USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 6
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" We then asked them what they knew of the sea; they replied that we were only ten days' journey from it (we could have made the distance in five days) ; that they did not know the nations who inhab- ited it, because their enemies prevented their commerce with those Europeans ; that the Indians with fire-arms whom we had met were their enemies, who cut off the passage to the sea, and prevented their making the acquaintance of the Europeans, or having any commerce with them ; that besides we should expose ourselves greatly by passing on, in consequence of the continnal war parties that their enemies sent out on the river : since, being armed and used to war, we could not, without evident danger, advance on that river which they constantly occupy.
" In the evening the sachems held a secret council on the design of some to kill us for plunder, but the chief broke up all these schemes, and sending for us, danced the calumet in our presence, and then, to remove all fears, presented it to me.
"M. Jollyet and I held another council to deliberate on what we should do, whether we should push on, or rest satisfied with the dis-
The Wabash here appears, for the first time, by name. A more extended notice of the various names by which this stream has been known will be given farther on. 4
.
50
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
covery that we had made. After having attentively considered that we were not far from the Gulf of Mexico, the basin of which is 31º 40' north, and we at 33º 40'; so that we could not be more than two or three days' journey off; that the Mississippi undoubtedly had its mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico, and not on the east in Vir- ginia, whose sea-coast is at 34º north, which we had passed, without having as yet reached the sea, nor on the western side in California, because that would require a west, or west-southwest course, and we had always been going south. We considered, moreover, that we risked losing the fruit of this voyage, of which we could give no information, if we should throw ourselves into the hands of the Span- iards, who would undoubtedly at least hold us as prisoners. Besides it was clear that we were not in a condition to resist Indians allied to Europeans, numerous and expert in the use of fire-arms, who contin- ually infested the lower part of the river. Lastly, we had gathered all the information that could be desired from the expedition. All these reasons induced us to return. This we announced to the Indians, and after a day's rest prepared for it.
"After a month's navigation down the Mississippi, from the 42d to below the 34th degree, and after having published the gospel as well as I could to the nations I had met, we left the village of Akansea on the 17th of July, to retrace our steps. We accordingly ascended the Mississippi, which gave us great trouble to stem its currents. We left it, indeed, about the 38th degree, to enter another river (the Illinois), which greatly shortened our way, and brought us, with little trouble, to the lake of the Illinois.
" We had seen nothing like this river for the fertility of the land, its prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, wild-cats, bustards, swans, ducks, parrots, and even beaver; its many little lakes and rivers. That on which we sailed is broad deep and gentle for sixty-five leagnes. During the spring and part of the summer, the only portage is half a league.
" We found there an Illinois town called Kaskaskia, composed of seventy-four cabins ; they received us well, and compelled me to promise them to return and instruct them. One of the chiefs of this tribe, with his young men, escorted us to the Illinois Lake, whence at last we returned in the close of September to the Bay of the Fetid (Green Bay), whence we had set ont in the beginning of June. Had all this voyage caused but the salvation of a single soul, I should deem all my fatigue well repaid, and this I have reason to think, for, when I was returning, I passed by the Indians of Peoria. I was three days announcing the faith in their cabins, after which, as we were embarking, they brought
51
BIOGRAPHY OF JOLIET.
mne, on the water's edge, a dying child, which I baptized a little before it expired, by an admirable providence for the salvation of that inno- cent soul."
Count Frontenac, writing from Quebec to M. Colbert, Minister of the Marine, at Paris, under date of November 14, 1674, announces that "Sieur Joliet, whom Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from France, to dispatch for the discovery of the South Sea, has returned three months ago. He has discovered some very fine countries, and a navi- gation so easy through beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can go from Lake Ontario in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying place (around Niagara Falls), where Lake Ontario communicates with Lake Erie. I send you, by my secretary, the map which Sieur Joliet has made of the great river he has discovered, and the observations he has been able to recollect, as he lost all his minutes and journals in the shipwreck he suffered within sight of Montreal, where, after having completed a voyage of twelve hundred leagues, he was near being drowned, and lost all his papers and a little Indian whom he brought from those countries. These accidents have caused me great regret."*
Louis Joliet, or Jolliet, or Jollyet, as the name is variously spelled, was the son of Jean Joliet, a wheelwright, and Mary d' Abancour; he was born at Quebec in the year 1645. Having finished his studies at the Jesuit college he determined to become a member of that order, and with that purpose in view took some of the minor orders of the society in August, 1662. He completed his studies in 1666, but during this time his attention had become interested in Indian affairs, and he laid aside all thoughts of assuming the " black gown." That he acquired great ability and tact in managing the savages, is apparent from the faet of his having been selected to discover the south sea by the way of the Mississippi. The map which he drew from memory, and which was forwarded by Count Frontenac to France, was afterward attached to Marquette's Journal, and was published by Therenot, at Paris, in 1681. Sparks, in his " Life of Marquette," copies this map, and aseribes it to his hero. This must be a mistake, since it differs quite essentially from Marquette's map, which has recently been brought to public notice by Dr. Shea.
Joliet's account of the voyage, mentioned by Frontenac, is published in Hennepin's " Discovery of a Vast Country in America." It is very meagre, and does not present any facts not covered by Marquette's nar- rative.
In 1680 Joliet was appointed hydrographer to the king, and many
* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 121.
UNIVED
52
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
well-drawn maps at Quebec show that his office was no sinecure. After- ward, he made a voyage to Hudson's Bay in the interest of the king; and as a reward for the faithful performance of his duty, he was granted the island of Anticosti, which, on account of the fisheries and Indian trade, was at that time very valuable. After this, he signed himself Joliet d'Anticosty. In the year 1697, he obtained the seignory of Joliet on the river Etchemins, south of Quebec. M. Joliet died in 1701, leaving a wife and four children, the descendants of whom are living in Canada still possessed of the seignory of Joliet, among whom are Archbishop Taschereau of Quebec and Archbishop Tache of Red River.
Mount Joliet, on the Desplaines River, above its confluence with the Kankakee, and the city of Joliet, in the county of Will, perpetuate the name of Joliet in the state of Illinois.
Jacques Marquette was born in Laon, France, in 1637. His was the oldest and one of the most respectable citizen families of the place. At the age of seventeen he entered the Society of Jesus; received or- ders in 1666 to embark for Canada, arriving at Quebec in September of the same year. For two years he remained at Three Rivers, study- ing the different Indian dialects under Father Gabriel Druillentes. At the end of that period he received orders to repair to the upper lakes, which he did, and established the Mission of Sault Ste. Marie. The following year Dablon arrived. having been appointed Superior of the Ottawa missions : Marquette then went to the " Mission of the Holy Ghost " at the western extremity of Lake Superior ; here he remained for two years, and it was his accounts, forwarded from this place, that caused Frontenac and Talon to send Joliet on his voyage to the Mis- sissippi. The Sioux having dispersed the Algonquin tribes at Lapointe, the latter retreated eastward to Mackinaw ; Marquette followed and founded there the Mission of St. Ignatius. Here he remained until Joliet came, in 1673, with orders to accompany him on his voyage of discovery down the Mississippi. Upon his return, Marquette remained at Mackinaw until October, 1674, when he received orders to carry out his pet project of founding the " Mission of the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Blessed Virgin " among the Illinois. He immediately set out, but owing to a severe dysentery, contracted the year previous, he made but slow progress. However, he reached Chicago Creek, De- cember 4, where, growing rapidly worse, he was compelled to winter. On the 29th of the following March he set out for the Illinois town, on the river of that name. He succeeded in getting there on the Sth of April. Being cordially received by the Indians, he was enabled to realize his long deferred and much cherished project of establishing
53
DEATH OF MARQUETTE.
the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception." Believing that his life was drawing to a close, he endeavored to reach Mackinaw before his death should take place. But in this hope he was doomed to disap- pointment ; by the time he reached Lake Michigan "he was so weak that he had to be carried like a child." One Saturday, Marquette and his two companions entered a small stream - which still bears his name - on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, and in this desolate spot, virtually alone, destitute of all the comforts of life, died James Marquette. His life-long wish to die a martyr in the holy cause of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, was granted. Thus passed away one of the purest and most sacrificing servants of God,- one of the bravest and most heroic of men.
The biographical sketeli of Joliet has been collated from a number of reliable authorities, and is believed truthful. Our notice of Father Marquette is condensed from his life as written by Dr. Shea, than whom there is no one better qualified to perform the task.
CHAPTER VIII.
EXPLORATIONS BY LA SALLE.
THE success of the French, in their plan of colonization, was so great, and the trade with the savages, exchanging fineries, guns, knives, and, more than all, spirituous liquors for valuable furs, yielded such enormous profits, that impetus was given to still greater enterprises. They involved no less than the hemming in of the British colonies along the Atlantic coast and a conquest of the rich mines in Mexico, from the Spanish. These purposes are boldly avowed in a letter of M. Talon, the king's enterprising intendant at Quebec, in 1671; and also in the declarations of the great Colbert, at Paris, "I am," says M. Talon, in his letter to the king referred to, "no courtier, and assert, not through a mere desire to please the king, nor without just reason, that this portion of the French monarchy will become something grand. What I discover around me makes me foresee this ; and those colonies of foreign nations so long settled on the seaboard already tremble with fright, in view of what his majesty has accomplished here in the interior. The measures adopted to confine them within narrow limits, by taking possession, which I have caused to be effected, do not allow them to spread, without subjecting themselves, at the same time, to be treated as usurpers, and have war waged against them. This in truth is what by all their acts they seem to greatly fear. They already know that your name is spread abroad among the savages throughout all those countries, and that they regard your majesty alone as the arbitrator of peace and war; they detach themselves insensibly from other Europeans, and excepting the Iroquois, of whom I am not as yet assured, we can safely promise that the others will take up arms whenever we please." "The principal result," says La Salle, in his memoir at a later day, " expected from the great perils and labors which I underwent in the discovery of the Mississippi was to satisfy the wish expressed to me by the late Monsieur 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 I propose to fortify lies sixty leagues above the mouth of the river Col- bert ( ¿. e. Mississippi) in the Gulf of Mexico, and possesses all the advantages for snch a purpose which can be wished for, both on account
54
55
EARLY LIFE OF LA SALLE.
of its excellent position and the favorable disposition of the savages who live in that part of the country."* It is not our province to indulge in conjectures as to how far these daring purposes of Talon and Col- bert would have succeeded had not the latter died, and their active assistant, Robert La Salle, have lost his life, at the hands of an assassin, when in the act of executing the preliminary part of the enterprise. We turn, rather, to matters of historical record, and proceed with a condensed sketch of the life and voyages of La Salle, as it was his dis- coveries that led to the colonization of the Mississippi Valley by the French.
La Salle was born, of a distinguished family, at Rouen, France. He was consecrated to the service of God in early life, and entered the Society of Jesus, in which he remained ten years, laying the foundation of moral principles, regular habits and elements of science that served him so well in his future ardnons undertakings. Like many other young men having plans of useful life, he thonghit Canada would offer better facilities to develop them than the cramped and fixed society of France. He accordingly left his home, and reached Montreal in 1666. . Being of a resolute and venturesome disposition, he found employment in making explorations of the country about the lakes. He soon became a favorite of Talon, the intendant, and of Frontenac, the governor, at Quebec. He was selected by the latter to take com- mand of Fort Frontenac, near the present city of Kingston, on the St. Lawrence River, and at that time a dilapidated, wooden structure on the frontier of Canada. He remained in Canada about nine years, acquiring a knowledge of the country and particularly of the Indian tribes, their manners, habits and customs, and winning the confidence of the French authorities. He returned to France and presented a memoir to the king, in which he urged the necessity of maintaining Fort Frontenac, which he offered to restore with a structure of stone; to keep there a garrison equal to the one at Montreal; to em- ploy as many as fifteen laborers during the first year ; to clear and till the land, and to supply the surrounding Indian villages with Recollect missionaries in furtherance of the cause of religion, all at his own ex- pense, on condition that the king would grant him the right of seigniory and a monopoly of the trade incident to it. Ile further petitioned for title of nobility in consideration of voyages he had already made in Canada at his own expense, and which had resulted in the great bene- fit to the king's colony. The king heard the petition graciously, and
* Talon's letter to the king: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 73. La Salle's Memoir to the king, on the necessity of fitting out an expedition to take possession of Louisiana: Historical Collections of Louisiana, part 1, p. 5.
56
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
on the 13th May, 1675, granted La Salle and his heirs Fort Frontenac, with four leagues of the adjacent country along the lakes and rivers above and below the fort and a half a league inward, and the adjacent islands, with the right of hunting and fishing on Lake Ontario and the cirenmjacent rivers. On the same day, the king issued to La Salle letters patent of nobility, having, as the king declares, been informed of the worthy deeds performed by the people, either in reducing or civilizing the savages or in defending themselves against their frequent insults, especially those of the Iroquois; in despising the greatest dan- gers in order to extend the king's name and empire to the extremity of that new world ; and desiring to reward those who have thus ren- dered themselves most eminent ; and wishing to treat most favorably Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle on account of the good and landable report that has been rendered concerning his actions in Canada, the king does ennoble and decorate with the title of nobility the said cav- alier, together with his wife and children. He left France with these precious documents, and repaired to Fort Frontenac, where he per- formed the conditions imposed by the terms of his titles.
He sailed for France again in 1677, and in the following year after he and Colbert had fully matured their plans, he again petitioned the king for a license to prosecute further discoveries. The king granted his request, giving him a permit, under date of May 12, 1678, to en- deavor to discover the western part of New France; the king avowing in the letters patent that " he had nothing more at heart than the dis- covery of that country where there is a prospect of finding a way to penetrate as far as Mexico," and authorizing La Salle to prosecute dis- coveries, and construet forts in such places as he might think necessary, and enjoy there the same monopoly as at Fort Frontenac, - all on con- dition that the enterprise should be prosecuted at La Salle's expense, and completed within five years; that he should not trade with the savages, who carried their peltries and beavers to Montreal ; and that the governor, intendant, justices, and other officers of the king in New France, should aid La Salle in his enterprise .* Before leaving France, La Salle, through the Prince de Conti, was introduced to one Henri de Tonti, an Italian by birth, who for eight years had been in the French service. Having had one of his hands shot off while in Sicily, he repaired to France to seek other employment. It was a most for- tunate meeting. Tonti - a name that should be prominently associ- ated with discoveries in this part of America - became La Salle's companion. Ever faithful and courageous, he ably and zealously fur-
* Vide the petitions of La Salle to, and the grants from, the king, which are found at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 122 to 127.
57
LOUIS HENNEPIN.
thered all of La Salle's plans, followed and defended him under the most discouraging trials, with an unselfish fidelity that has few paral- lels in any age.
Supplied with this new grant of enlarged powers, La Salle, in com- pany with Tonti,- or Tonty, as Dr. Sparks says he has seen the name written in an autograph letter,- and thirty men, comprising pilots, sailors, carpenters and other mechanics, with a supply of material necessary for the intended exploration, left France for Quebec. Here the party were joined by some Canadians, and the whole foree was sent forward to Fort Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, since this fort had been granted to La Salle. He had, in conformity to the terms of his letters patent, greatly enlarged and strengthened its de- fenses. Here he met Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan Friar, whom it seems had been sent thither along with Father Gabriel de la Ribourde and Zenobius Membre, all of the same religious order, to accompany La Salle's expedition. In the meantime, Hennepin was occupied in pastoral labors among the soldiers of the garrison, and the inhabitants of a little hamlet of peasants near by, and proselyting the Indians of the neighboring country. Hennepin, from his own account, had not only traveled over several parts of Europe before coming to Canada, but since his arrival in America, had spent much time in roaming about among the savages, to gratify his love of adventure and acquire knowledge.
Hennepin's name and writings are so prominently connected with the early history of the Mississippi Valley, and, withal, his contradic- tory statements, made at a later day of his life, as to the extent of his own travels, have so clouded his reputation with grave doubt as to his regard for truth, that we will turn aside and give the reader a sketch of this most singular man and his elaims as a discoverer. Ile was bold, courageous, patient and hopefnl under the most trying fatigues ; and had a taste for the privations and dangers of a life among the savages, whose ways and caprices he well understood, and knew how to turn them to insure his own safety. He was a shrewd observer and possessed a faculty for that detail and little minutiæ, which make a narrative racy and valuable. He was vain and much given to self- glorification. He accompanied La Salle, in the first voyage, as far as Peoria Lake, and he and Father Zenobe Membre are the historians of that expedition. From Peoria Lake he went down the Illinois, under orders from La Salle, and up the Mississippi beyond St. Anthony's Falls, giving this name to the falls. This interesting voyage was not prosecuted voluntarily ; for Hennepin and his two companions were captured by the Sioux and taken up the river as prisoners, often in
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
great peril of their lives. He saw La Salle no more. after parting with him at Peoria Lake. IIe was released from captivity through the intervention of Mons. Duluth, a French Coureur de Bois, who had previously established a trade with the Sioux, on the upper Mississippi, by way of Lake Superior. After his escape, Hennepin descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, which he ascended. made the portage at the head of Fox River, thence to Green Bay and Mack- inaw, by the route pursued by Joliet and Marquette on their way to the Mississippi, seven years before. From Mackinaw he proceeded to France, where, in 1683, he published. under royal authority, an account of his travels. For refusing to obey an order of his superiors, to return to America, he was banished from France. Ile went to Holland and obtained the favor and patronage of William III, king of England. to whose service, as he himself says, "he entirely devoted himself." In Holland. he received money and sustenance from Mr. Blathwait, King William's secretary of war, while engaged in preparing a new volume of his voyages. which was published at Utrecht, in 1697. and dedicated "To His Most Excellent Majesty William the Third." The revised edition contains substantially all of the first, and a great deal besides ; for in this last work Hennepin lays claim, for the first time, to having gone down the Mississippi to its mouth, thus seeking to deprive La Salle of the glory attaching to his name, on account of this very dis- covery. La Salle had now been dead about fourteen years, and from the time he went down the Mississippi, in 1682. to the hour of his death. although his discovery was well known, especially to Hennepin, the latter never laid any claim to having anticipated him in the discov- ery. Besides. Hennepin's own account, after so long a silence, of his pretended voyage down the river is so utterly inconsistent with itself, especially with respect to dates and the impossibility of his traveling the distances within the time he alleges, that the story carries its own refutation. For this mendacious act. Father Hennepin has merited the severest censures of Charlevoix, Jared Sparks. Francis Parkman, Dr. Shea and other historical crities.
His first work is generally regarded as authority. That he did go up the Mississippi river there seems to be no controversy, while grave doubts prevail as to many statements in his last publication, which would otherwise pass without suspicion were they not found in com- pany with statements known to be untrue.
In the preface to his last work, issued in 1697, Father Hennepin assigns as a reason why he did not publish his descent of the Missis- sippi in his volume issued in 1683, " that I was obliged to say nothing of the course of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois down
59
HENNEPIN AND LA SALLE.
to the sea, for fear of disobliging M. La Salle, with whom I began my discovery. This gentleman, alone, would have the glory of having dis- covered the course of that river. But when he heard that I had done it two years before him he could never forgive me, though, as I have said, I was so modest as to publish nothing of it. This was the true cause of his malice against me, and of the barbarous usage I met with in France."
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