USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 12
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of lake Ontario, then called Frontenac. He imme- diately employed his men, in rebuilding the fort, and put a barque of forty tons on the stocks. The expe- dition with which the fort and vessel were completed, gave to the colonial government a high idea of his activity. He was a man of genius, enterprise and perserverance, firm and undaunted. Power ren- dered him harsh, capricious and haughty. He was ambitious of fame; but this did not render him in- attentive to pecuniary advantages.
The barque being launched, Lasalle thought of nothing but trade and discoveries, and left the fort on the 18th of November. After a tedious and dan- gerous passage, he reached a village called Ononta- rien, where he purchased provisions, and proceeded . to one of the Iroquois. near the falls of Niagara. He stayed but one night there: next morning he went nine miles higher up, where selecting a convenient spot, he traced the lines of a fort, and set his men to work : but, observing this gave umbrage to the Indians, he desisted: to preserve however what was already done, he surrounded it with a palisade.
The season being now far advanced and the cold very severe, he deemed it best to place his men in winter quarters, and sent a party to reconnoitre the way to the Illinois ; leaving the rest at Niagara, with the Chevalier de Tonti, he returned to fort Fronte- nac. In the spring he came back with a considerable stock of merchandise, provisions and amunition : but his vessel was wrecked on approaching the shore; most of the lading was however saved, and put on board of another barque, which his men had con- structed during the winter.
He now despatched the chevalier with a few men, to explore the shores and country on the northeast side of lake Erie, then called Conti. Thechevalier, after
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performing this service, passed to lake Huron, and landed on the northern shore. He there heard of the party who had gone towards the Illinois; they had passed higher up. After viewing the country he returned to Niagara. Lasalle had.sold all his goods, and was gone for a new supply ; on his return, he brought besides merchandise, a large stock of provi- sions and three recollet monks to minister to the spi- ritual wants of his people. The whole party now crossed lake Erie, without accident, but were detained for a long time, by tempestuous weather at Michillimackinac. Lasalle took a view of the isthmus, traded with the Indians, and laid the foundation of a fort. The chevalier proceeded northeasterly, in search of some men who had de- serted, and to obtain a better knowledge of the land in those parts. He went a shore near a straight called St. Mary, and following the coast, reached a river which runs from the lake, and after a circuit of two hundred miles falls into the St. Lawrence. After a ramble of eight days he returned to his boat, and reaching the point of the lake, took the southern pass, and landed near a plantation of the Jesuits, where he found the men he was in quest of, and pre- vailed on them to go back to the party.
In the meanwhile, Lasalle had, in the latter part of September, crossed the lakes Huron and Michigan, then called Tracy and Orleans, and landed in the bay of the Puants, on the 8th of October. From thence he had sent back the barque to Niagara, load- ed with furs and skins. Equally attentive to the im- provement of his fortune by commerce, and the ac- quisition of fame by prosecuting his discoveries, he proceeded in canoes with seventeen men to the little Miami, which he reached on the first of November .- He there carried on some trade with the natives,
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whom he induced to put themselves under the protec- tion of his sovereign, and with their consent took for- mal possession of their country for the crown of Francee-recting a fort near the mouth of the stream. - The chevalier, though impatient of joining his leader, had been compelled by contrary weather and want of provisions to put ashore. His men were fa- tigued and refused to proceed. till they had taken some rest. They gathered acorns and killed deer .-- The chevalier, taking the boat, committed himself to the waves, promising shortly to return for them ; af- . ter being tossed, during six days, by a tempest, he reached the fort Lasalle was building on the Little Miami.
In expressing his pleasure at the return of the che- valier, the chief observed, it would have been much greater, if he had seen also the men, who were left behind. This kind of reproof induced the former, - as soon as he had rested a while, to return for these men. He had hardly left land when a storm arose and cast him ashore; dragging his boat along, he reached the spot from whence he had started. Calm being restored on the lake, the whole party re-em- barked and soon joined Lasalle, who was much pleas- ed at this addition to his force, viewing it as essential "to the completion of his plan. Little did he think, these men would prove a source of vexation and dis- tress, and a great obstruction to his views.
He had been successful in his trade, and the fort he had just completed enabled him to keep the In- dians in awe, and command the entrance of the lake : he now determined on prosecuting his journey three hundred miles further into the country of the Illinois. Leaving ten men in the new fort, he proceeded up the river with the rest, and after a passage of four days,
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reached the stream that now bears the name of that tribe, and to which he gave that of Seignelay.
Lasalle had now forty men, besides the three friars and the chevalier. Advancing by small journeys, and making frequent excursions to view the country, he came about Christmas to a village of nearly five hundred cabins. It was entirely deserted : the ca- bins were open and at the mercy of the traveller .- Each was divided into two apartments generally, and coarsely built; the outside covered with mud and the inside with mats. Under each, was a cellar full of corn; an article which the French greatly needed, and of which they did not neglect the opportunity of supplying themselves. Pursuing their way ninety miles further, they came to a lake about twenty miles in circumference, in which they found a great deal of fish. Crossing it, they found themselves again in the current of the river, and came to two Indian camps; On perceiving the party, the natives sent their wo- men and children into the woods, and ranged them- selves in battle array, on each side of the stream. Lasalle having put his men in a posture of defence, one of the Indian chiefs advanced, and asked who they were and what was their object in thus coming among thein. Lasalle directed his interpreter to an- swer the party were French; their object was to make the God of heaven known to the natives, and offer them the protection of the king of France, and to trade with them. The Illinois tendered their pipes to their visitors and received them with great cordiality. The French gave them brandy and some tools of husbandry, in return for the provisions taken in their village. Pleased at this token of good faith, the Indians desired Lasalle to tarry, and allow them to entertain him and his men. The women and chil- dren came forward, and venison and dried buffalo
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meat, with roots and fruit were presented, and three days were spent in convivial mirth.
With the view of impressing his hosts with awe, Lasalle made his people fire two volleys of musketry. The wonder excited by this unexpected thunder had the desired effect. ' It was improved by the erection of a fort near the river. Uneasy, at his being with- out intelligence of the barque he had sent to Niagara, richly laden with furs and peltries, and at an appear- ance of discontent. which forebode mutiny among his men, he gave the fort the name of Creve Coeur, Heart Break.
Till now his journey had been fortunate : he had carried his discoveries to the distance of fifteen hun- dred miles. Forts had been erected at reasonable distances to mark and preserve the possession he had taken of the country. The Indian nations had all willingly or otherwise yielded to his views : the most refractory had suffered him to pass. But his men appeared now tired down, from the length of a jour- ney, the issue of which appeared uncertain, and dis- pleased to spend their time in deserts among wild men; always without guides, often without food .- They broke out in murmurs against the projector and leader of a fatiguing and perilous ramble. His quick penetration did not allow any thing to escape him. He soon discovered their discontent and the mis- chievous designs of some of them, and exerted himself 'to avert the impending storm. Assurance of good treatment, the hope of glory, and the successful ex- ample of the Spaniards, were laid before his men to calm their minds. Some of the discontented, who had gained an ascendency over part of the rest, represen- ted to them how idle it was to continue the slaves of the caprice and the dupes of the visions and imagi- nary hopes of a leader, who considered the distresses
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they had borne, as binding them to bear others .- They asked whether they could expect any other re- ward, for protracted slavery, than misery and indi- gence, and what could be expected, at the end of a journey, almost to the confines of the earth, and in- accessible seas, but the necessity of returning poorer and more miserable than when they began it. They advised, in order to avert the impending calamity, to return, while they had sufficient strength; to part from a man who sought his own and their ruin; and aban- don him to his useless and painful discoveries. They adverted to the difficulty of a return, while their leader by his intelligence and his intrigues, had insured, at the expense of their labours and fatigues, the means of overtaking and punishing them as deserters. They asked whither they could go, with- out provisions or resources of any kind. The idea was suggested of cutting the tree by the root, ending their misery by the death of the author of it, and thus availing themselves of the fruits of their labours and fatigues. The individuals, who were ready to give their assent to this proposal, were not in sufficient number. It was, however, determined to endeavour to induce the Indians to rise against La- salle, in the hope of reaping the advantage of the murder, without appearing to have participated in it.
The heads of the mutineers approached the na- tives, with apparent concern and confidence, told them, that, grateful for their hospitality, they were alarmed at the danger, which threatened them; that Lasalle had entered into strong engagements with the Iroquois, their greatest enemies; that he had advanced into their country to ascertain their strength, build a fort to keep them in subjection. and his meditated return to Fort Frontenac had no LOU. I. 12
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other object, than to convey to the Iroquois the in- formation he had gained, and invite them to an ir- ruption, while his force among the Illinois was ready to co-operate with them.
Too ready an car was given to these allegations ; Lasalle discovered instantly a change in the con- duct. of the Indians. but not at first its cause. He was successful in his endeavours to obtain a dis- closure of it. He communicated to the Indians, the grounds he had of suspecting the perfidy of some of, his men. He asked how impossible it was, that he could connect himself with the Iroquois. He said, he considered that nation as a perfidious one, and there could be neither credit nor safety in an alliance with these savages, thirsting for human blood, without faith, law or humanity, and instiga- ted only by their brutality and interest. He added, he had declared himself the friend of the Illinois, and opened his views to them on his arrival among them.
The smallness of his force precluded the belief of an intention in him to subdue any Indian tribe, and the ingenuous calmness with which he spoke, gained him credit ; so that the impression, made by some of his men on the Indians, appeared totally effaced.
This success was, however, of small duration. An Indian of the Mascoutan, (a neighbouring tribe) called Mansolia, an artful fellow, was engaged by the Iroquois, to induce the Illinois to cut off the French. He loitered till night came on, in the neighbourhood of the camp; then entering it, stop- ping at different fires, and having made presents to, and collected the head men, he opened the subject of his mission. He began, by observing that the common interest of all the Indian tribes, but the par-
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ticular one of his and the Illinois, had induced his countrymen to depute him to the latter, to consult on the means of averting an impending calamity ; that the French made rapid strides, in their attempt to subjugate every nation from the lakes to the sea ; employing not only their own men, but the Indians themselves; that their alliance with the Iroquois was well known, and the fort, they had erected among the Illinois, was only a prelude to further encroach- ments, as soon as they were joined by their confe- derates; and if they were suffered to remain unmo- lested, it would soon be too late to resist, and the evil prove without a remedy ; but while they were so small in number and that of the Illinois was so superior, they might be easily destroyed, and the blow they meditated warded off.
This fellow's suggestions, deriving strength from their coincidence with those of Lasalle's men, had the desired effect. The suspicions, which Lasalle's address and candour had allayed, were awakened, and the head men spent the night in deliberation.
In the morning, all the desultory hopes he had built on the apparent return of confidence, vanished on his noticing the cold reserve of some of the chiefs, and the unconcealed distrust and indignation of others. He vainly sought to discover the imme- diate cause of the change. He knew not whether it would not be better, to entrench himself in the fort. Alarmed and surprised, but unable to remain in suspense, he boldly advanced into the midst of the Indians, collected in small groups, and speaking their language sufficiently to be understood, he asked, whether he would ever have to begin and ever see diffidence and distrust on their brows. He observed, he had parted with them the preceding eve in peace and friendship, and he now found them armed and
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some of them ready to fall on him: he was naked and unarmed in the midst of them, their ready and willing victim, if he could be convicted of any ma- chination against them.
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Moved at his open and undaunted demeanor, the Indians pointed to the deputy of the Mascoutans, sent to apprise them of his scheme and connection with their enemies. Rushing boldly towards him, Lasalle, in an imperious tone, demanded what token, what proof existed of this alleged connection. Mansolia, thus pressed, replied, that in circumstan- ces, in which the safety of a nation was concerned, full evidence was not always required to convict suspicious characters; the smallest appearances often sufficed to justify precautions ; and as the ad- dress of the turbulent and seditious consisted in the dissimulation of their schemes, that of the chiefs of a nation did in the prevention of their success; in the present circumstances, his past negociations with the Iroquois, his intended return to Fort Fronte nac, and the fort he had just built, were sufficient presumptions to induce the Illinois to apprehend danger, and take the steps necessary to prevent their fall into the snare he seemed to prepare.
Lasalle replied, it behoved the Illinois to pre- pare means of defence ; but not against the French, who had come among them to protect and unite them in an alliance with the other tribes, under the patronage of the king of France; that the Iro- quois had already subjugated the Miamis, Quicha- poos and the Mascoutanks, they now sought to add the Illinois to these nations; but they durst not make the attempt while they were connected with the French, and with the view of depriving them of the advantage, they derived from their union, they had made use of an individual of a conquered tribe
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as an emissary, greatly apprehending little · credit would be given to one of their own; that all the in- tercourse he had with the Iroquois, was the purchase of a few skins; that he had built Fort Frontenac and another on the Miami to arrest their progress (a cir- cumstance that excited their jealousy) and Fort Cre- vecœur was erected to protect the Illinois, and such of his men as remained with them.
Ilis uniform candour, since he came among the Illinois, gained him credit with them; and Mansolia at last confessed the Iroquois had caused the rumour of his connexion with them to be spread, in order to excite distrust against him among the Illinois.
A good understanding being now restored, Lasalle finding himself on a stream that led to the Mississip- pi, divided his men into two parties; one of which was to ascend the great river, reconnoitre the country near its shores, visit the tribes below, as far as the sea, and enter into alliances with them. The other party was to remain in the fort.
Some of his men, seeing him making preparations for his departure, and finding it impossible to coun- teract his views, determined on destroying him. Ac- cordingly. on Christmas day, they threw poison into the kettle, in which his dinner was preparing, ex- pecting, that if they could get rid of him and his principal officers, they could obtain all the goods and other property in the fort. The scheme was very near being successful. A few minutes after the officers rose from table, they were attacked with convulsions and cold sweats. Suspecting what had happened, they took theriack instantly, and this attention prevented the consequences of the dire attempt. These wretches, perceiving their conduct
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could not pass unnoticed, fled into the woods, and escaped the pursuit of their commander.
Dacan was selected for the command of the party, which was intended for the expedition to the Missis- sippi. Father Louis Hennepin, attended it as Chap- lain; it left Fort Crevecoeur on the twenty-eighth of February 1680. Descending the river of the Illi- nois to the Mississippi, Dacan ascended the latter stream to the forty-sixth degree of northern latitude, where his progress was stopped by a fall, to which he gave the name of St. Anthony, which it still re- tains. There the party was attacked and defeated by a body of the Sioux, and led into captivity. They did not experience much ill treatment, and were at last enabled to effect their escape, by the aid of some French traders from Canada. On re- gaining their liberty, they floated down the river to the sea, according to some accounts, and according to others to the river of the Arkansas, and returned to Fort Crevecœur.
The year 1680, is remarkable for the grant of Charles the second, to William Penn, of the terri- tory that now constitutes the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. The grantee, who was one of the people called Quakers, imitating the example of Gulielm Usseling and Roger Williams, disowned a right to any part of the country included within his charter, till the natives voluntarily yielded it on receiving a fair consideration. There exists not any other example of so liberal a conduct towards the Indians of North America, on the erection of a new colony. The date of Penn's charter is the twen- tieth of February.
Lasalle had remained in Fort Crevecoeur, after the departure of his men under Dacan, until the fall,
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and having given the command of its small garrison to the Chevalier de Tonti, left it for Fort Frontenac early in November. On the third day of his march, he reached the first village of the Illinois. Noticing a beautiful situation, in the neighbourhood of seve- ral tribes, the Miamis, Outagemis, the Kickapoos, the Ainous and Mascoutangs, he determined on building a fort on an eminence, which commanded the country, as a means of keeping the Indians in awe, and a stopping place or retreat for his country- men. While he was there, two men whom he had sent in the fall to Michillimachinac, in order to pro- cure intelligence of a barque, which he had ordered to be built there, joined him. They reported that they had not been able to obtain any information. In fact, they had set fire to her, after having sold her lading to the Iroquois; a circumstance which Lasalle strongly suspected. He sent them to the Chevalier with a plan of the intended fort, and directions to come and execute it. He now proceeded on his way towards Fort Frontenac.
The Chevalier had hardly arrived and began the fort, before the officer he had left at the head of the garrison of Fort Crevecoeur, sent to apprise him, that the two men, lately come from Michillimachinack, having found associates among the soldiers, had pil- laged the fort, and fled into the woods; leaving only seven or eight men, who had refused to join them. This induced the Chevalier to return. He found Fort Crevecœur entirely destitute, and took mea- sures to conceal this misfortune from the Indians, and to make it known to Lasalle.
A large party of the Iroquois fell on the Illinois; a circumstance which induced some of the latter, to apprehend that there might be some truth in the report of an alliance between their enemy and the
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French. The Chevalier, having no force to assist the Illinois, successfully afforded them his good of- fices as a mediator, with the aid of fathers Gabriel and Zenobe, who had remained with him. It was believed in Canada, that the Iroquois had been ex- cited by the English at Albany and the enemies of . Lasalle.
Charles the second having disowned the invasion of Acadie in 1674, and it having been accordingly restored to the French, with the fort of Pentagoet, and that of the river St. John, a small settlement had been formed at Port Royal. The English had built a fort between the rivers Kennebeck and Pentagoet, which they had called Penkuit. The Abenaquis . claimed the country on which it stood, and complain- ed of its erection. The English induced the Iro- . quois to fall on these Indians, who being unable at once to withstand these white and red enemies, re- conciled themselves to the former. The English, being so far successful, invaded Acadie and took the forts at Pentagoet and the river St. John. Valliere, who commanded at Port Royal, could not prevent . the inhabitants from surrendering that place. Thus were the French once more driven from the country.
Lasalle in the meanwhile, arrived at Fort Creve- cœur, and placed a garrison of fifteen men there, under a trusty officer, and proceeded up with work- men to finish the other which he called Fort St. Louis. Leaving the workmen in it, he hastened to meet the Chevalier at Michillimachinack, which he reached on the fifteenth of August. After having refreshed himself and his men for a few days, he sat off with the Chevalier and father Zenobe for Fort Frontenac. After a day's sail, he reached a village of the Iroquois, where he traded for peltries, and leaving his two companions there, he proceeded to
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'the fort, from whence he sent a barque loaded with merchandise, provisions and ammunition, and a num- ber of recruits." The Chevalier and the father went in her to the neighbourhood of the falls of Niagara, where taking her lading over land to lake Erie, after a short navigation, they landed on the shores of the. Miami. Here the Chevalier exchanged some goods for corn, and the party increased their provision of meat by the chase ; and were joined by a few French- men, and a number of Indians of the Abenaquis, Loup and Quickapoos.
They here tarried till the latter part of November, when, Lasalle having joined them, they ascended the river to the mouth of the Chicagou, and went up to a portage of a mile that led them to the river of the Illinois. They spent the night near a large fire, the cold being extremely intense. In the morning, the water courses being all frozen, they proceeded to an Indian village, in which they staid for several days. After visiting Fort St. Louis and Fort Crevecoeur, the weather softening, they floated down the river of the Illinois to the Mississippi, which they entered on the second of February.
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The party stopped a while at the mouth of the Missouri, and on the following day reached a village of the Tamoas, the inhabitants of which had left their houses to spend the winter in the woods. They made a short stay at the mouth of the Ohio, float- ing down to the Chickasaw bluffs, one of the par- ty, going into the woods, lost his way. This obli- ged Lasalle to stop. He visited the Indians in the neighbourhood, and built a fort, as a resting place for his countrymen navigating the river. At the so- licitation of the Chickasaw chiefs, he went to their principal village, attended by several of his men. They were entertained with mnuch cordiality, and I.OU. }.
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