USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 13
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"Before proceeding upon our voyage of discovery, I was obliged to return to Fort Frontenae, for two of our company to aid me in my religious labors. I left our vessel riding at two anchors, about a league and a half from lake Erie, in the strait which is between that lake and the great falls. I embarked in a canoe with the Sieur de CHARON, and a savage; we descended the strait towards the great falls, and made the portage with our canoe to the foot of the great rock of which we have spoken, where we re-embarked and descended to lake Ontario. We then found the barque which the Sieur de la FOREST had brought us from Fort Frontenac.
"After a few days, which were employed by the Sieur de la FOREST in treating with the savages, we embarked in the vessel, having with us fifteen or sixteen squaws, who embraced the oppor- tunity, 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 steneh in the vessel. We finally arrived at the river A-o- ou-e-gwa,* where the Sieur de la FOREST traded brandy for beaver skins. This traffic in strong drink was not agreeable to me, for if the savages drink ever so little, they are more to be dreaded than madmen. Our business being finished, we sailed from the southern to the northern shore of the lake, and, favored by fair winds, soon passed the village which is on the other side of Keute and Ganneousse. As we approached Fort Frontenac the wind
* Probably the Genesee River.
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failed us, and I was obliged to get into a canoe with two young savages, before I could come to land.
* * *
"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 river,) which empties into lake Ontario. While our people went to trade with the savages, we made a small bark cabin, half a league in the woods, where we might perform divine service more conveniently. In this way we avoided the intrusion of the sava- ges, who came to see our brigantine, at which they greatly wondered, as well as to trade for powder, guns, knives, lead, but especially brandy, for which they are very greedy. This was the reason why we were unable to arrive at the river Niagara before the thirtieth day of July.
"On the 4th of August I went over land 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 we had built. Two young savages slyly robbed us of the little biscuit which remained for our subsistence. We found a bark canoe, half rotten, and without paddles, which we fitted up as well as we could, and having made a temporary paddle, risked a passage in the frail boat, and finally arrived on board our vessel, which we found at anchor a league from the beautiful lake Erie. Our arrival was welcomed with joy. We found the vessel perfectly equipped with sails, masts, and every thing 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, surmounted by an eagle. There were also all the ordinary ornaments, and other fixtures, which usually adorn ships of war.
"The Iroquois, who returned from war with the prisoners taken from their enemies, were extremely surprised to see so large a vessel, like a floating castle, beyond their five cantons. They came on board, and were surprised beyond measure, to find we had been able to carry such large anchors through the rapids of the river St. Lawrence. This obliged them to make frequent use of the word gannoron, which, in their language signifies, how wonderful. As there were no appearances of a vessel when they went to war, they were greatly astonished now to see one entirely furnished on their return, more than 250 leagues from the habita- tions of Canada, in a place where one was never seen before.
"I directed the pilot not to attempt the ascent of the strong rapids at the mouth of lake Erie until further orders. On the 16th and 17th, we returned to the banks of lake Ontario, and ascended with the barque we had brought from Fort Frontenac,
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as far as the great rock of the river Niagara. We there cast anchor at the foot of the three mountains, where we were obliged to make the portage caused by the great falls of Niagara, which interrupt the navigation.
"Father GABRIEL, who was sixty-four years old, underwent all the fatigues of this voyage, and ascended and descended three times the three mountains, which are very high and steep at the place where the portage is made. Our people made many trips, to carry the provisions, munitions of war, and other necessaries, for the vessel. The voyage was painful in the extreme, because there were two long leagues of road each way. It took four men to carry our largest anchor, but brandy being given to cheer them, the work was soon accomplished, and we all returned together to the mouth of lake Erie.
-X *
" We endeavored several times to ascend the current of the strait into lake Erie, but the wind was not yet strong enough. We were therefore obliged to wait until it should be more favorable.
" During this detention, the Sieur de LA SALLE employed our men in preparing some ground on the western side of the strait of Niagara, where we planted some vegetables for the use of those who should come to live in this place, for the purpose of keeping up a communication between the vessels, and maintaining a corres- pondence from lake to lake. We found in this place some wild chervil and garlic, which grow spontaneously.
" We left father MELITHON at the habitation we had made above the great falls of Niagara, with some overseers and workmen. Our men encamped on the bank of the river, that the lightened vessel might more easily ascend into the lake. We celebrated divine service on board every day, and our people, who remained on land, could hear the sermon on holidays and Sundays.
" The wind becoming strong from the northeast, we embarked, to the number of thirty-two persons, with two of our order who had come to join us. The vessel was well found with arms, provisions and merchandise, and seven small cannon.
"The rapids at the entrance into the lake are very strong. Neither man, nor beast, nor ordinary bark can resist them. It is therefore almost impossible to stem the current. Nevertheless, we accomplished it, and surmounted those violent rapids of the river Niagara by a kind of miracle, against the opinion of even our pilot himself. We spread all sail, when the wind was strong enough, and, in the most difficult places, our sailors threw out tow lines, which were drawn by ten or twelve men on shore. We thus passed safely into lake Erie.
"We set sail on the 7th of August, 1679, steering west south west. After having chanted the Te Deum, we fired all the cannon
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and arquebuses in presence of many Iroquois warriors, who had brought captives from Tintonha, that is to say, from the people of the prairies, who live more than 400 leagues from their cantons. We heard these savages exclaim, gannoron, in testimony of their wonder.
"Some of those who saw us did not fail to report the size of our vessel to the Dutch at New York, (Nouvelle Jorck), with whom the Iroquois carry on a great traffic in skins and furs; which they exchange for fire arms, and blankets, to shelter them from the cold.
" The enemies of our great discovery, to defeat our enterprises, had reported that lake Erie was full of shoals and banks of sand, which rendered navigation impossible. We therefore did not omit . sounding, from time to time, for more than twenty leagues, during the darkness of the night.
"On the 8th, a favorable wind enabled us to make about forty- live leagues, and we saw almost all the way, the two distant shores, fifteen or sixteen leagues apart. The finest navigation in the world, is along the northern shores of this lake. There are three capes, or long points of land, which project into the lake. We doubled the first, which we called after St. Francis.
"On the 9th, we doubled the two other capes, or points of land, giving them a wide berth. We saw no islands or shoals on the north side of the lake, and one large island, towards the southwest, about seven or eight leagues from the northern shore, opposite the strait which comes from lake Huron.
"On the 10th, early in the morning, we passed between the large island, which is toward the southwest, and seven or eight small islands, and an islet of sand, situated towards the west. We landed at the north of the strait, through which lake Huron is discharged into lake Erie.
"Aug. 11. We sailed up the strait 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 call Sainte Claire, the navigation of which is safe along both shores, which are low and even.
"This strait is bordered by a fine country and fertile soil. . Its course is southerly. On its banks are vast meadows, terminated by vines, fruit trees, groves and lofty forests, so arranged that we could scarcely believe but there were country seats scattered through their beautiful plains. There is an abundance of stags, deer, roe-bucks and bears, quite tame and good to eat, more delicious than the fresh pork of Europe. We also found wild turkeys and swans in abundance. The high beams of our vessel were garnished with multitudes of deer, which our people killed in the chase.
"Along the remainder of this strait, the forests are composed of
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walnut, chestnut, plum and pear trees. Wild grapes also abound, from which we made a little winc. There are all kinds of wood for building purposes. Those who will have the good fortune some day to possess the beautiful and fertile lands along this strait, will be under many obligations to us, who have cleared the way, and traversed lake Erie for a hundred leagues of a navigation before unknown."
The Griffin cast anchor in Green Bay. After being freighted with a rich cargo of furs, it started upon its return voyage. From the period of its departure, no tidings ever came of the vessel or crew. Capricious and dangerous as the navigation of the lakes has since proved; especially in the advanced season of navigation at which the Griffin must have attempted a return; there is little wonder that the small craft. imperfectly built as she must have been, with the stinted means that the bold projector could only have had, met with the fate that in after years of more perfect architecture, and experience in lake navigation, so many others have been subjected to.
Change, progress and improvement, will meet us at every step in tracing our local history; prompting to a halt, and a comparison of the present with the past; but not often as urgently as here. This was the humble beginning of our lake commerce. Here, upon the banks of the Niagara, were a small band of adventurers. headed, cheered on and encouraged by one who was in advance of his own age -should have belonged to this. How abstracted from the then civilized world, were these primitive ship builders! A vast unexplored wilderness, a broad expanse of waters, of lakes and rivers, their surfaces as yet undisturbed but by the bark canoes of the natives, lay before them; behind, but a feeble colony of their countrymen who were hardly able to protect themselves from a stealthy foc that had rejected overtures of peace with their pale faced stranger visitors. In mid winter, with but stinted facilities,
NOTE. - The translation is by O. H. Marshall of Buffalo. It first appeared in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, in 1845, and is copied by Mr. Schoolcraft in his notes on the Iroquois. It is from the French edition of Hennepin, published at Amsterdam in 1698. The original text is regarded as the best that has reached this country; -- the only reliable one in fact; - and the faithfulness of the translation is fully guarantced by the integrity and literary qualifications of the translator. The interest derived from the perusal of the early French Jesuits and travellers, is much increased by having their own fresh and vivid impressions detailed in their own words. This consideration, in connection with the fact that Hennepin's account has not heretofore been published in any form to render it generally accessible, induces the author to give it entire, omitting only a few paragraphs that have no necessary relation to the main subject.
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they erected for themselves cabins and commenced the work of ship building! When the difficult work was consummated, the frail bark launched, their sails set to catch the breeze, they knew not to what disturbed waters and inhospitable shores it would carry them. They had witnessed the hostile demonstrations of the Iroquois, and had no warrant that the nations they were to meet in their new track would be any better reconciled to their further advance. They had but dim lights to guide them. They saw and heard the rush of waters; the earth beneath their pilgrim feet, as they threaded the dark forest that lay between their "place of ship building" and the "three mountains," trembled with the weight and descent of the mighty volume. And yet they knew little of the vast sources from which such an aggregate proceeded. They had the glimpses of the "Great River" that MARQUETTE and JOLIET had given them, but knew not where it mingled with the ocean. Theirs was the mission to first traverse our great chain of lakes and rivers; to pass over the dividing lands, strike a tributary of the Mississippi, and pursue that river to the Gulf of Mexico. Theirs, the first Euro- pean advent that extended across from the northern to the southern shores of the Atlantic. One hundred and thirty nine years ago, the Griffin set out upon its voyage, passed up the rapids of the Niagara, and unfurled the first sail upon the waters of the Upper Lakes.
Intrepid navigator and explorer! High as were hopes and ambition that could alone impel him to such an enterprise; far- seeing as he was; could the curtain that concealed the future from his view, have been raised, his would have been the excla- mation ;-
" Visions of glory spare my aching sight ; Ye unborn ages rush not on my soul !"
He deemed himself but adding to the nominal dominions of his king; but opening a new avenue to the commerce of his country; founding a prior claim to increased colonial possessions. He was pioneering the way for an empire of freemen, who, in process of time, were to fill the valleys he traversed; the sails of whose commerce were to whiten the vast expanse of waters upon which he was embarking !
How often, when reflecting upon the triumphs of steam naviga- tion, do we almost wish that it were admitted by the dispensations of Providence, that FULTON could be again invested with mortality,
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and witness the mighty achievments of his genius. Akin to this would be the wish that LA SALLE could rise from his wilderness grave in the far off south, and look out upon the triumphs of civilization and improvement over the vast region he was the first to explore.
Ours is a country whose whole history is replete with daring enterprises and bold adventures. Were we prone, as we should be, durably to commemorate the great events that have marked our progress, here and there, in fitting localities, more monuments would be raised as tributes due to our history and the memory of those who have acted a conspicuous part in it. Upon the banks of our noble river, within sight of the Falls, a shaft from our quarries would soon designate the spot where the Griffin was built and launched; upon its base, the name of LA SALLE, and a brief inscription that would commemorate the pioneer advent of our vast and increasing lake commerce.
On his way up, LA SALLE, while passing through the "verdant Isles of the majestic Detroit," had debated planting a colony upon its banks; and he had planted a trading house at Mackinaw. After the Griffin had left, with the portion of his company he had retain- ed, in bark canoes, he ascended to the head of lake Michigan, or rather, to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where ALLOUEZ had preceded him and gathered a village of the Miamis. Anticipating the return of his ill-fated vessel, he remained and added to the small beginning that had been made there, a trading house with pallisades, which was called the fort of the Miamis. Despairing of the return of the Griffin, leaving ten men to guard the fort, with HENNEPIN, two other missionaries, TONTI and about thirty followers, he ascended the St. Joseph, descended the Kankakee to its mouth, reaching an Indian village near Ottawa. From thence he descended the Illinois as far as lake Peoria, where he met large parties of Indians, who, desirous of obtaining axes and fire-arms, offered him the calumet and agreed to an alliance. Of the Griffin no tidings came; his men deeming their leader ruined by its loss, grew discontented. LA SALLE, who never desponded, exerted all his means to revive their hopes. "Our strength and safety " said he, "is in our union. Remain with me till spring and none shall remain thereafter, except from choice." He commenced building a fort. Thwarted by destiny, in allusion to his misfortunes, he called
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it Creve Cœur .* He despatched HENNEPIN to explore the Upper Mississippi, and renewed the unlucky business of ship building.
HENNEPIN, with two companions, ascended the Mississippi, to the Falls which he named St. Anthony, as a tribute due to ST. ANTHONY of Padua, whose protection and guidance he had invoked when starting on his expedition. On a tree near the cataract he engraved the cross and the arms of France, and by the way of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers returned to the French mission at Green Bay. What wanderers ! Even now, in 1848, when steam boats in fleets, are upon the Lakes and the Mississippi, and canals and rail-roads are in their vallies, a visit to the Falls of St. Anthony is more than an ordinary adventure.
LA SALLE set his men to sawing "trees into plank," and in March, with three companions, set off on foot for Fort Frontenac to procure recruits, and sails and cordage for the vessel that was going upon the stocks. Taking the ridge of high lands which divide the basin of the Ohio from that of the Lakes, the small party, with " skins to make moccasins, a musket and pouches of powder and shot, trudged through thickets and forests, waded through marshes and melting snows; without drink except water from the brooks, without food except supplies from the gun." Arriving at Fort Frontenac, which still acknowledged him for its lord, additional sup- plies were at once furnished, and new adventurers flocked to his standard. With these he returned to the garrison he had left on the Illinois.
There he found little to revive the spirits which must have been dead within him, if he had been a man of ordinary mould. A party of Iroquois had descended the river, attacked the Fort, mas- sacred the aged Franciscan Father RIBOURDE, and obliged TONTI and a few others, to flee to the Pottowattomies on lake Michigan for protection; LA SALLE and his companions repaired to Green Bay, recommenced trade, and established a friendly intercourse with the natives; found TONTI and his party, embarked from thence, left Chicago on the 4th of January, 1682, and after build- ing a spacious barge on the Illinois river, in the early part of that year, descended the Mississippi to the sea. On his way he raised a cabin on the Chickasaw Bluff, a cross at the mouth of the Arkan-
* Creve Cœur: - The Fort of the Broken Hearted.
9
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sas, and planted the arms of France near the gulf of Mexico. He claimed the country for France, and called it Louisiana.
He returned to France in 1683, and reporting to his government his brilliant discoveries, preparations were made to supply him with ample means for colonization; and in July, 1684, he sailed with a fleet of four vessels, for the Mississippi; on board of which were. one hundred soldiers, six missionaries, "mechanics of various skill," and young women.
The sequel is a chapter of disasters: - The colonists were badly selected; the mechanics "ill versed in their arts;" the soldiers, " spiritless vagabonds without discipline or experience;" the volun- teers, generally rash adventurers, having "indefinite expectations;" so says JOUTEL, the military commander, and faithful historian of the expedition. BEAUJEAU, the naval commander, was deficient in judgment, unfit for his station, envious, proud, self-willed and self- conceited; incapable of any sympathy with the magnanimous heroism of LA SALLE. The fleet sailing as often wrong as right; (LA SALLE always right, but opposed by his naval commander;) after a tedious voyage of five months, reached, instead of its destination, the Bay of Matagorda in Texas. Here the store ship was wrecked by the careless pilot; the ample stores provided by the munificence that marked the plans of Louis XIV., lay scattered on the sea. LA SALLE obtained boats from the fleet, and by great efforts saved a part of the stores for immediate use. To heighten their distress, the natives came down from the interior to plunder the wreck, and two of the soldiers, or volunteers, were slain.
The fleet returned, taking with it many who were tired of the expedition, and deserted. "There remained upon the beach of Matagorda, a desponding company of about two hundred and thirty souls, huddled together in a fort constructed with the frag- ments of their ship-wrecked vessel, having no hopes but in the constancy and elastic genius of LA SALLE."* A shelter was built at the head of the bay -a rude fortification, which was called St. Louis; LA SALLE himself marking the beams and tenons. He took possession of the country in the name of his king. It was this that made Texas a province of France, or a part of Louisiana.
As soon as the encampment was completed, LA SALLE started
* Bancroft.
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with a party in canoes, to seek the mouth of the Mississippi. After an absence of four months, and the loss of fourteen of his followers, he returned in rags, having entirely failed in his object. Spending most of the year 1686, with twenty companions in New Mexico, -- enticed there by the brilliant fictions of the rich mines of St. Barbe, the El Dorado of Northern Mexico. He found there no mines, but a "country unsurpassed in beauty and fertility."
Returning to his colony in Texas, he found it diminished to about forty; among whom, "discontent had given place to plans of crime." Leaving twenty of them to maintain the fort, he started with sixteen on foot to return to Canada for the purpose of getting farther recruits and means to prosecute enterprises not yet abandoned, though so often thwarted. No Spanish settlement was nearer than Pamico-no French settlement, than Illinois. "With wild horses obtained from the natives to transport his baggage, he followed the track of the buffalo, pasturing his horses at night upon the prairie; ascended streams of which he had never yet heard-marched through groves and plains of surpassing beauty, amid herds of deer, and droves of buffaloes; now fording the rapid torrent, now building a bridge by throwing some monarch of the forest across the stream, till he had passed the basin of the Colorado, and reached a branch of the Trinity river."*
Of his company was DUHAUT and L' ARCHIVEQUE. The former had long shown a spirit of mutiny. "The base malignity of disap -. pointed avarice,"(they had both embarked capital in the enterprise,). "maddened by suffering, and impatient of control, awakened the fiercest passions of ungovernable hatred. Inviting MORANGETt. to take charge of the fruits of a buffalo hunt, they quarrelled with him, and murdered him. Wondering at the delay of his return, LA SALLE, on the 20th of March, went to seek him. At the brink of a river, he saw eagles hovering, as if over a carrion; and he fired an alarm gun. Warned by the sound, DUHAUT and L'ARCHIVEQUE crossed the river; the former skulked in the prairie grass; of the latter, LA SALLE asked: - ' where is my nephew?' At the moment of the answer, DUHAUT fired; and without uttering a word, LA SALLE fell dead! 'You are down now, grand Bashaw! you are down now!' shouted one of the conspirators, as they despoiled his
* Bancroft.
t The nephew of La Salle.
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remains, which were left on the prairie, naked and without burial, to be devoured by wild beasts." *
Thus perished the pioneer navigator of our lakes, the father of colonization in the great central valley of the west, ROBERT CAVALIER DE LA SALLE! Well did he merit the eulogy bestowed upon his memory, by the accomplished historian, (Mr. BANCROFT,) who has given him and his achievements, his successes and his reverses, a conspicuous place in our national annals. "For force of will and vast conceptions; for various knowledge and quick adaptation of his genius to untried circumstances; for a sublime magnanimity, that resigned itself to the will of Heaven, and yet triumphed over affliction by energy of purpose, and unfaltering hope,-he had no superior among his countrymen."
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