France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
bringing them game and Indian corn. Eighteen leagues distant was the
camp of two adventurous French traders,--one of them, a noted _coureur
de bois_, nicknamed La Taupine;[64] and the other, a self-styled
surgeon. They also visited Marquette, and befriended him to the best of
their power.
[Sidenote: THE MISSION AT KASKASKIA.]
Urged by a burning desire to lay, before he died, the foundation of his
new mission of the Immaculate Conception, Marquette begged his two
followers to join him in a _novena_, or nine days' devotion to the
Virgin. In consequence of this, as he believed, his disease relented; he
began to regain strength, and in March was able to resume the journey.
On the thirtieth of the month, they left their hut, which had been
inundated by a sudden rise of the river, and carried their canoe through
mud and water over the portage which led to the Des Plaines. Marquette
knew the way, for he had passed by this route on his return from the
Mississippi. Amid the rains of opening spring, they floated down the
swollen current of the Des Plaines, by naked woods and spongy, saturated
prairies, till they reached its junction with the main stream of the
Illinois, which they descended to their destination, the Indian town
which Marquette calls "Kaskaskia." Here, as we are told, he was received
"like an angel from Heaven." He passed from wigwam to wigwam, telling
the listening crowds of God and the Virgin, Paradise and Hell, angels
and demons; and, when he thought their minds prepared, he summoned them
all to a grand council.
It took place near the town, on the great meadow which lies between the
river and the modern village of Utica. Here five hundred chiefs and old
men were seated in a ring; behind stood fifteen hundred youths and
warriors, and behind these again all the women and children of the
village. Marquette, standing in the midst, displayed four large pictures
of the Virgin; harangued the assembly on the mysteries of the Faith, and
exhorted them to adopt it. The temper of his auditory met his utmost
wishes. They begged him to stay among them and continue his
instructions; but his life was fast ebbing away, and it behooved him to
depart.
[Sidenote: BURIAL OF MARQUETTE.]
A few days after Easter he left the village, escorted by a crowd of
Indians, who followed him as far as Lake Michigan. Here he embarked with
his two companions. Their destination was Michilimackinac, and their
course lay along the eastern borders of the lake. As, in the freshness
of advancing spring, Pierre and Jacques urged their canoe along that
lonely and savage shore, the priest lay with dimmed sight and prostrated
strength, communing with the Virgin and the angels. On the nineteenth of
May, he felt that his hour was near; and, as they passed the mouth of a
small river, he requested his companions to land. They complied, built a
shed of bark on a rising ground near the bank, and carried thither the
dying Jesuit. With perfect cheerfulness and composure, he gave
directions for his burial, asked their forgiveness for the trouble he
had caused them, administered to them the sacrament of penitence, and
thanked God that he was permitted to die in the wilderness, a missionary
of the Faith and a member of the Jesuit brotherhood. At night, seeing
that they were fatigued, he told them to take rest, saying that he would
call them when he felt his time approaching. Two or three hours after,
they heard a feeble voice, and, hastening to his side, found him at the
point of death. He expired calmly, murmuring the names of Jesus and
Mary, with his eyes fixed on the crucifix which one of his followers
held before him. They dug a grave beside the hut, and here they buried
him according to the directions which he had given them; then,
re-embarking, they made their way to Michilimackinac, to bear the
tidings to the priests at the mission of St. Ignace.[65]
In the winter of 1676, a party of Kiskakon Ottawas were hunting on Lake
Michigan; and when, in the following spring, they prepared to return
home, they bethought them, in accordance with an Indian custom, of
taking with them the bones of Marquette, who had been their instructor
at the mission of St. Esprit. They repaired to the spot, found the
grave, opened it, washed and dried the bones and placed them carefully
in a box of birch-bark. Then, in a procession of thirty canoes, they
bore it, singing their funeral songs, to St. Ignace of Michilimackinac.
As they approached, priests, Indians, and traders all thronged to the
shore. The relics of Marquette were received with solemn ceremony, and
buried beneath the floor of the little chapel of the mission.[66]
FOOTNOTES:
[46] _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672; Ibid., 14 Nov.,
1674_.
[47] See "The Jesuits in North America."
[48] "Le 2 Juillet (1666) les premières disputes de philosophie se font
dans la congrégation avec succès. Toutes les puissances s'y trouvent; M.
l'Intendant entr'autres y a argumenté très-bien. M. Jolliet et Pierre
Francheville y ont très-bien répondu de toute la logique."--_Journal des
Jésuites._
[49] Nothing was known of Joliet till Shea investigated his history.
Ferland, in his _Notes sur les Registres de Notre-Dame de Québec_;
Faillon, in his _Colonie Française en Canada_; and Margry, in a series
of papers in the _Journal Général de l'Instruction Publique_,--have
thrown much new light on his life. From journals of a voyage made by him
at a later period to the coast of Labrador, given in substance by
Margry, he seems to have been a man of close and intelligent
observation. His mathematical acquirements appear to have been very
considerable.
[50] The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, sanctioned in our own
time by the Pope, was always a favorite tenet of the Jesuits; and
Marquette was especially devoted to it.
[51] The Malhoumines, Malouminek, Oumalouminek, or Nation des
Folles-Avoines, of early French writers. The _folle-avoine_, wild oats
or "wild rice" (_Zizania aquatica_), was their ordinary food, as also of
other tribes of this region.
[52] Dablon, on his journey with Allouez in 1670, was delighted with the
aspect of the country and the abundance of game along this river.
Carver, a century later, speaks to the same effect, saying that the
birds rose up in clouds from the wild-rice marshes.
[53] The above traits of the scenery of the Wisconsin are taken from
personal observation of the river during midsummer.
[54] The Indian villages, under the names of Peouaria (_Peoria_) and
Moingouena, are represented in Marquette's map upon a river
corresponding in position with the Des Moines; though the distance from
the Wisconsin, as given by him, would indicate a river farther north.
[55] The rock where these figures were painted is immediately above the
city of Alton. The tradition of their existence remains, though they are
entirely effaced by time. In 1867, when I passed the place, a part of
the rock had been quarried away, and, instead of Marquette's monsters,
it bore a huge advertisement of "Plantation Bitters." Some years ago,
certain persons, with more zeal than knowledge, proposed to restore the
figures, after conceptions of their own; but the idea was abandoned.
Marquette made a drawing of the two monsters, but it is lost. I have,
however, a fac-simile of a map made a few years later, by order of the
Intendant Duchesneau, which is decorated with the portrait of one of
them, answering to Marquette's description, and probably copied from his
drawing. St. Cosme, who saw them in 1699, says that they were even then
almost effaced. Douay and Joutel also speak of them,--the former,
bitterly hostile to his Jesuit contemporaries, charging Marquette with
exaggeration in his account of them. Joutel could see nothing terrifying
in their appearance; but he says that his Indians made sacrifices to
them as they passed.
[56] The Missouri is called "Pekitanouï" by Marquette. It also bears, on
early French maps, the names of "Rivière des Osages," and "Rivière des
Emissourites," or "Oumessourits." On Marquette's map, a tribe of this
name is placed near its banks, just above the Osages. Judging by the
course of the Mississippi that it discharged into the Gulf of Mexico, he
conceived the hope of one day reaching the South Sea by way of the
Missouri.
[57] Called, on Marquette's map, "Ouabouskiaou." On some of the earliest
maps, it is called "Ouabache" (Wabash).
[58] This village, called "Mitchigamea," is represented on several
contemporary maps.
[59] A few years later, the Arkansas were all on the west side.
[60] Marquette says that it consisted at this time of seventy-four
lodges. These, like the Huron and Iroquois lodges, contained each
several fires and several families. This village was about seven miles
below the site of the present town of Ottawa.
[61] The journal of Marquette, first published in an imperfect form by
Thevenot, in 1681, has been reprinted by Mr. Lenox, under the direction
of Mr. Shea, from the manuscript preserved in the archives of the
Canadian Jesuits. It will also be found in Shea's _Discovery and
Exploration of the Mississippi Valley_, and the _Relations Inédites_ of
Martin. The true map of Marquette accompanies all these publications.
The map published by Thevenot and reproduced by Bancroft is not
Marquette's. The original of this, of which I have a fac-simile, bears
the title _Carte de la Nouvelle Découverte que les Pères Jésuites ont
faite en l'année 1672, et continuée par le Père Jacques Marquette, etc._
The return route of the expedition is incorrectly laid down on it. A
manuscript map of the Jesuit Raffeix, preserved in the Bibliothèque
Impériale, is more accurate in this particular. I have also another
contemporary manuscript map, indicating the various Jesuit stations in
the West at this time, and representing the Mississippi, as discovered
by Marquette. For these and other maps, see Appendix.
[62] _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, Québec, 14 Nov., 1674._
[63] This letter is appended to Joliet's smaller map of his discoveries.
See Appendix. Compare _Détails sur le Voyage de Louis Joliet_ and
_Relation de la Descouverte de plusieurs Pays situez au midi de la
Nouvelle France, faite en 1673_ (Margry, i. 259). These are oral
accounts given by Joliet after the loss of his papers. Also, _Lettre de
Joliet, Oct. 10, 1674_ (Harrisse). On the seventh of October, 1675,
Joliet married Claire Bissot, daughter of a wealthy Canadian merchant,
engaged in trade with the northern Indians. This drew Joliet's attention
to Hudson's Bay; and he made a journey thither in 1679, by way of the
Saguenay. He found three English forts on the bay, occupied by about
sixty men, who had also an armed vessel of twelve guns and several small
trading-craft. The English held out great inducements to Joliet to join
them; but he declined, and returned to Quebec, where he reported that
unless these formidable rivals were dispossessed, the trade of Canada
would be ruined. In consequence of this report, some of the principal
merchants of the colony formed a company to compete with the English in
the trade of Hudson's Bay. In the year of this journey, Joliet received
a grant of the islands of Mignan; and in the following year, 1680, he
received another grant, of the great island of Anticosti in the lower
St. Lawrence. In 1681 he was established here, with his wife and six
servants. He was engaged in fisheries; and, being a skilful navigator
and surveyor, he made about this time a chart of the St. Lawrence. In
1690, Sir William Phips, on his way with an English fleet to attack
Quebec, made a descent on Joliet's establishment, burnt his buildings,
and took prisoners his wife and his mother-in-law. In 1694 Joliet