USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 5
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bought a farm between that place and Montreal. A family grew up around him filling with young life his log cabin on the St. Lawrence-Nicholas, Cle- mence, Michel. Marie and Claude, with the typical French names we seem to call up a chattering crowd of black eyed little Gascons, greeting noisily the coureur de bois when he returned from making treaties or pursuing trade. The forest life engrossed him more and more, however, and the calm existence of a habitant working soberly his arpent of land was little to the taste of one bred to wandering.
Around Baye des Puans many changes had taken place in the decade fol- lowing the coming of Father Allouez in 1669. Trade followed closely ou the steps of evangelization. The mission house at the Rapides des Pères, included in its group of buildings a trading and store house for the convenience of coureurs de bois. In 1827 the foundations were still remaining, "at Depere, on the east side, a short distance above the dam, and near the bank. It was in the immediate neighborhood of an old place afterwards occupied by William Dickinson."
Father Allouez was transferred to the Illinois country in 1676, leaving Andre in charge of St. François Xavier. The place was a favorite rendezvous for coureurs de bois, and the fathers although disapproving the methods pursued by the lawless bush rangers yet made them welcome, for it strengthened the position of the church to continue friendly relations with these commercial outlaws. Many of them were like Perrot former engagés of the priests, and personal friendship was added to the hospitable rule of welcoming all strangers who claimed harbor at the mission house. Meanwhile Governor Frontenac at Quebec was instituting vigorous measures to control the beaver traffic. "Three fourths of the trade in Skins or Fur came from the People that live around
the great Lakes. . All persons of what Quality or Condition soever. are prohibited to go or send to these Lakes without a License under the pain of Death;" yet more and more the traffic grew, coureurs de bois remaining in the forest, not returning to the home colony for fear of punishment, and spend- ing years among the savages.
Belonging to this fraternity of unlicensed traders was Dulhut, a name with a record famous in western annals of that period. Michilimackinac and La Baye knew him well, and one of his meteoric descents upon the latter place is given by Father Hennepin, a Recollet priest who was saved from ill- treatment at the hands of the Sioux by Greysolon Dulhut's intercession. 'The coureur de bois, to escape from the penalties placed upon illicit trading, had not returned home for four years, having left Quebec for the woods in 1676. . He had lost all count of time as he acknowledged to Father Hennepin, and when the two reached St. Francois mission house in September, 1680, it was the first touch of civilization Dulhut had enjoyed in many a day. . At the "great Bay of the Puants" as Hennepin speaks of it, they found many Canadians, who "have come hither to Trade with the People of this Bay, contrary to an Order of the Viceroy." As there was some friction between the two great religious orders, Jesuit and Recollet, Father Hennepin gives no description of St. François Xavier although he celebrated mass during the two days he remained there. It was the first time in nine months that he had celebrated the sacrament. having been prevented for want of wine. One of the Canadians had a little wine
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in a pewter flagon that he had brought from Canada; "as for the rest I had still some Wafers by me which were as good as ever, having been kept in a steel- box that was very close."
While here Father Hennepin received by the hands of some savages the orna- ments of the chapel used by Father Zenobius Membre, who had been murdered and his chapel among the Illinois rifled. "We stayed two Days at the Bay of the Puants ; where we sung Te Deum, and myself said Mass and Preach'd," after which having secured a canoe much larger than the one they had arrived in they coasted along the shores of Green Bay, and reached Michilimackinac where they wintered.
It was in or about the year 1682 that a band of Miamis, Maskoutins and Kickapoos murdered the servants of the missionaries at St. François Xavier. Fearful that the French would avenge their death as is obligatory in Indian ethics they abandoned for the nonce their villages, and awaited in trepidation the expected return of Nicholas Perrot to "la baye." The commerce in peltries was becoming more and more complicated. A license at this time or a "conge" to trade, was the permission to take into the western country a canoe with eight men and loaded with merchandise. The buyer of the congé would choose three voyageurs to whom he gave a thousand ecus' worth of goods at high valua- tion. These goods would produce about twelve thousand francs profit, which was divided between the owner of the license and the traders sent out by him. Many abuses crept in, the market in beaver pelts became overstocked, and the "farmers of the west" could with difficulty dispose of them in France or foreign countries.
On the Illinois river Chevalier La Salle, exasperated by the ruin of the fur trade and the consequent demoralization of the entire western country which put an end to exploration and decent government, convened an assem- blage of mixed tribesmen and begged them not to trade with anyone not bear- ing a commission from him, at the same time ordering his men to plunder any illegal trading outfit. "If the King has given to Monsieur de La Salle alone this country, have the goodness to let me know and I will conform myself to the orders of his majesty," wrote Governor Denonville in wrath to France.
La Salle's irregular proceeding caused no little trouble on the Fox River. Although he took precautions to prevent abuses caused by his imprudent order the firebrand had been thrown among an undisciplined throng only too cager for an opportunity to snatch, by murder if necessary, the coveted goods brought by the traders. At La Baye where trade was extensive, the savages plundered indifferently all canoes bearing trading outfits that they found passing up the Fox waterway, and when some of the tribes ventured to Montreal and found that the murder of the mission servants was not avenged or even reprimanded by the government, the Indians conceived a contempt for French valor. and returning to Baye des Puans grew more and more insolent and unruly. At St. François Xavier the courageous priests held their stand despite the hopelessness of the situation. The Outagamie Indians were especially a nation of highway- men, bold, reckless, indifferent to French domination.
In 1684 a visitor came to the house of the Jesuits who has left a picture of life at La Baye that differs from any other written description, and is a pleas- ant interlude in the continued record of strenuous warfare and attempted enforce- Vol. J-3
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ment of the fur trade among the Indians. Baron Louis de Lahontan "accom- panied with my own detachment, and five Huntsmen was wafted in new canows loaded with Provisions and Ammunition and such Commodities as are proper for the savages, to the Bay of Pouteouatamis," in the month of September, 1684.
The Fox River was first called by the French, Rivière des Puans. Father Allouez designated it as St. Francis River, but the name did not continue. When in the latter part of the seventeenth century the Fox Indians grew a powerful and important tribe with a large village on the upper waters of the stream it was called after them sometimes "Outagamie" (Fox), the Indian appellation, or "Rivière des Renards," the French translation for River of the Fox. Baron Lahontan writes that "the villages of the Sakis, the Pouteoutamis and some Malominies are situated on the side of that river, and the Jesuits have a House or College built upon it. This is a place of great Trade for Skins and Indian Corn, which these Savages sell to the Coureurs de bois, as they come and go, it being the nearest and most convenient Passage to the River of Mississippi. Next morning I was invited to a Feast with one of the three nations ; and after having sent to 'em some Dishes and Plates, pursuant to the custom of the Country; I went accordingly about Noon."
The entertainment began with singing and dancing which lasted two hours, "being seasoned with Acclamations of Joy and Jests, which make up part of their ridiculous Musick. After that the Slaves came to serve, and all the com- pany sat down after eastern fashion, every one being provided with his mess. First of all four Platters were set down before me, in the first of which there were two white Fish only boiled in water ; in the second the Tongue and Breast of a Roebuck boiled: in the third two Woodhens; the hind Feet or Trotters of a Bear, and the Tail of a Beaver, all roasted ; and the fourth con- tain'd a large quantity of Broth made of several sorts of Meat. For Drink they gave me a very pleasant Liquor, which was nothing but a Syrup of Maple beat up with Water. . The Feast lasted two hours; after which I in- treated one of the Grandees to sing for me; for in all the Ceremonies made use of among the Savages, 'tis the custom to imploy another to act for 'em. I made this Grandee a present of some pieces of tobacco, in order to oblige him to act my part till Night."
These amicable social events tendered by the Indians to visiting Europeans became more infrequent as time went on, although when in favorable mood the savages loved dearly to impress their guests with much formality and pomp in entertainment. Only brief mention can be found of the visit of La Sueur in 1683, or that of Henri de Tonti following that of Lahontan's entertainment in the fall of 1684. We have instead the story of Governor de la Barre's unfor- tunate expedition against the Iroquois, in which he engaged the influence of Nicholas Perrot to enlist the Indians in this vicinity. Dulhut. who was both feared and liked by the savages was told, on arriving at Mackinac from Lake Superior that the envoys sent to the bay tribes to engage them in this expedition had been met by absolute refusal. He also learned that the canoe of Nicholas Perrot who had received a permit from the governor to trade among the Ottawas had come in from Canada. "He sent for me, and told me that no one could, better than I, induce the tribe to unite with us in this war. I set out, therefore, one Sunday, after I had heard holy mass,
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to go out among those peoples ; they listened to me and accepted the tomahawk and the presents. They only asked for a few days to repair the canoes." One of the chiefs declared to the villages that they should take an interest in this war and go to it since Perrot was taking part in it; that the envoy should not be allowed to expose himself to danger unless his friends were there to share in it. There was much of this talk with prompt response, and in the end five hundred warriors were in readiness at the rendezvous including the untamable and perverse Outagamies. Even more would have joined the expedition says Perrot, in his memoirs, had there been canoes enough to carry them.
From the first evil omens assailed the superstitious savages. A French soldier was killed by the accidental discharge of his gun; a young Indian aim- ing at an elk shot instead his brother, who was paddling in the fore part of a canoe; and finally an Ottawa was wounded, being taken for an elk in the bushes. Many times the warriors turned back declaring that the spirits opposed them in going to war, but Perrot by pretended scorn of their cowardice urged his band of savages to their purpose. When Niagara, the rendezvous, was reached where Perrot had been instructed to tell the Indians they might expect to find waiting for them three barks laden with "three hundred guns, other military supplies and all the food they should want," they found instead only silence and desolation.
"Time passed and nothing came. They began to tell me that I had deceived them, and that the French were intending to betray and deliver them into the hands of the Iroquois." Then finally came a letter from De la Barre saying that "on account of a disease that had broken out in his camp and caused the death of nearly nine hundred Frenchmen" a peace had been patched up with the Iroquois, and that the Indian allies must return home. In a "memoir of the payments made by Sieur de la Durantaye to the Ottawas for the service of the King, and the execution of the orders of Monsieur de la Barre in the years 1683-4 appears the following item: Given to the Puants, the Saquis, the Outagamis, and the Malominis, on August 20, eleven pounds of tobacco, at eight francs a pound." (Tailhan.)
After this inglorious campaign Perrot having seen his allies safely em- barked for their own country, returned home to Three Rivers, remaining there until the following spring. Then came the news of La Salle's mistaken policy and the order given by him to prevent trade with the Indians, and close upon this disturbing intelligence, Perrot received from the recently appointed gov- ernor of New France, Denonville, a commission as commander-in-chief of La Baye and its dependencies further west, and "even those regions which I might be able to discover." This important office having been accepted, Perrot departed for his new post, and discovered immediately the disastrous effect of La Salle's order, for whereas he had formerly no difficulty in keeping the Indians in check, and in preventing any pillage of his goods, constant watch- fulness and a strong guard was now an absolute necessity.
At the mission of St. François Xavier many councils were held, plots were discovered, reprimands were bestowed, barter and trade carried on. The store house was well filled with peltries awaiting shipment to Montreal and a profit- able season looked for. The Miamis to the number of forty, loaded with beaver skins, came from the south many leagues away to bring tribute and
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tell the commandant of their grievances. "When they came near the house of the Jesuits, canoes were sent to them that they might cross a little stream," and the chief of the delegation sent his young warriors in advance to erect cabins for their accommodation. The place of rendezvous was the mission house to which they brought one hundred and sixty beaver skins, and piled them in two heaps. Then began the tale of indignities received at the hands of the Mascoutins, of murders committed by that tribe among the Miamis and the French, ending with the words, "those beaver skins which thou seest tell thee that we have no will but thine, that if thou tellest nis to weep in silence we will not make any move."
Perrot's oratory was powerful and much liked by the savages, for he had acquired the Indian's allegorical style to a remarkable degree. Thus as he divided his merchandise into two heaps, closely watched by Pottoueotomies. Sakis, and Miamis he announced dramatically : "1 place a mat under your dead and ours, that they may sleep in peace ; and this other present is to cover them with a piece of bark in order that bad weather and rain may not disturb them." Thus he satisfied the tribes with gifts and friendly talk and as he kept his promises was much esteemed; "the most distinguished among the French- men." "his feet are on the ground, his head in the sky," "he is master of the whole earth," thus his savage vassals designated him.
It was in the year following his appointment as commander at La Baye with a detachment of forty men, that Nicholas Perrot presented to the mission of St. François Xavier the world famous silver ostensorium, the oldest relic yet found of French occupancy in Wisconsin. In June, 1686, Governor Denon- ville wrote to Commander Durantaye at Mackinac that lie purposed to make another sortie on the Iroquois, and urged him to gather the Ottawas for service. "If Nicholas Perrot can assemble some Indians to join the force of M. Dulhude. he must make haste." Perrot's intimate knowledge of Indian campaigns made him well aware that no move would be made so late in the season, for aside from the assembling of the slow moving throng, which entailed endless harangues and urging, canoes must be constructed . for a water expedition, carefully framed and sewed and pitched, and moreover the tribes were not as kindly disposed to listen to the war talk of Onontio as in former days. To make the circuit of the tribes Perrot "traveled sixty leagues on the plains without other guide than the fires, and the clouds of smoke that he saw." When he reached the Miamis he offered to them the club in behalf of Onontio with several presents, and said to them, "The eries of your dead have been heard by your father, who desiring to take pity on you has resolved to sacri- fice his young men in order to destroy the man-eater who has devoured you."
The club, the most primitive of war weapons, was accepted by the tribes and they gave their oath to use it against the Iroquois, but treachery was abroad, and Perrot could no longer depend upon the loyalty of his dusky henchmen. When near La Baye he received warning that his warehouses in the Trempeleau valley were to be plundered and burned by the Mascoutins, Kickapoos and Outagamies. After much diplomatic and threatening talk he dispersed the bands of disaffected savages who however excused themselves from accompanying the Denonville expedition on the plea that they were not accustomed to travel in canoes. Perrot doubtless with many misgivings pre-
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pared to obey the commands of Denonville, and in May, 1687, accompanied by the Pottawatomies, the only one of his Baye des Puans allies to stand by him in this campaign, he reached Michilimackinac. As the canoes drew near, the Ot- tawa bands who were on the lookout-naked and having no other ornament than their bows and arrows-marched down to the shore abreast, and formed a battal- ion. At a certain distance from the water they began to defile, uttering cries from time to time. Meanwhile the Pottawatomies set themselves in battle array to make landing. When within gunshot from the land the Frenchmen who were with the Ottawas fired a volley of cartridges, the Ottawas uttered loud shouts of "Sassakoue" and the Pottawatomies gave their war cry. Finally when the landing must be made the Ottawas rushed into the water, clubs in hands, the Pottawatomies at the same moment darting forward in their canoes, clubs in hands. Then all was pell-mell, and the Ottawas lifted up the canoes which they bore to land.
This expedition accomplished little outside of the destruction of the town and crops of the Senecas, and at its conclusion Perrot went on to Montreal in order to purchase new merchandise. While there he received the crush- ing news that the mission house of St. François Xavier had been burned by the Outagamies, Mascoutins and Kickapoos, the same Indians who had once before threatened the destruction of Perrot's warehouses. In this disastrous con- flagration went the furs that the coureur de bois had been collecting for two or more years, biding his opportunity to get them past English traders and Iroquois Indians to Montreal. The amount of his loss was 40,000 livres, about $7,500, which meant ruin to one whose sole dependence was the fur trade.
In a letter written to one of his creditors August 20, 1684, Perrot explains how the orders given him to attend the war interfered with all chance of ship- ping his peltries to Canada, and thus paying debts incurred for merchandise, "as I brought back nothing, even to pay for merchandise that I carried out, for fear of being punished for disobedience, I am ashamed." ( V. 2, p. 252.) Not all the establishment at Rapides des Pères was destroyed, for Perrot returned there in the fall of 1688 with a detachment of forty men; Denonville, who felt he had humiliated the haughty Iroquois, "was certain that trade could not be better maintained than by sending back all the voyageurs who had left their property in order to join the expedition."
In the decade between 1680-90 the English made desperate efforts to direct the beaver traffic of western waters to Albany rather than Montreal. Not so desirable as comrades the Indians found them better paymasters than the French and their promise on the whole more to be relied on. After the fur fleets left Mackinac en route for Canadian markets they were often intercepted by well equipped English traders, who tempted by generous reward not only the Indians but their French comrades to barter away a whole cargo.
This system of poaching on what the French considered their especial pre- serve caused most bitter feeling between the governors of New France and Manhattan.
In 1886 Denonville writes: "It is only necessary to ask you again what length of time we occupy these posts, and who discovered them-you or we? Again who is in possession of them? Read the fifth article of the treaty of
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neutrality and you will see if you are justified in giving orders to establish your trade at Missilimaquina."
Very cold and sarcastic is Governor Dongan's reply to what he calls "this most reflecting and provoking letter." "You tell of your having had Missionaries among them (the western Indians), it is a very charitable act, but I am well assured gives no just or title to the government of the country- Father Bryare writes to a gent; that the King of China never goes anywhere without two Jesuits with him; I wonder why you make not like pretense to that Kindome."
It is an interesting and involved study of cause and effect, this fur trade tangle in the seventeenth century with La Baye and the Fox-Wisconsin water- ways the goal of desire for two great nations; and while "Peiter Schuyler took examinations of ye antientist traders in Albany how many years agon they or any others had first traded with ye Indyans yt had ye Straws and Pipes thro' their noses and the ffarther Indyans." Nicholas Perrot was speed- ing his canoe toward these same "ffarther Indyans" only to find that discord and revolt were abroad in his post at La Baye. He was met at Washington Island entrance by a friendly and powerful chief of the Puan tribe, "a man of great sense who loved the French," and a contrary wind delaying their voyage up Green Bay Perrot had an opportunity to hear all the news. The chief informed him that the Mascoutins and Outagamies had determined to massacre all the French in their midst, "that the Outagamies had taken their hatchets which were dulled and broken, and had compelled a Jesuit brother to repair them; their Chief held a naked sword ready to kill him while he worked. The brother tried to represent to them their folly, but was so mal- treated that he had to take to his bed."
Perrot thanked the Indian for his information and told him that his secret should be carefully kept; rewarding him with the gift of a gold trimmed jacket, one of the most coveted of all French gew-gaws. He said however to tell the Outagamies that Metaminens (little Indian Corn), a name the Indians had bestowed on him when he was adopted by the tribes, would under no circumstances visit their village as he was very angry with them. The warning given by the Puan was however only confirmation of what the commander at La Baye already knew; that the Outagamies were intriguing with the English to form between the western tribes and the Iroquois con- federation a league lasting enough to exterminate the French and drive them from this region forever.
Quiet was restored for a brief season after Perrot's return to La Baye, but plots and counter-plots secthed constantly in the savage brain. The Ottawas at Mackinac hearing that all was peace among the Bay tribes judged it a fitting time to carry among them fire and sword. As the canoes approached the Rapides des Pères the savages could not refrain from shouting, "There is Metaminens who is going to stretch out legs of iron, and will compel us to retrace our steps, but let us make an effort and perhaps we shall step over them." The house of the Jesuits where the commander at La Baye resided had evidently been repaired or rebuilt after the fire of 1687. Here with much dignity he received the war delegation, apparently quite unawed by their
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blackened faces and fierce aspect. Without mentioning the object of their errand he invited them to smoke, and then asked them if they had brought any letters from Mackinac. "No, no letters," so their chief replied.
That night Perrot roused this chief and demanded sternly that he deliver up the letter in his possession. "Dost thou not suppose that the Spirit who has made writing will be angry with thee for having robbed me? Thou art going to war; art thou immortal?" Believing that the power of Metaminens made plain to him the secret thoughts of men the chief delivered up the letter, which warned Perrot that should this expedition go through, all the allied tribes to the number of two thousand warriors would rise and cause a general war.
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