La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West Part 2

(Bibliotheque Nationale.)

[17] Dollier de Ca.s.son alludes to this as "cette transmigration celebre qui se fit de la Chine dans ces quartiers."

[18] The following is the pa.s.sage 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 congedierent." It then proceeds as follows: "Cependant Mr. de la Salle continua son chemin par une riviere qui va de l'est a l'ouest; et pa.s.se 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 degre de lat.i.tude, trouva un sault qui tombe vers l'ouest dans un pays bas, marescageux, tout couvert de vielles souches, dont il y en a quelques-unes qui sont encore sur pied. Il fut donc 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 ba.s.se et vaste se reunnissoit en un lit. Il continua donc 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 Hollande et les autres a la Nouvelle Angleterre. Il se vit donc seul a 400 lieues de chez luy, ou il ne laisse pas de revenir, remontant la riviere et vivant de cha.s.se, d'herbes, et de ce que luy donnerent les sauvages qu'il rencontra en son chemin."

[19] Perrot, _Memoires_, 119, 120.

[20] The memoir--after stating, as above, that he entered Lake Huron, doubled the peninsula of Michigan, and pa.s.sed La Baye des Puants (_Green Bay_)--says: "Il reconnut une baye incomparablement plus large; au fond de laquelle vers l'ouest il trouva un tres-beau havre et au fond de ce havre un fleuve qui va de l'est a l'ouest. Il suivit ce fleuve, et estant parvenu jusqu'environ le 280me degre de longitude et le 39me de lat.i.tude, 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 lat.i.tude."

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.

[21] 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 beaucoup de pays au sud des grands lacs, et _entre autres la grande riviere d'Ohio_; il la suivit jusqu'a un endroit ou 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 lat.i.tude, as will be seen, is different in the two accounts, and incorrect in both.

[22] One of these maps is ent.i.tled _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 ou descendit le sieur de la Salle au sortir du lac Erie pour aller dans le Mexique." I have also another ma.n.u.script 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 appellee par les Iroquois a cause de sa beaute, par ou le sieur 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 following year--a small part of the upper Illinois is laid down.

[23] _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674._ He here speaks of "la grande riviere qu'il [_Joliet_] a trouvee, qui va du nord au sud, et qui est aussi large que celle du Saint-Laurent vis-a-vis de Quebec."

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.

[24] _Papiers de Famille; Memoire presente au Roi._ The following is an extract: "Il parvient ... jusqu'a la riviere des Illinois. Il 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.

[25] The following is an extract, given by Margry, from a letter of the aged Madeleine Cavelier, dated 21 Fevrier, 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. Il y a des cartes que j'ay jointe a ces papiers, qui doivent prouver que, en 1675, M. de Lasalle avet deja fet deux voyages en ces decouverte, puisqu'il y avet une carte, que je vous envoye, par laquelle il est fait mention de l'androit auquel M. de Lasalle aborda pres le fleuve de Mississipi; 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: "Il [_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 l'approuverent. Il a fait ensuite plusieurs voyages de ce coste-la, et un entr'autres en 1669 avec MM. Dolier et Galinee, prestres du Seminaire de St. Sulpice. _Il est vray que le sieur 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 pa.s.sage is a virtual admission that Joliet reached the Mississippi (_Colbert_) before La Salle.

Margry, in a series of papers in the _Journal General de l'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 doc.u.ments 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 princ.i.p.al doc.u.ment 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.--Michilimackinac.--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.[26] They had devoted themselves in the fulness of faith to the building up 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 sufferings and martyrdoms, but which, from its geographical 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.

[Sidenote: REPORTS OF THE JESUITS.]

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 G.o.d,"

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 pa.s.sing 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, conversions, 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, currents, and tides of the Great Lakes; speculations on a subterranean outlet of Lake Superior; accounts of 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, hards.h.i.+p, and martyrdom. Often disinterested for himself, he was inordinately ambitious for the great corporate power in which he had merged his own personality; and here lies one cause, among many, of the seeming contradictions 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 been 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. "A day's journey from the head of the lake, on the south side, there is," he says, "a rock of copper weighing from six hundred to eight hundred pounds, lying on the sh.o.r.e where any who pa.s.s may see it;" and he further speaks of great copper boulders in the bed of the river Ontonagan.[27]

[Sidenote: STE. MARIE DU SAUT.]

There were two princ.i.p.al missions on the Upper Lakes, which were, in a certain sense, the parents of the rest. One of these was Ste. Marie du Saut,--the same visited by Dollier and Galinee,--at the outlet of Lake Superior. This was a noted fis.h.i.+ng-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 cl.u.s.tered 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, Pottawattamies, Foxes, Menomonies, Sioux, a.s.siniboins, Knisteneaux, and a mult.i.tude 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 G.o.d, and addicted beyond all other tribes to foulness, incantations, and sacrifices to evil spirits."[28]

[Sidenote: MARQUETTE AND ANDRe.]

Marquette heard from the Illinois--yearly visitors at La Pointe--of the great river which they had crossed on their way,[29] and which, as he conjectured, flowed 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, pa.s.sing 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 a.s.signed to Marquette, and that of the Manitoulin Island to Louis Andre. The former took post at Point St. Ignace, on the north sh.o.r.e 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 Nip.i.s.sings and other neighboring tribes. The sh.o.r.es of Lake Huron had long been an utter 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.

Andre's 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.

[Sidenote: THE GREEN BAY MISSION.]

Besides the Saut Ste. Marie and Michilimackinac, both noted fis.h.i.+ng-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.[30] 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 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 peris.h.i.+ng 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 journey, but not until the two fathers had held a council with the congregated tribes at St. Francois 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 Dablon, "though, we were discoursing on very important subjects; namely, the mysteries of our religion, and the things necessary to escaping from eternal fire."[31]

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 safely pa.s.sed them, they saw an Indian idol on the bank, similar to that which Dollier and Galinee 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 Winnebago Lake, the two priests followed the river leading to the town of the Mascoutins and Miamis, which they reached on the fifteenth of September.[32] These two tribes lived together within the compa.s.s of the same enclosure of palisades,--to the number, it is said, of more than three thousand souls. The missionaries, 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 h.e.l.l, 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 everywhere 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 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.

[Sidenote: THE CROSS AMONG THE FOXES.]

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 hearing. 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 s.h.i.+elds of bull-hide, set out for the war, and came back victorious, extolling the sacred symbol as a great war-medicine.

"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."[33] Most things human have their phases of the ludicrous; and the heroism of these untiring priests is no exception to the rule.

[Sidenote: TRADING WITH INDIANS.]

The various missionary stations were much alike. They consisted of a chapel (commonly of logs) and one or more houses, with perhaps a store-house 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, accustomed 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, fis.h.i.+ng, 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 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.[34]

FOOTNOTES:

[26] See "The Jesuits in North America."

[27] He complains that the Indians were very averse to giving information on the subject, so that the Jesuits had not as yet discovered 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 sh.o.r.e of the lake.

Wis.h.i.+ng to boil their food in a vessel of bark, they gathered stones on the sh.o.r.e, 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 and 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 my children?" It was the G.o.d of the Waters, or some other powerful 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 foundation, but floats with the movement of the wind; and no Indian dares land on its sh.o.r.es, dreading the wrath of the manito. Dablon, _Relation_, 1670, 84.

[28] _Lettre du Pere Jacques Marquette au R. P. Superieur des Missions;_ in _Relation_, 1670, 87.

[29] The Illinois lived at this time beyond the Mississippi, thirty 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.

[30] The Baye des Puants of the early writers; or, more correctly, La Baye des Eaux Puantes. The Winnebago Indians, 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.