History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

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" The Mississippi from the mouth of the Ouis- consin ascending, goes northwest. This beauti- ful river extends between two chains of high, bare and very sterile mountains, constantly a league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is narrowest, half a league &part. Its centre is oc- cupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that regarding from the heights above, you would think you saw an endless valley watered on the right and left by two large rivers ; sometimes, too, you could discern no river. These islands are overflowed every year, and would be adapted to raising rice. Fifty-eight leagues from the mouth of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation, ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of islands at that point, where it may be half a league wide. This river, in what I traversed of it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places; be- cause its bed is moving sands, like that of the Ouisconsin.

"On the 17th of September, 1727, at noon, we reached this lake, which had been chosen as the bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on the shore about the middle of the north side, on a low point, where the soil is excellent. The wood is very dense there, but is already thinned in consequence of the rigor and length of the winter, which has been severe for the climate, for we are here on the parallel of 43 deg. 41 min. It is true that the difference of the winter is great compared to that of Quebec and Montreal, for all that some poor judges say.

" From the day after our landing we put our axes to the wood: on the fourth day following the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat

of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve feet long, with two good bastions. For so small a space there are large buildings quite distinct and not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight, and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide.

" All would go well there if the spot were not inundated, but this year [1728], on the 15th of the month of April, we were obliged to camp out, and the water ascended to the height of two feet and eight inches in the houses, and it is idle to say that it was the quantity of snow that fell this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted long before, and there was only a foot and a half from the 8th of February to the 15th of March; you could not use snow-shoes.

" I have great reason to think that this spot is inundated more or less every year; I have always thonght so, but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people who said that they had lived in this region fifteen or twenty years declared that it was never overflowed. We could not enter our much-devastated houses until the 30th of April, and the disorder is even now scarcely re- paired.

"Before the end of October [1727] all the houses were finished and furnished, and each one found himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then thought only of going out to explore the hills and rivers and to see those herds of all kinds of deer of which they tell such stories in Canada. They must have retired, or diminished greatly, since the time the old voyageurs left the country; they are no longer in such great numbers, and are killed with difficulty.

" After beating the field, for some time, all re- assembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a little the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of No- vember we did not forget it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada] in the morning, and they were well disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyro- technists and the inconstancy of the weather caused them to postpone the celebration to the 14th of the same month, when they set off some very fine rockets and made the air ring with an hundred shouts of Vive le Roy! and Vive Charles de Beauharnois! It was on this occasion that the wine of the Sioux was broached; it was par ex-

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

cellence, although there are no wines here finer than in Canada.

" What contributed much to the amusement, was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who were at the time around the fort. When these poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take flight. and the most courageous of the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earn- estly to stop the surprising play of that wonder- ful medicine.

" As soon as we arrived among them, they as- sembled, in a few days, around the French fort to the number of ninety-five cabins, which might make in all one hundred and fifty men; for there are at most two men in their portable cabins of dressed skins, and in many there is only one. This is all we have seen except a band of about sixty men, who came on the 26th of the month of February, who were of those nations called Sioux of the Prairies.

" At the end of November, the Indians set out for their winter quarters. They do not, indeed, go far, and we saw some of them all through the winter; but from the second of the month of April last, when some cabins repassed here to go in search of them, [he] sought them in vain, du- ring a week, for more than sixty leagues of the Mississippi, He [La Perriere?] arrived yesterday without any tidings of them.

" Although I said above, that the Sioux were alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new phenomena, it must not be supposed from that they were less intelligent than other Indians we know. They seem to me more so; at least they are much gayer and open, apparently, and far more dextrous thieves, great dancers, and great medicine men. The men are almost all large and well made, but the women are very ugly and dis- gusting, which does not, however, check debauch- ery among them, and is perhaps an effect of it."

In the summer of 1728 the Jesuit De Gonor left the fort on Lake Pepin, and, by way of Mack- inaw, returned to Canada. The Foxes had now become very troublesome, and De Lignery and Beaujeu marched against their stronghold, to find they had retreated to the Mississippi River.

On the 12th of October, Boucherville, his bro- ther Montbrun, a young Jadet of enterprising spirit, the Jesuit Guignas, and other Frenchmen,

eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by way of the Illinois River. They were captured by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained at the river " Au Bœuf," which stream was prob- ably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twenty- two leagues above the Illinois River, although the same name was given by Hennepin to the Chip- pewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were held as prisoners, with the view of delivering them to the Foxes. The night before the deliv- ery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and an- other Frenchman escaped. Montbrun, leaving his sick brother in the Illinois country, journeyed to Canada and informed the authorities.

Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners for several months, and the former did not reach Detroit until June, 1729, The account of expen- ditures made during his captivity is interesting as showing the value of merchandize at that time. It reads as follows:

" Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the ser- vice of the King, from the time of his detention among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October, 1728. until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729, in the month of June. On arriving at the Kick- apoo village. he made a present to the young men to secure their opposition to some evil minded old warriors-

Two barrels of powder, each fifty pounds

at Montreal price, valued at the sum of 150 liv. One hundred pounds of lead and balls making the sum of. 50 liv. Four pounds of vermillion, at 12 francs the pound. 48 fr.

Four coats, braided, at twenty francs ... 80 fr.

Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen 24 fr.

Four hundred flints, one hundred gun- worms, two hundred ramrods and one hundred and fifty files, the total at the maker's prices. 90 liv.

After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to the Renards [Foxes] they wished some favors, and I was obliged to give them the following which would allow them to weep over and cover their dead:

Two braided coats @ 20 fr. each. 40fr. Two woolen blankets @ 15 fr. 30

One hundred pounds of powder @@ 30 sous 75 One hundred pounds of lead @@ 10 sous. . 25

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BOUCHERVILLE'S PRESENTS WHILE IN CAPTIVITY.

Two pounds of vermillion @ 12 fr. . .. . 24fr.

Moreover, given to the Renards to cover their dead and prepare them for peace,

fifty pounds of powder, making .. 75

One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous.

Two pounds of vermillion @@ 12 fr

During the winter a considerable party was sent to strike hands with the Illinois. Given at that time :

Two blue blankets @ 15 fr.

Four men's shirts @@ 6 fr.

Four pairs of long-necked bottles @@ 6 fr 24 Four dozen of knives (@ 4 fr 16

Gun-worms, files, ramrods, and flints, es- timated 40

Given to engage the Kickapoos to establish themselves upon a neighboring isle, to proteet from the treachery of the Renards-

Four blankets, @@ 15f. 60f

Two pairs of bottles, 6f

Two pounds of vermillion, 12f

Four dozen butcher knives, 6f

Two woolen blankets, @@ 15f

Four pairs of bottles,

@ 6

Four shirts, @@ 6f.

Four dozen of knives, (@) 4f.

The Renards having betrayed and killed their brothers, the Kickapoos, I seized the favorable opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge themselves, I gave-

Twenty-five pounds of powder, @@30sous 37f.10 .:. Twenty-five pounds of lead, @@ 10s. I2f.108: Two guns at 30 livres each. 60f

One half pound of vermillion.

Flints, guns, worms and knives

20f

The Illinois coming to the Kikapoos vil- lage, I supported them at my expense,

and gave them powder, balls and shirts valued at. 50f

In departing from the Kikapoos village, I

gave them the rest of the goods for

their good treatment, estimated at .... 80f In a letter, written by a priest, at New Orleans, on July 12, 1730, is the following exaggerated ac- count of the capture of Father Guignas: "We always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians, although they did not longer dare to undertake anything, since Father Guignas has detached from their al- liance the tribes of the Kikapous and Maskoutins. You know, my Reverend Father, that, being in

Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to the Sioux near the sources of the Mississippi, at the distance of eight hundred leagues from New Orleans and five hundred from Quebec. Obliged to abandon this important mission by the unfor- tunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes, he descended the river to repair to the Illinois. On the 15th of October in the year 1728 he was arrested when half way by the Kickapous and Maskoutins. For four months he was a captive among the Indians, where he had much to suffer and everything to fear. The time at last came when he was to be burned alive, when he was adopted by an old man whose family saved his life and procured his liberty.

"Our missionaries who are among the Illinois were no sooner acquainted with the situation than they procured him all the alleviation they were able. Everything which he received he em- ployed to conciliate the Indians, and succeeded to the extent of engaging them to conduct him to the Illinois to make peace with the French and Indians of this region. Seven or eight months after this peace was concluded, the Maskoutins and Kikapous returned again to the Illinois coun- try, and took back Father Guignas to spend the winter, from whence, in all probability, he will return to Canada."

In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, by the Canadian government, the following refer- ence is made to Fort Beauharnois : "They agree that the fort built among the Scioux, on the bor- der of Lake Pepin, appears to be badly situated on account of the freshets, but the Indians assure . that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever did before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it at that place it was on the assurance of the In- dians that the waters did not rise so high." In reference to the absence of Indians. is the fol- lowing :

"It is very true that these Indians did leave shortly after on a hunting excursion, as they are in the habit of doing, for their own support and that of their families, who have only that means of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed that their absence was occasioned only by having fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie Seioux, by whom they were invited to occompany them on a war expedition against the Mahas,

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA."

which invitation they accepted, and returned only in the month of July following.

"The interests of religion, of the service, and of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of this establishment, which has been the more nec- essary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when routed, would have found an asylum among the Scioux had not the French been settled there, and the docility and submission manifested by the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause ex- cept the attention entertained by the Scioux for the French, and the offers which the former made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully cognisant.

"It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes in check and counteract the measures they might adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invaria- bly reject their propositions so long as the French . remain in the country, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these ad- vantages and the importance of preserving that establishment, M. de Beauharnois cannot take any steps until he has news of the French who asked his permission this summer to go up there with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that those who wintered there have not dismantled the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same sentiments. Besides, it does not seem very easy, in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post unless there is a solid peace with the Foxes; on the other hand, the greatest portion of the tra- ders, who applied in 1727 for the establishment of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send thither any more, as the rupture with the Foxes, through whose country it is necessary to pass in order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them to abandon the idea. But the one and the other caso might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all probability, come or send next year to sue for peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on ad- vantageous conditions, there need be no appre- hension when going to the Sioux, and another company could be formed, less numerous than the first, through whom, or some responsible mer- chants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty could be made, whereby these difficulties would be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and that is, to send a commanding and sub-officer, and some soldiers, up there, which are absolutely

necessary for the maintenance of good order at that post; the missionaries would not go there without a commandant. This article, which re- gards the service, and the expense of which must be on his majesty's account, obliges them to ap- ply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their power, induce the traders to meet that expense, which will possibly amount to 1000 livres or 1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in proportion for the officer under him; but, as in the beginning of an establishment the expenses exceed the profits, it is improbable that any com- pany of merchants will assume the outlay, and in this case they demand orders on this point, as well as his majesty's opinion as to the necessity of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which has already afforded proofs of its fidelity and at- tachment.

" These orders could be sent them by the way of Ile Royale, or by the first merchantmen that will sail for. Quebec, The time required to re- ceive intelligence of the occurrences in the Scioux country, will admit of their waiting for these orders before doing anything."

Sieur de la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la Perriere Boucher, with a few French, during the troubles remained in the Sioux country. After peace was established with the Foxes, Legardeur Saint Pierre was in command at Fort Beauhar- nois, and Father Guignas again attempted to es- tablish a Sioux mission. In a communication dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian au- thorities is the following: "In regard to the Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have written to Sieur de Beauharnois on the tenth and eleventh of last April, that these Indians ap- peared well intentioned toward the French, and had no other fear than that of being abandoned by them. Sieur de Beauharnois annexes an ex- tract of these letters, and although the Scioux seem very friendly, the result only can tell whether this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, for the unrestrained and inconsistent spirit which composes the Indian character may easily change it. They have not come over this summer as yet, but M. de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so next year, and to have an eye on their proceed- ings."

The reply to this communication from Louis

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DE LUSIGNAN VISITS THE SIOUX COUNTRY.

XV. dated Versailles, May 10th, 1737, was in these words : " As respects the Scioux, according to what the commandant and missionary at that post have written to Sieur de Beauharnois rela- tive to the disposition of these Indians, nothing appears to be wanting on that point.

" But their delay in coming down to Montreal since the time they have promised to do so, must render their sentiments somewhat suspected, and nothing but facts can determine whether their fidelity can be absolutely relied on. But what must still further increase the uneasiness to be entertained in their regard is the attack on the convoy of M. de Verandrie, especially if this officer has adopted the course he had informed the Marquis de Beauharnois he should take to have revenge therefor."

The particulars of the attack alluded to will be found in the next chapter. Soon after this the Foxes again became troublesome, and the post on Lake l'epin was for a time abandoned by the French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language : " The Marquis de Beauharnois' opinion respect- ing the war against the Foxes, has been the more readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil, Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Corne, de Lig- nery, La Noue, and Duplessis - Fabert, whom he had assembled at his house, as it appears from all the letters that the Count has writi n for sev- eral years, that he has nothing so much at heart as the destruction of that Indian nation, which can not be prevailed on by the presents and the good treatment of the French, to live in peace, not- withstanding all its promises.

" Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a secret understanding with the Iroquois, to secure a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged to abandon their villages. They have one already secured among the Sioux of the prairies, with whom they are allied; so that, should they be

advised beforehand of the design of the French to wage war against them, it would be easy for them to retire to the one or the other before their passage could be intersected or themselves at- tacked in their villages."

In the summer of 1743, a deputation of the Sioux came down to Quebec, to ask that trade might be resumed. Three years after this, four Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and asked that a commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois ; which was not granted.

During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan vis- ited the Sioux country, ordered by the govern- ment to hunt up the "coureurs des bois," and withdraw them from the country. They started to return with him, but learning that they would be arrested at Mackinaw, for violation of law, they ran away. While at the villages of the Sioux of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to this officer nineteen of their young men, bound with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at the Illinois. While he remained with them, they made peace with the Ojibways of La Pointe, with whom they had been at war for some time. On his return, four chiefs accompanied him to Montreal, to solicit pardon for their young braves.

The lessees of the trading-post lost many of their peltries that winter in consequence of a fire.

Reminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1766, "ob- served the ruins of a French factory, where, it is said, Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a great trade with the Nadouessies before the re- duction of Canada."

Pike, in 1805, wrote in his journal: "Just be- low Pt. Le Sable, the French, who had driven the Renards [Foxes] from Wisconsin, and chased them up the Mississippi, built a stockade on this lake, as a barrier against the savages. It became a noted factory for the Sioux."

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER IX.

VERENDRYE, THE EXPLORER OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA, AND DISCOVERER OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

Conversation of Verendrye with Father De Gonor .- Parentage and Early Life .- Old Indian Map Preserved .- Verendrye's Son and Nephew Explore Pigeon River and Reach Rainy Lake .- Father Messayer a Companion .- Fort St. Pierre Established .- Lake of the Woods Reached and Fort St. Charles Built .- De la Jemeraye's Map. - Fort on the Assinaboine River .- Verendrye's Son, Father Ouneau and Associates Killed by Sioux, on Massacre Isle, in Lake of the Woods - Fort La Reine .- Verendrye's Eldest Son, with Others, Reaches the Missouri River .- Discovers the Rocky Mountains. - Returns to Lake of the Woods. -- Exploration of Saskatchewan River .- Sieur de la Verendrye Jr .- Verendrye the Father, made Captain of the Order of St. Louis .- His Death .- The Swedish Traveler, Kalm, Notices Verendryr. - Bougainville Describes Verendrye's Ex- plorations. - Legarleur de St. Pierre at Fort La Reine .- Fort Jonquiere Estab- lished .- De Ja Corne Succeeds St. Pierre .- St. Pierre Merts Washington at French Creek, in Pennsylvania .- Killed in Battle, near Lake George.

Early in the year 1728, two travelers met at the secluded post of Mackinaw, one was named De Gonor, a Jesuit Father, who with Guignas, had gone with the expedition, that the September before had built Fort Beauharnois on the shores of Lake Pepin, the other was Pierre Gualtier Va- rennes, the Sieur de la Verendrye the commander of the post on Lake Nepigon of the north shore of Lake Superior, and a relative of the Sieur de la Perriere, the commander at Lake Pepin.

Verendrye was the son of Rene Gualtier Va- rennes who for twenty-two years was the chief magistrate at Three Rivers, whose wife was Ma- rie Boucher, the daughter of his predecessor whom he had married when she was twelve years of age. He became a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 accompanied an expedition to New England. The next year he was in Newfoundland and the year following he went to France, joined a regi- ment of Brittany and was in the conflict at Mal- plaquet when the French troops were defeated by the Duke of Marlborough. When he returned to Canada he was obliged to accept the position of ensign notwithstanding the gallant manner in which he had behaved. In time he became iden- tified with the Lake Superior region. While at Lake Nepigon the Indians assured him that there was a communication largely by water to the Pacific Ocean. One, named Ochagachs, drew a rude map of the country, which is still preserved among the French archives. Pigeon River is

marked thereon Mantohavagane, and the River St. Louis is marked R. fond du L. Superior, and the Indians appear to have passed from its head- waters to Rainy Lake. Upon the western ex- tremity is marked the River of the West.

De Gonor conversed much upon the route to the Pacific with Verendrye, and promised to use his influence with the Canadian authorities to advance the project of exploration.

Charles De Beauharnois, the Governor of Can- ada, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing, and carefully examined the map of the region west of the great lakes, which had been drawn by Ocha- gachs (Otchaga), the Indian guide. Orders were soon given to fit out an expedition of fifty men. It left Montreal in 1731, under the conduct of his sons and nephew De la Jemeraye, he not joining the party till 1733, in consequence of the deten- tions of business.

In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy Lake, by the Nantouagan, or Groselliers river, now called Pigeon. Father Messayer, who had been stationed on Lake Superior, at the Grosel- liers river, was taken as a spiritual guide. At the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and called Fort St. Pierre, and the next year, having crossed Minittie, or Lake of the Woods, they es- tablished Fort St. Charles on its southwestern bank. Five leagues from Lake Winnipeg they established a post on the Assinaboine. An un- published map of these discoveries by De la Jem- eraye still exists at Paris. The river Winnipeg, called by them Maurepas, in honor of the minis- ter of France in 1734, was protected by a fort of the same name.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: