USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest > Part 4
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At the central village was a great commo- tion. The warriors from all directions came pouring in. A neighboring nation had promised to join them in an invasion of the country of Iro- quois. Several days were spent in feasting and in war dances, when the swarthy army, with canoes on their shoulders, took up their line of march. They cross lake Simcoe, and then their course is through the chain of lakes and little streams which form the sources of Trent River. Here they encamp for a deer hunt. Hundreds of Indians formed in a line and drove the game to a point where, as it took to the water, it was killed by those lying in wait. Champlain highly enjoyed the sport, the guns of the French doing great execution. Their com- missariat being plentifully replenished, they proceeded on their course down the river Trent, and in a short time the fleet of canocs emerge from the mouth of the river and speedily move across Lake Ontario. They landed on the shores of the Iroquois' territory-now the State of New York, and hid their canoes in the woods. They next traveled for some distance on the shore of the lake, when they boldly struck inland, and a few day's travel brought them within the inhabited portion of their enemy's country. Soon the advance lines discovered the Iroquois in their fields of maize gathering the harvest, when, with that impetuousity characteristic of Indians, they yelled their war-whoop and blindly rushed upon them; but the Iroquois repelled the assault, killing several, when the rest retired in confusion. They were now near one of their fortified towns. Champlain describes its defences as consisting of four rows of palisades made of trunks of trees thirty feet high, set at such an angle as to make them intersect near the top, where they supported a galley made of timber supplied with wooden gutters for holding water, so constructed as to discharge their contents on the palisades in the event of their being set on fire. The water from an adjoining lake was led into the town by sluices.
Champlain, exasperated at the impetuosity of his ungovernable followers, proceeded to
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1627.]
instruct them in the art of war. With the aid of his Frenchmen, he caused the Indians to construct a large, portable wooden tower, high enough to over-look the palisade, and furnish- ing shelter to three or four marksmen. The Indians now bravely dragged it to the pali- sades; when three of the Frenchmen ascended it, and opened up a destructive fire on the crowded galleries. This was an unlooked for mode of attack. It was a fearful monster belching forth its deathly peals of fire and smoke. Champlain had provided a portion of his allies with broad, wooden shields; and endeavored to hold a portion in reserve; but when they saw the execution of the deadly . fire arms on the enemy, nothing could exceed their exultation; they dropped their shields, and, contrary to orders, swarmed into the open space before the palisades; yelling like fiends, and making such a din, that Champlain found it impossible to make them hear him. He could not restrain or guide his ungovernable crew; so they fought in their own way; Cham- plain and his men continuing to do good execu- tion with their fire-arms, and the Iroquois repelling the attack with great spirit. They filled the air with the flight of their arrows. Champlain was struck by them twice.
The attack lasted several hours, but the besieged were too strongly fortified fo Champlain's undisciplined mob to overcome them; so with seventeen wounded they fell back to the camp, the Hurons refusing to renew the attack, until allies, which they were expecting, should arrive. After waiting in vain five days, for the expected reinforcement, the disheartened Hurons began their retreat, Champlain, so badly wounded, that with some of the others, he had to be carried, he says, " bundled in a heap, doubled and strapped together after such a fashion that one could no more move than an infant in swaddling clothes. I lost all patience, and as soon as I could bear my weight, got out of this prison. "*
They reached their canoes, and, crossing the lake, are soon ascending the Trent River, and in due time reach their villages. They
*NOTE I. This history is compiled from the most reliable authorities, and may be relied on as being accurate. The most thorough investigators have found Champlain and Charlevoix to be scrupulously exact in their statements ; and all American students of the history of the French in America, regard the " Jesuit Relations " as reliable and truthful. All contempor- aneous authority sustain these records. The official papers of New France, in the French Archives, have been diligently searched hy American writers of high repute, and the historical events of the period of French history in this country, as recorded by French writers, are now unquestioned. History was never more truthfully written than by those writers, and it is so regarded by the Historical Associations of this country ; and by Bancroft, Parkman, and the other eminent American historians
declined to furnish Champlain an escort over the long route to Quebec; so he was obliged to winter with the Hurons, and in the July following he arrived at Quebec.
CHAPTER VII.
Eventful Changes - Reverses - Famine - Defenseless Condi- tion of Quebec - Piratical Attack by Three English Ships - Surrender of Quebec to the English Flag - England Compelled to Relinquish the Prize - Restoration to the French Flag - Champlain Returns from France to Quebec as Commandant of the Post -Administers the Affairs of the Colony for Ten Years Longer- His Death in 1635 - Quebec becomes the Commercial Emporium of the Great Interior of the Continent -Its Trade through the Laby- rinth of Water Arteries Branching from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi.
ANY eventful changes took place in the fortunes of these intrepid pio- ncers, in western settlement, in the space of time which intervened between the discovery of Lake Huron, and that of the Mississippi, and the commencement of settlement in the extreme Northwest, by the establishment of Missions at Michillimackinac and Green Bay.
In 1627, a trading company, called the Com- pany of New France, was organized and sov- ereign power confered upon them, with a grant of all the territorial domain of New France, from Florida to the undefined regions of Labrador.
The country was now to be held by a feu- dal proprietor, subordinate to the King of France.
The colony at Quebec, twenty years from the time it was founded, numbered less than one hundred and twenty persons. The chief business was barter with the Indians, and they depended largely for their supplies of the neces- saries of life from France. The little colony was now suffering from many reverses; but Champlain was still its life and hope. It was on the verge of starvation, and vessels with expected succor and reinforcements from France failed to arrive. At last less than a hundred men, women and children, living in the fort, were reduced to a meagre supply of peas and sagamite. The distress was so great that Champlain entertained the project of attacking one of the Iroquois villages to obtain a supply of food. The wretched inhabitants had to have recourse to the woods to obtain acorns and nutritious roots. While in this emergency three English ships appeared before Quebec, and its sur- render to the British flag was demanded. Six- teen starving men was all that Champlain had
20
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
[1633.
in the garrison to hold it. He was forced to capitulate, and the flag of St. George took the place of the Fleur de lis. This occured in July, 1629. '
Champlain crossed the Atlantic, and went to London; where, through the instrumentality of the French Embassador, "he obtained a promise from the King that in pursuance of a treaty concluded the previous April, that New France should be restored to the French Crown. '
From thence he went to France. The scheme of colonizing America was becoming unpopu- lar. The wilderness empire had only been a source of loss. It was of no use unless it could be peopled, and France had but small migra- tory force. The Huguenots, who were the enemies of Absolutism, and frequently in revolt against the Government, were excluded from the domain of France, in the New World. Although this was in keeping with the spirit of the age, it proved to be a short- sighted policy, for they settled in large num- bers in the English colonies, and proved a great element in their strength and prosperity, and a powerful aid in the future conflict between the French and English colonies.
But there were more sagacious reasoners who would not give up New France; and among them Cardinal Richelieu, the great champion of Absolutism, and the guiding genius of France. This great diplomatist, with far reaching political sagacity, comprehended the commercial importance to France of her American possessions. So by the convention of Suza, it was covenanted that New France should be restored to its former possessors, and England was compelled to relinquish the prize she had piratically obtained.
Champlain, too, would not abandon his beloved New France, and his hopes of convert- ing its barbarous tribes to Christianity, and its desert wilds into the abode of civilization. His aim was far nobler than the accomplishment of the mere ends of commercial profit. Hisaspi- rations were high and generous; and he made the ends of commerce subservient to the nobler purpose of redeeming the savage continent from the wretchedness of barbarism, and enlarging the field of human knowledge, hap- piness and usefulness; and he gave himself up to the task with a spirit of devotion and hero- ism, that has made his name imperishable.
In the spring of 1633, he received from Rich- clieu a commission, as commandant of the posts of New France, and set out once more for Quebec, where he duly arrived, and assumed command, the English having the year previous struck their flag, and surrendered
the place into the hands of the authorities sent by France to hold it.
There was great rejoicing among the Indi- ans at the return of their old friends, and especially over Champlain, whom they regarded as something more than human.
For ten years after this, he administered the affairs of New France with that executive abil- ity and integrity of purpose that had ever char- acterized his conduct, and now the career of the great explorer and the father of New France, the benefactor of the Indians, the enterprising and industrious pioneer was to draw to a close. For twenty-seven years he had guided with a master hand that vast enter- prise which had mapped out the greater part of a continent for a newempire, whose majestic proportions were to rival the grandest in the Old World. It was he who first learned its geography and made its first maps; first penetrated its remote wilds; organized its bar- barous multitudes, and taught them their first lessons in cizilization. With all this force of character and directing genius was united a kind, generous and self-sacrificing nature, guided by the highest moral impulses and a devotion to truth. His whole life attests his valor, nobleness of character and usefulness; and when he died, in 1635, it seemed as if the light of New France was extinguished.
The little colony, thus bereft of its great leader, and seeming like a waif lost in the wil- derness, was the feeble beginning of that French-Indian empire, which eventually embraced in its territorial domain the whole valley of the St. Lawrence, the basin of the Great Lakes, and the immense valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi; absorbing its Indian tribes, and organizing them into a semi-civili- zation, which held in its control all that vast territory for over a century. From its starting or initial point on the St. Lawrence-the out- let of that labyrinth of water courses, branch- ing out to the far-off land of the Dacotahs on the west, and to the tropical shores of the Gulf of Mexico on the south, it gradually extended its lines of communication, establishing its forts, missions and trading posts, which, at long intervals apart, were mere specks of civili- zation in the immensity of the wilderness. But we shall see how this little hamlet on the wild banks of the St. Lawrence soon became the metropolis of the vast regions with which it was connected by its trading posts and water courses, and where fleets of canoes numbering hundreds were arriving and departing, bring- ing tribes from Green Bay, Michillimackinac and the Mississippi, to mingle in this common center, with those from the Ohio and the dis-
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1633.]
trict of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence-the canoes frequently covering the broad stream for miles, while myriads of wigwams lined the shores of the river. Here the various Indian dialects were heard mingling in discordant jar- gon on the busy marts of Indian barter; and here the fragile bark canoe that came a thous- and miles from the distant interior, and that had run the hazardous rapids of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, met the stately ships that had breasted the waves of the Atlantic. Barbarism and civilization here met face to face, and mingled their incongruous elements; the one to recede, the other to advance, until its mighty forces held in its undisputed pos- . session the once savage continent.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Huron Missions - Arrival of the Jesuits - They Take Charge of the American Missions - Jean de Brebeuf, Daniel and Davost -Their Journey to the Hurons - The Bark Mission House -Instructing the Indians in Defensive Works - The Indian's Idea of the Christian Heaven - Frightful Ravages of the Pestilence among the Indians - They Persecute the Jesuits - Arrival of Nuns at Quebec - Founding of Montreal - The First Century of the History of the Interior of the Continent Like a Tale of Chivalry.
HE Franciscan Friars, who had estab- lished five missions in the territory from Acadia to Lake Huron, found their forces inadequate to the require- ments of the great task before them, and to the charge of the Jesuits was given the control of the missionary field of labor. In 1626, three of the brotherhood embarked from France for Quebec, where they duly arrived, and commenced that task which will make their name forever famous in the early annals of American history. Their names were Lalle- mant, Masse and Jean de Brebeuf. The latter was a Norman, a descendant of a noble family of Normandy - a man of most imposing pres- ence, born to command, of fine physical pro- portions, highly gifted by nature, and of great educational attainments. They set themselves to work to master the Algonquin and Huron languages, which in due time were acquired, and then Brebeuf went to his assigned place, the distant Huron mission - the post formerly occupied by Le Caron.
When Champlain returned to Quebec after its evacuation by the British in 1633, the Jesuit force had received accessions, in the person of the Father Superior, Paul Le Jeune and others; and, among those assembled at Que- bec on Champlain's arrival was Brebeuf, who
had lived for two years at the Huron Mission, and who now was to return to his post accom- panied by Father Daniel and Davost. But a difficulty occurring with the Hurons, the priests were obliged to put off their journey for a year. In the mean time, they assiduously studied the Huron language, and made due prepara- tions to be in readiness to accompany the Hurons, when they made their next annual trip up the Ottawa.
"Le Jeune had learned the difficulties of the Algonquin mission. To imagine that he recoiled or faltered would be an injustice to his order; but on two points he had gained convic- tions : First, that little progress could be made in converting these wandering hordes till they could be settled in fixed abodes; and, secondly, that their scanty numbers, their geo- graphical position, and their slight influence in the politics of the wilderness offered no flattering promise that their conver- sion would be fruitful in further triumphs of the Faith. It was to another quarter the Jesuits looked most earnestly. By the vast lakes of the West dwelt numerous stationary populations, and particularly the Hurons, on the lake which bears their name. Here was a hopeful basis of indefinite conquests; for, the Hurons won over, the Faith would spread in wider and wider circlet, embracing, one by one, the kindred tribes --- the Tobacco Nation, the Neutrals, the Eries, and the Andastes. Nay, in His own time, God might lead into His fold even the potent and ferocious Iroquois."
"The way was pathless and long, by rock and torrent and the gloom of savage forests. The goal was more dreary yet. Toil, hardships, famine, filth, sickness, solitude, insult - all that is most revolting to men nurtured among arts and letters, all that is most terrific to monastic credulity: such were the promise and the reality of the Huron mission. In the eyes of the Jesuits, the Huron country was the innermost stronghold of Satan, his castle and his donjon-keep. All the weapons of his malice were prepared against the bold invader who should assail him in this, the heart of his ancient domain. Far from shrinking, the priest's zeal rose to tenfold ardor. He signed the cross, invoked St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, or St. Fran- cis Borgia, kissed his reliquary, said nine masses to the Virgin, and stood prompt to battle with all the hosts of Hell."
"A life sequestered from social intercourse, and remote from every prize which ambition holds worth the pursuit, or a lonely death, under forms, perhaps, the most appalling - these were the missionaries' alternatives. Their maligners may taunt them, if they will, with credulity, superstition, or a blind enthusiasm ; but slander itself cannot accuse them of hypocrisy or ambition. Doubtless, in their propagandism, they were act- ing in concurrance with a mundane policy ; hut, for the present at least, this policy was rational and humane. They were pro- . moting the ends of commerce and national expansion. The foundations of French dominions were to be laid deep in the heart and conscience of the savage. His stubborn neck was to be subdued to the 'yoke of the Faith.' The power of the priest established, that of the temporal ruler was secured. These sanguinary hordes, weaned from intestine strife, were to unite in a common allegiance to God and the King. Mingled with French traders and French settlers, softened by French manners, guided by French priests, ruled by French officers, their now divided bands would hecome the constituents of a vast wilderness empire, which in time might span the conti-
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
[1634.
nen1. Spanish civilization crushed the Indian ; English civili- zation scorned and neglected him; French civilization embraced and cherished him." - Parkman's Jesuits in North America.
In the summer of 1634, the Indians having made their yearly descent of the Ottawa, were congregated in lesser numbers than usual, at Three Rivers. It seems that a terrible pesti- lence had broken out in their country and was prevailing with great virulence. They were much dejected; and it was with the greatest difficulty that their consent was obtained, for the Jesuits to accompany them to their homes. In a few days the wild multitude departed, and in their midst were the three black-robed Jesuits, paddling with the rest, and on their way to the mouth of the Ottawa. Their route was the same toilsome one over which Cham- plain and Le Caron had travelled years before. The distance was some nine hundred miles, and required a month to travel it. Brebeuf count- ed thirty-five portages where the canoes had to be carried around rapids. They were com- pelled to go bare-foot, so as not to injure the frail canoes and more than fifty times they had to wade in the rapid current over the shoal places; dragging the, canoe by ropes. Their bare feet were cut by the sharp stones, and although Brebeuf was a man of fine physical powers, he doubted if his strength would hold out to the journey's end. At last they reach the shores of Lake Huron, and then their place of embarkation. But the three missionaries had been separated at some distant point on the route, Brebeuf's Indian companions now threw his baggage on the ground and strided off to their respective villages, leaving him alone in the wilderness, on the shore of the lake, to his own resources. He was familiar with the place; so hiding his luggage in the woods, he looked up a trail and following it, soon came to an opening in the forest and saw the bark lodges of Ihonatiara. As the black- robed figure emerged from the forest, the crowd rushed out from the village to meet him, shouting a glad welcome. They were his old friends. A number of young Indians went with him to recover his luggage, which was obtained and carried to his abode, the hospitable roof of a thrifty Indian, whose bark lodge was abundantly supplied with corn and other staples of Indian food. Here he waited for some weeks, in anxious expectation of the arrival of Daniel and Davost. At last, they appeared, exhausted with fatigue. They then selected the most populous town of the Hurons for their abode, which they called Rochelle, and where the Indians constructed for them a house, thirty feet long and twenty wide. The
inner construction with its contents was a marvel, the fame of which attracted myriads of visitors. The clock, mill and magnifying glass were wonders of wonders.
They now settled down to the regular rou- tine of their daily life. They had four working men attached to the mission. There was their garden plat, for corn and vegetables, to culti- vate. This work was done by themselves, and their men, who varied the task in hunting and fishing. At the stroke of four by the clock, all Indian visitors were expected to retire, which they did, the demand of the clock being deemed imperative; when the door was barred, and the study of the Huron language entered into, by cultivated minds that could master all the peculiarities of theconstruction. Certain hours were devoted to the instruction ofthe children. and others to visiting the sick; and as the Hurons were kept in constant fear of an attack by the Iroquois, a portion of time was used in instructing them the art of constructing defen- sive works. They found the Indians more apt in comprehending the benefits to be derived from these, than from the doctrines of the christian religion. At times, they secured attention to their religious teachings; but the Indians were too strongly wedded to their savage vices, habits and inclinations, to readily give them up; so the converts were few. The poor Jesuits were horrified at the shame- less sensuality of the Indians, and their obscene banter. The young squaws were wan- tons, without any moral or modest restraint on their inclinations; and frequently had three or four temporary marriages, before a perma- nent one. The continual protestations of the Jesuits were for a long time of no avail, except in individual instances. The Indians would answer " that they were a different people from the French, and not suited for the Frenchman's Heaven; and that it did not contain the enjoy- ments of Indian life; their was no hunting ground there, and no war dances." One Indian girl pretended that she died and went there, and found that all the converted Indians there were slaves to the pale faces. They beat them and made drudges of them, and that was what they were so anxious to convert them for. She escaped and was glad to get back and warn her people. The superstitious nature of the Indians, inclined to a belief in all such improbable stores; and this one, artfully told, found many believers.
During the prevalence of the pestilence, one of them said to the Jesuits: "I see plainly that your God is angry with us, because we will not believe and obey him. Ihonatiara, where you first taught his word, is entirely
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1638-42.]
ruined. Then you came here to Ossossane, and we would not listen; so Ossossane is ruined too. This year you have been all through our country, and found scarcely any who would do what God commands; therefore the pestilence is everywhere." The fathers considered this most hopeful and logical reasoning, but their anticipations of a profitable application were dashed, when he continued: "My opinion is, that we ought to shut you out from all the houses, and stop our ears when you speak of God, so that we cannot hear; then we shall not be guilty of rejecting the truth, and he will not punish us so cruelly.
The pestilence, that had now prevailed for over a year, was committing terrible ravages, and deaths were occurring with frightful rapidity. A superstitious fear took possession of them, that the mysterious black-robes were sorcerers, and were partially answerable for their misfortunes, and that they had bewitched the nation. They held them in mysterious awe, as powers who could perform marvels, and yet they and their Great Spirit would not relieve them. They gathered in ominous knots and in dejection and terror denounced the poor Jesuits as evil magicians. Councils were held in which they were doomed to death; but each fearcd to execute the sentence. When they entered the sick lodge, the inmates would tell them to go. If they accosted a sick one, he would avert his face and refuse to answer. They were abused and insulted at every oppor- tunity; but nothing diverted them from their purpose of visiting the sick, and baptizing the dying infants.
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