USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest > Part 5
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At last, some of their converts came to them secretly, and told them that their death was decreed. Their house was set on fire; they were persecuted and reviled in every possible manner, and then called to appear in council, which they did with such an undaunted front, as to astonish the Indians, and secure a post- ponement of judgment. For some reason, the hostility to them somewhat abated; their friends multiplied, and comparative safety was assured.
In 1638, a number of mechanics, from Que- bec, arrived at the Huron Mission, and built a wooden chapel at Ossossane, where there were about sixty converts. This was looked upon as a marvel of architecture. Years passed, and mission houses multiplied in the Huron and Ottawa countries.
The cause of Christianity in the American wilds, aroused a fervor in France, that was like the enthusiasm of the days of the Crusades. High-born ladies, even, among them, the young, beautiful and accomplished, contributed their wealth, and joining religious orders, went
to Quebec. On their arrival, the cannon roared a welcome; soldiers and priests assembled at the landing, and when the nuns reached the shore, they kneeled and kissed the sacred soil. The Indians regarded them as divinities. They were conducted to an enclosure of palisades, which contained a church and other buildings, and among them a number of log cabins, in which lived Indian converts. In their demon- strations of delight, at meeting their pupils, they seized and kissed every female Indian child they could find, fondling them "without minding," says Father Le Juene, "whether they were dirty or not. Love and charity triumphed over every human consideration."
Madame de la Peltrie, a young widow and scion of Norman nobility, was of the number. She was, in fact, the patronesss of the enter- prise, having wealth at her command. In her zeal, she was for going to the Huron Mission, and it was with difficulty that she could be restrained from such an unheard of under- taking.
They took up their quarters in a small wooden building, until the large stone convent was built, three years aterwards. Here they were crowded with such a number of children that the floor was covered with beds, and the labor was unceasing. While thus situated, the small-pox broke out among the neighboring Indians, when they flocked to Quebec for relief. A hospital had been formerly estab- lished, in which the hospital nuns were now ensconced. This was soon filled to overflowing, and various cabins werc occupied by the sick. Here lay the sick and dying savages, on the floor and in berths; while in the midst of the most revolting scenes of distress, the nuns heroically labored, sometimes without sufficient food. The disease at last abated, and released them from their exhausting toil.
Among them was a fair, delicate girl, Marie de St. Bernard, of whom another sister writes: "Her disposition is charming. In our times of recreation, she often makes us cry with laugh- ing. It would be hard to be melancholy when she is near. "
The site of Montreal, up to this period, was merely a camping ground, temporarily occu- pied by the traders, during the season of the yearly descent of the Indians with their furs.
In 1642, a colony arrived from France, endowed by charitable and religious enthusiasts, for the purpose of establishing religious houses on the site of Montreal. In May, of that year, they proceeded to that point, one of the most exposed to the attacks of the Iroquois. Among them was Mademoiselle Mance, a nun from France, and two other women. They were
24
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1635.]
accompanied by Madame de La Peltrie, front Quebec. and the new colony was under the command of Maisonneuve, a name honored in the early annals of the country for meritorious and heroic conduct.
They landed and immediately erected an altar, which the ladies decorated with great taste. The priest put on his vestment, and then the ladies, officers in uniform, soldiers and laborers assembled before it, and kneeled on the bare ground while offering up their adora- tions. When the service was over they pitched their tents, made their camp fires and partook of their repast. The soldiers then stationed their guard, and, amid the silence of the forest night, they retire to their tents. In the morning a provisional chapel was built of bark, and then commenced the erection of wooden structures. Such was the founding of Mont- real. On Sunday afternoon they strolled through the pleasant surrounding meadows and adjoining forests, admiring the wild flowers and the birds which enlivened the scene with their gay warblings.
But, lurking in the thickets, were the deadly Iroquois, that might at any moment make a descent on them, and put all their valor and heroism to the severest test.
The first century of the history of the inte- rior of this continent is more like a tale of chivalry or romance than reality. The glowing pages which relate the long struggle between the Moorish dynasty of Spain and the Gothic Monarchy, and which culminated in the splen- did reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, grand as they are, in dramatic effect, must pale their ineffectual fires before those of the great drama that embraced a continent in its scenes.
The opening act presents the vast, savage continent, as a theatre of unceasing war between the several Indian nations inhabiting it. Groups of painted savages, in every direc- tion, are on the war-path; some filing through the dark recesses of the forest; others writhing through the contortions of the war-dance. In one place a village is in flames, and its lurid glare lights up a scene of pillage and massacre, in which men, women and children are indis- criminately slaughtered amid the most fiend- ish exultations. A tribe or a nation is exter- minated, and its populous abodes converted into a desolation. In another village the whole population is assembled, to rejoice over the return of the victorious warriors and enjoy the torture of their prisoners, who must run the gauntlet, the victims of the most atrocious cruelty that savage invention can devise.
New actors appear on the scene. On the wild banks of the St. Lawrence a little group
of heroes - a mere handful - have come, who propose to boldly push into this vast field of carnage, and interpose their fecble numbers against the savage multitude, in an effort to check the bloody strife, and unite the warring tribes in the bonds of peace and good will. Will they have the temerity to enter this field of bloodshed and terror, dependent alone on their skill, courage and fortitude?
The scene shifts, and Champlain is the great central figure in the drama, who, with four comrades, is seen in the midst of a swarthy multitude, who are his allies. He has invaded the tigers' den-the hunting grounds of the terrible Iroquois, that have been so long licking their bloody jaws and revelling in spoils and carnage. He has become the great captain of the Algonquins, and will lead them against the foe which has so long ravaged the country.
The forests resounds with the sounds of battle; the war-whoops' shrill cry is heard; the Iroquois have met a foe they cannot conquer, and flee in dismay before the victorious legions of Champlain's allies.
Another scene presents the distant solitudes of Lake Huron, with Champlain standing on its shores, whither he has penetrated -nine hundred miles in the interior. Anon the scene shifts, and the black-robed Jesuit is seen, pad- dling his canoe on some stream in the distant forest, or dragging it through the rapids. In another, delicate and high-born ladies, even the young and accomplished, are surrounded by troops of little Indian girls-again the scene discloses them in the frightful hospital, amid the deadly pestilence and the repulsive scenes of disease and death, unremittingly toil- ing with heroic fortitude.
On the bank of some forest lake or river, is a tableau. A motley crowd is gathered around the camp fire, which lights up the sombre for- est, and throws its fitful lights and shadows on the picturesque group, in which are seen promiscuously mingled, the black robe of the Jesuit, the red cap and sash of the courrier des bois, the half naked savage and the gay uniform of the French officer. Next comes that inexorable event that interrupts all the plans of man. The little hamlet of Quebec is shrouded in gloom. The misserere is chanted, and the whole population is in tears. The light of New France is extinguished. The great cap- tain and hero will no longer guide its steps in the pathway of its progress. The immortal Champlain has yielded to the demands of the common lot, and all his cares, ambitions and noble aspirations have come to an end.
The scene shifts; the Iroquois are again on the war-path: their great foeman, Champlain,
25
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1638-42.]
is no longer a terror and obstacle to their ambi- tious domination. Their war-party, a thous- and strong, glides along the forest trail; the war-whoop again rings out its frightful peal - the defenseless mission house is in flames, and lights up with lurid glare the midnight mas- sacre, and the troops of exultant fiends, fren- zied with blood and carnage. The beautiful country of the Hurons is one wide-spread scene of desolation. Its villages are depopulated and its people are scattered outcasts. A nation is destroyed !!
CHAPTER IX.
Iroquois War - They Boast that They will Exterminate all the Other Indian Nations and the French - The Capture and Sufferings of Isaac Jouges - Building of Fort Richelieu - Defeat of the Iroquois by a Small French Force.
BE have seen that when the whites first came to the country, they found the Iroquois waging a relentless war against the Algonquins and Hurons. For over thirty years the French had been endeavoring to suppress these hostilities, but in vain. The Iroquois had obtained fire-arms from the Dutch traders on the Hudson, and the compact organization of this confederacy, and their long success on the war-path made them defiant. The only obsta- cle to their domination was, the handful of French, whose whole force at this period did not amount to three hundred able-bodied men; and this so scattered through the broad region they attempted to defend from the ravages of the marauders, that they were exposed at all points to their attacks. The heroic courage of his small band rises to the point of the highest sublimity, when they are seen boldly facing the formidable enemy, so familiar with forest warfarc, and before whom all the other Indian nations cowered, as from an irresistless scourge.
The Iroquois, with their formidable weapons and war-like skill, were now so confident of their strength that they boasted that the whole country should yield to their domination; that they would exterminate the French and all the other Indian nations; and for a time it seemed as if they would make good their threats. They would concentrate their whole force in a sud- den attack on the villages of the Indian allies of the French, coming like a whirlwind and disap- pearing as suddenly, leaving their track a blackened desolation. The Algonquins now leaned on the French as their only hope for protection. But the defenseless posts of the French were equally exposed. 4
The St. Lawrence and the Ottawa rivers were so infested with war parties, that com- munication between the posts and missions was suspended; and it seemed as if nothing could save the colony from impending ruin. But the Governor Montmagny began a vigor- ous defense, and the arrival of forty soldiers, sent out by Cardinal Richelieu, was a rein- forcement much valued,but totally inadequate.
The Huron Missions, distant nine-hundred miles from Quebec, and approachable only through a wilderness beset with blood-thirsty foes, was in a most precarious situation, and in the greatest destitution. Inthis emergency a brave young Jesuit, Isaac Jouges, volun- teered to go to their assistance with a small body of men and much needed supplies. He had formerly pushed his way to the Sault St. Maric, the outlet of Lake Superior, and he now undertook the perilous task of relieving the destitution of his comrades in the Huron country.
In the spring of 1642, he started with three Frenchmen and a number of Hurons, in twelve canoes, with munitions, provisions and other needful supplies. While on the passage, they were suddenly attacked by a large body of Iroquois. The war-whoop rung out on the stillness of the forest, and a shower of bullets rattled among the canoes. The Hurons, in the rear, pushed rapidly to the shore, jumped from the canoes, and, abandoning everything, fled in terror through the woods. A number of converted Hurons, with the four whites, made a valiant resistance, but were over-pow- ered by vastly superior numbers. Jouges and his conpanions were now subjected to the cruel- est torture that the most devilish ingenuity could invent. They were taken to a large camp of the enemy and made to run the gaunt- let, where he was so beaten and bruised in the passage, that he fell drenched in blood, which fell from his face and naked body like drops of rain. Fire was then applied to his muti- lated body, and his hands were lacerated, the brutes biting them with their teeth. During the night, while the sufferers tried to rest, the young warriors came and pulled out their hair by hands-full and lacerated their wounds. They were taken to a village and again com- pelled to pass between two rows of savages, and beaten with rods. They were next placed on a scaffold, and the crowd of fiends, with knives in their hands, mounted and hacked them, taking care to avoid giving them a fatal blow. At night they were bound to stakes in a prostrate position, and then given up to the children as subjects for torture.
They were next taken to another town for
26
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
[1642.
an exhibition. While crossing a brook, Jouges, unmindful of his suffering, found consolation in the opportunity to baptize two of the Iluron prisoners. Three of the Hurons were now burned to death, and Jouges and Goupel, one of his companions, expected to share their fate. Goupel was killed by a blow of a hatchet, and Jouges was astonished, day after day, to find himself alive. His life was spared, but he found it almost unendurable. At last they allowed him to go from town to town, to see the Indian captives, that they were continually bringing in. His time was, therefore, occupied in converting and baptizing them, and he began to congratulate himself that his capture was a providential means for saving souls. A greater heroism and more sublime devotion has seldom been recorded. At last he was rescued by some Dutch traders, went to their seaport, and taking passage in a vessel, reached France. Here his mutilated appearance excited the greatest commiseration. The following spring. he returned to Canada, voluntary exposing himself to the same hazards. Two years after- wards the Iroquois were at peace with the French, having been taught a salutary lesson, and notwithstanding the terrible sufferings he endured at their hands, he accepted a mission among them, feeling a presentiment of his death when he started; for he wrote: "I shall go, but I shall not return." When he arrived among the Mohawks, crowds assembled to gaze at the man they had once so abused, but who now represented a power they were taught to respect. The old grudge breaking out again, a hostile party of Iroquois seized him and led him and a companion to their town, where he was again subjected to their atrocious cruelties. They cut strips of flesh from his back and arms, and at last a blow from a hatchet killed him.
The Governor of New France, Montmagny, began a vigorous defense. His allies, the Algonquins, were sadly decimated by the rav- ages of the enemy, and those of pestilence and- famine, and were now tractable subjects under his management. The mortality among them was so great that Father Vimont records: "Where eight years ago, one would sec a hun- dred wigwams, one now sees only five or six. A chief, who once had eight hundred warriors has now but thirty or forty; and in place of fleets of three or four hundred canoes, we sec less than a tenth of that number."
The eastern Algonquins were being rapidly exterminated. Nothing but the French could save them. The Iroquois, well provided with fire-arms, were sweeping everything before them, and the whole country was one vast
battle-ground. Montmagny now determined to establish a fort at the mouth of the Richelieu, the present site of the town of Sorel. He, therefore, dispatched the soldiers sent by Richelieu, and a number of laborers and mechanics, about a hundred in all, to that point, where they arrived in August, 1642. It was a few days after the capture of Jouges, and here they found ghastly evidences of the bloody work - the heads of the slain stuck on poles, and Indian picture-writing on the peeled trunks of trees, detailing the exploit.
While they were engaged in erecting their defenses, they were suddenly surprised by two or three hundred Iroquois; but the French, quickly forming in line of battle, repulsed the enemy with great loss to the latter, who, aban- doning even their guns, fled in terror.
Finding that they were no match for even the small numbers of the French, they hunted out the encampments of Algonquins, like blood- hounds. One instance, among the many, will suffice to show the ferocity of these attacks. A party of Algonquins on a winter hunt in the depths of the northern forests, and, as they thought, far removed from danger, were suddenly surprised by the enemy, who, hunt- ing them out in this remote place, fell upon them at midnight. The prisoners taken were bound, and some of them were cut into pieces, put into kettles, boiled and caten. " They ate men," says Vimont in the Relations, "with as much appetite, and with more pleasure, than hunters eat a bear or stag." They delighted in bantering their prisoners. Said one of them to an old Algonquin: "Uncle, you are a dead man. You are going to the land of souls; tell them to take heart; they will have good com- pany soon, for we are going to send all the rest of your nation to join them."
In the spring of this year, Father Bressani started for the Huron country. At the mouth of the St. Lawrence, he and his small party were captured by the enemy and taken to Lake Champlain, where there was a fishing camp of four hundred Iroquois. Here, he and the other prisoners were subjected to the most cruel tor- tures. They split his hand with a knife, stripped him and placed him on a scaffold, burnt him with hot irons, and forced him to walk on hot coals to make him dance. For eight nights they enjoyed this entertainment, and then took him to one of their villages, where his torture was renewed. He was finally ransomed by some Dutch traders. Some time after this, a peace was patched up with the Iroquois, which only lasted a short time, when hostilities were again renewed.
27
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1648-49.]
CHAPTER X.
Iroquois War - Invasion of the Huron Country - Destruction of the Hurons and the Huron Missions - Conflagration of the Indian Villages and the Mission Houses - Bravery of the Missionaries - Their Terrible Death - Indian Battle - The Hurons and Offawas Abandon their Country and Settle in the Northwest, at Michilimackinac, Sault St. Marie and Green Bay.
N an inlet of the Bay of Matchedash, on Lake Huron, is the outlet of a small lake situated two miles inland. Near the shore of this lake was the Central Huron Mission, Fort Sainte Marie. The buildings were in an enclosure, two sides of which were built of stone masonry, the other two sides of palisades. This was the scene of a bountiful hospitality, to which the con- verts frequently flocked from the most distant villages. Here, on festival days, immense assem- blages gathered to witness the ceremonies of the church and receive instructions in its doctrines. There were, in the Huron country, at the several missions, eighteen priests, thirty men attached to them in different capacities, and eight soldiers.
The country of the Hurons, as before described, was a beautiful and fertile one, inter- spersed with meadows, luxuriant forests, and cultivated fields. It contained about twenty villages. The ravages of the pestilence and the Iroquois combined had greatly reduced the population; and now, in 1648, the Iro- quois had again broken the peace and taken the war-path, desolating the country in every direction. They had sacked and burned the mission of St. Joseph, killed the missionary Daniel, and laid waste the country around it.
In the following spring, 1649, the inmates of Sainte Marie saw dense clouds of smoke aris- ing to the south-east; it was the conflagration of St. Louis. The Iroquois had renewed their work. A thousand warriors appeared before the mission of St. Louis where were stationed Brebeuf and Lalemant. The greater part of the Hurons of the village were absent on a hunt, and there were only about eighty warriors left to defend it. The Jesuits encouraged these to make a valiant resistance, which they did, but of no avail. They were overcome; the village was set on fire, and the inmates slaughtered. Brebeuf was bound to a stake; and as he threatened them in the most undaunted man- ner, showing no signs of fear, and exhorting his Huron converts to merit Heaven by their conduet, they tried to silence him by scorching him, after stripping him naked. He continued to speak with unchanged countenance; when they cut off his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. His majestic form, in all the
dignity of the sublimest courage, still stood erect and undaunted. They then took Lale- mant and enveloped him with bark smeared with pitch, which they ignited. In his agony he threw up his arms in supplication to Heaven. They next cut strips of flesh from Brebeuf and poured hot water on him, but he would not flinch.
At last they scalped him, and opened his breast, when a number of them drank his blood, to imbibe his courage. One tore out his heart and ate it. Thus died the brave founder of the Huron Missions.
Lalemant, after suffering protracted tortures, was slain by a blow from a hatchet.
A large body of Huron warriors, appearing near Sainte Marie, intercepted a body of the Iroquois, whom they defeated, when the latter fled toward St. Louis. Although they had burned the village, the palisades were yet standing, and within them the Iroquois took shelter. They were followed by the Hurons, who again attacked and dislodged them, put- ting them again to rout. The Hurons held the place, and the enemy fled to their main body, which turned in rage back to St. Louis, to obtain revenge for the defeat of their com- rades. Here, now, occurred one of the most desperate Indian battles on record. The Hurons did not exceed two hundred, while the Iroquois were more than quadruple that num- ber. The latter were largely armed with guns, while the arms of the former were principally bows and arrows, hatchets and knives; but they fought bravely, repelling again and again the attacks of their assailants. It was a hand- to-hand fight, and was kept up till after night. The forests resounded with the yells of battle, and it did not end till all of the Hurons were slain except twenty. The Iroquois lost a hun- dred in killed, while many more were wounded.
Fearing now that a large force of Hurons would come upon them, they made a hasty retreat to their homes.
The priests of St. Marie, learning that the invaders had retreated, immediately pro- ceeded to the scene of earnage. St. Louis and St. Ignace presented a spectacle of horror. The ground was strewn with the dead and mutilated bodies of men, women and children, some of them partly consumed in the confla- gration which destroyed the villages. The remains of Brebeuf and Lalemant were found, and conveyed to St. Marie, and consigned to their last resting place.
War and pestilence had done their work on the Hurons; their ranks were sadly decreased; large numbers were fugitives; their fields were running to waste; their supply of food scanty;
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
1649.]
many of their villages were destroyed, and they were without organization or hope.
Their former beautiful country was a scene of havoc and desolation. The ravages of the Iroquois were exterminating them. There was no alternative, but the abandonment of their country, and flight. The Hurons, as a nation, had perished, and their country relapsed into the solitude of the wilderness.
Some of them found an asylum among kin- dred nations, while others sought out new homes in the wilds of the islands of Lake Huron. The following year, this point was abandoned, and the Jesttits returned to Que- bec, accompanied by some of the Huron bands. Other bands of Hurons and Ottawas went to Michilimackinac, Sault St. Marie and Green Bay, to seek out new homes in the Northwest, where, in alliance with the powerful Ojibewas ( Chippewas ), who had preceeded them, they might be able to resist the further ravages of their deadly enemy.
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