History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 87

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

The great river away to the west of which they heard so much, was yet unknown to them. To explore it, to visit the tribes on its banks, and preach to them the Gospel, and secure their trade, became the aim of Mar- quette, who originated the idea of its discovery. While engaged at the mission at the Sault, he resolved to at- tempt it in the autumn of 1669. Delay, however, inter- vened-for Allouez had exchanged the mission at Che- goi-me-gon for one at Green Bay, whither Marquette was sent. While here, he employed a young Illinois Indian to teach him the language of that nation, and thereby prepare himself for the enterprise.

Continued commerce with the western Indians gave protection, and confirmed their attachment. Talon, the intendant of the colony of New France, to further spread its power and to learn more of the country and its in- habitants, convened a congress of the Indians at the Falls of St. Mary, to which he sent St. Lusson on his behalf. Nicholas Perrot sent invitations in every direc- tion for more than a hundred leagues round about, and fourteen nations, among them Sacs, Foxes and Miamis, agreed to be present by their embassadors.

The congress met on the fourth day of June, 1671. St. Lusson, through Allouez, his interpreter, announced to the assembled natives that they, and through them their nations, were placed under the protection of the French king, and to him were their furs and peltries to be traded. A cross of cedar was raised, and amidst the groves of maple and of pine, of elm and hemlock that are so strangely intermingled on the banks of the St. Mary, the whole company of the French, bowing before the emblem of man's redemption, chanted to its glory a hymn of the seventh century :

"The banners of heaven's King advance; The mysteries of the Cross shine forth."*

A cedar column was planted by the cross, and marked with the lilies of the Bourbons. The power of France, thus uplifted in the west of which Ohio is now a part, was, however, not destined to endure, and the ambition of its monarchs was to have only a partial fulfilment.

The same year that the congress was held, Marquette had founded a mission among the Hurons at Point St. Ignace, on the continent north of the peninsula of Michigan. Although the climate was severe, and vegeta- tion scarce, yet fish abounded, and at this establishment, long maintained as a key to further explorations, prayer and praise were heard daily for many years. Here, also, Marquette gained a footing among the founders of Michigan. While he was doing this, Allouez and Dablon were exploring countries south and west, going as far as the Mascoutins and Kickapoos on the Milwaukee, and the Miamis at the head of Lake Michigan. Allouez con- tinued even as far as the Sacs and Foxes on the river which bears their name.

The discovery of the Mississippi, heightened by these explorations, was now at hand. The enterprise, pro- jected by Marquette, was received with favor by M. Talon, who desired thus to perpetuate his rule in New

France, now drawing to a close. He was joined by Joliet, of Quebec, an emissary of his king, commissioned by royal magnate to take possession of the country in the name of the French. Of him but little else is known. This one excursion, however, gives him im- mortality, and as long as time shall last his name and that of Marquette will endure. When Marquette made known his intention to the Pottawatomies, they were filled with wonder, and endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose. "Those distant nations," said they, " never spare the strangers; the Great River abounds in monsters, ready to swallow both men and canoes; there are great cataracts and rapids, over which you will be dashed to pieces; the excessive heats will cause your death." "I shall gladly lay down my life for the salvation of souls," replied the good man; and the docile nation joined him.

On the ninth day of June, 1673, they reached the village on Fox river, where were Kickapoos, Mascoutins and Miamis dwelling together on an expanse of lovely prairie, dotted here and there by groves of magnificent trees, and where was a cross garlanded by wild flowers, and bows and arrows, and skins and belts, offerings to the Great Manitou. Allouez had been here in one of his wonderings, and, as was his wont, had left this emblem of his faith.

Assembling the natives, Marquette said: "My com- panion is an envoy of France to discover new countries; and I am an embassador from God to enlighten them with the Gospel." Offering presents, he begged two guides for the morrow. The Indians answered courte- ously, and gave in return, a mat to serve as a couch dur- ing the long voyage.

Early in the morning of the next day, the tenth of June, with all nature in her brightest robes, these two men with five Frenchmen and two Algonquin guides, set out on their journey. Lifting two canoes to their shoul- ders, they quickly cross the narrow portage dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin river, and prepare to embark on its clear waters. "Uttering a special prayer to the Im- maculate Virgin, they leave the stream, that, flowing onward, could have borne their greetings to the castle of Quebec. "The guides returned,' says the gentle Mar- quette, 'leaving us alone in this unknown land, in the hand of Providence.' France and Christianity stood alone in the valley of the Mississippi. Embarking on the broad Wisconsin, the discoverers, as they sailed west, went solitarily down the stream between alternate prairies and hillsides, beholding neither man nor the wonted beasts of the forests; no sound broke the stillness but the ripple of the canoe and the lowing of the buffalo. In seven days, 'they entered happily the Great River, with a joy that could not be expressed;' and the two birch-bark canoes, raising their happy sails under new skies and to unknown breezes, floated down the calm magnificence of the ocean stream, over the broad, clear sand-bars, the resort of innumerable water-fowl-gliding past islets that swelled from the bosom of the stream, with their tufts of massive thickets, and between the wild plains of Illinois and Iowa, all garlanded with ma-

* Bancroft.

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jestic forests, or checkered by island groves and the open vastness of the prairie."*

Continuing on down the mighty stream, they saw no signs of human life until the twenty-fifth of June, when they discovered a small foot-path on the west bank of the river, leading away into the prairie. Leaving their companions in the canoes, Marquette and Joliet followed the path, resolved to brave a meeting alone with the savages. After a walk of six miles they came in sight of a village on the banks of a river, while not far away they discovered two others. The river was the "Mou- in-gou-e-na," or Moingona, now corrupted into Des Moines. These two men, the first of their race who ever trod the soil west of the Great River, commended themselves to God, and, uttering a loud cry, advanced to the nearest village. The Indians hear, and thinking their visitors celestial beings, four old men advance with reverential mien, and offer the pipe of peace. "We are Illinois," said they, and they offered the calumet. They had heard of the Frenchmen, and welcomed them to their wigwams, 'followed by the devouring gaze of an astonished crowd. At a great council held soon after, Marquette published to them the true God, their Author. He also spoke of his nation and of his king, who had chastised the Five Nations and commanded peace. He questioned them concerning the Great River and its tributaries, and the tribes dwelling on its banks. A magnificent feast was spread before them, and the con- ference continued several days. At the close of the sixth day, the chieftains of the tribes, with numerous trains of warriors, attended the visitors to their canoes, and selecting a peace-pipe, gayly comparisoned, they hung the sacred calumet, emblem of peace to all and a safeguard among the nations, about the good Father's neck, and bade the strangers God speed. "I did not fear death," writes Marquette; "I should have esteemed it the greatest happiness to have died for the glory of God." On their journey, they passed the perpendicular rocks, whose sculptured sides showed them the monsters they should meet. Farther down, they pass the turgid flood of the Missouri, known to them by its Algonquin name, Pekitanoni. Resolving in his heart to one day explore its flood, Marquette rejoiced in the new world it evidently could open to him. A little farther down, they pass the bluffs where now is a mighty emporium, then silent as when created. In a little less than forty leagues, they pass the clear waters of the beautiful Ohio, then, and long afterward, known as the Wabash. Its banks were inhabited by numerous villages of the peace- ful Shawnees, who then quailed under the incursions of the dreadful Iroquois. As they go on down the mighty stream, the canes become thicker, the insects more fierce, the heat more intolerable. The prairies and their cool breezes vanish, and forests of whitewood, admirable for their vastness and height, crowd close upon the pebbly shore. It is observed that the Chickasaws have guns, and have learned how to use them. Near the latitude of 33°, they encounter a great village, whose inhabitants

present an inhospitable and warlike front. The pipe of peace is held aloft, and instantly the savage foe drops his arms and extends a friendly greeting. Remaining here till the next day, they are escorted for eight or ten leagues to the village of Akansea. They are now at the limit of their voyage. The Indians speak a dialect un- known to them. The natives show furs, and axes of steel, the latter proving they have traded with Europeans. The two travellers now learn that the Father of Waters went neither to the Western sea nor to the Florida coast, but straight south, and conclude not to encounter the burning heats of a tropical clime, but return and find the outlet again. They had done enough now, and must report their discovery.

On the seventeenth day of July, 1673, one hundred and thirty-two years after the disastrous journey of De Soto, which led to no permanent results, Marquette and . Joliet left the village of Akansea on their way back. At the thirty-eighth degree, they encounter the waters of the Illinois which they had before noticed, and which the natives told them afforded a much shorter route to the lakes. Paddling up its limpid waters, they see a country unsurpassed in beauty. Broad prairies, beautiful up- lands, luxuriant groves, all mingled in excellent harmony as they ascend the river. Near the head of the river they pause at a great village of the Illinois, and across the river behold a rocky promontory standing boldly out against the landscape. The Indians entreat the gen- tle missionary to remain among them, and teach them they way of life. He cannot do this, but promises to return when he can and instruct them. The town was on a plain near the present village of Utica, in La Salle county, Illinois, and the rock was Starved Rock, after- ward noted in the annals of the Northwest. One of the chiefs and some young men conduct the party to the Chicago river, where the present mighty city is, from where, continuing their journey along the western shores of the lake, they reach Green bay early in September.

The great valley of the west was now open. The "Messippi" rolled its mighty flood to a southern sea, and must be fully explored. Marquette's health had keenly suffered by the voyage, and he concluded to remain here and rest. Joliet hastened on to Quebec to report his discoveries. During the journey each had preserved a description of the route they had passed over, as well as the country and its inhabitants. While on the way to Quebec, at the foot of the rapids near Montreal, by some means one of Joliet's canoes became capsized, and by it he lost his box of papers and two of his men. A greater calamity could have hardly happened him. In a letter to Governor Frontenac, Joliet says:

"I had escaped every peril from the Indians; I had passed forty-two rapids, and was on the point of disembarking, full of joy at the success of so long and difficult an enterprise, when my canoe capsized after all the danger seemed over. I lost my two men and box of papers within sight of the French settlements, which I had left almost two years be- forc. Nothing remains now to me but my life, and the ardent desire to employ it in any service you may please to direct."

When Joliet made known his discoveries, a Te Deum was chanted in the cathedral at Quebec, and all Canada was filled with joy. The news crossed the ocean, and

* Bancroft.

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the French saw in the vista of coming years a vast de- pendency arise in the valley, partially explored, which was to extend her domain and enrich her treasury. Fearing England might profit by the discovery and claim the country, she attempted as far as possible to prevent the news from becoming general. Joliet was rewarded by the gift of the island of Anticosti, in the St. Law- rence, while Marquette, conscious of his service to his Master, was content with the salvation of souls.

Marquette, left at Green bay, suffered long with his malady, and was not permitted, until the autumn of the following year (1674), to return and teach the Illinois Indians. With this purpose in view, he left Green bay on the twenty-fifth of October, with two Frenchmen and a number of Illinois and Pottawatomie Indians, for the villages on the Chicago and Illinois rivers. Entering Lake Michigan they encountered adverse winds and waves, and were more than a month on the way. Going some distance up the Chicago river, they found Marquette too weak to procced farther, his malady having assumed a violent form, and landing, they erected two huts and prepared to pass the winter. The good missionary taught the natives here daily, in spite of his afflictions, while his companions supplied him and themselves with food by fishing and hunting. Thus the winter wore away, and Marquette, renewing his vows, prepared to go on to the village at the foot of the rocky citadel, where he had. been two years before. On the thirteenth of March, 1675, they left their huts, and, rowing on up the Chicago to the portage between that and the Desplaines, em- barked on their way. Amid the incessant rains of spring, they were rapidly borne down that stream to the Illinois, on whose rushing flood they floated to the ob- ject of their destination. At the great town the mission- ary was received as a heavenly messenger, and as he preached to them of heaven and hell, of angels and de- mons, of good and bad deeds, they regarded him as divine, and besought him to remain among them. The town then contained an immense concourse of natives, drawn hither by the reports they heard, and assembled them before him on the plain near their village, where now are prosperous farms, he held before their astonished gaze four large pictures of the Holy Virgin, and daily harangued them on the duties of Christianity and the necessity of conforming their conduct to the words they heard. His strength was fast declining and warned him he could not long remain. Finding he must go, the In- dians furnished him an escort as far as the lake, on whose turbulent waters he embarked with his two faith- ful attendants. They turned their canoes for the Mack- inaw mission, which the afflicted missionary hoped to reach before death came. As they coasted along the eastern shores of the lake, the vernal hue of May began to cover the hillsides with robes of green, now dimmed to the eye of the departing Father, who became too weak to view them. By the nineteenth of the month he could go no farther, and requested his men to land and build him a hut in which he might pass away. That done, he gave, with great composure, directions concerning his burial, and thanked God that he was permitted to die in .

the wilderness in the midst of his work, an unshaken believer in the faith he had so earnestly preached. As twilight came on, he told his weary attendants to rest, promising that when death should come he would call them. At an early hour on the twentieth of May, 1675, they heard a feeble voice, and hastening to his side found that the gentle spirit of the good missionary had gone to Heaven. His hand grasped the crucifix, and his lips bore as their last sound the name of the Virgin. They dug a grave near the banks of the stream and buried him as he had requested. There, in a lonely wilderness, the peaceful soul of Marquette had at last 'found a rest, and his weary labors closed. His com- panions went on to the mission, where the news of his death caused great sorrow, for he was one beloved by all.

Three years after his burial, the Ottawas, hunting in the vicinity of his grave, determined to carry his bones to the mission at their home, in accordance with an an- cient custom of their tribe. Having opened the grave, at whose head a cross had been planted, they carefully removed the bones, and cleaning them, a funeral proces- sion of thirty canoes bore them to the Mackinaw mis- sion, singing the songs he had taught them. At the shores of the mission the bones were received by the priests, and, with great ceremony, buried under the floor of the rude chapel.

While Marquette and Joliet were exploring the head- waters of the "Great River," another man, fearless in purpose, pious in heart, and loyal to his country, was living in Canada and watching the operations of his fel- low countrymen with keen eyes. When the French first saw the inhospitable shores of the St. Lawrence, in 1535, under the lead of Jaques Cartier, and had opened a new country to their crown, men were not lacking to further extend the discovery. In 1608, Champlain came, and at the foot of a cliff on that river founded Quebec. Seven years after, he brought four Recollet monks; and through them and the Jesuits the discoveries already nar- rated occurred. Champlain died in 1635, one hundred years after Cartier's first visit, but not until he had ex- plored the northern lakes as far as Lake Huron, on whose rocky shores he, as the progenitor of a mighty race to follow, set his feet. He, with others, held to the idea that somewhere across the country a river highway extended to the western ocean. The reports from the missions whose history has been given, aided this belief ; and not until Marquette and Joliet returned was the delusion in any way dispelled. Before this was done, however, the man to whom reference has been made, Robert Cavalier, better known as La Salle, had endeav- ored to solve the mystery, and, while living on his grant of land eight miles above Montreal, had indeed effected important discoveries.

La Salle, the next actor in the field of exploration after Champlain, was born in 1643. His father's family was among the old and wealthy burghers of Rouen, France, and its members were frequently entrusted with important governmental positions. He early exhibited such traits of character as to mark him among his associates. Coming from a wealthy family, he enjoyed all the advantages of his

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day, and received, for the times, an excellent education. He was a Catholic, though his subsequent life does not prove him to have been a religious enthusiast. From some cause, he joined the Order of Loyola, but the cir- cumscribed sphere of action set for him in the order illy concurred with his independent disposition, and led to his separation from it. This was effected, however, in a good spirit, as they considered him fit for a different field of action than any presented by the order. Hav- ing a brother in Canada, a member of the order of St. Sulpice, he determined to join him. By his connection with the Jesuits he had lost his share of his father's es- tate, but, by some means, on his death, which occurred about this time, he was given a small share; and with this, in 1666, he arrived in Montreal. All Canada was ·alive with the news of the explorations; and La Salle's mind, actively grasping the ideas he afterward carried out, began to mature plans for their perfection. At Montreal he found a seminary of priests of the St. Sulpice order who were encouraging settlers by grants of land on easy terms, hoping to establish a barrier of settlements be- tween themselves and the Indians, made enemies to the French by Champlain's actions when founding Quebec. The superior of the seminary, learning of La Salle's arrival, gratuitously offered him a grant of land on the St. Lawrence, eight miles above Montreal. The grant, though dangerously near the hostile Indians, was ac- cepted, and La Salle soon enjoyed an excellent trade in furs.

While employed in developing his claim, he learned of the great unknown route, and burned with a desire to solve its existence. He applied himself closely to the study of Indian dialects, and in three years is said to have made great progress in their language. While on his farm his thoughts often turned to the unknown land away to the west, and, like all men of his day, he desired to explore the route to the western sea, and thence ob- tain an easy trade with China and Japan. The "Great River, which flowed to the sea," must, thought they, find an outlet in the Gulf of California. While musing on these things, Marquette and Joliet were preparing to de- scend the Wisconsin; and La Salle himself learned from a wandering band of Senecas that a river called the Ohio, arose in their country and flowed to the sea, but at such a distance that it would require eight months to reach its mouth. This must be the Great River, or a part of it; for all geographers of the day considered the Missis- sippi and its tributary as one stream. , Placing great con- fidence on this hypothesis, La Salle repaired to Quebec to obtain the sanction of Governor Courcelles. His plausible statements soon won him the governor and M. Talon, and letters patent were issued granting the explo- ration. No pecuniary aid was offered, and La Salle, having expended all his means in improving his estate, was obliged to sell it to procure the necessary outfit. The superior of the seminary being favorably disposed toward him, purchased the greater part of his improve- ment, and realizing two thousand eight hundred livres, he purchased four canoes and the necessary supplies for the expedition. The seminary was, at the same time,

preparing for a similar exploration. The priests of this order, emulating the Jesuits, had established missions on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Hearing of populous tribes still further west, they resolved to at- tempt their conversion, and deputized two of their num- ber for the purpose. On going to Quebec to procure the necessary supplies, they were advised of La Salle's expe- dition down the Ohio, and resolved to unite themselves with it. La Salle did not altogether favor their attempt, as he believed the Jesuits already had the field, and would not care to have any aid from a rival order. His dispo- sition also would not well brook the part they assumed, of asking him to be a co-laborer rather than a leader. However the expeditions, merged into one body, left the mission on the St. Lawrence on the sixth of July, 1669, in seven canoes. The party numbered twenty- four persons, who were accompanied by two canoes filled with Indians who had visited La Salle, and who now acted as guides. Their guides led them up the St. Law- rence, over the expanse of Lake Ontario, to their village on the banks of the Genessee, where they expected to find guides to lead them to the Ohio.

As La Salle only partially understood their language, he was compelled to confer with them by means of a Jesuit stationed at the village. The Indians refused to furnish him the expected aid, and even burned before his eyes a prisoner, the only one who could give him any knowledge he desired. He surmised the Jesuits were at the bottom of the matter, fearful lest the disciples of St. Sulpice should gain a foothold in the west. He lin- gered here a month, with the hope of accomplishing his object, when, by chance, there came by an Iroquois In- dian, who assured them that at his colony, near the head of the lake, they could find guides; and offered to con- duct them thither. Coming along the southern shore of the lake, they passed, at its western extremity, the mouth of the Niagara river, where they heard for the first time the thunder of the mighty cataract between the two lakes. At the village of the Iroquois they met a friendly reception, and were informed by a Shawneese prisoner that they could reach the Ohio in six weeks' time, and that he would guide them there. While preparing to commence the journey, they heard of the missions to the northwest, and the priests resolved to go there and convert the natives, and find the river by that route. It appears that Louis Joliet met them here, on his return from visiting the copper mines of Lake Superior, under command of M. Talon. He gave the priests a map of the country, and informed them that the Indians of those regions were in great need of spiritual advisers. This strengthened their intention, though warned by La Salle that the Jesuits were undoubtedly there. The authority for Joliet's visit to them here is not clearly given, and may not be true, but the same letter which gives the ac- count of the discovery of the Ohio at this time by La Salle, states it as a fact, and hence it is inserted. The missionaries and La Salle separated, the former to find, as he had predicted, the followers of Loyola already in the field, and not wanting their aid. Hence they return from a fruitless tour.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 87

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559