USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 19
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The "drink that makes them mad for a whole day" was the alcoholic distillation of pulque, a produce of the maguey plant, still a favorite beverage of the Mexicans and Indians, called mescal or aguardiente. The prisoner they saw, and that was captured in the previous year "much more tawney than they with whome we are," may have been a negro slave. It will be remembered that the Span- iards carried negroes with them in their expeditions. Thus the negro Estevan accompanied de Vaca.
That in their southward course Radisson and Groseilliers must have reached the mouth of the Missouri and met Indians that visited the tribes having their lodges on this river, and may be the plains, is also shown by the distinct reference to the Indians dwelling "in the other river?" Of these Indians our narrator heard that "They weare men of extraordinary height & biggnesse," meaning, without doubt, the Osages, celebrated for their size. Corn and pumpkins
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
(citrulles wch are mighty bigg) were cultivated by them. The Indians dwelling on the Missouri and southwest of this river, as we have seen, early came in contact with the Spanish adventurers and explorers pushing with rare energy into the vast wilderness from the southwest to the northeast. On his journey across the continent from Florida to the Pacific and to Mexico, Cabaza de Vaca and his companions, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes, and the negro named Estevan, with a single exception, the survivors of the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, doubtless also met many Indian tribes. The fame of the expeditions of De Soto and of Coronado must have spread far and wide among them. Before these great and important efforts it is certain that many single Spaniards penetrated into the country from the south, just as many single Frenchmen pene- trated from the north to the south, animated by a love of adventure or hope of rich discoveries of gems and gold. Of these early discov- eries and adventures no record has been preserved. The stories of the adventures of Radisson and Groseilliers alone have not perished. And that the records of Radisson in the main are trustworthy is shown by a few incidental references to them in the Jesuit "Relations." Thus the "Relations" of 1657-58 make reference to "two Frenchmen who have made their way far inland," and among the newly discov- ered tribes visited by them the "Makoutensak" (Mascoutins) are named, and it is said that "the two Frenchmen who have made the journey to those regions say that these people are of a very gentle disposition." Among the tribes mentioned is one "called the Alini- ouek" (Illinois), "computed at fully 20,000 men and sixty villages," dwelling along the Illinois river, these villages being seven days west- ward from a "Oupouteouatamik" (Pottawottomie) village, called by the Jesuits St. Michel, situated at some uncertain point along the shores of Lake Michigan. The Oumamik (Miamis) are said to live sixty leagues distant and "toward the south and southeast there are more than thirty nations, all stationary, all speaking the Abna- quiois tongue," and, proceeds Father Druillettes, "that is a fine bat- tlefield for those who intend to enter the lists and fight for Jesus Christ." 7
But in looking into this matter critically, it is more than probable that even before the voyages of Radisson and Groseilliers the upper Mississippi was visited and navigated in a frail bark canoe by the
7 44 Jesuit Relations, pp. 247 et seq.
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FATHER MARQUETTE
celebrated Jean Nicolet. Champlain sent Nicolet west on an exploring expedition in 1634, hoping that he might discover a short passage to Asia, and also to ascertain the character and nature of the savage tribes dwelling along the shores of Lake Huron, the "Mer Douce" of the early explorers and geographers, for the purpose of laying the foundation for the extension of the fur trade. On this trip Nicolet visited Lake Michigan, Green Bay, and Fox River, and evi- dently the Mississippi. He made his voyage in a canoe accompanied by seven Hurons, as huntsmen and guides. As far as recorded, he was the first white man who visited the region now embraced in Wis- consin. His arrival created a great sensation in that region. Four thousand or five thousand Winnebagoes assembled to greet him, having received word of his coming. He was escorted into the village by an escort of young braves. Feasts of barbaric munificence and splendor were given in his honor, and it is said that at one feast one hundred and twenty beavers were served. From the Winnebago village he journeyed up the Fox river to the village of the Mascoutins. From them he heard of the Illinois, and continued his journey south- ward. On this journey he must have seen and sailed on the Mis- sissippi, because, when he returned to Quebec, he assured Father Vimont, the Superior of the Jesuits, "that if he had sailed three days' journey farther upon a great river, which issues from this lake (and which he calls the second great lake of the Hurons, Lake Michigan) he would have found the sea." 8 It is not likely that he mistook one of the smaller rivers of Wisconsin for "a great river." The grandeur and magnitude of the Mississippi must have instantly impressed itself on his mind, and distinguished it at once from the other numerous smaller streams as a "great river."
In his letter to his Superior, Father Marquette says 9: "When the Ilinois come to La Pointe, they cross a great river which is nearly a league in width, flows from north to south, and to such a distance that the Ilinois, who do not know what a canoe is, have not heard any mention of its mouth. They simply know that there are some very large nations lower down than themselves, some of whom toward the east-southeast of their country raise two crops of Indian corn a year. A nation they call Chaouanou (Shawnees) came to see them last summer. . .. They are laden with glass beads, which shows
8 18 Jesuit Relations of 1640, p.237.
9 54 Jesuit Relations, p. 189.
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that they have communication with Europeans. . . . Six or seven days' journey below the Ilinois there is another great river, on which live some very powerful nations, who use canoes." These statements point to the fact that the Indians called by Marquette Illinois, whom he met at La Pointe, must have lived on the west bank of the Missis- sippi and north of the Missouri, within the limits of Missouri.
In the same year, Father Allouez,10 describing the country of the "Machkoutenk," writes: "These people are settled in a very attractive place, where beautiful plains and fields meet the eye as far as one can see. Their river leads by a six days' voyage to the great river named Messi-Sipi"-for the first time naming the river, which heretofore had always been simply referred to as the "great river." Father d'Ablon also gives expression to the thoughts of the time, saying that they will seek to verify the quite probable conjec- tures that have been entertained for a long time, that a passage could be made by this route to the Japan sea; "for what has been noted in some of the preceding "Relations" concerning this matter has been confirmed more and more by the report of the savages, and the information elicited from them," namely, that some days' journey from the Mission of Saint Francois Xavier "is found a great river, more than a league in width. This, coming from the regions of the north, flows toward the south, and to such a distance that the savages who have navigated it, in going to seek for enemies to fight with, after a good many days' journey have not found its mouth, which can only be toward the sea of Florida or that of California." 11
Between 1665 and 1672 a number of explorers were sent out by the Canadian authorities, some to explore and take possession of the eastern country as far as possible, some to report on the copper of Lake Superior, some to look after the fur trade of Hudson's Bay, and find a new route to hyperborean oceans, some south and south- west, to reach the Gulf of Mexico or other southern sea. Talon, Intendant of Canada, in his report to the King, says that these explorers were to keep journals and make written reports, but these official reports, if made at all, have not been published or made accessible. Thus in 1669 Robert Cavelier, afterward celebrated as Sieur De La Salle, obtained permission to undertake an expedition (which led to the discovery of the Ohio), it is said, as far southwest as
10 54 Jesuit Relations, p. 231.
11 54 Jesuit Relations, p. 137. (Burrows' Ed.)
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JOLIET
the falls of that river. What he had in mind may perhaps be sur- mised from a letter written by Patoutet to Colbert, in which it is said that he had gone to examine a passage he expected to find which would connect with Japan and China. In 1671 Courcelles,12 governor of Canada, in an official report says that, several years prior, two priests made a voyage to visit the savage nations living "along a great river that the Iroquois called the Ohio, and the Outaouacs the Mississipy," doubtless referring to two Sulpician priests, Dollier de Casson and Rene de Gallinée, who had joined La Salle but sepa- rated from him.
The magnitude of the value of the discovery of a passage to the south seas must have greatly impressed even Louis XIV., because he urged upon his minister, Colbert, the importance of the subject and desired that a large reward be offered to those who should make the discovery. Accordingly, Frontenac, in a report to Colbert dated November 2, 1672, says that "he (Chevalier de Grandfontaine, governor of Acadia and Pentagonet) has likewise judged it expedient for the service to send Sieur Joliet to the country of the Mascoutins to discover the South sea, and the great river they call Mississipi, which is supposed to empty into the sea of California. He is a man very skilful in this kind of discoveries, and has already been quite near to this great river, the mouth of which he promises to find." 13
While it is by some supposed that Joliet owed his selection by Frontenac, to explore and discover the South sea and the Mississippi, to some intrigue against La Salle, it is much more likely that his 12 I Margry, "Voyages des Francais," 1684, p. 115, where a full account of this voyage is given.
13 Louis Joliet thus selected was a native of Canada, born in Quebec, Sep- tember 21, 1645. When of proper age he was placed to school in the Jesuit seminary in his native town, where he made excellent progress in his studies. In the Journal of the Jesuit Fathers, in the years 1666 and 1667, we find this entry: "July 2nd. The first disputations in philosophy took place in the con- gregation with success. All the authorities were present. Monsieur, the In- tendant, among others, made a strong argument. Monsieur Joliet and Pierre Francheville replied very well, upon the whole subject of logic." (50 Jes. Rel., p. 191.) Joliet intended to adopt ecclesiastical life, but abandoned this purpose. He spent one year in France, and on his return was sent to search for the copper mines of Lake Superior, and in the following year was present when St. Lusson took possession of the Lake Superior region in the name of France. In October, 1675, he married Claire Francoise Bissot; in 1679 made a voyage to Hudson's Bay, and in 1680, as a special reward for his discoveries, was granted the whole of the island of Anticosti, where he lived for many years with his family. He was also appointed hydrographer of the king in 1680. The English invasion of Canada caused him great losses, and at the time of his death, in 1700, he was said to have suffered from actual poverty.
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ability and perhaps the personal friendship of Talon caused him to be selected. That he was a man of modesty and devoid of ostenta- tion is evidenced by the fact that he made no effort apparently to gain great glory on account of the discovery of the Mississippi, by rewriting his journal or otherwise. Father Marquette, who was selected to accompany Joliet, for years had meditated a voyage to the various tribes dwelling on the Mississippi, and owed his appoint- ment undoubtedly to his superior. No full report of the voyage of Joliet is extant, as he lost his box of papers and nearly his life in the rapids of the St. Lawrence, near Montreal, on his way home, and the copies of his "Journal," which he said he left with the Fathers of Sault Ste. Marie, appear unfortunately also to have been lost. He made merely a verbal report to Frontenac. Father Marquette never returned to Canada, but died in the wilderness, it is supposed near the mouth of the Marquette river, which perpetuates his name; but before his death he made a written report to his supe- rior, and to this report the world has looked for the fullest account of this celebrated journey. As a result, the true hero of the enter- prise, Joliet, undoubtedly has been eclipsed in the opinion of the world, by the Jesuit father who was in no wise officially connected with the exploration, and accompanied it informally.
Under orders of Frontenac, Joliet began his journey from Quebec, and on December 8, 1672, arrived at the palisaded mission house at Point St. Ignace, with instructions from Frontenac to take Father Marquette as a companion on his expedition for discovering the Mississippi. In his journal Father Marquette 14 thus refers to Joliet's arrival: "The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin, whom I have always invoked since coming to this country of the Ottawas, to obtain from God the favor of being enabled to visit the nations who dwell along the river Mississippi, this very day, was precisely that on which M. Joliet (Jollyet) arrived with orders from Count de Frontenac, our Governor, and M. Talon, our Intend- ant, to go with him on his discovery. I was all the more delighted at this news, because I saw my plans about to be accomplished, and found myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the sal- vation of all those tribes, and especially the Illinois, who when I was at St. Espirit, had begged me very earnestly to bring the word of God among them." Joliet remained at St. Ignace during the winter,
14 59 Jesuit Relations, p. 91.
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BEGIN VOYAGE
making all necessary preparations for his voyage. "We took," says Marquette, "all possible precautions, that if our enterprise was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy. For this reason we gathered all possible information from the Indians who had frequented those parts, and from their accounts traced a map of all the new country, marking down the rivers which we were to sail; the names of the nations through which we were to pass; the course of the great river, and what direction we should take when we got to it."
On May 17, 1673, according to the Gregorian calendar, these explorers set out on their great voyage in two light bark canoes, accompanied by five Frenchmen, with a small supply of smoked meat and Indian corn. They also took with them a suitable assortment of goods for distribution among the natives on their way, as presents. After coasting their way along the shore of Lake Michigan from the mission house, they reached the village of the Folle Avoines, or Wild Rice Indians, so-called from the wild rice which grew along the river on which their village was situated and which furnished these Indians a large part of their subsistence. The Jesuits were not unknown to these Indians, and when advised by Father Marquette of the design, did all they could to dissuade them from the enterprise. In his "Journal" he says: "They represented that he would encounter those natives who were always in the field, and kill without remorse and without cause; that the great river was very dangerous when the channel is not known; that it is full of horrible monsters, who devour altogether men and canoes; that there was also a demon whom they would see from a great distance, who closed the passage of the river and destroyed those who dared to approach him; and in conclusion, that the heats were so excessive that we should meet death inevitably." But these terrible stories did not deter the explorers. They crossed over to the Mission of St. Francois Xavier, on Green Bay, founded by Father Allouez in 1669, and, leaving this missionary station early in June, proceeded to the head of Green Bay, to the mouth of Fox river and thence up Fox river to Lake Winnebago, to the village of the Miamis, Mascoutins, and Kickapoos, the farthest limit of French exploration, as was supposed at that time. The lands beyond them were shadowy, vague, and unknown. Here the voyagers assembled the old men of the village, and Mar- quette said to them "that he (Joliet) had been sent on the part of Monsieur, our governor, to discover new countries, and I on the part
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
of God to make clear to them the lights of the gospel, . . . . and that we had occasion for two guides to conduct us on our route. On asking them to accord this to us, we made them a present, which made them very civil, and at the same time they voluntarily answered us by a present in return, which was a mat to serve us as a bed during our voyage. The next day, which was the Ioth of June, two Miami, whom they gave us for guides, embarked with us in sight of all the inhabitants, who could not but be astonished to see seven French- men, alone in two canoes, daring to undertake an expedition so extraordinary and so hazardous." Taking a southwesterly course through a labyrinth of small lakes, they reached the watershed divid- ing the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and, transporting their canoes and luggage across the narrow portage, their Miami guides left them to return to their village, and Joliet and his companions embarked on the Meskousing (Wisconsin), a wide stream with a sandy bottom and numerous shoals, rendering navigation difficult, a stream full of islands covered with vines and underbrush, and banks studded with oaks, walnuts, and other timber, and the landscape diversified with prairie and hill. Here they saw many deer and buffalo grazing, but no feathered game, and noticed no fish in the water. On June 17, 1673, they entered the Mississippi "with a joy that I cannot express," says Marquette. Thus they reached this so renowned river in a country where they saw only deer, cattle, bustards, swans without wings, "because they drop their plumage in this country." They glided gently down the river, passing beautiful islands, covered with pine- trees, but from time to time a monstrous catfish struck their canoe so that Marquette thought it was a great tree, "about to break the canoe to pieces." Finally, on the 25th of June, they found traces of human habitation in the shape of a little, well-beaten path on the west shore, perhaps a few miles above the mouth of the Des Moines, and following this path they came to an Indian village on the banks of this stream. The village was inhabited by the Peouareas (Peorias) and Mongwenas, belonging to the Illiniwek or Illini tribe of Indiáns some of these Indians then dwelling in the northern part of what is now Missouri, where indeed they are placed on the map of Mar- quette. The voyagers remained in this village for several days, after which, escorted to their canoes by the chief and six hundred of his tribesmen, they re-embarked on the Mississippi. Still sailing south,
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IRON ORE
they reached the mouth of the Pekitanoui, the river of the "Oumis- souries," and, writes Marquette, "I never saw anything more ter- rific; a tangle of entire trees, of branches, of floating islands, issued from the mouth of the Pekistanoui with such impetuosity that one could not attempt to cross it without great danger. The commotion was such that the water was made muddy by it and could not clear itself." It is thus that the great river of Missouri, undoubtedly rushing south at full flood-tide at the time Marquette first saw it, impressed the lonely voyagers. Still floating on along the shores, on the right, of the future state of Missouri, all clothed in the habiliments of early summer, they reached "a place," says Marquette, "that is dreaded by the savages, because they believe that a Manitou is there, that is to say, a demon, that devours travelers; and the savages, who wished to divert us from our undertaking, warned us against it. This is the demon: there is a small cove, surrounded by rocks, twenty feet high, into which the whole current of the river rushes, and being pushed back against the waters following it, and checked by an island near by, the current is compelled to pass through a narrow channel. This is not done without a violent struggle between these waters, which force one another back; or without a great din, which inspires terror in the savages, who fear everything." It is quite evident that Marquette here refers to the stretch of river about Grand Tower, although it does not exactly describe the present con- dition. But two hundred and twenty-five years will effect great changes, and that the river has widened in that period and that some rocky obstacles have been washed away is also certain. Continuing, Marquette records that a short distance above Waboukigon (Ohio) "are cliffs, on which our Frenchmen noticed an iron mine, which they considered very rich. There are several veins of ore, and a bed a foot thick, and one sees large masses of it united with peb- bles." Marquette here refers to the iron ores found in the south- east corner of Perry county, just north of Apple creek, where early in the last century the town of Birmingham (now only a reminiscence) was laid out, with the vague idea of building up a great iron center, the coal of Illinois being not far off on the Big Muddy river. From this statement it is also manifest that Joliet and Marquette and his followers actually camped upon the soil and perhaps partially examined this locality, now in the limits of Missouri. But Marquette goes farther, and describes the conglomerate caving bluffs of Perry
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
county, below Grand Tower. He says that, just above where he first saw the Missouri iron ores, "a sticky earth is found there, of three different colors-purple, violet, and red. The water in which the latter is washed assumes a bloody tinge. There is also a very heavy red sand. I placed some on a paddle, which was dyed with its color so deeply that the water could not wash it away during the fifteen days while I used it for paddling. Continuing south, their paddles still dipping the virgin waters, the canoes of the explorers reached the mouth of the Ohio,15 called by Marquette the Wabouki- gou, debouching from the east. Lower down the river, unexpectedly they met Indians, armed with guns, knives, and hatchets, wearing garments of cloth, and carrying gunpowder in thick glass flasks, thus, evidently, showing that they had dealings with Europeans on the Atlantic or southern coast. Here they were hospitably received, feasted on buffalo meat, bear's oil, and white plums. Still going south, they, at length, found a village of the Mitchigamea, on the west side of the river, eight or ten leagues above that of the "Akam- sea," the latter being, according to their reckoning, in latitude 33º and 40'. This village was on the east side of the river and opposite the mouth of a large river, generally supposed to have been the Arkansas river, which, however, must have been a mere temporary habitation, because, both before and afterward, the Arkansas had their habitat on the west side of the Mississippi, in the country between the mouth of the river of that name and the Ohio. They were well received here, and having carefully considered that they were not far from the Gulf of Mexico, and that the great river cer- tainly discharged its waters into that sea, they concluded to return. "After a month's navigation," says Marquette, " in descending the Mississippi from the 42nd degree to the 34th and beyond, and after having published the Gospel to all the nations I met, we left the village of the Akamsea on the 17th day of July, to retrace our steps.'' They went back the way they came, except that on reaching the Illinois river they ascended it instead of going up the Wisconsin. This flying voyage has become an imperishable event. By it the course of the Mississippi, north to south, to the Gulf, was first defi- nitely ascertained and published. A little more than a century earlier, the broken and dispirited remnant of De Soto's proud array under Moscoso, at or near the point where Joliet and Marquette
15 59 Jesuit Relations, pp. 144, 145.
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LA SALLE
halted, constructed barges to sail to the Gulf, and thus reached the sea and home.
Although the voyage of Joliet and Marquette established the fact almost incontrovertibly, that the Mississippi emptied its waters into the Gulf, the adventurous spirit of La Salle was not satisfied, and longed to trace the whole course of the great river to the sea. For several years he cherished this scheme, and in 1677 submitted his plan to Colbert, then minister of the colonies, a man who took a deep interest in everything calculated to promote French industry and commerce. His petition was favorably considered, and letters patent were accordingly issued to him by the crown "to endeavor to discover the western part of the country of New France." Return- ing to Canada in 1678, with his patent, he met with opposition from the beginning. His constant struggle of several years, great losses, ill fortune, many disappointments and unforeseen calamities, it is not necessary to relate in detail here, because well and graphic- ally narrated by Parkman and others. At last, in December, 1681, accompanied by Chevalier Tonty (of the iron hand), he began his voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. Arriving at the Chicago river in January, 1682, the explorer pulled his canoes, baggage, and pro- visions over the frozen waters on sledges, constructed under the directions of Tonty, and moving thus over the portage to the Des Plaines, one of the headwaters of the Illinois, also covered with ice, on his wintry march south, he reached open water at the foot of Peoria lake. After securing a supply of maize from the Indians, he resumed his journey and held his course to the mouth of the Illinois river, which he reached, February 6, 1682. Here he was delayed by ice floating in the Mississippi. But after a week the river was clear of ice, and, launching his canoes on the waters of the great river he bore southward to the Gulf. He passed the mouth of the Missouri, called the "Osage" by Father Membre, who accompanied the explorer, then noted a deserted Indian village, then reached the mouth of the Ouabache (Ohio), passed through the rich alluvial district, south of the mouth of the Ohio, for sixty leagues without stopping, then landed at the third Chickasaw bluffs, not far from the future site of Memphis. On the 12th of March he passed the village of the Mitchigameas on the right, and on the 13th, finding himself in a thick fog and hearing the beating of the war drums and war cries of the "Akansas," he crossed to the opposite side of the river and
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