USA > Illinois > Chapters from Illinois history > Part 3
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the Jesuit College at Quebec. When that institution was closed, the last survivor of the Society of Jesus in Canada deposited these precious papers with the nuns of the Quebec Hôtel Dieu, in whose hands they remained from shortly before 1800 to 1844. They were in this year pre- sented to the Reverend Félix Martin, one of the Jesuit Fathers then visiting Canada, and were subsequently transferred to the College Ste. Marie at Montreal. Here they were found by John Gilmary Shea, who translated and published the narrative in 1852 in his "Discovery of the Mississippi," with a facsimile of Marquette's own map, which speedily superseded the spurious drawing so long ascribed to him. This copy of the narrative, and the original map in the handwriting of Father Marquette, are still preserved in the archives of the College Ste. Marie. 78
The publication of Thevenot's work gave the first information to the world of these wonderful discoveries, and very naturally Marquette's name was most promi- nently associated with them. Little thought had he, however, of such earthly fame, and he went to his noble death within a twelvemonth after his journal was written, and six years before it saw the light. Jolliet was less fortunate in any public mention of his part in this great enterprise. As soon as he had recovered from his dis- aster he prepared from memory a brief account and made a map, and sent them to Count Frontenac. These the Governor, in November, 1674, transmitted to the Min- ister Colbert, informing him that Jolliet had discovered some very fine countries and a grand river, running from north to south, as large as the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec, and had very well acquitted himself, and, refer- ring to the loss of the minutes and journals, he promised
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further particulars from the copies left by Jolliet with the Fathers at the Sault Ste. Marie, which would be for- warded the next year. This dispatch, however, slum- bered in the French archives until the middle of this century, when it was translated and printed among the documents relating to the colonial history of New York, but without the account or the map.79 In October, 1674, Jolliet addressed a letter to Frontenac, in which he spoke of the loss of his papers and of some curiosities from those lands so far away, and said that but for his ship- wreck his Highness would have received a sufficiently interesting account of his journey, which he briefly described. He mentioned the natives, the fruits, the birds and the animals, all found in a country more beau- tiful than France; where there are prairies leagues in width, surrounded by forests as grand as the prairies. This letter was found in the Seminaire de St. Sulpice at Paris, and printed in 1872.80 The details of Jolliet's voy- age and the relation of his discovery, both of which seem to be derived from his oral accounts were disinterred by Margry among the public documents at Paris, and first made known in 1879.81 These are much fuller than the letter, giving substantially the same account as Mar- quette's, and the relation contains an extract from the lost journal, apparently dictated by Jolliet, and evidently contemplates the recovery of an entire copy which will, it says, content the curious and satisfy the geographers. 82 These two papers are thought to be different versions of Jolliet's report to Frontenac, 83 which thus became in sub- stance known so many years after its preparation.
About the same time a map was found in France and edited by Gabriel Gravier which is with reason believed to be that which originally accompanied this report.
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Thus we probably have the substitutes furnished by Jolliet for that report and map which were intended to be the official record of the remarkable voyage on which he was the commander, and in connection with which his fame should surpass that of Marquette. On this recently discovered map is engraved a tablet containing another letter from Jolliet to Frontenac informing him that he had given to the great river, beyond the lakes, the designation of Buade, the family name of Frontenac, and dwelling in glowing terms upon the prairies, the forests, the fruits, the birds, and the fish of the fair land more beautiful than France, which he had discovered.84 Two or three other maps ascribed to Jolliet are in various col- lections, 85 but these and the few documents which we have mentioned, comprise everything known to be from his hand relating to the great discovery, and these all have been found during the present century. They do not take the place of that very exact chart and very careful history which were lost in the river St. Lawrence; and it is permitted still to hope that the copies which were left at the Mission of Sault Ste. Marie86 have not perished like the originals, but may appear some day as unexpectedly as did those of Marquette but forty years ago, to rejoice the hearts of all who are interested in the history of the Great West, and to give new honor to the name of Louis Jolliet,
While Jolliet returned to the settlements on the St. Lawrence, Marquette remained at the Mission of St. François Xavier, on account of his ill health, until the fall of 1674. Then receiving orders to return to the Illinois region to establish a mission, he set out for that purpose on the 25th of October of that year 87 accom- panied by two Frenchmen, one of whom had been with
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him on his former voyage.8% They were named Jacques and Pierre Porteret, the latter a member of the party of St. Lusson at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671.89 They followed the eastern shore of Green Bay to Sturgeon Inlet, where they overtook five canoes of Pottawattamies and four of Illinois, who had started before them to go to the Kaskaskia village, with whom they journeyed onward. In Marquette's journal of this voyage the name "Chicago" probably first appears in the term "Chacha- gou-essiou," the title of one of these Illinois Indians, who was, he says, much esteemed in his nation, partly because he concerned himself with trade. The friendly Illinois urged Marquette not to separate from them because he might need them, and because the Indians knew the water navigation better than the French; and the Illinois women helped the white men to make the difficult port- age which brought them to the western shore of Lake Michigan. This they coasted for more than a month, delayed at times by wind and storm, and by the snow which began to fall in November. In the early part of the following month they arrived at the Chicago River, called by them the Portage, and encamped at its mouth. The stream was frozen half a foot thick, and there was more snow on its shores than they had yet met with, but game was abundant. During their stay there, Pierre and Jacques killed three buffalo and four deer and turkeys in their very camp and partridges close by. An ice bound river and a snow clad prairie, crossed by tracks of wild animals and birds, compose the first known sketch of the site of the great city of the West.
A little later they moved to a point near the portage to the Des Plaines, and Marquette's returning illness pre- venting his going further, they built a cabin and resolved
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to winter there. The Illinois Indians left them to go to their own people, and Marquette sent a message that he would be at their village in the spring. Eighteen leagues beyond in a beautiful hunting country two Frenchmen were living who, in expectation of Marquette's coming, had laid up provisions and prepared a cabin for him. One of these was a famous coureur de bois, named Pierre Moreau, styled La Taupine or the Tawny, who was once a soldier in the garrison at Quebec, and in 1671 was at Sault Ste. Marie when St. Lusson took possession of the country. He was the son of Abraham Moreau and Marguerite Nauret of St. Eric de Masa, of Xaintes, and born in 1639, probably at the place last named. A few years after Marquette met him the Intendant Du Ches- neau wrote the Minister Seignelay, complaining of the disobedience of the coureurs de bois to the laws regulating the Indian trade, and cited the case of La Taupine, who set out for the Ottawas in 1678, and traded in two days, in one single village of this tribe, nearly nine hundred beaver skins. The Intendant ordered him to be arrested, but released him on his presenting a license permitting him and two comrades to go to the Ottawas to execute the secret orders of Count Frontenac, whom Du Chesneau alleged to be interested with Moreau. Hardly had he been set at liberty when the Town Major of Quebec came at the head of some soldiers to force the prison, if neces- sary, bearing written orders from Frontenac to set Pierre Moreau, his bearer of dispatches to Quebec, at liberty forthwith, and to employ every means for that purpose. This is our latest information concerning the doings of this bold wood-ranger, and we only know that he sur- vived the perils of the forest and the wrath of the Inten- dant, and died at Quebec August 24, 1727, at the good old
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age of eighty-eight years, having had a family of thirteen children.90 His comrade was called the Surgeon, whether in truth or in jest we cannot tell; and this hardy pair seem to have found their way to the land of the Illi- nois, and established themselves as traders subsequent to Jolliet and Marquette's visit of the year before. It is possible they were here even earlier, since, as a rule, the fur traders preceded the government explorer and the missionary in the discovery of the West, but seldom left any record. As soon as they heard of the good Father's illness, the Surgeon came with supplies and rendered every assistance in his power.
Passing Indians also gave aid, and towards the end of the winter Marquette's disease was checked; he began to recover strength, and by the last of March was able to resume his journey.91 He arrived at the Kaskaskia vil- lage on Monday, the 8th of April, and was received there as an angel from heaven. A great council was held on a beautiful prairie near the town, probably on the north bank of the Illinois River. Five hundred chiefs and old men were seated in a circle around the priest, while the youth stood without, to the number of fifteen hundred, besides the many women and children. Marquette addressed them, and on Thursday said mass, and three days after, on Easter Sunday, celebrated that rite a sec- ond time; and it is said, by these two sacrifices, the first ever offered there to God, he took possession of that land in the name of Jesus Christ, and gave the mission the name of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin.
His malady soon obliged him to leave, but all these people earnestly besought him to return as soon as possi- ble, and he gave his word that either he or some of the
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Fathers would return to continue the mission so happily begun. This promise he repeated again and again on parting with them to begin his journey, and he set out amid such marks of friendship from these good people that they escorted him with pomp more than thirty leagues of the way, contending with one another for the honor of carrying his little bag. It is probable that they made known to him the route by the Kankakee and St. Joseph Rivers, since he returned by these streams along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.92 His failing strength rendered him so helpless that he had to be handled and carried like a child, and his death rapidly drew near. He pointed out the place of his last repose on a rising ground at the mouth of a river, and died as he had lived, hero- ically. His faithful followers buried him on the spot he had chosen, and raised a large cross near it to serve as a mark for passers by.93 So passed away Jacques Mar- quette at the early age of thirty-eight years, on Saturday the 18th of May, 1675.9 In the following spring a band of Kiskakon Indians, whom Marquette had instructed when stationed at La Pointe, visited his burial place, and resolved to bring his remains to the mission of St. Ignace at Michillimackinac, where their tribe was then gathered. This was done with all respect, and a fleet of thirty canoes acted as a convoy to that which bore the precious burden. The missionaries received the body reverently, and all funeral honors having been paid, they deposited it in a little vault in the middle of the church, there to repose as the guardian angel of the Ottawa Missions. 95
Marquette's lovely character endeared him to all who knew him, his lofty zeal and rare self-sacrifice made him an example for all time, and his participation in the fa- mous Mississippi voyage associated him with one of the
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world's great discoveries. Illinois may well be proud that his name appears in her early annals. There is no memento of him so interesting and so pathetic as his unfinished letter describing his last visit to the land of the Illinois. It is our authority for that expedition almost to the time of his arrival at the Kaskaskia village, after which he had no strength to write more, and the story of his last days is that told by his faithful companions. This letter, all in his own handwriting, which closes abruptly on April 6, 1675, is still preserved, with his map and the copy of the narrative of his first voyage, at the Col- lege of Ste. Marie in Montreal, where it was found by Mr. Shea. The larger portion of it was written in Mar- quette's winter camp at the bleak portage, within the present limits of Chicago, and it would be very fitting should it find its final abiding place in the city of whose earliest history it is a priceless and unique memorial.
Jolliet, after his return to Quebec, resumed his resi- dence there and became one of the leading citizens of the place. On the 7th of October, 1675, he wedded Claire Françoise Bissot, daughter of a wealthy Canadian mer- chant, in the same parish church which had witnessed the nuptials of his parents and his own baptism.% Of this marriage were born seven children, Louis, Marie Char- lotte, François, Jean Baptiste, Claire, Anne and Marie Geneviève.97 We find occasional references to Jolliet in the public records of the time, but our knowledge of his later life is limited. Four years after his Mississippi voy- age, Count Frontenac was engaged in one of his periodic quarrels with the Jesuits, who, knowing that the Gov- ernor favored La Salle's request for a concession of the trade of Lakes Erie and Michigan, concerted an opposing scheme. At their instigation, as the Governor alleges in
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his correspondence with Colbert, Jolliet and an associate named Lebert applied for a similar concession, and Jol- liet also asked for permission to establish himself with twenty men in the land of the Illinois. It would seem that no one was better entitled to this privilege than he, but the King, unmindful of his services, refused to grant it, for the alleged reason that Canada should be settled before thinking of other regions; and the new Intendant, Du Chesneau, Talon's successor, was cautioned that this must be the rule in regard to all future discoveries. We shall see how well it was observed. 98
Again we catch a glimpse of Jolliet in the fall of 1678. By royal command a council was then held at the castle of St. Louis in Quebec, to consider the subject of the traffic in brandy with the Indians. The assembly was composed of the principal officers and ten of the oldest and most prominent inhabitants of the colony, among whose names we find that of Jolliet. Their advice was asked in turn and some favored the traffic, but Jolliet strongly denounced it, and held that in the woods and among the savages it should be prohibited upon pain of death.99 His father-in-law, François Bissot, was engaged in trade with the northern Indians until his death in July, 1678. Jolliet was appointed guardian of his minor children. The settlement of Bissot's affairs, perhaps, together with the spirit of exploration, led Jolliet to visit the Hudson's Bay region in 1679, by way of the Saguenay River. He found three English forts on the bay, occu- pied by about sixty men, who had also an armed vessel of twelve guns and several small trading craft. The Eng- lish held out great inducements to join them, but he declined and returned by the following spring to Quebec, where he reported that, unless these formidable rivals
1
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were dispossessed, the trade of Canada would be ruined. In consequence of this report some of the principal mer- chants of the colony formed a company to compete with the English in the trade of Hudson's Bay. In the year of this journey, and probably in consequence thereof, the government granted to Jolliet the group of the Min- gan Islands, which stretch along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From these his son, who suc- ceeded him in their proprietorship, took his designation, and was known as Jean Baptiste Jolliet de Mingan. 100
In 1680 the government presented to Jolliet the seig- nory of the great island of Anticosti, lying in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in further recognition of his eminent serv- ices. The deed of concession from Jacques Du Chesneau, Intendant, expressly recites that it is made in considera- tion of the discovery which the said Sieur Jolliet has made of the land of the Illinois, of which he has furnished a map, since transmitted to Monseigneur Colbert, as well as for the voyage which he has just made to Hudson's Bay in the interest and to the advantage of the King's revenue. In the following year he made his home upon this island with his wife and six servants, and built a fort and a dwelling for his family and houses for trade. He engaged in fisheries, and being a skillful navigator and surveyor, made a chart of the River St. Lawrence. In 1689 he was again in the employment of the government, rendering valuable services in the West. The next year Sir William Phips, on his way with an English fleet to attack Quebec, made a descent on Jolliet's establishment at Anticosti, burned his buildings and took prisoners his wife and his mother-in-law. In 1694 he explored the coast of Labrador in behalf of a company formed for the seal and whale fishery. His journals of this voyage show
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him to have been a man of close and intelligent observa- tion and of considerable mathematical acquirements. On his reutrn Frontenac made him royal pilot for the St. Lawrence, and about the same time he succeeded Fran- quelin as government hydrographer at Quebec. Three years later, on April 30, 1697, a seignory was granted him on the banks of the River Chaudière, which is still called by his name. He died in the year 1700, between May and October, probably on the island of Anticosti, where he went each year to trade in peltries. 101
Jolliet is not forgotten in Canada. The esteemed fam- ilies of Taché, Taschereau, D'Eschambault and Rigaud de Vaudreuil, among whom have been two archbishops of the Roman Catholic Church, are proud to trace their lineage to him. His descendants of the same name con- tinue to reside in his native land, where one of them, the Hon. Barthélemy Jolliet, founded a town, which, like the county in which it is situated, takes its appellation from his distinguished ancestor. 102 One of the principal cities of the State of Illinois also bears his name. But he has not yet received the full measure of honor which is his due.
Jolliet was the foremost explorer of the Great West, and when his very busy and useful life ended, there passed away one whose character and attainments and public services made him a man of high distinction in his own day. By a curious fate every record of his career was buried in oblivion for more than a century after his death, and such as are known have only slowly come to light within the last sixty years. He was thus for a long period of time deprived of the fame which rightfully belonged to him for his greatest undertaking. Popular error assigned the leadership of the expedition which dis-
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covered the Upper Mississippi and the Illinois Valley to Marquette, who never held or claimed it. Every relia- ble authority demonstrates the mistake, and yet the delu- sion continues. But as Marquette himself says that Jolliet was sent to discover new countries, and he to preach the gospel; as Count Frontenac reports to the home authorities that Talon selected Jolliet to make the discovery; as Father Dablon confirms this statement; and as the Canadian authorities gave rewards to Jolliet alone and as the sole discoverer,103 we may safely conclude that to him belongs the honor of the achievement. He actually accomplished that of which Champlain and Nicolet and Radisson were the heralds, and, historically speaking, was the first to see the wonderful region of the prairies. At the head of the roll of those indissolubly associated with the land of the Illinois, who have trod its soil, must forever stand the name of LOUIS JOLLIET. 104
II. EXPLORATION
Marquette's promise that some one of the brethren should follow him at the Illinois mission1 did not long remain unfulfilled. His predecessor at the mission on Lake Superior,2 Father Claude Allouez, was his successor at that of Kaskaskia on the upper Illinois. In that noble band of Catholic priests who braved every hardship to plant their faith among the western savages, Allouez was conspicuous. Many pages of the Jesuit relations bear witness to the endurance, devotion and zeal which won for him the title of Apostle of all the nations of the Otta- was.3 Born at St. Didier in France in 1613, he studied at the college of the Jesuits in Le Puy, where he and his
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elder brother joined the order. At Toulouse he passed his novitiate, and obtained from his provincial superior, by earnest supplication, leave to go to the missions of New France, which permission he regarded as a special mark of divine favor. Embarking in the same ship with M. d'Argenson, Governor of Canada, they were more than a year on the way, the vessel being driven into one of the ports of Ireland by stress of weather and obliged to return to France. They only reached their destination on July 11, 1658.4 Having served for a time as superior at Three Rivers, and applied himself dili- gently to the study of the native tongues, Allouez com- menced his mission, as he says, with one Iroquois whom he found wounded and a prisoner at Montreal, and per- suaded to pass his last three days of life as a good Chris- tian.5 In 1665 he accompanied a band of barbarian Ottawas on their return from the settlements to their distant homes in the wilds of Lake Superior, that he might make Christianity known in that vast region.6 Full two years passed before any word came from him, and he had been given up for lost7 by his brethren at Quebec, when their mourning was turned to joy by the news of his safety and the receipt of his graphic journal of his wondrous experience. From this it appeared that after suffering incredible privations on his perilous jour- ney with only Indian companions, and gross ill treatment at their hands, he had at length arrived at the Sault Ste. Marie. From this point he had explored the whole south shore of Lake Superior in his canoe, instituted the Mis- sion of the Holy Ghost at La Pointe, visited the Nipis- sings on a lake north of Superior, and found consolation for all his trials in the thought that he had carried the cross to more than twenty heathen tribes, among whom
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some good Christians would thereafter shine like stars in the black night of infidelity.8
In the summer of 1667 he returned to Quebec for aid in this great field, and remaining but two days,9 embarked again for Lake Superior with Father Louis Nicolas and a lay brother, and resumed his noble labor at La Pointe. 10 Two years later he made once more the long and weary journey to Quebec to put into Governor Courcelle's hands some Iroquois prisoners, whom Allouez himself had ran- somed from the Ottawas, and to demand from his order more soldiers of the cross for his grand campaign.11 He returned with Father Claude Dablon, who was appointed Superior of the Western Mission, and Jacques Marquette soon followed and took up the work at La Pointe. Allouez went to the Lake of the Illinois, now Lake Mich- igan, whose present name appears for the first time in his journal under the form of Machihiganing, and founded at La Baye des Puans, the present Green Bay, the Mission of St. François Xavier in December, 1669. The next spring he journeyed among the tribes on the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, where the villages of Allouez and Alloa still commemorate his name.12 In the follow- ing September he returned from a trip to Sault Ste. Marie with Dablon, and they two ascended the Fox River to the country of the Fire Nation, or Mascoutens. At the Kakaling rapid on their way, they came upon an idol of rock shaped like a man, decorated and worshiped by the savages. The sturdy priests regarded this as a visible sign of the great adversary, and hurled it to the bottom of the river to be seen no more. 13 These visits led to the establishment of the missions of St. James among the Mascoutens, whose village was near the site of Berlin, Wis- consin and of St. Mark among the Foxes on Wolf River. 14
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