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 789
 
 PARKMAN 
 
 PROSE PASSAGES FROM THE WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 FOR HOMES, LIBRARIES, AND SCHOOLS 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 JOSEPHINE E. HODGDON 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 47285 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 1893
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 2135 
 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE
 
 03 O 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH : FRANCIS PARKMAN ... 1 
 
 WINTER LIFE AT PORT ROYAL 9 
 
 DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES 21 
 
 SUCCESS OP LA SALLE 37 
 
 CHARACTER OF LA SALLE 47 
 
 THE SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC 51 
 
 THE PORTRAIT OF WOLFE 77. 
 
 THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM 79 
 
 RESULTS OF THE SEVEN YEARS WAR 99 
 
 THE INDIAN CHARACTER . 101 
 
 DEATH OF PONTIAC 107 
 
 THE BLACK HILLS . 119
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A com- 
 pany of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil 
 countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results of their 
 learning and wisdom. The men themselves were hid and inaccessible, 
 solitary, impatient of interruptions, fenced by etiquette ; but the thought 
 which they did not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out in 
 transparent words to us, the strangers of another age. RALPH WALDO 
 EMERSON. 
 
 How can our young; people be led to take pleasure in 
 the writings of our best authors ? An attempt to answer 
 this important inquiry is the aim of these Leaflets. It is 
 proposed, by their use in the school and in the family, to 
 develop a love for the beautiful thoughts, the noble and 
 elevating sentiments, that pervade the choicest literature, 
 and thus to turn aside that flood of pernicious reading 
 which is deluging the children of our beloved country. 
 It is hoped that they will prove effective instruments in 
 securing the desired end, and an aid in the attainment of 
 a higher mental and moral culture. 
 
 Our best writers, intelligent teachers, and lecturers on 
 literary subjects have given selections and material for 
 this work, and rendered its realization possible. Those 
 who, knowing the power of a good thought well expressed, 
 have endeavored to popularize works of acknowledged
 
 Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 merit by means of copied extracts, marked passages, 
 leaves torn from books, and other expensive and time- 
 consuming expedients, will gladly welcome this new, 
 convenient, and inexpensive arrangement of appropriate 
 selections, as helps to the progress they are attempting 
 to secure. This plan and the selections used are the 
 outgrowth of experience in the schoolroom; and their 
 utility and adaptation to the proposed aims have been 
 proved. 
 
 By means of these sheets each teacher can have at 
 command a larger range of authors than is otherwise 
 possible. A few suggestions in regard to these Leaflets 
 may not be amiss. 
 
 1. They may be used for reading at sight and for 
 silent reading. 
 
 2. They may be employed for analysis of the author's 
 meaning and language, which may well be made a promi- 
 nent feature of the reading-lesson, as it is the best prepa- 
 ration for the proper rendering of the passages given. 
 
 8. They may be distributed, and each pupil allowed to 
 choose his own favorite selection. These may afterwards 
 be used, as its character or the pupil's inclination 
 suggests, for sentiment, for an essay, for reading, reci- 
 tation, or declamation. 
 
 4. Mr. Longfellow's method as mentioned in the 
 sketch accompanying his poems, in this series of Leaflets 
 may be profitably followed, as it will promote a helpful 
 interplay of thought between teacher and pupils, and 
 lead unconsciously to a love and understanding of good 
 authors.
 
 INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 5. Short quotations may be given in answer to the 
 daily roll-call. 
 
 6. Some of the selections are adapted to responsive 
 and chorus class-reading. 
 
 7. The lyrical poems can be sung to some familiar 
 tunes. 
 
 8. The sketch which will be found with each series 
 may serve as the foundation for essays on the author's 
 life and works. 
 
 9. The illustrations may be employed as subjects for 
 language lessons, thus cultivating the powers of obser- 
 vation and expression. 
 
 All these methods combined may be made to give 
 pleasure to the pupil's friends, and to entertain them 
 oftener than is now the custom This will create at the 
 same time an interest in the school and a sympathy with 
 the author whose works are the subjects of study. 
 
 The foregoing is by no means a necessary order ; and 
 teachers will vary from it as their own appreciation of 
 the intelligence of their pupils and the interest of the 
 exercise shall suggest. The object to be kept in view is, 
 pleasantly to introduce the works of our best authors to 
 LTowing minds, and thus to develop a taste for the best 
 in literature, so that the world of books may become an 
 unfailing source of inspiration and delight.
 
 FRANCIS PARKMAN. 
 
 IN the last year of his long and eventful life, the illus- 
 trious Warren Hastings loved to tell of the bright 
 summer day when, as an orphan of seven years, meanly 
 clad and scantily fed, he lay on the banks of a rivulet 
 which flowed through his ancestral home, and there re- 
 volved plans which seemed only idle dreams. He vowed 
 that he would one day recover the estate which had be- 
 longed to his ancient and illustrious family, and had been 
 lost through deplorable ill-fortune. 
 
 Macaulay tells us that this purpose of young Hastings, 
 formed in boyhood and poverty, grew stronger as his in- 
 tellect expanded and his fortune rose. He pursued his 
 plan with calm but indomitable force of will. Truth is 
 often stranger than the most romantic dreams of youth. 
 The slight, feeble man who ruled fifty millions of Asiatics 
 with a rod of iron, and preserved and extended an empire 
 for England, outlived all his rivals and enemies, and died 
 peacefully at Daylesford, his ancestral home, at the 
 age of eighty-six. He not only had retrieved the fallen 
 fortunes of his family, but had made for himself a great 
 name in English annals. 
 
 In another sphere of life-work, this year has seen rea- 
 lized, after the long labor of half a century, what seemed 
 
 i
 
 2 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 to be the wild fancy and project of a boy. Nearly sixty 
 years ago a lad who lived in the old Bay State formed the 
 design of writing the history of the rise and fall of the 
 French domain in America. The older he grew, the more 
 he thought about it. It finally became the aim of the young 
 man's life to collect material and to prepare himself to 
 write the history of the efforts of France to occupy and 
 to control the American continent. This year, 1892, the 
 ambitious lad, grown to be a sedate man and known as 
 Francis Parkman, one of the foremost of living histo- 
 rians, has lived to see the fulfilment of his boyhood 
 dream and the completion of his life-work. This series 
 of great historical pictures is now finished by the recent 
 publication of " A Half Century of Conflict." This work 
 is in two volumes, and covers the first half of the eigh- 
 teenth century, following "Count Frontonac," and preced- 
 ing " Montcalm and Wolfe." It is nearly half a century 
 ago since Mr. Parkman began his great literary undertak- 
 ing. The twelve volumes form a series of the gravest and 
 most romantic historical value, accomplished under diffi- 
 culties which no one but a student whose heart was wholly 
 in a work for which he is specially competent could have 
 conquered. 
 
 FRANCIS PARKMAN was born in Boston, Sept. 16, 1828. 
 His father was an eminent Unitarian clergyman. During 
 his boyhood, the future historian spent several years on 
 his grandfather's farm in Middlesex County. There were 
 in those days in this region immense tracts of dense 
 forests. The boy spent much of his time in rambles 
 through the woods. It was in this fascinating occupation 
 that he began to be inspired with that love for the forest 
 and the frontier which became the passion of his after 
 life. Young Parkman was sent to Harvard College in 
 1840, and graduated in 1844. His love for life in the 
 forest grew as he became older. His long summer vaca-
 
 PARKMAN. 3 
 
 tions were spent in the forests of Canada or on the Great 
 Lakes. During one summer he passed many weeks in a 
 boat on Lake George, and there became familiar with that 
 romantic region, so memorable in the French and Indian 
 wars. During his last year in college the young student 
 travelled in Europe, but returned in time to graduate with 
 his class. For a graduation theme he chose as his topic, 
 "The French and Indian War." It was even then his 
 favorite subject. 
 
 After leaving college, Mr. Parkman found himself af- 
 flicted with a painful disease of the eyes, which prevented 
 him from doing much literary work. As it was now evi- 
 dent that he would not be able to collect and utilize the 
 vast material necessary for his proposed history, he con- 
 cluded to take up as a preliminary work the history of 
 the conspiracy of Pontiac. To study the Indian life, the 
 future historian travelled in the Far West and lived with 
 the Indians themselves. In 1846 he went to the then re- 
 mote regions of the Rocky Mountains, and lived for some 
 time with the Dakota Indians, and visited still wilder and 
 more remote tribes. Thus he became very familiar with 
 the manners, customs, and traditions of these children 
 of the forest. He endured many privations and much 
 suffering. He learned much of savage life, but he paid 
 a dear price for it. Once he was stricken with an acute 
 disease, and, T>efng far remote from medical care, his 
 health was badly undermined, and his eyesight still more 
 impaired. To the hardships and privations of this life 
 among the Indians must be attributed much of the ill 
 health from which Mr. Parkman has suffered for many 
 years. On his return home he wrote, by the help of an 
 amanuensis, an interesting account of his travels and 
 adventures. This work was published in 1847 under the 
 title of " The" Oregon Trail : Sketches of Prairie and 
 Rocky Mountain Life."
 
 4 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Not at all discouraged by the magnitude of the under- 
 taking, the young historian, with shattered health and 
 impaired vision, began to develop the idea which had ab- 
 sorbed his best thought since boyhood. This was, as we 
 know, to write the history of the rise and fall of the 
 French dominion on this continent. At the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century, the French held the St. Lawrence 
 and the Mississippi, the two great waterways of the 
 continent. They controlled most of the Indian tribes by 
 the aid of traders and missionaries. It was the proud 
 hope of the French to establish and maintain an empire 
 for France in the heart of North America larger than 
 France itself. The long and bitter struggle for supre- 
 macy is Mr. Parkman's subject. Wolfe took Quebec, 
 and the fate of Canada was sealed. The capture of 
 Montreal, in 1760, completed the conquest of Canada. 
 By the treaty of 1763, France finally surrendered all its 
 vast possessions from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf to the 
 English, except a district around New Orleans. The end 
 was not yet. The jealousy and rage of the Western 
 Indians was aroused when the English came to occupy 
 the old French forts. A great conspiracy was formed in 
 1763, under the head of Pontiac, a sagacious chief of the 
 Ottawa tribe. The garrisons were surprised and mas- 
 sacred ; thousands of the settlers were driven from their 
 homes. The Indians were at last defeated in a des- 
 perate battle ; Pontiac's war, as it was called, was 
 brought to an end, and the wily chieftain himself was 
 soon after assassinated. 
 
 Such was the canvas selected by Parkman on which 
 to portray his great historical scenes. The^ historical 
 field thus chosen was of momentous n 
 senting fts it~did l.thfi-political ^ destinyjofa continent, 
 was a history replete with events of the most tragic in- 
 terest and the most heroic suffering. Brave men and
 
 PARKMAN. 5 
 
 saintly women endured marvels of sufferings and vicis- 
 situdes in those perilous times. The interest and impor- 
 tance of great public events were only surpassed by heroic 
 deeds and thrilling private adventures. The picturesque 
 and romantic aspect of the contest surpassed in vivid in- 
 terest anything that fiction could delineate. 
 
 Mr. Farkman was well prepared for his chosen work. 
 He heartily loved his subject. He had diligently col- 
 lected and sifted the material. He was thoroughly 
 familiar with the Indian character. He knew the cus- 
 toms of many of their tribes, having lived with them and 
 shared their privations. He was familiar with the routes 
 and exploits .of the early explorers, and the heroic labors 
 of the Jesuit missionaries. 
 
 In taking up the various subjects of his great historical 
 series, Mr. Parkman did not follow the chronological or- 
 der. The first work of the series, published in 1851, was 
 " The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after 
 the Conquest of Canada," a sequel, in point of time, to 
 "France and England in North America." This work 
 was received with high favor both at home and abroad. 
 The great historical writer, John Piske, tells us that 
 " Pontiac " is " one of the most brilliant and fascinating 
 books that has ever been written by any historian since 
 the days of Herodotus." 
 
 JDji(tep-&frre<Qnnihonsive title^of " France and England jk^ 
 in North America^ Mr. PaTTonan published "The Pio- 
 neers of France in the New World," in 1865; "The 
 Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century," in 
 1867; and "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great 
 Wost," in 1869. These volumes were followed by "The 
 Old Regime in Canada," in 1874 ; " Count Frontenac and 
 New France under Louis XTV." in 1877 ; " Montcalm and 
 Wolfe," in 1884; and "A Half Century of Conflict," in
 
 6 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 1892. The publication of the last-named work, upon 
 which Mr. Parkman has been engaged for the past eight 
 years, makes the series complete, and affords a continuous 
 narrative of the efforts of France to occupy and control 
 this continent. " The series has been retarded," says 
 the author in the preface, " by difficulties which seemed 
 insurmountable, and for years were so in fact." Each 
 work of the series has been received with unqualified 
 favor both in this country and in Europe. No historian 
 of our times has received higher praise than Mr. Parkman, 
 praise which a reading of his works amply confirms. 
 
 The story of Prescott's partial blindness has always 
 invested him and his writings with a touching interest. 
 Such a misfortune did not deter a man of wealth and 
 social position from prolonged and profound historical 
 research. We are told that the scholarly impulse is irre- 
 sistible, and the literary instinct surmounts appalling ob- 
 stacles. It was certainly true of Mr. Parkman as well as 
 of Mr. Prescott. Inbp.th instances it was a triumph of 
 character which arojises our admiration quite as much as 
 the skill with which their literary labors were wrought out. 
 A well-known writer in a sketch of Mr. Parkman says : 
 
 " He has gathered the materials for his works, not only 
 by personal observation of the scenes of his history, but 
 by costly and laborious researches in the manuscript 
 archives of France and Canada. The difficulties of his 
 task would have been immense to any one, even with per- 
 fect health and the use of all his bodily faculties; but 
 during the greater part of the time Mr. Parkman has 
 been an invalid, to whom mental exertion was forbidden 
 by his physicians, and whose eyesight was so seriously 
 impaired that for three years the light of day was insup- 
 portable, and every attempt at reading or writing com- 
 pletely debarred. He has written his works by the aid of 
 an amanuensis, and, by patience and energy of the most
 
 PARKMAN. 7 
 
 admirable order, has overcome obstacles far greater than 
 those which impeded the labors of the historian Prescott, 
 whose eyesight, though impaired, was still serviceable to 
 him, and whose bodily health, in other respects, was 
 better than that of most literary men." ^- 
 
 Mr. Park man was married in 1850 to a daughter of Dr. 
 Jacob Bigelow, a celebrated Boston physician. She died 
 a few years later, leaving two children. Nearly forty 
 years ago Mr. Parkman bought an extensive property in 
 Jamaica Plain, a beautiful suburb of Boston, and there 
 has spent his summers ever since. Outside of his literary 
 work his one absorbing pursuit is the study of horticul- 
 ture. He has been a professor at the Bussey Institution, 
 the horticultural school connected with Harvard College. 
 In 1866 he published a book on one of his favorite sub- 
 jects, called " A Book of Roses." The historian has de- 
 voted much study to the hybridization of flowers. One 
 c*"His most noted floral creations is named for him. 
 What a source of health and happiness must it be to one 
 whose unfailing love of Nature leads him to take up and 
 diligently pursue such a hobby ! ' 
 
 Mr. Parkman's winter home, and where he does most 
 of his literary work, is at his residence on Chestnut Street, 
 in Boston. It is in this congenial home that the historian 
 may be found every winter busy in his library, surrounded 
 by his books and huge volumes of manuscript copies of 
 both public and private documents. Most men of ample 
 means and feeble health are little inclined to devote their 
 lives to an arduous literary occupation. /Mr. Parkman's 
 life shows how much a man of indomitable will and am- 
 bition may do for himself and for mankind, " retarded 
 by difficulties which seemed insurmountable, and for 
 years were so in fact." * 
 
 M r^Parkman is an uncommonly v'flnrn/a f| n d intercst- 
 ing writer. His style is full of strength and grace. His
 
 8 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 pages^jglow with brilliant descriptions, romantic adven- 
 tures, and thrilling incidents. His narratives have all 
 the animation, variety, and fascination of one of Scott's 
 novels. One secret of Parkman's success is due, per- 
 haps, to his deep sympathy with his subject. " Each 
 actor in the scen," savs a critic r " is his friend or foe ; 
 he has taken musty records, skeletons of facts, dry bones 
 of, barest history, and breathed on them that they_ might 
 live." His histories read like romances of a high order, 
 and yet their author is as careful of truth as the most 
 prosaic and exact chronicler of olden times. What more 
 gracious tribute could Mr. Parkman have to his success 
 as an impartial and accurate historian than that every 
 one of his works is acknowledged to be the highest 
 authority on the subject of which it treats?
 
 WINTER LIFE AT PORT ROYAL. 
 
 T T was noon on the twenty-seventh when the " Jonas ' ' 
 passed the rocky gateway of Port Royal Basin, and 
 Lescarbot gazed with delight and wonder on the calm ex- 
 panse of sunny waters, with its amphitheatre of woody 
 hills, wherein he saw the future asylum of distressed 
 merit and impoverished industry. Slowly, before a favor- 
 ing breeze, they held their course towards the head of 
 the harbor, which narrowed as they advanced ; but all 
 was solitude: no moving sail, no sign of human presence. 
 At length, on their left, nestling in deep forests, they saw 
 the 'wooden walls and roofs of the infant colony. Then 
 appeared a birch canoe cautiously coming towards them, 
 guided by an old Indian. Then a Frenchman, arquebuse 
 in hand, came down to the shore; and then, from the 
 wooden bastion, sprang the smoke of a saluting shot. 
 The ship replied ; the trumpets lent their voices to the 
 din, and the forests and the hills gave back unwonted 
 echoes. The voyagers landed, and found the colony of 
 Port Royal dwindled to two solitary Frenchmen. 
 
 These soon told their story. The preceding winter 
 had been one of much suffering, though by no means the 
 counterpart of the woful experience of St. Croix. But 
 when the spring had passed, the summer far advanced, 
 and still no tidings of De Monts had come, Pontgravd 
 grew deeply anxious. To maintain themselves without 
 supplies and succor was impossible. He caused two
 
 10 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 small vessels to be built, and set forth in search of 
 some of the French vessels on the fishing stations. 
 This was but twelve days before the arrival of the 
 ship " Jonas." Two men had bravely offered them- 
 selves to stay behind and guard the buildings, guns, 
 and munitions, and an old Indian chief named Mein- 
 bertou a fast friend of the French, and still, we are 
 told, a redoubted warrior, though reputed to number 
 more than a hundred years proved a stanch ally. 
 When the ship approached, the two guardians were at 
 dinner in their room at the fort. Membertou, always 
 on the watch, saw the advancing sail, and shouting 
 from the gate, roused them from their repast. In 
 doubt who the new-comers might be, one ran to the 
 shore with his gun, while the other repaired to the 
 platform where four cannon were mounted, in the val- 
 orous resolve to show fight, should the strangers prove 
 to be enemies. Happily this redundancy of mettle 
 proved needless. He saw the white flag fluttering at 
 the mast-head, and joyfully fired his pieces as a 
 salute. 
 
 The voyagers landed and eagerly surveyed their new 
 home. Some wandered through the buildings ; some 
 visited the cluster of Indian wigwams hard by ; some 
 roamed in the forest and over the meadows that bor- 
 dered the neighboring river. The deserted fort now 
 swarmed with life ; and, the better to celebrate their 
 prosperous arrival, Poutrincourt placed a hogshead of 
 wine in the courtyard at the discretion of his followers, 
 whose hilarity in consequence became exuberant. Nor 
 was it diminished when Pontgrave*'s vessels were seen 
 entering the harbor. A boat, sent by Poutrincourt, more 
 than a week before, to explore the coasts, had met them 
 among the adjacent islands, and they had joyfully re- 
 turned to Port Royal.
 
 PARKMAN. 11 
 
 Pontgrave*, however, soon sailed for France in the 
 " Jonas," hoping on his way to seize certain contraband 
 fur-traders reported to be at Canseau and Cape Breton. 
 Poutrincourt and Champlain set forth on a voyage of dis- 
 covery, in an ill-built vessel of eighteen tons, while Les- 
 carbot remained in charge of Port Royal. They had little 
 for their pains but danger, hardship, and mishap. The 
 autumn gales cut short their exploration ; and, after ad- 
 vancing as far as the neighborhood of Hyannis, on the 
 southeast coast of Massachusetts, they turned back some- 
 what disgusted with their errand. Along the eastern 
 verge of Cape Cod they found the shore thickly studded 
 with the wigwams of a race who were less hunters than 
 tillers of the soil. At Chatham harbor called by 
 them Port Fortune*, five of the company, who, contrary 
 to orders, had remained on shore all night, were assailed, 
 as they slept around their fire, by a shower of arrows 
 from four hundred Indians. Two were killed outright, 
 while the survivors fled for their boat, bristled like por- 
 cupines, a scene oddly portrayed by the untutored pen- 
 cil of Champlain. He, with Poutrincourt and eight men, 
 hearing the war-whoops and the cries for aid, sprang up 
 from sleep, snatched their weapons, pulled ashore in their 
 shirts, and charged the yelling multitude, who fled be- 
 fore their spectral assailants, and vanished in the woods. 
 " Thus," observes Lescarbot, " did thirty-five thousand 
 Midianites fly before Gideon and his three hundred." 
 The French buried their dead comrades ; but as they 
 chanted their funeral hymn, the Indians, at a safe dis- 
 tance on a neighboring hill, were dancing in glee and 
 triumph, and mocking them with unseemly gestures; and 
 no sooner had the party re-embarked than they dug up 
 the dead bodies, burned them, and arrayed themselves 
 in their shirts. Little pleased with the country or its 
 inhabitants, the voyagers turned their prow towards Port
 
 12 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Royal. Near Mount Desert, on a stormy night, their rudder 
 broke, and they had a hairbreadth escape from destruction. 
 The chief object of their voyage, that of discovering a site 
 for their colony under a more southern sky, had failed. 
 Pontgravd's son had his hand blown off by the bursting 
 of his gun ; several of their number had been killed ; 
 others were sick or wounded ; and thus, on the four- 
 teenth of November, with somewhat downcast visages, 
 they guided their helpless vessel with a pair of oars to 
 the landing at Port Royal. 
 
 " I will not," says Lescarbot, " compare their perils to 
 those of Ulysses, nor yet of ./Eneas, lest thereby I should 
 sully our holy enterprise with things impure." 
 
 He and his followers had been expecting them with 
 great anxiety. His alert and buoyant spirit had con- 
 ceived a plan for enlivening the courage of the company, 
 a little dashed of late with misgivings and forebodings. 
 Accordingly, as Poutrincourt, Champlain, and their 
 weather-beaten crew approached the wooden gateway 
 of Port Royal, Neptune issued forth, followed by his 
 tritons, who greeted the voyagers in good French verse, 
 written in all haste for the occasion by Lescarbot. And 
 as they entered, they beheld, blazoned over the arch, the 
 arms of France, circled with laurels, and flanked by the 
 scutcheons of De Monts and Poutrincourt. 
 
 The ingenious author of these devices had busied him- 
 self, during the absence of his associates, in more serious 
 labors for the welfare of the colony. He explored the low 
 borders of the river Equille, or Annapolis. Here, in the 
 solitude, he saw great meadows, where the moose, with 
 their young, were grazing, and where at times the rank 
 grass was beaten to a pulp by the trampling of their hoofs. 
 He burned the grass, and sowed crops of wheat, rye, and 
 barley in its stead. He made gardens near the fort, 
 where, in his zeal, he plied the hoe with his own hands,
 
 PARKMAN. 13 
 
 late into the moonlight evenings. The priests, of whom in 
 the outset there had been no lack, had all succumbed to 
 the scurvy at St. Croix ; and Lescarbot, so far as a lay- 
 man might, essayed to supply their place, reading on 
 Sundays from the Scriptures, and adding expositions of 
 his own after a fashion which may cast a shade of doubt 
 on the rigor of his catholicity. Of an evening, when not 
 engrossed with his garden, he was reading or writing in 
 his room, perhaps preparing the material of that History 
 of New France in which, despite the versatility of his busy 
 brain, his excellent good sense and true capacity are 
 clearly made manifest. 
 
 Now, however, when the whole company were reas- 
 sembled, Lescarbot found associates more congenial than 
 the rude soldiers, mechanics, and laborers who gathered 
 at night around the blazing logs in their rude hall. Port 
 Royal was a quadrangle of wooden buildings enclosing a 
 spacious court. At the southeast corner was the arched 
 gateway, whence a path, a few paces in length, led to the 
 water. It was flanked by a sort of bastion of palisades, 
 while at the southwest corner was another bastion, on 
 which four cannon were mounted. On the east side of 
 the quadrangle was a range of magazines and storehouses ; 
 on the west were quarters for the men ; on the north, a 
 dining-hall and lodgings for the principal persons of the 
 company ; while on the south, or water side, were the 
 kitchen, the forge, and the oven. Except the garden- 
 patches and the cemetery, the adjacent ground was thickly 
 studded with the stumps of the newly felled trees. 
 
 Most bountiful provision had been made for the tem- 
 poral wants of the colonists, and Lescarbot is profuse in 
 praise of the liberality of De Monts and two merchants of 
 Rochelle, who had freighted the ship "Jonas." Of wine, 
 in particular, the supply was so generous that every man 
 in Port Royal was served with three pints daily.
 
 14 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 The principal persons of the colony sat, fifteen in num- 
 ber, at Poutrincourt's table, which, by an ingenious device 
 of Champlain, was always well furnished. He formed 
 the fifteen into a new order, christened " L'Ordre de Bon- 
 Temps." Each was Grand Master in turn, holding office 
 for one day. It was his function to cater for the com- 
 pany ; and as it became a point of honor to fill the post 
 with credit, the prospective Grand Master was usually 
 busy, for several days before coming to his dignity, in 
 hunting, fishing, or bartering provisions with the Indians. 
 Thus did Poutrincourt's table groan beneath all the lux- 
 uries of the winter forest, flesh of moose, caribou, and 
 deer, beaver, otter, and hare, bears, and wild-cats ; with 
 ducks, geese, grouse, and plover ; sturgeon, too, and trout, 
 and fish innumerable, speared through the ice of the Equille, 
 or drawn from the depths of the neighboring sea. " And," 
 says Lescarbot, in closing his bill of fare, " whatever our 
 gourmands at home may think, we found as good cheer at 
 Port Royal as they at their Rue aux Ours in Paris, and 
 that, too, at a cheaper rate." As for the preparation of 
 this manifold provision, for that too was the Grand 
 Master answerable ; since, during his day of office, he was 
 autocrat of the kitchen. 
 
 Nor did bounteous repast lack a solemn and befitting 
 ceremonial. When the hour had struck, after the 
 manner of our fathers, they dined at noon, the Grand 
 Master entered the hall, a napkin on his shoulder, his staff 
 of office in his hand, and the collar of the order of 
 which the chronicler fails not to commemorate the costli- 
 ness about his neck. The brotherhood followed, each 
 bearing a dish. The invited guests were Indian chiefs, of 
 whom old Membertou was daily present, seated at table 
 with the' French, who took pleasure in this red-skin com- 
 panionship. Those of humbler degree, warriors, squaws, 
 and children, sat on the floor or crouched together in the
 
 PARKMAN. 15 
 
 corners of the hall, eagerly waiting their portion of biscuit 
 or of bread, a novel and much coveted luxury. Treated 
 always with kindness, they became fond of the French, 
 who often followed them on their moose-hunts, and shared 
 their winter bivouac. 
 
 At their evening meal there was less of form and cir- 
 cumstance ; and when the winter night closed in, when 
 the flame crackled and the sparks streamed up the wide- 
 throated chimney, when the founders of New France and 
 their tawny allies were gathered around the blaze, then 
 did the Grand Master resign the collar and the staff to 
 the successor of his honors, and, with jovial courtesy, 
 pledge him in a cup of wine. Thus did these ingenious 
 Frenchmen beguile the winter of their exile. 
 
 It was a winter unusually benignant. Until January, 
 they wore no warmer garment than their doublets. They 
 made hunting and fishing parties, in which the Indians, 
 whose lodges were always to be seen under the friendly 
 shelter of the buildings, failed not to bear a part. " I re- 
 member," says Lescarbot, " that on the fourteenth of 
 January, of a Sunday afternoon, we amused ourselves 
 with singing and music on the river Equille, and that in 
 the same month we went to see the wheat-fields two 
 leagues from the fort, and dined merrily in the sunshine." 
 
 Good spirits and good cheer saved them in great meas- 
 from the scurvy, and though, towards the end of winter, 
 severe cold set in, yet only four men died. The snow 
 thawed at last, and as patches of the black and oozy soil 
 began to appear, they saw the grain of their last autumn's 
 sowing already piercing the mould. The forced inaction 
 of the winter was over. The carpenters built a water- 
 mill ; others enclosed fields and laid out gardens ; others, 
 again, with scoop-nets and baskets, caught the herrings 
 and alowives as they ran up the innumerable rivulets. 
 The leaders of the colony set a contagious example of
 
 16 LEAFLETS FEOM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 activity. Poutrincourt forgot the prejudices of his noble 
 birth, and went himself into the woods to gather turpen- 
 tine from the pines, which he converted into tar by a pro- 
 cess of his own invention ; while Lescarbot, eager to test 
 the qualities of the soil, was again, hoe in hand, at work 
 all day in his garden. All seemed full of promise ; but 
 alas for the bright hope that kindled the manly heart of 
 Champlain and the earnest spirit of the vivacious advocate ! 
 A. sudden blight fell on them, and their rising prosperity 
 withered to the ground. On a morning, late in spring, 
 as the French were at breakfast, the ever-watchful Mem- 
 bertou came in with news of an approaching sail. They 
 hastened to the shore ; but the vision of the centenarian 
 sagamore put them all to shame. They could see nothing. 
 At length their doubts were resolved. In full view a small 
 vessel stood on towards them, and anchored before the 
 fort. She was commanded by one Chevalier, a young 
 man from St. Malo, and was freighted with disastrous 
 tidings. De Monts's monopoly was rescinded. The life 
 of the enterprise was stopped, and the establishment of 
 Port Royal could no longer be supported ; for its expense 
 was great, the body of the colony being laborers in the pay 
 of the company. Nor was the annulling of the patent the 
 full extent of the disaster ; for during the last summer 
 the Dutch had found their way to the St. Lawrence, and 
 carried away a rich harvest of furs, while other inter- 
 loping traders had plied a busy traffic along the coasts, 
 and, in the excess of their avidity, dug up the bodies of 
 buried Indians to rob them of their funeral robes. 
 
 It was to the merchants and fishermen of the Norman, 
 Breton, and Biscayan ports, exasperated at their exclusion 
 from a lucrative trade, and at the confiscations which had 
 sometimes followed their attempts to engage in it, that 
 this sudden blow was due. Money had been used freely 
 at court, and the monopoly, unjustly granted, had been
 
 PARKMAN. 17 
 
 more unjustly withdrawn. De Monts and his company, 
 who had spent a hundred thousand livres, were allowed 
 six thousand in requital, to be collected from the fur- 
 traders in the form of a tax. 
 
 Chevalier, captain of the ill-omened bark, was enter- 
 tained with a hospitality little deserved, since, having 
 been intrusted with sundry hams, fruits, spices, sweet- 
 meats, jellies, and other dainties, sent by the generous De 
 Monts to his friends of New France, he with his crew had 
 devoured them on the voyage, alleging, in justification, 
 that, in their belief, the inmates of Port Royal would all 
 be dead before their arrival. 
 
 Choice there was none, and Port Royal must be aban- 
 doned. Built on a false basis, sustained only by the 
 fleeting favor of a government, the generous enterprise 
 had come to naught. Yet Poutrincourt, who in virtue 
 of his grant from De Monts owned the locality, bravely 
 resolved that, come what might, he would see the adven- 
 ture to an end, even should it involve emigration with 
 his- family to the wilderness. Meanwhile, he began the 
 dreary task of abandonment, sending boat-loads of men 
 and stores to Canseau, where lay the ship " Jonas," eking 
 out her diminished profits by fishing for cod. 
 
 Membertou was full of grief at the departure of his 
 friends. He had built a palisaded village not far from 
 Port Royal, and here were mustered some four hundred 
 of his warriors for a foray into the country of the Arinou- 
 chiquois, dwellers along the coasts of Massachusetts, 
 New Hampshire, and western Maine. In behalf of this 
 martial concourse he had proved himself a sturdy beggar, 
 pursuing Poutrincourt with daily petitions, now for a 
 bushel of beans, now for a basket of bread, and now for 
 a barrel of wine to regale his greasy crew. Membertou's 
 long life had not been one of repose. In deeds of blood 
 and treachery he had no rival in the Acadian forest ; and 
 
 8
 
 18 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 as his old age was beset with enemies, his alliance with 
 the French had a foundation of policy no less than of 
 affection. For the rest, in right of his quality of Saga- 
 more he claimed perfect equality both with Poutrincourt 
 and with the King, laying his shrivelled forefingers side 
 by side in token of friendship between peers. Calumny 
 did not spare him ; and a rival chief intimated to the 
 French that, under cover of a war with the Armouchi- 
 quois, the crafty veteran meant to seize and plunder Port 
 Royal. Precautions, therefore, were taken ; but they 
 were seemingly needless, for, their feasts and dances 
 over, the warriors launched their birchen flotilla and 
 set forth. After an absence of six weeks they reappeared 
 with howls of victory, and their exploits were commemo- 
 rated in French verse by the muse of the indefatigable 
 Lescarbot. 
 
 With a heavy heart the latter bade farewell to the 
 dwellings, the cornfields, the gardens, and all the dawn- 
 ing prosperity of Port Royal, and sailed for Canseau in a 
 small vessel on the thirtieth of July. Poutrincourt and 
 Champlain remained behind, for the former was resolved 
 to learn before his departure the results of his agricul- 
 tural labors. Reaching a harbor on the southern coast 
 of Nova Scotia, six leagues west of Canseau, Lescarbot 
 found a fishing-vessel commanded and owned by an old 
 Basque named Savalet, who for forty-two successive 
 years had carried to France his annual cargo of codfish. 
 He was in great glee at the success of his present venture, 
 reckoning his profits at ten thousand francs. The In- 
 dians, however, annoyed him beyond measure, boarding 
 him from their canoes as his fishing-boats came along- 
 side, and helping themselves at will to his halibut and 
 cod. At Canseau a harbor near the cape now bearing 
 the name the ship " Jonas " still lay, her hold well stored 
 with fish ; and here, on the twenty-seventh of August,
 
 PARKMAN. 19 
 
 Lescarbot was rejoined by Poutrincourt and Champlain, 
 who had come from Port Royal in an open boat. For a 
 few days, they amused themselves with gathering rasp- 
 berries on the islands ; then they spread their sails for 
 France, and early in October, 1607, anchored in the 
 harbor of St. Malo. 
 
 First of Europeans, they had essayed to found an agri- 
 cultural colony in the New World. The leaders of the 
 enterprise had acted less as merchants than as citizens ; 
 and the fur-trading monopoly, odious in itself, had been 
 used as the instrument of a large and generous design. 
 There was a radical defect, however, in their scheme of 
 settlement. Excepting a few of the leaders, those en- 
 gaged in it had not chosen a home in the wilderness of 
 New France, but were mere hirelings, careless of the 
 welfare of the colony. The life which should have per- 
 vaded all the members was confined to the heads alone. 
 
 Towards the fickle and bloodthirsty race who claimed 
 the lordship of the forests these colonists bore themselves 
 in a spirit of kindness contrasting brightly with the ra- 
 pacious cruelty of the Spaniards and the harshness of 
 the English settlers. When the last boat-load left Port 
 Royal, the shore resounded with lamentation ; and noth- 
 ing could console the afflicted savages but reiterated 
 promises of a speedy return. From "Pioneers of France 
 in the New World" Part Second, chap. iv.
 
 DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. 
 
 r I ""HERE was a gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, Doini- 
 -* nique de Gourgues, a soldier of ancient birth and 
 high renown. He hated the Spaniards with a mortal 
 hate. Fighting in the Italian wars, for from boyhood 
 he was \vedded to the sword, he had been taken pris- 
 oner by them near Siena, where he had signalized himself 
 by a fiery and determined bravery. With brutal insult, 
 they chained him to the oar as a galley-slave. After he 
 had long endured this ignominy, the Turks had captured 
 the vessel and carried her to Constantinople. It was but 
 a change of tyrants ; but, soon after, while she was on a 
 cruise, Gourgues still at the oar, a galley of the Maltese 
 knights hove in sight, bore down on her, recaptured her, 
 and set the prisoner free. For several years after, his 
 restless spirit found employment in voyages to Africa, 
 Brazil, and regions yet more remote. His naval repute 
 rose high, but his grudge against the Spaniards still 
 rankled within him ; and when, returned from his rov- 
 ings, he learned the tidings from Florida, his hot 
 Gascon blood boiled with fury. 
 
 The honor of France had been foully stained, and there 
 was none to wipe away the shame. The faction-ridden 
 King was dumb. The nobles who surrounded him were 
 in the Spanish interest. Then, since they proved rec- 
 reant, he, Dominique de Gourgues, a simple gentleman, 
 would take upon him to avenge the wrong, and restore 
 the dimmed lustre of the French name. He sold his
 
 22 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 inheritance, borrowed money from his brother, who held 
 a high post in Guienne, and equipped three small vessels, 
 navigable by sail or oar. On board he placed a hundred 
 arquebusiers and eighty sailors, prepared to fight on land, 
 if need were. The noted Blaise de Montluc, then lieuten- 
 ant for the King in Guienne, gave him a commission to 
 make war on the negroes of Benin, that is, to kidnap 
 them as slaves, an adventure then held honorable. 
 
 His true design was locked within his own breast. He 
 mustered his followers, feasted them, not a few were 
 of rank equal to his own, and, on the twenty-second of 
 August, 1567, sailed from the mouth of the Charente. 
 Off Cape Finisterre, so violent a storm buffeted his ships 
 that his men clamored to return ; but Gourgues's spirit 
 prevailed. He bore away for Africa, and, landing at the 
 Rio del Oro, refreshed and cheered them as he best might. 
 Thence he sailed for Cape Blanco, where the jealous 
 Portuguese, who had a fort in the neighborhood, set upon 
 him three negro chiefs. Gourgues beat them off, and re- 
 mained master of the harbor ; whence, however, he soon 
 voyaged onward to Cape Verd, and, steering westward, 
 made for the West Indies. Here, advancing from island 
 to island, he came to Hispaniola, where, between the fury 
 of a hurricane at sea and the jealousy of the Spaniards on 
 shore, he was in no small jeopardy, "the Spaniards," 
 exclaims the indignant journalist, " who think that this 
 New World was made for nobody but them, and that no 
 other man living has a right to move or breathe here ! " 
 Gourgues landed, however, obtained the water of which 
 he was in need, and steered for Cape San Antonio, in 
 Cuba. There he gathered his followers about him, 
 and addressed them with his fiery Gascon eloquence. 
 For the first time, he told them his true purpose. He 
 inveighed against Spanish cruelty. He painted, with 
 angry rhetoric, the butcheries of Fort Caroline and 
 St. Augustine.
 
 PARKMAN. 23 
 
 " What disgrace," he cried, " if such an insult should 
 pass unpunished ! What glory to us, if we avenge it ! 
 To this I have devoted my fortune. I relied on you. I 
 thought you jealous enough of your country's glory to 
 sacrifice life itself in a cause like this. Was I deceived ? 
 I will show you the way ; I will be always at your head ; 
 I will bear the brunt of the danger. Will you refuse to 
 follow me ? " 
 
 At first his startled hearers listened in silence ; but 
 soon the passions of that adventurous age rose responsive 
 to his words. The sparks fell among gunpowder. The 
 combustible French nature burst into flame. The enthu- 
 siasm of the soldiers rose to such a pitch that Gourgues 
 had much ado to make them wait till the moon was full 
 before tempting the perils of the Bahama Channel. His 
 time came at length. The moon rode high above the 
 lonely sea, and, silvered in its light, the ships of the 
 avenger held their course. 
 
 But how meanwhile, had it fared with the Spaniards 
 in Florida ? The good-will of the Indians had vanished. 
 The French had been obtrusive and vexatious guests, 
 but their worst trespasses had been mercy and tender- 
 ness, to the daily outrage of the new-comers. Friendship 
 had changed to aversion, aversion to hatred, hatred to 
 open war. The forest-paths were beset ; stragglers were 
 cut off ; and woe to the Spaniard who should venture 
 after nightfall beyond call of the outposts. 
 
 Menendez, however, had strengthened himself in his 
 new conquest. St. Augustine was well fortified ; Fort 
 Caroline, now Fort San Mateo, was repaired ; and two 
 redoubts were thrown up to guard tho mouth of the River 
 of May. Thence, on an afternoon in early spring, the 
 Spaniards saw three sail steering northward. They 
 suspected no enemy, and their batteries boomed a salute. 
 Gourgues's ships replied, then stood out to sea, and were 
 lost in the shades of cveninjr.
 
 24 LEAFLETS FEOM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 They kept their course all night, and, as day broke, 
 anchored at the inouth of a river, the St. Mary's or the 
 Santilla, by their reckoning fifteen leagues north of the 
 River of May. Here, as it grew light, Gourgues saw 
 the borders of the sea thronged with savages armed and 
 plumed for war. They too had mistaken the strangers 
 for Spaniards, and mustered to meet their tyrants at the 
 landing. But in the French ships there was a trumpeter 
 who had been long in Florida, and knew the Indians well. 
 He went towards them in a boat, with many gestures of 
 friendship ; and no sooner was he recognized than the 
 naked crowd, with yelps of delight, danced for joy along 
 the sands. Why had he ever left them ? they asked ; and 
 Avhy had he not returned before ? The intercourse thus 
 auspiciously begun was actively kept up. Gourgues told 
 the principal chief who was no other than Satouriona, 
 of old the ally of the French that he had come to visit 
 them, make friendship with them, and bring them pres- 
 ents. At this last announcement, so grateful to Indian 
 ears, the dancing was renewed with double zeal. The 
 next morning was named for a grand council. Satouriona 
 sent runners to summon all Indians within call ; while 
 Gourgues, for safety, brought his vessels within the 
 mouth of the river. 
 
 Morning came, and the woods were thronged with con- 
 gregated warriors. Gourgues and his soldiers landed with 
 martial pomp. In token of mutual confidence, the French 
 laid aside their arquebuses, the Indians their bows and 
 arrows. Satouriona came to meet the strangers, and 
 seated their commander at his side on a wooden stool 
 draped arid cushioned with the gray Spanish moss. Two 
 old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, and 
 grass ; and, their task finished, the tribesmen took their 
 places, ring within ring, standing, sitting, and crouching 
 on the ground, a dusky concourse, plumed in festal array,
 
 PARKMAN. 25 
 
 waiting with grave visages and eyes intent. Gourgues 
 was about to speak, when the chief, who, says the narra- 
 tor, had not learned French manners, rose and antici- 
 pated him. He broke into a vehement harangue, and 
 the cruelty of the Spaniards was the burden of his words. 
 
 Since the French fort was taken, he said, the Indians 
 had not had one happy day. The Spaniards drove them 
 from their cabins, stole their corn, ravished their wives 
 and daughters, and killed their children ; and all this 
 they had endured because they loved the French. There 
 was a French boy who had escaped from the massacre at 
 the fort. They had found him in the woods ; and though 
 the Spaniards, who wished to kill him, demanded that 
 they should give him up, they had kept him for his 
 friends. 
 
 " Look ! " pursued the chief, " here he is ! " and he 
 brought forward a youth of sixteen, named Pierre Debre', 
 who became at once of the greatest service to the French, 
 his knowledge of the Indian language making him an 
 excellent interpreter. 
 
 Delighted as he was at this outburst against the Span- 
 iards, Gourgues by no means saw fit to display the full 
 extent of his satisfaction. He thanked the Indians for 
 their good-will, exhorted them to continue in it, and 
 pronounced an ill-merited eulogy on the greatness and 
 goodness of his King. As for the Spaniards, he said, 
 their day of reckoning was at hand ; and if the Indians 
 had been abused for their love of the French, the French 
 would be their avengers. Here Satouriona forgot his 
 dignity, and leaped up for joy. 
 
 " What ! " he cried, " will you fight the Spaniards ?" 
 
 " I came here," replied Gourgues, " only to reconnoitre 
 the country and make friends with you, then to go back 
 and bring more soldiers ; but when I hear what you are 
 suffering from them, I wish to fall upon them this very
 
 l>t> LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 day, and rescue you from their tyranny." And, all 
 around the ring, a clamor of applauding voices greeted 
 his words. 
 
 " But you will do your part," pursued the Frenchman ; 
 " you will not leave us all the honor." 
 
 "We will go," replied Satouriona, "and die with you, 
 if need be." 
 
 "Then, if we fight, we ought to fight at once. How 
 soon can you have your warriors ready to march ? " 
 
 The chief asked three days for preparation. Gourgues 
 cautioned him to secrecy, lest the Spaniards should take 
 alarm. 
 
 " Never fear," was the answer ; " we hate them more 
 than you do." 
 
 Then came a distribution of gifts, knives, hatchets, 
 mirrors, bells, and beads, while the warrior-rabble 
 crowded to receive them, with eager faces, and tawny 
 outstretched arms. The distribution over, Gourgues 
 asked the chiefs if there was any other matter in which 
 he could serve them. On this, pointing to his shirt, they 
 expressed a peculiar admiration for that garment, and 
 begged each to have one, to be worn at feasts and 
 councils during life, and in their graves after death. 
 Gourgues complied ; and his grateful confederates were 
 soon stalking about him, fluttering in the spoils of his' 
 wardrobe. 
 
 To learn the strength and position of the Spaniards, 
 Gourgues now sent out three scouts ; and with them 
 went Olotoraca, Satouriona's nephew, a young brave of 
 great renown. 
 
 The chief, eager to prove his great faith, gave as 
 hostages his only son and his favorite wife. They were 
 sent on board the ships, while the savage concourse dis- 
 persed to their encampments, with leaping, stamping, 
 dancing, and whoops of jubilation.
 
 PARKMAN. 27 
 
 The day appointed came, and with it the savage army, 
 hideous in war-paint and plumed for battle. Their cere- 
 monies began. The woods rang back their songs and 
 yells as with frantic gesticulations they brandished their 
 war-clubs and vaunted their deeds of prowess. Then 
 they drank the black drink endowed with mystic virtues 
 against hardship and danger, and Gourgues himself pre- 
 tended to swallow the nauseous decoction. 
 
 These ceremonies consumed the day. It was evening 
 before the allies filed off into their forests, and took the 
 path for the Spanish forts. The French, on their part, 
 were to repair by sea to the rendezvous. Gourgues 
 mustered and addressed his men. It was needless : their 
 ardor was at fever-height. They broke in upon his words, 
 and demanded to be led at once against the enemy. 
 Francois Bourdelais, with twenty sailors, was left with 
 the ships. Gourgues affectionately bade him farewell. 
 
 " If I am slain in this most just enterprise," he said, 
 " 1 leave all in your charge, and pray you to carry back 
 my soldiers to France." 
 
 There were many embracings among the excited 
 Frenchmen, many sympathetic tears from those who 
 were to stay behind, many messages left with them 
 for wives, children, friends, and mistresses ; and then this 
 valiant band pushed their boats from shore. It was a 
 harebrained venture, for, as young Debre* had assured 
 them, the Spaniards on the River of May were four 
 hundred in number, secure behind their ramparts. 
 
 Hour after hour the sailors pulled at the oar. They 
 glided slowly by the sombre shores in the shimmering 
 moonlight, to the sound of the murmuring surf and the 
 moaning pine-trees. In the gray of the morning they 
 came to the mouth of a river, probably the Nassau ; and 
 here a northeast wind set in with a violence that almost 
 wrecked their boats. Their Indian allies were waiting
 
 28 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 on the bank, but for a while the gale delayed their cross- 
 ing. The bolder French would lose no time, rowed 
 through the tossing waves, and, landing safely, left their 
 boats and pushed into the forest. Gourgues took the 
 lead, in breastplate and back-piece. At his side marched 
 the young chief Olotoraca, a French pike in his hand ; 
 and the files of arquebuse-men and armed soldiers fol- 
 lowed close behind. They plunged through swamps, 
 hewed their way through brambly thickets and the 
 matted intricacies of the forests, and, at five in the 
 afternoon, wellnigh spent with fatigue and hunger, 
 came to a river or inlet of the sea not far from the 
 first Spanish fort. Here they found three hundred 
 Indians waiting for them. 
 
 Tired as he was, Gourgues would not rest. He would 
 fain attack at daybreak, and with ten arquebusiers and 
 his Indian guide he set forth to reconnoitre. Night 
 closed upon him. It was a vain task to struggle on, in 
 pitchy darkness, among trunks of trees, fallen logs, tan- 
 gled vines, and swollen streams. Gourgues returned, 
 anxious and gloomy. An Indian chief approached him, 
 read through the darkness his perturbed look, and offered 
 to lead him by a better path along the margin of the sea. 
 Gourgues joyfully assented, and ordered all his men to 
 march. The Indians, better skilled in woodcraft, chose 
 the shorter course through the forest. 
 
 The French forgot their weariness, and pressed on 
 with speed. At dawn they and their allies met on the 
 bank of a stream, beyond which, and very near, was the 
 fort. But the tide was in. They essayed to cross in 
 vain. Greatly vexed, for he had hoped to take the 
 enemy asleep, Gourgues withdrew his soldiers into the 
 forest, where they were no sooner ensconced than a 
 drenching rain fell, and they had much ado to keep their 
 gun-matches burning. The light grew fast. Gourgues
 
 PARKMAN. 29 
 
 plainly saw the fort, whose defences seemed slight and 
 unfinished. He even saw the Spaniards at work within. 
 A feverish interval elapsed. At length the tide was out, 
 so far, at least, that the stream was fordable. A little 
 higher up, a clump of trees lay between it and the fort. 
 Behind this friendly screen the passage was begun. Each 
 man tied his powder-flask to his steel cap, held his arque- 
 buse above his head with one hand, and grasped his 
 sword with the other. The channel was a bed of oysters. 
 The sharp shells cut their feet as they waded through. 
 But the further bank was gained. They emerged from 
 the water drenched, lacerated, bleeding, but with un- 
 abated mettle. Under cover of the trees Gourgues set 
 them in array. They stood with kindling eyes, and 
 hearts throbbing, but not with fear. Gourgues pointed 
 to the Spanish fort, seen by glimpses through the trees. 
 " Look ! " he said, " there are the robbers who have stolen 
 this land from our King ; there are the murderers who 
 have butchered our countrymen ! " With voices eager, 
 fierce, but half suppressed, they demanded to be led on. 
 
 Gourgues gave the word. Cazenove, his lieutenant, 
 with thirty men, pushed for the fort-gate ; he himself, 
 with the main body, for the glacis. It was near noon ; 
 the Spaniards had just finished their meal, and, says the 
 narrative," were still picking their teeth," when a startled 
 cry rang in their ears. 
 
 " To arms ! to arms ! The French are coming ! the 
 French are coming ! " 
 
 It was the voice of a cannoneer who had that moment 
 mounted the rampart and seen the assailants advancing in 
 unbroken ranks, with heads lowered and weapons at the 
 charge. He fired his cannon among them. He even had 
 time to load and fire again, when the light-limbed Oloto- 
 raca bounded forward, ran up the glacis, leaped the un- 
 finished ditch, and drove his pike through the Spaniard
 
 30 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 from breast to back. Gourgues was now on the glacis, 
 when he heard Cazenove shouting from the gate that the 
 Spaniards were escaping on that side. He turned and led 
 his men thither at a run. In a moment the fugitives, 
 sixty in all, were enclosed between his party and that of 
 his lieutenant. The Indians, too, came leaping to the spot. 
 Not a Spaniard escaped. All were cut down but a few, 
 reserved by Gourgues for a more inglorious end. 
 
 Meanwhile the Spaniards in the other fort, on the 
 opposite shore, cannonaded the victors without ceasing. 
 The latter turned four captured guns against them. One 
 of Gourgues's boats, a very large one, had been brought 
 along shore. He entered it, with eighty soldiers, and 
 pushed for the further bank. With loud yells, the Indians 
 leaped into the water. From shore to shore, the St. John's 
 was alive with them. Each held his bow and arrows aloft 
 in one hand, while he swam with the other. A panic 
 seized the garrison as they saw the savage multitude. 
 They broke out of the fort and fled into the forest. But 
 the French had already landed ; and throwing themselves 
 in the path of the fugitives, they greeted them with a 
 storm of lead. The terrified wretches recoiled, but flight 
 
 ' ~ 
 
 was vain. The Indian whoop rang behind them ; war- 
 clubs and arrows finished the work. Gourgues's utmost 
 efforts saved but fifteen, saved them, not out of mercy, 
 but from a refinement of vengeance. 
 
 The next day was Quasimodo Sunday, or the Sunday 
 after Easter. Gourgues and his men remained quiet, 
 making ladders for the assault on Fort S,an Mateo. Mean- 
 while the whole forest was in arms, and, far and near, the 
 Indians were wild with excitement. They beset the Span- 
 ish fort till not a soldier could venture out. The garri- 
 son, aware of their danger, though ignorant of its extent, 
 devised an expedient to gain information ; and one of 
 them, painted and feathered like an Indian, ventured
 
 PARKMAN. 31 
 
 within Gourgues's outposts. He himself chanced to be at 
 hand, and by his side walked his constant attendant, Olo- 
 toraca. The keen-eyed young savage pierced the cheat at 
 a glance. The spy was seized, and, being examined, de- 
 clared that there were two hundred and sixty Spaniards 
 in San Mateo, and that they believed the French to be two 
 thousand, and were so frightened that they did not know 
 what they were doing. 
 
 Gourgues, well pleased, pushed on to attack them. On 
 Monday evening he sent forward the Indians to ambush 
 themselves on both sides of the fort. In the morning he 
 followed with his Frenchmen ; and as the glittering ranks 
 came into view, defiling between the forest and the river, 
 the Spaniards opened on them with culverins from a pro- 
 jecting basin. The French took cover in the forest with 
 which the hills below and behind the fort were densely 
 overgrown. Here, ensconced in the edge of the woods, 
 where, himself unseen, he could survey the whole extent 
 of the defences, Gourgues presently descried a strong party 
 of Spaniards issuing from their works, crossing the ditch, 
 and advancing to reconnoitre. On this, returning to 
 his men, he sent Cazenove, with a detachment, to station 
 hi nisei f at a point well hidden by trees on the flank of 
 the Spaniards. The latter, with strange infatuation, con- 
 tinued their advance. Gourgues and his followers pushed 
 on through the thickets to meet them. As the Spaniards 
 reached the edge of the clearing, a deadly fire blazed in 
 their faces, and, before the smoke cleared, the French 
 were among them, sword in hand. The survivors would 
 have fled ; but Cazenove's detachment fell upon their rear, 
 and all were killed or taken. 
 
 When their comrades in the fort beheld their fate, a 
 panic seized them. Conscious of their own deeds, per- 
 petrated on this very spot, they could hope no mercy. 
 Their terror multiplied immeasurably the numbers of their
 
 32 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 enemy. They deserted the fort in a body, and fled into 
 the woods most remote from the French. But here a 
 deadlier foe awaited them ; for a host of Indians leaped 
 up from ambush. Then rose those hideous war-cries 
 which have curdled the boldest blood and blanched the 
 manliest cheek. Then the forest-warriors, with savage 
 ecstasy, wreaked their long arrears of vengeance. The 
 French, too, hastened to the spot, and lent their swords to 
 the slaughter. A few prisoners were saved alive ; the 
 rest were slain; and thus did the Spaniards make bloody 
 atonement for the butchery of Fort Caroline. 1 
 
 But Gourgues's vengeance was not yet appeased. Hard 
 by the fort, the trees were pointed out to him on which 
 Menendez had hanged his captives, and placed over them 
 the inscription: "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to 
 Lutherans." 
 
 Gourgues ordered the Spanish prisoners to be led 
 thither. 
 
 " Did you think," he sternly said, as the pallid wretches 
 stood ranged before him, " that so vile a treachery, so 
 detestable a cruelty, against a King so potent and a nation 
 so generous, would go unpunished ? I, one of the hum- 
 blest gentlemen among my King's subjects, have charged 
 myself with avenging it. Even if the Most Christian and 
 the Most Catholic Kings had been enemies, at deadly war, 
 such perfidy and extreme cruelty would still have been 
 unpardonable. Now that they are friends and close allies, 
 there is no name vile enough to brand your deeds, no 
 punishment sharp enough to requite them. But though 
 you cannot suffer as you deserve, you shall suffer all that 
 
 1 This is the French account. The Spaniard, Barcia, with greater prob- 
 ability, says that some of the Spaniards escaped to the hills. With this 
 exception, the Frencli and Spanish accounts agree. Barcia ascribes the 
 defeat of his countrymen to an exaggerated idea of the enemy's force. 
 The governor, Gonzalo de Villaroil, was, he says, among those who 
 escaped.
 
 PARKMAN. 33 
 
 an enemy can honorably inflict, that your example may 
 teach others to observe the peace and alliance which you 
 have so perfidiously violated." 
 
 They were hanged where the French had hung before 
 them ; and over them was nailed the inscription, burned 
 with a hot iron on a tablet of pine : " Not as to Span- 
 iards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers." 
 
 Gourgues's mission was fulfilled. To occupy the coun- 
 try had never been his intention ; nor was it possible, 
 for the Spaniards were still in force at St. Augustine. 
 His was a whirlwind visitation, to ravage, ruin, and 
 vanish. He harangued the Indians, and exorted them to 
 demolish the fort. They fell to the work with keen alac- 
 rity > and in less than a day not one stone was left on 
 another. 
 
 Gourgues returned to the forts at the mouth of the river, 
 destroyed them also, and took up his march for his ships. 
 It was a triumphal procession. The Indians thronged 
 around the victors with gifts of fish and game ; and an 
 old woman declared that she was now ready to die, since 
 she had seen the French once more. 
 
 The ships were ready for sea. Gourgues bade his dis- 
 consolate allies farewell, and nothing would content them 
 but a promise to return soon. Before embarking, he 
 addressed his own men, 
 
 "My friends, let us give thanks to God for the success 
 He has granted us. It is He who saved us from tempests ; 
 it is He who inclined the hearts of the Indians towards 
 us; it is He who blinded the understanding of the Span- 
 iards. They were four to one, in forts well armed and 
 provisioned. Our right was our only strength ; and yet 
 we have conquered. Not to our own swords, but to God 
 only, we owe our victory. Then let us thank Him, my 
 friends ; let us never forgot His favors ; and let us pray 
 that He may continue them, saving us from dangers, and 
 
 a
 
 34 LEAFLETS PROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 guiding us safely home. Let us pray, too, that He may 
 so dispose the hearts of men that our perils and toils may 
 find favor in the eyes of our King and of all France, since 
 all we have done was done for the King's service and for 
 the honor of our country." 
 
 Thus Spaniards and Frenchmen alike laid their reeking 
 swords on God's altar. 
 
 Gourgues sailed on the third of May, and, gazing back 
 along their foaming wake, the adventurers looked their 
 last on the scene of their exploits. Their success had 
 cost its price. A few of their number had fallen, and 
 hardships still awaited the survivors. Gourgues, however, 
 reached Rochelle on the day of Pentecost, and the Hugue- 
 not citizens greeted him with all honor. At court it fared 
 worse with him. The King, still obsequious to Spain, 
 looked on him coldly and askance. The Spanish minister 
 demanded his head. It was hinted to him that he was 
 not safe, and he withdrew to Rouen, where he found 
 asylum among his friends. His fortune was gone ; debts 
 contracted for his expedition weighed heavily on him ; 
 and for years he lived in obscurity, almost in misery. At 
 length his prospects brightened. Elizabeth of England 
 learned his merits and his misfortunes, and invited him 
 to enter her service. The King, who, says the Jesuit 
 historian, had always at heart been delighted with his 
 achievement, openly restored him to favor ; while, some 
 years later, Don Antonio tendered him command of his 
 fleet, to defend his right to the crown of Portugal against 
 Philip the Second. Gourgues, happy once more to cross 
 swords with the Spaniards, gladly embraced this offer; 
 but, on his way to join the Portuguese prince, he died at 
 Tours of a sudden illness. The French mourned the loss 
 of the man who had wiped a blot from the national 
 scutcheon, and respected his memory as that of one of the 
 best captains of his time. And, in truth, if a zealous
 
 PARKMAN. 35 
 
 patriotism, a fiery valor, and skilful leadership are worthy 
 of honor, then is such a tribute due to Dominique de 
 Gourgues, despite the shadowing vices which even the 
 spirit of that wild age can only palliate, the personal hate 
 that aided the impulse of his patriotism, and the implac- 
 able cruelty that sullied his courage. From "Pioneers 
 of France in the New World" Part First, chap. x.
 
 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. 
 
 " I ^HE season was far advanced. On the bare limbs of 
 * the forest hung a few withered remnants of its 
 gay autumnal livery ; and the smoke crept upward 
 through the sullen November air from the squalid wig- 
 wams of La Salle's Abenaki and Mohegan allies. These, 
 his new friends, were savages whose midnight yells had 
 startled the border hamlets of New England ; who had 
 danced around Puritan scalps, and whom Puritan imagi- 
 nations painted as incarnate fiends. La Salle chose 
 eighteen of them, whom he added to the twenty-three 
 Frenchmen who remained with him, some of the rest 
 having deserted and others lagged behind. The Indians 
 insisted on taking their squaws with them. These were 
 ten in number, besides three children ; and thus the expe- 
 dition included fifty-four persons, of whom some were 
 useless, and others a burden. 
 
 On the 21st of December. Tonty and Membre* set 'out 
 from Fort Miami with some of the party in six canoes, 
 and crossed to the little river Chicago. La Salle, with 
 the rest of the men, joined them a few days later. It 
 was the dead of winter, and the streams were frozen. 
 They made sledges, placed on them the canoes, the bag- 
 gage, and a disabled Frenchman ; crossed from the Chi- 
 cago to the northern branch of the Illinois, and filed in 
 a long procession down its frozen course. They reached 
 the site of the great Illinois village, found it tenantless, 
 
 4 7 2 S ,")
 
 38 LEAFLETS FROM STANDAED AUTHORS. 
 
 and continued their journey, still dragging their canoes, 
 till at length they reached open water below Lake Peoria. 
 La Salle had abandoned for a time his original plan of 
 building a vessel for the navigation of the Mississippi. 
 Bitter experience had taught him the difficulty of the 
 attempt, and he resolved to trust to his canoes alone. 
 They embarked again, floating prosperously down between 
 the leafless forests that flanked the tranquil river ; till, 
 on the sixth of February, they issued upon the majestic 
 bosom of the Mississippi. Here, for the time, their prog- 
 ress was stopped ; for the river was full of floating ice. 
 La Salle's Indians, too, had lagged behind ; but, within a 
 week, all had arrived, the navigation was once more free, 
 and they resumed their course. Towards evening, they 
 saw on their right the mouth of a great river ; and the 
 clear current was invaded by the headlong torrent of the 
 Missouri, opaque with mud. They built their camp-fires 
 in the neighboring forest ; and at daylight, embarking 
 anew on the dark and mighty stream, drifted swiftly 
 down towards unknown destinies. They passed a deserted 
 town of the Tamaroas ; saw, three days after, the mouth 
 of the Ohio ; and, gliding by the wastes of bordering 
 swamp, landed on the twenty-fourth of February near 
 the Third Chickasaw Bluffs. They encamped, and the 
 hunters went out for game. All returned, excepting 
 Pierre Prudhomme ; and, as the others had seen fresh 
 tracks of Indians, La Salle feared that he was killed. 
 While some of his followers built a small stockade fort 
 on a high bluff by the river, others ranged the woods in 
 pursuit of the missing hunter. After six days of cease- 
 less and fruitless search, they met two Chickasaw Indians 
 in the forest ; and, through them, La Salle sent presents 
 and peace-messages to that warlike people, whose vil- 
 lages were a few days' journey distant. Several days 
 later, Prudhomme was found, and brought in to the
 
 PARKMAN. 39 
 
 camp, half-dead. He had lost his way while hunting; 
 and, to console him for his woes, La Salle christened the 
 newly built fort with his name, and left him, with a few 
 others, in charge of it. 
 
 Again they embarked ; and, with every stage of their 
 adventurous progress, the mystery of this vast New 
 World was more and more unveiled. More and more 
 they entered the realms of spring. The hazy sunlight, 
 the warm and drowsy air, the tender foliage, the opening 
 flowers, betokened the reviving life of Nature. For 
 several days more they followed the writhings of the 
 great river, on its tortuous course through wastes of 
 swamp and canebrake, till on the thirteenth of March 
 they found themselves wrapped in a thick fog. Neither 
 shore was visible ; but they heard on the right the boom- 
 ing of an Indian drum and the shrill outcries of the war- 
 dance. La Salle at once crossed to the opposite side, 
 where, in less than an hour, his men threw up a rude 
 fort of felled trees. Meanwhile, the fog cleared ; and, 
 from the farther bank, the astonished Indians saw the 
 strange visitors at their work. Some of the French 
 advanced to the edge of the water, and beckoned them to 
 come over. Several of them approached, in a wooden 
 canoe, to within the distance of a gun-shot. La Salle 
 displayed the calumet, and sent a Frenchman to meet 
 them. He was well received ; and, the friendly mood of 
 the Indians being now apparent, the whole party crossed 
 the river. 
 
 On landing, they found themselves at a town of the 
 Kappa band of the Arkansas, a people dwelling near the 
 mouth of the river which bears their name. " The whole 
 village," writes Membre' to his superior, " came down to 
 the shore to meet us. except the women, who had run off. 
 I cannot tell you the civility and kindness we received 
 from these barbarians, who brought us poles to make
 
 40 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 huts, supplied us with firewood during the three days we 
 were among them, and took turns in feasting us. But, 
 my Reverend Father, this gives no idea of the good qual- 
 ities of these savages, who are gay, civil, and free-hearted. 
 The young men, though the most alert and spirited we 
 had seen, are nevertheless so modest that not one of them 
 would take the liberty to enter our hut, but all stood 
 quietly at the door. They are so well formed that we 
 were in admiration at their beauty. We did not lose the 
 value of a pin while we were among them." 
 
 Various were the dances and ceremonies with which 
 they entertained the strangers, who, on their part, re- 
 sponded with a solemnity which their hosts would have 
 liked less if they had understood it better. La Salle and 
 Tonty, at the head of their followers, marched to the 
 open area in the midst of the village. Here, to the ad- 
 miration of the gazing crowd of warriors, women, and 
 children, a cross was raised bearing the arms of France. 
 Membre', in canonicals, sang a hymn ; the men shouted 
 Vive le Roi ; and La Salle, in the king's name, took 
 formal possession of the country. The friar, not, he 
 flatters himself, without success, labored to expound by 
 signs the mysteries of the Faith ; while La Salle, by 
 methods equally satisfactory, drew from the chief an 
 acknowledgment of fealty to Louis XIV. 1 
 
 After touching at several other towns of this people, 
 the voyagers resumed their course, guided by two of the 
 
 1 The nation of the Akanseas, Alkansas. or Arkansas, dwelt on the west 
 bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Arkansas. They were di- 
 vided into four tribes, living for the most part in separate villages. Those 
 first visited by La Salle were the Kappas, or Quapaws.a remnant of whom 
 still subsists. The others were the Topingas, or Tongengas ; the Tori- 
 mans ; and the Osotouoy, or Sauthouis. According to Cliarlevoix, who 
 saw them in 1721, they were regarded as the tallest and best-formed In- 
 dians in America, and were known as les Beaux Homines. Gravier says 
 that they once lived on the Ohio.
 
 PARKMAN. 41 
 
 Arkansas ; passed the sites, since become historic, of 
 Vicksburg and Grand Gulf; and, about three hundred 
 miles below the Arkansas, stopped by the edge of a 
 swamp on the western side of the river. 1 Here, as 
 their two guides told them, was the path to the great 
 town of the Taensas. Tonty and Membre* were sent to 
 visit it. They and their men shouldered their birch canoe 
 through the swamp, and launched it on a lake which 
 had once formed a portion of the channel of the river. 
 In two hours, they reached the town ; and Tonty gazed 
 at it with astonishment. He had seen nothing like it 
 in America : large square dwellings, built of sun-baked 
 mud mixed with straw, arched over with a dome-shaped 
 roof of canes, and placed in regular order around an open 
 area. Two of them were larger and better than the rest. 
 One was the lodge of the chief ; the other was the temple, 
 or house, of the Sun. They entered the former, and found 
 a single room, forty feet square, where, in the dim light, 
 for there was no opening but the door, the chief sat 
 awaiting them on a sort of bedstead, three of his wives at 
 his side, while sixty old men, wrapped in white cloaks 
 woven of mulberry-bark, formed his divan. When he 
 spoke, his wives howled to do him honor ; and the as- 
 sembled councillors listened with the reverence due to a 
 potentate for whom, at his death, a hundred victims were 
 to be sacrificed. He received the visitors graciously, and 
 joyfully accepted the gifts which Tonty laid before him. 
 This interview over, the Frenchmen repaired to the tem- 
 ple, wherein were kept the bones of the departed chiefs. 
 
 1 In Tensas County, Louisiana. Tonty's estimates of distance are here 
 much too low. They seem to be founded on observations of latitude, 
 without reckoning the windings of the river. It may interest sportsmen 
 to know that the party killed several large alligators on their way. 
 Membre is much astonished that such monsters should be born of eggs, 
 like chickens.
 
 42 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Ill construction, it was much like the royal dwelling. 
 Over it were rude wooden figures, representing three 
 eagles turned towards the east. A strong mud wall 
 surrounded it, planted with stakes, on which were stuck 
 the skulls of enemies sacrificed to the Sun ; while before 
 the door was a block of wood, on which lay a large shell, 
 surrounded with the braided hair of the victims. The in- 
 terior was rude as a barn, dimly lighted from the door- 
 way, and full of smoke. There was a structure in the 
 middle which Membre thinks was a kind of altar ; and 
 before it burned a perpetual fire, fed with three logs laid 
 end to end, and watched by two old men devoted to this 
 sacred office. There was a mysterious recess, too, which 
 the strangers were forbidden to explore, but which, as 
 Tonty was told, contained the riches of the nation, con- 
 sisting of pearls from the Gulf, and trinkets obtained, 
 probably through other tribes, from the Spaniards and 
 other Europeans. 
 
 The chief condescended to visit La Salle at his camp, 
 a favor which he would by no means have granted had 
 the visitors been Indians. A master of ceremonies and 
 six attendants preceded him, to clear the path and pre- 
 pare the place of meeting. When all was ready, he was 
 seen advancing, clothed in a white robe, and preceded 
 by two men bearing white fans, while a third displayed 
 a disk of burnished copper, doubtless to represent the 
 Sun, his ancestor, or, as others will have it, his elder 
 brother. His aspect was marvellously grave, and he and 
 La Salle met with gestures of ceremonious courtesy, The 
 interview was very friendly ; and the chief returned well 
 pleased with the gifts which his entertainer bestowed on 
 him, and which, indeed, had been the principal motive of 
 h?s visit. 
 
 On the next morning, as they descended the river, they 
 saw a wooden canoe full of Indians ; and Tonty gave
 
 PARKMAN. 43 
 
 chase. He had nearly overtaken it, when more than a 
 hundred men appeared suddenly on the shore, with bows 
 bent to defend their countrymen. La Salle called out to 
 Tonty to withdraw. He obeyed ; and the whole party en- 
 camped on the opposite bank. Tonty offered to cross the 
 river with a peace-pipe, and set out accordingly with a 
 small party of men. When he landed, the Indians made 
 signs of friendship by joining their hands, a proceeding 
 by which Tonty, having but one hand, was somewhat em- 
 barrassed ; but he directed his men to respond in his stead. 
 La Salle and Meinbre' now joined him, and went with the 
 Indians to their village, three leagues distant. Here they 
 spent the night. " The Sieur de la Salle," writes Membre', 
 " whose very air, engaging manners, tact, and address 
 attract love and respect alike, produced such an effect on 
 the hearts of these people that they did not know how to 
 treat us well enough." 
 
 The Indians of this village were the Natchez ; and their 
 chief was brother of the great chief, or Sun, of the whole 
 nation. His town was several leagues distant, near the 
 site of the city of Natchez ; and thither the French re- 
 paired to visit him. They saw what they had already 
 seen among the Taensas, a religious and political des- 
 potism, a privileged caste descended from the Sun, a 
 temple, and a sacred fire. La Salle planted a large cross, 
 with the arms of France attached, in the midst of the 
 town ; while the inhabitants looked on with a satisfaction 
 which they would hardly have displayed, had they under- 
 stood the meaning of the act. 
 
 The French next visited the Coroas, at their village, 
 two leagues below , and here they found a reception no 
 less auspicious. On the thirty-first of March, as they 
 approached Red River, they passed in the fog a town of 
 the Oumas ; and, three days later, discovered a party of 
 fishermen, in wooden canoes, among the canes along 
 the margin of the water. They fled at sight of the
 
 44 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Frenchmen. La Salle sent men to reconnoitre, who, as 
 they struggled through the marsh, were greeted with a 
 shower of arrows ; while, from the neighboring village 
 of the Quinipissas, 1 invisible behind the canebrake, they 
 heard the sound of an Indian drum and the whoops of 
 the mustering warriors. La Salle, anxious to keep the 
 peace with all the tribes along the river, recalled his men, 
 and pursued his voyage. A few leagues below, they saw 
 a cluster of Indian lodges on the left bank, apparently 
 void of inhabitants. They landed, and found three of 
 them filled with corpses. It was a village of the Tan- 
 gibao, sacked by their enemies only a few days before. 2 
 
 And now they neared their journey's end. On the 
 sixth of April, the river divided itself into three broad 
 channels. La Salle followed that of the west, and 
 D'Autray that of the east ; while Tonty took the middle 
 passage. As he drifted down the turbid current, between 
 the low and marshy shores, the brackish water changed to 
 brine, and the breeze grew fresh with the salt breath of 
 the sea. Then the broad bosom of the great Gulf opened 
 on his sight, tossing its restless billows, limitless, voice- 
 less, lonely as when born of chaos, without a sail, without 
 a sign of life. 
 
 La Salle, in a canoe, coasted the marshy borders of the 
 sea ; and then the reunited parties assembled on a spot of 
 dry ground a short distance above the mouth of the river. 
 Here a column was made ready, bearing the arms of 
 France, and inscribed with the words, 
 
 Louis LE GRAND, ROY DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE, 
 
 REGNE ; LE NEUVIEME AvRIL, 1682. 
 
 The Frenchmen were mustered under arms ; and, 
 while the New England Indians and their squaws looked 
 
 1 In St. Charles County, on the left bank, not far above New Orleans. 
 
 2 Hennepin uses this incident, as well as most of those which have pre- 
 ceded it, in making up the story of his pretended voyage to the Gulf.
 
 PARKMAN. 45 
 
 on in wondering silence, they chanted the Te Deum, the 
 Exaudiat, and the Domine salvum fac Regem. Then, 
 amid volleys of musketry and shouts of Vive le Roi, La 
 Salle planted the column in its place, and, standing near 
 it, proclaimed in a loud voice, 
 
 " In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible, and 
 victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God 
 King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, 
 I, this ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred and 
 eighty-two, in virtue of the commission of his Majesty, 
 which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all 
 whom it may concern, have taken, and do now take, in the 
 name of his Majesty and of his successors to the crown, 
 possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, 
 ports, bays, adjacent straits, and all the nations, peoples, 
 provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fish- 
 eries, streams, and rivers, within the extent of the said 
 Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, 
 otherwise called the Ohio, ... as also along the river 
 Colbert, or Mississippi, and the rivers which discharge 
 themselves thereinto, from its source beyond the country 
 of the Nadouessioux ... as far as its mouth at the sea, 
 or Gulf of Mexico, and also to the mouth of the River 
 of Palms, upon the assurance we have had from the na- 
 tives of these countries that we are the first Europeans 
 who have descended or ascended the said river Colbert ; 
 hereby protesting against all who may hereafter under- 
 take to invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, 
 peoples, or lands, to the prejudice of the rights of his 
 Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations dwelling 
 herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby 
 take to witness those who hear me, and demand an act of 
 the notary here present." 
 
 Shouts of Vive le Roi and volleys of musketry re- 
 sponded to his words. Then a cross was planted beside
 
 46 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 the column, and a leaden plate buried near it, bearing 
 the arms of France, with a Latin inscription, Ludovicus 
 Magnus regnat. The weather-beaten voyagers joined 
 their voices in the grand hymn of the Vexilla Regis : 
 
 " The banners of Heaven's King advance, 
 The mystery of the Cross shines fortli ; " 
 
 and renewed shouts of Vive le Hoi closed the ceremony. 
 
 On that day, the realm of France received on parch- 
 ment a stupendous accession. The fertile plains of Texas ; 
 the vast basin of the Mississippi, from its frozen northern 
 springs to the sultry borders of the Gulf ; from the woody 
 ridges of the Alleghanies to the bare peaks of the Rocky 
 Mountains, a region of savannahs and forests, sun- 
 cracked deserts, and grassy prairies, watered by a thou- 
 sand rivers, ranged by a thousand warlike tribes, passed 
 beneath the sceptre of the Sultan of Versailles ; and all 
 by virtue of a feeble human voice, inaudible at half a 
 mile. From " La Salle and the Discovery of the G-reat 
 West" chap. xx.
 
 THE CHAEACTER OF LA SALLE. 
 
 " I M3US in the vigor of his manhood, at the age of forty- 
 * three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle, " one of the 
 greatest men," writes Touty, " of this age ; " without 
 question one of the most remarkable explorers whose 
 names live in history. His faithful officer Joutel thus 
 sketches his portrait : " His firmness, his courage, his 
 great knowledge of the arts and sciences, which made him 
 equal to every undertaking, and his untiring energy, which 
 enabled him to surmount every obstacle, would have won 
 at last a glorious success for his grand enterprise, had not 
 all his fine qualities been counterbalanced by a haughti- 
 ness of manner which often made him insupportable, and 
 by a harshness towards those under his command which 
 drew upon him an implacable hatred, and was at last the 
 cause of his death." 
 
 The enthusiasm of the disinterested and chivalrous 
 Champlain was not the enthusiasm of La Salle ; nor had 
 he any part in the self-devoted zeal of the early Jesuit ex- 
 plorers. He belonged not to the age of the knight-errant 
 and the saint, but to the modern world of practical study 
 and practical action. He was the hero, not of a principle 
 nor of a faith, but simply of a fixed idea and a determined 
 purpose. As often happens with concentred and ener- 
 getic natures, his purpose was to him a passion and an in- 
 spiration ; and he clung to it with a certain fanaticism of
 
 48 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 devotion. It was the offspring of an ambition vast and 
 comprehensive, yet acting in the interest both of France 
 and of civilization. 
 
 Serious in all things, incapable of the lighter pleasures, 
 incapable of repose, finding no joy but in the pursuit of 
 great designs, too shy for society and too reserved for 
 popularity, often unsympathetic and always seeming so, 
 smothering emotions which he could not utter, schooled 
 to universal distrust, stern to his followers and pitiless to 
 himself, bearing the brunt of every hardship and every 
 danger, demanding of others an equal constancy joined to 
 an implicit deference, heeding no counsel but his own, 
 attempting the impossible and grasping at what was too 
 vast to hold, he contained in his own complex and pain- 
 ful nature the chief springs of his triumphs, his failures, 
 and his death, s 
 
 It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not easy to 
 hide from sight the Roman virtues that redeemed them. 
 Beset by a throng of enemies, he stands, like the King of 
 Israel, head and shoulders above them all. He was a tower 
 of adamant against whose impregnable front hardship and 
 danger, the rage of man and of the elements, the southern 
 sun, the northern blast, fatigue, famine and disease, delay, 
 disappointment and deferred hope emptied their quivers 
 in vain. That very pride which, Coriolanus-like, declared 
 itself most sternly in the thickest press of foes, has in it 
 something to challenge admiration. Never, under the 
 impenetrable mail of paladin or crusader, beat a heart of 
 more intrepid mettle than within the stoic panoply that 
 armed the breast of La Salle. To estimate aright the 
 marvels of his patient fortitude, one must follow on his 
 track through the vast scene of his interminable journey- 
 ings, those thousands of weary miles of forest, marsh, and 
 river, where, again and again, in the bitterness of baffled 
 striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed onward towards the
 
 PARKMAN. 49 
 
 goal which he was never to attain. America owes him 
 an enduring memory ; for, in this masculine figure, she 
 sees the pioneer who guided her to the possession of her 
 richest heritage. From " La Salle and the Discovery of 
 the Great West" chap, xxvii.
 
 THE SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. 
 
 T A VERENDRYE, fired with the zeal of discovery, 
 -* ' offered to search for the Western Sea if the King 
 would give him one hundred men and supply canoes, arms, 
 and provisions. But, as was usual in such cases, the King 
 would give nothing ; and though the Governor, Beauhar- 
 nois, did all in his power to promote the enterprise, the 
 burden and the risk were left to the adventurer himself. 
 La Ve'rendrye was authorized to find a way to the Pacific 
 at his own expense, in consideration of a monopoly of the 
 fur-trade in the regions north and west of Lake Superior. 
 This vast and remote country was held by tribes who were 
 doubtful friends of the French, and perpetual enemies of 
 each other. The risks of the trade were as great as its 
 possible profits, and to reap these, vast outlays must first 
 be made: forts must be built, manned, provisioned, and 
 stocked with goods brought through two thousand miles 
 of difficult and perilous wilderness. There were other 
 dangers, more insidious, and perhaps greater. The ex- 
 clusive privileges granted to La Ve'rendrye would in- 
 evitably rouse the intensest jealousy of the Canadian 
 merchants, and they would spare no effort to ruin him. 
 Intrigue and calumny would be busy in his absence. If, 
 as was likely, his patron, Beauharnois, should be recalled, 
 the new governor might be turned against him, his privi- 
 leges might be suddenly revoked, the forts he had built 
 passed over to his rivals, and all his outlays turned to their
 
 52 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 profit, as had happened to La Salle on the recall of his 
 patron, Frontenac. On the other hand, the country was 
 full of the choicest furs, which the Indians had hitherto 
 carried to the English at Hudson Bay, but which the pro- 
 posed trading-posts would secure to the French. La Ve"- 
 rendrye's enemies pretended that he thought of nothing 
 but beaver-skins, and slighted the discovery which he had 
 bound himself to undertake ; but his conduct proves that 
 <C he was true to his engagements, and that ambition to gain 
 I honorable distinction in the service of the King had a 
 large place among the motives that impelled him. 
 
 As his own resources were of the smallest, he took a 
 number of associates on conditions most unfavorable to 
 himself. Among them they raised money enough to begin 
 the enterprise, and on the 8th of June, 1731, La Yerendrye 
 and three of his sons, together with his nephew, La Jeme- 
 raye, the Jesuit Messager, and a party of Canadians, set 
 out from Montreal. It was late in August before they 
 reached the great portage of Lake Superior, which led 
 across the height of land separating the waters of that 
 lake from those flowing to Lake Winnipeg. The way was 
 long and difficult. The men, who had perhaps been tam- 
 pered with, mutinied, and refused to go farther. Some of 
 them, with much ado, consented at last to proceed, and, 
 under the lead of La Jemeraye, made their way by an 
 intricate and broken chain of lakes and streams to Rainy 
 Lake, where they built a fort and called it Fort St. Pierre. 
 La Ve"rendrye was forced to winter with the rest of the 
 party at the river Kaministiguia, not far from the great 
 portage. Here months were lost, during which a crew of 
 useless mutineers had to be fed and paid ; and it was not 
 till the next June that he could get them again into motion 
 towards Lake Winnipeg. 
 
 This omnious beginning was followed by a train of dis- 
 asters. His associates abandoned him ; the merchants on
 
 PARKMAN. 53 
 
 whom he depended for supplies would not send them ; and 
 he found himself, in his own words, " destitute of every- 
 thing." His nephew, La Jemeraye, died. The Jesuit 
 Auneau, bent on returning to Michillimackinac, set out 
 with La Ve'rendrye's eldest son and a party of twenty 
 Canadians. A few days later, they were all found on an 
 island in the Lake of the Woods, murdered and mangled 
 by the Sioux. The Assinniboins and Cristineaux, mortal 
 foes of that fierce people, offered to join the French and 
 avenge the butchery ; but a war with the Sioux would 
 have ruined La Ve'rendrye's plans of discovery, and ex- 
 posed to torture and death the French traders in their 
 country. Therefore he restrained himself and declined 
 the proffered aid, at the risk of incurring the contempt of 
 those who offered it. 
 
 Beauharnois twice appealed to the court to give La 
 VeVendrye some little aid, urging that he was at the end 
 of his resources, and that a grant of 30,000 francs, or 
 6,000 dollars, would enable him to find a way to the 
 Pacific. All help was refused, but La Vdrendrye was told 
 that he might let out his forts to other traders, and so 
 raise means to pursue the discovery. 
 
 In 1740 he went for the third time to Montreal, where, 
 instead of aid, he found a lawsuit. " In spite," he says, 
 " of the derangement of my affairs, the envy and jealousy 
 of various persons impelled them to write letters to the 
 court insinuating that I thought of nothing but making my 
 fortune. If more than forty thousand livrcs of debt which 
 I have on my shoulders are an advantage, then I can flat- 
 ter myself that I am very rich. In all my misfortunes, I 
 have the consolation of seeing that M. de Beauharnois 
 enters into my views, recognizes the uprightness of my 
 intentions, and does me justice in spite of opposition." 
 
 Meanwhile, under all his difficulties, he had explored a 
 vast region hitherto unknown, diverted a great and lucra-
 
 54 LEAFLETS PROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 tive fur-trade from the English at Hudson Bay, and se- 
 cured possession of it by six fortified posts, Fort St. 
 Pierre, on Rainy Lake ; Port St. Charles, on the Lake of 
 the Woods ; Fort Maurepas, at the mouth of the river 
 Winnipeg; Fort Bourbon, on the eastern side of Lake 
 Winnipeg ; Fort La Reine, on the Assinniboin ; Fort 
 Dauphin, on Lake Manitoba. Besides these he built an- 
 other post, called Fort Rouge, on the site of the city of 
 Winnipeg; and, some time after, another, at the mouth 
 of the River Poskoiac, or Saskatchawan, neither of which, 
 however, was long occupied. These various forts were 
 only stockade works flanked with block -houses ; but the 
 difficulty of building and maintaining them in this remote 
 wilderness was incalulable. 
 
 He had inquired on all sides for the Pacific. The As- 
 sinniboins could tell him nothing. Nor could any infor- 
 mation be expected from them, since their relatives and 
 mortal enemies, the Sioux, barred their way to the West. 
 The Cristineaux were equally ignorant ; but they supplied 
 the place of knowledge by invention, and drew maps, some 
 of which seem to have been made with no other intention 
 than that of amusing themselves by imposing on the in- 
 quirer. They also declared that some of their number 
 had gone down a river called White River, or River of the 
 West, where they found a plant that shed drops like blood, 
 and saw serpents of prodigious size. They said, furl her 
 that on the lower part of this river were walled towns, 
 where dwelt white men who had knives, hatchets, and 
 cloth, but no firearms. 
 
 Both Assinniboins and Cristineaux declared that there 
 was a distant tribe on the Missouri, called Mantannes 
 (Mandans), who knew the way to the Western Sea, and 
 would guide him to it. Lured by this assurance, and 
 feeling that he had sufficiently secured his position to 
 enable him to begin his Western exploration, La Ve'ren-
 
 PARKMAN. 55 
 
 diye left Fort La Reine in October, 1738, with twenty 
 men, and pushed up the River Assinniboin till its rapids 
 and shallows threatened his bark canoes with destruction. 
 Then, with a band of Assinniboin Indians who had joined 
 him, he struck across the prairie for the Mandans, his 
 Indian companions hunting buffalo on the way. They 
 approached tbe first Mandan village on the afternoon of 
 the 3d of December, displaying a French flag and firing 
 three volleys as a salute. The whole population poured 
 out to see the marvellous visitors, who were conducted 
 through the staring crowd to the lodge of the principal 
 chief, a capacious structure so thronged with the naked 
 and greasy savages that the Frenchmen were half smoth- 
 ered. What was worse, they lost the bag that held 
 all their presents for the Mandans, which was snatched 
 away in the confusion, and hidden in one of the caches, 
 called cellars by La Ve>endrye, of which the place was 
 full. The chief seemed much discomposed at this mishap, 
 and explained it by saying that there were many rascals 
 in the village. The loss was serious, since without the 
 presents nothing could be done. Nor was this all ; for in 
 the morning La Vdrendrye missed his interpreter, and 
 was told that he had fallen in love with an Assinniboin 
 girl, and gone off in pursuit of her. The French were now 
 without any means of communicating with the Mandans, 
 from whom, however, before the disappearance of the 
 interpreter, they had already received a variety of ques- 
 tionable information, chiefly touching white men cased 
 in iron who were said to live on the river below at the 
 distance of a whole summer's journey. As they were im- 
 pervious to arrows, so the story ran, it was necessary 
 to shoot their horses, after which, being too heavy to run, 
 they were easily caught. This was probably suggested by 
 the armor of the Spaniards, who had more than once made 
 incursions as far as the lower Missouri : but the narra-
 
 56 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 tors drew on their imagination for various additional 
 particulars. 
 
 The Mandans seem to have much declined in numbers 
 during the century that followed this visit of La Veren- 
 drye. He says that they had six villages on or near the 
 Missouri, of whicli the one seen by him was the smallest, 
 though he thinks that it contained a hundred and thirty 
 houses. As each of these large structures held a number 
 of families, the population must have been considerable. 
 Yet when Prince Maximilian visited the Mandans in 1833, 
 he found only two villages, containing jointly two hundred 
 and forty warriors and a total population of about a thou- 
 sand souls. Without having seen the statements of La 
 Ve'rendrye, he speaks of the population as greatly reduced 
 by wars and the small-pox, a disease which a few years 
 later nearly exterminated the tribe. 1 
 
 La Ve'rendrye represents the six villages as surrounded 
 with ditches and stockades, flanked by a sort of bastion, 
 defences which, he says, had nothing savage in their 
 construction. In later times the fortifications were of a 
 much ruder kind, though Maximilian represents them as 
 having pointed salients to serve as bastions. La Veren- 
 drye mentions some peculiar customs of the Mandans 
 which answer exactly to those described by more recent 
 observers. 
 
 He had intended to winter with the tribe ; but the loss 
 
 1 Le Prince Maximilien cle Wied-Neuwied, Voyage dans I'lnte'rieur de 
 I'Ame'rique du Nord, II. 371, 372 (Paris, 1843). When Captains Lewis and 
 Clark visited the Mandans in 1804, they found them in two villages, with 
 about three hundred and fifty warriors. They report that, about forty 
 years before, they lived in nine villages, the ruins of which the explorers 
 saw about eighty miles below the two villages then occupied by the tribe 
 The Mandans had moved up the river in consequence of the persecutions 
 of the Sioux and the small-pox, which had made great havoc among them. 
 Expedition of Lewis and Clark, I. 129 (ed. Philadelphia, 1814). These nine 
 villages seem to have been above Cannon-ball River, a tributary of the 
 Missouri.
 
 PARKMAN. 57 
 
 of the presents and the interpreter made it useless to stay, 
 and leaving two men in the village to learn the language, 
 he began his return to Fort La Reine. " I was very ill," 
 he writes, " but hoped to get better on the way. The re- 
 verse was the case, for it was the depth of winter. It 
 would be impossible to suffer more than I did. It seemed 
 that nothing but death could release us from such miser- 
 ies." He reached Fort La Reine on the llth of February, 
 1739. 
 
 His iron constitution seems to have been severely 
 shaken ; but he had sons worthy of their father. The 
 two men left among the Mandans appeared at Fort La 
 Reine in September. They reported that they had been 
 well treated, and that their hosts had parted from them 
 with regret. They also declared that at the end of spring 
 several Indian tribes, all well supplied with horses, had 
 come, as was their yearly custom, to the Mandan villages 
 to barter embroidered buffalo hides and other skins for 
 corn and beans ; that they had encamped, to the number 
 of tvo hundred lodges, on the farther side of the Missouri; 
 and that among them was a band said to have come from 
 a distant country towards the sunset, where there were 
 white men who lived in houses built of bricks and stones. 
 
 The two Frenchmen crossed over to the camp of these 
 Western strangers, among whom they found a chief who 
 spoke, or professed to speak, the language of the myste- 
 rious white men, which to the two Frenchmen was unin- 
 telligible. Fortunately, he also spoke the language of the 
 Mandans, of which the Frenchmen had learned a little 
 during their stay, and hence were able to gather that the 
 white men in question had beards, and that they prayed 
 to the Master of Life in great houses built for the purpose, 
 holding books, the leaves of which were like husks of 
 Indian corn, singing together and repeating Jgsus, Marie. 
 The chief gave many other particulars, which seemed to
 
 58 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 show that he had been in contact with Spaniards, prob- 
 ably those of California ; for he described their houses as 
 standing near the great lake, of which the water rises and 
 falls and is not fit to drink. He invited the two French- 
 men to go with him to this strange country, saying that it 
 could be reached before winter, though a wide circuit must 
 be made, to avoid a fierce and dangerous tribe called Snake 
 Indians (G-ens du Serpent). 
 
 On hearing this story, La Verendrye sent his eldest son, 
 Pierre, to pursue the discovery with two men, ordering 
 him to hire guides among the Mandans and make his way 
 to the Western Sea. But no guides were to be found, 
 and in the next summer the young man returned from his 
 bootless errand. 
 
 Undaunted by this failure, Pierre set out again in the 
 next spring, 1742, with his younger brother, the Chevalier 
 de la Ve'rendrye. Accompanied only by two Canadians, 
 they left Fort La Reine on the 29th of April, and following, 
 no doubt, the route of the Assinniboin and Mouse River, 
 reached the chief village of the Mandans in about three 
 weeks. 
 
 Here they found themselves the welcome guests of 
 this singularly interesting tribe, ruined by the small- 
 pox nearly half a century ago, but preserved to memory 
 by the skilful pencil of the artist Charles Bodmer, and 
 the brush of the painter George Catlin, both of whom 
 saw them at a time when they were little changed in 
 habits and manners since the visit of the brothers La 
 Verendrye. 1 
 
 1 Prince Maximilian spent the winter of 1832-33 near the Mandan 
 villages. His artist, with the instinct of genius, seized the characteristics 
 of the wild life before him, and rendered them with admirable vigor and 
 truth. Catlin spent a considerable time among the Mandans soon after 
 the visit of Prince Maximilian, and had unusual opportunities of studying 
 them. He was an indifferent painter, a shallow observer, and a garrulous 
 and windy writer ; yet his enthusiastic industry is beyond praise, and his
 
 PARKMAN. 59 
 
 Thus, though the report of the two brothers is too 
 concise and brief, we know what they saw when they 
 entered the central area, or public square, of the village. 
 Around stood the Mandan lodges, looking like round 
 flattened hillocks of earth, forty or fifty feet wide. On 
 examination they proved to be framed of strong posts 
 and poles, covered with a thick matting of intertwined 
 willow-branches, over which was laid a bed of well-com- 
 pacted clay or earth two or three feet thick. This heavy 
 roof was supported by strong interior posts. 1 The open 
 place which the dwellings enclosed served for games, 
 dances, and the ghastly religious or magical ceremonies 
 practised by the tribe. Among the other structures was 
 the sacred " medicine lodge," distinguished by three or 
 four tall poles planted before it, each surmounted by an 
 effigy looking much like a scarecrow, and meant as an 
 offering to the spirits. 
 
 If the two travellers had been less sparing of words, 
 they would doubtless have told us that as they entered 
 the village square the flattened earthen domes that sur- 
 rounded it were thronged with squaws and children, 
 for this was always the case on occasions of public inter- 
 est, and that they were forced to undergo a merciless 
 series of feasts in the lodges of the chiefs. Here, seated 
 by the sunken hearth in the middle, under the large hole 
 in the roof that served both for window and chimney, 
 they could study at their ease the domestic economy of 
 their entertainers. Each lodge held a yens, or family 
 
 pictures are invaluable as faithful reflections of aspects of Indian life 
 which are pone forever. 
 
 Beauharnois calls the Mandans Blancs Borbiis, and says that they have 
 been hitherto unknown. Beanharnoi* au Ministrc, 14 An\t>, 1739. The 
 name Mantannes, or Mandans, is that given them by the Agginniboins. 
 
 1 The Minnetarees and other tribes of the Missouri built their lodges 
 in a similar way.
 
 60 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 connection, whose beds of raw buffalo hide, stretched 
 on poles, were ranged around the circumference of the 
 building, while by each stood a post on which hung 
 shields, lances, bows, quivers, inedicine-bags, and masks 
 formed of the skin of a buffalo's head, with the horns 
 attached, to be used in the magic buffalo dance. 
 
 Every day had its sports to relieve the monotony of 
 savage existence, the game of the stick and the rolling 
 ring, the archery practice of boys, horse-racing on the 
 neighboring prairie, and incessant games of chance ; 
 while every evening, in contrast to these gayeties, the 
 long, dismal wail of women rose from the adjacent ceme 
 tery, where the dead of the village, sewn fast in buffalo 
 hides, lay on scaffolds above the reach of wolves. 
 
 The Mandans did not know the way to the Pacific, 
 but they told the brothers that they expected a speedy 
 visit from a tribe or band called Horse Indians, who 
 could guide them thither. It is impossible to identify 
 this people with any certainty. 1 The two travellers 
 waited for them in vain till after midsummer, and then, 
 as the season was too far advanced for longer delay, they 
 hired two Mandans to conduct them to their customary 
 haunts. 
 
 They set out on horseback, their scanty baggage and 
 their stock of presents being no doubt carried by pack- 
 animals. Their general course was west-southwest, with 
 the Black Hills at a distance on their left, and the upper 
 Missouri on their right. The country was a rolling 
 prairie, well covered for the most part with grass, and 
 watered by small alkaline streams creeping towards the 
 
 1 The Clieyennes have a tradition that they were the first tribe of this 
 region to have horses. This may perhaps justify a conjecture that the 
 northern division of this brave and warlike people were the Florse Indians 
 of La Verendrye ; though an Indian tradition, unless backed by well- 
 established facts, can never be accepted as substantial evidence.
 
 PARKMAN. 61 
 
 Missouri with an opaque, whitish current. Except along 
 the watercourses, there was little or no wood. " I no- 
 ticed," says the Chevalier de la Ve'rendrye, " earths of 
 different colors, blue, green, red, or black, white as chalk, 
 or yellowish like ochre." This was probably in the " bad 
 lands " of the Little Missouri, where these colored earths 
 form a conspicuous feature in the bare and barren bluffs, 
 carved into fantastic shapes by the storms. 1 
 
 For twenty days the travellers saw no human being, so 
 scanty was the population of these plains. Game, how- 
 ever, was abundant. Deer sprang from the tall, reedy 
 grass of the river bottoms ; buffalo tramped by in ponder- 
 ous columns, or dotted the swells of the distant prairie 
 with their grazing thousands ; antelope approached, with 
 the curiosity of their species, to gaze at the passing horse- 
 men, then fled like the wind ; and as they neared the broken 
 uplands towards the Yellowstone, they saw troops of elk 
 and flocks of mountain-sheep. Sometimes, for miles 
 together, the dry plain was studded thick with the 
 earthen mounds that marked the burrows of the curious 
 marmots, called prairie-dogs, from their squeaking bark. 
 Wolves, white and gray, howled about the camp at night, 
 and their cousin, the coyote, seated in the dusk of even- 
 ing upright on the grass, with nose turned to the sky, 
 saluted them with a complication of yelpings, as if a 
 score of petulant voices were pouring together from the 
 throat of one small beast. 
 
 On the llth of August, after a march of about three 
 weeks, the brothers reached a hill, or group of hills, 
 apparently west of the Little Missouri, and perhaps a 
 part of the Powder River Range. It was here that they 
 hoped to find the Horse Indians, but nobody was to be 
 seen. Arming themselves with patience, they built a 
 
 1 A similar phenomenon occurs farther west on the face of the perpen- 
 dicular bluffs that, in one place, bonier the valley of the river Rosebud.
 
 62 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 hut, made fires to attract by the smoke any Indians roam- 
 ing near, and went every day to the tops of the hills to 
 reconnoitre. At length, on the 14th of September, they 
 descried a spire of smoke on the distant prairie. 
 
 One of their Mandan guides had left them and gone 
 back to his village. The other, with one of the French- 
 men, went towards the smoke, and found a camp of 
 Indians, whom the journal calls Les Beaux Homines, 
 and who were probably Crows, or Apsaroka, a tribe re- 
 markable for stature and symmetry, who long claimed that 
 region as their own. They treated the visitors well, and 
 sent for the other Frenchmen to come to their lodges, where 
 they were received with great rejoicing. The remaining 
 Mandan, however, became frightened, for the Beaux 
 Homines were enemies of his tribe, and he soon fol- 
 lowed his companion on his solitary march homeward. 
 
 The brothers remained twenty-one days in the camp 
 of the Beaux Honimes, much perplexed for want of an 
 interpreter. The tribes of the plains have in common a 
 system of signs by which they communicate with each 
 other, and it is likely that the brothers had learned it 
 from the Sioux or Assinniboins, with whom they had 
 been in familiar intercourse. By this or some other 
 means they made their hosts understand that they wished 
 to find the Horse Indians ; and the Beaux Hommes, 
 being soothed by presents, offered some of their young 
 men as guides. They set out on the 9th of October, 
 following a south-southwest course. 
 
 In two days they met a band of Indians, called by 
 them the Little Foxes, and on the 15th and 17th two 
 villages of another unrecognizable horde, named Pioya. 
 From La Ve'rendrye's time to our own, this name " vil- 
 lages " has always been given to the encampments of 
 the wandering people of the plains. All these nomadic 
 communities joined them, and they moved together south-
 
 PARKMAN. 63 
 
 ward, till they reached at last the lodges of the long- 
 sought Horse Indians. They found them in the extremity 
 of distress and terror. Their camp resounded with howls 
 and wailings ; and not without cause, for the Snakes, or 
 Shoshones, a formidable people living farther west- 
 ward, had lately destroyed most of their tribe. The 
 Snakes were the terror of that country. The brothers 
 were told that the year before they had destroyed seven- 
 teen villages, killing the . warriors and old women, and 
 carrying off the young women and children as slaves. 
 
 None of the Horse Indians had ever seen the Pacific ; 
 but they knew a people called Gens de 1'Arc, or Bow 
 Indians, who, as they said, had traded not far from it. 
 To the Bow Indians, therefore, the brothers resolved to 
 go, and by dint of gifts and promises they persuaded 
 their hosts to show them the way. After marching 
 southwestward for several days, they saw the distant 
 prairie covered with the pointed buffalo-skin lodges of a 
 great Indian camp. It was that of the Bow Indians, 
 who may have been one of the bands of the western 
 Sioux, the predominant race in this region. Few or 
 none of them could ever have seen a white man, and 
 we may imagine their amazement at the arrival of the 
 strangers, who, followed by staring crowds, were con- 
 ducted to the lodge of the chief. " Thus far," says La 
 VeVendrye, " we had been well received in all the villages 
 we had passed ; but this was nothing compared with 
 the courteous manners of the great chief of the Bow In- 
 dians, who, unlike the others, was not self-interested in 
 the least, and who took excellent care of everything 
 belonging to us." 
 
 The first inquiry of the travellers was for the Pacific ; 
 but neither the chief nor his tribesmen knew anything of 
 it, except what they had heard from Snake prisoners taken 
 in war. The Frenchmen were surprised at the extent of
 
 64 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 the camp, which consisted of many separate bands. The 
 chief explained that they had been summoned from far 
 and near for a grand war-party against that common foe 
 of all, the Snakes. 1 In fact, the camp resounded with 
 war-songs and war-dances. " Come with us," said their 
 host ; " we are going towards the mountains, where you 
 can see the great water that you are looking for." 
 
 At length the camp broke up. The squaws took down 
 the lodges, and the march began over prairies dreary and 
 brown with the withering touch of autumn. The spec- 
 tacle was such as men still young have seen in these 
 Western lands, but which no man will see again. The 
 vast plain swarmed with the moving multitude. The 
 tribes of the Missouri and the Yellowstone had by this 
 time abundance of horses, the best of which were used 
 for war and hunting, and the others as beasts of burden. 
 These last were equipped in a peculiar manner. Several 
 of the long poles used to frame the teepees, or lodges, 
 were secured by one end to each side of a rude saddle, 
 while the other end trailed on the ground. Crossbars 
 lashed to the poles just behind the horse kept them three 
 or four feet apart, and formed a firm support, on which 
 was laid, compactly folded, the buffalo-skin covering of 
 the lodge. On this, again, sat a mother with her young 
 family, sometimes stowed for safety in a large open wil- 
 low basket, with the occasional addition of some domestic 
 pet, such as a tame raven, a puppy, or even a small 
 bear cub. Other horses were laden in the same manner 
 with wooden bowls, stone hammers, and other utensils, 
 along with stores of dried buffalo-meat packed in cases of 
 
 1 The enmity between the Sioux and the Snakes lasted to our own time. 
 When the writer lived among the western Sioux, one of their chiefs organ- 
 ized a war-party against the Snakes, and numerous bands came to join the 
 expedition from a distance in some cases of three hundred miles. Quarrels 
 broke out among them, and the scheme was ruined.
 
 PARKMAN. 65 
 
 rawhide whitened and painted. Many of the innumerable 
 dogs whose manners and appearance strongly suggested 
 their relatives the wolves, to whom, however, they bore 
 a mortal grudge were equipped in a similar, way, with 
 shorter poles and lighter loads. Bands of naked boys, 
 noisy and restless, roamed the prairie, practising their 
 bows and arrows on any small animal they might find. 
 Gay young squaws adorned on each cheek with a spot 
 of ochre or red clay, and arrayed in tunics of fringed 
 buckskin embroidered with porcupine quills were 
 mounted on ponies, astride like men ; while lean and 
 tattered hags the drudges of the tribe, unkempt and 
 hideous scolded the lagging horses, or screeched at the 
 disorderly dogs, with voices not unlike the yell of the 
 great horned owl. Most of the warriors were on horse- 
 back, armed with round white shields of bull-hide, feath- 
 ered lances, war-clubs, bows, and quivers filled with 
 stone-headed arrows ; while a few of the elders, wrapped 
 in robes of buffalo-hide, stalked along in groups with 
 a* stately air, chatting, laughing, and exchanging un- 
 seemly jokes. 1 
 
 " We continued our march," says La Ve"rendrye, 
 " sometimes south-southwest, and now and then north- 
 west; our numbers constantly increasing by villages of 
 different tribes which joined us." The variations of 
 their course were probably due to the difficulties of the 
 country, which grew more rugged as they advanced, 
 with broken hills, tracts of dingy green sage-bushes, and 
 bright, swift streams, edged with cottonwood and willow, 
 hurrying northward to join the Yellowstone. At length, 
 on the 1st of January, 1743, they saw what was probably 
 
 1 The above descriptive particulars are drawn from repeated observa- 
 tion of similar scenes at a time when the primitive condition of these tribes 
 was essentially unchanged, though with the difference that the concourse 
 of savages counted by hundreds, and not by thousands. 
 
 5
 
 66 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 the Bighorn Range of the Rocky Mountains, a hundred 
 and twenty miles east of the Yellowstone Park. 
 
 A council of all the allied bauds was now called, and 
 the Frenchmen were asked to take part in it. The ques- 
 tions discussed were how to dispose of the women and 
 children, and how to attack the enemy. Having settled 
 their plans, the chiefs begged their white friends not to 
 abandon them ; and the younger of the two, the Chevalier, 
 consented to join the warriors, and aid them with advice, 
 though not with arms. 
 
 The tribes of the Western plains rarely go on war- 
 parties in winter, and this great expedition must have 
 been the result of unusual exasperation. The object was 
 to surprise the Snakes in the security of their winter camp, 
 and strike a deadly blow, which would have been impos- 
 sible in summer. 
 
 On the 8th of January the whole body stopped to en- 
 camp, choosing, no doubt, after the invariable winter 
 custom of Western Indians, a place sheltered from wind, 
 and supplied with water and fuel. Here the squaws and 
 children were to remain, while most of the warriors ad- 
 vanced against the enemy. By pegging the lower edge 
 of the lodge-skin to the ground, and piling a ridge of 
 stones and earth upon it, to keep out the air, fastening 
 with wooden skewers the flap of hide that covered the 
 entrance, and keeping a constant fire, they could pass a 
 winter endurable to Indians, though smoke, filth, vermin, 
 bad air, the crowd, and the total absence of privacy, 
 would make it a purgatory to any civilized white 
 man. 
 
 The Chevalier left his brother to watch over the bag- 
 gage of the party, which was stored in the lodge of the great 
 chief, while he himself, with his two Canadians, joined the 
 advancing warriors. They were on horseback, marching 
 with a certain order, and sending watchmen to recon-
 
 PAEKMAN. 67 
 
 noitre the country from the tops of the hills. 1 Their 
 movements were so slow that it was twelve days before 
 they reached the foot of the mountains, which, says La 
 V rend rye, " are for the most part well wooded, and 
 seem very high." 2 He longed to climb their great snow- 
 encumbered peaks, fancying that he might then see the 
 Pacific, and never dreaming that more than eight hundred 
 miles of mountains and forests still lay between him and 
 his goal. 
 
 Through the whole of the present century the villages 
 of the Snakes were at a considerable distance west of the 
 Bighorn Range, and some of them were even on the upper 
 waters of the Pacific slope. It is likely that they were so 
 in 1743, in which case the war-party would not only have 
 reached the Bighorn Mountains, but have pushed farther 
 on to within sight of the great Wind River Range. Be 
 this as it may, their scouts reached the chief winter camp 
 of the Snakes, and found it abandoned, with lodges still 
 standing, and many household possessions left behind. 
 The enemy had discovered their approach, and fled. In- 
 stead of encouraging the allies, this news filled them with 
 terror, for they feared that the Snake warriors might 
 make a circuit to the rear, and fall upon the camp where 
 they had left their women and children. The great chief 
 spent all his eloquence in vain, nobody would listen to 
 him ; and with characteristic fickleness they gave over the 
 enterprise, and retreated in a panic. " Our advance was 
 made in good order, but not so our retreat," says the 
 Chevalier's journal. " Everybody fled his own way. Our 
 horses, though good, were very tired, and got little to 
 
 1 At least this was done by a band of Sioux with whom the writer once 
 traversed a part of the country ranged by these same Snakes, who had 
 lately destroyed an entire Sioux village. 
 
 2 The Bighorn Range, below the snow-line, is in the main well timbered 
 with pine, flr, oak, and juniper.
 
 68 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 eat." The Chevalier was one day riding with his friend, 
 the great chief, when, looking behind him, he missed his 
 two French attendants. Hastening back in alarm, he 
 found them far in the rear, quietly feeding their horses 
 under the shelter of a clump of trees. He had scarcely 
 joined them when he saw a party of fifteen hostile In- 
 dians stealthily creeping forward, covered by their bull- 
 hide shields. He and his men let them approach, and 
 then gave them a few shots ; on which they immediately 
 ran off, firearms being to them an astounding novelty. 
 
 The three Frenchmen now tried to rejoin the great 
 chief and his band, but the task was not easy. The 
 prairie, bare of snow and hard as flint, showed, no trace 
 of foot or hoof ; and it was by rare good fortune that they 
 succeeded, on the second day, not in overtaking the chief, 
 but in reaching the camp where the women and children 
 had been left. They found them all in safety ; the Snakes 
 had not attacked them, and the panic of the warriors was 
 needless. It was the 9th of February. They were scarcely 
 housed when a blizzard set in, and on the night of the 
 10th the plains were buried in snow. The great chief had 
 not appeared. With such of his warriors as he could per- 
 suade to follow him, he had made a wide circuit to find 
 the trail of the lost Frenchmen, but, to his great distress, 
 had completely failed. It was not till five days after the 
 arrival of the Chevalier and his men that the chief 
 reached the camp, " more dead than alive," in the words 
 of the journal. All his hardships were forgotten when he 
 found his white friends safe, for he had given them up for 
 lost. " His sorrow turned to joy, and he could not give 
 us attention and caresses enough." 
 
 The camp broke up, and the allied bands dispersed. 
 The great chief and his followers moved slowly through 
 the snowdrifts towards the east-southeast, accompanied by 
 the Frenchmen. Thus they kept on till the 1st of March,
 
 PARKMAN. 69 
 
 when the two brothers, learning that they were approach- 
 ing the winter village of a people called Gens de la Petite 
 Cerise, or Choke-Cherry Indians, sent one of their men 
 with a guide, to visit them. The man returned in ten 
 days, bringing a message from the Choke-Cherry Indians, 
 inviting the Frenchmen to their lodges. 
 
 The great chief of the Bow Indians, who seems to have 
 regarded his young friends with mingled affection, respect, 
 and wonder, was grieved at the thought of losing them, 
 but took comfort when they promised to visit him again, 
 provided that he would make his abode near a certain 
 river which they pointed out. To this he readily agreed, 
 and then, with mutual regret, they parted. The French- 
 men repaired to the village of the Choke-Cherry Indians, 
 who, like the Bow Indians, were probably a band of Sioux. 
 Hard by their lodges, which stood near the Missouri, the 
 brothers buried a plate of lead graven with the royal arms, 
 and raised a pile of stones in honor of the Governor of 
 Canada. They remained at this place till April ; then, 
 mounting their horses again, followed the Missouri up- 
 ward to the village of the Mandans, which they reached 
 on the 18th of May. After spending a week here, they 
 joined a party of Assinniboins, journeyed with them to- 
 wards Fort La Reine, and reached it on the 2d of July, 
 to the great relief of their father, who was waiting 
 in suspense, having heard nothing of them for more 
 than a year. 
 
 Sixty -two years later, when the vast western regions 
 then called Louisiana had just been ceded to the United 
 States, Captains Lewis and Clark left the Mandan villages 
 with thirty-two men, traced the Missouri to the mountains, 
 penetrated the wastes beyond, and made their way to the 
 Pacific. The first stages of that remarkable exploration 
 were anticipated by the brothers La Vdrendrye. They 
 did not find the Pacific, but they discovered the Rocky
 
 70 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Mountains, or at least the part of them to which the name 
 properly belongs ; for the southern continuation of the 
 great range had long been known to the Spaniards- 
 Their bold adventure was achieved, not at the charge of 
 a government, but at their own cost and that of their 
 father, not with a band of well-equipped men, but with 
 only two followers. 
 
 The fur-trading privilege which was to have been their 
 compensation had proved their ruin. They were still 
 pursued without ceasing by the jealousy of rival traders 
 and the ire of disappointed partners. " Here in Canada 
 more than anywhere else," the Chevalier wrote, some 
 years after his return, " envy is the passion a la mode, 
 and there is no escaping it." It was the story of La Salle 
 repeated. Beauharnois, however, still stood by them, 
 encouraged and defended them, and wrote in their favor 
 to the colonial minister. It was doubtless through his 
 efforts that the elder La Verendrye was at last promoted 
 to a captaincy in the colony troops. Beauharnois was 
 succeeded in the government by the sagacious and able 
 Galissoniere, and he too befriended the explorers. " It 
 seems to me," he wrote to the minister, " that what you 
 have been told touching the Sieur de la Ve'rendrye, to the 
 effect that he has been more busy with his own interests 
 than in making discoveries, is totally false, and, moreover, 
 that any officers employed in such work will always be 
 compelled to give some of their attention to trade, so long 
 as the King allows them no other means of subsistence. 
 These discoveries are very costly, and more fatiguing and 
 dangerous than open war." Two years later, the elder La 
 Ve'rendrye received the cross of the Order of St. Louis, 
 an honor much prized in Canada, but which he did not 
 long enjoy; for he died at Montreal in the following 
 December, when on the point of again setting out for the 
 West.
 
 PARKMAN. 71 
 
 His intrepid sons survived, and they were not idle. 
 One of them, the Chevalier, had before discovered the 
 river Saskatchawan, and ascended it as far as the forks. 
 His intention was to follow it to the mountains, build a 
 fort there, and thence push westward in another search 
 for the Pacific ; but a disastrous event ruined all his 
 hopes. La Galissouiere returned to France, and the Mar- 
 quis de la Jonquiere succeeded him, with the notorious 
 Frangois Bigot as intendant. Both were greedy of money, 
 the one to hoard, and the other to dissipate it. Clearly 
 there was money to be got from the fur-trade of Manitoba, 
 for La V6 rend rye had made every preparation and in- 
 curred every expense. It seemed that nothing remained 
 but to reap where he had sown. His commission to find 
 the Pacific, with the privileges connected with it, was 
 refused to his sons, and conferred on a stranger. La Jon- 
 quiere wrote to the minister : " I have charged M. de 
 Saint-Pierre with this business. He knows these coun- 
 tries better than any officer in all the colony." On the 
 contrary, he had never seen them. It is difficult not to 
 believe that La Jonquiere, Bigot, and Saint-Pierre were 
 partners in a speculation of which all three were to share 
 the profits. 
 
 The elder La VeVendrye, not long before his death, had 
 sent a large quantity of goods to his trading-forts. The 
 brothers begged leave to return thither and save their 
 property from destruction. They declared themselves 
 happy to serve under the orders of Saint-Pierre, and asked 
 for the use of only a single fort of all those which their 
 father had built at his own cost. The answer was a flat 
 refusal. In short, they were shamefully robbed. The 
 Chevalier writes : " M. le Marquis de la Jonqniere, being 
 pushed hard, and as I thought even touched, by my repre- 
 sentations, told me at last that M. de Saint-Pierre wanted 
 nothing to do with me or my brothers." " I am a ruined
 
 72 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 man," he continues. " I am more than two thousand 
 livres in debt, and am still only a second ensign. My 
 elder brother's grade is no better than mine. My younger 
 brother is only a cadet. This is the fruit of all that my 
 father, my brothers, and I have done. My other brother, 
 whom the Sioux murdered some years ago, was not the 
 most unfortunate among us. We must lose all that has 
 cost us so much, unless M. de Saint-Pierre should take 
 juster views, and prevail on the Marquis de la Jouquiere 
 to share them. To be thus shut out from the West is to 
 be most cruelly robbed of a sort of inheritance which we 
 had all the pains of acquiring, and of which others will 
 get all the profit." 
 
 . His elder brother writes in a similar strain : " We spent 
 our youth and our property in building up establishments 
 so advantageous to Canada ; and after all, we were doomed 
 to see a stranger gather the fruit we had taken such pains 
 to plant." And he complains that their goods left in the 
 trading-posts were wasted, their provisions consumed, and 
 the men in their pay used to do the work of others. 
 
 They got no redress. Saint-Pierre, backed by the Gov- 
 ernor and the Intendant, remained master of the position. 
 The brothers sold a small piece of land, their last remain- 
 ing property, to appease their most pressing creditors. 
 
 Saint-Pierre set out for Manitoba on the 5th of June, 
 1750. Though he had lived more or less in the woods for 
 thirty-six years, and though La Jonquiere had told the 
 minister that he knew the countries to which he was 
 bound better than anybody else, it is clear from his own 
 journal that he was now visiting them for the first time. 
 They did not please him. " I was told," he says, " that 
 the way would grow harder and more dangerous as we 
 advanced, and I found, in fact, that one must risk life and 
 property every moment." Finding himself and his men 
 likely to starve, he sent some of them, under an ensign
 
 PARKMAN. 73 
 
 named Niverville, to the Saskatchawan. They could not 
 reach it, and nearly perished on the way. " I myself was 
 no more fortunate," says Saint-Pierre. " Food was so 
 scarce that I sent some of my people into the woods 
 among the Indians, which did not save me from a fast 
 so rigorous that it deranged my health and put it out of 
 my power to do anything towards accomplishing my mis- 
 sion. Even if I had had strength enough, the war that 
 broke out among the Indians would have made it impos- 
 sible to proceed." 
 
 Niverville, after a winter of misery, tried to fulfil an 
 order which he had received from his commander. When 
 the Indians guided the two brothers La Verendrye to the 
 Rocky Mountains, the course they took tended so far 
 southward that the Chevalier greatly feared it might lead 
 to Spanish settlements ; and he gave it as his opinion that 
 the next attempt to find the Pacific should be made farther 
 towards the north. Saint-Pierre had agreed with him, 
 and had directed Niverville to build a fort on the Sas- 
 katchawan three hundred leagues above its mouth. 
 Therefore, at the end of May, 1751, Niverville sent ten 
 men in two canoes on this errand, and they ascended the 
 Saskatchawan to what Saint-Pierre calls the " Rock Moun- 
 tain." Here they built a small stockade fort and called it 
 Fort La Jonquiere. Niverville was to have followed them; 
 but he fell ill, and lay helpless at the mouth of the river 
 in such a condition that he could not even write to his 
 commander. 
 
 Saint-Pierre set out in person from Fort La Reine for 
 Fort La Jonquiere, over ice and snow, for it was late in 
 November. Two Frenchmen from Niverville met him on 
 the way, and reported that the Assinniboins had slaugh- 
 tered an entire band of friendly Indians on whom Saint- 
 Pierre had relied to guide him. On hearing this he gave 
 up the enterprise, and returned to Fort La Reine. Here
 
 74 LEAFLETS FEOM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 the Indians told him idle stories about white men and 
 a fort in some remote place towards the west; but, he 
 observes, "nobody could reach it without encountering 
 an infinity of tribes more savage than it is possible to 
 imagine." 
 
 He spent most of the winter at Fort La Reine. Here, 
 vtowards the end of February, 1752, he had with him only 
 five men, having sent out the rest in search of food. Sud- 
 denly, as he sat in his chamber, he saw the fort full of 
 armed Assinniboins, extremely noisy and insolent. He 
 tried in vain to quiet them, and they presently broke into 
 the guard-house and seized the arms. A massacre would 
 have followed, had not Saint-Pierre, who was far from 
 wanting courage, resorted to an expedient which has 
 more than once proved effective on such occasions. He 
 knocked out the heads of two barrels of gunpowder, 
 snatched a firebrand, and told the yelping crowd that he 
 would blow up them and himself together. At this they 
 all rushed in fright out of the gate, while Saint-Pierre ran 
 after them and bolted it fast. There was great anxiety 
 for the hunters, but they all came back in the evening, 
 without having met the enemy. The men, however, were 
 so terrified by the adventure that Saint-Pierre was com- 
 pelled to abandon the fort, after recommending it to the 
 care of another band of Assinniboins, who had professed 
 great friendship. Four days after he was gone they 
 burned it to the ground. 
 
 He soon came to the conclusion that farther discovery 
 was impossible, because the English of Hudson Bay had 
 stirred up the Western tribes to oppose it. Therefore he 
 set out for the settlements, and, reaching Quebec in the 
 autumn of 1753, placed the journal of his futile enterprise 
 in the hands of Duquesne, the new governor. 
 
 Canada was approaching her last agony. In the death- 
 struggle of the Seven Years' War there was no time for
 
 PARKMAN. 75 
 
 schemes of Western discovery. The brothers La Ve"ren- 
 drye sank into poverty and neglect. A little before the 
 war broke out, we find the eldest at the obscure Acadian 
 post of Beause"jour, where he wrote to the colonial min- 
 ister a statement of his services, which appears to have 
 received no attention. After the fall of Canada, the Che- 
 valier de la Vdrendrye, he whose eyes first beheld the 
 snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains, perished in the 
 wreck of the ship " Auguste," on the coast of Cape Breton, 
 in November, 1761. From "A Half Century of Conflict" 
 vol. ii. chap._xvL_
 
 MONTCALM. 
 
 A<;KI> 29.
 
 THE POKTRAIT OF WOLFE. 
 
 r I ""HE portrait of Wolfe in the present edition of this 
 book was never before made known to the public. 
 The picture from which it is taken was painted from life 
 by Highmore, an English artist well known in the last 
 century. When Wolfe, then a mere boy, received his 
 first commission and was about to join the army, he 
 caused his likeness to be painted in uniform, and gave 
 it, as a token of attachment, to Reverend Samuel Francis 
 Swinden, Vicar of Greenwich, whose pupil he had been, 
 and whose friend he remained for life. The descendants 
 of this gentleman still possess it ; and it is to their kind- 
 ness, and especially to that of his great-great-grand- 
 daughter, Miss Florence Armstrong, that I owe the 
 photograph which is here reproduced. It is believed 
 that Wolfe never again sat for his portrait. After his 
 death his mother caused a miniature to be taken from 
 the Highmore picture, and from this several enlarged 
 copies were afterwards made. 
 
 The portrait in possession of Admiral Warde, hitherto 
 supposed to be an original, now seems to be one of these 
 copies. It appeared first in Wright's "Life of Wolfe," 
 and is the same that was engraved for the early editions 
 of " Montcalm and Wolfe." The existence of the present 
 more trustworthy and interesting picture has been known 
 to few besides its fortunate possessors. From " Montcalm 
 and Wolfe" vol. ii.
 
 J 
 
 WOLFE. 
 AGED 32.
 
 THE HEIGHTS OF ABKAHAM. 
 
 WOLFE'S first move towards executing his plan was 
 the critical one of evacuating the camp at Mont- 
 morenci. This was accomplished on the third of Septem- 
 ber. Montcalm sent a strong force to fall on the rear 
 of the retiring English. Monckton saw the movement 
 from Point Levi, embarked two battalions in the boats 
 of the fleet, and made a feint of landing at Beauport. 
 Montcalm recalled his troops to repulse the threatened 
 attack ; and the English withdrew from Montmorenci 
 unmolested, some to the Point of Orleans, others to Point 
 Levi. On the night of the fourth a fleet of flat-boats 
 passed above the town with the baggage and stores. On 
 the fifth, Murray, with four battalions, marched up to 
 the River Etechemin, and forded it under a hot fire from 
 the French batteries at Sillery. Monckton and Towns- 
 hend followed with three more battalions, and the united 
 force, of about thirty-six hundred men, was embarked on 
 board the ships of Holmes, where Wolfe joined them on 
 the same evening. 
 
 These movements of the English filled the French com- 
 manders with mingled perplexity, anxiety, and hope. 
 A deserter told them that Admiral Saunders was impa- 
 tient to be gone. Vaudreuil grew confident. " The 
 breaking up of the camp at Montmorenci," he says, " and 
 the abandonment of the intrenchments there, the reim- 
 barkation on board the vessels above Quebec of the troops
 
 80 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 who had encamped on the south bank, the movements of 
 these vessels, the removal of the heaviest pieces of artil- 
 lery from the batteries of Point Levi, these and the 
 lateness of the season all combined to announce the 
 speedy departure of the fleet, several vessels of which 
 had even sailed down the river already. The prisoners 
 and the deserters who daily came in told us that this was 
 the common report in their army." He wrote to Bourla- 
 maque on the first of September : " Everything proves 
 that the grand design of the English has failed." 
 
 Yet he was ceaselessly watchful. So was Montcalm ; 
 and he, too, on the night of the second, snatched a mo- 
 ment to write to Bourlamaque from his headquarters in 
 the stone house, by the river of Beauport : " The night is 
 dark ; it rains ; our troops are in. their tents, with clothes 
 on, ready for an alarm ; I in my boots ; my horses saddled. 
 In fact, this is my usual way. I wish you were here ; 
 for I cannot be everywhere, though I multiply myself, 
 and have not taken off my clothes since the twenty-third 
 of June." On the eleventh of September he wrote his 
 last letter to Bourlamaque, and probably the last that his 
 pen ever traced. " I am overwhelmed with work, and 
 should often lose temper, like you, if I did not remember 
 that I am paid by Europe for not losing it. Nothing new 
 since my last. I give the enemy another month, or 
 something less, to stay here." The more sanguine Vau- 
 dreuil would hardly give them a week. 
 
 Meanwhile, no precaution was spared. The force under 
 Bougainville above Quebec was raised to three thousand 
 men. He was ordered to watch the shore as far as 
 Jacques-Cartier, and follow with his main body every 
 movement of Holmes's squadron. There was little fear 
 for the heights near the town ; they were thought inacces- 
 sible. Even Montcalm believed them safe, and had ex- 
 pressed himself to that effect some time before. " We
 
 PARKMAN. 81 
 
 need not suppose," he wrote to Vaudreuil, " that the 
 enemy have wings ; " and again, speaking of the very 
 place where Wolfe afterwards landed, " I swear to you 
 that a hundred men posted there would stop their whole 
 army." He was right. A hundred watchful and deter- 
 mined men could have held the position long enough for 
 reinforcements to come up. 
 
 The hundred men were there. Captain de Vergor, of 
 the colony troops, commanded them, and reinforcements 
 were within his call ; for the battalion of Guienne had 
 been ordered to encamp close at hand on the Plains of 
 Abraham. Vergor's post, called Ause du Foulon, was 
 a mile and a half from Quebec. A little beyond it, by 
 the brink of the cliffs, was another post, called Sanios, 
 held by seventy men with four cannon ; and, beyond this 
 again, the heights of Sillery were guarded by a hundred 
 and thirty men, also with cannon. These were outposts 
 of Bougainville, whose headquarters were at Cap-Rouge, 
 six miles above Sillery, and whose troops were in con- 
 tinual movement along the intervening shore. Thus all 
 was vigilance ; for while the French were strong in the hope 
 of speedy delivery, they felt that there was no safety till 
 the tents of the invader had vanished from their shores 
 and his ships from their river. " What we knew," says 
 one of them, " of the character of M. Wolfe, that impetu- 
 ous, bold, and intrepid warrior, prepared us for a last 
 attack before he left us." 
 
 Wolfe had been very ill on the evening of the fourth. 
 The troops knew it, and their spirits sank ; but, after a 
 night of torment, he grew better, and was soon among 
 them again, rekindling their ardor, and imparting a cheer 
 that he could not share. For himself he had no pity ; 
 but when he heard of the illness of two officers in one 
 of the ships, he sent them a message of warm sympathy, 
 advised them to return to Point Levi, and offered them 
 
 fi
 
 82 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 his own barge and an escort. They thanked him, but 
 replied that, come what might, they would see the enter- 
 prise to an end. Another officer remarked in his hearing 
 that one of the invalids had a very delicate constitution. 
 "Don't tell me of constitution," said Wolfe; "he has 
 good spirit, and good spirit will carry a man through 
 everything." An immense moral force bore up his own 
 frail body and forced it to its work. 
 
 Major Robert Stobo, who, five years before, had been 
 given as a hostage to the French at the capture of Fort 
 Necessity, arrived about this time in a vessel from Hali- 
 fax. He had long been a prisoner at Quebec, not always 
 in close custody, and had used his opportunities to ac- 
 quaint himself with the neighborhood. In the spring of 
 this year he and an officer of rangers named Stevens had 
 made their escape with extraordinary skill and daring; 
 and he now returned to give his countrymen the benefit 
 of his local knowledge. His biographer says that it was 
 he who directed Wolfe in the choice of a landing-place. 
 Be this as it may, Wolfe in person examined the river 
 and the shores as far as Pointe-aux-Trembles ; till at 
 length, landing on the south side a little above Quebec, 
 and looking across the water with a telescope, he de- 
 scried a path that ran with a long slope up the face of 
 the woody precipice, and saw at the top a cluster of tents. 
 They were those of Vergor's guard at the Anse duFoulon, 
 now called Wolfe's Cove. As he could see but ten or 
 twelve of them, he thought that the guard could not be 
 numerous, and might be overpowered. His hope would 
 have been stronger if he had known that Vergor had once 
 been tried for misconduct and cowardice in the surrender 
 of Beausdjour, and saved from merited disgrace by the 
 friendship of Bigot and the protection of Vaudreuil. 
 
 The morning of the seventh was fair and warm, and 
 the vessels of Holmes, their crowded decks gay with
 
 PARKMAN. 83 
 
 scarlet uniforms, sailed up the river to Cap-Rouge. A 
 lively scene awaited them ; for here were the headquarters 
 of Bougainville, and here lay his principal force, while 
 the rest watched the banks above and below. The cove 
 into which the little river runs was guarded by floating 
 batteries ; the surrounding shore was defended by breast- 
 works ; and a large body of regulars, militia, and mounted 
 Canadians in blue uniforms moved to and fro, with rest- 
 less activity, on the hills behind. When the vessels came 
 to anchor, the horsemen dismounted and formed in line 
 with the infantry ; then, with loud shouts, the whole 
 rushed down the heights to man their works at the shore. 
 That true Briton, Captain Knox, looked on with a critical 
 eye from the gangway of his ship, and wrote that night 
 in his Diary that they had made a ridiculous noise. 
 "How different!" he exclaims, "how nobly awful and 
 expressive of true valor is the customary silence of the 
 British troops ! " 
 
 In the afternoon the ships opened fire, while the troops 
 entered the boats and rowed up and down as if looking 
 for a landing-place. It was but a feint of Wolfe to de- 
 ceive Bougainville as to his real design. A heavy east- 
 erly rain set in on the next morning, and lasted two days 
 without respite. All operations were suspended, and the 
 men suffered greatly in the crowded transports. Half of 
 them were therefore landed on the south shore, where 
 they made their quarters in the village of St. Nicolas, 
 refreshed themselves, and dried their wet clothing, knap- 
 sacks, and blankets. 
 
 For several successive days the squadron of Holmes 
 was allowed to drift up the river with the flood tide and 
 down with the ebb, thus passing and repassing incessantly 
 between the neighborhood of Quebec on one hand, and a 
 point high above Cap-Rouge on the other ; while Bougain- 
 ville, perplexed, and always expecting an attack, followed
 
 84 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 the ships to and fro along the shore, by day and by 
 night, till his men were exhausted with ceaseless forced 
 marches. 
 
 At last the time for action came. On Wednesday, the 
 twelfth, the troops at St. Nicolas were embarked again, 
 and all were told to hold themselves in readiness. Wolfe, 
 from the flagship " Sutherland," issued his last general 
 orders. " The enemy's force is now divided, great scar- 
 city of provisions in their camp, and universal discontent 
 among the Canadians. Our troops below are in readiness 
 to join us ; all the light artillery and tools are embarked 
 at the Point of Levi ; and the troops will land where the 
 French seem least to expect it. The first body that gets 
 on shore is to march directly to the enemy and drive 
 them from any little post they may occupy ; the officers 
 must be careful that the succeeding bodies do not by any 
 mistake fire on those who go before them. The battalions 
 must form on the upper ground with expedition, and be 
 ready to charge whatever presents itself. When the 
 artillery and troops are landed, a corps will be left to 
 secure the landing-place, while the rest march on and 
 endeavor to bring the Canadians and French to a battle. 
 The officers and men will remember what their country 
 expects from them, and what a determined body of sol- 
 diers inured to war is capable of doing against five weak 
 French battalions mingled with a disorderly peasantry." 
 
 The spirit of the army answered to that of its chief. 
 The troops loved and admired their general, trusted their 
 officers, and were ready for any attempt. " Nay, how 
 could it be otherwise," quaintly asks honest Sergeant 
 John Johnson, of the fifty-eighth regiment, " being at 
 the heels of gentlemen whose whole thirst, equal with 
 their general, was for glory ? We had seen them tried, 
 and always found them sterling. We knew that they 
 would stand by us to the last extremity."
 
 PARKMAN. 85 
 
 Wolfe had thirty-six hundred men and officers with 
 him on board the vessels of Holmes ; and he now sent 
 orders to Colonel Burton at Point Levi to bring to his 
 aid all who could be spared from that place and the 
 Point of Orleans. They were to march along the south 
 bank, after nightfall, and wait further orders at a desig- 
 nated spot convenient for embarkation. Their number 
 was about twelve hundred, so that the entire force des- 
 tined for the enterprise was at the utmost forty-eight 
 hundred. With these, Wolfe meant to climb the heights 
 of Abraham in the teeth of an enemy who, though much 
 reduced, were still twice as numerous as their assailants. 1 
 
 Admiral Saunders lay with the main fleet in the Basin 
 of Quebec. This excellent officer, whatever may have 
 been his views as to the necessity of a speedy departure, 
 aided Wolfe to the last with unfailing energy and zeal. 
 It was agreed between them that while the General made 
 the real attack, the Admiral should engage Montcalm's 
 attention by a pretended one. As night approached, the 
 fleet ranged itself along the Beauport shore ; the boats 
 were lowered and filled with sailors, marines, and the 
 few troops that had been left behind ; while ship signalled 
 to ship, cannon flashed and thundered, and shot ploughed 
 the beach, as if to clear a way for assailants to land. In 
 the gloom of the evening the effect was imposing. Mont- 
 cairn, who thought that the movements of the English 
 above the town were only a feint, that their main force 
 was still below it, and that their real attack would be 
 made there, was completely deceived, and massed his 
 
 1 Including Bougainville's command. An escaped prisoner told Wolfe, 
 a few days before, that Montcalm still had fourteen thousand men. 
 Journal of an Expedition on (he River St. Lawrence. This meant only 
 those in the town and the camps of Beauport. " I don't believe their 
 whole army amounts to that number," wrote Wolfe to Colonel Burton on 
 the tenth. He knew, however, that if Montcalm could bring all his 
 troops together, the French would outnumber him more than two to one.
 
 86 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 troops in front of Beauport to repel the expected landing. 
 But while in the fleet of Saunders all was uproar and 
 ostentatious menace, the danger was ten miles away, 
 where the squadron of Holmes lay tranquil and silent at 
 its anchorage off Cap-Rouge. 
 
 It was less tranquil than it seemed. All on board 
 knew that a blow would be struck that night, though only 
 a few high officers knew where. Colonel Howe, of the 
 light infantry, called for volunteers to lead the unknown 
 and desperate venture, promising, in the words of one 
 of them, " that if any of us survived we might depend 
 on being recommended to the General." As many as 
 were wanted twenty-four in all soon came forward. 
 Thirty large bateaux and some boats belonging to the 
 squadron lay moored alongside the vessels ; and late in 
 the evening the troops were ordered into them, the 
 twenty-four volunteers taking their place in the foremost. 
 They held in all about seventeen hundred men. The rest 
 remained on board. 
 
 Bougainville could discern the movement, and mis- 
 judged it, thinking that he himself was to be attacked. 
 The tide was still flowing ; and, the better to deceive 
 him, the vessels and boats were allowed to drift up- 
 ward with it for a little distance, as if to land above 
 Cap-Rouge. 
 
 The day had been fortunate for Wolfe. Two deserters 
 came from the camp of Bougainville with intelligence 
 that, at ebb tide on the next night, he was to send down 
 a convoy of provisions to Montcalm. The necessities of 
 the camp at Beauport, and the difficulties of transporta- 
 tion by land, had before compelled the French to resort 
 to this perilous means of conveying supplies ; and their 
 boats, drifting in darkness under the shadows of the 
 northern shore, had commonly passed in safety. Wolfe 
 saw at once that, if his own boats went down in advance
 
 PARKMAN. 87 
 
 of the convoy, he could turn the intelligence of the 
 deserters to good account. 
 
 "* He was still on board the " Sutherland." Every pre- 
 paration was made, and every order given ; it only 
 remained to wait the turning of the tide. Seated with 
 him in the cabin was the commander of the sloop-of- 
 war " Porcupine," his former schoolfellow, John Jervis, 
 afterwards Earl St. Vincent. Wolfe told him that he 
 expected to die in the battle of the next day ; and tak- 
 ing from his bosom a miniature of Miss Lowther, his 
 betrothed, he gave it to him with a request that he 
 would return it to her if the presentiment should 
 prove true. 
 
 Towards two o'clock the tide began to ebb, and a 
 fresh wind blew down the river. Two lanterns were 
 raised into the maintop shrouds of the " Sutherland." 
 It was the appointed signal ; the boats cast off and 
 fell down with the current, those of the light infantry 
 leading the way. The vessels with the rest of the 
 troops had orders to follow a little later. 
 "*" To look for a moment at the chances on which this 
 bold adventure hung. First, the deserters told Wolfe 
 that provision-boats were ordered to go down to Quebec 
 that night ; secondly, Bougainville countermanded them ; 
 thirdly, the sentries posted along the heights were told 
 of the order, but not of the countermand ; fourthly, 
 Vergor at the Anse du Foulon had permitted most of 
 his men, chiefly Canadians from Lorette, to go home for 
 a time and work at their harvesting, on condition, it is 
 said, that they should afterwards work in a neighboring 
 field of his own ; fifthly, he kept careless watch, and went 
 quietly to bed ; sixthly, the battalion of Guienne, ordered 
 to take post on the Plains of Abraham, had, for reasons 
 unexplained, remained encamped by the St. Charles ; 
 and lastly, when Bougainville saw Holmes's vessels drift
 
 88 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 down the stream, he did not tax his weary troops to fol- 
 low them, thinking that they would return as usual with 
 the flood tide. But for these conspiring circumstances 
 New France might have lived a little longer, and the 
 fruitless heroism of Wolfe would have passed, with 
 countless other heroisms, into oblivion. 
 4 For full two hours the procession of boats, borne on 
 the current, steered silently down the St. Lawrence. The 
 stars were visible, but the night was moonless and suffi- 
 ciently dark. The General was in one of the foremost 
 boats, and near him was a young midshipman, John 
 Robison, afterwards professor of natural philosophy in 
 the University of Edinburgh. He used to tell in his 
 later life how Wolfe, with a low voice, repeated Gray's 
 Elegy in a Country Churchyard to the officers about 
 him. Probably it was to relieve the intense strain of his 
 thoughts. Among the rest was the verse which his own 
 fate was soon to illustrate, 
 
 " The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 
 
 " Gentlemen," he said, as his recital ended, " I would 
 rather have written those lines than take Quebec." None 
 were there to tell him that the hero is greater than the 
 poet. 
 
 As they neared their destination, the tide bore them in 
 towards the shore, and the mighty wall of rock and forest 
 towered in darkness on their left. The dead stillness was 
 suddenly broken by the sharp Qui vive ! of a French sen- 
 try, invisible in the thick gloom. France! answered a 
 Highland officer of Fraser's regiment from one of the boats 
 of the light infantry. He had served in Holland, and spoke 
 French fluently. 
 
 A quel rfyiment ? 
 
 De la Heine, replied the Highlander. He knew that 
 a part of that corps was with Bougainville. The sentry,
 
 PARKMAN. 89 
 
 expecting the convoy of provisions, was satisfied, and did 
 not ask for the password. 
 
 Soon after, the foremost boats were passing the heights 
 of Samos, when another sentry challenged them, and they 
 could see him through the darkness running down to the 
 edge of the water, within range of a pistol-shot. In an- 
 swer to his questions, the same officer replied, in French : 
 ** Provision-boats. Don't make a noise ; the English will 
 hear us." In fact, the sloop-of-war "Hunter" was an- 
 chored in the stream not far off. This time, again, the 
 sentry let them pass. In a few moments they rounded 
 the headland above the Anse du Foulon. There was no 
 sentry there. The strong current swept the boats of the 
 light infantry a little below the intended landing-place. 
 They disembarked on a narrow strand at the foot of 
 heights as steep as a hill covered with trees can be. The 
 twenty-four volunteers led the way, climbing with what 
 silence they might, closely followed by a much larger 
 body. When they reached the top they saw in the dim 
 light a cluster of tents at a short distance, and immediately 
 made a dash at them. Vergor leaped from bed and tried 
 to run off, but was shot in the heel and captured. His 
 men, taken by surprise, made little resistance. One or 
 two were caught, and the rest fled. 
 
 The main body of troops waited in their boats by the 
 edge of the strand. The heights near by were cleft by a 
 great ravine choked with forest trees ; and in its depths 
 ran a little brook called Ruisseau St.-Denis, which, swollen 
 by the late rains, fell plashing in the stillness over a rock. 
 Other than this no sound could reach the strained ear of 
 Wolfe but the gurgle of the tide and the cautious climb- 
 ing of his advance-parties as they mounted the steeps at 
 some little distance from where he sat listening. At 
 length from the top came a sound of musket-shots, fol- 
 lowed by loud huzzas, and he knew that his men were
 
 90 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 masters of the position. The word was given ; the troops 
 leaped from the boats and scaled the heights, some here, 
 some there, clutching at trees and bushes, their muskets 
 slung at their backs. Tradition still points out the place, 
 near the mouth of the ravine, where the foremost reached 
 the top. Wolfe said to an officer near him : " You can 
 try it, but I don't think you '11 get up." He himself, how- 
 ever, found strength to drag himself up with the rest. 
 The narrow slanting path on the face of the heights had 
 been made impassable by trenches and abattis ; but all 
 obstructions were soon cleared away, and then the ascent 
 was easy. In the gray of the morning the long file of 
 red-coated soldiers moved quickly upward, and formed in 
 order on the plateau above. 
 
 . Before many of them had reached the top, cannon were 
 heard close on the left. It was the battery at Sainos fir- 
 ing on the boats in the rear and the vessels descending 
 from Cap-Rouge. A party was sent to silence it ; this was 
 soon effected, and the more distant battery at Sillery was 
 next attacked and taken. As fast as the boats were emp- 
 tied they returned for the troops left on board the vessels 
 and for those waiting on the southern shore under Colonel 
 Burton. 
 
 The day broke in clouds and threatening rain. Wolfe's 
 battalions were drawn up along the crest of the heights, j 
 No enemy was in sight, though a body of Canadians had 
 sallied from the town and moved along the strand towards 
 the landing-place, whence they were quickly driven back. 
 He had achieved the most critical part of his enterprise ; 
 yet the success that he coveted placed him in imminent 
 danger. On one side was the garrison of Quebec and the 
 army of Beauport, and Bougainville was on the other. 
 Wolfe's alternative was victory or ruin ; for if he should 
 be overwhelmed by a combined attack, retreat would be 
 hopeless. His feelings no man can know ; but it would
 
 PARKMAN. 91 
 
 be safe to say that hesitation or doubt had no part in 
 them. 
 
 He went to reconnoitre the ground, and soon came to 
 the Plains of Abraham, so called from Abraham Martin, 
 a pilot known as Maitre Abraham, who had owned a piece 
 of land here in the early times of the colony. The Plains 
 were a tract of grass, tolerably level in most parts, patched 
 here and there with cornfields, studded with clumps of 
 bushes, and forming a part of the high plateau at the 
 eastern end of which Quebec stood. On the south it was 
 bounded by the declivities along the St. Lawrence ; on 
 the north, by those along the St. Charles, or rather along 
 the meadows through which that lazy stream crawled 
 like a writhing snake. At the place that Wolfe chose for 
 his battle-field the plateau was less than a mile wide. 
 
 Thither the troops advanced, marched by files till they 
 reached the ground, and then wheeled to form their line 
 of battle, which stretched across the plateau and faced 
 the city. It consisted of six battalions and the detached 
 grenadiers from Louisbourg, all drawn up in ranks three 
 deep. Its right wing was near the brink of the heights 
 along the St. Lawrence ; but the left could not reach 
 those along the St. Charles. On this side a wide space 
 was perforce left open, and there was danger of being 
 outflanked. To prevent this, Brigadier Townshend w;is 
 stationed here with two battalions, drawn up at right 
 angles with the rest, and fronting the St. Charles. The 
 battalion of Webb's regiment, under Colonel Burton, 
 formed the reserve ; the third battalion of Royal Ameri- 
 cans was left to guard the landing; and Howe's light 
 infantry occupied a wood far in the rear. Wolfe, with 
 Monckton and Murray, commanded the front line, on 
 which the heavy fighting was to fall, and which, when 
 all the troops had arrived, numbered less than thirty- 
 five hundred men.
 
 92 LEAFLETS PROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Quebec was not a mile distant, but they could not see 
 it ; for a ridge of broken ground intervened, called Buttes- 
 a-Neveu, about six hundred paces off. The first division 
 of troops had scarcely come up when, about six o'clock, 
 this ridge was suddenly thronged with white uniforms. 
 It was the battalion of Guienne, arrived at the eleventh 
 hour from its camp by the St. Charles. Some time after 
 there was hot firing in the rear. It came from a detach- 
 ment of Bougainville's command attacking a house where 
 some of the light infantry were posted. The assailants 
 were repulsed, and the firing ceased. Light showers fell 
 at intervals, besprinkling the troops as they stood patiently 
 waiting the event. 
 
 Montcalm had passed a troubled night. > Through all 
 the evening the cannon bellowed from the ships of Saun- 
 ders, and the boats of the fleet hovered in the dusk off 
 the Beauport shore, threatening every moment to land. 
 Troops lined the intrenchments till day, while ithe Gen- 
 eral walked the field that adjoined his headquarters till 
 one in the morning, Accompanied by the Chevalier John- 
 stone and Colonel Poulariez. (Johnstone says that he was 
 in great agitation, and took no rest all night. At day- 
 break he heard the sound of cannon above the town. It 
 was the battery at Samos firing on the English ships. He 
 had sent an officer to the quarters of Vaudreuil, which 
 were much nearer Quebec, with orders to bring him word 
 at once should anything unusual happen. But no word 
 came, and about six o'clock he mounted and rode thither 
 with Johnstone. As they advanced, the country behind 
 the town opened more and more upon their sight ; till at 
 length, when opposite Vaudreuil's house, they saw across 
 the St. Charles, some two miles away, the red ranks of 
 British soldiers on the heights beyond. 
 
 " This is a serious business," Montcalm said ; and sent 
 off Johnstone at full gallop to bring up the troops from
 
 PARKMAN. 93 
 
 the centre and left of the camp. Those of the right were 
 in motion already, doubtless by the Governor's order. 
 Vaudreuil came out of the house. Montcalm stopped for 
 a few words with him ; then set spurs to his horse, and 
 rode over the bridge of the St. Charles to the scene 
 of danger. He rode with a fixed look, uttering not a 
 word. 
 
 The army followed in such order as it might, crossed 
 the bridge in hot haste, passed under the northern ram- 
 part of Quebec, entered at the Palace Gate, and pressed 
 on in headlong march along the quaint narrow streets of 
 the warlike town : troops of Indians in scalplocks and 
 war-paint, a savage glitter in their deep-set eyes ; bands 
 of Canadians whose all was at stak3, faith, country, and 
 home ; the colony regulars ; the battalions of Old France, 
 a torrent of white uniforms and gleaming bayonets, La 
 Sarre, Languedoc, Roussillon, Be'arn, victors of Oswego, 
 William Henry, and Ticonderoga. So they swept on, 
 poured out upon the plain, some by the gate of St. 
 Louis, and some by that of St. John, and hurried, breath- 
 less, to where the banners of Guienne still fluttered on 
 the ridge. 
 
 Montcalm was amazed at what he saw. He had ex- 
 pected a detachment, and he found an army. Full in 
 sight before him stretched the lines of Wolfe : the close 
 ranks of the English infantry, a silent wall of red, and 
 the wild array of the Highlanders, with their waving tar- 
 tans, and bagpipes screaming defiance. ^Vaudreuil had 
 not come ; but not the less was felt the evil of a divided 
 authority and the jealousy of the rival chiefs. Montcalm 
 waited long for the forces he had ordered to join him from 
 the left wing of the army. Ho waited in vain. It is said 
 that the Governor had detained them, lest the English 
 should attack the Beauport shore. Even if they did so, 
 and succeeded, the French might defy them, could they
 
 94 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 but put Wolfe to rout on the Plains of Abraham. Neither 
 did the garrison of Quebec come to the aid of Montcalm. 
 He sent to Ramesay, its commander, for twenty-five field- 
 pieces which were on the Palace battery. Ramesay would 
 give him only three, saying that he wanted them for his 
 own defence. There were orders and counter-orders ; 
 misunderstanding, haste, delay, perplexity. 
 
 Montcalm and his chief officers held a council of war. 
 It is said that he and they alike were for immediate attack. 
 His enemies declare that he was afraid lest Yaudreuil 
 should arrive and take command ; but the Governor was 
 not a man to assume responsibility at such a crisis. 
 Others say that his impetuosity overcame his better judg- 
 ment ; and of this charge it is hard to acquit him. Bou- 
 gainville was but a few miles distant, and some of his 
 troops were much nearer; a messenger sent by way of 
 Old Lorette could have reached him in an hour and a half 
 at most, and a combined attack in front and rear might 
 have been concerted with him. If, moreover, Montcalm 
 could have come to an understanding with Vaudreuil, his 
 own force might have been strengthened by two or three 
 thousand additional men from the town and the camp of 
 Beauport ; but he felt that there was no time to lose, for 
 he imagined that Wolfe would soon be reinforced, which 
 was impossible, and he believed that the English were 
 fortifying themselves, which was no less an error. He 
 has been blamed, not only for fighting too soon, but for 
 fighting at all. In this he could not choose. Fight he 
 must, for Wolfe was now in a position to cut off all his 
 supplies. His men were full of ardor, and he resolved to 
 attack before their ardor cooled. He spoke a few words 
 to them in his keen, vehement way. " I remember very 
 well how he looked," one of the Canadians, then a boy of 
 eighteen, used to say in his old age ; " he rode a black or 
 dark bay horse along the front of our lines, brandishing
 
 PAEKMAN. 95 
 
 his sword, as if to excite us to do our duty. He wore a 
 coat with wide sleeves, which fell back as he raised his 
 arm, and showed the white linen of the wristband." 
 
 The English waited the result with a composure which, 
 if not quite real, was at least well feigned. The three 
 field-pieces sent by Ramesay plied them with canister- 
 shot, and fifteen hundred Canadians and Indians fusil- 
 laded them in front and flank. Over all the plain, from 
 behind bushes and knolls and the edge of cornfields, puffs 
 of smoke sprang incessantly from the guns of these hid- 
 den marksmen. Skirmishers were thrown out before the 
 lines to hold them in check, and the soldiers were ordered 
 to lie on the grass to avoid the shot. The firing was 
 liveliest on the English left, where bands of sharpshooters 
 got under the edge of the declivity, among thickets 
 and behind scattered houses, whence they killed and 
 wounded a considerable number of Townshend's men. 
 The light infantry were called up from the rear. The 
 houses were taken and retaken, and one or more of them 
 was burned. 
 
 v Wolfe was everywhere. How cool he was, and why his 
 followers loved him, is shown by an incident that hap- 
 pened in the course of the morning. One of his captains 
 was shot through the lungs ; and on recovering conscious- 
 ness he saw the General standing at his side. Wolfe 
 pressed his hand, told him not to despair, praised his 
 services, promised him early promotion, and sent an aide- 
 de-camp to Monckton to beg that officer to keep the prom- 
 ise if he himself should fall. 
 
 It was towards ten o'clock when, from the high ground 
 on the right of the line, Wolfe saw that the crisis was 
 near. *The French on the ridge had formed themselves 
 into three bodies, regulars in the centre, regulars and 
 Canadians on right and left. Two field-pieces, which had 
 been dragged up the heights at Anse du Foulon, fired on
 
 96 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 them with grape-shot, and the troops, rising from the 
 ground, prepared to receive them. In a few moments 
 more they were in motion. They came on rapidly, utter- 
 ing loud shouts, and firing as soon as they were within 
 range. Their ranks, ill ordered at the best, were further 
 confused by a number of Canadians who had been mixed 
 among the regulars, and who, after hastily firing, threw 
 themselves on the ground to reload. The British ad- 
 vanced a few rods ; then halted and stood still. When 
 the French were within forty paces the word of command 
 rang out, and a crash of musketry answered all along the 
 line. The volley was delivered with remarkable precision. 
 In the battalions of the centre, which had suffered least 
 from the enemy's bullets, the simultaneous explosion was 
 afterwards said by French officers to have sounded like a 
 cannon-shot. Another volley followed, and then a furious 
 clattering fire that lasted but a minute or two. When the 
 smoke rose, a miserable sight was revealed : the ground 
 cumbered with dead and wounded, the advancing masses 
 stopped short and turned into a frantic mob, shouting, 
 cursing, gesticulating. The order was given to charge. 
 Then over the field rose the British cheer, mixed with the 
 fierce yell of the Highland slogan. Some of the corps 
 pushed forward with the bayonet ; some advanced firing. 
 The clansmen drew their broadswords and dashed on, 
 keen and swift as bloodhounds. At the English right, 
 though the attacking column was broken to pieces, a fire 
 was still kept up, chiefly, it seems, by sharpshooters from 
 the bushes and cornfields, where they had lain for an hour 
 or more. Here-Wolfe himself led the charge, v at the head 
 of the Louisbourg grenadiers. ^A shot shattered his wrist. 
 He wrapped his handkerchief about it and kept on. 
 Another shot struck him, and he still advanced, when a 
 third lodged in his breast. He staggered, and sat on the 
 ground. Lieutenant Brown, of the grenadiers, one Hen-
 
 PARKMAN. 97 
 
 derson, a volunteer in the same company, and a private 
 soldier, aided by an officer of artillery who ran to join 
 them, carried him in their arms to the rear. He begged 
 them to lay him down. They did so, and asked if he 
 would have a surgeon. " There 's no need," he answered; 
 " it 's all over with me." A moment after, one of them 
 cried out : " They run ; see how they run ! " " Who run ? " 
 Wolfe demanded, like a man roused from sleep. " The 
 enemy, sir. Egad, they give way everywhere ! " " Go, 
 one of you, to Colonel Burton," returned the dying man ; 
 " tell him to march Webb's regiment down to Charles 
 River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge." Then, 
 turning on his side, he murmured, " Now, God be praised, 
 I will die in peace ! " and in a few moments his gallant 
 soul had fled. 
 
 Montcalm, still on horseback, was borne with the tide 
 of fugitives towards the town. As he approached the 
 walls, a shot passed through his body. He kept his seat ; 
 two soldiers supported him, one on each side, and led his 
 horse through the St. Louis Gate. On the open space 
 within, among the excited crowd, were several women, 
 drawn, no doubt, by eagerness to know the result of the 
 fight. One of them recognized him, saw the streaming 
 blood, and shrieked, " mon Dieu! mon Dieu! le Mar- 
 quis est tuS ! " " It 's nothing, it 's nothing," replied the 
 death-stricken man ; " don't be troubled for me, my good 1 * 
 friends " ( " Ce n'est rien, ce n'est rien ; ne vous affligez 
 pas pour moi, mes bonnes amies "). From "Montcalm 
 and Wolfe" vol. ii. chap, xxvii. 
 
 NOTE. There are several contemporary versions of the dying words 
 of Wolfe. The report of Knox, given above, is by far the best attested. 
 Knox says that he took particular pains at the time to learn them 
 accurately from those who were with Wolfe when they were uttered. 
 
 The anecdote of Montcalm is due to the late Hon. Malcolm Fraser, of 
 Quebec. He often heard it in his youth from an old woman, who, when 
 a girl, was one of the group who saw the wounded general led by, and to 
 whom the words were addressed. 
 
 7
 
 KESULTS OF THE SEVEN YEAES WAR. 
 
 " HpHIS," said Earl Granville on his death-bed, " has 
 been the most glorious war and the most trium- 
 phant peace that England ever knew." Not all were so 
 well pleased, and many held, with Pitt, that the House of 
 Bourbon should have been forced to drain the cup of 
 humiliation to the dregs. Yet the fact remains that the 
 Peace of Paris marks an epoch than which none in modern 
 history is more fruitful of grand results. With it began a 
 new chapter in the annals of the world. To borrow the 
 words of a late eminent writer, " It is no exaggeration to 
 say that three of the many victories of the Seven Years 
 War determined for ages to come the destinies of man- 
 kind. With that of Rossbach began the re-creation of 
 Germany ; with that of Plassey the influence of Eu- 
 rope told for the first time since the days of Alexander 
 on the nations of the East ; with the triumph of Wolfe 
 on the Heights of Abraham began the history of the 
 United States." From " Montcalm and Wolfe" vol. ii. 
 chap, xxxii.
 
 THE INDIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 the Indian character, much has been written fool- 
 ishly, and credulously believed. By the rhapsodies 
 of poets, the cant of sentimentalists, and the extravagance 
 of some who should have known better, a counterfeit 
 image has been tricked out, which might seek in vain for 
 its likeness through every corner of the habitable earth, 
 an image bearing no more resemblance to its original 
 than the monarch of the tragedy and the hero of the epic 
 poem bear to their living prototypes in the palace and the 
 camp. The shadows of his wilderness home, and the 
 darker mantle of his own inscrutable reserve, have made 
 the Indian warrior a wonder and a mystery. Yet to the 
 eye of rational observation there is nothing unintelligible 
 in him. He is full, it is true, of contradiction. He deems 
 himself the centre of greatness and renown ; his pride is 
 proof against the fiercest torments of fire and steel ; and 
 yet the same man would beg for a dram of whiskey, or pick 
 up a crust of bread thrown to him like a dog from the 
 tent-door of the traveller. At one moment he is wary 
 and cautious to the verge of cowardice ; at the next, he 
 abandons himself to a very insanity of recklessness ; and 
 the habitual self-restraint which throws an impenetrable 
 veil over emotion is joined to the unbridled passions of a 
 madman or a beast. 
 
 Such inconsistencies, strange as they seem in our eyes, 
 when viewed under a novel aspect, are but the ordinary 
 incidents of humanity. The qualities of the mind are not
 
 102 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 uniform in their action through all the relations of life. 
 With different men, and different races of men, pride, 
 valor, prudence, have different forms of manifestation; 
 and where in one instance they lie dormant, in another 
 they are keenly awake. The conjunction of greatness 
 and littleness, meanness and pride, is older than the days 
 of the patriarchs ; and such antiquated phenomena, dis- 
 played under a new form in the unreflecting, undisciplined 
 mind of a savage, call for no special wonder, but should 
 rather be classed with the other enigmas of the fathom- 
 less human heart. The dissecting-knife of a Rochefou- 
 cault might lay bare matters of no less curious obser- 
 vation in the breast of every man. 
 
 Nature has stamped the Indian with a hard and stern 
 physiognomy. Ambition, revenge, envy, jealousy, are his 
 ruling passions ; and his cold temperament is little ex- 
 posed to those effeminate vices which are the bane of 
 milder races. With him revenge is an overpowering in r 
 stinct ; nay, more, it is a point of honor and a duty. His 
 pride sets all language at defiance. He loathes the 
 thought of coercion : and few of his race have ever 
 stooped to discharge a menial office. A wild love of lib- 
 erty, an utter intolerance of control, lie at the basis of his 
 character, and fire his whole existence. Yet. in spite of 
 this haughty independence, he is a devout hero-worship- 
 per ; and high achievement in war or policy touches a 
 chord to which his nature never fails to respond. He 
 looks up with admiring reverence to the sages and heroes 
 of his tribe ; and it is this principle, joined to the respect 
 for age springing from the patriarchal element in his 
 social system, which, beyond all others, contributes union 
 and harmony to the erratic members of an Indian com- 
 munity. With him the love of glory kindles into a burn- 
 ing passion ; and to allay its cravings he will dare cold 
 and famine, fire, tempest, torture, and death itself.
 
 PARKMAN. 103 
 
 These generous traits are overcast by much that is dark, 
 cold, and sinister, by sleepless distrust and rankling jeal- 
 ousy. Treacherous himself, he is always suspicious of 
 treachery in others. Brave as he is, and few of man- 
 kind are braver, he will vent his passion by a secret 
 stab rather than an open blow. His warfare is full of 
 ambuscade and stratagem ; and he never rushes into 
 battle with that joyous self-abandonment with which the 
 warriors of the Gothic races flung themselves into the 
 ranks of their enemies. In his feasts and his drinking 
 bouts we find none of that robust and full-toned mirth 
 which reigned at the rude carousals of our barbaric ances- 
 try. He is never jovial in his cups, and maudlin sorrow 
 or maniacal rage is the sole result of his potations. 
 
 Over all emotion he throws the veil of an iron self-con- 
 trol, originating in a peculiar form of pride, and fostered 
 by rigorous discipline from childhood upward. He is 
 trained to conceal passion, and not to subdue it. The in- 
 scrutable warrior is aptly imaged by the hackneyed figure 
 of a volcano covered with snow; and no man can say 
 when or where the wild-fire will burst forth. This shal- 
 low self-mastery serves to give dignity to public delibera- 
 tion, and harmony to social life. Wrangling and quarrel 
 are strangers to an Indian dwelling;" and while an assem- 
 bly of the ancient Gauls was garrulous as a convocation 
 of magpies, a Roman senate might have taken a lesson 
 from the grave solemnity of an Indian council. In the 
 midst of his family and friends he hides affections, by 
 nature none of the most tender, under a mask of icy cold- 
 ness ; and in the torturing fires of his enemy, the haughty 
 sufferer maintains to the last his look of grim defiance. 
 
 His intellect is as peculiar as his moral organization. 
 Among all savages, the powers of perception preponder- 
 ate over those of reason and analysis ; but this is more 
 especially the case with the Indian. An acute judge of
 
 104 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 character, at least of such parts of it as his experience 
 enables him to comprehend, keen to a proverb in all 
 exercises of war and the chase, he seldom traces effects 
 to their causes, or follows out actions to their remote 
 results. Though a close observer of external Nature, he 
 no sooner attempts to account for her phenomena than 
 he involves himself in the most ridiculous absurdities ; 
 and quite content with these puerilities, he has not the 
 least desire to push his inquiries further. His curiosity, 
 abundantly active within its own narrow circle, is dead to 
 all things else ; and to attempt rousing it from its torpor 
 is but a bootless task. He seldom takes cognizance of 
 general or abstract ideas ; and his language has scarcely 
 the power to express them, except through the medium 
 of figures drawn from the external world, and often 
 highly picturesque and forcible. The absence of reflec- 
 tion makes him grossly improvident, and unfits him for 
 pursuing any complicated scheme of war or policy. 
 
 Some races of men seem moulded in wax, soft and 
 melting, at once plastic and feeble. Some races, like 
 some metals, combine the greatest flexibility with the 
 greatest strength. But the Indian is hewn out of a rock. 
 You can rarely change the form without destruction of 
 the substance. Races of inferior energy have possessed a 
 power of expansion and assimilation to which he is a 
 stranger; and it is this fixed and rigid quality which has 
 pjoved his ruin. He will not learn the arts of civiliza- 
 tion, and he and his forest must perish together. The 
 stern, unchanging features of his mind excite our admira- 
 tion from their very immutability ; and we look with deep 
 interest on the fate of this irreclaimable son of the wilder- 
 ness, the child who will not be weaned from the breast of 
 his rugged mother. And our interest increases when we 
 discern in the unhappy wanderer the germs of heroic 
 virtues mingled among his vices, a hand bountiful to
 
 PARKMAN. 105 
 
 bestow as it is rapacious to seize, and even in extremest 
 famine imparting its last morsel to a fellow-sufferer ; a 
 heart which, strong in friendship as in hate, thinks it not 
 too much to lay down life for its chosen comrade ; a soul 
 true to its own idea of honor, and burning with an un- 
 quenchable thirst for greatness and renown. 
 
 The imprisoned lion in the showman's cage differs not 
 more widely from the lord of the desert than the beg- 
 garly frequenter of frontier garrisons and dramshops 
 differs from the proud denizen of the woods. It is in his 
 native wilds alone that the Indian must be seen and 
 studied. Thus to depict him is the aim of the ensuing 
 History ; and if, from the shades of rock and forest, the 
 savage features should look too grimly forth, it is because 
 the clouds of a tempestuous war have cast upon the pic- 
 ture their murky shadows and lurid fires. From " The 
 Conspiracy of Pontiac" vol. i. chap. i.
 
 DEATH OF PONTIAC. 
 
 HPHE winter passed quietly away. Already the In- 
 *- dians began to feel the blessings of returning peace 
 in the partial reopening of the fur-trade ; and the famine 
 and nakedness, the misery and death, which through the 
 previous season had been rife in their encampments, were 
 exchanged for comparative comfort and abundance. With 
 many precautions, and in meagre allowances, the traders 
 had been permitted to throw their goods into the Indian 
 markets ; and the starving hunters were no longer left, 
 as many of them had been, to gain precarious sustenance 
 by 'the bow, the arrow, and the lance, the half-forgot- 
 ten weapons of their fathers. Some troubles arose along 
 the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The reckless 
 borderers, in contempt of common humanity and pru- 
 dence, murdered several straggling Indians, and enraged 
 others by abuse and insult; but these outrages could not 
 obliterate the remembrance of recent chastisement, and, 
 for the present at least, the injured warriors forbore to 
 draw down the fresh vengeance of their destroyers. 
 
 Spring returned, and Pontiac remembered the promise 
 he had made to visit Sir William Johnson at Oswego. 
 He left his encampment on the Maumee, accompanied by 
 his chiefs and by an Englishman named Crawford, a man 
 of vigor and resolution, who had been appointed byihe 
 superintendent to the troublesome office of attending the 
 Indian deputation and supplying their wants.
 
 108 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 We may well imagine with what bitterness of mood the 
 defeated war-chief urged his canoe along the margin of 
 Lake Erie, and gazed upon the horizon-bounded waters, 
 and the lofty shores, green with primeval verdure. Little 
 could he have dreamed, and little could the wisest of that 
 day have imagined, that, within the space of a single 
 human life, that lonely lake would be studded with the 
 sails of commerce; that cities and villages would rise 
 upon the ruins of the forest ; and that the poor memen- 
 toes of his lost race the wampum beads, the rusty 
 tomahawk, and the arrowhead of stone, turned up by the 
 ploughshare would become the wonder of school-boys, 
 and the prized relics of the antiquary's cabinet. Yet it 
 needed no prophetic eye to foresee that, sooner or later, 
 the doom must come. The star of his people's destiny 
 was fading from the sky ; and, to a mind like his, the 
 black and withering future must have stood revealed in 
 all its desolation. 
 
 The birchen flotilla gained the outlet of Lake Erie, 
 and, shooting downwards with the stream, landed be- 
 neath the palisades of Fort Schlosser. The chiefs passed 
 the portage, and, once more embarking, pushed out upon 
 Lake Ontario. Soon their goal was reached, and the 
 cannon boomed hollow salutation from the batteries of 
 Oswego. 
 
 Here they found Sir William Johnson waiting to re- 
 ceive them, attended by the chief sachems of the Iro- 
 quois, whom he had invited to the spot, that their presence 
 might give additional weight and solemnity to the meet- 
 ing. As there was no building large enough to receive 
 so numerous a concourse, a canopy of green boughs was 
 erected to shade the assembly from the sun ; and thither, 
 on the twenty-third of July, repaired the chiefs and war- 
 riors of the several nations. Here stood the tall figure 
 of Sir William Johnson, surrounded by civil and military
 
 PARKMAN. 109 
 
 officers, clerks, and interpreters ; while before him re- 
 clined the painted sachems of the Iroquois, and the great 
 Ottawa war-chief, with his dejected followers. 
 
 Johnson opened the meeting with the usual formalities, 
 presenting his auditors with a belt of wampum to wipe 
 the tears from their eyes, with another to cover the bones 
 of their relatives, another to open their ears that they 
 might hear, and another to clear their throats that they 
 might speak with ease. Then, amid solemn silence, 
 Pontiac's great peace-pipe was lighted and passed round 
 the assembly, each man present inhaling a whiff of the 
 sacred smoke. These tedious forms, together with a few 
 speeches of compliment, consumed the whole morning ; 
 for this savage people, on whose supposed simplicity poets 
 and rhetoricians have lavished their praises, may chal- 
 lenge the world to outmatch their bigoted adherence to 
 usage and ceremonial. 
 
 On the following day the council began in earnest, 
 and Sir William Johnson addressed Pontiac and his 
 attendant chiefs : 
 
 " Children, I bid you heartily welcome to this place ; 
 and I trust that the Great Spirit will permit us often to 
 meet together in friendship, for I have now opened the 
 door and cleared the road, that all nations may come 
 hither from the sun-setting. This belt of wampum con- 
 firms my words. 
 
 " Children, it gave me much pleasure to find that you 
 who are present behaved so well last year, and treated in 
 so friendly a manner Mr. Croghan, one of my deputies ; 
 and that you expressed such concern for the bad behavior 
 of those who, in order to obstruct the good work of 
 peace, assaulted and wounded him, and killed some of 
 his party, both whites and Indians, a thing before un- 
 known, and contrary to the laws and customs of all 
 nations. This would have drawn down our strongest
 
 110 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 resentment upon those who were guilty of so heinous a 
 crime, were it not for the great lenity and kindness of 
 your English father, who does not delight in punishing 
 those who repent sincerely of their faults. 
 
 "Children,! have now, with the approbation of General 
 Gage (your father's chief warrior in this country), in- 
 vited you here in order co confirm and strengthen your 
 proceedings with Mr. Croghan last year. 1 hope that you 
 will remember all that then passed, and 1 desire that you 
 will often repeat it to your young people, and keep it 
 fresh in your minds. 
 
 " Children, you begin already to see the fruits of peace, 
 from the number of traders and plenty of goods at all the 
 garrisoned posts ; and our enjoying the peaceable posses- 
 sion of the Illinois will be found of great advantage to the 
 Indians in that country. You likewise see that proper 
 officers, men of honor and probity, are appointed to reside 
 at the posts, to prevent abuses in trade, to hear your com- 
 plaints, and to lay before me such of them as they cannot 
 redress. Interpreters are likewise sent for the assistance 
 of each of them ; and smiths are sent to the posts to re- 
 pair your arms and implements. All this, which is at- 
 tended with a great expense, is now done by the great 
 King, your father, as a proof of his regard ; so that, cast- 
 ing from you all jealousy and apprehension, you should 
 now strive with each other who should show the most 
 gratitude to this best of princes. I do now, therefore, 
 confirm the assurances which 1 give you of his Majesty's 
 good will, and do insist on your casting away all evil 
 thoughts, and shutting your ears against all flying idle 
 reports of bad people." 
 
 The rest of Johnson's speech was occupied in explain- 
 ing to his hearers the new arrangements for the regula- 
 tion of the fur-trade ; in exhorting them to forbear from 
 retaliating the injuries they might receive from reckless
 
 PARKMAN. Ill 
 
 white men, who would meet with due punishment from 
 their own countrymen ; and in urging them to deliver up 
 to justice those of their people who might be guilty of 
 crimes against the English. " Children," he concluded, 
 " I now, by this belt, turn your eyes to the sun-rising, 
 where you will always find me your sincere friend. From 
 me you will always hear what is true and good ; and I 
 charge you never more to listen to those evil birds, who 
 come, with lying tongues, to lead you astray, and to make 
 you break the solemn engagements which you have entered 
 into, in presence of the Great Spirit, with the King your 
 father and the English people. Be strong, then, and keep 
 fast hold of the chain of friendship, that your children, 
 following your example, may live happy and prosperous 
 lives." 
 
 Pontiac made a brief reply, and promised to return 
 on the morrow an answer in full. The meeting then 
 broke up. 
 
 The council of the next day was opened by the Wyan- 
 dot chief Teata in a short and formal address, at the 
 conclusion of which Pontiac himself arose, and addressed 
 the superintendent in words of which the following is a 
 translation : - 
 
 " Father, we thank the Great Spirit for giving us so 
 fine a day to meet upon such great affairs. 1 speak in 
 the name of all the nations to the westward, of whom I 
 am the master. It is the will of the Great Spirit that we 
 should meet here to-day ; and before him I now take you 
 by the hand. I call him to witness that I speak from my 
 heart; for since I took Colonel Croghan by the hand last 
 year, I have never let go my hold, for I see that the Great 
 Spirit will have us friends. 
 
 u Father, when our great father of France was in this 
 country, 1 held him fast by the hand. Now that he is 
 gone, I take you, my English father, by the hand, in the
 
 112 LEAFLETS PROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 name of all the nations, and promise to keep this covenant 
 as long as I shall live." 
 
 Here he delivered a large belt of wampum. 
 
 " Father, when you address me, it is the same as if you 
 addressed all the nations of the west. Father, this belt 
 is to cover and strengthen our chain of friendship, and to 
 show you that, if any nation shall lift the hatchet against 
 our English brethren, we shall be the first to feel it and 
 resent it." 
 
 Pontiac next took up in succession the various points 
 touched upon in the speech of the superintendent, expres- 
 sing in all things a full compliance with his wishes. The 
 succeeding days of the conference were occupied with 
 matters of detail relating chiefly to the fur-trade, all of 
 which were adjusted to the apparent satisfaction of the 
 Indians, who, on their part, made reiterated professions 
 of friendship. Pontiac promised to recall the war-belts 
 which had been sent to the north and west, though, as he 
 alleged, many of them had proceeded from the Senecas, 
 and not from him ; adding that, when all were gathered 
 together, they would be more than a man could carry. 
 The Iroquois sachems then addressed the western na- 
 tions, exhorting them to stand true to their engagements, 
 and hold fast the chain of friendship ; and the councils 
 closed on the thirty-first, with a bountiful distribution of 
 presents to Pontiac and his followers. 
 
 Thus ended this memorable meeting, in which Pontiac 
 sealed his submission to the English, and renounced for- 
 ever the bold design by which he had trusted to avert or 
 retard the ruin of his race. His hope of seeing the em- 
 pire of France restored in America was scattered to the 
 winds, and with it vanished 'every rational scheme of re- 
 sistance to English encroachment. Nothing now remained 
 but to stand an idle spectator while, in the north and in 
 the south, the tide of British power rolled westward in re-
 
 PARKMAN. 113 
 
 sistlcss might ; while the fragments of the rival empire, 
 which he would fain have set up as a barrier against the 
 flood, lay scattered a miserable wreck ; and while the 
 remnant of his people melted away or fled for refuge to 
 remoter. deserts. For them the prospects of the future 
 were as clear as they were calamitous. Destruction or 
 civilization, between these lay their choice ; and few 
 who knew them could doubt which alternative they 
 would embrace. 
 
 Pontiac, his canoe laden with the gifts of his enemy, 
 steered homeward for the Maumee ; and in this vicinity 
 he spent the following winter, pitching his lodge in the 
 forest with his wives and children, and hunting- like an 
 ordinary warrior. With the succeeding spring, 1767, 
 fresh murmurings of discontent arose among the Indian 
 tribes, from the Lakes to the Potomac, the first precursors 
 of the disorders which, a few years later, ripened into a 
 brief but bloody war along the borders of Virginia. These 
 threatening symptoms might easily be traced to their 
 source. The incorrigible frontiersmen had again let loose 
 their murdering propensities; and a multitude of squat- 
 ters had built their cabins on Indian lands beyond the 
 limits of Pennsylvania, adding insult to aggression, and 
 sparing neither oaths, curses, nor any form of abuse and 
 maltreatment against the rightful owners of the soil. 
 The new regulations of the fur-trade could not prevent 
 disorders among the reckless men engaged in it. This was 
 particularly the case in the region of the Illinois, where 
 the evil was aggravated by the renewed intrigues of the 
 French, and especially of those who had fled from the 
 English side of the Mississippi, and made their abode 
 around the new settlement of St. Louis. It is difficult 
 to say how far Pontiac was involved in this agita- 
 tion. It is certain that some of the English traders 
 regarded him with jealousy and fear, as prime mover of 
 
 8
 
 114 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 the whole, and eagerly watched an opportunity to destroy 
 him. 
 
 The discontent among the tribes did not diminish with 
 the lapse of time ; yet for many months we can discern 
 no truce of Pontiac. Records and traditions are silent 
 concerning him. It is not until April, 1769, that he 
 appears once more distinctly on the scene. At about 
 that time he came to the Illinois, with what design does 
 not appear, though his movements excited much uneasi- 
 ness among the few English in that quarter. Soon after 
 his arrival, he repaired to St. Louis, to visit his former 
 acquaintance, St. Ange, who was then in command at 
 that post, having offered his services to the Spaniards 
 after the cession of Louisiana. After leaving the fort, 
 Pontiac proceeded to the house of which young Pierre 
 Chouteau was an inmate ; and to the last days of his 
 protracted life, the latter could vividly recall the cir- 
 cumstances of the interview. The savage chief was ar- 
 rayed in the full uniform of a French officer, which had 
 been presented to him as a special mark of respect and 
 favor by the Marquis of Montcalm, towards the close of 
 the French war, and which Pontiac never had the bad 
 taste to wear, except on occasions when he wished to 
 appear with unusual dignity. St. Ange, Chouteau, and 
 the other principal inhabitants of the infant settlement, 
 whom he visited in turn, all received him cordially, and 
 did their best to entertain him and his attendant chiefs. 
 He remained at St. Louis for two or three days, when, 
 hearing that a large number of Indians were assembled 
 at Cahokia, on the opposite side of the river, and that 
 some drinking bout or other social gathering was in prog- 
 ress, he told St. Ange that he would cross over to see 
 what was going forward. St. Ange tried to dissuade him, 
 and urged the risk to which he would expose himself ; 
 but Pontiac persisted, boasting that he was a match for
 
 PARKMAN. 115 
 
 the English, and had no fear for his life. He entered a 
 canoe with some of his followers, and Chouteau never 
 saw him again. 
 
 He who, at the present day, crosses from the city of St. 
 Louis to the opposite shore of the Mississippi, and passes 
 southward through a forest festooned with grape-vines, 
 and fragrant with the scent of flowers, will soon emerge 
 upon the ancient hamlet of Cahokia. To one fresh from 
 the busy suburbs of the American city, the small French 
 houses, scattered in picturesque disorder, the light-hearted, 
 thriftless look of their inmates, and the woods which form 
 the background of the picture, seem like the remnants of 
 an earlier and simpler world. Strange changes have 
 passed around that spot. Forests have fallen, cities have 
 sprung up, and the lonely wilderness is thronged with 
 human life. Nature herself has taken part in the general 
 transformation ; and the Mississippi has made a fearful 
 inroad, robbing from the luckless Creoles a mile of rich 
 meadow and woodland. Yet, in the midst of all, this relic 
 of the lost empire of France has preserved its essential 
 features through the lapse of a century, and offers at this 
 day an aspect not widely different from that which met 
 the eye of Pontiac when he and his chiefs landed on its 
 shore. 
 
 The place was full of Illinois Indians ; such a scene as 
 in our own time may often be met with in some squalid 
 settlement of the border, where the vagabond guests, be- 
 dizened with dirty finery, tie their small horses in rows 
 along the fences, and stroll idly among the houses, or 
 lounge about the dramshops. A chief so renowned as 
 Pontiac could not remain long among the friendly Cre- 
 oles of Cahokia without being summoned to a feast ; and 
 at such primitive entertainment the whiskey-bottle would 
 not fail to play its part. This was in truth the case. 
 Pontiac drank deeply, and, when the carousal was over,
 
 116 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 strode down the village street to the adjacent woods, 
 where he was heard to sing the medicine songs, in whose 
 magic power he trusted as the warrant of success in all 
 hig_undertakings. 
 
 r An English trader, named Williamson, was then in 
 the village. He had looked on the movements of Pontiac 
 with a jealousy probably not diminished by the visit of 
 the chief to the French at St. Louis ; and he now re- 
 solved not to lose so favorable an opportunity to despatch 
 him. With this view, he gained the ear of a strolling 
 Indian belonging to the Kaskaskia tribe of the Illinois, 
 bribed him with a barrel of liquor, and promised him a 
 farther reward if he would kill the chief. The bargain 
 was quickly made. When Pontiac entered the forest, 
 the assassin stole close upon his track ; and, watching 
 his moment, glided behind him, and buried a tomahawk 
 in his brain. 
 
 The dead body was soon discovered, and startled cries 
 and wild bowlings announced the event. The word was 
 caught up from mouth to mouth, and the place resounded 
 with yifernal yells. The warriors snatched their weapons. 
 The Illinois took part with their guilty countryman ; and 
 the few followers of Pontiac, driven from the village, fled 
 to spread the tidings and call the nations to revenge. 
 Meanwhile the murdered chief lay on the spot where he 
 had fallen, until St. Ange, mindful of former friendship, 
 sent to claim the body, and buried it, with warlike honors, 
 near his fort of St. Louis. 
 
 Thus basely perished this champion of a ruined race. 
 But could his shade have revisited the scene of murder, 
 his savage spirit would have exulted in the vengeance 
 which overwhelmed the abettors of the crime. Whole 
 tribes were rooted out to expiate it. Chiefs and sachems 
 whose veins had thrilled with his eloquence, young war- 
 riors whose aspiring hearts had caught the inspiration
 
 PARKMAN. 117 
 
 of his greatness, mustered to revenge his fate ; and, from 
 the nurth and the east, their united bands descended 
 on the villages of the Illinois. Tradition has but faintly 
 preserved the memory of the event ; and its only an- 
 nalists, men who held the intestine feuds of the savage 
 tribes in no more account than the quarrels of panthers 
 or wildcats, have left but a meagre record. Yet enough 
 remains to tell us that over the grave of Pontiac more 
 blood was poured out in atonement than flowed from 
 the veins of the slaughtered heroes on the corpse of 
 Patroclus ; and the remnant of the Illinois who sur- 
 vived the carnage remained forever after sunk in utter 
 insignificance. 
 
 Neither mound nor tablet marked the burial-place of 
 Pontiac. For a mausoleum, a city has risen above the 
 forest hero ; and the race whom he hated with such burn- 
 ing rancor trample with unceasing footsteps over his for- 
 gotten grave. From " The Conspiracy of Pontiac" vol. 
 ii. chap. xxxi.
 
 %
 
 THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 AX7E travelled eastward for two days, and then the 
 gloomy ridges of the Black Hills rose up before us. 
 The village passed along for some miles beneath their 
 declivities, trailing out to a great length over the arid 
 prairie, or winding among small detached hills of dis- 
 torted shapes. Turning sharply to the left, we entered a 
 wide defile of the mountains, down the bottom of whicli 
 a brook came winding, lined with tall grass and dense 
 copses, amid which were hidden many beaver dams and 
 lodges. We passed along between two lines of high pre- 
 cipices and rocks piled in disorder one upon another, with 
 scarcely a tree, a bush, or a clump of grass. The restless 
 Indian boys wandered along their edges and clambered 
 up and down their rugged sides, and sometimes a group 
 of them would stand on the verge of a cliff and look down 
 on the procession as it passed beneath. As we advanced, 
 the passage grew more narrow ; then it suddenly expanded 
 into a round grassy meadow, completely encompassed by 
 mountains ; and here the families stopped as they came 
 up in turn, and the camp rose like magic. 
 
 The lodges were hardly pitched when, with their ustinl 
 precipitation, the Indians set about accomplishing the 
 object that had brought them there ; that is, obtaining 
 poles for their new lodges. Half the population, men, 
 women, and boys, mounted their horses and set out for 
 the depths of the mountains. It was a strange cavalcade,
 
 120 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 as they rode at full gallop over the shingly rocks and into 
 the dark opening of the defile beyond. We passed be- 
 tween precipices, sharp and splintering at the tops, their 
 sides beetling over the defile or descending in abrupt 
 declivities bristling with fir-trees. On our left they rose 
 close to us like a wall, but on the right a winding brook 
 with a narrow strip of marshy soil intervened. The stream 
 was clogged with old beaver-dams, and spread frequently 
 into wide pools. There were thick bushes and many 
 dead and blasted trees along its course, though frequently 
 nothing remained but stumps cut close to the ground by 
 the beaver, and marked with the sharp chisel-like teeth of 
 those indefatigable laborers. Sometimes we dived among 
 trees, and then emerged upon open spots, over which, 
 Tndian-like, all galloped at full speed. As Pauline bound- 
 ed over the rocks I felt her saddle-girth slipping, and 
 alighted to draw it tighter ; when the whole cavalcade 
 swept past me in a moment, the women with their gaudy 
 ornaments tinkling as they rode, the men whooping, laugh- 
 ing, and lashing forward their horses. Two black-tailed 
 deer bounded away among the rocks ; Raymond shot at 
 them from horseback ; the sharp report of his rifle was 
 answered by another equally sharp from the opposing cliffs ; 
 and then the echoes, leaping in rapid succession from side 
 to side, died away rattling far amid the mountains. 
 
 After having ridden in this manner six or eight miles, 
 the scene changed, and all the declivities were covered 
 with forests of tall, slender spruce-trees. The Indians 
 began to fall off to the right and left, dispersing with 
 their hatchets and knives to cut the poles which they had 
 come to seek. I was soon left almost alone ; but in the 
 stillness of those lonely mountains, the stroke of hatchets 
 and the sound of voices might be heard from far and 
 near. 
 
 Reynal, who imitated the Indians in their habits as well
 
 PARKMAN. 121 
 
 as the worst features of their character, had killed buffalo 
 enough to make a lodge for himself and his squaw, and 
 now he was eager to get the poles necessary to complete 
 it. He asked me to let Raymond go with him and assist 
 in the work. I assented, and the two men immediately 
 entered the thickest part of the wood. Having left my 
 horse in Raymond's keeping, I began to climb the moun- 
 tain. I was weak and weary, and made slow progress, 
 often pausing to rest ; but after an hour I gained a height 
 whence the little valley out of which I had climbed seemed 
 like a deep, dark gulf, though the inaccessible peak of the 
 mountain was still towering to a much greater distance 
 above. Objects familiar from childhood surrounded me, 
 crags and rocks, a black and sullen brook that gurgled 
 with a hollow voice deep among the crevices, a wood of 
 mossy, distorted trees and prostrate trunks flung down by 
 age and storms, scattered among the rocks, or damming 
 the foaming waters of the brook. 
 
 Wild as they were, these mountains were thickly peo- 
 'pled. As I climbed farther, I found the broad, dusty paths 
 made by the elk as they filed across the mountain side. 
 The grass on all the terraces was trampled down by deer ; 
 there were numerous tracks of wolves, and in some of the 
 rougher and more precipitous parts of the ascent I found 
 footprints different from any that I had ever seen, and 
 which I took to be those of the Rocky Mountain sheep. 
 I sat down upon a rock ; there was a perfect stillness. 
 No wind was stirring, and not even an insect could be 
 heard. I remembered the danger of becoming lost in 
 such a place, and fixed my eye upon one of the tallest pin- 
 nacles of the opposite mountain. It rose sheer upright 
 from the woods below, and, by an extraordinary freak of 
 nature, sustained aloft on its very summit a large loose 
 rock. Such a landmark could never be mistaken, and 
 feeling once more secure, I began again to move forward.
 
 122 LEAFLETS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 A white wolf jumped up from among some bushes, and 
 leaped clumsily away ; but he stopped for a moment, and 
 turned back his keen eye and grim, bristling muzzle. I 
 longed to take his scalp and carry it back with me, as a 
 trophy of the Black Hills ; but before I could fire, he was 
 gone among the rocks. Soon after I heard a rustling 
 sound, with a cracking of twigs at a little distance, and 
 saw moving above the tall bushes the branching antlers 
 of an elk. I was in the midst of a hunter's paradise. 
 
 Such are the Black Hills as I found them in July ; but 
 they wear a different garb when winter sets in, when the 
 broad boughs of the fir-trees are bent to the ground by the 
 load of snow, and the dark mountains are white with it. 
 At that season the trappers, returned from their autumn 
 expeditions, often build their cabins in the midst of these 
 solitudes, and live in abundance and luxury on the game 
 that harbors there. I have heard them tell how with 
 their tawny mistresses, and perhaps a few young Indian 
 companions, they had spent months in total seclusion. 
 They would dig pitfalls and set traps for the white 
 wolves, sables, and martens ; and though through the 
 whole night the awful chorus of the wolves would resound 
 from the frozen mountains around them, yet within their 
 massive walls of logs they would lie in careless ease before 
 the blazing fire, and in the morning shoot the elk and 
 deer from their very door. From " The Oregon Trail" 
 chap. xvii. 
 
 788
 
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