Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 7

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

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During the period under consideration French colonization on the St. Lawrence made slow progress. The death of Champlain in 1635 was a crippling blow, and his immediate successors were unable to produce marked advancement. Quebec in 1662, fourteen years after it was founded, was reduced to a population of fifty souls-a condition created largely by hostility of the Iroquois, the original inspiration of which was Champlain's unique battles with them in 1609-1615. But if colonization and practical improvement were neglected by the French, their energy in building up the fur trade was tireless, and by 1665 they

tial acts resisted every temptation of the flesh .- Lossing's Cyclopedia of U. S. History, Vol. II, p. 719.

' See Chap. II, Vol. 2, Buffalo and the Senecas, Ketcham.

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had established trading stations at Machillimacinac, Green Bay, St. Joseph, and Chicago. Hand in hand with these ventures went the religious campaigns of the Jesuits. The route of the traders and mis- sionaries from the St. Lawrence to those far western posts was traveled, principally farther north than Niagara Falls, only by the most ven- turesome. This course was dictated by the friendly character of the northern Indians.

The thrifty Dutch on the Hudson River were more sluggish but no less persistent and successful than the French. in prosecuting the fur trade, while they were far more fortunate in gaining the good will of their Indian neighbors. The treatment of the natives by the Dutch was what self-interest taught them it should be, if we except their in- clination to drive hard bargains for the richest furs and their reckless dissemination of the two destructive weapons, guns and rum, at prices that would have amazed a white man. The Indian possessed a latent appetite for the white man's "fire water," which was awakened under the mercantile manipulation of the fur traders, French and Eng- lish as well as Dutch, causing subsequent untold injury to all con- cerned.

In 1664 the English, who had made marked progress in colonizing New England, closed a long and wordy strife with the Dutch by cap- turing Manhattan and the Hudson River region, meeting with insig- nificant opposition. The Dutch could till the land and victimize the Indians in trade, but they were indifferent fighters. The conquest of the English was made permanent in 1670. The Dutch did not, how- ever, leave the country, but continued a powerful factor in the fur trade, in advancing agricultural interests, and laid the foundation of an aristocratic social element that exists at the present time.1 The

' The opinion is quite prevalent even among the more intelligent of our people that we are in- debted to England for most of the institutions, laws and social customs that characterize and distinguish our civilization. The contrary appears to be true. In the very valuable work of Douglas Campbell, A. M., LL. B. (Harper Bros., 1892), "The Puritan in Holland, England and America," this matter is fully and ably treated. With space here for the merest reference to the subject by way of digression, it may be said without hesitation that we are far more deeply in- debted in the respects above named to Holland and the other states of the Dutch republic than to England. Among the institutions, laws and social customs referred to may be mentioned: Written constitutions, and the element of permanence in the upper houses of our legislatures, State and Federal; equality among the States; the right of Congress to declare war and make peace; religious liberty and freedom of the press; the written ballot; the right of persons ac- cused of crime to counsel in their defense; recording of conveyances and mortgages; separation of the sexes in prisons; equal division of property among children, male and female; short terms in office of the ruling classes; and the emancipation of woman. See also "Netherlands " in Larned's "History for Ready Reference " (The C. A. Nichols Co., 1894).

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

peaceful relations with the Indians maintained by the Dutch were con- tinued by the English. The conquered province was granted by Charles II, king of England, to his brother James, Duke of York, who gave it the name of New York. This grant was made with the cus- tomary indefinite boundaries; it comprised not only all the lands along the Hudson River but extended on westward, encroached upon the prior grant of James I to the Plymouth Colony and overlapped the Massachusetts boundary as defined in the charter of Charles I, laying the foundation for the conflict of territorial jurisdiction that has been described in Chapter I.

A new era finally approached for New France. To Louis XIV, then on the French throne, through his masterly minister, Colbert, came glowing reports of his possessions across the ocean, with results that were foreseen and inevitable. The attention of the empire was at- tracted hitherward.

Among the names of French adventurers in the western world none stands forth more conspicuously than that of Robert Cavalier de la Salle; not so much for the magnitude of his accomplishments, perhaps, as for their unique character. La Salle was a native of Rouen, born in 1643, son of a well-to-do merchant and took the name by which he was commonly known from the title of the family estate. He grew to be an ambitious, self-willed man of large mental capacity, united with the Jesuits in early life, but subsequently left the order and in 1666 grati- fied his innate love of adventure by joining his countrymen in Canada. He engaged in the fur trade at La Chine, where he received a valuable grant of land from the Sulpitians.' There he heard tales of the vast country to the westward, which excited his imagination, and taking with him two of the Sulpitians, he made a journey into the wilderness of Western New York and later went down the Ohio River as far as the site of Louisville. His enthusiasm for exploration was still further awakened by reports of the missionaries, Marquette and Joliet, who in 1673 pressed on beyond the farthest French posts and raised the em- blem of the cross on the banks of the Mississippi. La Salle beheld in his imagination the union of the great western country with Canada, thus vastly enlarging the French domain, and at the same time opening a region that would be prolific in trade, the export gateway of which

1 The Sulpitians were an order of priests whose purpose was the education of other priests. Some of their number came to America for that and kindred purposes, under the favor of the French king.

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FROM 1534 TO 1697.

would still remain on the St. Lawrence. These two regions he would connect with a line of military posts and trading stations. Incidental to these operations he always entertained the possible discovery of a route to the "South Sea,"' as it was then termed.

This last extract' foreshadows the later operations at Niagara. Fron- tenac was appointed governor-general of Canada in 1672 and La Salle early secured his favor and co-operation; their plans and aspirations were similar. To further his purposes La Salle returned to France in 1674, bearing a letter of recommendation from the governor to Colbert, the king's premier.' In the mean time Frontenac erected a fort on Lake Ontario on the site of Kingston and gave it his own name. La Salle was more successful at court than he could have anticipated. His petition that Frontenac should be reimbursed for all that he had ex- pended in the erection of the fort was granted, the post was garrisoned and a priest supplied for its spiritual needs. La Salle was made its . governor or commandant and large tracts of land in that vicinity, and a title of nobility, were conferred upon him by the king. He built vessels for the extension of his fur trade, of which he sought a monop- oly. His sudden prosperity and aggressive ambition created enemies and in 1677 he was again forced to visit France to maintain his posi- tion, and also to obtain aid and authority to carry forward his schemes of western exploration. He returned to Canada flushed with success. King Louis, on May 12, 1678, added to his former favors a grant or patent giving La Salle the privilege to "discover all the western part of New France through which a passage may be found into Mexico," authorized him to "construct forts wherever he should deem neces-

' Through much of the correspondence of those times between the French ministers and their representatives in this country is found expression of the hope of discovering the "South Sea." For example, see the following: "The resolution you have taken to send Sieur de la Salle towards the South and Sieur de St. Luisson to the North, to discover the South Sea passage is very good; but the principal thing to which you ought to apply yourself in discoveries of this nature is to look for the copper mine .- M. Colbert to M. Talon, February, 1671, Col. Documents, Vol. IX, p. 70.

'And again : "Sieur Joliet, whom Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from France to dispatch for the discovery of the South Sea. has returned three months ago, and discovered some very fine Countries, and a navigation so easy through the beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can go from Lake Ontario and Fort Frontenac in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying place half a league in length, where Lake Ontario communicates with Lake Erie. A settlement could be made at this point and another bark built on Lake Erie."-Fronte- nac to Colbert, 1074, Paris Doc., Doc. History, Vol. IX., p. 121.

' Frontenac's confidence in La Salle is shown by the fact that the latter was sent on a diplo- matic mission among the Onondagas in 1678. Frontenac wrote in his journal: " For this purpose he selected Sieur de Lasalle as a person qualified for such a service by the different journeys he had made into that country and by his acquaintance with the Indians."-Col. Doc., Vol. IX., p. 97.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

sary " for his purposes, and imposed on him conditions similar to those attaching to his position at Fort Frontenac in the grant of 1675. Fol- lowing is a part of the concluding paragraph of this patent:

To accomplish this and everything above mentioned, we give you full powers; on condition, however, that you shall finish this enterprise in five years, in default of which their pursuits shall be void and of none effect; that you carry on no trade whatever, with the savages called Outaouacs, and others, who bring their beaver skins and other peltries to Montreal; and that the whole shall be done at your ex- pense, and that of your company to which we have granted the privilege of trade in buffalo skins.1

La Salle's "company," here referred to, comprised, among others, Henri de Tonti, an Italian veteran, and Sieur La Motte. Accompanied by about thirty mechanics and mariners the party sailed from Rochelle in the summer of 1678, arrived safely at Quebec, and in due time pro- ceeded up the river to Fort Frontenac. There immediate preparations were made for embarking on the new mission. Father Louis Hennepin was at the fort and joined in La Salle's expedition with enthusiasm. He was an intelligent priest and kept a detailed journal of his travels, the following extracts from which give us the best available account of La Salle's operations on the Niagara River:

On the 18th of November, 1678, I took leave of our monks at Fort Frontenac, and after mutual embraces, and expressions of brotherly and christian charity, I embarked in a brigantine of about ten tons. The winds and the cold of autumn were then very violent, insomuch that our crew were afraid to go, in so little a vessel. This obliged us, and the Sieur De La Motte, our commander, to keep our course on the north side of the lake, to shelter ourselves under the coast, against the north west wind, which would have otherwise, forced us upon the southern coast of the lake.

On the 26th we were in great danger, about two large leagues off the land, where we were obliged to lie at anchor, all that night, at sixty fathomsof water, and above, but at length the wind coming at the northeast, we sailed on, and arrived safely at the other end of the lake Ontario, called by the Iroquois, Skannandario.

We came pretty near one of their villages, called Tajajagon, lying about seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac, or Catarokouy.

We bartered some Indian corn with the Iroquois, who could not sufficiently admire us, and came frequently to see us, in our brigantine, which for our greater security, we had brought to an anchor into a river, though before we could get in, we ran aground three times, which obliged us to put fourteen men into canoes, and cast the ballast of our ship overboard, to get her off again. . The wind then turning contrary. we were obliged to tarry there, till the 5th of December, 1678, when we sailed from the northern, to the southern side, where the river Niagara runs into the lake, but could not reach it that day, though it is but fifteen or sixteen leagues dis-

1 Col. Doc., Vol. IX, p. 127.

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tant, and therefore cast anchor within five leagues of the shore, where we had very bad weather all the night long. On the 6th being St. Nicholas day. we got into the fine river Niagara, into which never any such ship as ours entered before.

On the 7th we went in a canoe, two leagues up the river, to look for a convenient place for building, but not being able to get the canoe further up, because the cur- rent was too rapid for us to master, we went over-land about three leagues higher, though we found no land fit for culture.

We lay that night near a river ' that runs from the westward, within a league . above the fall of the Niagara, which as we have already said is the greatest in the world.

The snow was then a foot deep, and we were obliged to dig it up to make room for our fire. The next day, we returned the same way we went, and saw great numbers of wild goats, and turkey cocks,? and on the 11th we said the first mass that was ever said in that country. The carpenters and the rest of the crew were set to work, but Monsieur De La Motte who had the direction of them, being not able to endure the fatigues of so laborious a life, gave over his design and returned to Canada, having about two hundred leagues to travel.

The 12th, 13th and 14th the wind was not favorable enough to sail up the river as far as the rapid current above mentioned, where we had resolved to build some houses.

Whosoever considers our map, will easily see that the new enterprise of building a fort, and some houses on the river Niagara, besides the fort of Frontenac, was like to give jealousy to the Iroquois, and even to the English, who lived in this neigh- borhood, and have a great commerce with them.

Therefore, to prevent the ill consequences of it, it was thought fit to send an Em- bassie to the Iroquois, as it will be mentioned in the next chapter. The 15th I was obliged to sit at the helm of our brigantine, while three of our men hauled the same from the shore with a rope, and at last we brought her up, and moored her to the shore with a hauser near a rock of prodigious height, lying upon the rapid currents we have already mentioned.

The 17th, 18th and 19th we were busy making a cabin, with palisadoes to serve for a magazine; but the ground was so frozen that we were forced several times, to throw boiling water upon it, to facilitate the beating in and driving down, the stakes.

The 20th, 21st, 22d and 23d, our ship was in great danger to be dashed to pieces, by the vast pieces of ice that were hurled down the river, to prevent which, our cap- tain made a capstane, to haul her ashore, but our great cable broke in three pieces, whereupon one of the carpenters surrounded the vessel with a cable, and tied it to several ropes, whereby we got her ashore, though with much difficulty, and saved her from the danger of being broke to pieces, or carried away by the ice, which came down with an extreme violence from the great fall of Niagara.

At this point in his journal Hennepin records the details of the em- bassy to the Iroquois, which journeyed thirty leagues in a southeasterly direction, finding the villages afterwards visited by De Nonville, and

1 The Chippewa. 7

? These were undoubtedly deer and wild turkeys.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

then proceeds with the story of the building of the first vessel that ever floated on Lake Erie-the Griffin-as follows:

On the 14th of January, 1679, we arrived at our habitation of Niagara very weary of the fatigue of our voyage [referring to the journey among the Senecas].

On the 20th arrived Mons. De La Salle, from Fort Frontenac, from which he was sent with a great barque to supply us with provisions, rigging, and tackling for the ship, we designed to build at the mouth of the lake Erie. But that barque, had been cast away on the southern coast of lake Ontario, by the fault of two pilots, who could not agree about the course they were to steer, though they were then only within two leagues of Niagara. The seamen have called this place the mad cape.

The anchors and cables were saved, but several canoes made of barks of trees, loaded with goods, and commodities, were lost. These disappointments were such, as would have dissuaded from any further enterprise, all other persons, but such who had formed the generous design of making new discovery in the country.

M. De La Salle told us that before he lost the barque, he had been with the Iro- quois Tsonnontouans, and had so dexterously gained their affection that they had talked to him of an embassy with applause, and had given him their consent to the execution of our undertaking. This good intelligence, lasted but a little while, for certain persons who made it their business to cross our design, inspired the Iroquois with many suspicions about the fort, we were building at Niagara, which was in great forwardness, and these suspicions grew so high, that we were obliged to give over our building for some time, contenting ourselves with a habitation built with palisadoes.

On the 22d of the said month, we went two leagues above the great fall of Niag- ara, where we made a dock, for building the ship, we wanted for our voyage.1

This was the most convenient place we could pitch upon, being upon a river, which falls into the streight between lake Erie and the great fall of Niagara.

The 26th, the keel of the ship, and some other pieces being ready, M. De La Salle sent the master carpenter, to desire me to drive the first pin. But my profession obliging me to decline that honor, he did it, himself, and promised ten louis d'ors to encourage the carpenters, and further the work. The winter not being half so hard in that country as in Canada, we employed one of the two savages of the nation called the Woolf, whom we kept for hunting, in building some cabins made of the rind of trees, and I had one made on purpose to perform Divine service therein on Sundays, and other occasions. M. De La Salle having some urgent business of his own, returned to Fort Frontenac, leaving for our commander one Tonti, an Italian by birth, who had been forced to retire into France after the revolution of Naples in which his father was concerned.

I conducted M. De La Salle as far as lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara river, where he ordered a house to be built for the smith we had promised to the Iroquois, but this was only to amuse them, and therefore I cannot but own that the savages are not to be blamed for not having believed everything they were told by M. La Motte, in his embassy already related.

He took his journey on foot over the snow, having no other provisions but a little

! This voyage refers to their contemplated journey westward up the lake system.

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sack of Indian corn roasted, which failed him two days before he came to the fort, which is above four score league distant from the place where he left us. However, he got in safely, with two men and a dog, who dragged his baggage over the ice or frozen snow. When I returned to our dock, I understood that most of the Iroquois were going to wage a war with a nation on the other side of the lake Erie. In the meantime, our men continued with great application to build our ship, for the Iro- quois, who were left behind, being but a small number, were not so insolent as be- fore, though they came now and then, to our dock, and expressed some discontent at what we were doing.

One of them in particular, feigning himself drunk, attempted to kill our smith, but was vigorously repulsed by him, with a red hot iron bar, which, together with the reprimand he received from me, obliged him to begone. Some few days after, a savage woman gave us notice that the Tsonnontouans had resolved to burn our ship on the dock, and had certainly done it, had we not been always upon our guard.

These frequent alarms from the natives, together with the fears we were in, of wanting provisions, having lost the great barque from Fort Frontenac, which should have relieved us, and the Tsonnontouans, at the same time, refusing to give us any of their corn for money, were a great discouragement to our carpenters, whom on the other hand, a villain amongst us endeavored to seduce.

The two savages we had taken into our service, were all this while hunting, and supplied us with wild goats, and other beasts, for our subsistence, which encouraged our workmen to go on with their work more briskly than before, insomuch, that in a short time, our ship was in readiness to be launched, which we did after having blessed the same, after the use of the Roman church. We made all the haste we could, to get it afloat, though not altogether finished, to prevent the designs of the natives, who had resolved to burn it.

The ship was called the Griffin, alluding to the arms of Count Frontenac, which have two griffins for supporters, and besides, M. La Salle used to say of this ship, while yet upon the stocks, that he would make the Griffin fly above the Raven.

We fired three guns, and sung Te Deum which was attended with loud acclama- tions of joy, of which those of the Iroquois who were present were partakers, for we gave them some brandy to drink, as well as to our men. On the very same day we were all on board, and thereby out of the reach of the insults of the savages.

Hennepin, after relating an account of the amazement caused among the Indians by the size and appearance of the Griffin, although "it was but sixty tons," and the seizure of La Salle's property in Canada by his creditors who never expected to see him again, proceeds with his journal of the further operations of the company as follows:

I went up in a canoe with one of our savages, to the mouth of the lake Erie, not- withstanding the strong current, which I mastered with great difficulty. I sounded the mouth of the lake, and found, contrary to the relations that had been made unto me, that a ship with a brisk gale, might sail up the lake, and surmount the rapidity of the current; and that therefore, with a strong north or north east wind, we might bring our ship into lake Erie.

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I took also a view of the banks of the streight, and found, that in case of need, we might put some of our men ashore, to haul the ship, if the wind was not strong enough. .

. Before we could go on with our intended discovery, I was obliged to return to fort Frontenac, to bring along with me two monks of my own order, to help me, in the function of my ministry. I left our ship riding upon two anchors, within a league and a half of the lake Erie-in the streight between the said lake and the great fall of Niagara.

The party did not return to the ship until the beginning of August, 1679. The journal continues:

We endeavored several times to sail up the lake, but the wind being not strong enough, we were forced to wait for it. In the meantime La Salle caused our men to grub up some land, and sow several sorts of pot herbs and pulse, for the conveniency of those who should settle themselves there, to maintain our correspondence with fort Frontenac. . . We left Father Melithon, with some workmen at our habita- tion above the falls of Niagara, and most of our men went ashore to lighten our ship, the better to sail up the lake.

The wind veering to the northeast, and the ship being well provided, we made all the sail we could, and with the help of twelve men who hauled from the shore, over- came the rapidity of the current, and got up into the lake. The stream is so violent that our pilot himself despaired of success.

When it was done we sang Te Deum, and discharged our cannon and other fire- arms, in presence of a great many Iroquois, who came from a warlike expedition against the savages of Tintomha, that is to say, the nation of the meadows, who live above four hundred leagues from that place.

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Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 7

Author: Truman C. White Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017