IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 11.25 utjm 12: •so "^^ H^H Hi 1^ 12.2 I' Hioliographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STRIET WEBSTER, N.Y. 145M (716)873-4S03 \ *^o CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/iCMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical MIcroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. □ Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ D □ D D D D Couverture endommagte Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurie et/ou pelliculAe I I Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Coloured maps/ Cartes giographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) |~~| Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Round with other material/ ReliA avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re liure serrie peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte. mais. lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont pas Ati film6es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires; L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6ti possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique. qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger una modification dans la mithode normale de filmage sont indiquAs ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages/ D Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagies Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur^es et/ou pellicul^es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages dicolories, tachetdes ou piqu6es Pages detached/ Pages d6tachdes Showthrough/ Transparence I I Quality of print varies/ Quality indgale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel suppiimentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible Image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont M filmies A nouveau de facon & obtenir la meiileure image possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmi au taux de r6duction indiquA ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X J 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here he« been reproduced thenks to the generosity of: Library of the Public Archives of Canada L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grice A la gAnArosit* de: La bibliothique des Archives publiques du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Las images suivantes ont 6tA reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettet6 de I'exempieire f llmA. et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or Illustrated Impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or Illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. Les exemplalres originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimte sont film6s en commciipant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la derniire page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplalres originaux sont filmto en commeng ant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol y (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". IVIaps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diegrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmts d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul cliche, ii est filmA A partir de Tangle sup6rleur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL HISTORY OF AMER- ICA. With Bibliographical and Descriptive Essays on its Historical Sources and Authorities. Profusely illus- trated with portraits, maps, facsimiles, etc. Edited by Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University, with the cooperation of a Committee from the Massachusetts Historical Society, and with the aid of other learned Societies. In eight royal 8vo volumes. Each volume, *tf> $5-5o; sheep, ttet, $6.50; half morocco, net, I7.S0. {Sold only by subscription/or the entire set. ) READER'S HANDBOOK OF THE AMERICAN REV- OLUTION. i6mo, $1.35. WAS SHAKESPEARE SHAPLEIGH? i6mo, rubri- cated parchment paper, 75 cents. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, and how he received and imparted the Spirit of Discovery. With portraits and maps. 8vo, gilt top, $4.00. CARTIER 10 FRONTENAC. A Study of Geographical Discovery in the interior of North America, in its his- torical relations, 1534-1700. With full cartographical Illustrations from Contemporary Sources. 8vo, gilt top, $4,00. THE MISSISSIPPI BASIN. The Struggle in America be- tween England and France, 1697-1763. With full car- tographical Illustrations from Contemporary Sources. 8vo, gilt top, $4.00. THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT: The Struggle for the Trans-Allegheny Region, 1763-1797. With full carto- graphical Illustrations from Contemporary Sources. 8vo, 54.00. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, Boston and New York. Cartier to jprontenac 5-T.v <.<^\* <^,<> oJ'<5 & '•(O W/3pAN''« INS. SYLVANUS, 151 I FRANQUEL'N, 1684 I GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA IN ITS HISTORICAL RELATIONS 1534— 1700 W/T/f FULL CARTOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRA- TIONS FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES BY JUSTIN WINSOR BOSTON AND NEW YORK ' HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY $irbc S^AJcrjsibe fniiy Cambri&oe 1900 pf)i)p r<^ 30S W 6^' Copyright, 1894, B« JUSTIN WINSOR. All rights reserved. THIRD IMPRESSION 7%« Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company. il To JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D., Prehidemt of the University of Michiqan. Dear Doctor : — Your fortune took you from the seaboard of New England to the valley of the St. Lawrence, and on the banks of that lake where Champlain first invoked the enmity of the Iroquois, you took your place among those who preside over our American colleges. Thence you went to a distant verge of that same valley, and near the path which La Salle followed in the boldest action of his life, you have developed the greatest university which we have beyond the moun- tains. No one knows better than yourself how the gi*eat valley which the American people shares with others on the north, and the greater valley of the interior which is all ours, and which almost becomes one with the other at various points, carry the streams of national life back and forth between the gulf which Cartier opened and that other gulf which Columbus failed to comprehend. This book cannot be more fitly inscribed than to you, by an adopted son of your university, and your friend, JMlifktkt/^ Harvard IjNrvERsiTY, September, 1S93. '• ' I Vlll CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Noiivel York," from Blome'H America (1G8H), 340 ; Map of the Great Lakes by Kaffeix (1088), U47 ; The Fox-WiscoiiBin River Route, 340 ; La Hontan's Maps of Canada, 352, 303, 354 ; Ships from Ln Hontaii, 357 ; The Larger Hennepin Map (1007), 358, 359 ; Edward Well'H Map (1008-1090), 302 ; Chfiteau de St. Louis (1008), 303; The Frontonao Statue, 304. A STUDY OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA. CHAPTER I. ft H I ii FUOM COLUMBUS TO CARTIER. 1492-1534. '* '1" It was not long after the discovery of Columbus before it became evident to some, at least, that the great Discoverer had not found any part of the world neighboring to Cathay, THE CANERIO MAP, 1503. [From the Bltetcli iu Ruge's Kartographie von Ainerika.'\ FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. A NEW WORLD SUSPECTED. 3 however remotely connected with the Orient of Marco Polo the new regions might prove to be. After the return of j^ „g„ ^0,,^ Columbus in 1493, it is apparent that Peter Martyr '^'p^^- hesitated to believe that Asia had been reached. It was quite clear that Columbus, on his second voyage, himself felt uncer- tain of his proximity to Asia, since, to preserve his credit with the Spanish sovereigns, he forced his companions, against the will of more than half of them, and on penalty of personal violence if they recanted, to make oath that Cuba was an Asiatic peninsida. He even took steps later to prevent one of the re- calcitrant victims going back to Spain, for fear his represen- tations would unsettle the royal faith that the fabled Orient had been reached. When his pilot, Juan de la Cosa, who was one of those forced to perjure themselves, found himself free to make Cuba an island in his map of 1500, the fact that he put no Asiatic names on the coast of a continent west of Cuba has I PART OF CHART NO. II. IN KUNSTMANN. [Also in Bull, de Giog. Hist, et Descriptive, 188C, pi. iv.] been held to show that the doubt of its being Asia had already possessed that seaman's mind. The makers of the Cantino and Canerio maps in 1502 and 1503 respectively, in putting in a coast for Asia distinct from this continent which La Cosa had !'l •hi FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. delineated, establish the point that as early as the first years of the sixteenth century the cartographers whose works have come down to us had satisfied themselves that areas of land of continental proportions had blocked further progress to the west. The geographical question then uppermost was thus reduced to this : Was this barrier a new continent, or had the islands which it was supposed would be found in the path to Asia proved to be larger than was imagined ? It was Colum- bus's purpose in his fourth voyage to find an opening in this barrier through which to reach the territories of the Asiatic po- tentates, and then to continue the circumnavigation of the earth. It may, then, well be questioned if the statement ordinarily made, that Columbus in 1506 died in ignorance of the true geographical conditions pertaining to a new continent, is true, whatever may have been his profession in the matter. There is, as we have seen, good ground for the belief that he did not mean the Spanish sovereigns to be awakened from a delu- sion in which he deemed it for his interests that they should remain- When Balboa, twenty years after Columbus's discovery, made Balboa and ^^ more palpable that south of the Isthmus of Pan- Mageiiau. ^,^^ there was a substantial barrier to western prog- ress, and when ten years later Magellan pierced this southern barrier at its Antarctic extremity, it still remained a problem to find out the true character of the northern barrier to such a progress, and to find a place to enter the land, along a northern parallel, far enough to reach the historic India. There were two waterways by which this northern land could The two ^SkVQ been explored far inland ; but for forty years ffican'*" after the landfall of Columbus, it is not safe to af- waterways. g^^j positively that any one had attempted to follow their channels. A local pride among the rugged sea-folk of the north of France has nevertheless presented claims for our con- sideration that one at least of these passages had been tried at different times early in the sixteenth century. Similar claims have been made for Portuguese mariners a little later, and be- fore the attempt of Cartier. Hakluyt even mentions that the English had known at this early date something of the St. Law- rence region ; but it is safe to say that no such record is known to-day. These great waterways lay within the two great valleys THE GREAT WATERWAYS. of the yet uncomprehended continent of the north, — the Mis- sissippi and the St. Lawrence, — which at the west were so closely connected that tidal waves arising in Lake Michigan sometimes overflowed the dividing ridge. The early explorers of the Great Lakes are known to have passed, during the spring freshets, in their canoes from one valley to the other, by that route which enables the modern Chicago to discharge its sewage into the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The striking experiences of the Spaniards at the south served to draw their attention from a due examination of the north- ^■1 REINEL CHART, 1503. [After the Sketch in Kretschmer's Atlas, ix.'] ern shores of the Gulf of Mexico ; so that Pineda in 1519, in finding a great river flowing from the north, which we now identify with the Mississippi, was not prompted to enter it in search of gold, "because it is too far from the tropics," as t ' Spanish cosmographer Ribero afterwards expressed it in a lej^end on his map of 1529. Moreover, this metal was not asso- ciated in their minds with such low regions as this river ap- parently drained ; and the white and turbid flow of its waters well out into the gulf, as La Salle later noticed, seems to have raised no conception of the vast area of its tributary watershed. Almost two centuries were to pass before its channel was to be \ I 6 FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. fairly recognized as a great continental waterway ; and then the explorations which divulged its extent were from the north and down the stream. The voyages of the Cabots and the Cortereals had been the outcome of a national rivalry which had sousfht for land and Jijnglana and i'ortugal some advantage in the north to counterbalance that of Spain in the south. It will be remembered that the line of demarcation moved westerly by the treaty of Tordesillas had thrown, it was supposed, these PEDRO REINEL'S CHART. [From Fac-siniiles in Kunstinann, and in Bull, de Geog. Hist, et Descriptive, 1880, pi. iii.] northern regions beyond the reach of Spain. Whether the Cabots had discovered at the north a gulf to correspond with the Mexican gulf at the south, and had found an expanse of water which had already coursed another great continental val- ley, and by which it was practicable to go a long distance CONTEMPORARY MAPS. 7 towards the west, must probably remain uncertain. Investiga- tion in critical hands has produced a divided opinion. Just what the Portuguese, who soon followed the English into these waters, did, is also not quite certain ; and though it can hardly be proved that the Cortereals entered the great northern gulf, it seems to be evident from a Portuguese portolano of 1504, FROM A PORTUGUESE MAPPEMONDE, 1502. [An Extract from the Fac-aimile in E. T. Hamy's Paper, in the £uU. de GSog. Hist, et Descrip- tive, 1S8G, p. 147 and pi. ii. It is sometimes called " The King Hap."] which Kunstmann has reproduced, that at this time they had not developed the entrances to this gulf north and west of Newfoundland ; while it is clear by the Reinel chart of 1505 that they had discovered but had not penetrated these passages. The student in Europe who curiously watched the progress of geographical development beyond the sea during the sixteenth century naturally followed the revelations in the successive editions of the Geographia of Ptolemy, with the new maps of recent progress made to supplement those long familiar as pertaining to the Old World. The man who made the map for the Roman Ptolemy of 1507-8 is believed to have been a companion of Cabot in these northern Ruygei,-, voyages ; and this work of Johanu Ruysch is the ""p* ^^-^• earliest engraved map which we have showing the new discover- I 8 FROM COLUMBUS TO CARTIER. ies. This map is interesting as making more apparent than La Cosa, seven or eight years before, had done, that these new discoveries might have been in part along the coast of Asia, but not altogether so. There is no sign in it of the landlocked region where now we place the Gulf of Mexico ; and in this respect it is a strong disproof of the alleged voyage of Vespu- cius in 1497 ; but it may give the beginning of a continental area which was soon to develop, adjacent to the West Indies, into what we call North America. But at the north Buysch places the discoveries of the English and Portuguese unmistak- TlHRA 5ANCTL CRU MUmoos wovus RUTSCH, 1508. [From the earliest engrayed Map showing the discoveries in the west, in the Ptolemy of 1506 (Rome).] ably on the upper Asiatic coast ; and while he does not dissever Newfoundland from the mainland, he goes some way towards doing it. So we may say that in 1507, one working in Rome with the BASQUES AND NORMANS. 9 available material which had been gathered from the Atlantio seaports had not yet reached a conception of this great watery portal of a continent which lies back of Newfoundland. That there could not have been knowledge of this obscure gulf in some of the seaports of northern and western France '^. ^^' -*»«. •: '4:i! ^ (i ! ^ -H I emyof 1506 ""Kt ^Olrt^<^ C^eut-s^ £?&lUa-^--^ !/■ OW JEAN DENTS (^alleged Map), 150C. [Reduced from a Tracing furnished from the Archives at Ottawa.] may indeed admit of doubt ; and perhaps some day a dated chart may reveal the fact. We need not confidently trust the professions of Michel and other advocates of the Basques Basques, and believe that a century before Cabot their ^"^]^°'" hardy fishermen had discovered the banks of New- foundland, and had even penetrated into the bays and inlets of if ii 10 FliOM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. the adjacent coasts. Tliere seems, however, little doubt that very early in the sixteenth century fishing equipments for these regions were made by the Normans, as Brcard chronicles them in his Documents relatifs a la Normand. In the very year when the Ruysch map became known in Europe (1508), it is claimed by Desmarquets and other Diej)- Aubert. pcse, solicitous for the credit of their seaport, that Denys. Thomas Aubcrt went eighty leagues up the St. Law- rence River. If this be true, the great northern portal was entered then for the first time, so far as we have any record ; but such pretensions, even with the support of Ramusio, hardly rest on indisputable documents. We learn from Charlevoix — too late an authority to be assuring — that Jean Denys had made a chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence two years earlier (1506) ; but the evidence to prove it is wanting. This map is said to have been formerly preserved in the Paris Archives, but is not found there or elsewhere at this day. What passes for a copy of it, treasured at Ottawa, shows names of a palpa- bly later period. If the original could be discovered, it might be found, possibly, that this nomenclature has been added by a more recent hand. There does not seem to be anything in the configuration of its shore lines that might not have been achieved In 1506 by an active navigator. If the outlines freed from the names are genuine, it would show that there had thus early been explorations to the west of Newfoundland, which might account for the otherwise surprising delineation of the "Golfo Quadrado," or Square Gulf, which appeared on the syivanus, mappcmonde of Sylvanus in his edition of Ptolemy 1511. jj^ 1511. This represents in mid-ocean in the north Atlantic a large island, little resembling Newfoundland, how- ever, with a landlocked gulf to the west of it, shut in by a coast which in the north and south parts bends so as nearly to touch the island. That it is intended for Newfoundland and the neighboring parts admits of no question ; for the strange interior coast is considered to be the region of the Cortereal discoveries, since there is upon it a Latinized rendering of that name, liegalis Dormis. Some explorations developing such a gulf, whether Denys's or those of others, must have already taken place, then, before 1511. There is some evidence in Navarrete's documents (iii. 42) that the Spaniai'd, Juau de ill THE SQUARE GULF. 11 Aoramonte, had been engaged in 1511 to go to the Newfound- land region ; but we are ignorant of the sequel. After this (late, for a score of years and more, this landlocked water of Sylvanus absolutely disappears from all the maps which have come down to us, — nothing remaining but indications of entrances to the gulf by the Straits of Belle Isle and by the southern passage. It is noticeable that Gomara, describing this FAN'D OCCIDC'S f§ N1V5 SYLVANUS, 1511. [Prom the Ptolemy of 1511.] water so late as 1555, speaks of it in the same way, as the " Square Gulf." France was now to find rivalry in these waters in the renewed efforts of the Portuguese. The French had established a fish- ing-station in Bradore Bay, just within the Straits of Belle Isle, which they called Brest. This was early in the century, but its precise date is difficult to determine. Showing some of the activity of the Portuguese, we have a chart of that FnRundes, l)eople, of not far from 1520, which indicates that ^"""" they had looked within the gulf both at the north and at the : I If*. !pr 12 FJiOM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER, south, but not far enough to discover its oi>en and extensive channels. If wo are to believe the interpretation which some have put upon a voyage ascribed to Joilm Alvarez Fagundes at this time, the Portuguese had attained far more knowledge of this inner gulf than this anonymous chart indicates. Indeed, a map, made in 15G3 by Lazaro Luiz, has been put forward as indicating just what Fagimdes had done ; and this clearly gives him the credit of unveiling the hydrograj)hy of the gulf, so that his results might be considered to exceed in accuracy those of Cartier in his first voyage. This map of Luiz makes the shores of the gulf complete, except a portion of the inner coast of Newfoundland, and even gives the St. Lawrence River for a long distance from its mouth. Being made forty years and more after Fugundes, the draftsman had the temptation to embody later results ; and the map naturally starts the question of how nmch v^uikiu 1 J>^^^ LAZARO LUIZ. [A Sketch of the Map in Bettencourt's Descohrimentos dos Portuguezes (Lisbon, 1881-82).] of this posterior knowledge was embodied in it. Since Betten- court in his Descohrimentos dos Portuguczes brought forward this map, in 1881-82, its pretensions in this respect have been studied, and often questioned ; but Dr. Patterson, a recent Nova Scotian writer, has advocated its claims ; and Ilarrisse in his last book, I7ie Discovery of North America, has committed him« THE FAGUNDES VOYAGE. 13 FnKiindei's self to a belief in the Fagundes explorations. The unqiit'S- tioned facts are these : Ancient documents mention the voyage as being for the purpose of establishing a fishing-station. The Portuguese king had also promised Fagundes control by patent of the regions which in this tentative voyage he should dis- cover. On Fagundes's return he rejjorted what he had found; and in accordance with his report, his report" king, March 13, 1521, granted to him these lands, supposed to be a new discovery. This patent describes them, presumably in accordance with Fagundes's report; and it is this description, taken in conjunction with the Luiz map, which must enable us to say where Fagundes had been. The language of the patent, not as clear as we might wish, says that the coast which he had found lay north of those known to the Spaniards and south of that visited by Cortereal, which would put it between Newfoundland and perhaps the Chesapeake, or possibly a region a little farther north than the Chesaj^eake. The assigned country includes, as the patent says, the Bay of Auguada, which contains three islands ; a stretch of coast where are other islands, which Fagundes had named St. John, St. Peter, St. Ann, St. Anthony, and an archipelago, also named by him the Eleven Thousand Virgins ; an island " close to the bank," which ho called Santa Cruz, and a second island called St. Ann. The patent closes with grant- ing all these islands and lands to their discoverer. On a coast so crowded with islands and bays as that of Maine and New Brunswick, — apparently the " firm land " of the description, — we need more details than the patent gives us to determine beyond dispute the geographical correspon- dences of these names. The inscription " Lavrador q descobrio Joaom Alverez [Fagundes] " is on the Luiz map, placed on the peninsula formed by the St. Lawrence Gulf and the Atlantic. This, in the opinion of Harrisse, requires the Baya d' Auguada, which is described as having a northeast and southwest exten- sion, to be none other than the St. Lawrence Gulf. That writer is convinced that the bay was named the Watering Bay, be- cause Fagundes must have gone through it to the outlet of its great river to fill his water-casks. He also allows that the three islands of this bay may possibly have been Prince Ed- ward, Anticosti, and Orleans ; since these islands in the Luiz ii ? 14 FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. map are all colored yellow, like a PortugucHo escutcheon placed on tlu) map. ThiH, however, would have carried FagtuulcH up the St. Lawrence Kiver farther than liarrisse is inclined to be> lieve ; and he would rather substitute for the island of Orleans the Magdalen group or some peninsula of the gulf mistaken for an island. liarrisse also applies rather n(>atly what may be termed the ** liturgical " tost in respect to all the names men- tioned in the patent ; and he finds that the corresponding saints' days in the Roman calendar run from June 21 to October 21. This would seem to indicate that it was in the summer and autumn, probably in 1520, when these names were applied, in accordance with a habit, common with explorers in those days, of naming landmarks after the saint on whose day they were discovered. Another proof of the voyage, also worked out by the same writer, is that names which appear on no map ante- dating this patent are later found for this coast on the maps known by the name of Maiollo (1527), Verrazano (1529), Vie- gas (1534), Harleyan (1542), Cabot (1544), Freire (154G), and Descelliers (1550). This is the nature of the evidence which makes liarrisse give FapiiKies's ^ map, tracking the progress of Fagundes from the track. ^jjj^g jjg passed near the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. By this it would appear that he coasted north the west shore of Newfoundland, and at the Straits of Belle Isle turned and followed the Labrador coast well within the St. Lawrence River, and then returning, skirted the New Bruns- wick coast, that of Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and Nova Scotia to the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, where he bore away seaward, and returned to Portugal. Few, we sus- pect, will accept this route of Fagundes as proved. Most will be content to acknowledge the fact of an acquaintance with the gulf and its neighboring waters rather than such an extent of the acquaintance. The advocates of these Portuguese anticipations of Cartier point to the melons and cucumbers which that navigator found among the natives of the gulf region as indicating that Euro- peans had left the seeds of such fruits among them. They also think that Cartier's own recitals leave the inij^ression that the Indians of the St. Lawrence had become used to Eui'opean contact before his advent. It is known, however, that the In- THK WKSTKHN llARIUKIi. 15 (linns of tho interior had long b««'n use*! to rosort to the shoreH of the ^ulf and itH vicinity during the 8uinuu < seanon ; and it is not unlikely that by this habit, as well an by a eonunon cus- tom of intertribal ooniniunication, the ways of KuropeuuM wore not unknown in tho interior. A belief in a comparatively short stretch of unknown sea sep- \ MAR.VlSTO.ftLOS CASTtLHAUOS IlLkltO* V KAbDtCASTELROi"-'^"M t r *'"V Brasill %&?■* POnTUOUESE CHART, 15.!0. [After a Sketch i i liuge'alCartogniphie vonAmerika.l arating the Azores from Cathay had been no small inducement to Columbus to make his hazardous voyage. Now that the land to the west had i)roved so far a barrier to a ue»tai »»r- farther westward way, it was in turn no small induce- ment to those prompted to pierce this barrier to believe that the land which confronted them was even narrower than the 16 FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. ocean had been thought to be. Balboa had proved how nar- row the land was at Panama, and Cortes had shown that it was not wide in Mexico. How wide was it farther north ? Columbus had suspected that South America was of conti- nental extent, because of the great volume of water which the Orinoco poured into the Gulf of Paria. Ships when out of sight of land had filled their water-casks from the water poured out by the Amazon, which told of an immense inland drainage. None of the early navigators remarked upon anything of the kind at the north. The flow of the Mississippi did not seem to impress them as indicating an enormous valley towards its source. The early maps given to portraying its supposed sys- .0..V oVooh° COPPO, 1528. [After Kretsclimer.] tem of drainage represent it as very scant. On the eastern sea- board of the northern continent the Alleghany range rendered it impossible for any river to have a very large volume of water. It was only when one got as far north as the St. La\v'i 3nce Gulf, and even into its inner reaches, that evidence such as had been indicative on the coast of South America could have suggested a vast continental area at the north. Therefore, before this revelation was made in the St. Lawrence River, it is not strange that there were current views against the continental character of the region lying north of the Mexican gulf and west of the ' country discovered by Cabot and the Cortereals. Some would ;'i THE SEA OF VERRAZANO. 17 ill believe that it was no continent at all, but only an immense archipelago, filled with i)assages, if they could only be found. Coppo had mapped it in this way in 1528. Others had followed Oviedo in supposing that the land at the north, at one place at least, was as narrow as it was at Panama ; for this historian, in 1526, in his Sumario, had first given published indication of what was for many years following known as the Sea of Verra- This expanse of water was imagined to fill the space zano. VERRAZANO. [A part of Brevoort's Fac-simile.] now known to be occupied by the two great valleys of the upper Mississippi and the Great Lakes ; while its easternmost waves nearly broke through the land, to mingle its waters with the Atlantic somewhere along the eastern seaboard of the jjres- ent United States. The supposition of this mysterious sea arose from an inter- pretation of Verrazano's experiences on the coast in vomuano, 1524, which constitute the first decided and official '•'■'-^• 111 * 18 FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. manifestation of French activity in the new regions. This navi- gator is supposed to have become acquainted with the coast from Spanish Florida to the seaboard of Maine ; and his ex- plorations were held iu later times to be the basis of the French claim to territory in the New World. Freville, in his Me- moire on the commerce of Rouen, prints a paper by Admiral Chabot, which shows that for a while it had been the inten- tion of Francis I. to follow up this voyage of Verrazano. The political exigencies in which that French king found himself involved had caused delays; and his attention was not again seriously given to such efforts until he commissioned Cartier, ten years later. During this decade Verrazano's notion of this sea beyond the barrier had become the belief of a school of geographers ; and the believers in it found it not difficult to count the chances good of reaching it by a strait at some point along the Atlantic coast. There have been two maps brought into prominence of late years, which reflect this belief. One is the map of verrazano Hierouomo da Verrazano, preserved in the College of the Propaganda at Rome, made by his brother not long after the voyage of that navigator. His chart shows this sea as a great watery wedge lying athwart the interior of the undeveloped North America, and pointing with its apex to a narrow strip of land somewhere in the latitude of Carolina. Indeed, one might suppose that the sailor brother of the cartog- rapher had described to him a stretch of sea with an obscure distance, as he saw it above the dunes in the neighborhood of Cape Hatteras ; while the cartographer himself had given his fancy play in extending it to the west. The other map has been brought within ten years to help elucidate this transient faith in such a western sea. This second chart had long been known in the Ambrosian Library at Milan as the work of the Visconte Maggiolo (Maiollo) ; but its full import had not been suspected, since it bore the apparent date of 1587. The Abbe Ceriani had discovered its true date to be 1527, and that some- body had changed, iu sport or in mischief, the figure 2 into 8. Signor Desimoni, the archivist of Genoa, who was at this time working on the Verrazano problem, happening in the library, was struck with the coast lines and legends on the map as being similar to those of the Propaganda map, with which he was \Msi THE SEA OF VERRAZANO. 19 familiar ; and he first brought the Maggiolo map to the atten- tion of students in 1882. The Sea of Verrazano is much the same in the two maps, and tlieir delineations of this oceanic delusion marked for a good many years yet to come a prevailing opinion as to the kind of goal the searchers for a western passage were striving to reach. iili m i 1 IT • '■1' m 20 FROM COLUMBUS TO CARTIER. chal fori Carl ^\ Seal Fral was! geos MICHAEL LOK, 1582. iLi ASIATIC EXTENSION OF AMERICA. 21 The sarue sea is found in the well-known English map of Mi- chael Lok, published by Hakluyt so late as 1582, — or nearly forty years after the close of the series of explorations which Cartier conducted. While it is probable that such supposed conditions as this Sea of Verrazano supplied were a considerable incentive to Francis I. to renew his interest in explorations, the problem was complicated by another view which an eminent German oeoorapher had espoused, and which had already been engaging attention for some ten years. The conditions of political and social life which Cortes had found in Mexico had revived the old hope that Cathay had at last been found ; and the reports of the conquerors which were sent to Europe, with all their exaggerations, were welcomed as far more nearly conforming to the descriptions of Marco Polo than anything which had been discovered among the West Indies or on the South American coasts. If the region, then, which Cortes had subdued was in truth Asia, the ocean which Magellan had crossed made an in- dependent continent of South America only ; while the north- ern spaces, instead of being an archipelago or a continental barrier, must be simply an eastern extension of Asia, and its coast must border on the north Atlantic. It is known from the text of a little geographical treatise (1533) which has survived, that Schbner, a famous globe-maker of Germany, had made a terrestrial AriaUc'* sphere in 1523 ; but it has not probably come down * '**"^* to us. Some gores which were discovered a few years ago have been held by Henry Stevens and others to belong to this globe ; but they delineate North America as a distinct continent, just as it was delineated in other globes by Schoner of an earlier date, which are well known. It is denied, however, by Norden- skiiild, that these gores can be of so early a date as 1523, and he places them more than twenty years later. Harrisse has later still examined the claim, and contends that the gores can- not possibly be those by Schoner of this date, because it seems apparent from his treatise that the globe of 1523 must have been made in accordance with the theory of an Asiatic exten- sion for North America. If this was so, — and Harrisse's reasons are not without effect, — this theory of an Asiatic ex- tension in North America is traced to Schbner as its originator, I; I; I .; ■ (■* '•'; l! a ^4 H' i r M "I ,i' •! •:;«; ill' ill 22 FROM COLUMBUS TO C ARTIER. 80 far as is known. If it is a matter of contention as respects Schoner, it is certain as regards a little figure of a globe made by Franciscus Monachus in 1526, which unmistakably repre- Franciscu* scnts North America as a part of Asia. This the- Monachu.. ^^^ g^^ ^ ^^^ advocatc in Orontius Finseus in 1531, who, however, so far departed from the view held by Francis- cus as to unite South America to the northern continent by the Isthmus of Panama, while the other had placed a strait to the north of that connection. This theory was made prominent in so well known a treatise as the Novus Orbis of Grynseus, FRANCISCUS MONACHUS, 1520. [After Sketch in Kretschmer's Alias."] where the map of Orontius appeared ; and at intervals through that century and into the next, other expressions of this view appeared in prominent maps. If Cartier or his royal master had entertained the expecta- tion that his expedition might penetrate into the heart of north- ern Asia when it started for tlit) gulf back of Newfoundland, it is altogether probable that its equipment would not have been undertaken. It is far more likely that the faith which the ear- lier expedition of Verrazano had developed in the narrowness of the northern continent prevailed at Paris and St. Malo when Cai'tier started on his fateful voyage. lit Sources. CHAPTER II. CARTIER, ROBEUVAL, AND ALLEFONSCE. 1534-1542. The story of the personal career of Cartier, separate from his American explorations, is not an extended one. Mod ern writers have in the main gone back to the J/e moire which Charles Cunat prepared for a general biogi-aphical account of the Breton race. Here Hoefer went for details used in his great dictionary, and D'Avezac and Rame for what they have said in editing the documents pertaining to Cartier's ca- reer. Harrisse in his Cahots has done something to elucidate the bibliography of the subject ; but the most important ci*iti- cal examination of Cartier's life is made in rran(;ois Joiion des Longrais's Jacques Cartier (Paris, 1888). The researches of this writer were too late for the use of Dr. De Costa in the Narrative and Critical History of America (vol. iv.), but have been followed by three recent prize essayists on the theme : Joseph Pope (Ottawa, 1890), in English ; Hiram B. Stephens (Montreal, 1890), also in English; and N. E. Dionne (Quebec, 1889), in French. Longrais's inquiries show Cartier to have been an older man by three years than had been supposed, or a man of forty -three instead of forty, when he sailed from St. Malo, April 20, 1534, with the aim of raising the French arms, as an act of posses- sion, in the neighborhood of the Square Gulf of Sylvanus. Kornian, Breton, and Basque had been frequenters of its shores for many years. These mariners were to find it hereafter within the jurisdiction of their common monarch. Just what constituted Cartier's fitness to carry out the behests of the French king is only apparent as an inference cartier' from the fact that Admiral Chabot, eager companion '"*'^'y of Francis, and sharing his ambition and confidence, hit upon g career. '1 ! li.: f ■ ) ; 'i' ! :i''! \ 4 i. ! \4 VJ; \\\ ■% ■, ! \ . .,■1 s ; t 24 C ARTIER, ROBERVAL, AND ALLEFONSCE. • i HIb voyage, 1534. Cartier as the instrument to place France on an equality with her maritime rivals. Some of the contemporary records call Cartier a corsair, which means that he had roved the seas to despoil the enemies of France. There is a probability that he had voyaged at one time to Brazil. When he was married, in 1519, he had risen high enough in his profession to be called a master pilot. We know that when Cartier shipped his crew, a voyage of discovery had fewer attractions than the better paying occupations of fishing and trading on the Newfound- land coasts. They preserve at St. Malo to-day a list of those finally brought to sign the ships' papers, which were made out in Cartier's own hand. He superintended the equipment of his two vessels of sixty tons each, and when all his men were piped to duty they numbered sixty-one souls. That Cartier was bound for the land lying beyond the New- foundland banks, and for the water which that island inclosed, conveyed, very likely, varying notions to the crews of the fishing craft then afloat in this Norman harbor. We have no know- ledge that Cartier started with any charts ; but he could hardly have been denied the help of the rough sketches of the coasts, which many a fisherman, habituated to the region, could have made for him. If such charts embodied information which they had shared with the Portuguese, whom they were accustomed to meet on those fishing-grounds, we may look to the chart of Vie- gas of this same year (1534), which has come down to us, as indicating, perhaps, the notions then pi-evalent respecting this inner sea at the back of Newfoundland. This chart certainly shows but an inadequate conception of its great expanse, and makes the gulf open to the sea at the south, and not at the north. Cartier's course in his voyage hardly accords with such a belief on his part. It was a rugged port, this St. Malo, with ics crowded pe- ninsular town, jutting out to form a harbor, in and out of which thirty or forty feet of water rushed with the tide, leaving the vessels at the ebb keeled upon the ribbed sand. The place had a reputation for hardy seamen, and Jacques Car- tier was then its boast, and has been ever since. Whin his ves- sels, that April day, righted with the flood and their booms creaked to the vigorous pull of their crews, and the gazing St. Mulo. NEWFOUNDLAND. 25 idlers along the shore waved their farewells to St. Malo's mari- time hero, it was doomed that he should give the great interior of a new continent to an aspiring rival of Spain, Portugal, and England. OxJlre^ctntUf I Nevrfoundland and tl?c6ulfoF5t.Lavvrrcnceby CASPAR VIEGAS. [After a Sketch in Kohl's Discover \j of 3Iain€.'] Cartier experienced rough weather as he made the coast of Newfoundland, in the neighborhood of Cape Bona- At New- vista (May 10), and he was obliged to seek a harbor X^^f' to make repairs. Kohl, in his Discovery of liable^ ^^^' thinks that if Cartier had known of the southern entrance to the gulf, with its seventy-five miles of breadth, he would now have sought it. After he had completed his repairs he did, in fact, turn north and not south, and on May 27 he was at the ,1.1 •Mi m f;;; v," ;i ■iii. f ; 1 •-.1, ill' Kif ili 20 CA It TIER, It OBlUi VA L, A ND A LLJuFOXSC/:. In tlie Riilf. July, 153-1. opening of the Stmits of Belle Isle. This was a region familiar to the fishermen, although one would not suspeet it from the Viegas chart, and in the harbors of the Labrador coast within the i)assage their ships had been long aeeustomed to find ref- use in bad weather. It was somewhere hero that Cartier mot a ship from La Koehelle. lie saw also some of the natives of the region. The country seemed to him to bo forbidding, so he turned his prows south, and tracked the inner coast of Newfoundland till near the point opposite Cape ]iret(m. Cartier was thus the earliest to define this coast, and if the explorations of Fagundes are allow<;d, that Portuguese navigator seems not to have outlined this rei>ellant shore. Car- tier now steered westerly and, passing the Magdalene Islands, reached the shore of Prince Eeople, and they offered ransoms. The majesty of France could not condescend to bargain, and the savages were put off with a promise of having their chieftain restored to them the next year. The French had received special kindnesses from the people of a neighboring village, and in their weakened condition, find- ing it necessary for want of a crew to abandon one of their ves- sels, they gave the Petite " Hermine " to this people, in order that they might profit by the metal spikes in the hulk. If the vessel which was found in 1843 — as alreadv stated — had shown that the fastenings had been removed from her timbers, there would be more ground for supposing it a relic of Cartier's fleet. On the 6th the French floated into the St. Lawrence, and set sail for their downward voyage. After a while they Return voy- auchorcd, just out of the current, when the savages' canoes, which were following, came up. The poor creatures had not yet got over clamoring for Donnacona. Car- tier now put the chieftain forward to tell his people that he was content, and would return in a year. Meanwhile the French- men tossed into the hovering canoes some hatchets in return for beaver and wampum. The savages were satisfied enough with the exchange to forget their grievance, and Cartier tried to get away while they continued in so happy a mind. The wind, however, did not serve him, and he was obliged to linger till the 20th. When once started, he found no obstacle till he reached the gulf. Here he buffeted awhile with adverse gales, and finally found a haven at the little island of St. Pierre. At the anchorage he found many ships from France and Britain, as he says, and may have learned more than he knew before of the southerly outlet of the gulf, for he shortly after passed to sea by rounding Cape Race. Eai-ly in July he was once more gliding with the flood into the basin of St. Malo. Cartier was at once ordered by the king to make a written Tiie nre/ accouut of the voyage, and it has come down to us, jiecit. j^jjj jg usually cited, as the Bref Rtcit. It has been surmised, as four years elapsed before a new expedition was sent out, that the report which Cartier now made was not, on the whole, encouraging. He had not, indeed, discovered any July. El ROBERVAL. 37 mines, as had been hoped ; but a copper knife which he had obtained from an Indian might indicate that his futile quest was rather unfortunate than decisive. This implement was said to come from the Saguenay region. And where was saRuenay tliis region ? Dr. Shea thinks it evident that it did '"8'°"- not mean the banks of the Saguenay River, but a country be- yond, to which that river opened the way. The Saguenay had not yet been explored, and there was a chance of mines being found in that direction. There might indeed be revelations in reserve along those valleys up which Cartier had looked so longingly from Mont Royale. Then the natives had also spoken to liim of an inhabited country to the south, where the climate was milder. This was, perhaps, a monition of the Lake Cham- plain country, which led him to imagine that a water passage was yet to be discovered, running south, which might lead to Florida, — a region, it must be remembered, broader than the present designation covers, and meaning all that the Spaniards clauned in what is now the southern and even the middle United States. As we read the Bref liecit^ we feel that Cartier at least was rather cheerful over future prospects ; but the person necessary to be impressed with hope was Francis I. This monarch was embarrassed in making i,ny prompt decision by the wars in wliich he was involved, rie had listened, however, to Cartier, liad read his written account, had talked with Donnacona and the other kidnapped savages, and grew to be confident in the chances of better success. To emphasize his claim to the country in a way to impress his rival potentates, Francis now determined to create a vice- royalty in the new country, and selected for his representative a Picard seigneur, Jean Franc^ois de la Roque, better Robervai, known as Robervai, from his estates. He was a gen- ^'<='''°y- tleman of some consideration in his province, — a sort of petty king, if we may believe what Charlevoix gives as the sportive designation of him, often on the royal lips. It was at his commis- Fontainebleau, January 15, 1540, that the king signed *'°"' *'^*'- the commission, giving his subject and friend full vicegeral powers, while he placed at the same time at his lieu- , , February, tenant's disposal, the sum of 45,000 livres. On Feb- ruary 0, Robervai took the oath before Cardinal de Tonrnon, :" ^ ' ! 1 i I !( W 88 CAUTIEll, ItOn/mVAL, AM) ALLEFONSCE. I and on the next tlay he was eonimsuuled to follow the luckless habit of searching the jails for reoruits. There is no certainty that through all these jireliniinaries the king had determined to have Cartier as the active spirit of the exi)edition, and it may rather have been an after-thought, when he found the Picardy gentleman not pushing the enteri)rise to suit his royal wishes. October, "^* ^^ events, on October 17, Henry the Dauphin ti^r^iaptiriu- '^'S '^^ ^^^'^ paper making Cartier captain-general and general. ^y^lot of the fleet. It was now sure that some spirit would be given to the undertaking. The outfit of the fleet was '.nore imposing than anything France had before arranged, and accordingly it excdted the sus- picion of Spain. While the rivals of the Spanish monarch were merely hovering about the coasts of Newfoundland, Spain was not prepared to say that her rights inider the bull of de- marcation had been infringed, for it had long been allowed that the northern regions which the Cortereals had visited, as well as the eastern limits of Brazil, were exterior to the Spanish ap- portionment. But here was something that looked like a rival claim west of Pope Alexander's line of partition. How far the public or the emissai'ies of Spain had learned of what Car- tier had accomplished on his second voyage does not appear, — certain it is that some years were to pass before any publication was made concerning the voyage, for the Bfcf liecit was still in manuscript. Further, if a type of all the maps issued before 1541 has come down to us, it is equally certain that there had been no cartographical recognition of it up to this time. The general impression was that the Baccalaos — as Newfoundland and the neighboring lands were usually called — was a sterile region, out of which little could come in compensation for any considerable outlay. So the Spanish ambassador in Paris re- ported to his master that it was best to let the French king spend his money. The Spaniards seem at any rate to have exaggerated the preparations which Roberval was making, for t' ey imagined that thirteen ships were fitting for the voyage, while in fact Cartier had been instructed to prepare five only, and among them we find the familiar " Grande Hermiue " and the " Emerillon." It was the king's wish that the fleet shoidd bo at sea by April 15, 1541 ; but when the time canu' April, 1541. >'Ak.\ ,1 WAITING llOBEIi VA L. ;i9 Kohci'val was far from ready. It was therefore deeided that a ]):irt of the expedition shoidd ^o ahead, and on May 23, Cur- tlei- lioisted sail on three ships. JIo soon ran into foul weather, during whieh his vessels were separated. Thi'V all later rendezvoused at Carpunt on the Newfoundland coast. Here they waited six weeks for Hoberval, and had ahundant leisure to repair damages. But the viceroy came not. A\'eary of the delay, Cartier again put to sea, and entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence, pushed across it i">^i. At' 1 ■• Ti » i->f»i 1 Stadacoiin. and up the great river. It was August Z6 when he reached his old camp at Stadaeona. The expectant natives at once asked for Donnacona and his fellows, only to be told that the chieftain had died a Chris- tian, and that the others had married and were now great lords. Tliero is evidence that three at least of these Indians had been baptized at St. Malo in 1538, and that all, excepting one girl, had died. The bold deceit ap])eased the native anxiety, and Agona, who had in the interval worn Donnaeona's wreath, felt cpiite content with a new lease of power. In fact, he was somewhat effusive in his joy, and did his best to nuike Cartier share in his festive delight. For some reason Cartier felt it best to leave his old harbor of Sainte Croix and to proceed four leagues higher up the St. Lawrence to a position near the modern Cap Rouge. „ Septeuibpr* Here he began a fort whieh he called Charlesbourg. i'*' Ile was still without tidings of the viceroy, and on imurKat September 2 he dispatched two of his ships to carry word to France of what he had done and of Roberval's non- a])pearance. One of these messenger ships was commanded by his brother-in-law, Jalobert, the other by his nephew, Noel. After these had started honi ward, Cartier left Beau])re in charge at Charlesbourg, and proceeded up the river. He had a conference with a petty chieftain at Ilochelay, a sj)ot ai)parently near the Iv' ulieu Rapids. He be- stowed upon this savage n red cloak with bright trimmings. Passing on through the rapids to Ilochelaga, he learned that its chieftain was plotting mischief, and had gone to Stadaeona as if to further some evil design. So without tarrying long, Cai*- tier returned to Charlesbourg and made preparations for the win- tor. Perhaps the situation of his new fort was not favorable for ■n !N 1 I ! i; ; ^1 ! ■;. liiiiii Robcrval. 40 CMiriER, nOHEllVAL, AND ALLEFOSSCK. intercourse witli the natives, or the savapjes may liave kept pur- wiiiter, posely aloof ; at all events, he saw little of them ilur- 1541-42. j„g ^|„, winter. His men had found some su])poso(l diamonds and flakes of what ho thon<::ht p^old, — evidently de- ceived by a mock metal as the pioneers of Virginia later were, — and with such promises of wealth he was ready in the spriiif^ to abandon the fort and sail for France. Wh jther he eneonn- tered Koberval on the way is a question whiuh we may pres- ently consider, as we follow the fortunes of the viceroy. We left this royal representative preparing to follow Cartier with the rest of the fleet. It is to be acknowledcrod at the outset that the itineraries of Koberval and Car- tier during the progress of this divided expedition are difficult to reconcile one with another. Some writers have contended that the viceroy made but a single voyage to the gulf, and then failed to go up the river to join Cartier, but wintered some- where on the gulf shores. Others contend that he made a brief preliminary voyage and then returned to France, only to start the next spring on his chief explorations. The truth can hardly be determined beyond dispute ; nor can it be satisfactorily established whether the viceroy and his master pilot met at all in American waters, so as to be for any pe\ iod together in these wild regions. We have distinct statements that Koberval sailed from ITonfleur, August 22, 1541, and again from La Kochelle, April IG, 1542. AVhether this was one embarkation with a confusion of dates, as has been often believed, or two distinct ones, is a subject of controversy. If the voyage of 1541 was a preliminary one, Koberval could hardly have gone beyond the gulf so as to add anything to geographical know- ledge. He would have returned to France by the year's end. Meanwhile Jalobert and Noel, as already stated, had been sent home by Cartier with dispatches to the king, and their dispatches may have given new encouragement, so that Kober- val was — on the supposition of two voyages — again at sea on April IG, 1542. Thi^- time it seems certain — •vhether it be the true date of a sinok; vovage, or the date of a sec- At New- . J^ ' fomidiaud, ond ouc — that Koberval dei)arte(l from La Kochelle. After a stormy passage he anchored at St. John, New- foundland, June 8, 1542. Jean Allefonsce, whose story ami ALLEFONSCE. 41 chiirts help us to rehearse their experiences, was in one of his ships. We have seen that Cartier, in the spring of tliis year, had abandoned his post at Cap Rouge and eonie down the river, it lias been usually said that in one of the harbors near the gulf he encountered Uoberval and his fleet. We may allow it to be true, and that the meeting was not altogether a grateful one to Cartier, who conld have had little disposition to return iij) the river for a repetition of the winter's miseries. If Cartier exhibited his supposable gold and diamonds, Uoberval may have been more eager to make trial of new chances in the same field. We only know — as the story goes — that after an interview of the two, one night Cartier hoisted anchor, and when the dawn broke, Uoberval found himself left to his own resources and Cartier out of sight on his way to France. Such is Hakluyt's narrative of their meeting and parting, and his name carries a measure of assurance to make it true. It has been intimated that a part of Cartier's discontent was with the necessity of leading a colony which offered no better material than the scouring of the jails. IMention has been made of Allefonsce as in Roberval's train. This seaman was at this time a man well on in years, — ill fact not much short of sixty, — and of so great experience in navigation that his name is a prominent one in the maritime annals of the Norman seaports. Despite some rival claims as to his nativity, the French can best boast of his fame, for he was most likely born at Saintonge, which is a vil- lage near that Cognac which gives its name to French brandy. Cham})lain, who lived with a generation that had not forgotten the associates of Allefonsce, called him the hardiest mariner of his time. Koberval apparently took Allefonsce to serve him as ]ulot after he had sent Cartier ahead ; and it was by Roberval's oiders, after reaching Xewfonndland, that Allefonsce went north along the Labrador coast to find, if possible, a passage to the west. The ice proved so dense that he gave up the search. How thoroughly he then, or at any later day, sailed about tlie St. Lawrence gulf is not clear. The little sketch-maps which he made, and which are preserved in his manuscript \) 1 il 42 CMlTlEi:, liOIiEnVAL, AND A/JJJFOXSCK ii ('(isfnf>t/riij>/ii(; now in tlio grout I'liris library, nvo\u to indicate personal acMniaintani'c with its wat(>rH, even so far inland as tlu! mouth of tho Sajj;uenay. IIo seems to have end)raeed the belief that these rej^ions were near, or ])ossihly identical with, C athay, and he represents the Saguenay as broadening in its upper parts into tho Sea of Cathay. If these maps of Alle- fonsce are tho result of his own observation in part at least, 'smiosniNmu ^s/>/- Gl'LF OF ST. LAWRENCE. [T«o Sketches l)y AUefonsce.] they may bo looked upon as the earliest we have of any portion of the St. Lawrence valley made by an actual explorer. Roberval himself ascended the St. Lawrence and reached the CnpRouce, neighborhood of Cap Rouge by the middle of July, July, iML>. 1542^ and began defenses where Cartier in the pre- vious year had established his foi't. The communal building — tenement, castle, or whatever it was — makes a good show in the description, with its halls, chambers, storehouses, kitchens, and cellar. The whole group of structures constituted a little intrenched camp, where the company was huddled together. " noiiKltVAL AT FRASCE-nol. 43 N'otliinfj Itut the outer daiij^cr coulil have ln'ought such incon- oriious eloiiients into Hiilticction or iiiudo lift; ciKluriihlc. Tho (|ii('sti(Hi of Hnstonaiu!(' sood harassed thom. The Xnvf^a houso- lioKl was roiij^h and prodigal. Tho stores were not of the best, and there was small chanee of increasinj;^ theni from tho neij;h- boring tribes, even if they could bo counted on as friends. It became thert'foie, be- fore long, necessary to (leal out allotted ra- tions, and it was done rigorously. In this way famine, which at one time was alarmingly near, was kept at a dis- tance. Disease, how- ever, could not 1)0 barred out, and scurvy began to make sad in- roads u})on a company weakened by many trials, and not in the /?a//^£^U past bred to whole- some ways. As exigencies came, Koberval showed him- self quite equal to his duty. lie used the gib- l»et and lash effectively to i)rescrve peace and insure safety to the conmiunity at Fran- f'ois-Roi, as the post was now called, transformed to Francc-Roi by Alle- fonsce, and France-Prime by ITakluyt. Fortunately Tvoberval, as Cartiev had before him, escai)ed hostile attacks from the savages, and it does not aj)pear that the French were even threatened during that perilous winter. With the coming of spring, a better feeling pervaded the com]iany, and Koberval had the courage to think of something beside disciplining his followers. lie determined to discover, if possi- THE ST. LAWRENCE AND THE SAC.VENAV. [A Sketch by Allefonsce.] Frniii;oi»-Koi. 1 r fP P ■u I I •: ! i t k-V 1 riJ! liiiii- I. F« i!l ']*'' 1 1 Wit!' i 1 I 111 ii J? I t ; f I H 1: I m I 44 CAIITIER, liOBEliVAL, AND ALLEFONSCE. ble, what all the stories of various mines in the country were based upon, lioberval would have given much to know what the assayers had made of the sparkling fragments whicli Car- tier had carried to France. Possibly in their treacherous in- terview, which in llakluyt's narrative is made to })recede Car- tier's stealthy escape, that pilot may have laid before his chief the identical map which a descendant of Cartier possessed nearly fifty years later. Jioberval would then have descried upon it the legend: "The Saguenay country is a rich land, abounding in precious stones." Koberval now determined to i)ush an expedition farther into the interior. Accordingly on June 5, 1543, — Hak- Roberval ox- . i • i ji mi p i.i^oies, June, luyt givcs US thc tlatc, — lic stuvtcd With a notilla or eight boats and seventy men. AVe are told that he left thirty men to guard the fort, and this total of a hundred would indicate that the winter and its diseases liad claimed many victims. He ex])ectedto return to France-Roi by July 1. Whither he went it is difficult to say. Some interpret the scant account in Ilakluyt as signifying an ascent of the St. Lawrence. Others make him plunge through the deep shad- ows of the Saguenay. It has been even stated that he estab- lished a fort on the river Mistassini, and that its remains were still traceable : but the most trustworthy explorers have never found them (^Biill. Amcr. Geofj. Soc, September, 1891). At all events, he found the task of exploration, in whatever direction it lay, greater than he anticii)atetl, and he sent back word to lioycze, who had been left in connnand at the fort, not to expect his return till July 20, after which, if nothing more was heard of him, Koycze was at liberty to sail for France. The failure of Ilakluyt to continue the story leaves us with- out a guide to the subsequent fortunes of a colony which, as the Abbe Ferland contends, could hardly have left worthy descendants, if it had established a foothold for its jail-birds. The reader needs to be api)rised that in what we hav(» gone over, the i)resent recital is more or less forced. Tlie dates of the several accounts are confusing, i lakluyt is more than usu- ally uncertain, and Allefonsce is sparing of dates. Late writ- (M's, whether near or remote from the time of Cartier, have not done much to render clearer the dependence of events. In what is to follow, the most certain element of dates comes C ARTIE It AT ST. MALO. 45 from the somewhat surprising fondness anil opportunities which C'avtier, after his return to St. Malo, had for standing spon- sor at baptisms, and giving evidence in court. Longrais has i ■i CART IKK. iTho iisiml r.)rtrait, but of .loubtfiil aiitlu'uti.ity, following tlu" Kngniving in Suite's CuiKulieii''- delved assiduously in the hidden sources of this kind of evi- dence, and there seems to have been no church or other records in St. ^Slido to which his scrutiny has not been applied. In this way it is nuide to appear that Cartier arrived at St. 1;^ i i. il ■li I! iii ! \ ■ ii . K . t ■ ' ^ 1 ' I ),:i I i 46 C ARTIER, ROBERVAL, AND ALLEFONSCE. Malo before October 21, 1542. In the following spring — say in April oi May, 1543 — his name is absent from Cartier in , , -^ , , , St. Malo, local records, and does not reappear till autumn. Lescarbot says that Cartier made a fourth voyage to Canada to rescue Roberval, and there was a sufficient interval between the spring of 1543 and October or November fourth voy- of the samc year for him to have done so. Lescarbot's unsupported statement and this opportune interval are all we have upon which to rest any such final voyage of Car- tier. Concerning his remaining years at home we have a few tangible facts. It was probably in the interval between his second and third voyage, and perhaps about the time he was summoned in order to impart a little force to the dilatory performance of Roberval, CARTIKR'S MANOR. [From Suite's CuiKulieiis-Fnnirdi.s, vol. ii.] that the king bestowed upon Cartier a manor, situated on the coast a few miles out of St. Malo, which has given rise, in some writers, to the belief that this lordship of Limoilon had made him a noble. If such an honor could be indubitably estab- lished, it might be cited as another proof of the way in which Cartier basked in the royal favor. It was from tliis abode, or from his town liouse in St. Malo, that he occasionally issued in Ills retirement to attend upon legal transactions, as the records show. The most important of these citations for our purpose DEATH OF C ARTIER. 47 is when he is summoned with Roberval (April 3, 1544) be- fore the king, to settle the accounts of their joint expe- /» 1 n 1 • 1 April uj lu44. (lition. The referees gave an award of nearly eighty- four livrcs to Cartier, which he never received, and which his heirs at a later day contended for. With this item these two men pass out of sight in the story of Canadian exploration. We know little of the life of Cartier subsequently, till he died at his seashore estate on September 1, 1557, probably of an epidemic then prevailing. Roberval's septeniber ' end is more uncertain. Perhaps he died later at sea, iieihaps he was assassinated in Paris, — we have both stories (> iven to us, — but at all events he was still living in the year of Cavtier's death, and thenceforth he eludes us. '% 5 !»'> , rh \n I;. I; 0^ •f '.'- ' Pi tf I'' ■'I ,* I- [I i- I i »ii!|: }\ .!■!: CHAPTER III. THE RKSl'LTS OF CAUTIPiR S EXPLORATIONS. lo4L'-l()();i. '1: i i.iS ■'fl I ! TriE results of Ciiitier's explorations came slowly to the knowledge of contemporary cartographers. In the year of Cartier's return from his second voyage (153G), Alonso de Chaves, the official cosmographer of Spain, made a plot of the North American coast, using, it seems probable, maps of ex- l^lorations of which we have no other trace, and which gave it some trends of the coast differing from the well-known Ivibero map of a few years before. Although the Spaniartls were keej)- ing close watch on the northern explorations of their rivals, it is apparent that Chaves had not heard of Cartier's movements, and this means, most likely, that the hydrographers in the ser- vice of Spain were equally ignorant of what France thf I'iuiron had bccu doinassap,e which tepnti'icen severed Xewfoundlanil from the main, and so did the "'^^" I' \J I W iV\ M-^^. ; t -t Mi! ■|, ' ^Vrl#?,:f 50 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, m^-160?. is; Italian Vopellio ; but Ulpius, making the globe at Rome, in 1542, which is now owned by the New York Historical Society, seems not to have been even thus imperfectly informed. The French globe-maker, who not far from the same time made the sjihere preserved at Nancy, knew only enough to make a group of islands west of the Newfoundland banks. We turn to something more intimately connected with Car- tier's own work. It might go without saying that Cartier would l)lot his own tracks ; but we have no written evidence that he did, otlier than a letter of his grand-nephew fifty years later, who says that he himself had inherited oue such map. We us IllA^^iia. CABO AR£WAS The /Jeu) ForLde Londe. aaKo-t men. ooeth. a- fLich-lTxcr ROTZ, 1512. [East Coaat.] must look to three or four maps, made within five years of Cartier's last voyage, and which have come down to us, to find how the lost charts of Cartier affected cartographical know- ledge in certain circles in France, and placed the geography of the St. Lawrence on a basis which was not improved for sixty years. Those who have compared the early maps find the oldest ciu'tograpiiioal record which we have of Cartier's first voyage (1584) in a document by .lean R dated eight years later, and preserved in the Briti' ivluseum. Har- risse thinks that back of this Rotz niaj) the' i. another, known' ilotz, 154'.'. si JEAN ROTZ. W as the Harleyan mappemonde, which is deposited in the same collection ; and it is possible that a map of Jean de Clanioigan, known to have comprehended details of the earlier Cartier voy- ii"es, which has disappeared from the collection at Fontaine- bluau, may also have been useful to liotz, who is held to be a Frenchman, which may also account for his acquaintance with Malouin sources. Hamy, in a recent paper (^Bulletin de Georjvaiihic hlstorlcpic, etc., 1889), makes him identical with Jean Koze of Dieppe. This Bake of Idmgraphj, as Kotz calls it, contains two maps which interest us. One shows the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the opening into the river, which Vie. ^ajtci of / \i^-^^\ '—iT, -a cae •TAS, ^erfTLu-cL-L ^ b O ROTZ, ir42. [Western Hemisphere.] indicates an acquaintance with the extent of Cartier's first ex- plorations (1534), and may well have been made some years before the date of the manuscript which contains it. If its outline is interpreted correctly, in making Anticosti a penin- sula connecting with the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River, it is a further proof that a foggy distance prevented Cartier from suspecting that he was crossing the main chan- nel of the St. Lawrence, when he sailed from Gaspd to the Anticosti shores. The other map may be nearer the date of the manuscript, for it carries the river much farther from the gulf, and indicates a knowledge of Cartier's second voyage. So skillful a cosmographer as Santa Cruz — whose map is pre- 1^ ' 1 ! ll ■^ . : >\ 52 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, .t542-160J. ii i! '.V' Cabot map, served in Stockholm, as Dahlgren has lately informed us — was certainly at this period (1542) utterly ignorant of the then recent explorations up the St. Lawrence. Two years later (1544), there was the first sign in an en- graved map of Cartier's success, — the now famous Cabot mappemonde, — and this was a year before any narrative of his second voyage was printed. As but a single copy is known of both map and narrative, it is pr «sib!e that the publications were not welcome to the government, and the editions of the two were suppressed as far as could be. The solitary map was found in Germany, and is now in the great library at Paris. The sole copy of the Bref Hecit, published at Paris in 1545, is in the British Museum, among the books which Thomas Grenville collected. To test this published narrative, scholars have had recourse to three manuscripts, preserved in the Paris Library, varying somewhat, and giving evidence that, before the text was printed, it had circulated in hand-written copies, all made apparently by the same penman. It was probably from the printed text that both Hakluyt and Ramusio made their versions to be pub- lished at a later day. The suppression, if there was such, of the Cabot map is more remarkable ; for this Paris copy is the only one which has come down to us out of several editions — Ilarrisse says four — in which it appeared. This multiplicity of issue is inferred from the desci'iptions of copies varying, but it is not clear that these changes indicate anything more than tentati\e conditions of the plates. That the map embodies some con- ception of the Cartier explorations is incontestable. It gives v.iguely a shape to the gulf conformable to Cartier's track, and makes evident the course of the great tributary, as far as Car- tier explored it. There are many signs in this part of the map, however, that Cartier's own plot could not have been used at first hand, and the map in its confused nomenclature and antiquated geographical notions throughout indicates that the draft was made by a 'prentice hand. The profession of one of its legends — of late critically set forth from the study of them by Dr. Deane in the Proceed'u)gs of the Ifassachusetts Ilh- torical Society (February, 1891) — that Sebastian Cabot was its author is to be taken with some modification at least. The" tr — M J Sijl gives- THE CABOT MAPPEMONDE. 53 m ' fi. . 111 III ii i . il 11 m i\ ! I • 64 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 1543-160S. map is an indication that the results of Cartier's voyages had within a few years become in a certain sense public property. It happens that most of what we know respecting the genesis of the map is from English sources, or sources which point t > England ; but the map, it seems probable, was made in Flan- ders, and not in France, nor in Spain, the country with which Cabot's official standing connected him. It looks very mueli like a surreptitious publication, which, to avoid the scrutiny of the Spanish Hydrographical Office, had been made beyond their reach, while an anonymous publication of it protected Ca.7ia.dA , 5^) DESCELIERS OR HENRI H. MAP, IMC. Kit: 1. Ochelapia. 2. R. du Sag'nay. 3. Assumption. 4. R. Cartier. 5. Bell IsIp. C. Bacalliau. 7. C. ^ ^'o do dn^fij^ K -r <*-■'**»«.. ^1 i' NICOLAS VALLAUD. maker of it may have profited directly from French sources, particularly in the embellishment upon it, which seems to rep- resent events in Roberval's experiences. There is, likewise, another map of this period which is still more intimately connected with Cartier's movements ; „ indeed, it can hardly have been made independently of material which he furiiished, though very likely for neighbor- ing regions it was based on Portuguese sources. This is the one fashioned by the order of the king for the Dauphin's instruc- tion, just before the latter succeeded his father as Henry II. A few years ago Mr. Major, of the British Museum, deciphered a legend upon it, which showed that it was the handiwork of Pierre Desceliers, a Dieppe map-maker then working at Arques. ..1 ' 1 ; 1 60 CA li TOUltA I'JIJCA L UESUL TS, ir.^J-lCO.i. AUofousce. This fact, as well aa its official character, brinj^s it close to the prime sources ; and the map may even identify these sources in the representations of Koberval and his men, as they arc grouped on the banks of the St. Lawrence. I am informed by the j)resent owner, the Earl of Crawford and Halcarres, that an attempt at one time to efface the legend which discloses its authorship has obscured but has not destroyed the lettering. The map formerly belonged to Jomard, the geographer. There are only the sketch maps of Allefonsce which can be traced nearer the explorers themselves than the maps already mentioned. What this pilot of Koberval made on the spot we know not, but he attempted, in 1545, in a rude way to draw upon his experiences in a little treatise. This manuscript Cosmogntphie^ in which the coast-lines are washed in at the top of its sheets, is preserved in the National Library at Paris. Several modern writers have used them, and the sketches have been more than once copied. Bibliographers know better, however, a little chapbook, which ran through at least four editions in the interval before new interest in Canada was awakened by Champlain. It was first published in 1559, after the death of Allefonsce ; and his name, which api)ears in the title, Lcs Voi/(tges avantuveux da Caplinlne Aiff'ouce Sainton- f/eois^ was apparently made prominent to help the s"^o of the book, rather than to indicate the intimate connection of the redoubtable i)ilot with it. His manuscript Co.smof/rajtliic had been prepared by himself for the royal eye, while this printed production, which was issued at Poictiers, was dressed up by others for the common herd, without close adherence to the manuscript. A i)opular local bard sets forth pretty nnich all we know of its hero in some preliminary verses. Like all chapbooks, the little volume has become rare ; and when a copy was sold in Dr. Court's collection (1885), it was claimed that only three copies had been sold in France in thi)'ty years. The most prolific map-maker of this period in Europe was Baptista Agnese of Venice. He had a deft hand, which made his portoldnos merchantable. The dex- terity of their drawing has perhaps enhanced their value enough to prevent careless wear of them, so that they are not iufre- (luent in Italian libraries, and will be found in almost all tlie large collections in Europe. One certainly has found its way AGXKSK AND RAMUSIO. AT to America, and is pn'servod in tlio Cartor-Brown Lil»iarv at I'rovitU'nco. Thoiifjli Aj;nese was n)akin^ tlu-so maps for over a (juiutcr of a century, beginning about the time of Cartier's ;i(ti\ity, ho never much varied fi^)m the conventional types wliich successively marked tlio stages of gcograpliical know- ledge. He has hardly a map which can bo accounted a turu- ing-iK)iut in American geography, and his ^MM i;.! i: if I ! \m 58 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 1542-1603. Gomara. copy, and tluit was in the great Paris Library ; but Harrisse later discovered a copy in the Sainte Genevieve Library. The fact that the book has nearly passed out of sight might indi- cate, as with the Bref liecit^ that there was either a suppres- sion of it, or an inordinately hard use of it by readers. Two years after publishing this Discours chi Voyage (18G7), Tross surjjrised the critics by publishing a llelation or'ujinale^ as if it were Cartier's own narrative of this first voyage. The argu- ments of Michelant, the editor, in supporting this view of its authenticity are strong, but hardly conclusive. This precious manuscript was discovered in the Paris Library in 1867, having previously escaped notice. In the year before the appearance of the American section of Kamusio, and probably two years after that Italian editor had gathered his material, the Spanish historian, Go- mara, showed in his Ilistoria General (Saragossa, 1555), that intelligence of Cartier's exploits had reached him in some confused form. Indeed, Gomara is rarely critical in what he offers. It will be remembered that Cartier had given the name of " Sainct Laurens " to a small estuary in the gulf, and it has never been quite established when the same name gained currency as the appellation of the gulf itself, and of the great river of Canada. Nevertheless, Gomara writes in 1555, or perhaps a year earlier, that " a great river called San Lorenzo, which some think an arm of the sea [i. e. leading to CathayJ, has been sailed up for two hundred leagues, and is called by some the Strait of the Three Brothers." AVe may consider that from the Rotz, Vallavd, Cabot, and Desceliers maps, jn-etty nearly all the ground that (^avtier's own maps could have disclosed is deducible by the careful stu- dent, and that a large part of our history of this obscure period is necessarily derived from such studies. Now, what was the effect of these cartographical records upon the maps of the St. Lawrence for the rest of that century ? This question brings us to consider nearly all the leading Cartogr.v Europcau cartograplicrs of the sixteenth century, to t'eenu.ce''u- whatcvcr maritime peoples they belong. The most *"'"y' famous and learned of the German cosmographers, Sebastian Miinster, contented himself with insularizing a region and [■tier's stu- )erio(l IS the leSt. jading iry, to most i)lievs, PEDRO MEDINA. 59 which he associated with the earlier Coi'tereal. Pedro Medina, the leading Spanish writer on seamanship, in his Arte de Nave- (lar, and in other books, for a score of years after this, used a PART OF MEDINA'S MAP, 1M5. map on which there was merely a conventional gulf and river. Baptista Agnese was continuing to figure the coast about New- foundland in absolute ignorance of the French discoveries of ten years before. I /i :lf ■ 1 flv ;i !r : :i ,fc i I ill mi 1 \ I'-i ' '^' ' Mi "i if ' If f « 'J'i si m 60 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 1542-1603. m ■■illiiir sft. GASTALDI. 61 ''■V<>''V. m 4' 1 AVe are in 1546 first introduced to Giu- eomo Gustaldi, a Venetian map-maker of reputation throi; . V. ^ut Italy. He / ' 1 • 1 • Gnstal.li. gives us a mii'> .vlnch was in- eluded in Lafreri's atlas. It looks like a distinct recognition of Cartier, in a long river which Hows into a bay behind an island. This is the more remarkable be- cause, when he was employed two years later to make the maps for the Venetian edition of Ptolemy (1548), he reverted to the old pre-Cartier notions of an archipel- ago and rudimentary rivers. When Kamusio was gathering his Amer- ican data at this time, he depend- ^ , , _, ^ Frascastoro. ed on an old friend, xrascastoro, to supply the illustrative maps. This gen- tleman, now in advanced years, was living on his estate near Verona, and in correspon- dence with geographical students through- out Euroi^e. Oviedo had sent some nav- igator's charts to him from Sjiain, and Kamusio tells us that similar information had come to him from France relative to the discoveries in New France. These charts, placed by Frascastoro in Eamusio's hands, were by this editor committed to Gastaldi. The result was the general map of America which ajipears in the third volume of the liaccolta. This map is singularly inex- pressive for the Baccalaos region. Some- thing more definite is revealed in another map, more confined in its range. A study of this last map makes one feel as if the rudimentary rivers of the Ptolemy map (1548) had suggested a network of rivers, stretching inland. It has one feature in the shoals about Sable Island so peculiar and so closely resembling that feature in Kotz's map, that Gastaldi must have worked with 1 ''^B^^^^^^^K f R^ 11 f^M ; i' ; h il!. Ml ,f > '•,;i Si ■wpWWW11H WyM W .W ! ■ it!"*' iill I S 62 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, inp-leos. Freire, etc. that map before him, or he must have used the soui-ces of that map. With this exception, there is absohitely nothing in the map showing any connection with the cartography of the Cartier- Roberval expeditions. These features stand, in fact, for earlier notions, and are made to illustrate the narrative of the " Gran Capitano." There is a Portuguese map by Johannes Freire, which must have been based on Cartier's second voyage, for it leaves undeveloped the west coast of Newfoundland, which Cartier followed in 1534. Another Portuguese map, which at one time was owned by Jomard, shows acquaiutauce with both the first and second voyages of Cartier, as does the Portuguese atlas with French leanings, which is preserved in the Archives of the Marine at Paris, and is ascribed to Guil- laume le Testu. A popular map by Bellei'o, used in various Antwerp publications of this period, utterly ignores the French discoveries. J oLi. flir{lim *-3e2 uU tie. Sj.c :>.l!ia.9 \ ^1 4 »jii4. HOMEM, 1558. Homem. The map of Homem in 1558 is an intei'esting one. It is in an atlas of this Portuguese hydrographer, preserved in the British Museum. It is strongly indicative of in- dependent knowledge, but whence it dame is not clear. He worked in Venice, a centre of such knowledge at this time ; and Homem's map is a proof of the way in which nautical in- telligence failed to establish itself in the Atlantic seajiorts, but HOMEM, RUSCELLI, ETC. 03 rather found recognition for the benefit of later scholurs in this Adriatic centre. It is in this map, for instance, that we get the earliest recognizable plotting of the Bay of Fundy. But with all his alertness, the material which Kamusio had already used resi)ecting Cartier's first voyage seems to have escaped him, or perhaps Homem failed to understand that navigator's track where it revealed the inside coast of Newfoundland. What he found in any of the accounts of the Cartier voyages to warrant his making the north bank of the St. Lawrence an archipelago skirting- the Arctic Sea is hard to say ; but Homem is not the only one who developed this notion. We have seen that AUe- fonsce believed that the Saguenay conducted to such a sea, and there are other features of that pilot's sketches which are con- sonant with such a view ; while a network of straits and chan- nels pervading this Canadian region is a feature of some en- graved maps at a considerably later day. Ilomem, living in Venice, most probably was in consultation with Rarausio, and may have had access to the store of maps which Frascastoro submitted to Gastaldi. Indeed, Ramusio intimates, in the in- troduction to his third volume, that this Canadian region may yet be found to be cut up into islands, and he says that the reports of Cartier had left this uncertainty in his mind. The stories which Cartier had heard of great waters lying beyond the points he had reached had doubtless something to do with these fancies of the map-makers. When the learned Italian, Ruscelli, printed his translation of Ptolemy at Venice (1561) he added his own maps, for he was a professional cartographer. He also ap- parently profited by Ramusio's introduction to the collection of Frascastoro; for the map which he gave of "Tierra nueva" reverted to he same material of the pre-Cartier period which had been used by Gastaldi, showing that he either was ignorant of the claims of Cartier's discoveries, or that he rejected tliem. Ruscelli clung to this belief pertinaciously, and never varied his map in successive editions for a dozen years ; and during this interval Agnese (15G4) and Porcacchi (1572) copied him. We have two maps in 1566 in which the Cartier voyages are recognized, but in quite different ways. The map of Nicolas des Liens of Dieppe was acquired b" the great library of Paris in 1857, and the visitor there to-day can see it ■tti t -jH ■ , ) C4 CAliTOGltAPHICAL RESULTS, 1542-1003. m liilf under glass in the geographical department. It is very pro- nounced in the record of Cartier; for his name is displayed along the shore of a broad sound, which is made to do duty for the St. Lawrence. The other is the map of Zal- tieri, with an uiscrijition, m which the author claims to have received late information from the French. In this map the St. Lawrence is merely a long, waving line, and the river is made to flow on each side of a large island into a bay studded with islands. IM^M MERCATOR, 15G9. Three or four years later, we come to the crowning work of Gerard Mercator in his great planisphere of 1560 : and a year later to the atlas of the famous Flemish geographer who did so much to revolutionize cartograjdiy. — Abraham Ortelius. The great bay has now become, with Mei- Mercntor. Ortelius. >:. -«c |0U r 5_^ ^ ^» % % k^'■^ X. EI! CA TOR, on TELl L'S. tJO I ti ratoi', the Gulf of St. LawnMice (^Sinus Lf/in'oitii): but the main river is left without a name, and is carried tar west be- yond llochelaga (Montreal) to a water-shed, which separates ORTELIUS, l.'TO. the great interior valley of the continent from the Pacific slope. Here was what no one had before attempted in interpre- tation of the vague stories which Cartier had heard from the Indians. Mercator makes what is a])parently the Ottawa open li: i' iTi; -!;ii^ m n I' !! i" i ' I I : 'i. A Ml HM' '! ! 66 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 1542-lGO.l. a waterway, as Cartier could have fancied it, when he gazed from the summit of Mont Royale. This passage carried the imagination into the great country of the Saguenay, which the Indians told of as bounding on a large body of fresh water. It seems easy to suppose that this was an interpretation of that route which in the next generation conducted many a Jesuit to the Georgian Bay, and so developed the ui)per lakes long be- fore the shores of Lake Erie were comprehended. Not one of the earlier maps had divined this possible solution of Cartier's problem ; and Mercator did it, so far as we can now see, with nothing to aid him but a study of Cartier's narrative, or possi- bly of Cartie\'s maps or data copied from them. It was one of those feats of prescience through comparative studies which put that Flemish geographer at the head of his profession. By a similar insight he was the first to map out a great interior valley to the continent, separated from the Atlantic slope by a moun- tainous range that could well stand for the Alleghanies. Dr. Kohl suf^gests that Mercator might have surmised this eastern water-shed of the great continent by studying the reports of De Soto in his passage to the Mississippi, during the very year when Cartier and Roberval were developing the great northern valley. There was yet no conception of the way in which these two great valleys so nearly touched at various points that the larger was eventually to be entered from the lesser. Before Mercator's death (1594), he felt satisfied that the great mass of fresh water, to which the way by the Ottawa pointed, connected with the Arctic seas. This he made evident by his globe-map of 1587. Earlier, in 1570, he had conven- iently hidden the uncertainty by partly covering the limits of such water by a vignette. Hakluyt in the same year (1587) thought it best to leave undefined the connec- tions of such a fresh-water sea. The map-makers struggled for many years over this uncertain northern lake, which Mercator had been the first to suggest from Cartier's data. Orfcelius also (1570, 1575, etc.) was induced to doubt the fresh character of this sea, and made it a mere • gulf of the Arctic Ocean, stretched toward the south. In this he was followed by Popel- liniere (1582), Gallaius, (1585), Miinster (1595), Linschoten (1598), Botero (1603), and others. It is fair to observe, how- Interior water. ll i ;i # THEORETICAL LAKES. 07 ever, that Ortelius in one of his maps (1575) has shunned the conchisiou, and Metellus (1600) was similarly cautious when he used the customary vignette to cover what was doubtful. There was at the same time no lack of believers in the fresh-water theory, as is apparent in the map of Judaeis (1593), De Bry (1596), Wytfliet (1597), and Quadus (1600), not to name others. These theorizei's, while they connected it with a salt northern sea, made current for a while the name of Lake Ooni- bas, as applied to the fresh-water basin. This body of water seemed in still later maps after Hudson's time to shift its posi- tion, and was merged in the great bay discovered by that navi- . l( ri'i I'} iil ■^ys"^ JUDAEIS, 1503. gator. It was not till a suggestion appeared in one of the maps of the Arnheim Ptolemy of 1597, made more emphatic by Molineaux in 1600, that this flitting interior sea was made to be the source of the St. Lawrence, while it was at the same time supposed to have some outlet in the Arctic Ocean. The great interior lakes were then foreshadowed in the " Lacke of Tadenac, the bounds whereof are unknown," as Molineaux's legend reads. The English seamen had become active in this geographical quest very shortly after Mercator and Ortelius had English well established their theories in the public mind. Sir '"''^'■''**- Humphrey Gilbert had indeed penetrated this region ; but when :.i lit i it ! i i ; 1 .* If is il m m 68 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 154J-1GUJ. he i)ublished his map in 1570, he hail helped to popuhirize a belief in a iimltituiUnous gathering of islands in what was now called the land of Canada. Frobisher's explorations were farther to the north, and his map (1578) professed that in these higher latitudes there was a way through the continent, llak- luvt, in his Wcstct'nc Plantinn^ tells us that the bruit of Frobisher's voyage had reached Ortelius, and had induced that geographer to come to England in 1577, " to prye aii'l looke into the secretes of Frobisher's Voyadge." Ilak'iyt further says that this " greate geographer" told him at this time " that if the warres of Flaunders had not bene, they of Sept CxX-ti. the Lowe Countries had meant to have discovered those part(>s of America and the northweste straite before this tyme." Hak- luyt had it much at heart to invigorate the English with a spirit of discovery, and the treatise just (pu)ted was written for that purpose. "■ Yf wee doe procrastinate the i)lantinge," he says, " the Frenche, the Normans, the Brytons or the Duclie or some other nation will not onely prevente us of tlie mightie Baye of St. Lawrence, where they have gotten the starte of us already, thoughe wee had the same i-evealed to us by bookes published and piinted in Englishe before them." It is not easy to satisfy one's self as to what Ilakluyt refers, when he implies that pre- vious t( iiig ref tors ha iiientioi translat tier's fii on Hal what se The up an ii g'one to While in such thin erie," ma sj)ceting ( and Fren (hew atte that can I la-a." ^ l>y Lake from the //.I KL U YT, MOLINEA UX. 69 vious to ( rtier's voyage there had heen English books mak- iii<; reference to the St. Lavvreneo Ciiilf. Modern investiga- tors have in fact found in English books only the scantiest mention of American ex})lorati()ns before Eden printed his translation of Miinster in 1553, nearly twenty years after Car- tier's first voyage. The late Dr. Charles Deane, in connnenting oil Hakluyt's words, could give no satisfactory explanation of what seems to be their plain meaning. The year befoi-e Hakluyt wrote this sentence, he had given up an intention of joining in Gilbert's last expedition, and had MOLINEAUX'S MAP, 1000. gone to Paris (1583) as chaplain to Sir Edward Staft'ord. While in that city we find him busy with " diligont inquiries of such things as may yeeld any light imto our westerne discov- erio," making to this end such investigations as lie could re- specting current and contemplated movements of the Spanish and French. In this same essay on WcxtcDic l*/anf hi f/ Ihiklnyt drew attention to what he understood Cartier to say of a river tliat can be followed for three months " southwarde f rom IToche- laga." "Whether this refers to some Indian story of a way l)y liake Champlain and the Hudson, oi' to the longer route from the Iroquois country to the Ohio and Mississippi, may be ^hIISPi t ? I li ; ]*' A m 'Ul 70 CAirrOGRAPIIICAL RESULTS, 154^-1003. a question ; if indeed it nmy not mean that the St. Lawreiici! itself bent towards the south and found its rise in a wurnier clime, as the cartographers who were contemporaries of Ihik- luyt made it. Hakluyt further translates what Cartier makes Donnacona and other Indians say of these distant parts, where the peojjle are " clad with clothes as wee [the Frentfh] are, very honest, and many inhabited townes, and that they hail greate store of golde and redde copper ; and that within the land beyonde the said firste ryver unto Ilochelaga and Saguy- nay ys an iland envyroned rounde aboute with that and otlier ryvers, and that there is a sea of freshe water founde, as they have hearde say of those of Sagnenay, there was never man hearde of, that founde vnto the begynnynge and ende thereof." Here is the warrant that Mercator and his followers found for their sea of sweet water. Hakluyt adds : " In the Frenche origi- nall, which I sawe in the Kinge's library at Paris, yt is further put downe, that Donnacona, the Kinge of Canada, in his barke had traueled to that contrie where cynamon and cloves are had." Hakluyt, with the tendency of his age, could not help associat- ing this prolonged passage with a new way to Cathay, and ho cites in support " the judgmente of Gerardus M«3rcator, that excellent geogi*apher, in a letter of his," which his son had shown to Hakluyt, saying, " There is no doubte but there is a streighte and sliorte waye open unto the west, even to Cathaio." Hakluyt then closes his list of reasons for believing in this ulti- mate passage by adding, in the words of Ramusio, that " if the Frenchmen in this their Nova Francia woulde have discovered upp farther into the lande towardes the west northwest partes, they shoulde have founde the sea and have sailed to Cathaio." Before Hakluyt published any map of his own, there were two English maps which became prominent. In 1580, M^ok. Dr. John Dee presented to Queen Elizabeth a map which is preserved in the British Museum. It has nothing to distinguish it from the other maps of the time, which show a St. Lawrence River greatly prolonged. Tlie second map was far more distinctive and more speculative. Ruscelli iu 1561 and Martines in 1578 had represented the country south of the Lower St. Lawrence as an island, with a channel on the west of it, connecting the Atlantic with the DEE AND LOK. 71 ;i('fit rivor of Canada. This view was embodied by Master Micliaci ijok in tills othei map, in union with other prevalent o B3 S« D notions, already mentioned, of a neighboring archipelago be- tween the St. Lawrence and the Arctic waters. In this way :f!tH ;iil :!!l|i i i' !! • ■ I !UI I! m 72 CA li TOGRA PHICA L RES UL TS, 1542-1603. Lok made the great river rathev an ocean inlet than an affluent of the gulf. Hakluyt adopted this map in his little Divers Voyages (1582) to illustrate an account of the voyage of Ver- razano, and curiously did so, because there is no trace of Verra- zano in the map except the great western sea, which had long- passed into oblivion with other cartographers, although there was a curious reminder of it in 1585, when Kalph Lane on the Carolina coast learned that the Roanoke River at its springs sometimes got the spray of the western ocean. We have already presented this Lok map to the reader [iuite^ p. 20]. HAKLUYT-MARTYR JIAP, 1587. When Hakluyt again came before the public in an edition of the eight decades of Peter Martyr's J)e Orhe Xovo, which he printed at Paris in 1587, he added a map bearing the initials " F. G." This mnp may be supposed to embody the conclusions which Hakluyt had renched after his years of collecting material. He had, as we have seen, alread} reviewed the field in his Wef^tcvne Pldntbuj., where he had adopted the Mercator theory of the access by the Ottawa to the great fresh-water lake of the Indian tales. Jacques Noel, a grand-nephew of Cartier, writing from St. Cartier'8 Malo iu 1587, refers to this F. G. map of Hakluyt as maps putting down "the great lake " of Canaila nuich too B,i1 ^. n of map I to his 'ady had a to St. :t as 1 too HAKLUYT AND ORTELIUS. 73 Ortelius. far to the north to be in accordance with one of Cartier's maps which he professed to have. This Noel had been in the coun- try, and reported the Indians as saying that the great lake was ten days above the rapids (near Montreal). He had been at the rapids, and reported them to be in 44° north latitude. In 1590, Hakluyt was asking Ortelius, through a relative of the Antwerp geographer then living in London, to publish a map of the region north of Mexico and to- wards the Arctic seas. Ortelius signified his willingness to do so if Hakluyt would furnish the data. In the same year, the Eng- lish geographer wrote to Ortelius at Antwerp, urging him, if he made a new map, to insert " the strait of the Three Brothers in its proper place, as there is still hope of discovering it some (lay, and we may by placing it in the map remove the error of those cosmographers who do not indicate it." It is apparent by Hakluyt's accompanying drawing that he considered the " Fretum trium fratrum " to be in latitude 70° north. There was a temptation to the geographer to give a striking character to the reports or plots of returned navigators. Mer- cator compliments Ortelius on his soberness in using such plots, and complains that geographical truth is much corrupted by ina])-makers, and that those of Italy are specially bad. The maps that succeeded, down to the time when Champlain made a new geography for the vaUey of the St. Lawrence, added little to the conceptions already mastered by the chief cartographers. The idea of the first explorers that America was but the eastern limits of Asia, revived by Schciner and Fianciscus Monachus before 1530, may be said to have van- ished at the same time ; for the map of ^lyritius of near t^iis date (1587, 1590) is one of tlie latest maps to hold to the belief. While all this speculative geography was forming and disap- jK'aring with an obvious tendency to a true conception of the i)liysical realities of the problems, there was scarcely „ any attempt made to help solve the question by explo- of expiora- ration. There was indeed a continuance of the fishing voyages of the Normans and Bretons to the Banks, and not unlikely the English m;'v have participated in the business. Such fishermen doubtlo.ss ran into the inlets near the gulf to TWf If 1 ;r H- ' :(/ ) 4| ^ i 1 : ^^^»| ' \\ Hb % ■ ! • 1 ; 1 '4 ■ X '■ ' > ' '•' ' It^ • 1 '/ ; 1 J '-:■',',■{■ ; - :t ^ m • m '■I' 1 J ': '■<, ^ '^i" ^ ^ ; Ifi < ■' ^'i^ ■ IP i^ :«-iii i' 'ill i^l it* .. , i u. 74 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 154-3-1603. (Ivy their fish and barter trinkets with the natives for wahus tusks ; but we find no record for many years of any one turning the point of Gaspe and going up the river. There was at tlie same time no official patronage of exploration. The politics of France were far too unquiet. Henry II. had as much as ho could do to maintain his struggles with Charles V. and Philip 11. St. Quentin and Gravelines carried French chivalry down to the dust. The persecution of the Protestants in the brief reign of Francis I., the machinations of Catharine de' Medici and the supremacy of the Guises, kept attention too constantly upon domestic hazards to permit the government to glance across the sea. All efforts under Charles IX. to secure internal peace were but transient. Every interval of truce between the rival religions only gave opportunities for new conspiracies. The baleful night of St. Bartholomew saw thirty thousand Huguenots plunged into agony ana death. The wars of the League which followed w^ere but a prolonged combat for Huguenot existence. Henry III., during fifteen years of blood, played fast and loose with both sides. Henry IV. fought at Arques and Ivry to preserve his crown, and abjured his faith in the end as a bet- ter policy to the same end. At last these tumultuous years yielded to the promulgation of tlie famous edict at Nantes (April 15, 1598), and in the rest which came later the times grew ripe for new enterprises beyond the sea. We have seen that it was to the labors of Hakluyt and Ka- musio during these sixty years that we owe a large part of the current knowledge of what were then the last official expedi- tions to Canada. That private enterprise did not cease to con- nect tile French ports with the fishery and trade of the gulf and its neighboring ports is indeed certain, tliough (iarncau speaks of this interval as that of a temporary abandonment of Canada. Gosselin and other later investigators have found entries made of numerous local outfits for voyages from Ilonfleur and otlirr harbors. Such mariners never, however, so far as we know, contemi)lated the making of discoveries. Old fishermen aio noted as having grown gray in forty years' service on the coast ; and there is reason to believe that during some seasons as many as three or four hundred fishing-crafts may liavc .di})ped to their anchors hereabouts, and half of them Frencli. Some of tliem added the j)ursuit of trade, and chased the wal- ininuiir LA ROCHE AND CARTIEK'S HEIRS. 75 rus. Breton babies grew to know tlie cunning skill which in leisure hours was bestowed by these niariaers on the ivory tri- fles which amused their households. Norman maidens were decked with the fur which their brothers had secured from the iCsquimaux. Parkman found, in a letter of Menendez to Philip of Spain, that from as far south as the Potomac, Indian canoes crawled northward along the coast, till they found Frenchmen in the Newfoundland waters to buy their peltries. Breard has of late, in his Marine JVormande, thrown consider- able light upon these fishing and trading voyagers, but there is no evidence of a customary passing into the great river. Once, indeed, it seemed as if the French monarch, who had occasionally sent an armed vessel to protect his sub- l„ j{,jj.,,g jects in this region against the English, Spanish, and ''^" Portuguese, awoke to the opportunities that were ])assing ; and in 1577 he commissioned Troilus du Mesgonez, Alarcpiis de la Roche, to lead a colony to Canada, and the project commanded the confidence of the merchants of Rouen, Caen, and Lisieux. Captain J. Carleill, writing in 1583, in his Entenclcd VoycKjc to America, tells us that the French were trying to overcome the distrust of the Indians, which the kidnapi)ing exploits of Cartier had implanted. Whcthci any such fear of the native animosity stood in the way of La Poche's enterprise or not is not evident ; but certain it is that he did not sail, and the king remained without a representative on the St. Lawrence. Thi? sovereign gave, however, in 1588, in recpiital of claims made by tlie heirs of Cartier for his unrewarded services, a charter to two of that navigator's nephews, Etienne Charton and Jacques NOi'l, in which he assigned to them for twelve years the rigiit to trade for furs and to work mines, with the i)rivilege o^ a commercial company. The grant was made y)artly to enal)le ihe heirs to carry out Cartier's injunctions to his descendants not to abandon the country of Canada. Such reserved privileges were a blow to the merchants of St. Malo, and they drew the attention o'2 the Breton parlian^ent to the monoi)oly in such a way that the king found it prudent to rescind the charter, exce})t so far as to allow mining at Cap de Corijugon. No one knows where that cape ^\. s, or that any So a second royal i)r(>ject came to mining was done there, nauglit. r m I f Hi 1 1, !i \ 76 CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS, 15Jtii-1603. 1590. It would have been better if the first expedition that reall}' got off had never started. A few years later, La Koche, who had had umch tribulation since his last luckless effort, was commissioned (January 12, 1590) to lead once more a colony to the St. Lawrence. By this act that king re- vived the powers which Francis I. had conferred on lioberval. Chartering two vessels and, in default of better colonists, fill- ing them with convicts, La Roche sailed west and made Sable Island. Such portion of his company as he did not need while exploring for a site, he landed on this desert spot, not without raising the suspicion that he did not dare to land them on the mainland, for fear of their deserting him. While searching for a place to settle, heavy gales blew his exploring ships out to sea, and back to France. Those whom he had abandoned at Sable Island were not rescued till 160^, when twelve had died. This is the last scene of that interval which we have been considering ; but in the near future other spirits were to ani- mate New France, in tho persons of Pontgrav^, Chaniplain, and their associates, and a new period of exploration was to begin. Ir'H: I ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION. 1 i i CHAPTER IV. :■ ! Chauvin. 1600-1607. It was in the person of Francois Grave — who is usually called Pontoravd or Dupont Grave, for he was Sieur T-» i-n< 1 1 111- Pontgravt'. Uu Pont — that h ranee at last undertook the coloni- zation of Canada. Pontgrave was a trading mariner of St. Malo. He had already, during his voyaging, ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Three Rivers. Being now desirous to back a petition which he had rendered for the privilege of trading for furs in Canada, he sought the patronage of a rich Honfleur merchant, Pierre Chauvin, seigneur of Tontuit. This person was a man of consideration and good connec- tions. He was a Calvinist, and had lived in Dieppe at one time. It was even averred that Henry IV. had rewarded him with a })atent of nobility for his loyalty. His standing in the king's eyes was not, it would seem, an uncertain element in the chances of royal support when he allied himself with Pont- grave to promote them. But Pontgrave was not without a merit of his own, for he war no stranger in the new countxy, and he was not unfitted io be the agent of the monarch in strengthening the French claim in that region, tc which the royal will was by no means averse. Looking for further capi- tal to put their purpose beyond financial embarrassment, the two i)artner3 found a willing contributor in Pierre du ^■^^^^^ jg Guast, Sieur de Monts. It was given out that five *'°"*^" luuidred men would be carried to Tadoussac, and that a fort would be built at that point. This was a footing which might much conduce to the establishment of a government, and the royal concession readily followed. The plan was no sooner developed than it created a jealousy sin»ilar to that which followed the combination of Noel and *!'t 78 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1600-1607. PontRrnvt' nt Tiiiioiia sac, lliOO. Chaton, ten years ov more earlier. The citizens of St. Malo pi'omptly represented that such a monopoly would abridge the rights which they claimed to have acquired through protecting the royal interests in Canada for many years. These Malouin merchants appealed to the Breton parliament, and through it to the throne, but with no effect. Accordingly Pontgrave and his associates went on without interruption in preparing for the voyage. Four vessels were made ready, and in the largest one, the " Don de Dieu," oi four hundred tons, the three leaders em- barked. The five hundred men which were promised dwindled to a single hundred, and Chauvin seems to have been respon- sible for this, as he was for all matters which could be made to demand less oxi t-n'titure and more profit. The expetli uni made its landfall and passed up to Tadoussac wiV'iont disaster. Here the scene from the little ves- el-i nil ag in the roadstead was not a very attractive ore a uiybody bent on making a settlement. Over the stieto-h of ■ aters there was nothing but a dim, foggy dis- tance, for th.- ',>ui( nt river covers in its breadth i.c this point ;i, score of miles, us it moves on to the gulf. Silvery porpoises mingling with the white crests of the vexed waves were all that met the eye which tried eagerly to find something to rest upon throughout the monotonous waste. A rocky point stretching to the southwest formed a bay, where trading-vessels could find an anchorage. From far up the Saguenay, in the deep shadows of its lefty crags, tlie savage canoeists could come down to bar- ter their bm-dens of fur. Tlie aiijacent shores had no aspect to allure the agriculturist, and Pontgrave, recalling the grassy meadows and swelling upland about Three Kivers, would nuich rather have gone thither Chauvin, however, only looked to the chances of trade, and he felt that at the junction of these two great rivers there was the bett«n* chance of an exchange for peltries. Accordingly, here it was d(\/ "mi.iLd to stay, and the people were set on shore. It was not long before a storehouse was constructed just by the brink of t^ie harbor. Chaniplain found the building standing eight years later, and delineated it upon his map of Tadoussac. Once at work, Cliauvin stuck steadily to his commerce for furs, and soon filled his ships. This done, he left sixteen men to encounter the rigors of the winter, with such protection as %. p. : . 1 CIIAUVIN ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 79 ^y to 3se tor liu led tor ion a crazy hut could afford. Even the pitying attentions of the neighboring Indians did not prevent most of this forlorn little company dying before the coming of spring. On the return of Chauvin and the other leaders to France, they made some show of their trafficking gains ; but chimvin in there was little assurance to be given of a permanent ^''■'""=^- colonization, or of results from discovery. Had the ravages of death among those who had been left behind been sus- pected, the satisfaction in the results would have been still less. Tf=35=5- H TADOUSSAC (after Cliaiiipliim). This is Champlain's plan in his edition of 1013. Key : .1, Round Mountain. /?, Iiarl)oi-. (\ frcsli-water brook. D, oanip of natives coming to tratflL-. E, peninsula. /•", Point of All Dev- ils, r;, SaKiienay Kivor. 7A. Point aux Alouettes. /, very rough mountains covered .vith firs and beeches. /,, the mill Bode. .V, roadstead. A', pond. O, brook. 7', Rrassland. Precisely what there was to prevent Chauvin himself the next year ^IGOl) from going to the St. Lawrence ^^.^.^ does n t ippear ; but ho is known to have dispatched thither one of his shi,.s with similar coninunrial success. In April, 1G02, he liimself made a voyage in conimand of ^^,^^^ two barks, and having had four months' tradi i«. at Tadoussac, he returned to Ilonfleur in October, to find the merchants of St. Malo still using every device to deprive him of the continuance of his privileges. Chauvin contrived to • J 1;; I ill H \m >?' 1 ''i 1 iff 'f M 80 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1G00-1GU7. IGOS. maintain his influence with the king, and succeeded (Decem- ber 28, 1G02) in having his concessions reaffirmed. But the matter did not rest there, and pending a still further decision, all French vessels were forbidden to proceed lieyond Gaspc. W^hen March (1G03) came, the king had reached a determination to send to Canada Captain Coulombier of St. Malo, either separately or in conjunction with Pont- grave and the Sieur Prevert, in a single vessel, for trade and discovery, but only for one season. By this time Chauvin had Amyarde died, and Auiyar dc Chastcs, succcediug to the priv- cimstes. ileges, entered into a partnership for prosecuting Canadian enterprise with sundry merchants of Kouen and St. Malo. It was a good deal to Henry IV. that De Chastes was strong in the faith to which the king had been converted ; and it was a good deal more to the king that this governor of Dieppe had been one of the first to give him allegiance. These were two very good reasons why De Chastes had little difficulty in get- ting the new patent to establish himself in Canada. At this point the most commanding figure in the early his- snmuei de ^o^T o^ Canada comes upon the scene, — Sanuiel de ciiampiain. Chauiplain. Those who have searched the archives of Brouage, seeking to find a date for his birth, have for good reason always turned to about the year 1570 ; but they have always looked in vain. If the hero, in later years, was reticent about his birth, we do not find him more helpful in other par- ticulars of his childhood. The authority is perhaps hardly irrevocable which makes him the son of a fisherman ; but it seems dear his father was a mariner, veiy likely a master mar- iner, and the family was respectable enough to secure honorable mention in contemporary documents. The Abbe Faillon is not without a suspicion that the forename Samuel, uncommon among Catholics and usual with Protestants, may indicate that Champlain was born in a Huguenot household. It is certain that Brotiage, the i)lace of his birth, was quite within the circle of the Protestant influence that surrounded La Ro- Prot.»tant chclle. The suspicion is not a welcome one to his Catholic biographers, and they point to his father's name, A.ntoine, and his mother's, Marguerite, as being conspicu- ■■ 1 CHAM PLAIN'S YOUTH. 81 iiy lus Ir's ously of Catholic savor. The latest Cana«iian historian, Kings- ford, does not admit even a doubt that Champlain was born a Protestant. The salt-works of Brouage, long the source of its prosperity, naturally attracted buyers who were interested in the fisheries of the new world. This mercantile concourse kept pictures of that daring industry on those distant shores fresh in the CHAMPLAIN. [After Moncariiet in tlie Lavnl C/iniiiplaiii'] minds of its people. Amid such influences the infant Cham- plain gi*ew into youth and glided on into maturity. Thei'e was occasion in the preceding chapter to picture the martial and political turmoil of France in these latter years of the sixteenth century. It was shown to have withdrawn atten- tion from those fields of discovery to which Cartier had led the way. It was among these scenes that Champlain passed his early manhood, seasoning his formative years in the restraints and activities of the camp, when not at home. At other times ml 'I' 'I. 1) 1 in \l ? I .i :ri jl '■ ; i ^i^ llfl li '^y ' ii^ ■I 82 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1GU0-W07. he was lu'customcd to look out with u longing oyo upon tho Bay of Biacay, suggestive of so much that was daring and dangerous in seamanship. Speaking of life at sea, Chantplain later said : " I was ad- dicted to it in my early years, and through my whole life I have met its i)erils, on the ocean and on the coasts of New France, with the hope of seeing the lily of France able to protect there the holy Catholic religion. ' AVhatever tho religion which rocked his cradle, Champlain as an historical character indu- bitably stands as the champion of the Roman Clnirch. The peace of Vervins in 1598 had brought all France into peaceful subjection to Henry of Navarre, and Champlain, in his Early Capacity as (juartermaster in the army, had been in the career. ^ast movements which suppressed the opposition in Brittany. A year later (1599), he went to Spjiin in charge of a French ship, carrying home some of the Spanish allies of the League. AVhile in the peninsula he had been placed, as an ex- perienced seaman, in eomnmnd of one of the vessels forming a fleet which the Spanisli government dispatched to their West Indian possessions. He was absent on this service for more than two years. It does not concern our present purposes to follow him in his strange exj)erieiH'es in these southern waters. intiieWest Tlicy arc all set forth in a manuscript written by iiidius. jjjj, Q^yj^ himd, una embellished with passable colored drawings, which of late years lias been added to the unexam- pled Americana in the Carter-Brown Library at Providence, ^hode Island. Once, thirty years ago, when this manuscript s owned in Dieppe, the Ilakluyt Society ])ublished a trans- Ion of it, and twenty years ago the Laval University, in their sumptuous edition of Champlain's writings, printed for the first time the oriijinal text and gave fac-similes of the drawinos. There is one passage in this little narrative whieh may detain us for a moment, since it prefigures Chamjilain's conceptions of that great nortborn passage to Cathay, to the finding of which he devoted his later years. He is describing his experience at the Isthmus of Darien. He says : ''• One may judge that if the four leagues of land which there are from l^anama to the litth; river which i"ises: in the mountains and descends to Porto l^ello were cut tbvough, one might pass from the South Sea lo the ocean on the other side, and thus shorten the route by CHAMPLAIN ON THE ST. LAWJiEACE. 83 Inn of \vh at the \th ■to by more than fif t ( en luuulre»l leaf]fufts ; and from Panama to the Straits of Maj'-cUan wouhl he an island, and from Panama to tho New-foimd-landH wouhl hu another ishind, so that the whole of America would be in two islands." It has been suggested that Champlain, after his return to France from this S(mtliern voyage, had made some report of it to the king, in a way to attract the royal attention. At all events, since Do Chastes was much about the court after he liad cot his patent from the king, it is not improbable ? . . , . 1. /ii 1 . » Chiimplaln that ni its preemcts a sturdy mariner ot Cliamplam s j"i>i experience would have easily made himself conspicu- ous to a patentee in search of a hardy coadjutor. That ui- plain had attracted the attention of the king would seem to be certain from the fact that when De Chastes invited him to join the enterprise, Champlain deferred accepting till the royal assent was given. This, when given, was accompanied by an in- junction which made Champlain responsible for a report of the completed explorations. Champlain himself later says, in dedi- cating one of his narratives to Henry IV., that he was com- missioned by that king to make the most exact researches and explorations in his power. There was much in Champlain to fit him to become a pioneer in such work. Ilis person was rugged. Ilis strength was equal to almost any jdiysical task. Ilis constitution did not succumb to exposure either of cold or heat. His senses were keen and sharpened by experience. His spirit knew not what it was to falter, when facing danger. Perhajjs we must add — even if we do not go to the extent of the Abbe Faillon — that he enjoyed a hunt too much to be over-scrupulous whether the game was a squirrel or an Iroquois. T»vo vessels having been made ready at Ilonflcur, they sailed on !March 15, 1603, in command of Pontgrave, who was accom])anied by Champlain in the " Bonne Baiin, March, Keuommee," while the Sieur Prevert had charge of tlie lesser craft, the " Franc^oise." The latter was to stop at Gaspc, while Pontgrave went on to Tadoussae. The little fleet had a tedious passage of forty days. After landing, they found themselves at once mingling in the filthy revelries of a camp '•f H ! :i ^^i- |rl Ul ,%. ■^ nOi, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /> 1.0 IrKfll ill I.I 121 ^ 1^ 1122 £; lii 12.0 i 11-25 i 1.4 Ii4 ^'♦V^ (? / Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872-4503 84 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1600-1607. § lip .-■■■: I At Tadous- aac. of Indians, who were celebrating a victory over the Iroquois. Reeking scalps were conspicuous in the scene, and they were the first reminders of savage warfare which Champlain had seen, — a warfare that a few years later he was to turn upon himself, and which was to become a heritage for his successors. But these horrors did not long divert him from a purpose which he was so strenuously to pursue for thirty years. On June 11, he started to explore the Saguenay. It is saguenay,* uot clcar what knowledge of this forbidding stream had been handed down to him from earlier adventurers. Cartier had passed it by, and it is not quite sure how far its ap- pearance in one of AJlefonsce's rude charts indicates a personal knowledge of it. It does not seem certain that the traders who had perhaps been up and down the main river of late years had ever tempted the gloomy depths of the Saguenay. If they did, they have left no record of it. Champlain went up the stream, perhaps thirty or forty miles, but not far enough to determine of his own knowledge its geographical relations. The Indians contrived to let him know that the Saguenay flowed out of a large lake, — the modern St. John, — and that there was an affluent water-system above it. It would take a canoe ten days, the Indians said, to make the trip back to Tadoussac from these upper waters. There were tribes about the lake who had told these informants that beyond the divide, still farther to the north, lay a great salt sea. Champlain grasped the idea of a gulf stretching south from the Arctic Ocean, and divined the bay that Hudson was yet to make evi- dent, and many years later he was cruelly deceived in an attempt to find it by another route. In a week's time Champlain was back at Tadoussac, and on June 18, accompanied by Pontgrave, he started up the St. Law- St. Lawrence in a small bark, taking with him a boat for use in shallow waters. On the 23d, he ob- served the cataract which drops in feathery confusion from its upper level, and gave it the name of Montmorency, which is so familiar to the modern tourist. He saw the lofty promon- tory of Quebec, and supposed, as he went on, that he was pass- ing beyond the goal of Cartier's explorations. At Three Rivers he remarked, as Pontgravd had, how fit a place it was > f ; i" CHAM PLAIN AT MONTREAL. 85 Sorel River. for a settlement. On the 29th, he was skimming the variegated surface of a broadened expanse of the river, and as it was St. Peter's day, he applied that enduring name to the lake. Here he was for a while arrested at the mouth of a tributary on the south side, where he found an encamp- ment of Algonquins, gathering for an incursion up the stream, into the country of their enemies, the Iroquois. In attempting to ascend this river, the rapids of Chambly checked his prog- ress. He learned from the Indians that the river flowed from a large lake, and that there was a smaller sheet still beyond. From these southern heads of the water a portage led to another river, — the Hudson, — by which the voyager would be carried south towards what Champlain supposed piust be the coast of Florida, taking that name, as it was then understood, as covering a region stretching far north of the modern penin- sula, until it reached t^^ lerritory claimed by the French. Five years later, Champlain was to make this more apparent, with the mysteries of the distant mountains, which he saw bounding the distance on either hand, unsolved. Reaching once more the main river, these venturesome French still breasted the current and made a way among the devious channels to the island where Montreal now stands, and looked upon its sentinel mountain. They were stopped at the Sault St. Louis, — the Lachine Rapids, — and Champlain tried in vain to get round them by a portage. Finding that he was at the end of his course, he endeavored to deduce from the bewildering statements of the savages some notion of what lay above that long plunge of waters. He got in this way a tolerably clear conception of at least a portion of the waters, which some years later he was to follow. His dusky informants took him in imagination up a large affluent of the St. Lawrence, coming from the west, and they told him that it threaded the country of the Algonquins, as later, under the name of the Ottawa, he found it to do. Following up the St. Lawrence and passing rapids and expansions of the stream, he was told he could reach a large body of water, fed through a channel, blocked by a cataract, which flowed western out of a salubrious lake. A river flowed into this lake at its farther end, through which the boatman stemming the current could push his skiff eventually into an immense sea of At Montreal. ''a I \ ! !V! iH ■:i > ? I i ;1 m 86 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1600-1607. salt water. This last particular the Indians were frank enough to acknowledge was derived from the reports of remoter tribes, since they themselves had never seen this ominous sea. This hydrography is not difficult to follow. The fancy of Champlain was led in the description along the waters of Ontario, which he was yet to know by experience ; up the Niagara, whose falls he never saw, and whose magnitude he failed to comprehend to the last ; along Lake Erie, of which also he remained through life in much ignorance ; thence by the Detroit River to Lake Huron, which he learned later to know in that portion of it called the Georgian Bay. His subse- quent experience (1615) certainly showed him that it was not suit ; but in his present uncertainty he could but think, as every Canadian explorer in those days thought, that the great western Sea of Cathay lay almost within his ken. He never quite divested himself of his hope to see it. Champlain had at this time, as above intimated, derived from the accounts of the Indians a very inadequate notion of the torrent which plunges at Niagara. He speaks of it as having a volume not large enough for the main outflow of a lake, and was therefore forced to argue that the waters of Lake Erie flowed for the most part in another direction, perhaps to the south. The description presented to him by the Indians, as recorded in his Sauvages, is far from clear ; but it seems to indicate that Lake Huron delivered the great body of its water through some other channel than Lake Erie, and that it found its way thereby into the St. Lawrence. There is an early maj), made indeed at a somewhat later day, which interprets this belief by making the Ottawa this alternative channel. The geologist will observe that its configuration is curiously like what is now known to have been the water-shed of the region after the melting of the great glacier. Champlain was himself to discover that this course of the Ottawa was far from being uninterrupted. With such vague glimpses of the unknown west, Champlain and his party returned to Tadoussac, not without hoping that the salt water reported to them could one day be reached on the way to China. It is one of the striking features in the accounts which we have of these early days of exploration that the frequenting of THE LOWER ST. LAWRENCE 87 I ; if a coast for traffic or fishing counts so little in contributing geo- graphical knowledge. It can hardly be possible that no more was observed by such mercantile adventurers than was put on record ; but there must have been a scant degree of serviceable value iii what they did, or the official explorers would not have I'! ^ 1 1 1 sought so often to cover the same fields. The shores of the Lower St. Lawrence and the margins of the gulf had been for nearly a century at least the haunts of Normans, Bretons, and Biscay ans, but Champlain felt that his record for the king would not be what it ought to be unless his official eye could survey those shores. We accordingly find him, shortly after his return to Tadoussac, making ready to follow the sin- i f I ^ '( 11 » ii^ ihli [■ V i 88 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 16W-1G07. Amyar de C hastes dies. uosities of these lower river banks towards the gulf. It is not our purpose now to give his exi)ei*ienco in this Lawrence work in detail. He has set them down in his SaU' explored. vages. Returning to the mouth of the Saguenay, Champlnin found the ships laden with the furs gathered in his absence, and tlio expedition was ready for the homeward voyage. They had em- barked several natives, and the weary voyagers daily ase, septem- beguiled themselves with Indian grammar and vocab- ulary. On the 2d of September (1G03), the stag- gering vessels were thumping their prows against head seas off Cape Race, and on the 20th they ran into the basin of Havre de Grace. Here it was soon learned that, a few months before, their chief patron, Amyar de Chastos, had died, and the colonization scheme on which they had returned to make report was left without a sponsor. Pending a new movement, Champlain was busy in preparing a map of the region, as best he could, from observation and the Indian testimony, and in putting his notes in shape makes a for a rcport to the king. Just what the ma]) which he made was, we are not informed, for it was not pub- lished with his report. There could have been little in earlier cartography to help him beyond the description of Cartier. It is indeed possible that he might have known the maps of that navigator and of Allefonsce. Current published maps gave nothing but varying impressions of Cartier 's results, as has been shown in the previous chapter. The world just at this time was getting the same vague sort of treatment of this cai*- tographical theme in such publications as the combination J/c;"- cator Atlas of 1602, or in such special chance issues as the Relaciones of Botero, only just published at Valladolid. There was much in all this that would hardly comport with Champlain's newer knowledge. Rut if the map fails us, we have the text of Champlain's report, pub- DesSau- lishcd with the royal sanction vi& Dc» Sauvaijcs^ late vages, 1G04. jj^ i6()4 j^ ^^g ^^iQ first time . he had given the world the chance to measure his powers of observation. The narrative was devoted to the country, its geography and phy sical condition, its pi'oducts, its natives, and its promises. One must determine from the way in which the book has disap- Contem porary maps. PONTGRAVE AND CHAMPLAIN. 89 I j)eai'ed, that either the avidity of commercial speculation or the thimibing of the lovers of the marvelous, or both, has almost deprived posterity of the record, for when the Abbe Laverdiere sought to I'eprint it twenty years ago, he had to have the copy in the great Paris Library — the only one then known to him — transcribed for the printer. Its rarity is not so great as the abbe imagined, for there are copies in more than one American library, and a comparison of the copies in Harvard College Library and the Carter-Brown Library show that it was set up twice in the same year, indicating unusual currency. The voyage of 1603 had brought Champlain and Pontgrave into cordial relations, which were never relaxed. The !• 1 ■««• 1 • • 1 Pontgravd greater age of that Maloum navigator gave to the andCham- friendly feelings of Champlain a tinge of filial obedi- ence. They were one in the belief that the great river of Can- ada was a channel that must be followed if a New France was to arise. Tadoussac as a goal was not to their mind. Its for- bidding sterility gave no promise for colonization, and Cham- plain's heart was set on dreams of colonization that he was never permitted to realize to their full extent. Columbus, at the south, had accounted for the low grade of peoples which he found by supposing that he was on the out- skirts of the East, among coast tribes less susceptible to the lures of civilization than interior peoples. He argued that if he would find the wealth and luxury which Europeans dreamed of, he must get at the inland races. We know that the Geno- ese on his last voyage was bending all his energies to seek a })assage through the barriers which he had found. A hundred years later, Champlain reasoned in the same strain at the north. He felt that it was a divei'gence from the true field of discov- ery, when it was apparent that the next expedition was to pro- mote an examination of the Atlantic coast. When Chauvin had overruled Pontgrave's preference, and had forced the expedition of 1603 to remain at Tadoussac, he had subjected the company to a test of that region's climate which compelled the successor of De Chastes to make trial of a more salubrious climate. It is not necessary to follow with much detail this next west- ern venture of the French, but there are some of its move- ments along the coast of Nova Scotia and New England which Ml Mi i « m ■ : 1 1 \ 1 i i j i ii 1 1 .1 A ] " 1 \ ' '; i '1 '' • ' 1 li nil.. 1 .:fl : ^i' 1 90 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1600-1007. 1' . P Sleur de Monts, 1C03. have some bearing on the views which Champlain grew to have of the intermediate region, bordering on the great valley of the north. Henry IV. picked out the Sieur de Monts for a successor of De Chastes. As this new lieutenant was a Protestant, born in Champlain's own province of Saintonge, the king had a struggle to secure the cooperation of parliament. The stubborn monarch carried his point, and signed De Monts's commission at Fontainebleau, November 8, 1603, creating him lieutenant-general of Canada. The new leader was directed to preserve in tliat country the religious rights of both Calvinist and Catholic. He was to exercise jurisdiction over both banks of the river of Canada and as far south as the fortieth degree of latitude. Within this range he was to have unchecked license to trade for furs, and to that end, in April, 1604, he proclaimed his privileges throughout all the seaports of France. While the residt of the royal struggle with parliament was doubtful, De Monts was in Rouen, organizing a com- mercial company among its citizens, which was to include also those of Kochelle and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The papers of this association were signed, February 10, 1604. De Monts was joined in Koucn by Pontgrave, and at Havre de Grace the two found four vessels already laden for the voyage. Pontgrave stowed away as best he could six score of artisans in the little ship of one hundred and twenty tons, which he himself commanded. De Monts took charge of a second ship, and with him were the Sieur de Poutrincourt, whose name is associated with Acadian exploration, and Champlain, who was thus diverted for a while from the great river of Canada. The little fleet left port early in April, 1604. While on this expedition, Cham))lain passed along the Maine coast, and gathered from the Indian descriptions that there was a waterway along the line of the river of Norum- bega (Penobscot), which was a practical route for canoes — if not for larger craft — between the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence. He understood, according to the popular notion of the physical possibility, that the divergent streams which afforded the passage took their rise in a large lake midway Commercial company, February 10, 1C04. De Monts aiul Cham- plain sail, 1G04. Norumbega River. THE NEW ENGLAND COAST. 91 between the ocean and the great river, and flowed north and south. He rehearsed such views in his edition of 1613, while in the same book he indicates that to make the passage north- ward by the line of the Kennebec requires a portage of two leagues, to reach the Chaudiere. It was by this route, it will be remembered, that Amherst in 1759 endeavored to commimi- cate with Wolfe, and Benedict Arnold in the autumn of 1775 proceeded to attack Quebec. Champlain, following the coast, reached a little later what is now known as Boston harbor. Here he perceived a gogton flow of water from the west. Whether it was the tide '""^'«"■• which glides by the present Point AUerton, or the current which sweeps around the northerly end of the Boston peninsula, matters little. He gave to this river the family name of De Monts, and accordingly on his and on other French maps the stream bears the name of Riviere du Guast, — a name which did not entirely disappear from the Dutch and other contem- porary maps till after Boston was founded in 1630. " This river extends," says Champlain, " toward the land of the Iroquois, a nation which is the constant foe of the Montagnais, who live on the St. Lawrence." One judges from this that the river of which the Indians had told him at the Chambly rapids, and which he thought ran towards Florida, — in fact a premo- nition of the Hudson, — was now identified in his thought with what we in this day know as the Charles, a meandering coast stream, which empties into Boston harbor. For over three years, Champlain was in various parts of this Atlantic coast, and it was he who took the first steps towards an intelligible cartography of the shore line of Nova Scotia and New England. The St. Lawrence was not meanwhile wholly neglected. Pontgrave, who was scouring it in 1606 to arrest intruders, seized a vessel which De Monts and others had sent there for trade, — an action which compelled a resort to a legal settlement in France. But a greater shock was in store for De Monts. His commission had been revoked some Ti.eexpedi- time before, and when Champlain heard of it, the October""'"' news was accompanied by a recall of the expedition, ^'*'" and in October, 1607, all were back in St. Malo. There is no evidence that the French were aware at the time of the Virginia movement, which had followed the peace which •M III i 11 ii :M| 1:1 Hi *5- i bfl I ,1 92 ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION, 1600-1007. Imd been made between England and Spain in 1G05. Whilo Chauiplain had been searching the inlets of the New England coast, Captain John Smith was exploring the waters of the Chesapeake to find a passage to the western sea, as Ca])tain Newport did a little later, and for near a century there were those among the English who were not prepared to believe that Virginia was other than an island, which might aft'ord a way along its seaboard to this occidental goal. The year before Champlain left the more northern waters, the English king had granted (1606) to the London and Plymouth companies a stretch of territory along the coast from 34° in the south to 45° in the north, which was sure before long to raise a question of jurisdiction between these rival nations, and actually did bring them in conflict at Mt. Desert the same season in which Cham- plain left the coast. il CHAPTER V. COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEBEC. 1608-1613. The year 1608 opened with a transient change of fortune for De Mont». He had listened to Champlain's recital of his three years' experience with a renewed zest for exploration, and he was prepared to abandon the coast for the St. Lawrence. Under the same narrative, and by reason of persuasions that profit and glory could yet be found, the king so far relented that on January 7 he signed a patent allowing De peMont.'* Monts a renewal of his fur-trade monopoly for a sin- Sewed/jan- gle year. He coupled a condition with it, very likely ""'^ ^' ^'^^' at the instigation of Champlain, that an attempt should be again made to penetrate farther into the interior of the continent. The salt western sea of Champlain's first report had not been forgotten, and there were hopes, if it could be reached, of its affording the coveted way to India. De Monts was not without hopes of an extension of his trading privilege at the end of the year. Buoyed by this anticipation, and animated by the enthusiasm which projects of hazard often contribute, De Monts fitted out two ships. To Pontgrave was assigned the command of the trading part of the expedition, with orders to return at the expiration of the season. To Champlain, who was now created lieutenant-governor, was given the task of holding the country permanently, and developing its geography. This meant that an opportunity should be taken to put to the test what he had already explained to the king in his Smivages, namely, "the practicability of finding a way to China, avoiding at the same time the cold of the north and the heat of to seek a way the south," and he believed this route lay through the St. Lawrence. n -i % 4 :« '111 ? 94 cor.nsiZATios estahlisukd at Quebec. w f ' li t' '•. V h. QiikIioo foiilitlcti, 10U8. On tho Sth of April, lOOH, Pontgmvi' sailed from Ilonfieiir in tho *' Lovrier," and a week later Chaniulain embarked. (ioiiMiu, it is Hupnosed, in tho "Don de Dieu," then nnder tho April, IU«. 1 /. 1 1 • /^i Ml 1 command of Henri Cyouillard, anohl ausoeuito of lN)nt« grav(5 and Chauvin. On Juno 3, Champlain reached Tadous- Jimi., nt Trt- **'"'' ""'^ ^v*^** *'*■ o"*'^' trailed upon to settle a dispute iioiiuiu'. which had already been begun between Pontgrave and a Hastiuo fisherman. A little blood had been drawn, and as it wouhl not do to risk tho main enterprise by delays, tho governor-general composed tho quarrel temporarily, and left tho ultimate decision to the authorities at home. This contest arranged, Champlain net to work building a small shallop of about fourteen tons, and it was not long before ho was on his way up tho St. Lawrence. The bold hcadlaiul of Quebec had attracted his attention in 1003, and ho now determined to lay tho fouudations of a town be- neath its clift's, and very soon the level strand along tho river presented a busy scene. Champlain had not completed the laying out of his garden, when ho was startled at a disclosure from one of his men. A meehanio anu>ng his foHowors, thinking to gain the sympathy of the Basques at Tadoussac and some consequent advan- tage, j)lotted with some accomj)liees to murder Chami)lain and offer tho new settlement as a lure to tho rivals down tho river, riot to kill Such a secret, requiring passive complicity in many cimuipiuiii. others, being hard to keep, was opportunely betrayed. Champlain, while his knowledge of the plot was not suspected, enticed tho ringleaders on board a bark lying in the stream, where they were easily overpowered. The body of the princi- pal plotter soon dangled from a tree, and three of the other chief conspirators were ])ut in irons. Champlain now explored the little tributary of the St. Law- rence, which causes tho promontory of Quebec to jut out like a capo. On this stream he came upon traces of the fort which Cartier had built, and in his journal he enters into an argu- ment to prove the identification, which at that time was at variance with the common opinion that the St. Croix River of Cartier was higher up the St. Lawrence. Pontgrave having completed the lading of his ships, Cham- plain placed under that commander's charge the three accom- VIlAMrL.MN AND THE lliOQirOlS. 06 i)lice» of tho recent plot, who were «lestin«Ml to expiuto their Clime in tho guUeyf*. On Sopten»lM>r 18, Pontgruvc ^.,„.„,iH,r siiiUitl for France. Tho littlo colony wiim left to pro- '"• """ pure for winter and its hard oxjHjrionees. There waa a long and harrowing wait till spring opened r.nd the ice-floes began to jostle in tho rivor. All in natnro was more blooming than tho spirits of tho imprisoned eol- . .^ onists, when on June 15, 1001), Champlaui learned that a week before, Pontgrav<5 had rotxirned to Tadoussac. Two (lays later, the governor started d«nvn tho river to confer with this bringer of succor. It was a sad story which Champlain luul to tell his friend. Oidy eight of the twenty-eight whom rontgrave had left behind a year ago wei*o living, and half of these wero broken down. The winter's horrors wei-o too sick- ening to . 'i:li 1% 100 COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEBEC. a mutual exchange of hostages, in giving and taking a young man on each side. Champlain received the savage Savignon, Hoatoges whom he later took to France, and he gave them a exchanged, youug Frenchman, — there is reason to believe he is the same who later became known as Etienne Brule. Both of these hostages, after a mutual restitution was made the next year, became of manifest value to Champlain in his later inter- course with the savages, for this interchange of interpreters enabled him to reach better conclusions as .to the great lakes of the west, and as to the passages towards Florida on the south. When Champlain parted with his savage friends, two other Frenchmeri voluntarily accompanied them, and one of them, Nicolas de Vignau, who went off with the Algonquins, we shall encounter agam. A few weeks later, a ship brought news of the assassination of Henry IV. The death of the king was a calamity returns to to the colouy. Haviug invested the Sieur du Pare Aug.-sept. with tlie command, and leaving sixteen men to hold the post, Champlain, with some feelings of uncertainty as to the effect in France of a change in the monarch, sailed from Tadoussac on August 13, and reached Honfleur on Sep- tember 27. It was now, while in France, that Champlain agreed with Nicolas BouUe upon a dower of 4500 livres, to be paid receives by Boullc to him, iu anticipation of Champlain's mar- (lower for an intended riagc with BouUc's daughter, then a child. It was marriage. ^^^ years later that he married her. Meanwhile, the dower was such an addition to his pecuniary resources that he now manifested increased devotion to the commercial side of Vovage of ICl'l. the colony, for it had not before interested him much. His next voyage to the St. Lawrence, in IGll, was almost wholly in the interests of the fur trade. He went up the river to the rapids, and selected a position for a trading- post near the site of the later Montreal. He met here his Indian allies, and the hostages on both sides were mutually restored. He listened to new stories of distant western lakes, and got reports from other savages who had followed up the trail towards Florida. His barter for furs made him more familiar with the traders. A VICEROYALTY ESTABLISHED. 101 Ifl' He found their pursuits a competition which diminished their own profits, and hampered his efforts for discovery. Referring to these traders, he says : " All they want is that the explorers sliould face danger in discovering new peoples and new land., for their trade, while they may find profit where the others found hardship." It was evident that the trade in peltries, if to be worth pursuing, must be put on a different basis. On his return to France in September, 1611, he undertook a trading the organizing of the Canadian experiment on a better forXd'/ commercial basis, and with this task he was occupied ^•'^^-*'^- for the greater part of the following year. The whole trading interests of the Norman towns during the early years of the fur trade in Canada were much complicated by rivalries and jealousies. The study of the subject involves pretty closely the consideration of such books as the Glanes and Noxivellcs Glanes histonques Normandes of E. H. Gosselin. Champlain's plans at this time provoked opposition from the merchants of St. Malo and Rouen. He had undertaken in a measure to diminish the advantages of individual enterprise by compelling all who joined in the new undertaking to share in proportion to their contribution of capital. But aspects other than commercial were daily emphasized in public. The Mevcurc Franqois had been established, and began its work in rendering popular the labors of the priests. In the introduc- tion, which prepared the way, its editor had gone over the results of the expeditions of De Monts, Pontgrave, and Cham- plain (1604-1608), rendering them better known. A new edi- tion of Lescarbot, and still another issue of the same current book, before Champlain was ready for sea, testified to exp[ora-'" the growing interest. But the newer knowledge had *'""■ little effect on prevailing views of the geography of the region, and the contempoi'a^y edition of Wytfliet's atlas showed no im- provement upon the notions which had been developed out of the narratives of Cartier. 'I ]\ 111 m Mil ! « 1 ii I I m The disti'aetions which had followed upon the death of the king had begun to subside. Champlain found that a renewal of political quiet conduced to draw more attention to his plans, despite the opposition that their first promulgation had raised. One feature that he insisted upon was to give dignity to the !H !.' 102 COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEBEC. ;iv:>; gtogi whit ("hail brouj the i o CHAMPLAIN'S MAPS. 103 vioeroy, lOl'J. Prince de Coiide succeeds. enterprise by putting it under a viceroy of enlarged powers, and on October 8 the Count de Soissons was appointed ^^^^^^ j^ to that position. He commissioned Chaniplain as his deputy, a few days later. With a newly awakened zeal Soissons set about the task of familiarizing himself with the project. Champlain had hardly begun to show and explain his maps when the viceroy suddenly died. The Prince de Conde was soon selected to succeed as viceroy, and more authority was assigned to him than had been before given to any royal representative in the Cana- dian region. There was liitle in respect to civil, mili- tary, and religious administration that his instructions did not ]iernut him to undertake. Ilis letters-patent were signed at Paris, November 13, 1G12, and they were registered at November Kouon, a few months later. Under these instructions ^^' *^*-" the viceroy was commanded to prevent the selling of Euro- l)ean weapons to the natives, and he was expected to do his utmost to find and open a way to China. He was enjoined also to discover the mineral resources of the country. As a compensation for the considerable outlay which he might be called upon to make in furthering the equipment and business of the new expedition, the prince was to be allowed a twelve years' lease of the trade and mines of the country, with ample powers to manage it by deputy and to prevent intruders. A new commission was issued to Champlain on November 22. Of the maps which Champlain showed to the viceroy, two wore prepared to accompany the account of his expe- champiain's riences in the new world since 1604 ; and a third was *"*p®' perhaps one owned by Harrisse, dated in 1607, showing the coasts and harbors of New France, which has not yet been en- graved. Of the maps published in it, one, dated 1612, is larger than the other, but shows a lesser extent of territory, and Champlain explains that it was " constructed according to com- passes of France, which vary to the northeast." Its interior geography makes clear what conceptions respecting the great western waters Champlain had derived from the stories with which the Indians had regaled him. We find in this map Lake Champlain and the river stretching west from Boston harbor brought into close conjunction, as he had supposed them when on the New England coast. Lake Ontario is in nearly its exact m ■ W ■^^i- 'U s ■ ■»- mI •p sri \-\'i ^11 « i' \ « ''! :f : f hi 104 COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEf^EC. position. The small lakes south of it in New York State are coalesced into a single expanse of water, which he calls the Lake of the Iroquois. Farther west a little stream flows into SS& 5S». :st CHAMPLAIN'S CONCEPTION the lake, 'onveying the waters of a natural reservoir not far off. Its position would make it stand for the inadequate conception, which Cham])lain had and never dispelled, of the Niagara River and Lake Erie. At its extreme western end, Ontario OF ini he ml Ontail Th< of N« T^E GREAT LAKES. 105 receives by a connecting channel, broken by a fall, the waters of Lake Huron, — and farther west the map does not go. His suspicions of the course of the Ottawa were far from correct ; OF THE GREAT LAKES, 1C12 he made it little more than an archipelago which fringed Ontario. The other of the two maps he calls " a geographical map of New France in its true meridian," and there is reason to be- '^ |4i \ u:| I .^ii'' Mr I lOG COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEBEC. lieve that, dated a year later (1G13) than the larger map, it was made even after the Look which was to contain it was nearly ready to leave the presg. The changes in it from the other map are marked. Lake Ontario has disappeared, and a network of rivers distinct from the course of the Ottawa appears in its place, — a conception which beguiled Blaeu and other cartog- CHAMPLAIN'S MAP, raphers at a later day. Another distinguishing feature is :i great salt sea brought out at the north in something like its true proportions. In this delineation ho profited by the report of Hudson's explorations, which had laid open the straits named after that navigator, with the great bay beyond, where Hudson had wintered. That navigator's mutinous crew, having set their commander adrift in the great bay, had brought back to Europe one of the charts which he had made. This had just appeared 1 that Ch.J tliat Pai] whij incil knol <.f Mill HUDSON'S MAP. 107 when Champlain was revising this map, in nn acoount of Hudson's voyage which was published at Amsterdam Hii.i»on'» (1012), under the editing of Hermann Gerritsz, — a '""P" book usually cited by the title of the Latin edition, the Detectio Fi'cti Hudaoni. Its chart gave an approximately true deline- ation of the great northern bay, which forced an easy conjecture mnd ftrenus m m\ ■ 1 '1 ■ l». M\ 1 I ■ > DATED IN 1C13. IS i\ that it would reveal a westerly connection with the Pacific. Champlain must have felt that it confirmed his conception of that great North American island which he had dreamed of at Panama. It was a conception much in advance of the views which Ilondius, the most popular geographer of his day, was inculcating in the different editions of the 3Iercator Atlas. We know that such professional cartographers as Johannes Oliva of Marseilles were still clinging to the old notions of Sebastian ^liinster. 1 i •V- ■ 108 COLONIZATION ESTAIiLISIIED AT QUEHEC. !■ i Thoru wiiH one aHpcct of the IIikIhoii map which Clmmplain engurly seized ui)on, and he wa.s inspired by it with a new hope The north- ^''^^^ ^'® might yot itiach this northern water, either by rrii MM. ^jjy Saguenay, by the rivers that debouched at Three HUDSON'S EXPLOKATIONS. Rivers, or by the Ottawa. We find him possessed by such a hope in the dedicatory letter to the Prince of Conde, which he prefixed to his new book. In this he speaks of his desire to follow more persistently a search for this northern sea, which he expected to find at a point not much beyond those which he j L i Vla.\AL"S DKVKIT. 109 had nlruady reached. His mind was accordingly prepared to receive any statement which contirnicd this i )H>etation. It was just at this time thai (^hamplain\ credulity in this respect was put to u test. It will be remembered thiit a year [From Gerrltsz'a Tabula Nauiica.'\ or two before, he had allowed a young man, named Nicolas de Vignau, to winter among the Algouquins, where he was ex- pected to pick up what he could of their tongue and Nicolas de their geographical secrets. This youth now api)eared ^'k"*"- in Paris. He had returned from the wilderness to Quebec, and N f ■ i I i. ' \ ■ 1 ii^ r f va\ 110 COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEBEC. taken passage in one of the ships coming home after the sum- mer trading. Whether he started from Quebec with the pur- pose of ingratiating himself with the home authorities by mak- ing up a story to flatter the prevailing geographical hopes, or whether he was induced to his deceit by finding Champlain ready for anything which confirmed his hopes, may not be clear. At any rate, he told his tale. It was that leaving his Algonquin hosts, he had made his way up the Ottawa to a lake which by another outlet led him to the shores of a salt sea, HUDSON'S BAY AND THE ST. LAWRENCE [As delineated in 1C13 in tlie Dehctio Freti Iliulsoni (Amsterdam).] where he had seen the wreck of an English ship. This story and the narrative of the Hudson voyage obviously confirmed each other. The effect was natural. Champlain and the gen- tlemen of the court interested in his enterprise readily took Vignau's story to mean the discovery of a way to these northern waters, and a consequent path to China. No time was to be ciiamriain ^0^^. So in the early spring (March) of 1G13, Chara- yu"b"c,*° plain, accompanied by Vignau, was once more at sea. March,'iGi3. ^rrivcd at Quebec (May 8), he lost little time in preparations, and, still accompanied by Vignau and a few others, he was speedily on his way up the Ottawa. b c h tl CHAMPLAIN ON THE OTTAWA. Ill On the little flotilla went. They paddled or poled their canoes by day, and camped on the banks at night. Explores the The broken current often compelled them to bear their O"**"*- CHAMPLAIN'S ASTROLABE, 1G03. [After Cut in O. H. Marshall's Historical n'nVing .] burdens by the portages, which the Indians had long nsed. Champlain noted all along in his pocket-book the latitude of his camps, and his figures are found to agree pretty well with the topographical features which he describes. Suddenly, at a '\f II 5; ?i: H I m ') '. ■til n m 1 ■ hi 112 COLONIZATION ESTABLISHED AT QUEBEC. \$:-^ . i ^1 certain portage near Muskrat Lake, his entries of altitudes be- come more inaccurate. Five and twenty years ago, a farmer working in the field at this point turned up a brass astrolabe bearing the date of 1603, and of Paris make. These errors of his altitudes and the line of his progress render it almost certain that this relic was Champlain's, and that his loss of it had left him without the means of accurate determination of his latitude. Champlain stopped at a village to procure an audience with its chief. He describes the festivals which were made in his honor. It was in this village that Vignau had spent his winter, and the youth was now among his old companions. When Champlain asked for an escort to take him the rest of Vignau's vignau's ^^^^ ycar's journey to the salt sea, the fellow's rascally deceit. deceit was exposed, for the savages knew that he had never left them on any such journey, during his sojourn among them. The youth could but confess his mendacity, and throw himself on his leader's mercy. There was nothing left for Champlain but to lead his party soberly back to the St. Lawrence, under escoxt of a crowd of canoes going down for the annual trade. During this visit to Canada, Champlain spent but little more than two months. He had failed in his search at the north, but he had at last got an intelligent notion of the course of the Ottawa, and was able to correct his tentative maps. When he reached the great river, he found seven ships trading at Mon- ti'eal. The scene gave him a new conception of the growth which the fur trade was making. Going to Tadoussac, he embarked there on July 8, and on the 26th of the next month, his ship floated with the Bftck 111 France. Au- tide iuto the basin of St. Malo. France had now transferred her chief interests to the vast northern valley. She saw there the best chance of progress to the west, and the allurements of the trade in peltries were rapidly growing upon her connnercial sense. Her settle- ments along the Maine coast easily lost their hold. The Dutch indeed did not now reach them, but Adrian Block, in the little " Onrust," sailing from Manhattan, had pushed around Cape Cod, and established the northern claims of that people at Nahaut. It is to Block and the Dutch that 1G13, 4 CHAMPLAIN'S DESCRIPTIONS. 118 we now begin to look foi' developments in the hydrography of Massachusetts Bay. The English were more enterprising, and a party from Virginia in an armed vessel, under Samuel Argt U, hoverinff about Mount Desert, found a convenient moment to take a settlement of the Jesuits unawares. They fell upon it, and carried off some of the French to James< town, and made a like raid the next year. SHIP OF 1G13. [From the Delectio Freti Iludsoni, Amsterdam, 1613.] Champlain had been licensed on January 9, 1613, to print the book which contained his maps. The narrative, beside enabling us to follow his adventures, gives us one of the earliest descrip- tions of the animals and plants of our northern coasts. ISIen of science, however, to-day find his accounts far less satisfactory than those of the Englishmen, Hariot and White, on the Vir- ginia coast twenty years before. ia il i'! ' ^ (i Ibr i|j| i ill 'J 'ft V •M 11 CHAPTER VI. WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. THE FALL OP QUEBEC. 1614-1629. Champlain now remained in France for the better part of two years. He was chiefly employed in strengthening the com- mercial plans of the colony, and in arranging for the introduc- tion of priests. The fur company saw little profit in assnining the expenses of the proposed missions, and Champlain's efforts to get money for their suppoi't were necessarily turned in other directions. The sending of Catholic missionaries was not grateful to a company in which Protestant interests were still paramount, and in which there must naturally be other grounds of dislike of such associations. The priests saw the best chance of con- verting the natives in making them first sedentary. The trad- ing instinct knew that this meant a diminution of fur hunters. So for some years there was a struggle at court. On and the thc ouc side, the priests and their friends aimed to Till* fr rfL^ (^ secure royal recognition of the spiritual needs of the Indians. On the other, the trading associates claimed a longer lease of their mercenary project, on the plea that they were working the country on the best terms for France and her pros- perity. While the traders maintained their advantage, Cham- plain had nothing to do but to get along with his plans as best he could without their assistance. Champlain succeeded on his own account in making some arrangement with a few priests of the Kecollect order, and it was agreed that Dennis Jamay, Jean d'Olboau, and Joseph Le Caron should accom})any him to Quebec. A lay brother, Pacifique du Plessis, accompanied the priests. Champlain Champlain and his new suj)porters sailed, in a vessel 11115 ^^"'' commanded by his old friend, Pontgravc, on April 24, 1015. Recollects. THE IROQUOIS. 115 '1 1 The Recollect stood for the strictest discipline that the Fran- ciscan could endure. His loose and coarse gray vestment was girt at the waist with a cord, and his pointed hood, if not protecting his crown, hung behind. His feet were uncovered except by a wooden sole ; and he passed among men, seeming holy and patient, and he clung to poverty and humility. It was May when the ship reached Quebec. A chapel was at once built, and on June 15 the priests celebrated ^^y ^^ their first mass. It was the first since the colonization Q"«''«<=- of the country, though there is some reason to believe that the early explorers may have listened to the holy words at Brest in 1534, and possibly on the rock of Quebec two years later. It was now arranged that Jamay should remain at the settle- ment. D'Olbeau was soon on his way to sojourn among the Montagnais, and Le Caron started to set up his altar in the Huron villages. Sagard, in speaking of these Canadian tribes, classes the Hurons as the nobility, and the Montagnais as the rabble of the woods. To the Algonquins, who were called the burghers of the forest, no priest was yet assigned. Champlain, in dealing with the Indian problem of his day, found himself confronted by an ethnological anomaly, i,,^)^,, This part of the continent was in the main occupied ^'st"'^"t"'°- by tribes of the Algonquin stock ; but in the midst of this expansion of a common blood there was a sort of linguistic island, bounded on all sides by foreign races. Within this island the core was held by the Iroquois, a confed- eracy which represented the ideal of savage existence. They occupied the region immediately south of the Upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. Skirting their somewhat irregu- lar domain on all sides but the north and east lay the con- geners of the Iroquois, known as the Ilurons, the Tobacco nation, the Neuters, the Eries, and the Andastes, — this I'ange of people making a sweep from the northwest at Georgian Bay to the headwaters of the Susquehanna on the south. Thus these cousins of the Iroquois pressed in upon the country of the confederates on all sides. They had found their positions by no means comfortable, for their brethren at the core, the Iroquois people, were cruelly hostile to all of them, forcing them not only to band together, but also to form alliances with the remoter Algonquins. The only exception was with the Iroquois. : \t \ '^V^A ■!;;;' ill ■!^B , V. n : S-l ill' 1 ti (i ^ 1' %■■■ 116 WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. H"\ ■ l^'-k V'- t J^2L-i Neuters, who suffered both the Hurons and Iroquois to raid across their territory along the Niagara, but compelled them to be amicable if they met in their villages. We have seen that Champlain had already provoked the hostility of the Iroquois, and the further alliance which he was now seeking with the Hurons through priestly service was sure to serve as a new pretext for the confederates' fierce persecutions of the latter tribe. Champlain was quite ready to meet this hostility, and was Campaign prompt cvcn to anticipate it. Accordingly, he planned ifMuoisf^ with the St. Lawrence Indians an invasion of the 1615. Iroquois country. The route by Lake Champlain in- volved too long a march through the enemy's country, for the stronghold of the confederates, which they intended to attack, lay south of the easterly end of Lake Ontario. Moreover, the French leader expected that, by a circuitous route through the country of his allies, he could increase his force as he proceeded. The path marked out, however, lengthened the march to not much short of a thousand miles. He started on this recruiting service accompanied by Brule, the interpreter, a French servant, July. On the ^^^ Several savages. On July 9, with such coni- ottawa. panions, and in two canoes, he began the ascent of the Ottawa. His passage of it with Vignau had already familiai*- ized him with some of its harassing obstacles, and it was because of that bootless expedition to the delusive northern sea that the tribes through whose territory he now pus.sed recognized one whom they had already known, and would now readily serve. From the valley of the Ottawa ho crossed the divide and reached Lake Nipissing, whence he continued by its outflowing stream to the Georgian Bay. Geologists have recently pointed out that a subsidence of about a hnndrod feot near Lake Nipissing would turn the water of the Grout Lakes for the most part into the Ottawa, and make a practicable route for navigation 270 miles shorter than by Lake Erie and Ontario ; indeed, the evidence seems tc be that this was the channel to the sea in the geological period, and it lias been in hi.storic times the easiest route to the upper lakes known to the Indians, followed by Champlain, and adopted by the engineers of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Champlain next crept by the lake shore along the oxtrcnio CHAMPLAIN'S CAMPAIGN. 117 southern part of this arm of Lake Huron, to the neighborhood of the Huron villages. Here that leader found Le Caron at his missionary work, and eight Frenchmen from the Recollects' com- pany joined in the march. Word now reached this gathering host that a body of Andastes, living about the headwaters of the Susquehanna, were, to the number of five hundred, anxious to take part in this attack upon their common enemy. The Andastes villages lay beyond the Iroquois country to the south, and they could approach the confederates' fort from the side opposite to the Huron attack. It was accordingly necessary that communication should be opened with these proposed allies, in order that their attack should be well-timed. Brule volunteered to reach them. He succeeded in passing the hos- tile villages of the Iroquois, possibly by the route indicated by the dotted line in Champlain's map of 1632, but was not able to get the reinforcement to the attack in season, as we shall see. Moving on from the Huron country, the savage force, accom- panied by Champlain and his compatriots, turned towards the southeast, and finally struck the course of the Trent, which easily conducted them to the borders of Lake Ontario. They reached its shores in the neighborhood of the modern Kingston. Here they embarked in their canoes, and crossing the lake by skirting a line of intervening islands, the native flotilla made a variegated show on the mirroring water. There is not an agreement among investigators upon the exact route which was taken, but somewhere on the shore which stretches south of Sackett's Harbor, the party landed, and concealed their canoes in a neighboring thicket. There was before them a march inland and almost due south. The local antiquaries have en- deavored by examining the ground, and by following Cham- plain's details of his march, to determine the precise site of the fortified town of the Onondagas, which they sought. Mr. O. II. Marshall and others turn the route after crossing the out- let of Lake Oneida to the southwest, towards a position on Onon- daga Lake. General John S. Clark, who has secured a more general acceptance for his views, shapes the invaders' course rather to the southeast, and brings them to a point on a small pond, where he finds remains on the ground which serve, as he thinks, to identify the spot. These traces conform in the main - 1' ili. ill . I |1 ii,H i \i i I A .'i- 118 if: i' ■ t WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. to a plan of the fortress, whitrh Chainplain depicts in one of the plates accompanying his narrative. The later writers, like Shea, Slafter, and Park- man, follow General Clark's lead with scarce- ly any hesitation. The Indian stronghold was hexagonal in form, with four rows of lofty pali- sades, interlaced with withes. These walls sup- l)orted a gallery for war- riors, which ran around the top. From the side next the pond, water was introduced and conducted to gutters, which could be discharged upon fires, if built against the outer palisades. It was before this for- tress that Champlain and his allies appeared on October 10, 1G15. The a' tack on the part of the savages was a wild luiri-y- scuriy of boisterous movement, and some time passed before October Champlain could temper their frenzied zeal. He caused a tower to bo built, and put some of his marks- men in it, to be i)ushed up to overtop the palisades. This worked very well ; but all his precautions to regulate the attempts to fire the timbers of the outer defenses failed, through the misdirected precipitancy of his Indians. Some of the be- siegers were wounded, and Champlain himself had to draw hostile arrows from his own knee and ankle. When the assailants found they had made no impression on the defenses, they shrank as Indians always do at a repulse, and the disabled Cham])lain was unequal to the task of hold- ing them to the attack. The whole mass of shrieking savages accordingly fell back under cover of the woods. They were CKAMPLAIX'S ROUTE, 1015. 10, 1(!15, The fort attacked. CHAMPLAIN'S RETREAT. 119 ready, however, to renew the onset, if Brul^ and hi8 five hun- ilred Andastes should come to their assistance. Brul^ was three diiys away among the villages of that people, who had not yet finished their revelries at the prospect of punishing the Iroquois. Brule proved powerless to move them on. THE ONONDAGA FORT. [After Chiimiilaiirs Sketcli.] Five days of inaction or of paltry skirmishing followed, and the Andastes not appearing, a retreat was begun. If champiain the shattered horde had waited two or three days ''•^*'^^*'8- longer, the succor would have come. The wounded Cliamplain, unable to bear his weight, was placed in a basket slung from men's shoulders, and in this mode he was borne away from a disheartening failure. It was his last expedition, and a sad contrast to his heedless onset at Ticonderoga six years before. That foolish precipitancy was avenged. His straggling force reached the lake without serious interruption from its pursuers. m^ ■I -; i f '1 ■ih n i'.A :'■■ J •- 't: i.si r .- 1 ■■: ; ■ t ,»:;'; ; (■■!.; I ,. ! ' ■ :.■■- \ '',■■'■ r. 120 WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. ''(' The fugitives found their canoes untouched, and embarked *, and were soon on the northern shore of Ontario. The Hurons seem to have had a purpose in keeping Cliani- plain with them through the winter ; or at least ho was not able to find any guide to accompany him to the settlements. The savages tarried for a while on the border of the lake, to kill a winter's supply of deer. The rest gave Champlaiu's wounds Dec, 1G15. ^"16 to heal. When the frosts of December ensued, retur""'^*'"' and the ground was frozen, the trails became easier to home. traverse, and the Hurons with their guest departed for their towns. THE HURON COX'XTUY. [From Creitxiiis.] It was thus that Champlain spent the winter of 1(515-10 in the Huron country, in the neighborhood of Lake Simcoe. The passing months gave him opi)ortunities to visit the adjacent and allied tribes, where he found much matter for his note-books. He records that the Indians could give him no knowledge of cimmpiaiu wliat lay bcyoud the Jler Douce (Lake Huron), ex- dSit^ " cept that prisoners taken from the more distant tribes people. jj^^i gjj^jj ^Ijj^i; g^j|2 farther on towards the setting sun there was a people who had light-colored hair and looked like the French. When the spring came, Champlain took advantage of a party ETIENNE imULE. 121 of Indians going eastward to accompany them. On reaching Montreal, he found Pontgravo just arrived from France, and got the latest news. On July 11, ho was ABain in ' again in Quebec, after an absence of nearly a year. In the few succeeding days, he made plans for enlarging and rei)air- ing the buildings of the post, and on July 20 was on ^^^^ j^ his way to Tadoussac. Embarking there on August 3, *"'"'""=«• he arrived at Honfleur on September 10. Champlain was again in the colony in 1617, but he has left no record of what he did. Pacifique du Plessis founded a mis- sion at Three Rivers which served to give stability to j^,; i„ a trading-post which had been maintained there for ^'"""J"- some years ; and the settlement soon became and long remained a chief centre for the hardy voyageurs of the country. This class did little, however, to introduce family life, and it was lioped that, when Louis Hcbert and his household jo,,,, arrived at Quebec, not far from the same time, a "''^^'^*- beginning was made in the more permanent elements of colo- nial life ; but Hubert remained for a long time the only con- spicuous example of a farmer in the valley. He was an apoth- ecary by training, but he had exhibited while domiciled in Acadia a liking for the soil and its labors. He stands in the Canadian genealogies to-day as the progenitor of numerous representatives who rejoice in their descent from the man who first practically grasped the essential truth of colonial policy, and worked the soil like one bound to it. It was during Champlain's sojourn in the valley in 1G18 that his old interpreter, Etienne Bruli:;, returned to the settlement. The governor had last seen him when he i>iuK"a ,,», TT i«i wanderings. was (lispatchetl from the Huron company to brmg the Andastes to the attack on the Iroquois fort, three years before. Brule had now the opportunity to disclose the cause of his fail- ure, and to explain his later wanderings. It apjieared that when Brule finally brought the Andastes to the neighborhood of the Iroquois stronghold, it was only to learn that the Hurons had departed, and there was no alternative left but a like retreat on their part. Brule remained the following winter with his savage friends, but later, it would appear, he passed down the Susquehanna to Chesapeake Bay, and by this ad- venture he had established the direction of its course. If Sa- H. ''M . I •^li'i /iil! m iM 122 WAIt, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. t I I 1 giird'H account is to be truHted, Brule hud in Hoine manner also made Iiis way westward, ho as to find the sliores of Luke Supe- rior. He averred that it took nine days to reach the western extremity of some such water. The stories which he told of a rei>;ion of copper mines point to this lake, and Sagard says that Brule showed to him an ingot of that metal which was found there. In making his return journey, the wanderer fell among the Iroquois. He was wont to point to his wounds to show that he had tmdergone tortures at their hands. His own story betrays an abundance of tact in ingratiating himself with sav- ages wherever he went. His spirit and facile habit served to convert the Iroquois enmity into a liking for him, and they made it easy for him to reach the Huron countiy, whence he could join the summer flotilla, descending the Ottawa. One of the most conspicuous of the pioneers to follow up these discoveries of Bruld — whatever they may have been — . ,. . was a young Norman, Jean Nicolet, who arrived iust JoaaNicolet. ... /- . at this time in the valley, and was sent by Champlain among the Algonquins to inure himself to hardship and to learn their language. We shall encounter him again. Early the next spring, Champlain, once more in Paris, pro- cured (May 18, 1G19) a license to print a new vol- ume of his experiences. It was to cover the interval since his incursion into the Iroquois country in 1G15. The book was better calculated, perhaps, than either of those preceding it to awaken the curious reader. It covered a larger field of exploration, and gave better glimpses of the country and what it could produce. It mingled the excitements of war with the horrors of torture. It afforded greater details of life among the natives. The drawings, whose production had be- guiled weary hours during his confinement in the Huron vil- lages, had passed the hand of the engraver, and helped to give a lively interest to the book. Its publication was successful enough, if we may judge by its passing to a second edition the following year. In the autumn of 1G19, the Recollects began to make prepa- rations for building on the St. Charles, opposite Que* 1C20. The " , . '11 «- ^ Rei'oiieaally brought under the guns of the little Basque stronghold at the Island of St. John. Once, indeed, a hardy intruder had dared to run his ship up to Tadoussac. If Champlain had chanced to see the Dutch map of Jacobsz, just no tu th CI la TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. 125 now (1G21) made public, he would have read with some solici- tude the legend of " Nouvelle Bisquaye " about the mouth of the Saguenay. We can understand, then, why it was that Champlain thought of the insecurity of Quebec, and planned a larger fortress on the summit of Cape Diamond. But there were other more immediate dangers for the little colony, which hardly ever numbered in these years above a few score souls. During the summer of 1622, thirty Iroquois igoo Iro- quois on canoes were observed to pass Three Rivers, proceeding ^^e st. Law- towards Quebec. Their subsequent attack on the "^^'"^ , ■;.')• -i.| It ■ ■ * : i ! ■ r^ 'II;;; i i : i '\ ■: ■ ■4 I .iSii, ! i'3 126 WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. Iv Recollect convent on the St. Charles is not mentioned either by Chaniplain or Sagard, which has thrown some doubt on the recital given in Le Clercq. Champlain indeed was absent at the time, and the Recollect father who tells us how the savages were repulsed says that he got his information from Madam Couillard, who was within the palisades all the while. This ]ios- sible danger passed, it was not long before two Iroquois envoys came to Quebec and began negotiations, which in the with the spring of 1G24 ended in a large concourse of Hurons, Indians. » , . ht .it • • Algonquuis, Montagnais, and Iroquois coming to Three Rivers to light their council fires and confirm a pact. If the peace had come earlier, Champlain might have profited by the quiet, and had the opportunity to confirm the stories of Brule ; but he had followed his last trail, and the mysteries of the west were left for others to solve. The governor soon welcomed (1623) two more Recollects to the colony, one of whom was Gabriel Sagard, upon whose printed account of Canada we must in some measure depend, as our story goes on. With the satisfaction of being able to carry home good news of the quiet which had set- tled along the borders of his government, and prepared to tell the king the story of a four years' devotion to his August 15 ir,24. cim'm- iutcrests, Champlain left Quebec on August 15, 1624. plain Ictives Quebecwith Ills wifc was with him, for he had married Holene Boulle, on his last visit to France, and she had passed these four years of novel experiences amid associations for which her early life had little fitted her. He landed at Dieppe, Oc- tober 1, 1621. Sagard. During the two years which Champlain now passed in France, there were some important movements touching the future of Canada. In the first place, the Duke of Montmorency sold his vicerovalty to the Duke of Ventadour, and February lf,25. Again i- ^po" ni 1 * 4. J *l • ' comuus- 10, lu2o, Champlain was created the new viceroy s hioned. . t'i-iii' •• representative. It is claimed that his new commission affords the earliest official record of a purpose to find a way to (^hina. Kingsford, in his recent H'lMory of (jnnmla^ suggests that the language was inserted by Jesuit influence ; yet in a petition in 1621 the Recollects reminded the king that " by a continuation of former explorations a passage to go to China could be opened." SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDE 127 ;l By 1G24, when Sir William Alexander published his Encoxir- (jf/ament to Colonies^ the theoretical geography of Cliamplain respecting the western waters had become theorctuai known in England. Alexander, referring to it, says tliat at the western end of a range of lakes, the French "did find salt water," and that great ships seen there had made Champlain believe " that a passage might be there to the Bay of California, or to some part of the South Sea, opening a near way to China." It was at this very time that the Spanish geographers were beginning to detach Califoi'nia from the main- land, and to open channels inland from the Pacific, so that sjiec- ulative geographers found little difficulty in connecting the French reports of western waters approached by the St. Law- rence valley with these supposed developments along the Pacific coast. At this time, moreover, Alexander was interested in a politi- cal movement somewhat ominous for New France. In 1621 (September 10), the English king had granted Aieximder'a to him all that territory between the St. Lawrence and the sea, which lies east of the St. Croix River. " To be holden of us, from our kingdom of Scotland as a part thereof," ran this kingly purpose to carve a province of about 54,000 square miles out of disputed territory. Alexander was thus expected to colonize, and under the name of New Scotland or Nova Scotia to hold, and govern as lieutenant-general, a region that had already been included in the French king's grants to De Monts in 1603. The English patentee had not been able to start settlements when in 1624 he issued the tract to which we have already referred, as a means of propa- gating a colonizing spirit. As a further inducement to the same end, and to give dignity and some financial standing to his project, Alexander prevailed upon King James, and afterwards upon King Charles, to create an order of tributary Knights- Baronets, who should pay each a thousand marks into the trea- sury of the colony, and receive in return a grant of land to support their dignity, and these baronies were to includo some at Anticosti, directly in the approach to Canada. The rank was further tokened in an " o.ange tawny silk ribbon with a pendent escutcheon," which they were privileged to wear. Sir William speaks of this grant to him as "the first national I -!. -yfV. ( vi .^M m .'i i;.^ >l m •, I I! h i.H ■ ; 'i .K ■ i r:vj :|; i' I /v ■:iM 128 WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. I -H li' patent that ever was clearly bounded within America, by par- ticular limits upon the earth." The patent had certainly a distinctive limitation which told the French just what they ALEXANDER'S MAP, 1624. had to encounter, and made the bounds of Acadia a bone of contention between the rival powers for many generations. Unfortunately, Alexander's scheme was embarrassed by the very dignity which he secured for it. His plau of manorial 4 U. ■ I RECOLLECTS AND JESUITS. 129 lights in New Scotland was an attempt to plant medisevalism in the new world. They shut out the manly endeavor of self- respecting, though lowly owners of the soil, and the absence of such attributes in the settlers made them in the end the sport of political exigencies. Ventadour, the new viceroy of Canada, was under the influ- ence of the Jesuits. Champlain had always favored ventadour the Recollects. The members of this last order had ^'"^"'"y' prospered under the eye of the governor, and in 1G24 some recruits from Gaspe had joined the little body. They had already created five missions, — Tadoussac, Que- missious, bee. Three Rivers, with others among the Nipissings and Hurons. They had, as we have noted, raised the first stone structure in the colony, the church of Notre Dame des Anges. AVe have seen how there is some reason to believe that in 1622 this palisaded edifice had successfully resisted an Iroquois attack. Success had emboldened the fathers, and they had petitioned the king to exclude the Calvini&ts from the colony ; but Louis XIII. was not prepared for such a step. It came a few years later, when the strong spirit of Richelieu willed it. If the Recollects were in this matter denied the aid of the crown, there were willing abettors in their schemes, which they could engage, and so they invited the Jesuits to make common cause with them. On June 19, 1625, the Jesuits, jgos. Jesu- Charles Lalemant, Jean de Brebeuf , Enem'ond Masse, "* '"^"^^" Francois Charton, Gilbert Burel, and a sixth of unknown name, appeared in Quebec. Being denied hospitality by the civic authorities, they were at once received under the roof of the Recollect monastery, and began to look about to establish a house of their own. The spot they selected was beyond the St. Charles, at the confluence of the Lairet, where Champlain believed Cartier to have wintered, and where after ninety years there were still some traces of the earlier occupancy. It was the 1st of September, 1625, when the Jesuits with due cere- nionv took possession of the ground, and on April 6, .^-' , / , , - . , . 1 1 m lC2fi. Build lu2u, they found themselves in their new abode. Iwo anestabUsu- days later, the Pere Brebeuf, who had been among the Inclians during the winter, studying their manners and tongue, and preparing for larger experiences, rejoined his companions. The Jesuits began their labors amid dissensions, which their hM I n ^■; ■ |. :..: rV. • r 130 WAR, TRADE, AND MISSIONS. >i ' [' coming liad created. The return of Champlain to Quebec in 1626 did much to smooth asperities. A letter which the Pore Charles Lalemant sent to Paris, and which appeared in the Jlercnre Fvan(;ois^ did not tell a comforting story. Champlain had arrived on July 5, 1626, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Eustache Boullc. lie found the ct)lonv Champlain , . . „ it * "J arrives, only just recovcmig from the distresses of the win- ter. A famine had threatened the settlement, and the struggling settlers had been forced to send to (iasj>i' for succor. The persistency of their leaders had alone nuide the company desist from a purpose to abandon the place. That eighteen years of occupancy had so little serycd to give stability to New France was a fact forcibly pressed ni)on the Ri.i.eiieu'8 spirit which was now animating France. Cardinal I'oiiiy. Kichelieu had with an evil eye marked out his policy, and Canada was to receive the impress of feudalism. The institutions of the European past were to be evolved amid the American forests, and just at a time when there was already planned among the neighboring English, in the compact of the "Mayflower," a departure from the old-world principles of entail and primogeniture in the elevation of ecpuil rights. The English sympathy with the Huguenots and the pretensions of the English king to territory along the St. Lawrence, as well as the nionfjrel combination which was now carryin"- on the trade of Canada, were not signs to be received passively by a man like Richelieu. The old trading companies were swept off the board, and a new company, which was conunonly callotl the Hundi'cd Associates, was promptly formed. The Associates, cardinal gave it his approval on April 20, 1627, in camp before Rochelle, the last of the Huguenot strongholds. On the 6th of May, 1628, the Council of State ratified the charter, and thenceforth no Calvinist was to be allowed to enter New France. These principles were hazardous in the struggle with the Dutch and English for the conquest of the continent. The Dutch West India Company was planting along the Hudson a sturdy colony of Walloons, in sympathy with the Huguenots, which Richelieu would expel. Their spirit was to live, while the manorial rights of the Van Rensselaers and the rest, C(un- pelling the people to scatter dangerously, sowed the evils that l\ THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. 131 V ■ boi' in Pore iu;uIl' the country fall easily in duo time into English hands, by which a free tenure of the soil was added to the advantages pos- sessed by these other rivals of the French. The royal articles of 1627, creating the powers of Richelieu's company, — which we may read in the JMcrcuve Francois, — nave it jurisdiction over a territory extending from Florida — wherever that may end, for in defining bounds there was no at- tempt to decide it — to the arctic circle ; and east and west from Xowfouudland to the great fresh lake, omitting, for a wonder, to extend it to any salt water. Charlevoix and most of the writ- ers following him make the grant to include Florida, but the articles seem to be plain that the extension of the territory was /■/•(j//i Flor'.Ia, which the Spaniards at that time actu- ally possessed. The conditions of this southern coun- try had not indeed changed since the time when Charaplain w rote of it in the journal of his West Indian voyage, as "' one of the best lands that can be desired ; very fertile if it were cultivated ; but the king of Spain does not care for it, because there are no mines of gold or silver." What was of more mo- ment to the French of the north, there were no furs there. The principal Associates of the Company of a Hundred were Parisians, anl Richelieu was its constituted head. Tiienew There was at least . quarf^er of the number to be '=°'"P'"'>- found in Normandy, and three hundred thousand livres had been contributed to carry the project on. The company prom- ised to reinforce the feeble colony by a strong contingent of artisans and laborers, to be sent at once, with all necessaiy tools and supplies. Within fifteen years they purposed to send over four thousand other colonists, whose support for three years was to be gua)anteed by the Associates. In the spring of 1628 their first exj^edition sailed, consisting of four armed vessels convoying eighteen transports. They carried thirty-five can- non to increase the defenses of Quebec. This fleet, under the connnand of Claude de Roquemont, fell into the hands of the exasperated Huguenots and their allies, or, as Parkman ex- presses it, Roquemont succumbed to " Huguenots fighting under English colors." Roquemont had sailed in April, but an English fleet had got the start of him, for under the pretext of relieving the Hugue- nots at Rochelle, the English government had declared war ;i-: ij \ ■ - . t i"-' I; ■ ■ ^ > ■' •/: ■ *l ■t- : !■' '■i i , ! ; , • ■■ \ i- ' ;1 ''* ;, 1 \ \.-\ 'v y ■■'1 , 1 • (■ ' i r. :i 132 WAR, 77vM/)K, AND MISSIONS. against France. So the occasion was seized to dispatch an ar- EnRiami mamcnt against Quebec. Tlie instigator of the move- a°tar,'""^^ mcnt sceuis to have been a French Calvinist, Michel, "'-*• but the men who gave tlie enterprise character were Sir William Alexandc" and a Derbyshire gentleman, Gervase Kirke. Alexander naturally looked upon the lordly territorial claims of Kicl.jlieu as aimed in part at his own colony of New Scotland. Kirke, who had lived awhile in Dieppe and had married a French woman, knew what a task was bo- fore him. The king supplied letters of marque, and Kirke's eldest son, David, was made admiral of the fleet, with two other sons in subordinate commands. This fleet was far enough ahead of Koquemont to be able to land a Scotch colony in the territory of Sir William Alexander, and to sweep the St. Lawrence of all the French afloat, before Roquemont was ex- pected. After this it lay in wait for its prey at Tadoussac. Kirke'a tieet. ■m'l On July 0, two little towers of the fort in Quebec fell down, and in the anxious state of the gari'ison the sign seemed omi- nous. On the same day some half -famished men were scanning the distant reach of the river to catch sight of Roquemont with his expected succor. While their hopes were proving vain, two refugees from Capo TournKnito emerged from the woods beyond the St. Charles, and brought word that some Indians had come to that post from behnv, who reported large ships at Tadoussac. Shortly after, a canoe came bringing the wounded commander of the French post at Cape Tourmente. He said that he had escaped a party which had been set ashore from some strange ships to assail that fort, The next day, some Basque fisherm«iu l)ulled in under the cliff at Quebec, and delivered a message from the English admiral, which they had undertaken to deliver to Chami)lain. It was a courteous demand from laoned to Kirko for the surrender of Quebec. Champlain had SUIT juer. , ., *" ir neither provisions nor powder adequate to a defense, but he answered as if he had, and the messengers rowed back with a reply as courteous as Kirke's summons, and quite as confident. This show of firmness had its effect, and Champlain was given a respite, not, however, free from suspense. Meanwhile Roquemont with his fleet had advanced up the river almost to Tadoussac, and had dispatched ahead a boat to !'!i!' CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 188 warn Champlain of his coming. This messenger, approaching Tadoussac, saw the English ships glide out of the Sagiienay and turn down the St. Lawrence. lie found cover for his boat on the bank, and Kirke's ships passed withoiit discovering him. TJiey were scarcely out of sight, when reverberations of cannon told him that Kirke and Roquemont had grappled in a fight. Speeding on to Quebec, the dismayed messenger carried the news to Champlain. The governor remained in a trying state of uncertainty till some Indians brought him word that the fight had ended in disaster to the French fleet. Kirke indeed had captured such of the ships as he did not sink, and, finding both glory and booty in the victory, he gave up Quebec, and sailed for England with the the Frenth prizes. The winter of 1628-29 was a weary and disheartening one for Champlain. There was little to eat, and by spring JC28-29. this little became nothing. The only hope of sustain- ^i"'^"^'"'- ing life was in digging roots and gathering acorns. When even these failed, the colonists clung to a hope of seizing, if they could, one of the palisaded granaries of the Iroquois. Here they could perhaps defend themselves till relief came. !Most of the sufferers stood fast by their settlement ; a few sought asylums among the Indians. jSIeanwhile Champlain was without any tidings of the effect in Europe of Kirke's enterprise. It had indeed excited a new cupidity among the English trading Jidventurers. In Febru- ary, 1029, a royal patent was made out for Sir William Alex- ander, to constitute him the " sole trader " of the St. Lawrence valley, to authorize him to settle a plantation anywhere along tlie river from below Tadoussac to Quebec, to confiscate the l)roperty of interlopers, and o seize French or Spanisli ships, and drive off the French that might be found on the banks. One morning in July, lOfZO, an Indian saw some masts above tlie trees on the island . Orleans. Other savages , „ . 1029, July. came in and repoi-ted tliat they had seen English ships Quebec sur- moving up the channel. Champlain could doubt no longer that the enemy had returned. Before long, the hostile vessels glided into the basin, and looked like cockboats as the governor with a little squad of pallid and ragged adherents looked down upon them from the ramparts of the feeble fort. '■■ C - . i; ; t l"dor Emeric de Caen. This vessel had slipped by Tadoussac uunoticed. The hostile crafts cleared for action, and it seemed for a while that De Caen would avenge the fall of Quebec ; but Hvitish i)luck prevailed, and the Frenchman struck his colors. The prize was taken to Tadoussac, where on August 19 the tenns of the sur- render were ratified by the English admiral. It seemed now to one in Quebec as if the P^nglish domination of North America was likely to be assured, and not to be left, as was the case, to the uncertainties of a hundred and thirty years yet to come. Lord Baltimore at Avalon, in Newfoundland, had indeed seen a sorry time with his colony in the face of the French, to say nothing of English enemies, and he had just carried his people to the Chesapeake. Here he fomul that the chartered rights of the Virginia company, with all the extensions to a su])- posable western ocean, had been surrendered to the crown, and under a royal governor, the most ancient of tho English settle- ments was to gather new vigor, a part of which he was to feel. In the region which lay towards the French, and had been called North Virginia, but which, since Captain John Smith had I I ■ ■■ THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 135 Tho (lescril)t'cl the country, was more eominonly known as New Eng- land, there was an ominous movenu'nt. In March, 1G29, while Champlain and his stricken followers were dragging their emaciated bodies into the sun on the rock at (Quebec, Charles the First was confirming the Massachusetts charter, as granted by the compcany at Plymouth in Devon, which since 1020 had claimed to 48° north latitude. In the interpretation which the colonists gave to the new charter, it carried its northern limits above the source of the Merrimac, well within a region which the French had claimed. The charter gave also to the grant an indefinite extension to the western sea, whose shores botli French and English were anxious to reach. Smith had complained tliat with all his praises of the New England soil, it had hardly lured the emigrant like the more fertile south. But the year in which Quebec was lost to the French was the same in which Puritan- ism claimed New England. The party which Endicott brought to Salem in 1629, with instruction to buy the land of the natives, were the precursors of a race unequaled as colonists. They differed from the French in the north in many respects, but in none more potently than in bringing to these xVmerican wilds the life of families. The long struggle they sustained along the New England frontiers with the horrors of savage war showed how stubbornly they coidd cling to their ideal. A few days before the English fleet which bore Champlain was descried from the Hoe at Plymouth, the council for New England, sitting in that town, made a grant to Gorges and Mason, which assured the control of the country on " the Iro- quois lakes " to their associates of the Laconia company. This, with all its mistaken geography, would have meant to the English in Quebec, had they known it, a close contiguity to their con- quered post. Rut all visions of a compacted English territory were soon dispelled. m 1.1 lit / I '■ f ' "n I .,■ : CHAPTER VII. QUEBEC RESTORED. EXPLOUATIONS OF NICOLET. DEATH OF ClIAMPLAIN. 1630-1635. Ox the return of the English fleet to Plymouth, November 20, Nov. JO, 1029, it was discovered that before Quebec had capitii- '^'•''*' latcd, a treaty of peace between England and Franco had been signed on April 23. On November 29, Champlain was in London, endeavoring with the aid of the French ambas- sador to arrange ior the restitution of the untimely conquest ; but there were complications to be removed. On the preced- ing 2d of February, the English king, in anticipation of the Aiexttiuier'a couqucst of Canada, luul granted, as we have seen, to iharter. gj^. ^v'illiam Alexander, a charter of " the county and lordshi]) of Canada in America." This document spoke of the " expected revealing and discovery of a way or passage to those seas which lie upon America on the west, commonly called the South Sea, from which the head or source of that great river or gulf of Canada, or some river flowing into it, is deemed to be not far distant." The charter granted jurisdiction over the islands in and over fifty leagues of territory on each side of this river, " up to the source thereof, wheresoever it be, or to the lake whence it flows, which is thought to be towards the Gulf of California, called by some the Vermilion Sea." This also in- cluded all the lands adjacent to the passage from the source of the river to the Gulf of California, — " whether they be found a j)art of the continent or main land or an island (as it is tliought they are) which is commonly called by the name of California, — which are not really aiid actually possessed by others, our subjects, or the subjects of any other Christian, prince or consti- tuted orders in alliance and friendship with us." But all this was a short-lived or rather premature colonial V i\ DIl'LOMACY. I'M gnmdi'ur. Not many wecka later, it wjis aj^roetl, in ij^noranco of what was happening on the St. Lawrence, that all eonqnest made hy either Knglish or Kreneh after April 24, lU'JU, should 1)0 restored to the condition existing before sneh cap- cwm.utobe tare. It was because of this agreement that Cham- ""'"""• plain was now making his protestations in London. Alexander and the Kirkes, with all who luwl ventured their money on the success of the (Quebec expedition, were not in i;ood humor when they saw that the lordship of Canada, and all the royal i)rotestations which had eneourageil them, wero likely to vanish in thin air. These «lisappointed gentlemen had influence enough to protract the negotiations for the restitution, and when Champlain at last can»o to Paris, by the end of De- cember, the issue was not reached, nor did the negotiations move rapidly during the following year ( l(5liO). Alexander and his friends lost no occasion to urge that the French had always been intruders within the limits of New Scotland. The Knglish king, never willing to acknowledge tho French rights to Canada, was niaking up his mind to such a qualified restitution as would not prejudice the >.uglish claim to the country. King Charles had married, in lt>2'), a sister of Louis XIIL, and only a part of tho dower agreed umn had as yet J I o I J iGiil. The been paid to him. It was a good time now to den>!uul on. ..irH tlowfii* the rest. On Juno 12, 1G31, he informed his ambas- sador in Paris that if the French court did not pay this deficit there would be no restitution of Port Koyal and Quebec. Here was substantial ground for diplomacy, and we can read tho cor- respondence in the report of the C^madian archivist for 1874. The ontcome was the treaty of St. (Jermain-en-Laye, on March 29, 1632. The agreement cndwdied in this st. Genuaiii- treaty was very likely hastened by the fact that De Razilly, a leading member of the Hundred Associates, was known to be fitting out a fleet, which might be intended to wrest from the English by force tho object of the lingering negotiations. The treaty which Charles thus concluded was easily advanced by his pressing need of money, and the promise of the remain- ing dower. The king's letter, preserved in the Ilarleyan col- lection, and only printed by Mr. lirynmer of tho Canadian rx r-\m m i !■ i ' .' ;l:i, •> ( r. : :'^' 138 QUEBEC RESTORED. I u it V *T archives, in 1889, has made this manifest. The terms for restitution of the French posts in Canada bore hard on tliose faithful subjects who had used his letters of marque to add to his dominions, and who saw their conquests given up for his royal necessities. Accordingly, the satisfied monarch was quite willing to send ten thousand pounds sterling to Alexander as a sop, while he ordered the evacuation by Alexander's son of the region in the vicinity of Port Royal, where Charles La Tour had earlier been installed as a representative of French in- terests. Charles was at the same time not inclined to throw too much doubt on the numerous charters which under his royal signature had covered all the region in dispute, and with char- acteristic duplicity professed to his subjects that he intended to carry on the plantation of New Scotland by the creation of more baronets. Further than this, the rights of the Council of Plym- outh, established in 1620, g'^ing as high as 48° north latitude, and the patents given to L^e Monts in 1603, still remained to keep alive a conflict of jui-isdiction. The dispute was not finally settled till Wolfe perished on the Plains of Abraham. Charles was nevertheless quite ready to fulfill the new obli- gations of the treaty, and so the restitution of Quebec soon fol- lowed. As the De Caens had suffered from the inability of the Kraerio de French government to protect them while at Quebec, to oJilbec, Emeric de Cueu was sent out to receive the surrender. ^^'^' At the same time he was allowed a year's privilege of trade, to recoup himself in his barter for furs. In July, 1632, the French readied Quebec. They found the English occu- jmnts had passed the period of their possession not without tribulations. During the first winter, forty of the ninety men wlio held the jilace had died. Those who ruled them had no vigor to prevent illegal trading on the river, and the Basques had plied their traffic with small hindrance. During the second sunniier, they had received some recruits, and there were about seventy English in the town when De Caen, on July 13, received its surrender. Tlit; French accounts say that the English commander sailed down the river with his ships heavily laden with furs. Some of the hatchets whieli Kirke had used in the barter for skins were recognized two years later by Henry Fleet among the tribes of the Potomac. Richelieu had in mind to control, as his wont was in most July. Quebec siir rendered. THb: JESUITS. 139 things, the religious missions in Canada. lie tried first to in- duce the Capuchins to take charge of them, but for some reason that order found its way to Acadia instead. The Recollects had appealed to Home to have a bishop in Canada, which was not a way to ingratiate their order with liichelieu, and in a spirit both of defiance and defense that min- ister sent the Jesuits instead. This exclusion of the Recollects has sometimes been said to have been the result of Jesuit intrigue. At all events, on April 18, 1G32, two Jesuit jcso. Jesuits fathers, Le Jeune and De Noiie, sailed from Havre for ""^^• Quebec. Some weeks later, at Tadoussac, Le Jeune saw for the first time, as they came on board the ship, some of the uncouth and filthy creatures whose interests, as he understood them, were to fill so large a part of his devoted life. A heedless cru- elty was at once mated in his mind with their squalor, for he labored in vain to induce them a few days later to spare some Iroquois prisoners from the horrors of the stake. The Jesuits perhaps realized how fit an introductory experience all this was to the work they had come to do. Shortly afterwards, we find the t'.A'^o in-iests restoring the dilapidated mission house on the bank of the St. Charles. The i)olicy of the Jesuits was reasonable, and it was not savage. " The power of the priest established," says Parkman, ''that of the temporal ruler was secure. . . . Spanii-.a civilization crushed the Indiaii, P^nglish civilization scorned and neglected him ; French civilization embraced and cherished hitn." On August 28, 1G32, Le Jeune wrote to the provincial of his order in France detailing his experiences. It was the j^^,,,-, jj^;,,. earliest of that series of wonderful letters, known '""'*" as tlie Jesuit lielations. These reports for forty years and move supplied the most that was known of life in the Canadian wilds to the great mass of French readers. Charlevoix speaks of the avidity with which they were read, and Parkman praises the good faith of their authors, — a Protestant recognition of good intent that their contemporary rivals in other ecclesias- tical orders did not accord. There are few allusions to these narratives in the writers of their day, tliough Creuxius used them in writing his account of Canada in 16G4, as Chuulmer had done in his JVonceau Month' in 1050. Although the final edition of Champlain's uan-ativcs bears the '4 ^. 11 -s ,1 ^ il ; 1 : 1 \ I ( 'I,-; ,1 140 QUEBEC RESTORED. h r- m4. iil ■illi:!*:' i|t»!. -:< CHAMPLAIN'S LAST BOOK. 141 '^ ^ m hi Champlain'a final edition, 1G32-33. his pre- date of 1632, there are some reasons to think that it was really issued the following year (1633), after Champlain had returned to Quebec. This book, in which several Paris publishers seem to have been conjointly inter- ested, contains in the first part a condensation of vious publications, and in the second a continuation of his experiences from 1620 to 1631. The last year's doings were apparently not written by Champlain himself. Indeed, it is manifest to more careful critics that the volume, including its map, failed to receive Champlain's personal supervision, and was prepared for the press by another hand. Some have been 4sH HONDIUS, 1G3J. led to believe that a Jesuit father — possibly one who had been in Canada — edited the book in the interests of his own order, and issued it, notwithstanding the date on the title, after Cham- plain had departed from France in March, 1633. These critics rely upon a difference in style in what they claim are Jesuit interpolations, and they point to inaccuracies and obscurities which could not have come from one so well informed as Cham- jilain. The obscuration of the Kecollects, which the book shows, is something, too, in such judgments, that could not have originated with Champlain. This edition, says the mod- ern historian, Kingsford, " was an engine to influence opinion, so that Canada, restored to France, should be given over en- km p. 1 :■■■■- -' 1 ' ' ■! N ''\ if: ' ■ (' ! I ; -t; ! i , ! V I:. : ■! i 142 QUEBEC RESTORED. ,H i 'i CnrU'Je la ticuuclie/rjnce.i3u,;menUe depuir la airniercferuant a la nnui^nden fiuclc enjin i^ay Menjitujjiu- 1{ r dr Chamjildin ZimtMnr pour URsy^ fn iu AQnnrjQiiul ticj)HiS Ion i 603 juf^^uct cnliiMwe ^ i6xy a drfcjiuurt plufuciirf cclu}, tcyrej, /liiV. nuuyia, djc wit en fcJ reitUunJ ijotl j f^u,.r Jmjrrnns'fn i6^^. ou life uQtt ctut mur^ue P cedent SaittaUont ~ " ' ■ ■■■■ ^m^^^— A THl; (;UEAT LAKKi*, CHAMPLAIN'S GREAT MAP. 143 ISi' CUAlll'LAlX, lliljli. I; M 11 M I :l ' i ■• I ■) "J i I « i t I i ' I \ 1 ^^ } 144 QUEBEC RESTORED. :«5 ^^1 Niagara. tirely to the Jesuits." In most copies a certain passage wliicli is thought to reflect on Richelieu, the Jesuits' patron, is can- celed. In the large map there is perhaps some, hut less reason to suspect an alien hand. AVe get from it the first cartographical intimation of a great lake beyond the Met' Ihtuvv. In an explanatory legend Champlain says that the Saut du (laston, commemorating a brother of Louis XIII., was near two leagues in width, — it represents the present Sault Ste. Marie, — with its waters coming, from a very large lake beyond; and in the map we find its western extension cut off by the margin of the charapiain's slicct, — a Convenient limitation to the vague know- 1632 map. ledge which was then current. It will be observed that we get in the stream which enters Lake Ontario at the west end the first fairly accurate location of the Niagara cata- racts. Champlain never comprehended the magnitude of these falls any more than Cartier did when he seems to have heard of them, a hundred years before. Sanson, when he published his map in 1656, represented the conception of Champlain ; but we get no particular description of the cat- aract till we find one, drawn from hearsay, however, as we shall see in Galinee's journal, when this priest accompanied La Salle along Lake Ontario in 1669. This stream, which shows the falls near its outlet in Ontario, comes from Lake Huron through a I'egion which with better knowledge is made the basin of liake Erie. Very curiously, there seems to be the beginning of the Straits of Mackinaw, with its island, nearly in the proper i)hu'e, while the inlet which stands for Green Bay, amid the country of the Puants, is thrown over to the northern side of Huron. Champlain, on returning to his Canadian government, had borne with him a new commission, representing all the i)restigo with which Richelieu and his Hundred Associates could clothe their representative. He sailed from Dioni)c on 1033. Cham* plain in jMarch 23, 1633, and on the 23d of May the morn- ing gun at the fort on Cape Diamond boomed a wel- come to the restored governor. The salvo, '^'rred many an echo, but none in nature was more responsive .m that in the heart of Le Jeune, when his attention was fir u. rested by the sound as ho was stirring with the early du les of tho day at JAMES'S MAP. 145 the Notre Dame des Anges. He knew that it meant a friend had come to take command in place of a Huguenot. Perhaps he did not know that in the train of the returned governor came Jemiita. men of his own order; but it was not long- before he found the Jesuit missions strengthened in the coming of Brebeuf, ^lasse, Daniel, and Davost. liut it was in his civil rule that Champlain had most to fear. The English, thinking to improve their trade in the gulf, mani- fested a purpose to advance to Tadoussac and begin a compe- ■ I , i. I. , 146 QUEBEC RESTORED. m I il i k^ u,\ tition with the French for the native trade. In May, 1633, representatives of the Canadian tribes ast.. iibled at I coo IhfAV Indian coiin- Quebec to sit with Champlain round the council 6re. The French governor urged liis allies to repel the advances of the English. An Indian from Three Rivers, Capi- tanal, impressed the listening Jesuits with oratorical powers that they had not associated with the native tongue. Cham- plain in reply was allured into picturing that good time when the French and the Indians should be one, giving and taking in marriage. If such a consummation were possible, Champlain was aware that much nuist be done to hedge the little colony about, so that such feelings of mutual trust might grow. A post must be established somewhere below on the river to prevent the English coming up and the Indians going down. A fort must be built at Three Rivers, strong enough to check the raids of the Iroquois ; and a light troop of three hundred French soldiers needed to bo kept ready for quick movement along the river. Champlaiu's letter of August 15, 1633, Ritiieiieu Wooing thcsc mcasurcs upon Richelieu, produced little apathetic, effect. The self-reliant governor soon became con- vinced that he had not much more to hope from the new com- pany than he had experienced from the old. A year later, he renewed the representations, but with no better result. It is not probable that Champlain was aware of the move- ments which the English were making from the Atlantic side, or he would have been even more solicitous of succor from France. The Indians had impressed on the minds of the Eng- lish, as they had done upon the French, the same faith in a great interior basin of water. Captain Thomas Young, in 1633, sailing up the Delaware, where the Swedes were conduct- ing a lucrative fur trade, speaks of that " Mediterranean Sea, which the Indian relateth to be four days' journey beyond the mountain." Young had resolved to find it. He expected first to reach a smaller lake, connected with the larger by a strait. The rapids of the Delaware chocked his progress. He now desisted for the season, with the expectation , of building a ves- sel above the falls during the following year. He supposed that, setting out from such new point, he woiUd still have a voy- age of a hundred and fifty or two hundred leagues to overcome. He apparently harbored the same notion as prevailed in Can- iit^ i »g ENGLISH AND FRENCH. 147 ada, that this intermediate lake would, when reached, disclose passages both to the North and to the South Sea, and guppogej i,,. in this event the conflict of rivalry could not be far *'"''°' ''*''"• off. Two years later, an English edition of the great Mercator- Hondius Atlas shows this great interior water lying west of Ontario. In June, 1634, a fleet arrived at Quebec, and in it came Father Buteux and two other priests. The whole jcat. jesu- population of Canada at this time was scarcely more """"v"- than sixty souls, and of this number only two households could be said to have fastened themselves on the soil. In fact, all results of consequence in the colony's life could be traced to the summer traffic in furs, and development stopped with that. The neighboring English and Dutch were pursuing the same trade. Half the people in Albany lived by it. The skins came from New England as well as from the Iroquois and be- yond, and large shipments were made to Holland from Man- hattan. But there was this difference, that these people were generally becoming a product of the soil, and were rapidly in- creasing, particularly along the New England coast. There were at this time near four thousand English settled about Massachusetts Bay, and the great immigration was begun which before 1640 was to bring something like twelve thousand colo- nists to the country. The people founded a college, •^ , * ^ . . " French and and began to build ships, and were trading m the re- EnRiish coi- moter inlets, and bringing wheat from Virginia. The little colony of New Plymouth were supporting a trading- post on the Kennebec, close up to the divide which separated them from the French, and were maintaining it against French privateers, not always successfully. All this meant with such a people permanence and colonial growth. Though there was some wildness in contemporary opinions among the English as to the westward geography which they were slowly developing, there was not in official circles the same confident expectation of reaching by western exploration the great China Sea, which prevailed in Paris and Quebec. When, in 1635, the Plymouth Company of Devon surrendered its charter, which had carried their claim to 48° north latitude, they distinctly averred that the " sea to sea " limits of its terms were the equivalent of about 1 . II i fi A :i'eferred men with packs and arquebuses to those in cassock and hood. The French, in bidding Brebeuf and his companions good-by, grati- fied the savage humor by a discharge of cannon. Brebeuf was not without some military fervor himself, and we soon hear of him, teaching the Hurons to build their palisades in a square with flanking towers at the angles, as better fitted than their round inclosures to give the French arquebus its best effect in helping repel an attack. Late in July, Champlain went to Three Rivers to observe the progress of the fort. It was his last journey so far west, and on August 3 he was back in Quebec. Shortly after- wards he gave a God-speed to Le Jeuno, who went to assume charge of the new post, taking Father Buteux with him. They arrived at Three Rivers on September 8, and three months later found themselves in the midst of an epidemic, which put their courage to a severe test. While it was raging, Le Jeune began with his own hand a reg- ister of baptisms and deaths, which now remains the solo doc- ument transmitted to us of these old Canadian days. The early records of Quebec were destroyed a f(;w August. Early rec- ords. CHAM PLAIN AND NICOLET. 149 years later, when the Chapel of Notre Dame do Recoiivranoe, which Champlain had erected to coinmeinorate the recovery of the town from the English, was burned in 1G40. The establishment of the first seigneury at lieauport marked a new stage in the progress of the t'rench scheme of seiRnmiry «t colonization. A seigneurial tenure to tract after •*'"'"i"'"- tract was given in the following years to any enterprising per- son who would undertake to plant settlers on the land, and accept in return a certain proportion of the grist, furs, and fish which the occupant could secure by labor. It was on July 22 that Champlain held his last council at Quebec, inviting the Hurons, who had come down the ^ .^^ ^^^^ river witn their customary constancy, to participate. I'luiu'siMt The burden of the governor's address to them was that if they would only worship the Frenchman's God, they would flourish under his benignant protection and have no dif- ficulty in overcoming the Iroquois. He told them that they only needed to embrace the white man's faith, if they would have the white man take their daughters in marriage. There was room, he said, in Quebec for a goodly nimiber of their young children, if they v/ould only commit them to the custody of the kind French, who would give them shelter and food in their holy houses, and be like grandparents to their tender wards. It was probably late in July, 1635, that Champlain learned of the return of Nicolet from the mission on which he had dispatched him the previous year. It will be remembered that in 1618, not long after this young Norman had arrived in the valley, Champlain had sent him among the Indians to prepare him for future service as an interpreter. Nicolet may have made an occasional visit to the settlements in all these intervening years, but there is no definite evidence of it. It seems likely that his was not a familiar face when he appeared at Three Rivers in the summer of 1633, in the train of the Algonquin traders, come thither for their summer traffic. By the next June (1634) he was ready for new labors. These many years among the Algonquins and Nipissings, suffering their perils, had quickened his senses for the hardiest tasks of the forest. ! } l|! H • i 1 1 •! iWil J : t 1 i? ■; f , n '^H i f mo HXl'LOliATIOys OF NICOLET. ii'i Tho Cuiiiulian writur, Hinijainiii Suite, has hIiowii it to be roa.sonubly curtain tiiat Chainplaiii had started Niculut at thJM time in the train of Bri'beuf and Daniel, who left Three Rivers for their missions on July 1, 1034. Nii^olet's intention was to go far enough west to learn something more defuiito than had yet been acquired from the Indian stories, as Sagard tells us, of those distant western people, who had neither hair nor beards, and who journeyed in great canoes. It was the connnon tale that those stories had passed eastward from a distant nation who lived by water that was not fresh, and who had mi- grated to their present homes from the shores of a great sea. Such were the geographical and ethnological riddles that Nicolet was now expected to unravel. Parknian suggests that tho brocaded gown which he is known to have taken with him was in reference to this hairless people who, in the prevalent opin- ion, must have been thought a race of the Asiatic Orient. Nioolet's course lay up the Ottawa, and by Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay, and thence to tho Huron villages. Here he renewed old friendships, and secured the services of seven of the tribe for guides. Launching their canoes at the head of Georgian Bay, the party skirted the eastern and northern shores of Lake Huron, and found at last their progres' checked at Sault Ste. Marie. Nicolet was the first European who had reached this point, and, encamping on the southern bank of the passage and in the present State of Michi- gan, he opened the first communication which white men had with the ancestors of the modern Ojibways. There is no clear evidence that he pushed by land beyond the rapids, so as to got a satisfactory view of the great lake beyond. Its existence, con- jectured by Champlain, was yet to be proved by others. From the Sault, Nicolet and his companions retraced their way, and, following the shore of what is now called the northern peninsula of Michigan, they came to tho Straits of Mackinaw, — that dominant position in the geography of North America, reached in just a century from the time when Cartier tried the great northern portal of the interior at the Straits of Belle Isle. Nieolet could hardly have suspected the commanding stand at which he had at last arrived. With all his surmises, he even did not know tho gre.at channel which led to it from the landfall of Cartier, for tho existence of Lake Sault Ste. Murie. Straits of Mackiiuiw ! • SriiAITS OF MACKINAW. 151 Erie wjiH but faintly conooivetl ; aiul tho route by the Ottawa, with all its obntiiuition, was tho only pusHago which ho know. To tho south of him lay tho )j;i'cat lako whoso position Clmmpluiu hail so recently mi sconce i veil in placing it to tho north ; and at tho heail of Lake Michigan and tho oxtromity of (ircen Bay — shortly to bo tested by Nicolot himself — lay tho inviting por- tages which were in due time to conduct tho French into that great valley which tho English had not daivd to enter over the Appalachians, nor the Spaniaitls to invade from the Gulf of Mexico. There was no dream yot of tho great ai)luents of tho Mississippi, which by tho Missouri were to conduct tho explorer to the Columbia and tho Paeitie, and by tho Arkansas were to open a way along tho Colorado to tho (iulf of California. AU this was shadowy in men's minds, and tho speculative geographer of the time had not yet made it clear whether the canoe which was carried over the southern portages would float to the Atlan- tic, the Mexican Gulf, or tho South Sea. Nor could our adventurous explorer have divined what lay in the farther west, — that channel of tho Sault, where the rapids had baulked him, leading to the long stretch of Lako Superior, which the Jesuits, who were now at Three Kivors, were yet to unfold ; the devious passage to tho Lako of the Woods and Lake Winnipeg, and the Indian trail which would have led him equally to Hudson's Bay or along the Alackenzie Kiver to the Arctic Ocean ; and tho turn off at Lake Athabasca, which would have conducted him to tho northern tributaries of the Columbia. These were the possibilities to bo made clear in coming years, — the route to China was to dissolve to this. From the Straits of Mackinaw Nicolet passed on to ^rroen Bay, and pi'oceeded to its southern extremity. Here he er* rai- tered the tribe whom wo know as tho Winnebagoes. vvinne- His damask robe and his pistols, belching fire as he ''' '*°"'* stalked to meet the savages, made them look ui>oji him as a strange spirit. The exploi*er soon found that his familiarity with the Algonquin and Huron tongues availed him little, for the Winnebagoes were the first of tho Dacotah stock that the white man had seen. The messages of good-will and peace which Nicolet brought to them wore not rejected ; and mutual professions were enforced by speech and feast. ^ '1 ' ii 1 r ^1 1 t!. ' ' ■ 'i ■|i !'"''■! I I m If- ,, 1 'Ill ii; 152 EXPLORATIONS OF NICOLET. Leaving his new-found friends behind him, Nicolot pushed up the Fox River, threaded its tortuous ways, passed its frequent lakes, and reached the villages of the Mascoutins, — a tribe whose name had been familiar, by report, twenty years before, for they had a fame for daring courage which had extended far to the east. He was now among a folk of the Algonquin stock, and was better able to understand the stories which they told him of other water away towards the south, three days off. It was to be reached by ascending the Fox still higher, and then by crossing a short portage, whence he could " Great dcsccud to the " great water." This designation, in water." ^j^g miscouceptiou of its import, long nurtured a be- lief in some expansive sea. The story which Nicolet heard in reality prefigured the channel of the Wisconsin, flowing into the great central stream of the Mississippi valley, destined to remain a mystery for forty years yet to come. For some reason Nicolet did not attempt to make this mo- mentous passage of the low lands, which here constitute the ridge between the great valleys of North America, and it was left for Joliet and Marquette to establish the truth. We follow Nicolet in these wanderings mainly from his story, as repeated by Viniont in the Jesuit It elation, published six years later. That we find no published record till 1640 has led writers on the subject to assume that this exploit of Nicolet Date of must liavc taken place in 1639 instead of 1634. It fxpedkiou, was Suite who made the earlier date a certainty. 1034. jjg published his conclusions in 1876 in a volume of miscellanies, and reinforced his argument in the Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society in 1879. Later students have hardly questioned his conclusions, but some popular writers have been ignorant of them. We have not represented that Nicolet passed into the Wis- consin River. It is fair to say that the langur.ge as given by Vimont has sometimes been interpreted to mean that Nicolet actually did float his canoe on that tributary of the IVIississippi. Instead of this, however, it seems far more certain that Nicolet Illinois and P"shed dircctly south and reached the tribe of the Sioux. IHinois, whcrc he saw something of the Sioux, who were in that neighborhood on an expeilition from the country farther west. 3: DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. 153 mo- On his return clown Green Bay, Nicolet is known to have exchanged friendly courtesies with the Pottawattamies, pottawatta- scattered along the western shores of Lake Michigan. ""**• It was probably in the early summer of 1635 that, having parted >vith lus faithful Hurons in their villages, Nicolet joined the customary flotilla descending the Ottawa for the summer trade, and reached Three Rivers some time in July. Unfortunately, we are without any knowledge of the effect which Nicolet's story may have had on Champlain, and we are left without any conception of the reason why such portentous events should have failed of any recognition which has come down to us, till Vimont recounted the story. It was left for Sagard to condense the narrative in his subsequent history. It may have been in recognition of his services that Nicolet received one of Champlain's last appointments, in being made commis- sary and interpreter at Three Rivers. We soon find in the con- temporary records evidence of Nicolet's unmistakable activity in that region. The last letter preserved to us which Champlain wrote makes no mention of the great exploit which we have just been recordmg. This missive is dated August 15, plain's last .... T • . letter. 1G35, and in it he still tries to impress upon Richelieu the necessity of further succoring the colony. He speaks of the English as haunting the lower St. Lawrence, and professing to do so with their king's permission. The Dutch and the Iroquois to the south still troubled him ; but thoughts of them did not harass him long. About the middle of October, Champlain fell under a stroke of paralysis. For two months and a half he suffered, and at last on Christmas Day, 1635, the end came. The intrepid governor lay dead in his own Quebec, the incipient city of blasted hopes. Trade had supported it, and had stunted it. A summer of activity and a winter of inaction was its story, year in and year out. In the long and hot July days the people had found enough to do, and there was enough for their amusement in the varying procession of Huron canoes which came down the St. Lawrence and emptied the living and furry burdens on the strand beneath the cliffs for the annual traffic. The merchants sold implements and trinkets to the sav- 1035, Dec. 25. Chain- plain dies. ■ ■ -i .•j ,1 ■ ■ '■ ii '1^ '■ I ■ 1 : .'1 - ; i f . ■■it i .. Ir 1 /• Hi ril:. ■ !; j ■ ■ ' ti infill' - J it'!"' W'l 1 i! ■ m n % h ml I* IP 'J :j -J si ; m! 'Bill i if- I,' 154 DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. ages, loaded their barks with peltry, and sailed away, to leave those who remained, despondent, listless, nursing their misfor- tunes, and too few for generous enterprises. The merchants' ships took their factors back to France, to a constituency which counted gains, and cared nothing for those who rendered profits possible. The dream of empire which Ghamplain had cherished had come to this. There was a fortress with a few small guns on the cliffs of Cape Diamond. Along the foot of the precipice was a row of unsightly and unsubstantial buildings, where the scant population lived, carried on their few handicrafts, and stored their winter's provisions. It was a motley crowd which in the drear days sheltered itself here from the cold blasts that blew along the river channel. There was the militaiy officer, who sought to give some color to the scene in showing as much of his brilliant garb as the cloak which shielded him from the wind would permit. The priest went from house to house with his looped hat. The lounging hunter preferred for the most part to tell his story within doors. Occasionally you could mark a stray savage, who had come to the settlement for food. Such characters as these, and the lazy laborers taking a season of rest after the summer's traffic, would be grouped in the narrow street beneath the precipice whenever the wintry sun gave more than its usual warmth at midday. It was hardly a scene to inspire confidence in the future. It was not the beginning of empire. If one climbed the path leading to the top of the rugged slope, he could see a single cottage, that looked as if a settler had come to stay. There were cattle-sheds, and signs of thrift in its garden plot. If Champlain had had other colonists like the man who built this house and marked out this farmstead, he might have died with the hope that New France had been planted in this great valley on thu basis of domestic life. The widow of this genuine settler, Ilebert, still occui)ied the house at the time when Champlain died, and they point out to you now, in the upper town, the spot where this one early house- holder of Quebec made his little struggle to instill a proper spirit of colonization into a crowd of barterers and adventurers. From this upper level the visitor at this time might have glanced across the valley of the St. Charles to but a single other sign of CHAMPLAIN'S BURIAL. 155 permanency in the stone manor house of Robert Gifart, which had the previous year been built r.i T*3auport. We know that the Jesuit Laleii:ti':« did the last service, and Le Jeune spoke a eulogy when they laid the dead hero away. As time rolled on, the place of his burial was forgotten, and it is not many years since the growing fame of one who has not been inaptly called the Father of Canada prompted the antiquary to search for the sacred resting-place of the dead. Theories as regards the identity of its site have been more than once advanced and abandoned within the last thirty years. It seems, after all has been said and done, that the present better judgment allows that every trace of the mortuary chapel where he was laid to rest has been swept away. It was in what is now an open square in the upper town. If Champlain's remains were taken to another place when the chapel was de- stroyed, the act was done without any record which has been preserved. i'iilil CHAPTER VIII. u : .Mi Moutmagny. Arrives, 1C36. FROM THE DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN TO THE REORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT. 1635-1663. With the death of Chanii)lain, Canada was left without a ruler, except for the supervision exercised by the governor of Three Rivers. Charles Huault de Montniagny had been appointed in Champlain's place as early as IVIarch, 1636. It does not seem probable that the death of Champlain, at a season when the St. Lawrence was ice-bound, could have been known in Paris so eai'ly in the year. If it was not known, the superseding of Champlain must already have been determined upon, and very likely at the instigation of the Jesuits. It was June when the new governor reached Quebec. Almost immediately Le Jeune and his brotherhooJ" felt that they had gained a sympathizing friend. Montmaguy had scarcely set foot to ground before he fell prostrate at the sight of a cross. He lost no time in stand- ing godfather to a converted heathen. A neophyte had but just died, and Montmaguy conspicuously walked in the funeral procession. When his piety was thus manifested, the governor turned to more worldly affairs. Quebec had become a rather pitiable home for some two huntlred souls, but such as it was, it made the centre of the interest which France had in the new world. The ruler who had arrived was a far less enterprising man than the one whom these two hundred Frenchmen, barring the Jes- uits, were mourning. If Champlain had lived and continued in office, there would jirobably have been early occasion to chroni- cle some expedition to the west to follow out the hopes which the story of Nicolet had raised. As it was, that adventurer's story seems hardly to have met any inmiediate response, and J'! J ' : ■.' I I MONTMAGNY AND THE JESUITS. 157 it was not till several years had passed that it found, as we have seen, a record in the chronicles of the priests. A triumph of the church might have been sooner recognized. Montmagny's purpose was rather to consolidate the colony and render it more defensible with the scant force at his com- mand. So he strengthened the fort, and marked out an upper town on the adjacent plateau. This project was quite beyond what seemed to be necessary ; for there was very little of per- manent interest in the town among the scant population which Le jeune. [From an old Print.] filled the tenements along the lower strand. This population was largely made up of the fur traders, who only came and went. The priest was a steadier denizen, but he was likely to wander back and forth through the wilderness. It was his career to keep the missions in fitful, if not constant, communication with the town. The gliding nuns were barely more tlian birds of passage alighted on the way to heaven, and fiitted from cabin to hospital. The black-robed Jesuits exercise,, an influence that will be viewed differently according to the measure of sympathy which .4 a ! II i; r! ( ■;■ I 'I; I ■ ; ' ', ! : '.1 , i ■ !.i ■ I I 158 CANADA, 1635-1003. II : ! 1^ ! >•-; attaches to their devotion and dominance. These qualities in Jesuits and ^^^^^ bodj' havB been held to be conconntants of havdi- FranciscauB. jjood and hcroism, but an ago less addicted to seuti- mentalism, and a faith more imbued with spiritualism, ai*e apt to diminish reputations onco exalted. The exclusion of the Franciscans accounts for much that is lacking which might have made life more endurable under their balmier and strengtli* giving influences. It was only those that shunned the settle- ments and lost themselves in the woodb, and became in some respects more skilled in woodcraft than their Indian compan- ions, who breathed the fresh air that supjmrts reliant men, — or at least the enemies of the Jesuits thouglit so, when they con- templated those who fled from their priestly influence. The missions which Brebeuf and his companions had insti- tuted among the Hurons in 1634 were still the outposts of the church, and for some years we have the reports respecting them annually sent to Quebec by Lemercier. It has been roi-k- oned that these adventurous missionaries had gathered into what they called the fold of Christ perhaps a hundred out of the sixteen thousand souls making up the Huron communities. It was not theirs to reckon the cost against so paltry a gain. The happiness of a single soul was enough. Every attempt to preserve communications between these remote stations and the main settlement was a haxardous one. The Iroquois weie a danger both seen and unseen, and their fierce ubiquity stood appallingly in the way of exploration out- side of the Huron country. In 1637, the authorities at Quebec began to gather a few fam- 1G37. St. ^liss of the Montagnais in a little settlement at St. josepL'B. Joseph's (Sillevy), the better to protect them from the savage Iroquois. The trembling creatures were not safe even there, and by 1640 some nuns who had been aduiui- istering to the sick among them were withdrawn to Quebec for safety. The confederates were everywhere on the war-path. Letters from tlie remoter missions Wi're not infre- quently intercepted by them. The bluck-robos in (Quebec, anx- ious for the safety of their brothers afar, had frequent intervals of suspense that only good luck relieved. A report from the Huron country at this time makes men- tion of a map which the Pere Raguenoau had drawn of this 1610. H 'IB MISSIONS. 159 western country, but it has unfortunately not corae down to us. It might have shown in truer position than Champlain Ragueneau'a had given it, the great cataract, which Vimont was """P' now calling Onguiaahra. T .is director of the Canadian mis- sions also forwarded to Paris a letter of Le Jeune, written in September, 1640, in which it is said that an Englishman, com- ing by the Kennebec route, accompanied by a single servant and some Abenaki Indians, had reached Quebec, in the pre- vious June, on the way to find a western sea; but that the French governor had turned him back. In the same lielation it is reported that a prisoner to the Fire or Tobacco . - , 11 Tales of the nation, commg from the southwest, had represented "est and that a region beyond his home was so mild that corn could be planted twice a year, the last crop being gathered in Decemb er. It was such stories as these that both created and answered the yearning of the geographical sense in its uneasy moods. Every hint of a salubrious climate and a possible western way was comforting and reassuring. While the Jesuit Relations were making such stories cur- rent, they offered something much less vague in the reports, which showed that Nicolet had already reached regions which were unknown before, and that a new mission had ganitste. been established at the Sault Ste. Marie. Communi- "*"*• cation with this distant station wms evidently to be maintained by chance and at long intervals, if maintained at all. The priests who had accomplished this exploration in 1641 were the Fathers Raymbault and Jogues. They had started for the mission of Ste. Marie at the foot of Georgian Bay, near the Huron villages. Leaving in June, they were in September at the rapids between Huron and Superior, where only Nicolet had preceded them. They found two thousand savages encamped there, or about ten times the number usually abiding at the Sault. Among them were the Pottawattamies, who had fled north before wandering bands of the Iroquois, and were now fraternizing with the Pottawatta- Ojibways. The priests heard from them of the great '^'^ys *^^'**" river and of a valorous people along its banks. This (^'°"'')- unknown tribe, by a clipping of their full name, we know to-day under the designation of Sioux. It was while here at Raym- bault and Jogues. ' I 'I5?i : 1 mI^ i;^»i ;'^*i 160 I j I ■"sj n :'i CANADA, 16S5-1663. 1C42. Jogues taken. the rapids that one of the Jesuits — Father Raymbault — passed Raymbauit ^way, and Vimont, in reporting the occurrence to his '*'**' superior in Paris, said that Raymbaidt hoped to reach China across the wihlerness, but God diverted his path to heaven I By this time the French were beginning to perceive that the possession of the shores of Lake Erie would render the passage from Ontario to Huron safer and easier, and without the loss of time required for the route by the Ottawa. But an impend- ing Iroquois war put oit the fortunate day. With the firearms which the confederates had obtained of the Dutch at Albany, — the main station of that people, for New Amsterdam had at this time little more than a score of dwellers, — they had increased both their daring and their power of offense. An appalling stroke soon came. In August (1642), twelve Huron canoes, returning from their summer traffic with the French, were waylaid by a band of Iroquois in ambush, and Father Jogues and some adherents, again on their way to the missions, fell« into the hands of those savages. The victors with their prisoners made a circuit through the woods near the mouth of the Richelieu, to avoid the fort which the French had constructed on its banks. Their canoes were soon dashing against the stream on the way to Lake Cham- plain. South they passed, and entering ♦^he passage near where Champlain had taught the Iroquois the value of firearms thirty- three years before, the victorious party pushed out into the upper tributary lake. Father Jogues was perhaps the first of Europeans to see the untamed glories of Lake George. Blaeu's Atlas of 1635 shows how much at fault the Dutch were at this time as to the position of Lake Cham- plain ; indeed, taking the English notion as expressed in the Laoonia patent, it seems almost as if before this experience of Jogues, and even afterwards, both the Dutch and the English were inclined to confound the waters on the west of Vermont with Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. At the same time they brought in their maps the Lacus Irocociensis too far south. This notion long pre- vailed in the Dutch maps, taking the hint doubtless from that of Champlain in 1613, and was accepted by Ogilby and other English cartographers for forty or fifty years after Jogues's lAkea Champlain and Georjfe, Geographi- cal errors. Mi FOUNDING OF MONTREAL. 161 adventures. The map of the Mercator-TIondius Atlas in 1636 seems to indicate that a conception of this water tributary to Lake Champlain, now known as Lake George, had been derived from some source before that date, though the basin of the two lakes is placed after the prevailing misconception. We have no occasion at this point to depict that sort of martyrdom, emulating the stoical endurance of the pagan, which the Jesuit historians delight to honor, in the tortures which these captive priests experienced. The scene of this suffering is of more importance to us now, as that of the first „ • !• •» -n 1 • 1 1 1 Soutliern acquaintance of the r rench with the southern water- water-shed shed of Ontario. We have Jogues's own account of it, both in what he wrote and in the personal testimony which he gave his countrymen, when, the next year (1643), he was rescued by the neighboring Dutch from his savage tormentors. He was sent by them to France, and returned once more, after an absence of two years, to other miseries. It was while at one of the Iroquois villages (June, 1643) that Jogues de- scribed the seven hundred warriors which he found amon(?tiie about him, and sji'd that they had three hundred Dutch arquebuses among them, and that their war parties were departing to the north to make havoc along the St. Lawrence. Before Jogues had returned to Quebec, a brother Jesuit, Bressani, endeavoring to open communication with the Huroi 'uission, which had been shut off for three years, was likewise captured by one of these marauding bands of the confederates, and went through the same miserable ex- perience of torture, to be rescued in his turn by the Dutch in much the same way. In another year this Italian zealot also was facing once more the perils of a mission life. There is a strange story to tell of the way in which a new and permanent settlement was pushed forward to an island Founding of at the mouth of the Ottawa, gaining another step in mo"''^^''!- the westward occupation. To see the piety of those who were instrumental in the founding of Montreal, one needs to be in the spirit of the movement. Without such sympathy, it is not difficult to perceive its grotesqueness sooner than its religious fervor. Different persons in France, having no knowledge or inter- Bressani. '' f ! ii !!<' 'li ;■ t«^ ■1 ^-^ Til I Wi : >^i 162 CANADA, 1635-W(i.i. CARTE DT: LISLE DEMO?^TREAL ET DE SES EN^^mONS Dresfe'c furies Mamiscrits Ju Dfjio.ti (li>s Cartes FUiot et Joumoux dc l&Atoniic '744' .? MONTUKAL MONTUEAL. 1G3 \l f>V' it ]\ M ? I AND VICINITY. JihMiUand OmUp 164 CANADA, 1035-1663. \ \\ i '-n m m 1. 1 - I I course with each other, behold visions of a spot in the Cana- dian wilds wliere they are separately impelled to found hospi- tals and establish religious orders. The Jesuit Jielatinnn had indeed toid their readers something of what this spot was, where now stands the chief commercial (;ity of Canada ; but MAISONNEUVE. [From Sulte'a Canadiens-Franfaia, vol. iil.] the story loses something of its lesson to the faithful, if each enraptured visionary knew anything of it in so obvious a way. As it happened, two of these ecstatic men met by a miracle, em braced like old friends, and took a walk together to outline their conjoined plans. The Abbe Faillon, who tells us of it, might have walked with them, he knows so much of it all, and in this nineteenth century tells us the whole story in more than one of 1 inh alia the ; 1 1 FOUNDINQ OF MOyTHFAL. 105 I a'l^ hooks, with a pleasing and uiiqupstionin}; faith. We read in hJH pages how Olier and Dauversihre, with others who were allured by the ecstasy, got what money was needed, and secured the island by a grant from the Hundred Associates. These JEANNK MANCK. [From Suite's CaitmUtiiit'Fmin-aiHt vol. 111.] astute fur traders, however, were careful enoug^h in their grant to guard the perpetuity of their own rights of trade from the infringements of priest, nun, and invalid. At this juncture, Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, stepped 8i«wrde forward, sword in one hand and psalter in the other, Mawonneuve. • 5 ! \l 166 CANADA, 1GS5-1663. Jeanne Manre. i as the commanding spirit who was to govern this little colony. With equal opportuneness Mademoiselle Jeanne Manee, fit governess for those of her sex, appeared at Rochelle, ready to embark with this strange embryo colony. Where she was going she neither knew nor cared ; she was im- pelled to do the work of the Lord, and would fain attempt it. So with this miraculously compounded company, Maisson- neuve and the lady were wafted to sea in one of the ships, while Olier and the other leaders stayed behind to make other worldly preparations. When the pioneer ship arrived at Que- be^j, it was too late to ascend the river beyond, and, obliged to delay, the eager colonists did not find a ready welcome at the hands of the constituted author- ities. The soli- citude which was expressed at the dangers pictured for them in so ex- posed a situation as Montreal was evi- dently not so much the result of anxi- ety for their wel- fare, as jealousy of their movement. This ungracious- ness did not w<>ar off during the win- ter, and Maison- neuve's company, quartered at Sil- lery, were quite ready, when the spring opened, to move up to their destined plantation. In the mean while their supreme faith had attracted the attention of Madame de la Peltrie, and she was ready to leave the Uisu- lines at Quebec and join the new-comers. In May, 1642, the flotilla of the enthiusiasts reached the site MADAME DE LA PELTRIE. Mailame de la I'eltrie. THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. 167 of Montreal. Father Viinont welcomed them to the spot with a holy ceremonial, accepting them as a charge of the order of Jesus. So Montreal was begun on the green grass of the river-side, skirted about with a screen of the forest, just as the buds were swelling. The experiment curiously reversed ordinary ways of settle- ment The town was not founded to invite the erection of a hospital as the ills of life demanded it, but a hospital was to be put up to invite settlers to put a town about it. It was a piece of good luck that the Iroquois let them alone for tlie interval while they were constructing their buildings and pali- sading their ground. The river itself proved a bitterer foe than the savage, and at one time nearly drowned them out. It was to celebrate their deliverance from this disaster that they marched out to the mountain w] Ich had attracted Cartier, and set up a cross on its summit. Montreal, thus placed and fortified, under the zealous cap- taincy of a/tnan like Maisonneuve, proved an important post for the western progress of civilization. It was suitably situ- ated to fornna base for the protection of the Ottawa route on the one hand, and on the other hand it was well planned for an advance of population by the main stream of the St. Law- rence. There was little hope for the future, however, with the Hun- dred Associates still farming out the resources of the -r,,e Hunared country. The piety of the religious orders was a«so'^'»'''s- shocked at the comi)any's inertness in all that might conduce to the conversion of the heathen. Those who had the good of the colony most at heart failed to see any pur})ose in the Associates to increase the colony or improve its condition. Its spirit had manifested no purpose 1)ut to fill its coffers. The charter of the comi)any had given power to establish fiefs or seigneuries, with the obligation iqjon those who received them to settle innnigrants upon the soil. It was a gift which compelled the possessors of the grants to incur outlays and ])er- forni duties which were variously fulfilled. Up to 1041, there had been eight seigneuries established, and we have seen how at Champlaiu's death the erection of a stone manor I l^ 1111 !• 1 -\\-'^ Xi'w Fri\iico house at lieau])ort had marked one or them. When and New the abolition of vhe company took place in Febru- ! ! {-1 w i .; If }» hi 168 CANADA, 1635-1663. ary, 1663, there had been sixty-five such manorial grants of im- portance, beside some of little account. This all signified an CdllT£, M0NTK1;AL AM) VlflXUV. old-world and disjointed way of settling the country, subversive of homogeneous activity. The result was what might have been :i.L.^^ of im- ied an PEACE AND WAR. 109 expected, and in striking- contrast to that union of sentiment among the English colonists which, at this time (1G43), brouglit about the New England confederacy, rei)resenting in Massa- chusetts Bay alone something like twenty thousand souls, throw- ing off their bondage to the traditions of the mother land, and enacting of themselves their code of laws in a '" Body of Liberties." Canada had scant hope in the peace with the Iroquois, which was close at hand. Couture, who had been captured with Jogues, had been adopted by the Mohawks, and had used his exertions to foster among them a spirit of amity towards the French. It so happened that a number of the Iroquois had been taken by the Algonquins, and clemency had been shown to them at the instigation of the French. This incident gave persuasiveness to Couture's appeals, and the ^^lohawks Mohawks were induced to send an embassy to Three Kivers to I'lopose a propose a peace. With much parade the emblematic belts were hung up and counted, and the hatchet was thrown away. But the peace proved delusive. Unfortunately, the Mohawks only had projjosed and conchided it. If the Senccas and the other confederates refused to abide by it, there was some gain in holding the Mohawks alone to their agreement. ,,,, , *^ * IWC. Joguea flooues, who had now come back from France, was «p'it to sent, in May, 104G, to try to hold that tribe to their ])ledge. In a month he was back in Quebec, bnt no great - •' n- fidence resulted. In August, he was sent again, ^ ir he '>vai waylaid in his path by a wandering band of Mohawks and kvi ;u; a prisoner to their town, only to be struck down as he T(,g,_,., entered a lodge, whither he had been invited to a fetist '^'"'^''' ^'■''*'' Brained by a hatchet which had not been thrown very far In token of amity, a soul singularly dear to Catholic hearts passes from history. There was no longer any doubt that the jVIohawks were deter- mined for war in alliance with their brothers. The confederates at this time numbered ])erhaps three thousand warriors, — such is ]\avkmar's estimate, — aad this horde must have been much less in extent than the Huron and Algonquin could oppose to them in combination, to say no- War opens. ill ■jii y I '> 170 CJiV/lD^l, 1635-1663. thing of what the French might add. The Iroquois superiority consisted rather in an iudouiitable fierceness concentrated by a union of energies. ■La.Canidai ^r-u ^' '" ^ ^' ■■:%■" ocijo ";\jc^^- aJ r^ fi A^ .O^ DUDLKVS MAP, With allies so ineffectual as the northern tribes were, the French could hardly hoj)e for a successful issue of the war. They certainly had no force of their own to protect the country CANADA EXPOSED. 171 "'C Za Oran Maid ) which they claimed to possess. Their whole line, from the St. Lawrence Gulf to Lake Huron, was particularly vul- nerable. The church had pushed her missionaries exposed to in I • i» •nroads. up the Sagnenay to the nations of .S3..n§uem.i the Porcupine and the White Fish, and if the traders of these distant tribes carried back from Tadoussac, season after season, some remnant of the priests' instructions, the new faith was far less abiding than the fear of the Iroquois, from which they did not escape even in their northernmost limits. The passing of these marauding bands was constantly break- ing the peace along the Frenchmen's northern bounds. Canada was scarcely less endangered along its southern flank. The English were seated along the coast of Maine, and no one yet was cpxite certain that, among the valleys stretching from the sea towards the St. Law- rence, there might not be a feasible approach for an enemy. Robert . dley, indeed, was showing at this time, in hu maps, that there was a waterway to connect the Bay of Fundy with the St. Lawrence. Farther west, the ap- proach to Canada by Lake Champiain was a deadly opportunity for her inveterate enemies. The French h.ad not yet dared to confront these foes along the shores of Ontario and Erie, and the Canadian bushian";er knew as J^^ccj.nccaa litt'. of these shores as Champiain had known fifteen years before. Lalcmant liad described the Niagara River in 1G41 without even refer- ring to the great cataract : but Ragueneau in his Uelation of 1648 first juentionod it as of ^>^ " frightfid height." The; French knew much more of Winnebago Lake, far more distant as 1^7 it was, and their pioneers had possibly walked from the Fox to the Wisconsin, to mingle the water of the St. Lawrence valley, drip])ing from their leggings, with the current that reached in its flow the tr()})ieal south. The great western track still lay alo)ig the Ottawa, and among Qj C ^r,ctf IS:; iiili >l i : ; i- ■'i; ' I I t ih 172 CANADA, 1G35-10GS, w the friendly Hurons. While this tribe protected tlie route, its villages at the same time invited the Iroquois attack. It was soon to come. In 1648, a band of the confederates, chiefly Mohawks and Senecas, invaded the Huron country in the absence of The Hurons . . . . i i. i •' i . « attacked, its wamors. ihcy devastated one ot their chief towns and scattered its inhabitants. This wr.s in midsum- mer. Winter came on and gave a false security, and before it was over the enemy fell upon St. Iguace (164i;^ and made a more dreadful havoc. Two of the most conspicuous of the black-robes were here among their neophytes. Gabriel Lalenmnt, Paris- ian by birth, a professor by training, had carried into the wilderness the delicacy and air of a stu- dent. Fnther Brobouf, quite the reverse in aj)- pearanci\ a giant in frame, brawny and active, was tit to measure strength with the hardiest savage whom he taught. Both mission- aries suunuonod an almost immeasurable courage to bear the tortures which they suffered amid the burning town. The blow could not bo parried, and one after one DiroiiRh the oval iu front.] . i <« r, 1 1 , ^ ^ is'o hi! t'en Huron towns succumbed or were ubandoned. The .i;.s])ersjil of the sufferers nndde- ^^'^^ Complete. The Hurons ivcro destroyed as a peo- Btroyed. ^jg Sucli as survivcd Hed east and wt!st, — some will yet be encountered as we follow future exploi'crs towards the distant west : some gathered under the prcteetion of the French in the neighborhood of Quebec ; while others purchased innnu- nity from further spoliation by migrating to the Seneca country and merging themselves in tlie Iroquoian confederacy. IJKfilSEUF. [His bust iu silver at Quebec. His skull can be seen DRUILLETTES AND ELIOT. 173 The Huron country never again knew the traces of this peo- ple, and only the modern archaeologist, wandering between the latter-day villages of an alien race, finds in the forests the evi- dences of the former occupants. No event in Canadian history had heretofore attracted so much attention in Europe as this foreboding dispersal of the Hurons. The Relations of Kagueneau, which gave the details of this disaster, were eagerly enough sought to warrant editions in French at Lille as well as at Paris, and for European schol- ars in general there was demand for a third edition in Latin. The Canadians themselves had never before felt so distress- ingly the results which followed in the train of Champlain's infelicitous onset at Ticonderoga half a century before. Their rulers were even ready to turn to the English for help. Four years before (1647), Winthrop of Massachusetts had made advances looking to a treaty of commerce with the powers at Quebec, prompted perhaps by the presence there of La Tour of Acadia, who had had, a few j^ears before, some pleasant rela- tions with Boston. The English governor's death, however, had intervened to prevent any such consummation. There was now an opportunity for even a closer alliance than trade coidd sug- gest, and Father Druillettes, who was serving: at a mission near the sources ot the rivers in Maine, was iiiettessent sent (1G51) down their courses to the sea, with in- struction to make his way to Boston for a conference. He was well received at the Puiitau capital. His ambassado- rial office prote(;ted him from laws which that community had sought to level against Romanists. A Boston merchant even provided a locked chamber for Druillettes's devotions, where he could set up his altar unobserved. Eliot, the New England apostle to the Indians, quite opened his heart the Apostie to the priest, and the two mutually and with apparent intc rchange of sympathy rehearsed their experiences in a com- lou vocation, for Eliot had been five years preaching to the Natioks, and h.« lad now four hundred neophytes in his fold. The contrasts of this meeting of the Jesuit and the Puritan a,re some of the most striking in our colonial liistory. With kindred aims, they leaned far from each other in their re})re- sentative methods. It was the kind of opposition which Doyle describes in his Puritan Colonies. " The French missionary , 1 ' )\ i t' ' 174 CANADA, 16,15-1063. E M ~i\ U: well-nigh broke with civilization ; he toned down all that was spiritual in his religion and emphasized all that was sensual, till he had assimilated it to the wants of the savage. The better and worse features of Puritanism forbade a triumph won on such terms." When, just before this (1649), Parliament had established the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England," the new organization expected to act largely through the federal conmiissioners of the colonics, for the min- isters and magistrates were one in their life. The story of civil and religious exertion in New France is largely one of variance. Druillettes on his part was struck both in his intercourse at His obser- Bostou and Plyuioutli — where Governor Bradford on vatioug. jj^ Friday gave him a dinner of fish — with the thrift of the New England character. He marked their numbers, which in contrast with Canada seemed prodigious to him, and saw how their population was now increasing by nature and not by immigration, lie found such a people an instructive contrast to the thin settlements at a few points along the St. Lawrence. " The zeal of pi'opagandism," says Parkman, in commenting upon this observation of the Jesuit, " and the fur trade were the vital forces of New France. Of her feeble pop- ulation, the best j)art was bound to perpetual chastity, while tlie fur traders and those in th«ir service rarely brought their wives to the wilderness. The fni' trader, moreover, is always the worst of colonists, since the increase of population, by dimin- ishing the number of the fur-bearing animals, is adverse to his His mission iutt'rests." Druillettcs's missiou, howcvcr, failed. The fails. coniniissioners of the united New England colonies, to whom the appeal ultimately went, considered it bad policy to divert the Mohawk from his northern jjath, and to expose their own frontiers to his ferocity. Not only had the Huron villages been destroyed, but the Iro- quois had depopulated the Ins the fact that the Jesuit had at this date passed the divide, and had reached a part of the great valley of the Mississippi. This brief occupancy of the Iroquois field by the Jesuits Oil springs. C PRIEST AND TRADER. 177 served to niike it apparent that these confederates held in their country one of the most striking geographical vantage-grounds on the continent. The northern incline of their tei- ,1 II* <• 1 o Geogrnplilcal ritory swept its waters into the broad basin of the bt. vantnRe of Lawrence and the lakes. Eastward, the Mohawk could bear their canoes to the Hudson and the Atlantic. Southward, the sources of the Delaware and Susquehanna rippled onward to the great bayn that indented the coast at Pennsylvania and Virginia. To the southwest lay the channels that fed the Ohio and the vaster stream which gathered its waters from the Rocky Mountains and beyond Lake Superior, and glided on to the Mexican Gulf. i 1 This enormous reach of diverging waterways di aieh to give the Iroquois their dominance as a confederation ; and it was thus perceived by the French. When later the 1 . f ^ 1 • 1 • TJiiJergtood Jesuits were driven out of the country, this geographic by the conception was well understood by Talon, the most enterprising and ambitious leader which the French in America ever knew. But the time was not come for the exploration westward along these tributaries of the Ohio. It was mainly the priest who had thus far watched the west- ering paths from the Iroquois haunts. It was the trader who was to lead by the more northern routes. " Not a cape wavS turned," says Bancroft, in speaking of these western adventures, " nor a river entered, but a Jesuit led the way." The rhetoric is too sweeping. It was not always the Jesuit when a priest, and oftener than not, the trader rather than the priest. AYhat gold was at the south among the Spaniards, beaver-skins were at the north among the French. The Canadian (jcntUhoimne devoted himself to the venturesome pursuit for furs, and became a roving bushranger, followed by men with packs. The priest sought the trader's escort, and fol- lowed as occasion provided him a seat in the canoe. Sometimes, indeed, the man with a ])ack and the man in a cassock were rivals in the advance, and followed the same trail ; but oftener the trader was ahead. Most of the Catholic writers are fond of claiming this pioneer work for the missionaries ; but the Abbe Ferland is better informed when he allows that it was oftenest the wood-ranger who opened the track for the priest. Priest and trader as pioneers. f '• I i; I'll I r H •■ ■ >! (•.:i I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y ^/ z ,*^ .V o w ^'j^ ■^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MSM (716) 873-4503 ^'^"1?^ V 178 CANADA, 1635-166S. t! '. '■ The dispersion of the Hurons aff ecteU both the priest and the trader. That portion of this afflicted people which had gone west sought the islands of Green Bay, but only to be The Hurons pushed farther by their pursuers. They went on till "'»"'^«''- they reached the lowas of the plains. Here, in the open coun- try, they longed for the forest, and turned north to the region of the Sioux. Provoking the enmity of that tribe, they turned again south, and found temporary respite on an island in the Mississippi, below Lake Pepin. Passed by their dispersion beyond the reach of the priest, the missionaries sought the VISSCHER, 1C52. distant west to find others to convert. The old country of the Hurons stripped of its population, the trader also sought the more distant west, to open his trade with other peoples. 9 ' ' ! But before following new adventurers to the west, let us look at affairs as they were going on in the settlements, genson, gov- A ucw govcmor, the Vicomte d'Argenson, had arrived in 1658 to enter upon a difficult task. He found the Iroquois again on the alert, and he had scarce a hundred men to bear arms against them. He found the priestly orders which ruled at Montreal and Quebec by no means at peace with each M ■> 1 LAVAL. 179 other. There had been a struggle between the Sulpitians and Jesuits to secure a partisan bishop, and the Jesuits had been the most influential with the Pope. Laval, the titular bishop of Petraea, arrived in June, 1659, to assume the chief i^^^, „. ecclesiastical power in Canada. He entered upon his '''*•• ^*^" duties in a militant spirit, and the civil rule did not wait long to feel the severity of his power. The country which Laval would lay at his feet if he could was hardly comprehended by Eui'ope, except in France, and not everywhere there. Under the influence of tlie lielations which I '3i i I. l:V i ..■' 180 CANADA, 1635-1663. U I ■' !i ^'S il the Jesuits had annually printed in Paris, the royal cartographer had improved upon the geography as Champlain had France, left it. Sausou, who had been for nearly ten years the official geographer of France, embodied in his American map of 1656 all the material which he could com- mand. His configuration of the lower lakes had entirely su- persc'.dd the drafts of Champlain ; but he had not ventured HEYLYN'S COSMOGRAPHIE, 1C5G-C2. upon more than a vague extension of those waters farther to the west, leaving these parts to be improved in his later i*evi- Banson, sious, ten ycars afterwards. The Gottfried map of Kaeuf*^^' 1655 showed how great an advance Sanson's better creuxius. knowledge could accomplish in 1656 ; but such promi- CARTOGRAPHY. 181 nent cartographers among Sanson's contemporaries as the Englishman, Heylyn, and Blaeu and Yisscher of the Low Coun- tries and Germany, were apparently ignorant of what even Champlain had done. Blaeu for some years continued to make a mere lace-work of rivers stand for the great basin of the St. Lawrence. When Creuxius summarized the narratives of the Jesuits and made a map to accompany his Histoire du Ca- nada^ he found that Sanson had in the main done the work for him. He still left Michigan and Superior incomplete. He was late enough (1660-1664) to have made something out of the stories of the Ohio, which Le Moyne had brought from the VISSCHER, 1C60(?). Iroquois country, but he passed them all by. He eveii failed to recognize the divide which those who passed to Huron by the Ottawa route had made so well known. These were small faults compared with the entire absence of every development since Champlain, which Du Val in the same year rep- resented in his map. This contemporary cartographer shows how slowly the map-makers of Europe moved forward to a conception of this great northern valley. The time had come to carry still farther the western verge of the map, as Sanson and Creuxius had left it. !i •■l\l ,' 4 'A m ■ i ■: ^ : ■ I i M ' ;■ 182 CANADA, 1635-1663. Medard Chouart, Sieur des Grosseilliers, had come as a lad to Canada, and his youni? manhood was passed iu OroaaeiUiers. . ^ e ■, xi tt learnmg woodcraft as a trader at ijake Huron. As early as 1645, he seems to have dreamed that a route from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay could be found. By 1653, he had married and settled down among the voyageurs who congre- RadiMon S^^^^ ^^ Three Rivers. Here, two years earlier, Pierre d' Esprit, the Sieur Radisson, had arrived, a lad when Grosseilliers had reached man's estate. In one of Ra- disson's expeditions the Iroquois had captured him, and had lad LAKE SUPERIOR. 183 1654. Stories of a weatem river. 1C6C. tried to hold hitn by adoption ; but he eluded their watch, and escaped to the Dutch at Albany. Here he was sent down to Manhattan, and, going to Europe, he had returned to Three Rivers in 1654, to find that his sister had become the wife of Grosseilliers. This brought the two men into close relations. At this juncture, there were fresh stories of a great river at the west flowing to the China Sea. The Mere de I'ln- carnation says that the reports had come from distant tribes. This was, perhaps, the earliest mention of such a river obtained from the western tribes, since Nicolet had reported it, twenty years before. We read in the Relation of 1654 that it was only nine days from the country about Green Bay to the sea which separates America from China. We know that in August, 1654, two French traders went west and penetrated the country beyond Lake Mich- igan, and in August, 1656, they led back an Ojibway flotilla with a burden of furs, and reached Quebec. It has been a question who these daring Frenchmen were. Suite con- jectures they were the two brothers-in-law from Three Rivers. They may have been of the party of thirty Frenchmen who started for Lake Superior in 1656, accompanied by the priests Garreau and Druillettes. These last were attacked on the way by Iroquois ; Garreau was killed, and the expedition failed. There is much less certainty that at about the same time, as is claimed, some Englishmen piished west from the headwaters of the James River in Virginia, and English passed the mountains. The story is told in Coxe's Caroliina as coming from a memorial presented to the Eng- lish monarch in 1699, and the exploit is ascribed to a Colonel Abraham Wood, who had been ordered to open trade with the western Indians, which he did in several successive journeys. No satisfactory confirmation of the tale has ever been pro- duced. There is no question that Grosseilliers wintered on the shores of Lake Superior in 1658-59, where he had fallen in L^^g gyp^. with some of the Sioux and had heard of the great "*""' ^•^-^^• river. He was again on the St. Lawrence in 1659, and was there joined by Radisson. A new expedition was 1559 ^^^ planned, and the two started once more with an es- «»p«<**"<"»- ■:.■ Ul ■ ;M.i ! i-.-lnii I I:' ■i '<* ! I i|^ I u 184 CANADA, 1635-1663. coi't. They were too conspicuous a band to escape the Iroquois, and it was soon decided that the savages could be better eluded by a smaller following. So with a few Indian guides the two traders pushed on together. The narrative of their journey CREUXIUS, enables us to follow them along the southern shore of Lake Su- perior, where the pictured rocks excited their wonder. Radis- son records that he was the first Christian who had seen them. ti a a i" ! LA POINTE. 185 |is, (1 IVO ■Su- lis- They went on to La Pointe, — the modem Ashland, — and here, tarried awhile for their Huron guides to visit some kinsmen at the south, where we have seen those Indian wanderers had already been gathered. DATED \m\ AVhere the two Frenchmen went after this is in dispute. There are those who have held that they pushed directly south from Superior, and others have contended that they returned by I i 1 'i I ! ,1 ■ !:l: m Hi 1 1 ;i:v li! r i t ''. m -m i V 180 CANADA, 1635-1663. the Sault Ste. Marie, and, passing the Straits of Mackinaw, went up Gi*een Bay and took the route by the Fox and Wisconsin. Radisson himself says : " We went to the great river which divides itself in two, where the Hurons had retired. The river is called the Forked because it has two branches, one towards the west, the other towards the south, which we believe runs towards Mexico." They seem to have encountered a band of these fugitive Hurons, who represented the river which passed AttheMu- ^he island where they lived to be as large as the St. sisaippi. Lawrence. If the two traders reached the true Mis- sissippi, as some have conjectured, they saw it a dozen years before Joliet floated on its waters. They did not push very far in this direction, as it would ap- LakeSupe- pear, but turned north and wandered about the ex- '*"'• trerae western end of Lake Superior, and were thus the earliest to define its western limits. Here they found them- selves among the Sioux, and heard their strange tongue. Charlevoix at a later day intimates that in their first contact with the language of this Dacotah family, the French had fan- cied they perceived a Chinese accent. They thought also that they observed in the customs of the Sioux something like the habits of the Tartars. There was a story circulating at the time, as a part of the argument to prove the close connection of Asia and the Asiatic people with the more distant American tribes, which the French reached. It was to the effect that a Jesuit, Father Grelon, after having served at a mission on Lake Huron, had later been stationed in Chinese Tartary, where he had met a woman who had belonged to his flock in Canada. The theory was that she had been sold from tribe to tribe, and so had passed on to Asia, which could only have happened, as was contended, by the two continents approaching each other nearly, somewhere in the north, or being in fact one. The result of this intercourse of Radisson and Grosseilliers with the Indians of this remote west was that in the iriOO. At Three Riv- summcr of 1660 they led a flotilla of sixty Lake Su- perior canoes back to Three Rivers. The crews of the summer ships awaiting their cargoes were glad of the furs. The voyageurs lingering about the post found much interest in the stories which were told of these remoter tribes, and of their strange tongue. GROSSEILLIEIiS AND RADISSOiV. 187 Grosseilliers, making a new outfit, started west once more in August (1660). He was accompanied bv several l^renchmen, and gave escort to an aged JcHuit mis- ■«iiueri sionary, Rene Menard. The party i)assed the winter witii m^- among some Ottawas on the southern bounds of Lake Superior. These Indians did not prove very tractable converts, and the missionary determined to seek a remnant of the liurons to the south, which he had heard of as living somewhere in what is now the State of Wisconsin. Menard started with a single servant. The route was intricate and laborious, by slug- gish streams, through tangled swamps, and it involved many portages. In crossing one of them, the aged priest lost the trail of his companions, and was never seen again. A camp kettle which he carried with him, together with his breviary and cassock, were later found in different places among the western tribes. It was never known whether he died by exposure or was killed by wandering savages. If Perrot can be correctly interpreted, Menard and his compan- ions had already got a sight of the great river. We learn from Boucher that all of the party who accom- panied Grosseilliers in 1660 to the wilderness, and oroweii- who were still alive, returned in the summer of 1663 re'urnr^^ to the settlements, with new conceptions of the geog- ^'^• raphy of that remote region. It was in 1660 that the earliest census of Canada was made, and this shows a total of 3,418 souls, and an appreciable part of this number had been born on the soil. The inhabitants of New England, at the same time, numbered not far from eighty thousand. The Indian element was not included in either calculation; and in Canada, taking the valley below Lake Huron, the savages had never before borne so small a proportion to those of European origin. The statement may possibly be exaggerated that neither along the Ottawa route, nor on the shores of Lake Huron, was there an Indian to be found ; but it is certain that there could be but few. " To such an extent," says Father Jocker, " the daring and resoluteness of a few thousand savages had prevailed over an iroquois enemy more than ten-fold their own numbers and not p"""****- wanting in warlike qualities, but incapable of combined action 1 ■ 'hf n ■■ 4 m 'n : 7 i ! 188 CANADA, 16J5-W:3. and destitute of able leaders." TIuh had been accomplished by a body of Iroquois, reduced at this time to scarcely more than twelve hundred warriors, with perhaps a thousand savage asso- ciates, made by ado])tion their helpers and dependents. Even such a depletion of their numbers did not prevent their still in- vesting the vicinity of Montreal, and even Quebec, with their prowlers, so that for the denizens of those posts to venture be- yond support was to invite destruction. Fathers Dablon and Druillettes, ascending the Saguenay to its sources in 16G0, found thai beyond the Lake of St. John and along the shores of Mis- tassin, the Montagnais crouched in fear of the Iroquois. r 5; IS': an S((- en in- eir be- nd lul V ,» CHAPTER IX. REOKOANIZED CANADA. 1GG3-1G72. Meanwhile, a political change hail come over Canada. Maz t 1 i'l: •m" i ; III if mit 196 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1663-1672. Bay, and Grosseilliers went (1664-65) with him. They ac- complished little more than to find the way and re- ig&j-c5. turn to Boston. Here they met Colonel Carr, one wa'aBayl"*" HUDSON'S BAY. of the royal commissioners to receive Manhattan from the Dutch, and so impressed him with the chance of a new access HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 197 to the trade for peltries that Carr wrote about it to Lord Arlington. Carr undertook to secure for the two Frenchmen — for Radisson was with Grosseilliers — a passage to England, and in August, 1665, they sailed from Boston. While ^^ ^^ in London, they had the favor of an interview with jees, from "' , , Boston to Prince Rupert, and this conspicuous personage and his England, friends combined to give the adventurers an outfit in ^dson's two ships, one of which was the " Nonsuch," Captain Gillam, with whom they had sailed to the north from Boston two years before. It wa^^ \o the New England capital that the expedition, after a successful venture at the north, re- turned, and we find Wait Winthrop, in December (1671), writing from Boston that Zachary Gillam had come back " from the northwest passage with abundance of beaver." Thence the ships sailed for England, where it be- came known that the explorers had built and equipped a fort on what they called Rupert's River, thus making a lodgment in the country. This was success enough to give form to that great commer- cial enterprise which had a long history as the Hud- Hudson Bay son Bay Company. It was soon chartered by the ^°™P*"y- king, and we find the aristocratic names of Prince Rupert and others among its corporators. The future of this monopoly was hardly then divined. The secretary of the Royal Society, when he heard of a grant of vessels to Grosseilliers, wrote to Boyle just as if a northwest passage had already been discovered. There seems to have been no serious purpose in the conduct of the affairs of the company beyond the fur trade and its profits, and neither dis- covery nor the conversion of the Indians proved to have that share in its interests which was the pretense of its charter. In November, 1670, word had somehow come to Talon in Quebec that two English vessels were in Hudson's Nov., i67o. Bay. The Montagnais at this time had been pressed ofth" E^ngf so hard by the Iroquois that they had abandoned the "*** ^""'p^" lower Saguenay. So it happened that hunters of the Mon- tagnais had probably sought security in the direction of the northern waters. From them, through the missionaries, it is probable that the news had reached Talon. The natives of this bay region had heretofore traded with the French through the -i j m .! 1 ) 11 1 !' 11 ii ( s Vi ! ^mi m .f. ' ' 198 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1663-1672. 1072, June 28. At Hud sou's Bay, intermediate Ottawas, and Talon was anxious to dispense with such middlemen. He was quite sure, moreover, that the present movement of the English to divert that trade was under the instigation of Grosseilliers. The next year (1671), the inteud- 1671. Sends ^^^ s^"* Father Albanel up the Saguenay to open the tiJeSagu^ way for a French occupation by founding a mission "»y- near the bay. In the following June (1672), that priest pushed on from the upper waters of that river, and by the 28th he was on the shores of the bay. The coun- try was now taken possession of for the French king, perhaps within sight of vessels flying the English col- ors, for the Jesuit reported seeing them. We get some account of this undertaking in Father Dablon's lielation of 1671-72. Talon at the same time informed the king that he was considei*- ing a proposition to send a small bark to the bay by water ; but he seems to have been no better prepared for the task then than when Grosseilliers had proposed it. It was not long before the factors of the Hudson Bay Company heard of Albanel's doings, and the officers of the company in England were memorializing the government in the matter of encroachments, and still later La Barre took his turn in complaining to the ministry in Paris of English encroachments. Let us turn now to the explorations towards the west. The summer of 1665 had brought down to the settlements pioratious a flotiUa of canoes from Lake Superior for the annual trade. In August, they were to go back, and under an escort of about four hundred of these savages, a few Frenchmen, including Father Allouez, who was sent to take the place of the luckless Menard, started on the long return journey. On Sep- tember 2, he was at the Sault Ste. Marie, and, passing into the great lake beyond, he bestowed upon it the name of Tracy, " in acknowledgment of the obligations we are under to Allouez on ,, t • i i a h Lake Supe- that man. Later m the same month, Allouez was at the bay where the modern town of Ashland stands, and on the principal island near the inlet, which the French called La Pointe, he founded the mission of the Holy Spirit, with a village of the Chippewas near by, and built a bark chapel for his altar. There were about eight hundred warriors in the neighbor- MARQUE I IE AND DABLON. 199 hood, made up of wandering bands of the Algonquin stock, and the father lost no time in making the savages feel that the new representative of his royal master was determined to pursue their old enemy, the Iroquois, until that hated foe was either exterminated or should succumb. It was in his inter- course with these various tribes that the name of the " great T»ater," of which the savages had so often spoken, took form in the phonetic rendering of Allouez as " Missipi," in Hears of the his enumeration of the tribes which were said to "MUsipi" live along its banks. The priest was inclined from what he heard of that stream to suppose that it entered the Sea of Vir- ginia, as the Chesapeake and its neighboring oceanic waters were sometimes called. It was during some of his excursions hereabouts, in which he sought to find the great mass of native copper, often de- siouxcoun- scribed, that Allouez fell in with parties of the Sioux *'y* (Nadouesiouek). They represented their country as lying to the west of Lake Superior, forty or fifty leagues towards the " Missipi," and as being a prairie region. The savages seemed to speak of their home as the extremity of the earth, but yet represented another people to be still farther west, while beyond the latter lay the great fetid ocean. To the north of them were other tribes, with some that eat meat raw beyond ; and still farther was the North Sea, bordering a country which confined the water-shed of Hudson's Bay. These descriptions were in due time to find their way to the public in the Jesuit Relations^ and the geographers recognized in them a decided progress in the development of this great AVestern Mystery. In 1668, Marquette had founded a mission on the southern side of the Sault Ste. Marie, the earliest in what is ,^^^ ^ now the State of Michigan. Here he was soon jomed ^*'"]J'«"« by Dablon, and in September, 1669, Marquette was sent to La Pointe to take the place of Allouez, who had other work to do. There had been for some time among the tribes on the Fox River, near the head of Green Bay, a few young Frenchmen seeking trade, and yielding to their unbridled passions. They were of a class now beginning to be felt, which has coureursde passed into history as the Coureurs de bois, — a law- *"*'*• i:! It' t 200 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1663-167S. tM ^* If I 'M.'-3i..! »( ! liwn less gang, half trader, half explorer, wholly bent on divertise- ment, and not discouraged by misery or peril. They lived in a certain fashion, to which the missionaries themselves were not averse, as Lemercier shows when he commends the priests of his order as being savages among savages. Charlevoix tells us that while the Indian did not become French, the Frenchman became a savage. Talon speaks of these vagabonds as living as banditti, gathering furs as they could, and bringing them to Albany or Montreal to sell, just as it proved the easiest. If the intendant could have controlled them, he would have made them marry, give up trade and the wilderness, and settle down to work. It was his attempts to do this that drove them into the woods and threw them into the English trade. Their alienation helped the English and embarrassed the French. It was left for Frontenac later to regulate what could not be suppressed. Father Allouez tells us how he was urged by the savages themselves to go among the tribes at Green Bay and influence to soberer practices a group of these men who congregated there. It was on this mission that he left La Pointe, with the further hope of making some converts among the neighboring Indians. He returned^ first to the Sault, and left there for his new post on November 3. Here he spent the winter, and founded the mission of St. Francis Xavier among the Potta- wattamies. In April (1670), he ascended the Fox, and found Indians on Lake Winnebago mourning the losses they had experienced in a recent attack by the Senecas. On the Wolf River, an affluent of the Fox, he founded another mission, that of St. Mark, and for a while administered at both missions. In some of his further explorations he reached the head of the Wisconsin, and records that it led to the great river " Messi- sipi," six days off. The Relation of 1669-70 repeats this new story of the great river in speaking of it as more than a league wide, and flowing from the north to the south. It adds that the savages had never reached its mouth, and it was not certain whether it flowed into the Gulf of Florida or into that of California. 1669-70. Allouez at Green Bay. Marquette, whom Allouez had left at La Pointe, was living Marquette at ^ disappointed life. He had the remnants of the Hu- La Pointe. ^^^^ ^^^ Ottawas about him, who had settled here to RUMORS OF THE GREAT RIVER. 201 be, as they hoped, beyond the reach of the Iroquois. Wander- ing bands of a multitude of tribes came to the post to trade with the French, and among them were parties of the Illinois, living at this time apparently to the west of the Mississippi. Bands of the Sioux, who came too, said to Marquette, as they had to his predecessor, that they lived on the banks of this same broad river. While the poor priest was pondering how he could make his way to this great water, and was picturing more fruitful fields for his labors, a feud was gathering between the Hurons and the ferocious Sioux, these Iroquois of the west, as Marquette called them. This warfare for a time interfered with a cherished scheme which Marquette had formed of going south to the Illinois, and establishing a mission among that people. He had already undertaken to acquire their tongue from some wanderers of the tribe, and from these Indians he had learned that in coming to La Pointe they had passed a great river, which flowed towards the south, but none of their tribe had ever reached its mouth. According to the stories which Marquette heard from them, there was to the south of the Illinois a people who gathered corn twice a year. The Shawnees had told them, they said, that this distant people wore glass beads, and Marquette con- jectured that this fact indicated contact with Europeans. It took thirty days to reach this other people, going south from the Illinois country. There were other stories which came to his ears, as of a river at the west flowing to a sea where large canoes under sail had been seen, and where the tide came and went. Marquette, in reasoning upon such statements, reached a dif- ferent conclusion from Allouez, in supposing that the Believes the mouth of this river must be, not on the Atlantic side, §J,wgto7h8 but on the Pacific, at the Gulf of California. "If I get ^'^'"•'• the canoe," he adds, " which the Indians have promised to make me, I intend with another Frenchman, who can speak with these lower people in their own tongues, to navigate this stream and come in contact with these lower tribes, and so decide the question of the ultimate direction of this great river's flow." The reports which at this time were coming in to the Jesuit councils at Quebec, and which were embodied in their Relation of 1670-71, speak of the Mississippi, as they had now learned to call the great water, as flowing south either into the Vermilion ^ 1 • i ■i il 1 - •1 !■ i. i; 1, , » i'.ll ii l>.:l 1 I m\ n 202 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1(1(13-1079. '■ ] >; Sea (California), or into that of Florida, " Hinco what is known of great rivers in that direction is that they flow into one or the other of these seas." " The Indians say," the report goes on, ** that for more than three hundred leagues front its month it is wider than the St. Lawrence at Quebec, and that it fluws through a treeless prairie land, where the only fuel is turf or dried excrements. As it nears the sea, the woods again grow, and in this region the inhabitants seem like the French, have houses in the water, and cut trees with large knives." This is interprete«l by the writer in the lielat'ion. to mean that the peo- ple have ships and hew out planks. " All along the river from the Nadouesse [Sioux] to the south there are many tribes of different customs and tongues, and they make war on each other." The feud with the Sioux had so extended that the Huron and Marquette Ottawa fugitives, unused to victory, moved away from HMrora,"'" La Pointe to avoid a conflict, and Marquette followed ic7()-7i: them. We shall see that Dollier found him at the Sault Ste. Marie, in 1G70. The next year (1671), we find him among the Hurons on the north shore of the Straits of Macki- naw, where they had stopped in their flight, and here Marquette founded the mission of St. Ignace. At the same time another priest, Louis Andre, who had first joined Marquette at La Pointe, settled with the Ottawas in their re- treat at the Great Manitoulin Island. The chastisement which had been given by Tracy to their inveterate enemies, and of which they had heard, seemed now to embolden the Ottawas to move toward their old country, west of Lake Huron. Andrt> with the ottawas But before this there had been an imposing ceremonial at Nicolas Per- ^^ Sault Stc. Marie. Among the better class of the rot, 1670. ^jij wanderers of the woods was one Nicolas Perrot, who had been long enough among the Indians to acquire some ascendancy over them. His countrymen had confidence in him, — another point in his favor. He was now in the full prime of physical vigor ; young enough to endure and show others how to endure. He was twenty-six or thereabouts. In the summer of 1670, after he had spent a winter among the western tribes, a long line of fur-laden canoes trailed along the Ottawa route under his guidance. i M ENdLlSH EXPLOHEIiS. 203 Perrot oame to Quebec at a time which was opportune for Talou's projects. The intuiKhint had, before thia, dispatcht'd ifoliet to the extreme west to seek for the iniiiOH of copper, said to lie thereabouts, but that pioueer had failed to discover them. Talon was now ready to send an official expi dition of ];irger aims, with the certainty, as he thought, of establishing kucIi relations with the tribes of that region as would serve, in some measure at least, to balk the English in their efforts to draw the Indian trade to stations on Hudson's Bay. There might well have been in Talon's mind other plans of the English which troubled him. The scheme of the rival crown in granting charters alonj; the Atlantic seaboard during the preceding sixty years could hardly have been unknown to the French government. The charter of Virginia virRini* formulated a claim for extension " up into the land "'""""• throughout from sea to sea west and northwest," and this de- scription stretched their claim, as later discoveries had shown, over the very country which for nearly forty years the French wood-rangers and priests had been exploring. The opinion which has been since advanced, that the annulling of the Vir- ginia charter in 1624 by quo loarranto was equivalent to an abandonment of this right of extension beyond the AUeghanies, was hardly in mind then, and the English Commonwealth, in 1G51, certainly reaffirmed this inordinate sea-to-sea pretension. The later charters of Massachusetts and Connecticut recognized this extravagant right, though the subsequent grants to the Duke of York and Penn were in disregard of it. It has been asserted that the authorities in Virginia just at this time were giving practical expression to their alleged rights beyond the mountains in sending out expeditions to find and determine the direction of the streams of the great inland water-shed. We need not regard stories trumped up at a much later pe- riod to enforce the English claim along the Ohio, such as that which Thomas Ilutchins tells of a Captain Bolt reaching the Mississippi by this route in 1670. It is to be feared that there is no weightier ground for believing that in Septem- ber, 1671, just after the French had made the cere- legeii English •1 iciirt-nT* IT .11 expedition monial at the oault ote. Mane, soon to be described, over the Aiie- Governor Berkeley of Virginia sent Captain Thomas Batts, with a party of English and Indians, over the mountains , ') i: r'^f Flif i: ! t r 204 REORGANIZED CANADA, IGGS-lGTui. 1C70-71. St. Lus- soii's expe' ditioii. Perrot'g memoirg. to observe the course of these western currents. We shall re« vert to this story in the next chapter. Of the 'Sufficiently accredited and far more imposing effort at continental occupation, to which in the very same year Talon was giving direction along the Great Lakes, Simon Francois Daumont, Sieur St. Lusson, had been selected the leader. He had been commissioned the previous year, September 3, 1670. In October, the party started. There was a small retinue, but what was vastly more important, the indispensable Perrot was of the number. When the party reached the Manitoulin Islands, St. Lusson remained there in camp for the winter. Toward spring, Perrot, who had instructions both from Courcelles and Talon, went on to the more distant regions to prepare the Indians for the scene they were to witness. We get the story in good part from Perrot's own memoirs. This narrative served Charle- voix in his account of the events ; but it was not given to the modern scholar till Father Tailhan edited it from the manu- script in Paris in 1864. It had been in good part used by La Potherie, and the English reader had known something of it be- fore in such parts of it as Golden included in his JFive Nations. This memoir makes reference to other writings of Perrot, in- volving his knowledge of savage life and history, but no other manuscript has come down to us. It was the purpose of the authorities to have an august cere- mony at the Sault Ste. Marie in the following summer, and Perrot's mission in going ahead was to arrange with the tribes neighboring to Green Bay that they should accompany him to the Sault in the spring (1671). He seems to have elicited a showy welcome among these tribes, where he was regaled with feasts and exhilarated with mock fights. By May, a large concourse of savages had assembled at the appointed place. There were not only those who had come with Perrot from Gi'eeu Bay, but others had responded to the call of messengers sent west and north, and even from the east, they came, as fur as from Lake Nipissing, — fourteen tribes in all, as their repre* sentatives were counted. St. Lusson had come, as was ex- pected, and in his train was Louis Joliet, a name already be- come conspicuous in this western exploration, as we have seen, ST. LUSSON'S PAGEANT. 205 aU re. and he had apparently been the earliest to visit Green Bay (1668) since the time of Nicolet. It was on the 14th of June that all was ready, and we may follow the lielation of 1671 in describing what took place. To the top of a hill near the Sault, St. Lusson led the mot- ley throng, — soldier, priest, and savage, all in their 1071 ju„g holiday array. We have the signatures of those who JereJouy at were conspicuous in the ceremonials, attached to the "'* ^""''" instrument, recording their assumption of power for the French king over all the territory from the North to the South Sea, and extending to the ocean on the west. What such a range meant, not one of them knew. Among these signatures we read the names of four Jesuits, Claude Dablon, Gabriel Druil- lettes, Claude AUouez, and Louis Andre. Druillettes was the most interesting of this group, both from the experience which a long life had given him, and from his knowledge of the English, whom he had known a score of years before when he had been sent to Boston to gain their alliance against the Iroquois, and whose rights they were on the point of contest- ing in a regal act of possession. It devolved upon Dablon as the superior of the lake missions to bless a wooden cross which had been prepared. The dusky faces of the encircled savages, with glimmering eyes, wide with wonder, were turned from all sides towards this central group of Europeans. As the huge cross was lifted from one end and dropped into its cavity, the uncovered French chanted a hymn of the seventh century, — " Vexilla Regis proderunt Fulget cnicis niysterium," etc. This done, a plate on which was engraved the royal arms was set on a post close by the cross, while the Ex southward. tance that it would take eight or nine months for a canoe to follow it to the sea. The story is comprehensible to- day by combining in one the courses of the Alleghany, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, but to La Salle's imagination it was a vision of the great waterway which had been looked for from the time of Cartier. In the turn which geographical con- ceptions respecting the interior of North America had been for some years taking, it seemed probable then that this outlet of the long river must be in the Gulf of California. It was a grateful thought that this would make it a ready channel to the South Sea, and give the French access to a route to China, quite as convenient as that of the Spaniards from Acapulco. To embark on such an enterprise as to search for this river accorded quite with La oalle's temper ; but as he had invested all he had in his seigneury, he was without the plans an necessary funds for an equipment. With the hope that he could secure countenance, and perhaps more active aid, from the authorities at Quebec, he went thither. Courcelles gave him letters patent, authorizing him to make discoveries, and commended him to the kind notice of the rulers in Virginia and Florida, if he should chance to come within their jurisdic- tions. With these credentials La Salle returned to Montreal, and began a treaty for the sale of his estate ; but before it was concluded, he entered into certain contracts with those who were to accompany him, including the Sieur de la' Roussiliere, who was to be the surgeon of the expedition. These contracts indi- cate that he was not at all sure what direction he should ulti- mately take, whether to the north or the south, and he evidently meant to leave himself free to profit by circumstances as they might arise, for his men bound themselves to follow him in either direction. Meanwhile, there were other considerations to enter into his l>lan. Dollier de Casson, a Sulpitian priest, had passed Douier ue a winter in the Nipissing country. He had a daring ^^^^°"- habit, which had been nurtured in early life as a trooper of j:.v| 1:1 1 i ; i ; 1 1 '■ i k J HI i : i. i : i ■ ! .f y 1! ■ ■ 1 \'!' I :'il. If! I*' hi' i M m f l- y i ■ 1 i 'f . h \ ■ \- t I l ' 214 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1G6.H-1672. Queylus. 1CC9. Turenne's army, and more recently under Courcelles in his inroad into the Iroquois country. During this winter in the wihlerness, Dollier had seen a slave of the Indians, whose own coxnitry was afar off towards the southwest, and he had sent the savage to Montreal. Here the fellow inspired Queylus of the Sulpitian mission with a desire to reach with his missionaries this distant land, of which its native spoke so glowingly. In the autumn of 1668, that Sulpitian had estab- lished a mission station for his order at the Bay of Quinte, on the northern verge of Lake Ontario, and he was quite in the mood of adding to the Sulpitian agencies another in this dis- tant region, some seven or eight hundred leagues away, as they understood the slave's story. Queylus represented to Dollier that the chance of guidance thither, which this man offered, was an opportunity not to be lost in the service of the church. Dollier had agreed to the proposition, when Laval ojiportunely came to Montreal, and gave Dollier a letter of author- ity (May 15, 1669), and commended him to the assist- ance of the Jesuits, wherever he might encounter them. liaval recommended him to work among the Ottawas of the Missis- sippi region, using that tribal name in a generic way, and ap- plying it to all that people's kindred, wherever they might be found. Just here it occurred to Courcelles to strengthen the chances of success by uniting La Salle's and the Sulpitians' the siiipi- parties in one enterprise, and he urged upon the Sul- ' '* ^°"'' pitians to abandon the direct western route, which they had proposed, and to follow the more southerly direction which La Salle intended. Galince, another Sulpitian, some- what versed in surveying processes, had been joined with Dol- lier, and the two now came into Courcelles's plan. The expe- dition thus took on a sort of double control, which did not argue well for its success. Queylus, not having great faith in La Salle's proficiency in the native tongues, added a Dutchmai to the company, who could talk in Iroquois, but who unfortu- nately had little knowledge of French. On July 6, 1669, La Salle concluded the contract for the and «tart, ^alc of his landed property, and on the same day the 1669, j..i; 6. ij^tjg flotilla floated out into the St. Lawrence and headed upstream. The party was more than half of La Salle's II GALINKE'S JOUUNA L. 215 L's in his r in the lose own had sent inspired to reaeli ive spoke ad estab- uinte, on e in the this dis- , as they D DoUier ti offered, e church. portunely 3f aiithor- bhe assist- n. liaval le Missis- Y, and ap- niight he te chances 5ulpitians' I the Sul- ite, which direction Ian, sonie- with Dol- rhe expc- \\ did not it faith in Dutchmai. > unfortu- ;t for the le day tlie fence and La Salle's choosing. The twenty men which constituted it, in their seven canoes, looked back to those who wished them (iod-speed vith not all the assurance that sometimes emboldens doubtful enter- prises, for there was by no means a certainty that the peace with the Iroquois was stable enough to last till their intended LAVAL. [From Suite's Caiiadiens-Franfiiis, vi.] intercourse with those Indians was passed. Two canoes of Senecas returning to their homes led the way as guides. In following the events of the expedition, we must depend upon the journal which Galinee has left, now pre- „ .. . , served in the great library at Paris. Of the map journal and . map. which accompanies it there is a copy in the library of Harvard College, from which the annexed sketch is made. H: '^5 Alii m I'll rl 216 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1003-1672. WM I The contents of this journal were first made known to American scholars by Mr. O. H. Marshall in 1874, but the full text ap peared later in Margry's documentary publication. [Prom P. Duval's (feoftrnithie Vnirerselle. This atlas of a French Geographer Royal served to keep up the notion (1C58-1C8'J) that the Ottawa and not the Niagara conducted the uatcra of Luke Erie to the sea.] The object of La Salle was first to go to the Seneca villages, where he hoped to obtain guides for further progress. The canoes passed into Lake Ontario, and, following the southern shore, they reached Ironde(iuoit Bay on August 20, August 26. ^^^ ^,. , ^ . -, r> • i At ironde- 1669. On this samc day, 1 reniin and Cjrarnier, who were holding the Jesuit mission among the Senecas, LA SALLE ON LAKE ONTARIO. 217 mericati text ap« Q H i i^yit:!! ■oyiil sprviMl to vatera of L;il5e 1, villages, 3SS. The southern .ugust 20, nier, who 5 Senecas, left their post for Onondaga to attend a general council of the .l«'8uitH then working in the Iro(|uoiH country. It has been sus- ])ected that they got word of the landing at Irondequoit and absented themselves conveniently, in order to harass the Sulpi- tians by depriving them of the means of communication with the Indians. From the landing, I i Salle, Ciralinde, and a few others made their way to the mission, only to find that the Jes- uits, to whom the letter of Laval accredited them for kind offices, were gone. What Fremin and his companion had anticipated — if the theory of willfiU desertion is allowed — was soon ap- parent, for it does not appear that La Salle's acquaintance with the Iroquois tongue was of much service, and the strangers were sadly at a loss in trying to communicate their desire to secure guides. The savages could do nothing but feast the new- comers. They after their own fashion .added to the entertain- ment by putting to the torture a prisoner whom it was supposed they had captured on the bank of the very river of which La Salle was dreaming. What intelligent intercourse the French had seems to have been brought about by the aid of a servant of Fremin, whom that missionary had left behind, and through him La Salle tried to ransom the poor prisoner, as likely to be such a guide as he wanted, but he could offer no inducement equal to the joys of torturing. Through the same interpreter the French got new descriptions of a broad prairie laud to the south, which stretched a long distance without trees ; Among the and they heard, as Galinee's journal tells us, of a Heli*r8"o''f the people who lived in a warm and fertile country, hard ^'"°" by a river which flowed so that it must run ultimately, as was thought, into the Mexican Gulf or the Vermilion Sea. Such were the reports of the yet undiscovered Ohio. The feasts, in which the visitors shared, resulted in drunken orgies, and the Frenchman began to be alarniecl at the possible dangers of inflamed passions. They had heard, moreover, that there was farther to the west a better way of finding this river. All this easily moved them to return to the lake, which they did without mishap. Once more afloat, the little flotilla moved on tow^icls the set- ting sun. They passed the Niagara River without ^^^ entering; it, and noted the sound of the distant cata- soum} of " , Ningara* ract, and Galinee's account of it is perhaps the earli- I Jl? 1 i 1 t • i J ^ \'-i •i • ■ 3 ; ■ ? - , / ' : i ' i . ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ * 3 I > .1 .■;■ If:^1 I '!■ ! ! 18; 218 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1063-1673. est we have, except from Indian sources. They reached at last the extreme western end of Ontario, and found welcome at an Indian village. Here La Salle came in contact with a prisoner from the Shawnee tribe held by these villagers, and this man told the French that it was a six weeks' journey from where they were to the great river, and that he could lead them there. It was contrived to make this fellow's captors offer him as a gift, and La Salle gladly accepted him. Just at this juncture, word came from a neighboring village that two Frenchmen had arrived there from the west. We must go back a little to account for their appearance. In February, 1G69, Talon, who was then in France, informed Colbert that he had brought with him from Canada a young voyageur who felt confident of finding a way from Lake Hu- ron either to the South Sea or to Hudson's Bay, and that the man had already gone to a greater distance west than any one else, and was ready to go still farther. This was Pere, a frequent figure in these western explorations, and when Talon shortly after returned to Canada, Pere was with him. With Colbert's countenance, the intendant was prepared to make new efforts to probe the secrets of the west. Plans were soon made, and Joliet, then at the settlements, together with Pere, was sent with the chief object of discovering the deposits of copper near Lake Superior, of which there had been many stories afloat. He was also expected to discover if there was not a way of bringing the ore to Quebec better than that by the Ottawa route, with its laborious por- tages. Colbert had not failed to make Talon understand that to discover and make merchantable at a profit such copper de- posits was of more importance than to find any passage to the South Sea, and for some time after this Talon fed the minis- terial cupidity with such stories as he could gather of huge lumps of copper lying exposed on the shores and islands of Lake Superior. It now turned out that the Frenchmen whom La Salle found to be in his vicinity were Joliet and his companion, on their return from this copper-seeking expedition. La Salle and Joliet were not long in establishing friendship, and the young explorer, who was not far from the age of La Salle, had much to say that interested the other. Joliet Joliet sent west. Tliey meet La Salle. ^i GALINEE AND DOLLIER. 219 told these new friemla about his journey, and though, as it seemed, he was not to carry back to the intendant any extrava- gant hopes about copper, he could tell him of a new way which he had opened for the growing communications with the west. He had descended the strait which led from Huron to Erie, and had for the first time followed eastward the northern shore of that lake. Fearing if he continued to its outlet by the Niagara River that he would encounter the Iroquois, Joliet had turned up the valley of the Grand lliver, — an affluent on its northern shore, — and by this route had struck the shores of Ontario near its western extremity. He exhibited to La Salle a map which he had made of his route, extending in its most western limit to the land of the Pottawattamies and other more remote tribes, which the missionaries had not yet reached. This map appealed more to the Sulpitians than it did to La Salle, who was little inclined to abandon his purpose of finding a more direct south- western route. So it was resolved that the party going west should be divided, and the two divisions parted company, not without La Saiie aep- some sai'casm on Galinee's side, who would have us be- GaYim4 Tnd lieve that La Salle's determination to stay behind was ""luer, quite as much due to an illness bi'ought on by the sight of some rattl(!snake3 as by any choice of route. Before separating, however, they all joined in the celebration of mass, and then the Sulpitians took the trail to the Grand River and Lake Erie, as they had learned it from Joliet. On reaching the lake shore, Dollier and his conii)anion found a sheltered i)lace for a winter's soiourn, and built their bark huts and closed in their solitary altar. The months passed quietly. • They found food, and suffered nothing from intruders. They had looked during these weary weeks across the great lake, and gazed wistfully upon its limit- less waters, gentle or in turmoil as tlic storms came and went. But not an object along that southern horizon helped them to picture that distant unseen shore of the lake where, as yet, no white man had trod. It was to remain, as it proved, for many long years, almost unknown to the explorer, if for no other reason, because a passage following it westward is thirty leagues longer than the route which skirts the northern shore. As the spring approached, these solitary wanderers made oil Lake Kric, ly i*l'ii:;'H i-i;'! •111' ];■) I -I i 111! i it 220 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1663-1672. W ''A % < 1 I 1670. ready to move on ; but before departing they raised a cross and formally took possession of the country in the name of possession of the Frcuch king. The instrument which they sub- scribed is still preserved, and is printed by Margry. This ceremony over, they bade adieu to what had been to them on the whole a fortunate retreat, and, packing their altar service and munitions in their canoes, they paddled to the west, facing the balmy air of the spring. This was on March 26. But a mishap overtook them. One night, landing for their rest, they failed to secure their canoes properly, and, the wind rising while they slept, one of their boats was washed out into the lake, and disappeared. It contained their religious symbols and their store of powder. The dilemma of being in the wilderness without sacred vessels and with no defense was enough to make it apparent that they must abandon their pur- pose of establishing missions, and seek to return as best they could. The obvious course was to make their way to one of the western posts and seek an escort of the annual flotilla down the lakes. If Joliet had been the first white man to pass the Detroit River, going east, Dollier and his companion, taking that track in a reverse way, were the earliest to paddle by the same river from Erie to Huron. They now passed to the Sault Ste. Marie, and reached its mission in May, 1670. Here they found two priests, Dablon and Marquette, in a palisaded inclosui-e, with a chapel within. These missionaries had started a gai'den close at hand, and were thus the earliest to begin to develop the agricultural resources of that region. Laval's commendations of the new-comers to the Jesuits seemed likely to produce no better welcome here than in the Seneca country, and the Sul- pitians hardly cared to tarry in order to make larger trial of their hosts' hospitality. So, securing a French guide, they did not wait for the annual flotilla, but followed at once the Ot- tawa route, and by June 18 they were again in Montreal. Galinee took this first respite from his labors to prepare a plot of the region which he and Dollier had traversed. It is the earliest map which has come down to us of the upper lakes, constructed a year before St. Lusson, as we have seen, made' his ceremonial at the Sault. One of the marked features of this Galinee map is a sketch of the northern shores of Lake GALINEE'S MAP. 221 << -<^o ! ■ ; I ;;) .' I ! 1 1 'i ■\ I . ; 4 i u ! i 1 > ; r ' '; • '' \ '^' i ; ! 1 .. i ' i J ■ i i J 222 REORGANIZED CANADA, 1663-1673. I ! . i: 11 W !!' Erie, never before comprehended, and henceforward the narrow river of Champlain was to give phice to something like an ade- quate conception of this last of the Great Lakes to be mapped. It is somewhat surprising to find an entire absence of the Straits of Mackinaw, and apparently Michigan and Huron are made one expanse. It is also clear that Galince had not yet surmised what the Jesuit map of Lake Superior was so soon to make clear, that the great water beyond the Sault Ste. Marie was larger than the Mer Douce, on the hither side of that strait. Dablon and Marquette, during the stay of Dollier and Galinoe at the Sault, had apparently been reticent as to what had been done towards developing the outline of the larger lake. This map of Galinee is supposed to be the one to which reference is made in the lielation of 1670-71, as showing the missions among the Ottawas, where it is described as " very curious and very exact, inasmuch as they have set down nothing but what these two fathers, who made the journey, had seen." ' \ { J I- ' * II ' La Salle's movements, We need now to try to discover what was done by La Salle after he parted with the Sulpitians, and after he had had his interview with Joliet at the western end of Ontario. It is not quite certain that his particular com- panions stood by him in what subsequently happened, and some of them at least are supposed by Faillon to have deserted La Salle, returning to Montreal, perhaps, with Joliet. It is not easy to account for the lack of definite information as to the way in which La Salle, with w at following he kept, now turned, unless it be supposed that his maps and journals for the next two years have never come to the knowledge of those who could use them in making a record of his movements. There are somewhat vague statements as to such papers being in ex- istence about the middle of the last century ; but the tale is shrouded with doubt. Indeed, every statement which we have about La Salle's wanderings at this time is oi)en to suspicion. Perrot says tliat he met La Salle on the Ottawa in 1G70 ; but there is nothing known to corroborate such an assertion, and it seems improbable. What purports to be a record of talks, which La Salle later made at Paris, in 1G78, re-' f erring to this obscure period of his life, is found in a HUtmrc lie 3/oni ! I! .ilPil' I .-:h CHAPTER X. THE MISSI8SIPPI REACHED. 1673. I I.,,, rj . Ill k There have been opinions at times entertained, but upon no recognized authority, that the Jesuit fathers, Deguerre in 1652, Drocoux in 1657, Allouez in 1668, and Pinet in 1670, as well as a priest of the seminary of Quebec, Augustine Eariyai- Meulan de Circe, also in 1670, had visited the Illinois l*^fe mu* and the Mississippi previous to the expedition of Jo- •'**'??'• liet and Marquette. The late Dr. Shea, who was for many years an ardent student of everything connected with the fame of Marquette, long ago, in he Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society (vol. iii.), set such stories at rest. They apparently originated in the confused brain of a comparatively recent and irresponsible chronicler of Catholic missions in the west. There is also a story (referred to in the preceding chapter) of some explorers going from Virginia beyond the AUeRed ex- Appalachians, in 1671, sent by Governor Berkeley, from vTr* under the direction of General Wood, " for the find- 8"''"' ^*^"- ing out the ebbing and flowing of the water on the other side of the moun1 lins, in order to the discovery of the South Sea." This account s in a diary, beginning September 1, 1671, which was first printed in the Neio York Colonial Documents (vol. iii.). It was originally sent to the Royal Society in London, and read before it in August, 1688. The explorers reached their most westerly point on September 17, where they marked some trees with the king's name. From an eminence they then saw " a glimmering light as from watei'," which they supposed to be a great bay. A certain Mohican Indian informed them of a very large number of Indians living thereabouts upon a great water. Mr. Clayton, who communicated this journal to '.' ,• in August, 1071, to find an easy rcmte north by the Sn^uenay. On SeittembtM" 17, the jn-iest and his party had reached Lake St. John, and there the Indians told them of Aiimnei two English ships trading in Hudson's Bay. When the spring o])ened, the explorers pushed on, and soou found an English trading-house on tho shores of the bay. Avoiding con- tact, they erected the usual i)illar of possession. Charlevoix tells us that it was the chief ambition of the in- tendant to solve the i)roblem of the great western river. Tlu> Hearcli and this was Talon's second geograi)hical problem. In for a west- June, 1072, Colbert had written to the intendant that there was no more important movement to be started, after all efforts had been made to insure the increase of the colony, than to make it certain tliat this great river of the west flowed into the Gulf of California, so that a ])assage could be opened to the South Sea. At the same time, this French minister was sending threatening messages to Si)ain, that the French flag in the Gulf of Mexico could not be disregarded Avithout hazard, as if there might yet be a conflict over the luoutli of this same river, should it i)rove to flow more diiectly south. The English, as yet, were hardly observant of this ambitious aim of the French, and, as Ml \:i {^.i 1 i i i 1^ J , ll ' 1 1 iili 2S2 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. Frontenac governor, 1672. Talon recalled. Coklen tells us, they accounted the pushing energy which car- ried the Canadians so far west as only the yearning for more productive soils than Canada had been found to possess. While the urgency of Colbert and the hopes of Talon were thus plan- ning for the future, Father Dablon returned from the upper lakes and rehearsed his glowing descriptions, and they were not without effect in giving shape to the skirriug notions of the hour. But there was a new and vigorous spirit just come to the ripening task. Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, had been appointed governor in April, 1672, even before Colbert was sending to Talon his renewed in- structions about western explorations. Frontenac did not arrive till the autumn, and Talon soon discovered that he was not a man to his liking, and had time to transmit his adverse criticism before the government named a new intendant, and Talon was recalled. T.vlon was not alone in feeling the dislike which Frontenac soon succeeded in evoking on all hands. The new governor was too marked a character every way to make things easy. He was now fifty-two years old, and a successful life as a soldier with honorable wounds made him imperious. His blood was good, with a strong dash in it of Basque virility. His estate was ruined, and he had made an unfortunate marriage. If he could not endure his wife, she never ceased to have a certain pride in him. He by no means gave her the exclusive effects of his prejudices. If thwarted he grew red and chafed, and he made, if he did not find, opportunities for his anger. His will was headstrong. His habits of life were extravagant ; so he had sometimes little scruple about using his position to make money. He was consequently continually confronted with disagreeable allega- tions against his official conduct. He knew how to meet thcni unblushingly. His language could be at times us full of acerb- ity as his heart was, when he was aroused ; and his conduct had u vindictiveness by which passion sometimes usurped the rights of foresight. Yet he had his merits, and he served New France as hardly another could at a trying time. He was vigorous, robust, hardy, and when necessary he could draw himself up in grandsur. Frontenac's character. FRONTENAC AND EXPLORATION. 233 He was too liberal in his Catholicism to please the ascetics, but wliether this was because he was impelled by wider sympathies, 01* because he saw some gain in it, may be questioned. He cer- tainly hated the Jesuits, and they bore no love towards him. He was like Talon in one respect, — he would have packed the fathers off to France summarily, if he had dared to do it. The last of their Relations which was printed announced xue Jesuit Frontenac's arrival in Canada, and that the publica- ^^,g'er''pub°.° tion of these annals then ceased has been charged ''*''^''* upon his influence. His quarrels with the governor of Montreal and with the Sulpitians were quite as violent as his hate of the Jesuits, and it was only towards the Recollects that he was tolerant, and that perhaps for the reason that he could play them off conveniently against the Jesuits. This enmity of the Jesuits he never quieted, and it played a fateful part in his sus- taining the ambition of La Salle. He could be an Indian with the Indians, and the priests never forgave him when he divided with them a control of the savage nature, and welcomed native children into his household. Frontenac began his administration with an act that drew upon him the reproof of his king. He held a convocation of the three estates, the clergy, the nobles, and the commons, and sought to mete out their powers in a community of government. The king was prompt to disapprove, and the whole machinery of the government, under royal coercion, fell back into the old ruts. Never was there a more fatal infraction of the rule that colonies, to succeed, need to be let alone. The new life of a colony can only become virile by self-reliance and self-asser- tion. That ancient policy, always lurking in church if not in state, has successfully cultivated respect for absolutism in French-speaking Canada even to the present moment. The site of Quebec had impressed the new governor, as ho approached it for the first time, as fit to be the lordly seat of an empire of courageous men. He found he must make the colony under his master's wand one of subservient subiects. _, -If. 111. 1 1 Frontenac ine rebuff turned his thoughts from the scenes around tuma to ^ • !• rt-i-i 11 I'l 1 exploration. him to distant fields, and he set his heart on the success of exploration. Talon already, before the arrival of Frontenac, had selected Joliet for the new task, — a choice which Frontenac confirmed. i I m 111 m I ; } iM II 234 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. Bill I, I I ; ( . i S' ' I m h 1 ! I i! La Salle's doings. 'II:! This leader was now a little less than thirty years old. He was joiiet'8 ^ Canadian by birth, a son of a wagon-maker. He character, j^^^j \^qqi^ educated Under Jesuit influences. A passion for trade had led him into a roving life, and we have seen that the government had selected him a few years before to discover a new route to Lake Superior. In this work he had proved in- telligent and useful. His whole career showed that he could be faithful to his charge, without evincing in any way exceptional powers of command. Frontenac, after Joliet had started on his mission, wrote to Colbert that the man had had great experience, His aims in and that he promised to find the Mississippi byway discovery. ^£ Grccu Bay, and that he would probably make it clear that its outlet was in the Gulf of California. Dablon at the same tinie, in reporting to his superior in Paris, counted upon the expedition opening a way to China and Japan. La Salle was absent at this period on his somewhat obscure errand in the direction of Lake Michigan. It has been claimed that he had traversed the Chicago portage, and had coursed the upper affluent of the Illinois, if he had not actually, as Margry would have us believe, descended to the Mississippi itself. As he did not return to Montreal till Se])- tember, 1672, and as Joliet had left a month before, the latter could not have known anything of La Salle's efforts, unless they had met on the way, and of this there is no record. Joliet, by December 8, had reached Mackinac (Michillimackinac, as it was then invariably called), and here he })assed the rest of the winter in preparing for the undertaking and deriving what information lie could from the Indians who hung about that post. He found in the priest jNIaiquette, who kept the mission there, a prompt and natural sympathy. This Jesuit was eight years the senior of his companion, and had come of a good family in tlic north of France. lie had at this time been two years minister- ing to the vagabond Ilurons, who were still trying to keej) to- gether under all sorts of adverse circumstances. For five years before he began his work among this tribe, he had had divers ex})eriences at other missions. While at St. Esprit, he had come in contact with wandering bands of the Illinois, and he continuctl ever after to harbor the hope that he might at some time find a way to settle 'among them, as they had expressed a wish to have 1072, Dec. 8. Joliet at Mackinac. Marquette. |!|l Va { MACKINAC. 235 him. Joliet's project therefore appealed strongly to the Jesuit's inclination, as the intended route must lead to the Illinois coun- MACKINAC, UkSS. [From La Houtnu'a Xoiitriiii.r Vni/ayes.] try, of which so much had been heard in pleasant contrast to the deadly heat and forbidding monsters that this people insisted I . 4mm ' 4ili| 236 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. m i! li on apportioning to the lower country beyond them. Dr. Shea holds that there are reasons for believing that before Joliet left the settlements, Laval had picked out Marquette for the ex- plorer's companion ; but the evidence is not clear. That Mar- quette did decide to join Joliet seems to imply that some higher authority had permitted his leaving his post at Mackinac. Marquette's own assertion to that effect is explicit enough ; but any conclusion must certainly leave Joliet as the recognized official head of the expedition. During the winter, the two drew from the Indians informa- tion enough to enable them to map out their route prospec- tively, but this map is not preserved, unless indeed we have it in some one of the several maps ascribed to Joliet, which are known. All these maps have usually been placed after his ex- perience of 1673. It was not till May 17, 1673, that the party set out in two 1G73, May. cauocs, — Jolict, Marqucttc, and five companions. It Marquette ^^^^ nearly forty years since Nicolet had started on start. |.j^g same course, and had been the first to enter what is now known as Green Bay. Late in 1669, Allouez had ojiened a mission on its west shore, in the midst of a motley jiopulation of Indians, a strange mixture of the three great stocks of the Dacotahs, the Huron-Iroquois, and the Algon- quins. This " Grande Baye," i)ervertcd by the later English to Green Bay, was not inviting in the name it then bore, for from fini/e lies ' the carlicst knowledge which the French had had of it, Putins. they had in the JJat/e des Ptians associated it with what to an inland Indian was an odor far from agreeable, that of the salt sea. In a then recent lidation of the Jesuits, the writer had thought to account for the ai)pellation through the fetid effluvia from the marshes which bordered the bay in Konie parts. Marquette says he hunted for salt springs, to see if their existence could have suggested the name ; but he could find none, and came to the cojiclusion that the name was given be- cause of the slime and mud " constantly exhaling noisome va. pors, which cause the loudest and longest peals of thunder " ! Tlie violent and almost oceanic storms which sometimes swep£ across it might possibly have been sufficient to suggest the name. JOLIET AND MARQUErTE. 237 By the end of the first week in June, 1673, the adventurers had ascended the Fox River, and found themselves in the country of the Mascoutins, the Miarais, the Kicka- on the fox poos, and the Foxes, — the latter, of all tribes which the French encountered, the most averse apparently to Chris- tian influences. From among these tribes the party secured guides to lead them across the portage. It is another proof that Nicolet had not passed to the Wisconsin, that Marquette be- lieved he had now reached the limits of the early French efforts. The carry they found an easy one, through a level region, and somewhat less than two miles across, through marshes and ponds filled with wild rice. The Fox, indeed, at the point they left it, was but five feet lower than the Wisconsin, and in high stages of water the current of the latter was sometimes diverted to- wards Green Bay. Once over, and parting with their guides, they launched their canoes on that affluent which the Mascou- tins had said would conduct them in a west-southwest course to the great river. Following an obscure and devious channel through a growth of wild oats, they only extricated themselves from its mazes to find their canoes grating upon the sandbars which perplex the navigation of the Wisconsin. If ontheWis- sueh were their perplexities, there was much about '=""^'" them to command their praise. They soon ran into a region of rich bottom lands, diversified by undulations that were topped with trees. Festooning vines hung from branches which here and there flecked the gentle current with their shadows. Now a dense copse of walnut and oak, as well as trees that were new to them, stretched along the bank. They swept round ishinds in the stream as it broadened, and saw tangled climbers bearing down the imprisoned bushes. In the opens they espied the roebuck, and encountered singly or in herds *•' the Illinois oxen clothed in wool," for the buffalo had been more or less familiar to the French for ten years, and now loamed in this region, though destined to be pushed beyond the jNIississippi, where the mature man of to-day can remember how they stopped by their surging masses the progress of railway trains, and compelled the steamboats to slow up as they swam the waters of the Missouri ; and where the child of to-day may possibly never see them more. As the canoes went on, the sun glinted upon fluttering wings ■ ■ i- If iiiii 1 6 mil I SI 238 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. I- >, H i I, {' 5 !& ' ' ! I 111: I ;; l^;i:' i I im On the Uig sisaippi. among the wild rice in one place ; and a rocky scarp made shadows in another, where cedars caused a jagged bristling edge to run along the sky. Marquette calls the stream the Mescon- sing, for so he had caught the Indian utterance, but the name was later made more liquid in the Ouisconsin of Hennepin, out of which our modern Wisconsin was naturally evolved, and fixed at last by legislative sanction. It was the 17th of June when their canoes shot out into the parent current and they were afloat on the Mississippi. They sounded and found nineteen fathoms of water, and they might well have believed, had they suspected it, that this mighty channel poured to the sea a greater volume of water than all the united rivers of Europe, if the Volga be omitted. Not forgetting the haughty man at Quebec, whose fortunes he felt he was bearing, Joliet named the river La Buade, in recognition of the governor's family stock. The de- votion of Marquette to the great dogma of his church scarcely allowed him to recognize any but the religious motives influ- encing his share in the adventure, and he fulfilled a promise which he had formed in giving the great river, on his part, the name of Conception, — with something of the fervor which had warmed the Spaniard a century and a half before, when he be- stowed upon it at its mouth the name of the Holy Spirit, — a name, however, which had some latitude of application along the gulf shore. Marquette at the same time records its native name as " Missipi." It must have been with strange and swelling sensations that these wondering men saw the night fall about them. On the one hand a range of high hills lay darkening the declining day. On the other the light of the dropping sun rose from the variegated meadows, and gleamed upward from eloud to cloud ; and when all w.:s dark and the stars shone, one may well ima- gine the iunnensity of the hope which animated tiiem, and a sense of the uncertainty of the future upon which they had entered. Neither Joliet nor the priest could have had, 'u the then exist- ing geographical conceptions of the interior ot j- -th America, any adequate idea of the vastness of the valley v ?h they were' aiming to acquire for France. The latest geo rapnical conjec- tures were shown in the map which Sanson i abli.shed in 1669. THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 239 native Lake Michigan was depicted in this as of uncertain extent, and from a large bay on the north side of the Gulf of Mexico a group of radiating streams drained the southern part of the val- ley, while all else was void. The proclamation of St. Lusson two years before, seeking to embrace a region that stretched between bounding oceans, north, west, and south, was simply audacious graphical and not based on knowledge, — the immensity of the area would have appalled them, had it been suspected. Fron- tenac, with the inheritance which had officially come to him, had attained perhaps some idea of the half million square miles of territory which afforded two thousand miles of navigable water from the east to the west, in the St. Lawrence and the lakes. He hnew that its dividing ridges bordered upon the great in- terior valley beyond the country of the Iroquois, and again at the head of Lake Michigan, and at no great distance from poijits which missionaries and traders had reached at Lake Superior. But even Frontenac's imperial eagerness had little conception of a water-shed five times as large as that whose waters flowed before Quebec, and whose central streams could conduct a canoe to the sea over a course three thou- T,,p ^^^^^^ sand miles in extent from the country of the Senecas ; "'pp' ^*"^y" and over another of more than four thousand miles from the head of its greatest affluent, far in the northwest. Thirty- five thousand miles of navigable waters converging into one in the midst of this great valley, and seeking the sea, was a wonder that exceeded even the imagination of AUouez in his astounding speech to the Indians at the ceremonial of St. Lus- son, when he was picturing the magnificence of the Grand Monarch. There was a vastly disproportionate extent in it for the paltry six or seven thousand Frenchmen whom Frontenac ruled from the rock of Quebec, and who were to be made the ])eople of this magnified New France. It was an easy matter for the adventurous explorers to go with the current as they sped downstream by day, and anchored away from shore by night. Each morning early astir, they were ])repared with freshened energies to come, as they leisurely pad- dled along, within the range of new surprises. Now they saw a formidable fish. Now the current swept them round bluffs H ; i i ■ ■■ f ; t f ; i :1 i • ! J. i ' 'i V^-iH 0\i Ih' sis i ;H iv : I i! 'l I 'I liilli : IM I Ij '1: ! 1!^ !li!i!i!f 240 rWS MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. 1G73, June 26. They aee human tracks, and see the Illinois tribe and the Illinois River. or between divided islands, fresh in the early summer's diversity of verdure. They had been a week or more on the great river, observing deer, elk, bison, and turkey, but they had not seen u sign of man, when on June 25 they espied human footprints on the western bank. A well-used ])ath conducted the two leaders to a native village of the Illinois, where they were welcomed and made to feel safe. They saw French cloth on some of the savages, and learned that intertribal traffic had probably passed it along from the French traders on the lakes. This people told them the same stories of demons and dangers to which a persistence in going farther would subject them ; but neither the trader nor the Jesuit could be intimidated by such rehearsals. Once more on their way, they passed the mouth of the Illinois (to be better known a few weeks later), and wondered at the mocking castles which Nature had made or the stratified rock, and gazed upon the rude strokes of pigment which the Indians had combined into a demoniac figure on a rocky scarp above them. After some days, their canoes were tossing in the broken They pass Water of a muddy current, which poured into the clear the Missouri Mississippi with such a volume that they naturally looked to the northwest, from which it came, as to some large water-shed. It was clear that the divide which held it was to- wards the great ocean of the west, the bourne of the hopes so long delayed. They learned from the Indians near at hand what seemed a confirmation of their belief. " I do not doubt," says Marquette. " that this other ocean is tire Vermilion Sea, and I hope some day to be able to follow this inviting channel." It was the counningled currents of the Missouri and the Mississippi which they had reached, and this flood of water f roiii the west convinced Marquette that the united streams must find an outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. It was to be a hundred and thirty years and more before the wonderful interlacing of the springs of the Missouri and the Columbia, and of the L*a Platte and Colorado, was to be discovered. The Indians called this singularly intrusive and polluting stream the Pekitanoui, or THE OHIO RIVER. 241 i,W.\ the muddy river ; but a little later, when more was known of the tribes which lived on its banks, it was generally known as the river of the Osages. The adventurers were all the way on the watch for other indi- cations of some such western passag*}, for it soon became more and more evident that the general direction of the Mississippi was towards the south. A little later on, Joliet says, he heard of a tribe lying only five days away to the west, which traded with others from the coast of California. They passed by the site of St. Louis, then covered with for- est, and as they went on they occasionally held out the calumet to Indians whom they saw, but as yet there was no hostile ac- tion in any of them. They came to the mouth of the Ohio, which Joliet calls on his map the Ouabouskigon, — a name apparently al- ^nd the lied to the later Ouabache, or as we have it in an ^'''°' E'i"lish guise, Wabash, for this stream and the Ohio below the r's mouth continued to be accounted one during the long interval yet to ensue before the placating of the Iroquois per- mitted the French to follow the upper reaches of the true Ohio. Tlie low and marshy shores which bound the mouth of this branch of the Mississippi allow it to mingle its waters with the main current with less impressivene.^s than is suited to its im- portance, and add a sort of mystery to the sources of its capa- cious flow. If La Salle had followed it from the Iroquois coun- try some years before, there is nothing in anything that Joliet or Marquette say of it now to lead one to suspect that they connected it with any exploit of an earlier discoverer. Indeed, in their maps, they fail to associate it with any previous know- ledge. The stories which had come to the French of the sav- age onsets of the Iroquois in this direction were vague, but the unavoidable inference was that the river whose mouth they now were passing was the theatre of these rancorous wars, in which wanderinq; Shawnees and tlie confederates' bands met ^ . . ,^, Iroquois ni deadly struggle. Joliet, we know, had seen a Shaw- raiiisaioug , . - the Ohio. nee i)risoner in the hands of the savages at the end of Lake Ontario, when he met La Salle there in 16G9, and he knew that the prisoner's country lay in this direction ; but since then the im])lacable Ii'oquois had driven the Shawnees from both banks of the river, and forced them back into the i I :!^ I : i,i ii 242 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1G7S. W' |: \ i;Ji iHlihiH ill II 1 i: M' July valley of the Tennessee. It was within a very few years that the Iroquois had thus successfully raided this tributary valley. The Arkansas, whom Joliet was soon to meet lower down thu Mississippi, had also fled before these savage confederates. The Illinois, whom he had visited, as we have seen, in their vil- lages west of the great river, had been pressed along before the same inveterate enemies, who had used this valley of the Ohio as the main channel of their approach. Our explorers could now have little suspected what risks this same channel was to open to their successors in these western parts, when their Indian allies were hounded to the death by those same tireless foes. June passed into July, and the French canocH were still pass- ing on with the current, by marsh and wood. The Indians, who now and then confronted them on the banks were more inclined to be hostile, but the calumet never failed to appease them, though it sometimes looked as if the hazards were great. Some savages whom they saw on the east bank had guns and wore European cloth, and it is surmised that they had got these articles directly or by intermediate traders from the English of Carolina or Virginia. At a village on the east bank, opposite the mouth of a river which Joliet named the Bazire after a fur trader in Montreal, but the Arkan- which wc kuow as the Arkansas, they found a young Indian who could make himself understood in the Il- linois tongue. From him they learned that the tribes farther down the river were enemies of his people, and had firearms from Europeans. They raised, he said, three crops of corn a year. When asked if they had ever seen the Euroj^eans who supplied the guns, they replied that they had not, as the inter- vening tribes were always able to prevent their reaching them. This savage interpreter represented that the outlet of the river which they were following was a ten days' voyage farther on, but with extraordinary speed they might shorten the task by half. This led the French to think it nearer than it really was, for it was still seven or eight hundred miles away. Their almost unvarying southerly course — for the bend of the river one way had always been met by a corresponding reverse — had rendered it now hardly susceptible of doubt that it was neitliCT to the Atlantic nor to the South Sea that they were tending, but to the great gulf of middle America, which, if their infor- THE CHICAGO PORTAGE. 248 niation was correct, placing its northern shores in latitude 31" 40', was not far distant. They had thus in effect, by an infer- once which was unavoidable, solved the problem of the great river's course. If they went on they could scarce do more than confirm their belief, and they would do it at the risk of losing the fruits of their discovery, should they fall into the hands of the Spaniards. A resolve was accordingly taken to stop at this point (which Marquette calls 33° 40')i and return. i , r t t Am ^ i •• 111 1073, July It was therefore on July 17 that they reeni barked at i' They Akamsea, as the friendly village was called, and be- gan their arduous ascent. It is not worth while to follow their laborious journey back in detail. Ou ^'eaching the mouth of the Illinois, they yielded to the representation of the neighboring Indians, that it would lead them more direct. ' to Mackinac, and turned into Ascend the its alluring current. It was a pleasant change for ""'"''■■ the weary voyagers, for the stream was placid, there was attrac- tive shade under its umbrageous banks, and rich plains opened between the hillocks, dotted with bison and deer. They tarried awhile at Kaskaskia, — not the modern town of that name, but an Indian village of the Illinois tribe, whose country it is not always easy to designate at different periods, but which lay in the main, after they came back from over the Mississippi, between the Wabash and the banks of the great river. This people were now very friendly. They tried to propitiate Joliet, in the hopes of securing French aid against the Iroquois, of whose ravages they were in constant dread, and towards Mar- quette they turned with wishes that he might abide with them for their spiritual comfort. Joliet, with that policy which had actuated him in naming the great river after Frontenac's fam- ily, now complimented the governor's wife with naming this tributary stream as the Divine or the Outrelaise, which La Salle later was to supplant with the name of the French colo- nial secretary, Seignelay. Going on, the weary voyagers turned into the Des Flaines River, and passed the elevation which the trader DesPUiues named Mont Joliet, and which alone of all the names ^"'"" bestowed by Joliet preserves his memory in that region to- day. This eminence lies near Joliet city, forty miles The Chicago southwest of Chicago. The stream led them to the p^^k*- Chicago portage. tli *|i 4l\ ; .i '].| 244 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. The cutting of the gorge at Niagara had opened in pro. historic times a channel for the outflow of the upper lakes, in place of the older channel by the Illinois from the head of Lake Michigan, where there is scarce eight feet of rise at the divide in ordinary seasons. In wet seasons, even since the present century came in, heavily laden boats have floated from the lake to the Des Plaines. In the days of Joliet, the branches of the Chicago River and the headwaters of the Illinois interlaced so nearly that in ordinary springs the portage was scarce a mile and a half, and was obliterated in the actual waterway which, in very wet seasons, existed in the shape of an expanded lake. It was for a while in ordinary seasons dead water on either side, rippling as the paddle stirred it, when the spreading eir. cles broke against the crowded stalks of the wild rice. In very dry weather it was sometimes necessary to carry the canoe to the confluence of the Kankakee, thirty miles below. There is no clear proof that any white man had preceded Joliet and his party in the passage of this portage, when now its practicability readily suggested" to him the ultimate making of a canal. One cannot be sure, however, that some adven< turous trader had not preceded them ; and we certainly find such traders at no great distance in Joliet's rear. Th theory of La Salle's passage of it the year before has already been mentioned. Once on Lake Michigan, the returning canoes found their way to Green Bay by the end of September. The adventure had cost them four months and more, and they had traversed a route of something like twenty-five hundred miles. Leaving Marquette at Green Bay, in much need of rest, for AtoreenBay, ^^ had bccu gricvously ill on the return trip, Joliet passed on to the Sault Ste. Marie. The following summer, Joliet took his way to Quebec. His last opportunity of showing his papers was probably at Fort Frontenac, where he briefly tarried, and where he found La Salle. At least such is Dr. Shea's belief, thouf^h Joliet and Harrisse sees no satisfactory evidence that La Salle La Salle. could havc been at Fort Frontenac at this time. That the interview, if allowed, produced any results, is far from clear. La Salle at this juncture was engrossed with his trading tours and with the care of his Seigneury of Caiaraqui. If Denon- 1673. 1674. Summer w* JOLIET'S MAPS AND 1' APE US. 246 ) 4 ville's memoir U to be believed, La Salle in these expeditions was accustomiiij^ himaolf to some of the aftiuents of the Ohio, ac(iuiring that knowledge of this approach from the Mississippi to Ontario which was later in his mind when he was himself on the great river in 1680. It was only at this later day, when his mercantile speculations were at a low ebb, that he had bc'im to raise visions of a traffic in buffalo skins on the Mis- siasippi. Joliet passed on to the St. Lawrence. All went well till he reached the rapids above Montreal, where his canou upset. 1, ''III Two of his men — one an Indian from the Mississippi — weic drowned, and a box containing his journals and other jouefg papers was lost. He himself barely escaped with his p*p*" ^°'^*' life. Joliet did what he could to repair the loss of his journals by reviewing his recollections, and Frontenac later sent, ap- parently without success, to the Sault Ste. Marie to recover the copies of the lost papers which Joliet had left there with the priests. Dablon tells us that Joliet had also given a copy of his journal to Marquette before parting with him, but no such 246 THE MISSISSIPPI REACHED, 1673. h;.' ii'|!«i( i'^lll li ai'i i!l;,!i t: "^■\% Records of the ex peditiuii. transcript has come down to us. Dablon himself, at this time in Quebec, had apparently talked over the adventur- er's experience with Joliet himself, and on the 1st of August he embodied what he learned in a communica- tion to his superior in Paris, and later, in an amplified form, it was included in one of his annual reports, which was first printed when Martin gave it in his Mission du Canada (1801). The narrative as Joliet fashioned it upon his recollections is also to be found in two forms in Margry's collection, and Ilar- MERSulJVoyS 'Golph.e. 5«i, JOLIET'S CARTE GKN1^;RALE. [SketolisJ from a copy in the Parkman collection (1(')81 '.' ), and signed l;y Franquelin.] risse gives us a brief summary which the explorer offtu-ed in a letter dated October 10, 1074. Joliet had been back three months before Frontenae drew up (November 14, 1074) an official report upon the trader's discoveries, and it was doubtless with small exi)ectations that he forwarded it to France, for during the siunmor lie had had a pretty sharp intimation from the king that he had better let pi'ojects of discovery alone. Both Frontenae and Dal)lon, however, made the most tl\cy could of the new hopes which the expedition had created, — Dabloi: with a more intelligent appreciation of the case than the MARQUETTE'S NARRATIVE. 247 governor seemed to possess. The Jesuit alleged that it was ii()w proved that if a bark was built on Lake Erie, there would only need to be a cut or canal made at Chicago for one to sail through to the Mississippi and the sea ; and if it was not for the fall- d Niagara, the vessel could start from Fort Frontenac. The governor was apparently most impressed with the possibil- ity of a way being discovered to the South Sea by some of the western valleys of the Mississippi ; but he was also struck with the ease with which one could pass from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico with only the portage of half a league at Niagara ! He urged, in consequence, that a settlement should be formed near that cataract, and that a vessel be built on Lake Erie, which he thought in ten days could reach the gulf. It seems clear that Frontenac had not quite understood what Jo- liet had communicated, or that explorer's enthusiasm had spir- ited away the obstructions at Chicago. The governor at the same time sent a map which Joliet had constructed with such observations as his memory supplied, and this has come down to us, being first introduced to scholars about ten years ago by Gabriel Gravier at Houen. It is probably the earliest jouet's ear- map to define the course of the Mississippi by actual ''**' ""^P" observation, although Joliet connected it with the gulf merely by an inference which he felt he could not avoid. Mar- Marquette's quette's contribution to our knowledge is more im- """"t'^^- ])ortant on the whole, and not so dependent on recollection as what we learn from Joliet. His recital is in two forms as given by Margry, but it was originally sent by the priest to Dablon in Quebec. Dablon used it in his JRcIatlon,, and sent a copy to Paris, while the original seems to have remained in the Jesuit archives at Quebec till, some time after the dispersion of the order, it was deposited by Father Cazot, the last survivor of the order in Canada, in the Hotel Dieu, not far from 1800, whence it was transferred, apparently about 1842, to the College of Ste. Marie in Montreal. From its nuns, Martin, a returned Jes- uit, received it and committed it to Dr. Shea, who published it first in English in his Discovery of the Mississijypi (1853), and two years later separately and in the original tongue (New York, 1855). It had been prepared for publication by Dablon, appai-ently in 1678 ; but had remained unedited in its complete form till Shea secured it. The 3Iission du Canada has since I in '% :i; ' I i M 1 t: illiiiii; <■[ ii. { « r I lilil' I'rl ■J] ill 248 r//^: MISSISSIPPI reached, ms. H O a 32 H H MARQUETTE'S MAP. 249 given it in a somewhat changed form, very likely as it was re- ceived in Paris, whither it was serr I , Marquette at Fronte- nac's request. Thevenot in 1680 included an imperfect form of it, with curtailments and omissions, in his Recueil de Voy- ages, and also issued it separately, and it is in this shape that it has been used before the present generation, and was made familiar to English readers by Hennepin (1698) and at a later day by Sparks. There was one feature in Thevenot's publication that deceived scholars for a hundred and seventy years, and that Marquette's was the map which he gave as Marquette's. That "**p- editor had somehow got hold of a contemporary Jesuit map, now well known, and supposed it Mar- quette's. It may in fact have been that iipN ^ which J o 1 i e t had X^^cwAwv drawn from recollec- tion, as Dr. Shea suggests. The genu- ine plot was discov- ered by Shea with the ori- ginal manuscript, and has since been repeatedly repro- duced. Marquette, who had for some years dreamed of a missionary field among the Illinois, and who had welcomed the oppor- tunity which the, companionship of Joliet gave him, was not destined to enjoy a long fulfillment of his hopes. He had lingered at Green Bay on his return till, finding himself in the spring of 1674 in better condition of health, he organ- ' ]|H. i i V i ; > Ut H 1 250 THE MISSISSIPPI P,E ACHED, 167S. I I !i ! liili'i";!: m \ m f I May 19, Dies. was cheered in his weariness by the kind attentions of every- body about him. Indian and trader passing that way, and hearing of his prostration, turned aside to give him any com- fort in their power. The spring restored his strength enougli 1C75. At to give him courage, and on the last of March, 1G75, Kaskaskia. j^g passcd the portage and went on to Kaskaskia. The savage community gathered at this point welcomed him as ;i missionary would like to be received, and he turned in his min- istrations from hut to hut amid such interest as he had never found before among Indian converts. But his frame was not equal to his spiritual energy. His strength failed, and it became evident that he should get back if possible to more civilized care. He started on his way with some companions. The party crossed the portage and followed the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. On May 19, in a quiet spot, they bore the prostrate man ashore and left him to his devotions, as he re- quested. In a short time they sought him, and found him dead. They dug his grave on the spot, and went their way, bearing the sad ticMngs to Mackinac. The nexi year (1676), some Ottawa Indians exhumed the body, and ly buried at a mclancholy procession of thirty canoes accompanied the holy remains to St. Ignaee. Here, beneath tho chapel of the iiussion, they gave him a last resting-place. Two hundred years later (1877), some excavations were made on the spot where the chapel is supposed to have stood, and a few fragments of a skeleton were found and gathered for a new burial ; but the pious act was not consummated without doubt being thrown upon the identity of the bones, inasmuch as the uncertain descriptions of the position of the mission which have been preserved do not render it clear beyond doubt whether its shrine was on the north or south shore of the strait, or on the intermediate island. Father Jacker, who performed the act of reburial, felt that he had sufficient ground for his belief. Allouez was appointed (1675) to succeed Marquette in the 1675. Ai- Illinois mission ; but interest in the new discovery ceeasMar- ^^^ largely ceased with the death of Marquette and .,uette. i-ijg withdrawal of Talon. The petition of Joliet to be allowed to establish a trading-post on the Mississippi was promptly negatived in a letter of Colbert to Duchesneau, writ- ten on April 28, 1677. But events were already shaping for new scenes and new actors. ^i.;'i; "If CHAPTER XI. CATARAQUI AND CRfevECCEUR. 1673-1680. Frontenac had conceived the plan of establishing an ad- vanced post on the northern shore of Ontario. It was partly with the expectation of intercepting the Indian trade with the English at Albany, and partly to bring a mart for skins nearer the sources of supply. The project disturbed the merchants of ^lontreal as likely to affect their own intei'csts, and it was by no means satisfactory to the Jesuits, who dreaded its influence on the Indians. These priests were even accused of starting ill-otnened rumors, such as an intended attack by the Dutch, — now temporarily in possession of New York, — in the hope of keeping Frontenac's attention occupied nearer home. The governor was not a man to be intimidated ; and he soon sent La Salle, between whom and Frontenac much i,;;3 f,,o„. cordiality had arisen, to visit the Iroquois, and to invite tiTenoquors^ the confederates to send delegates to a council near *° co'""^''- the site of his intended fort. Frontenac was aware that the recent successes of the Iroquois in diverting the western trade to the factors at Albany rendered some attempt to propitiate or alarm *^^he confederates highly necessaiy. The governor had made many preparations for his journey to the rendezvous. With a large array of guards and a parade of staff officers, Frontenac left Quebec on June 3, 1673. j„„p 3 ^^ His rece])tion at Montreal was hearty enough to con- ^'""t'^"!- ccal the real feelings of opposition which pervaded that settle- ment, and when he left that place to move forward, on June 28, it was with a considerable increase of retinue. He had about four hundred men in his train, manning or occupying a flotiUa of one hundred and twenty canoes and ..wo flatboats. The pro- cession had hardly passed into Lake Ontario when an Iroquois . :■ ii I I i I ( ' i : ;!: ; i-K ! I 252 CATARAQUI AND CRkVEC(EUR. ; /.s ! ill';.: : vl ilills I! . ' -I . cauoe was met, bringing letters from La Salle, with guides to lead them to the spot on the northern shore which had been July. At selected for the council. It was the 12th of July when cataraqui. Frouteuac disembarked his followers at Cataraqui. It was done with a pageantry which animated with delight the assembled Iroquois. On the next day, July 13, Raudiu, the engineer, was set to work in laying out the fort, which in a few days was ready for occupancy. La Salle, who had mean< while arrived, was put in command. Frontenac, who knew how to gratify the Indian pride, made everything pleasant for the grand council, which was held on the 17th. In his speech, which formed the principal feature of the convocation, the governor said everything to them that was agreeable, and promised them in the storehouse, which they saw in progress, the opportunity of getting everything they wished. He did not forget to remind them of their Great Father's power to punish as well as to re- ward. When, a few days later, the parting came, and the Iro- quois started to cross the lake, they carried with them the con- ception of a white man quite different in his dealings from any they had hitherto known. Frontenac had vividly impressed his sturdy and emphatic personality upon them, and it did much for some years to hold t!".em in check. The governor was back in Montreal on August 1, and he had time to consider whether the 10,000 francs which his display had cost — a draft upon a treasury far from full — was to pro- duce an equivalent return. To insure what he hoped for, he had formed plans of still another fort at Niagara, and the build- ing of a vessel on Lake Erie. He had written to this effect to the king in November, and if allowed to carry out his plans, he had hopes to bar the Dutch and English effectually from the waters of the u]>per lakes. He had already ordered <^he con- struction of a vessel on Ontario to be used as an auxiliary force to Fort Frontenac, as the post at Cataraqui had been named. La Salle, at the same time, was informing his friends (November 13) that they would not be disappointed in his efforts to carry out all that Frontenac had looked for. It was not long, however, before Frontenac's powers of controlling the Iroquois were put to a test. The Dutch 6u the Hudson were thought to be instigating them afresh. Fron- tenac wrote to Colbert that only his flatteries and presents Fort Froutenac. it ' 1 ili^ LA SALLE'S GRANT. 253 to the Indian chiefs could keep the confederates quiet. The prospect was not better when, in February, 1674, the 1074. New treaty of Westminster restored New York to the Eng- ISgUBh*"'" lish. Grosseilliers and Hadisson, who, as we have seen, had been serving the English at Hudson's Bay, had not found a compli- ance with the rules of the new company agreeable, and had returned to France discontented, and quite ready to reenter the service of Colbert, if he would pay their debts and provide for the future. Both returned to Canada, but Frontenac was not in a temper to dally with renegades. He had raised Frontenac'a up too large a number of recalcitrants among the 6,700 «"«•"'««• inhabitants which Canada now showed, to open careers for others, lie had leagued the whole body of bushrangers against him by his endeavor to break up their wild and independent systems of trade. He had an active quarrel with Perrot, the governor of Montreal, who was their avowed abettor. The Sulpitians had been provoked by him, and thwarted him when they could. The Jesuits, if their accusers may be believed, did not look with complacency upon any system of organized traffic which shut them off from a participation, clandestine it may be, in the profits of a trade which their missions might bring to them. But Frontenac got some relief from all these bickerings by reverting to other thoughts. He had taken Perrot into cus- tody, and had sent him to France for the king to de- . . . . 1674. La cide upon their differences ; but he had sent over quite Saiie goes another sort of man, with other aims, in La Salle, who had sailed in the autumn of 1674. It is said that La Salle had been pondering of late on Joliet's* reports, and had made up his mind that the Mississippi must find an outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. He had formed this theory not without some ambition to prove it fact. On Novem- ber 14, Frontenac wrote to Colbert that La Salle was a man worth his listening to, and so the king heard from that aspiring adventurer a proposition that Fort Frontenac and the adjacent lands should be granted to him as a seigneury. On ^nd obtains his part. La Salle offered to reimburse Frontenac for * ^™'* the outlay already made on the fort, and to maintain a garrison in it. In recognition of the service which he proposed to ren- 254 CATARAQUI AND CRiiVECCEUR. -■I' i.'i -:\ i m ^hW^' hi der to New France, he also solicited a patent of nobility. Col- bert acquiescing, all went as well as La Salle had wished, but it became necessary that he should agree to rebuild the fort in masonry. This was settled, and the weight of debt which this undertaking drew upon him was not an unimportant factor in later obstructions. The tide of emigration towards the St. Lawrence was already beginning to grow slack, and Colbert suspected that the six months in which the river was icebound had something to do witli it. Accordingly, he had alreatly informed Frontenac how desirable it was that some ingress to the interior of the conti- nent should be opened in a warmer region than Canada. If such intimation gave Frontenac some heart for further explo- ration, the king's adjudication in the dispute between him and Perrot was not equally comforting. This tormentor was sent back to his post at Montreal, and both he and Frontenac were given some sharp reproof, and told to be friends for the future. They equally deserved the censure. In September, 1675, a ship arrived in Quebec, bi-inging four notable persons. The conjunction was an unhappy commingling of incompatible natures. One was La- val, returning to the episcopate, and full of his head- strong devotion to what he believed to be his duty, — not unused or disinclined to a militant churchmanship, which Colbert and the governor must soon deal with. Another was Duchesneau, Talon's successor as intendant, and a stickler for his rights, the more vigorous when these rights collided witli what Frontenac conceived to be his own. A third was Louis Hennepin, the Recollect friar, a man to be played off against the Jesuits to Frontenae's content. This restless priest had been smitten with travelers' tales from his early youth. He had re- cently been an army chaplain, but was now eager for a life as hazardous and as uncertain as he could make it. There were on the same ship a company of girls, coming to seek husbands and homes. They grew at times merry, and were not very compla- cent when the priest, to prove his holy vigilance, sought to check tliem. The fourth of these strange companions sided with the girls against the Recollect's austerity, and Hennepin certainly,- in telling us of it, does not expect us to doubt his own sincei'ity. This defender of the merry damsels was tlie austere La Salle 1G75, Sep- tember. La- val, Dunhes- neaii, Hen- nepin and La Salle at Quebec. 1 ; ' 1 ll II 1 1: LA SALLE AND HENNEPIN. 255 himself. Perhaps the buoyancy of his hopes, now that he had (Tiiined the royal recognition, had softened his temper, and he was not averse to making the bishop and the Jesuits hate him more than ever, since he knew the governor to be his friend. In 1676, we find La Salle at Fort Frontenac, deeply engaged in increasing its efficiency as a trading-post. He built new walls to the fort, planted other palisades, sniieatFort brought cattle from Montreal, and laid the keels of the vessels which he depended upon to frighten the English. Neither he nor Frontenac was quite clear yet as to what they might venture to undertake to the westward. The king was not willing to weaken the older settlements by sucli western schemes, and he did not hesitate to enjoin upon Frontenac his duty of being mindful of the royal v/ish. Frontenac, though he had been warned not to carry on any trade of his own, was known to have much sympathy with La Salle, and to have sent Raudin to Lake Superior with presents for the Sioux. No such transaction could escape the Jesuits, and what the Jesuits knew they shared with Duchesneau and, in turn, with the king. Frontenac, on the othei hand, did not let the court remain in ignorance of the service that La Salle was doing. This faith- ful subject, the monarch was told, had spent 35,000 livres on Fort Frontenac, and was gathering settlers about its walls. The two or three small vessels which he had launched on the lake were bringing im in something like 25,000 livres yearly profit, as many believed. Hennepin had found occupation in ministering to a colony of Iroquois, who had come across the lake and had set Hennepin up their huts near the fort. It was not long before iro^uois,'* the priest felt enough at ease with their language to ^""^ make a winter pilgrimage over the lake into the confederates' own country (1677). He found them not altogether dissatisfied with the neutrality they were now maintaining with both French and English. They had recently subdued the Andastes, and there was no neighboring foe to fear. Their two thousand warriors were recuperating. Their raids as far south as the borders of Maryland and Virginia had harassed the whites equally with the Indians who were assailed, as such incursions always do. Representatives of those colonies had come to Albany to induce the Iroquois to fetter such roving bands of m 25C ::. !}'■■'! :. i W^r. I -if m^. r : i ■ I 111 !'•'!''■ '5'' mm :lfi I I CATARAQUI AND CRkVEC(EUR. their young men ; but the treaty proved little more than one in name. La Salle was perhaps induced to believe that his conmiand of Lake Ontario and this wavering of the Iroquois meant a stay to English scheming, but he counted too surely. There is some reason for supposing that by this time La Salle had come to expect it easy to open a channel to the Mississippi LftRaiie'8 valley by the Maumee and Wabash, and to extend plan « of his trade beyond Niagara in that direction. To ap- pease the Iroquois and keep them quiet was particu- larly necessary if a portage so accessible to the confederates as that of the Maumee should be made a channel of commerce. It pi'oved that nearly forty years were yet to pass before the enmity of the Iroquois was assuaged enough to permit that portage to be used. With such dreams floating in his mind, La Salle once more, ,„, „ in November, 10 7 7, embarked for France. His pur- 1C77. Re- •/. 1 nT <• tiirns to pose was soon manifest, and Margry preserves for us France, and ^ . , • , , ' ,. i i • • • • , memorializes the paper m which he outlined his aims in a memorial the king. , to the king. He professed in it that his work at Fort Frontenac was intended to form a base for a western trade that should extend to the Mississippi, — and he seems to have believed that t) is river flowed into what at this time stood for Mobile Bay in the Spanish maps, — where buffalo, wool, and skins would make the staple of a new traffic. These peltries he represented as being so exceptionally heavy that it would be much for the advantage of the trade if he could be allowed to pursue exploration along the route which Joliet had opened, and find the mouth of the great river. That being done, the trans- porting of this heavy traffic could be carried on directly by ships from the Illinois country. To this end he asked to have his seigneurial tenure of Fort Frontenac confirmed, and to be allowed to establish other posts towards the south and west for the space of five years. On May 12, 1678, his wishes were complied with in a patent signed at St. Gei- main-en-Laye. By this he was allowed to b,uild forts in the coveted country, " through which," as the patent ran, " it would seem that a passage to Mexico can be found." A reser- vation was imposed in that he was forbidden to engage in trade with such tribes as would naturally carry their furs to Montreal. All this enterprise was to be carried on without expense to the 1678. And gets a patent LA SALLE AND THE JESUITS. 257 crown. La Salle 8eems to have called successfully upon his relatives in France for capital. What was more important to liiui, he secured the fealty of a remarkable man. This was Ilunri Tonty, theson of an Italian refugee domiciled ^^^^j ^ in Paris, whose fame is associated with the system of {"iji" La Tontine insurance. No man ever had a more faith- ful servitor than Tonty was to La Salle, and it is one of the j)roofs that the discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi had something in him for a loyal and courageous man to respect, that Tonty became and remained his fast f I'iend. For La Salh' had not learned to make as many friends as a man of his ambition needed, and he was often found insupportably harsh and haughty. This want of tact, fatal in great enterprises, as La Salle found to his cost, has given some warrant for the opinion, which, for instance. Dr. Shea has zealously entertained, that La Salle was an incapable leader, and has been ^a saiie's prodigiously overrated for his services. Such opinions a^d'jesuit are, it must be confessed, not wholly free from the »""P**''y- prejudices which have been sent down to us by Jesuit antipa- thies. La Salle on his part was no lenient judge of that order, and he was prone to find ulterior and sinister purposes in all they did. He supposed their zeal in thwarting him in his pro- jects was a wish to bar all laymen from having influence among the Indians, and to establish such an exclusive system in New France as had been formed l)y them in Paraguay. It was in August, 1678, that La Salle sailed from Rochelle. He was accompanied by Tonty, and they took with them shipwrights and mechanics. Their shipments gust.' La included anchors, sails, and cordage for a vessel which fov Quebec, was to be built on Lake Erie. They reached Que- FortFioute- bec in September, and there found Hennepin awaiting their arrival. The priest was soon sent ahead to prepare mat- ters at Fort Frontenac, and after an interview with the gov- ernor La Salle followed. During this interval, it was arranged that a party should go in advance to trade and collect food in the Illinois country, and prepare for the reception of La Salle, who might be expected the next year. La Mothe and Hen- ne\nn were at once dispatched in a small vessel to Niagara and Niagara, and a fort was planned at the mouth of that *''^ Senecas. river. It was soon apparent that the neighboring Senecas ii 1 1 "' i:l j \l ' 268 ( *. 1 7". I n .1 (2 in A ND cnk vik (E ur. \h ■:•( '•' I liiiililiiii: felt uneasy at such signs «£ occupation. Thoy were cany- ingon a lucrative trade as iniiMlenien between the more distaiit tribes ana the Knglish at Albany, and they saw in the movements of the French an attempt to prevent such commerce. Theref(»i(> La Mothe and his <'ompanion visited the nearest Seneca village to make explanations. They were kindly received, and an In- dian prisoner was burned for their enjoyment. They in turn outlined a plan of opcnin}«' communication with Europe through the greot river, so that goods could be brought with less ex- pense, and could be sold cheaper than it was possible with tJK! English. Their argument availed little, and the Frenclnnen returned to camp with small encouragement. IVIeanwhile Lu Salle was coasting along the southern shore of Ontario, nmoiiK the aud OH liis Way he visited the same village, which was, ni tact, the identical one where he had in vain souglit a guide ten years before. He was more successful than his precursors had been, and succeeded, as he thought, in making tlu^ tribe content with his ])rojects, So with better heart ho went on to Niagara and joined La Mothe, whom he found ciicamind near the Niagara rapids. La Salle, accompanied by Tonty, was soon on his way to discover beyond the cataract a suitable spot to lav tlu! keel of his intended vessel. There lias SpleotH n Biiipviiici on been some diversity of opinion as to the precise sijot tlie Niagara. i.ii i i ^ , 'i-iiii • which he selected, but there is little doubt that it was just within or possibly on one side of the mouth of Cayuga Creek, where an island lying off the shore diverts part of the current towards the easterly bank of the river. Mr. O. II. iMarshall of Buffalo, whose name is connected with many care- ful studies of the history of the Niagara region, first jjointed out (1845) this spot as answering best the conditions of the con- temporary narratives. Schoolcraft gave Mr. Marshall's views currency two years later, and they are now generally accepted. Though there is some disagreement as to the i)recise spot, theie is none as to the general location. It had already been found that the portage around the cata- ract was not so favorable on the western side, and in "i(;7i>. Plana the latter part of January, 1679, the party began to for building ^ 11 ^ \ ^ ^ e ti tiie"Grif- carry the material which they had brought from lort Frontenac u}) the steep which leads to the plateau of the Niagara gorge, and to bear it along the portage track for nuFiwnoKs. 259 ill' li I s ! 51 ■ f 1^ ' ¥'■'' ': : 260 CATARAQUI AND CRkVEC(EUR. La Snile nt Fort Fron- teiiac. twelve miles. It was not all the material they had hoped to have, for after La Salle had left his vessel on the lake to make by land the latter part of his way to La Mothe's camp, the craft encountered bad weather and was wrecked. Fortunately, they saved the anchors and cables intended for the new vessel, and it was under the burden of these, with some rejoicing over their good fortune in saving so much, that the party now struggled along the portage of the falls. The new vessel was planned to be about fifty tons burden, as we should now reckon, and the keel being laid. La Salle himself drove the first bolt. Putting the charge of the construction upon Tonty, La Salle returned to the mouth of the river, where he began the construction of a block-house. This well started, he undertook with a few companions to find his way back to Fort Frontenac by land through the Iroquois country. He had to cross the eastern end of the lake on the ice, and reached his destination exhausted and famished. He was in poor condition to encounter the aggravated attacks which his creditors were makin<^- upon his character, and to a^oid tlio embarrassments with which his enemies sought to entangle his projects. It has been said that La Salle's creditors had already seized his property, but Kings- ford, the latest Canadian investigator, can find no evidence of actual seizure. While La Salle was gone, Tonty pushed the shij) well on toward completion, but with constant apprehension that the Seneeas might burn her on the stocks. These Indians hardly concealed their hostility, and could not be induced to sup})ly the camp with food, so that two Mohegan Indians whom the French hid witli them were kept out to hunt for game. By May the vessel was ready to launch. Once afloat, she was towed [The "Grition" was built near tiie jnto the strcam and aucliored. It Avas mouth of Cayuga Creek.] .in. . i I'll 1111 the first moment her builders had had when they felt secure from possible mis hief on the part of the NIAGARA RIVER. ^■■ NIAGARA FALLS. 261 Indians. The savages could now prowl about and look on with wonder without exciting apprehension. Frontenac 16-9, May. bore as supporters to his arms two griffins, and the Jon'"^^[' workmen had carved the figure of one and placed it ^^^^^' at the prow. They had given, indeed, to the ship the corre- sponding name of " Griffon." She was pierced for five guns, and the little pieces grinned ominously from their ports. The fitting and rigging of the vessel went on, and when it was nearly complete Tonty started ahead (July 22) j„, ^ont with a small party to the outlet of the Detroit River, ^oes ai.ead. I ,«i i I t: tn '■* 1 1 n\ HENNEPIN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA FALLS. [From the Noiaelle llecouverle, Utrecht, 1097. The cut iti this edition shows the " Gritfou " on Lake Erie.] A few days later, La Salle arrived from Fort Frontenac, where he had made the best arrangement of his affairs which was pos- .sible, and brought with him the priest Menibr^, whose journal is to help our narrative henceforward. Early in August, the " Griffon " was made ready for a stai't, and amid a discliarge of guns, and with the crew c'liantin"' the Te Diu.n., she was towed against the "onuou" *^ . sails. current till she could bear away with spread canvas I i I ::' . SI ! Hi •PL 5l .'' Ill 11 lillMlV " I'jil m^ mm i?' 'ilijllillS :!;j!i.hr|:'< 262 CATARAQUl AND CRkVEC(EUR. At St. IgnacBc upon the waters of Lake Erie. Three days later (August 10), La Salle saw the three columns of smoke which Tonty gave as a signal at the Detroit River, and took his staunch friend ami companions on board. Passing up the straits, with green sloi)es and verdant groves on either hand, they crossed on Ste. Clare's day the expansion of the stream which now bears a similar but perverted name (Lake St. Clair), and on the 23d the " Griffon " On Lake was boundiug over the waves of Lake Huron. Tlie Huron. wiud was rapidly freshening, and the flying vapors drove in upon her course. It grew to a gale, and the green timbers of the ship creaked ominously. Vows were made to St. Anthony of Padua, and as the seas broke over them hope was nearly abandoned. The crazy ship, however, rode out tlie storm, and on the 27th she rounded to under the point of St. Ignace, and dropped anchor in its quiet shelter. Here the strange community gathered within the palisades of the Jesuit's house, and scattered through the startled Indian village, poured out upon the strand. Presently a hundred canoes weie hovering about the weird and appalling " Griffon." La Salle, robed in scarlet and gold, landed with his companions, and heard mass in the bark chapel of the mission. This over, lie lingered long enough among the huts of the village to discover that mischief was brewing. Some of the party which he had sent forward, as we have seen, to trade among the Illinois, had preferred to linger hereabouts, and were scattered among the bushrangers, who were loitering away their time in the indul- gences of this frontier life. These faithless pioneers had im- bibed something of the distrust and enmity which existed in this wild community against any organized method of tiiide, and were plotting sedition against their leader. La Salle caused the arrest of a few, and sent a party to the Sault to seize some who had wandered thither. Such peremptory de- mands on La Salle's part might stifle, but they did not eradi- cate, the poisonous opposition which his presence created. Arranging for the coming back of the " Griffon " from Green Bay to Mackinac, whence she was to return to Niagara with such furs as could be gathered, to satisfy the demands of his creditors, La Salle set sail once more on her for his destination. At Green Bay, he found other of his men, and they had secnicd a welcome store of peltries. He seemed to forget that the ,;!'•;,; I :|:"^i THE "GRIFFON." 2G3 shipment of them would expose him to the charge of having traffic with the Ottawas, whoso trade his commission warned him not to divert from Montreal. Hennepin tells us that in determining to send the " Griffon " back with these furs, La Salle did not deign to consult with any one. The act was sure to turn against him any traders at Mackinac who were not already estranged. But La Salle never looked far ahead for the effects of any indiscretion. On September 18, La Salle saw the *' Griffon," thus laden with an ill-gotten booty, sail out of Green Bay on her , ,_ ^ >T« mi •! l'>i J, Sept. way to Mackinac and Niagara. There were a pilot, a iS;, .'ri'« ./ '^ 11^1 "Gntioii" business affent, and five other men on board. She saiisfrom , Oreeu Bay. directed her course to the northeast, and was seen no more. La Salle's mind was soon made uneasy when a gale arose and swept along the course of the shij). The people at St. Ignace felt it, and fearetl the little vessel m ght be buffeting its violence. The storm passtMl, and while the sun shone, priest and trader at Mackinac began to peer up the straits for the white sail that was never to come. In all probability the " Griffon " foundered in the gale, and no one survived to tell the tale. There were stories of foul play, of Indians boarding her and nuirdering the crew, and of a faith- less i)ilot, who ran her ashore and endeavored to escape with Ills plunder, but only to be stricken down by the si» , ages, — but there is no evidence to substantiate any of them. La SaJle indeed, at a later day, by talking with a Pana Indian, whom l»d represents as coming from a region two hundred leagues west "> the Mississippi, was satisfied that the youth had seen the pilot of the " Griffon," whom hi^ people had captured while ho v.as on the ^lississippi, endeavoring to reach Duluth in the Sioux country. La Salle was led to believe that if the renegacU* uiissed Duluth he was intending to go to the Knglish at Hudson's Bay. La Salle was confident also that to reach the sjwt where he was captured, he must have passed near the Jesuit stations on Green Bay, and its priests were accimlingly not so ignorant of the fate of the vessel as they i)retended. The ill-fated ship out of sight, T^a Salle was soon on his way up Lake ^Michigan toward the southern nortages. He sent Tonty and a party across the lake, with instructions to follow up the eastern shore of Michigan, ami to join his leader at St. Joseph. :f i i I i i . ill iW ! i |l 1 ■Siil^iif.S ■ ■ . a ■ .- ^ 264 CATARAQUI AND CREVEC(EUR. La Salle himself led a party of fourteen in four canoes, by the western shore. The way proved perilous. His canoes were too deeply laden with forges and tools to buffet easily the gales they encountered, and their food gave out. Unless the shore Indians had supplied them with corn they would have perished, and there was a village of Maskoutens and Outagamies at the river Melleoki (Milwaukee) which proved hospitable. They were glad at one point to feast on the carcass of a deer whicli they rescued from the crows. Their Mohegans hunted to keep them in food, as they had done at Niagara. They discovered some wild grapes, — an unexpected feast. They found some- times that their camp was robbed by lurking savages while they slept. Occasionally, a band of native vagabonds would manifest a hostile air. Once they thought they must fight for their lives, confronted by eight or ten times their own number of capering savages ; but the danger passed. When the assailants came to a parley. La Salle was advised that he would find implacable foes in the Illinois if he went on, for they had been taught to believe by the traders, who were already warning them against La Salle, that the raids which the Iroquois had made into the Illinois country had been instigated by the French. It was November 1, 1679, when La Salle reached the St. iG79,Nov.i. Joseph River. He was some time ahead of Tonty, and ttSe^st! j^* he employed the interval in building a timber fort. It seph River. ^^^ nearly three weeks before his lieutenant appeared with only half his party, for the difficulties of feeding them all along one route had compelled him to divide his followers, and the two sections had taken different ways. Tonty brought no tidings of the " Griffon," as La Salle had hoped he would ; and so two men were dispatched to Mackinac, to be there wlieu slu; returned from Niagara, and guide her to the St. Joseph, whoro four men were left in the fort. On December 3, La Salle, with eight canoes and thirty-three men, started up the St. .Joseph River. There was nothing to cheer them in the stretch of dreary fields and bare woods which lined the river's channel. His anxiety about the " Griffon " weighed him down throughout these seventy sad milcp. For a while he despaired of finding the portage. At last it was discovered, and there was a severe haul over five miles of stiffened ooze. When they once more December 3. . I' ■5. l.i. ililliil::! LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. 265 launched their canoes on the Kankakee, they slipped along with the welcome current through open prairies, which were the range of the buffalo. At last they shot out upon the Illinois. They came to a large village of the Ottawas, but the huts were empty, for it was the period of the winter hunt. They searched the spot till they found a store of buried corn, and took in their need fifty bushels of it. They had passed under the ribbed precipice of what was later known as Starved Rock, not yet suggestive of future trials. Around them lay the broad plains of the Illinois, stretching between its bordering ridges. On January 1, 1680, they landed, and celebrated the feast of the Circumcision. On the 5th, they darted into the icgo janu- expansion of water now known as Peoria Lake. As '""y* they approached its lower end they discovered some thin films of smoke writhing above the woods, and, doubling a point in the contracted stream, an Indian village was before them. La Salle slackened his speed enough to draw out his little flotilla in line across the river, and floated on amid the shouts and cries of the disturbed savages. The aspect for a while was threatening, but La Salle boldly landed as if for conference, and the chiefs ad- vanced with calumets. The peaceful pipe removed distrust, and tobacco and hatchets were soon exchanged for hospitality, while the rubbing of the Frenchmen's feet with unguents mavked the savage civilities. The taking of corn from their village garners was explained and payment offered. With faltering interpre- tation the visitors tried to make c\ ident that they had come to do their hosts a service. They promised to open ti route by which to bring them the a.'ticles of Eui'opean traffic, which were so acceptable. If the_y would generously allow the French to build a fort among them, such trade and reciprocity would be increased. The tribe, s^aid the visitors, could not wisely deny such a privilege, for it would only force their guests to pass on to other more hospitable people. Such were, a^ Hennepin tells us, the persuasions the Fi-enchmen offered. But the golden offers were not doing all that La Salle ex- pected, and he thought he saw that the demeanor of the savages was growing more and more uneas3\ He began to suspect that some of the disappointed and vagrant Mackinac traders who were determined to thwart his purposes had their Indian tuiis- saries in the dusky throngs which surrounded him. Hennepin ■ / ■f :ij I 266 CATARAQUI AND CRilVECCEUR. fi m [■\v'^i 1 ff^B ■ ' ' ' '.j j w' •■ : 'V^'if'i W. ■ '' ' ' "v 1' , 4 ;^B f- tr U}.- ; > charges AUouez, the Jesuit priest who succeeded Marquette in the Illinois mission, and who had been a good deal among these people for the last two or three years, with having instigated these distrusts, and La Salle later professed himself confident of Allouez's intrigues. At all events, it was apparent that some evil purpose had possessed the savages, and was extending even among La Salle's own followers. Two of his best carpenters, upon whom he was depending for future work, deserted him at this juncture, and others less valuable had slunk away. It is even affirmed that some tried to poison their leader, but a good deal of caution must be exercised in interpreting the morose foiebodings of La Salle. A certain rigorous silence which soiDi imes came over him was associated in the minds ff the mistiust 111 savages with what they imagined to be soiue pnrpo. : to favor the Iroquois, and no thought could be more disqt.ieli ir a lung them. It was a -itt such mutterings that La Salle resolved upon boldly pi f iiu' a fortified post among these lowering sava2;e% He selected * spot on a knoll on the eastern bank of the river. This little elevation was flanked by ravines and marshes, and they easily dug a ditch to complete the circuit of defense. Within this they threw up earthworks, protected by builds Fort palisadcs. La Salle named his fort Crevecoeur, — Crevecoeur, * , broken heart ! It has been commonly said that this name was given in recognition of cruel mishaps, which perplexed him, and none of which was more disheartening than the dis- appearance of the " Grififon," for his followers, left at St. Jo- seph, had never been able to send him the grateful tidings of her appearance. It may well be doubted if any but a foolish leader could have so clearly empliasized his misfortunes, when his querulous adherents needed so much to be in- pi-itetl. Shea is accordingly forced to believe that the name was chosen rather in reminis- cence of the Fort Crcvecffiur in the Netherlands which had been captured by Louis XIV. a few years before (1072). The fort well planned, La Salle laid the keel of a small vos- sel of forty tons, — she was to be forty-two feet lonjr OIK] bpftiiis '■ T1C1 I'l work on a with twclvc fcct brcadth of beam, — which was to serve with her high rails as a floating breastwork in his intended voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi. Though ACCAULT AND HENNEPIN. 267 he was embarrassed by the defection of some of his carpenters, the work went bravely on. lie kept his party as closely within his fort as the work permitted, for he could hardly feel that his position was a safe one. Membre, however, lived among the Indians, ministering his holy calling, and we owe to his journal some part of our knowledge of these precarious days. The story which Sagean told after La Salle's death of his partici- pation in this expedition has little or no claims for belief. The Indians had not ceased to picture the horro"s of the lower Mississippi, in their efforts to dissuade the French from going farther down ; but the construction of the ship showed that their intimidations were useless. La Salle soon had the oppor- tunity to impress them with something like a miraculous pres- cience. He chanced to intercept a young Illinois, bound to the village, but yet some distance afield. From him he gleaned a sufficiently accurate account of the leading landmarks in the great river's southern course. With this knowledge La Salle sought an interview with the chiefs, and told them what he ex- pected to find. His descriptions so closely corresponded with what they knew, rather than what they represented, that they were embarrassed, and acknowledged they had had the purpose to deceive him. This moral victory served to make matters more promising, and La Salle determined to return to his manor at Cataraqui, and secure equipments for his ship. But one thing was yet to be done before leaving, and that was to dispatch a party to explore the upper waters of the Mississippi, as comple- menting his own project of exploring the lower parts to j^so, Feb- the sea. To this end one Ac jault was put in command !!auH and ° of a party, and Hennepin was detailed to accompany J^nt't^the him. On the last day of February, 1080, La Salle ^i'^^^^Tp'- saw tlie little expedition start on its way. A recital of its ad- ventures must be reserved for another chapter. We must also Tiit for the present to follow La Salic himself, when a few ilay. later, biddi ig Tonty good-by, and investing him with the command, he also left for his visit to the distant settlements. It is only necessary now to record that he had not gone far when his eye measured the natural stre .g h of the eminence now called Starved Rock, and making an examination of it, he determined it was a better post than Crcvecceur, if a siege was to be withstood. Accordingly, later in his progress, he sent back instructions to Tonty to occupy it. (ir H ■;-! i4t \iyJ mm iiiiii.|: 268 CATARAQUI AND CRkVEC(EUR. These messengers delivered La Salle's instructions ; but that was not all. They aroused the lurking spirit of sedition which La Salle thought he had quieted. They told stories of the financial ruin which had overtaken their leader's affairs in Montreal, and of his consequent inability to succor them. The pay of La Salle's men was long in arrears, and there seemed no hope. Tonty, very likely not aware of the feelings of Starved rcvolt wliich tliesc stories were creating, did not delay to carry out La Salle's commands about the Rock, and left with a few men to visit the spot and begin his occupation of the heights. He was no sooner gone than the smothered pas- sions broke into fury, and the fort was gutted and abandoned. Word of all this soon reached Tonty at the Rock, and he dis- patched two small parties by different routes to carry intelli- gence to La Salle of the ill luck which had befallen Crevecceur. One of the parties, as we shall see, reached its destination. The sending of these messengers depleted Tonty's force so much that he was left with only three com]>anions beside the two friars, to meet what seemed an inevitable fate. The^e was no- thing for the solitary Frenchmen to do but to mingle confidently with the Indian community which surrounded the Rock, and disarm enmity by a seeming trustfulness. In these straits, and with recnrring apprehensions, the spring and summer passed. Early in September, a Shawnee straggler came into the vil- 1C80, Sep- l^g® ^"f^ reported a war party of Iroquois and Miamis irouuou ^"* ^^^* °^- ^^^^ community was exasperated at the attack. sudden danger. It was thought that this new attack of the dreaded confederates was set on by the French, and some scouts who had been out to watch the enemy's advance reported that they had seen La Salle and a blf ck-robe among the approaching foe. The truth was that some leader among them was arrayed in Euro])ean clothes, and the real secret of their renewed hostility was to brtsak uj) the French })lans of establishing traffic in the great valley. If there was any spu* ui)on their movements, it was applied by the English at Albany, wlio looked to the Iroquois as middlemen in keeping up their peltry trade with these western tribes. The Miamis had an old grudge against the Illinois, and the confederates had readily enticed them into joining in the raid. Tonty thus found himself unexpectedly put to a test both of rONTY'S ESCAPE. 209 his audacity and tact. His apparent e; ijerness to join in the frny at last dispelled the suspicions of his Indian allies. The Illinois hurriedly embarked their women and children for an island retreat down the river, and gave the night to making ready for the morrow's fight. With the day the Illinois advanced to meet the attack, and in the midst of the confusion Tonty stepped to the front, hold- ing a wampum belt as an invitation to parley. On his being recognized as a Frenchman, the conflict was partially stilled about him, but it was not checked enough even then to save Tonty from a wound in the surging of the combatants. He succeeded at last in warning the enemy that in attacking the Illinois they were warring upon the French, of whom there was a force of sixty, as he professed, not far off, ready to avenge any disaster. This effrontery gained time, and the Illinois, suspecting the confederates' hesitancy to be only a disguise for something worse, set fire to their town and joined their wo- men down the stream. The Iroquois immediately swarmed over the ground, and began to devastate what the fire had spared. Tonty 's position was growing more critical. It was evident tliat nothing but a policy of peace with Frontenac, which the Iroquois were practicing, saved these appalled Frenchmen from the old fury of their former foes. Tonty soon yielded Tonty to the Iroquois advice, and saw that he must leave the ^^'^"p**- Illinois to their fate. He embarked in canoes with his com- j)iinions, and paddled upstream out of sight and earshot of the hideous revelries. Tonty gone, there was no restraint upon the furious Iroquois, and they started down the river in pursuit of the flying Illinois. The savage demons fell upon their victims wherever they could couie up with them, and left the revolting traces of their fiendish fury all along their track. Tonty, the day after his escape, stopped to repair his canoe, when Father Kibourde, wandering off from the party, was mur- dered by a marauding band of Kickapoos. There were four Frenchmen now left beside their leader, and they pushed on, buoyed by a hope which promised little. They suffered hard- ships that thei'e was no chance of escaping. They passed the Chicago portage and followed down the western shores of Michigan, little suspecting that La Salle was at the same time ii Sir III Ii 'lit i r ! H: 'i-S ■i ■ -n 1.4 }: i i'i 270 CATAHAQUI AND CRkVKCOiUR. following up the opposite shore to succor them. It was now Nov , uec, November, and early in December Tonty met a i)arty 1080. q£ Ottawas, who took them in their canoes. Famisheil, and weakened almost to exhaustion, they found at last hospita- ble entertainment in a Pottawattamie village. Tonty was too ill to go farther, and there happened to be some Frenchmen in the village to nurse him. M 'uibrd was left to proceed alone to Green Bay and report the horrible details of these tragic experiences. ' f March, 1C80 La Salle's movemeuti. f t We may turn nov/ to follow La Salle aftc^r he had parted with Tonty. It was in March, 1680, when, accompanied by his faithful Mohegan hunter and four Frenchmen, La Salle's two canoes glided gut into the icy stream and began to ascend the Illinois. It was dreary weather, and nothing but severe hardship could be in store for them ; but it was necessary to undergo everything if he was to launch his new vessel at Crdvecoeur the next season, since the anchors and other equipments must be brought from the St. Lawrence. They found in some places the ice in the river too thick to break, and were obliged to sledge their canoes. The snow lay deep enough to embank the buffalo, and they got some meat by killing the struggling creatures. Towards the end of March they reached the fort on che St. Joseph. Here they found some of the men who bad bee?a left there, but they had heurd nothing of the " Griffon." Two of them were ordered to join Tonty and carry the message about fortifying the Rock, to which reference has been made. There now lay before them 270 miles of an unexplored path across the neck of the lower Michigan peninsula to the Detroit River. They encountered trials and dangers enough to make the stoutest quail. Shea. who is much inclined to belittle and disparage all of La Salle's acts, looks upon this fearful tramp as " the only really bold and adventurous act " in his career. They waded through drowned lands. They were obliged to thaw their stiffened clothes in *ho morning before they could move. Where they found a path in the open they burned the grass to destroy their trail, for warring savages invested the country, little discriminating as regards their human prey. They fortunately escaped them, or appeased them if encountered. On reaching the Detroit River, along which the Hurons were LA SALLE ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 271 hhc now gatherin s, into a permanent Hettlement, two of Lu Salle*a men were sent to Mackinac to report his movements. The leader with his remaining men now made from elm bark a canoe in which the reduced party finally reached Niagara. Ho here found other of his men holding the post near the shipyard of the *' Griffon." These dependants were equally without tidings of the ill-fated vessel, and had new misfortunes to report, for a ship which La Salle had expected with supplies had been wrecked in the St. Lawrence. Such was the dismal condition which confronted him at Niagara. La Salle had borne up under the hardships of the march better than his men. He bravely stood all these failurt s of his hopes. Taking three fresh men in place of his prosti fora- panions, he again started for Fort Frontenac, and reached that post on May 6 ; he had traveled a thou- * "" *^ron- sand miles, and had been sixty-five days in doing it. There was little to inspirit him about the condition in which he found his affairs. Inquiries disclosed that some of his trusted agents had appropriated the profit of his furs. He learned that others had deserted his interests and had taken his skins to Albany. Somebody had started a report of his death, and on the strength of it, a forced sale had been made of some of his effects. There was yet, however, something more than a reed to depend on. Frontenac was still his support, and La Salle found on going to Montreal that he could yet get credit and supplies. During the two months in which La Salle addressed himself to the improving of his affairs, he succeeded in accom- plishing much, and was on the eve of again departing for the Illinois when one of the parties which Tonty had sent oft' with the news of the revolt at Crevecoeur reached Fort Frontenac. These men also brought tidings of the later riotous conduct of the mutineers, plundering where they could, and that they were now on the way to Cataraqui, scattering reports as they came on of the death of Tonty, and harboring vengeance on La Salle. It was towards the end of July, 1680, when La Salle was awakened to these new dangers. His decision was prompt. He mustered some faithful men, and started to meet the vagabonds. He ambushed his party on the track of the marauders, and easily captured the two canoes which were in advance, and later he seized a third, and returned with all his prisoners to the fort. i t rlM''-''n i:|: IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V ^ ^ {./ z „v < e continent, when in reality it is about midway. This is tlie geographical view which we find was cherished by Joliet and Hennepin, and appears in the maps of Franquelin, who was at this time living in Quebec, and embodying in his maps the latest reports of the western explorers. Who these Europeans were, thus following the hunting party of the Sioux, was an interesting question, which Duluth was anxious to solve, for it was possible that his planting of the royal column amid the Mille Lacs was none too soon, if English or Spaniard had penetrated to its neighborhood. So leaving two of his men to guard his wares, and taking the other two with him, Duluth started down the river. We have seen that just before La Salle left Crcvecaur -to go back to C.ataraquf, in the early spring of 1G80, he had dis- patched Michel Accault, a Picard man, whose name is variously to the Mia- sieaippi, where lie hears of EuropeauBc BUILDING OF THE " GRIFFON." 275 I- V. •■■ I I I Ij i. i rf '■ ■ .1 i f ^ i.'J 276 DULUTH AND HENNEPIN ON THE MISSISSIPPI, 1C80. Ac- cault and Hennepiu. April. Encoiiuter the Biwu. 8pelle<1, with Hennepin and another Picard man, Du Gay, as companions. Their purpose was to conduct an expe- dition to the region where we have just parted with Duluth. The trip is mostly associated with Henne- pin, because we depend on his account of their wanderings ; but Aocault, as the better linguist, seems to have been in charge by La Sailers appointment. Passing down the Illinois, the little party turned up the Mississippi, and went on amid the floating ice. They paddled up beyond the Wisconsin, and when near the Black River, on April 11, they met a party o£ Sioux, a hun- dred and more in number, in thirty-three birch canoes. The savages came down upon the little exploring party with precipitation, and soon surrounded them. The Frenchmen seemed for a while in great danger, but the Sioux had already profited by the French trade, and whatever passions for plun- der stirred them now, there was prudence enough in the savage leaders to check the murderous impulse. They therefore car- ried the captives to their villages. The whole flotilla struggled up against the current, till, coming to the widening of the stream below the modern St. Paul, their canoes were hidden, and the party made the rest of the journey by land, and found a halt at last, and relief from a march which proved weary and painful to the prisoners, on the shores of Lake Buade. Here the Frenchmen were detained for some weeks, being distributed to separate masters ; but all three were at last brought together, to accompany a party of their captors down the Mississippi on a buffalo hunt. Later, Accault preferring to stay with the In- dians, Hennepin and Du Gay were allowed to depart in a canoe to try to join some French, who, as La Salle had prom- ised, were to be at the mouth of the Wisconsin. They went off in the slumbrous air of summer, — for it was July, 1680, — and floated with the current till the falls near the modem Minneapolis confronted them. This cataract owes the name of St. Anthony to Ileanepin, who now first saw it. Carrying their canoe to the quiet water below, they still went on, wondering at the seamy towers of nature's architecture everywhere around them. At last they cast a longing gaze u}H)n the festooned trees which marked the approach to Lake Popin, and were smoothly floated out upon its waters. 1C8I0, July, Hennepin releaaed. THE TWO EXPLORERS MEET. 277 In this neighborhood Plennepin encountered the Indian whose adopted son he had become during his stay at Lake Bu- ade, and from him he learned that a band of the Sioux were not far off, hunting on a tributary of the Mississippi. The French- men's ammunition was well-nigh spent, and they found it im- possible to keep from one meal to another the game which they were fortunate enough to kill. With powder gone they would be in danger of famishing. The lesser evil was to join these hunting Sioux, which they did, and they found Accault among them. While in company with these Sioux, two squaws came from the east and reported meeting a war party of their tribe, accompanied by five white men. Henne- of white pin was as curious as Duluth had been to know what other Europeans were so near him. They were in fact Duluth and his companions. The party which Hennepin had joined, having now ended their hunt, started northward towards their homes, „ , Hennepin and it was not long before the two Sioux parties met, meets and Hennepin and Duluth encountered one another. It was represented later both by Hennepin and Duluth that at the time of their meeting Hennepin was in forcible deten- tion by the Sioux, and that it was Duluth's intervention which released him. The story is not altogether credible, and La Salle at least did not believe it. At all events, the two French- men parted with the Indians in company, and with their com- panions, eight in all, they passed up the Wisconsin, where the traders which La Salle had intended to meet them were not to be found, as the reader might readily suppose from the evil fortune which had overtaken that leader. They passed unmolested by the Fox River to Green Bay, and win- ^^^^ ^^ tered at Mackinac. In May, 1681, Duluth reached juthat Que~ Quebec, and was arrested for illegal trading at the west. The suppression of clandestine traffic had proved so difficult that the home government made a virtue of necessity, and sent orders that the treasury should profit from a freer dis- tribution of licenses. It was directed that twenty-five such permits should be given annually, each covering a single canoe and three men. The spirit of the order was enough to estal)- lish greater leniency for such transgressions as had gone by, and Duluth was released. JP' I i;*l 1 1 1 rli I 278 DULUTH AND HENNEPIN ON THE MISSISSIPPI. narrative in Paris, witli a map. In the same spring (1681), Hennepin appeared among his old companions at Fort Frontenac, ahnost as an appa- Fort Fron- rition, for it was believed, as the report ran, that the savages had hanged him with his own waist-rope. At Montreal he met Frontenac and interested him in his story, and then sailed for France. By the following summer he had prepared a manuscript of his adventures, and, September 3, permission was liBiieg his given to him in Paris to put it to press, and on Jan- uary 6, 1683, it was issued as a Description de hi Louisiane. It is probable that at this time the priest was abiding in the convent at St. Germain-en-Laye. The book is accompanied by a map, which has some noteworthy features. One is that the southern shore of Lake Erie is carried so far south as to cover the proper latitude of the Ohio, of which river the map shows no sign. Indeed, Hennepin seems to have missed a true conception of that stream, for he says it is in the country of the Iroquois, and affords a passage to the Sea of Florida. It is surprising that Hennepin could have been the companion of La Salle and not have heard of the latter's visit to that river fourteen years before, unless, indeed. La Salle at this time had no conception that the river which he then followed flowed into the Mississippi. If the southern shore of Lake Erie had ever been tracked by explorers, equipped after the usual fashion of the time with astrolabes, it is also surprising that some record of its approximate latitude should not have been known, for Hennepin could hardly have failed of converse with Franqueliu when he was at Quebec on his way to France, and that cai- tographer studiously kept abreast of the increasing knowledge of these distant parts. That European axemen had been in this region just about this time has been claimed by Colonel Whittlt'- sey, because of the discovery in numerous places of trees show- ing the cuts of broad-bitted axes under the annual rings, which had begun as early as this period to overlay the wound. It is of course possible that such implements might have been wielded by the savages themselves, and procured through the Iroquois from the English mart at Albany. Another noticeable point of the map is the representatit)n of a mission station far north of the source of the Mississippi, where it is certain that none had been established, or at least MAP OF 168S. 279 there is no record of such. Tlie i)lacing of it there seems to have been a pretension on the part of the Recollect Hennepin HENNEFIN, 1683. that his order had outstripped the venturesome Jesuits, but he prudently removed it from his later maps. '!< I'. , ^i i n ■ r ,:J:'. J:;! m BtrnlU of AuiaD. 280 DULUTH AND HENNEPIN ON THE MISSISSIPPI. In tho book itself, Hennepin speaks of encountering four Indians on his route who had come from a place four hundred leagues farther west, and had been four months on the way, and they had assured him that there was no place like thu Straits of Anian, such as was put down on the maps. Here was a reference to an old problem that had puz- zled many generations of geographers. If Humboldt has cor- rectly divined the origin of the mystery, — it is liard to be satislied that he has, — the notion had arisen as early as 1500, when Cortereal had found the opening of Davis's Straits, that it was in some way the ingress to Asia, and was called tlie Straits of Anian. It is certainly a long time after that before we meet the name, or the passage itself, in cartographical ecu- jecture, and, indeed, it was hardly possible that it could have existed on the maps before the substantial insularity of North America was established. It was then placed so as to prefigure the later-found Bering's Straits, only considerably farther south. Running in a general north and south direction, it was mude to form a passage to the wide expanse of water which in the sixteenth century was generally believed to lie along the north- ern confines of Canada. It is found in this position in the map of Zalterius in 1566. The interval from the days of Cartier to the coming of Champlain, when almost nothing was done to clear up the geography of the nortliern verge of Canada, was when conceptions of the Straits of Anian, traversing or openuig to this region from the Pacific side, were most rife. It got recognition from Mercator, Ortelius, Porcacchi, and Furlano, who were leading geographers of those days. It appeared in the maps of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Frobisher, and the straits called after the latter were supposed to connect with it. Drake sought it in 1578 ; and six years later, when Gali made a northern sweep from the Philippines to Acapulco, he was thought to have disproved its existence by the breadth which he fouiul the North Pacific to have. The tendency was to move the posi- tion of the straits farther north, and Wytfliet in the first Ameri- can atlas (1597) reverted to the old notion, which was kept up later by Hondius (1613). Thirty years afterwards the explo- rations of De Vries, the Dutch navigator, induced people to think for a while that where Gali had supposed a broad ocean, there was really a huge island, which the Spanish navigator did not go LAND OF JESSO. S81 far enough north to see. This was thought to bo of almost cou< tinental extent, barring access to the boreal regions except at its eastern and western extremities. The channel on the American side of this island thus became the straits ho long searched for. This was perhaps the prevalent belief when Hennepin ques* M O W CD '5 : » Hi ii ,> ; m I m tioned these hardy wanderers from the distant west on the upper waters of the Mississippi. While recording this denial of the straits' existence, Henne- pin refers to the failure, as he understood it, of both the Euj>'- lish and the Dutch to find such a passage at the north, but expresses a faith that by pursuing some of his own discoveries, t, . 1 . I \ V 282 DULUTH AND HENNEPIN ON THE M/SSlSSIPPf. Kll a river would yet he found capable of floating large vchsoIs to the South Sea, where without crosHing the equator, Asia could be reached. *' It is most likely/* he adds, ** that Japan and America are one continent," and such was not an infrequent belief in sunu; form, before the severance of Asia and America was finally established by Bering nearly fifty years later. lien, nepin wavered in his dissent, or perhaps his editor did for him, for when in 1G97 his new edition appeared, he adopted the Dutch notion of Jesse — as the intervening island already men- tioned was called — in a map of the north Pacific which is given in that book. Hennepin's reputation with posterity has rested rather upon Hennepin'i ^^^^^ later cditiou than upon his original of 1G83, and veracity. ^^^^ ^ j^jg advantage. In this earlier book, except- ing his forcible detention by the Sioux, which La SaUe found it worth while to discredit, there is not much to question. Parkman calls it ** comparatively truthful." It stands reason- ably well a critical test, and the internal evidence is in its favor. It has been alleged by Margry that the correspondence in the text shows a closer relation to an account written by La Salle than is consistent with an independent relation ; but this cor- respondence extends to events of which Hennepin had personal knowledge, and La Salle had not. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that Hennepin may have acted as a scribe for La Salle, and that each used the same record for his own purposes. It is hardly worth while to go to the other extreme adopted by Shea in charging La Salle with pilfering from Hennepin. The map which accompanied this Description omitted the lower parts of the Mississippi where it connected itself with the gulf, and this connection was only suggested by a dotted line. The Nouvelle Decouverte of 1697 is the Descrip- tion de la Louisiane of 1683, enlarged. It purports also to be a more truthful account of Hennepin's discoveries than he felt at liberty to make while La Salle, whom he looked upon as an enemy, was alive. These suppressed state- ments, no longer withheld, were to substantiate his new map, which boldly represented the Mississippi throughout its entire course to the gulf. There is some reason to believe that about the time of issuing his first book, he orally professed to have descended the Mississippi ; but that book contains only a regret Hennepin's Aonrelle Dicouverle. HENNEPIN AND MEMRRA. 283 n\n\omeUe Voyaije. that ho had not tho tinio to do ho. Tho Htatement which ho now printed represented that when ho and Accault went down tho Illinois to its mouth, they then turned downstream and proceeded to tho outlet of tho Mississippi. After this, return* ing to tho starting-place, they went up, and pursued tho course which had induced tho narrative of tho earlier hook. This meant, provided tho dates given in tho Description were cor- rect, that Hennepin had, within tho thirty days which were al- lowed for tho exploit, paddled thirty-two hundred miles, down and up stream, and that ho had made sixty miles a day, when only an average of perhaps twenty to twenty-five was possible. La Salle, in one of his papers, says that a day's travel on tho river means seven or eight leagues. It was certain this difficulty would be noted, as well as the remarkable secrecy which had been maintained in his first book regarding the undertaking. Some bluster was sufficient to moot the charge respecting tho secrecy, and this was abundantly offered in tho Nou- vclle Voyage, which was printed as a sort of supple- ment the next year. In this a violent preface defended his claim to have gone down the Mississippi. To support his auda- city, ho had two resources : one was to assert that the distance was not what it was supposed to be, and the other was so to change his dates that ho could make it appear that he had forty-three days instead of thirty for the task. Curiously enough, he boldly in the Nouvelle Voyage shifted the charge of plagiarism — which followed upon its being dis- covered that the account of La Salle's own voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi bore a close resemblance to Hennepin's narrative — upon Leclercq, in whose Premier Etabliss( /iient de la Foy, Hennepin's text, with little change, had recently ap- peared, as a journal of Membre, the companion of La Membr.;'. Salle. It was now asserted that Hennepin had left in ^°"""'^' Quebec an account of his own experience while descending the river in 1680, to which Leclercq got access, and converted it to his purpose in describing the adventures of La Salle for the fol- lowing year. Dr. Poole, who, in an address before the American Historical Association in 1888, was inclined to look charitably on the charges ordinarily preferred against Hennepin, frankly acknowledged that if he was the author of this statement, a defense of his reputation is hopeless. ilv i u 4\ >-t ' Pi vi if > ! i ' n «v 4 '?US. ill jjl- w El ".^ m] t • III 284 DULUTH AND HENNEPIN ON THE MISSISSIPPI. Sparks, in his Life of La Salle^ made a thorough exposure of the correspondences of Hennepin's narrative with the journal of Membre as given by Leclercq. From that day to Parkman's Hennepin has usually been held up to the modern reader's scorn. Shea, not long after Sparks's exposure, went so far as to throw discredit upon what Hennepin says of the upper Missis- sippi, and to doubt if he ever went upon its waters at all. Of late there have been persistent efforts to restore the good Defense of name of Hennepin, and Shea, to make amends for his Hennerin. g^rly mistrust, has been the chief advocate of these PPL xposure journal irkman's reader's far as to r Missi.s- ,11. the good Is for his of these MAP OF 1607. 285 later views. The argument which has been relied upon is this : Hennepin having prepared a new edition of his Description^iha copy was left with the publisher, who, to add to the attractive- ness of the book, and to give some surprises that would induce a larger sale, subjected it to further remodeling by an irre- X sponsible editor. It was the work of this literary jobber who, it is claimed, interpolated the citations from Membre. He it was, too, who added to the book the parts which are relied upon to prove Hennepin's audacity. That there was such a mendacious editor is supposed to be shown in the passages which %;r ii 286 DULUTH AND HENNEPIN ON THE MISSISSIPPI. i:v This Jirgu- Hennepin, as a Catholic, could not have written, ment is not a strong one, for Hennepin was quite capablo of writing, it is to be feared, much that one would not suppose him to write. The other argument is stronger, for it is founded on a comparison of type and other signs of the. printing-office, to show that these questionable parts were not set up in the same office, or at least at the same time, with those which are not questioned. It does not certainly follow as a matter of course that Hennepin could not have done even this, though his defenders would fain think that he could not. It is reason- able perhaps to suppose, if Hennepin had found his name was used to inflict a wrong, that he would have in some way recti- fied the error, or at least have prevented the repetition of it in the numerous editions of the text which followed, or were trans- formed by translations. He certainly busied himself with no such purpose, and winced not a little under the imputations of fraud which early beset him. The Nouvelle Voyage Voyage, of 1698 rctumcd to the task of imposing on the public. His defenders resort to the supposition that this book was under the same evil influences of a hireling publisher as the one of the previous yeai*, and that Hennepin had no more to do with its impositions than with the earlier ones. Meanwhile, pursued, as is represented, by the enmity of the provincial of his order in Paris, either through the influence of La Salle or because of some recalcitrancy of his own, Hennepin had thrown himself into the service of William III. of Eng- land, whom he had known in the Netherlands, and simultane- The New ously a Combination of the books of 1697 and 1098 Discovery, ^^g brought out in English at London, as The New Discovery., and the imposition went on. Membre's journal is very like a Relation which is preserved in the Archives of the Marine at Paris, which Parkman suspects was La Salle's official report, drawn up perhaps by Membre, if indeed it was not written by La Salle himself, as some sup- pose. That Hennepin got access to this in the manuscript, and was not compelled to draw upon Leclercq's printed volume, is not unlikely, though it has been alleged that he more confi- dently used the book of Leclercq because the chance of detec- tion was decreased from the suppression of that printed narra- tive. There is certainly room for doubt as to the authorship of V. ai-gu- ibL MEMBRi: AND THE RELATION. 287 this Relation, — it is given by Margry, — and just precisely what are the separate or combined connections of La Salle, Membre, and Hennepin with it is open to conjecture. It was very likely a compilation from various sources, made in Paris for presentation to Colbert, and perhaps put in shape by the Abbe Bernon, as has been alleged. IS % "t % ih In r CHAPTER XIII. LA SALLE, FRONTENAC, AND LA BARRE. 1681-1683. A WEARY, disheartening winter lay before La Salle at his 1081. La po^' i^ *^*® Miami country. He had left the wreck M/imi"coun. "^ ^"^ fortunes on the Illinois. There were no tid- *'y- ings of his faitliful Tonty, though a piece of sawn wood which he had seen on the Kankakee gave him hope that his friend had passed that way. La Salle knew how the story of his misfortunes would sap the sj^irits of his distant friends. Those who had risked money on his undertaking were to be appeased. He had, during the autumn, written to one such, assuring him that profits would surely come, if he would only be patient. "I am disgusted at being always compelled to make excuses," he wrote, " but I hope you will get other information of how things are going on here, beside what the Jesuits give you." He advised his supporter to send some one out who could take an intelligent view of the situation. lie did not greatly encourage such a creditor, I suspect, when he acknowledged that he had little business skill of his own, and knew nothing about bookkeeping ! When he reached the fort on the St. Josejjh, in January, 1681, he found La Forest with his party occupying it. They were getting out timber for a new vessel, and had repaired the defenses of the post. In the neighborhood there were a few New England Indians hutted for the winter. They were out- casts that had fled west after the failure of King Philip's war, and were mainly Mohegans and Abenakis, La Salle won a staunch friend among them, and his Mohegan hunter long merited his confidence. Dethroned almost from leadership as he was. La Salle's steadfast spirit was planning how he might head a league of the le at his he wreck ! no tid- of sawn lope that the story t friends, ere to be )ne snch, nild only pelled to ^et other what the some one on. lie when ho own, and January, it. They •aired the 2re a few were out- lip's war, le won a liter long a Salle's :ue of the LA SALLE FINDS TONTY. 289 Miamis and other western savages, in the hope that it could roll back the tide of Iroquois success. Perhaps he could work upon them through his faithful Mohegans. In March, he started on towards the Illinois, full of this hope. Goes' toward On the way, he met a band of the Foxes, and from them learned that Hennepin had passed through their country from the Sioux region, and that Tonty was among the Potta- wattamies. These tidings hurried him on. He laid his plans before the Illinois, and then, coming back to the JSIiamis, en- deavored to enlist their sympathies with those of the New Eng- land Indians that were scattered about the country. He felt that he had accomplished something, and, leaving the plot to ripen, he started from Fort Miami toward the end of j^gj j,,^^ May, and made his way to Mackinac. There he ft Mackinac found Tonty and Membre, and spent awhile in talking "oFort""^"* over their varied mishaps. It was now June, 1681. ^'""t™'":- IVIembr^ gives us a picture of La Salle bearing up, as he saw him, under his accumulated burdens. In this courageous frame of mind, he and Tonty left Mackinac, and undertook a thou- sand miles of canoeing to his seigneury at Cataraqui. Here he addressed himself to repairing his credit and getting a new outfit. He offered his creditors a lien upon his estate and dis- covered new resources, making his will at the same time in favor of one of his chief abettors, a cousin, for whom he seems to have had much consideration. It was at this time (August 22) that he wrote a letter which Margry assigns to the following year, but its contents be- long clearly to this period. The letter is given largely to com- l)laining of Duluth, whom he accuses of boastfully claiming for his discoveries in the Sioux region what fo^ Hemie- La Salle thinks should be rather credited to his own n the last I, and on it without r dividing , Salle led Qnty with 5 Dautray LIMITS OF LOUISIANA. 293 conducted the rest along the most easterly current. Presently the water grew from brackish to salt, and they knew they were apijroaohing the sea. On the 9th they all reunited, and .,. PI 1 I -1 • 1082, April. lust Within one of the outlets they made preparations ceremony iipmi 1 at tlie mouth for a ceremony, long thought or. Ihe customary col- o/tiio mis- uinn was set up, proclamation was made in the name of the king, and France assumed the kind of domination that comes of such ceremonies, over the entire water-shed pf the great river. It was a confirmation of the lesser claim which La Salle had only recently made among the Arkansas, and which Duluth had made in the country of the Siou x, — a more defi- nite assumption certainly than that which St. Lusson had pro- claimed in so vainglorious a fashion at the Sault 8te. Marie eleven years before. The Vexilla lierjis and Te Demn were sung as usual, the notary drew up the record, and a vast stretch of territory passed into history as Louisiana. A leaden plate, with engraved testimony to the act, was buried at the foot of the column. Meinbre tells us that La Salle took the latitude with his astrolabe, and the party supposed it to be between the parallels of 27° and 28° ; but their leader did not disclose the exact position. They thought that the Bay of Espiritu Santo lay northeast of them, and that vagrant name doubtless here meant the Bay of JVIobile. The nearest settled post of the Spaniards was thought to be Panuco, ninety to a hundred leagues to the west. Just what was determined to be the limit of this vast territory appeared when Franqueliu worked over all the evidence, and marked the extent in his great map of 1G84. By this the French claim was bounded by the Gulf of Li,,,,^, Mexico westward to the Rio Grande, thence north- westerly to the rather vague water-shed of what wo now know as the Rocky Mountains, with an indefinite line along the sources of the upper Mississippi and its higher affluents, bounding on the height of land which shut off the valley of the Great Lakes till the Appalachians were reached. Following these moiui- tains south, the line skirted the northern limits of Spanish Florida and then turned to the gulf. Such dimensions disclosed a marvelous domain. At the north, the headwaters of the great river were still unknown, and were long to remain so. They were in a region where the mean temperature of the year was 40° Fahrenheit, and at the gulf it was 72°. This stretch lOf Loui»iaua. r i' \\ h -. \ J ■: 294 LA SALLE, FRONTENAC, AND LA BARRE. of twelve hundred miles ran from corn to oranges, from syca- mores to palmettos. The flood that coursed this enormous ha sin was one of the world's largest, draining an area of more than FKANQUELIN, 1684. [Sketched from the Parkman copy of the original (now lost) in the ArchiTes of the Marinp at Paris. It resembles closely one in the Ministire dea Affaires Etrangdres of similar title, Na 7920. If not by Franquelin, it was doubtless made from his drafts.] •om syca- riuous Xvd more tbuu THE MISSISSIPPI MOUTHS. 295 of the Marine nt similar title, Na twelve hundred and fifty thousand squaro miles, which sent twenty million of millions cubic feet of water annually into tlio sea. Below the Ohio, the rise and fall of the current was forty or fifty feet. La Salle had been the first of Frenchmen to reach the mouth of the great river, and fifty years had passed since his coun- trymen on the St. Lawrence had begun to dream of this mys- terious river and to debate about its outlet. A paper which Margry prints shows that La Salle was acquainted with the narrative of De Soto's adventures, opening to Spanish actpuiint- ance the circuit of the gulf, a century and a half befoi-e. After La Salle had passed on to the river's mouth, through forests of cypresses hung with moss, and when he exi)erienced what a tremulous ooze its swamps and bayous affoixled, he foimd it difficult to suppose the river which he had coursed was the one which De Soto had known. This unbelief was further reason for him to suspect that another great valley lay to the east of the Mississippi. It is rather striking that New England Indians, outcast by their tribes' reverses, and sent as homeless wanderers Auency ot to the west, should have looked on at this far-i-each- uTij ^uX ing act upon the delta of the Mississippi, for by it La ""*• Salle secured to France that " Acadian coast " as an asylum for that other luckless race of the eastern seaboard whom the struggle between France and England was destined to throw upon its banks, seventy-five years later. At the time of the discussion which arose under the treaty of 1763, the fact of this attendance of New England Indians in La Salle's train was brought up as indicative — but certainly without proof — of earlier English knowledge of this outlet of the great valley, which had been gained in company with these same Indians. It was alleged that in revenge for the reverses at the hands of the English in the war which drove them from their soil, they now led the French to their great discovery I La Salle started to return with gloomy prospects. Food was scarce, and some dried meat which they found proved i,, gaiie to be human flesh. They put up instead with alligator "*'""'*• steaks. They fought the Indians for something to sustain them I 290 L.l SALLE, FRONTENAC, AND LA BARRE. ji; LA SALLE'S RETURN. 297 7 i i\ I ;5 «Ut.km'.i W in one place, and barely e»cap' <1 a fatal enoounter at another. La Salle represents that as ho approached the country of the Arkansas, he took the west channel, where a large island divided the stream, because ho had left some cquiptn(*iits on that side in going down. Here he pushed ahe.i 1 of the others, taking two canoes with him. When ho reached Fort Prudhomnie, he fell ill, and for forty days his life vvua despaired of. Meni- lirc watched him tenderly through it all, while Tonty was sent ahead to carry the news of the discovery. By the end 1^82, scp. of July, La Salle had recovered sufficiently to start |r^"^»tgt^ on. Passing by Fort Miami, he rejoined Tonty at St. '8»»<=*- Ignace, in September. La Salle was still weak from his illness, and he tells us that he was hardly himself for four months. He might have gone on and carried the details of his expedition to Quebec, but there was need of his returning to the Illinois. This necessity probably ])rompted him to write out what passes for his official report, preserved in the Archives of the Marine at Paris. A Relation which rendered the narrative in the third person, and which Thomassy was the first to publish, has appar- ently a pretty close connection with the paper in the Archives of the Marine. It may be that the Membre journal, as printed in Le Cleroq, is derived from the same source. It was first given to the English reader in Shea's Discovery of the Mis8is8ij)pi. It was not long before Tonty was sent back to the Illinois to found a colony, as the best way to secure and organize the pos- session of the country. In a letter which La Salle had just (October, 1682) dispatched to France, he had hinted at an expedition which he might vet make by water usaiie's * . . schemes. to the Gulf of Mexico, so as to establish a complemen- tal colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The two colonies would then be in proper correlation to one another, and trade could be carried on between these two extremes of Louisiana, and brought into easy communication with France, — more easy than could be possible by the uncertain and laborious passage by the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, closed as it was by ice during so large a part of the year. The proposed movement in turn fell in with the wishes of some in authority to secure the outlet of the great valley against both the Spanish and the English. i i , fte 298 LA SALLE, FRONTENAC, AND LA BARliE. mM < t!i| r [!■ A contingency very soon made it evident to La Salle that his presence was needed in support of Tonty's mission, for rumors had reached him at Mackinac that the Iroquois were again raiding westward and threatening the Illinois. Frontenae in the last months of his power saw that his con- trol of the Iroquois was slipping from his hands. He wrote to the home government that for ten years his policy with the Indians had been successful, but that a military force of some five or six hundred men was absolutely necessary if his control was to go on for another ten years. There was nothing incensed the confederates more than the movement which La Salle was making in the Mississippi valley. Scarcely a French trader could enter that country and escape the vigilance of the Iro- quois. They even dared to ambush the French canoes on Lake Iroquois and Ontario. Meanwhile the English allurements were the English, growing Stronger and stronger, and the savage confed- erates were entering into mutual obligations with distant settlers of that race in Maryland. The king was fast losing patience with the way in which affairs in Canada, with a population that had grown to rising ten thousand, seemed to be going from worse to worse. Her trade with the West Indies had about come to a standstill, and home farming was in no better plight. If the government distributed seed, it was left to rot, and was not planted. If the church was paternal, it claimed for obser- vances all but about ninety days of the growing season, which was short enough at the best. The passion of the young men for the woods was uncontrollable; and it was estimated that at least eight hundred youngsters, fitted to till the soil, were scamper- ing wildly in the forests, doing good to no one, and destroying the regular channels of trade with the Indians. They were carrying brandy to the braves and debauching them, and the law against it could not be enforced. The girls who -vere left unmarried in the settlements were hardly less idle, and iu> one taught them to weave or to spin. His royal master more than once wrote to Frontenae that everybody complained of him, and none more than the intend- ant. Affairs were no better when Colbert, who had always admonished Duchesneau as if he were a child, resigned, and his son Seignelay took charge of the colonial business. This change Bad con- dition of Canada. U.i ■ GOVERNOR LA BARRE. 299 M » that his rumors >re again t his con- wrote to with the of some is control incensed Salle was ch trader the Iro- > on Lake mts were ;e confed- nt settlers in which I grown to 1 worse to lad about ter plight, t, and was for obser- son, which ig men for lat at least i scamper- lestroying ?hey were n, and the I ',vere left nd no one tenac tliat ;lie intend- ad always !d, and liLs his change in the ministry was not an auspicious one for La Salle ; nor for Frontenac, for it gave new opportunities for crimination and recrimination. Duchesneau lost no time in renewing his charges against the governor. He intimated that Frontenac and La Salle were conspiring together to keep up the war be- tween the Iroquois and the Illinois, in order to further their projects of trade. Frontenac wrote to the perplexed monarch that it was the enemies of La Salle and the English who were instigating these savage hostilities. In fact, there was little to choose between these mutual accusers. The fur trade had always demoralized the whole people, and there could be no improvement so long as the government imposed impracticable restraints. There was hardly a family in Canada that was not interested in this illicit commerce and had not a member in the woods, and the English traders at Albany were profiting from it all. Nothing could be more natural, when, as Duchesneau informed the king, beaver was worth nearly double in Albany what it was in Quebec. Frontenac told him much the same story, for he said that the English rated beaver at about a third more than the French, and they counted the merchandise which they used in exchange at not more than half the value of the French. With this tax, how could Canada compete ? And who could say that even the governor and his friends were not using their position to trade with Albany ? Duchesneau's remedy was to destroy their rival by buying his country, and he urged upon the minister at home the purchase both of New England and of Manhattan and Orange (Albany). But it was not left for Frontenac to deal with the approaching questions. Already, in May (1682), the king had conmiissioned a new governor, and had given him his B"'e gov- ^ ° emor. instructions. These were to make a show of power to impress the Iroquois, but to avoid a war if possible, and by all means to preserve quiet among the Illinois. It was August, and Quebec was trying to recover from the horrors of a great fire in the town, which, in destroy- Q„ebec iiig fifty-five houses, had swept away half the property ''"'^®" of the colony. Just at this juncture, the new ruler, to replace Frontenac, arrived. La Barre was a soldier, who had done good service against the English in the West Indies, but he was no longer young and agile in body or mind. lie was sixty years i'l:^ !'«■ Bill '^ i '■fll I ;> I: 'i ,i, ■ 300 LA SALLE, FRONTENAC, AND LA BARRE. 'i- \ : \ ! H;;: MS old. He had been a lawyer once, and perhaps that rendered him timid in facing new problems and taking responsibilities. The Indians soon discovered that the vigor they had been accustomed to respect in Frontenac was gone. The king had warned La Barre that he must get on as best he could with tlie military force already in the colony, for he could spare him no more. The new governor was soon appalled at what he saw and learned, and wrote back that it was absolutely necessary to have an increase of his force. In October, the governor held a council, and it seemed to be the general opinion that the Iro- quois were deceiving the French in order to pounce upon their western allies. Frontenac had called the confederates " Chil- dren ; " La Barre called them " Brothers," after the earlier cimnge of habit. It bctokcned very well the altered relations policy. \i\i^\ the savages which were taking place perceptibly. There was no less a change with those who had stood by the government of Frontenac. They now found themselves cast aside, and it was the enemies of Frontenac and of La Salle who came into power. La Chesnaye, the richest merchant in Quebec, who just now stood well with all for his generous bounty to those who had suffered by the fire, readily got the ear of the new governor, and poured into it all the rumors which were afloat prejudicial to the absent explorer. La Salle's property at Cataraqui was after a while seized, on the ground that he had not kept his contract in maintaining it. It was not long before La Barre was throwing doubt on the pretenses of La Salle to discovery, and was writing to the king that the man was doing his best to bring on an Iroquois war. The king had no sanguine hopes in respect to western discovery, at the best. He had told La Barre that these western efforts were not as useful as was claimed, but that he might suffer La Salle to go on, just to see what would come of it. For seventy years and more, and ever since Hudson's explo- rations at the north had disturbed Champlain and his associates, the French had kept an eye upon the English in the north, and upon their efforts to divert the Indian trade. Without French , claims at the discovcry Or oocupatiou the French had in 1G27 pro- fessed their right as far north as the Arctic circle by ; HUDSON'S BAY. 301 enderecl ibilities. id been ing had with tlie him no he saw ssary to nor held the Iro- )on their "Chil- e earlier relations ceptibly. d by the Ives cast La Salle just now who had governor, rejudiciaJ 'aqui was kept his 3an'e was i^ery, and 5 best to hopes in La Barre mod, but at would 's explo- isociatos, »rth, and Without G27 pro- circle by the charter of the company of the Hundred Associates. They now professed that England recognized these boreal rights when in the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye in 1633, Canada — whatever that may mean — had been restored to the French. There is no evidence that down to 16G0 France had obtained any knowledge of this northern region except as the Indians had described it. As the result of Captain Gillam's venture, the English had in 1670 laid claim to the whole water-shed of the bay in the charter of the Hudson Bay Company. This and the earlier exploration of Hudson were much more than a fair offset for the paper claim of the Hundred Associates. We have seen that Talon sent Albanel by way of the Saguenay to get a glimpse of James's Bay, in 1672. Grosseilliers and Ra- disson, who had been in the English service there a few years later, had found it prudent to leave that service and seek resti- tution to French favor ; and with the certificate that they had made their peace in Paris, th'^y had appeared in Quebec in 1676, anxious to be recognized, but were not successful in the attempt. While they were still in an enforced disgrace, Joliet had been sent in 1679 from Tadoussac, and accomplished the feat of Albanel once again. It is claimed that the English tried to induce Joliet to join their interests, but he proved faith- ful to his race. He probably on his return prompted Duches- neau, in 1681, to ask to be allowed to undertake an expedition to drive the English out. The next year, 1682, the Company of the North, which had been formed to be some sort of compensa- tion for the trade which was slipping into the hands of the Eng- lish at the west, undertook to do what Duchesneau had urged. They put two ships under the command of Grosseilliers and Radisson, who were now restored to active participancy in their old field. The party attacked unexpectedly the English post at Port Nelson. The authorities on the wavering con- _, ,, , XT T » English and flicts between the French and English at Hudson s French con. t * nn 1 IllClS* Bay during the rest of this century are dirncult to use with satisfaction. The two sides differ constantly in their statements, and every effort is made by each to cast the stigma of unprovoked assault on the other side. Neither were the French the only adversaries which the Hudson Bay Company encoun- tered. It had become much the habit for the New Englanders to carry on an illicit trade there by water, and the company con- Ill 1 I ^ i 302 LA SALLE, FRONTENAC, AND LA BARRE. \eSfl, De- cember. La Balle and Tonty at Starved Rock. stantly complained of such " interlopers." There is no occasion now to dwell upon the bewildering story, other than as it has some relation to the schemes of discovery at the west. English possession of these northern rivers, which led up to the sources of those that beyond the divide descended to the region of the Sioux, affected the French trade in that direction, and con- trolled French discovery. We have seen that La Salle had taken exception to the at- tempts of Duluth to open this Sioux country by way of the Illinois territory, and it was La Salle's eagerness to be sure of maintaining his hold on the Illinois that made him give up his proposed visit to Fort Frontenac, when he started to join Tonty among the Illinois. It was in Decem- ber when the two friends laid among the ittack. He Id, and sent LA SALLE IN FRANCE. 307 He prob- planaed to as not loiiij ch permits, lis had not and diseov- ditors. La Salle reached Quebec in November, and embarked for France. On December 23, he landed at Rochelle. Perhaps he gained new courage when he found how largt space in the public mind Canada was beginning to fill. If the king had not been much impressed with the importance of La Salle's discoveries, others had been. It all had served, says Professor Seeley, " to bring France into the foremost of colonial powers." The interest had in some part arisen from the attrac- tions which Hennepin was offering to the ordinary reader, since the priest's first book, as we have seen, was just now creating a lively influence in what he had revealed, and the narrative was rapidly extending its circle of readers by translations into nearly all the western languages. A cataract five hundred feet liigh, as his story represented Niagara, and of enormous volume, was finding a place in popular regard among the world's great wonders. h CHAPTER XIV. LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. 1684-1687. Ml It has been supposed that La Salle on going to France took with him the material which he had accumulated for a map of his discoveries. The data had probably been arranged by Franquelin in Quebec, and we have, it is supposed, the result a" worked up by some Parisian cartographer, in what is known as 1684 F *^® 1684 map of Franquelin. This productioa has queiin's already been referred to as defining what was then understood to be the bounds of Louisiana. If it was not upon the representations of this map, it must have been on such showing as La Salle could make from his own memoranda, that soon after his arrival he was at work framing a memorial to the king, in which he asked that he might i o allowed to con- duct an expedition by sea to the mouths of the great river which he had discovered. It was not an in- opportune moment for such a petition. The relations of France with Spain suggested a blow at the Spanish domination in the Gulf of Mexico, if France could deal one. There was, moreover, an attractive field for conquests in the Spanish silver provinces of New Mexico, which La Salle was not slow to point out as a way for France to take revenge for Spanish insolence in the gulf. It would at the same time secure for a dutiful subject like himself some recompense for his loyal sacrifices. La Salle reminded Seignelay also that it was not to be forgotten that the expedition offered a great opportunity to reach the heathen, who were already, as La Salle represented, much incensed against the Spaniards for their treatment of them. It was not only in generalizations of glory and Christian en- deavor that La Salle urged his plans. He entered into pavtiou- La Salle proposes ex pedition to the QxiU of Mexico. France took or a map of rranged by the result iv is known as duccioa has it was tlieu . If it was ave been on aiemoranda, a memorial »wed to con- Df the great not an in- he relations the Spanish (I deal one. tests in the did not overlook the advantages which La Salle's ostablishiuents on the Illinois might be in the near future, and he told Seignclay that such benefit ought to be counted upon. All this helixul La Salle, who at the same time was very likely instigating the public reports that in establishing those posts on the uppt>r Mississii)pi he had not had the support which he deserved from the authorities in Canada. These movements had all the effect on the king whirh La Salle could hope for, and letters were written to La Barn; ordering the restitution of Fort Frontenac and the Rock to Lsi i(!84, Nov. Salle. His lieutenant, La Forest, was dispatched in Jeliuo**' April, 1684, with such directions, being at the same L^'sane'" t""6 instructed to receive the fort and hold it for liis iiitererts. master. La Forest apparently had some hope that he might be later directed to lead a force down the Mississippi to cooperate with La Salle, but no such orders were sent. When the plans had ripened. La Salle received a new com- mission, by which he was authorized to found colonies in Louisiana, and to govern the vast territory from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. The king did his part in ordering- to the service more than La Salle had dared to ask for, — one shij), the " Joly," of thirty-six guns, and another of six guns, beside two smaller craft. By the end of May, La Salle was in RochellSv making ready for the embarkation, and his agents were going about the streets picking up recruits. lie secured a force of marines, a hundred soldiers, and about two hundred and eighty other persons, including women and chil- dren ; for it was to be a colony based on family life, whatever ulterior purpose it was to serve as a military rendezvous. Among the leaders of the party we recognize an old friend in Membre, and there were other priests, not without later fame, in Douay, and Leclercq, the Etahlissemcnt de hi Foij of the latter being a book we must often turn to in our study of these times. Another Sulpitian was Father Cavelier ; a brother of La Salle, and a fellow Rouennaise, Joutel, were also in the company. We know more of the story of the subsequent mishaps from the journal which Joutel kept of them. La Balle made gov- ernor of LouiaiaDO. His com- rades : Douay, Leclercq, Cavelier, Joutel. liEAUJEU AND LA SALLE. 311 * id resolved me, he did ihiuentH on Seignelay ;hi8 helped gating the the upper irved from ; whii'h La La Barr<; lock to La patched in ; the same I it for Ills )pe that he ksissippi to t. k new coni- iid colonies itory from je king did ! had dared nd another f May, La cation, and jruits. He about two I and eliil- j, whatever ■endezvous. I frienil in ^ater fame, de I 'I Foij turn to in pitian was id a fellow know more rnal which Beaujeu, a captain in the royal navy, reported to take com- mand of the |)rinoipal Hhip, and his position was i,„a„j„„,na necessarily such as brought him int(» close companion- '^ *'»""• ship with La Salle. If they had been suited to one another, Heuujeu would not have had for so many years a bad rej)uta- tion with writer . as an obstructor of La Salle's purposes. The documents whicii Margry has of late published quite reverse the world's judgment of this naval olticer, and lead us to believe that he did all that a sensible person should do to bring order out of the confusion with which such a visionary as La Salle was sure to swamp any business he undertook. Beaujeu, by his education as an officer, was very likely exacting in the requirements which he considered essential to the proper order- ing of such an undertaking, and he couUl hardly avoid reaching the conclusion that La Salle's unbusiness-like ways were the signs of a wavering intellect, — as he did. It was natural for a vain, self-contained man like La Salle, who had no conception of how a well-ordered experiment should be tried, to grow jeal- ous of any one who showed superiority in method. So the relations of the naval connnander and the leader of the expe- dition were strained from the first, and we cannot but wish that Beaujeu had been left to his own head for this venture, and that La Salle had been sent back to Canada with La Forest. - As it was, Beaujeu's position was most trying, and nothing but resources of tact on his part carried the project on at all. It was unfortunate that the wife of Beaujeu was a confidant of the Jesuits, for this was enough to disquiet La Salle's mind as to every motion of the naval commander. So there were imagined machinations of the Jesuits haunting La Salle, and causing distraction when he should have been forming plans. Beaujeu constantly complains that he never knew where to find his associate. This seaman was a Norman himself, and he thought he knew his countrymen's failings. " Never a Norman was so much Norman as La Salle," he said, " and Normans are always stumbling-blocks." It is curious to see hov/ Margry, another Norman, in printing the damaging testimony against La Salle, is anxious to break it^ force as much as he can. La Salle kept even from Beaujeu the secret of his destination, until it became necessary to engage pilots, the result of which was that when Beaujeu discovered he was going to the gulf, he ', *! ■ \ m Mi '.f 5 il I, J f ^i:!! II Iri ' m :■' ■ ! f ' f :, fh ^ . ! i ' . 312 Z,^ SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. found he had not made all the provisions for the voyage which were necessary. Thus the period of preparation was filled with vexation and dispute. At last, on July 18, just as everything was nearly ready. La Salle wrote a final letter to his mother in llouen, tell- ing her that, with four vessels and nearly four hundred men, he was about to sail. The fleet finally put to sea on 1C84, July- X 1 ^. 1 1 X 1 M 1 1 • 1 1 August. The July 24 ; but the " J oly soon breaking her bowsprit, they had to put back for repairs, and did not; finally get off till August 1. The counsels of the two leaders were still at variance. Beaujeu thought it necessary to put in to Madeira for water ; but La Salle opposed it, on the ground that the Sp:^niards might divine their aim. They were two months in reachiiig San Domingo, and many fell sick on board, incliul- ing La Salle himself. They were further unfortunate in liav- ing Spanish cruisers capture the smaller vessel of their fleet ; and when La Salle was informed of it, he was still ill at San Domingo. With the principal leader off duty, the company on the fleet fared badly in that port. The men gave themselves over to unrestrained dissipation, and the more reckless among them succumbed to the enticements of the buccaneers and deserted. Beaujeu observed it all, but could do little beyond controlling his crew. He gave pretty bad accounts of it in his letters which he sent home, saying among other things that the Spaniards had six ships scouring these waters, each one of which was more than a match for the " Joly." On November 25, the expedition left San Domingo, La Salle November ^^^ ^^^^ immediate adherents shifting their quarters s^nDr'" from the "Joly" to the " Aimable," the larger of mingo. ^jjg remaining vessels, leaving Beaujeu in undisputed charge of his own ship. The ships followed along the south December, ^ide of Cuba, and were soon separated in a fog. On Make land. December 28, a sailor at the masthead of the " Aima- ble " saw land. They took it to be Appalachee Bay, throe hun- dred miles east of the Mississippi, while in reality the vessels were a hundred miles west of that river, and in the neigh- borhood of Atchafalaya Bay. It was later believed, when it became known that La Salle had his thoughts upon the New Biscay mines, as Coxe, for instance, held in his Cai'oldiia, that La Salle had purposely overshot the mouth of the Mississippi ON THE COAST. 313 )yage which exation and was nearly Rouen, tell- recl men, he b to sea on er bowsprit, I not: finally eaders were put in to ground that two months )ard, incliul- nate in hav- their fleet; 1 ill at San company on i themselves ildess among" caneers and ittle beyond of it in Ills things that each one of go, La Salle leir quarters le larger of undisputed ff the south a fog. On the " Ainia- y, three hun- y the vessels II the neigh- red, when it »on the New irohina^ that Mississippi It is difficult to believe this ; for though he had taken the lati- tude of the mouths of the Colbert, it was only the merest guess which he could have made regarding their longitude. 1^35 j,j„„. Here, at the beginning of the new year (1685), he gabiuf ** "'** lay at anchor, hoping for the " Joly " to appear. He ^'^'^'■' was probably off the mouth of the Sabine River, with a marshy stretch of shore in sight three leagues away. It is not easy to settle beyond doubt the landmarks of this cruise of La Salle along the Texas coast, and investigators are not agreed in their identifications. It was on January 6 that they discovered an opening, which was very likely Galveston Bay. La Salle did not like to enter it for fear Beaujeu would not discover him, tliough he thought it was one of the Mississippi mouths. He lingered off the shore for several days, but the " Joly " was not seen. At last, siipposing Beaujeu must have passed beyond him, he steered in pursuit. After a while some Indians came oft', but he could not understand them. He saw breakers and, beyond, what appeared to be a vast plain with buffalo and deer roving upon it. He made a landing, and found the country barren, and lined with flats of mud. He could find no fresh water. The coast stretched south, and perhaps the best suppo- sition is that he was near Matagorda Island. A fog came on and he anchored. When it lifted, the " Joly " was in sight. The two leaders met, and charged each other with the blame of the protracted separation. Beaujeu evidently thought that La Salle had no conception where he was. La Salle professed at any rate to believe he had struck another mouth of the Missis- sippi. He was persuaded that the open water which he had seen at the mouths in 1682 was what he now found to be la- goons, separated from the sea by long stretches of narrow, sandy islands, which extended up and down the coast. There were delays on making ready for landing, and Beaujeu and La Salle had continued disagreements. It seems at this time to have leaked out that La Salle had some purpose to attack the Spaniards, and that Penalosa was expected to join him, after he had established his foothold on the coast. Cavelier says that they did not despair of this relief till near the end of the fol- lowing year. It is stated that one of the priests in the company was so disturbed at the idea of attacking his countrymen — for the priest was a Spaniard — that he withdrew from the expedi- tion and determined to return with Beaujeu. A *i 'W'^ i, II 314 LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. I 1 \ i :- f fi It was now February, and Joutel was sent along the shore to 1685, Febru- explore, siuce La Salle determined on disembarking. "''^- The entrance to the bay, close at hand, was difficult on account of sandbars, but they marked out the channel by sound- ing, and on the f^-^. f 20th the "Aim- able" raised an- chor and started to run in. La Salle himself was on shore watching the Indians of the neighborhood, who had proved unruly. He heard a gun, and looking sea- rru .. . • ward saw The " Aima- bie", ^ that the wrecked. "Amia- ble" had missed the channel a n d was careening on the sands. The vessel proved a total loss, and but a part of her cargo was saved. La Salle, with his disposition to charge miscar- riage upon some one, insisted that the vessel had been purposely stranded, in order to embarrass him. tloutel cei- tainly shared this opinion with him. The "Joly" and a small messenger vessel were now all the ships they had, and it was necessary to make some lodgment before Beaujeu's time for leaving came. So the company was landed, and they began to intrench a camp as best they could, for some essential tools had been lost in A camp be- gun. BEAU J EL DEPARTS. 315 ■^U > > I the shore to seinbarkiug. J difficult on el by sounil- nd on the the "Ami- raised an- id started to La Salle elf was on vatehing the ms of the lorhood, who oved unrul}'. jard a gun, ooking sea- ward siuv that the " Aima- had missed lannel a n d areeniiig on ands. T h e ;1 proved a loss, and but r t of her was saved. ille, with his osition to ge miscar- upon some insisted that sselhad been Joutel cer- ! now all the tne lodgment company was jaiup as best been lost in the wreek. Some defense was necessary, for the natives grew more and more troublesome. The savages stole what they could, and even killed some of the French. Disease was doing sad work, and the colony was soon burying five or six a day. The prowling foe fired the prairie, and La Salle feared for a while that the conflagration might approach his powder. They had nothing but a barricade of tree stumps, which they had picked up on the shore, to keep the devastation off. La Salle wished Beaujeu to take the '^ Joly " and explore the coast farther, and settle some of their geographical p r o b - lems, but that officer said he was not pro- visioned for any long search, but would go to Martinique for supplies, if La Salle thought best. For some reason nothing was done. Later in February, Beaujeu was prepar- ing to leave. Stowed in the hold of the " Joly " were the can- non and balls, which La Salle needed ; but in the rolling sea, Beaujeu declined to risk 10 noving so much ballast, but promised to do so when he could find a quiet harbor. On March 12, he sailed, March. taking with him such as had lost heart. Among these beaujeu saiu. was Minet, the engineer, who on the voyage made a map, which has come down to us. He placed the outlet of the Mississippi apparently at Matagorda Bay, with the mouths as La Salle had mapped them in 1082, but with also a sketch of them according to Minet's own observations. MINET'S SKETCH OF MATAGORDA BAY. [Key: 1, Cabanne fles Sauvages. 2, Campe de M. De U Salle. 3, Where we left Mons. De la Salle. The original iii in the Archives at Paris.] . ' , r. .» »is 'Is \ .:: I'll! w • I 'I m ■ Iv 310 LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. Beaujeu intended to stop at Mobile Bay and get out the cannon for La Salle ; but he missed the opening and went on to France. NoT«. The sketch in the small square shows the mouths of tlie Mississippi " comme nous les avons trouvez." The map shows it as " Le Salle le marque dans sa carte." It was a discouraging prospect before La Salle. He had written, only a few days before, to Colbert that he had reached the western mouth of the Mississippi, and should soon begin the ascent. The main channel, he supposed, was twenty or thirty get out the and went on V3r .J^- ^■> " comme nous les B. He had liad reached n begin the ty or thirty FORT Sr. LOUIS. 317 leagues to the east. He did not, however, hold to this opinion long, for he grew distrustful of his position, and made up his mind that he must seek elsewhere for that stream. But first it was necessary to get into a healthier and more defensible spot ; and &o, fixing upon a site for a fort on a river a little distance up from the head of the bay, he constructed, largely out of the wreck of the " Aimable," his Fort St. Louis. General port at. J. S. Clark, a recent investigator of the topographical ^°"'*" features of the region, is confident that the camp first occupied was on Mission Bay, near the Espiritu Santo Bay, and that the Fort St. Louis was on the Garcitas River five miles above its junction with Lavaca Bay, while the adjacent river of that name has usually been considered the site of the fort. General Clark represents that the ground of his supposed site still bore, at a recent day, remains of the fort, and was marked by other relics. To most inquiriers the evidence has been sufficient that the vicinity of Matagorda Bay — and Espiritu Santo is not far off — was the scene of these fearful experiences, though Kings- ford, the latest historian of Canada, inclines to place them in Galveston Bay. There were now only a hundred and eighty souls left on land of all that had started from Bochelle. The small crew which navigated the little " Belle," the sole vessel now remain^ ing", was additional. It was the middle of July when X o 11 11 !• in 1 1685, July. La Salle was able to occupy this new stronghold and to lay out his garden beds. The construction of the fort had severely tasked his weakened comrades. They had to cut trees for the work three miles away. They mounted some cannon upon the palisades; but as their balls had been lost in the " Aimable," they loaded the pieces with bags of bullets. They had occasionally to make a demonstration against the hovering Lidir.ns, in order to remind them of the force which was in re- serve for any hostile act. Since Margry has printed Joutel's journal in full, we can trace their daily doings with more minuteness than the earlier published abridgments of it ren- dered possible. This somewhat abridged and altered text, edited by De Michel, was printed in 1713 as Journal histo- riqiie^ accompanied by a map. The story abridged or at full length is one of anxiety, dread, and misery. Thirty died in a short time, their head carpenter among them. By the close I '.In v, 318 LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. of October, La Salle was ready to set out on an expedition of 1086, Oct. discovery. He left Joutel in command of the fort, with thirty-four companions. He ordered the " Belle " to follow the shore, so that he could communicate explor*' tioni. NoTI. This map by Joutel is reduced from tlie upper portion of tlie map in a MS. of the nai- whioh the book of 1713 was printed, and its map engraved. Mr. A. P. C. OriiHn, of tliat library, verbal changes, apparently made in conformity with the requirements of the censor expressed iu Archives and printed by Margry) used tor the press. with her when necessary ; but he was not always within sup- porting distance of the craft, for some of her crew, at one (edition of the fort, i" Belle" (imunicate \acln 'CT'?- i^: 9 o WT~1 9 R. of the nar- if tlmt librarV) r expresseil in thin sup- V, at one JOUTEVS MAP. 319 pohit, landed and wandered off to meet their deaths at the hand 3 of Inrking savages. It was rather an aimless march, so it seemed. His men wandered, and one of them, j,;j,,., j^„ Duhaut, appeared at the fort in January, 1C8G, in a ""'^• rative which is in the Boston Public Library, and is supposed to have been the " copy " from says : " It bears the autograph approval of the royal censor ; and the printed book sliows some a note appended to the permission to publish." It is very likely a copy of the MS. (in the French pitiable guise. He had lost the trail, and came back to bring Joutel tidings of their miserable experiences, and of the loss of 1 J ii^t ;| 1 ^ ii 1 ' ■ i ' 1 1 320 LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. .I'j the seamen from the " Belle." Two months later, near the end March. La ^f March, La Salle himself returned. Joutel espied BaUe returns. Jjjjjj g^£^j. qQ ^jjg ^^y fpoin ^}^Q j.Qof of his fort, a[)- proaching with seven or eight others. La Salle's story was that they had found a river, which they had supposed the Mississippi ; and in a palisade which they had built on its banks, thej had left some men, — none of them were ever heard of. He had detached a small party on his way back to carry a message to The"BeUe" ^^^ " Bcllc," which had been ordered to wait in a little lost. jjg^y^ gjjg ^^g jjQ^ ^Q jjg found there, as the messen- gers reported when they reached the fort the day following La Salle's return. This was the severest stroke which fate had yet loveled at the leader's plans. The little craft had on board his ammuni- tion and his papers, and he was depending on her to transport his colony to the Mississippi, if ever he could find it. Under the blow La Salle fell ill ; but when he recovered a little, — he never needed anything more than time to restore his courage, — he began to cast about for some plan of rescue. Nothing was so promising as to get through, if possible, to Canada, and send word thence to France for naval help. A new party to make the trial of reaching the Illinois coun- try' was now made up, including, beside La Salle, the two priests, Cavelier and Douay, and a score of others. They April. New , • . * •! r%n i i i futile at- started across the prairie on April 22, laden tlown reach Can- with provisious and camp fittings. Joutel was again left in charge of the fort, and a few days later (May 1) he was cheered by the arrival of six men who had been saved from the wreck of the " Belle." It was not long before La Salle and eight of his men once more came back to tell a fear- ful story of suffering and disabter. Death and desertion had made sad havoc, and less than half of the company had returned with their leader. They reported having found illimitable prairies, with herds of roaming buffaloes. They had got five horses of some Indians, which told of trade or plunder eitlier among the Spaniards or the Comanches, nearer neighbors of the Spanish posts. They had met delays at broad rivers, and, finding their powder gone. La Salle had led them back. The colony was now reduced to forty-five souls. All hopes of suc- cor by sea were now gone. They had watched in vain for signs DEATH OF LA SALLE. 321 ar the end utel espied 3 fort, aj)- ry was that lississippi ; i, thej had , He had nessage to ; in a little he messen- lovving" La leveled at s ammuni- ) transport it. Under a little, — is courage, Nothing anada, and inois coun- wo priests, irs. They ,den down was again ir (May 1) jeen saved before La tell a fear- ertion had i returned illimitable d got five der eitlier ighbors of ivers, and, ack. The les of sue- 1 for signa of Penalosa, and nothing was to be done but to make another trial to reach the Mississippi, and ascend to Canada. Again a forlorn-hope was made up. Twenty men were to stay behind. Those who were to go included, beside jcg;, ja„u. La Salle, his brother Cavelier, Moranget his nephew, auempuo Joutel, Douay the friar, Duhaut and his servant «" •">'"'• L'Archeveque, Liotot the surgeon, Heins, a German bucca- neer picked up at San Domingo, a boy of the Cavelier family, beside two Indians, one a Shawnee, and others, — seventeen in all. They were a sorry set in appearance, clothed in draggled finery and in such garments as they could patch up out of the sails of the " Belle," which had been saved. It was early in January, 1687. We follow their march in the journal which Joutel has left, — much the best of all the accounts, — and it is supported by the story as Douay tells it, so far as it goes. The narrative of Cavelier is confused, but he says that La Salle's purpose was to reach the Mississippi and dispatch him (Cave- lier) up to Canada, while the leader himself returned to his colony. Their course lay northerly, in the main. The horses which they had secured on the previous expedition now relieved them of much of the burden, and they packed upon them a bull-hide boat, to use in crossing the streams. It was the hunting season, and they found wandering bands of Indians everywhere. It rained often, and this forced them to live much in camp, and such inactivity conduced to discontent and plotting. It was the middle of March when La Salle found himself within a few miles of a spot, on the southern branch j^g;, of Trinity River, where he had concealed some corn ^'■'^'*' on his pi ^vious expedition. He sent a party to recover it, while he with Joutel and others remained in camp. Those who were sent found the corn spoiled, but they soon killed a buffalo, and S' I, back for the horses to take the meat in. The nephew of La Salle was in the party, and in making a division of the carcass high words had ai'isen between him and Duhaut. Those who sustained the latter now plotted to kill Moranget, as well as the Shawnee and La Salle's servant, who were sup- porters of the nephew. That night the plot was extended, and the death of La Salle himself was decided upon. The occasion soon offered. The party not returning. La Salle took Douay iff: fc-.',;i: ^■:;5' '■■f I!: w. Uli 322 LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. La Salle murdered. with him and went to discover the cause. Approaching- the con- spirators' camp, he fired his gun to attract attention, which gave them time to arrange an amhuscade. L'ArchevSque, the ser- vant of Duhaut, was placed as a decoy to guide the approaching victim, who no sooner got within close range tlian two shots from the tall -rakes laid him dead. Duhaut called out to Douay not to fly. The murderers stripped tlie body of La Salle, and left it a prey to the wolves. The shots were fired by Duhaut and Liotot. The latter had harbored a revengeful spirit ever since a kinsman among the colonists had died, as he thought, under the responsible act of La Salle. Duhaut was now master of the camp, and no one of those not implicated in the assassination knew what to expect. The party moved about under his direction in a listless way, buying food of the Indians and feasting in their lodges. In their wander- ings they met a Frenchman who had deserted from one of La Salle's earlier parties. They learned from him that there were two other sych deserters in the neighborhood. These they found living as the savages did. It was not long before the assassins were quarreling with Theaasag- ^ach otlicr, Heius, thn German, heading a faction sins divide, against Duhaut. When it came to violence, Duhaut was struck down by the German, and one of the barbarized Frenchmen killed Liotot. This broke up the party. Heins and the six guilty ones divided the spoils with the others, and gave themselves up to a career in the woods. The party which adhered to Joutel were given six horses, and thus equipped, they started to find the Mississippi joutei's under the conduct of three Indian guides. It was in June when they got started, with feelings of relief. They went towards the northeast, found friendly reception among such trilies as they encountered, and reached the Arkan- sas River not far from its outlet. They saw on the opposite bank a house of European construction, with a tall cross stand- ing beside it. Its occupants discovered the wanderers and fer- ried them over. It seemed that Tonty, reinstated at the Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, had heard of Beaujeu's arrival in Tonty'8 France, and of the tidings which he had tttkcn of il"saulTn La Salle's landing and misfortunes. This was in ^^ the autumn of 1685, and in February, 1686, he had ig the con- 'hieli gavo e, the ser- proaching I than two Duhaut ipped the The shots arboi'ed a onists had 3alle. ' those not The party ying food ir wander- one of La here were hese they eling with a faction !e, Duhaut barbarized ;y. Heins )thers, and six horses, ^lississippi It was in 1 of relief. reception ;he Arhan- B opposite I'oss stand- 's and fer- ; the Fort arrival in [ trtken of liis was in 3G, he had A DECEITFUL STORY. 323 started with twenty-five Frenchmen and eleven Indians to do* scend the river. In holy week he reached its mouths. It was a solitude, not broken by human sign for thirty leagues east or west, where he searched. Tonty wrote a letter for La Sallo and committed it to an Indian chief, and fourteen years later Iberville found it in the savage's hands. The dejected seaix-'her now turned back. Six of his men volunteered to stay with the Arkansas and hold a post, and it was two of these who now welcomed Joutel and his friends, and listened to their story, which as Couture heard it is rather unsatisfactorily set forth in a paper printed by Margry. On the 1st of August, Joutel's party went on once more, and, passing into the Mississippi, struggled slowly upstream, bear- ing their sad story, just a year after Tonty, on his return to his post, had communicated to the minister the story of his luckless efforts to succor La Salle. In September, they were ,,5^7, a,.,». paddling up the quiet Illinois. By the middle of the *«'"'^'"^- month, they were at the Rock. They were received at the fort by Bellefovest, then in command, for Tonty had gone east at the summons of the governor, to join an expedition against the Senecas. A Te Ueum was sung in the chapel, bi .c AUouez, the missionary, lay ill in the fort. Joutel tells us that this priest was uneasy when they told him that La Salle was on his wa v to join them, being conscious of many efforts to thwart La Salle's purposes, and that it was a fear of meeting one whom he had wronged that induced AUouez shortly after to leave the fort. It is fair to add that the Jesuit writers deem such a story an injustice to a devoted missionary, long resident among the Illinois. Why were AUouez and all the other occupants of the fort given to understand that La Salle was still alive, and was soon to appear ? There is no wholly satisfactory reason why such a misrepresentation was practiced. The truth was not long after to be known, when Couture came up the river with the tale as he had learned it from those who were now falsifying it<. par- ticulars. The only reasons which have been offered for the deceit are that Joutel and the rest dreaded to abate the joy which their coming created ; that in getting su]>plies to go on, they could not have got the same credit with La Salle known to be dead, and that for La Salle's relatives, at least, there II! ill ■f -i :'i 824 LA SALLE'S TEXAN COLONY. 1 Hi: were reasons why they shouhl get to France in advance of the news of his death, to secure some property rights. Leaving this (Ufceitf ul story behind them, Joutel and his party pushed on to Lake Michigan, where, being overtaken by a gale, they found it prudent to return to the fort in order to recover for a new start. In the interval, Tonty had come back, and Morch- '*'^' *""' ^^"'^ kept in the same ignorance of the truth. April, 1088. jJq fitted them out with new supplies, and they passed on and reached Mackinac in safety. Here some furs which Cavelier had received from Tonty were sold on La Salle's ac- count. With the burning burden on their conscience, they at last embarked at Quebec. The truth was not disclosed when they reached France in October, till after a delay which caused suspicion ; and then when the worst was known, the king did nothing to rescue the poor colony on the gulf shore. It was at last determined by the government that the murderers should he ai)prehended if they appeared in Canada, and such an order was sent to the governor ; but no one ever suffered at the hands of the law. The fate of the colony is not unknown. The vessel which the Si)aniards had captured near San Domingo revealed to them the object of La Salle. During the next three years, four expeditions wei*e sent by Spanish authority to discover the French, but without success. They surmised something of disaster when they found the wrecks of the " Aimable " and " Belle." It is probable that one of La Salle's deserters finally tried to destroy the colony, for an overland expedition from Mexico at last discovered their fort, and this party was thought to be led by a Frenchman. It was too late, however, for rescue or revenge. Three dead bodies lay on the ground. It was otherwise a scene of devastation and solitude. A crowd of sav- ages hovered around, but gave no sign. A few days later, two men presented themselves to the Spanish force. They were in native guise, but proved to be two of the colony, — L'Archeveque and GroUet. This was in May, 1689, and according to their story, the remnant of the French had been attacked three months before by Indians, and all were either killed or carried off. It has been said that these two Frenchmen were sent ^o Spain and thrown into prison ; but Bandelier claims to liave found in the records of Santa Fe traces of L'Archeveque's later ice of the 1 his party l)y a j;ule, to recover bai^k, and the truth, ey passed irs wliich dalle's ac- e, tliey at tsed when eh caused king- did It was at rs shouhl an order the hands sel which vealed to •ee years, cover the jthing of ble" and srs finally ion from i thought or rescue It was fd of sav- later, two r were in chevcque to their :ed three r carried e sent tj J to liave ue's later TONTTS MEMOIRS. 825 career among the Spaniards, and says that his descendants are still living in that region. The same investigator ailirms that ho has discovered traces in the archives of New Mexico of two others of La Salle's colony. We learn from a report of the viceroy of New Spain that measures were taken about 105)0 to occupy the Texan country against the French, and that missions were established there by the Spaniards, who afterwards suc- ceeded in rescuing the few survivors of the French who were found among the native tribes. A few years later (1693), when Tonty was living at Fort St. Louis, he prepared the iMcmolrH relating to his own and La Salle's discoveries which is now accessible in the Margry col- lection. It is an excellent guide to the historian ; but the sanie cannot be said of the Dernlercs Decoiivertcs, published in Paris in 1G97, and in the next year in an English version at London. This publication was charged upon Tonty, but he disowned it, and well he might. Whoever compiled it doubtless used the memoir which Tonty prepared in 1693, but other less trust- worthy material was embedded in it. The putting of it together was done without close knowledge of the events, and manifests, moreover, no skill. With Tonty's own narrative preserved, the book has little value. u CHAPTER XV. DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. 1683-1687. If i\ a 'H- 1G83. La Barre. March, 1C8-1. With La Salle gone to France and the governor's emissaries in possession of what that projector had left behind him, La Barre closed the year (1683) with a pros- pect of doing something ; at least, so people thought before he had time to show his timidity. The next year (1084) opened with renewed activity on the part of the Iroquois. War par- ties of the Senecas were moving west, and there were suspicions that English packmen were following in their rear and making trade among the Shawnees and Choctaws. By March, some of La Barre's agents on their way to the Illi- nois were robbed on the Kankakee, and before the month was over a party of Senecas broke upon the Indian camp near the Kock, and Tonty and De Baugis woi-ked together successfully in defending their stronghold for nearly a week, before the assailants retired. When La Barre heard of this, the exigency seemed for a while to arouse him, and he sent off messens>ers to the upper lakes to ask his lieutenants there to come and help him punish the Senecas in their own country. At the same time he wrote to Dongan, asking him to prohibit the sale of firearms to the Iroquois. The English governor reminded him that the Iroquois whom it was proposed to chastise were Biitish subjects, and that he was quite willing to make reconqjcuse for their misdeeds, if the French had any charges to prefer against them. If the French armed the Illinois, why should not the English l)ut guns in the hands of the Iroquois ? Dongan knew thtit English firearms were seen almost every wiiere through North America, carried by these same confederates. He was at this time writing home that the Iroquois, having no beaver in their s emissaries left behind vith a pros- it before he 584) opened War par- :'e suspicions and making- By March, r to the Illi- ! month was np near the successfully , before the he exigency lessengers to lie and help it the same the sale of minded him were British ompense for refer against the En'.'lisli knew that rough North was at this iver in their MOHAWKS AND ONEIDAS. 327 own country, sent parties, both for trade and war, as far as the northwest passage, on the one side, and to the South Sea, — wherever he supposed that to be, — and even to Florida, on the gulf side. Only recently Lord Effingliam had come from Vir- ginia to make the Iroquois agree to spare thj frontiers of that colony, and by treaty Dongan himself had been hanging the armorial bearings of the Duke of York in the villages of the RUINS OK THK INTKNDANTS PALACE IX Ql'El'.EC. [OriRinally built, 1084 ; reconstructed nt ditferent times, and finally destroyed in 1T.S5. After a sketch in Lemoine's Quebec, Past and Present, p. lli5.] Mohawks and Oneidas. Father de Lamberville, at this time, writing from the Onondaga mission to La Bane, said that the governor of New York had sent a shabby flag with the English arms on it, to be hoisted among the Mohawks, but that people had shut it up in their treasure-box. Dongan had nevertheless arranged with the confederacy to take the country south of Lake Erie under the English protection. The (^anadian intendant knew well enough what all this meant, and wrote to the king that La Barre would bluster, but would not fight. Perhaps iv 328 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. ' i m some of the lookers-on thought differently when La Barre in July set out for Fort Frontenac. The Jesuits had already recalled Father Milet from the Oneida country, where he had kept a mission for seventeen years. The governor's bluster ended as the intendant had predicted. The French leader went very peaceably across the lake, and accepted a truce, in which the Senecas would not abate one jot of their purpose to destroy the western allies of the French if they could. This was the news which reached Niagara when Durantaye, Duluth, and Perrot arrived there with a hundred and fifty bushrangers and five hundred Indians, whom they had led down from the upper lakes for some savage work, as La Barre had proposed. This western rabble turned back indignantly, and La Barre's lieutenants had no easy task to hold them together. In October, the intendant, who had no confidence in the peo- october, V^^i could boast to his government that he had not 1684. misjudged their governor. The king, who was just at this time looking forward to La Salle's successes over the Spaniards on the Mississippi, was prompt to decide that a different leader must be given to the Canadians, if the English were to be restrained on the lakes. Dongan in New York had proved an adversary that no common man could wrestle with, and the French were beginning to understand that their move- ments beyond the mountains were now watched by a man who had a decided western policy for his government. It was to struggle with such a man that Denonville, in the autumn of 1685, came to Quebec as governor, fol- lowed by a fresh accession of troops, not all of whom, however, survived the tumultuous voyage. With a vigilant antagonist in New York, the commandant at Quebec was not in an enviable position. The town was but a nest of inflammable tenements, and had not a gate that would shut. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes had just taken place (October 18), and there was no hope in a resiiseitated strength through immigration, while the Huguenots were instill- ing new and vigorous bloocf throughout the English colonies. The new governor, in the midst of this condition of affairs, was writing home of the dangers. He wanted Fort Ftontonao strengthened, the vessels on Ontario repaired, and new oiios put on Erie. "These precautions," he said, "are necessary, 1685. De nonvillc governor. THEIR CHARACTERS. 329 a Barre in lad already ere he had >i''s bhister nch leader a truce, iu purpose to 3uld. This ye, Duluth, jushrangers Tn from the \ proposed. La Barre's s iu the peo- he had uot bo was just •es over the cide that a the English (v York had vrestle with, their niove- a man who rnnient. It jnonville, in Dvernor, fol- m, however, imandant at n\ was but a that would I just taken resuscitated were instill- colonies. n of affairs, t Ftoutenac id new ones e necessary, if we are to keep the English from securing the western fur trade." It was the belief in Canada that Dongan was inciting the Iroquois to further strife. He himself denied that he Denonviue followed any clandestine methods, and it seems quite """^^onB*"- clear that the French Jesuits, who were still among the Onon- dagas, did not have any such suspicions. Denonville, as a devotee of the Jesuits, may perhaps have known what these priests thought. As representatives of their respective royal masters, Denonville was far more fortunate than Dongan. The French governor had behind him in Louis XIV. a potentate whose ambition he could share. The timidity of James II. in every way in which he was brought to measure capacity with his neighbor across the channel left his American representa- tive with only the shadow of support. In his own province, Dongan had a population half as large again as that of Canada, to say nothing of the moral support of a much larger prepon- de Hi. e of numbers in the adjacent English colonies. Jl^ t.\ was the only governor along the Atlantic slope who wa£ . istant source of anxiety to the French. The Canadians knew that the Iroquois dealt their strokes at the Illinois with greater security because these English of New York were their allies. Denonville felt that by the instructions which Louis had given him (March 10, 1685), it had become his duty to dispell the disquiet which La Barre's abandonment of the Illinois had occasioned. He was expected to show that the power of France must and could protect her Indian allies. The English intentions were always a doubtful quantity. " We have always the English to warn us both on the north and on the south," said Duchesneau a little while before, " and the Iroquois are a constant threat. Perhaps we can placate the Indians ; perhaps destroy them ; but a great deal of uncertainty would be cleared up, if we could only buy the region dependent on Albany." And this wish remained as constant as the trouble- someness of the English and Iroquois. Denonville expressed the tiresome uncertainty of the situation when he declared it impos- sible to know just what to expect of a neighbor who was, as he phrased it, both lawless and infidel. He could see no remedy but in an increase of the Canadian population, and bringing into more compact settlements what they already had. Tlio I- ^ (;■ : I I I ri-. .{S\\ 330 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. U'il ll v^•;| ! 'J i\:>- 1G80. mischief lay in everybody trying to advance his little trading- post into the wilderness to catch the fur trader all the sooner. It was clearly a part of the English policy to confront the French traders at the west wherever they could, and to outbid them in offers for the Indian fur. They even went to Mackinac, and were known among the Foxes near Green Bay, and were successful in diverting a good deal of trade from the French. Dongan did not hesitate to give English passes to Freuchmeu and send them among the Ottawas, who, in the main, were middlemen in the peltry trade, having few beaver in their own territory. In May, 1686, Denonville was complaining to Seignelay that French renegades were leading Eng- lish parties across Ontario. This was in defiance of the royal order, issued in April, 1684, which made it death for a Cana- dian to emigrate to Albany or Manhattan. To frustrate this audacity, the French governor tried to inter- pose armed posts in their way. He ordered Duluth to tie Detroit River with fifty men, and Durantaye built a stockade at the Chicago portage. Nothing disturbed Denonville moie than the reckless and abandoned dispersement of the woods- Bug,,, men, — bandits he called them, — who under some rangers. organization might become a help, but in their lawless- ness were only a mischief. It was not always they could be forced to offer resistance to an enemy. When by combination they could have protected the region of their trade, their wanton independency left the Iroquois to raid the country about Lake Superior so effectively that the marts at Montreal were without peltry from that district. It was to remedy this that the government instituted some active movements on the one side toward Hudson's Bay, and on the other toward the upper waters of the Mississippi. In the last direction, they had in the field a vigilant leadef in Nicolas Perrot. He had been in command at Green Bay, and thence with a small party he struck across the country which Duluth and Hennepin had traversed, and planted the French flag on forts and stockades. He built one such post not far from the mouth of the Wisconsin, and another on the shores of Lake Pepin. He kept his ears oi)cn for reports of more remote regions, and heard of a distant people to the west, who wore ornaments of stone in their ears and noses. Nicolas Perrot at tliH west. HUDSON'S BAY. 331 ittle trading:- the sooner. confront the nd to outbid to Mackinac, »ay, and were the French. 3 Frenchmen } main, were in their own 1 complaining leading Eng- of the royal for a Cana- tried to intev- uluth to tl.e lit a stockade lonville more jf the woods- under some their lawlcss- hey could be r combination , their wanton Y about Lake were without stituted some )n's Bay, and ssissippi. In ant leader in and at Green struck across liad traversed, 3S. lie built ''iscQusin, and I ears o\wn for tant people to irs and noses. March, 1C85. When he heard that there were others among them who used horses and looked like the French, he knew them to be the Spaniards of New Mexico, whom the French might yet encoun- ter in the southwest. Hearing of some lowas up the , The lowus. river, a tribe which the French had not yet met with, he went to seek them. From this direction there came stories of men in houses which walked on the water, and he knew that the English were still pressing their trade in Hudson's Bay. Duluth, meanwhile, was directly facing this impending TT 1 1 I 1 M 1.1 , DulHthtend- danger. He had been among the tribes which sought ihk toward ,''-.,-, , ° . . ,'' , the north. the English ot the great bay, giving presents, and al- luring them to the French posts. He had written to Quebec that in two years he could break up this English trade. At last an overland expedition from Montreal set out in March, 1685, going from the Ottawa River, along a route which some hardy bushrangers had found the year before. The force was placed under the command of the Chev- alier De Troyes, and with him, as his lieutenant, went T^oyes and Iberville, an indomitable spirit, in whom New France Hi'i^iao,'"/*^ and Louisiana were to have much confidence for some ""*• yeai's to come. Troyes scoured the shores of James's Bay with great alacrity, capturing Forts Hayes and Rupert. He com- pleted his round of devastation at Fort Albany. The Canadian Company of the North had got its revenge on the Hudson Bay Company, and it was by no means certain that this success was not as gratifying to the Catholic king of England as to the grand monarch himself. When the specious treaty of neutrality was signed between the two powers at Whitehall (No- vember 16, 1686), Troyes was back in Quebec. The 'r>t'>ty w'- few survivors of the captured garrisons, crowded m a imd hhi . Frnnce. single small vessel, entered English waters to learn how they had been abandoned by such a peace. The Bay Com- pany had ground enough for redress, and petitioned the crown ; but as long as Louis was keeping James on his throne, there was no remedy. There must, however, be some show of resent- ment, and the French busied themselves with proving before a commission that the English were but interlopers in the great bay, and were properly expelled. The controversy ended as might have been expected. The French remained in possession till the vexed question of priority could be settled, and the Eng- 'V, ;' S:;! ' »1'': m ■-4: 'I I ! 832 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. '1 lish king warned the American colonies by a circular letter (January, 1688) not to mar the prosperity of the French mean- while. The war which followed the expulsion of James, the .1 1 1 B £>> §« tw ill w^^ H fc = o "^ tc JAIL pposed n with el r .9 CO *^ ik next year, threw this vast ^mtory of the north once more, as we shall see, iu the scales of .Atention. Meanwhile this succesF under Troyes found a contrast less pleasant for the French to the south of the St. Lawrence. THE IROQUOIS. 333 Louis could bid the English king to instruct Dongan to keep the peace, but there was no commission to be intrusted with settling the question of interloping in the Iroquois Rival claims country ; indeed, Denonville soon found that the quol'g'co'^. documentary registry of the evidences of early French *'^^- expeditions to the country south of Ontario was nowhere to be discovered in the archives of Canada, and he informed Seigne- lay that Talon must have taken such papers to France. He affirmed, too, that Talon had carried off the agreement, signed by the Iroquois in 1667, to put themselve :~'\ej' the French king's dominion. All this was embarrassing .n his correspond- ence with so wary a diplomatist as Dongan. The best that Denonville could do was what Vaudreuil and Begon did at a later day, — to search the Jestiit Melations for such unofficial records as could be found on going back for forty years. Don- gan had something better vouched in the various recorded trea- ties which the English had made with the Iroquois, by which they succeeded to their rights of dominion. Denonville, aware that he was expected to make the Iroquois feel the French power with little delay, had soon discovered that it took many months to bring the forces scattered through- out New France to bear upon any one point. Durantaye and Duluth, whose assistance was necessary, were too remote to be communicated with for any concerted action during November the next season, and it was in November, 1685, that ^^^^- the governor was thus looking ahead. The long interval, how- ever, could be employed in provisioning the fort at Cataraqui and making needful preparations. In the spring of 1687, events were moving forward. The governor's messengers had long since departed to his lieutenants in the west ; and by this time Dongan, who learned of the plan, had warned the Iroquois. It was by no means certain, after the dis- appointment which had been felt at La Barre's recusancy, that the western Indians could be brought again to the task. The French were pretty sure to have to confront, if the confederates combined, about two thousand of the best warriors that the red race could produce. These fighters were not indeed iroquois all of the old stocks of the confederacy, for debauch- ^™^^^- ery had checked their natural increase, and the losses of num- '' 'till m 'A !•• •■..■,; 1^. ■ ^■-\. I !,r:Ji! f'lHii 'hm^- ;. I J •'1 uhni 334 DENONVILLE AND DONQAN. bers in their incessant wars had been largely repaired by the adoption of their prisoners. But the prestige of the Iroquois name was such that the aliens grew to the work imposed upon them. It was supposed that about twelve hundred Mohegaus could also be brought against the French. It had been a provision of the treaty of neu+"ality between Louis XIV. and James II. that the "oloiiies should remain at peace, however the native tribes should be impelled to war. Notwithstanding this, the French government had been sending over more regular troops, and something like sixteen hundred soldiers were at Denonville's disposal. He expected to use them largely in garrisoning posts, while the more experienced June 1C87 "^'1^*^^* wcrc to bc uscd in the campaign. It was June Denonville's 13, 1687, whcH he left Montreal, at the head of eicht campaign. -i i i b " hundred troops, and he found he had two thousand with him when he reached Fort Frontenac. Here he gave him- self to a fiendish act, and it has been alleged, not, however, by proof which the Catholic historians accept, that the bi' ' , approved it. A number of unoffending Iroquois who were iu- ing near the fort were seized to prevent their sending tidings Iroquois tor- across tlic lake, which act was defensible ; but they tured. were tied to stakes and tortured for the amusement of the neighboring mission Indians, which was certainly indefensi- ble, even if in dying they kissed the cross to save their souls. Denonville had not recalled the missionary Lamber- ville, who was among the Onondagas, for fear of ex- citing suspicion. This proceeding meant abandoning him to his fate. If Charlevoix is to be trusted, the Iroquois took no advantage of their opportunity, but suffered him to depart. lie soon appeared at Cataraqui, to look with horror, let us lioi)c, on the inhumanity of a higher race. It was July 4 when the imposing flotilla of four hundred canoes and bateaux moved away from Fort Frontenac. Three days before, Denonville luid heard from Niagara — this form of the name was just now com- ing into vogue, and was to be made popular shortly after in Coro- nelli's map — that the contingent from the west for which he had hoped had reached that point. With tins reiii- Tonty, Du- ^ iii <• i'i>i lutii, and forcement was Tonty, who had come from the Ivoek joinDenou- with sixtccn Freuch and two hundred Indians. lie villc* had struck across the country to Detroit, and there: Lamber ville. red by the e Iroquois osed upon Mohegaus y between remain at id to war. m sending 1 hundred ed to use cperieneed fc was June id of eight • thousand gave hini- hcwever, ;he bi^' > ► were livi- ng tidings but they sement of indefensi- leir souls. Lamber- jar of ex- lim to his took no part. lie us hope, when the IX moved iville had now coni- r in Coro- which ho this reiu- tho* Ko(!lc ans. IIo md there: FORT FRONTENAC. 335 [From the London Magazine, 1758.] ;f '■•■ ■!;i. i ii ':Mi'. ■';V& ii?' 'Il;l captured a trad- 9 & it .§ M ±^i # # #' m 4f'^-^^ DENONVILLE'8 MARCH. [From La Hontan's Noureaux Voyages.'\ ing party of Dutch and English, who were seeking traffic luider permits from Dongan. On Lake Erie, a second party fell into their hands. Their prisoners were sixty in all, and the plunder THE SEN EC AS ATTACKED. 837 body from Mackinac, red a trad- UtJ^ ^aUtJ affic under ty fell into be plunder of their canoes was valuable. Towards the end of June, thoy had all assembled at Niagara, when the word was sent on to Cataraqui. They numbered about one hundred and eighty French, and four hundred Indians. By the return of the mes- senger, they were ordered to join Denonvillo at Inmdequoit Bay. On July 10, these two sections of the invading force, coming from opposite directions, met at that rendezvous, being together not far from three thousand men. One day was spent in building a fort, in which four hundred men were left to protect jos-, j„iy. their canoes. On July 12, they began their march i:i- cmu.?r>' u>* land, carrying provisions for thirteen days. There *""^"'*" were twenty-two miles before them, and on they plodded, Cal- lieres leading a vanguard of bushrangers an«l Indians, Denon- ille following with his regulars and Canadians, while a body of s. vages and a force of white men almost as savage brought up the rear. The day was one of sweltering heat. Suddenly the van found itself in an ambush of three hundred Senecas. There was some loss on both sides, for the enemy, unaware of the nearness of the main body, were over-bold. The defenders at last yielded. The French were glad of a halt for the night. The next morning, the van advanced with caution, and was unopposed. The Senecas had sent off their women, hid their treasures, and burned their chief town. The invaders came to the blackened ruins, and made everything wherever they went blacker still. They uprooted gardens and cornfields. They leveled everything that stood. There were ten days of havoc, but the marauders were not spared a misery of their own. They ate immoderately of green corn and fresh pork, — for the hogs of the villages were running wild, — and sickened. The wild riot maddened their Indian allies, and they scattered in crowds. On the 24th, such of the bewildered force Thi> French as had kept together returned to their canoes. Re- '^""'^'' embarking and coursing alongshore to Niagara, Denonvillo built there a fort on the site of the one constructed by j^^^t buut at La Salle. He left the Chevalier de Troyes with a ^'"s"™- hundred men to hold it, and then the flotilla started down the lake, and on August 13 Denonville was at Montreal. The governor had inflicted a chastisement, but only upon the Senecas. The other tribes of the great confederacy were un- hurt. He had done nothing, in fact, from which the Senecas ^H 111 ; y^ 'II r '). .. I i i I.. il ,>:■.! -.jliii.. .1' rhU 338 DENONVILLE AND DONG AN. m'\ thomsolves could not readily recover. He had killed but few of them. He had destroyed their villages and ruined their crops, but their habitations were easily replaced, and English corn was to be had for the asking. We have Denonville's own account of these proceedings. It Dcnonviue*! ^as fouud by Brodhcad in the Archives of the Marine narrative. ^^ p^ris, and Mr. O. H. Marshall published it for the first time. It can be supplemented by a variety of minor IROQUOIS COUNTRY, BY RAFFEIX, 1U88. [From a map in the Bibllothtxiue Natiouole at Paris.] sources, so that we are not at any loss in telling the story. Marshall has succeeded best in identifying the sites of the eaui- paign, and he places them by his map near the modern town of Victor. It was on his return to the Rock, on October 27, 1G87, that if.87, October Tonty met Joutel and heard the false stories about La ba"k\o'the Sallc. A fcw wcfik.s later, when Couture came up the ?p°'cen!i"the Fiver and Tonty learned the truth, he started down Mississippi. ^Q ^jjQ g^,j£ ^j^jj g^g Frenchmen and three Indians, to do what he could to rescue the poor lingerers at the Texan fort. He was not without some hope, too, of banding the river tribes and attacking the Spaniards ; for Couture had sug- gested the practicability of doing so, and the plan had a certiiin rilE (iENKSEE COUNTRY. 830 I but few ned their English iings. It le Marine it for the of iniuur m 1 i«, .i he story, the caiu- 1 town of G87, that about La le up the ;ecl down Indians, 16 Texan ding the had sug- a certain opportuneness in it, Hince he had just heard from Denonvillo of war with Spain being declared. It was early in December of tliat port of the 9ENSSEE COUNTBY, /nvat/ttif Ay ;^^ THE MAII9UIS OC NONVIUC. [A section of the map given in 0. H. Marslmll's Historical Writings. Tlie dash-and-dot line is Denonville's route ; tlie dash lines 'bow Indian paths. A, Indian Ashing station. B, C, M, A', tlie four principal Seneca villages. />, Indian village. T, the fort.] when Tonty left his fort. Late in March (1689), he was at the lied River. Here ho got tidings, as he thought, of Heins, one of La Salle's conspirators, and resolved to find him if he could. 1^ ( 1 ll , 1 f ' "1 'l\in 340 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. .^ ,». '."i* «♦?. His men revolted, and only two would accompany him further. He lost his powder while crossing a river, and when he reached the village that he sought, he found nothing of the German, but suspected by the bearing of the Indians that they had killed him. Tonty had no courage, perhaps no strength, for further trial. HiB life as a He tumcd his canoe upstream, and after many tribu- trader. latious reached his Illinois fort. The next year, in consideration of his unselfish services, a royal grant made him master of his stronghold, and he lived on there for a dozen years, trading with the Indians who came to the post. The government regarded him kindly, and when it stopped other unofficial trading, it suffered his to go on ; and year by year two of his canoes and twelve men brought his peltry to a market as long as the fortress on the Rock was permitted to exist. In 1702, a royal order caused it to be abandoned, and Tonty sought Iberville at the mouth of the Mississippi. h I \ ■ f i m further. he reached e German, they had ther trial, lany tribu- xt year, in made him r a dozen )ost. The )ped other ar by year leltry to a rmitted to loned, and )i. CHAPTER XVI. FRONTENAC RECALLED. 1687-1698. It was said at the time that in his devastation of the Seneca country, Denonville had destroyed the wasps' nest, but the wasps were unharmed. As always results idationin * , . . Canada. from such a success, the victorious party was more alarmed than the beaten one. There was trepidation through- out the St. Lawrence settlements. The noise of axe and beetle betrayed the work of palisading on every hand. There was a cessation of the fur trade, for the prowling Senecas were too numerous to be evaded. On the other hand, Dongan was not intimidated, but he was anxious. He had promptly protested against the occupation of Niagara, — Onygaro as he called it, — and was not quite sufe but some movement against Albany was hatching in Quebec. There was ground for the suspicion, for Callieres was Anxiety in sent to Paris to present a project of invading New New York. York by way of Lake Champlain and capturing Manhattan, a scheme that always came to the minds of the Canadian leaders when matters grew unbearable. Thv'jre were French spies in Albany that were not easy to discover ; but Dongan expelled the Jesuits from the Iroquois villages, and stopped any revelations through that source. In November, (1687), it seemed as if there was to be an end to the prevari- cations of the English king, when word reached Dongan that he must protect the Iroquois against any repetition of the re- cent raid ; but the feeling that some sort of a stand could at last be made did not continue long. James yielding Dongan re- to the exactions of Louis, Dongan was recalled, and ''*"®'^" the English colonists were deprived of the ablest leader they had had in their contention with the French. This was some !^ 't| ll'l Hi' i' 1 342 FRONTENAC RECALLED. {% relief to Denonville, but he was not so content with the ru- mors which came from the west. The old antipathy against La Salle was perpetuated in the suspicion entertained of his successors, and Denonville was by no means sure that mischief was not brewing in the Illinois country. He feared that the young men in Tonty's company valued the profits of trade more than loyalty to France, and that they only awaited an oppor- tunity to carry their interests over to the English. Denon- ville's recommendation to the home government was to change the governor in that region often enough to prevent the ripen- ing of any mischievous plot. Sir Edmund Andros, with more extensive power, covering Sir Edmund ^^^ England as well as New York, succeeded Don- Andros. gg^j^ jjg ^^^^ ^^^^ made to understand that the Eng- lish king had constituted the Five Nations as a part of his subjects. It was a renewed instance of playing fast and loose on James's part. Andros was quite of Dongan's spirit, and he had forbidden the Iroquois to yield to the temptations which the French were offering, under what they evidently Apposed were better chances of success, now that Dongan had gone. To accept some advantage from the Iroquois, the Canadians proved willing to abandon the Illinois once more. They were ready to cause even the destruction of Fort St. Joseph in order to ap- pease the confederates. The sacrifice was premature, for on July 14, 1689, the flight of James II. from England was known in Quebec, The English and thcrc was an end of French influence at the Eng- re volution , " known in hsh court. Vt nv bctwecn the two countries was cer- Quebec. tain. Perrot had already been ordered to the western country, and in the autu\na of 1688 he had passed with forty men, by Green Bay and the Fox River, into the region Perrot at the bordering upon the upper Mississippi. On the 8th of May (^1689), on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin, he emjihasized the French claim to the possession of all this region watered by the St. Croix, St. Peter, and the other afflu- ents of the great river, and took formal occupation, under the observation of a notary. Pierre le. Sueur, whose name had been associated since 1683 with the early ex- plorations on the upper Mississippi and in the present Minne- sota, was with him at the time. Pierre le Sueur. ith the ru- hy against ined of his it mischief ;d that the trade more an oppor- 1. Denon- to change the ripen- r, covering seded Don- it the Eng- jart of his b and loose irit, and he :ions which y ^ipposed I gone. To ans proved pe ready to cder to ap- the flight n Quebec, ,t the Eng- js was cer- he western with forty the region the 8th of ake Pepin, of all this lier afflu- (ccupation, le. Sueur, e early ex- mt Minne- L A CHINE ATTACKED. 34:J At this period, when England exerted herself to secure a Protestant succc -^'^n, and France was under the most imperial of her kings, iu +'ie greatest amplitude of his powers, a politi- cal prophet, as Professor Seeley says in his A\>j)anHiott of England, comparing the prospects of these two colonizing powers, might have been led, by observing what an advantage the possession of the St. Lawrence and the Alississi})pi Fieneii ana valley gave to France, to think that in the future gcJ.f ,'^eg „„j North America would belong rather to her than to I'^^i""^*"- England, notwithstanding there were but about twelve thousand Frenchmen on the continent, to something like two hundred thousand English. La Salle had, it is true, failed at the mouth of the great river, but there was no one as yet to dispute the French sway along its banks. There had been danger at the north, but Duluth, Perrot, and Tonty were vigilant. The English, indeed, had threatened to extend their influence from Hudson's Bay by the attractions of trade rather than by occu- pying the soil. It was a struggle in which English mercantile thrift was set against the flexible adaptability to circumstances which characterized the French intercourse with the natives. The greater sui)eriority of the English as colonists has usually been recognized by the French themselves, unless they limited the sphere of colonization to the pioneer work of the bush- ranger, as Kameau has done in comparing the two. At this very time a memorial was presented to Seignelay, setting forth the instability of trade and fur-hunting in comparison with the tilling of the soil, as conducing to colonial ])rosperity. But the chief danger to the French lay nearer their main settlements, ;uid did not diminiah till the Iroquois, ten or fifteen years later, began to lose their ju'cstige. The revenge for the devastation of the Senecas came suddenly, when a failure iu in- vesting Fort Frontenac set fourteen or fifteen hun- loss, au- dred of the confederates free to fall (August, 4, 5, X^',; 1689) upon the settlement at Lachine. Death or caj)- ture came to three or four hundred unprepared victims. The suddenness of the attack seemed to i)aralyze Dcjionville, since he countermanded orders for pursuit, when Subercase, who had reached the scene from Montreal, was ])re])ared to hunt \\w assailants down. Dr. Shea does not doubt English coniplicity in this movement of the Iroquois ; and why should he, when La- liiiit< at- tiiokoj. n 'ti m i .4 344 FRONTENAC RECALLED. French and English were as barbarous as their savage depen- dants ? There is little doubt that Governor Leisler of New York had prompted them to the futile effort to capture Fort Frontenac. If they failed in this, they succeeded in luring Father Milet out of the stronghold, and ran him off to the ^\\ I i V i FRANQUELIN, 1C88. Oneida country. We have his own account of his captivity, and the English at Albany did not profit much in the face of the influence which he acquired in the savage councils. ' It had earlier become apparent that if there was to be open war along the frontiers, the French needed a better leader than je depen- • of New bure Fort in luring iff to the captivity, le face of be open ader than CORONELLI AND TILLEMON. 345 Denonville. Consequently there was general acquiescence in the wisdom of the choice when Frontenac came back 1G89. to his old post. His remembered career gave ground Froiltenac for hope, and the necessity for a man of his indomita- ble courage and unfailing resources had induced the king to O H O r W r c w 55 S a c r 2 r - > 00 &! c forget all the charges which had compelled his recall seven years before. Frontenac did not disappoint expectation, though he was now a man of threescore and ten. His instructions, which were dated June 7, 1G89, had made it imperative on him to attempt two things, — the expulsion of W'm I 1- hi I' I 1 ^^ K t I P." H-ii;:. t ■ ; iv n'M il-:' , ) ■ : 1 ^^ 310 FRONTENAC RECALLED. S w cy . « S !=< S fe J ^ " I • ! i .' % I ,,A'^-' m ^ r ::^-'. '!)?' Miiinim RAFFEIX'S MAP. 347 the English from Hudson's Bay, and the capture of New York. The last did not contemplate Callieres's plan of invasion along Lake Champlain, except as subordinate to a direct naval attack at the mouth of the Hudson. It is curious to see how widely at variance with the geographical conditions of the problem were the current notions which prevailed even in Holland at this time, notwithstanding the close intimacy which the Dutch had had with this region. Official knowledge in France was of course much better, but the ^Amsterdam edition of Blome's America, which was just published (1688), makes the portage between the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic at a divide which i!ii' p ■ W'' 'hi B ll h '1 ,t h'I H\ '«'• . (sP 1 I m 348 FRONT EN AC RECALLED. separated the headwaters of the Connecticut River and the sources of Lake Ghamplain. The scheme of invasion of the English colonies, as they understood it in the cabinets of Quebec and Paris, was a far- reaching one. It would isolate New England for the same end which Burgoyne and Clinton sought, when in 1777 they aime'l at uniting their forces at Albany. It would deprive the Iro- quois of their accustomed dependence on the English, and so check their western raiding. It would give to Canadian trade a harbor that was not blocked by ice a large part of the year. It was hoped that the campaign could be consummated by October (1689) ; but that mouth had already come. Failure of , n ^ t\ -i t ^ "r^ ■,,< Rttempton whcu the tiect under Irontenac reached the Ciulf ot Mow York St. Lawrence. To perfect the strategical arrange- ments involved, and organize a land service, the governor, leav- ing the fleet in the gulf, had intended to go on to Quebec, and when all was ready to send back word to his naval asso- ciate in the gulf, who was then to proceed to New York. All this, to be effective, ought to have been done at an earlier season. Therefore it was not long before the French determined that the project must be abandoned for that year at least. The demoralization which Frontenac found on reaching Quebec, as it turned out, gave no time to think of any such offensive undertaking. With the opening of the year Troubles at (January, 1690), it was known in Quebec that con- spiracy against the French had ripened among the tribes around Mackinac. They were known to be joining in the councils of the Iroquois. The Foxes were rendering the portage to the Illinois by Green Bay almost useless, because of their hostility, and all communication with the Mississijjpi valley was forced to find a channel by Lake Superior and the St. Croix, where we find Le Sueur, a little later, endeavoring to protect even this distant portage from hostile raids. Perrot was doing what he could to hold the Ottawas to their allegiance. It was clear that Frontenac had no resources to meet these dangers where they lay. Louis in sending him to Canada had warned him that he must do the royal bidding with no' further help than he could find in the country, for France had dangers enough at home to employ all her troops. It was also apparent that to paralyze the English support of the Iroquois, whose li ' f ' and the I, as they was a far- I same end hey aimed e the Iro- sh, and so iian trade he year, imated by sady come, le Gulf of [ arrange- rnor, leav- 3 Quebec, laval asso- ork. All an earlier letermined jast. reaching ■ any such )f the year that con- imong the ling in the he portage e of their valley was St. Croix, to protect was doing • meet these mada had no' further id dangers ) apparent ois, whose THE FOX-WISCONSIN ROUTE. 349 machinations had produced this western difficulty, these rivals must be kept busy at home. While there was a plan under consideration at Versailles to attack Boston, Frontenac thought >-! r"-! ^ a ts i S S 1 3! ^ S. I i QD* o t:5 ^M ^ &! c 2 9! ^* «•« V" K i 9> •^ § § <5 G > H n that it was left for him to set on foot the expeditions which led to the bloody work at Schenectady, Salmon Falls, and Bloody work Fort Loyal "(the modern Portland). In the spring «»"'««'«*■ of 1690, the English at Albany, aware of the natural result of any Iroquois defection, had warned the Boston government of ill 'ii ]i? 111 III lii ii 1' , m i-' ;< ! frn iiil I i' V 850 FRONT EN AC RECALLED. WM. Sir Willinm Pliips's ex- piiUtions to Port Royal ; to Quebec. what they were to expect iihnig the eastern frontiers. The Now Englanders on their part, and at the same time, sought to keep the attention of Frontenai! on the alert along the St. Lawrence, and so leave the western question to settle itself, confident that the Iroquois intrigues were equal to the task. When both sides showed their hands, there was enough to \v Englanders also managed later to intercept some of the sup])ly ships, which Quebec could ill spare, but Iberville, who was returning with some plunder from a renewed attack on the Eng- lish at Hudson's Bay, eluded the English ships and escaped to France. Phijjs's failure was every way dispiriting. The mercliants of New England and New York had counted on his Fur trade *= i i t t nortii and succcss to coutrol tlic Indian trade of the west, for the monopoly of the Hudson Bay Company was diminish- lii. LA IIOXTAX. 3")! ing this western trade too nuieh to iniike a (livislon of it lH't\vt>un the French and the English profitable to both. The Carolinians were already opening the eluuuu'ls of trailo in the valley oi tlu5 Tennessee. In this same spring London merchants, trading in these colonies, had urged a protest in the liords against the Commons being allowed to give new force to the charter which Charles II. had bestowed npon the Hudson Bay Com- pany. They represented that, under color of pushing the search for a northwest passage, the company was both engrossing tlu> trade of the far west, and driving the Freinh to an interference with the trade of other P^nglish farther south, upon whoso pros- perity that of England depended. Frontenac had never shown himself more signally etpial to a trying emergency than when he hurried to Quebec and deiied the English fleet. When ho saw it disappear behind the island of Orleans, he experienced a relief which he could hardly have anticipated. Ilis good fiU'tune did not consist in the discomfi- ture of Phijjs alone. lie had succeeded in nmning down to Montreal the first flotilla of fur-laden canoes which the mer- chants of that town had seen for a long time. There weiv a hundred and ten of these little cargoes of peltry to reanimate trade. Frontenac, seventy years old as he was, was joyful enough to dance a war dance with the Indian boatmen. In November, Frontenac wrote out his dispatches upon his success. He somewhat exuberantly told the minis- ,r,oo, xo- tcr that if he would take care of tlu^ English for the Kmnuil«,-'s future, he could deal with the Iroquois, lie sent his '•'mw»iiI'»'9- letters by a young Gascon, who had come to Canada six or seven years befoi-e, and had niude his way into Frontenac's favor. He was an imaginative, if not audacious, story-teller, 1 -111 1.-I1 L«Hoiita«. La Hontan by name, and what lie claimed to liave seen in the far west, beyond the Mississipjn, along a river by which one coiUd ascend to the mountains, and thence reach by another stream the Pacific, passed into current belief some years later, when he published his book. His story began to be doubted by 171G ; but it continued to have a fitful existence, accepted wholly by some, in a qualified way by others, and dis- carded entirely by the warier, till its last defenders disappeared in the early part of the present century. The Long or Dead River, as he calls it, — the last name fitting its sluggish cui'rent, II III ' !ltt' '• iiii 'I i ! |! < (I iT' 862 FRONTENAC RECALLED. 3^ J' LA HOXTAN'S ■e tantattax TSunitean fUttt^ Brrier^TUIUf MJUrffTUr I "^f ll "" ll!l » ^5 k HONTAN'S L.\ HONTAN'S MAI' 3*JL. 853 GRAiTD B>STACt DE TJCRRE 'DE 7y^flit>e f^^^^nn^w, , r ,„. .J| AuT^'^f./ ...TT. s 'ifn4,J\jit'XM'ta.Vtutr» ♦ O C E A l^E ■j^ 9 10 3^3 3S.O' 3 3-5 I CANADA. 354 FR ON TEN A C RECA LLED. — came and went on the maps, and was now identified with this or the other stream of the modern geography till the later dis- coverers found it difficult to place it anywhere. ■At I K.. ^: 1 Ml »5 Frontenac lost no time in sending the tidings of his successes to the western tribes, hoping to stay their defection, but the defeat of Phips and tne discouragement of Winthrop had little '11 E IROQUOIS. 355 effect on the Iroquois. They still prowled and attacked, and it was thought necessary to palisade the Jesuit mission Theiroquois at Mackinac. Btni active. The governmei^t in London was li^lle inclined to risk an- other armament in the St. Lawrence. In November, 1691, Phi])s was in London suggesting it, but he did not press the subject. The colonists were soon using their influence to bring the Iroquois and the Shawnees into terms of agreement. The re- sult was to relieve the confederates of an enmity which distracted them, and it left them freer to renew their raids along the St. Lawrence. So it happened that it was not till 1693 1093. that the Fi-ench succeeded in getting through to JMon- treal another flotilla of canoes, when two hundred of them, under escort of a force which Frontenac put at the disjiosal of Louvigny, now the commandant at Mackinac, relieved the store- houses at the straits, and brought trade once more to the St. Lawrence. There wei'e rumors of another attack on Quebec from Bos- ton, to be aided this time by a na\ al contingent from England, and Frontenac set vigorously to work to strengthen the defenses of his capital, and kept the confederates occu])ied by new irruptions among them. Governor Fletcher, then in authoiity in New Yoi'k, had received enlarged powers, particularly in relation to the militia of the neighboring colonies, in order that he miji'ht command a danuerous force, if invasion was *' 1G94. intended. In 1094, the Iroquois showed signs of fal- tering. They told the English that they nuist have niox'c active hel]) if they were still to press the French. At the same time they sent a deputation to Quebec, m May, and again in Sep- tember, they urged their diplomacy with Frontenac, but he was firm in his rejection of any offer that did not include the west- ern allies of the French, and which did include the English. The Iroquois were not enough to counteract the purposes of the French trader, wlio aimed to keep the Indian sufficiently in his debt to leave him little occasion to seek the English for trade. Comnuinicatiou with these rivals of the French could only mean a weakening of their allegiance, and there was enough of it to cause no small disquiet to Cadillac. This officer soon found that tlie most stubborn pagan would receive any amount of baptisnx for an equal amount of brandy, aii'' woiUd make little distinction between brandy with and without the sacred rites. Cadillac soon informed Frontenac that there could be no l>eace witli the Iroquois till the English were eliminated from the problem, and there was no effectual way of doing it but The English and the liquor traf- fic. CADILLAC. 357 to capture and hold the English posts at Albany and Now York. Sombeifeiure deux Vaurseuux, tAmlou ctrFtxincois [From La Hoiitan's Xouveaiix Voynge.i.] Cadillac, in his fort u": Mackinac, — it had a garrison of two hundred men, — was in every way situated to know tiiM oontlitions of the problem. His was an active mind, and it mattered little U-.i 5- 'ill mm ■ ^ ■ I :^^^^HIJ t- h,.- ' 3^H • ;• ; : ' Warn \ 358 FRONTENAC RECALLED. TllK LAi:(;r,K 1 "i < i/Outoulibii K'rt r.'ur €ntf,tcht* rN 1 1 1 n o I *„-,-v' O I. K E M E X I « TllK LAJKilUt HENNEPIN'S MAP. 359 M\ ;i m i mvi m ; SB I'. ;iM I "1 HENNEPIN M.vr, 1G97. H- ' t Sv ti'A'- ir ■■ji ' ■ " • ; I ■ i ; .1 ' ■? t ; 860 FRONTENAC RECALLED. Perrot and Lo Sueur. to him whether he had the mischievous Huron or the ungodly bushranger to control. He liked most to thwart the Jesuits, Hackiuao ^^^ ^^^ purposcs Were all that Frontenac could wish i^*- in this respect. A pistol-shot away from the French post at Mackinac there was a permanent Indian village of six or seven thousand souls ; and not a tribe of the northwest but had all the time more or less straggling representatives hanging about the spot. The little place had some attractions for wide-eyed wonder. It was as fine a village as there was in Canada, as Cadillac describes it, with its sixty houses in a straight street, and the land, which the Indians cultivated for tuipplying the settlement with corn, cleared for three leagues around. Frontenac, in forcing his policy, had other steadfast .'(bettors in the west beside Cadillac. Ferrot was a ninn to he trusted. The Sieur Juchereau was starting the first industry on the Mississippi in a tannery at tlie mouth of the Ohio. Le Sueur was build! ug forts on the upper Mississippi to hold all hostile tribes in check. It was he who, in 1695, took the first Sioux to Montreal that had been seen on the St. Lawrence, — a chief, who did not survive the winter in his iniwonted environment. That same year, as we have seen, this trader went to France to get new ])rivileges. In 1696, Frontenac was ready once more to try, on the IVIo- „,^, hawk, to settle this vexed question of the west. Early atuokTtiie "'^ ^^6 summer, the Iroquois were again making trouble, Iroquois. ^^^^^ ^jjg govomor determined to deliver a heavy blow. He had recently received three hundred soldiers from France, and he sent a pa»ty to put Fort Frontenac in re])air. He madf; the work move briskly for fear his intention would be checked b}'^ orders to desist. The confederates took the movement as a menace, and mo/ «1 a;i rapidly. Early in July (1G9G), Fron- tenac was ready, and left Montreal with twenty-two hundre I men. He went tu Cataraqui, and then, crossing to Oswepo, was at Lake Onondaga on the 1st of August. Here he saw the light of the village, which the Onondagas were burning as they retired before the French advance. A detachment was sent to destroy an Oneida tov/n, while the main body did all the mischief they hurriedly could. This end accomplished, they were off for Fort Frontenac before the English at Albany knew PEACE OF RYSWICK. 361 ungodly i Jesuits, uld wish e French rillage of lorthwest sentatives ttractions re was in ises in a vated for se leagues t abettors lan to l>e ;• the first itb of the lississippi , in 1695, •n the St. ter in his seen, this n the Mo- st. Early ig trouble, 3avy blow, m France, He made 30 checked mient as a 9G), Fron- hundrt'I ^we2;o, was le saw the jurning as hment was did all the Ished, they .bany kuew what had happened. The occurrence readily suggested argu- ments to those who were at this time urging, in the Board of Trade at London, that the English power should be centralized in a captain-general ; and it gave force to the demand of Wil- liam Penn that the English colonies could more effectively act if they only had an annual congress. It seemed, for a while, as if the vigor of Frontenac's cam- paign had unnerved the Iroquois. The English sent corn to their desolated villages, but it did not prevent the Tiieiroquois confederates sending messengers to Quebec to pro- pe'^ce,'^btit pose a peace. Their incessant wars had told on their ""^^ refused. strength, notwithstanding their custom of adopting prisoners. Fletcher, the Englisli governor, reckoned that they had been reduced from twenty-five hundred warriors tc less than thir- teen hundred, and that they numbered perhaps fifteen thousand souls in all. They had not, however, been reduced enough to abandon their old grudge against the western Indians, and Frontenac was not disposed to listen, unless they would include in their peace the Ottawas and the other distant allies of the French. The Iroquois wouhl not yield, and the negotiations fell through. The French were now seriously considering an attack on Boston, and we have the plans which were made for tliem (January, 1697) and put in shape by their cartographer, Fran- quelin, to guide them up the harbor of that New England town ; but the Peace of liyswick, in the autumn (September igf,^ pp^^g 30, 1697), prevented action and brought a five years' °^ ^y^^^'*^^''- truce with the English, and stayed the latter's purpose of seiz- ing the mouths of the Mississippi. Tlie news of the treaty reached New York before it came to Quebec, and Frontenac heard of it from this source in February, 1698 ; while jnos. Known no confirmation came from his own government till '"^auadii. July. This delay illustrated anew the disadvantages of an ice- i ound river, and brought a fresh reminder of the desirableness of a more salubrious ingress to Canada. The Quebec govern- ment had long been aware of the maritime supremacy which the open seaboard of tha English colonies gave to their rivals, and the English government had of late begun the construction of ships of war in Massachusetts Bay, the •' Falkland," a frig- ate of fifty-four guns, having just been finished at Portsmouth. This act was of itself ominous. ri 'P; fill; I i' m ii l... 1 i i W ■ 1 f ( I » '■^ I iii t !Si '^'V ■ , ■ M I:- r i t |: 862 FRONTENAC RECALLED. tn t £ ^ ^ s » u. CJ PS o s if t oi w s is ll2 s &. 8 « o S O S »s -* V -X„- ««. — «• o ^ c<^ £?« !r< 1,, r-2^ ^ ^ k1 E 'C C5 L ^ ^ \S^' ta J^6 • a-Ji C ^b y^ s. /^ J» r A-* I / • *f3 I ^ / t "^ j( C-V FRONTENACS DEATH. 363 ■ Lord Bellomont was now in command in New York. He had arrived April 2, 1698, and his authority covered also Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire. He soon undertook to arrange an exchange of prisoners with Frontenac, and demanded the return of some Iroquois whom the French had taken. To have acceded would have been to recognize the English sovereignty over those confederates, and Frontenac was too wary to be caught. As the summer went on, Bellomont (August AuRust. 22) gave a more forcible expression of the English w^"°"'J"on. position in a warning to Frontenac that if the French *^"'*'^" attempted another invasion of the Iroquois country he was pre- pared to resist it. Frontenac received the intimation in his usual defiant spirit. A man of seventy-seven, as Frontenac now was, with all his rugged and blunt determination rendered bolder by a sort of barbarous pride, had not lived a life of turmoil without some iillll ilp% CHATKAU DE ST. LOUIS, 1698. [From Suite's CunatHeiis-Friiiirais, vii.] inroads upon a naturally robust constitution. In December, word came to Boston from Champigny, his associate in the gov- ernment, that the old soldier had at last succumbed, on ,^„„ ^^ . ■, ■, 1G98, Nov. the 25th of November (1698). A frozen river had -s. Fron- . « . . . ■, tenac dies. again brought the necessity of communicating with France through a rival province. Chanipigny's messenger, Vincelot, sailed for Europe from Boston ; but another messen- ger reached Paris a few hours ahead. This was Courtemanche, whom Callieres had secretly dispatched ahead of Vincelot. This other messenger had ascended the Sorel, and reached New York by the Hudson. His earlier appearance in Paris very likely helped assure the appointment of Callieres as the suc- cessor of Frontenac. The death of Frontenac left France with many difficult prob- lems yet unsolved. Notwithstanding the exclusive ^ .. , , . . 1 m Knglisli and trade which the government preserved to itself at Ta- French ri- doussac and elsewhere, Canada had not been able to ik H m ^^^1 fi'/jiV.-.i 864 FRONTENAC RECALLED. ...: ,1:1 yield a revenue equal to the charges. The English ami the Iro- quois wero t constant clanger to the French occupation of the great valleys. The Iro- quois still hovered along the St. Law- rence, and both they and their English al- lies were feared on the Mississippi. Adven- turous traders wero al- ready crossing the Al- leghanies from the sea- board colonies, and their huts were becom- ing permanently fixed along the Ohio. The government at Paris, aware of this, and hav- ing no occasion of their own as yet to take pos- session of the region towards which these English were heading, felt the necessity of occupying the great valley of the west, merely to keep their rivals out. An expe- dition under Montigny and St. Cosme had started along Lake Michiuan in the later months of 1698. It was the advance of the church to make good the prophecy of Marquette. Montigny; Tlicy passcd up the western shores of that lake ; Tonty!""*' they stopped at Melwarik (Milwaukee) ; they crossed LrsiTeur. the Chicago portage early in November, and on FRONTENAC. [From the Froutenac Statue at Quebec] CALLIEltES. 305 gus. nuo equal The the Iro- constant he French of the ). The Iro- hovered St. Law- both they Inglish ul- ,red on the Adven- srs were al- ng the Al- om the sear )nies, and rare becom- lently fixed 3hio. The ; at Paris, is, and hav- sion of their to take pos- the region hieh these re heading, lecessity of the great the west, keep their An expe- ;r Montigny Dosme had long Lake 3 advance of Marquette, that hike ; they crossed er, and ou I December G they reached the Mississippi. Thoy had picked up Tonty at liis post, and ho gui have his additional account of experiences along its course. Wo learn from him how the English forerunners were active along the lines of the Tennessee, where some scattering Mohegans, rem- nants probably of those outcasts from New England whom La Salle had found so serviceable, w- trading with adventurei's from over the Appalachians. On wer Mississippi, Gravier reports finding English guns in tiie hands of the savages. It is evident that Gravier was by no means sure that these English were destined to be seriously opposed. " I do not know what our court will decide about the Mississippi," he says, " if no silver mines are found, for our govoriunent does not seek land to cultivate. They care very little for mines of lead, which are very abundant near the Illinois." The px'ovious year (1G90), Le Sueur had passed up the Mississippi from its mouth, in charge of a band of miners. The friendship of the Iroquois was still the key to the situa- tion between the English and the French, not only along the St. Lawrence, but at the remotest western posts. Towards the close of Frontenac's life, the colonists on the Hudson were renewing their efforts to make it appear by deposition and memorial that they held tlie confederates as subiects of the English crown. Callieres, while yet in tempo- '»"'i ti«e rary authority by the death of Frontenac, and before he was confirmed in his power, had assumed the same air of confident indifference toward these savages which Frontenac had borne. He refused to entertain any proposition for the exchange of prisoners which coidd be thought to constitute the slightest recognition of their dependence on the English. William III. had sent orders to Bellomont to unite with the powers in Canada in making the Iroquois keep a peace. Cal- lieres revealed this fact to the confederates, and in July, 1700, they thought it prudent to send mesengers to Quebec. Bello- mont, on his part, tried to prevent any pact of the tribes with :Ji. 1 '4 » l;i S M it . I' It M V. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 11.25 lA^IM |2.5 1^ 1^ III 2.2 :r 1^ 12.0 1.4 III 1.6 6" PhotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. U5S0 (716) 873-4503 366 FRONTENAC RECALLED. fit i ! *• 1699-1700. Detroit. the French, and the Iroquois determined to treat with the French first and with the English next. The Onondagas even 1700, Sep. seenied inclined to break with the English, and on p^Sc^i September 8, 1700, Callieres concluded a treaty with the iroquota. ^|jq jyoquois doputics at Montreal, by which the con- federates, the Hurons, the Ottav/as, and the Abenakis were em- braced in the terms of peace. Meanwhile, the French and English were scheming to attain a position at Detroit. Bobert Livingston had urged Bellomont to take possession of thu' point, and secure control through it of the Miamis, Illinois, and Shawnees. It was hoped in this way to keep the Iroquois in subjection to the purposes of the authorities at Albany, by making them friends of the more distant tribes, and so to secure their trade. The English plan was delayed, and this hesitation gave Callieres his opportunity. After he had made his treaty at Montreal, he planned to occupy Detroit, and in order not to attract the at- tention of the Iroquois., his purpose was to let Cadillac and Tonty approach it from the side of Lake Huron, and begin a fort there. It was Cadillac's notidn to make it the chief west- ern post for trade, and to discontinue the establishments at Mackinac and other points on the upper lakes. This plan raised great opposition both in Montreal and Mackinac, as tending to destroy or weaken their business prospects. The Jesuits, too, were aroused because Cadillac intimated a preference for Ee- collects in the missionary work, and had proposed to instruct the tribes in French, thereby diminishing the influence of the Jesuit interpreters. To push his views, Cadillac went in the autumn of 1700 to France, to urge the scheme upon the Comte de Maurepas. He succeeded in bringing Pontchartrain over to his interests, and the way was opened to other movements, which took the active interest of France from the St. Lawrence and the lakes to the mouths of the Mississippi. This is another theme, beyond the scope of the present book. INDEX. Abenaki Indians, 159, 288. Acadia, bounds of, 128, 188. Accault in charge of an expedition, 267, 274, 276, 277. Agnese, Baptista, his maps, 56, 59, 63. Agona, 39. Agramonte, 11. Akamsea, 243. Albanel, 198, 231, Albany, 147, 160. Alexander, Sir William, and Nova Sco- tia, 123; his Encouragement to Colo- nies, 127; his grants, 127; his Knights- Baronets, 127 ; his map, 128 ; and the attack on Quebec, 132 ; authorized to trade on the St. Lawrence, 133 ; his charter of Canada, 136, 137 ; vacated, 138. Algonquins, 33, 95, 1 15 ; enemies of the Iroquois, 85. Allefonsce, Jean, 40, 41 ; his maps, 42, 43, 56 ; Cosmographie, 42, 44, 56 ; Les Voyages, 56. Alleghany Mountains, 16. Allouez, Father, goes west, 198 ; at Green Bay, 200, 236 ; at the Sault, 205 ; supposed early visits to the West, 229 ; among the Dlinois, 2.")0 ; and La Salle, 266, 290, 323. Amazon River, 16. Amyar de Chastes, 80, a3, 88. Andastes, 115, 117, 121, 255. Andr^, Louis, 202, 205. Andros, Sir Edmund, governor, 342. Angouleme, Lake of, 31. Anian, Straits of, 280. Antieosti Island, 26-28, 51. Appalachee Bay, 312. Appalachian Mountains, 207. Argall, Samuel, 1 13. Argenson, Vicomted', 178. Arkansas Indians, 242, 292, 297. Arkansas River, 151, 242, 291, 322. Asiatic theory of America, 3, 8, 21, 73. Assiniboines, 273. Assumption Island. See Antieosti. Atchafalaya Bay, 312. Athabasca, Lake, 151. Aubert, Thomaa, in the St. Lawrence, 10. Auguada, Baye d', 13. Avalon, l^ll. Avangour, Dubois d', 189. Baccalaos, 38. Balboa, 4, l(i. Baltimore, Lord, at Avalon, 134. Bandelier on the fate of La Salle's col- onists, 324. Basques on the Newfoundland coasts, 9, 23, 124. Batts, Captain Thomas, 203. Baugis, Chevalier de, 304, 326. Bay of Chaleur, 26. Bazire River, 242. Beaujeu, commands La Salle's fleet, 311; his reputation, 311; disagrees with La Salle, .313. Beauport, 149, 155. Beaupr^, 39. Beauvais, Sieur de, 306. Belleforest, 323. Belle Isle, Straits of, 26. Bellero's map, 62. Bellomont, Ejirl of, 363. 365. Bering's Straits, 280, 283. Bernon, Abb^, 287. Bettencourt, Descoh. don Portugueses, 12. Beverly, Robert, Virginia, 230. Bimini, 15. Black River, 276. Blaeu, Atlas, 160, 181 ; his map of North America, 182. Blanc Sablon, 28. Block, Adrian, 112. Blome, America, 347. Bois BraU River, 274. Bolt, Captain, 203. Boston harbor, 91, 124 ; French plan to attack, 349, :J61 ; maps, 301. Botero, 66 ; Relaciones, 88. Boucher, Canada, 187. Boull4, Eustache, 1.30. Boull^, Nicolas, 100. Bourinot, J. G., on Cartier, 26. Bradford, governor of Plymouth, 174. III 368 INDEX, I' !r I-;. Bradore Bay, 11. Br^ard, Marine Normande, 10, 75. Br^beuf, Jeau de, 12U, U'), 148, 150, 158 ; kUled, 172 ; bust, 172. Breasani, KSl. Bretons on the Newfoundland banks, 23, 74. Brevoort, J. C, 17. Brul^, Etienne, 100, 116, 117, 119, his adventures, 121. Bnade. See Frontenao. Buade, Lake, 276. Bufifaloes, 237, 265, 270, 272, 276, 200, 313, 320, 321; Hennepin' drawing, 259. Burel, Gilbert, 129. Buteux, 147, 148. Butterfield, C. W., 223. Byrd, Colonel, 230. Cabot, John, his landfall, 54; discov- eries. 1, 6; mappemonde, 14, 52,53. Cadillac, 257 ; at Mackinac, 356. Caen, Emeric de, 134, 138. Caen, Guillaume de, 124. California, considered an island, 127; 1.36; Gulf of, 136,151. Calli^res, 337 ; succeeds Froi\tenac, 365. Calvert (Lord Baltimore) at Ferryland, 124. Calviniats in Canada, 129; excluded, 1.30. Canada, population, 147, 190, 195, 230, 253, 298, 343 ; fur trade, 147 ; coloni- zation of, compared with New Eng- land, 147, 148; earliest records of, 148; seigneuries, 149; earliest cen- sus, 187; restored to the crown, UK); soldiers and settlers arrive, 191 ; in- tendant and governor, 191 ; peace, 194; Duval's map, 216; immigra- tion falling off, 254 ; trade decreas- ing, 298 ; claims of the Hundred As- sociates, 301 ; Company of the North, 301. See New France. Canerio Map, 1, .3. Cape Bonavista, 25. Cape Breton, 26, .50, 53, ,54. Cape Race, 36. Cape Rouge, 39, 41, 42. Capitanal, 146. Capuchins, 139. Carignan-Saliferes regiments, 191. Carleill, Entended Voyage, 75. Carolina, traders, 242, 351. Carpunt, 39. Carr, Colonel, 196. Cartier, Jacques, finds melons and cu- cumbers, 14 ; commissioned by Fran- cis I., 18 ; his purpose, 22 ; his career, 23 ; sources, 23, 27, 52, 57 ; his first voyage, 24 ; second voyage, 28, 51, 62 ; near Quebec, 29 ; monument to, 30 ; portrait, 30, 45 ; abandons a ship, 36 ; Bref BMt, 36-38 ; printed, 52, 57 ; third voyage, 38 ; connection with Roberval, 40; in St. Malo, 45; his manor house, 46 ; death, 47 ; results of his explorations, 48 ; his maps and their influence, 50, 73; Discoitrs du Voyage, 58; Relation Originate, 58; his lost maps, 58 ; his heirs, 75 ; his kidnapping of Indians, 75; his fort found by Champlain, 94; had mass said, 115. Cathay, iSea of, 42. Cavelier. See La Salle. Cavelier, P6re, 310, 320, 321. Cayuga Creek, 258. Cayugas, raiding, 305. See Ironuois. Cazot, 247. Ceriani, Abb^, 18. Cliabot, Admiral, 18, 23. Chambly, 85. Champigny, 363. Champlain, Samu> I de, his youth, 80; his portrait, 81 ; was he originally Protestant? 80; later Catholic, 82; in Spain, 82 ; in the West Indies, 82 ; goes to the St. Lawrence, 83 ; his character, 83 ; goes up the Sague- nay, 84; hears of western waters, 85, 86, 100, 193; Sauvages, SQ, 88; his first map, 88 ; eager for explora- tion of the St. Lawrence valley, 89 ; on tlie Nova Scotia and New England coast, 89, 90; at Boston harbor, 91, lO;^; lieutenant-governor of Canada, 93; to find a way to China, 93; founds Quebec, 1>4; overcomes con- spirators, 94; attacks the Iroquois, 95, 99 ; licscarbot's award, 98 ; picks out a wife, 100 ; engages in the fur trade, 100, 101 ; his maps of the St. Lawrence Gulf and River, and the Great Lakes, 102-107; receives a new commission, 103 ; on the Ottawa with Vignau, 110 ; his astrolabe, 111 ; his descriptions, 113; in France, 114; introduces missions into Canada, 114 ; sends over Recollects, 1 14 ; again at- tacks the Iroquois, 1 16 ; wounded, 118; winters with the Hurons, 120; in France, 120; prints a new book (1619), 122; in Quebec (1621), 123; a new company formed, 124; mar- riage, 126 ; once more in France (1624). 126; in Quebec, 130; surren- ders Quebec, 134; in London, 136; in Paris, 137 ; his final narrative, 1:59, 140 ; his large map, 142-144 ; his map of the St. Lawrence Gulf, 140; re- commissioned and again governor, 144; and Richelieu, 146, 153; his INDEX. 3G9 idea of French colonization, 148 ; at Three Rivers, 148 ; his last council, 149 ; and Nicolet, 14U, 153 ; his last letter, 153; his death, 153; burial, 155 ; his remains, 155. Ghamplain, Lake, 37, 08 ; its position misconceived, 100; map, 34((. Charles I. (England), his marriage, 137 ; demands for a dower, 137. Charles V., 74. Charles IX., 74. Charlesbourg, 39. Charton, E., 75. Charton, Fran5oi8, 129. Chastes. See Amyar. Chaudi^re River, 91. Chauliner, Nouveau Monde, 139. Chautauqua, Lake, 223. Chauvin, 77, 78, 80, 98. Chaves, Alonso de, his chart, 48. Chesapeake Bay, 124, 199. Chicago portage, 5, 243, 244, 248, 249, 330. Chickasaw bluff, 291. Chippewas, 198. Choctaws, 320. Chomedy, Paul de. See Maisonneuve. Chouart. See Grosseilliers. Church, Colonel Benjamin, 350. Clamorgan, Jean de, 51. Clark, General J. S., 117, 224; on La SaUe, 317. Clayton, 229. Colbert, 189; ponrait, 190; and west- em exploration, 231 ; wishes ingress to Canada in a milder climate, 254 ; resigns, 298. Colbert River. See Mississippi. Colden, Cadwalader, Five Nations, 90, 204, 232. Colonists, English, compared with French, 343. Colorado River, 151, 240. Columbia River, 151, 240. Columbus's second voyage, 3; fourth voyage, 4 ; doubts the Asiatic theory, 4 ; belief as to South America, 10. Comanches, 320. Company of the West, 190, 191. Cond^, Prince de, 103. Conibas, Lake, 07. Conjugon, Cap de, 75. Connecticut charter, 203. Connecticut River, .340. Copper in Canada, 37 ; mines, 122, 199, 203, 218. Coppo'smap, 10, 17. Cortereals, 0, 7, 10, 280. Cortes, 10, 21. Cosa. La, map, 2, 3. Couillard, Henri, 93. Couillard, Madame, 126. Coulombier, 80. Conrcelles, Sieur de, 191 ; attacks the Mohawks, 194. Coureurs de hois, 199; relations with Frontenac, 253 ; with Denonville, 330. Courtemanche, 30^3. Couture, l(i9, 323, 3138. Coxe, Daniel, Carolana, 183, 312. Crawford, Earl of, 50. Creuxius, Ilistoire du Canada, 139, 181 ; map, 184, 185. Cudragmy, ;5(>. Cumberland River, 291. Cunat on Cartier, 23. Dablon, lielation, 198, 247 ; his mission, 199; at the Sault, 20.">, 220 ; returns, 232 ; on western exploration, 234 ; on Joliet, 240, 247. Dacutahs, 151 ; their tongue, 180. See Sioux. Daniel, Jesuit, 145, 150. Diiiimont. See St. Lusson. Dautray, 292. Dauversi^re, 105. D'Avezac on Cartier, 23. Davost, Jesuit, 145. Dawson, Sir William, 33. Dead River, 351. Deane, Charles, 69 ; on the Cabot map, 52. De Brj-, 67. De Caze on Cartier, 30. De Costa on Cartier, 23, 26. Dee, Dr. John, his map, 70, 71. Deguerre, 229. Delaware River, 140. Denonville, Governor, 328 ; his instruc- tions, 329 ; Ids forces, 334 ; tortures thelroqiiois, 334; attacks the Sene- cas, 330 ; plan of mai-ch, 3^30, 339 ; accounts of his expedition, 338 ; re- sults of it, 341 ; anxious about the west, 342. De Noue, 139. Denys, Jean, his alleged map, 9, 10. Dermer on the New England coast, 124. Descelier's map, 14, 54, 55. Desimoni on the Verrazano voyage, 18. De Soto, 295. Des Plaines River, 243. Detroit occupied by the French, 300. Detroit River, 330. De Vries, 280. Dieppe, 80 ; writers, 10. Dionne on Cartier, 23, 30. Divine River, 243. D'Olbeau, Jean, 114, 115. Dollier de Ca.sson, 213 ; on Lake Erie, 219. Dongan, Tliomas, governor of New til i 370 INDEX. York, 305 ; relations with the Iro- Snoia, 327 ; how looked upon by the 'renoh, 328, 329; his methods, 329 ; his anxiety, 341 ; recalled, 341. Donnacona, 29, 30 ; seized, 35-37 ; dies, 39. Douay, 310, 320, 321. Doyle, Puritan Colonies, 173. Drake, Sir Francis, and the Straits of Anian, 280. Druillettes, 183 ; sent to Boston, 173 ; to Plymouth, 174; with St. Lusson, 205. Ducheeneau arrives, 254; charges against Frontenac, 209; wishes the purchase of Albany and Manhattan, 299; would drive the English from Hudson's Bay, 301 ; mentioned, 329. Dudley's map, 170. Du Gay, 276. Duhaut, 319, 322. Duluth, among the Sioux, 273; takes possession of the country, 273, 293 ; seeks a waterway, 274; seeks salt water, 274 ; meets Hennepin, 277 ; arrested at Quebec, 277 ; distrusted by La Salle, 289, 290 ; sent to Lake Nepigon, 305 ; summoned by La Barre, 328 ; on the Detroit River, 330 ; near Lake Superior, 331 ; joins Denonville, 33(5 ; map of his western route, 347. Durantaye, 303, 328, 330, 333, 336. Dutch and the fur trade, 147. Dutch West India Company, 130. Duval, his map, 181, 216. Eden's edition of Miinster, 69. Effingham, Lord, 327. Eliot, John, 173. Endicott at Salem, 135. England, and the Huguenots, 132 ; treaty with France, 137; granting charters on the coast, 203. English in the St. Lawrence, 4 ; under Cabot, 6, 52, 53 ; under Kirke, 138 ; trading, 145. English colonies, population, .343; in- vasion planned, 348 ; projects of uniting, 360 ; building war vessels, .361. Erie, Lake, uncertain knowledge of, 151, 160, 207 ; first tracked by Joliet, 219 ; DoUier takes possession, 220. In maps : Galin^e's, 221 ; Hennepin's (1683), 278, 279; Franquelin's, 344; Coronelli's, ^345; Raffeix's, 347; La Hontan's,3<'>3, 354 ; Hennepin's, 359 ; Wells's, 362. Eries (Indians), 115. Espiritu Santo, Bay, 293, 317. Esprit, Pierre d'. See Radisson. Fagondes, JoSm Alvarez, 12-14. Faillon, Abb^, on Canadian history, 33, 80, 83, 96, 164. Ferland, Ahhi, 44, 96, 177. Ferryland, 124. Fiefs, 167. FinsBus, Orontius, 22. Fleet, Henry, 138. Fletcher, Governor, 355. Florio, John, 57. Florida, 37, 131. Fort Albany, »J1. Fort Cr^vecoBur, 266; abandoned, 268, 272. Fort Frontenac, 252, 333; plan, 335; invested, 343. Fort Hayes, 331. Fort Loyal (Portland), 349. Fort Miami, 289, 290. Fort Niagara, 257, 337. Fort Prudhomme, 291, 297. Fort Richelieu, 192. Fort Rupert, 3:^1. Fort St. Anne, 191. Fort St. Joseph, 264, 272, 288. ' Fort St. Lonis (Texas), 317 ; (Quebec), .306; (Starved Rock), 302, 340. Fort Th4r6se, 194. Fox River, 152, 199, 237 ; portage, 248, 249, 344, 345 ; map, 349. Foxes (Indiana), 23T, 289, 330, 348. France and Spain, 231. Francis I. of France, 74 ; and Ameri- can discovery, 18, 21, 27, 31, 35, 37. Franciscans, 158. Franciscus Monachus and his globe, 22, 73. Fran^ois-Roi, 43. FranqueUn, 274; maps, 293, 294, 302, 308, 344 ; his drawing of the fort at Quebec, 306 ; maps of Boston harbor, 361. Frascastoro, 61. Freire map, 14, 62. Fremin, 21(5. French Creek, 223. French, The, in the St. Lawrence, 11 ; on the Atlantic coast, 17. Freville, on the commerce of Rouen, 18. Frobisher, 68, 280. Frontenac, made governor of Caimda, 232 ; his character, 232 ; interest in exploration, 233, 246 ; on Joliet's dis- coveries, 246; wishes a vessel built on Lake Erie, 247, 252 ; conference at Cataraqui, 251, 252 ; Jesuits' op- position, 251 ; relations with La Salle, 251 ; builds vessels on Ontario, 252 ; and the bushrangers, 253; alleged trading interests, 273,299; losing con- trol of the Iroquois, 298 ; withdrawn to France, 299 ; recalled to Canada, -14. history, 33, loned, 268, plan, 335; 88. ^ (Quebec), , 340. >rtage, 248, 30, 348. and Araeri- 31, 35, 37. s globe, 22, J, 204, 302, the fort at ston harbor, wrence, 11 ; £ Kouen, 18. of Canada, interest in Joliet's dis- vessel built conference Jesuits' op- ith La Salle, btario, 2.")2 ; 53 ; alleged I; losing con- ; withdrawn to Canada, INDEX. 371 • ! 1 I ; 34j ; his new instructions, .345 ; fails in plans of invading New York, 348 ; repels Phips at Quebec, 350 ; dances a war dance, .351 ; disagrees with the bishop, 355; attacks the Iroquois, 3(i0; and Belloraont, 303 ; dies, 303 ; portrait in death, 304. Fundy, Bay of, 02, 63. Furlano, 280. Fur trade, 147; difficulties of regulat- ing, 277 ; more licenses granted, 277 ; demoralizing effects, 290; English and French rivalry, 330, 3.56. Gali in the Pacific, 280. Galin^e, 214; his journal and map, 215, 220. Gallseub, 66. Galveston Bay, 31.3, 317. Ganeau, 74. Ganong, on Cartier's track, 26. Garcitas River, 317. Gamier, 216. Garreau, 183. Gasp^, 26, 80. Gastaldi's maps, 60, 61. Genesee country, 339. George, Lake, 160. Georgian Bay, 116. Gerritsz, H., Delectio Freti Hudsoni, 107 ; its map, 108-110. Gifart, Robert, 155. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 67, 280. Gillam, Captain Z., 195, 107. Gold, sought by the Spaniards, 5 ; spu- rious, 40, 44. Golfo Quadrado, 10. Gomara, Historia, 11, 58. Gosselin, E. H., Glanes, 101 ; Nouvelles Glanes, 101. Gottfried map, 180. Grand River, 219. Grav^. See Pontgrav^. Gravier, P6re, 3(55. Gravier, La Salle, 223 ; on Joliet's map, 247. Great Kenawha River, 2.30. Green Bay, name, 236 ; misplaced by Charaplain, 143, 144, 151. Grelon, 186. Griffin, A. P. C, 318. "Griffon," The, built, 260; is lost, 263; early picture^ 275. GroUet, 324. Grosseilliers, Sieur de, in Canada, 182 ; at Lake Superior, 183, 186 ; at Three Rivers, 186 ; goes west, 187 ; at the north, 195; proposes a voyage to, 195 ; goes to Boston, 195 ; at Hudson's Bay, 195 ; in England, 196 ; again in Canada, 253 ; in Quebec, 301 ; at- tacks Port Nelson, 301. Grynteus, Xovus Orbia, Guast. See Monts. Gutierrez map, 48. Hakluyt, 19 ; on Cartier, 41, 44, iti ; on a fresh water sea, 8. Hamy, E. T., 7, 51. Hariot's Virginia, 113. Harleyan mappemonde, 14, 51, Harrisse, Henry, Discovfri/ of North America, 12, 54 ; views on American discovery, 21, 52; his Cabots, 2.!; Champlain's map, 103; Cartographie de Nouvelle France, 224, 246. Harvard College, 147. Havre de Grace, 90. Hubert, Louis, 121, 1.54. Heins, 339. Hennepin, uses Marquette's map, 240 ; arrives in Canada, 2<*>4 ; ministers to the Iroquois, 255 ; at Fort Frontenac, 257 ; drawing of a buffalo, 2.50 ; view of Niagara, 261 ; on tlie Mississippi, 267; meets Dnluth, 277: at Fort Frontenac, 278 ; his DestTiption de la Louisiane, 278, 282 ; his map (l(iS3), 278, 279, 282; his veracity, 282; Nouvelle Dfcouverte, 282; relations with La Salle, 282; his map (1607), 282, 284, 285; Nouvelle Voyage, 28;{, 286 ; recent discussions, 284 ; his irre- sponsible editors, 285 ; joins Wil- liam III. of England, 280 ; The Neuf Discovery, 28('); his books popular, 307 ; his larger map, 358, Henri, the Dauphin, 38. Henri II., 74. Henri III., 74. Henri IV., 74, 77, 82, 83; killed, 100. H4rman, map of Maryland, 207. Hevlyn's map, 180, 181. Hoehelaga, 30, 31, 39 ; view of, .32 ; dis- appeared, 31 ; plan of Lescarbot, 34. Hoehelay, 39. Honiem's map, 62. Hondius, Mercator • Atlas, 107; map (1635), 141, 147; and the Straits of Anian, 280. Honfleur, 74, 8.3, 94, 98, 121. Hundred Associates, company formed, 130 ; its territory, 131 ; its purposes, 131, 167; give up their charter, I'.K). Hudson, Henry, on the Hudson River, 98; in the north, 10(); his charts, 106 ; account t)f his voyage, 10(). Hudson Bay Company, 197, 301 ; its s^ 372 INDEX. i effect on western discovery, 302 ; Dn- luth to divert their trade, 305, 3^]! ; their posts attacked by De Troyes, 331 ; rechartered, 351. Hudson River, 85, 34(3. Hudson's Bay, prefigured, 106; mapped, 108 ; James s map, 145 ; Sanson's map, 179 ; other early maps, 170-lHl, lUO, 216 ; passages to by land, 015 ; James's Bay, 105; Grosseilliers at, 106, 107 ; English in, 107, 108, 203, 231 ; the French take formal posses- sion, 231 ; Joliet's notions of its geog- raphy, 245, 246; Franquelin's map, 2O4 ; the English traders, 30<) ; claims of the French, 300 ; Port Nelson at- tacked, 301 ; New Englanders' illicit trade, 301 ; French and English at, 331 ; Jailot's map, 332. Huguenots in the English colonies, 328. Humber River, 272. Humboldt, Alexander von, on the Straits of Anian, 280. Huron, Lake, 8(i, 105, 120 ; mapped by Champlain, 142 ; united with Lake Michigan, 221, 222. In maps: Fran- quelin's, 344 ; Coronelli's, 345 ; Raf- feix's, 347 ; La Hontan's, . 352, 353 ; Hennepin's, 3.50 ;_ Wells's, 362. Hurons, 33, 95, 115 ; war with the Iro- quois, 116 ; their villages, 117, 150 ; map of their country, 120 ; missions, 158; attacked by the Iroquois, 172; dispersed, 172 ; at the Island of Or- leans, 176 ; driven west, 178 ; found "there, 186, 187 ; at La Pointe, 200 ; feud with the Sioux, 201, 202 ; Mar- quette among, 234 ; on the Detroit River, 270. Iberville at Hudson's Bay, 331, 350. Illinois Indians, 151, 201 ; seen by Mar- quette, 234 ; hunted by the Iroquois, 242, 208, 305 ; at Starved Rock, 302. Illinois River, ascended by Joliet, 243. Incarnation, M6re de 1', 183. Indians, kidnapped, 26, 28, 35, 37, 30; sales of arms to, 123 ; treatment of by Europeans, 130 ; in council, 146 ; from New England at the west, 288, 200, 205. See names of tribes. lowas, 178, 331. Iroquois attacked by Champlain, 95, 90, 116 ; constant attacks on the French, 96 ; their isolated position, 115 ; war on the Hurons, 116 ; threaten Quebec, 125 ; make peace, 126 ; their ubi- quity, 158 ; at the west, 159 ; get fire- arms, 160 ; peace of, 169 ; their num- bers, 169 ; attack the Hurons, 172 ; sue for peace, 175 ; fighting the Eries, 175 ; and the fur trade, 175 ; and the Jesuits, 176 ; their command- ing country, 177 ; their number, 188 ; hunt the Montagnais, 188, 107; league with the English, 103; on the Ohio, 241, 242 ; drive the Shaw- nees, 241 ; meet Frontenac at Cata- raqui, 251 ; instigated by the Dutch, 252 ; subdue the Andastes, 255 ; raids into the English colonies, 255; in the Illinois country, 264 ; attack their towns, 268 ; middlemen for the Eng- lish, 268 ; La Salle's league against them, 280 ; raiding west, 298 ; leagu- ing with the English, 298 ; courted by French and English, 342; have firearms, 326 ; alleged treaty with the French, 333 ; agreements with the Englisli, 333 ; their warriors, 333 ; map of their country, 338 ; banding the western tribes, 348, 355 ; demand English assistance, 355 ; attacked by Frontenac, 360 ; dwindling, 361 ; tlieir influence, 365 ; make peace with the French, 366. , Irondequoit Bay, 216, 337, 339. \ Island of Orleans, 20. Isle aux Coudres, 20. Jacker, Father, 187, 250. Jacobsz, maps, 124, 125. Jail-birds in Canada, 28, 38, 44. Jailot, his map, 332. Jalobert, Mac4, 28, 39, 40. Jamay, Dennis, 114, 115. James, Strange Voyage, 145; his map, 145. James II. of England, 320, 332, 341, 342. Japan, 282. Jesso, Island of, 281. Jesuits, join the Recollects in Canada, 120; their labors, 120; favored by Richelieu, 138; their Belations, 130, 201 , 233 ; their connection witli Cham- plain's final edition, 141 ; sent west, 148 ; their influence, 157 ; their mar- tyrs, 161 ; among the Iroquois, 176, 217 ; struggle with the Sulpitians, 170, 217 ; and Frontenac, 233, 253 ; as traders, 253 ; on La Salle, 257 ; rela- tions with La Salle, 2JM) ; their Bela- tions as evidence, 333 ; expelled from the Iroquois country, 341 ; disagree with Frontenac, 356, 360; and the liquor traffic, 356; dislike Cadillac, 306. Jogues, 159; captured, 160 ; among the Iroquois, 161, 169; killed,' 160. Joliet, seeking copper mines, 203, 218 ; with St. Lusson, 204 ; at Green Bay, 205 ; meets La Salle, 218 ; first tracks Lake Erie, 219 ; his larger map, 224, 225 ; his smaller map, 226, 227 ; se- INDEX. 373 leoted for western discovery, 234 ; ig- norant of what La Salle had done, iSH ; joined by Marquette, 2:i4 ; his maps, 28(} ; his expedition, 237 ; reaches the Mississippi, 238; visits the Illinois, 240 ; turns back, 243 ; up the Illinois, 243; at the Chicago portage, 244; at Sault Ste. Marie, 244; at Fort Frontenac, 244 ; loses his papers, 245 ; his earliest map (1673-74), 245, 247 ; his Carte G^n^rale, 24U ; his accounts of his explorations, 245, 240; map drawn from recollection, 240 ; denied the right to a trading-post on the Mississippi, 250; sent to Hudson's Bay, 3Ul ; map of his route on the Mississippi, 347 ; his buildings on An- ticosti burned, 350. Joniard, 50. Joutel, with La Salle, 310; his Journal Historique, 310, 317, 321 ; his map, 318, 31U; left at Fort St. Louis, 31'.), 320 ; on La Salle's last expedition, •321 ; separates from La Salle's mur- derers, 322 ; reaches Starved Rock, 323 ; tells a false story, 323. Juchereau, 300. Judaeis's map, 07. Kankakee River, 244, 205, 272, 290. Kaskaskia (on the Illinois), 243. Kennebec River, 5)1, 147. Kickapoos, 237, 20i). King map, 7. Kingsford, Canada, 81, 211, 200, 317. Kirke, David, in the St. Lawrence, 132 ; returns to England, 133 ; captures Quebec, 134. Kirke, Gervase, 132. Kohl, J. G., Discovery of Maine, 25, 20, 55. Kretschnier's Atlas, 5, 15, 19, 22. Kunstmann's maps, 3, 0. La Barre, Governor, .300 ; impedes La Salle's movements, 303 ; invades the Seneca country, 320. Labrador as an island, 3, 7, 11 ; in the early maps, 15 ; its coasts, 20. La Chesnaye, 300. Lachine attacked, .343 ; rapids, 85. Laconia, 135, 100. La Forest, 272, 288, 310. Lafreri's atlas, 01. La Hontan in Canada, 351 ; his maps, 352, 353, 354. Lake of the Woods, 151. Lakes. See names of lakes. Lalemant, Charles, 129, 130, 155. Lalemant, Gabriel, 172. LamberviUe, 327, 334. La Mothe Cadillac. See Cadillac. Lane, Ralph, 72. La Pointe, 185 ; mission, 198, 199. La Platte River, 240. La Pothurie, 204. L'ArchevSquti, 321, .324. La Roche, ^ee Roberval. La Salle, his early life, 210; and the Jesuits, 211, 225; settles near Mon- treal, 211 ; portrait, 212 ; plans an ex- pedition, 213 ; joined by Galin^e, 214 ; starts, 214 ; among the Iroquois, 217 ; meets Joliet, 218; his truck uncer- tain, 222; his papers, 222; Hisloire de M. La Salle, 222 ; did he discover the Ohio and Mississippi ? 223, 224 ; his Lachine estate, 228 ; and the early maps, '230; meets Joliet, 244; at Cataraqui, 244 ; thinks of a traffic in buifalo skins, 245 ; relations with Fronten.ac, 25 1 ; com.nands Fort Fron- tenac, 252 ; returns to France, 2.")3 ; obtains a grant, 253 ; agrees to rebuild Fort Frontenac, 2'A ; ennobled, 254 ; returns to Canada, 2>'>4 ; strengthens Fort Frontenac, 255; keeps vessels on Lake Erie, 255 ; again in France, 250 ; receives a patent for the Mis- sissippi country, 250; gains the aid of Tonty, 257 ; his character, 257 ; at Fort Frontenac, 257 ; builds the "Griffon," 258; his creditors, 200; at St. Ignace, 202; at Green Bay, 202 ; on liake Michigan, 203 ; anx- ious about the " Griffon," 264,^200, 270, 271 ; and AUouez, 200 ; builds Fort CrftvecoBur, 201!; builds a ves- sel, 2(i0 ; returns to the settlementa, 208, 270; at Fort Frontenac, 271; business embarra.i.^nients, 271 ; cap- tures marauder ■ "^71; again on the Illinois, 272 ; re.^ohed, 207. Mascoutins, 152, 237, 2, 145. Matagorda Bay, 315. Matagorda Island, 313. Maumee River, 250. Mauropas, 306. Mazarin, 189. Medina, Pedro, Arte de Navegar, 59; map, .59. Megapolensis, 170. Melwarik, 364. See Milwaukee. Membrd, 201 , 267, 270 ; his journal and Hennepin's, 28:i. 280, 289, 297 ; anions the Arkansas, 292 ; nurses La Salle, 297 ; on La Salle's Texan expedition, 310. Menard, Ren^, 187. Mercator, Gerard, maps (15Ji8). 48, 49; his great map, 04; comparative ge- ographer, 05, 70; Atlas, 88; on the Straits of Anian, 280. Mercator-Hondius Atlas, lOJ. Mercure Franqois, 101. Metellus. 67. Meulan de Circe, 229. Meules, 350. M^zy, Sieur de, 189. INDEX. 876 Asiatic the- Miamis, 237; atUck the Illinoia, 208; to be leaioied, 28U. Michel, Frencit colonista, 132. Mivhelant, 58, Mivhi((an, Lake, 151 ; described by Marquette, 24)>; mapped by Fran- nuelin, ii44 ; by Coruiit^lli, !>45 ; by Raffeix, 347; by La Hontan, :3!>2; by Hennepin, 358 ; Wells's, 3U2. Milet, 328, :{44. Mille Lacs, 273. MUwaukee, 2((4, 304. Minet, his map, 315, 310. Mississippi Kiver, early found by the Spaniards, 5; developed by the French, ; early notion of its ma^rnitude, 11(( ; valley, 151 ; early intimations of, 183, \m, 201, 213; perhaps seen, 180, 187, 230; called Missipi, lUO, 238 ; its uncertain direction, 2UU, 201 , 213, 225 ; did Ln Salle reach it before Joliet did 'f 225 ; reached in 1073, 221), 238 ; named La Buade, 238 ; and Conception, 238 ; its native name, 238 ; extent of its water-shed, 23l> ; Joliet's farthest point, 243; Joliet's maps, 245, 240; Marquette's maps, 248, 240; approach by the Maumee and Wabash, 25(( ; La Salle wishes to find its mouth, 250 ; Hennepin's first map of, 279, 282 ; second map, 282, 285 ; his diverse statements, 282, 283; called Colbert, 200, 200; its great valley, 203, 204; La Salle at its mouth, 205 ; " Acadian coast," 205 ; Franquelin's map of its mouths, 200 ; Miners maps, 31({; Joutel's map, 318 ; Franquelin's (1088), map, 344 ; Coronelli's map (1088), 344; Raf- feix's map, 347 ; Hennepin's, 3.58 ; Wells's, 302. Missouri River, 151, 240 ; called Osage, 2t>l. Mistassini River, 44. Mitchell, John, 230. Mobile Bay, 2.50, 20.3. Mohawks make peace, 100; raiding, 170; attacked by. Courcelles, 194; and Tracy, 104 ; sue for peace, 104. Mohegaiut, 200, 2(i4, 288, 334, 305. Molineaux's map, 07, 00. Montagnais, pact with, 95; missions, 115, l.')8; mentioned, 175, 188, 107. Montanus, 207. Montigny, 304. Montmagny, Charles Huault de, 150; his policy as governor, 157. Montmorency, Duke of, 123; sells his viceroyalty, 12(5. Montmorency Falls, 84. Montreal, visited by Cartier, 33 ; site of, 85 ; founded, 101 ; map of its vicinity, 102, 103, 108; its position, 107 ; and the fur trade, 211. Mont Uoyale, 33. Monts, Sieur de, 77 ; on the Atlantic coast, IH); on the St. Lawrence, 01], OS, 00. Mornuget, 321. Moreau, Pierre, 274. Mount Desert, 02. Mount Joliet, 243. Mouy, Charles de, 27. Miinster, Sebastian, 00 ; his maps, 40, 58. Muskingum Kiver, 223. Muskrat Lake, 112. Myritius, his map, 73. Nahant, Dutch at, 112. Nancy globe, 50. Nantes, Edict of, 74. Natchez Indians, 202. Nepigon, Lake, 105. Neutere, 1 10. New Amsterdam, 100. New Biscay mines, 312. New England, settled, 135 ; confederacy, 100 ; map, 340 ; Society for the Prop- agation of the Oospel in, 174 ; popu- lation, 174, 187. Newfoundland coasts in the early maps, 1-3, 5-8, 10-12, 15-17, 10, 20, 25, 40, 53-55, 50, 00, 02, 71, 125 ; eariy visitors, 23, 25, 73-75; Champlain's map, 104, 107, 140 ; Calvert at Ferry- land, 124 ; mapped by Hondius, 141 ; by Duval, 220. New Plymouth Colony, 147. New Scotland, 128. New York and the Iroquois, 103 ; grants to the Duke of York, 203 ; restored to the English (1074), 253 ; popula- tion, 320; invasion threatened, 341; attack proposed by the French, 347, 357. Niagara, Falls, early heard of, 8(i ; River, 104 ; Falls in Champlain's map, 144 ; early notions, 144 ; mentioned by Vi- mont, 150; River early described, 171 ; FaUs heard by La Salle, 217; Gorge, 244 ; River, map, 200 ; Henne- pin's view of Falls, 201 ; exaggerated by Hennepin, 307 ; spelling of the name, 3>}4, 341. Nicolet, Jean, his discoveries, 22, 140, 150 ; at Three Rivers, 153 ; effect of his story, 150 ; on the Fox River, 237. Nipissing Lake, 110, 204. Noel, Jacques, 30, 40, 72, 75. Nordenskiold, 21. Normans on the Newfoundland banks, 23. North America, its great waterways, 4 ; 876 INDEX. m • Mi ,. early notiona an to its width, 1ft, in ; •■ ail arvhipelago, 17 ; early niapa, 1-4, H, 12, 15-17, 1ft, 2(», 4ft, .W, &ft, (M. 07, 72, IIU; aa 8 part uf Alia, 21, 22. North Sea, lt)ft. Northwt>Ht pawtage, it51. NoruiiilM'Ka, i**'- Oirilby, maps, UM\ 207, 210. Ohio Kiv«r, early intimations of, 170, 177, IHl, 217 ; I^ 8alle upon it, 224 ; called the Wabash, 241 ; the Iroquois on, 242 ; undeveloped in Joliet's maps, 245, 240; and in Muruuette's, 248, 24t) ; approach bv the Maumee and Wabiuiti, 250 ; unknown to Hennepin, 27(<, 2ftl ; misunderstood by La Salle, 27H, 2t)l ; drawn incorrectly by Mi- net, iilO; mapped by Franqueliii, •^ ; by Kaffeix, :i47 ; by Hennepin, 85S ; English traders, 805. Oil Cwek, 170. Oiibwa>-s, 150, l.'iO, 183. Olier, UW>, 1((0. Oliva, J.. 107. Oneida, Lake, 117. Onondaga, Lake, 30&. Oiioudagas, their fort, 117 ; its plan, 111». Ontario, Lake, prefigured, 80, 10.}; mapped by Chainplain, 14:); its southern water-shea, 101, 175 ; map (lOSS), ak'^, 3.54; Hennepin's map, ;i5J> ; \yells's, 302. Orinoco River, 10. Ortelius's maps, 04-06 ; his interest in American geography, 08, 73 ; on the Straits of Anian, 280. (^ages, river of, 241. See Missouri. Oswego River, first entered, 175. Ottawa River, seen by Gartier, 33 ; in Mercator's map, 05, 72 ; and Cham- plain, 85, 87, 105; Champlain on, 110, 112, 110; mapped by him, 143; the usual route, lol, 171, 181 ; route and portages, 210, 221, 227 ; in Joli- et's maps, 245, 240 ; in Jailot's map, 332. Ottawas at Manitoulin Island, 202 ; on the Mississippi, 214; missions, 222; on the Illinois. 205 ; as fur-hunters, 3:{0 ; Perrot among them, 348. Ontagamies, 204. Oviedo, Sumario, 17, 48, 01. Padron (Jeneral, 48. Pitge, Louis de, 194. Pann Indians, 202. Panuco. 21«, 309. Pare, Sieur de, 100. Parkman, F., on Cartier's portrait, 31 ; cited, 74, 118, 150, 224, 230; hia maps, 2ftl, 294 ; on Pefkalora, .')09. Paniientier, Jean, 57. Patterson, Dr., 12. Peltrie, Madame de la, 100 ; portrait, 100. Penaloaa, abetting La Salle, 309. Penn, William, 301. Pennsylvania, charter, 20:^. Penobscot River, 90. Peoria Lake, 2t(5. Pepin, Lake, 178, 270, :^0, 342. Per^, 195, 218. Perrot, Nicolas, with St. Luason, 202, 204 ; his memoirs, 204 ; quarrel witli Frontenao, 253, 328; on the Missis- sippi, 330 ; at the west, 342 ; among the Ottawas, 348, 300. PhUip II., 74. Philip's war, 288. Phillipps, Sir Thomas, 55. Phips, Sir William, 350. Pineda in the Gulf of Mexico, 5. Pinot, 22». Plessis, Pacifique du, 114, 121. Plymouth Company, 147. i Plymouth Pilgrims, 122, 123, 130. Poncet, P^re, 175. Pontohartrain, 300. Pontgrav^, 77, 83,89, 91, 9:3-95, 98, 111, 121. Poole, W. F., on Hennepin, 283. Pope, Joseph, on Cartier, 23. Popellini^re, 08. Porcacchi's maps, 03, 280. Porcupine Indians, 171. Portland, Me., 349. Port Royal (Annapolis), attacked by Phips, 350. Portuguese in the Qulf of St. Lawrence, 0, 7, 11, 55; portolanos, 7, 11, 02; under Fagundes, 12, 13 ; chart (1520), 15 ; on the Newfoundland Banks, 24. Pottawattamies, 153, 159, 200, 219,270. Poutrincourt, 90. Pr^vert, Sieur, 80, bS. Priest and trader, 177. Prince Edward Island, 26. Prouville, Alexander de. See Tracy. Ptolemy maps, 7, 11, 01. Puants, their bay, misplaced by Cham- plain, 143. Purchas, 124. Quebec, Champlain at, 84; founded, 94 ; new fortress at, l25 ; threatened by the Iroquois, 125; famine, 130; surrender demanded, 132 ; given up, 134 ; restored, 135 ; Indian confer- ence at, 140; early records, 148; Chapel of Notre Dame de Recou- vrance, 149 ; described, ^ 53 ; popula- ' INDEX. 877 tkw, 1 ; ruina of int«mfiuit'a paUo«, 'A'il ; ita con- dition, :12H ; atUoked by Phipa, :iOO ; ila dofvnaea, 355. Quay Ilia, 1*14. Quint4 niiaaion, 214. Radiaaon, Siaur, in Canada, 182; cap- tured, IKi; at the North, 1U5; in Enslaad, 1V7 ; in Quebec, MX. Raffeix, hia mapa, >\A6, 'AVI. RaKuvneau, Ukt ; hia niapi 158 ; Rela- (ION, 171, 17:t. Rani4 on Cartier, 2:], 27. Kamuaio on Cartier, 27, 62 ; hia la- bors, 01 ; Haccolta, 57 ; hia intereat in American Keography, 74. Raudin li^ out Fort Frontenao, 252 ; aent to Lake Superior, 25.'>. Ravmbault, 159 ; death of, KM). Ra^ly, 137. Recollects in Canada, 1 14 ; their char- acter, 115; on the 8t. Charles, 122 ; their convents attacked, 120 ; others airive, 120; befriended by Cham- Elain, 120; their missions, 120, 270; lYite the Jesuits to join them, 120 ; apply for a biahop, 1.30; excluded from Canada, 130; treatment of in Champlain'a final narrative, 141 ; and Frontenac, 23:^. Red River, 201, 202, 309. Reiuel chart, 5-7. R^my, Daniel de. See Courcelles. Ribero map, 48. Ribouide, 'M9. Richelieu, 1:10 ; and the missions, 138 ; delays to send succor to Canada, 140. Richelieu River, 102. Rio Bmvo, :^>. Rio Grande, 203. Roanoke River, 72. Roberval, 37, 65, 50; his career, 40; death, 47. Rochelle, merchants of, 00. Rooky Mountains, 203. Roman calendar in geography, 14. Roquemont, Claude de, 131 ; defeated, 133. Rotz's maps, 50, 51, 01 ; Boke of Idrog- raphj/, 51. Rouen and the new world, 18; mer- chants. 101. RousaUi^re, 213. Roytet>. 44. Rnge, Sophus, 1, 15. Rupert, Prince, 197. Rupert's River, 107. Rnscelli's maps, 03, 70. Ruysch's map, 7, 8. Ryswick, Peace of, 301. Sabine River, 313. .Sable Island, (II, 70. Maffard, Uabriel, 120, 150, 153 ; on the Indiana, 115. Kagean, 207. Satnienay River, 20, 37, 42-44, 54, 78 ; explored by Chaniplain, 84 ; in- fested by Iroquois, 174, 107 ; ex- plored, 108,231,353. Salnte Croix, Cartier at, 34. Salem, l^io. Salmon Falb, 340. Sanson's map, 170, 180 (1000), 238. Siiuta Cruz, his map, 51. Sault St. Louis, 85. Sault Ste. Marie, 144, 150; mission, 150, im, 220 ; St. Lussoii at, 202 ; its position, 200. Savigiion, tH). SchenecUuly, 104, 340. Sohoner, his gores, 21 ; his view of North America, 21 ; his theory of North America, 73. Schoolcraft, 258. Seeley, Erpansion of England, ;i43. St^ignelay in power, 208, 343. Seignelay River, 243. See Red River. Seigneuries, 107. Senecas, villages, 210 ; object to a fort at Niagara, 257 ; middlemen for the English, 258 ; moving West, 305, 820 ; threaten to destroy the " Grif- fon," 200; make a truce with La Barre, 328 ; attacked by Dehonville, i^^7 ; map of their country, 330. See Iroquois. Shiiwnees, 218, 241, 2(58, 200,320. Shea, J. G., 118; on La Salle, 225. 244, 257, 2(«J, 270, 282 ; his Catholic Church in Colonial Doi/n, 225 ; on Marquette, 229, 230 ; Discot < rv of the Mississij^i, 247, 240, 207; on Hennepin, 284 ; on Peilalosa, 300; on the Lachine mas- sacre, ;-J43. Ship (1013), 113 ; building, 147 ; cuts of, .357. Simcoe, Lake, 120, 272. Sioux, 152, 159, 178, 180,190, 201,202; presents to, 255 ; visited by Dnluth, 273 ; wandering parties, 270, 277 ; in Montreal, 300. See Dacotahs. Slafter, E. F., 118. Smith, Captain John, 02, 135. Soissons, Comte de, 103. South America, Columbus's view of its extent, 10; early maps, 1, 2, 8, 11, 15-17, 19, 20, 22, 49, 04, 05. Spain, suspicious of France, 38. Spaniards and the French, 103. Sparks, Jared, on Marquette, 249 ; on La Salle, 284. Square Gulf, 10, 11, 23, 07. 378 INDEX. S !' St. Anthony's Falls, 276. St. Charles River, 29, 34. St. Clair, Lake, 262. St. Cosme, 364. St. Francis Xavier mission, 200. St. Oermain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 137, 301. St. Ignace mission, 202, 250 ; " Grif- fon" at, 262. St. John, Lake, 231. St. Joseph River, 264. St. Joseph's (Sillery), 158. St. Lawrence valley, early knowledge of, 4, 23, 68 ; origin of name, 28, 58 ; ascended by Cartier, 28, 39 ; earliest charts, 42; ascended by Roberval, 42; cartography of, 50, 53-55, 58, 62, 64, 65, 67, 69, 71 ; shown as an archipelago, 63 ; attempts to colonize, 77 ; Chauvin and Pontgrav^, 77, 78 ; Champlain on. See Champlain ; maps of, by Charaplain, 102, 104-107, 140, 142,143; in Gerritsz, 110; Basques in, 124 ; Dutch map, 125 ; in Hondius, 141 ; Dudley's map, 170 ; exposed to inroads, 171 ; Sanson's map, 179 ; Gott- fried's map, 180 ; Heylyn's map, 180 ; Blaeu's map, 181 ; Visscher's map, 181 ; Creuxius's map, 184, 185 ; Ogil- by's map, 210; Duval's map, 226; its extent, 239 ; Joliet's maps, 245, 246 ; Hennepin's maps, 279, 284, 285 ; map (1683), 291 ; Minet's map, 316 ; Joutel's map, 318 ; Jailot's map, 332. St. Louis, city, site of, 241. St. Louis, Lake, 102. St. Lusson at Sault Ste. Marie, 202 ; his pageant, 204. St. Malo, 24, 27, 36, 75, 77-79, 91, 112 ; merchants, 101. Ste. Marie mission (Georgian Bay), 159. St. Mark mission, 200. St. Mary's current, 31. St. Michel River, 30. St. Pierre Island, 36. St. Pierre, Lake, 85, 192. St. Quentin, 74. Stadacona, 29. Starved Rock, 265, 267, 272, 302 ; view, 303; abandoMcd, .340. Stephens, H. B., on Cartier, 23. Stevens, Henry, 21. Strait of the Three Brothers, 58. Subercase, 343. Sulpitians, 179; and La Salle, 211; at Montreal, 211; missions, 214; and Jesuits, 220 ; and Frontenac, 253. Suite, Benjamin, 1.50, 152, 183, 189, 215 ; Canadiens-Francftis, 306. Superior, Lake, mapped by Champlain, 143 ; unseen, 151 ; pictured rocks, 184 ; named Tracy, 198 ; mapped by the Jesuits, 206, 208, 209 ; copper at, 218 ; its size, 222 ; mapped by Fran- quelin, 344 ; by Coronelli, 345 ; by Raffeix, 347 ; by La Hontan, 352 ; Hennepin's, .358 ; Wells's, 362. Susquehanna River, 117, 121. Sylvanus's map (1511), 10, 11. Tadenac, Lake of, 67. Tadoussac, settlement at, 7, 79, 83 ; miap, 79. Taensas, 292. Tailhan, Father, 204. Talon, Jean Baptiste, intendant, 191 ; aids western discovery, 193 ; and western exploration, 218, 231 ; and northern exploration, 23l ; disliked Frontenac, 232. Tannery, 360. Taupine, La. See Moreau. Tennessee River, 291, 351, 365. Thevenot, Recueil, 249. Thomassy, Giologie pratique de la Louisiane, 296, 297. \ Three Brothers, Strait of, 73. ' Three Rivers, 84, 121 ; settled, 148. Thwaites, R. G., Historic Waterways, 349. Ticonderoga, Champlain at, 96, 97. Tobacco Nation, 115, 159. Tonty, Henri, joins La Salle, 257; at Niagara, 260 ; at the Detroit River, 261 ; on Lake Michigan, 263 ; occu> pies Starved Rock, 268 ; wounded, 269; deserts the Illinois, 269; pros- trated, 270 sought by La Salle, 272, 288; disowns the Dernieres Decou- vertes, 289, 325 ; with La Salle, 2!H) ; at St. Ignace, 297; goes down the Mississippi to succor La Salle, 322 ; his Mitnoires, 325 ; attacked at the Rock, 326; joins Denonville, 334; meets Joutel, 338 ; descends the Mis- sissippi, 338 ; given a patent of the Rock region, 340; seeks Iberville, 340 ; on the Mississippi, 356, 365. Tordesillas, Treaty of, 6. Tournon, Cardinal, 37. Tra«y, Marquis dc, 191 ; attacks the Mohawks, 194. Trader and priest, 177. Trent River, 117. Trinity River, 321. Troyes, De, at Hudson's Bay, .331 ; at Niagara, 337. Ulpius's globe, 50. Vallard, Nicolas, map, 55. Van Rensselaers, 130. Ventadour, Duke of, 126, 129. H if INDEX. 379 Vermilion Sea, 240. Verrazano map, 14, 18 j sea of, 17, 18, 20-22. Vespiicius's alleged voyage, 8. Viegas, Gaspar, map, 14, 24, 25. Vignau, Nicolas de, 100 ; his deceit, 109. Ville, Marie. See Montreal. Vimont, Relation, 152, 167. Vincelot, 363. Virginia, 92, 98, 113 ; wheat trade, 147 j charter, 203 ; her explorers, 203 ; traders, 242. Visscher's maps, 178, 181. Voyageurs, 120. Wabash River, La SaUe on, 224, 241, 2.=36, 291. Walloons, 130. Wells, Edward, maps, 362. Western Sea, supposed, 147, 148, 159. Westminster, Treaty of, 253. White, of Virginia, 113. White Fish Indians, 171. Whittlesey, Charles, 278. Winnebago Lake, 171, 200, 349. Winnebagoes, 151. Winnepesaukee, Lake, 160. Winnipeg, Lake, 151. Winthrop, Governor, invites the French to a commercial treaty, 173. Winthrop, Fitz-John, 350. Wintlirop, Wait, 197. Wisconsin River, 152, 200 ; Joliet on, 237 ; map, 349. Wolf River, 200. Wood, Colonel Abraham, 183, 229. Wood River, 230. Wytfliet, his first American atlas, 67, 101, 280. Young, Captain Thomas, 146. Zalterius, map, 64, 280.