France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
and nothing was done. Then La Salle wrote again, intimating some doubt
as to whether he was really at one of the mouths of the Mississippi, and
saying that, being sure that he had passed the principal mouth, he was
determined to go back to look for it.[292] Meanwhile, Beaujeu was in a
state of great irritation. The weather was stormy, and the coast was
dangerous. Supplies were scanty; and La Salle's soldiers, still crowded
in the "Joly," were consuming the provisions of the ship. Beaujeu gave
vent to his annoyance, and La Salle retorted in the same strain.
According to Joutel, he urged the naval commander to sail back in search
of the river; and Beaujeu refused, unless La Salle should give the
soldiers provisions. La Salle, he adds, offered to supply them with
rations for fifteen days; and Beaujeu declared this insufficient. There
is reason, however, to believe that the request was neither made by the
one nor refused by the other so positively as here appears.
FOOTNOTES:
[278] _Lettre (sans nom d'auteur) écrite de St. Domingue, 14 Nov., 1684_
(Margry, ii. 492); _Mémoire autographe de l'Abbé Jean Cavelier sur le
Voyage de 1684_. Compare Joutel.
[279] _Mémoire de MM. de Saint-Laurens et Bégon_ (Margry, ii. 499);
Joutel, _Journal Historique_, 28.
[280] _Relation de Henri Joutel_ (Margry, iii. 98).
[281] _Lettre (sans nom d'auteur), 14 Nov., 1684_ (Margry, ii. 496).
[282] The above particulars are from the memoir of La Salle's brother,
Abbé Cavelier, already cited.
[283] _Lettre de Beaujeu au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1684._
[284] _Relation de Henri Joutel_ (Margry, iii. 105).
[285] _Mémoire autographe de l'Abbé Jean Cavelier._
[286] _Lettre de Beaujeu au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1684._
[287] _Letter of Don Luis de Onis to the Secretary of State_ (American
State Papers, xii, 27-31).
[288] "La hauteur nous a fait remarquer ... que ce que nous avions vu le
sixième janvier estoit en effet la principale entrée de la rivière que
nous cherchions."--_Lettre de La Salle au Ministre, 4 Mars, 1687._
[289] _Mémoire autographe de l'Abbé Cavelier._
[290] "Depuis que nous avions quitté cette rivière qu'il croyoit
infailliblement estre le fleuve Colbert _[Mississippi]_ nous avions fait
environ 45 lieues ou 50 au plus." (Cavelier, _Mémoire_.) This, taken in
connection with the statement of La Salle that this "principale entrée
de la rivière que nous cherchions" was twenty-five or thirty leagues
northeast from the entrance of the Bay of St. Louis (Matagorda Bay),
shows that it can have been no other than the entrance of Galveston Bay,
mistaken by him for the chief outlet of the Mississippi. It is evident
that he imagined Galveston Bay to form a part of the chain of lagoons
from which it is in fact separated. He speaks of these lagoons as "une
espèce de baye fort longue et fort large, _dans laquelle le fleuve
Colbert se décharge_." He adds that on his descent to the mouth of the
river in 1682 he had been deceived in supposing that this expanse of
salt water, where no shore was in sight, was the open sea. _Lettre de La
Salle au Ministre, 4 Mars, 1685._ Galveston Bay and the mouth of the
Mississippi differ little in latitude, though separated by about five
and a half degrees of longitude.
[291] _Lettre de La Salle à Beaujeu, 23 Jan., 1685_ (Margry, ii. 526).
[292] This letter is dated, "De l'emboucheure d'une rivière que _je
crois estre_ une des descharges du Mississipy" (Margry, ii. 528).
CHAPTER XXV.
1685.
LA SALLE IN TEXAS.
A Party of Exploration--Wreck of the "Aimable."--Landing of the
Colonists.--A Forlorn Position.--Indian Neighbors.--Friendly
Advances of Beaujeu: his Departure.--A Fatal Discovery.
Impatience to rid himself of his colleague and to command alone no doubt
had its influence on the judgment of La Salle. He presently declared
that he would land the soldiers, and send them along shore till they
came to the principal outlet of the river. On this, the engineer Minet
took up the word,--expressed his doubts as to whether the Mississippi
discharged itself into the lagoons at all; represented that even if it
did, the soldiers would be exposed to great risks; and gave as his
opinion that all should reimbark and continue the search in company. The
advice was good, but La Salle resented it as coming from one in whom he
recognized no right to give it. "He treated me," complains the engineer,
"as if I were the meanest of mankind."[293]
He persisted in his purpose, and sent Joutel and Moranget with a party
of soldiers to explore the coast. They made their way northeastward
along the shore of Matagorda Island, till they were stopped on the third
day by what Joutel calls a river, but which was in fact the entrance of
Matagorda Bay. Here they encamped, and tried to make a raft of
drift-wood. "The difficulty was," says Joutel, "our great number of men,
and the few of them who were fit for anything except eating. As I said
before, they had all been caught by force or surprise, so that our
company was like Noah's ark, which contained animals of all sorts."
Before their raft was finished, they descried to their great joy the
ships which had followed them along the coast.[294]
[Sidenote: LANDING OF LA SALLE.]
La Salle landed, and announced that here was the western mouth of the
Mississippi, and the place to which the King had sent him. He said
further that he would land all his men, and bring the "Aimable" and the
"Belle" to the safe harborage within. Beaujeu remonstrated, alleging the
shallowness of the water and the force of the currents; but his
remonstrance was vain.[295]
The Bay of St. Louis, now Matagorda Bay, forms a broad and sheltered
harbor, accessible from the sea by a narrow passage, obstructed by
sand-bars and by the small island now called Pelican Island. Boats were
sent to sound and buoy out the channel, and this was successfully
accomplished on the sixteenth of February. The "Aimable" was ordered to
enter; and, on the twentieth, she weighed anchor. La Salle was on shore
watching her. A party of men, at a little distance, were cutting down a
tree to make a canoe. Suddenly some of them ran towards him with
terrified faces, crying out that they had been set upon by a troop of
Indians, who had seized their companions and carried them off. La Salle
ordered those about him to take their arms, and at once set out in
pursuit. He overtook the Indians, and opened a parley with them; but
when he wished to reclaim his men, he discovered that they had been led
away during the conference to the Indian camp, a league and a half
distant. Among them was one of his lieutenants, the young Marquis de la
Sablonnière. He was deeply vexed, for the moment was critical; but the
men must be recovered, and he led his followers in haste towards the
camp. Yet he could not refrain from turning a moment to watch the
"Aimable," as she neared the shoals; and he remarked with deep anxiety
to Joutel, who was with him, that if she held that course she would soon
be aground.
[Sidenote: WRECK OF THE "AIMABLE".]
They hurried on till they saw the Indian huts. About fifty of them,
oven-shaped, and covered with mats and hides, were clustered on a rising
ground, with their inmates gathered among and around them. As the French
entered the camp, there was the report of a cannon from the seaward.
The startled savages dropped flat with terror. A different fear seized
La Salle, for he knew that the shot was a signal of disaster. Looking
back, he saw the "Aimable" furling her sails, and his heart sank with
the conviction that she had struck upon the reef. Smothering his
distress,--she was laden with all the stores of the colony,--he pressed
forward among the filthy wigwams, whose astonished inmates swarmed about
the band of armed strangers, staring between curiosity and fear. La
Salle knew those with whom he was dealing, and, without ceremony,
entered the chief's lodge with his followers. The crowd closed around
them, naked men and half-naked women, described by Joutel as of singular
ugliness. They gave buffalo meat and dried porpoise to the unexpected
guests, but La Salle, racked with anxiety, hastened to close the
interview; and having without difficulty recovered the kidnapped men, he
returned to the beach, leaving with the Indians, as usual, an impression
of good-will and respect.
When he reached the shore, he saw his worst fears realized. The
"Aimable" lay careened over on the reef, hopelessly aground. Little
remained but to endure the calamity with firmness, and to save, as far
as might be, the vessel's cargo. This was no easy task. The boat which
hung at her stern had been stove in,--it is said, by design. Beaujeu
sent a boat from the "Joly," and one or more Indian pirogues were
procured. La Salle urged on his men with stern and patient energy, and
a quantity of gunpowder and flour was safely landed. But now the wind
blew fresh from the sea; the waves began to rise; a storm came on; the
vessel, rocking to and fro on the sand-bar, opened along her side, and
the ravenous waves were strewn with her treasures. When the confusion
was at its height, a troop of Indians came down to the shore, greedy for
plunder. The drum was beat; the men were called to arms; La Salle set
his trustiest followers to guard the gunpowder, in fear, not of the
Indians alone, but of his own countrymen. On that lamentable night, the
sentinels walked their rounds through the dreary bivouac among the
casks, bales, and boxes which the sea had yielded up; and here, too,
their fate-hunted chief held his drearier vigil, encompassed with
treachery, darkness, and the storm.
Not only La Salle, but Joutel and others of his party, believed that the
wreck of the "Aimable" was intentional. Aigron, who commanded her, had
disobeyed orders and disregarded signals. Though he had been directed to
tow the vessel through the channel, he went in under sail; and though
little else was saved from the wreck, his personal property, including
even some preserved fruits, was all landed safely. He had long been on
ill terms with La Salle.[296]
All La Salle's company were now encamped on the sands at the left side
of the inlet where the "Aimable" was wrecked.[297] "They were all," says
the engineer Minet, "sick with nausea and dysentery. Five or six died
every day, in consequence of brackish water and bad food. There was no
grass, but plenty of rushes and plenty of oysters. There was nothing to
make ovens, so that they had to eat flour saved from the wreck, boiled
into messes of porridge with this brackish water. Along the shore were
quantities of uprooted trees and rotten logs, thrown up by the sea and
the lagoon." Of these, and fragments of the wreck, they made a sort of
rampart to protect their camp; and here, among tents and hovels, bales,
boxes, casks, spars, dismounted cannon, and pens for fowls and swine,
were gathered the dejected men and homesick women who were to seize New
Biscay, and hold for France a region large as half Europe. The
Spaniards, whom they were to conquer, were they knew not where. They
knew not where they were themselves; and for the fifteen thousand Indian
allies who were to have joined them, they found two hundred squalid
savages, more like enemies than friends.
In fact, it was soon made plain that these their neighbors wished them
no good. A few days after the wreck, the prairie was seen on fire. As
the smoke and flame rolled towards them before the wind, La Salle caused
all the grass about the camp to be cut and carried away, and especially
around the spot where the powder was placed. The danger was averted; but
it soon became known that the Indians had stolen a number of blankets
and other articles, and carried them to their wigwams. Unwilling to