JOURNEYS OF LA SALLE
VOLUME I
The Trail Makers iS
Prof. John Bach MacMastcr, Consulting Ed. Exploration
With Introductions, Illustrations and Maps. I? Volumes
Each iSmo. $1.00, net per volume.
The Journey of Alvnr Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and
his companions from Florida to the Pacific.
1528-1536.
Translated by Fanny Bandelier, edited -with an introduction by
Ad. F. Bandelier.
Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the
Conquest of Florida, 1539-154'!, as told by a
gentleman of Elvas, by Luys Hernandez de Bird-
ma and by Itodrigo Itanjel.
Edited -with an introduction by Prof. Edward Gaylord Bourne,
of Yale University. In two volumes.
The Journey of Coronado. 1540-42. From the City
of Mexico to the Buffalo Plains of Kansas and
Nebraska.
Translated and Edited with an Introduction by George Parker
Winship.
Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain.
Translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne. Edited with an Intro-
duction, by Prof. Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale University.
In two volumes. (In Press).
The Journey of La Salic and his Companions,
1678-1687.
Edited with an Introduction by Prof. I. J. Cox, of the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati. In two volumes.
Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of
North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans
in 1789 and 1793.
By Alexander Mackenzie. In two volumes.
History of the Expedition Under the Command of
Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the
Missouri. Across the Kocky Mountains Down
the Columbia River to the Pacific in 1844-6.
With an Account of the Louisiana Purchase, by Prof. John
Bach MacMaster, and an Introduction identifying the route.
In three volumes.
A History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada
Which Are Dependent upon the Province of New
York.
By Cadwallader Golden, Surveyor-General of the Colony of
New York. Imtwo volumes.
Journal of Voyaj
of North America
By Daniel Williams^ Harmon, a partner in the Northwest
Company, (beginning in 1800).
The Wild Northland. The Story of a Winter Jour-
ney jvith Dogs Across Northern North America.
By Gen. Sir Wm. Francis Butler, K. C. B.
A. S. BARNES & CO.
From a portrait in Gravier's "Decouvertes de la Salie.'
THE JOURNEYS OF
RENE ROBERT CAVELIER
S I E U R D E
LA S A L L E
As Related by His Faithful Lieutenant, HENRI
DE TONTY ; His Missionary Colleagues, Fathers
ZENOBIUS MEMBRE, Louis HENNEPIN, and
ANASTASIUS DOUAY ; His Early Biographer, Father
CHRISTIAN LECLERCQ ; His Trusted Subordinate,
HENRI JOUTEL ; and His Brother, JEAN CAVELIER:
Together with Memoirs, Commissions, etc.
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
ISAAC JOSLIN COX, PH.D.
Instructor in History, University of Cincinnati
Illustrated
VOL. I.
NEW YORK
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY
1905
sots?
V-\
COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY
A. S. BARNES & CO.
INTRODUCTION
THE career of Rene Robert Cavelier,
Sieur de La Salle, in a measure links the
exploits of his compatriot Champlain, in the
North, with those of Cabeza de Vaca, De
Soto and Coronado, in the South and
Southwest, and thus fittingly closes the
heroic period of Spanish and French explo-
ration in North America. Champlain, in
his search for an illusory western sea, was
facing in the direction of a possible colonial
empire, but his knowledge was too limited
and the resources of his colony too meagre
to permit him to develop it. The Spaniards
DeVaca, De Soto, and Coronado, whose nar-
ratives have already appeared in The Trail
Makers, had preceded La Salle nearly a
century and a half, but for this long period
their suggestion of colonial expansion in
the Mississippi Valley had remained un-
heeded. It is true that an occasional
memoir such as that of Father Benavides,
v
INTRODUCTION
in 1630* directed the attention of the
Spanish government to the vast region
between the Rio Grande and the Florida
peninsula; but no motive other than a
religious one called for its occupation, and
it was suffered to remain in the unchal-
lenged possession of the savages. It was
La Salle's mission, indirectly, to arouse the
Spaniards from their colonial lethargy,
while he determined that the supposed route
to the South Sea and the Far East was but
the great central highway of the American
Continent, opening an appropriate field for
a new French colonial empire.
The sword of the bigoted Spaniard and
the commercial enterprise of Elizabethan
courtier and sailor determined the fact that
the French must approach the interior by
way of the St. Lawrence. During the first
decade of the seventeenth century Cham-
plain established upon this river an uncer-
tain base for missionary and commercial
endeavor. From this vantage point he and
his Recollect companions pushed as far west
as Georgian Bay. By 1634 Nicollet reached
Green Bay, a western estuary of Lake
1 Benavides "Memorial," MSS. Lenox Branch,
New York Public Library.
vi
INTRODUCTION
Michigan. Here for a time, owing to the
death of the great pioneer of French explo-
ration and the religious complications fol-
lowing the substitution of Jesuit missiona-
ries for the Recollects, the thin current of
French migration ceased, except for oc-
casional fur-trading expeditions. Even dur-
ing this period of restricted life upon the
St. Lawrence there came those same uncer-
tain rumors of great western waters that
had deceived Champlain; and when, with
renewed government activity, the western
movement again began, a prominent motive
that urged it forward was the solution of
this geographical problem a problem that
engaged the attention of New France's
greatest governor-general, the Count of
Frontenac, and the energies of its most in-
trepid explorer, the subject of these vol-
umes.
The French occupation of the Mississippi
Valley, to use a somewhat clumsy figure of
speech, resembled a wedge whose apex was
aimed at the mouth of the great river, whose
eastern side threatened not merely to re-
strain the English beyond the mountains,
but to push the Spaniards out of Florida,
while its other side measurably encroached
vii
INTRODUCTION
upon the uncertain regions west of the Mis-
sissippi. The placing of this wedge and
the peculiar initial impulse which made its
force felt in the distant viceroyalty of New
Spain constituted the principal task of La
Salle. The ultimate success of this great
movement of colonial physics in pushing
undersirable rivals out of the fairest por-
tion of the American Continent depended
upon the energy with which the French
government followed up this initial impulse.
The fact that it did not adequately do so
should not in any measure detract from the
genius of the man who conceived the proper
force and who, despite almost insuperable
obstacles, had the courage to apply it.
It is but fitting, then, that in The Trail
Makers the life-work of La Salle should
form the closing volumes devoted to the
great French and Spanish inland explorers.
De Vaca skirted the southern edge of the
Mississippi Valley, De Soto entered it from
the east, and Coronado approached it from
the west. Champlain almost solved the
problem of reaching it from the north ; but
it was left for La Salle, from an uncertain
base and with vastly more slender resources
than the two great Spaniards, to demon-
viii
INTRODUCTION
strate the possibility of entering this great
valley and to be first to lead the way in
its effective occupation.
Even during the period of governmental
inaction, which terminated in 1663, La Salle
had his precursors, whose labor was of
direct stimulus and aid to him. Jesuit mis-
sionaries, during their brief sojourn among
the Hurons, heard occasional stories of a
great western river flowing into the South
Sea. Adventurous traders, among whom
the most notable were Grosseilliers and
Radisson, explored the shores of Lake
Superior and possibly penetrated to the
Mississippi. After 1661 Colbert, in France,
and Tracy, Courcelles and Talon, in Can-
ada, took up with energy the task of ex-
ploration abandoned some thirty years be-
fore. The Jesuit Allouez established mis-
sions upon Green Bay and the Fox River.
The trader Joliet and the Jesuit Marquette
were despatched in quest of the great west-
ern water, and after passing by the Fox-
Wisconsin portage, in June, 1673, they be-
gan the first undoubted French exploration
of the Mississippi itself. The final comple-
tion of this task fell to those whose deeds
are reported in the following pages.
ix
INTRODUCTION
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,
was born in Rouen, France, in November,
1643. Of a wealthy family, he received
an excellent education, especially in mathe-
matics. As a youth he probably had some
connection with the Jesuits, but he early left
their order. In 1666 he came to Canada, .
where a brother a member of the Sulpitian
order at Montreal had already preceded
him. Doubtless through the influence of
this brother, he obtained, in 1667, a large
grant of land at the rapids afterwards
known as La Chine a name suggestive of .
western exploration that still hoped to reach
the distant East.
Although applying himself to his task as
proprietor with commendable industry and
meeting with a reasonable degree of suc-
cess, other duties than those of Seigneur
under the Old Regime in Canada appealed
to the ambitious Frenchman. He made
short excursions to the west and north, so
as to satisfy himself that no way to the
western sea lay in those directions. He
acquired some practical knowledge in the
Indian tongues and in methods of dealing
with the natives, for his position on the St.
Lawrence gave him a partial monopoly of
x
INTRODUCTION
the fur trade. Finally, during the winter of
1668-69, he learned from a chance party
of Senecas that a great river arose in their
country, and after a course entailing a canoe
voyage of eight or nine months,' emptied
into the sea.
This report aroused the explorer in La
Salle, for he conceived the possibility of
discovering the long-desired channel to the
South Sea. With him, to dream was to
act, and his action, approved by Courcelles
and Talon, implied the disposal of his estate
to provide funds for the undertaking. Be-
fore this was accomplished the prudent gov-
ernor had combined La Salle's scheme with
a project of the Sulpitians to establish mis-
sions among the western Indians. Thus
the expedition that left La Chine, in July,
1669, was a double-headed one, with Dollier
and Gallinee representing the churchly ele-
ment, and La Salle the equally enticing
spirit of adventurous exploration.
It was La Salle's misfortune thus to
begin his career as explorer, as well as to
end it, with the handicap of divided respon-
sibility. We may then naturally expect this
expedition to result largely in a failure.
Passing to Irondequoit Bay, on the south-
xi
INTRODUCTION
era shore of Lake Ontario, the explorers
made a fruitless journey to the Seneca vil-
lages. Returning thence, they passed to the
western end of Ontario, where they encoun-
tered Joliet and a companion, homeward
bound from Lake Superior. Here the party
separated, Dollier and Gallinee passing
westward by Joliet's route, while La Salle
turned to the southward.
After leaving his Sulpitian comrades La
Salle's movements are enveloped in great
uncertainty. From later and not wholly
reliable reports, apparently based upon his
own statements, he, with a few attendants,
passed from Lake Ontario to the Alleghany
River, and thence down that stream and the
Ohio, as far as the present city of Louis-
ville. Here he was deserted by his men
and forced to return alone to Canada. The
claim has been made, but without sufficient
foundation, that La Salle, in 1670, con-
tinued on down the Ohio until he reached
the Mississippi, and during the following
year returned to that great riverthis time
by the Chicago-Illinois portage. Although
it is reasonably certain that La Salle did
not thus reach the Mississippi before Joliet
and Marquette, it is more than possible that
xii
INTRODUCTION
at this period he explored the upper courses
of both the Ohio and the Illinois.
From the uncertainty of these four years
La Salle emerges, in 1673, as the assistant
of Frontenac in erecting a fort upon the
shores of Lake Ontario. The immediate
object of these confederates was to over-
awe the Iroquois and to control the western
fur trade; and the furtherance of this
object included the erection of a fort on
the Niagara River and the construction of
a vessel on Lake Erie. These evident aims
of the governor aroused a host of enemies
against him and his young subordinate,
including not merely Dutch and English
traders and the Iroquois, as we should nat-
urally expect, but also Canadians and
Jesuits, for he was running counter to their
cherished plans to control the fur trade and
evangelize the natives.
Owing to the vigorous opposition of these
domestic enemies, Frontenac was con-
strained, in the fall of 1674, to send La
Salle to France to provide for the future
maintenance of this western outpost, to
which the name of Fort Frontenac (now
Kingston) had been given. In accordance
with evident prearrangement with Fron-
xiii
INTRODUCTION
tenac, La Salle petitioned for a seigneurial
grant which included this fort and the sur-
rounding region. In return he agreed to
reimburse Frontenac for the expense in-
curred in its construction and to rebuild it
in masonry. This undertaking involved an
expense which was destined greatly to han-
dicap hfls future movements; and as a
recompense for his service and others
which he expected to render the crown
of France, he also petitioned for a
patent of nobility.
Obtaining a favorable response to both
his petitions, he returned to Canada, late in
1675, in company with a future companion,
the Recollect friar, Louis Hennepin. Secure
in the favor of the governor-general, with
a grant including the most valuable sei-
gneury in New France and a practical
monopoly of the western fur trade, La Salle
had every prospect of becoming the most
wealthy proprietor of the colony, and at the
same time of advancing materially the for-
tunes of his patron. He spent the next two
years in establishing his grant more firmly
by rebuilding the fort, introducing settlers,
and constructing vessels to ply on Lake
Ontario. At the end of this time report
xiv
INTRODUCTION
credited him with an annual income of
25,000 livres.
As in the case of his former seigneury
at La Chine, it was La Salle the idealist,
rather than La Salle the man of affairs,
that now forged to the front. His ambi-
;tion extended far beyond his western out-
post, and embraced a national scope as well
as a personal one. The great river of
earlier report, reached but not fully ex-
plored by Joliet and Marquette, La Salle
now believed to enter the Gulf of Mexico.
To prove this fact, to seize and fortify its
mouth against English and Spanish inter-
ference, and to monopolize its trade in
buffalo skins and other peltries, became his
great ambition an ambition that advanced
the territorial pretensions of his nation
equally with his own private fortunes.
In pursuit of his ideal, La Salle embarked
for France in November, 1677, and shortly
after his arrival presented a memorial to
Colbert, 2 asking for a confirmation of his
seigneurial tenure, with additional powers,
for the space of five years, to establish other
posts to the south and west of Fort Fron-
tenac. On May 12, 1678, he received his
* Margry, "Decouvertes," etc., I, 329-336.
XV
INTRODUCTION
coveted patent, granting him the country
"through which, to all appearance, a way
may be found to Mexico." To this grant,
which was to be carried on without expense
to the crown, was attached the condition
that he should not trade with those tribes
that would naturally carry their furs to
Montreal.
La Salle was successful in inducing his
friends and relatives to finance his enter-
prise. He engaged ship-carpenters and
and other mechanics for the construction
of two vessels one upon Lake Erie and
the other upon some branch of the Missis-
sippi. He enlisted the services of a sub-
ordinate, La Motte de Lussiere, but, more
fortunate still, of his most noted lieuten-
ant, Henri de Tonty (or Tonti). In com-
pany with these he reached Quebec in
September, 1678, where he found awaiting
him Hennepin, eager to engage in the new
enterprise.
From this point on, the documents given
in these two volumes tell in detail the story
of La Salle's wanderings, but it may be
well to indicate the main features. These
journeys group themselves naturally into
two main divisions his Mississippi explo-
xvi
INTRODUCTION
rations, from 1679 to 1683, and his Texas
journeys, from 1684 till his death, in 1687.
During the former period La Salle built the
first sailing vessel on Lake Erie, erected
Fort Miami on the St. Joseph and Fort
Crevecoeur on the Illinois, performed his
wonderful winter march from the latter to
Fort Frontenac, organized an Indian con-
federacy against the Iroquois, explored the
Mississippi to its mouth after his subor-
dinate Hennepin had explored its upper
course to the Falls of St. Anthony, and
erected Fort St. Louis on the Illinois as
a stronghold against the all-powerful Iro-
quois. In 1683 his patron Frontenac was
recalled and La Salle himself relieved of
his expiring grant. Late in this year he
arrived in France, again a petitioner, with
almost nothing tangible to show as the
result of five years of effort.
The bankrupt explorer courageously ush-
ered in the final period of his life by pre-
senting to Seignelay, son of Colbert and
now minister of the marine, the two
memoirs which appear in the following
pages. In connection with one proposal
therein outlined the invasion of New
Biscay there has arisen a mooted ques-
xvii
INTRODUCTION,
tion concerning his connection with the
.Spanish adventurer, Pefialosa, then urging
a similar invasion by the channel of the
Rio Grande or the Panuco. The similarity
of their plans has led to the suspicion of
collusion, but it is probable that La Salle
became acquainted with the adventurer, and
then merely appropriated what was best in
the latter 's project, to bolster up his own.
He may be partially justified in this course
by the fact that Penalosa was pursuing a
like policy with him. Possibly La Salle,
as other authorities intimate, may have had
some expectation that Penalosa would fol-
low him, but if so, it would simply be as
an independent venture.
The details of this last disastrous voyage,
the divided responsibility, the resultant
quarrels between La Salle and Beaujeu,
the mistaken landing upon the coast of
Texas, the fruitless efforts of La Salle to
find his "fatal river," his pitiable death at
the hands of his own men, and the subse-
quent wanderings of the remnant of his
party that finally reached France, have been
graphically pictured by his faithful fol-
lower, Joutel, whose abridged narrative
forms the main portion of our second
xviii
INTRODUCTION
volume. It is well to note, however, that
the documents published by Margry give a
much more favorable view of Beaujeu's
conduct than do the accounts of Joutel or
of Cavelier. The course of La Salle dur-
ing his Texas journey is shown, even by
his friends, to be highly erratic, while
Beaujeu appears in the light of the prac-
tical man of affairs. The careful student
of the period must acknowledge that there
is a great deal of uncertainty and vacilla-
tion in La Salle's movements during the
critical moments of this unfortunate expe-
dition. Perhaps the vicissitudes through
which he had passed during two strenuous
decades of frontier exploration had affected
his judgment and rendered him what he
proved to be an unfortunate leader.
Any formal estimate of the character of
La Salle would clearly be out of place
in this work. Gravier, in his Decouvertes
et Etablissements de Cavelier de La Salle,
and Margry in the introduction to his
Decouvertes et Etablissements des Frangais,
give, in French, a detailed and far too
favorable picture of their illustrious fellow-
townsman. Parkman's brilliant character-
izations, often quoted verbatim from the
xix
INTRODUCTION
original sources, in a measure are subject
to the same criticism. Shea, in his various
editorial notes, minimizes the work of La
Salle, and in a way that is far from just.
Winsor, in his Carrier to Frontenac, occu-
pies a middle position and one probably more
nearly true than the others. He, however,
overestimates the connection between La
Salle and Penalosa in the Texas voyage.
The testimony of contemporary writers
seems to show that La Salle had a few influ-
ential friends who were distinguished by
their loyalty to him and by their confidence
in his ultimate success. His enemies were
numerous and vindictive, but he neither
took the pains to conciliate them, nor ap-
parently had he the tact to do so, had he
tried. He was coldly ambitious, reserved
to hauteur, over-confident in his own judg-
ment, with great natural ability and equal
determination, imaginative to a fault, and
consequently often more visionary than
practical. Had he been allowed to carry
out his plans unopposed, it is hardly too
much to say that more than one seven
years' war would have been necessary to
shake the hold of France upon the interior ;
but when those plans ran counter to the
xx
INTRODUCTION
schemes of Jesuit missionaries and irre-
sponsible fur traders, human nature, to men-
tion nothing higher, could not be restrained
from persistent opposition. Yet the essen-
tial failure of his colonizing and monopoly
projects should not obscure his real services
as the greatest French explorer of the
Mississippi Valley.
The plan of these two volumes devoted
to La Salle seems to require some expla-
nation. The various documents here re-
printed are found in French's Historical
Collections of Louisiana, Part I; Shea's
Discovery and Exploration of the Missis-
sippi Valley, (Part IV of the Historical Col-
lections), and Shea's Early Voyages up and
down the Mississippi. The editor has fol-
lowed closely the text of these volumes,
except where a careful collation with later
editions of these same documents has shown
a better reading. Some of the editorial
notes appearing in the above volumes have
also been omitted in some cases because
incorrect or obsolete, in others because of
very little interest except to the special
student. Where this has been done the
bibliographies in the appendix will enable
the curious reader, who has access to the
xxi
INTRODUCTION
original volumes, readily to ascertain just
what has been changed or omitted.
Although the scope of the volumes will
quickly appear from a cursory examination
of the table of contents, an additional word
of explanation may be helpful.
The first volume is composed of miscella-
neous documents relating to the Mississippi
and the Texas expedition, while the second
is devoted to Joutel's narrative of the latter.
Among the writers represented in the first
volume are Tonty, Hennepin, Le Clercq,
Membre, Douay, Cavelier, brother of the
explorer,, and La Salle himself. The some-
what heterogenous character of the volume
is modified by the fact that Tonty, the first
and most important of those mentioned,
treats of the whole period of which the
others, in a measure, give supplementary
accounts.
The list includes all of those who from
personal knowledge have written at length
concerning La Salle, while the documents
reprinted comprise nearly all the original
material relating to him that is available in
English. Two notable exceptions will at
once occur, to the special student the
various translations from Margry, pub-
xxii
INTRODUCTION
lished by the Caxton Club, and the Descrip-
tion of Louisiana, or its later form, the
New Discovery, of Hennepin. The publi-
cations of the Caxton Club, of course, cannot
yet be reprinted, while Hennepin's works
are too long for these volumes and can be
obtained in recent editions by Shea and by
Thwaites. However, a portion of the brief
resume of the Nouvelle Decouverte, which
appears in the first volume of the Historical
Collections, has been inserted in order to
add Hennepin to our list.
The general subject of annotation opens
up the opportunity to bury under a multi-
tude of notes the text of an edition of
such writers as those here presented. The
limits of the volume made necessary the
policy of giving but few notes, and those
only which appear to be indispensable. By
use of the bibliographies one may note the
texts of differing contemporaries and from
them draw his own conclusions. In such
brief annotation as the editor has used, it
is but fitting for him to acknowledge his
indebtedness to the labors of Shea and of
Thwaites:
Most of the documents are reprinted in
the form given by French and by Shea,
xxiii
INTRODUCTION
but the more extended narratives of Tonty,
Douay, Cavelier, and Joutel have been
broken up into convenient chapters, without,
however, interfering with their continuity.
With reference to Joutel, the natural and de-
sirable arrangement to follow would have
been the divisions of Margry's fuller text;
but this would have meant too many chap-
ters and chapters of unequal length. Ac-
cordingly, a more arbitrary arrangement
has been followed, but one which permits
a ready comparison with Margry. The
shorter narratives appear in a single chap-
ter. This chapter-division permits a series
of comparative bibliographic notes, which
the editor hopes will prove helpful in locat-
ing, by chronological periods, the original
sources relating to the great explorer.
Two appendices appear in the second vol-
ume. The first contains certain legal doc-
uments relating to La Salle; the second
contains two bibliographies, one of which
is a classified list of the source material
and secondary works relating to La Salle,
and the other the series of bibliographical
notes referred to at the close of the pre-
ceding paragraph. These notes give cross-
references to the documents printed in these
xxiv
INTRODUCTION;
volumes and also to other readily available
sources. The editor has attempted to make
these bibliographies serviceable rather than
minutely complete.
In conclusion the editor wishes to express
his appreciation for many courtesies and
privileges extended to him while working
in the Cincinnati Public Library, the
Library of the University of Cincinnati, the
Columbia University Library, and the
Lenox Branch of the New York Public
Library.
ISAAC JOSLIN COX.
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI,
July 6, 1905.
XXV
' JR..
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
PAGE
Portrait of La Salle, from Gravier,
Frontispiece
Introduction Isaac Joslin Cox v
CHAPTER I.
Memoir, by the Sieur de la Tonty I
CHAPTER II.
Tonty's Memoir, Part II. Tonty on
the Illinois and Mississippi 31
CHAPTER III.
Account of the Discovery of the River
Mississippi and 1 the Adjacent
Country, by Father Louis Henne-
pin 66
CHAPTER IV.
Narrative of the First Attempt by M.
Cavelier de la Salle to Explore the
Mississippi, etc., by Father Chre-
.tieu.Le Clercq 87
xxvii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V. PAGE
Narrative of the Adventures of La
Salle's Party at Fort Crevecoeur,
in Illinois, from February, 1680, to
June, 1 68 1, by Father Zenobius
Membre, Recollect 106
CHAPTER VI.
Narrative of La Salle's Voyage Down
the Mississippi, by Father Zeno-
bius Membre, Recollect 131
CHAPTER VII.
Account of the Taking Possession of
Louisiana, by M. de la Salle, 1682. 159
CHAPTER VIII.
Memoirs presented by La Salle to the
Marquis de Seignelay in 1684. I 7 l
CHAPTER IX.
Account of La Salle's Attempt to Reach
the Mississippi by Sea, and of the
Establishment of a French Colony
in St. Louis Bay, by Father Chris-
tian Le Clercq , 205
CHAPTER X.
Narrative of La Salle's Attempt to As-
cend the Mississippi in 1687, by
Father Anastasius Douay, Recol-
lect. Part I To the Death of La
Salle. ,. .. 222
xxviii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI.
PAGE
Douay's Narrative, Part II. The Re-
turn to France 248
CHAPTER XII.
Cavelier's Account of La Salle's Voy-
age to the Mouth of the Missis-
sippi, His Landing in Texas and
March to the Mississippi (Part I.
To April, 1686) 268
CHAPTER XIII.
Cavelier's Account, Part II. La Salle's
Last Two Journeys 285
xxix
Journeys of La Salle
MEMOIR, 1
BY
THE SIEUR DE LA TONTY. 2
"MEMOIR SENT IN 1693, ON THE DISCOVERY
OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE NEIGHBOR-
ING NATIONS BY M. D. LA SALLE, FROM
THE YEAR 1678 TO THE TIME OF HIS
DEATH, AND BY THE SIEUR DE TONTY TO
THE YEAR 1691."
CHAPTER I
AFTER having been eight years in the
French service, by land and by sea, and
having had a hand shot off in Sicily by a
grenade, I resolved to return to France to
solicit employment. At that time the late
1 This Memoir forms the basis of a spurious
work, printed in Paris, 1697, entitled "Derniers
Decouvertes dans I'Amerique Septentrionale, de
M. de la Salle, par Chevalier Tonti, Gouverneur
du Fort St. Louis, aux Illinois, Paris, 1697."
2 For bibliographic notices for this and the fol-
lowing chapters consult Vol. II., App. II. B.
I
JOURNEYS OF
M. CAVELIER DE LA SALLE came to Court,
a man of great intelligence and merit, who
sought to obtain leave to discover the Gulf
of Mexico by crossing the southern coun-
tries of North America. Having obtained
of the King the permission he desired
through the favor of the late M. Colbert
and M. de Seignelai, the late Monseigneur
the Prince Conty, who was acquainted with
him, and who honored me with his favor,
directed me to him to be allowed to accom-
pany him in his long journeys, which he
very willingly assented to. We sailed from
Rochelle on the I4th of July, 1678, and ar-
rived at Quebec on the I5th of September
following. We recruited there for some
days, and after having taken leave of M.
de Frontenac, ascended the St. Lawrence
as far as Fort Frontenac (Kingston), 120
leagues from Quebec, on the banks of the
Lake Frontenac (Lake Ontario), which is
about 300 leagues round. After staying
there four days, we embarked in a boat
of 40 tons burthen to cross the lake, and
on Christmas day we were opposite a vil-
lage called Isonnoutouan, to which M. de la
Salle sent some canoes to procure Indian
corn for our subsistence. From thence we
sailed towards Niagara, intending to look
for a place above the Falls where a boat
2
LA SALLE
might be built. The winds were so con-
trary that we could not approach it nearer
than nine leagues, which obliged us to go
by land. We found there some cabins of
the Iroquois, who received us well. We
slept there, and the next day we went three
leagues further up to look for a good place
to build a boat, and there encamped. The
boat we came in was lost through the ob-
stinacy of the pilot, whom M. de la Salle
had ordered to bring it ashore. The crew
and the things in it were saved. M. de la
Salle determined to return to Fort Fron-
tenac over the ice, and I remained in com-
mand at Niagara, with a Father Recollet
and 30 men. The boat was completed in
the spring [in August] of 1679. M. de
la Salle joined us with two other boats, and
several men to assist us to work the boat
up the Rapids, which I was not able to
ascend on account of the weakness of my
crew. He directed me to proceed and wait
for him at the extremity of Lake Erie, at
a place called Detroit, 120 leagues from
Niagara, to join some Frenchmen whom he
had sent off the last autumn. I embarked
in a canoe of bark, and when we were near
Detroit the boat came up. We got into it,
and continued our voyage as far as Michili-
makinac, where we arrived at the end
3
JOURNEYS OF
[27th] of August, having crossed two lakes
larger than that of Frontenac (Ontario).
We remained there some days to rest our-
selves, and as M. de la Salle intended to
go to the Illinois, he sent me to the Falls
of St. Mary, which is situated where Lake
Superior discharges itself into Lake Huron,
to look for some men who had deserted,
and he in the meantime sailed for the Lake
Illinois. Having arrived at Poutouatamis,
an Illinois village, the calumet was sung,
during which ceremony presents were given
and received. There is a post placed in the
midst of the assembly, where those who
wish to make known their great deeds in
war, striking the post, declaim on the deeds
they have done. This ceremony takes place
in presence of those with whom they wish
to make friendship, the calumet being the
symbol of peace. M. de la Salle sent his
boat back to Niagara to fetch the things
he wanted, and, embarking in a canoe, con-
tinued his voyage to the Miamis River, and
there commenced building a house. In the
meantime I came up with the deserters,
and brought them back to within 30 leagues
of the Miamis River, where I was obliged
to leave my men, in order to. hunt, our pro-
visions failing us. I then went on to join
M. de la Salle. When I arrived he told me
4
LA SALLE
he wished that all the men had come with
me in order that he might proceed to the
Illinois. I therefore retraced my way to
find them, but the violence of the wind
forced me to land, and our canoe was upset
by the violence of the waves. It was, how-
ever, saved, but everything that was in it
was lost, and for want of provisions we
lived for three days on acorns. I sent word
of what had happened to M. de la Salle,
and he directed me to join him. I went
back in my little canoe, and as soon as I
arrived we ascended 25 leagues, as far as
the portage, where the men whom I had
left behind joined us. We made the port-
age, which extends about two leagues, and
came to the source of the Illinois River.
We embarked there, and ascending [de-
scending] the river for 100 leagues, arrived
at a village of the savages. They were ab-
sent hunting, and as we had no provisions
we opened some caches 3 of Indian corn.
During this journey some of our French-
men were so fatigued that they determined
1 "The term cache, meaning a place of conceal-
ment, was originally used by the French Canadian
trappers and traders. It is made by digging a
hole in the ground, somewhat in the shape of a
jug, which is lined with dry sticks, grass, or any-
thing else that will protect its contents from the
dampness of the earth. In this place the goods to
be concealed are carefully stowed away."
Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, vol. I., p. 68.
s
JOURNEYS OF
to leave us, but the night they intended to
go was so cold that their plan was broken
up. We continued our route, in order to
join the savages, and found them 30 leagues
above [below] the village. When they saw
us they thought we were Iroquois, and put
themselves on the defensive and made their
women run into the woods ; but when they
recognized us the women were called back
with their children, and the calumet was
danced to M. de la Salle and me, in order
to mark their desire to live in peace with us.
We gave them some merchandise for the
corn which he had taken in their village.
This was on the 3d of January, 1679-80.
As it was necessary to fortify ourselves
during the winter we made a fort which
was called Crevecaur.* Part of our people
deserted, and they had even put poison
into our kettle. M. de la Salle was pois-
oned, but he was saved by some antidote
a friend had given to him in France. The
desertion of these men gave us less annoy-
ance than the effect which it had on the
minds of the savages. The enemies of M.
de la Salle had spread a report among the
Illinois that we were friends of the Iro-
quois, who are their greatest enemies. The
[* For a discussion of the name cf. VoL I.
page 104.]
6
LA SALLE
effect thus produced will be seen hereafter.
M. de la Salle commenced building a boat
to descend the river. He sent a Father
Recollet [Hennepin], with the Sieur Deau,
to discover the nation of the Sioux, 400
leagues from the Illinois on the Mississippi
River southwards, [northwards] a river
that runs not less than 800 leagues to the
sea without rapids. He determined to go
himself by land to Fort Frontenac, because
he had heard nothing of the boat which he
had sent to Niagara. He gave me the com-
mand of this place, and left us on the 22d of
March, with five men. On his road he met
with two men, whom he had sent in the
autumn to Michilimakinac to obtain news of
his boat. They assured him that it had not
come down, and he therefore determined to
continue his journey. The two men were
sent to me with orders to go to the old vil-
lage to visit a high rock, and to build a
strong fort upon it. Whilst I was proceed-
ing thither all my men deserted, and took
away everything that was most valuable.
They left me with two Recollets and three
men, newly arrived from France, stripped of
everything and at the mercy of the sav-
ages. All that I could do was to send an
authentic account of the affair to M. de
la Salle. He laid wait for them on Lake
7
JOURNEYS OF
Frontenac, took some of them and killed
others, after which he returned to the Il-
linois. As for his boat, it was never heard
of.
During the time this happened the Illinois
were greatly alarmed at seeing a party of
600 Iroquois. It was then near the month
of September. The desertion of our men,
and the journey of M. de la Salle to Fort
Frontenac, made the savages suspect that
we intended to betray them. They severely
reproached me on the arrival of their ene-
mies. As I was so recently come from
France and was not then acquainted with
their manners, I was embarrassed at this
event and determined to go to the enemy
with necklaces, and to tell them that I was
surprised they should come to make war
with a nation dependent on the government
of New France, and which M. de la Salle,
whom they esteemed, governed. An Illi-
nois accompanied me, and we separated our-
selves from the body of the Illinois, who,
to the number of 400 only, were fighting
with the enemy. When I was within gun-
shot the Iroquois shot at us, seized me, took
the necklace from my hand, and one of
them plunged a knife into my breast,
wounding a rib near the heart. However,
having recognized me, they carried me into
8
LA SALLE
the midst of the camp, and asked me what
I came for. I gave them to understand
that the Illinois were under the protection
of the King of France and of the Governor
of the country, and that I was surprised
that they wished to break with the French,
and not to continue at peace. All this time
skirmishing was going on on both sides,
and a warrior came to give notice that their
left wing was giving way, and that they
had recognized some Frenchmen among the
Illinois, who shot at them. On this they
were greatly irritated against me, and held
a council on what they should do with me.
There was a man behind me with a knife
in his hand, who every now and then lifted
up my hair. They were divided in opinion.
Tegantouki, chief of the Isonoutouan, [Sen-
ecas] desired to have me burnt. Agoasto,
chief of the Onnoutagues, [Onandagas]
wished to have me set at liberty, as a friendi
of M. de la Salle, and he carried his point.
They agreed that, in order to deceive the
Illinois, they should give me a necklace of
porcelain beads to prove that they also were
children of the Governor, and ought to unite
and make a good peace. They sent me to
deliver this message to the Illinois. I had
much difficulty in reaching them, on account
of the blood I had lost, both from my wound
9
JOURNEYS OF
and from my mouth. On my way I met the
Fathers Gabriel de la Ribourde and Zenoble
Membre, who were coming to look after
me. 5 They expressed great Joy that these
barbarians had not put me to death. We
went together to the Illinois, to whom I re-
ported the sentiments of the Iroquois, add-
ing, however, that they must not altogether
trust them. They retired within their vil-
lage, but seeing the Iroquois present them-
selves every day in battle array, they went
to rejoin their wives and children, three
leagues off. When they went I was left
with the two Recollets and three French-
men. The Iroquois made a fort in their
village, and left us in a cabin at some dis-
tance from their fort. Two days after, the
Illinois appearing on the neighboring hills,
the Iroquois thought that we had some
communication with them; this obliged
them to take us within their fort. They
pressed me to return to the Illinois and in-
duce them to make a treaty of peace. They
gave me one of their own nation as a host-
age, and I went with Father Zenoble. The
Iroquois remained with the Illinois, and
one of the latter came with me. When we
got to the fort, instead of mending matters,
[ 5 For Membre's account of this encounter see
Vol. I., page 119.]
10
LA' SALLE
he spoilt them entirely by owning that they
had in all only 400 men, and that the rest
of their young men were gone to war, and
that if the Iroquois really wished for peace
they were ready to give them the beaver
skins and some slaves which they had. The
Iroquois called me to them and loaded me
with reproaches; they told me that I was
a liar to have said that the Illinois had
1,200 warriors, besides the allies who had
given them assistance. Where were the
60 Frenchmen who I had told them had
been left at the village? I had much dif-
ficulty in getting out of the scrape. The
same evening they sent back the Illinois to
tell his nation to come the next day to
within half a league of the fort, and that
they would there conclude the peace, which
in fact they did at noon. The Iroquois gave
them presents of necklaces and merchan-
dise. The first necklace signified that the
Governor of New France was angry at
their having come to molest their brothers ;
the second was addressed to M. de la Salle
with the same meaning; and the third, ac-
companied with merchandise, bound them
as by oath to a strict alliance that hereafter
they should live as brothers. They then
separated, and the Illinois believed, after
these presents, in the sincerity of the peace,
n
JOURNEYS OF
which induced them to come several times
into the fort of Iroquois, where some Illi-
nois chiefs having asked me what I thought,
I told them they had everything to fear,
that their enemies had no good faith, that
I knew that they were making canoes of
elm-bark, and that consequently it was in-
tended to pursue them; and that they should
take advantage of any delay to retire to
some distant nation, for that they would
most assuredly be betrayed.
The eighth day after their arrival, on the
loth of September, the Iroquois called me
and the Father Zenoble to council, and hav-
ing made me sit down, they placed six
packets of beaver skins before us, and ad-
dressing me, they said, that the two first
packets were to inform M. de Frontenac
that they would not eat his children, and
that he should not be angry at what they
had done; the third, a plaster for my
wound ; the fourth, some oil to rub on my
own and Father Zenoble's limbs, on account
of the long journeys we had taken; the
fifth, that the sun was bright; 8 the sixth,
that we should profit by it and depart the
next day for the French settlements. I
'^The published relation states: "Par le cin-
queme ils nous exhortaient a adorer le soleil" (p.
Itait b ,, original is simply: "Le Se quel e soleil
12
LA SALLE
asked them when they would go away
themselves. Murmurs arose, and some of
them said that they would eat some of the
Illinois before they went away ; upon which
I kicked away their presents, saying, that
I would have none of them, since they de-
sired to eat the children of the Governor.
An Abenakis who was with them, who
spoke French, told me that I irritated them,
and the chiefs rising drove me from the
council. We went to our cabin, where we
passed the night on our guard, resolved to
kill some of them before they should kill
us, for we thought that we should not live
out the night. However, at daybreak they
directed us to depart, which we did. After
five hours' sailing we landed to dry our
peltries which were wet, while we repaired
our canoe. The Father Gabriel told me he
was going aside to pray. I advised him
not to go away, because we were surrounded
by enemies. He went about 1000 paces off,
and was taken by forty savages, of a nation
called Kikapous, who carried him away and
broke his head. Finding that he did not
return, I went to look for him with one of
the men. Having discovered his trail, I
found it cut by several others, which joined
and ended at last in one. I brought back
this sad news to the Father Zenoble, who
13
JOURNEYS OF
was greatly grieved at it. Towards even-
ing we made a great fire, hoping that per-
haps he might return; and we went over
to the other side of the river, where we kept
a good lookout. Towards midnight we
saw a man at a distance, and then many
others. The next day we crossed over the
river to look for our crew, and after wait-
ing till noon we embarked and reached the
Lake Illinois by short journeys, always hop-
ing to meet with the good father. After
having sailed on the lake as far as La Tou-
issant we were wrecked, twenty (leagues
from the village of Poutouatamis. Our pro-
visions failing us, I left a man to take care
of our things and went off by land ; but as
I had a fever constantly on me and my legs
were swollen, we did not arrive at this vil-
lage till St. Martin's day (November n,
1680). During this journey we lived on
wild garlick, which we were obliged to grub
up from under the snow. When we arrived
we found no savages; they were gone to
their winter quarters. We were obliged to
go to the places they had left, where we ob-
tained hardly as much as two handfuls of
Indian corn a day, and some frozen gourds
which we piled up in a cabin at the water's
side. Whilst we were gleaning, a French-
man whom we had left at the cache, came
14
LA SALLE
to the cabin where we had left our little
store of provisions. He thought we had
put them there for him, and therefore did
not spare them. We were very much sur-
prised, as we were going off to Michilima-
kinac, to find him in the cabin, where he
had arrived three days before. We had
much pleasure in seeing him again, but
little to see our provisions partly consumed.
We did not delay to embark, and after two
hours' sail, the wind in the offing obliged
us to land, when I saw a fresh trail, and
directed that it should be followed. It led
to the Poutouatamis village, who had made
a portage to the bay of the Puans, [Green
Bay]. The next day, weak as we were, we
carried our canoe and all our things into this
bay, to which there was a league of portage.
We embarked in Sturgeon Creek, and turn-
ed to the right at hazard, not knowing where
to go. After sailing for a league, we found
a number of cabins, which led us to expect
soon to find the savages.
Five leagues from this place we were
stopped by the wind for eight days, which
compelled us to consume the few provisions
we had collected together, and at last we
were without anything. We held a council,
and despairing of being able to come up
with the savages, every one asked to return
15
JOURNEYS OF
to the village, where at least there was
wood, so that we might die warm. The
wind lulling we set off, and on entering
Sturgeon's Creek we saw a fire made by
savages who had just gone away. We
thought they were gone to their village, and
determined to go there ; but the creek hav-
ing frozen in the night we could not proceed
in our canoe. We made shoes of the late
Father Gabriel's cloak, having no leather.
We were to have started in the morning,
but one of my men being very ill from hav-
ing eaten some parre-fleche in the evening,
delayed us. As I was urging our starting,
two Ottawas savages came up, who led
us to where the Poutouatamis were. We
found some Frenchmen with them, who
kindly received us. I spent the winter with
them, and the Father Zenoble left us, to pass
the winter with the Jesuits at the end of the
bay. I left this place in the spring (1681)
for Michilimakinac, hardly recovered from
the effects of what we had suffered from
hunger and cold during thirty-four days.
We arrived at Michilimakinac about the
fete Dieu in October [June] . M. de la Salle
arrived with M. Forest some days after-
wards, on his way to seek us at the Illinois.
He was very glad to see us again, and not-
withstanding the many past reverses, made
16
LA SALLE
new preparations to continue the discovery
which he had undertaken. I therefore em-
barked with him for Fort Frontenac, to
fetch things that we should want for the
expedition. The Father Zenoble accom-
panied us. When we came to Lake Fron-
tenac, M. de la Salle went forward, and I
waited for his boat at the village of Teza-
gon. When it arrived there I embarked
for Illinois. At the Miamis River I as-
sembled some Frenchmen and savages for
the voyage of discovery, and M. de la Salle
joined us in October. 7 We went in canoes
to the River Chicagou, where there is a
portage which joins that of the Illinois. The
rivers being frozen, we made sledges and
dragged our baggage thirty leagues below
the village of Illinois, where, finding the
navigation open, we arrived at the end of
January [Feb. 6th] at the great River Mis-
sissippi. The distance from Chicagou was
estimated at 140 leagues. We descended
the river, and found, six leagues below, on
the right, a great river, 8 which comes from
the west, on which there are numerous na-
tions. We slept at its mouth. The next
day we went on to the village of Tamarous
[Tamaroa, an Illinois tribe], six leagues off
[ 7 For the date of La Salle's arrival cf. MARGRY
Vol. I., 592, 593, and Vol. I., page 128.]
Missouri.
17
JOURNEYS OF
on the left. There was no one there, all the
people being at their winter quarters in the
woods. We made marks to inform the sav-
ages that we had passed, and continued our
route as far as the River Ouabache, 9 which
is eighty leagues from that of Illinois. It
comes from the east, and is more than 500
leagues in length. It is by this river that the
Iroquois advance to make war against the
nations of the south. Continuing our voy-
age about sixty leagues, we came to a place
which was named Fort Prudhomme, be-
cause one of our men lost himself there
when out hunting, and was nine days with-
out food. As they were looking for him
they fell in with two Chikasas savages,
whose village was three days' journey in-
land. They have 2,000 warriors, the great-
est number of whom have fiat heads, which
is considered a beauty among them, the
women taking pains to flatten the heads of
their children, by means of a cushion which
they put on the forehead and bind with a
band, which they also fasten to the cradle,
and thus make their heads take this form.
When they grow up their faces are as big
as a large soup plate. All the nations on
the seacoast have the same custom.
M. de la Salle sent back one of them with
8 Ohio.
18
LA SALLE
presents to his village, so that, if they had
taken Proudhomme, they might send him
back, but we found him on the tenth [ninth]
day, and as the Chikasas did not return, we
continued our route as far as the village
of Cappa, fifty leagues off. We arrived
there in foggy weather, and as we heard
the sound of the tambour, we crossed over
to the other side of the river, where, in less
than half an hour, we made a fort. The
savages having been informed that we were
coming down the river, came in their canoes
to look for us. We made them land, and
sent two Frenchmen as hostages to their
village; the chief visited us with the calu-
met, and we went to the savages. They
regaled us with the best they had, and after
having danced the calumet to M. de la Salle,
they conducted us to their village of Toy-
engan, eight leagues from Cappa. They
received us there in the same manner, and
from thence they went with us to Toriman,
two leagues further on, where we met with
the same reception. It must be here re-
marked that these villages, the first of
which is Osotonoy, are six leagues to the
right descending the river, and are com-
monly called Akancas (Arkansas). The
first three villages are situated on the great
river (Mississippi). M. de la Salle erected
19
JOURNEYS OF
the arms of the King there; they have
cabins made with the bark of cedar; they
have no other worship than the adoration
of all sorts of animals. Their country is
very beautiful, having abundance of peach,
plum and apple trees, and vines flourish
there ; buffaloes, deer, stags, bears, turkeys,
are very numerous. They have even do-
mestic fowls. They have very little snow
during the winter, and the ice is not thicker
than a dollar. They gave us guides to con-
duct us to their allies, the Taencas, six
leagues distant.
The first day we began to see and kill
alligators, which are numerous and from
15 to 20 feet long. When we arrived oppo-
site to the village of the Taencas, M. de la
Salle desired me to go to it and inform the
chief of his arrival. I went with our guides,
and we had to carry a bark canoe for ten
arpens, and to launch it on a small lake in
which their village was placed. I was sur-
prised to find their cabins made of mud and
covered with cane mats. The cabin of the
chief was 40 feet square, the wall 10 feet
high, a foot thick, and the roof, which was
of a dome shape, about 15 feet high. I was
not less surprised when, on entering, I saw
the chief seated on a camp bed, with three
of his wives at his side, surrounded by more
20
LA SALLE
than 60 old men, clothed in large white
cloaks, which are made by the women out
of the bark of the mulberry tree, and are
tolerably well worked. The women were
clothed in the same manner ; and every time
the chief spoke to them, before answering
him, they howled and cried out several times
"O-o-o-o-o-o !" to show their respect for
him, for their chiefs are held in as much
consideration as our kings. No one drinks
out of the chief's cup, nor eats out of his
plate, and no one passes before him; when
he walks they clean the path before him.
When he dies they sacrifice his youngest
wife, his house-steward (maitre d' hotel),
and a hundred men, to accompany him
into the other world. They have a form of
worship, and adore the sun. There is a
temple opposite the house of the chief, and
similar to it, except that three eagles are
placed on this temple, who look towards the
rising sun. The temple is surrounded with
strong mud walls, in which are fixed spikes,
on which they place the heads of their ene-
mies whom they sacrifice to the sun. At the
door of the temple is a block of wood, on
which is a great shell (vignot), and plaited
round with the hair of their enemies in a
plait as thick as an arm, and about 20
fathoms (toises) long. The inside of the
21
JOURNEYS OF
temple is naked; there is an altar in the
middle, and at the foot of the altar three
logs of wood are placed on end, and a fire
is kept up day and night by two old priests
(jongleurs), who are the directors (mai-
tres) of their worship. These old men
showed me a small cabinet within the wall,
made of mats of cane. Desiring to see what
was inside, the old men prevented me, giv-
ing me to understand that their God was
there. But I have since learnt that it is the
place where they keep their treasure, such
as fine pearls which they fish up in the
neighborhood, and European merchandise.
At the last quarter of the moon all the
cabins make an offering of a dish of the
best food they have, which is placed at the
door of the temple. The old men take care
to carry it away, and to make a good feast
of it with their families. Every spring they
make a clearing, which they name "the field
of the spirit," when all the men work to the
sound of the tambour. In the autumn the
Indian corn is harvested with much cere-
mony, and stored in magazines until the
moon of June in the following year, when
all the village assemble, and invite their
neighbors to eat it. They do not leave the
ground until they have eaten it all, making
great rejoicings the whole time. This is all
22
LA SALLE
I learnt of this nation. The three villages
below have the same customs.
Let us return to the chief. When I was
in his cabin he told me with a smiling coun-
tenance the pleasure he felt at the arrival
of the French. I saw that one of his wives
wore a pearl necklace. I presented her with
ten yards of blue glass beads in exchange
for it. She made some difficulty but the
chief having told her to let me have it, she
did so. I carried it to M. de la Salle, giv-
ing him an account of all that I had seen,
and told him that the chief intended to visit
him the next day which he did. He would
not have done this for savages, but the hope
of obtaining some merchandise induced him
to act thus. He came the next day with
wooden canoes to the sound of the tambour
and the music of the women. The savages
of the river use no other boats than these.
M. de la Salle received him with much po-
liteness, and gave him some presents; they
gave us, in return, plenty of provisions and
some of their robes. The chiefs returned
well satisfied. We stayed during the day,
which was the 22d of March. An obser-
vation gave 31 of latitude. We left on the
22d [26th], and slept in an island ten
leagues off. The next day we saw a canoe,
and M. de la Salle ordered me to chase it,
23
JOURNEYS OF
which I did, and as I was just on the point
of taking it, more than 100 men appeared
on the banks of the river to defend their
people. M. de la Salle shouted out to me
to come back, which I did. We went on
and encamped opposite them. Afterwards,
M. de la Salle expressing a wish to meet
them peaceably, I offered to carry to them
the calumet, and embarking, went to them.
At first they joined their hands, as a sign
that they wished to be friends ; I, who had
but one hand, told our men to do the same
thing.
I made the chief men among them cross
over to M. de la Salle, who accompanied
them to their village, three leagues inland,
and passed the night there with some of his
men. The next day he returned with the
chief of the village where he had slept, who
was a brother of the great chief of the
Natches; he conducted us to his brother's
village, situated on the hillside, near the
river, at six leagues' distance. We were
well received there. This nation counts
more than 300 warriors. Here the men
cultivate the ground, hunt, and fish, as well
as the Taencas, and their manners are the
same. We departed thence on Good Fri-
day, and after a voyage of 20 leagues, en-
camped at the mouth of a large river, which
24
LA SALLE
runs from the west. We continued our
journey, and crossed a great canal, which
went towards the sea on the right. Thirty
leagues further on we saw some fishermen
on the bank of the river, and sent to recon-
noitre them. It was the village of the Quin-
ipissas, 10 who let fly their arrows upon our
men, who retired in consequence. As M.
de la Salle would not fight against any na-
tion, he made us embark. Twelve leagues
from this village, on the left, is that of the
Tangibaos. Scarcely eight days before this
village had been totally destroyed. Dead
bodies were lying on one another, and the
cabins were burnt. We proceeded on our
course, and after sailing 40 leagues, arrived
at the sea on the 7th of April, 1682.
M. de la Salle sent canoes to inspect the
channels ; some of them went to the chan-
nel on the right hand, some to the left, and
M. de la Salle chose the centre. In the
evening each made his report, that is to say,
that the channels were very fine, wide, and
deep. We encamped on the right bank ; we
erected the arms of the King, and returned
several times to inspect the channels. The
same report was made. This river is 800
leagues long, without rapids, 400 from the
[ 10 The Bayougoulas and Mongoulachas of
Iberville. Cf. MARGRY IV., 120.]
25
JOURNEYS OF
country of the Scioux, and 400 from the
mouth of the Illinois river to the sea. The
banks are almost uninhabitable, on account
of the spring floods. The woods are all
those of a boggy district, the country one
of canes and briars and of trees torn up
by the roots ; but a league or two from the
river, the most beautiful country in the
world, prairies, woods of mulberry trees,
vines, and fruits that we were not acquaint-
ed with. The savages gather the Indian
corn twice in the year. In the lower part
of the river, which might be settled, the
river makes a bend N. and S., and in many
places every now and then is joined by
streams on the right and left. The river
is only navigable (for large vessels?) as
far as the village of the Natches, for above
that place the river winds too much; but
this does not prevent the navigation of the
river from the confluence of the Ouabache
and the Mississippi as far as the sea. There
are but few beavers, but, to make amends,
there is a large number of buffaloes, bears,
large wolves, stags and hinds in abundance,
and some lead mines, which yield two-thirds
of ore to one of refuse. As these savages are
stationary (sedentaires) , and have some
habits of subordination, they might be
obliged to make silk in order to procure
26
LA SALLE
necessaries for themselves; bringing to
them from France the eggs of silkworms,
for the forests are full of mulberry-trees.
This would be a valuable trade.
As for the country of Illinois, the river
runs 100 leagues from the Fort St. Louis,
to where it falls into the Mississippi. Thus
it may be said to contain some of the finest
lands ever seen. The climate is the same
as that of Paris, though in the 40 of lati-
tude. The savages there are active and
brave, but extremely lazy, except in war,
when they think nothing of seeking their
enemies at a distance of 500 or 600 leagues
from their own country. This constantly
occurs in the country of the Iroquois,whom,
at my instigation, they continually harass.
Not a year passes in which they do not take
a number of prisoners and scalps. A few
pieces of pure copper, whose origin we have
not sought, are found in the river of the
Illinois country. Polygamy prevails in this
nation, and is one of the great hindrances
to the introduction of Christianity, as well
as the fact of their having no form of wor-
ship of their own. The nations lower down
would be more easily converted, because
they adore the sun, which is their divinity.
This is all that I am able to relate of those
parts.
JOURNEYS OF
Let us return to the sea coast, where, pro-
visions failing, we were obliged to leave it
sooner than we wished, in order to obtain
provisions in the neighboring villages. We
did not know how to get anything from the
village of the Quinipissas, who had so ill
received us as we went down the river. We
lived on potatoes until six leagues from
their village, when we saw smoke. M. de
la Salle sent to reconnoitre at night. Our
people reported that they had seen some
women. We went on at daybreak, and
taking four of the women, encamped on
the opposite bank. One of the women was
then sent with merchandise to prove that
we had no evil design and wished for their
alliance and for provisions. She made her
report. Some of them came immediately
and invited us to encamp on the other bank,
which we did. We sent back the
three other women, keeping, however,
constant guard. They brought us some
provisions in the evening, and the
next morning, at daybreak, the scoundrels
attacked us.
We vigorously repulsed them, and by ten
o'clock burnt their canoes, and, but for the
fear of our ammunition failing, we should
have attacked their village. We left in the
evening in order to reach Natches, where
28
LA SALLE
we had left a quantity of grain on passing
down. When we arrived there the chief
came out to meet us. M. de la Salle made
them a present of the scalps we had taken
from the Quinipissas. They had already
heard the news, for they had resolved to
betray and kill us. We went up to their
village, and as we saw no women there, we
had no doubt of their having some evil de-
sign. In a moment we were surrounded
by 1,500 men. They brought us something
to eat, and we ate with our guns in our
hands. As they were afraid of firearms,
they did not dare to attack us. The chief
begged M. de la Salle to go away, as his
young men had not much sense, which we
very willingly did the game not being
equal, we having only fifty men, French
and savages. We then went on to the
Taencas, and then to the Arkansas, where
we were very well received. From thence
we came to Fort Prudhomme, where M. de
la Salle fell dangerously ill, which obliged
him to send me forward, on the 6th of May,
to arrange his affairs at Missilimakinac. In
passing near the Ouabache, I found four
Iroquois, who told us that there were 100
men of their nation coming on after them.
This gave us some alarm. There is no
pleasure in meeting warriors on one's road,
29
JOURNEYS OF
especially when they have been unsuccess-
ful. I left them, and at about twenty
leagues from Tamaraas we saw smoke. I
ordered our people to prepare their arms,
and we resolved to advance, expecting to
meet the Iroquois. When we were near the
smoke, we saw some canoes, which made us
think that they could only be Illinois or
Tamaraas. They were in fact the latter.
As soon as they saw us they came out of the
wood in great numbers to attack us, taking
us for Iroquois. I presented the calumet
to them they put down their arms, and
conducted us to their village without doing
us any harm. The chiefs held a council,
and, taking us for Iroquois, resolved to
burn us ; and, but for some Illinois among
us, we should have fared ill. They let us
proceed. We arrived about the end of June,
1683 (1682), at the River Chicagou, and,
by the middle of July, at Michilimakinac.
M. de la Salle, having recovered, joined
us in September. Resolving to go to
France, he ordered me to collect together
the French who were on the River Miamis
to construct the Fort of St. Louis in the
Illinois. I left with this design, and when
I arrived at the place, M. de la Salle, having
changed his mind, joined me. 11 They set
[ u Dec. 30, 1682. Cf. MARGRY L, 613.]
30
LA SALLE
to work at the fort, and it was finished in
March, i683. 12
During the winter I gave all the nations
notice of what we had done to defend them
from the Iroquois, through whom they had
lost 700 people in previous years. They
approved of our good intentions, and estab-
lished themselves, to the number of 300
cabins, near the Fort Illinois, as well Mi-
amis as Chawanons [Shawnees].
TONTY'S MEMOIR. PART II.
CHAPTER II
TONTY ON THE ILLINOIS AND MISSISSIPPI
M. DE LA SALLE departed for France in
the month of September, leaving me to com-
mand the fort. He met on his way the
Chevalier de Bogis [Baugy], whom M. de
la Barre had sent with letters, ordering M.
de la Salle to Quebec, who had no trouble
in making the journey, as he was met with
on the road. M. de la Salle wrote to me
to receive M. de Bogis well, which I did.
The winter passed, and on the 2Oth of
March, 1684, being informed that the Iro-
"This date is no doubt correct, for there is a
letter of La Salle's in existence, dated at Fort St.
Louis, April 2, 1683.
31
JOURNEYS OF
quois were about to attack us, we prepared
to receive them, and dispatched a canoe to
M. de la Durantaye [Durantays], Governor
of Missilimakinac, for assistance, in case
the enemy should hold out against us a long
time. The savages appeared on the 2ist, and
we repulsed them with loss. After six days'
siege they retired with some slaves which
they had made in the neighborhood, who
afterwards escaped and came back to the
fort.
M. de la Durantaye, with Father Daloy,
a Jesuit, arrived at the Fort with about
sixty Frenchmen, whom they brought to
our assistance, and to inform me of the
orders of M. de la Barre, to leave the place.
They stated that M. de Bogis was in pos-
session of a place belonging to M. de la
Foret, who had accompanied M. de la Salle
to France, and had returned by order of
M. de la Salle with a lettre de cachet. M.
de la Barre was directed to deliver up to
M. de la Foret the lands belonging to the
Sieur de la Salle, and which were occupied
by others to his prejudice. He brought me
news that M. de la Salle was sailing by
way of the islands to find the mouth of the
Mississippi, and had at court obtained a
company for me. 1 He sent me orders to
[' Cf. MARGRY II., 370-373 ; III., 28-36.]
32
LA SALLE
command at Fort St. Louis, as Captain of
Foot and Governor. We took measures
together, and formed a company of twenty
men to maintain the Fort. M. de la Foret
went away in the autumn, for Fort Fronte-
nac, and I began my journey to Illinois.
Being stopped by the ice, I was obliged to
halt at Montreal, where I passed the win-
ter. When M. de la Foret arrived there in
the spring, we took new measures he re-
turned to Frontenac, and I went on to the
Illinois, where I arrived in June (1685).
M. le Chevalier de Bogis retired from his
command, according to the orders that I
brought him from M. de la Barre.
The Miamis having seriously defeated the
Illinois, it cost us 1,000 dollars to reconcile
these two nations, which I did not accom-
plish without great trouble. In the autumn
I embarked for Missilimakinac, in order to
obtain news of M. de la Salle. I heard there
that Monseigneur de Denonville had suc-
ceeded M. de la Barre ; and by a letter which
he did me the honor to write to me, he ex-
pressed his wish to see me, that we might
take measures for a war against the Iro-
quois, and informed me that M. de la Salle
was engaged in seeking the mouth of the
Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico. Upon
hearing this I resolved to go in search of
33
JOURNEYS OF
him with a number of Canadians, and as
soon as I should have found him, to return
back to execute the orders of M. de Denon-
ville.
I embarked, therefore, for the Illinois, on
St. Andrew's Day (3Oth of October, 1685) ;
but being stopped by the ice, I was obliged
to leave my canoe and to proceed on by land.
After going 120 leagues, I arrived at the
Fort of Chicagou, where M. de la Dnran-
taye commanded; and from thence I came
to Fort St. Louis, where I arrived in the
middle of January, 1685 (1686). I de-
parted thence on the i6th [i3th] February,
with thirty [25] Frenchmen, and five Illi-
nois and Chawanons, for the sea, which I
reached in Holy Week [April 10]. After
having passed the above-named nations, I
was very well received. I sent out two
canoes, one towards the coast of Mexico,
and the other towards Carolina, to see if
they could discover anything. They each
sailed about thirty leagues, but proceeded
no farther for want of fresh water. They
reported that where they had been the land
began to rise. They brought me a porpoise
and some oysters. As it would take us five
months to reach the French settlements, I
proposed to my men, that if they would
trust to me to follow the coast as far as
34
LA SALLE
Manhatte, that by this means we should
arrive shortly at Montreal; that we should
not lose our time, because we might dis-
cover some fine country, and might even
take some booty on our way. Part of my
men were willing to adopt my plan ; but as
the rest were opposed to it, I decided to
return the way I came.
The tide does not rise more than two
feet perpendicularly on the seacoast, and
the land is very low at the entrance of the
river. We encamped in the place where
M. de la Salle had erected the arms of the
King. As they had been thrown down by
the floods. I took them five leagues further
up, and placed them in a higher situation.
I put a silver ecu in the hollow of a tree to
serve as a mark of time and place. We
left this place on Easter Monday. When we
came opposite the Quinipissas Village, 2 the
chiefs brought me the calumet, and declared
the sorrow they felt at the treachery they
8 It was at this village (also called Bayagoulis)
that Iberville, fourteen years after, found the fol-
lowing letter from Tonty to La Salle, dated 20th
April, 1685, which the Indian chiefs had carefully
preserved: "Sir, having found the column on
which you had placed the arms of France thrown
down, I caused a new one to be erected, about
seven leagues from the sea. All the nations have
sung the calumet. These people fear us extremely,
since your attack upon their village. I close by
saying that it gives me great uneasiness to be
obliged to return under the misfortune of not
35
JOURNEYS OF
had perpetrated against me on our first voy-
age. I made an alliance with them. Forty
leagues higher up, on the right, we discov-
ered a village inland, with the inhabitants
of which we also made an alliance. These
are the Oumas, the bravest savages of the
river. When we were at Arkansas, ten of
the Frenchmen who accompanied me asked
for a settlement on the River Arkansas, on
a seignory that M. de la Salle had given
me on our first voyage. I granted the re-
quest to some of them. They remained
there to build a house\ surrounded with
stakes. The rest accompanied me to Illi-
nois, in order to get what they wanted.
I arrived there on St. John's Day (24th
of June). I made two chiefs of the Illi-
nois embark with me in my canoe, to go
and receive the orders of M. de Denonville,
and we arrived at Montreal by the end of
July.
I left that place at the beginning of Oc-
tober to return to the Illinois. I came there
on the loth of October, and I directly sent
some Frenchmen to our savage allies to de-
clare war against the Iroquois, inviting
having found you. Two canoes have examined
the coast thirty leagues towards Mexico, and
twenty-five towards Florida."
[Cf. MARGRY III., 561, for a report given by
these Indians that La Salle had been seen near
Mobile Bay.]
36
LA: SALLE
them to assemble at the Fort of Bonhomme,
which they did in the month of April, 1686
(1687). The Sieur de la Foret was al-
ready gone in a canoe with 30 Frenchmen,
and he was to wait for me at Detroit till
the end of May. I gave our savages a dog
feast (festin de Men) ; and after having
declared to them the will of the King and
of the Governor, I left with 16 Frenchmen
and a guide for the Miami nation. We en-
camped half a league from the Fort, to
wait for the savages who might wish to fol-
low us. I left 20 Frenchmen at the Fort,
and the Sieur de Bellefontaine to command
there during my absence. Fifty Chaganons,
four Loups, and seven Miamis came to join
me at night; and the next day more than
300 Illinois came, but they went back again,
with the exception of 149. This did not
prevent my continuing my route ; and after
200 leagues of journey by land, we came,
on the i Qth of May, to Fort Detroit. We
made some canoes of elm, and I sent one
of them to Fort St. Joseph on the high
ground above Detroit, 30 leagues from
where we were, to give the Sieur Dulud,
the Commander of this Fort, information
of my arrival. The Sieur Beauvais de Til-
ly joined me, and afterwards the Sieur de
la Foret; then the Sieurs de la Durantaye
37
JOURNEYS OF
and Dulud. I made the French and the
savages coast along the bay. After Le
Sieur Durantaye had saluted us, we re-
turned the salute. They had with them 30
English, whom they had taken on the Lake
Huron, at the place at which they had
reached it. We made canoes on our jour-
ney, and coasted along Lake Erie to Niag-
ara, where we made a fort below the pas-
sage to wait there for news. On our way
we took thirty more Englishmen, who were
going to Missilimackinac, commanded by
Major Gregory, who was bringing back
some Huron and Outawas slaves, taken by
the Iroquois. Had it not been for these two
moves of good luck our affairs would have
turned out badly, as we were at war with
the Iroquois. The English, from the great
quantity of brandy which they had
with them, would have gained over
our allies, and thus we should have
had all the savages and the English upon
us at once.
I sent the Sieur de la Foret forward to
inform M. de Denonville of everything. He
was at the Fort of Frontenac, and he joined
us at Fort Les Sables. The barge boat ar-
rived and brought us provisions. M. le
Monseigneur sent us word by it that he ex-
pected to arrive by the loth of July at the
38
LA SALLE
Marsh, wich is seven leagues from Sonnon-
touans.
The Poutouatamis, Hourons and Ottowas
joined us there and built some canoes.
There was an Iroquois slave among them
whom I proposed to have put to death for
the insolent manner in which he spoke of
the French. They paid no attention to my
proposal. Five leagues on our march he
ran away and gave information of our ap-
proach, and of the marks which our savages
bore to recognize each other, which did us
great harm in the ambuscade, as will be seen.
On the loth we arrived at the Marsh of
Fort Les Sables, and the army from below
arrived at the same time. I received orders
to take possession of a certain position,
which I did with my company and savages.
We then set about buifding a fort. On the
nth I went with fifty men to reconnoitre
the road, three miles from the camp. On
the 1 2th the Fort was finished, and we set
off for the village. On the I3th, half a
league from the prairie (deserts) we found
an ambuscade, and my company, who were
the advance guard, forced it. We lost seven
men, of whom my lieutenant was one, and
two of my own people. We were occupied
for seven days in cutting the corn of the
four villages. We returned to Fort Les
39
JOURNEYS OF,
Sables, and left it to build a fort at Niagara.
From thence I returned to Fort St. Louis
with my cousin, the Sieur Dulud, who re-
turned to his post with eighteen soldiers
and some savages. Having made half the
portage, which is two leagues in length,
some Hourons who followed us perceived
some Iroquois, and ran to give us warning.
There were only forty of us, and as we
thought the enemy strong, we agreed to
fall back with our ammunition towards the
Fort and get a reinforcement. We marched
all night, and, as the Sieur Dulud could not
leave his detachment, he begged me to go
to the Marquis, while he lay in ambush in
a very good position. I embarked, and
when I came to the Fort the Marquis was
unwilling to give me any men, the more
so as the militia was gone away, and he
had only some infantry remaining to escort
him; however, he sent Captain Valiennes
and fifty men to support us, who stayed at
the portage while we crossed it. We em-
barked, and when clear of the land we per-
ceived the Iroquois on the banks of the lake.
We passed over, and I left the Sieur Dulud
at his post at Detroit. I went in company
with the Reverend Father Crevier as far as
Missilimackinac, and afterwards to Fort St.
Louis.
40
LA SALLE
There I found M. Cavelier, a priest; his
nephew, and the Father Anastatius, a Recol-
let, and two men. They concealed from me
the assassination of M. de la Salle, and upon
their assuring me that he was on the Gulf
of Mexico, in good health, I received them
as if they had been M. de la Salle himself
and lent them more than seven hundred
francs (28/.). M. Cavelier departed in the
spring, 1687 (1688), to give an account of
his voyage at court.
M. die la Foret came here in the autumn
and went away in the following spring. On
the 7th of April one named Coutoure
brought me two Akansas, who danced the
calumet. They informed me of the death of
M. de la Salle, with all the circumstances
which they had heard from the lips of M.
Cavelier, who had fortunately discovered
the house I had built at Arkansas, where
the said Coutoure stayed with three French-
men. He told me that the fear of not ob-
taining from me what he desired had made
him conceal the death of his brother, but
that he had told them of it.
M. Cavelier told me that the Cadadbquis
had proposed to accompany him if he would
go and fight against the Spaniards. He
had objected on account of there being only
fourteen Frenchmen. They replied that
41
JOURNEYS OF
their nation was numerous, that they only
wanted a few musqueteers, and that the
Spaniards had much money, which they
(the French) should take; and as for them-
selves, they only wished to keep the women
and children as slaves. Coutoure told me
that a young man whom M. Cavelier had
left at Arkansas had assured him that this
was very true. I would not undertake any-
thing without the consent of the Governor
of Canada. I sent the said Coutoure to the
French remaining in Nicondiche 3 to get all
the information he could. He set off, and
at one hundred leagues from the Fort was
wrecked, and, having lost everything, re-
turned.
In the interval M. de Denonville directed
me to let the savages do as they liked, and
to do nothing against the Iroquois. He
at the same time informed me that war was
declared against Spain. Upon this I came
to the resolution of going to Naodiche, to
execute what M. Cavelier had ventured to
undertake, and to bring back M. de la
Salle's men, who were on the seacoast, not
knowing of the misfortune that had befallen
him. I set off on the 3d of October and
joined my cousin, who was gone on before,
[ 8 Nivondiche, Naodiche, with other spellings,
are probably names for the Cenis.]
42
LA SALLE
and who was to accompany me, as he ex-
pected that M. de la Foret would come and
take the command in my absence ; but as he
did not come, I sent my cousin back to com-
mand the Fort.
I bought a larger boat than my own. We
embarked five Frenchmen, one Chaganon
and two slaves. We arrived on the i/th at
an Illinois village at the mouth of their
river. They had just come from fighting
the Osages, and had lost thirteen men, but
brought back one hundred and thirty pris-
oners. We reached the village of the Kap-
pas on the 1 6th of January, where we were
received with demonstrations of joy, and
for four days there was nothing but danc-
ing, feasting and masquerading after their
manner. They danced the calumet for me,
which confirmed the last alliance. On the
2Oth of January we came to Tongenga, and
they wished to entertain us as the Kappas
had done ; but, being in haste, I deferred it
until another time. I did the same with the
Torremans on my arrival, on the 22d. Leav-
ing my crew, I set off the next day for As-
sotoue, where my commercial house is.
These savages had not yet seen me, as they
lived on a branch of the river coming from
the west. They did their best, giving me
two women of the Cadadoquis nation, to
43
JOURNEYS OF
whom I was going. I returned to Torre-
mans on the 26th, and brought there two
boats. We went away on the 27th. On the
29th, finding one of our men asleep when
on duty as sentinel, I reprimanded him, and
he left me. I sent two of my people to
Coroa, to spare myself the fatigue of drag-
ging on with our crew six leagues inland.
The Frenchman, with whom I had quar-
reled, made with them a third. We slept
opposite the rivers of the Taencas, which
run from Arkansas. They came there on
the 2d, this being the place of meeting. My
Chagenon went out hunting on the other
side of the river, where he was attacked by
three Chacoumas. He killed one of them,
and was slightly wounded by an arrow on
the left breast.
On the 4th the rest of the party arrived.
On the 5th, being opposite Taencas, the
men whom I had sent to Coroa not having
brought any news of the two Frenchmen
whom I was anxious about, I sent them to
Natches. They found that this nation had
killed the two men. They retired as well
as they could, making the savages believe
that they were numerous. They arrived on
the 8th of February. We set off on the I2th
with twelve Taencas, and after a voyage of
twelve leagues to the northwest we left our
44
LA SALLE
boat and made twenty leagues portage, and
on the 1 7th of February, 1690, came to
Nachitoches. They made us stay at the
place, which is in the midst of the three
villages called Nachitoches, Ouasita and
Capiche. The chiefs of the three nations
assembled, and before they began to speak
the 30 Taencas who were with me got
up and, leaving their arms, went to the tem-
ple, to show how sincerely they wished to
make a solid peace. After having taken
their God to witness, they asked for friend-
ship. I made them some presents in the
name of the Taencas. They remained some
days in the village to traffic with salt, which
these nations got from a salt lake in the
neighborhood. After their departure they
gave me guides to Yataches, and after as-
cending the river, always towards the north-
west, about thirty leagues, we found fifteen
cabins of Natch es, who received us pretty
well. We arrived on the i6th of March at
Yataches, about forty leagues from thence.
The three villages of Yataches, Nadas and
Choye are together. As they knew of our
arrival, they came three leagues to meet us
with refreshments, and on joining us we
went together to their villages. The chief
made many feasts for us. I gave presents
to them, and asked for guides to the Cada-
45
JOURNEYS OF
doquis. They were very unwilling to give
us any, as they had murdered three ambas-
sadors about four days before who came to
their nation to make peace. However, by
dint of entreaties, and assuring them that
no harm would happen to their people, they
granted me five men, and we got to Cada-
doquis on the 28th. 4 At the place where
we were encamped we discovered the trail
of men and horses. The next day some
horsemen came to reconnoitre us, and, after
speaking to the wife of the chief, whom I
brought back with me, carried back the
news. The next day a woman, who gov-
erned this nation, came to visit me with the
principal persons of the village. She wept
over me, demanding revenge for the death
of her husband, and of the husband of the
woman whom I was bringing back, both of
whom had been killed by the Osages. To
take advantage of everything, I promised
that their death should be avenged. We
went together to their temple, and after the
priests had invoked their God for a quarter
of an hour they conducted me to the cabin
of their chief. Before entering they washed
my face with water, which is a ceremony
among them. During the time I was there
['The report of Tonty's visit reached the
Spaniards under Teran the following year. Cf.
Tex. Hist. Quar. V., 191.]
46
LA SALLE
I learned from them that eighty leagues off
were seven Frenchmen whom M. Cavelier
had left. I hoped to finish my troubles by
rejoining them, but the Frenchmen who ac-
companied me, tired of the voyage, would
go no further. They were unmanageable
persons, over whom I could exercise no
authority in this distant country. I was
obliged to give way. All that I could do
was to engage one of them, with a savage,
to accompany me to the village of Nao-
vediche, where I hoped to find the seven
Frenchmen. I told those who abandoned
me that, to prevent the savages knowing
this, it was best to say that I had sent them
away to carry back the news of my arrival,
so that the savages should not suspect our
disunion.
The Cadadoquis are united with two
other villages called Natchitoches and Na-
soui, situated on the Red River. All the na-
tions of this tribe speak the same language.
Their cabins are covered with straw, and
they are not united in villages, but their
huts are distant one from the other. Their
fields are beautiful. They fish and hunt.
There is plenty of game, but few cattle
(b&ufs). They wage cruel war with each
other, hence their villages are but thinly
populated. I never found that they did any
47
JOURNEYS OF
work, except making very fine bows, which
they make a traffic with distant nations.
The Cadadoquis possess about thirty horses,
which they call "cavali" (sp. caballo, a
horse). The men and women are tattooed
in the face and all over the body. They call
this river the Red River, because, in fact, it
deposits a sand which makes the water as
red as blood. I am not acquainted with
their manners, having only seen them in
passing.
I left this place on the 6th of April, di-
recting our route southwards, with a
Frenchman, a Chaganon (Shawnee), a lit-
tle slave of mine, and five of their, savages,
whom they gave me as guides to Naoua-
diche. When I went away I left in the
hands of the wife of the chief a small box,
in which I had put some ammunition. On
our road we found some Naouadiches sav-
ages hunting, who assured me that the
Frenchmen were staying with them. This
gave me great pleasure, hoping to succeed
in my object of finding them. On the igth
the Frenchman with me lost himself. I
sent the savages who were with me to look
for him. He came back on the 2ist, and
told me that, having lost our trail, he was
near drowning himself in crossing a little
river on a piece of timber. His bag slipped
LA SALLE
off, and thus all our powder was lost, which
very much annoyed me, as we were reduced
to sixty pounds of ammunition. On the 23d
we slept half a league from the village, and
the chiefs came to visit us at night. I asked
them about the Frenchmen. They told me
that they had accompanied their chiefs to
fight against the Spaniards, seven days'
journey off; that the Spaniards had sur-
rounded them with their cavalry, and that
their chief having spoken in their favor,
the Spaniards had given them horses and
arms. Some of the others told me that the
Quanouatins had killed three of them,, and
that the four others were gone in search of
iron arrow-heads. I did not doubt but they
had murdered them. I told them that they
had killed the Frenchmen. Directly all the
women began to cry, and thus I saw that
what I had said was true. I would not,
therefore, accept the calumet. I told the
chief I wanted four horses for my return,
and, having given him seven hatchets and
a string of large glass beads, I received the
next day four Spanish horses, two of which
were marked on the haunch with an R and
a crown (couronne fermee) and another
with an N. Horses are very common
among them. There is not a cabin which
has not four or five. As this nation is some-
49
JOURNEYS OF
times at peace and sometimes at war with
the neighboring Spaniards, they take ad-
vantage of a war to carry off the horses.
We harnessed ours as well as we could and
departed on the 29th, greatly vexed that we
could not continue our route as far as M.
de la Salle's camp. We were unable to ob-
tain guides from this nation to take us
there, though not more than eighty leagues
off, besides being without ammunition,
owing to the accident which I related be-
fore.
It was at the distance of three days' jour-
ney from hence that M. de la Salle was mur-
dered. I will say a few words of what I
have heard of this misfortune. M. de la
Salle having landed beyond the Mississippi,
on the side of Mexico, about eighty leagues
from the mouth of the river, and losing his
vessels on the coast, saved a part of the
cargo, and began to march along the sea-
shore in search of the Mississippi. Meet-
ing with many obstacles on account of the
bad roads, he resolved to go to Illinois by
land, and loaded several horses with his
baggage. The Father Anastatius, M. Cave-
lier, a priest, his brother; M. Cavalier, his
nephew ; M. Moranget, a relative ; MM. Du-
hault and Lanctot 5 and several Frenchmen
[' Otherwise spelled Duhaut and Liotot.]
50
LA SALLE
accompanied him, with a Chaganon savage.
When three days' journey from the Naou-
diche, and short of provisions, he sent Mo-
ranget, his servant, and the Chaganon to
hunt in a small wood, with orders to return
in the evening. When they had killed some
buffaloes they stopped to dry the meat. M.
de la Salle was uneasy, and asked the
Frenchmen who among them would go and
look for them. Duhault and Lanctot had
for a long time determined to kill M. de la
Salle, because, during the journey along the
seacoast, he had compelled the brother of
Lanctot, who was unable to keep up, to re-
turn to the camp, and who, when returning
alone, was massacred by the savages. Lanc-
tot vowed to God that he would never for-
give his brother's death. As in long jour-
neys there are always discontented persons,
he easily found partisans. He offered, there-
fore, with them, to search for M. Moranget
in order to have an opportunity to execute
their design. Having found the men, he told
them that M. de la Salle was uneasy about
them; but the others showing that they
could not set off till the next day, it was
agreed to sleep there. After supper they
arranged the order of the watch. It was
to begin with M. de Moranget; after him
was to follow the servant of M. de la Salle,
51
JOURNEYS OF.
and then the Chaganon. After they had
kept their watch and were asleep they were
massacred, as persons attached to M. de la
Salle. At daybreak they heard the reports
of pistols, which were fired as signals by M.
de la Salle, who was coming with the
Father Recollet in search of them. The
wretches laid wait for him, placing M. Du-
hault's servant in front. When M. de la
Salle came near he asked where M. Moran-
get was. The servant, keeping on his hat,
answered that he was behind. As M. de la
Salle advanced to remind him of his duty
he received three balls in his head and fell
down dead. The Father Recollet was
frightened, and, thinking that he also was
to be killed, threw himself on his knees and
begged for a quarter of an hour to prepare
his soul. They replied that they were will-
ing to save his life. They went on together
to where M. Cavelier was and, as they ad-
vanced, shouted : "Down with your arms."
M. de Cavelier, on hearing the noise, came
forward, and when told of the death of his
brother threw himself on his knees, making
the same request that had been made by the
Father Recollet. They granted him his life.
He asked to go and bury the body of his
brother, which was refused. Such was the
end of one of the greatest men of the age.
52
LA SALLE
He was a man of wonderful ability, and
capable of undertaking any discovery. His
death much grieved the three Naoudiches
whom M. de la Salle had found hunting,
and who accompanied him to the village.
After the murderers had committed this
crime they seized all the baggage of the de-
ceased and continued their journey to
the village of Naoudiches, where they
found two Frenchmen who had deserted
from M. de la Salle two years before and
had taken up their abode with these sav-
ages.
After staying some days in this village
the savages proposed to them to go to war
against the Quanoouatinos, to which the
Frenchmen agreed, lest the savages should
ill-treat them. As they were ready to set
off, an English [German] buccaneer, whom
M. de la Salle had always liked, begged of
the murderers that, as they were going to
war with the savages, they would give him
and his comrades some shirts. They flatly
refused, which offended him, and he could
not help expressing this to his comrades.
They agreed together to make a second de-
mand, and if refused to revenge the death
of M. de la Salle. This they did some days
afterwards. The Englishman, taking two
pistols in his belt, accompanied by a French-
53
JOURNEYS OF
man with his gun, went deliberately to the
cabin of the murderers, whom they found
were out shooting with bows and arrows.
Lanctot met them, and wished them good-
day and asked how they were. They an-
swered, "pretty well, and that it was not
necessary to ask how they did, as they were
always eating turkeys and good venison."
Then the Englishman asked for some am-
munition and shirts, as they were provided
with everything. They replied that M. de
la Salle was their debtor, and that what
they had taken was theirs. "You will not,
then?" asked the Englishman. "No," re-
plied they. On which the Englishman said
to one of them, "You are a wretch; you
murdered my master," and, firing his pistol,
killed him on the spot. Duhault tried to get
into his cabin, but the Frenchman shot him
also with a pistol in the loins, which threw
him on the ground. M. Cavelier and
Father Anastatius ran to his assistance. Du-
hault had hardly time to confess himself, for
the father had but just given him absolution
when he was finished by another pistol shot
at the request of the savages, who could not
endure that he should live after having
killed their chief. The Englishman took
possession of everything. He gave a share
to M. Cavelier, who, having found my abode
54
LA SALLE
in Arkansas, went from thence to Illinois.
The Englishman remained at Naoudiches.
We reached Cadadoquis on the loth of
May. We stayed there to rest our horses,
and went away on the I7th with a guide,
who was to take us to the village of Co-
roas. 6 After four days' journey he left us,
in consequence of an accident which hap-
pened in crossing a marsh. As we were
leading our horses by the bridle he fancied
he was pursued by an alligator and tried
to climb a tree. In his hurry he entangled
the halter of my horse, which was drowned.
This induced him to leave us without say-
ing anything, lest we should punish him
for the loss of the horse. We were thus
left in great difficulty respecting the road
which we were to take. I forgot to say
that the savages who have horses use them
both for war and for hunting. They make
pointed saddles, wooden stirrups, and body-
coverings of several skins, one over the
other, as a protection from arrows. They
arm the breast of their horses with the
same material, a proof that they are not very
far from the Spaniards. When our guide
was gone I told the Chaganon to take the
lead. All he said in answer was that that
was my business ; and, as I was unable to
[ 6 Probably near Natchez.]
55
JOURNEYS OK
influence him, I was obliged to act as
guide. I directed our course to the south-
east, and after about forty leagues' march,
crossing seven rivers, we found the River
Coroas. We made a raft to explore the
other side of the river, but found there no
dry land. We resolved to abandon our
horses, as it was impossible to take them
on upon account of the great inundation.
In the evening, as we were preparing to
depart, we saw some savages. We called
to them in vain they ran away, and we
were unable to come up with them. Two
of their dogs came to us, which, with two
of our own, we embarked the next day on
our raft, and left our horses. We crossed
fifty leagues of flooded country. The water
where it was least deep reached halfway up
the legs ; and in all this tract we found only
one little island of dry land, where we killed
a bear and dried its flesh. It would be dif-
ficult to give an idea of the trouble we had
to get out of this miserable country, where
it rained night and day. We were obliged
to sleep on the trunks of two great trees,
placed together, and to make our fire on
the trees, to eat our dogs, and to carry our
baggage across large tracts covered with
reeds. In short, I never suffered so much
in my life as in this journey to the Missis-
56
LA SALLE
sippi, which we reached on the nth of July.
Finding where we were, and that we were
only thirty leagues from Coroas, we re-
solved to go there, although we had never
set foot in that village. We arrived there
on the evening of the I4th. We had not
eaten for three days, as we could find
no animal, on account of the great flood.
I found two of the Frenchmen who had
abandoned me at this village. The savages
received me very well and sympathized with
us in the sufferings we had undergone.
During three days they did not cease feast-
ing us, sending men out hunting every day,
and not sparing their turkeys. I left them
on the 2Oth, and reached Arkansas on the
3 ist, where I caught the fever, which
obliged me to stay there till the nth of Au-
gust, when I left. The fever lasted until
we got to the Illinois, in September, 1690.
I cannot describe the beauty of all the
countries I have mentioned. If I had had a
better knowledge of them I should be better
able to say what special advantages might
be derived from them. As for the
Mississippi, it could produce every year
20,000 ecus' worth of peltries, an abun-
dance of lead, and wood for shipbuilding.
A silk trade might be established there, and
a port for the protection of vessels and
57
JOURNEYS OF
the maintenance of a communication with
the Gulf of Mexico. Pearls might be found
there. If wheat will not grow at the lower
part of the river, the upper country would
furnish it; and the islands might be sup-
plied with everything they need, such as
planks, vegetables, grain and salt beef. If
I had not been hurried in making this nar-
rative I should have stated many circum-
stances which would have gratified the
reader, but the loss of my notes during my
travels is the reason why this relation is
not such as I could have wished.
HENRY DE TONTY.
PETITION 7 OF THE CHEVALIER DE TONTY TO
THE COUNT DE PONTCHARTRAIN, MIN-
ISTER OF MARINE.
MONSEIGNEUR,
HENRY DE TONTY humbly represents to
your Highness that he entered the army as
a cadet, and was employed in that capacity
in the years 1668 and 1669; and that he
afterwards served as a garde marine four
years, at Marseilles and Toulon, and made
seven campaigns, that is, four on board
ships of war and three in the galleys. While
'This petition is without date, but was prob-
ably written about the year 1690. [Cf. Sparks,
Amer. Biog., 2d Ser., I., 203, note.]
58
LA SALLE
at Messina he was made captain-lieutenant
to the maitre de camp of 20,000. When the
enemy attacked the post of Libisso his right
hand was shot away by a grenade, and he
was taken prisoner and conducted to Me-
tasse, where he was detained six months,
and then exchanged for the son of the gov-
ernor of that place. He then went to France,
to obtain some favor from his Majesty, and
the King granted him three hundred livres.
He returned to the service in Sicily, made
the campaign as a volunteer in the galleys,
and, when the troops were discharged, be-
ing unable to obtain employment, he solic-
ited at court, but being unsuccessful, on ac-
count of the general peace, he decided, in
1678, to join the late Monsieur de la Salle,
in order to accompany him in the discov-
eries of Mexico, during which, until 1682,
he was the only officer who did not abandon
him.
These discoveries being finished, he re-
mained, in 1683, commandant of Fort St.
Louis of the Illinois; and in 1684 he was
there attacked by two hundred Iroquois,
whom he repulsed, with great loss on their
side. During the same year he repaired to
Quebec, at the command of M. de la Barre.
In 1685 he returned to the Illinois, accord-
ing to the orders which he received from
59
JOURNEYS OF
the court, and from M. de la Salle, as a cap-
tain of foot in a Marine Detachment, and
governor of Fort St. Louis. In 1686 he
went, with forty men in canoes, at his own
expense, as far as the Gulf of Mexico, to
seek for M. de la Salle. Not being able to
find him there, he returned to Montreal, and
put himself under the orders of Monsieur
Denonville, to engage in the war with the
Iroquois. On his return to the Illinois he
marched two hundred leagues by land, and
as far in canoes, and joined the army, when,
being at the head of a company of Cana-
dians, he forced an ambuscade of the Tson-
nonthouans.
The campaign being over, he returned to
the Illinois, whence he departed, in 1689, to
go in search of the remains of M. de la
Salle's people, 8 but, being deserted by his
men, and unable to execute his design, he
was compelled to relinquish it, when he had
arrived within seven days' march of the
Spaniards. Ten months were spent in go-
ing and returning. As he now finds him-
self without employment, he prays that, in
consideration of his voyages and heavy ex-
* At the Bay of St. Bernard, and who were there
massacred by the Indians, except three sons and
a daughter of M. Talon, and a young Frenchman
named Eustache de Breman, who were carried
into captivity, and afterwards rescued t>y the
Spaniards.
60
LA SALLE
penses, and considering, also, that during
his service of seven years as captain he has
not received any pay, your Highness will
be pleased to obtain for him, from his Ma-
jesty, a company, that he may continue his
services in this country, where he has not
ceased to harass the Iroquois, by enlisting
the Illinois against them in his Majesty's
cause.
And he will continue his prayers for the
health of your Highness.
HENRY DE TONTY.
* The last that is known of the brave and gen-
erous De Tonty is that he joined Iberville at the
mouth of the Mississippi, about the year 1700, and
that two years afterwards he was employed on a
mission to the Chickasaw nation. No notice has
ever been taken of his death. "All the facts that
can be ascertained concerning De Tonty are such
as give a highly favorable impression of his char-
acter, both as an officer and a man. His constan-
cy and his steady devotion to La Salle are marked
not only by .a strict obedience to orders, but by
a faithful friendship and chivalrous generosity.
His courage and address were strikingly exhib-
ited in his intercourse with the Indians, as well
in war as in peace; but his acts were performed
where there were few to observe and fewer to
record them. Hence it is that historians have
done him but partial justice."
Tonty disavowed to Iberville and Father Marest
the publication of a work published in Paris, 1697,
entitled "Dernieres Decouvertes dans 1'Amerique
Septentripnale, de M. de la Salle, par M. le Cheva-
lier Tonti." which has been since reprinted, under
the title of "Relation de la Louisiane ou du Mis-
sissippi, par le Chevalier de Tonti."
Tonty must be ranked next to La Salle, who
61
JOURNEYS OF
Nothing can be more true than the account
given by the Sieur de Tonty in this peti-
tion; and should his Majesty reinstate the
seven companies which have been disbanded
in this country, there will be justice in
granting one of them to him, or some other
recompense for the services which he has
rendered, and which he is now returning to
render, at Fort St. Louis in the Illinois.
FRONTENAC.
TONTY'S ACCOUNT OF THE ROUTE FROM THE
ILLINOIS, BY THE RIVER MISSISSIPPI, TO
THE GULF OF MEXICO.
SIR,
As the map accompanying this has been
made in haste, without proper calculations
and measurements, you may probably desire
to make one; and for this purpose I will
state of the Mississippi that though it winds
much, we reckon from the Falls of St. An-
thony to the sea eight hundred leagues, and
you perceive from the note that its direction
is north and south. The distance of the vil-
lages, reckoning from the mouth of the
River Illinois to the sea, or ascending from
contributed the most towards the exploration and
settlement of the Mississippi Valley.
[The editor is informed that Tonty 's grave has
recently been discovered in Alabama.]
62
LA SALLE
the sea as far as the River Quiouentagoet
(on the banks of which is a village contain-
ing eighty Illinois cabins), is calculated at
sixty leagues, and from thence to the Mi-
amis thirty leagues. The Touraxouslins and
Kikapoos are fifteen leagues in the interior,
from the banks of the river; two hundred
leagues from the junction of the River Illi-
nois, and from thence two hundred leagues
to the Falls of St. Anthony. The rivers of
the Missouri come from the west, and, after
traversing three hundred leagues, arrive at
a lake, which I believe to be that of the
Apaches. The villages of the Missounta,
Otenta and Osage are near one another, and
are situated in the prairies, one hundred and
fifty leagues from the mouth of the Mis-
souri. I should have stated before that the
river of the Illinois is two hundred leagues
in length. The Fort St. Louis, with two
hundred cabins, is seventy leagues from its'
mouth. The little river on which are the
Machigama, Chipoussa and Michibousa is
forty leagues from the Tamazoa. These
tribes are situated about ten leagues from its
mouth. j i j
The mouth of the river of the Kasquin-
anipo is ten leagues from the mouth of the
Ouabache. The village is situated seventy
leagues upwards, on the bank of the river.
63
JOURNEYS OF
The Maon, a numerous nation, and at peace
with no one, is at the source of the said
river, one hundred leagues from the Kas-
quinanipo. The Ozotoues are six leagues
from the mouth of the River Arkansas. The
lonica, Yazou, Coroa and Chonque are, one
with the other, about ten leagues from the
Mississippi, on the river of the Yazou; the
Sioux fifteen leagues above. All these
villages are situated in prairies, but
it is remarkable that the country about,
the soil of which is the best in the world,
and is intersected by streams, has been
abandoned.
The Yazou are masters of the soil. The
Mauton are seventy leagues from the Ossoz-
toues and forty leagues from the Cadodo-
quis. The Coroa are their neighbors,
though thirteen leagues off.
With respect to the other nations, I have
sufficiently described at what distance they
are from one another, from the nations on
the Mississippi, and from those on the Red
River, excepting the Nadouc, who are
twelve leagues from the banks. In case the
court wishes this discovery to be continued,
I will add a note. In that I have stated it
will be requisite to build a ship of fifty tons,
to get to France from the Arkansas. Two
pilots, &c. ; particulars of everything neces-
LA SALLE
sary, and more numerous than set forth in
M. de la Salle's Note.
I undertake, with God's assistance, to de-
scend the river, to take solar observations,
to account for the expenses, and to sail to
France with the said vessel built in the Ar-
kansas. This is the place best adapted for
the purpose, for we should not be inter-
rupted by enemies; and wood and every-
thing necessary for subsistence is there
abundant.
HENRY DE TONTY.
ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF WHAT WILL BE
REQUIRED FOR BUILDING THE VESSEL.
THE former statement related to the ex-
penses of the voyage, and presents for the
savages. In case his Majesty grants the
above request, I entreat Monseigneur de
Pontchartrain to be kind enough to send
orders to M. the Intendant at Rochefort to
send the things to Messrs, the Count de
Frontenac and Champigny, and the latter to
provide twenty large canoes and forty good
men to manage them.
HENRY DE TONTY..
JOURNEYS OF
CHAPTER III.
ACCOUNT 1 OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE RIVER
MISSISSIPPI AND THE ADJACENT COUN-
TRY BY FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN.
FINDING in myself a strong inclination to
retire from the world, I entered into the
Franciscan order, where I was overjoyed in
reading the travels of the fathers of my
own order, who were, indeed, the first that
undertook missions into any foreign coun-
try. I thought nothing greater or more
glorious than to instruct the ignorant and
barbarous and lead them to the light of the
gospel. In order to [do] which I went [as]
missionary for Canada, by command of my
superiors, and embarked at Rochelle, in
company of M. de Laval, since Bishop of
Quebec, the capital city of Canada. Our
crew was about one hundred men, to three-
fourths of whom I administered the sacra-
ment, they being Catholics. I likewise per-
formed divine service every day when the
weather was calm, and we sung the Itin-
1 This Account seems to be an abridged version
of the New Discovery. Cf. Thwaites' edition of
the latter. Vol. II., App. II. A., 10.
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LA SALLE
erary of the clergy, translated into French
verse, after evening prayers.
I shall omit the accidents that befell us,
being such only as are inseparable com-
panions of all great voyages. Soon after
iny arrival I was sent in mission about one
hundred and twenty leagues beyond Que-
bec, accompanied by Father Luke Buisset.
We went up the River St. Lawrence south-
wards till we came to Fort Frontenac, dis-
tant from Quebec one hundred leagues. It
was built to prevent the excursions of the
Iroquois, and to interrupt the trade of skins
these savages maintain with the inhabitants
of New York, who furnish them with com-
modities at cheaper rates than the French
of Canada.
The Iroquois are an insolent and bar-
barous nation, and have shed the blood of
more than two millions of people in that
vast extended country. They would never
cease from disturbing the repose of the Eu-
ropeans, were it not for fear of their fire-
arms ; for they entertain no commerce with
them, unless it be for arms, which they buy
on purpose to use against their neighbors,
and by means of which they have extended
their bloody conquests five or six hundred
leagues beyond their own precincts, exter-
minating whatever nation they hate.
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JOURNEYS OF
I had already acquired some small knowl-
edge of the Iroquois language, and Father
Luke and I translated the Creed, Lord's
Prayer and Litany, which we caused them
to get by heart and repeat to their children.
They pronounce no labial letters, such
as B, P, M, F. Here we remained
two years and a half, till we saw
our house of mission finished, and then re-
turned in a canoe down the River St. Law-
rence to Quebec.
Having tarried there till those who were
expected from Europe to bear part in this
discovery were arrived, I embarked in a
small canoe, made of the bark of birch trees,
carrying nothing with me but a portable
chapel, one blanket and a mat of rushes,
which was to serve me for bed and quilt.
I arrived at Fort Frontenac the 2d of No-
vember, 1 678, 2 and on the i8th embarked
in a brigatine of about ten tons and fifteen
men, the Sieur de la Motte, commander. We
sailed on till we came to the further end
of the Lake Ontario, and on the 6th of Jan-
uary entered the River Niagara, where we
set our carpenters and the rest of the crew
to work in building a fort and some houses ;
[' From this point Hennepin's narrative should
be compared with those of Tonty (Vol. I., Ch. i)
and Le Clercq (I., Chap. iv. and v.), and with
Margry.]
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but, foreseeing that this was like to give
jealousy to the Iroquois, and to the Eng-
lish who dwell near them, and have a great
commerce with them, we told those of the
village of Niagara that we did not intend
to build a fort on the bank of their river,
but only a great storehouse to keep the
commodities we had brought to supply their
occasions. And, to remove their suspicions,
M. de la Motte thought it absolutely neces-
sary to send an embassy to the Iroquois,
telling me "he was resolved to take along
with him seven men out of sixteen that we
were in all, and desired me to accompany
him, because I understood in a manner the
language of their nation." We passed
through forests thirty-two leagues, and
after five days' journey came to a great vil-
lage, and were immediately carried to the
cabin of their principal. The younger sav-
ages washed our feet and rubbed them over
with the grease of deer, wild goats and oil
of bears. They are for the most part tall
and well shaped, covered with a sort of
robe made of beavers' and wolves' skins, or
black squirrels, holding a pipe or calumet
in their hands. The Senators of Venice do
not appear with a graver countenance, and
perhaps do not speak with more majesty and
solidity than those ancient Iroquois.
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JOURNEYS OF
One of our men, who well understood
their language, told the assembly :
1. That we were come to pay them a visit
and smoke with them in their pipes. Then
we delivered our presents, consisting of
axes, knives, a great collar of white and
blue porcelain, with some gowns. The same
presents were renewed upon every point we
proposed to them.
2. We desired them to give notice to the
five cantons of their nation that we were
about to build a ship or great canoe above
the great fall of the River Niagara, to go
and fetch European commodities by a more
convenient passage than that of the River
St. Lawrence, whose rapid currents make it
dangerous and long; and that by these
means we should afford them our commodi-
ties cheaper than the English of Boston, or
the Dutch, at that time masters of New
York. This pretense was specious enough
and very well contrived to engage the bar-
barous nation to extirpate the English and
Dutch out of that part of America.
3. We told them we should provide them,
at the River Niagara, with a blacksmith and
gunsmith to mend their guns, axes, &c.,
they having nobody among them that un-
derstood that trade. We added many other
reasons which we thought proper to per-
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suade them to favor our design. The pres-
ents we made unto them in cloth or iron
were worth above four hundred livres, be-
sides some other European commodities,
very scarce in that country; for the best
reasons in the world are not listened to
among them unless they are enforced with
presents.
The next day their speaker answered our
discourse article by article, seeming to be
pleased with our proposals, though they
were not really so, having a greater inclina-
tion for the English and Dutch than for us.
Whilst we were with them their parties had
made an excursion towards Virginia and
brought two prisoners. They spared the
life of one, but put to death the other, with
most exquisite torments. They commonly
use this inhumanity towards all their pris-
oners, and their torments sometimes last a
month. When they have brought them into
their canton they lay them on pieces of
wood like a St. Andrew's cross, to which
they tie their legs and arms, and expose
them to gnats and flies, who sting them to
death. Children cut pieces of flesh out of
their flanks, thighs or other parts and, boil-
ing them, force those poor souls to eat there-
of. Their parents eat some themselves and,
the better to inspire into their children a
71
JOURNEYS OF
hatred of their enemies, give them some of
their blood to drink. This cruelty obliged
us to leave them sooner than we would have
done, to show them the horror we had of
their inhumanity, and never ate with them
afterwards ; but returned the same way we
went, through the woods to the River Niag-
ara, where we arrived the I4th of January,
much fatigued with our voyage, having no
food on the way but Indian corn. M. de la
Motte, no longer able to endure so labor-
ious a life, gave over his design and re-
turned to Canada, having about two hun-
dred leagues to travel.
On the 20th M. de la Salle arrived from
Fort Frontenac with a great bark to sup-
ply us with provisions, rigging and tackling
for the ship we designed to build at the
mouth of the Lake Erie ; but that bark was
unfortunately cast away on the Lake On-
tario, within two leagues of Niagara. On
the 22d we went two leagues above the
great fall of Niagara, where we made a
dock for building the ship. M. de la Salle
returned to Fort Frontenac, leaving one
Tonti, an Italian, for our commander. He
undertook this journey afoot, over the snow,
having no other provision but a little sack
of roasted Indian corn. However, he got
home safely with two men and a dog, who
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LA SALLE
dragged his baggage over the frozen snow.
Most of the Iroquois were now gone to
wage war on the other side of the Lake Erie,
and our men continued, with great applica-
tion, to build our ship; for the Iroquois who
were left behind were not so insolent as be-
fore, though they came sometimes to our
dock, and expressed some discontent at
what we were doing.
We made all the haste we could to get
our ship afloat, though not altogether fin-
ished, to prevent their designs of burning it.
She was called the Griffin, about sixty tons,
and carried five small guns. We fired three
guns and sung Te Deum; and, carrying our
hammocks aboard, the same day were out
of the reach of the savages.
Before we could proceed in our intended
discovery I was obliged to return to Fort
Frontenac to bring along with me two
monks of my own order to help me in the
function of my ministry. I concealed part
of the discouragements I had met with, be-
cause I designed to engage Father Gabriel
and Zenobe in our voyage. Having dis-
patched our affairs, we three went aboard a
brigantine, and in a short time arrived at
the river which runs into the Lake Ontario,
where we continued several days, our men
being very busy in bartering their comrnodi-
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JOURNEYS OF
ties with the natives, who exchanged their
skins for knives, guns, powder and shot, but
especially brandy, which they love above all
things. M. de la Salle arrived in a canoe
eight days after. These impediments re-
tarded us so long that we could not reach
the River Niagara before the 3Oth of July.
Father Gabriel and I went overland to view
the great fall, the like whereof is not in the
whole world. It is compounded of two
great cross streams of water and two falls,
with an isle sloping along the middle of it.
The waters which fall from this vast height
do foam and boil after the most hideous
manner imaginable, making an outrageous
noise, more terrible than that of thunder;
so that when the wind blows from the south
their dismal roaring may be heard above
fifteen leagues off.
The River Niagara having thrown itself
down this incredible precipice, continues its
impetuous course for two leagues with an
inexpressible rapidity ; and the banks are so
prodigious high that it makes one tremble
to look steadily on the water, rolling along
with a rapidity not to be imagined. It is so
rapid above the descent that it violently hur-
ries down the wild beasts endeavoring to
pass to feed on the other side, casting them
down headlong above six hundred feet. A
74
LA SALLE
bark or greater vessel may pass from Fort
Frontenac until you come within two
leagues of the fall, for which two leagues
the people are obliged to carry their goods
overland ; but the way is very good, and the
trees are but few, and they chiefly firs and
oaks. Were it not for this vast cataract,
which interrupts navigation, we might sail
with barks or greater vessels above four
hundred and fifty leagues further.
On the 7th of August we went on board,
being in all thirty-four men, and sailed from
the mouth of the Lake Erie, and on the nth
entered a strait thirty leagues long and one
broad, except in the middle, which makes
the lake of St. Clair. On the 23d we got
into the Lake Huron. The 26th we had so
violent a storm that we brought down our
yards and topmasts and let the ship drive
at the mercy of the wind, knowing no place
to run into to shelter ourselves. M. de la
Salle, notwithstanding he was a courageous
man, began to fear, and told us we were
undone; whereupon everybody fell on his
knees to say his prayers and prepare him-
self for death, except our pilot, whom we
could never oblige to pray ; and he did noth-
ing all that while but curse and swear
against M. de la Salle, who had brought
him thither to make him perish in a nasty
75
JOURNEYS OF
lake and lose the glory he had acquired by
his long and happy navigations on the
ocean. When the wind abated we hoisted
our sail, and the next day arrived at Missili-
makinak.
On the 2d of September we weighed an-
chor and sailed to an island at the mouth
of the Bay of Puans [Green Bay], forty
leagues from Missilmakinak. The chief
among them, who had been formerly in Can-
ada, received us with all the civility imagin-
able. M. de la Salle, without asking any
other body's advice, resolved to send back
the ship to Niagara, laden with furs and
skins, to discharge his debts. Our pilot, and
five men with him, were therefore sent back,
and ordered to return with all imaginable
speed to join us towards the southern parts
of the lake, where we should stay for them
among the Illinois. They sailed the i8th,
with a westerly wind, and fired a gun as tak-
ing leave. It was never known what course
they steered, nor how they perished; but it
is supposed that the ship struck upon a
sand and was there buried. This was a
great loss for M. de la Salle and other ad-
venturers, for that ship with its cargo cost
above sixty thousand livres.
We continued our voyage in four canoes,
being fourteen men in all, and departed the
76
LA SALLE
1 9th of September. We steered to the south
towards the continent, distant from the isl-
and near forty leagues. On the ist of Oc-
tober, after twelve leagues' rowing, we were
in so great danger by stress of weather that
we were forced to throw ourselves into the
water and carry our canoes on our shoul-
ders to save them from being broken to
pieces. I carried Father Gabriel on my
back, whose great age, being sixty-five
years, did not permit him to venture into
the water.
Having no acquaintance with the savages
of the village near which we landed, we pre-
pared to make a vigorous defense in case of
an attack, and, in order to do it, possessed
ourselves of a rising ground where we could
not be surprised. We then sent three men
to buy provisions in the village, with the
calumet or pipe of peace which those of the
island had given us. And, because the calu-
ment of peace is the most sacred thing
among the savages, I shall here describe the
same.
It is a large tobacco pipe, of a red, black
or white marble. The head is finely pol-
ished. The quill, which is commonly two
feet and a half long, is made of a pretty
strong reed or cane, adorned with feathers
of all colors, interlaced with locks of
77
JOURNEYS OF
women's hair. Every nation adorns it as
they think fit, and according to the birds
they have in their country.
Such a pipe is a safe conduct amongst all
the allies of the nation who has given it;
and in all embassies the calumet is carried
as a symbol of peace, the savages being
generally persuaded that some great mis-
fortune would befall them if they should
violate the public faith of the calumet. They
fill this pipe with the best tobacco they have
and then present it to those with whom
they have concluded any great affair and
smoke out of the same after them.
Our three men, provided with this pipe
and very well armed, went to the little vil-
lage three leagues from the place where
we landed ; but, finding nobody therein, took
some Indian corn, and left instead of it
some goods, to let them see that we were
no robbers nor their enemies. However,
twenty of them, armed with axes, small
guns, bows and clubs, advanced near the
place where we stood ; whereupon M. de la
Salle, with four men, very well armed, went
toward them to speak with them, and de-
sired them to come near us, for fear a party
of our men who were gone a-hunting should
meet with them and kill them. They sat
down at the foot of the eminence where we
78
LA SALLE
were posted, and M. de la Salle spoke to
them all the while concerning his voyage,
which he told them he had undertaken for
their good and advantage. This was only
to amuse them till our three men returned,
who, appearing with the calumet of peace,
the savages made a great shout and rose
and began to dance. We excused our taking
some of their corn, telling them that we had
left the true value of it in goods, which they
took so well that they sent immediately for
more, and gave us next day as much as we
could carry away in our canoes. They re-
tired towards evening, and M. de la Salle
ordered some trees to be cut down and laid
across the way, to prevent any surprise from
them. The oldest of them came to us next
morning with their calumet of peace and
brought us some wild goats. We presented
them with some axes, knives and several
little toys for their wives, with which they
were well pleased.
We left that place the 2d of October and
coasted along the lake, which is so steep
that we could hardly find any place to land.
The violence of the wind obliged us to drag
our canoes sometimes to the top of the rocks
to prevent their being dashed in pieces. The
stormy weather lasted four days, during
which we suffered very much, and our pro-
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JOURNEYS OF
visions failed us again ; which, with the fa-
tigues of rowing, caused old Father Ga-
briel to faint away in such a manner that
I thought verily he could not live. We had
no other subsistence but a handful of In-
dian corn once every twenty-four hours,
which we roasted or else boiled in water,
and yet rowed almost every day from morn-
ing till night. Being in this dismal distress,
we saw upon the coast a great many ravens
and eagles, from whence we conjectured
there was some prey; and, having landed
upon that place, we found above the half of
a fat wild goat which the wolves had stran-
gled. This provision was very acceptable
to us, and the rudest of our men could not
but praise the divine Providence who took
so particular a care of us.
Having thus refreshed ourselves, we con-
tinued our voyage directly to the southern
parts of the lake. On the i6th we met with
abundance of game. A savage we had
with us killed several stags and wild goats,
and our men a great many turkeys, very
fat and big: wherewith we provided our-
selves for several days, and so embarked
again. On the 1st of November we came
to the mouth of the river of the Miamis
[St. Joseph], which runs from the south
and falls into the lake. Here we spent all
80
LA SALLE
that month in building a fort forty feet long
and eighty broad, made with great square
pieces of timber laid one upon the other.
On the 3d of December we embarked,
being thirty-three men, in eight canoes,
and, having rowed about twenty-five
leagues up the River Miamis to the south-
west, we could not find the place where we
were to land and carry our canoes and
equipage into the river of the Illinois, which
falls into Mississippi. Our savage, who
was hunting ashore, not finding us at the
place of portage, came higher up the river
and told us we had missed it. So we re-
turned and carried our canoes overland to
the head of the Illinois River, which is but
a league and a half from that of Miamis.
We continued our course upon this river
very near the whole month of December, to-
wards the end of which we arrived at the
village of the Illinois, about one hundred
and thirty leagues from Fort Miamis. We
found nobody in the village, which caused
a great perplexity among us, for, though we
wanted provisions, yet we durst not meddle
with the corn which they had laid under-
ground for their subsistence and to sow
their lands with, it being the most sensible
wrong one can do them, in their opinion, to
take some of their corn in their absence.
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JOURNEYS OF
However, our necessity being very great,
and it being impossible to continue our voy-
age without it, M. de la Salle took about
forty bushels of it, hoping to appease them
with some presents.
We embarked again with this fresh pro-
vision and fell down the river the first of
January, 1680. We took the elevation of
the pole, which was 33 45'. Although we
used all the precaution we could, we found
ourselves on a sudden in the middle of their
camp, which took up both sides of the river.
The Illinois, being much terrified, though
they were several thousand men, tendered
us the calumet of peace, and we offered
them ours. M. de la Salle presented them
with Martinico tobacco and some axes. He
told them, "he knew how necessary their
corn was to them, but that, being reduced
too an unspeakable necessity when he came
to their village, and seeing no probability
to subsist, he had been forced to take some
corn from their habitations without their
leave. That he would give them axes and
other things in lieu of it, if they could spare
it ; and if they could not, they were free to
take it again." The savages considered our
proposals, granted our demands and made
an alliance with us.
Some days after Nikanape, brother to the
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LA SALLE
most considerable man among them,, who
was then absent, invited us to a great feast,
and before we sat down told us, "that he
had invited us not so much to give us a
treat as to endeavor to dissuade us from
the resolution we had taken to go down to
the sea by the great River Mississippi." He
said, "that the banks of that river were in-
habited by barbarous and bloody nations,
and that several had perished upon the same
enterprise." Our interpreter told him, by
order of M. de la Salle, "that we were much
obliged to him for his advice, but the diffi-
culties and dangers he had mentioned would
make our enterprise still more glorious.
That we feared the Master of the life of
all men, who ruled the sea and all the world,
and therefore would think it happiness to
lay down our lives to make His name known
to all His creatures." However, Nikanape's
discourse had put some of our men under
such terrible apprehensions that we could
never recover their courage nor remove
their fears; so that six of them who had
the guard that night (among which were
two sawyers, the most necessary of our
workmen for building our ship) ran away,
taking with them what they thought neces-
sary. But, considering the country through
which they were to travel and the season
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of the year, we may say that, in avoiding an
uncertainty, they exposed themselves to a
most certain danger.
M. de la Salle, seeing those six men were
gone, exhorted the rest to continue firm in
their duty, assuring them that if any were
afraid of venturing themselves upon the
river of Mississippi because of the dangers
Nikanape had mentioned, he would give
them leave to return next spring to Canada,
and allow them a canoe to make their voy-
age ; whereas they could not venture to re-
turn home at this time of the year without
exposing themselves to perish with hunger,
cold, or the hands of the savages.
On the 1 5th we made choice of an emi-
nence on the bank of the river, defended on
that side by the river and on two others by
two deep ditches made by the rains, so that
it was accessible only by one way. We cast
a line to join those two natural ditches, and
made the eminence steep on every side, sup-
porting the earth with great pieces of tim-
ber. By the first of March our fort was
near finished, and we named it Crevecoeur,
because the desertion of our men, with the
difficulties we labored under, had almost
broken our hearts. 3 We also built a bark
for the continuance of our discovery. It
[ 3 Cf. Vol. I., page 104.]
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LA SALLE
was forty-two feet long by the keel, and
was in such forwardness that we should
have been in a condition to sail in a very
short time had we been provided with all
'other necessaries. But, hearing nothing of
our ship Griffin, and therefore wanting the
rigging and other tackle we expected by
her, we found ourselves in great perplexity,
and did not know what to do in this sad
juncture, being above five hundred leagues
from Fort Frontenac, whither it was almost
impossible to return at that time, because
the snow made traveling very dangerous by
land, and the ice made it impracticable to
our canoes.
M. de la Salle did now no longer doubt
but his beloved Griffin was lost, but neither
this nor the other difficulties dejected him.
His great courage buoyed him up, and he
resolved with three men to return to Fort
Frontenac by land, notwithstanding the
snow and the unspeakable dangers attend-
ing so great a journey, and to bring along
with him the necessary things to proceed
on our discovery; while I with two men
should go in a canoe to the River Missis-
sippi to get the friendship of the nations in-
habiting the banks thereof. Then, calling
his men together, told them, "He would
leave M. Tonti to command in the fort,
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JOURNEYS OF
and desired them to obey his orders in his
absence; to live in a Christian union and
charity ; to be courageous and firm in their
design." He assured them, "He would re-
turn with all the speed imaginable and bring
with him a fresh supply of meat, ammuni-
tion and rigging for our bark; and that in
the meantime he left them arms and other
things necessary for a vigorous defense in
case their enemies should attack them be-
fore his return."
Then telling me, "That he expected that
I should depart without further delay," he
embraced me and gave me a calumet of
peace, with two men to manage our canoe,
Picard and Ako, to whom he gave some
commodities to the value of about one thou-
sand livres to trade with the savages or
make presents. He gave to me in particu-
lar, and for my own use, ten knives, twelve
shoemakers' awls or bodkins, a small roll of
Martinico tobacco, two pounds of rassade,
i. e. f little pearls or rings of colored glass, to
make bracelets for the savages, and a small
parcel of needles; telling me, "He would
have given me a greater quantity if it had
been in his power."
Thus relying on the providence of God,
and receiving the blessing of Father Ga-
briel, I embraced all our men and took my
86
LA SALLE
leave of M. de la Salle, who set out a few
days after for Canada with three men, with-
out any provisions but what they killed in
their journey, during which they suffered
very much by cold weather, snow, and hun-
ger.
CHAPTER IV.
NARRATIVE OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT BY M.
CAVELIER DE LA SALLE TO EXPLORE THE
MISSISSIPPI. DRAWN UP FROM THE
MANUSCRIPTS OF FATHER ZENOBIUS
MEMBRE, A RECOLLECT, BY FATHER
CHRETIEN LECLERCQ.
THE Sieur Robert Cavelier de la Salle, a
native of Rouen, of one of the most distin-
guished families there, a man of vast intel-
lect, brought up for literary pursuits, capa-
ble and learned in every branch, especially
in mathematics, naturally enterprising, pru-
dent and moral, had been for some years in
Canada, and had already, under the admin-
istration of De Courcelles and Talon,
shown his great ability for discoveries. M.
de Frontenac selected him to command Fort
Frontenac, where he was nearly a year, till,
coming to France in 1675, he obtained of
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JOURNEYS OF
the court the government and property of
the lake and its dependencies on condition
of building there a regular stone fort, clear-
ing the ground, and making French and
Indian villages, and of supporting there, at
his own expense, a sufficient garrison and
Recollect missionaries.
Monsieur de la Salle returned to Canada
and fulfilled these conditions completely; a
fort with four bastions was built at the en-
trance of the lake on the northern side at the
end of a basin, where a considerable fleet
of large vessels might be sheltered from the
winds. This fort enclosed that built by
Monsieur de Frontenac. He also gave us
a piece of ground fifteen arpents in front
by twenty deep, the donation being accepted
by Monsieur de Frontenac, syndic of our
mission.
It would be difficult to detail the obstacles
he had to encounter, raised against him
daily in the execution of his plans, so that
he found less opposition in the savage tribes
whom he was always able to bring into his
plans. Monsieur de Frontenac went up there
every year, and care was taken to assemble
there the chiefs and leading men of the
Iroquois nations, great and small ; maintain-
ing by this means alliance and commerce
with them, and disposing them to embrace
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LA SALLE
Christianity, which was the principal ob-
ject of the next establishment. 1
My design being to treat of the publica-
tion of the faith of that prodigious quantity
of nations who are comprised in the domin-
ions of the king, as his majesty has discov-
ered them, we shall continue our subject by
those which were made during the rest of
the present epoch in all parts of New
France.
While the reverend father Jesuits among
the southern Iroquois on the upper part of
the river had the honor of bearing the gos-
pel to the nations bordering on those tribes ;
the peace between the two crowns of France
and England giving them free access every-
where, without being traversed by the Eng-
lish, they announced the faith to the Etche-
mins and other Indian nations that came to
trade at Loup River, where the ordinary
*Le Qcrcq, p. 119. The subsequent pages, down
to page 131, relate to the religious affairs of the
colony. The only reference to La Salle is this, on
p. 127 : "Our reverend fathers having obtained of
the King letters-patent for our establishments at
Quebec, Isle Percee, and Fort Frontenac, they
were registered at the sovereign council of Que-
bec, and Monsieur de la Salle built, at his own
expense, a house on the land he had given us
near the fort, in which a chapel was made. A
fine church was afterward added, adorned with
paintings and necessary vestments also, a regular
house and appendages, completed by the exertions
of Father Joseph Denis."
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JOURNEYS OF
post of the mission was; our missions of
St. John's River, Beaubassin, Mizamichis,
Nipisiguit, Ristigouche and Isle Percee
were similarly supported we continued to
labor for the conversion of the Indians of
those vast countries comprised under the
name of Acadia, Cape Breton and the great
bay (Gulf of St. Lawrence).
In the time of M. de Courcelles and Talon
the discoveries were pushed toward the
north bay (Hudson's), of which something
was known from two or three previous at-
tempts. The Sieur de St. Simon was chosen
for the expedition, with the Reverend Fa-
ther Albanes (Albanel), a Jesuit. By the
maps of the country it is easy to see what
difficulties had to be surmounted, how much
toil and hardship undergone, how many falls
and rapids to be passed and portages made
to reach by land these unknown parts and
tribes as far as Hudson's bay or strait. M.
de Frontenac was in Canada on the return
of the party in 1672. The discovery thence-
forward enabled them to push the mission
much further to the north and draw some
elect from those distant nations to receive
the first rudiments of Christianity, until in
1686 the victorious arms of the king, under
the guidance of M. de Troye, D'Hiberville,
Ste. Helaine and a number of brave Cana-
LA SALLE
dians, by order of the Marquis d'Enonville,
then governor-general of the country, con-
quered these northern parts, where, as the
French arms are still gloriously maintained,
the zeal of the Jesuit fathers is employed
in publishing the gospel.
The unwearied charity of those illustrious
missionaries advanced their labors with
much more success during the present
epoch among the Ottawa nations, seconded
by the great zeal of Frontenac's protection
and the ascendant which the wisdom of the
Governor had acquired over the savages.
A magnificent church, furnished with the
richest vestments, was built at the mission
of St. Mary's of the sault ; that of the bay
of the Fetid [Puants, Green Bay] and Mi-
chilimakinak Island were more and more
increased by the gathering of Indian tribes.
The missions around Lake Conde (Supe-
rior), further north, were also increased.
This lake alone is one hundred and fifty
miles long, sixty wide and about five hun-
dred in circuit, inhabited by different na-
tions, whence we may form an idea of the
labors of the missionaries in five or six es-
tablishments. Finally, in the last years of
M. de Frontenac's first administration,
Sieur du Luth, a man of talent and experi-
ence, opened a way to the missionaries and
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JOURNEYS OF
the gospel in many different nations turning
toward the north of that lake, where he even
built a fort. He advanced as far as the lake
of the Issati, called Lake Buade, from the
family name of M. de Frontenac, planting
the arms of his majesty in several nations
on the right and left, where the mission-
aries still make every effort to introduce
Christianity, the only fruit which indeed
consists in the baptism of some dying chil-
dren and in rendering adults inexcusable
at God's judgment by the gospel preached
to them.
I shall hereafter limit myself to publish
the great discoveries made by order of the
king, under the command of M. de Fron-
tenac and the direction of M. de la Salle, as
being those which promised the greatest
fruits for the establishment of the faith, if
in course of time they are resumed and sup-
ported as they deserve.
The Sieur de la Salle, having completed
the construction of Fort Frontenac and
greatly advanced the establishment of
French and Indian settlements, was induced
by the report of many tribes to believe that
great progress could be made by pushing
on the discoveries by the lakes into the
River Mississippi, which he then supposed
to empty into the Red Sea (Gulf of Cali-
92
LA SALLE
fornia). 2 He made a voyage to France in
1677 and, favored by letters from the Count
de Frontenac, obtained of the court neces-
sary powers to undertake and carry out this
great design at his own expense.
Furnished with these powers, he arrived
in Canada toward the close of September,
1678, with the Sieur de Tonty, an Italian
gentleman, full of spirit and resolution, who
afterward so courageously and faithfully
seconded him in all his designs. He had
also with him thirty men pilots, sailors, car-
penters and other mechanics, with all things
necessary for his expedition. Some Cana-
dians having joined him, he sent all his
party in advance to Fort Frontenac, where
Father Gabriel de la Ribourde and Father
Luke Buisset were already, and where Fa-
thers Louis Hennepin, Zenobius Merribre
and Melithon Watteau now repaired. They
were all three missionaries of our province
of St. Anthony of Padua, in Artois, as well
as Father Luke Buisset, his majesty having
honored the Recollects with the care of the
spiritual direction of the expedition by ex-
press orders addressed to Father Valentine
2 This assertion seems perfectly gratuitous, and
is not justified by the letters-patent to La Salle.
Joliet's return set the matter at rest and left no
doubt as to its emptying into the gulf. [Cf. Hen-
nepin. (SHEA'S Edition), Description of Louisi-
ana, 60, 61.]
93
JOURNEYS OF
le Roux, commissary provincial and supe-
rior of the mission. The Sieur de la Salle
soon followed them, the Almighty preserv-
ing him from many perils in that long voy-
age from Quebec, over falls and rapids to
Fort Frontenac, where he arrived at last,
much emaciated. 3 Deriving new strength
from his great courage, he issued all his
orders and sent off his troop in a brigantine
for Niagara with Father Louis on the i8th
of November.
The navigation, in which they had to en-
counter many dangers and even disasters
crossing the great lake in so advanced a
season, prevented their reaching Niagara
River before the 5th of December. On the
sixth they entered the river, and the follow-
ing days, by canoe and land, advanced to
the spot where the Sieur de la Salle
intended to raise a fort and build a
bark above Niagara Falls, whence the
St. Lawrence (Le Fleuve) communicated
with Lake Conty (Erie) and Lake Fron-
tenac (Ontario) by the said falls and
river, which is, as it were, the strait of
communication.
A glance at the map will show that this
project, with that of Fort Frontenac and
the fort he was about to build at Niagara,
[' Dec. 16, 1678. Cf MARGRY I., 575.]
94
LA SALLE
might excite some jealousy among the Iro-
quois who dwelt in the neighborhood of
the great lake. The Sieur de la Salle, with
his usual address, met the principal chiefs
of those tribes in conference and gained
them so completely that they not only
agreed to it, but even offered to contribute
with all their means to the execution of his
design. This great concert lasted some
time. The Sieur de la Salle also sent many
canoes to trade north and south of the lake
among these tribes.
Meanwhile, as certain persons traversed
with all their might the project of the Sieur
de la Salle, they insinuated feelings of dis-
trust in the Seneca Iroquois as the fort
building at Niagara began to advance, and
they succeeded so well that the fort became
an object of suspicion and the works had to
be suspended for a time, and he had to be
satisfied with a house surrounded by pal-
isades. The Sieur de la Salle did not fail
to give prompt orders; he made frequent
voyages from Fort Frontenac to Niagara,
during the winter on the ice, in the spring
with vessels loaded with provisions. In all
the opposition raised by those envious of
him fortune seemed to side with them
against him; the pilot who directed one of
his well-loaded barks lost it on Lake Fron-
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JOURNEYS OF
tenac. 4 When the snow began to melt he sent
fifteen of his men to trade on the lake in
canoes as far as the Illinois, to prepare him
the way till his bark building at Niagara
was completed. It was perfectly ready in
the month of August, 1679.
The father commissary had started some
time before them from Quebec for the fort
to give the orders incumbent on his office
and put in force those expedited in the
month of July, by which Father Gabriel was
named superior of the new expedition, to
be accompanied by Father Louis Hennepin,
Zenobius Membre and Melithon Watteaux,
the latter to remain at Niagara and make it
his mission, while Father Luke should re-
main at the fort.
The three former accordingly embarked
on the 7th of August with Monsieur de la
Salle and his whole party in the vessel,
which had been named the Griffin in honor
of the arms of Monsieur de Frontenac. Fa-
ther Melithon remained at the house at Ni-
agara, with some laborers and clerks. The
same day they sailed for Lake Conty, after
passing, contrary to all expectations, the
currents of the strait. This was due to the
resolution and address of the Sieur de la
Salle, his men having before his arrival used
[ 4 Jan. 8, 1679. Cf. MARGRY I., 576.]
96
LA SALLE
every means to no purpose. It appeared a
kind of marvel, considering the rapidity of
the current in the strait, which neither man
nor animal nor any ordinary vessel can re-
sist, much less ascend.
The map will show that from this place
you sail up Lake Conty (Erie) to Lake Or-
leans (Huron), which terminates in Lake
Dauphin (Michigan) , these lakes being each
a hundred or a hundred and twenty leagues
long by forty or fifty wide, communicating
with one another by easy channels and
straits, which offer vessels a convenient and
beautiful navigation. All these lakes are
full of fish; the country is most finely sit-
uated, the soil temperate; being north and
south bordered by vast prairies, which ter-
minate in hills covered with vines, fruit-
trees, groves and tall woods, all scattered
here and there, so that one would think that
the ancient Romans, princes and nobles
would have made them as many villas. The
soil is everywhere equally fertile.
The Sieur de la Salle, having entered
Lake Conty on the 7th, crossed it in three
days, and on the loth reached the strait
(Detroit), by which he entered Lake Or-
leans. The voyage was interrupted by a
storm as violent as could be met in the open
sea ; our people lost all hope of escape ; but
97
JOURNEYS OF
a vow which they made to St. Anthony of
Padua, the patron of mariners, delivered
them by a kind of miracle, 5 so that after long
making head against the wind, the vessel
on the 27th reached Missilimakinak, which
is north of the strait, by which we go from
Lake Orleans to Lake Dauphin.
No vessels had yet been seen* sailing on the
lakes, yet an enterprise which should have
been sustained by all well-meaning persons
for the glory of God and the service of the
king had produced precisely the opposite
feelings and effects, which had been already
communicated to the Hurons, the Outaoiiats
of the island the neighboring nations, to
make them ill affected. The Sieur de la
Salle even found here the fifteen men whom
he had sent in the spring prejudiced against
him and seduced from his service ; a part of
his goods wasted, far from having pro-
ceeded to the Illinois to trade according to
their orders; the Sieur de Tonty, who was
at their head, having in vain made every
effort to inspire them with fidelity. 6
At last he weighed anchor, on the 2d of
September, and arrived pretty safely at the
Bay of the Fetid (Green Bay, at the en-
[ 8 Cf. HENNEPIN, Louisiana, Shea, ed.) 96.]
8 La Salle's sending them was a violation of his
patent. See Historical Collections of Louisiana
vol. I., p. 35-
98
LA SALLE
trance of Lake Dauphin, forty leagues from
Missilimakinak. Would to God that the
Sieur de la Salle had continued his route
in the vessel. His wisdom could not foresee
the misfortunes which awaited him; he
deemed proper to send it back by the same
route to Niagara with the furs already
bought, in order to pay his creditors. He
even left in it a part of his goods and im-
plements, which were not easy to transport.
The captain had orders to return with the
vessel as soon as possible and join us in the
Illinois.
Meanwhile, on the i8th of September, the
Sieur de la Salle, with our fathers and sev-
enteen men, continued their route in canoes
by Lake Dauphin, from the Pouteotatamis
to the mouth of the river of the Miamis ( St.
Joseph's), where they arrived on the first
of November. This place had been ap-
pointed a rendezvous for twenty French-
men, who came by the opposite shore, and
also for the Sieur de Tonty, who had been
sent by the Sieur de la Salle to Missilimaki-
nak on another expedition.
The Sieur de la Salle built a fort there to
protect his men and property against any
attack of the Indians; our religious soon
had a bark cabin erected to serve as a chapel,
where they exercised their ministry for
99
JOURNEYS OE
French and Indians until the 3d of Decem-
ber, when, leaving four men in the fort, they
went in search of the portage which would
bring, them to the Seignelay (Illinois)
which descends to the Mississippi. They
embarked on this river to the number of
thirty or forty, by which, after a hundred
or a hundred and twenty leagues' sail, they
arrived, toward the close of December, at
the largest Illinois village, composed of
about four or five hundred cabins, each of
five or six families.
It is the custom of these tribes at harvest
time to put their Indian corn in caches, in
order to keep it for summer, when meat
easily spoils, and to go and pass the winter
in hunting wild cattle and beaver, carrying
very little grain. That of our people had
run short, so that, passing by the Illinois
village, they were obliged, there being no
one there, to take some Indian corn, as much
as they deemed necessary for their subsist-
ence.
They left it on the 1st of January, 1680,
and by the 4th were thirty leagues lower
down, amid the Illinois camp; they were
encamped on both sides of the river, which
is very narrow there, but soon after forms
a lake about seven leagues long and about
one wide, called Pimiteoui, meaning in their
100
LA SALLE
language that there are plenty of fat beasts
there. The Sieur de la Salle estimated it at
33 45'. It is remarkable, because the Illi-
nois River, which for several months in
winter is frozen down to it, never is from
this place to the mouth, although naviga-
tion is at times interrupted by accumula-
tions of floating ice from above.
Our people had been assured that the Illi-
nois had been excited and prejudiced against
them. Finding himself then in the midst of
their camp, which lay on both sides of the
river, at a narrow pass, where the current
was hurrying on the canoes faster than they
liked, the Sieur de la Salle promptly put his
men under arms and ranged his canoes
abreast so as to occupy the whole breadth
of the river; the canoes nearest the two
banks, in which were the Sieur de Tonty
and the Sieur de la Salle, were not more
than half a pistol shot from the shore. The
Illinois, who had not yet discovered the
little flotilla ranged in battle order, were
alarmed ; some ran to arms, others fled in in-
credible confusion. The Sieur de la Salle
had a calumet of peace, but would not show
it, not liking to appear weak before therm.
As they were soon so near that they could
understand each other, they asked our
Frenchmen who they were. They replied
101
JOURNEYS OF
that they were French, still keeping their
arms ready, and letting the current bear
them down in order, because there was no
landing place till below the camp.
The Indians, alarmed and intimidated by
this bold conduct (although they were sev-
eral thousand against a handful), immedi-
ately presented three calumets; our people
at the same time presented theirs, and, their
terror changing to joy, they conducted our
party to their cabins, showed us a thousand
civilities and sent to call back those who had
fled. They were told that we came only to
give them a knowledge of the true God, to
defend them against their enemies, to bring
them arms and other conveniences of life.
Besides presents made them, they were paid
for the Indian corn taken at their village ; a
close alliance was made with them, the rest
of the day being spent in feasts and mutual
greetings.
All the Sieur de la Salle's intrepidity and
skill were needed to keep the alliance intact,
as Monsoela, 7 one of the chiefs of the na-
tion of Maskoutens, came that very evening
to traverse it. It was known that he was
sent by others than those of his nation ; he
had even with him some Miamis, and young
men bearing kettles, knives, axes and other
[ T Monso, according to MARGRY II., 41.]
102
LA SALLE
goods. He had been chosen for this em-
bassy, rather than a Miami chief, to give
more plausibility to what he should say, the
Illinois not having been at war with the
Maskoutens, as they had with the Miamis.
He caballed even the whole night, speaking
of the Sieur de la Salle as an intriguer, a
friend of the Iroquois, coming to the Ili-
nois only to open the way to their enemies,
who were coming on all sides with the
French to destroy them ; he made them pres-
ents of all that he had 1 brought, and even
told them that he came on behalf of several
Frenchmen, whom he named.
This council was held at night, the time
chosen by the Indians to transact secret
business. This ambassador retired the same
night, so that the next day the Ilinois chiefs
were found completely changed, cold and
distrustful, appearing even to plot against
our Frenchmen, who were shaken by the
change ; but the Sieur de la Salle, who had
attached one of the chiefs to him particu-
larly by some present, learned from him the
subject of this change. His address soon
dispelled all these suspicions, but did not
prevent six of his men, already tampered
with and prejudiced at Michilimakinak,
from deserting that very day.
The Sieur de la Salle not only reassured
103
JOURNEYS OF
that nation, but found means in the sequel
to disabuse the Maskoutens and Miamis
and to form an alliance between them and
the Ilinois which lasted as long as the Sieur
de la Salle was in the country.
With this assurance the little army, on
the I4th of January, 1680, the floating ice
from above having ceased, repaired to a lit-
tle eminence, a site quite near the Ilinois
camp, where the Sieur de la Salle imme-
diately set to work to build a fort, which
he called Crevecceur, on account of the many
disappointments he had experienced, 8 but
which never shook his firm resolve. The
fort was well advanced and the little vessel
already up to the string-piece by the first
of March, when he resolved to proceed to
Fort Frontenac. There were four or five
hundred leagues to go by land, but, not
finding his brigantine, the Griffin, return,
nor those he had sent on to meet her, and
foreseeing the disastrous consequences of
the probable loss of his vessel, his courage
rose above the difficulties of so long and
painful a journey.
As he had chosen Father Louis [Henne-
pin], and as the latter had offered to con-
[ 8 It is more probable that the fort was named
after a Dutch city, in the seige of which Tonty
had participated. Cf. LE CLERCQ, Estab't of the
Faith (SHEA, ed.), II., 123.]
104
LA SALLE
tinue the discovery toward the north by as-
cending the Mississippi, the Sieur de la
Salle reserving to himself its continuation
in canoe by descending till he found the sea,
Father Louis set out in canoe from Fort
Crevecceur on the 29th of February, 1680,
with two men, well armed and equipped,
who had besides twelve hundred livres in
goods, which make a good passport. The
enterprise was great and hardy, although it
did not equal the great zeal of the intrepid
missionary, who undertook and continued
it with all the firmness, constancy and edi-
fication which can be desired, amid incon-
ceivable toils.
Although the discovery had already been
pushed four or five hundred leagues into
Louisiana, 9 from Fort Frontenac to Fort
Crevecoeur, this great march can be con-
sidered only as a prelude and preparation
for enterprises still more vast and an en-
trance to be made in countries still more
advantageous.
I have hitherto given only a short
abridgment of the relations which Father
Zenobius Membre gives of the commence-
"In fact, no discovery had been made; the Ili-
nois country was visited by traders before Mar-
quette's second voyage to it, and was perfectly
known; Allouez, too, was there shortly before
this, as La Salle himself states.
105
JOURNEYS OF
ment of this enterprise. Father Louis, whom
we see starting for the upper Mississippi,
lias published a description of the countries
which he visited and into which he carried
the gospel. I therefore refer my reader to
it without repeating it here. We have, then,
only to describe what is most essential and
important in this discovery conducted by
the personal labors of the Sieur de la Salle
in the subsequent years.
CHAPTER V.
NARRATIVE OF THE ADVENTURES OF LA
SALLE' s PARTY AT FORT CREVECCEUR, IN
ILINOIS, FROM FEBRUARY, l68o, TO
JUNE, l68l, BY FATHER ZENOBIUS
MEMBRE, RECOLLECT. 1
FATHER Louis (HENNEPIN) having set
out on the 29th of February, 1680, the Sieur
de la Salle left the Sieur de Tonty as com-
1 If the projects of La Salle had raised up
against him pertinacious enemies, they neverthe-
less drew around him a few faithful and devoted
friends, and none more conspicuous than the ex-
cellent missionary whose journals we here insert.
The amiable Father Membre is the name under
which all seem to delight in presenting him to us,
so much were they touched by his goodness of
heart. Were it prudent to credit Hennepin's last
work for anything new, we might say that Mem-
bre was born at Bapaume, a small fortified town
now in France, but then in the Spanish Nether-
106
LA SALLE
mander of Fort Crevecoeur, with ammuni-
tions and provisions and peltries to pay the
workmen as agreed, and merchandise to
lands, and that he was a cousin of Father Chris-
tian le Clercq, who published his journals in the
"Etablissement de la Foi." It was probably on
entering the Recollect convent in Artois, where
he was the first novice in the new province of
St. Anthony, that he assumed the name of Zeno-
bius. With his cousin, Le Clercq, he was the
first sent by that province to Canada, where he
arrived in 1675, from which time till that of his
departure for Frontenac, in September 1678, he
was probably employed at the convent of Quebec,
as his name does not appear in any of the neigh-
boring parish registers examined to obtain his
autograph. From Fort Frontenac he accompanied
La Salle to Niagara, Mackinaw, and at last to
Fort Crevecoeur, in Illinois. Here he was left by
that commander with Tonty and Father Gabriel
de la Rebourde, with whom, on the inroad of the
Iroquois and flight of the Illinois, he endeav-
ored to reach Green Bay. Father Gabriel perished
on the way by the hand of the Kikapoos ; the sur-
vivors were hospitably received by the Jesuits at
Green Bay, where they wintered, and in the spring
proceeded to Mackinaw with Father Enjalran.
Here La Salle soon joined them, and Membre,
after a voyage to Fort Frontenac, and probably
to Montreal, with that commander in the spring
of 1681, descended the Mississippi with him to
the gulf, and on their return proceeded, at his
request, to France, in 1682, to lay before the gov-
ernment the result of the expedition. He left a
journal of his voyage at Quebec; but, as he de-
clined communicating it to the new governor, De
la Barre, the latter, in his report to the home gov-
ernment, throws imputations on any account of
the missionary, which must, however, be ascribed
only to bias and dissatisfaction. After fulfilling
his mission at court Father Membre became war-
den of the Recollects at Bapaume, and remained
so till he was appointed, at La Salle's request,
107
JOURNEYS OF
trade with and buy provisions as we needed
them, and, having lastly given orders as to
superior of the missionaries who were to accom-
pany his expedition by sea. Father Membre
reached Texas in safety, and, though nearly
drowned in the wreck of one of the vessels, was
left by La Salle in good health at Fort St. Louis,
in January, 1687, intending as soon as possible to
begin a mission among the friendly Cenis with
Father Maximus le Clercq. The colony was,
however, cut to pieces by the Indians, for when,
in 1689, a party of Spaniards set out to expel the
French as intruders, all was silent as they drew
near. To their horror they found on reaching it
nothing but dead bodies within and without:
priest and soldier, husband and wife, old and
young, lay dead before them, pierced with arrows
or crushed with clubs. Touched with compassion,
the Spaniards committed their remains to a com-
mon grave and retired. Here Father Membre
perished, but earth has no record of the day. He
was not, apparently, a man of refined education,
nor is this a reproach, as his order was not in-
tended to direct colleges and seats of learning,
but to preach to the poor and lowly. But though
his journal is often involved and obscure, it bears
intrinsic marks of fidelity, and shows him to
have been less prejudiced than many of his com-
panions. Fitted rather for the quiet direction of
a simple flock, his zeal could not bear up against
the hardships and barrenness of an Indian mis-
sion, for which no previous training or associa-
tions had fitted him, while his many wanderings
tended still more to prevent his usefulness. His
only permanent mission was in Illinois, where he
labored assiduously with Father Gabriel from
March to September, 1680, notwithstanding the
repugnance wihch he felt for the ungrateful field.
They are, accordingly, after the Jesuits Marquette
and Allouez, the first missionaries of Illinois, and
worthy of a distinguished place in her annals, and
of the noble eulogy of Mr. Sparks, on the mis-
sionaries of New France.
108
LA SALLE
what was to be done in his absence, set out
with four Frenchmen and an Indian on the
2d of March, 1680. He arrived on the nth
at the great Ilinois village where I then was,
and thence, after twenty-four hours' stay,
he continued his route on foot over the ice
to Fort Frontenac. 2 From our arrival at
Fort Crevecoeur, on the I4th of January
past, Father Gabriel, our superior; Father
Louis and myself had raised a cabin, in
which we had established some little regu-
larity, exercising our functions as mission-
aries to the French of our party and the Ili-
nois Indians, who came in crowds. As by
the end of February I already knew a part
of their language, because I spent the whole
of the day in the Indian camp, which was
but half a league off, our father superior
appointed me to follow when they were
about to return to their village. A chief
named Oumahouha had adopted me as his
son in the Indian fashion, and M. de la
Salle had made him presents to take care of
me. Father Gabriel resolved to stay at the
fort with the Sieur de Tonty and the work-
men; this had been, too, the request of the
Sieur de la Salle, who hoped that by his
credit and the apparent confidence of the
[ 2 SHEA in Estab't of the Faith, II., 130, note,
calls this journey "the only really bold and adven-
turous act known of La Salle."]
109
JOURNEYS OF
people in him he would be able to keep them
in order; but God permitted that the good
intentions in which the Sieur de la Salle
thought he left them should not last long.
On the thirteenth he himself had met two
of his men whom he had sent to Missili-
makinak to meet his vessel, but who had
got no tidings of it. He addressed them
to the Sieur de Tonty; but these evil-dis-
posed men caballed so well that they ex-
cited suspicion and dissatisfaction in most
of those there, so that almost all deserted,
carrying off the ammunition, provisions and
all that was in store. Two of them who
were conducting Father Gabriel to the Ili-
nois village, where M. de Tonty had come
on a visit, abandoned the good father at
night in the middle of the road and spiked
the guns of the Sieur de Boisrondet and the
man called Lesperance, who were in the
same canoe, but not in their plot. They
informed the Sieur de Tonty, who, finding
himself destitute of everything, sent four
of those who remained by two different
routes to inform the Sieur de la Salle.
The perfidious wretches assembled at the
fort which the Sieur de la Salle had built
at the mouth of Myamis' River, demolished
the fort, carried off all that was there and,
as we learned some months after, went to
no
LA SALLE
Missilimakinak, where they seized the pel-
tries belonging to the Sieur de la Salle and
left in store there by him. 3
The only great Ilinois village being com-
posed of seven or eight thousand souls, Fa-
ther Gabriel and I had a sufficient field for
the exercise of our zeal, besides the few
French who soon after came there. There
are, moreover, the Miamis, situated south-
east by south of the bottom of the Lake
Dauphin, on the borders of a pretty fine
river, about fifteen leagues inland at 41 N. ;
the nation of the Maskoutens and Outaga-
mies [Foxes], who dwell at about 43 N.,on
the banks of the river called Melleoki (Mil-
wauki), which empties into Lake Dauphin,
very near their village ; on the western side
the Kikapous and the Ainoves (lowas),
who form two villages; west of these last,
above the River Checagoumemant, the vil-
lage of the Ilinois Cascaschia, situated west
of the bottom of Lake Dauphin, a little
southwest at about 41 N.; the Anthoutan-
tas* [Ottoes] and Maskoutens, Nadoues-
sions, 5 about one hundred and thirty
leagues from the Ilinois, in three great vil-
lages built near a river which empties into
[ Cf. MARGRY I., 503, 584.]
4 The Otontantas of Marq
[arquette's real map.
['The two names go together and refer to a
band of Sioux (Shea).]
Ill
JOURNEYS OF
the River Colbert on the west side, above
that of the Ilinois, almost opposite the
mouth of the Miskoncing, in the same river.
I might name here a number of other tribes
with whom we had intercourse, and to
whom French coureurs-de-bois, or lawfully
sent, rambled while I was with the Illinois,
under favor of our discovery.
The greater part of these tribes, and es-
pecially the Ilinois, with whom I have had
intercourse, make their cabins of double
mats of flat rushes sewed together. They
are tall of stature, strong and robust, and
good archers ; they had as yet no firearms ;
we gave them some. They are wandering,
idle, fearful, and desolate, almost without
respect for their chiefs, irritable and thiev-
ish. Their villages are not enclosed with
palisades, and, being too cowardly to defend
them, they take to flight at the first news of
a hostile army. The richness and fertility of
the country gives them fields everywhere.
They have used iron implements and arms
only since our arrival. Besides the bow,
they use in war a kind of short pike and
wooden maces. 6 Hermaphrodites are numer-
ous. They have many wives, and often take
several sisters that they may agree better;
9 All agree in the great skill of the Illinois bow-
men, and even as late as 1692-93, when Rale was
with them, they had not yet begun to use guns.
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LA SALLE
and yet they are so jealous that they cut off
their noses on the slightest suspicion. They
are lewd, and even unnaturally so, having
boys dressed as women, destined for in-
famous purposes. These boys are employed
only in women's work, without taking part
in the chase or war. They are very super-
stitious, although they have no religious
worship. They are, besides, much given to
play, like all the Indians in America that I
am able to know.
As there are in their country many ser-
pents, these Indians know herbs much su-
perior to our orvietan and theriaque, for,
after rubbing themselves with them, they
can without fear play with the most ven-
omous insects, and even put them some dis-
tance down their throat. They go perfectly
naked in summer, except the feet, which
are covered with shoes of ox-hide, and in
winter they protect themselves against the
cold (which is piercing in these parts,
though of short duration) with skins, which
they dress and card very neatly.
Although we were almost destitute of
succor, yet the Sieur de Tonty never lost
courage ; he kept up his position among the
Illinois either by inspiring them with all the
hopes which he built on the Sieur de la
Salle's return or by instructing them in the
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use of firearms and many arts in the Euro-
pean way. As during the following summer
a rumor ran that the Miamis wished to move
and join the Iroquois, he taught them how
to defend themselves by palisades, and even
made them erect a kind of little fort with
intrenchments, so that, had they had a little
more courage, I have no doubt they would
have been in a position to sustain them-
selves.
Meanwhile, from the flight and desertion
of our men about the middle of March to
the month of September, Father Gabriel and
I devoted ourselves constantly to the mis-
sion, An Ilinois named Asapista, with
whom the Sieur de la Salle had contracted
friendship, adopted Father Gabriel as his
son, so that that good father found in his
cabin a subsistence in the Indian fashion. As
wine failed us for the celebration of the
divine mysteries, we found means, toward
the close of August, to get wild grapes
which began to ripen, and we made very
good wine, which served us to say mass till
the second disaster, which happened a few
days after. The clusters of these grapes
are of prodigious size, of very agreeable
taste, and have seeds larger than those of
Europe.
With regard to conversions, I can not
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LA SALLE
rely on any. During the whole time Father
Gabriel unraveled their language a little,
and I can say that I spoke so as to make
myself understood by the Indians on all
that I wished ; but there is in these savages
such an alienation from the faith, so brutal
and narrow a mind, such corrupt and anti-
Christian morals, that great time would be
needed to hope for any fruit. It is, how-
ever, true that I found many of quite docile
character. We baptized some dying chil-
dren and two or three dying persons who
manifested proper dispositions. As these
people are entirely material in their ideas,
they would have submitted to baptism, had
we liked, but without any knowledge of the
sacrament. We found two who had joined
us and promised to follow us everywhere;
we believed that they would keep their word
and that by this means we would insure
their baptisms; but I afterwards felt great
scruples when I learned that an Indian
named Chassagouache, who had been bap-
tized, had died in the hands of the medicine
men, abandoned to their superstitions, and
consequently doubly a child of hell.
During the summer we followed our In-
dians in their camps and to the chase. I
also made a voyage to the Myamis to learn
something of their dispositions; thence I
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went to visit other villages of the Ilinois,
all, however, with no great success, finding
only cause for chagrin at the deplorable
state and blindness of these nations. It is
such that I cannot express it fully.
Thus far we enjoyed a pretty general
peace, though meanwhile a cruel war, which
we knew not, was machinating. While we
were still at Fort Frontenac, the year before
the Sieur de la Salle learned that his ene-
mies had, to baffle his designs, excited the
Iroquois to resume their former hostilities
against the Ilinois, which had been relin-
quished for several years. They sought, too,
to draw the Miamis into the same war. This
is a tribe which formerly dwelt beyond the
Ilinois, as regards the Iroquois and Fort
Frontenac. They had persuaded them to
invite the Iroquois by an embassy to join
them against their common enemy; those
who came to treat of this affair with the
Iroquois brought letters from some ill-dis-
posed Frenchmen who had correspondents
in those tribes, for there were at that time
many coureurs de bois.
The Sieur de la Salle happened to be
among the Senecas when this embassy ar-
rived ; the moment seemed unfavorable, and
the ambassadors were privately warned that
they risked their lives if they did not depart
116
LA SALLE
as soon as possible, the Sieur de la Salle
being a friend of the Ilinois. The Myamis,
however, left his former country and came
and took up a position where he is now be-
tween the Iroquois and the Ilinois. This
was afterward believed intentional, and we
having to pass through both these nations
suspected by each other, might become so
to one of them, who would then prevent our
progress. Monsieur de la Salle, on his ar-
rival at the Ilinois last year, made peace
between the two nations ; but, as the Indians
are very inconstant and faithless, the Iro-
quois and the Myamis afterwards united
against the Ilinois by means which are dif-
ferently related.
Be that as it may, about the loth of Sep-
tember, in the present year, 1680, the Ili-
nois, allies of Chaouenons (Shawnees),
were warned by a Shawnee, who was re-
turning home from an Ilinois voyage, but
turned back to advise them, that he had dis-
covered an Iroquois army, four or five hun-
dred strong, who had already entered their
territory. The scouts sent out by the Ili-
nois confirmed what the Shawnee had said,
adding that the Sieur de la Salle was there.
For this there was no foundation, except
that the Iroquois chief had a hat and a kind
of vest. They at once talked of tomahawk-
117
JOURNEYS OF
ing us, but the Sieur de Tonty undeceived
them 1 , and, to show the falsity of the report,
offered to go with the few men he had to
fight the Iroquois with them. The Ilinois
had already sent out to war the greater part
of the young men, yet the next day they
took the field against the enemy, whom the
Myamis had reinforced with a great num-
ber of their warriors. This multitude terri-
fied the Ilinois ; nevertheless, they recovered
a little at the solicitation of the Sieur de
Tonty and the French. They at first min-
gled and wrangled, but the Sieur de Tonty,
having grounds to fear for the Ilinois, who
had almost no firearms, offered to put mat-
ters in negotiation and to go to the Iroquois
as a man of peace, bearing the calumet. The
latter, hoping to surprise the Ilinois, and
seeing their hopes baffled by the state in
which they found them resolved for battle,
received without any demur a man who
came with a calumet of peace, telling them
that the Ilinois were his brothers, friends
of the French, and under the protection of
Ononto, their common father. I was beside
the Sieur de Tonty, when an Iroquois whom
I had known in the Seneca village recog-
nized me. These proposals for peace did
not, however, please some young men,
whose hands itched for fight; suddenly a
118
LA SALLE
volley of balls and arrows came whizzing
around us, and a young Onondaga ran up
with a drawn knife and struck M. de Tonty
near the heart, the knife fortunately glanc-
ing off a rib. They immediately surrounded
him and wished to carry him off ; but when,
by his ears, which were not pierced, they
saw that he was a Frenchman, one of the
Iroquois chiefs asked loudly what they had
meant by striking a Frenchman in that way,
that he must be spared, and drew forth a
belt of wampum to staunch the blood and
make a plaster for the wound. Neverthe-
less, a mad young Iroquois having hoisted
the Sieur de Tonty's hat on a gun to intimi-
date the Ilinois, the latter believing by this
sign that Tonty was dead, we were all in
danger of losing our heads; but the Iro-
quois having told us to show ourselves and
stop both armies, we did so. 7 The Iroquois
received the calumet and pretended to re-
tire; but scarcely had the Ilinois reached
his village when the Iroquois appeared on
the opposite hills.
This movement obliged the Sieur de
Tonty and the chiefs of the nation to depute
me to these savages to know their reason.
This was not a very agreeable mission to a
savage tribe, with arms in their hands, espe-
[ 7 Cf. MARGRY I., 510, 586.]
119
JOURNEYS OF
cially after the risk I had already run ; nev-
ertheless, I made up my mind, and God pre-
served me from all harm. I spoke with
them; they treated me very kindly, and at
last told me that the reason of their ap-
proach was that they had nothing to eat. I
made my report to the Ilinois, who gave
them their fill, and even offered to trade for
beaver and other furs, very abundant in
those parts. The Iroquois agreed, hostages
were given and received, and I went with
an Ilinois to the enemy's camp, where we
slept. The Iroquois came in greater nunv
bers into that of the Ilinois, and even ad-
vanced to their village, committing hostili-
ties so far as to disinter the dead and destroy
their corn; in a word, seeking a quarrel,
under show of peace, they fortified them-
selves in the village. The Ilinois, on the
first announcement of war, had made their
families draw off behind a hill, to put them
out of sight and enable them to reach the
Mississippi, so that the Iroquois found the
village empty. The Ilinois warriors retired
in troops on the hills, and even gradually
dispersed, so that we, seeing ourselves aban-
doned by our hosts, who no longer appeared
in force, and left alone, exposed to the fury
of a savage and victorious enemy, were not
long in resolving to retreat. The reverend
120
LA SALLE
father Gabriel, the Sieur de Tonty, the few
French who were with us and myself began
our march on the i8th of September, with-
out provisions, food or anything, in a
wretched bark canoe, which, breaking the
next day, compelled us to land about noon
to repair it. Father Gabriel, seeing the place
of our landing fit for walking in the prairies
and hills with little groves, as if planted by
hand, retired there to say his breviary, while
we were working at the canoe all the rest
of the day. We were full eight leagues
from the village, ascending the river. To-
ward evening I went to look for the Father,
seeing that he did not return ; all our party
did the same ; we fired repeatedly to direct
him, but in vain; and, as we had reason to
fear the Iroquois during the night, we
crossed to the other side of the river and
lit up fires, which were also useless. The
next morning at daybreak we return to the
same side where we were the day before
and remained till noon, making all possible
search. We entered the wood, where we
found several fresh trails, as well as in the
prairie on the bank of the river. We fol-
lowed them one by one, without discovering
anything, except that M. de Tonty had
ground to believe and fear that some hostile
parties were in ambush to cut us all off, for,
121
JOURNEYS OF
seeing us take flight, the savages had imag-
ined that we declared for the Ilinois. I in-
sisted on staying to wait for positive tidings,
but the Sieur de Tonty forced me to em-
bark at three o'clock, maintaining that the
Father had been killed by the enemy, or
else had walked on along the bank, so that,
following it constantly, we should at last
infallibly meet him. We got, however, no
tidings of him, and the more we advanced
the more this affliction unmanned us, and
we supported this remnant of a languishing
life by the potatoes and garlick and other
roots that we found by scraping the ground
with our fingers.
We afterward learned that we should
have expected him uselessly, as he had been
killed soon after landing. The Kikapous, a
little nation you may observe on the west,
quite near the Winnebagoes, had sent some
of their youth in war parties against the
Iroquois but learning that the latter were
attacking the Ilinois, the war party came
after them. Three braves who formed a
kind of advanced guard, having met the
good father alone, although they knew that
he was not an Iroquois, killed him for all
that, cast his body into a hole, and carried
off even his breviary and diurnal, which
soon after came to the hands of a Jesuit
122
LA SALLE
father. They carried off the scalp of this
holy man and vaunted of it in their village
as an Iroquois scalp. Thus died this man of
God by the hands of some mad youths. We
can say of his body what the Scripture
remarks of those whom the sanguinary
Herod immolated to his fury, "Non erat qui
sepileret" Surely he deserved a better fate,
if, indeed, we can desire a happier one be-
fore God, than to die in the exercise of the
apostolic functions by the hands of nations
to whom we are sent by God. He had not
been merely a religious of common and or-
dinary virtue; it is well known that he had
in Canada, from 1670, maintained the same
sanctity of life which he had shown in
France as superior, inferior and master of
novices. He had for a long time, in trans-
ports of fervor, acknowledged to me the
profound grief which he felt at the utter
blindness of these people, and that he longed
to be an anathema for their salvation. His
death, I doubt not, has been precious be-
fore God, and will one day have its effect in
the vocation of these people to the faith,
when it shall please the Almighty to use His
great mercy. 8 '
"Of this estimable missionary we know little
but what was given in Hennepin. He was, we are
assured, the last scion of a noble Burgundian
house, who not only renounced his inheritance
123
JOURNEYS OF
We must admit that this good old man,
quite attenuated, like ourselves, by want of
everything, would not have been able to
support the hardships we had to go through
after that. The Sieur de Tonty and de
Boisrondet and two other Frenchmen, with
myself, had still eighty leagues to make to
the Pottawatomis. Our canoe often failed
us and leaked on all sides. After some days
we had to leave it in the woods and make
and the world to enroll himself among the lowly
children of St. Francis, but even when advanced
in life, and honored with the first dignities of his
order, sought the new and toilsome mission of
Canada. He came out among the first Recol-
lect fathers in the summer of 1670, and on the
return of the provincial, F. Allart, to France, be-
came commissary and first superior of the mis-
sion, as well as confessor to Frontenac. He re-
stored such missions as circumstances enabled
him to begin, and guided his little flock with such
moderation and skill in the troublous times on
which he had fallen that he acquired the venera-
tion and respect of all parties. His moderation
was not, indeed, liked by all, and a few years after
F. Eustace Maupassant was sent out to succeed
him, and the venerable Ribourde was sent as mis-
sionary to Fort Frontenac, but not before he had
witnessed the consecration of their church at Que-
bec. He was subsequently joined by Buisset and
Hennepin, and consulting his zeal rather than his
age, embarked with La Salle. The date of his
death is September 9, 1680; he was then in the
seventieth year of his age, and had spent more
than forty in the religious state, and, as master
of novices, trained many to imitate his zeal and
virtues. "This holy religious," with Membre,
who was to perish in the same unknown way, are
among the earliest missionaries of Illinois.
124
LA SALLE
the rest of our journey by land, walking
barefooted over the snow and ice. I made
shoes for my companions and myself of Fa-
ther Gabriel's cloak. As we had no com-
pass, we frequently got lost, and found our-
selves in the evening where we had started
in the morning, with no other food than
acorns and little roots. At last, after fif-
teen days' march, we killed a deer, which
was a great help to us. The Sieur de Bois-
rondet lost us, and for at least ten days we
thought him dead. As he had a tin cup, he
melted it to make balls for his gun, which
had no flint. By firing it with a coal he
killed some turkeys, on which he lived dur-
ing that time. At last we fortunately met
at the Pottawatami village, where their
chief, Onanghisse, quite well known among
those nations, welcomed us most cordially.
He used to say that he knew only three
great captains M. de Frontenac, M. de la
Salle and himself. The chief harangued all
his people, who contributed to furnish us
food. Not one of us could stand for weak-
ness; we were all like skeletons, the Sieur
de Tonty extremely sick ; but, being a little
recruited, I found some Indians going to
the bay of the Fetid, where the Jesuits have
a house. I accordingly set out for it, and
cannot express the hardships I had to un-
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JOURNEYS OF
dergo on the way. The Sieur de Tonty
followed us soon after with the rest. We
cannot sufficiently acknowledge the charity
these good fathers displayed toward us until
the thaws began, when we set out with
Father Enjalran in a canoe for Missili-
makinak, hoping to find news there from
Canada.
From the Ilinois we had always followed
the route by the north ; had God permitted
us to take that by the south of Lake Dau-
phin we should have met the Sieur de la
Salle, who was coming with well-furnished
canoes from Fort Frontenac, and had gone
by the south to the Ilinois, where he ex-
pected to find us with all his people in good
order, as he had left us when he started in
the preceding year (March 2d, 1680).
This he told us himself when he arrived
at Missilimakinak, about the middle of
June [1618], when he found us a little re-
stored from our sufferings. I leave you to
conceive our mutual joy, damped though
it was by the narrative he made us of all
his misfortunes and by that we made him of
our tragical adventures. He told us that
after our departure from Fort Frontenac
they had excited his creditors before the
[* For La Salle's movements cf. MARGRY I., 514-
524; II., 137.]
126
LA SALLE
time to seize his property and all his ef-
fects, on a rumor which had been spread
that he had been drowned with all his peo-
ple. He told us that his ship, the Griffin,
had perished in the lakes a few days after
leaving the bay of the Fetid; that the cap-
tain, sailors and more than ten thousand
crowns in merchandise had been lost and
never heard of. He had sent little fleets of
canoes to trade right and left on Lake Fron-
tenac; but these wretches, he told us, had
profited by the principal and the trade, with-
out his being able to obtain any justice from
those who should have rendered it, notwith-
standing all the efforts made by M. de Fron-
tenac, the governor, in his favor; that, to
complete his misfortunes, a vessel coming
from France with a cargo for his account,
amounting to twenty-two thousand livres,
had been wrecked on St. Peter's Islands, in
the Gulf of St. Lawrence; that canoes as-
cending from Montreal to Fort Frontenac
loaded with goods had been lost in the rap-
ids ; in a word, that, except the Count de
Frontenac, all Canada seemed in league
against his undertaking. The men he had
brought from France had been seduced
from him ; some had run off with his goods
to New York; and as regarded the Cana-
dians who had joined him, means had been
127
JOURNEYS OF
found to work upon them and draw them
from his interests.
Although he had left Fort Frontenac in
his bark on the 23d of July, 1680, he was
detained on the lake by head winds, so that
he could not reach the straits of Lake de
Conty till the close of August. All seemed
to oppose his undertaking. Embarking in the
beginning of September on Lake de Conty,
he had been detained with M. de la For-
rest, his lieutenant, and all his men at Mis-
silimakinak, being unable to obtain corn for
goods or money ; but at last, as it was abso-
lutely necessary, he was obliged, after three
weeks' stay, to buy some for liquor, and in
one day he got sixty sacks.
He left there the 4th of October, and on
the 28th [24th] of November reached the
Myamis' River, where he left a ship-carpen-
ter and some of his people; then, pushing
on, reached the Ilinois on the first of De-
cember. There he was greatly surprised to
find their great village burnt and empty.
The rest of the time was spent in a journey
to the My amis' River, where he went to join
his men forty leagues, from the Ilinois.
Thence he passed to different tribes, among
others to an Outagamis village, where he
found some Ilinois, who related to him the
unhappy occurrences of the preceding year.
128
LA SALLE
He learned, moreover, that after our
flight and departure from the Ilinois their
warriors had returned from the Nadoues-
siouz, where they had been at war, and that
there had been several engagements, with
equal loss on both sides, and that at last, of
the seventeen Ilinois villages, the greater
part had retired beyond the River Colbert,
among the Ozages, two hundred leagues
from their country, where, too, a part of the
Iroquois had pursued them.
At the same time the Sieur de la Salle
intrigued with the Outagami chiefs, whom
he drew into his interests and those of the
Ilinois; thence he passed to the Myamis,
whom he induced by presents and argu-
ments to leave the Iroquois and join the
Ilinois; he sent two of his men and two
Abenaquis to announce this to the Illinois
and prevent new acts of hostility and to re-
call the dispersed tribes. To strengthen
both more, he sent others with presents to
the Shawness to invite them to come and
join the Illinois against the Iroquois, who
carried their wars even to them. All this
had succeeded when M. de la Salle left on
the 22d of May, 1681, to return to Missili-
makinak, where he expected to find us. If
we wish to settle in these parts and see the
faith make any progress it is absolutely nec-
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JOURNEYS OF
essary to maintain peace and union among
all these tribes, as well as among others
more remote, against the common enemy
that is, the Iroquois who never makes a
real peace with any whom he has once
beaten, or whom he hopes to overcome by
the divisions which he artfully excites; so
that we should be daily exposed to routs
like that to which we were subjected last
year. M. de la Salle, convinced of this nec-
essity, has, since our return, purchased the
whole Illinois 10 country, and has given can-
tons to the Shawnees, who there colonize in
large families.
The Sieur de la Salle related to us all his
hardships and voyages, as well as all his
misfortunes, and learned from us as many
regarding him; yet never did I remark in
him the least alteration, always maintaining
his ordinary coolness and self-possession.
Any one but him would have renounced and
abandoned the enterprise; but, far from
that, by a firmness of mind and an almost
unequaled constancy, I saw him more reso-
lute than ever to continue his work and to
carry out his discovery. We accordingly
left for Fort Frontenac with his whole party
to adopt new measures to resume and com-
10 See his second patent in the Appendix [Vol.
I 3
LA SALLE
plete our course, with the help of heaven,
in which we put all our trust.
CHAPTER VI.
NARRATIVE OF LA SALLE'S VOYAGE DOWN THE
MISSISSIPPI, BY FATHER ZENOBIUS
MEMBRE, RECOLLECT.
M. DE LA SALLE, having arrived safely at
the Miamies on the 3d of November, 1 1681,
began with his ordinary activity and vast
mind to make all preparations for his de-
parture. He selected twenty-three French-
men and eighteen Mohegans and Abnakis, 2
t 1 Others give Dec. 16 and 19. Cf. MARGRY I.,
593; II., 20.]
a The Mohegans, whose name is generally trans-
lated by old French writers, who call them
"Loups" or "Wolves," were hereditary enemies of
the Iroquois. They were known to the French as
early as the time of Champlain, who calls them
"Mayganathicoise." It is needless here to follow
the varieties in orthography which it underwent.
The Iroquois called them "Agotsagenens" (F.
Jogues' MS.)- Their relations with their Euro-
pean neighbors seem always to have been friendly,
and they never apparently warred on either Eng-
lish, Dutch or French, although their position be-
tween the Hudson and Connecticut exposed them
to frequent occasions of trouble. Though never
really the allies of the French, the hostility of the
Iroquois to both brought them in contact, so that
Mohegans frequently figure in small parties in
French campaigns.
The Abnakis were a people of Maine, and, like
JOURNEYS OF
all inured to war. The latter insisted on
taking along ten of their women to cook
for them, as their custom is while they were
fishing or hunting. These women had three
children, so that the whole party consisted
of but fifty-four persons, including the Sieur
de Tonty and the Sieur Dautray, son of the
late Sieur Bourdon, procurator-general of
Quebec.
On the 21 st of December I embarked
with the Sieur de Tonty and a part of our
people on Lake Dauphin (Michigan), to go
toward the divine river, called by the In-
dians Checagou, in order to make necessary
arrangements for our voyage. The Sieur
de la Salle joined us there with the rest of
his troop on the 4th of January, 1682, and
found that Tonty had had sleighs made to
put all on and carry it over the Chicago,
which was frozen; for, though the winter
in these parts is only two months long, it
is, notwithstanding, very severe.
the Mohegans, of the Algonquin family. They
were originally allies of the English, who called
them "Taranteens," but the unwise policy of the
New England colonies compelled them to join the
French. Their conversion to the Catholic re-
ligion, which they still profess, tended still more
to embitter the colonies against them, and long
and bloody wars resulted, in which the Abnakis,
forsaken by the French, were at last humbled.
They now form about five villages in Maine and
Canada.
132
LA SALLE
We had to make a portage to enter the
Ilinois River, which we found also frozen ;
we made it on the 27th of the same month,
and, dragging our canoes, baggage and pro-
visions about eighty leagues on the River
Seignelay (Ilinois), which runs into the
River Colbert (Mississippi), we traversed
the great Ilinois town without finding any
one there, the Indians having gone to win-
ter thirty leagues lower down on Lake Pi-
miteoui (Peoria), where Fort Crevecceur
stands. We found it in a good state, and
La Salle left his orders here. As from this
spot navigation is open at all seasons and
free from ice, we embarked in our canoes,
and on the 6th of February reached the
mouth of the River Seignelay, at 38 north.
The floating ice on the River Colbert 3 at
this place kept us till the I3th of the same
month, when we set out, and six leagues
lower down found the Ozage (Missouri)
River, coming from the west. It is full as
large as the River Colbert, into which it
empties, troubling it so that from the mouth
of the Ozage the water is hardly drinkable.
The Indians assure us that this river is
formed by many others, and that they as-
cend it for ten or twelve days to a mountain
where it rises; that beyond this mountain
[ Named at this time. Cf. MARGRY L, 595.]
133
JOURNEYS OF
13 the sea, where they see great ships ; that
on the river are a great number of large
villages, of many different nations; that
there are arable and prairie lands and abun-
dance of cattle and beaver. Alhough this
river is very large, the Colbert does not
seem augmented by it; but it pours in so
much mud that from its mouth the water
of the great river, whose bed is also slimy,
is more like clear mud than river water,
without changing at all till it reaches the
sea, a distance of more than three hundred
leagues, although it receives seven large
rivers, the water of which is very beautiful,
and which are almost as large as the Mis-
sissippi.
On the I4th, six leagues further, we
found on the east the village of the Tama-
roas, 4 who had gone to the chase; we left
there marks of our peaceful coming and
signs of our route, according to practice in
such voyages. We went slowly, because
we were obliged to hunt and fish almost
daily, not having been able to bring any
provisions but Indian corn.
Forty leagues from Tamaroa is the River
Oiiabache (Ohio), where we stopped. From
the mouth of this river you must advance
4 The Tamaroas, or Maroas, were an Illinois
tribe, who long had their village in this quarter.
134
LA SALLE
forty-two leagues without stopping, because
the banks are low and marshy, and full of
thick foam, rushes and walnut trees.
On the 24th [or 26th] those whom we
sent to hunt all returned but Peter Prud-
homme ; the rest reported that they had seen
an Indian trail, which made us suppose our
Frenchman killed or taken. This induced
the Sieur de la Salle to throw up a fort and
intrenchment and to put some French and
Indians on the trail. None relaxed their
efforts till the first of March, when Gabriel
Minime and two Mohegans took two of five
Indians whom they discovered. They said
that they belonged to the Sicacha (Chicka-
saw) nation and that their village was a
day and a half off. After showing them
every kindness I set out with the Sieur die
la Salle and half our party to go there, in
hopes of learning some news of Prud-
homme; but, after having traveled the dis-
tance stated, we showed the Indians that
we were displeased with their duplicity;
then they told us frankly that we were still
three days off. (These Indians generally
count ten or twelve leagues to a day.) We
returned to the camp, and one of the Indians
having offered to remain while the other
carried the news to the village, La Salle
gave him some goods and he set out, after
135
JOURNEYS OF
giving us to understand that we should meet
their nation on the bank of the river as we
descended.
At last Prudhomme, who had been lost,
was found on the ninth day and brought
back to the fort, so that we set out the next
day, which was foggy. Having sailed forty
leagues till the third [or I3th] of March,
we heard drums beating and sasocoiiest
(war-cries) on our right. Perceiving that
it was an Akansa village, the Sieur de la
Salle immediately passed over to the other
side with all his force, and in less than an
hour threw up a retrenched redoubt on a
point, with palisades, and felled trees, to
prevent a surprise and give the Indians time
to recover confidence. He then made some
of his party advance on the bank of the river
and invite the Indians to come to us. The
chiefs sent a periagua (these are large
wooden canoes, made of a hollow tree, like
little bateaux), which came within gun-
shot. We offered them the calumet of
peace, and two Indians, advancing, by signs
invited the French to come to them. On
this the Sieur de la Salle sent a Frenchman
and two Abnakis, who were received and
regaled with many tokens of friendship.
Six of the principal men brought him back
in the same periagua, and came into the re-
136
LA SALLE
doubt, where the Sieur de la Salle made
them presents of tobacco and some goods.
On their side they gave us some slaves, and
the most important chief invited us to go
to the village to refresh ourselves, which
we readily did.
All those of the village, except the
women, who had at first taken flight, came
to the bank of the river to receive us. Here
they built us cabins, brought us wood to
burn and provisions in abundance. For
three days they feasted us constantly. The
women now returned, brought us Indian
corn, beans, flour and various kinds of
fruits ; and we, in return, made them other
little presents, which they admired greatly.
These Indians do not resemble those at
the north, who are all sad and severe in
their temper ; these are far better made, hon-
est, liberal and gay. Even the young are
so modest that, though they had a great de-
side to see La Salle, they kept quietly at
the doors, not daring to come in.
We saw great numbers of domestic fowls,
flocks of turkeys, tame bustards, many kinds
of fruits, peaches already formed on the
trees, although it was only the beginning
of March.
On the I4th of the same month the Sieur
de la Salle took possession of this country
137
JOURNEYS OF
with great ceremony. He planted a cross
and set up the king's arms, at which the In-
dians showed a great joy. 5 You can talk
much to Indians by signs, and those with
us managed to make themselves a little un-
derstood in their language. I took occasion
to explain something of the truth of God
and the mysteries of our redemption, of
which they saw the arms. During this time
they showed that they relished what I said
by raising their eyes to heaven and kneeling
as if to adore. We also saw them rub their
hands over their bodies after rubbing them
over the cross. In fact, on our return from
the sea we found that they had surrounded
the cross with a palisade. They finally gave
us provisions and men to conduct us and
serve as interpreters with the Taensa, their
allies, who are eighty leagues distant from
their village.
On the 1 7th we continued our route, and
six leagues lower down we found another
village of the same Akansa nation, and then
another three leagues lower, the people of
which were of the same kind and received
us most hospitably. 6 We gave them pres-
[' Cf. MARGRY II., 181-185.]
'Amid the conflict of names to be found in
early narratives, it is a relief to meet so much
uniformity relative to the Akansas. It is not,
indeed, easy to recognize them in the Quigata,
Quipana, Pacaha or Cayas of De Soto's expedi-
138
LA SALLE
ents and tokens of our coming in peace and
friendship.
On the 22d [or 2Oth] we reached the
Taensa, who dwell around a little lake
formed in the land by the River Mississippi.
They have eight villages. The walls of their
houses are made of earth mixed with straw ;
the roof is of canes, which form a dome
adorned with paintings; they have wooden
beds and much other furniture, and even
ornaments in their temples, where they in-
tion. Marquette, in his journal, first gives the
name "Akamsea," which has remained to this
day on his map. He gives near them the Papi-
kaha and Atotchasi. Father Membre here men-
tions three towns of the tribe, but does not name
them. Tonty does, and has on the Mississippi the
Kappas, and inland the Toyengan, or Tongenga,
the Toriman, and the Osotonoy, or Assotoue.
The latter is, indeed, his post, but old deeds show
a village lay opposite, which probably gave its
name. On the next expedition Father Anastasius
writes Kappa, Doginga, Toriman and Osotteoez,
which Joutel repeats, changing Doginga to Ton-
fenga, and Osotteoez to Otsotchove. In 1721
ather Charlevoix writes them the Kappas, Tore-
mans, Topingas and Sothouis, adding another
tribe, the Ouyapes, though there were still but
four villages. In 1729 Father Poisson places them
all on the Arkansas the Tourimans and Ton-
gingas nine leagues from the mouth by the lower
branch, the Sauthpuis three leagues further, and
the Kappas still higher up.
The only material difference is in the Atot-
chasi, Otsotchove, Osotteoez, Ossotonoy, Asso-
toue, or Sothouis, in which, however, there is
similarity enough to establish identity. They call
themselves Oguapas, and never use the term "Ar-
kansas." (Nuttal.)
139
JOURNEYS OF
ter the bones of their chiefs. They are
dressed in white blankets made of the bark
of a tree, which they spin ; their chief is ab-
solute, and disposes of all without consult-
ing anybody. He is attended by slaves, as
are all his family. Food is brought him
outside his cabin; drink is given him in a
particular cup, with much neatness. His
wives and children are similarly treated, and
the other Taensa address him with respect
and ceremony.
The Sieur de la Salle, being fatigued and
unable to go into the town, sent in the Sieur
de Tonty and myself with presents. The
chief of this nation, not content with send-
ing him provisions and other presents,
wished also to see him, and, accordingly,
two hours before the time a master of cere-
monies came, followed by six men ; he made
them clear the way he was to pass, prepare
a place and cover it with a delicately worked
cane-mat. The chief, who came some time
after, was dressed in a fine white cloth or
blanket. He was preceded by two men car-
rying fans of white feathers. A third car-
ried a copper plate and a round one of the
same metal, both highly polished. He main-
tained a very grave demeanor during this
visit, which was, however, full of confidence
and marks of friendship.
140
LA SALLE
The whole country is covered with palm-
trees, laurels of two kinds, plums, peaches,
mulberry, apple, and pear trees of every
kind. There are also five or six kinds of
nut-trees, some of which bear nuts of ex-
traordinary size. They also gave us several
kinds of dried fruit to taste ; we found them
large and good. They have also many other
kinds of fruit-trees which I never saw in
Europe, but the season was too early to al-
low us to see the fruit. We observed vines
already out of blossom. The mind and char-
acter of this people appeared on the whole
docile and manageable, and even capable of
reason. I made them understand all I
wished about our mysteries. They conceived
pretty well the necessity of a God, the
creator and director of all, but attribute this
divinity to the sun. Religion may be greatly
advanced among them, as well as among
the Akansas, both these nations being half-
civilized.
Our guides would go no further, for fear
of falling into the hands of their enemies,
for the people on one shore are generally
enemies of those on the other. There are
forty villages on the east and thirty-four on
the west, of all of which we were told the
names.
The 26th of March resuming' our course,
141
JOURNEYS OF
we perceived, twelve leagues lower down,
a periagua or wooden canoe, to which the
Sieur de Tonty gave chase, till, approaching
the shore, we perceived a great number of
Indians. The Sieur de la Salle, with his
usual precaution, turned to the opposite
banks, and then sent the calumet of peace
by the Sieur de Tonty. Some of the chief
men crossed the river to come to us as good
friends. They were fishermen of the Nachie
tribe (Natchez), enemies of the Taensa. Al-
though their village lay three leagues in-
land, the Sieur de la Salle did not hesitate
to go there with a part of our force. We
slept there, and received as kindly a wel-
come as we could expect; the Sieur de la
Salle, whose very air, engaging manners
and skillful mind command alike love and
respect, so impressed the heart of these In-
dians that they did not know how to treat
us well enough. They would gladly have
kept us with them, and even, in sign of their
esteem, that night informed the Koroa, T
their ally, whose chief and head men came
the next day to the village, where they paid
their obeisance to the king of the French
in the person of the Sieur de la Salle, who
T Marquette's map mentions this tribe as lying
inland, on the western side. He writes it "Ako-
roa." [Iberville later "Coloa."]
142
I
LA SALLE
was well able to exalt in every quarter the
power and glory of his nation.
After having planted the king's arms un-
der the cross and made presents to the
Nachie, we returned to the camp the next
day with the head men of the town and the
Koroa chief, who accompanied us to his
village, situated ten leagues below, -on a
beautiful eminence, surrounded on one side
by fine corn fields and on the other by beau-
tiful prairies. This chief presented the
Sieur de la Salle with a calumet and feasted
him and all his party. We here, as else-
where, made presents in return. They told
us that we had still ten days to sail to the
sea.
The Sicacha (Chickasaw), whom we had
brought thus far, obtained leave to remain
in the village, which we left on Easter Sun-
day, the 2Qth of March, after having cele-
brated the divine mysteries for the French
and fulfilled the duties of good Christians.
For our Indians, though of the most ad-
vanced and best instructed, were not yet
capable.
About six leagues below the river divides
into two arms or channels, forming a great
island, which must be more than sixty
leagues long. 8 We followed the channel on
['This was a mistake, but the maps of that
143
JOURNEYS OF
the right, although we had intended to take
the other, but passed it in a fog without see-
ing it. We had a guide with us, who pointed
it out by signs; but, his canoe being then
behind, those in it neglected when the
Indian told them to overtake us, for
we were considerably ahead. We were in-
formed that on the other channel there
were ten different nations, numerous and
well-disposed.
On the second of April, after having
sailed forty [or eighty] leagues, we per-
ceived some fishermen on the bank of the
river; they took flight, and we imme-
diately after heard sasacoiiest that is, war-
cries and beating of drums. It was the
Quinipissa nation. Four Frenchmen were
sent to offer them the calumet of peace, with
orders not to fire ; but they had to return in
hot haste, because the Indians let fly a
shower of arrows at them. Four of our
Mohegans, who went soon after, met no
better welcome. This obliged the Sieur de
la Salle to continue his route, till two
leagues lower down we entered a village
of the Tangiboa, 9 which had been re-
cently sacked and plundered; we found
time represented the Mississippi as two rivers con-
nected by a channel. Cf. Estab't of the Faith
(Shea, ed.) II., 175, note.]
"Called in act of possession "Maheouala."
144
LA SALLE
there three cabins full of human bodies dead
for fifteen or sixteen days.
At last, after a navigation of about forty
leagues, we arrived, on the sixth of April,
at a point where the river divides into three
channels. The Sieur de la Salle divided
his party the next day into three bands to go
and explore them. He took the western,
the Sieur Dautray the southern, the Sieur
Tonty, whom I accompanied, the middle
one. These three channels are beautiful
and deep. The water is brackish ; after ad-
vancing two leagues it became perfectly
salt, and, advancing on, we discovered the
open sea, so that on the ninth of April, with
all possible solemnity, we performed the
ceremony of planting the cross and raising
the arms of France. After we had chanted
the hymn of the church, "Vexilla Regis,"
and the "Te Deum," the Sieur de la Salle,
in the name of his majesty, took possession
of that river, of all rivers that enter it and
of all the country watered by them. An
authentic act was drawn up, signed by all
of us there, and, amid a volley from all our
muskets, a leaden plate subscribed with the
arms of France and the names of those who
had just made the discovery was deposited
in the earth. 10 The Sieur de la Salle, who
10 See De la Salle's procts verbal of the taking
145
JOURNEYS OF
always carried an astrolabe, took the lati-
tude of the mouth. Although he kept to
himself the exact point, we have learned
that the river falls into the Gulf of Mexico,
between 27 and 28 north, and, as is
thought, at the point where maps lay down
the Rio Escondido. This mouth is about
thirty leagues distant from the Rio Bravo
(Rio Grande), sixty from the Rio de Pal-
mas, and ninety or a hundred leagues from
the River Panuco (Tampico), where the
nearest Spanish post on the coast is situated.
We reckoned that Espiritu Santo Bay (Ap-
palachee Bay) lay northeast of the mouth.
From the Ilinois River we always went
south or southwest ; the river winds a little,
preserves to the sea its breadth of about a
quarter of a league, is everywhere very
deep, without banks or any obstacle to navi-
gation, although the contrary has been pub-
lished. 11 This river is reckoned eight hun-
dred leagues long ; we traveled at least three
hundred and fifty from the mouth of the
River Seignelay.
We were out of provisions, and found
possession of Louisiana, in the Hist. Coll. of Lou-
isiana, Vol. I., p. 45. [Also Vol. L, Chap. VIL]
11 We do not know to what Father Membre re-
fers. Marquette's work makes no such assertion
of the Mississippi. Hennepin, indeed, says that
an Illinois had so stated before La Salle went
down. Description de la Louisiane, p. 177.
146
LA SALLE
only some dried meat at the mouth, which
we took to appease our hunger; but soon
after perceiving it to be human flesh, we left
the rest to our Indians. It was very good
and delicate. At last, on the tenth of April,
we began to remount the river, living only
on potatoes and crocodiles (alligators). The
country is so bordered with canes and so
low in this part that we could not hunt,
without a long halt. On the twelfth we slept
at the village of the Tangibao, and as the
Sieur de la Salle wished to have corn, will-
ingly or by force . . . Our Abnakis per-
ceived, on the thirteenth, as we advanced,
a great smoke near. We thought that this
might be the Quinipissa, who had fired on
us some days before ; those whom we sent
out to reconnoitre brought in four women
of the nation on the morning of the four-
teenth, and we went and encamped opposite
the village. After dinner some periaguas
came toward us to brave us, but the Sieur
de la Salle having advanced in person with
the calumet of peace, on their refusal to re-
ceive it a gun was fired, which terrified
these savages, who had never seen firearms.
They called it thunder, not understanding
how a wooden stick could vomit fire and
kill people so far off without touching them.
This obliged the Indians to take flight, al-
147
JOURNEYS OF
though in great force, armed in their man-
ner. At last the Sieur de la Salle followed
them to the other side and put one woman
on the shore, with a present of axes, knives
and beads, giving her to understand that the
other three should follow soon if she
brought some Indian corn. The next day
a troop of Indians having appeared, the
Sieur de la Salle went to meet them, and
concluded a peace, receiving and giving hos-
tages. He then encamped near their vil-
lage, and they brought us some little corn.
We at last went up to the village, where
these Indians had prepared us a feast in
their fashion. They had notified their allies
and neighbors, so that when we went to en-
joy the banquet in a large square we saw a
confused mass of armed savages arrive, one
after another. We were, however, wel-
comed by the chiefs ; but, having ground for
suspicion, each kept his gun ready, and the
Indians, seeing it, durst not attack us.
The Sieur de la Salle retired with all his
people and his hostages into his camp and
gave up the Quinipissa women. The next
morning before daybreak our sentinel re-
ported that he heard a noise among the
canes on the banks of the river. The Sieur
Dautray said that it was nothing, but the
Sieur de la Salle, always on the alert, hav-
148
LA SALLE
ing already heard the noise, called to arms.
As we instantly heard war cries, and arrows
were fired from quite near us, we kept up
a brisk fire, although it began to rain. Day
broke, and after two hours' fighting, and
the loss of ten men killed on their side and
many wounded, they took to flight, without
any of us having been injured. Our people
wished to go and burn the village of these
traitors, but the Sieur de la Salle prudently
wished only to make himself formidable to
this nation, without exasperating it, in order
to manage them in time of need. We, how-
ever, destroyed many of their canoes. They
were near, but contented themselves with
running away and shouting. Our Mohe-
gans took only two scalps.
We set out, then, the evening of the same
day, the i8th of April, and arrived on the
first of May at the Koroa, after having suf-
fered much from want of provisions. The
Koroa had been notified by the Quinipissa,
their allies, and had, with the intention of
avenging them, assembled Indians of sev-
eral villages, making a very numerous army,
which appeared on the shores and often ap-
proached us to reconnoitre. As this nation
had contracted friendship with us on our
voyage down, we were not a little surprised
at the change ; but they told us the reason,
149
JOURNEYS OF
which obliged us to keep on our guard. The
Sieur de la Salle even advanced intrepidly,
so that the Indians durst not undertake any-
thing.
When we passed going down we were
pretty well provided with Indian corn, and
had put a quantity in cache pretty near their
village. We found it in good condition,
and, having taken it up, continued our
route, but were surprised to see the Indian
corn at this place, which, the 29th of March,
was just sprouting from the ground, already
fit to eat, and we then learned that it ripened
in fifty days. We also remarked other corn
four inches above ground.
We set out, then, the same day, the first
of May, in the evening, and after seeing sev-
eral different nations on the following days
and having renewed our alliance with the
Taensa, who received us perfectly well, we
arrived at the Akansa, where we were simi-
larly received. We left it on the eighteenth ;
the Sieur de la Salle went on with two ca-
noes of our Mohegans and pushed on to a
hundred leagues below the River Seignelay,
where he fell sick. We joined him there
with the rest of the troop on the second of
June. As his malady was dangerous and
brought him to extremity, unable to ad-
vance any further, he was obliged to send
150
LA SALLE
forward the Sieur de Tonty for the Ilinois
and Miamis to take up our caches and put
everything in order, appointing Tonty to
command there. But at last the malady of
the Sieur de la Salle, which lasted forty
days, during which I assisted him to my ut-
most, having somewhat abated, we started
at the close of July by slow journeys. At
the end of September we reached the Miami
River, where we learned of several military
expeditions made by the Sieur de Tonty
after he had left us. He had left the Sieur
Dautray and the Sieur Cochois among the
Miamis, and other people among the Ilinois,
with two hundred new cabins of Indians,
who were going to repeople that nation. The
said Sieur de Tonty pushed on to Misslli-
makinak to render an account, more at
hand, of our discovery to the governor, the
Count de Frontenac, on behalf of the Sieur
de la Salle, who prepared to retrace his
steps to the sea the next spring with a larger
force and families to begin establishments.
The River Seignelay is very beautiful,
especially below the Ilinois (Indians), wide
and deep, forming two lakes as far as the
sea (jusqu'a la mer), edged with hills, cov-
ered with beautiful trees of all kinds,
whence you discern vast prairies, on which
herds of wild cattle pasture in confusion.
JOURNEYS OF
The river often overflows and renders
the country around marshy for twenty or
thirty leagues from the sea. 12 The soil
around is good, capable of producing all
that can be desired for subsistence. We
even found hemp there growing wild, much
finer than that of Canada. The whole coun-
try on this river is charming in its aspect.
It is the same with what we have visited
on the River Colbert. When you are
twenty or thirty leagues below the Maroa
the banks are full of canes until you reach
the sea, except in fifteen or twenty places,
where there are very pretty hills and spa-
cious, convenient landing places. The in-
undation does not extend far, and behind
these drowned lands you see the finest coun-
try in the world. Our hunters, French and
Indians were delighted with it. For an ex-
tent of at least two hundred leagues in
length and as much in breadth, as we were
told, there are vast fields of excellent land,
diversified here and there with pleasing
hills, lofty woods, groves through which
you might ride on horseback, so clear and
unobstructed are the paths. These little
forests also line the rivers, which intersect
the country in various places, and which
"I cannot see what he means by the term sea
in these two places, unless in the former it means
the mouth and in the latter the bed of the river.
152
LA SALLE
abound in fish. The crocodiles are danger-
ous here, so much so that in some parts no
one would venture to expose himself or
even put his hand out of his canoe. The
Indians told us that these animals often
dragged in their people, where they could
anywhere get hold of them.
The fields are full of all kinds of game,
wild cattle, stags, does, deer, bears, turkeys,
partridges, parrots, quails, woodcock, wild
pigeons and ring-doves. There are also
beavers, otters, martens, till a hundred
leagues below the Maroa, especially in the
river of the Missouri, the Ouabache, that
of the Chepousseau (the Cumberland),
which is opposite it, and on all the smaller
ones in this part; but we could not learn
that there were any beavers on this side to-
ward the sea.
There are no wild beasts formidable to
man. That which is called Michybichy
never attacks man, although it devours the
strongest beasts. Its head is like that of a
lynx, though much larger; the body long
and large, like a deer's, but much more
slender; the legs also shorter, the paws like
those of a wildcat, but much larger, with
longer and stronger claws, which it uses
to kill the beasts it would devour. It eats
a little, then carries off the rest on its back
153
JOURNEYS OF
and hides it under some leaves, where ordi-
narily no other beast of prey touches it. Its
skin and tail resemble those of a lion, to
which it is inferior only in size.
The cattle of this country surpass ours
in size; their head is monstrous and their
look frightful, on account of the long, black
hair with which it is surrounded, and which
hangs below the chin and along the houghs
of this animal. It has on the back a kind of
upright crests (coste), of which that near-
est the neck is longest; the others diminish
gradually to the middle of the back. The
hair is fine and scarce inferior to wool. The
Indians wear their skins, which they dress
very neatly with earth, which serves also
for paint. These animals are easily ap-
proached and never fly from you ; they could
be easily domesticated.
There is another little animal (the opos-
sum), like a rat, though as large as a cat,
with silvery hair sprinkled with black. The
tail is bare, as thick as a large finger, and
about a foot long; with this it suspends
itself when it is on the branches of trees. It
has under the belly a kind of pouch, where
it carries its young when pursued.
The Indians assured us that inland, to-
ward the west, there are animals on which
men ride, and which carry very heavy loads ;
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LA SALLE
they described them as horses, and showed
us two feet which were actually hoofs of
horses.
We observed everywhere wood of various
kinds, fit for every use, and, among others,
the most beautiful cedars in the world, and
another kind shedding an abundance of
gum, as pleasant to burn as the best French
pastilles. We also remarked everywhere
hemlocks and many other pretty large trees
with white bark. The cottonwood trees are
large; of these the Indians dig out canoes
forty or fifty feet long, and have sometimes
fleets of a hundred and fifty below their vil-
lages. We saw every kind of tree fit for
shipbuilding. There is also plenty of hemp
for cordage, and tar might be made remark-
ably near the sea.
You meet prairies everywhere, sometimes
of fifteen or twenty leagues front and three
or four deep, ready to receive the plough.
The soil is excellent, capable of supporting
great colonies. Beans grow wild 1 , and the
stalk lasts several years, always bearing
fruit ; it is thicker than an arm and runs up
like ivy to the top of the highest trees. The
peach trees are quite like those of France
and very good; they are so loaded with
fruit that the Indians have to prop up those
they cultivate in their clearings. There are
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whole forests of very fine mulberries, of
which we ate the fruit from the month of
May ; many plum trees and other fruit trees,
some known and others unknown in Eu-
rope ; vines, pomegranates and horse chest-
nuts are common. They raise three or four
crops of corn a year. I have already stated
that I saw some ripe, while more was
sprouting. Winter is known only by the
rains.
We had not time to look for mines; we
only found coal in several places; the In-
dians who had lead and copper wished to
lead us to many places whence they take it ;
there are quarries of very fine stone, white
and black marble, yet the Indians do not
use it.
These tribes, though savage, seem gener-
ally of very good dispositions, affable, oblig-
ing and docile. They have no true idea of
religion by a regular worship, but we re-
marked some confused ideas and a particu-
lar veneration they had for the sun, which
they recognize as Him who made and pre-
serves all. It is surprising how different
their language is from that of tribes not
ten leagues off; they manage, however, to
understand each; and, besides, there is al-
ways some interpreter of one nation resid-
ing in another, when they are allies, and
156
LA SALLE
who acts as a kind of consul. They are very
different from our Canada Indians in their
houses, dress, manners, inclinations and
customs, and even in the form of the head,
for theirs is very flat. They have large
public squares, games, assemblies; they
seem lively and active; their chiefs possess
all the authority; no one would dare pass
between the chiefs and the cane-torch which
burns in his cabin, and is carried before him
when he goes out ; all make a circuit around
it with some ceremony. The chiefs have
their valets and officers, who follow them
and serve them everywhere. They dis-
tribute their favors and presents at will. In
a word, we generally found them to be men.
We saw none who knew firearms, or even
iron or steel articles, using stone knives and
hatchets. This was quite contrary to what
had been told us, when we were assured
that they traded with the Spaniards, who
were said to be only twenty-five or thirty
leagues off ; they had axes, guns and all com-
modities found in Europe. We found, in-
deed, tribes that had bracelets of real pearls,
but they pierce them when hot and thus
spoil them. Monsieur de la Salle brought
some with him. The Indians told us that
their warriors brought them from very far,
in the direction of the sea, and receive them
JOURNEYS OF
in exchange from some nations apparently
on the Florida side.
There are many other things which our
people observed on advancing a little into
the country to hunt, or which we learned
from the tribes through whom we passed;
but I should be tedious were I to detail
them, and, besides, the particulars should
be better known.
To conclude, our expedition of discovery
was accomplished without having lost any
of our men, French or Indian, and without
anybody's being wounded, for which we
were indebted to the protection of the Al-
mighty and the great capacity of Monsieur
de la Salle. I will say nothing here of con-
versions; formerly the apostles had but to
enter a country, when on the first publica-
tion of the gospel great conversions were
seen. I am but a miserable sinner, infinitely
destitute of the merits of the apostles; but
we must also acknowledge that these mirac-
ulous ways of grace are not attached to the
exercise of our ministry; God employs an
ordinary and common way, following which
I contented myself with announcing, as well
as I could, the principal truths of Christian-
ity to the nations I met. The Ilinois lan-
guage served me about a hundred leagues
down the river, and I made the rest under-
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LA SALLE
stand by gestures and some terms in their
dialect which I insensibly picked up; but I
cannot say that my little efforts produced
certain fruits. With regard to these peo-
ple, perhaps some one, by a secret effect of
grace, has profited; God only knows. All
we have done has been to see the state of
these tribes and to open the way to the gos-
pel and to missionaries, having baptized
only two infants whom I saw struggling
with death, and who, in fact, died in our
presence.
CHAPTER VII.
ACCOUNT OF THE TAKING POSSESSION OF
LOUISIANA BY M. DE LA SALLE/ 1 682.
"PROCES VERBAL OF THE TAKING POSSESSION
OF LOUISIANA, AT THE MOUTH OF THE
MISSISSIPPI, BY THE SIEUR DE LA SALLE,
ON THE 9TH OF APRIL, 1 682.
"JAQUES DE LA METAiRiE, Notary of Fort
Frontenac, in New France, commissioned
to exercise the said function of Notary dur-
ing the voyage to Louisiana, in North
America, by M. de la Salle, Governor of
Fort Frontenac for the King, and comman-
[* Reprinted by French, in 1875, in Hist'l Coll'ns
La. and Fla., Second Series, page 17, ff.]
159
JOURNEYS OF
dant of the said Discovery by the commis-
sion of his Majesty given at St. Germain, on
the I2th of May, 1678.
"To all those to whom these presents shall
come, greeting; Know, that having been
requested by the said Sieur de la Salle to
deliver to him an act, signed by us and by
the witnesses therein named, of possession
by him taken of the country of Louisiana,
near the three mouths of the River Colbert, 2
in the Gulf of Mexico, on the Qth of April,
1682.
"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,
and of his heirs, and the successor of his
crown, we, the aforesaid Notary, have deliv-
ered the said act to the said Sieur de la Salle,
the tenor whereof follows:
"On the 27th of December, 1681, M. de
la Salle departed on foot to join M. de
Tonty, who had preceded him with his fol-
lowers and all his equipage forty leagues
into the Miamis country, where the ice on
the River Chekagou, in the country of the
Mascoutens [Miamis], had arrested his
progress, and where, when the ice became
stronger, they used sledges to drag the bag-
* Mississippi.
160
LA SALLE
gage, the canoes and a wounded French-
man through the whole length of this river
and on the Illinois, a distance of seventy
leagues.
"At length, all the French being together,
on the 25th of January, 1682, we came to
Pimiteoui. From that place, the river being
frozen only in some parts, we continued our
route down the River Colbert, sixty leagues,
or thereabouts, from Pimiteoui, and ninety
leagues, or thereabouts, from the village of
the Illinois. We reached the banks of the
River Colbert on the 6th of January [Feb-
ruary], and remained there until the I3th,
waiting for the savages, whose progress had
been impeded by the ice. On the I3th, all
having assembled, we renewed our voyage,
being twenty-two French, carrying arms,
accompanied by the Reverend Father Ze-
nobe Membre, 3 one of the Recollet mission-
aries, and followed by eighteen New Eng-
land savages and several women, Ilgon-
quines, Otchipoises and Huronnes. 4
"On the I4th we arrived at the village of
Maroa, consisting of a hundred cabins,
without inhabitants. Proceeding about a
hundred leagues down the River Colbert,
[ 8 The 1875 reprint, page 19, has the word
"and."]
[* Spelling of these three names different in
1875 reprint.]
161
JOURNEYS OF
we went ashore to hunt on the 26th of Feb-
ruary. A Frenchman was lost in the woods,
and it was reported to M. de la Salle that
a large number of savages had been seen in
the vicinity. Thinking that they might have
seized the Frenchman, and in order to ob-
serve these savages, he marched through
the woods during two days, but without
finding them, because they had all been
frightened by the guns which they had
heard and had fled.
"Returning to camp, he sent in every di-
rection French and savages on the search,
with orders, if they fell in with savages, to
take them alive, without, injury, that he
might gain from them intelligence of this
Frenchman. Gabriel Barbie, with two sav-
ages, having met five of the Chikacha
[Chickasaw] nation, captured two of them.
They were received with all possible kind-
ness, and after he had explained to them
that he was anxious about a Frenchman who
had been lost, and that he only detained
them that he might rescue him from their
hands, if he was really among them, and
afterwards make with them an advan-
tageous peace (the French doing good to
everybody), they assured him that they had
not seen the man whom we sought, but
that peace would be received with the great-
162
LA SALLE
est satisfaction. Presents were then given
to them, and, as they had signified that one
of their villages was not more than half a
day's journey distant, M. de la Salle set out
the next day to go thither; but after travel-
ing till night, and having remarked that they
often contradicted themselves in their dis-
course, he declined going farther without
more provisions. Having pressed them to
tell the truth, they confessed that it was yet
four days' journey to their villages, and, per-
ceiving that M. de la Salle was angry at
having been deceived, they proposed that
one of them should remain with him, while
the other carried the news to the village,
whence the elders would come and join
them four days' journey below that place.
The said Sieur de la Salle returned to the
camp with one of these Chikachas, and the
Frenchman whom we sought having been
found, he continued his voyage, and passed
the river of the Chepontias and the village
of the Metsigameas [Mitchigamea]. The
fog, which was very thick, prevented his
finding the passage which led to the ren-
dezvous proposed by the Chikachas.
"On the 1 2th of March we arrived at the
Kapaha village of Akansa [Arkansas].
Having established a peace there and taken
possession, we passed, on the I5th, another
JOURNEYS OF
of their villages, situate on the border of
their river, and also two others, farther off
in the depth of the forest, and arrived at
that of Imaha, the largest village in this
nation, where peace was confirmed, and
where the chief acknowledged that the vil-
lage belonged to his Majesty. Two Akan-
sas embarked with M. de la Salle to conduct
him to the Talusas [Taensas], their allies,
about fifty leagues distant, who inhabit eight
villages upon the borders of a little lake.
On the i Qth we passed the villages of
Tourika [Tonicas], Jason [Yazoo] and
Kouera [Koroas] ; but as they did not
border on the river, and were hostile to
the Arkansas and Taensas, we did not stop
there.
"On the 20th we arrived at the Taensas,
by whom we were exceedingly well received
and supplied with a large quantity of pro-
visions. M. de Tonty passed a night at one
of their villages, where there were about
seven hundred men, carrying arms, assem-
bled in the place. Here again a peace was
concluded. A peace was also made with the
Koroas, whose chief came there from the
principal village of the Koroas, two [ten]
leagues distant from that of the Natches.
The two chiefs accompanied M. de la Salle
to the banks of the river. Here the Koroa
164
LA SALLE
chief embarked with him 5 to conduct him
to his village, where peace was again con-
cluded with this nation, which, besides the
five other villages of which it is composed,
is allied to nearly forty others. On the 3ist
we passed the village of the Oumas without
knowing it, on account of the fog and its
distance from the river.
"On the 3d of April, at about ten o'clock
in the morning, we saw among the canes
thirteen or fourteen canoes. M. de la Salle
landed with several of his people. Foot-
prints were seen, and also savages, a little
lower down, who were fishing, and who
fled precipitately as soon as they discovered
us. Others of our party then went ashore
on the borders of a marsh formed by the
inundation of the river. M. de la Salle sent
two Frenchmen, and then two savages, to
reconnoitre, who reported that there was a
village [Tennipisas] not far off, but that the
whole of this marsh, covered with canes,
must be crossed to reach it; that they had
been assailed with a shower of arrows by
the inhabitants of the town, who had not
dared to engage with them in the marsh,
but who had then withdrawn, although
neither the French nor the savages with
[ B The 1875 reprint adds: ("On Easter Sunday,
the 29th of March.")].
165
JOURNEYS OF
them had fired, on account of the orders
they had received not to act [fire] unless in
pressing danger. Presently we heard a
drum-beat in the village and the cries and
howlings with which these barbarians are
accustomed to make attacks. We waited
three or four hours, and, as we could not
encamp in this marsh, and seeing no one
and no longer hearing anything, we em-
barked.
"An hour afterwards we came to the vil-
lage of Maheouala, lately destroyed, and
containing dead bodies and marks of blood.
Two leagues below this place we encamped.
We continued our voyage till the 6th, when
we discovered three channels by which the
River Colbert (Mississippi) discharges it-
self into the sea. We landed on the bank
of the most western channel, about three
leagues from its mouth. On the 7th M. de
la Salle went to reconnoitre the shores of
the neighboring sea, and M. de Tonty like-
wise examined the great middle channel.
They found these two [three] outlets beau-
tiful, large and deep. On the 8th we reas-
cended the river, a little above its conflu-
ence with the sea, to find a dry place
beyond the reach of inundations. The eleva-
tion of the North Pole was here about 27.
Here we prepared a column and a cross,
166
LA SALLE
and to the said column were affixed the arms
of France, with this inscription:
'LOIS LE GRAND, ROI DE FRANCE ET DE NA-
VARRE, REGNE; LE NEUVIEME AVRIL,
1682.'
The whole party, under arms, chanted the
Te Deum, the Exaudiat, the Domine salvum
fac Regem; and then, after a salute of fire-
arms and cries of Vive le Roi, the column
was erected by M. de la Salle, who, stand-
ing near it, said, with a loud voice, in
French: '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, this ninth day of April, one
thousand six hundred and eighty-two, I, in
virtue of the commission 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, people, provinces, cities,
towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries,
streams and rivers comprised in the extent
of said Louisiana, from the mouth of the
great River St. Louis, on the eastern side,
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otherwise called Ohio; Alighin [Alle-
ghany], Sipore, or Chukagona [Chicago],
and this with the consent of the Chaouanons
[Shawnees], Chikachas and other people
dwelling therein, with whom we have made
alliance as also along the River Colbert, or
Mississippi, and rivers which discharge
themselves therein, from its source beyond
the country of the Kious [Sioux], or Na-
douessious, and this with their consent, and
with the consent of the Motantees, Ilinois,
Mesigameas, Natches, Koroas, which are
the most considerable nations dwelling
therein, with whom, also, we have made al-
liance, either by ourselves or by others in
our behalf; 6 as far as its mouth at the sea,
or Gulf of Mexico, about the 27th degree
of the elevation of the North Pole, and also
to the mouth of the River of Palms; upon
the assurance which we have received from
all these nations that we are the first Euro-
peans who have descended or ascended the
said River Colbert; hereby protesting
against all those who may in future under-
6 "There is an obscurity in this enumeration of
places and Indian nations which may be ascribed
to an ignorance of the geography of the country;
but it seems to be the design of the Sieur de la
Salle to take possession of the whole territory
watered by the Mississippi from its mouth to its
source, and by the streams flowing into it on
both sides." Note by Mr. Sparks.
168
LA SALLE
take to invade any or all of these countries,
people or lands above described, to the
prejudice of the right of his Majesty, ac-
quired by the consent of the nations herein
named. Of which, and of all that can be
needed, I hereby take to witness those who
hear me, and demand an act of the Notary,
as required by law.'
"To which the whole assembly responded
with shouts of Vive le Roi and with salutes
of firearms. Moreover, the said Sieur de
la Salle caused to be buried at the foot of
the tree, to which the cross was attached,
a leaden plate, on one side of which were
engraved the arms of France and the fol-
lowing Latin inscription :
LVDOVICVS MAGNUS REGNAT.
NONO APRILIS CIG IGC LXXXII.
ROBERTVS CAVELIER, CVM DOMINO DE TONTY,
LEGATO, R. P. ZENOBIO MEMBRE, RECOLLECTO,
ET VIGINTI GALLIS, PRIMVS HOC FLYMEN,
INDE AB ILINEORVM PAGO, ENAVIGAVIT,
EJVSQUE OSTIVM FECIT PERVIVM, NONO
APRILIS ANNI CIG IGC LXXXII.
After which the Sieur de la Salle said that
his Majesty, as eldest son of the Church,
would annex no country to his crown with-
out making it his chief care to establish the
169
JOURNEYS OF
Christian religion therein, and that its sym-
bol must now be planted; which was ac-
cordingly done at once by erecting a cross,
before which the Vexilla and the Domine
salvum fac Regem were sung. Whereupon
the ceremony was concluded with cries of
Vive le Roi.
"Of all and every of the above, the said
Sieur de la Salle having required of us an
instrument, we have delivered to him the
same, signed by us, and by the undersigned
witnesses, this ninth day of April, one thou-
sand six hundred and eighty-two.
"LA METAIRIE,
"Notary.
"DE LA SALLE.
"P. ZENOBE, Recollet Missionary.
"HENRY DE TONTY.
"FRANCOIS DE BOISRONDET.
"JEAN BOURDON.
" SIEUR D'AUTRAY.
"JAQUES CAUCHOIS.
"PIERRE You.
"GILLES MEUCRET.
"JEAN MICHEL, Surgeon.
"JEAN MAS.
"JEAN DULIGNON.
"NICOLAS DE LA SALLE/'
170
LA SALLE
CHAPTER VIII.
[MEMOIRS PRESENTED BY LA SALLE TO THE
MARQUIS DE SEIGNELAY IN 1684.]
A MEMOIR * OF ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE
ON THE NECESSITY OF FITTING OUT AN
EXPEDITION TO TAKE POSSESSION OF
LOUISIANA.
THE principal result which the Sieur de
la Salle expected from the great perils and
labors which he underwent in the discovery
of the Mississippi was to satisfy the wish
expressed to him by the late Monseigneur
Colbert of finding a port where the French
might establish themselves and harass the
Spaniards in those regions from whence
they derive all their wealth. The place
which he proposes to fortify lies sixty
leagues above the mouth of the River Col-
bert (Mississippi), in the Gulf of Mexico,
and possesses all the advantages for such
a purpose which can be wished for, both
upon account of its excellent position and
the favorable disposition of the savages who
live in that part of the country.
f 1 This memoir and the one following it were
composed during the early part of 1684.]
171
JOURNEYS OF
The right of the King to this territory
is the common right of all nations to lands
which they have discovered a right which
cannot be disputed after the possession al-
ready taken in the name of his Majesty by
the Sieur de la Salle, with the consent of
the greater number of its inhabitants. A
colony can easily be founded there, as the
land is very fertile and produces all articles
of life as the climate is very mild as a
port or two would make us masters of the
whole of this continent as the posts there
are good, secure and afford the means of
attacking an enemy or retreating in case
of necessity and also since all things are
found there requisite for refitting. Its dis-
tance inland will prevent foreigners from
sending fleets to attack it, since they would
be exposed to destruction by fire, which they
could only avoid with difficulty in a narrow
river, for if fire-ships were sent down they
would not fail to fall aboard them under
the favor of night and of the current. The
coast and the banks, being overflowed for
more than twenty leagues above the mouth,
make it inaccessible by land ; and the friend-
ship of the savages towards the French
and the hatred which they bear towards
the Spaniards will serve also as a strong
barrier.
172
LA SALLE
These Indians, irritated by the tyranny of
the Spaniards, carry on a cruel war against
them, without even the aid of firearms,
which they have not yet had. On the other
hand, they have been so conciliated by the
gentleness of the Sieur la Salle that they
have made peace with him and offered to
accompany him anywhere, and he has no
doubt that they would favor his enterprise
as much as they would oppose themselves
to those of the enemies of France. This
any person may judge of by the offerings
which were made at the posts on which the
arms of France were attached, and by the
assembly of more than eighteen thousand
Indians of various nations, some of whom
had come from a distance of more than two
thousand leagues, who met together in a
single camp (village) and who, forgetting
their own old disputes, threw themselves
into his arms and made him master of their
different interests and also from the depu-
tations sent to him by the Cicacas and the
Kansas, and other nations, offering to fol-
low wherever he might be pleased to lead
them. By the union of these forces it would
be possible to form an army of more than
fifteen thousand savages, who, finding them-
selves supported by the French and by the
Abenaki followers of the Sieur de la Salle,
173
JOURNEYS OF
with the aid of the arms which he has given
them, would not find any resistance in the
province which he intends to attack, where
there are not more than four hundred native
Spaniards, in a country more than one hun-
dred and fifty leagues in length and fifty
in breadth, all of whom are officers or ar-
tisans, better able to explore the mines than
to oppose themselves vigorously to an ex-
pedition which would, moreover, be favored
by Mulattoes, Indians and by Negroes if
their liberty were promised to them.
Upon account of these considerations the
Sieur de la Salle proposes, with the approba-
tion of Monseigneur, to undertake this en-
terprise, and, if peace should prevent the
execution of it, he offers to establish a very
advantageous station for commercial pur-
poses, very easy to be maintained, and from
whence, at the commencement of hostilities,
it would be possible to take from the Span-
iards a good part of their mines.
New Biscay is the most northern prov-
ince of Mexico, and is situated between 25
and 27 30' of north latitude. It is bounded
to the north by vast forests frequented by
the people called Terliquiquimeki, whom the
Spanish only know by the name of "Indios
Bravos y de guerra" never having been
able to subdue them or to compel them to
174
LA SALLE
live in peace. From this province they ex-
tend themselves as far as the River Seigne-
lai, which is distant from it in some parts
forty and in some fifty leagues. On the
east it is bounded by the same forest, by the
River Panuco, from which it is separated
by a chain of mountains, which also form
its limits to the south, from the province of
Zacatecas to the west, from that of Culiacan
to the northwest, where it separates the lat-
ter province from the new kingdom, of Leon,
not having more than two or three passages
by which succors could be expected.
The distance from Mexico, which is more
than one hundred and fifty leagues, in-
creases these difficulties, without speaking
of the necessity which the viceroys would
have of dividing their forces in order to de-
fend the maritime districts, and the small
number of native Spaniards to be met with
in this vast extent of country, from whence
no succors are to be obtained but with great
loss of time and trouble the height, also,
of the mountains which they must pass for
this purpose are too rough for a people ener-
vated by long inactivity, to be able to sur-
mount without great means of conveyance
and train. Even if succors could arrive
more quickly than is presumed, the prox-
imity of the woods and of the river would
JOURNEYS" OF
aid as much to secure a retreat and preserve
any booty, as it is favorable to an irruption
of which the enemy would have no informa-
tion before we should be in the middle of
his territory.
As they do not think themselves to be in
danger of being attacked, except by sav-
ages, they have no one place capable of sus-
taining an attack, though the country is
very rich in silver mines, more than thirty
having been already discovered. These
would be much more profitable to the
French on account of the proximity of the
river, which would serve for the transport
of the metals ; whereas the Spaniards, from
ignorance, from fear of savages, and on ac-
count of the personal interest of the vice-
roys, transport the silver at a great expense,
as needless to us as it is to them inevitable,
at so great a distance.
Assuming, then, these facts, the Sieur de
la Salle offers, if the war continues, to leave
France with two hundred men; fifty more
will join him who are in the country, and
fifty buccaneers (filibustiers) can be taken
in passing St. Domingo. The savages who
are at Fort St. Louis, to the number of more
than four thousand warriors, together with
many others who will join, can be directed
to descend the river. This army he will di-
176
LA SALLE
vide into three divisions, to maintain it more
easily. In order to compel the Spaniards
to divide their forces, two of these divisions
shall each be composed of fifty French,
fifty Abenakis and two hundred savages.
They will receive orders to attack at the
same time the two extremities of the prov-
ince, and on the same day the center of the
country will be entered with the other di-
vision, and it is certain that we shall be sec-
onded by all the unhappy in the country
who groan in slavery. The English colony
of Boston, although it is more powerful
than all those of Spain, has been desolated
by six hundred savages. Chili has been
ruined by the Araucanians, and the evil
which the Iroquois, although without dis-
cipline or generalship, have done in Canada,
are instances from which we may infer how
disastrous is this mode of warfare to those
who are not experienced in it, and also what
may be expected from the aid of savages led
by experienced Frenchmen having much
knowledge of the country.
This province being taken, its approaches
may be protected by Indians and Mulattbes,
who may be required to occupy the narrow-
est passes of the mountains, by which alone
it can be entered, and firearms may be given
to them to defend it with greater efficiency.
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JOURNEYS OF
This undertaking is certain of success if it
is executed in this manner, since the Span-
iards cannot be prepared to defend passes
of which they have no knowledge ; whereas,
if attacked by the River Panuco, or by
sea, in open warfare, before the maritime
places are conquered, or the River Pan-
uco is ascended, which is populated from
its mouth by their settlements, they would
have leisure to occupy passes with which
they are well acquainted and to make
the result doubtful, or at least more
difficult.
It is true that, in order to make a diver-
sion, the buccaneers (filibustiers) might be
of service if they were previously to make
an attack and made descents on the coast,
for then they would attract the Spanish
troops to that side, who would thus leave
the distant provinces without assistance.
The French of St. Domingo would be more
suited for these expeditions than for those
which can be made with the assistance of
savages, who would not fail to be offended
from neglect of the civility which is neces-
sary in order to obtain their good will, and
from neglect of the reserve which ought to
be maintained towards their wives, of whom
they are very jealous which causes of of-
fense would render useless the greatest
178
LA SALLE
chances of success which the French might
possess in this enterprise.
It is certain that France would draw from
these mines greater benefits than Spain,
from the facility of transport, although
Spain obtains more than six millions (of
ecus?) a year. We might also, perhaps, open
a passage to the South Sea, which is not
more distant than the breadth of the prov-
ince of Culiacan, not to mention the possi-
bility of meeting with some rivers near to
the Seignelai, which may discharge them-
selves on that side.
The Sieur de la Salle would not think
this affair so easy if, in addition to his
knowledge of their language, he was not
familiar with the manners of the savages,
through which he may obtain as much con-
fidence by a behavior in accordance with
their practices, as he has impressed on them
a feeling of respect in consequence of all
that he has yet done in passing with a small
number of followers through so many na-
tions and punishing those who broke their
word with him. After this he has no doubt
that in a short time they will become good
French subjects, so that, without drawing
any considerable number of men from Eu-
rope, they will form a powerful colony, and
will have sufficient troops to act in any
179
JOURNEYS OF
emergency and for the execution of the
greatest enterprises. The missionaries of
Paraguay and the English of Boston have
succeeded so well that equal success may
be expected by the adoption of measures
similar to theirs.
Even if the peace of Europe should make
it necessary to postpone the execution of
this design as respects the conquest pro-
posed, it would always be important to place
ourselves in a position to succeed in them
when the state of affairs shall change, tak-
ing immediate possession of this country
in order not to be anticipated by other
nations, who will not fail to take advan-
tage of the information which they cer-
tainly have, since the Dutch published a
statement of the discovery of this country
in one of their newspapers more than a year
ago.
If, also, the Spaniards should delay satis-
fying the King at the conclusion of a peace
an expedition at this point will oblige them
to hasten its conclusion, and to give to his
Majesty important places in Europe in ex-
change for those which they may lose in a
country of the possession of which they are
extremely jealous. In order, also, to hasten
them, some of their maritime places may be
insulted en passant, the pillage of which
180
LA SALLE
may well repay the expenses of the expedi-
tion.
There never was an enterprise of such
great importance proposed at so little risk
and expense, since the Sieur de la Salle
asks only for its execution a vessel of about
thirty guns, the power of raising in France
two hundred men whom he shall think
proper for his purpose, and exclusive of the
fitting out of the ship; provisions for six
months, some cannon to mount at a fort,
the necessary arms and supplies, and where-
with to pay the men for the period of a year.
These expenses would be repaid in a short
time by the duties which his Majesty might
have levied on the articles which would en-
ter into the commerce that would be carried
on there, and respecting which a separate
memoir has been delivered.
It would not require much time to bring
this expedition to an end, since it is nearly
certain that the savages can be assembled
next winter and complete this conquest in
the spring, in sufficient time to report the
news of it by the time the first vessel returns
to France.
The Sieur de la Salle does not ask for
regular troops. He prefers the assistance
of persons of different trades, or at least a
majority of such first, because they will be-
181
JOURNEYS OF
come soldiers when it may be necessary for
them to be so ; secondly, because, in enter-
prises of this kind success depends more on
the experience of the commander than on
the bravery of those who have only to obey,
as was shown in what was done by those
who previously accompanied the Sieur de la
Salle, the greater part of whom had not
seen service ; thirdly, this warfare is so dif-
ferent from that carried on in Europe that
the oldest soldiers would be found to be still
novices, so that fifty old soldiers to keep
the others in order, together with fifty buc-
caneers, and those whom the Sieur de la
Salle has in the country accustomed to such
expeditions, will be sufficient to sustain the
rest and to render them capable of any en-
terprise whatever ; fourthly, if only soldiers
were taken it would require double expense
to bring to the settlement the necessary la-
borers ; fifthly, the officers who would com-
mand the troops, finding a life of greater
hardship than they had imagined, and un-
mixed with any pleasure, would soon be dis-
satisfied, and this feeling would easily com-
municate itself to the soldiers when they
should discover that there was no relaxa-
tion of their fatigues in debauch and license ;
sixthly, it would be the ruin of the settle-
ment to commence it with idlers, such as
182
LA SALLE
most soldiers are. Far from contributing
to the prosperity of a colony, they destroy
its most favorable hopes by the disorders
which they cause.
It may be objected that the River Seigne-
lai (Illinois) is, perhaps, more distant from
New Biscay than has been assumed. To
answer this difficulty it is sufficient to men-
tion that the mouth through which it en-
ters the Mississippi is one hundred leagues
west-northwest from the place where the
latter river discharges itself into the Gulf
of Mexico, and that it has been ascended
more than sixty leagues, going always to
the west, after which Monseigneur can
judge of the truth of what has been put
forth respecting the distance between this
river and the province.
The second difficulty which may be raised
may be that, peace being concluded, no ad-
vantage can be taken of that post. The
answer is that peace is the most proper time
to prepare for war when it shall become
necessary. Even if peace should prevent
us from deriving all the advantages which
we may expect from this expense, we
should be well remunerated if we choose to
profit by the future, because we should have
more leisure to conciliate and discipline the
savages and to strengthen the colony, from
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which circumstances we could obtain more
important advantages and execute more glo-
rious and profitable undertakings (chases).
It may be feared that we may, at a future
time, make an unavailing search for that
which we might now abandon to strangers.
The injury which the colonies of Hudson
Bay and of New England, which were for-
merly disregarded, do to New France ought
to serve as a warning on this subject.
The third objection respecting the insults
which the Spaniards might inflict on the
settlement has already been answered in de-
scribing the position, which makes it inac-
cessible by land and almost equally safe
from an attack by water, in consequence of
the danger a hostile fleet would incur if it
should attempt to advance so far up a very
narrow river.
Fourthly, those who do not know the pol-
icy of the savages, and the knowledge which
they have of their true interests, will, per-
haps, think it to be dangerous to arm them.
But, besides the experience which we have
of the contrary, not one of the French allies
having yet abused the favor (condescend-
ance) shown to them for these eighty years,
it is certain that those nations which we call
savage know too well the importance to
them of having arms for their own defense
184
LA SALLE
and for the conquest of their enemies to
make use of them against those who supply
them.
Fifthly, it may be said that should so
small a force succeed in driving the Span-
iards from this province, it would not be
adequate to resist all the forces of Mexico,
which they would unite to revenge this af-
front. The answer to this is that these
forces are not so considerable as is supposed
that they cannot leave unprotected other
places that it will require much time to
assemble them, the diversion which the buc-
caneers may cause compelling them to pro-
vide for the most urgent want and that,
finally, the Indians, Mulattoes and Negroes,
armed and freed by this first success from
the terror which they have of the Spaniards,
would be able to dispute the advance of the
largest army which could be raised in Mex-
ico. Besides which, they would stake all, in
order not to be again reduced to a state of
slavery.
Sixthly, it is not believed that the expense
will be an objection, since it is too incon-
siderable in proportion to the great advan-
tages to be hoped for, even if peace should
delay their enjoyment. These advantages
are of such importance as to make it prof-
itable to incur it for some years rather than
185
JOURNEYS OF
to hazard their loss. The enterprise ought
not to be delayed to a period when we
should no longer have the mastery of it.
It is also to be believed that the Spaniards,
feeling themselves pushed so closely on that
side, would assent to conditions of peace
most advantageous to France, and, as has
been already stated, the duties which his
Majesty could levy on the merchandise
which would be obtained from thence would
repay with usury the expenses incurred.
Seventhly, the Sieur de la Salle would
oblige himself, in case the peace should con-
tinue for three years, and thus prevent him
from executing the proposed design, to re-
pay to his Majesty all that may be advanced,
or to forfeit the property and government
which he shall have created which he
hopes his Majesty will be willing to confirm
to him.
NOTE OF WHAT IS REQUISITE FOR
THE EXPEDITION.
A vessel of thirty guns, armed and pro-
vided with everything necessary, and the
crew paid and supported during the voyage ;
twelve other pieces of cannon for the two
forts, of five or six pounds to the ball, and
eight cannon of ten or twelve, with the gun
186
LA SALLE
carriages and train ; two hundred balls for
each cannon, and powder in proportion.
A hundred picked men, levied at the ex-
pense of his Majesty, but selected by the
Sieur de la Salle. Their pay for one year
to be one hundred and twenty (?) a man,
and, as the money would be of no avail to
them in the colony, it shall be converted at
the place of embarkation into goods (den-
re es) proper for them.
The pay, during six months, of one hun-
dred (?) for the other men, enlisted by the
Sieur de la Salle, to be paid by his Majesty
during the time they shall be employed in
the proposed conquests.
Victuals for all during six months; six
hundred muskets for arming four hundred
savages, in addition to one thousand six
hundred who are already armed, and the
others for the two hundred Frenchmen.
A hundred pair of pistols proper to be
worn in the girdle; one hundred and fifty
swords, and as many sabres, twenty-five
pikes (pertuisanes) , twenty-five halberds,
twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder, four
to five (?) of which to be given to each sav-
age and the remainder left in the forts and
for the use of the French during the ex-
pedition.
Musquet balls of the proper calibre in
187
JOURNEYS OF
proportion ; gun-worms, powder-horns,
rifle-flints, three hundred to four hundred
grenades, six petards of the smallest and
largest kind, pincers, pickaxes, hoes, hones,
shovels, axes, hatchets and cramp-irons for
the fortifications and buildings; five thou-
sand to six thousand pounds of iron and
four hundred pounds of steel of all sorts. A
forge, with its appurtenances, besides the
tools necessary for armorers, joiners, coop-
ers, wheelwrights, carpenters and masons.
Two boxes of surgery provided with
medicine and instruments.
Two chapels and the ornaments for the
almoners.
A barge of forty tons in pieces (en
fagots), or built with its appurtenances.
Refreshments for the sick.
MEMOIR 2 OF THE SIEUR DE LA SALLE REPORT-
ING TO MONSEIGNEUR DE SEIGNELAY
THE DISCOVERIES MADE BY HIM UNDER
THE ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY.
MONSEIGNEUR COLBERT was of opinion,
with regard to the various propositions
which were made in 1678, that it was im-
portant for the glory and service of the King
['This is reprinted with minor textual varia-
tions in FRENCH, Hisfl Coll'ns of La. and Fid.
Second Series (1875), page i, ff.]
188
LA SALLE
to discover a port for his vessels in the Gulf
of Mexico.
The Sieur de la Salle offered to under-
take the discovery, at his own expense, if it
should please his Majesty to grant to him
the seignory of the government of the forts
which he should erect on his route, together
with certain privileges as [and] an indem-
nification for the great outlay which the ex-
pedition would impose on him. Such grant
was made to him by letters patent on the
1 2th of May, 1678.
In order to execute this commission he
abandoned all his own pursuits which did
not relate to it. He did not omit anything
necessary for success, notwithstanding dan-
gerous sickness, considerable losses and
other misfortunes which he suffered, which
would have discouraged any other person
not possessed of the same zeal with himself
and the same industry in the performance
of the undertaking. He has made five voy-
ages under extraordinary hardships, extend-
ing over more than five thousand leagues,
most commonly on foot, through snow and
water, almost without rest, during five
years. He has traversed more than six hun-
dred leagues of unknown country, among
many barbarous and cannibal nations (an-
thropophages), against whom he was
189
JOURNEYS OF
obliged to fight almost daily, although he
was accompanied by only thirty-six men,
having no other consolation before him than
a hope of bringing to an end an enterprise
which he believed would be agreeable to
his Majesty.
After having happily executed this de-
sign, he hopes Monseigneur will be pleased
to continue him in the title (propriete) and
government of the fort which he has had
erected in the country of his discovery,
where he has placed several French set-
tlers and has brought together many sav-
age nations, amounting to more than eigh-
teen thousand in number, who have built
houses there and sown much ground to
commence a powerful colony.
This is the only fruit of an expenditure of
one hundred and fifty thousand egus the
only means of satisfying his creditors who
advanced to him the aid which he required
after very considerable losses.
He believes that he has sufficiently estab-
lished the truth of his discovery by the offi-
cial instrument signed by all his compan-
ions, which was placed last year in the hands
of Monseigneur Colbert by the Count de
Frontenac, as also by a report drawn up by
the Reverend Father Zenoble [Zenobe
Membre], missionary, who accompanied
190
LA SALLE
him during this voyage, and who is at this
time Guardian of Bapaume; by the testi-
mony of three persons who accompanied
him, and whom he has brought with him to
France, and who are now in Paris, and by
the testimony of many other persons who
came this year from Canada, and who have
seen one Vital, sent by M. de la Barre to
collect information respecting him on the
spot, and who has confirmed the truth of the
discovery.
All these proofs are sufficient to contra-
dict whatever may have been written to the
contrary by persons who have no knowledge
of the country where the discovery was
made, never having been there. But he
hopes to remove all these prejudices by car-
rying into execution the design which he
entertains, under the favor of Monseigneur,
of returning to the country of his discovery
by the mouth of the river in the Gulf of
Mexico, since he must have lost his sense
if, without being certain of the means of
arriving where he proposes, he exposed not
only his own fortune and that of his friends
to manifest destruction, but his own honor
and reputation to the unavoidable disgrace
of having imposed on the confidence of his
Majesty and of his ministers. Of this there
is less likelihood, because he has no interest
191
JOURNEYS OF
to disguise the truth, since, if Monseigneur
does not think it convenient to undertake
any enterprise in that direction, he will not
ask anything more from his Majesty until
his return from the Gulf of Mexico confirms
the truth of what he has alleged. With
reference to the assertion that his voyage
would produce no profit to France, he re-
plies that if he proposed it as a thing to be
done, and on that account sought for as-
sistance to undertake the enterprise, or re-
ward after having succeeded in it, its use-
fulness would deserve consideration; but,
being here only in order to render an ac-
count of the orders he received, he does not
think himself to be responsible for anything
but their execution, it not being his duty to
examine the intentions of Monseigneur Col-
bert. Having, however, observed great ad-
vantages which both France and Canada
may derive from his discovery, he believes
that he owes this detail to the glory of the
King, the welfare of the kingdom, to the
honor of the ministry of Monseigneur, and
to the memory of him who employed him
upon this expedition. He does this the more
willingly as his requests will not expose
him to a suspicion of self-interest; and as
the influence which he has acquired over
the people of that continent places him in a
192
LA 1 SALLE
position to execute what he proposes, the
things which he states will find greater
credit in the minds of those who shall in-
vestigate them.
Firstly, the service of God may be estab-
lished there by the preaching of the gospel
to numerous docile and settled (sedentaires)
nations, who will be found more willing to
receive it than those of other parts of Amer-
ica upon account of their greater civiliza-
tion. They have already temples and a form
of worship.
Secondly, we can effect there for the
glory of our King very important conquests,
both by land and by sea ; or, if peace should
oblige us to delay the execution of them, we
might, without giving any cause of com-
plaint, make preparations to render us cer-
tain of success whenever it shall please the
King to command it.
The provinces which may be seized are
very rich in silver mines they adjoin the
River Colbert (the Mississippi) they are
far removed from succor they are open
everywhere on the side on which we should
attack them, and are defended only by a
small number of persons, so sunk in effemi-
nacy and indolence as to be incapable of en-
during the fatigue of wars of this descrip-
tion.
193
JOURNEYS OF
The Sieur de la Salle binds himself to
have this enterprise ripe for success within
one year after his arrival on the spot, and
asks only for this purpose one vessel, some
arms and munitions, the transport, main-
tenance and pay of two hundred men during
one year. Afterwards he will maintain
them from the produce of the country, and
supply their other wants through the credit
and confidence which he has obtained among
those nations and the experience which he
has had of those regions. He will give a
more detailed account of this proposal when
it shall please Monseigneur to direct him.
Thirdly, the river is navigable for more
than a hundred leagues for ships, and for
barks for more than five hundred leagues to
the north, and for more than eight hundred
from east to west. Its three mouths are as
many harbors, capable of receiving every
description of ships; where those of his
Majesty will always find a secure retreat
and all that may be necessary to refit and re-
victual which would be a great economy
to his Majesty, who would no longer find
it necessary to send the things needed from
France at a great expense, the country pro-
ducing the greater part of them. We could
even build there as many ships as we should
desire, the materials for building and rig-
194
LA SALLE
ging them being in abundance, with the ex-
ception of iron, which may, perhaps, be dis-
covered.
In the first place, we should obtain there
everything which has enriched New Eng-
land and Virginia, and which constitute the
foundation of their commerce and of their
great wealth timber of every kind, salted
meat, tallow, corn, sugar, tobacco, honey,
wax, resin and other gums, immense pas-
turages, hemp and other articles with which
more than two hundred vessels are every
year freighted in New England to carry
elsewhere.
The newly discovered country has, be-
sides its other advantages, that of the soil,
which, being only partly covered with wood, 3
forms a campaign of great fertility and ex-
tent, scarcely requiring any clearing. The
mildness of the climate is favorable to the
rearing of a large number of cattle, which
cause great expense where the winter is se-
vere. There is also a prodigious number
(plus un nombre prodigieux) of buffaloes,
stags, hinds, roes, bears, otters, lynxes.
Hides and furs [in the greatest abundance]
are to be had there almost for nothing (d
vil prix), the savages not yet knowing the
['The reprint by French (page 9) reads,
"which being well timbered."]
195
JOURNEYS OF
value of our commodities. There are cot-
ton, cochineal, nuts, turnsols, entire forests
of mulberry trees, salt, slate, coal, vines,
apple trees ; so that it would be easy to make
wine, cider, oil of nuts, of turnsols, and of
olives, also, if olive trees were planted there ;
silk and dye-woods. It will not be neces-
sary to import from Europe horses, oxen,
swine, fowls or turkeys, which are to be
found in different parts [every part] of the
country, nor to import provisions for the
colonists, who would quickly find subsist-
ence.
Whilst other colonies are open and ex-
posed to the descents of foreigners by as
many points as their coasts are washed by
the sea, whereby they are placed under a
necessity of having many persons to watch
these points of access, one single post,
established towards the lower part of the
river, will be sufficient to protect a territory
extending from more than eight hundred
leagues from north to south, and still far-
ther from east to west, because its banks
are only accessible from the sea through
the mouth of the river, the remainder of
the coast being impenetrable inland for
more than twenty leagues, in consequence
of woods, bogs, reeds and marshes (terres
tremblantes) , through which it is impossible
196
LA SALLE
to march ; and this may be the reason why
the exploration of that river has been neg-
lected by the Spaniards, if they have had
any knowledge of it. The country is equally
well defended in the interior against the ir-
ruptions of neighboring Europeans by great
chains of mountains stretching from east
to west, from which branches of the river
take their source.
It is true that the country is more open
towards the southwest, where it borders on
Mexico, where the very navigable river, the
Seignelay, 4 which is one of the branches of
the Colbert (the Mississippi), is only sepa-
rated by a forest of three to four days' jour-
ney in depth. But, besides that the Span-
iards there are feeble and far removed from
the assistance of Mexico, and from that
which they could expect by sea, this place
[country] is [likewise] protected from their
insults by a great number of warlike sav-
ages, who close this passage to them,
and who, constantly engaged with them
in cruel wars, would certainly inflict
greater evil when sustained by some
French, whose more mild and more hu-
mane mode of governing will prove a great
means for the preservation of the peace
4 The reprint by French, page , reads, "the
Sablonniere" ("Red River of Louisiana").
197
JOURNEYS OF
made between them and the Sieur de la
Salic.
To maintain this establishment, which is
the only one required in order to obtain all
the advantages mentioned, two hundred
men only are needed, who would also con-
struct the fortifications and buildings and
effect the clearings necessary for the suste-
nance of the colony, after which there would
be no further expenditure. The goodness
of the country will induce the settlers (hab-
itans) to remain there willingly. The ease
in which they will live will make them at-
tend to the cultivation of the soil and to the
production of articles of commerce, and will
remove all desire to imitate the inhabitants
of New France, who are obliged to seek
subsistence in the woods, under great fa-
tigues, in hunting for peltries, which are
their principal resource. These vagrant
courses, common in New France, will be
easily prevented in the new country, be-
cause, as its rivers are all navigable, there
will be a great facility for the savages to
come to our settlement and for us to go to
them in boats which can ascend all the
branches of the river.
If foreigners anticipate us, they will de-
prive France of all the advantages to be
expected from the success of the enterprise.
198
LA SALLE
They will complete the ruin of New France,
which they already hem in through Vir-
ginia, Pennsylvania, New England and the
Hudson's Bay. They will not fail to ascend
the river as high as possible and to estab-
lish colonies in the places nearest to the sav-
ages who now bring their furs to Montreal ;
they will make constant inroads into the
countries of the latter, which could not be
repressed by ordinances of his Majesty.
They have already made several attempts to
discover this passage, and they will not neg-
lect it now that the whole world knows that
it is discovered, since the Dutch have pub-
lished it in their newspapers upwards of a
year ago. Nothing more is required than
to maintain the possession taken by the
Sieur de la Salle, in order to deprive them
of such a desire and to place ourselves in a
position to undertake enterprises against
them glorious to the arms of his Majesty,
who will probably derive the greatest bene-
fits from the duties he will levy there, as in
our other colonies.
Even if this affair should prove hurtful
to New France, it will contribute to its se-
curity and render our commerce in furs
more considerable.
There will be nothing to fear from the
Iroquois when the nations of the south,
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strengthened through their intercourse with
the French, shall stop their conquests and
prevent their being powerful by carrying off
a great number of their women and chil-
dren, which they can easily do from the in-
feriority of the weapons of their enemies.
As respects commerce, that post will prob-
ably increase our traffic still more than has
been done by the establishment of Fort
Frontenac, which was built with success for
that purpose, for if the Illinois and their
allies were to catch the beavers, which the
Iroquois now kill in their neighborhood in
order to carry to the English, the latter, not
being any longer able to get them from their
own colonies, would be obliged to buy them
from us, to the great benefit of those who
have the privilege of this traffic.
These were the views which the Sieur de
la Salle had in placing the settlement where
it is. The colony has already felt its effects,
as all our allies, who had fled after the de-
parture of M. de Frontenac, have returned
to their ancient dwellings, in consequence of
the confidence caused by the fort, near
which they have defeated a party of Iro-
quois, and have built four other forts to
protect themselves from hostile incursions.
The Governor, M. de la Barre, and the In-
tendant, M. de Meulles, have told the Sieur
200
LA SALLE
de la Salle that they would write to Mon-
seigneur to inform him of the importance
of that fort in order to keep the Iroquois
in check, and that M. de Lagny had pro-
posed its establishment in 1678. Monseig-
neur Colbert permitted Sieur de la Salle to
build it and granted it to him as a property. 5 *
In order to prove to Monseigneur the sin-
cerity of his intentions still more, and that
he had no other motive in selecting this site
than the protection of the men he has left
there, and whom he did not think right to
place in such small number within the reach
of the Spaniards, and without cannon and
munition, or to leave in so distant a coun-
try, where, in case of sickness, they could
expect no assistance, nor to return home
from thence without danger, he offers again
to descend the river a hundred leagues lower
down, and nearer the sea, and to establish
there another fort, demolishing the first, in
the expectation, however, that Monseigneur
would consider the expenses incurred in its
establishment.
It may be said, firstly, that this colony
might injure the commerce of Quebec and
cause the desertion of its inhabitants, but
the answer is that by descending lower no
beavers will be found. Thus the first diffi-
8 The fort of St. Louis on the Illinois.
2O I
JOURNEYS OF
culty will be removed, which again would
not have any foundation, even if Fort St.
Louis were to remain. The Illinois will
only kill the beaver, which, after their de-
parture, would fall to the share of the Iro-
quois only, as no other nation dares to ap-
proach these districts. There is also no
likelihood that deserters would choose a
long and difficult route, at the end of which
they would be still subject to be appre-
hended and punished, whilst they have an-
other much shorter and easier one to New
England, where they are quite secure, and
which many take every year.
A second objection would be that the
goodness of the country would attract so
many people as to diminish the population
of France, as it is said Mexico and Peru
have depopulated Spain; but, besides that
France is more peopled than Spain has ever
been, and that the expulsion of one million
eight hundred thousand Moors, added to
the great wars she has had to sustain,
is the real cause of its diminished popula-
tion, it is certain that the number of the
few Spaniards in those kingdoms, who are
not above forty thousand, is not a number
of emigrants sufficient to make any percep-
tible change in France, which already counts
more than one hundred thousand settlers in
202
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foreign countries. It would be even desir-
able that, instead of peopling other foreign
kingdoms, the riches of the country newly
discovered should attract them to it. More-
over, this objection has already been an-
swered, when it was said that the country
can be defended by one or two forts, for
the protection of which only from four hun-
dred to five hundred men are required, a
number comprising only one-half of the
crew of a large vessel. 6 *
Whatever has been imagined respecting
the mud and breakers which are supposed
to stop the mouth of the River (Missis-
sippi) [Mechas-Cebi] is easily disproved by
the experience of those who have been there
[the Spaniards], and who found the en-
trances fine, deep and capable of admitting
the largest vessels. It would appear that
the land or levees de terre are covered in
many parts with good [trees] growing
along the channel of the river very far into
the sea; and where the sea is deep they
would not be suspected, because even the
[outlets or] creeks of the sea are tolerably
deep at that distance, and, besides, there is
every appearance that the current of the
river has formed these kind of dikes by
[" The matter included between the asterisks is
omitted in the reprint by French of 1875.]
203
JOURNEYS OF
shoving on both sides the mud with which
the winds fill the neighboring creeks, be-
cause those causeways are to be right and
left of the river, forming for it a bed, as it
were, by their separation. Nor can it be be-
lieved that these levees 7 will ever change
their position, since they consist of a hard
soil, covered with pretty large trees follow-
ing regularly the banks of the river, which
form the bed of it for more than six leagues
into the sea. 8
In the memoir respecting New Biscay the
difficulty has been dealt with respecting the
inconstancy of the savages. They know too
well how important it is to them to live on
good terms with us, to fail in their fidelity,
in which they have never been known to fail
in New France. Such an event is still less
to be apprehended from those who are obe-
dient and submissive to their caziques,
whose good will it is sufficient to gain in
order to keep the rest in obedience.
T This word is in local use at New Orleans, to
describe both the great artificial embankment of
the river and any natural embankment.
["This sentence omitted in FRENCH'S 1875 re-
print.]
204
LA SALLE
CHAPTER IX.
ACCOUNT OF LA S ALLEYS ATTEMPT TO REACH
THE MISSISSIPPI BY SEA, AND OF THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF A FRENCH COLONY
IN ST. LOUIS BAY, BY FATHER CHRIS-
TIAN LE CLERCQ.
THE first design of the Sieur de la Salle
had been to find the long-sought passage
to the Pacific Ocean, and although the River
Colbert (Mississippi) does not lead to it,
yet this great man had so much talent and
courage that he hoped to find it, if it were
possible, as he would have done had God
spared his life.
The Ilinois territory, and vast countries
around, being the center of his discovery,
he spent there the winter, summer and be-
ginning of autumn, 1683, in establishing his
posts. He at last left Monsieur de Tonty
[in August] as commandant and resolved
to return to France to render an account
of his fulfilment of the royal orders. He
reached Quebec early in November, and Ro-
chelle, France, on the 23d of December.
His design was to go by sea to the mouth
of the River Colbert, and there found pow-
205
JOURNEYS OF
erful colonies under the pleasure of the
King. These proposals * were favorably re-
ceived by Monsieur de Seignelay, Minister
and Secretary of State and Superintendent
of Commerce and Navigation of France.
His Majesty accepted them and conde-
scended to favor the undertaking not only
by new powers and commissions, which he
conferred upon him, but also by the help
of vessels, troops and money, which his
royal liberality furnished him.
The first care of the Sieur de la Salle
after being invested with these powers was
to provide for the spiritual, to advance
especially the glory of God in this enterprise.
He turned to two different bodies of mis-
sionaries in order to obtain men able to
labor in the salvation of souls and lay the
foundations of Christianity in this savage
land. He accordingly applied to Monsieur
Trongon, superior-general of the clergymen
of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, who will-
ingly took part in the work of God and ap-
pointed three of his ecclesiastics, full of zeal,
virtue and capacity, to commence these new
missions. They were Monsieur Cavelier,
brother of the Sieur de la Salle; Monsieur
1 See M. de la Salle's Memoir in Hist. Coll; of
Louisiana, Vol. I., p. 25. [Also Vol. I., Chap.
VIII. For a discussion of La Salle's object cf.
Quar. Texas Hist. Ass'n V., 97-112.]
206
LA SALLE
Chefdeville, his relative, and Monsieur de
Mai'ulle, 2 all three priests.
As for nearly ten years the Recollects
had endeavored to second the designs of the
Sieur de la Salle for the glory of God and
the sanctification of souls throughout the
vast countries of Louisiana, depending on
him from Fort Frontenac, and had accom-
panied him on his expeditions, in which our
Father Gabriel was killed, he made it an
essential point to take some of our fathers
to labor in concert to establish the kingdom
of God in these new countries. For this
purpose he applied to the Rev. Father Hya-
cinth le Febvre, who had been twice provin-
cial of our province of St. Anthony, in Ar-
tois, and was then, for the second time, pro-
vincial of that of St. Denis, in France, who,
wishing to second with all his power the
pious intentions of the Sieur de la Salle,
granted him the religious he asked, namely,
Father Zenobius Membre, superior of the
mission, and Fathers Maximus Le Qercq
and Anastasius Douay, all three of our
province of St. Anthony, the first having
been for four years the inseparable com-
panion of the Sieur de la Salle during his
discovery on land; the second had served
[* Father D'Esmanville, or Dainmaville, was
sent instead.]
207
JOURNEYS OF
for five years with great edification in Can-
ada, especially in the mission of the seven
islands and Anticosti. Father Denis Mor-
guet was added as a fourth priest ; but that
religious finding himself extremely sick on
the third day after embarking, he was
obliged to give up and return to his prov-
ince.
The reverend father provincial had in-
formed the Congregation de propaganda
fide of this mission to obtain necessary au-
thority for the exercise of our ministry ; he
received decrees in due form, which we will
place at the end of the chapter, not to inter-
rupt the reader's attention here. His Holi-
ness Innocent XL added by an express brief
authentic powers and permission in twenty-
six articles, as the Holy See is accustomed
to grant to missionaries whose remoteness
makes it morally impossible to recur to the
authority of the ordinary. It was granted
against the opposition of the Bishop of Que-
bec, Cardinal d'Estrees having shown that
the distance from Quebec to the mouth of
the river was more than eight or nine hun-
dred leagues by land. 3
The hopes that were then justly founded
on this famous expedition induced many
* Similar opposition compelled the first Jesuits
in Louisiana to leave soon after their arrival with
Iberville.
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LA SALLE
young gentlemen to join the Sieur de la
Salle as volunteers; he chose twelve who
seemed most resolute, among them the Sieur
de Morange and Sieur Cavelier, his
nephews, the latter only fourteen years of
age.
The little fleet was fitted out at Rochelle,
to be composed of four vessels the Joly, a
royal ship ; a frigate called the Belle, a store-
ship called the Amiable and a ketch called
the St. Francis. The royal vessel was com-
manded by Captain de Beaujeu, a Norman
gentleman, known for valor and experience
and his meritorious services ; his lieutenant
was M. le Chevalier d'Aire, now captain in
the navy, and son of the dean of the Parlia-
ment of Metz. The Sieur de Hamel, a
young gentleman of Bruage, full of fire and
courage, was ensign. Would to God the
troops and the rest of the crew had been
as well chosen ! Those who were appointed
while M. de la Salle was at Paris picked up
a hundred and fifty soldiers, mere wretched
beggars soliciting alms, many too deformed
and unable to fire a musket. The Sieur de
la Salle had also given orders at Rochelle
to engage three or four mechanics in each
trade; the selection was, however, so bad
that when they came to the destination and
they were set to work it was seen that they
209
JOURNEYS OF
knew nothing at all. Eight or ten families
of very good people presented themselves
and offered to go and begin the colonies.
Their offer was accepted and great advances
made to them, as well as to the artisans and
soldiers.
All being ready, they sailed on the 24th
of July, 1684. A storm which came on a
few days later obliged them to put in at
Chef-de-Bois to repair one of their masts
broken in the gale. They set sail again on
the 1st of August, steering for St. Domingo.
But a second storm overtook them and dis-
persed them on the I4th of September. The
Amiable and the Belle, alone remaining to-
gether, reached Petit Goave, in St. Do-
mingo, where they fortunately found the
Joly. The St. Francis, being loaded with
goods and effects, and unable to follow the
others, had put in at Port de Paix, whence
she sailed after the storm was over to join
the fleet at the rendezvous; but as during
the night, while quite calm, the captain and
crew, thinking themselves in safety, were
perfectly off their guard, they were sur-
prised by two Spanish periaguas, which
took the ketch.
This was the first mishap which befell
the voyage, a disaster which caused univer-
sal, consternation in the party and much
2IO
LA SALLE
grief to the Sieur de la Salle, who was just
recovering from a dangerous malady, which
had brought him to the verge of the grave.
They stayed, indeed, some time at St. Do-
mingo, where they laid in provisions, a store
of Indian corn, and of all kinds of domestic
animals to stock the new country. M. de
St. Laurent, Governor-General of the isles ;
Begun, intendent, and De Cussy, Governor
of St. Domingo, favored them in every way,
and even restored the reciprocal understand-
ing so necessary to succeed in such under-
takings; but the soldiers and most of the
crew, having plunged into every kind of de-
bauchery and intemperance, so common in
those parts, were so ruined and contracted
with dangerous disorders that some died
in the island and others never recovered.
The little fleet, thus reduced to three ves-
sels, weighed anchor November 25th, 1684,
and pursued its way successfully along the
Cayman Isles, and passing by the Isle of
Peace (Pines), after anchoring there a day
to take in water, reached Port San Antonio,
on the Island of Cuba, where the three ships
immediately anchored. The beauty and al-
lurements of the spot and its advantageous
position induced them to stay, and even
land. For some unknown reason the Span-
iards had abandoned there several kinds of
211
JOURNEYS OF
provisions and, among the rest, some Span-
ish wine, 4 which they took, and, after two
days' repose, left to continue the voyage to
the Gulf of Mexico.
The Sieur de la Salle, although very
clear-headed and not easily misled, had,
however, too easily believed the advice
given him by some persons in St. Domingo.
He discovered, too late, that all the sailing
directions given him were absolutely false;
the fear of being injured by northerly winds,
said to be very frequent and dangerous
at the entrance of the gulf, made them twice
lie to; but the discernment and courage
of the Sieur de la Salle made them try the
passage a third time, and they entered hap-
pily on the ist of January, 1685, when Fa-
ther Anastasius celebrated a solemn mass
as a thanksgiving; after which, continuing
the route, they arrived in fifteen days in
sight of the coast of Florida, when a violent
wind forced the Joly to stand off, the store-
ship and frigate coasting along, the Sieur
de la Salle being anxious to follow the
shore.
He had been persuaded at St. Domingo
that the gulf stream ran with incredible
rapidity toward the Bahama channel. This
[*This is contradicted by Joutel. Cf. MARGRY
in., ii 3 .]
212
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false advice set him entirely astray, for,
thinking himself much further north than
he was, he not only passed Espiritu Santa
Bay (Appalachee [or Mobile] ) without
recognizing it, but even followed the
coast far beyond the River Colbert,
and would even have continued to fol-
low it, had they not perceived by its
turning south, and by the latitude, that
they were more than forty or fifty leagues
from the mouth, the more so as the river,
before emptying into the gulf, coasts along
the shore of the gulf to the west; and, as
longitude is unknown to pilots, it proved
that he had greatly passed his parallel lines.
The vessels at last, in the middle of Feb-
ruary [January 19], met at Espiritu Santo
Bay, where there was an almost continual
roadstead. They resolved to return whence
they came, and advanced ten or twelve
leagues to a bay which they called St. Louis
Bay (St. Bernard). As provisions began
to fail, the soldiers had already landed, the
Sieur de la Salle explored and sounded the
bay, which is a league broad, with a good
bottom. He thought that it might be the
right arm of the River Colbert. He brought
the frigate in without accident on the i8th
of February. The channel is deep, so deep,
in fact, that even on the sand bar, which
213
JOURNEYS OF
in a manner bars the entrance, there are
twelve or fifteen feet of water at low tide.
The Sieur de la Salle having ordered the
captain of the store-ship not to enter with-
out the pilot of the frigate, in whom he put
all confidence, to unload his cannon and
water into the boats to lighten his cargo,
and lastly, to follow exactly the channel
staked out; none of his orders were exe-
cuted, and the faithless man, in spite of the
advice given him by a sailor who was at the
maintop to keep off, drove his vessel on the
shoals, where he touched and stranded, so
that it was impossible to get off. 5
La Salle was on the seashore when he
saw this deplorable maneuver, and was em-
barking to remedy it, when he saw a hun-
dred or a hundred and twenty Indians come.
He had to put all under arms. The roll of
the drum put the savages to flight ; he fol-
lowed them, presented the calumet of peace,
and conducted them to their camp, regaled
them, and even made them presents; and
the Sieur de la Salle gained them so that
an alliance was made with them. They
brought meat to the camp the following
days; he bought some of their canoes, and
there was every reason to expect much from
this necessary union.
[ 8 Cf. MARGRY II., 556, 599.]
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LA SALLE
Misfortune would have it that a bale of
blanketing from the wreck was thrown on
shore. Some days after a party of Indians
seized it. The Sieur de la Salle ordered his
men to get it out of their hands peaceably ;
they did just the contrary; the commander
presented his musket as if about to fire. This
so alarmed them that they regarded us only
as enemies. Provoked to fury, they assem-
bled on the night of the 6th and 7th of
March and, finding the sentinel asleep,
poured in a destructive volley of arrows.
Our men ran to arms; the noise of mus-
ketry put them to flight, after they had
killed on the spot the Sieurs Oris and Des-
loge, two cadet volunteers, and dangerously
wounded the Sieur de Moranger, lieutenant,
and nephew of the Sieur de la Salle, and the
Sieur Gaien, a volunteer. The next day
they killed two more of our men, whom
they found sleeping on the shore.
Meanwhile the store-ship remained more
than three weeks at the place of its wreck,
without going to pieces, but full of water;
they saved all they could in periaguas and
boats when a calm allowed them to reach
it. One day Father Zenobius having passed
in a boat, it was dashed to pieces against
the vessel by a sudden gust of wind. All
quickly got on board, but the good father,
JOURNEYS OF
who remained last to save the rest, would
have been drowned had not a sailor thrown
him a rope, with which he drew himself up
as he was sinking.
At last Monsieur de Beaujeu sailed in the
Joly, with all his party, on the I2th of
March, to return to France, and the Sieur
de la Salle, having thrown up a house with
planks and pieces of timber, to put his men
and goods in safety, left a hundred men
under the command of the Sieur de Mo-
ranger and set out with fifty others, the
Sieur Cavelier and Fathers Zenobius and
Maximus intending to seek at the extremity
of the bay the mouth of the river and a
proper place to fix his colony. 6
The captain of the frigate had orders to
sound the bay in boats and to bring his ves-
sel in as far as he could. He followed
twelve leagues along the coast, which runs
from southeast to northwest, and anchored
opposite a point to which the Sieur Hurier
gave his name. He was appointed com-
mander there, this post serving as a station
between the naval camp and the one the
Sieur de la Salle went, on the 2d of April,
to form at the extremity of the bay, two
leagues up a beautiful river called Cow
["SHEA, Estab't of Faith II., 218, note, gives
an unfair picture of La Salle's actions at this
time.]
2l6
LA SALLE
River, from the great number of those wild
animals they found there. Our people were
attacked there by a party of Indians, but
repulsed them.
On the 2 ist, holy Saturday, the Sieur de
la Salle came to the naval camp, where the
next day and the three following those great
festivals were celebrated with all possible
solemnity, each one receiving his Creator.
The following days all the effects, and gen-
erally all that could be of service to the camp
of the Sieur de la Salle, were transferred
from those of the Sieurs de Moranger and
Hurier, which were destroyed. For a month
the Sieur de la Salle made them work in
cultivating the ground ; but neither the grain
nor the vegetables sprouted, either because
they were damaged by the salt water or be-
cause, as was afterward remarked, it was
not the right season. The fort, 7 which was
built in an advantageous position, was soon
in a state of defense, furnished with twelve
pieces of cannon, and a magazine under-
ground, for fear of fire, in which all the ef-
fects were safely deposited. The maladies
which the soldiers had contracted at St. Do-
mingo were visibly carrying them off, and
a hundred died in a few days, notwithstand-
ing all the relief afforded by broths, pre-
r Cf. SHEA, Ibid., 219.]
217.
JOURNEYS OF
serves, treacle and wine which were given
them.
On the Qth of August, 1685, three of our
Frenchmen, being at the chase, which is
plentiful in these parts in all kinds of game
and deer, were surrounded by several troops
of armed savages; but our men, putting
themselves on the defensive, first killed the
chief and scalped him. This spectacle terri-
fied and scattered the enemy, who, neverthe-
less, some time after surprised and killed
one of our Frenchmen.
On the 1 3th of October the Sieur de la
Salle, seeing himself constantly insulted by
the savages, and wishing, moreover, to have
some of their canoes, by force or consent, as
he could not do without them, resolved to
make open war on them in order to bring
them to an advantageous peace.
He set out with sixty men, armed with
wooden corselets to protect them against
arrows, and arrived where they had gath-
ered. In different engagements, by day and
night, he put some to flight, wounded sev-
eral, killed some ; others were taken, among
the rest some children, one of whom, a girl,
three or four years old, was baptized, and
died some days after, as the first fruits of
this mission and a sure conquest sent to
heaven. The colonists now built houses and
LA SALLE
formed fields by clearing the ground, the
grain sowed succeeding better than the first.
They crossed to the other side of the bay
in canoes, and found on a large river a plen-
tiful chase, especially of cattle and turkeys.
In the fort they raised all kinds of domestic
animals, cows, hogs and poultry, which mul-
tiplied greatly. 8 Lastly, the execution done
among the Indians had rendered the little
colony somewhat more secure, when a new
misfortune succeeded all the preceding.
The Sieur de la Salle had ordered the
captain of the frigate to sound the bay care-
fully as he advanced and to recall all his
men on board at nightfall ; but this captain
and six of his strongest, stoutest and ablest
men, charmed with the agreeableness of the
season and the beauty of the country, left
their canoe and arms on the sand at low
water and advanced a gunshot on the plain
to be dry. Here they fell asleep, and an
Indian party, espying them, surprised them,
aided by their sleep and the darkness, mas-
sacred them cruelly and destroyed their
arms and canoe. This tragical adventure
produced the greatest consternation in the
camp.
After rendering the last honors to the
murdered men the Sieur de la Salle, leaving
I 9 This is denied by Joutel. See Vol. II., p. 61,]
219
JOURNEYS OF
provisions for six months, set out with
twenty men and his brother, the Sieur Cave-
lier, to seek the mouth of the river (Missis-
sippi) by land. The bay, which he discov-
ered to be in latitude 27 45' N., is the out-
let of a great number of rivers, none of
which, however, seemed large enough to be
an arm of the River Colbert. The Sieur de
la Salle explored them in hope that a part
of these rivers was formed further up by
one of the branches of the said river, or, at
least, that by traversing the country to some
distance, he would make out the course of
the Mississippi. He was longer absent than
he had expected, being compelled to make
rafts to cross the rivers and to intrench him-
self every night to protect himself against
attacks. The continual rains, too, formed
ravines and destroyed the roads. At last,
on the 1 3th of February, 1686, he thought
that he had found the river. 9 He fortified
himself there, left a part of his men, and
with nine others continued to explore a
most beautiful country, traversing a number
of villages and nations, who treated him
very kindly. At last, returning to find his
people, he arrived at the general camp on
the 3 ist of May [March], charmed with the
"Of course, he was mistaken, but cf. MARGRY
III., 545, and CAVELIER'S Account, Vol. I., page 276,
22O
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beauty and fertility of the fields, the incred-
ible quantity of game of every kind and the
numerous tribes he had met on the way. 10
The Almighty was preparing him a still
more sensible trial than the preceding in the
loss of his only remaining vessel, in which
he hoped to coast along and then pass to St.
Domingo, to send news to France and ob-
tain new succor. This sad accident hap-
pened from want of precaution on the part
of the pilot. All the goods were lost irre-
coverably; the vessel struck on the shore,
the sailors were drowned; the Sieur de
Chefdeville, the captain, and four others,
with difficulty, escaped in a canoe which
they found almost miraculously on the
shore. They lost thirty-six barrels of flour,
a quantity of wine, the trunks, clothes, linen,
equipage and most of the tools. We leave
the reader to imagine the grief and afflic-
tion felt by the Sieur de la Salle at an acci-
dent which completely ruined all his meas-
ures. His great courage even could not
have borne him up had not God aided his
virtue by the help of extraordinary grace.
All these measures being thus discon-
certed and his affairs brought to extremes,
he resolved to try to reach Canada by land.
10 For Tonty's movements during this same pe-
riod cf. Vol. L, page 34.
221
JOURNEYS OF
He returned some time after and undertook
a second, in which he lost his life by the
cruelty of his men, some of whom, remain-
ing faithful, continued their route and
reached France, among the rest Father An-
astasius Douay. Although the detail of his
remarks was lost in his many wrecks, the
following is an abridgment of what he could
gather from them, with which, perhaps, the
reader will be better pleased than if I gave
it in my own style.
CHAPTER X.
NARRATIVE OF LA S ALLEYS ATTEMPT TO AS-
CEND THE MISSISSIPPI IN 1687, BY
FATHER ANASTASIUS DOUAY, RECOL-
LECT. 1
[PART i. TO THE DEATH OF LA SALLE.]
THE Sieur de la Salle, seeing no other
resource for his affairs but to go by land
to the Ilinois, to be able to give in France
1 Of Father Anastasius Douay we know little;
Hennepin makes him a native of Quesnoy, in
Hainault. He had never been in America before,
but after being connected with La Salle's expedi-
tion from 1684 to 1688, he reached France, as we
shall see, in safety. He was, says Hennepin, vicar
of the Recollects of Cambray in 1697. Certain
it is that he subsequently revisited America in
1699 with Iberville, but we can trace him no fuj>
222
LA SALLE
tidings of his disasters, chose twenty of his
best men, including Nika, one of our Shaw-
nee Indians, who had constantly attended
him from Canada to France, andi from
France to Mexico. Monsieur Cavelier, the
Sieur de Morenget and I also joined them
for this great journey, for which we made
no preparation but four pounds of powder
and four of lead, two axes, two dozen
knives, as many awls, some beads and
two kettles. After celebrating the divine
mysteries in the chapel of the fort, and in-
voking together the help of heaven, we set
out on the 22d [i3th, 28th] of April, 1686,
in a northeasterly direction.
On the third day we perceived in some
of the finest plains in the world a number
of people, some on foot, others on horse-
back; these came galloping toward us,
booted and spurred and seated on saddles.
They invited us to their town, but as they
were six leagues to the northwest, out of
our route, we thanked them, after learning
in conversation that they had intercourse
with the Spaniards. Continuing our march
the rest of the day, we cabined at night in a
ther. A man of observation and ability, he seems
to have been quite sweeping in his charges, as
we shall observe in the course of his narrative.
The only point against him besides this, which
was an excess of party feeling, was his share in
the deception practiced on Tonty.
22 3
JOURNEYS OF
little intrenched stockade fort, to be beyond
reach of insult ; this we always after prac-
ticed, with good results.
Setting out the next morning, we marched
for two days through continual prairies to
the river which we called Robek, 2 meeting
everywhere so prodigious a quantity of Ci-
bola, or wild cattle, that the smallest herds
seemed to us to contain two or three hun-
dred. We killed nine or ten in a moment
and dried a part of the meat, so as not to
have to stop for five or six days. A league
and a half further we met another and finer
river, wider and deeper than the Seine at
Paris, skirted by some of the finest trees in
the world, set as regularly as though they
had been planted by man. Among them
were many mulberry and other fruit trees.
On one side were prairies, on the other
woods. We passed it on rafts, and called
it La Maligne [Colorado?].
Passing through this beautiful country,
its delightful fields and prairies, skirted
with vines, fruit trees and groves, we, a few
days after, reached a river, which we called
Hiens [St. Bernard], after a German from
Wittemburg, who got so fast in the mud
that he could scarcely get out. One of our
[ 2 The Colorado, Lavaca and St. Bernard have
all been suggested.]
224
LA SALLE
men, with an axe on his back, swam over
to the other side ; a second followed at once ;
they then cut down the largest trees, while
others on our side did the same. These
trees were cut so as to fall on each side into
the river, where, meeting, they formed a
kind of bridge, on which we easily passed.
This invention we had recourse to more
than thirty times in our journeys, finding
it surer than the Cajeu, which is a kind of
raft formed of many pieces, and branches
tied together, on which we passed over,
guiding it by a pole.
Here the Sieur de la Salle changed his
route from northeast to east, for reasons
which he did not tell us, and which we could
never discover.
After several days' march in a pretty fine
country, crossing ravines on rafts, we en-
tered a much more agreeable and perfectly
delightful territory, where we found a very
numerous tribe, who received us with all
possible friendship, even the women coming
to embrace our men. They made us sit
down on well-made mats at the upper end,
near the chiefs, who presented us the calu-
met adorned with feathers of every hue,
which we had to smoke in turn. They
served up to us, among other things, a sa-
gamity, made of a kind of root called Toque,
225
JOURNEYS OF
or Toquo. It is a shrub, like a kind of
bramble without thorns, and has a very
large root, which they wash and dry per-
fectly, after which it is pounded and reduced
to powder in a mortar. The sagamity has a
good taste, though astringent. These In-
dians presented us with some cattle skins,
very neatly dressed, to make shoes ; we gave
them in exchange beads, which they esteem
highly. During our stay the Sieur de la
Salle so won them by his manners and in-
sinuated so much of the glory of our King,
telling them that he was greater and higher
than the sun, that they were all ravished
with astonishment.
The Sieur Cavelier and I endeavored
here, as everywhere else, to give them some
first knowledge of the true God. This na-
tion is called Biskatronge, but we called
them the nation of weepers, 3 and gave their
beautiful river the same name, because at
our arrival and entrance they all began to
weep bitterly for a good quarter of an hour.
It is their custom when they see any who
come from afar, because it reminds them
of their deceased relatives, whom they sup-
pose on a long journey, from which they
await their return. These good people, in
* Cabeza de Vaca from the same circumstance
gives a similar name to a tribe in that quarter.
[See edition by Bandelier in this series, p. 72.]
226
LA SALLE
conclusion gave us guides, and we passed
their river in their periaguas.
We crossed three or four others the fol-
lowing days without any incident of note,
except that our Shawnee, firing at a deer
pretty near a large village, so terrified them
all by the report that they took to flight.
The Sieur de la Salle put all under arms
to enter the village, which consisted of three
hundred cabins. We entered the largest,
that of the chief, where we found his wife
still, unable to fly from old age. The Sieur
de la Salle made her understand that we
came as friends. Three of her sons, brave
warriors, observed at a distance what
passed, and, seeing us to be friendly, re-
called all their people. We treated of peace,
and the calumet was danced till evening,
when the Sieur de la Salle, not trusting
them overmuch, went and encamped be-
yond the canes, so that, if the Indians ap-
proached by night, the noise of the canes
would prevent our being surprised.
This showed his discernment and pru-
dence, for during the night a band of war-
riors, armed with arrows, approached; but
the Sieur de la Salle, without leaving his
entrenchment, threatened to thunder his
guns; and, in a word, spoke so boldly and
firmly that he obliged them to draw off.
227
JOURNEYS OF
After their retreat the night passed off
quietly, and the next day, after reciprocal
marks of friendship, apparent, at least, on
the side of the Indians, we pursued our
route to five or six leagues beyond. Here
we were agreeably surprised to find a party
of Indians come out to meet us with ears of
corn in their hands and a polished, honest
air. They embraced us, inviting us most
pressingly to go and visit their villages. The
Sieur de la Salle, seeing their sincerity,
agreed. Among other things, these Indians
told us that they knew whites toward the
west, a cruel, wicked nation, who depeopled
the country around them. (These were the
Spaniards.) We told them that we were
at war with that people. When the news
of this spread through the village, called
that of the Kironas, all vied with each other
in welcoming us, pressing us to stay and go
to war with the Spaniards of Mexico. We
put them off with fair words, and made a
strict alliance with them, promising to re-
turn with more numerous troops. Then,
after many feasts and presents, they carried
us over the river in periaguas.
As we constantly held on our way to the
east, through beautiful prairies, a misfor-
tune befell us after three days' march. Our
Indian hunter, Nika, suddenly cried out
228
LA SALLE
with all his might, "I am dead!" We ran
up and learned that he had been cruelly bit-
ten by a snake ; this accident stopped us for
several days. We gave him some orvietan
and applied viper's salt on the wound, after
scarifying it to let out the poison and tainted
blood. He was at last saved.
Some days after we had many other
alarms. Having reached a large and rapid
river, which we were told ran to the sea,
and which we called Misfortune 4 River we
made a raft to cross. The Sieur de la Salle
and Cavelier, with a part of our people, got
on; but scarcely had they got into the cur-
rent, when by its violence it carried them off
with incredible rapidity, so that they disap-
peared almost instantly. I remained ashore
with a part of our men ; our hunter was ab-
sent, having been lost for some days. It
was a moment of extreme anguish for us
all, who despaired of ever again seeing our
guardian angel, the Sieur de la Salle. God
vouchsafed to inspire me constantly with
courage, and I cheered up those who re-
mained as well as I could. The whole day
was spent in tears and weeping, when at
nightfall we saw on the opposite brink La
Salle with all his party. We now learned
that by an interposition of Providence the
[* Probably the Brazos.]
229
JOURNEYS OF
raft had been stopped by a large tree float-
ing in the middle of the river. This gave
them a chance to make an effort and get out
of the current, which would otherwise have
carried them out to sea. One of his men
sprang into the water to catch the branch
of a tree, and then was unable to get back to
the raft. He was a Breton named Rut ; but
he soon after appeared on our side, having
swam ashore.
The night was spent in anxiety, thinking
how we should find means to pass to the
other side to join the Sieur de la Salle.
We had not eaten all day, but Providence
provided for us by letting two eagles fall
from a cedar tree. We were ten at his
meal. ,
The next day we had to pass ; the Sieur
de la Salle advised us to make a raft of
canes. The Sieur Moranget and I, with
three others, led the way, not without dan-
ger, for we went under every moment, and
I was obliged to put our breviary in our
cowl, because it got wet in the sleeve. The
Sieur de la Salle sent two men to swim
out and help us push the canes in, and they
brought us safely in. Those who remained
on the other side did not at all like risking
it, but they had to do it at last, on our mak-
ing show of packing up and continuing
230
LA SALLE
our march without them; they then crossed
at less hazard than we.
The whole troop, except the hunter, being
now assembled, we for two days traversed a
thick cane-brake, the Sieur de la Salle cut-
ting his way with two axes, and the others
in like manner, to break the canes. At last,
on the third day, our hunter, Nika, came
in, loaded with three dried deer and another
just killed. The Sieur de la Salle ordered
a discharge of several guns to show our joy.
Still marching east, we entered countries
still finer than those we had passed, and
found tribes that had nothing barbarous but
the name; among others, we met a very
honest Indian returning from the chase with
his wife and family. He presented the Sieur
de la Salle with one of his horses and some
meat, invited him and all his party to his
cabin, and, to induce us, left his wife, fam-
ily and game as a pledge, while he hastened
to the village to announce our coming. Our
hunter and a servant of the Sieur de la Salle
accompanied him, so that two days after
they returned to us with two horses loaded
with provisions, and several chiefs, followed
by warriors very neatly attired in dressed
skins adorned with feathers. They came
on bearing the calumet ceremoniously and
met us three leagues from the village; the
231
JOURNEYS OF
Sieur de la Salle was received as if in tri-
umph and lodged in the great chief's cabin.
There was a great concourse of people, the
young men being drawn out and under
arms, relieving one another night and day,
and, besides, loading us with presents and
all kinds of provisions. Nevertheless, the
Sieur de la Salle, fearing*lest some of his
party might go after the women, encamped
three leagues from the village. Here we
remained three or four days and bought
horses and all that we needed.
This village, that of the Coenis [Sp. Asi-
nais], is one of the largest and most popu-
lous that I have seen in America. It is at
least twenty leagues long, not that it is con-
stantly inhabited, but in hamlets of ten or
twelve cabins, forming cantons, each with
a different name. Their cabins are fine,
forty or fifty feet high, of the shape of bee-
hives. Trees are planted in the ground and
united above the branches, which are cov-
ered with grass. The beds are ranged
around the cabin, three or four feet from
the ground; the fire is in the middle, each
cabin holding two families.
We found among the Coenis many things
which undoubtedly came from the Span-
iards, such as dollars and other pieces of
money, silver spoons, lace of every kind,
232
LA SALLE
clothes and horses. We saw, among other
things, a bull from Rome exempting the
Spaniards in Mexico from fasting during
summer. 5 Horses are common; they gave
them to us for an axe; one Ccenis offered
me one for our cowl, to which he took a
fancy.
They have intercourse with the Spaniards
through the Choumans [Comanches], their
allies, who are always at war with New
Spain. The Sieur de la Salle made them
draw on bark a map of their country, of that
of their neighbors, and of the River Colbert,
or Mississippi, with which they are ac-
quainted. They reckoned themselves six
days* journey from the Spaniards, of whom
they gave us so natural a description that
we no longer had any doubts on the point,
although the Spaniards had not yet under-
taken to come to their villages, their war-
riors merely joining the Choumans to go
war on New Mexico. The Sieur de la Salle,
who perfectly understood the art of gain-
ing the Indians of all nations, filled these
with admiration at every moment. Among
other things, he told them that the chief of
8 Certain Mexican writers used these statements
and those of similar import given by Cavelier
(Chap. XII., XIII.) as evidence to strengthen
Spanish claims to Texas. Cf. Historia 43. Opus-
culo Cubo VI., Archive General.
233
JOURNEYS OF
the French was the greatest chief in the
world, as high as the sun, and as far above
the Spaniard as the sun is above the earth.
On his recounting the victories of our mon-
arch they burst into exclamations, putting
their hand on their mouth as a mark of as-
tonishment. I found them very docile and
tractable, and they seized well enough what
we told them of the truth of God.
There were then some Chouman ambas-
sadors among them,, who came to visit us.
I was agreeably surprised to see them make
the sign of the cross, kneel, clasp their
hands, and raise them from time to time to
heaven. They also kissed my habit, and
gave me to understand that men dressed
like us instructed tribes in their vicinity,
who were only two days' march from the
Spaniards, where our religious had large
churches, in which all assembled to pray.
They expressed very naturally the ceremo-
nies of the mass ; one of them sketched me
a painting that he had seen of a great lady,
who was weeping because her son was upon
a cross. He told us that the Spaniards
butchered the Indians cruelly, and, finally,
that if we would go with them, or give them
guns, they could easily conquer them, be-
cause they were a cowardly race, who had
no courage, and made people walk before
234
LA SALLE
them with a fan to refresh them in hot
weather.
After remaining here four or five days to
recruit, we pursued our route through the
Nassonis, crossing a large river which inter-
sects the great Coenis village. 6 These two
nations are allies and have nearly the same
character and customs.
Four or five leagues from there we had
the mortification to see that four of our men
had deserted under cover of night and re-
tired to the Nassonis ; and, to complete our
chagrin, the Sieur de la Salle and his
nephew, the Sieur de Moranget, were at-
tacked with a violent fever, which brought
them to extremity. Their illness was long
and obliged us to make a long stay at this
place, for when the fever, after frequent re-
lapses, left them at last, they required a long
time to recover entirely.
The length of this sickness disconcerted
all our measures, and was eventually the
cause of the last misfortunes which befell
us. It kept us back more than two months,
during which we had to live as we could;
our powder began to run out; we had not
advanced more than a hundred and fifty
leagues in a straight line, and some of our
people had deserted. In so distressing a
[ Perhaps the Trinity or Neches.]
235
JOURNEYS OF
crisis the Sieur de la Salle resolved to re-
trace his steps to Fort [St.?] Louis; all
agreed, and we straightway resumed our
route, during which nothing happened
worth note but that, as we repassed the
Maligne, one of our men was carried off
with his raft by a crocodile of prodigious
length and bulk.
After a good month's march, in which our
horses did us good service, we reached the
camp on the I7th of October [or August],
in the same year, 1686, where we were wel-
comed with all imaginable cordiality, but,
after all, with feelings tinged alike with joy
and sadness as each related the tragical ad-
ventures which had befallen both since we
had parted.
It would be difficult to find in -history
courage more intrepid or more invincible
than that of the Sieur de la Salle ; in adver-
sity he was never cast down, and always
hoped with the help of heaven to succeed
in his enterprises, despite all the obstacles
that rose against it [them] .
He remained two months and a half at
Saint Louis Bay, and we visited together
all the rivers which empty into it. To my
own knowledge, I am sure that there are
more than fifty, all navigable, coming from
the west and northwest ; the place where the
236
LA SALLE
fort stands is somewhat sandy ; everywhere
else the ground is good. On every side we
saw prairies on which the grass is, at all
seasons of the year, higher than wheat with
us. Every two or three leagues is a river
skirted with oaks, thorn, mulberry and other
trees. This kind of country is uniform until
within two days' march of the Spaniards.
The fort is built on a little eminence
which runs north and south ; it has the sea
on the southwest, vast prairies to the west,
and on the southwest [?] two small lakes
and woods a league in circuit ; a river flows
at its foot. The neighboring nations are the
Quoanquis, who raise Indian corn and have
horses cheap; the Bahamos [Bracamos,
Ebahamos] and the Quinets, wandering
tribes, with whom we are at war. During
this time the Sieur de la Salle forgot noth-
ing to console his little infant colony, in
which the families began to increase by
births. He advanced greatly the clearing
of land and the erection of buildings; the
Sieur de Chefdeville, priest ; the Sieur Cav-
elier and we three Recollects laboring in
concert for the edification of the French and
of some Indian families who withdrew from
the neighboring nations to join us. 7 Dur-
[ 7 Joutel denies that Indians joined them. See
Vol. II., page 88.]
237
JOURNEYS OF
ing all this time the Sieur de la Salle did
his utmost to render the Indians less hostile,
peace with them being of the utmost conse-
quence for the establishment of the colony.
At last Monsieur de la Salle resolved to
resume his Illinois voyage, so necessary for
his plans. He made an address full of elo-
quence, with that engaging way so natural
to him; the whole colony was present, and
were almost moved to tears, persuaded of
the necessity of his voyage and the upright-
ness of his intentions. Would to God that
all had persevered in these sentiments ! He
completed the fortification of a great enclo-
sure, encircling all the habitations and the
fort, after which he chose twenty men the
Sieur Cavelier, his brother, the Sieurs Mo-
ranget and Cavelier, his nephews, with the
Sieur Joutel, 8 pilot and myself. After pub-
lic prayers, we set out on the 7th of January,
1687.
The very first day we met an army of
Bahamos going to war with the Erigoanna ;
the Sieur de la Salle made an alliance with
8 Joutel was not in the previous excursion of
the Cenis, of which the missionary's is the only
account.
[' For the fate of those colonists left at Ft. St.
Louis cf. MARGRY III., 609-622. Quar. Tex. Hist.
Ass'n II., 253-312; V., 171-205. BANDELIER, A. F.,
Expedition^ of Pedro de Villasur in Papers of the
Archaoligical Institute of America, Series V.I
238
LA SALLE
them. He wished, also, to treat with the
Quinets, who fled at our approach; but,
having overtaken them by means of our
horses, we treated them so kindly that they
promised an inviolable peace.
The fourth day, three leagues further to
the northeast, we came to the first Cane
River. Our route lay through prairies,
with scattered groves; the soil is so good
that the grass grows ten or twelve feet
high. There are on this river many popu-
lous villages; we visited only the Quaras
[Kouaras] and the Anachoremas.
In the same direction, three leagues fur-
ther, we came to the second Cane River
[Colorado?], inhabited by various tribes;
here we found fields of hemp.
Five leagues further we passed the Sandy
River [La Sablonniere] , so called from the
sandy strip along it, though all the rest is
good land and vast prairies.
We marched seven or eight leagues to
Robec River [see note 2, page 224] passing
through prairies and over three or four
rivers, a league from one another. Robec
River has many populous villages, where the
people have a language so guttural that it
would require a long time to form ourselves
to it. They are at war with the Spaniards,
and pressed us earnestly to join their war-
239
JOURNEYS OF
riors, but there was no hope of keeping us.
We stayed, however, five or six days with
them, endeavoring to gain them by presents
and Christian instruction, a thing they do
not get from the Spaniards.
Continuing our route, we crossed great
prairies to the Maligne [Brazos?]. This
deep river, where one of our men had been
devoured by a crocodile, comes from a great
distance, and is inhabited by forty populous
villages, which compose a nation called the
Quanoatinno; they make war on the Span-
iards and lord it over the neighboring tribes.
We visited some of these villages. 10 They
are a good people, but always savage, the
cruelty of the Spaniards rendering them
still more fierce. As they found us of a
more tractable nature, they were charmed
with our nation; but after these mutual
presents we had to part. They gave us
horses cheap and carried us over their river
in hide canoes.
In the same direction, after four leagues
of similar land, extremely fertile, we crossed
Hiens River on rafts; then turning north-
northeast, we had to cross a number of little
rivers and ravines, navigable in winter and
spring. The land is diversified with prairies,
10 Joutel says they merely heard of the Cano-
hatino, and calls them afterward enemies of the
Cenis.
240
LA SALLE
hills and numerous springs. Here we found
three large villages, the Taraha, Tyakappan
and Palona, who have horses. Some leagues
further on we came to the Palaquesson, 11
composed of ten villages, allies of the Span-
iards.
After having passed these nations the
most disheartening of all our misfortunes
overtook us. It was the murder of Mon-
sieur de la Salle, of the Sieur de Mcranget
and of some others. Our prudent com-
mander, finding himself in a country full of
game, after all the party had recruited and
lived for several days on every kind of good
meat, sent the Sieur Moranget, his lackey,
Saget, and seven or eight of his people to a
place where our hunter, the Shawnee Nika,
had left a quantity of buffalo meat (bceuf )
to dry, so as not to be obliged to stop so
often to hunt.
The wisdom of Monsieur de la Salle had
not been able to foresee the plot which some
of his people would make to slay his
nephew, as they suddenly resolved to do,
and actually did on the I7th of March by a
blow of an axe, dealt by one whom charity
11 According to Joutel, Hist. Coll. of Louisiana,
Vol. L, p. 147, [Vol. II., page 107], Palaquechaune
was an Indian, whose tribe were allies of the
Cenis, and who knew the Choumans, the friends
of the Spaniards.
241
JOURNEYS OF
does not permit me to name (Liotot). They
also killed the valet of the Sieur de la Salle
and the Indian Nika, who, at the risk of his
life, had supported them for more than three
years. The Sieur de Moranget lingered
for about two hours, giving every mark of
a death precious in the sight of God, par-
doning his murderers and embracing them,
and making acts of sorrow and contrition,
as they themselves assured us, after they
recovered from their unhappy blindness.
He was a perfectly honest man and a good
Christian, confessing every week or fort-
night on our march. I have every reason to
hope that God has shown him mercy.
The wretches resolved not to stop here,
and, not satisfied with this murder, formed
a design of attempting their commander's
life, as they had reason to fear his resent-
ment and chastisement. We were full two
leagues off. The Sieur de la Salle, troubled
at the delay of the Sieur de Moranget and
his people, from whom he had been sepa-
rated now for two or three days, began to
fear that they had been surprised by the In-
dians. Asking me to accompany him, he
took two Indians and set out. All the way
he conversed with me of matters of piety,
grace and predestination, expatiating on all
his obligations to God for having saved him
242
LA SALLE
from so many dangers during the last
twenty years that he had traversed America.
He seemed to be peculiarly penetrated with
a sense of God's benefits to him. Suddenly
I saw him plunged into a deep melancholy,
for which he himself could not account ; he
was so troubled that I did not know him
any longer. As this state was far from
being usual, I roused him from his lethargy.
Two leagues after we found the bloody
cravat of his lackey ; he perceived two eagles
flying over his head, and at the same time
discovered some of his people on the edge
of the river, which he approached, asking
them what had become of his nephew. They
answered us in broken words, showing us
where we should find him. We proceeded
some steps along the bank to the fatal spot,
where two of these murderers were hidden
in the grass, one on each side, with guns
cocked ; one missed Monsieur de la "Salle,
the one [other] firing at the same time, shot
him in the head. He died an hour after, on
the I9th of March, 1687.
I expected the same fate, but this danger
did not occupy my thoughts, penetrated with
grief at so cruel a spectacle. I saw him
fall a step from me, with his face full of
blood. I watered it with my tears, exhort-
ing him, to the best of my power, to die
243
JOURNEYS OF
well. He had confessed and fulfilled' his
devotions just before we started. He had
still time to recapitulate a part of his life,
and I gave him absolution. During his last
moments he elicited all the acts of a good
Christian, grasping my hand at every word
I suggested, and especially at that of par-
doning his enemies. Meanwhile his mur-
derers, as much alarmed as I, began to strike
their breasts and detest their blindness. I
could not leave the spot where he had ex-
pired without having him buried as well as
I could, after which I raised a cross over his
grave. 12
Thus died our wise commander, constant
in adversity, intrepid, generous, engaging,
dexterous, skillful, capable of everything.
He who for twenty years had softened the
fierce temper of countless savage tribes, was
massacred by the hands of his own domes-
tics, whom he had loaded with caresses. He
died in the prime of life, in the midst of his
course and labors^, without having seen their
success.
Occupied with these thoughts, which he
"This and the circumstances of Moranget's
death are denied by Joutel. [See Vol. II., page
118. The spot where La Salle was murdered is
usually supposed to be a southern branch of the
Trinity. HENNEPIN, New Disc'y (T WA TES, ed.),
II., 426.]
244
LA SALLE
had himself a thousand times suggested to
us while relating the events of the new dis-
coveries, I unceasingly adored the inscrut-
able designs of God in this conduct of His
providence, uncertain still what fate He re-
served for us, as our desperadoes plotted
nothing less than our destruction. We at
last entered the place where Monsieur Cave-
lier was ; the assassins entered the cabin un-
ceremoniously and seized all that was there.
I had arrived a moment before them ; I had
no need to speak, for as soon as he beheld
my countenance, all bathed in tears, the
Sieur Cavelier exclaimed aloud, "Ah! my
poor brother is dead!" This holy ecclesi-
astic, whose virtue has been so often tried
in the apostolic labors of Canada, fell at
once on his knees; the nephew, the
Sieur Cavelier, myself and some others
did the same, to prepare to die the
same death; but the wretches, touched
by some sentiments of compassion at
the sight of the venerable old man, and,
besides, half penitent for the murders they
had committed, resolved to spare us, on con-
dition that we should never return to
France; but as they were still undecided,
and many of them wished to return home,
we heard them often say that they must get
rid of us; that otherwise we would accuse
245
JOURNEYS OF
them before the tribunals if we once had
them in the kingdom.
They elected as chief, the murderer of
Sieur de la Salle (Duhaut), and at last,
after many deliberations, resolved to push
on to that famous nation of the Coenis. Ac-
cordingly, after marching together for sev-
eral days, crossing rivers and rivers, every-
where treated by these wretches as servants,
having nothing but what they left, we
reached the tribe without accident.
Meanwhile the justice of God accom-
plished the punishment of these men, in de-
fault of human justice. Jealousy and de-
sire of command arose between Hiens and
the Sieur de la Salle's murderer; each one
of the guilty band sided on one side or the
other. We had passed the Coenis, after
some stay there, and were already at the
Nassonis, where the four deserters, whom
I mentioned in the first expedition, rejoined
us. On the eve of Ascension, seeing all to-
gether, and our wretches resolved to kill
each other, I made them an exhortation on
the festival, at which they seemed affected,
and resolved to confess; but this did not
last. Those who most regretted the murder
of their commander and leader had sided
with Hiens, who, seeing his opportunity
two days after, sought to punish crime by
246
LA SALLE
crime. In our presence he shot the mur-
derer of La Salle through the heart with a
pistol. He died on the spot, unshriven, un-
able even to utter the names of Jesus and
Mary. Another who was with Hiens shot
the murderer of the Sieur de Moranget
(Liotot) in the side with a musket ball. He
had time to confess, after which a French-
man fired a blank cartridge at his head. His
hair, and then his shirt and clothes took
fire and wrapped him in flames, and in this
torment he expired. The third author of
the plot and murder fled. Hiens wished to
make way with him and thus completely
avenge the death of the Sieur de la Salle,
but the Sieur Joutel conciliated them and it
stopped there. 13
By this means Hiens remained chief of
the wretched band. We had to return to
Coenis, where they had resolved to settle,
not daring to return to France for fear of
punishment.
"This was Larcheveque, Hist. Coll. of Louisi-
ana, Vol. I., p. 158. With Grollet, who had de-
serted from La Salle on his first excursion, he
surrendered to a Spanish party under Don Alonzo
de Leon. See extract from the Ensayo Crono-
logico. SHEA, Disco'y and Explo. of the Miss.,
208, note.
247
JOURNEYS OF
CHAPTER XL
DOUAY'S NARRATIVE, PART II. THE RETURN
TO FRANCE.
A CCENIS army was ready to march
against the Kanoatino, a hostile tribe, cruel
to their enemies, whom they boil alive. The
Coenis took our Frenchmen with them, after
which Hiens pressed us strongly to remain
with them, but we would not consent. Six
of us, all French, accordingly set out from
the Coenis, among whom were the Sieurs
Cavelier, uncle and nephew, and the Sieur
Joutel. They gave us each a horse, powder
and lead, and some goods to pay our way.
We stopped at the Nassonis to celebrate the
octave of Corpus Christi. They spoke to
us daily of the cruelty of the Spaniards to
the Americans, and told us that twenty In-
dian nations were going to war against the
Spaniards, inviting us to join them, as we
would do more with our guns than all their
braves with their war clubs and arrows;
but we had very different designs. We
only took occasion to tell them that we came
on behalf of God to instruct them in the
truth and save their souls. In this we spent
ten or twelve days, till the 3d of June, the
248
LA SALLE
feast of St. Anthony of Padua, whom the
Sieur de la Salle had taken as patron of his
enterprise.
Having received two Indians to guide us,
we continued our way north-northeast,
through the finest country in the world. We
passed four large rivers and many ravines,
inhabited by many different nations ; we
reconnoitred the Haquis, on the east; the
Nabiri and Naansi, all numerous tribes, at
war with the Coenis, and at last, on the 23d
of June, we approached the Caddodacchos. 1
One of our Indians went on to announce
our coming ; the chiefs and youth, whom we
met a league from the village, received us
with the calumet, which they gave us to
smoke ; some led our horses by the bridle ;
others, as it were, carried us in triumph,
1 These were doubtless the Caddoes, a tribe
which is not yet extinct. According to Joutel,
Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, Vol. I., p. 168, the tribe
consisted of four allied villages Assony, Natho-
sos, Nachitos and Cadodaquio. Tonty describes
them as forming three villages, Cadodaquis, Na-
chitoches and Nasoui, all on the Red River, and
speaking the same language. Two of these tribes,
the Nasoui and Nachitoches, bear a strong re-
semblance to the tribes found by Muscoso, the
successor of De Soto, in the same vicinity, and
called by Biedma, Nissione (Hist. Coll. of Louisi-
ana, Vol. III., p. 107), and by the gentleman of
Elvas, Nissoone and Naquiscoza, while the Day-
cao, as their river is called, is not incompatible
with Cado-Daquio. Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, Vol.
III., p. 201. [Cf. BOURNE, De Soto L, 175, 178,
180; II., 36.]
249
JOURNEYS OF
taking us for spirits and people of another
world.
All the village being assembled, the
women, as is their wont, washed our head
and feet with warm water, and then placed
us on a platform covered with a very neat,
white mat ; then followed banquets, calumet-
dances and other public rejoicings, day and
night. The people knew the Europeans
only by report; like other tribes through
which we had passed, they have some very
confused ideas of religion and adore the
sun; their gala dresses bear two painted
suns; on the rest of the body are repre-
sentations of buffalo, stags, serpents and
other animals. This afforded us an oppor-
tunity to give them some lessons on the
knowledge of the true God and on our prin-
cipal mysteries.
At this place it pleased God to traverse
us by a tragical accident. The Sieur de
Marne, in spite of all that we could say,
went to bathe on the evening of the 24th ;
the younger Sieur Cavelier accompanied
him to the river side, quite near the village.
De Marne sprang into the water and imme-
diately disappeared. It was an abyss, where
he was in a moment swallowed up. A few
hours afterward his body was recovered and
brought to the chiefs cabin. All the village
LA SALLE
mourned his death with all ceremony; the
chief's wife herself neatly wound him in a
beautiful cloth, while the young men dug
the grave, which I blessed the next day,
when we buried him with all possible sol-
emnity. The Indians admired our ceremo-
nies, from which we took occasion to give
them some instruction during the week that
we remained in this fatal place. Our friend
was interred on an eminence near the vil-
lage and his tomb surrounded by a palisade,
surmounted by a large cross, which we got
the Indians to raise, after which we started
on the 2d of July.
This tribe is on the banks of a large river,
on which lie three more famous nations, the
Natchoos, the Natchites, [and?] the Ouid-
iches, where we were very hospitably re-
ceived. From the Ccenis River, where we
began to find beaver and otter, they became
very plentiful as we advanced. At the Oui3-
iches we met three warriors of two tribes
called theCahinnio and theMentous, twenty-
five leagues further east-northeast, who had
seen Frenchmen. They offered to guide us
there, and on our way we passed four rivers
on rafts. We were received with the calumet
of peace and every mark of joy and esteem. 2
* Joutel calls this village Cahaynahoua. See
Joutel's journal published in French's Hist. Coll,
251
JOURNEYS OF
Many of these Indians spoke to us of a great
captain, who had only one arm (this was
Monsieur de Tonty), whom they had seen,
and who told them that a greater captain
than he would pass through their village.
This was Monsieur de la Salle.
The chief lodged us in his cabin, from
which he made his family retire. We were
here regaled for several days on every kind
of meat ; there was a public feast, where the
calumet was danced for twenty-four hours,
with songs made for the occasion, which the
chief intoned with all his might, treating us
as people of the sun, who came to defend
them from their enemies by the noise of our
thunder. Amidst these rejoicings the
younger Cavelier fired his pistol three times,
crying "Vive le roil" which the Indians re-
peated loudly, adding, "Vive la soleil!"
These Indians have prodigious quantities
of beaver and otter skins, which could be
easily transported by a river near the vil-
lage. They wished to load our horses with
them, but we refused, to show our disinter-
estedness. We made them presents of axes
and knives, and set out with two Cahinnio
to act as guides, after having received em-
bassies from Analao and Tanico and other
of Louisiana, Vol. I., pp. 85-193. [Also Vol. II.,
p. 170.]
252
LA SALLE
tribes to the northwest and southeast. It
was delightful to traverse for several days
the finest country, intersected by many
rivers, prairies, little woods and vine-clad
hills. Among others, we passed four large
navigable rivers, and at last, after a march
of about sixty leagues, we reached the Osot-
teoez, who dwell on the great river which
comes from the northwest, skirted by the
finest woods in the world. Beaver and otter
skins and all kinds of peltries are so abund-
ant there that, being of no value, they burn
them in heaps. This is the famous river of
the Achansa, who here form several vil-
lages. At this point we began to know
where we were, and finding a large cross,
bearing below the royal arms, with a
French-looking house, our people dis-
charged their guns. Two Frenchmen at
once came forth, and the one in command,
by name Couture, told us that the Sieur de
Tonty had stationed them there to serve as
an intermediate station to the Sieur de la
Salle, to maintain an alliance with those
tribes and to shield them against attacks by
the Iroquois. We visited three of these vil-
lages, the Torimans, the Doginga and the
Kappa; everywhere we had feasts, ha-
rangues, calumet-dances, with every mark
of joy. We lodged at the French house,
253
JOURNEYS OF
where the two gentlemen treated us with
all desirable hospitality, putting all at our
disposal. Whenever any affairs are to be
decided among these nations they never give
their resolution on the spot; they assemble
the chiefs and old men and deliberate on the
point in question. We had asked a periagua
and Indians to ascend the River Colbert,
and thence to push on to the Illinois by the
River Seignelay, offering to leave them our
horses, powder and lead. When the coun-
cil was held it was said that they would
grant us the periagua and four Indians, to
be selected one from each tribe, in token of
a more strict alliance. This was faithfully
executed, so that we dismissed our Cahinnio
with presents which perfectly satisfied them.
At last, after some time stay, we em-
barked on the ist of August, 1687, on the
River Colbert, which we crossed the same
day in our periagua, forty feet long; but,
as the current is strong, we all landed to
make the rest of our journey on foot, hav-
ing left our horses and equipage at the
Akansa. There remained in the canoe only
the Sieur Cavelier, whose age, joined to the
hardships he had already undergone on the
way, did not permit him to accomplish on
foot the rest of our course (at least four
hundred leagues) to the Illinois, One Indian
254
LA SALLE
was in the canoe to perch it along, one of
his comrades relieving him from time to
time. As for the rest of us, we used the
periagua only when necessary to cross some
dangerous passages or rivers. All this was
not without much suffering, for the exces-
sive heat of the season, the burning sand,
the broiling sun, heightened by a want of
provisions for several days, gave us enough
to endure.
We had already traveled two hundred
and fifty leagues across the country from
St. Louis Bay, viz. : one hundred leagues to
the Ccenis (sixty north-northeast, the last
forty east-northeast) ; from the Ccenis to the
Nassonis, twenty-five to the east-northeast ;
from the Nassonis to the Cadodacchos, forty
to the north-northeast; from the Cadodac-
chos to the Cahinnio and Mentous, twenty-
five to the east-northeast; from the Cahin-
nio to the Akansa, sixty to the east-north-
east.
We then continued our route, ascending
the river through the same places which the
Sieur de la Salle had previously passed
when he made his first discovery, of which
I have heard him frequently speak, except
that we went to the Sicacha, where he had
not been. The principal village is twenty-
five leagues east of the Akansa. This na-
255
JOURNEYS OF
tion is very numerous; they count at least
four thousand warriors ; have an abundance
of every kind of peltry. The chiefs came
several times to offer us the calumet, wish-
ing to form an alliance with the French and
put themselves under their protection, of-
fering even to come and dwell on the River
Oiiabache (Ohio), to be nearer to us.
We crossed the Oiiabache, then, on the
26th of August, and found it full sixty
days' good march
This famous river is full as large as the
River Colbert, receiving a quantity of
others by which you can enter it. The
mouth, where it empties into the River Col-
bert, is two hundred leagues from the
Akansa, according to the estimate of the
Sieur de la Salle, as he often told me; or
two hundred and fifty, according to Mon-
sieur de Tonty and those who accompanied
him in his second voyage to the sea ; not that
it is that distance in a straight line across
the prairies, but following the river, which
makes great turns and winds a great deal,
for by land it would not be more than five
leagues to the mouth of the River Ilinois,
still ascending the Colbert. About six
leagues above this mouth there is on the
northwest the famous river of the Mas-
sourites, or Osages, at least as large as the
256
LA SALLE
river into which it empties ; it is formed by
a number of other known rivers, every-
where navigable, and inhabited by many
populous tribes as the Panimaha, who had
but one chief and twenty-two villages, the
least of which has two hundred cabins ; the
Paneassa, the Pana, the Paneloga [Paw-
nees?] and the Matotantes [Ottoes?], each
of which, separately, is not inferior to the
Panimaha. They include, also, the Osages,
who have seventeen villages on a river of
their name, which empties into that of the
Massourites, to which the maps have also
extended the name of Osages. The Akan-
sas were formerly stationed on the upper
part of one of these rivers [the Ohio], but
the Iroquois drove them out by cruel wars
some years ago, so that they, with some
Osage villages, were obliged to drop down
and settle on the river which now bears
their name, and of which I have spoken.
About midway between the River Oiia-
bache and that of the Massourites is Cape
St. Anthony. It was to this place only, and
not further, that the Sieur Joliet descended
in 1673; they were there taken, with their
whole party, by the Mansopela. These In-
dians having told them that they would be
killed if they went further, they turned
back, not having descended lower than
257
JOURNEYS OF
thirty or forty leagues below the mouth of
the Ilinois River. 3
I had brought with me the printed book
of this pretended discovery, and I remarked
all along my route that there was not a word
of truth in it. It is said that he went as far
as the Akansa, and that he was obliged to
return for fear of being taken by the Span-
iards; and yet the Akansa assured us that
they had never seen any Europeans before
Monsieur de la Salle. It is said that they
saw painted monsters that the boldest would
have difficulty to look at, and that there was
something supernatural about them. This
frightful monster is a horse painted on a
rock with matachia, 4 and some other wild
beasts made by the Indians. It is said that
they cannot be reached, yet I touched them
without difficulty. The truth is that the
Miamis, pursued by the Matsigamea, hav-
ing been drowned in the river, the Indians
ever since that time present tobacco to these
grotesque figures whenever they pass, in
order to appease the Manitou.
I would not be inclined to think that the
Sieur Joliet avowed the printed account of
that discovery, which is not, in fact, under
his name, and was not published till after
f* No authority for this statement]
An old term for paint used by the Indians.
258
LA SALLE
the first (discovery made by the Sieur 'de la
Salle. It would be easy to show that it was
printed only on false memoirs, which the
author, who had never been on the spot,
might have followed in good faith. 5
"In this short passage a heavy charge is
brought against the narrative of Father Mar-
quette, although it is amusing to see how they
all, in denying it, seem to have dreaded to men-
tion his name, as though his injured spirit would
have been evoked by the word.
As Father Anastasius says expressly that there
is not a word of truth in it, we may examine the
grounds which he adduces.
ist. It was not published till after the discov-
ery made by La Salle. This is incorrect. Theve-
not published Marquette's journal from a muti-
lated copy in 1681, and La Salle reached the
mouth of the Mississippi only in April, 1682,
while his discovery was not known in France be-
fore January, 1683.
2d. The Arkansas said that they had never seen
any European before La Salle. Making every
allowance for the difficulty of conversing with a
tribe whose language was utterly unknown to
him, and admitting the fact, it remains to show
that the Arkansas whom he met were the same
as those visited by Marquette. This does not
appear to be certain, as they were on different
sides of the Mississippi.
3d. The painted rock, of which he exaggerates
and refutes Marquette's account. Now, though
Father Anastasius had the book of the pretended
discovery in his hand, he did not read it care-
fully. Marquette describes a rock above the mouth
of the Missouri, Anastasius saw another below
the mouth, and halfway between it and the Ohio,
and, as it did not answer Marquette's account,
there is not a word of truth in his book ! Joutel,
whose work appeared only in 1713, avoids this
difficulty; whether conscious of Douay's error,
259
JOURNEYS OF
At last, on the 5th of September, we ar-
rived at the mouth of the Illinois River,
whence they reckon at least a hundred
we do not know. From the words of Father An-
astasius I am inclined to think that they never
saw Marquette's rock, but, deceived by Theve-
not's map, which gives a figure and the word
Manitou at the place below the Missouri, which
Marquette mentions as the demon of the Illi-
nois, mistook it for the painted rock. Here, as
Father Anastasius tells, some Indians actually
perished, and their countrymen, supposing them
engulfed by some demon, propagated the belief
in the existence of one there. This worshipping
of rapids was common, and several cases are
mentioned in the narratives of the time. As to
the exaggerations made of Marquette's account,
a moment's examination will show that he repre-
sented the figures he saw as terrible to supersti-
tious Indians, and so high up on the rock that
it was not easy to get up there to paint them.
His estimate of the skill displayed is, indeed, too
high ; but there is nothing, beyond this, strange in
his account.
4th. Last of all comes his positive assertion
that Marquette and Joliet went only as far as
Cape St. Anthony, thirty or forty leagues below
the mouth of the Illinois. For this he gives no
authority; but it may be inferred that he found
the Mansopelas there, and, from his little knowl-
edge of the Indians, concluded that, being there
in 1687, they must have been there in 1673, and,
consequently, that Marquette went no further.
Enough, however, is here admitted to convict
the author of the Etablissement de la Foi of in-
justice to Marquette, whom he never names, but
who, even by their own statements, descended
the Mississippi to the Mansopelas many years be-
fore La Salle's expedition. Yet in the previous
part of the work no mention at all is made of this
voyage, and no opportunity passed to treat it as
pretended in the accounts of their own.
Joutel, whose narrative was published subse-
260
LA SALLE
leagues to Fort Crevecceur, the whole route
presenting a very easy navigation. A Shaw-
nee named Turpin, having perceived us
from his village, ran on to the fort to carry
the news to the Sieur de Belle Fontaine, the
commander, who would not credit it; we
followed close on the Indian and entered
the fort on the 1 4th of September. We
were conducted to the chapel, where the Te
Deum was chanted in thanksgiving, amid
the noise and volleys of the French and In-
dians, who were immediately put under
arms. The Sieur de Tonty, the governor
of the fort, had gone to the Iroquois to con-
ciliate the minds of those Indians ; we, nev-
ertheless, received a very cordial welcome,
the commandant neglecting nothing to show
his joy at our arrival, to console us in" our
misfortunes and restore us after our hard-
ships.
Although the season was advanced, we
had, nevertheless, set out in hopes of reach-
ing Quebec soon enough to sail for France ;
but, head winds having detained us a fort-
night at the entrance of Lake Dauphin, we
had to give it over and winter at the fort,
quently to this, mentions (see Hist. Coll. of Lou-
isiana, Vol. I., p. 182) Father Marquette, and,
though he saw nothing extraordinary in the
painted figures, does not make any of the charges
here brought by his companion on the voyage,
whom he contradicts directly on two other points.
26l
JOURNEYS OF
which we made a mission till the spring of
1688.
The Sieur de Tonty arrived there at the
beginning of winter with several French-
men. This made our stay much more agree-
able, as this brave gentleman was always
inseparably attached to the interests of the
Sieur de la Salle, whose lamentable fate we
concealed from him,, it being our duty to
give the first news to the court.
He told us that at the same time that we
were seeking the River Mississippi by the
sea he had made a second voyage, descend-
ing the river with some French and Indians
to the mouth, hoping to find us there ; that he
remained there a week, visited all the re-
markable points, and remarked that there
was a fine port, with a beautiful entrance
and wide channel, and also places fit for
building forts, and not at all inundated, as
he had supposed when he descended the first
time with the Sieur de la Salle, adding that
the lower river is habitable and even inhab-
ited by Indian villages; that ships can as-
cend the river a hundred leagues above the
gulf; that, besides the tribes which he had
discovered when descending the first time,
he had seen several others on the second, as
the Picheno, the Ozanbogus, the Tangibao,
the Otonnica, the Mausopelea, the Mouisa,
262
LA SALLE
and many others which I do not remember.
Our conversations together confirmed me
in the opinion of the Sieur de la Salle, that
St. Louis Bay could not be more than forty
or fifty leagues from the mouth of one of
the arms of the River Colbert in a straight
line, for, though we struck the river only
at the Akansa, it was because we took the
Ilinois route across the country, God having
led us through these parts to enable us to
discover all those tribes which dwell there.
I had remarked one hundred and ten
populous nations on my route, not including
a great many others of which I heard in
those through which we passed, who knew
them either in war or in trade. The great-
est part of these tribes are unknown to Eu-
ropeans.
These are the finest and most fertile coun-
tries in the world, the soil, which there pro-
duces two crops of every kind of grain a
year, being ready to receive the plow. From
time to time there are vast prairies where
the grass is ten or twelve feet high at all
seasons; at every little distance there are
rivers entering larger ones, everywhere nav-
igable and free from rapids. On these riv-
ers are forests full of every kind of trees,
so distributed that you can everywhere ride
through on horseback.
263
JOURNEYS OF
The chase is so abunaant and easy, espe-
cially for wild cattle, that herds of thou-
sands are discovered; there are deer and
other animals of the stag kind in numbers,
as well as turkeys, bustards, partridges, par-
rots, rabbits and hares. Poultry are common
there, and produce at all seasons, and swine
several times a year, as we observed at the
settlement, where we left more than two
hundred.
The rivers are unusually abundant in all
kinds of fish, so much so that we took them
at the foot of the fort with our hands, with-
out basket or net. Our people one day took
away from the Indians a fish-head which
was alone a load for a man. No settler ar-
riving in the country will not find at first
enough to support plenteously a large fam-
ily, or will not in two years' time be more
at his ease than in any place in Europe. I
have already remarked that horses for every
use are there very common, the Indians
thinking themselves well paid when they
get an axe for a horse.
The commerce might be very great there
in peltries, tobacco and cotton. Hemp grows
very fine, and as the fields are full of mul-
berry trees, which also line the rivers, silk
might be raised in abundance. Sugar canes
would succeed there well,, and could be eas-
264
LA SALLE
ily got by trade with the West Indies, as the
European nations have done in Terra-firma,
where they are neighbors to Louisiana. 6 Be-
sides, the great quantity of wool with which
the cattle of the country are loaded, the vast
prairies everywhere afford means of raising
flocks of sheep, which produce twice a year.
The various accidents that befell us pre-
vented our searching for the treasures of
this country : we found lead quite pure and
copper ready to work. The Indians told us
that there were rivers where silver mines
are found; others wished to conduct us to
'These observations from which Coxe (Hist.
Coll. of Louisiana, Vol. II., pp. 262- '65) doubtless
took a hint, entitle Father Douay to the credit of
pointing out sources of wealth to Louisiana. Cot-
ton and sugar are already staple products, and
silk may soon be. The valley of the Mississippi
owes the introduction of the sugar-cane to the
Catholic missionaries, for the Jesuits brought in
some plants from which the colony was supplied,
after they had shown in their gardens at New
Orleans how successfully it could be raised. The
same missionaries were also the first to raise
wheat in Illinois, and engage others to do so, as
one of their lay-brothers was the first to work
the copper mines of Lake Superior, to make arti-
cles for the church of Sault St. Mary's. In the
East they deserve no less a place even in commer-
cial history; they not only called the attention
of New York to her salt springs, and brought
about a commercial intercourse between the
French of Canada and the English and Dutch in
their colonies, but, by showing the identity of our
ginseng with that of Tartary, enabled France for
some time to carry on a very lucrative trade with
China
265
JOURNEYS OF
a country known to the Spaniards, abound-
ing in gold and silver mines. There are also
some villages where the inhabitants have
pearls, which they go to seek on the sea-
coast, and find, they say, in oysters.
We found few nations within a hundred
and fifty or two hundred leagues of the sea
who are not prejudiced against the Span-
iards on account of their great cruelty.
These tribes are all populous, and there is
one which, in war, would furnish as many
as five thousand men.
The shortness of our stay among these
tribes gave us no time to lay solid founda-
tions of Christianity, but we remarked good
dispositions for the faith; they are docile,
charitable, susceptible of good impressions ;
there is even some government and subordi-
nation, savage though it always be. By the
help of God religion might make progress
there. The sun is their divinity, and they
offer it in sacrifice, the best of their chase,
in the chief's cabin. They pray for half an
hour, especially at sunrise; they send him
the first whiff of their pipes, and then send
one to each of the four cardinal points.
I left St. Louis Bay on the second voyage,
to remain among the Coenis and begin a
mission there. Here Father Zenobius was
to join me, to visit the neighboring tribes,
266
LA SALLE
while awaiting from France a greater num-
ber of gospel laborers; but the melancholy
death of the Sieur de la Salle having com-
pelled me to proceed, Father Zenobius no
doubt went there to meet me, and is, per-
haps, there yet with Father Maximus (Le
Clercq), having left M. de Chefdeville at
the mission in the fort, to which he was des-
tined at our departure. There were there
nine or ten French families, and, besides,
several of our people had gone to get and
had actually married Indian women to mul-
tiply the colony. What has befallen them
since I do not know.
This, adds Le Qercq, is a faithful extract
of what Father Anastasius could remember
of his toilsome voyage. He left the Ilinois
in the spring of 1688 with M. Cavelier, his
nephew, the Sieur Joustel, and an Indian
now domiciled near Versailles. They ar-
rived at Quebec on the 27th [29th] of July
and sailed for France on the 2Oth [2ist] of
August, where, God enabling them to be
still together, after having passed through
so many perils, they presented an account
of all to the late Marquis of Seignelay.
267
JOURNEYS OF
CHAPTER XII.
I.
CAVELIER'S ACCOUNT OF LA SALLE'S VOYAGE
TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
HIS LANDING IN TEXAS AND MARCH TO
THE MISSISSIPPI.
[PART i. TO APRIL, 1686.]
RELATION OF M. CAVELIER.
MONSEIGNEUR I
July, 1684. You have here the relation
of the voyage undertaken by my brother to
discover in the Gulf of Mexico the mouth of
the Mississipy. An unexpected and tragical
death having prevented his completing it
and reporting to your lordship, you will, I
trust, approve of my taking his place.
In the month of July, 1684, we left La
Rochelle in four vessels, with very fine
weather. The season seemed to promise us
a continuance thereof, and should not, in all
probability, lead us to fear either a calm or
great heats. Nevertheless, the close of the
month brought a storm, which dismasted
the vessel my brother was in and compelled
us all to put back to the port from which
268
LA SALLE
we had started. We set sail again, and a
few days after a second storm dispersed
our little fleet; the St. Francis was taken
by Spanish cruisers and the other three got
together only in Petit Goave, in St. Do-
mingo. I will not give your lordship the
detail of our course or manoeuvres to that
point, as that is not my profession.
If these unfortunate accidents dampened
the ardor of our adventurers, the conduct
of M. de Beaujeu, captain of a ship of the
line, who commanded one of the ships of
the fleet, did so no less ; and if your lordship
takes pains to examine, you will find that
that officer, jealous of my brother's having
the principal authority and the direction of
the enterprise, so traversed it that the fail-
ure may be attributed to him. 1
July, 1684. We made some stay at Petit
Goave to give our crew a little refreshment
and to prepare to carry out the project con-
veniently. There M. de Beaujeu began to
employ all means that he could invent to
prevent my brother from going further.
Nevertheless, we set sail towards the latter
part of November, intending to reconnoitre
the land ten or twenty leagues north of the
river; but, head winds having forced us
[ 1 The documents published by Margry present
a more favorable view of Beaujeu.]
269
JOURNEYS OF
back several times, my brother at last de-
termined to explore Florida, whatever point
we made; but M. de Beaujeu did not fol-
low him. He abandoned us, under pretext
of having been surprised by a squall.
1685. On the 6th of January 2 we made
the coast of Florida, and, supporting our-
selves north of the mouth of the river, we
sailed southerly along the coast, crowding
sail, for fear of being forced by the currents
into Bahama channel. Some days after, on
taking the altitude, we found ourselves fifty
leagues south, which obliged us to turn back
and retrace our steps. Still coasting along,
we discovered Espiritu Santo Bay Feb. 4
[February 8th], where we found M. de
Beaujeu. My brother had a long conference
with him there, at the close of which the
three vessels set sail to pursue the search.
Feb. 1685. The next morning M. de
Beaujeu sent his long boat to my brother to
tell him that he had sailed fifty leagues since
he left Espiritu Santo Bay, and that, discov-
ering inland a kind of gulf or river ; it might
be the Mississipy, and that he had no orders
to go any further. My brother allowed him-
self to be persuaded that this might be one
of the arms of that river, and, having sent
[ 2 Cf. FRENCH, Hist. Coll'ns La. L, 94- Also
Vol. II., page 22.]
270
LA SALLE
out his boat to sound, he found three and
a half fathoms of water in the shallowest
part of the channel and entered with his
vessel. He ordered the pink to unload as
much as possible and to wait till he sent
a pilot to bring her in ; but this was so badly
done that she struck on a sand-bar and
could not get off.
Meanwhile M. de Beaujeu, who had an-
chored off, wrote to my brother and sent the
letter by his lieutenant. He told him that,
having reached the mouth of the Missis-
sipy, he believed that he had sufficiently
fulfilled his duty ; that, having seen the pink
perish before his eyes, he did not think it
proper to risk entering the river with his
ship, for fear of a like mishap ; that, having
no more provisions or refreshments, he was
determined to return to France, and he
begged him to send his letters for the Court,
with his exoneration from all accidents that
had happened or might thereafter happen.
My brother most generously granted all.
March 14, 1685. Monsieur die Beaujeu
having accordingly hoisted sail for France,
my brother undertook to do three things at
once: One was to make a storehouse on
shore to lay up his ammunition and provis-
ions, merchandise and other things; the
other was to go himself with thirty or forty
271
JOURNEYS OF
men to select a suitable place for a settle-
ment at the end of the bay, and the other to
bring his vessel as far as he could into the
bay. All this was executed, for the vessel
was brought up to the mouth of a river to
which the name of Vache (Cow) 3 was
given, on account of the number of that ani-
mal found there, and here he built a little
fort of fourteen guns, with small but pretty
convenient houses and storehouses sufficient
to contain all that he had.
Meanwhile my brother, originally under
the idea that the river we were in was one
of the arms of the Mississipy, on account
of the quantity of reeds it bore down to the
sea, at last saw his error and formed the
design of discovering it by land ; but unable
to leave his fort without exposing it to the
insults of the nearest Indians, who were
waging a cruel war on us 4 (believing us
Spaniards), he endeavored to gain their con-
fidence and friendship. Your Lordship
knows that he has an admirable tact for
that. He employed it so adroitly in this
conjuncture that before the close of July
we mutually visited each other. We often
went to their village, 5 which was quite near
['Later called by its Spanish equivalent La
Vaca, a name which it still bears.]
*They killed ten men with arrows.
"These Indians are called the Bracamos.
272
LA SALLE
our fort (which we will in future call Fort
of St. Louis Bay) 6 , and one day they offered
to guide my brother to a neighboring na-
tion, their ally, only about fifteen leagues
off, to show him, they said, curious things.
My brother accepted their offer, thanked
them for the friendship they testified and
made them some presents ; after which, set-
ting out to the number of twenty-four, 7 ac-
companied by a troop of Indians, we arrived
at a large village, surrounded by a kind of
wall made with potter's clay and sand, forti-
fied with little towers at intervals, where
we found fastened to a post the arms of
Spain engraved on a copper plate, dated
1588.
The people welcomed us and showed us
some hammers and an anvil, two small
pieces of iron cannon, a small bronze cul-
verine, spearheads, old sword blades and
some volumes of Spanish comedies; and
leading us thence to a little fishing hamlet
about two leagues off, they showed us a
second post, also bearing the arms of Spain
and some old chimneys. 8 All this convinced
[' Now the Matagorda.]
[ 7 La Salle made a brief excursion in the spring
of 1685 and a more extended one in the fall of
that year. Cf. Vol. 11., Chap. III.]
"There is no known authority for any such
early occupation of Texas.
273
JOURNEYS OF
us that the Spaniards had been there before.
They also gave us to understand by signs
that the Mississipy River was very diffi-
cult to find, because its mouth could not be
perceived a league off. They then drew
vessels with coal, and gave us to understand
that many passed along their coast.
Having taken leave of these Indians, to
whom we made some presents and courtesy
for courtesy, we returned to our fort at St.
Louis Bay, where we made some stay to
cultivate more and more the confidence and
friendship of our Bracamos (so is the In-
dian nation called that dwells near our
fort), in order to leave protectors to the
people whom we would have to leave in
the fort while we went overland to seek the
Mississipy.
We observed during our stay that the
east winds generally prevail by day and
west winds by night; that the least speck
of cloud forebodes a violent gale, which will
last an hour at most ; that the north winds
(which the Spaniards there dread im-
mensely) are not so violent as the west
winds which the fishing smacks stand in
winter time on the Banks of Newfound-
land ; and lastly, that the tide rises here very
slightly. We saw quantities of salt, formed
naturally in various spots, which led us to
274
LA SALLE
infer that it would be easy to make success-
ful salt works.
Having, then, provided for the security
of the fort by the friendship of the neigh-
boring Indians, by arms and ammunition,
and for the subsistence of the people whom
we left there by the provisions and goods
which remained, and after my brother had
recommended vigilance, patience and devo-
tion to the King's service, we set out on
the first of November, 9 accompanied by
thirty men, carrying only our arms, ammu-
nition for game, and some trifling articles
for the Indians.
Ten or twelve days after we found a very
populous village, where the men and women
wore large pearls hanging from the carti-
lage between the two nostrils. I bought a
few in order to show your Lord'ship. I
have already shown them to Catillon, lapi-
dary at Paris, who assured me that they
were of the finest water in the world, but
imperfect in shape. We tried to learn from
these Indians the place whence they drew
this precious merchandise, but, being able
to understand us only by signs, we could
only presume that they got them from the
sea when they went to catch fish, for they
* Nov. i, departure of M. de la Salle to discover
the mouth of the river by land.
275
JOURNEYS OF
showed us large pirogues and nets which
apparently were solely for this use. We
have since learned that many small rivers
which pass through their country empty
into St. Louis Bay.
December and January. Having left this
nation, we ran for two months in search of
our river, with no hope of finding it, finding
only Indians, whose manners kept us in per-
petual distrust ; we did not dare to make any
stay in any place for fear of some surprise.
February, 1688 [1686.] The continual
marching, the rigor of the season and the
fears that we had conceived from the re-
served and distrustful manners of the In-
dians made us undergo hardships that it
would be difficult for me to express.
In the beginning of February we came to
a pretty large river, which my brother
thought might be the Mississipy, although
its course was just the opposite. Our senti-
ments were different; we followed its
banks for two days, without meeting man
or beast.
Some days after, having perceived a vil-
lage, we deemed proper to fire a volley be-
fore entering, in order to alarm the Indians
and put them to flight, so as to take from
their cabins what Indian corn we needed.
This having been executed, we left them
276
LA SALLE
payment on the spot, after whidi we left to
continue our search.
We had scarcely made a league when we
perceived two Indians running after us. We
first thought the villagers, charmed with
the beauty of the knives, scissors and nee-
dles that we had left in payment, had
deputed them to bring us back ; but we were
greatly surprised when we saw these In-
dians fall on my brother and almost stifle
him by their embraces in the transport of
pleasure which they experienced on seeing
him again. They were two Shawnees of
three whom my brother lost when he de-
scended to the mouth of the Mississipy by
the Ilinois River. 10 They told us that their
comrade was sick in the village, to which
they begged us to return, assuring us of the
humanity and good faith of the people. My
brother was sincerely pleased to find them
again, and, in hopes of learning from them
what he desired, he made no difficulty of
resolving to follow them. They took us first
to their cabin, where we found their com-
rade. They made us take up our quarters
there while a larger cabin was preparing for
us nearby.
They told us that, having gone out to
hunt while in my brother's service, they
10 It was in 1682.
277
JOURNEYS OF
were surrounded and taken by thirty or
forty warriors of the village where we were,
who carried them there without binding
them; that the whole nation, and even their
allies, had greatly honored them and held
them for something more than men on ac-
count of the power of their guns ; that they
wondered to see them kill a bison a hundred
paces off, and several turkeys at a single
shot, but that when their ammunition failed
these people pressed them to make more
and ridiculed them because they had not the
secret of making it. They also told us that
they had married in this village, and that
they had no difficulty in learning the lan-
guage. They then took us to a large cabin,
where we were conveniently lodged.
It was from these three Indians that we
learned that we were only forty leagues
from the sea ; that the Indians among whom
we were made war on others who had inter-
course with the Spaniards, distant about one
hundred and thirty leagues from the sea;
that there was a river [30] leagues from us
more beautiful than the Mississipy, 11 and
two others, fifteen or twenty leagues, in
which gold was found in large grains and in
dust ; that the Indians used it only to make
collars and bracelets, but that they valued it
11 30 L. They meant the Rio Bravo.
278
LA SALLE
less than certain red stones which they put
to the same use.
They 12 added : We have been to war
against the nation that has intercourse with
the Spaniards and took some prisoners, who
were neatly dressed in silk. They told us
that the Spaniards furnished them their
clothes and many other things in exchange
for certain stones which they prized highly.
They directed us to the spot whence they
took these precious stones, and, as we could
pass by it without deviating much from the
route we had to take back to our village, we
easily persuaded our troops, as curious as
ourselves, to go there. The prisoners act-
ing as guides, we reached a hill which may
be two leagues long, where they showed us
some holes made by the Indians, from which
we took some specimens of stone 13 which we
have kept. This hill lies about forty leagues
from our village and is near a little river
which empties in a larger one, 14 which, com-
ing a great distance and passing between
two ranges of hills, empties into the Gulf
of Mexico. The Spaniards have several vil-
lages on the southern part of this river, and
12 It is the Shawnees that speak.
18 M. Cavelier took some to Paris, where the
body of goldsmiths assayed them by the King's
order and found that it was gold ore, which had
only half waste.
"Rio Bravo.
279
JOURNEYS OF
the Indians who make war on them cross
over and make captures along the road, 15
which they frequent with little precaution.
February, 1688 [1686]. They assured
us that there was not a nation for a hundred
leagues around but feared the inroads of the
Spaniards; that they dreaded them on ac-
count of the frightful stories told of their
firearms; that this consideration alone had
prevented their leaguing together to under-
take to carry a town, lacking neither desire,
courage nor means of uniting ; that for this
purpose they could bring together one hun-
dred thousands warriors and ten thousand
horses, without going fifty leagues from
their village; that this army could subsist,
even without supplies of provisions, by the
quantity of bison, small game and fish found
everywhere by merely dividing into troops
of ten thousand men and giving two leagues
of land to each troop, and always camping
in beautiful prairies with which the country
abounds; that even if we wished to lay up
provisions of Indian corn, peas or beans, it
could easily be done, as the earth produces
plentifully without being sowed or culti-
vated; and, finally, that the country is full
of all sorts of excellent fruit, which would
15 Apparently the road from Old to New Mex-
ico.
280
LA SALLE
also be a great help. They convinced us that
they needed only good leaders and some
regular troops to instruct them., arms, sad-
dles, bridles and ammunition. On this my
brother having asked them on which side
they would attack the Spaniards, they re-
plied that it was beyond that great river 16 of
which they had spoken to us, where there
were several cities and villages, some open
and others fortified merely by palisades,
which it would be easy to force, the more
easily as the Indians had often got the upper
hand of them ; that the year before they had
killed or taken over two thousand persons
and forced them to send religious to exhort
them to peace.
They told us, moreover, that the Span-
iards had more than thirty gold and silver
mines in different parts of the country
which they durst not work on account of
the proximity of nations that they were at
war with.
That the climate of the country north-
ward and eastward of the great river 17 was
perfectly beautiful, and so healthy that men
died there only of old age or smallpox ; the
land so fertile that, unsown, untilled, it pro-
duced two crops of Indian corn and three of
"Rio Bravo.
17 Rio Bravo.
28l
JOURNEYS OF
peas or beans a year; that they were told
that the other side of the river was neither
fertile nor healthy.
That there was near by a nation that
made cloth of nettles, wild flax and the bark
of trees, and who manufactured cloth of
buffalo wool ; that they give the finest colors
in the world to all their fabrics ; in fact, they
gave us earth 18 of all colors, which we took
to France that there were other nations 19 to
the northwest who had kings and chiefs
and observed some forms of government,
honoring and respecting their kings as Eu-
ropeans do theirs.
That there were some on the east 20 so
fierce that it never had any communications
with the others and so cruel that they de-
voured each other.
That about fifty leagues from the spot
where we were, were two or three moun-
tains on the banks of a river, from which
were taken red stones as clear as crystal.
They gave us some of it and some gold ore,
which we took to France.
February, 1685 [1686]. After they had
related all this my brother wished to induce
18 The Paris dyers were amazed to see the qual-
ity of this earth.
"These were the Panismahans [Pawnee-Mahas]
and the Ontotonta [Ottoes].
Florida, apparently.
2S2
LA SALLE
them to follow him, to return to their own
country; but they answered him that they
were not unnatural enough to abandon their
wives and children ; that, moreover, being in
the most fertile, healthy and peaceful coun-
try in the world, they would be devoid of
sense to leave it and expose themselves to be
tomahawked by the Illinois or burnt by the
Iroquois on their way to another where the
winter was insufferably cold, the summer
without game, and ever in war, but that if
the French built or established any colony
in the Mississipy that they would approach
it, and that they would have the pleasure of
rendering them considerable services.
Towards the close of January we parted
from our honest Shawnees, who could not
accompany us to the Mississipy for fear
of being suspected of wishing to follow us,
but they induced ten or twelve warriors to
lead us. On the loth of March we descried
the River Mississipy, 21 where we left some
men in a little redoubt of pickets, which
we made ourselves, and, retracing our steps,
we passed again through the village of our
Shawnees, where we were regaled as well
as these good people could regale us, and,
continuing our march, we reached St. Louis
ao It is not at all probable that La Salle reached
the Mississippi. Cf. Joutel, Preface to 1714 Edi-
tion.
283
JOURNEYS OF
Bay on the 3Oth of the month of March,
1685 [1686].
Return of M. de la Salle.
Our people received us with all possible
joy, and we experienced much pleasure to
find them all in good health; but our joy
was soon marred by the most distressing ac-
cident in the world, for our frigate, eight
or ten days after our arrival, struck and
perished with all on board, except eight
men. The loss which we had sustained of
ten men, the best sailors we had on board,
who were killed with arrows by the Bra-
camos at the time they made war on us,
supposing us to be Spaniards, was surely
the cause of the loss of the vessel, which,
perhaps, lacked experienced people. In fine,
the chagrin which my brother experienced
at the loss joined to the hardships which we
had undergone during our painful march,
brought on a malady which nearly took him
out of the world and overwhelmed our lit-
tle party with despair. In fact, my Lord,
after the loss of the vessel, which deprived
us of our only means of returning to France,
we had no resource for our subsistence ex-
cept my brother's good management and
firmness, and each of us regarded his death
as his own, for we beheld ourselves cast
284
LA SALLE
away in a savage country, without assist-
ance and cut off by immense distances from
every Christian nation.
My brother recovered at last, and when
his health was perfectly restored he pro-
posed to undertake to reach Canada by land,
so as to come to France to report what he
had done. The way is long, painful and
dangerous beyond all that can be expressed
to the contrary, so the least hardy durst not
undertake it. These my brother left in
charge of the fort, with necessary provis-
ions, commending them to remain strongly
attached to the King's service. He formed
a party of those who were disposed to fol-
low him. Father Athanasius [Anastasius
Douay], my nephew, Moranget; my
brother's godson, two Shawnee Indians,
who had followed my brother to France,
and I were of the party.
CHAPTER XIII.
[CAVELIER'S ACCOUNT, PART n. LA SALLE'S
LAST TWO JOURNEYS.]
WE started on the I3th of April, I685 1
[1686], and laid our route so as to pass by
1 April 13, 1685 First departure of M. de la
Salle for Canada by the Illinois.
285
JOURNEYS OF
the Illinois, where we had resolved to rest.
It seems to me unnecessary to speak here
of the minutiae of our march, and I will
merely say in general the most remarkable
things that we saw and observed. We were
very kindly and affectionately received by
all the nations that we passed through; we
had plenty everywhere; we received pres-
ents and were supplied with guides and
horses. Among these nations, the Senis 2
[Cenis] 3 seem to us the most numerous
and polished; it is governed by a king, or
cacique, and the subordination that we re-
marked among them made us infer that they
had officers ; the houses are built with order
and very prettily, and they have the art of
making a cloth of feathers and the hair of
animals. We found there silver lamps, old
muskets and Spanish sword-blades. Hav-
ing asked them by signs where they got
them, they took a coal and depicted a Span-
iard, houses, steeples, and showed the part
of the heaven under which New Mexico
would lie.
M. de la Salle Arrives at the Fort of St. Louis
Bay.
On leaving this village my brother, our
nephew and three soldiers were greatly
2 Senis, a very civilized nation of Indians.
The "Texas" Indians of the Spaniards.
286
LA SALLE
troubled by certain strange fruits which
they had eaten too freely. They all took
the fever, which did not leave them till two
months afterward. My brother was so af-
fected and weakened by it that we did not
dare to proceed, but, retracing our steps,
returned after forty days to the fort in St.
Louis Bay, 4 where we were received with all
possible joy by our people and by the Braca-
mos, who came first to visit us and brought
us a quantity of deer.
The attempts which we had made to go
to Canada not having succeeded, we turned
our hopes to the aid that the King might
send us from France, and we patiently
awaited it till the close of the year 1686;
but at last, weary of being deprived of the
society of our countrymen, and banished, as
it were, to the uttermost parts of the earth,
we regarded this agreeable country only as
a tedious resting place and a perpetual
prison, feeling satisfied that had not the
King deemed us lost he would have had the
goodness to send some one to continue the
exploration which we had undertaken or
to carry us back to France. We often made
vague conjectures, which served only to af-
flict us, and at last, when the beginning of
[ 4 In October, 1686. For details of this journey
see Vol. I., Chap. X.]
287
JOURNEYS OF
1686 [1687] came, my brother proposed to
make a second attempt. As all minds were
full of the desire of again beholding France,
his eloquence was required only to persuade
some of our people to remain in the fort.
He portrayed to them the hardships and
dangers to be encountered, the impossibility
of subsisting if they all went together on
so long a march, with no resource but hunt-
ing. He succeeded so well that a part de-
termined to keep the fort, and my brother
took only twenty-eight 5 of the most vigor-
ous, among them Father Athanasius, our
nephews, Cavelier and Moranget my
brother's godson, the pilot of his vessel and
myself.
Second Attempt to Reach Canada by Land.
We started on the 6th [or I2th] of Jan-
uary (after hearing mass and performing
our devotions, and exhorting the people who
remained to watch the safekeeping of the
fort, promising soon to return with help
from France) and went to sleep at the vil-
lage of the Bracamos.
The 7th we made five or six leagues'
progress through canes and reeds.
The 8th we made also five or six leagues
in more clear and level country.
1 Others give 20 and 17.
288
LA SALLE
The 9th we arrived at the village of the
Kouraras, where we tarried two days.
There we saw a party of seven or eight
hundred warriors, who were bringing in one
hundred and fifty prisoners in triumph. We
saved some who were going to be cast into
the water, bound hand and foot.
The 1 2th we crossed a river on a raft
with much risk. The fear that we had ex-
perienced was not yet dissipated, when all
at once a band of Indians, rushing desper-
ately on us, revived it in a still more intense
degree; but these good people, far from
harming us, took us to their cabins, where
they gave us several kinds of meat to eat
; and offered us pipes and tobacco. While we
were engaged in smoking they began to
.sing and dance in a very curious manner,
'and stopped only when we departed. We
.made six leagues that day.
The 1 5th we resumed our march, al-
though our good and honest hunters made
every effort to keep us at least till next day.
They gave us an escort of twelve men, who
accompanied us four leagues from the vil-
lage and confided us to other hunters, who
treated us in the same manner as the first
during the two days that we were in com-
pany.
The 1 6th we marched six or seven leagues
289
JOURNEYS OF
in beautiful prairies, studded with little
groves at intervals, and at evening we en-
camped on the banks of a little stream.
The 1 7th, in the morning, when about to
march, we perceived one hundred and fifty
Indians, all on horseback, armed with
lances tipped with sharpened bone, well tied
and encased, each of whom attacked a bull.
No sooner had they perceived us when some
of them left the party and came to welcome
us, after dismounting. They at first re-
garded us with astonishment, and, after hav-
ing examined us, they uttered extraordinary
exclamations. They then made us mount,
the more conveniently to witness the close
of the bull-fight, which seemed to us the
most diverting thing imaginable, and I am
convinced that there is no chase as curious
in Europe. When the combat was ended by
the death of several animals the combatants
came galloping to us and, giving many
tokens of surprise and joy at meeting us,
they led us away to their village. Their
frank and cordial manners made us follow
them without repugnance. They often ut-
tered the word Kanoutinoa, 6 pointing to
themselves ; this made us suppose that it was
the name of the nation. They took us
straight to the cabin of their great chief, or
8 Cf. SHEA, Early Voyages, 36, note.
290
LA SALLE
captain, where they first washed our heads,
hands and feet with warm water, after
which they presented us boiled and roast
meat to eat and an unknown fish, cooked
whole, that was six feet long, laid in a dish
of its length. It was of a wonderful taste
and we preferred it to meat. They told us
by signs that they were abundant and came
from a distance, ascending the river.
We bought at this place thirty horses,
which mounted us all and carried our bag-
gage. They cost us thirty knives, ten hatch-
ets and six dozen needles. On the I9th we
crossed the river on their boats and our
horses swam over. We made that day four
or five leagues and encamped on a spot
where there was grass to pasture our horses,
which we tied to good stakes.
On the 2Oth, about two leagues from the
spot where we had passed the night, we
found quite a well-beaten path ; we followed
it because it ran in the direction in which
we had resolved to go. We saw there four
old women and four young girls, who
passed by us weeping and tearing their hair,
without having curiosity enough to look at
us. This seemed to us an ill omen, but we
paid no great attention to it. The next mo-
ment we saw a crowd coming towards us;
we first put ourselves in a state of defense,
291
JOURNEYS OF
prepared for all hazards; but these people,
instead of approaching us, fled, and we pur-
sued our way, and in the evening reached
a village, the cabins of which were made of
canes interlaced and whitened with very fine
plaster. The Indians, in alarm, took flight,
but, seeing that we encamped near their vil-
lage, without doing them any harm, and
that we made them signs to return, they
gradually approached us, and finally ven-
tured to enter our tents of grass and
branches of trees. We made them some lit-
tle presents. The next day they took us
to their village. It seems to me that
they said they were called Ticapanas
[Tyakappan] .
Indians Speaking Spanish.
They brought us one of their number
who spoke Spanish, and, some boys whom
we had in our party acting as interpreters,
we learned many things from him which I
will relate to your Lordship in the collection
of memoirs of my brother.
On the 22d we continued our march, and
after fording the river, led by five Indians,
we entered a valley (five leagues from our
starting point), which, though it was mid-
winter, was full of fruit trees, flowers and
a prodigious quantity of birds of various
292
LA SALLE
kinds. We encamped there in a favorable
position to pass the night, while our Indians
came back from the hunt loaded with tur-
keys. They gave us a long account of this
valley, but we could not understand a word
of it.
. On the 23d they took us to the great vil-
lage of the Palomas [Palonas], which is
surrounded by palisades of cane. Our
guides were there questioned about us. We
inferred that they answered that we had not
the air of being Spaniards ; we do not know
what they believed, for they lodged us in
a great cabin outside the village, where they
brought us more than thirty handsome
maidens of their village. We pointed up to
heaven, making signs that it was an ex-
ecrable custom, but, not understanding us,
they thought that we were talking of the
sun, for they instantly placed their hands on
their foreheads and fell flat on the ground,
looking up to it, and the young men uttered
fearful cries ; seeing that, we fled from the
persecution of these wantons. This nation
seemed to us more gross and ill made than
the others.
On the 24th we left it and wished their
canoes to cross a large river that ran at the
foot of their village, but they advised us
to ascend the river, giving us to understand
293
JOURNEYS OF
by signs that we would infallibly be killed
on the other side if we crossed the river.
We could not learn whether they were
beasts or men that we had to fear. They
gave us a periagua, in which we put twenty
men, and the eight others took the horses
by land. After five days' sailing and march-
ing we saw some Indians fishing, and, al-
though there were only seven or eight of
them, instead of fleeing they ran up to re-
ceive us. We recognized them as a nation
called Alakea, among whom we had passed
the first time we were in the nation of the
Senis. They took us to their village, where
we were received with all possible affection.
They kept us among them six days, and
then, having aided us to cross the river in
little boats of buffalo skins sewed together,
they took us to the village of the Akafquy
[Palaquesson, Palaquechaune], who, know-
ing us by reputation, were glad to have us
pass by their village. At this place we saw
about sixty hermaphrodites, for the most of
them go entirely naked after sunset. We
there also saw them make cloth with buf-
falo wool, and a stuff which seemed to us
the richest in the world, so singular was it,
for it is made of birds' feathers and the hair
of animals of every color.
On the 27th we started from Akafquy to
294
LA SALLE
go to the Penoy, where we arrived on the
On the 3Oth we went to sleep at the vil-
lage of Saffory [Assonis?], where we were
received with the same friendship as in the
others. We remained there one day, and
we had the pleasure of seeing an alligator
twelve feet long captured. The Indians
employed a hook made of a buffalo bone
tied to the end of a cord, studded with small
bones, so that he cannot bite through, and
they use no bait but a piece of meat on the
hook. The Indians, who wished to amuse
themselves with it, put out its eyes and led
it into a prairie, after tying its head to its
tail and tying it around the body with three
different cords, made of bark of trees, and
passed around in slip-knots, and after tor-
menting it in various ways for full four
hours they turned it belly up and confined
it from head to tail by eight stakes, planted
so that the animal could not move in any
direction. In this condition they flayed him,
and then gave him liberty to run, to have
the pleasure of tormenting him more. This
sport lasted all day, and ended with the
death of this frightful beast, which they
killed and gave to their dogs. We saw
many skins of this animal thrown about,
which made us infer that there were many
295
JOURNEYS OF
in that river. We crossed it, however, by
the help of the Indians, who, having led us
to the river bank and yelled for half an
hour to frighten and drive off these animals,
swam over, after putting us in a canoe ; our
horses, accustomed to follow us everywhere
like dogs, also swam over.
On the evening of the 1st of February
we reached the village of Tipoy, where the
people, otherwise well made, have the top
of the head quite flat, caused by the mothers
putting on their children's heads flat pieces
of wood lined with wool, which by a gentle
pressure give them this shape.
On the 2d, Candlemas Day, we left this
village, led by a Tipoy Indian, and on the
3d we reached the village of our good
friends, the Anamis, who had hospitably re-
ceived us on our previous excursion. We
had the chagrin to find their village half-
burnt down. They gave us to understand
by signs that a hostile party which surprised
them had spread this desolation, and that
they would have burnt it all had they not
alarmed them by firing on them with two
guns and some ammunition that we had left
them; that, never having seen or heard of
such arms, the -fear they inspired put them
to flight.
On the 4th we set out, and on the 8th we
LA SALLE
arrived at the great village of the Senis. T
This is a nation that occupies a territory
eighteen leagues long. We were received
at the entrance of the village and conducted
to a large and beautiful cabin, where we
were at first entertained with a right curious
symphony. The chiefs supped with us, and
we reposed more tranquilly than we had
anywhere else.
On the 9th, after a crowd of young men
had danced a dance of joy in our cabin, we
were taken to that of the prince, for whom
they have all possible veneration, submis-
sion and respect, for when he went abroad
he was borne by eight men on a platform, all
the tribe ranged in two lines, both hands
on the forehead, uttering a cry of joy or
humility; if he went on foot, very clean
mats were spread wherever he was to pass.
We left this village for fear that our sol-
diers should tamper with the women and
went to encamp about two leagues off, in-
tending to stay to rest and recruit. The
people of the country made us sufficiently
exact maps of the neighboring rivers and
nations. They told us that they knew the
Spaniards, and depicted to us their cloth-
ing, and showed us candlesticks, swords,
[ 7 The party did not arrive among the Cenis
until after La Salle's death.]
297
JOURNEYS OF
bucklers, daggers and Spanish papers. We
are convinced that they are not far off, the
more so as the Senis have a number of fine
horses.
Feb. 16, 168?. On the i6th we left this
great village for the smaller one of the same
nation, twenty leagues off. Thirty well-
mounted young warriors took us by as well-
beaten a road as that from Paris to Orleans.
At intervals we came to little forts in the
most exposed positions and everywhere a
most level country, extremely well adapted
to pasturage. 8
"Cavelier's narrative ends abruptly at this
point, a few days before his brother's death.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Cox, Isaac Joslin (ed.),
5063 The journeys of Rene Robert
.1 Cavplier Sieur de La Salle
L3C6
v.l
