USA > Michigan > History of Michigan, civil and topographical, in a compendious form; with a view of the surrounding lakes > Part 3
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The French and English spared no pains to attach to their interests the confederates whom they found in the wilder- ness. On the side of the English were the Iroquois, and the French were supported by the race of the Algonquins-bar- barian warriors, whose power was co-extensive with the con- tinent and, in their customs and institutions similar, in many points, to the ancient Celta of Britain. They exhibited no- ble traits combined with savage ferocity. Clothed with the skins of wild beasts, living in their retired villages made of bark, under the overhanging boughs of the forest, cultivating little patches of prairie for their corn, and acquiring food by the chase or by fishing ; whose weapons of war were the bow, the rifle, the tomahawk and the war-club ; lying in their wig- wams in indolence upon the banks of the streams, or shooting their canoes across the glassy lakes of the wilderness like me- teors through the heavens, leaving behind them a silver track, unknown in their origin then, as now,-such men were the allies of France and England.
On the side of the English was the confederacy of the Iro- quois, called by them the Six Nations. They comprised the
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most powerful Indian league which is known to have existed on the continent. It consisted of the Onondagas, the Cayu- gas, the Senecas, the Oneidas, and the Mohawks ; and in 1712 the Tuscaroras were adopted into the confederation. The warriors of these tribes were men of large stature and muscular fornis. More savage in their expression of countenance than the Algonquin race, their determination seemed to mark every feature of the face and every nerve of the body. Military
skill, courage, shrewdness, forecast, energy, ambition, and eloquence, were their prominent traits. Affiliated by imme- morial connexion, and having exercised the policy of con- quest over the other tribes, they held an extensive tract of territory in their hands. They claimed, in fact, by patrimony or conquest, the whole of the country "not occupied by the southern Indians, the Sioux, the Kenisteneaux, and the Chippewas, and by the English and French, as far west as the Mississippi and Lake Winnipeg, as far north-west as the wa- ters which unite this lake with Hudson's Bay and Labrador."*
In their policy the Iroquois appear to have had not only more vigor, but more system, than the other Indian tribes. Their general interests were managed by a grand council of chiefs, who annually assembled at their central canton, Onondaga, in the state of New-York. The beautiful region of the lakes which bear their names, in that state, was their favorite council ground. Each nation was divided into three tribes, whose totems were the tortoise, the wolf, and the bear. All their councils were con- ducted with the greatest decorum, solemnity, and deliberation. " In the characteristics of profound policy," says Gov. Clinton of New-York, in an eloquent Discourse, " they surpassed an assembly of feudal barons, and were, perhaps, not far in- ferior to the great Amphictyonie council of Greece." " The senators of Venice," says an equally eloquent writer,i " do not appear with a graver countenance, and perhaps do not speak with more majesty and solidity than these ancient Iroqueses."
* Clinton's Discourse.
i Father Louis Hennepin, one of the most accomplished Catholic missiona- ries upon the Lakes during the early period of French colonization, in his work entitled, " Hennepin's Voyage to North America."
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
The Iroquois were like the Romans in many points of their character and policy. Among these were their indomitable spirit of freedom, their martial energy, their military policy, their lofty bearing, their stirring eloquence, and their all- grasping ambition. As conquests accumulated, their van- quished enemies were incorporated into their own tribes, to supply the ravages of war ; and those were kept in rigorous vassalage. Tributes of wampum, shell-fish, and other articles of value, were periodically exacted from these conquered nations with the utmost promptitude, and the penalty of death was affixed to the failure of their payment. The warriors cherished a sort of Spartan discipline through- out their confederacy. The young barbarians were urged to emulate, and often advanced to, the dignity of their fath- ers. They were taught to hunt the wild beasts almost be- fore their muscles were sufficiently strong to bend the bow, and to undergo the deprivations of hunger and cold in remote forests, in order to harden them for arms. Their character was constituted of all those elements which in civilized or savage life produce success, founded on cunning or courage. 'They were equally crafty and ferocious. They could crawl; unseen, along the track of their enemies, or rush down upon the French, in fearless bands of naked and gigantic warriors.
The alledged ground of controversy with the other tribes, on the part of the Iroquois, was generally the violation of boundary lines, the rights of embassy, and individual wrongs ; but the love of dominion and glory stimulated their con- quests through the wilderness. That they regarded the in- roads of the whites upon their territory with jealousy, there can be no doubt. There is as little doubt that their ancient fends with the Hurons and Algonquins, their prejudices and their caprice, as well as the policy which was exercised towards them by the French, induced them to join the En- glish ; and it is well known that their marches against the French Colonists and the remote missionary posts, were like the rushing of a tornado through the forest. " We may guide the English to our Lakes. We are born free. We neither depend on Onondio nor Corlaer, (France of England,") said
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Haaskouan, the Seneca chief, to De la Barre, in 1684. Flashes of heroism occasionally broke out, exhibiting the sternest ele- ments of their character. An aged Onondaga warrior was taken in 1697, in an expedition of Frontenac, and delivered over to an Algonquin savage, who stalbed him with a scalping knife for the purpose of ending his existence af- ter he had inflicted horrible tortures. "You ought not to abridge my life," said this Roman of the wilderness, "that you may learn to die like a man. For my own part I die contented, because I know no meanness with which to reproach myself."
On the side of the French was the race of the Algonquins. This race extended under different names from the head of Lake Erie along the upper Lakes, north to Lake Winnipeg and Hudson's Bay, and south to the mouth of the Ohio river. They were also affiliated with the tribes east of the St. Law- rence, and their influence extended to the savages who roam- ed the hills of New England. In the league of these two powerful families there were, however, two exceptions. The Wyandots or Hurous were of Iroquois stock, but from un- known causes* they had severed from their chain of tribes, and attached themselves to the French; while the Ottaga- mies or Foxes, who were originally of the Algonquin family, took part with the English.
The friendship of the Algonquin race for the French seems to have been founded on obvious causes. It was the studied policy of the French to secure their good-will, and solemn compacts were sought to be confirmed with them by their French allies. The French explorers, traders, and mis- sionaries, advanced to their remotest villages in the prosecu- tion of their several objects. They lodged with them in their camps, attended their councils, hunting parties, and feasts ; paid respect to their ceremonies, and were joined in the closer bonds of blood. The natural pliancy of the
* Charlevoix, in his journal, gives an account of the cause of this feud, but does not vouch for its accuracy. It was founded, he states, in venatical rivalry. A stake was pledged for success in hunting, and one party returned to camp loaded with the flesh of elks, while the other was unsuccessful.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
French character led them into frequent and kind asso- ciation with the savages, while the English were cold and forbidding in their manners. Besides, the Jesuit missionaries exerted no small influence in strengthening the friendship of the Indians for the French. They erected little chapels in their territory, carpeted with Indian mats and surmounted by the cross, took long journeys through the wilderness, per- formed the ceremonies of their church in their long black robes, and showed them paintings and sculptured images, which the savages viewed with superstitious awe. Added to this, they practised all the offices of kindness and sympathy for the sick, and held up the crucifix to the fading vision of many a dying neophyte.
In 1658, a new organization was effected in the social sys- tem of Canada. The Marquis d' Argenson was appointed Governor-general, and during the following summer, Laval Abbé de Montigny, titular Bishop of Petrie, arrived at Que- bec, with a brief from the Pope, by which he was constituted Apostolic vicar. The condition of the colony, however, con- tinued to be much depressed. The Company, occupied by their own projects of aggrandizement through the fur trade, made but little exertion for its substantial advancement ; and its associates, reduced at last to the number of forty, relin- quished the traffic for the seignioral acknowledgment of one thousand beaver skins. It was also at the same time much neglected by the parent government. The Iroquois, who had urged a destructive war upon the Hurons and Algon- quins on the borders of the great lakes, seemed now deter- mined to undermine the power of their allies, the French, and, if practicable, to uproot them from the continent; and hostile bands of their tribes hung upon the borders of the French settlements. They had, in fact, advanced so far as to massacre a number of the settlers on the Island of Mon- treal, and kept Quebec in a continual state of alarm.
While the colony was in this condition, the Governor re- quested to be recalled on account of ill health; and in 1661 he was succeeded by the Baron d' Avangour, a man of extra- ordinary energy and the most inflexible decision. On his
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accession to office, the Governor presented to the King of France, who seemed to be ignorant of its actual position and resources, such favorable views of the country as to induce him to order a reinforcement of four hundred troops with the necessary supplies for the Colonists ; and it was probably this fact which saved them from entire destruction. By that timely aid they were placed in a condition to practise agri- culture to some extent, which had before been neglected from the fear of the savages.
. The Company of New France had entirely failed in fulfil- ling the objects of their charter. They had neither pushed their settlements far into the interior, nor practised husbandry with any considerable success. At length they surrendered it to the crown, and in 1664 its privileges were transferred to the " Company of the West Indies." The whole policy of the French colony in Canada had, in fact, been injudiciously framed. They had no clearly defined jurisprudence, and were rent into factions composed of the parties of the Gover- nor, the Bishop, and the Jesuits, each of which was anxious to supplant the other in power. The state of colonial morals was necessarily loose, because a portion of the emigrants was taken from the idle and corrupt classes in France. A council, how- ever, was soon constituted for the administration of its affairs, comprised of the Governor-General, Intendant-General, the Bishop, and some others, who were removable at the will of the Governor ; and the superior of the Jesuits presided at this council while sitting as a Court of Justice. Forts were erected on the principal streams in Canada, where it was thought they might be required in order to keep the Iroquois in check, and in 1668 the affairs of the French interest in Ca- nada seem to have been much improved. Reinforcements had arrived from the West Indies, and a number of officers, to whom had been granted lands with the rights of seigneurs, settled in the Canadian territory. The colonial morals, how- ever, were not improved by the importation of about three hundred women of licentious character, who were sent out by the French government. These were soon disposed of in marriage.
3
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
The Count, de Frontenac, a nobleman of distinguished family, and of most arbitrary but energetic character, was soon invested with the administration of the French colonies ; and he made extraordinary efforts to develope the resources of the country, and to build up the scattered colonial esta- blishments. During that period the territory along the lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, was explored. Com- pacts of peace were confirmed with the Indian tribes ; a por- tion of the Hurons were settled at Michilimackinac ; and a party of the Iroquois, who had been converted to the Catholic faith, was established at St. Louis near Montreal. A council of the principal chiefs in that quarter was held at the Falls of St. Mary in Michigan, which resulted in a stipulation that the French should occupy that post ; and a cross was there erected, bearing the arms of France.
Expeditions were also despatched to the more remote west, for the purpose of discovering the resources of the country. In 1672, M. Talon, a former Intendant-general, who had done important service to the French interest by extending its power to the remote points of Canada, concluded, by reports from the Indians, that a great river, called by them the Michi- sépée, flowed from the extreme north-west in a southern course ; and he soon projected an enterprise for its discovery. For that object he employed M. Joliet, a merchant of Quebec, and Father Joseph Marquette,* a native of Laon in Picardy, descended from a family of distinguished influence abroad, who had travelled far into the Indian territory, and from his office as a missionary. was qualified to gain the confidence of the savages, to advance into that quarter on an exploratory tour. The party soon proceeded to Lake Michigan. Crossing the country to the river Wisconsin, they descended that stream un- til they reached the Mississippi. Floating down the river in a canoe, they soon arrived at certain villages of the Illinois In- dians, where they were treated with much hospitality by the savages. They afterwards passed over to Arkansas. Being convinced that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, they were obliged to return, from the exhausted state of their
Charlevoix
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provisions, and having ascended the Mississippi to its conflu- ence with the Illinois, they paddled up that stream, and cross- ed over to Michigan. At this place they separated ; Joliet re- turned to Quebec, and Father Marquette remained among the Indians.
In 1678 Robert de la Salle, accompanied by the Chevalier Tonti, arrived at Quebec. He had previously resided in Canada, where he had cultivated a friendship with M. de Frontenac, and he soon embarked in the enterprise of disco- very. Associated with Father Louis Hennepin, a Flemish Recollet, and M. Tonti, he employed a portion of his time in exploring the country, forming amicable leagues with the savages, and prosecuting the fur trade. The party remained during the winter of that year at Fort Niagara, which he founded. In the summer, building the first ship which ever navigated Lake Erie, called the Griffin, they sailed across that lake, and passed up to Michilimackinac. Hennepin tra- versed the greater part of Illinois, and reaching the Missis- sippi, ascended that stream to the Falls of St. Anthony, which he named. There he was taken prisoner by the Indians, robbed, and carried to their villages. Hennepin, however, soon made his escape ; and returning to the colonies, he em- barked for France, where he published a journal of his tra- vels. About three years were spent by these intrepid adven- turers in crossing the vast wilderness around the lakes, and encountering the most formidable dangers and hardships. On the 2d of February, 1682, La Salle reached the Missisippi River, arrived at Arkansas, of which he took a formal posses- sion in the name of the King of France, and proceeded on- ward, until the expanding surface of its waters showed where it met the blue of the ocean through the Gulf of Mexico. The glorious news of the discovery of the mouth of the Mis- sissippi, which had long been a desirable object to the French Government, opened a fresh channel of hope to the Canadian colony.
The progress of La Salle through those immense regions was attended with remarkable and touching incidents. Dis- appointed in his progress, from not having received supplies
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
from Green Bay, he was obliged to encamp on the banks of the Illinois, where he built a fort, which, from that circum- stance he named Creve Coeur, the Broken Heart. Although he had found the great body of the tribes along his course friendly, and had purchased from them a large quantity of corn, he met some obstruction from the nation of the Illinois. These, in common with many of the Lake tribes, were at that time at war with the Iroquois, and the former expected the assistance of the French ; but from prudential motives this aid was not granted. La Salle, indeed, considered the termi- nation of the war as essential to his safety. The pacific poli- cy which he advocated was construed into treachery by the suspicion of the Illinois, aided by the perfidy of some of his own men ; and he was, in formal council, sentenced to death. Here broke forth the courage of his character. Unarmed, he applied to the camp of the Illinois, defended his conduct, de- clared his innocence of the charges alleged against him, de- manded the author, and vindicated the propriety of terminat- ing the war. His boldness and eloquence prevailed. The calumet was smoked, and a treaty of peace concluded. The death of this distinguished explorer of the Mississippi was inglorious. When he had traversed that river, erected several forts on its banks, named Louisiana in honor of the French king ; after he had laid the foundations of Kaskaskia, and Kahokia in Illinois, and departed for France in order to fit out expeditions for a permanent colonial establishment at its mouth near the present site of New Orleans, he was assas- sinated by his own engages, while on his way over land for his fort upon the Illinois, on the 19th of March, 1687. " Thus fell," says Father Hennepin, his eloquent companion and eu- logist, " the Sieur de la Salle, a man of considerable merit, constant in adversity, intrepid, generous, courteous, ingenious, learned, and capable of every thing. He had formerly been of the society of Jesus for ten or eleven years, and quitted the order with consent of liis superiors. He once showed me a letter written at Rome by the General of the order, testifying that the Sieur de la Salle had behaved himself prudently in
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every thing, without giving the least occasion to be suspected guilty of a venial sin."*
What a contrast is presented, in the solitary condition of the Mississippi at the period when la Salle descended that stream, one hundred and forty-five years ago, and the present time ! The Amazon of the North American wilderness and the great highway of western commerce, stretching its broad expanse thousands of miles longitudinally, through the whole length of the inhabitable territory of the west, from the cold regions of the north-the land of the grizly bear, which delights to live among the snows-to the hot clime of Louis- iana, the domain of the alligator and the cotton plantation, where few but slaves venture contact with the burning rays of the sun, it waters the widest and richest valley on the earth. To that remote region, where sickly exhalations rise from the stagnant fens and mouldering forests, and fill the graves along its banks, emigration is fast pressing. Cities are studding its shores. Harvests are gilding its fields. Its waters are ploughed by a thousand keels of boatmen, loving life less than gain. Hundreds of steamboats, laden with rich freight for New Orleans, the metropolis of its trade, not ex- ceeded in magnitude and splendor by those of the eastern states, shoot up its rapid current ; and means are now in pro- gress which will soon float the commerce of the North-west- ern lakes, in a continuous line of navigation, through its channel to the Atlantic.t
+ For Hennepin's account of La Salle's cxpedition, see Archeologia America- na, where it is contained at length.
t A project will be soon carried out, to connect the Fox river of Green Bay, with the Wisconsin and the Mississippi.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
CHAPTER II.
Administration of Denonville-Iroquois prisoners sent in chains to the French Galleys-Policy of Kondiaronk-Character of the Colonists-The Jesuits -- Canadian Jurisprudence-Fur Traders-Coureurs des Bois-Distribution of Lands-Commerce and Agriculture-Currency-Social Condition of Canada.
IN 1683 the population of the Canadian colonies did not exceed nine thousand. The principal check to their progress sprang from the hostility of the Iroquois, who, from time to time, hovered around their settlements, seeking every opportu- nity for massacre and devastation. The Marquis of Denon- ville was, however, soon appointed Governor-general, and he proceeded immediately to Cataraqui, with about two thousand troops. From the spirit of uncompromising hatred which was evinced by the Iroquois towards the French, Denonville was determined to strike a decisive blow. An order was according- ly received to condemn to the galleys all able-bodied warriors of those tribes who were taken prisoners ; and, to the black dis- grace of Denonville, a number of the Iroquois chiefs were decoyed by the Jesuit de Lamberville to Fort Frontenac, load- ed with irons, and sent to the galleys of Marseilles.
About that period a treaty was signed at London between France and England, by which it was stipulated that what- ever differences might arise between the two governments abroad, neutral relations should be preserved by their subjects in North America. Notwithstanding that treaty, and the re- monstrances of the Governor of New-York, who claimed the Iroquois as English subjects, Denonville determined to build a fort at Niagara in their own territory, when the passions of the Iroquois were maddened against the French from the fact that their chiefs had been seized by stratagem and sent in chains to the French galleys. Scarcely, therefore, had the determination been made known, when Fort Frontenac was attacked by the Iroquois, and the corn in the neighborhood
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EARLY CONDITION OF CANADA.
burned. A French barque, laden with provisions, was also captured on Lake Ontario by five hundred of their canoes, and on the side of the French, the Abenaquies made a for- midable descent upon the Iroquois of the Sorel, and pushed their bloody marches against the English villages toward the east.
During that period a council was held by the Iroquois with Denonville, in which the policy of those tribes was advocated by five hundred of their warriors ; while twelve hundred of their armed bands were awaiting the issue near Montreal, ready to fall upon the French settlements, in case a requisition was not complied with, that their chiefs, who had been sent to the galleys of France, should be returned to the wilderness.
The ratification of a treaty was, however, prevented by the deep policy of Kondiaronk, or Le Rat, a Huron chief, among the first in council and in arms. Kondiaronk disliked the French, but he considered their alliance as useful in aiding him against the Iroquois, towards whom he had sworn eternal war. He also hated the English as the allies of the Iroquois ; but he found it profitable to maintain the semblance of good- will toward the latter nation so long as he could sell his furs to them with more advantage than to the French.
At this crisis occurred a singular fact, which completely changed the policy of the Indian tribes. The alliance of Denonville had been accepted by Kondiaronk, on condition that the French should give their aid in the destruction of the Iroquois. Acting on this assurance, the chief left Mi- chilimackinac, on the northern part of the peninsula of Michigan, with a hundred warriors, in order to attack their camps. At fort Frontenac, he was informed by Denonville that a treaty of peace had been made with the Iroquois, and that it was necessary that he should return to Michigan with his warriors. " The request is reasonable," said Kondiaronk, while his eye kindled with rage that he had not been advised of the ratification of the treaty with the Iroquois, and that the league made with him by the French had been broken.
Instead, therefore, of returning to Michilimackinac, he re- paired to the " cascades," about thirty miles above Montreal,
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