France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
he descended it to the thirty-sixth degree of latitude; where he
stopped, assured that it discharged itself not into the Gulf of
California, but into the Gulf of Mexico, and resolved to follow it
thither at a future day, when better provided with men and supplies.[20]
[Sidenote: THE MISSISSIPPI.]
The first of these statements,--that relating to the Ohio,--confused,
vague, and in great part incorrect, as it certainly is, is nevertheless
well sustained as regards one essential point. La Salle himself, in a
memorial addressed to Count Frontenac in 1677, affirms that he
discovered the Ohio, and descended it as far as to a fall which
obstructed it.[21] Again, his rival, Louis Joliet, whose testimony on
this point cannot be suspected, made two maps of the region of the
Mississippi and the Great Lakes. The Ohio is laid down on both of them,
with an inscription to the effect that it had been explored by La
Salle.[22] That he discovered the Ohio may then be regarded as
established. That he descended it to the Mississippi, he himself does
not pretend; nor is there reason to believe that he did so.
With regard to his alleged voyage down the Illinois, the case is
different. Here, he is reported to have made a statement which admits
but one interpretation,--that of the discovery by him of the Mississippi
prior to its discovery by Joliet and Marquette. This statement is
attributed to a man not prone to vaunt his own exploits, who never
proclaimed them in print, and whose testimony, even in his own case,
must therefore have weight. But it comes to us through the medium of a
person strongly biassed in favor of La Salle, and against Marquette and
the Jesuits.
[Sidenote: LA SALLE'S DISCOVERIES.]
Seven years had passed since the alleged discovery, and La Salle had not
before laid claim to it; although it was matter of notoriety that during
five years it had been claimed by Joliet, and that his claim was
generally admitted. The correspondence of the governor and the intendant
is silent as to La Salle's having penetrated to the Mississippi, though
the attempt was made under the auspices of the latter, as his own
letters declare; while both had the discovery of the great river
earnestly at heart. The governor, Frontenac, La Salle's ardent supporter
and ally, believed in 1672, as his letters show, that the Mississippi
flowed into the Gulf of California; and, two years later, he announces
to the minister Colbert its discovery by Joliet.[23] After La Salle's
death, his brother, his nephew, and his niece addressed a memorial to
the king, petitioning for certain grants in consideration of the
discoveries of their relative, which they specify at some length; but
they do not pretend that he reached the Mississippi before his
expeditions of 1679 to 1682.[24] This silence is the more significant,
as it is this very niece who had possession of the papers in which La
Salle recounts the journeys of which the issues are in question.[25]
Had they led him to the Mississippi, it is reasonably certain that she
would have made it known in her memorial. La Salle discovered the Ohio,
and in all probability the Illinois also; but that he discovered the
Mississippi has not been proved, nor, in the light of the evidence we
have, is it likely.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] This village seems to have been that attacked by Denonville in
1687. It stood on Boughton Hill, near the present town of Victor.
[14] The Jesuits and fur-traders, on their way to the Upper Lakes, had
followed the route of the Ottawa, or, more recently, that of Toronto and
the Georgian Bay. Iroquois hostility had long closed the Niagara portage
and Lake Erie against them.
[15] The Jesuits in North America.
[16] See Appendix. The above narrative is from _Récit de ce qui s'est
passé de plus remarquable dans le Voyage de MM. Dollier et Galinée_.
(Bibliothèque Nationale.)
[17] Dollier de Casson alludes to this as "cette transmigration célèbre
qui se fit de la Chine dans ces quartiers."
[18] The following is the passage relating to this journey in the
remarkable paper above mentioned. After recounting La Salle's visit with
the Sulpitians to the Seneca village, and stating that the intrigues of
the Jesuit missionary prevented them from obtaining a guide, it speaks
of the separation of the travellers and the journey of Galinée and his
party to the Saut Ste. Marie, where "les Jésuites les congédièrent." It
then proceeds as follows: "Cependant Mr. de la Salle continua son
chemin par une rivière qui va de l'est à l'ouest; et passe à Onontaqué
[_Onondaga_], puis à six ou sept lieues au-dessous du Lac Erié; et
estant parvenu jusqu'au 280me ou 83me degré de longitude, et
jusqu'au 41me degré de latitude, trouva un sault qui tombe vers
l'ouest dans un pays bas, marescageux, tout couvert de vielles souches,
dont il y en a quelques-unes qui sont encore sur pied. Il fut donc
contraint de prendre terre, et suivant une hauteur qui le pouvoit mener
loin, il trouva quelques sauvages qui luy dirent que fort loin de là le
mesme fleuve qui se perdoit dans cette terre basse et vaste se
réunnissoit en un lit. Il continua donc son chemin, mais comme la
fatigue estoit grande, 23 ou 24 hommes qu'il avoit menez jusques là le
quittèrent tous en une nuit, regagnèrent le fleuve, et se sauvèrent, les
uns à la Nouvelle Hollande et les autres à la Nouvelle Angleterre. Il se
vit donc seul à 400 lieues de chez luy, où il ne laisse pas de revenir,
remontant la rivière et vivant de chasse, d'herbes, et de ce que luy
donnèrent les sauvages qu'il rencontra en son chemin."
[19] Perrot, _Mémoires_, 119, 120.
[20] The memoir--after stating, as above, that he entered Lake Huron,
doubled the peninsula of Michigan, and passed La Baye des Puants (_Green
Bay_)--says: "Il reconnut une baye incomparablement plus large; au fond
de laquelle vers l'ouest il trouva un très-beau havre et au fond de ce
havre un fleuve qui va de l'est à l'ouest. Il suivit ce fleuve, et
estant parvenu jusqu'environ le 280me degré de longitude et le
39me de latitude, il trouva un autre fleuve qui se joignant au
premier coulait du nordouest au sudest, et il suivit ce fleuve jusqu'au
36me degré de latitude."
The "très-beau havre" may have been the entrance of the river Chicago,
whence, by an easy portage, he might have reached the Des Plaines branch
of the Illinois. We shall see that he took this course in his famous
exploration of 1682.
The intendant Talon announces, in his despatches of this year that he
had sent La Salle southward and westward to explore.
[21] The following are his words (he speaks of himself in the third
person): "L'année 1667, et les suivantes, il fit divers voyages avec
beaucoup de dépenses, dans lesquels il découvrit le premier beaucoup de
pays au sud des grands lacs, et _entre autres la grande rivière d'Ohio_;
il la suivit jusqu'à un endroit où elle tombe de fort haut dans de
vastes marais, à la hauteur de 37 degrés, après avoir été grossie par
une autre rivière fort large qui vient du nord; et toutes ces eaux se
dêchargent selon toutes les apparences dans le Golfe du Mexique."
This "autre rivière," which, it seems, was above the fall, may have been
the Miami or the Scioto. There is but one fall on the river, that of
Louisville, which is not so high as to deserve to be described as "fort
haut," being only a strong rapid. The latitude, as will be seen, is
different in the two accounts, and incorrect in both.
[22] One of these maps is entitled _Carte de la découverte du Sieur
Joliet_, 1674. Over the lines representing the Ohio are the words,
"Route du sieur de la Salle pour aller dans le Mexique." The other map
of Joliet bears, also written over the Ohio, the words, "Rivière par où
descendit le sieur de la Salle au sortir du lac Erié pour aller dans le
Mexique." I have also another manuscript map, made before the voyage of
Joliet and Marquette, and apparently in the year 1673, on which the Ohio
is represented as far as to a point a little below Louisville, and over
it is written, "Rivière Ohio, ainsy appellée par les Iroquois à cause de
sa beauté, par où le sieur de la Salle est descendu." The Mississippi is
not represented on this map; but--and this is very significant, as
indicating the extent of La Salle's exploration of the following year--a
small part of the upper Illinois is laid down.
[23] _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674._ He here speaks of
"la grande rivière qu'il [_Joliet_] a trouvée, qui va du nord au sud, et
qui est aussi large que celle du Saint-Laurent vis-à-vis de Québec."
Four years later, Frontenac speaks slightingly of Joliet, but neither
denies his discovery of the Mississippi, nor claims it for La Salle, in
whose interest he writes.
[24] _Papiers de Famille; Mémoire présenté au Roi._ The following is an
extract: "Il parvient ... jusqu'à la rivière des Illinois. Il y
construisit un fort situé à 350 lieues au-delà du fort de Frontenac, et
suivant ensuite le cours de cette rivière, il trouva qu'elle se jettoit
dans un grand fleuve appellé par ceux du pays Mississippi, c'est à dire
_grande eau_, environ cent lieues au-dessous du fort qu'il venoit de
construire." This fort was Fort Crèvecoeur, built in 1680, near the
site of Peoria. The memoir goes on to relate the descent of La Salle to
the Gulf, which concluded this expedition of 1679-82.
[25] The following is an extract, given by Margry, from a letter of the
aged Madeleine Cavelier, dated 21 Février, 1756, and addressed to her
nephew, M. Le Baillif, who had applied for the papers in behalf of the
minister, Silhouette: "J'ay cherché une occasion sûre pour vous anvoyé
les papiers de M. de la Salle. Il y a des cartes que j'ay jointe à ces
papiers, qui doivent prouver que, en 1675, M. de Lasalle avet déja fet
deux voyages en ces decouverte, puisqu'il y avet une carte, que je vous
envoye, par laquelle il est fait mention de l'androit auquel M. de
Lasalle aborda près le fleuve de Mississipi; un autre androit qu'il
nomme le fleuve Colbert; en un autre il prans possession de ce pais au
nom du roy et fait planter une crois."
The words of the aged and illiterate writer are obscure, but her
expression "aborda près" seems to indicate that La Salle had not reached
the Mississippi prior to 1675, but only approached it. Finally, a
memorial presented to Seignelay, along with the official narrative of
1679-81, by a friend of La Salle, whose object was to place the
discoverer and his achievements in the most favorable light, contains
the following: "Il [_La Salle_] a esté le premier à former le dessein de
ces descouvertes, qu'il communiqua, il y a plus de quinze ans, à M. de
Courcelles, gouverneur, et à M. Talon, intendant du Canada, qui
l'approuvèrent. Il a fait ensuite plusieurs voyages de ce costé-là, et
un entr'autres en 1669 avec MM. Dolier et Galinée, prestres du Séminaire
de St. Sulpice. _Il est vray que le sieur Jolliet, pour le prévenir, fit
un voyage in 1673, à la rivière Colbert_; mais ce fut uniquement pour y
faire commerce." See Margry, ii. 285. This passage is a virtual
admission that Joliet reached the Mississippi (_Colbert_) before La
Salle.
Margry, in a series of papers in the _Journal Général de l'Instruction
Publique_ for 1862, first took the position that La Salle reached the
Mississippi in 1670 and 1671, and has brought forward in defence of it
all the documents which his unwearied research enabled him to discover.
Father Tailhan, S.J., has replied at length, in the copious notes to his
edition of Nicolas Perrot, but without having seen the principal
document cited by Margry, and of which extracts have been given in the
notes to this chapter.
CHAPTER III.
1670-1672.
THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES.
The Old Missions and the New.--A Change of Spirit.--Lake Superior