La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West Part 24

La Salle wrote a parting letter to his mother at Rouen:--

Roch.e.l.le, 18 July, 1684.

Madame my Most Honored Mother,--

At last, after having waited a long time for a favourable wind, and having had a great many difficulties to overcome, we are setting sail with four vessels, and nearly four hundred men on board. Everybody is well, including 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 pa.s.sionately wish, and so do we all, that the success of this voyage may contribute to your repose and comfort. a.s.suredly, I shall spare no effort that it may; and I beg you, on your part, to preserve 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, support 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.

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.[277]

FOOTNOTES:

[262] _Lettres de l'Abbe Tronson, 8 Avril, 10 Avril, 1684_ (Margry, ii.

354).

[263] _Lettres du Roy et du Ministre sur la Navigation du Golfe du Mexique, 1669-1682_ (Margry, iii. 3-14).

[264] _Memoire du Sr. de la Salle, pour rendre compte a Monseigneur de Seignelay de la decouverte qu'il a faite par l'ordre de sa Majeste._

[265] This name, also given to the Illinois, is used to designate Red River on the map of Franquelin, where the forests above mentioned are represented.

[266] _Memoire du Sr. de la Salle sur l'Entreprise qu'il a propose a Monseigneur le Marquis de Seignelay sur une des provinces de Mexique._

[267] Both the memorial and the map represent the banks of Red River as inhabited by Indians, called Terliquiquimechi, and known to the Spaniards as _Indios bravos_, or _Indios de guerra_. The Spaniards, 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.

[268] While the plan, as proposed in the memorial, was clearly impracticable, the subsequent experience of the French in Texas tended to prove that the tribes of that region could be used with advantage in attacking the Spaniards of Mexico, and that an inroad 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.

[269] Another scheme, with similar aims, but much more practicable, 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 redress 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 knowledge of Penalossa's original proposal had some influence in stimulating 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.

[270] _Lettre du Roy a La Barre, Versailles, 10 Avril, 1684._

[271] _Lettre du Roy a De Meules, Versailles, 14 Avril, 1684._ Seignelay wrote to De Meules to the same effect.

[272] On La Forest's mission,--_Memoire pour representer a Monseigneur le Marquis de Seignelay la necessite d'envoyer le Sr. de la Forest en diligence a la Nouvelle France; Lettre du Roy a La Barre, 14 Avril, 1684; Ibid., 31 Oct., 1684._

There is before me a promissory note of La Salle to La Forest, of 5,200 livres, dated at Roch.e.l.le, 17 July, 1684. This seems to be 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.

[273] The att.i.tude 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 Seignelay 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.

[274] _Memoire de ce qui aura este accorde au Sieur de la Salle._

[275] _Lettre au Roy a La Salle, 12 Avril, 1684; Memoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur de Beaujeu, 14 Avril, 1684._

[276] Joutel, _Journal Historique_, 12.

[277] The letters of Beaujeu to Seignelay and to Cabart de Villermont, with most of the other papers on which this chapter rests, will be found in Margry, ii. 354-471. This indefatigable investigator 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 Roch.e.l.le, and giving some idea of the views there entertained concerning it. He says: "L'on ne peut pas faire plus d'extravagances que le Sieur de la Salle n'en a fait sur toutes ses pretentions de commandement. Je plains beaucoup le pauvre Beaujeu d'avoir affaire a une humeur si saturnienne.... Je le croy beaucoup visionnaire ... Beaujeu a une sotte commission."

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.

The four s.h.i.+ps sailed from Roch.e.l.le 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 support 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 sustained the Huguenot. "That is enough," returned La Salle, and withdrew into his cabin.[278]

This was not the first misunderstanding; nor was it the last. There was incessant chafing between the two commanders; and the sailors of the "Joly" were soon of one mind with their captain. When the s.h.i.+p crossed the tropic, they made ready a tub on deck to baptize the pa.s.sengers, after the villanous practice of the time; but La Salle refused to permit it, at which they were highly exasperated, having promised themselves a bountiful ransom, in money or liquor, from their victims. "a.s.suredly,"

says Joutel, "they would gladly have killed us all."

[Sidenote: ST. DOMINGO.]

When, after a wretched voyage of two months the s.h.i.+ps reached St.

Domingo, a fresh dispute occurred. It had been resolved at a council of officers to stop at Port de Paix; but Beaujeu, on pretext of a fair wind, ran by that place in the night, and cast anchor at Pet.i.t 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, Begon the intendant, and De Cussy, governor of La Tortue, 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 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 ash.o.r.e, suffocating as they were in the hot and crowded s.h.i.+p; 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 tidings 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 anch.o.r.ed at Port de Paix, it would not have occurred. The lieutenant-general, with Begon and Cussy, who presently arrived, plainly spoke their minds to him.[279]

[Sidenote: ILLNESS OF LA SALLE.]

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."[280] "It was so violent that," says another of his s.h.i.+pmates, "his imagination pictured to him things equally terrible and amazing."[281] He lay delirious in the wretched garret, attended by his brother, and one or two others who stood faithful to him. A goldsmith of the neighborhood, 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 supported 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.

Francois;" and the consequence was a critical return of the disease.[282]

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 sh.o.r.e, and plunged into every excess of debauchery, contracting diseases which eventually killed them.

[Sidenote: COMPLAINTS OF BEAUJEU.]

Beaujeu, in the extremity of ill-humor, resumed 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 pa.s.sing, and of the condition in which we are."

He then declares that the s.h.i.+ps 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 pa.s.sengers, 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 s.p.a.ce 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 of his affairs; but that he did not wish to meddle with them, especially as n.o.body 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, wis.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+ps with troops on distant oceans."[283]

While Beaujeu was complaining of La Salle, his followers were deserting him. It was necessary to send them on board s.h.i.+p, and keep them there; for there were French buccaneers at Pet.i.t 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."[284]