USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 28
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4 La Hontan's Voyages, p. 132 (London Ed., 1702).
5 La Hontan's Voyages in North America, p. 204 (London Ed., 1703), (Mc Clurg Reprint, 1905).
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
numerous and mischievous nations, equally void both of courage and honesty; that their countries were watered with great rivers; and in a word, were too good for them;" thus perhaps again excusing, in- ferentially, the burning of one of their villages. Thence La Hontan went to the mouth of the "Oubach" (Ohio), where he says he took care to "watch the crocodiles very narrowly", for the Indians had told him "incredible stories of them." Returning, he asserts he "sailed up against the stream" to the Illinois and then up that river. Separating truth from fiction, it can hardly be doubted that La Hontan visited the Missouri river and camped on its banks. Though other portions of his narrative may be discredited, he was, so far as we know, the first white explorer on the Missouri river up to the mouth of the Osage, and the first white transient visitor who engaged in hunting within the borders of the state. At this time the Arkansas -or Quapaws- it would appear, still hunted north of the mouth of the Ohio.
It is next recorded 6 that in May, 1694, two French traders, accom- panied by some Kaskaskia Indians, visited the Missouris and Osages. About June 20th, the traders and Indians returned with two chiefs, one from each village, accompanied by "some elders and some wo- men" and, observes Father Gravier, "the Osages and Missouris did not appear to be as quick-witted as the Illinois; their language does not seem very difficult; the former do not open their lips, and the latter speak more from the throat than they."
In 1698 the Seminarian priests, Fathers Montigny,7 Davion,8 and St. Cosme,9 left Canada to do missionary labor in the valley, and as they went down the Mississippi, tarried at a point now in Missouri on the river, leaving a memorial of their transitory presence and pas-
6 64 Jesuit Relations, p. 169. (The Burrows Ed.)
7 Francois Joliet de Montigny came from Paris to Canada; was ordained priest at Quebec in 1793; spent two years as a missionary in Louisiana, 1698 to 1700, and returned to France. He then became a missionary to China. He died in 1725, aged 64 years, at Paris, where he was director of the Missions Étrangeres .- 65 Jesuit Relations, p. 62, note 7. (The Burrow's Ed.)
8 Ambrose Davion labored at what is now known as Fort Adams, in Missis- sippi; remained until 1708, then removed to Mobile and returned to France, where he died in 1726.
9 Jean Francois Buisson de Saint Cosme, a Canadian, was born in Quebec, February, 1667, and ordained at the age of 23. He labored in Acadia and the Illinois country (Cahokia) and in lower Louisiana (Natchez). He was killed by the Chetimacha Indians in 1702. He had a cousin of the same name, born in 1660, ordained 1683, died 1712, also a priest. --- 65 Jesuit Relations, p. 262, note 7. (The Burrows Ed.)
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SEMINARIAN PRIESTS
sage.1º Father St. Cosme says, in a letter dated 1699, to the bishop of Quebec, that he ascended a rock on the right, going down the river, and erected "a beautiful cross." From the narrative of St. Cosme, it is apparent that this interesting ceremony took place on the rock known at present as Grand Tower, standing in the Mississippi below the town of Wittenberg, in Perry county. St. Cosme 11 describes the locality as follows: "On the roth saw a hill which is about three arpens distant from the Mississippi river, on the right going down. After being detained a part of the 11th by rain, we arrived early on the 12th at Cape St. Antoine, where we remained that day and the next to get pitch, which we needed. There are many pines from Cape St. Antoine to a river lower down, and it is the only spot where we saw any from the Chigagou to the Acanceas. Cape St. Antoine is a rock on the left as you go down [probably meaning Fountain Bluff, in Illinois.] Some arpens below there is another rock on the right which advances into the river and forms an island, or rather a rock two hundred feet high, which, making the river turn back very rapidly and entering the channel, forms a kind of whirlpool there, where it is said a canoe was engulfed at the high waters. Fourteen Miamis were once lost there, which has rendered the spot fearful among the Indians, so that they are accustomed to make some sacrifi- ces to this rock when they pass. We saw no figure there, as we had been told. You ascend this island and rock by a hill with considerable difficulty. On it we planted a beautiful cross, singing the Vexilla Regis, and our people fired three volleys of musketry. God grant that the cross, which has never been known in this region, may triumph there and our Lord pour forth abundantly on them the merits of His holy passion, that the Indians may know and serve Him." This rock upon which St. Cosme erected the cross is mentioned by Mar- quette in the narrative of his voyage, and was dreaded by the Indians as a "Manitou." The hill three arpens distant from the Mississippi river at a point some miles above Cape St. Antoine must refer to a
10 The Seminarians and Jesuits were to some extent rivals in the religious field of New France at that time, and more or less friction existed between them, or at least was thought to exist. The Seminary priests carried on various mis- sions among the Indian tribes of the lower Mississippi. The school from which these priests derive their name was called "Seminaire des Missions Étrangères," founded by Francois de Lavel de Montmorency, first bishop of Quebec, in 1663, to educate a Canadian clergy .--- 45 Jesuit Relations, p. 269, note I. (The Bur- rows Ed.)
11 See St. Cosme's Voyage and Letter to the Bishop of Quebec, 1699, in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, p. 68.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
high hill known as Cape St. Cosme. The creek running at the foot of this hill and emptying its waters into the Mississippi on the right above Cape St. Antoine has long been known as St. Cosme creek, a name which has been corrupted into "Cinque Hommes." What is now known as Cape Antoine is a promontory above the town of Wittenberg, but St. Cosme apparently bestows the name Cape St. Antoine to the isolated bluff on the left bank of the Mis- sissippi, now known as Fountain Bluff. It may be that, at the time of this voyage of St. Cosme, a channel of the Mississippi river ran along Fountain Bluff and around and east of the iso- lated high hills above Grand Tower; that the present channel was not as wide as it now is, and that as it widened the channel on the east side filled up, making the bottom through which the Illinois Central railroad now runs, and on which the town of Grand Tower is built. Be this as it may, pines then grew on both sides of the river below what is now known as Cape St. Antoine on the rocky river hills. Some isolated pines are yet found in these hills on both sides of the river. The next river to which St. Cosme refers was likely the Rivière des Pommes, that is to say, Apple creek, on the right side, or the Big Muddy on the left bank of the Mississippi. The rock on the right, "about two hundred feet high," now known as Grand Tower, is situated opposite the town of that name. Father St. Cosme passed here in December, when the river was low, and therefore, if the channel is the same, the rock must have seemed high to him, but it is far from being two hundred feet high, though a con- spicuous landmark in the river, possibly one hundred feet high. When the river is at a low stage, the rock is connected with the Mis- souri shore. Upon this rock, Father St. Cosme sang the Vexilla Regis, and here, as we have seen, he planted "a beautiful cross," which was saluted by salvos of musketry.
Although we have no direct evidence of the fact, it is highly prob- able that the first white settlement on the Mississippi, even before the foundation of Cahokia and Kaskaskia, was made on the west side of the Mississippi near the mouth of the river Des Peres. This settlement, it is supposed, was founded by Jesuit missionaries, hence the name of the river.12 When Austin visited upper Louisiana, in 1797, he says that, from the best accounts he could gather from the most ancient inhabitants, it appeared that the first settlement of the
12 Beck's Gazetteer of Missouri, p. 312.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT
country made by the French took place near the mouth of this little river, on the Mississippi, "about six miles below where the town of St. Louis now stands, and about fifty miles above the Kaskaskias." Austin undoubtedly derived his information from some of the old settlers who personally had knowledge of the fact that a French set- tlement was made there, or from persons who had received this infor- mation from their parents, who perhaps had been residents of this first settlement and afterward removed to the east side of the river. The supposed unhealthiness of the spot, Austin 13 says, induced the first settlers on the Des Peres to move to a prairie in what is now Illinois, about twenty-five miles above the mouth of the Kaskaskia, and where the "Tmaroica Indians" then lived. Here they built a church dedicated to St. Joseph, and the prairie, accordingly, was named St. Joseph's prairie. On account of some disorder that pre- vailed among the Indians, the settlers removed to the site of old Kaskaskia, perhaps at the same time when Father Gravier located his village of Indians there. Here they built a stone church which was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. Austin says that on account of the bad work, the stone church soon fell down and that then they built a large church out of wood with a spire and bell; the bell, it may be incidentally remarked, was sent to Kaskaskia from France by the king.14 Austin is confirmed to some extent in his narrative by the fact that a very rare Roman coin was found on the banks of the river Des Peres by an Indian and pre- sented to Governor Clark in the early territorial days.
Where the Illinois prairie to which the settlers from the Des Peres moved to make a settlement was situated cannot be definitely deter- mined, but it is certain that French Canadians were settled among the "Tamaroica" or Tamaroa Indians early in 1700, because an account is preserved of twenty-one French Canadians from Tamaroa making a voyage up the Missouri River in search of mines in 1703 ;15 and Governor Bienville,16 in a letter dated September 6, 1704, says that some French Canadians were at that early date settled on the Mis-
13 Austin's Narrative of a Journey to Upper Louisiana .- 5 American His- torical Review, vol. viii., p. 518.
14 Beck's Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri, p. 313.
15 Margry, Les Coureurs des Bois, vol. vi., p. 81. It is said that they found a white metal, but that it would not melt in fire like the lead near Tamaroa, "qui est duvrai plomb."-4 Margry, p. 630, Establissements des Français.
16 Margry, Les Coureurs des Bois, vol. vi., p. 182.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
souri. In 1705 we hear of a Frenchman, Laurain, who had been on the Missouri, and who on his return reported that he had visited the Indian tribes on that river and gone as far as the frontier of New Mexico.17
The extent of the voyages and explorations of these French-Cana- dians in search of precious mines and furs, at that time, may also be inferred from the fact that in 1705, when Bienville was at Mobile, fifty Canadians arrived there with the intention of settling, and that among these were some who had visited many Indian villages on the Missouri, traded with them and approached the neighborhood of the mines of the Spaniards. Bienville learned from them that the Span- iards were then at war with three or four of the largest Indian tribes, and writes that he learns "ce pays est le plus beau du monde," that the Indians use horses and that the country abounds in "trois sorte mines que sont de cuivre at d'un mètail qu'on ne connoist point." When this report reached the king, he ordered, on June 30, 1707, Sieur de Muy, then governor of Louisiana, to have these metals assayed.18
Also, the hope of discovering a route to the southern or western sea possessed all minds during this period. It was supposed that the Missouri pointed in that direction, and Marquette 19 well expressed the general feeling when he said he "hoped to find the Pekitanoui (Missouri), according to reports made to him by the savages, leading to the southern sea, toward California." In order to further this discovery of the South sea, Nicholas de La Salle, in October, 1708, recommended an exploration of the Missouri, and that the same be mapped by an engineer.20
Many rumors were then current among the fur hunters on the upper lakes, that across the mountain divide beyond the headwaters of the Missouri, a stream existed that would take voyagers in its course to the western and southern ocean. Many stories, too, were told in the camps of these hunters and traders among the tribes of the upper Missouri of the marvelous mines of gold and silver on a stream flowing toward the setting sun or Vermillion sea. It was said that these mines were worked by the Spaniards, who carried
17 Margry, Les Coureurs des Bois, vol. vi., p. 181.
18 Life of Sieur de Bienville, p. 143.
19 59 Jesuit Relations, p. 141.
20 Margry, Les Coureurs des Bois, vol. vi., p. 183. Il seroit nè cessaire d'en- voyer un jeune ingénieur pour tirer une carte decette rivière, pour vous en donner une idée nette, et de choisir des officiers entendus pour cette enterprise.
245
EXTENT OF EXPLORATIONS
their precious hoards on pack-mules to the famed and wealth-crowned Mexico.21
On going down the Mississippi, in 1700, Father Gravier mentions in his letter a rich lead mine situated on the river "Miaramigoua" (Maramec).22 From this it is apparent that explorations in the mineral district of the Maramec, then known as "Miaramigona," must have been made even prior to that time. During this same journey down the Mississippi, on the 14th of September, Father Gravier further writes: "We doubled Cape St. Croix." This is now known as Gray's Point, the place being identified by this description : "This is a small rock forming a little island on the north side of the Mississippi river, on which Monsieur Montigny has had a cross erected." He also casually remarks, "we killed two bears there." 23 Montigny, who erected this cross the year before, was accompanied by Fathers Davion and St. Cosme, who erected the cross on the Grand Tower rock, as already stated, on the same trip. The name of the rock where these early fathers of the church tarried and "killed two bears" has been changed, but the name of the little creek emptying its waters into the river just above "Cape St. Croix" is still known indifferently as "Cape La Croix," and "Cape La Cruz." Behind the rocky island, on the "north side of the Missis- sippi," and in the chute that separates it from the Illinois shore, are the inclines of the Illinois Central railroad.
But Father Gravier makes further interesting observations: "The fine weather continues. To-day we saw over fifty bears, and of all that we killed we took only four, in order to obtain some fat. Those that come down the Mississippi were lean and those that come from the direction of the river Ouabachei (Ohio) were fat. They were continually moving from the south to the north ; it must be better there for them. There are a great many islands and shoals along the course of the Mississippi river from the Tam- arouha (Cahokia creek) to the Ouabachei (Ohio) river. This river keeps its course well from north to south, but at a distance of three or four leagues from the Ouabachei it begins to turn to the north-north- west and does nothing but meander."
21 Margry, Les Coureurs des Bois, vol. vi., p. 182.
22 65 Jesuit Relations, p. 105. (The Burrows Bros. Ed.)
23 65 Jesuit Relations, p. 105. (The Burrows Bros. Ed.) St. Cosme sub- sequently conducted a mission among the Natchez, Montigny among the Tensas, and Davion among the Tonicas.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
For a distance from Gray's Point south the river is narrow, and in the month of September, the stage of the water being usually low, many rocks and shoals or sandbars and small islands are visible. During this period, as Father Gravier records, many wild animals crossed and recrossed the narrow river here, moving from and into the rich alluvial St. Francois basin (full of cane and grass during the fall and winter) and traveling on what might be called instinctive trails or paths, which often became Indian warpaths or traces of In- dian commerce. Below Gray's Point a number of large and small islands are found in the river, and its course is very tortuous for some distance above the mouth of the Ohio, as Father Gravier observes.
Le Sueur, a practical miner and mineralogist, who in search of minerals had traversed the country along the great lakes, on his return from Canada to France urged the great importance of further explorations in a memorial asking for concessions. After much opposition his petition was favorably acted upon, and in 1700 he reached the mouth of the Mississippi and sailed up this river on what may be called a mineralogical expedition. He was accompanied by twenty men and by Indian guides. Among his followers was one Penicaut, a ship carpenter by trade, but a man of literary pro- clivities, and to him we owe a full account of this journey. In his narrative he notes events which occurred within the limits and on the borders of the territory now within Missouri. After leaving the mouth of the Ohio, Penicaut says they went up the river fifteen leagues to Cape St. Antoine, where, he remarks, the French of Illi- nois obtain millstones for their mills. It will be noted that Penicaut says that Cape St. Antoine is only fifteen leagues (forty-five miles) from the mouth of the Ohio. If his calculation as to the distance traveled from the mouth of the Ohio is correct, this would make what is now known as Gray's Point Cape St. Antoine. Perhaps he considered the Big Bend ten miles farther up the river and five miles above the present city of Cape Girardeau as Cape St. Antoine. It is clear, however, from the narrative that Penicaut's distances are not very reliable. Penicaut tells us Le Sueur tarried for twenty- four days at Cape St. Antoine, which he places on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, as Father St. Cosme does. Because his provisions had become exhausted, Le Sueur was in sore distress. His men roved around the woods to find game, but owing to the overflow the game had all fled into the hills back of the river bottom. So from
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LE SUEUR
the east bank of the river three of the men crossed into what is now Missouri to hunt, very likely in the river hills above Cape Girardeau. After separating, one of these men - Polonois, by name, so Peni- caut says -saw, in a little ravine, a bear slowly walking toward him. He quickly hid behind a tree and as the bear came nearer shot him with small shot, blinding him in both eyes. The bear, stunned by the shot, turned around, and this gave our Frenchman time to load his gun with a ball, and then with a second shot he killed the bear. Of course, the Frenchmen were greatly rejoiced, and instead of the leaves and grass and the bark of trees which they had been eating, they now had bearsteak for seven or eight days; for, says the veri- table Penicaut,24 "les ours du bord du Mississipi sont gros comme des vaches et très bons à manger."
Fortunately for Le Sueur and his corps, Father de Bonteville, on his way to the coast to visit D'Iberville, stopped at the camp, and, learning from Le Sueur that D'Iberville had returned to France, con- cluded that his journey would be useless, and so turned back to the Illinois villages, but promised to send relief as soon as he got home. He hurried back, and a few days afterward Father Limoges, a Jesuit priest, came down in a bark canoe loaded with provisions for the starving Frenchmen. At first they did not eat much, to the great surprise of the pious Father, but "en revanche, nous beusmes assez bien du vin d'Espagne." 25 After waiting three days longer for the men to regain their strength, much impaired by the long fast, Le Sueur in his "chaloupes" moved up the river. Penicaut notes that, after going six leagues (eighteen miles), they passed Cape St. Cosme, on the Missouri side of the river, situated in what is now Perry county, and that eight leagues (twenty-four miles) farther up they came to the village of the Kaskaskias, at "the mouth of a river of Illinois" (Kaskaskia river), where the Kaskaskias had established themselves two years before. He also mentions the "rivière de la Saline," and says that the stream was named so from the two salt springs which are found there. Here they rested for several days, hunting roe- bucks in what is now Ste. Genevieve county. Roebucks were very numerous there, he says, because these animals loved the salt - " parce que animaux aiment fort la saline." Still going up the river, they came to a small stream called "Maramec-sipy," where the sav-
24 5 Margry, p. 405, " Relation de Penicaut."
25 Ibid., p. 407.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
ages said there was a mine of lead fifty leagues from the river, but the savages, or Penicaut, exaggerated the distance, because these lead mines are at most thirty to forty miles from the river on the headwaters of the St. Francois. This "Maramec-sipy," now known as the Maramec, was also then called "rivière a la Barbue," on account of the great number of fish found in it.26
The next place at which Le Sueur landed was at a village of the Tamaroas, not far from the present site of Cahokia, in Illinois. Here he found a number of Canadian fur traders, who, as well as the sav- ages, were greatly rejoiced to see him and his escort. They par- ticularly admired the weapons they had, no doubt the most improved arms then made in France. This village of the Tamaroas was hid- den from view by an island and a bend of the river, so that Le Sueur landed altogether unexpected and unperceived in the village. Once at the village, a prairie spread out before him bordered by hills and "une très belle perspective." The island, covered with woods, was about one and one half miles wide and about six miles in circum- ference, and separated from the main shore by a channel running N.N.E. On a little channel (creek) running from the east about six miles from the mouth was this village of the "Tamaroas et des Cahokias." It seems from this general description that the island referred to must have been "Bloody Island," situated opposite the present St. Louis, and the "little channel running from the east," Cahokia creek, on which the ancient village of Cahokia is situated. This Cahokia creek was long known as the " rivière des Tamaroas."
After resting here for six days Le Sueur departed, still going up the river. Six leagues (eighteen miles) above the village Penicaut notes the Missouri, "une tres grande rivière" with "une rapidité épouvantable," then (July 12, 1700) at a high stage, overflowing its banks, uprooting and carrying trees on its swelling and rushing waters. No one, says Penicaut, knows the source of the Missouri any more than the source of the Mississippi, and he admits that he knew nothing about the inhabitants on its banks, since nie had not gone up this river, but he is careful to advise us that there are mines on this river. The next river on the west bank, flowing east and through what is now Missouri, mentioned by Penicaut, is the "rivière
26 The name of this Missouri river is " Maramec," and not "Merrimac" or " Merrimack," as is supposed by many. The name is not derived from the Massachusetts river.
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CAHOKIA
aux Bœufs." But before mentioning this stream, speaking of the prairies in north Missouri, he says that opposite the mouth of the Illinois "est le commencement des plus belles prairies du monde et d'une très grande estendue."27 He notes that at the rivière aux Bœufs "à la droit et à la gauche de son embouchure il y a deux rochers escarpés." Le Sueur went up this river half a league and camped on its borders, to rest from the arduous labors of the journey. The members of his corps were perhaps the first white men who encamped on the soil of what is now Lincoln county. Here some of the men went hunting, and within half a league of the camp killed a buffalo and buffalo cow, and from this incident it may be the stream was called "rivière aux Bœufs." Penicaut says that they enjoyed themselves here - fatigued as they were - hunting and eating, and what added greatly to their enjoyment was that they emptied "plu- sieurs bouteilles d'eau-de-vie."28 In this locality Penicaut tells us there were many wolves, also tigers (wildcats), and many foxes of extraordinary beauty, their fur being "d'une couleur argentine."
But we now leave Penicaut on his journey north up the river for Father Gabriel Marest,29 of Kaskaskia, who, writing in 1712, tells us : "We also have salt springs in the neighborhood, which are of great benefit to us," referring to the salt springs on Saline creek, already noted by Joutel and Penicaut, in what is Ste. Genevieve county, Mis- souri. At that time these salt springs were worked and utilized by the residents of Kaskaskia. Some of the early French habitans had then taken up their abode near these salt springs. Not long after- ward others, too, may have settled to quarry stone - because it is said that some of the finer stone used in the construction of Fort de Chartres, and utilized in the gateways of this, the greatest establish- ment of that time in the Mississippi valley, was procured on the oppo- site side of the Mississippi - that is to say, within the limits of the present state of Missouri.31 The durable, fine-grained, and easily worked sandstone, found near the mouth of the Saline, or Aux Vases, must have been that from which this stone was procured.
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