USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic sources > Part 5
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t Father Marquette, agreeably to his vow, named the river the Immaculate Concep- tion. Nine years later, when Robert La Salle, having discovered the river in its entire length, took possession at its mouth of the whole Mississippi Valley, he named the river Colbert, in honor of the Minister of the' Navy, a man renowned alike for his ability, at the head of the Department of the Marine, and for the encouragement he gave to literature, science and art. Still later, in 1712, when the vast country drained by its waters was farmed out to private enterprise, as appears from letters patent from the King of France, conveying the whole to M. Crozat, the name of the river was changed to St. Lewis. Fortunately the Mississippi retains its aboriginal name, which is a com- pound from the two Algonquin words missi, signifying great, and sepe, a river. The former is variously pronounced missil or michil, as in Michilimakinac ; michi, as in Mich- igan ; missu, as in Missouri, and missi, as in the Mississeneway of the Wabash. The variation in pronunciation is not greater than we might expect in an unwritten lan- guage. "The Western Indians," says Mr. Schoolcraft, "have no other word than missi to express the highest degree of magnitude, either in a moral or in a physical sense, and it may be considered as not only synonymous to our word great, but also magnificent, supreme, stupendous, etc." Father Hennepin, who next to Marquette wrote concern- ing the derivation of the name, says : " Mississippi, in the language of the Illinois, means the great river." Some authors, perhaps with more regard for a pleasing fic- tion than plain matter-of-fact. have rendered Mississippi "The Father of Waters;" whereas, nos, noussey and nosha mean father, and neebi, nipi or nepee mean water, as universally in the dialect of Algonquin tribes, as does the word missi mean great and sepi a river.
46
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
"Having descended as far as 41° 28', following the same direction, we find that turkeys have taken the place, of game, and pisikious (buf- falo) or wild cattle that of other beasts.
" At last, on the 25th of June, we perceived foot-prints of men by the water-side and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. We stopped to examine it, and coneluding that it was a path leading to some Indian village we resolved to go and reconnoitre ; we accordingly left our two canoes in charge of our people, cautioning them to beware of a surprise ; then M. Jollyet and I undertook this rather hazardous discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the mercy of an unknown and barbarous people. We followed the little path in silence, and having advanced about two leagues we discovered a village on the banks of the river, and two others on a hill half a league from the former. Then, indeed, we recommended ourselves to God with all our hearts, and having implored his help we passed on undiscovered, and came so near that we even heard the Indians talking. We then deemed it time to announce ourselves, as we did, by a ery which we raised with all our strength, and then halted, without advancing any farther. At this ery the Indians rushed out of their cabins, and hav- ing probably recognized us as French, especially seeing a black gown, or at least having no reason to distrust us, seeing we were but two and had made known our coming, they deputed four old men to come and speak to us. Two carried tobacco-pipes well adorned and trimmed with many kinds of feathers. They marched slowly, lifting their pipes toward the sun as if offering them to it to smoke, but yet without uttering a single word. They were a long time coming the little way from the village to us. Having reached us at last, they stopped to con- sider us attentively.
"I now took courage, seeing these ceremonies, which are used by them only with friends, and still more on seeing them covered with stuff's which made me judge them to be allies. I, therefore, spoke to them first, and asked them who they were. They answered that they were Illinois, and in token of peace they presented their pipes to smoke. They then invited us to their village, where all the tribe awaited us with impatience. These pipes for smoking are all called in this country calumets, a word that is so much in use that I shall be obliged to employ it in order to be understood, as I shall have to speak of it frequently.
" At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture, which is their usual ceremony in receiving strangers. This man was standing perfectly naked, with his hands stretched out and raised toward the sun, as if he wished to screen himself from its rays, which, nevertheless, passed
47
PRESENTATION OF THE CALUMET.
through his fingers to his face. When we came near him he paid us this compliment : 'How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when thou comest to visit us! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace.' He then took us into his, where there was a crowd of people, who devoured us with their eyes but kept a profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally ad- dressed to us : 'Well done, brothers, to visit us !' As soon as we had taken our places they showed us the usual civility of the country, which is to present the calumet. You must not refuse it unless you would pass for an enemy, or at least for being very impolite. It is, however, enough to pretend to smoke. While all the old men smoked after us to honor us, some came to invite us, on behalf of the great sachem of all the Illinois, to proceed to his town, where he wished to hold a council with us. We went with a good retinue, for all the people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire looking at us; they threw themselves on the grass by the wayside, they ran ahead, then turned and walked back to see us again. All this was done without noise, and with marks of a great respect entertained for us.
" Having arrived at the great sachem's town, we espied him at his cabin door between two old men ; all three standing naked, with their calumet turned to the sun. He harangued us in a few words, to con- gratulate ns on our arrival, and then presented us his calumet and made us smoke; at the same time we entered his cabin, where we received all their usual greetings. Seeing all assembled and in silence, I spoke to them by four presents which I made. By the first, I said that we marched in peace to visit the nations on the river to the sea ; by the second, I declared to them that God, their creator, had pity on them, since, after their having been so long ignorant of him, he wished to become known to all nations; that I was sent on his behalf with this design ; that it was for them to acknowledge and obey him; by the third, that the great chief of the French informed them that he spread peace everywhere, and had overcome the Iroquois ; lastly, by the fourth, we begged them to give us all the information they had of the sea, and of nations through which we should have to pass to reach it.
" When I had finished my speech, the sachem rose, and laying his hand on the head of a little slave whom he was about to give us, spoke thus : 'I thank thee, Black-gown, and thee, Frenchman,' addressing M. Jollyet, ' for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright, as to-day ; never has our river been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have removed as they passed ; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor,
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is my son that I give thee that thou mayest know my heart. I pray thee take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit who has made us all ; thou speakest to him and hearest his word; ask him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us that we may know him.' Saying this, he placed the little slave near us and made us a second present, an all mysterious calumet, which they value more than a slave. By this present he showed us his esteem for our governor, after the account we had given of him. By the third he begged us, on behalf of his whole nation, not to proceed farther on account of the great dangers to which we exposed ourselves.
"I replied that I did not fear death, and that I esteemed no happi- ness greater than that of losing my life for the glory of him who made us all. But this these poor people could not understand. The coun- cil was followed by a great feast which consisted of four courses, which we had to take with all their ways. The first course was a great wooden dish full of sagamity,- that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful of sagamity, presented it three or four times to my mouth, as we would do with a little child ; he did the same to M. Jollyet. For the second course, he brought in a second dish containing three fish ; he took some pains to remove the bones, and having blown upon it to cool it, put it in my mouth as we would food to a bird. For the third course they produced a large dog which they had just killed, but, learning that we did not eat it, withdrew it. Finally, the fourth course was a piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our mouths.
" We took leave of our Illinois about the end of June, and eni- barked in sight of all the tribe, who admire our little canoes, having never seen the like.
"As we were discoursing, while sailing gently down a beautiful, still, clear water, we heard the noise of a rapid into which we were about to fall. I have seen nothing more frightful; a mass of large trees, entire, with branches,- real floating islands,- came rushing from the mouth of the river Pekitanoui, so impetuously that we could not, without great danger, expose ourselves to pass across. The agitation was so great that the water was all muddy and could not get clear .*
* Pekitanoui, with the aboriginals, signified " muddy water," on the authority of Father Marest, in his letter referred to in a previous note. The present name, Mis- souri, according to Le Page du Pratz, vol. 2, p. 157, was derived from the tribe, Mis- souris, whose village was some forty leagues above its mouth, and who massacred a French garrison situated in that part of the country. The late statesman and orator, Thomas A. Benton, referring to the muddiness prevailing at all seasons of the year in the Missouri River, said that its waters were "too thick to swim in and too thin to walk on."
49
PLOT AGAINST MARQUETTE'S LIFE.
"After having made about twenty leagues due south, and a little less to the southeast, we came to a river called Ouabonskigou, the mouth of which is at 36° north .* This river comes from the country on the east inhabited by the Chaoúanons, in such numbers that they reckon as many as twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another, lying quite near each other. They are by no means warlike, and are the people the Iroquois go far to seek in order to wage an unprovoked war upon them ; and as these poor people cannot defend themselves they allow themselves to be taken and carried off like sheep, and, inno- cent as they are, do not fail to experience the barbarity of the Iroquois, who burn them cruelly.'
Having arrived about half a league from Akansea (Arkansas River), we saw two canoes coming toward us. The commander was standing up holding in his hand a calumet, with which he made signs according to the custom of the country. He approached us, singing quite agreeably, and invited us to smoke, after which he presented us some sagamity and bread made of Indian corn, of which we ate a little. We fortunately found among them a man who understood Illinois much better than the man we brought from Mitchigameh. By means of him, I first spoke to the assembly by ordinary presents. They admired what I told them of God and the mysteries of our holy faith, and showed a great desire to keep me with them to instruct them.
" 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 continual 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 оссиру.
"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
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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 34° 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, morcover, 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, abont 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 leagues. 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 out 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.
me, 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 fact 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 ascribes 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.
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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'Auticosty. 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.
Monnt 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 IIoly 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. IIe immediately set ont, 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 8th 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 sketch of Joliet has been collated fron 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 such a purpose which can be wished for, both on account
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