History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634 Part 5

36.]

[Footnote 81: "The twenty-fourth day of June [1640], there arrived an Englishman, with a servant, brought in boats by twenty Abnaquiois savages. He set out from the lake or river Quinibequi in Acadia, where the English have a settlement, in order to search for a pa.s.sage through these countries to the North sea.... M. de Montmagny had him brought to Tadoussac, in order that he might return to England by way of France.

"He told us wonderful things of New Mexico. 'I learned,' said he, 'that one can sail to that country by means of the seas which lie to the north of it. Two years ago, I explored all the southern coast from Virginia to Quinebiqui to try whether I could not find some large river or some large lake which should bring me to tribes having knowledge of this sea, which is northward from Mexico. Not having found any such in these countries, I entered into the Saguene region, to penetrate, if I could, with the savages of the locality, as far as to the northern sea.'

"In pa.s.sing, I will say that we have strong indications that one can descend through the second lake of the Hurons [Lake Michigan and Green bay] and through the country of the nations we have named [as having been visited by Nicolet] into this sea which he [the Englishman] was trying to find."--Vimont, _Relation_, 1640, p. 35.]

[Footnote 82: Synonyms: Ilinois, Ilinoues, Illini, Illiniweck, Tilliniwek, Ilimouek, Liniouek, Abimigek, Eriniouaj, etc.]

[Footnote 83: Vimont (_Relation_, 1640, p. 35) gives information derived from Nicolet, of the existence of the Illinois (Eriniouaj) as neighbors of the Winnebagoes. And the _Relation_, 1656 (p. 39), says: "The Liniouek [Illinois], their neighbors [that is, the neighbors of the Winnebagoes], number about sixty villages." Champlain locates a tribe, on his map of 1632, south of the Mascoutins, as a "nation where there is a quant.i.ty of buffaloes." This nation was probably the Illinois.]

[Footnote 84: As Nicolet proceeded no further to the westward than six days' sail up the Fox river of Green bay, of course, the "Nadvesiv"

(Sioux) and "a.s.sinipour" (a.s.siniboins) were not visited by him.]

[Footnote 85: Synonyms: Pottawottamies, Poutouatamis, Pouteouatamis, Pouutouatami, Poux, Poueatamis, Pouteouatamiouec, etc.]

[Footnote 86: Such, at least, was their location a few years after the visit of Nicolet. The islands occupied were those farthest south.]

[Footnote 87: Vimont, _Relation_, 1640, p. 35. In the _Relation_ of 1643, it is expressly stated that Nicolet visited some of the tribes on his return voyage.]

[Footnote 88: Says Margry (_Journal General de l'Instruction Publique_, 1862): "Les peuples que le pere dit avoir ete pour la plupart visites par Nicolet sont les Malhominis ou Gens de la Folle Avoine [_Menomonees_], les Ouinipigous ou Puans [_Winnebagoes_], puis les Pouteouatami [_Pottawattamies_], les Eriniouaj (ou Illinois)," etc.]

[Footnote 89: It is highly probable that Nicolet commenced his return trip so soon, in the spring of 1635, as the warm weather had freed Green bay of its coat of ice. Leaving the Winnebagoes, as soon as navigation opened in the spring, he would have only about ten weeks to reach the St. Lawrence by the middle of July--the time, probably, of his return, as previously mentioned; whereas, having left Quebec July 2, for the west, he had about five months before navigation closed on the lakes, to arrive out. Sault Sainte Marie must, of necessity, therefore, have been visited in _going to_ the Winnebagoes.]

[Footnote 90: "To the south of the Nation of the Beaver is an island, in that fresh-water sea [Lake Huron], about thirty leagues in length, inhabited by the Outaouan [Ottawas]. These are a people come from the nation of the Standing Hair [Cheveux Releves]."--Vimont, _Relation_, 1640, p. 34. In William R. Smith's translation of so much of this _Relation_ as names the various tribes visited by Nicolet (Hist. Wis., Vol. III., p. 10), what relates to the Cheveux Releves is omitted--probably by accident. On a large island, corresponding as to locality with the Great Manitoulin, is placed, on Du Creux' Map of 1660, the "natio surrectorum capillorum"--identical with the Cheveux Releves, just mentioned.

The Ottawas were first visited by Champlain. This was in the year 1615.

They lived southwest of the Hurons. It was he who gave them the name Cheveux Releves--Standing Hair. Sagard saw some of them subsequently, and calls them Andatahonats. See his "Histoire du Canada," p. 199.

Although, in the citation from the _Relation_ of 1640, just given, the band of the Ottawas upon the Great Manitoulin are said to have "come from the nation of the Standing Hair," it does not fix the residence of those from whom they came as in the valley of the Ottawa river. On the contrary, Champlain, in his "Voyages" and Map, places them in an opposite direction, not far from the south end of the Nottawa.s.saga bay of Lake Huron. Says J. G. Shea (Wis. Hist. Soc. Coll., III., 135): "There is no trace in the early French writers of any opinion then entertained that they [the Ottawas] had ever been [resided] in the valley of the Ottawa river. After the fall of the Hurons [who were cut off by the Iroquois a number of years subsequent to Nicolet's visit], when trade was re-opened with the west, all tribes there were called Ottawas, and the river, as leading to the Ottawa country, got the name."]

[Footnote 91: As the traffic with the Hurons took place at Three Rivers, between the 15th and 23d of July, 1635, it is highly probable that Nicolet reached there some time during that month, on his way to Quebec.]

[Footnote 92: Vimont (_Relation_, 1643, p. 4) thus briefly disposes of Nicolet's return trip from the Winnebagoes: "La paix fut conclue; il retourna aux Hurons, et de la a quelque temps aux Trois Riuieres."]

CHAPTER IV.

NICOLET'S SUBSEQUENT CAREER AND DEATH.

It is not difficult to imagine the interest which must have been awakened in the breast of Champlain upon the return of Nicolet to Quebec. With what delight he must have heard his recital of the particulars of the voyage! How he must have been enraptured at the descriptions of lakes of unknown extent; of great rivers never before heard of--never before seen by a Frenchman! How his imagination must have kindled when told of the numerous Indian nations which had been visited! But, above all, how fondly he hoped one day to bring all these distant countries under the dominion of his own beloved France! But the heart thus beating quick with pleasurable emotions at the prospects of future glory and renown, soon ceased its throbs. On Christmas day, 1635, Champlain died. In a chamber of the fort in Quebec, "breathless and cold, lay the hardy frame which war, the wilderness, and the sea had buffeted so long in vain."

The successor of Champlain was Marc Antoine de Bras-de-fer de Chasteaufort. He was succeeded by Charles Huault de Montmagny, who reached New France in 1636. With him came a considerable reinforcement; "and, among the rest, several men of birth and substance, with their families and dependents." But Montmagny found the affairs of his colony in a woful condition. The "Company of One Hundred" had pa.s.sed its affairs into the hands of those who were wholly engrossed in the profits of trade. Instead of sending out colonists, the Hundred a.s.sociates "granted lands, with the condition that the grantees should furnish a certain number of settlers to clear and till them, and these were to be credited to the company." The Iroquois, who, from their intercourse with the Dutch and English traders, had been supplied with firearms, and were fast becoming proficient in their use, attacked the Algonquins and Hurons--allies of the French, interrupting their canoes, laden with furs, as they descended the St. Lawrence, killing their owners, or hurrying them as captives into the forests, to suffer the horrors of torture.

At a point to which was given the name of Sillery, four miles above Quebec, a new Algonquin mission was started; still, in the immediate neighborhood of the town, the dark forests almost unbroken frowned as gloomily as when, thirty years before, Champlain founded the future city. Probably, in all New France, the population, in 1640, did not much exceed two hundred, including women and children. On the eighteenth of May, 1642, Montreal began its existence. The tents of the founders were "inclosed with a strong palisade, and their altar covered by a provisional chapel, built, in the Huron mode, of bark." But the Iroquois had long before become the enemies of the French, sometimes seriously threatening Quebec. So, upon the Island of Montreal, every precaution was taken to avoid surprise. Solid structures of wood soon defied the attacks of the savages; and, to give greater security to the colonists, Montmagny caused a fort to be erected at the mouth of the Richelieu, in the following August. But the end of the year 1642 brought no relief to the Algonquins or Hurons, and little to the French, from the ferocious Iroquois.

It was not long after Nicolet's return to Quebec, from his visit to "the People of the Sea," and neighboring nations, before he was a.s.signed to Three Rivers by Champlain, where he was to continue his office of commissary and interpreter; for, on the ninth of December, 1635, he "came to give advice to the missionaries who were dwelling at the mission that a young Algonquin was sick; and that it would be proper to visit him."[93] And, again, on the seventh of the following month, he is found visiting, with one of the missionaries, a sick Indian, near the fort, at Three Rivers.[94] His official labors were performed to the great satisfaction of both French and Indians, by whom he was equally and sincerely loved. He was constantly a.s.sisting the missionaries, so far as his time would permit, in the conversion of the savages, whom he knew how to manage and direct as he desired, and with a skill that could hardly find its equal. His kindness won their esteem and respect. His charity seemed, indeed, to know no bounds.[95] As interpreter for one of the missionaries, he accompanied him from Three Rivers on a journey some leagues distant, on the twelfth of April, 1636, to visit some savages who were sick; thus constantly administering to their sufferings.[96]

Notwithstanding the colonists of New France were living in a state of temporal and spiritual va.s.salage, yet the daring Nicolet, and others of the interpreters of Champlain, although devout Catholics and friendly to the establishment of missions among the Indian nations, were not Jesuits, nor in the service of these fathers; neither was their's the mission work, in any sense, which was so zealously prosecuted by these disciples of Loyola. They were a small cla.s.s of men, whose home--some of them--was the forest, and their companions savages. They followed the Indians in their roamings, lived with them, grew familiar with their language, allied themselves, in some cases, with their women, and often became oracles in the camp and leaders on the war-path. Doubtless, when they returned from their rovings, they often had pressing need of penance and absolution. Several of them were men of great intelligence and an invincible courage. From hatred of restraint, and love of wild and adventurous independence, they encountered privations and dangers scarcely less than those to which the Jesuit exposed himself from motives widely different:--he, from religious zeal, charity, and the hope of paradise; they, simply because they liked it. Some of the best families of Canada claim descent from this vigorous and hardy stock.[97]

"The Jesuits from the first had cherished the plan of a seminary for Huron boys at Quebec. The governor and the company favored the design; since not only would it be an efficient means of spreading the faith and attaching the tribe to the French interest, but the children would be pledges for the good behavior of the parents, and hostages for the safety of missionaries and traders in the Indian towns. In the summer of 1636, Father Daniel, descending from the Huron country, worn, emaciated, his ca.s.sock patched and tattered, and his s.h.i.+rt in rags, brought with him a boy, to whom two others were soon added; and through the influence of the interpreter, Nicolet, the number was afterward increased by several more. One of them ran away, two ate themselves to death, a fourth was carried home by his father, while three of those remaining stole a canoe, loaded it with all they could lay their hands upon, and escaped in triumph with their plunder."[98]

Nicolet frequently visited Quebec. Upon one of these occasions he had a narrow escape. He found the St. Lawrence inc.u.mbered with ice. Behind him there came so great a quant.i.ty of it that he was compelled to get out of his canoe and jump upon one of the floating pieces. He saved himself with much difficulty and labor. This happened in April, 1637.[99] On the twenty-seventh of the same month Nicolet was present at Quebec, on the occasion of a deputation of Indians from Three Rivers waiting upon the governor, asking a favor at his hands promised by Champlain. He was consulted as to what the promise of the former governor was.[100]

In June, he was sent, it seems, up from the fort at Three Rivers to ascertain whether the Iroquois were approaching. He went as far as the river Des Prairies--the name for the Ottawa on the north side of the island of Montreal.[101] In August, the enemy threatened Three Rivers in force. The French and Indians in the fort could not be decoyed into danger. However, a boat was sent up the St. Lawrence, conducted by Nicolet. The bark approached the place where the Iroquois were, but could not get within gun-shot; yet a random discharge did some execution. The enemy were judged to be about five hundred strong.

Although the fort at Three Rivers was thus seriously threatened, no attack was made.[102]

On the seventh of October, 1637, Nicolet was married at Quebec to Marguerite Couillard, a G.o.d-child of Champlain.[103] The fruit of this marriage was but one child--a daughter. Nicolet continued his residence at Three Rivers, largely employed in his official duties of commissary and interpreter, remaining there until the time of his death.[104] In 1641, he, with one of the Jesuit fathers, was very busy in dealing with a large force of Iroquois that was threatening the place.[105]

About the first of October, 1642, Nicolet was called down to Quebec from Three Rivers, to take the place of his brother-in-law, M. Olivier le Tardiff, who was General Commissary of the Hundred Partners, and who sailed on the seventh of that month for France. The change was a very agreeable one to Nicolet, but he did not long enjoy it; for, in less than a month after his arrival, in endeavoring to make a trip to his place of residence to release an Indian prisoner in the possession of a band of Algonquins, who were slowly torturing him, his zeal and humanity cost him his life.[106] On the 27th of October,[107] he embarked at Quebec, near seven o'clock in the evening, in the launch of M. de Savigny, which was headed for Three Rivers. He had not yet reached Sillery, when a northeast squall raised a terrible tempest on the St.

Lawrence and filled the boat. Those who were in it did not immediately go down; they clung some time to the launch. Nicolet had time to say to M. de Savigny, "Save yourself, sir; you can swim; I can not. I am going to G.o.d. I recommend to you my wife and daughter."[108]

The wild waves tore the men, one after another, from the boat, which had capsized and floated against a rock, and four, including Nicolet, sank to rise no more.[109] M. de Savigny alone cast himself into the water, and swam among the waves, which were like small mountains. The launch was not very far from the sh.o.r.e, but it was pitch dark, and the bitter cold had covered the river banks with ice. Savigny, feeling his resolution and his strength failing him, made a vow to G.o.d, and a little after, reaching down with his feet, he felt the bottom, and stepping out of the water, he reached Sillery half dead. For quite a while he was unable to speak; then, at last, he recounted the fatal accident which, besides the death of Nicolet--disastrous to the whole country--had cost him three of his best men and a large part of his property. He and his wife suffered this great loss, in a barbarous country, with great patience and resignation to the will of G.o.d, and without losing any of their courage.[110]

The savages of Sillery, at the report of Nicolet's s.h.i.+pwreck, ran to the place, and not seeing him any where, displayed indescribable sorrow. It was not the first time he had exposed himself to danger of death for the good of the Indians. He had done so frequently. Thus perished John Nicolet, in the waters of the great river of Canada--the red man and the Frenchman alike mourning his untimely fate.[111]

Twelve days after the s.h.i.+pwreck, the prisoner to the Algonquins, for whose deliverance Nicolet started on his journey, arrived at Sillery--the commander at Three Rivers, following the order of the governor, having ransomed him. He was conducted to the hospital of the place to be healed of the injuries he had received from his captors.

They had stripped the flesh from his arms, in some places to the bone.

The nuns at the hospital cared for him with much sympathy, and cured him so quickly that in a month's time he was able to return to his country.

All the neophytes showed him as much compa.s.sion and charity as the Algonquins had displayed of cruelty. They gave him two good, Christianized savages to escort him as far as the country of a neighboring tribe of his own, to the end that he might reach his home in safety.[112]

After the return of the French to Quebec, the Jesuits, as previously mentioned, were commissioned with the administration of spiritual affairs in New France. Some of these turned their attention to the Europeans; the rest were employed in missions among the savages. In the autumn of 1635, the residences and missions of Canada contained fifteen Fathers and five Brothers of the Society of Jesus. At Quebec, there were also formed two seculars--ecclesiastics. One of these was a brother of Nicolet.[113] He had come from Cherbourg to join him upon the St.

Lawrence; and, during his residence in the colony, which was continued to 1647, he was employed in visiting French settlements at a distance from Quebec.[114] Another brother--Pierre--who was a navigator, also resided in Canada, but left the country some time after Nicolet's death.[115] The widow of Nicolet was married at Quebec, in 1646, to Nicholas Macard.

Nicolet's discoveries, although not immediately followed up because of the hostility of the Iroquois and the lack of the spirit of adventure in Champlain's successor, caused, finally, great results. He had unlocked the door to the Far West, where, afterward, were seen the fur-trader, the _voyageur_, the Jesuit missionary, and the government agent. New France was extended to the Mississippi and beyond; yet Nicolet did not live to witness the progress of French trade and conquest in the countries he had discovered.

The name of the family of Nicolet appears to have been extinguished in Canada, with the departure of M. Gilles Nicolet, priest, already mentioned; but the respect which the worthy interpreter had deserved induced the people of Three Rivers to perpetuate his memory. The example had been given before his death. We read in the _Relation_ of 1637 that the river St. John, near Montreal (now the river Jesus), took its name from _John_ Nicolet. To-day Canada has the river, the lake, the falls, the village, the city, the college, and the county of Nicolet.[116] From the United States--especially from the Northwest--equal honor is due.

"History can not refrain from saluting Nicolet as a disinterested traveler, who, by his explorations in the interior of America, has given clear proofs of his energetic character, and whose merits have not been disputed, although subsequently they were temporarily forgotten." The first fruits of his daring were gathered by the Jesuit fathers even before his death; for, in the autumn of 1641, those of them who were among the Hurons received a deputation of Indians occupying "the country around a rapid, in the midst of the channel by which Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron," inviting them to visit their tribe. These "missionaries were not displeased with the opportunity thus presented of knowing the countries lying beyond Lake Huron, which no one of them had yet traversed;" so Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault were detached to accompany the Chippewa deputies, and view the field simply, not to establish a mission. They pa.s.sed along the sh.o.r.e of Lake Huron, northward, and pushed as far up St. Mary's strait as the "Sault," which they reached after seventeen days' sail from their place of starting.

There they--the first white men to visit the Northwest after Nicolet--harangued two thousand of that nation, and other Algonquins.

Upon their return to the St. Lawrence, Jogues was captured by the Iroquois, and Raymbault died on the twenty-second of October, 1642--a few days before the death of Nicolet.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 93: "Le neufiesme de Decembre, iustement le lendemain de la feste de la Conception, le sieur Iean Nicolet, Truchement pour les Algonquins aux Trois Riuieres, vint donner aduis aux Peres, qui demeuroient en la Residence de la Conception sise au mesme lieu, qu'vn ieune Algonquin se trouuoit mal, et qu'il seroit a prospos de le visiter."--Le Jeune, _Relation_, 1636, p. 8.]

[Footnote 94: "Le septiesme de Ianuier de cette annee mil six cens trente six, le fils d'vn grand Sorcier ou Iongleur fut faict Chrestien, son pere s'y accordant apres de grandes resistances qu'il en fit: car, comme nos Peres euentoient ses mines, et la decreditoient, il ne pouuoit les supporter en sa Cabane. Cependant comme son fils tiroit a la mort, ils prierent le sieur Nicolet de faire son possible pour sauuer cette ame: ils s'en vont donc le Pere Quentin et luy en cette maison d'ecorce, pressent fortement ce Sauuage de consentir au baptesme de son pet.i.t fils."--Le Jeune, _Relation_, 1636, p. 10.]

[Footnote 95: Le trente-vniesme [of December, 1635], vne fille agee d'enuiron seize ans fut baptisee, et nommee Anne par vn de nos Francois.

Le Pere Buteux l'instruisant luy dit, que si estant Chrestienne elle venoit a mourir, son ame iroit au Ciel dans les ioyes eternelles. A ce mot de mourir, elle eut vne si grande frayeur, qu'elle ne voulut plus iamais prester l'oreille au Pere; on luy enuoya le Sieur Nicolet truchement, qui exerce volontiers semblables actions de charite; elle l'escoute paisiblement; mais comme ses occupations le diuertissent ailleurs, il ne la pouuoit visiter si souuent: c'est pourquoy le Pere Quentin s'efforca d'apprendre les premiers rudimens du Christianisme en Sauuage, afin de la pouuoir instruire. Cela luy reussit si bien, que cette pauure fille ayant pris goust a cette doctrine salutaire, desira le Baptesme que le Pere luy accorda. La grace a plusieurs effects: on remarqua que cette fille, fort dedaigneuse et altiere de son naturel, deuint fort douce et traittable, estant Chrestienne.--Ibid.

"Il [Nicolet] ... continua sa charge de Commis et Interprete [at Three Rivers] auec vne satisfaction grande des Francois et des Sauuages, desquels il estoit esgalement et vniquement ayme. Il conspiroit puissamment, autant que sa charge le permettoit, auec nos Peres, pour la conuersion de ces peuples, lesquels il scauoit manier et tourner ou il vouloit d'vne dexterite qui a peine trouuera son pareil."--Vimont, _Relation_, 1643, p. 4.

Compare, also, _Relation_, 1637, p. 24.]

[Footnote 96: "Le deuxieme iour d'Auril, le Pere Quentin fit vn voyage a quelques lieues des Trois Riuieres [Three Rivers], pour quelques malades, dont on nous auoit donne aduis. Le fruict qu'il en rapporta fut d'auoir expose plusieurs fois sa vie pour Dieu, parmy les dangers des glaces et du mauuais temps. Il se contenta de leur donner quelque instruction, sans en baptiser aucun, ne les voyant ny en peril de mort, ny suffisamment instruits. Le sieur Iean Nicolet luy seruit de truchement, auec sa charite et fidelite ordinaire, dont nos Peres tirent de grands seruices en semblables occasions."--Le Jeune, _Relation_, 1636, pp. 57, 58.]