USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 17
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"Our Frenchmen and myself have scurcely caught sight of one an- other during the whole course of our journeys. and so we have not been able to give one another any assistance. They have had their crosses and I mine. Perhaps God gave more patience to them than to me: but I can say, nevertheless, that I have never thought, day or night, of this Outaonak expedition except with a sweetness and peace of spirit and a feeling of God's grace towards me, such as I would have difficulty in explaining to yon. We all fasted and very vigorously, contenting ourselves with some small fruits which were found rather seldom, and which are eaten nowhere else. Fortunate were those who could ehance upon a certain moss which grows upon the rocks, and of which a black soup is made. As to moose-skins; those who still had any, ate them in secret ; everything seemed good in time of hunger.
"But matters became much worse when, arriving at last at Lake Superior, after all this fatigue, instead of rest and refreshment, which we had been led to hope for, our canoe was shattered by the fall of a tree; nor could we hope to repair it, so mneh was it damaged. Every- one left us, and we remained alone, three savages and myself, without provisions and without canoe. We remained in this condition six days, living on some offal which we were obliged, in order not to die of hun- ger, to serape up with our finger nails around a hut which had been abandoned in this place some time ago. We pounded up the bones which we found there to make soup of them; we collected the blood of slain animals, with which the ground was soaked; in a word, we
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made food of everything. One of us was always on the watch at the waterside to implore pity of the passersby, from whom we obtained some bits of dried flesh which kept us from dying. until at last some men had mercy on us and came and took us on board to transport us to the rendezvous where we were to pass the winter. This was a large bay on the south side of Lake Superior, where I arrived on St. Theresa's day; and I had the consolation of saying mass there, to pay myself with interest for all my past woes. It was here that I began a Chris- tian community, which is composed of the Flying Church of the Say- age Christians, more nearly adjacent to our French settlements and one of those whom God's compassion has drawn hither."
In remembrance of the day. on reaching L'Anse Bay Father Menard named it St. Theresa's bay. He landed on the east side of the bay but, as the Indians were far from hospitable, he with his eight French com- panions who had now come together after their long voyage prepared to winter at a short distance from the Indian settlement. During the winter he made frequent attempts to interest the Indians of the vil- lage in the Christian religion, but with slight success, and he decided that on the coming of spring he would move on to other tribes farther to the west. Before leaving L'Anse bay and on the second day of July, 1561, Father Menard wrote his last letter. He left on his west- ern voyage in company with a guide, since which time no authentic news of him has ever been obtained. Whether he was lost in the woods and died, or whether he was betrayed and murdered, is a matter only of conjecture. Evidence has been claimed to indicate his having reached Black river, Wisconsin, and traveled down that stream, while again, remains have been found on the Sturgeon river, Michigan, that are elaimed to be his, and from which it is argued that after leaving L'Anse his mission was southward to the Menominees. The world will prob- ably never know anything of the details of his travels from L'Anse bay, or of his death, but he is recorded as the third missionary to the Lake Superior country, all of whom laid down their lives before their missions were taken up by other hands.
About this time, in 1664, the Company of the Hundred Associates, having been redneed in numbers, surrendered its charter and the king of France granted to the "Company of the West Indies" all the rights the former company had, and, in its interest. Marquis de Tracy came to New France and he not only prosecuted the commerce in furs, but encouraged settlements and the development of natural resources.
Soon thereafter there came to this Peninsula. Rev. Cland Allouez, who passed up the St. Mary's river September 1, 1665. on his way from Three Rivers to La Point du St. Esprit. From his writings it appears that the hardships of his trip were akin to those narrated by Father Menard, and that his savage companions imposed cruelties upon him throughout the course of the perilous voyage, but he bore them in fortitude, firmly impressed thereby with the necessity of his work of conversion. Hle re-christianed Lake Superior as "Lac Tracy au Su-
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perior." in honor of the new head of the local government, as the name appears on the map published later by Allonez and Marquette. He also notes the existence of copper and that there are evidences of former mining. Allonez mentioned that pieces of copper were found weighing from ten to twenty pounds. He says: "I have seen several such pieces in the hands of the savages who regard the metal as very precious and guard it with jealous care. For some time there was seen near the shore a large rock of copper with its top rising above the water, which gave opportunity to those passing by to cut pieces from it. but when I passed that vicinity it had disappeared." He gathered and sent back to Talon specimens of native copper, and re- ported the information gained from the Indians in regard thereto. He spent two years among the Indians, and then, convoyed by twenty can- oes of Indians, he returned to Quebec, arriving there August 3, 1667. where he set forth to his superior the importance of the work at La Point and of the establishing of a mission at Sault Ste. Marie, because of that being a gathering place of Indians from many tribes. He pre- pared to return immediately, but his Indian companions refused him return passage, and he found a fitting companion in Father Louis Nicholas, with whom he and three others who tendered their services to the missions, without pecuniary reward, set out upon his second voyage to Lake Superior and to his mission at La Point, where he con- tinned his work most sneccessfully for two years, when, in 1669, he again returned to Quebec to ask permission to establish a mission at Green bay.
Before this, however, Father Jacques Marquette had been sent from Montreal, April 21. 1668, to Santt Ste. Marie, where he erected n chapel, and built a stockade. There were several Frenchmen who ac- companied Father Marquette on this journey, coming not only as an escort for him, but for purposes of trade.
Father Allouez again came west accompanied by Father Claud Dablon, who was familiar with the languages of the Algonquins, and at Sault Ste. Marie he so arranged that Father Dablon was left in charge of the mission there, while Father Marquette went to the La Point mission previously established by Father Allouez, and Father Allonez went to Green bay, called then "Bay des Puants." to estab- lish a mission at that point.
Of Sault Ste. Marie. Father Dablon, in his report as found in the "Relations," writes and sets forth its natural attractions and advan- tages as follows: "What is commonly called the Sault is not properly a sault, or a very high waterfall, but a very violent current of waters from Lake Superior, which, finding themselves checked by a great num- ber of rocks, that dispute their passage, form a dangerous cascade of half a league in width, all these waters descending and phinging head- long together, as if down a flight of stairs, over the rocks which bar the whole river. It is three leagues below Lake Superior and twelve leagnes above the Lake of the Hurons, this entire extent making a
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beautiful river, cut up by many islands, which divide it and increase its width in some places so that the eye cannot reach across. It flows very gently through almost its entire course, being difficult of passage only at the Sault.
"It is at the foot of these rapids, and even amid these boiling wa- ters, that extensive fishing is carried on, from spring until winter, of a kind of fish found usually only in Lake Superior and Lake Huren. It is called in the native language Atticameg, and in ours white-fish. because, in truth, it is very white, and it is most excellent, so that it furnishes food. almost by itself to the greater part of all these people. This convenience of having fish in such quantities that one has only to go and draw them ont of the water, attracts the surrounding natives to this spot during the summer. These people, being wanderers, without fields and without corn, and living for the most part only by fishing, find here the means to satisfy their wants; and at the same time we embrace the opportunity to instruct them and train them in Chris- tianity during their sojourn at this place. Therefore we had been ob- liged to establish here a permanent mission which is the center of the others, as we are here surrounded by different nations, of which the following are those who sustain relations to the place, repairing hither to live on its fish.
"The principal and native inhabitants of this district are those who call themselves Pahonitingwach Irini, and whom the French call Sault- eurs, because it is they who live at the Sault, as in their own country. the others being there only as borrowers. They comprise one hundred and fifty souls, but have united themselves with three other nations which number more than five hundred and fifty persons, to whom they have, as it were, made a cession of the rights of their native country, and so these live here permanently except the time when they are out hunting. Next come those who are called the Nonquet, who extend to- ward the south of Lake Superior, whence they take their origin; and the Outichibous, together with the Marameg, toward the north of the same lake, which region they regard as their own proper country."
After mentioning other nations tributary to the mission Father Dablon continnes: "The nomadie life led by the greater part of the savages of these countries lengthens the progress of their conversion, and leaves them only a very little time for receiving the instructions that we give them. To render them more stationary. we have fixed our abode here, where we cause the soil to be tilled, in order to induce them by our example to do the same; and in this several have already begun to imitate us.
"Moreover we have had a chapel erected, and have taken care to adorn it, going farther in this than one would dare promise himself in a country so destitute of all things. We there administer baptism to children, as well as adults, with all the ceremonies of the church, and admonish the new Christians during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The old men attend on certain days to hear the word of God.
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and the children gather there every day to learn the prayers and the Catechism."
The importance of the work at this point was immediately recog- nized, and in 1670 Father Dablon was joined by Fathers Gabriel Droil- lette and Louis Andre, but Andre was sent forward to the Algonquins among whom he remained about two years. During the same year there also came to the Sault, Francois Dollier de Casson and Rene de Brebant de Galinee, Sulpitian priests, who, having started on an ex- pedition with La Salle, learned of the country around the Sault and so betook themselves alone to this section.
The Jesuits at the Sault did not apparently relish the idea of any intrusion upon their territory by the priests of any other order, and the new comers were made to know that their absence would be appre- ciated, and they returned the same season to Montreal.
This same year (1670) Father Allouez, from his station at Green bay, went to the Sault to confer with Father Dublon, and the two re- turned together to Green bay and considered the necessities thereabout, and then Father Dablon returned, stopping at Michillimackinac pre- paratory to opening a mission there. During the absence of Father Dablon from the Sault, the chapel and the house of the missionaries were burned, which was a serious calamity to the Christian workers of the wilderness, but they were undanuted, and appear to have been well provided with means to procure every necessity within their reach, and thus the burned buildings were soon replaced with others said to have been better and more splendidly furnished than were the first.
LUSSON AT SAULT STE. MARIE
Louis XIV, then King of France, was in sympathy with the work of the missionaries and to Monsieur Tulon, then governor general of New France, he issued orders to aid the missions and to cause his sovereignty to be recognized by the most remote nations. Accordingly, Sieur de Saint Lusson was appointed as an emissary of the king of France to take possession of "the territories lying between the east and west from Montreal as far as the South Sea, covering the utmost extent and range possible." On this important mission De Saint Lus- son arrived at Sault Ste. Marie on May 16, 1671, to be present at an assembly of many nations to be held in June of the year, pursuant to arrangements that were made by Nicholas Perrot, who had been dis- patched thither by M. Talon the previous year, and who had on that mission, in 1670, explored Lake Michigan (then called Lake Illinois) as far south as the present city of Chicago, and had invited the In- dian nations of that and intervening sections to meet him in grand couneil to be held at the Sault the following spring, there to be taken under the protection of the king.
The proceedings of the grand council were well intended to im- press the natives with a feeling of awe for the new comers. Naturally. as governmental authority and religious supremacy were lodged in
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the same persons, the council partook of the sanetity, the power and the splendor that the combination afforded. On the 4th day of June, 1671, De Saint Lusson opened the council on the heights overlooking the Indian village. There were present the black robed Jesuit fa- thers, Claud Dablon, Gabriel, Druilete, Claud Allouez and Louis An- dre, the dignified solemnity of whose presence was relieved by the im- posing splendor of the uniformed soldiers with gleaming and flashing weapons. Representatives of fourteen nations of Indians were also in attendance.
First in the order of the proceedings a large wooden cross, pre- pared for the occasion, was blessed by Father Dablon and then it was raised to the tune of the hymn of St. Bernard, in the singing of which both priests and soldiery joined. Following the hymn, prayer was of- fered for the king, and then De Saint Lusson formally declared posses- sion of the regions in the name of the king of France, and there fol- lowed shouts of "Long live the King," and musketry was discharged to the astonishment of many of the Indian visitors who then, for the first time, were given to see the splendor and the power of the arms of France.
The purpose of the occasion, and the earnestness with which those men worked to that purpose cannot be better told than hy quoting the words of Father Allonez, who, being most familiar with the Ot- tawa dialect, was appointed to deliver the address. He spoke as fol- lows: "Here is an excellent matter brought to your attention, my brothers; a great and important matter, which is the cause of this coun- cil. Cast your eyes upon the cross raised so high above your heads; there it was that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, making himself man for the love of men, was pleased to be fastened and to die, in atonement to his Eternal Father for our sins. He is the Master of our lives, of Heaven, of Earth, and of Hell. Of Him I have always spoken to you, and His name and word I have borne into all these countries.
"But look likewise at that other post, to which are affixed the ar- morial bearings of the great Captain of France, whom we call King. He lives beyond the sea, he is the Captain of the greatest Captains, and has not his equal in the world. All the Captains you have ever seen, or of whom you have ever heard. are mere children compared with him. He is like a great tree, and they only like little plants that are trodden un- der foot in walking. You know about Onnontio, that famous Captain of Quebec. You know and feel that he is the terror of the Iroquois, and that his very name makes them tremble. now that he has laid waste their country and set fire to their villages. Beyond the sea there are ten thousand Onnontios like him, who are only the soldiers of the great Cap- tain, our great King, of whom I am speaking. When he says . I am go- ing to war,' all obey him; and those ten thousand Captains raise com- panies of one hundred soldiers each both on sea and on land. Some embark in ships, one or two hundred in number like those you have seen at Quebec. Your canoes hold only four or five men-or, at the
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very most ten or twelve. Our ships in France hold four or five hundred, and even as many as a thousand. Other men make war by land, but in such vast numbers that, if drawn up in a double file, they would extend farther than from here to Mississaquenk, although the distance exceeds twenty leagues. When he attacks he is more terrible than the thunder ; the earth trembles, the air and the sea are set on fire by the discharges of his cannon; while he has been seen mid his squadrons, all covered with the blood of his foes, of whom he has slain so many with his sword that he does not count their scalps, but the rivers of blood which he sets Howing. So many prisoners of war does he lead away, that he makes no account of them, letting them go about whither they will, to show that he does not fear them. No one now dares make war upon him, all nations beyond the sea having most submissively sued for peace. From all parts of the world, people go to listen to his words and to admire him, and he alone decides all affairs of the world.
"What shall I say of his wealth? You count yourselves rich when you have ten or twelve sacks of corn, some hatchets, some glass beads, kettles or other things of that sort. He has towns of his own, more in miiber than you have people in all these countries, two hundred leagues around; while in each town there are warehouses containing enough hatchets to cut down all your forests, kettles to cook all your moose, and glass beads to fill all your cabins. His house is longer than from here to the head of the Sault-that is, more than half a league; and higher than the tallest of your trees; and it contains more families than the largest of your villages can hold."
To further impress the natives of the Sault and the visiting natives with the importance and power of the king of France and therefore with the advantages to be derived by them by submitting to his sov- ereignty, the celebration was continued throughont the evening and while bonfires lit up the rapids of the river, and set off the grandeur of the neighboring hills, the Indians were presented with gifts to carry to their homes as mementos of the friendship of the king. It may be mentioned here that it is claimed the first historical use of the name "Chicago" was in the proceedings of this couneil.
It was in this same year (1671) that Father Marquette returned from the mission at La Point and established the mission of St. Igna- tius at the site of the old town of Michilimackinac, following there a band of HInrons who moved from La Pointe on account of trouble with other bands.
The plans and proceedings of the great council, accompanied by the establishment of further missions, were well calculated to result in the maintenance of peace among the nations, and their friendship for the king, as well as the final Christianizing of the savages and the building of a civilized nation of red men, but the fates seem to have forbidden such a conclusion ; and at this distant day we can realize that the sav- age nation of that day did not furnish a sufficiently stable foundation, or sufficiently pliable material on and of which to formulate an endur-
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ing civilization. The Indians of this region had come to live in fear of the mighty and warlike Sioux, and these fears were hard to allay; and thus the inhabitants about the Sault continued to live in dread of an attack, even in spite of the promises of Saint Lusson for their protection by snel a mighty king.
THE MARQUETTE-JOLIET VOYAGE
At St. Ignatius, Marquette learned from the Indians of the existence of a great river to the west, which was said to flow through fertile lands that were peopled with tribes who had never heard of the Gospel of Christ, and he was filled with a desire to explore that country, preach to its people and discover whether the great river flowed to the Gulf of Mexico or to the Pacific ocean. The locality of St. Ignace had been theretofore a favorite resort for the Indians on account of the abun- dance of fish and game. Marquette recognized its additional strategie advantages as holding control of the water highway to the farther west and it was because of his early recognition of these numerous ad- vantages that, in 1671, he established the mission at the old town of -Michilimackinac. While he was a great and devoted missionary, he was also a worthy explorer, whose scientific mind and ambitions tem- perament were stirred by the wonderful opportunities which the sur- rounding country opened to the future inhabitants of the realm.
Under the sanction of the king. and still pursning the hope of dis- covery of a passage to the Pacific ocean, Count Frontenae, successor to Talon, who had retired in failing health, sent Joliet to Michilimack- inac where he joined Father Marquette, and they prepared for their journey of exploration and discovery the following spring. In 1673. May 17th, these two men set out from St. Ignace in two bark canoes, with five Frenchmen and a goodly supply of provisions. They took their course down the shore of Lake Michigan and Green bay, thence up the Fox river to Lake Winnebago, and across the country and down the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi which they discovered Jime 17. 1673. They followed down that river to the month of the Arkansas, where Marquette concluded the course of the stream was to the Gulf of Mexico. After a few days of rest and conference with the natives. the explorers set out upon their return, reaching Green bay in Sep- tember.
In the meantime Father Marquette had been transferred to this mission and, being tired from the effects of his long journey, he stopped at this mission while Joliet proceeded to Quebee to make reports of their discoveries. Abont a year later Marquette again set ont upon another southward trip, this time with a view to establishing a mission among the Indians of Illinois. He was in feeble health and stopped for the winter a short distance np the Chicago river from its mouth. On his return the following spring. he was too feeble to stand the jour- ney, and, with his companions, disembarked on the shores of Lake Michigan at the month of the Pere Marquette river, where he died
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FATHER MARQUETTE'S STATUE AT MARQUETTE
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May 19, 1675. There his companions buried his body and erected a cross to murk the site of his grave, but from this place the bones of his body were removed the following year, by friendly Indians from vari- ous tribes, to St. Ignace, where they were buried with proper ceremo- nies in a vault beneath the chapel, the ceremonies having been in charge of Father Nouvel, then superior, assisted by Futher Pierson, This chapel was destroyed by fire in 1700, and the site seems to have been lost truck of for nearly two hundred years, until, in 1877, Father Jaeker identified the spot and there was erected thereon a murble monu- ment. Later, and in 1909, a monument more befitting the memory of this great and good man was erceted, and was unveiled by the daugh- ter of the late Peter White, with appropriate accompanying ceremonies.
LA SALLE AND TONTY
Rene Robert Cuvalier, Sienr de La Salle, is another prominent fig- ure in American history who comes in for a place in the early affairs of this section when we were of the province of New France. He had been educated as a Jesuit for the priesthood, but his inclinations were toward a business life, and he became active as an emissary of the gov- ernment in the extension of its interests in New France; there he be- came actively interested in exploratory work as early as 1669, when, with funds from the sale of his own property, he fitted out his Ohio expedition.
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