USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 7
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Here on the Grand River, La Salle quit the remainder of his party, and with Joliet returned to Burlington Bay after Father Dollier had said mass for the common benefit of all concerned. Dollier with his party continued down the Grand River and sailed out on the wide waters of Lake Erie. They did not go very far until the rigors of the season com- pelled them to disembark on the north shore, where they went into winter quarters. Here they set up a shelter, erected a cross and affixed the royal arms to it, and then took formal possession of the country and lake in the name of Louis the Magnificent. This act was in October, 1669, signed by Francois Dollier for the Diocese of Nantes, and by De Galinee for the Diocese of Rennes. The writing perpetrated at that time reads as follows: "We, the undersigned, certify that we have seen, on the lands of the lake named Erie, the arms of the King of France attached to the foot of a cross, with this inscription: 'The year of salvation 1669, Cle- ment IX being seated in the chair of St. Peter, Louis XIV reigning in France, Monsieur de Courcelles being Governor of New France, and Mon- sieur Talon being Intendent therein for the King, there arrived in this place two missionaries of the Seminary of Montreal, accompanied by seven other Frenchmen, who the first of all European people have win- tered on this lake, of which they have taken possession in the name of their King, as of an unoccupied territory, by affixing his arms which they have attached here to the foot of this cross. In testimony whereof we have signed the present certificate.' Here they were on March 23 follow- ing, which being Passion Sunday they all repaired to the lake beach where they planted 'a cross in memory of so long a stay of Frenchmen as ours had been'."
After a varied experience in striving to discover "the South Sea passage" the Sieur de la Salle is found to be back in Canada in May of 1673; for he is then sent by Frontenac on a mission to the Iroquois at Onondaga, while in the following year he petitioned for and received a patent or grant of land on the eastern end of Lake Ontario on May 13, 1675. Here he built a new post and named it Fort Frontenac, a name which became more and more used in connection with it as the years rolled around; while the former name of the place, "Cataraqui" became less and less employed. In honor of his distinguished services to his government in the new land, he was, on the same day, May 13, 1675, granted a patent of nobility, and on May 12, 1678, he was given papers which permitted him "to endeavor to discover the western part of New
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France," admittedly acknowledging that as yet the French had not set eyes on the vast western country which they nevertheless were strenu- ously asserting rights to by reason of their prior discovery of it; and he at once fitted out an expedition for the purpose of executing this commission.
The French king was dubious about the wisdom of extending the French occupation further than settlers could be introduced and occupy it with useful improvements; for he writes to the Governor of Canada through his Minister Colbert, in May of 1674, "His Majesty's view is not that you undertake great voyages by ascending the River St. Law- rence, nor that the inhabitants spread themselves for the future, further than they have already done;" but he advises "he deems it much more agreeable to the good of the service that you apply yourself to the clear- ing and settlement of those tracts which are most fertile and nearest the sea-coasts and the communication with France, than to think of distant discoveries in the interior of the Country, so far off that they can never be settled or possessed by Frenchmen;" and the Prime Minister, Colbert, added to it on his own account, that Frontenac could take pos- session of such territories as would become "necessary to the trade and traffic of the French . and open to discovery and occupation by any other Nation that may disturb French commerce and trade." Thus Fron- tenac was given a pretty free hand in exploring and seizing new terri- tories in this land for his French master, and he set about it straightway. To Frontenac and Count de Paluan must be credited the idea of establish- ing trading posts, with villages attached, to be established at advan- tageous places within the French territories, especially at "rapids and carrying places." He strongly urges the establishment of such a post at the Niagara carrying place which he reports is the only break in "a navi- gation so easy through the beautiful rivers he (Joliet) has found, that a person can go from Lake Ontario and Fort Frontenac in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying place, half a league in length, where Lake Ontario communicates with Lake Erie. A settlement could be made at this point and another bark built on Lake Erie."
The French King, Louis, at this time began to comprehend something of the possibilities which lay within the territories which Joliet, La Salle and other explorers had laid at his feet. When executing the license for La Salle on May 12, 1678, "to discover the Western part of New France," he took occasion to observe "There is nothing we have more at heart
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than the discovery of that country, where there is a prospect of finding a way to penetrate as far as Mexico These and other causes Us moving hereunto, we have permitted, and by these Presents, signed by Our hand, do permit you to labor in the Discovery of the Western part of New France, and for the execution of this undertaking, to con- struct forts in the places you may think necessary, where of We will that you enjoy the same clauses and conditions as of Fort Frontenac on condition, nevertheless, that you complete this enterprise within five years, in default whereof, these presents shall be null and void; and that you do not carry on any trade with the Savages called Outaouacs (Ottawas) and others who carry their beavers and peltries to Montreal; that you perform the whole at your expense and that of your associates, to whom we have granted, as a privilege, the trade in Cibola (buffalo) skins." What a magnanimous privilege was here granted. To travel thousands of miles from his home and country, at his own expense; to brave the dangers of a hostile and unknown wilderness of whose extent but few, if any, white men had even a glimmering of understanding. And when completed, the country explored was to be the sole property of the crown.
On Dec. 6, 1678, he, with his expedition fitted out at his own expense, entered the mouth of the Niagara River, intent upon reaching the upper river and thence the waters of Lake Erie, where they purposed the building "of a bark" to sail from there to the Gulf of Mexico over those "beautiful rivers" found by Joliet. They first examined the Cana- dian shores of the river above the falls for a suitable place to build their ship; but finding none they went back to their ship and sailed and rowed it up the current to the foot of the escarpment where Lewiston now stands, and there they constructed a frame store-house; it being the first white man's building in all of this region. Here they planned to make for themselves a depot of supplies for their further operations. With further supplies, La Salle and Henri de Tonty had left Frontenac on Christmas Day 1678, stopping near the mouth of the Genesee where they sought and obtained from the Senecas a permit to build on the Niagara. Re-embarking, they sailed for the Niagara, La Salle and Tonty leaving the vessel, and a storm arising in the night while the crew slept on the shore, the whole vessel and cargo was lost. It had contained the materials for their new vessel above the falls. He walked up the Niagara River and found a suitable place where he could build the new ship which was
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to be the first of a fleet to carry on the French commerce on Lake Erie, and thence to the Gulf of Mexico.
The spot selected for the building of that first vessel for Lake Erie commerce, was on the east side of the Niagara River, just south of the mouth of Cayuga Creek, where an island in the river caused a narrow and deep channel between it and the eastern bank. On returning he learned of the loss of his ship full of materials, and set out on foot to the place of the disaster. The meeting with the ship-master must have been an interesting event in his life, for La Salle is credited with having had a mind of his own. The idea of his crew anchoring the ship out in the lake, although near the shore, and then going ashore to sleep on land, leaving the vessel full of valuable goods to the fate of the winds of that night, did not readily appeal to La Salle as the method of a reliable master. But La Salle was not discouraged, speedily remedied the loss, and was soon on the upper river with men and materials, for on Jan. 22 he and Tonty and Hennepin are on the ground directing the construc- tion of cabins as well as a chapel, of bark and logs. Jan. 26 they laid the keel of the new boat, and after the work was well under way, La Salle was required to return to Fort Frontenac for funds, fresh ma- . terials, and men. His creditors there were urgent for a settlement. But one who has lived in this country through the cold of our northern winters can well imagine what a walk La Salle had from his new shipyard above the falls, down the river to Lake Ontario, and thence over the ice to the other end of the lake, on snow shoes. He had but two companions, and used a dog harnessed to a sledge to carry their baggage. Their food for the journey was parched corn, and this failed them before they reached their journey's end. As he passed the mouth of the Niagara, he stopped to trace out the site of a fort there on the east side of the river which he designed to build, and named it Fort Conty. This fort seems to have been built soon after. It is remarkable to consider how La Salle plunged out into the red man's wilderness at Niagara with a few men, in utter disregard of the enmity which for years had been expressed for the French by the Iroquois Nation. Yet he seems to have provided very little in the way of protection for his men and for their work. The work on the new ship progressed quite satisfactorily, but nowhere is there anything like a description of its form and style. In one account it is termed a bark; another calls it "the boat;" another "the ship;" while at last it becomes "the Griffon." No one knows how this first (8)
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ship looked, nor whether it had one or two masts; but in likelihood its masts were two. Her Beakhead was adorned with a flying Griffin with an eagle above it. "She carry'd five small Guns, two whereof were of Brass, and three Harquebuze acrock." "The rest of the Ship had the same Ornaments as Men of War use to have." When the hull had been constructed, she was launched and taken out into the stream, where she was fitted out. Here she had to be constantly guarded against destruc- tion by the natives, who "viewed with alarm" the white man's "floating fort."
The English away down at Manhatte (New Amsterdam, or New York) also were filled with apprehensions when they learned, as they speedily did through the Iroquois channels, that the French were about to install a fleet of ships on the lakes. Their feelings appear from a let- ter written by Governor Andros to Mr. Blathwayt, dated "N. Yorck ye 25th of March 1679" in which he informs his correspondent, "An indian Sachem reports that ye frensh of Canada intend this year to send a Gar- rison or setlement into one of their towns where these Xtian captiues were a this ye lake wch being of import ile endeauor to preunent but if Efected will not only endanger all ye indian trade, but expose all ye King's plan- tations upon this continent where they please they pretending no bounds that way."
When La Salle returned to the shipyard in August "He found his barque ready to sail; but his men told him they were unable to get it up to the entrance to Lake Erie, not being able to sail against the Niagara River current. La Salle made them all embark. Thirty persons with three Recollect missionaries, arms, provisions, merchandise, and eight little cannon of castiron or brass. Finally, against the opinion of his people, he managed to ascend the river. He set sail when the wind was very strong, and they towed it in the most difficult places, and so came happily to the entrance of Lake Erie." Father Hennepin relates also that "Most of our Men went ashore to lighten our ships, the better to sail up the Lake. The wind veering to the North-East, and the Ship being well provided, we made all the sail we could, and with the help of Twelve Men who hall'd from the shoar, overcame the rapidity of the Current, and got up into the Lake." While the vessel was being outfitted and later urged up the current into the lake, the Indians made repeated efforts to board, and destroy her; but were prevented, and the vessel saved. They at once set sail for the west, and night came on; and during
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that first night this first vessel to sail Lake Erie blundered into Long Point Bay and but for the vigilance of La Salle, who was on board, would have been wrecked during the darkness and fog upon Long Point.
It was, no doubt, his determination in building such a vessel, not alone to explore and chart the region, but to engage in trading with the natives for furs, with which to help in paying his personal expenses in outfitting the expedition. One record states that his crew consisted of 23, another 34 men. These were of a very mixed character, Normans, Canadian habitants, Italians, Flemings, Netherland Spaniards, and prob- ably Indian hunters and servants. They did not work together amicably, and perhaps this brought about the disastrous results. However, on Aug. 7, 1679, the vessel left the Niagara for the romantic and dimly dis- cerned waters and lands of the west, perhaps still expecting to sail his new vessel west along the lakes, and thence down that great river to the Gulf of Mexico. Tonty seems not to have sailed with him, but to have preceded the vessel in a canoe, making the Detroit in two days. Three Franciscan missionaries were on board, Louis Hennepin, Zenobe Membre and Gabriel de la Ribourde, the second of whom later accompanied La Salle to the end of his sufferings, and prepared the most trustworthy account of the expedition, and of La Salle's later exploits which we have left to us.
In September this first vessel of the white folks left Green Bay bound down for Niagara with furs, and a considerable portion of her original cargo which had not been bartered as they had expected. She was never heard from afterwards, and is believed to have perished, with all of her crew, somewhere amongst the islands of Lake Huron. Her mutinous crew were thus mercifully prevented from instigating further labor agitations, or from hampering the progress of the great work of the explorer La Salle. La Salle, with a few companions, walked across southern Michigan to the Detroit; from there walked east along the north- ern shore of Lake Erie until his companions gave out, and in two days' time he and the other man constructed a crude canoe, took the sick men with them in it, and in two more days accomplished the trip to the Niagara to learn of the fate of his great investment in the Griffon, and of her cargo with which he was to repair his fortunes, and pay the balance of his debts. He had then covered a journey of 450 leagues, largely on foot, in 65 days, a most wonderful exploit. He was then about 37 years of age and in his prime, but the hardships he must have endured are incon-
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ceivable, and were such as his Indian guide was wholly unequal to. Thus is the story of the Griffon, the first white man's vessel to be built and sailed on Lake Erie, partially detailed. It was a great step towards the subjugation of the wilderness, and deserved far better results. And then, too, La Salle is thus the first white man to sail Lake Erie into the west, as well as the first to journey the lake from the Detroit back to the Niagara. But Lake Erie is as yet too little known to the whites, and still far from having been lodged in the physical possession of either French or English, to have really a place in the history of the region.
But we find, after much minor trafficking, journeying, and with an attempt on the part of the French to chastise the Iroquois with the help to the western tribes, which resulted in a fiasco, that a new governor came to New York in the person of Governor (and Colonel) Thomas Don- gan, who was sent out by the British Crown. He at once grasped the significance of the Niagara situation, and convoked a convention of the Five Nations Indians at Albany in 1684, at which the Indian nations made formal submission to the English Crown. About this time the French Governor in Canada, the Marquis de Denonville, resolved upon the recon- struction of the fortress at the mouth of the Niagara; which coming to the ears of Governor Dongan evoked a diplomatic remonstrance from him in these words:
"I am informed that you are intended to build a fort at the place called Ohniagero (Niagara) on this side of the lake within my Master's territorys without question (I cannot beleev it) that a person that has your reputation in the world would folow the steps of Mons. Labarr (La Barre), and be ill advised to make disturbance . for a little pelttree."
Denonvile replied that there could be no question as to the justness of the French claim to the lakes region, and to the Niagara region as well, and suggesting that the French and British Crowns should rightfully settle the debated questions of where the limits of the territories should be. Dongan replied to this message by fitting out an expedition which went up the lakes into the very heart of the French territory for fur trading. This seems to be the first white men, excepting French, who have as yet appeared upon the waters of our Lake Erie. In 1685 under a license from Dongan to trade with the Indians, a young Albany Dutch- man named Johannes Rooseboom fitted out eleven canoes with goods and rum; and setting out from Schenectady paddled up the Mohawk, through
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Lake Oneida, Lake Ontario, over the great Niagara portage of the French, and into Lake Erie. A swift run was made to the country of the Hurons, where a royal welcome was given them in return for the wonderful prices offered for their furs. With great canoe loads of furs they started on their return and disdained the commands of a French officer on the Niagara to halt. The trip was made in safety, and with great profit. The following year another trip was, however, intercepted by armed forces of the French, augmented by some of their western Indian allies. This expedition was in two sections, the first under Rooseboom, the second was under command of Colonel Patrick MacGregorie, a "Scotch gent". The first was met going north, by some southbound French and Indian forces, and made a virtue of a surrender. Further augmentation of the French forces increased the southbound troop, who went on down and into Lake Erie, where the party under MacGregorie was encountered and forced to surrender to a far superior force. The Indians were much enthused by this double victory, and by so much, the more attached to the French cause. It also very much heartened them for Denonville's purposed attack upon the Iroquois. This appears to have been the first sanguinary encounter between rival white forces upon Lake Erie, and indeed perhaps in all of this lake region. This occurred in the early part of 1687.
Having disposed of the English traders, Denonville was left with a free hand to carry out his cherished purpose of chastising the Iroquois. He had brought his expedition for this purpose to Irondequoit Bay on the south shore of Lake Ontario, from where, on July 12, 1687, he started with a force of some 1,600 French, and western Indians, for the Senecas villages in the interior. Striving to ambush the invaders, the Senecas, after skirmishing a time, kept out of reach; and the French destroyed no less than three of their main villages, and the astounding quantity of 1,200,000 bushels of old and new corn, and one orchard, at least, in which were reported to be 1,500 plum trees. But his expedition utterly failed to accomplish the purpose for which he had planned it. Although he had visited some punishment upon the Indians, he had merely exasperated them, and had done them some damage in property rather than in person. This placed those Indians upon far more friendly terms with the English, and wholly alienated them from all vestige of friendliness with the French. Further hostility between the two white nations was thus fomented, and preparations went forward on both sides for a conflict both regarded as impending. Denonville, arriving at Niagara with his expedition from the
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Seneca country commenced, on Aug. 1st, the building of a fortified post in the angle formed by the east shore of Niagara River and the south shore of Lake Ontario. After a winter in the new fort during which a large part of the garrison died of privations and lack of food, it was decided to abandon the place for a time. It was later occupied by the French under command of the Baron de La Hontan, who proceeded thence up to Mackinac for corn, and returning stood garrison at Fort St. Joseph at the outlet of Lake Huron. On July 3, 1688, he and an Indian escort started out "and stood to the south shore of the Lake Erie", appearing to have passed through the islands at the west end of the lake, and from his map is shown to have gone as far east as a large river he dubs the "River of Conde", which he reached on July 17, a matter of two weeks from the time of leaving Fort St. Joseph. Its entry is shown to be into Lake Erie near the southeastern corner of the lake, "about 20 leagues", he says, "from the outlet of Lake Erie". While this wonderful river seems to be of a rather apocryphal nature, yet this trip of La Hontan would seem to be the first canoe, or in fact the first of any character, along our shores. He suggests for the defense of the French country here, three forts, or "little castles"; one at or near Buffalo; one where Fort St. Joseph had been destroyed; and the third seems to have been for a place on Georgian Bay, which his map designates as "Toronto". This sugges- tion seems never to have been carried out.
CHAPTER V
FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.
POLICIES OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH DISTINGUISHED-CHABERT DE JON- CAIRE, THE FRENCH CHAMPION-LAWRENCE CLAESSEN, THE ENGLISH CHAMPION-INDIAN NEGOTIATIONS-NIAGARA PORTAGE-FRENCH BUILD "A LITTLE CABIN OF BARK" AT LEWISTON-FIVE NATIONS DEED TO THE ENGLISH.
For many years there was but little to record of the happenings, French or English, in this region. The policy of the French, and the policy of the English, in their several spheres of territory, were vastly ยท different. The two policies spelled failure for the one, success for the other. The French were bent upon extending their fortified trading posts, and establishing mission stations for the extension amongst the natives of their religious faith. The English, on the other hand, bent their ener- gies towards extension of actual settlements in their part of the country. They did considerable exploring, it is true, but their prime ambition was the establishment of permanent, and prosperous settlements, in the new land. Such settlements proved of far more worth to the nation and to the government which fostered them, than did all of the commercial posts and lettered warnings of the French. Those permanent settlements formed a most substantial and enduring physical seizure of the land, and constituted a solid base from which further extensions of that possession could be pushed out into the wilderness. The presence of a fast increas- ing population which was busily converting a wilderness into smiling fields and hospitable homes was a much more enduring safeguard against savage invasions, and against civilized invasions as well, than any peripa- tetic trading post or isolated military station in the vast wilderness of
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this then western country. France insisted also that her religion must go hand in hand with the government-be a part of it-and was intoler- ant of any other belief or method. Her manner of converting the wild people of the wilderness was, too, wholly superficial, and did not go to the root of human nature. It meant little, almost nothing, in the lives of the Indians, excepting a casual transfer of allegiance to the white power which they held in almost superstitious reverence.
The settleents on the eastern coasts, however, regarded their re- ligion in a far different light. Most of them had come to these shores to find a sanctuary from governmental interference with their cherished forms and ideas of Divine worship. Many of the settlements were pro- foundly opposed to the state having anything to do with the faiths of the people who dwelt within the jurisdiction. Their ideals were to develop comfortable homes, to found communities where they could safely live their lives in comfort and peace, and to be free to speak their convictions about public and religious matters ; and above all, to openly worship their God in their own ways, without being called to account, or persecuted, because their views did not quite coincide with those of somebody else.
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