History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761

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EXPLORING LAKE MICHIGAN.

La Salle remained behind, and with fourteen men and four canoes, heavily loaded with a blacksmith's forge, tools, merchandise, and arms, embarked on a voyage of explora- tion to the southward. They met a constant succession of storms, and would have perished of famine had not the na- tives generously supplied them with venison and corn. They had nearly come to blows with a band of Outagamies, but finally pacified them and exchanged presents.

About the first of November the party reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River, in Michigan, where Tonti was to have joined them, but he had not arrived. La Salle's men grumbled and clamored to be led on to the Illinois country ; but La Salle determined to wait for Tonti, who was to come up the eastern shore with twenty men.

FORT MIAMIS.

To divert the thoughts of his followers from gloomy forebodings, he set them at work erecting a fort of logs near the mouth of the river. This work he named Fort Miamis, probably from the fact that the Miami nation were found occupying the country.

This was the first post established within the limits of the lower peninsula.} Singular as it may seem, since 1615, when Champlain had approached very near the boundaries of Michigan, the posts and missions had been established, as it were, in a semicircle around the lower peninsula, with not a single one inside its limits. The mission of St. Ig- nace was on the northern side of the Strait of Mackinac ; St. François Xavier was at Green Bay ; St. Simon was on the Grand Manitoulin Island of Lake Huron, and St. Marie at the foot of Lake Superior. Posts were subse- quently established on the south side of the Straits of Mackinac, at the foot of Lake Huron, and in various other places within the peninsula.

At the end of twenty days, when the fort was well ad- vanced, Tonti arrived, but brought with him only ten men ; the remainder had been left, for want of provisions, thirty leagues behind, to sustain themselves by hunting.

* Named "St. Claire" from the fact that it was first seen on the 12th of August, which is known in the Catholic calendar as St. Claire's day. Its Huron or Wyandot name was Otsiketa.

t This name will generally be written Mackinac instead of Mich- ilimackinac, according to the early style.

į Previous to 1721, when Charlevoix visited this post, it had been removed to the site of South Bend, in Indiana,-Judge Campbell's Outlines of History.

LA SALLE.

La Salle directed Tonti to return and hurry them on, but a violent storm wrecked his canoe, and with the loss of arms and provisions he rejoined La Salle. A few days later the remaining men joined the party. But there were no tid- ings of the " Griffin." Extremely anxious about her, La Salle sent two men to Mackinac to meet her if she re- turned, and pilot her to his fort on the Miamis.

ON THE ILLINOIS.

On the 3d of December the entire party, consisting of thirty-three persons, embarked in eight canoes, and, ascend- ing the St. Joseph to the present site of the city of South Bend, Ind., crossed over to the head-waters of the Kan-ka- kee,* and descended that stream to its junction with the Illinois, near the present little village of Channahon, in Will Co., Ill. Here they began to encounter the buffalo, though not in great plenty. On and around the site of the present village of Utica, in La Salle County, they found a great town, occupied by the Illinois Indians, containing about five hundred lodges and a population of several thousands.

Here was the principal centre of all the Indian nations living within the bounds of the State of Illinois. At times there were as many as ten or twelve populous vil- lages, and Franquelin's map of 1684 shows seven villages, containing in the aggregate about four thousand warriors. They included tribes or families of the Illinois, Miamis, Chouanons (Shawanese), Kickapoos, etc.t

When La Salle and his companions reached these clus- tering villages they found them untenanted. The entire population was absent on its annual hunt. They found plenty of corn stowed away in caches, and helped them- selves. On New Year's day, 1680, they landed and heard mass. Continuing down the river, they reached a town of the Illinois, on the site of the present city of Peoria, about the 2d of January.

The Indians, to the number of eighty families, were at home and received their visitors with great hospitality at first, but an emissary, said to have been sent to them by Father Allouez, the Jesuit, then in the Miami country, and who bore no good-will towards La Salle, came secretly with presents and a cunning speech, and prejudiced them against La Salle. He, however, with his usual success among the savages, discovered and exposed the cheat, and regained their confidence. But his men became uneasy and at length began to desert him, six of them stealing away in the night. Attempts were also made, as in Canada, to poison him.

FORT CRÈVECŒUR.

In the midst of many difficulties, La Salle resolved to erect a strong fortification for the protection of his party from apprehended treachery among the Indians, and the security of his property. Accordingly, about the middle of January, 1680, he began the erection of a stockade work on a gentle knoll upon the east side of the river, at the narrows, where the stream leaves Peoria Lake, and a little below the present city.

The fort was defended by palisades twenty-five feet in height, by a wide ditch, and cheveaux-de-frise on the glacis.

This was the first civilized occupation of the State of Illinois, or at least the first attempt to plant a colony within the region now containing more than three million people and seven thousand miles of railway.

January, 1880, has seen two hundred years pass away since the brave explorer built his primitive work, which he named Fort Crèvecoeur (Broken Heart), as expressive of the state of his mind, surrounded as he was by innu- merable difficulties, and greatly troubled about his vessel, which had no doubt gone down amid the boisterous surges of Lake Huron. Not a vestige of the fort now remains, and its actual site is probably unknown.

La Salle, notwithstanding all his misfortunes, was not discouraged. He resolved to continue his discoveries. In order to do so it was necessary to build a vessel with which to navigate the Mississippi. Accordingly her keel was laid, and the work was prosecuted with such assiduity that in six weeks the hull was nearly completed. She was of about forty tons burden, and had high bulwarks to protect her people from the arrows of the Indians. Sails, rigging, and anchors were lacking, and to provide these La Salle pro- posed to return to Canada on foot and procure them, to- gether with supplies for future use.

In the mean time he bethought him that Hennepin might be employing his time to advantage, and instructed him to explore the Illinois River during his absence. Hen- nepin, with two companions and a canoe well laden with supplies and trinkets for Indian trade, left the fort on the last of February.

JOURNEY TO CANADA.

On the 2d of March, La Salle, with four Frenchmen and the Mohegan hunter, started on his return to Canada, leaving Tonti, with about fifteen men, most of them mutin- ous and altogether unreliable, to hold the place during his absence. La Salle and his party toiled up the river, some- times in open water, but oftener on the shore, dragging their canoes through the timber and over the frozen marsh until the third day, when they met Chassagoac, the princi- pal chief of the Illinois, with whom La Salle entered into an arrangement to supply Fort Crèvecœur with provisions. They killed a buffalo and dried the meat by a fire for future use, and continuing on their dreary journey, soon after passed the remarkable sandstone bluff since known as Starved Rock, which La Salle sent word to Tonti to examine and fortify in case of necessity. At a point several miles below the present city of Joliet they found the river completely closed with ice, and were compelled to leave their canoes and continue their journey on foot. They hid their canoes on an island, and, taking what each man could carry on his back, struck out in a direct line for Lake Michigan.

IN KALAMAZOO COUNTY.

They reached the lake on the 23d of the month, after crossing several swollen streams (probably branches of the Calumet), and traveling along the hard, sandy beach arrived at Fort Miamis on the 24th. Here he found the two men whom he had sent to Mackinac to look for the "Griffin,"

* This name is written by various writers Theakiki, Haukéké, Kia- kiki. It was also called by the French the Rivière Seignelay, Rivière des Macoupins, and Rivière de la Divine.

t The names Shawanese and Chouanons probably refer to the same nations.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

who reported no tidings of her. These he ordered to proceed overland and join Tonti, while he continued his course across Southern Michigan towards Canada.

As near as can be ascertained, the party followed the dividing ridge between the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo Rivers, which course would have taken them through the southern parts of Kalamazoo and Calhoun Counties, across Prairie Ronde and Climax Prairies, and thence through Jackson and Washtenaw Counties to the Huron River, in the vicinity of the present town of Dexter, where they con- structed a canoe of elm-bark and floated down the stream to the border of Wayne County, when, finding their way barred by fallen trees, they abandoned their canoe and struck across the country directly to the Detroit River .*

On the evening of the 28th of March they encamped on the border of a prairie in the edge of a forest. In the night the guard sounded an alarm, and every man sprang to his gun, while the forest resounded with savage yells. But the Indians, seeing them prepared, retired without molesting them. Leaving St. Joseph as they did at noon, on the 25th, they must have been on the borders of Prairie Ronde when this rencontre took place. The enemy were brought upon them by the reports of their guns in shoot- ing the plentiful game which would no doubt be found on the prairie, or near it, at that season of the year.

Several days later they were beset by a large war-party of Mascoutins or Kickapoos, but when they found they were Frenchmen they declared themselves friendly, and left them undisturbed.

At the Detroit River La Salle detached two of his men and sent them to Mackinac, as being the nearest place at which they could procure the necessaries of life, and with the remaining two he crossed the river on a raft and struck southeast for the nearest point on Lake Erie, and after marching about thirty miles reached it at Point Pelée. Here he constructed another canoe with the aid of the only man remaining in health, and from thence pursued his journey along the northern shore of the lake, and landed at the spot where the "Griffin" was built on Easter Monday.

At this place he found several of his men who had been left in the previous year, who gave him most discouraging tidings. The "Griffin," with her cargo of furs, valued at ten thousand crowns, was lost, and still worse, a ship from France freighted with his merchandise to the value of twenty-two thousand livres had been wrecked in the St. Lawrence, and was a total loss.

His followers were completely broken down, and could go no farther, but La Salle, taking three fresh men at Niagara, continued his journey and reached Fort Frontenac on the 6th of May. During sixty-five days he had been traveling through a wilderness more than a thousand miles in extent, where to-day the journey can be made in forty-eight hours. It was at the time the most remarkable experience perhaps in the history of the continent.

CHAPTER V.

LA SALLE-(Continued).

La Salle searching for Tonti-Tonti Among the Illinois-Hennepin on the Mississippi-Greysolon du Lhut.

INDOMITABLE under all his reverses, where man and nature seemed leagued against him, La Salle hastened to Montreal, where, despite his injured credit, he soon pro- cured everything which he required, and then hastened back to Frontenac to prepare for his return to the Illinois.

Here he received a letter from Tonti stating that nearly all the men left with him had deserted, after destroying Fort Crèvecœur. They had also destroyed Fort Miamis, on the St. Joseph, seized La Salle's property at Mackinac, and after being joined by others, had separated into two parties, one, of eight men, departing for Albany, and the other going down the lakes, with the avowed purpose of taking the life of La Salle.

Losing no time in vain lamentations, La Salle selected nine of his most trusty followers, and embarking in canoes on Lake Ontario, went forward to meet the villains, and managed so adroitly that he captured or killed nearly all of the last-named party and brought the prisoners to Fronte- nac to await the Governor's arrival.

Making hasty preparation, he departed from Frontenac on the 10th of August, accompanied by one La Forest and twenty-three men, for the Illinois River. His route was up the Humber River, down the Severn to Lake Huron, and thence to Mackinac, where he found everything hostile to him. Here he left La Forest to bring on the convoy, while, with twelve men, he continued rapidly on his journey, and reached his ruined fort on the St. Joseph November 4th.

At this place he left five men with his heavy stores, and with six Frenchmen and an Indian hurried forward up the St. Joseph and down the Kankakee to the Illinois River.

The prairies were alive with buffalo, and the party landed and hunted for three days, during which they killed twelve of the animals, besides numbers of deer, geese, and swans. The meat was cut into thin strips and dried, and with an abundant supply they again embarked and proceeded down the river. They found no signs of a fortification on the Rock of St. Louis, where La Salle had instructed Tonti to build, and pushing down the valley they reached the site of the Indian town only to find it a blackened ruin, with the bones of its inhabitants scattered over the plain and hundreds of human skulls fixed upon poles, while the wolves and buzzards were disputing over their foul repast. It was the work of the terrible Iroquois.

DISCOVERS THE MISSISSIPPI.

Determined to ascertain the fate of Tonti, he left three men hidden on an island in the river, and taking the other

* There can be very little doubt that La Salle passed through Kala- mazoo County in the last of March and beginning of April, 1680, for his journal speaks of passing through great meadows covered with rank grass, which they burned to throw the savages, who were follow- ing them, off their track. These meadows were no doubt the beauti-

ful prairies in the southern part of the county. A direct line from St. Joseph to Detroit would cross them. They also found plenty of game after two or three days' travel from the mouth of the St. Joseph, which would bring them just about to Prairie Ronde, at the rate which they must have traveled at that season of the year in snow and slush. The spring was a very late one, and the night of the 2d of April is mentioned as being so cold that their wet clothes were frozen.

LA SALLE.

four men in a canoe, started down the river. They found everywhere terrible destruction. Village after village de- stroyed and everything in ruins. Fort Crèvecoeur was found, as he had expected, destroyed, but the vessel remained en- tire, except that the Iroquois had found means to extract most of the nails and spikes. La Salle continued on to the mouth of the river, passing almost continually blackened camps and signs of flight and pursuit, and in one locality finding the remains of women and children who had been tortured by the savages, but no signs of Tonti and his men. The journey was continued to the mouth of the river, where La Salle first saw the Mississippi, but finding nothing, he drew a sketch of himself and party on a tree, and tying a letter to the same directed to Tonti, he began his return, and reached the rendezvous of his men after a run of four days.

Collecting a store of corn from the ruins of the Indian cachés, the whole party began the ascent of the river, which they followed to its junction with the Kankakee, where they left their canoes and traveled overland to Fort Mi- amis, which they reached about the middle of January, 1681, after an exhaustive tramp through the deep snow, which in places reached to the waist. At the fort on the St. Joseph they found La Forest and his party, who had rebuilt the work, cleared ground for planting, and prepared quite a quantity of timber and planks for a new vessel. Leaving La Salle and his men to rest themselves, we will for a brief period look after the fortunes of Tonti and his command.

TONTİ.

The two men whom La Salle had met at Fort Miamis, on his return to Canada, had rejoined Tonti and brought him and his men tidings of the disasters which had over- taken their commander. The news disheartened them, and they became uneasy and mutinous.

Following out La Salle's suggestion to examine and for- tify the great cliff on the upper Illinois, Tonti set out with a part of the men on that duty. In his absence, the re- mainder of his party destroyed Fort Crevecoeur, and fled from the spot. Two of them, however, remaining true to their commander, hastened to carry the news to Tonti, who immediately dispatched four of his men by two dif- ferent routes to inform La Salle. Tonti's party was now reduced to five men besides himself and the Récollet friars, and to lull the suspicions of the savages, and in some measure secure their friendship, they took up their resi- dence in the Indian town, taking along the forge and tools, and hoping to maintain themselves until the return of La Salle.

Suddenly, in the midst of their security, a thunder-bolt fell upon the Illinois. A Shawanese warrior, who had been on a visit among them, and recently departed for his own nation, reappeared, and hastily crossing the river, an- nounced that he had met a great army of Iroquois on their way to attack the Illinois. In a moment all was confusion : warriors whooped and yelled while swathing their arms for battle; women and children screamed; and a crowd of fren- zied savages thronged around Tonti and his companions, charging them with treachery, and threatening to take their lives. Tonti explained matters as well as he was able 4

to in broken Indian, but they were so exasperated that they seized his forge and tools and threw them into the river.

The gallant Italian finally so far convinced them of his innocence that they left him, and gathering their women, children, and effects together, hurried into their canoes and paddled down the stream to a large, marshy island, where they placed them for protection. Leaving sixty warriors to guard them, the remainder returned to the village, where the excited warriors busied themselves in putting on their grease and war-paint and making ready for a valiant defense, dancing the war-dance, and yelling around their fires through the entire night.

The young warriors had been scouting, and now they returned and reported that they had seen the enemy in great numbers along the forest bordering the river Ara- moni (the modern Vermilion). They were armed mostly with European weapons,-guns, pistols, and swords, and protected their bodies with corselets or mats made of pliant twigs interwoven with cordage. The scouts also reported that there was a Jesuit among them, and that La Salle himself was with the on-coming enemy.

At these latter tidings the Illinois were terribly incensed, and it seemed as if nothing could save the lives of Tonti and his men. He tried every means to pacify them, and, as a last resort, while they danced frantically around him, brandishing their knives and hatchets, he offered to go with them and fight the Iroquois. This allayed their clamor, and forming their battle-line, they crossed the river, and, with the Frenchmen conspicuous among them, swarmed over the precipitous bluff to the south, and out upon the prairie beyond, where they soon met the Iroquois advancing to the encounter.

In an instant the air was alive with missiles, and the prairie resounded far and near with the screeches and yells of the combatants. The Illinois, whose reputation for bra- very was not of a superior order, for once boldly faced their foes, and the battle waxed hot on all sides. But against the superior discipline and arms of the Iroquois, Tonti saw that the desperate valor of his allies would in the end avail but little, and he resolved to go forward and try the effect of negotiation.

The Iroquois professed to be at peace with the French, more through respect for the prowess of Count Frontenac than from love to his principles or followers, and Tonti rea- soned that, under this quasi condition of peace, he might possibly prevail upon them to forego their scheme of blood and plunder and leave the Illinois undisturbed. Accord- ingly he pressed boldly forward towards the dark line of savages, though the air hissed with bullets and arrow-heads, holding out a wampum peace-belt. A few moments and he was among the enemy, who howled and danced around him, brandishing their weapons and glaring upon him with frightful visages and eyes as of demons. A young savage stabbed at his heart with his keen knife, but, fortunately, missed his aim, though the weapon inflicted a severe wound across his breast. In his half-savage dress and swarthy complexion they took him for an Illinois, until a prominent chief, noticing that his ears were not ornamented, called out that he must be a Frenchman. At once he was treated with respect. They led him to the rear and tried to staunch

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

his bleeding, while the firing grew more furious in the front.

The chiefs held an angry parley, during which Tonti, breathless and bleeding from the blow he had received, managed to declare that the Illinois were under the protec- tion of the King of France, and demanded that they be let alone. This bold demand somewhat staggered them, but a reckless young Iroquois snatched Tonti's hat, and, holding it aloft on the point of his gun, made the Illinois believe he was slain, and thereupon they renewed the battle fiercer than before. Another warrior seized him by the hair as if to scalp him. A Seneca chief demanded that he should be burned, and an Onondaga chief, who was friendly to La Salle, was in favor of setting him at liberty. The dispute grew fierce and hot. Tonti told them that the Illinois were twelve hundred strong, and that there were sixty French- men in the village, well armed, who would help them fight the Iroquois unless they desisted from the attack.

This statement produced a favorable effect, and the friendly Onondaga carried his point. Diplomacy now took the place of trial by battle, and Tonti was sent back to the Illinois ranks with a belt of peace. The firing and whoop- ing ceased, and as Tonti, faint from loss of blood, staggered towards his friends, chiefs and warriors gathered around him with congratulations, and his own men greeted him as one from the dead.

The Illinois warriors now withdrew to their village, but the enemy followed them closely, and quite a number crossed the river and appeared among the lodges. Deeming discretion to be the better part of valor, the Illinois set fire to their lodges and proceeded down the river to where their women and children were encamped. The Iroquois took possession of their abandoned town, built themselves a re- doubt, and finished the work of destruction, wreaking their vengeance on even the burial-places of their enemies.

Tonti and his companions were removed to the Iroquois fort. and on the second day, when the Illinois appeared in great numbers among the hills, the Iroquois evinced much uneasiness, for they had tested the powers of the prairie warriors, and bearing Tonti's account of their numbers in their minds, they were more anxious to negotiate than to fight. It was now their turn to try the virtue of diplomacy, and they accordingly sent forward the leader of the French with proposals to the Illinois. The plan might have worked to the great advantage of the latter had not a young war- rior, whom they sent back with Tonti, forgotten the ordi- nary discretion of the savage. He made haste to show the great joy of his people at the prospect of peace, exposed their situation and stated their true numbers, and also the number of Frenchmen with them.

The Iroquois now vented their wrath upon Tonti, and it required his utmost efforts to extricate himself from the awkward dilemma. A treaty was finally concluded, but it proved to be only a cunning device of the Iroquois to lull their enemies into fancied security so that they might the more easily destroy them.

Tonti warned the Illinois of their danger, while the Iro- quois grew more jealous of him, and would have sacrificed his party had it not been deemed good policy to keep the peace with Frontenac. They came to him with presents of

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 761

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761