History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 6

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

USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan > Part 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

beaver-skins, and flattering words, while at the same time they were constructing canoes with which to attack the Illinois stronghold. Tonti demanded when they were going to depart and leave the Illinois in peace. They prevaricated and made evasive answers, until one more bold or more heedless than the rest openly declared that before they departed they would eat Illinois flesh. At this avowal Tonti indignantly kicked their presents from him, and told them he would have none of them ; whereupon the Iroquois drove him from their presence in a rage. Through the following night the French stood guard, expecting every moment an attack.

Finding all his efforts for the protection of the Illinois unavailing, Tonti concluded to leave them and the Iroquois to settle their own affairs, and, embarking in a leaky canoe, took his way up the river. Stopping, after paddling for about five leagues, to rest and repair their canoe, one of the friars, Father Ribourde, strolled away from the party for meditation, and was captured and murdered by a strolling band of Kickapoos, who were reconnoitering the Iroquois.

Tonti and his party took their way along the western shore of Lake Michigan towards Green Bay, where, among the friendly Pottawattomies, they would be sure of a wel- come. They were wholly destitute of provisions, and sub- sisted partly on the scanty game which they were able to kill, and partly on nuts and roots. Towards the end of November they reached Green Bay, and met a hearty wel- come from the Pottawattomie chief, who was a great ad- mirer of La Salle, and who declared " that he knew but three great captains in the world : Frontenac, La Salle, and himself." *

After the departure of Tonti from the Illinois country, the hostile intentions of the Iroquois were at once apparent, and the Illinois retreated in a compact body along the western bank of the river, while the Iroquois, who still had a wholesome respect for them, kept abreast of them on the opposite bank. When near the mouth of the river, the Illinois, who had been lulled into a fatal security by the professions of the Iroquois, divided into tribal bands, and most of them scattered in various directions, some crossing to the opposite side of the Mississippi River. The Tamaroa tribe had the hardihood to encamp and remain after the others had departed. They were at once attacked by the Iroquois, and the warriors fleeing for their lives, the women and children fell victims, to the number of seven hundred, according to one writer, to their hellish vengeance, and it was their mangled remains which met the sight of La Salle and his companions a few weeks later.

FATHER HENNEPIN.

In giving an account of Hennepin's voyage of discovery down the Illinois and up the Mississippi, Mr. Parkman prefaces his chapter with the following :

" It was on the last day of the winter that preceded the invasion of the Iroquois that Father Hennepin, with his two companions, Accau and Du Gay, had set out from Fort Crèvecoeur to explore the Illinois to its mouth. It appears from his own later statements, as well as from those of

* Discovery of the Great West, p. 219.

LA SALLE.

Tonti, that more than this was expected of him, and that La Salle had instructed him to explore not alone the Illi- nois, but also the upper Mississippi.

" That he actually did so, there is no reasonable doubt ; and, could he have contented himself with telling the truth, his name would have stood high as a bold and vigorous discoverer. But his vicious attempts to malign his com- mander, and plunder him of his laurels, have wrapped his genuine merit in a cloud." *

Hennepin was evidently egotistical and vainglorious re- garding his own merits, and greatly given to the foolish and unprofitable practice of building up himself and his exploits by pulling others' down. His nature partook largely of the marvelous, and he was exceedingly prone to exaggeration ; but notwithstanding his strained account of them, his discoveries and adventures are possessed of much real value. Stripped of prejudice and verbiage, the facts of his experience on the great river of the West during several months of 1680 would seem to be briefly as follows :

From the best information obtainable it would appear that his companion, Accau, t was virtually the leader of the expedition, though the redoubtable friar appropriated the honor himself. The party passed quietly down the Illinois, and thence began the toilsome ascent against the strong current of the Mississippi. They killed deer, beaver, buf- falo, wild turkeys, and occasionally a black bear, which now and then they caught swimming the river.

Nothing of special note occurred to disturb their journey until the 11th of April, when, probably in the neighborhood of the mouth of the Wisconsin River, they suddenly beheld a fleet of canoes bearing a war-party of an hundred and twenty naked Sioux, who rushed upon them with hideous yells and captured them before they could make a move either of defense or with a view to escape.

They were taken across the river, and went into camp with their captors, who by signs made them understand that they were upon the war-path of the Miamis, or, as Hennepin translated it, Miamiha. When Hennepin told them the Miamis had left the country they uttered dismal howlings, and seemed greatly disappointed.

Hennepin made them presents, and their hostility, which at first seemed about to culminate in the immolation of their prisoners, gradually gave way, and they finally concluded to take them and their goods into their own country, far to the northwest.

The party wended their way up the river, occasionally stopping to hunt the game, which was abundant, past Lake Pepin, which Hennepin named the "Lake of Tears," by rea- son of the Indian howlings and lamentations over the French- men ; and at the end of nineteen days from the date of their capture, or on the 30th of April, landed near the site of the present flourishing city of St. Paul, the capital of a State containing a half-million inhabitants.

Here Hennepin's troubles really began. First, the In- dians broke his canoe in pieces, and proceeded to divide the prisoners and spoils among the different bands which com- posed the expedition.

From thence they proceeded on foot toward their villages in the north, traveling with such mighty strides that, Henne- pin says, " no European could keep up with them." Though it was the beginning of May, yet in that northern latitude the nights were cold, and ice frequently formed over the marshes and streams which the Frenchmen were compelled to wade to their no small discomfort.

At last, on the fifth day after leaving the Mississippi, they arrived at their villages, situated around what are now called the Mille Lacs, a hundred miles nearly north from St. Paul, and about thirty miles east by south from the present town of Brainerd, at the crossing of the Northern Pacific Railway on the Mississippi.

As they entered one of the villages, Hennepin was nearly frightened out of his senses by the appearance of a number of stakes with bundles of grass attached, which his vivid imagination construed into an evidence of forth- coming martyrdom for himself and companions. Instead of a horrible death they were regaled upon wild rice and dried whortleberries, which Hennepin declared was the best meal he had eaten since his capture.

And now for two months the three voyagers were sepa- rated in different villages, and Hennepin busied himself in trying to make converts to his religion, but with so little success that he became tired and gave over the attempt.

At length the time for the annual buffalo hunt arrived, and the three captives were assigned each to a particular band. To this arrangement Hennepin demurred, and stated that he expected a party of his own people to meet him at the mouth of the Wisconsin River, who would come to trade with the Indians. This story the Indians readily accepted as true ; and accordingly the entire hunt- ing-party of two hundred and fifty braves, with their women and children, accompanied by the three Frenchmen, set out for the rendezvous, taking their way in canoes down Rum River, the outlet of the Mille Lacs, and thence down the Mississippi. A canoe was furnished for Hennepin and his two companions, who do not seem to have been very friendly towards him, and only after considerable per- suasion consented to allow him to occupy the canoe with them.

At the mouth of Rum River, which Hennepin named the St. Francis, the party encamped in bark huts and tepees made of skins. Here they were on the verge of starvation, and Hennepin, becoming tired of Indian life, was anxious to start down the river for his expected (or pretended) meeting. Through the friendship of a promi- nent chief, whom Hennepin calls Ou-as-i-cou-de, he and Du Gay, one of his companions, were furnished with a birch canoe, an earthen or stone pot, a gun, a knife, and a beaver robe, and thus equipped they began their voyage. Accau, choosing the wild life of the Indians, remained be- hind.

Hennepin and Du Gay soon reached the great falls of the Mississippi, which he named in honor of St. Anthony, and which appellation still clings to them after the lapse of two hundred years. In his passage up the river he had stopped nine miles below the falls, and, taking to the land, had missed them. This, then, was the first view, so far as known, which any white man ever had of them.

# Discovery of the Great West, p. 223.

t Hennepin calls him Ako.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

His description is fairly accurate, though, as in the case . of the falls of Niagara, he overestimates their height, and not content with his first estimate, increases it in the second edition of his narrative, in 1697.

Here they found a half-dozen Indians making sacrifices and offerings to the "Spirit of the Waters,"* which con- sisted of beaver-skins, and sometimes, when the case was well-nigh desperate, of everything the savages possessed.

Leaving this wonderful locality, now occupied by a flour- ishing manufacturing city of more than thirty thousand inhabitants, they floated sixty leagues down the river, living mostly upon turtles. Once a great herd of buffalo crossed the river in front of them, and they contrived to kill a single animal. In their half-famished condition they built a fire, and cooking a generous supply, ate to repletion, and suffered severely for their heedlessness.

Passing slowly down the river under a burning sun, they passed Lake Pepin, and a few days after were surprised at the appearance of the chief with whom Hennepin had lived during his captivity, who, with ten warriors in canoes, was descending the river to meet the promised traders. They passed the Frenchmen, and in three days returned, having met nobody. The chief gave the friar a good scolding, and then resumed his course up the river.

*Hennepin and Du Gay, despairing of finding the friends, as they had promised the Sioux, now resolved to join a party of Sioux who were hunting on the Chippewa River, where they could obtain much-needed provisions, and then return to Canada via the Wisconsin River and Green Bay, as Hennepin seems to have had no desire to rejoin Tonti on the Illinois.

Returning up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Chip- pewa, they found this band, with whom also was Accau, and joined them in a hunt along the Mississippi. While en- gaged in this pastime they one day heard strange news.

A war-party of their nation had met towards Lake Su- perior five "spirits," meaning Europeans. When the hunt was concluded, Hennepin, being anxious to see the " spirits," turned up the river with the hunters, and a short distance below St. Anthony's Falls met Greysolon Du Lhut and four well-armed Frenchmen.

This man, who was a consin of Tonti, and born at Lyons, was a famous leader of the coureurs des bois, and had been as great an explorer as La Salle. He was closely connected with Count Frontenac through several prominent officers of the colonial government, and was also carrying on the fur-trade in a somewhat clandestine manner, though in perfect understanding with Frontenac. He had left Quebec in September, 1678, and had, consequently, been about two years in the wilderness when he found Hennepin. In 1679 he had visited the Sioux, and planted the arms of France. In the fall of the same year he held a council at the west end of Lake Superior with the Assiniboins and other tribes, under the authority of the Governor-General.

In the month of June, 1680, he left the head of Lake Superior with the four Frenchmen, ascended a river, and probably reached the Mississippi via the St. Croix, where

he heard of Hennepin and his party. In company with him the French all returned to the Sioux villages at the Mille Lacs, where they were feasted by the Indians abund- antly.

In the beginning of autumn the French, under the lead of Du Lhut, descended the Mississippi to the Wisconsin, and following that stream returned to Green Bay, and shortly thereafter to Mackinac, where they passed the winter.

Hennepin returned to Canada in the spring of 1681, where he was warmly received by Frontenac, who kept him in his house for twelve days. He soon after returned to France, where many editions of his marvelous stories were published. t

CHAPTER VI.

LA SALLE-(Continued).

He discovers the Mouth of the Mississippi-His Subsequent Explora- tions and Death in Texas, 1687.

LA SALLE and his companions, whom we left at Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, in the autumn of 1680, remained there through the winter.

Living in the neighborhood of the fort, La Salle found a band of twenty-five or thirty Eastern Indians, Mohegans and Abenakis, who, in consequence of the wars in New England, had fled westward and settled near the borders of Lake Michigan. With these La Salle was soon on good terms. One of this band, a Mohegan, had been with him for two years, and was exceedingly useful, not only for his success in hunting but for his knowledge of various Indian dialects, which served him as an interpreter.

As the winter advanced a Shawanese chief, at the head of one hundred and fifty warriors, sought out the French commander to ask his protection against the Iroquois. La Salle took advantage of the fear of the Iroquois which per- vaded all the Western tribes to consolidate them under his protection, visiting the Miamis, the Outagamies, and the Illinois for the purpose .. The latter he met at the head of a small party of his men on the great prairies in Central Illinois. His plan was to concentrate all the tribes of Illinois, Indiana, Southern Michigan, and Wisconsin at one point where they could cultivate the soil, find abund- ant game, and be under the protection and instruction of the French.

His first object was to explore the Mississippi to its mouth, open the river to trade and commerce, and found trading-posts and settlements in the valley. From his

t A brief additional account of Du Lhut may not be out of place in this connection. He built a trading-post on the north side of Lake Superior, on Thunder Bay, which he called Can-is-tig-oy-an. Com- manded at Mackinac 1680-86. In 1686 he was ordered by Denonville to fortify the Detroit. He built a stockade fort at the outlet of Lake Huron, which he occupied for some time. In 1687 he served at the head of a body of Indians under Denonville against the Senecas. In 1689, at the time of the Iroquois invasion of Canada, he, with twenty- eight Canadians, attacked and killed or captured a party of twenty- two Senecas. In 1697 he commanded a company of infantry at Fort Frontenac. He died about 1710. Charlevoix calls him " one of the bravest officers the King ever had in the colony."

* This was the principal deity of the Sioux, and bore the high- sounding name of "O-ank-tay-hee." The savages said he bore the form of a buffalo, and lived under the waters.

LA SALLE.

encampment on the prairie he sent La Forest, who had accompanied him, to Mackinac to instruct Tonti to await his arrival,* and returned himself to Fort Miami.

From Fort Miami he ascended the St. Joseph with ten men well armed, and crossing to the upper waters of the Kankakee held a council with the Miamis. Here he found a band of Iroquois warriors, who had been for some time in the place, demeaning themselves with haughty insolence, and speaking of the French with the utmost contempt. La Salle confronted and rebuked them boldly, and in the following night they stole away and left the vicinity. In the Miami villages he found also numbers of the warriors of the redoubtable King Philip of Mount Hope, Wampan- oags, Nipmucks, and others, who had fled to the West on the death of their chief. The conference with the Miamis was successful, and La Salle returned to Fort Miami satis- fied that the groundwork of his great plans was well laid out.

In the latter part of May he left Fort Miami, in canoes, and returned to Mackinac, where, to his great satisfaction, he found Tonti and Father Membre, who had lately arrived there from Green Bay. A few days later they embarked for Fort Frontenac, which they reached in. safety, after paddling a thousand miles. He was a third time success- ful in procuring men and supplies, and in the autumn again returned to Fort Miami, via Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Michigan.

This was in the fall of 1681. Losing no time, La Salle selected eighteen Abenakis and Mohegan Indians to accom- pany him on his voyage down the Mississippi. To these were joined their women and children, twelve in number. On the 21st of December the party, consisting of twenty- four Frenchmen and thirty Indians, making fifty-four in all, set out from Fort Miami, Tonti in charge of the ad- vance party in six canoes, and La Salle, with the remainder, following.

It was midwinter, and they transported their luggage and canoes on sledges around the south end of the lake to the mouth of the Chicago River, and thence up that stream and down the Illinois, until they reached open water below the site of Peoria, when they took to their canoes. La Salle had given up the project of trying to navigate the great river in a large vessel, and so they did not attempt to complete the one on the stocks at Fort Crèvecœur, but kept on in their canoes, and reached the mouth of the Illinois on the 6th of February.

Entering the majestic Mississippi, they glided rapidly down the stream, and towards evening passed the mouth of the muddy Missouri. Three days later they saw the mouth of the Ohio, which Membre called the Ouabache. On the 24th of February they landed near the Third Chickasaw Bluffs, where they encamped and sent out a hunting-party. Here also La Salle constructed a stockade fort, and named it Fort Proudhomme, in honor of one of his followers by that name who had been lost for a number of days in the forest. From this point, also, La Salle sent presents to the Chickasaws, living to the eastward.

Leaving Proudhomme with a few companions in charge of the fort, they again embarked, and proceeded on their way until the 11th of March, when, in the midst of a dense fog, they heard the booming of an Indian drum and the shouts of the war-dance. Pulling for the opposite shore, they encamped and threw up hasty breastworks, and when the fog cleared away found themselves near the mouth of the Arkansas.

The Indians were the Kappa band, of the Arkansas nation, who received them with the greatest cordiality, and supplied them with fruits and vegetables.} Here they had a grand reception, and La Salle erected a cross, and fixing thereon the arms of France, took possession of the country, in the name of his sovereign.

Resuming their journey, guided by two Arkansas In- dians, they next landed about three hundred miles lower down, in the vicinity of the Tensas Rivert or bayou. Two hours' distance from here was the capital of the Tensas nation.

Tonti and Membre visited it and came back astonished at what they had seen. The town was well built of sun- baked brick or adobes, and there was a temple built of the same material, where the people worshiped the sun. The chief made a ceremonious visit to La Salle in his camp, and presents were exchanged by the two leaders.

On the following day they reached the country of the Natchez Indians, whom they also visited in their villages, where they found much the same appearance as in the Tensas town. Below the Natchez they visited the Coroas, the Oumas, and passed villages of the Quinipissas, by whom they were greeted with a shower of arrows. Farther down they found a deserted village of the Tangibao, in which were many decaying corpses left during an inroad of their enemies a few days before.

On the 6th of April they reached the head of the passes, and here, dividing their force, La Salle followed the west, D'Autray the east, and Tonti the middle passage. As the canoe drifted downward, La Salle caught the salt breeze from the sea, and soon the broad bosom of the gulf ap- peared on the horizon, and the object of all his toils and privations was found at last,-The Mouth of the Missis- sippi.

On the 9th day of April, 1682, with great pomp and ceremony, a cross was planted, and La Salle, in the name of Louis the Fourteenth, took possession of all the lands watered by the great river, which vast region he named, in honor of his sovereign, LOUISIANA.

Returning up the river, La Salle was prostrated by sick- ness at Fort Proudhomme, and forced to remain until his fever abated. He sent Tonti forward to Mackinac with dis- patches announcing his discovery, and with directions when his errand was accomplished to return to the Illinois. By the latter part of July, La Salle had recovered sufficiently to resume his journey, and about the 1st of August reached Fort Miami. In September he returned to Mackinac.

His intention was to return to France, lay his discoveries before the court, and procure men and means for the estab-

* A band of Outagamies had told him of the safe arrival of Tonti among the Pottawattomies, and also of the safe arrival of Hennepin and his party.

t This tribe, a remnant of which still remains, have generally been known by the name of Quapaws.

# This name La Salle wrote Taensas.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

lishment of a post near the mouth of the Mississippi. In the meanwhile he directed Tonti to build a strong fort on the Long Rocher of the Illinois, and make ready for a colony.

On the eve of La Salle's departure for Quebec, on his way to Europe, he heard that the Iroquois were again about to attack the Western tribes. His colony was in danger, and all his plans were likely to come to naught. In this dilemma he hastened to the Illinois, and rejoined Tonti near the Indian town.

FORT ST. LOUIS.

La Salle constructed his fort on what is now called "Starved Rock,"* situated on the south side of the Illinois, which here runs nearly west, and about opposite the village of Utica, in La Salle County. The rock rises perpendicu- larly from the water to the height of more than a hundred feet, and is separated from the sandstone bluff which forms the bold escarpment that, in bygone ages, was the shore of the great river through which Lake Michigan discharged its waters into the Mississippi River by a deep ravine. It is accessible from the rear only by a narrow passage, and its area, which is nearly level on the top, is about an acre.

In December, 1682, La Salle and Tonti began the work of building a fort on this impregnable rock. It was en- circled around the margin by a strong palisade, and inside were erected dwellings, barracks, and storehouses.

On the broad river-bottom opposite, and among the hills and rugged bluffs on either side the river, in the course of a few months congregated a great number of Indians of various nationalities,-Illinois, Miamis, Shawanese, and even Abenakis from beyond the Green Mountains of New England. Franquelin's map of 1684, already quoted, shows an aggregate of about four thousand warriors, besides women and children, so that, at a low estimate, the total population must have been ten or twelve thousand ; perhaps the most dense of any Indian population within a similar area in the history of the continent.t

In the mean time, Frontenac had been recalled from his position as Governor-General of Canada, in February, 1682, and Le Febvre de la Barre appointed in his stead. This was a serious blow to La Salle and his plans, for Count Frontenac had, from the first, been his fast friend, while the new Governor unfortunately became his bitter enemy.

La Salle in his safe retreat at Fort St. Louis enjoyed an immense trade with the Western Indians, and, no doubt, cut off quite a proportion of what would naturally have gone to Frontenac and Montreal, were it not for his post and the great Indian colony gathered around it.

In the beginning of 1683 the Iroquois were again threatening war, not only against the Illinois and Miamis of the West, but against all the nations of the upper lakes and the French in Canada. The new Governor-General strove by every means in his power to avert such a calam- ity, but while striving to prevent them from attacking the

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 6

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