France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
five thousand leagues, in great part on foot; and traversed more than
six hundred leagues of unknown country, among savages and cannibals, at
the cost of a hundred and fifty thousand francs. He now proposes to
return by way of the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi to
the countries he has discovered, whence great benefits may be expected:
first, the cause of God may be advanced by the preaching of the gospel
to many Indian tribes; and, secondly, great conquests may be effected
for the glory of the King, by the seizure of provinces rich in silver
mines, and defended only by a few indolent and effeminate Spaniards. The
Sieur de la Salle, pursues the memorial, binds himself to be ready for
the accomplishment of this enterprise within one year after his arrival
on the spot; and he asks for this purpose only one vessel and two
hundred men, with their arms, munitions, pay, and maintenance. When
Monseigneur shall direct him, he will give the details of what he
proposes. The memorial then describes the boundless extent, the
fertility and resources of the country watered by the river Colbert, or
Mississippi; the necessity of guarding it against foreigners, who will
be eager to seize it now that La Salle's discovery has made it known;
and the ease with which it may be defended by one or two forts at a
proper distance above its mouth, which would form the key to an interior
region eight hundred leagues in extent. "Should foreigners anticipate
us," he adds, "they will complete the ruin of New France, which they
already hem in by their establishments of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New
England, and Hudson's Bay."[264]
The second memorial is more explicit. The place, it says, which the
Sieur de la Salle proposes to fortify, is on the river Colbert, or
Mississippi, sixty leagues above its mouth, where the soil is very
fertile, the climate very mild, and whence we, the French, may control
the continent,--since, the river being narrow, we could defend ourselves
by means of fire-ships against a hostile fleet, while the position is
excellent both for attacking an enemy or retreating in case of need. The
neighboring Indians detest the Spaniards, but love the French, having
been won over by the kindness of the Sieur de la Salle. We could form of
them an army of more than fifteen thousand savages, who, supported by
the French and Abenakis, followers of the Sieur de la Salle, could
easily subdue the province of New Biscay (the most northern province of
Mexico), where there are but four hundred Spaniards, more fit to work
the mines than to fight. On the north of New Biscay lie vast forests,
extending to the river Seignelay[265] (Red River), which is but forty or
fifty leagues from the Spanish province. This river affords the means of
attacking it to great advantage.
In view of these facts, pursues the memorial, the Sieur de la Salle
offers, if the war with Spain continues, to undertake this conquest with
two hundred men from France. He will take on his way fifty buccaneers at
St. Domingo, and direct the four thousand Indian warriors at Fort St.
Louis of the Illinois to descend the river and join him. He will
separate his force into three divisions, and attack at the same time the
centre and the two extremities of the province. To accomplish this great
design, he asks only for a vessel of thirty guns, a few cannon for the
forts, and power to raise in France two hundred such men as he shall
think fit, to be armed, paid, and maintained six months at the King's
charge. And the Sieur de la Salle binds himself, if the execution of
this plan is prevented for more than three years, by peace with Spain,
to refund to his Majesty all the costs of the enterprise, on pain of
forfeiting the government of the ports he will have established.[266]
[Sidenote: LA SALLES'S PLANS.]
Such, in brief, was the substance of this singular proposition. And,
first, it is to be observed that it is based on a geographical blunder,
the nature of which is explained by the map of La Salle's discoveries
made in this very year. Here the river Seignelay, or Red River, is
represented as running parallel to the northern border of Mexico, and at
no great distance from it,--the region now called Texas being almost
entirely suppressed. According to the map, New Biscay might be reached
from this river in a few days; and, after crossing the intervening
forests, the coveted mines of Ste. Barbe, or Santa Barbara, would be
within striking distance.[267] That La Salle believed in the possibility
of invading the Spanish province of New Biscay from Red River there can
be no doubt; neither can it reasonably be doubted that he hoped at some
future day to make the attempt; and yet it is incredible that a man in
his sober senses could have proposed this scheme with the intention of
attempting to execute it at the time and in the manner which he
indicates.[268] This memorial bears some indications of being drawn up
in order to produce a certain effect on the minds of the King and his
minister. La Salle's immediate necessity was to obtain from them the
means for establishing a fort and a colony within the mouth of the
Mississippi. This was essential to his own plans; nor did he in the
least exaggerate the value of such an establishment to the French
nation, and the importance of anticipating other powers in the
possession of it. But he thought that he needed a more glittering lure
to attract the eyes of Louis and Seignelay; and thus, it may be, he held
before them, in a definite and tangible form, the project of Spanish
conquest which had haunted his imagination from youth,--trusting that
the speedy conclusion of peace, which actually took place, would absolve
him from the immediate execution of the scheme, and give him time, with
the means placed at his disposal, to mature his plans and prepare for
eventual action. Such a procedure may be charged with indirectness; but
there is a different explanation, which we shall suggest hereafter, and
which implies no such reproach.[269]
Even with this madcap enterprise lopped off, La Salle's scheme of
Mississippi trade and colonization, perfectly sound in itself, was too
vast for an individual,--above all, for one crippled and crushed with
debt. While he grasped one link of the great chain, another, no less
essential, escaped from his hand; while he built up a colony on the
Mississippi, it was reasonably certain that evil would befall his
distant colony of the Illinois.
[Sidenote: LA BARRE REBUKED.]
The glittering project which he now unfolded found favor in the eyes of
the King and his minister; for both were in the flush of an unparalleled
success, and looked in the future, as in the past, for nothing but
triumphs. They granted more than the petitioner asked, as indeed they
well might, if they expected the accomplishment of all that he proposed
to attempt. La Forest, La Salle's lieutenant, ejected from Fort
Frontenac by La Barre, was now at Paris; and he was despatched to
Canada, empowered to reoccupy, in La Salle's name, both Fort Frontenac
and Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. The King himself wrote to La Barre
in a strain that must have sent a cold thrill through the veins of that
official. "I hear," he says, "that you have taken possession of Fort
Frontenac, the property of the Sieur de la Salle, driven away his men,
suffered his land to run to waste, and even told the Iroquois that they
might seize him as an enemy of the colony." He adds, that, if this is
true, La Barre must make reparation for the wrong, and place all La
Salle's property, as well as his men, in the hands of the Sieur de la
Forest, "as I am satisfied that Fort Frontenac was not abandoned, as you
wrote to me that it had been."[270] Four days later, he wrote to the
intendant of Canada, De Meules, to the effect that the bearer, La
Forest, is to suffer no impediment, and that La Barre is to surrender to
him without reserve all that belongs to La Salle.[271] Armed with this
letter, La Forest sailed for Canada.[272]
A chief object of his mission, as it was represented to Seignelay, was,
not only to save the colony at the Illinois from being broken up by La
Barre, but also to collect La Salle's scattered followers, muster the
savage warriors around the rock of St. Louis, and lead the whole down
the Mississippi, to co-operate in the attack on New Biscay. If La Salle
meant that La Forest should seriously attempt to execute such a scheme,
then the charges of his enemies that his brain was turned were better
founded than he would have us think.[273]
[Sidenote: PREPARATION.]
He had asked for two vessels,[274] and four were given to him. Agents
were sent to Rochelle and Rochefort to gather recruits. A hundred
soldiers were enrolled, besides mechanics and laborers; and thirty
volunteers, including gentlemen and burghers of condition, joined the
expedition. And, as the plan was one no less of colonization than of
war, several families embarked for the new land of promise, as well as a
number of girls, lured by the prospect of almost certain matrimony. Nor
were missionaries wanting. Among them was La Salle's brother, Cavelier,
and two other priests of St. Sulpice. Three Récollets were
added,--Zenobe Membré, who was then in France, Anastase Douay, and
Maxime Le Clerc. The principal vessel was the "Joly," belonging to the
royal navy, and carrying thirty-six guns. Another armed vessel of six
guns was added, together with a store-ship and a ketch.
La Salle had asked for sole command of the expedition, with a subaltern
officer, and one or two pilots to sail the vessels as he should direct.
Instead of complying, Seignelay gave the command of the vessels to
Beaujeu, a captain of the royal navy,--whose authority was restricted to
their management at sea, while La Salle was to prescribe the route they
were to take, and have entire control of the troops and colonists on
land.[275] This arrangement displeased both parties. Beaujeu, an old and
experienced officer, was galled that a civilian should be set over
him,--and he, too, a burgher lately ennobled; nor was La Salle the man
to soothe his ruffled spirit. Detesting a divided command, cold,
reserved, and impenetrable, he would have tried the patience of a less
excitable colleague. Beaujeu, on his part, though set to a task which he
disliked, seems to have meant to do his duty, and to have been willing
at the outset to make the relations between himself and his unwelcome
associate as agreeable as possible. Unluckily, La Salle discovered that
the wife of Beaujeu was devoted to the Jesuits. We have seen the extreme
distrust with which he regarded these guides of his youth, and he seems
now to have fancied that Beaujeu was their secret ally. Possibly, he
suspected that information of his movements would be given to the
Spaniards; more probably, he had undefined fears of adverse
machinations. Granting that such existed, it was not his interest to
stimulate them by needlessly exasperating the naval commander. His
deportment, however, was not conciliating; and Beaujeu, prepared to
dislike him, presently lost temper. While the vessels still lay at
Rochelle; while all was bustle and preparation; while stores, arms, and
munitions were embarking; while boys and vagabonds were enlisting as
soldiers for the expedition,--Beaujeu was venting his disgust in long
letters to the minister.
[Sidenote: BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE.]
"You have ordered me, Monseigneur, to give all possible aid to this
undertaking, and I shall do so to the best of my power; but permit me to
take great credit to myself, for I find it very hard to submit to the
orders of the Sieur de la Salle, whom I believe to be a man of merit,
but who has no experience of war except with savages, and who has no