and allies. He broke the silence, and asked them
who they were ; whereupon they answered that they
were Illinois, and offered the pipe; which having
been duly smoked, they all went together to the
village. Here the chief received the travellers after
a singular fashion, meant to do them honor. He
stood stark naked at the door of a large wigwam,
holding up both hands as if to shield his eyes.
"Frenchmen, how bright the sun shines when you
come to visit us! All our village awaits you; and
you shall enter our wigwams in peace." So saying,
he led them into his own, which was crowded to
suffocation with savages, staring at their guests in
silence. Having smoked with the chiefs and old
men, they were invited to visit the great chief of all
the Illinois, at one of the villages they had seen in
the distance; and thither they proceeded, followed
by a throng of warriors, squaws, and children. On
1673.] THE ILLINOIS INDIANS. 67
arriving, they were forced to smoke again, and listen
to a speech of welcome from the great chief, who
delivered it standing between two old men, naked
like himself. His lodge was crowded with the digni-
taries of the tribe, whom Marque tte addressed in
Algonquin, announcing himself as a messenger sent
by the God who had made them, and whom it
behooves them to recognize and obey. He added a
few words touching the power and glory of Count
Frontenac, and concluded by asking information
concerning the Mississippi, and the tribes along its
banks, whom he was on his way to visit. The chief
replied with a speech of compliment; assuring his
guests that their presence added flavor to his tobacco,
made the river more calm, the sky more serene, and
the earth more beautiful. In conclusion, he gave
them a young slave and a calumet, begging them
at the same time to abandon their purpose of de-
scending the Mississippi.
A feast of four courses now followed. First, a
wooden bowl full of a porridge of Indian meal boiled
with grease was set before the guests ; and the master
of ceremonies fed them in turn, like infants, with a
large spoon. Then appeared a platter of fish; and
the same functionary, carefully removing the bones
with his fingers, and blowing on the morsels to cool
them, placed them in the mouths of the two French-
men. A large dog, killed and cooked for the occa-
sion, was next placed before them; but, failing to
tempt their fastidious appetites, was supplanted by a
68 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
dish of fat buffalo-meat, which concluded the enter-
tainment. The crowd having dispersed, buffalo-robes
were spread on the ground, and Marquette and
Joliet spent the night on the scene of the late festiv-
ity. In the morning, the chief, with some six
hundred of his tribesmen, escorted them to their
canoes, and bade them, after their stolid fashion, a
friendly farewell.
Again they were on their way, slowly drifting
down the great river. They passed the mouth of the
Illinois, and glided beneath that line of rocks on the
eastern side, cut into fantastic forms by the elements,
and marked as " The Ruined Castles " on some of the
early French maps. Presently they beheld a sight
which reminded them that the Devil was still lord
paramount of this wilderness. On the flat face of
a high rock were painted, in red, black, and green, a
pair of monsters, each " as large as a calf, with horns
like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a tiger, and a
frightful expression of countenance. The face is
something like that of a man, the body covered with
scales; and the tail so long that it passes entirely
round the body, over the head and between the legs,
ending like that of a fish." Such is the account
which the worthy Jesuit gives of these manitous, or
Indian gods.1 He confesses that at first they fright-
1 The rock where these figures were painted is immediately above
the city of Alton. The tradition of their existence remains, though
they are entirely effaced by time. In 1867, when I passed the place,
a part of the rock had been quarried away, and, instead of Mar-
quette's monsters, it bore a huge advertisement of "Plantation
L673.] A REAL DANGER. 69
ened him ; and his imagination and that of his credu-
lous companions was so wrought upon by these
unhallowed efforts of Indian art, that they continued
for a long time to talk of them as they plied their
paddles. They were thus engaged, when they were
suddenly aroused by a real danger. A torrent of
yellow mud rushed furiously athwart the calm blue
current of the Mississippi, boiling and surging, and
.sweeping in its course logs, branches, and uprooted
trees. They had reached the mouth of the Missouri,
where that savage river, descending from its mad
career through a vast unknown of barbarism, poured
its turbid floods into the bosom of its gentler sister.
Their light canoes whirled on the miry vortex like
dry leaves on an angry brook. "I never," writes
Marque tte, "saw anything more terrific;" but they
escaped with their fright, and held their way down
the turbulent and swollen current of the now united
rivers.1 They passed the lonely forest that covered
Bitters." Some years ago, certain persons, with more zeal than
knowledge, proposed to restore the figures, after conceptions of
their own ; but the idea was abandoned.
Marquette made a drawing of the two monsters, but it is lost. I
1 lave, however, a f ac-simile of a map made a few years later, by
order of the Intendant Duchesneau, which is decorated with the
portrait of one of them, answering to Marquette's description, and
probably copied from his drawing. St. Cosme, who saw them in
1699, says that they were even then almost effaced. Douay and
.Toute! also speak of them, — the former, bitterly hostile to his
.Tesuit contemporaries, charging Marquette with exaggeration in
Ids account of them. Joutel could see nothing terrifying in their
appearance ; but he says that his Indians made sacrifices to them
as they passed.
1 The Missouri is called " Pekitanou'i " by Marquette. It al§«
70 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
the site of the destined city of St. Louis, and, a
few days later, saw on their left the mouth of the
stream to which the Iroquois had given the well-
merited name of Ohio, or the "Beautiful River."1
Soon they began to see the marshy shores buried in
a dense growth of the cane, with its tall straight
stems and feathery light-green foliage. The sun
glowed through the hazy air with a languid stifling
heat, and by day and night mosquitoes in myriads
left them no peace. They floated slowly down the
current, crouched in the shade of the sails which
they had spread as awnings, when suddenly they
saw Indians on the east bank. The surprise was
mutual, and each party was as much frightened as
the other. Marquette hastened to display the calu-
met which the Illinois had given him by way of
passport; and the Indians, recognizing the pacific
symbol, replied with an invitation to land. Evi-
dently, they were in communication with Europeans,
for they were armed with guns, knives, and hatchets,
wore garments of cloth, and carried their gunpowder
in small bottles of thick glass. They feasted the
Frenchmen with buffalo-meat, bear's oil, and white
plums; and gave them a variety of doubtful in-
bears, on early French maps, the names of " Riviere des Osages,"
and "Riviere des Emissourites," or " Oumessourits." On Mar-
quette's map, a tribe of this name is placed near its banks, just
above the Oaages. Judging by the course of the Mississippi that it
discharged into the Gulf of Mexico, he conceived the hope of one
day reaching the South Sea by way of the Missouri.
1 Called, on Marquette's map, " Ouabouskiaou." On gome of the
carlieit maps, it is called " Ouabache " ( Wabash).
1673.] THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI. 71
Formation, including the agreeable but delusive assur-
ance that they would reach the mouth of the rivei
in ten days. It was, in fact, more than a thousand
miles distant.
They resumed their course, and again floated down
the interminable monotony of river, marsh, and
forest. Day after day passed on in solitude, and
they had paddled some three hundred miles since
their meeting with the Indians, when, as they neared
the mouth of the Arkansas, they saw a cluster of
wigwams on the west bank. Their inmates were all
astir, yelling the war-whoop, snatching their weapons,
and running to the shore to meet the strangers, who,
on their part, called for succor to the Virgin. In
truth, they had need of her aid; for several large
wooden canoes, filled with savages, were putting out
from the shore, above and below them, to cut off
their retreat, while a swarm of headlong young war-
riors waded into the water to attack them. The
current proved too strong; and, failing to reach the
canoes of the Frenchmen, one of them threw his war-
club, which flew over the heads of the startled travel-
lers. Meanwhile, Marquette had not ceased to hold
up his calumet, to which the excited crowd gave no
heed, but strung their bows and notched their arrows
for immediate action; when at length the elders of
the village arrived, saw the peace-pipe, restrained
the ardor of the youth, and urged the Frenchmen to
come ashore. Marquette and his companions com-
plied, trembling, and found a better reception than
T2 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [lG7a
they had reason to expect. One of the Indians
spoke a little Illinois, and served as interpreter; a
friendly conference was followed by a feast of saga-
mite and fish; and the travellers, not without sore
misgivings, spent the night in the lodges of their
entertainers.1
Early in the morning, they embarked again, and
proceeded to a village of the Arkansas tribe, about
eight leagues below. Notice of their coming was
sent before them by their late hosts; and as they
drew near they were met by a canoe, in the prow of
which stood a naked personage, holding a calumet,
singing, and making gestures of friendship. On
reaching the village, which was on the east side,2
opposite the mouth of the river Arkansas, they were
conducted to a sort of scaffold, before the lodge of
the war-chief. The space beneath had been prepared
for their reception, the ground being neatly covered
with rush mats. On these they were seated; the
warriors sat around them in a semi-circle; then the
elders of the tribe ; and then the promiscuous crowd
of villagers, standing, and staring over the heads of
the more dignified members of the assembly. All
the men were naked ; but, to compensate for the lack
of clothing, they wore strings of beads in their noses
and ears. The women were clothed in shabby skins,
and wore their hair clumped in a mass behind each
1 This village, called " Mitchigamea," is represented on several
contemporary maps.
2 A few years later, the Arkansas were all on the west side.
1673.] THE ARKANSAS. 73
ear. By good luck, there was a young Indian in the
village, who had an excellent knowledge of Illinois ;
find through him Marquette endeavored to explain
the mysteries of Christianity, and to gain information
concerning the river below. To this end he gave his
auditors the presents indispensable on such occasions,
but received very little in return. They told him
that the Mississippi was infested by hostile Indians,
armed with guns procured from white men ; and that
they, the Arkansas, stood in such fear of them that
they dared not hunt the buffalo, but were forced to
live on Indian corn, of which they raised three crops
& year.
During the speeches on either side, food was
brought in without ceasing, — sometimes a platter of
sagamite or mush ; sometimes of corn boiled whole j
sometimes a roasted dog. The villagers had large
earthen pots and platters, made by themselves with
tolerable skill, as well as hatchets, knives, and beads,
gained by traffic with the Illinois and other tribes in
contact with the French or Spaniards. All day there
was feasting without respite, after the merciless
practice of Indian hospitality; but at night some of
their entertainers proposed to kill and plunder them,
— a scheme which was defeated by the vigilance of
the chief, who visited their quarters, and danced the
calumet dance to reassure his guests.
The travellers now held counsel as to what course
they should take. They had gone far enough, as
they thought, to establish one important point, —
74 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1673.
that the Mississippi discharged its waters, not into
the Atlantic or sea of Virginia, nor into the Gulf of
California or Vermilion Sea, but into the Gulf of
Mexico. They thought themselves nearer to its
mouth than they actually were, the distance being
still about seven hundred miles; and they feared
that if they went farther they might be killed by
Indians or captured by Spaniards, whereby the results
of their discovery would be lost. Therefore they
resolved to return to Canada, and report what they
had seen.
They left the Arkansas village, and began their
homeward voyage on the seventeenth of July. It
was no easy task to urge their way upward, in the
heat of midsummer, against the current of the dark
and gloomy stream, toiling all day under the parch-
ing sun, and sleeping at night in the exhalations of
the unwholesome shore, or in the narrow confines of
their birchen vessels, anchored on the river. Mar-
quette was attacked with dysentery. Languid and
well-nigh spent, he invoked his celestial mistress, as
day after day, and week after week, they won their
slow way northward. At length, they reached the
Illinois, and, entering its mouth, followed its course,
charmed, as they went, with its placid waters, its
shady forests, and its rich plains, grazed by the bison
and the deer. They stopped at a spot soon to be
made famous in the annals of western discovery.
This was a village of the Illinois, then called
w Kaskaskia ; " a name afterwards transferred to
K573.] RETURN TO CANADA. 75
another locality.1 A chief, with a band of young war-
riors, offered to guide them to the Lake of the Illinois ;
that is to say, Lake Michigan. Thither they repaired ;
and, coasting its shores, reached Green Bay at the end
of September, after an absence of about four months,
during which they had paddled their canoes some'
what more than two thousand five hundred miles.2
Marquette remained to recruit his exhausted
strength; but Joliet descended to Quebec, to bear
the report of his discovery to Count Frontenac.
Fortune had wonderfully favored him on his long
and perilous journey; but now she abandoned him on
the very threshold of home. At the foot of the
rapids of La Chine, and immediately above Montreal,
1 Marquette says that it consisted at this time of seventy-four
lodges. These, like the Huron and Iroquois lodges, contained each
several fires and several families. This village was about seven
miles below the site of the present town of Ottawa.
2 The journal of Marquette, first published in an imperfect form
bj Thevenot, in 1681, has been reprinted by Mr. Lenox, under the
direction of Mr. Shea, from the manuscript preserved in the arch-
ives of the Canadian Jesuits. It will also be found in Shea's Dis-
covery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, and the Relations
Jnedites of Martin. The true map of Marquette accompanies all
these publications. The map published by Thevenot and repro-
duced by Bancroft is not Marquette's. The original of this, of
which I have a fac-simile, bears the title Carte de la Nouvette
Dt'couverte que les Peres Jesuites ont faite en I'annee 1672, et con-
fix uee par le Pere Jacques Marquette, etc. The return route of the
expedition is incorrectly laid down on it. A manuscript map of
the Jesuit Kaffeix, preserved in the Bibliotheque Impe'riale, is more
accurate in this particular. I have also another contemporary manu-
script map, indicating the various Jesuit stations in the West a*
this time, and representing the Mississippi, as discovered by Mar
quette. For these and other maps, see Appendix.
76 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1674.
his canoe was overset, two of his men and an Indian
boy were drowned, all his papers were lost, and he
himself narrowly escaped. l In a letter to Frontenac,
he speaks of the accident as follows : " I had escaped
every peril from the Indians ; I had passed forty-two
rapids; and was on the point of disembarking, full
of joy at the success of so long and difficult an enter-
prise, when my canoe capsized, after all the danger
seemed over. I lost two men and my box of papers,
within sight of the first French settlements, which I
had left almost two years before. Nothing remains
to me but my life, and the ardent desire to employ it
on any service which you may please to direct."2
1 Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, Quebec, 14 Nov., 1674.
2 This letter is appended to Joliet'* smaller map of his discov-
eries. See Appendix. Compare Details sur le Voyage de Louis Joliet
and Relation de la Descouverte de plusieurs Pays situez au midi de la
Nouvelle France, faite en 1673 (Margry, i. 259). These are oral
accounts given by Joliet after the loss of his papers. Also, Lettre
de Joliet, Oct. 10, 1674 (Harrisse). On the seventh of October, 1675,
Joliet married Claire Bissot, daughter of a wealthy Canadian mer-
chant, engaged in trade with the northern Indians. This drew
Joliet's attention to Hudson's Bay; and he made a journey thither
in 1679, by way of the Saguenay. He found three English forts on
the bay, occupied by about sixty men, who had also an armed vessel
of twelve guns and several small trading-craft. The English held
out great inducements to Joliet to join them ; but he declined, and
returned to Quebec, where he reported that unless these formidable
rivals were dispossessed, the trade of Canada would be ruined. In
consequence of this report, some of the principal merchants of the
colony formed a company to compete with the English in the trade
of Hudson's Bay. In the year of this journey, Joliet received a
grant of the islands of Mignan ; and in the following year, 1680, he
received another grant, of the great island of Anticosti in the lower
St. Lawrence. In 1681 he was established here, with his wife and
six servants. He was engaged in fisheries; and, being a skilful
1674.] MARQUETTE'S MISSION. 77
Marquette spent the winter and the following
summer at the mission of Green Bay, still suffering
from his malady. In the autumn, however, it abated ;
and he was permitted by his Superior to attempt the
execution of a plan to which he was devotedly
attached, — the founding, at the principal town of
the Illinois, of a mission to be called the "Immaculate
Conception," a name which he had already given to
the river Mississippi. He set out on this errand on
the twenty-fifth of October, accompanied by two
men, named Pierre and Jacques, one of whom had
been with him on his great journey of discovery. A
band of Pottawattamies and another band of Illinois
also joined him. The united parties — ten canoes in
all — followed the east shore of Green Bay as far as
the inlet then called "Sturgeon Cove," from the head
of which they crossed by a difficult portage through
the forest to the shore of Lake Michigan. November
had come. The bright hues of the autumn foliage
wore changed to rusty brown. The shore was deso-
late, and the lake was stormy. They were more
navigator and surveyor, he made about this time a chart of the St.
Lawrence. In 1690, Sir William Phips, on his way with an English
fleot to attack Quebec, made a descent on Joliet's establishment,
burnt his buildings, and took prisoners his wife and his mother-in-
law. In 1694 Joliet explored the coasts of Labrador, under the
auspices of a company formed for the whale and seal fishery. On
hit return, Frontenac made him royal pilot for the St. Lawrence ;
ami at about the same time he received the appointment of hydrog-
rapher at Quebec. He died, apparently poor, in 1699 or 1700, and
was buried on one of the islands of Mignan. The discovery of the
above facts is due in great part to the researches of Margry.
78 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1674.
than a month in coasting its western border, when at
length they reached the river Chicago, entered it, and
ascended about two leagues. Marquette's disease
had lately returned, and hemorrhage now ensued.
He told his two companions that this journey would
be his last. In the condition in which he was, it was
impossible to go farther. The two men built a log
hut by the river, and here they prepared to spend the
winter; while Marquette, feeble as he was, began
the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius, and con-
fessed his two companions twice a week.
Meadow, marsh, and forest were sheeted with
snow, but game was abundant. Pierre and Jacques
killed buffalo and deer, and shot wild turkeys close
to their hut. There was an encampment of Illinois
within two days' journey; and other Indians, passing
by this well-known thoroughfare, occasionally visited
them, treating the exiles kindly, and sometimes
bringing them game and Indian corn. Eighteen
leagues distant was the camp of two adventurous
French traders, — one of them, a noted coureur de
lois, nicknamed La Taupine ; 1 and the other, a self-
styled surgeon. They also visited Marquette, and
befriended him to the best of their power.
Urged by a burning desire to lay, before he died,
the foundation of his new mission of the Immaculate
Conception, Marquette begged his two followers to
1 Pierre Moreau, alias La Taupine, was afterwards bitterly com-
plained of by the Intendant Duchesneau, for acting as the gov-
ernor's agent in illicit trade with the Indians.
1675.] THE MISSION AT KASKASKIA. 79
join him in a novena, or nine days' devotion to the
Virgin. In consequence of this, as he believed, his
disease relented; he began to regain strength, and in
March was able to resume the journey. On the
thirtieth of the month, they left their hut, which had
been inundated by a sudden rise of the river, and
carried their canoe through mud and water over the
portage which led to the Des Plaines. Marquette
knew the way, for he had passed by this route on his
return from the Mississippi. Amid the rains of
opening spring, they floated down the swollen cur-
rent of the Des Plaines, by naked woods and spongy,
saturated prairies, till they reached its junction with
the main stream of the Illinois, which they descended
to their destination, the Indian town which Marquette
calls "Kaskaskia." Here, as we are told, he was
received "like an angel from Heaven.'* He passed
from wigwam to wigwam, telling the listening crowds
of God and the Virgin, Paradise and Hell, angels
and demons; and, when he thought their minds
prepared, he summoned them all to a grand council.
It took place near the town, on the great meadow
which lies between the river and the modern village
of Utica. Here five hundred chiefs and old men
were seated in a ring; behind stood fifteen hundred
youths and warriors, and behind these again all the
women and children of the village. Marquette,
standing in the midst, displayed four large pictures
of the Virgin ; harangued the assembly on the myste*
ries of the Faith, and exhorted them to adopt it.
80 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1675.
The temper of his auditory met his utmost wishes.
They begged him to stay among them and continue
his instructions ; but his life was fast ebbing away,
and it behooved him to depart.
A few days after Easter he left the village, escorted
by a crowd of Indians, who followed him as far as
Lake Michigan. Here he embarked with his two
companions. Their destination was Michilimackinac,
and their course lay along the eastern borders of the
lake. As, in the freshness of advancing spring,
Pierre and Jacques urged their canoe along that
lonely and savage shore, the priest lay with dimmed
sight and prostrated strength, communing with the
Virgin and the angels. On the nineteenth of May,
he felt that his hour was near ; and, as they passed
the mouth of a small river, he requested his com-
panions to land. They complied, built a shed of
bark on a rising ground near the bank, and carried
thither the dying Jesuit. With perfect cheerfulness
and composure, he gave directions for his burial,
asked their forgiveness for the trouble he had caused
them, administered to them the sacrament of peni-
tence, and thanked God that he was permitted to die
in the wilderness, a missionary of the Faith and a
member of the Jesuit brotherhood. At night, seeing
that they were fatigued, he told them to take rest,
saying that he would call them when he felt his time
approaching. Two or three hours after, they heard
a feeble voice, and, hastening to his side, found him
at the point of death. He expired calmly, murmur-
1676-77.] BURIAL OF MARQUETTE. 81
ing the names of Jesus and Mary, with his eyes fixed
on the crucifix which one of his followers held before
him. They dug a grave beside the hut, and here
they buried him according to the directions which he
had given them ; then, re-embarking, they made their
way to Michilimackinac, to bear the tidings to the
priests at the mission of St. Ignace.1
In the winter of 1676, a party of Kiskakon Otoawas
were hunting on Lake Michigan; and when, in the
following spring, they prepared to return home, they
bethought them, in accordance with an Indian cus-
tom, of taking with them the bones of Marquette,
who had been their instructor at the mission of St.
Esprit. They repaired to the spot, found the grave,
opened it, washed and dried the bones and placed
them carefully in a box of birch-bark. Then, in a
procession of thirty canoes, they bore it, singing their
funeral songs, to St. Ignace of Michilimackinac. As
they approached, priests, Indians, and traders all
thronged to the shore. The relics of Marquette were
received with solemn ceremony, and buried beneath
the floor of the little chapel of the mission.2
1 The contemporary Relation tells us that a miracle took place
at the burial of Marquette. One of the two Frenchmen, overcome
with grief and colic, bethought him of applying a little earth from
the grave to the seat of pain. This at once restored him to health
and cheerfulness.
2 For Marquette's death, see the contemporary Relation, pub-
lished by Shea, Lenox, and Martin, with the accompanying Lettre
et Journal. The river where he died is a small stream in the west
of Michigan, some distance south of the promontory called the
" Sleeping Bear." It long bore his name, which is now borne by a
82 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1677.
larger neighboring stream. Charlevoix's account of Marquette's
death is derived from tradition, and is not supported by the con-
temporary narrative. In 1877, human bones, with fragments of
birch-bark, were found buried on the supposed site of the Jesuit
chapel at Point St. Ignace.
In 1847, the missionary of the Algonquins at the Lake of Two
Mountains, above Montreal, wrote down a tradition of the death of
Marquette, from the lips of an old Indian woman, born in 1777, at
Michilimackinac. Her ancestress had been baptized by the sub-
ject of the story. The tradition has a resemblance to that related
as fact by Charlevoix. The old squaw said that the Jesuit was
returning, very ill, to Michilimackinac, when a storm forced him
and his two men to land near a little river. Here he told them that
he should die, and directed them to ring a bell over his grave and
plant a cross. They all remained four days at the spot ; and, though
without food, the men felt no hunger. On the night of the fourth
day he died, and the men buried him as he had directed. On wak-
ing in the morning, they saw a sack of Indian corn, a quantity of
bacon, and some biscuit, miraculously sent to them, in accordance
with the promise of Marquette, who had told them that they should
have food enough for their journey to Michilimackinac. At the
same instant, the stream began to rise, and in a few moments encir-
cled the grave of the Jesuit, which formed, thenceforth, an islet in
the waters. The tradition adds, that an Indian battle afterwards
took place on the banks of this stream, between Christians and
infidels ; and that the former gained the victory, in consequence of
invoking the name of Marquette. This story bears the attestation
of the priest of the Two Mountains that it is a literal translation of
the tradition, as recounted by the old woman.
It has been asserted that the Illinois country was visited by two
priests, some time before the visit of Marquette. This assertion
was first made by M. Noiseux, late Grand Vicar of Quebec, who
gives no authority for it. Not the slightest indication of any such
visit appears in any contemporary document or map, thus far dis-
covered. The contemporary writers, down to the time of Marquette
and La Salle, all speak of the Illinois as an unknown country. The
entire groundlessness of Noiseux's assertion is shown by Shea, in a
paper in the " Weekly Herald," of New York, April 21, 1855.
CHAPTER VI.
1673-1678.
LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.
OBJECTS OF LA SALLE. — FRONTENAC FAVORS HIM. — PROJECTS or
FRONTENAC. — CATARAQUI. — FRONTENAC ON LAKE ONTAKIO. —
FORT FRONTENAC. — LA SALLE AND FENELON. — SUCCESS OF LA
SALLE : HIS ENEMIES.
WE turn from the humble Marquette, thanking
(rod with his last breath that he died, for his Order
and his Faith; and by our side stands the masculine
form of Cavelier de la Salle. Prodigious was the
contrast between the two discoverers: the one, with
clasped hands and upturned eyes, seems a figure
evoked from some dim legend of mediaeval saintship;
the other, with feet firm planted on the hard earth,
breathes the self-relying energies of modern practical
enterprise. Nevertheless, La Salle's enemies called
him a visionary. His projects perplexed and startled
them. At first, they ridiculed him; and then, as
step by step he advanced towards his purpose, they
denounced and maligned him. What was this pur-
pose ? It was not of sudden growth, but developed
as years went on. La Salle at La Chine dreamed
of a western passage to China, and nursed vague
84 LA SALLE AKD FRONTENAC. [1673-73.
schemes of western discovery. Then, when his
earlier journeyings revealed to him the valley of the
Ohio and the fertile plains of Illinois, his imagination
took wing over the boundless prairies and forests
drained by the great river of the West. His ambi-
tion had found its field. He would leave barren and
frozen Canada behind, and lead France and civiliza-
tion into the valley of the Mississippi. Neither the
English nor the Jesuits should conquer that rich
domain : the one must rest content with the country
east of the Alleghanies, and the other with the
forests, savages, and beaver-skins of the northern
lakes. It was for him to call into light the latent
riches of the great West. But the way to his land
of promise was rough and long: it lay through
Canada, filled with hostile traders and hostile priests,
and barred by ice for half the year. The difficulty
was soon solved. La Salle became convinced that
the Mississippi flowed, not into the Pacific or the
Gulf of California, but into the Gulf of Mexico. By
a fortified post at its mouth, he could guard it against
both English and Spaniards, and secure for the trade
of the interior an access and an outlet under his own
control, and open at every season. Of this trade,
the hides of the buffalo would at first form the staple,
and along with furs would reward the enterprise till
other resources should be developed.
Such were the vast projects that unfolded them-
selves in the mind, of La Salle. Canada must needs
be, at the outset, his base of action, and without the
j673.] PROJECTS OF FRONTENAC. 85
support of its authorities he could do nothing. This
support he found. From the moment when Count
Frontenac assumed the government of the colony, he
seems to have looked with favor on the young
discoverer. There were points of likeness between
the two men. Both were ardent, bold, and enterpris-
ing. The irascible and fiery pride of the noble found
its match in the reserved and seemingly cold pride of
the ambitious burgher. Each could comprehend the
other; and they had, moreover, strong prejudices
and dislikes in common. An understanding, not to
say an alliance, soon grew up between them.
Frontenac had come to Canada a ruined man. He
was ostentatious, lavish, and in no way disposed to
let slip an opportunity of mending his fortune. He
presently thought that he had found a plan by which
ho could serve both the colony and himself. His
predecessor, Courcelle, had urged upon the King
the expediency of building a fort on Lake Ontario, in
order to hold the Iroquois in check and intercept the
trade which the tribes of the Upper Lakes had begun
to carry on with the Dutch and English of New
York. Thus a stream of wealth would be turned
into Canada, which would otherwise enrich her ene-
mies. Here, to all appearance, was a great public
good, and from the military point of view it was so
in fact; but it was clear that the trade thus secured
might be made to profit, not the colony at large, but
those alone who had control of the fort, which would
then become the instrument of a monopoly. This
86 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.
the governor understood; and, without doubt, he
meant that the projected establishment should pay
him tribute. How far he and La Salle were acting
in concurrence at this time, it is not easy to say ; but
Frontenac often took counsel of the explorer, who, on
his part, saw in the design a possible first step towards
the accomplishment of his own far-reaching schemes.
Such of the Canadian merchants as were not in the
governor's confidence looked on his plan with extreme
distrust. Frontenac, therefore, thought it expedient
"to make use," as he expresses it, "of address." He
gave out merely that he intended to make a tour
through the upper parts of the colony with an armed
force, in order to inspire the Indians with respect,
and secure a solid peace. He had neither troops,
money, munitions, nor means of transportation; yet
there was no time to lose, for, should he delay the
execution of his plan, it might be countermanded by
the King. His only resource, therefore, was in a
prompt and hardy exertion of the royal authority;
and he issued an order requiring the inhabitants of
Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, and other settle-
ments to furnish him, at their own cost, as soon as
the spring sowing should be over, with a certain
number of armed men, besides the requisite canoes.
At the same time, he invited the officers settled in
the country to join the expedition, — an invitation
which, anxious as they were to gain his good graces,
few of them cared to decline. Regardless of mur-
murs and discontent, he pushed his preparation
1673.] EXPEDITION OF FRONTENAC. 87
vigorously, and on the third of June left Quebec
with his guard, his staff, a part of the garrison of
the Castle of St. Louis, and a number of volunteers.
He had already sent to La Salle, who was then at
Montreal, directing him to repair to Onondaga, the
political centre of the Iroquois, and invite their
sachems to meet the governor in council at the Bay
of Quinte* on the north of Lake Ontario. La Salle
had set out on his mission, but first sent Frontenac a
map, which convinced him that the best site for his
proposed fort was the mouth of the Cataraqui, where
Kingston now stands. Another messenger was ac-
cordingly despatched, to change the rendezvous to
this point.
Meanwhile, the governor proceeded at his leisure
towards Montreal, stopping by the way to visit the
officers settled along the bank, who, eager to pay
their homage to the newly risen sun, received him
with a hospitality which under the roof of a log hut
was sometimes graced by the polished courtesies of
the salon and the boudoir. Reaching Montreal,
which he had never before seen, he gazed, we may
suppose, with some interest at the long row of
humble dwellings which lined the bank, the massive
buildings of the Seminary, and the spire of the
church predominant over all. It was a rude scene,
but the greeting that awaited him savored nothing of
the rough simplicity of the wilderness. Perrot, the
local governor, was on the shore with his soldiers
and the inhabitants, drawn up under arms and firing
88 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.
a salute to welcome the representative of the King.
Frontenac was compelled to listen to a long harangue
from the judge of the place, followed by another from
the syndic. Then there was a solemn procession to
the church, where he was forced to undergo a third
effort of oratory from one of the priests. Te Deum
followed, in thanks for his arrival ; and then he took
refuge in the fort. Here he remained thirteen days,
busied with his preparations, organizing the militia,
soothing their mutual jealousies, and settling knotty
questions of rank and precedence. During this time,
every means, as he declares, was used to prevent him
from proceeding; and among other devices a rumor
was set on foot that a Dutch fleet, having just cap-
tured Boston, was on its way to attack Quebec.1
Having sent men, canoes, and baggage, by land,
to La Salle's old settlement of La Chine, Frontenac
himself followed on the twenty-eighth of June.
Including Indians from the missions, he now had
with him about four hundred men and a hundred
and twenty canoes, besides two large flat-boats, which
he caused to be painted in red and blue, with strange
devices, intended to dazzle the Iroquois by a display
of unwonted splendor. Now their hard task began.
Shouldering canoes through the forest, dragging the
flat-boats along the shore, working like beavers, —
1 Lettre de Frontenac a Colbert, 13 Nov., 1673. This rumor, it
appears, originated with the Jesuit Dablon. Journal du Voyage du
Comte de Frontenac au lac Ontario. The Jesuits were greatly opposed
to the establishment of forts and trading-posts in the upper country,
for reasons that will appear hereafter.
1673.] FRONTFJSTAC'S JOURNEY. B9
sometimes in water to the knees, sometimes to the
armpits, their feet cut by the sharp stones, and they
themselves well-nigh swept down by the furious
current, — they fought their way upward against the
chain of mighty rapids that break the navigation of
the St. Lawrence. The Indians were of the greatest
service. Frontenac, like La Salle, showed from the
iirst a special faculty of managing them; for his
keen, incisive spirit was exactly to their liking, and
they worked for him as they would have worked for
no man else. As 'they approached the Long Saut,
rain fell in torrents; and the governor, without his
cloak, and drenched to the skin, directed in person
the amphibious toil of his followers. Once, it is
Faid, he lay awake all night, in his anxiety lest the
biscuit should be wet, which would have ruined the
expedition. No such mischance took place, and at
length the last rapid was passed, and smooth water
awaited them to their journey's end. Soon they
reached the Thousand Islands, and their light flotilla
glided in long file among those watery labyrinths, by
rocky islets, where some lonely pine towered like a
mast against the sky; by sun-scorched crags, where
the brown lichens crisped in the parching glare ; by
deep dells, shady and cool, rich in rank ferns, and
npongy, dark-green mosses ; by still coves, where the
•water-lilies lay like snow-flakes on their broad, fiat
leaves, — till at length they neared their goal, and
the glistening bosom of Lake Ontario opened on thei?
sight.
flO LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.
Frontenac, to impose respect on the Iroquois, now
set his canoes in order of battle. Four divisions
formed the first line, then came the two flat-boats;
he himself, with his guards, his staff, and the gentle-
men volunteers, followed, with the canoes of Three
Rivers on his right, and those of the Indians on his
left, while two remaining divisions formed a rear
line. Thus, with measured paddles, they advanced
over the still lake, till they saw a canoe approaching
to meet them. It bore several Iroquois chiefs, who
told them that the dignitaries of their nation awaited
them at Cataraqui, and offered to guide them to the
spot. They entered the wide mouth of the river,
and passed along the shore, now covered by the quiet
little city of Kingston, till they reached the point
at present occupied by the barracks, at the western
end of Cataraqui bridge. Here they stranded their
canoes and disembarked. Baggage was landed, fires
lighted, tents pitched, and guards set. Close at
hand, under the lee of the forest, were the camping
sheds of the Iroquois, who had come to the rendez-
vous in considerable numbers.
At daybreak of the next morning, the thirteenth of
July, the drums beat, and the whole party were
drawn up under arms. A double line of men extended
from the front of Frontenac 's tent to the Indian
camp; and, through the lane thus formed, the savage
deputies, sixty in number, advanced to the place of
council. They could not hide their admiration at the
martial array of the French, many of whom were old
1673.] FRONTENAC AT CATAKAQUI. 91
Holdiers of the regiment of Carignan ; and when they
3-eached the tent they ejaculated their astonishment
at the uniforms of the governor's guard who sur-
rounded it. Here the ground had been carpeted
with the sails of the flat-boats, on which the deputies
squatted themselves in a ring and smoked their pipes
for a time with their usual air of deliberate gravity;
while Frontenac, who sat surrounded by his officers,
had full leisure to contemplate the formidable adver-
saries whose mettle was hereafter to put his own to
so severe a test. A chief named Garakontie', a noted
friend of the French, at length opened the council,
in behalf of all the five Iroquois nations, with
expressions of great respect and deference towards
'"Onontio;" that is to say, the governor of Canada.
Whereupon Frontenac, whose native arrogance where
Indians were concerned always took a form which
imposed respect without exciting anger, replied in
the following strain : —
"Children! Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayu-
gas, and Senecas. I am glad to see you here, where
] have had a fire, lighted for you to smoke by, and
for me to talk to you. You have done well, my
children, to obey the command of your Father. Take
courage: you will hear his word, which is full of
peace and tenderness. For do not think that I have
come for war. My mind is full of peace, and she
Avalks by my side. Courage, then, children, and
take rest."
With that, he gave them six fathoms of tobacco,
92 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.
reiterated his assurances of friendship, promised that
he would be a kind father so long as they should be
obedient children, regretted that he was forced to
speak through an interpreter, and ended with a gift of
guns to the men, and prunes and raisins to their wives
and children. Here closed this preliminary meeting,
the great council being postponed to another day.
During the meeting, Raudin, Frontenac's engineer,
was tracing out the lines of a fort, after a predeter-
mined plan; and the whole party, under the direc-
tion of their officers, now set themselves to construct
it. Some cut down trees, some dug the trenches,
some hewed the palisades; and with such order and
alacrity was the work urged on, that the Indians
were lost in astonishment. Meanwhile, Frontenac
spared no pains to make friends of the chiefs, some
of whom he had constantly at his table. He fondled
the Iroquois children, and gave them bread and
sweetmeats, and in the evening feasted the squaws
to make them dance. The Indians were delighted
with these attentions, and conceived a high opinion
of the new Onontio.
On the seventeenth, when the construction of the
fort was well advanced, Frontenac called the chiefs
to a grand council, which was held with all possible
state and ceremony. His dealing with the Indians
on this and other occasions was truly admirable.
Unacquainted as he was with them, he seems to have
had an instinctive perception of the treatment they
required. His predecessors had never ventured to
i»373.] FRONTENAC AND THE INDIANS. 93
address the Iroquois as "Children," but had always
styled them " Brothers ; " and yet the assumption of
paternal authority on the part of Frontenac was not
only taken in good part, but was received with appar-
ent gratitude. The martial nature of the man, his
clear, decisive speech, and his frank and downright
manner, backed as they were by a display of force
which in their eyes was formidable, struck them with
admiration, and gave tenfold effect to his words of
kindness. They thanked him for that which from
another they would not have endured.
Frontenac began by again expressing his satisfac-
tion that they had obeyed the commands of their
Father, and come to Cataraqui to hear what he had
to say. Then he exhorted them to embrace Chris-
tianity; and on this theme he dwelt at length, in
words excellently adapted to produce the desired
effect, — words which it would be most superfluous
to tax as insincere, though doubtless they lost noth-
ing in emphasis because in this instance conscience
and policy aimed alike. Then, changing his tone,
he pointed to his officers, his guard, the long files of
tho militia, and the two flat-boats, mounted with
cannon, which lay in the river near by. "If," he
said, "your Father can come so far, with so great a
force, through such dangerous rapids, merely to
make you a visit of pleasure and friendship, what
would he do, if you should awaken his anger, and
make it necessary for him to punish his disobedient
children? He is the arbiter of peace and war.
94 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.
Beware how you offend him ! " And he warned them
not to molest the Indian allies of the French, telling
them, sharply, that he would chastise them for the
least infraction of the peace.
From threats he passed to blandishments, and
urged them to confide in his paternal kindness, say-
ing that, in proof of his affection, he was building a
storehouse at Cataraqui, where they could be supplied
with all the goods they needed, without the necessity
of a long and dangerous journey. He warned them
against listening to bad men, who might seek to
delude them by misrepresentations and falsehoods;
and he urged them to give heed to none but " men of
character, like the Sieur de la Salle." He expressed
a hope that they would suffer their children to learn
French from the missionaries, in order that they and
his nephews — meaning the French colonists — might
become one people ; and he concluded by requesting
chem to give him a number of their children to be
educated in the French manner, at Quebec.
This speech, every clause of which was reinforced
by abundant presents, was extremely well received ;
though one speaker reminded him that he had for-
gotten one important point, inasmuch as he had not
told them at what prices they could obtain goods at
Cataraqui. Frontenac evaded a precise answer, but
promised them that the goods should be as cheap as
possible, in view of the great difficulty of transpor-
tation. As to the request concerning their children,
they said that they could not accede to it till they
1()73.] TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. 95
had talked the matter over in their villages ; but it is
a striking proof of the influence which Frontenac had
gained over them, that, in the following year, they
actually sent several of their children to Quebec to
be educated, — the girls among the Ursulines, and
the boys in the household of the governor.
Three days after the council, the Iroquois set out
on their return ; and as the palisades of the fort were
now finished, and the barracks nearly so, Frontenac
began to send his party homeward by detachments.
He himself was detained for a time by the arrival of
another band of Iroquois, from the villages on the
north side of Lake Ontario. He repeated to them
the speech he had made to the others; and, this final
meeting over, he embarked with his guard, leaving a
sufficient number to hold the fort, which was to be
provisioned for a year by means of a convoy then on
its way up the river. Passing the rapids safely, he
reached Montreal on the first of August.
His enterprise had been a complete success. He
had gained every point, and, in spite of the dangerous
navigation, had not lost a single canoe. Thanks to
the enforced and gratuitous assistance of the inhabi-
tants, the whole had cost the King only about ten
thousand francs, which Frontenac had advanced on
his own credit. Though in a commercial point of
^ew the new establishment was of very questionable
benefit to the colony at large, the governor had,
nevertheless, conferred an inestimable blessing on all
Canada by the assurance he had gained of a long
96 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.
respite from the fearful scourge of Iroquois hostility.
"Assuredly," he writes, "I may boast of having
impressed them at once with respect, fear, and good-
will."1 He adds that the fort at Cataraqui, with
the aid of a vessel now building, will command Lake
Ontario, keep the peace with the Iroquois, and cut
off the trade with the English; and he proceeds to
say that by another fort at the mouth of the Niagara,
and another vessel on Lake Erie, we, the French,
can command all the Upper Lakes. This plan was
an essential link in the schemes of La Salle ; and we
shall SOOP €nd him employed in executing it.
A curious incident occurred soon after the build-
ing of the fort on Lake Ontario. Frontenac, on his
way back, quarrelled with Perrot, the governor of
Montreal, whom, in view of his speculations in the
fur-trade, he seems to have regarded as a rival in
business ; but who, by his folly and arrogance, would
have justified any reasonable measure of severity.
Frontenac, however, was not reasonable. He arrested
Perrot, threw him into prison, and set up a man of
his own as governor in his place ; and as ttu> judge of
Montreal was not in his interest, he removed him,
and substituted another on whom he could rely.
Thus for a time he had Montreal well in hand.
The priests of the Seminary, seigniors of the island,
regarded these arbitrary proceedings with extreme
uneasiness. They claimed the right of nominating
their own governor; and Perrot, though he held a
1 Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.
1674.] ABBE FENELOK 97
commission from the King, owed his place to their
appointment. True, he had set them at nought, and
proved a veritable King Stork ; yet nevertheless they
regarded his removal as an infringement of their
rights.
During the quarrel with Perrot, La Salle chanced
to be at Montreal, lodged in the house of Jacques Le
Ber, who, though one of the principal merchants and
most influential inhabitants of the settlement, was
accustomed to sell goods across his counter in person
to white men and Indians, his wife taking his place
when he was absent. Such were the primitive
manners of the secluded little colony. Le Ber, at
this time, was in the interest of Frontenac and La
Salle ; though he afterwards became one of their most
determined opponents. Amid the excitement and
discussion occasioned by Perrot's arrest, La Salle
declared himself an adherent of the governor, and
warned all persons against speaking ill of him in his
hearing.
The Abbe* Fe*nelon, already mentioned as half-
brother to the famous Archbishop, had attempted to
mediate between Frontenac and Perrot, and to this
end had made a journey to Quebec on the ice, in
midwinter. Being of an ardent temperament, and
more courageous than prudent, he had spoken some-
what indiscreetly, and had been very roughly treated
by the stormy and imperious Count. He returned
to Montreal greatly excited, and not without cause.
It fell to his lot to preach the Easter sermon. The
98 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1674.
service was held in the little church of the H6tel-
Dieu, which was crowded to the porch, all the chief
persons of the settlement being present. The cure*
of the parish, whose name also was Perrot, said High
Mass, assisted by La Salle's brother, Cavelier, and
two other priests. Then Fe'nelon mounted the
pulpit. Certain passages of his sermon were obvi-
ously levelled against Frontenac. Speaking of the
duties of those clothed with temporal authority, he
said that the magistrate, inspired with the spirit of
Christ, was as ready to pardon offences against him-
self as to punish those against his prince; that he
was full of respect for the ministers of the altar, and
never maltreated them when they attempted to recon-
cile enemies and restore peace ; that he never made
favorites of those who flattered him, nor under
specious pretexts oppressed other persons in author-
ity who opposed his enterprises; that he used his
power to serve his king, and not to his own advan-
tage ; that he remained content with his salary, with-
out disturbing the commerce of the country, or
abusing those who refused him a share in their
profits; and that he never troubled the people by
inordinate and unjust levies of men and material,
using the name of his prince as a cover to his own
designs.1
1 Faillon, Colonie Frangaise, iii. 497, and manuscript authorities
there cited. I have examined the principal of these. Faillon him-
self IB a priest of St. Sulpice. Compare H. Verreau, Les Deux Abbe*
de Fenelon, chap. rii.
l'574.j LA SALLE AND F^NELON. 99
La Salle sat near the door; but as the preacher
proceeded he suddenly rose to his feet in such a
manner as to attract the notice of the congregation.
As they turned their heads, he signed to the principal
persons among them, and by his angry looks and
gesticulation called their attention to the words of
Fdnelon. Then meeting the eye of the curd, who sat
beside the altar, he made the same signs to him, to
which the curd replied by a deprecating shrug of the
shoulders. Fdnelon changed color, but continued his
sermon.1
This indecent proceeding of La Salle, and the zeal
with which throughout the quarrel he took the part
of the governor, did not go unrewarded. Hence-
forth, Frontenac was more than ever his friend ; and
this plainly appeared in the disposition made, through
his influence, of the new fort on Lake Ontario.
Attempts had been made to induce the king to have
it demolished; but it was resolved at last that, being
built, it should be allowed to stand; and, after long
delay, a final arrangement was made for its mainte-
nance, in the manner following: In the autumn of
1674, La Salle went to France, with letters of strong
recommendation from Frontenac.2 He was well
1 Information faicte par nous, Charles It Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly, et
Nicolas Dupont, etc., etc., contre le Sr- Abbe de Fenelon. Tilly and
Dupont were sent by Frontenac to inquire into the affair. Among
the deponents is La Salle himself.
2 In his despatch to the minister Colbert, of the fourteenth of
November, 1674, Frontenac speaks of La Salle as follows : " I can-
not help, Monecigneur, recommending to you the Sieur de la Salle^
100 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1674.
received at Court; and he made two petitions to the
King, — the one for a patent of nobility, in considera-
tion of his services as an explorer; and the other for
a grant in seigniory of Fort Frontenac, for so he
called the new post, in honor of his patron. On his
part, he offered to pay back the ten thousand francs
which the fort had cost the King; to maintain it at
his own charge, with a garrison equal to that of
Montreal, besides fifteen or twenty laborers ; to form
a French colony around it; to build a church, when-
ever the number of inhabitants should reach one
hundred; and, meanwhile, to support one or more
Re'collet friars; and, finally, to form a settlement
of domesticated Indians in the neighborhood. His
offers were accepted. He was raised to the rank of
the untitled nobles ; received a grant of the fort and
lands adjacent, to the extent of four leagues in front
and half a league in depth, besides the neighboring
islands; and was invested with the government of
the fort and settlement, subject to the orders of the
governor-general. l
who is about to go to France, and who is a man of intelligence and
ability, more capable than anybody else I know here to accomplish
every kind of enterprise and discovery which may be intrusted to
him, as he has the most perfect knowledge of the state of the coun-
try, as you will see, if you are disposed to give him a few moments
of audience/'
1 Memoire pour Ventretien du Fort Frontenac, par le Sr' de la Salle,
1674. Petition du Sr- de la Salle an Roi. Lettres patentes de conces-
sion, du Fort de Frontenac et terres adjacentes au profit du Sr- de la
Salle ; donnees a Compiegne le 13 Mai, 1675. Arret qui accepte les
o fires faites par Robert Cavelier Sr- de la Salle; a Compitgne le 13
1675.] ENEMIES OF LA SALLE. 101
La Salle returned to Canada, proprietor of a
seigniory which, all things considered, was one of
the most valuable in the colony. His friends and his
family, rejoicing in his good fortune and not unwilh
ing to share it, made him large advances of money,
enabling him to pay the stipulated sum to the King,
to rebuild the fort in stone, maintain soldiers and
laborers, and procure in part, at least, the necessary
outfit. Had La Salle been a mere merchant, he was
in a fair way to make a fortune, for he was in a posi-
tion to control the better part of the Canadian fur-
trade. But he was not a mere merchant; and no
commercial profit could content his ambition.
Those may believe, who will, that Frontenac did
not expect a share in the profits of the new post.
That he did expect it, there is positive evidence ; for
a deposition is extant, taken at the instance of his
enemy the Intendant Duchesneau, in which three
witnesses attest that the governor, La Salle, his
lieutenant La Forest, and one Boisseau, had formed
a partnership to carry on the trade of Fort Frontenac.
No sooner was La Salle installed in his new post
than the merchants of Canada joined hands to oppose
him. Le Ber, once his friend, became his bitter
enemy; for he himself had hoped to share the
monopoly of Fort Frontenac, of which he and one
Bazire had at first been placed provisionally in con-
Mai, 1675. Lettret de noblesse pour le Sr- Cavelter de la Salle ; donnee*
a, Compiegne le 13 Mai, 1675. Papiers de Famille. Memoire a«
Rot.
102 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1675.
trol, and from which he now saw himself ejected.
La Chesnaye, Le Moyne, and others of more or less
influence took part in the league, which, in fact,
embraced all the traders in the colony except the few
joined with Frontenac and La Salle. Duchesneau,
intendant of the colony, aided the malcontents. As
time went on, their bitterness grew more bitter; and
when at last it was seen that, not satisfied with the
monopoly of Fort Frontenac, La Salle aimed at the
control of the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi,
and the usufruct of half a continent, the ire of his
opponents redoubled, and Canada became for him a
nest of hornets, buzzing in wrath and watching the
moment to sting. But there was another element of
opposition, less noisy, but not less formidable; and
this arose from the Jesuits. Frontenac hated them;
and they, under befitting forms of duty and courtesy,
paid him back in the same coin. Having no love for
the governor, they would naturally have little for
his partisan and protege ; but their opposition had
another and a deeper root, for the plans of the daring
young schemer jarred with their own.
We have seen the Canadian Jesuits in the early
apostolic days of their mission, when the flame of
their zeal, fed by an ardent hope, burned bright and
high. This hope was doomed to disappointment.
Their avowed purpose of building another Paraguay
on the borders of the Great Lakes l was never accom-
1 This purpose is several times indicated in the Relations. For
an instance, sec " The Jesuits in North America/' 245.
1675.] PURPOSES OF THE JESUITS. 103
plished, and their missions and their converts were
swept away in an avalanche of ruin. Still, they
would not despair. From the lakes they turned
their eyes to the Valley of the Mississippi, in the
hope to see it one day the seat of their new empire of
the Faith. But what did this new Paraguay mean ?
It meant a little nation of converted and domesticated
savages, docile as children, under the paternal and
absolute rule of Jesuit fathers, and trained by them
in industrial pursuits, the results of which were to
inure, not to the profit of the producers, but to the
building of churches, the founding of colleges, the es-
tablishment of warehouses and magazines, and the
construction of works of defence, — all controlled by
Jesuits, and forming a part of the vast possessions of
the Order. Such was the old Paraguay ; l and such,
we may suppose, would have been the new, had the
plans of those who designed it been realized.
I have said that since the middle of the century
the religious exaltation of the early missions had
sensibly declined. In the nature of things, that
grand enthusiasm was too intense and fervent to be
long sustained. But the vital force of Jesuitism had
suffered no diminution. That marvellous esprit de
corps, that extinction of self and absorption of the
individual in the Order which has marked the Jesuits
from their first existence as a body, was no whit
changed or lessened, — a principle, which, though
1 Compare Charlevoix, Histoire de Paraguay, with Robertson,
Letters on Paraguay.
104 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1675.
different, was no less strong than the self-devoted
patriotism of Sparta or the early Roman Republic.
The Jesuits were no longer supreme in Canada;
or, in other words, Canada was no longer simply a
mission. It had become a colony. Temporal interests
and the civil power were constantly gaining ground ;
and the disciples of Loyola felt that relatively, if not
absolutely, they were losing it. They struggled
vigorously to maintain the ascendency of their Order,
or, as they would have expressed it, the ascendency
of religion; but in the older and more settled parts
of the colony it was clear that the day of their undi-
vided rule was past. Therefore, they looked with
redoubled solicitude to their missions in the West.
They had been among its first explorers; and they
hoped that here the Catholic Faith, as represented
by Jesuits, might reign with undisputed sway. In
Paraguay, it was their constant aim to exclude white
men from their missions. It was the same in North
America. They dreaded fur-traders, partly because
they interfered with their teachings and perverted
their converts, and partly for other reasons. But La
Salle was a fur-trader, and far worse than a fur-
trader: he aimed at occupation, fortification, and
settlement. The scope and vigor of his enterprises,
and the powerful influence that aided them, made
him a stumbling-block in their path. He was their
most dangerous rival for the control of the West,
and from first to last they set themselves against
him.
1674-78.] SPIRIT OF LA SALLE. 105
What manner of man was he who could con-
ceive designs so vast and defy enmities so many
and so powerful? And in what spirit did he em-
brace these designs ? We will look hereafter for an
answer.
CHAPTER VII.
1678.
PARTY STRIFE.
LA SALLB AND HIS REPORTER. — JESUIT ASCENDENCY. — THE Mis-
SIGNS AND THE FUR-TRADE. — FEMALE INQUISITORS. — PLOTS
AGAINST LA SALLE : HIS BROTHER THE PRIEST. — INTRIGUES OF
THE JESUITS. — LA SALLE POISONED : HE EXCULPATES THE JESU-
ITS. — RENEWED INTRIGUES.
ONE of the most curious monuments of La Salle's
time is a long memoir, written by a person who made
his acquaintance at Paris in the summer of 1678,
when, as we shall soon see, he had returned to France
in prosecution of his plans. The writer knew the
Sulpitian Galin^e,1 who, as he says, had a very high
opinion of La Salle ; and he was also in close relations
with the discoverer's patron, the Prince de Conti.2
He says that he had ten or twelve interviews with La
Salle; and, becoming interested in him and in that
which he communicated, he wrote down the substance
of his conversation. The paper is divided into two
1 Ante, p. 17.
2 Louis-Armand de Bourbon, second Prince de Conti. The
author of the memoir seems to hare been Abbe* Renaudot, a learned
churchman.
1678.] LA SALLE'S MEMOIR. 107
parts: the first, called "Me*moire sur Mr. de la
Salle," is devoted to the state of affairs in Canada,
and chiefly to the Jesuits; the second, entitled
" Histoire de Mr. de la Salle," is an account of the
discoverer's life, or as much of it as the writer had
learned from him.1 Both parts bear throughout the
internal evidence of being what they profess to be;
but they embody the statements of a man of intense
partisan feeling, transmitted through the mind of
another person in sympathy with him, and evidently
sharing his prepossessions. In one respect, however,
the paper is of unquestionable historical value ; for it
gives us a vivid and not an exaggerated picture of
the bitter strife of parties which then raged in
Canada, and which was destined to tax to the utmost
the vast energy and fortitude of La Salle. At times,
the memoir is fully sustained by contemporary evi-
dence; but often, again, it rests on its own unsup-
ported authority. I give an abstract of its statements
as I find them.
The following is the writer's account of La Salle :
" All those among my friends who have seen him find
him a man of great intelligence and sense. He rarely
speaks of any subject except when questioned about
it, and his words are very few and very precise. He
distinguishes perfectly between that which he knows
with certainty and that which he knows with some
mingling of doubt. When he does not know, he does
1 Extracts from this have already been given in connection with
L i Salle's supposed discovery of the Mississippi. Ante, p. 29.
108 PARTY STRIFE. [1678.
not hesitate to avow it; and though I have heard
him say the same thing more than five or six times,
when persons were present who had not heard it
before, he always said it in the same manner. In
short, I never heard anybody speak whose words
carried with them more marks of truth."1
After mentioning that he is thirty-three or thirty-
four years old, and that he has been twelve years in
America, the memoir declares that he made the fol-
lowing statements: that the Jesuits are masters at
Quebec ; that the bishop is their creature, and does
nothing but in concert with them ; 2 that he is not
well inclined towards the Re'collets,8 who have little
1 " Tons ceux de mes amis qui 1'ont vu luy troure beaucoup
d'esprit et un tres-grand sens ; il ne parle gueres que des choses sur
lesquelles on I'interroge ; il les dit en tres-peu de mots et tres-bien
circonstancie'es ; il distingue parf aitement ce qu'il scait avec certi-
tude, de ce qu'il scait avec quelque melange de doute. II avoue
sans aucune fa?on ne pas savoir ce qu'il ne scait pas, et quoyque je
luy aye ouy dire plus de cinq ou six fois les mesme choses a 1'occa-
sion de quelques personnes qui ne les avaient point encore entendues,
je les luy ay toujours ouy dire de la mesme maniere. En un mot
je n'ay jamais ouy parler personne dont les paroles portassent plus
de marques de ve'rite."
2 " II y a une autre chose qui me de'plait, qui est 1'entiere depen-
dence dans laquelle les Pretres du Se'minaire de Quebec et le Grand
Vicaire de 1'Eveque sont pour les Peres Je'suites, car il ne fait pas
la moindre chose sans leur ordre ; ce qui fait qu'indirectement ils
sont les maitres de ce qui regarde le spirituel, qui, comme vous
savez, est une grande machine pour remuer tout le reste." — Lettre
de Frontenac A Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672.
8 " Ces religieux [les Recollets] sont fort prote'ges partout par le
comte de Frontenac, gouverneur du pays, et k cause de cela assez
maltraites par 1'evesque, parceque la doctrine de 1'evesque et des
Je'suites est que les affaires de la Religion ehrestienne n'iront point
bien dans ce pays-la que quand le gouverneur sera cre'ature dea
1378.] JESUIT ASCENDENCY. 109
c redit, but who are protected by Frontenac ; that in
Canada the Jesuits think everybody an enemy to
roligion who is an enemy to them ; that, though they
rofused absolution to all who sold brandy to the
Indians, they sold it themselves, and that he, La
Salle, had himself detected them .in it;1 that the
bishop laughs at the orders of the King when they
do not agree with the wishes of the Jesuits ; that the
Jesuits dismissed one of their servants named Robert,
because he told of their trade in brandy; that
Albanel,2 in particular, carried on a great fur- trade,
and that the Jesuits have built their college in part
from the profits of this kind of traffic; that they
J(rsuites, on que 1'evesque sera gouverneur." — Memoire sur Mr> de
la Salle.
1 " Ils [les Jesuites] ref usent 1'absolution a ceux qui ne veulent
pas promettre de n'en plus vendre [de I' eau-de-vie], et s'ils meurent
en cet etat, ils les privent de la sepulture ecclesiastique ; an con-
traire ils se permettent a eux-memes sans aucune difficult^ ce mesme
trafic quoique toute sorte de trafic soit interdite a tous les ecclesias-
tiques par les ordonnances du Roy, et par une bulle expresse du
Pape. La Bulle et les ordonnances sont notoires, et quoyqu'ils
cjichent le trafic qu'ils font d'eau-de-vie, M. de la Salle pretend qu'ii
no Test pas moins ; qu'outre la notoriete il en a des preuves certaines,
et qu'il les a surpris dans ce trafic, et qu'ils luy ont tendu des pieges
pour 1'y surprendre. ... Ils ont chasse leur valet Robert a cause
qu'il re vela qu'ils en traitaient jour et nuit." — Ibid. The writer
sjiys that he makes this last statement, not on the authority of La
S.ille, but on that of a memoir made at the time when the intendant,
Talon, with whom he elsewhere says that he was well acquainted,
r< turned to France. A great number of particulars are added
re specting the Jesuit trade in furs.
2 Albanel was prominent among the Jesuit explorers at this
time. He is best known by his journey up the Saguenay to Hud*
son's Bay in 1672.
110 PARTY STRIFE. [167*
admitted that they carried on a trade, but denied
that they gained so much by it as was commonly
supposed. l
The memoir proceeds to affirm that they trade
largely with the Sioux at Ste. Marie, and with other
tribes at Michilimackinac, and that they are masters
of the trade of that region, where the forts are in
their possession.2 An Indian said, in full council,
at Quebec, that he had prayed and been a Christian
as long as the Jesuits would stay and teach him, but
since no more beaver were left in his country, the
missionaries were gone also. The Jesuits, pursues
the memoir, will have no priests but themselves in
their missions, and call them all Jansenists, not
excepting the priests of St. Sulpice.
The bishop is next accused of harshness and
intolerance, as well as of growing rich by tithes, and
even by trade, in which it is affirmed he has a covert
interest.3 It is added that there exists in Quebec,
under the auspices of the Jesuits, an association
1 " Pour vous parler f ranchement, ils \les Jesuites] songent autant
a la conversion du Castor qu'a celle des ames." — Lettre de Frontenac
d Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672.
In his despatch of the next year, he says that the Jesuits ought
to content themselves with instructing the Indians in their old mis-
sions, instead of neglecting them to make new ones in countries
where there are " more beaver-skins to gain than souls to save."
2 These forts were built by them, and were necessary to the secu-
rity of their missions.
8 Fran9ois Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, first bishop of Que-
bec, was a prelate of austere character. His memory is cherished
in Canada by adherents of the Jesuits and all ultramontane
Catholics.
1678.] FEMALE INQUISITORS. Ill
called the Sainte Famille, of which Madame Bourdon l
is superior. They meet in the cathedral every
Thursday, with closed doors, where they relate to
each other — as they are bound by a vow to do — all
they have learned, whether good or evil, concerning
other people, during the week. It is a sort of female
inquisition, for the benefit of the Jesuits, the secrets
of whose friends, it is said, are kept, while no such
discretion is observed with regard to persons not of
their party.2
1 This Madame Bourdon was the widow of Bourdon, the engineer
(see "The Jesuits in North America," 297). If we may credit
the letters of Marie de ITncarnation, she had married him from a
religious motive, in order to charge herself with the care of his
motherless children ; stipulating in advance that he should live
with her, not as a husband, but as a brother. As may be imagined,
she was regarded as a most devout and saint-like person.
2 " II y a dans Quebec une congregation de f emmes et de filles
qu'ils [les Jesuites] appellent la sainte famille, dans laquelle on fait
vceu sur les Saints Evangiles de dire tout ce qu'on sait de bien et de
mal des personnes qu'on connoist. La Superieure de cette com
pagnie s'appelle Madame Bourdon; une Mde- d'Ailleboust est, je
crois, 1'assistante et une Mde- Charron, la Tre'soriere. La Compagnie
s'assemble tous les Jeudis dans la Cathedrale, a porte fermee, et la
elles se disent les unes aux autres tout ce qu'elles ont appris. C'est
une espece d'Inquisition contre toutes les personnes qui ne sont pas
unies avec les Jesuites. Ces personnes soiit accuses de tenir secret
ce qu'elles apprennent de mal des personnes de leur party et de
n'avoir pas la mesme discretion pour les autres." — Memoire sur
M^ de la Salle.
The Madame d'Ailleboust mentioned above was a devotee like
Madame Bourdon, and, in one respect, her history was similar. See
" The Jesuits in North America," 360.
The association of the Sainte Famille was founded by the Jesuit
Chaumonot at Montreal in 1663. Laval, Bishop of Quebec, after-
wards encouraged its establishment at that place ; and, as Chaumo-
not himself writes, caused it to be attached to the cathedral. Vie
112 PARTY STRIFE. [1678.
Here follow a series of statements which it is need-
less to repeat, as they do not concern La Salle.
They relate to abuse of the confessional, hostility to
other priests, hostility to civil authorities, and over-
hasty baptisms, in regard to which La Salle is
reported to have made a comparison, unfavorable to
the Jesuits, between them and the Re'collets and
Sulpitians.
We now come to the second part of the memoir,
entitled "History of Monsieur de la Salle." After
stating that he left France at the age of twenty-one
or twenty-two, with the purpose of attempting some
new discovery, it makes the statements repeated in a
former chapter, concerning his discovery of the Ohio,
the Illinois, and possibly the Mississippi. It then
mentions the building of Fort Frontenac, and says
that one object of it was to prevent the Jesuits from
becoming undisputed masters of the fur-trade.1
Three years ago, it pursues, La Salle came to France,
ind obtained a grant of the fort; and it proceeds to
give examples of the means used by the party opposed
to him to injure his good name and bring him within
reach of the law. Once, when he was at Quebec,
the farmer of the King's revenue, one of the richest
de Chaumonot, 83. For its establishment at Montreal, see Faillon,
Vie de M"*' Mance, i. 233.
" Us [les Jesuites] ont tons une si grande envie de savoir tout ce
qui se fait dans les families qu'ils ont des Inspecteurs a gages dans
la Ville, qui leur rapportent tout ce qui se fait dans les maisons,"
etc., etc. — Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.
1 Mention has been made (p. 88, note) of the report set on foot
by the Jesuit Dablon, to prevent the building of the fort.
1678.] PLOTS AGAINST LA SALLE. 113
men in the place, was extremely urgent in his proffers
of hospitality, and at length, though he knew La
Salle but slightly, persuaded him to lodge in his
house. He had been here but a few days when his
host's wife began to enact the part of the wife of
Potiphar, and this with so much vivacity that on one
occasion La Salle was forced to take an abrupt leave,
in order to avoid an infringement of the laws of hos-
pitality. As he opened the door, he found the hus-
band on the watch, and saw that it was a plot to
entrap him.1
Another attack, of a different character, though
in the same direction, was soon after made. The
remittances which La Salle received from the various
members and connections of his family were sent
through the hands of his brother, Abb6 Cavelier,
from whom his enemies were, therefore, very eager
to alienate him. To this end, a report was made to
reach the priest's ears that La Salle had seduced a
young woman, with whom he was living in an open
rind scandalous manner at Fort Frontenac. The
effect of this device exceeded the wishes of its con-
trivers ; for the priest, aghast at what he had heard,
set out for the fort, to administer his fraternal rebuke,
but on arriving, in place of the expected abomination,
found his brother, assisted by two Re'collet friars,
ruling with edifying propriety over a most exemplary
household.
1 This story is told at considerable length, and the advances of
the lady particularly described.
8
114 PARTY STRIFE. [1678.
Thus far the memoir. From passages in some of
La Salle 's letters, it may be gathered that Abbd
Cavelier gave him at times no little annoyance. In
his double character of priest and elder brother, he
seems to have constituted himself the counsellor,
monitor, and guide of a man who, though many years
his junior, was in all respects incomparably superior
to him, as the sequel will show. This must have
been almost insufferable to a nature like that of La
Salle, who, nevertheless, was forced to arm himself
with patience, since his brother held the purse-
strings. On one occasion his forbearance was put
to a severe proof, when, wishing to marry a damsel
of good connections in the colony, Abb£ Cavelier saw
fit for some reason to interfere, and prevented the
alliance.1
To resume the memoir. It declares that the
Jesuits procured an ordinance from the Supreme
Council prohibiting traders from going into the
Indian country, in order that they, the Jesuits,
being already established there in their missions,
might carry on trade without competition. But La
Salle induced a good number of the Iroquois to settle
around his fort; thus bringing the trade to his
own door, without breaking the ordinance. These
Iroquois, he is further reported to have said, were
very fond of him, and aided him in rebuilding the
fort with cut stone. The Jesuits told the Iroquois
on the south side of the lake, where they were estab-
1 Letter of La Salle, in possession of M. Margry.
1678.] INTRIGUES OF THE JESUITS. 115
listed as missionaries, that La Salle was strengthen-
ing his defences with the view of making war on
them. They and the intendant, who was their crea-
ture, endeavored to embroil the Iroquois with the
French in order to ruin La Salle ; writing to him at
the same time that he was the bulwark of the country,
and that he ought to be always on his guard. They
also tried to persuade Frontenac that it was necessary
to raise men and prepare for war. La Salle suspected
them; and seeing that the Iroquois, in consequence
of their intrigues, were in an excited state, he
induced the governor to come to Fort Frontenac to
pacify them. He accordingly did so; and a council
was held, which ended in a complete restoration of
confidence on the part of the Iroquois.1 At this
council they accused the two Jesuits, Bruyas and
Pierron,2 of spreading reports that the French were
preparing to attack them. La Salle thought that the
1 Louis XIV. alludes to this visit, in a letter to Frontenac, dated
28 April, 1677. " I cannot but approve," he writes, " of what you
have done, in your voyage to Fort Frontenac, to reconcile the
minds of the Five Iroquois Nations, and to clear yourself from the
suspicions they had entertained, and from the motives that might
induce them to make war." Frontenac's despatches of this year,
as well as of the preceding and following years, are missing from
the archives.
In a memoir written in November, 1680, La Salle alludes to " le
desir que Ton avoit que Monseigneur le Comte de Frontenac fist la
guerre aux Iroquois." See Thomassy, Geologic Pratique de la Loui-
siane, 203.
2 Bruyas was about this time stationed among the Onondagas.
Pierron was among the Senecas. He had lately removed to them
from the Mohawk country. Relation des Jesuites, 1673-79, 1-10
(Shea). Bruyas was also for a long time among the Mohawks.
116 PARTY STRIFE. [1378.
object of the intrigue was to make the Iroquois
jealous of him, and engage Frontenac in expenses
which would offend the King. After La Salle and
the governor had lost credit by the rupture, the
Jesuits would come forward as pacificators, in the
full assurance that they could restore quiet, and
appear in the attitude of saviors of the colony.
La Salle, pursues his reporter, went on to say that
about this time a quantity of hemlock and verdigris
was given him in a salad ; and that the guilty person
was a man in his employ named Nicolas Perrot,
otherwise called Jolycoeur, who confessed the crime.1
The memoir adds that La Salle, who recovered from
the effects of the poison, wholly exculpates the
Jesuits.
This attempt, which was not, as we shall see, the
only one of the kind made against La Salle, is
alluded to by him in a letter to a friend at Paris,
1 This puts the character of Perrot in a new light ; for it is not
likely that any other can be meant than the famous voyageur. I
have found no mention elsewhere of the synonyme of Jolycoeur
Poisoning was the current crime of the day, and persons of the
highest rank had repeatedly been charged with it. The following
is the passage: —
" Quoiqu'il en soit, Mr- de la Salle se sentit quelque temps apres
empoissonne d'une salade dans laquelle on avoit mesle du cigue,
qui est poison en ce pays la, et du verd de gris. II en fut malade a
Textremite, vomissant presque continuellement 40 ou 50 jours apres,
et il ne rechappa que par la force extreme de sa constitution. Celuy
qui luy donna le poison fut un nomm£ Nicolas Perrot, autrement
Jolycoeur, 1'un de ses domestiques. < . II pouvait faire mourir cet
homme, qui a confesse son crime, mais il s'est eontente de 1'en-
f ermer les f era aux pieds." — Histoire de Mr de la Salle»
1678.] LA SALLE EXCULPATES THE JESUITS. 117
written in Canada when he was on the point of
departure on his great expedition to descend the
Mississippi. The following is an extract from it:
" I hope to give myself the honor of sending you a
more particular account of this enterprise when it
shall have had the success which I hope for it; but I
have need of a strong protection for its support. It
traverses the commercial operations of certain persons,
who will find it hard to endure it. They intended to
make a new Paraguay in these parts, and the route
which I close against them gave them facilities for
an advantageous correspondence with Mexico. This
check will infallibly be a mortification to them ; and
you know how they deal with whatever opposes them.
Nevertheless, I am bound to render them the justice to
say that the poison which was given me was not at all
of their instigation. The person who was conscious
of the guilt, believing that I was their enemy because
he saw that our sentiments were opposed, thought to
exculpate himself by accusing them, and I confess
that at the time I was not sorry to have this indica-
tion of their ill-will ; but having afterwards carefully
axamined the affair, I clearly discovered the falsity
of the accusation which this rascal had made against
them, I nevertheless pardoned him, in order not to
give notoriety to the affair; as the mere suspicion
might sully their reputation, to which I should
scrupulously avoid doing the slightest injury unless I
thought it necessary to the good of the public, and
unless the fact were fully proved. Therefore,
118 PARTY STRIFE. [1678.
Monsieur, if anybody shared the suspicion which I
felt, oblige me by undeceiving him. " l
This letter, so honorable to La Salle, explains the
statement made in the memoir, that, notwithstanding
his grounds of complaint against the Jesuits, he con-
tinued to live on terms of courtesy with them, enter-
tained them at his fort, and occasionally corresponded
with them. The writer asserts, however, that they
intrigued with his men to induce them to desert, — •
employing for this purpose a young man named
Deslauriers, whom they sent to him with letters of
recommendation. La Salle took him into his service ;
but he soon after escaped, with several other men,
and took refuge in the Jesuit missions.2 The object
of the intrigue is said to have been the reduction of
La Salle 's garrison to a number less than that which
he was bound to maintain, thus exposing him to a
forfeiture of his title of possession.
He is also stated to have declared that Louis Joliet
was an impostor,3 and a donne of the Jesuits, — that
1 The following words are underlined in the original : " Je suis
pourtant oblige" de leur rendre une justice, que le poison qu'on m'avoit
donne n'estoit point de leur instigation" — Lettre de La Salle au Prince
de Conti, 31 Oct., 1678.
2 In a letter to the King, Frontenac mentions that several men
who had been induced to desert from La Salle had gone to Albany,
where the English had received them well. Lettre de Frontenac au
Roy, Q Nov., 1679. The Jesuits had a mission in the neighboring
tribe of the Mohawks and elsewhere in New York.
8 This agrees with expressions used by La Salle in a memoir
addressed by him to Frontenac in November, 1680. In this, he
intimates his belief that Joliet went but little below the mouth of
the Illinois, thus doing flagrant injustice to that brave explorer.
1678.] RENEWED INTRIGUES. 119
is, a man who worked for them without pay; and,
further, that when he, La Salle, came to court to ask
for privileges enabling him to pursue his discoveries,
the Jesuits represented in advance to the minister
Colbert that his head was turned, and that he was fit
for nothing but a mad-house. It was only by the aid
of influential friends that he was at length enabled to
gain an audience.
Here ends this remarkable memoir, which, criticise
it as we may, does not exaggerate the jealousies and
enmities that beset the path of the discoverer.
CHAPTER
1677, 1678.
THE GRAND ENTERPRISE.
SALLE AT FORT FRONTENAC. — LA SALLE AT COURT: HIS MEMO-
RIAL. — APPROVAL OP THE KING. — MONEY AND MEANS. — HENRI
DE TONTY. — RETURN TO CANADA.
"!F," writes a friend of La Salle, "he had preferred
gain to glory, he had only to stay at his fort, where
he was making more than twenty-five thousand livres
a year."1 He loved solitude and he loved power;
and at Fort Frontenac he had both, so far as each
consisted with the other. The nearest settlement
was a week's journey distant, and he was master of
all around him. He had spared no pains to fulfil the
conditions on which his wilderness seigniory had been
granted, and within two years he had demolished the
original wooden fort, replacing it by another much
larger, enclosed on the land side by ramparts and
bastions of stone, and on the water side by palisades.
It contained a range of barracks of squared timber, a
guard-house, a lodging for officers, a forge, a well,
1 Memoir -e pour Monseigneur le Marquis de Seignelay sur Us De»
couvertes du Sieur de la Salle, 1682.
1675-78.] LA SALLE AT FORT FRONTENAC. 121
a mill, and a bakery. Nine small cannon were
mounted on the walls. Two officers and a surgeon,
with ten or twelve soldiers, made up the garrison;
and three or four times that number of masons,
laborers, and canoe-men were at one time maintained
at the place.
Along the shore south of the fort was a small
village of French families, to whom La Salle had
granted farms, and, farther on, a village of Iroquois,
whom he had persuaded to settle here. Near these
villages were the house and chapel of two Rdcollet
friars, Luc Buisset and Louis Hennepin. More than
a hundred French acres of land had been cleared of
wood, and planted in part with crops ; while cattle,
fowls, and swine had been brought up from Montreal.
Four vessels, of from twenty-five to forty tons, had
been built for the lake and the river; but canoes
served best for ordinary uses, and La Salle 's followers
became so skilled in managing them that they were
reputed the best canoe-men in America. Feudal lord
of the forests around him, commander of a garrison
raised and paid by himself , founder of the mission,
and patron of the church, he reigned the autocrat of
his lonely little empire.1
1 fitat de la depense faite par Mr- de la Salle, Gouverneur du Fort
Frontenac. Recit de Nicolas de la Salle. Reveue faite au Fort de
Frontenac, 1677 ; Memoire sur le Projet du Sieur de la Salle (Margry,
i. 329). Plan of Fort Frontenac, published by Faillon, from the
original sent to France by Denonville in 1685. Relation des Decou-
vertex du Sieur de la Salle., When Frontenac was at the fort in Sep-
tember, 1677, he found only four habitants. It appears, by the Rela*
122 THE GRAND ENTERPRISE. [1677.
It was not solely or chiefly for commercial gain
that La Salle had established Fort Frontenac. He
regarded it as a first step towards greater things ; and
now, at length, his plans were ripe and his time was
come. In the autumn of 1677 he left the fort in
charge of his lieutenant, descended the St. Lawrence
to Quebec, and sailed for France. He had the
patronage of Frontenac and the help of strong friends
in Paris. It is said, as we have seen already, that
his enemies denounced him, in advance, as a mad-
man; but a memorial of his, which his friends laid
before the minister Colbert, found a favorable hear-
ing. In it he set forth his plans, or a portion of
them. He first recounted briefly the discoveries he
had made, and then described the country he had
seen south and west of the great lakes. " It is nearly
all so beautiful and so fertile ; so free from forests,
and so full of meadows, brooks, and rivers; so
abounding in fish, game, and venison, that one can
find there in plenty, and with little trouble, all that
is needful for the support of flourishing colonies.
The soil will produce everything that is raised
in France. Flocks and herds can be left out at
pasture all winter; and there are even native wild
cattle, which, instead of hair, have a fine wool
that may answer for making cloth and hats. Their
hides are better than those of France, as appears
tion des Decouvertes du Sieur de la Salle, that, three or four years
later, there were thirteen or fourteen families. La Salle spent
34,426 frauci on the fort. Memoirs au Roy, Papiers de Famille.
1678.] LA SALLE'S MEMORIAL. 123
by the sample which the Sieur de la Salle has
brought with him. Hemp and cotton grow here
naturally, and may be manufactured with good re-
sults; so there can be no doubt that colonies planted
here would become very prosperous. They would
be increased by a great number of western Indians,
who are in the main of a tractable and social dispo-
sition; and as they have the use neither of our
weapons nor of our goods, and are not in intercourse
with other Europeans, they will readily adapt them-
selves to us and imitate our way of life as soon as
they taste the advantages of our friendship and of
the commodities we bring them, insomuch that these
countries will infallibly furnish, within a few years,
a great many new subjects to the Church and the
King.
" It was the knowledge of these things, joined to
the poverty of Canada, its dense forests, its barren
soil, its harsh climate, and the snow that covers the
ground for half the year, that led the Sieur de la
Salle to undertake the planting of colonies in these
beautiful countries of the West."
Then he recounts the difficulties of the attempt, —
the vast distances, the rapids and cataracts that
obstruct the way; the cost of men, provisions, and
munitions; the danger from the Iroquois, and the
rivalry of the English, who covet the western
country, and would gladly seize it for themselves.
"But this last reason," says the memorial, "only
animates the Sieur de la Salle the more, and impels
124 THE GRAND ENTERPRISE. [1678.
him to anticipate them by the promptness of his
action. "
He declares that it was for this that he had asked
for the grant of Fort Frontenac; and he describes
what he had done at that post, in order to make it a
secure basis for his enterprise. He says that he has
now overcome the chief difficulties in his way, and
that he is ready to plant a new colony at the outlet
of Lake Erie, of which the English, if not prevented,
might easily take possession. Towards the accom-
plishment of his plans, he asks the confirmation of
his title to Fort Frontenac, and the permission to
establish at his own cost two other posts, with sei-
gniorial rights over all lands which he may discover
and colonize within twenty years, and the govern-
ment of all the country in question. On his part,
he proposes to renounce all share in the trade carried
on between the tribes of the Upper Lakes and the
people of Canada.
La Salle seems to have had an interview with the
minister, in which the proposals of his memorial were
somewhat modified. He soon received in reply the
following patent from the King : —
" Louis, by the grace of God King of France and
Navarre, to our dear and well-beloved Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, greeting. We have
received with favor the very humble petition made
us in your name, to permit you to labor at the dis-
covery of the western parts of New France ; and we
have the more willingly entertained this proposal,
1678.] THE KING'S APPROVAL. 125
since we have nothing more at heart than the explora-
tion of this country, through which, to all appear-
ance, a way may be found to Mexico. . . . For this
and other causes thereunto moving us, we permit
you by these presents, signed with our hand, to labor
ut the discovery of the western parts of our aforesaid
country of New France; and, for the execution of
this enterprise, to build forts at such places as you
may think necessary, and enjoy possession thereof
under the same clauses and conditions as of Fort
Frontenac, conformably to our letters patent of May
thirteenth, 1675, which, so far as needful, we con-
firm by these presents. And it is our will that they
be executed according to their form and tenor: on
condition, nevertheless, that you finish this enterprise
within five years, failing which, these presents shall
be void, and of no effect ; that you carry on no trade
with the savages called Ottawas, or with other tribes
v/ho bring their peltries to Montreal ; and that you do
the whole at your own cost and that of your asso-
ciates, to whom we have granted the sole right of
trade in buffalo-hides. And we direct the Sieur
Count Frontenac, our governor and lieutenant-
general, and also Duchesneau, intendant of justice,
police, and finance, and the officers of the supreme
council of the aforesaid country, to see to the execu-
tion of these presents; for such is our pleasure.
" Given at St. Germain en Laye, this 12th day of
May, 1678, and of our reign the 35th year."
This patent grants both more and less than the
126 THE GRAND ENTERPRISE, [1678.
memorial had asked. It authorizes La Salle to build
and own, not two forts only, but as many as he may
see fit, provided that he do so within five years ; and
it gives him, besides, the monopoly of buffalo-hides,
for which at first he had not petitioned. Nothing is
said of colonies. To discover the country, secure it
by forts, and find, if possible, a way to Mexico, are
the only object set forth; for Louis XIV. always dis- "
countenanced settlement in the West, partly as tend-
ing to deplete Canada, and partly as removing his
subjects too far from his paternal control. It was
but the year before that he refused to Louis Joliet
the permission to plant a trading station in the Valley
of the Mississippi.1 La Salle, however, still held to
his plan of a commercial and industrial colony, and
in connection with it to another purpose, of which
his memorial had made no mention. This was the
building of a vessel on some branch of the Missis-
sippi, in order to sail down that river to its mouth,
and open a route to commerce through the Gulf of
Mexico. It is evident that this design was already
formed; for he had no sooner received his patent,
than he engaged ship-carpenters, and procured iron,
cordage, and anchors, not for one vessel, but for
two.
What he now most needed was money; and hav-
ing none of his own, he set himself to raising it from
others. A notaiy named Simonnet lent him four
thousand livres; an advocate named Raoul, twenty-
1 Colbert a Duchesneau, 28 Avril, 1677.
1678.] MONEY AND MEANS. 127
four thousand; and one Dumont, six thousand. His
cousin Frangois Plet, a merchant of Rue St. Martin,
lent him about eleven thousand, at the interest of
forty per cent; and when he returned to Canada,
Frontenac found means to procure him another loan
of about fourteen thousand, secured by the mortgage
of Fort Frontenac. But his chief helpers were his
family, who became sharers in his undertaking.
"His brothers and relations," says a memorial after-
wards addressed by them to the King, " spared noth-
ing to enable him to respond worthily to the royal
goodness;" and the document adds, that, before his
allotted five years were ended, his discoveries had
cost them more than five hundred thousand livres
(francs).1 La Salle himself believed, and made
others believe, that there was more profit than risk
in his schemes.
Lodged rather obscurely in Rue de la Truanderie,
and of a nature reserved and shy, he nevertheless
found countenance and support from personages no
less exalted than Colbert, Seignelay, and the Prince
de Conti. Others, too, in stations less conspicuous,
warmly espoused his cause, and none more so than
the learned Abbd Renaudot, who helped him with
tongue and pen, and seems to have been instrumental
:in introducing to him a man who afterwards proved
.invaluable. This was Henri de Tonty, an Italian
1 Memoire au Roy, presente sous la Regence ; Obligation du Sieur de
la Salle envers le Sieur Plet ; Autres Emprunts de Cavelier de la Sail*
(Margry,i. 423-432).
128 THE GRAND ENTERPRISE. [1678.
officer, a protSgS of the Prince de Conti, who sent
him to La Salle as a person suited to his purposes,
Tonty had but one hand, the other having been
blown off by a grenade in the Sicilian wars.1 His
father, who had been governor of Gaeta, but who
had come to France in consequence of political dis-
turbances in Naples, had earned no small reputation
as a financier, and had invented the form of life
insurance still called the Tontine. La Salle learned
to know his new lieutenant on the voyage across the
Atlantic ; and, soon after reaching Canada, he wrote
of him to his patron in the following terms: "His
honorable character and his amiable disposition were
we^ known to you; but perhaps you would not have
the aght him capable of doing things for which a
strong constitution, an acquaintance with the country,
and the use of both hands seemed absolutely neces-
sary. Nevertheless, his energy and address make
him equal to anything; and now, at a season when
everybody is in fear of the ice, he is setting out to
begin a new fort, two hundred leagues from this
place, and to which I have taken the liberty to give
the name of Fort Conti. It is situated near that
great cataract, more than a hundred and twenty toises
in height, by which the lakes of higher elevation
precipitate themselves into Lake Frontenac [Ontario],
From there one goes by water, five hundred leagues,
to the place where Fort Dauphin is to be begun;
from which it only remains to descend the great
1 Tonty, Memoire, in Margry, Relations et Memoires inedits, 6.
1678.] RETURN TO CANADA. 129
river of the Bay of St. Esprit, to reach the Gulf of
Mexico. " 1
Bssides Tonty, La Salle found in France another
ally, La Motte de Lussiere, to whom he offered a
share in the enterprise, and who joined him at
Rochelle, the place of embarkation. Here vexatious
delays occurred. Bellinzani, director of trade, who
had formerly taken lessons in rascality in the service
of Cardinal Mazarin, abused his official position to
throw obstacles in the way of La Salle, in order to
extort money from him; and he extorted, in fact,
a considerable sum, which his victim afterwards
reclaimed. It was not till the fourteenth of July
that La Salle, with Tonty, La Motte, and thirty
men, set sail for Canada, and two months more
elapsed before he reached Quebec. Here, to increase
his resources and strengthen his position, he seems
to have made a league with several Canadian mer-
i Lettre de La Salle, 31 Oct., 1678. Fort Conti was to have been
built on the site of the present Fort Niagara. The name of Lac de
Conti was given by La Salle to Lake Erie. The fort mentioned as
Fort Dauphin was built, as we shall see, on the Illinois, though
under another name. La Salle, deceived by Spanish maps, thought
that the Mississippi discharged itself into the Bay of St. Esprit
(Mobile Bay).
Henri de Tonty signed his name in the Gallicized, and not in the
original Italian form Tonti. He wore a hand of iron or some other
metal, which was usually covered with a glove. La Potherie says
that he once or twice used it to good purpose when the Indians
became disorderly, in breaking the heads of the most contumacious
or knocking out their teeth. Not knowing at the time the secret of
the unusual efficacy of his blows, they regarded him as a " medi-
cine" of the first order. La Potherie erroneously ascribes ';he loss
of his hand to a sabre-cut received in a sortie at Messina.
9
130 THE GRAND ENTERPRISE. [1678.
chants, some of whom had before been his enemies,
and were to be so again. Here, too, he found Father
Louis Hennepin, who had come down from Fort
Frontenac to meet him.1
* La Motte de Lussiere a — , sans date ; Memoire de la S lie sur let
Extorsions commises par Bellinzani; Societe forme'e par <£a Salle;
Relation de Henri de Tonty, 1684 (Margry, i. 338, 573; ii. ?. 25).
CHAPTER IX.
1678-1679.
LA SALLE AT NIAGARA.
FATHER Louis HENNEPIN: HIS PAST LIFE; HIS CHARACTER.—
EMBARKATION. — NIAGARA FALLS. — INDIAN JEALOUSY. — LA
MOTTE AND THE SENEGAS. — A DISASTER.— LA SALLE AND HI»
FOLLOWERS.
HENNEPIN was all eagerness to join in the adven-
ture ; and, to his great satisfaction, La Salle gave him
a letter from his Provincial, Father Le Fevre, con-
taining the coveted permission. Whereupon, to
prepare himself, he went into retreat at the Re'collet
convent of Quebec, where he remained for a time in
such prayer and meditation as his nature, the reverse
of spiritual, would permit. Frontenac, always partial
to his Order, then invited him to dine at the cMteau;
and having visited the bishop and asked his bless-
ing, he went down to the Lower Town and embarked.
His vessel was a small birch canoe, paddled by two
men. With sandalled feet, a coarse gray capote, and
peaked hood, the cord of St. Francis about his waist,
and a rosary and crucifix hanging at his side, the
father set forth on his memorable journey. He
132 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1678.
carried with him the furniture of a portable altar,
which in time of need he could strap on his back like
a knapsack.
He slowly made his way up the St. Lawrence,
stopping here and there, where a clearing and a few
log houses marked the feeble beginning of a parish
and a seigniory. The settlers, though good Catholics,
were too few and too poor to support a priest, and
hailed the arrival of the friar with delight. He said
mass, exhorted a little, as was his custom, and on
one occasion baptized a child. At length he reached.
Montreal, where the enemies of the enterprise enticed
away his two canoe-men. He succeeded in finding
two others, with whom he continued his voyage,
passed the rapids of the upper St. Lawrence, and
reached Fort Frontenac at eleven o'clock at night of
the second of November, where his brethren of the
mission, Ribourde and Buisset, received him with
open arms.1 La Motte, with most of the men,
appeared on the eighth; but La Salle and Tonty did
not arrive till more than a month later. Meanwhile,
in pursuance of his orders, fifteen men set out in
canoes for Lake Michigan and the Illinois, to trade
with the Indians and collect provisions, while La
Motte embarked in a small vessel for Niagara, accom-
panied by Hennepin.2
1 Hennepin, Description de la Louisiane (1683), 19 ; Ibid., Voyage
Curieux (1704), 66. Ribourde had lately arrived.
* Ltttre de La Motte de la Lussiere, sans date ; Relation de Henri
de Tonty tfcrite de Quebec, le 14 Novembre, 1684 (Margry, i. 573).
Fatbei Hennepin Celebrating Mass.
Drawn by Howard Pyle.
LA SALLB AND THB DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST, 13*.
oth
xi i
' ty 1MI&,
1678.] HENNEPIN" 133
This bold, hardy, and adventurous friar, the histo-
rian of the expedition, and a conspicuous actor in it,
has unwittingly painted his own portrait with toler-
able distinctness. "I always,'* he says, "felt a
strong inclination to fly from the world and live
according to the rules of a pure and severe virtue;
and it was with this view that I entered the Order of
St. Francis."1 He then speaks of his zeal for the
saving of souls, but admits that a passion for travel
and a burning desire to visit strange lands had no
small part in his inclination for the missions.2 Being
in a convent in Artois, his Superior sent him to
Calais, at the season of the herring-fishery, to beg
alms, after the practice of the Franciscans. Here
and at Dunkirk he made friends of the sailors, and
was never tired of their stories. So insatiable, indeed,
was his appetite for them, that "often," he says, "I
hid myself behind tavern doors while the sailors were
telling of their voyages. The tobacco smoke made
me very sick at the stomach ; but, notwithstanding,
I listened attentively to all they said about their
adventures at sea and their travels in distant countries.
I could have passed whole days and nights in this
way without eating."3
He presently set out on a roving mission through
This paper, apparently addressed to Abb6 Renaudot, is entirely dis-
tinct from Tonty's memoir of 1693, addressed to the minister
Ponchartrain.
1 Hennepin, Nouvdle Dfcouverte (1697), 8.
2 Ibid., Avant Propos, 5.
8 Ibid., Voyage Curieux (1704), 12.
134 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1678.
Holland; and he recounts various mishaps which
befell him, "in consequence of my zeal in laboring
for the saving of souls." "I was at the bloody fight
of Seneff," he pursues, "where so many perished by
fire and sword, and where I had abundance of work
in comforting and consoling the poor wounded
soldiers. After undergoing great fatigues, and run-
ning extreme danger in the sieges of towns, in the
trenches, and in battles, where I exposed myself
freely for the salvation of others while the soldiers
were breathing nothing but blood and carnage, I
found myself at last in a way of satisfying my old
inclination for travel."1
He got leave from his superiors to go to Canada,
the most adventurous of all the missions, and accord-
ingly sailed in 1675, in the ship which carried La
Salle, who had just obtained the grant of Fort
Frontenac. In the course of the voyage, he took it
upon him to reprove a party of girls who were amus-
ing themselves and a circle of officers and other
passengers by dancing on deck. La Salle, who was
among the spectators, was annoyed at Hennepin's
interference, and told him that he was behaving like
a pedagogue. The friar retorted, by alluding —
unconsciously, as he says — to the circumstance that
La Salle was once a pedagogue himself, having,
according to Hennepin, been for ten or twelve years
teacher of a class in a Jesuit school. La Salle, he
adds, turned pale with rage, and never forgave him
1 Hennepin, Voyage Curieux (1704), 13.
1677-78.] HENNEPIN. 135
to his dying day, but always maligned and persecuted
him.1
On arriving in Canada, he was sent up to Fort
Frontenac, as a missionary. That wild and remote
post was greatly to his liking. He planted a gigantic
cross, superintended the building of a chapel for him-
self and his colleague Buisset, and instructed the
Iroquois colonists of the place. He visited, too, the
neighboring Indian settlements, — paddling his canoe
in summer, when the lake was open, and journeying
in winter on snow-shoes, with a blanket slung at his
back. His most noteworthy journey was one which
he made in the winter, — apparently of 1677, — with
a soldier of the fort. They crossed the eastern
extremity of Lake Ontario on snow-shoes, and
pushed southward through the forests, towards
Onondaga, — stopping at evening to dig away the
snow, which was several feet deep, and collect wood
for their fire, which they were forced to replenish
repeatedly during the night, to keep themselves from
freezing. At length, they reached the great Onondaga
town, where the Indians were much amazed at their
hardihood. Thence they proceeded eastward to the
Oneidas, and afterwards to the Mohawks, who
regaled them with small frogs, pounded up with a
porridge of Indian corn. Here Hennepin found the
Jesuit Bruyas, who permitted him to copy a diction-
1 Ibid., Avis au Lecteur. He elsewhere represents himself aa on
excellent terms with La Salle ; with whom, he says, he used to read
histories of travels at Fort Frontenac, after which they discussed
together their plans of discovery.
136 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1678.
ary of the Mohawk language 1 which he had compiled ;
and here he presently met three Dutchmen, who
urged him to visit the neighboring settlement of
Orange, or Albany, — an invitation which he seems
to have declined.2
They were pleased with him, he says, because he
spoke Dutch. Bidding them farewell, he tied on his
snow-shoes again, and returned with his companion
to Fort Frontenac. Thus he inured himself to the
hardships of the woods, and prepared for the execu-
tion of the grand plan of discovery which he calls his
own, — "an enterprise," to borrow his own words,
" capable of terrifying anybody but me. " 3 When the
later editions of his book appeared, doubts had been
expressed of his veracity. "I here protest to you,
before God," he writes, addressing the reader, "that
my narrative is faithful and sincere, and that you
may believe everything related in it."4 And yet, as
we shall see, this reverend father was the most
impudent of liars; and the narrative of which he
speaks is a rare monument of brazen mendacity.
Hennepin, however, had seen and dared much; for
1 This was the Ratines Agnieres of Bruyas. It was published by
Mr. Shea in 1862. Hennepin seems to have studied it carefully ;
for on several occasions he makes use of words evidently borrowed
from it, putting them into the mouths of Indians speaking a dialect
different from that of the Agniers, or Mohawks.
2 Compare Brodhead in Hist. Mag., x. 268.
"line enterprise capable d'tfpouvanter tout autre que moi." —
Hennepin, Voyage Curieux, Avant Propos (1704).
4 " Je vous proteste ici devant Dieu, que ma Relation est fidele et
sincere/' etc. — Ibid., Avis an Lecteur.
1678.] HENNEPIff, 137
among his many failings fear had no part, and where
his vanity or his spite was not involved, he often
told the truth. His books have their value, with all
their enormous fabrications.1
La Motte and Hennepin, with sixteen men, went
on board the little vessel of ten tons, which lay at
Fort Frontenac. The friar's two brethren, Buisset
and Ribourdev threw their arms about his neck as
they bade him farewell; while his Indian proselytes,
learning whither he was bouncy stood with their
hands pressed upon their mouths, in amazement at
the perils which awaited their ghostly instructor.
La Salle, with the rest of the party, was to follow as
soon as he could finish his preparations. It was a
boisterous and gusty day, the eighteenth of November,
The sails were spread; the shore receded, — the stone
walls of the fort, the huge cross that the friar had
reared, the wigwams, the settlers' cabins, the group
of staring Indians on the strand. The lake was
rough; and the men, crowded in so small a craft,
grew nervous and uneasy. They hugged the northern
shore, to escape the fury of the wind, which blew
savagely from the northeast; while the long gray
sweep of naked forests on their right betokened that
winter was fast closing in. On the twenty-sixth,
they reached the neighborhood of the Indian town of
1 The nature of these fabrications 'jrill be shown hereafter.
They occur, not in the early editions of Hennepin's narrative, which
are comparatively truthful, but in the edition of 1697 and those
which followed. La Salle was dead at the time of their publication.
138 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1678.
Taiaiagon,1 not far from Toronto, and ran their
vessel, for safety, into the mouth of a river, — prob-
ably the Humber, — where the ice closed about her,
and they were forced to cut her out with axes. On
the fifth of December, they attempted to cross to the
mouth of the Niagara; but darkness overtook them,
and they spent a comfortless night, tossing on the
troubled lake, five or six miles from shore. In the
morning, they entered the mouth of the Niagara, and
landed on the point at its eastern side, where now
stand the historic ramparts of Fort Niagara. Here
they found a small village of Senecas, attracted
hither by the fisheries, who gazed with curious eyes
at the vessel, and listened in wonder as the voyagers
sang Te Deum in gratitude for their safe arrival.
Hennepin, with several others, now ascended the
river in a canoe to the foot of the mountain ridge of
Lewiston, which, stretching on the right hand and
on the left, forms the acclivity of a vast plateau, rent
with the mighty chasm, along which, from this point
to the cataract, seven miles above, rush, with the
fury of an Alpine torrent, the gathered waters of
four inland oceans. To urge the canoe farther was
impossible. He landed, with his companions, on the
west bank, near the foot of that part of the ridge
now called Queenstown Heights, climbed the steep
ascent, and pushed through the wintry forest on a
1 This place is laid down on a manuscript map sent to I^-ance by
the Intendant Duchesneau, and now preserved in the Archives de
la Marine, and also on several other contemporary maps.
X878.] NIAGARA FALLS. 139
i;our of exploration. On his left sank the cliffs, the
j'urious river raging below; till at length, in primeval
.solitudes unprofaned as yet by the pettiness of man,
(he imperial cataract burst upon his sight.1
The explorers passed three miles beyond it, and
encamped for the night on the banks of Chippewa
Creek, scraping away the snow, which was a foot
deep, in order to kindle a fire. In the morning they
retraced their steps, startling a number of deer and
wild turkeys on their way, and rejoined their com-
panions at the mouth of the river.
i Hennepin's account of the falls and river of Niagara — espe-
cially his second account, on his return from the West — is very
minute, and on the whole very accurate. He indulges in gross
exaggeration as to the height of the cataract, which, in the edition
of 1683, he states at five hundred feet, and raises to six hundred in
that of 1697. He also says that there was room for four carriages
to pass abreast under the American Fall without being wet. This
is, of course, an exaggeration at the best; but it is extremely
probable that a great change has taken place since his time. He
§peaks of a small lateral fall at the west side of the Horse Shoe
Fall which does not now exist. Table Rock, now destroyed, is dis-
tinctly figured in his picture. He says that he descended the cliffs
on the west side to the foot of the cataract, but that no human
being can get down on the east side.
The name of Niagara, written Onguiaahra by Lalemant in 1641,
and Ongiara by Sanson, on his map of 1657, is used by Hennepin in
its present form. His description of the falls is the earliest known
to exist. They are clearly indicated on the map of Champlain,
1632. For early references to them, see "The Jesuits in North
America," 235, note. A brief but curious notice of them is given
l>y Gendron, Quelques P articular itez du Pays des Hurons, 1669. The
indefatigable Dr. O'Callaghan has discovered thirty-nine distinct
forms of the name Niagara. Index to Colonial Documents of New
York, 465. It is of Iroquois origin, and in the Mohawk dialect is
pronounced Nyagarah.
140 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1678.
La Motte now began the building of a fortified
house, some two leagues above the mouth of the
Niagara.1 Hot water was used to soften the frozen
ground; but frost was not the only obstacle. The
Senecas of the neighboring village betrayed a sullen
jealousy at a design which, indeed, boded them no
good. Niagara was the key to the four great lakes
above; and whoever held possession of it could, in
no small measure, control the fur-trade of the interior.
Occupied by the French, it would in time of peace
intercept the trade which the Iroquois carried on
between the western Indians and the Dutch and
English at Albany, and in time of war threaten them
with serious danger. La Motte saw the necessity of
conciliating these formidable neighbors, and, if pos-
sible, cajoling them to give their consent to the plan.
La Salle, indeed, had instructed him to that effect,
He resolved on a journey to the great village of the
Senecas, and called on Hennepin, who was busied in
building a bark chapel for himself, to accompany
him. They accordingly set out with several men
well armed and equipped, and bearing at their backs
presents of very considerable value. The village
was beyond the Genesee, southeast of the site of
Rochester.2 After a march of five days, they reached
it on the last day of December. They were con*
1 Tonty, Relation, 1684 (Margry, i. 573).
2 Near the town of Victor. It is laid down on the map of Gali-
n£e, and other unpublished maps. Compare Marshall, Historical
Sketches of the Niagara Frontier, 14.
1678.] LA MOTTE AND THE SENEGAS. 141
ducted to the lodge of the great chief, where they
were beset by a staring crowd of women and children.
Two Jesuits, Raffeix and Julien Gamier, were in
the village; and their presence boded no good for
the embassy. La Motte, who seems to have had little
love for priests of any kind, was greatly annoyed at
seeing them ; and when the chiefs assembled to hear
what he had to say, he insisted that the two fathers
should leave the council-house. At this, Hennepin,
out of respect for his cloth, thought it befitting that
he should retire also. The chiefs, forty-two in
number, squatted on the ground, arrayed in cere-
monial robes of beaver, wolf, or black-squirrel skin.
"The senators of Venice," writes Hennepin, "do
not look more grave or speak more deliberately than
the counsellors of the Iroquois." La Motte 's inter-
preter harangued the attentive conclave, placed gift
after gift at their feet, — coats, scarlet cloth, hatchets,
knives, and beads, — and used all his eloquence to
persuade them that the building of a fort on the
banks of the Niagara, and a vessel on Lake Erie,
were measures vital to their interest. They gladly
took the gifts, but answered the interpreter's speech
with evasive generalities; and having been enter-
tained with the burning of an Indian prisoner, the
discomfited embassy returned, half-famished, to
Niagara.
Meanwhile, La Salle and Tonty were on their way
from Fort Frontenac, with men and supplies, to
join La Motte and his advance party. They were
142 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1679.
in a small vessel, with a pilot either unskilful or
treacherous. On Christmas eve, he was near wreck-
ing them off the Bay of Quinte*. On the next day
they crossed to the mouth of the Genesee; and La
Salle, after some delay, proceeded to the neighboring
town of the Senecas, where he appears to have arrived
just after the departure of La Motte and Hennepin.
He, too, called them to a council, and tried to soothe
the extreme jealousy with which they regarded his
proceedings. "I told them my plan," he says, "and
gave the best pretexts I could, and I succeeded in
my attempt."1 More fortunate than La Motte, he
persuaded them to consent to his carrying arms and
ammunition by the Niagara portage, building a vessel
above the cataract, and establishing a fortified ware-
house at the mouth of the river.
This success was followed by a calamity. La Salle
had gone up the Niagara to find a suitable place for a
ship-yard, when he learned that the pilot in charge
of the vessel he had left had disobeyed his orders,
and ended by wrecking it on the coast. Little was
saved except the anchors and cables destined for the
new vessel to be built above the cataract. This loss
threw him into extreme perplexity, and, as Hennepin
says, "would have made anybody but him give up
the enterprise."2 The whole party were now gath-
1 Lettre de La Salle a un de ses associes (Margry, ii. 32).
2 Description de la Louisiane (1683), 41. It is characteristic of
Hennepin that, in the editions of his book published after La Salle's
death, he substitutes, for " anybody but him," " anybody but those
who had formed so generous a design," — meaning to include him-
L679.] JEALOUSIES. 143
ered at the palisaded house which La Motte had
built, a little below the mountain ridge of Lewiston.
They were a motley crew of French, Flemings, and
Italians, all mutually jealous. La Salle's enemies
had tampered with some of the men; and none of
them seemed to have had much heart for the enter-
prise. The fidelity even of La Motte was doubtful.
utHe served me very ill," says La Salle; "and
Messieurs de Tonty and de la Forest knew that he
did his best to debauch all my men."1 His health
soon failed under the hardships of these winter jour-
neyings, and he returned to Fort Frontenac, half-
blinded by an inflammation of the eyes.2 . La Salle,
neldom happy in the choice of subordinates, had,
perhaps, in all his company but one man whom he
could fully trust; and this was Tonty. He and
Hennepin were on indifferent terms. Men thrown
together in a rugged enterprise like this quickly learn
to know each other; and the vain and assuming friar
was not likely to commend himself to La Salle's brave
tind loyal lieutenant. Hennepin says that it was La
Salle's policy to govern through the dissensions of his
followers ; and, from whatever cause, it is certain that
chose beneath him were rarely in perfect harmony.
self, though he lost nothing by the disaster, and had not formed
the design.
On these incidents, compare the two narratives of Tonty, of 1684
and 1693. The book bearing Tonty's name is a compilation full of
sjrrors. He disowned its authorship.
1 Lettre de La Salle, 22 Aout, 1682 (Margry, ii. 212).
2 Lettre de La Motte, sans date.
CHAPTER X.
1679.
THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN."
PHK NIAGARA PORTAGE. — A VESSEL ON THE STOCKS. — SUFFERING
AND DISCONTENT. — LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEY. — THE VES-
SEL LAUNCHED. — FRESH DISASTERS.
A MORE important work than that of the warehouse
at the mouth of the river was now to be begun.
This was the building of a vessel above the cataract.
The small craft which had brought La Motte and
Hennepin with their advance party had been hauled
to the foot of the rapids at Lewiston, and drawn
ashore with a capstan, to save her from the drifting
ice. Her lading was taken out, and must now be
carried beyond the cataract to the calm water above.
The distance to the destined point was at least
twelve miles, and the steep heights above Lewiston
must first be climbed. This heavy task was accom-
plished on the twenty-second of January. The level
of the plateau was reached, and the file of burdened
men, some thirty in number, toiled slowly on its way
over the snowy plains and through the gloomy forests
of spruce and naked oak-trees; while Hennepin
plodded through the drifts with his portable altar
1679.] THE NIAGARA PORTAGE. 145
lashed fast to his back. They came at last to the
mouth of a stream which entered the Niagara two
leagues above the cataract, and which was undoubt-
edly that now called Cayuga Creek.1
i It has been a matter of debate on which side of the Niagara
the first vessel on the Upper Lakes was built. A close study of
Hennepin, and a careful examination of the localities, hare con-
vinced me that the spot was that indicated above. Hennepin
repeatedly alludes to a large detached rock, rising out of the water
at the foot of the rapids above Lewiston, on the west side of the
river. This rock may still be seen immediately under the western
*md of the Lewiston suspension-bridge. Persons living in the neigh-
borhood remember that a ferry-boat used to pass between it and
the cliffs of the western shore ; but it has since been undermined by
the current and has inclined in that direction, so that a considerable
part of it is submerged, while the gravel and earth thrown down
from the cliff during the building of the bridge has filled the inter-
vening channel. Opposite to this rock, and on the east side of the
river, says Hennepin, are three mountains, about two leagues below
the cataract. (Nouveau Voyage (1704), 462, 466.) To these " three
mountains," as well as to the rock, he frequently alludes. They
are also spoken of by La Hontan, who clearly indicates their posi-
tion. They consist in the three successive grades of the acclivity :
first, that which rises from the level of the water, forming the steep
and lofty river-bank ; next, an intermediate ascent, crowned by a
tort of terrace, where the tired men could find a second resting-place
snd lay down their burdens, whence a third effort carried them with
difficulty to the level top of the plateau. That this was the actual
" portage/' or carrying place of the travellers, is shown by Hennepin
(1704), 114, who describes the carrying of anchors and other heavy
articles up these heights in August, 1679. La Hontan also passed
the Falls by way of the "three mountains " eight years later. La
Hontan (1703), 106. It is clear, then, that the portage was on the
t-ast side, whence it would be safe to conclude that the vessel was
built on the same side. Hennepin says that she was built at the
mouth of a stream (riviere) entering the Niagara two leagues above
the Falls. Excepting one or two small brooks, there is no stream
on the west side but Chippewa Creek, which Hennepin had visited
and correctly placed at about a league from the cataract. His dia-
10
146 THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN." [1079.
Trees were felled, the place cleared, and the
master-carpenter set his ship-builders at work. Mean-
while, two Mohegan hunters, attached to the party,
made bark wigwams to lodge the men. Hennepin
had his chapel, apparently of the same material,
where he placed his altar, and on Sundays and saints'
days said mass, preached, and exhorted; while some
of the men, who knew the Gregorian chant, lent
their aid at the service. When the carpenters were
ready to lay the keel of the vessel, La Salle asked
the friar to drive the first bolt ; " but the modesty of
my religious profession," he says, "compelled me to
decline this honor."
Fortunately, it was the hunting-season of the
Iroquois, and most of the Seneca warriors were in
the forests south of Lake Erie ; yet enough remained
to cause serious uneasiness. They loitered sullenly
about the place, expressing their displeasure at the
proceedings of the French. One of them, pretending
tances on the Niagara are usually correct. On the east side there
is a stream which perfectly answers the conditions. This is Cayuga
Creek, two leagues above the Falls. Immediately in front of it is
an island about a mile long, separated from the shore by a narrow
and deep arm of the Niagara, into which Cayuga Creek discharges
itself. The place is so obviously suited to building and launching
a vessel, that, in the early part of this century, the government of
the United States chose it for the construction of a schooner to
carry supplies to the garrisons of the Upper Lakes. The neighbor-
ing village now bears the name of La Salle.
In examining this and other localities on the Niagara, I have
been greatly aided by my friend 0. H. Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo,
who is unrivalled in his knowledge of the history and traditions of
the Niagara frontier.
1679.] SUFFERING AND DISCONTENT. 147
to be drunk, attacked the blacksmith and tried to
]dll him ; but the Frenchman, brandishing a red-hot
bar of iron, held him at bay till Hennepin ran to the
rescue, when, as he declares, the severity of his
rebuke caused the savage to desist.1 The work of
the ship-builders advanced rapidly; and when the
Indian visitors beheld the vast ribs of the wooden
monster, their jealousy was redoubled. A squaw
told the French that they meant to burn the vessel on
the stocks. All now stood anxiously on the watch.
Cold, hunger, and discontent found imperfect anti-
dotes in Tonty's energy and Hennepin's sermons.
La Salle was absent, and his lieutenant commanded
in his place. Hennepin says that Tonty was jealous
because he, the friar, kept a journal, and that he
was forced to use all manner of just precautions to
prevent the Italian from seizing it. The men, being
half-starved, in consequence of the loss of their pro-
visions on Lake Ontario, were restless and moody;
jind their discontent was fomented by one of their
number, who had very probably been tampered with
by La Salle's enemies.2 The Senecas refused to
1 Hennepin (1704), 97. On a paper drawn up at the instance of
1 he Intendant Duchesneau, the names of the greater number of La
Salle's men are preserved. These agree with those given by Hen-
nepin : thus, the master-carpenter, whom he calls Maitre Moyse,
jippears as Mo'ise Hillaret ; and the blacksmith, whom he calls La
3<\>rge, is mentioned as — (illegible) dit la Forge.
2 " This bad man," says Hennepin, " would infallibly have de-
bauched our workmen, if I had not reassured them by the exhor-
tations which I made them on f6te-day« and Sundays, after divine
service "(1704), 98.
148 THE LAUNCH OF THE " GRIFFIN." [1679
supply them with corn, and the frequent exhortations
of the Re*collet father proved an insufficient substi-
tute. In this extremity, the two Mohegans did
excellent service, — bringing deer and other game,
which relieved the most pressing wants of the party,
and went far to restore their cheerfulness.
La Salle, meanwhile, had gone down to the mouth
of the river, with a sergeant and a number of men ;
and here, on the high point of land where Fort
Niagara now stands, he marked out the foundations
of two blockhouses.1 Then, leaving his men to build
them, he set out on foot for Fort Frontenac, where
the condition of his affairs demanded his presence,
and where he hoped to procure supplies to replace
those lost in the wreck of his vessel. It was
February, and the distance was some two hundred
and fifty miles, through the snow-encumbered forests
of the Iroquois and over the ice of Lake Ontario.
Two men attended him, and a dog dragged his bag-
gage on a sledge. For food, they had only a bag of
parched corn, which failed them two days before
they reached the fort; and they made the rest of the
journey fasting.
During his absence, Tonty finished the vessel,
which was of about forty-five tons' burden.2 As
1 Lettre de La Salle, 22 Aout, 1682 (Margry, ii. 229) ; Relation de
Tonty, 1684 (Ibid., i. 577). He called this new post Fort Conti. It
was burned some months after, by the carelessness of the sergeant
in command, and was the first of a succession of forts on this his-
toric spot.
2 Hennepin (1683), 46. In the edition of 1697, he says that it
1679.] THE SHIP FINISHED. 149
spring opened, she was ready for launching. The
friar pronounced his blessing on her; the assembled
company sang Te Deum ; cannon were fired; and
French and Indians, warmed alike by a generous
gift of brandy, shouted and yelped in chorus as she
glided into the Niagara. Her builders towed her
out and anchored her in the stream, safe at last from
incendiary hands; and then, swinging their ham-
mocks under her deck, slept in peace, beyond reach
of the tomahawk. The Indians gazed on her with
amazement. Five small cannon looked out from her
portholes ; and on her prow was carved a portentous
monster, the Griffin, whose name she bore, in honor
of the armorial bearings of Frontenac. La Salle had
often been heard to say that he would make the
griffin fly above the crows, or, in other words, make
Frontenac triumph over the Jesuits.
They now took her up the river, and made her fast
below the swift current at Black Rock. Here they
finished her equipment, and waited for La Salle 's
return; but the absent commander did not appear.
The spring and more than half of the summer had
passed before they saw him again. At length, early
in August, he arrived at the mouth of the Niagara,
bringing three more friars ; for, though no friend of
the Jesuits, he was zealous for the Faith, and was
rarely without a missionary in his journeyings. Like
Hennepin, the three friars were all Flemings. One
was of sixty tons. I prefer to follow the earlier and more trust-
worthy narratire.
150 THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN." [1679.
of them, Melithon Watteau, was to remain at Niagara ;
the others, Zenobe Membr6 and Gabriel Ribourde,
were to preach the Faith among the tribes of the
West. Ribourde was a hale and cheerful old man
of sixty-four. He went four times up and down
the Lewiston heights, while the men were climbing
the steep pathway with their loads. It required four
of them, well stimulated with brandy, to carry up
the principal anchor destined for the "Griffin."
La Salle brought a tale of disaster. His enemies,
bent on ruining the enterprise, had given out that he
was embarked on a harebrained venture, from which
he would never return. His creditors, excited by
rumors set afloat to that end, had seized on all his
property in the settled parts of Canada, though his
seigniory of Fort Frontenac alone would have more
than sufficed to pay all his debts. There was no
remedy. To defer the enterprise would have been
to give his adversaries the triumph that they sought;
and he hardened himself against the blow with his
usual stoicism.1
1 La Salle's embarrassment at this time was so great that he pur-
posed to send Tonty up the lakes in the " Griffin," while he went
back to the colony to look after his affairs ; but suspecting that the
pilot, who had already wrecked one of his vessels, was in the pay
of his enemies, he resolved at last to take charge of the expedition
himself, to prevent a second disaster. (Lettre de La Salle, 22 Aout,
1682 ; Margry, ii. 214.) Among the creditors who bore hard upon
him were Migeon, Charon, Giton, and Peloquin, of Montreal, in
whose name his furs at Fort Frontenac had been seized. The intend-
ant also placed under seal all his furs at Quebec, among which is
set down the not very precious item of two hundred and eighty-four
skins of enfantt du (liable, or skunks.
CHAPTER XI.
1679.
LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES.
THE VOYAGE OF THE "GRIFFIN." — DETROIT. — A STORM. — ST.
IGNACE OF MICHILIMACKINAC. — RIVALS AND ENEMIES. — LAKB
MICHIGAN. — HARDSHIPS. — A THREATENED FIGHT. — FORT
MIAMI. — TONTY'S MISFORTUNES. — FOREBODINGS.
THE " Griffin " had lain moored by the shore, so
near that Hennepin could preach on Sundays from
the deck to the men encamped along the bank. She
was now forced up against the current with tow-
ropes and sails, till she reached the calm entrance of
Lake Erie. On the seventh of August, La Salle and
his followers embarked, sang Te Deum, and fired
their cannon. A fresh breeze sprang up; and with
swelling canvas the "Griffin" ploughed the virgin
waves of Lake Erie, where sail was never seen
before. For three days they held their course over
these unknown waters, and on the fourth turned
northward into the Strait of Detroit. Here, on the
right hand and on the left, lay verdant prairies,
dotted with groves and bordered with lofty forests.
They saw walnut, chestnut, and wild plum trees,
and oaks festooned with grape-vines ; herds of deer,
152 LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES. [1679.
and flocks of swans and wild turkeys. The bulwarks
of the "Griffin" were plentifully hung with game
which the men killed on shore, and among the rest
with a number of bears, much commended by
Hennepin for their want of ferocity and the excel-
lence of their flesh. "Those," he says, "who will
one day have the happiness to possess this fertile and
pleasant strait, will be very much obliged to those
who have shown them the way." They crossed
Lake St. Clair,1 and still sailed northward against
the current, till now, sparkling in the sun, Lake
Huron spread before them like a sea.
For a time they bore on prosperously. Then the
wind died to a calm, then freshened to a gale, then
rose to a furious tempest; and the vessel tossed
wildly among the short, steep, perilous waves of the
raging lake. Even La Salle called on his followers
to commend themselves to Heaven. All fell to their
prayers but the godless pilot, who was loud in com-
plaint against his commander for having brought
him, after the honor he had won on the ocean, to
drown at last ignominiously in fresh water. The
rest clamored to the saints. St. Anthony of Padua
was promised a chapel to be built in his honor, if he
would but save them from their jeopardy; while in
the same breath La Salle and the friars declared him
patron of their great enterprise.2 The saint heard
1 They named it Sainte Claire, of which the present name is a
perversion.
* Hennepin (1683), 68.
1679.] ST. IGNACE. 158
their prayers. The obedient winds were tamed; and
the " Griffin " plunged on her way through foaming
surges that still grew calmer as she advanced. Now
the sun shone forth on woody islands, Bois Blanc
and Mackinaw and the distant Manitoulins, — on the
forest wastes of Michigan and the vast blue bosom of
the angry lake ; and now her port was won, and she
found her rest behind the point of St. Ignace of
Michilimackinac, floating in that tranquil cove where
crystal waters cover but cannot hide the pebbly
depths beneath. Before her rose the house and
chapel of the Jesuits, enclosed with palisades ; on the
right, the Huron village, with its bark cabins and
its fence of tall pickets; on the left, the square
compact houses of the French traders; and, not far
off, the clustered wigwams of an Ottawa village.1
Here was a centre of the Jesuit missions, and a
centre of the Indian trade; and here, under the
shadow of the cross, was much sharp practice in the
service of Mammon. Keen traders, with or without
a license, and lawless coureurs de bois, whom a few
years of forest life had weaned from civilization,
made St. Ignace their resort; and here there were
many of them when the " Griffin " came. They and
tlieir employers hated and feared La Salle, who,
sustained as he was by the governor, might set at
nought the prohibition of the King, debarring him
from traffic with these tribes. Yet, while plotting
1 There is a rude plan of the establishment in La Hontan, though
in several editions its value is destroyed by the rerersal of the plate
154 LA SALLE Otf THE UPPER LAKES. [1679.
against him, they took pains to allay his distrust by
a show of welcome.
The "Griffin" fired her cannon, and the Indians
yelped in wonder and amazement. The adventurers
landed in state, and marched under arms to the bark
chapel of the Ottawa village, where they heard
mass. La Salle knelt before the altar, in a mantle
of scarlet bordered with gold. Soldiers, sailors, and
artisans knelt around him, — black Jesuits, gray
Re'collets, swarthy voyageurs, and painted savages ; a
devout but motley concourse.
As they left the chapel, the Ottawa chiefs came to
bid them welcome, and the Hurons saluted them
with a volley of musketry. They saw the " Griffin "
at her anchorage, surrounded by more than a hundred
bark canoes, like a Triton among minnows. Yet it
was with more wonder than good-will that the
Indians of the mission gazed on the "floating fort,"
for so they called the vessel. A deep jealousy of La
Salle 's designs had been infused into them. His
own followers, too, had been tampered with. In the
autumn before, it may be remembered, he had sent
fifteen men up the lakes to trade for him, with orders
to go thence to the Illinois and make preparation
against his coming. Early in the summer, Tonty
had been despatched in a canoe from Niagara to look
after them.1 It was high time. Most of the men
had been seduced from their duty, and had disobeyed
1 Relation de Tonty, 1684; Ibid., 1693. He was overtaken at the
Detroit bj the "Griffin."
1079.] RIVALS AND ENEMIES. 156
their orders, squandered the goods intrusted to them,
or used them in trading on their own account. La
S.ille found four of them at Michilimackinac. These
he arrested, and sent Tonty to the Falls of Ste.
Marie, where two others were captured, with their
plunder. The rest were in the woods, and it was
useless to pursue them.
Anxious and troubled as to the condition of his
affairs in Canada, La Salle had meant, after seeing
his party safe at Michilimackinac, to leave Tonty to
conduct it to the Illinois, while he himself returned
to the colony. But Tonty was still at Ste. Marie,
and he had none to trust but himself. Therefore,
he resolved at all risks to remain with his men;
"for," he says, "I judged my presence absolutely
necessary to retain such of them as were left me, and
pi-event them from being enticed away during the
winter." Moreover, he thought that he had detected
an intrigue of his enemies to hound on the Iroquois
against the Illinois, in order to defeat his plan by
involving him in the war.
Early in September he set sail again, and passing
westward into Lake Michigan,1 cast anchor near one
of the islands at the entrance of Green Bay. Here,
for once, he found a friend in the person of a
Pottawattarnie chief, who had been so wrought upon
1 Then usually known as Lac des Illinois, because it gave access
to the country of the tribes so called. Three years before, Allouez
ga/e it the name of Lac St. Joseph, by which it is often designated
by the early writers. Membre, Douay, and others, call it Lac
Dauphin.
156 LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES. [1679.
by the politic kindness of Frontenac that he declared
himself ready to die for the children of Onontio.1
Here, too, he found several of his advance party,
who had remained faithful and collected a large
store of furs. It would have been better had they
proved false, like the rest. La Salle, who asked
counsel of no man, resolved, in spite of his followers,
to send back the " Griffin " laden with these furs, and
others collected on the way, to satisfy his creditors.2
It was a rash resolution, for it involved trusting her
to the pilot, who had already proved either incom-
petent or treacherous. She fired a parting shot, and
on the eighteenth of September set sail for Niagara,
with orders to return to the head of Lake Michigan
as soon as she had discharged her cargo. La Salle,
with the fourteen men who remained, in four canoes
deeply laden with a forge, tools, merchandise, and
arms, put out from the island and resumed his
voyage.
The parting was not auspicious. The lake, glassy
and calm in the afternoon, was convulsed at night
with a sudden storm, when the canoes were midway
between the island and the main shore. It was with
difficulty that they could keep together, the men
1 " The Great Mountain," the Iroquois name for the governor of
Canada. It was borrowed by other tribes also.
2 In the license of discovery granted to La Salle, he is expressly
prohibited from trading with the Ottawas and others who brought
furs to Montreal. This traffic on the lakes was, therefore, illicit.
His enemy, the Intendant Duchesneau, afterwards used this against
him. Lettre de Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1680.
1679.] POTTAWATTAMIES. 157
shouting to each other through the darkness.
Hennepin, who was in the smallest canoe with a
heavy load, and a carpenter for a companion who
was awkward at the paddle, found himself in jeop-
ardy which demanded all his nerve. The voyagers
thought themselves happy when they gained at last
the shelter of a little sandy cove, where they dragged
up their canoes, and made their cheerless bivouac in
the drenched and dripping forest. Here they spent
five days, living on pumpkins and Indian corn, the
gift of their Pottawattamie friends, and on a Canada
porcupine brought in by La Salle's Mohegan hunter.
The gale raged meanwhile with relentless fury.
They trembled when they thought of the "Griffin."
When at length the tempest lulled, they re-embarked,
and steered southward along the shore of Wisconsin;
but again the storm fell upon them, and drove them
for safety to a bare, rocky islet. Here they made a
fire of drift-wood, crouched around it, drew their
blankets over their heads, and in this miserable
plight, pelted with sleet and rain, remained for two
days.
At length they were afloat again; but their pros-
perity was brief. On the twenty-eighth, a fierce
squall drove them to a point of rocks covered with
bushes, where they consumed the little that remained
of their provisions. On the first of October they
paddled about thirty miles, without food, when they
came to a village of Pottawattamies, who ran down
to the shore to help them to land; but La Salle, fear-
158 LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES. [187*.
ing that some of his men would steal the merchandise
and desert to the Indians, insisted on going three
leagues farther, to the great indignation of his fol-
lowers. The lake, swept by an easterly gale, was
rolling its waves against the beach, like the ocean in
a storm. In the attempt to land, La Salle's canoe
was nearly swamped. He and his three canoemen
leaped into the water, and in spite of the surf, which
nearly drowned them, dragged their vessel ashore
with all its load. He then went to the rescue of
Hennepin, who with his awkward companion was
in woful need of succor. Father Gabriel, with his
sixty-four years, was no match for the surf and the
violent undertow. Hennepin, finding himself safe,
waded to his relief, and carried him ashore on his
sturdy shoulders; while the old friar, though
drenched to the skin, laughed gayly under his cowl
as his brother missionary staggered with him up the
beach.1
When all were safe ashore, La Salle, who distrusted
the Indians they had passed, took post on a hill, and
ordered his followers to prepare their guns for action.
Nevertheless, as they were starving, an effort must
be risked to gain a supply of food; and he sent three
men back to the village to purchase it. Well armed,
but faint with toil and famine, they made their way
through the stormy forest bearing a pipe of peace,
but on arriving saw that the scared inhabitants had
fled. They found, however, a stock of corn, of
* Hennepin (1683), 79.
1679.J HARDSHIPS. 15
which they took a portion, leaving goods in exchange,
and then set out on their return.
Meanwhile, about twenty of the warriors, armed
with bows and arrows, approached the camp of the
French to reconnoitre. La Salle went to meet them
with some of his men, opened a parley with them,
a] id kept them seated at the foot of the hill till his
three messengers returned, when on seeing the peace-
pipe the warriors set up a cry of joy. In the morning
they brought more corn to the camp, with a supply
of fresh venison, not a little cheering to the exhausted
Frenchmen, who, in dread of treachery, had stood
under arms all night.
This was no journey of pleasure. The lake was
ruffled with almost ceaseless storms; clouds big with
rain above, a turmoil of gray and gloomy waves
beneath. Every night the canoes must be shouldered
through the breakers and dragged up the steep banks,
which, as they neared the site of Milwaukee, became
almost insurmountable. The men paddled all day,
with no other food than a handful of Indian corn.
They were spent with toil, sick with the haws and
wild berries which they ravenously devoured, and
dejected at the prospect before them. Father Gabriel's
good spirits began to fail. He fainted several times
from famine and fatigue, but was revived by a certain
" confection of Hyacinth " administered by Hennepin,
who had a small box of this precious specific.
At length they descried at a distance, on the
stormy shore, two or three eagles among a busy
160 LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES. [1679.
congregation of crows or turkey buzzards. They
paddled in all haste to the spot. The feasters took
flight; and the starved travellers found the mangled
body of a deer, lately killed by the wolves. This
good luck proved the inauguration of plenty. As
they approached the head of the lake, game grew
abundant; and, with the aid of the Mohegan, there
was no lack of bear's meat and venison. They found
wild grapes, too, in the woods, and gathered them by
cutting down the trees to which the vines clung.
While thus employed, they were startled by a
sight often so fearful in the waste and the wilder-
ness, — the print of a human foot. It was clear that
Indians were not far off. A strict watch was kept,
not, as it proved, without cause; for that night,
while the sentry thought of little but screening him-
self and his gun from the floods of rain, a party of
Odtagamies crept under the bank, where they lurked
for some time before he discovered them. Being
challenged, they came forward, professing great
friendship, and pretending to have mistaken the
French for Iroquois. In the morning, however,
there was an outcry from La Salle's servant, who
declared that the visitors had stolen his coat from
under the inverted canoe where he had placed it;
while some of the carpenters also complained of being
robbed. La Salle well knew that if the theft were
left unpunished, worse would come of it. First, he
posted his men at the woody point of a peninsula,
whose sandy neck was interposed between them and
1679.] ENCOUNTER WITH INDIANS. 161
the main forest. Then he went forth, pistol in. hand,
met a young Outagami, seized him, and led him
prisoner to his camp. This done, he again set out,
and soon found an Outagami chief, — for the wig-
wams were not far distant, — to whom he told what
he had done, adding that unless the stolen goods
were restored, the prisoner should be killed. The
Indians were in perplexity, for they had cut the coat
to pieces and divided it. In this dilemma they
resolved, being strong in numbers, to rescue their
omrade by force. Accordingly, they came down to
the edge of the forest, or posted themselves behind
fallon trees on the banks, while La Salle's men in
their stronghold braced their nerves for the fight.
Here three Flemish friars with their rosaries, and
eleven Frenchmen with their guns, confronted a
hundred and twenty screeching Outagamies. Hen-
nepin, who had seen service, and who had always an
exhortation at his tongue's end, busied himself to
inspire the rest with a courage equal to his own.
Neither party, however, had an appetite for the fray.
A parley ensued: full compensation was made for
the stolen goods, and the aggrieved Frenchmen were
farther propitiated with a gift of beaver-skins.
Their late enemies, now become friends, spent the
next day in dances, feasts, and speeches. They
entreated La Salle not to advance farther, since the
Illinois, through whose country he must pass, would
be sure to kill him; for, added these friendly counsel-
lors, they hated the French because they had been
11
162 LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES. [1679,
instigating the Iroquois to invade their country.
Here was another subject of anxiety. La Salle was
confirmed in his belief that his busy and unscrupulous
enemies were intriguing for his destruction.
He pushed on, however, circling around the
southern shore of Lake Michigan, till he reached the
mouth of the St. Joseph, called by him the Miamis.
Here Tonty was to have rejoined him with twenty
men, making his way from Michilimackinac along
the eastern shore of the lake ; but the rendezvous was
a solitude, — Tonty was nowhere to be seen. It was
the first of November; winter was at hand, and the
streams would soon be frozen. The men clamored to
go forward, urging that they should starve if they
could not reach the villages of the Illinois before the
tribe scattered for the winter hunt. La Salle was
inexorable. If they should all desert, he said, he,
with his Mohegan hunter and the three friars, would
still remain and wait for Tonty. The men grumbled,
but obeyed; and, to divert their thoughts, he set
them at building a fort of timber on a rising ground
at the mouth of the river.
They had spent twenty days at this task, and their
work was well advanced, when at length Tonty
appeared. He brought with him only half of his
men. Provisions had failed; and the rest of his
party had been left thirty leagues behind, to sustain
themselves by hunting. La Salle told him to return
and hasten them forward. He set out with two
men. A violent north wind arose. He tried to run
1879,] FOREBODINGS. 163
his canoe ashore through the breakers. The two men
could not manage their vessel, and he with his one
Land could not help them. She swamped, rolling
over in the surf. Guns, baggage, and provisions
were lost; and the three voyagers returned to the
Miamis, subsisting on acorns by the way. Happily,
the men left behind, excepting two deserters, sue-'
ceeded, a few days after, in rejoining the party.1
Thus was one heavy load lifted from the heart of La
Salle. But where was the " Griffin" ? Time enough,
and more than enough, had passed for her voyage to
Niagara and back again. He scanned the dreary
horizon with an anxious eye. No returning sail
gladdened the watery solitude, and a dark foreboding
gathered on his heart. Yet further delay was impos-
sible. He sent back two men to Michilimackinac to
meet her, if she still existed, and pilot her to his new
fort of the Miamis, and then prepared to ascend the
river, whose weedy edges were already glassed with
thin flakes of ice.2
1 Hennepin (1683), 112; Relation de Tonty, 1693.
3 The official account of this journey is given at length in the
Relation des Decouvertes et des Voyages du Sieur de la Salle, 1679-1681.
This valuable document, compiled from letters and diaries of La
Salle, early in the year 1682, was known to Hennepin, who evidently
had a copy of it before him when he wrote his book, in which he
incorporated many passages from it.
CHAPTER XII.
1679, 1680.
LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS.
THE ST. JOSEPH. — ADVENTURE OF LA SALLE. — THE PRAIRIES. —
FAMINE. — THE GREAT TOWN OF THE ILLINOIS. — INDIANS. —
INTRIGUES. — DIFFICULTIES. — POLICY OF LA SALLE. — DESER-
TION. — ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO POISON LA SALLE.
ON the third of December the party re-embarked,
thirty -three in all, in eight canoes,1 and ascended the
chill current of the St. Joseph, bordered with dreary
meadows and bare gray forests. When they approached
the site of the present village of South Bend, they
looked anxiously along the shore on their right to
find the portage or path leading to the headquarters
of the Illinois. The Mohegan was absent, hunting;
and, unaided by his practised eye, they passed the
path without seeing it. La Salle landed to search
the woods. Hours passed, and he did not return.
Hennepin and Tonty grew uneasy, disembarked,
bivouacked, ordered guns to be fired, and sent out
men to scour the country. Night came, but not
their lost leader. Muffled in their blankets and
1 Lettre de Duchesneau d , 10 Nov., 1680.
1679.] LA SALLE'S ADVENTURE. 165
powdered by the thick-falling snowflakes, they sat
ruefully speculating as to what had befallen him ; nor
was it till four o'clock of the next afternoon that they
saw him approaching along the margin of the river.
His face and hands were besmirched with charcoal;
and he was further decorated with two opossums
which hung from his belt, and which lie had killed
with a stick as they were swinging head downwards
from the bough of a tree, after the fashion of that
singular beast. He had missed his way in the forest,
and had been forced to make a wide circuit around
the edge of a swamp ; while the snow, of which the
air was full, added to his perplexities. Thus he
pushed on through the rest of the day and the greater
part of the night, till, about two o'clock in the morn-
ing, he reached the river again, and fired his gun as
a signal to his party. Hearing no answering shot,
he pursued his way along the bank, when he presently
saw the gleam of a fire among the dense thickets
close at hand. Not doubting that he had found the
bivouac of his party, he hastened to the spot. To
his surprise, no human being was to be seen. Under
a tree beside the fire was a heap of dry grass impressed
with the form of a man who must have fled but a
moment before, for his couch was still warm. It was
no doubt an Indian, ambushed on the bank, watching
to kill some passing enemy. La Salle called out in
several Indian languages ; but there was dead silence
all around. He then, with admirable coolness, took
possession of the quarters he had found, shouting to
166 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS [1679
their invisible proprietor that he was about to sleep
in his bed; piled a barricade ol bushes around the
spot, rekindled the dying fire, warmed his benumbed
hands, stretched himself on the dried grass, and slept
undisturbed till morning.
The Mohegan had rejoined the party before La
Salle's return, and with his aid the portage was soon
found. Here the party encamped. La Salle, who
was excessively fatigued, occupied, together with
Hennepin, a wigwam covered in the Indian manner
with mats of reeds. The cold forced them to kindle
a fire, which before daybreak set the mats in a blaze ;
and the two sleepers narrowly escaped being burned
along with their hut.
In the morning, the party shouldered their canoes
and baggage and began their march for the sources
of the river Illinois, some five miles distant. Around
them stretched a desolate plain, half-covered with
snow and strewn with the skulls and bones of buffalo ;
while, on its farthest verge, they could see the lodges
of the Miami Indians, who had made this place their
abode. As they filed on their way, a man named
Duplessis, bearing a grudge against La Salle, who
walked just before him, raised his gun to shoot him
through the back, but was prevented by one of his
comrades. They soon reached a spot where the oozy,
saturated soil quaked beneath their tread. All
around were clumps of alder-bushes, tufts of rank
grass, and pools of glistening water. In the midst
a dark and lazy current, which a tall man might
1679.] THE KANKAKEE. 167
"bestride, crept twisting like a snake among the weeds
and rushes. Here were the sources of the Kankakee,
one of the heads of the Illinois.1 They set their
canoes on this thread of water, embarked their bag-
gage and themselves, and pushed down the sluggish
streamlet, looking, at a little distance, like men who
sailed on land. Fed by an unceasing tribute of the
spongy soil, it quickly widened to a river; and they
floated on their way through a voiceless, lifeless
solitude of dreary oak barrens, or boundless marshes
overgrown with reeds. At night, they built their
fire on ground made firm by frost, and bivouacked
among the rushes. A few days brought them to a
more favored region. On the right hand and on the
1 The Kankakee was called at this time the Theakiki, or Haukiki
(Marest) ; a name which, a Oharlevoix says, ".vas afterwards cor-
rupted by the French to Kiakiki whenc^, probably, its present
form. In La Salle's time, the name " Theakiki " was iven to the
river Illinois through all its course. It was also called the Riviere
Seignelay, the Riviere des Macopins, and the Rivier^ Divine, or
Riviere de la Divine. The latter name, when Charlevoix visited
the country in 1721, was confined to the northern branch. He give>»
an interesting and somewhat graphic account . f the portage ana
the sources of the Kankakee, in his letter dated De la Source du
Theakiki, ce dix-sept Septembre, 1721.
Why the Illinois should ever have been called the " Divine," it
is not easy to see. The Memoirs of St. Simon suggest an explana-
tion. Madame de Frontenac and her friend Mademoiselle d'Outre-
laise, he tells us, lived together in apartments at the Arsenal, where
they held their salon and exercised a great power in society. They
were called at court les Divines. (St. Simon, v. 335 : Cheruel.) In
compliment to Frontenac, the river may have been named after his
wife or her friend. The suggestion is due to M. Margry. I have
seen a map by Raudin, Frontenac's engineer, on which the river ia
called " Riviere de la Divine ou 1'Outrelaise."
168 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1679.
left stretched the boundless prairie, dotted with
leafless grovec and bordered by gray wintry forests,
scorched by the fires kindled in the dried grass by
Indian hunters, and strewn with the carcasses and
the bleached skulls of innumerable buffalo. The
plains were scored with their pathways, and the,
.muddy edges of the river were full of their hoof-
prints. Yet not one was to be seen. At night, the
horizon glowed with distant fires; and by day the
savage hunters could be descried at times roaming
on the verge of the prairie. The men, discontented
and half-starved, would have deserted to them had
they dared. La Salle's Mohegan could kill no game
except two lean deer, with a few wild geese and
swans. At length, in their straits, they made a
happy discovery. It was a buffalo bull, fast mired
in a slough. They killed him, lashed a cable about
him, and then twelve men dragged out the shaggy
monster, whose ponderous carcass demanded their
utmost efforts.
The scene changed again as they descended. On
either hand ran ranges of woody hills, following the
course of the river; and when they mounted to their
tops, they saw beyond them a, rolling sea of dull green
prairie, a boundless pasture of ohc buffalo and the
deer, in our own day strangely transformed, — yellow
in harvest-time with ripened wheat, and dotted with
the roofs of a hardy and valiant yeomanry.1
1 The change is very recent. Within the memory of men not
yet old, wolves and deer, besides wild swans, wild turkeys, cranes,
1679.] THE ILLINOIS TOWN. 169
They passed the site of the future town of Ottawa,
and saw on their right the high plateau of Buffalo
Rock, long a favorite dwelling-place of Indians. A
league below, the river glided among islands bordered
with stately woods. Close on their left towered a
lofty cliff,1 crested with trees that overhung the
rippling current; while before them spread the valley
of the Illinois, in broad low meadows, bordered on the
right by the graceful hills at whose foot now lies the
Tillage of Utica. A population far more numerous
then tenanted the valley. Along the right bank of
the river were clustered the lodges of a great Indian
town. Hennepin counted four hundred and sixty of
them.2 In shape, they were somewhat like the
a ad pelicans, abounded in this region. In 1840, a friend of mine
shot a deer from the window of a farmhouse, near the present town
of La Salle. Running wolves on horseback was his favorite amuse-
ment in this part of the country. The buffalo long ago disappeared ;
bat the early settlers found frequent remains of them. Mr. James
Clark, of Utica, 111., told me that he once found a large quantity of
their bones and skulls in one place, as if a herd had perished in the
snowdrifts.
1 " Starved Rock." It will hold, hereafter, a conspicuous place
in the narrative.
2 La Louisiane, 137. Allouez (Relation, 1673-79) found three
hundred and fifty-one lodges. This was in 1677. The population
of this town, which embraced five or six distinct tribes of the Illi-
nois, was continually changing. In 1675, Marquette addressed here
an auditory composed of five hundred chiefs and old men, and fif-
teen hundred young men, besides women and children. He estimates
the number of fires at five or six hundred. (Voyages du Pere Mar-
qnette, 98: Lenox.) Membre', who was here in 1680, says that it
then contained seven or eight thousand souls. (Membre in Le"
Clerc, Premier jZtablissement de la Foy, ii. 173.) On the remarkable
manuscript map of Franquelin, 1684, it is set down at twelve him-
170 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1679.
arched top of a baggage-wagon. They were built of
a frame-work of poles, covered with mats of rushes
closely interwoven ; and each contained three or four
fires, of which the greater part served for two
families.
Here, then, was the town; but where were the
inhabitants? All was silent as the desert. The
lodges were empty, the fires dead, and the ashes
cold. La Salle had expected this ; for he knew that
in the autumn the Illinois always left their towns for
their winter hunting, and that the time of their
return had not yet come. Yet he was not the less
dred warriors, or about six thousand souls. This was after the
destructive inroad of the Iroquois. Some years later, Rasle reported
upwards of twenty-four hundred families. (Lettre a son Frere, in
Lettres Edifiantes.)
At times, nearly the whole Illinois population was gathered
here. At other times, the several tribes that composed it separated,
some dwelling apart from the rest ; so that at one period the Illinois
formed eleven villages, while at others they were gathered into two,
of which this was much the larger. The meadows around it were
extensively cultivated, yielding large crops, chiefly of Indian corn.
The lodges were built along the river-bank for a distance of a mile,
and sometimes far more. In their shape, though not in their mate-
rial, they resembled those of the Hurons. There were no palisades
or embankments.
This neighborhood abounds in Indian relics. The village grave-
yard appears to have been on a rising ground, near the river imme-
diately in front of the town of Utica. This is the only part of the
river bottom, from this point to the Mississippi, not liable to inun-
dation in the spring floods. It now forms part of a farm occupied
by a tenant of Mr. James Clark. Both Mr. Clark and his tenant
informed me that every year great quantities of human bones and
teeth were turned up here by the plough. Many implements of
stone are also found, together with beads and other ornaments ot
Indian and European fabric.
1680.] HUNGER RELIEVED. 171
embarrassed, for he would fain have bought a supply
of food to relieve his famished followers. Some of
them, searching the deserted town, presently found
the caches, or covered pits, in which the Indians hid
their stock of corn. This was precious beyond
measure in their eyes, and to touch it would be a
deep offence. La Salle shrank from provoking their
anger, which might prove the ruin of his plans; but
iris necessity overcame his prudence, and he took
thirty minots of corn, hoping to appease the owners by
presents. Thus provided, the party embarked again,
and resumed their downward voyage.
On New Year's Day, 1680, they landed and heard
mass. Then Hennepin wished a happy new year to
La Salle first, and afterwards to all the men, making
them a speech, which, as he tells us, was "most
touching." l He and his two brethren next embraced
the whole company in turn, "in a manner," writes
the father, "most tender and affectionate," exhorting
them, at the same time, to patience, faith, and con-
stancy. Four days after these solemnities, they
reached the long expansion of the river then called
Pindtoui, and now known as Peoria Lake, and
leisurely made their way downward to the site of the
city of Peoria.2 Here, as evening drew near, they
1 ''Les paroles les plus touchantes." — Hennepin (1683), 139.
The later editions add the modest qualification, " que je pus."
2 Peoria was the name of one of the tribes of the Illinois. Hen-
nepin's dates here do not exactly agree with those of La Salle
(Lett>e c?u29 Sept., 1680), who says that they were at the Illinois
village on the first of January, and at Peoria Lake on the fifth.
172 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1680.
saw a faint spire of smoke curling above the gray
forest, betokening that Indians were at hand. La
Salle, as we have seen, had been warned that these
tribes had been taught to regard him as their enemy;
and when, in the morning, he resumed his course, he
was prepared alike for peace or war.
The shores now approached each other; and the
Illinois was once more a river, bordered on either
hand with overhanging woods.1
At nine o'clock, doubling a point, he saw about
eighty Illinois wigwams, on both sides of the river.
He instantly ordered the eight canoes to be ranged
in line, abreast, across the stream, — Tonty on the
right, and he himself on the left. The men laid
down their paddles and seized their weapons ; while,
in this warlike guise, the current bore them swiftly
into the midst of the surprised and astounded savages.
The camps were in a panic. Warriors whooped and
howled; squaws and children screeched in chorus.
Some snatched their bows and war-clubs; some ran
in terror; and, in the midst of the hubbub, La Salle
leaped ashore, followed by his men. None knew
better how to deal with Indians; and he made no
sign of friendship, knowing that it might be construed
as a token of fear. His little knot of Frenchmen
stood, gun in hand, passive, yet prepared for battle.
1 At least, it is so now at this place. Perhaps, in La Salle's time,
it was not wholly so ; for there is evidence, in various parts of the
West, that the forest has made considerable encroachments on the
open country.
1C80.] ILLINOIS HOSPITALITY. 173
The Indians, on their part, rallying a little from their
fright, made all haste to proffer peace. Two of their
chiefs came forward, holding out the calumet; while
another began a loud harangue, to check the young
warriors who were aiming their arrows from the
farther bank. La Salle, responding to these friendly
overtures, displayed another calumet ; while Hennepin
caught several scared children and soothed them with
winning blandishments.1 The uproar was quelled;
and the strangers were presently seated in the midst
of the camp, beset by a throng of wild and swarthy
figures.
Food was placed before them; and, as the Illinois
code of courtesy enjoined, their entertainers conveyed
the morsels with their own hands to the lips of these
unenviable victims of their hospitality, while others
rubbed their feet with bear's grease. La Salle, on
his part, made them a gift of tobacco and hatchets ;
and when he had escaped from their caresses, rose
and harangued them. He told them that he had
been forced to take corn from their granaries, lest his
mo,n should die of hunger; but he prayed them not
to be offended, promising full restitution or ample
payment. He had come, he said, to protect them
against their enemies, and teach them to pray to the
true God. As for the Iroquois, they were subjects
of the Great King, and therefore brethren of the
French; yet, nevertheless, should they begin a war
and invade the country of the Illinois, he would
i Hennepin (1683), 142.
174 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1680.
stand by them, give them guns, and fight in their
defence, if they would permit him to build a fort
among them for the security of his men. It was
also, he added, his purpose to build a great wooden
canoe, in which to descend the Mississippi to the sea,
and then return, bringing them the goods of which
they stood in need; but if they would not consent to
his plans and sell provisions to his men, he would
pass on to the Osages, who would then reap all the
benefits of intercourse with the French, while they
were left destitute, at the mercy of the Iroquois.1
This threat had its effect, for it touched their
deep-rooted jealousy of the Osages. They were
lavish of promises, and feasts and dances consumed
the day. Yet La Salle soon learned that the
intrigues of his enemies were still pursuing him.
That evening, unknown to him, a stranger appeared
in the Illinois camp. He was a Mascoutin chief,
named Monso, attended by five or six Miamis, and
bringing a gift of knives, hatchets, and kettles to the
Illinois.2 The chiefs assembled in a secret nocturnal
session, where, smoking their pipes, they listened
with open ears to the harangue of the envoys. Monso
told them that he had come in behalf of certain
Frenchmen, whom he named, to warn his hearers
against the designs of La Salle, whom he denounced
1 Hennepin (1683), 144-149. The later editions omit a part of
the above.
2 " Un sauvage, nomme Monso, qui vent dire Chevreuil." — La
Salle. Probably Monso is a misprint for Mouso, as mousoa is Illi«
nois for chevreuil, or deer.
1680.] FRESH INTRIGUES. 175
as a partisan and spy of the Iroquois, affirming that
he was now on his way to stir up the tribes beyond
the Mississippi to join in a war against the Illinois,
who, thus assailed from the east and from the west,
would be utterly destroyed. There was no hope for
them, he added, but in checking the farther progress
of La Salle, or, at least, retarding it, thus causing
his men to desert him. Having thrown his firebrand,
Monso and his party left the camp in haste, dreading
to be confronted with the object of their aspersions.1
In the morning, La Salle saw a change in the
behavior of his hosts. They looked on him askance,
cold, sullen, and suspicious. There was one Omawha,
a chief, whose favor he had won the day before by
the politic gift of two hatchets and three knives, and
who now came to him in secret to tell him what had
taken place at the nocturnal council. La Salle at
once saw in it a device of his enemies; and this
belief was confirmed, when, in the afternoon,
Nicanope*, brother of the head chief, sent to invite
the Frenchmen to a feast. They repaired to his
lodge ; but before dinner was served, — that is to
say, while the guests, white and red, were seated on
1 Hennepin (1683), 151, (1704), 205; Le Clerc, ii. 157; Memoire
du Voyage de M. de la Salle. This is a paper appended to Fronte-
nac's Letter to the Minister, 9 Nov., 1680. Hennepin prints a trans-
lation of it in the English edition of his later work. It charges the
J esuit Allouez with being at the bottom of the intrigue. Compare
Lettre de La Salle, 29 Sept., 1680 (Margry, ii. 41), and Memoire de
La Salle, in Thomassy, Geologie Pratique de la Louisiane, 203.
The account of the affair of Monso, in the spurious work bear-
ing Tonty's name, is mere romance-
176 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1680.
mats, each with his hunting-knife in his hand, and
the wooden bowl before him which was to receive his
share of the bear's or buffalo's meat, or the corn
boiled in fat, with which he was to be regaled, —
while such was the posture of the company, their
host arose and began a long speech. He told the
Frenchmen that he had invited them to his lodge
less to refresh their bodies with good cheer than to
cure their minds of the dangerous purpose which
possessed them, of descending the Mississippi. Its
shores, he said, were beset by savage tribes, against
whose numbers and ferocity their valor would avail
nothing; its waters were infested by serpents, alli-
gators, and unnatural monsters; while the river
itself, after raging among rocks and whirlpools,
plunged headlong at last into a fathomless gulf,
which would swallow them and their vessel forever.
La Salle's men were for the most part raw hands,
knowing nothing of the wilderness, and easily
alarmed at its dangers; but there were two among
them, old coureurs de lois, who unfortunately knew
too much; for they understood the Indian orator,
and explained his speech to the rest. As La Salle
looked around on the circle of his followers, he read
an augury of fresh trouble in their disturbed and
rueful visages. He waited patiently, however, till
the speaker had ended, and then answered him,
through his interpreter, with great composure.
First, he thanked him for the friendly warning which
his affection had impelled him to utter; but, he con-
1(180.] LA SALLE AND THE INDIANS. 177
tinned, the greater the danger, the greater the honor;
and even if the danger were real, Frenchmen would
never flinch from it. But were not the Illinois
jealous ? Had they not been deluded by lies ? " We
were not asleep, my brother, when Monso came to
tell you, under cover of night, that we were spies of
the Iroquois^ The presents he gave you, that you
might believe his falsehoods, are at this moment
buried in the earth under this lodge. If he told the
tmth, why did he skulk away in the dark? Why
did he not show himself by day? Do you not see
that when we first came among you, and your camp
was all in confusion, we could have killed you with-
out needing help from the Iroquois? And now,
while I am speaking, could we not put your old men
to death, while your young warriors are all gone
away to hunt? If we meant to make war on you, we
should need no help from the Iroquois, who have so
often felt the force of our arms. Look at what we
have brought you. It is not weapons to destroy you,
but merchandise and tools for your good. If you
still harbor evil thoughts of us, be frank as we are,
and speak them boldly. Go after this impostor
Monso, and bring him back, that we may answer
him face to face ; for he never saw either us or the
Iroquois, and what can he know of the plots that he
pretends to reveal?"1 Nicanope* had nothing to
1 The above is a paraphrase, with some condensation, from
Hennepin, whose account is substantially identical with that of La
Salle.
12
178 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1680.
reply, and, grunting assent in the depths of his
throat, made a sign that the feast should proceed.
The French were lodged in huts, near the Indian
camp; and, fearing treachery, La Salle placed a
guard at night. On the morning after the feast, he
came out into the frosty air and looked about him for
the sentinels. Not one of them was to be seen.
Vexed and alarmed, he entered hut after hut and
roused his drowsy followers. Six of the number,
including two of the best carpenters, were nowhere
to be found. Discontented and mutinous from the
first, and now terrified by the fictions of Nicanope*,
they had deserted, preferring the hardships of the
midwinter forest to the mysterious terrors of the
Mississippi. La Salle mustered the rest before him,
and inveighed sternly against the cowardice and
baseness of those who had thus abandoned him,
regardless of his many favors. If any here, he added,
are afraid, let them but wait till the spring, and they
shall have free leave to return to Canada, safely and
without dishonor.1
This desertion cut him to the heart. It showed
him that he was leaning on a broken reed; and he
felt that, on an enterprise full of doubt and peril,
there were scarcely four men in his party whom he
could trust. Nor was desertion the worst he had to
fear; for here, as at Fort Frontenac, an attempt was
made to kill him. Tonty tells us that poison was
i Hennepin (1683), 162. Declaration faite par Moyse Hillaret,
charpentier de barque, cy devant au service du Sr- de la Satte.
1680.] LA SALLE AGAIN POISONED. 179
placed in the pot in which their food was cooked,
;ind that La Salle was saved by an antidote which
Home of his friends had given him before he left
France. This, it will be remembered, was an epoch
of poisoners. It was in the following month that the
notorious La Voisin was burned alive, at Paris, for
practices to which many of the highest nobility were
charged with being privy, not excepting some in
whose veins ran the blood of the gorgeous spendthrift
who ruled the destinies of France.1
In these early French enterprises in the West, it
was to the last degree difficult to hold men to their
duty. Once fairly in the wilderness, completely
freed from the sharp restraints of authority in which
they had passed their lives, a spirit of lawlessness
broke out among them with a violence proportioned
to the pressure which had hitherto controlled it.
Discipline had no resources and no guarantee ; while
those outlaws of the forest, the coureurs de bois, were
always before their eyes, a standing example of
unbridled license. La Salle, eminently skilful in his
dealings with Indians, was rarely so happy with his
own countrymen ; and yet the desertions from which
he was continually suffering were due far more to
the inevitable difficulty of his position than to any
want of conduct on his part.
1 The equally noted Brinvilliers was burned four years before.
An account of both will be found in the Letters of Madame de
Sevigne. The memoirs of the time abound in evidence of the
frightful prevalence of these practices, and the commotion which
they excited in all ranks of society.
CHAPTER XIII.
1680.
FORT CRfcVECCEUR.
BUILDING OP THE FORT. — Loss or THE "GRIFFIN." — A BOLD
RESOLUTION. — ANOTHER VESSEL. — HENNEPIN SENT TO THE
MISSISSIPPI. — DEPARTURE OF LA SALLE.
LA SALLE now resolved to leave the Indian camp,
and fortify himself for the winter in a strong position,
where his men would be less exposed to dangerous
influence, and where he could hold his ground
against an outbreak of the Illinois or an Iroquois
invasion. At the middle of January, a thaw broke
up the ice which had closed the river ; and he set out
in a canoe, with Hennepin, to visit the site he had
chosen for his projected fort. It was half a league
below the camp, on a low hill or knoll, two hundred
yards from the southern bank. On either side was a
deep ravine, and in front a marshy tract, overflowed
at high water. Thither, then, the party was removed.
They dug a ditch behind the hill, connecting the two
ravines, and thus completely isolating it. The hill
was nearly square in form. An embankment of
earth was thrown up on every side: its declivities
1680.] BUILDING OF THE FORT. 181
were sloped steeply down to the bottom of the ravines
and the ditch, and further guarded by chevaux-de-
frise; while a palisade, twenty-five feet high, was
planted around the whole. The lodgings of the
men, built of musket-proof timber, were at two of
the angles ; the house of the friars at the third ; the
forge and magazine at the fourth; and the tents of
La Salle and Tonty in the area within.
Hennepin laments the failure of wine, which
prevented him from saying mass ; but every morning
and evening he summoned the men to his cabin to
listen to prayers and preaching, and on Sundays and
f^te-days they chanted vespers. Father Zenobe
usually spent the day in the Indian camp, striving,
with very indifferent success, to win them to the
Faith, and to overcome the disgust with which their
manners and habits inspired him.
Such was the first civilized occupation of the region
which now forms the State of Illinois. La Salle
christened his new fort Fort Cr£vecoeur. The name
tolls of disaster and suffering, but does no justice to
the iron-hearted constancy of the sufferer. Up to
tliis time he had clung to the hope that his vessel,
the "Griffin," might still be safe. Her safety was
vital to his enterprise. She had on board articles of
the last necessity to him, including the rigging and
anchors of another vessel which he was to build at
Fort Cr£vecoeur, in order to descend the Mississippi
and sail thence to the West Indies. But now his
last hope had well-nigh vanished. Past all reasonable
182 FORT CR&VECCEUR. [1680.
doubt, the " Griffin " was lost; and in her loss he and
all his plans seemed ruined alike.
Nothing, indeed, was ever heard of her. Indians,
fur-traders, and even Jesuits, have been charged
with contriving her destruction. Some say that the
Ottawas boarded and burned her, after murdering
those on board; others accuse the Pottawattamies ;
others affirm that her own crew scuttled and sunk
her; others, again, that she foundered in a storm.1
As for La Salle, the belief grew in him to a settled
conviction that she had been treacherously sunk by
the pilot and the sailors to whom he had intrusted
her; and he thought he had found evidence that the
authors of the crime, laden with the merchandise
they had taken from her, had reached the Mississippi
and ascended it, hoping to join Du Lhut, a famous
chief of coureurs de lois, and enrich themselves by
traffic with the northern tribes.2
1 Charlevoix, i. 459 ; La Potherie, ii. 140 ; La Hontan, Memoir on
the Fur-Trade of Canada. I am indebted for a copy of this paper
to "Winthrop Sargent, Esq., who purchased the original at the sale of
the library of the poet Southey. Like Hennepin, La Hontan went
over to the English ; and this memoir is written in their interest.
2 Lettre de La Salle a La Barre, Chicagou, 4 Juin, 1683. This is a
long letter, addressed to the successor of Frontenac in the govern-
ment of Canada. La Salle says that a young Indian belonging to
him told him that three years before he saw a white man, answering
the description of the pilot, a prisoner among a tribe beyond the
Mississippi. He had been captured with four others on that river,
while making his way with canoes, laden with goods, towards the
Sioux. His companions had been killed. Other circumstances,
which La Salle details at great length, convinced him that the white
prisoner was no other than the pilot of the " Griffin." The evi-
dence, however, is not conclusive.
1680.] LA SALLE'S ANXIETIES. 183
But whether her lading was swallowed in the
depths of the lake, or lost in the clutches of traitors,
the evil was alike past remedy. She was gone, it
mattered little how. The main-stay of the enterprise
was broken ; yet its inflexible chief lost neither heart
nor hope. One path, beset with hardships and
terrors, still lay open to him. He might return on
foot to Fort Frontenac, and bring thence the needful
succors.
La Salle felt deeply the dangers of such a step.
His men were uneasy, discontented, and terrified by
the stories with which the jealous Illinois still con-
stantly filled their ears, of the whirlpools and the
monsters of the Mississippi. He dreaded lest, in his
absence, they should follow the example of their
comrades, and desert. In the midst of his anxieties,
a lucky accident gave him the means of disabusing
them. He was hunting, one day, near the fort,
when he met a young Illinois on his way home, half-
starved, from a distant war excursion. He had been
absent so long that he knew nothing of what had
passed between his countrymen and the French. La
Salle gave him a turkey he had shot, invited him to
the fort, fed him, and made him presents. Having
thus warmed his heart, he questioned him, with
apparent carelessness, as to the countries he had
visited, and especially as to the Mississippi, — on
which the young warrior, seeing no reason to disguise
the truth, gave him all the information he required.
La Salle now made him the present of a hatchet, to
184 FORT CR^VECCEUR. [1680.
engage him to say nothing of what had passed, and,
leaving him in excellent humor, repaired, with some
of his followers, to the Illinois camp. Here he found
the chiefs seated at a feast of bear's meat, and he
took his place among them on a mat of rushes. After
a pause, he charged them with having deceived him
in regard to the Mississippi; adding that he knew
the river perfectly, having been instructed concern-
ing it by the Master of Life. He then described it
to them with so much accuracy that his astonished
hearers, conceiving that he owed his knowledge to
"medicine," or sorcery, clapped their hands to their
mouths in sign of wonder, and confessed that all
they had said was but an artifice, inspired by their
earnest desire that he should remain among them.1
On this, La Salle's men took heart again; and their
courage rose still more when, soon after, a band of
Chickasa, Arkansas, and Osage warriors, from the
Mississippi, came to the camp on a friendly visit,
and assured the French not only that the river was
navigable to the sea, but that the tribes along its
banks would give them a warm welcome.
La Salle had now good reason to hope that his
followers would neither mutiny nor desert in his
absence. One chief purpose of his intended journey
was to procure the anchors, cables, and rigging of
1 Relation des Decouvertes et des Voyages du Sr- de la Salle, Sei-
gneur et Gouverneur du Fort de Frontenac, au dela des grana~s Lacs de
la Nouvelle France, faits par ordre de Monseigneur Colbert, 1679, 80
et 81. Hennepin gives a story which is not essentially differept,
except that he makes himself a conspicuous actor in it.
1880.] ANOTHER VESSEL. 185
the vessel which he meant to build at Fort Crevecoeur,
and he resolved to see her on the stocks before he set
out. This was no easy matter, for the pit-sawyers
had deserted. "Seeing," he writes, "that I should
lose a year if I waited to get others from Montreal,
I said one day, before my people, that I was so
vexed to find that the absence of two sawyers would
defeat my plans and make all my trouble useless,
tliat I was resolved to try to saw the planks myself,
if I could find a single man who would help me with
a will." Hereupon, two men stepped forward and
promised to do their best. They were tolerably
successful, and, the rest being roused to emulation,
the work went on with such vigor that within six
weeks the hull of the vessel was half finished. She
was of forty tons' burden, and was built with high
bulwarks, to protect those on board from Indian
arrows.
La Salle now bethought him that, in his absence,
lie might get from Hennepin service of more value
than his sermons ; and he requested him to descend
the Illinois, and explore it to its mouth. The friar,
though hardy and daring, would fain have excused
himself, alleging a troublesome bodily infirmity; but
Ms venerable colleague Ribourde, himself too old for
the journey, urged him to go, telling him that if he
died by the way, his apostolic labors would redound
to the glory of God. Membrd had been living for
some time in the Indian camp, and was thoroughly
out of humor with the objects of his missionary
186 FORT CRfcVECCEUR. [1680.
efforts, of whose obduracy and filth he bitterly com-
plained. Hennepin proposed to take his place, while
he should assume the Mississippi adventure ; but this
Membra* declined, preferring to remain where he was.
Hennepin now reluctantly accepted the proposed
task. "Anybody but me," he says, with his usual
modesty, " would have been very much frightened at
the dangers of such a journey; and, in fact, if I had
not placed all my trust in God, I should not have
been the dupe of the Sieur de la Salle, who exposed
my life rashly."1
On the last day of February, Hennepin's canoe
lay at the water's edge ; and the party gathered on
the bank to bid him farewell. He had two com-
panions, — Michel Accau, and a man known as the
Picard du Gay,2 though his real name was Antoine
Auguel. The canoe was well laden with gifts for
the Indians, — tobacco, knives, beads, awls, and
other goods, to a very considerable value, supplied
at La Salle's cost; "and, in fact," observes Hennepin,
"he is liberal enough towards his friends."3
1 All the above is from Hennepin ; and it seems to be marked by
his characteristic egotism. It appears, from La Salle's letters, that
Accau was the real chief of the party ; that their orders were to
explore not only the Illinois, but also a part of the Mississippi ; and
that Hennepin volunteered to go with the others. Accau was
chosen because he spoke several Indian languages.
2 An eminent writer has mistaken " Picard " for a personal
name. Du Gay was called " Le Picard," because he came from the
province of Picardy.
8 (1683), 188. This commendation is suppressed in the later
editions.
1380.] DEPARTURE OF HENNEPIN. 1ST
The friar bade farewell to La Salle, and embraced
all the rest in turn. Father Ribourde gave him his
benediction. "Be of good courage and let your
heart be comforted," said the excellent old missionary,
as he spread his hands in benediction over the shaven
crown of the reverend traveller. Du Gay and Accau
plied their paddles; the canoe receded, and vanished
at; length behind the forest. We will follow Hennepin
hereafter on his adventures, imaginary and real.
Meanwhile, we will trace the footsteps of his chief,
urging his way, in the storms of winter, through
those vast and gloomy wilds, — those realms of
famine, treachery, and death, — that lay betwixt him
and his far-distant goal of Fort Frontenac.
On the first of March,1 before the frost was yet out
of the ground, when the forest was still leafless, and
the oozy prairies still patched with snow, a band of
discontented men were again gathered on the shore
for another leave-taking. Hard by, the unfinished
ship lay on the stocks, white and fresh from the saw
and axe, ceaselessly reminding them of the hardship
and peril that was in store. Here you would have
seen the calm, impenetrable face of La Salle, and
with him the Mohegan hunter, who seems to have
felt towards him that admiring attachment which he
could always inspire in his Indian retainers. Besides
the Mohegan, four Frenchmen were to accompany
him, — Hunaut, La Violette, Collin, and Dautray.2
1 Tonty erroneously places their departure on the twenty-second
'•* Declaration faite par Moyse Hillaret, charpentier de barque.
188 FORT CREVECCEUR. [1680.
His parting with Tonty was an anxious one, for each
well knew the risks that environed both. Embark-
ing with his followers in two canoes, he made his
way upward amid the drifting ice ; while the faithful
Italian, with two or three honest men and twelve or
thirteen knaves, remained to hold Fort Crdvecceur
in his absence.
CHAPTER XIV.
1680.
HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE.
THE WINTER JOURNEY. — THE DESERTED TOWN. — STARVED
ROCK. — LAKE MICHIGAN. — THE WILDERNESS. — WAR PARTIES.
— LA SALLE'S MEN GIVE OUT. — ILL TIDINGS. — MUTINY.—
CHASTISEMENT OP THE MUTINEERS.
LA SALLE well knew what was before him, and
nothing but necessity spurred him to this desperate
journey. He says that he could trust nobody else to
go in his stead, and that unless the articles lost in
the " Griffin " were replaced without delay, the expe-
dition would be retarded a full year, and he and his
associates consumed by its expenses. "Therefore,"
he writes to one of them, "though the thaws of
approaching spring greatly increased the difficulty of
th(s way, interrupted as it was everywhere by marshes
and rivers, to say nothing of the length of the jour-
ney, which is about five hundred leagues in a direct
line, and the danger of meeting Indians of four or
five different nations through whose country we were
to pass, as well as an Iroquois army which we knew
was coming that way ; though we must suffer all the
190 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.
time from hunger; sleep on the open ground, and
often without food; watch by night and march by
day, loaded with baggage, such as blanket, clothing,
kettle, hatchet, gun, powder, lead, and skins to make
moccasins; sometimes pushing through thickets,
sometimes climbing rocks covered with ice and snow,
sometimes wading whole days through marshes where
the water was waist-deep or even more, at a season
when the snow was not entirely melted, — though I
knew all this, it did not prevent me from resolving
to go on foot to Fort Frontenac, to learn for myself
what had become of my vessel, and bring back the
things we needed."1
The winter had been a severe one ; and when, an
hour after leaving the fort, he and his companions
reached the still water of Peoria Lake, they found it
sheeted with ice from shore to shore. They carried
their canoes up the bank, made two rude sledges,
placed the light vessels upon them, and dragged them
to the upper end of the lake, where they encamped.
In the morning they found the river still covered
with ice, too weak to bear them and too strong to
permit them to break a way for the canoes. They
spent the whole day in carrying them through the
woods, toiling knee-deep in saturated snow. Rain
fell in floods, and they took shelter at night in a
deserted Indian hut.
In the morning, the third of March, they dragged
1 Lettre de La Salle a un de ses associes (Thouret7), 29 Sept.,
1680 (Margry, ii. 50).
1680.] THE DESERTED TOWN. 191
their canoes half a league farther; then launched
them, and, breaking the ice with clubs and hatchets,
forced their way slowly up the stream. Again their
progress was barred, and again they took to the
woods, toiling onward till a tempest of moist, half-
liquid snow forced them to bivouac for the night. A
sharp frost followed, and in the morning the white
waste around them was glazed with a dazzling crust.
Now, for the first time, they could use their snow-
shoes. Bending to their work, dragging their canoes,
which glided smoothly over the polished surface,
they journeyed on hour after hour and league after
league, till they reached at length the great town of
the Illinois, still void of its inhabitants.1
It was a desolate and lonely scene, — the river
gliding dark and cold between its banks of rushes ;
the empty lodges, covered with crusted snow; the
vast white meadows ; the distant cliffs, bearded with
shining icicles; and the hills wrapped in forests,
which glittered from afar with the icy incrustations
that cased each frozen twig. Yet there was life in
the savage landscape. The men saw buffalo wading
in the snow, and they killed one of them. Morg
than this: they discovered the tracks of moccasins,
They cut rushes by the edge of the river, piled them
on the bank, and set them on fire, that the smoke
might attract the eyes of savages roaming near.
1 Membrfc says that he was in the town at the time ; but this
could hardly have been the case. He was, in all probability, among
the Illinois, in their camp near Fort Crevecoeur.
192 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680
On the following day, while the hunters were
smoking the meat of the buffalo, La Salle went out
to reconnoitre, and presently met three Indians, one
of whom proved to be Chassagoac, the principal chief
of the Illinois.1 La Salle brought them to his
bivouac, feasted them, gave them a red blanket, a
kettle, and some knives and hatchets, made friends
with them, promised to restrain the Iroquois from
attacking them, told them that he was on his way to
the settlements to bring arms and ammunition to
defend them against their enemies, and, as the result
of these advances, gained from the chief a promise
that he would send provisions to Tonty's party at
Fort Crevecoeur.
After several days spent at the deserted town, La
Salle prepared to resume his journey. Before his
departure, his attention was attracted to the remark-
able cliff of yellow sandstone, now called Starved
Rock, a mile or more above the village, — a natural
fortress, which a score of resolute white men might
make good against a host of savages; and he soon
afterwards sent Tonty an order to examine it, and
make it his stronghold in case of need.2
On the fifteenth the party set out again, carried
1 The same whom Hennepin calls Chassagouasse. He was
brother of the chief, Nicanope, who, in his absence, had feasted
the French on the day after the nocturnal council with Monso.
Chassagoac was afterwards baptized by Membre or Ribourde, but
soon relapsed into the superstitions of his people, and died, as the
former tells us, " doubly a child of perdition." See Le Clerc, ii. 181.
2 Tonty, Memoire. The order was sent by two Frenchmen, whom
La Salle met on Lake Michigan.
1380.] LA SALLE'S JOURNEY. 198
their canoes along the bank of the river as far as the
rapids above Ottawa, then launched them and pushed
their way upward, battling with the floating ice,
which, loosened by a warm rain, drove down the
swollen current in sheets. On the eighteenth they
reached a point some miles below the site of Joliet.
and here found the river once more completely
closed. Despairing of farther progress by water,
they hid their canoes on an island, and struck across
the country for Lake Michigan.
It was the worst of all seasons for such a journey.
The nights were cold, but the sun was warm at noon,
and the half-thawed prairie was one vast tract of
mud, water, and discolored, half -liquid snow. On
the twenty-second they crossed marshes and inun-
dated meadows, wading to the knee, till at noon
they were stopped by a river, perhaps the Calumet.
They made a raft of hard- wood timber, for there was
no other, and shoved themselves across. On the next
day they could see Lake Michigan dimly glimmering
l>eyond the waste of woods; and, after crossing three
swollen streams, they reached it at evening. On
the twenty-fourth they followed its shore, till, at
nightfall, they arrived at the fort which they had
built in the autumn at the mouth of the St. Joseph.
Here La Salle found Chapelle and Leblanc, the two
men whom he had sent from hence to Michilimackiriac,
in search of the " Griffin." l They reported that they
had made the circuit of the lake, and had neither
1 Declaration de Moyse Hillaret; Relation des Decouvertes.
13
194 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.
seen her nor heard tidings of her. Assured of her
fate, he ordered them to rejoin Tonty at Fort
Crdvecceur; while he pushed onward with his party
through the unknown wild of Southern Michigan.
''The rain," says La Salle, "which lasted all day,
and the raft we were obliged to make to cross the
river, stopped us till noon of the twenty-fifth, when
we continued our march through the woods, which
was so interlaced with thorns and brambles that in
two days and a half our clothes were all torn, and
our faces so covered with blood that we hardly knew
each other. On the twenty-eighth we found the
woods more open, and began to fare better, meeting
a good deal of game, which after this rarely failed
us ; so that we no longer carried provisions with us,
but made a meal of roast meat wherever we happened
to kill a deer, bear, or turkey. These are the choicest
feasts on a journey like this; and till now we had
generally gone without them, so that we had often
walked all day without breakfast.
" The Indians do not hunt in this region, which is
debatable ground between five or six nations who are
at war, and, being afraid of each other, do not
venture into these parts except to surprise each other,
and always with the greatest precaution and all
possible secrecy. The reports of our guns and the
carcasses of the animals we killed soon led some of
them to find our trail. In fact, on the evening of the
twenty-eighth, having made our fire by the edge of a
prairie, we were surrounded by them; but as the
1630.] INDIAN ALARMS. 195
man on guard waked us, and we posted ourselves
behind trees with our guns, these savages, who are
called Wapoos, took us for Iroquois, and thinking
that there must be a great many of us because we
did not travel secretly, as they do when in small
bands, they ran off without shooting their arrows,
and gave the alarm to their comrades, so that we
wore two days without meeting anybody."
La Salle guessed the cause of their fright; and, in
order to confirm their delusion, he drew with char-
coal, on the trunks of trees from which he had
stripped the bark, the usual marks of an Iroquois
war-party, with signs for prisoners and for scalps,
after the custom of those dreaded warriors. This
ingenious artifice, as will soon appear, was near prov-
ing the destruction of the whole party. He also set
fire to the dry grass of the prairies over which he and
his men had just passed, thus destroying the traces
of their passage. "We practised this device every
night, and it answered very well so long as we were
passing over an open country; but on the thirtieth
we got into great marshes, flooded by the thaws, and
were obliged to cross them in mud or water up to
tho waist; so that our tracks betrayed us to a band
of Mascoutins who were out after Iroquois. They
followed us through these marshes during the three
days we were crossing them ; but we made no fire at
night, contenting ourselves with taking off our wet
clothes and wrapping ourselves in our blankets on
some dry knoll, where we slept till morning. At
196 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.
last, on the night of the second of April, there came
a hard frost, and our clothes, which were drenched
when we took them off, froze stiff as sticks, so that
we could not put them on in the morning without
nia.Ving a fire to thaw them. The fire betrayed us to
the Indians, who were encamped across the marsh;
and they ran towards us with loud cries, till they
were stopped halfway by a stream so deep that they
could not get over, the ice which had formed in the
night not being strong enough to bear them. We
went to meet them, within gun-shot; and whether
our fire-arms frightened them, or whether they thought
us more numerous than we were, or whether they
really meant us no harm, they called out, in the
Illinois language, that they had taken us for Iroquois,
but now saw that we were friends and brothers;
whereupon, they went off as they came, and we kept
on our way till the fourth, when two of my men fell
ill and could not walk."
In this emergency, La Salle went in search of some
watercourse by which £hey -might reach Lake Erie,
and soon came upon a small river, which was prob-
ably the Huron. Here, while the sick men rested,
their companions made a canoe. There were no
birch-trees ; and they were forced to use elm-bark,
which at that early season would not slip freely from
the wood until they loosened it with hot water.
Their canoe being made, they embarked in it, and
for a time floated prosperously down the stream,
when at length the way was barred by a matted
1680.] THE JOURNEY'S END. 197
barricade of trees fallen across the water. The sick
men could now walk again, and, pushing eastward
through the forest, the party soon reached the banks
of the Detroit.
La Salle directed two of the men to make a canoe,
and go to Michilimackinac, the nearest harborage.
With the remaining two, he crossed the Detroit on a
raft, and, striking a direct line across the country,
reached Lake Erie not far from Point Pele*e. Snow,
sleet, and rain pelted them with little intermission :
and when, after a walk of about thirty miles, they
gained the lake, the Mohegan and one of the French-
men were attacked with fever and spitting of blood.
Only one man now remained in health. With his
aid, La Salle made another canoe, and, embarking
the invalids, pushed for Niagara. It was Easter
Monday when they landed at a cabin of logs above
the cataract, probably on the spot where the " Griffin "
was built. Here several of La Salle 's men had been
left the year before, and here they still remained.
They told him woful news. Not only had he lost
the "Griffin," and her lading of ten thousand crowns
in value, but a ship from France, freighted with his
groods, valued at more than twenty-two thousand
livres, had been totally wrecked at the mouth of the
St. Lawrence ; and of twenty hired men on their way
from Europe to join him, some had been detained by
his enemy, the Intendant Duchesneau, while all but
four of the remainder, being told that he was dead,
had found means to return home.
198 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.
His three followers were all unfit for travel: he
alone retained his strength and spirit. Taking with
him three fresh men at Niagara, he resumed his
journey, and on the sixth of May descried, looming
through floods of rain, the familiar shores of his
seigniory and the bastioned walls of Fort Frontenac.
During sixty-five days he had toiled almost inces-
santly, travelling, by the course he took, about a
thousand miles through a country beset with every
form of peril and obstruction, — " the most arduous
journey," says the chronicler, "ever made by French-
men in America."
Such was Cavelier de la Salle. In him, an uncon-
querable mind held at its service a frame of iron, and
tasked it to the utmost of its endurance. The pioneer
of western pioneers was no rude son of toil, but a
man of thought, trained amid arts and letters.1 He
had reached his goal ; but for him there was neither
rest nor peace. Man and Nature seemed in arms
against him. His agents had plundered him; his
creditors had seized his property; and several of his
canoes, richly laden, had been lost in the rapids of
the St. Lawrence.2 He hastened to Montreal, where
1 A Rocky Mountain trapper, being complimented on the hardi-
hood of himself and his companions, once said to the writer,
" That 's so ; but a gentleman of the right sort will stand hardship
better than anybody else." The history of Arctic and African
travel and the military records of all time are a standing evidence
that a trained and developed mind is not the enemy, but the active
and powerful ally, of constitutional hardihood. The culture that
enervates instead of strengthening is always a false or a partial one.
2 Zenobe Membre' in Le Clerc, ii. 202.
L680.] THE MUTINEERS. 199
his sudden advent caused great astonishment; and
where, despite his crippled resources and damaged
credit, he succeeded, within a week, in gaining the
fsupplies which he required and the needful succors
for the forlorn band on the Illinois. He had returned
bo Fort Frontenac, and was on the point of embark-
ing for their relief, when a blow fell upon him more
disheartening than any that had preceded.
On the twenty-second of July, two voyageurs^
Messier and Laurent, came to him with a letter from
Tonty, who wrote that soon after La Salle 's departure
nearly all the men had deserted, after destroying Fort
Crevecoeur, plundering the magazine, and throwing
into the river all the arms, goods, and stores which
they could not carry off. The messengers who
brought this letter were speedily followed by two of
the habitants of Fort Frontenac, who had been trad-
ing on the lakes, and who, with a fidelity which the
unhappy La Salle rarely knew how to inspire, had
travelled day and night to bring him their tidings.
They reported that they had met the deserters, and
that, having been reinforced by recruits gained at
Michilimackinac and Niagara, they now numbered
twenty men.1 They had destroyed the fort on the
1 When La Salle was at Niagara, in April, he had ordered Dau-
tray, the best of the men who had accompanied him from the Illi-
nois, to return thither as soon as he was able. Four men from
Niagara were to go with him and he was to rejoin Tonty with such
supplies as that post could furnish. Dautray set out accordingly,
but was met on the lakes by the deserters, who told him that Tonty
was dead, and seduced his men. (Relation des Decouvertcs.) Dau«
200 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.
St. Joseph, seized a quantity of furs belonging to La
Salle at Michilimackinac, and plundered the maga-
zine at Niagara. Here they had separated, eight of
them coasting the south side of Lake Ontario to find
harborage at Albany, a common refuge at that time
of this class of scoundrels; while the remaining
twelve, in three canoes, made for Fort Frontenac
along the north shore, intending to kill La Salle as
the surest means of escaping punishment.
He lost no time in lamentation. Of the few men
at his command he chose nine of the trustiest,
embarked with them in canoes, and went to meet the
marauders. After passing the Bay of Quinte*, he
took his station with five of his party at a point of
land suited to his- purpose, and detached the remain-
ing four to keep watch. In the morning, two canoes
were discovered approaching without suspicion, one
of them far in advance of the other. As the fore-
most drew near, La Salle 's canoe darted out from
under the leafy shore, — two of the men handling the
paddles, while he, with the remaining two, levelled
their guns at the deserters, and called on them to
surrender. Astonished and dismayed, they yielded
at once; while two more, who were in the second
canoe, hastened to follow their example. La Salle
now returned to the fort with his prisoners, placed
tray himself seems to hare remained true ; at least, he was in La
Salle's service immediately after, and was one of his most trusted
followers. He was of good birth, being the son of Jean Bourdon, a
conspicuous personage in the early period of the colony ; and his
, name appears on official records as Jean Bourdon, Sieur d'Autray.
1680.] CHASTISEMENT. 201
them in custody, and again set forth. He met the
third canoe upon the lake at about six o'clock in the
evening. His men vainly plied their paddles in pur-
suit. The mutineers reached the shore, took post
jimong rocks and trees, levelled their guns, and
showed fight. Four of La Salle's men made a circuit
to gain their rear and dislodge them, on which they
stole back to their canoe and tried to escape in the
darkness. They were pursued, and summoned to
yield ; but they replied by aiming their guns at their
pursuers, who instantly gave them a volley, killed
two of them, and captured the remaining three.
Like their companions, they were placed in custody
ut the fort, to await the arrival of Count Frontenac.1
1 La Salle's long letter, written apparently to his associate
Thouret, and dated 29 Sept., 1680, is the chief authority for the
;ibove. The greater part of this letter is incorporated, almost ver-
batim, in the official narrative called Relation des Dteouvertes.,
i lennepin, Membre, and Tonty also speak of the journey from Fort
Orevecoeur. The death of the two mutineers was used by La Salle's
enemies as the basis of a charge of murder.
CHAPTER XV.
1680.
INDIAN CONQUERORS.
THE ENTERPRISE RENEWED. — ATTEMPT TO RESCUE TONTT. — BUF-
FALO.— A FRIGHTFUL DISCOVERT. — IROQUOIS FURY. — THE
RUINED TOWN. — A NIGHT OF HORROR. — TRACES OF THE
INVADERS. — No NEWS OF TONTY.
AND now La Salle's work must be begun afresh.
He had staked all, and all had seemingly been lost.
In stern, relentless effort he had touched the limits
of human endurance ; and the harvest of his toil was
disappointment, disaster, and impending ruin. The
shattered fabric of his enterprise was prostrate in the
dust. His friends desponded; his foes were blatant
and exultant. Did he bend before the storm? No
human eye could pierce the depths of his reserved
and haughty nature; but the surface was calm, and
no sign betrayed a shaken resolve or an altered pur-
pose. Where weaker men would have abandoned
all in despairing apathy, he turned anew to his work
with the same vigor and the same apparent confidence
as if borne on the full tide of success.
His best hope was in Tonty. Could that brave and
true-hearted officer and the three or four faithful
1680.] ANOTHER EFFORT. 203
men who had remained with him make good their
foothold on the Illinois, and save from destruction
tho vessel on the stocks and the forge and tools so
laboriously carried thither, then a basis was left on
which the ruined enterprise might be built up once
more. There was no time to lose. Tonty must be
succored soon, or succor would come too late. La
Salle had already provided the necessary material,
and a few days sufficed to complete his preparations.
On the tenth of August he embarked again for the
Illinois. With him went his lieutenant La Forest,
who held of him in fief an island, then called Belle
Isle, opposite Fort Frontenac.1 A surgeon, ship-
caipenters, joiners, masons, soldiers, voyageurs, and
laborers completed his company, twenty-five men in
all. with everything needful for the outfit of the
vessel.
His route, though difficult, was not so long as that
which he had followed the year before. He ascended
the river Humber; crossed to Lake Simcoe, and
thence descended the Severn to the Georgian Bay of
Lake Huron; followed its eastern shore, coasted the
Manitoulin Islands, and at length reached Michili-
mackinac. Here, as usual, all was hostile; and he
had great difficulty in inducing the Indians, who had
been excited against him, to sell him provisions.
ADxious to reach his destination, he pushed forward
with twelve men, leaving La Forest to bring on the
1 Robert Cavelier, Sr- de la Salle, a Franpois Daupin, Sr- de la
Forest, 10 Juin, 1679.
204 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1680.
rest. On the fourth of November1 he reached the
ruined fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph, and left
five of his party, with the heavy stores, to wait till
La Forest should come up, while he himself hastened
forward with six Frenchmen and an Indian. A deep
anxiety possessed him. The rumor, current for
months past, that the Iroquois, bent on destroying
the Illinois, were on the point of invading their
country had constantly gained strength. Here was
a new disaster, which, if realized, might involve him
and his enterprise in irretrievable wreck.
He ascended the St. Joseph, crossed the portage
to the Kankakee, and followed its course downward
till it joined the northern branch of the Illinois. He
had heard nothing of Tonty on the way, and neither
here nor elsewhere could he discover the smallest
sign of the passage of white men. His friend, there-
fore, if alive, was probably still at his post; and he
pursued his course with a mind lightened, in some
small measure, of its load of anxiety.
When last he had passed here, all was solitude;
but now the scene was changed. The boundless
waste was thronged with life. He beheld that
wondrous spectacle, still to be seen at times on the
plains of the remotest West, and the memory of
which can quicken the pulse and stir the blood after
1 This date is from the Relation. Membra* says the twenty-
eighth ; but he is wrong, by his own showing, as he says that the
party reached the Illinois village on the first of December, which
Would be an impossibility.
1680.] BUFFALO. 205
the lapse of years : far and near, the prairie was alive
with buffalo; now like black specks dotting the dis-
tant swells; now trampling by in ponderous columns,
or filing in long lines, morning, noon, and night, to
drink at the river, — wading, plunging, and snorting
in the water; climbing the muddy shores, and staring
with wild eyes at the passing canoes. It was an
opportunity not to be lost. The party landed, and
encamped for a hunt. Sometimes they hid under
the shelving bank, and shot them as they came to
drink; sometimes, flat on their faces, they dragged
themselves through the long dead grass, till the
savage bulls, guardians of the herd, ceased their
grazing, raised their huge heads, and glared through
tangled hair at the dangerous intruders. The hunt
was successful. In three days the hunters killed
twelve buffalo, besides deer, geese, and swans.
They cut the meat into thin flakes, and dried it in
the sun or in the smoke of their fires. The men
were in high spirits, — delighting in the sport, and
rejoicing in the prospect of relieving Tonty and his
hungry followers with a plentiful supply.
They embarked again, and soon approached the
grnat town of the Illinois. The buffalo were far
behind; and once more the canoes glided on their
way through a voiceless solitude. No hunters were
seen; no saluting whoop greeted their ears. They
passed the cliff afterwards called the Rock of St.
Louis, where La Salle had ordered Tonty to build
his stronghold; but as he scanned its lofty top ha
206 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1880.
saw no palisades, no cabins, no sign of human hand,
and still its primeval crest of forests overhung the
gliding river. Now the meadow opened before them
where the great town had stood. They gazed, aston-
ished and confounded: all was desolation. The
town had vanished, and the meadow was black with
fire. They plied their paddles, hastened to the spot,
landed ; and as they looked around their cheeks grew
white, and the blood was frozen in their veins.
Before them lay a plain once swarming with wild
human life and covered with Indian dwellings, now
a waste of devastation and death, strewn with heaps
of ashes, and bristling with the charred poles and
stakes which had formed the framework of the
lodges. At the points of most of them were stuck
human skulls, half picked by birds of prey.1 Near
at hand was the burial-ground of the village. The
travellers sickened with horror as they entered its
revolting precincts. Wolves in multitudes fled at
their approach; while clouds of crows or buzzards,
rising from the hideous repast, wheeled above their
heads, or settled on the naked branches of the neigh-
boring forest. Every grave had been rifled, and
the bodies flung down from the scaffolds where, after
the Illinois custom, many of them had been placed.
The field was strewn with broken bones and torn and
1 " II ne restoit que quelques bouts de perches brulees qui mon-
troient quelle avoit ete 1'etendue du village, et sur la plupart des-
quelles il y avoit des te~tes de morts plantees et mange'es des CQP
beaux." — Relation des Decouvertes du &'• de la Salle.
1680.] A NIGHT OF HORROR. 207
mangled corpses. A hyena warfare had been waged
against the dead. La Salle knew the handiwork of
the Iroquois. The threatened blow had fallen, and
the wolfish hordes of the five cantons had fleshed
their rabid fangs in a new victim.1
Not far distant, the conquerors had made a rude
fort of trunks, boughs, and roots of trees laid together
to form a circular enclosure ; and this, too, was gar-
nished with skulls, stuck on the broken branches and
protruding sticks. The caches, or subterranean store-
houses of the villagers, had been broken open and
the contents scattered. The cornfields were laid
waste, and much of the corn thrown into heaps and
half burned. As La Salle surveyed this scene of
havoc, one thought engrossed him: where were
Tonty and his men ? He searched the Iroquois fort :
there were abundant traces of its savage occupants,
and, among them, a few fragments of French cloth-
1 "Beaucoup de carcasses a demi rongees par les loups, les
sepulchres demolis, les os tires de leurs fosses et epars par la cam-
pa gne ; . . . enfin les loups et les corbeaux augmentoient encore
par leurs hurlemens et par leurs cris 1'horreur de ce spectacle." —
Relation des Decouvertes du Sr' de la Salle.
The above may seem exaggerated ; but it accords perfectly with
what is well established concerning the ferocious character of the
Iroquois and the nature of their warfare. Many other tribes have
frequently made war upon the dead. I have myself known an
instance in which five corpses of Sioux Indians placed in trees,
afrer the practice of the Western bands of that people, were thrown
down and kicked into fragments by a war party of the Crows, who
then held the muzzles of their guns against the skulls, and blew
them to pieces. This happened near the head of the Platte, in the
summer of 1846. Yet the Crows are much less ferocious than were
the Iroquois in La Salle's time,
208 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1680.
ing. He examined the skulls ; but the hair, portions
of which clung to nearly all of them, was in every
case that of an Indian. Evening came on before he
had finished the search. The sun set, and the wil-
derness sank to its savage rest. Night and silence
brooded over the waste, where, far as the raven could
wing his flight, stretched the dark domain of solitude
and horror.
Yet there was no silence at the spot where La
Salle and his companions made their bivouac. The
howling of the wolves filled the air with fierce and
dreary dissonance. More dangerous foes were not
far off, for before nightfall they had seen fresh Indian
tracks; "but, as it was very cold," says La Salle,
"this did not prevent us from making a fire and
lying down by it, each of us keeping watch in turn.
I spent the night in a distress which you can imagine
better than I can write it; and I did not sleep a
moment with trying to make up my mind as to what
I ought to do. My ignorance as to the position of
those I was looking after, and my uncertainty as to
what would become of the men who were to follow
me with La Forest if they arrived at the ruined vil-
lage and did not find me there, made me apprehend
every sort of trouble and disaster. At last, I decided
to keep on my way down the river, leaving some of
my men behind in charge of the goods, which it was
not only useless but dangerous to carry with me,
because we should be forced to abandon them when
the winter fairly set in, which would be very soon. "
1680.] FEARS FOR TONTY. 209
This resolution was due to a discovery he had
made the evening before, which offered, as he
thought, a possible clew to the fate of Tonty and
the men with him. He thus describes it: "Near the
garden of the Indians, which was on the meadows, a
league from the village and not far from the river, I
found six pointed stakes set in the ground and
painted red. On each of them was the figure of a
man with bandaged eyes, drawn in black. As the
savages often set stakes of this sort where they have
killed people, I thought, by their number and posi-
tion, that when the Iroquois came, the Illinois, find-
ing our men alone in the hut near their garden, had
either killed them or made them prisoners. And I
was confirmed in this, because, seeing no signs of a
battle, I supposed that on hearing of the approach of
the Iroquois, the old men and other non-combatants
had fled, and that the young warriors had remained
behind to cover their flight, and afterwards followed,
taking the French with them; while the Iroquois,
finding nobody to kill, had vented their fury on the
corpses in the graveyard."
Uncertain as was the basis of this conjecture, and
feeble as was the hope it afforded, it determined him
to push forward, in order to learn more. When
daylight returned, he told his purpose to his fol-
lowers, and directed three of them to await his return
near the ruined village. They were to hide them-
selves on an island, conceal their fire at night, make
no smoke by day, fire no guns, and keep a close
U
210 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1680.
watch. Should the rest of the party arrive, they,
too, were to wait with similar precautions. The
baggage was placed in a hollow of the rocks, at a
place difficult of access; and, these arrangements
made, La Salle set out on his perilous journey with
the four remaining men, Dautray, Hunaut, You, and
the Indian. Each was armed with two guns, a
pistol, and a sword; and a number of hatchets and
other goods were placed in the canoe, as presents for
Indians whom they might meet.
Several leagues below the village they found, on
their right hand close to the river,, a sort of island,
made inaccessible by the marshes and water which
surrounded it. Here the flying Illinois had sought
refuge with their women and children, and the place
was full of their deserted huts. On the left bank,
exactly opposite, was an abandoned camp of the
Iroquois. On the level meadow stood a hundred and
thirteen huts, and on the forest trees which covered
the hills behind were carved the totems, or insignia,
of the chiefs, together with marks to show the
number of followers which each had led to the war.
La Salle counted five hundred and eighty-two war-
riors. He found marks, too, for the Illinois killed
or captured, but none to indicate that any of the
Frenchmen had shared their fate.
As they descended the river, they passed, on the
same day, six abandoned camps of the Illinois; and
opposite to each was a camp of the invaders. The
former, it was clear, had retreated in a body; while
1680.] SEARCH FOR TONTY. 211
the Iroquois had followed their march, day by day,
along the other bank. La Salle and his men pushed
rapidly onward, passed Peoria Lake, and soon
reached Fort Crevecoeur, which they found, as they
expected, demolished by the deserters. The vessel
on the stocks was still left entire, though the Iroquois
had found means to draw out the iron nails and
spikes. On one of the planks were written the words :
"Nous sommes tous sauvages: ce 15, 1680," — the
work, no doubt, of the knaves who had pillaged and
destroyed the fort.
La Salle and his companions hastened on, and dur-
ing the following day passed four opposing camps of
the savage armies. The silence of death now reigned
along the deserted river, whose lonely borders,
wrapped deep in forests, seemed lifeless as the grave.
As they drew near the mouth of the stream they
saw a meadow on their right, and on its farthest
verge several human figures, erect, yet motionless.
They landed, and cautiously examined the place.
The long grass was trampled down, and all around
were strewn the relics of the hideous orgies which
formed the ordinary sequel of an Iroquois victory.
The figures they had seen were the half-consumed
bodies of women, still bound to the stakes where
they had been tortured. Other sights there were,
too revolting for record.1 All the remains were those
1 " On ne ssauroit exprimer la rage de ces f urieux ni les tourmens
qu'ils avoient fait souffrir aux miserables Tamaroa [a tribe of the
Illinois]. II y en avoit encore dans des chaudieres qu'ils avoient
laissees pleines sur les feux, qui depuis s'etoient eteints," etc., etc
— Relation des JDecouvertes,
212 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1680.
of women and children. The men, it seemed, had
fled, and left them to their fate.
Here, again, La Salle sought long and anxiously,
without finding the smallest sign that could indicate
the presence of Frenchmen. Once more descending
the river, they soon reached its mouth. Before
them, a broad eddying current rolled swiftly on its
way ; and La Salle beheld the Mississippi, — the
object of his day-dreams, the destined avenue of his
ambition and his hopes. It was no time for reflec-
tions. The moment was too engrossing, too heavily
charged with anxieties and cares. From a rock on
the shore, he saw a tree stretched forward above the
stream; and stripping off its bark to make it more
conspicuous, he hung upon it a board on which he
had drawn the figures of himself and his men, seated
in their canoe, and bearing a pipe of peace. To this
he tied a letter for Tonty, informing him that he had
returned up the river to the ruined village.
His four men had behaved admirably throughout,
and they now offered to continue the journey if he
saw fit, and follow him to the sea ; but he thought it
useless to go farther, and was unwilling to abandon
the three men whom he had ordered to await his
return. Accordingly, they retraced their course,
and, paddling at times both day and night, urged
their canoe so swiftly that they reached the village
in the incredibly short space of four days.1
1 The distance is about two hundred and fifty miles. The
letters of La Salle, as well as the official narrative compiled from
1681.] THE COMET. 213
The sky was clear, and as night came on the
travellers saw a prodigious comet blazing above this
scene of desolation. On that night, it was chilling
with a superstitious awe the hamlets of New England
and the gilded chambers of Versailles ; but it is char-
acteristic of La Salle, that, beset as he was with perils
and surrounded with ghastly images of death, he
coolly notes down the phenomenon, not as a por-
tentous messenger of war and woe, but rather as an
object of scientific curiosity.1
He found his three men safely ensconced upon
their island, where they were anxiously looking for
his return. After collecting a store of half-burnt
corn from the ravaged granaries of the Illinois, the
whole party began to ascend the river, and on the
sixth of January reached the junction of the Kankakee
with the northern branch. On their way downward
they had descended the former stream; they now
chose the latter, and soon discovered, by the margin
them, say that they left the village on the second of December,
and returned to it on the eleventh, having left the mouth of the
river on the seventh.
1 This was the " Great Comet of 1680." Dr. B. A. Gould writes
me: "It appeared in December, 1680, and was visible until the
latter part of February, 1681, being especially brilliant in January."
It was said to be the largest ever seen. By observations upon it,
Newton demonstrated the regular revolutions of comets around the
3un. "No comet/' it is said, "has threatened the earth with a
nearer approach than that of 1680." ( Winthrop on Comets, Lecture
II. p. 44.) Increase Mather, in his Discourse concerning Comets,
printed at Boston in 1683, says of this one : " Its appearance was
rery terrible ; the Blaze ascended above 60 Degrees almost to its
Zenith." Mather thought it fraught with terrific portent to the
nations of the earth.
214 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1681.
of the water, a rude cabin of bark. La Salle landed
and examined the spot, when an object met his eye
which cheered him with a bright gleam of hope. It
was but a piece of wood ; but the wood had been cut
with a saw. Tonty and his party, then, had passed
this way, escaping from the carnage behind them.
Unhappily, they had left no token of their passage
at the fork of the two streams; and thus La Salle,
on his voyage downward, had believed them to be
still on the river below.
With rekindled hope, the travellers pursued their
journey, leaving their canoes, and making their way
overland towards the fort on the St. Joseph.
"Snow fell in extraordinary quantities all day,"
writes La Salle, "and it kept on falling for nine-
teen days in succession, with cold so severe that
I never knew so hard a winter, even in Canada.
We were obliged to cross forty leagues of open
country, where we could hardly find wood to warm
ourselves at evening, and could get no bark what-
ever to make a hut, so that we had to spend the
night exposed to the furious winds which blow
over these plains. I never suffered so much from
cold, or had more trouble in getting forward; for
the snow was so light, resting suspended as it were
among the tall grass, that we could not use snow-
shoes. Sometimes it was waist deep; and as I
walked before my men, as usual, to encourage
them by breaking the path, I often had much ado,
though I am rather tall, to lift my legs above the
Ki81.] FORT MIAMI. 215
drifts, through which I pushed by the weight of
my body."
At length they reached their goal, and found
shelter and safety within the walls of Fort Miami.
Here was the party left in charge of La Forest; but,
to his surprise and grief, La Salle heard no tidings
of Tonty. He found some amends for the disap-
pointment in the fidelity and zeal of La Forest's men,
who had restored the fort, cleared ground for plant-
ing, and even sawed the planks and timber for a new
vessel on the lake.
And now, while La Salle rests at Fort Miami, let
as trace the adventures which befell Tonty and his
followers, after their chief's departure from Fort
Crevecceur.
CHAPTER XVI.
1680.
TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS.
THE DESERTERS. — THE IROQUOIS WAR. — THE GREAT TOWN OF
THE ILLINOIS. — THE ALARM. — ONSET OP THE IROQUOIS. —
PERIL OP TONTY. — A TREACHEROUS TRUCE. — INTREPIDITY OF
TONTY. — MURDER OP RIBOURDE. — WAR UPON THE DEAD.
WHEN La Salle set out on his rugged journey to
Fort Frontenac, he left, as we have seen, fifteen men
at Fort Crevecoeur, — smiths, ship-carpenters, house-
wrights, and soldiers, besides his servant L'Espe'rance
and the two friars Membra* and Ribourde. Most of
the men were ripe for mutiny. They had no interest
in the enterprise, and no love for its chief. They
were disgusted with the present, and terrified at the
future. La Salle, too, was for the most part a stern
commander, impenetrable and cold; and when he
tried to soothe, conciliate, and encourage, his success
rarely answered to the excellence of his rhetoric.
He could always, however, inspire respect, if not
love; but now the restraint of his presence was
removed. He had not been long absent, when a fire-
brand was thrown into the midst of the discontented
and restless crew.
1680.] THE DESERTERS. 217
It may be remembered that La Salle had met two
of his men, La Chapelle and Leblanc, at his fort on
the St. Joseph, and ordered them to rejoin Tonty.
Unfortunately, they obeyed. On arriving, they told
their comrades that the "Griffin" was lost, that Fort
Frontenac was seized by the creditors of La Salle,
that he was ruined past recovery, and that they, the
men, would never receive their pay. Their wages
were in arrears for more than two years ; and, indeed,
it would have been folly to pay them before their
return to the settlements, as to do so would have
been a temptation to desert. Now, however, the
effect on their minds was still worse, believing, as
many of them did, that they would never be paid at
{ill.
La Chapelle and his companion had brought a
letter from La Salle to Tonty, directing him to
examine and fortify the cliff so often mentioned,
which overhung the river above the great Illinois
village. Tonty, accordingly, set out on his errand
with some of the men. In his absence, the malcon-
tents destroyed the fort, stole powder, lead, furs,
and provisions, and deserted, after writing on the
fcide of the unfinished vessel the words seen by La
Salle, "Nous sommes tons sauvages."1 The brave
1 For the particulars of this desertion, Membre' in Le Clerc, ii.
171, Relation des Decouvertes; Tonty, Memoire, 1684, 1693; Declara-
tion faite par devant le Sr- Duchesneau, Intendant en Canada, par
Moyse Hillaret, charpentier de barque cy-devant au service du Sr- de la
Salle, Aoust, 1680.
Moyse Hillaret, the '•' Maitre Moyse " of Hennepin, was a ring-
218 TONTY AKB THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
young Sieur de Boisrondet and the servant L'Espe*rance
hastened to carry the news to Tonty, who at once
despatched four of those with him, by two different
routes, to inform La Salle of the disaster.1 Besides
the two just named, there now remained with him
only one hired man and the Rdcollet friars. With
this feeble band, he was left among a horde of treach-
erous savages, who had been taught to regard him
as a secret enemy. Resolved, apparently, to disarm
their jealousy by a show of confidence, he took up
his abode in the midst of them, making his quarters
in the great village, whither, as spring opened, its
inhabitants returned, to the number, according to
Membre", of seven or eight thousand. Hither he
conveyed the forge and such tools as he could
recover, and here he hoped to maintain himself till
La Salle should reappear. The spring and the
summer were past, and he looked anxiously for his
coming, unconscious that a storm was gathering in
leader of the deserters, and seems to have been one of those cap-
tured by La Salle near Fort Frontenac. Twelve days after, Hillaret
was examined by La Salle's enemy, the intendant ; and this paper is
the formal statement made by him. It gives the names of most of
the men, and furnishes incidental confirmation of many statements
of Hennepin, Tonty, Membre, and the Relation des Decouvertes.
Hillaret, Leblanc, and Le Meilleur, the blacksmith nicknamed La
Forge, went off together, and the rest seem to have followed after-
wards. Hillaret does not admit that any goods were wantonly
destroyed.
There is before me a schedule of the debts of La Salle, made
after his death. It includes a claim of this man for wages to the
amount of 2,500 livres.
1 Two of the messengers, Laurent and Messier, arrived safely.
The others seem to have deserted.
1680.] THE IROQUOIS WAR. 219
the east, soon to burst with devastation over the
fertile wilderness of the Illinois.
I have recounted the ferocious triumphs of the
Iroquois in another volume.1 Throughout a wide
semicircle around their cantons, they had made the
forest a solitude ; destroyed the Hurons, exterminated
the Neutrals and the Eries, reduced the formidable
Andastes to helpless insignificance, swept the borders
of the St. Lawrence with fire, spread terror and
desolation among the Algonquins of Canada; and
now, tired of peace, they were seeking, to borrow
their own savage metaphor, new nations to devour.
Yet it was not alone their homicidal fury that now
impelled them to another war. Strange as it may
seem, this war was in no small measure one of com-
mercial advantage. They had long traded with the
Dutch and English of New York, who gave them,
in exchange for their furs, the guns, ammunition,
knives, hatchets, kettles, beads, and brandy which
had become indispensable to them. Game was scarce
in their country. They must seek their beaver and
other skins in the vacant territories of the tribes they
had destroyed ; but this did not content them. The
French of Canada were seeking to secure a monopoly
of the furs of the north and west; and, of late, the
enterprises of La Salle on the tributaries of the
Mississippi had especially roused the jealousy of
the Iroquois, fomented, moreover, by Dutch and
English traders.2 These crafty savages would fain
1 The Jesuits in North America.
8 Duchesncau, in Pans Docs., ix. 163.
220 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
reduce all these regions to subjection, and draw
thence an exhaustless supply of furs, to be bartered
for English goods with the traders of Albany. They
turned their eyes first towards the Illinois, the most
important, as well as one of the most accessible, of
the western Algonquin tribes; and among La Salle's
enemies were some in whom jealousy of a hated
rival could so far override all the best interests of the
colony that they did not scruple to urge on the Iro-
quois to an invasion which they hoped would prove
his ruin. The chiefs convened, war was decreed, the
war-dance was danced, the war-song sung, and five
hundred warriors began their march. In their path
lay the town of the Miamis, neighbors and kindred
of the Illinois. It was always their policy to divide
and conquer; and these forest Machiavels had
intrigued so well among the Miamis, working craftily
on their jealousy, that they induced them to join in
the invasion, though there is every reason to believe
that they had marked these infatuated allies as their
next victims.1
Go to the banks of the Illinois where it flows by
the village of Utica, and stand on the meadow that
borders it on the north. In front glides the river, a
musket-shot in width; and from the farther bank
rises, with gradual slope, a range of wooded hills
1 There had long been a rankling jealousy between the Miamis
and the Illinois. According to Membre, La Salle's enemies had
intrigued successfully among the former, as well as among the
Iroquois, to induce them to take arms against the Illinois.
1680.] THE ILLINOIS TOWN. 221
that hide from sight the vast prairie behind them.
A mile or more on your left these gentle acclivities
€<nd abruptly in the lofty front of the great cliff,
called by the French the Rock of St. Louis, looking
boldly out from the forests that environ it; and,
three miles distant on your right, you discern a gap
in the steep bluffs that here bound the valley, mark-
lag the mouth of the river Vermilion, called Aramoni
by the French.1 Now stand in fancy on this same
spot in the early autumn of the year 1680. You are
in the midst of the great town of the Illinois, —
hundreds of mat-covered lodges, and thousands of
congregated savages. Enter one of their dwellings:
they will not think you an intruder. Some friendly
squaw will lay a mat for you by the fire; you may
seat yourself upon it, smoke your pipe, and study
the lodge and its inmates by the light that streams
through the holes at the top. Three or four fires
smoke and smoulder on the ground down the middle
1 The above is from notes made on the spot. The following is
La Salle's description of the locality in the Relation des Decouvertes,
written in 1681 : " La rive gauche de la riviere, du cote du sud, est
occupe'e par un long rocher, fort etroit et escarpe" presque partout,
a la reserve d'un endroit de plus d'une lieue de longueur, situe" vis-
a-vis du village, ou le terrain, tout convert de beaux chines, s'tftend
p.ir une pente douce jusqu'au bord de la riviere. Au dela de cette
hauteur est une vaste plaine, qui s'etend bien loin du cote* du sud,
et qui est traversee par la riviere Aramoni, dont les bords sont
converts d'une lisiere de bois peu large."
The Aramoni is laid down on the great manuscript map of
F.-anquelin, 1684, and on the map of Coronelli, 1688. It is, without
doubt, the Big Vermilion. Aramoni is the Illinois word for "red/'
or " vermilion." Starved Rock, or the Bock of St. Louis, is the
highest and steepest escarpment of the long rocher above mentioned
222 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1080.
of the long arched structure; and, as to each fire
there are two families, the place is somewhat crowded
when all are present. But now there is breathing
room, for many are in the fields. A squaw sits
weaving a mat of rushes; a warrior, naked except
his moccasins, and tattooed with fantastic devices,
binds a stone arrow-head to its shaft, with the fresh
sinews of a buffalo. Some lie asleep, some sit star-
ing in vacancy, some are eating, some are squatted in
lazy chat around a fire. The smoke brings water to
your eyes; the fleas annoy you; small unkempt
children, naked as young puppies, crawl about your
knees and will not be repelled. You have seen
enough ; you rise and go out again into the sunlight.
It is, if not a peaceful, at least a languid scene. A
few voices break the stillness, mingled with the
joyous chirping of crickets from the grass. Young
men lie flat on their faces, basking in the sun; a
group of their elders are smoking around a buffalo-
skin on which they have just been playing a game of
chance with cherry-stones. A lover and his mis-
tress, perhaps, sit together under a shed of bark,
without uttering a word. Not far off is the grave-
yard, where lie the dead of the village, some buried
in the earth, some wrapped in skins and laid aloft on
scaffolds, above the reach of wolves. In the corn-
fields around, you see squaws at their labor, and
children driving off intruding birds; and your eye
ranges over the meadows beyond, spangled with the
yellow blossoms of the resin-weed and the Rudbeckia,
1680.] THE ILLINOIS TOWN. 228
or over the bordering hills still green with the foliage
of summer.1
This, or something like it, one may safely affirm,
was the aspect of the Illinois village at noon of the
tenth of September.2 In a hut apart from the rest,
you would probably have found the Frenchmen.
Among them was a man, not strong in person, and
disabled, moreover, by the loss of a hand, yet in this
den of barbarism betraying the language and bearing
of one formed in the most polished civilization of
Europe. This was Henri de Tonty. The others
were young Boisrondet, the servant L'Esp&rance,
and a Parisian youth named Etienne Renault. The
1 The Illinois were an aggregation of distinct though kindred
tribes, — the Kaskaskias, the Peorias, the Kahokias, the Tamaroas,
the Moingona, and others. Their general character and habits
were those of other Indian tribes ; but they were reputed somewhat
cowardly and slothful. In their manners, they were more licentious
than many of their neighbors, and addicted to practices which are
sometimes supposed to be the result of a perverted civilization.
Young men enacting the part of women were frequently to be seen
among them. These were held in great contempt. Some of the
early travellers, both among the Illinois and among other tribes,
where the same practice prevailed, mistook them for hermaphro-
dites. According to Charlevoix (Journal Historique, 303), this abuse
was due in part to a superstition. The Miamis and Piankishaws
were in close affinities of language and habits with the Illinois.
All these tribes belonged to the great Algonquin family. The first
impressions which the French received of them, as recorded in the
Relation of 1671, were singularly favorable ; but a closer acquaint-
ance did not confirm them. The Illinois traded with the lake
tribes, to whom they carried slaves taken in war, receiving in
exchange guns, hatchets, and other French goods. Marquette in
Relation, 1670, 91.
3 This is Membre's date. The narratives differ as to the day,
though all agree as to the month.
224 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
friars, Membre and Ribourde, were not in the vil-
lage, but at a hut a league distant, whither they
had gone to make a " retreat " for prayer and medi-
tation. Their missionary labors had not been fruit-
ful ; they had made no converts, and were in despair
at the intractable character of the objects of their
zeal. As for the other Frenchmen, time, doubtless,
hung heavy on their hands ; for nothing can surpass
the vacant monotony of an Indian town when there
is neither hunting, nor war, nor feasts, nor dances,
nor gambling, to beguile the lagging hours.
Suddenly the village was wakened from its lethargy
as by the crash of a thunderbolt. A Shawanoe,
lately here on a visit, had left his Illinois friends to
return home. He now reappeared, crossing the
river in hot haste, with the announcement that he
had met, on his way, an army of Iroquois approach-
ing to attack them. All was panic and confusion.
The lodges disgorged their frightened inmates;
women and children screamed, startled warriors
snatched their weapons. There were less than five
hundred of them, for the greater part of the young
men had gone to war. A crowd of excited savages
thronged about Tonty and his Frenchmen, already
objects of their suspicion, charging them, with
furious gesticulation, with having stirred up their
enemies to invade them. Tonty defended himself in
broken Illinois, but the naked mob were but half
convinced. They seized the forge and tools and
flung them into the river, with all the goods that had
J680.] THE ALARM. 225
been saved from the deserters; then, distrusting
their power to defend themselves, they manned the
wooden canoes which lay in multitudes by the bank,
embarked their women and children, and paddled
down the stream to that island of dry land in the
midst of marshes which La Salle afterwards found
iilled with their deserted huts. Sixty warriors
remained here to guard them, and the rest returned
to the village. All night long fires blazed along the
shore. The excited warriors greased their bodies,
painted their faces, befeathered their heads, sang
their war-songs, danced, stamped, yelled, and bran-
dished their hatchets, to work up their courage to
face the crisis. The morning came, and with it came
the Iroquois.
Young warriors had gone out as scouts, and now
they returned. They had seen the enemy in the
line of forest that bordered the river Aramoni, or
Vermilion, and had stealthily reconnoitred them.
They were very numerous,1 and armed for the most
part with guns, pistols, and swords. Some had
bucklers of wood or raw-hide, and some wore those
corselets of tough twigs interwoven with cordage
which their fathers had used when fire-arms were
unknown. The scouts added more, for they declared
that they had seen a Jesuit among the Iroquois ; nay,
1 The Relation des Decouvertes says, five hundred Iroquois and one
hundred Shawanoes. Membre says that the allies were Miamis.
He is no doubt right, as the Miamis had promised their aid, and
the Shawanoes were at peace with the Illinois. Tonty is silent on
the point.
15
226 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
that La Salle himself was there, whence it must
follow that Tonty and his men were enemies and
traitors. The supposed Jesuit was but an Iroquois
chief arrayed in a black hat, doublet, and stockings ;
while another, equipped after a somewhat similar
fashion, passed in the distance for La Salle. But
the Illinois were furious. Tonty 's life hung by a
hair. A crowd of savages surrounded him, mad
with rage and terror. He had come lately from
Europe, and knew little of Indians, but, as the friar
Membr£ says of him, "he was full of intelligence
and courage," and when they heard him declare that
he and his Frenchmen would go with them to fight
the Iroquois, their threats grew less clamorous and
their eyes glittered with a less deadly lustre.
Whooping and screeching, they ran to their canoes,
crossed the river, climbed the woody hill, and
swarmed down upon the plain beyond. About a
hundred of them had guns ; the rest were armed with
bows and arrows. They were now face to face with
the enemy, who had emerged from the woods of the
Vermilion, and were advancing on the open prairie.
With unwonted spirit, for their repute as warriors
was by no means high, the Illinois began, after their
fashion, to charge; that is, they leaped, yelled, and
shot off bullets and arrows, advancing as they did
so; while the Iroquois replied with gymnastics no
less agile and bowlings no less terrific, mingled with
the rapid clatter of their guns. Tonty saw that it
would go hard with his allies. It was of the last
1680.] TONTY'S MEDIATION. 227
moment to stop the fight, if possible. The Iroquois
were, or professed to be, at peace with the French;
and, taking counsel of his courage, he resolved on
an attempt to mediate, which may well be called a
desperate one. He laid aside his gun, took in his
hand a wampum belt as a flag of truce, and walked
forward to meet the savage multitude, attended by
Boisrondet, another Frenchman, and a young Illinois
who had the hardihood to accompany him. The
guns of the Iroquois still flashed thick and fast.
Some of them were aimed at him, on which he sent
back the two Frenchmen and the Illinois, and
advanced alone, holding out the wampum belt.1 A
moment more, and he was among the infuriated
warriors. It was a frightful spectacle, — the con-
torted forms, bounding, crouching, twisting, to deal
or dodge the shot; the small keen eyes that shone
like an angry snake's; the parted lips pealing their
1 Membre says that he went with Tonty : " J'etois aussi a cote du
Sieur de Tonty." This is an invention of the friar's vanity. " Les
deux peres Recollets e'toient alors dans une cabane a une lieue du
village, oil ils s'etoient retires pour faire une espece de retraite, et
ils ne furent avertis de Tarrive'e des Iroquois que dans le temps du
combat." — Relation des Decouvertes. " Je rencontrai en chemin les
peres Gabriel et Zenobe Membre, qui cherchoient de mes nouvelles."
— Tonty, Memoire, 1693. This was on his return from the Iroquois.
The Relation confirms the statement, as far as concerns Membre:
" II rencontra le Pere Zenobe [Membre], qui venoit pour le secourir,
aiant ete averti du combat et de sa blessure."
The perverted Dernieres Decouvertes, published without authority,
under Tonty's name, says that he was attended by a slave, whom
the Illinois sent with him as interpreter. In his narrative of 1684
Tonty speaks of a Sokokis (Saco) Indian who was with the Iroquois,
and who spoke French enough to serve as interpreter.
228 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
fiendish yells; the painted features writhing with
fear and fury, and every passion of an Indian fight,
— man, wolf, and devil, all in one.1 With his
swarthy complexion and his half-savage dress, they
thought he was an Indian, and thronged about him,
glaring murder. A young warrior stabbed at his
heart with a knife, but the point glanced aside
against a rib, inflicting only a deep gash. A chief
called out that, as his ears were not pierced, he must
be a Frenchman. On this, some of them tried to
stop the bleeding, and led him to the rear, where an
angry parley ensued, while the yells and firing still
resounded in the front. Tonty, breathless, and
bleeding at the mouth with the force of the blow he
had received, found words to declare that the Illinois
were under the protection of the King and the gov-
ernor of Canada, and to demand that they should
be left in peace.2
A young Iroquois snatched Tonty 's hat, placed
it on the end of his gun, and displayed it to the
Illinois, who, thereupon thinking he was killed,
1 Being once in an encampment of Sioux when a quarrel broke
out, and the adverse factions raised the war-whoop and began to
fire at each other, I had a good, though for the moment a rather
dangerous, opportunity of seeing the demeanor of Indians at the
beginning of a fight. The fray was quelled before much mischief
was done, by the vigorous intervention of the elder warriors, who
ran between the combatants.
8 " Je leur fis connoistre que les Islinois etoient sous la protec-
tion du roy de France et du gouverneur du pays, que j'estois surpris
qu'ils vou lussent rompre avec les Fran£ois et qu'ils voulussent
attendre [sic] a une paix." — Tonty, Memoire, 1693.
1(180.] PERIL OF TONTY. 229
renewed the fight; and the firing in front clattered
more angrily than before. A warrior ran in, crying
out that the Iroquois were giving ground, and that
there were Frenchmen among the Illinois, who fired
at them. On this, the clamor around Tonty was
redoubled. Some wished to kill him at once ; others
resisted. "I was never," he writes, "in such per-
plexity; for at that moment there was an Iroquois
behind me, with a knife in his hand, lifting my hair
a,s if he were going to scalp me. I thought it was
all over with me, and that my best hope was that
they would knock me in the head instead of burn-
ing me, as I believed they would do." In fact, a
Seneca chief demanded that he should be burned;
while an Onondaga chief, a friend of La Salle, was
for setting him free. The dispute grew fierce and
hot. Tonty told them that the Illinois were twelve
hundred strong, and that sixty Frenchmen were at
the village, ready to back them. This invention,
though not fully believed, had no little effect. The
friendly Onondaga carried his point; and the Iroquois,
having failed to surprise their enemies, as they had
hoped, now saw an opportunity to delude them by a
truce. They sent back Tonty with a belt of peace :
he held it aloft in sight of the Illinois; chiefs and old
warriors ran to stop the fight; the yells and the firing
ceased; and Tonty, like one waked from a hideous
nightmare, dizzy, almost fainting with loss of blood,
staggered across the intervening prairie, to rejoin his
friends. He was met by the two friars, Ribourde
230 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
and Membre', who in their secluded hut, a league
from the village, had but lately heard of what was
passing, and who now, with benedictions and thanks-
giving, ran to embrace him as a man escaped from
the jaws of death.
The Illinois now withdrew, re-embarking in theii
canoes, and crossing again to their lodges; but
scarcely had they reached them, when their enemies
appeared at the edge of the forest on the opposite
bank. Many found means to cross, and, under the
pretext of seeking for provisions, began to hover in
bands about the skirts of the town, constantly increas-
ing in numbers. Had the Illinois dared to remain, a
massacre would doubtless have ensued; but they
knew their foe too well, set fire to their lodges, em-
barked in haste, and paddled down the stream to re-
join their women and children at the sanctuary among
the morasses. The whole body of the Iroquois now
crossed the river, took possession of the abandoned
town, building for themselves a rude redoubt or fort
of the trunks of trees and of the posts and poles
forming the framework of the lodges which escaped
the fire. Here they ensconced themselves, and
finished the work of havoc at their leisure.
Tonty and his companions still occupied their hut;
but the Iroquois, becoming suspicious of them, forced
them to remove to the fort, crowded as it was with
the savage crew. On the second day, there was an
alarm. The Illinois appeared in numbers on the low
hills, half a mile behind the town; and the Iroquois,
1630.] IROQUOIS TREACHERY. 281
who had felt their courage, and who had been told
by Tonty that they were twice as numerous as them-
selves,, showed symptoms of no little uneasiness.
They proposed that he should act as mediator, to
winch he gladly assented, and crossed the meadow
towards the Illinois, accompanied by Membre', and
by an Iroquois who was sent as a hostage. The
Illinois hailed the overtures with delight, gave the
ambassadors some refreshment, which they sorely
needed, and sent back with them a young man of
their nation as a hostage on their part. This indis-
creet youth nearly proved the ruin of the negotiation ;
for he was no sooner among the Iroquois than he
showed such an eagerness to close the treaty, made
such promises, professed such gratitude, and betrayed
so rashly the numerical weakness of the Illinois, that
ho revived all the insolence of the invaders. They
turned furiously upon Tonty, and charged him with
having robbed them of the glory and the spoils of
victory. ** Where are all your Illinois warriors, and
where are the sixty Frenchmen that you said were
among them ? " It needed all Tonty's tact and cool-
ness to extricate himself from this new danger.
The treaty was at length concluded ; but scarcely
was it made, when the Iroquois prepared to break it,
and set about constructing canoes of elm-bark, in
which to attack the Illinois women and children in
their island sanctuary. Tonty warned his allies that
the pretended peace was but a snare for their destruc-
tion. The Iroquois, on their part, grew hourly more
232 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680,
jealous of him, and would certainly have killed him,
had it not been their policy to keep the peace with
Frontenac and the French.
Several days after, they summoned him and
Membre' to a council. Six packs of beaver-skins
were brought in; and the savage orator presented
them to Tonty in turn, explaining their meaning as
he did so. The first two were to declare that the
children of Count Frontenac — that is, the Illinois
— should not be eaten; the next was a plaster to
heal Tonty 's wound ; the next was oil wherewith to
anoint him and Membre', that they might not be
fatigued in travelling ; the next proclaimed that the
sun was bright; and the sixth and last required them
to decamp and go home.1 Tonty thanked them for
their gifts, but demanded when they themselves
meant to go and leave the Illinois in peace. At this,
the conclave grew angry; and, despite their late
pledge, some of them said that before they went they
would eat Illinois flesh. Tonty instantly kicked
away the packs of beaver-skins, the Indian symbol
of the scornful rejection of a proposal, telling them
that since they meant to eat the governor's children
he would have none of their presents. The chiefs,
1 An Indian speech, it will be remembered, is without validity if
not confirmed by presents, each of which has its special interpreta-
tion. The meaning of the fifth pack of beaver, informing Tonty
that the sun was bright, — "que le soleil etoit beau," that is, that
the weather was favorable for travelling, — is curiously miscon-
ceived by the editor of the Dernieres Decouvertes, who improves upon
his original by substituting the words " par le cinquieme paquet iU
nous exhortoient a adorer le Soleil."
J680.J MURDER OF RIBOURDE. 233
in a rage, rose and drove him from the lodge. The
French withdrew to their hut, where they stood all
rdght on the watch, expecting an attack, and resolved
to sell their lives dearly. At daybreak, the chiefs
ordered them to begone.
Tonty, with admirable fidelity and courage, had
done all in the power of man to protect the allies of
Canada against their ferocious assailants; and he
thought it unwise to persist further in a course which
could lead to no good, and which would probably
end in the destruction of the whole party. He
embarked in a leaky canoe with Membra*, Ribourde,
Boisrondet, and the remaining two men, and began
to ascend the river. After paddling about five
leagues, they landed to dry their baggage and repair
their crazy vessel; when Father Ribourde, breviary
in hand, strolled across the sunny meadows for an
hour of meditation among the neighboring groves.
Evening approached, and he did not return. Tonty,
with one of the men, went to look for him, and,
following his tracks, presently discovered those of a
band of Indians, who had apparently seized or mur-
dered him. Still, they did not despair. They fired
their guns to guide him, should he still be alive;
built a huge fire by the bank, and then, crossing the
river, lay watching it from the other side. At mid-
night, they saw the figure of a man hovering around
the blaze; then many more appeared, but Ribourde
was not among them. In truth, a band of Kickapoos,
enemies of the Iroquois, about whose camp they had
234 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
been prowling in quest of scalps, had met and wan-
tonly murdered the inoffensive old man. They
carried his scalp to their village, and danced round
it in triumph, pretending to have taken it from an
enemy. Thus, in his sixty-fifth year, the only heir
of a wealthy Burgundian house perished under the
war-clubs of the savages for whose salvation he had
renounced station, ease, and affluence.1
Meanwhile, a hideous scene was enacted at the
ruined village of the Illinois. Their savage foes,
balked of a living prey, wreaked their fury on the
dead. They dug up the graves; they threw down
the scaffolds. Some of the bodies they burned;
some they threw to the dogs; some, it is affirmed,
they ate.2 Placing the skulls on stakes as trophies,
they turned to pursue the Illinois, who, when the
French withdrew, had abandoned their asylum and
retreated down the river. The Iroquois, still, it
seems, in awe of them, followed them along the
opposite bank, each night encamping face to face
1 Tonty, Memoire ; Membre in Le Clerc, ii. 191. Hennepin, who
hated Tonty, unjustly charges him with having abandoned the
search too soon, admitting, however, that it would have been useless
to continue it. This part of his narrative is a perversion of
Membre's account.
2 " Cependant les Iroquois, aussitot apres le depart du Sr> de
Tonty, exercerent leur rage sur les corps morts des Ilinois, qu'ils
de'terrerent ou abbatterent de dessus les e'chafauds oil les Ilinois les
laissent longtemps exposes avant que de les mettre en terre. Ils
en brulerent la plus grande partie, ils en mangerent meme quelques
uns, et jetterent le reste aux chiens. Ils planterent les tetes de ces
cadavres a demi decharne's sur des pieux," etc. — Relation des
D&ovvertes.
1680.] ATTACK OF THE IROQUOIS. 235
with them; and thus the adverse bands moved slowly
southward, till they were near the mouth of the
river. Hitherto, the compact array of the Illinois
h^d held their enemies in check ; but now, suffering
from hunger, and lulled into security by the assur-
ances of the Iroquois that their object was not to
destroy them, but only to drive them from the
country, they rashly separated into their several
tribes. Some descended the Mississippi; some, more
prudent, crossed to the western side. One of their
principal tribes, the Tamaroas, more credulous than
the rest, had the fatuity to remain near the mouth of
the Illinois, where they were speedily assailed by
all the force of the Iroquois. The men fled, and
very few of them were killed; but the women and
children were captured to the number, it is said, of
seven hundred.1 Then followed that scene of torture
of which, some two weeks later, La Salle saw the
revolting traces.2 Sated, at length, with horrors,
the conquerors withdrew, leading with them a host
of captives, and exulting in their triumphs over
women, children, and the dead.
After the death of Father Ribourde, Tonty and
his companions remained searching for him till noon
1 Relation des Decouvertes ; Frontenac to the King, N. Y. Col.
Di <cs., ix. 147. A memoir of Duchesneau makes the number twelve
hundred.
2 " Us [les Illinois] trouverent dans leur campement des carcasses
de leurs enf ans que ces anthropophages avoient mangez, ne voulant
meme d'autre nourriture que la chair de ces inf ortunez." — La Pot h-
trie, ii. 145, 146. Compare note, ante, p. 211.
236 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
of the next day, and then in despair of again seeing
him, resumed their journey. They ascended the
river, leaving no token of their passage at the junc-
tion of its northern and southern branches. For
food, they gathered acorns and dug roots in the
meadows. Their canoe proved utterly worthless;
and, feeble as they were, they set out on foot for
Lake Michigan. Boisrondet wandered off, and was
lost. He had dropped the flint of his gun, and he
had no bullets; but he cut a pewter porringer into
slugs, with which he shot wild turkeys by discharg-
ing his piece with a firebrand, and after several days
he had the good fortune to rejoin the party. Their
object was to reach the Pottawattamies of Green
Bay. Had they aimed at Michilimackinac, they
would have found an asylum with La Forest at the
fort on the St. Joseph; but unhappily they passed
westward of that post, and, by way of Chicago, fol-
lowed the borders of Lake Michigan northward. The
cold was intense ; and it was no easy task to grub up
wild onions from the frozen ground to save them-
selves from starving. Tonty fell ill of a fever and a
swelling of the limbs, which disabled him from travel-
ling, and hence ensued a long delay. At length they
neared Green Bay, where they would have starved,
had they not gleaned a few ears of corn and frozen
squashes in the fields of an empty Indian town.
This enabled them to reach the bay, and having
patched an old canoe which they had the good luck
to find, they embarked in "it; whereupon, says Tonty,
1(80.] FRIENDS IN NEED. 231
" there rose a northwest wind, which lasted five days,
with driving snow. We consumed all our food; and
not knowing what to do next, we resolved to go back
to the deserted town, and die by a warm fire in one
of the wigwams. On our way, we saw a smoke ; but
our joy was short, for when we reached the fire we
found nobody there. We spent the night by it; and
before morning the bay froze. We tried to break a
wiiy for our canoe through the ice, but could not;
and therefore we determined to stay there another
night, and make moccasins in order to reach the
town. We made some out of Father Gabriel's cloak.
I was angry with Etienne Renault for not finishing
his; but he excused himself on account of illness,
because he had a great oppression of the stomach,
caused by eating a piece of an Indian shield of raw-
hide, which he could not digest. His delay proved
our salvation; for the next day, December fourth, as
I was urging him to finish the moccasins, and he was
still excusing himself on the score of his malady, a
party of Kiskakon Ottawas, who were on their way
to the Pottawattamies, saw the smoke of our fire,
and came to us. We gave them such a welcome as
was never seen before. They took us into their
canoes, and carried us to an Indian village, only two
leagues off. There we found five Frenchmen, who
received us kindly, and all the Indians seemed to
take pleasure in sending us food; so that, after
thirty-four days of starvation, we found DTIT famine
turned to abundance."
238 TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS. [1680.
This hospitable village belonged to the Pottawat-
tamies, and was under the sway of the chief who had
befriended La Salle the year before, and who was
wont to say that he knew but three great captains in
the world, — Frontenac, La Salle, and himself.1
1 Membre in Le Clerc, ii. 199. The other authorities for the fore-
going chapter are the letters of La Salle, the Relation des Decou-
vertes, in which portions of them are embodied, and the two narra-
tives of Tonty, of 1684 and 1693. They all agree in essential points.
In his letters of this period, La Salle dwells at great length on
the devices by which, as he believed, his enemies tried to ruin him
and his enterprise. He is particularly severe against the Jesuit
Allouez, whom he charges with intriguing " pour commencer la
guerre entre les Iroquois et les Illinois par le moyen des Miamis
qu'on engageoit dans cette negotiation afin ou de me faire mas-
sacrer avec mes gens par quelqu'une de ces nations ou de me
brouiller avec les Iroquois." — Lettre (a Tkouret?), 22 Aout, 1682.
He gives in detail the circumstances on which this suspicion rests,
but which are not convincing. He says, further, that the Jesuits
gave out that Tonty was dead in order to discourage the men going
to his relief, and that Allouez encouraged the deserters, " leur ser-
voit de conseil, be"nit mesme leurs balles, et les asseura plusieurs
f ois que M. de Tonty auroit la teste casse'e." He also affirms that
great pains were taken to spread the report that he was himself
dead. A Kiskakon Indian, he says, was sent to Tonty with a story
to this effect; while a Huron named Scortas was sent to him (La
Salle) with false news of the death of Tonty. The latter confirms
this statement, and adds that the Illinois had been told " que M. de
la Salle estoit venu en leur pays pour les donner a manger aus
Iroquois."
1630.] THE ILLINOIS TOWN. 239
THE ILLINOIS TOWN.
THE SITE OF THE GREAT ILLINOIS TOWN. — This has not
till now been determined, though there have been various con-
jectures concerning it. From a study of the contemporary
documents and maps, I became satisfied, first, that the branch
of the river Illinois, called the " Big Vermilion," was the
Aramoni of the French explorers ; and, secondly, that the cliff
called "Starved Rock" was that known to the French as Le
Richer, or the Rock of St. Louis. If I was right in this conclu-
sion, then the position of the Great Village was established ;
for there is abundant proof that it was on the north side of the
river, above the Aramoni, and below Le Rocher. I accordingly
wont to the village of Utica, which, as I judged by the map,
was very near the point in question, and mounted to the top of
one of the hills immediately behind it, whence I could see the
valley of the Illinois for miles, bounded on the farther side by
a range of hills, in some parts rocky and precipitous, and in
others covered with forests. Far on the right was a gap in
these hills, through which the Big Vermilion flowed to join the
Illinois ; and somewhat towards the left, at the distance of a
mile and a half, was a huge cliff, rising perpendicularly from
the opposite margin of the river. This I assumed to be Le
Rocher of the French, though from where I stood I was unable
to discern the distinctive features which I was prepared to find
in it. In every other respect, the scene before me was precisely
wtiat I had expected to see. There was a meadow on the hither
side of the river, on which stood a farmhouse ; and this, as it
seemed to me, by its relations with surrounding objects, might
be. supposed to stand in the midst of the space once occupied
by the Illinois town.
On the way down from the hill I met Mr. James Clark, the
principal inhabitant of Utica, and one of the earliest settlers of
this region. I accosted him, told him my objects, and requested
240 THE ILLINOIS TOWN. [1680.
a half hour's conversation with him, at his leisure. He seemed
interested in the inquiry, and said he would visit me early in
the evening at the inn, where, accordingly, he soon appeared.
The conversation took place in the porch, where a number of
farmers and others were gathered. I asked Mr. Clark if any
Indian remains were found in the neighborhood. " Yes," he
replied, " plenty of them." I then inquired if there was any one
spot where they were more numerous than elsewhere. "Yes,"
he answered again, pointing towards the farmhouse on the
meadow ; " on my farm down yonder by the river, my tenant
ploughs up teeth and bones by the peck every spring, besides
arrow-heads, beads, stone hatchets, and other things of that
sort." I replied that this was precisely what I had expected, as
I had been led to believe that the principal town of the Illinois
Indians once covered that very spot. " If," I added, " I am
right in this belief, the great rock beyond the river is the one
which the first explorers occupied as a fort ; and I can describe
it to you from their accounts of it, though I have never seen it,
except from the top of the hill where the trees on and around
it prevented me from seeing any part but the front." The men
present now gathered around to listen. " The rock," I con-
tinued, "is nearly a hundred and fifty feet high, and rises
directly from the water. The front and two sides are perpen-
dicular and inaccessible; but there is one place where it is
possible for a man to climb up, though with difficulty. The
top is large enough and level enough for houses and fortifica-
tions." Here several of the men exclaimed: " That's just it."
"You've hit it exactly." I then asked if there was any other
rock on that side of the river which could answer to the descrip-
tion. They all agreed that there was no such rock on either
side, along the whole length of the river. I then said : " If the
Indian town was in the place where I suppose it to have been, I
can tell you the nature of the country which lies behind the
hills on the farther side of the river, though I know nothing
about it except what I have learned from writings nearly two
centuries old. From the top of the hills, you look out upon a
great prairie reaching as far as you can see, except that it is
crossed by a belt of woods, following the course of a stream
1680.] THE ILLINOIS TOWN. 241
which enters the martn river a few miles below." (See ante, p.
2L'l, note.) "You are exactly right again," replied Mr. Clark;
" we call that belt of timber the * Vermilion Woods,' and the
stream is the Big Vermilion." " Then," I said, " the Big Ver-
milion is the river which the French called the Aramoni;
* Starved Rock ' is the same on which they built a fort called St.
Louis, in the year 1682 ; and your farm is on the site of the
great town of the Illinois."
I spent the next day in examining these localities, and was
fully confirmed in my conclusions. Mr. Clark's tenant showed
me the spot where the human bones were ploughed up. It was
no doubt the graveyard violated by the Iroquois. The Illinois
rt turned to the village after their defeat, and long continued
to occupy it. The scattered bones were probably collected and
restored to their place of burial.
CHAPTER XVII.
1680.
THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN.
HENNEFIN AN IMPOSTOR : HIS PRETENDED DISCOVERY ; HIS ACTUAI
DISCOVERY ; CAPTURED BY THE Sioux. — THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.
IT was on the last day of the winter that preceded
the invasion of the Iroquois that Father Hennepin,
with his two companions, Accau and Du Gay, had
set out from Fort Crevecoeur to explore the Illinois to
its mouth. It appears from his own later statements,
as well as from those of Tonty, that more than this
was expected of him, and that La Salle had instructed
him to explore, not alone the Illinois, but also the
Upper Mississippi. That he actually did so, there
is no reasonable doubt; and could he have contented
himself with telling the truth, his name would have
stood high as a bold and vigorous discoverer. But
his vicious attempts to malign his commander and
plunder him of his laurels have wrapped his genuine
merit in a cloud.
Hennepin's first book was published soon after his
return from his travels, and while La Salle was still
alive. In it he relates the accomplishment of the
1680.] HENNEPIN'S RESOLUTION. 243
instructions given him, without the smallest intima-
tion that he did more.1 Fourteen years after, when
La Salle was dead, he published another edition of
his travels,2 in which he advanced a new and sur-
prising pretension. Reasons connected with his per-
sonal safety, he declares, before compelled him to
remain silent ; but a time at length had come when
the truth must be revealed. And he proceeds to
affirm, that, before ascending the Mississippi, he,
with his two men, explored its whole course from the
Illinois to the sea, — thus anticipating the discovery
which forms the crowning laurel of La Salle.
"I am resolved," he says, "to make known here
to the whole world the mystery of this discovery,
which I have hitherto concealed, that I might not
offend the Sieur de la Salle, who wished to keep all
the glory and all the knowledge of it to himself. It
is for this that he sacrificed many persons whose lives
he exposed, to prevent them from making known
what they had seen, and thereby crossing his secret
plans. ... I was certain that if I went down the
Mississippi, he would not fail to traduce me to my
superiors for not taking the northern route, which I
was to have followed in accordance with his desire
and the plan we had made together. But I saw
myself on the point of dying of hunger, and knew
not what to do ; because the two men who were with
1 Description de la Louisiane, nouvellement dtcouverte, Paris, 1683.
8 Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres grand Pays situe dans I'Amtrique,
Utrecht, 1697.
244 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680
me threatened openly to leave me in the night, and
carry off the canoe and everything in it, if I prevented
them from going down the river to the nations below.
Finding myself in this dilemma, I thought that I
ought not to hesitate, and that I ought to prefer my
own safety to the violent passion which possessed the
Sieur de la Salle of enjoying alone the glory of this
discovery. The two men, seeing that I had made up
my mind to follow them, promised me entire fidelity;
so, after we had shaken hands together as a mutual
pledge, we set out on our voyage." 1
He then proceeds to recount at length the particu-
lars of his alleged exploration. The story was dis-
trusted from the first.2 Why had he not told it
before? An excess of modesty, a lack of self-
assertion, or a too sensitive reluctance to wound the
susceptibilities of others, had never been found among
his foibles. Yet some, perhaps, might have believed
him, had he not in the first edition of his book gra-
tuitously and distinctly declared that he did not
make the voyage in question. "We had some
designs," he says, "of going down the river Colbert
[Mississippi] as far as its mouth ; but the tribes that
took us prisoners gave us no time to navigate this
river both up and down."8
1 Nouvelle Decouverte, 248, 250, 251.
2 See the preface of the Spanish translation by Don Sebastian
Fernandez de Medrano, 1699, and also the letter of Gravier, dated
1701, in Shea's Early Voyages on the Mississippi. Barcia, Charle
roix, Kalm, and other early writers put a low value on Hennepin'a
reracity.
* Description de la Louitiane, 218.
1680.J HENNEPIN AN IMPOSTOR. 245
In declaring to the world the achievement -which
he had so long concealed and so explicitly denied,
the worthy missionary found himself in serious
embarrassment. In his first book, he had stated that
on the twelfth of March he left the mouth of the
Illinois on his way northward, and that on the
eleventh of April he was captured by the Sioux near
the mouth of the Wisconsin, five hundred miles
itbove. This would give him only a month to make
his alleged canoe-voyage from the Illinois to the Gulf
of Mexico, and again upward to the place of his
capture, — a distance of three thousand two hundred
and sixty miles. With his means of transportation,
three months would have been insufficient. * He saw
the difficulty; but, on the other hand, he saw that
he could not greatly change either date without con-
fusing the parts of his narrative which preceded and
which followed. In this perplexity he chose a middle
course, which only involved him in additional contra-
dictions. Having, as he affirms, gone down to the
Gulf and returned to the mouth of the Illinois, he
fret out thence to explore the river above; and he
assigns the twenty-fourth of April as the date of
this departure. This gives him forty- three days for
1 La Salle, in the following year, with a far better equipment,
was more than three months and a half in making the journey. A
Mississippi trading-boat of the last generation, with sails and oars,
ascending against the current, was thought to do remarkably well
if it could make twenty miles a day. Hennepin, if we believe his
own statements, must have ascended at an average rate of
roiles, though his canoe was large and heavily laden.
246 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680,
his voyage to the mouth of the river and back.
Looking further, we find that having left the Illinois
on the twenty-fourth he paddled his canoe two hun-
dred leagues northward, and was then captured by
the Sioux on the twelfth of the same month. In
short, he ensnares himself in a hopeless confusion of
dates.1
Here, one would think, is sufficient reason for
rejecting his story ; and yet the general truth of the
descriptions, and a certain verisimilitude which marks
it, might easily deceive a careless reader and perplex
a critical one. These, however, are easily explained.
Six years before Hennepin published his pretended
discovery, his brother friar, Father Chretien Le
Clerc, published an account of the Recollet missions
among the Indians, under the title of " Stablissement
de la Foi." This book, offensive to the Jesuits, is
said to have been suppressed by order of government ;
but a few copies fortunately survive.2 One of these
is now before me. It contains the journal of Father
Zenobe Membre*, on his descent of the Mississippi in
1 Hennepin here falls into gratuitous inconsistencies. In the
edition of 1697, in order to gain a little time, he says that he left
the Illinois on his voyage southward on the eighth of March, 1680 ;
and yet in the preceding chapter he repeats the statement of the
first edition, that he was detained at the Illinois by floating ice till
the twelfth. Again, he says in the first edition that he was cap-
tured by the Sioux on the eleventh of April ; and in the edition of
1697 he changes this date to the twelfth, without gaining any
advantage by doing so.
2 Le Clerc's book had been made the text of an attack on the
Jesuits. See Reflexions sur un Livre intitule Premier Etablissement d«
la Foi. This piece ia printed in the Morale Pratique des Jesuites.
1680. J HENNEPIN AN IMPOSTOR. 247
1681, in company with La Salle. The slightest com*
parison of his narrative with that of Hennepin is
sufficient to show that the latter framed his own
story out of incidents and descriptions furnished by
Iris brother missionary, often using his very words,
and sometimes copying entire pages, with no other
alterations than such as were necessary to make
himself, instead of La Salle and his companions, the
hero of the exploit. The records of literary piracy
may be searched in vain for an act of depredation
more recklessly impudent.1
Such being the case, what faith can we put in the
rest of Hennepin's story? Fortunately, there are
tests by which the earlier parts of his book can be
1 Hennepin may have copied from the unpublished journal of
Membre', which the latter had placed in the hands of his Superior ;
or he may have compiled from Le Clerc's book, relying on the sup-
pression of the edition to prevent detection. He certainly saw and
used it ; for he elsewhere borrows the exact words of the editor.
He is so careless that he steals from Membre passages which he
might easily have written for himself ; as, for example, a descrip-
tion of the opossum and another of the cougar, — animals with
which he was acquainted. Compare the following pages of the
Nouvelle Decouverte with the corresponding pages of Le Clerc : Hen-
nepin, 252, Le Clerc, ii. 217; H. 253, Le C. ii. 218; H. 257, Le C.
ii. 221 ; H. 259, Le C. ii. 224; H. 262, Le C. ii. 226; H. 265, Le C. ii.
229; H. 267, Le C, ii. 233; H. 270, Le C. ii. 235; H. 280, Le C.
ii. 240 ; H. 295, Le C. ii. 249 ; H. 296, Le C. ii. 250 ; H. 297, Le C. ii.
253; H. 299, Le C. ii. 254; H. 301, Le C. ii. 257. Some of these
parallel passages will be found in Sparks's Life of La Salle, where
this remarkable fraud was first fully exposed. In Shea's Discovery
of the Mississippi, there is an excellent critical examination of Hen-
nepin's works. His plagiarisms from Le Clerc are not confined to
the passages cited above ; for in his later editions he stole largely
from other parts of the suppressed Etablissement de la Foi.
248 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680.
tried; and, on the whole, they square exceedingly
well with contemporary records of undoubted authen-
ticity. Bating his exaggerations respecting the Falls
of Niagara, his local descriptions, and even his esti-
mates of distance, are generally accurate. He con-
stantly, it is true, magnifies his own acts, and thrusts
himself forward as one of the chiefs of an enterprise
to the costs of which he had contributed nothing,
and to which he was merely an appendage ; and yet,
till he reaches the Mississippi, there can be no doubt
that in the main he tells the truth. As for his ascent
of that river to the country of the Sioux, the general
statement is fully confirmed by La Salle, Tonty, and
other contemporary writers.1 For the details of the
journey we must rest on Hennepin alone, whose
account of the country and of the peculiar traits of
its Indian occupants afford, as far as they go, good
evidence of truth. Indeed, this part of his narrative
could only have been written by one well versed in the
savage life of this northwestern region.2 Trusting,
1 It is certain that persons having the best means of information
believed at the time in Hennepin's story of his journeys on the
Upper Mississippi. The compiler of the Relation des Decouvertes,
who was in close relations with La Salle and those who acted with
him, does not intimate a doubt of the truth of the report which
Hennepin on his return gave to the Provincial Commissary of his
Order, and which is in substance the same which he published two
years later. The Relation, it is to be observed, was written only a
few months after the return of Hennepin, and embodies the pith of
his narrative of the Upper Mississippi, no part of which had then
been published.
2 In this connection, it is well to examine the various Sioux
words which Hennepin uses incidentally, and which he must have
1680.] HIS VOYAGE NORTHWARD. 249
then, to his own guidance in the absence of better,
let us follow in the wake of his adventurous canoe.
It was laden deeply with goods belonging to La
Salle, and meant by him as presents to Indians on
the way, though the travellers, it appears, proposed
to use them in trading on their own account. The
friar was still wrapped in his gray capote and hood,
shod with sandals, and decorated with the cord of St.
Francis. As for his two companions, Accau1 and
acquired by personal intercourse with the tribe, as no Frenchman
then understood the language. These words, as far as my informa-
tion reaches, are in every instance correct. Thus, he says that the
Sioux called his breviary a " bad spirit," — Ouackanche. Wakanshe,
or Wakanshecha, would express the same meaning in modern Eng-
ish spelling. He says elsewhere that they called the guns of his
companions Manzaouackancht, which he translates, " iron possessed
with a bad spirit." The western Sioux to this day call a gun Man-
zawakan, "metal possessed with a spirit." Chonga (shonka), "a
dog," Quasi (wahsee), "a pine-tree," Chinnen (shinnan), "a robe," or
' garment," and other words, are given correctly, with their inter-
pretations. The word Louis, affirmed by Hennepin to mean " the
sun," seems at first sight a wilful inaccuracy, as this is not the word
used in general by the Sioux. The Yankton band of this people,
however, call the sun oouee, which, it is evident, represents the
French pronunciation of Louis, omitting the initial letter. This
Hennepin would be apt enough to supply, thereby conferring a
compliment alike on himself, Louis Hennepin, and on the King,
Louis XIV., who, to the indignation of his brother monarchs, had
chosen the sun as his emblem.
Various trivial incidents touched upon by Hennepin, while re-
counting his life among the Sioux, seem to me to afford a strong
presumption of an actual experience. I speak on this point with
the more confidence, as the Indians in whose lodges I was once
domesticated for several weeks belonged to a western band of the
same people.
1 Called Ako by Hennepin. In contemporary documenta, it is
Written Accau, Acau, D'Accau, Dacau, Dacan, and D'Accault.
250 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680.
Du Gay, it is tolerably clear that the former was the
real leader of the party, though Hennepin, after his
custom, thrusts himself into the foremost place.
Both were somewhat above the station of ordinary
hired hands ; and Du Gay had an uncle who was an
ecclesiastic of good credit at Amiens, his native
place.
In the forests that overhung the river the buds
were feebly swelling with advancing spring. There
was game enough. They killed buffalo, deer,
beavers, wild turkeys, and now and then a bear
swimming in the river. With these, and the fish
which they caught in abundance, they fared sumptu-
ously, though it was the season of Lent. They were
exemplary, however, at their devotions. Hennepin
said prayers at morning and night, and the angelus
at noon, adding a petition to Saint Anthony of Padua
that he would save them from the peril that beset
their way. In truth, there was a lion in the path.
The ferocious character of the Sioux, or Dacotah,
who occupied the region of the Upper Mississippi,
was already known to the French; and Hennepin,
with excellent reason, prayed that it might be his
fortune to meet them, not by night, but by day.
On the eleventh or twelfth of April, they stopped
in the afternoon to repair their canoe ; and Hennepin
busied himself in daubing it with pitch, while the
others cooked a turkey. Suddenly, a fleet of Sioux
canoes swept into sight, bearing a war-party of a
hundred and twenty naked savages, who on seeing
1630.] CAPTURED BY THE SIOUX. 251
the travellers raised a hideous clamor; and, some
leaping ashore and others into the water, they sur-
rounded the astonished Frenchmen in an instant.1
Honnepin held out the peace-pipe ; but one of them
snatched it from him. Next, he hastened to proffer
a gift of Martinique tobacco, which was better
received. Some of the old warriors repeated the
name Miamika, giving him to understand that they
were a war-party, on the way to attack the Miamis;
on which, Hennepin, with the help of signs and of
marks which he drew on the sand with a stick,
explained that the Miamis had gone across the
Mississippi, beyond their reach. Hereupon, he says
that three or four old men placed their hands on his
head, and began a dismal wailing; while he with his
handkerchief wiped away their tears, in order to
evince sympathy with their affliction, from whatever
cause arising. Notwithstanding this demonstration
of tenderness, they refused to smoke with him in his
peace-pipe, and forced him and his companions to
embark and paddle across the river; while they all
followed behind, uttering yells and howlings which
fime the missionary's blood.
On reaching the farther side, they made their
camp-fires, and allowed their prisoners to do the
same. Accau and Du Gay slung their kettle ; while
i The edition of 1683 says that there were thirty-three canoes :
that of 1697 raises the number to fifty. The number of Indiana is
the tame in both. The later narrative is more in detail than the
former.
252 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680.
Hennepin, to propitiate the Sioux, carried to them
two turkeys, of which there were several in the
canoe. The warriors had seated themselves in a
ring, to debate on the fate of the Frenchmen; and
two chiefs presently explained to the friar, by signifi-
cant signs, that it had been resolved that his head
should be split with a war-club. This produced the
effect which was no doubt intended. Hennepin ran
to the canoe, and quickly returned with one of the
men, both loaded with presents, which he threw into
the midst of the assembly; and then, bowing his
head, offered them at the same time a hatchet with
which to kill him, if they wished to do so. His
gifts and his submission seemed to appease them.
They gave him and his companions a dish of beaver's
flesh; but, to his great concern, they returned his
peace-pipe, — an act which he interpreted as a sign
of danger. That night the Frenchmen slept little,
expecting to be murdered before morning. There
was, in fact, a great division of opinion among the
Sioux. Some were for killing them and taking their
goods; while others, eager above all things that
French traders should come among them with the
knives, hatchets, and guns of which they had heard
the value, contended that it would be impolitic to
discourage the trade by putting to death its pioneers.
Scarcely had morning dawned on the anxious cap-
tives, when a young chief, naked, and painted from
head to foot, appeared before them and asked for the
pipe, which the friar gladly gave him. He filled it,
1630.] SUSPECTED OF SORCERY. 253
smoked it, made the warriors do the same, and, hav-
ing given this hopeful pledge of amity, told the
Frenchmen that, since the Miamis were out of reach,
the war-party would return home, and that they must
accompany them. To this Hennepin gladly agreed,
having, as he declares, his great work of exploration
so much at heart that he rejoiced in the prospect of
achieving it even in their company.
He soon, however, had a foretaste of the affliction
in store for him; for when he opened his breviary
and began to mutter his morning devotion, his new
companions gathered about him with faces that
betrayed their superstitious terror, and gave him to
understand that his book was a bad spirit with which
he must hold no more converse. They thought,
indeed, that he was muttering a charm for their
destruction. Accau and Du Gay, conscious of the
danger, begged the friar to dispense with his devo-
tions, lest he and they alike should be tomahawked ;
but Hennepin says that his sense of duty rose superior
to his fears, and that he was resolved to repeat his
office at all hazards, though not until he had asked
pardon of his two friends for thus imperilling their
lives. Fortunately, he presently discovered a device
by which his devotion and his prudence were com-
pletely reconciled. He ceased the muttering which
had alarmed the Indians, and, with the breviary open
on his knees, sang the service in loud and cheerful
tones. As this had no savor of sorcery, and as they
now imagined that the book was teaching its owner
254 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680.
to sing for their amusement, they conceived a favor-
able opinion of both alike.
These Sioux, it may be observed, were the ances-
tors of those who committed the horrible but not
unprovoked massacres of 1862, in the valley of the
St. Peter. Hennepin complains bitterly of their
treatment of him, which, however, seems to have
been tolerably good. Afraid that he would lag
behind, as his canoe was heavy and slow,1 they
placed several warriors in it to aid him and his men
in paddling. They kept on their way from morning
till night, building huts for their bivouac when it
rained, and sleeping on the open ground when the
weather was fair, — which, says Hennepin, " gave us
a good opportunity to contemplate the moon and
stars." The three Frenchmen took the precaution
of sleeping at the side of the young chief who had
been the first to smoke the peace-pipe, and who
seemed inclined to befriend them; but there was
another chief, one Aquipaguetin, a crafty old savage,
who having lost a son in war with the Miamis, was
angry that the party had abandoned their expedition,
and thus deprived him of his revenge. He therefore
kept up a dismal lament through half the night;
while other old men, crouching over Hennepin as he
lay trying to sleep, stroked him with their hands, and
uttered wailings so lugubrious that he was forced to
1 And yet it had, by his account, made a distance of thirteen
hundred and eighty miles from the mouth of the Mississippi upward
in twenty-four days !
1630.] THE CAPTIVE FRIAR. 255
the belief that he had been doomed to death, and
that they were charitably bemoaning his fate.1
One night, the captives were, for some reason,
unable to bivouac near their protector, and were
forced to make their fire at the end of the camp.
Here they were soon beset by a crowd of Indians,
who told them that Aquipaguetin had at length
resolved to tomahawk them. The malcontents were
gathered in a knot at a little distance, and Hennepin
hastened to appease them by another gift of knives
and tobacco. This was but one of the devices of the
old chief to deprive them of their goods without
robbing them outright. He had with him the bones
of a deceased relative, which he was carrying home
wrapped in skins prepared with smoke after the
Indian fashion, and gayly decorated with bands of
dyed porcupine quills. He would summon his war-
riors, and placing these relics in the midst of the
assembly, call on all present to smoke in their honor;
after which, Hennepin was required to offer a more
substantial tribute in the shape of cloth, beads,
hatchets, tobacco, and the like, to be laid upon the
bundle of bones. The gifts thus acquired were then,
in the name of the deceased, distributed among the
persons present.
1 This weeping and wailing over Hennepin once seemed to me
an anomaly in his account of Sioux manners, as I am not aware
th;it such practices are to be found among them at present. They
are mentioned, however, by other early writers. Le Sueur, who
was among them in 1699-1700, was wept over no less than Henne-
pin. See the abstract of his journal in La Harpe.
256 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPrN". [1680.
On one occasion, Aquipaguetin killed a bear, and
invited the chiefs and warriors to feast upon it.
They accordingly assembled on a prairie, west of the
river, where, after the banquet, they danced a " medi-
cine-dance." They were all painted from head to
foot, with their hair oiled, garnished with red and
white feathers, and powdered with the down of birds.
In this guise they set their arms akimbo, and fell to
stamping with such fury that the hard prairie was
dented with the prints of their moccasins ; while the
chief's son, crying at the top of his throat, gave to
each in turn the pipe of war. Meanwhile, the chief
himself, singing in a loud and rueful voice, placed
his hands on the heads of the three Frenchmen, and
from time to time interrupted his music to utter a
vehement harangue. Hennepin could not understand
the words, but his heart sank as the conviction grew
strong within him that these ceremonies tended to
his destruction. It seems, however, that, after all
the chief's efforts, his party was in the minority, the
greater part being adverse to either killing or robbing
the three strangers.
Every morning, at daybreak, an old warrior shouted
the signal of departure; and the recumbent savages
leaped up, manned their birchen fleet, and plied their
paddles against the current, often without waiting
to break their fast. Sometimes they stopped for a
buffalo-hunt on the neighboring prairies; and there
was no lack of provisions. They passed Lake Pepin,
which Hennepin called the Lake of Tears, by reason
K580.] A HARD JOURNEY. 257
of the bowlings and lamentations here uttered over
him by Aquipaguetin, and nineteen days after his
caj/ture landed near the site of St. Paul. The
f it her's sorrows now began in earnest. The Indians
br< ke his canoe to pieces, having first hidden their
o^ n among the alder-bushes. As they belonged to
clilferent bands and different villages, their mutual
jes lousy now overcame all their prudence; and each
prs ceeded to claim his share of the captives and the
bcoty. Happily, they made an amicable distribution,
or it would have fared ill with the three Frenchmen;
find each taking his share, not forgetting the priestly
\7estments of Hennepin, the splendor of which they
(jo'old not sufficiently admire, they set out across the
country for their villages, which lay towards the
north in the neighborhood of Lake Buade, now called
Mille Lac.
Being, says Hennepin, exceedingly tall and active,
they walked at a prodigious speed, insomuch that no
European could long keep pace with them. Though
the month of May had begun, there were frosts at
night; and the marshes and ponds were glazed with
ice, which cut the missionary's legs as he waded
through. They swam the larger streams, and Hen-
nepin nearly perished with cold as he emerged from
the icy current. His two companions, who were
smaller than he, and who could not swim, were
carried over on the backs of the Indians. They
showed, however, no little endurance ; and he declares
that he should have dropped by the way, but for their
17
258 THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN. [1680.
support. Seeing him disposed to lag, the Indians,
to spur him on, set fire to the dry grass behind him,
and then, taking him by the hands, ran forward with
him to escape the flames. To add to his misery, he
was nearly famished, as they gave him only a small
piece of smoked meat once a day, though it does not
appear that they themselves fared better. On the
fifth day, being by this time in extremity, he saw a
crowd of squaws and children approaching over the
prairie, and presently descried the bark lodges of
an Indian town. The goal was reached. He was
among the homes of the Sioux.
CHAPTER XVIII.
1680, 1681.
HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX.
SIGNS OF DANGER. — ADOPTION. — HENNEPIN AND HIS INDIAN RELA-
TIVES.— THE HUNTING PARTY. — THE Sioux CAMP. — FALLS
OF ST. ANTHONY. — A VAGABOND FRIAR: HIS ADVENTURES ON
THE MISSISSIPPI. — GREYSOLON DU LHUT. — RETURN TO CIVILI-
ZATION.
As Hennepin entered the village, he beheld a
sight which caused him to invoke Saint Anthony
of Padua. In front of the lodges were certain
stakes, to which were attached bundles of straw,
intended, as he supposed, for burning him and
Ids friends alive. His concern was redoubled
when he saw the condition of the Picard Du Gay,
whose hair and face had been painted with divers
colors, and whose head was decorated with a tuft
of white feathers. In this guise he was entering
the village, followed by a crowd of Sioux, who com-
pelled him to sing and keep time to his own music
by rattling a dried gourd containing a number
of pebbles. The omens, indeed, were exceedingly
260 HEJSTNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
threatening; for treatment like this was usually
followed by the speedy immolation of the captive.
Hennepin ascribes it to the effect of his invocations,
that, being led into one of the lodges, among a
throng of staring squaws and children, he and his
companions were seated on the ground, and pre-
sented with large dishes of birch-bark, containing a
mess of wild rice boiled with dried whortleberries,
— a repast which he declares to have been the best
that had fallen to his lot since the day of his
captivity.1
1 The Sioux, or Dacotah, as they call themselves, were a nu-
merous people, separated into three great divisions, which were
again subdivided into bands. Those among whom Hennepin was
a prisoner belonged to the division known as the Issanti, Issan-
yati, or, as he writes it, Issati, of which the principal band was
the Meddewakantonwan. The other great divisions, the Yank-
tons and the Tintonwans, or Tetons, lived west of the Mississippi,
extending beyond the Missouri, and ranging as far as the Rocky
Mountains. The Issanti cultivated the soil; but the extreme
western bands subsisted on the buffalo alone. The former had
two kinds of dwelling, — the teepee, or skin-lodge, and the bark-
lodge. The teepee, which was used by all the Sioux, consists
of a covering of dressed buffalo-hide, stretched on a conical
stack of poles. The bark-lodge was peculiar to the Eastern
Sioux; and examples of it might be seen, until within a few
years, among the bands on the St. Peter's. In its general char-
acter, it was like the Huron and Iroquois houses, but was in-
ferior in construction. It had a ridge roof, framed of poles,
extending from the posts which formed the sides; and the
whole was covered with elm-bark. The lodges in the villages
to which Hennepin was conducted were probably of this
kind.
The name Sioux is an abbreviation of Nadouesstoux, an Ojibwa
word, meaning " enemies." The Ojibwas used it to designate thi*
1680.] THE SIOUX. 261
This soothed his fears; but, as he allayed his fam-
ished appetite, he listened with anxious interest to
the vehement jargon of the chiefs and warriors, who
were disputing among themselves to whom the three
captives should respectively belong; for it seems
that, as far as related to them, the question of distri-
bution had not yet been definitely settled. The
debate ended in the assigning of Hennepin to his old
enemy Aquipaguetin, who, however, far from persist-
ing in his evil designs, adopted him on the spot as
his son. The three companions must now part com-
pany. Du Gay, not yet quite reassured of his safety,
hastened to confess himself to Hennepin ; but Accau
proved refractory, and refused the offices of religion,
which did not prevent the friar from embracing them
both, as he says, with an extreme tenderness. Tired
as he was, he was forced to set out with his self-
styled father to his village, which was fortunately
people, and occasionally also the Iroquois, being at deadly war
with both.
Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, for many years a missionary among the
Issanti Sioux, says that this division consists of four distinct bands.
They ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi to the United
States in 1837, and lived on the St. Peter's till driven thence in con-
sequence of the massacres of 1862, 1863. The Yankton Sioux con-
sist of two bands, which are again subdivided. The Assiniboins, or
Hohays, are an offshoot from the Yanktons, with whom they are
now at war. The Tintonwan, or Teton Sioux, forming the most
western division and the largest, comprise seven bands, and are
among the bravest and fiercest tenants of the prairie.
The earliest French writers estimate the total number of the
Sioux at forty thousand ; but this is little better than conjecture.
Mr. Riggs, in 1852, placed it at about twenty-five thousand.
262 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680,
not far off. An unpleasant walk of a few miles
through woods and marshes brought them to the
borders of a sheet of water, apparently Lake Buade,
where five of Aquipague tin's wives received the
party in three canoes, and ferried them to an island
on which the village stood.
At the entrance of the chief's lodge, Hennepin was
met by a decrepit old Indian, withered with age, who
offered him the peace-pipe, and placed him on a bear-
skin which was spread by the fire. Here, to relieve
his fatigue, — for he was well-nigh spent, — a small
boy anointed his limbs with the fat of a wild-cat,
supposed to be sovereign in these cases by reason of
the great agility of that animal. His new father
gave him a bark-platter of fish, covered him with a
buffalo-robe, and showed him six or seven of his
wives, who were thenceforth, he was told, to regard
him as a son. The chief's household was numerous ;
and his allies and relatives formed a considerable
clan, of which the missionary found himself an invol-
untary member. He was scandalized when he saw
one of his adopted brothers carrying on his back the
bones of a deceased friend, wrapped in the chasuble
of brocade which they had taken with other vest-
ments from his box.
Seeing their new relative so enfeebled that he
could scarcely stand, the Indians made for him one
of their sweating baths,1 where they immersed him
1 These baths consist of a small hut, covered closely with buffalo-
ikins, into which the patient and his friends enter, carefully closing
1680.] HENNEPIN AS A MISSIONARY. 263
in steam three times a week, — a process from which
he thinks he derived great benefit. His strength
gradually returned, in spite of his meagre fare; for
there was a dearth of food, and the squaws were less
attentive to his wants than to those of their children.
They respected him, however, as a person endowed
with occult powers, and stood in no little awe of a
pocket compass which he had with him, as well as of
a small metal pot with feet moulded after the face of
a lion. This last seemed in their eyes a " medicine "
of the most formidable nature, and they would not
touch it without first wrapping it in a beaver-skin.
For the rest, Hennepin made himself useful in
various ways. He shaved the heads of the children,
as was the custom of the tribe ; bled certain asthmatic
persons, and dosed others with orvietan, the famous
panacea of his time, of which he had brought with
him a good supply. With respect to his missionary
functions, he seems to have given himself little
trouble, unless his attempt to make a Sioux vocabu-
lary is to be regarded as preparatory to a future
apostleship. "I could gain nothing over them," he
says, "in the way of their salvation, by reason of
their natural stupidity." Nevertheless, on one occa-
sion, he baptized a sick child, naming it Antoinette
in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua. It seemed to
revive after the rite, but soon relapsed and presently
crery aperture. A pile of heated stones is placed in the middle,
and water is poured upon them, raising a dense vapor. They are
still (1868) in use among the Sioux and some other tribes.
264 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
died, " which, " he writes, " gave me great joy and
satisfaction." In this he was like the Jesuits, who
could find nothing but consolation in the death of a
newly baptized infant, since it was thus assured of a
paradise which, had it lived, it would probably have
forfeited by sharing in the superstitions of its
parents.
With respect to Hennepin and his Indian father,
there seems to have been little love on either side;
but Ouasicoude*, the principal chief of the Sioux of
this region, was the fast friend of the three white
men. He was angry that they had been robbed,
which he had been unable to prevent, as the Sioux
had no laws, and their chiefs little power; but he
spoke his mind freely, and told Aquipaguetin and
the rest, in full council, that they were like a dog
who steals a piece of meat from a dish and runs away
with it. When Hennepin complained of hunger, the
Indians had always promised him that early in the
summer he should go with them on a buffalo hunt,
and have food in abundance. The time at length
came, and the inhabitants of all the neighboring
villages prepared for departure. To each band was
assigned its special hunting-ground, and he was
expected to accompany his Indian father. To this
he demurred ; for he feared lest Aquipaguetin, angry
at the words of the great chief, might take this
opportunity to revenge the insult put upon him. He
therefore gave out that he expected a party of
44 Spirits " — that is to say, Frenchmen — to meet him
1680.] CAMP OF SAVAGES. 265
at the mouth of the Wisconsin, bringing a supply of
goods for the Indians ; and he declares that La Salle
had in fact promised to send traders to that place.
Be this as it may, the Indians believed him; and,
true or false, the assertion, as will be seen, answered
the purpose for which it was made.
The Indians set out in a body to the number of
two hundred and fifty warriors, with their women
and children. The three Frenchmen, who though in
different villages had occasionally met during the two
months of their captivity, were all of the party.
They descended Rum River, which forms the outlet
of Mille Lac, and which is called the St. Francis by
Hennepin. None of the Indians had offered to give
him passage ; and, fearing lest he should be abandoned,
he stood on the bank, hailing the passing canoes and
begging to be taken in. Accau and Du Gay presently
appeared, paddling a small canoe which the Indians
had given them; but they would not listen to the
missionary's call, and Accau, who had no love for
him, cried out that he had paddled him long enough
already. Two Indians, however, took pity on him,
and brought him to the place of encampment, where
Du Gay tried to excuse himself for his conduct; but
Accau was sullen, and kept aloof.
After reaching the Mississippi, the whole party
encamped together opposite to the mouth of Rum
River, pitching their tents of skin, or building their
bark-huts, on the slope of a hill by the side of the
water. It was a wild scene, this camp of savages
266 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
among whom as yet no traders had come and no
handiwork of civilization had found its way, — the
tall warriors, some nearly naked, some wrapped in
buffalo-robes, and some in shirts of dressed deer-skin
fringed with hair and embroidered with dyed porcu-
pine quills, war-clubs of stone in their hands, and
quivers at their backs filled with stone-headed arrows ;
the squaws, cutting smoke-dried meat with knives
of flint, and boiling it in rude earthen pots of their
own making, driving away, meanwhile, with shrill
cries, the troops of lean dogs, which disputed the
meal with a crew of hungry children. The whole
camp, indeed, was threatened with starvation. The
three white men could get no food but unripe berries,
— from the effects of which Hennepin thinks they
might all have died, but for timely doses of his
orvietan.
Being tired of the Indians, he became anxious to
set out for the Wisconsin to find the party of French-
men, real or imaginary, who were to meet him at that
place. That he was permitted to do so was due to
the influence of the great chief Ouasicoude*, who
always befriended him, and who had soundly berated
his two companions for refusing him a seat in their
canoe. Du Gay wished to go with him; but Accau,
who liked the Indian life as much as he disliked
Hennepin, preferred to remain with the hunters. A
small birch-canoe was given to the two adventurers,
together with an earthen pot; and they had also
between them a gun, a knife, and a robe of beaver-
1680.] FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. 267
skin. Thus equipped, they began their journey, and
soon approached the Falls of St. Anthony, so named
l>y Hennepin in honor of the inevitable Saint Anthony
of Padua.1 As they were carrying their canoe by
the cataract, they saw five or six Indians, who had
gone before, and one of whom had climbed into an
oak-tree beside the principal fall, whence in a loud
and lamentable voice he was haranguing the spirit of
the waters, as a sacrifice to whom he had just hung a
robe of beaver-skin among the branches.2 Their
attention was soon engrossed by another object.
Looking over the edge of the cliff which overhung
the river below the falls, Hennepin saw a snake,
1 Hennepin's notice of the Falls of St. Anthony, though brief, is
sufficiently accurate. He says, in his first edition, that they are
forty or fifty feet high, but adds ten feet more in the edition of
1697. In 1821, according to Schoolcraft, the perpendicular fall
measured forty feet. Great changes, however, have taken place
here, and are still in progress. The rock is a very soft, friable
sandstone, overlaid by a stratum of limestone ; and it is crumbling
viih such rapidity under the action of the water that the cataract
vail soon be little more than a rapid. Other changes equally disas-
trous, in an artistic point of view, are going on even more quickly.
Beside the falls stands a city, which, by an ingenious combination
of the Greek and Sioux languages, has received the name of Min-
neapolis, or City of the Waters, and which in 1867 contained ten
thousand inhabitants, two national banks, and an opera-house;
while its rival city of St. Anthony, immediately opposite, boasted a
gigantic water-cure and a State university. In short, the great
natural beauty of the place is utterly spoiled.
2 Oanktayhee, the principal deity of the Sioux, was supposed to
live under these falls, though he manifested himself in the form of
a buffalo. It was he who created the earth, like the Algonquin
Manabozho, from mud brought to him in the paws of a musk-rat
Carver, in 1766, saw an Indian throw everything he had about him
JUito the cataract as an offering to this deity.
268 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX [1680.
which, as he avers, was six feet long,1 writhing
upward towards the holes of the swallows in the face
of the precipice, in order to devour their young. He
pointed him out to Du Gay, and they pelted him
with stones till he fell into the river, but not before
his contortions and the darting of his forked tongue
had so affected the Picard's imagination that he
was haunted that night with a terrific incubus.
They paddled sixty leagues down the river in the
heats of July, and killed no large game but a single
deer, the meat of which soon spoiled. Their main
resource was the turtles, whose shyness and watch-
fulness caused them frequent disappointments and
many involuntary fasts. They once captured one of
more than common size; and, as they were endeav^
oring to cut off his head, he was near avenging him-
self by snapping off Hennepin's finger. There was
a herd of buffalo in sight on the neighboring prairie ;
and Du Gay went with his gun in pursuit of them,
leaving the turtle in Hennepin's custody. Scarcely
was he gone when the friar, raising his eyes, saw
that their canoe, which they had left at the edge of
the water, had floated out into the current. Hastily
turning the turtle on his back, he covered him with
his habit of St. Francis, on which, for greater
security, he laid a number of stones, and then, being
a good swimmer, struck out in pursuit of the canoe,
1 In the edition of 1683. In that of 1697 he had grown to seven
or eight feet. The bank-swallows still make their nests in these
cliffs, boring easily into the soft sandstone.
1680.] ADVENTURES. 269
which he at length overtook. Finding that it would
overset if he tried to climb into it, he pushed it
before him to the shore, and then paddled towards
the place, at some distance above, where he had left
the turtle. He had no sooner reached it than he
heard a strange sound, and beheld a long file of
buffalo — bulls, cows, and calves — entering the
water not far off, to cross to the western bank. Hav-
ing no gun, as became his apostolic vocation, he
shouted to Du Gay, who presently appeared, running
in all haste, and they both paddled in pursuit of the
game. Du Gay aimed at a young cow, and shot her
in the head. She fell in shallow water near an
island, where some of the herd had landed ; and being
unable to drag her out, they waded into the water
and butchered her where she lay. It was forty-eight
hours since they had tasted food. Hennepin made a
fire, while Du Gay cut up the meat. They feasted
so bountifully that they both fell ill, and were forced
to remain two days on the island, taking doses of
orvietan, before they were able to resume their
journey.
Apparently they were not sufficiently versed in
woodcraft to smoke the meat of the cow; and the hot
sun soon robbed them of it. They had a few fish-
hooks, but were not always successful in the use of
them. On one occasion, being nearly famished, they
set their line, and lay watching it, uttering prayers
in turn. Suddenly, there was a great turmoil in the
vater. Du Gay ran to the line, and, with the help
270 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
of Hennepin, drew in two large cat-fish.1 The eagles,
or fish-hawks, now and then dropped a newly caught
fish, of which they gladly took possession; and once
they found a purveyor in an otter which they saw by
the bank, devouring some object of an appearance so
wonderful that Du Gay cried out that he had a devil
between his paws. They scared him from his prey,
which proved to be a spade-fish, or, as Hennepin
correctly describes it, a species of sturgeon, with a
bony projection from his snout in the shape of a
paddle. They broke their fast upon him, undeterred
by this eccentric appendage.
If Hennepin had had an eye for scenery, he would
have found in these his vagabond rovings wherewith
to console himself in some measure for his frequent
fasts. The young Mississippi, fresh from its northern
springs, unstained as yet by unhallowed union with
the riotous Missouri, flowed calmly on its way amid
strange and unique beauties, — a wilderness, clothed
with velvet grass; forest-shadowed valleys; lofty
heights, whose smooth slopes seemed levelled with
the scythe ; domes and pinnacles, ramparts and ruined
towers, the work of no human hand. The canoe of
the voyagers, borne on the tranquil current, glided
in the shade of gray crags festooned with honey-
suckles; by trees mantled with wild grape-vines;
1 Hennepin speaks of their size with astonishment, and says that
the two together would weigh twenty-five pounds. Cat-fish hare
been taken in the Mississippi, weighing more than a hundred and
fifty pounds.
1680.] THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 271
dells bright with the flowers of the white euphorbia,
the blue gentian, and the purple balm; and matted
forests, where the red squirrels leaped and chattered.
They passed the great cliff whence the Indian maiden
threw herself in her despair;1 and Lake Pepin lay
before them, slumbering in the July sun, — the
far-reaching sheets of sparkling water, the woody
.slopes, the tower-like crags, the grassy heights
basking in sunlight or shadowed by the passing
cloud; all the fair outline of its graceful scenery,
the finished and polished master-work of Nature.
And when at evening they made their bivouac fire
find drew up their canoe, while dim, sultry clouds
veiled the west, and the flashes of the silent heat-
lightning gleamed on the leaden water, they could
listen, as they smoked their pipes, to the mournful
cry of the whippoorwills and the quavering scream
of the owls.
Other thoughts than the study of the picturesque
occupied the mind of Hennepin when one day he saw
his Indian father, Aquipaguetin, whom he had sup-
posed five hundred miles distant, descending the
river with ten warriors in canoes. He was eager to
be the first to meet the traders, who, as Hennepin
had given out, were to come with their goods to the
mouth of the Wisconsin. The two travellers trembled
1 The " Lover's Leap," or " Maiden's Rock," from which a Sioux
girl, Winona, or the " Eldest Born," is said to have thrown herself,
in the despair of disappointed affection. The story, which seemg
founded in truth, will be found, not without embellishments, in Mrs.
Saetman's Legends of the Sioux.
272 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680,
for the consequences of this encounter; but the chief,
after a short colloquy, passed on his way. In three
days he returned in ill-humor, having found no
traders at the appointed spot. The Picard was
absent at the time, looking for game ; and Hennepin
was sitting under the shade of his blanket, which he
had stretched on forked sticks to protect him from
the sun, when he saw his adopted father approaching
with a threatening look, and a war-club in his hand.
He attempted no violence, however, but suffered
his wrath to exhale in a severe scolding, after
which he resumed his course up the river with his
warriors.
If Hennepin, as he avers, really expected a party
of traders at the Wisconsin, the course he now took
is sufficiently explicable. If he did not expect them,
his obvious course was to rejoin Tonty on the Illinois,
for which he seems to have had no inclination ; or to
return to Canada by way of the Wisconsin, — an
attempt which involved the risk of starvation, as the
two travellers had but ten charges of powder left.
Assuming, then, his hope of the traders to have been
real, he and Du Gay resolved, in the mean time,
to join a large body of Sioux hunters, who, as
Aquipaguetin had told them, were on a stream which
he calls Bull River, now the Chippeway, entering
the Mississippi near Lake Pepin. By so doing, they
would gain a supply of food, and save themselves
from the danger of encountering parties of roving
warriors.
1680.] HE REJOINS THE INDIANS. 273
They found this band, among whom was their
companion Accau, and followed them on a grand
hunt along the borders of the Mississippi. Du Gay
was separated for a time from Hennepin, who was
placed in a canoe with a withered squaw more than
eighty years old. In spite of her age, she handled
her paddle with great address, and used it vigorously,
as occasion required, to repress the gambols of three
children, who, to Hennepin's annoyance, occupied
the middle of the canoe. The hunt was successful.
The Sioux warriors, active as deer, chased the
buffalo on foot with their stone-headed arrows, on
the plains behind the heights that bordered the river;
while the old men stood sentinels at the top, watch-
ing for the approach of enemies. One day an alarm
was given. The warriors rushed towards the sup-
posed point of danger, but found nothing more
formidable than two squaws of their own nation, who
brought strange news. A war-party of Sioux, they
said, had gone towards Lake Superior, and had met
by the way five "Spirits; " that is to say, five Euro-
peans. Hennepin was full of curiosity to learn who
the strangers might be; and they, on their part,
were said to have shown great anxiety to know the
nationality of the three white men who, as they
were told, were on the river. The hunt was over;
and the hunters, with Hennepin and his compan-
ion, were on their way northward to their towns,
when they met the five "Spirits" at some distance
l>elow the Falls of St. Anthony. They proved to
18
274 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
be Daniel Greysolon du Lhut, with four well-armed
Frenchmen.
This bold and enterprising man, stigmatized by the
Intendant Duchesneau as a leader of coureurs de lois,
was a cousin of Tonty, born at Lyons. He belonged
to that caste of the lesser nobles whose name was
legion, and whose admirable military qualities shone
forth so conspicuously in the wars of Louis XIV.
Though his enterprises were independent of those of
La Salle, they were at this time carried on in connec-
tion with Count Frontenac and certain merchants in
his interest, of whom Du Lhut's uncle, Patron, was
one; while Louvigny, his brother-in-law, was in
alliance with the governor, and was an officer of his
guard. Here, then, was a kind of family league,
countenanced by Frontenac, and acting conjointly
with him, in order, if the angry letters of the intend -
ant are to be believed, to reap a clandestine profit
under the shadow of the governor's authority, and in
violation of the royal ordinances. The rudest part
of the work fell to the share of Du Lhut, who with a
persistent hardihood, not surpassed perhaps even by
La Salle, was continually in the forest, in the Indian
towns, or in remote wilderness outposts planted by
himself, exploring, trading, fighting, ruling lawless
savages and whites scarcely less ungovernable, and
on one or more occasions varying his life by crossing
the ocean to gain interviews with the colonial minister
Seignelay, amid the splendid vanities of Versailles.
Strange to say, this man of hardy enterprise was a
1680.] DU LHUT'S EXPLORATIONS. 275
martyr to the gout, which for more than a quarter of
a century grievously tormented him; though for a
time he thought himself cured by the intercession of
the Iroquois saint, Catharine Tegahkouita, to whom
he had made a vow to that end. He was, without
doubt, an habitual breaker of the royal ordinances
regulating the fur-trade; yet his services were great
to the colony and to the crown, and his name deserves
a place of honor among the pioneers of American
civilization.1
1 The facts concerning Du Lhut have been gleaned from a vari-
oty of contemporary documents, chiefly the letters of his enemy
Duchesneau, who always puts him in the worst light, especially in
his despatch to Seignelay of 10 Nov., 1679, where he charges both
3iim and the governor with carrying on an illicit trade with the
English of New York. Du Lhut himself, in a memoir dated 1685
(see Harrisse, Bibliographie, 176), strongly denies these charges. Du
Lhut built a trading fort on Lake Superior, called Cananistigoyan
(La Hontan), or Kamalastigouia (Perrot). It was on the north side,
at the mouth of a river entering Thunder Bay, where Fort William
now stands. In 1684 he caused two Indians, who had murdered
several Frenchmen on Lake Superior, to be shot. He displayed in
this affair great courage and coolness, undaunted by the crowd of
excited savages who surrounded him and his little band of French-
men. The long letter, in which he recounts the capture and execu-
tion of the murderers, is before me. Duchesneau makes his con-
duct on this occasion the ground of a charge of rashness. In 1686
Denonville, then governor of the colony, ordered him to fortify the
Detroit; that is, the strait between Lakes Erie and Huron. He
went thither with fifty men and built a palisade fort, which he
occupied for some time. In 1687 he, together with Tonty and
Durantaye, joined Denonville against the Senecas, with a body of
Indians from the Upper Lakes. In 1689, during the panic that
followed the Iroquois invasion of Montreal, Du Lhut, with twenty-
eight Canadians, attacked twenty-two Iroquois in canoes, received
their fire without returning it, bore down upon them, killed eighteen
of them, and captured three, only one escaping. In 1696 he was in
276 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
When Hennepin met him, he had been about two
years in the wilderness. In September, 1678, he left
Quebec for the purpose of exploring the region of the
Upper Mississippi, and establishing relations of
friendship with the Sioux and their kindred the
Assiniboins. In the summer of 1679 he visited three
large towns of the eastern division of the Sioux,
including those visited by Hennepin in the following
year, and planted the King's arms in all of them.
Early in the autumn he was at the head of Lake
Superior, holding a council with the Assiniboins and
the lake tribes, and inducing them to live at peace
with the Sioux. In all this, he acted in a public
command at Fort Frontenac. In 1697 he succeeded to the command
of a company of infantry, but was suffering wretchedly from the
gout at Fort Frontenac. In 1710 Vaudreuil, in a despatch to the
minister Ponchartrain, announced his death as occurring in the pre-
vious winter, and added the brief comment, " c'etait un tres-honnete
homme." Other contemporaries speak to the same effect. "Mr-
Dulhut, Gentilhomme Lionnois, qui a beaucoup de merite et de
capacit^." — La Hontan, i. 103 (1703). "LeSieur du Lut, homme
d'esprit et d'experience." — Le Clerc, ii. 137. Charlevoix calls him
" one of the bravest officers the King has ever had in this colony."
His name is variously spelled Du Luc, Du Lud, Dtf Lude, Du Lut»
Du Luth, Du Lhut. For an account of the Iroquois virgin, Tegah-
kouita, whose intercession is said to have cured him of the gout,
see Charlevoix, i. 672.
On a contemporary manuscript map by the Jesuit Raffeix, repre-
senting the routes of Marquette, La Salle, and Du Lhut, are the
following words, referring to the last-named discoverer, and inter-
esting in connection with Hennepin's statements : " Mr- du Lude le
premier a este chez les Sioux en 1678, et a este proche la source du
Mississippi, et ensuite vint retirer le P- Louis [Hennepin] qui avoit
este* fait prisonnier chez les Sioux." Du Lhut here appears as the
deliverer of Hennepin. One of his men wa* named Pepin ; hence,
no doubt, the name of Lake Pepin.
1680.] DU LHUT'S EXPLORATIONS. 277
capacity, under the author! ty of the governor; but
h is not to be supposed that he forgot his own
interests or those of his associates. The intendant
angrily complains that he aided and abetted the
coureurs de lois in their lawless courses, and sent
down in their canoes great quantities of beaver-skins
consigned to the merchants in league with him,
under cover of whose names the governor reaped his
share of the profits.
In June, 1680, while Hennepin was in the Sioux
villages, Du Lhut set out from the head of Lake
Superior, with two canoes, four Frenchmen, and an
Indian, to continue his explorations.1 He ascended
a river, apparently the Burnt Wood, and reached
from thence a branch of the Mississippi, which seems
to have been the St. Croix. It was now that, to his
surprise, he learned that there were three Europeans
on the main river below; and fearing that they might
be Englishmen or Spaniards encroaching on the
territories of the King, he eagerly pressed forward to
solve his doubts. When he saw Hennepin, his mind
was set at rest; and the travellers met with mutual
cordiality. They followed the Indians to their vil-
lages of Mille Lac, where Hennepin had now no
reason to complain of their treatment of him. The
Sioux gave him and Du Lhut a grand feast of honor,
at which were seated a hundred and twenty naked
guests; and the great chief Ouasicoude*, with his
1 Memoir on the French Dominion in Canada, N. Y. Col. Docs., ix
781.
278 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.
own hands, placed before Hennepin a bark dish con-
taining a mess of smoked meat and wild rice.
Autumn had come, and the travellers bethought
them of going home. The Sioux, consoled by their
promises to return with goods for trade, did not
oppose their departure; and they set out together,
eight white men in all. As they passed St. Anthony's
Falls, two of the men stole two buffalo-robes which
were hung on trees as offerings to the spirit of the
cataract. When Du Lhut heard of it he was very
angry, telling the men that they had endangered the
lives of the whole party. Hennepin admitted that in
the view of human prudence he was right, but urged
that the act was good and praiseworthy, inasmuch as
the offerings were made to a false god; while the
men, on their part, proved mutinous, declaring that
they wanted the robes and meant to keep them.
The travellers continued their journey in great ill-
humor, but were presently soothed by the excellent
hunting which they found on the way. As they
approached the Wisconsin, they stopped to dry the
meat of the buffalo they had killed, when to their
amazement they saw a war-party of Sioux approach-
ing in a fleet of canoes. Hennepin represents him-
self as showing on this occasion an extraordinary
courage, going to meet the Indians with a peace-
pipe, and instructing Du Lhut, who knew more of
these matters than he, how he ought to behave. The
Sioux proved not unfriendly, and said nothing of the
theft of the buffalo-robes. They soon went on their
1881.] THE RETURN. 279
v/ay to attack the Illinois and Missouris, leaving the
Frenchmen to ascend the Wisconsin unmolested.
After various adventures, they reached the station
of the Jesuits at Green Bay; but its existence is
wholly ignored by Hennepin, whose zeal for his own
Order will not permit him to allude to this establish-
ment of the rival missionaries.1 He is equally
reticent with regard to the Jesuit mission at
Michilimackinac, where the party soon after arrived,
and where they spent the winter. The only intima-
tion which he gives of its existence consists in the
mention of the Jesuit Pierson, who was a Fleming
like himself, and who often skated with him on the
frozen lake, or kept him company in fishing through
a hole in the ice.2 When the spring opened,
Hennepin descended Lake Huron, followed the
Detroit to Lake Erie, and proceeded thence to
Niagara. Here he spent some time in making a
fresh examination of the cataract, and then resumed
his voyage on Lake Ontario. He stopped, however,
at the great town of the Senecas, near the Genesee,
where, with his usual spirit of meddling, he took
upon him the functions of the civil and military
1 On the other hand, he seta down on his map of 1683 a mission
of the Recollets at a point north of the farthest sources of the Mis-
sissippi, to which no white man had ever penetrated.
2 He says that Pierson had come among the Indians to learn
their language ; that he " retained the frankness and rectitude of
our country," and " a disposition always on the side of candor and
sincerity. In a word, he seemed to me to be all that a Christian
ought to be "(1697), 433.
280 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1681.
authorities, convoked the chiefs to a council, and
urged them to set at liberty certain Ottawa prisoners
whom they had captured in violation of treaties.
Having settled this affair to his satisfaction, he went
to Fort Frontenac, where his brother missionary,
Buisset, received him with a welcome rendered the
warmer by a story which had reached him that the
Indians had hanged Hennepin with his own cord of
St. Francis.
From Fort Frontenac he went to Montreal; and
leaving his two men on a neighboring island, that
they might escape the payment of duties on a quantity
of furs which they had with them, he paddled alone
towards the town. Count Frontenac chanced to be
here, and, looking from the window of a house near
the river, he saw approaching in a canoe a Ile'collet
father, whose appearance indicated the extremity of
hard service; for his face was worn and sunburnt,
and his tattered habit of St. Francis was abundantly
patched with scraps of buffalo-skin. When at length
he recognized the long-lost Hennepin, he received
him, as the father writes, "with all the tenderness
which a missionary could expect from a person of his
rank and quality." He kept him for twelve days in
his own house, and listened with interest to such of
his adventures as the friar saw fit to divulge.
And here we bid farewell to Father Hennepin.
" Providence, " he writes, "preserved my life that I
might make known my great discoveries to the
world." He soon after went to Europe, where the
1681.] LA SALLE'S LETTERS. 281
story of his travels found a host of readers, but where
he died at last in a deserved obscurity.1
1 Since the two preceding chapters were written, the letters of
La Salle have been brought to light by the researches of M. Margry.
They confirm, in nearly all points, the conclusions given above ;
though, as before observed (note, 186), they show misstatements
on the part of Hennepin concerning his position at the outset of
the expedition. La Salle writes : " J'ay fait remonter le fleuve Col-
bert, nomrae par les Iroquois Gastacha, par les Outaouais Mississipy
par un canot conduit par deux de mes gens, 1'un nomme' Michel
Accault et 1'autre Picard, auxquels le R. P. Hennepin se joignit
pour ne perdre pas 1'occasion de prescher 1'1-Svangile aux peuples
qui habitent dessus et qui n'en avoient jamais oui parler." In the
same letter he recounts their voyage on the Upper Mississippi, and
their capture by the Sioux in accordance with the story of Hen-
ri epin himself. Hennepin's assertion, that La Salle had promised
to send a number of men to meet him at the mouth of the Wiscon-
sin, turns out to be true. " Estans tous revenus en chasse avec les
Nadouessioux [Sioux] vers Ouisconsing [Wisconsin], le R. P. Louis
Hempin [Hennepin] et Picard prirent resolution de venir jusqu'a
1 emboucheure de la riviere ou j'avois promis d'envoyer de mes
Eouvelles, comme j'avois fait par six hommes que les Jesuistes
desbaucherent en leur disant que le R. P. Louis et ses compagnons
de voyage avoient este tuez."
It is clear that La Salle understood Hennepin ; for, after speak-
ing of his journey, he adds : " J'ai cru qu'il estoit a propos de vous
faire le narre des aventures de ce canot parce que je ne doute pas
qu'on en parle ; et si vous souhaitez en conferer avec le P. Louis
Hempin, Recollect, qui est repasse en France, il faut un peu le con-
noistre, car il ne manquera pas d'exagerer toutes choses, c'est son
caractere, et a moy mesme il m'a escrit comme s'il eust este' tout
pres d'estre brusle, quoiqu'il n'en ait pas este seulement en danger;
mais il croit qu'il luy est honorable de le faire de la sorte, et il parle
plus conformement a ce qu'il veut qu'a ce qu'il scait." — Lettre de la
SaUe, 22Aout, 1682 (1681 ?), Margry, ii. 259.
On his return to France, Hennepin got hold of the manuscript,
Relation des Decouvertes, compiled for the government from La
Salle's letters, and, as already observed, made very free use of it in
the first edition of his book, printed in 1683. In 1699 he wished to
return to Canada ; but, in a letter of that year, Louis XIV. orders
282 HENNEPItf AMONG THE SIOUX. [1681.
the governor to seize him, should he appear, and send him prisoner
to Kochefort. This seems to have been in consequence of his
renouncing the service of the French crown, and dedicating his
edition of 1697 to William III. of England.
More than twenty editions of Hennepin's travels appeared, in
French, English, Dutch, German, Italian, and Spanish. Most of
them include the mendacious narrative of the pretended descent of
the Mississippi. For a list of them, see Hist . Mag., i. 346 ; ii. 24
CHAPTER XIX.
1681.
LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW.
Eis CONSTANCY; HIS PLANS; HIS SAVAGE ALLIES; HE BECOMES
SNOW-BLIND. — NEGOTIATIONS. — GRAND COUNCIL. — LA SALLE'S
ORATORY. — MEETING WITH TONTY. — PREPARATION. — DE-
PARTURE.
IN tracing the adventures of Tonty and the rovings
of Hennepin, we have lost sight of La Salle, the
pivot of the enterprise. Returning from the desola-
tion and horror in the valley of the Illinois, he had
spent the winter at Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph,
by the borders of Lake Michigan. Here he might
have brooded on the redoubled ruin that had befallen
him, — the desponding friends, the exulting foes; the
wasted energies, the crushing load of debt, the stormy
past, the black and lowering future. But his mind
was of a different temper. He had no thought but
to grapple with adversity, and out of the fragments
of his ruin to build up the fabric of success.
He would not recoil ; but he modified his plans to
meet the new contingency. His white enemies had
found, or rather perhaps had made, a savage ally in
the Iroquois. Their incursions must be stopped, or
284 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1081.
his enterprise would come to nought; and he thought
he saw the means by which this new danger could be
converted into a source of strength. The tribes of
the West, threatened by the common enemy, might
be taught to forget their mutual animosities and join
in a defensive league, with La Salle at its head.
They might be colonized around his fort in the valley
of the Illinois, where in the shadow of the French
flag, and with the aid of French allies, they could
hold the Iroquois in check, and acquire in some
measure the arts of a settled life. The Franciscan
friars could teach them the Faith; and La Salle and
his associates could supply them with goods, in
exchange for the vast harvest of furs which their
hunters could gather in these boundless wilds.
Meanwhile, he would seek out the mouth of the
Mississippi; and the furs gathered at his colony in
the Illinois would then find a ready passage to the
markets of the world. Thus might this ancient
slaughter-field of warring savages be redeemed to
civilization and Christianity ; and a stable settlement,
half-feudal, half-commercial, grow up in the heart of
the western wilderness. This plan was but a part of
the original scheme of his enterprise, adapted to new
and unexpected circumstances ; and he now set him-
self to its execution with his usual vigor, joined to
an address which, when dealing with Indians, never
failed him.
There were allies close at hand. Near Fort Miami
were the huts of twenty-five or thirty savages, exiles
1681.] INDIAN FRIENDS. 285
from their homes, and strangers in this western
world. Several of the English colonies, from Vir-
ginia to Maine, had of late years been harassed by
Indian wars; and the Puritans of New England,
above all, had been scourged by the deadly outbreak
of King Philip's war. Those engaged in it had paid
ft bitter price for their brief triumphs. A band of
refugees, chiefly Abenakis and Mohegans, driven
i'rom their native seats, had roamed into these distant
wilds, and were wintering in the friendly neighbor-
hood of the French. La Salle soon won them over
to his interests. One of their number was the
Mohegan hunter, who for two years had faithfully
followed his fortunes, and who had been four years in
the West. He is described as a prudent and discreet
young man, in whom La Salle had great confidence,
and who could make himself understood in several
western languages, belonging, like his own, to the
great Algonquin tongue. This devoted henchman
proved an efficient mediator with his countrymen.
The New-England Indians, with one voice, promised
to follow La Salle, asking no recompense but to call
him their chief, and yield to him the love and
admiration which he rarely failed to command from
ibis hero-worshipping race.
New allies soon appeared. A Shawanoe chief from
the valley of the Ohio, whose following embraced a
hundred and fifty warriors, came to ask the protec-
tion of the French against the all-destroying Iroquois.
*The Shawanoes are too distant," was La Salle 's
286 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1681.
reply ; " but let them come to me at the Illinois, and
they shall be safe." The chief promised to join him
in the autumn, at Fort Miami, with all his band.
But, more important than all, the consent and
co-operation of the Illinois must be gained ; and the
Miamis, their neighbors and of late their enemies,
must be taught the folly of their league with the
Iroquois, and the necessity of joining in the new
confederation. Of late, they had been made to see
the perfidy of their dangerous allies. A band of the
Iroquois, returning from the slaughter of the Tamaroa
Illinois, had met and murdered a band of Miamis on
the Ohio, and had not only refused satisfaction, but
had intrenched themselves in three rude forts of
trees and brushwood in the heart of the Miami
country. The moment was favorable for negotiat-
ing; but, first, La Salle wished to open a communi-
cation with the Illinois, some of whom had begun to
return to the country they had abandoned. With
this view, and also, it seems, to procure provisions,
he set out on the first of March, with his lieutenant
La Forest, and fifteen men.
The country was sheeted in snow, and the party
journeyed on snow-shoes ; but when they reached the
open prairies, the white expanse glared in the sun
with so dazzling a brightness that La Salle and
several of the men became snow-blind. They stopped
and encamped under the edge of a forest; and here
La Salle remained in darkness for three days, suffer-
ing extreme pain. Meanwhile, he sent forward La
1681.] ILLINOIS ALLIES. 287
Forest and most of the men, keeping with him his
old attendant Hunaut. Going out in quest of pine-
leaves, — a decoction of which was supposed to be
useful in cases of snow-blindness, — this man dis-
covered the fresh tracks of Indians, followed them,
and found a camp of Outagamies, or Foxes, from the
neighborhood of Green Bay. From them he heard
welcome news. They told him that Tonty was safe
among the Pottawattamies, and that Hennepin had
passed through their country on his return from
among the Sioux.1
A thaw took place ; the snow melted rapidly ; the
rivers were opened ; the blind men began to recover ;
and launching the canoes which they had dragged
after them, the party pursued their way by water.
They soon met a band of Illinois. La Salle gave
them presents, condoled with them on their losses,
and urged them to make peace and alliance with the
Miamis. Thus, he said, they could set the Iroquois
at defiance ; for he himself, with his Frenchmen and
his Indian friends, would make his abode among
them, supply them with goods, and aid them to
defend themselves. They listened, well pleased,
promised to carry his message to their countrymen,
and furnished him with a large supply of corn.2
Meanwhile he had rejoined La Forest, whom he now
1 Relation des Decouvertes. Compare Lettre de La Salle (Margry,
ii. 144).
2 This seems to have been taken from the secret repositories, or
caches, of the ruined town of the Illinois.
288 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1681,
sent to Michilimackinac to await Tonty, and tell
him to remain there till he, La Salle, should arrive.
Having thus accomplished the objects of his
journey, he returned to Fort Miami, whence he soon
after ascended the St. Joseph to the village of the
Miami Indians, on the portage, at the head of the
Kankakee. Here he found unwelcome guests.
These were three Iroquois warriors, who had been
for some time in the place, and who, as he was told,
had demeaned themselves with the insolence of con-
querors, and spoken of the French with the utmost
contempt. He hastened to confront them, rebuked
and menaced them, and told them that now, when he
was present, they dared not repeat the calumnies
which they had uttered in his absence. They stood
abashed and confounded, and during the following
night secretly left the town and fled. The effect
was prodigious on the minds of the Miamis, when
they saw that La Salle, backed by ten Frenchmen,
could command from their arrogant visitors a respect
which they, with their hundreds of warriors, had
wholly failed to inspire. Here, at the outset, was
an augury full of promise for the approaching
negotiations.
There were other strangers in the town, — a band
of eastern Indians, more numerous than those who
had wintered at the fort. The greater number were
from Rhode Island, including, probably, some of
King Philip's warriors ; others were from New. York.
and others again from Virginia. La Salle called
1681.] GRAND COUNCIL. 289
them to a council, promised them a new home in the
West under the protection of the Great King, with
rich lands, an abundance of game, and French traders
to supply them with the goods which they had once
received from the English. Let them but help him
to make peace between the Miamis and the Illinois,
and he would insure for them a future of prosperity
and safety. They listened with open ears, and
promised their aid in the work of peace.
On the next morning, the Miamis were called to a
grand council. It was held in the lodge of their
chief, from which the mats were removed, that the
crowd without might hear what was said. La Salle
rose and harangued the concourse. Few men were so
skilled in the arts of forest rhetoric and diplomacy.
After the Indian mode, he was, to follow his chroni-
clers, "the greatest orator in North America."1 He
began with a gift of tobacco, to clear the brains of
his auditory; next, for he had brought a canoe-load
of presents to support his eloquence, he gave them
cloth to cover their dead, coats to dress them,
hatchets to build a grand" scaffold in their honor, and
beads, bells, and trinkets of all sorts, to decorate
their relatives at a grand funeral feast. All this was
mere metaphor. The living, while appropriating
the gifts to their own use, were pleased at the com-
pliment offered to their dead; and their delight
redoubled as the orator proceeded. One of their
1 "En ce genre, il etoit le plus grand orateur de I'Ame'rique
Septentrionale." — Relation de* Decouvertes.
19
290 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1681.
great chiefs had lately been killed; and La Salle,
after a eulogy of the departed, declared that he would
now raise him to life again; that is, that he would
assume his name and give support to his squaws and
children. This flattering announcement drew forth
an outburst of applause; and when, to confirm his
words, his attendants placed before them a huge pile
of coats, shirts, and hunting-knives, the whole
assembly exploded in yelps of admiration.
Now came the climax of the harangue, introduced
by a further present of six guns : —
" He who is my master, and the master of all this
country, is a mighty chief, feared by the whole
world; but he loves peace, and the words of his lips
are for good alone. He is called the King of France,
and he is the mightiest among the chiefs beyond the
great water. His goodness reaches even to your
dead, and his subjects come among you to raise them
up to life. But it is his will to preserve the life he
has given; it is his will that you should obey his
laws, and make no war without the leave of Onontio,
who commands in his name at Quebec, and who
loves all the nations alike, because such is the will of
the Great King. You ought, then, to live at peace
with your neighbors, and above all with the Illinois.
You have had causes of quarrel with them ; but their
defeat has avenged you. Though they are still
strong, they wish to make peace with you. Be con-
tent with the glory of having obliged them to ask for
it You have an interest in preserving them; since,
1681.] THE CHIEFS REPLY. 291
if the Iroquois destroy them, they will next destroy
you. Let us all obey the Great King, and live
together in peace, under his protection. Be of my
mind, and use these guns that I have given you, not
to make war, but only to hunt and to defend
yourselves."1
So saying, he gave two belts of wampum to con-
firm his words ; and the assembly dissolved. On the
following day, the chiefs again convoked it, and
made their reply in form. It was all that La Salle
could have wished. "The Illinois is our brother,
because he is the son of our Father, the Great King."
"We make you the master of our beaver and our
lands, of our minds and our bodies." "We cannot
wonder that our brothers from the East wish to live
with you. We should have wished so too, if we had
known what a blessing it is to be the children of the
Great King." The rest of this auspicious day was
passed in feasts and dances, in which La Salle and
his Frenchmen all bore part. His new scheme was
hopefully begun. It remained to achieve the enter-
prise, twice defeated, of the discovery of the mouth
of the Mississippi, — that vital condition of his
triumph, without which all other success was mean-
ingless and vain.
To this end he must return to Canada, appease
his creditors, and collect his scattered resources.
Towards the end of May he set out in canoes from
1 Translated from the Relation, where these councils are reported
at great length.
292 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1681.
Fort Miami, and reached Michilimackinac after a
prosperous voyage. Here, to his great joy, he found
Tonty and Zenobe Membre*, who had lately arrived
from Green Bay. The meeting was one at which
even his stoic nature must have melted. Each had
for the other a tale of disaster; but when La Salle
recounted the long succession of his reverses, it was
with the tranquil tone and cheerful look of one who
relates the incidents of an ordinary journey. Membra*
looked on him with admiration. "Any one else," he
says, " would have thrown up his hand and abandoned
the enterprise; but, far from this, with a firmness
and constancy that never had its equal, I saw him
more resolved than ever to continue his work and
push forward his discovery."1
Without loss of time they embarked together for
Fort Frontenac, paddled their canoes a thousand
miles, and safely reached their destination. Here,
in this third beginning of his enterprise, La Salle
found himself beset with embarrassments. Not only
was he burdened with the fruitless costs of his two
former efforts, but the heavy debts which he had
incurred in building and maintaining Fort Frontenac
had not been wholly paid. The fort and the seigniory
were already deeply mortgaged; yet through the
influence of Count Frontenac, the assistance of his
1 Membrd in Le Clerc, ii. 208. Tonty, in his memoir of
speaks of the joy of La Salle at the meeting. The Relation, usually
very accurate, says, erroneously, that Tonty had gone to Fort Fron-
tenac. La Forest had gone thither, not long before La Salle's
arrival.
1681.] THE TORONTO PORTAGE. 293
secretary Barrels, a consummate man of business, and
the support of a wealthy relative, he found means to
appease his creditors and even to gain fresh advances.
To this end, however, he was forced to part with a
portion of his monopolies. Having first made his
will at Montreal, in favor of a cousin who had
befriended him,1 he mustered his men, and once more
set forth, resolved to trust no more to agents, but to
lead on his followers, in a united body, under his
own personal command.2
At the beginning of autumn he was at Toronto,
where the long and difficult portage to Lake Simcoe
detained him a fortnight. He spent a part of it in
writing an account of what had lately occurred to a
correspondent in France, and he closes his letter
thus : " This is all I can tell you this year. I have
a hundred things to write, but you could not believe
how hard it is to do it among Indians. The canoes
and their lading must be got over the portage, and I
must speak to them continually and bear all their
importunity, or else they will do nothing I want. I
hope to write more at leisure next year, and tell you
1 Copie du Testament du deffunt Sr- de la SaUe, 11 Aout, 1681.
The relative was Francois Plet, to whom he was deeply in debt.
2 " On apprendra a la fin de cette anne'e, 1682, le succes de la
decouverte qu'il etoit resolu d'achever, au plus tard le printemps
dernier on de perir en y travaillant. Tant de traverses et de mal-
heurs tou jours arrives en son absence 1'ont fait re'soudre a ne se
fier plus a personne et a conduire lui-meme tout son monde, tout
son equipage, et toute son entreprise, de laquelle il espe'roit une
heureuse conclusion."
The above is a part of the closing paragraph of the Relation dei
JXcouvertes, to often cited.
294 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1681.
the end of this business, which I hope will turn out
well : for I have M. de Tonty, who is full of zeal ;
thirty Frenchmen, all good men, without reckoning
such as I cannot trust; and more than a hundred
Indians, some of them Shawanoes, and others from
New England, all of whom know hpw to use guns."
It was October before he reached Lake Huron.
Day after day and week after week the heavy-laden
canoes crept on along the lonely wilderness shores,
by the monotonous ranks of bristling moss-bearded
firs ; lake and forest, forest and lake ; a dreary scene
haunted with yet more dreary memories, — disasters,
sorrows, and deferred hopes; time, strength, and
wealth spent in vain ; a ruinous past and a doubtful
future; slander, obloquy, and hate. With unmoved
heart, the patient voyager held his course, and
drew up his canoes at last on the beach at Fort
Miami.
CHAPTER XX.
1681-1682.
SUCCESS OF LA SALLE.
His FOLLOWERS. — THE CHICAGO PORTAGE. — DESCENT OF THE MIS-
SISSIPPI.— THE LOST HUNTER. — THE ARKANSAS. — THE TAEN-
SAS. — THE NATCHEZ. — HOSTILITY. — THE MOUTH OF THE MIS-
SISSIPPI. — LOUIS XIV. PROCLAIMED SOVEREIGN OF THE GREAT
WEST.
THE season was far advanced. On the bare limbs
of the forest hung a few withered remnants of its
gay autumnal livery; and the smoke crept upward
through the sullen November air from the squalid
wigwams of La Salle's Abenaki and Mohegan allies.
These, his new friends, were savages whose midnight
yells had startled the border hamlets of New Eng-
land; who had danced around Puritan scalps, and
whom Puritan imaginations painted as incarnate
fiends. La Salle chose eighteen of them, whom he
added to the twenty-three Frenchmen who remained
with him, some of the rest having deserted and others
lagged behind. The Indians insisted on taking their
squaws with them. These were ten in number,
besides three children; and thus the expedition
included fifty-four persons, of whom some were use-
less, and others a burden.
296 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.
On the 21st of December, Tonty and Membr6 set
out from Fort Miami with some of the party in six
canoes, and crossed to the little river Chicago.1 La
Salle, with the rest of the men, joined them a few
days later. It was the dead of winter, and the
streams were frozen. They made sledges, placed on
them the canoes, the baggage, and a disabled French-
man; crossed from the Chicago to the northern
branch of the Illinois, and filed in a long procession
down its frozen course. They reached the site of
the great Illinois village, found it tenantless, and
continued their journey, still dragging their canoes,
till at length they reached open water below Lake
Peoria.
La Salle had abandoned for a time his original
plan of building a vessel for the navigation of the
Mississippi. Bitter experience had taught him the
difficulty of the attempt, and he resolved to trust to
1 La Salle, Relation de la Decouverte, 1682, in Thomassy, Geologic,
Pratique de la Louisiane, 9 ; Lettre du Pere Zenobe Membre, 3 Juin,
1682 ; Ibid., 14 Aout, 1682 ; Membre in Le Clerc, ii. 214 ; Tonty,
1684, 1693 ; Proces Verbal de la Prise de Possession de la Louisiane ,-
Feuilles de'tachees d'une Lettre de La Salle (Margry, ii. 164) ; Recit de
Nicolas de la Salle (Ibid., i. 547).
The narrative ascribed to Membre and published by Le Clerc is
based on the document preserved in the Archives Scientifiques de
la Marine, entitled Relation de la Decouverte de I' Embouchure de la
Riviere Mississippi faite par le Sieur de la Salle, I'annee passee, 1682.
The writer of the narrative has used it very freely, copying the
greater part verbatim, with occasional additions of a kind which
seem to indicate that he had taken part in the expedition. The
Relation de la Decouverte, though written in the third person, is the
official report of the discovery made by La Salle, or perhaps for
him by Membre.
1682.] PRUDHOMME. 297
his canoes alone. They embarked again, floating
prosperously down between the leafless forests that
flanked the tranquil river; till, on the sixth of
February, they issued upon the majestic bosom of
the Mississippi. Here, for the time, their progress
was stopped ; for the river was full of floating ice.
La Salle's Indians, too, had lagged behind; but
within a week all had arrived, the navigation was
once more free, and they resumed their course.
Towards evening they saw on their right the mouth
of a great river; and the clear current was invaded
by the headlong torrent of the Missouri, opaque with
mud. They built their camp-fires in the neighboring
forest; and at daylight, embarking anew on the dark
and mighty stream, drifted swiftly down towards
unknown destinies. They passed a deserted town of
the Tamaroas; saw, three days after, the mouth of
the Ohio ; l and, gliding by the wastes of bordering
swamp, landed on the twenty-fourth of February near
the Third Chickasaw Bluffs.2 They encamped, and
the hunters went out for game. All returned, except-
ing Pierre Prudhomme; and as the others had seen
fresh tracks of Indians, La Salle feared that he was
killed. While some of his followers built a small
stockade fort on a high bluff3 by the river, others
1 Called by Membre the Ouabache (Wabash).
2 La Salle, Relation de la Decouverte de I' Embouchure, etc. ; Tho-
massy, 10. Membre gives the same date; but the Proces Verbal
makes it the twenty-sixth.
8 Gravier, in his letter of 16 Feb., 1701, says that he encamped
near a " great bluff of stone, called Fort Prudhomme, because M. de
298 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.
ranged the woods in pursuit of the missing hunter.
After six days of ceaseless and fruitless search, they
met two Chickasaw Indians in the forest; and through
them La Salle sent presents and peace-messages to
that warlike people, whose villages were a few days'
journey distant. Several days later Prudhomme was
found, and brought into the camp, half-dead. He
had lost his way while hunting ; and to console him
for his woes La Salle christened the newly built fort
with his name, and left him, with a few others, in
charge of it.
Again they embarked; and with every stage of
their adventurous progress the mystery of this vast
New World was more and more unveiled. More and
more they entered the realms of spring. The hazy
sunlight, the warm and drowsy air, the tender foliage,
the opening flowers, betokened the reviving life of
Nature. For several days more they followed the
writhings of the great river on its tortuous course
through wastes of swamp and canebrake, till on the
thirteenth of March l they found themselves wrapped
in a thick fog. Neither shore was visible ; but they
heard on the right the booming of an Indian drum
and the shrill outcries of the war-dance. La Salle at
once crossed to the opposite side, where, in less than
an hour, his men threw up a rude fort of felled trees.
la Salle, going on his discovery, intrenched himself here with his
party, fearing that Prudhomme, who had lost himself in the woods,
had been killed by the Indians, and that he himself would be
attacked.0
1 La Salle, Relation ; Thomassy, 11.
1682.] THE ARKANSAS. 299
Meanwhile the fog cleared; and from the farther
bank the astonished Indians saw the strange visitors
at their work. Some of the French advanced to the
edge of the water, and beckoned them to come over.
Several of them approached, in a wooden canoe, to
within the distance of a gun-shot. La Salle dis-
played the calumet, and sent a Frenchman to meet
them. He was well received; and the friendly mood
of the Indians being now apparent, the whole party
Grossed the river.
On landing, they found themselves at a town of
the Kappa band of the Arkansas, a people dwelling
near the mouth of the river which bears their name.
;'The whole village," writes Membre' to his superior,
''came down to the shore to meet us, except the
women, who had run off. I cannot tell you the civil-
ity and kindness we received from these barbarians,
who brought us poles to make huts, supplied us with
firewood during the three days we were among them,
and took turns in feasting us. But, my Reverend
Father, this gives no idea of the good qualities of
these savages, who are gay, civil, and free-hearted.
The young men, though the most alert and spirited
we had seen, are nevertheless so modest that not one
of them would take the liberty to enter our hut, but
all stood quietly at the door. They are so well
formed that we were in admiration at their beauty.
We did not lose the value of a pin while we were
among them."
Various were the dances and ceremonies witih which
300 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.
they entertained the strangers, who, on their part,
responded with a solemnity which their hosts would
have liked less if they had understood it better. La
Salle and Tonty, at the head of their followers,
marched to the open area in the midst of the village.
Here, to the admiration of the gazing crowd of war-
riors, women, and children, a cross was raised bear-
ing the arms of France. Membre', in canonicals,
sang a hymn ; the men shouted Vive le Roi ; and La
Salle, in the King's name, took formal possession of
the country.1 The friar, not, he flatters himself,
without success, labored to expound by signs the
mysteries of the Faith; while La Salle, by methods
equally satisfactory, drew from the chief an acknowl-
edgment of fealty to Louis XIV.2
After touching at several other towns of this
people, the voyagers resumed their course, guided by
two of the Arkansas ; passed the sites, since become
historic, of Vicksburg and Grand Gulf; and, about
three hundred miles below the Arkansas, stopped by
the edge of a swamp on the western side of the
1 Proces Verbal de la Prise de Possession du Pays des Arkansas, 14
Mars, 1682.
2 The nation of the Akanseas, Alkansas, or Arkansas, dwelt on
the west bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Arkansas.
They were divided into four tribes, living for the most part in sepa-
rate villages. Those first visited by La Salle were the Kappas, or
Quapaws, a remnant of whom still subsists. The others were the
Topingas, or Tongengas ; the Torimans ; and the Osotouoy, or
Sauthouis. According to Charlevoix, who saw them in 1721, they
were regarded as the tallest and best-formed Indians in America,
and were known as les Beaux Hommes. Gravier says that they once
lived on the Ohio.
1682.] THE TAENSAS. 301
river.1 Here, as their two guides told them, was
the path to the great town of the Taensas. Tonty
and Membrd were sent to visit it. They and their
men shouldered their birch canoe through the swamp,
and launched it on a lake which had once formed a
portion of the channel of the river. In two hours,
they reached the town ; and Tonty gazed at it with
astonishment. He had seen nothing like it in
America, — large square dwellings, built of sun-
baked mud mixed with straw, arched over with a
dome-shaped roof of canes, and placed in regular
order around an open area. Two of them were
larger and better than the rest. One was the lodge
of the chief; the other was the temple, or house of
the Sun. They entered the former, and found a
single room, forty feet square, where, in the dim
light, — for there was no opening but the door, — the
chief sat awaiting them on a sort of bedstead, three
of his wives at his side ; while sixty old men, wrapped
in white cloaks woven of mulberry-bark, formed his
divan. When he spoke, his wives howled to do
him honor; and the assembled councillors listened
with the reverence due to a potentate for whom, at
his death, a hundred victims were to be sacrificed.
He received the visitors graciously, and joyfully
1 In Tensas County, Louisiana. Tonty's estimates of distance
are here much too low. They seem to be founded on observations
of latitude, without reckoning the windings of the river. It may
interest sportsmen to know that the party killed several large alii
gators, on their way. Membre is much astonished that such mon-
sters should be born of eggs like chickens.
302 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.
accepted the gifts which Tonty kid before him.1
This interview over, the Frenchmen repaired to the
temple, wherein were kept the bones of the departed
chiefs. In construction, it was much like the royal
dwelling. Over it were rude wooden figures, repre-
senting three eagles turned towards the east. A
strong mud wall surrounded it, planted with stakes,
on which were stuck the skulls of enemies sacrificed
to the Sun; while before the door was a block of
wood, on which lay a large shell surrounded with the
braided hair of the victims. The interior was rude
as a barn, dimly lighted from the doorway, and full
of smoke. There was a structure in the middle
which Membre* thinks was a kind of altar ; and before
it burned a perpetual fire, fed with three logs laid
end to end, and watched by two old men devoted to
this sacred office. There was a mysterious recess,
too, which the strangers were forbidden to explore,
but which, as Tonty was told, contained the riches
of the nation, consisting of pearls from the Gulf, and
trinkets obtained, probably through other tribes, from
the Spaniards and other Europeans.
The chief condescended to visit La Salle at his
camp, — a favor which he would by no means have
granted, had the visitors been Indians. A master of
ceremonies and six attendants preceded him, to clear
1 Tonty, 1684, 1693. In the spurious narrative, published in
Tonty's name, the account is embellished and exaggerated. Com-
pare Membre in Le Clerc, ii. 227. La Salle's statements in the
Relation of 1682 (Thomassy, 12) sustain those of Tonty.
1682.] THE NATCHEZ. 303
the path and prepare the place of meeting. When
all was ready, he was seen advancing, clothed in a
white robe and preceded by two men bearing white
fans, while a third displayed a disk of burnished
copper, — doubtless to represent the Sun, his ancestor,
or, as others will have it, his elder brother. His
aspect was marvellously grave, and he and La Salle
met with gestures of ceremonious courtesy. The
interview was very friendly; and the chief returned
well pleased with the gifts which his entertainer
bestowed on him, and which, indeed, had been the
principal motive of his visit.
On the next morning, as they descended the river,
they saw a wooden canoe full of Indians ; and Tonty
gave chase. He had nearly overtaken it, when more
than a hundred men appeared suddenly on the shore,
with bows bent to defend their countrymen. La
Salle called out to Tonty to withdraw. He obeyed ;
and the whole party encamped on the opposite bank.
Tonty offered to cross the river with a peace-pipe,
and set out accordingly with a small party of men.
When he landed, the Indians made signs of friend-
ship by joining their hands, — a proceeding by which
Tonty, having but one hand, was somewhat embar-
rassed; but he directed his men to respond in his
stead. La Salle and Membre* now joined him, and
went with the Indians to their village, three leagues
distant. Here they spent the night. "The Sieur
de la Salle," writes Membre', "whose very air, engag-
ing manners, tact, and address attract love and
304 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.
respect alike, produced such an effect on the hearts
of these people that they did not know how to treat
us well enough."1
The Indians of this village were the Natchez ; and
their chief was brother of the great chief, or Sun, of
the whole nation. His town was several leagues
distant, near the site of the city of Natchez; and
thither the French repaired to visit him. They saw
what they had already seen among the Taensas, — a
religious and political despotism, a privileged caste
descended from the sun, a temple, and a sacred fire.2
1 Membre* in Le Clerc, ii. 232.
2 The Natchez and the Taensas, whose habits and customs were
similar, did not, in their social organization, differ radically from
other Indians. The same principle of clanship, or totemship, so
widely spread, existed in full force among them, combined with
their religious ideas, and developed into forms of which no other
example, equally distinct, is to be found. (For Indian clanship,
see "The Jesuits in North America," Introduction.) Among the
Natchez and Taensas, the principal clan formed a ruling caste ; and
its chiefs had the attributes of demi-gods. As descent was through
the female, the chief's son never succeeded him, but the son of
one of his sisters ; and as she, by the usual totemic law, was forced
to marry in another clan, — that is, to marry a common mortal, —
her husband, though the destined father of a demi-god, was treated
by her as little better than a slave. She might kill him, if he
proved unfaithful ; but he was forced to submit to her infidelities
in silence.
The customs of the Natchez have been described by Du Pratz,
Le Petit, Penecaut, and others. Charlevoix visited their temple in
1721, and found it in a somewhat shabby condition. At this time,
the Taensas were extinct. In 1729 the Natchez, enraged by the
arbitrary conduct of a French commandant, massacred the neigh-
boring settlers, and were in consequence expelled from their country
and nearly destroyed. A few still survive, incorporated with the
Creeks ; but they have lost their peculiar customs.
1682.] HOSTILITY. 305
La Salle planted a large cross, with the arms of
France attached, in the midst of the town ; while the
inhabitants looked on with a satisfaction which they
would hardly have displayed had they understood the
meaning of the act.
The French next visited the Coroas, at their village
two leagues below; and here they found a reception
no less auspicious. On the thirty-first of March, as
they approached Red River, they passed in the fog
a town of the Oumas, and three days later discovered
a party of fishermen, in wooden canoes, among the
canes along the margin of the water. They fled at
sight of the Frenchmen. La Salle sent men to recon-
noitre, who, as they struggled through the marsh,
were greeted with a shower of arrows; while from
the neighboring village of the Quinipissas,1 invisible
behind the canebrake, they heard the sound of an
Indian drum and the whoops of the mustering
warriors. La Salle, anxious to keep the peace with
all the tribes along the river, recalled his men, and
pursued his voyage. A few leagues below they saw
a cluster of Indian lodges on the left bank, apparently
void of inhabitants. They landed, and found three
of them filled with corpses. It was a village of the
Tangibao, sacked by their enemies only a few days
before.2
1 In St. Charles County, on the left bank, not far above New
Orleans.
2 Hennepin uses this incident, as well as most of those which
hare preceded it, in making up the story of his pretended voyage to
the Gulf.
20 -
306 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.
And now they neared their journey's end. On
the sixth of April the river divided itself into three
broad channels. La Salle followed that of the west,
and Dautray that of the east; while Tonty took the
middle passage. As he drifted down the turbid
current, between the low and marshy shores, the
brackish water changed to brine, and the breeze grew
fresh with the salt breath of the sea. Then the broad
bosom of the great Gulf opened on his sight, tossing
its restless billows, limitless, voiceless, lonely as when
born of chaos, without a sail, without a sign of life.
La Salle, in a canoe, coasted the marshy borders
of the sea; and then the reunited parties assembled
on a spot of dry ground, a short distance above the
mouth of the river. Here a column was made ready,
bearing the arms of France, and inscribed with the
words, "Louis LE GRAND, ROY DE FRANCE ET DE
NAVARRE, REGNE; LE NEUVIEME AVRIL, 1682."
The Frenchmen were mustered under arms; and
while the New England Indians and their squaws
looked on in wondering silence, they chanted the Te
Deum, the Exaudiat, and the Domine salvumfac Regem.
Then, amid volleys of musketry and shouts of Vive le
JRoi, La Salle planted the column in its place, and,
standing near it, proclaimed in a loud voice, —
" In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible,
and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the grace
of God King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth
of that name, I, this ninth day of April, one thousand
six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue of the commis-
1682.] POSSESSION TAKEN. 307
sion of his Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and
which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have
taken, and do now take, in the name of his Majesty
and of his successors to the crown, possession of this
country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays,
adjacent straits, and all the nations, peoples, provinces,
cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries,
streams, and rivers, within the extent of the said
Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St.
Louis, otherwise called the Ohio, ... as also along
the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the rivers which
discharge themselves thereinto, from its source beyond
the country of the Nadouessioux ... as far as its
mouth at the sea, or Gulf of Mexico, and also to the
mouth of the River of Palms, upon the assurance we
have had from the natives of these countries that
we are the first Europeans who have descended or
ascended the said river Colbert; hereby protesting
against all who may hereafter undertake to invade
any or all of these aforesaid countries, peoples, or
lands, to the prejudice of the rights of his Majesty,
acquired by the consent of the nations dwelling herein.
Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby
take to witness those who hear me, and demand
an act of the notary here present."1
1 In the passages omitted above, for the sake of brevity, the Ohio
is mentioned as being called also the Olighin- (Alleghany) Sipou,
and Chukagoua ; and La Salle declares that he takes possession of
the country with the consent of the nations dwelling in it, of whom
he names the Chaouanons (Shawanoes), Kious, or Nadouessious
(Sioux), Chikachas (Chickasaws), Motantees (1), Illinois, Mitcht
308 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682,
Shouts of Vive le Eoi and volleys of musketry
responded to his words. Then a cross was planted
beside the column, and a leaden plate buried near it,
bearing the arms of France, with a Latin inscription,
Ludovicus Magnus regnat. The weather-beaten voy-
agers joined their voices in the grand hymn of the
Vexilla Regis : — ••
" The banners of Heaven's King advance,
The mystery of the Cross shines forth ; "
and renewed shouts of Vive le Eoi closed the cere-
mony.
On that day, the realm of France received on
parchment a stupendous accession. The fertile
plains of Texas; the vast basin of the Mississippi,
from its frozen northern springs to the sultry borders
of the Gulf ; from the woody ridges of the Alleghanies
to the bare peaks of the Rocky Mountains, — a region
of savannas and forests, sun-cracked deserts, and
grassy prairies, watered by a thousand rivers, ranged
by a thousand warlike tribes, passed beneath the
sceptre of the Sultan of Versailles ; and all by virtue
of a feeble human voice, inaudible at half a mile.
gamias, Arkansas, Natchez, and Koroas. This alleged consent is,
of course, mere farce. If there could be any doubt as to the mean-
ing of the words of La Salle, as recorded in the Proces Verbal de la
Prise de Possession de la Louisiane, it would be set at rest by Le
Clerc, who says : " Le Sieur de la Salle prit au nom de sa Majeste"
possession de ce fleuve, de toutes les rivieres qui y entrent, et de tons
les pays qu'elles arrosent" These words are borrowed from the re-
port of La Salle (see Thomassy, 14). A copy of the original Proces
Verbal is before me. It bears the name of Jacques de la Metairie,
Notary of Fort Frontenac, who was one of the party.
CHAPTER XXI.
1682, 1683.
ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS.
IXHTISIANA. — ILLNESS OF LA SALLB : HIS COLONY ON THE ILLI-
NOIS. — FORT ST. Louis. — RECALL OF FRONTENAC. — LB
FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. — CRITICAL POSITION OF LA SALLE. —
HOSTILITY OF THE NEW GOVERNOR. — TRIUMPH OF THE AD-
VERSE FACTION. — LA SALLE SAILS FOR FRANCE.
LOUISIANA was the name bestowed by La Salle on
the new domain of the French crown. The rule of
the Bourbons in the West is a memory of the past,
but the name of the Great King still survives in a
narrow corner of their lost empire. The Louisiana
of to-day is but a single State of the American
republic. The Louisiana of La Salle stretched from
the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains; from the
Rio Grande and the Gulf to the farthest springs of
the Missouri.1
1 The boundaries are laid down on the great map of Franquelin,
made in 1684, and preserved in the Depot des Cartes of the Marine.
The line runs along the south shore of Lake Erie, and thence fol-
lows the heads of the streams flowing into Lake Michigan. It then
turns northwest, and is lost in the vast unknown of the now British
Territories. On the south, it is drawn by the heads of the streams
flowing into the Gulf, as far west as Mobile, after which it follows
310 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682.
La Salle had written his name in history ; but his
hard-earned success was but the prelude of a harder
task. Herculean labors lay before him, if he would
realize the schemes with which his brain was preg-
nant. Bent on accomplishing them, he retraced his
course, and urged his canoes upward against the
muddy current. The party were famished. They
had little to subsist on but the flesh of alligators.
When they reached the Quinipissas, who had proved
hostile on their way down, they resolved to risk an
interview with them, in the hope of obtaining food.
The treacherous savages dissembled, brought them
corn, and on the following night made an attack upon
them, but met with a bloody repulse. The party next
revisited the Coroas, and found an unfavorable change
in their disposition towards them. They feasted
them, indeed, but during the repast surrounded them
with an overwhelming force of warriors. The
French, however, kept so well on their guard, that
their entertainers dared not make an attack, and
suffered them to depart unmolested.1
And now, in a career of unwonted success and
anticipated triumph, La Salle was arrested by a foe
against which the boldest heart avails nothing. As
he ascended the Mississippi, he was seized by a
dangerous illness. Unable to proceed, he sent for-
the shore of the Gulf to a little south of the Kio Grande ; then runs
west, northwest, and finally north, along the range of the Rocky
Mountains.
1 Tontj, 1684, 1693.
1682.] ILLNESS OF LA SALLE. 311
ward Tonty to Michilimackinac, whence, after
despatching news of their discovery to Canada, he
was to return to the Illinois. La Salle himself lay
helpless at Fort Prudhomme, the palisade work
which his men had built at the Chickasaw Bluffs
on their way down. Father Zenobe Membrd at-
tended him; and at the end of July he was once
more in a condition to advance by slow movements
towards Fort Miami, which he reached in about a
month.
In September he rejoined Tonty at Michilimacki-
nac, and in the following month wrote to a friend in
France : " Though my discovery is made, and I have
descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, I
cannot send you this year either an account of my
journey or a map. On the way back I was attacked
by a deadly disease, which kept me in danger of my
life for forty days, and left me so weak that I could
think of nothing for four months after. I have
hardly strength enough now to write my letters, and
the season is so far advanced that I cannot detain a
single day this canoe which I send expressly to carry
them. If I had not feared being forced to winter on
the way, I should have tried to get to Quebec to
meet the new governor, if it is true that we are to
have one ; but in my present condition this would be
an act of suicide, on account of the bad nourishment
I should have all winter in case the snow and ice
stopped me on the way. Besides, my presence is
absolutely necessary in the place to which I am
312 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682,
going. I pray you, my dear sir, to give me once
more all the help you can. I have great enemies,
who have succeeded in all they have undertaken. I
do not pretend to resist them, but only to justify
myself, so that I can pursue by sea the plans I have
begun here by land."
This was what he had proposed to himself from
the first; that is, to abandon the difficult access
through Canada, beset with enemies, and open a way
to his western domain through the Gulf and the
Mississippi. This was the aim of all his toilsome
explorations. Could he have accomplished his first
intention of building a vessel on the Illinois and
descending in her to the Gulf, he would have been
able to defray in good measure the costs of the enter-
prise by means of the furs and buffalo-hides collected
on the way and carried in her to France. With a
fleet of canoes, this was impossible; and there was
nothing to offset the enormous outlay which he and
his associates had made. He meant, as we have seen,
to found on the banks of the Illinois a colony of
French and Indians to answer the double purpose of
a bulwark against the Iroquois and a place of storage
for the furs of all the western tribes; and he hoped
in the following year to secure an outlet for this
colony and for all the trade of the valley of the
Mississippi, by occupying the mouth of that river
with a fort and another colony. This, too, was an
essential part of his original design.
But for his illness, he would have gone to France
1682.] "STARVED ROCK." 313
to provide for its execution. Meanwhile, he ordered
Tonty to collect as many men as possible, and begin
the projected colony on the banks of the Illinois.
A report soon after reached him that those pests
of the wilderness the Iroquois were about to re-
new their attacks on the western tribes. This would
be fatal to his plans; and, following Tonty to the
Illinois, he rejoined him near the site of the great
town.
The cliff called " Starved Rock," now pointed out to
travellers as the chief natural curiosity of the region,
rises, steep on three sides as a castle wall, to the
height of a hundred and twenty-five feet above the
river. In front, it overhangs the water that washes
its base ; its western brow looks down on the tops of
the forest trees below; and on the east lies a wide
gorge or ravine, choked with the mingled foliage of
oaks, walnuts, and elms; while in its rocky depths
a little brook creeps down to mingle with the river.
From the trunk of the stunted cedar that leans for-
ward from the brink, you may drop a plummet into
the river below, where the cat-fish and the turtles
may plainly be seen gliding over the wrinkled sands
of the clear and shallow current. The cliff is acces-
sible only from behind, where a man may climb up,
not without difficulty, by a steep and narrow passage.
The top is about an acre in extent. Here, in the
month of December, La Salle and Tonty began to
intrench themselves. They cut away the forest that
crowned the rock, built storehouses and dwellings of
314 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682.
its remains, dragged timber up the rugged pathway,
and encircled the summit with a palisade.1
Thus the winter passed, and meanwhile the work
1 " Starved Rock " perfectly answers, in every respect, to the
indications of the contemporary maps and documents concerning
"Le Rocher," the site of La Salle's fort of St. Louis. It is laid
down on several contemporary maps, besides the great map of La
Salle's discoveries, made in 1684. They all place it on the south
side of the river ; whereas Buffalo Rock, three miles above, which
has been supposed to be the site of the fort, is on the north. The
latter is crowned by a plateau of great extent, is but sixty feet high,
is accessible at many points, and would require a large force to
defend it ; whereas La Salle chose " Le Rocher," because a few men
could hold it against a multitude. Charlevoix, in 1721, describes
both rocks, and says that the top of Buffalo Rock had been occu-
pied by the Miami village, so that it was known as Le Fort des
Miamis. This is confirmed by Joutel, who found the Miamis here
in 1687. Charlevoix then speaks of " Le Rocher/' calling it by that
name ; says that it is about a league below, on the left or south
side, forming a sheer cliff, very high, and looking like a fortress on
the border of the river. He saw remains of palisades at the top,
which, he thinks, were made by the Illinois (Journal Historique, Let.
xxvii.), though his countrymen had occupied it only three years
before. " The French reside on the rock (Le Rocher), which is
very lofty and impregnable." (Memjir on Western Indians, 1718, in
N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 890.) St. Cosme, passing this way in 1699,
mentions it as " Le Vieux Fort," and says that it is " a rock about
a hundred feet high at the edge of the river, where M. de la Salle
built a fort, since abandoned." (Journal de St. Cosme.) Joutel,
who was here in 1687, says, " Fort St. Louis is on a steep rock,
about two hundred feet high, with the river running at its base."
He adds that its only defences were palisades. The true height, as
stated above, is about a hundred and twenty-five feet.
A traditional interest also attaches to this rock. It is said that,
in the Indian wars that followed the assassination of Pontiac, a few
years after the cession of Canada, a party of Illinois, assailed by
the Pottawattamies, here took refuge, defying attack. At length
they were all destroyed by starvation, and hence the name of
"Starved Rock."
For other proofs concerning this locality, see ante, 239.
BL
..aly A#&i,vf,,,.~
'*ger0n0i
* #
*<%
'_ 'JiltJ
jfla
J&0WX*to»*
LA SALLE'S COLONY
FROM THE MAP OF FRANQUELIN,
1684.
•«we
1682.] LA SALLE'S COLONY. 315
of negotiation went prosperously on. The minds of
the Indians had been already prepared. In La Salle
they saw their champion against the Iroquois, the
standing terror of all this region. They gathered
round his stronghold like the timorous peasantry of
the middle ages around the rock-built castle of their
feudal lord. From the wooden ramparts of St.
Louis, — for so he named his fort, — high and inacces-
sible as an eagle's nest, a strange scene lay before his
eye. The broad, flat valley of the Illinois was spread
beneath him like a map, bounded in the distance by
its low wall of woody hills. The river wound at his
feet in devious channels among islands bordered with
lofty trees ; then, far on the left, flowed calmly west-
ward through the vast meadows, till its glimmering
blue ribbon was lost in hazy distance.
There had been a time, and that not remote, when
these fair meadows were a waste of death and deso-
lation, scathed with fire, and strewn with the ghastly
relics of an Iroquois victory. Now all was changed.
La Salle looked down from his rock on a concourse
of wild human life. Lodges of bark and rushes, or
cabins of logs, were clustered on the open plain or
along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws
labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children
whooped and gambolled on the grass. Beyond the
river, a mile and a half on the left, the banks were
studded once more with the lodges of the Illinois,
who, to the number of six thousand, had returned,
since their defeat, to this their favorite dwelling-
316 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682.
place. Scattered along the valley, among the adja-
cent hills, or over the neighboring prairie, were the
cantonments of a half-score of other tribes and frag-
ments of tribes, gathered under the protecting aegis of
the French, — Shawanoes from the Ohio, Abenakis
from Maine, Miamis from the sources of the Kankakee,
with others whose barbarous names are hardly worth
the record.1 Nor were these La Salle's only depend-
i This singular extemporized colony of La Salle, on the banks of
the Illinois, is laid down in detail on the great map of La Salle'g
discoveries, by Jean Baptiste Franquelin, finished in 1684. There
can be no doubt that this part of the work is composed from
authentic data. La Salle himself, besides others of his party, came
down from the Illinois in the autumn of 1683, and undoubtedly
supplied the young engineer with materials. The various In-
dian villages, or cantonments, are all indicated, with the number
of warriors belonging to each, the aggregate corresponding very
nearly with that of La Salle's report to the minister. The Illinois,
properly so called, are set down at 1,200 warriors ; the Miamis, at
1,300 ; the Shawanoes, at 200 ; the Ouiatnoens (Weas), at 600 ; the
Peanqhichia (Piankishaw) band, at 150; the Pepikokia, at 160; the
Kilatica, at 300; and the Ouabona, at 70, — in all, 3,880 warriors.
A few others, probably Abenakis, lived in the fort.
The Fort St. Louis is placed, on the map, at the exact site of
Starved Eock, and the Illinois village at the place where, as already
mentioned (see 239), Indian remains in great quantities are yearly
ploughed up. The Shawanoe camp, or village, is placed on the
south side of the river, behind the fort. The country is here hilly,
broken, and now, as in La Salle's time, covered with wood, which,
however, soon ends in the open prairie. A short time since, the
remains of a low, irregular earthwork of considerable extent were
discovered at the intersection of two ravines, about twenty-four
hundred feet behind, or south of, Starved Rock. The earthwork
follows the line of the ravines on two sides. On the east, there is
an opening, or gateway, leading to the adjacent prairie. The work
is very irregular in form, and shows no trace of the civilized en-
gineer In the stump of an oak-tree upon it, Dr. Paul counted a
1682.] LA SALLE'S COLOOT. 317
ants. By the terms of his patent, he held seigniorial
rights over this wild domain; and he now began to
grant it out in parcels to his followers. These, how-
ever, were as yet but a score, — a lawless band,
trained in forest license, and marrying, as their
detractors affirm, a new squaw every day in the
week. This was after their lord's departure, for his
presence imposed a check on these eccentricities.
La Salle, in a memoir addressed to the Minister of
the Marine, reports the total number of the Indians
around Fort St. Louis at about four thousand war-
riors, or twenty thousand souls. His diplomacy had
hundred and sixty rings of annual growth. The village of the
Shawanoes (Chaouenons), on Franquelin's map, corresponds with
the position of this earthwork. I am indebted to the kindness of
Dr. John Paul and Col. D. F. Hitt, the proprietor of Starved
Bock, for a plan of these curious remains and a survey of the
neighboring district. I must also express my obligations to Mr. W.
E. Bowman, photographer at Ottawa, for views of Starved Rock
and other features of the neighboring scenery.
An interesting relic of the early explorers of this region was
found a few years ago at Ottawa, six miles above Starved Rock, in
the shape of a small iron gun, buried several feet deep in the drift
of the river. It consists of a welded tube of iron, about an inch
and a half in calibre, strengthened by a series of thick iron rings,
cooled on, after the most ancient as well as the most recent method
of making cannon. It is about fourteen inches long, the part near
the muzzle having been burst off. The construction is very rude.
Small field-pieces, on a similar principle, were used in the fourteenth
century. Several of them may be seen at the Muse'e d'Artillerie at
Paris. In the time of Louis XIV., the art of casting cannon was
carried to a high degree of perfection. The gun in question may
have been made by a French blacksmith on the spot. A far less
probable supposition is, that it is a relic of some unrecorded visit
of the Spaniards ; but the pattern of the piece would hare beea
antiquated, even in the time of De Soto.
318 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682.
been crowned with a marvellous success, — for which
his thanks were due, first to the Iroquois, and the
universal terror they inspired; next, to his own
address and unwearied energy. His colony had
sprung up, as it were, in a night; but might not a
night suffice to disperse it?
The conditions of maintaining it were twofold:
first, he must give efficient aid to his savage colonists
against the Iroquois ; secondly, he must supply them
with French goods in exchange for their furs. The
men, arms, and ammunition for their defence, and
the goods for trading with them, must be brought
from Canada, until a better and surer avenue of
supply could be provided through the entrepot which
he meant to establish at the mouth of the Mississippi.
Canada was full of his enemies ; but as long as Count
Frontenac was in power, he was sure of support.
Count Frontenac was in power no longer. He had
been recalled to France through the intrigues of the
party adverse to La Salle ; and Le Febvre de la Barre
reigned in his stead.
La Barre was an old naval officer of rank, advanced
to a post for which he proved himself notably unfit.
If he was without the arbitrary passions which had
been the chief occasion of the recall of his predeces-
sor, he was no less without his energies and his
talents. He showed a weakness and an avarice for
which his age may have been in some measure answer-
able. He was no whit less unscrupulous than his
predecessor in his secret violation of the royal ordi*
1683.] LA SALLE AND LA BARRE. 319
nances regulating the fur-trade, which it was his
duty to enforce. Like Frontenac, he took advantage
of his position to carry on an illicit traffic with the
Indians; but it was with different associates. The
late governor's friends were the new governor's ene-
mies ; and La Salle, armed with his monopolies, was
the object of his especial jealousy.1
Meanwhile, La Salle, buried in the western wilder-
ness, remained for the time ignorant of La Barre's
disposition towards him, and made an effort to secure
his good-will and countenance. He wrote to him
from his rock of St. Louis, early in the spring of
1683, expressing the hope that he should have from
him the same support as from Count Frontenac;
"although," he says, "my enemies will try to influ-
ence you against me." His attachment to Frontenac,
he pursues, has been the cause of all the late gov-
ernor's enemies turning against him. He then
recounts his voyage down the Mississippi; says that,
with twenty-two Frenchmen, he caused all the tribes
along the river to ask for peace; and speaks of his
right under the royal patent to build forts anywhere
along his route, and grant out lands around them,
as at Fort Frontenac.
i The royal instructions to LaBarre, on his assuming the govern-
ment, dated at Versailles, 10 May, 1682, require him to give no
further permission to make journeys of discovery towards the Sioux
and the Mississippi, as his Majesty thinks his subjects better em-
ployed in cultivating the land. The letter adds, however, that La
Salle is to be allowed to continue his discoveries, if they appear to
be useful. The same instructions are repeated in a letter of the
Minister of the Marine to the new intendant of Canada, De Meules.
320 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1683.
"My losses in my enterprises," he continues, "have
exceeded forty thousand crowns. I am now going
four hundred leagues south-southwest of this place,
to induce the Chickasaws to follow the Shawanoes
and other tribes, and settle, like them, at St. Louis.
It remained only to settle French colonists here,
and this I have already done. I hope you will not
detain them as coureurs de bois, when they come
down to Montreal to make necessary purchases. I
am aware that I have no right to trade with the
tribes who descend to Montreal, and I shall not
permit such trade to my men ; nor have I ever issued
licenses to that effect, as my enemies say that I have
done."1
Again, on the fourth of June following, he writes
to La Barre, from the Chicago portage, complaining
that some of his colonists, going to Montreal for
necessary supplies, have been detained by his enemies,
and begging that they may be allowed to return, that
his enterprise may not be ruined. "The Iroquois,"
he pursues, " are again invading the country. Last
year, the Miamis were so alarmed by them that they
abandoned their town and fled; but at my return
they came back, and have been induced to settle with
the Illinois at my fort of St. Louis. The Iroquois
have lately murdered some families of their nation,
and they are all in terror again. I am afraid they
will take flight, and so prevent the Missouris and
1 Lettre de La Salle a La Barre, Fort St. Louis, 2 Avril, 1683.
The above is condensed from passages in the original.
1683.] LA SALLE AND LA BARRE. 321
neighboring tribes from coming to settle at St. Louis,
as they are about to do.
"Some of the Hurons and French tell the Miamis
that I am keeping them here for the Iroquois to
destroy. I pray that you will let me hear from you,
that I may give these people some assurances of pro-
tection before they are destroyed in my sight. Do
not suffer my men who have come down to the settle-
ments to be longer prevented from returning. There
is great need here of reinforcements. The Iroquois,
as I have said, have lately entered the country; and
a great terror prevails. I have postponed going to
Michilimackinac, because, if the Iroquois strike any
blow in my absence, the Miamis will think that I am
in league with them; whereas, if I and the French
stay among them, they will regard us as protectors.
But, Monsieur, it is in vain that we risk our lives
here, and that I exhaust my means in order to fulfil
the intentions of his Majesty, if all my measures are
crossed in the settlements below, and if those who
go down to bring munitions, without which we
cannot defend ourselves, are detained under pretexts
trumped up for the occasion. If I am prevented
from bringing up men and supplies, as I am allowed
to do by fche permit of Count Frontenac, then my
patent from the King is useless. It would be very
hard for us, after having done what was required,
even before the time prescribed, and after suffering
severe losses, to have our efforts frustrated by
obstacles got up designedly.
21
822 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [168a
" I trust that, as it lies with you alone to prevent
or to permit the return of the men whom I have sent
down, you will not so act as to thwart my plans.
A part of the goods which I have sent by them
belong not to me, but to the Sieur de Tonty, and
are a part of his pay. Others are to buy munitions
indispensable for our defence. Do not let my credi-
tors seize them. It is for their advantage that my
fort, full as it is of goods, should be held against the
enemy. I have only twenty men, with scarcely a
hundred pounds of powder; and I cannot long hold
the country without more. The Illinois are very
capricious and uncertain. ... If I had men enough
to send out to reconnoitre the enemy, I would have
done so before this ; but I have not enough. I trust
you will put it in my power to obtain more, that
this important colony may be saved."1
While La Salle was thus writing to La Barre, La
Barre was writing to Seignelay, the Marine and
Colonial Minister, decrying his correspondent's dis-
coveries, and pretending to doubt their reality.
"The Iroquois," he adds, "have sworn his [La
Salle 's] death. The imprudence of this man is about
to involve the colony in war."2 And again he
1 Lettre de La Salle a La Barre, Portage de Chicagou, 4 Juin, 1683.
The substance of the letter is given above, in a condensed form. A
passage is omitted, in which La Salle expresses his belief that his
vessel, the " Griffin," had been destroyed, not by Indians, but by
the pilot, who,, as he thinks, had been induced to sink her, and then,
with some of the crew, attempted to join Du Lhut with their
plunder, but were captured by Indians on the Mississippi.
• Lettre de La Barre au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1682.
1683.] LA SALLE AND LA BARRE. 323
writes, in the following spring, to say that La Salle
was with a score of vagabonds at Green Bay, where
he set himself up as a king, pillaged his countrymen,
and put them to ransom, exposed the tribes of the
West to the incursions of the Iroquois, and all under
pretence of a patent from his Majesty, the provisions
of which he grossly abused; but, as his privileges
would expire on the twelfth of May ensuing, he
would then be forced to come to Quebec, where his
creditors, to whom he owed more than thirty thou-
sand crowns, were anxiously awaiting him.1
Finally, when La Barre received the two letters
from La Salle, of which the substance is given above,
he sent copies of them to the Minister Seignelay,
with the following comment : " By the copies of the
Sieur de la Salle 's letters, you will perceive that his
head is turned, and that he has been bold enough to
give you intelligence of a false discovery, and that,
instead of returning to the colony to learn what the
King wishes him to do, he does not come near me,
but keeps in the backwoods, five hundred leagues
off, with the idea of attracting the inhabitants to
him, and building up an imaginary kingdom for him-
self, by debauching all the bankrupts and idlers of
this country. If you will look at the two letters I
had from him, you can judge the character of this
personage better than I can. Affairs with the
i Lettre de La Baire au Ministre, 30 Avril, 1683. La Salle had
spent the winter, not at Green Bay, as this slanderous letter de
clares, but in the Illinois country.
324 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1683.
Iroquois are in such a state that I cannot allow him
to muster all their enemies together and put himself
at their head. All the men who brought me news
from him have abandoned him, and say not a word
about returning, but sell the furs they have brought as
if they were their own; so that he cannot hold his
ground much longer."1 Such calumnies had their
effect. The enemies of La Salle had already gained
the ear of the King ; and he had written in August,
from Fontainebleau, to his new governor of Canada :
"I am convinced, like you, that the discovery of the
Sieur de la Salle is very useless, and that such enter*
prises ought to be prevented in future, as they tend
only to debauch the inhabitants by the hope of gain,
and to diminish the revenue from beaver-skins."2
In order to understand the posture of affairs at this
time, it must be remembered that Dutch and English
traders of New York were urging on the Iroquois to
attack the western tribes, with the object of gaining,
through their conquest, the control of the fur-trade
of the interior, and diverting it from Montreal to
Albany. The scheme was full of danger to Canada,
which the loss of the trade would have ruined. La
Barre and his associates were greatly alarmed at it.
Its complete success would have been fatal to their
hopes of profit; but they nevertheless wished it such
a measure of success as would ruin their rival, La
Salle. Hence, no little satisfaction mingled with
1 Lettre de La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.
8 Lettre rfti Roy a La, Barre, 5 Aout, 1683.
1683.] A NEW ALARM. 325
their anxiety when they heard that the Iroquois were
again threatening to invade the Miamis and the
Illinois; and thus La Barre, whose duty it was
strenuously to oppose the intrigue of the English,
and use every effort to quiet the ferocious bands
whom they were hounding against the Indian allies
of the French, was, in fact, but half-hearted in the
work. He cut off La Salle from all supplies;
detained the men whom he sent for succor; and, at a
conference with the Iroquois, told them that they
were welcome to plunder and kill him.1
The old governor, and the unscrupulous ring with
which he was associated, now took a step to which
he was doubtless emboldened by the tone of the
King's letter, in condemnation of La Salle 's enter-
prise. He resolved to seize Fort Frontenac, the prop-
erty of La Salle, under the pretext that the latter
had not fulfilled the conditions of the grant, and
had not maintained a sufficient garrison.2 Two of
1 MSmoire pour rendre compte a Monseigneur le Marquis de Seigne-
lay de I'F^tat ou le Sieur de Lasalle a laisse le Fort Frontenac pendant
le temps de sa decouverte. On La Barre's conduct, see " Count Fron-
tenac and New France under Louis XIV.," chap. v.
2 La Salle, when at Mackinaw, on his way to Quebec, in 1682,
had been recalled to the Illinois, as we have seen, by a threatened
Iroquois invasion. There is before me a copy of a letter which he
then wrote to Count Frontenac, begging him to send up more
soldiers to the fort, at his (La Salle's) expense. Frontenac, being
about to sail for France, gave this letter to his newly arrived suc-
cessor, La Barre, who, far from complying with the request, with-
drew La Salle's soldiers already at the fort, and then made its
defenceless state a pretext for seizing it. This statement is made
iu the memoir addressed to Seignelay, before cited.
32(5 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1683.
his associates, La Chesnaye and Le Ber, armed with
an order from him, went up and took possession,
despite the remonstrances of La Salle's creditors and
mortgagees; lived on La Salle's stores, sold for their
own profit, and (it is said) that of La Barre, the
provisions sent by the King, and turned in the cattle
to pasture on the growing crops. La Forest, La
Salle's lieutenant, was told that he might retain the
command of the fort if he would join the associates ;
but he refused, and sailed in the autumn for France.1
Meanwhile La Salle remained at the Illinois in
extreme embarrassment, cut off from supplies, robbed
of his men who had gone to seek them, and disabled
from fulfilling the pledges he had given to the sur-
rounding Indians. Such was his position, when
reports came to Fort St. Louis that the Iroquois were
at hand. The Indian hamlets were wild with terror,
beseeching him for succor which he had no power to
give. Happily, the reptxrt proved false. No Iroquois
appeared; the threatened attack was postponed, and
the summer passed away in peace. But La Salle's
position, with the governor his declared enemy, was
intolerable and untenable ; and there was no resource
but in the protection of the court. Early in the
autumn, he left Tonty in command of the rock, bade
farewell to his savage retainers, and descended to
Quebec, intending to sail for France.
On his way, he met the Chevalier de Baugis, an
1 These are the statements of the memorial addressed in La
Salle's behalf to the minister, Seignelaj.
1683.] LA SALLE SAILS FOR FRANCE. 327
officer of the King's dragoons, commissioned by La
Barre to take possession of Fort St. Louis, and bear-
ing letters from the governor ordering La Salle to
come to Quebec, — a superfluous command, as he
was then on his way thither. He smothered his
wrath, and wrote to Tonty to receive De Baugis
well. The chevalier and his party proceeded to the
Illinois, and took possession of the fort, — De Baugis
commanding for the governor, while Tonty remained
as representative of La Salle. The two officers could
not live in harmony ; but, with the return of spring,
each found himself in sore need of aid from the
other. Towards the end of March the Iroquois
attacked their citadel, and besieged it for six days,
but at length withdrew discomfited, carrying with
them a number of Indian prisoners, most of whom
escaped from their clutches.1
Meanwhile, La Salle had sailed for France.
1 Tonty, 1684, 1693; Lettre de La Barre au Ministre, 6 Juin, 1684;
Ibid., 9 Juittet, 1684,
CHAPTER XXII.
1680-1683.
LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF.
DIFFICULTY OF KNOWING HIM ; HIS DETRACTORS ; HIS LETTERS ;
VEXATIONS OF HIS POSITION J HIS UNFITNESS FOR TRADE ; RISKS
OF CORRESPONDENCE ; HIS KEPORTED MARRIAGE ; ALLEGED OS-
TENTATION ; MOTIVES OF ACTION ; CHARGES OF HARSHNESS ;
INTRIGUES AGAINST HIM J UNPOPULAR MANNERS J A STRANGE
CONFESSION ; HIS STRENGTH AND HIS WEAKNESS ; CONTRASTS
OF HIS CHARACTER.
WE have seen La Salle in his acts. While he
crosses the sea, let us look at him in himself. Few
men knew him, even of those who saw him most.
Reserved and self-contained as he was, with little
vivacity or gayety or love of pleasure, he was a
sealed book to those about him. His daring energy
and endurance were patent to all; but the motive
forces that urged him, and the influences that
wrought beneath the surface of his character, were
hidden where few eyes could pierce. His enemies
were free to make their own interpretations, and they
did not fail to use the opportunity.
The interests arrayed against him were incessantly
at work. His men were persuaded to desert and
rob him; the Iroquois were told that he was arming
1680-83.] CHARGES AGAINST LA SALLE. 829
the western tribes against them; the western tribes
were told that he was betraying them to the Iroquois ;
his proceedings were denounced to the court; and
continual efforts were made to alienate his associates.
They, on their part, sore as they were from disap-
pointment and loss, were in a mood to listen to the
aspersions cast upon him; and they pestered him
with letters, asking questions, demanding explana-
tions, and dunning him for money. It is through his
answers that we are best able to judge him ; and at
times, by those touches of nature which make the
whole world kin, they teach us to know him and to
feel for him.
The main charges against him were that he was a
crack-brained schemer, that he was harsh to his men,
that he traded where he had no right to trade, and
that his discoveries were nothing but a pretence for
making money. No accusations appear that touch
his integrity or his honor.
It was hard to convince those who were always
losing by him. A remittance of good dividends
would have been his best answer, and would have
made any other answer needless; but, instead of
bills of exchange, he had nothing to give but excuses
and explanations. In the autumn of 1680, he wrote
to an associate who had demanded the long-deferred
profits: "I have had many misfortunes in the last
two years. In the autumn of '78, I lost a vessel by
the fault of the pilot; in the next summer, the
deserters I told you about robbed me of eight or ten
S30 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
thousand livres' worth of goods. In the autumn of
'79, I lost a vessel worth more than ten thousand
crowns; in the next spring, five or six rascals stole
the value of five or six thousand livres in goods and
beaver-skins, at the Illinois, when I was absent.
Two other men of mine, carrying furs worth four or
five thousand livres, were killed or drowned in the
St. Lawrence, and the furs were lost. Another
robbed me of three thousand livres in beaver-skins
stored at Michilimackinac. This last spring, I lost
about seventeen hundred livres' worth of goods by
the upsetting of a canoe. Last winter, the fort and
buildings at Niagara were burned by the fault of the
commander; and in the spring the deserters, who
passed that way, seized a part of the property that
remained, and escaped to New York. All this does
not discourage me in the least, and will only defer
for a year or two the returns of profit which you ask
for this year. These losses are no more my fault
than the loss of the ship ' St. Joseph ' was yours. I
cannot be everywhere, and cannot help making use
of the people of the country."
He begs his correspondent to send out an agent of
his own. " He need not be very savant, but he must
be faithful, patient of labor, and fond neither of
gambling, women, nor good cheer; for he will find
none of these with me. Trusting in what he will
write you, you may close your ears to what priests
and Jesuits tell you.
"After having put matters in good trim for trade I
1680-83.] VEXATIONS OF HIS POSITION. 331
mean to withdraw, though I think it will be very
profitable; for I am disgusted to find that I must
always be making excuses, which is a part I cannot
play successfully. I am utterly tired of this busi-
ness ; for I see that it is not enough to put property
and life in constant peril, but that it requires more
pains to answer envy and detraction than to over-
come the difficulties inseparable from my under-
taking."
And he makes a variety of proposals, by which he
hopes to get rid of a part of his responsibility to his
correspondent. He begs him again to send out a
confidential agent, saying that for his part he does
not want to have any account to render, except that
which he owes to the court, of his discoveries. He
adds, strangely enough for a man burdened with
such liabilities, "I have neither the habit nor the
inclination to keep books, nor have I anybody with
me who knows how." He says to another corre-
spondent, "I think, like you, that partnerships in
business are dangerous, on account of the little prac-
tice I have in these matters." It is not surprising
that he wanted to leave his associates to manage
business for themselves : " You know that this trade
is good; and with a trusty agent to conduct it for
you, you run no risk. As for me, I will keep the
charge of the forts, the command of posts and of
men, the management of Indians and Frenchmen,
and the establishment of the colony, which will
remain my property, leaving your agent and mine to
332 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
look after our interests, and drawing my half without
having any hand in what belongs to you/'
La Salle was a very indifferent trader; and his heart
was not in the commercial part of his enterprise.
He aimed at achievement, and thirsted after great-
ness. His ambition was to found another France in
the West ; and if he meant to govern it also, — as
without doubt he did, — it is not a matter of wonder
or of blame. His misfortune was, that, in the pursuit
of a great design, he was drawn into complications
of business with which he was ill fitted to grapple.
He had not the instinct of the successful merchant.
He dared too much, and often dared unwisely;
attempted more than he could grasp, and forgot, in
his sanguine anticipations, to reckon with enormous
and incalculable risks.
Except in the narrative parts, his letters are ram-
bling and unconnected, — which is natural enough,
written, as they were, at odd moments, by camp-fires
and among Indians. The style is crude ; and being
well aware of this, he disliked writing, especially as
the risk was extreme that his letters would miss their
destination. " There is too little good faith in this
country, and too many people on the watch, for me
to trust anybody with what I wish to send you.
Even sealed letters are not too safe. Not only are
they liable to be lost or stopped by the way, but even
such as escape the curiosity of spies lie at Montreal,
waiting a long time to be forwarded."
Again, he writes : " I cannot pardon myself for the
1680-83.] HIS LETTERS INTERCEPTED. 333
stoppage of my letters, though I made every effort
to make them reach you. I wrote to you in '79 (in
August), and sent my letters to M. de la Forest,
who gave them in good faith to my brother. I don't
know what he has done with them. I wrote you
another, by the vessel that was lost last year. I sent
two canoes, by two different routes; but the wind
and the rain were so furious that they wintered on
the way, and I found my letters at the fort on my
return. I now send you one of them, which I wrote
last year to M. Thouret, in which you will find a
full account of what passed, from the time when
we left the outlet of Lake Erie down to the sixteenth
of August, 1680. What preceded was told at full
length in the letters my brother has seen fit to
intercept."
This brother was the Sulpitian priest, Jean
Cavelier, who had been persuaded that La Salle's
enterprise would be ruinous, and therefore set him-
self sometimes to stop it altogether, and sometimes
to manage it in his own way. " His conduct towards
me," says La Salle, "has always been so strange,
through the small love he bears me, that it was clear
gain for me when he went away; since while he
stayed he did nothing but cross all my plans, which
I was forced to change every moment to suit his
caprice."
There was one point on which the interference of
his brother and of his correspondents was peculiarly
annoying. They thought it for their interest that he
334 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
should remain a single man; whereas, it seems that
his devotion to his purpose was not so engrossing as
to exclude more tender subjects. He writes : —
"I am told that you have been uneasy about my
pretended marriage. I had not thought about it at
that time ; and I shall not make any engagement of
the sort till I have given you reason to be satisfied
with me. It is a little extraordinary that I must
render account of a matter which is free to all the
world.
" In fine, Monsieur, it is only as an earnest of some-
thing more substantial that I write to you so much
at length. I do not doubt that you will hereafter
change the ideas about me which some persons wish
to give you, and that you will be relieved of the
anxiety which all that has happened reasonably
causes you. I have written this letter at more than
twenty different times ; and I am more than a hun-
dred and fifty leagues from where I began it. I
have still two hundred more to get over, before
reaching the Illinois. I am taking with me twenty-
five men to the relief of the six or seven who remain
with the Sieur de Tonty."
This was the journey which ended in that scene of
horror at the ruined town of the Illinois.
To the same correspondent, pressing him for divi-
dends, he says: "You repeat continually that you
will not be satisfied unless I make you large returns
of profit. Though I have reason to thank you for
what you have done for this enterprise, it seems to
1680-83.] CHARGED WITH OSTENTATION. 335
me that I have done still more, since I have put
everything at stake ; and it would be hard to reproach
me either with foolish outlays or with the ostentation
which is falsely imputed to me. Let my accusers
explain what they mean. Since I have been in this
country, I have had neither servants nor clothes nor
fare which did not savor more of meanness than of
ostentation; and the moment I see that there is any-
thing with which either you or the court find fault, I
assure you that I will give it up, — for the life I am
leading has no other attraction for me than that of
honor; and the more danger and difficulty there is
in undertakings of this sort, the more worthy of
honor I think they are."
His career attests the sincerity of these words.
They are a momentary betrayal of the deep enthu-
siasm of character which may be read in his life, but
to which he rarely allowed the faintest expression.
"Above all," he continues, "if you want me to
keep on, do not compel me to reply to all the ques-
tions and fancies of priests and Jesuits. They have
more leisure than I ; and I am not subtle enough to
anticipate all their empty stories. I could easily
give you the information you ask ; but I have a right
to expect that you will not believe all you hear, nor
require me to prove to you that I am not a madman.
That is the first point to which you should have at-
tended, before having business with me; and in our
long acquaintance, either you must have found me
out, or else I must have had long intervals of sanity, "
336 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
To another correspondent he defends himself
against the charge of harshness to his men: "The
facility I am said to want is out of place with this
sort of people, who are libertines for the most part;
and to indulge them means to tolerate blasphemy,
drunkenness, lewdness, and a license incompatible
with any kind of order. It will not be found that I
have in any case whatever treated any man harshly,
except for blasphemies and other such crimes openly
committed. These I cannot tolerate: first, because
luch compliance would give grounds for another
accusation, much more just; secondly, because, if I
allowed such disorders to become habitual, it would
be hard to keep the men in subordination and obedi-
ence, as regards executing the work I am commis-
sioned to do; thirdly, because the debaucheries,
too common with this rabble, are the source of end-
less delays and frequent thieving; and, finally,
because I am a Christian, and do not want to bear
the burden of their crimes.
" What is said about my servants has not even a
show of truth ; for I use no servants here, and all my
men are on the same footing. I grant that as those
who have lived with me are steadier and give me no
reason to complain of their behavior, I treat them as
gently as I should treat the others if they resembled
them , and as those who were formerly my servants
are the only ones I can trust, I speak more openly to
them than to the rest, who are generally spies of my
enemies. The twenty-two men who deserted and
1680-83.] INTRIGUES AGAINST HIM. 337
robbed me are not to be believed on their word,
deserters and thieves as they are. They are ready
enough to find some pretext for their crime ; and it
needs as unjust a judge as the intendant to prompt
such rascals to enter complaints against a person to
whom he had given a warrant to arrest them. But,
to show the falsity of these charges, Martin Chartier,
who was one of those who excited the rest to do as
they did, was never with me at all ; and the rest had
made their plot before seeing me." And he proceeds
to relate, in great detail, a variety of circumstances
to prove that his men had been instigated first to
desert, and then to slander him; adding, "Those
who remain with me are the first I had, and they
have not left me for six years."
" I have a hundred other proofs of the bad counsel
given to these deserters, and will produce them when
wanted; but as they themselves are the only wit-
nesses of the severity they complain of, while the
witnesses of their crimes are unimpeachable, why am
I refused the justice I demand, and why is their
secret escape connived at?
" I do not know what you mean by having popular
manners. There is nothing special in my food,
clothing, or lodging, which are all the same for me
as for my men. How can it be that I do not talk
with them? I have no other company. M. de
Tonty has often found fault with me because I
stopped too often to talk with them. You do not
know the men one must employ here, when you
22
838 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
exhort me to make merry with them. They are
incapable of that; for they are never pleased, unless
one gives free rein to their drunkenness and other
vices. If that is what you call having popular
manners, neither honor nor inclination would let me
stoop to gain their favor in a way so disreputable •,
and, besides, the consequences would be dangerous,
and they would have the same contempt for me that
they have for all who treat them in this fashion.
" You write me that even my friends say that I am
not a man of popular manners. I do not know what
friends they are. I know of none in this country.
To all appearance they are enemies, more subtle and
secret than the rest. I make no exceptions; for I
know that those who seem to give me support do
not do it out of love for me, but because they are in
some sort bound in honor, and that in their hearts
they think I have dealt ill with them. M. Plet will
tell you what he has heard about it himself, and the
reasons they have to give.1 I have seen it for a long
time; and these secret stabs they give me show it
very plainly. After that, it is not surprising that I
open my mind to nobody, and distrust everybody. I
have reasons that I cannot write.
" For the rest, Monsieur, pray be well assured that
the information you are so good as to give me is
1 Hit cousin, Francis Plet, was in Canada in 1680, where, with
La Salle's approval, he carried on the trade of Fort Frontenac, in
order to indemnify himself for money advanced. La Salle always
speaks of him with esteem and gratitude.
1680-83.] HIS MANNERS. 339
received with a gratitude equal to the genuine friend-
ship from which it proceeds; and, however unjust
are the charges made against me, I should be much
more unjust myself if I did not feel that I have as
much reason to thank you for telling me of them as
I have to complain of others for inventing them.
" As for what you say about my look and manner,
I myself confess that you are not far from right.
But naturam expellas ; and if I am wanting in expan-
siveness and show of feeling towards those with
whom I associate, it is only through a timidity which
is natural to me, and which has made me leave various
employments, where without it I could have succeeded.
But as I judged myself ill-fitted for them on account
of this defect, I have chosen a life more suited to
my solitary disposition; which, nevertheless, does
not make me harsh to my people, though, joined to
a life among savages, it makes me, perhaps, less
polished and complaisant than the atmosphere of
Paris requires. I well believe that there is self-love
in this; and that, knowing how little I am accus-
tomed to a more polite life, the fear of making mis-
takes makes me more reserved than I like to be. So
I rarely expose myself to conversation with those in
whose company I am afraid of making blunders, and
can hardly help making them. Abbe* Renaudot
knows with what repugnance I had the honor to
appear before Monseigneur de Conti ; and sometimes
it took me a week to make up my mind to go to the
audience, — that is, when 1 had time to think about
340 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
myself, and was not driven by pressing business. It
is much tbe same with letters, which I never write
except when pushed to it, and for the same reason.
It is a defect of which I shall never rid myself as
long as I live, often as it spites me against myself,
and often as I quarrel with myself about it."
Here is a strange confession for a man like La
Salle. Without doubt, the timidity of which he
accuses himself had some of its roots in pride; but
not the less was his pride vexed and humbled by it.
It is surprising that, being what he was, he could
have brought himself to such an avowal under any
circumstances or any pressure of distress. Shyness ;
a morbid fear of committing himself; and incapacity
to express, and much more to simulate, feeling, — a
trait sometimes seen in those with whom feeling is
most deep, — are strange ingredients in the character
of a man who had grappled so dauntlessly with life
on its harshest and rudest side. They were deplor-
able defects for one in his position. He lacked that
sympathetic power, the inestimable gift of the true
leader of men, in which lies the difference between a
willing and a constrained obedience. This solitary
being, hiding his shyness under a cold reserve, could
rouse no enthusiasm in his followers. He lived in
the purpose which he had made a part of himself,
nursed his plans in secret, and seldom asked or
accepted advice. He trusted himself, and learned
more and more to trust no others. One may fairly
infer that distrust was natural to him; but the
1680-83.] HIS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 341
inference may possibly be wrong. Bitter experience
had schooled him to it; for he lived among snares,
pitfalls, and intriguing enemies. He began to doubt
even the associates who, under representations he
had made them in perfect good faith, had staked
their money on his enterprise, and lost it, or were
likely to lose it. They pursued him with advice and
complaint, and half believed that he was what his
maligners called him, — a visionary or a madman.
It galled him that they had suffered for their trust
in him, and that they had repented their trust. His
lonely and shadowed nature needed the mellowing
sunshine of success, and his whole life was a fight
with adversity.
All that appears to the eye is his intrepid conflict
with obstacles without; but this, perhaps, was no
more arduous than the invisible and silent strife of
a nature at war with itself, — the pride, aspiration,
and bold energy that lay at the base of his character
battling against the superficial weakness that morti-
fied and angered him. In such a man, the effect of
such an infirmity is to concentrate and intensify the
force within. In one form or another, discordant
natures are common enough; but very rarely is the
antagonism so irreconcilable as it was in him. And
the greater the antagonism, the greater the pain.
There are those in whom the sort of timidity from
which he suffered is matched with no quality that
strongly revolts against it. These gentle natures may
at least have peace, but for him there was no peace.
842 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.
Cavelier de La Salle stands in history like a statue
cast in iron; but his own unwilling pen betrays the
man, and reveals in the stern, sad figure an object of
human interest and pity.1
1 The following is the character of La Salle, as drawn by hi§
friend, Abbe Bernou, in a memorial to the minister Seignelay : " II
est irre'prochable dans ses mceiirs, re*gle dans sa conduite, et qui
veut de 1'ordre parmy ses gens. II est savant, judicieux, politique,
vigilant, infatigable, sobre, et intre'pide. II entend suffisament
1'architecture civile, militaire, et navale ainsy que 1'agriculture ;
il parle ou entend quatre ou cinq langues des Sauvages, et a beau*
coup de facilite pour apprendre les autres. II s?ait toutes leurs
manieres et obtient d'eux tout ce qu'il veut par son adresse, par son
eloquence, et parce qu'il est beaucoup estime d'eux. Dans ses
voyages il ne fait pas meilleure chere que le moindre de ses gens
et se donne plus de peine que pas un pour les encourager, et il y a
lieu de croire qu'avec la protection de Monseigneur il fondera des
colonies plus considerables que toutes celles que les Fra^ois ont
etablies jusqu'fc present." — Memoire pour Monseigneur le Marquis de
Seignelay, 1682 (Margry, ii. 277).
The extracts given in the foregoing chapter are from La Salle's
long letters of 29 Sept., 1680, and 22 Aug., 1682 (1681?). Both are
printed in the second volume of the Margry collection, and the
originals of both are in the Bibliotheque Naticmale. The latter
seems to have been written to La Salle's friend, Abbe* Bernou ; and
the former, to a certain M. Thouret.
CHAPTER XXIII.
1684.
A NEW ENTERPRISE.
LA SALLE AT COURT : HIS PROPOSALS. — OCCUPATION OP LOUISIANA.
— INVASION OF MEXICO. — ROYAL FAVOR. — PREPARATION. — A
DIVIDED COMMAND. — BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE. — MENTAL
CONDITION OF LA SALLE : HIS FAREWELL TO HIS MOTHER.
WHEN La Salle reached Paris, he went to his old
lodgings in Rue de la Truanderie, and, it is likely
enough, thought for an instant of the adventures and
vicissitudes he had passed since he occupied them
before. Another ordeal awaited him. He must
confront, not painted savages with tomahawk and
knife, but — what he shrank from more — the courtly
throngs that still live and move in the pages of
Sdvigne* and Saint-Simon.
The news of his discovery and the rumor of his
schemes were the talk of a moment among the
courtiers, and then were forgotten. It was not so
with their master. La Salle's friends and patrons
did not fail him. A student and a recluse in his
youth, and a backwoodsman in his manhood, he had
what was to him the formidable honor of an inter-
view with royalty itself, and stood with such phi-
344 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684
losophy as he could command before the gildei
arm-chair, where, majestic and awful, the power of
France sat embodied. The King listened to all he
said 5 but the results of the interview were kept so
secret that it was rumored in the ante-chambers that
his proposals had been rejected.1
On the contrary, they had met with more than
favor. The moment was opportune for La Salle.
The King had long been irritated against the
Spaniards, because they not only excluded his sub-
jects from their American ports, but forbade them
to enter the Gulf of Mexico. Certain Frenchmen
who had sailed on this forbidden sea had been seized
and imprisoned ; and more recently a small vessel of
the royal navy had been captured for the same
offence. This had drawn from the King a declara-
tion that every sea should be free to all his subjects,;
and Count d'Estrdes was sent with a squadron to
the Gulf, to exact satisfaction of the Spaniards, or
fight them if they refused it.2 This was in time of
peace. War had since arisen between the two
crowns, and brought with it the opportunity of set-
tling the question forever. In order to do so, the
minister Seignelay, like his father Colbert, proposed
to establish a French port on the Gulf, as a perma-
nent menace to the Spaniards and a basis of future
1 Lettres de VAbU Tronson, 8 Avrti, 10 Avril, 1684 (Margry, ii.
354).
2 Lettres du Roy et du Ministre sur la Navigation du Golfe du
Mexique, 1669-1682 (Margry, iii. 3-14).
1684.J LA SALLE'S PKOPOSALS. 345
conquest. It was in view of this plan that La Salle's
past enterprises had been favored; and the proposals
he now made were in perfect accord with it.
These proposals were set forth in two memorials.
The first of them states that the late Monseigneur
Colbert deemed it important for the service of his
Majesty to discover a port in the Gulf of Mexico;
that to this end the memorialist, La Salle, made five
journeys of upwards of five thousand leagues, in
great part on foot; and traversed more than six
hundred leagues of unknown country, among savages
and cannibals, at the cost of a hundred and fifty
thousand francs. He now proposes to return by
way of the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the
Mississippi to the countries he has discovered,
whence great benefits may be expected: first, the
cause of God may be advanced by the preaching of
the gospel to many Indian tribes; and, secondly,
great conquests may be effected for the glory of the
King, by the seizure of provinces rich in silver
mines, and defended only by a few indolent and
effeminate Spaniards. The Sieur de la Salle, pur-
sues the memorial, binds himself to be ready for the
accomplishment of this enterprise within one year
after his arrival on the spot; and he asks for this
purpose only one vessel and two hundred men,
with their arms, munitions, pay, and maintenance.
When Monseigneur shall direct him, he will give
the details of what he proposes. The memorial then
describes the boundless extent, the fertility and
346 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
resources of the country watered by the river Colbert,
or Mississippi; the necessity of guarding it against
foreigners, who will be eager to seize it now that La
Salle's discovery has made it known; and the ease
with which it may be defended by one or two forts at
a proper distance above its mouth, which would form
the key to an interior region eight hundred leagues in
extent. "Should foreigners anticipate us," he adds,
" they will complete the ruin of New France, which
they already hem in by their establishments of Virginia,
Pennsylvania, New England, and Hudson's Bay." 1
The second memorial is more explicit. The place,
it says, which the Sieur de la Salle proposes to
fortify, is on the river Colbert, or Mississippi, sixty
leagues above its mouth, where the soil is very fertile,
the climate very mild, and whence we, the French,
may control the continent, — since, the river being
narrow, we could defend ourselves by means of fire-
ships against a hostile fleet, while the position is
excellent both for attacking an enemy or retreating
in case of need. The neighboring Indians detest
the Spaniards, but love the French, having been won
over by the kindness of the Sieur de la Salle. We
could form of them an army of more than fifteen
thousand savages, who, supported by the French and
Abenakis, followers of the Sieur de la Salle, could
easily subdue the province of New Biscay (the most
northern province of Mexico), where there are but
1 Mtmoire du Sr- de la Salle, pour rendre compte a Monseigneur de
Stignelay de la decouverte qu'il afaite par I'ordre de sa Majeste.
1684.] LA SALLE'S PROPOSALS. 347
four hundred Spaniards, more fit to work the mines
than to fight. On the north of New Biscay lie vast
forests, extending to the river Seignelay1 (Red
River), which is but forty or fifty leagues from the
Spanish province. This river affords the means of
attacking it to great advantage.
In view of these facts, pursues the memorial, the
Sieur de la Salle offers, if the war with Spain con-
tinues, to undertake this conquest with two hundred
men from France. He will take on his way fifty
buccaneers at St. Domingo, and direct the four
thousand Indian warriors at Fort St. Louis of the
Illinois to descend the river and join him. He will
separate his force into three divisions, and attack at
the same time the centre and the two extremities of
the province. To accomplish this great design, he
asks only for a vessel of thirty guns, a few cannon
for the forts, and power to raise in France two hun-
dred such men as he shall think fit, to be armed,
paid, and maintained six months at the King's
charge. And the Sieur de la Salle binds himself, if
the execution of this plan is prevented for more than
three years, by peace with Spain, to refund to his
Majesty all the costs of the enterprise, on pain of
forfeiting the government of the ports he will have
established.2
1 This name, also given to the Illinois, is used to designate Eed
River on the map of Franquelin, where the forests above mentioned
are represented.
2 Memoire du Sr- de la Salle sur I'Entreprise qu'il a propose d
Monseigneur le Marquis de Seignelay sur une des provinces de Mexiqu*.
848 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
Such, in brief, was the substance of this singular
proposition. And, first, it is to be observed that it is
based on a geographical blunder, the nature of which
is explained by the map of La Salle's discoveries
made in this very year. Here the river Seignelay,
or Red River, is represented as running parallel to
the northern 'border of Mexico, and at no great dis-
tance from it, — the region now called Texas being
almost entirely suppressed. According to the map,
New Biscay might be reached from this river in a
few days ; and, after crossing the intervening forests,
the coveted mines of Ste. Barbe, or Santa Barbara,
would be within striking distance.1 That La Salle
believed in the possibility of invading the Spanish
province of New Biscay from Red River there can be
no doubt ; neither can it reasonably be doubted that
he hoped at some future day to make the attempt;
and yet it is incredible that a man in his sober senses
could have proposed this scheme with the intention
of attempting to execute it at the time and in the
manner which he indicates.2 This memorial bears
1 Both the memorial and the map represent the banks of Red
River as inhabited by Indians, called Terliquiquimechi, and known
to the Spaniards as Indies bravos, or Indios de guerra. The Span-
iards, it is added, were in great fear of them, as they made frequent
inroads into Mexico. La Salle's Mexican geography was in all
respects confused and erroneous ; nor was Seignelay better informed.
Indeed, Spanish jealousy placed correct information beyond their
reach.
2 "While the plan, as proposed in the memorial, was clearly im-
practicable, the subsequent experience of the French in Texas
tended to prove that the tribes of that region could be used with
i684.] LA SALLE'S PLANS. 349
some indications of being drawn up in order to pro-
duce a certain effect on the minds of the King and
his minister. La Salle's immediate necessity was to
obtain from them the means for establishing a fort
and a colony within the mouth of the Mississippi.
This was essential to his own plans; nor did he in
the least exaggerate the value of such an establish-
ment to the French nation, and the importance of
anticipating other powers in the possession of it.
But he thought that he needed a more glittering lure
bo attract the eyes of Louis and Seignelay; and thus,
it may be, he held before them, in a definite and
tangible form, the project of Spanish conquest which
had haunted his imagination from youth, — trusting
that the speedy conclusion of peace, which actually
took place, would absolve him from the immediate
execution of the scheme, and give him time, with the
means placed at his disposal, to mature his plans and
prepare for eventual action. Such a procedure may
be charged with indirectness ; but there is a different
explanation, which we shall suggest hereafter, and
which implies no such reproach.1
advantage in attacking the Spaniards of Mexico, and that an in-
road on a comparatively small scale might have been successfully
made with their help. In 1689, Tonty actually made the attempt,
as we shall see, but failed, from the desertion of his men. In 1697,
the Sieur de Louvigny wrote to the Minister of the Marine, asking
to complete La Salle's discoveries, and invade Mexico from Texas.
(Lettre de M. de Louvigny, 14 Oct., 1697.) In an unpublished memoir
of the year 1700, the seizure of the Mexican mines is given as one
of the motives of the colonization of Louisiana.
x Another scheme, with similar aims, but much more practicable,
350 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
Even with this madcap enterprise lopped off, La
Salle's scheme of Mississippi trade and colonization,
perfectly sound in itself, was too vast for an indi-
vidual, — above all, for one crippled and crushed
with debt. W hile he grasped one link of the great
chain, another, no less essential, escaped from his
hand ; while he built up a colony on the Mississippi,
it was reasonably certain that evil would befall his
distant colony of the Illinois.
The glittering project which he now unfolded
found favor in the eyes of the King and his minister;
for both were in the flush of an unparalleled success,
and looked in the future, as in the past, for nothing
but triumphs. They granted more than the peti-
tioner asked, as indeed they well might, if they
expected the accomplishment of all that he proposed
was at this very time before the court. Count Penalossa, a Spanish
Creole, born in Peru, had been governor of New Mexico, where he
fell into a dispute with the Inquisition, which involved him in the
loss of property, and for a time of liberty. Failing to obtain re-
dress in Spain, he renounced his allegiance in disgust, and sought
refuge in France, where, in 1682, he first proposed to the King the
establishment of a colony of French buccaneers at the mouth of
Rio Bravo, on the Gulf of Mexico. In January, 1684, after the
war had broken out, he proposed to attack the Spanish town of
Panuco, with twelve hundred buccaneers from St. Domingo ; then
march into the interior, seize the mines, conquer Durango, and
occupy New Mexico. It was proposed to combine his plan with
that of La Salle ; but the latter, who had an interview with him,
expressed distrust, and showed characteristic reluctance to accept
a colleague. It is extremely probable, however, that his knowl-
edge of Penalossa's original proposal had some influence in stimu-
lating him to lay before the court proposals of his own, equally
attractive. Peace was concluded before the plans of the Spanish
adventurer could be carried into effect.
1684.] LA BARRE REBUKED. 351
io attempt. La Forest, La Salle's lieutenant, ejected
from Fort Frontenac by La Barre, was now at Paris;
ftnd he was despatched to Canada, empowered to
reoccupy, in La Salle's name, both Fort Frontenac
and Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. The King him-
self wrote to La Barre in a strain that must have
sent a cold thrill through the veins of that official.
"I hear," he says, "that you have taken possession
of Fort Frontenac, the property of the Sieur de la
Salle, driven away his men, suffered his land to run
to waste, and even told the Iroquois that they might
Keize him as an enemy of the colony." He adds,
that, if this is true, La Barre must make reparation
for the wrong, and place all La Salle's property, as
well as his men, in the hands of the Sieur de la
Forest, "as I am satisfied that Fort Frontenac was
not abandoned, as you wrote to me that it had
been."1 Four days later, he wrote to the intendant
of Canada, Meules, to the effect that the bearer, La
Forest, is to suffer no impediment, and that La Barre
is to surrender to him without reserve all that
belongs to La Salle.2 Armed with this letter, La
Forest sailed for Canada.3
1 Lettre du Roy a La Barre, Versailles, 10 Avril, 1684.
2 Lettre du Roy a De Meules, Versailles, 14 Avril, 1684. Seignelay
^vrote to De Meules to the same effect.
8 On La Forest's mission, — Memoire pour representer a Monsei-
'jneur le Marquis de Seignelay la necessite d'envoyer le Sr- de la Forest
<>.n diligence a la Nouvelle France ; Lettre du Roy a La Barre, 14 Avril f
1684; Ibid., 31 Oct., 1684.
There is before me a promissory note of La Salle to La Forest,
of 5,200 lines, dated at Kochelle, 17 July, 1684. This seems to be
352 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
A chief object of his mission, as it was represented
to Seignelay, was, not only to save the colony at the
Illinois from being broken up by La Barre, but also
to collect La Salle's scattered followers, muster the
savage warriors around the rock of St. Louis, and
lead the whole down the Mississippi, to co-operate
in the attack on New Biscay. If La Salle meant
that La Forest should seriously attempt to execute
such a scheme, then the charges of his enemies that
his brain was turned were better founded than he
would have us think.1
He had asked for two vessels,2 and four were given
to him. Agents were sent to Rochelle and Rochef ort
to gather recruits. A hundred soldiers were enrolled,
besides mechanics and laborers ; and thirty volunteers,
pay due to La Forest, who had served as La Salle's officer for nine
years. A memorandum is attached, signed by La Salle, to the
effect that it is his wish that La Forest reimburse himself, "par
preference" out of any property of his (La Salle's) in France or
Canada.
1 The attitude of La Salle, in this matter, is incomprehensible.
In July, La Forest was at Rochefort, complaining because La
Salle had ordered him to stay in garrison at Fort Frontenac.
Beaujeu a Villermont, 10 July, 1684. This means an abandonment
of the scheme of leading the warriors at the rock of St. Louis down
the Mississippi ; but, in the next month, La Salle writes to Seigne-
lay that he is afraid La Barre will use the Iroquois war as a pretext
to prevent La Forest from making his journey (to the Illinois),
and that in this case he will himself try to go up the Mississippi,
and meet the Illinois warriors ; so that, in five or six months from
the date of the letter, the minister will hear of his departure to
attack the Spaniards. (La Salle a Seignelay, Aout, 1684.) Either
this is sheer folly, or else it is meant to delude the minister.
* Memoire de ce qui aura este accorde au Sieur de la Sallt.
PREPARATION. 358
including gentlemen and burghers of condition,
joined the expedition. And, as the plan was one
no less of colonization than of war, several families
embarked for the new land of promise, as well as a
number of girls, lured by the prospect of almost
certain matrimony. Nor were missionaries wanting.
Among them was La Salle 's brother, Cavelier, and
two other priests of St. Sulpice. Three Re'collets
were added, — Zenobe Membre*, who was then in
France, Anastase Douay, and Maxime Le Clerc.
The principal vessel was the " Joly," belonging to the
royal navy, and carrying thirty-six guns. Another
armed vessel of six guns was added, together with
a store-ship and a ketch.
La Salle had asked for sole command of the expe-
dition, with a subaltern officer, and one or two pilots
to sail the vessels as he should direct. Instead of
complying, Seignelay gave the command of the
vessels to Beaujeu, a captain of the royal navy, —
whose authority was restricted to their management
at sea, while La Salle was to prescribe the route they
were to take, and have entire control of the troops
and colonists on land.1 This arrangement displeased
both parties. Beaujeu, an old and experienced
officer, was galled that a civilian should be set over
him, — and he, too, a burgher lately ennobled ; nor
was La Salle the man to soothe his ruffled spirit.
Detesting a divided command, cold, reserved, and
* Lettre au Roy it La Salle, 12 Avril, 1684 ; Memotre pour servir
df Instruction au Sicur de Beaujeu, 14 Avril, 1684.
354 A NEW ENTEKPKISE. [1681
impenetrable, he would have tried the patience of a
less excitable colleague. Beaujeu, on his part,
though set to a task which he disliked, seems to have
meant to do his duty, and to have been willing at the
outset to make the relations between himself and
his unwelcome associate as agreeable as possible.
Unluckily, La Salle discovered that the wife of
Beaujeu was devoted to the Jesuits. We have seen
the extreme distrust with which he regarded these
guides of his youth, and he seems now to have
fancied that Beaujeu was their secret ally. Possibly,
he suspected that information of his movements
would be given to the Spaniards ; more probably, he
had undefined fears of adverse machinations. Grant-
ing that such existed, it was not his interest to
stimulate them by needlessly exasperating the naval
commander. His deportment, however, was not
conciliating; and Beaujeu, prepared to dislike him,
presently lost temper. While the vessels still lay
at Rochelle; while all was bustle and preparation;
while stores, arms, and munitions were embarking;
while boys and vagabonds were enlisting as soldiers
for the expedition, — Beaujeu was venting his dis-
gust in long letters to the minister.
"You have ordered me, Monseigneur, to give all
possible aid to this undertaking, and I shall do so to
the best of my power; but permit me to take great
credit to myself, for I find it very hard to submit to
the orders of the Sieur de la Salle, whom I believe
to be a man of merit, but who has no experience of
1684.] BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE. 855
war except with savages, and who has no rank, while
I have been captain of a ship thirteen years, and have
served thirty by sea and land. Besides, Monseigneur,
he has told me that in case of his death you have
directed that the Sieur de Tonty shall succeed him.
This, indeed, is very hard; for, though I am not
acquainted with that country, I should be very dull,
if, being on the spot, I did not know at the end of a
month as much of it as they do. I beg, Monseigneur,
that I may at least share the command with them;
and that, as regards war, nothing may be done with-
out my knowledge and concurrence, — for, as to
their commerce, I neither intend nor desire to know
anything about it."
Seignelay answered by a rebuff, and told him to
make no trouble about the command. This increased
his irritation, and he wrote: "In my last letter,
Monseigneur, I represented to you the hardship of
compelling me to obey M. de la Salle, who has no
rank, and never commanded anybody but school-boys;
and I begged you at least to divide the command
between us. I now, Monseigneur, take the liberty
to say that I will obey without repugnance, if you
order me to do so, having reflected that there can be
no competition between the said Sieur de la Salle
and me.
"Thus far, he has not told me his plan; and he
changes his mind every moment. He is a man so
suspicious, and so afraid that one will penetrate his
secrets, that J dare not ask him anything. He sayb
856 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
that M. de Parassy, commissary's clerk, with whom
he has often quarrelled, is paid by his enemies to
defeat his undertaking ; and many other things with
which I will not trouble you. . . .
"He pretends that I am only to command the
sailors, and have no authority over the volunteer
officers and the hundred soldiers who are to take
passage in the ' Joly; ' and that they are not to
recognize or obey me in any way during the
voyage. . . .
" He has covered the decks with boxes and chests
of such prodigious size that neither the cannon nor
the capstan can be worked."
La Salle drew up a long list of articles, denning
the respective rights and functions of himself and
Beaujeu, to whom he presented it for signature.
Beaujeu demurred at certain military honors
demanded by La Salle, saying that if a marshal of
France should come on board his ship, he would
have none left to offer him. The point was referred
to the naval intendant; and the articles of the treaty
having been slightly modified, Beaujeu set his name
to it. "By this," he says, "you can judge better of
the character of M. de la Salle than by all I can say.
He is a man who wants smoke [form and ceremony].
I will give him his fill of it, and, perhaps, more than
he likes.
"I am bound to an unknown country, to seek
what is about as hard to find as the philosopher's
stone. It vexes me, Monseigneur, that you should
1684.] BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE. 357
have been involved in a business the success of which
is very uncertain. M. de la Salle begins to doubt it
himself."
While Beaujeu wrote thus to the minister, he was
also writing to Cabart de Villermont, one of his
friends at Paris, with whom La Salle was also on
friendly terms. These letters are lively and enter-
taining, and by no means suggestive of any secret
conspiracy. He might, it is true, have been more
reserved in his communications; but he betrays no
confidence, for none was placed in him. It is the
familiar correspondence of an irritable but not ill-
natured veteran, who is placed in an annoying posi-
tion, and thinks he is making the best of it.
La Salle thought that the minister had been too
free in communicating the secrets of the expedition
fco the naval intendant at Rochefort, and through
him to Beaujeu. It is hard to see how Beaujeu was
fco blame for this ; but La Salle nevertheless fell into
a, dispute with him. "He could hardly keep his
temper, and used expressions which obliged me to
tell him that I cared very little about his affairs, and
that the King himself would not speak as he did.
He retracted, made excuses, and we parted good
friends. . . .
" I do not like his suspiciousness. I think him a
good, honest Norman; but Normans are out of
fashion. It is one thing to-day, another to-morrow.
It seems to me that he is not so sure about his
undertaking as he was at Paris. This morning he
358 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
came to see me, and told me he had changed his
mind, and meant to give a new turn to the business,
and go to another coast. He gave very poor reasons,
to which I assented, to avoid a quarrel. I thought,
by what he said, that he wanted to find a scapegoat
to bear the blame, in case his plan does not succeed
as he hopes. For the rest, I think him a brave man
and a true ; and I am persuaded that if this business
fails, it will be because he does not know enough,
and will not trust us of the profession. As for me,
I shall do my best to help him, as I have told you
before; and I am delighted to have him keep his
secret, so that I shall not have to answer for the
result. Pray do not show my letters, for fear of
committing me with him. He is too suspicious
already; and never was Norman so Norman as he,
which is a great hinderance to business."
Beaujeu came from the same province and calls
himself jocularly un Ion gros Normand. His good-
nature, however, rapidly gave way as time went on.
"Yesterday," he writes, "this Monsieur told me
that he meant to go to the Gulf of Mexico. A little
while ago, as I said before, he talked about going to
Canada. I see nothing certain in it. It is not that
I do not believe that all he says is true; but not
being of the profession, and not liking to betray his
ignorance, he is puzzled what to do.
" I shall go straight forward, without regarding a
thousand whims and bagatelles. His continual sus-
picion would drive anybody mad except a Norman
1684.] Atf OPEN QUARREL. 359
like me; but I shall humor him, as I have always
done, even to sailing my ship on dry land, if he
likes."
A few days later, there was an open quarrel. " M.
de la Salle came to me, and said, rather haughtily
and in a tone of command, that I must put provisions
for three months more on board my vessel. I told
him it was impossible, as she had more lading already
than anybody ever dared to put in her before. He
would not hear reason, but got angry and abused me
in good French, and found fault with me because
the vessel would not hold his three months' pro-
visions. He said I ought to have told him of it
before. ' And how would you have me tell you, '
said I, ' when you never tell me what you mean to
do ? ' We had still another quarrel. He asked me
where his officers should take their meals. I told
him that they might take them where he pleased ; for
I gave myself no trouble in the matter, having no
orders. He answered that they should not mess on
bacon, while the rest ate fowls and mutton. I said
that if he would send fowls and mutton on board,
his people should eat them ; but, as for bacon, I had
often ate it myself. At this, he went off and com-
plained to M. Dugu£ that I refused to embark his
provisions, and told him that he must live on bacon.
I excused him as not knowing how to behave him-
self, having spent his life among school-boy brats
and savages. Nevertheless, I offered to him, his
brother, and two of his friends, seats at my table and
360 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684.
the same fare as myself. He answered my civility
by an impertinence, saying that he distrusted people
who offered so much and seemed so obliging. I
could not help telling him that I saw he was brought
up in the provinces."
This was touching La Salle on a sensitive point.
Beaujeu continues: "In fact, you knew him better
than I; for I always took him for a gentleman
(honnete homme). I see now that he is anything but
that. Pray set Abb6 Renaudot and M. Morel right
about this man, and tell them he is not what they
take him for. Adieu. It has struck twelve: the
postman is just going."
Bad as was the state of things, it soon grew worse.
Renaudot wrote to La Salle that Beaujeu was writing
to Villermont everything that happened, and that
Villermont showed the letters to all his acquaint-
ance. Villermont was a relative of the Jesuit
Beschefer; and this was sufficient to suggest some
secret machination to the mind of La Salle. Viller-
mont's fault, however, seems to have been simple
indiscretion, for which Beaujeu took him sharply to
task. " I asked you to burn my letters ; and I can-
not help saying that I am angry with you, not
because you make known my secrets, but because
you show letters scrawled in haste, and sent off
without being even read over. M. de la Salle not
having told me his secret, though M. de Seignelay
ordered him to tell me, I am not obliged to keep it,
and have as good a right as anybody to make my
1684.] LA SALLE'S INDISCRETION. 361
conjectures on what I read about it in the Gazette de
Hollande. Let Abbe* Renaudot glorify M. de la
Salle as much as he likes, and make him a Cortez, a
Pizarro, or an Almagro, — that is nothing to me ; but
do not let him speak of me as an obstacle in his
hero's way. Let him understand that I know how
to execute the orders of the court as well as he. ...
"You ask how I get on with M. de la Salle.
Don't you know that this man is impenetrable, and
that there is no knowing what he thinks of one?
He told a person of note whom I will not name that
he had suspicions about our correspondence, as well
as about Madame de Beaujeu's devotion to the
Jesuits. His distrust is incredible. If he sees one
of his people speak to the rest, he suspects some-
thing, and is gruff with them. He told me himself
that he wanted to get rid of M. de Tonty, who is in
America. "
La Salle's claim to exclusive command of the
soldiers on board the " Joly " was a source of endless
trouble. Beaujeu declared that he would not set sail
till officers, soldiers, and volunteers had all sworn to
obey him when at sea; at which La Salle had the
indiscretion to say, " If I am not master of my sol-
diers, how can I make him [Beaujeu] do his duty in
case he does not want to do it?"
Beaujeu says that this affair made a great noise
among the officers at Rochef ort, and adds : " There
are very few people who do not think that his brain is
touched. I have spoken to some who have known
362 A NEW ENTERPRISE. |1684.
him twenty years. They all say that he was always
rather visionary."
It is difficult not to suspect that the current belief
at Rochefort had some foundation; and that the
deadly strain of extreme hardship, prolonged anxiety,
and alternation of disaster and success, joined to the
fever which nearly killed him, had unsettled his
judgment and given a morbid development to his
natural defects. His universal suspicion, which
included even the stanch and faithful Henri de
Tonty; his needless provocation of persons whose
good- will was necessary to him ; his doubts whether
he should sail for the Gulf or for Canada, when to
sail to Canada would have been to renounce, or
expose to almost certain defeat, an enterprise long
cherished and definitely planned, — all point to one
conclusion. It may be thought that his doubts were
feigned, in order to hide his destination to the last
moment; but if so, he attempted to blind not only
his ill wishers, but his mother, whom he also left in
uncertainty as to his route.
Unless we assume that his scheme of invading
Mexico was thrown, out as a bait to the King, it is
hard to reconcile it with the supposition of mental
soundness. To base so critical an attempt on a
geographical conjecture, which rested on the slightest
possible information, and was in fact a total error; to
postpone the perfectly sound plan of securing the
mouth of the Mississippi, to a wild project of leading
fifteen thousand savages for an unknown distance
1684.] AN OVERWROUGHT BRAIN. 363
tljough an unknown country to attack an unknown
enemy, — was something more than Quixotic daring.
The King and the minister saw nothing impracticable
ii) it, for they did not know the country or its inhabit-
ants. They saw no insuperable difficulty in muster-
ing and keeping together fifteen thousand of the
most wayward and unstable savages on earth, split
into a score and more of tribes, some hostile to each
other and some to the French; nor in the problem
of feeding such a mob, on a march of hundreds of
miles; nor in the plan of drawing four thousand of
them from the Illinois, nearly two thousand miles
distant, though some of these intended allies had no
canoes or other means of transportation, and though,
travelling in such numbers, they would infallibly
starve on the way to the rendezvous. It is difficult
not to see in all this the chimera of an overwrought
brain, no longer able to distinguish between the
possible and the impossible.
Preparation dragged slowly on; the season was
growing late; the King grew impatient, and found
fault with the naval intendant. Meanwhile, the
various members of the expedition had all gathered
at Rochelle. Joutel, a fellow-townsman of La Salle,
returning to his native Rouen, after sixteen years in
the army, found all astir with the new project. His
father had been gardener to Henri Cavelier, La
Salle's uncle; and being of an adventurous spirit he
volunteered for the enterprise, of which he was to
become the historian. With La Salle 's brother the
864 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1«84.
priest, and two of his nephews, one of whom was a
boy of fourteen, Joutel set out for Rochelle, where
all were to embark together for their promised
land.1
La Salle wrote a parting letter to his mother at
Rouen: —
ROCHELLE, 18 July, 1684.
MADAME MY MOST HONORED MOTHER, —
At last, after having waited a long time for a favour-
able wind, and having had a great many difficulties to over-
come, we are setting sail with four vessels, and nearly
four hundred men on board. Everybody is well, includ-
ing little Colin and my nephew. We all have good hope
of a happy success. We are not going by way of Canada,
but by the Gulf of Mexico. I passionately wish, and so
do we all, that the success of this voyage may contribute
to your repose and comfort. Assuredly, I shall spare no
effort that it may; and I beg you, on your part, to pre-
serve yourself for the love of us.
You need not be troubled by the news from Canada,
which are nothing but the continuation of the artifices
of my enemies. I hope to be as successful against them
as I have been thus far, and to embrace you a year hence
with all the pleasure that the most grateful of children
can feel with so good a mother as you have always been.
Pray let this hope, which shall not disappoint you, sup-
port you through whatever trials may happen, and be
sure that you will always find me with a heart full of the
feelings which are due to you.
1 Joutel, Journal Historique, 12.
1684.] A PARTING LETTER. 365
Madame my Most Honored Mother, from your most
humble and most obedient servant and son,
DE LA SALLE.
My brother, my nephews, and all the others greet you,
and take their leave of you.
This memorable last farewell has lain for two
hundred years among the family papers of the
Caveliers.1
1 The letters of Beaujeu to Seignelay and to Cabart de Viller-
mont, with most of the other papers on which this chapter rests,
will be found in Margry, ii. 364-471. This indefatigable investiga-
tor has also brought to light a number of letters from a brother
officer of Beaujeu, Machaut-Rougemont, written at Rochefort,
just after the departure of the expedition from Rochelle, and
giving some idea of the views there entertained concerning it. He
says : " I/on ne peut pas f aire plus d'extravagances que le Sieur de
la Salle n'en a fait sur toutes ses pretentious de commandement.
Je plains beaucoup le pauvre Beaujeu d'avoir affaire a une hu«
meur si saturnienne. . . . Je le croy beaucoup visionnaire . . .
Beaujeu a une sotte commission/'
CHAPTER XXIV.
1684, 1685.
THE VOYAGE.
DISPUTES WITH BEAUJEU. — ST. DOMINGO. — LA SALLB ATTACKED
WITH FEVER: HIS DESPERATE CONDITION. — THE GULF OP
MEXICO. — A VAIN SEARCH AND A FATAL ERROR.
THE four ships sailed from Rochelle on the twenty-
fourth of July. Four days after, the " Joly " broke
her bowsprit, by design as La Salle fancied. They
all put back to Rochefort, where the mischief was
quickly repaired; and they put to sea again. La
Salle, and the chief persons of the expedition, with
a crowd of soldiers, artisans, and women, the destined
mothers of Louisiana, were all on board the "Joly."
Beaujeu wished to touch at Madeira, to replenish
his water-casks. La Salle refused, lest by doing so
the secret of the enterprise might reach the Spaniards.
One Paget, a Huguenot, took up the word in sup-
port of Beaujeu. La Salle told him that the affair
was none of his; and as Paget persisted with
increased warmth and freedom, he demanded of
Beaujeu if it was with his consent that a man of no
rank spoke to him in that manner. Beaujeu sus-
ST. DOIMIX<;O.
.lined the Huguenot. "That is enough," returned
1 ..i Salle, :uul \vitlidre\v into liis ealun.1
This \vas not the first misunderstandin!';; nor was
it the last. There was ineessant eliatin>;- between the
two commanders; ami the sailors of (ho ".lolv " \\ere
<oou of one mind \\ith thoir captain. When the
-hip crossed the tropie, thov niadr ivadv a tnl> on
to baptize tho passengers, aftor tlu> villanous
ce of the time; but La Salle ivfusod to permit,
it, at whioh tlu\y were highly rxaspcralrd, liaxin:';
promisc'd tluMiisolvos a bountiful ransom, in inonoy or
li.pior, iVom thiMr viotims. il . \ssmvdlv." says .loutol,
**they would gladly have killed us all.**
Wh«Mi, al'lcr a \vnMrluMl Voyage of two months tllO
ship reached St. Domingo, a fresh dispute occurred.
It had been resolved at a council of olVuvrs to stop
at Port de Paix; but Beaujeu, on pretext of a fair
\\ md, ran by that place in the night, and cast anchor
at Petit Goave, on the other side of the island. La
Salle was extremely vexed ; for he expected to meet,
at Port de Paix the Marquis de Saint-Laurent,
lieutenant-general of the islands, Be*gon the intend-
anl, and De Cussy, governor of La Tortile, who had
orders to supply him with provisions and give him
all possible aid.
The "Joly" was alone: the other vessels had
lagged behind. She had more than fifty sick men on
(sans nom c/Weur) tfcriff d« St. Domingue, 14 Nov., 1684
(Margry, ii. 402) ; Mtmoirt autograph* rf« I'Abbi Jean Cavelier t«r /«
Voyage de 1084. Compare Joutel.
368 THE VOYAGE. [1684.
board, and La Salle was of the number. He sent a
messenger to Saint-Laurent, Begon, and Cussy,
begging them to come to him ; ordered Joutel to get
the sick ashore, suffocating as they were in the hot
and crowded ship; and caused the soldiers to be
landed on a small island in the harbor. Scarcely had
the voyagers sung Te Deum for their safe arrival,
when two of the lagging vessels appeared, bringing
tilings that the third, the ketch "St. Francois," had
been taken by Spanish buccaneers. She was laden
with provisions, tools, and other necessaries for the
colony; and the loss was irreparable. Beaujeu was
answerable for it; for had he anchored at Port de
Paix, it would not have occurred. The lieutenant-
general, with Be*gon and Cussy, who presently
arrived, plainly spoke their minds to him.1
La Salle 's illness increased. "I was walking with
him one day," writes Joutel, "when he was seized of
a sudden with such a weakness that he could not
stand, and was obliged to lie down on the ground.
When he was a little better, I led him to a chamber
of a house that the brothers Duhaut had hired.
Here we put him to bed, and in the morning he was
attacked by a violent fever."2 "It was so violent
that," says another of his shipmates, "his imagina-
tion pictured to him things equally terrible and
amazing."8 He lay delirious in the wretched garret^
1 Memoir e de MM.de Saint-Laurens et Began (Margry,ii. 499);
Joutel, Journal Historique, 28.
* Relation de Henri Joutel (Margry, iii. 98).
8 Lettre (sans nom d'auteur), 14 Nov., 1684 (Margry, ii. 496).
1684.] ILLNESS OF LA SALLE. 369
attended by his brother, and one or two others who
stood faithful to him. A goldsmith of the neighbor-
hood, moved at his deplorable condition, offered the
use of his house ; and Abbe* Cavelier had him removed
thither. But there was a tavern hard by, and the
patient was tormented with daily and nightly riot.
At the height of the fever, a party of Beaujeu's
sailors spent a night in singing and dancing before
the house ; and, says Cavelier, " The more we begged
them to be quiet, the more noise they made." La
Salle lost reason and well-nigh life ; but at length his
mind resumed its balance, and the violence of the
disease abated. A friendly Capucin friar offered
him the shelter of his roof; and two of his men sup-
ported him thither on foot, giddy with exhaustion
and hot with fever. Here he found repose, and was
slowly recovering, when some of his attendants rashly
told him the loss of the ketch "St. Frangois;" and
the consequence was a critical return of the
disease.1
There was no one to fill his place. Beaujeu would
not; Cavelier could not. Joutel, the gardener's son,
was apparently the most trusty man of the company;
but the expedition was virtually without a head.
The men roamed on shore, and plunged into every
excess of debauchery, contracting diseases which
eventually killed them.
Beaujeu, in the extremity of ill-humor, resumed
1 The above particulars are from the memoir of La Salle'a
brother, Abb£ Carelier, already cited
24
370 THE VOYAGE. [1684.
his correspondence with Seignelay. "But for the
illness of the Sieur de la Salle," he writes, "I could
not venture to report to you the progress of our
voyage, as I am charged only with the navigation,
and he with the secrets; but as his malady has
deprived him of the use of his faculties, both of body
and mind, I have thought myself obliged to acquaint
you with what is passing, and of the condition in
which we are."
He then declares that the ships freighted by La
Salle were so slow that the " Joly " had continually
been forced to wait for them, thus doubling the
length of the voyage; that he had not had water
enough for the passengers, as La Salle had not told
him that there were to be any such till the day they
came on board; that great numbers were sick, and
that he had told La Salle there would be trouble if
he filled all the space between decks with his goods,
and forced the soldiers and sailors to sleep on deck;
that he had told him he would get no provisions at
St. Domingo, but that he insisted on stopping; that
it had always been so, — that whatever he proposed
La Salle would refuse, alleging orders from the
King; "and now," pursues the ruffled commander,
" everybody is ill ; and he himself has a violent fever,
as dangerous, the surgeon tells me, to the mind as to
the body."
The rest of the letter is in the same strain. He
says that a day or two after La Salle 's illness began,
his brother Cavelier came to ask him to take charge
1684.] COMPLAINTS OF BEAUJEU. 371
of his affairs; but that he did not wish to meddle
with them, especially as nobody knows anything
about them, and as La Salle has sold some of the
ammunition and provisions; that Cavelier tells him
that he thinks his brother keeps no accounts, wish-
ing to hide his affairs from everybody; that he learns
from buccaneers that the entrance of the Mississippi
is very shallow and difficult, and that this is the
worst season for navigating the Gulf; that the
Spaniards have in these seas six vessels of from
thirty to sixty guns each, besides row-galleys; but
that he is not afraid, and will perish, or bring back
an account of the Mississippi. "Nevertheless," he
adds, "if the Sieur de la Salle dies, I shall pursue a
course different from that which he has marked out ;
for I do not approve his plans."
"If," he continues, "you permit me to speak my
mind, M. de la Salle ought to have been satisfied
with discovering his river, without undertaking to
conduct three vessels with troops two thousand
leagues through so many different climates, and
across seas entirely unknown to him. I grant that
he is a man of knowledge, that he has reading, and
even some tincture of navigation; but there is so
much difference between theory and practice, that a
man who has only the former will always be at fault.
There is also a great difference between conducting
canoes on lakes and along a river, and navigating
ships with troops on distant oceans."1
1 Lettre de Beaujeu au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1684.
372 THE VOYAGE. [1684.
While Beaujeu was complaining of La Salle, his
followers were deserting him. It was necessary to
send them on board ship, and keep them there ; for
there were French buccaneers at Petit Goave, who
painted the promised land in such dismal colors that
many of the adventurers completely lost heart
Some, too, were dying. "The air of this place is
bad," says Joutel; "so are the fruits; and there are
plenty of women worse than either."1
It was near the end of November before La Salle
could resume the voyage. He was told that Beaujeu
had said that he would not wait longer for the store-
ship "Aimable, ' and that she might follow as she
could.2 Moreover, La Salle was on ill terms with
Aigron, her captain, who had declared that he would
have nothing more to do with him.3 Fearing, there-
fore, that some mishap might befall her, he resolved
to embark in her himself, with his brother Cavelier,
Membre*, Douay, and others, the trustiest of his
followers. On the twenty-fifth they set sail; the
"Joly" and the little frigate "Belle" following.
They coasted the shore of Cuba, and landed at the
Isle of Pines, where La Salle shot an alligator, which
the? soldiers ate; and the hunter brought in a wild
pig, half of which he sent to Beaujeu. Then they
advanced to Cape St. Antoine, where bad weather
and contrary winds long detained them. A load of
1 Relation de Henri Joutel (Margry, iii. 105).
2 Memoir e autographe de I' Abbe Jean Cavelier.
8 Lettrt de Beaujeu au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1684.
1685.] A VAIN SEARCH. 373
cares oppressed the mind of La Salle, pale and
haggard with recent illness, wrapped within his own
thoughts, and seeking sympathy from none.
At length they entered the Gulf of Mexico, that
forbidden sea whence by a Spanish decree, dating
from the reign of Philip II., all foreigners were
excluded on pain of extermination.1 Not a man on
board knew the secrets of its perilous navigation.
Cautiously feeling their way, they held a north-
westerly course, till on the twenty-eighth of December
a sailor at the mast-head of the " Aimable " saw land.
La Salle and all the pilots had been led to form an
exaggerated idea of the force of the easterly currents ;
and they therefore supposed themselves near the Bay
of Appalache, when, in fact, they were much farther
westward.
On New Year's Day they anchored three leagues
from the shore. La Salle, with the engineer Minet,
went to explore it, and found nothing but a vast
marshy plain, studded with clumps of rushes. Two
days after there was a thick fog, and when at length
it cleared, the " Joly " was nowhere to be seen. La
Salle in the "Aimable," followed closely by the
little frigate "Belle," stood westward along the
coast. When at the mouth of the Mississippi in
1682, he had taken its latitude, but unhappily could
not determine its longitude; and now every eye on
board was strained to detect in the monotonous lines
1 Letter oj Don Luis de Onis to the Secretary of State (American
State Papers, xii. 27-31).
374 THE VOYAGE. [1685.
of the low shore some tokens of the great river. In
fact, they had already passed it. On the sixth of
January, a wide opening was descried between two
low points of land; and the adjacent sea was dis-
colored with mud. "La Salle," writes his brother
Cavelier, "has always thought that this was the
Mississippi." To all appearance, it was the entrance
of Galveston Bay.1 But why did he not examine it?
Joutel says that his attempts to do so were frustrated
by the objections of the pilot of the "Aimable," to
which, with a facility very unusual with him, he
suffered himself to yield. Cavelier declares, on the
other hand, that he would not enter the opening
because he was afraid of missing the " Joly." But
he might have entered with one of his two vessels,
while the other watched outside for the absent ship.
From whatever cause, he lay here five or six days,
waiting in vain for Beaujeu ; 2 till, at last, thinking
that he must have passed westward, he resolved to
follow. The "Aimable" and the "Belle" again
spread their sails, and coasted the shores of Texas.
Joutel, with a boat's crew, tried to land; but the
sand-bars and breakers repelled him. A party of
Indians swam out through the surf, and were taken
on board; but La Salle could learn nothing from
them, as their language was unknown to him.
1 "La hauteur nous a fait remarquer . . . que ce que nous
avions vu le sixieme Janvier estoit en effet la principale entree de
la riviere que nous cherchions." — Lettre de La Salle au Ministry
4 Mars, 1687.
2 Memoire autographe de UAbbe Cavelier.
1685.] THE SHORES OF TEXAS. 375
Again Joutel tried to land, and again the breakers
repelled him. He approached as near as he dared,
and saw vast plains and a dim expanse of forest,
buffalo running with their heavy gallop along the
»shore, and deer grazing on the marshy meadows.
Soon after, he succeeded in landing at a point
somewhere between Matagorda Island and Corpus
Ghristi Bay. The aspect of the country was not
cheering, with its barren plains, its reedy marshes,
Its interminable oyster-beds, and broad flats of mud
bare at low tide. Joutel and his men sought in
vain for fresh water, and after shooting some geese
and ducks returned to the "Aimable." Nothing
had been seen of Beaujeu and the " Joly; " the coast
was trending southward; and La Salle, convinced
that he must have passed the missing ship, turned to
retrace his course. He had sailed but a few miles
when the wind failed, a fog covered the sea, and he
was forced to anchor opposite one of the openings
into the lagoons north of Mustang Island. At
length, on the nineteenth, there came a faint breeze ;
the mists rolled away before it, and to his great joy
he saw the " Joly " approaching.
"His joy," says Joutel, "was short." Beaujeu's
lieutenant, Aire, came on board to charge him with
having caused the separation, and La Salle retorted
by throwing the blame on Beaujeu. Then came a
debate as to their position. The priest Esmanville
was present, and reports that La Salle seemed greatly
perplexed. He had more cause for perplexity than
376 THE VOYAGE. [1685.
he knew; for in his ignorance of the longitude of the
Mississippi, he had sailed more than four hundred
miles beyond it.
Of this he had not the faintest suspicion. In full
sight from his ship lay a reach of those vast lagoons
which, separated from the sea by narrow strips of
land, line this coast with little interruption from
Galveston Bay to the Rio Grande. The idea took
possession of him that the Mississippi discharged
itself into these lagoons, and thence made its way to
the sea through the various openings he had seen
along the coast, chief among which was that he had
discovered on the sixth, about fifty leagues from the
place where he now was.1
Yet he was full of doubt as to what he should do.
Four days after rejoining Beaujeu, he wrote him the
1 " Depuis que nous avions quitte cette riviere qu'il croyoit inf ail-
liblement estre le fleuve Colbert [Mississippi] nous avions fait envi-
ron 45 lieues ou 50 au plus." (Cavelier, Memoire.) This, taken in
connection with the statement of La Salle that this " principale
entree de la riviere que nous cherchions " was twenty-five or thirty
leagues northeast from the entrance of the Bay of St. Louis (Mata-
gorda Bay), shows that it can have been no other than the entrance of
Galveston Bay, mistaken by him for the chief outlet of the Missis-
sippi. It is evident that he imagined Galveston Bay to form a part
of the chain of lagoons from which it is in fact separated. He
speakg of these lagoons as " une espeee de baye fort longue et fort
large, dans laquelle le JJeuve Colbert se decharge." He adds that
on his descent to the mouth of the river in 1682 he had been de-
ceived in supposing that this expanse of salt water, where no shore
was in sight, was the open sea. Lettre de La Salle au Ministre, 4
Mars, 1685. Galveston Bay and the mouth of the Mississippi
differ little in latitude, though separated by about five and a half
degrees of longitude.
1685.] PERPLEXITY OF LA SALLE. 877
•strange .request to land the troops, that he "might
fulfil his commission ; " that is, that he might set out
against the Spaniards.1 More than a week passed, a
gale. had set in, and nothing was done. Then La
Salle wrote again, intimating some doubt as to
whether he was really at one of the mouths of the
Mississippi, and saying that, being sure that he had
passed the principal mouth, he was determined to go
back to look for it.2 Meanwhile, Beaujeu was in a
Htate of great irritation. The weather was stormy,
and the coast was dangerous. Supplies were scanty ;
and La Salle's soldiers, still crowded in the " Joly,"
were consuming the provisions of the ship. Beaujeu
gave vent to his annoyance, and La , Salle retorted in
the same strain.
According to Joutel, he urged the naval com-
mander to sail back in search of the river; and
Beaujeu refused, unless La Salle should give the
soldiers provisions. La Salle, he adds, offered to
supply them with rations for fifteen days; and
Beaujeu declared this insufficient. There is reason,
however, to believe that the request was neither
made by the one nor refused by the other so posi-
tively as here appears.
1 Lettre de La Salle a Beaujeu, 23 Jan., 1685 (Margry, ii. 526).
2 This letter is dated, " De Femboucheure d'une rivifcre que fe
rrois estre une des descharges du Mississipy " (Margry, ii. 628).
CHAPTER XXV.
1685.
LA SALLE IN TEXAS.
A PARTY OP EXPLORATION — WRECK OF THE " AIMABLE." — LAND-
ING OF THE COLONISTS. — A FORLORN POSITION. — INDIAN
NEIGHBORS. — FRIENDLY ADVANCES OF BEAUJEU : HIS DE-
PARTURE.— A FATAL DISCOVERY.
IMPATIENCE to rid himself of his colleague and to
command alone no doubt had its influence on the
judgment of La Salle. He presently declared that
he would land the soldiers, and send them along
shore till they came to the principal outlet of the
river. On this, the engineer Minet took up the
WOrd, — • expressed his doubts as to whether the
Mississippi discharged itself into the lagoons at all ;
represented that even if it did, the soldiers would be
exposed to great risks; and gave as his opinion that
all should reimbark and continue the search in com-
pany. The advice was good, but La Salle resented
it as coming from one in whom he recognized no
right to give it. "He treated me," complains the
engineer, "as if I were the meanest of mankind."1
1 Relation de Minet; Lettre de Minet a Seignelay, 6 July, 1685
(Margry, ii. 691, 602).
1685.] LANDING OF LA SALLE. 379
He persisted in his purpose, and sent Joutel and
Moranget with a party of soldiers to explore the
coast. They made their way northeastward along
the shore of Matagorda Island, till they were stopped
on the third day by what Joutel calls a river, but
which was in fact the entrance of Matagorda Bay.
Here they encamped, and tried to make a raft of
driftwood. "The difficulty was," says Joutel, "our
great number of men, and the few of them who were
fit for anything except eating. As I said before,
they had all been caught by force or surprise, so that
our company was like Noah's ark, which contained
animals of all sorts." Before their raft was finished,
they descried to their great joy the ships which had
followed them along the coast.1
La Salle landed, and announced that here was the
western mouth of the Mississippi, and the place to
which the King had sent him. He said further that
he would land all his men, and bring the " Aimable "
a ad the " Belle " to the safe harborage within.
Beaujeu remonstrated, alleging the shallowness of
the water and the force of the currents; but his
remonstrance was vain.2
The Bay of St. Louis, now Matagorda Bay, forms
a broad and sheltered harbor, accessible from the sea
by a narrow passage, obstructed by sand-bars and by
the small island now called Pelican Island. Boats
1 Joutel, Journal Historique, 68 ; Relation (Margry, iii. 143-146).
Compare Journal d'Esmanville (Margry, ii. 510).
2 Relation de Minet (Margry, ii 591).
380 LA SALLE IN TEXAS. [1685.
were sent to sound and buoy out the channel, and
this was successfully accomplished on the sixteenth
of February. The " Aimable " was ordered to enter;
and, on the twentieth, she weighed anchor. La
Salle was on shore watching her. A party of men,
at a little distance, were cutting down a tree to
make a canoe. Suddenly some of them ran towards
him with terrified faces, crying out that they had
been set upon by a troop of Indians, who had seized
their companions and carried them off. La Salle
ordered those about him to take their arms, and at
once set out in pursuit. He overtook the Indians,
and opened a parley with them ; but when he wished
to reclaim his men, he discovered that they had been
led away during the conference to the Indian camp,
a league and a half distant. Among them was one of
his lieutenants, the young Marquis de la Sablonni^re.
He was deeply vexed, for the moment was critical;
but the men must be recovered, and he led his fol-
lowers in haste towards the camp. Yet he could
not refrain from turning a moment to watch the
"Aimable," as she neared the shoals; and he re-
marked with deep anxiety to Joutel, who was with
him, that if she held that course she would soon
be aground.
They hurried on till they saw the Indian huts.
About fifty of them, oven-shaped, and covered with
mats and hides, were clustered on a rising ground,
with their inmates gathered among and around them.
As the French entered the camp, there was the report
1685.] WRECK OF THE « AIM ABLE." 381
of a cannon from the seaward. The startled savages
dropped flat with terror. A different fear seized La
Salle, for he knew that the shot was a signal of
disaster. Looking back, he saw the " Aimable "
furling her sails, and his heart sank with the con-
viction that she had struck upon the reef. Smother-
ing his distress, — she was laden with all the stores
of the colony, — he pressed forward among the filthy
wigwams, whose astonished inmates swarmed about
the band of armed strangers, staring between curios-
icy and fear. La Salle knew those with whom he
was dealing, and, without ceremony, entered the
chief's lodge with his followers. The crowd closed
around them, naked men and half -naked women,
described by Joutel as of singular ugliness. They
gave buffalo meat and dried porpoise to the unex-
pected guests, but La Salle, racked with anxiety,
hastened to close the interview; and having without
difficulty recovered the kidnapped men, he returned
to the beach, leaving with the Indians, as usual, an
impression of good- will and respect.
When he reached the shore, he saw his worst fears
realized. The "Aimable" lay careened over on the
roef, hopelessly aground. Little remained but to
eadure the calamity with firmness, and to save, as
f;tr as might be, the vessel's cargo. This was no
easy task. The boat which hung at her stern had
been stove in, — it is said, by design. Beau jeu sent
a boat from the "Joly," and one or more Indian
pirogues were procured. La Salle urged on his men
382 LA SALLE IN TEXAS. [1685.
with stern and patient energy, and a quantity of
gunpowder and flour was safely landed. But now
the wind blew fresh from the sea ; the waves began
to rise ; a storm came on ; the vessel, rocking to and
fro on the sand-bar, opened along her side, and the
ravenous waves were strewn with her treasures.
When the confusion was at its height, a troop of
Indians came down to the shore, greedy for plunder.
The drum was beat; the men were called to arms;
La Salle set his trustiest followers to guard the gun-
powder, in fear, not of the Indians alone, but of his
own countrymen. On that lamentable night, the
sentinels walked their rounds through the dreary
bivouac among the casks, bales, and boxes which
the sea had yielded up; and here, too, their fate-
hunted chief held his drearier vigil, encompassed
with treachery, darkness, and the storm.
Not only La Salle, but Joutel and others of his
party, believed that the wreck of the " Aimable " was
intentional. Aigron, who commanded her, had dis-
obeyed orders and disregarded signals. Though he
had been directed to tow the vessel through the
channel, he went in under sail; and though little
else was saved from the wreck, his personal property,
including even some preserved fruits, was all landed
safely. He had long been on ill terms with La
Salle.1
l Prods Verbal du Sieur de la Salle sur le Naufrage de la Flfae
I' Aimable; Lettre de La Salle a Seignelay, 4 Mars, 1685; Lettre de
Beaujeu a Seignelay, sans date. Beaujeu did his best to save the
1685.] WRECK OF THE « AIMABLE.'' 383
All La Salle's company were now encamped on the
sands at the left side of the inlet where the " Aimable "
was wrecked.1 "They were all," says the engineer
Minet, "sick with nausea and dysentery. Five or
six died every day, in consequence of brackish water
and bad food. There was no grass, but plenty of
lushes and plenty of oysters. There was nothing to
make ovens, so that they had to eat flour saved
from the wreck, boiled into messes of porridge with
this brackish water. Along the shore were quanti-
ties of uprooted trees and rotten logs, thrown up by
the sea and the lagoon." Of these, and fragments
of the wreck, they made a sort of rampart to protect
their camp ; and here, among tents and hovels, bales,
boxes, casks, spars, dismounted cannon, and pens for
fowls and swine, were gathered the dejected men and
homesick women who were to seize New Biscay, and
hold for France a region large as half Europe. The
Spaniards, whom they were to conquer, were they
cargo. The loss included nearly all the provisions, 60 barrels of
wine, 4 cannon, 1,620 balls, 400 grenades, 4,000 pounds of iron, 5,000
pounds of lead, most of the tools, a forge, a mill, cordage, boxes of
arms, nearly all the medicines, and most of the baggage of the
soldiers and colonists. Aigron returned to France in the " Joly,"
and was thrown into prison, " comme il paroist clairement que cet
accident est arrive par sa f aute." — Seignelay au Sieur Arnoul, 22
Juillet, 1685 (Margry, ii. 604).
!• A map, entitled Entree du Lac ou on a laisse le Sr- de la Salle,
made by the engineer Minet, and preserved in the Archives de la
Marine, represents the entrance of Matagorda Bay, the camp of La
Salle on the left, Indian camps on the borders of the bay, the
" Belle " at anchor within, the " Aimable " stranded at the entrance,
and the " Joly " anchored in the open sea.
384 LA SALLE IN TEXAS. [1685.
knew not where. They knew not where they were
themselves ; and for the fifteen thousand Indian allies
who were to have joined them, they found two hun-
dred squalid savages, more like enemies than friends.
In fact, it was soon made plain that these their
neighbors wished them no good. A few days after
the wreck, the prairie was seen on fire. As the
smoke and flame rolled towards them before the
wind, La Salle caused all the grass about the camp
to be cut and carried away, and especially around the
spot where the powder was placed. The danger was
averted ; but it soon became known that the Indians
had stolen a number of blankets and other articles,
and carried them to their wigwams. Unwilling to
leave his camp, La Salle sent his nephew Moranget
and several other volunteers, with a party of men, to
reclaim them. They went up the bay in a boat,
landed at the Indian camp, and, with more mettle
than discretion, marched into it, sword in hand.
The Indians ran off, and the rash adventurers seized
upon several canoes as an equivalent for the stolen
goods. Not knowing how to manage them, they
made slow progress on their way back, and were
overtaken by night before reaching the French camp.
They landed, made a fire, placed a sentinel, and lay
down on the dry grass to sleep. The sentinel fol-
lowed their example, when suddenly they were
awakened by the war-whoop and a shower of arrows.
Two volunteers, Oris and Desloges. were killed
on the spot; a third, named Gayen, was severely
1685.] BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE. 385
wounded; and young Moranget received an arrow
through the arm. He leaped up and fired his gun at
the vociferous but invisible foe. Others of the party
did the same, and the Indians fled.
It was about this time that Beaujeu prepared to
return to France. He had accomplished his mission,
and landed his passengers at what La Salle assured
"aim to be one of the mouths of the Mississippi. His
ship was in danger on this exposed and perilous coast,
and he was anxious to find shelter. For some time
past, his relations with La Salle had been amicable,
and it was agreed between them that Beaujeu should
stop at Galveston Bay, the supposed chief mouth of
the Mississippi; or, failing to find harborage here,
that he should proceed to Mobile Bay, and wait there
till April, to hear from his colleague. Two days
before the wreck of the "Aimable," he wrote to La
Salle: "I wish with all my heart that you would
have more confidence in me. For my part, I will
always make the first advances; and I will follow
your counsel whenever I can do so without risking
my ship. I will come back to this place, if you want
to know the results of the voyage I am going to
make. If you wish, I will go to Martinique for pro-
visions and reinforcements. In fine, there is nothing
I am not ready to do: you have only to speak."
La Salle had begged him to send ashore a number
of cannon and a quantity of iron, stowed in the
"Joly," for the use of the colony; and Beaujeu
replies: "I wish very much that I could give you
25
386 LA SALLE IN TEXAS. [1685
your iron, but it is impossible except in a harbor ;
for it is on my ballast, and under your cannon, my
spare anchors, and all my stowage. It would take
three days to get it out, which cannot be done in this
place, where the sea runs like mountains when the
slightest wind blows outside. I would rather come
back to give it to you, in case you do not send the
1 Belle ' to Baye du St. Esprit [Mobile Bay] to get
it. ... I beg you once more to consider the offer
I make you to go to Martinique to get provisions
for your people. I will ask the intendant for them
in your name; and if they are refused, I will take
them on my own account."1
To this La Salle immediately replied : " I received
with singular pleasure the letter you took the trouble
to write me ; for I found in it extraordinary proofs of
kindness in the interest you take in the success of an
affair which I have the more at heart, as it involves
the glory of the King and the honor of Monseigneur
de Seignelay. I have done my part towards a per-
fect understanding between us, and have never been
wanting in confidence ; but even if I could be so, the
offers you make are so obliging that they would
inspire complete trust." He nevertheless declines
them, — assuring Beau jeu at the same time that he
has reached the place he sought, and is in a fair way
of success if he can but have the cannon, cannon-
balls, and iron stowed on board the " Joly."*
i Lettre de Beaufeu a La Salle, 18 Fev., 1685 (Margry, ii. 542).
* Lettre de La Salle a Beaujeu, 18 Fev., 1685 (Margry, ii. 546).
1685.] DEPARTURE OF BEAUJEU. 387
Directly after he writes again, " I cannot help con-
juring you once more to try to give us the iron."
Beaujeu replies : " To show you how ardently I wish
to contribute to the success of your undertaking, I
have ordered your iron to be got out, in spite of my
officers and sailors, who tell me that I endanger my
ship by moving everything in the depth of the hold
on a coast like this, where the seas are like moun-
tains. I hesitated to disturb my stowage, not so
much to save trouble as because no ballast is to be
got hereabout; and I have therefore had six cannon,
from my lower deck battery, let down into the hold
to take the place of the iron." And he again urges
La Salle to accept his offer to bring provisions to the
colonists from Martinique.
On the next day, the "Aimable" was wrecked.
Beaujeu remained a fortnight longer on the coast,
and then told La Salle that being out of wood,
water, and other necessaries, he must go to Mobile
Bay to get them. Nevertheless, he lingered a week
more, repeated his offer to bring supplies from
Martinique, which La Salle again refused, and at
last set sail on the twelfth of March, after a leave-
taking which was courteous on both sides.1
La Salle and his colonists were left alone. Several
of them had lost heart, and embarked for home with
Beaujeu. Among these was Minet the engineer,
who had fallen out with La Salle, and who when he
i The whole of this correspondence between Beaujeu and L«
Salle will be found in Margry, ii.
LA SALLE IN TEXAS. [1685.
reached France was imprisoned for deserting him.
Even his brother, the priest Jean Cavelier, had a
mind to abandon the enterprise, but was persuaded
at last to remain, along with his nephew the hot-
headed Moranget, and the younger Cavelier, a mere
school-boy. The two Re*collet friars, Zenobe Membre*
and Anastase Douay, the trusty Joutel, a man of
sense and observation, and the Marquis de la
Sablonniere, a debauched noble whose patrimony was
his sword, were now the chief persons of the forlorn
company. The rest were soldiers, raw and undis-
ciplined, and artisans, most of whom knew nothing
of their vocation. Add to these the miserable
families and the infatuated young women who had
come to tempt fortune in the swamps and cane-brakes
of the Mississippi.
La Salle set out to explore the neighborhood.
Joutel remained in command of the so-called fort.
He was beset with wily enemies, and often at night
the Indians would crawl in the grass around his
feeble stockade, howling like wolves; but a few
shots would put them to flight. A strict guard was
kept; and a wooden horse was set in the enclosure,
to punish the sentinel who should sleep at his post.
They stood in daily fear of a more formidable foe,
and once they saw a sail, which they doubted not
was Spanish ; but she happily passed without discov-
ering them. They hunted on the prairies, and
speared fish in the neighboring pools. On Easter
Day, the Sieur le Gros, one of the chief men of the
1685.] CONDUCT OF BEAUJEU. 389
company, went out after the service to shoot snipes ;
but as he walked barefoot through the marsh, a
snake bit him, and he soon after died. Two men
deserted, to starve on the prairie, or to become sav-
ages among savages. Others tried to escape, but
were caught; and one of them was hung. A knot
of desperadoes conspired to kill Joutel; but one of
them betrayed the secret, and the plot was crushed.
La Salle returned from his exploration, but his
return brought no cheer. He had been forced to
renounce the illusion to which he had clung so long,
and was convinced at last that he was not at
the mouth of the Mississippi. The wreck of the
" Aimable " itself was not pregnant with consequences
so disastrous.
NOTE. — The conduct of Beaujeu, hitherto judged chiefly by the
printed narrative of Joutel, is set in a new and more favorable light
by his correspondence with La Salle. Whatever may have been
their mutual irritation, it is clear that the naval commander was
anxious to discharge his duty in a manner to satisfy Seignelay, and
that he may be wholly acquitted of any sinister design. When he
left La Salle on the twelfth of March, he meant to sail in search of
the Bay of Mobile (Baye du St. Esprit), — partly because he hoped
to find it a safe harbor, where he could get La Salle's cannon out of
the hold and find ballast to take their place ; and partly to get a
supply of wood and water, of which he was in extreme need. He
told La Salle that he would wait there till the middle of April, in
order that he (La Salle) might send the "Belle" to receive the
cannon ; but on this point there was no definite agreement between
them. Beaujeu was ignorant of the position of the bay, which he
thought much nearer than it actually was. After trying two days
to reach it, the strong head-winds and the discontent of his crew in-
duced him to bear away for Cuba; and after an encounter with
pirates and various adventures, he reached France about the first
of July. He was coldly received by Seignelay, who wrote to the
390 LA SALLE IN TEXAS. [1685.
intendant at Rochelle: "Hig Majesty has seen what you wrote
about the idea of the Sieur de Beaujeu, that the Sieur de la Salle is
not at the mouth of the Mississippi. He seems to found this belief
on such weak conjectures that no great attention need be given to
his account, especially as this man has been prejudiced from the
first against La Salle's enterprise." (Lettre de Seignelay a Arnoul, 22
Juillet, 1686. Margry, ii. 604.) The minister at the same time
warns Beaujeu to say nothing in disparagement of the enterprise,
under pain of the King's displeasure.
The narrative of the engineer, Minet, sufficiently explains a
curious map, made by him, as he says, not on the spot, but on the
voyage homeward, and still preserved in the Archives Scientifiques
de la Marine. This map includes two distinct sketches of the
mouth of the Mississippi. The first, which corresponds to that
made by Franquelin in 1684, is entitled " Embouchure de la Riviere
comme M. de la Salle la marque dans sa Carte." The second bears
the words, " Costes et Lacs par la Hauteur de sa Riviere, comme
nous les avons trouves." These "Costes et Lacs" are a rude
representation of the lagoons of Matagorda Bay and its neighbor-
hood, into which the Mississippi is made to discharge, in accordance
with the belief of La Salle. A portion of the coast-line is drawn
from actual, though superficial observation. The rest is merely
conjectural.
CHAPTER XXVI.
1685-1687.
ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS.
THE FORT. — MISERY AND DEJECTION. — ENERGY OF LA SALLK:
HIS JOURNEY OP EXPLORATION. — ADVENTURES AND ACCIDENTS.
— THE BUFFALO. — DUHAUT. — INDIAN MASSACRE. — RETURN
OF LA SALLE. — A NEW CALAMITY. — A DESPERATE RESOLU-
TION.— DEPARTURE FOR CANADA. — WRECK OF THE "BELLE." —
MARRIAGE. — SEDITION. — ADVENTURES OF LA SALLE'S PARTY.
— THE CENIS. — THE CAMANCHES. — THE ONLY HOPE. — THE
LAST FAREWELL.
OP what avail to plant a colony by the mouth of a
petty Texan river? The Mississippi was the life of
the enterprise, the condition of its growth and of its
existence. Without it, all was futile and meaning-
less, — a folly and a ruin. Cost what it might, the
Mississippi must be found.
But the demands of the hour were imperative.
The hapless colony, cast ashore like a wreck on the
sands of Matagorda Bay, must gather up its shattered
resources and recruit its exhausted strength, before
it essayed anew its pilgrimage to the " fatal river. "
La Salle during his explorations had found a spot
which he thought well fitted for a temporary estab-
lishment. It was on the river which he named the
392 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1685.
La Vache,1 now the Lavaca, which enters the head
of Matagorda Bay; and thither he ordered all the
women and children, and most of the men, to
remove; while the rest, thirty in number, remained
with Joutel at the fort near the mouth of the bay.
Here they spent their time in hunting, fishing, and
squaring the logs of drift-wood which the sea washed
up in abundance, and which La Salle proposed to use
in building his new station on the Lavaca. Thus
the time passed till midsummer, when Joutel
received orders to abandon his post, and rejoin the
main body of the colonists. To this end, the little
frigate " Belle " was sent down the bay. She was a
gift from the King to La Salle, who had brought her
safely over the bar, and regarded her as a mainstay
of his hopes. She now took on board the stores and
some of the men, while Joutel with the rest followed
along shore to the post on the Lavaca. Here he
found a state of things that was far from cheering.
Crops had been sown, but the drought and the cattle
had nearly destroyed them. The colonists were
lodged under tents and hovels; and the only solid
structure was a small square enclosure of pickets,
in which the gunpowder and the brandy were stored.
The site was good, a rising ground by the river ; but
there was no wood within the distance of a league,
and no horses or oxen to drag it. Their work must
be done by men. Some felled and squared the
timber; and others dragged it by main force over the
* Called by Joutel, Riviere aux Boeufs.
1685.] MISERY AND DEJECTION. 893
matted grass of the prairie, under the scorching
Texan sun. The gun-carriages served to make the
task somewhat easier; yet the strongest men soon
gave out under it. Joutel went down to the first
fort, made a raft and brought up the timber collected
there, which proved a most seasonable and useful
supply. Palisades and buildings began to rise.
The men labored without spirit, yet strenuously;
for they labored under the eye of La Salle. The
carpenters brought from Rochelle proved worthless ;
and he himself made the plans of the work, marked
out the tenons and mortises, and directed the whole.1
Death, meanwhile, made withering havoc among
his followers; and under the sheds and hovels that
shielded them from the sun lay a score of wretches
slowly wasting away with the diseases contracted at
St. Domingo. Of the soldiers enlisted for the expe-
dition by La Salle 's agents, many are affirmed to
have spent their lives in begging at the church doors
of Rochefort, and were consequently incapable of
discipline. It was impossible to prevent either them
or the sailors from devouring persimmons and other
wild fruits to a destructive excess. Nearly all fell
ill ; and before the summer had passed, the graveyard
had more than thirty tenants.2 The bearing of La
Salle did not aid to raise the drooping spirits of his
1 Joutel, Journal Historique, 108; Relation (Margry, iii. 174);
Proces Verbal fait au poste de St. Louis, le 18 Avril, 1686.
2 Joutel, Journal Historique, 109. Le Clerc, who was not present>
says a hundred.
394 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1685.
followers. The results of the enterprise had been
far different from his hopes; and, after a season of
flattering promise, he had entered again on those
dark and obstructed paths which seemed his destined
way of life. The present was beset with trouble;
the future, thick with storms. The consciousness
quickened his energies ; but it made him stern, harsh,
and often unjust to those beneath him.
Joutel was returning to camp one afternoon with
the master-carpenter, when they saw game; and the
carpenter went after it. He was never seen again.
Perhaps he was lost on the prairie, perhaps killed by
Indians. He knew little of his trade, but they
nevertheless had need of him. Le Gros, a man of
character and intelligence, suffered more and more
from the bite of the snake received in the marsh on
Easter Day. The injured limb was amputated, and
he died. La Salle's brother, the priest, lay ill; and
several others among the chief persons of the colony
were in the same condition.
Meanwhile, the work was urged on. A large
building was finished, constructed of timber, roofed
with boards and raw hides, and divided into apart-
ments for lodging and other uses. La Salle gave the
new establishment his favorite name of Fort St.
Louis, and the neighboring bay was also christened
after the royal saint.1 The scene was not without
1 The Bay of St. Louis, St. Bernard's Bay, or Matagorda Bay,—
for it has borne all these names, — was also called Espiritu Santo
Bay by the Spaniards, in common with several other bays in the
Gulf of Mexico. An adjoining bay still retains the name.
1685.] LA SALLE'S EXPLORATIONS. 895
its charms. Towards the southeast stretched the bay
with its bordering meadows; and on the northeast
the Lavaca ran along the base of green declivities.
Around, far and near, rolled a sea of prairie, with
distant forests, dim in the summer haze. At times,
it was dotted with the browsing buffalo, not yet
scared from their wonted pastures; and the grassy
swells were spangled with the flowers for which
Texas is renowned, and which now form the gay
ornaments of our gardens.
And now, the needful work accomplished, and the
colony in some measure housed and fortified, its
indefatigable chief prepared to renew his quest of the
" fatal river," as Joutel repeatedly calls it. Before
his departure he made some preliminary explorations,
in the course of which, according to the report of
his brother the priest, he found evidence that the
Spaniards had long before had a transient establish-
ment at a spot about fifteen leagues from Fort St.
Louis.1
i Cavelier, in his report to the minister, says : " We reached a
large village, enclosed with a kind of wall made of clay and sand,
and fortified with little towers at intervals, where we found the
arms of Spain engraved on a plate of copper, with the date of 1588,
attached to a stake. The inhabitants gave us a kind welcome, and
showed us some hammers and an anvil, two small pieces of iron
cannon, a small brass culverin, some pike-heads, some old sword-
l>lades, and some books of Spanish comedy; and thence they
guided us to a little hamlet of fishermen, about two leagues distant,
^vhere they showed us a second stake, also with the arms of Spain,
and a few old chimneys. All this convinced us that the Spaniards
had formerly been here." (Cavelier, Relation du Voyage que mon
frere entreprit pour decouvrir I 'embouchure du fleuve de Missisipy.)
896 ST. LOUIS OP TEXAS. [1685.
It was the last day of October when La Salle set
out on his great journey of exploration. His brother
Cavelier, who had now recovered, accompanied him
with fifty men; and five cannon-shot from the fort
saluted them as they departed. They were lightly
equipped; but some of them wore corselets made of
staves, to ward off arrows. Descending the Lavaca,
they pursued their course eastward on foot along the
margin of the bay, while Joutel remained in com-
mand of the fort. It was two leagues above the
mouth of the river; and in it were thirty-four
persons, including three Re*collet friars, a number of
women and girls from Paris, and two young orphan
daughters of one Talon, a Canadian, who had lately
died. Their live-stock consisted of some hogs and a
litter of eight pigs, which, as Joutel does not forget
to inform us, passed their time in wallowing in the
ditch of the palisade ; a cock and hen, with a young
family; and a pair of goats, which, in a temporary
dearth of fresh meat, were sacrificed to the needs of
the invalid Abb6 Cavelier. Joutel suffered no man
to lie idle. The blacksmith, having no anvil, was
supplied with a cannon as a substitute. Lodgings
were built for the women and girls, and separate
lodgings for the men. A small chapel was after-
wards added, and the whole was fenced with a
The above is translated from the original draft of Cavelier, which
is in my possession. It was addressed to the colonial minister, after
the death of La Salle. The statement concerning the Spaniards
needs confirmation.
1685.] LIFE AT THE FORT. 397
palisade. At the four corners of the house were
mounted eight pieces of cannon, which, in the
absence of balls, were loaded with bags of bullets.1
Between the palisades and the stream lay a narrow
strip of marsh, the haunt of countless birds; and at
a little distance it deepened into pools full of fish.
All the surrounding prairies swarmed with game, —
buffalo, deer, hares, turkeys, ducks, geese, swans,
plover, snipe, and grouse. The river supplied the
colonists with turtles, and the bay with oysters. Of
these last, they often found more than they wanted;
for when in their excursions they shoved their log
canoes into the water, wading shoeless through the
deep, tenacious mud, the sharp shells would cut
their feet like knives; "and what was worse," says
Joutel, "the salt water came into the gashes, and
made them smart atrociously."
He sometimes amused himself with shooting alliga-
tors. "I never spared them when I met them near
the house. One day I killed an extremely large one,
which was nearly four feet and a half in girth, and
about twenty feet long." He describes with accuracy
that curious native of the southwestern plains, the
*; horned frog," which, deceived by its uninviting
appearance, he erroneously supposed to be venomous.
4 "We had some of our animals bitten by snakes;
among the others, a bitch that had belonged to the
1 Compare Joutel with the Spanish account in Carta en gue se da
ttoticia de un viaje hecho d la Bahia de Espfritu Santo y de la poblacwn
yue tenian ahi los Francesea ; Coleccion de Varios Documentos, 26.
398 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1685.
deceased Sieur le Gros. She was bitten in the jaw
when she was with me, as I was fishing by the shore
of the bay. I gave her a little theriac [an antidote
then in vogue], which cured her, as it did one of our
sows, which came home one day with her head so
swelled that she could hardly hold it up. Thinking
it must be some snake that had bitten her, I gave
her a dose of the theriac mixed with meal and
water." The patient began to mend at once. "I
killed a good many rattle-snakes by means of the
aforesaid bitch, for when she saw one she would bark
around him, sometimes for a half hour together, till
I took my gun and shot him. I often found them in
the bushes, making a noise with their tails. When
I had killed them, our hogs ate them." He devotes
many pages to the plants and animals of the neigh-
borhood, most of which may easily be recognized
from his description.
With the buffalo, which he calls "our daily bread, *
his experiences were many and strange. Being, like
the rest of the party, a novice in the art of shooting
them, he met with many disappointments. Once,
having mounted to the roof of the large house in the
fort, he saw a dark moving object on a swell of the
prairie three miles off; and rightly thinking that it
was a herd of buffalo, he set out with six or seven
men to try to kill some of them. After a while, he
discovered two bulls lying in a hollow; and signing
to the rest of his party to keep quiet, he made his
approach, gun in hand. The bulls presently jumped
1685.] THE BUFFALO. 399
up, and stared through their manes at the intruder.
Joutel fired. It was a close shot; but the bulls
merely shook their shaggy heads, wheeled about,
and galloped heavily away. The same luck attended
him the next day. " We saw plenty of buffalo. I
approached several bands of them, and fired again
and again, but could not make one of them fall."
He had not yet learned that a buffalo rarely falls at
once, unless hit in the spine. He continues : " I was
not discouraged; and after approaching several more
bands, — which was hard work, because I had to
crawl on the ground, so as not to be seen, — I found
myself in a herd of five or six thousand, but, to my
great vexation, I could not bring one of them down.
They all ran off to the right and left. It was near
night, and I had killed nothing. Though I was
very tired, I tried again, approached another band,
and fired a number of shots ; but not a buffalo would
fall. The skin was off my knees with crawling.
At last, as I was going back to rejoin our men, I saw
a buffalo lying on the ground. I went towards it,
and saw that it was dead. I examined it, and found
that the bullet had gone in near the shoulder. Then
I found others dead like the first. I beckoned the
men to come on, and we set to work to cut up the
meat, — a task which was new to us all." It would
be impossible to write a more true and characteristic
sketch of the experience of a novice in shooting
buffalo on foot. A few days after, he went out
again, with Father Anastase Douay; approached a
400 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1686.
bull, fired, and broke his shoulder. The bull hob-
bled off on three legs. Douay ran in his cassock to
head him back, while Joutel reloaded his gun ; upon
which the enraged beast butted at the missionary,
and knocked him down. He very narrowly escaped
with his life. "There was another missionary,"
pursues Joutel, "named Father Maxime Le Clerc,
who was very well fitted for such an undertaking as
ours, because he was equal to anything, even to
butchering a buffalo ; and as I said before that every
one of us must lend a hand, because we were too few
for anybody to be waited upon, I made the women,
girls, and children do their part, as well as him; for
as they all wanted to eat, it was fair that they all
should work." He had a scaffolding built near the
fort, and set them to smoking buffalo meat, against
a day of scarcity.1
Thus the time passed till the middle of January;
when late one evening, as all were gathered in the
principal building, conversing perhaps, or smoking,
or playing at cards, or dozing by the fire in homesick
dreams of France, a man on guard came in to report
that he had heard a voice from the river. They all
went down to the bank, and descried a man in a
canoe, who called out, "Dominic!" This was the
name of the younger of the two brothers Duhaut,
who was one of Joutel's followers. As the canoe
1 For the above incidents of life at Fort St. Louis, see Joutel,
Relation (Margry, iii. 185-218, passim). The printed condensation
of the narrative omits most of these particulars.
1686.] RETURN OF DUHAUT. 401
approached, they recognized the elder, who had gone
with La Salle on his journey of discovery, and who
was perhaps the greatest villain of the company.
Joutel was much perplexed. La Salle had ordered
him to admit nobody into the fort without a pass
and a watchword. Duhaut, when questioned, said
that he had none, but told at the same time so plausi-
ble a story that Joutel no longer hesitated to receive
him. As La Salle and his men were pursuing their
march along the prairie, Duhaut, who was in the
rear, had stopped to mend his moccasins, and when
he tried to overtake the party, had lost his way, mis-
taking a buffalo-path for the trail of his companions.
At night he fired his gun as a signal, but there was
no answering shot. Seeing no hope of rejoining
them, he turned back for the fort, found one of the
canoes which La Salle had hidden at the shore,
paddled by night and lay close by day, shot turkeys,
deer, and buffalo for food, and, having no knife,
cut the meat with a sharp flint, till after a month of
excessive hardship he reached his destination. As
the inmates of Fort St. Louis gathered about the
weather-beaten wanderer, he told them dreary tid-
ings. The pilot of the "Belle," such was his story,
had gone with five men to sound along the shore, by
order of La Salle, who was then encamped in the
neighborhood with his party of explorers. The
boat's crew, being overtaken by the night, had rashly
bivouacked on the beach without setting a guard;
and as they slept, a band of Indians had rushed ID
26
402 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1686.
upon them, and butchered them all. La Salle,
alarmed by their long absence, had searched along
the shore, and at length found their bodies scattered
about the sands and half -devoured by wolves.1 Well
would it have been, if Duhaut had shared their fate.
Weeks and months dragged on, when, at the end
of March, Joutel, chancing to mount on the roof of
one of the buildings, saw seven or eight men approach-
ing over the prairie. He went out to meet them
with an equal number, well armed; and as he drew
near recognized, with mixed joy and anxiety, La
Salle and some of those who had gone with him.
His brother Cavelier was at his side, with his cassock
so tattered that, says Joutel, "there was hardly a
piece left large enough to wrap a farthing's worth of
salt. He had an old cap on his head, having lost his
hat by the way. The rest were in no better plight,
for their shirts were all in rags. Some of them
carried loads of meat, because M. de la Salle was
afraid that we might not have killed any buffalo,
We met with great joy and many embraces. After
our greetings were over, M. de la Salle, seeing
Duhaut, asked me in an angry tone how it was that
i Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 206). Compare Le Clerc, ii. 296.
Cayelier, always disposed to exaggerate, says that ten men were
killed. La Salle had previously had encounters with the Indians,
and punished them severely for the trouble they had given his men.
Le Clerc says of the principal fight : " Several Indians were
wounded, a few were killed, and others made prisoners, — one of
whom, a girl of three or four years, was baptized, and died a few
days after, as the first-fruit of this mission, and a sure conquest sent
to heaven."
1686.] LA SALLE'S ADVENTURES. 403
I had received this man who had abandoned him.
I told him how it had happened, and repeated
Duhaut's story. Duhaut defended himself, and M.
de la Salle's anger was soon over. We went into
the house, and refreshed ourselves with some bread
and brandy, as there was no wine left." l
La Salle and his companions told their story.
They had wandered on through various savage
tribes, with whom they had more than one encounter,
scattering them like chaff by the terror of their fire-
arms. At length they found a more friendly band,
and learned much touching the Spaniards, who,
they were told, were universally hated by the tribes
of that country. It would be easy, said their infor-
mants, to gather a host of warriors and lead them
over the Rio Grande ; but La Salle was in no condi-
tion for attempting conquests, and the tribes in
whose alliance he had trusted had, a few days before,
been at blows with him. The invasion of New
Biscay must be postponed to a more propitious day.
Still advancing, he came to a large river, which he
at first mistook for the Mississippi; and building a
fort of palisades, he left here several of his men.2
The fate of these unfortunates does not appear. He
1 Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 219).
2 Cavelier says that he actually reached the Mississippi ; but, on
the one hand, the abbe' did not know whether the river in question
was the Mississippi or not; and, on the other, he is somewhat
inclined to mendacity. Le Clerc says that La Salle thought he had
found the river. According to the Proces Verbal of 18 April, 1680,
"il y arriva le 13 Ffcvrier." Joutel says that La Salle told him
* (ju'il n'aroit point trouve' sa rivifere."
404 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1688.
now retraced his steps towards Fort St. Louis, and,
as he approached it, detached some of his men to
look for his vessel, the "Belle," for whose safety,
since the loss of her pilot, he had become very-
anxious.
On the next day these men appeared at the fort,
with downcast looks. They had not found the
" Belle " at the place where she had been ordered to
remain, nor were any tidings to be heard of her.
From that hour, the conviction that she was lost
possessed the mind of La Salle. Surrounded as he
was, and had always been, with traitors, the belief
now possessed him that her crew had abandoned the
colony, and made sail for the West Indies or for
France. The loss was incalculable. He had relied
on this vessel to transport the colonists to the
Mississippi, as soon as its exact position could be
ascertained ; and thinking her a safer place of deposit
than the fort, he had put on board of her all his
papers and personal baggage, besides a great quantity
of stores, ammunition, and tools.1 In truth, she was
of the last necessity to the unhappy exiles, and their
only resource for escape from a position which was
fast becoming desperate.
La Salle, as his brother tells us, now fell danger-
ously ill, — the fatigues of his journey, joined to the
effects upon his mind of this last disaster, having
overcome his strength, though not his fortitude.
"In truth," writes the priest, "after the loss of the
1 Prods Verbal fait au poste de St. Louis, le 18 Avril, 1686.
1686.] DEPARTURE FOR CANADA. 405
vessel which deprived us of our only means of return-
ing to France, we had no resource but in the firm
guidance of my brother, whose death each of us
would have regarded as his own."1
La Salle no sooner recovered than he embraced
a resolution which could be the offspring only of a
desperate necessity. He determined to make his
way by the Mississippi and the Illinois to Canada,
whence he might bring succor to the colonists, and
£end a report of their condition to France. The
attempt was beset with uncertainties and dangers.
The Mississippi was first to be found, then followed
through all the perilous monotony of its interminable
windings to a goal which was to be but the starting-
point of a new and not less arduous journey.
Cavelier his brother, Moranget his nephew, the friar
Anastase Douay, and others to the number of twenty,
were chosen to accompany him. Every corner of the
magazine was ransacked for an outfit. Joutel gener-
ously gave up the better part of his wardrobe to La
Salle and his two relatives. Duhaut, who had saved
his baggage from the wreck of the "Aimable," was
required to contribute to the necessities of the party;
and the scantily-furnished chests of those who had
died were used to supply the wants of the living.
Each man labored with needle and awl to patch his
failing garments, or supply their place with buffalo
or deer skins. On the twenty-second of April, after
1 Cavelier, Relation du Voyage pour decouvrir I' Embouchure du
Fleuve de Missisipy.
406 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1686,
mass and prayers in the chapel, they issued from the
gate, each bearing his pack and his weapons, some
with kettles slung at their backs, some with axes,
some with gifts for Indians. In this guise, they
held their way in silence across the prairie ; while
anxious eyes followed them from the palisades of St.
Louis, whose inmates, not excepting Joutel himself,
seem to have been ignorant of the extent and diffi-
culty of the undertaking.1
"On May Day," he writes, "at about two in the
afternoon, as I was walking near the house, I heard
a voice from the river below, crying out several
times, Qui vive ? Knowing that the Sieur Barbier
had gone that way with two canoes to hunt buffalo,
I thought that it might be one of these canoes coming
back with meat, and did not think much of the
matter till I heard the same voice again. I answered,
Versailles, which was the password I had given the
Sieur Barbier, in case he should come back in the
night. But, as I was going towards the bank, I
heard other voices which I had not heard for a ]ong
time. I recognized among the rest that of M.
Chefdeville, which made me fear that some disaster
had happened. I ran down to the bank, and my first
greeting was to ask what had become of the 4 Belle. '
1 Joutel, Journal Historigue, 140 ; Anastase Douay in Le Clerc, ii.
303; Cavelier, Relation. The date is from Douay. It does not
appear, from his narrative, that they meant to go farther than the
Illinois. Cavelier says that after resting here they were to go to
Canada. Joutel supposed that they would go only to the Illinois
La Salle seems to have been even more reticent than usual.
1686.] WRECK OF THE "BELLE." 407
They answered that she was wrecked on the other
«ide of the bay, and that all on board were drowned
except the six who were in the canoe; namely, the
Sieur Chefdeville, the Marquis de la Sablonniere, the
man named Teissier, a soldier, a girl, and a little
boy."1
From the young priest Chefdeville, Joutel learned
the particulars of the disaster. Water had failed on
board the " Belle ; " a boat's crew of five men had
gone in quest of it; the wind rose, their boat was
Hwamped, and they were all drowned. Those who
remained had now no means of going ashore; but if
they had no water, they had wine and brandy in
abundance, and Teissier, the master of the vesseU
was drunk every day. After a while they left their
moorings, and tried to reach the fort; but they were
few, weak, and unskilful. A violent north wind
drove them on a sand-bar. Some of them were
drowned in trying to reach land on a raft. Others
were more successful ; and, after a long delay, they
found a stranded canoe, in which they made their
way to St. Louis, bringing with them some of La
Salle's papers and baggage saved from the wreck.
These multiplied disasters bore hard on the spirits
of the colonists ; and Joutel, like a good commander
as he was, spared no pains to cheer them. " We did
what we could to amuse ourselves and drive away
care. I encouraged our people to dance and sing in
the evenings; for when M. de la Salle was among
1 Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 226),
408 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1688.
us, pleasure was often banished. Now, there is no
use in being melancholy on such occasions. It is
true that M. de la Salle had no great cause for
merry-making, after all his losses and disappoint-
ments; but his troubles made others suffer also.
Though he had ordered me to allow to each person
only a certain quantity of meat at every meal, I
observed this rule only when meat was rare. The
air here is very keen, and one has a great appetite.
One must eat and act, if he wants good health and
spirits. I speak from experience; for once, when I
had ague chills, and was obliged to keep the house
with nothing to do, I was dreary and down-hearted.
On the contrary, if I was busy with hunting or any-
thing else, I was not so dull by half. So I tried to
keep the people as busy as possible. I set them to
making a small cellar to keep meat fresh in hot
weather; but when M. de la Salle came back, he
said it was too small. As he always wanted to do
everything on a grand scale, he prepared to make a
large one, and marked out the plan." This plan of
the large cellar, like more important undertakings
of its unhappy projector, proved too extensive for
execution, the colonists being engrossed by the daily
care of keeping themselves alive.
A gleam of hilarity shot for an instant out of the
clouds. The young Canadian, Barbier, usually con-
ducted the hunting-parties ; and some of the women
and girls often went out with them, to aid in cutting
up the meat, Barbier became enamoured of one of
1686.] MATRIMONY. 409
the girls ; and as his devotion to her was the subject
of comment, he asked Joutel for leave to marry her.
The commandant, after due counsel with the priests
and friars, vouchsafed his consent, and the rite was
duly solemnized; whereupon, fired by the example,
the Marquis de la Sablonniere begged leave to marry
another of the girls. Joutel, the gardener's son,
concerned that a marquis should so abase himself,
and anxious at the same time for the morals of the
fort, which La Salle had especially commended to his
care, not only flatly refused, but, in the plenitude
of his authority, forbade the lovers all further
intercourse.
Father Zenobe Membre*, superior of the mission,
gave unwilling occasion for further merriment.
These worthy friars were singularly unhappy in their
dealings with the buffalo, one of which, it may be
remembered, had already knocked down Father
Anastase. Undeterred by his example, Father Ze-
nobe one day went out with the hunters, carrying a
gun like the rest. Joutel shot a buffalo, which was
making off, badly wounded, when a second shot
stopped it, and it presently lay down. The father
superior thought it was dead ; and, without heeding
the warning shout of Joutel, he approached, and
pushed it with the butt of his gun. The bull sprang
up with an effort of expiring fury, and, in the words
of Joutel, "trampled on the father, took the skin off
his face in several places, and broke his gun, so that
be could hardly manage to get away, and remained
410 ST. LOUIS OP TEXAS. [168ft.
in an almost helpless state for more than three
months. Bad as the accident was, he was laughed
at nevertheless for his rashness."
The mishaps of the friars did not end here. Father
Maxime Le Clerc was set upon by a boar belonging
to the colony. "I do not know," says Joutel, "what
spite the beast had against him, whether for a beating
or some other offence; but, however this may be, I
saw the father running and crying for help, and the
boar running after him. I went to the rescue, but
could not come up in time. The father stooped as
he ran, to gather up his cassock from about his legs ;
and the boar, which ran faster than he, struck him
in the arm with his tusks, so that some of the nerves
were torn. Thus, all three of our good Recollet
fathers were near being the victims of animals."1
In spite of his efforts to encourage them, the fol-
lowers of Joutel were fast losing heart. Father
Maxime Le Clerc kept a journal, in which he set
down various charges against La Salle. Joutel got
possession of the paper, and burned it on the urgent
entreaty of the friars, who dreaded what might ensue,
should the absent commander become aware of the
aspersions cast upon him. The elder Duhaut
fomented the rising discontent of the colonists,
played the demagogue, told them that La Salle
would never return, and tried to make himself their
leader. Joutel detected the mischief, and, with
a lenity which he afterwards deeply regretted, con-
1 Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 244, 246).
1086.] ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELLERS. 411
tented himself with a rebuke to the offender, and
words of reproof and encouragement to the dejected
band.
He had caused the grass to be cut near the fort, so
as to form a sort of playground ; and here, one even-
ing, he and some of the party were trying to amuse
tliemselves, when they heard shouts from beyond the
river, and Joutel recognized the voice of La Salle.
Hastening to meet him in a wooden canoe, he
brought him and his party to the fort. Twenty
men had gone out with him, and eight had returned.
Of the rest, four had deserted, one had been lost,
one had been devoured by an alligator; and the
others, giving out on the march, had probably per-
ished in attempting to regain the fort. The trav-
ellers told of a rich country, a wild and beautiful
landscape, — woods, rivers, groves, and prairies ; but
all availed nothing, and the acquisition of five horses
was but an indifferent return for the loss of twelve
men.
After leaving the fort, they had journeyed towards
the northeast, over plains green as an emerald with
the young verdure of April, till at length they saw,
far as the eye could reach, the boundless prairie alive
with herds of buffalo. The animals were in one of
their tame or stupid moods ; and they killed nine or
ton of them without the least difficulty, drying the
best parts of the meat. They crossed the Colorado
on a raft, and reached the banks of another river,
where one of the party, named Hiens, a German of
412 ST. LOUIS OP TEXAS. [1686.
Wiirtemberg, and an old buccaneer, was mired and
nearly suffocated in a mud-hole. Unfortunately, as
will soon appear, he managed to crawl out; and, to
console him, the river was christened with his name.
The party made a bridge of felled trees, on which
they crossed in safety. La Salle now changed their
course, and journeyed eastward, when the travellers
soon found themselves in the midst of a numerous
Indian population, where they were feasted and
caressed without measure. At another village they
were less fortunate. The inhabitants were friendly
by day and hostile by night. They came to attack
the French in their camp, but withdrew, daunted by
the menacing voice of La Salle, who had heard them
approaching through the cane-brake.
La Salle 's favorite Shawanoe hunter, Nika, who
had followed him from Canada to France, and from
France to Texas, was bitten by a rattlesnake; and,
though he recovered, the accident detained the party
for several days. At length they resumed their
journey, but were stopped by a river, called by
Douay, "La Riviere des Malheurs." La Salle and
Cavelier, with a few others, tried to cross on a raft,
which, as it reached the channel, was caught by
a current of marvellous swiftness. Douay and
Moranget, watching the transit from the edge of the
cane-brake, beheld their commander swept down the
stream, and vanishing, as it were, in an instant. All
that day they remained with their companions on the
bank, lamenting in despair for the loss of their guar-
1086.] ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELLERS. 413
dian angel, for so Douay calls La Salle.1 It was fast
growing dark, when, to their unspeakable relief, they
saw him advancing with his party along the opposite
bank, having succeeded, after great exertion, in
guiding the raft to land. How to rejoin him was
now the question. Douay and his companions, who
had tasted no food that day, broke their fast on two
young eagles which they knocked out of their nest,
and then spent the night in rueful consultation as to
the means of crossing the river. In the morning
they waded into the marsh, the friar with his breviary
in his hood to keep it dry, and hacked among the
canes till they had gathered enough to make another
raft; on which, profiting by La Salle 's experience,
they safely crossed, and rejoined him.
Next, they became entangled in a cane-brake,
where La Salle, as usual with him in such cases,
took the lead, a hatchet in each hand, and hewed out
a path for his followers. They soon reached the
villages of the Cenis Indians, on and near the river
Trinity, — a tribe then powerful, but long since
extinct. Nothing could surpass the friendliness of
their welcome. The chiefs came to meet them,
bearing the calumet, and followed by warriors in
shirts of embroidered deerskin. Then the whole
village swarmed out like bees, gathering around the
i " Ce f ut une desolation extreme pour nous tous qui desesperions
de revoir jamais nostre Ange tutelaire, le Sieur de la Salle. . . .
Tout le jour se passa en pleurs et en larmes." — Douay in Le Clerct
ii. 815.
414 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1686.
visitors with offerings of food and all that was
precious in their eyes. La Salle was lodged with
the great chief ; but he compelled his men to encamp
at a distance, lest the ardor of their gallantry might
give occasion of offence. The lodges of the Cenis,
forty or fifty feet high, and covered with a thatch of
meadow-grass, looked like huge bee-hives. Each
held several families, whose fire was in the middle,
and their beds around the circumference. The spoil
of the Spaniards was to be seen on all sides, — silver
lamps and spoons, swords, old muskets, money,
clothing, and a bull of the Pope dispensing the
Spanish colonists of New Mexico from fasting during
summer.1 These treasures, as well as their numerous
horses, were obtained by the Cenis from their neigh-
bors and allies the Camanches, that fierce prairie
banditti who then, as now, scourged the Mexican
border with their bloody forays. A party of these
wild horsemen was in the village. Douay was edified
at seeing them make the sign of the cross in imitation
of the neophytes of one of the Spanish missions.
They enacted, too, the ceremony of the mass; and
one of them, in his rude way, drew a sketch of a
picture he had seen in some church which he had
pillaged, wherein the friar plainly recognized the
Virgin weeping at the foot of the cross. They
invited the French to join them on a raid into New
Mexico; and they spoke with contempt, as their
tribesmen will speak to this day, of the Spanish
* Douay in Le Clerc, u. 321 ; Cavelier, Relation.
1686.] DEJECTION. 415
oreoles, saying that it would be easy to conquer a
nation of cowards who make people walk before them
with fans to cool them in hot weather.1
Soon after leaving the Cenis villages, both La
Salle and his nephew Moranget were attacked by
fever. This caused a delay of more than two months,
during which the party seem to have remained
encamped on the Neches, or possibly the Sabine.
When at length the invalids had recovered sufficient
strength to travel, the stock of ammunition was
nearly spent, some of the men had deserted, and the
condition of the travellers was such that there seemed
no alternative but to return to Fort St. Louis. This
fchey accordingly did, greatly aided in their march by
the horses bought from the Cenis, and suffering no
very serious accident by the way, — excepting the
loss of La Salle's servant, Dumesnil, who was seized
by an alligator while attempting to cross the
Colorado.
The temporary excitement caused among the
colonists by their return soon gave place to a dejec-
tion bordering on despair. "This pleasant land,'*
writes Cavelier, " seemed to us an abode of weariness
and a perpetual prison." Flattering themselves with
the delusion, common to exiles of every kind, that
they were objects of solicitude at home, they watched
daily, with straining eyes, for an approaching sail.
Ships, indeed, had ranged the coast to seek them,
but with no friendly intent. Their thoughts dwelt,
* Douay in Le Clerc, ii. 324, 326.
416 ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS. [1686.
with unspeakable yearning, on the France they had
left behind, which, to their longing fancy, was
pictured as an unattainable Eden. Well might they
despond; for of a hundred and eighty colonists,
besides the crew of the " Belle, " less than forty-five
remained. The weary precincts of Fort St. Louis,
with its fence of rigid palisades, its area of trampled
earth, its buildings of weather-stained timber, and
its well-peopled graveyard without, were hateful to
their sight. La Salle had a heavy task to save them
from despair. His composure, his unfailing equa-
nimity, his words of encouragement and cheer, were
the breath of life to this forlorn company ; for though
he could not impart to minds of less adamantine
temper the audacity of hope with which he still
clung to the final accomplishment of his purposes,
the contagion of his hardihood touched, nevertheless,
the drooping spirits of his followers.1
The journey to Canada was clearly their only
hope; and, after a brief rest, La Salle prepared to
renew the attempt. He proposed that Joutel should
this time be of the party; and should proceed from
Quebec to France, with his brother Cavelier, to
solicit succors for the colony, while he himself
1 " L'egalite d'humeur du Chef rassuroit tout le monde ; et il
trouvoit des resources a tout par son esprit qui relevoit les espe-
rances les plus abatues." — Joutel, Journal Historique, 152.
" II seroit difficile de trouver dans PHistoire un courage plus
intrepide et plus invincible que celuy du Sieur de la Salle dans les
eVenemens contraires ; il ne fut jamais abatu, et il espe'roit tou jours
avec le secours du Ciel de venir a bout de son entreprise malgre
tou* les obstacles qui se presentoient." — Douay in Le Clerc,ii.S27.
1687.] TWELFTH NIGHT. 417
returned to Texas. A new obstacle was presently
interposed. La Salle, whose constitution seems to
have suffered from his long course of hardships, was
attacked in November with hernia. Joutel offered
to conduct the party in his stead; but La Salle
replied that his own presence was indispensable at
the Illinois. He had the good fortune to recover,
within four or five weeks, sufficiently to undertake
the journey ; and all in the fort busied themselves in
preparing an outfit. In such straits were they for
clothing, that the sails of the " Belle " were cut up to
make coats for the adventurers. Christmas came,
and was solemnly observed. There was a midnight
mass in the chapel, where Membre', Cavelier, Douay,
and their priestly brethren stood before the altar, in
vestments strangely contrasting with the rude temple
and the ruder garb of the worshippers. And as
Membre' elevated the consecrated wafer, and the
lamps burned dim through the clouds of incense, the
kneeling group drew from the daily miracle such
consolation as true Catholics alone can know. When
Twelfth Night came, all gathered in the hall, and
cried, after the jovial old custom, "The King
drinks," with hearts, perhaps, as cheerless as their
cups, which were filled with cold water.
On the morrow, the band of adventurers mustered
for the fatal journey.1 The five horses, bought by
1 I follow Douay's date, who makes the day of departure the
seventh of January, or the day after Twelfth Night. Joutel thinks
it was the twelfth of January, but professes uncertainty as to all
his dates at this time, as he lost his notes.
27
418 ST. LOUIS 'OF TEXAS. [1687.
La Salle of the Indians, stood in the area of the fort,
packed for the march; and here was gathered the
wretched remnant of the colony, — those who were
to go, and those who were to stay behind. These
latter were about twenty in all, — Barbier, who was
to command in the place of Joutel; SablonniSre,
who, despite his title of marquis, was held in great
contempt;1 the friars, Membre* and Le Clerc,2 and
the priest Chefdeville, besides a surgeon, soldiers,
laborers, seven women and girls, and several children,
doomed, in this deadly exile, to wait the issues of
the journey, and the possible arrival of a tardy
succor. La Salle had made them a last address,
delivered, we are told, with that winning air which,
though alien from his usual bearing, seems to have
been at times a natural expression of this unhappy
man.3 It was a bitter parting, one of sighs, tears,
and embracings, — the farewell of those on whose
souls had sunk a heavy boding that they would never
1 He had to be kept on short allowance, because he was in the
habit of bargaining away everything given to him. He had squan-
dered the little that belonged to him at St. Domingo, in amuse-
ments " indignes de sa naissance," and in consequence was suffering
from diseases which disabled him from walking. (Proces Verbal, 18
Avril, 1686.)
2 Maxime le Clerc was a relative of the author of L'Etablissement
de la Foi.
* " II fit une Harangue pleine d'e'loquence et de eel air engageant
qui luy estoit si naturel : toute la petite Colonie y estoit presente et
en fut touchee jusques aux larmes, persuade*e de la ne'cesaite de son
voyage et de la droiture de ses intentions." — Douay in Le Clare, ii
330.
1687.] THE LAST FAREWELL. 419
meet again.1 Equipped and weaponed for the jour-
ney, the adventurers filed from the gate, crossed the
river, and held their slow march over the prairies
beyond, till intervening woods and hills shut Fort
St. Louis forever from their sight.
1 " Nous nous separames les uns des autres, d'une maniere si
tendre et si triste qu'il sembloit que nous avions tous le secret pres-
sentiment que nous ne nous reverrions jamais." — Joutel, Journal
Historique, 158.
CHAPTER XXVII,
1687.
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE.
His FOLLOWERS. — PRAIRIE TRAVELLING. — A HUNTERS* QUARREL
— THE MURDER OF MORANGET. — THE CONSPIRACY. — DEATH OF
LA SALLE : HIS CHARACTER.
THE travellers were crossing a marshy prairie
towards a distant belt of woods, that followed the
course of a little river. They led with them their
five horses, laden with their scanty baggage, and,
with what was of no less importance, their stock of
presents for Indians. Some wore the remains of the
clothing they had worn from France, eked out with
deer-skins, dressed in the Indian manner; and some
had coats of old sail-cloth. Here was La Salle, in
whom one would have known, at a glance, the chief
of the party; and the priest, Cavelier, who seems to
have shared not one of the high traits of his younger
brother. Here, too, were their nephews, Moranget
and the boy Cavelier, now about seventeen years old ;
the trusty soldier Joutel; and the friar Anastase
Douay. Duhaut followed, a man of respectable birth
and education; and Liotot, the surgeon of the party.
1687.] LA SALLE'S FOLLOWERS. 421
At home, they might perhaps have lived and died
with a fair repute; but the wilderness is a rude
touchstone, which often reveals traits that would
have lain buried and unsuspected in civilized life.
The German Hi ens, the ex-buccaneer, was also of
the number. He had probably sailed with an English
crew; for he was sometimes known as Gemme Anglais,
or "English Jem."1 The Sieur de Marie ; Teissier,
a pilot; L'Archev6que, a servant of Duhaut; and
others, to the number in all of seventeen, — made up
the party; to which is to be added Nika, La Salle's
Shawanoe hunter, who, as well as another Indian,
had twice crossed the ocean with him, and still
followed his fortunes with an admiring though
undemonstrative fidelity.
They passed the prairie, and neared the forest.
Here they saw buffalo ; and the hunters approached,
and killed several of them. Then they traversed the
woods; found and forded the shallow and rushy
stream, and pushed through the forest beyond, till
they again reached the open prairie. Heavy clouds
gathered over them, and it rained all night ; but they
sheltered themselves under the fresh hides of the
buffalo they had killed.
It is impossible, as it would be needless, to follow
the detail of their daily march.2 It was such an one,
1 Tonty also speaks of him as " un flibustier angloig." In
another document, he is called " James."
2 Of the three narratives of this journey, those of Joutel, Cave-
lier, and Anastase Douay, the first is by far the best. That of
Cavelier seems the work of a man of confused brain and indifferent
422 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687.
though with unwonted hardship, as is familiar to the
memory of many a prairie traveller of our own time.
They suffered greatly from the want of shoes, and
found for a while no better substitute than a casing
of raw buffalo-hide, which they were forced to keep
always wet, as, when dry, it hardened about the foot
like iron. At length they bought dressed deer-skin
from the Indians, of which they made tolerable
moccasins. The rivers, streams, and gullies filled
with water were without number ; and to cross them
they made a boat of bull-hide, like the " bull boat "
still used on the Upper Missouri. This did good
service, as, with the help of their horses, they could
carry it with them. Two or three men could cross
in it at once, and the horses swam after them like
dogs. Sometimes they traversed the sunny prairie ;
sometimes dived into the dark recesses of the forest,
where the buffalo, descending daily from their
pastures in long files to drink at the river, often
made a broad and easy path for the travellers. When
foul weather arrested them, they built huts of bark
and long meadow-grass ; and safely sheltered lounged
away the day, while their horses, picketed near by,
stood steaming in the rain. At night, they usually
set a rude stockade about their camp ; and here, by
memory. Some of his statements are irreconcilable with those of
Joutel and Douay; and known facts of his history justify the sus-
picion of a wilful inaccuracy. JoutePs account is of a very differ-
ent character, and seems to be the work of an honest and intelligent
man. Douay's account is brief ; but it agrees with that of Joutel,
in most essential point*.
1687.] PRAIRIE TRAVELLING. 423
the grassy border of a brook, or at the edge of a
grove where a spring bubbled up through the sands,
they lay asleep around the embers of their fire, while
the man on guard listened to the deep breathing of
the slumbering horses, and the howling of the wolves
that saluted the rising moon as it flooded the waste
of prairie with pale mystic radiance.
They met Indians almost daily, — sometimes a
band of hunters, mounted or on foot, chasing buffalo
on the plains ; sometimes a party of fishermen ; some-
times a winter camp, on the slope of a hill or under
the sheltering border of a forest. They held inter-
course with them in the distance by signs ; often they
disarmed their distrust, and attracted them into their
camp; and often they visited them in their lodges,
where, seated on buffalo-robes, they smoked with
their entertainers, passing the pipe from hand to
hand, after the custom still in use among the prairie
tribes. Cavelier says that they once saw a band
of a hundred and fifty mounted Indians attacking a
herd of buffalo with lances pointed with sharpened
bone. The old priest was delighted with the sport,
which he pronounces "the most diverting thing in
the world." On another occasion, when the party
were encamped near the village of a tribe which
Cavelier calls Sassory, he saw them catch an alli-
gator about twelve feet long, which they proceeded
to torture as if he were a human enemy, — first
putting out his eyes, and then leading him to the
neighboring prairie, where, having confined him by a
424 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687,
number of stakes, they spent the entire day in tor-
menting him.1
Holding a northerly course, the travellers crossed
the Brazos, and reached the waters of the Trinity.
The weather was unfavorable, and on one occasion
they encamped in the rain during four or five days
together. It was not an harmonious company. La
Salle 's cold and haughty reserve had returned, at
least for those of his followers to whom he was not
partial. Duhaut and the surgeon Liotot, both of
whom were men of some property, had a large pecu-
niary stake in the enterprise, and were disappointed
and incensed at its ruinous result. They had a
quarrel with young Moranget, whose hot and hasty
temper was as little fitted to conciliate as was the
harsh reserve of his uncle. Already at Fort St.
Louis, Duhaut had intrigued among the men; and
the mild admonition of Joutel had not, it seems,
sufficed to divert him from his sinister purposes.
Liotot, it is said, had secretly sworn vengeance
against La Salle, whom he charged with having
caused the death of his brother, or, as some will
have it, his nephew. On one of the former journeys
this young man's strength had failed ; and, La Salle
having ordered him to return to the fort, he had
been killed by Indians on the way.
The party moved again as the weather improved,
and on the fifteenth of March encamped within a few
miles of a spot which La Salle had passed on his
1 Cavelier, Relation.
1687.] MURDER OF MORANGET. 425
preceding journey, and where he had left a quantity
of Indian corn and beans in cache; that is to say,
hidden in the ground or in a hollow tree. As pro-
visions were falling short, he sent a party from the
camp to find it. These men were Duhaut, Liotot,1
Hiens the buccaneer, Teissier, L'Archeve"que, Nika
the hunter, and La Salle's servant Saget. They
opened the cache, and found the contents spoiled ; but
as they returned from their bootless errand they saw
buffalo, and Nika shot two of them. They now
encamped on the spot, and sent the servant to inform
La Salle, in order that he might send horses to bring
in the meat. Accordingly, on the next day, he
directed Moranget and De Marie, with the necessary
horses, to go with Saget to the hunters' camp.
When they arrived, they found that Duhaut and his
companions had already cut up the meat, and laid it
upon scaffolds for smoking, though it was not yet so
dry as, it seems, this process required. Duhaut and
the others had also put by, for themselves, the
marrow-bones and certain portions of the meat, to
which, by woodland custom, they had a perfect right.
Moranget, whose rashness and violence had once
before caused a fatal catastrophe, fell into a most
unreasonable fit of rage, berated and menaced Duhaut
and his party, and ended by seizing upon the whole
of the meat, including the reserved portions. This
added fuel to the fire of Duhaut's old grudge against
Moranget and his uncle. There is reason to think
1 Called Lanquetot by Tonty.
426 ASSASSINATION OP LA SALLE. [1687.
that he had harbored deadly designs, the execution
of which was only hastened by the present outbreak.
The surgeon also bore hatred against Moranget,
whom he had nursed with constant attention when
wounded by an Indian arrow, and who had since
repaid him with abuse. These two now took counsel
apart with Hiens, Teissier, and L'Archev§que; and
it was resolved to kill Moranget that night. Nika,
La Salle's devoted follower, and Saget, his faithful
servant, must die with him. All of the five were of
one mind except the pilot Teissier, who neither
aided nor opposed the plot.
Night came : the woods grew dark ; the evening
meal was finished, and the evening pipes were
smoked. The order of the guard was arranged ; and,
doubtless by design, the first hour of the night was
assigned to Moranget, the second to Saget, and the
third to Nika. Gun in hand, each stood watch in
turn over the silent but not sleeping forms around
him, till, his time expiring, he called the man who
was to relieve him, wrapped himself in his blanket,
and was soon buried in a slumber that was to be his
last. Now the assassins rose. Duhaut and Hiens
stood with their guns cocked, ready to shoot down
any one of the destined victims who should resist or
fly. The surgeon, with an axe, stole towards the
three sleepers, and struck a rapid blow at each in
turn. Saget and Nika died with little movement;
but Moranget started spasmodically into a sitting
posture, gasping and unable to speak; and the mur-
1687.] SUSPENSE. 427
derers compelled De Marie, who was not in their
plot, to compromise himself by despatching him.
The floodgates of murder were open, and the
torrent must have its way. Vengeance and safety
alike demanded the death of La Salle. Hiens, or
"English Jem," alone seems to have hesitated; for
he was one of those to whom that stern commander
had always been partial. Meanwhile, the intended
victim was still at his camp, about six miles distant.
It is easy to picture, with sufficient accuracy, the
features of the scene, — the sheds of bark and
branches, beneath which, among blankets and buffalo-
robes, camp-utensils, pack-saddles, rude harness,
guns, powder-horns, and bullet-pouches, the men
lounged away the hour, sleeping or smoking, or talk-
ing among themselves; the blackened kettles that
hung from tripods of poles over the fires ; the Indians
strolling about the place or lying, like dogs in the
sun, with eyes half -shut, yet all observant} and, in
the neighboring meadow, the horses grazing under
the eye of a watchman.
It was the eighteenth of March. Moranget and
his companions had been expected to return the
night before; but the whole day passed, and they
did not appear. La Salle became very anxious. He
resolved to go and look for them ; but not well know-
ing the way, he told the Indians who were about the
camp that he would give them a hatchet if they
would guide him. One of them accepted the offer;
and La Salle prepared to set out in the morning, at
428 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687.
the same time directing Joutel to be ready to go
with him. Joutel says: "That evening, while we
were talking about what could have happened to the
absent men, he seemed to have a presentiment of
what was to take place. He asked me if I had heard
of any machinations against them, or if I had noticed
any bad design on the part of Duhaut and the rest.
I answered that I had heard nothing, except that
they sometimes complained of being found fault with
so often; and that this was all I knew; besides
which, as they were persuaded that I was in his
interest, they would not have told me of any bad
design they might have. We were very uneasy all
the rest of the evening."
In the morning, La Salle set out with his Indian
guide. He had changed his mind with regard to
Joutel, whom he now directed to remain in charge
of the camp and to keep a careful watch. He told
the friar Anastase Douay to come with him instead
of Joutel, whose gun, which was the best in the
party, he borrowed for the occasion, as well as his
pistol. The three proceeded on their way, — La
Salle, the friar, and the Indian. "All the way/*
writes the friar, "he spoke to me of nothing but
matters of piety, grace, and predestination; enlar-
ging on the debt he owed to God, who had' saved him
from so many perils during more than twenty years
of travel in America. Suddenly, I saw him over-
whelmed with a profound sadness, for which he
himself could not account. He was so much moved
1687.] THE FATAL SHOT. 429
that I scarcely knew him." He soon recovered his
usual calmness; and they walked on till they
approached the camp of Duhaut, which was on the
farther side of a small river. Looking about him
with the eye of a woodsman, La Salle saw two eagles
circling in the air nearly over him, as if attracted by
carcasses of beasts or men. He fired his gun and his
pistol, as a summons to any of his followers who
might be within hearing. The shots reached the
ears of the conspirators. Rightly conjecturing by
whom they were fired, several of them, led by
Duhaut, crossed the river at a little distance above,
where trees or other intervening objects hid them
from sight. Duhaut and the surgeon crouched like
Indians in the long, dry, reed-like grass of the last
summer's growth, while L'Archeveque stood in sight
near the bank. La Salle, continuing to advance,
soon saw him, and, calling to him, demanded where
was Moranget. The man, without lifting his hat,
or any show of respect, replied in an agitated and
broken voice, but with a tone of studied insolence,
that Moranget was strolling about somewhere. La
Salle rebuked and menaced him. He rejoined with
increased insolence, drawing back, as he spoke,
towards the ambuscade, while the incensed com-
mander advanced to chastise him. At that moment
a shot was fired from the grass, instantly followed
by another; and, pierced through the brain, La Salle
dropped dead.
The friar at his side stood terror-stricken, unable
430 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687.
to advance or to fly; when Duhaut, rising from the
ambuscade, called out to him to take courage, for he
had nothing to fear. The murderers now came for-
ward, and with wild looks gathered about their
victim. "There thou liest, great Bashaw! There
thouliest!"1 exclaimed the surgeon Liotot, in base
exultation over the unconscious corpse. With
mockery and insult, they stripped it naked, dragged
it into the bushes, and left it there, a prey to the
buzzards and the wolves.
Thus in the vigor of his manhood, at the age of
forty-three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle, " one of
the greatest men," writes Tonty, "of this age;"
without question one of the most remarkable
explorers whose names live in history. His faithful
officer Joutel thus sketches his portrait : " His firm-
ness, his courage, his great knowledge of the arts
and sciences, which made him equal to every under-
taking, and his untiring energy, which enabled him
to surmount every obstacle, would have won at last a
glorious success for his grand enterprise, had not all
his fine qualities been counterbalanced by a haughti-
ness of manner which often made him insupportable,
and by a harshness towards those under his command
which drew upon him an implacable hatred, and was
at last the cause of his death."2
The enthusiasm of the disinterested and chivalrous
1 " Te voilk, grand Bacha, te voilk I " — Joutel, Journal Historique,
203.
* Ibid.
1687.] HIS CHARACTER. 431
Champlain was not the enthusiasm of La Salle ; nor
had he any part in the self -devoted zeal of the early
Jesuit explorers. He belonged not to the age of the
knight-errant and the saint, but to the modern world
of practical study and practical action. He was the
hero not of a principle nor of a faith, but simply of
a fixed idea and a determined purpose. As often
happens with concentred and energetic natures, his
purpose was to him a passion and an inspiration; and
he clung to it with a certain fanaticism of devotion.
It was the offspring of an ambition vast and compre-
hensive, yet acting in the interest both of France and
of civilization.
Serious in all things, incapable of the lighter
pleasures, incapable of repose, finding no joy but in
the pursuit of great designs, too shy for society and
too reserved for popularity, often unsympathetic and
always seeming so, smothering emotions which he
could not utter, schooled to universal distrust, stern
to his followers and pitiless to himself, bearing the
brunt of every hardship and every danger, demand-
ing of others an equal constancy joined to an implicit
deference, heeding no counsel but his own, attempt-
ing the impossible and grasping at what was too vast
to hold, — he contained in his own complex and pain-
ful nature the chief springs of his triumphs, his
failures, and his death.
It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not
easy to hide from sight the Roman virtues that
redeemed them. Beset by a throng of enemies, he
432 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687,
stands, like the King of Israel, head and shoulders
above them all. He was a tower of adamant, against
whose impregnable front hardship and danger, the
rage of man and of the elements, the southern sun,
the northern blast, fatigue, famine, disease, delay,
disappointment, and deferred hope emptied their
quivers in vain. That very pride which, Coriolanus-
like, declared itself most sternly in the thickest press
of foes, has in it something to challenge admiration.
Never, under the impenetrable mail of paladin or
crusader, beat a heart of more intrepid mettle than
within the stoic panoply that armed the breast of La
Salle. To estimate aright the marvels of his patient
fortitude, one must follow on his track through the
vast scene of his interminable journeyings, — those
thousands of weary miles of forest, marsh, and river,
where, again and again, in the bitterness of baffled
striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed onward towards
the goal which he was never to attain. America
owes him an enduring memory; for in this masculine
figure she sees the pioneer who guided her to the
possession of her richest heritage.1
1 On the assassination of La Salle, the evidence is fourfold : 1.
The narrative of Douay, who was with him at the time. 2. That of
Joutel, who learned the facts, immediately after they took place,
from Douay and others, and who parted from La Salle an hour or
more before his death. 3. A document preserved in the Archives
de la Marine, entitled Relation de la Mort du Sr. de la Salle, suivant
le rapport d'un nomme" Couture a qui M. Cavelier I'apprit en passant au
pays des AJcansa, avec toutes les circonstances que le dit Couture a
apprises d'un Frangois que M. Cavelier avoit laisse" aux dits pays des
AJcansa. crainfa qu'il ne gardat pas le secret. 4. The authentic
1687.] DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 433
memoir of Tonty, of which a copy from the original is before me,
and which has recently been printed by Margry.
The narrative of Cavelier unfortunately fails us several weeks
before the death of his brother, the remainder being lost. On a
study of these various documents, it is impossible to resist the
conclusion that neither Cavelier nor Douay always wrote honestly.
Joutel, on the contrary, gives the impression of sense, intelligence,
and candor throughout. Charlevoix, who knew him long after,
says that he was " un fort honnete homme, et le seul de la troupe
de M. de la Salle, sur qui ce celebre voyageur pfit compter."
Tonty derived his information from the survivors of La Salle's
party. Couture, whose statements are embodied in the Relation de
la Mort de M. de la Salle, was one of Tonty's men, who, as will be
seen hereafter, were left by him at the mouth of the Arkansas, and
to whom Cavelier told the story of his brother's death. Couture
also repeats the statements of one of La Salle's followers, undoubt-
edly a Parisian boy, named Barthelemy, who was violently preju-
diced against his chief, whom he slanders to the utmost of his skill,
saying that he was so enraged at his failures that he did not
approach the sacraments for two years ; that he nearly starved
his brother Cavelier, allowing him only a handful of meal a day ;
that he killed with his own hand "quantite de personnes," who
did not work to his liking ; and that he killed the sick in their
beds, without mercy, under the pretence that they were counterfeit-
ing sickness in order to escape work. These assertions certainly
have no other foundation than the undeniable rigor of La Salle's
command. Douay says that he confessed and made his devotions
on the morning of his death, while Cavelier always speaks of him
as the hope and the staff of the colony.
Douay declares that La Salle lived an hour after the fatal shot ;
that he gave him absolution, buried his body, and planted a cross
on his grave. At the time, he told Joutel a different story ; and
the 'latter, with the best means of learning the facts, explicitly
denies the friar's printed statement. Couture, on the authority of
Cavelier himself, also says that neither he nor Douay was permitted
to take any step for burying the body. Tonty says that Cavelier
begged leave to do so, b.ut was refused. Douay, unwilling to place
upon record facts from which the inference might easily be drawn
that he had been terrified from discharging his duty, no doubt in-
vented the story of the burial, as well as that of the edifying behav-
ior of Moranget, after he had been struck in the head with an axe.
28
434 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687.
The locality of La Salle's assassination is sufficiently clear, from
a comparison of the several narratives ; and it is also indicated on
a contemporary manuscript map, made on the return of the sur-
vivors of the party to France. The scene of the catastrophe is
here placed on a southern branch of the Trinity.
La Salle's debts, at the time of his death, according to a schedule
presented in 1701 to Champigny, intendant of Canada, amounted to
106,831 livres, without reckoning interest. This cannot be meant
to include all, as items are given which raise the amount much
higher. In 1678 and 1679 alone, he contracted debts to the amount
of 97,184 livres, of which 46,000 were furnished by Branssac, fiscal
attorney of the Seminary of Montreal. This was to be paid in
beaver-skins. Frontenac, at the same time, became his surety for
13,623 livres. In 1684, he borrowed 34,825 livres from the Sieur
Pen, at Paris. These sums do not include the losses incurred by
his family, which, in the memorial presented by them to the King,
are set down at 500,000 livres for the expeditions between 1678 and
1683, and 300,000 livres for the fatal Texan expedition of 1684
These last figures are certainly exaggerated.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
1687, 1688.
THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY.
TRIUMPH OF THE MURDERERS. — DANGER OP JOUTEL. — JOTTTEL
AMONG THE CENIS. — WHITE SAVAGES. — INSOLENCE OF DuHAUT
AND HIS ACCOMPLICES. — MURDER OP DUHAUT AND LIOTOT. —
HIENS, THE BUCCANEER. — JOUTEL AND HIS PARTY: THEIR ES-
CAPE ; THEY REACH THE ARKANSAS. — BRAVERY AND DEVOTION
OF TONTY. — THE FUGITIVES REACH THE ILLINOIS. — UNWORTHY
CONDUCT OP CAVELIER. — HE AND HIS COMPANIONS RETURN TO
TRANCE.
FATHER ANASTASE DOUAY returned to the camp,
find, aghast with grief and terror, rushed into the
hut of Cavelier. " My poor brother is dead ! " cried
the priest, instantly divining the catastrophe from
the horror-stricken face of the messenger. Close
behind came the murderers, Duhaut at their head.
Cavelier, his young nephew, and Douay himself, all
fell on their knees, expecting instant death. The
priest begged piteously for half an hour to prepare
for his end ; but terror and submission sufficed, and
no more blood was shed. The camp yielded without
resistance; and Duhaut was lord of all. In truth,
there were none to oppose him ; for, except the assas-
sins themselves, the party was now reduced to six
436 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
persons, — Joutel, Douay, the elder Cavelier, his
young nephew, and two other boys, the orphan Talon
and a lad called Barthelerny.
Joutel, for the moment, was absent; and
L'ArchevSque, who had a kindness for him, went
quietly to seek him. He found him on a hillock,
making a fire of dried grass in order that the smoke
might guide La Salle on his return, and watching
the horses grazing in the meadow below. "I was
very much surprised," writes Joutel, "when I saw
him approaching. When he came up to me he
seemed all in confusion, or, rather, out of his wits.
He began with saying that there was very bad news.
I asked what it was. He answered that the Sieur
de la Salle was dead, and also his nephew the Sieur
de Moranget, his Indian hunter, and his servant. I
•was petrified, and did not know what to say; for I
saw that they had been murdered. The man added
that, at first, the murderers had sworn to kill me too.
I easily believed it, for I had always been in the
interest of M. de la Salle, and had commanded in
his place; and it is hard to please everybody, or
prevent some from being dissatisfied. I was greatly
perplexed as to what I ought to do, and whether I
had not better escape to the woods, whithersoever
God should guide me ; but, by bad or good luck, I
had no gun and only one pistol, without balls or
powder except what was in my powder-horn. To
whatever side I turned, my life was in great peril.
It is true that L'Archev§que assured me that they
1687.] DOUBT AND AXXIETY. 437
had changed their minds, and had agreed to murder
nobody else, unless they met with resistance. So,
being in no condition, as I just said, to go far, hav-
ing neither arms nor powder, I abandoned myself to
Providence, and went back to the camp, where I
found that these wretched murderers had seized
everything belonging to M. de la Salle, and even my
personal effects. They had also taken possession of
all the arms. The first words that Duhaut said to
rae were, that each should command in turn; to
which I made no answer. I saw M. Cavelier praying
in a corner, and Father Anastase in another. He
clid not dare to speak to me, nor did I dare to go
towards him till I had seen the designs of the assas-
sins. They were in furious excitement, but, never-
theless, very uneasy and embarrassed. I was some
time without speaking, and, as it were, without mov-
ing, for fear of giving umbrage to our enemies.
"They had cooked some meat, and when it was
F upper-time they distributed it as they saw fit, say-
ing that formerly their share had been served out to
them, but that it was they who would serve it out in
future. They, no doubt, wanted me to say some-
thing that would give them a chance to make a noise ;
but I managed always to keep my mouth closed.
When night came and it was time to stand guard,
they were in perplexity, as they could not do it
jilone; therefore they said to M. Cavelier, Father
Anastase, me, and the others who were not in the
plot with them, that all we had to do was to stand
438 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
guard as usual; that there was no use in thinking
about what had happened, — that what was done was
done; that they had been driven to it by despair,
and that they were sorry for it, and meant no more
harm to anybody. M. Cavelier took up the word,
and told them that when they killed M. de la Salle
they killed themselves, for there was nobody but him
who could get us out of this country. At last, after
a good deal of talk on both sides, they gave us
our arms. So we stood guard; during which, M.
Cavelier told me how they had come to the camp,
entered his hut like so many madmen, and seized
everything in it."
Joutel, Douay, and the two Caveliers spent a
sleepless night, consulting as to what they should do.
They mutually pledged themselves to stand by each
other to the last, and to escape as soon as they could
from the company of the assassins. In the morning,
Duhaut and his accomplices, after much discussion,
resolved to go to the Cenis villages ; and, accordingly,
the whole party broke up their camp, packed their
horses, and began their march. They went five
leagues, and encamped at the edge of a grove. On
the following day they advanced again till noon,
when heavy rains began, and they were forced to
stop by the banks of a river. " We passed the night
and the next day there," says Joutel; "and during
that time my mind was possessed with dark thoughts.
It was hard to prevent ourselves from being in con-
stant fear among such men, and we could not look at
1687.] JOURNEY TO THE CENIS. 439
them without horror. When I thought of the cruel
deeds they had committed, and the danger we were
in from them, I longed to revenge the evil they had
done us. This would have been easy while they
\vere asleep; but M. Cavelier dissuaded us, saying
that we ought to leave vengeance to God, and that
he himself had more to revenge than we, having lost
his brother and his nephew."
The comic alternated with the tragic. On the
twenty-third, they reached the bank of a river too
deep to ford. Those who knew how to swim crossed
Tvithout difficulty, but Joutel, Cavelier, and Douay
were not of the number. Accordingly, they launched
a log of light, dry wood, embraced it with one arm,
and struck out for the other bank with their legs
and the arm that was left free. But the friar became
frightened. "He only clung fast to the aforesaid
log," says Joutel, "and did nothing to help us for-
ward. While I was trying to swim, my body being
stretched at full length, I hit him in the belly with
my feet; on which he thought it was all over with
him, and, I can answer for it, he invoked Saint Fran-
cis with might and main. I could not help laughing,
though I was myself in danger of drowning." Some
Indians who had joined the party swam to the
rescue, and pushed the log across.
The path to the Cenis villages was exceedingly
faint, and but for the Indians they would have lost
the way. They crossed the main stream of the
Trinity in a boat of raw hides, and then, being short
440 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
of provisions, held a council to determine what they
should do. It was resolved that Joutel, with Hiens,
Liotot, and Teissier, should go in advance to the
villages and buy a supply of corn. Thus, Joutel
found himself doomed to the company of three
villains, who, he strongly suspected, were contriving
an opportunity to kill him ; but, as he had no choice,
he dissembled his doubts, and set out with his sinister
companions, Duhaut having first supplied him with
goods for the intended barter.
They rode over hills and plains till night,
encamped, supped on a wild turkey, and continued
their journey till the afternoon of the next day,
when they saw three men approaching on horseback,
one of whom, to Joutel's alarm, was dressed like a
Spaniard. He proved, however, to be a Cenis
Indian, like the others. The three turned their
horses' heads, and accompanied the Frenchmen on
their way. At length they neared the Indian town,
which, with its large thatched lodges, looked like a
cluster of gigantic haystacks. Their approach had
been made known, and they were received in solemn
state. Twelve of the elders came to meet them in
their dress of ceremony, each with his face daubed
red or black, and his head adorned with painted
plumes. From their shoulders hung deer-skins
wrought with gay colors. Some carried war-clubs;
some, bows and arrows ; some, the blades of Spanish
rapiers, attached to wooden handles decorated with
hawk's bells and bunches of feathers. They stopped
1687.] JOUTEL AND THE CENTS. 441
before the honored guests, and, raising their hands
aloft, uttered howls so extraordinary that Joutel
could hardly preserve the gravity which the occasion
demanded. Having next embraced the Frenchmen,
the elders conducted them into the village, attended
by a crowd of warriors and young men; ushered
them into their town-hall, a large lodge, devoted to
councils, feasts, dances, and other public assemblies;
seated them on mats, and squatted in a ring around
them. Here they were regaled with sagamite or
Indian porridge, corn-cake, beans, bread made of the
meal of parched corn, and another kind of bread
made of the kernels of nuts and the seed of sun-
flowers. Then the pipe was lighted, and all smoked
together. The four Frenchmen proposed to open a
traffic for provisions, and their entertainers grunted
assent.
Joutel found a Frenchman in the village. He was
a young man from Provence, who had deserted from
La Salle on his last journey, and was now, to all
appearance, a savage like his adopted countrymen,
being naked like them, and affecting to have forgot-
ten his native language. He was very friendly, how-
ever, and invited the visitors to a neighboring village,
where he lived, and where, as he told them, they
would find a better supply of corn. They accord-
ingly set out with him, escorted by a crowd of
Indians. They saw lodges and clusters of lodges
scattered along their path at intervals, each with its
field of corn, beans, and pumpkins, rudely cultivated
442 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
with a wooden hoe. Reaching their destination,
which was four or five leagues distant, they were
greeted with the same honors as at the first village,
and, the ceremonial of welcome over, were lodged in
the abode of the savage Frenchman. It is not to be
supposed, however, that he and his squaws, of whom
he had a considerable number, dwelt here alone;
for these lodges of the Cenis often contained eight
or ten families. They were made by firmly planting
in a circle tall, straight young trees, such as grew in
the swamps. The tops were then bent inward and
lashed together; great numbers of cross-pieces were
bound on; and the frame thus constructed was
thickly covered with thatch, a hole being left at the
top for the escape of the smoke. The inmates were
ranged around the circumference of the structure,
each family in a kind of stall, open in front, but
separated from those adjoining it by partitions of
mats. Here they placed their beds of cane, their
painted robes of buffalo and deer-skin, their cooking
utensils of pottery, and other household goods; and
here, too, the head of the family hung his bow,
quiver, lance, and shield. There was nothing in
common but the fire, which burned in the middle of
the lodge, and was never suffered to go out. These
dwellings were of great size, and Joutel declares that
he has seen some of them sixty feet in diameter.1
1 The lodges of the Florida Indians were somewhat similar.
The winter lodges of the now nearly extinct Mandans, though not
so high in proportion to their width, and built of more solid ma*
1687.] JOUTEL AND THE CENTS. 443
It was in one of the largest that the four travellers
were now lodged. A place was assigned them where
to bestow their baggage; and they took possession of
their quarters amid the silent stares of the whole
community. They asked their renegade countryman,
the ProvenQal, if they were safe. He replied that
they were; but this did not wholly reassure them,
and they spent a somewhat wakeful night. In the
morning, they opened their budgets, and began a
brisk trade in knives, awls, beads, and other trinkets,
which they exchanged for corn and beans. Before
evening, they had acquired a considerable stock; and
Joutel's three companions declared their intention of
returning with it to the camp, leaving him to con-
tinue the trade. They went, accordingly, in the
morning; and Joutel was left alone. On the one
hand, he was glad to be rid of them; on the other,
he found his position among the Cenis very irksome,
and, as he thought, insecure. Besides the Provencal,
who had gone with Liotot and his companions, there
were two other French deserters among this tribe,
and Joutel was very desirous to see them, hoping
that they could tell him the way to the Mississippi;
torials, as the rigor of a northern climate requires, bear a general
resemblance to those of the Cenis.
The Cenis tattooed their faces and some parts of their bodies,
by pricking powdered charcoal into the skin. The women tattooed
the breasts ; and this practice was general among them, notwith-
standing the pain of the operation, as it was thought very orna-
mental. Their dress consisted of a sort of frock, or wrapper of
slcin, from the waist to the knees. The men, in summer, wore noth-
ing but the waist-cloth.
444 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687,
for he was resolved to escape, at the first opportunity,
from the company of Duhaut and his accomplices.
He therefore made the present of a knife to a young
Indian, whom he sent to find the two Frenchmen and
invite them to come to the village. Meanwhile he
continued his barter, but under many difficulties ; for
he could only explain himself by signs, and his cus-
tomers, though friendly by day, pilfered his goods
by night. This, joined to the fears and troubles
which burdened his mind, almost deprived him of
sleep, and, as he confesses, greatly depressed his
spirits. Indeed, he had little cause for cheerfulness
as to the past, present, or future. An old Indian,
one of the patriarchs of the tribe, observing his dejec-
tion and anxious to relieve it, one evening brought
him a young wife, saying that he made him a present
of her. She seated herself at his side; "but, "says
Joutel, "as my head was full of other cares and
anxieties, I said nothing to the poor girl. She
waited for a little time ; and then, finding that I did
not speak a word, she went away." l
Late one night, he lay between sleeping and wak-
ing on the buffalo-robe that covered his bed of canes.
All around the great lodge, its inmates were buried
in sleep ; and the fire that still burned in the midst
cast ghostly gleams on the trophies of savage chivalry
— the treasured scalp-locks, the spear and war-club,
and shield of whitened bull-hide — that hung by
each warrior's resting-place. Such was the weird
l Journal Historique, 237.
1687.] WHITE SAVAGES. 445
scene that lingered on the dreamy eyes of Joutel, as
he closed them at last in a troubled sleep. The
sound of a footstep soon wakened him; and, turning,
he saw at his side the figure of a naked savage, armed
with a bow and arrows. Joutel spoke, but received
no answer. Not knowing what to think, he reached
out his hand for his pistols; on which the intruder
withdrew, and seated himself by the fire. Thither
Joutel followed ; and as the light fell on his features,
he looked at him closely. His face was tattooed,
aftor the Cenis fashion, in lines drawn from the top
of the forehead and converging to the chin ; and his
body was decorated with similar embellishments.
Suddenly, this supposed Indian rose and threw his
arms around Joutel's neck, making himself known,
at the same time, as one of the Frenchmen who had
deserted from La Salle and taken refuge among the
Cenis. He was a Breton sailor named Ruter. His
companion, named Grollet, also a sailor, had been
afraid to come to the village lest he should meet La
Salle. Ruter expressed surprise and regret when he
heard of the death of his late commander. He had
deserted him but a few months before. That brief
interval had sufficed to transform him into a savage;
and both he and his companion found their present
reckless and ungoverned way of life greatly to their
liking. He could tell nothing of the Mississippi;
and on the next day he went home, carrying with
him a present of beads for his wives, of which last;
he had made a large collection.
446 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [168T.
In a few days he reappeared, bringing Grollet with
him. Each wore a bunch of turkey-feathers dang-
ling from his head, and each had wrapped his naked
body in a blanket. Three men soon after arrived
from Duhaut's camp, commissioned to receive the
corn which Joutel had purchased. They told him
that Duhaut and Liotot, the tyrants of the party, had
resolved to return to Fort St. Louis, and build a
vessel to escape to the West Indies, — "a visionary
scheme," writes Joutel, "for our carpenters were all
dead; and even if they had been alive, they were so
ignorant that they would not have known how to go
about the work; besides, we had no tools for it.
Nevertheless, I was obliged to obey, and set out for
the camp with the provisions."
On arriving, he found a wretched state of affairs.
Douay and the two Caveliers, who had been treated
by Duhaut with great harshness and contempt, had
been told to make their mess apart; and Joutel now
joined them. This separation restored them their
freedom of speech, of which they had hitherto been
deprived ; but it subjected them to incessant hunger,
as they were allowed only food enough to keep them
from famishing. Douay says that quarrels were rife
among the assassins themselves, — the malcontents
being headed by Hiens, who was enraged that Duhaut
and Liotot should have engrossed all the plunder.
Joutel was helpless, for he had none to back him but
two priests and a boy.
He and his companions talked of nothing around
1637.] SCHEMES OF ESCAPE. 447
their solitary camp-fire but the means of escaping
from the villanous company into which they were
thrown. They saw no resource but to find the
Mississippi, and thus make their way to Canada, — a
prodigious undertaking in their forlorn condition ; nor
was there any probability that the assassins would
permit them to go. These, on their part, were beset
with difficulties. They could not return to civiliza-
tion without manifest peril of a halter; and their
only safety was to turn buccaneers or savages.
D ahaut, however, still held to his plan of going back
to Fort St. Louis; and Joutel and his companions,
who with good reason stood in daily fear of him,
devised among themselves a simple artifice to escape
from his company. The elder Cavelier was to tell
him that they were too fatigued for the journey, and
wished to stay among the Cenis ; and to beg him to
allow them a portion of the goods, for which Cavelier
was to give his note of hand. The old priest, whom
a sacrifice of truth even on less important occasions
cost no great effort, accordingly opened the negotia-
tion, and to his own astonishment and that of his
companions, gained the assent of Duhaut. Their
joy, however, was short; for Ruter, the French
savage, to whom Joutel had betrayed his intention,
when inquiring the way to the Mississippi, told it to
Diihaut, who on this changed front and made the
ominous declaration that he and his men would also
go to Canada. Joutel and his companions were now
filled with alarm; for there was no likelihood that
448 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
the assassins would permit them, the witnesses of
their crime, to reach the settlements alive. In the
midst of their trouble, the sky was cleared as by the
crash of a thunderbolt.
Hiens and several others had gone, some time
before, to the Cenis villages to purchase horses ; and
here they had been detained by the charms of the
Indian women. During their stay, Hiens heard of
Duhaut's new plan of going to Canada by the
Mississippi; and he declared to those with him that
he would not consent. On a morning early in May
he appeared at Duhaut's camp, with Ruter and
Grollet, the French savages, and about twenty
Indians. Duhaut and Liotot, it is said, were passing
the time by practising with bows and arrows in front
of their hut. One of them called to Hiens, " Good-
morning;" but the buccaneer returned a sullen
answer. He then accosted Duhaut, telling him that
he had no mind to go up the Mississippi with him,
and demanding a share of the goods. Duhaut replied
that the goods were his own, since La Salle had owed
him money. "So you will not give them to me?"
returned Hiens. "No," was the answer. "You are
a wretch!" exclaimed Hiens; "you killed my
master."1 And drawing a pistol from his belt he
1 "Tu es un miserable. Tu as tue mon maistre." — Tonty,
Memoire. Tonty derived his information from some of those
present. Douay and Joutel have each left an account of this
murder. They agree in essential points ; though Douay says that
when it took place, Duhaut had moved his camp beyond the Cenia
Tillages, which is contrary to Joutel's statement.
1687.] THE CRISIS. 449
fired at Duhaut, who staggered three or four paces
and fell dead. Almost at the same instant Ruter
fired his gun at Liotot, shot three balls into his body,
and stretched him on the ground mortally wounded.
Douay and the two Caveliers stood in extreme
terror, thinking that their turn was to come next.
Joutel, no less alarmed, snatched his gun to defend
himself; but Hiens called to him to fear nothing,
declaring that what he had done was only to avenge
the death of La Salle, — to which, nevertheless, he
had been privy, though not an active sharer in the
crime. Liotot lived long enough to make his confes-
sion, after which Ruter killed him by exploding a
pistol loaded with a blank charge of powder against
Lis head. Duhaut 's myrmidon, L'Archev^que, was
absent, hunting, and Hiens was for killing him on
his return; but the two priests and Joutel succeeded
in dissuading him.
The Indian spectators beheld these murders with
undisguised amazement, and almost with horror.
What manner of men were these who had pierced
the secret places of the wilderness to riot in mutual
slaughter? Their fiercest warriors might learn a
lesson in ferocity from these heralds of civilization.
Joutel and his companions, who could not dispense
Avith the aid of the Cenis, were obliged to explain
a way, as they best might, the atrocity of what they
had witnessed.1
Hiens, and others of the French, had before
1 Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 371).]
29
450 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
promised to join the Cenis on an expedition against a
neighboring tribe with whom they were at war ; and
the whole party having removed to the Indian village,
the warriors and their allies prepared to depart. Six
Frenchmen went with Hiens ; and the rest, including
Joutel, Douay, and the Caveliers, remained behind,
in the lodge where Joutel had been domesticated,
and where none were now left but women, children,
and old men. Here they remained a week or more,
watched closely by the Cenis, who would not let
them leave the village ; when news at length arrived
of a great victory, and the warriors soon after
returned with forty-eight scalps. It was the French
guns that won the battle, but not the less did they
glory in their prowess ; and several days were spent
in ceremonies and feasts of triumph.1
When all this hubbub of rejoicing had subsided,
Joutel and his companions broke to Hiens their plan
of attempting to reach home by way of the Mississippi.
As they had expected, he opposed it vehemently,
declaring that for his own part he would not run
such a risk of losing his head ; but at length he con-
sented to their departure, on condition that the elder
Cavelier should give him a certificate of his entire
innocence of the murder of La Salle, which the priest
did not hesitate to do. For the rest, Hiens treated
his departing fellow-travellers with the generosity of
a successful free-booter; for he gave them a good
1 These are described by Joutel. Like nearly all the early ob-
servers of Indian manners, he speaks of the practice of cannibalism.
1687.] JOUTEL AND HIS PARTY. 451
share of the plunder he had won by his late crime,
supplying them with hatchets, knives, beads, and
other articles of trade, besides several horses. Mean-
while, adds Joutel, "we had the mortification and
chagrin of seeing this scoundrel walking about the
camp in a scarlet coat laced with gold which had
belonged to the late Monsieur de la Salle, and which
he had seized upon, as also upon all the rest of his
property." A well-aimed shot would have avenged
the wrong, but Joutel was clearly a mild and moder-
ate person; and the elder Cavelier had constantly
opposed all plans of violence. Therefore they stifled
their emotions, and armed themselves with patience.
Joutel's party consisted, besides himself, of the
Caveliers (uncle and nephew), Anastase Douay,
De Marie, Teissier, and a young Parisian named
Barthelemy. Teissier, an accomplice in the murders
of Moranget and La Salle, had obtained a pardon,
in form, from the elder Cavelier. They had six
horses and three Cenis guides. Hiens embraced
them at parting, as did the ruffians who remained
with him. Their course was northeast, toward the
mouth of the Arkansas, — a distant goal, the way to
which was beset with so many dangers that their
chance of reaching it seemed small. It was early in
June, and the forests and prairies were green with
the verdure of opening summer.
They soon reached the Assonis, a tribe near the
Sabine, who received them well, and gave them
guides to the nations dwelling towards Red River.
452 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
On the twenty-third, they approached a village, the
inhabitants of which, regarding them as curiosities
of the first order, came out in a body to see them;
and, eager to do them honor, they required them to
mount on their backs, and thus make their entrance
in procession. Joutel, being large and heavy,
weighed down his bearer, insomuch that two of his
countrymen were forced to sustain him, one on each
side. On arriving, an old chief washed their faces
with warm water from an earthen pan, and then
invited them to mount on a scaffold of canes, where
they sat in the hot sun listening to four successive
speeches of welcome, of which they understood not a
word. l
At the village of another tribe, farther on their
way, they met with a welcome still more oppressive.
Cavelier, the unworthy successor of his brother,
being represented as the chief of the party, became
the principal victim of their attentions. They
danced the calumet before him; while an Indian,
taking him, with an air of great respect, by the
shoulders as he sat, shook him in cadence with the
thumping of the drum. They then placed two girls
close beside him, as his wives; while, at the same
time, an old chief tied a painted feather in his hair.
These proceedings so scandalized him that, pretend-
1 These Indians were a portion of the Cadodaquis, or Caddoes,
then living on Eed Eiver. The travellers afterwards visited other
Tillages of the same people. Tonty was here two years afterwards,
and mentions the curious custom of washing the faces of guests.
1687.] ARRIVAL AT THE ARKANSAS. 453
ing to be ill, he broke off the ceremony; but they
continued to sing all night, with so much zeal that
several of them were reduced to a state of complete
exhaustion.
At length, after a journey of about two months,
during which they lost one of their number, — De
Marie, accidentally drowned while bathing, — the
travellers approached the river Arkansas, at a point
not far above its junction with the Mississippi. Led
by their Indian guides, they traversed a rich district
of plains and woods, and stood at length on the
borders of the stream. Nestled beneath the forests
of the farther shore, they saw the lodges of a large
Indian town; and here, as they gazed across the
broad current, they presently descried an object
which nerved their spent limbs, and thrilled their
homesick hearts with joy. It was a tall, wooden
cross ; and near it was a small house, built evidently
by Christian hands. With one accord they fell on
their knees, and raised their hands to Heaven in
thanksgiving. Two men, in European dress, issued
from the door of the house and fired their guns to
salute the excited travellers, who on their part
replied with a volley. Canoes put out from the
farther shore and ferried them to the town, where
fchey were welcomed by Couture and De Launay,
two followers of Henri de Tonty.1
That brave, loyal, and generous man, always vigi-
lant and always active, beloved and feared alike by
* Joutel, Journal Historique,&9S.
454 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
white men and by red,1 had been ejected, as we have
seen, by the agent of the governor, La Barre, from
the command of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. An
order from the King had reinstated him ; and he no
sooner heard the news of La Salle's landing on the
shores of the Gulf, and of the disastrous beginnings
of his colony,2 than he prepared, on his own respon-
sibility and at his own cost, to go to his assistance.
He collected twenty-five Frenchmen and eleven
Indians, and set out from his fortified rock on the
thirteenth of February, 1686 ;3 descended the
Mississippi, and reached its mouth in Holy Week.
All was solitude, a voiceless desolation of river,
marsh, and sea. He despatched canoes to the east
and to the west, searching the coast for some thirty
leagues on either side. Finding no trace of his
friend, who at that moment was ranging the prairies
of Texas in no less fruitless search of his "fatal
river," Tonty wrote for him a letter, which he left
1 Journal de St. Cosme, 1699. This journal has been printed by
Mr. Shea, from the copy in my possession. St. Cosme, who knew
Tonty well, speaks of him in the warmest terms of praise.
2 In the autumn of 1685, Tonty made a journey from the Illinois
to Michilimackinac, to seek news of La Salle. He there learned,
by a letter of the new governor, Denonville, just arrived from
France, of the landing of La Salle, and the loss of the " Aimable,"
as recounted by Beaujeu, on his return. He immediately went back
on foot to Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, and prepared to descend
the Mississippi, " dans 1'espe'rance de lui donner secours." Lettre
de Tonty au Ministre, 24 Aoust, 1686 ; Ibid., a Cabart de Villermont,
mime date ; Mfmoire de Tonty ; Proces Verbal de Tonty, 13 Avril,
1686.
* The date is from the Proces Verbal. In the Memoire, hastily
Written long after, he falls into errors of date.
1687.] A HOSPITABLE RECEPTION. 455
in the charge of an Indian chief, who preserved it
with reverential care, and gave it, fourteen years
after, to Iberville, the founder of Louisiana.1 Deeply
disappointed at his failure, Tonty retraced his course,
and ascended the Mississippi to the villages of the
Arkansas, where some of his men volunteered to
remain. He left six of them; and of this number
were Couture and De Launay.2
Cavelier and his companions, followed by a crowd
of Indians, some carrying their baggage, some strug-
gling for a view of the white strangers, entered the
log cabin of their two hosts. Rude as it was, they
found in it an earnest of peace and safety, and a
foretaste of home. Couture and De Launay were
moved even to tears by the story of their disasters,
and of the catastrophe that crowned them. La
Salle's death was carefully concealed from the
Indians, many of whom had seen him on his descent
of the Mississippi, and who regarded him with pro-
digious respect. They lavished all their hospitality
on his followers; feasted them on corn-bread, dried
buffalo meat, and watermelons, and danced the
calumet before them, the most august of all their
ceremonies. On this occasion, Cavelier's patience
1 Iberville sent it to France, and Charlevoix gives a portion of
Jfc. (Histoire de la Nouvelle France, ii. 259.) Singularly enough,
the date, as printed by him, is erroneous, being 20 April, 1686,
instead of 1686. There is no doubt whatever, from its relations
with concurrent events, that this journey was in the latter year.
2 Tonty, Memoire; Ibid., Lettre d Monseigneur de Ponchartraittt
1690, Joutel, Journal Historique, 301.
456 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
failed him again; and pretending, as before, to be
ill, lie called on his nephew to take his place. There
were solemn dances, too, in which the warriors —
some bedaubed with white clay, some with red, and
some with both; some wearing feathers, and some
the horns of buffalo; some naked, and some in
painted shirts of deer-skin, fringed with scalp-locks,
insomuch, says Joutel, that they looked like a troop
of devils — leaped, stamped, and howled from sunset
till dawn. All this was partly to do the travellers
honor, and partly to extort presents. They made
objections, however, when asked to furnish guides;
and it was only by dint of great offers that four
were at length procured.
With these, the travellers resumed their journey
in a wooden canoe, about the first of August,1
descended the Arkansas, and soon reached the dark
and inexorable river, so long the object of their
search, rolling, like a destiny, through its realms of
solitude and shade. They launched their canoe on
its turbid bosom, plied their oars against the current,
and slowly won their way upward, following the
writhings of this watery monster through cane-brake,
swamp, and fen. It was a hard and toilsome jour-
i Joutel says that the Parisian boy, Barthelemy, was left behind.
It was this youth who afterwards uttered the ridiculous defamation
of La Salle mentioned in a preceding note. The account of the
death of La Salle, taken from the lips of Couture, was received
by him from Cavelier and his companions, during their stay at the
Arkansas Couture was by trade a carpenter, and was a native of
Rouen.
1687.] THE MISSISSIPPI. 457
Hey, under the sweltering sun of August, — now on
the water, now knee-deep in mud, dragging their
oanoe through the unwholesome jungle. On the
nineteenth, they passed the mouth of the Ohio ; and
their Indian guides made it an offering of buffalo
meat. On the first of September, they passed the
Missouri, and soon after saw Marque tte's pictured
rock, and the line of craggy heights on the east
shore, marked on old French maps as "the Ruined
Castles." Then, with a sense of relief, they turned
from the great river into the peaceful current of the
Illinois. They were eleven days in ascending it, in
their large and heavy wooden canoe ; when at length,
on the afternoon of the fourteenth of September,
they saw, towering above the forest and the river,
the cliff crowned with the palisades of Fort St. Louis
of the Illinois. As they drew near, a troop of
Indians, headed by a Frenchman, descended from
the rock, and fired their guns to salute them. They
landed, and followed the forest path that led towards
the fort, when they were met by Boisrondet, Tonty's
comrade in the Iroquois war, and two other French-
men, who no sooner saw them than they called out,
demanding where was La Salle. Cavelier, fearing
lest he and his party would lose the advantage they
might derive from his character of representative of
liis brother, was determined to conceal his death;
and Joutel, as he himself confesses, took part in the
deceit. Substituting equivocation for falsehood,
they replied that La Salle had been with them nearly
458 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687U
as far as the Cenis villages, and that, when they
parted, he was in good health. This, so far as they
were concerned, was, literally speaking, true; but
Douay and Teissier, the one a witness and the other
a sharer in his death, could not have said so much
without a square falsehood, and therefore evaded the
inquiry.
Threading the forest path, and circling to the rear
of the rock, they climbed the rugged height, and
reached the top. Here they saw an area, encircled
by the palisades that fenced the brink of the cliff,
and by several dwellings, a store-house, and a chapel.
There were Indian lodges too; for some of the red
allies of the French made their abode with them.1
Tonty was absent, fighting the Iroquois; but his
lieutenant, Bellefontaine, received the travellers,
and his little garrison of bush-rangers greeted them
with a salute of musketry, mingled with the whoop-
ing of the Indians. A Te Deum followed at the
chapel; "and, with all our hearts," says Joutel, "we
gave thanks to God, who had preserved and guided
us.'* At length, the tired travellers were among
countrymen and friends. Bellefontaine found a room
for the two priests; while Joutel, Teissier, and
young Cavelier were lodged in the store-house.
The Jesuit Allouez was lying ill at the fort; and
* The condition of Fort St. Louis, at this time, may be gathered
from several passages of Joutel. The houses, he says, were
built at the brink of the cliff, forming, with the palisades, the circle
of defence. The Indians lived in the area.
1687.] THE JESUIT ALLOUEZ. 459
Joutel, Cavelier, and Douay went to visit him. He
showed great anxiety when told that La Salle was
alive, and on his way to the Illinois; asked many
questions, and could not hide his agitation. When,
some time after, he had partially recovered, he left
St. Louis, as if to shun a meeting with the object of
Lis alarm.1 Once before, in 1679, Allouez had fled
i Joutel adds that this was occasioned by " une espece de con-
apiration qu'on a voulu faire contre les interests de Monsieur de la
Salle." — Journal Historique, 350.
" Ce Pere apprehendoit que le dit sieur ne 1'y rencontrast, . . .
suivant ce que j'en ai pu apprendre, les Peres avoient avance* plu-
sieurs choses pour contrebarrer 1'entreprise et avoient voulu d€-
t icher plusieurs nations de Sauvages, lesquelles s'estoient donnees
fc M. de la Salle. Us avoient este mesme jusques a vouloir destruire
le fort Saint-Louis, en ayant construit un a Chicago, oil ils avoient
attire' une partie des Sauvages, ne pouvant en quelque fa$on s'em-
parer du dit fort. Pour conclure, le bon Pere ayant eu peur d'y
estre trouve, aima mieux se precautionner en prenant le devant.
. . . Quoyque M. Cavelier eust dit au Pere qu'il pouvoit rester, il
partit quelques sept ou huit jours avant nous." — Relation (Margry,
iii. 500).
La Salle always saw the influence of the Jesuits in the disasters
that befell him. His repeated assertion, that they wished to es-
tablish themselves in the valley of the Mississippi, receives confir-
mation from a document entitled Memoire sur la proposition d faire
par les R. Peres Jesuites pour la de'couverte des environs de la riviere
du Mississipi et pour voir si die est navigable jusqu'd la mer. It is a
memorandum of propositions to be made to the minister Seignelay,
and was apparently put forward as a feeler, before making the
propositions in form. It was written after the return of Beaujeu
to France, and before La Salle's death became known. It intimates
that the Jesuits were entitled to precedence in the valley of the
JMississippi, as having first explored it. It affirms that La Salle
had made a blunder, and landed his colony, not at the mouth of the river,
bat at another place; and it asks permission to continue the work in
v hich he has failed. To this end, it petitions for means to build
a vessel at St. Louis of the Illinois, together with canoes, arms,
460 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
from the Illinois on hearing of the approach of La
Salle.
The season was late, and they were eager to hasten
forward that they might reach Quebec in time to
return to France in the autumn ships. There was
not a day to lose. They bade farewell to Bellefon-
taine, from whom, as from all others, they had con-
cealed the death of La Salle, and made their way
across the country to Chicago. Here they were
detained a week by a storm; and when at length
they embarked in a canoe furnished by Bellefontaine,
the tempest soon forced them to put back.' On this,
they abandoned their design, and returned to Fort
St. Louis, to the astonishment of its inmates.
It was October when they arrived; and, mean-
while, Tonty had returned from the Iroquois war,
where he had borne a conspicuous part in the famous
attack on the Senecas by the Marquis de Denonville.1
He listened with deep interest to the mournful story
of his guests. Cavelier knew him well. He knew,
so far as he was capable of knowing, his generous
and disinterested character, his long and faithful
tents, tools, provisions, and merchandise for the Indians ; and it
also asks for La Salle's maps and papers, and for those of Beaujeu.
On their part, it pursues, the Jesuits will engage to make a com-
plete survey of the river, and return an exact account of its inhabi-
tants, its plants, and its other productions.
1 Tonty, Du Lhut, and Durantaye came to the aid of Denonville
with a hundred and eighty Frenchmen, chiefly coureurs de bois, and
four hundred Indians from the upper country. Their services were
highly appreciated; and Tonty especially is mentioned in the
despatches of Denonville with great praise.
1687.] CONDUCT OF CAVELIER. 461
attachment to La Salle, and the invaluable services
he had rendered him. Tonty had every claim on his
confidence and affection. Yet he did not hesitate to
practise on him the same deceit which he had prac-
tised on Belief ontaine. He told him that he had left
his brother in good health on the Gulf of Mexico,
and drew upon him, in La Salle 's name, for an
amount stated by Joutel at about four thousand
livres, in furs, besides a canoe and a quantity of
other goods, all of which were delivered to him by
the unsuspecting victim.1
This was at the end of the winter, when the old
priest and his companions had been living for months
on Tonty's hospitality. They set out for Canada on
i " Monsieur Tonty, croyant M. de la Salle vivant, ne fit pas de
difficulte de luy donner pour environ quatre mille liv. de pelleterie,
de castors, loutres, un canot, et autres effets." — Joutel, Journal
ffistorique, 349.
Tonty himself does not make the amount so great: "Sur ce
qu'ils m'assuroient qu'il etoit reste au Golfe de Mexique en bonne
sante, je les re?us comme si 9'avoit este lui mesme et luy prestay [a
Cavelier] plus de 700 francs." — Tonty, Memoire.
Cavelier must have known that La Salle was insolvent. Tonty
had long served without pay. Douay says that he made the stay of
the party at the fort very agreeable, and speaks of him, with some
apparent compunction, as " ce brave gentilhomme, tou jours insepa-
rablement attache aux interets du Sieur de la Salle, dont nous luy
nvons cache la deplorable destinee."
Couture, from the Arkansas, brought word to Tonty, several
months after, of La Salle's death, adding that Cavelier had con-
cealed it, with no other purpose than that of gaining money or
supplies from him (Tonty), in his brother's name. Cavelier had a
letter from La Salle, desiring Tonty to give him supplies, and pay
him 2,652 livres in beaver. If Cavelier is to be believed, this beavei
belonged to La Salle.
462 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.
the twenty-first of March, reached Chicago on the
twenty-ninth, and thence proceeded to Michili-
mackinac. Here Cavelier sold some of Tonty's furs
to a merchant, who gave him in payment a draft on
Montreal, thus putting him in funds for his voyage
home. The party continued their journey in canoes
by way of French River and the Ottawa, and safely
reached Montreal on the seventeenth of July. Here
they procured the clothing of which they were
wofully in need, and then descended the river to
Quebec, where they took lodging, — some with the
Re*collet friars, and some with the priests of the
Seminary, — in order to escape the questions of
the curious. At the end of August they embarked
for France, and early in October arrived safely at
Rochelle. None of the party were men of especial
energy or force of character; and yet, under the
spur of a dire necessity, they had achieved one of the
most adventurous journeys on record.
Now, at length, they disburdened themselves of
their gloomy secret; but the sole result seems to
have been an order from the King for the arrest of
the murderers, should they appear in Canada.1
1 Lettre du Roy a Denonville, I Mai, 1689. Joutel must have
been a young man at the time of the Mississippi expedition; for
Charlevoix saw him at Rouen, thirty-five years after. He speaks of
him with emphatic praise ; but it must be admitted that his conniv-
ance in the deception practised by Cavelier on Tonty leaves a shade
on his character, as well as on that of Douay. In other respects,
everything that appears concerning him is highly favorable, which
is not the case with Douay, who, on one or two occasions, makes
wilful misstatements.
Douay says that the elder Cavelier made a report of the expedi-
1687.] THE COLONISTS ABANDONED. 463
Joutel was disappointed. It had been his hope
throughout that the King would send a ship to the
relief of the wretched band at Fort St. Louis of
Texas. But Louis XIV. hardened his heart, and
left them to their fate.
tion to the minister Seignelay. This report remained unknown in
an English collection of autographs and old manuscripts, whence I
obtained it by purchase, in 1854, both the buyer and seller being at
the time ignorant of its exact character. It proved, on examination,
to be a portion of the first draft of Cavelier's report to Seignelay.
Et consists of twenty-six small folio pages, closely written in a clear
hand, though in a few places obscured by the fading of the ink, as
well as by occasional erasures and interlineations of the writer. It
is, as already stated, confused and unsatisfactory in its statements ;
.md all the latter part has been lost. On reaching France, he had
the impudence to tell Abbe Tronson, Superior of St. Sulpice, " qu'il
avait laisse M. de la Salle dans un tres-beau pays avec M. de Chef de-
ville en bonne santeY' — Lettre de Tronson d Mad. Fauvel- Cavelier,
29 Nov., 1688.
Cavelier addressed to the King a memorial on the importance of
keeping possession of the Illinois. It closes with an earnest petition
for money in compensation for his losses, as, according to his own
statement, he was completely epuise. It is affirmed in a memorial
of the heirs of his cousin, Fran9ois Plet, that he concealed the
death of La Salle some time after his return to France, in order to
get possession of property which would otherwise have been seized
by the creditors of the deceased. The prudent abbe died rich and
very old, at the house of a relative, having inherited a large estate
after his return from America. Apparently, this did not satisfy
Mm ; for there is before me the copy of a petition, written about
1717, in which he asks, jointly with one of his nephews, to be given
possession of the seigniorial property held by La Salle in America.
The petition was refused.
Young Cavelier, La Salle's nephew, died some years after, an
officer in a regiment. He has been erroneously supposed to be the
rfame with one De la Salle, whose name is appended to a letter
giving an account of Louisiana, and dated at Toulon, 3 Sept., 1698.
This person was the son of a naval official at Toulon, and was not
related to the Caveliers.
CHAPTER XXIX.
1688-1689.
FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY.
TONTY ATTEMPTS TO RESCUE THE COLONISTS : HIS DIFFICULTIES
AND HARDSHIPS. — SPANISH HOSTILITY. — EXPEDITION OF ALONZO
DB LEON: HE REACHES FORT ST. Louis. — A SCENE OF HAVOC.
— DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH. — THE END.
HENRI DE TONTY, on his rock of St. Louis, was
visited in September by Couture and two Indians
from the Arkansas. Then, for the first time, he
heard with grief and indignation of the death of La
Salle, and the deceit practised by Cavelier. The
chief whom he had served so well was beyond his
help; but might not the unhappy colonists left on
the shores of Texas still be rescued from destruction?
Couture had confirmed what Cavelier and his party
had already told him, that the tribes south of the
Arkansas were eager to join the French in an inva-
sion of northern Mexico ; and he soon after received
from the governor, Denonville, a letter informing
him that war had again been declared against Spain.
As bold and enterprising as La Salle himself, Tonty
resolved on an effort to learn the condition of the
1688.] COURAGE OF TONTY. 465
few Frenchmen left on the borders of the Gulf,
relieve their necessities, and, should it prove prac-
ticable, make them the nucleus of a war-party to
cross the Rio Grande, and add a new province to the
domain of France. It was the revival, on a small
scale, of La Salle's scheme of Mexican invasion; and
there is no doubt that, with a score of French muske-
teers, he could have gathered a formidable party of
savage allies from the tribes of Red River, the Sabine,
and the Trinity. This daring adventure and the
rescue of his suffering countrymen divided his
thoughts, and he prepared at once to execute the
double purpose.1
He left Fort St. Louis of the Illinois early in
December, in a pirogue, or wooden canoe, with five
Frenchmen, a Shawanoe warrior, and two Indian
slaves; and, after a long and painful journey, he
reached the villages of the Caddoes on Red River on
the twenty-eighth of March. Here he was told that
Hiens and his companions were at a village eighty
leagues distant; and thither he was preparing to go
in search of them, when all his men, excepting the
Shawanoe and one Frenchman, declared themselves
disgusted with the journey, and refused to follow
him. Persuasion was useless, and there was no
means of enforcing obedience. He found himself
abandoned; but he still pushed on, with the two
who remained faithful. A few days after, they lost
nearly all their ammunition in crossing a river.
1 Tonty, Memoire.
30 ,
466 FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY. [1689.
Undeterred by this accident, Tonty made his way
to the village where Hiens and those who had
remained with him were said to be ; but no trace of
them appeared, and the demeanor of the Indians,
when he inquired for them, convinced him that they
had been put to death. He charged them with
having killed the Frenchmen, whereupon the women
of the village raised a wail of lamentation; "and I
saw," he says, "that what I had said to them was
true." They refused to give him guides; and this,
with the loss of his ammunition, compelled him to
forego his purpose of making his way to the colonists
on the Bay of St. Louis. With bitter disappoint-
ment, he and his two companions retraced their
course, and at length approached Red River. Here
they found the whole country flooded. Sometimes
they waded to the knees, sometimes to the neck,
sometimes pushed their slow way on rafts. Night
and day it rained without ceasing. They slept on
logs placed side by side to raise them above the mud
and water, and fought their way with hatchets
through the inundated cane-brakes. They found no
game but a bear, which had taken refuge on an island
in the flood ; and they were forced to eat their dogs.
"I never in my life," writes Tonty, "suffered so
much." In judging these intrepid exertions, it is to
be remembered that he was not, at least in appear-
ance, of a robust constitution, and that he had but
one hand. They reached the Mississippi on the
eleventh of July, and the Arkansas villages on the
1689.] TONTY MISREPRESENTED. 467
thirty-first. Here Tonty was detained by an attack
of fever. He resumed his journey when it began
to abate, and reached his fort of the Illinois in
September.1
1 Two causes have contributed to detract, most unjustly, from
Tonty's reputation, — the publication, under his name, but without
his authority, of a perverted account of the enterprises in which he
took part ; and the confounding him with his brother, Alphonse de
Tonty, who long commanded at Detroit, where charges of pecula-
tion were brought against him. There are very few names in
French-American history mentioned with such unanimity of praise
as that of Henri de Tonty. Hennepin finds some fault with him ;
but his censure is commendation. The despatches of the governor,
Denonville, speak in strong terms of his services in the Iroquois
war, praise his character, and declare that he is fit for any bold
enterprise, adding that he deserves reward from the King. The
missionary, St. Cosme, who travelled under his escort in 1699, says
of him : " He is beloved by all the voyageurs. ... It was with deep
regret that we parted from him : ... he is the man who best knows
the country; ... he is loved and feared everywhere. . . . Your
grace will, I doubt not, take pleasure in acknowledging the obliga-
tions we owe him."
Tonty held the commission of captain ; but, by a memoir which
he addressed to Ponchartrain in 1690, it appears that he had never
received any pay. Count Frontenac certifies the truth of the state-
ment, and adds a recommendation of the writer. In consequence,
probably, of this, the proprietorship of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois
was granted in the same year to Tonty, jointly with La Forest,
formerly La Salle's lieutenant. Here they carried on a trade in
furs. In 1699, a royal declaration was launched against the coureurs
de bois ; but an express provision was added in favor of Tonty and
La Forest, who were empowered to send up the country yearly two
canoes, with twelve men, for the maintenance of this fort. Wrth
such a limitation, this fort and the trade carried on at it must have
been very small. In 1702, we find a royal order, to the effect that
La Forest is henceforth to reside in Canada, and Tonty on the
Mississippi; and that the establishment at the Illinois is to be
discontinued. In the same year, Tonty joined D'Iberville in Lower
Louisiana, and was gent by that officer from Mobile to secure the
468 FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY. [1689.
While the King of France abandoned the exiles of
Texas to their fate, a power dark, ruthless, and
terrible was hovering around the feeble colony on
the Bay of St. Louis, searching with pitiless eye to
discover and tear out that dying germ of civilization
from the bosom of the wilderness in whose savage
immensity it lay hidden. Spain claimed the Gulf of
Mexico and all its coasts as her own of unanswerable
right, and the viceroys of Mexico were strenuous to
enforce her claim. The capture of one of La Salle's
four vessels at St. Domingo had made known his
designs, and in the course of the three succeeding
years no less than four expeditions were sent out
from Vera Cruz to find and destroy him. They
Bcoured the whole extent of the coast, and found the
wrecks of the "Aimable" and the "Belle;" but the
colony of St. Louis, 1 inland and secluded, escaped
their search. For a time, the jealousy of the
Spaniards was lulled to sleep. They rested in the
assurance that the intruders had perished, when fresh
advices from the frontier province of New Leon
Chickasaws in the French interest. His subsequent career and the
time of his death do not appear. He seems never to have received
the reward which his great merit deserved. Those intimate with
the late lamented Dr. Sparks will remember his often-expressed
wish that justice should be done to the memory of Tonty.
Fort St. Louis of the Illinois was afterwards reoccupied by th«
French. In 1718, a number of them, chiefly traders, were living
here ; but three years later it was again deserted, and Charlevoix,
passing the spot, saw only the remains of its palisades.
1 Fort St. Louis of Texas is not to be confounded with Fort St
Louis of the Illinois.
1689.] A SCENE OF HAYOC. 469
caused the Viceroy, Galve, to order a strong force,
under Alonzo de Leon, to march from Coahuila, and
cross the Rio Grande. Guided by a French prisoner,
probably one of the deserters from La Salle, they
pushed their way across wild and arid plains, rivers,
prairies, and forests, till at length they approached
the Bay of St. Louis, and descried, far off, the
harboring-place of the French.1 As they drew near,
no banner was displayed, no sentry challenged; and
the silence of death reigned over the shattered pali-
nades and neglected dwellings. The Spaniards
spurred their reluctant horses through the gateway,
and a scene of desolation met their sight. No living
tiling was stirring. Doors were torn from their
lunges; broken boxes, staved barrels, and rusty
kettles, mingled with a great number of stocks of
arquebuses and muskets, were scattered about in
confusion. Here, too, trampled in mud and soaked
with rain, they saw more than two hundred books,
many of which still retained the traces of costly
bindings. On the adjacent prairie lay three dead
bodies, one of which, from fragments of dress still
clinging to the wasted remains, they saw to be that
of a woman. It was in vain to question the imper-
1 After crossing the Del Norte, they crossed in turn the Upper
Nueces, the Hondo (Rio Frio), the De Leon (San Antonio), and the
Guadalupe, and then, turning southward, descended to the Bay of
St. Bernard. . . . Manuscript map of "Route que firent IPS Es-
pagnols, pour venir enlever les Fran$ais restez a la Baye St.
Bernard ou St. Louis, apres la perte du vaisseau de Mr- de la
•m 1689." (Margry's collection.)
470 FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY. [1689.
turbable savages, who, wrapped to the throat in their
buffalo-robes, stood gazing on the scene with looks of
wooden immobility. Two strangers, however, at
length arrived.1 Their faces were smeared with
paint, and they were wrapped in buffalo-robes like the
rest; yet these seeming Indians were L'Archev§que,
the tool of La Salle's murderer Duhaut, and Grollet,
the companion of the white savage Ruter. The
Spanish commander, learning that these two men
were in the district of the tribe called Texas,2 had
sent to invite them to his camp under a pledge of
good treatment; and they had resolved to trust
Spanish clemency rather than endure longer a life
that had become intolerable. From them the
Spaniards learned nearly all that is known of the
fate of Barbier, Zenobe Membrd, and their compan-
ions. Three months before, a large band of Indians
had approached the fort, the inmates of which had
suffered severely from the ravages of the small-pox.
From fear of treachery, they refused to admit their
visitors, but received them at a cabin without the
palisades. Here the French began a trade with
them; when suddenly a band of warriors, yelling
1 May 1st. The Spaniards reached the fort April 22.
a This is the first instance in which the name occurs. In a letter
written by a member of De Leon's party, the Texan Indians are
mentioned several times. (See Coleccion de Varios Documentos, 25.)
They are described as an agricultural tribe, and were, to all appear-
ance, identical with the Cenis. The name Tejas, or Texas, was first
applied as a local designation to a spot on the river Neches, in the
Cenis territory, whence it extended to the whole country. (See
Yoakum, History of Texas, 52.)
,] THE SURVIVORS. 471
the war-whoop, rushed from an ambuscade under
the bank of the river, and butchered the greater
number. The children of one Talon, together with
un Italian and a young man from Paris named
Breman, were saved by the Indian women, who
carried them off on their backs. L'ArchevSque and
Grollet, who with others of their stamp were domes-
ticated in the Indian villages, came to the scene of
slaughter, and, as they affirmed, buried fourteen dead
bodies.1
l Derrotero de la Jornada que hizo el General Alonso de Leon para el
descubrimiento de la Bahia del Esptritu Santo, y poblacion de Franceses.
Ano de 1689. — This is the official journal of the expedition, signed
by Alonzo de Leon. I am indebted to Colonel Thomas Aspinwall
for the opportunity of examining it. The name of Espiritu Santo
•was, as before mentioned, given by the Spaniards to St. Louis,
or Matagorda Bay, as well as to two other bays of the Gulf of
Mexico.
Carta en que se da noticia de un viaje hecho a la Bahia de Espfritu
Santo y de la poblacion que tenian ahi los Franceses. Coleccion de
Varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida, 25. — This is a
letter from a person accompanying the expedition of De Leon. It
is dated May 18, 1689, and agrees closely with the journal cited
above, though evidently by another hand. Compare Barcia, Ensayo
Cronologico, 294. Barcia's story has been doubted; but these au-
thentic documents prove the correctness of his principal statements,
though on minor points he seems to have indulged his fancy.
The Viceroy of New Spain, in a report to the King, 1690, says
that, in order to keep the Texas and other Indians of that region in
obedience to his Majesty, he has resolved to establish eight missions
among them. He adds that he has appointed as governor, or com-
mander, in that province, Don Domingo Teran de los Bios, who will
laake a thorough exploration of it, carry out what De Leon has
begun, prevent the further intrusion of foreigners like La Salle,
and go in pursuit of the remnant of the French, who are said still
to remain among the tribes of Red Kiver. I owe this document to
the kindness of Mr. Buckingham Smith.
472 FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY. [1689.
L'Archeveque and Grollet were sent to Spain,
where, in spite of the pledge given them, they were
thrown into prison, with the intention of sending them
back to labor in the mines. The Indians, some time
after De Leon's expedition, gave up their captives to
the Spaniards. The Italian was imprisoned at Vera
Cruz. Breman's fate is unknown. Pierre and Jean
Baptiste Talon, who were now old enough to bear
arms, were enrolled in the Spanish navy, and, being
captured in 1696 by a French ship of war, regained
their liberty ; while their younger brothers and their
sister were carried to Spain by the Viceroy.1 With
respect to the ruffian companions of Hiens, the con-
viction of Tonty that they had been put to death by
the Indians may have been well founded; but the
buccaneer himself is said to have been killed in a
quarrel with his accomplice Ruter, the white savage ;
and thus in ignominy and darkness died the last
embers of the doomed colony of La Salle.
Here ends the wild and mournful story of the
explorers of the Mississippi. Of all their toil and
1 Memoire sur lequel on a interroge les deux Canadiens [Pierre et
Jean Baptiste Talon} qui sont soldats dans la Compagnie de Feuguerolles.
A Brest, 14 Fevrier, 1698.
Interrogations faites a Pierre et Jean Baptiste Talon d lew arrivee
de la Veracrux. — This paper, which differs in some of its details
from the preceding, was sent by DTberville, the founder of Louisi-
ana, to Abbe' Cavelier. Appended to it is a letter from DTberville,
written in May, 1704, in which he confirms the chief statements of
the Talons, by information obtained by him from a Spanish officer
at Pensacola.
1689.] FRUIT OF EXPLORATIONS. 473
sacrifice, no fruit remained but a great geographical
discovery, and a grand type of incarnate energy and
will. Where La Salle had ploughed, others were to
sow the seed ; and on the path which the undespair-
ing Norman had hewn out, the Canadian D'Iberville
was to win for France a vast though a transient
dominion.
APPENDIX.
L
EARLY UNPUBLISHED MAPS OF THE MISSIS-
SIPPI AND THE GREAT LAKES.
MOST of the maps described below are to be found in the
des Cartes de la Marine et des Colonies, at Paris. Taken together,
they exhibit the progress of western discovery, and illustrate the
records of the explorers.
1. The map of Galine*e, 1670, has a double title, —
Carte du Canada et des Terres decouuertes vers le lac
Derie, and Carte du Lac Ontario et des habitations qul
Venuironnent ensemble le pays que Messr*> Dolier et
Oalinee^ missionnaires du seminaires de St. Sulpice, out
parcouru. It professes to represent only the country
actually visited by the two missionaries. Beginning with
Montreal, it gives the course of the Upper St. Lawrence and
the shores of Lake Ontario, the river Niagara, the north
shore of Lake Erie, the Strait of Detroit, and the eastern
and northern shores of Lake Huron. Galin^e did not know
the existence of the peninsula of Michigan, and merges
Lakes Huron and Michigan into one, under the name of
" Michigane, ou Mer Douce des Hurons. " He was also
entirely ignorant of the south shore of Lake Erie. He
represents the outlet of Lake Superior as far as the Saut Ste.
476 APPENDIX.
Marie, and lays down the river Ottawa in great detail,
having descended it on his return. The Falls of the Gene-
see are indicated, as also the Falls of Niagara, with the in-
scription, " Sault qui tombe au rapport des sauvages de plus
de 200 pieds de haut." Had the Jesuits been disposed to
aid him, they could have given him much additional infor-
mation, and corrected his most serious errors ; as, for example,
the omission of the peninsula of Michigan. The first at-
tempt to map out the Great Lakes was that of Champlain,
in 1632. This of Galinee may be called the second.
2. The map of Lake Superior, published in the Jesuit
Relation of 1670, 1671, was made at about the same time
with Galinee's map. Lake Superior is here styled " Lac
Tracy, ou Superieur." Though not so exact as it has been
represented, this map indicates that the Jesuits had explored
every part of this fresh-water ocean, and that they had a
thorough knowledge of the straits connecting the three Upper
Lakes, and of the adjacent bays, inlets, and shores. The
peninsula of Michigan, ignored by Galinee, is represented in
its proper place.
3. Three years or more after Galinde made the map
mentioned above, another, indicating a greatly increased
knowledge of the country, was made by some person whose
name does not appear. This map, which is somewhat more
than four feet long and about two feet and a half wide, has
no title. All the Great Lakes, through their entire extent,
are laid down on it with considerable accuracy. Lake
Ontario is called "Lac Ontario, ou de Frontenac." Fort
Frontenac is indicated, as well as the Iroquois colonies of
the north shore. Niagara is " Chute haute de 120 toises
par ou le Lac Erie tombe dans le Lac Frontenac." Lake
Erie is "Lac Teiocha-rontiong, dit commune'ment Lac Erie."
Lake St. Glair is " Tsiketo, ou Lac de la Chaudiere."
Lake Huron is " Lac Huron, ou Mer Douce des Hurons."
APPENDIX. 477
Like Superior is " Lac Superieur." Lake Michigan is " Lao
M itchiganong, ou des Illinois." On Lake Michigan, imme-
diately opposite the site of Chicago, are written the words, of
which the following is the literal translation : " The largest
vessels can come to this place from the outlet of Lake Erie,
where it discharges into Lake Frontenac [Ontario]; and
from this marsh into which they can enter there is only a
distance of a thousand paces to the River La Divine [Des
Plaines], which can lead them to the River Colbert [Mis-
sissippi], and thence to the Gulf of Mexico." This map
was evidently made after that voyage of La Salle in which
he discovered the Illinois, or at least the Des Plaines branch
of it. The Ohio is laid down with the inscription,
"River Ohio, so called by the Iroquois on account of its
beauty, which the Sieur de la Salle descended." (Antet
32. note.)
4. We now come to the map of Marquette, which is a
rude sketch of a portion of Lakes Superior and Michigan,
and of the route pursued by him and Joliet up the Fox
Biver of Green Bay, down the Wisconsin, and thence down
the Mississippi as far as the Arkansas. The river Illinois
is also laid down, as it was by this course that he returned
to Lake Michigan after his memorable voyage. He gives
no name to the Wisconsin. The Mississippi is called
" B ivi&re de la Conception ; " the Missouri, the Pekitanoui ;
and the Ohio, the Ouabouskiaou, though La Salle, its
discoverer, had previously given it its present name,
borrowed from the Iroquois. The Illinois is nameless, like
the Wisconsin. At the mouth of a river, perhaps the Des
Mo nes, Marquette places the three villages of the Peoria
Indians visited by him. These, with the Kaskaskias,
Maroas, and others, on the map, were merely sub-tribes of the
aggregation of savages known as the Illinois. On or near
the Missouri he places the Ouchage (Osages), the Oumes«
478 APPENDIX
Bourit (Missouris), the Kansa (Kanzas), the Paniassa
(Pawnees), the Maha (Omahas), and the Pahoutet (Pah-
Utahs ?). The names of many other tribes, " esloignees dans
les terres, " are also given along the course of the Arkansas,
a river which is nameless on the map. Most of these tribes
are now indistinguishable. This map has recently been
engraved and published.
5. Not long after Marquette's return from the Mississippi,
another map was made by the Jesuits, with the following
title : Carte de la nouvelle decouverte que les peres lesuites
out fait en I'annee 1672, et continued par le P. lacques
Marquette de la mesme Compagnie accompagne de
quelques fran$ois en Vannee 1673, qv? on pourra nommer
enfrangois la Manitoumie. This title is very elaborately
decorated with figures drawn with a pen, and representing
Jesuits instructing Indians. The map is the same published
by Thevenot, not without considerable variations, in 1681.
It represents the Mississippi from a little above the Wis-
consin to the Gulf of Mexico, the part below the Arkansas
being drawn from conjecture. The river is named ' ' Mitch-
isipi, ou grande Biviere." The Wisconsin, the Illinois,
the Ohio, the Des Moines ( ?), the Missouri, and the Arkansas
are all represented, but in a very rude manner. Marquette's
route, in going and returning, is marked by lines ; but the
return route is incorrect. The whole map is so crude and
careless, and based on information so inexact, that it is of
little interest.
6. The Jesuits made also another map, without title, of
the four Upper Lakes and the Mississippi to a little below
the Arkansas. The Mississippi is called "Biuuiere
Colbert." The map is remarkable as including the earliest
representation of the Upper Mississippi, based, perhaps, on
the reports of Indians. The Falls of St. Anthony are
indicated by the word " Saut." It is possible that the map
APPENDIX. 479
may be of later date than at first appears, and that it may
have been drawn in the interval between the return of
Hennepin from the Upper Mississippi and that of La Salle
from his discovery of the mouth of the river. The various
temporary and permanent stations of the Jesuits are marked
by crosses.
7. Of far greater interest is the small map of Louis
Joliet made and presented to Count Frontenac after the dis-
coverer's return from the Mississippi. It is entitled Carte de
la decouuerte du Sr- Jolliet ou Von voitLa Communication
dufleuue St. Laurens auec les lacs frontenac, JEriej Lac des
Hurons et Uinois. Then succeeds the following, written
in the same antiquated French, as if it were a part of the
title : " Lake Frontenac [Ontario] is separated by a fall of
half a league from Lake Erie, from which one enters that of
the Hurons, and by the same navigation, into that of the
Illinois [Michigan], from the head of which one crosses to
the Divine River [Riviere Divine; i. e., the Des Plaines
branch of the river Illinois], by a portage of a thousand
paces. This river falls into the river Colbert [Mississippi],
which discharges itself into the Gulf of Mexico. " A part of
this map is based on the Jesuit map of Lake Superior, the
legends being here for the most part identical, though the
shape of the lake is better given by Joliet. The Mississippi,
or " Biuiere Colbert, " is made to flow from three lakes in
latitude 47° ; and it ends in latitude 37°, a little below the
mouth of the Ohio, the rest being apparently cut off to make
room for Joliet's letter to Frontenac (ante, 76), which is
written on the lower part of the map. The valley of the
Mississippi is called on the map " Colbertie, ou Amerique
Occidentale. " The Missouri is represented without name,
and against it is a legend, of which the following is the
literal translation : " By one of these great rivers which come
from the west and discharge themselves into the river Colbert,
480 APPENDIX.
one will find a way to enter the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of
California). I have seen a village which was not more
than twenty days' journey by land from a nation which
has commerce with those of California. If I had come
two days sooner, I should have spoken with those who
had come from thence, and had brought four hatchets as
a present." The Ohio has no name, but a legend over it
states that La Salle had descended it. (See ante, 32,
note).
8. Joliet, at about the same time, made another map,
larger than that just mentioned, but not essentially differ-
ent. The letter to Frontenac is written upon both. There
is a third map, of which the following is the title : Carte
generalle de la France septentrionale contenant la des-
couuerte du pays des Illinois, faite par le Sc Jolliet. This
map, which is inscribed with a dedication by the Intendant
Duchesneau to the minister Colbert, was made some time
after the voyage of Joliet and Marquette. It is an elabo-
rate piece of work, but very inaccurate. It represents the
continent from Hudson's Strait to Mexico and California,
with the whole of the Atlantic and a part of the Pacific
coast. An open sea is made to extend from Hudson's
Strait westward to the Pacific. The St. Lawrence and all
the Great Lakes are laid down with tolerable correctness, as
also is the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi, called " Mes-
sasipi, " flows into the Gulf, from which it extends north-
ward nearly to the " Mer du Nord. " Along its course,
above the Wisconsin, which is called " Miskous, " is a long
list of Indian tribes, most of which cannot now be recog-
nized, though several are clearly sub-tribes of the Sioux.
The Ohio is called " Ouaboustikou." The whole map is dec-
orated with numerous figures of animals, natives of the
country, or supposed to be so. Among them are camels,
ostriches, and a giraffe, which are placed on the plains west
APPENDIX. 481
of the Mississippi. But the most curious figure is that
which represents one of the monsters seen by Joliet and
Marquette, painted on a rock by the Indians. It corre-
sponds with Marquette 's description (ante, 68). This
map, which is an early effort of the engineer Franquelin,
does more credit to his skill as a designer than to his
geographical knowledge, which appears in some respects
behind his time.
9. Carte de VAmerique Septentrionale depuis I 'embou-
chure de la Riviere St. Laurens jusques au Sein Mex-
ique. On this curious little map, the Mississippi is called
" Kiuiere Buade" (the family name of Frontenac) ; and the
neighboring country is " La Frontenacie." The Illinois is
" Biuiere de la Diuine ou Loutrelaise, " and the Arkansas is
" Kiuiere Bazire. " The Mississippi is made to head in
three lakes, and to discharge itself into "B. du S. Esprit"
(Mobile Bay). Some of the legends and the orthography
of various Indian names are clearly borrowed from Mar-
quette. This map appears to be the work of Raudin,
Frontenac's engineer. I owe a tracing of it to the kindness
of Henry Harrisse, Esq.
10. Carte des Parties les plus occidentales du Canada,
par le Pere Pierre Raffeix, S. J. This rude map shows
the course of Du Lhut from the head of Lake Superior to the
Mississippi, and partly confirms the story of Hennepiri, who,
Raffeix says in a note, was rescued by Du Lhut. The
course of Joliet and Marquette is given, with the legend
" Voyage et premiere descouverte du Mississipy faite par le
P. Marquette et Mr- Joliet en 1672." The route of La
Salle in 1679, 1680, is also laid down.
11. In the Depot des Cartes de la Marine is another map
of the Upper Mississippi, which seems to have been made
by or for Du Lhut. Lac Buade, the " Issatis, " the " Tin-
tons," the " Houelbatons," the "Poualacs," and other tribes
31
482 APPENDIX.
of this region appear upon it. This is the map numbered
208 in the Cartographic of Harrisse.
12. Another map deserving mention is a large and fine
one, entitled Carte de VAmerique Septentrionale et partle
de la Meridionale . . . avec les nouvelles decouvertes de la
Riviere Missisipi, ou Colbert. It appears to have been
made in 1682 or 1683, before the descent of La Salle to the
mouth of the Mississippi was known to the maker, who
seems to have been Franquelin. The lower Mississippi is
omitted, but its upper portions are elaborately laid down;
and the name La Louisiane appears in large gold letters
along its west side. The Falls of St. Anthony are shown,
and above them is written " Armes du Roy gravees sur cet
arbre Tan 1679." This refers to the acte de prise de pos-
session of Du Lhut in July of that year, and this part of
the map seems made from data supplied by him.
13. We now come to the great map of Franquelin, the
most remarkable of all the early maps of the interior of
North America, though hitherto completely ignored by
both American and Canadian writers. It is entitled Carte
de la Louisiane ou des Voyages du Sr de la Salle et des
pays qu'il a decouverts depuis la Nouvelle France jusqu'au
Golfe Mexique les annees 1679, 80, 81, et 82, par Jean
Baptiste Louis Franquelin. Van 1684. Paris. Franque-
lin was a young engineer, who held the post of hydrogra-
pher to the King, at Quebec, in which Joliet succeeded
him. Several of his maps are preserved, including one
made in 1681, in which he lays down the course of the
Mississippi, — the lower part from conjecture, — making it
discharge itself into Mobile Bay. It appears from a letter
of the governor, La Barre, that Franquelin was at Quebec
in 1683, engaged on a map which was probably that of
which the title is given above, though had La Barre
known that it was to be called a map of the journeys of
APPENDIX. 483
his victim La Salle, he would have been more sparing of
his praises. " He " (Franquelin), writes the governor, " is
as skilful as any in France, but extremely poor and in
need of a little aid from his Majesty as an Engineer; he
is at work on a very correct map of the country, which I
shall send you next year in his name ; meanwhile, I shall
support him with some little assistance." — Colonial Docu-
ments of New York, IX. 205.
The map is very elaborately executed, and is six feet long
and four and a half wide. It exhibits the political divisions
of the continent, as the French then understood them; that
is to say, all the regions drained by streams flowing into the
St. Lawrence and the Mississippi are claimed as belonging
to France, and this vast domain is separated into two grand
divisions, La Nouvelle France and La Louisiane. The
boundary line of the former, New France, is drawn from
the Penobscot to the southern extremity of Lake Champlain,
and thence to the Mohawk, which it crosses a little above
Schenectady, in order to make French subjects of the
Mohawk Indians. Thence it passes by the sources of the
Susquehanna and the Alleghany, along the southern shore
of Lake Erie, across Southern Michigan, and by the head
of Lake Michigan, whence it sweeps northwestward to the
sources of the Mississippi. Louisiana includes the entire
valley of the Mississippi and the Ohio, besides the whole of
Texas. The Spanish province of Florida comprises tha
peninsula and the country east of the Bay of Mobile, drained
by streams flowing into the Gulf; while Carolina, Virginia,
and the other English provinces, form a narrow strip
between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic.
The Mississippi is called " Missisipi, ou Riviere Col-
bert ; " the Missouri, " Grande Riviere des Emissourittes, ou
Missourits;" the Illinois, "Riviere des Ilinois, ou Maco-
pins ; " the Ohio, which La Salle had before called by its
484 APPENDIX.
present name, "Fleuve St. Louis, ou Chucagoa, ou Gas-
quinampogamou ; " one of its principal branches is " Ohio,
ou Olighin " (Alleghany) ; the Arkansas, " Riviere des
Acansea ; " the Red River, " Riviere Seignelay, " a name
which had once been given to the Illinois. Many smaller
streams are designated by names which have been entirely
forgotten.
The nomenclature differs materially from that of Coro-
nelli's map, published four years later. Here the whole
of the French territory is laid down as " Canada, ou La
Nouvelle France, " of which " La Louisiana " forms an
integral part. The map of Homannus, like that of Franque-
lin, makes two distinct provinces, of which one is styled
" Canada " and the other " La Louisiane, " the latter includ-
ing Michigan and the greater part of New York. Franquelin
gives the shape of Hudson's Bay, and of all the Great
Lakes, with remarkable accuracy. He makes the Mississippi
bend much too far to the West. The peculiar sinuosities
of its course are indicated ; and some of its bends — as, for
example, that at New Orleans — are easily recognized. Its
mouths are represented with great minuteness ; and it may
be inferred from the map that, since La Salle's time, they
have advanced considerably into the sea.
Perhaps the most interesting feature in Franquelin's map
is his sketch of La Salle's evanescent colony on the Illinois,
engraved for this volume. He reproduced the map in 1688,
for presentation to the King, with the title Carte de VAme-
rique Septentrionale, depuis le 25 jusq'au 65 degre de lati-
tude et environ 140 et 235 degres de longitude, etc. In
this map, Franquelin corrects various errors in that which
preceded. One of these corrections consists in the removal of
a branch of the river Illinois which he had marked on his
first map, — as will be seen by referring to the portion of it
in this book, — but which does not in fact exist. On this
APPENDIX. 485
second map, La Salle's colony appears in much diminished
proportions, his Indian settlements having in good measure
dispersed.
Two later maps of New France and Louisiana, hoth bear-
ing Franquelin's name, are preserved in the Depot des
Cartes de la Marine, as well as a number of smaller maps
and sketches, also by him. They all have more or less of
the features of the great map of 1684, which surpasses
them all in interest and completeness.
The remarkable manuscript map of the Upper Mississippi
by Le Sueur belongs to a period later than the close of this
narrative.
These various maps, joined to contemporary documents,
show that the Valley of the Mississippi received, at an early
date, the several names of Manitoumie, Frontenacie, Col-
bertie, and La Louisiane. This last name, which it long
retained, is due to La Salle. The first use of it which I
have observed is in a conveyance of the Island of Belleisle
made by him to his lieutenant, La Forest, in 1679.
II.
THE ELDORADO OF MATHIEU
FATHER HENNEPIN had among his contemporaries two
rivals in the fabrication of new discoveries. The first was
the noted La Hontan, whose book, like his own, had a wide
circulation and proved a great success. La Hontan had
seen much, and portions of his story have a substantial
value; but his account of his pretended voyage up the
* Long River " is a sheer fabrication. His " Long River "
486 APPENDIX.
corresponds in position with the St. Peter, but it corre-
sponds in nothing else ; and the populous nations whom he
found on it — the Eokoros, the Esanapes, and the Gnacsi-
tares, no less than their neighbors the Mozeemlek and the
Tahuglauk — are as real as the nations visited by Captain
Gulliver. But La Hontan did not, like Hennepin, add
slander and plagiarism to mendacity, or seek to appropriate
to himself the credit of genuine discoveries made by others.
Mathieu Sagean is a personage less known than Henne-
.pin or La Hontan; for though he surpassed them both in
fertility of invention, he was illiterate, and never made a
book. In 1701, being then a soldier in a company of
marines at Brest, he revealed a secret which he declared
that he had locked within his breast for twenty years, hav-
ing been unwilling to impart it to the Dutch and English,
in whose service he had been during the whole period.
His story was written down from his dictation, and sent to
the minister Ponchartrain. It is preserved in the Biblio-
th&que Nationale, and in 1863 it was printed by Mr. Shea.
He was born, he declares, at La Chine in Canada, and
engaged in the service of La Salle about twenty years be-
fore the revelation of his secret; that is, in 1681. Hence,
he would have been, at the utmost, only fourteen years old,
as La Chine did not exist before 1667. He was with La
Salle at the building of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, and
was left here as one of a hundred men under command of
Tonty. Tonty, it is to be observed, had but a small frac-
tion of this number; and Sagean describes the fort in a
manner which shows that he never saw it. Being desirous
of making some new discovery, he obtained leave from
Tonty, and set out with eleven other Frenchmen and two
Mohegan Indians. They ascended the Mississippi a hun-
dred and fifty leagues, carried their canoes by a cataract,
went forty leagues farther, and stopped a month to hunt.
APPENDIX 487
While thus employed, they found another river, fourteen
leagues distant, flowing south-southwest. They carried
their canoes thither, meeting on the way many lions,
leopards, and tigers, which did them no harm ; then they
embarked, paddled a hundred and fifty leagues farther, and
found themselves in the midst of the great nation of the
Acanibas, dwelling in many fortified towns, and governed
by King Hagaren, who claimed descent from Montezuma.
The King, like his subjects, was clothed with the skins of
men. Nevertheless, he and they were civilized and pol-
ished in their manners. They worshipped certain frightful
idols of gold in the royal palace. One of them represented
the ancestor of their monarch armed with lance, bow, and
quiver, and in the act of mounting his horse ; while in his
mouth he held a jewel as large as a goose's egg, which
shone like fire, and which, in the opinion of Sagean, was a
carbuncle. Another of these images was that of a woman
mounted on a golden unicorn, with a horn more than a
fathom long. After passing, pursues the story, between
these idols, which stand on platforms of gold, each thirty
feet square, one enters a magnificent vestibule, conducting
to the apartment of the King. At the four corners of this
vestibule are stationed bands of music, which, to the taste
of Sagean, was of very poor quality. The palace is of vast
extent, and the private apartment of the King is twenty-
eight or thirty feet square; the walls, to the height of
eighteen feet, being of bricks of solid gold, and the pave-
ment of the same. Here the King dwells alone, served only
by his wives, of whom he takes a new one every day. The
Frenchmen alone had the privilege of entering, and were
graciously received.
These people carry on a great trade in gold with a nation,
believed by Sagean to be the Japanese, as the journey to
them lasts six months. He saw the departure of one of the
488 APPENDIX.
caravans, which consisted of more than three thousand oxen,
laden with gold, and an equal number of horsemen, armed
with lances, bows, and daggers. They receive iron and
steel in exchange for their gold. The King has an army of
a hundred thousand men, of whom three fourths are cavalry.
They have golden trumpets, with which they make very
indifferent music; and also golden drums, which, as well as
the drummer, are carried on the backs of oxen. The troops
are practised once a week in shooting at a target with arrows ;
and the King rewards the victor with one of his wives, or
with some honorable employment.
These people are of a dark complexion and hideous to
look upon, because their faces are made long and narrow by
pressing their heads between two boards in infancy. The
women, however, are as fair as in Europe; though, in
common with the men, their ears are enormously large. All
persons of distinction among the Acanibas wear their finger-
nails very long. They are polygamists, and each man
takes as many wives as he wants. They are of a joyous
disposition, moderate drinkers, but great smokers. They
entertained Sagean and his followers during five months with
the fat of the land ; and any woman who refused a French-
man was ordered to be killed. Six girls were put to death
with daggers for this breach of hospitality. The King, being
anxious to retain his visitors in his service, offered Sagean
one of his daughters, aged fourteen years, in marriage ; and
when he saw him resolved to depart, promised to keep her
for him till he should return.
The climate is delightful, and summer reigns throughout
the year. The plains are full of birds and animals of all
kinds, among which are many parrots and monkeys, besides
the wild cattle, with humps like camels, which these
people use as beasts of burden.
Bang Hagaren would not let the Frenchmen go till they
APPENDIX. 489
had sworn by the sky, which is the customary oath of the
Acanibas, that they would return in thirty-six moons, and
bring him a supply of beads and other trinkets from Canada.
As gold was to be had for the asking, each of the eleven
Frenchmen took away with him sixty small bars, weighing
about four pounds each. The King ordered two hundred
horsemen to escort them, and carry the gold to their canoes;
which they did, and then bade them farewell with terrific
bowlings, meant, doubtless, to do them honor.
After many adventures, wherein nearly all his companions
came to a bloody end, Sagean, and the few others who sur-
vived, had the ill luck to be captured by English pirates, at
the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He spent many years
among them in the East and West Indies, but would not
reveal the secret of his Eldorado to these heretical foreigners.
Such was the story, which so far imposed on the credu-
lity of the minister Ponchartrain as to persuade him that
the matter was worth serious examination. Accordingly,
Sagean was sent to Louisiana, then in its earliest infancy as
a French colony. Here he met various persons who had
known him in Canada, who denied that he had ever been
on the Mississippi, and contradicted his account of his
parentage. ^Nevertheless, he held fast to his story, and de-
clared that the gold mines of the Acanibas could be reached
without difficulty by the river Missouri. But Sau voile and
Bienville, chiefs of the colony, were obstinate in their un-
belief; and Sagean and his King Hagaren lapsed alike into
oblivion.
INDEX.
INDEX.
ABENAKIS, the, 285, 295, 316, 346.
Acanibas, the, great nation of,
description . of, 487-489 ; gold
mines of, 489.
' Acansea" (Arkansas) River, the,
484.
Accau, Michel, 186, 187, 249, 251,
253, 261, 265, 266, 273.
African travel, history of, 198.
Agniers (Mohawks), the, 136.
Aigron, Captain, on ill-terms with
La Salle, 372, 382, 383.
Ailleboust, Madame d', 111.
" Aimable," La Salle's store-ship,
372, 373, 374, 375, 379, 380, 381,
405, 454, 468.
A ire, Beaujeu's lieutenant, 375.
A kanseas, nation of the, 300. See
also Arkansas Indians, the.
Albanel, prominent among the
Jesuit explorers, 109 ; his jour-
ney up the Saguenay to Hud-
son's Bay, 109.
Albany, 118, 200, 220.
Algonquin Indians, the, Jean
Nicollet among, 3; at Ste.
Marie du Saut, 39; the Iro-
quois spread desolation among,
219.
Alkansas, nation of the, 300. See
also Arkansas Indians, the.
A^leghany Mountains, the, 84,
308, 309, 483.
Allegheny River, the, 307, 483,
484.
Allouez, Father Claude, explores
a part of Lake Superior, 6;
name of Lake Michigan, 42,
155; sent to Green Bay to
found a mission, 43; joined
by Dablon, 43 ; among the Mas-
coutins and the Miamis, 44;
among the Foxes, 45 ; at Saut
Ste. Marie, 51 ; addresses the
Indians at Saut Ste. Marie, 53 ;
population of the Illinois Val-
ley, 169 ; intrigues against La
Salle, 175, 238; at Fort St.
Louis of the Illinois, 458; his
fear of La Salle, 459.
Allumette Island, 3.
Alton, city of, 68.
America, debt due La Salle from,
432.
"Amerique Occidentale" (Missis-
sippi Valley), 479.
Amikoues, the, at Saut Ste. Marie,
51.
Andastes, reduced to helpless in-
significance by the Iroquois, 219.
Andre, Louis, mission of the
Manitoulin Island assigned to,
41 ; makes a missionary tour
among the Nipissings, 41 ; his
experiences among them, 42 ; at
Saut Ste. Marie, 51.
494
INDEX.
Anthony, St., of Padua, the patron
of La Salle's great enterprise,
152, 250, 259.
Anticosti, great island of, granted
to Joliet, 76.
Appalache, Bay of, 373.
Aquipaguetin, Chief, 254; plots
against Hennepin, 255, 261, 262,
264,271,272.
Aramoni River, the, 221, 225,
239.
Arctic travel, history of, 198.
Arkansas Indians, the, Joliet and
Marquette among, 72, 184; La
Salle among, 299 ; various names
of, 300 ; tallest and best-formed
Indians in America, 300, 308;
villages of, 466.
Arkansas River, the, 71 ; Joutel's
arrival at, 453 ; Joutel descends,
456 ; 478, 484.
Arnoul, Sieur, 383, 390.
Arouet, Fra^ois Marie, see Vol-
taire.
Aspinwall, Col. Thomas, 471.
Assiniboins, the, at the Jesuit mis-
sion of St. Esprit, 40, 261 ; Du
Lhut among, 276.
Assonis, the, Joutel among, 451 ;
Tonty among, 452.
Atlantic coast, the, 480.
Atlantic Ocean, the, 74.
Auguel, Antoine, 186. See also
Du Gay, Picard.
Autray, Sieur d', 200.
BANCROFT, 75.
Barbier, Sieur, 406 ; marriage of,
408,418; fate of, 470.
Barcia, 244, 471.
Barrois, secretary of Count Fron-
tenac, 293.
Barthelemy, 433, 451, 456.
Baugis, Chevalier de, 326, 327.
Bazire, 101.
Beauharnois, forest of, 14.
Beaujeu, Madame de, devotion to
the Jesuits, 361.
Beaujeu, Sieur de, divides with La
Salle the command of the new
enterprise, 353 ; lack of harmony
between La Salle and, 354-361 ;
letters to Seignelay, 354-356;
letters to Cabart de Villermont,
357-360; sails from Rochelle,
366; disputes with La Salle,
366 ; the voyage, 368 ; com-
plaints of, 370; La Salle wait-
ing for, 374 ; meeting with La
Salle, 375 ; in Texas, 381 ; makes
friendly advances to La Salle,
385 ; departure of, 387 ; conduct
of, 389 ; coldly received by Sei-
gnelay, 389, 454.
"Beautiful River" (Ohio), the,
70.
Begon, the intendant, 367, 368.
"Belle," La Salle's frigate, 372,
373, 374, 379, 383, 386, 389, 392,
401, 404, 406, 407, 456, 417,
468.
Belief ontaine, Tonty 's lieutenant,
458, 460.
Belle Isle, 203.
Belleisle, Island of, 485.
Bellinzani, 129.
Bernou, Abbe, on the character of
La SaUe, 342.
Bibliotheque Mazarine, the, 17.
Bienville, 489.
Big Vermilion River, the, 221, 239,
241.
Bissot, Claire, her marriage to
Louis Joliet, 76.
Black Hock, 149.
Bceufs, Riviere aux, 392.
Bois Blanc, Island of, 153.
Boisrondet, Sieur de, 218, 223, 227,
233, 236, 457.
Boisseau, 101.
INDEX.
495
Bolton, Captain, reaches the Mis-
sissippi, 5.
Boston, 5; rumored that the
Dutch fleet had captured, 88.
Boughton Hill, 21.
Bourbon, Louis Armand de, see,
Conti, Prince de.
Bourdon, the engineer, 111.
Bourdon, Jean, 200. See also
Dautray.
Bourdon, Madame, superior of the
Sainte Famille, 111.
Bowman, W. E., 317.
Branssac, loans merchandise to
La Salle, 49, 434.
Brazos Eiver, the, 424.
Breman, fate of, 471, 472.
Brest, 486.
Brinvilliers, burned alive, 179.
British territories, the, 309.
Brodhead, 136.
Bruyas, the Jesuit, 115; among
the Onondagas and the Mo-
hawks, 115, 135; the "Ratines
Agnieres" of, 136.
Buade, Lake, 257, 262, 481.
Buade, Louis de, see Frontenac,
Count.
Buade, Riviere (Mississippi), 481
Buffalo, the, 205, 398.
Buffalo Rock, 169, 314; occupied
by the Miami village, 314; de
scribed by Charlevoix, 314.
Buisset, Luc, the Recollet, 121
at Fort Frontenac, 132, 135
137, 280.
Bull River, 272.
Burnt Wood River, the, 277.
CADDOES, the, 452 ; villages oj
465.
Cadodaquis, the, 452.
California, Gulf of, 15, 31, 41, 63
74, 84, 480.
California, State of, 480.
amanches, the, 414.
ambray, Archbishop of, 16.
anada, 10; Frontenac 's treaty
with the Indians confers an in-
estimable blessing on all, 95 ;
no longer merely a mission,
104, 484.
Canadian Parliament, Library of,
the, 13.
^ananistigoyan, 275.
^arignan, regiment of, 12, 91.
Carolina, 483.
Carver, 62, 267.
Casquinampogamou " (St. Louis)
River, the, 484.
Casson, Dollier de, 15 ; among the
Nipissings, 16; leads an expedi-
tion of conversion, 16; com-
bines his expedition with that
of La Salle, 17 ; journey of, 19,
20; belles paroles of La Salle,
25; discoveries of La Salle,
29, 475.
Cataraqui Bridge, the, 90.
ataraqui River, the, 87 ; Fron-
tenac at, 90; fort built on the
banks of, 92.
iavelier, nephew of La Salle, 420,
435, 438, 446, 449, 451, 458,
463.
Javelier, Henri, uncle of La Salle,
7, 363.
Cavelier, Jean, father of La Salle,
7.
Cavelier, Abbe Jean, brother of
La Salle, 9 ; at Montreal, 98 ; La
Salle defamed to, 113; causes
La Salle no little annoyance,
114, 333, 353, 367, 369, 370, 371,
372, 374, 376, 388, 394, 396, 402,
405, 406, 412, 415, 416, 417, 420,
421, 423 ; unreliable in his writ-
ings, 433, 435, 436; doubt and
anxiety, 437, 438, 446 ; plans to
escape, 447; the murder of
496
INDEX.
Duhaut, 449 ; sets out for home,
450, 451 ; among the Assonis,
452, 453 ; on the Arkansas, 455 ;
at Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, |
457 ; visit to Father Allouez,
459 ; conceals La Salle's death, ;
460 ; reaches Montreal, 462 ; j
embarks for France, 462 ; his
report to Seignelay, 462, 463 ; |
his memorial to the King, 463,
464.
Cavelier, Madeleine, 28, 34.
Cavelier, Rene Robert, see La
Salle, Sieur de.
Cayuga Creek, 145, 146.
Cayugas, the, Frontenac's address
to, 91.
Cenis, the, La Salle among, 413 ;
villages of, 415 ; Duhaut's
journey to, 438 ; Joutel among,
440-445; customs of, 443;
joined by Hiens on a war-
expedition, 450.
Champigny, Intendant of Canada,
434.
Champlain, Lake, 483.
Champlain, Samuel de, dreams of
the South Sea, 14; map of, 139 ;
his enthusiasm compared with
that of La Salle, 431 ; first to
map out the Great Lakes, 476.
Chaouanon s ( Shawanoes ) , the,
307, 317.
Charlevoix, 50; death of Mar-
quette, 82; 103; the names of
the Illinois River, 167 ; the
loss of the "Griffin," 182; the
Illinois Indians, 223 ; doubted
veracity of Hennepin, 244 ; the
Iroquois virgin, Tegahkouita,
275 ; the Arkansas nation, 300 ;
visits the Natchez Indians, 304 ;
describes "Starved Rock" and
Buffalo Rock, 314; speaks of
"Le Rocher," 314 ; character of
La Salle, 433, 454 ; the remains
of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois,
468.
Charon, creditor of La Salle, 150.
Charron, Madame, 111.
Chartier, Martin, 337.
Chassagoac, chief of the Illinois,
meeting with La Salle, 192.
Chassagouasse, Chief, 192.
Chateaugua}r, forest of, 14.
"Chaudiere'Lac de la" (Lake St.
Clair), 476.
Chaumonot, the Jesuit, founds
the association of the Sainte
Famille, 111.
Chefdeville, M. de, 406, 407, 418,
463.
Cheruel, 167.
Chicago, 50, 236, 460, 462, 477.
Chicago Portage, the, 320.
Chicago River, the, 31 ; Marquette
on, 78, 296.
Chickasaw Bluffs, the, 311.
Chickasaw Indians, the, 184, 296,
307, 320, 468.
Chikachas (Chickasaws),the,307.
China, 6, 14, 29.
China, Sea of, 38, 83.
Chippewa Creek, 139, 145.
Chippeway River, the, 272.
"Chucagoa" (St. Louis) River,
the, 484.
Chukagoua (Ohio) River, the,
307.
Clark, James, 169, 170; the site
of the Great Illinois Town, 239.
Coahuila, 469.
Colbert, the minister, Joliet's dis-
covery of the Mississippi an-
nounced to, 34; Frontenac's
despatch, recommending La
Salle, 99 ; La Salle defamed to,
119; a memorial of La Salle
laid before, 122, 344, 345, 480.
Colbert River (Mississippi), the,
INDEX.
497
35, 244, 307, 346, 376, 477, 479,
482.
" Colbertie " (Mississippi Valley),
479.
Collin, 187.
Colorado River, the, 411, 415.
Comet of 1680, the Great, 213.
" Conception, Riviere de la" ( Mis-
sissippi River), 477.
Conti, Fort, 128; location of, 129,
148.
Conti, Lac de (Lake Erie), 129.
Conti, Prince de (second), patron
of La Salle, 106; letter from
LaSalle, 118.
Copper mines of Lake Superior,
23 ; Joliet attempts to discover,
23 ; the Jesuits labor to ex-
plore, 38 ; Indian legends con-
cerning, 39 ; Saint-Lusson sets
out to discover, 49.
Coroas, the, visited by the French,
305, 310.
Coronelli, map made by, 221, 484.
Corpus Christ! Bay, 375.
Cosme, St., 69, 314, 454; com-
mendation of Tonty, 467.
Courcelle, Governor, 11, 15, 17,
35; quarrel with Talon, 56;
schemes to protect French trade
in Canada, 85.
Couture, the assassination of La
Salle, 433; welcomes Joutel,
453, 455, 456, 461, 464.
Creeks, the, 304.
Crees, the, at Saut Ste. Marie, 51.
Crevecceur, Fort, 34 ; built by La
Salle, 180 ; La Salle at, 180-188 ;
destroyed by the mutineers, 199;
La Salle finds the ruins of, 211.
Crow Indians, the, make war upon
the dead, 207.
Cuba, 372, 389.
Cussy, De, governor of La Tortue,
367, 368.
DABLON, Father Claude the Jesuit,
at Ste. Marie du Saut, 27, 51 ;
reports the discovery of copper,
38 ; the location of the Illinois
Indians, 41 ; the name of Lake
Michigan, 42; joins Father
Allouez at the Green Bay Mis-
sion, 43 ; among the Mascoutins
and the Miamis, 44 ; the Cross
among the Foxes, 45 ; the au-
thority and state of the Miami
chief, 50; Allouez's harangue
at Saut Ste. Marie, 55 ; rumors
of the Dutch fleet, 88, 112.
Dacotah (Sioux) Indians, the, 260.
Dauphin, Fort, 128; location of,
129.
Dauphin, Lac (Lake Michigan),
155.
Daupin, Francois, 203.
Dautray, 187, 199, 210, 306.
De Launay, see Launay, De.
De Leon, see Leon, Alonzo de.
De Leon (San Antonio), the, 469.
Del Norte, the, 469,
De Marie, see Marie, De.
Denonville, Marquis de, 21, 121,
275, 454 ; in the Iroquois War,
460; announces war against
Spain, 464; commendation of
Tonty, 467.
Des Groseilliers, Medard Chouart,
reaches the Mississippi, 5.
Deslauriers, 118.
Desloges, 384.
Des Moines, 65.
Des Moines River, the, 477, 478.
De Soto, Hernando, buried in the
Mississippi, 3.
Des Plaines River, the, 79, 477,
479.
Detroit, 26.
Detroit River, the, 31, 197, 279.
Detroit, the Strait of, first re-
corded passage of white men
82
498
INDEX.
through, 26 ; the " Griffin " in,
151 ; Du Lhut ordered to fortify,
275, 475.
Divine, the Kiviere de la, 167,
479.
Dollier, see Casson, Dottier de.
Douay, Anastase, 69, 155; joins
La Salle's new enterprise, 353,
372; in Texas, 388; at Fort
St. Louis, 399, 405, 406, 412,
413,414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 420,
421,422,428; the assassination
of La Salle, 432 ; unreliable in
his writings, 433 ; 435 ; doubt
and anxiety, 437, 446 ; the mur-
der of Duhaut, 448, 449; sets
out for home, 451, 458 ; visit to
Father Allouez, 459 ; character
of, 462.
Druilletes, Gabriel, at Saut Ste.
Marie, 51 ; teaches Marquette
the Montagnais language, 59.
Duchesneau, the iutendant, 69,
78, 101, 102, 125, 126, 138, 156,
164, 197, 217, 218, 219, 235, 274,
275, 480.
Du Gay, Picard, 186, 187,250, 251,
253; among the Sioux, 259, 261,
265, 266, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273.
Duhaut, the brothers, 368, 400.
Duhaut, the elder, return of, 401 ;
at Fort St. Louis, 405; plots
against La Salle, 410, 420, 424,
quarrel with Moranget, 425;
murders Moranget, Saget, and
Nika, 426 ; assassinates La Salle,
429 ; triumph of, 435 ; journey
to the Cenis villages, 438; re-
solves to return to Fort St.
Louis, 446 ; quarrel with Hiens,
446 ; plans to go to Canada,
448 ; murder of, 448.
Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon, 182 ;
meeting with Hennepin, 273 ;
sketch of, 274 ; exploits of, 275,
276 ; route of, 276 ; explorations
of, 276-278 ; among the Assini-
boins and the Sioux, 276 ; joined
by Hennepin, 278 ; reaches the
Green Bay Mission, 279, 322;
in the Iroquois War, 460, 481,
482.
Dumesnil, La Salle's servant, 415.
Dumont, La Salle borrows money
from, 127.
Duplessis, attempts to murder La
Salle, 166.
Dupont, Nicolas, 99.
Du Pratz, customs of the Natchez,
304.
Durango, 350.
Durantaye, 275 ; in the Iroquois
War, 460.
Dutch, the, trade with the Indians,
219; encourage the Iroquois to
fight, 324.
Dutch fleet, the, rumored to have
captured Boston, 88.
EAST INDIES, the, 489.
Eastman, Mrs., legend of Winona,
271.
" Emissourites, Kiviere des " (Mis-
souri), 70.
English, the, hold out great in-
ducements to Joliet to join
them, 76 ; French company
formed to compete at Hudson's
Bay with, 76 ; trade with the
Indians, 219; encourage the
Iroquois to fight, 324.
"English Jem," 421.
Eokoros, the, 486.
Erie, Lake, 23, 25, 26, 29, 31, 96,
124, 141, 146, 151, 196, 197, 275,
279, 309, 333, 475, 476, 477, 479,
483.
Eries, the, exterminated by the
Iroquois, 219.
Esanapes, the, 486.
INDEX.
499
Eainanville, the priest, 375, 379.
Espiritu Santo Bay, 394, 471.
Estre'es, Count d', 344.
FAILLON, Abbe, connection of La
Salle with the Jesuits, 8; the
seigniory of La Salle, 12, 13 ;
detailed plan of Montreal, 13;
La Salle's discoveries, 29 ; La
Salle in need of money, 49;
throws much light on the life
of, 58; 98; on the establish-
ment of the association of the
Sainte Famille, 112; plan of
Fort Frontenac, 121.
Fauvel-Cavelier, Mme., 463.
Fe'nelon, Abbe', 16; attempts to
mediate between Frontenac and
Per rot, 97 ; preaches against
Frontenac at Montreal, 98.
Ferland, throws much light on the
life of Joliet, 58.
Fire Nation, the, 44.
Five Nations, the, 11.
Florida, 483.
Florida Indians, the, lodges of,
442.
Folles-Avoines, Nation des, 61.
Forked River (Mississippi), the, 5.
Fox River, the, 4, 43, 50, 62, 477.
Foxes, the, at the Jesuit mission
of St. Esprit, 40; location of,
43 ; Father Allouez among, 45 ;
incensed against the French,
45 ; the Cross among, 45, 287.
France, takes possession of the
West, 52 ; receives on parch-
ment a stupendous accession, 308.
Francheville, Pierre, 58.
Francis, St., 249.
Franciscans, the, 133.
Franquelin, Jean Baptiste Louis,
manuscript map made by, 169,
221, 309,316,317,347,390,481,
482, 483, 484, 485.
Fremiu, the Jesuit, 21.
French, the, Hurons the allies of,
4 ; in western New York, 19-
23 ; the Iroquois felt the power
of, 42 ; the Foxes incensed
against, 45 ; the Jesuits seek
to embroil the Iroquois with,
115 ; seeking to secure a monop-
oly of the furs of the north and
west, 219; in Texas, 348; re-
occupy Fort St. Louis of the
Illinois, 468.
French River, 28, 462.
Frontenac, Count, La Salle ad-
dresses a memorial to, 32 ;
announces Joliet's discovery of
the Mississippi to Colbert, 34;
speaks slightingly of Joliet,
34 ; succeeds Courcelle as gov-
ernor, 56, 57, 60, 67; letter
from Joliet to, 76 ; favorably
disposed to La Salle, 85 ; comes
to Canada a ruined man, 85 ;
schemes of, 86 ; at Montreal,
87 ; his journey to Lake Onta-
rio, 88 ; faculty for managing
the Indians, 89; reaches Lake
Ontario, 89; at Cataraqui, 90;
addresses the Indians, 91 ; ad-
mirable dealing with the In-
dians, 92, 93 ; his enterprise
a complete success, 95 ; confers
an inestimable benefit on all
Canada, 95 ; his plan to com-
mand the Upper Lakes, 96;
quarrel with Perrot, 96 ; arrests
Perrot, 96; has Montreal well
in hand, 96 ; the Abbe' Fe'nelon
attempts to mediate between
Perrot and, 97 ; the Abbs'
Fe'nelon preaches against, 98;
championed by La Salle, 99;
recommends La Salle to Colbert,
99 ; expects to share in profits
of La Salle's new post, 101 ;
500
INDEX.
hatred of the Jesuits, 102; pro-
tects the Recollets, 109; in-
trigues of the Jesuits, 118; 125,
201, 232, 235, 238, 274; enter-
tains Father Hennepin, 280 ; 292 ;
recalled to France, 318 ; obliga-
tions of La Salle to, 434 ; com-
mendation of Tontj, 467, 479,
480,481.
Frontenac, Fort, 34; granted to
La Salle, 100; rebuilt by La
Salle, 101, 112; La Salle at,
120; plan of, 121; not estab-
lished for commercial gain alone,
122; 148, 203, 292; La Barre
takes possession of, 325 ; re-
stored to La Salle by the King,
351, 476.
Frontenac (Ontario), Lake, 128,
476, 477, 479.
Frontenac, Madame de, 167.
" Frontenacie, La/' 481.
Fur-trade, the, the Jesuits accused
of taking part in, 109, 110 ; the
Jesuits seek to establish a mo-
nopoly in, 114.
GABRIEL, Father, 158, 159, 227, 237.
Gaeta, 128.
Galine'e, Father, 17 ; recounts the
journey of La Salle and the
Sulpitians, 19, 20, 26 ; cruelty
of the Senecas, 22 ; the work
of the Jesuits, 28; makes the
earliest map of the Upper
Lakes, 28, 106, 140, 475.
Galve, Viceroy, 469.
Galveston Bay, 374, 376, 385.
Garakontie', Chief, 91.
Gamier, Julien, 59; among the
Senecas, 141.
Gayen, 384.
Geest, Catherine, mother of La
Salic, 7 ; La Salle's farewell to,
364.
Geest, Nicolas, 7.
Gendron, 139.
Genesee, the Falls of the, 476.
Genesee River, the, 140, 142, 279.
Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, 27,
203.
Giton, La Salle borrows money
from, 150.
Gnacsitares, the, 486.
Gould, Dr. B. A., on the "Great
Comet of 1680," 213.
Graudfontaiue, Chevalier de, 56.
Grand Gulf, 300.
Grand Eiver, 23, 25.
Gravier, 244, 297; the Arkansas
nation, 300.
Great Lakes, the, 4 ; Joliet makes
a map of the region of, 32;
early unpublished maps of, 475-
485 ; Champlain makes the first
attempt to map out, 476.
Great Manitoulin Island, the, 41.
" Great Mountain," the Indian
name for the governor of Can-
ada, 156.
Green Bay of Lake Michigan, the,
4,31, 42, 43, 75; La Salle at,
155 ; 236.
Green Bay Mission, the, Father
Allouez sent to found, 43 ; Mar-
quette at, 62 ; Father Hennepin
and I)u Lhut reach, 279.
"Griffin," the, building of, 144-
148 ; finished, 149 ; voyage of,
151-153; at St. Ignace of Mich-
ilimackinac, 154; set sail for
Niagara laden with furs, 1 56 ;
La Salle's forebodings concern-
ing, 163; loss of, 181,322.
Grollet, 445, 446, 448, 470, 471 ;
sent to Spain, 472.
Guadalupe, the, 469.
Gulliver, Captain, 486.
INDEX.
501
HAGAREN, King of the Acanibas,
487-489.
Hamilton, town of, 23.
Harrisse, Henry, 76, 481, 482.
Haukiki (Marest) River, the, 167.
Hennepin, Louis, connection of La
Salle with the Jesuits, 8 ; at
Fort Frontenac, 121 ; meets La
Salle on his return to Canada,
130; receives permission to join
La Salle, 131 ; his journey to Fort
Frontenac, 132 ; sets out with
La Motte for Niagara, 132 ; por-
trait of, 133 ; his past life, 133 ;
sails for Canada, 134 ; relations
with La Salle, 134, 135; work
among the Indians, 135 ; the
most impudent of liars, 136 ;
daring of, 137; embarks on the
journey, 137 ; reaches the Niag-
ara, 138 ; account of the falls
and river of Niagara, 139 ;
among the Senecas, 140, 141 ;
«tt the Niagara Portage, 145-
147 ; the launch of the " Griffin,"
148, 149 ; on board the " Griffin,"
151 ; St. Anthony of Padua the
patron saint of La Salle's great
enterprise, 152; the departure
of the " Griffin " for Niagara,
157 ; La Salle's encounter with
the Outagamies, 16.1 ; La Salle
rejoined by Tonty, 163 ; La
Salle's forebodings concerning
the "Griffin," 163; population
of the Illinois Valley, 169;
among the Illinois, 173, 174;
the story of Monso, 177 ; La
Salle's men desert him, 178;
at Fort Crevecceur, 181 ; sent
to the Mississippi, 185; the
journey from Fort Crevecceur,
201 ; the mutineers at Fort
Crevecoeur, 218; 234; sets out
to explore the Illinois River,
242 ; his claims to the discovery
of the Mississippi, 243 ; doubted
veracity of, 244; captured by
the Sioux, 245 ; proved an im-
postor, 245 ; steals passages
from Membre and Le Clerc,
247 ; his journey northward,
249 ; suspected of sorcery, 253 ;
plots against, 255; a hard
journey, 257 ; among the Sioux,
259-282; adopted as a son by
the Sioux, 261 ; sets out for the
Wisconsin, 266 ; notice of the
Falls of St. Anthony, 267; re-
joins the Indians, 273 ; meeting
with Du Lhut, 273 ; joins Du
Lhut, 278 ; reaches the Green
Bay Mission, 279 ; reaches Fort
Frontenac, 280 ; goes to Mont-
real, 280; entertained by
Frontenac, 280 ; returns to
Europe, 280 ; dies in obscurity,
281; Louis XIV. orders the
arrest of, 282 ; various editions
of the travels of, 282 ; finds
fault with Tonty, 467, 479, 481 ;
rivals of, 485, 486.
Hiens, the German, 411, 421, 425;
murders Moranget, Saget, and
Nika, 426 ; quarrel with Duhaut
and Liotot, 446 ; murders Du
haut, 448; joins the Cenis on
a war expedition, 450, 465 ; fate
of, 472.
Hillaret Mo'ise, 147, 178, 187, 193,
217, 218.
Hitt, Col. D. F., 317.
Hohays, the, 261.
Homannus, map made by, 484.
Hondo (Rio Frio), the, 469.
Horse Shoe Fall, the, 139.
Hotel-Dieu at Montreal, the, 13, 98.
Hudson's Bay, Joliet's voyage to,
76 ; Albauel's journey to, 109,
346, 484.
i
!
502
INDEX.
Hudson's Strait, 480.
Humber Kiver, the, 138, 203.
Hunaut, 187, 210, 287.
Hundred Associates, Company of
the, 57.
Huron Indians, the, quarrel with
the Winnebagoes, 4; allies of
the French, 4; at the Jesuit
mission of St. Esprit, 40 ; Mar-
quette among, 40; terrified by
the Sioux, 41 ; destroyed by the
Iroquois, 219.
Huron, Lake, 26, 27, 31 ; the
Jesuits on, 37 ; 41 ; Saint-Lusson
takes possession for France of,
52; La Salle on, 152, 475,476,
479.
Huron Mission, the, 27.
Huron River, the, 196.
" Hyacinth, confection of," 159.
IBERVILLE, the founder of Louisi-
ana, 455 ; joined by Tonty, 467,
472, 473.
Ignatius, Saint, 78.
Illinois, Great Town of the, 170;
deserted, 191 ; La Salle at, 205;
description of, 221 ; Tonty in,
223 ; abandoned to the Iroquois,
230 ; site of, 239.
Illinois Indians, the, at the Jesuit
mission of St. Esprit, 40 ; loca-
tion of, 40, 41 ; 60 ; Joliet and
Marquette among, 66, 77, 78 ;
154, 155, 161 ; La Salle among,
171-173; hospitality of, 173;
deep-rooted jealousy of the
Osages, 1 74 ; 203 ; war with the
Iroquois, 210, 220; the Miamis
join the Iroquois against, 220;
rankling jealousy between the
Miamis and, 220; an aggrega-
tion of kindred tribes, 223 ;
characteristics of, 223; Tonty
intercedes for, 228 ; treaty made
with the Iroquois, 231 ; attacked
by the Iroquois, 235; become
allies of La Salle, 287 ; 307 ; at
"Starved Rock," 314; join La
Salle's colony, 315, 316 ; very
capricious and uncertain, 322,
477.
Illinois, Lake of the (Lake Michi-
gan), 42, 75, 155, 477, 479.
lUinois River, the, 31, 33, 34; dis-
covered by La Salle, 35 ; Joliet
and Marquette on, 74; 132; La
Salle on, 168; various names of,
167; 204; ravaged granaries of ,
213; 220; Father Hennepin sets
out to explore, 242, 245, 296;
La Salle's projected colony on
the banks of, 313, 315, 316, 405,
406; Joutel on, 457, 477, 478,
481, 484.
Illinois, State of, first civilized oc-
cupation of, 181.
Illinois, Valley of the, population
of, 169.
Immaculate Conception, the, doc-
trine of, a favorite tenet of the
Jesuits, 61.
Immaculate Conception, Mission
of the, Marquette sets out to
found, 77.
Incarnation, Marie de 1', 111.
Indians, the, Father Jogues and
Raymbault preach among, 5 ;
ferocity of, 11 ; manitous of,
26, 44, 68; their game of la
crosse, 50; the tribes meet at
Saut Ste. Marie to confer with
Saint-Lusson, 51-56; reception
to Joliet and Marquette, 63 ;
lodges of, 75 ; reception to Fron-
tenac, 90 ; Frontenac's admi-
rable dealing with, 92, 93; Al-
phabetical list of tribes referred
to: —
INDEX.
503
Abenakis,
Miamis,
Wapoos, Winnebagoes,
Acauibas,
Mitchigamias,
Weas, Yankton Sioux.
Agniers,
Mohawks,
Wild-rice,
Akanseas,
Algonquins,
Alkansas,
Mohegans,
Moingona,
Monsonis,
Irondequoit Bay, 20.
Iroquois Indians, the, 11; alone
Amikou6s,
Motantees,
remain, 37; felt the power of
Indastes,
Nadouessioux,
the French, 42 ; the " Beautiful
Arkansas,
Assiniboins,
Natchez,
Nation des Fol-
River," 70 ; Onondaga the politi-
Assonis,
les-Avoines,
cal centre of, 87 ; the Jesuits
Caddoes,
Nation of the
seek to embroil them with the
Cadodaquis,
Prairie,
French, 115; ferocious char-
Camanches,
Neutrals,
acter of, 207; war with the
Cenis,
Chaouanons,
Nipissings,
Ojibwas,
Illinois, 210; ferocious triumphs
Chickasaws,
Omahas,
of, 219; break into war, 219;
Chikachas,
Oneidas,
trade with the Dutch and the
Coroas,
Creeks,
Crees,
Crows,
Onondagas,
Osages,
Osotouoy,
Ottawas,
English, 219; jealous of La
Salle, 219 ; joined by the Miamis
against the Illinois, 220 ; attack
Dacotah,
Ouabona,
on the Illinois village, 225,
Eries,
Ouiatenons,
grant a truce to Touty, 2.30;
Fire Nation,
Five Nations,
Floridas,
Oumalouminek,
Oumas,
Outagamies,
take possession of the Illinois
village, 230 ; make a treaty with
Foxes,
Pah-Utahs,
the Illinois, 231 ; treachery of,
Hohays,
Pawnees,
231; Tonty departs from, 233;
Hurons,
Peanqhichia,
attack on the dead, 234 ; attack
Illinois,
Iroquois,
Issanti,
Peorias,
Pepikokia,
Piankishaws,
on th£ Illinois, 235, 320; en-
couraged to fight by the Dutch
Issanyati,
Pottawattamies,
and English traders, 324 ; at-
Issati,
Quapaws,
tack Fort St. Louis, 327.
Kahokias,
Kanzas.
Kappas,
Kaskaskias,
Quhiipissas,
Sacs,
Sauteurs,
Sauthouis,
Iroquois War, the, havoc and deso-
lation of, 5, 219 ; a war of com-
mercial advantage, 219; the
Kickapoos,
Senecas,
French in, 460.
Kilatica,
Shawanoes,
Isle of Pines, the, 372.
Eious,
Sioux,
Issanti the 260.
Kiskakon Otta-
was,
Sokokis,
Taensas,
Issanyati, the, 260.
Knisteneaux,
Tamaroas,
Issati, the, 260.
Koroas,
Tangibao,
"Issatis," the, 481.
Malhoumines,
Terliquiquime-
Malouminek,
chi,
Mandans,
Tetons,
JACQUES, companion of Marquette,
Maroas,
Texas,
78, 80.
Mascoutins,
Meddewakan-
Tintonwans,
Tongengas,
Jansenists, the, 110.
tonwan,
Topingas,
Japan, 6, 14.
Menomonies,
Torimans,
Japanese, the, 487t
504
INDEX.
Jesuitism, no diminution in the
vital force of, 103.
Jesuits, the, their thoughts dwell
on the Mississippi, 6 ; La Salle's
connection with, 8; La Salle
parts with, 9 ; influence exer-
cised by, 16; want no help
from the Sulpitians, 27; a
change of spirit, 36, 37; their
best hopes in the North and
West, 37; on the Lakes, 37;
labor to explore the copper
mines of Lake Superior, 38; a
mixture of fanaticism, 38;
claimed a monopoly of conver-
sion, 38 ; make a map of Lake
Superior, 38 ; the missionary
stations, 46; trading with the
Indians, 47 ; doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception a favor-
ite tenet of, 61 ; greatly op-
posed to the .establishment of
forts and trading-posts in the
upper country, 88; opposition
to Frontenac and La Salle,
102 ; Frontenac's hatred of, 102 ;
turn their eyes towards the Val-
ley of the Mississippi, 103; no
longer supreme in Canada, 104 ;
La Salle their most dangerous
rival for the control of the
West, 104 ; masters at Quebec,
108; accused of selling brandy
to the Indians, 109; accused
of carrying on a fur-trade, 109,
110; comparison between the
Recollets and Sulpitians and,
112; seek to establish a mo-
nopoly in the fur-trade, 114;
intrigues against La Salle, 115;
seek to embroil the Iroquois
with the French, 115; excul-
pated by La Salle from the at-
tempt to poison him, 116; in-
duce men to desert from La
Salle, 118; have a mission
among the Mohawks, 118; plan
against La Salle, 459; maps
made by, 478.
Jesus, Order of, 37.
Jesus, Society of, see Society of
Jesus.
Jogues, Father Isaac, preaches
among the Indians, 5, 59.
Joliet, Louis, destined to hold a
conspicuous place in history of
western discovery, 23; early
life of, 23 ; sent to discover the
copper mines of Lake Superior,
23, 58 ; his failure, 23 ; meeting
with La Salle and the Sulpitians,
23 ; passage through the Strait
of Detroit, 27 ; makes maps of
the region of the Mississippi
and the Great Lakes, 32 ; claims
the discovery of the Mississippi,
33; Frontenac speaks slight-
ingly of, 34; at Saut Ste. Marie,
51 ; sent by Talon to discover
the Mississippi, 56 ; early his-
tory of, 57 ; characteristics of,
58 ; Shea first to discover history
of, 58; Ferland, Faillon, and
Margry throw much light on
the life of, 58 ; Marquette
chosen to accompany him on his
search for the Mississippi, 59;
the departure, 60; the Missis-
sippi at last, 64 ; on the Missis-
sippi, 65 ; meeting with the
Illinois, 66 ; at the mouth
of the Missouri, 69 ; on the
lower Mississippi, 71 ; among
the Arkansas Indians, 72 ; deter-
mines that the Mississippi dis-
charges into the Gulf of Mexico,
74 ; resolves to return to Can-
ada, 74 ; serious accident to, 75 ;
letter to Frontenac, 76 ; smaller
map of his discoveries, 76 ; mar-
505
riage to Claire Bissot, 76 ; jour-
ney to Hudson's Bay, 76 ; the
English hold out great induce-
ments to, 76 ; receives grants
of land, 76 ; engages in fisheries,
76 ; makes a chart of the St.
Lawrence, 77 ; Sir William
Phips makes a descent on the
establishment of, 77 ; explores
the coast of Labrador, 77 ; made
royal pilot for the St. Lawrence
by Frontenac, 77 ; appointed
hydrographer at Quebec, 77 ;
death of, 77; said to bean im-
postor, 118; refused permission
to plant a trading station in the
Valley of the Mississippi, 126 ;
477 ; maps made by, 479, 480,
481, 482.
Joliet, town of, 193.
" Joly," the vessel, 353, 366, 367,
372, 373, 374, 375, 377, 381, 383,
385.
Jolycoeur (Nicolas Perrot), 116.
Joutel, Henri, 69, 314, 363, 367,
368, 372, 374, 375, 377, 379, 380,
382, 388, 389, 392, 393, 395, 396,
397, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 406,
407, 409, 410, 411, 416, 417, 418,
419,420, 421, 422, 428 ; sketches
the portrait of La Salle, 430 ; the
assassination of La Salle, 432,
433 ; danger of, 436 ; friendship
of L'Archeveque for, 436 ; doubt
and anxiety, 437, 438 ; among
the Cenis Indians, 440-445 ;
plans to escape, 445-447 ; the
murder of Duhaut, 448, 449;
sets out for home, 450 ; his party,
451 ; among the Assonis, 451-
453 ; arrival at the Arkansas,
453 ; friendly reception, 455 ;
descends the Arkansas, 456 ; on
the Illinois, 457; at Fort St.
Louis of the Illinois, 457 ; visit to
Father Allouez, 459; reaches
Montreal, 462 ; embarks for
France, 462 ; character of, 462.
KAHOKIAS, the, 223.
Kalm, 244.
Kamalastigouia, 275.
Kankakee, the sources of, 167;
204, 288, 316.
Kansa (Kanzas), the, 478.
Kanzas, the, 478.
Kappa band, the, of the Arkansas,
299.
" Kaskaskia," lUinois village of,
74; the mission at, 79.
Kaskaskias, the, 223, 477.
Kiakiki River, the, 167.
Kickapoos, the, location of 43,
join the Mascoutins and Miamis,
62; murder Father Ribourde,
233.
Kilatica, the, join La Salle's
colony, 316.
King Philip's War, 285.
Kingston, 87, 90.
Kious (Sioux), the, 307.
Kiskakon Ottawas, the, 81, 237.
Knisteneaux, the, at the Jesuit
mission of St. Esprit, 40.
Koroas, the, 308.
LA BARRE, Le Febvre de, 182;
succeeds Frontenac as governor,
318; weakness and avarice of,
318 ; royal instructions to, 319 ;
letters from La Salle, 319-322;
defames La Salle to Seignelay,
322-324 ; plots against La Salle,
325 ; takes possession of Fort
Frontenac and Fort St. Louis,
325-327 ; ordered by the King
to make restitution, 351, 482.
Labrador, coasts of, 58; explored
by Joliet, 77.
La Chapelle, 193 ; takes false
506
INDEX.
reports of La Salle to Fort
Creveco3ur, 217.
La Chesnaye, 102, 326.
La Chine, the seigniory of La
Salle at, 12 ; La Salle lays the
rude beginnings of a settlement
at, 13; La Salle and the Sul-
pitians set out from, 19; origin
of the name, 29, 88, 486.
La Chine Rapids, the, 75.
La Crosse, Indian game of, 50.
La Divine River, the (Des Plaines
River), 477, 481.
La Forest, La Salle's lieutenant,
101, 143, 203, 204, 208, 215, 236,
286, 287, 292, 326, 333, 351, 352,
467, 485.
La Forge, 147, 218.
La Harpe, 255.
La Hontan, 145, 153 ; loss of the
"Griffin," 182, 275, 276, 485,
486.
Lakes, Upper, 24, 27; Galin£e,
makes the earliest map of, 28,
38 ; Jesuit missions on, 39 ;
Marquette on, 59, 85; Fron-
tenac's plan to command, 96 ;
first vessel on, 145 ; La Salle on,
151-163.
Lalemant, 139.
La Metairie, Jacques de, 308.
La Motte, see Lussiere, La Motte
de.
Lanquetot, see Liotot.
Laon, 59.
La Pointe, Jesuit mission of St.
Esprit at, 40.
La Pother ie, 49 ; reception of
Saint-Lusson by the Miamis,
50 ; Henri de Tonty's iron hand,
129; loss of the "Griffin," 182;
the Iroquois attack on the Illi-
nois, 235.
L'Archeveque, 421, 425; murders
Moranget, Saget, and Nika, 426 ;
the assassination of La Salle,
429 ; friendship for Joutel, 436 ;
danger of, 449, 470, 471 ; sent to
Spain, 472.
La Sablonniere, Marquis de, 380,
388, 407, 409, 418.
La Salle, Sieur de, birth of, 7 ;
origin of his name, 7; connec-
tion with the Jesuits, 8 ; charac-
teristics of, 9; parts with the
Jesuits, 9 ; sails for Canada,
10; at Montreal, 10; schemes
of, 11; his seigniory at La
Chine, 12; begins to study
Indian languages, 14 ; plans of
discovery, 14, 15 ; sells his
seigniory, 16; joins his expe-
dition to that of the seminary
priests, 17; sets out from La
Chine, 19; journey of, 19, 20;
hospitality of the Senecas, 21 ;
fears for his safety, 22 ; meeting
with Joliet, 23 ; belles paroles of,
25; parts with the Sulpitians,
25 ; obscurity of his subsequent
work, 28 ; goes to Onondaga,
29 ; deserted by his men, 30 ;
meeting with Perrot, 30; re-
ported movements of, 31 ; Talon
claims to have sent him to ex-
plore, 31 ; affirms that he dis-
covered the Ohio, 32 ; discovery
of the Mississippi, 33; discov-
ered the Illinois River, 35 ; pays
the expenses of his expeditions,
49; in great need of money,
49; borrows merchandise from
the Seminary, 49 ; contrasted
with Marquette, 83 ; called a
visionary, 83 ; projects of, 84 ;
Frontenac favorably disposed
towards, 85 ; faculty for manag-
ing the Indians, 89; at Mont-
real, 97 ; champions Frontenac,
99 ; goes to France, 99 ; recon*
INDEX.
507
mended to Colbert by Fronte-
nae, 99 ; petitions for a patent
of nobility and a grant of Fort
Frmtenac, 100; his petition
granted, 100; returns to Canada,
101 ; oppressed by the mer-
chints of Canada, 101 ; Le Ber
becomes the bitter enemy of,
101 ; aims at the control of the
valleys of the Ohio and the Mis-
sissippi, 102; opposed by the
Je -suits, 102; the most danger-
ous rival of the Jesuits for the
coatrol of the West, 104; the
Piince de Conti the patron of,
106; the Abbe Renaudot's me-
moir of, 106, 107 ; account of,
107; not well inclined towards
the Recollets, 108 ; plots against,
113; caused no little annoyance
by his brother, 114 ; Jesuit in-
trigues against, 115; attempt to
poison, 116; exculpates the
J( suits, 116 ; letter to the Prince
de Conti, 118 ; the Jesuits induce
men to desert from, 118; de-
famed to Colbert, 119; at Fort
Frontenac, 120; sails again for
France, 122 ; his memorial laid
bofore Colbert, 122 ; urges the
planting of colonies in the West,
123 ; receives a patent from
Louis XIV., 124; forbidden to
trade with the Ottawas, 125;
given the monopoly of buffalo-
hides, 126 ; makes plans to carry
out his designs, 126; assistance
received from his friends, 127 ;
invaluable aid received from
Henri de Tonty, 127 ; joined by
I, a Motte de Lussiere, 129; sails
for Canada, 129 ; makes a league
vith the Canadian merchants,
129; met by Father Hennepin
on his return to Canada, 130;
joined by Father Hennepin, 131 ;
relations with Father Hennepin,
134, 135 ; sets out to join La
Motte, 141 ; almost wrecked,
142 ; treachery of his pilot, 142 ;
pacifies the Seuecas, 142 ; de-
layed by jealousies, 143 ; re-
turns to Fort Frouteuac, 143;
unfortunate in the choice of sub-
ordinates, 143 ; builds a vessel
above the Niagara cataract, 144 ;
jealousy and discontent, 147 ;
lays foundation for blockhouses
at Niagara, 148 ; the launch of
the " Griffin," 149 ; his property
attached by his creditors, 150;
on Lake Huron, 152 ; commends
his great enterprise to St. An-
thony of Padua, 152; at St.
Ignace of Michilimackiuac, 153 ;
rivals and enemies, 154; on
Lake Michigan, 155; at Green
Bay, 155 ; finds the Pottawat-
tamies friendly, 155; sends the
" Griffin " back to Niagara laden
with furs, 156; trades with the
Ottawas, 156; hardships, 158;
encounter with the Outagamies,
160, 161 ; rejoined by Tonty,
1 62 ; forebodings concerning the
" Griffin," 163 ; on the St. Joseph,
164; lost in the forest, 165 ; on
the Illinois, 166; Duplessis at-
tempts to murder, 166; the
Illinois town, 169, 170; hun-
ger relieved, 171 ; Illinois
hospitality, 173 ; still followed
by the intrigues of his enemies,
175; harangues the Indians,
177 ; deserted by his men,
1 78 ; another attempt to poison,
178 ; builds Fort Crevecreur,
180 ; loss of the " Griffin," 181 ;
anxieties of, 1 83 ; a happy artifice,
184; builds another vessel, 185 ;
508
INDEX.
sends Hennepin to the Missis-
sippi, 185 ; parting with Tonty,
188; hardihood of, 189-201*;
his winter journey to Fort
Frontenac, 189; the deserted
town of the Illinois, 191 ; meet-
ing with Chief Chassagoac, 192 ;
"Starved Rock," 192; Lake
Michigan, 193; the wilderness,
193, 194; Indian alarms, 195;
reaches Niagara, 197 ; man and
nature in arms against, 198 ;
mutineers at Fort Crevecoeur,
199 ; chastisement of the muti-
neers, 201 ; strength in the face of
adversity, 202 ; his best hope in
Tonty, 202 ; sets out to succor
Tonty, 203; kills buffalo, 205;
a night of horror, 207 ; fears for
Tonty, 209 ; finds the ruins of
Fort Crevecoeur, 211 ; beholds
the Mississippi, 212; beholds
the "Great Comet of 1680,"
213 ; returns to Fort Miami, 215 ;
jealousy of the Iroquois of, 219 ;
238 ; route of, 276 ; Margry
brings to light the letters of,
281 ; begins anew, 283 ; plans
for a defensive league, 284 ;
Indian friends, 285 ; hears good
news of Tonty, 287; Illinois
allies, 287 ; calls the Indians to
a grand council, 289 ; his power
of oratory, 289 ; his harangue,
289; the reply of the chiefs,
291; finds Tonty, 292; parts
with a portion of his monopolies,
293 ; at Toronto, 293 ; reaches
Lake Huron, 294; at Fort
Miami, 294 ; on the Mississippi,
297 ; among the Arkansas In-
dians, 299 ; takes formal posses-
sion of the Arkansas country,
300 ; visited by the chief of the
Taensas, 302 ; visits the Coroas,
305 ; hostility, 305 ; the mouth of
the Mississippi, 306 ; takes pos-
session of the Great West for
France, 306 ; bestows the name
of " Louisiana " on the new
domain, 309; attacked by the
Quinipissas, 310; revisits the
Coroas, 310; seized by a dan-
gerous illness, 310; rejoins
Tonty at Michilimackinac, 311;
his projected colony on the
banks of the Illinois, 313 ; in-
trenches himself at " Starved
Rock," 313 ; gathers his Indian
allies at Fort St. Louis, 315;
his colony on the Illinois, 316;
success of his colony, 318;
letters to La Barre, 319-
322; defamed by La Barre to
Seignelay, 322-324; La Barre
plots against, 325 ; La Barre
takes possession of Fort Fronte-
nac and Fort St. Louis, 325-
327 ; sails for France, 327 ;
painted by himself, 328-342;
difficulty of knowing him, 328 ;
his detractors, 329 ; his letters,
329-331 ; vexations of his posi-
tion, 331 ;his unfitness for trade,
332 ; risks of correspondence,
332 ; his reported marriage,
334 ; alleged ostentation, 335 ;
motives of actions, 335 ; charges
of harshness, 336 ; intrigues
against him, 337 ; unpopular
manners, 337, 338 ; a strange
confession, 339; his strength
and his weakness, 340, 341 ; con-
trasts of his character, 341, 342 ;
at court, 343 ; received by the
King, 344 ; new proposals of,
345-347 ; small knowledge of
Mexican geography, 348 ; plans
of, 349 ; his petitions granted,
350; Forts Frontenac and St.
INDEX.
509
Louis restored by the King
to, 351 ; preparations for his
new enterprise, 353 ; divides his
command with Beaujeu, 353 ;
lack of harmony between Beau-
jeu and, 354-361 ; indiscretion
of, 361 ; overwrought brain of,
362 ; farewell to his mother,
364; sails from Kochelle, 366;
disputes with Beaujeu, 366 ;
the voyage, 368 ; his illness, 368 ;
Beaujeu's complaints of, 370;
resumes his journey, 372 ; enters
the Gulf of Mexico, 373 ; wait-
ing for Beaujeu, 374; coasts
the shores of Texas, 374 ; meet-
ing with Beaujeu, 375 ; per-
plexity of, 375-377 ; lands in
Texas, 379 ; attacked by the
Indians, 380,- wreck of the
"Aimable," 381 ; forlorn po-
sition of, 383 ; Indian neighbors,
384; Beaujeu makes friendly
advances to, 385 ; departure of
Beaujeu, 387 ; at Matagorda
Bay, 391 ; misery and dejection,
393; the new Fort St. Louis,
394 ; explorations of, 395 ; adven-
tures of, 402; again falls ill,
404 ; departure for Canada,
405; wreck of the "Belle,"
407 ; Maxime Le Clerc makes
charges against, 410 ; Duhaut
plots against, 410 ; return to
Fort St. Louis, 411 ; account
of his adventures, 411-413;
among the Cenis Indians, 413;
attacked with hernia, 417;
Twelfth Night at Fort St. Louis,
417; his last farewell, 418; fol-
lowers of, 420 ; prairie travelling,
423 ; Liotot swears vengeance
against, 424 ; the murder of
Moranget, Saget, and Nika,
426 ; his premonition of disaster,
428 ; murdered by Duhaut, 429 ;
character of, 430; his enthu-
siasm compared with that of
Champlaiu, 431 ; his defects,
431 ; America owes him an en-
during memory, 432 ; the mar-
vels of his patient fortitude,
432 ; evidences of his assassina-
tion, 432 ; undeniable rigor of
his command, 433 ; locality of his
assassination, 434; his debts,
434 ; Tonty's plan to assist, 453-
455 ; fear of Father Allouez
for, 459 ; Jesuit plans against,
459, 477, 479, 480, 481, 482, 483,
484, 485, 486.
LaSalle, village of, 146, 167.
La Taupine (Pierre Moreau), 78.
LaTortue, 367.
Launay, De, 453, 455.
Laurent, 199,218.
Lavaca River, the, 392, 395, 396.
La Vache River, the, 392.
Laval-Montmorency, Francois
Xavier de, first bishop of Que-
bec, 110 ; accused of harshness
and intolerance, 110; encour-
ages the establishment of the
association of the Sainte Famille,
111.
La Violette, 187.
La Voisin, burned alive at Paris,
179.
Le Baillif, M, 34.
Le Ber, Jacques, 97 ; becomes La
Salle's bitter enemy, 101, 326.
Leblanc, 193 ; takes false reports
of La Salle to Fort Crevecoeur,
217,218.
Le Clerc, Father Chretien, 169,
175, 192, 1.98, 217, 234, 238; his
account of the Re'collet missions
among the Indians, 246 ; Henne-
pin steals passages from, 247 ;
character of Du Lhut, 276 j
510
INDEX.
energy of La Salle, 292, 296;
Louis XIV. becomes the sov-
ereign of the Great West, 308 ;
misery and dejection at Mata-
gorda Bay, 393, 403, 406, 413,
414, 415,416, 417.
Le Clerc, Maxime, joins La Salle's
new enterprise, 353 ; in Texas,
400; adventure with a boar,
410; makes charges against La
Salle, 410, 418.
Le Fevre, Father, 131.
Le Gros, Simon, 388, 394, 398.
Le Meilleur, 218.
Le Moyne, 102.
Lenox, Mr., the Journal of Mar-
quette, 75 ; death of Marquette,
81; 169.
Leon, Alonzo de, 469, 471.
Le Petit, customs of the Natchez,
304.
L'Espe'rance, 216, 218, 223.
Le Sueur, map made by, 225,
485.
Le Tardieu, Charles, 99.
Lewiston, mountain ridge of, 138,
143; rapids at, 144.
Uotot, La Salle's surgeon, 420;
swears vengeance against La
Salle, 424, 425 ; murders Mo-
ranget, Saget, and Nika, 426;
the assassination of La Salle,
429, 430; resolves to return to
Fort St. Louis, 446 ; quarrels
with Hiens, 446; murder of,
449.
•ong Point, 25; the Sulpitians
spend the winter at, 25.
"Long River, "the, 485.
Long Saut, the, 89.
Louis XIV., of France, 26, 52,
115; grants a patent to La
Salle, 124; orders the arrest of
Hennepin, 282 ; proclaimed by
La Salle the sovereign of the
Great West, 306; receives La
Salle, 344 ; irritated against the
Spaniards, 344 ; grants La Salle's
petitions, 350; abandons the
colonists, 463 ; Cavelier's me-
morial to, 463.
Louisiana, country of, 307 ; name
bestowed by La Salle, 309 ; vast
extent of, 309 ; boundaries of,
309; Iberville the founder of,
455, 483, 484, 485, 489.
Louisville, 29, 32.
Louvigny, Sieur de, 274, 349.
"Lover's leap," the, 271.
Loyola, Disciples of, losing ground
in Canada, 104.
Lussiere, La Motte de, joins La
Salle, 129, 132; embarks on the
journey, 137 ; reaches the Ni-
agara, 138 ; begins to build forti-
fications, 140; jealousy of the
Senecas, 1 40 ; seeks to conciliate
the Senecas, 140, 141 ; fidelity to
La Salle doubtful, 143.
MACHAUT-ROUGEMONT, 365.
Mackinaw, La Salle at, 325.
Mackinaw, Island of, 153.
Macopins, Riviere des (Illinois
River), 167, 483.
Madeira, 366.
Maha (Omahas), the, 478-
"Maiden's Rock," the, 271.
" Malheurs, La Riviere des," 402.
Malhoumines, the, 61.
Malouminek, the, 61.
Manabozho, the Algonquin deity,
267.
Mance, Mile., 112.
Mandans, the, winter lodges of,
442.
Manitoulin Island, Mission of, 41 ;
assigned to Andre, 41.
Manitoulin Islands, Saint-Lusson
winters at, 50; Saint Lusson
INDEX.
511
takes possession for France of,
52; 153,203.
Manitoulins, the, 27.
Manitoumie (Mississippi Valley),
485.
Manitous, 26, 44, 68.
Maps, Champlain's map (the first)
of the Great Lakes, 476 ; Coro-
nelli's map, 221, 484; manu-
script map of Franquelin, 169,
221,316, 317, 347,390, 481, 482,
483, 484, 485 ; map of Galinee,
475; map of Lake Superior,
476 ; map of the Great Lakes,
476 ; map of Marquette, 477 ;
maps of the Jesuits, 478 ; small
maps of Joliet, 479, 480 ; Rau-
din's map, 481 ; rude map of
Father Raffeix, 481; Fran-
quelin's map of Louisiana, 482 ;
the great map of Franquelin,
482; map of Le Sueur, 481,
485 ; map of Homannus, 484.
Margry, birth of La Salle, 7 ; La
Salle's connection with the Jesu-
its, 8; La Salle sells his sei-
gniory, 16 ; La Salle's claims to
the discovery of the Mississippi,
34, 35 ; throws much light on
the life of Joliet, 58, 77; La
Salle's marriage prevented by
his brother, 114; La Salle at
Fort Frontenac, 121 ; assistance
given to La Salle, 127; Henri
de Tonty, 128, 130, 132; La
Motte at Niagara, 140; La
Salle pacifies the Senecas, 142 ;
La Salle at Niagara, 148; La
Salle attached by his creditors,
150; the names of the Illinois,
167 ; intrigues against La Salle,
175; brings to light the letters
of La Salle, 281, 296, 342;
letters of Beaujeu to Seignelay
and to Cabart de Villermont,
365; La Salle's disputes with
Beaujeu, 366; illness of La
Salle, 368 ; La Salle resumes his
voyage, 372 ; La Salle lands in
Texas, 379; Beaujeu makes
friendly advances to La Salle,
386, 387 ; misery and dejection
at Matagorda Bay, 393 ; life at
Fort St. Louis, 400 ; the murder
of Puhaut and Liotot, 449;
Allouez's fear of La Salle, 459.
Marie, Sieur de, 421 ; murders
Moranget, 427 ; sets out for
home, 451 ; drowned, 453.
Maroas, the, 477.
Marquette, Jacques, the Jesuit, at
Ste. Marie du Saut, 27 ; voyage
of, 32 ; discovery of the Missis-
sippi, 33 ; among the Hurons
and the Ottawas, 40; at the
Jesuit mission of St. Esprit, 40 ;
the mission of Michilimackinac
assigned to, 41 ; 51 ; chosen to
accompany Joliet in his search
for the Mississippi, 59 ; early life
of, 59 ; on the Upper Lakes, 59 ;
great talents as a linguist, 59 ;
traits of character, 59; journal
of his voyage to the Mississippi,
60 ; especially devoted to the
doctrine of the Immaculate Con-
ception, 61 ; at the Green Bay
Mission, 62; among the Mas-
coutins and Miamis, 62 ; on the
Wisconsin River, 63 ; the Mis-
sissippi at last, 64 ; on the Mis-
sissippi, 65 ; map drawn by, 65 ;
meeting with the Illinois, 66;
affrighted by the Indian mani-
tous, 68; at the mouth of the
Missouri, 69 ; on the lower Mis-
sissippi, 71 ; among the Arkan-
sas Indians, 72 ; determines that
the Mississippi discharges into
the Gulf of Mexico, 74 ; resolves
512
INDEX.
to return to Canada, 74 ; illness
of, 74 ; remains at Green Bay,
75 ; journal of, 75 ; true map
of, 75 ; sets out to found the
mission of the Immaculate Con-
ception, 77 ; gives the name of
"Immaculate Conception" to
the Mississippi, 77 ; on the Chi-
cago Kiver, 78; return of his
illness, 78; founds the mission
at the village " Kaskaskia," 79 ;
peaceful death of, 80 ; burial of,
81 ; his bones removed to St.
Ignace of Michilimackinac, 81 ;
miracle at the burial of, 81 ;
tradition of the death of, 82;
contrasted with La Salle, 83 ;
169, 223 ; route of, 276 ; pictured
rock of, 457; maps made by,
477, 478, 480, 481.
Marshall, 0. H., 140, 146.
Martin, 75; death of Marquette,
81.
Martin, Father Felix, connection
of La Salle with the Jesuits, 8.
Martinique, 385, 386, 387.
Mascoutins, the, location of, 43;
Fathers Allouez and Dablon
among, 44 ; joined by the Kick-
apoos, 62; visited by Mar-
quette, 62; La Salle falls in
with, 195.
Matagorda Bay, 376, 379, 383, 391,
471. See also St. Louis, Bay
of-
Matagorda Island, 375, 379.
Mather, Increase, 213.
Mazarin, Cardinal, 129.
Meddewakantonwan, the, 260.
Medrano, Sebastian Fernandez de,
244.
Membre', Father Zenobe, 150, 155,
169, 185, 191, 192, 198, 201, 204,
216 ; the mutineers at Fort
Crevecosur, 217, 218; intrigues
of La Salle's enemies, 220, 223,
224 ; the Iroquois attack on the
Illinois, village, 225, 227, 230,
231, 233; the Iroquois attack
on the dead, 234 ; 238 ; his jour-
nal on his descent of the Mis-
sissippi with La Salle, 246 ;
Hennepin steals passages from,
247 ; meeting with La Salle,
292 ; sets out from Fort Miami,
296; among the Arkansas In-
dians, 299; visits the Taensas,
301 ; attends La Salle during
his illness, 311 ; joins La Salle's
new enterprise, 353 ; on the
"Joly," 372; in Texas, 388;
adventure with a buffalo, 409,
417,418; fate of, 470.
Menard, the Jesuit, attempts to
plant a mission on southern
shore of Lake Superior, 6.
Menomonie River, the, 61.
Menomonies, the, at the Jesuit
mission of St. Esprit, 40 ; loca-
tion of, 42 ; at Saut Ste. Marie,
51 ; village of, 61.
" Mer Douce des Hurons " (Lake
Huron), 476.
" Mer du Nord," the, 480.
"Messasipi" (Mississippi River),
the, 480.
Messier, 199, 218.
" Messipi " River, the, 6.
Meules, De, the Intendant of
Canada, 319, 351.
Mexico, 5, 6, 32, 117, 125, 126,
129, 346, 348 ; Spaniards in, 349 ;
464, 480.
Mexico, Gulf of, 31, 32, 38, 48, 63,
70, 74, 84, 245, 306, 309, 311,
312, 344, 345, 358, 371, 373, 394 ;
claimed by Spain, 468, 471, 477,
478, 479, 481, 482, 483.
Mexican mines, the, 349.
Miami, Fort, 162, 163; La Sallb
INDEX.
513
returns to, 215, 283, 284, 286,
288, 292, 294,296,311.
Miami Biver, the, 32.
Miamis, the, location of, 43, 44;
Fathers Allouez and Dablon
among, 44; receive Saint-Lus-
son, 50 ; authority and state of
the chief of, 50 ; joined by the
Kickapoos, 62 ; visited by Mar-
quette, 62 ; join the Iroquois
against the Illinois, 220 ; rank-
ling jealousy between the Illi-
nois and, 220; 223, 251, 286;
village of, 288; called by La
Salle to a grand council, 289 ;
at Buffalo Rock, 314 ; join La
Salle's colony, 316 ; afraid of the
Iroquois, 320.
Miamis, Le Fort des (Buffalo
Rock), 314.
Miamis River (St. Joseph), 162.
Michigan, shores of, 31 ; forest
wastes of, 153; peninsula of,
475, 476, 483, 484.
Michigan, Lake, 4, 31 ; the
Jesuits on, 37 ; the name of,
42; 61, 75, 77, 132; La Salle
on, 155, 162, 193, 236, 309, 475,
477, 479.
Michilimackinac, mission of, 41 ; as-
signed toMarquette,41,279,311.
Michilimackinac, Straits of, 31, 41,
42, 59, 61, 80, 110, 197, 203, 236,
288, 292.
Migeon, 150.
Mignan, islands of, granted to
Joliet, 76.
Mille Lac, 257, 265, 277.
Milot, Jean, 16.
Milwaukee, 159.
Minet, La Salle's engineer, 373,
378, 379, 383, 387, 390.
Minneapolis, city of, 267.
Minong, Isle, 38.
"Miskous" (Wisconsin), the, 480. ,
Missions, early, decline in the
religious exaltation of, 103.
Mississaquenk, 54.
Mississippi River, the, discovered
by the Spaniards, 3; De Soto
buried in, 3 ; Jean Nicollet
reaches, 3 ; Colonel Wood
reaches, 5; Captain Bolton
reaches, 5 ; Radisson and Des
Groseilliers reach, 5; the
thoughts of the Jesuits dwell
on, 6; speculations concerning,
6; 30, 31 ; Joliet makes a map
of the region of, 32; 45, 46;
Talon resolves to find, 56 ; Joliet
selected to find, 56; Marquette
chosen to accompany Joliet, 59 ;
the discovery by Joliet and
Marquette, 64; its outlet into
the Gulf of Mexico determined
by Joliet and Marquette, 74 ;
Marquette gives the name of
"Immaculate Conception" to,
77 ; La Salle's plans to control,
84 ; Hennepin sent to, 1 85 ; La
Salle beholds, 212; claims of
Hennepin to the discovery of,
243; Membre's journal on his
descent of, 246; La Salle on,
297, 307, 310, 311, 312, 345, 346,
352, 371, 373, 374, 376, 389, 390,
391, 403, 404, 405, 457, 459, 466 ;
early unpublished maps of, 475-
486.*
Mississippi, Valley of the, La
Salle aims at the control of,
102; the Jesuits turn their eyes
towards, 103; 479; various
names given to, 485.
Missouri River, the, 6 ; Joliet and
Marquette at the mouth of, 69,
297, 457, 477, 478, 479, 483, 489.
Missouris, the, 279, 320.
' Mitchigamea," village of, 72.
Mitchigamias, the, 308.
33
514
INDEX.
" Mitchiganong, Lac " (Lake
Michigan), 477.
Mobile Bay, 129, 385, 386, 387,
389, 481, 482, 483.
Mobile, city of, 309, 467.
Mohawk River, the, 483.
Mohawks, the, 91 ; Bruyas among,
115; Jesuit mission among,
118; Father Hennepin among,
135, 136, 483.
Mohegan Indians, the, 285, 295,
486.
Moingona, the, 223.
Moingouena (Peoria), 65.
Monso, the Mascoutin chief, plots
against La Salle, 174, 177, 192.
Monsonis, the, at Saut Ste. Marie,
51.
Moutagnais, the, 59.
Montezuma, 487.
Montreal, La Salle at, 10; the
most dangerous place in Can-
ada, 10; detailed plan of, 13;
Frontenac at, 87 ; Frontenac has
it well in hand, 96 ; Joutel and
Cavelier reach, 462, 475.
Montreal, Historical Society of,
17.
Moranget, La Salle's nephew,
379, 384, 385, 405, 412, 415, 420,
424 ; quarrel with Duhaut, 425 ;
murder of, 426, 433.
Moreau, Pierre, 78.
Morel, M., 360.
Morice, Marguerite, 7.
Motautees ( ? ) , the, 307.
Moyse, Maitre, 147, 217.
Mozeemlek, the, 486.
Mustang Island, 375.
NADODESSIOUS (Sioux), the, 307.
Nadouessioux, the country of, 307.
Natchez, the, village of, 303 ; dif-
fer from other Indians, 304 ;
customs of, 304, 308.
Natchez, city of, 304.
Neches River, the, 415, 470.
Neenah (Fox) River, the, 44.
Neutrals, the, exterminated by the
Iroquois, 219.
New Biscay, province of, 346, 348,
352, 383, 403.
New England, 5, 346.
New England Indians, the, 285.
New France, 483, 484, 485.
New Leon, province of, 468.
New Mexico, 5, 350; Spanish
colonists of, 414.
New Orleans, 484.
New York, the French in western,
19-23, 288, 484.
Niagara, name of, 139 ; the key
to the four great lakes above,
140, 197, 198, 279.
Niagara Falls, 23 ; Father Henne-
pin's account of, 139; Henne-
pin's exaggerations respecting,
248, 476.
Niagara, Fort, 129, 138, 148.
Niagara Portage, the, 144, 145.
Niagara River, the, 23, 96 ;
Father Hennepin 's account of,
139, 475.
Nicanope, 175, 177, 178, 192.
Nicollet, Jean, reaches the Mis-
sissippi, 3 ; among the Indians, 3 ;
sent to make peace between the
Winnebagoes and the Hurons, 4 ;
descends the Wisconsin, 5.
Nika, La Salle's favorite Shawanoe
hunter, 412, 421, 425; murder
of, 426.
Nipissing, Lake, 28.
Nipissiugs, the, Jean Nicollet
among, 3; Dollier de Casson
among, 16 ; Andre makes a mis-
sionary tour among, 41 ; at
Saut Ste. Marie, 51.
Noiseux, M., Grand Vicar of Quo-
bee, 82.
INDEX.
515
North Sea, the, 38.
Nueces, the upper, 469.
OAXKTAYHEE, principal deity of
the Sioux, 267.
O'Callaghan, Dr., 139.
Ohio River, the, 15, 20, 21, 22,
23, 24, 29, 32 ; La Salle affirms
that he discovered, 32 ; the
" Beautiful River," 70, 297, 307,
457, 477, 478, 479, 480, 483, 484.
Ohio, Valley of the, La Salle aims
at the control of, 102.
Ojibwas, the, at Ste. Marie du
Saut, 39.
Olighin (Alleghany) River, the,
307.
" Olighin " (Alleghany) River, the,
484.
Omahas, the, 478.
Omawha, Chief, 175.
Oneida Indians, the, 18, 91, 135.
Ongiara (Niagara), 139.
Onguiaahra (Niagara), 139.
Onis, Luis de, 373.
Onondaga, La Salle goes to, 29;
the political centre of the Iro-
quois, 87 ; Hennepin reaches, 135.
Onondaga Indians, the, 91 ; Bru-
yas among, 115.
" Onontio," the governor of Can-
ada, 54.
Ontario, Lake, 16; discovered, 20,
23, 58, 85, 87 ; Froutenac reaches,
89, 96, 99, 138, 135, 147, 200, 279,
475, 476, 479.
Ontonagan River, the, 39.
Orange, settlement of (Albany),
136.
Oris, 384.
Osages, the, 174 ; deep-rooted
jealousy of the Illinois for, 174,
184, 477.
* Osages, Riviere des" (Missouri),
70.
Osotouoy, the, 300.
Otinawatawa, 22, 23.
Ottawa, town of, 75, 169, 193.
Ottawa River, the, 27, 30, 462, 476.
Ottawas, the, 27; Marquette
among, 40; terrified by the
Sioux, 41 ; La Salle forbidden
to trade with, 125; La Salle
trades with, 156, 182.
" Ouabache" ( Wabash), River, the,
70, 297.
Ouabona, the, join La Salle's col-
ony, 316.
" Ouabouskiaou " (Ohio) River,
the, 70, 477.
" Ouaboustikou " (Ohio), the, 480.
Ouasicoude, principal chief of the
Sioux, 264; friendship for
Hennepin, 266, 277.
Ouchage (Osages), the, 477.
Ouiatnoens (Weas), the, join La
Salle's colony, 316.
Oumalouminek, the, 61.
Oumas, the, 305.
Oumessourit (Missouris), the,
478.
" Oumessourits, Riviere des"
(Missouri), 70.
Outagamies (Foxes), the, location
of, 43.
Outagamies, the, encounter with
La Salle, 160, 161, 287.
Outrelaise, Mademoiselle d', 167.
Outrelaise, the Riviere del', 167.
PACIFIC coast, the, 480.
Pacific Ocean, 84.
Paget, 366.
Pahoutet (Pah-Utahs ?), the, 478.
Pah-Utahs (?), the, 478.
Palluau, Count of, see Frontenac,
Count.
Palms, the River of, 307.
Paniassa (Pawnees), the, 478.
Panuco, Spanish town of, 350.
516
INDEX.
Paraguay, the old and the new,
102, 103, 104, 117.
Parassy, M. de, 356.
Patron, 274.
Paul, Dr. John, 317.
Pawnees, the, 478.
Peanqhichia (Piankishaw), the,
join La Salle's colony, 316.
" Pekitauou'i " River (Missouri),
the, 69, 477.
Pelee, Point, 26, 197.
Pelican Island, 379.
Peloquin, 150.
Pen, Sieur, obligations of La Salle
to, 434.
Penalossa, Count, 350.
Penicaut, customs of the Natchez,
304.
Pennsylvania, State of, 346.
Penobscot River, the, 483.
Pensacola, 472.
Peoria, city of, 34, 171.
Peoria Indians, the, villages of,
171, 223, 477.
Peoria Lake, 171, 190, 211, 296.
Peouaria (Peoria), 65.
Pepikokia, the, join La Salle's
colony, 316.
Pepin, 276.
Pepin Lake, 256, 271, 272.
Pere, 58.
Perrot, the cure, 98.
Perrot, Nicolas, meeting with La
Salle, 30; accompanies Saint-
Lusson in search of copper mines
on Lake Superior, 49 ; con-
spicuous among Canadian voy-
ageurs, 49; characteristics of,
50 ; marvellous account of the
authority and state of the Miami
chief, 50; at Saut Ste. Marie,
51 ; local governor of Montreal,
87 ; quarrel with Frontenac, 96 ;
arrested by Frontenac, 96 ; the
Abbe Fenelon attempts to medi-
ate between Frontenac and, 97 ;
attempts to poison La Salle, 116.
Peru, 350.
Petit Goave, 367, 372.
Philip, King, 288.
Philip II. of Spain, 373.
Phips, Sir William, makes a de-
scent on Joliet's establishment,
77.
Piankishaws, the, 223; join La
Salle's colony, 316.
"Picard, Le " (Du Gay), 186.
Pierre, companion of Marquette,
78, 80.
Pierron, the Jesuit, 115; among
the Seuecas, 115.
Pierson, the Jesuit, 279.
Pimitoui River, the, 171.
Platte, the, 207.
Plet, Fran9ois, 127, 293, 463.
Poisoning, the epoch of, 179.
Ponchartrain, the minister, 133,
276, 455, 467, 486, 489.
Pontiac, assassination of, 314.
Port de Paix, 367, 368.
Pottawattamies, the, in grievous
need of spiritual succor, 24 ; the
Sulpitians determine to visit,
24 ; at the Jesuit mission of St.
Esprit, 40 ; location of, 42, 50,
77; friendly to La Salle, 155,
182, 236, 237, 238 ; Tonty among,
287 ; at " Starved Rock," 314.
"Poualacs," the, 481.
Prairie du Chien, Fort, 64.
Prairie, Nation of the, 44.
Provence, 441 .
Prudhomme, Fort, 297 ; La Salle
ill at, 311.
Prudhomme, Pierre, 297, 298.
Puants, les (Winnebagoes), 42.
Puants,La Baye des (Green Bay),
31, 42.
INDEX.
517
QUAPAWS, the, 300.
Quebec, 15; the Jesuits masters
at, 108, 311, 460, 462, 482.
Queenstown Heights, 138.
Queylus, Superior of the Semi-
nary of St. Sulpice, 11, 16.
Quinipissas, the, 305 ; attack La
Salle, 310.
Quinte, Jesuit Mission at, 16.
Quinte, Bay of, 87, 142, 200.
RADISSON, Pierre Esprit, reaches
the Mississippi, 5.
Raffeix, Father Pierre, the Jesuit,
manuscript map of, 75 ; among
the Senecas, 141, 276, 481.
Raoul, 126.
Kasle, 170.
Raudin, Frontenac's engineer, 92,
167, 481.
Raymbault, , preaches among
the Indians, 5.
Recollet Missions, Le Clerc's ac-
count of, 246.
Recollets, the, La Salle not well
inclined to wards, 108 ; protected
by Frontenac, 109 ; comparison
between the Sulpitians and the
Jesuits and, 112, 218.
Red River, 305, 347, 348,451, 465,
466, 471, 484.
Renaudot, Abbe, memoir of La
Salle, 106, 107 ; assists La Salle,
127,133,339,360,361.
Renault, Etienne, 223, 237.
Rhode Island, State of, 288.
Ribourde, Gabriel, at Fort Fron-
tenac, 132, 137; alt Niagara,
150; at Fort Crevecoaur, 185,
187, 192, 216, 224, 229 ; murder
of, 233.
Riggs, Rev. Stephen R., divisions
of the Sioux, 261.
Rio Bravo, French colony pro-
posed at the mouth of, 350.
Rio Frio, the, 469.
Rio Grande River, the, 309, 376,
403, 465, 469.
Rios, Domingo Teran de los, 471.
Robertson, 103.
Rochefort, 352, 366, 393.
Rochelle, 129, 364, 393, 462.
"Rocher, Le," 314; Charlevoix
speaks of, 314.
Rochester, 140.
Rocky Mountains, the, 260, 308,
309.
Rouen, 7.
Royale, Isle, 38.
" Ruined Castles," the, 68, 457.
Rum River, 265.
Ruter, 445, 446, 447, 448; mur-
ders Liotot, 449, 470, 472.
SABINE RIVER, the, 415,451, 465.
Saco Indians, the, 227.
Sacs, the, location of, 43 ; at Saut
Ste. Marie, 51.
Sagean, Mathieu, the Eldorado of,
485-489 ; sketch of, 486 ; Saget,
La Salle's servant, 425 ; murder
of, 426.
Saguenay River, the, 76; Alba-
nel's journey up, 109.
St. Anthony, city of, 267.
St. Anthony, the falls of, 267 ;
Hennepin's notice of, 267, 478,
482.
St. Antoine Cape, 372.
St. Bernard's Bay, 394, 469.
St. Clair, Lake, 476.
St. Claire, Lake, 152.
St. Croix River, the, 277.
St. Domingo, 347, 350, 367, 370,
393, 418, 468.
St. Esprit, Bay of (Mobile Bay),
129, 386, 389, 481.
St. Esprit, Jesuit mission of, 40;
Indians at, 40.
St. Francis, Order of, 133.
518
INDEX.
St. Francis River, the, 265.
" St. Francois," the ketch, 368 ;
loss of, 369.
St. Fra^ois Xavier, council of
congregated tribes held at, 43.
St. Ignace, Point, 41, 59 ; Jesuit
chapel at, 82.
St. Ignace of Michilimackinac,
81; La Salle reaches, 153; in-
habitants of, 153.
" St. Joseph," the ship, 330.
St. Joseph, Lac (Lake Michigan),
155.
St. Joseph River, the, 44, 162,
163; La Salle on, 164; 203;
La Forest on, 236, 283, 288.
Saint-Laurent, Marquis de, 367,
368.
St. Lawrence River, the, 3, 12, 13,
15, 34, 63, 89, 122, 197, 198, 219,
475, 480, 481, 483, 489.
St. Louis, city of, 70.
St. Louis, Bay of (Matagorda
Bay), 376, 379, 394, 466, 468,
469, 471.
St. Louis, Castle of, 87.
St. Louis, Fort, of the Illinois,
241 ; location of, 314 ; La Salle's
Indian allies gather at, 315;
location of, 316; total number
of Indians around, 317; the
Indians protected at, 320; La
Barre takes possession of, 327 ;
attacked by the Iroquois, 327,
347 ; restored to La Salle by the
King, 351 ; Tonty returns to,
454 ; Joutel at, 457 ; condition
of, 458 ; Joutel's return to, 460 ;
Tonty leaves, 465 ; reoccupied
by the French, 468, 486.
St. Louis, Fort, of Texas, 394, 395 ;
life at, 397 ; La Salle returns to,
411, 415; Twelfth Night at.
417; Duhaut resolves to return
to, 446; abandoned by Louis
XIV., 463; the Spaniards at,
469 ; desolation of, 469.
St. Louis, Lake of, 13, 14, 19.
St. Louis, Rock of, see " Starved
Rock."
St. Louis River, the, 307, 484.
Saint-Lusson, Daumont de, sent
out by Talon to discover copper
mines on Lake Superior, 49 ;
winters at the Manitoulin Is-
lands, 50 ; received by the Mia-
mis, 50; at Saut Ste. Marie,
51 ; takes possession of the
"West for France, 52 ; proceeds
to Lake Superior, 56 ; returns
to Quebec, 56.
St. Malo, 5.
St. Paul, site of, 257.
St. Peter, the Valley of the, un-
provoked massacre by the Sioux
in, 254, 260.
St. Peter River, the, 486.
Saint-Simon, 343.
St. Simon, mission of, 41, 42.
St. Sulpice, Seminary of, 10 ; buys
back a part of La Salle's sei-
gniory, 16; plan an expedition
of discovery, 16.
Ste. Barbe, mines of, 348.
Sainte Claire, 152.
Sainte-Farnille, the, association of,
a sort of female inquisition, 111;
founded by Chaumonot, 111;
encouraged by Laval, 111.
Ste. Marie, Falls of, 155.
Ste. Marie du Saut, the Sulpi-
tians arrive at, 27 ; Jesuit mis-
sion at, 39 ; a noted fishing-
place, 39; Saint-Lusson takes
possession for France of, 52.
San Antonio, the, 469.
Sanson, map of, 139.
Santa Barbara, 348.
Sargent, Winthrop, 182.
Sassory tribe, the, 423.
INDEX.
519
Sauteurs, the, 39 ; the village of,
51.
Sauthouis, the, 300.
Saut Ste. Marie, the, 27 ; a noted
fishing-place, 42 ; gathering of
the tribes at, 51, 475.
Sauvolle, 489.
Schenectady, 483.
Schoolcraft, the Falls of St. An-
thony, 267.
Scioto River, the, 32.
Scortas, the Huron, 238.
Seignelay, Marquis de, memorials
presented to, 35, 120, 274, 342 ;
La Barre defames La Salle to,
322, 344; object of La Salle's
mission, 352 ; letters of Beau-
jeu to, 354-356; complaints of
Beanjeu, 370 ; complaint of
Minet, 378 ; receives Beaujeu
coldly, 389 ; Jesuit petitions to,
459; Cavelier's report to, 462,
463.
Seignelay River (Red River), the,
167, 347, 348, 484.
Seneca Indians, the, 14, 19, 20;
villages of, 21 ; their hospital-
ity to La Salle, 21 ; cruelty of,
22, 29, 91 ; Pierron among, 115 ;
village of, 138 ; jealous of La
Motte, 140 ; La Motte seeks to
conciliate, 140, 141 ; pacified by
La Salle, 142 ; the great town
of, 279 ; Denonville's attack on,
460.
Seneff, bloody fight of, 134.
Severn River, the, 203.
Sevigne, 343.
Sevigne', Madame de, letters of,
179.
Shawanoes, the, 23, 225, 285, 307 ;
join La Salle's colony, 316, 320.
Shea, J. G., first to discover the
history of Joliet, 58 ; the jour-
nal of Marquette, 75 ; death of
Marquette, 81, 82, 115; the
" Racines Agnieres " of Bruyas,
136 ; the veracity of Hennepin,
244; critical examination of
Hennepin's works, 247 ; Tonty
and La Barre, 454 ; story of
Mathieu Sagean, 486.
Silhouette, the minister, 34.
Simcoe, Lake, 203, 293.
Simon, St., memoirs of, 167.
Simonnet, 126.
Sioux Indians, the, 6 ; at the
Jesuit mission of St. Esprit, 40 ;
break into open war, 41 ; the
Jesuits trade with, 110, 182, 207,
228 ; capture Father Hennepfn,
245, 250; suspect Father Hen-
nepin of sorcery, 253 ; unpro-
voked massacres in the valley of
the St. Peter, 254; Hennepin
among, 259-282; divisions of,4
260 ; meaning of the word, 260 ;
total number of, 261 ; use of the
sweating-bath among, 263 ; Du
Lhut among, 276, 307, 480.
Sipou (Ohio) River, the, 307.
" Sleeping Bear," the, promon-
tory of, 81.
Smith, Buckingham, 471.
Society of Jesus, the, a powerful
attraction for La Salle, 8 ;, an
image of regulated power, 8.
Sokokis Indians, the, 227.
Soto, De, Hernando, see, De Soto,
Hernando.
South Bend, village of, 164.
Southey, the poet, 182.
South Sea, the, 6, 14, 38, 46, 52,
63, 70.
Spain, war declared against, 464 ;
claims the Gulf of Mexico, 468.
Spaniards, the, discover the Mis-
sissippi, 3 ; Talon's plans to
keep them in check, 48 ; Louis
XIV. irritated against, 344 ; in
520
INDEX.
Mexico, 349 ; at Fort St. Louis
of Texas, 469.
Spanish Inquisition, the, 350.
Spanish missions, the, 414, 471.
Sparks, exposes the plagiarism
of Hennepin, 247 ; 468.
'Starved Rock," 169; attracts
the attention of La Salle, 192 ;
Tonty sent to examine, 192, 205,
217, 221, 239 ; description of,
313; La Salle and Tonty in-
trench themselves at, 313 ; de-
scribed by Charlevoix, 314 ;
origin of the name, 314.
" Sturgeon Cove," 77.
Sulpice, St., 9.
Sulpitians, the, plan an expedition
of discovery, 16; join forces
with La Salle, 17 ; set out from
La Chine, 19; journey of, 19,
20 ; meeting with Joliet, 23 ;
determine to visit the Pottawat-
tamies, 24 ; La Salle parts with,
25 : spends the winter at Long
Point, 25 ; resume their voyage,
26 ; the storm, 26 ; decide to re-
turn to Montreal, 26; pass
through the Strait of Detroit,
26 ; arrive at Ste. Marie du Saut,
27 ; the Jesuits want no help
from, 27 ; comparison between
the Re'collets and, 112.
Superior, Lake, 5 ; Menard at-
tempts to plant a mission on
southern shore of, 6 ; Allouez
explores a part of, 6 ; Joliet
attempts to discover the copper
mines of, 23, 27 ; the Jesuits on,
37; the Jesuits make a map of,
38 ; Saint-Lusson sets out to
find the copper mines of, 49 ;
Saint-Lusson takes possession
for France of, 52, 273, 276, 475 ;
map of, 476, 477,479,481.
Susquehanna River, the, 483.
Sweating-baths, Indian, 262.
TABLE ROCK, 139.
Tadoussac, 59.
Taensas, the, great town of, 301 ;
visited by Membre and Tonty,
301 ; differ from other Indians,,
304.
Tahuglauk, the, 486.
Taiaiagon, Indian town of, 138.
Tailhaii, Father, 35, 49.
Talon, 15.
Talon, among the Texan colonists,
471.
Talon, Jean, Intendant of Canada,
sends Joliet to discover the cop-
per mines of Lake Superior, 23 ;
claims to have sent La Salle to
explore, 31 ; full of projects for
the colony, 48 ; his singular
economy of the King's purse,
48; sends Saint-Lusson to dis-
cover copper mines on Lake Su-
perior, 49 ; resolves to find the
Mississippi, 56 ; makes choice
of Joliet, 56 ; quarrels with
Courcelle, 56 ; returns to France,
57, 60, 109.
Talon, Jean Baptiste, 472.
Talon, Pierre, 472.
Tamaroas, the, 223, 235, 286, 297.
Tangibao, the, 305.
Tears, the Lake of, 256.
Tegahkouita, Catharine, the Iro-
quois saint, 275, 276.
" Teiocha-rontiong, Lac " (Lake
Erie), 476.
Teissier, a pilot, 407, 421,425,451,
458.
Tejas (Texas), 470.
Terliquiquimechi, the, 348.
Tetons, the, 260.
Texan colony, the, fate of, 464-*
473.
INDEX
521
Texan expedition, La Salle's, 391-
419, 434.
Texan Indians, the, 470.
Texas, fertile plains of, 308;
French in, 348 ; shores of, 374 ;
La Salle lands in, 379 ; applica-
tion of the name, 470, 483.
Theakiki, the, 167.
Thevenot, on the journal of Mar-
quette, 75 ; map made by, 478.
Third Chickasaw Bluffs, the,
297.
Thomassy, 115, 175, 296, 298,302,
308.
Thouret, 201, 238, 333, 342.
Thousand Islands, the, 89.
Three Kivers, 3, 86, 90.
Thunder Bay, 275.
Tilly, Sieur de, 99.
" Tiutons," the, 481.
Tintonwans, the, 260.
Tongengas, the, 300.
Tonty, Alphonse de, 467.
Tonty, Henri de, 127 ; renders as-
sistance to La Salle, 128; in
Canada, 129 ; La Motte at Niag-
ara, 140; sets out to join La
Motte, 141 ; almost wrecked,
142 ; at the Niagara Portage,
144-147; the building of the
"Griffin," 144-148; the launch,
149; 154,155; rejoins La Salle,
162; among the Illinois, 172;
the attempt to poison La Salle,
179 ; Hennepin sent to the Mis-
sissippi, 187 ; La Salle's parting
with, 1 88 ; sent to examine
" Starved Rock," 192; 194; de-
serted by his men, 199, 217 ; the
journey from Fort Crevecoeur,
201 ; La Salle's best hope in,
202; La Salle sets out to suc-
cor, 203 ; La Salle has fears for
the safety of, 209 ; sets out to
examine "Starved Rock," 217;
in the Illinois village, 223; at-
tacked by the Iroquois, 225 ;
intercedes for the Illinois, 228 ;
peril of, 229; a truce granted
to, 229 ; departs from the Iro*
quois, 233 ; falls ill, 236 ; friends
in need, 237; La Salle hears
good news of, 287 ; meeting with
La Salle, 292; sets out from
Fort Miami, 296; among the
Arkansas Indians, 300; visits
the Taensas, 301 ; illness of La
Salle, 310; sent to Michilimack-
inac, 311 ; intrenches himself
at " Starved Rock," 313 ; left in
charge of Fort St. Louis, 326,
334, 337; attempts to attack
the Spaniards of Mexico, 349,
355, 361, 421, 425; the assassi-
nation of La Salle, 430, 433;
the murder of Duhaut, 448 ;
among the Assonis, 452; plans
to assist La Salle, 453-455 ; his
journey, seeking news of La
Salle, 454, 455, 458; in the
Iroquois War, 460; Cavelier
conceals La Salle's death from,
461 ; learns, of La Salle's death,
464 ; revives La Salle's scheme
of Mexican invasion, 465 ; sets
out from Fort St. Louis of the
Illinois, 465 ; deserted by his
men, 465 ; courage of, 465 ; dif-
ficulties and hardships, 466;
attacked by fever, 467 ; misrep-
resented, 467; praises of, 467;
joins Iberville in Lower Louis-
iana, 467, 486.
Topingas, the, 300.
Torimans, the, 300.
Toronto, 27, 138.
Toronto Portage, the, 293.
Toulon, 463.
"Tracy, Lac" (Lake Superior),
476.
522
INDEX
Trinity River, the, 413, 424, 434,
439, 465.
Tronson, Abb6, 344, 463.
"Tsiketo, Lac" (Lake St. Clair),
220.
Turenne, 17.
Two Mountains, Lake of, 82.
UPPER LAKES, the, see Lakes,
Upper.
Ursulines, the, 95.
Utica, village of, 79, 169, 170, 220,
239.
VAUDREUIL, 276.
Vera Cruz, 468, 472.
Vermilion River, the, 221, 225,
226 See also Big Vermilion
River, the.
"Vermilion Sea" (Gulf of Cali-
fornia), the, 15, 38, 74, 480.
"Vermilion Woods," the, 241.
Verreau, H., 98.
Vicksburg, 300.
Victor, town of, 21, 140.
" Vieux, Fort Le," 314.
Villermont, Cabart de, letters of
Beaujeu to, 357-360; letter of
Tonty to, 454.
Virginia, 288, 346, 483.
"Virginia, Sea of," 6, 74,
Voltaire, 7.
WATTE AU, Melithon, 150.
Weas, the, join La Salle's colony,
316.
West Indies, the, 181, 404, 446, 489.
Wild Rice Indians (Menomonies),
the, 61.
William, Fort, 275.
William III. of England, 282.
Winnebago Lake, 43, 44, 62.
Winnebagoes, the, Jean Nicollet
sent to, 4; quarrel with the
Hurons, 4 ; location of, 42 ; at
Saut Ste. Marie, 51.
Winoiia, legend of, 271.
Winthrop, 213.
Wisconsin, shores of, 157.
Wisconsin River, the, 5, 63, 245,
265, 266, 272, 278, 477, 478, 480.
Wood, Colonel, reaches the Mis-
sissippi, 5.
YANKTONS, the, 260.
Yoakum, 470.
You, 210.
ZENOBE (Membra), Father, 181.
•
.••
• iKt
FC 305 .P25 v.3 SMC
Parkman, Francis,
1823-1893.
La Salle and the
discovery of the Great
AXG-7616 (mcsk)