France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
being enabled to visit the nations on the river Mississippi,--this very
day was precisely that on which M. Joliet arrived with orders from Count
Frontenac, our governor, and from M. Talon, our intendant, to go with me
on this discovery. I was all the more delighted at this good news,
because I saw my plans about to be accomplished, and found myself in the
happy necessity of exposing my life for the salvation of all these
tribes,--and especially of the Illinois, who, when I was at Point St.
Esprit, had begged me very earnestly to bring the word of God among
them."
[Sidenote: DEPARTURE.]
The outfit of the travellers was very simple. They provided themselves
with two birch canoes, and a supply of smoked meat and Indian corn;
embarked with five men, and began their voyage on the seventeenth of
May. They had obtained all possible information from the Indians, and
had made, by means of it, a species of map of their intended route.
"Above all," writes Marquette, "I placed our voyage under the protection
of the Holy Virgin Immaculate, promising that if she granted us the
favor of discovering the great river, I would give it the name of the
Conception."[50] Their course was westward; and, plying their paddles,
they passed the Straits of Michilimackinac, and coasted the northern
shores of Lake Michigan, landing at evening to build their camp-fire at
the edge of the forest, and draw up their canoes on the strand. They
soon reached the river Menomonie, and ascended it to the village of the
Menomonies, or Wild-rice Indians.[51] When they told them the object of
their voyage, they were filled with astonishment, and used their best
ingenuity to dissuade them. The banks of the Mississippi, they said,
were inhabited by ferocious tribes, who put every stranger to death,
tomahawking all new-comers without cause or provocation. They added that
there was a demon in a certain part of the river, whose roar could be
heard at a great distance, and who would engulf them in the abyss where
he dwelt; that its waters were full of frightful monsters, who would
devour them and their canoe; and, finally, that the heat was so great
that they would perish inevitably. Marquette set their counsel at
naught, gave them a few words of instruction in the mysteries of the
Faith, taught them a prayer, and bade them farewell.
The travellers next reached the mission at the head of Green Bay;
entered Fox River; with difficulty and labor dragged their canoes up the
long and tumultuous rapids; crossed Lake Winnebago; and followed the
quiet windings of the river beyond, where they glided through an endless
growth of wild rice, and scared the innumerable birds that fed upon it.
On either hand rolled the prairie, dotted with groves and trees,
browsing elk and deer.[52] On the seventh of June, they reached the
Mascoutins and Miamis, who, since the visit of Dablon and Allouez, had
been joined by the Kickapoos. Marquette, who had an eye for natural
beauty, was delighted with the situation of the town, which he describes
as standing on the crown of a hill; while, all around, the prairie
stretched beyond the sight, interspersed with groves and belts of tall
forest. But he was still more delighted when he saw a cross planted in
the midst of the place. The Indians had decorated it with a number of
dressed deer-skins, red girdles, and bows and arrows, which they had
hung upon it as an offering to the Great Manitou of the French; a sight
by which Marquette says he was "extremely consoled."
[Sidenote: THE WISCONSIN RIVER.]
The travellers had no sooner reached the town than they called the
chiefs and elders to a council. Joliet told them that the governor of
Canada had sent him to discover new countries, and that God had sent his
companion to teach the true faith to the inhabitants; and he prayed for
guides to show them the way to the waters of the Wisconsin. The council
readily consented; and on the tenth of June the Frenchmen embarked
again, with two Indians to conduct them. All the town came down to the
shore to see their departure. Here were the Miamis, with long locks of
hair dangling over each ear, after a fashion which Marquette thought
very becoming; and here, too, the Mascoutins and the Kickapoos, whom he
describes as mere boors in comparison with their Miami townsmen. All
stared alike at the seven adventurers, marvelling that men could be
found to risk an enterprise so hazardous.
The river twisted among lakes and marshes choked with wild rice; and,
but for their guides, they could scarcely have followed the perplexed
and narrow channel. It brought them at last to the portage, where, after
carrying their canoes a mile and a half over the prairie and through the
marsh, they launched them on the Wisconsin, bade farewell to the waters
that flowed to the St. Lawrence, and committed themselves to the current
that was to bear them they knew not whither,--perhaps to the Gulf of
Mexico, perhaps to the South Sea or the Gulf of California. They glided
calmly down the tranquil stream, by islands choked with trees and
matted with entangling grape-vines; by forests, groves, and prairies,
the parks and pleasure-grounds of a prodigal Nature; by thickets and
marshes and broad bare sand-bars; under the shadowing trees, between
whose tops looked down from afar the bold brow of some woody bluff. At
night, the bivouac,--the canoes inverted on the bank, the flickering
fire, the meal of bison-flesh or venison, the evening pipes, and slumber
beneath the stars; and when in the morning they embarked again, the mist
hung on the river like a bridal veil, then melted before the sun, till
the glassy water and the languid woods basked breathless in the sultry
glare.[53]
[Sidenote: THE MISSISSIPPI.]
On the seventeenth of June they saw on their right the broad meadows,
bounded in the distance by rugged hills, where now stand the town and
fort of Prairie du Chien. Before them a wide and rapid current coursed
athwart their way, by the foot of lofty heights wrapped thick in
forests. They had found what they sought, and "with a joy," writes
Marquette, "which I cannot express," they steered forth their canoes on
the eddies of the Mississippi.
Turning southward, they paddled down the stream, through a solitude
unrelieved by the faintest trace of man. A large fish, apparently one of
the huge cat-fish of the Mississippi, blundered against Marquette's
canoe, with a force which seems to have startled him; and once, as they
drew in their net, they caught a "spade-fish," whose eccentric
appearance greatly astonished them. At length the buffalo began to
appear, grazing in herds on the great prairies which then bordered the
river; and Marquette describes the fierce and stupid look of the old
bulls, as they stared at the intruders through the tangled mane which
nearly blinded them.
[Sidenote: THE ILLINOIS INDIANS.]
They advanced with extreme caution, landed at night, and made a fire to
cook their evening meal; then extinguished it, embarked again, paddled
some way farther, and anchored in the stream, keeping a man on the watch
till morning. They had journeyed more than a fortnight without meeting a
human being, when, on the twenty-fifth, they discovered footprints of
men in the mud of the western bank, and a well-trodden path that led to
the adjacent prairie. Joliet and Marquette resolved to follow it; and
leaving the canoes in charge of their men, they set out on their
hazardous adventure. The day was fair, and they walked two leagues in
silence, following the path through the forest and across the sunny
prairie, till they discovered an Indian village on the banks of a river,
and two others on a hill half a league distant.[54] Now, with beating
hearts, they invoked the aid of Heaven, and, again advancing, came so
near, without being seen, that they could hear the voices of the
Indians among the wigwams. Then they stood forth in full view, and
shouted to attract attention. There was great commotion in the village.
The inmates swarmed out of their huts, and four of their chief men
presently came forward to meet the strangers, advancing very
deliberately, and holding up toward the sun two calumets, or
peace-pipes, decorated with feathers. They stopped abruptly before the
two Frenchmen, and stood gazing at them without speaking a word.
Marquette was much relieved on seeing that they wore French cloth,
whence he judged that they must be friends and allies. He broke the
silence, and asked them who they were; whereupon they answered that they
were Illinois, and offered the pipe; which having been duly smoked, they
all went together to the village. Here the chief received the travellers
after a singular fashion, meant to do them honor. He stood stark naked
at the door of a large wigwam, holding up both hands as if to shield his
eyes. "Frenchmen, how bright the sun shines when you come to visit us!
All our village awaits you; and you shall enter our wigwams in peace."
So saying, he led them into his own, which was crowded to suffocation
with savages, staring at their guests in silence. Having smoked with the
chiefs and old men, they were invited to visit the great chief of all
the Illinois, at one of the villages they had seen in the distance; and
thither they proceeded, followed by a throng of warriors, squaws, and
children. On arriving, they were forced to smoke again, and listen to a
speech of welcome from the great chief, who delivered it standing
between two old men, naked like himself. His lodge was crowded with the
dignitaries of the tribe, whom Marquette addressed in Algonquin,
announcing himself as a messenger sent by the God who had made them, and
whom it behooves them to recognize and obey. He added a few words
touching the power and glory of Count Frontenac, and concluded by asking
information concerning the Mississippi, and the tribes along its banks,
whom he was on his way to visit. The chief replied with a speech of
compliment; assuring his guests that their presence added flavor to his
tobacco, made the river more calm, the sky more serene, and the earth
more beautiful. In conclusion, he gave them a young slave and a calumet,
begging them at the same time to abandon their purpose of descending the
Mississippi.
A feast of four courses now followed. First, a wooden bowl full of a
porridge of Indian meal boiled with grease was set before the guests;
and the master of ceremonies fed them in turn, like infants, with a
large spoon. Then appeared a platter of fish; and the same functionary,
carefully removing the bones with his fingers, and blowing on the
morsels to cool them, placed them in the mouths of the two Frenchmen. A
large dog, killed and cooked for the occasion, was next placed before
them; but, failing to tempt their fastidious appetites, was supplanted
by a dish of fat buffalo-meat, which concluded the entertainment. The
crowd having dispersed, buffalo-robes were spread on the ground, and
Marquette and Joliet spent the night on the scene of the late festivity.
In the morning, the chief, with some six hundred of his tribesmen,
escorted them to their canoes, and bade them, after their stolid
fashion, a friendly farewell.
[Sidenote: A REAL DANGER.]
Again they were on their way, slowly drifting down the great river. They
passed the mouth of the Illinois, and glided beneath that line of rocks
on the eastern side, cut into fantastic forms by the elements, and
marked as "The Ruined Castles" on some of the early French maps.
Presently they beheld a sight which reminded them that the Devil was
still lord paramount of this wilderness. On the flat face of a high rock
were painted, in red, black, and green, a pair of monsters, each "as
large as a calf, with horns like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a tiger,