Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 5

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

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After a fruitless search, that extended over four months, in search of the river mouth, which he con- ducted in canoes, the restless LaSalle, in April, 1686, turned his steps toward New Mexico, with twenty companions, hoping to find the rich gold mines of that country, the Eldorado of the Spanish. The colony did not prosper in his absence, and on his return thither he found it reduced to about forty persons. He determined to travel to his settlements in Illinois and Canada on foot across the continent, and bring back emigrants and supplies. January 12, 1687, he started with sixteen men, leaving the fort and settlement in charge of Sieur Barbier. The little party passed the basin of the Colorado and reached a branch of the Trinity river, where, March 20, 1687, the brave and gallant LaSalle was assassinated by three of his own party. One of his

biographers, who calls him, truly, the father of the French settlements in Louisiana, says, "Not a hint appears in any writer that has come under our notice that casts a shade upon his integrity and honor. Cool and intrepid at all times, never yielding for a moment to despair, or even to despondency, he bore the heavy burdens of his calamities to the end; and his hopes only expired with his last breath."

In the meantime Father Louis Hennepin, a priest of the Recollect order of the Franciscans, who had been sent by LaSalle to explore the head waters of the· Mississippi, in 1680, was making dis- coveries that have placed his name among the foremost of explorers. He was a native of Ath, in the Netherlands, and having a strong desire to travel embraced the church, then, next to the army, the surest road to advancement. For several years he lead a wandering life in the discharge of his priestly duties. In 1676 he received orders from his superior to embark for Canada, a welcome an- nouncement. On the ship that brought him across the seas was the gallant LaSalle with whom he contracted a friendship. After landing he resumed his labors in the church, and after many adventures finally went with LaSalle up the Niagara river. His description and drawing of the majestic falls, in that stream, were the first to reach Europe.

He sailed on the Griffin with LaSalle and re- mained with that leader until the building of Fort Crevecœur. In February, 1680, he was selected with two companions, to explore the Upper Missis- sippi, and on the 19th of that month, with Picard de Gay and Michael Ako, turned the prow of his canoe toward the great river's upper course. The little party was detained by floating ice at the mouth of the Illinois river. On their way up the river they fell in with a war party of Dacotalis or Sioux, who took them along with them. In their company they journeyed northward, and finally after much fatigues and privation were enabled to discover the falls of the Mississippi to which Father Hennepin gave the name of St. Anthony. He afterwards re- turned to Europe, and published a book at Utrecht, in 1698, but died in obscurity, unwept and unhon- ored, as he had obtained a reputation for mendacity and double dealing, perhaps undeserved, although some modern writers think it the proper thing to deny him the credit that is his due.

Other discoveries were made in the northi about the same time. The first trading posts on Lake Superior, beyond Sault Ste. Marie, were built of pine logs by Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Luth, or DuLut,

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

a native of Lyons, France, at Kamanistigoya, north- east of Pigeon river, Minnesota. He advanced as far as the Lake of the Issati, now Mille Lac, which he named Lake Buade, from the family name of M. de Frontenac, governor general of New France.

At the close of the seventeenth century, France, by right of discovery and occupation, claimed not only Canada and Nova Scotia, then known as New France and Acadia, and Hudson's Bay and New Foundland, but parts of Maine, Vermont and New York, together with the whole of the Mississippi valley, and possessions on the Gulf of Mexico, in- cluding Texas as far south as the Rio del Norte. The English revolution of 1688, when William of Orange succeeded James II upon the throne of Eng- land, and the peace of Ryswick in 1697, did not affect these possessions of France in the New World. At the period of the close of the great war which had just closed upon European soil by the above treaty in which so many powers were in- cluded, none of the possessions of France in the New World engaged the attention of that power so much as Louisiana. In 1697 D'Iberville still further aroused the attention of the ministry of the colony, and inspired the Count de Ponchar- train with the idea of building a fort and making a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. Two vessels were fitted out, one under the command of the Marquis de Chateau-Morand, and the other under D'Iberville. They left France in October, 1698, to find the mouth of the river, and after touch- ing at Pensacola, March 2, 1699, entered the delta of the Mississippi. De Chateau-Morand went back to the island of St. Domingo, but D'Iberville as- cended the river as far as what is now known as Bayou Goula. At this point he met an Indian chief who handed him a letter, which was written by Tonti, the man who had left his post at Fort Cre- vecœur, where he was placed by LaSalle, and was addressed to the latter as governor of Louisiana. It read as follows :

"Sir :- Having found the post on which you had set up the King's arms thrown down by the drift- wood, I caused another one to be fixed on this side, about seven leagues from the sea, where I have left a letter in a tree by the side of it. All the nations have smoked the calumet with me; they are people who fear us exceedingly since you had captured this village. I conclude by saying it is a great grief to me that we will return with the ill fortune of not having found you, after we had coasted with two

canoes thirty leagues on the Mexican side and twenty-five on that of Florida.

The receipt of this letter was twelve years after the death of LaSalle, and nineteen years after he and Tonti had parted at the Peoria fort. Neither knew what had become of the other. Both had sought the other unavailingly. The letter is inter- esting as shedding light on Tonti's conduct and also as peculiar that the Indian chief had preserved it for so long a time.

D'Iberville descended the river and went to the Bay of Biloxi, between the Mississippi and Mobile rivers, where he erected a fort. Missions, trading posts and small settlements began to be founded from this time on in that province. As early as 1712 land titles were issued as far north as Kas- kaskia, in what is now Illinois, and regular trade channels were opened between Canada and Louis- iana.

Settlements now arose along the Mississippi at various points from the mouth of the Illinois river southward. The French determined to circumvent the English colonies on the Atlantic coast by build- ing a line of forts from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, as once suggested to the French government by LaSalle. Part of this plan was carried into execution. Fort Chartres was con- structed on the east bank of the Mississippi about sixty-five miles south of the mouth of the Missouri. This was one of the strongest fortresses on the con- tinent at the time, and its ruins were to be seen a hundred years later. It was the headquarters of the commandant of Louisiana. Shortly after that the villages of Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher and others sprang into existence. A monastery and college was established in 1721, at Kaskaskia, a very important post in what is now the state of Illinois. The French laid claim to all the great Mississippi valley at this time. "France," says Bancroft, "had obtained, under Providence, the guardianship of this immense district of country, not, as it proved, for her own benefit, but rather as a trustee for the infant nation by which it was one day to be inherited."

By the treaty of the Utrecht, in 1713, France ceded to England her possessions in Hudson's bay, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. France still re- tained Canada and Louisiana. In 1711 the affairs of the latter were placed in charge of a governor- general, but this only lasted one year. The colony, not meeting the expectations of the government of the mother country, in 1712 was farmed out to

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

a company to be carried on by private capital. Anthony Crozat, a wealthy merchant of Paris, un- dertook to handle it as a commercial affair, but failed. Every Spanish port on the gulf was closed to his commerce, and the occupation of Louisiana deemed an encroachment upon Spanish rights by that proud nation. He finally, after continued struggles, in 1717, surrendered his charter.

The Mississippi Company, one of those vision- ary schemes of that dreamer, John Law, was in- augurated the same year. Its charter invested it with the entire commerce of Louisiana and of New France, with authority to enforce its rights. In 1718 the company became recognized as the Royal Bank of France, and the following year, by virtue of the gaining of the monopoly of the trade with the East Indies and the south seas, became the Company of the Indies.

In 1718 the new company sent eight hundred emigrants to Louisiana. These people Governor Bienville settled at what is now New Orleans, but three years later the remainder of this force, some two hundred, were found still encamped on the site of the future city, they not having energy enough to build houses for themselves. The larger part had died on account of the climate and malaria, so prevalent in that locality. In May, 1720, the bubble burst, the Law Company went into bank- ruptcy, impoverishing France, both in its public funds and private fortunes. The effect on the in- fant settlements in the New World were more disastrous, if it were possible. The principal oc- cupation of the French settlers, like their Spanish neighbors, was the search for immense mines of gold and silver, for which they neglected the enor- mous natural agricultural resources of the country, now the granary of the world and source of supply of the larger part of the cotton and sugar of com- merce. The contrast was strong between the col- onists of the Latin races and those of Anglo-Saxon origin.

In 1719 there arrived in Illinois one Phillipe Francois Renault, who had been appointed director- general of the mines of Louisiana. With him he brought two hundred miners and artisans. The extent of the country explored at that time em- braced the headwaters of the Minnesota and the Red river of the North, the Arkansas, the tribu- taries of the Missouri and even extended to the Rocky mountains.

About this time hostilities with the Indians broke out, and a war with Spain threatened the

lower part of the territory. From 1712 until 1746 the settlers in Louisiana fought with the savages. In the latter year, at Butte des Morts and on the Wisconsin river, the Fox Indians were defeated and driven westward. During this time, in 1729, the Natchez, Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians rose and massacred all within their reach. Mili- tary operations against them were taken. The Choctaws were detached from the confederacy by the diplomacy of Le Sueur, the famous explorer, and the Natchez defeated. Their chief, Great Sun, and four hundred of his people were taken pris- oners and sold as slaves in Hispaniola, now the island of San Domingo and Hayti. Thus perished this interesting tribe who were, at the time, semi- civilized.

April 10, 1732, the control of the commerce of Louisiana reverted to the crown of France, and in 1735 Bienville returned as governor for the king.

In 1753 the first actual conflict arose between Louisiana and the English colonies on the Atlantic coast. A jealousy and rivalry had long existed. The French exerted every effort to prevent the other colonists from attempting to extend their settlements toward the Mississippi. The avowal was made for the purpose of seizing and punish- ing any Englishman found in the Ohio or Missis- sippi valleys. To carry out their purpose the French seized upon a piece of territory claimed by Virginia, and, alive to their interests, protests were made by the colonists of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent George Washington, then a young man of twenty-one years, to the French com- mandant to demand by what right he invaded British soil in time of peace between England and France. Gardeur de St. Pierre, the French officer in command, was met near the headwaters of the Allegheny by the young colonist, after a difficult winter journey. Washington, on stating his de- mands, received the insolent answer that they would not discuss right, but that as they had discovered the country they would hold it.

On the return of Washington, in January, 1754, he made his report. Forces were raised and under Colonel Washington marched upon the enemy. He had an action in western Pennsylvania with some of the French troops in which ten of the latter, with their commander, Jumonville, were killed. Some twenty French were made prisoners. The French, receiving reinforcements, Washington was forced to fall back, and at Green Meadows crected a

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

rude stockade, which he called Fort Necessity. Here he was, shortly after, confronted by a French force of six hundred men with a hundred or more In- dians, and on the 3d of July was forced to capit- ulate. On the 4th of July, 1754, the English troops withdrew from the Ohio valley. War be- tween England and France broke out in May, 1755. This war in the new world lasted, with various fortunes, until the 10th of February, 1763, when the treaty of Paris was signed. By this instrument France renounced all her title to New France, now Canada, and all of the land lying east of the Mis- sissippi river, except the island and town of New Orleans. On the same day by a secret treaty France ceded to Spain all her possessions of Louisiana, in- cluding the whole country to the headwaters of the Mississippi and west to the crest of the Rocky mountains.

At the treaty of peace between England and the United Colonies, at the close of the Revolution- ary war in 1783, the former ceded to the latter all possessions on the east side of the Mississippi. At the same time the British government ceded to Spain all the Floridas, including all territory east of Louisiana and south of the southern limits of the colonies just freed.

At an early period after the conclusion of peace the people of the United States began to demand the free navigation of the Mississippi. The Span- islı power, holding one bank entirely and both part of its course, held that they had exclusive use of it and demanded heavy tolls on all imports south of the mouth of the Ohio. This was a vexed ques- tion at the time and came, at one period, near to disrupting the country, the intrigues of Miro and Carondelet, the Spanish governors, tending to the separation of the western colonies from the eastern. All these questions were quieted by the treaty of Madrid, October 20, 1795, by which the free navi- gation of the river was assured, and the use of New Orleans at a port of entry or deposit. Oc- tober 16, 1802, these rights were revoked by Morales, then intendant of Louisiana, but this action was not acquiesced in by the governor. Indigna- tion ran high in the United States at this time over the matter. To effectually secure the rights of the United States in the navigation and commerce of the Mississippi, President Thomas Jefferson, in January, 1803, sent a message to the senate of the United States, nominating Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe ministers to the court of France, with full authority to conclude a treaty to that

end. By a treaty dated at Madrid March 21, 1801, all the territory of Louisiana had been ceded back to France, the latter republic, by the hands of her glorious first consul, having in return placed the son-in-law of the king of Spain, the Prince of Parma, upon the throne of the new kingdom of Eturia. The newly accredited ministers arrived in Paris at a critical time. The hollow peace, which folowed the treaty of Amiens, between England and France, was strained to its utmost limit. Negotia- tions were commenced with the French cabinet. War between the two great naval powers broke out May 22, 1803, and Napoleon, who had been just made consul for life, to quote the words of M. Theirs, in his history of the consulate and empire, "sent for M. Marbois, the secretary of finance, and to him broached the idea of selling to the United States outright the province of Louisiana." This he did for the twofold reason of obtaining money for his war operations and to cast a bone of contention between England and the United States-"to gain the friendship of the people of America," as he said. Messrs. Living- ston and Monroe, not dismayed at their want of powers to sign any such treaty, entered into a stipulation, subject of course to the ratification of their government. By the terms of this pa- per France ceded to the United States the whole province of Louisiana for which she was to re- ceive the sum of fifteen million of dollars, and the United States assumed, also, the payment of certain claims against the French government. These latter were by merchants and ship-owners of the United States who had suffered loss from the seizure of their vessels and cargoes, by the Directory, a former form of government in France. The original price paid to France, through banking houses in Amsterdam and the "spoliation claims" above mentioned, brought the price of Louisiana up to $27,267,621.98, as officially stated. This treaty was signed April 30, 1803. Much opposition developed in the United States to the ratification of the treaty. The far-seeing statesmen of that day, alone, appreciated the vast importance of the territory thus cheaply pur- chased. Parts of New England, timorously plead against its confirmation, seeing all kinds of danger to the infant republic. Sober common sense, however, prevailed and the treaty was con- firmed, and December following the province was officially delivered to the commissioners, Governor

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Claiborne, of Mississippi, and General James Wil- kinson, United States army.

Thus the United States became possessed of a territory extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, and from the banks of the Mississippi river to the crests of the Rocky mountains. If the treaty, which was confirmed through the influence of President Jefferson, had miscarried, her dominion at that grand period would have been bounded on the west by the "Father of Waters," and the vast empire now a valuable part of the Great Re- public, west of its waters, would have been in the possession of a foreign power. To that act of Livingston and Monroe in transcending their powers, which was only acquiesced in after it was done, was due the fact that North Dakota became a part of the United States.

At that time the territory, since known by the name of the Louisiana purchase, included what is now the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, parts of Wyoming and Colo- rado, and the territory of Oklahoma and Indian Territory.

On the first of October, 1803, by act of con- gress, all that part of the new country south of the thirty-third degree of north latitude, was set off and called the Territory of Orleans; this now forms part of the state of Louisiana. The bal- ance of the new possessions, under the name of the District of Louisiana, was placed under the jurisdiction of a governor and a court known as that of the Indian Country. The name of this district was, July 1, 1805, changed to that of Ter- ritory, and the control given to a governor and three judges appointed by the president and con- firmed by the senate of the United States.

By an act of congress, dated December 7, 1812, what is now North Dakota became a part of the Territory of Missouri and to the inhabitants of

the new territory was granted a limited amount of local self-government.

Congress, on the twenty-eighth day of June, 1834, set off all that part of the so-called Louisi- ana purchase and lands otherwise acquired, lying cast of the Missouri river and west of Lakes Huron and Erie, and north of what are now the states of Illinois and Missouri. This territory was called Michigan. It included what are now the sovereign states of North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan. On the marking out of the boundaries of the latter upon admission as a state, July 3, 1836, the re- maining part of the territory was called that of Wisconsin. By act of congress, July 12, 1838, on the admission of Wisconsin as a state, what are now the Dakotas became a part of the Territory of Iowa, and, in March, 1849, a portion of the Territory of Minnesota. All of that portion of the Dakotas lying west of the Missouri and White Earth rivers all this time was called the Mandan country, from a powerful tribe of Indians of that name who resided there. All of this latter por- tion was included in the newly organized territory of Nebraska, in 1854. On the 11th of May, 1858, Minnesota was admitted into the Union as a sovereign state and its boundaries fixed as now marked, leaving all that part of what is now known as North and South Dakota, lying between the western border of the new state and the Mis- souri and White Earth rivers, without official recognition, name or legal government, a sort of no man's land. The few setttlers within its bor- ders, not satisfied with this new state of affairs, proposed to exert themselves to obtain a form of territorial government and called their land the territory of Dakota. The history of that part of its history and the full account of its life as a territory can be found in the chapter in this volume under the head of Territorial Govern- ment.

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CHAPTER III.

EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS IN- NORTH DAKOTA AND VICINITY

Besides the numerous explorers and exploring expeditions mentioned in the former chapter there are others, prominent in the history of our country that more nearly and directly are connected with the farther northwest and North Dakota in par- ticular. One of the most interesting and import- ant, in a historical sense, of these was that of Ver- endrye. Here we find the first mention of the lands around the upper waters of the Missouri river and the aboriginal inhabitants of these lands. He and his party were the first white people to press the soil of the Dakotas, and theirs the first eyes to behold its beauties. On this account the story of their movements, their various discoveries and personal history is of interest, especially in connection with the history of the vigorous young state to whose annals this volume is devoted.

EXPEDITIONS OF VERENDRYE.

Verendrye, whose whole name was Pierre Gaultier Varennes Sieur de la Verendrye, was the son of Rene Gaultier Varennes, also Sieur de la Verendrye, for twenty-two years the chief magistrate at Trois Rivieres, Canada, and Marie Boucher, his

wife, the latter the daughter of his predecessor. The younger Verendrye became a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 took part in a demonstration against New England. The following year he was in Newfoundland and in 1706 went to France, join- ing the regiment du Brittany. He was in the famous battle of Malplaquet, fought in 1709. He returned to Canada and became connected with the Lake Superior region. In 1728, while Ver- endrye was commander at the post on the shores of Lake Nipigon, in the north part of Lake Su- perior, he met, at Mackinaw, one Father De Gonor, a Jesuit priest. This man had been with Guignas, who had, the September before, built Fort Beau- harnois, on Lake Pepin. Part of the subject of the conversation of these two men, types of their times and country, was the connection by water between the lakes and the Pacific ocean. It was largely a matter of belief, at that period, that a channel of communication existed in that direc- tion. An Indian by the name of Ochagach, or Otchaga, drew a rough map of the country beyond Lake Superior for Verendrye and which is still preserved among the archives of France. Vari- ous rivers are shown upon this map, the most in- teresting being, however, a mythical one called the

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

river of the west. As most of the travel and nearly all the transportation of heavy material at that time was by water, this river would solve a weighty problem, and its discovery would add to the fame as well as the purse of the discoverer, for trading with the Indians was part of these expedi- tions. Father DeGonor conversed with Verendrye upon the subject of the river of the west and prom- ised his influence with the governor general of New France, as Canada was then called, for fitting out an expedition to discover and explore it. Charles de Beauharnois, the governor general, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing and carefully examined the map of Ochagach, and was duly im-' pressed with the value of the information. Soon orders were issued for the fitting out of an expe- dition for exploration, consisting of some fifty men. It left Montreal in the early summer of 1731, under the command of two sons of the Sieur de la Verendrye, and his nephew, De la Jemeraye, he being, as yet, detained by business engage- ments. He did not join the party until 1733.

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Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 5

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432