USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 10
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During the period in question, in all probability, La Salle was tracing the course of the Ohio, and paddling his canoe on the current of tributary streams. His own record is gone, but following the laws of legal testimony, in the absence of primary evidence we introduce secondary, the next best at hand. In 1674, and again in 1678, La Salle, on errands we shall here- after mention, made brief visits to Paris. While there on the second visit he had "ten or twelve conversa- tions" with a friend, supposed to have been the Abbé Renaudot, who soon thereafter anonymously wrote a history of Monsieur de la Salle, which Margry pub- lishes in his French discoveries. This recital of La Salle contains a detailed statement of his route to the Ohio and thereon. As reported, however, the conver- sational "history" presents some grammatical and many geographical confusions. So many indeed that La Salle's exact route is left in doubt and various theories have been spun from the indefinite and contradictory text. Parkman, who gave careful examination to this subject, gives the "substance" of that part of the conversation that interests us, as follows: "After leaving the priests, La Salle went to Onondaga,"-
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the Mohawk capital-"where we are left to infer he succeeded better in getting a guide than he had before done among the Senecas. Thence he made his way to a point six or seven leagues from Lake Erie, where he reached a branch of the Ohio, and descending it, followed the river as far as the rapids of Louisville- or as has been maintained, beyond the Mississippi. His men now refused to go further, and abandoned him, escaping to the English and Dutch; whereupon La Salle retraced his steps alone." The word "Louis- ville" of course is not employed in the French report as published by Margry but is inferred from the allusion to the "rapids" or "falls." There is strong evidence, however, aside from the "conversation" and an almost unanimous consensus of opinion among historical writers and critics, that La Salle discovered the Ohio on a journey begun in the Autumn of 1669. It is also generally admitted that, on this journey, he did not go as far as the Mississippi. But by what route he reached the Ohio and to just what extent he followed it, are questions that probably will never be settled. If he took his start from the Iroquois country, having returned to it after leaving Galinée, he had many routes from which to select, all of which were subsequently employed by the pioneer navigators. At Gannagaro, La Salle was but six days travel from the Genesee which was but thirty miles distant from the Olighiny-Sipou, as the Iroquois called the head- water of the Ohio. This or some other approach to the Allegheny from the Iroquois country was the most natural one for La Salle to take, and is pleaded by many historical writers. Or he could have returned
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to Lake Ontario from the western extremity of which he might have made the portage to Grand River, thence into Lake Erie; skirting its eastern end,-for he could not have crossed the tempestuous lake in canoes, -to the south side he had many ways to the Ohio, each of which has advocates, who have respec- tively led La Salle to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, thence over the portage to the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum, letting him enter the Ohio at the site of Marietta ; or he could have pushed on to the Sandusky which by portage connection would have carried him to the Scioto; or still hugging the Erie southern shore, he would have found the mouth of the Maumee and by switching to the Auglaize he could have crossed to the Big Miami; or he could have pushed up the Maumee, crossed to the headwaters of the Wabash and therefrom entered the Ohio. The Wabash was, in the earliest times, called by the French Ouabache, and one of its Indian names was Ouabous-Kiaou; both these names were applied to the Ohio, and this fact adds further confusion to the discussion of La Salle's journey.
The Maumee-Wabash route has not a few claimants, among whom one of the most emphatic is Dr. Charles E. Slocum, author of several works on Ohio history. Dr. Slocum's views on the La Salle discovery are set forth in the publication (1903) of the Ohio State Arch- æological and Historical Society. He takes issue with Parkman and from "a very liberal translation" of the "conversation" published by Margry, he confidently pilots La Salle up the Maumee, across the portage to the headwaters of the Wabash and thence to the Ohio.
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In reply to the latter theory is the convincing argu- ment in favor of the probable route of La Salle by the late Edward L. Taylor, Sr., also presented in the pub- lications (1905-10) of the Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society. Mr. Taylor, a life long student of Ohio history and a most accurate and authoritative writer, upon that subject, after critically examining the source materials bearing on this question decides that "La Salle, after parting with the priests on Grand River, followed the course of that stream to Lake Erie that passed the head of Niagara (Ohnghiara) thence along the south side of Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake, thence to the waters of the Allegheny and the Ohio. This was surely the best and by far the most direct route to the country of the Ohio or its headwaters and precisely where he desired to go." Repudiating the "very liberal translation" of La Salle's "conversation" made by Dr. Slocum in order to fit it to the Maumee- Wabash route, Mr. Taylor thinks "the country between the outlet of Lake Chautauqua and the Allegheny was suitable for the description of the country which is described in the original text" as produced by Margry and reprinted, as to the part in dispute, by Parkman.
An important class of witnesses not to be ignored in this case is that of the cartographers or map-makers, contemporary with La Salle. Their testimony con- firms his route down the Ohio from the Allegheny. Justin Winsor reproduces many of the earliest maps of North America in his "Narrative and Critical History of America." No maps previous to 1669 indicate the Ohio River, which first appears in an anonymous draw- ing of the "basin of the Great Lakes" made about
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1672 and sometimes called La Salle's map. But in Joliet's map of 1672-4, the Ohio River is delineated and along its course the notation "Riviere par ou descendit le sieur de La Salle au sortie du Lac Erie pour aller dans Le Mexique;"-"River by which Sieur de la Salle descended in going from Lake Erie to Mexico."
While his exact route may remain undetermined, there seems to be little doubt that La Salle was the first European to discover and navigate the waters of the Ohio. To this effect we have not only the "conversa- tions" before considered but La Salle's own assertion in a memorial by him addressed to Frontenac in 1677, wherein La Salle says that in the year 1667 and follow- ing, he made many voyages at great expense, during which he discovered for the first time much country south of the Great Lakes and "among others the great river Ohio." A "Minute of Instructions to Marquis Duquesne," issued to that official by the French Ministry in 1752, relating to the Ohio country, states: "The River Ohio, otherwise called the Beautiful River, and its tributaries, belong indisputably to France by virtue of the discovery by Sieur de la Salle." More- over the New York Colonial Documents contain private instructions (1755) from Versailles to M. de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, which testify: "It is only since the last war that the English have set up claims to the territory on the Beautiful River, the possession whereof had never been disputed to the French, who have always resorted to that river ever since it was dis- covered by Sieur de la Salle."
The latest word thus far in this controversy is that of Charles A. Hanna in his exhaustive and scholarly
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volumes "The Wilderness Trail," just (1911) pub- lished. Mr. Hanna, in a somewhat extended recital of his reasons, annuls all routes claimed for La Salle, with the decision that he was not the discoverer of the Ohio River at all. Mr. Hanna discredits the "con- versations " published by Margry; doubts the genuine- ness of La Salle's alleged Memorial to Frontenac, and thinks the statement, as to La Salle's route, inscribed on Joliet's map was written thereon many years later than the date of the map and was a species of forgery. After lengthy examination of the pleadings in favor of La Salle, Mr. Hanna decrees: "The evidence as to La Salle having explored any other tributary of the Ohio than (possibly) the Wabash bears so many marks of having been fabricated after 1684, for the purpose of strengthening the French claims to the Ohio Valley, that it seems to the writer only a question of time when that evidence must be declared to be wholly false." And he further concludes: "The first white traveler in the Ohio Valley was probably Arnold Viele, the Dutch trader, from Albany, who reached the Ohio in 1692 and spent the year 1693 on its waters."
But to the mind of the present writer the arguments relied upon by Mr. Hanna are mainly negative and leave La Salle's claim still unrefuted, with the pre- ponderance of evidence decidedly in his favor, and the judgment of Parkman still unreversed that "La Salle discovered the Ohio."
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CHAPTER VI. THE IROQUOIAN CONQUESTS
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Discovery of the Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette on their expedition of 1673. This picture represents the party of the discoverers in their birch bark canoe entering the Mississippi from the mouth of the Wisconsin River.
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L A SALLE'S supposed Ohio voyage was a year or two previous to the proclaiming (1671) of French possession of the Northwest by Saint-Lusson at the Sault. The following year (1672), Louis de Baude, famous as the Count du Frontenac, succeeded Courcelle as governor-general of Canada and soon thereafter Duchesneau superseded Talon as Intendant, or Deputy Governor. Frontenac energetically entered upon the policy of claiming every- thing and claiming it with confidence for France. The ambition of this courtly and courageous governor embraced the extension of French territory to the abrogation of Spanish claims and the restriction of English encroachments. To prosecute the project of territorial expansion, Frontenac selected the intrepid and tried Joliet and the heroic Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette. These two were well versed in the art of tracing their way through the wilderness and knew thoroughly the character and habits of the savages. Both were aflame with zeal for their Church and their country. In two birch canoes, with five Indian oars- men, Joliet and Marquette set forth. They coasted the northern shores of Lake Michigan and reached the headwaters of Green Bay; entered Fox River; dragged their boats up the rapids; crossed Lake Winnebago and followed the windings of the river beyond; carried their canoes over the portage and launched them on the Wisconsin, whose current bore them to the broad and majestic stream called by the Indians the Mescha-zebe or Messa-sipi, and by Marquette "Riviere de la Con- ception." They passed the mouths of the Missouri, the Ohio, which Marquette placed on his map as
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"Ouabous-Kiaou," and the Arkansas. The great river that swept them so swiftly on its broad bosom seemed interminable and they dared not go farther for fear of the Spaniards and the savages. They had ventured far enough, however, as they thought, to establish one important point; that the Mississippi discharged its waters not into the Atlantic or Sea of Virginia, nor the Vermillion Sea or Pacific, but into the Gulf of Mexico. The daring explorers decided to return to Canada and report their discoveries. They reached Green Bay by way of the Illinois, and Joliet hastened on to Quebec to tell Frontenac of the success of their expedition. Thus Marquette and Joliet navi- gated the upper Mississippi. It was at least its second discovery, for over a century earlier we saw De Soto stand upon its banks at Chickasaw Bluffs; and it may have been its third discovery, as the Spanish sailor Alonzo Pineda is said by many authorities to have entered the mouth of the Mississippi during his voyage of 1619 in the Gulf of Mexico, though this is doubted by Winsor, in his Critical History and by Ogg in his "Opening of the Mississippi." In any event the Father of Waters is sure to have had, as his dignity and importance deserved, the honor of more than one dis- covery :
" The Father of Waters sweeps on to the Main, Where the dark mounds in silence and loneliness stand, And the wrecks of the Redmen are strewn o'er the land."
Marquette, worn with the privations and perils of the journey and weakened by disease, valiantly remain- ed in the Illinois country, that he might labor to the end for the saving of Indian souls. On the shore of
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Lake Michigan, in a rude bark hut, attended by two faithful companions, the pious Jesuit breathed his last, gazing upon a crucifix and murmuring a prayer till death veiled his eyes and closed his lips. In dauntless perseverance, in religious devotion, in self-abnegation and sacrifice for the advancement of the Cross, no name in French-American annals shines with greater luster than that of Pere Marquette. With equal zeal he served his God and his King. He was deemed worthy a noble statue in the Capitol of our Nation at Washington.
Joliet's glowing account of the extension of New France in the western wilderness added fuel to the fiery ambition of Frontenac. Immediately upon his arrival in Canada, Frontenac, "the most picturesque of the French Governors, at one time a figure robed in velvet and lace reflected in the mirrors of the palace at Ver- sailles, at another time painted and plumed to dance the war-dance in the heart of the wilderness," found La Salle a man after his own heart. La Salle if he was not the first protagonist was surely the chief promoter of the plan that New France, in order to secure and retain the territory covered by their discoveries, must enter therein and erect posts and forts as centers of military defense and tribal trade. His vast scheme was to establish a line of these fortresses throughout the extent of the French discoveries. The first of these forts was to be Fort Frontenac at the headwaters of the St. Lawrence, thus commanding the gateway to and from Lake Ontario. In the furtherance of this project, in the Fall of 1674, Frontenac sent to the French court at Paris, his chief reliance, La Salle, recommend-
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ing him to the king as one "who is a man of intelligence and ability, more capable than anybody else I know here to accomplish every kind of enterprise and dis- covery which may be intrusted to him, as he has the most perfect knowledge of the state of this country."
La Salle was well received at the gay and dissolute court of Louis, who listened to La Salle's story of brave deeds and bold projects. The king bestowed upon him a patent of nobility without title, a somewhat empty honor, but more substantially recompensed him by granting him the site for Fort Frontenac with certain lands and islands adjacent. Thus fortified, La Salle returned to Canada and amid the constant opposition of the Jesuits, the continued ill-will of the Intendant Duchesneau, but with the unfailing friend- ship of Frontenac, he entered upon his career of adven- ture and achievement that New France might win control of the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi.
La Salle lost no time in demolishing the small palisaded enclosure, hitherto called a fort and spared no pains in replacing it with a strong stone-walled fortress he named Frontenac. It was located at the mouth of the Cataraqui River on the present site of Kingston. This military post and trading station well established, La Salle made his second trip to Paris. In this visit he held the "conversations" we have already discussed and he reported to the king how fully he had fulfilled the royal permission to erect Fort Fron- tenac and he now asked further privilege to build a fort at the outlet of Lake Erie and plant other military posts at points to be selected further west. He had won the confidence of the king's councillors and they
JACQUES MARQUETTE.
Statue of Marquette now in the Capitol at Washington. The face is not an accurate portrait but rather the typical features and expression of a Jesuit missionary.
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bere ta accom piandieaim tines [ & to foiadsqrs bis artusaand die- covery which may be intrusted to him, as he has The most perfect knowledge of the state of this country."
La Salle seis well received ux the gay and dissolute COURT of Louis, who listened to La Salle's story of brave dendr imnd bold project. The king bestowed upon line a patent of nobility withont title, a somewhat empty hosor, but more substantially recomperised him by scabithe him the site for Fort Frontenac with otrialw lande and islands adjacent. Thua fortified La Salle returned to Canada and amid the constant opposition of the Jesuits, ibe continued it-will of the Jotendant Duchesneao, but with the unfailing friend- alip of Frontenac, he entered upon his career of adren Ture and achievement that New France might win control of the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi
La Salle lost no time in demolishing the smal paliaded enclosure, hitherto called a fort and spared no pains in replacing it with a strong stone-walled fortress be named Frontenac. It was located at th mouth of the Cataraqui River on the present site o Kingston. This military post and trading station wel established, La Salle made his second trip to Paris. I this visit he held the " conversation(" we have airead discursod and be reported to the king how fully ) bad fulfilled the royal permission in eseet Fort Fro tenac and he now acked further privilege to build fort at the outer of Lake Ene and what other militi posta at points to be selected further west. He h won the confidence of the king's councillors and th
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readily yielded to his requests. Armed with this increased authority he returned to Canada accompanied by Henri de Tonty, an Italian officer and roving warrior and by Louis Hennepin, an adventure-seeking Friar of the Franciscan order. Both these colleagues by their brave and indefatigable labors were destined to share in no little measure the fame that awaited their leader. La Salle at once erected, at the mouth of the Niagara River, a defensive block-house, later to be replaced by Fort Niagara. At the same time on the Niagara River, some six miles above the Falls, at the mouth of Cayuga Creek, under the personal supervision of Tonty and Hennepin, La Salle caused to be built a wooden vessel of forty-five or fifty tons burden. In the Spring of 1679, this crude craft, after being blessed by Father Hennepin was launched amid the singing of the Te Deum, the firing of cannon and the shouts of the French and Indians. She was christened the "Griffin," a figure of which mythical creature, with the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle, the bold and ambitious boat bore at its prow. The Griffin, which was a man of war as well as a merchant marine, for five tiny cannon peeped from her port-holes, spread her sails to the breeze and rode the waves of Erie, bearing La Salle, his companions and crew. The reader desiring to follow the voyage of this first ship to float upon the waters of the Great Lakes, should do so in the fascinating chapters of Parkman. The Griffin proudly pushed her course westward through one after another of the inland seas until she cast anchor off an island in Lake Michigan at the entrance of Green Bay. There she was laden with furs and then under orders of La Salle,
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who here left the boat in pursuit of other plans, her pilot and crew weighed anchor and began the return trip for Niagara. She never reached her destination. Whether lost in a storm, foundered upon some hidden reefs or sunk by the treachery of her sailors or attack- ing land pirates that they might enrich themselves with her valuable cargo, will never be known. It is generally believed she never emerged from Lake Michi- gan, but that only a few days on her voyage she encountered a storm, was driven on the rocks or a sand bar and dashed to pieces. La Salle with Tonty and Hennepin, in eight canoes with French associates and Indian oarsmen, thirty-three in all, skirted the shore of Lake Michigan to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, also called the Miami. Here they built a rude log fort, thereafter known as Fort Miami, to protect which he left a few of his French followers, and then with the main party ascended the river till opposite the headwaters of the Kankakee to which they made portage and thereby reached the Illinois, down whose wide current "bordered with dreary meadows and bare gray forests," their light canoes easily floated till a point was reached just below modern Peoria. Here the expedition halted and was nearly ended. They were in the deep recesses of a vast forest country and in the center of a hostile Indian confederacy of the Algonquin tribes, calling themselves the "Illini" meaning they were "men," the term being used to distinguish themselves from their rapacious enemies, the Iroquois, whom they designated as "beasts." These "Illini" tribes were known to the French and English as "Illinois."
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Marquette in his Relations gives a lengthy account of the Illinois, among whom he spent much time. They were a populous people composing five nations; the Tamaroas, Michigamies, Kaskaskias, Cahokias and Peorias. These nations at this time had a friendly cooperative alliance, called a confederation, but to no such extent or strength as the Iroquois who were their deadly enemies. The Illinois claimed as their especial hunting ground the territory from the Wabash to the Mississippi and from the Ohio to Rock River in the territory of which resided their northern neigh- bors the Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes and Kickapoos.
The Illinois opposed the further progress of La Salle and threatened the destruction of his party. It was the dead of winter, the cold was biting and the sleet- sheeted woods yielded no food. His men were on the verge of mutiny; some actually deserted and others secretly plotted to kill the daring leader. Surely it was a time for the stoutest heart to fail; not so with the heroic La Salle. Deeply disappointed over the outcome of his plans, for he was bound for the Missis- sippi, and realizing his helplessness while remaining thus exposed to innumerable dangers, with his master- ful tact he pacified the native Indians, dominated his own men and built a small fort-significantly naming it Fort Creve-Coeur-"Broken Heart"-the first fort in the Illinois country and the fourth in his projected chain from Montreal to the mouth of the Mississippi. Fort Creve-Coeur erected, La Salle dispatched Henne- pin and two French assistants in a canoe down the Illinois-to explore the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois northward. Hennepin started but never
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returned. His party was captured on the Upper Miss- issippi by an Ossauti band of the Sioux, and after many weeks of wide wanderings as a captive he was finally taken to Canada by French rescuers under Du Lhut. Later he returned to Europe and gave an interesting but not always veracious account of his experiences, a volume that had great circulation and was translated into many languages. One author says Hennepin belonged to that class of writers who speak the truth by accident and lie by inclination, and La Salle called him a great exaggerator who wrote more in conformity with his wishes than his knowledge.
Leaving Fort Creve-Coeur in charge of Tonty and fifteen men, La Salle now started out with six com- panions, to traverse the broad intervening wilderness, in the desperate effort to procure another outfit in far-away Canada. Through dense forests, snow cov- ered and ice bound, across frozen creeks and swollen streams, in melting torrents and blinding storms, alarmed by howling wolves and whooping savages, the little band undaunted picked its way to Fort Miami; thence across the country to the headwaters of Lake Erie, the remaining voyage made by canoes, brought him finally in the last of April, 1680, to Fort Frontenac. During sixty-five days La Salle had toiled almost incessantly, amid untold perils and obstacles in a journey of over a thousand miles. He learned now for a certainty that the Griffin was lost, his cred- itors had seized his property at Frontenac, and news soon reached him by coureurs de bois that the garrison left with Tonty had mutinied and destroyed the fort. Did man ever face greater accumulation of misfortune?
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