USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 4
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"To know what the said Du Luth is, it is only neces-
* La Salle's official title was, "Lord and Governor of the Fort of Frontenac and of the Great Lakes in New France."
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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
sary to inquire of Mr. Dalcra. Moreover the country of the Nadoucsioux is not a country which he has discovered. It has been long known, and the Rev. Father Hennepin and Michael Accault were there before him."
In other letters and in his official report ("rela- tion officielle") for from 1679 to 1681, made to Col- bert, the French Minister of Marine, La Salle is severe upon Du Luth. He says that in 1680, Du Luth had been for three years, contrary to orders, on Lake Superior, with a band of twenty coureurs du bois, saying that he did not fear the Grand Provost, etc. ; that he and his men engaged illegally in the fur trade ; that he induced one of La Salle's soldiers that spake at least the Chippewa language to desert his post at Fort Frontenac and join his band and go with a delegation of Chippewas ("Sauteurs") to the Nadouessioux to make peace between the two nations, but two or three attempts to make such a treaty failed. He further says that Du Luth learned from the deserter that there were plenty of beaver skins to be had in the Nadouessioux country, and that, guided by this soldier (whose name was Faffart) and two Indians he set out to get these furs, and on the expedition eventually came upon Father Hennepin . and Auguelle, the Picard.
The Count de Frontenac had Du Luth arrested and held as a prisoner in the castle of Quebec for a con- siderable time, intending to send him to France on charges made by Duchesneau, the Intendant. His men were merely bushrangers and forest outlaws, hunting, trapping, and trading without license and defying all authority. Many of them were deserters from the French army. They were finally granted full amnesty by the French King and Du Luth was released from prison. He became very prominent and even celebrated in French Colonial affairs, chiefly as a military leader, and at one time was in command of Fort Frontenac. It may well be denied that he was the first white man to visit the Sioux at Mille Lacs (to the French soldier Faffart may belong that distinction), but there is no question as to the great services he rendered in promoting the establishment of civilization in the Northwest. He died on Lake Superior in 1709, and the city of Duluth may be considered his monument. (For the documents referred to in Du Luth's case see Vols. 1 and 2 of the Margry Papers in French.) True, one of the Jesuit Relations says that Du Luth was at Mille Lacs in 1679, but the statement is evidently copied from Du Luth's report and no other verification is attempted.
HENNEPIN AND DU LUTH RETURN TO LAKE SUPERIOR.
Du Luth, Hennepin, and their companions remained the guests of the Nadouessioux until the latter part of September, or from August 14. Their prolonged stay indicates that the time passed somewhat agree- ably, which does not compare with Du Luth's account. The travelers now wished to return to Canada. The Sioux consented, believing the representations made to them that the white men would soon return to
them, bringing great quantities of iron and other goods. The chief, Pinc Shooter, gave them a bushel of wild rice and other provisions, and made them a chart of the course they should take. Hennepin says that this chart "served us as well as my compass could have done." All eight of the Frenchmen including Accault set out on the Rum River in canoes given them by the Indians.
At St. Anthony of Padua's Falls Michacl Accault and another Frenchman stole two fine beaver robes, offerings to the Indian great water spirit, Onktayhee, one of the robes being that which Father Hennepin saw the Indian suspend in a tree. Du Luth was afraid the theft would get the party into trouble, but Father Hennepin said that as they were idolatrous and heathenish offerings it was better for Christians to take them and convert them to Christian uses! The larceny of these beaver robes heads the Caucasian criminal calendar of Minneapolis !
When they neared the mouth of the Wisconsin they stopped to dry buffalo meat. In a little time came three Mille Lac Indians who told the white men that Waze-coota (the Pine Shooter) had proved their firm friend. After their departure he heard that one of his sub-chiefs had determined to follow them and kill them. Whereupon the head chief went over to the would-be murderer's lodge and knocked out his brains. But two days later they were astonished and alarmed when they saw a fleet of 140 canoes in which were 250 Nadouessioux warriors from Mille Lacs, who were apparently following them with evil intent. However, Father Hennepin held up a pcace pipe, and the Indians came ashore, were very friendly, and seemed glad to meet the white men again. With the Pinc Shooter and the Forked Meeting at their head. they were on the way to make war upon their enemies, the Illinois, the Messorites, and other southern Indians. A few pipc-fulls of Martinique tobacco made everything all right. Not a word was said about the votive offerings, the two beaver robes taken from the trees at St. Anthony of Padua's Falls.
It would seem that the Indians accompanied the eight Frenchmen from thence to the mouth of the Wisconsin, and then went on to make war on their enemies to the southward. Du Luth and his party made their way far up the Wisconsin, and eventually, partly by the help of the Indian chart, reached Green Bay, then called the Bay of the Puants, or Stinkers. as the Winnebagoes were termed. "Here," says Father Hennepin "we found Frenchmen trading contrary to orders with the Indians." These were doubtless some of Du Luth's bush-rangers or cour- eurs du bois.
CLOSE OF HENNEPIN'S CAREER.
Father Hennepin spent the winter of 1680-81 at St. Ignace Mission, Mackinaw. In Easter week, 1681. he left the Mission, proceeded down or eastward over the Lakes to Fort Frontenac, and from thence went to Montreal, where he was well received by Governor Frontenac. Then he went to Quebec and in the fol- lowing autumn returned to Europe. In 1682 he pub-
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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
lished his "Description of Louisiana," in which he gives an account of his voyage from the Illinois River up to what is now Minnesota, his capture by the Sioux, his deliverance by Du Luth, etc. In this volume he says emphatically that he did not descend the Mississippi below the mouth of the Illinois. In 1697, however, ten years after La Salle had been murdered, he brought out another book entitled, "A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," etc. In this work he claimed that he did descend the Mississippi from the Illinois to the mouth of the great river, then turned about and with his two Frenchmen went up the river, was taken prisoner by the Nadoues- sioux, discovered the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, etc.
We do not know when or where he died. A letter written at Rome, March 1, 1701, by another priest gives us the last word of him extant. It says that he was then in a convent of the Holy City, hoping soon to return to America under the protection of Cardinal Spada. When and where he died we cannot tell, and it may be said of the last resting place of this man who first made the site of Minneapolis famous as it is written of Moses: "No man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.'
Father Hennepin has been the subject of much hostile and bitter criticism. Various authorities have denounced him as a falsifier and a fraud. It must be admitted that in writing his books he was careless in expression and much given to exaggeration. Thèn, too, he wrote a great deal about himself, extolling his own merits, vannting his courage and his exploits, while he depreciated the character of La Salle, Du Luth, and others. La Salle warned the French Gov- ernor that the priest was a prevaricator and given to exaggeration, and said he was hardly made a prisoner and certainly not treated cruelly by the Indians, but that he said he was in order to increase interest in his story, magnify his fortitude, etc.
Both in his "Description" and his "New Dis- covery" the explorer priest exaggerates distances and incidents greatly. According to his statement the distance between the mouth of the Illinois and St. Anthony Falls is 1,365 miles, whereas, by the mean- derings of the river, it is known to be less than half that distance. The palpable falsity of his big snake and fish stories, that he was in peril of his life "a hundred times" within less than a week, and much other misrepresentation, prove him at least a reckless writer.
But it is with his second volume, "A New Dis- covery of a Vast Country," etc., with which com- mentators find most fault. It was issued 15 years after his "Description of Louisiana," and after Father Marquette, La Salle, and many others that knew the facts were dead. It was in this book that he claimed he went down the Mississippi before ascending it. Two features of this book alone prove its unreliability if not its utter falsity-its horrible confusion of dates and the utter impossibility of per- forming the canoe voyages within the times given. In his "New Discovery," for example, he says he left the mouth of the Arkansas River to paddle north-
ward on the 24th of April (1680). In his "Descrip- tion" he says he was hundreds of miles north of the Arkansas, at the bay of Pig's Eye Lake, on the 30th of April, and on the 11th was taken prisoner by the Indians somewhere near Rock Island.
Certain apologists for Father Hennepin claim that the misstatements in the "New Discovery" were not his. but were the work of unscrupulous publishers. Yet the weight of opinion among historians is that Father Hennepin wrote the book himself, obtaining his information of the country of the Lower Missis- sippi from the reports of Father Marquette, the Chevalier La Salle, Father Zenobius Membre, and per- haps others.
FATHER HENNEPIN ALL RIGHT ON THE MAIN QUESTION.
But the question of most importance in the history of Minneapolis, and to the people that are interested therein is, Was Father Hennepin and his associate, Anthony Auguelle, the first two white men to look upon St. Anthony Falls and the present site of Min- neapolis? The answer from every authority is, Yes. The distinction given them is not and never has been disputed.
And was Father Hennepin the first man to write of and publish to the civilized world the fact of the existence of St. Anthony Falls and the future site of Minneapolis ? The undisputed answer is, He certainly was. Anthony Auguelle did not write anything about the discovery; doubtless he could not. He was born in the city of Amiens, in the Province of Picardy, but he was a simple man, a hard worker, a voyageur, who had come to the new country to better his condition, and doubtless he was uneducated. He knew enough to be a Christian ; he attended to his religious duties, confessing to Father Hennepin regularly, and he was always faithful to the adventurer priest. Good enough for Anthony Auguelle. the Picard du Gay !
Father Hennepin's discovery of the Falls of St. An- thony (" of Padua," we perhaps should add) was the event that advertised the country of Minnesota two hundred years ago more than any other incident or feature. The Falls were marked on every subsequent map, every subsequent explorer visited them and wrote about them ; their name was common before the word Minnesota was known. Father Hennepin was respon- sible for all this. His great achievement makes ns for- get his weaknesses and feel like honoring his memory, and we all are disposed to say :
"No farther seek his merits to disclose, Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode."
No apology is made for the space given in this vol- ume to the account of Father Hennepin and his import- ant and influential discovery. No previous history of Minneapolis has anything like such an account, and the facts in detail of the important discovery of St. Anthony Falls ought to be as well known to every citi- zen of Minneapolis as the particulars of the discovery of America should be within the knowledge of every citizen of the United States.
The authorities consulted in the preparation of this
1
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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
chapter have been, in English, Neill's History of Min- nesota, Warren Upham's Vol. 1 Minnesota in Three Centuries, Thwaites' Translation of Hennepin's New Discovery, Shea's Translation of the Same, Parkman's "LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West," and in French, Hennepin's "Voyage, ou Nouvelle Deeou- verte d'un Tres Grand Pays Situe dans l'Amerique," ete., printed at Amsterdam in 1698 by Abraham van Someren, and the same printed at Amsterdam in 1704 by Adrian Braakman; also Vols. 1 and 2 of the Mar- gry Papers. For interesting and valuable notes on Father Hennepin and his expedition see Warren Upham's artieles in Vol. 1 Minn. in Three Centuries.
GROSEILLIERS AND RADISSON.
During the period between 1654 and 1660, ante- dating, Father Hennepin by twenty years, two French- men, named Medard Chouart, commonly known as the Sieur des Groseilliers, and Pierre Esprit Radisson, made two expeditions of exploration and traffie into the Northwest from Canada. They may have pene- trated the country now comprised in Eastern Minne- sota, but it eannot be proven that they did, nor defi- nitely eoneluded just where they did eome. The "Relations," or reports, of the Jesuit fathers make it certain that they were in the Northwestern country at different times, but those authorities do not pre- tend to state their routes.
Years afterward, while living in England, Radisson wrote in English an aeeount of the expeditions of himself and his brother-in-law, Chouart, or Groseil- liers, but this account is confusing rather than enlight- ening. In writing Radisson seldom noted the date of any event by the month and never by the number of the year. It seems impossible now, from his descrip- tion, to identify any lake, river, or other natural fea- ture of the country which he and his brother-in-law visited or traversed, or to tell what tribes of Indians they met. His language is generally no more definite than, "We embarked on the delightfullest lake in the world ;" or "we erossed a great river;" or, "we came to another river ;" or "we came to a river;" or, "We abode by a sweet sea (or lake) ;" "We passed over a mountain ;" or "We met a nation of wild men," ete., ete. However he at no time mentions that they eame to a river elearly answering the description of the Mississippi, or that they even heard of a waterfall resembling the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua.
Historians and commentators do not agree in their conclusions as to the journeys of the two adventurous Frenchmen. Radisson says they spent about four- teen months on "an island." The late Capt. Russell Blakely claims, in an elaborate article in the State Historical Collections, that this island was in Lake Saganaga, on the northern boundary of Minnesota; Warren Upham thinks it was Prairie Island, in the Mississippi, a few miles above Red Wing. There is nothing, and never can be anything but theory and speeulation regarding the localities and natural fea- tures mentioned by Radisson. At the same time those most tolerant of and friendly toward Radisson's statements admit that many of them are pure fiction.
The historian or commentator elaiming that Groseil- liers and Radisson were ever at the Falls of St. An- thony or even at the Mississippi, has not yet appeared. What Radisson would doubtless eall "the beautifullest hotel in the world" has been built in Minneapolis and named for him, but the honor bestowed thereby is entirely gratuitous. So much for Groseilliers and Radisson.
PERROT, LE SUEUR, AND THE VERENDRYES.
It is well to mention, though ever so briefly, the expeditions into the Minnesota country, in the region of the present site of Minneapolis, made by the French explorers that eame immediately after Father Hennepin and Du Luth. Some of these visited St. Anthony of Padua's Falls and wrote about them, still further advertising them.
CAPT. NICHOLAS PERROT'S IMPORTANT OCCUPATION.
Passing by the great liar and falsifier, Baron L'Hontan, who pretended to have explored a great river and a vast country in Southern Minnesota in about 1690, but who never was in the country at all, we come to consider the important expeditions of Capt. Nicholas Perrot and Pierre Charles Le Sueur. Perrot was a Frenehman, and Le Sueur a French Canadian. In 1665, when abont 21, Perrot eamc to Green Bay as an Indian trader, and for the next few years acted as a general peace commissioner among all Indian tribes between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, bringing them all into friendly relations with the Freneh.
Probably as early as in 1683 Perrot established a trading post, which was named Fort St. Nicholas, on the Mississippi, not very far above the mouth of the Wisconsin. In early days trading posts were generally ealled "forts" although they were not fortifications or hardly had a military eharaeter. Perrot, it seems, was soon doing an extensive business, buying the furs of the Indians of what are now western Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota. In 1685 he built a temporary post on the east side of the river, near the present site of Trempelcau. Subse- quently, on the northeastern shore of Lake Pepin, six miles from its mouth, he built his most noted post. which he called Fort St. Antoine. He also had, at the outlet of the lake, a small post which he named for himself and ealled Fort Perrot, and another in the vicinity of Dubuque; but the latter were merely · auxiliaries and feeders of Fort St. Antoine. Dr. E. D. Neill was of opinion that Fort Perrot was built first, in 1683, and stood on the present site of the town of Wabasha.
Perrot informed himself about the country in which he was stationed. He wrote several mannscripts about it, deseribing certain Indian tribes, their wars, cns- toms, ete., and giving mueh of the geography of the country; but he did not mention the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, although three years before he eame to the conntry they had been discovered and made known. Moreover, his traders must have pene-
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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
trated to them many times during the fifteen years Fort St. Antoine existed. He knew of the St. Croix and the St. Pierre (the latter now the Minnesota) Rivers and gives their names at least as early as in 1689, showing that these rivers had been named before that time; can it be possible that he did not know of St. Anthony's Falls? If he did know them, why, in his numerous writings, did he not mention them ?
CAPT. PERROT TAKES POSSESSION OF THE COUNTRY FOR HIS KING AND NAMES THE ST. CROIX AND THE ST. PETER RIVERS.
May 8, 1689, at Fort St. Antoine, Perrot, aeting with full authority, or as he says, "Commanding for the King at the post of the Nadouesioux," took formal possession of a large extent of country in this region for and in the name of the King of France. This country extended far up the Mississippi, and of course included the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, although they are not mentioned. It especially mentions the country of the Nadoucsioux, on the border of the River Saint Croix, ("la Riviere St. Croix") and at the mouth of the River St. Peter ("La Riviere St. Pierre") "on the bank of which are the Mantan- tans." The latter named tribe may possibly mean the Mandan Sioux, although when first visited and reported upon the homes of these people were on the upper Missouri.
In 1699 King Louis XIV of Franee ordered the abandonment of the French trading posts in the far west, reealling the traders and the few soldiers to Lower Canada. In a convenient time Capt. Perrot obeyed the order and thereafter lived in retirement at his home on the St. Lawrence River. It is known that he was alive in 1718, but the date of his death is not known.
PIERRE CHARLES LE SUEUR.
It is quite probable that Pierre Le Sueur was the second prominent early explorer to visit the site of Minneapolis. He was a Canadian Frenehman, born in 1657. Probably he came with Nieholas Perrot to the Minnesota country in 1683 and was in his employ in this region for many years. He was at Fort St. Antoine, on the eastern shore of Lake Pepin, in 1689, for on the 8th of May of that year he, as a witness, signed Perrot's proclamation taking possession of the country in the name of the King of France. The other witnesses were the Jesuit priest, the Rev. Fr. Joseph Jean Marest; M. de Borie-Guillot, "eommanding the Freneh in the neighborhood of the Ouiskonche [Wis- consin] on the Mississippi;" Augustin Legardeur, Esquire : the Sieur De Caumont, and Messrs. Jean Hebert, Joseph Lemire, and F. Blein. All these, in- cluding Le Sueur, could write their names. Le Sueur is deseribed in the document simply as Mr. Le Sueur and signs without either of his Christian names. He was not then a prominent eharaeter.
In 1695 Le Sueur, by order of Gov. Frontenac, built a trading post on Prairie Island, in the Mississippi.
Early in the summer of this year he journeyed to Montreal, taking with him a Chippewa chief, Chen- gouabe, and "Tioseati," a Sioux. The idea was the promotion of a permanent treaty of peace between the two warring tribes in the presence of Gov. Frontenac. The Indians remained several months in Montreal, but the Sioux chief Tioseate (probably Te-yo Ska Te, meaning white door of a tepee, from te-yopa or te-yo, a door ; ska, white, and te a contraction of tepee) died the next winter. Le Sueur then went to France and obtained a commission to work some mines which he had previously discovered on the Blue Earth River, ncar its confluence with the Minnesota.
What he says he really found was some "blue or greenish earth" on the banks of the river, and he thought that this meant that large deposits of cop- per were imbedded deeper beneath the surface. What he saw was blue elay, so blue that the Indians used it for paint in bedaubing their faces and naked bodies on certain occasions. The Sioux called the stream whereon they found this blue clay, "Watpa Mah-kah to," meaning River of Blue Earth, (Watpa, river; mah-kah, earth; to or toe, blue.) Mankato is an Eng- lish corruption of Mah-kah to.
Le Sucur obtained his eommission to work his sup- posed mines largely through the influence of a French assayist named L'Huillier, who analyzed the dirt brought from the Blue Earth and said it contained copper. Obstacles of one kind and another deterred Le Sueur from returning to the Minnesota country and working his mine until in the year 1700. About October 1 of that year he reached the mouth of the Blue Earth. He spent the ensuing winter on the Blue Earth, a few miles above its mouth, where he built a post or "fort" which, in honor of his Freneh friend, the assayist, he named Fort L'Huillier.
Le Sueur, who was the historian of his expedition, says that October 26, 1700, lie "proceeded to the mines, with three canoes which he loaded with blue and green earth." The next spring he is said to have left a small garrison at Fort L'Huillier and shipped a lot of his "ore" down the Mississippi to New Orleans and from thence by ship to France. What was done with the stuff when it 'reached Paris is not eertainly known. The so-called copper mine was never farther explored. It was a copper mine without any copper. Le Sueur himself is believed to have died before 1712; one account says he died at sea while on his way back to America, and it is also said he "died of sickness" in Louisiana, where his home was at the time.
Le Sueur's journal of his mining expedition was published by Bernard La Harpe in French and has been translated into English by Shea and others. Another historian of the expedition was a Monsieur Penicaut, a shipwright, that built Le Sueur's boats and kept them in repair. Dr. Neill describes him as "a man of discernment but of little scholarship." He has, however, written a concise but clear, consist- ent, and apparently a fairly correct aeeount of the expedition and of the geography of the country. His statements agree very well with those of Le Sueur; any discrepancies are easily explained.
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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
LE SUEUR AND HIS MEN VISITED ST. ANTHONY FALLS.
We are assured by Penicaut's account that Le Sueur and his men visited the present site of Minneapolis. The ship-carpenter historian writes:
"Three leagnes higher up, after leaving this island, [Prairie Island] you meet on the right the river St. Croix, where there is a cross set at its mouth. Ten leagues further you come to the Falls of St. Anthony, which can be heard two leagues [six miles] off. It is the entire Mississippi falling suddenly from a height of 60 feet, ( !) making a noise like that of thunder rolling in the air. Here one has to carry the canoes and shallops * and raise them by hand to the upper level in order to continue the route by the river. This we did not do, but having for some time looked at this fall of the whole Mississippi we returned two leagues below the Falls of St. Anthony to a river coming in on the left, as you ascend the Mississippi, which is called the river St. Peter. ["la Riviere St. Pierre."] We took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty leagues, [a large over-estimate] where we found another river on the left falling into the St. Peter which we entered. We called this Green River, [ “La Riviere Vert"] because it is of that color by reason of a green earth, which, loosening itself from the Copper mines, becomes dissolved in it and makes it green."
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