France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
and the Copper-mines.--Ste. Marie.--La
Pointe.--Michilimackinac.--Jesuits on Lake Michigan.--Allouez and
Dablon.--The Jesuit Fur-trade.
What were the Jesuits doing? Since the ruin of their great mission of
the Hurons, a perceptible change had taken place in them. They had put
forth exertions almost superhuman, set at naught famine, disease, and
death, lived with the self-abnegation of saints and died with the
devotion of martyrs; and the result of all had been a disastrous
failure. From no short-coming on their part, but from the force of
events beyond the sphere of their influence, a very demon of havoc had
crushed their incipient churches, slaughtered their converts, uprooted
the populous communities on which their hopes had rested, and scattered
them in bands of wretched fugitives far and wide through the
wilderness.[26] They had devoted themselves in the fulness of faith to
the building up of a Christian and Jesuit empire on the conversion of
the great stationary tribes of the lakes; and of these none remained but
the Iroquois, the destroyers of the rest,--among whom, indeed, was a
field which might stimulate their zeal by an abundant promise of
sufferings and martyrdoms, but which, from its geographical position,
was too much exposed to Dutch and English influence to promise great and
decisive results. Their best hopes were now in the North and the West;
and thither, in great part, they had turned their energies.
[Sidenote: REPORTS OF THE JESUITS.]
We find them on Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, laboring
vigorously as of old, but in a spirit not quite the same. Now, as
before, two objects inspired their zeal,--the "greater glory of God,"
and the influence and credit of the Order of Jesus. If the one motive
had somewhat lost in power, the other had gained. The epoch of the
saints and martyrs was passing away; and henceforth we find the Canadian
Jesuit less and less an apostle, more and more an explorer, a man of
science, and a politician. The yearly reports of the missions are still,
for the edification of the pious reader, filled with intolerably tedious
stories of baptisms, conversions, and the exemplary deportment of
neophytes,--for these have become a part of the formula; but they are
relieved abundantly by more mundane topics. One finds observations on
the winds, currents, and tides of the Great Lakes; speculations on a
subterranean outlet of Lake Superior; accounts of its copper-mines, and
how we, the Jesuit fathers, are laboring to explore them for the profit
of the colony; surmises touching the North Sea, the South Sea, the Sea
of China, which we hope ere long to discover; and reports of that great
mysterious river of which the Indians tell us,--flowing southward,
perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the Vermilion Sea,--and the
secrets whereof, with the help of the Virgin, we will soon reveal to the
world.
The Jesuit was as often a fanatic for his Order as for his faith; and
oftener yet the two fanaticisms mingled in him inextricably. Ardently as
he burned for the saving of souls, he would have none saved on the Upper
Lakes except by his brethren and himself. He claimed a monopoly of
conversion, with its attendant monopoly of toil, hardship, and
martyrdom. Often disinterested for himself, he was inordinately
ambitious for the great corporate power in which he had merged his own
personality; and here lies one cause, among many, of the seeming
contradictions which abound in the annals of the Order.
Prefixed to the _Relation_ of 1671 is that monument of Jesuit hardihood
and enterprise, the map of Lake Superior,--a work of which, however, the
exactness has been exaggerated, as compared with other Canadian maps of
the day. While making surveys, the priests were diligently looking for
copper. Father Dablon reports that they had found it in greatest
abundance on Isle Minong, now Isle Royale. "A day's journey from the
head of the lake, on the south side, there is," he says, "a rock of
copper weighing from six hundred to eight hundred pounds, lying on the
shore where any who pass may see it;" and he further speaks of great
copper boulders in the bed of the river Ontonagan.[27]
[Sidenote: STE. MARIE DU SAUT.]
There were two principal missions on the Upper Lakes, which were, in a
certain sense, the parents of the rest. One of these was Ste. Marie du
Saut,--the same visited by Dollier and Galinée,--at the outlet of Lake
Superior. This was a noted fishing-place; for the rapids were full of
white-fish, and Indians came thither in crowds. The permanent residents
were an Ojibwa band, whom the French called Sauteurs, and whose bark
lodges were clustered at the foot of the rapids, near the fort of the
Jesuits. Besides these, a host of Algonquins, of various tribes,
resorted thither in the spring and summer,--living in abundance on the
fishery, and dispersing in winter to wander and starve in scattered
hunting-parties far and wide through the forests.
The other chief mission was that of St. Esprit, at La Pointe, near the
western extremity of Lake Superior. Here were the Hurons, fugitives
twenty years before from the slaughter of their countrymen; and the
Ottawas, who, like them, had sought an asylum from the rage of the
Iroquois. Many other tribes--Illinois, Pottawattamies, Foxes,
Menomonies, Sioux, Assiniboins, Knisteneaux, and a multitude
besides--came hither yearly to trade with the French. Here was a young
Jesuit, Jacques Marquette, lately arrived from the Saut Ste. Marie. His
savage flock disheartened him by its backslidings; and the best that he
could report of the Hurons, after all the toil and all the blood
lavished in their conversion, was, that they "still retain a little
Christianity;" while the Ottawas are "far removed from the kingdom of
God, and addicted beyond all other tribes to foulness, incantations, and
sacrifices to evil spirits."[28]
[Sidenote: MARQUETTE AND ANDRÉ.]
Marquette heard from the Illinois--yearly visitors at La Pointe--of the
great river which they had crossed on their way,[29] and which, as he
conjectured, flowed into the Gulf of California. He heard marvels of it
also from the Sioux, who lived on its banks; and a strong desire
possessed him to explore the mystery of its course. A sudden calamity
dashed his hopes. The Sioux--the Iroquois of the West, as the Jesuits
call them--had hitherto kept the peace with the expatriated tribes of La
Pointe; but now, from some cause not worth inquiry, they broke into open
war, and so terrified the Hurons and Ottawas that they abandoned their
settlements and fled. Marquette followed his panic-stricken flock, who,
passing the Saut Ste. Marie, and descending to Lake Huron, stopped at
length,--the Hurons at Michilimackinac, and the Ottawas at the Great
Manitoulin Island. Two missions were now necessary to minister to the
divided bands. That of Michilimackinac was assigned to Marquette, and
that of the Manitoulin Island to Louis André. The former took post at
Point St. Ignace, on the north shore of the Straits of Michilimackinac,
while the latter began the mission of St. Simon at the new abode of the
Ottawas. When winter came, scattering his flock to their
hunting-grounds, André made a missionary tour among the Nipissings and
other neighboring tribes. The shores of Lake Huron had long been an
utter solitude, swept of their denizens by the terror of the
all-conquering Iroquois; but now that these tigers had felt the power of
the French, and learned for a time to leave their Indian allies in
peace, the fugitive hordes were returning to their ancient abodes.
André's experience among them was of the roughest. The staple of his
diet was acorns and _tripe de roche_,--a species of lichen, which, being
boiled, resolved itself into a black glue, nauseous, but not void of
nourishment. At times, he was reduced to moss, the bark of trees, or
moccasins and old moose-skins cut into strips and boiled. His hosts
treated him very ill, and the worst of their fare was always his
portion. When spring came to his relief, he returned to his post of St.
Simon, with impaired digestion and unabated zeal.
[Sidenote: THE GREEN BAY MISSION.]
Besides the Saut Ste. Marie and Michilimackinac, both noted
fishing-places, there was another spot, no less famous for game and
fish, and therefore a favorite resort of Indians. This was the head of
the Green Bay of Lake Michigan.[30] Here and in adjacent districts
several distinct tribes had made their abode. The Menomonies were on the
river which bears their name; the Pottawattamies and Winnebagoes were
near the borders of the bay; the Sacs, on Fox River; the Mascoutins,
Miamis, and Kickapoos, on the same river, above Lake Winnebago; and the
Outagamies, or Foxes, on a tributary of it flowing from the north. Green
Bay was manifestly suited for a mission; and, as early as the autumn of
1669, Father Claude Allouez was sent thither to found one. After nearly
perishing by the way, he set out to explore the destined field of his
labors, and went as far as the town of the Mascoutins. Early in the
autumn of 1670, having been joined by Dablon, Superior of the missions
on the Upper Lakes, he made another journey, but not until the two
fathers had held a council with the congregated tribes at St. François
Xavier; for so they named their mission of Green Bay. Here, as they
harangued their naked audience, their gravity was put to the proof; for
a band of warriors, anxious to do them honor, walked incessantly up and
down, aping the movements of the soldiers on guard before the governor's
tent at Montreal. "We could hardly keep from laughing," writes Dablon,
"though, we were discoursing on very important subjects; namely, the
mysteries of our religion, and the things necessary to escaping from
eternal fire."[31]
The fathers were delighted with the country, which Dablon calls an
earthly paradise; but he adds that the way to it is as hard as the path
to heaven. He alludes especially to the rapids of Fox River, which gave
the two travellers great trouble. Having safely passed them, they saw
an Indian idol on the bank, similar to that which Dollier and Galinée
found at Detroit,--being merely a rock, bearing some resemblance to a
man, and hideously painted. With the help of their attendants, they
threw it into the river. Dablon expatiates on the buffalo, which he
describes apparently on the report of others, as his description is not
very accurate. Crossing Winnebago Lake, the two priests followed the
river leading to the town of the Mascoutins and Miamis, which they
reached on the fifteenth of September.[32] These two tribes lived
together within the compass of the same enclosure of palisades,--to the
number, it is said, of more than three thousand souls. The missionaries,
who had brought a highly colored picture of the Last Judgment, called
the Indians to council and displayed it before them; while Allouez, who
spoke Algonquin, harangued them on hell, demons, and eternal flames.
They listened with open ears, beset him night and day with questions,
and invited him and his companion to unceasing feasts. They were
welcomed in every lodge, and followed everywhere with eyes of curiosity,
wonder, and awe. Dablon overflows with praises of the Miami chief, who
was honored by his subjects like a king, and whose demeanor towards his
guests had no savor of the savage.
Their hosts told them of the great river Mississippi, rising far in the
north and flowing southward,--they knew not whither,--and of many tribes
that dwelt along its banks. When at length they took their departure,
they left behind them a reputation as medicine-men of transcendent
power.
[Sidenote: THE CROSS AMONG THE FOXES.]
In the winter following, Allouez visited the Foxes, whom he found in