USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
Retribution in part was at hand. DUHAUT and another of the conspirators, attempting afterwards to convert to their use an unequal share of the spoils, were themselves murdered, and their reckless associates joined the savages. JOUTEL, who commanded the expedition, the nephew of LA SALLE, and four others, procured a guide and sought the Arkansas. They reached a beautiful country above the Red river, and afterward, with the exception of one only, who was drowned while bathing in a river, they all reached the Mississippi in safety, on the 24th of July, 1687. Upon its banks they discovered a cross, and near it a cabin occupied by four of their countrymen. TONTI, the faithful companion of LA SALLE, had descended the river in search of his friend. Failing to find him, he had erected the cross and cabin, and left the men that JOUTEL found there, to guard them. On the 14th of September
* Joutel.
NOTE,-The account of Hennepin differs from that of Joutel. It is as follows: - "He, (La Salle, ) was accompanied by Father Anastasi, and two natives who had served him as guides. After travelling about six miles, they found the bloody cravat of Saget, (one of La Salle's men,) near the bank of the river, and at the same time, two eagles were hovering over their heads, as if attracted by food on the ground. La Salle fired his gun, which was heard by the conspirators on the other side of the river. Duhaut and L'Archiveque immediately crossed over at some distance in advance. La Salle approached, and, meeting the latter, asked for Moranget, and was answered vaguely that he was along the river. At that moment Duhaut, who was concealed in the high grass, discharged his musket and shot him through the head. Father Anastasi was standing by his side and expected to share the same fate, till the conspirators told him they had no design upon his life. La Salle survived about an hour, unable to speak, but pressing the hand of the good father, to signify that he understood what was said to him. The same kind friend dug his grave, buried him, and erected a cross over his remains."
133
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
they reached the head quarters of TONTI, in Illinois, and soon after passed through Chicago to Quebec, and from thence to France.
Little is known of the after life of TONTI beyond what is gather- ed from a petition signed by him, and addressed to the French minister of Marine, in 1690. In that he asks for the command of a company to embark again in the service of his country, and recounts the services he had already rendered. He says that he remained at the Fort in Illinois till 1684, where he was attacked by two hundred Iroquois, whom he repulsed, with great loss on their side: that after spending a year in Quebec, under the orders of M. de la BARRE, he returned to Illinois, and in 1686, in canoes, with forty men, he descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, in search of LA SALLE. Returning to Quebec, he put himself under the orders of DE NONVILLE, and was with him at the head of a band of Indians and a company of Canadians, at the battle with the "Tsonnonthouans," ( Senecas, ) where he forced an ambuscade. See account that follows, of DE NONVILLE'S expedition to Irondequoit Bay, and battle with the Senecas. That he went again to Illinois in 1689, and again in search of LA SALLE's colony, but was deserted by his men, and unable to execute his designs. The petition is endorsed by Count FRONTE- NAC, who says: - " Nothing can be truer than the account given by the Sieur de TONTI in his petition."
NOTE .- La Salle, and the early Jesuits supposed the Griffin was driven ashore in a gale, tlie crew murdered by the Indians, and the vessel plundered. Such was undoubtedly the fact, and the author is enabled to fix with a considerable degreo of certainty, upon the spot where this occurred. In the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser of January 26th, 1848, there is a communication from James W. Peters, of East Evans, Erie county, in which he says :- " Some thirty-five or forty years ago, on the Ingersoll farm, in Hamburgh, a short distance below the mouth of the Eighteen Mile Creek, and on the summit of the high banks, in the woods, was found by the Messrs. Ingersoll, a large quantity of wrought iron, supposed to be seven or eight hundred weight. It was evidently taken off a vessel. It was of superior quality, much eaten by the rust, and sunk deep in the soil. A large tree had fallen across it, which was rotted and mixed with the earth. There were trees growing over the iron from six to twelve inches in diameter, which had to be grubbed up before all the iron could be got. Some twenty-six or seven years since, a man by the name of Walker, immediately after a heavy blow on the Lake, found on the beach near where the irons were found, a cannon, and immediately under it a second one. I saw them not forty-eight hours after they were found. They were very much destroyed by age and rust-filled up with sand and rust. I cleared off enough from the breach of one to lay a number of letters bare. The words were French, and so declared at the time. The horns, or trunions, were knocked off." In a letter from the venerable David Eddy, of Hamn- burgh, to the author, received while this work was going to press, he says that in the primitive settlement of that region -in 1805, there was found upon the lake shore, where a large body of sand and gravel had been removed during a violent gale, a " beautiful anchor." It was taken to Buffalo and Black Rock, excited a good deal of curiosity at the time, but no one could determine to what vessel it had belonged.
134
HISTORY OF THE
The expedition of LA SALLE traced to its disastrous and fatal termination; the western lake region, and the whole valley of the Mississippi, added to the dominions of France; let us return to the region of western New York, the banks of the St. Lawrence, to colonization under English auspices, advancing in this direction from the northern Atlantic coast.
Previous to the building of the Griffin, LA SALLE had "enclosed with pallisades a little spot at Niagara." This was the first blow struck, the first step taken as an earnest of occupation by Euro- peans, in all the region of New York west of Schenectady, if we except the short stay of the Jesuits, and perhaps some mission stations they may have established upon the Mohawk, and in the vicinity of Onondaga lake. It is to be presumed that the post at Niagara was after this, with but little intermission, used as a par- tially fortified trading station, until it was finally made a French garrison and occupied by an armed force.
The French continued to extend their establishments. Following the track of MARQUETTE and LA SALLE, they soon occupied prominent points in the upper vallies of the Mississippi, in what is now Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. The Hurons of Canada were their fast allies. They conciliated and won the favor of all the Indian nations around the western lakes, except the Foxes and Ottagamis, who dwelt principally in that part of Michigan which lies upon Detroit river. "It was the studied policy of the French to secure the good will of the natives. The French explorers, traders and missionaries, advanced to their remotest villages in the prosecution of their several objects. They lodged with them in their camps, attended their councils, hunting parties and feasts; paid respects to their ceremonies, and were joined in the closer bonds of blood. The natural plianey of the French character led them into frequent and kind associations with the savages, while the English were cold and forbidding in their manners. Besides. the Jesuit missionaries exerted no small influence in strengthening the friendship of the Indians. They erected little chapels in their territory, carpeted with Indian mats and surmounted by the cross; took long journeys through the wilderness, performed the ceremo-
There is no record of any vessel being wrecked here previous to 1805. The French and the English vessels were few upon the lakes, numbering not more than two or three at any one time. A record of the loss of one at a later period than that of the advent of La Salle, would in all probability have been preserved. May we not well conclude that the iron, the cannon, and the anchor, were those of the Griffin ?
135
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
nies of their church in long black robes, and showed their paintings and sculptured images, which the savages viewed with superstitious awe. Added to all this, they practiced all the offices of kindness and sympathy for the sick, and held up the crucifix to the fading vision of many a dying neophyte." *
But the French had but partial success with the proud, warlike, self-dependent Iroquois. The relation between them and the Five Nations, was never one of perfect amity, though they were at times on good terms with the Senecas, and had missions and tra- ding establishments with the Onondagas. The acquaintance had an untoward commencement as we have seen. CHAMPLAIN, in his unfortunate alliance with a foe of their own race, had shown them the use of fire-arms. The Dutch and English supplied them with the new weapons. It not only enabled them to push their conquests over the Indian nations of the west, but helped them to stand out against the French and resist their inroads into their territories. The Iroquois, from the first European advent to this country, did not view the visitors with favor. They seemed to have had a clearer view by far, than other Indian nations of North America, of the ultimate tendency of it, and its fatal result to their race. Their first position was one of independence; a refusal to be allies of either the French, Dutch or English: - " We may guide the English to our lakes. We are born free. We neither depend on ONNONDIO or CORLEAR." This was the tone and bearing of a Seneca chief, in reply to some complaints of the French Governor, in 1684. But the Dutch, to secure their trade, aided them to arm against the French, and maintained for the period they held dominion upon the Hudson, with but slight exceptions, a friendly relation, which the English, their successsors, inherited, and by every means in their power, assiduously cultivated, for the two-fold purpose of securing their trade, and preventing French encroachments upon what they regarded English territory. "The Dutch" said they, "are our brethren; with them we keep but one council fire. We are united by a covenant chain. We have always been as one flesh. If the French come from Canada, we will join the Dutch nation and live or die with them. With the English and French the contest was for territorial dominion and Indian trade, and the English early saw the advantages that would accrue to them from
* History of Illinois.
136
HISTORY OF THE
keeping the Iroquois in close alliance. As the Iroquois were at war with almost all other Indian nations, those other nations saw their advantage in having the protection of the French, who lost no opportunity of impressing upon them exalted ideas of the power of their king and country, of their ability not only to stay the march of conquest of the Iroquois,-to throw a shield around those of their own race they had persecuted and oppressed; but also to humble the pretensions of the English.
The Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, who for a time had been influenced by the Jesuits, to occupy something like a neutral position, in 1689 met the governors of New York and Virginia at Albany, and pledged to them peace and alliance. "Although England and France for many years after, sought their alliance with various success, when the grand division of parties through- out Europe was effected, the Bourbons found in the Iroquois impla- cable opponents: and in the struggle that afterwards ensued between England and France, they were allies of the former, and their hunting grounds were transformed into battle fields. Wes- tern New York, it would seem, was severed from Canada by the valor of the Mohawks," * or rather the author should have said, it was never but partially under the dominion of France, for the reason that the Seneca Iroquois, whose territory it was, were never their allies; never acknowledged any French sovereignty.
The Marquis d'ARGENSON was appointed Governor General of New France in 1658. The condition of the colony continued to be much depressed. In addition to the bad working of the colo- nial system under the auspices of the Company, the Iroquois grew more and more irreconcilable to French encroachment; more and more determined to uproot the French from this quarter of the continent. Hostile bands hung upon the borders of the French settlements upon the St. Lawrence.
In 1661 the Governor was recalled on account of ill-health, and the Baron d'AVANGOUR, a man of extraordinary energy, was appointed in his place. Encouraging the king by his representa- tions of the advantages in prospect in the new country, four hundred new troops were sent out. But for this timely assistance, it is supposed that the Iroquois would have executed their threat of an extermination of the French.
* History of Illinois.
137
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
In 1664, the company of New France surrendered their charter. Its privileges were transferred to the Company of the West Indies, under whose auspices a better system of government was organ- ized. Reinforcements arrived from the West Indies, and a number of officers, to whom had been granted lands with the rights of seigneurs, settled in the colonies. Forts were erected on the principal streams in Canada, where it was thought necessary to keep the Iroquois in check. In 1668 the affairs of New France seemed much improved. Count FRONTENAC, a nobleman of distinguished family, a man of energy and arbitrary will, was soon after invested with the office of home administrator of the affairs of the French colonies. He made extraordinary efforts to develope the resources of the country, and build up the scattered colonial establishments. In 1683, however, such had been the slow progress, the untoward events in New France, the population did not exceed nine thousand.
De la BARRE was Governor General of New France in 1684. incensed at the Iroquois for favoring the English, and introducing parties of them to the borders of the lakes to trade with the Indians, he resolved upon gathering an army at Fort Frontenac, to intimidate them; to try peaceful negotiation with a large force to back him; and if that failed, to invade their country. For this purpose, all the disposable troops at Montreal, Quebec, Niagara, and the western posts, were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Fron- tenac. His whole force assembled there, was from seventeen to eighteen hundred, including four hundred Indian allies. It was in the month of August, during the prevalence of fevers that prevailed upon the borders of lake Ontario, which those of our own people who were pioneer settlers upon its southern shore, have had occasion to know something about ;* the French soldiers were unacclimated, and the larger portion of them were confined to the hospital. In the crippled condition of his army, De la BARRE concluded that he should be unable to effect any thing save by treaty. Despatching orders to Mons. DULBUT, who was
* Our old resident physicians, who have had some experience in " lake fevers," will be amused at the theory of the disease, which La Hontan says, De la Barre's physician advanced: - It was, that the excessive heat of the season put the vapors, or exhalations into an over rapid motion; that the air was so over rarified that a sufficient quantity of it was not taken in; that the small quantity inhaled was loaded with insects and impure corpusculums, which the fatal necessity of respiration obliged the victim to swallow, and that by this means, nature was put into disorder." The Baron adds, that the " system was too much upon the Iroquois strain."
138
HISTORY OF THE
advancing from Mackinaw with six hundred Frenchmen and Indians, to hasten his march, he embarked upon lake Ontario with his Indian allies, and such of his French soldiers as were able to join the expedition, and landed upon the southern shore of lake Ontario, at La Famine .* Col. DONGAN, the English Governor of New York, apprised of the movement, had sent his Indian inter- preter to persuade the Five Nations not to treat with the French. De la BARRE despatched Le MOINE, who had much influence with the Iroquois, to bring with him some of their chief men. In a few days he returned, bringing with him GARANGULA, a noted Seneca chief, called by his people HAASKOUAN, accompanied by a train of thirty young warriors. As soon as the chief arrived, De la BARRE sent him a present of bread and wine, and thirty salmon trout, " which they fished in that place in such plenty, that they brought up a hundred at one cast of a net;" at the same time congratulating him on his arrival. LA HONTAN says, that De la BARRE had taken the precaution of sending the sick back to the colony that the Iroquois might not perceive the weakness of his forces; instructing LE MOINE to assure GARANGULA that the body of the army was left behind at Frontenac, and that the troops that he saw, were only the Governor's guards. "But unhappily one of the Iroquois, that had a smattering of the French tongue, having strolled in the night time towards our tents, overheard what was said, and so revealed the secret. The chief, after taking two days to rest and recruit himself, gave notice to De la BARRE that he was ready for the interview.t
The speeches that succeeded, which the author copies from a good English translation of LA HONTAN, will not only materi- ally aid the reader to understand the then existing relations of the French, Iroquois, and English, but furnish one of the earliest and best specimens of native eloquence, and the proud bearing and spirit of independence, of our wild and unschooled forest predeces- sors.
De la BARRE, through the interpreter LE MOINE, said :-
" The King, my master, being informed that the five Iroquois
* Or, Hungry Bay, so named at the time, from the stinted allowance of food which they had there.
t La Hontan has a drawing of the interview between De la Barre and Garangula. De la Barre is in front of his camp, with the interpreter and his officers near him. " The Garangula " is in front of his thirty warriors, who sit in a half circle upon the ground.
139
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
nations have for a long time made infractions upon the measures of peace, ordered me to come hither with a guard, and to send Akou- esson to the canton of the Onnotagues, in order to an interview with their principal leaders in the neighborhood of my camp. This great monarch, means that you and I should smoke together in the great calumet of peace, with the proviso, that you engage in the name of the Tsonnontouans, Goyogouans, Onnotagues, Onnoyoutes, and Agnies, to make reparation to his subjects, and to be guilty of nothing for the future that may occasion a fatal rupture.
" The Tsonnontouans, Goyogouans, Onnotagues, Onnoyoutes, and Agnies, * have stripped, robbed and abused all the forest rangers that travelled in the way of trade to the country of the Illinese, of the Oumamis, and of the several other nations who are my mas- ter's children. Now this usage being in high violation of the treaty of peace concluded with my predecessor, I am commanded to demand reparation, and at the same time to declare that in case of their refusal to comply with my demands, or of relapsing into the like robberies, war is actually proclaimed. This makes my words good. [Giving a belt.]
" The warriors of these Five Nations have introduced the English into the lakes belonging to the King my master, and into the country of those nations of whom my master is a father: - This they have done with a desire to ruin the commerce of his subjects, and to oblige those nations to depart from their due allegiance; notwithstanding the remonstrances of the late Governor of New York, who saw through the danger that both they and the English exposed themselves to. At present, I am willing to forget those actions; but if ever you be guilty of the like for the future, I have express orders to declare war. This belt warrants my words. [ Giving a belt. ]
" The same warriors have made several barbarous incursions upon the country of the Illinese and Oumamis. They have massacred men, women and children; they have took, bound, and carried off an indefinite number of the natives of those countries, who thought themselves secure in their villages in times of peace. These people are my master's children, and must therefore cease to be your slaves. I charge you to restore them to their liberty, and to send them home without delay; for if the Five Nations refuse to comply with this demand, I have express orders to declare war. This makes my words good. [Giving a belt. ]
" This is all I had to say to the GARANGULA, whom I desire to report to the Five Nations, this declaration, that my master commanded me to make. He wishes they had not obliged him to
* Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Mohawks.
1 The predecessor of De la BARRE had concluded a treaty of peace with the Iroquois, which was of short duration.
140
HISTORY OF THE
send a potent army to the Fort of Cataracony, * in order to carry on a war that will prove fatal to them; and he will be very much troubled if it so falls out, that this fort, which is a work of peace, must be employed for a prison to your militia. These mischiefs ought to be prevented by mutual endeavors: - The French, who are the brethren and friends of the Five Nations, will never disturb their repose, provided they make the satisfaction I now demand, and prove religious observers of their treaties. I wish my words may produce the desired effect; for if they do not, I am obliged to join the Governor of New York, who has orders from the king his master, to assist me to burn the villages and cut you off. t This confirms my words. [Giving a belt.]
LA HONTAN says :- " While DE LA BARRE's interpreter pro- nounced this harangue, the GARANGULA did nothing but look upon the end of his pipe. After the speech was finished, he rose, and having took five or six turns in the ring that the French and the savages made, he returned to his place, and standing upright, spoke after the following manner to the general, (DE LA BARRE,) who sat in his chair of state."
"YONNONDIO !! I honor you, and all the warriors that accompany me do the same. Your interpreter has made an end of his dis- course, and now I come to begin mine. My voice glides to my ear, pray listen to my words.
"YONNONDIO! In setting out from Quebec you must needs have fancied that the scorching beams of the sun had burnt down the forests that render our country inaccessible to the French; or else, that the inundations of the lake had surrounded our castles, and confined us as prisoners. This certainly was your thought; and it could be nothing else than the curiosity of seeing a burnt or drowned country, that moved you to take a journey hither. But now you have an opportunity of being undeceived, for I, and my warlike retinue come to assure you that the Tsonnontouans, Goyo- guans, Onnotagues, Onnoyoutes and Agnies, are not yet destroyed. I return you thanks in their name, for bringing into the country the calumet of peace, that your predecessors received at their hands. At the same time I congratulate your happiness, in having left underground the bloody axe that has so often been dyed with the blood of the French. Hear, YONNONDIO! I am not asleep; my eyes are open; and the sun that vouchsafes the light gives me a clear view of a great captain at the head of a troop of soldiers. who speaks as if he were asleep. He pretends that he does not approach to this lake with any other view than to smoke with the
* The Indian name of Fort Frontenac, and lake Ontario.
t De la Barre seems to have been ignorant of the fact, that the English governor had been persuading the Iroquois to stand out against French diplomacy.
# The Iroquois called the Governor of New France, whoever he might be, Yonnondio, and the Dutch or English Governor, Corlear.
141
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
Onnotagues in the great calumet; but the Garangula knows better things; he sees plainly that the YONNONDIO mean'd to knock 'em on the head if the French arms had not been so much weakened.
"I perceive that the YONNONDIO raves in a camp of sick people whose lives the Great Spirit has saved, by visiting them with infirmi- ties. Do you hear YONNONDIO? Our women had taken up their clubs, and the children and the old men had visited your camp with their bows and arrows, if our warlike men had not stopped and disarmed them, when Akouessan, your ambassador, appeared before my village. But I have done, I will talk no more of that.
"You must know, YONNONDIO, that we have robbed no French- men but those who supplied the Illinese and the Oumamis, (our enemies,) with fusees, with powder and with ball. These indeed we took care of, because such arms might have cost us our life. Our conduct in that point, is of a piece with that of the Jesuits, who stave all the barrels of brandy that are brought to our cantons, lest the people getting drunk, should knock them on the head. Our warriors have no beavers to give in exchange for all the arms they have taken from the French; and as for the people, they do not think of bearing arms. This comprehends my words. [Giving a belt. 1
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.