CH. XVI.] 1666. MARQUETTE AND THE MISSISSIPPI. ما 139 day, they were greeted by richer scenery and by a different climate; they were fanned by the soft breezes and delighted by the luxuriant vegetation of the south; the sombre pines of the Canadian forests were exchanged for the cotton wood and palmetto of the tropics, and they began to suffer from the heat and the mosquitoes. Marquette, satisfied that the river must empty into the Gulf of Mexico, and fearful of falling into the hands of the Spaniards, reluctantly turned his steps back again towards Canada. Leaving Marquette at Green Bay, at his missionary work, Joliet carried the news to Quebec. Marquette's health soon after gave way, and while engaged in missionary efforts among the Illinois, he died, May 18th, 1675, at the early age of thirty-eight.* Under this favorable change of affairs, missionary efforts were renewed. Allouez coasted Lake Superior, and two years afterward, in company with Dablon and Marquette, established the mission of St. Mary, the first settlement of white men within the limits of our north western States. Va rious missions were established and explorations made. Fired by the rumors of a great river in the west, Marquette was presently sent by the intendant Talon to search it out. Accompanied by Joliet, a merchant of Quebec, with five Frenchmen, and two Algonquin guides, they ascended on the 10th of June, 1673, to the head of Fox River, and carrying their canoes across the intervening ground which separates the eastern from the western streams, they launched them again upon the waters of the Wisconsin, where their Indian conductors, fearful of advancing any farther, left them to make their way alone. For seven days they floated down the stream, when at length, to their great joy, they emerged upon the mighty waters of the MISSISSIPPI, that "great river"-for so its name imports-rolling through vast verdant prairies dotted with herds of buffalo, and its banks overhung with primitive forests. With the feelings of men who have discovered a new world, they passed the mouths of the Des Moines, the Illinois, the Missouri, and the Ohio, keeping on as far as the Arkansas. They landed to visit the astonished Indians upon the shores, who received them with hospitality, and invited them to form a permanent settlement. As they floated on day after | Valley," p. lxxi. 1673. 1674. Robert Cavalier De La Salle, an energetic young French adventurer, who had evinced unusual sagacity and met with great success in his explorations on Lakes Ontario and Erie, was roused by the news of the discovery of the "great river." Leaving his fur trade, his fields, and his many advantages in connection with Fort Frontenac-at the outlet of Ontario-La Salle hurried to France, and received from Colbert a commission to proceed with further discoveries on the Mis- 1678. sissippi. Accompanied by the Chevalier Tonti, a veteran Italian, as his lieutenant, he returned to Frontenac, built a small bark, with which he ascended the Niagara River to the foot of * See Mr. J. G. Shea's interesting and valuable work, "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi nac, where, though reported dead, he gathered fresh materials for the prosecution of his enterprise. His agents, meanwhile, were engaged in carrying out his instructions. Hennepin ex the rapids, below the great fall; and above them, near the shore of Lake Erie, began the construction of the first rigged vessel that ever sailed upon the western waters. In this little bark of sixty tons, called the "Griffin," ac-plored the Mississippi to the Falls of companied by Tonti and a band of missionaries and fur traders, La Salle traversed Lake Erie, and passed through Detroit, or "the strait" which separates it from the limpid sheet to which he gave the appropriate name of St. Clair, and sailing across Lake Huron, and by the straits of Mackinaw, into Lake Michigan, at length came to an anchor in Green Bay. 1679. Await St. Anthony, and returning afterwards to France, published there an account of his travels.* Tonti, less fortunate, who had been directed to establish himself among the Illinois, was driven thence by the hostility of the Iroquois, and was obliged to take refuge at Green Bay. Their indefatigable leader at length returned with provisions and reinforcements, collected his scattered men, and constructed a capacious barge, in which he descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Formal possession of the mouth of the river was taken for France, April 9th, 1682, and the name LOUISIANA was conferred upon the newly acquired territory. 1683. La Salle having returned to France speedily aroused an ardent desire to colonize the fertile region which he had discovered. Accordingly he soon got together an expedition, consisting of a frigate and three other ships, on board of which were two hundred and eighty persons in all, ecclesiastics, soldiers, mechanics and emigrants, and as speedily as pos From this point, after sending back the vessel for fresh supplies, La Salle and his associates proceeded in canoes across Lake Michigan to the mouth of the St. Joseph's River, where Allouez had established a station, and to which was now added a trading post, called the Fort of the Miamis. ing in vain the return of the "Griffin," which had been wrecked on her way back, La Salle and Tonti, with a body of their followers, crossed over to the Illinois River, where, some distance below Peoria, he erected another fort. There were still no tidings of the missing vessel, and to proceed without supplies was impossible; murmurs arose among his disheartened followers, and detaching Tonti and the Recollect Hennepin to continue their explorations, and having named his new fort "Crèvecœur," in memory of his deep and bitter vexations, La Salle set out withing this gross imposition, we must allow him justice only three followers, making his way back across the vast wilderness which spread between him and Fronte 1680. 1684. * Mr. Sparks has clearly shown that Hennepin is not to be relied on. After mentioning several things, he says:-"These facts added to others are perfectly conclusive, and must conviet Father Hennepin of having palmed upon the world a pretended discovery and a fictitious narrative. . . Notwithstand on other points. There seems no good reason to doubt the general accuracy of his first book, nor of his second, previously to his departure from Fort Crèvecœur."--" Life of De La Salle," p. 91. CH. XVI.] THE MURDER OF DE LA SALLE. sible got under way to plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. But no success attended the enterprise. La Salle, falling into serious disputes and even quarrels with Beaujeu, who had command of the fleet under him, missed the entrance of the river, and in February, 1685, was compelled to land his dispirited and despairing company at some point on the coast of Texas. In the midst of disaffection and treachery and death, La Salle did not lose heart: with characteristic intrepidity, in April, 1686, he set out with twenty men to find the Illinois, where Tonti was awaiting him, but without avail: he was compelled to return to the fort in October. Yet as his only hope lay in extricating himself and his followers less than forty-by an overland pas sage, early in January he set 1687. out again with seventeen men on this forlorn enterprise. Three of the party conspired to commit murder; they slaughtered Moragnet, Nika and Saget, and when La Salle came to inquire after the missing men, Duhaut discharged his musket from ambush and shot the unhappy commander through the head. This was on the 19th of March, 1687. Good Father Anastase dug his grave, buried him, and erected a cross over his remains. Salle "died some where about the spot where now stands the town of Washington," says Mr. Gayarré, "which town owes its foundation to some of that race to which belonged his avenger, and the star spangled banner now proudly waves where the first pioneer of civili La *Sparks's "Life of Robert Cavalier De La Salle," p. 158. 141 zation consecrated with his blood the future land of liberty."* The murderers of La Salle, quarrelling over the spoils of their leader, met themselves with the same retributive fate at the hands of some of their associates, of whom Joutel, the narrator of these dismal events, with no more than five others, made their way to the banks of the Mississippi, where they fell in with two Frenchmen, left there by Tonti, on his return from a vain search after his old commander. The twenty men left behind at the fort which had been built by La Salle, also perished; and thus, after the most indefatigable efforts, and the most brilliant prospects of success, the colony of La Salle came to an untimely end-sad termination to the career of its energetic and gallant founder.t Affairs in Canada, meanwhile, had become very much embroiled. Disputes having arisen between Frontenac the governor and the Intendant, De la Barre was sent out in 1682 to succeed Frontenac. Dongan, the governor of New York, although charged by James II. to maintain a good un- 1683. derstanding with the French, used his influence secretly to inflame the dissen * Gayarré's "History of Louisiana," vol i., p. 28. travelled by the adventurous trader, and still more †The Mississippi, however, was soon constantly adventurous missionary. A Spanish vessel, under Andrew de Pes, entered the mouth soon after; but, on the second of March, 1699, the Canadian Iberville, more fortunate than La Salle, entered it with Father Anastasius Douay, who had accompanied that unfortunate adventurer on his last voyage. Mission aries from Canada soon came to greet him, and La Sueur ascended the Mississippi to St. Peter's River, and built a log fort on its blue-earth tributary. Henceforward all was progress," etc.-Shea's " Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley," p. xxxix. sions between them and their enemies. De la Barre, after convoking an assembly to take into consideration the perilous condition of the province, and after making some abortive attempts at negotiation, marched to attack the Iroquois at the head of a considerable force; but on the way his troops were so reduced and weakened by sickness, arising from the miasma of the marshes and forests, that he was compelled to conclude a humiliating peace with the foes over whom he had anticipated a signal triumph. At his desire the chiefs of the Five Nations repaired to his camp, but his endeavor to overawe them met with no success whatever. On the contrary one of these fierce warriors is represented as having broken out in the following spirited speech, personifying De la Barre as Onondio, and the English governor as Corlear:-"Hear, Onondio, I am not asleep, my eyes are open, and the sun which enlightens me discloses to me a great captain who speaks as if he were dreaming. He He says that he only came to smoke the pipe of peace with the Onondagas. But Garrangula says that he sees the contrary, that it was to knock them on the head, if sickness had not weakened the arms of the French. We carried the English to our lakes to trade with the Utawawas, as the Adirondacks brought the French to our forts to carry on a trade which the English say is theirs. We are born free; we neither depend on Onondio nor Corlear. We may go where we please, and buy and sell what we please. If your allies are your slaves, use them as such-command them to receive no other than your people. Hear, Onondio!-what I say is the voice of all the Five Nations. When they buried the hatchet in the middle of the fort, they planted the tree of peace in the same place, that instead of a retreat for soldiers, it might be a meeting-place for merchants. Take care that your soldiers do not choke the tree of peace, and prevent it from covering your country and ours with its branches. I tell you that our warriors shall dance under its leaves, and never dig up the hatchet to cut it down, till their brother Onondio or Corlear shall invade the country which the Great Spirit has given to our ancestors." 1687. The Marquis de Denonville succeeded De la Barre in 1684, and brought with him some five or six hundred 1684. soldiers. A fort was built at Niagara to cover the route from Canada through Lake Erie, and also as a check upon the hostile Iroquois, a measure which helped to increase the jealousy and ill will of the English. An expedition was undertaken by Denonville against the Senecas; but although they penetrated and ravaged the country, yet the Iroquois in turn threatening invasion, the French were glad to purchase peace by giving up their fort and promising to 1688. return the captives they had treacherously got into their power. A short interval only of peace followed. The Iroquois advanced on Montreal, killed many, and made prisoners of many more, and spread terror even as far as Quebec. 1689. On the whole, Canada could not be said to have flourished. Although the CH. XVI.] FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONIAL SUCCESS. French had done wonders in the way of exploration, and in contending with Indian ferocity and valor, greatly beyond anything to which the English had been exposed, yet the climate and soil were unfavorable, the government was a military despotism, the people had no share in public affairs, and the population at most did not exceed twelve thousand. Acadie was even still more feeble, the total of its inhabitants being less probably than three thousand. Yet, seeing that the eastern Indians, both those of the peninsula and those of the main land, were wholly under French influence, it added materially to the strength of the French in that vicinity. 143 istic of their rivals in the New World.* At this date, according to Mr. Bancroft, the twelve oldest States of our Union "contained not very many beyond two hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom Massachusetts, with Plymouth and Maine, may have had forty-four thousand; New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with Providence, each six thousand; Connecticut, from seventeen to twenty thousand; that is, in all New England, seventy-five thousand souls; New York, not less than twenty thousand; New Jersey, half as many; Pennsylvania and Delaware, perhaps twelve thousand; Maryland twenty-five thousand; Virginia, fifty thousand or more; and the two Caro| linas, which then included the soil of Georgia, probably not less than eight thousand souls.”+ Such was the condition and state of affairs when William III. mounted the English throne, and the American colo The contrast between New France and the English colonies was at this date quite striking; for the latter occupying territory more favorably situate along the coast, and every year developing new energies and stimulated to new enterprises, were steadily advan-nies were involved in the war that soon cing in prosperity and ability to under- raged between France and England. stand and maintain their just rights. The French, on the other hand, though ever brave and chivalrous, had not in their colonies the elements of strength and permanency which were character-ii., p. 450. * This contrast is eloquently set forth by Mr. Parkman," History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac,” p. 41, etc. † Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. |