France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
invasions of their enemies: declaring to all other potentates, princes,
sovereigns, states, and republics,--to them and to their subjects,--that
they cannot and are not to seize or settle upon any parts of the
aforesaid countries, save only under the good pleasure of His Most
Christian Majesty, and of him who will govern in his behalf; and this on
pain of incurring his resentment and the efforts of his arms. _Vive le
Roi_."[42]
The Frenchmen fired their guns and shouted "Vive le Roi," and the yelps
of the astonished Indians mingled with the din.
What now remains of the sovereignty thus pompously proclaimed? Now and
then the accents of France on the lips of some straggling boatman or
vagabond half-breed,--this, and nothing more.
[Sidenote: ALLOUEZ'S HARANGUE.]
When the uproar was over, Father Allouez addressed the Indians in a
solemn harangue; and these were his words: "It is a good work, my
brothers, an important work, a great work, that brings us together in
council to-day. Look up at the cross which rises so high above your
heads. It was there that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, after making
himself a man for the love of men, was nailed and died, to satisfy his
Eternal Father for our sins. He is the master of our lives; the ruler of
Heaven, Earth, and Hell. It is he of whom I am continually speaking to
you, and whose name and word I have borne through all your country. But
look at this post to which are fixed the arms of the great chief of
France, whom we call King. He lives across the sea. He is the chief of
the greatest chiefs, and has no equal on earth. All the chiefs whom you
have ever seen are but children beside him. He is like a great tree,
and they are but the little herbs that one walks over and tramples under
foot. You know Onontio,[43] that famous chief at Quebec; you know and
you have seen that he is the terror of the Iroquois, and that his very
name makes them tremble, since he has laid their country waste and
burned their towns with fire. Across the sea there are ten thousand
Onontios like him, who are but the warriors of our great King, of whom I
have told you. When he says, 'I am going to war,' everybody obeys his
orders; and each of these ten thousand chiefs raises a troop of a
hundred warriors, some on sea and some on land. Some embark in great
ships, such as you have seen at Quebec. Your canoes carry only four or
five men, or, at the most, ten or twelve; but our ships carry four or
five hundred, and sometimes a thousand. Others go to war by land, and in
such numbers that if they stood in a double file they would reach from
here to Mississaquenk, which is more than twenty leagues off. When our
King attacks his enemies, he is more terrible than the thunder: the
earth trembles; the air and the sea are all on fire with the blaze of
his cannon: he is seen in the midst of his warriors, covered over with
the blood of his enemies, whom he kills in such numbers that he does not
reckon them by the scalps, but by the streams of blood which he causes
to flow. He takes so many prisoners that he holds them in no account,
but lets them go where they will, to show that he is not afraid of
them. But now nobody dares make war on him. All the nations beyond the
sea have submitted to him and begged humbly for peace. Men come from
every quarter of the earth to listen to him and admire him. All that is
done in the world is decided by him alone.
"But what shall I say of his riches? You think yourselves rich when you
have ten or twelve sacks of corn, a few hatchets, beads, kettles, and
other things of that sort. He has cities of his own, more than there are
of men in all this country for five hundred leagues around. In each city
there are store-houses where there are hatchets enough to cut down all
your forests, kettles enough to cook all your moose, and beads enough to
fill all your lodges. His house is longer than from here to the top of
the Saut,--that is to say, more than half a league,--and higher than
your tallest trees; and it holds more families than the largest of your
towns."[44] The father added more in a similar strain; but the
peroration of his harangue is not on record.
Whatever impression this curious effort of Jesuit rhetoric may have
produced upon the hearers, it did not prevent them from stripping the
royal arms from the post to which they were nailed, as soon as
Saint-Lusson and his men had left the Saut; probably, not because they
understood the import of the symbol, but because they feared it as a
charm. Saint-Lusson proceeded to Lake Superior, where, however, he
accomplished nothing, except, perhaps, a traffic with the Indians on his
own account; and he soon after returned to Quebec. Talon was resolved to
find the Mississippi, the most interesting object of search, and
seemingly the most attainable, in the wild and vague domain which he had
just claimed for the King. The Indians had described it; the Jesuits
were eager to discover it; and La Salle, if he had not reached it, had
explored two several avenues by which it might be approached. Talon
looked about him for a fit agent of the enterprise, and made choice of
Louis Joliet, who had returned from Lake Superior.[45] But the intendant
was not to see the fulfilment of his design. His busy and useful career
in Canada was drawing to an end. A misunderstanding had arisen between
him and the governor, Courcelle. Both were faithful servants of the
King; but the relations between the two chiefs of the colony were of a
nature necessarily so critical, that a conflict of authority was
scarcely to be avoided. Each thought his functions encroached upon, and
both asked for recall. Another governor succeeded; one who was to stamp
his mark, broad, bold, and ineffaceable, on the most memorable page of
French-American History,--Louis de Buade, Count of Palluau and
Frontenac.
FOOTNOTES:
[35] At least, La Salle was in great need of money, about the time of
his second journey. On the sixth of August, 1671, he had received on
credit, "dans son grand besoin et nécessité," from Branssac, fiscal
attorney of the Seminary, merchandise to the amount of four hundred and
fifty livres; and on the eighteenth of December of the following year he
gave his promise to pay the same sum, in money or furs, in the August
following. Faillon found the papers in the ancient records of Montreal.
[36] In his despatch of 2d Nov., 1671, Talon writes to the King that
"Saint-Lusson's expedition will cost nothing, as he has received beaver
enough from the Indians to pay him."
[37] _Moeurs, Coustumes, et Relligion des Sauvages de l'Amérique
Septentrionale._ This work of Perrot, hitherto unpublished, appeared in
1864, under the editorship of Father Tailhan, S.J. A great part of it is
incorporated in La Potherie.
[38] See La Potherie, ii. 125. Perrot himself does not mention it.
Charlevoix erroneously places this interview at Chicago. Perrot's
narrative shows that he did not go farther than the tribes of Green Bay;
and the Miamis were then, as we have seen, on the upper part of Fox
River.
[39] Perrot, _Mémoires_, 127.
[40] _Procès Verbal de la Prise de Possession, etc., 14 Juin, 1671._ The
names are attached to this instrument.
[41] Marquette is said to have been present; but the official act just
cited, proves the contrary. He was still at St. Esprit.
[42] _Procès Verbal de la Prise de Possession._
[43] The Indian name of the governor of Canada.
[44] A close translation of Dablon's report of the speech. See
_Relation_, 1671, 27.
[45] _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672._ In the Brodhead
Collection, by a copyist's error, the name of the Chevalier de
Grandfontaine is substituted for that of Talon.
CHAPTER V.
1672-1675.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Joliet sent to find the Mississippi.--Jacques
Marquette.--Departure.--Green Bay.--The Wisconsin.--The
Mississippi.--Indians.--Manitous.--The Arkansas.--The
Illinois.--Joliet's Misfortune.--Marquette at Chicago: his Illness;
his Death.
If Talon had remained in the colony, Frontenac would infallibly have
quarrelled with him; but he was too clear-sighted not to approve his
plans for the discovery and occupation of the interior. Before sailing
for France, Talon recommended Joliet as a suitable agent for the
discovery of the Mississippi, and the governor accepted his counsel.[46]
Louis Joliet was the son of a wagon-maker in the service of the Company
of the Hundred Associates,[47] then owners of Canada. He was born at
Quebec in 1645, and was educated by the Jesuits. When still very young,
he resolved to be a priest. He received the tonsure and the minor orders
at the age of seventeen. Four years after, he is mentioned with
especial honor for the part he bore in the disputes in philosophy, at
which the dignitaries of the colony were present, and in which the
intendant himself took part.[48] Not long after, he renounced his
clerical vocation, and turned fur-trader. Talon sent him, with one Péré,
to explore the copper-mines of Lake Superior; and it was on his return
from this expedition that he met La Salle and the Sulpitians near the
head of Lake Ontario.[49]
In what we know of Joliet, there is nothing that reveals any salient or
distinctive trait of character, any especial breadth of view or boldness
of design. He appears to have been simply a merchant, intelligent, well
educated, courageous, hardy, and enterprising. Though he had renounced
the priesthood, he retained his partiality for the Jesuits; and it is
more than probable that their influence had aided not a little to
determine Talon's choice. One of their number, Jacques Marquette, was
chosen to accompany him.
[Sidenote: MARQUETTE.]
He passed up the lakes to Michilimackinac, and found his destined
companion at Point St. Ignace, on the north side of the strait, where,
in his palisaded mission-house and chapel, he had labored for two years
past to instruct the Huron refugees from St. Esprit, and a band of
Ottawas who had joined them. Marquette was born in 1637, of an old and
honorable family at Laon, in the north of France, and was now
thirty-five years of age. When about seventeen, he had joined the
Jesuits, evidently from motives purely religious; and in 1666 he was
sent to the missions of Canada. At first, he was destined to the station
of Tadoussac; and to prepare himself for it, he studied the Montagnais
language under Gabriel Druilletes. But his destination was changed, and
he was sent to the Upper Lakes in 1668, where he had since remained. His
talents as a linguist must have been great; for within a few years he
learned to speak with ease six Indian languages. The traits of his
character are unmistakable. He was of the brotherhood of the early
Canadian missionaries, and the true counterpart of Garnier or Jogues. He
was a devout votary of the Virgin Mary, who, imaged to his mind in
shapes of the most transcendent loveliness with which the pencil of
human genius has ever informed the canvas, was to him the object of an
adoration not unmingled with a sentiment of chivalrous devotion. The
longings of a sensitive heart, divorced from earth, sought solace in
the skies. A subtile element of romance was blended with the fervor of
his worship, and hung like an illumined cloud over the harsh and hard
realities of his daily lot. Kindled by the smile of his celestial
mistress, his gentle and noble nature knew no fear. For her he burned to
dare and to suffer, discover new lands and conquer new realms to her
sway.
He begins the journal of his voyage thus: "The day of the Immaculate
Conception of the Holy Virgin; whom I had continually invoked since I
came to this country of the Ottawas to obtain from God the favor of