History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 9

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
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" The Illinois and Mascoutens have detained the French canoes they find upon the Mississippi, saying that the governors of Canada have given them permission. I do not know whether this is so, but if true, it follows that we have not the liberty to send any one on the Mississippi.

"M. Le Sueur would have been taken if he had not been the strongest. Only one of the canoes he sent to the Sioux was plundered." * * *

Penicaut's account varies in some particulars from that of La Harpe's. He calls the Mahkahto Green River instead of Blue and writes: " We took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty leagues, when we found another river falling in- to the Saint Pierre, which we entered. We called this the Green River because it is of that color by reason of a green earth which loosening itself from from the copper mines, becomes dis- solved and makes it green.

" A league up this river, we found a point of land a quarter of a league distant from the woods, and it was upon this point that M. Le Sueur resolved to build his fort, because we could not go any higher on account of the ice, it being the last day of September. Half of our people went hunting whilst the others worked on the fort. We killed four hundred buffaloes, which were our provisions for the winter, and which we placed upon scaffolds in our fort, after having skinned and cleaned and quartered them. We also made cabins in the fort, and a magazine to keep our goods. After having drawn up our shallop within the inclosure of the fort, we spent the winter in our cabins.

" When we were working in our fort in the beginning seven French traders from Canada took refuge there. They had been pillaged and stripped naked by the Sioux, a wandering nation living only by hunting and plundering. Among these seven persons there was a Canadian gen- tleman of Le Sueur's acquaintance, whom he rec- ognized at once, and gave him some clothes, as he did also to all the rest, and whatever else was necessary for them. They remained with us during the entire winter at our fort, where we had not food enough for all, except buffalo meat

which we had not even salt to eat with. We had a good deal of trouble the first two weeks in ac- customing ourselves to it, having fever and di- arrhoa and becoming so tired of it as to hate the smell. But by degrees our bodies became adapt- ed to it so well that at the end of six weeks there was not one of us who could not eat six pounds of meat a day, and drink four bowls of broth. As soon as we were accustomed to this kind of living it made us very fat, and then there was no more sickness.

" When spring arrived we went to work in the copper mine. This was the beginning of April of this year [1701.] We took with us twelve labor- ers and four hunters. This mine was situated about three-quarters of a league from our post. We took from the mine in twenty days more than twenty thousand pounds weight of ore, of which we only selected four thousand pounds of the finest, which M. Le Sueur, who was a very good judge of it, had carried to the fort, and which has since been sent to France, though I have not learned the result.

"This mine is situated at the beginning of a very long mountain, which is upon the bank of the river, so that boats can go right to the mouth of the mine itself. At this place is the green earth, which is a foot and a half in thickness, and above it is a layer of earth as firm and hard as stone, and black and burnt like coal by the exhalation from the mine. The copper is scratched out with a knife. There are no trees upon this mountain. * * After twenty-two days' work, we returned to our fort. When the Sioux, who belong to the nation of savages who pillaged the Canadians, came they brought us merchandize of furs.

"They had more than four hundred beaver robes, each robe made of nine skins sewed to- gether. M. Le Sueur purchased these and many other skins which he bargained for, in the week *

he traded with the savages. * *

* We sell in return wares which come very dear to the buyers, especially tobacco from Brazil, in the proportion of a hundred crowns the pound; two little horn-handled knives, and four leaden bul- lets are equal to ten crowns in exchange for skins ; and so with the rest.

"In the beginning of May, we launched our shallop in the water, and loaded it with green

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

earth that had been taken out of the river, and with the furs we had traded for, of which we had three canoes full. M. Le Sueur before going held council with M. D'Evaque [or Eraque] the Canadian gentleman, and the three great chiefs of the Sioux, three brothers, and told them that as he had to return to the sea, he desired them to live in peace with M. D'Evaque, whom he left in command at Fort L'Huillier, with twelve Frenchmen. M. Le Sueur made a considerable present to the three brothers, chiefs of the sava- ges, desiring them to never abandon the French. Afterward we the twelve men whom he had chosen to go down to the sea with him embarked. In set- ting out, M. Le Sueur promised to M. D'Evaque and the twelve Frenchmen who remained with him to guard the fort, to send up munitions of war from the Illinois country as soon as he should arrive there ; which he did, for on getting there he sent off to him a canoe loaded with two thou- sand pounds of lead and powder, with three of our people in charge."

Le Sueur arrived at the French fort on the Gulf of Mexico in safety, and in a few weeks, in the spring of 1701, sailed for France, with his kinsman, D'Iberville, the first governor of Lou- isiana.

In the spring of the next year (1702) D'Evaque came to Mobile and reported to D'Iberville, who had come back from France, that he had been attacked by the Foxes and Maskoutens, who killed three Frenchmen who were working near Fort L'Huillier, and that, being out of powder and lead, he had been obliged to conceal the goods which were left and abandon the post. At the Wisconsin River he had met Juchereau, formerly criminal judge in Montreal, with thirty-five men, on his way to establish a tannery for buffalo skins at the Wabash, and that at the Illinois he met the canoe of supplies sent by Bienville, D'Iberville's brother.

La Motte Cadillac, in command at Detroit, in a letter written on August 31st, 1703, alludes to Le Sueur's expedition in these words: "Last year they sent Mr. Boudor, a Montreal merchant, into the country of the Sioux to join Le Su- eur. He succeeded so well in that journey he transported thither twenty-five or thirty thous- and pounds of merchandize with which to trade in all the country of the Outawas. This proved

to him an unfortunate investment, as he has been robbed of a part of the goods by the Outa- gamies. The occasion of the robbery by one of our own allies was as follows. I speak with a full knowledge of the facts as they occurred while I was at Michillimackianc. From time immemo- rial our allies have been at war with the Sioux, and on my arrival there in conformity to the or- der of M. Frontenac, the most able man who has ever come into Canada, I attempted to negotiate a truce between the Sioux and all our allies. Succeeding in this negotiation I took the occa- sion to turn their arms against the Iroquois with whom we were then at war, and soon after I ef- fected a treaty of peace between the Sioux and the French and their allies which lasted two years.

" At the end of tha. time the Sioux came, in great numbers, to the villages of the Miamis, un- der pretense of ratifying the treaty. They were well received by the Miamis, and, after spending several days in their villages, departed, apparent- ly perfectly satisfied with their good reception, as they certainly had every reason to be.

" The Miamis, believing them already far dis- tant, slept quietly; but the Sioux, who had pre- meditated the attack, returned the same night to the principal village of the Miamis, where most of the tribe were congregated, and, taking them by surprise, slaughtered nearly three thousand(?) and put the rest to flight ..

"This perfectly infuriated all the nations. They came with their complaints, begging me to join with them and exterminate the Sioux. But the war we then had on our hands did not permit it, so it became necessary to play the orator in a long harangue. In conclusion I advised them to ' weep their dead, and wrap them up, and leave them to sleep coldly till the day of vengeance should come;' telling them we must sweep the land on this side of the Iroquois, as it was neces- sary to extinguish even their memory, after which the allied tribes could more easily avenge the atrocious deed that the Sioux had just committed upon them. In short, I managed them so well that the affair was settled in the manner that I proposed.

" But the twenty-five permits still existed, and the cupidity of the French induced them to go among the Sioux to trade for beaver. Our allies complained bitterly of this, saying it was injust-

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TRADE FORBIDDEN WITH THE SIOUX.

ice to them, as they had taken up arms in our quarrel against the Iroquois, while the French traders were carrying munitions of war to the Sioux to enable them to kill the rest of our allies as they had the Miamis.

" I immediately informed M. Frontenac, and M. Champigny having read the communication, and commanded that an ordinance be published at Mon- treal forbidding the traders to go into the country of the Sioux for the purpose of traffic under penalty of a thousand francs fine, the confiscation of the goods, and other arbitrary penalties. The ordi- nance was sent to me and faithfully executed. The same year [1699] I descended to Quebec, having asked to be relieved. Since that time, in spite of this prohibition, the French have con- tinued to trade with the Sioux, but not without being subject to affronts and indignities from our allies themselves which bring dishonor on the French name. * *

* I do not consider it best any longer to allow the traders to carry on com- merce with the Sioux, under any pretext what-

ever, especially as M. Boudor has just been robbed by the Fox nation, and M. Jucheraux has given a thousand crowns, in goods, for the right of passage through the country of the allies to his habitation.

" The allies say that Le Sueur has gone to the Sioux on the Mississippi; that they are resolved to oppose him, and if he offers any resistance they will not be answerable for the consequences. It would be well, therefore, to give Le Sueur warning by the Governor of Mississippi.

"The Sauteurs [Chippeways] being friendly with the Sioux wished to give passage through their country to M. Boudor and others, permit- ting them to carry arms and other munitions of war to this nation; but the other nations being opposed to it, differences have arisen between them which have resulted in the robbery of M. Boudor. This has given occasion to the Sau- teurs to make an outbreak upon the Sacs and Foxes, killing thirty or forty of them. So there is war among the people."

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER VIII.

EVENTS WHICH LED TO BUILDING FORT BEAUHARNOIS ON LAKE PEPIN.

Re-Establishment of Mackinaw .- Sieur de Louvigny at Mackinaw. - De Lignery at Mackinaw .- Louvigny Attacks the Foxes .- Du Luth's Post Reoccupied .- Saint Pierre at La Pointe on Lake Superior .- Preparations for a Jesuit Mission among the Sioux .- La Perriere Boucher's Expedition to Lake Pepin .- De Gonor and Guiguas, Jesuit Missionaries .- Visit to Foxes and Winnebagoes .- Wisconsin River Described - Fort Beauharnois Built. - Fireworks Displayed .- High Water at Lake Pepin .- De Gonor Visits Mackinaw .- Boucherville, Mont- brun and Guiguas Captured by Indians .- Montbrun's Escape .- Boucherville's Presents to Indians. - Exaggerated Account of Father Guiguas' Capture .-- Dis- patches Concerning Fort Beauharnois .- Sieur de la Jemeraye .- Saint Pierre at Fort Beauharnois .- Trouble between Sioux and Foxes -Sioux Visit Quebec .- De Lusignan Visits the Sioux Country .- Saint Pierre Noticed in the Travels of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike.

After the Fox Indians drove away Le Sueur's men, in 1702, from the Makahto, or Blue Earth river, the merchants of Montreal and Quebec did not encourage trade with the tribes beyond Mack- inaw.

D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect that post, in the summer of 1708, reported that he arrived there, on the 19th of August, and found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen. HIe also wrote: "Since there are now only a few wanderers at Michilimackinack, the greater part of the furs of the savages of the north goes to the English trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The Outawas are unable to make this trade by them- selves, because the northern savages are timid, and will not come near them, as they have often been plundered. It is, therefore, necessary that the French be allowed to seek these northern tribes at the mouth of their own river, which empties into Lake Superior."

Louis de la Porte, the Sieur De Louvigny, in 1690, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a de- tachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1694 was in command. when he was recalled.

In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit missionary wrote, "If this country ever needs M. Louvigny it is now ; the savages say it is ab- solutely necessary that he should come for the safety of the country, to unite the tribes and to defend those whom the war has caused to return to Michilimacinac. * * * * * *

I do not know what course the Pottawatomies will take, nor even what course they will pursue who are here, if M. Louvigny does not come, es- pecially if the Foxes were to attack them or us."

The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the au- thorities the establishment of a garrison of trained soldiers at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Can- ada wrote to the King of France :

" Michilimackinac might be re- established, without expense to his Majesty, either by sur- rendering the trade of the post to such individu- als as will obligate themselves to pay all the ex- penses of twenty-two soldiers and two officers; to furnish munitions of war for the defense of the fort, and to make presents to the savages.

"Or the expenses of the post might be paid by the sale of permits, if the King should not think proper to grant an exclusive commerce. It is ab- solutely necessary to know the wishes of the King concerning these two propositions; and as M. Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it will not be any greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estab- ment of this post, than it has been for eight or ten years past."

The war with England ensued, and in April, 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was ratified. France had now more leisure to attend to the Indian tribes of the West.

Early in 1714, Mackinaw was re-occupied, and on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition under Lieutenant Louvigny, left Quebec. His arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long ex- pected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hun- dred men, he proceeded against the Foxes in Wisconsin. He brought with him two pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar, and besieged the fort of the Foxes, which he stated contained five hundred warriors, and three thousand men, a declaration which can scarcely be credited. After

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DESIRE FOR A NORTHERN ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.

three days of skirmishing, he prepared to mine the fort, when the Foxes capitulated.

The paddles of the birch bark canoes and the gay songs of the voyageurs now began to be heard once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du Luth, on Lake Superior near the northern boun- dary of Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Ro- bertel de la Noue.

In view of the troubles among the tribes of the northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Cap- tain St. Pierre, who had great influence with the Indians of Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-oc- cupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Bayfield, in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The chiefs of the band there, and at Keweenaw, had threatened war against the Foxes, who had killed some of their number.

When the Jesuit Charlevoix returned to France after an examination of the resources of Canada and Louisiana, he urged that an attempt should be made to reach the Pacific Ocean by an inland route, and suggested that an expedition should proceed from the mouth of the Missouri and fol- low that stream, or that a post should be estab- lished among the Sioux which should be the point of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 1722 an allowance was made by the French Gov- ernment, of twelve hundred livres, for two Jes- uit missionaries to accompany those who should establish the new post. D'Avagour, Superin- tendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the authorities to grant a separate canoe for the con- veyance of the goods of the proposed mission, and as it was necessary to send a commandant to persuade the Indians to receive the mission- aries, he recommended Sieur Pachot, an officer of experience.

A dispatch from Canada to the French govern- ment, dated October 14, 1723, announced that Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, ex- pected that, the next spring, Father Guymoneau, and another missionary from Paris, would go to the Sioux, but that they had been hindered by the Sioux a few months before killing seven French- men, on their way to Louisiana. The aged Jesuit, Joseph J. Marest, who had been on Lake Pepin in 1689 with Perrot, and was now in Mon- treal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who

had killed the French, but he thought the sta- tionary Sioux would receive Christian instruction.

The hostility of the Foxes had also prevented the establishment of a fort and mission among the Sioux.

On the seventh of June, 1726, peace was con- cluded by De Lignery with the Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who had succeeded Saint Pierre in command at La Pointe, was ordered, by presents and the promise of a missionary, to endeavor to detach the Dah- kotahs from their alliance with the Foxes. At this time Linetot made arrangements for peace between the Ojibways and Dahkotas, and sent two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the latter, with a promise that. if they ceased to fight the Ojibways, they should have regular trade, and a "black robe" reside in their country.

Traders and missionaries now began to prepare for visiting the Sioux, and in the spring of 1727 the Governor of Canada wrote that the fathers, appointed for the Sioux mission, desired a case of mathematical instruments, a universal astro- nomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stakes, and a telescope of six or seven feet tube.

On the sixteenth of June, 1727, the expedition for the Sioux country left Montreal in charge of the Sieur de la Perriere who was son of the dis- tinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Bou- cher, the Governor of Three Rivers.

La Perriere had served in Newfoundland and been associated with Hertel de Rouville in raids into New England, and gained an unenviable no- toriety as the leader of the savages, while Rou- ville led the French in attacks upon towns like Haverhill, Massachusetts, where the Indians ex- ultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped his loving wife, and dashed out his infant's brains against a rock. He was accompanied by his brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers, De Gonor and Pierre Michel Guignas, were also of the party.

In Shea's " Early French Voyages" there was printed, for the first time, a letter from Father Guignas, from the Brevoort manuscripts, written on May 29, 1728, at Fort Beauharnois, on Lake Pepin, which contains facts of much interest.

He writes: "The Scioux convoy left the end of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of June last year, at 11 A. M., and reached Michili-

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

mackinac the 22d of the month of July. This post is two hundred and fifty-one leagues from Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 min- utes north latitude.

" We spent the rest of the month at this post, in the hope of receiving from day to day some news from Montreal, and in the design of strengthening ourselves against the alleged ex- treme difficulties of getting a free passage through the Foxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out on our march, the first of the month of August, and. after seventy-three leagues quite pleasant sail along the northerty side of Lake Michigan, running to the southeast, we reached the Bay [Green] on the 8th of the same month, at 5:30 P. M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north latitude.

" We stopped there two days, and on the 11th in the morning, we embarked, in a very great impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day after our departure from the bay, quite late in the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the chiefs of the Puans [Winnebagoes] came out three leagues from their village to meet the French, with their peace calumets and some bear meat as a refreshment, and the next day we were received by that small nation, amid several discharges of a few guns, and with great demonstrations.

" They asked us with so good a grace to do them the honor to stay some time with them that we granted them the rest of the day from noon, and the following day. There may be in all the village, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and women of very tall stature, and well made. They are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a most agreeable spot for its situation and the goodness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the bay and eight leagues from the Foxes.

" Early the next morning, the 15th of the month of August, the convoy preferred to continue its route, with quite pleasant weather, but a storm coming on in the afternoon, we arrived quite wet, still in the rain, at the cabins of the Foxes, a nation so much dreaded, and really so little to be dreaded. From all that we could see, it is composed of two hundred men at most, but there is a perfect hive of children, especially boys from ten to fourteen years old, well formed.

"They are cabined on a little eminence on the bank of a small river that bears their name, ex-

tremely tortuous or winding, so that you are con- stantly boxing the compass. Yet it is apparently quite wide, with a chain of hills on both sides, but there is only one miserable little channel amid this extent of apparent bed, which is a kind of marsh full of rushes and wild rice of almost impenetrable thickness. They have nothing but mere bark cabins, without any kind of palisade or other fortification. As soon as the French ca- noes touched their shore they ran down with their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain, and all smoked.

" We stayed among them the rest of this day, and all the next, to know what were their designs and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux. The Sieur Reaume, interpreter of Indian lan- guages at the Bay, acted efficiently there, and with devotion to the King's service. Even if my testimony, Sir, should be deemed not impartial, I must have the honor to tell you that Rev. Father Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great as- sistance there, and the presence of three mission- aries reassured these cut-throats and assassins of the French more than all the speeches of the best orators could have done.

" A general council was convened in one of the cabins, they were addressed in decided friendly terms, and they replied in the same way. A small present was made to them. On their side they gave some quite handsome dishes, lined with dry meat.

On the following Sunday, 17th of the month of August, very early in the morning, Father Chardon set out, with Sieur Reaume, to return to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly re- joiced to have so easily got over this difficulty, which had everywhere been represented as so in- surmountable, got under way to endeavor to reach its journey's end.

"Never was navigation more tedious than what we subsequently made from uncertainty as to our course. No one knew it, and we got astray every moment on water and on land for want of a guide and pilots. We kept on, as it were feeling our way for eight days, for it was only on the ninth, about three o'clock p. m., that we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsin, which is forty-five leagues from the Foxes, counting all the twists and turns of this abominable river.

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SITUATION AND DESCRIPTION OF FORT BEAUHARNOIS.

This portage is half a league in length, and half of that is a kind of marsh full of mud,

" The Ouisconsin is quite a handsome river, but far below what we had been told, apparently, as those who gave the description of it in Canada saw it only in the high waters of spring. It is a shallow river on a bed of quicksand, which forms bars almost everywhere, and these often change place. Its shores are either steep, bare mountains or low points with sandy base. Its course is from northeast to southwest. From the portage to its mouth in the Mississippi, I estimated thirty-eight leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. 24 min. north latitude.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 9

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

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