History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 11

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

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About this time their advance was stopped by the exhaustion of supplies, but on the 12th of April, 1735, an arrangement was made for a sec- ond equipment. and a fourth son joined the expe- dition.

In June. 1736, while twenty-one of the expedi-

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DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

tion were camped upon an isle in the Lake of the Woods, they were surprised by a band of Sioux hostile to the French allies, the Cristinaux, and all killed. The island, upon this account, is called Massacre Island. A few days after, a party of five Canadian voyageurs discovered their dead bodies and scalped heads. Father Ounean, the missionary, was found upon one knee, an ar- row in his head, his breast bare, his left hand touching the ground, and the right hand raised.

Among the slaughtered was also a son of Ver- endrye, who had a tomahawk in his back, and his body adorned with garters and bracelets of poreu- ¡ ine. The father was at the foot of the Lake of the Woods when he received the news of his son's inurder, and about the same time heard of the death of his enterprising nephew, Dufrost de la Jemeraye, the son of his sister Marie Reine de Varennes, and brother of Madame Youville, the foundress of the Hospitaliers at Montreal.

It was under the guidance of the latter that the party had, in 1731, mastered the difficulties of the Nantaouagon, or Groselliers river.

On the 3d of October, 1738, they built an ad- vanced post, Fort La Reine, on the river Assini- boel .: , now Assinaboine, which they called St Charles, and beyond was a branch called St. Pierre. These two rivers received the baptismal name of Verendrye, which was Pierre, and Gov- ernor Lenuharnois, which was Charles. The post became the centre of trade and point of departure for explorations, either north or south.

It was by ascending the Assinaboine, and by the present trail from its tributary, Mouse river, they reached the country of the Mantanes, and in 1741, came to the upper Missouri, passed the Yel- low Stone, and at length arrived at the Rocky Mountains. The party was led by the eldest son and his brother, the chevalier. They left the Lake of the Woods on the 29th of April, 1742, came in sight of the Rocky Mountains on the 1st of January, 1743, and on the 12th ascended them. On the route they fell in with the Beaux Hom- mes, Pioya, Petits Renards, and Arc tribes, and stopped among the Snake tribe, but could go no farther in a southerly direction, owing to a war between the Arcs and Snakes.

On the 19th of May, 1744, they had returned to the upper Missouri, and, in the country of the l'etite Cerise tribe, they planted on an eminence

a leaden plate of the arms of France, and raised a monument of stones, which they called Beau- harnois. They returned to the Lake of the Woods on the 2d of July.

North of the Assiniboine they proceeded to Lake Dauphin, Swan's Lake, explored the riv- er "Des Biches," and ascended even to the fork of the Saskatchewan, which they called Pos- koiac. Two forts were subsequently established, one near Lake Dauphin and the other on the river " des Biches," called Fort Bourbon. The northern route, by the Saskatchewan, was thought to have some advantage over the Missouri, be- cause there was no danger of meeting with the Spaniards.

Governor Beauharnois having been prejudiced against Verendrye by envious persons, De Noy- elles was appointed to take command of the posts. During these difficulties, we find Sieur de la Verendrye, Jr., engaged in other duties. In August, 1747, he arrives from Mackinaw at Mon- treal, and in the autumn of that year he accom- panies St. Pierre to Mackinaw, and brings back the convoy to Montreal. In February, 1748, with five Canadians, five Cristenaux, two Ottawas, and one Sauteur, he attacked the Mohawks near Schenectady, and returned to Montreal with two scalps, one that of a chief. On June 20th, 1748, it is recorded that Chevalier de la Verendrye de- parted from Montreal for the head of Lake Supe- rior. Margry states that he perished at sea in November, 1764, by the wreck of the " Auguste."

Fortunately, Galissioniere the successor of Beauharnois, although deformed and insignifi- cant in appearance, was fair minded, a lover of science, especially botany, and anxious to push discoveries toward the Pacific. Verendrye the father was restored to favor, and made Captain of the Order of St. Louis, and ordered to resume explorations, but he died on December 6th, 1749, while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan.

The Swedish Professor, Kalm, met him in Can- ada, not long before his decease, and had inter- esting conversations with him about the furrows on the plains of the Missouri, which he errone- ously conjectured indicated the former abode of an agricultural people. These ruts are familiar to modern travelers, and may be only buffalo trails.

Father Coquard, wno had been associated with

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

Verendrye, says that they first met the Mantanes, and next the Brochets. After these were the Gros Ventres, the Crows, the Flat Heads, the Black Feet, and Dog Feet, who were established on the Missouri, even up to the falls, and that about thirty leagues beyond they found a narrow pass in the mountains.

Bougainville gives a more full account: he says: "'He who most advanced this discovery was the Sieur de la Veranderie. He went from Fort la Reine to the Missouri. He met on the banks of this river the Mandans, or White Beards, who had seven villages with pine stockades, strength- ened by a ditch. Next to these were the Kinon- gewiniris. or the Brochets, in three villages, and toward the upper part of the river were three villages of the Mahantas. All along the mouth of the Wabeik, or Shell River, were situated twenty-three villages of the Panis. To the south- west of this river, on the banks of the Ouanarade- ba, or La Graisse, are the Hectanes or Snake tribe. They extend to the base of a chain of mountains which runs north northeast. South of this is the river Karoskiou, or Cerise Pelee, which is supposed to flow to California.

" He found in the immense region watered by the Missouri, and in the vicinity of forty leagues, the Mahantas, the Owiliniock, or Beaux Hom- mes, four villages; opposite the Brochets the Black Feet, three villages of a hundred lodges each; op. posite the Mandans are the Ospekakaerenousques, or Flat Heads, four villages; opposite the Panis are the Arcs of Cristinaux, and Utasibaoutchatas of Assiniboel, three villages; following thesc the Makesch, or Little Foxes, two villages; tho Pi- wassa, or great talkers, three villages; the Ka- kokoschena, or Gens de la Pie, five villages; the Kiskipisounouini,, or the Garter tribe, seven vil- lages."

Galassoniere was succeeded by Jonquiere in the governorship of Canada, who proved to be a grasping, peevish, and very miserly person. For the sons of Verendrye he had no sympathy, and forming a clique to profit by their father's toils,

he determined to send two expeditions toward the Pacific Ocean, one by the Missouri and the other by the Saskatchewan.

Father Coquard, one of the companions of Ve- rendrye, was consulted as to the probability of finding a pass in the Rocky Mountains, through which they might, in canoes, reach the great lake of salt water, perhaps Puget's Sound.

The enterprise was at length confided to two experienced officers, Lamarque de Marin and Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. The former was assigned the way, by the Missouri, and to the latter was given the more northern route; but Saint Pierre in some way excited the hostil- . ity of the Cristinaux, who attempted to kill him, and burned Fort la Reine. His lieutenant, Bou- cher de Niverville, who had been sent to establish a post toward the source of the Saskatchewan, failed on account of sickness. Some of his men, however, pushed on to the Rocky Mountains, and in I753 established Fort Jonquiere. `Henry says St. Pierre established Fort Bourbon.

In 1753, Saint Pierre was succeeded in the command of the posts of the West, by de la Corne, and sent to French Creek, in Pennsylva- nia. He had been but a few days there when he received a visit from Washington, just entering upon manhood, bearing a letter from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, complaining of the en croachments of the French.

Soon the clash of arms between France and England began, and Saint Pierre, at the head of the Indian allies, fell near Lake George, in Sep- tember, 1755, in a battle with the English. After the seven years' war was concluded, by the treaty of Paris, the French relinquished all their posts in the Northwest, and the work begun by Veren- drye, was, in 1805, completed by Lewis and Clarke; and the Northern Pacific Railway is fast approaching the passes of the Rocky Mountains, through the valley of the Yellow Stone, and from thence to the great land-locked bay of the ocean. Puget's Sound.

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EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAR.

CHAPTER X.

EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAR.

English Influence Increasing .- Le Duc Robbed at Lake Superior .- St. Pierre at Mackinaw .- Escape of Indian Prisoners .- La Ronde and Verendrye .- Influence of Sieur Marin .- St. Pierre Recalled from Winnipeg Region .- Interview with Washington .- Langlade Urges Attack Upon Troops of Braddock .- Saint Pierre Killed in Battle .- Marin's Boldness .- Rogers, a Partisan Ranger, Commands at Mackinaw .- At Ticonderoga .- French Deliver up the Posta in Canada. - Capt. Balfour Takes Possession of Mackinaw and Green Bay .- Lieut. Gorrell in Com. mand at Green Bay .- Sioux Visit Green Bay .- Pennensha a French Trader Among the Sioux. - Treaty of Paris.

English influence produced increasing dissatis- faction among the Indians that were beyond Mackinaw. Not only were the voyageurs robbed and maltreated at Sault St. Marie and other points on Lake Superior, but even the commandant at Mackinaw was exposed to insolence, and there was no security anywhere.

On the twenty-third of August, 1747, Philip Le Duc arrived at Mackinaw from Lake Superior, stating that he had been robbed of his goods at Kamanistigoya, and that the Ojibways of the lake were favorably disposed toward the English. The Dahkotahs were also becoming unruly in the absence of French officers.

In a few weeks after Le Duc's robbery, St. Pierre left Montreal to become commandant at Mackinaw, and Vercheres was appointed for the post at Green Bay. In the language of a docu- ment of the day, St. Pierre was "a very good officer, much esteemed among all the nations of those parts ; none.more loved and feared." On his arrival, the savages were so cross, that he ad- vised that no Frenchman should come to trade.

By promptness and boldness, he secured the Indians who had murdered some Frenchmen, and obtained the respect of the tribes. While the three murderers were being conveyed in a canoe down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, in charge of a sergeant and seven soldiers, the savages, with characteristic cunning, though manacled, suc- ceeded in killing or drowning the guard. Cutting their irons with an axe, they sought the woods, and escaped to their own country. "Thus," writes Galassoniere, in 1748, to Count Maurepas,

was lost in a great measure the fruit of Sieur St. Pierre's good management, and of all the fatigue I endured to get the nations who surrendered these rascals to listen to reason."

On the twenty-first of June of the next year, La Ronde started to La Pointe, and Verendrye for West Sea, or Fon du Lac, Minnesota.

Under the influence of Sieur Marin, who was in command at Green Bay in 1753, peaceful re- lations were in a measure restored between the French and Indians.

As the war between England and France deep- ened, the officers of the distant French posts were called in and stationed nearer the enemy. Legardeur St. Pierre, was brought from the Lake Winnipeg region, and, in December, 1753, was in command of a rude post near Erie, l'ennsylvania. Langlade, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, arrived early in July, 1755, at Fort Duquesne. With Beauyeu and De Lignery, who had been engaged in fight- ing the Fox Indians, he left that fort, at nine o'clock of the morning of the 9th of July, and, a little after noon, came near the English, who had halted on the south shore of the Monongahela, and were at dinner, with their arms stacked. By the urgent entreaty of Langlade, the western half-breed, Beauyeu, the officer in command or- dered an attack, and Braddock was overwhelmed, and Washington was obliged to say, " We have been beaten, shamefully beaten, by a handful of Frenchmen."

Under Baron Dieskau, St. Pierre commanded the Indians, in September, 1755, during the cam- paign near Lake George, where he fell gallantly fighting the English, as did his commander. The Rev. Claude Coquard, alluding to the French defeat, in a letter to his brother, remarks:

" We lost, on that occasion, a brave officer, M. de St. Pierre, and had his advice, as well as that of several other Canadian officers, been followed, Jonckson [Johnson] was irretrievably destroyed,

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

and we should have been spared the trouble we have had this year."

Other officers who had been stationed on the borders of Minnesota also distinguished them- selves during the French war. The Marquis Montcalm, in camp at Ticonderoga, on the twen- ty-seventh of July, 1757, writes to Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada:

" Lieutenant Marin, of the Colonial troops, who has exhibited a rare audacity, did not consider himself bound to halt, although his detachment of about four hundred men was reduced to about two hundred, the balance having been sent back on account of inability to follow. He carried off a patrol of ten men, and swept away an ordinary guard of fifty like a wafer; went up to the en- emy's camp, under Fort Lydias (Edward), where he was exposed to a severe fire, and retreated like a warrior. He was unwilling to amuse himself making prisoners; he brought in only one, and thirty-two scalps, and must have killed many men of the enemy, in the midst of whose ranks it was neither wise nor prudent to go in search of scalps.

The Indians generally all behaved well. * * * The Outaouais, who arrived with me, and whom I designed to go on a scouting party towards the lake, had conceived a project of administering a corrective to the English barges. *

* On * the day before yesterday. your brother formed a detachment to accompany them. I arrived at his camp on the evening of the same day. Lieuten- ant de Corbiore, of the Colonial troops, was re- turning, in consequence of a misunderstanding. and as I knew the zeal and intelligence of that officer, I made him set out with a new instruc- tion to join Messrs de Langlade and Hertel de Chantly. They remained in ambush all day and night yesterday; at break of day the English ap- peared on Lake St. Sacrament, to the number of twenty-two barges, under the commandl of Sieur Parker. The whoops of our Indians impressed them with such terror that they made but feeble resistance, and only two barges escaped."

After De Corbiere's victory on Lake Cham- plain, a large French army was collected at Ti- conderoga, with which there were many Indians from the tribes of the Northwest, and the Ioways appeared for the first time in the east.

It is an interesting fact that the English offi- cers who were in frequent engagements with St.

Pierre, Lusignan, Marin, Langlade, and others, became the pioneers of the British, a few years afterwards, in the occupation of the outposts of the lakes, and in the exploration of Minnesota.

Rogers, the celebrated captain of rangers, sub- sequently commander of Mackinaw, and Jona- than Carver, the first British explorer of Minne- sota, were both on duty near Lake Champlain, the latter narrowly escaping at the battle of Fort George.

On Christmas eve, 1757, Rogers approached Fort Ticonderoga, to fire the outhouses, but was prevented by discharge of the cannons of the Fren h.

II( contented himself with killing fifteen beeves. on the horns of one of which he left this laconic and amusing note, addressed to the commander of the post:

"I am obliged to you, Sir, for the repose you have allowed me to take; I thank you for the fresh meat you hare sent me, I request you to present my compliments to the Marquis du Montcalm."

On the thirteenth of March, 1758, Durantaye, formerly at Mackinaw, had a skirmish with Rog- ers. Both had been trained on the frontier, and they met " as Greek met Greek." The conflict was fierce. and the French victorious. The In- dian allies, finding a scalp of a chief underneath an officer's jacket, were furious, and took one hundred and fourteen scalps in return. When the French returned, they supposed that Captain Rogers was among the killed.

At Quebec, when Montcalm and Wolfe fell, there were Ojibways present assisting the French

The Indians, returning from the expeditions against the English, were attacked with small- Fox, and many died at Mackinaw.

On the eighth of September, 1760, the French delivered up all their posts in Canada. A few days after the capitulation at Montreal, Major Rogers was sent with English troops, to garrison the posts of the distant Northwest.

On the eighth of September, 1761, a year after the surrender, Captain Balfour, of the eightieth regiment of the British army, left Detroit. with a detachment to take possession of the French forts at Mackinaw and Green Bay. Twenty-five soldiers were left at Mackinaw, in command of Lieutenant Leslie, and the rest sailed to Green Bay, under Lieutenant Gorrell of the Royal

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PENNENSHIA WRITES A LETTER FOR THE SIOUX.

Americans, where they arrived on the twelfth of October. The fort had been abandoned for sev- eral years, and was in a dilapidated condition. In charge of it there was left a lieutenant, a cor- poral, and fifteen soldiers. Two English traders arrived at the same time, Mckay from Albany, and Goddard from Montreal.

Gorrell in his journal alludes to the Minnesota Sioux. He writes-

" On March 1, 1763, twelve warriors of the Sous came here. It is certainly the greatest nation of Indians ever yet found. Not above two thousand of them were ever armed with firearms ; the rest depending entirely on bows and arrows, which they use with more skill than any other Indian nation in America. They can shoot the wildest and largest beasts in the woods at seventy or one hundred yards distant. They are remarkable for their dancing, and the other nations take the fashions from them. * * * * This nation is always at war with the Chippewas, those who destroyed Mishamakinak. They told me with warmth that if ever the Chippewas or any other Indians wished to obstruct the passage of the traders coming up, to send them word, and they would come and cut them off from the face of the earth ; as all Indians were their slaves or dogs. I told them I was glad to see them, and hoped to have a lasting peace with them. They then gave me a letter wrote in French, and two belts of wampum from their king, in which he expressed great joy on hearing of there being English at his post. The letter was written by a French trader whom I had allowed to go among them last fall, with a promise of his behaving well ; which he did, better than any Canadian I ever knew. * * * * * With regard to traders, I would not allow any to go amongst them, as I

then understood they lay out of the government of Canada, but made no doubt they would have traders from the Mississippi in the spring. They went away extremely well pleased. June 14th, 1763, the traders came down from the Sack coun- try, and confirmed the news of Landsing and his son being killed by the French. There came with the traders some Puans, and four young men with one chief of the Avoy [Ioway] nation, to demand traders. * * * *

" On the nineteenth, a deputation of Winneba- goes, Sacs, Foxes and Menominees arrived with a Frenchman named Pennensha. This Pennen- sha is the same man who wrote the letter the Sous brought with them in French, and at the same time held council with that great nation in favour of the English, by which he much promo- ted the interest of the latter, as appeared by the behaviour of the Sous. He brought with him a pipe from the Sous, desiring that as the road is now clear, they would by no means allow the Chippewas to obstruct it, or give the English any disturbance, or prevent the traders from coming up to them. If they did so they would send all their warriors and cut them off."

In July, 1763, there arrived at Green Bay, Bruce, Fisher; and Roseboom of Albany, to en- gage in the Indian trade.

By the treaty of Paris of 1763, France ceded to Great Britain all of the country east of the Mis- sissippi, and to Spain the whole of Louisiana, so that the latter power for a time held the whole region between the Mississippi River and the Pa- cific Ocean, and that portion of the city of Min- neapolis known as the East Division was then governed by the British, while the West Division was subject to the Spanish code.

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER XI.

JONATHAN CARVER, THE FIRST BRITISH TRAVELER AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. .

Carver's Early Life .- In the Battle near Lake George .- Arrives at Mackinaw .- Old Fort at Green Bay .- Winnebago Village .- Description of Prairie du Chien. Earthworks on Banks of Lake Pepin .- Sioux Bands Described .- Cave and Burial Place in Suburbs of St. Paul .- The Falls of Saint Anthony .- Burial Rites of tLe Sioux .- Speech of a Sioux Chief .- Schiller's Poem of the Death Song .- Sir John Herschel's Tranlation .--- Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's Version .... Correspondence of Sir William Johnson ...- Carver's Project for Opening a Route to the Pacific .... Supposed Origin of the Sioux ...- Carver's Claim to Lands Ex- amined .--- Alleged Deed .--- Testimony of Rev. Samuel Peters ...- Communication from Gen. Leavenworth .--- Report of U. S. Senate Committee.

Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut IIis grandfather, William Carver, was a native of Wigan, Lancashire, England, and a captain in King William's army during the campaign in Ireland, and for meritorious services received an appointment as an officer of the colony of Con- necticut.

His father was a justice of the peace in the new world, and in 1732, the subject of this sketch was born. At the early age of fifteen he was called to mourn the death of his father. He then commenced the study of medicine, but his roving disposition could not bear the confines of a doc- tor's office, and feeling, perhaps, that his genius would be cramped by pestle and mortar, at the age of eighteen he purchased an ensign's commis- sion in one of the regiments raised during the French war. He was of medium stature, and of strong mind and quick perceptions.

In the year 1757, he was captain under Colonel Williams in the battle near Lake George, where Saint Pierre was killed, and narrowly escaped with his life.

After the peace of 1763, between France and England was declared, Carver conceived the pro- ject of exploring the Northwest. Leaving Boston in the month of June, 1766, he arrived at Macki- naw, then the most distant British post, in the month of August. Having obtained a credit on some French and English traders from Major Rogers, the officer in command, he started with them on the third day of September. Pursuing the usual route to Green Bay, they arrived there on the eighteenth.

The French fort at that time was standing, though much decayed. It was, some years pre- vious to his arrival, garrisoned for a short time by an officer and thirty English soldiers, but they having been captured by the Menominees, it was abandoned.

In company with the traders, he left Green Bay on the twentieth, and ascending Fox river, arrived on the twenty-fifth at an island at the east end of Lake Winnebago, containing about fifty acres.

Here he found a Winnebago village of fifty houses. He asserts that a woman was in author- ity. In the month of October the party was at the portage of the Wisconsin, and descending that stream, they arrived, on the ninth at a town of the Sauks. While here he visited some lead mines about fifteen miles distant. An abundance of lead was also seen in the village, that had been brought from the mines.

On the tenth they arrived at the first village of the " Ottigaumies". [Foxes] about five miles be- fore the Wisconsin joins the Mississippi, he per- ceived the remnants of another village, and learned that it had been deserted about thirty years before, and that the inhabitants soon after their removal, built a town on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the " Quisconsin," at a place called by the French La Prairie les Chiens, which signified the Dog Plains. It was a large town, and contained about three hundred families. The houses were built after the Indian manner, and pleasantly situated on a dry rich soil.

He saw here many houses of a good size and shape. This town was the great mart where all the adjacent tribes, and where those who inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, an- nually assemble about the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that they conclude their sale here. This was determined by a gen

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 11

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

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