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In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great
West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the
35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that
of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba,
thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded
no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were
that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and
disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery
for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon
any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's
defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage
of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the
wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had penetrated
through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into
Lake Huron; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission
among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery
of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the
savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet
of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result; yet it was not
until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend
a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660
that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished
in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest
lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest.
In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault
Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas
Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor General of Canada, explored Lake
Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited
the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie
the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the
king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year
Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded
the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius,
they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied —as
all others did then—that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of
God's children resided, to whom .the sound of the Gospel had never come.
Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
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request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the
domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the
Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander
of the expedition, prepared for, he undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assistant
French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery.
The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished
at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from
their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly
savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful
monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing
daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing
not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about
to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation
of souls was involved; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting
along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green
Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village
of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Marquette was delighted to find a beautiful
cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red
girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the
Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them
during the Winter in giving them an abundant "chase." This was
the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary
labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was
instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous
rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and,
pointing to Joliet, said: "My friend is an envoy of France, to discover
new countries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with
the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to
conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian
village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled
to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet
ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned.
The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended
to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions
must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening
current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the
Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought
river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful
seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness
as it had been adorned by the hand of
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Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs
on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own
beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great
herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley
they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently
destitute of inhabitants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors,
under the fastidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
[picture inserted of]
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. |
On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon
the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the
boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered
a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within
a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most
hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person.
After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to
about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and
being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned
their course |
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up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of
the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides
from that point to the lakes. "Nowhere on this journey," says
Marquette, "did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes,
deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers,
as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached
Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery—one of the
most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's,
Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec.
Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request,
and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as
he was passing the mouth of a stream—going with his boatmen up Lake
Michigan—he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving
his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions.
As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him,
and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while
at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place
fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving
the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called
Marquette.
While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the
West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were preparing
to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by
him. These were Robert de LaSalle and Louis Hennepin.
After LaSalle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the
narrative elsewhere), he established himself again among the French trading
posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages—a
short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedition
up the great lakes, and so across the continent to the Pacific, when Marquette
returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of LaSalle received
from his and his companions' stories the idea that by following the Great
River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries,
the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General
of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered
warmly into his plans, and saw that LaSalle's idea to connect the great
lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country
so wonderfully together, give unmeasured power to France, and glory to
himself, under whose administration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.
LaSalle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly
approved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all
the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev-
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alier returned to Canada, and busily entered upon his
work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship
to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of August, 1679, having
been joined by Hennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie.
He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, up Lake St. Clair
and into Huron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were
some time at Michillimackinac, where LaSalle founded a fort, and passed
on to Green Bay, the "Baie des Puans" of the French, where he
found a large quantity of furs collected for him. He loaded the Griffin
with these, and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors,
[picture inserted of]
LA SALLE LANDING ON THE SHORE OF GREEN BAY. |
started her on her return voyage. The vessel was never afterward heard
of. He remained about these parts until early in the Winter, when, hearing
nothing from the Griffin, he collected all the men—thirty working
men and three monks—and started again upon his great undertaking.
By a short portage they passed to the Illinois or Kankakee, called by
the Indians, "Theakeke," wolf, because of the tribes of Indians
called by that name, commonly known as the Mahingans, dwelling there.
The French pronounced it Kiakiki, which became corrupted to Kankakee.
"Falling down the said river by easy journeys, the better to observe
the country," about the last of December they reached a village of
the Illinois Indians, containing some five hundred cabins, but at that
moment
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no inhabitants. The Seur de LaSalle being in want of some
breadstuffs, took advantage of the absence of the Indians to help himself
to a sufficiency of maize, large quantities of which he found concealed
in holes under the wigwams. This village was situated near the present
village of Utica in LaSalle County, Illinois. The corn being securely
stored, the voyagers again betook themselves to the stream, and toward
evening, on the 4th day of January, 1680, they came into a lake which
must have been the lake of Peoria. This was called by the Indians Pim-i-te-wi,
that is, a place where there are many fat beasts. Here the natives were
met with in large numbers, but they were gentle and kind, and having spent
some time with them, LaSalle determined to erect another fort in that
place, for he had heard rumors that some of the adjoining tribes were
trying to disturb the good feeling which existed, and some of his men
were disposed to complain, owing to the hardships and perils of the travel.
He called this fort "Crevecoeur" (broken-heart), a name expressive
of the very natural sorrow and anxiety which the pretty certain loss of
his ship, Griffin, and his consequent impoverishment, the danger of hostility
on the part of the Indians, and of mutiny among his own men, might well
cause him. His fears were not entirely groundless. At one time poison
was placed in his food, but fortunately was discovered.
While building this fort, the Winter wore away, the prairies began to
look green, and LaSalle, despairing of any reinforcements, concluded to
return to Canada, raise new means and new men, and embark anew in the
enterprise. For this purpose he made Hennepin the leader of a party to
explore the head waters of the Mississippi, and he set out on his journey.
This journey was accomplished with the aid of a few persons, and was successfully
made, though over an almost unknown route, and in a bad season of the
year. He safely reached Canada, and set out again for the object of his
search.
Hennepin and his party left Fort Crevecoeur on the last of February,
1680. When LaSalle reached this place on his return expedition, he found
the fort entirely deserted, and he was obliged to return again to Canada.
He embarked the third time, and succeeded. Seven days after leaving the
fort, Hennepin reached the Mississippi, and paddling up the icy stream
as best he could, reached no higher than the Wisconsin River by the 11th
of April. Here he and his followers were taken prisoners by a band of
Northern Indians, who treated them with great kindness. Hennepin's comrades
were Anthony Auguel and Michael Ako. On this voyage they found several
beautiful lakes, and "saw some charming prairies." Their captors
were the Isaute or Sauteurs, Chippewas, a tribe of the Sioux nation, who
took them up the river until about the first of May, when they reached
some falls, which Hennepin christened Falls of St. Anthony |
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in honor of his patron saint. Here they took the land,
and traveling nearly two hundred miles to the northwest, brought them
to their villages. Here they were kept about three months, were treated
kindly by their captors, and at the end of that time, were met by a band
of Frenchmen,
[picture inserted of]
BUFFALO HUNT. |
headed by one Seur de Luth, who, in pursuit of trade and game, had penetrated
thus far by the route of Lake Superior; and with these fellow-countrymen
Hennepin and his companions were allowed to return to the borders of civilized
life in November, 1680, just after LaSalle had returned to the wilderness
on his second trip. Hennepin soon after went to France, where he "published
an account of his adventures.
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P. 27
The Mississippi was first discovered by De Soto in April, 1541, in his
vain endeavor to find gold and precious gems. In the following Spring,
De Soto, weary with hope long deferred, and worn out with his wanderings,
fell a victim to disease, and on the 21st of May died. His followers,
reduced by fatigue and disease to less than three hundred men, wandered
about the country nearly a year, in the vain endeavor to rescue themselves
by land, and finally constructed seven small vessels, called brigantines,
in which they embarked, and descending the river, supposing it would lead
them to the sea, in July they came to the sea (Gulf of Mexico), and by
September reached the Island of Cuba.
They were the first to see the great outlet of the Mississippi; but,
being so weary and discouraged, made no attempt to claim the country,
and hardly had an intelligent idea of what they had passed through.
To La Salle, the intrepid explorer, belongs the honor of giving the first
account of the mouths of the river. His great desire was to possess this
entire country for his king, and in January, 1682, he and his band of
explorers left the shores of Lake Michigan on their third attempt, crossed
the Portage, passed down the Illinois River, and on the 6th of February
reached the banks of the Mississippi.
On the 13th they commenced their downward course, which they pursued
with but one interruption, until upon the 6th of March they discovered
the three great passages by which the river discharges its waters into
the gulf. La Salle thus narrates the event:
"We landed on the bank of the most western channel, about three
leagues (nine miles) from its mouth. On the seventh, M. do La Salle went
to reconnoiter the shores of the neighboring sea, and M. de Tonti meanwhile
examined the great middle channel. They found the main outlets beautiful,
large and deep. On the eighth we reascended the river, a little above
its confluence with the sea, to find a dry place beyond the reach of inundations.
The elevation of the North Pole was here about twenty-seven degrees. Here
we prepared a column and a cross, and to the column were affixed the arms
of France with this inscription :
" Louis Le Grand, Roi de France et de Navarre, regne; Le neuvieme
April, 1682."
The whole party, under arms, chanted the Te Deum, and then, after a salute
and cries of "Vive le Roi,'' the column was erected by M. de La Salle,
who, standing near it, proclaimed in a loud voice the authority of the
King of France. La Salle returned and laid the foundations of the Mississippi
settlements in Illinois; thence he proceeded to France, where another
expedition was fitted out, of which he was commander, and in two succeeding
voyages failed to find the outlet of the river by sailing along the shore
of the gulf. On the third voyage he was killed, through the |
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treachery of his followers, and the object of his expeditions
was not accomplished until 1699, when D'lberville, under the authority
of the crown, discovered, on the second of March, by way of the sea, the
mouth of the " Hidden River." This majestic stream was called
by the natives " Malbouchia" and by the Spaniards, " la
Palissade" from the great
[picture inserted of]
TRAPPING. |
number of trees about its mouth. After traversing the several outlets,
and satisfying himself as to its certainty, he erected a fort near its
western outlet, and returned to France.
An avenue of trade was now opened out which was fully improved. In 1718,
New Orleans was laid out and settled by some European colonists. In 1762,
the colony was made over to Spain, to be regained by France under the
consulate of Napoleon. In 1803, it was purchased by |
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the United States for the sum of fifteen million dollars,
and the territory of Louisiana and commerce of the Mississippi River came
under the charge of the United States. Although LaSalle's labors ended
in defeat and death, he had not worked and suffered in vain. He had thrown
open to France and the world an immense and most valuable country; had
established several ports, and laid the foundations of more than one settlement
there. "Peoria, Kaskaskia and Cahokia, are to this day monuments
of LaSalle's labors; for, though he had founded neither of them (unless
Peoria, which was built nearly upon the site of Fort Crevecoeur,) it was
by those whom he led into the West that these places were peopled and
civilized. He was, if not the discoverer, the first settler of the Mississippi
Valley, and as such deserves to be known and honored."
The French early improved the opening made for them. Before the year
1698, the Rev. Father Gravier began a mission among the Illinois, and
founded Kaskaskia. For some time this was merely a missionary station,
where none but natives resided, it being one of three such villages, the
other two being Cahokia and Peoria. What is known of these missions is
learned from a letter written by Father Gabriel Marest, dated "Aux
Cascaskias, autrement dit de I'lmmaculate Conception de la Sainte Vierge,
le 9 Novembre, 1712." Soon after the founding of Kaskaskia, the missionary,
Pinet, gathered a flock at Cahokia, while Peoria arose near the ruins
of Fort Crevecoeur. This must have been about the year 1700. The post
at Vincennes on the Oubache river, (pronounced Wa-ba, meaning summer cloud
moving swiftly) was established in 1702, according to the best authorities.*
It is altogether probable that on LaSalle's last trip he established the
stations at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. In July, 1701, the foundations of Fort
Ponchartrain were laid by De la Motte Cadillac on the Detroit River. These
stations, with those established further north, were the earliest attempts
to occupy the Northwest Territory. At the same time efforts were being
made to occupy the Southwest, which finally culminated in the settlement
and founding of the City of New Orleans by a colony from England in 1718.
This was mainly accomplished through the efforts of the famous Mississippi
Company, established by the notorious John Law, who so quickly arose into
prominence in France, and who with his scheme so quickly and so ignominiously
passed away.
From the time of the founding of these stations for fifty years the French
nation were engrossed with the settlement of the lower Mississippi, and
the war with the Chicasaws, who had, in revenge for repeated
* There Is considerable dispute about this date,
some asserting It was founded as late as 1742. When the new court house
at Vincennes was erected, all authorities on the subject were carefully
examined, and 1702 fixed upon as the correct date. It was accordingly
engraved on the corner-stone of the court house.
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injuries, cut off the entire colony at Natchez. Although
the company did little for Louisiana, as the entire West was then called,
yet it opened the trade through the Mississippi River, and started the
raising of grains indigenous to that climate. Until the year 1750, but
little is known of the settlements in the Northwest, at it was not until
this time that the attention of the English was called to the occupation
of this portion of the New World, which they then supposed they owned.
Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, writing from " Aux Illinois,"
six leagues from Fort Chartres, June 8, 1750, says: "We have here
whites, negroes and Indians, to say nothing of cross-breeds. There are
five French villages, and three villages of the natives, within a space
of twenty-one leagues situated between the Mississippi and another river
called the Karkadaid (Kaskaskias). In the five French villages are, perhaps,
eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks and some sixty red slaves
or savages. The three Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred
souls all told. Most of the French till the soil; they raise wheat, cattle,
pigs and horses, and live like princes. Three times as much is produced
as can be consumed; and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to
New Orleans." This city was now the seaport town of the Northwest,
and save in the extreme northern part, where only furs and copper ore
were found, almost all the products of the country found their way to
France by the mouth of the Father of Waters. In another letter, dated
November 7, 1750, this same priest says: "For fifteen leagues above
the mouth of the Mississippi one sees no dwellings, the ground being too
low to be habitable. Thence to New Orleans, the lands are only partially
occupied. New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think,
than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all lumber, bricks, salt-beef,
tallow, tar, skins and bear's grease; and above all, pork and flour from
the Illinois. These things create some commerce, as forty vessels and
more have come hither this year. Above New Orleans, plantations are again
met with; the most considerable is a colony of Germans, some ten leagues
up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German settlement,
is a fort. Along here, within five or six leagues, are not less than sixty
habitations. Fifty leagues farther up is the Natchez post, where we have
a garrison, who are kept prisoners through fear of the Chickasaws. Here
and at Point Coupee, they raise excellent tobacco. Another hundred leagues
brings us to the Arkansas, where we have also a fort and a garrison for
the benefit of the river traders. * * * From the Arkansas to the Illinois,
nearly five hundred leagues, there is not a settlement. There should be,
however, a fort at the Oubache (Ohio), the only path by which the English
can reach the Mississippi. In the Illinois country are numberless mines,
but no one to |
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work them as they deserve." Father Marest, writing
from the post at Vincennes in 1812, makes the same observation. Vivier
also says : "Some individuals dig lead near the surface and supply
the Indians and Canada. Two Spaniards now here, who claim to be adepts,
say that our mines are like those of Mexico, and that if we would dig
deeper, we should find silver under the lead; and at any rate the lead
is excellent. There is also in this country, beyond doubt, copper ore,
as from time to time large pieces are found in the streams."
[picture inserted of]
MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. |
At the close of the year 1750, the French occupied, in addition to the
lower Mississippi posts and those in Illinois, one at Du Quesne, one at,
the Maumee in the country of the Miamis, and one at Sandusky in what may
be termed the Ohio Valley. In the northern part of the Northwest they
had stations at St. Joseph's on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, at
Fort Ponchartrain (Detroit), at Michillimackanac or Massillimacanac, Fox
River of Green Bay, and at Sault Ste. Marie. The fondest dreams of LaSalle
were now fully realized. The French alone were possessors of this vast
realm, basing their claim on discovery and settlement. Another nation,
however, was now turning its attention to this extensive country,
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and hearing of its wealth, began to lay plans for occupying
it and for securing the great profits arising therefrom.
The French, however, had another claim to this country, namely, the |