History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I, Part 9

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844

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the Casquins near a river, which in all prob- ability was Little river. Crossing this river, he found himself upon another ridge, that which extends through Dunklin county, and after travelling for about four days he reached Quigate. His march carried him through a fruitful country where large fields of maize were to be seen and all the evidences of a large Indian population. Quigate, the largest town visited by the Spaniards since leaving Florida, was perhaps at the lower end of the ridge over which they had been travel- ing, near the line which separates Dunklin county from Arkansas. From here De Soto turned to the northwest to reach a town called Caligoa, where he expected, from what he had been told, he would find stores of gold and other precious metals. One difference is noted by the chroniclers in the march that was made to Caligoa and that is that no paths were found, but that the expedition made its way through the unbroken wilderness. We may infer from this, what we should conclude otherwise, that the former marchings had fol- lowed the trails or traces made by the In- dians. The country from Quiquate to Cali- goa is described as marshy and swampy with morasses and lagoons, and then as hilly and mountainous. Garcillasso says they marched forty leagues before reaching Caligoa. They found this town to be on a small river. Here they remained for some days. They were told that to north a distance of six days' journey the country was level, devoid of trees, and covered with buffalo. We may only speculate as to the location of Caligoa. If we are cor- rect in conjecturing Quiguate to have been on lower end of the ridge running through Dunk- lin county, and the march of De Soto was toward the north and west, lie probably fol- lowed the ridge to the low hills in the neigh- borhood of Campbell, crossed these into the

HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

lowlands of Stoddard and Butler county, then reached the foothills of the Ozarks and fol- lowed them to near the headwaters of the St. Francois or the Black, in the granite hills of St. Francois county. This is the conclusion of most of the men who have made a study of the probable course of De Soto's wanderings, among them Nuttall, Schoolcraft, and Houck. Some others, however, conclude that he was farther west, perhaps in Southwest Missouri.

From Caligoa the expedition turned to the south and west seeking now for the Cayas or Kansas Indians, and with this part of his journey he is carried from out the territory of Southeast Missouri. With his subsequent wanderings, the sufferings and hardships he encountered, and his tragic fate we are not directly concerned. Suffice it to say that after long wanderings he reached the Missis- sippi near the mouth of the Red river, sick, broken in mind and body. Here, to his con- sternation, he was told that the lower reaches of the river instead of being populated with towns and settlements where he could find for his men food and shelter, were practically uninhabited and impassable, that he might hope for little help or guidance there and less of food and other supplies. And, so, at last, after three years of wanderings, after untold hardships, after having surmounted countless obstacles, and traversed enormous reaches of the great continent where the foot of white men had never before trod, after hav- ing inflicted untold suffering and cruelty on the helpless Indians, his dreams of wealth and conquest all dissipated, having conquered no great cities and found no El Dorado, the spirit of the great Conquistador, the com- panion of Avila and Cortez was at last broken. In the midst of the savage forest, surrounded by hostile Indians, far from his home, dis-

appointed, and despairing, he lay down to die. At night, by the dim light of torches, clad in full armor, his broken and wasted body was lowered into the great river which he discovered, and the long wanderings, the brilliant hopes, the troubled, cruel life of De Soto were at an end.

It will always be a matter of regret to those who are interested in the history of their country, that the exact route of De Soto can- not be traced with certainty. Surely we should be glad if we might but know what his exact course through Southeast Missouri was. It would be interesting to retrace the route over which he wandered, to compare the places now, with the description given of them by the Spaniards who followed him. But such certainty is no longer possible. Time has swept away the last traces of his expedition. The very surface of the earth ha's changed in the nearly four hundred years that have elapsed. The great river has changed its course from side to side of the wide allu- vial bottom since then, sweeping away the very ground, a mighty earthquake has changed some of the topography of the coun- try through which he passed, mighty forests have sprung up, all the forces of nature have combined through the years to change the character of the surface of the earth. And so it is that we may. never be sure of the way over which he passed. Time was when it might have been ascertained. Doubtless when the first Missouri settlements were formed at Ste. Genevieve, New Madrid, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, traces of that first historie march through Missouri might have been found. But our fathers were too much occupied with the struggle for existence to give their time to hunting for traces of long vanished men.

CHAPTER III

FRENCH EXPLORERS

WHY SPAINARDS DID NOT TAKE AND HOLD THE COUNTRY-VAGUE IDEAS OF THE WEST-NEWS OF THE MISSISSIPPI-RADISSON AND GROSEILLIERS-JOLIET AND MARQUETTE-DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI-EXTENT OF THEIR VOYAGE-THE RETURN-ILLNESS OF MARQUETTE - WHY JOLIET WAS NOT GIVEN CREDIT FOR EXPEDITION - EARLY VOYAGE OF LA SALLE - FRENCH IDEAS OF THE NEW WORLD-VIEWS OF THE ENGLISH - LA SALLE'S PURPOSE FRIENDSHIP WITH FRONTENAC-VISIT TO FRANCE-START OF THE EXPEDITION - LOSS OF THE GRIFFON-CREVE COEUR-HE REACHES THE MISSISSIPPI-PASSES TO ITS MOUTH-THE COLONY AT STARVED ROCK-GOES TO FRANCE-COLONY ON THE GULF-DEATH OF LASALLE -ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER.

It was in 1540 that De Soto and his band were in Southeast Missouri. They came as we have seen from the south, having landed in Florida and penetrated the country in a vain search for gold. The next white men who came to Missouri were French explorers from the great lakes. These came from the north and entered the country to find the great river whose existence was made known to them by the Indians, to search out places for trade, and to secure the country for France. Some of them were priests who were moved by the desire to carry the Gospel to the sav- ages-by whatever motives moved they came, pushing their adventurous way into the wil- derness and blazing the trail over which civil- ization and settlement were destined to enter the bounds of the state. It is somewhat sur- prising that the Spanish did not take posses- sion of the valley of the Mississippi since De Soto had discovered the river and explored a part of its valley, and since the Spanish claimed the Gulf of Mexico as a sea belonging

to them. They did little or nothing to make good their claims, however, as it was the great misfortune of the Spanish to be occupied in this country, at the first, with a search for gold and for cities to conquer, rather than with attempts to settle the country and to develop those resources which were destined to produce wealth far greater than the mines and cities of which they dreamed.

It was thus left to France to begin the set- tlement and development of the valley of the great river. One characteristic of all grants made in this country was their indefinite ex- tension toward the west. Little idea was had as to the extent of the continent in that di- rection, and, accordingly, kings and trading companies calmly made grants whose western limits were undefined and undetermined, and whose extent, if carried to the western sea, was vast beyond the very conception of those making them. Thus the French in Canada, having little idea of the extent of the country to the west of them, came to regard it as

HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

only an extension of Canada. When reports came to them of the great river that very probably emptied into the western sea or the Sea of Japan, they were moved to accept it as part of New France and laid claim to it ac- cordingly.

No more adventurous or hardy men were concerned with the early settlement and ex- ploration of the new world than these same French in Canada. Better than any one else they understood and sympathized with the Indian; for better than any one else they en- tered into and shared his life. The mighty forests, the unexplored regions, the wild life had no terrors but rather attractions for them. Thus it was that the hardy woodsmen, traders, trappers, and canoe men of Canada explored and hunted throughout a wide ex- panse of territory. They set their traps and hunted in all the woods, they pushed the prows of the adventurous canoes into all the waters about them, they found the secret trails of the Indians and followed them into the west. They took part in the long hunts of the Indian, lived his life, traded to him the beads, the calico, the hatchets, and some- times the arms of the white inen, and re- ceived in turn the choicest furs caught in the wide domain that stretched from the lakes far to west and south and north.

To these men, fitted by nature and experi- ence for daring adventure and exploration in distant territories, the news of the mighty river of the west, so great that it dwarfed all the other rivers of the continent and poured a mighty flood of waters to an unknown sea, came like a challenge, and, in response to that challenge, we find them making their way farther and farther into the west.

It is probable that some of these men made

their way into Missouri and perhaps pene- trated to the southeast corner of the state. It seems certain from the narrative of Radis- son, one of the most famous of these hardy and daring explorers, that he and Groseilliers made their way once, if not oftener, to Mis- souri, coming at least as far as the mouth of the Missouri. He speaks of the 'forked river' -perhaps, if not certainly, the Mississippi; of the tribe of Indians living upon one branch of it, "of extraordinary height and biggnesse," referring no doubt to the Osages who were celebrated for their height and size. Others probably came, also, lured by the hope of riches, and the desire of adventure, but little is known of them and their wanderings. They established no trading posts or settlements within the state and left, with the exception of Radisson, no accounts of their wanderings to enable us to judge with any certainty con- cerning the course of their travels.

But these obscure and almost unknown voy- ages and explorations, barren of any tangible result in one way, produced a great effect in another way, and were, therefore, of impor- tance. The reports which they brought back of the country through which they travelled, of its soil, its rivers, the Indians and the rich trade which might be secured with them, of the mighty river that poured its flood south- ward and perhaps westward, of an empire that might be won for France and for New France, induced the French authorities of Canada to arrange for the exploration of the wilderness and of the great river.

In 1672, Frontenac, the newly appointed and energetic governor of Canada, determined to send an expedition to explore the course of the great river and to take possession of the country it traversed, for France. No man seemed better suited for such an expedition

HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

than Louis Joliet. He was a Canadian by birth, was educated at the Jesuit school at Quebec and intended for the life of a priest ; but was so attracted by the wild country about him that he abandoned the idea of the church and began the adventurous life of a voyageur. Previous to 1672 he had made several expe- ditions to the west, having explored a part of the western shores of Quebec and been pres- ent when that country was taken possession of in the name of France. He had also explored a part of the Hudson Bay territory, and was looked upon by those who knew him well, as a hardy, daring, and reliable man. To him Frontenac intrusted the command of the ex- pedition to the great river. He had instruc- tion to take Father Marquette with him. Marquette was a Jesuit priest who had long contemplated a visit to the Indians of the Mississippi, and was assigned to accompany Joliet in accordance with the usual policy of the French in sending priests to accompany expeditions into the wilds. Joliet was com- missioned to proceed to the river, to make a voyage down its course, at least far enough to determine into what body of water it

emptied, and to its mouth if possible.

Joliet began his voyage from Point St. Ig- nace on May 17, 1673. The expedition con- sisted of Joliet himself, Father Marquette, and five other Frenchmen. They had two canoes and a somewhat scanty stock of provisions. They made their way along the shores of Lake Michigan to Green Bay, passed up the Fox river to Lake Winnebago then the limit of French explorations, secured here Indian guides, made their way through lakes and streams to the height of land separating streams flowing into the lakes from those which empty into the Mississippi. Here they carried their canoes across the divide, which is narrow at this point, and launched them

again on the Wisconsin, and on the 17th day of June they entered the Mississippi. After proceeding down its current for some distance they came to a settlement of Indians where they landed and were kindly received. Then they came to the mouth of the Illinois and saw on the face of the great rocks which line the stream on the eastern side, painted mon- sters, described by Marquette as dreadful in appearance and suggestive of the devil. These were two specimens of the art of the Indians and represented manitous or gods. While they meditated on these they came to the mouth of the Missouri. They seem to have reached it during flood time and were amazed and frightened at the tremendous flood of water, bearing on its tide trees and logs and all the debris common to high water in the great and turbulent Missouri. With difficulty they passed safely through. They next observed a place where the river was nar- rowed by rocks, part of it pouring into a nar- row gorge and then returning with fury on it- self. Doubtless this is the first description of the narrows at Grand Tower. The descrip- tion is not quite accurate for the present con- dition there, but the place has doubtless changed in appearance in the years that have passed.

Day after day the voyagers pursued their way, floating tranquilly down the tide of the great river. They passed the mouth of the Ohio, which they called Ouabouskiaou, or the Beautiful river. Sometimes they came to the camps of Indians, and, on displaying the calu- met which one of their Indian friends had given them, they were kindly received. What a scene was presented to their eyes-the wide expanse of the majestic river, the boundless forests that lined its course unbroken by the dwellings of men, and peopled only by the wild and savage life of the woods. The nights

HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

MARQUETTE AMONG THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY INDIANS

HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

they passed in their boats or lying on the shore by the river, beneath the stars, listen- ing to the sounds of the mighty current sweep- ing its way to an unknown sea.

The scenes changed as they made their way farther and farther south. The high and rocky bluffs which had lined one or both sides of the river, from the top of which the coun- try stretched in rolling verdure for miles on either side, gave way to the low and marshy land of the Mississippi bottoms. Cane brakes were seen and mosquitos appeared in great clouds and made life miserable for them. They came at last to the month of the Arkan- sas. Here they met with Indians who dis- played the greatest hostility for a long time. but were finally induced to receive them with something like civility. One member of the tribe spoke the language of the Illinois and through him Marquette preached the Chris- tian faith to the assembled savages. They told him, in return for presents given them. what they knew concerning the lower reaches of the river. According to their account, the lower Mississippi was infested by tribes of fierce Indians, so formidable that they them- selves dared not hunt the buffalo but con- tented themselves with fish and corn.

Joliet and Marquette determined to turn back from this place. They had performed a part of their tasks. They had seen the great river, had voyaged for hundreds of miles npou its bosom, and had approached near its mouth as they believed, though in reality they were seven hundred miles from the Gulf. They had gone at least far enough to make sure that it did not empty into the sea of Vir- ginia, the Vermillion or California sea, but into the Gulf of Mexico. Further progress was doubtful. Their supplies were limited.

the hot weather was coming on, the Indians farther down were reported as hostile,-all these considerations induced them to relin- quish their hope of continuing to the mouth of the river. They began the return trip on the seventeenth of July. The return voyage was far from pleasant. It was midsummer and the heat was great. They might no longer drift, but must urge their canoes against all the force of the river. Father Marquette fell. ill and was like to die before the voyage could be completed. At last they reached the Illi- nois, entered its mouth, and made their way up its beautiful course. They were enter- tained by a tribe of the Illinois Indians, called Kaskaskias, perhaps the Casquins of De Soto's time. One of the members of the tribe guided them to Lake Michigan which they reached in September, having voyaged more than two thousand miles in the four months since their departure.

Joliet and Marquette separated at Green Bay, Marquette remaining to recruit his health while Joliet hastened homeward. The good fortune which had been his for so many months deserted him at the last and he was almost drowned near Montreal by the upset- ting of his canoe. All his papers were lost by this accident, and he made only an oral report to Governor Frontenac concerning his trip. It is partly due to this circumstance that he has received so little of the credit justly due him for his exploit. since Mar- quette afterward published an account of the voyage and it is his name that is most closely associated with the enterprise. In reality he had no official connection with it, but was present as a volunteer under the direction of Joliet.

Frontenac was much gratified at the snc- cess of the voyage and reported to the gov-

IIISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

ernment of France the results with a recom- mendation that it be followed up and the country held.

We have now to consider the work of the greatest of the French explorers whose trav- els and voyages brought them to Southeast Missouri. Robert Cavelier de La Salle was a man who would have made his mark in any place or situation of life, for lie was rarely gifted in many ways. He was born in Franee in 1643, received a good education and emigrated to Canada at the age of twenty- three. Ilere he heard the reports current among the French and Indians of a great river that flowed to the south and west and perhaps entered into the western sea, called the Vermillion sea, or Sea of California. La Salle was fired by the desire to discover and explore this river and thus open the long sought and eagerly desired way to China and the East. He accordingly interested Cour- eelles, the governor, and Talon, the intendant of Canada, in his schemes. He spent several years in exploring the lakes and rivers, dis- covering in the course of his travels the Ohio river and descending it as far as the present site of Louisville and perhaps to its june- ture with the Mississippi. At any rate he be- came convinced that the Mississippi did not flow to the west nor to the east but toward the south and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.

La Salle had become a friend of the new governor of Canada, Frontenac, and was able to interest him in his schemes of exploration and settlement. Frontenac was a man of en- ergy and resource and gave great assistance to La Salle. Through his help aud encourage- ment La Salle secured from the government of France certain grants of land in Canada, the income of which enabled him to carry on the work which he had undertaken. In the

course of his negotiations he made a trip to France and was able to interest many of his friends in the work he was attempting to per- form. That work was a great and noble one.

La Salle seems to have been one of the few men at that time connected with the colonies in this country, either French or English, who had a clear grasp of the situation and saw the possibilities of the country. At the time the colonies of France were confined to Canada. The French were devoting their en- ergy to the exploration and settlement of the country around the Great Lakes, to the fur trade with the Indians, and to the enjoyment of the wild and adventurous life of the woods. The country to which the French were de- voting their time and energies was a great and wonderful country in many respects. It contained the Great Lakes, and a wonderful system of rivers and water-ways, the soil was fertile in places, and the Indian trade was most profitable and destined to grow for many years. But there was one great obstacle to the development of the French country and that was the severe climate. The winters were long and very cold. Snow was plentiful and deep, for weeks the lakes and rivers we- eoated with ice, and the shortness of the sum- mer precluded the possibility of growing many of the desirable food plants. It was not a country to develop rapidly, nor to support a large population. When La Salle came to Canada, the French had been in possession for nearly two generations, but had done lit- tle or nothing looking to securing land to the south of them.

While the French were thus confining themselves to the region of the Lakes and ig- noring the other parts of the continent, the English were planted along the Atlantic coast. They, too, for many generations, were con-

IIISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

tent with the narrow strip which they held and made no efforts to secure the territory to the west. It was a case of short-sightedness in both the colonizing nations, and yet not a surprising case by any means. The continent was so vast, the distances so great, the forest so unconquerable, the dangers from Indians so real that it was natural for both French and English to hesitate before attempting the conquest of the interior of the continent. To them the attempt seemed almost useless as well. The colonies grew slowly. New France seemed large enough for all the French who would ever live there. The problem as the men of that time saw it, was, not to secure and hold new lands, but to people and sub- due those they already held. The English were similarly situated. The Atlantic sea- board seemed ample for all the English there, or that were likely to come. Such were the generally accepted opinions of the times. It was, of course, the policy of short-sighedness, but then most men are short-sighted.

Now, however, there had come to America and interested himself its future, a man who was not short-sighted, but on the contrary gifted with remarkable powers to see into the future. La Salle rejected the idea that Canada was large enough for the French. He saw clearly the expansion that must come, and he believed that the Ohio valley which he had discovered and explored, offered, by far, the best field for that inevitable expansion. The soil in that valley was rich, the climate very favorable for agriculture, the opportu- nities for trade with the Indians were tempt- ing. It must be remembered that at that time trade with the Indians was almost indispens- able in the opening up of a new section of the country. It was largely to this trade that settlers looked for support while they

cleared away the forests and made the coun- try ready for the practice of agriculture. No part of the country offered any better oppor- tunities for trade than the Ohio valley, and no part of the country was more fertile or bet- ter adapted to agriculture. Here, then La Salle believed he saw the seat of a New France more glorious than would ever be possible in Canada. He believed, too, that soon the Eng- lish would be forced to expand; that the At- lantic seaboard must soon be too contracted for them. Their natural expansion would be to the westward. This movement, when it came, would bring the English across the Al- leghanies and into the valley of the Ohio.

To forestall this movement, to explore the country, to claim it for the king of France, to open it for settlers, plant chains of forts and fortified posts, secure the friendship of the Indians and develop trade with them, to make the power of France supreme in the new lands which he had discovered and render them forever outside the power of the English to possess-this was the dream of La Salle. It was not the dream of a visionary. La Salle could dream the most splendid visions, but he was no mere dreamer. On the con- trary he was one of the most active, tireless, and practical of men. His plan once formed he proceeded to put it into execution. He determined to organize an expedition, explore the great river to its mouth, found on its banks trading posts, and with the proceeds of this trade to open the country for settlement. He had a wonderful power of persuasion, and was able to make Frontenac see the greatness of his plans and secure his help in his under- takings. This help of the governor was al- most indispensable to him, for Frontenac was a powerful and energetic man, fond of bold and daring schemes and desirous himself of achieving riches and distinction in the work

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I, Part 9

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 844

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844