USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 5
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It was during this period that the bold and expansive policy of King Louis and his able minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert, was placed in striking contrast with the dilatory course of England's licentious king, Charles the Second. While France was animating the colonists in America to extraordinary exer- tions in extending its empire, England's sovereign was content to use the subsidies of France to minister to his own selfish +enjoyments. Perrot discovered the first lead-mines in the West. In 1685 he was placed in command of the Green-Bay country; and in 1688 added the upper Mississippi, the rivers St. Croix and St. Pierre, and adjacent regions to the dominions of the French crown.
4. Louis Joliet, the next in order of date, although among the foremost in order of meritorious service, was the only one of these early explorers who was, with the possible exception of Perrot, born on American soil, having first seen the light at
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Quebec in 1645. He was the son of a wagon-maker. His parents placed his education in care of the Jesuits, under whose tutelage he passed four years. The young novitiate discovered that he had no vocation to the priesthood. His adventurous spirit could not longer endure the restraints of academic shades. To him the hunter's garb was more attractive than the cassock of the ecclesiastic, and the canoe more congenial than the clois- ter. He therefore bade farewell to the seminary, and entered upon a life better adapted to his active temperament.
He entered upon his new career in 1669, when he was de- spatched by the intendant to explore the copper-mines of Lake Superior. From this expedition he returned by Lake Erie, and was probably the first white navigator who sailed upon its waters. Having justly earned the reputation of a successful voyageur, and "as a man of great experience in these sort of dis- coveries," by this and other expeditions, he was selected by "Jean Talon, Intendant of Justice, Police, and Finance of Canada"-an office of which the latter was the first incumbent, to command an expedition having for its object the discovery of the Missis- sippi. The appointment was confirmed by the governor, Fron- tenac, from whom he received instructions. These were, "to discover the south sea by the Mascoutins' country and the great river Mississippi." It was not then known that the river of which they had heard from the Indians was the same as that which had already been discovered by de Soto and others, and whose course had been traced upon Spanish maps over a hundred years before that time. It was supposed that it emp- tied into the Gulf of California or the "South Sea," the great highway to China and Japan.
Joliet left Quebec in the fall of 1672, and arrived at Mackinac, December 8th. Here he remained during the winter and spring, gathering information and making preparations for the contin- uance of his journey. At the missionary station of St. Ignace -the location of which it is difficult to determine, having been variously described as being on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinac, at Old Mackinaw, and on the Island of Mackinac *- he met Father Jacques Marquette, the missionary in charge.
Among other arrangements made, and perhaps the most im-
* Shea, H. H. Hurlbut, and others.
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portant, was the securing of the services of this missionary to accompany him. Marquette had no official connection with the expedition, his name not appearing either in the commission by which it was constituted nor in the governor's report of its results. He was simply Joliet's priestly compagnon du voyage, for which position he was well qualified by reason of his frontier experience, his devotion to his calling, and his acquaintance with Indian dialects, six of which he was able to speak. He had long desired to make such a trip, and gladly availed him- self of the opportunity which Joliet's invitation afforded.
The account of this celebrated expedition, prepared by its leader, together with a map of the country traversed, and other valuable mementoes, was unfortunately lost on his return, by the capsizing of his canoe near Montreal, while about to land, as he says, "in sight of the first French settlements which I had left almost two years before." This proved to be a serious loss. However, he prepared the best report possible without the data which had cost so many months of arduous labor to obtain, and this, together with a map, rude in design and more or less imperfect, was forwarded to France by Frontenac, in November, 1674. The governor reported that "he has dis- covered some very fine countries, and a navigation so easy that a person can go from Lake Ontario in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying-place half a league in length. He has been within ten days' journey of the Gulf of Mexico."
The loss of Joliet's original memoranda was to some extent repaired by the narrative of his companion, Father Marquette, which assumes to be circumstantial regarding dates, localities, and events. The final outfit of the expedition consisted of "two birch-bark canoes, five men, a bag of corn-meal, some dried beef, and a blanket apiece"; besides beads, crosses, and other religious articles. Starting on May 17, 1673, from St. Ignace, they reached the Mascoutins on Fox River, June . 7. Having remained here three days, and secured guides, they resumed their journey, making a portage to the Wisconsin River, down which they floated until they reached the far-famed Mississippi, on June 17. Proceeding down this river, on June 25, they landed at a point near to which were situated three
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Indian villages. These they visited, and, being kindly received, remained until the end of the month, when they again pro- ceeded on their journey.
The next circumstance deemed by Father Marquette of suffi- cient importance to deserve special mention was the sight of the picture on the rocky bluff above Alton of the Piasa bird, which excited as much apprehension as if it had been alive. He de- scribes it as being "as large as a calf, having horns on the head like a deer, with a frightful look, bearded like a tiger, face some- what like a man's, body covered with scales, and a tail going twice around the body, with green, red, and kind of black colors."
He next describes the entrance into the Mississippi of a river which he called the Pekitanoui, supposed to be the Missouri, than " the noise of the rapids into which we were about to fall," he declared, he "had seen nothing more frightful." Soon after this another river, which he names the Ouaboukigou, was passed, below which they saw and entered the village of some Indians armed with guns, and having axes, hoes, knives, and beads, which they said they had bought of some Europeans "on the eastern side." They next came to a village of the Mitchi- gamies, where they spent the night, and the next day arrived at the village of the Akamseas, which he locates at the latitude of about 31° 40'.
Being convinced from information received from the Indians that the Mississippi "had its mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico," and that they were in danger of being arrested by the Spaniards if they proceeded farther, they decided to termi- nate their journey southward at this point. On July 17, after a day's rest, they commenced their return trip, to which Father Marquette devotes but one page of his journal. The first inci- dent which he notes is their arrival at the mouth of the Illinois. Having been assured by the Indians that this river afforded the most direct route to Mackinac, they followed it north instead of the Mississippi. Their first-recorded stop, of three days' duration, was at the village of the Peorias. They spent some little time also at the " Illinois town called Kaskaskias," where they were well received, and to which the father promised to return. Escorted by one of the chiefs and his young men across
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the portage to Lake Michigan, they returned to the mission of Green Bay, where they arrived "in the close of September."
This narrative of Marquette was not printed by the French government, as were other similar accounts, but a copy was obtained, in some unexplained way, by Thevenot, a well-known Paris publisher, who issued it in 1681. When it appeared, its authenticity was at once disputed by LaSalle and other ex- plorers, and by contemporary but rival ecclesiastics. The former reported to the king that he was assured by all the nations through which he passed on his way to the mouth of the Mississippi, in 1682, that he was the first European who had descended or ascended that river. But the subsequent discovery, in 1844, of the original manuscript of Marquette's journal in the care of the nuns of the Hotel Dieu, to whose custody it had been transferred from the Jesuit college of Quebec, has settled the question of its genuineness beyond doubt.
Nevertheless, it must be admitted that its credibility is open to discussion. It is to be regretted that the eminent father reached Green Bay too enfeebled by the exposures and labors of his journey to complete his narrative until the lapse of twelve months after his arrival .* His notes, necessarily imperfect, had to be supplemented by recollections, which were naturally far less vivid, if not somewhat distorted, after so long an interval. Under such circumstances it would not be strange if he had fallen into grave errors relating to incidents, distances, and dates. That his narrative on its face contains erroneous estimates of latitude is not denied, while the coincidence of dates ascribed to events happening during successive months is, to say the least, singular. To illustrate: Joliet set out from Mackinac on May 17, arrived at the mouth of the Wisconsin on June 17, and started on the return trip July 17. If these dates are correctly stated, it is difficult to believe that the explorers could have proceeded as far south-the mouth of the Arkansas River-as has been contended.
They were thirty-one days, including stoppages, going from Mackinac to the mouth of the Wisconsin, a distance of five hun- dred and seventy-three miles, proceeding at the rate of nearly
* Shea.
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twenty miles per day. From the mouth of the Wisconsin to that of the Arkansas the distance is eleven hundred and seventy miles, which is stated to have been traversed in the same time, a rate of speed equal to nearly forty miles per day. This was unprecedented for that period and mode of traveling. LaSalle, with greater experience and superior facilities, occupied fifty- three days in going from the mouth of the Illinois to the sea, a distance of fourteen hundred and thirty miles. Tonty, in search of LaSalle, well equipped for the journey, left Fort St. Louis, February 16, 1686, and arrived at the Gulf of Mexico, sixteen hundred and ninety miles, "in holy week," which began April 7, as Easter Sunday that year fell on the 14th. Conceding that he made the trip in fifty days, this was only at the rate of thirty-three and a half miles per day. He was seventy days in returning over the same route. St. Cosme, in 1699, and Father Gravier, with five canoes well supplied, the year following, each occupied about the same time-twenty-two days-in making the journey from the village of Tamaroa to the mouth of the Arkansas, a distance of about six hundred miles.
These facts, taken in connection with the statement of Father Gravier that the Ohio River, so designated by the Iroquois, was called by the Illinois and other Indians the Akansea, and that the tribe of Indians by that name-Akanseas-"formerly dwelt upon it,"* would warrant the conclusion that the village of that name, referred to as having been last visited by Joliet, was not very far below the mouth of the Ohio. And as cor- roborative evidence of such a conclusion, the first map made by Joliet on his return shows the Mississippi only a little below the Ohio River.+
As confirmatory of the doubt here suggested, Father Anas- tase Douay, a priest of the Recollects, in his account of LaSalle's last expedition, declares positively that Joliet did not descend the Mississippi farther than Cape St. Anthony, where he was arrested by the Mausopela Indians and turned back. He also states that he had with him "the printed book [Thevenot's "Marquette"] of this pretended discovery, and re- marked all along the route that there was not a word of truth in it," an assertion now known to be entirely too broad.
* Shea's "Early Voyages," 120.
+ Winsor's "America," IV., 212.
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But while these criticisms may reflect upon the credibility of some of the statements made in the only journal of Joliet's expedition which has been preserved, they do not detract from the credit due to him as the discoverer of one portion of the upper Mississippi, whose course he followed down to, if not below, the junction of the Ohio, and whose waters he ascer- tained emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.
Joliet returned to Quebec in August, 1674. In April, 1677, he applied to Minister Colbert for permission to settle with a colony in "the Illinois country," which was refused him on the ground that Canada ought first to be built up, strengthened, and improved .* In 1680, he was appointed hydrographer to the king, and afterward made a voyage to Honduras Bay, and, as a reward for his services, was given the island of Anticosti. In 1697, he was granted the seigniory of Joliet on the river Etchemins, south of Quebec. He died in 1700, and among his descendants, who yet reside in Canada, are the Archbishops of Taschereau and Taché, and the Hon. Bartholomew Joliet. His name will be forever connected with that of Illinois, and has been given to one of its most enterprising young cities.
In this connection it may be stated that, while from the pub- lished accounts of these early explorations in the Northwest the honor of "first discoveries" of particular localities is apportioned according to the statements and claims therein made, it is far from certain that such claims are correct or just. There can be no doubt of the fact that the first explorers were the fur- traders, trappers, and voyageurs, who never took the trouble, had they been competent of doing so, to leave any record of what they saw and did. Nor were the facts of prior explorations by others mentioned, if known, except incidentally, but rather suppressed, possibly through a latent fear that they might detract from other claims. Thus when Marquette returned to Illinois, in 1675, it is stated in the narrative of his second visit that he found a French surgeon and two other Frenchmen already on the ground at one Illinois village. And it further appears that one of these, Pierre Moreau called LaTaupine, who was at the St. Lusson congress, was in the Illinois country trading, when Joliet was there.+ It is therefore more than
* Margry, I., 330.
+ Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America, " IV., 181.
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probable that not only Moreau, but many other French traders, had traveled over the Illinois country and other portions of the Northwest during the thirty years which had elapsed since its discovery by Nicolet, long before either Joliet or LaSalle.
5. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle, was the greatest of those early explorers whose efforts were made available by the French government. To him may fairly be attributed the credit of securing the possession of the Mississippi Valley to that nation. He received his name from his ancestral estate, near Rouen in France, where he was born in November, 1643. He belonged to a family of merchants, and was "capable and learned in every branch, especially mathematics."* If he entered the Society of the Jesuits, as is stated upon the unsup- ported and doubtful authority of Father Hennepin, he soon wearied of ecclesiastical control, and at the age of twenty-three years decided to begin active life in Canada, whither an elder brother, the able Jean Cavelier, a priest of St. Sulpice, had pre- ceded him. Having received a large grant of land at Lachine, near Montreal, he began to gather settlers about him and to engage in trade.
On coming in contact with the Indians here, he heard from them the story of other portions of the country, including great rivers and lakes, and even seas, hitherto unknown. His active, teeming brain at once formed the design of visiting this terra incognita himself. Enlisting the governor, Courcelle, and the intendant, Talon, in his behalf, he organized a force and set out on his first expedition. This was in 1669. Having had a dis- agreement with the priests who accompanied him, he separated from them at an Indian village, near Grand River, and pro- ceeded on his journey by himself. He was gone for over two years, and it is said, though the point appears not defi- nitely settled, that during this time and on this trip he discov- ered the river Ohio. It is further claimed+ that he descended that stream to the Mississippi; and that, in 1671, returning to Lake Michigan, he crossed the Chicago portage to the Illinois, by which he again reached the Mississippi, and descended to the thirty-sixth parallel of north latitude. From that point, having neither men nor means to prosecute his journey, he returned.
* Father LeClerq.
+ Margry, I., 378.
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The authorities given to support this claim are a "Historie," cited by P. Margry, his biographer, purporting to have been written prior to 1678, from conversations with LaSalle; and a letter from his niece, in 1753. But the affirmative evidence of these papers is hardly of sufficient weight to justify a satisfac- tory conclusion in favor of this claim, in the light of known and admitted facts. These are, that in his memorials to the king, in 1674 and 1676, he made no pretense of having made any special discoveries around Lake Michigan, or of the Illinois or the Mississippi rivers. There was no apparent reason to justify the suppression of the facts of other discoveries, if made by him, which did not equally apply to those he claimed.
To these considerations may also be added the further fact that Gov. Frontenac, his patron and friend, who was con- versant with his plans and achievements, in submitting his report of Joliet's expedition in 1674, long after LaSalle's re- turn, expressly states that it was believed that "water commu- nications could be found leading to the Vermilion and Califor- nia seas by means of the river that flows from the west [the Missouri] into the grand river [the Mississippi] that he [Joliet] discovered, which runs from north to south, and is as large as the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec." It is not reasonable to suppose that Frontenac would have made such a report if LaSalie had made the same discoveries prior to Joliet, nor is it likely that LaSalle would have failed to assert his claim had it been valid. There were no motives of modesty or diplo- macy requiring him to suppress it .*
While the report of this expedition is defective in point of completeness, and the actual results of the voyage yet remain somewhat in dispute, there can be no doubt that the journey was fruitful of knowledge and experience to guide LaSalle in his further operations. He had certainly traveled over a large portion of new country and obtained important infor- mation regarding its lakes and rivers, which was of great value in future explorations. Having satisfied himself, either from his own knowledge or from the reports of others, that the Mis-
* Parkman thinks that LaSalle, on his first expedition, did discover the Illinois, but not the Mississippi. Shea thinks he entered the St. Joseph River. Butterfield admits the claim of Margry in favor of LaSalle in full.
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sissippi River emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, he conceived the plan of organizing a great establishment in the Mississippi Valley, to control its trade and direct its permanent occupancy.
As a part of his plan to fortify the road from Canada to the West, in the summer of 1674, with the aid of the government, he erected Fort Frontenac at the foot of Lake Ontario, where Kingston now stands. Of this fort he obtained a grant in seigniory, in consideration of which he agreed to plant a colony around it, to build a church, and to form a settlement of domes- ticated Indians. He visited France in the fall of 1677, and, having made his plans known to the king, was given authority "to labor at the discovery of the western parts of our aforesaid country of New France," to build forts and enjoy the possession thereof, and was also granted "the sole right of trade in buffalo hides;" the reason being, as stated in the letters-patent, "be- cause there is nothing we have more at heart than the discovery of this country, through which, to all appearance, a way may be found to Mexico." This charter was dated May 12, 1678.
The policy of the French government, ably seconded by its official representatives in Canada, was to prevent and anticipate Spanish and possibly British encroachments on the southern coast of the new domain, and to secure that country perma- nently to the French. LaSalle the more willingly yielded him- self as the instrument for accomplishing this purpose, since its realization would naturally tend to the furthering of his own schemes for intercolonial settlement and trade.
Returning to Montreal, after surmounting obstacles which would have proved insuperable to a weaker spirit, he suc- ceeded in fitting out his second expedition. With the aid of Henry de Tonty, and his lieutenant, La Forest, he constructed a vessel which he called the Griffon, of forty-five tons burthen, upon which he embarked on Lake Erie, August 7, 1679. He proceeded, by way of Detroit, through lakes St. Clair and Huron, to the mission of St. Ignace, near Mackinac. Leaving here early in September, he sailed for Green Bay. There he loaded his vessel with furs, and started it on its return, September 18. On the same day, with seventeen men and two missionaries, in four canoes, he resumed his journey, skirting the west shore of Lake Michigan and coasting around its southern border,
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until he reached the river St. Joseph, November I. At this point he had appointed a rendezvous for twenty Frenchmen of his party, whom he had directed to come by the opposite shore under Tonty, and who arrived some three weeks thereafter. Erecting a fort here, afterward known as Fort Miami, and leav- ing four men as its guard, he, with his party, now numbering thirty-three, on December 3, resumed his journey by the way of the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers to the Illinois. Passing down that stream, he found the great Indian town at the Rock deserted.
On January 4, 1680, he passed through Peoria Lake, and on the next morning arrived at the Indian village of the same name, where he had a conference with the head men. Here, as a precautionary measure, six of his men having deserted and the attitude of the Indians toward him being uncertain, he resolved for the protection of his party to build a fort. Select- ( ing a site about four miles south of the village and two hun- dred yards from the eastern bank of the river, he erected a rude fort, which he called Crévecœur, the first structure erected by white men in Illinois. As all remains of this fort have long since disappeared, its precise location can not now be deter- mined.
Not having heard from his vessel on the lake with its ex- pected supplies, and needing iron, ropes, and sails for the new one he was building with which to continue his expedition, he resolved to return to Fort Frontenac. Before starting, however, in order that no time might be lost in consequence of his absence, he directed Michel Accault, as commander, with whom were associated Picard du Gay, representing trade, and Father Louis Hennepin the cross, to proceed to the mouth of the Illinois River, and thence up the Mississippi to the country of the Sioux .*
On March 1, 1680, LaSalle, accompanied by four Frenchmen and one Indian, began his journey east. Pushing on across the country, amid snow and ice, making rafts or canoes as the emer- gency required, he reached the St. Joseph River, March 24, and Fort Frontenac, May 6, traveling a thousand miles under
* See Father Hennepin's "Description of Louisiana, " translated by J. G. Shea; it is not material to this history.
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such disadvantages in sixty-five days. Proceeding to Montreal, from which point he returned to his fort in eight days, he com- pleted his preparations "to go on with his discoveries." But he soon received important and very unwelcome news from his party in Illinois, which changed his plans and delayed his departure .*
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