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in 1682 he put the mouth of the Illinois at 38º. Shea's Le Clercq, pp. 119, 163.
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 121; Margry, vol. ii. p. 285.
2 See, for maps, Winsor's Hist. U. S. vol. iv. pp. 212-216; also Parkman's Disc. Gr. West, p. 23, n. 1.
3 Disc. Gr. West, p. 406.
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of a thousand paces to the River La Divine, which can lead them to the River Colbert [Mississippi] and thence to the Gulf of Mexico." It may be inferred from this that La Salle explored only a part of the upper Illinois on his second voyage, but learned of its course from the Indians. It is claimed that the tracings of the Ohio, with the accompanying legends, on the Joliet maps, are additions by another hand, and that this shows clearly on what " appears to be the original Joliet map."1 This is probably true, for Joliet had no personal knowledge of the course of the Ohio, and it was a common prac- tice then to alter maps by adding new discoveries, but for the purpose of identifying La Salle's exploration their value is not impaired by this.
It remains to be added that the French government always based its claim to the Ohio valley on its explora- tion by La Salle. The official instructions sent to M. du Quesne in 1752 recited : " The River Ohio, other- wise called the Beautiful River, and its tributaries, be- long indisputably to France, by virtue of its discovery by Sieur de la Salle; of the trading posts the French have had there since ; and of possession, which is so much the more unquestionable as it constitutes the most frequent communication from Canada to Louisiana." 2 Again, in 1755, M. de Vaudreuil was instructed : "It is only since the last war that the English have set up claims to the territory on the Beautiful River, the pos- session whereof had never been disputed to the French, who have always resorted to that river since it was dis- covered by Sieur de Lassalle." 3 ( From all this evidence
1 Mag. of Am. Hist., vol. ix. p. 279, note. A reprint of this map, with the suspected parts removed, is at p. 272 of the same.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. x. p. 243. 3 Ibid. p. 293.
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we conclude that La Salle traced the entire lower boun- dary of Indiana in 1669-70, for the "very large " stream which joined the Ohio from the north could have been nothing except the Wabash. That he passed through the northwest corner of the state in 1671 or 1672 seems also reasonably established.
In this connection we may advantageously dispel an error which crept into our history half a century ago. From the fact that the Ohio below the mouth of the Wabash was anciently called " Ouabache," Judge Law conjectured that the first travelers descended the Wa- bash to Vincennes, crossed by land to Kaskaskia for fear of hostile Indians farther south, and finding the mouth of the Ohio, as they descended to New Orleans, supposed it to be the Wabash. On this theory he as- serted that "the Wabash was known and navigated by the whites long before the Ohio was known to exist." 1 It is true that the lower portion of the Ohio was called "Quabache " until after the middle of the eighteenth century ; but it is also true that it was so named before the Wabash was known, and before Vincennes, Kaskas- kia, and New Orleans were dreamed of. On the map of Marquette (who died in 1675) the Ohio is marked as an unexplored stream with the name Ouabouskiaou. On Joliet's maps of 1673 and 1674 the same unexplored stream is marked Ouaboustikou or Ouabouskigou. These are evidently Indian names, and looking to the tribes of the country through which Joliet and Marquette passed, we find their words for white as follows: in Menominee waubish-keewa ; in Knisteneaux wapish- kawo ; in Chippewa wawbishkaw ; in Sac wapes-kaya, - all of which are from the old Algonquin stem waba 1 Hist. of Vincennes, p. 10.
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or wapi, which has the same meaning.1 The same name Waba-shikkah is still given to the Wabash by some of the Indians resident in Indiana.2 The dialects of the tribes nearer the Wabash, all of Algonquin stock, varied but slightly from these, and those tribes were commonly called Ouapous, Ouabans, or Ouabachi, by the Frenchmen of the period. From the Indian name, first applied by whites to the lower Ohio, came the Gallicism "Ouabache," which was afterwards Anglicized to "Wabash." 8
Different tribes of Indians have different names for the same stream, and it is the common custom for a tribe to continue the name of a stream near them to the stream into which it flows, except the main stream above the junction be also contiguous to them. Ohio is an Iroquois name, and naturally would not be heard among the Algonquin tribes ; but the Iroquois applied it first to the Alleghany, then to the Ohio proper, and finally to the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio.4 So the Algonquin tribes continued the name Mississippi below
1 Archeologica Americana, vol. ii. p. 346.
2 Hough's map, in Ind. Geol. Rep. for 1882, p. 42.
8 In Webster's Dictionary, p. 1632, Wabash is defined as "a cloud blown forward by an equinoctial wind." I have been un- able to fix the source of this remarkable misstatement, but sus- pect that it results from mistaking an illustration for a definition. I once applied by letter to an Indian agent for the meaning of a word, and he replied that it signified " a mushroom or toadstool." On further inquiry he said that it meant "anything white," and that the Indian to whom he had first spoken had answered by pointing to a toadstool. So, as to Wabash, the Indian of whom inquiry was made may have answered by pointing to a white cloud. The Miami words for a swiftly moving cloud are kintche seway. Wabash means white and nothing more.
4 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 80.
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the junction of the Missouri, and the name, adopted from them, is still retained, though in geographical pro- priety the Mississippi is a tributary of the Missouri and the main stream should take the latter name. So the Miamis, Illinois, and other western tribes considered the Wabash and lower Ohio as one stream, and the French adopted their nomenclature because it was more easily adopted than changed. The principal streams were re- christened in France, the Wabash receiving the name "St. Jerome," but these high-sounding titles were soon forgotten. In old French documents the Wabash is often spoken of as emptying into the Mississippi, and on ancient maps it and the Ohio are wonderfully con- founded. On many of them but one stream appears, sometimes marked " Ohio " or "Hohio," and sometimes " Ouabache," sometimes with its head at the western end of Lake Erie, and sometimes rising in the Iroquois country.
It is noteworthy that La Salle never makes this error. He always calls the Wabash " Agouassake," and even in his prises de possession, in which all synonymous names are supposed to be set forth, the name "Oua- bache " is never given to the Ohio.1 With others the name was continued until 1757, when Le Page du Pratz wrote of it: "It is called Wabache, though, according to the usual method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful River ; seeing the Ohio was known under that name in Canada before its confluence was known ; and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off than the three others, which mix together before they empty themselves into the Mississippi, this should make the
1 Mag. of Am. Hist., vol. ii. p. 619; Sparks's Am. Biog., vol. xi. p. 200.
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others lose their names ; but custom has prevailed on this occasion." 1 At this time both French and English were claiming the country by virtue of discoveries in the eastern part of the Ohio valley, the French on La Salle's discovery, and the English on an exploration of the Kanawha in 1671.2 Hence the fact that the Ohio was the main stream became of importance to both parties, and when the English gained possession a few years later the geographical misnomer of the lower Ohio was laid aside.
From these early voyages of La Salle up to his expe- dition of 1679 there was no exploration of Indiana of which records have been found, and yet it is almost unquestionable that fur-traders passed through this re- gion. ) La Salle had been rewarded and honored for his services, and had busied himself with his Indian trade at Fort Frontenac, but he was not without competition. The Ottawa River, falling into the St. Lawrence just above Montreal, afforded as good communication with the upper lakes as did Ontario and Erie ; and by it much of that trade, and all of the trade of northern Canada, went to Montreal. In the Northwest were trading posts at Green Bay and Mackinaw Straits. Across Ontario were the Iroquois, but they carried a large portion of their furs to New York and Albany, and, besides, game had become so scarce in their coun- try that already they were pushing far beyond its con- (Where, then, did La Salle trade ? Who were the Indians to whom his fragile argosies carried blankets and trinkets, and from whom they returned laden with
1 Hist. of Louisiana, London ed. of 1774, p. 180. The original is somewhat abridged at several points in this edition.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol iii. p. 194.
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furs ? Naturally we should expect to find among them the inhabitants of the best neighboring fur country which was not already occupied by other traders, and this was northern Indiana and southern Michigan. It is a pecu- liar country, - a succession of sheltered prairies, rounded sand-hills, and reedy marshes, interspersed with quiet lakes, and traversed by a network of sluggish streams ; and at that time much of its surface, which has since been reclaimed by drainage, could be passed over in canoes. All game abounded in it, but chiefly the velvet- coated beaver. This was the hunter's paradise for the possession of which the Iroquois schemed so cunningly and fought so bitterly.1 South and southeast of it lay the Ohio Valley, also well worthy the attention of the trader, though at that time very thinly populated. Is it possible that La Salle neglected these fields ? Certainly his trade was carried very far, for, besides having four vessels of from twenty-five to forty tons burden on Lake Ontario, his canoe trade was so extensive that his men became known as the most skillful canoemen in the country. ) His trade must have been extensive, or he could not have prospered as he did. He replaced the log fort at Cadaracqui with one of hewn stone, and sur- rounded it with enough well-built houses for all the pur- poses of a thriving settlement. He stored up means for subsequent explorations, and established a credit which years of dire misfortune were unable to break down.
The most important record evidence is the memoir of the Marquis de Denonville, then governor and lieuten- ant-general of Canada, which was prepared for the in- formation of the court as to the French titles in America, and was received at Versailles prior to March 8, 1688.2
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. iv. p. 650; Ibid. vol. ix. p. 891.
2 Ibid. vol. ix. p. 377.
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Speaking of La Salle's Illinois establishment, Denonville says : " He caused a fort and buildings to be erected, and a bark to be begun, at a place called Crèvecœur, in order to proceed as far as the said South Sea, two thirds of which bark only were built, the said Sieur de la Salle having afterwards employed canoes for his trade in said countries, as he had already done for several years in the rivers Oyo, Ouabache, and others in the surrounding neighborhood which flow into the said river Mississippi, whereof possession was taken by him, as appears by the Relations made thereof. The countries and rivers of Oyo or Abache and the circumjacent territory were inhab- ited by our Indians, the Chaouanons [Shawnees], Mia- mis, and Illinois. . .. All the foregoing demonstrates sufficiently ... their [the French] possession of the great River Mississippi which they have discovered as far as the South Sea, on which river also they have divers establishments, as well as on that of Oyo, Oua- bache, etc., which flow into the said river Mississippi, and of the countries and lands in the vicinity of said rivers where they actually carry on trade."
Fort Crèvecœur, as is well known, was built in 1680, and if La Salle had then maintained a canoe trade on the Ohio and Wabash for several years, as here stated, it must have continued through nearly all of his stay at Frontenac. Beyond this official declaration, the chief known evidence of this early trade is La Salle's appar- ent familiarity with the country before he began his great exploration in 1681, which appears in his corre- spondence.1 (In a letter to a business associate in 1680, he states that he will use the vessel he is then building at Crèvecœur to carry furs by the Mississippi to the 1 Hist. Mag. (Dawson's), vol. v. p. 196; Margry, vol. ii. p. 98.
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Gulf of Mexico, or, in case the Mississippi should not empty there, as he believes it to, he will use the vessel to bring furs to Canada by a river which he has dis- covered and named Baudrane, but "the Iroquois call it Ohio and the Ottawas Olighin-cipou." He says : "This River Baudrane rises back of Oneiout, and after running four hundred and fifty leagues to the West, always as large and larger than the Seine at Rouen, and always deeper, it discharges into the River Colbert [Mississippi] twenty to twenty-five leagues South by Southwest of the mouth by which the Illinois River empties into the same stream. A barque can ascend this river very far, - opposite Tsonnontouan - and at this place one is dis- tant not more than twenty to twenty-five leagues from the southern shore of Lake Ontario or Frontenac, by which one is able to go to Fort Frontenac in fifteen hours of good breeze, so that from this view it will be necessary only to make an establishment at the mouth of the river of the Tsonnontouans [the Genessee ], on the shore of Lake Ontario, and another on the river which I call Baudrane, where horses may be kept for the portage, which will be easy, the road being made. . .. All the country along this river and between it and the Illinois, and for ten or twelve days' journey to the North, and to the South, and to the West of the River Colbert, is full of wild cattle [buffalo] more than one can tell." 1
This letter also furnishes evidence of another fact. La Salle's expeditions of 1679 and following years were not for exploration merely. His project from the first was colonization and exclusive trade in the Mississippi valley, and he would probably have accomplished it 1 Margry, vol. ii. p. 79.
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with ease but for the Iroquois. roquois. At that time Indiana and much of the adjacent territory was the seat of a savage warfare which seriously impeded trade. The Iroquois could not secure the abundance of furs which the region should have furnished, because, as La Salle wrote to Frontenac in 1682, " before the destruction of the Illinois, and of the Kentaientonga, and Ganeiensaga, whom the Iroquois defeated a year since, of the Chaoua- nons, Ouabachi, Tistontaraetonga, Gandostogega, Moso- polea, Sounikaeronons and Ochitagonga, with whom they have also been contesting for several years, they dared not hunt in these parts infested by so many enemies ; " and the resident tribes were also of little use in the trade, because they, he continues, "have the same apprehen- sion of the Iroquois, and little habit of profiting by the skins of these animals [beaver], having trade with the English but rarely because they are unable to go to them without great hardship, time, and risk." 1 (La Salle's effort to stop this war, while at Frontenac, availed only to make the Iroquois unfriendly to him, and furnished his Canadian enemies with material for the charge that " after he had obtained permission to discover the Great River of Mississippi, and had, as he alleged, the grant of the Illinois,2 he no longer observed any terms with the Iroquois. He ill-treated them, and avowed that he would convey arms and ammunition to the Illinois, and would die assisting them." & The com- plaints of the Iroquois were made the grounds of his removal from Fort St. Louis in 1684.4
1 Margry, vol. ii. p. 237.
2 The grant is dated May 12, 1678. N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 127.
3 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 163.
4 Ibid. vol. iii. pp. 451, 452.
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( Of the tribes named by La Salle and Denonville in the quotations above the Miamis and Ouabachi are the only ones who appear to have lived within the bounds of Indiana. The Illinois were all to the west of the Wabash. ) The Shawnees who figured in our history at this period lived on the south bank of the Ohio below the Cumberland, which was always called the Chaoua- non by the French.1 The location of the Miamis is not certain. One band of them, afterwards known as the Miamis of Maramech, had been living for a number of years near the Wisconsin River, in close alliance with the Kickapoos and Mascoutins. Some years later, at the request of the French, they removed to the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, after they had been joined by the Pepikokia band (Pepicoquis), and early in the eigh- teenth century both moved into Indiana.2 About the time of their first removal the Kickapoos and Mascou- tins came east also, and settled, the former on the Mau- mee River and the latter at Detroit.3 The main body of the Miamis proper, whom the English called Twightwees,4 were located in 1680 on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, a little above the site of South Bend. Father Membre says that they had formerly lived west of the Illinois, and came there a short time before at the desire of the Iroquois.5 The Ouiatanons appear to
1 This location of the Chaouanons is given on all the early maps. One of the most definite is that in Thevenot's Recueil de Voyages, which is reproduced in Andreas's History of Chicago.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. pp. 570, 621.
8 Journal of the siege of Detroit, in Smith's Hist. of Wisconsin, vol. ii.
4 This word is the Miami twah twah, representing the cry of the crane, which was the totem and name of one of their principal clans.
5 Shea's Disc. and Exp. of the Miss. Valley, p. 154.
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have lived west of the Mississippi, for they are so lo- cated on the earliest maps.1 It is possible, however, that they had previously lived on the Wabash, as this stream was called "Ouia-agh-tena " by some of the tribes.2 The Piankeshaws and a part of the Pottawat- tamies appear to have resided along the Wabash.
The manners and customs of these tribes varied little from those of others, but it is worthy of remembrance that at this period all of the Indian tribes were more degraded in some respects than at a later period. The worst of their customs was that of eating human flesh. The Miamis remained cannibals longer than any of the other tribes, not discontinuing the practice until after the Revolutionary war, but with them it became a reli- gious institution and was restricted to one family.8 In the seventeenth and earlier part of the eighteenth cen- turies, cannibalism was common from Newfoundland to the Mississippi. Not only were the slain in battle and prisoners of war converted into viands for feasting, but also in times of famine the members of the various tribes devoured the bodies of their kindred.4 The French explorers and missionaries were frequently obliged to witness these revolting banquets, and refer-
1 Andreas's Hist. of Chicago, p. 48; Winsor's U. S., vol. iv. p. 208.
2 Lewis Evans's map of 1755; Pownal's map of 1776. Judge Beckwith pronounces this name Iroquois, but the best authorities at the Bureau of Ethnology say it is of Algonquin origin. In Shawnee it means a water eddying.
3 Brice's Hist. of Ft. Wayne, notes on pp. 121-123; Jesuits in America, p. xl, note ; Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 330, note.
4 Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 100; Garneau's Canada, vol. i. p. 157; Heckewelder's Indian Nations, p. 55, note.
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ence to the custom is made again and again in the cor- respondence and records of the period.1) The savages also indulged in this custom in the early campaigns in the presence of European troops, and apparently with little or no remonstrance. After the fight with the Senecas, on July 13, 1687, Denonville says : " We witnessed the painful sight of the usual cruelties of the savages, who cut the dead into quarters, as is done in slaughter-houses, in order to put them into the kettle ; the greater number were opened while still warm, that their blood might be drunk." The cannibals here were Ottawas, Hurons or Wyandots, Maquasses or Christian Iroquois, Miamis, and Illinois, and among them they disposed of twenty-five bodies.2 (For the purpose of terrifying their Indian enemies, the French commanders used to threaten to turn them over to the friendly In- dians to be eaten, and they did not hesitate to carry out their threats when they wished to please their anthro- pophagous allies.3) The Puritans appear to have disap- proved of cannibalism,4 but in 1696 the English colo- nists invited the Indians to join them and "eat White meat" in their contest with the French.5 Even so late
1 Memoir of La Salle, in French's Hist. Coll. of La. and Fla., 2d series, p. 4; Smith's Hist. of Wisc., vol. ii. pp. 319, 326; Mich. Pion. Coll., vol. vi. p. 459; Kip's Jesuit Missions, pp. 41, 155- 157; N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. pp. 79, 180, 466, 604, 624; Mag. of Am. Hist., vol. ii. p. 120, also vol. x. p. 31 ; Minn. Hist. Coll., vol. i. pp. 181, 235; Penn. Archives, vol. i. p. 238; Parkman's Disc. of the Gr. West, pp. 218, 381 ; Parkman's Jesuits in America, p. 247; Darling's Anthropophagy, pp. 38-43; Shea's Le Clercq, vol. ii. p. 261.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 338.
3 Ibid. pp. 578, 598, 629.
4 Vide Penhallow's Indian Wars.
5 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 644.
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as 1756, Sir William Johnson told the Indians that he gave them kettles to cook the flesh of their enemies, referring presumably to the French, but it is claimed in the council notes that these words were used figura- tively.1
Although Indian captives were obliged at times to perform menial tasks, their customs of the adoption of prisoners by a conquering tribe to take the places of their own slain, of killing prisoners by torture, and of cannibalism, make it probable that protracted slavery was not known among them until introduced by Euro- peans. Says Carver : "I have been informed that it was the Jesuits and French missionaries that first occa- sioned the introduction of these unhappy captives into the settlements, and who by so doing taught the Indians that they were valuable. Their views, indeed, were laudable, as they imagined that by this method they should not only prevent much barbarity and bloodshed, but find the opportunities of spreading. their religion among them increased. To this purpose they encour- aged the traders to purchase such slaves as they met with. The good effects of this mode of proceeding was not, however, equal to the expectations of these pious fathers. Instead of being the means of preventing cru- elty and bloodshed, it only caused the dissensions between the Indian nations to be carried on with a greater de- gree of violence, and with unremitted ardour."2 This policy was beneficial, nevertheless, for the growth of slavery caused the decline and final cessation of canni- balism, the captives having a value in fire-water that was more attractive to savage taste than even human flesh.8
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. vii. p. 149.
2 Carver's Travels, pp. 346, 347.
3 Garneau's Canada, vol. i. p. 126.
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Slavery became quite common, and many Indians were held as slaves both among the whites and among the Indians.
La Salle's movements in 1679 and 1680 had little to do with Indiana, except that the St. Joseph's and Kan- kakee rivers were his customary route of travel to the Illinois, the portage being made at the site of South Bend. In January, 1681, we find him at Fort Miamis, on the south bank of the St. Joseph's, at its mouth,1 after having found his Illinois establishment destroyed and his allies scattered by the Iroquois, an event which William Henry Harrison a century and a half later declared to have been a military impossibility.2 There was something almost touching the supernatural in the courage and resolution of La Salle. At that rude fort on the bank of the St. Joseph's, in the discomforts of a severe winter, hundreds of miles from the French settle- ments, his faithful Tonty carried captive, killed, or a fugitive, he knew not which, his remaining comrades disheartened, his colony swept from the face of the
1 Hennepin's and La Hontan's maps. His first fort was at the same place until destroyed by the deserters in the spring of 1680. The post called St. Joseph's was built later, near the site of Niles, Michigan. Mag. of Am. Hist., vol. xv. p. 460; Beckwith's Hist. Notes on the N. W., p. 140. An itinerary in the Haldimand Col- lection fixes it at twelve miles below the South Bend portage. In Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley, p. 10, and Goodrich & Tuttle's Indiana, p. 337, this fort of La Salle's is carried over to the site of Fort Wayne, an error which probably arose from the fact that the names St. Joseph's and Miamis were applied to dif- ferent streams and different forts at different periods. La Salle could not well have been at Fort Wayne in 1680, and unquestion- ably he did not build any fort there in that year.
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