History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 4

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

USA > Minnesota > Houston County > History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 4

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Du Luth, or Du Lhut, as he wrote his name, during this discussion, was found upon the side of order and good morals. His attestation is as follows : "I certify that at different periods I have lived about ten years among the Ottawa nation, from the time that I made an exploration to the Nadouecioux people until Fort Saint Jo- seph was established by order of the Monsieur Marquis Denonville, Governor General, at the head of the Detroit of Lake Erie, which is in the Iroquois country, and which I had the honor to command. During this period, I have seen that the trade in eau-de-vie (brandy) produced great disorder, the father killing the son, and the son throwing his mother into the fire; and I maintain that, morally speaking, it is impossible to export brandy to the woods and distant missions, with- out danger of its leading to misery."

Governor Frontenac, in an expedition against the Oneidas of New York, arrived at Fort Fron- tenac, on the 19th of July, 1695, and Captain Du Luth was left in command with forty soldiers,

Digitized by Google

DU LUTH AFFLICTED WITH GOUT.

and masons and carpenters, with orders to erect new buildings. In about four weeks he erected a building one hundred and twenty feet in length, containing officers' quarters, store-rooms, a bakery and a chapel. Early in 1697 he was still in com- mand of the post, and in a report it is mentioned that " everybody was then in good health, except Captain Dulhut the commander, who was unwell of the gout."

It was just before this period, that as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, he was firmly impressed that he had been helped by prayers which he addressed to a deceased Iroquois girl, who had died in the odor of sanctity, and, as a thank offering, signed the following certificate : "I, the subscriber, certify to all whom it may concern, that having been tormented by the gout, for the space of twenty-three years, and with such

severe pains, that it gave me no rest for the spac of three months at a time, I addressed myself to Catherine Tegahkouita, an Iroquois virgin de- ceased at the Sault Saint Louis, in the reputation of sanctity, and I promised her to visit her tomb, if God should give me health, through her inter- cession. I have been as perfectly cured at the end of one novena, which I made in her honor, that after five months, I have not perceived the slightest touch of my gout. Given at Fort Fron- tenac, this 18th day of August, 1696."

As soon as cold weather returned, his old mal- ady again appeared. He died early in A. D. 1710. Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, un- der date of first of May of that year, wrote to Count Pontchartrain, Colonial Minister at Paris, " Captain Du Lud died this winter. He was a very honest man."

Digitized by

Google

EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER IV.

FIRST WHITE MEN AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA.

Falls of St. Anthony Visited by White Men .- La Salle Gives the First Description of Upper Mississippi Valley .- Accault, the Leader, Accompanied by Augelle and Hennepin, at Falls of Saint Anthony .- Hennepin Declared Unreliable by La Salle .- His Early Life .- His First Book Criticised by Abbe Bernou and Tronson. - Deceptive Map. - First Meeting with Sioux .!- Astonishment at Reading His Breviary,-Sioux Name for Guns .- Accault and Hennepin at Lake Pepin .- Leave the River Below Saint Paul .- At Mille Lacs .- A Sweating Cabin .- Sioux Wonder at Mariner's Compass .- Fears of an Iron Pot .- Making . Dictionary .- Infant Baptised .- Route to the Pacific .- Hennepin Descends Rum River. - First Visit to Falls of Saint Anthony .- On a Buffalo Hunt .- Meets Du Luth .- Returns to Mille Lacs .- With Du Luth at Falls of St. Anthony .- Returns to France .- Subsequent Life .- His Books Examined .- Denies in First Book His Descent to the Gulf of Mexico .- Dispute with Du Luth at Falls of St, Anthony .- Patronage of Du Luth .- Tribute to Du Luth .- Hennepin's Answer to Criticisms .- Denounced by D'Iberville and Father Gravier .- Residence in Rome.

In the summer of 1680, Michael Accault (Ako), Hennepin, the Franciscan missionary, Augelle, Du Luth, and Faffart all visited the Falls of Saint Anthony.

The first description of the valley of the upper Mississippi was written by La Salle, at Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, on the 22d of Au- gust, 1682, a month before Hennepin, in Paris, obtained a license to print, and some time before the Franciscan's first work, was issued from the press.

La Salle's knowledge must have been received from Michael Accault, the leader of the expedi- tion, Augelle, his comrade, or the clerical attache, the Franciscan, Hennepin.

It differs from Hennepin's narrative in its free- dom from bombast, and if its statements are to be credited, the Franciscan must be looked on as one given to exaggeration. The careful student, however, soon learns to be cautious in receiving the statement of any of the early explorers and ecclesiastics of the Northwest. The Franciscan depreciated the Jesuit missionary, and La Salle did not hesitate to misrepresent Du Luth and others for his own exaltation. La Salle makes statements which we deem to be wide of the truth when his prejudices are aroused.

At the very time that the Intendant of Justice in Canada is complaining that Governor Fronte- nac is a friend and correspondent of Du Luth,

La Salle writes to his friends in Paris, that Du Luth is looked upon as an outlaw by the governor.

While official documents prove that Du Luth was in Minnesota a year before Accault and asso- ciates, yet La Salle writes: " Moreover, the Na- donesioux is not a region which he has discov- ered. It is known that it was discovered a long time before, and that the Rev. Father Hennepin and Michael Accault were there before him."

La Salle in this communication describes Ac- cault as one well acquainted with the language and names of the Indians of the Illinois region, and also " cool, braye, and prudent," and the head of the party of exploration.

We now proceed with the first description of the country above the Wisconsin, to which is given, for the first and only time, by any writer, the Sioux name, Meschetz Odeba, perhaps in- tended for Meshdeke Wakpa, River of the Foxes.

He describes the Upper Mississippi in these words : " Following the windings of the Missis- sippi, they found the river Quisconsing, Wiscon- sing, or Meschetz Odeba, which flows between Bay of Puans and the Grand river. * * * About twenty-three or twenty-four leagues to the north or northwest of the mouth of the Ouisconsing, * * * they found the Black river, called by the Nadouesioux, Chabadeba [Chapa Wakpa, Beaver river] not very large, the mouth of which is bor- dered on the two shores by alders.

" Ascending about thirty leagues, almost at the same point of the compass, is the Buffalo river [Chippewa], as large at its mouth as that of the Illinois. They follow it ten or twelve leagues, where it is deep, small and without rapids, bor- dered by hills which widen out from time to time to form prairies."

About three o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th of April, 1680, the travelers were met by a war party of one hundred Sioux in thirty-three birch bark canoes. "Michael Accault, who was the

Digitized by Google

HENNEPIN CRITICISED BY LA SALLE.

leader," says La Salle, " presented the Calumet." The Indians were presented by Accault with twenty knives and a fathom and a half of tobacco and some goods. Proceeding with the Indians ten days, on the 22d of April the isles in the Mis- sissippi were reached, where the Sioux had killed some Maskoutens, and they halted to weep over the death of two of their own number; and to assuage their grief, Accault gave them in trade a box of goods and twenty-four hatchets.

When they were eight leagues below the Falls of Saint Anthony, they resolved to go by land to their village, sixty leagues distant. They were well received ; the only strife among the villages was that which resulted from the desire to have a Frenchman in their midst. La Salle also states that it was not correct to give the impression that Du Luth had rescued his men from captivity, for they could not be properly called prisoners.

He continues: "In going up the Mississippi again, twenty leagues above that river [Saint Croix] is found the falls, which those I sent, and who passing there first, named Saint Anthony. It is thirty or forty feet high, and the river is nar- rower here than elsewhere. There is a small island in the midst of the chute, and the two banks of the river are not bordered by high hills, which gradually diminish at this point, but the country on each side is covered with thin woods, such as oaks and other hard woods, scattered wide apart.

"The canoes were carried three or four hun- dred steps, and eight leagues above was found the west [east?] bank of the river of the Nadoue- sioux, ending in a lake named Issati, which ex- pands into a great marsh, where the wild rice grows toward the mouth."

In the latter part of his letter La Salle uses the following language relative to his old chaplain:

"I believed that it was appropriate to make for you the narrative of the adventures of this canoe, because I doubt not that they will speak of it, and if you wish to confer with the Father Louis Hen- nepin, Recollect, who has returned to France, you must know him a little, because he will not fail to exaggerate all things; it is his character, and to me he has written as if he were about to be burned when he was not even in danger, but he believes that itis honorable to act in this manner,

and he speaks more conformably to that which he wishes than to that which he knows."

Hennepin was born in Ath, an inland town of the Netherlands. From boyhood he longed to visit foreign lands, and it is not to be wondered at that he assumed the priest's garb, for next to the soldier's life, it suited one of wandering pro- pensities.

At one time he is on a begging expedition to some of the towns on the sea coast. In a few months he occupies the post of chaplain at an hospital, where he shrives the dying and admin- isters extreme unction. From the quiet of the hospital he proceeds to the camp, and is present at the battle of Seneffe, which occurred in the. year 1674.

His whole mind, from the time that he became a priest, appears to have been on "things seen and temporal," rather than on those that are " un- seen and eternal." While on duty at some of the ports of the Straits of Dover, he exhibited the characteristic of an ancient Athenian more than that of a professed successor of the Apostles. He sought out the society of strangers "who spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." With perfect non- chalance he confesses that notwithstanding the nauseating fumes of tobacco, he used to slip be- hind the doors of sailors' taverns, and spend days, without regard to the loss of his meals, listening to the adventures and hair-breadth escapes of the mariners in lands beyond the sea.

In the year 1676, he received a welcome order from his Superior, requiring him to embark for Canada. Unaccustomed to the world, and arbi- trary in his disposition, he rendered the cabin of the ship in which he sailed any thing but heav- enly. As in modern days, the passengers in a vessel to the new world were composed of hete- rogeneous materials. There were young women going out in search for brothers or husbands, ec- clesiastics, and those engaged in the then new, but profitable, commerce in furs. One of his fellow passengers was the talented and enterpri- prising, though unfortunate, La Salle, with whom he was afterwards associated. If he is to be credited, his intercourse with La Salle was not very pleasant on ship-board. The young women, tired of being cooped up in the narrow accommo- dations of the ship, when the evening was fair

Digitized by Google

EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

sought the deck, and engaged in the rude dances of the French peasantry of that age. Hennepin, feeling that it was improper, began to assume the air of the priest, and forbade the sport. La Salle, feeling that his interference was uncalled for, called him a pedant, and took the side of the girls, and during the voyage there were stormy discussions.

Good humor appears to have been restored when they left the ship, for Hennepin would oth- erwise have not been the companion of La Salle in his great western journey.

Sojourning for a short period at Quebec, the adventure-loving Franciscan is permitted to go to a mission station on or near the site of the present town of Kingston, Canada West.

Here there was much to gratify his love of novelty, and he passed considerable time in ram- bling among the Iroquois of New York. In 1678 he returned to Quebec, and was ordered to join the expedition of Robert La Salle.

On the 6th of December Father Hennepin and a portion of the exploring party had entered the Niagara river. In the vicinity of the Falls, the winter was passed, and while the artisans were preparing a ship above the Falls, to navigate the great lakes, the Recollect whiled away the hours, in studying the manners and customs of the Sen- eca Indians, and in admiring the sublimest han- diwork of God on the globe.

On the 7th of August, 1679, the ship being completely rigged, unfurled its sails to the breezes of Lake Erie. The vessel was named the " Grif- fin," in honor of the arms of Frontenac, Governor of Canada, the first ship of European construc- tion that had ever ploughed the waters of the great inland seas of North America.

After encountering a violent and dangerous storm on one of the lakes, during which they had given up all hope of escaping shipwreck, on the 27th of the month, they were safely moored in the harbor of " Missilimackinack." From thence the party proceeded to Green Bay, where they left the ship, procured canoes, and continued along the coast of Lake Michigan. By the mid- dle of January, 1680, La Salle had conducted his expedition to the Illinois River, and, on an emi- nence near Lake Peoria, he commenced, with much heaviness of heart, the erection of a fort,

which he called Crevecoeur, on account of the many disappointments he had experienced.

On the last of February, Accault, Augelle, and Hennepin left to ascend the Mississippi.

The first work bearing the name of the Rev- erend Father Louis Hennepin, Franciscan Mis- sionary of the Recollect order, was entitled, " De- scription de la Louisiane," and in 1683 published in Paris.

As soon as the book appeared it was criticised. Abbe Bernou, on the 29th of February, 1684, writes from Rome about the " paltry book" (mes- hcant livre) of Father Hennepin. About a year before the pious Tronson, under date of March 13, 1683, wrote to a friend: " I have interviewed the P. Recollect, who pretends to have descended the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico. I do not know that one will believe what he speaks any more than that which is in the printed relation of P. Louis, which I send you that you may make your own reflections."

On the map accompanying his first book, he boldly marks a Recollect Mission many miles north of the point he had visited. In the Utrecht edition of 1697 this deliberate fraud is erased.

Throughout the work he assumes, that he was the leader of the expedition, and magnifies trifles into tragedies. For instance, Mr. La Salle writes that Michael Accault, also written Ako, who was the leader, presented the Sioux with the calu- met;" but Hennepin makes the occurrence more formidable.

He writes : "Our prayers were heard, when on the 11th of April, 1680, about two o'clock in the afternoon, we suddenly perceived thirty - three bark canoes manned by a hundred and twenty Indians coming down with very great speed, on a war party, against the Miamis, Illinois and Maro- as. These Indians surrounded us, and while at a distance, discharged some arrows at us, but as they approached our canoe, the old men seeing us with the calumet of peace in our hands, prevent- ed the young men from killing us. These sava- ges leaping from their canoes, some on land, others into the water, with frightful cries and yells approached us, and as we made no resist- ance, being only three against so great a number, one of them wrenched our calumet from our hands, while our canoe and theirs were tied to the shore. We first presented to them a piece of

Digitized by

Google

HENNEPIN'S DIFFICULTY WITH PRAYER-BOOK.

French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs' and the eldest among them uttered the words' " Miamiha, Miamiha."

" As we did not understand their language, we took a little stick, and by signs which we made on the sand, showed them that their enemies, the Miamis, whom they sought, had fled across the river Colbert [Mississippi] to join the Islinois ; when they saw themselves discovered and unable to surprise their enemies, three or four old men laying their hands on my head, wept in a mourn- ful tone.

" With a spare handkerchief I had left I wiped away their tears, but they would not smoke our Calumet. They made us cross the river with great cries, while all shouted with tears in their eyes; they made us row before them, and we heard yells capable of striking the most resolute with terror. After landing our canoe and goods, part of which had already been taken, we made a fire to boil our kettle, and we gave them two large wild turkeys which we had killed. These Indians having called an assembly to deliberate what they were to do with us, the two head chiefs of the party approaching, showed us by signs that the warriors wished to tomahawk us. This com- pelled me to go to the war chiefs with one young man, leaving the other by our property, and throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives and six fathom of our black tobacco; and then bringing down my head, I showed them with an axe that they might kill me, if they thought proper. This present appeased many individual members, who gave us some beaver to eat, put- ting the three first morsels into our mouths, accor- ding to the custom of the country, and blowing on the meat, which was too hot, before putting the bark dish before us to let us eat as we liked. We spent the night in anxiety, because, before reti- ·ring at night, they had returned us our peace calumet.

"Our two boatmen were resolved to sell their lives dearly, and to resist if attacked ; their arms and swords were ready. As for my own part, I determined to allow myself to be killed without any resistance ; as I was going to announce to them a God who had been foully accused, un- justly condemned, and cruelly crucified, without showing the least aversion to those who put him to death. We watched in turn, in our anxiety,

so as not to be surprised asleep. The next morn- ing, a chief named Narrhetoba asked for the peace calumet, filled it with willow bark, and all smoked. It was then signified that the white men were to return with them to their villages."

In his narrative the Franciscan remarks, "I found it difficult to say my office before these Indians. Many seeing me move my lips, said in a fierce tone, 'Quakanche.' Michael, all out of countenance, told me, that if I continued to say my breviary, we should all three be killed, and the Picard begged me at least to pray apart, so as not to provoke them. I followed the latter's advice, but the more I concealed myself the more I had the Indians at my heels; for when I en- tered the wood, they thought I was going to hide some goods under ground, so that I knew not on what side to turn to pray, for they never let me out of sight. This obliged me to beg pardon of my canoe- men, assuring them I could not dis- pense with saying my office. By the word, 'Ou- akanche,' the Indians meant that the book I was reading was a spirit, but by their gesture they nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so that to accustom them to it, I chanted the litany of the Blessed Virgin in the canoe, with my book opened. They thought that the breviary was a spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion ; for these people are naturally fond of singing."

This is the first mention of a Dahkotah word in a European book. The savages were annoyed rather than enraged, at seeing the white man reading a book, and exclaimed, " Wakan-de !" this is wonderful or supernatural. The war party was composed of several bands of the M'de- wahkantonwan Dahkotahs, and there was a di- versity of opinion in relation to the disposition that should be made of the white men. The relatives of those who had been killed by the Miamis, were in favor of taking their scalps, but others were anxious to retain the favor of the French, and open a trading intercourse.

Perceiving one of the canoe-men shoot a wild turkey, they called the gun, " Manza Ouackange," iron that has understanding; more correctly, " Maza Wakande," this is the supernatural metal. Aquipaguetin, one of the head men, resorted to the following device to obtain merchandise. Says the Father, "This wily savage had the bones of some distinguished relative, which he

Digitized by

Google

EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

preserved with great care in some skins dressed and adorned with several rows of black and red porcupine quills. From time to time he assem- bled his men to give it a smoke, and made us come several days to cover the bones with goods, and by a present wipe away the tears he had shed for him, and for his own son killed by the Miamis. To appease this captious man, we threw on the bones several fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives, beads, and some black and white wampum brace- lets. * * * We slept at the point of the Lake of Tears [Lake Pepin], which we so called from the tears which this chief shed all night long, or by one of his sons whom he caused to weep when he grew tired."

The next day, after four or five leagues' sail, a chief came, and telling them to leave their canoes, he pulled up three piles of grass for seats. Then taking a piece of cedar full of little holes, he placed a stick into one, which he revolved between the palms of his hands, until he kindled a fire, and informed the Frenchmen that they would be at Mille Lac in six days. On the nineteenth day after their captivity, they arrived in the vicinity of Saint Paul, not far, it is probable, from the marshy ground on which the Kaposia band once lived, and now called Pig's Eye.

The journal remarks, " Having arrived on the nineteenth day of our navigation, five leagues below St. Anthony's Falls, these Indians landed us in a bay, broke our canoe to pieces, and se- creted their own in the reeds."

They then followed the trail to Mille Lac, sixty leagues distant. As they approached their villa- ges, the various bands began to show their spoils. The tobacco was highly prized, and led to some contention. The chalice of the Father, which glistened in the sun, they were afraid to touch, supposing it was "wakan." After five days' walk they reached the Issati [Dahkotah] settle- ments in the valley of the Rum or Knife river. The different bands each conducted a Frenchman to their village, the chief Aquipaguetin taking charge of Hennepin. After marching through the marshes towards the sources of Rum river, five wives of the chief, in three bark canoes, met them and took them a short league to an island where their cabins were.

An aged Indian kindly rubbed down the way- worn Franciscan; placing him on a bear- skin

near the fire, he anointed his legs and the soles of his feet with wildcat oil.

The son of the chief took great pleasure in car- rying upon his bare back the priest's robe with dead men's bones enveloped. It was called Pere Louis Chinnen. In the Dahkotah language Shin- na or Shinnan signifies a buffalo robe.

Hennepin's description of his life on the island is in these words :

" The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who was the head of a large family, covered me with a robe made of ten large dressed beaver skins, trimmed with porcupine quills. This Indian showed me five or six of his wives, telling them, as I afterwards learned, that they should in fu- ture regard me as one of their children.

" He set before me a bark dish full of fish, and seeing that I could not rise from the ground, he had a small sweating-cabin made, in which he made me enter with four Indians. This cabin he covered with buffalo skins, and inside he put stones red-hot. He made me a sign to do as the others before beginning to sweat, but I merely concealed my nakedness with a handkerchief. As soon as these Indians had several times breathed out quite violently, he began to sing vo- ciferously, the others putting their hands on me and rubbing me while they wept bitterly. I be- gan to faint, but I came out and could scarcely take my habit to put on. When he made me sweat thus three times a week, I felt as strong as ever."

The mariner's compass was a constant source of wonder and amazement. Aquipaguetin hav- ing assembled the braves, would ask Hennepin to show his compass. Perceiving that the needle turned, the chief harangued his men, and told them that the Europeans were spirits, capable of doing any thing.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 4

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

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