History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 3

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547

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Du Luth, during the fall of 1681, was engaged in the beaver trade at Montreal and Quebec. Du Chesneau, the Intendant of Justice for Can- ada, on the 13th of November, 1681, wrote to the Marquis de Siegnelay, in Paris : "Not content with the profits to be derived from the countries under the King's dominion, the desire of making money everywhere, has led the Governor [Fron- tenac], Boisseau, Du Lut and Patron, his uncle, to send canoes loaded with peltries, to the En- glish. It is said sixty thousand livres' worth has been sent thither;" and he further stated that there was a very general report that within five or six days, Frontenac and his associates had di- vided the money received from the beavers sent to New England.

At a conference in Quebec of some of the dis- tinguished men in that city, relative to difficulties with the Iroquois, held on the 10th of October, 1682, Du Luth was present. From thence he went

to France, and, early in 1683, consulted with the Minister of Marine at Versailles relative to the interests of trade in the Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior region. Upon his return to Canada, he departed for Mackinaw. Governor De la Barre, on the 9th of November, 1683, wrote to the French Government that the Indians west and north of Lake Superior, " when they heard by expresses sent them by Du Lhut, of his arrival at Missili- makinak, that he was coming, sent him word to come quickly and they would unite with him to prevent others going thither. If I stop that pass as I hope, and as it is necessary to do, as the Eng- lish of the Bay [Hudson's] excite against us the savages, whom Sieur Du Lhut alone can quiet."

While stationed at Mackinaw he was a partici- pant in a tragic occurrence. During the summer of 1683 Jacques le Maire and Colin Berthot, while on their way to trade at Keweenaw, on Lake Su- perior, were surprised by three Indians, robbed, and murdered. Du Luth was prompt to arrest and punish the assassins. In a letter from Mack- inaw, dated April 12, 1684, to the Governor of Canada, he writes: "Be pleased to know, Sir, that on the 24th of October last, I was told that Folle Avoine, accomplice in the murder and rob- bery of the two Frenchmen, had arrived at Sault Ste. Marie with fifteen families of the Sauteurs [Ojibways] who had fled from Chagoamigon [La Pointe] on account of an attack which they, to- gether with the people of the land, made last Spring upon the Nadouecioux [Dakotahs.]

" He believed himself safe at the Sault, on ac- count of the number of allies and relatives he had there. Rev. Father Albanel informed me that the French at the Saut, being only twelve in num- ber, had not arrested him, believing themselves too weak to contend with such numbers, espe- cially as the Sauteurs had declared that they would not allow the French to redden the land of their fathers with the blood of their brothers.

"On receiving this information, I immediately resolved to take with me six Frenchmen, and em- bark at the dawn of the next day for Sault Ste. Marie, and if possible obtain possession of the murderer. I made known my design to the Rev. Father Engalran, and, at my request, as he had some business to arrange with Rev. Father Al- banel, he placed himself in my canoe.

" Having arrived within a league of the village

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of the Saut, the Rev. Father, the Chevalier de Fourcille, Cardonnierre, and I disembarked. I caused the canoe, in which were Baribaud, Le Mere, La Fortune, and Macons, to proceed, while we went across the wood to the house of the Rev. Father, fearing that the savages, seeing me, might suspect the object of my visit, and cause Folle Avoine to escape. Finally, to cut the matter short, I arrested him, and caused him to be guarded day and night by six Frenchmen.

"I then called a council, at which I requested all the savages of the place to be present, where I repeated what I had often said to the Hurons and Ottawas since the departure of M. Pere [Per- rot], giving them the message you ordered me, Sir, that in case there should be among them any spirits so evil disposed as to follow the example of those who have murdered the French on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, they must separate the guilty from the innocent, as I did not wish the whole nation to suffer, unless they protected the guilty. * * The savages held several councils, to which I was invited, but their only object seemed to be to exculpate the prisoner, in order that I might release him.

" All united in accusing Achiganaga and his children, assuring themselves with the belief that M. Pere, [Perrot] with his detachment would not be able to arrest them, and wishing to persuade me that they apprehended that all the Frenchmen might be killed.

"I answered them, * * ' As to the antici- pated death of M. Pere [Perrot], as well as of the other Frenchmen, that would not embarrass me, since I believed neither the allies nor the nation of Achiganaga would wish to have a war with us to sustain an action so dark as that of which we were speaking. Having only to attack a few murderers, or, at most, those of their own family, I was certain that the French would have them dead or alive.'

" This was the answer they had from me during the three days that the councils lasted ; after which I embarked, at ten o'clock in the morning, sustained by only twelve Frenchmen, to show a few unruly persons who boasted of taking the prisoner away from me, that the French did not fear them.

"Daily I received accounts of the number of savages that Achiganaga drew from his nation to

Kiaonan [Keweenaw] under pretext of going to ·war in the spring against the Nadouecioux, to avenge the death of one of his relatives, son of Ou- enaus, but really to protect himself against us, in case we should become convinced that his chil- dren had killed the Frenchmen. This precaution placed me between hope and fear respecting the expedition which M. Pere [Perrot] had under- taken.

"On the 24th of November, [1683], he came across the wood at ten o'clock at night, to tell me that he had arrested Achiganaga and four of his children. He said they were not all guilty of the murder, but had thought proper, in this affair, to follow the custom of the savages, which is to seize all the relatives. Folle Avoine, whom I had ar- rested, he considered the most guilty, being with- out doubt the originator of the mischief.

" I immediately gave orders that Folle Avoine should be more closely confined, and not allowed to speak to any one ; for I had also learned that he had a brother, sister, and uncle in the village of the Kiskakons.

" M. Pere informed me that he had released the youngest son of Achiganaga, aged about thirteen or fourteen years, that he might make known to their nation and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are at Nocke and in the neighborhood, the reason why the French had arrested his father and bro- thers. M. Pere bade him assure the savages that if any one wished to complain of what he had done, he would wait for them with a firm step ; for he considered himself in a condition to set them at defiance, having found at Kiaonau [Keweenaw] eighteen Frenchmen who had wintered there.

"On the 25th, at daybreak, M. Pere embarked at the. Sault, with four good men whom I gave him, to go and meet the prisoners. He left them four leagues from there, under a guard of twelve Frenchmen ; and at two o'clock in the afternoon, they arrived. I had prepared a room in my house for the prisoners, in which they were placed under a strong guard, and were not allowed to converse with any one.

"On the 26th, I commenced proceedings; and this, sir, is the course I pursued. I gave notice to all the chiefs and others, to appear at the council which I had appointed, and gave to Folle Avoine the privilege of selecting two of his rela-

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INDIANS CONDEMNED TO. BE SHOT.

tives to support his interests ; and to the other prisoners I made the same offer.

"The council being assembled, I sent for Folle Avoine to be interrogated, and caused his answers to be written, and afterwards they were read to him, and inquiry made whether they were not, word for word, what he had said. He was then removed under a safe guard. I used the same form with the two eldest sons of Achiganaga, and, as Folle Avoine had indirectly charged the father with being accessory to the murder, I sent for him and also for Folle Avoine, and bringing them into the council, confronted the four.

" Folle Avoine and the two sons of Achiganaga accused each other of committing the murder, without denying that they were participators in the crime. Achiganaga alone strongly maintained that he knew nothing of the design of Folle Avoine, nor of his children, and called on them to say if he had advised them to kill the French- men. They answered, 'No.'

" This confrontation, which the savages did not expect, surprised them; and, seeing the prisoners had convicted themselves of the murder, the Chiefs said: 'It is enough; you accuse your- selves; the French are masters of your bodies.'

" The next day I held another council, in which I said there could be no doubt that the French- men had been murdered, that the murderers were known, and that they knew what was the prac- tice among themselves upon such occasions. To all this they said nothing, which obliged us on the following day to hold another council in the cabin of Brochet, where, after having spoken, and seeing that they would make no decision, and that all my councils ended only in reducing tobacco to ashes, I told them that, since they did not wish to decide, I should take the responsibility, and that the next day I would let them know the deter- mination of the French and myself.

"It is proper, Sir, you should know that I ob- served all these forms only to see if they would feel it their duty to render to us the same justice that they do to each other, having had divers ex- amples in which when the tribes of those who had committed the murder did not wish to go to war with the tribe aggrieved, the nearest rela- tions of the murderers killed them themselves; that is to say, man for man.

"On the 29th of November. I gathered together

the French that were here, and, after the interro- gations and answers of the accused had been read to them, the guilt of the three appeared so evi- dent, from their own confessions, that the vote was unanimous that all should die. But as the French who remained at Kiaonan to pass the win- ter had written to Father Engalran and to myself, to beg us to treat the affair with all possible len- iency, the savages declaring that if they made the prisoners die they would avenge themselves, I told the gentlemen who were with me in coun- cil that, this being a case without a precedent, I believed it was expedient for the safety of the French who would pass the winter in the Lake Superior country to put to death only two, as that of the third might bring about grievous conse- quences, while the putting to death, man for man, could give the savages no complaint, since this is their custom. M. de la Tour, chief of the Fathers, who had served much, sustained my opinions by strong reasoning, and all decided that two should be shot, namely, Folle Avoine and the older of the two brothers, while the younger should be released, and hold his life, Sir, as a gift from you.

"I then returned to the cabin of Brochet with Messrs. Boisguillot, Pere, De Repentigny, De Manthet, De la Ferte, and Macons, where were all the chiefs of the Outawas du Sable, Outawas Sinagos, Kiskakons, Sauteurs, D'Achiliny, a part of the Hurons, and Oumamens, the chief of the Amikoys. I informed them of our decision* * * that, the Frenchmen having been killed by the different nations, one of each must die, and that the same death they had caused the French to suffer they must also suffer. *

* * This decision to put the murderers to death was a hard stroke to them all, for none had believed that I would dare to undertake it. * I then left * * the council and asked the Rev. Fathers if they wished to baptize the prisoners, which they did.

" An hour after, I put myself at the head of forty-two Frenchmen, and, in sight of more than four hundred savages, and within two hundred paces of their fort, I caused the two murderers to be shot. The impossibility of keeping them until spring made me hasten their death. * *

* When M. Pere made the arrest, those who had committed the murder confessed it; and when he asked them what they had done with our goods,

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they answered that they were almost all con- cealed. He proceeded to the place of conceal- ment, and was very much surprised, as were also the French with him, to find them, in fifteen or twenty different places. By the carelessness of the savages, the tobacco and powder were entire- ly destroyed, having been placed in the pinery, under the roots of trees, and being soaked in the water caused by ten or twelve days' continuous rain, which inundated all the lower country. The season for snow and ice having come, they had all the trouble in the world to get out the bales of cloth.

. "They then went to see the bodies, but could not remove them, these miserable wretches hav- ing thrown them into a marsh, and thrust them down into holes which they had made. Not sat- isfiled with this, they had also piled branches of trees upon the bodies, to prevent them from float- ing when the water should rise in the spring, hoping by this precaution the French would find no trace of those who were killed, but would think them drowned; as they reported that they had found in the lake on the other side of the Portage, a boat with the sides all broken in, which they believed to be a French boat.

" Those goods which the French were able to secure, they took to Kiaonau [Keweenaw], where were a number of Frenchmen who had gone there to pass the winter, who knew nothing of the death of Colin Berthot and Jacques le Maire, until M. Pere arrived.

"The ten who formed M. Pere's detachment having conferred together concerning the means they should take to prevent a total loss, decided to sell the goods to the highest bidder. The sale was made for 1100 livres, which was to be paid in beavers, to M. de la Chesnaye, to whom I send the names of the purchsers.

"The savages who were present when Achiga- naga and his children were arrested wished to pass the calumet to M. Pere, and give him cap- tives to satisfy him for the murder committed on the two Frenchmen; but he knew their inten- tion, and would not accept their offer. He told them neither a hundred captives nor a hundred packs of beaver would give back the blood of his brothers ; that the murderers must be given up to me, and I would see what I would do.

"I caused M. Pere to repeat these things in the

council, that in future the savages need not think by presents to save those who commit similar deeds. Besides, sir, M. Pere showed plainly by his conduct, that he is not strongly inclined to favor the savages, as was reported. Indeed, I do not know any one whom they fear more, yet who flatters them less or knows them better.

"The criminals being in two different places, M. Pere being obliged to keep four of them, sent Messrs. de Repentigny, Manthet, and six other Frenchmen, to arrest the two who were eight leagues in the woods. Among others, M. de Re- pentigny and M. de Manthet showed that they feared nothing when their honor called them.

" M. de la Chevrotiere has also served well in person, and by his advice, having pointed out where the prisoners were. Achiganaga, who had adopted him as a son, had told him where he should hunt during the winter. * * * * * It still remained for me to give to Achiganaga and his three children the means to return to his family. Their home from which they were taken was nearly twenty-six leagues from here. Know- ing their necessity, I told them you would not be satisfied in giving them life; you wished to pre- serve it, by giving them all that was necessary to prevent them from dying with hunger and cold by the way, and that your gift was made by my hands. I gave them blankets, tobacco; meat, hatchets, knives, twine to make nets for beavers, and two bags of corn, to supply them till they could kill game.

"They departed two days after, the most con- tented creatures in the world, but God was not ; for when only two days' journey from here, the old Achiganaga fell sick of the quinsy, and died, and his children returned. When the news of his death arrived, the greater part of the savages of this place [Mackinaw] attributed it to the French, saying we had caused him to die. I let them talk, and laughed at them. It is only about two months since the children of Achiganaga returne i to Kiaonan."

Some of those opposed to Du Luth and Fron- tenac, prejudiced the King of France relative to the transaction we have described, and in a letter to the Governor of Canada, the King writes : "It appears to me that one of the principal causes of the war arises from one Du Luth having caused two to be killed who had assassinated two French-

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men on Lake Superior ; and you sufficiently see how much this man's voyage, which can not pro- duce any advantage to the colony, and which was permitted only in the interest of some private persons, has contributed to distract the peace of the colony."

Du Luth and his young brother appear to have traded at the western extremity of Lake Superior, and on the north shore, to Lake Nipegon.

In June, 1684, Governor De la Barre sent Guil- let and Hebert from Montreal to request Du Luth and Durantaye to bring down voyageurs and In- dians to assist in an expedition against the Iro- quois of New York. Early in September, they reported on the St. Lawrence, with one hundred and fifty coureurs des bois and three hundred and fifty Indians; but as a treaty had just been made with the Senecas, they returned.

De la Barre's successor, Governor Denonville, in a dispatch to the French Government, dated November 12th, 1685, alludes to Du Luth being in the far West, in these words : " I likewise sent to M. De la Durantaye, who is at Lake Superior under orders from M. De la Barre, and to Sieur Du Luth, who is also at a great distance in an- other direction, and all so far beyond reach that neither the one nor the other can hear news from me this year ; so that, not being able to see them at soonest, before next July, I considered it best not to think of undertaking any thing during the whole of next year, especially as a great number of our best men are among the Outaouacs, and can not return before the ensuing summer. * * * In regard to Sieur Du Luth, I sent him orders to repair here, so that I may learn the number of savages on whom I may depend. He is accredit- ed among them, and rendered great services to M. De la Barre by a large number of savages he brought to Niagara, who would have attacked the Senecas, was it not for an express order from M. De la Barre to the contrary."

In 1686, while at Mackinaw, he was ordered to establish a post on the Detroit, near Lake Erie. A portion of the order reads as follows : " After having given all the orders that you may judge necessary for the safety of this post, and having well secured the obedience of the Indians, you will return to Michilimackinac, there to await Rev. Father Engelran, by whom I will commu- nicate what I wish of you, there."

The design of this post was to block the pas- sage of the English to the upper lakes. Before it was established, in the fall of 1686, Thomas Roseboom, a daring trader from Albany, on the Hudson, had found his way to the vicinity of Mackinaw, and by the proffer of brandy, weak- ened the allegiance of the tribes to the French.

A canoe coming to Mackinaw with dispatches for the French and their allies, to march to the Seneca country, in New York, perceived this New York trader and associates, and, giving the alarm, they were met by three hundred coureurs du bois and captured.

In the spring of 1687 Du Luth, Durantaye, and Tonty all left the vicinity of Detroit for Ni- agara, and as they were coasting along Lake Erie they met another English trader, a Scotchman by birth, and by name Major Patrick McGregor, a person of some influence, going with a number of traders to Mackinaw. Having taken him pris- oner, he was sent with Roseboom to Montreal.

Du Luth, Tonty, and Durantaye arrived at Ni- agara on the 27th of June, 1687, with one hun- dred and seventy French voyageurs, besides In- dians, and on the 10th of July joined the army of Denonville at the mouth of the Genesee River, and on the 13th Du Luth and his associates had a skirmish near a Seneca village, now the site of the town of Victor, twenty miles southeast of the city of Rochester, New York. Governor Denon- ville, in a report, writes: "On the 13th, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, having passed through two dangerous defiles, we arrived at the third, where we were vigorously attacked by eight hun- dred Senecas, two hundred of whom fired, wish- ing to attack our rear, while the rest would attack our front, but the resistance, made produced such a great consternation that they soon resolved to fly. * * * We witnessed the painful sight of the usual cruelties of the savages, who cut the dead into quarters, as is done in slaughter houses, in order to put them into the kettle. The greater number were opened while still warm, that the blood might be drunk. Our rascally Otaoas dis- tinguished themselves particularly by these bar- barities. * * * We had five or six men killed on the spot, French and Indians, and about twenty wounded, among the first of whom was the Rev. Father Angelran, superior of all the Otaoan Missions, by a very severe gun-shot. It is a great

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misfortune that this wound will prevent him go- ing back again, for he is a man of capacity."

In the order to Du Luth assigning him to duty at the post on the site of the modern Fort Gra- tiot, above the city of Detroit, the Governor of Canada said: "If you can so arrange your affairs that your brother can be near you in the Spring, I shall be very glad. He is an intelligent lad, and might be a great assistance to you; he might also be very serviceable to us."

This lad, Greysolon de la Tourette, during the winter of 1686-7 was trading among the Assina- boines and other tribes at the west end of Lake Superior, but, upon receiving a dispatch, hastened to his brother, journeying in a canoe without any escort from Mackinaw. He did not arrive until after the battle with the Senecas. Governor Den- onville, on the 25th of August, 1687, wrote:

"Du Luth's brother, who has recently arrived from the rivers above the Lake of the Allempi- gons [Nipegon], assures me that he saw more than fifteen hundred persons come to trade with him, and they were very sorry he had not goods suffi- cient to satisfy them. They are of the tribes ac- customed to resort to the English at Port Nelson and River Bourbon, where, they say, they did not go this year, through Sieur Du Lhu's influence."

After the battle in the vicinity of Rochester, New York, Du Luth, with his celebrated cousin, Henry Tonty, returned together as far as the post above the present city of Detroit, Michigan, but this point, after 1688, was not again occupied.

From this period Du Luth becomes less prom- inent. At the time when the Jesuits attempted to exclude brandy from the Indian country a bit- ter controversy arose between them and the traders. Cadillac, a Gascon by birth, command- ing Fort Buade, at Mackinaw, on August 3, 1695, wrote to Count Frontenac: "Now, what reason can we assign that the savages should not drink brandy bought with their own money as well as we? Is it prohibited to prevent them from be- coming intoxicated? Or is it because the use of brandy reduces them to extreme misery, placing it out of their power to make war by depriving them of clothing and arms? If such representa- tions in regard to the Indians have been made to the Count, they are very false, as every one knows who is acquainted with the ways of the savages. It is bad faith to represent to the Count

that the sale of brandy reduces the savage to a state of nudity, and by that means places it out of his power to make war, since he never goes to war in any other condition. * * * Perhaps it will be said that the sale of brandy makes the labors of the missionaries unfruitful. It is neces- sary to examine this proposition. If the mission- aries care for only the extension of commerce, pursuing the course they have hitherto, I agree to it; but if it is the use of brandy that hinders the advancement of the cause of God, I deny it, for it is a fact which no one can deny that there are a great number of savages who never drink brandy, yet who are not, for that, better Chris- tians.

" All the Sioux, the most numerous of all the tribes, who inhabit the region along the shore of Lake Superior, do not even like the smell of brandy. Are they more advanced in religion for that? They do not wish to have the subject men- tioned, and when the missionaries address them they only laugh at the foolishness of preaching. Yet these priests boldly fling before the eyes of Europeans, whole volumes filled with glowing descriptions of the conversion of souls by thou- sands in this country, causing the poor missiona- ries from Europe, to run to martyrdom as flies to sugar and honey."

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History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 3

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 547

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547