France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
inundated cane-brakes. They found no game but a bear, which had taken
refuge on an island in the flood; and they were forced to eat their
dogs. "I never in my life," writes Tonty, "suffered so much." In judging
these intrepid exertions, it is to be remembered that he was not, at
least in appearance, of a robust constitution, and that he had but one
hand. They reached the Mississippi on the eleventh of July, and the
Arkansas villages on the thirty-first. Here Tonty was detained by an
attack of fever. He resumed his journey when it began to abate, and
reached his fort of the Illinois in September.[351]
[Sidenote: A SCENE OF HAVOC.]
While the King of France abandoned the exiles of Texas to their fate, a
power dark, ruthless, and terrible was hovering around the feeble colony
on the Bay of St. Louis, searching with pitiless eye to discover and
tear out that dying germ of civilization from the bosom of the
wilderness in whose savage immensity it lay hidden. Spain claimed the
Gulf of Mexico and all its coasts as her own of unanswerable right, and
the viceroys of Mexico were strenuous to enforce her claim. The capture
of one of La Salle's four vessels at St. Domingo had made known his
designs, and in the course of the three succeeding years no less than
four expeditions were sent out from Vera Cruz to find and destroy him.
They scoured the whole extent of the coast, and found the wrecks of the
"Aimable" and the "Belle;" but the colony of St. Louis,[352] inland and
secluded, escaped their search. For a time, the jealousy of the
Spaniards was lulled to sleep. They rested in the assurance that the
intruders had perished, when fresh advices from the frontier province of
New Leon caused the Viceroy, Galve, to order a strong force, under
Alonzo de Leon, to march from Coahuila, and cross the Rio Grande. Guided
by a French prisoner, probably one of the deserters from La Salle, they
pushed their way across wild and arid plains, rivers, prairies, and
forests, till at length they approached the Bay of St. Louis, and
descried, far off, the harboring-place of the French.[353] As they drew
near, no banner was displayed, no sentry challenged; and the silence of
death reigned over the shattered palisades and neglected dwellings. The
Spaniards spurred their reluctant horses through the gateway, and a
scene of desolation met their sight. No living thing was stirring. Doors
were torn from their hinges; broken boxes, staved barrels, and rusty
kettles, mingled with a great number of stocks of arquebuses and
muskets, were scattered about in confusion. Here, too, trampled in mud
and soaked with rain, they saw more than two hundred books, many of
which still retained the traces of costly bindings. On the adjacent
prairie lay three dead bodies, one of which, from fragments of dress
still clinging to the wasted remains, they saw to be that of a woman. It
was in vain to question the imperturbable savages, who, wrapped to the
throat in their buffalo-robes, stood gazing on the scene with looks of
wooden immobility. Two strangers, however, at length arrived.[354] Their
faces were smeared with paint, and they were wrapped in buffalo-robes
like the rest; yet these seeming Indians were L'Archevêque, the tool of
La Salle's murderer Duhaut, and Grollet, the companion of the white
savage Ruter. The Spanish commander, learning that these two men were in
the district of the tribe called Texas,[355] had sent to invite them to
his camp under a pledge of good treatment; and they had resolved to
trust Spanish clemency rather than endure longer a life that had become
intolerable. From them the Spaniards learned nearly all that is known of
the fate of Barbier, Zenobe Membré, and their companions. Three months
before, a large band of Indians had approached the fort, the inmates of
which had suffered severely from the ravages of the small-pox. From fear
of treachery, they refused to admit their visitors, but received them at
a cabin without the palisades. Here the French began a trade with them;
when suddenly a band of warriors, yelling the war-whoop, rushed from an
ambuscade under the bank of the river, and butchered the greater number.
The children of one Talon, together with an Italian and a young man from
Paris named Breman, were saved by the Indian women, who carried them off
on their backs. L'Archevêque and Grollet, who with others of their stamp
were domesticated in the Indian villages, came to the scene of
slaughter, and, as they affirmed, buried fourteen dead bodies.[356]
[Sidenote: THE SURVIVORS.]
L'Archevêque and Grollet were sent to Spain, where, in spite of the
pledge given them, they were thrown into prison, with the intention of
sending them back to labor in the mines. The Indians, some time after De
Leon's expedition, gave up their captives to the Spaniards. The Italian
was imprisoned at Vera Cruz. Breman's fate is unknown. Pierre and Jean
Baptiste Talon, who were now old enough to bear arms, were enrolled in
the Spanish navy, and, being captured in 1696 by a French ship of war,
regained their liberty; while their younger brothers and their sister
were carried to Spain by the Viceroy.[357] With respect to the ruffian
companions of Hiens, the conviction of Tonty that they had been put to
death by the Indians may have been well founded; but the buccaneer
himself is said to have been killed in a quarrel with his accomplice
Ruter, the white savage; and thus in ignominy and darkness died the last
embers of the doomed colony of La Salle.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FRUIT OF EXPLORATIONS.]
Here ends the wild and mournful story of the explorers of the
Mississippi. Of all their toil and sacrifice, no fruit remained but a
great geographical discovery, and a grand type of incarnate energy and
will. Where La Salle had ploughed, others were to sow the seed; and on
the path which the undespairing Norman had hewn out, the Canadian
D'Iberville was to win for France a vast though a transient dominion.
FOOTNOTES:
[350] Tonty, _Mémoire_.
[351] Two causes have contributed to detract, most unjustly, from
Tonty's reputation,--the publication, under his name, but without his
authority, of a perverted account of the enterprises in which he took
part; and the confounding him with his brother, Alphonse de Tonty, who
long commanded at Detroit, where charges of peculation were brought
against him. There are very few names in French-American history
mentioned with such unanimity of praise as that of Henri de Tonty.
Hennepin finds some fault with him; but his censure is commendation. The
despatches of the governor, Denonville, speak in strong terms of his
services in the Iroquois war, praise his character, and declare that he
is fit for any bold enterprise, adding that he deserves reward from the
King. The missionary, St. Cosme, who travelled under his escort in 1699,
says of him: "He is beloved by all the _voyageurs_.... It was with deep
regret that we parted from him: ... he is the man who best knows the
country; ... he is loved and feared everywhere.... Your grace will, I
doubt not, take pleasure in acknowledging the obligations we owe him."
Tonty held the commission of captain; but, by a memoir which he
addressed to Ponchartrain in 1690, it appears that he had never received
any pay. Count Frontenac certifies the truth of the statement, and adds
a recommendation of the writer. In consequence, probably, of this, the
proprietorship of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois was granted in the same
year to Tonty, jointly with La Forest, formerly La Salle's lieutenant.
Here they carried on a trade in furs. In 1699, a royal declaration was
launched against the _coureurs de bois_; but an express provision was
added in favor of Tonty and La Forest, who were empowered to send up the
country yearly two canoes, with twelve men, for the maintenance of this
fort. With such a limitation, this fort and the trade carried on at it
must have been very small. In 1702, we find a royal order, to the effect
that La Forest is henceforth to reside in Canada, and Tonty on the
Mississippi; and that the establishment at the Illinois is to be
discontinued. In the same year, Tonty joined D'Iberville in Lower
Louisiana, and was sent by that officer from Mobile to secure the
Chickasaws in the French interest. His subsequent career and the time of
his death do not appear. He seems never to have received the reward
which his great merit deserved. Those intimate with the late lamented
Dr. Sparks will remember his often-expressed wish that justice should be
done to the memory of Tonty.
Fort St. Louis of the Illinois was afterwards reoccupied by the French.
In 1718, a number of them, chiefly traders, were living here; but three
years later it was again deserted, and Charlevoix, passing the spot, saw
only the remains of its palisades.
[352] Fort St. Louis of Texas is not to be confounded with Fort St.
Louis of the Illinois.
[353] After crossing the Del Norte, they crossed in turn the Upper
Nueces, the Hondo (Rio Frio), the De Leon (San Antonio), and the
Guadalupe, and then, turning southward, descended to the Bay of St.
Bernard.... Manuscript map of "Route que firent les Espagnols, pour
venir enlever les Français restez à la Baye St. Bernard ou St. Louis,
après la perte du vaisseau de Mr. de la Salle en 1689." (Margry's
collection.)
[354] May 1st. The Spaniards reached the fort April 22.
[355] This is the first instance in which the name occurs. In a letter
written by a member of De Leon's party, the Texan Indians are mentioned
several times. (See _Coleccion de Varios Documentos_, 25.) They are
described as an agricultural tribe, and were, to all appearance,
identical with the Cenis. The name Tejas, or Texas, was first applied as
a local designation to a spot on the river Neches, in the Cenis
territory, whence it extended to the whole country. (See Yoakum,
_History of Texas_, 52.)
[356] _Derrotero de la Jornada que hizo el General Alonso de Leon para
el descubrimiento de la Bahia del Espíritu Santo, y poblacion de
Franceses. Ano de 1689._--This is the official journal of the
expedition, signed by Alonzo de Leon. I am indebted to Colonel Thomas
Aspinwall for the opportunity of examining it. The name of Espiritu
Santo was, as before mentioned, given by the Spaniards to St. Louis, or
Matagorda Bay, as well as to two other bays of the Gulf of Mexico.
_Carta en que se da noticia de un viaje hecho à la Bahia de Espíritu
Santo y de la poblacion que tenian ahi los Franceses. Coleccion de
Varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida_, 25.--This is a letter
from a person accompanying the expedition of De Leon. It is dated May
18, 1689, and agrees closely with the journal cited above, though
evidently by another hand. Compare Barcia, _Ensayo Cronologico_, 294.
Barcia's story has been doubted; but these authentic documents prove the
correctness of his principal statements, though on minor points he seems
to have indulged his fancy.
The Viceroy of New Spain, in a report to the King, 1690, says that, in
order to keep the Texas and other Indians of that region in obedience to
his Majesty, he has resolved to establish eight missions among them. He
adds that he has appointed as governor, or commander, in that province,
Don Domingo Teran de los Rios, who will make a thorough exploration of
it, carry out what De Leon has begun; prevent the further intrusion of
foreigners like La Salle, and go in pursuit of the remnant of the
French, who are said still to remain among the tribes of Red River. I
owe this document to the kindness of Mr. Buckingham Smith.
[357] _Mémoire sur lequel on a interrogé les deux Canadiens [Pierre et
Jean Baptiste Talon] qui sont soldats dans la Compagnie de Feuguerolles.
A Brest, 14 Février, 1698._