USA > New York > Genesee County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Genesee County, New York, v. 1 > Part 4
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In 1615 Champlain planned and carried out a greater expedition, this time entering the heart of the country of the Onondagas, bringing defiance to all the Iroquois tribes, and spreading death and devastation on every side. On this expedition he discovered Lake Ontario, the name meaning, in the Indian tongue, the " beautiful lake." He ex-
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CONFLICTING FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS.
plored its shores along the western border of northern New York in the vicinity of what was afterward known to the French as La Famine. On his return he passed near the head of the St. Lawrence, thus be- coming the first explorer of the Thousand Island region.
During the same year in which Champlain made his first expedition into the Iroquois country, and even a day or two before he saw the waters of Lake Champlain, Sir Henry Hudson had entered the mouth of the Hudson river. But before either of these expeditions, the Eng. lish had begun their attempts to colonize a part of the territory now claimed by both the Dutch and the French. In August, 1606. the Plymouth company sent their first ship to America. The voyage was but half completed when the company's vessel was captured by a Span- ish man-of-war. In the fall another ship was sent out. This party re. mained on the American coast until spring, and then returned with glowing accounts of the new country. In 160; the first colony was sent out, but it met with disaster. About the same time the London company sent a colony to America, and Jamestown was founded. But it was not until 1620 when the Pilgrim fathers arrived, that the first permanent and successful English colony was founded.
It will thus be seen that at the close of the first quarter of the seven- teenth century the English had permanent settlements in Massachu- setts, the French had settlements on the St. Lawrence and Chesapeake bay, and the Dutch had possession of Manhattan island and had a fort on the site of Albany. Little was known of the interior country, and each of these nations set up a claim to most of the disputed territory. The Dutch standing between the two fires and being represented in America by ignorant, stupid men, the result was inevitable. Their power was eventually annihilated and the struggle for supremacy nar- rowed down to the French on one side and the English on the other.'
Unfortunately for the French, success did not attend their efforts to colonize the region of country to which they had set up a stout claim. But the disappointment of their government was lessened by the in- defatigable labors of the Jesuit priests who had come from France to America. In 1615 a number of Franciscan friars had come to America with Champlain, but soon they were supplanted by the more powerful
1 Though many of the events narrated in this chapter transpired at pouas far from Genesee county, they were closely connected with the conflu : which ultimately ses hed in English lo- minion in this country, whose original territory at one time formed the object ve point of a series of frontier struggles. The long struggle for supreme control of th sterritory an ! Ps offerenc, have had a great influence in directing the destiny of Genesee county and its inhabitants.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
order of Jesuits. The latter arrived in Canada in 1625, and at once be- gan preparation for penetrating the interior wilderness by way of the St. Lawrence, with the purpose of carrying the principles of civiliza- tion and the Christian religion to the Indian tribes. As early as 1626 Father De La Roche Daillon visited the Neutral Nation and spent the winter among them. Other priests soon had stations established as far west as the eastern shore of Lake Huron. Champlain died in 1635. and his successors in charge of the French colonies had small capacity for carrying on the great work he had inaugurated. The hostility of the Iroquois nation-incurred by Champlain himself through his early expeditions against the great confederacy-had resulted in the destruc- tion of many of the habitations of the French colonists along the St. Lawrence and the material reduction of the number of its inhabitants at Quebec and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the French had succeeded in establishing fur-trading posts at four points on the Great Lakes as early as 1665. The Canadian Indians being friendly to the French, the missionaries traveled the northern path of the traders in comparative safety.
The English control of Manhattan and the Hudson river region be- gan in 1664, when the Dutch were compelled to capitulate. It was not until 16:0, however, that English control of the country hitherto known as New Netherland, embracing Genesee county, was made permanent. But the Dutch continued to be a powerful factor in the fur trade, as well as in the development of the agricultural resources of the territory whose control had been wrested from them ; and, moreover, they es- tablished the firm foundation on which the higher social fabric of the future was to rest. The English were discreet enough to continue the peaceful relations which their predecessors had established with the Iroquois confederacy, which fact redounded greatly to their advantage when the final struggle for supremacy between the English and French began.
To Robert de La Salle, the most illustrious of the French explorers, his country owed the greatest debt. In 16:3 Joliet and Marquette had passed down the Wisconsin river and penetrated the wilderness to the Mississippi, sailing in their canoes on that river below the mouth of the Arkansas river. But it remained for La Salle to determine whether the waters of that great river were discharged into the southern gulf or into the broad Pacific. In 1665 La Salle came to Canada and engaged in the fur trade at La Chine, where the Sulpitian Fathers gave him
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OPERATIONS OF LA SALLE.
an extensive grant of land. His love for adventure was great, and his imagination having become excited by the story of the voyage of Mar- quette and Joliet, he determined to push still further south in the hope of discovering the desired route to the "South Sea," erecting a line of military posts and trading stations along the route. This, he believed, would give France a still stronger claim to this vast territory.
in 1672 Frontenac was made Governor General of Canada. Their aspirations being of the same nature, it was easy for La Salle to secure the co-operation of the former. Returning to France in 16:4, La Salle received grants to large tracts of land about Lake Ontario and a title of nobility was conferred upon him by the king. Returning to Canada he sought a monopoly of the fur trade, but his prosperity and ambition re- sulted in the creation of animosities on the part of numerous rivals, and in 161; he again returned to France to maintain his position, and also to obtain aid and authority to complete his plans for explorations in the far west. In this he was successful. May 12, 1678, the French crown granted to him the sole authority over all the western part of New France, with permission to construct all the forts necessary to the accom - plishment of his purpose, and a commission for the discovery of the Great River. The commission read as follows:
LETTERS PATENT.
GRANTED BY THE KING OF FRANCE TO THE SIEUR DE LA SALLE, ON THE 12TH OF MAY, 1678.
Louis, by the Grace of God. King of France and Navarre, to our dear and well beloved Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, greeting :-
We have received with favor the very humble petition which has been presented to us in your name, to permit you to endeavor to discover the western part of our country of New France; and we have consented to this proposal the more willingly because there is nothing we have more at heart than the discovery of this country. through which it is probable that a passage may be found to Mexico, and because your diligence in clearing the land which we granted to you by the decree of our council of the 13th of May, 1675, and by letters patent of the same date, to form habitations upon the same lands, and to put Fort Froutenac in a good state of de- fence, the Seigniory and government whereof we likewise granted to you ; affords us every reason to hope that you will succeed to our satisfaction, and to the advantage of our subjects of the said country.
For these reasons, and others thereunto moving us, we have permitted, and do hereby permit you, by these presents, signed by our hand, to endeavor to discover the western part of our country of New France ; and for the execution of this enter- prise, to construct forts wherever you shall deem it necessary; which it is our will you shall hold on the same terms and conditions as Fort Frontenac, agreeably and
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
conformably to our said letters patent of the 13th of May, 1675, which we have con- firmed as far as is needful, and hereby confirm by these presents, -and it is our pleasure that they be executed according to their form and tenure.
. To accomplish this, and everything above mentioned, we give you full powers; on conditions however, that you shall finish this enterprise in five years, in default of which these presents shall be void and of none effect; that you carry on no trade whatever, with the savages called Outaouaes, 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 country to which we have granted the privilege of trade m buffalo skins. And we call on Sieur de Frontenac, our governor and lieutenant- general, and on Sieur de Chesneau, intendant of justice, policy and finance, and oa the officers who compose the supreme council of said country, to affix their signatures to these presents; for such is our pleasure. Given at St. Germaine en Laye, this 12th day of May, 1678, and of our reign the thirty-fifth.
[Signed] COLBERT.
LOUIS.
Late in the summer of 1618 La Salle, accompanied by Tonti, an Italian, a number of mariners and mechanics, and carrying naval and military stores and goods for the Indian trade, arrived at Fort Fronte- nac. Here his formidable expedition was joined by Father Louis Hennepin. Early in the fall, accompanied by Father Hennepin and a part of his company, he embarked in a wooden vessel of ten tons bur. den, crossed Lake Ontario and sailed up the Niagara river as far as Lewiston. Upon the present site of Fort Niagara at Youngstown he established a trading post. Proceeding thence to a spot on the east side of the Niagara river, now the site of the hamlet of La Salle, he built a ship of sixty tons burden, called the Griffin.' Tonti and Father Hennepin meanwhile established friendly relations with the Senecas. August 7, 1679, La Salle, having completed his boat, and also having dispatched messengers to apprise the inhabitants of the Illinois district of his intended visit, set sail up the Niagara river, carrying a colony of fur traders destined for the valley of the Mississippi In Father Hen - nepin's account of this expedition of La Salle he says:
On the 14th day of January, 1679, we arrived at our cabin at Niagara to refresh ourselves from the fatigues of our voyage. . On the 20th. I heard, from the banks where we were, the voice of the Sieur de La Salle, who had arrived from Fort Frontenac in a large vessel. He brought provisions and rigging necessary for the vessel we intended building above the great falls of Niagara, near the entrance into Lake Erie. But by a strange misfortune, that vessel was lost through fault of the two pilots, who disagreed as to the course. The vessel was wrecked on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, ten leagues from Niagara. The sailors have named the place
1 This ship was built apon the bank of Cayuga creek on the present Angevine farm.
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OPERATIONS OF LA SALLE.
La Cap Enrage (Mad Cap). The anchors and cables were saved but the goods and bark canoes were lost. Such adversities would have caused the enterprise to be abandoned by any but those who had formed the noble design of a new discovery.
The Sieur de La Salle informed us that he had been among the Iroquois Senecas, before the loss of his vessel, that he had succeeded so well in conciliating them, that they mentioned with pleasure our embassy, which I shall describe in another place. and even consented to the prosecution of our undertaking. This agreement was of short duration, for certain persons opposed our designs in every possible way, and i astilled jealousies into the minds of the Iroquois. The fort, nevertheless, which we were building at Niagara, continued to advance. But finally the secret influences against us were so great, that the fort became an object of suspicion to the savages, and we were compelled to abandon its construction for a time, and content ourselves with building a habitation surrounded with palisades.
On the 22d we went two leagues above the great falls of Niagara, and built some stocks, on which to erect the vessel which we needed for our voyage. We could not have built it in a more convenient place, being near a river which empties into the strait which is between Lake Erie and the great falls. In all my travels back and forth. I always carried my portable chapel upou my shoulders.
On the 26th, the keel of the vessel and other pieces being ready, the Sleur de La Salle sent the master carpenter named Mouse, to request me to drive the first bolt. But the modesty appropriate to my religious profession, induced me to decline the honor. . Finally the Sieur de La Salle undertook his expedition on foot over the snow, and thus accomplished more than eighty league -. He had no food, except a small bag of roasted corn, and even that had failed him two days' journey from the fort. Nevertheless he arrived safely with two men and a dog which drew his baggage on the ice. . . . In the meantime the two savages of the Wolf tribe, whom he had engaged in our service, followed the chase, and furnished us with roe- bucks, and other kinds of deer, for our subsistence. By reason of which our work- men took courage and applied themselves to their business with more assiduity. Our vessel was consequently soon in a condition to be launched, which was done, after having been blessed according to our church of Rome. We were iu haste to get it afloat. although not finished, that we might guard it more securely from the threatened fire. The vessel was named The Grithin (Le Griffon , iu allusion to the arms of the Count de Frontenac, which have two Grithins for their supports. For the Sieur de La Salle had often said of this vessel, that he would make the Griffin fly above the crows.
After a few days, which were employed by the Sieur de la Forest in treating with the savages, we embarked with the vessel, having with us fifteen of sixteen s quaws, who embraced the opportunity, to avoid a land passage of forty leagues. As they were unaccustomed to travel in this manner the motion of the vessel caused them great qualms at the stomach, and brought upon us a terrible stench in the vessel. . .
A few days after, a favorable wind sprung up, and Fathers Gabriel de la Ribourde. and Zenobe Mambre and myself embarked from Fort Frontenac in the brigantine. We arrived in a short time at the mouth of the river of the Senecas | Oswego], which empties into Lake Ontario. . . . On the 4th of August I went overland to the great falls of Niagara with the sergeant, named La Fleur, and from thence to our ship. yard, which was six leagues from Lake Ontario; but we did not find there the vessel
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
we had built. Two young savages slyly robbed us of the little biscuit which re- mained for our subsistence. We found a bark canoe, half rotten and without pad- dles, which we fitted up as well as we could, and having made a temporary paddle. risked a passage in the fract boat, and finally arrived on board our vessel, which we found at anchor a league from the beautiful Lake Erie. Oar arrival was welcometi with joy. We found the vessel perfectly equipped with sails, masts and everything necessary for navigation. We found on board five small cannon, two of which were brass, besides two or three arquebuses. A spread griffin adorned the prow, sur- mounted by an eagle.
We set sail on the ith of August, 1679, steering west southwest. . . On the Sth a favorable wind enabled us to make about forty-tive leagues, and we saw almost all the way, the two distant shores, fifteen or sixteen leagues apart.
Aug. '11. We sailed up the strait [ Detroit river] and passed between two small islands of a very charming appearance. This strait is more beautiful than that of Niagara. It is thirty leagues long, and is about a league broad, except about half way, where it is enlarged, forming a small lake which we calle ! Sainte Claire, the navigation of which is safe along both shores, which are low and even.
Reaching Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Griffin took on a rich cargo of furs and started on the return voyage. After sailing from that point no tidings were ever received of the vessel or crew, which undoubtedly were lost in a storm on one of the lakes. Soon after La Salle and the remnant of his band were obliged to return on foot to Fort Frontenac, a distance of a thousand miles. During his absence Father Hennepin traversed Illinois and explored the Mississippi northward as far as the Falls of St. Anthony.
In 1681 La Salle returned to his station on the Illinois, bringing men and supplies. Another boat was built and launched, and early in the following year the heroic adventurer, with a small band of companions, descended the river to its mouth and entered the Mississippi. He finally reached the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and after a brief so- journ he started on his return journey. This adventure was one of the greatest exploits of modern times.
Returning to Quebec La Salle immediately set sail for France. That country was now in a state of high excitement on account of the mar- velous expedition which the intrepid adventurer had successfully carried out. Vast plans were at once made for beginning the work of coloniz- ing the valley of the Mississippi.
In the meantime De la Barre had been appointed Governor of Can- ada, in 1682. His brief administration was a failure. In 1684 the Sen- ecas, who had been at war with the western Indians, pillaged a number of French canoes and captured fourteen prisoners. De la Barre was
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OPERATIONS OF LA SALLE.
ordered to invade the Seneca country; but before he did so he sought from Governor Dongan of the province of New York a pledge that the latter would not permit the sale of guns or ammunition to the Iroquois Nation. The English were on terms of friendship with the Iroquois, and consequently Governor Dongan refused to pledge himself to nen- trality. De la Barre then made an invasion of the country of the Sen- ecas and Onondagas, but the fiery eloquence of Garangula, a celebrated Onondaga chieftain, so thoroughly alarmed him that he was glad to leave the country. Disgusted with his weakness, his government re- called him in 1685, and Marquis de Nonville was appointed to succeed him.
In July of the same year in which De la Barre allowed the Iroquois to overawe him, La Salle left France at the head of a colony of two hundred and eighty emigrants, in four ships commanded by Beaujeu. His plan was to ascend the Mississippi river and plant colonies on its banks and tributaries. Against La Salle's entreaties the blundering captain allowed the fleet to be carried out of its course, beyond the mouth of the Mississippi. Here a landing was effected and the first colony in Texas planted, on the shores of the bay of Matagorda. After several unsuccessful efforts to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi. La Salle finally set out overland, with sixteen companions, to cross the continent to Canada. The march began in January, 1682, and on the 20th of March following the intrepid explorer was assassinated by two conspirators in his company.
In the meantime De Nonville, the new Governor of Canada, began preparations for subduing the Seneca Indians, who inhabited most of the territory within the limits of the original county of Genesee. He proposed energetic measures, including the establishment of a strong fort at Niagara and another on Lake Erie, for the double purpose of holding the Indians in check and preventing the English from further extending their fur trade among the western nations. In 1686 he wrote to his government:
War once declared, it is an indispensable necessity to establish and maintain a post of two hundred men at Niagara, where married farmers ought, in my opinion. be placed to make clearances and to people that plate, in view of becoming. with barks, masters of Lake Erie. I should greatly wish to to have a mill at Niagara ..
De Nonville also advised the erection of other fortifications on account of the defenseless condition of the French, insisting that the Iroquois
' O'Callaghan's Doc. Col. Hist of N. Y.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
were powerful and hated the French, and that their ability to procure arms and ammunition from the English made them dangerous foes. He also corresponded with Governor Dongan, insisting that the French had the first rights in Western New York. Meanwhile he had pushed his preparations for invading the country of the Senecas
June 13, 1687, De Nonville left Montreal with a force of two thousand men, four hundred of whom were Canadian Indians. Arriving at Fort Frontenac on the 30th, he proceeded July 4 to the south shore of Lake Ontario, landing at what is now Irondequoit, Monroe county, where the forces at Niagara had been ordered to meet him. After erecting a small stockade he started for the interior July 12, leaving a garrison of four hundred men to occupy the fort. The Senecas, finding the in- vading force so vastly surperior, fled before the French, burning their villages before they did so.
The Indian village of Gannagare, located near the present village of Victor, Ontario county, was the first point attacked. On the 13th they arrived at a defile near the Indian village, where they were ambushed by a considerable force of Senecas. Many of the invading force threw away their guns and clothing to escape into the woods, so great was their consternation. The Senecas finally retreated before the French army, burning all their villages, and sought refuge among the Cayugas. The French remained in the Indian country, however, until the 24th. The deserted villages were entered and large quantities of corn and beans destroyed. The Indian allies of the French scouted the country and tomahawked and scalped those Senecas who fell behind in the flight. In his report of the expedition to the king De Nonville painted his exploits in very vivid colors; but Baron La Hontan, one of his offi- cers, in his account of the expedition, accused De Nonville of coward. ice, or at least timidity.
De Nonville was so dispirited with the fright that had struck his men that his Indians could not persuade him to pursue. Hle halted the re- mainder of the day, and the next day proceeded on with the intention of burning the village; but the Senecas had laid their settlement in ashes. On the 24th, finding his invasion practically fruitless, the expe- dition returned to the bank of Lake Ontario
The four Indian villages which De Nonville visited are supposed to have been as follows:
Gannagaro, as the French called it, or Gaosachgaah in the Seneca language, near Victor, Ontario county; Gannogarae, in the town of
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DE NONVILLE AND THE IROQUOIS.
East Bloomfield, in Ontario county, near where the ancient Indian trail crossed Mud creek; Totiakto, or Devudihaakdoh as the Senecas called it, on the northeast bend of Honeoye outlet, near West Mendon, in Monroe county ; and Gannounota, or Dyndonsot in the Seneca tongue, about two miles southeast of East Avon.
On the 26th of the month the whole army set sail for Niagara, where it arrived on the morning of the 30th, having been delayed by head winds. There the army at once began the erection of a fort "at the extremity of a tongue of land between the river of Niagara and Lake Ontario, on the Iroquois side. " In three days the post was in good condition for defense in case of assault. In his journal De Nonville says his object in constructing this fortification was for the protection of the Indian allies and to enable them to continue the war against the Iroquois. He left a garrison of one hundred Troyes there, with am- munition and provisions for eight months; but they were besieged by the Senecas, and a sickness which broke out soon after killed off nearly the entire garrison.
August ? De Nonville left Niagara, reaching Montreal August 15. having left one hundred men at Fort Frontenac. The Senacas soon after returned and occupied the territory they had deserted. In oppo. sition to his personal desires La Hontan was directed to assume com- mand of a detachment and accompany the returning western Indian allies. At Lewiston, "where the navigation stops, " his men carried their canoes up' "the three mountains," launching them again at Schlosser, in the southeastern part of the present city of Niagara Falls. A large body of Senecas were soon upon his trail. From the foot of Canandaigua lake, where they had temporarily encamped, they started for the vicinity of Niagara Falls, for the purpose of attacking the French troops or their Indian allies. The latter had just sailed from Schlosser, when a large body of Senecas appeared on the bank of the river. La Hontan's forces proceeded along the north shore of Lake Erie, and eventually reached the fort of St. Joseph's, relieving the garrison at that point.
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