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Rt. Rev. JOHN IRELAND, D.D.,

AND

J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS,

PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
THIS WORK DJE TO THEIR FRIENDLY COMPULSION IS NOW DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

The work of Father Louis Hennepin here
given is the most graphic account of La Salle’s
course of exploration as far as Illinois, and the
only detailed narrative of Hennepin’s own voyage
up the Mississippi to the Sioux country during
which he visited and named the Falls of Saint
Anthony.

Doubts thrown upon Hennepin by the evident
falsity of a later work bearing his name, have led
to a general charge of falsehood against him. In
justice to him, it must be admitted that there are
grounds for believing that his notes were adapted
by an unscrupulous editor, and the second book
altered even after it was printed.

His original work here given in full for the first
time in English, is supported to a remarkable degree
by all contemporary authorities, by topography
and Indian life. The charge made by Margry
that it is a plagiarism is utterly absurd.

6 PREFACE.

To bring together in English matter scattered
in various volumes bearing on the questions in
regard to Hennepin, I have added the account
of the pretended voyage down the Mississippi in
the Nouvelle Découverte ; an account of Henne¬
pin’s capture from the Margry documents ; the
account given by La Salle in his letter of August
22, 1682 ; the account given in the work ascribed
to Tonty, and lastly the Report of Du Lhut to the
Marquis de Seignelay of his visit to the Sioux
country in which he relieved or rescued Hennepin.

I must express my thanks for valuable aid re¬
ceived from Mr. H. A. Homes, George H.
Moore, LL.D., and Gen. J. Watts de Peyster.

JOHN GILMARY SHEA.

Elizabeth, June 12, 1880.

CONTENTS-

Notice on Father Louis Hennepin,.

On the authenticity of Father Hennepin’s works,

Hennepin’s Description of Louisiana.

Dedication to Louis XIV 7 ,.

Royal Privilege,.

La Salle’s Earlier Explorations,.

Obtains grant of Fort Frontenac, .

Prepares for his Western Exploration,.

Sends men to Niagara,.

The Great Lakes — The Falls of Niagara,.

Begins fort and builds the Griffin,.

La Motte and Hennepin visit the Senecas,.

Loss of La Salle’s bark,.

Launching of the Griffin,.

She sails for the West,.

At Lake St. Clare,.

At Missilimakinac,...

At Green Bay,...

Sails back,.

La Salle proceeds in canoes,.

Trouble with Outagamis,.

At the mouth of the river of the Miamis,.

Builds a fort,.

Joined by Tonty,.

Ascends the river,.

Makes the portage to the Seignelay (Illinois),.

Reaches Illinois village,...

Reaches Illinois camp,.

Begins F ort Crevecocur and vessel,...

Sets out to learn fate of the Griffin,.

Hennepin and Accault set out,.

3 1

74
81

104

106

108

120

129

J 3 r

J 33

J 35

140

152

156

l 7S

188

192

CONTENTS.

Reach the Mississippi,... 194

Account of the upper Mississippi,. 196

Capture by Sioux,. 205

Reaches and names Falls of St. Antnony,... 220

Found by Du Lhut,. 253

Return by way of the Wisconsin,. 256

At Michilimakinac, . 259

Returns to Quebec and France,. 264

Latest intelligence of La Salle,. 271

The Manners of the Indians,. 273

Approbatory of the “ Description of Louisiana,” pub¬
lished on the “ Nouveau Voyage,” Utrecht, 1G98,... 340

Account of a voyage down the Mississippi, from the

Nouvelle Découverte, . 343

Account of Hennepin’s capture, from the Margry papers, 360
Account of Hennepin’s canoe exploration in La Salle’s

Letter of August 22, 1682,. 361

Account of Hennepin’s expedition in the work pub¬
lished in 1697, as by the Chevalier Tonty,. 372

Du Lhut’s Report to Monseigneur the Marquis de

Seignelay,. 374

Description of Niagara Falls, from the Nouvelle Dé¬
couverte, ... 377

Bibliography of Hennepin,... 382

Index,. 3Q3

NOTICE OF

FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN,

Recollect Missionary.

father Louis Hennepin was the first popular
writer on the French in America. Champlain,
Lescarbot, the Jesuits in their Relations had
written indeed but their works found no currency
beyond France. Hennepin’s works caught the
general fancy and were translated into almost
all the languages of Europe. But for him the
story of La Salle would scarcely have been known
even in France.

Of his early life he gives us little information.
He was born at Ath in Hainaut, as he assures us,
although Margry on the faith of documents, says
that he was really born at Roy, of a family which
came from Ath.

While still pursuing his studies he felt “ a strong

inclination to leave the world and to live in the

SKETCH OF

rule of pure strict virtue. With this view, says
he, “ I entered the order of Saint h rancis, in order
to spend my days there in a life of austerity. I
accordingly took the habit with several of my
fellow students, whom I inspired with the same
design.” *

He made his novitiate in the Recollect Con¬
vent at Béthune in the province of Artois, where
his Master of Novices was Father Gabriel de la
Ribourde, a man eminent alike for his high social
position and for a most exemplary life f and who
was destined at a later day to die lor the
faith, while laboring as a missionary in America.

“ As I advanced in age,” says he, “an inclination
for traveling in foreign parts strengthened in my
heart. One of my sisters who was married at
Ghent, and for whom I entertained a very strong
affection, used every argument indeed, to divert
me from this project, while I was in that great
city to which I had gone in order to learn

* Nouvelle Découverte, p. 8.

I Nouv. Décou v., pp. 488-9*

HENNEPIN.

1 I

Flemish. But I was urged by several of my
Amsterdam friends to go to the East Indies, and
my natural inclination to travel, supporting their
entreaties, shook my resolution greatly, and I
almost resolved to embark in order to gratify this
desire.”*

All my sister s remonstrances could not divert
me from my first design. I accordingly set out
to see Italy and by order of the General of our
order, I visited the finest churches and the most
important convents of our order in that country
and Germany, in which I began to satisfy my
natural curiosity. At last returning to our Nether¬
lands, the Rev. Father William Herinx, a Re¬
collect, who died not long since Bishop of Ipres f
opposed my project of continuing my travels.
He placed me in the convent of Halles in Hainaut
where I discharged the duty of a preacher for a
year. After that with my superior’s leave I went
* Ib -> PP- 9» io.

f He was bishop from Oct. 24, 1677, to Aug. 15, 1678,
Gams, Series Episcoporum.

SKETCH OF

to Artois, and was thence sent to Calais, during
the season for salting herrings.”

“In this place my strongest passion was to listen

to the stories which sea captains told of their long
voyages. I then returned to our convent of Biez

by Dunkirk : but I often hid behind the tavern
doors, while the sailors were talking over their
cruises. While thus endeavoring to hear them
the tobacco smoke sickened me terribly ; yet I
listened eagerly to all that these men told of their
adventures at sea, of the dangers they had en¬
countered, and the various incidents of their
voyages in foreign parts. I would have passed
whole days and nights without eating in this
occupation, which was so agreeable to me, because
I always learned something new about the manners
and mode of life of foreign nations, and touching
the beauty, fertility and riches of the countries
where these men had been.”

“ I accordingly was more and more confirmed
in my old inclination. With the view of grati¬
fying it the more, I went as a missionary to most

HENNEPIN. 13

of the cities of Holland, and at last halted at
Maestricht, where I remained about eight months.
There I administered the sacraments to more
than three thousand wounded. While there en¬
gaged in this occupation, I was several times in
great danger among these sick people. I was
even myself taken down with purples and dysen¬
tery, and was within an inch of the grave. But
God at last restored me my former health by the
care and aid of a very able Dutch physician.”

“ The following year, by an impulse of my zeal
I again devoted myself to labor for the salvation
of souls. I was then at the bloody battle of
Seneff” (Aug. 11, 1674), “ where so many men
perished by fire and steel. There I had abundant
occupation in relieving and comforting the poor
wounded men. And at last after enduring great
hardships and encountering extreme dangers in
sieges of cities, in trenches and on the field of
battle, where I exposed myself greatly for the
salvation of my neighbor, while the soldiers
breathed only blood and carnage, I beheld my-

14 SKETCH OF

self in a condition to satisfy my first inclina¬
tions.'’*

Canada had become for a second time a field
of labor for the Recollect missionaries. The
Count de Frontenac, Governor General, was
especially anxious to have them in the colony as
a balance to the Jesuits and the Bishop, who with
his secular clergy held very strict rules of morality,
especially on the point of selling liquor to the
Indians.

The King of France, Louis XIV, yielding to
the appeal of the Count de Frontenac, wrote to
him on the 22d of April, 1675. “I have sent
five Recollect religious to Canada to reinforce
the community of these religious already estab¬
lished there.

Father Hennepin was one of those selected. “I
then received orders,” he continues, “ from my
superiors to proceed to Rochelle in order to em¬
bark as a missionary for Canada, For two months

* Nouv. Découv. pp. IO—I2.

t Margry i, p. 251.

HENNEPIN.

I discharged the duties of parish priest two leagues

from that city, because I had been requested to
do so by the pastor of the place who was absent.”

“ At last,” proceeds Father Hennepin, “ I
abandoned myself entirely to Providence and
undertook this great sea voyage of twelve or thir¬
teen hundred leagues, the greatest and perhaps
the longest that is made on the ocean.”

“ I accordingly embarked with Messire Francis
de Laval, just then created Bishop of Petrae a in
partibus injideltum and subsequently made Bishop
of Quebec the Capital of Canada.”* Another
distinguished personage who made the voyage in
the same vessel was Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la
Salle, to whom Louis XIV, on the 13th of May,
1675, granted Fort Frontenac and whose vanity
he gratified with a patent of nobility.

* The See of Quebec was erected Oct. 1, 1674, and Mgr.
Laval, had been Bishop of Petræa since 1658. This part of
the Nouvelle Découverte seems suspicious and in the same
paragraph is the blunder which misled Greenhow, where the
text says that Hennepin was a missionary in Canada while
henelon, afterwards archbishop of Cambray resided there. It
was really Fénelon’s brother, Hennepin himself could not
h^ve made these errors.

SKETCH OF

1 6

The name of the vessel is not given nor the
date of sailing.*

Hennepin speaks of the perils of the voyage,
engagements in the Turkish vessels from Tunis
and Algiers which did all they could to capture
his vessel, but which were defeated. He saw a
combat between a sword fish and a whale, and
was filled with astonishment when he beheld the
fishermen of many different countries taking cod
off Newfoundland.

“ This sight,” he adds, “ gave great pleasure to
our crew, who numbered about one hundred, to
three-fourths of whom I administered the sacra¬
ments because they were Catholics. I performed
the divine office every calm day, and we then
sang the Itinerary in French set to music, after
we had said our evening prayers.’’j"

Avis au Lecteur p. 4, says that Hennepin came over
in 1676, but it is clear that he came in 1675, as Bishop Laval
whose fellow voyager he was, reached Quebec, September 1675.
Le Clercq, ii, p. 121, attended a meeting of the Council
of Quebec, Oct. 7, 1675. Edits et Ordonnances ii, p. 64, and
they must have sailed after May 19, 1675. See Edits et Ordon-
nances, ip. 81.

f Nouv. Découv., p. 15.

HENNEPIN. 17

Besides the sailors he had another little flock.
This was a number of girls sent over to settle in
Canada. His zeal for their spiritual good led to
an angry passage between him and La Salle.

“ This charge one day obliged me, while we
were at sea, to censure several girls who were on
board and were sent to Canada. They made a
great noise by their dancing and thus prevented
the sailors from getting their rest at night ; so
that I was obliged to reprimand them somewhat
severely, in order to oblige them to stop, and to
observe due modesty and tranquility.”

“ This afforded the Sieur Robert Cavelier de la
Salle an occasion of anger against me, which he
never forgot. He made a show of wishing to
uphold these girls in their amusement. He
could not refrain from telling me one day
somewhat angrily, that I acted like a pedant to¬
wards him and all the officers, and persons of
quality who were on the vessel, and who enjoyed
seeing these girls dance, since I criticised them
for trifles ; but Mgr Francis de Laval, created

I 8 SKETCH OF

first Bishop of Quebec, who made the voyage
with us, having given me the direction of these
girls, I thought I had a right to reply to the Sieur
de la Salle, that I had never been a pedant, a term
which, as all the world knows, signifies a man
of a foolish and impertinent turn of mind, and
who affects to display on all occasions, an ill
digested learning. I added moreover, that these
girls were under my direction, and that I thus had
a right to rebuke them and censure them as they
took on themselves too much liberty.

“This answer which I made with no other
view than to show the said Sieur de la Salle that
I was doing my duty, made him livid with anger,
and in fact he raged violently against me. I
contented myself with telling him, seeing him
thus disposed towards me, that he took things ill,
and that I had no intention of offending him, as
in fact it was not my design.”

“ Monsieur de Barrois, who had formerly been
secretary to the French ambassador in Turkey,
and who at this time filled the same post under

HENNEPIN.

l 9

the Count de Frontenac, seeing this affair, drew
me aside, and told me that I had inadvertently
put the Sieur de la Salle in a great passion, when
I told him that I had never been a pedant, be¬
cause he had plied the trade for ten or eleven
years while he was among the Jesuits and that
he had really been regent or teacher of a class,
among these religious.”

“I replied to the Sieur de Barrois that I had
said this very innocently ; that I had never known
that the Sieur de la Salle had lived in that famous
order ; that had I been aware of it, I should
doubtless have avoided uttering that word pedant
in addressing him ; that I knew it to be an offen¬
sive term, that, in fact, men generally expressed
by it an “ill polished savant” according to the
French expression of the Gentlemen of Port
Royal ; that thus I should have avoided using that
term, had I been better informed than I was
in regard to the life of the said Sieur de la Salle*

* § Nouv. Péc. Avis an Lecteur.

SKETCH OF

To this affair Hennepin attributes a life long
hostility of La Salle towards him, although we
see no traces of it in his Relation of Louisiana.

On reaching Canada he assures us that Bishop
Laval “ considering that during the voyage I had
displayed great zeal in my sermons and in my
assiduity in performing the divine office, and had
moreover prevented several women and girls, who
were sent over with us, from taking too much
liberty with the young men of our crew, to whose
hostility I thus frequently exposed myself,— these
reasons and several others obtained for me the
encomiums and good will of this illustrious bish¬
op. He accordingly obliged me to preach the
Advent and Lent in the cloister of the Hospital
Nuns of St. Augustine, in Quebec.”*

“ However, my natural inclination was not
satisfied with all this. I accordingly often went
twenty or thirty leagues from our residence to
visit the country. I carried on my back a little

* lb., p. 17, Mother Juchereau, in her Histoire de l’Hotel
Dieu says nothing of Hennepin under this year.

HENNEPIN.

chapel service and walked with large snow shoes,
but for which I should often have fallen into
fearful precipices where I should have been lost.
Sometimes, in order to relieve myself, I had my
little equipage drawn by a large dog that I took
along, and this I did the sooner to reach Three
Rivers, Saint Anne, Cap Tourmente, Bourg
Royal, Pointe de Levi and the Isle of St. Laurent.*
There I gathered in one of the largest cabins of
these places as many people as I could. Then I
admitted them to confession and holy communion.
At night I had usually only a cloak to cover me.
The frost often penetrated to my very bones. I
was obliged to light my fire five or six times
during the night for fear of being frozen to death ;
and I had only in very moderate quantities, the
food I needed to live, and to prevent my perish¬
ing with hunger on the way.”

“ During the summer I was forced to travel in

* Besides the places here enumerated he mentions elsewhere
44 Isle Percée where I lived in quality of a missionary a whole
summer for the benefit of the fishermen who came there every
year with several ships,”

22 SKETCH OF

a canoe to continue my mission,” “ because there
are no practicable roads in that country.” * “I
was sent as it were to try me, to a mission more
than ahundredand twenty leagues from Quebec.”!

His voyage to Fort Frontenac is described in
the following pages ; but in the Nouvelle Dé¬
couverte he says :

“I made several different voyages, sometimes
with Canadian settlers, whom we had drawn to
our Fort Catarokouy to live, sometimes with
Indians whom I had become acquainted with.
As I foresaw that they would excite the suspicion
of the Iroquois in regard to our discoveries, I
wished to see the Indians of their five Cantons.
I accordingly went among them with one of our
soldiers from said fort, making a journey of about
seventy leagues, and both having large snowshoes
on our feet, on account of the snow which is
abundant in that country during winter. I had

* Nouv. Déc., pp. 17-19.
t lb., p. 23.

HENNEPIN.

already some little knowledge of the Iroquois
language.”*

“We thus passed to the Honnehiouts Iroquois
and to the Honnontagez,f who received us very
well. This nation is the most warlike of all the
Iroquois.”

“Atlast wearrivedat theGanniekezor Agniez.+
This is one of the five Iroquois nations situated a
good day’s journey from the neighborhood of
New Netherland, now called New York.”

“We remained sometime among this last
nation and we lodged with a Jesuit Father, born
in Lyons, in order to transcribe a little Iroquois
dictionary. The weather having cleared ofr^ we
one day saw three Dutchmen arrive on horseback,
who came to the Iroquois as ambassadors for the
beaver trade. They had gone there by order of
Major Andris.” . . . . “ These gentlemen dis-

* pp. 25—6, I can find nothing in Canadian documents as to
his labors.

f Oneidas and Onondagas.

{ Mohawks.

SKETCH OF

2 +

mounted from their horses to make us get on them
and take us with them to New Orange in order
to regale me there. When they heard me speak
Flemish they showed me much friendship.
They then assured me that they would have been
glad to see me reside among them for the spiritual
consolation of several Catholics from our Low
Countries, who were in their settlements. I would
have done so willingly since they requested it,
but I feared to give umbrage to the Jesuits, who
had received me very well, and moreover I
feared I might injure the colony of Canada in its
beaver and fur trade with the Indians, whom I
knew. We accordingly thanked these worthy
Hollanders, and returned to our ordinary abode
at Catarokouy, with less difficulty than in going.”*

* This visit to the Mohawks and encounter with the Dutch
was in April, 1677, and is confirmed by N. Y. Col. Doc., iv,
p. 689, ix, p. 720. It has generally been inferred from the
language that he visited Albany, but this is controverted by
Brodhead, History of New York ii, p. 307. Historical Maga¬
zine 10, p. 268. The Jesuit missionary whom he visited was
Father James Bruyas, and he copied his M Racines Agniéres,”

HENNEPIN. 25

From Fort Catarocouy his subsequent journey-
ings are given in the following pages which
describe La Salle’s expedition to Niagara, Mich-
ilimakinac. Green Bay, the Fort of the Miamis,
and Crevecœur. Then after La Salle’s departure,
his own expedition with Ako down the Illinois to
the Mississippi and up to the falls of St. Anthony,
descending then to the Wisconsin, thence by way
of Green Bay back to the Saint Lawrence, and
Quebec.

Taking passage to France he reached that
country again in 1681 or 1682. He wrote the
following work in the latter year. It was regis¬
tered September 10, 1682, and the printing com¬
pleted on the 5th of January, thereafter.

During this time he was apparently at the
convent at St. Germain-en-Laye. After this he
was Vicar and Acting Superior of the Recollects

“ Mohawk Radical Words,” which nearly t(vo centuries after
I also copied and published in 1863. This work is the source
of Hennepin’s Iroquois, and an example in one of Bruyas’
works, is made a ground of accusation against the Jesuits. See
Margry 1, p. 321, 394
3

2Ô

SKETCH OF

at Chateau Cambrésis, where he was visited by
his old companion Father Zenobius Membré.

He was, he tells us in the Nouvelle Découverte,
Guardian of the Recollects at Renti in Artois for
three years, and during that time almost rebuilt
the convent, but having declined to return to the
American mission at the request of F. Hyacinth
le Fevre, Commissary Provincial of the Recollects
of Paris, who claimed jurisdiction as Royal Com¬
missary over all the Recollects in the Netherland
provinces captured from Spain, that Superior be¬
came his enemy. He prevented F. Hennepin
from accompanying F. Alexander Voile, pro¬
minister of the Recollects of Artois to Rome to
attend a chapter of the order, and then ordered
him to return to the Recollect convent at St.
Omer. This was followed by an order obtained
from Mr. de Louvois, first minister of State,
ordering Hennepin to leave French territory and
return to the dominions of his own sovereign, the
King of Spain.

Hennepin appealed to King Louis XIV, pre-

HENNEPIN.

2 7

senting a placet to him, detailing his trials, while
the king was encamped at the chapel of Harle-
mont. Louis XIV, placed it in the hands of the
Grand Provost of the Court and it was lost sight of.

After this Father Hennepin was, he tells us.
Confessor of the Recollect Nuns (Penitents) at
Gosselies. During his nearly five years’ stay here,
he states that he built a very fine church, doubly
vaulted, a very convenient parlor, and several
other edifices. This was attested, he declares, by
a certificate of the nuns and by their letters to the
General Chapter.

He was not however left in peace. F. Louis
le Pevre wished to incorporate him in the
province of Flanders, declaring that Gosselies
was in French territory. This he denies and
affirms that he was there by virtue of a lettre de
cachet of the King of Spain.

He gained the friendship of Blaithwayt, Sec¬
retary of War to William III who obtained a
safeguard for the nuns, which saved their con¬
vent from pillage on several occasions.

SKETCH OF

Blaithwayt wrote in the name of William III,
to the Father Rennére de Payez, Commissary
General of the Recollects at Louvain, asking him
to send Hennepin to the American mission, but
as there was no immediate response, Hennepin
solicited the blessing of Monsignor Scarlati, in¬
ternuncio at Brussels, and receiving it at Ath, pro¬
ceeded to Louvain with a letter from bather
Bonaventure Poerius, General of his order (Mar.
31, 1696), assuring the Father that the Commis¬
sary would do all that was fair.

The Commissary wrote to the Baron de Mal-
quenech, and to Mr. de Coxis and sent Hennepin
to the Recollect Convent at Antwerp, where Mr.
Hill, envoy extraordinary of his Britannic Maj¬
esty, furnished him money to purchase the
ordinary clothing of gentlemen.

Some allude to this as though Hennepin aban¬
doned his order, but he seems to have acted with
the express permission of his superiors.

He then set out for Amsterdam in company
with a Venetian ship captain, but they were

HENNEPIN.

2 9

stopped between Antwerp and Mordick by six
horsemen who robbed them of all their money.
By the help of some friends he managed how¬
ever to reach Loo, and the Hague, where he
was very well received by Blaithwayt and had an
audience with William III. He finally reached
Amsterdam and endeavored to obtain a publisher,
but the volume, that was to prove one of the most
popular yet issued on America, did not seem a safe
venture and with the consent of the Earl of
Athlone, Hennepin journeyed to Utrecht. There
William Broedelet undertook the work, and it
appeared in 1697, in a duodecimo of 586 pages
with an engraved title page, in which as though
he claimed the nobility that La Salle obtained
for all his men, he is styled Louis de Hennepin,
although on the printed title he is still the modest
commoner Louis Hennepin.

He dedicates the work to William III in terms
of flattery as extravagant as those with which he
placed his former volume under the protection of
Louis XIV.

SKETCH OF

Willing now to return to America as a mission¬
ary, he sought the support of William III, not as
the overthrower of the Catholic King of England,
but as the ally of Catholic Spain and Catholic
Bavaria, and the protector of the Spanish Nether-
land.

After publishing a third book at Amsterdam,
in 1698, in which he complains of the hostility
to him of some people in that city, he apparently
made new efforts to return to Canada, a: a dis¬
patch of Louis XIV, to the Governor of the
province in 1699, orders that officer to arrest
Hennepin and send him back to Rochefort.*

The last allusion to him now traced is in a
letter of J. B. Dubos to Thouinard, written at
Rome, March 1, 1701, in which Father Henne¬
pin is said to have been then at the convent of
Aracoeli in Rome, and to have induced Cardinal
Spada, whose favor he enjoyed to found a new
mission in the Mississippi country, where Father
Hennepin hoped to renew his earlier labors.f

* N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, p. 701.

f Brunet, 2 p. 539. Historical Magazine, 1 p. 316.

HENNEPIN.

J. B. Foppens, a bibliographer of the last
century in his Bibliotheca Belgica, Brussels, 1739
(vol. ii, pp. 832-3) says that Hennepin wrote also
“ La Morale Pratique du Jansénisme avec un
Appel comme d’abus au Pope Innocent XII.”

Researches in Belgium, Holland and Rome have
failed to throw any further light on his personal
history. The annalists of his order have gathered
nothing, and the local histories of the places in
which he passed an occasional term of years pre¬
serve no details as to him.

My own efforts, like those of the Hon. Henry
C. Murphy some years since, have been fruitless.

Hennepin was from the first very freely
attacked, and in our day scholars have impeached
his character for truth with very little ceremony.

La Salle in his letter of August, 1682, which
gives no very high idea of his own veracity, wish¬
ing to forestal any representations of Hennepin
that would make him a prisoner among the Sioux
rescued by Du Lhut, when he wished him to
appear as an explorer of the Sioux country before

SKETCH OF

3 2

Du Lhut, says : “ It is necessary to know him
somewhat, for he will not fail to exaggerate every¬
thing ; it is his character * yet La Salle else¬
where appeals to his testimony,-)' and in this letter
shows a disposition to sacrifice Hennepin’s cha¬
racter to further his own interested views.

The eminent Sulpitian, the Rev. Mr. Tronson,
writing to the Abbé Belmont at Montreal,
speaking of Father Membre, says, in 1683 : “I
do not know whether men will believe all he
says, any more than they will all that is in the
printed Relation of Father Louis, which I send
you that you may make your reflections on it.” J

The Acta Eruditorum, Leipsic, 1683, pp. 374,
etc., gives a long summary of the Description de
la Louisiane, and raises no charge against it.

Father Le Clercq refers to Hennepin and his
first work in terms of praise in 1691 ; but De vj

* lb., p. 230.

t Margry ii, p. 259.

Î Margry ii, p. 305.

§ Etablissement de la Foi, ii, pp. 114, j6o, 161.

HENNEPIN.

Michel, the editor of Joutel in 1713, says:
“ Father Hennepin, a Fleming, of the same order
of Recollects, who seems to know the country
well, and who took part in great discoveries ;
although the truth of his Relations is very much
contested. He is the one who went northward
towards the source of the Missicipi, which he
called Mechasipi, and who printed at Paris a Re¬
lation of the countries around that river under the
name of Louisiana. He should have stopped there
and not gone on, as he did in Holland, to issue
another edition much enlarged, and perhaps not
so true, which he dedicated to William III,
Prince of Orange, then king of Great Britain, a
design as odd as it was ridiculous in a religious,
not to say worse. For after great long eulogies
which he makes in his dedication of this Pro¬
testant prince, he begs and conjures him to think
of these vast unknown countries, to conquer them,
send colonies there and obtain for the Indians, the
knowledge of the true God and of his worship
and to cause the gospel to be preached. This

34-

sketch of

good religious whom many on account of his
extravagance, falsely believed to have become an
apo.-tate, had no thought of such a thing. So he

scandalized the Catholics and set the Huguenots
laughing. For would these enemies of the

Roman church pay Recollects to go to Canada
to preach Popery as they called it? Or would
they carry any religion but their own ? And
Father Hennepin, can he in that case offer any
excuse.” *

Still later Father Charlevoix says of his works :
“ All these works are written in a declamatory
style, which offends by its turgidity and shocks by
the liberties which the author takes and his un¬
becoming invectives. As for the substance of
matters Father Hennepin thought he might take
a traveler’s license, hence he is much decried in
Canada, those who had accompanied him having
often protested that he was anything but veritable
in his histories.” f

* Journal Historique, p. 363.

t Histoire de la Nouvelle France, i, p. Iiv.

HENNEPIN.

In our own time and country. Sparks showed
how the Nouvelle Découverte was made up from
Le Clercq, and Bancroft, Parkman, and most
of our historical students agree in impeach¬
ing his veracity. This charge rested on the
Nouvelle Découverte, while the Description de la
Louisiane was as generally received as authentic.

Thomassy, in his Géologie Pratique de la Lou -
isiane gave a narrative of the voyage down the
Mississippi as La Salle’s, which coincided with
that given by Le Clercq, as written by Father
Zenobius Membre. Then Margry gives a narra¬
tive covering the whole ground of Hennepin’s
first book, which he ascribes to La Salle, and he
says: “ It is certain that Father Hennepin knew
this document, from which he made many ex¬
tracts, but this could be no reason for our not
publishing it, first because the author of the Des¬
cription de la Louisiane often intermingles error
with his statements* and also because he left

* After studying the work carefully, I cannot discover the
errors, unless the misprint of peroquets for pirogues justified the
charge. But Margry’s own blunders are even worse.

3 6

SKETCH OF

Cavelier de la Salle about twenty-two months
before the time when our manuscript closes.
There was moreover a real interest in verifying
the plagiarisms of the man who was subsequently
to attempt to deprive the discoverer of the honor
of his labors,” etc.* Subsequently j* in conse¬
quence of a misprint in Hennepin of perroquets
for pirogues he repeats the charge of plagiarism,
though as he himself prints Gamier for Gravier,
Le Noble for Zenobe , and embuscade for ambass¬
ade he ought not to be too severe.

This charge that the Description de la Louisiane
was copied from the document now given by
Margry has been taken up in this country with¬
out sufficient examination : but it is really too
shallow even for such an utterly uncritical mind
as Margry’s to be pardoned for putting forth.

This Relation des Descouvertes is anonymous
and undated. Margry himself asks whether it
was written by La Salle himself or “ only by a

* Margry ii, p. 435 n.
t P- 467 > n -

HENNEPIN.

learned ecclesiastic, by means of letters addressed
by the discoverer to some one of his friends or
associates.” Elsewhere he gives his opinion that
it is the work of the Abbé Bernou ; but as he
was never in America, he could only be a com¬
piler, and must have used Hennepin’s work, and
it is necessary only to read a letter of Bernou in
Margry iii, p. 74, to see what an unscrupulous
intriguer Bernou was. If we analyze this
Margry document we find it forms three dis¬
tinct divisions, 1st an account of LaSalle’s ope¬
rations down to his and Hennepin’s departure
from Fort Crevecœur ; 2d an account of Hen¬
nepin’s voyage up the Mississippi and through
the Wisconsin to Green Bay. 3d an account of
La Salle’s return to Fort Frontenac, his second
visit to Illinois and his operations to 1681.

Now as Hennepin was with La Salle or his
party during the first period, he was competent
to keep ajournai of events, that might be written
out in one form as La Salle’s official report, and
in another as the missionary’s report to his own

superiors. As to the second part Margry asks us
to accept the preposterous idea that La Salle
possessed by some supernatural means the know¬
ledge of all that Hennepin saw and did after
leaving him at Fort Crevecoeur, that La Salle
committed this knowledge to writing, and that
Hennepin, instead of describing what he saw and
did as an eye witness, stole his account from this
wonderful document of La Salle. La Salle him¬
self acknowledges the receipt of letters from
Hennepin and insists on the reality of his dis¬
covery ; and to uphold it as against Du Lhut in¬
sists that Hennepin exaggerated in making out
that he was a prisoner. As La Salle himself
admits that his knowledge of this part came from
Hennepin, he has already refuted Margry’s
absurd idea that Hennepin stole this from him.

As to the third part, there is nothing of it in
Hennepin, so that Margry’s charge depends en¬
tirely on the first part ; and he utterly fails to
explain how Hennepin refrained from any pla¬
giarism of the third part.

HENNEPIN.

The reader will see in the following pages that
Margry’s document in the first part agrees pretty
closely with Hennepin, omitting comparatively
little, while it abridges the second part greatly.

The whole question is confined therefore to
the first part, and as to that there is a simple test.
If the narrative describes in detail events that
befel the party while La Salle was absent and
alludes briefly to what La Salle did, the narrative
is Hennepin’s ; if on the contrary it follows La
Salle’s actions day by day and alludes generally
to what the party was doing in his absence, it
must be La Salle’s.

Now the Margry Relation follows the party
in which Hennepin was from Fort Frontenac
to Niagara, gives La Motte’s visit to the Senecas
and then alludes briefly to La Salle’s having been
wrecked, but does not mention the fact that he
had previously visited the Senecas and effected
what La Motte had failed to accomplish. Every
person of sense will admit that this is not La
Salle’s account but Hennepin’s.

SKETCH OF

Later on La Salle’s return to Fort Frontenac,
his troubles with his creditors, his visit to the
colony are all noticed briefly, while the affairs on
the Niagara are detailed. This part is evidently
not La Salle’s.

The account of the portage leading to the
Illinois river, where La Salle was separated from
his party is not his personal account, but of one
like Hennepin with the main body.

These cases and minor ones all tend to show
that it is not La Salle’s narrative but Hennepin’s.

La Salle apparently took the Recollects to
chronicle his doings. Hennepin kept ajournai;
Membre did also, as Le Clercq assures us ; Joutel
tells us that he seized and destroyed memoirs of
Father Maxime le Clercq.* Why La Salle
always had such an array of priests with him is a
mystery. If from first to last he was led by
Penalosa’s curious account of his journey to
the Mississippi from New Mexico, to attempt
the conquest of some of the rich mines, as he

* Le Clercq ii, p. 167. Joutel p. 148.

HENNEPIN

undoubtedly was aiming at, when he landed in
Texas, we can understand that the priests would
help to relieve the expedition from suspicion, and
prevent harsh measures on the part of the Spani¬
ards, as the priests were all Spanish subjects.*

Otherwise it is not easy to understand why,
when Frontenac was appealing for Recollects to
serve in the colony and be more indulgent
spiritual guides than the Jesuits and the secular
clergy, he should send five off" to accompany an
exploring expedition thousands of miles. While
Canada was suffering for want of priests. La
Salle’s grand army of eleven men including him¬
self and his valet, sailed from Green Bay with
three Recollect priests, to minister to their
spiritual wants.

Every view of the question confirms the
opinion that the narrative is really Hennepin’s ;

* The charge made by Hennepin that La Salle was aiming
at the Santa Barbara mines was long put down as a falsehood
and a slander on La Salle. Yet now with the official docu¬
ments of the French government, the papers of Beaujeu and
Dainmaville’s account, it is evident that Hennepin was right.

SKETCH OF

4.2*

and that the document in Margry was compiled
from it by an unknown hand.

Only one question remains, and that is whether
Margry’s anonymous compiler plagiarized from
a document drawn up by Hennepin in America,
or from his printed work.

Hennepin publishing his book at Paris, very
naturally mentions the fact that his fellow trave¬
ler Antoine Auguelle, known by the soubriquet
of Le Picard du Gay, was at that time actually
in Paris, appealing as it were to his testimony in
confirmation of his statements. Yet in the
Margry Relation (i, p. 478), it mentions that
the Picard “ is at present in Paris.” Now how
could La Salle who did not see Hennepin or
Auguelle after their return, know exactly in
what part of France Auguelle was? The state¬
ment is perfectly irreconcileable with the idea
that this document was written by La Salle in
America ; and the fact that it appears in the
Margry Relation seems to show that its compiler
used Hennepin’s book without giving credit, and

HENNEPIN

+ 3 *

used, not a draft or copy made in America, but
the edition printed in Paris but had not the
honesty to cite Hennepin and refer to him. A
careful comparison of the first and second parts
of Margry’s Relation with Hennepin’s Descrip¬
tion de la Louisiane , 1683, will satisfy any one
that the vaunted Margry document is a mere
plagiarism from Hennepin’s first work as far as
it goes.

Now what is the credit to be given to Henne¬
pin’s work here given ? It will not do to assert
that it is not trustworthy and say that Margry’s
Relation is. They are so near alike that if one
is not trustworthy, the other is not.

In the following pages references are made to
documents of La Salle, Tonti and others relating
to the same events. In not a single case is Hen¬
nepin contradicted or shown to be in error. Mr.
Parkman alluding to the claims set up in the
Nouvelle Découverte says : “ they are not in the
early editions of Hennepin which are compara¬
tively truthful.” “ Hennepin’s account of the

SKETCH OF

44 *

falls and river of Niagara, especially his second
account on his return from the west, is very
minute and on the whole very accurate.” “ His
distances on the Niagara are usually correct,”
‘Hennepin’s account of the buffalo is interesting
and true.” “ Fortunately there are tests by which
the earlier parts of his book can be tried ; and
on the whole they square exceedingly well with
contemporary records of undoubted authenticity.
Bating his exaggerations respecting the Falls of
Niagara, his local descriptions, and even his
estimates of distance are generally accurate.”*
“ As for his ascent of that river (Mississippi) to
the country of the Sioux, the general statement
is fully confirmed by allusions of Tonty and other
contemporary writers. For the details of the
journey, we must rest on Hennepin alone;
whose account of the country and of the peculiar
traits of its Indians afford, as far as they go, good
evidence of truth.”

Such is the testimony of Parkman given at
various points of his work.

* Discovery of the Great West p. 124, 126, 133, 155, 228.

HENNEPIN

+ 5 *

Hennepin is certainly the first who gave Da¬
kota words : and he gives them accurately as
will be seen by the reference to Riggs’ Dakota
Dictionary. Parkman who lived for some weeks
in a Sioux lodge says that a variety of trivial in¬
cidents mentioned by Hennepin are perfectly in
accordance with usage. In regard’to Hennepin’s
Dakota terms he says : “These words as far as
my information reaches, are in every instance
correct. Even the word Louis, which Hennepin
says signifies the sun, is no invention. “ The
Yankton band of this people, however, call the
sun oouee,” which, it is evident, represents the
French pronunciation of Louis, omitting the
initial letter.*

The only charges that remain are that he was
vain, boastful and exaggerated.

His vanity must be admitted. Not even
superior of thelittle band of missionaries, he makes
himself a kind of joint commander with La Salle:
and his vanity leads him to exaggerate his own
* lb., p. 228-9.

SKETCH OF

46*

deeds. But except in the estimate of the height
of Niagara Falls, where Tonty is equally in error,
his figures are accurate.

The Description de la Louisiane is valuable,
though we must bear in mind the real position
of the writer.

His next book the “ Nouvelle Découverte ”
contains the famous addition where he claims to
have descended to the mouth, before going up to
the Sioux country.

A careful examination of this volume, which
is in the following pages compared closely with
the Description reveals some points heretofore
overlooked.

The book was not published, as originally
printed, and seems to have been set up in two
different offices. From page 313 where the
account of his voyage up to the Sioux begins, the
chapters have arabic numbers, while in the pre¬
vious part of the book, they have Roman numerals:
the line at the top of the page omits a letter and
an accent, and the type generally seems more

HENNEPIN.

47 *

worn and the spacing is different. Practical
printers and bibliographers alike agree that the
two portions have every appearance of being
printed in different offices.

Before this point there are ten pages all num-
bered 313*; so that certainly these were printed
after the book was complete, and there is nothing
to show but what much more was printed as an
afterthought.

This much is clear regarding the Nouvelle Dé¬
couverte merely from the mechanical point of view.

Examining the matter, we find that the book
introduces a great deal of personal detail and
generally expands the narrative, but it substan¬
tially follows the Description de la Louisiane down
to p. 216. Then with no apparent reason six
pages are taken from La Clercq’s Etablissement
de la Foi (ii, pp. 173-181), when Hennepin him¬
self could have given a better account. It then
follows his first work to p. 247-8, where the pre¬
tended voyage down is introduced and the voyage
described in terms taken from Le Clercq (ii, p.

SKETCH OF

216). This matter continues to the last of the
pages marked 31 3*» ail d ma y a ll have been printed
after the book had actually been completed in its
original form. On its very face Hennepin can
scarcely be held absolutely responsible for a book
thus tampered with.

Hennepin had been on the Mississippi and had
heard reports of the lower river from the Indians,
he might easily have drawn up a plausible account
of a voyage down ; he would have had no reason
to take Membré’s account and garble it. There
are, moreover, actual errors in the book that
Hennepin would not have made. He knew the
country too well to make a nation Ouadebache,
to give name to the river ; he would not have
made “sasacouest,” the Algonquin word for war-
cry which the French had adopted, pass muster
as a Chickasaw word meaning : “ Who goes
there?” Hennepin might like La Salle dispute
Jolliet’s priority, but he would scarcely make
Jolliet disavow having sailed down the Mississppi.

HENEPIN.

49 *

The place where he refers to his girdle as being
worn as a cord of St. Francis would scarcely be
written by a Franciscan.

This intrusive matter cannot therefore abso-
jutely be ascribed to Hennepin, and he be called
a liar because it is false.

Hennepin was disappointed in finding a pub¬
lisher at Amsterdam, and at Utrecht may have
been required by Broedelet to put his book
with the additional matter into the hands of some
literary hack to edit. The whole book has been
re-written and there are traces of another
hand in various parts, in some cases making what
is accurate and clear in the first book, unintelli¬
gible in the second. On p. 14 it reads: “I
then embarked with Messire Francis de Laval
then created Bishop of Petræa in partibus infide-
lium .” In the Avis au Lecteur it reads : “ I was
sent to Canada as a missionary in the year 1676.”
“ I made it (my travels) in North America from

5 °*

SKETCH OF

the year 1679 to 1682, when I returned to
Quebec.” “ I published a part of my voyage at
Paris, in the year 1688.”

Now he really came over in 1675 ; Mgr. Laval
had just been made Bishop of Quebec, and as
Hennepin came in the same vessel he could not
forget the fact. He returned to Quebec in
1681, and published his first book in 1683. We
cannot suppose that Hennepin himself could
possibly make such a series of blunders. He would
not apply the recognized Protestant term pasteur
to a Catholic curé, nor would he have altered his
accurate account of the cove where the Griffin
anchored at Michilimakinac, so as to lose all
value in the second book.

At this time English projects of expeditions
to the mouth of the Mississippi were attracting
attention,* and the careless irresponsible editor
whose additions had already injured the work,

* See Coxe’s Carolana, London 1727. Preface.

HENNEPIN.

5 1 *

may have sought to increase the popularity of
the book, by suppressing part and inserting a
voyage down to the mouth of the Mississippi, so
as to make the volume bear directly on a question
of the day.

That this addition really helped to commend
it to public favor, will be readily seen by the
result.

The Nouvelle Découverte was reprinted at
Amsterdam in 1698, in French, and issued in
Dutch in 1698 and 1699. The Nouveau Voyage

under his name came out at Utrecht in the same
year 1698, made up from Le Clercq and con¬
taining the Indian matter of the “ Description de
la Louisiane ” omitted in the “ Nouvelle Décou¬
verte.”

The two books are embraced in the “ New
Discovery ,” of which two editions appeared in
London in 1698, and another edition in 1699, in
which year also a Spanish summary of the
Nouvelle Découverte appeared.

SKETCH OF

52*

To sum up all, the case stands thus: “The
Description of Louisiana ” by Father Hennepin,
is clearly no plagiarism from La Salle’s account,
and on the contrary the so called La Salle Re¬
lation, is an anonymous undated plagiarism from
Hennepin’s book, and moreover the Description
of Louisiana, is sustained by contemporary evi¬
dence and by the topography of the country, and
our knowledge of the language and manners of
the Sioux. It shows vanity in its author, but no
falsification. So far as it goes it presents Henne¬
pin as truthful and accurate.

A later work shows a suppression after print¬
ing, introduction of new and untrue matter, and
the evident hand of an ignorant editor. For this
book as finally published, Hennepin cannot be
held responsible, nor can he justly be stigmatized
as mendacious by reason of its false assertions.

The third book is evidently by the same editor
as the second, and the defence which it puts

HENNEPIN.

53*

forward in Hennepin’s name cannot alter the
facts, or make the original author responsible.

In view of all this, it seems that now at least
the case of Hennepin should be heard with more
impartiality ; and we call for a rehearing in the
view of documents now accessible, under the
conviction that our earlier judgments were too

DESCRIPTION

LOUISIANA

description

DE LA

LOUISIANE,

NOUVELLEMENT DECOUVERTE
au Sud Oü.lt de la Nouvelle France,

PAR ORDRE DU ROY.

Av tel a Carte du Pays : Les Maure
& la Maniéré de vivre
des Sauvages.

DEDIE’E A SA MAJESTE’

Par le R. P. Loui s Hennepin,
Miffionnaire Recollet &
Notaire Apoflolique.

A PARIS,

Chez la Veuve Sbbastiïn Hur»’, rue
Saint Jacques, à l’Image S, Jaôme,
prés S. Scvenn,

M. DC. L XXX III.

^VEC PRIVILEGE D7 ROT.

PARIS.

The Widow of Sebastian Hur£, Rue
St. Jacques, at the Picture of St.
Terome near St. Severin.

1683

WITH THE ROYAL PRIVILEGE.

TO THE KING.

Sire :

I never should have ventured to take the
liberty of offering to your Majesty the Relation
of a new Discovery which the Sieur de la Salle,
Governor of Fort Frontenac, my Companions and
myself, have just made southwest of New France,
had it not been undertaken by your orders, and
had not the glory of obeying so glorious a
Monarch, in an employment having in view the
conversion of the heathen, led me into this enter-
prize.

It is in this thought, Sire, that I undertook so
long and so painful a voyage, without fearing the
greatest dangers. I even venture to assure your
Majesty, that the bloody death of one of my Re¬
collect companions, massacred by those savages, a
captivity of eight months in which I have seen my
life cruelly exposed, could not weaken my courage,
having always made it a consolation amid mv

EPISTLE.

hardships, to labor for a God, whom I wished to
see known and adored by these nations, and for
a King whose glory and whose virtues are un¬
bounded.

It is clear, Sire, that as soon as we have been able
to tame them and win their friendship, the par¬
tial account we have given them of your Most
Christian Majesty’s heroic virtues, your surprizing
actions in your conquests, the happiness and love
of your subjects, has inclined them to receive
more readily the principles of Gospel truths and
to reverence the cross which we have carved on
trees above your Arms, as a mark of the con¬
tinual protection which you give the Christian
religion, and to make them remember the prin¬
ciples which we have happily taught them.

We have given the name of Louisiana* to this
great Discovery, being persuaded that your
Majesty would not disapprove that a part of

* As for the credit of naming Louisiana, see La Salle’s Grant
of an island to François Daupin, Sieur de la Forest, June 10,
1679. Margry ii, p. 21, where the term Louisiana is used.

EPISTLE.

the earth watered by a river more than eight
hundred leagues in length, and much greater than
Europe, which we may call the Delight of Ame¬
rica and which is capable of forming a great
Empire, should henceforth be known under the
august name of Louis, that it may thereby have
some show of right to aspire to the honor of your
protection, and hope for the advantage of belong¬
ing to you.

It seems, Sire, that God had destined you to be
its Master, by the happy correspondence that there
is between your glorious name and the Sun, which
they call Louis in their language, and to which
in token of their respect and adoration, they
extend their pipe before smoking, with these
words: Tchendiouba * Louis, that is to say
“ Smoke O Sun.” Thus your Majesty’s name

* Riggs gives in his Dakota Dictionary pp. 40—i, Chandu-
hupa, a Dakota pipe, evidently Hennepin’s word : and wi, the
sun or moon, lb. p. 240, equivalent to the French out ; in Yank¬
ton uwi, Parkman’s Discovery, p. 229; equivalent to the
french ouis (oo-we) and approaching nearer to Louis.

EPISTLE.

is every moment on their lips, as they do nothing
till they have rendered homage to the Sun under
this name of Louis.

After that, Sire, no one will doubt that it is a
secret mystery of Providence which has reserved
to your care and your piety, the glory of causing
the Light of Faith to be borne to these blind
ones, and of drawing them from the darkness in
which they would always have lived, had not
your Majesty, more devoted to the service of God
and religion than to the government of your States,
honored us with this pious task, while you labor
successfully for the destruction of heresy.

I implore of heaven, Sire, that the happiness
which attends the justice of your actions, may
crown such noble, grand and holy undertakings.
These are the prayers and vows which all the
Recollects of your kingdom offer to God at the
foot of the Altars, and especially myself, who
only desire to have the happiness of continuing
to render your Majesty the service which I vowed

EPISTLE.

to you at the time of the Campaigns in Holland,
where I had the happiness of following your
sacred person as a missionary, my greatest passion
being to worship my God, to serve my King and
to give him marks of the zeal and the most
profound respect with which I am, Sire,

Your Majesty’s most humble, most
obedient and most faithful subject
and servant.

F. Louis Hennepin,

Recollect Missionary.

Extract From The Royal Privilege.

By the grace and privilege of the King, given
at Chaville, September 3d, 1682, signed by the
King in his Council, Junquières, it is permitted
to the Widow of Sebastian Huré, late book¬
seller at Paris, to cause to be printed a book en¬
titled Description of Louisiana, a Country
newly discovered in North America, composed
by the Rev. Father Louis Hannepin, Recollect
Missionary and Apostolic Notary, lor the time
and space of twenty consecutive years, to date
from the day when the printing of said book is
completed for the first time. And prohibition
to all publishers and others to print, sell and cir¬
culate, under any pretext whatever, even of
foreign edition or otherwise, without the con¬
sent of the said publisher or her representatives,
under the penalty of 3,000 livres fine, payable
without deposits, by each offender, confiscation
of copies, counterfeits, and all expenses, damages

and interest, as is more amply set forth in said
privilege.

Registered on the book ot the Community of
Booksellers and Printers of Paris, September
loth, 1682, according to the Arrêt of Parliament,
April 8, 1653, and that of the King’s Privy
Council, Feb. 27, 1665.

(Signed) Angot, Syndic.

Printing for the first edition completed January 5th, 1683.

DESCRIPTION

LOUISIANA

NEWLY DISCOVERED SOUTHWEST OF NEW FRANCE,
BY ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY.

It is some years* since the Sieur Robert Cave¬
lier de la Salle was convinced from the informa¬
tion which he had derived from several Indians
of various nations that important establishments
might be made in a southwesterly direction,
beyond the great lakes, and that even by means
of a great river which the Iroquois call Hohio,

* This is followed closely by the “ Relation des descouvertes
et des voyages du Sieur de la Salle, seigneur et gouverneur du
fort de Frontenac, au delà des grands lacs de la Nouvelle
France, faits par l’ordre de Monseigneur Colbert 1679—80—81.’’
Margry 1, p. 435, etc.

A DESCRIPTION

which empties into Meschasipi, which in the
language of the Islinois means great river,* one
could penetrate even to the sea.

With this design he purchased a house on the
Island of Montreal, at the spot called la Chine,
where they embark to ascend higher up along
the great river St. Lawrence; he subsequently
imparted his idea to Monsieur de Courcelles,
Governor of New France, who found it well
grounded, and who for this reason encouraged
him to carry it out ; he made several voyages,
sometimes with Frenchmen, sometimes with
Indians, and even for a distance of a hundred
leagues, to the end of Lake Frontenac with Mes¬
srs. Dolier and Galinée, priests of St. Sulpice, in
the year 1669, but a violent fever compelled the
latter to leave them as they entered Lake de
Comty, and the former sometime afterwards were
compelled by other unforeseen accidents to layup
among the Onttaouactzf and to return to Canada

* The Relation in Margry gives none of these interpretations.
It says : “some Indians call Ohio, others Mississipi.

-j- Ottawas.

OF LOUISIANA. 53

without their having ever since dreamed of carry¬
ing out their first design, the Providence of God
having thus permitted it and reserved it to the
religions of our order.*

The Sieur de Courcelles and the Sieur Talon,
the very vigilant Intendant of New France, wrote
urging him to continue his discoveries, and a
favorable opportunity offered.

After the Sieur Tracy sent by the King to
Canada in 1665, had forced the Iroquois to sue for
peace, he deemed it necessary in order to keep in
check these savages, to erect some forts in the
places by which the Iroquois had been accustomed
to pass, in order to come and attack our settle¬
ments. With this view. Forts Sorel and Cham-
bly were built on Richelieu river, which empties
into the Saint Lawrence ; and some years later
Fort Frontenac was erected one hundred and
twenty leagues further South near the outlet of

* For this expedition see Faillon, Histoire de la Colonie
Française, 3 pp. 286-306, Dollier de Casson, Histoire de Mon¬
treal, pp. 198-9. An anonymous document in Margry (1, p.
377), misrepresents it most audaciously. See “ Margry’s La
Salle Bubble Bursted.”

54 A DESCRIPTION

Lake Frontenac or Ontario which means Beauti¬
ful Lake *

Thisf fort was sodded and surrounded by
palisades and four bastions by the care of the
Count de Frontenac, governor general of the
country, to resist the Iroquois and this gallant
nobleman for the ten years of his administration
has made himself beloved, by the awe with which
he inspired these savages, by planting Fort Fron¬
tenac which is situated within their country, and
by this fortress he has revived in America the
name of his ancestors, who were the favorites of
one of our greatest Kings, Henry IV, and gover¬
nors of the castle of St. Germain en Laye, and
without disparaging the Governors General who
preceded him, this one has been the lather of the
poor, the protector of the oppressed, and a perfect
model of piety and religion. Those who come
after us in Canada will regret him and admire

*Ontara, lake ; Ontario, beautiful lake.

f This paragraph is not in Margry. The barracks near the
western end of Cataraqui bridge, at Kingston, mark the sue o
the French fort. Parkman, p. 83.

OF LOUISIANA.

his wise administration and his zeal for the King’s
service in his perilous canoe voyages, on which
this illustrious governor has often risked his life
for the good and defense of the country.*

The command of Fort Frontenac falling
vacant, the Sieur de la Salle, who had experienced
great difficulties in ascending the frightful falls
and rapids, which are encountered for more than
thirty leagues between Montreal and Fort Fron¬
tenac, resolved to come to France to solicit this
post from the King.

He arrived at Rochelle in 1675,-}- and offered
to complete this fort at his own expense, and to
maintain a sufficient garrison and as the Count
de Frontenac had advanced more than 15000
livres in establishing the fort and maintaining
the garrison, he offered besides to reimburse him,
provided the Court would grant him, the gov¬
ernorship and ownership of the fort. His pro¬
posals were accepted by Mr. Colbert, who caused

* Father Gabriel de la Ribourde, was the first Chaplain at
Fort Frontenac, LeClercq, Etablissment de la Foi 2 p , 112.
t Really in 1674.

56 A DESCRIPTION

the grants to be issued to him,* through the in¬
fluence of Mr. de Belizani, who greatly aided
this noble enterprize, and the establishments that
will be formed hereafter will owe him this
obligation.

As soon as he had returned to Canada, the
Count de Frontenac proceeded to the spot, to
aid him in demolishing the first fort, which was j
enclosed only by stout palisades and turf. He
erected another three hundred and sixty fathom
in circumference, revested with four bastions of
cut stone. They worked so diligently on it that
it was brought to completion at the end of two
years, although the Sieur de la Salle was not ob¬
liged to make so great an outlay.J

This fort stands on the north side and near
the outlet of Lake Frontenac on a peninsula, the
isthmus of which he has dug through, the other
three sides being surrounded by the lake and by

* The rest of this paragraph not in Margry. See Le Clercq.
Etablissement, 2 p. 117. The grant and patent of nobility are
in N. Y. Colonial Documents, ix pp. 123-5.

f Only 60 fathoms in circuit according to 1 Margry, r p. 437 *
X Compare Nouvelle Découverte, pp. 30-2.

OF LOUISIANA. 57

a large harbor, where vessels of all kinds can
anchor in safety. Lake Frontenac is eighty
leagues long and twenty-live or thirty wide ; it
abounds in fish, is deep and navigable in all parts.
The five cantons of the Iroquois live mainly
south of this same lake, and some of them on
the north.

The Count de Frontenac having gone several
years in succession to the fort escorted by soldiers
and by forty canoes, managed by men of great
resolution in action, his presence has impressed
fear and respect for the whole French nation on
the mind of the haughtiest of these savages. He
annually convened the most influential of the
Iroquois in council, explaining to them the means
they should adopt in order to embrace Christianity,
exhorting them to hear the voice of the mis¬
sionaries, giving them the bias that they should
take to entertain friendly relations with him, and
to maintain trade with the French, whom after
the mode of expression of the Indians, he called

his nephews, and the Iroquois his children. It

A DESCRIPTION

is by these methods that this wise governor has
preserved peace as long as he has been in Canada,
making presents to the Indians in favor of the
Missionaries.*

The situation of this fort is so advantageous,
that by means of it, it is easy to cut off the Iro¬
quois on their raids or their return, or to carry
the war into their country in twenty-fcur hours,
during the time that they are out on war parties,
by means of barks from Fort Frontenac; the
Sieur de la Salle having built three, full decked,
on the lake, has trained his men so well to manage
canoes in the most frightful rapids, that they are
now the most skillful canoemen in America.

As the land bordering on the lake is very fertile,
he has cultivated several acres, where wheat, pulse
and potherbs have succeeded verv well, although
the wheat was at first injured by grasshoppers, as
generally happens in new clearings in Canada on
account of the great humidity of the earth. He
has raised poultry and horned cattle, of which he
has now thirty-live head ; and as there are very

* Briefly in Margry, i, p. 438.

OF LOUISIANA. 59

fine trees there fit for house and ship building,
and the winter is nearly three months shorter
than in Canada, there is reason to believe that a
considerable colony will be formed, there being
already thirteen or fourteen families and a mission*
house which I built with our dear Recollect
Father, Lake Buisset, with the help of Sieur de la
Salle, whereby we have attracted a pretty large
village of Iroquois, whose children we teach to
read with our little French children, and they
teach each other their language in turn. This
maintains a good understanding with the Iro¬
quois, who clear the land in order to plant Indian
corn so as to subsist all the year except the hunt¬
ing season.

While the Sieur de la Salle was engaged in
building his fort, men envious of him, judging
by this fine beginning what he might be able to
do in the sequel,-j* with our Recollect missionaries,

* The rest of the paragraph is omittted in Margry’s Relation.
The Nouvelle Decouverte , p. 24, speaks of building a chapel, but
on p. 60 calls it as here a mission house.

t T o u fort ” omitted by Margry.

A DESCRIPTION

who by their disinterested life, were attracting
several families which came to settle at the Fort,
put forward the Sieur Joliet to anticipate him in
his discoveries. He went by the Bay of the
Puants to the river Meschasipi, on which he
descended to the Islinois, and returned by the
Lakes to Canada, without having then or after¬
wards attempted to form any post * or made any
report to the Court.

At the end of the year 1678 f the Sieur de la
Salle came to France to report to Monsieur Col¬
bert, what he had done to execute his orders; he
then represented to him that this Fort Frontenac
gave him great advantages for making discoveries
with our Recollects, that his main object in build-

* Rest of sentence omitted by Margry. Joliet did make a
report to Frontenac, see the letter of the Count to Colbert.
N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, p. 121. Joliet applied for a grant and
was refused. Joliet knew of the Mississippi and the routes to
it before La Salle, and as early as 1669 advised him and the
Sulpitians, Dollier de Casson and Galinée, to go by way of the
Wisconsin. Margry 1, p. 144. Faillon, Histoire, iii, p. 286.

Hennepin here follows the general story of the La Salle party
in regard to Joliet.

f 1677, Margry, i, p. 439.

OF LOUISIANA.

ing that fort had been to continue these dis¬
coveries in rich, fertile and temperate countries,
where the trade merely in the skins and wool of
the wild cattle, which the Spaniards call Cibola,
might establish a great commerce, and support
powerful colonies ; that nevertheless, as it would
be difficult to bring these cattle skins in canoes,
he petitioned Monsieur Colbert to grant him a
commission to go and discover the mouth of the
great river Meschasipi, on which ships could be
built to come to France; and that in view of the
great expense that he had incurred chiefly for
building and keeping up Fort Frontenac, he would
deign to grant him the privilege of carrying on
exclusively the trade in buffalo skins, of which
he had brought one as a sample. This was
granted him.

He set out from France in the month of July
in the year 1678 with the Sieurs la Motte* and
Tonty, a pilot, sailors and several others, to the
number of about thirty persons, anchors and rig-

f La Motte omitted in Margry 1, p, 439. Compare Le Clercq
ii, p. 139.

DESCRIPTION

ging for the barks which he intended to build,
and the necessary arms and goods. At the close
of September he reached Quebec, whence he
sent on his men to transport the goods and pro¬
visions to Fort Frontenac. He brought* me
from France an order from our Reverend Father
Germain Allart, who is at present Bishop of
Vence,f and letters from the Very Reverend
Father Hyacinth le Fevre, now provincial of our
Recollects in Artois, by which he manifested to
me great zeal for the progress of our American
missions, and begged me to accompany the Sieur
de la Salle in his discoveries. Father Valentine
le Roux, our Commissary Provincial in Canada
gave me a complete chapel for my voyage. I
then went to obtain the blessing of Monsieur
Francis de la Valle, first Bishop of Quebec, and
his written sanction.£ We then dined at the

*This down to words ‘‘Mission House” does not appear in the
Margry Relation.

t He held the see from 1681 to 1685.

J Nouvelle Découverte, p. 62. The Bishop’s name is
Francis de Laval de Montmorency.

OF LOUISIANA. 63

table of the Count de Frontenac Governor of the
country, who during the repast did us the honor
to say to the company that he would report to
the court the zeal of the Recollects and the cour¬
age of our undertakings.

We embarked to the number of three, in our
little bark canoe with our portable chapel, a
blanket and a rush mat which served as a bed.
This composed our whole outfit.

The people on the banks as we passed between
Quebec and Monreal, earnestly begged me to
say mass for them and administer the sacraments,
explaining to me that they could be present at
divine service only five or six times a year, inas¬
much as there were only four missionaries in a
stretch of fifty leagues of country. At Saint
Hour I baptized a child, giving notice to the
missionary who was absent. We continued our
route by Harpentinie* where the Seigneur of the
place would have given me one of his sons for
the voyage, if our canoe had been large enough

* St. Ours, and Arpentigny.

A DESCRIPTION

for four men.* On my arrival at Monreal,f
they debauched my canoemen from me, which
compelled me to take advantage of the offer of
two other canoeman who gave me a little corner in
their frail vessel, and after surmounting the rapids
for thirty leagues, we arrived at Fort Frontenac
on All Souls’ Day, 1678, at eleven o’clock at night.
Father Gabriel de la Ribourde and Father Luke
Buisset, missionaries, received me with extraordi¬
nary zeal in our Mission house. J The Sieur de
la Salle arrived some time after us, as soon as he
had completed his arrangements, and at the close
of the same year he sent on fifteen of his men
with goods to the amount of six or seven thous-

* While at La Chine he gave rise to the affaire Roland , an
ecclesiastical case which embroiled Canada. See Margry I, pp.

3 I0 > 3 * 3 > 3 * 5 -

f The Nouvelle Découv. mentions his stopping at Three
Rivers and officiating there, Oct. i, p. 64.

I Nouvelle Découv. p, 66. Le Clercq, Etablissement de la Foi,
2 p. 114, adds that Father Hennepin, “ made excursions among
the Iroquois nations, attracted families to the fort and having
perfected himself in the knowledge of their language and
the means of gaining them to God, labored several years there
with fruit.” He eulogizes Father Luke.

OF LOUISIANA.

6 5

and livres, with orders to proceed in canoes, and
await us at the Islinois, who live in the neigh¬
borhood of Meschasipi, in order to begin by
establishing there a good understanding with
these Indians, and to prepare provisions and

other things necessary for the continuation of
our discoveries.*

We | had a conference with our two Religious
at the Fort, on the measures necessary to be
taken to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ
among these numerous nations which had never
heard the true God spoken of, or conversed with
Europeans.

On the 18th of November 1678J I took leave
of these Fathers, who accompanied us to the
lake shore, and with sixteen men we entered a

Margry j, p. 440, says 7 or 8000. That Relation always
writes Mississipi.

t This down to “ return to Fort Frontenac” is not in Margry.

T here is merely a brief statement of the sending of carpenters
and other men under the direction of Sieur de la Motte and
b. Louis Hennepin. Margry i, p. 440. The Nouv. Déc., p.
68, amplifies.

X Le Clercq ii, p. 141.

A DESCRIPTION

brigantine. The autumn winds and cold being
then very violent, our men were afraid to embark
in a craft of about ten tons. This obliged the
Sieur de la Motte who commanded, to keep con¬
stantly along the north shore of Lake Frontenac
so as to be sheltered from the Northwesters
which would have driven us on the so uthern
shore. On the 26th, our vessel being weather¬
bound two good leagues from land, we were
compelled to anchor all night, with sixty
fathoms of cable and in evident danger. At last
the wind shifting from East to Northeast, we
reached the upper end of Lake Frontenac at an
Iroquois village called Teiaiagon, situated on the
north about seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac.*
We bought some Indian corn of the Iroquois,
who often came to visit us on our brigantine,
which we had run up a river, - )' and placed safely,
but we ran aground three times before we got
in, and we were obliged to land fourteen of our

* The Nouv. Découv. p. 73 here gives Skannadario as the
Iroquois name of the lake.

t Le Clercq, Etablissement, de la Foi, ii, p. 141. This
was the Humber. Marshall, Building of the Griffon, p. 257.

OF LOUISIANA.

men and throw our ballast overboard, to extricate
ourselves. We were obliged to cut away with axes
the ice that would have locked us in the river.
As a suitable wind failed us, we could not pro¬
ceed till December 5th, 1678, and as we had fif¬
teen leagues passage to make from the land at
the extremity of the lake to Niagara, we succeeded
in making only ten leagues towards the southern
shore, where we anchored about three leagues*
from land, and were roughly tossed all night
by the stormy weather. On the 6th, St. Nicho¬
las’ day, we entered the beautiful river Niagara,
which no bark had ever yet entered. After the
Te Deum and ordinary prayers for thanksgiving,
the Tsonnontouanf Indians of the whole lit¬
tle village situated at the mouth of the river,
with one draught of the seine, took more
than three hundred white fish, larger than carp,
which are of excellent taste, and the least inju¬
rious of all fishes in the world. These savages
gave them all to us, ascribing their luck in fish¬
ing to the arrival of the great wooden canoe.

our or five. Nouv. Découv. p. 257.
f Senecas.

A DESCRIPTION

On the seventh we ascended two leagues up
the river in a bark canoe,* to seek a place
suitable for building and being unable to go any
higher up in a canoe, nor to surmount some very
violent rapids, we proceeded to explore on land
three leagues further, and finding no earth fit
to cultivate, we slept near a river which flows
from the west, one league above the great fall
of Niagara.There was a foot of snow, which
we removed to build a fire, and the next day we
retraced our steps. On our way we saw a great
number of deer, and flocks of wild turkeys ; and
after the first mass that had ever been celebrated
in those places, the carpenters with other men
were employed under the direction of the Sieur
de la Motte, who was never able to endure the
rigor of such a life of hardship. He was com¬
pelled to give up some time afterwards and return
to Fort Frontenac.]}.'

* As far as the Mountain Ridge. Marshall, p. 258.

f Chippewa Creek, lb.

î Dec. 11. Nouv. Découv p. 76. He then continues, saying
that the winds prevented their doing anything the three follow-

OF LOUISIANA.

The Sieur de la Salle not having been able to
build a bark at Fort Frontenac on account of a
portage of two leagues at the great Fall of Niag¬
ara, but for which, one might sail in a large bark
from Lake Frontenac to the end of Lake Dau¬
phin, through lakes which may justly be styled
Fresh Seas.

The great river St. Lawrence takes its rise from
several large lakes, among which there are five
of extraordinary size and which are all badly
portrayed on the printed maps. These lakes
are, first, Lake Condé or Tracy ; second. Lake
Dauphin or Islinois ; third, Lake Orleans or of
the Hurons ; fourth. Lake Conty or Erie, and fifth

ing days. The 15th the bark was towed up to the great rock,
he steering. Oil the 17th a cabin of logs was made for a
storehouse. The 18th and 19th they had to pour boiling water
in the ground to drive posts in. From the 20 to 23d they were
engaged in drawing the bark ashore to save it from the ice and
Thomas Charpentier of Artois effected it. Marshall, p. 258,
makes Lewiston the site of this cabin. The Great Rock since
known as Hennepin’s, though less conspicious and no longer
separated from the bank by water is to be seen under the
western end of the old Suspension Bridge, Marshall, p. 265.

A DESCRIPTION

Lake Ontario, called Frontenac.* They are all
of fresh water very good to drink, abound in fish,
surrounded by fertile lands, except the first.
They are of easy navigation, even for large vessels,
but difficult in winter on account of the high
winds which prevail there.

Lake Condé and Lake Dauphin are the most
distant westward. The former which runs from
East to West is one hundred and fifty leagues
long, about sixty wide and about five hundred
leagues in circuit. The latter which is situated
to the north and south, is one hundred and twenty
or one hundred and thirty in length, and forty to
fifty leagues in width, and nearly four hundred
leagues in circuit. These two lakes empty into
that of Orleans, the former by a rapid full of
rocks, which you cannot navigate and the other
by the strait of Missilimakinac. Lake Orleans

* Margry’s Relation calls them simply, Lake Superior, Lake
of the Islinois, Lake of the Hurons, Lake Erie and Lake Fron¬
tenac. I p. 440. They are described more at length in the
Nouv. Découv., p. 40, etc. He there calls them Lake Superior,
Lake Illinois, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Frontenac or
Ontario, Lake Illinois being the modern Michigan.

OF LOUISIANA.

empties by a long, very beautiful and navigable
channel into Lake Conty,so that as these two latter
lakes, are about equal to Lake Dauphin and are
not separated from each other by any inconvenient
rapid, you can sail by bark from the extremity of
Lake Dauphin for a distance of four hundred
leagues to the end of Lake Conty, where naviga¬
tion is interrupted by the great Fall of Niagara.

Lake Conty empties into Lake Frontenac,
but during ten leagues of this last lake it closes
in at a great island which forms two channels,
and at some islets, and this narrowing in is called
the Niagara River, which after a course of
fourteen leagues empties into Lake Frontenac at
40° 20' N. The waters of this strait, or of this
part and liver of Lake Conty, have a current, and
are very diffi :ult to ascend by sail, especially one
league from its issue from Lake Conty. Four
leagues from Lake Frontenac there is an incredi¬
ble Cataract or Waterfall, which has no equal.
The Niagara river near this place is only the
eighth of a league wide, but it is very deep in

At a to u islets ” omitted by Margry.

y 2 A DESCRIPTION

places, and so rapid above the great fall, that it
hurries down all the animals which try to cross
it, without a single one being able to withstand its
current. They plunge down a height of more than
five hundred feet,* and its fall is composed of
two sheets of water and a cascade, with an island
sloping down. In the middle these waters foam
and boil in a fearful manner.

They thunder continually and when the wind
blows in a southerly direction, the noise which
they make is heard for from more than fifteen
leagues. Four leagues from this cataract or fall,
the Niagara river rushes with extraordinary
rapidity especially for two leaguesf into Lake

* Six hundred in Margry i, p. 441. Tonty in his Relation
(Margry i, p. 577), estimates it at 500 The Nouvelle
Découv., has 600, p. 45. Charlevoix (iii, p. 233) supposed
they counted the three ascents they had to make to reach the
river above. Is may be too that this estimate is of the whole
descent from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, which is about 350
feet. For Hennepin’s fuller description, see Appendix.

f As far as the Great Rock. Nouv. Déc., p. 45. It a< ^ s
that in the second two leagues the impetuosity diminishes.
Vessels from Lake Ontario could ascend to this rock which
was in the river on the west side.

•' r v

OF LOUISIANA.

Frontenac. It -- is during these two leagues
that goods are carried. There is a very fine road,
very little wood, and almost all prairies mingled
with some oaks and firs, on both banks of the
river, which are oi a height that inspire fear
when you look down.

It is at the mouth of Lake Frontenac, that a
fort was begun, which might have been able to
keep the Iroquois in check and especially the
Tsonnontonans,'j' t ^ le most numerous and most
powerful of all, and prevent the trade which they
carry on with the English and Dutch, for quan¬
tities of furs which they are obliged to seek in
the western countries, and pass by Niagara going
and coming, where they might be stopped in a
friendly way in time of peace, and by force in
time of war ; but the Iroquois excited by some
persons envious of the Sieur de la Salle, took
umbrage, so that as they were not in a position
to resist them, they contented themselves with

* Not in Margry i, p. 442, down to “ look down.”
f Tsonnontouans, that is, Senecas.

A DESCRIPTION

building there a house defended by palisades,
which is called Fort de Conty * and the place is
naturally defensive, and beside it there is a very
fine harbor for barks to retire to in security.
There is also a very abundant fishery of several
kinds of fish, among others of white fish, admira¬
bly good and with which you might supply one
of the best cities in Europe.

The great Fall of the River Niagara, compelled
him also to build his bark two leagues above
it, and six leagues from the mouth of this river.
But f before beginning it, the Sieur de la Motte
had orders to take his precautions and go to the
great village of the Tsonnontoüans Iroquois, to
endeavor to dispel the umbrage which these en¬
vious men had already impressed on their minds,
in regard to all our proceedings, and as I was
laboring to build a cabin of the bark of trees
which was to serve me as a house and chapel,J to

* After “ palisades ” omitted in Margry down to “ Europe.”
The Nouv. Découv., says that the fort was on the east side,
p. 48.

f The account of LaMotte and Hennepin’s mission is given
briefly in Margry I, 442-3.

J Supply cc I had orders.”

—

OF LOUISIANA.

say the same thing to our people. The Sieur de
la Motte begged me to accompany him to the
Iroquois, and during the whole time of his em¬
bassy ; I begged him to leave me with the greatest
number of our men. He answered me that he
was taking seven with him, that I knew some¬
thing of the language, and of the customs of the
Iroquois, that these Indians had seen me at Fort
* rontenac at the council which the Governor of
the country had held with them ;* that the King’s
service required it, and the Sieur de la Salle’s
especially, that he could not trust those whom he
was taking. All these reasons compelled me to
follow himf through the woods, on a march of
thirty-two leagues, over ground covered with

Hennepin has already said that Frontenac went up to
Fort Frontenac with La Salle. This may have been in 1677
as he was there in September (Margry i, p. 29 6 ;) but "
have no details of any council.

t Tonty mentions Hennepin’s accompanying la Motte, Re¬
lation écrite de Quebec 14 Nov., 1684, Margry i, p. 5?6
Margry oddly misprints embuscade for ambassade. Tomv’s
Memoir is so brief as to all this that we need not refer to it
hee translation m French’s Louisiana Hist. Coll, i p. c.

imMnuTMi

76 A DESCRIPTION

snow. We all carried our blankets with our little
equipage, often passing the night in the open air,
and as we had only some little bags of roast
Indian corn, we met on the way Iroquois hunters
who gave us some venison and fifteen or sixteen
black squirrels very good to eat. After five days
march we arrived at Tegarondies,* a great village
of the Tsonnontoüans Iroquois, and as our French¬
men were then well supplied with arms and fine
clothes, the Indians led us to the cabin of the
great chief where all the women and children
came to look at us, and after the cries made in
the village by a sachem, according to the maxim
of the Indians, the next day after the mass and
sermon of New Year’s Day, 1679,*!' forty-two
Iroquois old men appeared in the council with us,
and although these Indians who are almost all
large men, were merely wrapped in robes of
beaver or wolf skins, and some in black squirrel

* On Boughton Hill near Victor in Ontario Co., Marshall,
Building of the Griffon, p. 260. New York Col. Doc., iii,
p. 251.

f Nouv. Décou v., p. 81 says he preached in the little bark
chapel. Fathers Gamier and Rafeix, being present.

OF LOUISIANA.

skins, often with a pipe in the mouth, no senator
of Venice ever assumed a graver countenance or
spoke with more weight than the Iroquois sachems
in their assemblies.

One of our men named Anthony Brassart who
served as interpreter, told them that we came to
visit them in the name of Onnontio (which is
the name that all the Indians give the Gover¬
nors of the French), and to smoke their calumets
on their mat; that the Sieur de la Salle, their
friend, was going to build a great wooden canoe,
to go and seek goods in Europe by a shorter way
than that by the rapids of the St. Lawrence, in
order to supply them with them at a cheaper rate.
He added several other reasons* to facilitate our
enterprise and we gave them in the name of the
whole nation, about four hundred livres worth of
goods according to the usage of this country,
where the best reasons are never listened to, if
they are not accompanied by presents.

The Sieur de la Motte before beginning the

* They promised to keep a blacksmith and armorer at
Niagara to mend their guns and axes. Nouv. Découv. p. 84.

A DESCRIPTION

speech told the Iroquois, that he would not speak
to them till they had caused a Frenchman* who
was suspicious to him, to leave the council. The
old men begged him to withdraw and that he
should not receive the whole affront, for having
presented himself at an assembly to which he had
not been invited, I went out with him to keep
him company, dispensing myself on the first day
from the matters laid before the Iroquois. The
following day the Iroquois replied to our pre¬
sents, article by article. They put little sticks on
the ground to recollect all that had been told them,
and at each reply the maker of the harangue held
one of the little sticks in his hand, and threw down
to us in the midst of the assemblage, some white
and black wampum, which was strung ; and at

* The Nouvelle Découv. says that this was the Jesuit Father
Gamier, and that Hennepin left to show the Sieur de la Motte
that he had no business to bring him to the Council when he
intended to offer an affront of that kind to a Jesuit missionary
cc who was among these Indians only to instruct them in the
truths of the gospel,’’ p. 86. LaMotte in a letter (Margry ii, p.
9), gives a brief account of what he did. La Salle complains
of La Motte’s unfaithfulness and appeals to Hennepin,
Margry ii, p. 230.

[

OF LOUISIANA. yg

each present from the first to the last, one of the
sachems having begun at the top of his voice, all
together ended the last syllable three times by a
tone coming from the very pit of the stomach,

“Niaova,” which means, “See, that is good, I
thank you.'’

All the reasons that we gave the Iroquois, sat¬
isfied them only in appearance, for entire in¬
difference to everything is a maxim with these
Indians; and a man among them would pass for
an ill regulated mind, if he did not agree to every¬
thing, and if he contradicted the arguments made
to them in council ; even though one should go
so far as to utter the greatest absurdities and non¬
sense, they will always say “ Niaova.” “ See
that is right my brother, you are right,” but they
believe only what they please in private. The
greatest part of the Indians, of all those whom I
have examined carefully, show that the indiffer¬
ence which they entertain for all the maxims of
our Christian religion, as for everything else is
the greatest obstacle to the faith which I have
known among these Savages.

A DESCRIPTION

On the last day of our assembly, the Iroquois
warriors brought in a slave whom they had taken
from the Hontouagaha, which signifies in their
language the Stammerers or great talkers;* and
I think that the Neros and Maximins have never

* Ontwagannha from Atwagannen, to speak a foreign
language, Bruyas, Racines Agnières p. 40; French Mk. Dicty.
It is applied to the Maskoutens, Rel. 1660, p. 7; to the Shawnees
Rel. 1672, p. 25; and is now the Mohawk term for the
Ottawas, Mr. Marcoux in Hist. Mag. iv, p. 369.

In the Nouv. Découv. p. 90, he mentions a second prisoner.
u The other was of the nation of the Ganniessinga near whom
there were English Recollect missionaries. The Iroquois spared
the latter. ,, No Franciscan mission in Maryland of that date
was known till recently. I showed this to the Very Rev.
Pamphilo de Magliano, Provincial of the Recollects in this
country as a specimen of Hennepin’s misstatements. In a visit
to Europe he discovered some documents of the old Pranciscan
province in England, including the record of the annual chapters
and they showed the sending of missionaries of the order to
Maryland from Oct. 1672 to Sept. 1720. Pacts that have
since came to light convince me that the Franciscans extended
their labors into Pennsylvania, and that Hennepin was correct.
Up to this point Hennepin’s narrative is of what Hennepin saw
and La Salle did not see. To pretend as Margry does that the
La Salle Relation, he gives, is the original and that Hennepin
plagiarized from a man who did not see, an account of what he
himself did see, is about as absurd an idea as ever entered the
mind of man.

OF LOUISIANA.

8 r

found out greater cruelty to exercise the patience
of the martyrs, than the torments which the
Iroquois make their enemies undergo. And as
we saw that their children each cut a bit of flesh
from the prisoner, whom their parents had put
to death with unheard of cruelties, and that these
little cannibals ate the flesh of this man before
our eyes, we withdrew from the chiefs cabin,
and would no longer eat there, and we retraced
our steps across the forests to the Niagara river.

The Sieur de la Salle * had come there in a
bark from Fort Frontenac to bring us some pro¬
visions, and rigging to equip a vessel at the en¬
trance of Lake Conty ; but that in which he
had come with merchandize, was wrecked by
the fault of two opposing pilots on the south
shore of Lake Frontenac, ten leagues from Nia¬
gara, near a place which the sailors have named
“Cap Enrage.They succeeded in saving the

* Margry i, p. 442, gives this more briefly. Hennepin,
Nouv. Décou v. p. 92, says that La Motte and he reached their
cabin at Niagara Jan 14, and on the 20th he heard La Salle’s
voice on the bank on which he was.

f Mr. Marshall thinks Cap Enragé to be Thirty Mile
Point.

A DESCRIPTION

anchors and cables of the vessel. He also lost
some canoes with a good deal of merchandize,
and had several reverses, which frequently would
have made any one but him, abandon the under¬
taking.*

After he had given his orders and transferred
the workmen to the shipyard, which was above
the great Fall of Niagara,f in order to build a

* He adds here in the Nouv. Découv. p. 94, that La Salle
told them that he had visited the Senecas before the loss of his
bark and had gained their consent to his enterprise. This is
confirmed by Tonty in Margry 1, p. 576, although in the Rela¬
tion which we are asked to accept as La Salle’s, this personal
fact is omitted. According to Tonty La Salle landed in a canoe
at the mouth of the river of the Senecas, went to their village
and then kept on by land to the Niagara. La Salle in a letter
(Margry ii, p. 35) mentions his visit to the Senecas.

f The site of the stocks where the Griffin was built was
fixed at various points by Bancroft, Sparks, Cass, Schoolcraft
and others. O. H. Marshall examining the matter by the
light of documents and topography, decides it to have been at
the mouth of Cayuga creek, on the American side. Building
of the Griffon, p. 264, Hennepin says in the Nouv. Déc. p.
94. lC The fort we were building at Niagara began to advance;
but there was so much underhand work that this fort became an
object of suspicion to these Indians. We had to suspend its
erection for a time, and we contented ourselves with building a

OF LOUISIANA. 83

second bark, being anxious, he returned to Fort
Frontenac. He undertook this march of more
than eighty leagues by land and on foot, with a
little bag of roast Indian corn, and that even
failed him two days march from the fort, where
nevertheless he arrived safely, with a dog which
dragged his little baggage over the ice/j'

The greater part of the Iroquois had gone to

house there surrounded by palisades.” (This was at the foot
of the mountain ridge on the side of Lewiston). “ On the 22d
(Jany. 1679), we proceeded to a point two leagues above the
great falls of Niagara. I here we put up stocks to build the
vessel we needed for our voyage. We could not construct it in
a more convenient place than near a river, which descended
into the strait, which is between Lake Erie and the great
fall.” 1 he mouth of Cayuga creek is five miles above the falls
on the American side, and being covered by an island is well adapted
for ship budding and has been so used by our government. Fran-
quelin’s maps of 1688, and 1689, note the spot on the American
side just above the falls. « Cabane ou le Sr. de la Salle a fait
faire une barque.” “ Chantier où le Sr. de la Salle a ft. fre. une
barque,” Marshall p. 268. Hennepin adds in the Nouv. Déc.,
that the keel was all ready on the 26th, and that La Salle
wished him to drive the first bolt, but he mpdestly declined.

t He was accompanied to Lake Ontario by Tonty and set
out after laying out the plan of Fort Conty at the mouth
of the river Feb. 1. Tonty in Margry i, p. 577. In the
Nouv. Découv. p. 96, Hennepin says he accompanied him.

8 4

A DESCRIPTION

war beyond Lake Conty during the construction
of our bark, but although their absence ren¬
dered those who remained, less insolent, never¬
theless, they did not fail to come frequently to
our shipyard, where they were working on the
vessel, and to manifest their displeasure, but one
of them pretending to be drunk wished to kill
the blacksmith, but the resistance of the French
and the preparations which they made to repulse
the Iroquois, and the reproach which I made to
these savages, compelled them to withdraw
quietly. Some time after a woman warned us
that they wished to set the bark on fire on the
stocks, and they would have done so, had we not
kept a very strict watch.

These frequent alarms, fear of running out of
provisions, after the loss of the bark from Fort
Frontenac, and the refusal of the Tsonnontouans
Iroquois to give us Indian corn on our paying
for it, astonished our carpenters,* who were

* Down to “ our subsistance ” not in Margry which says
« They would infallibly have deserted if the Sieur de la Salle
and Father Louis had not taken care to reassure them and en¬
couraged them to work with greater diligence to shake off this
uneasiness.”

OF LOUISIANA.

moreover suborned and solicited to leave us, by
a dissolute fellow who had made several attempts
to go over to the Dutch. He would beyond
doubt have seduced our workmen, if I had not
reassured them, by the exhortations I made them,
after divine service on holidays and Sundays, show¬
ing them that our enterprise had in view purely
God’s glory, the good of the French colony and
their honor; in this way I animated them to
labor more diligently to banish these disquiets.
Moreover the orders which they saw me give the
Indians of the Wolf* nation to supply us with
deer for our subsistance, made them pick up
courage again, so that by applying themselves
with more assiduity to their work, our bark
was in a short time ready to be launched, and
having blessed it with the ceremonies prescribed
by the Church, it was launched into the water,
although it was not yet entirely finished, in order
to secure it from the fire with which it was
threatened.j'

* Mohegans.

f Nouv. Découv., pp. 96-9.

A DESCRIPTION

It was named the Griffin* We fired three
salutes with our cannons, and sang the Te Deum
in thanksgiving, which was followed by several
“ Vive le Roy.”

The Iroquois who stood wondering at this
ceremony, shared in our rejoicing. A glass of
brandy was given to all of them to drink, as well
as to the French.

From this time we left our bark cabins to
lodge in the vessel on water, where we slept in
repose, and safe from insults of the Indians. The
Iroquois on returning from their beaver hunt
were extremely surprised. They said that the
French were spirits *j* and they could not under¬
stand how they had been able to build in so short
a time and with such ease so large a wooden

* “ In allusion to the arms of the Count de Frontenac which
have griffins as supporters.” Nouv. Découv., p. 99, which adds
“ moreover the Sieur de la Salle had often said of this vessel
that he wished to make the griffin soar above the crows.”

f Otkon in the Nouv. Découv. Hennepin derives his Iro¬
quois mainly from Bruyas’ Racines Agnières, and makes
the Senecas use the Mohawk dialect. See Marshall, p. 278,
Parkman, Discovery, p. 123.

OF LOUISIANA.

canoe, although this vessel was only of about
forty-five tons and which we might call an am¬
bulant fort, and which made all the Indians
tremble, who extend over more than five hundred
leagues of country.*

Meanwhile the envious seeing the bark fin¬
ished, notwithstanding the difficulty of trans¬
porting the rigging across so many rapids and the
opposition of the Iroquois, published that it was
a rash enterprise, that we would never return,
and many other things of the kind. By this
talk they roused up all the Sieur de la Salle’s
creditors, who without consenting to await his
return, and without warning him, seized all
his property that he had in Montreal and in
Quebec, even to his secretary’s bed, and they had
it adjudged to them at such price as they chose,
although Fort Frontenac of which he is
proprietor was alone enough to pay all his debts
twice told and more.

§ The Margry Rel. give all this briefly omitting the blessing
of the vessel and even its name, which La Salle would scarcely
do. Hennepin in his Nouv. Déc., p. 101, here states that
Tonty took offense at his keeping a journal and tried to seize it.

• ' Vk

A DESCRIPTION

He was then at Fort Frontenac, where he
received tidings of these disorders, but as he
deemed this misfortune past help, and that they
had no other design than to compel him to forego
an expedition, of which he had made the pre¬
parations with such pains and cost, he gave what
orders he deemed necessary at the fort*

Our boat being in the water out of reach of
insult, I proceeded to the fort by Lake Frontenac,
in the little brigantine f in order to rejoin our

* The Margry relation instead of the following merely states
that La Salle returned to Niagara early in August, 1679. In
the Nouv. Déc., Hennepin here claims to have twice ascended
the Niagara to Lake Erie in a canoe, p. 102.

j- Tonty says he sent Father Hennepin with 1 x men. Margry,
1 p. 578. Hennepin in the Nouv. Déc. p. 104, says he went
with the Sieur Charon, a Canadian. They descended the
Niagara in a canoe making a portage at the falls. At the
mouth of the river they embarked in the brigantine under the
Sieur de la Forest. They took on board a number of Indian
women and ran along to Aoueguen where they bought beaver
skins for liquor, then ran across to Kenté and landed on Gull
Island. Le Clercq, Etablissement de la Foy, 2 p. 145 •> sa y s t *’ at
the Commissary of the Recollects went up to Fort Frontenac,
to organize the projected mission, and made F. Gabriel delà
Ribourde, Superior, stationing F. Luke Buisset at Fort Fron
tenac, F. Melithon Watteau at Niagara.

OF LOUISIANA.

Recollects who resided there, in order to enjoy
spiritual consolation with them, obtain wine for
the celebration of masses, and make the Sieur de
la Salle a report of affairs, and we proceeded with
him, : we three Recollect missionaries, to Niagara,
in the beginning of the month of August in the
same year, 1679. He found his bark ready to
sail, but his people told him that they had not
been able to make it ascend beyond the entrance
of Lake Conty, not having been able to stem with
sails the strong current of Niagara river.*}* We

* The Nouv. Découv. mentions La Salle’s assembling
the missionaries, Hennepin, Ribourde, Membré and Watteau,
May 27, 1679, anc ^ his grant of land for their residence and ceme¬
tery. They reached the Niagara July (June) 30.

Tonty confirms this. Margry 1, p. 578. The Nouv. Découv.
says they found the Griffin anchored a league from Lake Erie,
p. 112.

f The Nouvelle Déc. goes into details, describing the
vessel with its flag bearing a Griffin and an Eagle above it.
He returned to Lake Ontario July, 16-17, an d the bark from
Frontenac went up to the Great Rock, where the portage was
made. All the anchors, rigging and arms were carried around
the falls. Father Gabriel toiled up the rocky path in spite of
his age and with Hennepin and La Salle visited the falls. La
10

A DESCRIPTION

embarked to the number of thirty-two persons,
with our two Recollect Fathers who had come
to join me, our people having laid in a good
supply of arms, merchandise, and seven small iron
cannon.

At last, contrary to the pilot’s opinion we suc¬
ceeded in ascending Niagara river. He made
his bark advance by sails when the wind was
strong enough, and he had it towed in the most
difficult places, and thus we happily reached the
entrance of Lake Conty.

We made sail the 7th of the month of August,
in the same year 1679, steering west by south.
Aftert the “ Te Deum ” we fired all the cannon

and wall pieces, in presence of several Iroquois
warriors who were bringing in prisoners from^

Salle tried to make Hennepin acknowledge having criticized the
Jesuits, pp. 112-6, La Salle set men to clear ground near his
post for cultivation, Father Melithon Watteau was left as
chaplain. Divine service was offered on the Griffin, the people
joining in from the shore, pp. 118-9.

I Rest of the paragraph not in Margry.

§ Tintonha, that is to say the Nation of the Prairies, Nouv.
Déc. p. 120.

OF LOUISIANA.

9 1

the nations on the prairies, situated more than five
hundred leagues from their country, and these
savages did not neglect to give a description of
the size of our vessel to the Dutch of New York,*
with whom the Iroquois carry on a great trade in
furs, which they carry to them in order to obtain
fire arms and goods to clothe themselves.

Our voyage was so fortunatef that on the
morning of the tenth day, the feast of Saint
Lawrence, we reached the entrance of the De¬
troit (strait) by which Lake Orleans empties into
Lake Conty, and which is one hundred leagues
distant from Niagara river. This strait is thirty
leagues long and almost everywhere a league wide,
except in the middle where it expands and forms
a lake of circular form, and ten leagues in diame-

* See Andros to Blathwayt, N. Y. Col. Doc. iii, 278.

f The Nouv. Déc. says they ran 20 leagues the first night.
On the 8th, 45 leagues, almost always in sight of land, the lake
being 15 or 16 leagues wide. He mentions three points running
out into the lake, the first and largest of which he named St.
Francis (Long Point, Marshall, p. 280). On the 9th they
passed the other two points and saw an island at the mouth of
the strait, seven or eight leagues from the north shore, pp. 121-2

9 2

A DESCRIPTION

ter, which we called Lake St. Clare, on account
of our passing through it, on that Saint’s day.

The country on both sides of this beautiful
strait is adorned with fine open plains, and you
can see numbers of stags, does, deer, bears, by no

means fierce and and very good to eat, poules d inde
and all kinds of game, swans in abundance. Our
guys were loaded and decked with several
wild animals cut up, which our Indian and our
Frenchmen killed. The rest ol the strait is cov
ered with forests, fruit trees like walnuts, chest¬
nuts, plum and apple trees, wild vines loaded with
grapes, of which we made some little wine.
There is timber fit for building. Itf is the place
in which deer most delight.

We found the current at the entrance of this
strait as strong as the tide is before Rouen. We
ascended it nevertheless, steering north and north¬
east, as far as Lake Orleans. There is little
depth as you enter and leave Lake St. Clare,

* These are not hen turkeys, as some have rendered it, nor
prairie hens, but evidently water fowl. Charlevoix m, P *5
Lemoine, Ornithologie du Canada, p. 75.

-)• This sentence not in Margry. The Nouv. Dec., says he
tried to induce La Salle to establish a post here.

OF LOUISIANA.

especially as you leave it. The discharge from
Lake Orleans divides at this place into several
small channels, almost all barred by sand¬
banks. We were obliged to sound them all,
and at last discovered a very fine one, with a
depth of at least two or three fathoms of water,
and* almost a league wide at all points. Our
bark was detained here several days by head
winds and this difficulty having been surmounted,
we encountered a still greater one at the entrance
of Lake Orleans, the north wind which had been
blowing some time rather violently, and which
drives the waters of the three great lakes into the
strait, had so increased the ordinary current there,
that it was as furious as the bore is before Caude-
bec.f We could not stem it under sail, although
we were then aided by a strong south wind ;
but as the shore was very fine, we landed twelve
of our men who towed it along the beach for

* Here Margry inserts “ beyond the sand bars.”

t Gravier refers to this mention of Caudebec as a proof that
Hennepin took his matter from La Salle’s Report, Découvertes
et Etablissements p. 104, as though Hennepin publishing at
Paris could not refer to a French river.

g^. A DESCRIPTION

half a quarter of an hour, at the end of which
we entered Lake Orleans* on the 23d of the
month of August, and for the second time we
chanted a Te Deum in thanksgiving, blessing
God, who here brought us in sight of a great bay-j¬
in this lake, where our ancient Recollects had
resided to instruct the Hurons in the faith, in the
first landing of the French in Canada, and these
Indians once very numerous have been for the
most part destroyed by the Iroquois/j;

The same day the bark ran along the east coast
of the lake, with a fair wind, heading north by
east, till evening when the wind having shifted
to southwest with great violence, we headed
northwest, and the next day we found ourselves
in sight of land, having crossed by night a great
bay, called Sakinam,§ which sets in more than
thirty leagues.

On the 24th we continued to head northwest

* Margry omits from here to “ Iroquois.”

f Georgian Bay.

J Nouv. Déc. pp. 128-9.

§ Saginaw Bay.

OF LOUISIANA.

till evening, when we were becalmed among some
islands, where there was only a fathom and a half
or two fathoms of water. We kept on with the
lower sails a part of the night to seek an anchor-
a g e , hut finding none where there was a good
bottom and the wind beginning to blow from the
west, we headed north so as to gain deep water
and wait for day, and we spent the night in
sounding before the bark, because we had
noticed that our pilot was very negligent, and we
continued to watch in this way during the rest
of the voyage.

On the 25th the calm continued till noon, and
we pursued our course to the northwest, favored
by a good southerly wind, which soon changed
to southwest. At midnight we were compelled
to head north on account of a great Point which
jutted out into the lake ; but we had scarcely
doubled it, when we were surprised by a furious
gale, which forced us to ply to windward with
mainsail and foresail, then to lie to till daylight.

On the 26th the violence of the wind obliged
us to lower the topmasts, to fasten the yards at

g6 A DESCRIPTION

the clew, to remain broadside to the shore. At
noon the waves running too high, and the
sea too rough, we were forced to seek a port in
the evening, but found no anchorage or shelter.
At this * crisis, the Sieur de la Salle entered the
cabin, and quite disheartened told us that he
commended his enterprise to God. We had
been accustomed all the voyage to induce all to
say morning and evening prayers together on our
knees, all singing some hymns of the church,
but as we could not stay on the deck of the
vessel, on account of the storm, all contented
themselves with making an act of contrition.
There was no one but our pilot alone, whom we
were never able to persuade.

At this time the Sieur de la Salle adopted in
union with us Saint Anthony of Padua as the pro¬
tector of our enterprises and he promised God if
He did us the grace to deliver us from the
tempest, that the first chapel he should erect in
Louisiana should be dedicated to that great Saint.

The wind having fallen a little we lay to, all

* Down to “great Saint” not in Margry, i, p. 447.

Ü(MM

OF LOUISIANA. 97

the night and we drifted only a league or two at
most.

On the morning of the 27th we sailed north¬
west with a southwest wind, which changed
towards evening into a light southeast trade wind,
by favor of which we arrived on the same day at
Missilimakinac,* where we anchored in six fathoms
of water in a bay, where there was a good bottom
oi potter’s clay. This bay is sheltered from south¬
west to north, a sand bank covers it a little on
the northeast,f but 11 is exposed to the south
which is very violent.J

Missilimakinac is a point of land at the entrance
and north of the strait, by which Lake Dauphin

* Derived according to Bishop Baraga, Diet., p. 243, from

Mishinimakinago, a set of men in the woods, who are heard
but seldom seen.

t Northwest, Nouv. Découv.

+ The ba y where ^e Griffin anchored is that which is over¬
looked by the Buttes, two steep and rocky bluffs famous in
Indian tradition and worshiped by the Indians who called them
the He and She Rabbit. The former is also styled Sitting
Rabbit or Rabbit’s Back, Wabos Namadabid. The Kiskakons
Ottawas were here in 1677 and their chapel is mentioned, Rel.,
i6 73 ~ 9 , PP- 42, 56. Very Rev. E. Jacker.

g 8 A DESCRIPTION

empties into Lake Orleans. This strait is a league
wide and three long, and runs west northwest*
Fifteen leagues east of Missilimakinac you find
another point which is at the entrance of the
channel by which Lake Condé empties into
Lake Orleans. This channel has an opening of
five leagues, and is fifteen in length. It is inter¬
spersed with several islands, and gradually narrows
in down to Sault Sainte Marie, which is a rapid
full of rocks, by which the waters of Lake Condé
are discharged and are precipitated in a violent
manner. Nevertheless! they succeed in poling
canoes up one side near the land, but for greater
security a portage is made of the canoe and the
goods which they take to sell to the nations north
of Lake Condé.

There are Indian villages in these two places;
those who are settled at Missilimakinac, on the

* Nouv. Déc., p. 133, has simply “west.”

f These sentences not in Margry, i, p. 448, with what
follows down to “ hollowed out by fire.” The Nouv. Découv.,
adds : Those settled at the Point of Land of Michilimakinak

are Hurons, and the others who are five or six arpents
beyond are called the Outtaoiiactz.

OF LOUISIANA.

day of our arrival, which was August 26th, 1678,*
were all amazed to see a ship in their country,
and the sound of the cannon caused an extraordi¬
nary alarm. We went to the Outtaoiiactz to say
mass and during the service, the Sieur de la Salle,
very well dressed in his scarlet cloak trimmed
with gold lace, ordered the arms to be stacked
along the chapel -j- and the sergeant left a sentry
there to guard them. The chiefs of the Outtaiio-
actz paid us their civility in their fashion, on
coming out of the church. And in this bay
where the Griffin was riding at anchor, we looked
with pleasure at this large well equipped vessel,
amid a hundred or a hundred and twenty bark

canoes coming and going from taking white fish +

* Nouv. Déc., says 28th August, 1679.

f Which was covered with bark, Nouv. Déc., p. 135.
This chapel is evidently not the mission church, nor the bark
chapel dedicated to St. Francis Borgia, erected in 1677, between
the Kiskakons and the new Ottawa village. Relation 1673-9,
pp. 58-9, but the chapel at the Kiskakon village near the Rabbit
Buttes. Tonty in Margrv, i, p. 579, mentions the two
churches. The positions of all these points has been made a
special study by the careful antiquarian V. Rev. E. Jacker.

Î And trout of 50 or 60 pounds, Nouv. Déc., p. 135.

IOO

A DESCRIPTION

which these Indians catch with nets, which they
stretch sometimes in fifteen or twenty fathoms
of water, and without which they could not

subsist.

The Hurons who have their village surrounded
by palisades twenty-five feet high and situated -
near a great point of land opposite the island of
Missilimakimac, proved the next day that they
were more French than the Outtaoüactz, but it
was in show, for they gave a salute by discharging
all their guns, and they all have them, and renewed
it three times, to do honor to our ship, and to the
French, but this salute had been suggested to
them by some Frenchmen, who come there, and
who often carry on a very considerable trade with
these nations, and who designed to gain the Sieur
de la Salle by this show, as he gave umbrage
to them, only in order better to play their
parts subsequently by making it known that the
bark was going to be the cause of destruction

* Very advantageously on an eminence. Ib., Pointe St.
Ignace. The Nouv. Déc., p. 135, erroneously makes more

than one Huron village.

OF LOUISIANA.

IOI

to individuals, in order to render the one who
had built her odious to the people.

The Hurons and the Ouattaoiiactz form
alliances with one another in order to oppose with
one accord the fury of the Iroquois, their sworn
enemy. They cultivate Indian corn on which
they live all the year, with the fish which they
take to season their sagamity. This they make
of water and meal of their corn which they crush
with a pestle in a trunk of a tree hollowed out
by fire.

The Indians of Sainte Marie du Long Sault are
called by us theSaulteurs on account of the place of
their abode, which is near the Sault, and where
they subsist by hunting stags, moose or elk, and
some beaver, and by the fishing of white fish,
which is very good, and is found there in great
abundance, but this fishery is very difficult to all
but these Indians who are trained to it from
childhood. These latter do not plant any Indian
corn as their soil is not adapted to it, and the fogs
on Lake Condé which are very frequent, stifle all
the corn that they might be able to plant.

102 A DESCRIPTION

Sault St. Marie and Missilimackinac are the
two most important passes tor all the Indians of
the west and north who go to carry all their furs
to the French settlements and to trade every year
at Montreal with more than two hundred loaded
canoes.*

During our stay at Missilmakinac, we were
extremely surprised to find there the greater part
of the men whom the Sieur de la Salle had sent
on ahead to the number of fifteen, and whom he
believed to be long since at the Illinois. Those
whom he had known as the most faithful, re¬
ported to him that they had been stopped by the
statements made to them on their way at Missili-
makinac ; that they had been told that his enter¬
prise was only chimerical, that the bark would
never reach Missilimakinac, that he was sending
them to certain destruction, and several other
things of the kind, which had discouraged and
seduced most of their comrades, and that they
had been unable to induce them to continue their

* Sentence not in Margry.

)

OF LOUISIANA. IO3

voyage ; that six of them * had even deserted and
carried oii more than 3,000 livres worth of goods,
under the pretext of paying themselves, saying
that they would restore the surplus over what
was due them, and that the others had stupidly
wasted more than twelve hundred livresf worth,
or spent it for their support at Missilimakinac, ,
where they had been detained, and where provis-
ions are very dear.

The Sieur de la Salle was all the more pro¬
voked at this conduct of his men, as he had
treated them well, and made some advances to
all, among the rest having paid on account of
one of them 1200 livres^ that he owed various
persons at Montreal. He had four of the most
guilty arrested without giving them any harsher
treatment. Having learned that two of the six^
deserters were at Sault Sainte Marie, he detached

* Named Sainte Croix, Minime, le Barbier, Poupart, Hu-
naut and Roussel dit la Rousselière, Margry, 1, p. 449 .

I" Margry gives the amounts 4 ooo liv., 1300 liv.

I La Rousselière, 1800 liv. Margry, i, 449.

§ Hunaut and la Rousselière, Ib.

f T— ^

A DESCRIPTION

IO4

the Sieur de Tonty with six men who arrested
them and seized all the goods which they had in
their hands, but he could not obtain any justice
as to the others. The* high winds at this season
long retarded the return of the Sieur de Tonty,
who did not reach Missilimakinac till the month
of November, so that we were dreading the ap¬
proach of winter and resolved to set out without
waiting till he arrived.

On the 2ndf of the month of September, from
Missilimakinac we entered Lake Dauphin, and
arrived at an island* situated at the entrance of
the Lake or Bay of the Puants, forty leagues from
Missilimakinac, and which is inhabited by Indians
of the Poutouatami nation. We found some
Frenchmen there, who had been sent among the
Illinois in previous years, and who had brought
back to the Sieur de la Salle a pretty fair amount

of furs.§

* This is all abridged in the Nouy. Lee. pp. Dé¬
pare Tonty, Mémoire, p. 6 . La. Hist. Co .1, P- 53 -
+ Margry has 12th, Le Clercq ii, p. 150. has 2nd ’
reached Missilimakinac Sept. 17, Margry 1, p. 579 -
t Washington or Pottawatamie Island.

1 ,200 livres, Margry i, p. 45 »- Wh„ follows «o' ■«*
any one’s advice,” is not in Margry.

Com-

Tonty

OF LOUISIANA.

*°5

The chief of this nation who had all possible
affection for the Count de Frontenac, who had
entertained him at Montreal, received us as well
as he could, had the calumet danced to the Sieur
de la Salle by his warriors ; and during four days’
storm while our vessel was anchored thirty paces
from the bay shore, this Indian chief believing
that our bark was going to be stranded, came
to join us in a canoe at the risk of his life and in
spite of the increasing waves, we hoisted him with
his canoe into our vessel. He told us in a martial
tone that he was ready and wished to perish with the
children of Onnontio, the Governor of the
French, his good father and friend.

Contrary to our opinion, the Sieur de la Salle
who never took any one’s advice, resolved to send
back his bark from this place,* and to continue
his route by canoe, but as he had only four, he
was obliged to leave considerable merchandise in
the bark, a quantity of utensils and tools he

* “To Niagara loaded with all his furs to pay his creditors.”
Nouv. Déc. p. 141, which abridges all this.

A DESCRIPTION

106

ordered the pilot to discharge every thing at
Missilimakinac, where he could take them again
on his return. He also put all the peltries in the
bark with a clerk and five good sailors. Their
orders were to proceed to the great fall of
Niagara, where they* were to leave the furs, and
take on board other goods which another bark
from Fort Frontenac, which awaited them near
Fort Conty was to bring them, and that as soon
as possible thereafter, they should sail back to
Missilimakinac, where they would find instruc¬
tions as to the place to which they should bring
the bark to winter.

They set sail on the 18th of September, with
a very favorable light west wind, making their
adieu by firing a single cannon ; and we were
never afterwards able to learn what course they
had taken, and though there is no doubt, but that
she perished, we were never able to learn any
other circumstances of their shipwreck than the
following. The bark having anchored in the

* Margry has “ to the storehouse which he had built at the
end of Lake Erie.”

OF LOUISIANA. IO7

north of Lake Dauphin, the pilot* against the
opinion of some Indians, who assured him that
there was a great storm in the middle of the lake,
resolved to continue his voyage, without consider¬
ing that the sheltered position where he lay,
prevented his knowing the force of the wind.
He had scarcely sailed a quarter of a league from
the coast, when these Indians saw the bark
tossing in an extraordinary manner, unable to
resist the tempest, so that in a short time they
lost sight of her, and they believe that she was
either driven on some sandbank,-}* or that she
foundered.

We did not learn all this till the next year, and
it is certain that the loss of this bark costs more
than 40000 livres in goods, tools and peltries as
well as men and rigging which he had imported
into Canada from France and transported from
Montreal to Fort Frontenac in bark canoes.

Luke who was a malcontent as we have remarked.”
Nouv. Déc. pp. 142—3.

t Margry has : “ which are near the Huron islands, where
she was swallowed up.” The whole account of the loss of

Criffin is in La Salle’s letter, Margry ii, p. 73.

ioS A DESCRIPTION

This would appear impossible to those who know
the weakness of this kind of craft, and the weight
of anchors and cables,* on which he paid eleven
livres per hundred pounds.

We set out the next day, September içth,f

with fourteen persons in four canoes, I directing
the smallest, loaded with five hundred pounds,
with a carpenter just arrived from France, who
did not know how to avoid the waves, during
rough weather, I had every difficulty to manage
this little craft. These four bark canoes were
loaded with a forge and all its appurtenances,
carpenter’s, joiner’s and pit sawyer’s tools, arms
and merchandise.

We took our course southerly towards the
mainland four good leagues distant from the
island of the Poutouatamis.^ In the middle of
the traverse and amid the most beautiful calm
in the world, a storm arose which endangered
our lives, and which made us fear for the

* The rest not in Margry.

f Le Clercq who abridges the voyage says 18th.

J Still called Pottawatomie Island.

OF LOUISIANA.

IO9

bark,* and more for ourselves. We com¬
pleted this great passage amid the darkness of
night, calling to one another so as not to part
company. The water often entered our canoes,
and the impetuous wind lasted four days with a
fury like the greatest tempests of ocean. We
nevertheless reached the shore in a little sandy
bay, and stayed five days, waiting for the lake to
grow calm. During this stay, the Indian hunter
who accompanied us, killed while hunting only
a single porcupine which served to season our
squashes and the Indian corn that we had.

On the 25th we continued our route all day,
and a part of the night favored by the moon,’
along the western shore of Lake Dauphin, but
the wind coming up a little too strong, we were
forced to land on a bare rock, on which we
endured the rain and snow for two days, sheltered
by our blankets, and near a little fire which we
fed with wood that the waves drove ashore.

* For all from this to “that we had” Margry has only
because it lasted four days, with a fury like the greatest storms
at sea. He nevertheless gained the shore, where he remained
six days for the lake to calm.’'

I IO

A DESCRIPTION

On the 28th after the celebration of mass*
we kept on until far into the night, and until a
whirlwind forced us to land on a rocky point
covered with bushes. We remained there two "I"
days, and consumed the rest ot our provisions,
that is to say, the Indian corn and squashes that
we had bought of the Poutouatamis and of which
we had been unable to lay in a greater supply,
because our canoes were too heavily laden, and
because we hoped to find some on our route.

We set out the first of October, and after
making twelve J leagues fasting, arrived near
another village of the Poutouatamies§. These
Indians all flocked to the lake shore to receive us
and to haul us in from the waves which rose to
an extraordinary height. The Sieur de la Salle
fearing that his men would desert, and that some

* These four words omitted in Margry.

f Three in Nouv. Découv., p. H 7 -

J Ten in Margry, i, p. 452.

§ Margry adds : “ The bank was high and steep, and expose
to the northeast, which was then blowing and increased to such
a degree that the waves broke on the shore in an extraordinary
manner.” What follows down to “ evident peril and is not
in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

I I I

of them would carelessly waste some of the goods,

pushed on and we were obliged to follow him
three leagues beyond the village of the Indians,
notwithstanding the evident peril, and he saw
no other alternative to take in order to land in
safety than to leap into the water with his three
canoemen, and all together take hold of the
canoe and its load and drag it ashore in spite of
the waves which sometimes covered them over
their heads.

He then came to meet the canoe, which I
guided with this man who had no experience in
this work, and jumping waist high into the water,
we carried our little craft all at once, and went
to receive the other two canoes in the same
manner as the former. And* as the waves break¬
ing on the shore formed a kind of undertow,
which drags out into the lake those who think
they are safe, I made a powerful effort and took
on my shoulders our good old Recollect who
accompanied us, and this amiable missionary of
Saint Francis, seeing himself out of danger, all

* The rest of this paragraph is not in Margry.

! I 2 A DESCRIPTION

drenched as he was with water never failed to
display an extraordinary cheerfulness.

As we had no acquaintance with the Indians
of this village, the Commandant first ordered all
the arms to be got ready, and posted himself on
an eminence where it was difficult to surprise us^
and whence he could with a small force defend
himself against a greater number. He then sent
three of his men to buy provisions in the village,
under the protection of the calumet of peace
which the Poutouatamis of the Island had given
the Sieur de la Salle, and which they had pre¬
viously accompanied with their dances and cere¬
monies, which they use in their feasts and public
solemnities.

This calumet * is a kind of large pipe for
smoking, the head of which is of a fine red stone
well polished, and the stem two feet and a half
long is a pretty stout cane adorned with feathers
of all sorts of colors, very neatly mingled and
arranged, with several tresses of womans hair,

* The Nouv. Déc., p. 149, prefaces this with some remarks
on the esteem in which the calumet was held.

OF LOUISIANA.

IJ 3

braided in various ways, with* two wings, such
as are usually represented on the Caduceus of
Mercury,f each nation embellishing it according
to its especial usage. A calumet of this kind is a
sure passport among all the allies of those who
have given it ; and they are convinced that great
misfortunes would befall them, if they violated
the faith of the calumet. And* all their enter¬
prises in war and peace and most important
ceremonies are sealed and attested by the calumet
which they make all smoke with whom they
conclude any matter of consequence.§

* The rest of the sentence omitted in Margry.

f Nouv. Découv. adds: This cane is inserted in necks of
Huars (loons) which are a kind of bird spotted white and black
as large as our geese or in necks of woodducks which build
their nests in the hollows of trees, although the water is their
usual element. These ducks are striped with three or four
different colors, p. 150.

Î This is omitted in Margry.

§ I should have perished several times during this voyage if
I had not used the calumet. This will be seen in the sequel
ot this history, where I shall have to speak of the monsters I
had to overcome and the precipices where I have been obliged
to piss in this discovery.” Nouvelle Découv., p. i 5 x.

A DESCRIPTION

I 14

These three men with this safeguard and
their arms, arrived at the little village of the In¬
dians three leagues distant from the landing, but
they found no one. These Indians, at the sight
of our canoes, perceiving that we had not landed,
on passing them, had taken fright and abandoned
their village. Accordingly these men after using
all endeavors in vain to speak to some one of
these Indians, took what Indian corn they could
carry from their cabins, and left goods there in
place of what they appropriated ; and then took
the road to return to us.

Meanwhile twenty of these Indians armed with
guns, axes, bows, arrows, and clubs which are
called casse-têtes, approached the place where
we were. The Sieur de la Salle advanced to
accost them with four of his men armed with
guns, pistols and sabres. He asked them what
they wished ; seeing that they appeared perplexed,
he told them to come on, for fear his men, who,
he pretended were out hunting, might kill them,
if they found them out of the way. He made

* Rest of sentence not in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

them sit down at the foot of the rising ground
on which we had camped, and from which we
could watch all their movements. We began to
occupy them with different things, to amuse them
till our three men got back from the village.
These men appearing some time afterwards, as
soon as the Indians perceived the peace calumet
which one of our men carried, they rose uttering
a great cry of joy, and began to dance after their
fashion. Far from being angry about the Indian
corn which they saw and which had been taken
from them, they on the contrary sent to the village
to bring more, and gave us some also the next
day, as much as we could conveniently put in our
canoes.

It was nevertheless deemed prudent to fell the
trees around and to command our men to pass
the night under arms, for fear of any surprise.
About ten o’clock the next day, the oldmen of
the village arrived with their peace calumet and
feasted all the French. The Sieur de la Salle*
thanked them by a present of some axes, knives
* u We ” Nouv. Déc., p. 154.

A DESCRIPTION

i 16

and some masses of beads for their women’s
adornment, and left th?m very well satisfied.

We set out the same day, October 2d, and we
sailed for four days along the shore. It was
bordered by great hills running abruptly down
to the lake, where there was scarcely place to
land. We were even forced every evening to
climb to the summit, and carry up there our
canoes and cargoes, so as not to leave them ex¬
posed by night to the waves that beat the foot.
We were also obliged by too violent headwinds,
during these four days and very frequently after¬
wards, to land with the greatest hardship. To
embark it required that two men should go waist
high into the water, and hold the canoe head on
to the wave, pushing it ahead or drawing it back
as the wave rolled in or ran out from land until
it was loaded. Then it was pushed out to wait till
the others were loaded in the same way ; and we
had almost as much trouble at the other land¬
ings. The Indian corn* that we ate very

* The following to “timely aid” is almost all omitted m
Margry. In the brief reference to Father Gabriel his age 64 is
mentioned.

OF LOUISIANA. iiy

sparingly and provisions failing us, our good old
Recollect had several times fainting fits. I twice
brought him to, with a little confection of
hyacinth, which I preserved preciously. For
twenty-four hours we ate only a handfull of
Indian corn cooked under the ashes or merely
boiled in water, and during all this time we were
obliged to keep on towards a good country and
to paddle with all our strength whole days.
Our men frequently ran for little haws and
wild fruit, which they ate with great avidity.
Several fell sick who thought that these fruits
had poisoned them. The more we suffered, the
more God seemed to give me especially strength,
and I often outstripped in paddling our other
canoes. During this scarcity, He who cares for
the smallest birds, allowed us to see several
crows and eagles, which were on the lake shore.
Plying our paddles with redoubled zeal towards
these carnivorous birds, we found there half a
very fat deer which the wolves had killed and
half eaten. We recruited ourselves on the flesh
of this animal, blessing Providence which had
sent us such timely aid.

A DESCRIPTION

118

Thus our little fleet advanced toward the
South where we found the country always finer
and more temperate.

On the 16th of October we began to find a
great abundance of game, and our Indian, a very
excellent hunter, killed stags and deer, and our
Frenchmen very fat poules d’inde. And at last
on the 28th * of the month of October we reached
the extremity of Lake Dauphin, where the heavy

wind forced us to land.

We went out to scout, as we were accustomed
to do in the woods and prairies. We found very
good ripe grapes, the berries of which were as
large as damson plums. To get this fruit we
had to cut down the trees on which the vines
ran. We made some wine f which lasted us
nearly three months and a half and which we
kept in gourds. These we put every day in the
sand to prevent the wine from souring, and in
order to make it last longer, we said mass only

* Nouv. Déc. p. 157 says 18 th.

f For the rest of this sentence and the two following, Margry s
Relation says merely “ in order to say mass.”

OF LOUISIANA.

1 r 9

on holidays and Sundays, one after the other.
All the woods were full of vines which grow wild.
We ate this fruit to make the meat palatable
which we were forced to eat without bread.

Fresh footprints of men were noticed at this
place. This forced the Sieur de la Salle to keep his
men on their guard, and without making any noise.
All our men obeyed for a time, but one of them
having perceived * a bear, could not restrain him¬
self from firing his gun at it, which killed the
animal and sent it rolling from the top of the

mountain to the bottom to the very foot of our
cabins.

This noise revealed us to a hundred and twenty-
five Indians of the nation of the Outouagamis,f
who live near the extremity of the Bay of the
Puants | who were cabined in our vicinity. The
Sieur de la Salle was very uneasy about the trails
we had seen. He blamed our men for their
lack of prudence, and then to prevent surprises,

* Margry’s Relation for the rest of the sentence has “a bear
and a stag, they could not forbear firing at them.”
f The Foxes.

I Green Bay.

120

A DESCRIPTION

he placed a sentinel near the canoes, under which
all the goods were placed to protect them from

the rain.*

This precaution did not prevent thirty Outoua-
gamis, under cover ol the rain which was falling
in torrents, and through the negligence of the
sentinel who was on duty, from gliding by night
with their usual dexterity, along the hill where
our canoes were, and lying on their bellies near
one another, succeed in stealing the f coat of the
Sieur de la Salle’s lackey,'and a part ol what was
under, which was passed from hand to hand.
Our sentinel hearing some noise and rousing us,
each one ran to arms.J These Indians seeing
themselves thus discovered, their chief called out
that he was a friend. He was told in answer,

* And another near the cabins, Margry, I p. 45 6 -
f For “ the coat” etc., ... “anda ” Margry’s reads“agood.

J For this sentence Margry’s Relation gives a different state¬
ment. “ The Sieur de h Salle awoke at this moment and
having risen to ascertain whether his sentinels were discharging
their duty, he saw something move which induced him to call
his men to arms, and with them he occupied an eminence
by which the Indians were compelled to pass.”

OF LOUISIANA.

12 I

that it was an unseasonable hour, and that people
did not come in that way by night except to
steal or kill those who were not on their guard.

He replied that in truth, the shot that had
been bred, had made his countrymen all think
that it was a party of Iroquois, their enemies, as
the other Indians, their neighbors, did not use such
fire arms, and that they had accordingly advanced
with the intent of killing them, hut having dis¬
covered that they were Frenchmen whom they
regarded as their brethren, the impatience which
they felt to see them, had prevented their waiting
for daylight to visit us and to smoke in our
calumet with us. This is the ordinary com¬
pliment of these Indians and their greatest marks
of affection.

We pretended to credit these reasons, and they
were told to approach to the number of four or
five only, because their young men were given to
stealing and that our Frenchmen were in no
humor to put up with it. Four or five old men
having advanced we endeavored to entertain them

j 22 A DESCRIPTION

till daylight ; when day came we left them at
liberty to retire.

After their departure our ship carpenters per¬
ceived that they had been robbed and as we knew
perfectly the disposition ot the Indians, and we
knew that they would form similar enterprises
every night, if we dissembled on this occasion,
we resolved to insist on redress. The Sieur de la
Salle at the head of our men ascended an eminence
of peninsular form ; he tried in person to find some
Indian off by himself. He had scarcely marched
three hundred paces, when he found the fresh
trail of a hunter. He followed him pistol in
hand and having overtaken him soon after
opposite a hill where I was gathering grapes with
Father Gabriel, he called me and begged me to
follow him. He seized and put him under
guard of his men, after having learned from him
all the circumstances of the theft. He again took
the field with two of his men and having arrested
one of the most important Indians of his nation,

* From here to 41 follow him ” omitted in Maigry where
u we ” is generally 44 he.”

OF LOUISIANA.

123

he showed him at a distance the one he already
held as a prisoner, and sent him back to tell his
people, that he would kill their comrade, if they

did not bring back all that they had stolen during
the night.

This proposition embarrassed these savages,
because they had cut the lackey’s coat in pieces,
and taken some goods with the buttons * to
divide them among them. Thus unable to restore
them whole, and not knowing by what means
to deliver their comrade, as they have a
strong friendship for one another, they resolved
to rescue him by force.

The next morning, 30th of the month of
October, they all advanced arms in hand to begin
the attack. The peninsula where we were en¬
camped, was separated from the wood where the
Indians appeared, by a long sandy plain two gun
shots wide. At the end of this plain towards
the wood we noticed that there were several small
mounds, and that the one nearest to us comman-

* For » the lackey’s coat.the buttons ” Margry has, « some

goods.”

A DESCRIPTION

124

ded the others. This the Sieur de la Salle occu¬
pied and commanded five men who carried their
blankets half rolled around the left arm to shield
themselves against the arrows of the Indians.*
He followed his men immediately after, to sup¬
port the former, but the youngest of the Indians
seeing the French approach to charge on them
drew off and took to cover under a large tree
on the hill. This did not prevent their chiefs
from continuing to remain near us.

There were only seven or eight who had guns,
the others had bows and arrows only ; and during
all these manoeuvres on both sides, we three
Recollects were there saying our office, and as I
was the one of the three who had seen most in
matter of war, having served as King’s chaplain
under the direction of the Very Rev. Father
Hyacinth le Févre, I camef out of our cabin to

* Margry’s Relation adds »• who had seized all these emi¬
nences,” and instead of what follows down to 125 Indians rea s
“ But these savages seeing the French approach to charge! em
abandoned the nearest and gave the Sieur de la Salle time to
mount the highest. This action”

f The Nouvelle Découverte omits this name and adds in
sieges and battles.” What precedes corresponds mainly in both
editions.

OF LOUISIANA. 12 5

see what figure our men made under arms and to
encourage two of the youngest whom I saw grow
pale, and who nevertheless made for all that a
show of being brave and haughty as much as
their leader. I approached in the direction of
the oldest Indians, and as they saw that I was
unarmed, they readily inferred that I approached
them with a view to part the combatants and to
become the mediator of their differences. One
of our men seeing a band of red stuff, which
served as a head band to one of these Indians,
went and tore it off his head, giving him to
understand that he had stolen it from us.

This bold act of eleven armed Frenchmen against
a hundred and twenty-five Indians, so intimidated
these savages that two of their old men near whom
I was, presented the peace calumet, and having
advanced on the assurance given that they could
do so without any fear, they said that they had
not resorted to this extreme course, except from
the inability^ they were in to restore what they
had stolen from us, in the condition in which
* I he text has impatience , evidently a misprint for impuissance.

A DESCRIPTION

I 2Ô

they had taken it : that they were ready to restore
what was whole, and to pay for the rest. At the
same time they presented some beaver robes
to the Sieur de la Salle to dispose his mind
to peace, excusing themselves for the small value
of their present, as the season was too far advanced.
We contented ourselves with their excuses, they
fulfilled what they had promised, and thus peace
was restored.

The next day was spent in dances, in leasts and
speeches,* and the head chief of these Indians
turning towards the Recollects, said : “ See, the
Grey Gowns, for whom we feel great esteem !
they go barefooted like us, they despise the beaver
robes whi :h we wish to give them, without any
hope of return ; they have no arms to kill us :
they flatter and caress our little children, and give
them beads ■{* for nothing, and those of our nation

* The following is omitted in Margry down to “ He added
that ” the connection being by the words “ in which they ex¬
horted the Sieur de la Salle to remain with them and not go
among the Illinois whom it wouid be impossible to resist, and
who had resolved to massacre all the French.”

f “And little knives” Nouv. Découv., p. 166.

OF LOUISIANA.

127

who have carried furs to the villages of the French
have told us that that Onnotio* the great chief of
the French loves them, because they have left
everything that the French esteem most precious,
to come and visit us, and to remain with us.
You who are the chief of those who are here,
arrange so as to make one of the Gray gowns
remain with us. We will give them part of all
we have to eat, and we will take them to our
village after we have killed some buffalo ; and
you who are master, arrange so as to stay here
also with us ; do not go to the Islinois, for we
know that they wish to massacre all the French.f
It will be impossible for you to resist that numerous
nation. He added that since an Iroquois, whom
the Islinois had burned, had assured them that the

* Onontio, Nouv. Découv. Huron and Onondaga word
meaning Beautiful mountain. Ononta , meaning mountain, and
to in composition meaning beautiful. The term was given
originally to Montmagny, Governor of Canada, apparently
in the sense of u Mont magnifique,” “ Beautiful mountain ”
and was subseqnentlv given to all the governors of Canada.
The Nouv. Déc. has M Canadians ” for u French ” throughout
this part.

t Your followers, Nouv. Déc., p. 167.

12^ A DESCRIPTION

war which the Iroquois made on them, had been
advised by the French, who hated the Islinois.
They added several like reasons which alarmed
almost all our Frenchmen,* and greatly disquieted
the Sieur de la Salle, because all the Indians whom
he had met on our whole route, had told him
pretty nearly the same thing.

Nevertheless as he knew that these reason
might have been have been inspired by those who
opposed our enterprise and by the jealousy ot
the Indians to whom the Islinois were formid¬
able by their valor, and who feared that they
might become still more haughty, when by
means of the French']' they had acquired the use
of lire arms, we resolved to pursue our course,
taking all necessary precautions for our safety.

He accordingly answering the Outouagamis,
told them that he thanked them for the infor¬
mation which they gave us, but that the French
who are spirits (the Indians so style us, saying
that they are only men, but that we are spirits)!

* Canadians. Nouv. Déc., p. 167.

f By our means Nouv. Déc.

J For 44 the French ... spirit ” Margry reads 44 he ” For
French, the Nouv. Dec. has 11 we.”

1 1

OF LOUISIANA.

129

did not fear the Islinois, and that we would
bring them to reason by friendship or by force.

The next day, the first of the month of No¬
vember, we all reembarked and we arrived at the
rendezvous, which we had arranged with * twenty
other Frenchmen who were to come and meet
us by the other side of the lake. It was at the
mouth of the river of the Miamis, which coming
from the south empties into Lake Dauphin.

We were surprised to find no one there, be¬
cause) the French whom we expected, had had
a much shorter route to make than we had, and
their canoes were not heavily laden j 1 '

We had resolved to make the Sieur de la Salle,
see that he ought not to expose us unseasonably
and not to wait for winter, to conduct us to the

* Margry reads “the Sieur de Tonty has had etc.” See
LeClercq, Etablissaient de la Foi 2 p. 151.

f Margry adds: “nevertheless he profited by this conjunc¬
ture to gam time and carry out the design that he had formed.
He had resolved not to expose himself unseasonably,” etc.

Î All the rest is omitted in Margry, which reads, “and that
havmg been joined by the Sieur de Tonty who was to bring
him 20 men he would be able without danger,” etc.

A DESCRIPTION

13°

Islinois, because during that season these nations,
in order to hunt more conveniently, break up
into families or bands of two or three hundred
persons each,+ and that the longer we lingered
in that spot, the greater difficulty we should find
in getting there. That as the hunting began to
fail where we were, his whole party ran a risk
of starving to death, and that among the Islinois
we should find Indian corn for our food, and
that we should live better, being only fourteen
men by our route, than if we were thirty-two;
that if the rivers should freeze over, we would
not be able of ourselves to carry all the equipage,
for a hundred leagues. He answered us that
when the twenty men whom he expected had
joined us, he would be able without danger to
make himself known to the first band of Islinois
whom he should find hunting, and gam them by
kind treatment, and by presents, learning some
tincture of the Islinois language, and that by this
means he would easily form alliance with the
rest of the nation.

We * understood by similar remarks, that h

* This sentence omitted in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

*3 J

regarded his own will alone as reason ; and he
told us that if all his men deserted he would
remain with our Indian hunter, and that he
would easily find means by hunting to enable
the three Recollect missionaries to live.

In this thought, he availed himself of the
delay of the Frenchmen * whom he expected ;
he told his men that he was resolved to wait,
and to amuse them by some useful occupation,
he proposed to them to build a fort, and a house
for the security of the bark and of the goods
which she was to bring, in order to serve us as a
refuge in case of need.

There was at the mouth of the river of the
Miamis,f an eminence with a kind of platform
on top and naturally fortified. It was high and
steep, of triangular figure, formed on two sides
by the river, and on the other by a deep ravine.
He felled the trees by which it was covered and
cleared away the underbrush for two gun shots
in the direction of the woods. Then he began
* Our men. Nouv. Déc., p. 170.

t Now known as the St. Joseph’s. The mouth forms
Benton Harbor. Beckwith’s Historic Notes, p. 75.

j 2 2 A DESCRIPTION

a redoubt forty feet long by eighty" broad,
fortified by squared beams and joists, and musket
proof, laid one on another: his design being to
put inclined palisades around the two sides lacing
the river. He cut down palisades which he
wished to plant en tenaille twenty-five feet high
on the land side.

The month of November was spent in these
works,! during which time we ate nothing but
bear meat that our hunter killed. There were
at this place many of these animals, that were
attracted to it, by the great quantities of grapes
growing everywhere there ; but our people seeing
the Sieur de la Salle all unmanned by the tear
he entertained of the loss of his bark, and utterly
annoyed also at the delay of his men, whom the
Sieur de Tonty was to bring us, the rigorous set¬
ting in of winter as a climax disheartening them,
the mechanics worked only reluctantly, storming

K Margrv has 30. t>

\ Instead of wha, follows down .o “ 1*™»''»"“ ™ r ‘

reads : “etteep. the holidays and Sundays, when all,he pan
tnded divine service and the settnon which Fathers Gabne,
. t • after Vespers.

OF LOUISIANA.

r 33

against the fat bear meat, and at their being de¬
prived of liberty to go and kill deer to eat with

the bear fat, but their aim all tended to deser¬
tion.*

We made a bark cabin during this halt, in
order to say mass more conveniently, and on holi¬
days and Sundays Father Gabriel and I preached
alternately, chosing the most impressive matters
to exhort our men to patience and perseverance.

From the commencement of the same month
we had examined the mouth of the river. We
had marked a sand bank there, and to facilitate
the entrance of the bark, in case it arrived, the
channel was marked out by two tall poles planted
on either side of the entrance, with bear skinf
pendants, and buoys all along. We had more¬
over sent to Missilimakinac two of our men, in¬
formed of all things to serve as guides to Lukef
the pilot.

On the 20th of November, the Sieur de Tonty

* Le Clercq gives this briefly. Etablissement de la Foi. ii, p

151.

f This word not in Margry.

A DESCRIPTION

! 34

arrived* with two canoes loaded with several
stags. This revived a little the drooping spirits
of our workmen, but as he brought us only half
of the men whom we expected, and had left the
rest at liberty three days from our works, this
gave the Sieur de la Salle some uneasiness ; our
new comers said that the bark had not touched
at Missilimakinac, and that they had heard no
tidings of her from the Indians, coming from
all sides of the lakes, nor from the two men
who had been sent to Missilimakinac and
whom they had met on the way. He feared
and with reason that his bark had been wrecked.
Nevertheless he kept his men working at the
Fort of the Miamis, as he called it, and not
seeing her appear after waiting so long, he
resolved to set out, for fear of being stopped by
the ice which began to close the river,f and which
broke up at the first light rain. Nevertheless we

* Instead of the following to “ new comers, said.” Margry
has simply “ who said to the Sieur de la Salle.” Tonty says
he arrived Nov. 12. Margry 1, p. 580.

-j. The rest of the sentence and down to “ deserted is not

in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

*35

had to wait for the rest of the men whom the
Sieur de Tonty had left behind, and to repair the
fault that he had committed, he retraced his steps
to make them come on and join us at once.
On the way he wished to hold a little, and re¬
sist the highwind, against the opinion of Sieur
Dautray ' and his other canoemen, and as he had
only one hand and could not help his two men
the waves made them yaw and threw them broad
side on the lake shore, where they lost their guns
and their little baggage.f This obliged them
to come back to us, and fortunately the rest of
our men followed soon after them, except two

whom we most mistrusted and who, we believed,
had deserted.

We embarked on the 3d of December with
thirty men in eight canoes and ascended the
river of the Miamis, taking our course to the

* John Francis Bourdon, Sieur d’Autray, son of John Bourdon,
Attorney General and Chief Engineer of Canada, born at
Quebec, Feb., 1647. I anguay, Dictionaire, p. 78.

f Tonty in Margry 1, p. 581. 1 onty. Mémoire p. 7. La

Hist. Coll. 1, p. 54.

,^6 A DESCRIPTION

southeast for about twenty-five* leagues. Wef
could not make out the portage which we were
to take with our canoes and all our equipage, in
order to go and embark at the source of River
Seignelayfj; and as we had gone higher up in a
canoe without discerning the place where we
were to march by land to take this other river,
which runs to the Islinois, we halted to wait for
the Sieur de la Salle, who had gone exploring on
land, and as he did not return, we did not know
what course to pursue. I begged two of our

* Margry say twenty.

|This down to “He told us that the marshes” is Henne¬
pin’s account, the Margry Relation has : “ One day the Sieur de
la Salle sent his canoes ahead and followed them on land accord¬
ing to his custom, hunting and seeking to make some profita¬
ble discovery. He gave chase to a stag that he had wounded
and that he could not overtake till he plunged 4 or 5 lea S u «
into the wood. He thought that the two men whom he had
with him were following his trail on the snow and would soon
overtake him; but they got astray and turned back to t
starting place in the morning instead of following the pat t a
he took. Accordingly after waiting sometime in vain,
took his route to come up to the canoes again. Marshes.

X The Nouv. Déc., say “ River of the Illinois. This river
empties and loses its name in the river Meschas.pi whic
language of the Illinois means “ Gieat River, p. 7
the Theakiki, now Kankakee branch of the Illinois.

OF LOUISIANA. * 37

most alert men to penetrate into the woods, and
lire off their guns so as to give him notice of the
spot where we were waiting for him. Two others
ascended the river but to no purpose, for the
night obliged them to retrace their step .

The next day I took two of our men on a
lightened canoe, to make greater expedition,
and to seek him by ascending the river, but in
vain, and at four o’clock in the afternoon we
perceived him at a distance, his hands and face
all black with the coals and the wood that
he had lighted during the night which was
cold. He had two animals of the size of
musk rats, hanging at his belt, which had a
very beautiful skin, like a kind of ermine,
which he killed with blows of a stick, with¬
out these little animals taking lhght, and which
often let themselves hang by the tail from
branches of trees, and as they were very fat, our
canoemen feasted on them. He told us that the
marshes he met with obliged him to make a wide
sweep, and as moreover he was hindered by the

snow which was falling rapidly, he was unable
13

X^8 A DESCRIPTION

to reach the bank of the river before two o’clock
at night. He fired two gun shots to notify us,
and no one having answered him, he thought that
the canoes had gone on ahead of him, and kept
on his way, along and up the river. After march¬
ing in this way more than three hours, he saw fire
on a mound, which he ascended brusquely, and after
calling two or three times, but instead of finding
us asleep as he expected, he saw only a little fire
among some brush, and under an oak tree, the
spot where a man had been lying down on dry
herbs, and who had apparently gone off at the
noise which he had heard* It was some Indian
who had gone there in ambush to surprise and
kill some of his enemies along the river. He
called him in two or three languages, and at last
to show him that he did not fear him, he cried
that he was going to sleep in his place. He
renewed the fire and after warming himself well,
he took steps to guarantee himself against sur¬
prise, by cutting down around him a quantity o
bushes, which falling across among those that

* Tonty describes this adventure briefly, Margry i, p- 5& 1

OF LOUISIANA.

*39

remained standing, blocked the way, so that no one
could approach him without making considerable
noise, and awakening him. He then extinguished
his fire and slept although it snowed all night.

Father* Gabriel and I begged the Sieur de la
Salle, not to leave his party as he had done, show¬
ing him that the whole success of our voyage
depended on his presence.

Our Indian had remained behind us to hunt,
and not finding us at the portage, he went higher
up, and came to tell us that we would have to
descend the river. All our canoes were sent with
him, and I remained with the Sieur de la Salle,
who was very much fatigued, and as our cabiii

* Instead of the following to “their load of meat,” the
Margry Relation reads :

“ The next da y he wem ‘o seek Indian trails and he found
that some had come three or four times to his rampart of brush¬
wood, but that they had not dared to cross it for fear of being
discovered. He returned to the bank of the river, where find-
ing no sign of the passage of the canoes, he retraced his trail
of the day before and was following the current when he met
Father Louis who was coming in search of him in his canoe,
in which he embarked to proceed to the spot where the rest of
his little fleet awaited him.”

A DESCRIPTION

I4O

was composed only of flag mats, it took fire at
night and would have burnt us, had I not
promptly thrown off the mat which served as a
door to our little quarters, and which was all in

flames.

We rejoined our party the next day, at the
portage where Father Gabriel had made several
crosses on the trees, that we might recognize it.
We found there a number of buffalo horns and
the carcasses of those animals, and some canoes
that the Indians had made, of buffalo skins to
cross the river with their load of meat.

This place is situated on the edge of a great
plain, at the extremity of which on the western
side is a v ’.liage of Miamis, Mascontens* and

Oi’atinon gathered together.

The river Seignelay f which flows to the

* The Nouv. Déc. has Miamis Mascouteins, p. 181. The
Ouiatenon are the Weas.

+ The portage was not far from the present city of South
Bend, Indiana. “ West of the city is Lake Kankakee, rom
which the Kankakee river takes its rise. The distance inter¬
vening between the head of this little lake and the St. Joseph is
about two miles, over a piece of marshy ground, where tne

OF LOUISIANA.

I4I

Islinois (Indians,) rises in a plain in the midst of
much boggy land, over which it is not easy to
walk. This river is only a league and a half
dictant from that of the Miamis, and thus we
transported all our equipage and our canoes by a
road which J we marked for the benefit of those
who might come after us, after leaving at the
portage of the Miami river as well as at the fort
which we had built at its mouth, letters § to
serve as a guide to those who were to come and
join us by the bark to the number of twenty-five.

The river Seignelay is navigable for canoes to
within a hundred paces of its source, and it
increases to such an extent in a short time, that
it is almost as broad and deeper than the Marne.||
It takes its course through vast marshes, where it

elevation is so slight, “ that,” says Levette in his report on the
Geology of St. Joseph County, “in the year 1832, a Mr. A.
Croquillard dug a race and secured a flow of water from the
lake to the St. Joseph, of sufficient power to run a grist and
saw mill.” Beckwith, Historic Notes, p. 24.

+ This marking is not in Margry 1, p. 463.

§ Which were hung on trees at the pass. Nouv. Déc., p.
182.

|| The Sambre and the Meuse. Nouv. Déc., p. 182.

14-2

A DESCRIPTION

winds about so, though its current is pretty strong,
that after sailing on it for a whole day, we some¬
times found that we had not advanced more than
two leagues in a straight line. As far as the eye
could reach nothing was to be seen but marshes
full of Hags and alders. For more than forty
leagues of the way, we could not have found a
camping ground, except for some hummocks of
frozen earth on which we slept and lit our fire.
Our provisions ran out and we could find no
game after passing these marshes, as we hoped to
do, because there are only great open plains,
where nothing grows except tall grass, which is
dry at this season, and which the Miamis had
burned while hunting buffalo, and * with all the
address we employed to kill some deer, our hun¬
ters took nothing ; for more than sixty leagues
journey, they killed only a lean stag, a small deer,
some swans, and two wild geese for the subsist¬
ance of thirty-two men.f If our canoe men had
found a chance, they would infallibly have all

* The rest of the paragraph not in Margry.

-j- Thirty or thirty-two, Nouv. Déc., p. 184.

OF LOUISIANA.

abandoned us, to strike inland and join the Indians
whom we discerned by the flames of the prairies
to which they had set fire in order to kill the
buffalo more easily.

These animals are ordinarily in great numbers
there, as it is easy to judge by the bones, the horns
and skulls that we saw on all sides. The Miamis
hunt them at the end of autumn * in the follow¬
ing manner :

When they see a herd,f they gather in great
numbers, and set fire to the grass every where
around these animals, except some passage which
they leave on purpose, and where they take post
with their bows and arrows. The buffalo, seek¬
ing to escape the fire, are thus compelled to pass
near these Indians, who sometimes kill as many
as a hundred and twenty + in a day, all which they

* The Nouv. Déc., here introduces the paragraph “ We con¬
tinued to “ cable ” which is in this edition after the account of
the buffalo.

f “ When the Indians see a herd of these cattle or bulls, they
gather, etc.” Nouv. Découv., p. 186.

t Margry has “ two hundred in a day ” and omits rest of
paragraph.

144

A DESCRIPTION

distribute according to the wants of the families ;
and these Indians all triumphant over the massacre
of so many animals, come to notify their women,
who at once proceed to bring in the meat. Some
of them at times take on their backs three hundred
pounds weight, and also throw their children on
top of their load which does not seem to burthen
them more than a soldier’s sword at his side.

These cattle have very fine wool instead of hair,
and the females have it longer than the males.
Their horns are almost all black, much thicker
than those of cattle in Europe, but not quite so
long. Their head is of monstrous size ; the neck
is very short, but very thick,* and sometimes six
hands j* broad. They have a hump or slight ele¬
vation between the two shoulders. Their legs
are very thick and short, covered with a very long
wool. On the head and between the horns they
have long black hair which falls over their eyes
and gives them a fearful look. The J meat of

* Rest of sentence omitted in Margry.

f In the Nouv. Découv., pants, apparently palmes or paumes.

J All the description that follows down to “ as commonly as
in Europe,” is omitted in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

these animals is very succulent. They are very
fat in autumn, because all the summer they are
up to their necks in the grass. These vast
countries are so full of prairies, that it seems this
is the element and the country of the buffalo.*
There are at near intervals some woods where
these animals retire to ruminate, and to get out
of the heat of the sun.

These wild cattle or bulls change country
according to the season and the diversity of cli¬
mate. When they approach the northern lands
and begin to feel the beginning of winter, they
pass to the southern lands. They follow one
another on the way sometimes for a league. They
all lie down in the same place, and their resting-
ground is often full of wild purslain, which we
have sometimes eaten.f The paths by which
they have passed are beaten like our great roads
in Europe, and no grass grows there. They cross

Nouv.' T Dl*; e m f ' buffa '° and the country of the — "

t This leads to the conjecture that it is i
parts by the dung of these bulls and cows
189.

ntroduced into these
Nouv. Déc., p.

J^_5 A DESCRIPTION

rivers and streams* The wild cows go to the
islands to prevent the wolves from eating their
calves; andf even when the calves can run,
the wolves would not venture to approach them,
as the cows would exterminate them. The
Indians have this forecast not to drive these
animals entirely from their countries, to pursue
only those who are wounded by arrows, and the
others that escape, they suffer to go at liberty with¬
out pursuing them further, in order not to alarm
them too much. And although these Indians
of these vast continents are naturally given to des¬
troy the animals, they have never been able to
exterminate these wild cattle, for however much
they hunt them these beasts multiply so that they
return in still greater numbers the following year.

The Indian women spin on the distaff the
wool of these cattle, out of which they make
bags to carry the meat, boucanned and some
times dried in the sun, which these women keep

* “ That they find in their way by swimming in order to pas

ture from one land to another.” Ib.

f“ But when once the calves are large enough to run after their

mothers, the wolves.” Ib.

OF LOUISIANA.

frequently for three or four months of the year,
and although they have no salt, they dry it so
well that the meat undergoes no corruption, four
months after they have thus dressed this meat,
one would say on eating it that the animals had just
been killed, and we drank the broth with them*
instead of water which is the ordinary drink of all

the nations of America, who have no intercourse
with Europeans,

The ordinary skins of these wild cattle weigh
from one hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds.
The Indians cut off the back and the neck part
which is the thickest part of the skin, and they
take only the thinnest part of the belly, which
they dress very neatly, with the brains of all
kinds of animals, by means of which they render
it as supple as our chamois skins dressed with oil.
They paint it with different colors, trim it with
white and red porcupine quills, and make robes
of it to parade in their feasts. In winter they
use them to cover themselves especially at night.

* In which this meat had boiled, like the Indians. Nouv

Vec., p. 190.

J ^8 A DESCRIPTION

Their robes which are full of curly wool have a

very pleasing appearance.

When the Indians have killed any cows, the
little calves follow the hunters, and go and lick their
hands or fingers, these Indians sometimes take
them to their children and after they have played
with them, they knock them on the head to eat
them. They preserve the hoots * ot all these
little animals, dry them and fasten them to rods,
and in their dances they shake and rattle them,
according to the various postures and motions of
the singers and dancers. This machine somewhat
resembles a tambour.

These little animals might easily be domesti¬
cated and used to plough the land.

These wild cattle subsist in all seasons ot the
year. When they are surprised by winter and
cannot reach in time the southern land and the
warm country, and the ground is all covered with
snow, they have the tact to turn up and throw
aside the snow, to crop the grass hidden beneath.
They are heard lowing, but not as commonl) as

in Europe.

* In the Rel., it is ‘ argots’ but in the Nouv. Dec., ongles-

OF LOUISIANA.

I49

These wild cattle are much larger in body than
ours in Europe especially in the forepart. This
great bulk however does not prevent their moving
very fast, so that there are very few Indians who
can run them down. These bulls often kill those
who have wounded them. In the season you see
herds of two and even of four hundred.

Many other kinds of animals are found in these
vast plains of Louisiana, stags, deer, beaver and
otter* are common there, geese, swans, turtles/}-
poules d’inde, parrots, partridges,* and many other
birds swarm there, the fishery is very abundant,
and the fertility of the soil is extraordinary.
There are boundless prairies interspersed with
forests of tall trees, where there are all sorts of
building timber, and among the rest excellent
oak full like that in France and § very different
from that in Canada. The trees are of prodigious
girth and height, and you could find the finest

The rest of the sentence omitted in Margry.
t The French has tortuës, evidently “ tourtres ” wild pigeons.

Î There is a prodigious quantity of pelicans which have mon-
strous beaks. Nouv. Déc., p. 193.

§ More solid and dense than that in Canada. Ibid 194.

A DESCRIPTION

* 5 °

pieces in the world for ship building which can
be carried on upon the spot, and wood could be
brought as ballast in the ships to build all the
vessels of France, * which would be a great
saving to the State and would give the trees in
our nearly exhausted forests time to grow again.

Several kinds of fruit trees are also to be seen
in the forests and wild grape vines which produce
clusters about a foot and a half long which ripen
perfectly, and of which very good wine can be
made. There are also to be seen fields covered
with very good hemp, which grows there naturally
to a height of six or seven feet. To conclude,
by the experiments f that we have made among
the Islinois and the Issati, we are convinced that
the soil is capable of producing all kinds of fruits,
herbs and grain, and in greater abundance than the
best lands in Europe.^ The air there is very
temperate and healthy, the country is watered

* Europe, Nouv. Déc., p. 194-

t In Margry it reads : “ by the essays which the Sieur de la
Salle made among the Miamis on returning from his second
voyage we are convinced, etc.”

} As two crops can be gathered a year. Nouv. Dec., p. * 95 -

OF LOUISIANA.

r 5i

by countless lakes, rivers and streams, most of
which are navigable. One is scarcely troubled at all
by musquitoes or other noxious creatures,* and by
cultivating the ground, people could subsist there

from the second year, independent of provisions
from Europe.

This vast continent will be able in a short time
to supply all our West India islands with bread,
wine and meat, and our French buccaneers and
filibusters will be able to kill wild cattle in
greater abundance in Louisiana than in all the
rest of the islands, which they occupy.

There are mines of coal, slate, iron, and the
lumps of pure red copper which are found in
various places, indicate that there are mines and
perhaps other metals and minerals, which will
one day be discovered, inasmuch as a salt and

alum f spring has already been found among the
Iroquois.

We continued our route on the river Seignelay

* The rest of this paragraph and the next omitted in Margry.

f Margry has “salt, alum and sulphur,» r p . 4 6 6 . The
Nouv. Dec., p. 196, reads “salt of alum.»

A DESCRIPTION

15 2

during the rest of the month of December; and
at last after having sailed for a hundred and
twenty or a hundred and thirty leagues from
Lake Dauphin on the river Seignelay, we arrived
at the village of the Islinois towards the close of
the month of December, 1679* We killed on
the river bank only a single buffalo, and some
poules d’inde, because the Indians having set fire
to the dry grass of all the prairies on our route,
the deer had taken fright, and with all the
skill adopted in hunting, we subsisted only by a
pure Providence of God, who gives strength at
one time that he does not at another, and by the
greatest happiness in the world, when we had
nothing any more to eat, we found an enormous
buffalo mired on the bank of the river, that
twelve of our men had difficulty in dragging to

solid ground with a cable.

This Islinois f village is situated at forty de-

* Margry has January 1, 1680. He says two buffalo, and
omits from 4 because ” to 44 cable.’'

f The Nouv. Découv., inserts here 44 The etymology of the
word Illinois comesas we have said from the teim Illini,wh

of Louisiana.

*53

grees of latitude in a somewhat marshy plain, and
on the right bank of a riveras broad as the Seine
before Paris, which is divided* by very beautiful
islands. It contains four hundred and sixty cabins,
made like long arbors and covered with double
mats of flat flags, so well sewed, that they are
never penetrated by wind, snow or rain. Each

cabin has four or five fires, and each fire has one
or two families, who all live together in a good
understanding. +

As we had foreseen,;}; we found the village
empty,§ all the Indians having gone to pass the

in the language ot this nation signifies a perfect or complete
man just as the word Alleman signifies all men, as though they
w.shed to ultimate that a German has the heart and bravery of
all the men of any nation whatever.” Iliniwek means “we

are men.” In the form irini, lenni, itenters into many names
Ot Algonquin tribes.

* Meuse before Namur. Nouv. Déc., p. i 97 . For the
position of the village, see Parkman’s Disc, of the Great West
P- 156. It was near the present village of Utica.

+ As to the population, compare Marquette, Discovery ol
t e Mississippi, p. 56 ; Voyages p. 98 ; Allouez. Re! , 1672-9
P- 129 ; Discov., p. 74; Membre in LeClercq., ii, p. ,73

+ This is supported by La Salle’s Letter, Sept. 29, ,680
Margry 11, p. 36. ’

§ Dec. 31, Tonty in Margry, 1 p. 581. He makes lat. 39 0

A DESCRIPTION

*54-

winter hunting in various places according to
their custom. Their absence, nevertheless, put
us in great embarrassment ; provisions failed and
we durst not take the Indian corn which the
Islinois hide in trenches under ground to preserve
it, and use on their return from the hunt for
planting and subsistence till harvest. This stock
is extremely precious in their eyes, and you could
not give them greater offense than by touching
it in their absence. Nevertheless, as there was no
possibility of our risking a further descent without
food, and the fire that had been set to the prairies
had driven off all the animals, the Sieur de la
Salle resolved to take twenty* bushels of Indian
corn, hoping that he would be able to appease the

Islinois by some means.

The same day we reembarked with this new
supply, and for four days we descended the same

river, which runs south by west.

On f the first day of the year 1679,']: discov-

* Margry has 30, Tonty 40.

+ This paragraph not in Margry. „

Ji68o in Nouv. Déc., p. i 9 9> ^nd down to “w.nters

omitted.

OF LOUISIANA.

155

ering one of our deserters, of whom I have here-
tofoi e spoken, and that he had returned to us, only
to seduce our men, who, moreover, were dis¬
posed to abandon us, through the fear they had
of suffering hunger during the winter, I made
an exhortation after the mass, wishing a Happy
New Year to the Sieur de la Salle and all our
party, and after the most touching words, I begged
all our malcontents to arm themselves with
patience, representing to them that God would
provide for all our wants, and that if we lived in
concert, he would raise up means to enable us to
subsist. Father Gabriel, Father Zenobius and I
embraced them with the most affectionate senti¬
ments, encouraging them to continue so important
a discovery.

Towards the end of the fourth day, while
crossing a little lake formed by the river,* we
observed smoke, which showed us that the In-

Lake Peoria. The Nouv. Déc. here abandons the original
narrative and copies almost literally from Le Clercq, Etablisse¬
ment de la Foi, ii, pp . 153-9, beginning “called Pimiteoui »
Nouv. Découv pp. 200-7. See Discovery of the Mississippi,
pp. 94“6 j La Salle in Margry, ii 5 p.

A DESCRIPTION

156

dians were cabined near there. In fact, on the
fifth,* about nine o’clock in the morning, we saw
on both sides of the river a number of parrakeets y
and about eighty cabins full of Indians, who did
not perceive our canoes, until we had doubled
a point, behind which the Islinois were camped
within half gun shot. We were in eight canoes,
abreast, all our men arms in hand, and allowing
ourselves to go with the current ol the river.

We f first gave the cry according to the custom
of these nations, as though to ask whether they
wished peace or war, because it was very im¬
portant to show resolution at the outset. At
first the old men, the women and children took
flight across the woods by which the river is
bordered, the warriors ran to arms, but with so
much confusion, that before they recovered them¬
selves, our canoes had touched land. The Sieur
de la Salle was the first to leap ashore.

* Tonty in Margry, 1 p. 53, and Le Clercq., ii, P- ' 53 > sa *
Jan. 4, 1680, La Salle, ii, p. 37, has however 5th.

•f- The French printer put peroquets, but Margry’s Re ation
gives the real word « pirogues,” “ canoes.” Compare La Salle’s
letter Margry ii, p. 37.

OF LOUISIANA.

I 57

The Indians might have been routed in the
disorder they were in ; but as this was not our
design, we halted in order to give the Islinois
time to regain confidence. One of their chiefs
who was on the other side of the river and who
had observed that we had refrained from firing
on seven or eight Indians whom we might easily
have killed, began a harangue to stop the young
men who were preparing to discharge arrows
across the river. 1 hose who were encamped on
the side where we had landed, and who had
taken flight at first, having understood the situa¬
tion, sent two of the chief men among them to
present the calumet from the top of a hill, soon
after those who were on tne other side did the
same thing and then we gave them to understand
that we accepted the peace ; and * at the same
time I proceeded in haste with Father Zenobius
in the direction of the Indians who had taken
flight, taking their children by the hand, who

* The following down to missionaries ” is not in Margry.

i 5 8

A DESCRIPTION

were all trembling with fear ; we manifested
much affection for them, entering with the old
men and the mothers * into the cabins, taking
compassion on these souls, which are going to
destruction, being deprived of the word of God
and lacking missionaries. The joy of both was
as great as their fear had been violent ; that of
some having been such that it was two "j* days be¬
fore they returned from the places to which they
had gone to hide.

After £ the rejoicings, the dances and feasts to
which they devoted the day, we assembled the
chiefs of the villages, which were on both sides
of the river ; we^ made known by our interpreter,
that we, Recollects, had not come among them to
gather beaver, but to give them a knowledge of
the great Master of Life, and to instruct their

* The Nouv. Déc., p. 202, has Maitres, here for mères.

f “ Three ” in Margry, 1 p. 468, ii, p. 38.

X Down to u friendship ” omitted in Margry.

§ w We told them that we had come among them only to make
known to them the true God, to protect them against their ene¬
mies and to bring them fire arms of which they had no knowl¬
edge, and the other comforts of life. We heard, etc.” Nouv,
Déc., p. 203.

OF LOUISIANA.

*59

children ; that we had left our country which was
beyond the sea to come and dwell among them,
and to be of the number of their greatest friends.

We heard a great chorus of voices, Tepatouï
Nicka, which means: “See what is good, my
brother, you have a mind well made to conceive
this thought,” and at the same time they rubbed
our legs down to the sole of the feet near the fire
with bear’s oil and buffalo grease to relieve our
fatigue. They put the first three morsels of meat

in our mouth with extraordinary marks of friend¬
ship.

Immediately after the Sieur de la Salle made
them a present of tobacco and some axes. He
told them that he had convoked them to treat of
an affair, which he wished to explain to them,
before he spoke to them of any other ; that he
knew how necessary corn * was to them ; that
nevertheless, the want of provisions in which he
found himself on arriving at their village, and the

The corn they had in reserve.” Margry, i, p. 468, ii, p.

39 - T his account is substantially the same in La Salle’s letter ii
P- 3 2 > etc.

l6o A DESCRIPTION

impossibility of finding any game on the prairies,
had obliged him to take a certain quantity of In¬
dian corn, which he had in his canoes, and which
he had not yet touched; that if they were willing
to leave it in his hands, he would give them in ex¬
change axes and other things which they needed,
and that if they could not spare it, they were free
to take it back ; but that if they could not supply
him the provisions necessary for his subsistence
and that ofhis men, he would go to their neighbors
the Osages, * who w r ould furnish him some on
paying for it, and that in return he would leave
with them the blacksmith whom he had brought
to mend their axes and other instruments, f

He spoke to them in this manner, because he
was well aware that the Islinois would not fail to
be jealous of the advantages that the French might
give their neighbors, and especially that they

* These words omitted in Nouv. Déc., p. 205.

-j* “ Which we Europeans might give them in future. The
Indians granted Mr. de la Salle what he wished and we made
an alliance with them. To render this alliance firm and in.
violable which we contracted with the Illinois, we had to takç
several necessary precautions.”

OF LOUISIANA.

161

would derive from a blacksmith, of whom they
were themselves excessively in need. They
accordingly accepted with great demonstrations
ot joy the payment that he offered them for their
Indian corn. They even gave more and earnestly
begged us to settle among them.

We answered that we would do so willingly,
but that as the Iroquois were subjects of the
k.ng and consequently our brethren, we could
not make war on them ; that for this reason we
exhorted them to make peace with that nation,
that we would aid them to do so, and that if in
spite of our remonstrances, that haughty nation
came to attack them, we would defend them
provided they permitted us to build a fort, in
which we could make head against the Iroquois
with the few Frenchmen that we had ; that we
would even furnish them arms and ammunition,
provided they used them only to repel their ene¬
mies, and did not employ against the nations that
lived under the protection of the king whom the

Indians call the Great Chief who is beyond the
great lake.

162 A DESCRIPTION

We then added that we also intended to bring
over other Frenchmen who would protect them
from the attacks of all their enemies, and would
furnish all that they needed ; that we were hin¬
dered only by the length and difficulty of the way.
That to surmount this obstacle, we had resolved
to build a great wooden canoe to sail down to
the sea, and bring them all kinds of merchandise
by that shorter and more easy way, But as this
enterprise required a great outlay, we wished to
learn whether their river was navigable to the
sea, and whether other Europeons dwelt near its
mouth.

The Islinois replied that they accepted all our
proposals, and that they would assist us as far as
they could. Then they gave a description of the
river Colbert or Meschasipi ; they told us won¬
ders of its width, and beauty, and they assured us
that the navigation was free and easy, and that
there were no Europeans near its mouth; but
what most convinced us that this river was navi¬
gable, is that they named four nations to us, of
whom there is mention in the Relation of the

OF LOUISIANA.

163

Voyage of Ferdinand Soto, in Florida ; these are
the Tula, Casquin,* Cicaca and Daminoia. They
added that prisoners whom they had taken in war
in the direction of the sea, said that they had seen
ships far out which made discharges, that re¬
sembled thunder, but that they were not settled
on the coast, because if they were there, they
(the Indians), would not neglect to go and trade
with them, the sea being distant only twenty
days in their canoes.

The f day passed in this way to our mutual

satisfaction, but things did not remain long in this
state.

* Casquia in Margry i p. 470 . For these places see Smith’s
Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto, Tula, pp. ,05 ;
Casqui, no, 250 ; Ch.casa. 92, 247; Aminoya, ,67. The
term Chicasa is easily identified, as the tribe held the same
territory from the days of De Soto to the present century.
Casqu. may be Kaskaskia, but it is not easy to see how La

balle recognized Tula and Aminoya in any Indian tribe of his
time.

t Paragraph omitted in Margry, 1 p. 470, but appears partly
in La Salle's letter, ii, p. 41.

A DESCRIPTION

164

The next day one of the chiefs of the Miamis*
named Monso, arrived accompanied by five or six
others loaded with kettles, axes, and knives in
order by these presents to prepare the mind of the
Islinois to believe what he was to say to them. He
secretly assembled the sachems and assured them
that we I intended to go and join their enemies,
who live beyond the great river Colbert, £that
we would furnish them arms and ammunition,
and that after having assembled them we would
join the Iroquois, and hem them in on all sides
to exterminate them entirely ; that we were
friends of the Iroquois, that the French had a
fort in the midst of the Iroquois country, that
we would furnish them arms and powder, and
that there was no other means of avoiding their
ruin, than by preventing our voyage or at least
delaying it, because a part of our men would

* From F. Allouez’s mission according to LaSalle’s letter,
Margry ii p. 41, 100, where Monso is said to mean a Deer, but
the Chippewa Mons, is our Moose, Baraga p. 252. T he
Nouv. Déc., calls him a Maskoutens.

f “ The Sieur de la Salle ” is here and generally in Margry
substituted for Hennepin’s “ we.”

I Omitted in Margry,

OF LOUISIANA.

i6 5

soon abandon us, and thal they should not believe
anything we might tell them.

After having said many things of the kind, the
Miami chief returned by night with as much

secresy as he came lest we might discover all this
mystery.

Nevertheless one of the Islinois chiefs named
Omaouha * whom we had gained on arriving by
a present of two axes and three knives, came to
see us the next morning and secretly informed us

° f a " that had P assed - We thanked him and to
induce him to keep us informed of all that went
on, we made him a new present of powder and
lead,f ea sily judging that this Miamis had been
sent and instructed by other Frenchmen, jealous
of our success, because this Monso did not know
us, and had not even been within four hun¬
dred leagues of Fort Frontenac, and that never¬
theless, he had spoken of our affairs with as

* ° moahoha > in Margry I p. 471, ii p. 42, wh ere La Salle
ca s him chief of the Koeracoenetanon. He is not mentioned
in the Nouv. Découv.

t I he Sieur de la Salle and all his men judged, etc.,” in
Margry, and “ us, our,” reads “ him, his.”

A DESCRIPTION

166

much detail and circumstantiality as though he
had known us all his life.

This affair gave us all the more uneasiness,
because we knew that Indians are naturally sus¬
picious and because many bad impressions had
already been made on our men to induce them to
desert, as * six of their comrades had already done
at one stroke.

In the afternoon of the same day, Nicanapé,
brother of Chassagouasse,j* the most important
of the Islinois chiefs, who was then absent, invited
us all to a feast, and when all were seated in the
cabin, Nicanapé took the word, and made us j'
an address very different from those which the
sachems had made us at his arrival, saying that he
had not invited us, so much to give us good
cheer as to cure our mind of the disease which
we had, wishing to descend the great river,

* “ Their comrades had done at Missilimakinak,” Margry.

f Chassagoac. Ib. He accompanied F. Marquette from
Green Bay. Disc, of the Mississippi, p. 259.

+ Maçgry has vC the Sieur de la Salle,” and apparently this
was Hennepin’s original reading.

OF LOUISIANA. jfry

which no one had ever yet done without perish¬
ing there, that its banks were inhabited by an
infinite number of barbarous nations, who would
overwhelm the French by their numbers, what¬
ever arms and whatever valor they might possess;
that this river was full of monsters, tritons,*
crocodiles, and serpents, and even if the size of
our canoe should protect us from this danger
there was another and inevitable one, that the
lower part of the river was full of falls and preci¬
pices with a current above them so evident,f
that men go down helplessly, and that all
these precipices ended in a gulf where the
nver was lost under ground, without any
one’s knowing whither it went. He added to
this so many circumstances and pronounced his
address so seriously with so many marks of good
will, that our men who were not all accustomed
to the manners of the Indians and two + of whom
understood the language, were shaken by it. We
marked their apprehension in their faces, but as

Tritons, crocodiles omitted in Margry.
f Violent,” in Margry.

Î Two or three, Margry i, p. 472 .

1 68 A DESCRIPTION

it is not the custom to interrupt Indians, and by
doing so, we should only have increased the sus¬
picion of our men, we let him finish his speech
in peace, and then we replied without any emo¬
tion, that we were very much obliged to him for
the information he gave us, and that we should
acquire all the more glory, if we found difficulties
to overcome ; that we all served the great
Master of the life of men, and him j* who was
the greatest of all the chiefs who commanded
bevond the sea ; that we esteemed ourselves
happy to die, while bearing J the name of both
to the very end of the earth ; but that we feaied
that all that he had told us, was only an invention
of his friendship to prevent our leaving his nation,
or rather that it was only an artifice of some evil
spirit who had given them some distrust of our

* Down to “who was ” omitted. Margry.

f Of our chiefs; that he commanded the sea and all the
world ; that we should deem ourselves happy to die hearing the
name of the great chief of heaven and of him who had sent us
to the end of the world. Nouv. Déc., p. 210.

$ His name. Ib.

OF LOUISIANA. I 6ç

plans, although they were full of sincerity; that
if the Islinois had any real friendship for us, they
should not dissemble the grounds of their uneasi¬
ness, from which we should endeavor to deliver
them, that otherwise we should have reason to
believe, that the friendship they manifested for
us on our arrival was only on their lips.

Nicanapé remained unable to reply, and pre¬
senting us food changed his discourse.*

After the meal our interpreter f took up the
word again, and told him that we were not sur¬
prised that their neighbors became jealous of the
advantages, that they would receive from the
trade which they were going to have with the
French, nor that they should spread reports to
our damage, but that he was astonished to see
them so easy to give them credence, and that
they concealed them from the French,* who had
so frankly revealed to them all their designs.

* All this is substantiated by La Salle’s letter, Margry « p
43 “ 4 * 7 ’ K

t The Sieur de la Salle, lb.

Î A man, lb.

170

A DESCRIPTION

“ We were not asleep, brother,” he added,
addressing Nicanapé, “when Monso spoke to you
in secret at night to the prejudice of the French,
whom he depicted to you as spies of the Iroquois.
The presents that he made you to convince you
of his lies are still secreted in this cabin. Why
did he take flight immediately afterwards ? Why
did he not show himself by day, if he had only
truth to tell ? Have you not seen that at our
arrival we might have killed your nephews, and
that in the confusion prevailing among them, we
might have done alone, what they wish to per¬
suade you, we will execute with the help of the
Iroquois, after we are settled among you, and
have formed a friendship with your nation ? At
this moment that I am addressing you, could not
our French, kill all of you, old men that you are,
while your young men are off at the hunt ; do
you not know that the Iroquois, whom you fear,
have experienced the valor of the French, and
that consequently we should not need their help,
if we intended to make war on you. But to cure
your mind entirely, run after this imposter, whom

OF LOUISIANA.

I7I

we will wait here to convict and confound. How
does he know us,* since he has never seen us, and
how can he know the plots which he says we
have formed with the Iroquois, whom he knows
as little as he does us? Look at our stores, they
are only tools and goods that can but serve us to
do you good, and which are not suited either for
attacking or for retreating . 19

These words influenced them and induced them
to dispatch runners after Monso to bring him
back, but the heavy snow that fell by night
before and which covered his tracks, prevented
their overtaking him ; nevertheless our French¬
men who had been alarmed already, were not
relieved of their false fears. Six of them who
were on guard, and f among them two pit-saw¬
yers, without whom we could not make a bark
to go to the sea, fled the next night, after having
carried off whatever they thought likely to be
necessary to them, and exposed themselves to a
danger of perishing and dying of hunger much

* All this is in the first person in Margry, “my/’ « mv
People,” « me.” / X

t Margry omits to “ sea.”

Î72

A DESCRIPTION

more certain than that which they sought to
avoid.*

The Sieur de la Salle having gone out ot his
cabin in the morning and finding no one on duty,
he entered the cabins of his men, and found one
where there was only a single man left, whom
his comrades had not notified, because he was
suspected by them. He called them all together
and asked for information in regard to these
deserters. Then he expressed his displeasure
that they should have deserted against the King’s
orders and all justice, and abandoned him at the
time when they were most necessary to him,
after he had done everything for them. To
counteract the bad impression that this desertion
might produce in the mind of the Islinois he
ordered them to say that their comrades had gone
off by his order, and said that he was well able
to pursue and punish them as an example, but
that he did not wish to let the Indians know how
little fidelity there was among the French. He

* The proceedings against these deserters will be fouud in
Margry 2 p. 103, etc.

Of LOUISIANA.

l 73

exhorted them to be more faithful to him than
these runaways, and not to go to such extremes
through fear of the dangers which Nicanapé had
falsely exaggerated to them ; that he did not in¬
tend to take with him any but those who would
wish to accompany him willingly, and that he
would give them his word to leave the others at
liberty in the spring to return to Canada, whither
they might go without risk and by canoe,
whereas they could not then undertake it but
with evident peril of their lives, and with the
disgrace of having basely abandoned him, by a
conspiracy which could not remain unpunished
on their arrival in Canada. *

He endeavored to reassure in this way, but
knowing their inconstancy, and dissembling the
chagrin he felt at their lack of resolution, he re¬
solved to remove them from the Indians, to pre¬
clude any new subornations, and in order to make
them consent without murmuring, he told them
that they were not in security among the Islinois;
that moreover such a stay exposed them to the

* At Quebec. Margry i, p. 475,

174 -

A DESCRIPTION

arms of the Iroquois, who perhaps might come
before * winter to attack the village, that the
Islinois were not capable of making any resistance
to them, that apparently they would take flight
at the first shock, and that the Iroquois would
not be able to overtake them, because the Islinois
run much faster than they do ; they would vent
their rage on the French whose small number
would be incapable of making head against these
savages ; that there was only one remedy, and
that was to fortify themselves in some post easy
of defence ; that he had found one of this kind
near the village, where they would be proof
against the insults of the Islinois and the arms of
the Iroquois, who would not be able to storm them
there, and who for this reason would not under¬
take to attack them.f

These reasons and some others of that kind
which J I made them, persuaded them, and

* Margry reads: “ Daring the,” “ Villages.’’

| All this confirmed by La Salle’s letter. Margry ii, p. 47

l This clause not in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

I 75

brought all to work with a good grace* in
building a fort which was called Crevecœurf
situated four days’ journey from the great village
of the Islinois descending towards the river
Colbert. J

* For the rest of this sentence Margry reads: “on a very
severe undertaking for so small a party.” Tonty in Margry i,
p. 583, makes the fort begun Jany. 15, 1680.

t The name is not given in the Nouv. Déc. The account
of this council there, pp. 207-216, is substantially the same as
here given.

It is commonly supposed that La Salle dejected at the loss
of the Griffin and his increasing difficulties called this fort
Crevecoeur, Broken Heart, on that account. The Tonty of 1697,
so asserts ; but at a moment when La Salle sought to encourage
his men he would not be likely to do this. As Louis XIV,
had recently demolished Fort Crêvecœur, a stronghold in the
Netherlands near Bois-le-Duc, captured by him, in 1672,
Zedler’s Univ. Lexicon vi, p. 1612-3, the name may have been
a compliment to that monarch ; and this would explain the
omission of the name in the Nouv. Découverte published in
Holland. Parkman, Discovery, p. 168, says that the site of
the fort is still recognizable a little below Peoria, It was on
the east side of the river. Franquelin’s map.

+ The Nouv. Découv., pp. 217-222, here introduces matter
from LeClercq ii pp. 173-181. Discovery of the Miss¬
issippi, pp. 150-2, making however Miamis southwest of Lake
Michigan where LeClercq has south by east.

A DESCRIPTION

176

A great* thaw having set in on the 15th of
January, and rendered the river free below the
village, the Sieur de la Salle begged f me to
accompany him, and we proceeded with one ot
our canoes to the place which we were going to
select to work at this little fort. It was a little
mound about two hundred paces distant from the
bank of the river, which in the season of the
rains, extends to the foot of it ; two broad deep
ravines protected two other sides and a part ol
the fourth, which we completely entrenched by
a ditch which united the two ravines. Their
exterior slope which served as a counterscarp, was
fortified, we made £ chevaux de frise and cut
this eminence down steep on all sides, and the
earth was supported as much as was necessary
with strong pieces of timber, with thick planks,§

* From this place to “ after our departure,” is substantially
the same in the Nouv. Découv, pp. 223-9.

f “ Proceeded with all his canoes to the spot which he had
selected to build a fort.” Margry 1, p. 176.

I For “ we made,” Margry reads “ with good.”

§ The Nouv. Déc., omits to “ barracks.”

OF LOUISIANA.

177

and for fear of any surprise, we planted a stockade
around, the timbers of which were twenty-five
feet long and a foot thick.* The summit of the
mound was left in its natural figure, which formed
an irregular square, and we contented ourselves
with putting on the edge a good parapet of earth
capable of covering all our force, whose barracks
were placed in two of f the angles of this fort, in
order that they might be always ready in case of
attack. Fathers Gabriel, Zenoble and I + lodged
in a cabin covered with boards, which we ad¬
justed with the help of our workmen and in
which we retired after work,§ all our people for
evening and morning prayer, and where, being
unable any longer to say mass, the wine which we
had made from the large grapes of the country
having just failed us, we contented ourselves with

* Twenty feet long and stout in proportion, Margry.

f Margry omits 44 two of.”

t The Recollects were lodged in the third. The store house
solidly constructed was placed on the fourth, and the forge
along the curtain, which, etc., Margry i, p. 477, compare La
Salle’s letter ii, p. 49.

§ Supply 44 and gathered.”

A DESCRIPTION

178

singing Vespers on holidays and Sundays, and
preaching after morning prayers.

The forge was set up along the curtain which
faced the wood. The Sieur de la Salle posted
himself in the middle with the Sieur de Tonty ;
and * wood was cut down to make charcoal for
the blacksmith.

While they were engaged at this work, we
were thinking constantly only of our exploration,
and we saw that the building of a bark would
be very difficult on account of the desertion of
the pit sawyers. It occurred to us one day, to
tell our people that if there was a man of good
will among them, who was willing to try and
make sheathing planks there was hope of succeed¬
ing, with a little more labor and time, and that at the
worst we should after all only spoil a few. Im¬
mediately two of our men offered to work at it.
The trial was made and they succeeded pretty
well, although they had never before undertaken
a similar piece of work. We began a bark of
forty-two feet keel, and only twelve broad. We

* Rest of sentence not in Margry.

OF LOUISIANA.

179

pushed on the work with so much care, that not¬
withstanding the building of Fort Crevecœur»
the sheathing was sawed, all the wood of the
bark ready and curved* in the first of the
month of March.f

It is to be remarked that in the country of the
Islinois, the winter is not more severe than in
Provence, but that of the year 1679,^ the snow

Hennepin reads “ en bois tors.” Margry “ en chantier,’’
on the stocks.

f Instead of the following down to confortetur cor tuum , the
Margry Rel i p. 477, has merely : “ At the same time the
Sieur de la Salle proposed to have the route he was to take to
the riverMississippi explored in advance, and the course of
that river above and below the mouth of the Divine river or
of the Illinois. Father Louis Henpin offered to take this
voyage in order to begin and make acquaintance with the nations
among whom he soon proposed to go and settle in order to
preach the faith there. The Sieur de la Salle was reluctant to
impose this task on him, but seeing that he was resolute, he
consented. He gave him a calumet and a canoe with two
men, one of whom called le Picard is now in Paris, the other
named Michael Accault, understood moderately the Illinois
and Nadouessioux languages. He entrusted the latter with
some goods intended to make presents and valued at 1000 or
1200 livres.” Compare Margry 11, p. 246.

X 1680, in Nouv. Déc., p. 226.

£8o a description

lasted more than twenty days, which was an
extraordinary surprise to the Indians, who had
not yet experienced so severe a winter, so that
the Sieur de la Salle and I saw ourselves exposed
to new hardships, which will perhaps appear in¬
credible to those who have no experience in
great voyages and new discoveries.

Fort Crevecoeur* was almost completed, all the
wood had been prepared to complete the bark,
but we had neither rigging nor sails, nor iron
enough ; we heard no tidings of the bark which
we had left on Lake Dauphin nor of the men
who had been sent to learn what had become of
her. Meanwhile the Sieur de la Salle saw that
summer was approaching, and that if he waited
uselessly some months more, our enterprise
would be retarded a year, and perhaps two or
three, because being so far from Canada, he could
not put his affairs in any order or cause the things
he needed to be forwarded.

In this extremity f we both adopted a resolu-

* This paragraph is substantially in Margry, i p. 483.

f Margry i, p. 484, has : In this extremity, he adopted a

OF LOUISIANA. l8l

tion, as extraordinary as it was difficult to carry
out, I to go with two men into unknown coun¬
tries, where one is at every moment in a great
danger for his life, and he to proceed on foot to
Fort Frontenac itself, a distance of more than
five hundred leagues. We were then at the close
of winter which had been, as we have said as
severe in America as in France, the ground was
still covered with snow which was neither melted
nor able to bear a man in snow shoes. It was
necessary to load ourselves with the usual equipage
on these occasions, that is to say, a blanket, a
kettle, an axe, a gun, powder, and lead, dressed /
skins to make Indian shoes, which often last only a
day, those which are worn in France being of no
use in these western countries. Besides this he
must resolve to push through bushes, to walk in
marshes, and melting snow, sometimes waist high,
and that for whole days, sometimes even with
nothing to eat; because he and three others who

resolution as extraordinary as it was difficult to execute, namely
to proceed on foot to Fort Frontenac more than five hundred
leagues distant. We were there etc.

182

A DESCRIPTION

accompanied him, could not carry provisions,
being compelled to depend for all their subsistence
on what they might shoot, and expect to drink
only the water they might find on the way. To
conclude he was exposed every day and especially
night to be surprised by four or five nations which
made war on each other, with this difference, that
these nations where he was to pass, all know the
French, and that those where I was going had
never seen Europeans. Nevertheless all these

difficulties did not astonish him * any more than
they did me. Our only trouble was to find among

our force, some men robust enough to go with us»
and to prevent the others, already greatly fluctua¬
ting, from all deserting after our departure.

Some j* days after we fortunately found means
to disabuse our people of the false impressions
which the Islinois had produced on them at the
instigation of Monso, chief of the Miamis.j'
Some Indians arrived at the village of the Islinois

* Margry continues w and his only trouble was, etc.

| This is virtually in Margry, i p. 485.

J Maskoutens. Nouv. Déc., p. 230.

OF LOUISIANA. £83

from these remote nations, and one of them assured
us of the beauty of the great river Colbert or
Meschasipi. We were confirmed in it by the
report of several Indians, and by a private Islinois,
who told us in secret on our arrival that it was
navigable. Nevertheless this account did not
suffice to disabuse our people and completely
reassure them. We wished to make the Islinois
themselves avow it, although we had learned
that they had resolved in council always to tell

us the same thing. Soon after a favorable occasion
presented itself.

A young Islinois warrior who had taken some
prisoners in the direction of the south and who
had come on ahead of his comrades, passed to our
shipyard. They gave him some Indian corn to
eat. As he was returning from the lower part
of the river Colbert, of which we pretended to
have some knowledge, this young man traced
for us with coal, a pretty exact map, assuring us
that he had been everywhere in his periagua ;
that there was not down to the sea, which the
Indians call the great lake, either falls or rapids.

MNHMMbs

184

a description

But that as this river became very broad, there
were in some places sand banks and mud which
barred a part of it. He also told us the name of
the nations that lived on its bank, and of the
rivers which it receives. I wrote them down and
I will be able to give an account thereof in a
second volume of our Discovery.*

We thanked him by a small present, for having
revealed to us the truth, which the chief men of
his Islinois nation had disguised from us. He
begged us not to tell them, and an axe was given
to him to close his mouth after the fashion of the
Indians when they wish to enjoin secrecy.

The next morning after our public prayers, we
went to the village where we found the Islinois
assembled in the cabin of one of the most impor¬
tant who was giving a bear feast, which is a meat
that they esteem highly. They made place for
us among them on a fine mat of flags, which they
spread for us. We told them through one of
their men, who knew the language, that we
wished to make known to them, that He who

* This is in La Salle’s letter. Margry, ii p. 54.

OF LOUISIANA.

has made all, whom we call the great Master of
Life, takes a particular care of the French, that
he had done us the favor to instruct us as to the
condition of the great river, called by us Colbert
as to which we had difficulty in ascertaining the’
truth, since they had rendered it impossible for us
to navigate, and then we informed them what
we had learned the day before.

These savages thought that we had learned

a these th,n S s b y sorn <= extraordinary way; and
a ter having closed the mouth with their hand
wh.ch ,s a way that they often employ to expre*
t eir surprise, they told us that it was only the
desire which they had to retain our chief with
the Greygowns or Bare feet (as all the Indians of

° Amer,ca cal1 our Religious of Saint Francis)
to remain with them, had obliged them to con¬
ceal the truth. They confirmed all that we had
earned from the young warrior, and have since
ways persisted in the same opinion.

This affair greatly diminished the fears of our

renchmen, and they were entirely delivered
16

j86 A DESCRIPTION

from them by the arrival of several Osages,
Ciccaca and Akansa,^' who had come from the
southward in order to see the French and to buy
axes. They all bore witness that the river was navi¬
gable to the sea, and that as the coming of the
French was made known,f all the nations of the
lower part of the river Colbert would come to
dance the Calumet of Peace to us, in order to
maintain a good understanding, and trade with
the French nation.

The Miamis came at the same time to dance
the calumet to the Islinois, and made an alliance
with them against the Iroquois their common
enemy. The Sieur de la Salle made some presents
to unite these two nations more firmly together.

Seeing that we were three Recollect mission¬
aries with the few Frenchmen whom we had at
Fort Crevecoeur, and having no more wine to

* The Osages from the Missouri ; the Chickasaws and
Akansas or Quappas from the lower Mississippi. Akansa,
Alkansas, Arkansas is the Algonquin name for the Quappas a
Dacota tribe driven from the Ohio river. Gravier’s Journal.

•J- “They would be very well received.” Margry I, p. 4 ^ 7 *

OF LOUISIANA.

187

say mass. Father Gabriel who had need of relief
at his advanced age, declared that he would
willingly remain alone at the fort with our
Frenchmen. Father Zenoble * who had desired
to have the great mission of the Islinois, composed
of about seven or eight thousand souls, began to
weary of it, finding it difficult to adapt himself
to the importunate manners of the Indians, with
whom he dwelt. We spoke about it to the Sieur
de la Salle, who made a present of three axes to
the Father’s host, by name Oumahouha, that is
to say, the Wolf, who was the chief of a family
or tribe, in order that he might take care to
maintain the Father, whom this chief called his
son, and who lodged him and considered him as
one of his children.

This Father who was only half a league from
the fort, came to explain to us the subject of his
troubles, telling us, that he was not yet accustomed
to the ideas of the Indians, that nevertheless he
already knew a part of their language. I offered

* Zenobe is frequently written thus in documents of this time.
Margry by a blunder in one place makes another man Le Noble.

138

A DESCRIPTION

to take his mission, provided he would go in my
place to the remote nations ot whom we had as
yet no knowledge, as that which the Indians had
given us was only superficial. This set the
Father thinking, and he preferred to remain with
the Islinois, of whom he had some knowledge,
rather than expose himself to go among unknown
nations.

The Sieur de la Salle left in Fort Crevecceur
the Sieur de Tonty as commandant, with some
soldiers and the carpenters who were employed
building the bark intended for the attempt to
descend to the sea by the river Colbert, in order
to be by this means, protected from the arrows
of the Indians in this vessel. He left him powder
and lead, a blacksmith, guns and other arms to
defend themselves, in case they were attacked by
the Iroquois. He gave him instructions to re¬
main in his fort, and before returning to Fort
Frontenac, to go and get a reinforcement, cables
and rigging for the last bark, which he left built
up to the ribband,* he begged me to consent

* See proceedings against Deserters. Margry ii, p. 103. It
had four planks on each side.

OF LOUISIANA.

i8g

to take the pains to go and explore in advance
the route which he would have to take to the
river Colbert on his return from Canada,* but as
I had an abscess in the mouth, which suppurated
continually, and which had continued for a year
and a half, I manifested to him my repugnance,
and told him that Î needed to return to Canada
to have it treated. He replied that if I refused
this voyage, that he would write to my superiors,
that I would be the cause of the want of success
of our new missions.

The Reverend Father Gabriel de la Ribourde
who had been my Father Master in the Novitiate,
begged me to proceed, saying that if I died of
this infirmity, God would be one day glorified
by my apostolic labors. “It is true, my son,”
said this venerable old man to me ; who had
whitened more than forty years in the austerity

La Salle, Margry ii, p. 54, says that Indians called Cbaa
who lived up the Mississippi visited him and invited him to
their country, and that Hennepin offered to go with two of his
bravest men. It is not easy to tell who the Chaa were, unless
we take it to be a misprint for bnan, one Algonquin name for
the Sioux.

j go A DESCRIPTION

of penance, “ that you will have many monsters
to overcome, and precipices to pass in this enter¬
prise, which demands the strength of the most
robust. You do not know a word of the language
of these nations, whom you going to try and gain
to God, but courage, you will gain as many
victories as combats.”

Considering that this Father had at his age
volunteered to come and aid me in my second
year of our new discovery, in the view that he
had to announce Jesus Christ to the unknown
nations, and that this aged man was the only
male child and heir of his father’s house, who
was a gentleman of Burgundy, I offered to un¬
dertake this voyage to endeavor to go and form
an acquaintance with the nations among whom I
hoped soon to settle in order to preach the faith.
The Sieur de la Salle told me that I gratified him.
He gave me a peace calumet and a canoe with
two men, one of whom was called the Picard du
Gay, who is now in Paris, and the other Michael

OF LOUISIANA.

I 9 I

Ako.* He entrusted this latter with some goods
intended to make presents, which were worth a
thousand or twelve hundred livres, and he gave
me ten knives, twelve awls, a small roll of tobacco,
to give the Indians, about two pounds of black
and white beads, and a small package of needles,
assuring me that he would have given me more,
if he had been able. In fact he is very liberal to
his friends.

* Compare La Salle’s letter, Margry ii, p. 55. Moyse Hil-
laret (lb. p. 108) says Aug. 17, 1680: “Feb. 28, the
Recollect F. Louis and the said Accault and Picard went to
trade with the Sioux,” showing that this was the opinion in the
fort of the object of their voyage. Tonty in Margrv i, p.
583, says : “ Sometime after the Reverend Father Louis Hen¬
nepin set out with Michael and Picard for the country of the
Sioux.” See too Tonty, Mémoire, p. 8. La Salle in Margry

i‘> P- 2 45 > etc > gives an account and justifies sending them, see
Appendix.

Of his two companions Michael Accault is deemed by some
the real head of the party. After La Salle’s force were ennobled
by his discoveries, this man became the Sieur d’ Accault, (d’Ako,
d acau, Dacan) just as honest Pierre You, blossomed out into
Pierre You d’Youville de la Découverte. The Picard’s real name
was Anthony Auguelle. In this volume, printed at Paris, Henne¬
pin very naturally mentions Auguelle’s being there. The Mar
gry document says the same, but La Salle would have referred
to Hennepin, not to Augnelle, had he known where they were.

A DESCRIPTION

192

Having received the blessing of the reveiend
Father Gabriel and leave from the Sieur de la
Salle, and after having embraced all our men
who came to escort us to our place of embarking
Father Gabriel finishing his adieus by these words :
Viriliter age et confortetur cor tuum,\ we set out
from Fort Crèvecœur the 29th of February, 1680,
and toward evening, while descending the river
Seignelay, we met on our way several parties of
Islinois returning to their village in their periaguas
or gondolas, loaded with meat. They would have
obliged us to return, our two boatmen were
strongly influenced, but as they would have had
to pass by Fort Crèvecœur, where our Frenchmen
would have stopped them, we pursued our way
the next day, and my two men afterward con¬
fessed the design which they had entertained.

The river Seignelay on which we were sailing,
is as deep and broad as the Seine at Paris, and in
two or three places widens out to a quarter of a

fThis from “ Some days after ” is reproduced with some ab¬
ridgment in the Nouv. Dec., ch. xxxv, pp, 230-240.

OF LOUISIANA.

I 93

league * It is skirted by hills, whose sides are
covered with fine large trees. Some of these hills
are half a league apart, leaving between them a
marshy strip, often inundated, especially in the
autumn and spring, but producing, nevertheless,
very large trees. On ascending these hills, you
discover prairies further than the eye can reach,
studded, at intervals, with groves of tall trees,
apparently planted there intentionally. The
current oi the river is not perceptible, except in
time of great rains ; it is at all times navigable
for large barks about a hundred leagues,! from its
mouth to the Islinois village, whence its course
almost always runs south by west.

On the 7th of March, we found, about two
leagues from its mouth, a nation called Tamaroa,
or Maroa, composed of two hundred families.
They would have taken us to their village lying
west of the river Colbert, six or seven leagues
below the mouth of the river Seignelay ; but our
two canoemen, in hopes of still greater gain, pre-

* O nc or tv vo leagues. Margry i, p. 478. The Nouv. Déc.,
says at the Meuse at Namur.

1 94

A DESCRIPTION

ferred to pass on, according to the advice I then
gave them. These* last Indians seeing that we
carried iron and arms to their enemies, and unable
to overtake us in their periaguas, which arc
wooden canoes, much heavier than our bark one,

which went much faster than their boats, des¬
patched some of their young men after us by land,
to pierce us with their arrows at some narrow part
of the river, but in vain ; for soon after discover¬
ing the fire made by these warriors at their am¬
buscade, we promptly crossed the river, gained
the other side, and encamped in an island, leaving
our canoe loaded and our little dog to wake us,
so as to embark more expeditiously, should the
Indians attempt to surprise us by swimming across.

Soon after leaving these Indians, we came to
the mouth of the river Seignelay, fifty leagues
distant from Fort Crèvecœur, and about a hun¬
dred f leagues from the great Islinois village. It
lies between 36° and 37 0 1 N. latitude, and
* Omitted in Margry.
t Ninety, Margry i, p. 479, ii, p. 247.

J 35 0 and 36°. Nouv. Déc., p. 245.

OF LOUISIANA.

*95

consequently one hundred and twenty or thirty
leagues from the gulf of Mexico.

In the angle formed on the south by this river,
at its mouth, is a flat precipitous rock, about forty
feet high, very well suited for building a fort.
On the northern side, opposite the rock, and on
tha west side beyond the river, are fields of black
earth, the end of which you can not see, all ready
for cultivation, which would be very advantageous
for the existence of a colony.

The ice which floated down from the north
kept us in this place till the 12th of March, whence
we continued our route, traversing J the river and
sounding on all sides to see whether it was navi¬
gable. There are, indeed, three islets in the
middle, near the mouth of the river Seignclay,
which stop the floating wood and trees from the
north, and form several large sand-bars, yet the
channels are deep enough, and there is sufficient
water for barks ; large flat-boats can pass there at
all times.

Î “ Ascending along the river ” concludes the paragraph, in
Margry i, p . 479 .

iç6 A DESCRIPTION

The River Colbert runs south southwest, and
comes from the north and northwest ; it runs
between two chains of mountains, very small
here, which wind with the river, and in some
places are pretty far from the banks, so that be¬
tween the mountains and the river, there are large
prairies, where you often see herds of wild cattle
browsing. In other places these eminences leave
semi* circular spots covered with grass or wood.
Beyond these mountains you discover vast plains,
but the more we approach the northern side
ascending, the earth did not appear to us so fertile,
nor the woods so beautiful as in the Islinois
country.

This great river is almost everywhere a
short league * in width, and in some place, two
leagues; it is divided by a number of islands
covered with trees, interlaced with so many vines
as to be almost impassable. It receives no con¬
siderable river on the western side except that of
the Otontenta,f and another, which comes from

* “ One or two leagues in width and is divided, etc.” Margry
i, P- 479 -

j- Outoutanta, in Margry who omits the rest of the sentence.

OF LOUISIANA. I97

the west northwest, seven or eight leagues from
the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua.*

On the eastern side you meet first an f incon¬
siderable river, and then further on another,
called by the Indians Onisconsin, or Misconsin,
which comes from the east and east-northeast.
Sixty leagues up you leave it, and make a portage
of half a league to reach the Bay of the Puans
by another river which, near its sourse, meanders
most curiously. It is almost as broad as the river
Seignelay, or Islinois, and empties into the river
Colbert, a hundred leagues above the river
Seignelay.

Twenty-four J leagues above, you come to the
Black river called by the Nadouessious, or Islati,
Chabadeba, or Chabaoudeba, it seems inconsider-

After this paragraph the Nouv. Découv. introduces the
voyage down the Mississippi and then repeats the paragraph, p.
3 ! 3 i a * ter an introductory statement. Appendix B.

t Margry omits to u another ” and has u first the river ”
called, etc. The Nouv. Déc. has Ouisconsin, LaSalle (Margry
ii, p. 249) gives also the name Meschetz Odeba and mentions
the rock at the south and prairie north of its mouth.

Î Twenty-three or twenty-four. Margry.

A DESCRIPTION

198

able. Thirty leagues higher up, you find the
lake of Tears,* which we so named, because the
Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us,
some of them wept the whole night, to induce
the others to consent to our death. This lake
which is formed by the river Colbert, is seven
leagues long, and about four wide ; there is no
considerable current in the middle that we could
perceive, but only at its entrance and exit.f
Half a league below the lake of Tears, on the
south side, is Buffalo river, full of turtles. It is
so called by the Indians on account of the
numbers of buffalo found there. We followed
it for ten or twelve leagues ; it empties with
rapidity into the river Colbert, but as you ascend
it, it is always gentle and free from rapids. It is
skirted by mountains, far enough off in some
places to form prairies. The mouth is wooded on

* Lake Pepin.

f Margry omits down to “ Buffalo river.” The Nouv.
Déc. has “ twenty-five leagues,” “ Issati.” It makes the Lakes
of Tears three leagues wide and the distance to the River of
Wild Bulls a good league.

OF LOUISIANA.

199

both sides, and is full as wide as that of the Seig-
nelay.

Forty leagues above is a river full of rapids,
by which, striking northwest, you can proceed
to Lake Condé, as far as Nimissakouat * river,
which empties into that lake. This first river
is called Tomb river, f because the Issati left
there the body of one of their warriors, killed
by a rattlesnake, on whom according to their cus¬
tom, I put a blanket. This act of hu¬
manity gained me much importance by the
gratitude displayed by the men of the deceased’s
tribe, in a great banquet which they gave me in
their country, and to which more than a hundred
Indians were invited.

Continuing to ascend this river ten or twelve £

Nemitsakouat, Margry. Nissipikouet, Nouv. Déc.
This is probably the St. Louis of the map of the Jesuit Relation
of i670-’7i, marked as the way to the Sioux, sixty leagues
west, being nearly the distance here given by Hennepin between
Mille Lake and Lake Superior.

t St. Croix.

t Margry i, (p. 480,) says 80.

200

A DESCRIPTION

leagues more, the navigation is interrupted by a
cataract which I called the Falls of St. Anthony
of Padua, in gratitude for the favors done me by
the Almighty through the intercession of that
great saint, whom we had chosen patron and
protector of all our enterprises. This cataract is
forty or fifty * feet high, divided in the middle
of its fall by a rocky island of pyramidal form.f
The high mountains which skirt the river Colbert
last only as far as the river Onisconsin, about
one hundred and twenty leagues ; at this place
it begins to flow from the west and northwest
without our having been able to learn from the
Indians, who have ascended it very far, the spot
where this river rises. They merely told us,
that twenty or thirty leagues below, J there is a
second fall, at the foot of which are some villages
of the prairie people, called Thinthonha,§ who

* Margry says 30 or 40. The Nouv. Déc. 50 or 60, p. 3 1 3 *

f Margry carries the mountains up to the falls of St. Anthony.

J For “below"’ (dessous) the Nouv. Déc. has “above”
(dessus).

§ The Titonwan, Minnesota Hist. Coll. 1, p. 297.

OF LOUISIANA. 201

live there a part of the year. Eight leagues
above St. Anthony of Padua’s falls on the right,
you find the river of the Issati or Nadoussion,*
with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend
to the north for about seventy f leagues to Lake
Buade or of the Issati + where it rises. We gave
this river the name of St. Francis. This last lake
spreads out into great marshes, producing wild
rice, like many other places down to the ex¬
tremity of the Bay of the Puans. This kind of
grain grows in marshy places without any one
sowing it : it resembles oats, but tastes better,
and the stalks are longer as well as the ear. The
Indians gather it in due season. The women tie
several ears together with white wood bark to
prevent its being all devoured by the flocks of
duck and teal found there. The Indians lay in

* Rum River.

f Fifty, Margry.

t Here the Nouv. Déc. strangely adds “ where I was madj
a slave by these savages.” The lake is Mille Lake.

2C2

A DESCRIPTION

a stock for part of the year, and to eat out of the
hunting season.*

Lake Buade, or Lake of the Issati, is situated
about seventy f leagues west of Lake Condé ; it is
impossible to go from one to the other by land on
account of the marshy and quaggy nature of the
ground; you might go, though with difficulty
on the snow in snowshoes ; by water there are
many portages and it is a hundred and fifty
leagues, on account of the many turns to be
made. From Lake Condé, to go conveniently
in canoe, you must pass by Tomb river, where
we found only the skeleton of the Indian whom I
mentioned above, the bears having eaten the flesh,
and pulled up poles which the deceased’s relatives
had planted in form of a monument. One of
our boatmen found a war-calumet beside the
grave, and an earthen pot upset, in which the
Indians had left fat buffalo meat, to assist the
departed, as they say, in making his journey to
the land of souls.

* Abridged in Margry.

f Sixty in Margry and he omits the rest of the paragraph.

OF LOUISIANA.

203

In the neighborhood of Lake Buade are many
other lakes, whence issue several rivers, on the
banks of which live the Issati, Nadouessans,
Tinthonha (which means prairie-men), Ouade-
bathon* River People, Chongaskethon f Dog,
or Wolf tribe (for chonga among these nations
means dog or wolf), and other tribes, all which
we comprise under the name Nadonessiou.|‘
These Indians number eight or nine thousand
warriors, very brave, great runners, and very good
bowmen. It was by a part of these tribes that I

and our two canoemen were taken in the follow¬
ing way.

We scrupulously said our morning and evening
prayers every day on embarking, and the Angelus
at noon, adding some paraphrases on the Response
of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal, in honor of St.

Onadebaton, Margry. The Warpetonwan. Minn. Hist.
Coll., 1, p. 296.

t The Sissitonwan. Minn. Hist. Coll, i, p. 296.

t Nadouessiou is not a Dakota word, but the Chippewa
name for this tribe. Nadowessiwag, Baraga, Diet. p. 250. The
Algonquin name for the Iroquois Nadowé, Nottoway, is nearly
the same and probably means Cruel.

204

A DESCRIPTION

Anthony of Padua. In this way we begged of
God to meet these Indians by day, for when they
discover people at night, they kill them as
enemies, to rob those whom they murder secretly
of some axes or knives which they value more
than we do gold and silver ; they even kill their
own allies, when they can conceal their death, so
as afterward to boast of having killed men, and
thus pass for soldiers.*

We had considered the river Colbert with
great pleasure, and without hindrance, to know
whether it was navigable up and down: we
were loaded with seven or eight large turkeys,
which multiply of themselves in these parts. We
wanted neither buffalo nor deer, nor beaver, nor
fish, nor bear meat, for we killed those animals
as they swam across the river.

Our prayers were heard when, on the nth of

* This paiagraph omitted by Margry. The narrative of the
captivity and deliverance as given in Margry, will be found m
the appendix B.

April, 1680,* at two o’clock in the afternoon,
we suddenly perceived thirty-three bark canoes,
manned by a hundred and twenty Indians, com¬
ing down with extraordinary speed, to make war
on the Miamis, Islinois, and Maroha.f These
Indians surrounded us, and while at a distance,
discharged some arrows at us ; but as they ap¬
proached our canoe the old men seeing us with
the calumet of peace in our hands, prevented the
young men from killing us. These brutal men
leaping from their canoes, some on land, others
into the water with frightful cries and yells, ap¬
proached us, and as we made no resistance, being
only three against so great a number, one of
them wrenched our calumet from our hands,
while our canoe and theirs were made fast to the

* The Nouv. Découv. says 12th. His men were cooking a
turkey and he was patching the canoe, p. 314. He says 50
canoes. La Salle in his letter of Aug. 22, 1682, makes them
meet the Sioux above St. Anthony’s Falls ! As Hennepin says
later that they had made 200 leagues since leaving the Illinois
Indians, and makes the Illinois camp one hundred from the
mouth, a like distance on the Mississippi will bring the capture
about the Desmoines.

f Tamaroas.

2o6

A DESCRIPTION

shore. We first presented them a piece of Petun
or French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs,
and the eldest among them uttered these words
Miamiha, Miamiha As we did not understand
their language, we took a little stick, and by
signs which we made on the sand, showed them
that their enemies, the Miamis whom they sought,
had fled across the river Colbert to join the
Islinois; when then they saw themselves dis¬
covered and unable to surprise their enemies,
three or four old men laying their hands on my
head, wept in a lugubrious tone, and I with a
wretched handkerchief I had left, wiped away
their tears. These savages would not smoke our
peace-calumet. They made us cross the river
with great cries, which all shouted together with
tears in their eyes ; they made us paddle before
them, and we heard yells capable of striking the
most resolute with terror. After landing our
canoe and our goods, some part of which they
had been already stolen, we made a fire to boil
our kettle ; we gave them two large wild turkeys
that we had killed. These savages having called

OF LOUISIANA.

207

their assembly to deliberate on what they were
to do with us ; the two head chiefs of the party
approaching, showed us, by signs, that the
warriors wished to tomahawk us. This com¬
pelled me to go to the war chiefs with one of
my men, leaving the other by our property, and
throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives,
and six fathom of our black tobacco, then bowing
down my head, I showed them, with an axe,
that they might tomahawk us, if they thought
proper. This present appeased several individuals
among them, who gave us some beaver to eat,
putting the three first mors.ds in our mouth
according to the custom of the country, and
blowing on the meat which was too hot, before
putting their bark dish before us, to let us eat as
we liked ; we spent the night in anxiety, because
before retiring at night, they had returned us our
peace-calumet. Our two canoemen were, how¬
ever, resolved to sell their lives dearly, and to
resist if attacked ; they kept their arms and
swords ready. As for my own part, I deter¬
mined to allow myself to be killed without

208

A DESCRIPTION

any resistance, as I was going to announce to
them a God, who had been falsely accused,
unjustly condemned, and cruelly crucified, with¬
out showing the least aversion to those who put
him to death. In our uncertainty, we watched
one after the other, so as not to be surprised
asleep.

In the morning, April 12th,* one of their cap¬
tains named Narrhetoba, with his face and bare
body smeared with paint, asked me for our peace-
calumet, filled it with tobacco of his country,
made all his band smoke first, and then all the
others who plotted our ruin. He then gave us
to understand that we must go with them to
their country, and they all turned back with us ;
having thus broken off their voyage. I was not
sorry in this conjuncture f to continue our dis¬
coveries with these people. But the greatest
trouble I had was, that I found it difficult to say
my office J before these savages, many of whom
* Nouv. Découv. p. 319 has 13th.
f “ Conjecture ” in the text.

X Daily portion of the Breviary which priests have to read.

OF LOUISIANA. 20 Ç

seeing me move my lips said, in a fierce tone,
Ouackanche ; * and as we did not know a word
of their language, we believed that they were
angry at it. Michael Ako, all out of counte¬
nance, told me, that if I continued to say my
breviary we should all three be killed, and the
Picard begged me at least to conceal myself for
my devotions, so as not to provoke them further.
I followed the latter’s advice, but the more I
concealed myself, the more I had the Indians at
my heels, for when I entered the wood, they
thought I was going to hide some goods under
ground, so that I knew not on what side to turn
to pray, for they never let me out of sight. This
obliged me to beg pardon of my two canoemen,
assuring them that I ought not dispense with
saying my office, that if we were massacred for
that, I should be the innocent cause of their
death, as well as of my own. By the word
Ouakanché, these savages meant that the book I
was reading was a spirit ; but by their gesture

* Wakan-dé. This is wonderful. Minn. Hist. Coll., i p.
308.

210 A DESCRIPTION

they nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so
that to accustom them to it, I chanted the Litany
of the Blessed Virgin in the canoe with my book
open. They thought that the breviary was a
spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion,
for these people are naturally fond of singing.

The outrages done us by these Indians during
our whole route were incredible, for seeing that
our canoe was much larger and more heavily
laden than theirs (for they have only a quiver
full of arrows, a bow, and a wretched dressed
skin, to serve two as a blanket during the night,
which was still pretty cold at that season, always
going north), and that we could not go faster than
they, they put some warriors with us to help us
row, to oblige us to follow them. These Indians
sometimes make thirty or forty leagues by water,
when at war and pressed for time, or anxious to sur¬
prise some enemy. Those who had taken us were
of different villages and of different opinions as to
us ; we cabined every night by the young chief
who had asked for our peace-calumet, and put
ourselves under his protection ; but jealousy arose

OF LOUISIANA.

2 I I

among these Indians, so that the chief of the
party named Aquipaguetin, one of whose sons
had been killed by the Miamis, seeing that he
could not avenge his death on that nation which
he sought, turned all his rage on us. He wept
through almost every night him he had lost in
war, to oblige those who had come out to avenge
him, to kill us and seize all we had, so as to be
able to pursue his enemies ; but those who liked
European goods were much disposed to preserve
us, so as to attract other Frenchmen there and
get iron, which is extremely precious in their
eyes ; but of which they knew the great utility
only when they saw one of our French canoemen
kill three or four wild geese or turkeys at a single
gun shot, while they can scarcely kill even one
with an arrow. In consequence, as we afterward
learned, that the words Manza Ouackangé,*
mean “ iron that has understanding,” and so these
nations called a gun which breaks a man’s bones,
while their arrows only glance through the flesh

* Hennepin uses the French nasals. In the notation now
adopted it is Maza Wakandé, that is “The supernatural metal.”
Minn. Hist. Socy., i p. 308. Rigg’s Dakota Diet., p. 138.

2 j 2 A DESCRIPTION

they pierce, rarely breaking the bones of those
whom they strike, and consequently producing
wounds more easily cured than those made by
our European guns, which often cripple those
whom they wound.

We had some design of proceeding down to
the mouth of the river Colbert, which more
probably empties into the gulf of Mexico than
into the Red sea ; but these tribes that seized us,
gave us no time to sail up and down this river.

We had made about two hundred leagues f by
water since our departure from the Islinois, and
we sailed with these Indians who took us during
nineteen days, sometimes north, sometimes north¬
west, according to the direction which the river
took. By the estimate which we formed, since
that time, we made about two hundred and fifty
leagues, or even more on Colbert river ; for these
Indians paddle with great force, from early in
the morning till evening, scarcely stopping to eat

j- This clause of course is omitted in the Nouv. Découveite.
The Red Sea, in Spanish Mar Bermejo, was the Gull of Cali¬
fornia. Compare this clause with the conclusion of the volum e.

OF LOUISIANA.

213

during the day. To oblige us to keep up with
them, they gave us every day four or five men to
increase the paddling of our little vessel, which
was much heavier than theirs. Sometimes we
cabined when it rained, and when the weather
was not bad, we slept on the ground without any
shelter. We had all the time to contemplate
the stars and the moon when it shone. Not¬
withstanding the fatigue of the day, the youngest
of these Indian warriors danced the calumet to
four or five of their chiefs till midnight, and the
chief to whom they went, sent a warrior of his
family in ceremony to those who sang, to let them
in turn smoke his war calumet, which is distin¬
guished from the peace-calumet by different
feathers. The end of this kind of pandemonium
was terminated every day by two of the youngest
of those who had had relations killed in war ;
they took several arrows which they presented by
the points all crossed to the chiefs, weeping
bitterly ; they gave them to them to kiss. Not¬
withstanding the force of their yelling, the fatigue
of the day, the watching by night, the old men

A DESCRIPTION

214

almost all awoke at daybreak for fear of being
surprised by their enemies. As soon as dawn
appeared one of them gave the cry, and in an
instant all the warriors entered their bark canoes,
some passing around the islands in the river to
kill some beasts, while the most alert went by
land, to discover whether any enemy’s fire was
to be seen. It was their custom always to take
post on the point of an island for safety sake,
for their enemies have only periaguas, or wooden
canoes, in which they cannot sail as fast as they
do, on account of the weight of their craft. Only
northern tribes have birch to make bark canoes,
the southern tribes who have not that kind of
tree, are deprived of this great convenience. The
result is that birch bark wonderfully facilitates the
northern Indians in going from lake to lake, and
by all rivers to attack their enemies, and even
when discovered, they are safe if they have time
to get into their canoes, for those who pursue
them by land, or in periaguas, cannot attack or
pursue them quickly enough.*

* The Nouv. Découv. p. 328, here introduces a paragraph
on Indian ambuscades.

OF LOUISIANA.

215

During one of these nineteen days of our very
painful navigation, the chief of a band by name
Aquipaguetin, resolved to halt about noon in a
large prairie ; having killed a very fat bear, he
gave a feast to the chief men, and after the repast
all the warriors began to dance. Marked in the
face, and all over the body, with various colors,
each being distinguished by the figure of different
animals, according to his particular taste or in¬
clination ; some having their hair short and full
of bear oil, with white and red feathers ; others
besprinkled their heads with the down of birds
which adhered to the oil. All danced with their
arms akimbo, and struck the ground with their
feet so stoutly as to leave the imprint visible.
While one of the sons of the master of ceremo¬
nies, gave each in turn the war-calumet to smoke,
he wept bitterly. The father in a doleful voice,
broken with sighs and sobs, with his whole body
bathed in tears, sometimes addressed the warriors,
sometimes came to me, and put his hands on my
head, doing the same to our two Frenchmen,
sometimes he raised his eyes to heaven and often

2 IÔ

A description

uttered the word Louis, which means sun, com¬
plaining to that great luminary of the death of
his son. As far as we could conjecture this cer¬
emony tended only to our destruction ; in fact,
the course of time showed us that this Indian had
often aimed at our life ; but seeing the opposition
made by the other chiefs who prevented it, he
made us embark again, and employed other
devices to get by degrees the goods of our canoe-
men, not daring to take them openly, as he
might have done, for fear of being accused by
his own people of cowardice, which the bravest

hold in horror.

This wily savage had the bones of some im¬
portant deceased relative, which he preserved with
great care in some skins dressed and adorned with
several rows of black and red porcupine quills;
from time to time he assembled his men to give
it a smoke, and he made us come several days in
succession to cover the deceased’s bones with
goods, and by a present wipe away the tears he
had shed for him, and for his own son killed by
the Miamis. To appease this captious man, we

OF LOUISIANA.

2 I 7

threw on the bones of the deceased several
fathoms of French tobacco, axes, knives, beads,
and some black and white wampum bracelets.
In this way the Indian stripped us under pretexts,
which we could not reproach him with, as he
declared that what he asked was only for the de¬
ceased, and to give the warriors. In fact, he dis¬
tributed among them all that we gave him. By
these feints he made us believe that being a chief,
he took nothing for himself, but what we gave
him of our own accord. We slept at the point
of the lake of "I ears, which we so called from
the weeping and tears which this chief shed there
all night long, or which were shed by one of his
sons, whom he caused to weep when tired him¬
self, in order to excite his warriors to compassion,
and oblige them to kill us and pursue their ene¬
mies to avenge his son’s death.

These Indians at times sent their best runners
by land to chase the herds of wild cattle on the
water side ; as these animals crossed the river,
they sometimes killed forty or fifty, merely to
18

21 B a description

take the tongue, and most delicate morsels, leav¬
ing the rest with which they would not burthen
themselves, so as to travel more rapidly. We
sometimes indeed eat good pieces, but without
bread, wine, or salt, and without spice or other
seasoning. During our three years’ * travels we
had lived in the same way, sometimes in plenty,
at others compelled to pass twenty-four hours,
and often more, without eating; because in
these little bark canoes you cannot take much of
a load, and with every precaution you adopt, you
are, for most part of the time, deprived of all
necessaries of life. If a religious in Europe un¬
derwent as many hardships and labors, and prac¬
tised abstinences like those we were often obliged
to suffer in America, no other proof would be
needed for his canonization. It is true that we
did not always merit in such cases and it we suffered
it was only because we can not help it.

During the night some old men came to weep
piteously, often rubbing our arms and whole

* The Nouvelle Découv., p. 334, has “ during; the four years
of nearly twelve that I remained in America.”

OF LOUISfANA.

2 i 9

bodies with their hands, which they then put on
our head. Besides being hindered from sleeping
by these tears, I often did not know what to
think, nor whether these Indians wept because
some of their warriors would have killed us, or
whether they wept out of pure compassion at the
ill treatment shown us.

On another occasion, Aquipaguetin relapsed
into his bad humor : he had so gained most of
the warriors that one day when we were unable
to encamp near Narhetoba, who protected us, we
were obliged to go to the very end of the camp,
these Indians making it appear to us, that this
chief insisted positively on killing us. We accord-
ingly drew from a box twenty knives and some
tobacco, which we angrily flung down amid
the malcontents ; the wretch regarding all his
soldiers one after another hesitated, asking their
advice, whether to refuse or take our present ; and
as we bowed our head and presented him with an
axe to kill us, the young chief who was really or
pretendedly our protector took us by the arm,
and all in fury led us to his cabin. One of his

2 20 A DESCRIPTION

brothers taking some arrows, he broke them all
in our presence, showing us by this action, that
he prevented their killing us.

The next day they left us alone in our canoe,
without putting in any Indians to help us, as they
usually did ; all remained behind us. After tour
or five leagues sail another chief came to us, made
us disembark, and pulling up three little piles of
grass, for us to sit upon, he took a piece of cedar
full of little round holes in one of which he put
a stick, which he spun round between the two
palms of his hands, and in this way made fire to
light the tobacco in his great calumet. After
weeping some time, and putting his hands on my
head, he gave me his peace-calumet to smoke,
and showed us that we should be in his country

in six days.

Having arrived on the nineteenth day of our
navigation five leagues below the Falls of St.
Anthony, these Indians landed us in a bay and
assembled to deliberate about us. They distri
buted us separately, and gave us to three heads of
families in place of three of their children who

OF LOUISIANA.

22 1

had been killed in war. They first seized all our
property, and broke our canoe to pieces, for fear
we should return to their enemies. Their own
they hid all in some alders to use when going to
hunt; and though we might easily have reached
their country by water, they compelled us to go
sixty leagues by land, forcing us to march from
daybreak to two hours after nightfall, and to swim
over many rivers, while these Indians, who are
oiten of extraordinary height, carried our habit
on their head ; and our two canoemen, who were
smaller than myself, on their shoulders, because
they could not swim as I couM. On leaving the
water, which was often full of sharp ice, I could
scarcely stand ; our legs were all bloody from the
ice which we broke as we advanced in lakes which
we forded, and as we eat only once in twenty-
four hours some pieces of meat which these
barbarians grudgingly gave us, I was so weak
that I often lay down on the way, resolved to die
there, rather than follow these Indians who
marched on and continued their route with a
celerity which surpasses the power of Euro-

222

A DESCRIPTION

peans. To oblige us to hasten on, they often set
fire to the grass of the prairies where we were
passing, so that we had to advance or burn. I
had then a hat which I reserved to shield me
from the burning rays of the sun in summer, but
I often dropped it in the flames which we were
obliged to cross.

As we approached their village, they divided
among them all the merchandise of our two
canoemen,* and were near killing each other lor
our roll of French tobacco, which is very pre¬
cious to these tribes, and more esteemed than
gold among Europeans. The more humane
showed by signs that they would give many
beaver-skins for what they took. The reason of
the violence was, that this party was made up
from two different tribes, the more distant of
whom, fearing lest the others should retain all
the goods in the first villages which they would
have to pass, wished to take their share in ad¬
vance. In fact, some time after they offered
peltries in part payment; but our canoemen would
* Margry, i p. 482. See Appendix B.

OF LOUISIANA. 223

not receive them, until they gave the full value
of all that had been taken. And in course of
time I have no doubt they will give entire satis¬
faction to the French, whom they will endeavor
to draw among them to carry on trade.

These savages also took our brocade chasuble,
and all the articles of our portable chapel, except
the chalice, which they durst not touch ; for
seeing that glittering silver gilt, they closed their
eyes, saying that it was a spirit which would kill

them.* They also broke a little box with lock
and key, after telling me, that if I did not break

the lock, they would do so themselves with
sharp stones ; the reason of this violence was that
from time to time on the route, they could not
open the box to examine what was inside, having
no idea of locks and keys ; besides, they did not
care to carry the box, but only the goods which
were inside, and which they thought more numer¬
ous but they found only books and papers.

After five days’ march by land, suffering hunger,
thirst, and outrages, marching all day long with-

* Margry i, p. 482. Nouv. Découverte, p. 344.

224 A DESCRIPTION

out rest, fording lakes and rivers, we descried a
number of women and children coming to meet
our little army. All the elders of this nation
assembled on our account, and as we saw cabins,
and bundles of straw hanging from the posts of
them, to which these savages bind those whom
they take as slaves, and burn them ; and seeing
that they made the Picard du Gay sing, as he
held and shook a gourd full of little round
pebbles and seeing his hair and face were filled
with paint of different colors, and a tuft of white
feathers attached to his head by the Indians, we
not unreasonably thought that they wished to kill
us, as they performed many ceremonies, usually
practised, when they intend to burn their enemies.
The worst of it was, too, that not one of us three
could make himself understood by these Indians ;
nevertheless, after many vows, which every Chris¬
tian ought to make in such straits,* one of the
principal Issati chiefs gave us his peace-calumet
to smoke, and accepted the one we had brought.
He then gave us some wild rice to eat, presenting
* “ Conjectures ” in text, for “ conjonctures.’’

\*J

OF LOUISIANA.

225

it to us in large bark dishes, which the Indian
women had seasoned with whortleberries, which
are black berries that they dry in the sun in
summer, and are as good as currants.* After
this feast, the best we had had for seven or eight
days, the heads of families who had adopted us
instead of their sons killed in war, conducted us
separately each to his village, marching through
marshes, knee deep in water, for a league, after
which the five wives of the one who called me
Mitchinchi,1* that is to say, his son, received us
in three bark canoes, and took us a short league
from our starting place to an island where their
cabins were.

On our arrival, which was about the Easter

* “ Our Flemings call them in their language Clakebesien .”
Nouv. Découv., p. 347. It then says there was a great con¬
test between Aquipaguetin and the rest in regard to them
Aquapaguetin succeeded, gave him the calumet to smoke,
adopted him as his son, while Narhetoba and another took away
the canoemen. The Picard du Gay went to confession but
it adds “ I should have been charmed to see Michael Ako in
similar dispositions,” p. 348. Compare Gravier, Illinois Re¬
lation, p. 20. Jesuit and Recollect agreeing as to Ako.

t Not in the Nouv. Déc.

22Ô

A DESCRIPTION

holidays in the year 1680* one of these Indians
who seemed to me decrepid with age, gave me
a large calumet to smoke, and weeping bitterly,
rubbed my head and arms, showing his com¬
passion at seeing me so fatigued, that two men
were often obliged to give me their hands to help
me to stand up. There was a bearskin near the
fire, on which he rubbed my thighs, legs and the
soles of my feet with wild-cat oil.

Aquipaguetin’s son, who called me his brother,
paraded about with our brocade chasuble on his
bare back, having rolled up in it a dead man’s
bones, for whom these people had a great venera¬
tion. The priest’s girdle made of red and white
wool, with two tassels at the end, served him for
braces, carrying in triumph what he called
Pere Louis Chinnien.f which means, as I after-

*This is somewhat vague; Easter Sunday, in 1680, fell on
the 21 st of April ; he was taken on the nth of April, traveled
nineteen days in canoe, and five by land, which brings him to
the 5th of May. The Nouv. Déc., says, that he arrived at the
beginning of May, and enters into long explanations.

-j- Shinna or Shina, a blanket. Rigg’s Dakota Diet., p. 189.
Shinna or Shinnan means a buffalo robe. Minn. Hist., Coll.

1» P- 3 50 *

OF LOUISIANA.

227

wards ascertained “ the robe of him who is called
the sun.” After these Indians had used this cha¬
suble as an ornament to cover the bones of their
dead in their greatest ceremonies, they presented
it to some of their allies, tribes situated about five
hundred * leagues west of their country, who
had sent them an embassy and danced the calumet.

The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who
was the head of a large family, covered me with
a robe made of ten large dressed beaver-skins, - }'
trimmed with porcupine quills. This Indian
showed me five or six of his wives, telling them,
as I afterward learned, that they should in future
regard me as one of their children J He set
before me a bark dish full of fish, and ordered all
those assembled, that each should call me by the
name I was to have in the rank of our new rela¬
tionship; and seeing that I could not rise from
the ground but by the help of two persons, he

*Four or five hundred. Nouv. Déc., p. 352.

t Dressed buffalo belly skins, Nouv. Déc., p. 352, and adds
that he gave him one of ten beaver skins. The wives become
six or seven.

X Nouv. Voy. (Voy. au Nord., v. p. 284.)

228 A DESCRIPTION

had a sweating cabin made, in which he made
me enter quite naked with four Indians who all
tied the end of their yard with white wood bark
before beginning to sweat. This cabin he cov¬
ered with buffalo-skins, and inside in the middle
he put stones heated to a red heat. He made me
a sign to do like the others before beginning to
sweat, but I merely concealed my nakedness with
a handkerchief. As soon as these Indians had sev¬
eral times drawn their breath very violently, he
began to sing in a thundering voice, theothers sec¬
onded him, all putting their hands on my body, and
rubbing me, while they wept bitterly. I began to
faint, but I came out of the cabin, andcould scarcely
take my habit to put on. When he had made
me sweat thus three times in a week, I felt as
strong as ever.

I often spent wretched hours among these
cavages ; for, besides their only giving me a little
wild rice and smoked fish roes to eat five or six times
week, which they boiled in water in earthen
pots, Aquipaguetin took me to a neighboring
island with his wives and children to till the

OF LOUISIANA.

22Ç

ground, in order to sow some tobacco seed, and
seeds of vegetables that I had brought, and which
this Indian prized extremely. Sometimes he
assembled the elders of the village, in whose
presence he asked me for a compass that I always
had in my sleeve ; seeing that I made the needle
turn with a key, and believing justly that we
Europeans went all over the habitable globe,
guided by this instrument, this chief, who was
very eloquent, persuaded his people that we were
spirits, and capable of doing anything beyond their
reach. At the close of his address, which was
very animated, all the old men wept over my
head, admiring in me what they could not under¬
stand. I had an iron pot with three lion feet,
which these Indians never dared touch, unless
their hand was wrapped up in some robe. The
women had it hung to the branch of a tree, not
daring to enter the cabin where this pot was.
I was some time unable to make myself under¬
stood by these people, but feeling myself gnawed
by hunger, I began to compile a dictionary of
their language by means of their children, with

230 A DESCRIPTION

whom I made myself familiar, in order to learn.

As soon as I could catch the word Taketchi-
abihen,* which means in their language, “ How
do you call that,” I became, in a little while,
able to converse with them on familiar things.
At first, indeed, to ask the word run in their
language, I had to quicken my steps from one
end of their large cabin to the other, i he chiefs
of these savages seeing my desire to learn, olten |
made me write, naming all the parts of the human
body, and as I would not put on paper certain
indelicate words, about which these people have
no scruples, it afforded them an agreeable amuse¬
ment among themselves. They often put me
questions, but as I had to look at my paper, to
answer them, they said to one another : “ When
we ask Père Louis (for so they had heard our
two Frenchmen call me), he does not answer

* Takn kapi hé, Minn. Hist. Coll., 1 p. 311. Takn kipan
he. Riggs’ Dakota Diet., p. 130, 194.

■\ u Often said to me l^atchison egagahe , that is to say : Spirit
you take great pains, put black on the white.” Nouv. Découv.,
p. 359, (Perhaps, wotehike, trouble ; icagopi, mark. Riggs’

Diet., p. 334, 3 IO 0

OF LOUISIANA.

231

us ; but as soon as he has looked at what is white
(for they have no word to say paper), he answers
us, and tells us his thoughts ; that white thing,”
said they, “ must be a spirit which tells Pere
Louis all we say.” They concluded that our two
Frenchmen had not so much intelligence as I,
because they could not work like me on what
was white. In consequence the Indians believed
that I could do everything ; when the rain fell
in such quantities as to incommode them, or pre¬
vent their going to hunt, they told me to stop it ;
but then I knew enough to answer them by
pointing to the clouds, that he who was great
chief of h eaven, was master of everything, and
that what they bid me do, did not depend on me.

These Indians often asked me how many wives
and children I had, and how old I was, that is,
how many winters, for so these nations always
count. These men, never illumined by the light
of faith, were surprised at the answer I made
them ; for pointing to our two P'renchmen whom
I had then gone to visit three leagues from our
village, I told them that a man among us could

232

A DESCRIPTION

have only one wife till death ; that as for me, I
had promised the Master of life to live as they
saw me, and to come and dwell with them to teach
them * that he would have them be like the
French ; that this great Master of life had sent
down fire from heaven, and destroyed a nation
given to enormous crimes, like those committed
among them. But that gross people till then,
lawless and faithless, turned all I said into ridicule.
“ How,” said they, “ would you have those two
men with you get wives ? Our women would
not live with them, for they have hair all over
the face, and we have none there or elsewhere.”!
In fact, they were never better pleased with me,
than when I was shaved ; and from a complais¬
ance certainly not criminal, I shaved every week.
All our new kinsfolk seeing that I wished to
leave them, made a packet of beaver skins worth
more than six hundred livres among the French.

* From this to “ abundant country ” is omitted in the Nouv.
Découverte.

f Brother Sagard, a Recollect like Hennepin, but whose
works Hennepin seems not to have used, gives a similar remark
as made by the Hurons. Histoire, du Canada, p. 377.

OF LOUISIANA.

2 33

These peltries they gave me to induce me to re¬
main among them, to introduce me to strange
nations that were coming to visit them, and in
restitution for what they had robbed me of; but
I refused these presents, telling them that I had
not come among them to gather beaver-skins,
but only to make known to them the will of the
great Master of life, and to live wretchedly with
them, after having left a most abundant country.
“ It is true,” said they, “ that we have no game
in these parts, and that you suffer, but wait till
summer, then we will go and kill buffalo in the
warm country.” I should have been satisfied had
they fed me as they did their children, but they
eat secretly at night unknown to me. Although
women are, everywhere more kind and com¬
passionate than men, they gave what little
fish they had to their children, regarding me as
a slave made by their warriors in their enemies’
country, and they reasonably preferred their
children’s lives to mine.

There were some old men who often came to

234

A DESCRIPTION

weep over my head in a sighing voice, one saying,
“ my grandson,” another, “ my nephew, I feel sorry
to see you without eating, and to learn how badly
our warriors treated you on the way ; they are
young braves, without sense, who would have killed
you, and have robbed you of all you have. Had
you wanted buffalo or beaver-robes, we would
wipe away your tears, but you will have nothing
of what we offer you.”

Ouasicoudé, that is, the Pierced-pine,* the
greatest of all the slati chiefs, being very indig¬
nant at those who had so maltreated us, said, in
open council, that those who had robbed us of
all we had, were like hungry curs that stealthily
snatch a bit of meat from the bark dish, and then
fly ; so those who had acted thus toward us, de¬
served to be regarded as dogs, since they insulted
men who brought them iron and merchandise,
which they had never had for their use; that he
would find means to punish the one who had so

* Wazikuté, The Shooter of the Pines. Minn. Hist. Coll.,
i p. 316. Long in 1823, met a Dakota at Red Wing who bore
this same name. Long’s Travels. Wazi, pine; kute, to shoot.
Riggs’ Dakota Diet. pp. 239, 134.

OF LOUISIANA. 235

outraged us. This is what the brave chief showed
to all his nation, as we shall see hereafter.

As I often went to visit the cabins of these last
nations, I found a sick child, whose father’s name
was Mamenisi ; having a moral certainty of its
death, I begged our two Frenchmen to tell me
their opinions, informing them I believed myself
obliged to go and baptize it. Michael Ako would
not accompany me, the Picard du Gay alone
followed me to act as sponsor, or rather as witness of
the baptism.I christened the child Antoinette in
honor of St. Anthony of Padua, as well as from
the Picard’s name which was Anthony Auguelle.
He was a native of Amiens, and a nephew of Mr.
de Cauroy, procurator-general of the Premon-
stratensians,' : ' both now at Paris. Having poured
natural water on the head of this Indian child,
and uttered these words : “ Creature of God, I
baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” I took half an
altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands

* And afterwards Abbot of Beaulieu. Nouv. Decouv., p.
365. Margry i p. 478, mentions the Picard’s being at Pisar.

236 A DESCRIPTION

of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put
it on the body of the baptized child ; for as I
could not say mass for want of wine and vest¬
ments, this piece of linen could not be put to a
better use, than to enshroud the first Christian
child among these tribes. I do not know
whether the softness of the linen had refreshed
this newly baptized one because she was smiling
the next day in her mother’s arms, who believed
that I had cured her child, but she died soon
after to my great consolation.*

During our stay among the Issati or Nadou-
es iou, we saw Indians who came as ambassadors
from about five hundred leagues to the west.
They informed us that the Assenipovalacs f were
then only seven or eight days distant to the north¬
east of us ; all the other known tribes on the
west and north-west inhabit immense plains and
prairies abounding in buffalo and peltries, where

* He expatiates on this subject in the Nouv. Découv., p.
367, as he does on Michael Ako’s religious indifference.

•J- Assiniboins.

OF LOUISIANA. 237

they are sometimes obliged to make fires with
buffalo dung, for want of wood.*

Three months f after, all these nations assembled,
and the chiefs having regulated the places for
hunting the buffalo, they dispersed in several
bands so as not to starve each other. Aquipa-
quetin, one of the chiefs, who had adopted me as
his son, wished to take me to the west with about
two hundred families; I made answer that I
awaited spirits (so they called Frenchmen), at the
river Oiiiscousin, which empties into the river
Colbert, who were to join me to bring them
merchandise, and that if he chose to go that way,
I would continue with him ; he would have gone
there but for those of his nation. In the be¬
ginning of July, 1680, we descended in canoe

ÎThis paragraph is in Margry i, p. 483. See Appendix B.
The Nouv. Découv., says they were four moons on the way
without stopping and knew no strait like that of Anian, or sea,
p. 369. He enters into details of what they saw and offers to
accompany an English or Dutch expedition and reach the
Pacific by the rivers he discovered.

JTwo months, Nouv. Découv., p. 374.

A DESCRIPTION

238

southward with the great chief named Ouasi-
coudé,* that is to say, the Pierced-pine, with about
eighty cabins, composed of more than a hundred
and thirty families, and about two hundred and
fifty warriors. Scarcely would the Indians give
me a place in their little craft, for they had only
old canoes. They went four days’ journey lower
down to get birch bark t>> make some more.
Having made a hole in the ground to hide our silver
chalice and our papers till we returned from the
hunt, and keeping only our breviary, so as not to
be burthensome, I stood on the bank of a lake
formed by the river we had called by the name of
St. Francis, and stretched out my hand to the canoes
as they rapidly passed in succession ; our French¬
men also had one for themselves, which the
Indians had given them ; they would not take me
in, Michael Ako saying that he had taken me long
enough to satisfy him. I was much hurt at this

* In the Nouv. Voy. (Voy. au Nord., v. p. 286, this chie
is said to have adopted Hennepin as a brother. His power was
absolute, and was acquired by valor in war against seventeen or
eighteen hostile tribes.

OF LOUISIANA.

239

answer, seeing myself thus abandoned by * Chris¬
tians, to whom I had always done good, as they
both often acknowledged ; but God having never
abandoned me in that painful voyage, prompted two
Indians to take me in their very small canoe, where
I had no other employment than to bale out with a
little bark platter the water which entered by little
holes. This I did not do without getting all wet.
This boat might, indeed, be called a coffin, from
its lightness and fragility. This kind of canoe
does not generally weigh over fifty pounds; the
least motion of the body upsets them, unless you
are long habituated to that kind of navigation.
On disembarking in the evening, the Picard, as
an excuse, told me that their canoe was half
rotten, and that, had we been three in it, we
should have run a great risk ol remaining on the
way. Notwithstanding this excuse I told him,
that being Christians, they should never act so,
especially among savages, more than eight hundred

* The Nouv. Déc., has canoemen or some similar term to
avoid the word French, but here says “men of my own nation
and religion,” p. 376.

24 _o A DESCRIPTION

leagues from the French settlements , that if they
were well received in this country, it was only
in consequence of my bleeding some asthmatic
Indians, and my giving some orviétan * and other
remedies which I kept in my sleeve, and by
which I had saved the lives of some of these
Indians who had been bit by rattlesnakes, and
because I had neatly shaved their tonsure, which
Indian children wear to the age of eighteen or
twenty, but bave no way of making it themselves
except by burning the hair with flat stones heated
red hot. I reminded them that by my ingenuity
I had gained the friendship of these people, who
would have killed us or made us suffer more, had
they not discovered about me those remedies
which they prize, when they restore the sick to
health. However, the Picard only, as he retired
to his host’s, apologised to me.f

* An antidote for poison said by some to have been invented
by Orvietano an Italian.

f According to the Nouv. Découv., Ouasicoudé was indig¬
nant and was going to punish and even kill Hennepin’s com¬
panions for their treatment of him.

OF LOUISIANA. 24 I

Four days after our departure for the buffalo
hunt, we halted eight leagues above the Falls of
St. Anthony of Padua on an eminence opposite
the mouth of the river St. Francis; here the
Indian women made their canoe frames, while
waiting for those who were to bring bark to make
canoes. The young men went to hunt stag, deer,
and beaver, but killed so few animals for such a
large party, that we could very rarely get a bit of
meat, having to put up with a broth once in every
twenty-four hours. The Picard and myself went
to look for haws, gooseberries, and little wild
fruit, which often did us more harm than good
when we ate them ; this obliged us two to go
alone, as Michael Ako refused, in a wretched
canoe to Oviscousin* river, which was more than
a hundred f leagues off, to see whether the sieur
de la Salle had not sent to that place a reinforce¬
ment of French men, with powder, lead, and other

* Wisconsin.

I One hundred and thirty. Nouv. Déc , p. 382.

24-2

A DESCRIPTION

munitions, as he had promised us on our departure
from the Islinois.*

The Indians would not have suffered this voy¬
age, had not one of the three remained with them ;
they wished me to stay, but Michael Ako abso¬
lutely refused. Our whole stock was fifteen
charges of powder, a gun, a wretched little earthen
pot which the Indians had given us, a knife, and
a beaver robe, to travel about two hundred "j*
leagues, thus abandoning ourselves to Providence.
As we were making the portage of our canoe at
the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, we perceived
five or six of our Indians who had taken the start;
one of whom had climbed an oak opposite the
great fall where he was weeping bitterly, with a
well-dressed beaver robe, whitened inside and
trimmed with porcupine quills which this savage
was offering as a sacrifice to the falls, which is in
itself admirable and frightful. I heard him while
shedding copious tears say, addressing this great
cataract : (t Thou who art a spirit, grant that

* He mentions this arrangement with La Salle. Nouv. Dec.,
pp. 375 and 382. It is also in Margry’s Rel., ii, p. 257.

-f- Two hundred and fifty. Nouv. Déc., p. 383.

OF LOUISIANA.

2+3

the men of our nation may pass here quietly
without accident, that we may kill buffalo in
abundance, conquer our enemies, and bring slaves
here, some of whom we will put to death * before
thee; the Messenecqzf (so they call the tribe
named by the French Outouagamis), have killed
our kindred, grant that we may avenge them.”
In fact, after the heat of the buffalo-hunt, they
invaded their enemies’ country, killed some, and
brought others as slaves. If they succeed a
single time, even after repeated failures, they ad¬
here to their superstition. This robe offered in
sacrifice served one of our Frenchmen, who took
it as we returned. £

A league below the Falls of St. Anthony of
Padua, the Picard was obliged to land and get his

* “ After making them suffer greatly.” Nouv. Découv., p.
3 8 4 -

t Riggs in his Dakota Diet., p. 34, gives “ Besdéké, the Fox
Indians.” If Hennepin’s qz. was the old fashioned contraction
for que, the word is almost identical except in the first letter.

+ Parkman, Discovery, p. 246, makes this an offering to
Oanktayhee, the principal deity of the Sioux, who was supposed
to live under these falls. See Carver.

244-

A DESCRIPTION

powder-horn which he had left at the falls. On
his return, I showed him a snake about six feet *
long crawling up a straight and preciptous moun¬
tain and which gradually gained on some swallow’s
nests to eat the young ones ; at the foot of the
mountain, we saw the feathers of those he had
apparently eaten, and we pelted him down with

stones.

As we descended the river Colbert, we found
some of our Indians cabined in the islands, loaded
with buffalo-meat, some of which they gave us,
and two hours after our landing, fifteen or sixteen
warriors of the party whom we had left above the
Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, entered tomahawk
in hand, overthrew the cabin of those who had
invited us, took all the meat and bear’s oil that
they found, and greased themselves with it from
head to foot ; we at first took them to be enemies,
but one of those who called himself my uncle,
told me, that having gone to the buffalo-hunt
before the rest, contrary to the maxims of the
country, any one had a right to plunder them,
* In the Nouv. Déc., p. 385, seven or eight feet.

OF LOUISIANA. 245

because they put the buffaloes to flight before the
arrival of the mass of the nation.

During sixty leagues that we sailed down the
river, we killed only one deer, swimming across,
but the heat was so great that the meat spoiled
in twenty-four hours. This made us look for
turtles, which we found hard to take, as their
hearing is so acute, that as soon as they hear the
least noise, they jump quickly into the water.
We, however, took one much larger than the
rest, with a thinner shell and fatter meat. While
I was trying to cut off his head, he all but cut off
one of my fingers. We had drawn one end of
our canoe ashore, when a violent gust of wind
drove it into the middle of the great river ; the
Picard had gone with a gun into the prairie to
try and kill a buffalo ; so I quickly pulled off our
habit, and threw it on the turtle with some stones
to prevent its escaping, and swam after our canoe
which went very fast down the stream,as the current
was very strong at that point. Having reached
it with much difficulty, I durst not get in for fear
of upsetting it, so I either pushed it before me.

A DESCRIPTION

24Ô

or drew it after me, and thus little by little reached
the shore about one eighth of a league from the
place where I had the turtle. The Picard finding
only our habit, and not seeing the canoe, naturally
believed that some Indian had killed me. He
retired to the prairie to look all around whether
there were no people there. Meanwhile I re¬
mounted the river with all diligence in the canoe,
and had just put on my habit, when I saw more
than sixty buffalo crossing the river to reach the
south lands ; I pursued the animals, calling the
Picard with all my might ; he ran up at the
noise and had time to reenter the canoe, while the
dog which had jumped into the water had driven
them into an island. Having given them chase
there, they were crossing back when he shot one,
which was so heavy that we could get it ashore
only in pieces, being obliged to cut the best
morsels, while the rest of the body was in the
water. And as it was almost twice twenty-four
hours since we had eaten, we made a fire with
the drift-wood we often found on the sand ; and
while the Picard was skinning the animal, I

OF LOUISIANA.

247

cooked the pieces of this fat meat in our little
earthen pot ; we eat it so eagerly that we both
fell sick, and had to stay two days in an island
to recover. We could not take much of the
meat with us, our canoe was so small, and besides
the excessive heat spoiled it, so that we were all
at once deprived of it, as it was full of worms ;
and when we embarked in the morning, we did
not know what we should eat during the day.
Never have we more admired God’s providence
than during this voyage, for we did not always
find deer, and could not kill them when we
would ; but the eagles, which are very common
in these vast countries, sometimes dropped from
their claws bream, or large carp, which they were
carrying to their nests. Another time we found
an otter on the bank of the river Colbert eating
a large fish, which had, running from the head,
a kind of paddle or beak,* five fingers broad and
a foot and a half long, which made our Picard
say, that he thought he saw a devil in the paws
of that otter : but his fright did not prevent our
* The spade fish.

A DESCRIPTION

248

eating this monstrous fish which we found very
good.

While seeking the Oviscousin river, Aquipag-
uetin, that savage father, whom I had left, and
whom we believed more than two hundred
leagues away, suddenly appeared with ten warriors,
on the 1 ith * of July, 1680. We believed that
he was coming to kill us, because we had left
him, with the knowledge indeed of the other
Indians, but against his will. He first gave us
some wild-rice, and a slice of buffalo-meat to eat,
and asked whether we had found the Frenchmen
who were to bring us goods ; but not being sat¬
isfied with what we told him, he started before us,
and went himself to Oviscousin to try and carry
off what he could from the French ; this savage
found no one there, and came and rejoined us
three days after. The Picard had gone in the
prairies to hunt, and I was alone in a ittle cabin
on the bank of the river, which I had made to
screen us from the sun, with a blanket that an
Indian had given me back. Aquipaguetin seeing

* About the middle. Nouv. Déc., p. 395.

OF LOUISIANA.

249

me alone came up, tomahawk in hand : I laid
hold of two pocket-pistols, which the Picard had
got back from the Indians, and a knife, not in¬
tending to kill this would be Indian father of
mine but only to frighten him, and prevent his
crushing me, in case he had that intention.
Aquipaguetin reprimanded me for exposing my¬
self thus to the insults of their enemies, saying
that I should at least take the other bank of the
river for greater safety. He wished to take me
with him, telling me that he was with three hun¬
dred hunters, who killed more buffalo than those
to whom I had abandoned myself. I would have

done well to follow his advice, for the Picard

* ~ *-

and myself* ascending the river almost eighty
leagues on the way, ran great risk of perishing a
thousand times.

We had only ten charges of powder left which
we were obliged to divide into twenty to kill
wild pigeons, or turtle-doves ; but when these

* According to the Nouv. Découv. p. 396, they kept on to
the Wisconsin, but not finding La Salle’s men, sailed up again,
as is implied here.

a description

250

at last gave out we had recourse to three hooks,
which we baited with bits ot putrid catfish
dropped by an eagle. For two whole days we
took nothing, and were thus destitute of all sup¬
port when, during night prayer, as we were re¬
peating these words addressed to St. Anthony ot
Padua,

“ Pereunt pericula, cessât et nécessitas,

the Picard heard a noise, left his prayers, and ran
to our hooks which he drew from the waters
with two catfish so large that I had to go and
help him.* Without cleaning the slime from
these monstrous fish we cut them in pieces, and
roasted them on the coals, our only little earthen
pot having been broken. Two hours after night¬
fall, Mamenisi, the father of the little Indian
girl, that I had baptized before she died, joined
us and gave us buffalo meat at discretion.

The next day the Indians whom we had left
with Michael Ako, came down fromf Buffalo

* In the Nouv. Découv p. 398, they first took a small turtle,
and took the catfish after reaching Buffalo liver.

I Instead of “from” the Nouv. Déc., has “this.”

OF LOUISIANA.

25J

river with their flotilla of canoes loaded with
meat. Aquipaguetin had, as he passed, told how
exposed the Picard and I had been while on our
voyage, and the Indian chiefs represented to us the
cowardice of Michael Ako, who had refused to
undertake it, for fear of dying by hunger. And

had I not stopped him, the Picard would have
insulted him.

All the Indian women hid their stock of meat
at the mouth of Buffalo river, and in the islands,
and we again went down the river Colbert about
eighty leagues way to hunt with this multitude of
canoes; from time to time the Indians hid their
canoes on the banks of the river and in the is¬
lands; then struck into the prairies seven or
eight leagues beyond the mountains, where they
killed, at different times, as many as a hundred and
twenty buffaloes. They always left some of
their old men on the tops of the mountains to be
on the lookout for their enemies. One day when
I was dressing the foot of one who called him¬
self my brother, and who had run a splinter deep
into his foot, an alarm was given in the camp,

25 2

A DESCRIPTION

two hundred bowmen ran out ; and that brave
Indian, although I had just made a deep incision
in the sole of his foot to draw out the wood, which
had been driven in, left me and ran even faster
than the rest, not to be deprived ot the glory ot
fighting, but instead of enemies, they found only
about eighty stags, which took flight. The wounded
man could scarcely regain the camp. During
this alarm, all the Indian women sang in a lugu¬
brious tone. The Picard left me to join his host,
and I remaining with one called Otchimbi, was
subjected to carrying in my canoe an Indian woman
more than eighty years old. For all her great age,
this old woman threatened to strike with hei
paddle three children who troubled us in the
middle of our canoe. The men treated me well
enough, but as the meat was almost entirely at
the disposal of the women, I was compelled, in
order to get some, to make their children’s ton¬
sures about as large as those worn by our religious,
for these little savages wear them to the age of
fifteen or sixteen, and their parents make them
\yith red liot stones.

OF LOUISIANA.

253

We had another alarm in our camp : the old
men on duty on the top of the mountains an¬
nounced that they saw two * warriors in the
distance; all the bowmen hastened there with
speed, each trying to outstrip the others; but
they brought back only two women of their own
nation, who came to report that a party of their
people who were hunting near the extremity of
Lake Condé, had found five spirits (so they call
the French) ; who, by means of one of their
slaves, had expressed a wish to come on,
knowing us to be among them, in order to find
out whether we were English, Dutch, Spaniards,
or Frenchmen, being unable to understand how
we could have reached those tribes by so wide a
circuit.

On the 25th J of July, 1680, as we were
ascending the river Colbert after the buffalo-hunt,
to the Indian villages we met the Sieur de Luth,

* Omitted in Nouv. Déc.

t Nouv. Déc., p. 407, says 28th., Du L'hut confirms
Hennepin’s account ; and the Jesuit Father Raffeix in 1688,
refers to it as a fact. See Appendix, C M Du L’hut, gives no
date. He makes his party four,

A DESCRIPTION

2 5 +

who came to the Nadoussious, with five French
soldiers ; they joined us about two hundred and
twenty leagues distant from the country of the
Indians who had taken us;*' as we had some
knowledge of their language, they begged us to
accompany them to the villages of those tribes,
which I did readily, knowing that these French¬
men had not approached the sacraments for two
years. The Sieur de Luth, who acted as captain,
seeing me tired of tonsuring the children, and
bleeding asthmatic old men to get a mouthful of
meat, told the Indians that I was his elder
brother, so that, having my subsistence secured,
I labored only for the salvation of these Indians.

We arrived at the villages of the Issati on the
14th of August, 1680. I found our chalice and
our papers still there which I had hidden in the
ground ; the tobacco which I had planted, had

* This would make him meet de L’hut’s party some where
below the Illinois, according to his description of the river. In
the Nouvelle Découverte, p. 408, be says, one hundred and
twenty which would bring it just below the Wisconsin. In an
account in the appendix it became one hundred and fifty leagues.
De L’hut himself says eighty leagues below the St. Croix, that
is about the mouth of Black River.

■ y. I

OF LOUISIANA. 255

been choked by the weeds ; the turnips, cabbages,
and other vegetables were of extraordinary size.
The Indians durst not eat them. During our
stay, they invited us to a feast where there were
more than a hundred and twenty men all naked.
The first chief,* a relative of the one whose body
I had covered with a blanket, brought me a bark
dish of food which he put on a buffalo-robe,
dressed, whitened, and trimmed with porcupine
quills on one side, and the curly wool on the
other. He afterward put it on my head, saying :
“ He whose body thou didst cover, covers thine;
he has borne tidings of thee to the land of souls.
Noble was thy act in his regard ; all the nation
praises thee for it.” He then reproached the
Sieur du Luth, for not having covered the de¬
ceased’s body, as I did. He replied that he
covered only those of captains like himself; but
the Indian answered, “ Père Louis is a greater
captain than you for his robe (meaning our bro¬
cade chasuble), which we have sent to our allies,

* Ouasicondé Nouv. Dècouv., p. 411.

2^6 A DESCRIPTION

who dwell three moons from this country, is
more beautiful than that which you wear.”*
Toward the end of September, having no im¬
plements to begin an establishment, we resolved
to tell these people, that for their benefit, we
would have to return to the French settlements.!
The great chief of the Issati, or Nadouessiouz
consented, and traced in pencil on a papei I gave
him, the route we were to take for tour hundred
leagues of the way. With this chart, we set out,
eight Frenchmen, in two canoes, and descended
the rivers St. Francis and Colbert. Two of our
men took two beaver-robes at the Falls of St.
Anthony of Padua, which these Indians had hung

in sacrifice on the trees |

We stopped near Ouscousin river to smoke
some meat; three Indians coming from the
nations we had left, told us that their great chief

* The Nouv. Déc., explains that this means three months,
and reckons 15 leagues a day’s march.

f The Nouv. Déc., details the deliberations, pp., 4 1 3 —6 *

+ The Nouv. Déc., pp. 4 f 7-2°, gives details as to a quarrel
about these robes between Du L’hut and the men. Accault
remained in the Sioux country. La Salle, lettre Aug. 22, 1682.

OF LOUISIANA.

257

named the Pierced-pine, having heard that one of
the chiefs of his nation wished to pursue and kill
us, had entered his cabin and tomahawked him,
to prevent his pernicious design. We regaled
these three Indians with meat, of which we
were in no want then.

Two days after, we perceived an army of one
hundred and forty canoes, filled with about two
hundred and fifty warriors; we thought that
those who brought the preceding news were
spies, for instead of descending the river on
leaving us, they ascended to tell their people.
The chiefs of this little army visited us and
treated us very kindly, the same day they de¬
scended the river and we kept down to
Ouscousin.* We found that river as wide as the
Seignelay with a strong current. After sailing
up sixty -j* leagues, we came to a portage of half

a league, which the Nadonessiouz chief had
marked for us; we slept there to leave marks

* In the Nouv. Déc., Father Hennepin saves the party by
his calumet.

f Seventy. Nouv. Déc., p. 427.

A DESCRIPTION

258

and crosses on the trunks of the trees.* The
next day we entered a river which winds won¬
derfully, for after six hour’s sailing, we found
ourselves opposite the place where we had em¬
barked. One of our men wishing to kill a swan
on the wing, capsized his canoe, fortunately he
touched bottom.

We passed four lakes, two of them pretty large,
on the banks of which the Miamis formerly lived,
we found Maskoutens, Kikapous, and Outaougamy
there, who plant Indian corn for their subsistence.
All this country is as fine as that of the Islinois.

We made a portage at a rapid called the
Cakalin, and after about four hundred leagues
sail from our leaving the country of the Issati,
and Nadouessious, we arrived safely at the ex¬
tremity of the bay of the Puans, where we found
Frenchmen trading with the Indians f contrary
to orders. They had some little wine in a pewter

* This was the route taken by Marquette. 1 he Kakalin
rapid had been explored by Allouez, and mentioned in the Rel.

1669-70. ,

•j- This was the Jesuit mission at Green Bay. 1 idings ot

Hennepin’s safe arrival there, reached La Salle through the
Outagamis or Foxes in March, 1681. Margry i, p. 53 °'
Hennepin here wrote to La Salle. Margry ii, p. 259 "

OF LOUISIANA.

259

flagon, which enabled me to say mass ; I had
then only a chalice and altar stone ; but Provi¬
dence supplied me with sacerdotal vestments,
for some Islinois flying from the tyranny of the
Iroquois, who had destroyed a part of their nation,
took the vestments of the chapel of Father
Zenobius Membre, Recollect, who was with the
Islinois in their flight. These savages gave me
all, except the chalice, which they promised
to restore in a few days for a present of tobacco.

I had not celebrated holy mass for over nine
months for want of wine; I had still some altar
breads. We remained two days to rest, sing the
Te Deum, high mass, and preach. All our
Frenchmen went to confession and communion,
to thank God for having preserved us amid so
many wanderings and perils.

One of our Frenchmen gave a gun for a canoe
larger than ours, with which, after sailing a
hundred leagues in the Bay of the Puants, we

reached Missilimakinac, where we were obliged
to winter. To employ the time usefully, I

preached every holyday, and on the Sundays of

260 A DESCRIPTION

Advent and Lent* The Outtaouctz and Hurons
were often present,! rather from cariosity than
from any inclination to live according to our
Christian maxims. These last Indians said, to
us speaking of our discovery, that they were men,
but that we Frenchmen were spirits, because,
had they gone so far as we had, the strange nations
would have killed them, while we went fearlessly
everywhere.

During this winter, we took whitefish in Lake
Orleans, in twenty or twenty-two fathoms water.
They served to season the Indian corn, which
was our usual fare. Forty-two Frenchmen who
were there trading with these Indians all begged
me to give them the cord of St. Francis, which I
readily did, making an exhortation at each
ceremony.

We left Missilimakinac in Easter week,

* The Nouv. Découv., p. 435, tells us that he enjoyed, dur¬
ing the winter, the hospitality of Father Pierson, a Jesuit and a
fellow-townsmen of his own.

-j- In a church covered with flags and some boards which the
Canadians had built. Nouv. Déc., p. 434.

_ *■

OF LOUISIANA. 20 l

1681,* and were obliged to drag our provisions
and canoes on the ice, more than ten leagues on
Lake Orleans ; having advanced far enough on
this fresh water sea, and the ice breaking, we
embarked after the solemnity of Low Sunday,
which we celebrated, having some little wine
which a Frenchman had fortunately brought,
and which served us very usefully the rest of the
voyage. After a hundred leagues way on Lake
Orleans, we passed the strait for thirty leagues
and Lake St. Clare, *{* which is in the middle and
entered Lake Comty, where we killed, with sword
and axe, more than thirty sturgeon which came
to spawn on the banks of the lake. On the way
we met an Outtaouact chief called le Talon, six
* Du L’hut says March 29, 1681, see Appendix C. His
rescue of Hennepin is attested by Rafteix’s Map, where that
Jesuit Father says : Mr. Du Lude who first was among the
Sioux or Nadouesiou in 1678, and who was near the source of
the Mississippi, and who then came to rescue F . Louis, who
had been taken prisoner among the Sioux. Harrisse, Notes,
p. 181, 208. La Salle’s letter and Margry’s Rel. deny any
captivity.

f This name is now written St. Clair, hut we should either
retain the French form Claire, or take the English Clare. It
received its name in honor of the founder of the Franciscan
nuns, from the fact that La Salle reached it on her day.

2Ô2

A DESCRIPTION

persons of whose family had died of starvation,
not having found a good fishery or hunting-ground.
This Indian told us that the Iroquois had carried
off a family of twelve belonging to his tribe, and
begged us to deliver them, if yet alive.

We sailed along Lake Conty, and after a hun¬
dred and twenty * leagues we passed the strait of
the great falls of Niagara, and Fort Comty, and
entered Lake Frontenac. We proceeded along
the southern shore some thirty leagues from Fort
Comty, to the great Seneca village about the
Whitsuntide holidays in the year 1681. We
entered the Iroquois council and asked them, why
they had enslaved twelve of our Outtaouactz allies,
telling them that those whom they had taken,
were children of the governor of the French, as
well as the Iroquois, and that by this violence,
they declared war on the French. To induce
them to restore our allies, we gave them two
belts of wampum.

The next day the Iroquois answered us by two

* Nouv. Déc., p 443 has 140. He gives an extended de¬
scription of the FaL .vhich will be found in our appendix.

OF LOUISIANA.

263

other wampum belts, that the Outtaouactz had
been carried off by some mad young warriors ;
that we might assure the governor of the French,
that the Iroquois would hearken to him in all
things ; that they wished to live with Onnontio
like real children with their father (so they call
all the governors of Canada\ and that they would
restore those whom they had taken.

A chief named Teganeot, who spoke for his
whole nation in all the councils, made me a
present of otter and beaver-skins, to the value of
over twenty-five * crowns. I took it with one
hand, and gave it with the other to his son,
telling him that I presented it to him to buy goods
of the other Frenchmen ; that as for us, Barefeet,
as the Iroquois call us, we would receive
neither beaver nor furs, that I would assure the
Governor of the French of their good will ; this
Iroquois chief was surprized at my refusal of his
present, and told the people of his tribe that the
other French did not act so. We took leave of
the most influential men and proceeded after
Nouv. Déc., p. 461 has 30.

A DESCRIPTION

264

about eighty leagues navigation on this lake, to
Fort Frontenac where the dear Recollect Father
Luke was very much surprised to see me, for it
had been currently reported for two years that
the Indians had hung me with our cord of St.
Francis. All the settlers French and Indian,
whom we had attracted to Fort Frontenac, gave
me an extraordinary welcome, rejoicing at my
return, the Indians calling me Otkon,* laying
their hand on their mouth, which means to say
« Barefoot is a Spirit, to have made so long a
journey.”

At the mouth of Lake Frontenac the current
is strong, and increases in velocity as you
descend. The rapids are frightful. In two days
and a half we descended this river St. Lawrence,
with so much speed that we reached Montreal,
which is sixty leagues from the said fort,j' where
the Count de Frontenac, Governor General of all
New France then was. This Governor received
me as well as a man of his probity can receive a

* Atkon, a demon, a spirit. Bruyas, Racines, p. 36.

■j- In less than two days. Nouv. Déc., p. 470.

OF LOUISIANA.

265

missionary, as he believed me killed, by the Indians,
he was for a time thunderstruck, believing it to be
some other Religious.* He beheld me extenuated,
without a cloak, in a habit patched with bits of
buffalo skin. He took me with him for twelve
days to recruit me, and himself gave me the
meat I was to eat, in the fear he experienced that
I might fall sick, by eating too much after such
long fasts.

I made him an exact report of my voyage, and
showed him the advantages to result from our
new discovery.^

* Nouv. Déc., p. 471, says Frontenac mistook Hennepin for
his chaplain, Father Luke Fillâtre, or a Recollect from Virginia,
“ where we have English Recollects.”

f The Nouv. Déc., p. 473, says he concealed his voyage
down from Frontenac as his two! canoemen did, because they
would have been punished for making it against the ordinance
and their furs would have been seized. It states, p. 474, that
du L’hut remained among the Ottawas, and that in a letter to
Frontenac, the date of which is not given, he said that he had
been unable to learn any tidings of Father Hennepin, his
canoemen or their voyage. He states that while descending to
Quebec with Count Frontenac, he met Bishop Laval near the
river leading to Fort Champlain.

r j

266

A DESCRIPTION

While I was recruiting at Mr. de Frontenac’s
table, he received letters from Father Zenobius
Membré, Recollect, whom I had left in the
Illinois, who informed him that the progress of
our discovery was interrupted by the Iroquois,
and by an inexplicable fatility of some French¬
men who had abandoned Fort Crevecœur, that
the commandant, the Sieur de Tonty, had left
that post to go to the villages of the Islinois for
Indian corn, and that during his absence, all the
French whom he had left at that fort had de¬
serted and abandoned the Recollect fathei
Gabriel, who remained alone on the bank of the
river Seignelay till an Islinois, who was returning
from the hunt took the good old man to his village.

The Sieur de la Salle before returning to Fort
Frontenac had left the Miamis perfectly united
with the Islinois, but the Iroquois who are
cunning people, men of war and of deep designs,
gained the Miamis by presents, which was
accomplished just about the time that the French
who had abandoned us at the Islinois, had taken
refuge among the Miamis ; the next Autumn *

* Sept. 12, 1680, Nouv. Déc., p. 479.

OF LOUISIANA.

267

the Iroquois with about eight hundred men armed
with guns joined the Miamis and fell upon the
Islinois who had only bows and arrows to defend
themselves. The noise of the Iroquois guns so
alarmed them, that these men who are great
runners, took flight towards the river Colbert ;
in this confusion, it was not difficult for the
Iroquois, joined to the Miamis, to carry off
about eight hundred slaves, including women and
young boys. These cannibals ate on the spot some
old Islinois men, and burned several others, who
were not strong enough to follow them to the
country of the Iroquois, a journey of more than
tour hundred leagues.

A little before the great onset of these savages
some young Iroquois warriors, seeing the Sieur
de Tonty, who had remained among the Islinois,
with fathers Gabriel and Zenobius, Recollects,
and two other young Frenchmen, rushed upon
him, taking him for an enemy. They gave him
a stab with a knife, the point fortunately meet¬
ing a rib ; but the older Iroquois recognizing
him as a Frenchman, separated them, and seeing

A DESCRIPTION

268

him slightly wounded, made him a present of a
wampum belt, in the Indian fashion, to heal his
wound, and wipe away bis tears, assuring the two
Recollects that they did not wish to kill the
children of Onnontio, that is, the Governor of
the French ; they asked from them a paper, in
order to testify on their return to the whole
French nation, the sincerity of their intention.
They made the French embark to return to
Canada. The Reverend Father Gabriel, Recol¬
lect, seeing the canoe loaded with beaver, threw
several to the Iroquois, giving them to understand,
that he was not there to amass furs ; their canoe
breaking, the French were forced to land about
eight leagues from the Islinois and light a fire in
order to repair it. Father Gabriel retired a little
way into the prairie to say his breviary. A panic
having seized the Sieur de Tonty, who thought
he had the Iroquois at his heels, he made Father
Zenobius and the two young Frenchmen embark
with such precipitation, that he crossed from one
bank of the Seignelay river to the other, which is
wide at this point, and left that good old man on

OF LOUISIANA.

2 Ôg

the other bank, doing nothing but fire a gun
about eight o’clock in the evening as a signal,
but in vain. Father Zenobius wrote to the
Reverend Father Valentine le Roux, Commissary
Provincial of the Recollects in Canada, that he
had implored the Sieur de Tonty not to embark
without Father Gabriel, and that he had replied,
that if he did not embark who would answer for
him to the Governor of the country. Father
Zenobius not having vigor enough or words
sufficiently strong to persuade the Sieur de Tonty
to wait a little, he was forced to follow him,
although they perceived no enemies. The next
day they crossed the river to the spot where they
had left him, they saw foot prints in the grass of
those beautiful plains, and not finding that good
old man who undoubtedly was looking for them,
the Sieur de Tonty took up his route for Canada
by way of the Bay of the Puants.

We have subsequently learned by investigations
made by order of the Count de Frontenac, Gov¬
ernor of Canada, that the Onnontaguez Iroquois *
* The Nouv. Déc , p. 494-5, and La Salle, Margry ii, p.
124, makes F. Gabriel killed by a band of Kickapoos. In the
proceedings against the deserters, Margry ii, p. 103, Petit Bleo
and Boisdardenne were accused of deserting F. Gabrie .

270

A DESCRIPTION

seeing the French canoe abandon this old man,
hid in the grass, fearing the guns which the
French might have discharged at them, and as
the canoe moved away, they advanced stealthily
and tomahawked that man of God, whom we
can style the Apostle of Louisiana.

Our Recollect Fathers informed me last year
from New France, that the Islinois after their
defeat, pursued in great haste after the Iroquois
who were all returning home triumphant, and
that they found the body of Father Gabriel with
his habit, that they carried him to their villages
and buried him in their manner, doing honor to
him who had gone among them to preach the
faith to them, and for their consolation. Others
have wished to assure us that the Kikapous had
killed him and carried off his habit of Saint
Francis to the village of the Miamis ; but the
Count de Frontenac will give us all authentic

information on his return.

Notwithstanding* all to traverse our plans, we

* From Fort Champlain, he went down to Quebec in a
gayly painted canoe belonging to Count Frontenac, paddled by
two of his guards. He proceeded at once to the Recollect
convent to confer with F. Valentine le Roux, his Commissary
Provincial. Nouv. Déc., p. 501. He charges this Father
with copying his voyage down the Mississippi (p. 5 ° 5 )*

OF LOUISIANA.

27 I

have been more than eight hundred leagues be¬
yond the capital of New France, where I was
for nearly eight months a slave among the Issati,
and the Sieur de la Salle has succeeded in build¬
ing three barks, the last two of which one-
of about fifty tons and the other of eighty, are dis¬
tant from one another nearly five hundred lea¬
gues,— in advancing in canoes beyond the three
great lakes which are fresh water seas, and in
pursuing his enterprise with Fathers Luke Brisset,
Zenobius Membré, Recollects, and about fifty
men.

They wrote me this year (1682), from New
France, that the Sieur de la Salle seeing that I
had made peace with the nations on the north
and northwest, situated more than five hundred
leagues up the river Colbert, who were making
war on the Islinois, and on the nations of the
south, this brave captain, governor of Fort Fron¬
tenac, who exalts by his zeal and courage the
names of the Caveliers his ancestors, descended
last year with his force and our Recollects, as far
as the mouth of the great river Colbert, and to

A DESCRIPTION

272

the sea, and that he passed among unknown
nations, some of which are somewhat civilized.
It is believed that he is on his way to France to
give the Court an ample knowledge of all Louis¬
iana which we may call the Delight and Earthly
Paradise of America.

The King may form there an empire which
will soon become flourishing, without any foreign
power being able to prevent him, and his Majesty
by the Religious Ministry of Saint Francis may
easily extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ among
those many nations, which have hitherto been
deprived of the advantages of Christianity, and
the French colonies may thence derive great
benefits in future.

END

THE MANNERS OF THE INDIANS*

On the Fertility of the Indian Country.

Before entering here into details as to the
manners of the Indians, it is well to say a word
as to the fertility of their country ; it can
thus be judged how easy it is to found great
colonies there. There are indeed many forests
to clear, but these uncultivated parts are none the
less advantageous. There are scarcely any in
the world more fertile Nothing is wanting
that is necessary for life ; every thing is in abun¬
dance, the lands there are very well adapted for
sowing. In the vast countries of Louisiana, beau¬
tiful prairies are discovered as far as the eye can
see, and to enter a little into detail as to things
which grow among the Indians, there are many
grape vines, very much like those we have in
Europe, which bear grapes, somewhat sour, but

This part of the Description is not reprinted in the Nou¬
velle Découverte , but appears considerably enlarged in the
Nouveau Voyage , Utrecht 1698; reprinted in the Voyages au
Nord , vol. 5.

THE MANNERS

274

the wine goes very well with ours, it even pre-
vents it from spoiling. In Louisiana and the
southern country, the grape is as good as in France
but the seeds are larger. In both parts are found
hops, plums, cherries, citrons, apples, pears, nuts,
filberts, gooseberries of all kinds and a thousand
other fruits of that nature delicious in taste. In
both parts grow Indian corn, French wheat,
turnips, very fine melons, enormous squashes,
cabbages and a host of other vegetables, of which
I do not here recall the names. In the forests
there are great numbers of wolves, monstrous
bears, deer, stags, and all kinds of animals of
which I do not know the names, among others
wild cats, beavers, otters, porcupines, turkeys, and
all these animals are of extraordinary size there.
They catch there sturgeon, salmon, salmon trout,
pike, carp, eels, armed fish, gold fish, bass,
catfish, and all kinds of other fish. There is
plenty of exercise too for our French sportsmen.
There you can kill patridges, ducks of all kinds,
wild pigeons, cranes, herons, swans, wild geese,
* Nouv. Voyage. (Voy. on Nord., v, p. 34 ^*)

OF THE INDIANS.

275

and other game in abundance. In Louisiana,
besides all these animals, there are also wild
cattle which the inhabitants of the country have
never been able to exterminate entirely, on
account of the great number of these animals
which change their country according to the
season. Several medicinal herbs are found there
which are not in Europe, which have an infallible
effect, according to the experience of the Indians'
who use them daily to heal all kinds of wounds,
for quartain and tertian fevers, to purge and to
allay pains in the kidneys and other like troubles.
There are also many poisons which these people
employ for self destruction. Snakes are common,
particularly the adders, asps and another kind of
serpent, which has a kind of rattles on its tail,
and is called on that account rattlesnake . They
are of prodigious length and bulk. They bite
passers-by dangerously ; but wherever they are,
there are found also sovereign remedies against
their bites. Frogs are seen there too of strange
size, whose bellowing is as loud as the lowing of
cows. The same trees are found here as in

276 THE MANNERS

Europe, and there are others also namely red
pine, red cedar, spruce, cotton wood, sh,
boisdier and others. All these trees strike toot
deeply and become extremely high, which
sufficiently attests the fertility oi the soil. The
great river St. Lawrence * of which I have already
given a description in the Relation of Louisiana,
runs through the middle of the Iroquois country
and there forms a large lake which the Indians
call Ontario, and the French Frontenac, in
memory of the Count de Frontenac, Governor
of all New France. The river St. Lawrence
has on the north side a branch which comes from
a nation who are called Nez-persez or Ontaonatz.f
On the north-east is the country of the Algon-
quains, which the French occupy. On the east
the nation of the Wolf + and New Netherland or
Jortz. On the south New England or Baton.
On the southwest Virginia, which is called New
Sweden. On the west the country of the Hurons,

* Nouveau Voyage (Voyages au Nord, v., p. 349-'

•J* Misprint for Outaouatz, Ottawas.

J Mohegans.

OF THE INDIANS.

277

which is now almost entirely abandoned, and
which has been destroyed by the Iroquois. The
first post which we have there is Fort Frontenac.

Origin of the Indians.

I am no longer surprised at the avowal of our
historians, that they can not tell how the Indian
country has been populated, since the inhabitants
who ought to be the best informed, know
nothing about it themselves. Besides which, if
in Europe, we were like them deprived of writ¬
ing, and if we had not the use of that ingenious
art, which brings the dead back to life, and
recalls past times and which preserves for us an
eternal memory of all things, we should not be
less ignorant than they. It is true that they re¬
count some things about their origin ; but when
you ask whether what they say about it is true,
they answer that they know nothing about it,
that they would not assure us ot it, and that they
believe them to be stories of their old men, to
which they do not give much credit. If all
North America had been discovered, we might

278 THE manners

perhaps learn the spot where these persons came
over to it, which would contribute not a little to
throw light on some points of ancient history.

A rather curious story is related among them.
They say that a woman descended from heaven

and remained sometime fluttering in the air, un¬
able to find a spot to rest her foot. The fish ol
the sea having taken compassion on her, held a
council to deliberate which of them should re¬
ceive her ; the Tortoise presented himself and
offered his back above the water. This woman
came there to rest and made her abode there.
The unclean matter of the sea having gathered
around this tortoise, a great extent of land was
formed in time, which now constitutes America.
But as solitude did not at all please this woman,
who grew weary of having no one to converse with,
in order to spend her days a little more agreeably
than she was doing, a spirit descended from on
high, who found her asleep from sorrow. He
approached her imperceptibly, and begot by her
two sons, who came out of her side. These two
children could never, as time went on, agree,

OF THE INDIANS. 279

because one was a better hunter than the other,
every day they had some quarrel with each other,
and they came to such a pitch that they could
not at all bear one another ; especially one who
was of an extremely fierce temper, conceived a
deadly envy of his brother, whose disposition was
completely mild. This one unable to endure the
ill treatment which he continually received, was
at last obliged to depart from him and retire to
heaven, whence as a mark of his just resentment,
he from time to time makes the thunder roar
over the head of his unhappy brother. Some¬
time after the spirit descended again to this
woman and had by her a daughter, from whom
have come the mighty nation which now occupies
one of the largest parts of the world. There are
some other circumstances, which I do not re¬
member, but fabulous as this story is, you can
not fail to discern in it some truths. The
woman’s sleep has some analogy with that of
Adam ; the estrangement of the two brothers
bears some resemblance to the irréconciliable
hatred which Cain had for Abel, and the thunder

r J

280 THE MANNERS

pealing from heaven, shows us very clearly the
curse which God pronounced upon that merci¬
less fratricide* One might even doubt whether
they are not of Jewish origin, because they have
many things in common with them. They
make their cabins in the form of a tent like the
Jews. They anoint themselves with oil, they
are superstitiously attached to dreams, they be¬
wail the dead with lamentations and horrible
howlings, women wear mourning for their near
relatives for a whole year, abstain from dances
and feasts, and wear a kind of hood on their
head. Usually the father of the deceased takes
care of the widow. It seems too that the curse
of God has fallen on them, as on the Jews, for
they are brutal and extremely stubborn. They
have no fixed and settled abode.f

Physical Condition of the Indians.

The Indians are very robust, men, women
and even children are extremely vigorous ; for

* Nouv. Voyage. Voy. au Nord., v., p. 264-6.

■j- Voyages au Nord, v., p. 268.

OF THE INDIANS.

28 l

this reason they are rarely sick, they know
nothing about treating themselves delicately,
hence they are not subject to a thousand ailments
which too great effeminacy draws down on us.
They are not gouty or dropsical, gravel or fever-
vexed, they are always in movement, and take
so little rest, that they escape maladies which
beset most of our Europeans for want of exercise ;
appetite scarcely ever fails them, even when they
are far advanced in years ; they are as a rule so
given to eating, that they rise in the night to eat,
unless they have meat or sangamity near them,
for then they eat like dogs without getting up.
Yet on the other hand they undergo great absti¬
nences, which would beyond doubt be unsupport-
able to us. They go two or three days without
eating, when such an occasion befals them, with¬
out on that account discontinuing their work,
whether they are engaged in hunting, fishing or
war. Their children are so inured to cold, that in
mid winter they run bare naked on the snow, and
roll in it like little pigs, without being in any
22

282

THE MANNERS

way injured, and in summer when the air is full
of musquitoes, they also go naked, and play
without feeling the stings of these little insects.

I admit that the fresh air to which they are con¬
stantly exposed contributes somewhat to harden
their skin to fatigue, but this great insensibility
must also come from an extremely robust con¬
stitution, in as much as our hands and face are
always exposed to the air, without being for all
that less sensitive to cold. When men are hunt¬
ing especially in the spring time, they are almost
always in water, although it is very cold, and
they return from it cheerfully to their cabins
without complaining. When they go to war,
they sometimes remain three or four days behind
a tree, eating almost nothing. They are un¬
wearied in their hunts ; they run very fast and
for a very long time. The nations of Louisiana
run faster than the Iroquois, so that there is not
a buffalo that they cannot run down. They sleep
on the snow in a scanty blanket, without a fire
and without cabin. The women act as porters,
and have so much vigor, that there are few men

OF THE INDIANS. 283

in Europe who have as much as they. They
carry burthens that two or three of us would find
it difficult to raise. The warriors undertake
journeys of three or four hundred leagues, as
though it was only to go from Paris to Orleans.
The women bear children without great pain,
some of them leave the cabin and withdraw into
the wood apart, and afterwards return with their
children in their blanket. Others if labor comes
on in the night, bring forth the children on their
mats, without making the least noise, and in the
morning rise and work as usual, inside and out¬
side the cabin, as if nothing ailed them. Remark
also that while they are pregnant, they do not
cease to be active, to carry very heavy loads, to
plant Indian corn, and squashes, to go and come,
and what is a wonder, their children are very
well formed, humpbacks are very rare among
them. To conclude, they have no natural bodily
defects, which leads us to believe that their mind
would easily adapt itself to this external disposi¬
tion, if they were civilized and had much inter¬
course with the French.*

* Nouveau Voyage, (Voy. au Nord. v. pp. 295-7.)

THE MANNERS

284.

Remedies against Diseases.

When they are weary they enter a vapor bath
to strengthen their limbs, and if their legs or
arms pain, they take a well sharpened knile and
make incisions in the part where the pain is.
When the blood flows they scrape it with their
knives or a stick till it ceases to flow. Then
they cleanse the wound and rub it with oil or
the fat of some animals. This is a sovereign
remedy. They do the same when they have a
pain in the head or arms. To cure tertian and
quartan fevers, they make a medepine with a bark
which they boil and give to drink immediately
after the fever. They know roots and herbs
with which they cure all kinds of diseases. They
have sure remedies against the poison of toads,
snakes and other animals, but have none against
the small pox. There are charlatans whom they
call jugglers. These are certain old men who
live at other people’s expense, by counterfeiting
physicians in a superstitious manner. They do
not use remedies, but when one of them is

OK THE INDIANS.

285

called to a sick man, he makes them entreat
him, as if it were for some affair of great impor¬
tance and very difficult. After many solicitations
he comes, he approaches the patient, touches
him all over the body, and after he has well
considered and handled him, he tells him that
he has a spell in such or such a part, for example,
in the head, leg or stomach, which must be re¬
moved, but that this can be done only with great
difficulty, and many things must be done pre¬
viously. This spell is very malicious, he says;
but it must be made to come out at any cost.
All the sick man’s friends who fall into the trap,
say “T. Chagon, T. Chagon, courage,*courage;”
“do what you can, spare nothing.” The juggler
sits down, deliberates for a time on the remedies
which he wishes to employ, then rises as if com¬
ing out of a deep sleep, and cries out. “See the
thing is done ! Listen, such a one, your wife or

* Tsiagen ! good courage, Bruyas, Mohawk Diet. ms.
Tchiguen, Courage, Onondaga Diet. p. 36. The Indian
words cited in these remarks are Mohawk, the language of
which Hennepin acquired some knowledge at fort frontenac,
aided by Bruyas* works.

THE MANNERS

2 86

child’s life is at stake, so spare nothing, you
must give a feast, to day,” “ give such or such a
thing,” or do something else of the kind. At the
same time that these orders of this juggler are
carried out, the men enter the vapor bath and
sing at the top of their voice, rattling tortoise
shells or gourds full ol Indian corn, to the sound
of which the men and women dance. Some¬
times even they all get intoxicated, so that they
make frightful orgies. While all are thus en¬
gaged, this superstitious old man is near the
patient, whom be torments, holding his feet or
legs, or pressing his chest, according to the spot
where he has said the spell is, in such a way that
he makes him undergo pain sufficient to kill
him. He often makes the blood issue from the
tips of his fingers or toes. At last after making
a hundred grimaces, he displays a piece of skin
or a lock of hair or something of the kind, mak¬
ing them believe it to be the spell which he has
drawn from the patient’s body, which is however,
only a pure trick.

I one day baptized a little child which seemed

OF THE INDIANS.

287

to be in danger of death, but the next day, it
was cured. Some days after its mother related
to the others, in my presence, how I had cured
her child. She took me for a juggler, saying
that I was wonderful, that I knew how to cure
all sorts of diseases by putting water on the fore¬
head. They often have recourse to our méde¬
cines, because they find them very good, but
when we do not succeed, they ascribe the cause
to the medecine and not to the wretched state of
the patient.*

The Dress of the Indians.

The Northern Indians, from the statement of
their old men, have always been covered, and
before they had ever had any intercourse with
Europeans, for they dressed in skins, both men
and women. They now still cover themselves
sometimes with skins, but most generally they

wear a shirt, a coat with a hood, a strip of cloth
*Nouveau Voyage, (V. au Nonl v. ,pp. 292-4)*

THE MANNERS

288

which covers them to the knees, and which is
tied before and behind with a little belt, then
they have footless stockings, which our French
generally call leggins, and shoes which are merely
of dressed skins. When they come in from their
hunts in the Spring there are some who buy
French body coats, shoes and stockings ; some
wear hats out of the respect they have tor the
French. Sometimes they carry blankets in which
they wrap themselves, holding the ends in their
hands. When they are in their cabins, they
very frequently remain stark naked, even in
winter time, except a single band of cloth with
which they are girt. They daub their faces
with red and black colors, they redden their
hair which they cut in every fashion. The
southern nations do not burn them except to the
ears, and those of the North often let them hang
down on one side, and cut them on the other
according to their fancy. Sometimes they stick
little feathers all over the head, and sometimes
large ones behind the ears. There are some
who make themselves crowns of flowers ; others

OF THE INDIANS. 28g

of birch bark, some of skins, very prettily worked.

The women are dressed like the men except a
band of cloth, wrapped around like a petticoat,
which they fasten to their girdle and which does
not hang down below the knees. When they
go to entertainments to dance, they take their
hneiies, and paint their temples and cheeks and
the tip of the chin.

Young boys go naked till they are capable of
marriage, and when they cover themselves, if
they have no shirt, they always show what nature
does not permit to uncover. Little girls at the
age of four or five years, begin to gird a piece of
cloth around them. When we went into their
cabins to instruct them, we obliged them to cover
themselves, which produces a good effect, because
they now feel a little ashamed of their nakedness,
and cover their persons a little more frequently
than they did before.

Men and women, especially the young ones,
wear on the neck beads and sea shells of all kinds
of shapes. They have also some of these shells,
as long as the finger, made in the form of a little

THE MANNERS

29O

tube, which are used as earrings. They have
also belts, some made of beads, others of porcu¬
pine hair, some of bear’s hair, others of both
interwoven. The most important men among
them wear on the back a small bag in which
they carry their pipe, tobacco, steel and flint and

other trifles.

They are skilful in making a kind of cloak
with dressed skins of the bear, beaver, otter,
squirrel, wolf, lion, and other animals, in which
to appear in their assemblies.*

Marriages of the Indians.

The marriage of the Indians is not a civil
contract because they have no intention of bind¬
ing themselves, but they cohabit, till they disagree
with one another. Girls are married at the age
of nine or ten years, not for marriage, because
they know well that they are incapable, but
because the parents of this girl expect some profit
from their son in law. In fact when he comes

* Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au. Nord v. pp. 297 ~ 9 )-

OF THE INDIANS.

2ÇI

in from the hunt, the girl’s father has the disposal
of the furs and the meat, but on the other hand
the girl carries the sagamity or porridge made of
Indian corn, for all her husband’s meals, although
she does not live with him. Some act thus five
or six years. On the day when they marry,
they give feasts with pomp and rejoicing. Some¬
times the whole village goes there, and every one
makes good cheer. After the meal they sing
and dance. Very frequently they marry without
any noise, and for this only a word is needed, for
the Indian who [has no wife goes in search of a
woman who has no husband, and says to her :
“Will you come with me. You shall be my
wife.” She makes no answer at first, but thinks
for sometime holding her head in her two hands.
While she is thus thinking, the man holds his
head in the same posture without uttering a
word. When she has deliberated sometime she

lifts up her head and says : “ Niau, lam willing,”*
the man rises at once, and says to her; “One”,
that is settled.”-}- In the evening the woman
* Nis, Yes, Bruyas, Mohawk Dicty. ms.
t Onne, That is settled, lb.

the manners

292

takes her hatchet, and goes to cut a load of fire
wood; on reaching the door of her husband’s
cabin, she throws the wood on the ground, goes
in and sits down near the Indian, who gives her
no caress. When they have been thus long
together without speaking, the man says to her:

“ Sentaony,” “ lie down,”* and a little while

after this man lies down near her.

You see very few who make love like Euro¬
peans, laughing and flirting.

They leave each other very easily and without
any publicity, for they have only to say “ I leave
you,” and the thing is done. They then regard
each other no more than if they had never met.
They sometimes fight with each other before
separating, but this occurs very rarely. Some
have two wives, but it is not tor a long time.
When they separate the woman sometimes carries
off all the goods, and all the furs; sometimes
nothing at all but the short piece of cloth that
forms her petticoat, and her blanket. They
generally divide the children, it they have had
* Imperative of Gasataon, To lie down on the back, lb.

OF THE INDIANS.

293

any together, so that some follow the father and
some the mother. Some leave them all to their
wives, saying that they do not believe they belong
to them. In fact they very often say the truth,
because there are very few who are proof against
a coat and any other present that may be offered.
If these children are of a French father, you can
detect it in the face and eyes. Those of the
Indians are entirely black, and they can see
further than Europeans, and they have a more
piercing eye. If the Indian women were capable
of contracting marriage, we might marry as many
as we would to our Frenchmen, but they have
not the necessary dispositions, they have not the
faith necessary for that, nor the will never to
separate from their husband, as experience teaches
us, and the conversations they hold on the point,
show us clearly. When a man who has no wife
passes through a village he hires one for a night
or for two according to his fancy, and the parents
find nothing to censure in this; very far from
that, they are very glad to have their daughters
earn some clothes or some furs. Among them

THE MANNERS

29 +

there are men of all kinds of dispositions as in
Europe; some love their wives a great deal, others
entirely despise them, some beat them and ill
treat them ; but this does not last, as the wives
leave them. There are some too who are jealous.

I saw one who had beaten his wife, for having
gone to the dance with other men.

Those who are good hunters chose the hand¬
somest ; the others have only the ugly ones, and
the cast-off. When they are old, they never
abandon each other except in rare cases, and for
grave reasons. There are some, although very
few, who remain from twenty to thirty years
with their wives. The women grow desperate
when the husband who is a good hunter leaves
them ; they even poison themselves sometimes,
as I saw one whose life I saved with treacle.
When these Indians go beaver hunting in the
spring, they often leave their wives in the village
to plant Indian corn, and squashes, and hire
another to go with them : when they return
home they give her a beaver or two, and send
her home in that way and go back to the first

OF THE INDIANS.

295

wife. If however the last pleases them better,
they change the first without any ado. They
are surprised that the Frenchmen do not act
like them.

One day while the husband of one of our
French women settlers had gone off twenty or
thirty leagues, the Indian women went to see
this woman, and said to her : “ You have no sense,
take another man for the present, and when your
husband comes, leave this one.” This great
inconstancy and changing of wives, is a great
opposition to the maxims of Christianity, which
we wish to impart to the Indians, and one of the
most considerable obstacles to the faith.

It is not the same with the southern nations
among whom poligamy reigns, for in all the lands
of Louisiana, there are Indians, who have as many
as ten or eleven wives, and are often married to
three own sisters, alleging as a reason that they
agree better among themselves.

When a man makes presents to the father and
mother of a girl, she belongs to him as his own
for her whole life if he wishes ; sometimes the

296

THE MANNERS

parents take back children from their son-in-law,
restoring the presents which they have received
from him, but this is very rare. If a woman
should be unfaithful, her husband would cut oft
her nose, ear or would give her a slash in the
face with a stone knife, and if he should kill
her, he would clear himself by making a present
to the dead woman’s kindred to dry up their tears.

I have seen several badly marked on the face,
who had nevertheless children by some scurvy
fellows. The men in the warm countries are
more jealous of their wives than those of the
north. The former are so sensitive in matters
of this kind, that they wound and sometimes
kill one another, through some love madness.
The young warriors do not often approach
women till they reach the age of thirty years,
because they say that intercourse with women
prevents their running. The men there go en¬
tirely naked, but the women are partly covered
with very neat skins, especially at the dances and
ceremonies. The girls curl their hair and the
women wear theirs after the gypsy fashion.*

* Nouveau Voyage, (Voy. au Nord, v. pp. 286-291.)

OF THF. INDIANS.

297

Indian Feasts.

They have several kinds of feasts, war, death
and marriage feasts, feasts to cure the sick ; they
also have ordinary ones They formerly gave
obscene ones, where men and women associated
pell mell, but if they do so now, it is very rarely.
When they wish to go to war, it is for some
wrong which, they pretend, has been done them ;
sometimes in consequence of a dream, and often
because this fancy has come to them, or because
others ridicule them in these terms : “You have
no courage, you have never been to war, you
never killed a man.” When they wish to go
alone, in such a case they make no feasts, but
they merely say to their wife: “ Make me some
meal, I am going to war.” When they wish to
have companions they go through the whole
village to invite the young men to the feast.
These take each his kettle or platter and go to
the cabin of the one who has invited them,
where he awaits them singing. His songs all
23

298

THE MANNERS

turn on war. “ I am going to war, I am going
to avenge the death of my kinsman. I will slay,

I will burn, I will bring back slaves, I will eat
and other things of the kind, which
breathe only cruelty. When all have come the
kettles are filled and they begin to eat. And
while the giver of the feast continues his singing
all the while, exhorting all to follow him, they
do not say a word, and they eat all that they have
without speaking, unless from time to time some
one or other will say : “ Netho,”* or “ Togenska,
“Yes, you are right.” After they have eaten all,
this master of the least makes them a harangue,
and they reply from time to time : “ Netho,

“ Yes.” When he closes the speech, he says :
“ See it is settled. I start to morrow,” or in two
days, three days, in a month, as his fancy dictates.
On the morrow or some other day, those who
chose to accompany him, go to him and say: “I
go to war with you.” He says : “There, that is
settled. Let us get ready for such a day.” They

* Etho, Yes. Bruyas, Mohawk Dicty. ms. Neto, Yes.
Onondaga Diet., p. 76.

OF THE INDIANS. 209

sometimes give ten such feasts before setting out.
Formerly they gave very obscene ones before
going to war. For if a girl failed to give her¬
self up to the one whom the leader of the party
had prescribed for her, all the misfortunes that
happened in the warlike enterprises was ascribed
to her, so ingenious is the devil in matter of lust.

When they marry their children, they give no
feasts ; sometimes they do, when they observe
certain ceremonies. The first thing they do is
to think of the eating; for this purpose they fill
great kettles with meat, according to the number
of those whom they wish to invite, when the
meat or sangamity is cooked, they go to invite
their guests, saying as they place a little billet of
wood in the hand : “ I invite you to my feast.”
No sooner said than done, it is unnecessary to
return a second time there. All proceed thither
with their kettles and platters. The master of
the house makes the distribution of the portions
very fairly, and the giver of the feast or some
other in his stead sings constantly, till all is eaten.
After the meal they sing and dance, and each

3 GO

THE MANNERS

one returns home without uttering a word, except
some who thank him who has invited them.

Feasts to heal a sick person are given almost in

the same way.

The death feasts are sad and mournful. There
no one sings or dances ; but the relatives of the
dead remain in deep silence, and show a downcast
countenance, in order to move the invited to
compassion. All who come to this feast bring

presents and throwing them to the nearest rela¬
tives they say : “ Hold, this is to wipe away your
tears, to dig the deceased’s grave, to cover him,
to build a cabin. Hold, here is to make a fence
around his grave.” After they have thus given
their presents, and emptied their kettles, they
return home without saying a word. As for
common feasts, they are conducted in all sorts of
manners, according to their fancy.*

Games of the Indians.

They have games for men, for the women,
and for the children. The most common for

* Nouveau Voyage. (Voyages au Nord v. pp. 281-4).

OF THE INDIANS. 3OI

men are with certain fruits which have seeds black
on one side and red on the other; they put them
in a wooden or bark platter on a blanket, a great
coat or a dressed skin mantle. There are six or
eight players. But there only two who touch
the platter alternately with both hands, they raise
it, and then strike the bottom of the platter on
the ground by this shaking to mix up the six
seeds, then if they come five red or black, turned
on the same side, this is only one throw gained,
because they usually play several throws to win
the game, as they agree among them. All those
who are in the game, play one after another.
There are some so given to this game, that they
will gamble away even their great coat. Those
who conduct the game, cry at the top of their
voice, when they rattle the platter, and they strike
their shoulders so hard as to leave them all black
with the blows.

They also oiten play with a number of straws
half a foot long or thereabouts. There is one
who takes them all in his hand, then without
looking he divides them in two. When he has

THE MANNERS

3° 2

separated them, he gives one part to his antago¬
nist. Whoever has an even number, according
as they have agreed, wins the game.

They have also anothei game, which is very
common among litt e children in Europe. They
take kernels of Indian corn or something of the
kind, then they put some in one hand, and ask
how many there are. The one who guesses the
number wins.

They also play a game which they call in their
language : Ounonhayenty. But it is rathei a
trade than a game. They get into two cabins
six in one, and six in the other. 1 hen there is
one who takes some goods or furs, and what he
wishes to exchange ; he goes to the door of the
other cabin and utters a cry. Those in the cabin
give it an echo. The first approaches and says
chanting, that he wishes to sell what he holds in
his hands. Those within reply “ hon, hon, hon,
hon, hon, hon.” The seller having ended his
whole song, throws his merchandise into the
cabin and returns home. Then the others having
examined the prize, and asked the seller whether

OF THE INDIANS.

3°3

he desires in exchange a great coat, a shirt, a
pair of shoes or some other thing of the kind,
one of them goes to carry to the other cabin the
equivalent of what has been thrown in, or restores
the goods so thrown, if it does not suit him, or
if it is not worth what he brings as exchange.
These ceremonies are accompanied by songs
which gladden both parties.

The children play with bows and with two
sticks, one large and one small. They hold the
little one in the left, and the larger one in the
right hand, then with the larger they make the
smaller one fly up in the air, and another runs
after it, and throws it at the one who sprung it.
This game resembles that of children in Europe.
They also make a ball of flags or corn leaves,
which they throw in the air and catch on the
end of a pointed stick.

Adults both men and women, in the evening,
around the Are, tell stories after the manner of
Europeans.*

* Nouv. Voyage. (Vov, au Nord v. p. 300.)

THE MANNERS

3°4

The Rudeness of the Indians.

The Indians trouble themselves very little with
our civilities, on the contrary, they ridicule us
when we practice them. When they arrive in
a place, they most frequently salute no one, but
remain squatting down, and though everybody
come to look at them, they look at no one.
Sometimes they enter the first cabin they come
to, without saying a word. They take their
place where they may happen to be, then they
light their pipes and smoke some time without
speaking. When they come into our houses,
they take the first place. If there is a chair
before the fire, they take possession of it, and do
not rise for any one. Men and women hide only
their private parts. They break wind before all
the world without caring for any one. They
treat their elders very uncivilly, even breaking
wind in their very faces. There conversation
whether among men or women is generally only
indecency and ribaldry. As regards their inter¬
course with their wives, they generally conceal

OF THE INDIANS.

305

themselves, yet sometimes they do not. How¬
ever they show no other marks of outward inde¬
cency either from hatred or caresses. And they
never show countenances like those we see
practised by Europeans.

They never wash their platters which are of
wood or bark, nor their bowls or their spoons.
When the women cleanse their children with
their hands, they rub them slightly on a bark,
and will then touch the meat they eat. They
scarcely ever wash their hands or face. Chil¬
dren have little respect for their parents ; fathers
allow their children to beat them, because they
say that if they punish their children, they would
be too timid and would not be good warriors.
They eat in a snuffling way and puffing like
animals. As soon as men enter a house they
smoke. If they tind a pot covered they uncover
it, they often eat from the platter where their
dogs have eaten without washing it. When they
eat fat meat, they grease their whole faces with
it. They belch continually. Those who have
intercourse with the French, scarcely ever wash

THE MANNERS

3°6

their shirts, but let them rot on their hacks.
They seldom cut their nails. They rarely wash
meat before putting it in the pot. Their cabins
are ordinarily very dirty. They eat lice. The
women make water before any one and in a full
gathering. When their children make water on
their blankets, they throw it off with their hands.
They often eat lying down like dogs. In fine,
they put no restraint on their actions, and follow
simply the animals.*

Courtesy of the Indians .

Amid all these incivilities, you find some
courtesies. When any one enters their cabins
while they are eating, they most frequently offer
him their kettle. So ne also offer us the best
place in their cabins when we pay them a visit.
Those who have had much intercourse with the
French, salute us when we meet them. It is
also a maxim of civility among them, to make a
return when you give anything. Although they

* Nouveau Voyage. (Voy. au Nord v. pp. 339-34 1 *)

OF THE INDIANS

307

treat their elders uncivilly, they nevertheless re¬
spect their advice, which they very often follow,
because they say that the old men have more ex¬
perience and know affairs better. At feasts they
often make a distinction between men of con¬
sideration and the others, for they give them the
whole head of the animal and the most honor¬
able portion. They make presents to one another,
and very often give feasts. They also show de¬
ference to the old in allowing them to govern
affairs, because this is honorable among them.
There are some also, although very few, who
salute us in French style. I have seen one who
was called Garakontié, that is to say, “ the sun
which marches,”* who haranguing before the
Count de Frontenac, took off his cap every time
he began a new topic. Another, Chief of the
Goiogoins (Cayugas) seeing a little girl whom
he had given to the governor of the country to

* This was not the great Daniel Garakontie, who died about
the time Hennepin came to America, Rel. 1673-9 p. 190; but
his brother. From Garakwa, sun, Bruyas Fr. Mohawk Dicty.
ms: Onondaga Diet., p. 94. Tie expresses action while
walking. Bruyas, Racines Agnières, p. 6.

THE MANNERS

308

be instructed, said very civilly, “ Onontio (this is
what they call the governors of the French), you
are the master of this girl, so do that she may
learn to read and write well. When she is
grown up, you will give her back to me or take
her for your wife.” I have seen another who
was called Atreouati, that is to say the Big Throat
(Grand Gueule) * who eat with us like the French.
He washed his hands, took his place at table last,
unfolded his napkin properly, ate with his fork,
in fine did all that we do, but frequently out of
malice and apishness and to get some present
from the French.f

Manner of making War.

The Iroquois pass for being the most warlike
among the Indians whom we have known tili
now. They have in fact defeated several nations,
and those which remain have been obliged to
surrender to them. They have among them

* This is a French nick name, not a translation of his name,
f Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au Nord, v p. 341-3.)

OF THE INDIANS.

309

men of rank, who are, as it were, chiefs of bands.
These are masters when they travel. They have
men under them, who follow them everywhere
and obey them in everything. Before setting
out, they get a supply of good guns, powder,
balls, kettles, axes and other munitions of war.
Sometimes young women and young boys accom¬
pany them. In this trim they often march three
or four hundred leagues. When they approach
the place where they wish to kill men, they
march slowly and with much precaution, and
never lire a gun at animals, but then employ a
bow which makes no noise, and when firing they
look all around for fear of being surprised. They
send spies to discover the mode of entering
villages, and to see where they shall begin the
attack, or to watch when any one comes out so
as to surprise him, and this is what generally
happens. For they never strike, except treacher¬
ously, watching a man behind a tree as though
they wished to kill a wild beast. It is by this
they know good warriors, when they know how
to surprise As soon as they have struck their

3 IG

THE MANNERS

blow, if they know how to get well off, they
are incomparable. Their patience is wonderful,
for when they see themselves well hidden they
very frequently remain two or three days behind
a tree without eating, waiting for an opportunity
to kill a man. Sometimes they march openly
and fearlessly, but this is very rare.

When they were at war with the French
one of their considerable men, called Atreouati,
went with eleven or twelve others to kill one of the
priests of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, who was
in a village which is called La Chine. On arriv¬
ing there he found some Frenchmen to whom
he said : I am going to kill such a one. In fact
he killed him some days after * This same man,
having on another occasion missed his blow,
marched into Montreal, crying : “ Hay, hay,”
which is a sign of peace. He was immediately
received. They made him presents and good
cheer, but as he went out he killed two men
who were roofing a house. Some have told us

* This was Rev. James Lemaitre, killed Aug. 29, 1661,
Sec Shea’s Charlevoix, iii, pp. 35, 303.

OF THE INDIANS.

3 11

that they had been in war as far as the lands of
the Spaniards who are in New Mexico, because
they relate that they have been in a country
where the inhabitants gathered red earth which
they took and sold to a nation, who sold them
axes, kettles and other like things. This earth
apparently was gold.* Those who do not go to
wai are despised and pass for poltroons and cowards.
They attack all other nations, and no one dare
resist them. This renders them proud and in¬
sufferable, they call themselves on this account
men by excellence,! as though all other nations
were but beasts compared to them.J

Cruelty of the Indians .

We are surprised at the cruelty of tyrants and
hold them in horror : but that of the Iroquois is

* In the Nouv. Voy. he intimates that the Iroquois related
this to LaSalle at Fort Frontenac, and probably only to gratify

him.

t Ontwe Ongwe. Bruyas, Racines Agnieres, p. 119.
t Nouv. Voyage (Voy. au Nord. v. p. 303-7.)

3 12

THE MANNERS

not less horrible. When they have killed a man,
they tear off the skin from his skull and carry it
home as a sure mark of their trophies. When
they have made a prisoner, they bind him and
make him run. If he cannot follow them, they
give a blow on the head with a hatchet and
leave him after taking his head of hair or scalp.
They do not spare even children at the breast.
If the prisoner can walk, they bind him a
night. They treat him the most cruelly they
can. They plant four posts in the ground to
which they tie his hands and feet, thus exposing
him all night on the ground to the rigor of the
season. I say nothing of a hundred other evils
they wreak on him during the day. When they
are near their villages, they utter loud cries by
which their countrymen know that it is their
warriors returning with slaves. At the same
time men and women put on their best dress and
go out to receive them at the entrance of the
village, where they draw up in a double line to
make the prisoners pass in the middle ; but it is
a pitiable reception for these wretched people,

OF THE INDIANS.

3*3

inasmuch as this rabble fall upon them like
dogs on their prey, beginning at once to torment
them, while the warriors pass in file quite haughty
over their exploits. Some kick these poor slaves,
others beat them with clubs, many give them
slashes with their knives. Some tear off their
ears or cut off the nose and lips, so that most
succumb and die during this pompous entrance.
Those who have most vigor, are reserved for a
greater torture. Nevertheless they spare some,
but rarely ; when the warriors have entered their
cabins, all the elders assemble to hear the report
of all that has occurred in the war, then they dis¬
pose of the slaves. If the father of an Indian
woman has been killed by their enemies, they
give her a slave in his place, and it is optional
with this woman to grant him life or put him to
death. The following is what they do, when
they wish to burn them; they bind them to a
stake by the feet and hands, then they heat red
hot gun barrels, axes and other iron ware, and
apply them from the legs to the head. They
24

314. THE MANNERS

tear out their nails with their teeth, they cut off
slices of flesh from their back, and often scalp
them. Then they put live coals on the wound,
cut out their tongue and make them undergo
all the tortures that they can think of. After
having tormented them in this style, if they are
not yet dead, they unbind them and by blows of
clubs compel them to run. It is related that
there was a slave who ran so well that he escaped
in the woods, without their being able to catch
him, but who apparently died for want of help.
What is moreover surprising is, that these slaves
sing amid their tortures, which provokes their
executioners immensely.

It is related that there was one who said to

them : “You have no sense, you do not know the

way to torture ; you are cowards ; if I had you in

my country, I would make you suffer much more;”

but while he was speaking in this way a woman
✓

heated a little iron skewer red hot in the fire and
ran it into his private parts. Then he uttered a
cry, and told her : “You have sense, you know,
that is the way to do.”

OF THE INDIANS. 3 j 5

When the prisoner whom they have burned
dies, they eat him and make their children drink
his blood, in order to render them cruel and in¬
human. Those whose lives they spare, are like
slaves and servants among them, but in course of
time, they lose their slave state, and are treated
as belonging to the nation.

The Indians of the whole of Louisiana, which
is more than 600 leagues from the Iroquois, par¬
ticularly the Nadousiouz among whom I was
made a prisoner, are not less brave in person.
They also make all the surrounding nations
tremble, although they have only bows and
arrows. They run faster than the Iroquois, but
are not so inhuman, and they do not eat the
flesh of their enemies, being satisfied with burn¬
ing them. Having one day seized a Huron who
was eating human flesh like an Iroquois, they
cut slices from his body, and told him : You
who love human flesh, eat your own, to show
your nation, that we look with horror on your

THE MANNERS

maxims, for your people are like dogs that eat
every kind of meat, when they are hungry. -

Indian Policy.

What keeps the Iroquois up and renders them
so formidable is their councils, which they hold
continually for the slightest matter. For a mere
trille they assemble and reason together a long
time, so that they undertake nothing rashly. If
a complaint is made that any one of them has
stolen anything, they first use every effort to find
the one who committed the theft. If they can¬
not discover him, or he has not wherewith to
make restitution, provided they are convinced of
the truth of the fact, they make some presents
to the injured party to satisfy him. When they
wish to put any one of their own to death whom
they deem guilty, in order that his relatives may
hvae no ground for vengeance, they hire a man
who drinks to excess, then when he has struck

* Nouv. Voyage ; Voyages au Nord v. v. pp. 307—10.

OF THE INDIANS. 3 17

the blow, they give as the only reason, that he
had no sense, that intoxication impelled him to
do so. They formerly had another way of doing
justice, but it is abrogated. They had one day
in the year which might be called the Feast of
Fools,* for in fact they played the fool, running
from cabin to cabin, so that if they ill treated
any one, or took any thing, the next day they
said : I was crazy, I had no sense, and the others
are satisfied with this excuse, without taking
vengeance or requiring satisfaction. When they
wished to kill a man, they hired one, who while
playing the madman, killed the one marked out
for him. They have spies among them who are
all the time coming and going, and who report
all the news they hear.

As regards trade, they are shrewd enough, they
do not easily allow themselves to be deceived,
but they consider everything attentively and study
to know the goods. The Ounontaguez are more

* The Ononhouaroia, see Rel. de la Nouvelle France, 1656,
p. 26 ; 1.636, p. IIO.

THH MANNERS

3 l8

cunning than the others and more adroit in
stealing and in doing other things of the kind.*

Manner of hunting. •

For their hunts they observe the times and
seasons. They kill moose and deer at all times,
but especially when there is snow. They hunt
wild cats during the winter and porcupines ;
beaver and otter in the spring and sometimes in
the fall. They generally surprise moose or elk
by a running noose. They kill bears on the
trees when they are eating acorns. As for wild
cats they cut down the trees on which they are,
then their dogs spring on them and strangle them.
The porcupines are taken almost in the same
way, except that they are killed with blows of
their hatchets, when the tree falls, because the
dogs cannot approach them on account of their
long pointed hairs like awls (quills) which can
insensibly pierce a man’s body. They kill dogs
that attempt to strangle them, if these hairs

* Nouv. Voyage. (Voy. au. Nord v. p. 311-2.)

are

OF THE INDIANS.

319

not taken out, which are longer and sharper than
those ol hedge hogs. These animals do not run
fast, a man can easily run them down. As for
otters they are taken in a trap or they are killed
with gun shot, and very seldom with axes, be¬
cause they are very cunning.

The Indians take beaver in winter under the
ice. They first seek the lakes of these animals.
The beavers have admirable ingenuity ; when
they wish to change their place, they select a
stream in the woods, which they ascend till they
find a flat country suitable for making a pond.
When they have well considered the place in all
directions, they set to work to make dams to stop
the water, as strong as those of ponds in Europe.
The dam being built of wood, earth and mud
as high as is necessary to make a large pond,
which is sometimes a quarter of a league in length,
they build their cabins in the middle, on a level
with the water, with wood, flags and mud, neatly
plastered by means of their tails, which are longer
and broader than a trowel. Their structure has
three or four stories, full of flag mats, where they

3 2 °

THE MANNERS

bear their young, which they engender by coition
like all land animals. At the bottom of the
water there are upper and lower places of exit.
When the ponds are frozen, they can only go
under the ice ; hence when winter sets in, they
lay up a stock of aspen wood, which is their
ordinary food ; they put it in the water all around
the cabin. There are sometimes three or four
cabins in a lake. The Indians break the ice
around their house, with an axe handle or a pole.
They make a hole and sound the bottom of the
water to know whether it is the path by which
the beaver come out. If they really find that it
is their passageway, they insert a net about a
fathom long and two stakes which touch the
bottom of the water at one end, while the other
passes through the hole and is high above the
ice. There are two cords fastened to the poles
to draw the net when the beaver is taken ; but
that the cunning animal may not see the net nor
their persons, they spread over the water rotten
wood, cotton or some thing of the kind. An
Indian remains on the watch near the nets with

OF THE INDIANS.

321

a hatchet to draw the beaver on the ice, while
the others go to break in the cabins with great
labor, because there is often a foot of earth and
wood to be broken and cut by blows of the axe,
the whole being frozen as hard as stone. And
then they sound the lake in all directions : where
they find a hollow, they break the ice for fear
the beaver may hide, and in order that being
forced to run from place to place, they may at
last run into their nets. They labor with the
same force, often from morning to night, without
taking anything. Sometimes they catch only
three or four. They also take beaver in the
spring in traps in the following manner. When
the ice begins to melt, they observe the places
where they come out, and there they set a trap.
The bait or lure is a branch of aspen, which runs
from the trap into the water. When the beavers
come toit, they eat it up to the trap, where they
cause two heavy blocks of wood to fall which
crush them. They take martins almost in the
same manner except that they do not bait the
traps.

3 22

THE MANNERS

All the nations in the south or Louisiana, are
more superstitious in their hunts, than the
northern tribes and the Iroquois. While I was
there, their old men, six days beiore setting out
to hunt the wild cattle, sent four or five of their
most alert hunters on the mountains to dance
the calumet, with as much ceremony as to the
nations, to which they are accustomed to send
embassies to form an alliance. On the return of
their deputies they exposed to the sight of all
the world for three days, one of the largest kettles
which they had stolen from us, which they sur¬
rounded with feathers of all sorts of colors, with
a gun of our French canoemen, which they placed
across the top. During three days the first wife
of a chief carried this kettle on her back in great
pomp, at the head of more than 200 hunters, who
followed an old man, who had fastened one of
our Armenia handkerchiefs at the top of a stick
in the shape of an ensign, holding his bow and
arrows in his hand in deep silence. This old
man made them halt three or four times to weep
bitterly for the death of the cattle. At the last

OF THE INDIANS.

3 23

halt, the oldest among them sent two of their
ablest to discover the buffalo. They whispered
in their ears very softly. On their return before
beginning the attack on these monstrous animals,
they lit dry buffalo dung, and lit their pipes or
calumets with this new fire, to make the couriers,
whom they had sent, smoke, and immediately
after this ceremony, a hundred men went behind
the mountains on one side, and a hundred on the
other to shut in the buffalo whom they killed in
great confusion. The women boucanned the
meat in the sun, eating only the poorest, in order
to carry the best to their villages, more than two
hundred leagues from this great butchery.

Their manner of Fishing.

They catch all kinds of fish which they take
with snares, nets and harpoons. As in Europe
they also catch some with lines, but very few.
I have seen them fish with snares in a very curious
way. They take a little fork, at the end of

which between the two points they fix a string
* Nouv. Voyage. (Voy. au. Nord., v. p. 317.)

324

THE MANNERS

almost in the same manner that they set them in
France to take partridges. Then they put it in
the water and when the fish pass, present it to
them. The fish having gone in, they jerk it and
the fish is caught by the gills. I taught them
to take them by hand in the spring.

The most important of their fisheries is that of
eels, salmon and white fish. The chief fishery
of the Mohawks who are neighbors of New
Jork is that of frogs, which they put whole
into their kettles, unskinned even, to season their
sagamity of Indian corn. They take white fish
in great abundance at Niagara where Fort Conty
stands. The salmon or rather salmon trout, are
taken in several other places around Lake Fron¬
tenac. They take eels by night when it is a fair
calm. These fish descend along the river St.
Lawrence in great quantities. They put a large
piece of bark full of earth on the end of a log
and light it as a kind of torch, which makes a
very clear fire, then a man ot two at most, enter
a canoe with a spear placed between the two
tines of a little fork. When by the light of the

OF THE INDIANS.

325

fire they see an eel, they harpoon a very great
quantity. They take salmon with spears and
white fish with nets. The people of the south
are so keen, although fish pass very quick in the
water, they never fail to kill them with strokes
of darts, which they send very far into the water
with their bows, and they have pointed poles so
long and eyes so sharp sighted that they spear
and bring in large sturgeon and trout, which are
seven or eight fathoms in the water.*

Utensils of the Indians.

Before the Europeans went to America, the
Indians used, and all the nations of Louisiana
still use to this day, earthen pots instead of kettles,
sharpened stones having no axes or knives. They
put small stones in a split stick, and a certain bone
which is above the heel of the elk to serve as an
awl. They have no firearms, but only bows
and arrows. To make fire they take two little
sticks, one of cedar and the other of a harder
* Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au. Nord v. p. 319*)

3 26

THE MANNERS

wood and by rubbing them between the two
palms of their hands, the hardest on the weakest,
a hole is made in the cedar, from which a dust
falls which is converted into fire. When they
wish to make a platter, howl or spoons, they
trim the wood with their stone hatchets. They
hollow it with live coals and then scrape them
with beaver teeth to polish them. As for the
northern nations, where the winters are long, they
use raquettes to walk on the snow.

And those who are near Europeans, have now
guns, axes, kettles, awls, knives, flints and steels,
and other utensils like us. To plant their Indian
corn they make wooden spades, but when they
can get iron ones, they prefer them to the others.
They have gourds in which they put their bear,
wild cat and sun flower oil. There are none of
the men who have not a little bag to hold their
pipe and tobacco. The women make bags of
Indian corn leaves, of linden bark or flags to hold
their grain. They make thread of nettles, linden
bark, and a certain other root of which I do not
know the name. To sew their shoes they

OF THE INDIANS.

327

use only bab.ches or laces. They make mat;
of flags to he on and when they have none, the,
use bark. They swaddle their children almos,
in the same way as women in Europe; they tie
them to a board, in order to take* their kettles,

some have cranes, those who have not use branches
of trees.I -

Manner of burying the Dead.

They bury their dead with much magnificence
especially their kindred. They give them all
their best finery, and rub their faces with all
sorts of colors. Then they put them in a coffin,
hicn they ariange like a kind of mausoleum.
It it is some child which they can easily put in
their blanket or on a sled, in presence of all his
relatives, in order thereby to elicit the presents,
which are usually made to wipe away their tears.
They put in the grave with him, all that belonged

to him, even if it should amount to the value of
* Prendre, misprint for pendre, hang,
t Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au. Nord., v. p. 323.)

3 28

THE MANNERS

two hundred crowns. They put there even his
shoes, snow shoes, awls, a steel, an axe, belts of
wampum, a kettle full of sagamity, Indian corn,
meat and other things of the kind. And if it is
a man, they put also a gun, powder and balls,
because they say that when he is in the land of
the dead or the spirits, he will need all this out
fit to hunt.*

Superstitions of the Indians.

There are some among them more supersti¬
tious than others, especially the old men and
the women, who adhere stubbornly to the tradi¬
tions of their ancestors, so that when they are
told that they have no sense, that they ought
not to cling to such follies, they ask us : “ How
old are you ? You are only thirty or forty
years old and you pretend to know things better
than our aged men. Begone, you do not know
what you are saying. You may know very
Voyages au Nord., v. p. 325.

OF THF. INDL 4 NS.

329

well what is going on in your country, be¬
cause your old men have told you, hut not what
occurred in ours before the French came. We
tell them in reply, that we know all by means of
writing. These Indians ask : Before you came
into these lands where we are, did you know that
we were there. We are obliged to say No.
Then you do not know every thing by writing,
and it does not tell you everything.*

* Nouv. Voyage in Voyages au Nord., v. p. 329. While
I was among the Issati and Nadouessans an affair occurred
connected with this matter. An Indian died who had been
bitten by a rattlesnake, I could not give him soon enough an
infallible remedy which I always had with me ; that is, orviétan
in powder. When this accident befel any one in my presence,

I first made scarifications about the bite and dropped in a little
of this powder. Then I made the bitten man swallow some
to prevent the poison reaching his heart. One day these
Indians wondered at my curing one of their warriors, who had
been bitten by one of these snakes. They called me a spirit,
for so they generally style Europeans. “We looked for you
in the hunting ground where you were with two other spirits,
who accompany you, but we were so unlucky as not to find
you. Do not leave us hereafter. We will take care of you.
If you had been with us, our warrior whom you see dead,
would still be in a condition to give you banquets. He knew
very well the trade of surprising and killing our enemies. He
supported his ten wives by his hunting. If you had been with
25

33 °

THE MANNERS

Ridiculous Beliefs.

There are many who do not believe what their
aged men relate, and there are also some who
do. I have already stated the opinions they en¬
tertain as to their origin, and the cure of their
sick. They believe in the immortality of the
soul, and they say that there is a very delicious
country towards the west, where there is good
hunting. There you can kill all kinds of animals,
as much as you wish. It is to this place that the
souls go, so that they hope to see each other all

us you would have prevented his dying. You could have done
so easily, as you have saved the lives of several of our kindred.
You would not have failed to do this for the one we bewail
here ?” I admired the neat manner in which they had laid out
this corpse. They had placed him on very pretty mats, and
arranged him in the guise of a warrior with his bow and arrows.
They had painted his body with several colors. One would
have said, to look at him, that he was still alive. They told
me that I must give them some Martinique tobacco of which I had
still a little left, for the deceased to smoke. This gave me
occasion to answer them that the dead do not smoke or eat in
the land of souls, and that men have no further need of bows
and arrows, because there is no hunting in the country where
souls go ; that if they wished to acknowledge the great chief,
who is master of heaven and earth, they would there be so

OF THF. INDIANS.

together there. But they are more ridiculous in
saying that the souls of kettles, guns, steels, and
other arms which they put in the graves of the
dead, go with the dead to serve their use there.

One day a girl having died after baptism, her
mother saw one of her slaves at the point of
death. She said : « My daughter is all alone in
the country of the dead among the French, with¬
out kindred, without friends, and here it is Spring.
She will have to plant some Indian corn and

sated with seeing him, that they would not think of hunting or
of eating and drinking, because the souls have no wants. These
Indians understood only grossly what I told them. I then pre¬
sented to them two fathoms of our black tobacco. They love
it passionately. 1 heirs is not so well prepared nor so strong
as the Martinique which I gave them. I made them understand
that I gave it for them to smoke, and not the dead man who
could do nothing with it. Some of the Indians present, listened
very attentively anc very seriously to what I told them of the
other life and seemed very glad to hear me. The others said
in their language Tepatoui , that is to say : That is right. For
all that they smoked to their pleasure, without taking any further
trouble to profit by my words. I remarked that the tears which
they shed for the dead and the ceremonies which they practiced
in regard to him, such as rubbing him with bear’s oil, and the
like, were the result of custom and of an old routine to which
they are inured by traditions, which seems to have some resem¬
blance to Judaism.

332

THE MANNERS

squashes. Baptize my slave that she may also go
to the country of the French and serve my
daughter.” A woman being at the point of death
cried out : “I will not be baptized, for the Indians
who die Christians, are burnt in the country of
souls by the French.” Some say that we baptize
so that we may have them as slaves in the other
world. Others ask whether there is good hunt¬
ing in the land to which we wish them to go.
When we reply that men live there without
drinking and eating. “Then, I do not wish to
go there,” they say, “ because I want to eat.”
If we add that they will not feel any want of
eating or drinking, they put their hand on their
mouth, saying : “You are a great liar. Can any
one live without eating ?”

A man once related the following to us in
these terms. One of our old men having died,
and having gone to the land of souls, at first found
French men who welcomed him, and gave him
good cheer. Then he came to the place where
the Indians are, who also received him very well.
There were feasts every day, to which the French

OF THE INDIANS.

333

were almost always invited, because there there
are never any quarrels or wars between them.
After this old man had seen all these countries he
came back and related all to his countrymen.
We asked this Indian whether he believed it.
He answered no ; that their old men said that,
but that perhaps they lied. They recognize some
sort of genius in all things. They all believe in
a Master of Life, but apply the idea differently.
Some have a crow which they always carry with
them, and which they say is the master of their
life. Some an owl, others a bone, a sea shell or
some thing else of the kind. When they hear
an owl hoot, they tremble and draw sinister
omens from it. They put faith in dreams ; they
go into their vapor baths in order to obtain fair
weather to take beaver, to kill animals in the
hunt. They do not give beaver or otter bones
to the dogs. I asked the reason ; they answered
me that there was a spirit in the wood which
would tell the beavers and otters, and that after
that they would take no more. I asked them
what a spirit of this kind was. They replied

THE MANNERS

33 +

that she was a woman who knew every thing,
and was the mistress of all hunting.- It must
always be remarked that as I have said, most do
not believe all this.

About two years ago an Indian woman had
poisoned herself while on the hunt. The hunters
had brought her back to her cabin. I went to
see whether she was dead, I heard them talking
with each other near the corpse, and say that they
had seen on the snow the trail of a snake that
had come out of the woman’s mouth, and they
related this very seriously. While they were
discussing it, there was a superstitious old woman
who said: Otkon : it is the spirit who killed her,
who went that way.

I have seen a boy seventeen or eighteen years
old who had dreamed that he was a girl. He
gave such credit to it, that he believed himself
to be one. He dressed like the girls and did all
the same works as women.

The chief of our village * once said to me ;

* Evidently that near Fort Frontenac, Nouv. Voy., p. 333
where he is called “Gannecouse Kaera, that is the Bearded. ”
Bearded, deyagonouskeronda, Onondaga Diet., p. 26.

OF THE INDIANS. 335

Onontio, that is to say the Governor General of
the French, the Count de Frontenac, will arrive
to day, when the sun is at such a place. In fact
he arrived at the very hour, of which however
this old man knew no tidings, and I did not
know what deduction to draw from this predic¬
tion.*

The Obstacles to the Conversion of the Indians.

There are several, both on the part of the
Indians, and on that of the Dutch, the English
and the Missionaries. On the part of the Indians
their first obstacle to the faith is the indifference
which they feel for everything. When we relate
to them the history of our Creation, and the
mysteries of the Christian religion, they tell su
that we are right, and then they relate their
fables, and when we reply that what they say, is
not true, they retort, that they agreed to what
we said, and that it is not showing sense to in¬
terrupt a man when he is speaking and to tell
him that helies. “This is all very well,” they say,

* Nouv. Voyage, Voy. au Nord., v. p. 329.

THE MANNERS

336

“for your countrymen ; for them it is as you say,
but not for us who belong to another nation.”
The second consists in their superstitions. The
third is that they are not sedentary. The obsta¬
cle to the faith caused by the Dutch and English
is that they reverse all our maxims and in general
do before the Indians the very opposite of what
they say, making no scruple of lying to them at
every moment from a spirit of lucre. They en¬
deavor maliciously to turn on us the hatred of
these tribes, in order that they may give no credit
to the truths which we preach them.

The obstacle found to the faith on the part of
the missionaries, is first, the difficulty they have
in learning the language of the Indians. The
second consists in the different opinions concern¬
ing the method of instructing them and teaching
them the catechism. The third obstacle which
might also hinder the progress of the faith, would
be the temporal traffic, which would render the
missionaries suspected by the Indians, when they
wish to carry it on against the laws of the church.*
* Nouv. Voy. (Voy. au Nord., v. p. 333.)

OF THE INDIANS.

337

Indifference of the Indians.

They have so great an indifference for all things,
that there is nothing like it under heaven. They
take great complacency in hearing all that is said
to them seriously, and in all that they are made
to do. If we say to them: “Pray to God,
brother, with me,” they pray and they repeat
word tor word all the prayers you teach them.
“ Kneel down,” they kneel. “ Take off your
bat,” they take it off. “ Be silent,” they cease
to speak. “ Do not smoke,” they stop smoking.
If one says to them : “ Listen to me,” they listen
calmly. When we give them pictures, a crucifix
or beads, they use them as adornments, just as if
they were jewelry, and array themselves in them,
as though they were wampum. If I should say to
them : “To-morrow is the day of prayer,” they
say “ Niaova.” “ See, that is right.” If I said
to them : “ Do not get drunk,” they answered :

There, that is right, I am willing.” Yet the
moment they receive drink from the French or
Dutch, these latter never refusing them liquor

THE MANNERS

33 8

for furs, they inevitably get drunk. When I
ask them whether they believe, they say “Yes,”
and almost all the Indian women whom some
missionaries have baptized and married to French¬
men according to the rites of the church, leave
and often change their husbands, because they
are not subjected to the ordinances of our Chris¬
tian laws, and that they have all liberty to change.
These tribes must absolutely first be civilized to
make them embrace Christianity, for so long as
Christians are not absolutely their masters we
shall see little success, without a most special
graçe of God, without a miracle which he does
not work in regard to all nations. These are
my sentiments, from the experience which I have
had with our Recollects in America, and the
simple statement which I have made without in¬
tending to offend any one whatever, being bound
to write the truth.

Those who come after us will know in
time the progress of our new discovery ; since
this year 1682, they write me from America,
that the Sieur de la Salle with our Recol-

OF THE INDIANS. ^

lects have been to the mouth of the river
Colbert, as far as the South Sea. They have
found the Akansa, Taensa, Keroas and the Ouamats
civilized tractable nations, who have laws, a king
who commands as a sovereign, with equitable,
liberal and settled officers, these nations live on
the banks of the River Colbert, which is more
than 800 leagues in length 500 to our knowledge
which we have acquired by ascending it, and 300
which the Sieur de la Salle has made descending.
These last nations live in a country very fertile in
all kinds of fruits. It is as warm as Italy. The
corn ripens there in fifty days. The soil bears
two crops a year. There are found there, palms
trees, canes, laurels, forests of mulberry trees, a
quantity of game and wild animals, and other
like things of which we shall give the public
some account more amply hereafter.

I pray God to give his blessing to our new
discovery of Louisiana, and that the King may
derive all possible benefit from it.

END.

APPROBATIONS

OF THE

“DESCRIPTION OF LOUISIANA,”

[Published in the Nouveau Voyage, Utrecht, 1698.]

I the undersigned, certify that I have read and
examined a book entitled the “ Description of
Louisiana,” newly discovered southwest of New
France, with the customs of the Indians of the
same country, composed by the Rev. Father
Louis Hennepin, Recollect Preacher and Apos¬
tolic Missionary, and that I have observed nothing
therein contrary to faith and good morals ; but
that it is full of various reflections and most
useful marks, as well for laboring in the conver¬
sion of the Indians, as for the good of the state
and the kingdom. Given at our convent of the
Recollects of Paris, this 1 3th of December, 1682.

Father Cæsaræus Harveau,
Lecturer in theology. Father of the Province,
and Gustos of the Recollects of the Prov¬
ince of St. Denis in France.

APPROBATIONS.

34 1

I have read a book entitled the “ Description
of Louisiana, newly discovered southwest of New
France, with the customs of the Indians of that
country,” in which I have not only found nothing
but what is conformable to the faith of the
Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, the
laws of the kingdom and good morals, but which
moreover gives great light to establish the faith
of Jesus Christ in that new world, and to extend
the empire of our Invincible Monarch, over a
great country abounding in all kinds of goods.
Given at our convent of the Recollects of St.
Germain-en-Laye, this 14th of December, 1682,
and signed.

Father Innocent Micault,
Definitor of the Recollects of the Province
of St. Denis in France, and Commissary
General in the Province of the Recollects
of St. Anthony in Artois.

appendix.

ACCOUNT,
of a

VOYAGE DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI.

[From the Nouvelle Découverte, pp. 248.]

It is here, that I desire, that all the world know the mystery of this dis¬
covery. which I have concealed to the present, so as not to mortify the
Sieur de la Salle who wished to have alone all the glory and all the most
secret knowledge of this discovery. It is on this account that he sacrificed
several persons, whom he exposed, in order to prevent their publishing
what they had seen and that this should not injure his secret designs.

It must be avowed, that it is very pleasant and agreeable to repass in
one s mind the hardships and labors one has undergone. I never think
but with admiration of the very great embarrassment in which I found
myself at the mouth of the river of the Illinois in the River Meschasipi,
having only two men with me without provisions, in no condition to de¬
fend ourselves against insults to which we were incessantly exposed, and
that in the design of going on to an unknown country and among savage
nations, without feeling a secret joy in my heart to see myself escaped from
so many dangers and happily returned from a voyage of so much difficulty
and peril.

This liver of the Illinois empties into the Meschasipi between the 86 and
33 degrees of latitude. At least this appears so to me from my observa¬
tion at the time, that I pag ed there, although it is ordinarily put at 38.
Those who make the voyage hereafter, will have more time than I had
to take the altitude correctly, because I found myself enveloped by the
conjuncture of the time in great and vexatious affairs both in regard to
the Sieur de la Salle, and in regard to these two men whom I had with
me, and who were to accompany me in my voyage.

344

VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

I was assured in a manner that could not be doubted, that if I descended
to the lower part of the river Meschasipi, the Sieur de la Salle would not
fail to decry me in the mind of my superiors, because I left the route
northward, which I was to follow, according to his request and according
to the project which we had formed together. But moreover I saw myseli
on the eve of dying ol‘ hunger and of not knowing what was to become
of me, because these two men who accompanied me, openly threatened
to abandon me during the night, and carry off the canoe with all it
contained, if 1 prevented them from descending to the nations who
live on the lower part of the river.

Seeing myself then in tills strait, I thought that I ought not to hesitate as
to the course I had to adopt, and that I ought to prefer my own safety to the
violent passion, which the Sieur de la Salle had to enjoy alone the glory
of this discovery. Our two men, seeing me then resolved to follow them
everywhere, promised me entire fidelity. Thus after clasping hands as
our mutual assurance, we put ourselves on the way to begin our voyage.

It was on the 8th of March in the year 1C80 that we embarked in our
cauoe, after having said our ordinary prayers. In this way we continued
our customary evening and morning devotions according to the usage
practiced among us.

The ice* which was coming down the river at this point, troubled us
greatly because our bark canoe could not resist it. However we always
gained some convenient distance to escape among the cakes of ice. Thus
we arrived after about six leagues way at the river of a nation, who are
called the Osages and who live towards the Alissoritcs. This river comes
from the west, and it appeared to us almost as strong as the river Mes¬
chasipi, on w hich we then were, and into which it empties. Its waters
are very much disturbed by the muddy earth it bears down with it, so
that you can scarcely drink it.

The Issati who live up this river Meschasipi, often go to war even
beyond the place where I then w T as. These nations, whose language I
knew 7 , because I had occasion to learn it, during the stay that I afterwards
made among them, informed me that this river of the Osages and of Messo
rites was formed by many others, and[that its source was found by ascending
ten or twelve days journey to a mountain from which all these streams
are seen flowing, that then form this river. They added that beyond this
mountain the sea is seen and great vessels, that these rivers are peopled
by a great number of villages, in which are found several different nations ;

* Compare Le Clercq, ii, p. S16. Discovery ot the Mississippi, p. 16C».

the “nouvelle découverte”

3+5

belrs" "" ' a ' K,S ^ ^ “ d * g ' Cat httnt Mb and

Although this river is very large, the river on which we then were
did not seem increased by it. It bears in so much mud, that below its
mouth he water of the great river, the bed of which is also full of mud
resembles real slime rather than river water. Tins continues to the sea
lor more than two hundred leagues because Meschasipi meanders in several
places, and receives seven large rivers, the water of which is very fine, and
which arc almost as large as Meschasipi.

We cabined every day on the islands, at least when we could, and dur¬
ing the night we extinguished the fire which we had kindled to cook our
Indian corn. You can smell in these countries a fire that is light ed
according to the change of wind, as far off as two or three leagues. It is
in this way that the Indian warriors know the places where their enemies
are, so as to approach them.

On the 9th the ice which came down from the north, began to diminish
a little. After about six leagues sail, we found on the southern bank o

the river a village which we thought was inhabited by the Tamaroa*, who
had previously pursued us. We found no one there and having entered
their cabins we took some bushels of Indian corn, which was a great
advantage to us on our journey. We durst not strike oft from the river
to hunt for fear of falling into an ambuscade of some savages. We left
six knives with handles, and some fathoms of black beads instead of the
Indian corn which we carried off, in order to make compensation to the
Indians.

On the 10th we descended to about thirty-eight or forty leagues from
the Tamaroa. There we found a river which the Illinois warriors had
previously told us was situated near a nation which they called Oiiade-
bache.f We saw there only mud and flags, and we found the shores of
the river very marshy, so that we had to descend out of sight without
finding a place fit to cabin.

We accordingly remained all day in this place to boucan a wild cow,
that we had killed, while this monstrous beast was swimming from land
to land. The parts of this cow that we could not carry away, because
our canoe was too small, we left there, and contented ourselves with

*Le Clercq, ii, p. 219. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 167.

t Compare F. Zenobe Merabré in Le Clercq, ii, p. 219. Discovery of the Mississippi
p. 167. Hennepin knew enough abont the country Dot to make a nation called Ouade
bache, as is done here.

VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

34 6

some which we had smoked like strips of bacon, because we could not
preserve this meat in any other way for want of salt.

We embarked on the 14th loaded with Indian corn and good meat
which served as ballast, and on which we lived for nearly forty leagues.
We could scarcely land in consequence of the great quantity of flags and
mud that we found on both banks of the river. If we had been in a
sloop, we should have slept on board, because it was very difficult to land
on account of the mud, foam and quaking earth.

On the 15th we found three Indians on our way. They were returning
from war or hunting. As we were in a condition to resist them, we met
hem and this put them to flight. One of them however after taking a
p steps returned to us and offered us the calumet of peace which we
received joyfully. This obliged the others to return to us. We did not
understand their language. We named two or three different nations to
them. One of them answered us three times Chikacha or Sikaclia,* which
was apparently the name of his nation. They presented us some peli¬
cans which they had killed with their arrows, and we gave them some of
our boucanned meat. These people not being able to enter our canoe,
because it was too small and loaded, kept on their way by land*
making signs that we would follow them to their village. But at last we
lost sight of them.

After sailing down two days, we found many Indians on the west side
of the river. We had previously heard a dull sound like that of a drum
and several voices of men, which called out Sasacoiiest,f which means
“ Halloo ! ” or “ Who goes there ? ”

As we durst not approach, these Indians sent a periagua or large wooden
canoe to us. These they make of the trunk of a tree hollowed out by fire
like little boats or Venetian gondolas.

We presented the calumet of peace to them and the three Indians, of
whom we spoke above, intimated to us by their gestures and their wordâ,
that we must land and go with them to their friends the Akansa. They
accordingly carried our canoe and the goods of our men very faithfully.

* This encounter of Chickasaws is in Le Clercq, ii, p. 210. Discovery of Mississippi,

p. 168.

t Le Clercq, ii, p. 221, Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 168, has We heard on the
right drums beating and sasacouest made.” Sasakwewin, joyful shouting, Baraga’s
Otchipwe Dictionary, p. 364. “ Sasacouest, that is to say war cries,” Le Clercq, ii,
p. 235, and in the East, Chichiquois was a word adopted by the Fiench, and is used by
Membré. Hennepin must have known its meaning and would not have made the
blunder here committed.

the ‘nouvelle découverte*’ ^4_7

These people regaled us after their fashion with many marks of friendship
They gave us a eab.n to ourselves, beans, Indian meal, and boncanned
meat On our stde we made them presents of our European goods, for
which they shewed great esteem. They placed their fingers on their
mouth to show that they admired them and especially our fire arms
These Indians are very different from those of the North, who are
generally of a sad, stern and severe disposition. These are much better
formed, upright liberal and very gay. Their young people are so modest,
that they would not dare to speak before the aged, unless a question is
put to them. We perceived domestic fowls among these people, lm Uet
d’mde in great numbers, and tamed wild geese like geese in Europe Their
trees already began to show their fruit, like peaches and other fruits of
that nature.*

Our two men began to relish the mode of acting of these people. If
they had been able to get beaver skins and furs in exchange for their
goods, they would have bartered them all and left me among I hese savages.
But I made them see that this discovery was of the greater importance
to them, than the return of their goods, and that so it was not yet time to
think of trade. I accordingly advised them to look out for a suitable
place to hide all the goods which they had brought with us in the canoe,
till their return. They embraced my views, and we had no thought ex
cept how to carry out this plan.

On the 18th after several dances and feasts by our hosts, we embarked
with all our equipage a little after noon. These Indians could not with¬
out regret see us carry off our goods. However in as much as they had
received our peace calumet and had given us another, they allowed us to
go with full liberty.

Descending the river we fouud a spot between two hills, which had a
little wood on the east. We had a spade and a pick, which we used to
dig a hole. We enclosed in it all our men’s goods, reserving for ourselves
only the most necessary, and what was suitable to make presents. After
which we placed pieces of wood over this little cellar, which we covered
with sods, so that nothing could be observed. We gathered all the earth
which we had taken out and threw it into the river.

We re-embarked very promptly after completing this task, and we took
oft bark from three oaks and on a large cotton wood we made a figure of
four crosses in order to recognize the place of our cache. We then
arrived at (a spot) six leagues from the Akansa whom we had left, and
* This is from Le Clercq ii, p. 224. Discovery of the Miss., p. 169.

VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

34 ^

there found another village of the same nation, and then another of the
same, two or three leagues lower down*

It seemed that these savages had sent messengers to all these nations to
notify them of our arrival. These people gave U9 the best reception in
the world. Their women, their children and the whole village gave us
loud acclamations, and showed every possible mark of joy. We gave
them on our side marks oi‘ our gratitude by bestowing presents on them,
which showed that we had come in peace and friendship.

On the 21st this nation took us in a periagua to a nation further on,
whose name they made us learn by dint of repeating it to us. They were
the Taensa. They accordingly conducted us to that place. These Indians
live near a little lake, which the river Meschasipi forms in the land.
Time did not permit us to consider several of their villages, by which we
passed.

These people received us with much more ceremony than the Akansa,
One of their chiefs came in state to meet us on the bank of the river.
He was covered with a white robe or blanket, made of the bark of a tree
which they spin in that country. Two of his men preceded him with a
kind of blade or plate of copper which glittered in the sun like gold.
They received our peace calumet with great marks of joy. Their chief
held himself gravely in his posture, and all the men, women and children
there rendered very great respect to him as well as to me.f They kissed
the sleeves of my Franciscan habit, which I have always worn among all
the nations of America. This made me understand that these tribes had
doubtless seen some of our religious among the Spaniards, who live in New
Mexico, because they are accustomed to kiss the habit of our order, but
all tiiis is merely conjecture.

These Taensa conducted us with all our equipage, while two of their
men carried our bark canoe on their back. They placed us in a fine
cabin, covered with mats of flat rushes, or polished canes. The chief
regaled us with all that this nation could give us to eat, after which they
performed a kind of dance, the men and the women holding their arms in¬
terlaced. As soon as the men had finished the last syllable of their songs,
the women who are halt covered in that country, sang alternately in a
sharp and disagreeable voice that pierced our ears.

This country is full of palm trees, wild laurel and several other trees,
which are like ours in Europe, as plum trees, mulberries, peach, pear and

* Le Clercq ii, p. v26. Discovery of the Miss., p. 170.

t This account of the Taensas is from Le Clercq, ii, p. 226-7. Discovery of the Miss,
pp. 170-1.

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE” ^g

•apple trees of all kinds. There are five or six kinds of walnut trees, the
nuts of which are of extraordinary size. They have also several dry
fruits, which are very large and which we found very good There are
also several fruit trees which we have not in Europe. But the season
was not then far enough advanced to observe the fruit. We saw vines
there which were ready to blossom. In a word the mind and disposition
of this people seemed to us very agreeable. They are docile, tractable
and capable of reason.

We slept among this nation and there received every good treatment
that we could desire. I made our men put on their best clothes, and they
armed themselves from head to foot. I showed them a pistol which fired
four consecutive shots. The habit of St. Francis, which I then wore with
the white girdle over it, was still almost all new, when I started from
Fort Crevecœur. These Indians admired our sandals and our bare feet.
All this as well as our manner of acting, attracted alike the affection and
respect of these people and impressed such favorable sentiments for us on
their minds, that they did not know what courtesies to show us.

They would have* much wished to detain us among them, in order
even to give us stronger marks of their esteem, they sent during the night
to inform their allies the Koroa of our arrival among them. For this
object the chiefs and headmen among them came to see us the next day
to testify to us the joy they felt at our coming among their friends. I had
a white wood tree hewn square by our two men, and then we made a
cross which we planted twelve feet from the house or great cabin where
we were lodged.

On the 22d, we left this nation and the chief of the Koroa accompanied
us to his village. It stauds ten leagues lower down in a very agreeable
country. On one side there you see Indian corn, and beautiful prairies on
the other. We presented to them three axes, six knives, four fathoms of
Martinique tobacco, some awls and little packages of needles They re¬
ceived them with great acclamations of joy. This chief presented to us a
peace calumet of red marble, the stem of which was trimmed with feathers
of four or five different kinds of birds.

During the banquet which this chief gave us, he showed us with a stick,
by which he made various marks on the sand, that it was still six or seven
days sail to the sea, which he represented to usas a great lake, where great
wooden canoes were to be seen.

* This is said oi theNachié (Natehez) in Le Clercq. il p. 231. Discovery of the Miss., p
173, who were enemies of the Taensas, but who are entirely omitted here.

350 VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

On tlie 2od, this chief of the Koroa seeing us disposed to set out to goto
the sea, he made several of his men embark in two periaguas to descend
the river with us. He had made them take provisions with them, and
this prevented our feeling any distrust.

Rut when I perceived the three Chikacha, whom I have mentioned
who followed us among all the nations where we went, T warned our
men to beware of them and to see that they did not lie in ambush to sur¬
prise us at our landings. We were then at Easter day, but we could not
say mass, for want of wine, which had failed ub at Fort Crevecœur. We
accordingly withdrew apart from these people, who always kept their
e} r es on us, in order to say our prayers and fulfil the obligation of true
Christians on that solemn day. I exhorted our men to confidence in
God, after which we embarked in the sight of the whole village.

The three Chikacha entered the periaguas of the Koroas who escorted
us six leagues below their village. There the river Meschasipi divides*
into two channels, which form a great island that seemed to us extremely
long. It may be about sixty leagues in extent according to the observa¬
tions, that we made as we followed the channel which is on the west
side. The Koroa obliged us to take it by the signal which they made us.
The Chikacha wished to make us go by the other chanuel which is on the
east. It w f as perhaps to have the honor of taking us to nine or ten dif¬
ferent nations which are on that side, and who appeared to be very good
people, as we remarked on our return.

We there lost the Indians who accompanied us because their periaguas
could not go as fast as our bark canoe, which w r as lighter than these
Periaguas. The current of this channel being very rapid, w*e made that
day according to our judgment thirty-five or forty leagues, and were not
then at the end of this island of which w r e have just spoken. We crossed
the channel, and cabined on this island, leaving it tlie next. day.

On the 24th after sailing again nearly thirty-five or forty leagues, w T e per¬
ceived tw r o men fishing on the bank of the river, who took flight. Sometime
after we heard some war cries and according to all appearances the roll
of some drum. We afterwards learned that it was the nation of the
Quinipissa,* and as we were in dread of the Chikacha, we alw r ays kept
the thread of the channel and thus pursued our route with all possible
diligence.

♦ Le Clercq ii p. 234. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 178.

t,Le Clercq, ii, p. 235. A6 the word Sasacouest is there explained to mean war cries, h#

omits the Indian word.

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE” 35 I

We landed very late at a village on the bank of the river. They told
us afterwards that it was the nation of the Tangibao. There is every
reason in the world to believe that these last had been surprised by thei r
enemies. We found in their cabins ten men killed by arrows. This com¬
pelled us to leave their village promptly and to cross the river always
advancing on our way to the great channel. We cabined as late as we
could on the bank of the river, where we promptly built a fire of drift¬
wood which we found at the water’s edge. We then cooked our Indian
corn meal and seasoned it with boncanned meat, after pounding it.

On the 2oth the ten Indians killed by arrows having troubled us all
night long, we embarked at the first break of day and after a sail that was
even longer than that of the day before, we arrived at a point where the
river divides into three channels* We passed with speed through the
middle one which was very beautiful and very deep. The water there
was brackish, or half salt, and three or four leagues further down, we
found it entirely salt. Pushing on a little further still, we discovered the
sea, which obliged us first to land on the east of the river Mescliasipi.

Our two men were extreme^ afraid of being taken by the Spaniards of
New Mexico, who are west of this river. They were in strange distress,
and every moment told me, that if unhappily they should happen to fall
into the hands of the Spaniards of this continent, they would never see
Europe again. I did not tell them all that I thought Our religious have
twenty-five or thirty provinces in Old and New Mexico. So that even if I
had been taken, I should only have felt consolation and joy to end my days
among my brethren in so charming a country as this. I should thus have
been guaranteed from a world of hazards and all the dangers that I after¬
wards had to encounter. I would even insensibibly have spent my days
laboring for my salvation, in a country that may justly be called the delight
of America; but the extraordinary trouble of our men made me adopt
another resolution.

I do not profess to be a mathematician. However I had learned to take
altitudes by means of the astrolabe. Monsieur de la Salle was careful
not to trust me with that instrument while we were together, because he
wished to reserve to himself the honor of everything. We have however
subsequently ascertained that this river Mescliasipi falls into the Gulf of
Mexico between the 27th and 28th degree of latitude and as it is believed,
in the place where all the maps place the Rio Escondido,f which means,

* Le Clercq, ii, p. vJ36. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 174.
t Le Clercq, ii, p. 238. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 175.

352 VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

Hidden river. The river Magdalena is between this river and the mines
of Santa Barbara in New Mexieo.

This mouth of ihe Meschusipi is about thirty leagues distant from the
Rio Bravo, sixty leagues from Palmas, 80 to 100 from the Rio de Panuco
on the coast nearest the Spanish settlements. According to this we
judged by means of the compass, which has always been very necessary
to us, durimr our whole discovery, that Espiritu Santo hay is north¬
east of this mouth.

During all our route from the mouth of the river of the Illinois, which
enters into Meschasipi, we almost always sailed south, and southwest to
the sea. This river winds in various places, and is almost always a league
wide. It is very deep ami has no sand banks. Nothing interferes with
navigation, and even the largest ships might sail into it without difficulty.
It is estimated that this river runs more than eight hundred leagues in length
inland from its source to the sea, counting the bends which it makes as it
winds along. Its mouth is more than three hundred and forty leagues
from that of the river of the Illinois. In tine as we have sailed from one
end of this river to the other on our way up, we shall describe its source
hereafter.

The two men who accompanied me felt great joy, as well as myself,
at having endured the fatigue of our voyage. They felt however dis¬
appointed that they had not amassed furs for the goods which we had
hidden. Moreover they were in constant fear of being taken by the
Spaniards. They consequently did not give me the time that I would have
desired to observe the place exactly where we were. The} 7 would never
help me to build a cabin, which we might have covered with dry grass
from the prairies. My design was to leave a letter there written with my
own hand and sealed to make it fall into the hands of the people of the
country. This obliged me for fear of irritating them, to tell them, that
we would use all possible diligence to ascend the river northward, where
they would easily be able to barter their goods. I made them always
hope, that I would contribute in every thing to their success.

All that I could obtain of them before going up the Meschasipi again
was that they should square a tree of hardwood, of which we made a
cross about ten or twelve feet high, which we then planted in the earth,
which fortunately was at that place a firm clay. To this we fastened a letter
with ni} 7 name and that of the two men who were with me, with a brief
account of our rank and the object of our voyage. After which kneeling
dow 7 n w 7 e chanted some hymns proper for our design, like the VexiUa Regis
and others and then w 7 e set out.*

* Le Clercq, ii, p. 237.

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE’ 35 ^

During the stay which we made at the month of Meschasipi we did
not perceive a h vmg soul. Hence we have not been able to know whether
-here are nations that dwell on the seashore. We slept during that time
only ,n the open air, as during all the rest of the voyage, when it did not
tain But during the ram we covered ourselves with our canoe, which
we placed bottom up on four stakes. Then we fastened to it birch barks

which we unrolled, hanging them lower down than our canoe to shelter
us from the rain.

We set out at last on the first of April because our provisions
began to diminish. It is very remarkable that during all this voyage
God happily for us preserved us from the crocodiles which are found in
abundance in this river Meschasipi, especially as you approach the sea
They are much to be dreaded, when one is not carefully on his guard-
We husbanded our Indian corn as well as we could possibly, because the
lower river is extremely skirted by canes and landing there is very incon¬
venient. Accordingly we durst not hunt, because that would have made
us lose too much time.

However our canoe beiug loaded only with a little provisions and some
small presents drew ordinarily only two or three inches of water. By
this means approaching the land as near as possible, we avoided the cur¬
rents and the rapidity of the river. We used such diligence in order to
avoid being surprised, that we reached the village of the Tangibao.
But because we had always borne in mind those dead men pierced with
arrows whom we had seen in their cabins, on passing there the first
time, we contented ourselves with eating our Indian corn meal steeped
in water, and we had besides that, wild bull moat boucanned which we
dipped in bear oil, that we kept for this purpose in bladders, in order to
swallow more easily this dried meat. After having said our evening
prayers, we sailed all night with a great piece of tinder or a lighted torch
to put to flight the crocodiles, which might be encountered on the route,
because they are extremely afraid of fire.

The next day, the 2nd, Michael Ako at daybreak as we advanced on
our route called our attention to a very great smoke which was not very
far from us. We believed that it was the Quinipissa* and some time
after we perceived four women loaded with wood, who redoubled their
steps to reach their village before us. But we passed them by dint of
rowing. I held in my hand the peace calumet which the Indians had
given us. Our Picard du Guaj r could not restrain himself from firing a

* Lc Clercq, ii, p. 240. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 176.

^54 VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

charge of bis gun into a flock of wild geese which showed themselves in
the reeds. These four Indian women having heard the report, threw
their wood on the ground, and beginning to run with all their might,
arrived at the village before us and filled all with alarm

The Indians affrighted at all this, because they had never seen fire¬
arms, began to flee. They thought that it was thunder, not understand,
ing how it could be done, that a piece of wood and iron which they
see in the hands of Europeans can belch out fire and go kill people at a
great distance. Accordingly these savages, though all armed as they
were in their fashion, did not hesitate to scamper off in great confusion.
This obliged me to land, and show the peace calumet, which was the
symbol of our alliance with them. We then ascended into their village
with them, and they prepared us a repast in their fashion.

At the same time they notified their neighbors of our arrival. As we
were engaged in taking our meal in the largest of their apartments, we
saw several Indians enter in file, who gave us all the hearty welcome
that they could conceive. Our two men had well nigh remained with
this nation. Nothing but the goods that we had cached obliged them to
leave this tribe, and this is also the secret motive which I had in hiding
them, so that our men should think only of performing oui voyage.
These last Indians having given us as much provisions as we desired, we
left them after making them some presents.

We set out on the 4tli of April, and made great diligence on our voyage,
because we had gained strength. We arrived at the Koroa. These
Indians were not surprised at our arrival as they were the first time.
They received us in a very extraordinary manner. They carried our
canoe in triumph on their shoulders. There were twelve or fifteen men
who marched before us, dancing with bouquets of feathers in their hands.
All the women of the village followed with the children some of whom
took hold of my cincture of white wool, which I wore as a Cord of St.
Francis. Others caught hold of my cloak, or habit. They did the same
to our two men, and thus they led us to the apartment set apart for us.

They adorned this place with flag mats, painted two colors, and white
blankets spun very neatly with the bark of a tree, as we have already îe-
marked. After we had satisfied our hunger with all that these people
presented to regale us, they left us at liberty to repose in peace and refresh
ourselves. We were surprised to see in this place that the Indian corn
which was only two feet from the ground, when we passed the first time
among this people, was already milky and fit to eat. We learned by the

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE” ^55

nations near, of their climate, that this corn ripens in sixty clays. We also
remarked other grain, which was already out of the ground, and three
or four inches high.

We set out from Koroa the next day, April 5th, and if I could have
made my men listen to reason, I would certainly have made the acquain¬
tance of several different nations which live on the south side of this river.
But their only thought was to reach the northern nations to pick up all the
furs they could in exchange for the goods which they had left below the
Akansa. Greed of gain carried the day, and I was constrained to follow
them, because it w'as impossible to remain alone among so many nations
far distant from Europe. I had then to take patience and keep up a good
countenance. For all the efforts which T made to persuade them, that
the public good should be preferred to the advantage of individuals, they
got the best of me, and I was obliged to yield, being unable to do otherwise.
We were not able to reach the Taensa, till April 7.

These Indians had already received couriers who had notified them of
our coming. Tins caused them to summon several of their neighbors
who lived far inland on the east, and west, in order to get some of our
goods, if it was possible, because these savages never can weary admiring
them. They have sent some to several other nations more remote, with
whom they ai e allied.

They used every effort to retain us among them. They offered us one
of their best lodges for our use, and calumets of black, red and jaspered
marble. But our men had their hearts set on the spot, where they had
cached their goods, so that they paid no regard to all their offers. They
then told me that we must absolutely set out. If I had had with me all
that w'as necessary, as I had my portable chapel, I should have remained
among these good people, who showed me so cordial a friendship. But
it has long since been said that our companions are often our masters. I
was theu obliged to follow the opinion of our men.

We embarked on the 8th of April, and some Taensa came to escort us
in their lightest periaguas, because they could not paddle fast enough to
follow our bark canoe with the others. Even with all the efforts that
they made with their poles, they could not go fast enough. Thus they
were obliged to leave us, and hit us go on, We threw them two fathoms
of Martinique tobacco to oblige them to remember us, and these Indians
on leaving us wondered how we could shoot three or four ducks, with a
single gun shot, which made them utter yells and cries of amazement.
After our men had saluted them taking off their hats with great respect

; I a I

VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

356

they redoubled their efforts at the paddle to show these savages, that they
were capable of doing something more than they had yet seen them do.

On the 9tli we arrived at the Akansa about two hours after suu rise.
It seemed to us that after having been received with so much humanity
by all these nations, which deserve the name of humane rather than bar¬
barous nations, from their wonderful mildness, we had no ground for fear
or distrust, and that we were in as great security among them, as though
we had traveled through the cities of Holland, in which there is nothing
to fear. Yet we were not free from uneasiness, when we came to the
place where we had cached the goods of our men. The Indians had
burned the trees on which we had made crosses to recognize the place of
our cache. At first our two men turned pale from fear that their treasure
had been swept away from them. They lost no time, and posted in haste
to the spot in question.

For my part I remained on the bank of the river to gum over our canoe
which leaked in several places. The Picard du Guay came in haste to
seek me in order to rejoice with me, that they had found the cache again in
good condition. He told me with great transports of joy, that all was
just as we had left it. Meanwhile to prevent the Akansa who were com¬
ing to us in file, from seeing our men while busy in uncovering their
goods, I took the peace calumet and stopped them to smoke. It is an in¬
violable law among them to smoke on such an occasion, because if one
refused he would run the risk of being massacred by the Indians who
have an extreme veneration for the calumet.

While I amused the Indians our two men came and took the canoe,
which I had regummed and they adroitly replaced in it the goods which
they had taken from their cache, and then they came to get me at the
place where I was with the Indians. I entertained them by signs marking
my thoughts on the sand, which I endeavored to make them understand in
this way. I did not understand a word of their language which is en¬
tirely different from that of the nations with whom we had conversed
before and since this voyage.

We ascended the river very gaily. We advanced by dint of paddling
with such celerity that the Akansa who were marching by land, were
obliged to double their steps to follow us One among them more alert
than the rest, ran to the village where we were received with even greater
marks of joy than they had shown the first time. All this was done on
their part with a view of profiting by our goods, which pass for great
riches among these people.

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE” 357

It would be useless to describe all the circumstances of what passed in
the dances and leasts, which these Indians gave us. Our two men seeing
that they could not enrich themselves by trading for furs with these
people, because they have never traded with Europeans, and do not care
either for beaver or deerskins, of which they do not know the use, pressed
me to go with all diligence towards the norihern nations, where they
hoped to find these goods in plenty. And in fact the Indians who live
near the source of the river Meschasipi, were begining to go and trade in
the direction of Lake Superior, among nations which have intercourse
with Europeans. We left marks of our friendship with the Akansa by
some presents which we made them.

We set out the 1st of April* and for the space of about sixty leagues said
we found no Chikacha or Messorite Indian. Apparently they were all at
the hunt with their families, or perhaps they were in flight for the fear
which they had of the Nation of the prairies, who are called Tintonha be
the inhabitants of these countries. These are their sworn enemies.

We were only the more happy during our route, because we found
plenty of game everywhere. However before reaching the place where
the river of the Illinois empties into the said river, we found a band of
Messorite Indians, who were coming from up the river. But as they had no
periaguas to come to us, we crossed to the other bank on the east side and
or fear of being surprised during the night, w e did not stop at any place.
We accordingly conteuted ourselves with eating roast Indian corn meat
and boucanned meat, because we durst not make a fire for fear of being
discovered by some ambuscade of Indians, who would undoubtedly have
massacred us, taking us for enemies before they could recognize us
This precaution made 11 s happily avoid the danger, which but for that we
should have run.

1 had forgotten, while I sailed on the river Meschasipi to relate what the
Illinois had often told us, and which we took for tales invented to amuse.
It is that about near the] spot called on the map Cap de St. Antoine, very
near the nation of the Messorites, Tritons and Sea monsters are to be seen
painted, which the boldest men dare not look at, because there is an en¬
chantment and something supernatural there. These pretended frightful
monsters are after all only a horse very badly painted with matachia of
red color, and some deer daubed by the Indians, who add that they can¬
not be reached. Bui if we had not been pressed to avoid being surprised
by the Indians, it w'ould have been easy for us to touch them, for the said
Cape of St. Anthony is not so steep or so high as the chain of mountains,

* The last date was the 9th.

VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM

358

which are along side the falls of St. Anthony of Padua, which is near the
source of the Meschasipi. These savages added, moreover, that the rock
where these monsters were painted, was so steep that passers by could not
go there. And in fact the common tradition among these nations is, that
there w ere formerly several Miamis drowned in this place on the river
Meschasipi, because they were vigorously pursued by the Matsigamea.
From that time the Indians, who pass by that place, are accustomed to
smoke and preseut tobacco to these puppets, w'hich are very rudely painted,
and this, they say, to appease the Manitou, which according to the language
of the Algonquins and of Acadie, signifies an evil spirit, which the Iroquois
call Otkon, which is a kind of sorcery and wicked spirit, w r hose malignit} r
they ignore.

While I was at Quebec I was told that the Sieur Jolliet had formerly
been on this river Meschasipi and that he had been obliged to return to
Canada, because he had not been able to pass be} r ond these monsters,
partly because he had been terrified by them, and partly too because he
feared he might be taken by the Spaniards. But I must say here, that
I have very often sailed in a canoe with the said Sieur Jolliet on the river
St. Laurence, and even in very dangerous times on account of the high
winds, from winch however w e fortunately escaped to the great astonish,
ment of all the world, because he was a very good canoeman. I there
had occasion to ask him many a time, whether in fact he had been as far
as the Akansa.

This man who had great consideration for the Jesuits who were by nation
Normans, (because his father w r as from Normandy), avowed to me that he
had often heard these monsters spoken of among theOuttaoüats.but that
he had never been as far as that, and that he had remained among the
Ilurons and the Outtaoiiats to trade in beaver and other peltries. But
that these people had often told him that this river could not be descended
on account of the Spaniards, wiiom they had made him dread extremely.

I have given great credit to this statement of the Sieur Jolliet,* because
in fact during our whole route on the river Meschasipi, we found no mark,
that could shew us that the Spaniards are in the habit of sailing on it,
as we shall show in our second volume.

W hen one arrives at 20 or 30 leagues below 7 the Maroa, the banks of
this river Meschasipi are full of canes to the sea.”

* As no fact is better established than the voyage of Marquette and Jolliet, this asser¬
tion that Jolliet disavowed it, would have to come from undoubted authority to be
credited.

359

THF “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE”

[Here follow general observations on the river, the prairies, forests,
animals, trees, mines, Indian manners, prospects for missions, pp. 295-310 ]

“ Butin order not to weary the reader, it is time to pursue our voyage to
the source of the river Meschasipi. We embarked on the 24th of April
and the Indian corn or large millet failing us as well as the boucanned
meat, we had no other means of subsistence than hunting or fishing.
Deer were very scarce in the parts where we then were, because the
Illinois often come there and ruin the hunting. Fortunately we found
some long beaked sturgeons, of which I shall speak hereafter. We killed
them with blows of our hatchets or swords fixed in handles which we
used on the occasion, in order to save our powder and lead. It was then
the time when these fish spawn, and they are usually seen approaching
the shore of the river in order to spaw n. We accordingly easily killed
them with blow's of axe or sw'ord, without going into the water and
because we killed as many as we wished, we took only the belly and the
most delicate morsels, and left the rest.

If our men had some pleasure in this abundant fishery, they were
on the other hand in great fear of the people whom we had left at the
fort of the Illinois or Crevecœur. Although we were still more than a
hundred leagues distant, which is a trifle, on account of the great speed
that is made with bark canoes, they feared lest some of the people from
the fort should come, and seeing that they had not bartered their goods
with the northern nations, might seize their effects. I proposed to them
to sail by night and to cabin by day on the islands with which the river
is filled, and w hich we might find on our way.

The river is all full of these islands, especially from the mouth of the
river of the Illinois to the falls of St. Anthony of Padua of which I shall
speak hereafter. This expedient succeeded, and in fact after having sailed
during the whole night, we found ourselves far enough from this mouth
approaching the north. On the whole the land did not seem to us so
fertile nor the woods so fine, as those which we had seen in the countries
which are on the lower part ot the river Meschasipi.”

3 6 °

ACCOUNT FROM MARGRV.

ACCOUNT

HENNEPIN AND THE SIOUX.

[From Margry 1, p. 481 etc.]

“ They were ascending the river Colbert or Mississippi with great pleasure
and without any obstacle when on the 11th of April, 1680, they beheld
themselves invested by a hundred or hundred and twenty Nadouessious
who descended in thirty-three canoes to make war on the Tcliatchakigouas.
Father Louis at once presented them the calumet, which they received,
but they would not smoke it, which is a mark of peace, till after they had
made them cross to the other side of the river, whither they pursued them
with loud cries, to give, according to their custom, some satisfaction to
their dead.

Nevertheless these savages plundered them of some goods and although
Michael Accault made them a present of two boxes of goods, they carried
them off to their village to which they returned, this encounter having
made them abandon their voyage. They did not however give the French,
who were not displeased at this opportunity to continue their discoveries,
any other ill treatment than to make them march with them afoot from
the great river for fifty leagues, with great hardship and very little food.
It is true, nevertheless, that on approaching their village, they divided all
the goods among them, half by consent, half by force, but they promised
at the same time to pay for them ; and the reason of this violence is that
this band was made up from two different tribes, the more remote of
which, fearing that the others would retain all the goods, when they got
to their village, determined to take their share in advance.

In fact, sometime after they offered a part of the payment to Michael
Accault, who would not take it until they gave him the value of all the
goods, and the Sieur de la Salle does not doubt but that these Indians
gave him complete satisfaction. They also stole Father Louis’ chapel,
except the chalice which the 3 r durst not touch, because seeing it shine,
they said that it was a spirit that would kill them.

This treatment made the Father believe that they wished to put him to
death, because they performed several ceremonies, which they are also
accustomed to practice, when they intend to burn their enemies, and
Michael Accault, who then did not understand their language, although
he knew ^several others, could not converse with these Indians. Never¬
theless they left the Frenchmen at perfect liberty in their village.

Three months after they went with the Indians on a buffalo hunt along

ACCOUNT BY LA SALLE.

361

the river Colbert, about 150 leagues from their village, where they met
the Sicui du Luth, who was going to the Nadouessious, under the guid¬
ance of a soldier of the Sieur de La Salle named Faffart, who had deserted
from Fort Frontenac. They wentupagain all togetherto the villageof the
Nadouessious, where they remained about four months, and at last they
all * returned to Canada by the river Ouisconsing and by the Bay of the
Puans.

During the stay of Father Louis and the two Frenchman among the
Nadouessious, they saw Indians come as ambassadors, who lived nearly
500 leagues to the westward, and they ascertained that the Assinipoualac,
who are seven or eight days journey from the Sioux to the northwest
ward, and all the other nations, who are known to the we 9 t and north-
west live in immense prairies, where there are quantities of wild cattle
and peltry, and where they are sometimes forced to make fire with
bufFalo dung, for want of wood.

ACCOUNT

HENNEPIN’S EXPLORATION IN LA SALLE’S
LETTER OF AUGUST 22, 1862.

[From Margry, ii, p. 245.]

The river Colbert, called by the Iroquois Gastaclia, by the Outaouas
Mississipy, into which the river of the Illinois, called Teakiki, empties
flows from the northwest. I caused it to be ascended by a canoe, con¬
ducted by two of my men, one named Michael Accault, and the other
Picard, whom the Rev. Father Louis Hennepin joined, not to lose the
opportunity of preaching the gospel to the nations that dwell above, and
who had never yet heard it spoken of. They started from Fort Crèvecœur
on the 28th of February in the evening, with a peace calumet which is a
safeguard that the Indians of these parts rarely violate. The said
Michael Accault, was tolerably versed in their languages and manners.
He knew all their customs and was esteemed by several of these nations
among whom 1 had already sent him, where he succeeded completely.
He is moreover prudent, brave and cool. They had about a thousand
livres worth of the goods most esteemed in these parts, which accom-
* Accault did not return.

ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN

362

panied by the peace calumet are never refused by these kind of
people who need everything. They first met a number of Islinois ascend¬
ing their river to reach their village, who used every effort to induce them
to turn back. Michael Accault who deemed his honor pledged to carry
out the enterprise, animated by the example of Father Louis Hennepin^
who also desired to signalize his zeal, and also wishing to keep the promise
he had made me to perish or succeed, encouraged his comrade, who was
wavering at the words of the Indians, and made him see that the object of
the Islinois was to get hold of their goods and deprive their neighbors of
them, and that this should not change the resolution which they had taken.
In fact they continued their way along the river Theakiki till the 7th of
March, 1680, when two leagues from its mouth, by which it empties into
the Colbert, they met a nation called Tamaroa or Maroa, to the number of
two hundred families or thereabout, who wished to take them to their
village, which then lay on the west side of the Great river, six or seven
leagues below the mouth of the Theakiki. They refused to follow them
and arrived the same day at the confluence of these two rivers, about fifty
leagues distant from Fort Crèvecœur, and ninety from the village of the
Islinois. The river Téakiki is almost always of uniform width during
these ninety leagues, approaching the width of the Seine before Paris, that
is where it is confined to its bed ; but in various place, as at Pimiteoui,
one league east of Crevecœur and at two or three other points lower
down, it widens out to a league or two, and in many places where the
two high grounds, which skirt it from the Islinois village down, recede
for about a half a league from each other, the ground which they leave
between them is marshy and often overflowed, especially after the rains
which easily cause these rivers to leave their channels, and swell them to

♦This extract is given, as it was written at Fort Frontenac in 1682, while Hennepin
was in France preparing hie book for publication, and mast have been based on reports
from Hennepin or Accnnlt. It recognizes Hennepin's discovery and maintains his
priority over Du Lhut, but like the Margry Relation tries to show that the party
were not prisoners. Yet all the statements are based on information derived from
Hennepin, there being proof that he wrote to La Salle, and no evidence that Accault
did or could write. Yet the priority of exploration of the Sioux country belongs to
neither. The Jesuits in their Relation of 1640 speak of the Nadouesis as known. Raym-
bault and Jogues (Relation 1642) indicate the route to their country by way of Lake
Superior and St. Louis river. During the winter of 1659-60 de Groseilliers and another
Frenchman visited their country and its forty villages. Rel. 1660 : Journal des
Jésuites, p. 287 ; Charlevoix, Hist. New France, 3 p.,48 n. See also pp. 230-1. Hen¬
nepin curiously enough professes to have known this pioneer explorer of Dakota land.
Voy. au Nord, v, p. 849.

FROM LA SALLE’S LETTER.

363

an extraordinary degree, and often more than a pike high.* The Islinois
river from their village to the Great river has a very deep and even bed.
It is skirted by woods almost all the way, all the marshes producing very
large trees of all kinds, and the slope of the hills is usually covered ; but ouce
you cross the lands overflowed by the river from time to time, and ascend
the hills, you find nothing but beautiful plains further than the eye can
reach, dotted here and their with tufts of wood, which seem to be there
only because needed. These clearings f extend in many places to the river
shore, especially near the village, and about sixty leagues c;ist and north¬
east, where woods are very rarely seen along the bank, which is more
uniformly skirted by woods as you desceud. The current is scarcely per¬
ceptible when there have been no heavy rains, except in spring, it is very
navigable however at all times for the largest barks up to the Islinois In¬
dians, and above only lor canoes, both on account of the rapidity of the
water, and the small quantity at several places where the rapid slope and
the bars prevent any depth.

The ice which came down the Great river stopped them at the mouth
of the Islinois till the 12th of March. On the south side it w ashes a steep
rock about forty feet high adapted for building a fort, and on the other
side it w aters a beautiful prairie, of which the end cannot be discerned,
very suitable for cultivation. This place seems to me the most suitable
of all to settle, for many reasons which I have not time to deduce here,
and I shall be able to make a post there as I return from my voyage.

From there to Pimiteoui the river runs almost south, so that its mouth
is between 46° and 47° north latitude, and about 120 or 130 leagues from
the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico. From Quebec to Montreal there
is about 43 leagues difference east and west; from Montreal to Fort
Frontenac 01 leagues ; from the fort to Niagara, 05 ; from Niagara to the
end of Lake Erie 122 ; from there to the mouth of the river of the Miamis
117; thence to the Islinois 52; thence to Pimiteoui or Crèvecœur 27; from
Crèvecœur to^ Mississipi 18, which makes about 500 leagues, equal to
about 24 J of longitude. The Mississipi, going down, appears on leaving
the Teatiki, to run south southwest, and ascending north northwest; it
runs betw een two chains of pretty high mountains, much higher than
Mont Valérieu, which wind like the river, from which they sometimes
recede a little, leaving moderate prairies between them and its bed, and
sometimes they are bathed by the w T aters of the river, so that while on oue

* The pike was 13 feet long.

t Deserts still used in Canada this sense.

3 6 +

ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN

side it is bordered by the spur of a mountain, it forms on the other a bay,
the end of which is met by a prairie or a woody plateau. The slope ot
these hills, which are either of gravel or stone is covered from time to
time with dwarf oaks or in other places with very small plants. The top of
the mountains reveals plains of very poor land, very different from that
among the Islinois, but which is pastured by the same animals. The
channel of this great river, almost every where one or two leagues wide,
is dotted all along by a number of islands covered with open woods, in¬
terlaced by so many vines that they can be traversed only with difficulty
They* are subject to inundation in the freshets. They ordinarily con¬
ceal the sight of the other bank, which is only rarely discerned, on
account of these islands. The bottom is very unequal as you ascend above
the river ot the Islinois. You often meet shoals which traverse the
channel from one side to the other, over which canoes find it difficult to
pass. It is true that when the waters are high, it is every where deep
enough for the largest vessels to pass, but the currents are then extremely
impetuous and difficult to stem with sails. The Mississipi receives no
considerable rivers on the west side from the river of the Islinois to the
country of the Nndouesioux, except that of the Otoutantas Paoté and
Maskoutens, Nadouesioux on the east side, and about one hundred leagues
from Téakiki.

By follow ing the windings of the Mississipi you find the river Ouiscon-
sing, Misconsing, or Meschetz Odeba,f which comes from between the
Bay of the Puans and the Great River. It flows at first from north to
south till about 45° n. latitude, and then turns west and west southwest,
and after a course of sixty leagues falls into the Mississipi. It is almost
as large as that of the Islinois, navigable to this elbow', and perhaps above^
where the portage of canoes is made, across an oak swamp}: and a
drowned prairie to reach tlie river Kakaling which falls into the Bay of
the Puans. Misconsing flows between two hills which recede from time
to time and leave between them and the river pretty large prairies and
open ground sandy and not very fertile. At other places the plateau
which is between these hills and the river is in spots lower and marshy ^
and then it is covered with w T ood and inundated in the overflow’ of the
river. The mountains diminish insensibly in proportion as you ascend
the river, and at last about three leagues from the portage, the ground
becomes flat and is marshy, uncovered on the portage side, and covered

* Down to “ Bails M not in Hennepin.

t Not in Hennepin.

% Chaienée.

FROM LA SALLE’S LETTER.

365

with pines on the other. The place where the canoes are transported is
marked by a tree, where there are two * grossly painted by the Indians
whence after having marched about half a league, you find the river
Kakaling, which is only a stream that rises in the marshes, where it
meanders extremely and forms little lakes, often widening and narrowing
You follow it about forty leagues, following the turns which it makes,
then you come to the village of the Outagamie. Haifa league from the'
river on the north side before arriving there, the river falls into a lake
which may be eight leagues long and three leagues wide, and after having
passed the village about two leagues, you find the rapids called Kakaling,
difficult to descend on account of the rapidity of the water, the quantity
of rocks found there, and three falls where the canoe and its load must be
carried. They last six leagues, and three leagues lower down, and at the
mouth of this river in the Bay of the Puans,is a house of the Jesuits, who
have truly the key of the country of Castorie,f where a brother blacksmith,
whom they have and two companions convert more iron into beaver than
the Fathers do Indians into Christians.^

At about 23 or 24 leagues north or northwest of the mouth of the
Ouisconsing, which has also a rock on the south side aud a beautiful
prairie on the north side, near three beautiful basins or bays of still
water, you find Black River, called by the Nadouesioux Chabadeba, by
no means large, the mouth of which is lined by alders on both sides.
Ascending about thirty leagues almost always towards the same point of
the compass, you meet Buffalo river as wide at its mouth as the Islinois.
It is called by this name on account of the number of these animals found
there; it lias been followed ten or twelve leagues, where it is always
even and free from rapids, lined by mountains, which recede from time
to time to form prairies. There are several islands at its mouth, which is
lined by woods on both sides. Thirty-eight or forty leagues above, you
find the river by which the Sieur Du Luth descended to the Mississippi.
He had been for three years contrary to orders on Lake Superior with a
band of twenty coureurs de bois / he had carried it boldly there, announc¬
ing everywhere that at the head of these braves he did not fear the Grand
Prévost and that he would compel them by force to grant him an
amnesty. The coureurs de bois , whom he was the first to induce to raise
the mask have been and have returned to the settlements several times,

* Not In Ilennopin.

t Beaverland. _ _ „ _ ..

% Little of this is In Ihmnepin ; aud it is somewhat ungenerous in La aalle after the

Jesuits had given hospitality to two of his party, Membre and Hennepin.

366

ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN

loaded with goods and peltries, of which during that time they drained
Lake Superior, every avenue of which they besieged, and this year they
bave prevented the OutaoUacs from descending to Montreal.

At that time and while he was on Lake Superior, the Nadouesioux,
invited by the presents which the late Sieur Randin had made them in
the name of the Count de Frontenac, and the Sauteurs who are the
Indians who bring most peltries to Montreal and who dwell on Lake
Superior, wishing to obey the repeated commands of my said Lord
Count, negotiated a peace to unite the nation of the Sauteurs to the
French, and go to trade in the country of the Nadouesioux, about sixty
leagues distant west of Lake Superior. Du Luth to cover his desertion
took this occasion to give him some color, and passed himself off with
two of his deserters for an envoy of the Count,'and entrusted with his
orders to negotiate this peace, during which his comrades negotiated
beaver still better. There were many conferences with the Nadouesioux
and as he had no interpreters, he debauched one of mine named Faflurt,
then a soldier at Fort Frontenac. At last the Sauteurs having visited
the Nadouesioux several times and returned, and the Nadouesioux
the Sauteurs, seeing that there was nothing to fear, and that
he could increase the number of his beaver, he sent this FatFart by
land with some Nadouesioux and Sauteurs who were returning together.
On his return this young man having made him a report of the quantity
of beaver that he might have in that part, he resolved to endeavor to go
there himself and led by a Sauteur and a Nadouesioux and four French¬
men, they ascended the river Nemitsakouat, whence after a short portage
he descended into this one, where he says that he passed more than
forty leagues of rapids, and having seen that the Nadouesioux were
lower down with my people and the Father, who had descended again
from the village of the Nadouesioux where they had already been, he
came in seareli of them.* He mounted again to the village whence they
descended again all together, ascended by the river Ouisconsing, and
thence he came down again to Montreal as proudly as he had set out, having
even insulted the commissaries and the substitute for the Procurator Gene¬
ral, named d’Autcuil, now r actually Procurator General. The Count de
Frontenac had him arrested and held as a prisoner in the castle of Quebec,
intending to send him to France, on charges made by the Intendant,
unless the amnesty granted to the coureurs de bois should cause his
discharge.

* Hennepin makes their meeting July 26,1680.

FROM LA SALLE’S LETTER. 367

To know what the said Du Luth is, it is necessary only to inquire of
Mr. Dalora. Nevertheless he pretends to have made an important dis¬
covery, and to ask this country as (having) the advantage of the Islinois,
which is amusing enough that he hopes a reward for his rebellion. In
the second place there are only three ways to go there, one by Lake
Superior, the other by the Bay of the Puans, the third by the Islinois and
the lands of my commission. The two former are suspicious, and it would
not be necessary to open the third to him to my disadvantage, he having
incurred no expense, and having gained much without risk, while I have
undergone great hardships, perils and losses ; and by the Islinois there is
a circuit of three hundred leagues for him to make. Moreover the country
of the Nadouesioux is not a country which he has discovered. It has
been long known, and the Rev. Father Hennepin and Michael Accault
were there before him. The first one indeed of his fellow-deserters who
reached it, having been one of my soldiers whom he seduced. Moreover
this country is uninhabitable, unfit for cultivation, there being nothing but
marshes full of wild rice on which these nations live, and no benefit can
be derived from this discovery, whether it is ascribed to my people or to
Du Luth, because the rivers there are not navigable. But the King having
granted us trade in buffalo skins, it would be ruined by coming and going
to the Nadouesioux by any other route than the Lake Superior one,
through which the Count de Frontenac can send to obtain beaver, accord¬
ing to the power which he has to grant Conges. But if they go by Ouis-
consing, where they make their buffalo hunt in summer, and where I have
begun a post,* the commerce will be ruined on which alone I rely from
the great number of buffalo killed there every year, beyond what can be
believed.

Still ascending the Mississippi, twentv f leagues above this river, you
find the falls which those whom I had sent, and who first reached there,
have named St. Anthony’s. It is tflirty or forty feet high, and the river
is narrower there than elsewhere. There is an island in the middle of
the fall, and the two banks of the river are no longer skirted by mountains,
which descend insensibly to that point; but the ground on both sides is
covered with open woods as we call them, that is to say oaks and other
hard woods planted far apart, which grow only ou poor soil. There are
also some prairies. Canoes are carried there for about three or four

* This is a positive statement, bat is it true ? Where did La Salle begin a settlement
on the Wisconsin ?

t Hennepin says 10 or 12 ; the Relation Margry, p. 480, has 80.

ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN

368

hundred paces; and eight leagues above you find on the west side the
river of the Nadouesioux, narrow at its mouth, and which waters a
wretched land covered with bushes for about fifty leagues, at the end of
which it ends in a lake called the Lake of the Issati, which spreads
into great marshes, in which wild rice grows. Towards the mouth of
this river the Mississipi comes from the west, but it has not been
followed on account of an accident which befel the Rev. Father
Louis, Michael Accault and his comrade.* The thing took place
in this way. After having sailed along the Mississipi till the 11th
of April, abont three o’clock in the afternoon, paddling along the
shore on the Illinois side, a band of a hundred Nadouesioux warriors,
who were coming for the purpose of killing some Tcliatchakigona de¬
scended the same river in thirty-three birch bark canoes. Theref were
with them two women and one of those wretches who serve as women
although they are men, whom the Islinois call Ikoueta. They passed
along and beyond some islands, and several canoes had already descended
below that of the Frenchmen. Having perceived it, they all gathered,
and those which had passed, paddling up with all their might, easily
blocked their way. There was a part on land which invested them on
that side. Michael Accault who was the conductor, had the calumet
presented to them. They received it and smoked after having made a
circle on land covered with straw, in which they made the Frenchmen
sit. Immediately two old men began to bewail the death of those relatives,
whom they intended to avenge; and after having taken some tobacco,
they made our people embark and cross first to the other side of the river.
They followed them after giving three yells and paddling with all their
might. On landing Michael Accault made them a present of twenty
knives and a fathom and a half of tobacco, which they accepted. The)’
had already stolen a half pike and some other trifle. They then marched
ten days together without showing any mark of discontent or ill will, but
on the 22d of April, having reached islands where they had killed some
Maskoutens, they put the two dead men whom they were going to avenge
and whose bones they carried with them, between Father Louis and
Michael Accault. It is an equivocal ceremony which is done to friends
to excite their compassion, and obtain presents to cover them, and to

* This seems to make them captured above St. Anthony’s Falls while rieunepin says
that after sailing nineteen days up the river with the Indians they reached a point live
leagues below the falls.

+ Sentence not in Hennepin.

FROM LA SALLES LETTER. g frg

slaves who are taken in war to give them to undemtand that they must
expect to he treated as the deceased was. Michael Aecault unfortunate*
dul not understand this nation, and there was not a single slave of the
olher nations whom he understood, which scarcely ever happens, all the
nations in America having a number of those whose lives thev spare in
order to replace their dead, after having sacrificed a great man'v to them
to appease them vengeance. As a result of this, one can make himself
understood by almost all nations, when he knows three or four languages
of those who go furthest in war, such as the Iroquois, the Is]i Dois, the
Akansa, the Nndouesioux and Sauteurs* Accault understood all these
except the Nndouesioux,f but there are many among them who have been
prisoners among the others, or who have come from others and been
taken in war, but chance willed that not one could be found in that band
to interpret for the others. It was necessary to give a full box of goods
and the next day twenty-four axes in trade. When they were eight leagues
below the falls of St. Anthony, they resolved to go by land to their village
sixty leagues or thereabout distant, from the landing place, not being will
ing to carry our people’s things or take them by water. They also made
them give the rest of the axes, which they distributed, promising to pay
tor them well at the village, hut two days after they also divided among
them two boxes of goods, and having quarrelled over the division, as
well of the goods as of the tobacco, each chief pretending to he master,
they parted in jealousy, and took the Frenchmen to the village, where
they promised satisfaction in beaver of which they professed to have a
large number.

They were well received there and at first feasted Accault who was in
a different village from that in which the Rev. Father Louis and the
Picard were, who were also well received, except that some wild young
fellows having told the Picard to sing, the fear which he felt made him
commit an act of cowardice, as it is only slaves who sing on reaching a
village. Accault who was not there could not prevent it, but they had
subjected them to no treatment approaching that given to slaves. They
were never tied, and payment was at once promised for what the young
men had taken, because Accault having found some by whom lie could

* Chippewas or Ojibwas, called Sauteurs by the French from their living at Saolt Ste
Marie.

t IIow Accault could have understood the Akansas, that is the Arkansas or Quappas ^
whose language is a dialect oi the Dakota is not clear, unless he had been among that
nation. And If he understood Akansas, he ought to have been able to comprehend some
what the Dakota.

370

ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN

make himself understood, made them feel the importance of doing so ; and
two calumets were at once danced and some beaver robes presented to
begin the payment; but as there was too little, Accault would not be
satisfied with it. Six weeks after * having: all returned with the Nadoue-
sioux hunting towards Ouisconsing, the Rev. Father Louis Hempin and
Picard resolved to come to the mouth of the river where I had promised
to send tidings of myself, as I did by six men, whom the Jesuits de¬
bauched, telling them that the Rev. Father Louis and his traveling com¬
panions had been killed. They were allowed to go there alone to show
that they were not treated as slaves, and that Du Lhut is wrong in boast¬
ing that he delivered them from bondage, inasmuch ns on the way and as
long as they had provisions, the French had the best, although they fasted
well when the Indians ran out of food. The plundering was caused by
jealousy only, for as they were from different villages and very few from
that where the French were to go, they did this to have a share of the
goods, of which they were afraid they would get nothing, if they once got
into the village, where the French were; but the old men blamed the
young greatly and offered and began the satisfaction which the said
Accault was to receive. So little did they retain the French as slaves
that they gave to Rev. Father Louis and the Picard, a canoe to come and
obtain tidings of me.

All that Du Luth can say is, that having arrived at the place where the
Father and the two Frenchmen had come hunting from the village
whither he went for the first time with them, when they returned there,
he facilitated for them the means of returning more speedily than tliev
would have done, inasmuch as they had dissuaded the men whom I had
sent from goiugthere ; but we should have gone for them the following
spring, had we not ascertained their return as we did, during the winter f
from some Outagamis among whom they had passed, Accault finding
himself so little a slave, that he chose to remain till he had received the
payment promised him.

Several remarks, I have no doubt, will be made on this voyage.

1st. That I ought to have sent a man that understood the language.
To this it is easy to reply, that I did not send Accault to the Nadoue-
sioux, but to ascend the Great river; that he understood the language of
those who were nearest, as the Otoutanta, the Aiounouea,f the Kikapou
♦ Hennepin gays in the beginning of July, 1680.

t The Ottoes and lowas. These two were Dakota tribes, whose language it is not
ikely Accault knew.

FROM LA SALLE’S LETTER.

371

:ir k r n8 f adoue8ious ’ am ° ng *> p ass *«, ««.d

there ge interpreters to proceed further, it being impossible to send one
who understood all languages.

It will also be said that in the first voyages, they should not go with so
many goods, which tempt the youug men when disobedient to their
elders, and leads them to acts which they would not commit, if they saw
nothing to tempt them. To this I reply that sending to those nations
with whom we made acquaintance among the Illinois, and by whom
Aecault was liked, because lie had spent two winters and one summer
there, during which time he had seen several of the most important vit
lages, by which he was to pass, whom he had gained by little presents
there was nothing to fear at least probably, there being no likelihood,
that they were going to encounter a war party of Nadouesioux three

hundred leagues from that country. In the second place these voyages
being toilsome, those who undertake them do so only by the hope of
gain, which cannot be made without goods. In the third place several
of these Indians having come to the Islinois while we were staying
there, and having seen the goods which we had, would have felt umbrage
or jealousy, believing that their going to their country with little, showed
a want of friendship or some ill design. Finally, wishing to allure them
to come and buy our goods and to make them relish their use, it required
a somewhat considerable stock.

1 have deemed it seasonable to give you a narrative of the adventures
of this canoe, because I have no doubt it will be spoken of, and if you
desire to confer with Father Louis Hempin, Recollect, who has gone
back to France, it is necessary to know him somewhat, for he will not
fail to exaggerate everything; it is his character; and to myself, he has
written me, as though he had been all ready to be burned, although he
was not even in danger ; but he believes that it is honorable for him to
act in this way, and he speaks more in keeping with what he wishes than
what he knows.” *

* Margry gives this document as an autograph letter of La Salle signed by him and
existing in the National Library among the Clairambault papers, and supposes it addressed
to the Abbé Bernou. It is pretentious in style and bat for this positive statement of
Margry, might well be suspected of being rewritten by Bernou in Paris after interviews
with Hennepin.

The following letter of Hennepin to the Abbé Renaudot, shows that ho deemed himself
ill treated by that gentleman who had apparently thrown doubts on his good faith :

Monsieur, vous sçavés que je vous ai donné la première connoissancc de nre descou-

37 2

TONTY’S ACCOUNT OF

ACCOUNT

HENNEPIN’S EXPEDITION IN THE WORK PUB¬
LISHED IN 1697, AS BY THE CHEVALIER
TONTY.*

Mr. de la Salle “ cast liis eyes on Mr. JDacan to make an exploration of
the lands which lie along the river Mississipi running northeast. To
accompany him he selected the Recollect Father Louis with four French¬
men and two Indians, supplied them with arms and necessary munitions,
and gave them goods to trade with the nations whom they might meet.

verte à moo arrivée et que je vous ay pris pour l’arbitre des pennes que j’ay essuie depuis
quatreans. Néanmoins je vois que M. l'abbé Bernou n’en a pas usé î\ mon égard comme
il le devroit. Il connoistra dans le temps et dans l’eternité la sciucérité de mes inten¬
tions et vous, Monsieur, voirés un jour que je suis dans tout le respect possible

Le plus humble et le plus passioné de vos serviteurs*

F. Louis Hennepin,

Pauvre esclave des barbars.

Sir : Von know that I gave you the first intelligence of our discovery on my arrival
and that I took you as the arbiter of t e hardships which I hod undergone for four years.
Nevertheless I see that the Abbé Bernou has not acted in my regard as he should. He
will kDow in time and eternity the sincerity of my intentions, and you, Sir, will one day
sec that I am in all possible respect.

The most humble and devoted of

Your Servants,

F. Louis Hennepin,

Poor Slave of the Savages.

Margry still possessed with the idea that Bernou who never was in America wrote tho
authentic account of what he never saw, the Upper Mississipi, and that Hennepin who
actually made the voyage plagiarized an account of what he saw and did from La Salle
or this c airvoyant Bernou, thinks Bernou’s discontent legitimate at Hennepin’s
prelending to be able to tell what he saw aud did. The manner in which La Salle here,
and Bernou in the Margrj’ Relation garble Hennepin’s account, and deny his being a
captive is evidently what Hennepin complains of, and his signature shows that this point
of his slavery, was the one in which he insisted that they wronged him.

There is not a particle of evidence that Accault or Auguelle furnished LaSalle any
information, and Hennepin says they could not write. La Salle admits receiving a letter
from Hennepin, who is therefore the primary authority.

* Tonty disavowed this work but it was clearly based on data furnished by him,
although the editor took the widest liberty. The portion here given is very curious.
Accault, or with the noble prefix d’Accault here written Dacan, instead of Dacau, remained
n the Sioux country, as already noted, but was subsequently in Illinois (Gravier, Rela-
ion Illinois, 1693, p. 32) and the information of his and Hennepin's expedition here given
was evidently derived from Accault. The latter in 1693 married a daughter of the Chief
of the Kaskaskias. We need not say that most of the statements are false.

HENNEPIN’S VOYAGE.

373

If tI T ? ,° n ï 8th ° f FebrUar ‘ Vin th «y-1680 on the river

whfie r T U '° ,he ,iVer Pushed theirtrade

while ascending this river, until 450 leagues northward, seven leagues

from its source, striking off from time to time on one side of the river or
the other, to reconnoitre the various nations who dwell there.

bv T a verlT TÏf f ° nntai " ° n lo P of a hi11 ’ which is skirled

by a very beautiful plain in the country of the Issati, at 50» n. latitude.

Four or five leagues from its source, it becomes so swollen by five or six
rivers that empty into it, that it is capable of bearing boats. The surround,
mg country is inhabited by many nations, the Hanetons, Issati, Oua,
Tintonbns, Nadouessans. Mr. Dacan was very well received by all these
nations, traded with them, made several slaves, increased his party by
several Indian volunteers, and two leagues from the source of this great
river set up the King’s arms on the trunk of a great tree in sight of all
these nations, who recognized them as that of their prince and sovereign
master. He also founded several settlements there, one among the Issati,
where several Europeans who had joined him in his course, wished to
take up their residence; another among theHanetons; another among
the Oua, and finally another among the Tintonhos or River men.

Charmed with the docility of these tribes, and moreover attracted by
the great trade in peltries, he advanced inland to the lake of the Asseni-
poits. It is, a lake mere than thirty leagues in circuit. Fierce as this
nation is it received him very humanely. He founded there a post lor the
French and another among the Chongaskahes or Nation of the Strong»
their neighbors.”

374

MEMOIR OF

MEMOIR

or THE

S1EUR DANIEL GREYSOLON DU LUTH ON THE
DISCOVERY OF THE COUNTRY OF THE
NADOUÈCIOUX IN CANADA OF
WHICH HE GIVES A VERY DETAIL¬
ED RELATION, 1685.

[Archives of the Ministry of the Marine.]

To Monseigneur the Marquis de Seignelay.

Monseigneur,

After having made two voyages from here to New France, where all
the people there were there, did not believe it possible to discover the
country of the Nadouecioux, nor have any trade with them, both on ac¬
count of their remoteness, which is more than 800 leagues from our settle
ments, and because they were generally at war with all kinds of nations
This difficulty made me form the resolution to go among them, a project
which I could not then carryout, my affairs having compelled me to return
to this country, whereafter having made the campaign of Franche Comté
and the battle of Senef, where I had the honor of being a gendarme in his
Majesty’s guard, and squire of the Marquis de Lassay, our ensign, I set out
to return to Quebec, where I had no sooner arrived, than thejdesire which I
had already had to carry out this design increased, and I began to take steps
to make myself known to the Indians. Who having assured me of their
friendship, and in proof thereof given me three slaves, whom I had asked
from them only to accompany me, 1 set out from Montreal with them and
seven Frenchmen on the first of September in the year 1678 to endeavor to
make the discovery of the Nadouecioux and Assenipoualaks,* who were

* These names are both Chippewa, and not those used by these tribes themselves
The Chippcwas called the Dakotas, Nadcwessi-wag, and Bwan-ag, the Nadouécbiouek
and Poulak of the French. One part of the Dakotas they styled Assini-Bwan, Stone
Sioux, Assini meaning stone among Algonquin tribes from Lake Superior to Delaware
Bay. Baraga, Otchipwe Diet., pp. 46, 91. This word is our Assiniboin, and with the
plural suffix the Assinipoualak of the French.

GREYSOLON DU LHUT.

375

Tak SuLlr f r “ t ' lem make peace with all the nations around

I L nT r t f,° UndCr lLe 8Way ° f ° Ur iDTiucible monarch.
wl j° , mk tlmt SUCh a de Pa*tu« could give occasion to any one
whatever to charge me with having contravened the orders of the Ring in

foresTtl TV'® merely f ° rbida11 hiS Ejects to go into the remote
forests, there to trade with the Indians. This I have never done, nor have I

even wished to take any presents from them, although they have repeatedly
tin own them to me, which I have always refused and left, in order
that no one might tax me with having carried on any indirect trade.

On the 2d of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant his majesty’s arms in
the great village of the Nadouecioux, called Izatys, where never had a
Frenchman been, no more than at the Songaskitons and Houetbatons,
distant six score leagues from the former, where I also planted his
majesty’s arms, in the same year 1679.

On the 15th of September, having given the Agrenipoulaks as well as
all the other northern nations a rendezvous at the extremity of Lake
Superior to induce them to make peace with the Nadouecioux their
common enemy. They were all there, and I was happy enough to gain
their esteem and friendship, to unite them together, and in order that the
peace might be lasting among them, I thought that I could not cement it
better than by inducing the nations to make reciprocal marriages with each
other. This I could not effect without great expense. The following
winter I made them hold meetings in the woods, which I attended, in
order that they might hunt together, give banquets and by this means
contract a closer friendship.

The presents which it cost me to induce the Indians to go down to
Montreal, who had been diverted by the Openagaux and Abenakis at the
instigation of the Euglish and Dutch, who made them believe that the
plague raged in the French settlements, and that it had spread as far as
Nipissingue, where most of the Nipissiriniens had died of it, have also
entailed a greater expense.

In June, 1680, not being satisfied with having made my discovery by
land, I took two canoes with an Indian who was my interpreter and four
Frenchmen, to seek means to make it by water. With this view I entered
a river which empties eight leagues from the extremity of Lake Superior
on the south side, where after having out some trees and broken about a
hundred beaver dams, I reached the upper waters of the said river, and
then I made a portage of half a league to reacli a lake, the outlet of which

MEMOIR OF

376

fell into a very fine river, which took me down into the Mississipi. Being
there I learned from eight cabins of Nadouecioux whom I met, that the
Reverend Father Louis Hen pin, Recollect, now at the convent of St.
Germain, with two other Frenchmen, had been robbed and carried off as
slaves for more than 300 leagues by the Nadouecioux themselves.

This intelligence surprised me so much, that without hesitating, I left
two Frenchmen with these said eight cabins of Indians, as well as the
goods which I had to make presents, and took one of the said Indians, to
whom I made a present to guide me with my interpreter and two French¬
men to where the said Reverend Father Louis was, and as it was a good
80 leagues I proceeded in canoe two days and two nights, and the next
day at ten o’clock in the morning I found him with about 1000 or 1100
souls. The want of respect which they showed to the said Reverend
Father provoked me, and this I showed them, telling them that he was
my brother, and I had him placed in my canoe to come with me into the
villages of the said Nadouecioux, whither I took him, and in which, a
week after our arrival there, I caused a council to be convened, exposing
the ill treatment which they had been guilty of both to the said Reverend
Father and to the oilier two Frenchmen who were with him, having
robbed them and carried them off as slaves,* and even taken the priestly
vestments of the said reverend Father. I had two calumets which they
had danced to them, returned to them, on account of the insult which
they had offered them, being what they hold most in esteem among them
to appease matters, telling th m that I did not take calumets from people,
who after they had seen me and received my peace presents, and been
for a year always with Frenchmen, robbed them when they went to
visit them.

Each one in the council endeavored to throw the blame from himself,
but their excuses did not prevent my telling the Reverend Father Louis
that he w'ould have to come with me towards the Outagamys, as he did,
showing him that it would be to strike a blow at, the French nation in a
new discovery, to suffer an insult of this nature without manifesting re¬
sentment, although my design was to push on to the sea in a west north¬
westerly direction, which is that which is believed to be the Red Sea (Gulf
of California), whence the Indians who had gone warring on that side
gave salt to three Frenchmen whom I had sent exploring, and who brought
me said salt, having reported to me that the Indians had told them, that it

* Du Llrnt an eye witness here declares Hennepin’s party to have been held as prisoners
and thus confirms Hennepin as against La Salle and Bernou.

greysolon du luht.

377

was only twenty days j ° Urney *">* where they were to find thereat lake

of which the waters were worthless to drink Thi« > i " atlake

that it would not be absolutely difficult to find it if ™ beHeV °

given to go there. However

to them the just indignation which I felt against them^rathe^th 88 **.*
remain after the violence which they had done to the Reverend Father 0
and the other two Frenchmen who were with him, whom I put in my
canoes and brought them back to Michelimakinak. a mission of thl
Reverend Jesuit Fathers, where while wintering together, I learned that
far from being approved for what I was doing, consuming my property
and risking my life daily, I was regarded as the chief of a band although
I never had more than eight men with me. It was not necessary to tell
me more to induce me to set out over the ice on the 29th of March in the
year 1081 with the said Reverend Father and two other Frenchmen, having
our canoe and provisions dragged along, in order to reach our settlements
as soon as possible, and to make manifest the uprightness of my conduct,
having never been in a humor to wish myself withdrawn from the
obedience which is due to the King’s orders.

I accordingly proceeded to our settlements three months before the
amnesty, which it has pleased his majesty to grant to his subjects, who
might have contravened his orders, had arrived, but the Intendant was
unwilling to hear any request that I might have been able to present to
him.

As to the manner in which I lived on my voyage, it would be super¬
fluous for me to expatiate on the subject and to annoy your grace by a
ong story, being convinced that thirteen original letters of the Reverend—
Nouvel, Superior of the Outaouais m issions, the Reverend Father En jalran,
missionary of Saint Francis de Borgias, the Reverend Father Bailloquet, ,
missionary of Sainte Marie du Sault, and the Reverend Father Pierson,
missionary of the Hurons at Saint Ignace, all Jesuits, will suffice on the
whole to inform your Grace amply and fully.” *

* Barrisse, Notes pour servir à Hiistoire, &c., de la Nouvelle France, pp, 177-181.

“In the last years of the first administration of Monsieur de Frontenac, the Sieur du
Lut, a man of ability and experience, opened the way for missionaries and the gospel in
several different nations, striking north of said Lake (Superior), where he even built a
fort; he penetrated even to the Lake of the Issati, called Lake Buade, from the family
name of Monsieur de Fronteuac, planting the King's arms among several nations to the
right and left, where missionaries are still doing their best to introduce Christianity,” <ftc.,
Le Clercq, Etablissement, ii, p. 137-8.

37 8

DESCRIPTION OF

DESCRIPTION OF NIAGARA FALLS.

[Nouvelle Découverte, pp. 443-455.]

“We passed back by the great Fall of Niagara and employed ourselves
during half a day in contemplating this prodigious cascade. I could not
conceive, how it could be, that four great lakes the least of which is
four hundred leagues in circuit, and which empty into one another,
which all come at last massed at this great fall do not inundate this great
part of America. What is more surprising in this is, that from the mouth
of Lake Erie to this great fall, the land appears almost all smooth and level.
You can scarcely perceive that one part is higher than another, and this
for the space of six leagues. It is only the surface of the water, the cur¬
rent of which is very rapid, that makes it noticeable. What is still more
surprising is, that from this great cataract to two leagues lower down pro¬
ceeding towards Lake Ontario or Frontenac, the land appears as level as
in the part above from Lake Erie to this prodigious fall.

Our admiration redoubled especially at there being no mountain in sight
till two good leagues below this cascade. And yet the discharge of so
much water, coming from these fresh water seas, centres at this spot and
thus plunges down more than sihundred feet, falling as into an abyss
which we could not behold without a shudder. The two great sheets of
water which are on the two sides of the sloping island that is in the middle,
fall down without noise and without violence, and glide in this manner
without din ; but when this great mass of water reaches the bottom then
there is a noise and a roaring greater than thunder.

Moreover the spray of the water is so great that it forms a kind ot
clouds above this abyss, and these are seen even at the time when the sun
is shining brightest at midday. No matter how hot it is in the midst of
summer, they are always seen over the spruces and the tallest trees on
this sloping island, by means of which the great sheets of water, I have
mentioned, are formed.

Many a time did I wish that day that I had persons able to describe
this great and horrible fall, in order to give a just and circumstantial
account, capable of satisfying the reader, and enabling him to admire
this wonder of nature; as fully as it deserves. But here is a description of
this prodigy of nature, such as I can give it in writing, to enable the
curious reader to conceive as true an idea as possible.”

41 From the issue of Lake Erie to the great fall, is reckoned six leagues, as
I have said, and this continues the Great river St. Lawrence, which

NIAGARA FALLS. 379

issues from all theses lakes already meutloned. It is easy to conceive
that in this space the river is very rapid, since it is the outlet of this vast
mass of water, issuing from all these lakes. The land on both sides, east
and west of this current, seem always level from the said Lake Erie to
the great fall. The banks are not steep and the water is almost every
where even with the land. You see indeed that the land below is lower,
as in fact the waters flow with very great rapidity. This however is
almost inperceptible during the six leagues mentioned.

After these six leagues of great rapidity the waters of this river meet a
sloping island, about half a quarter of an hour long, and about three
hundred feet wide, as well as can be judged by the eye, because it is im¬
possible to cross over to this island in bark canoes without exposing one¬
self to certain death on account of the violence of the waters. This
island is covered with cedar and spruce. Yet the surface is not more ele¬
vated than that of the two banks of the river. They seem even level
down to the two great cascades which compose the great fall. The two
banks of the channels, which are formed on meeting this island, and
which flow on either side, all but wash the very surface of the land on
this island, as well as that on the two banks of the river, on the east and
west, descending from south to north. But it is to be noted, that at the
extremity of the islands, on the side of the great sheets or water falls,
there is a projecting rock which descends into the great gulf into which these
waters plunge. Yet this projecting rock is not sw r ept by the two sheets of
water that fall on either side of it, because the two channels which are
formed by meeting this island, rush down with extreme rapidity, one on
the east, the other on the west, from the point of this island, and there the
great fall is formed.

So after these two channels flow on either side of the island, they all
at once come and hurl their waters in two great sheets, which fall com¬
pactly and are thus sustained by the rapidity of their fall without wetting
this projecting rock. Then it is that they are precipitated into an abyss
which is below at a depth of more than six hundred feet.

The waters which flow on the east, do not descend so impetuously as
those that fall on the west. The sheet flows more gently because this
projecting rock at the end of the island, rises higher on this side than on
the west; and this supports the waters longer that are on that side. But
this rock leaning more to the west and not sustaining them so long, causes
them to fall sooner and more precipitately. This arises too from the fact

DESCRIPTION OF

380

that the land on the western side is lower than that on the east. Hence
we see that the water of the sheet of water on the west falls in the form
of a square making a third sheet, less than the two others, which falls
between the south and north.

And because there is high ground on the north, which is before these
two great cascades, there the prodigious gulf is much wider than on the
east. Yet it must be remarked, that a man can descend from this high
ground, which is opposite the two last sheets of water, which you find
west of the great fall, down to the bottom of this frightful abyss. The
author of this discovery has been there, and has witnessed near at hand
the fall of the great cascades. There can be seen a considerable distance
below the sheet of water which falls on the east, so that four carriages
could drive abreast without getting wet. But because the ground east of
the descending rock, where the first sheet of water plunges into this gulf,
is very steep, almost perpendicular in fact, no man can on that side reach
the spot where the four carriages could pass without getting wet, or can
pierce this great mass of water which falls towards the gulf. Hence it is
very probable, that it is to this dry part, that the rattle snakes retire
reaching it by subterranean passages.

It is at the end then of this sloping island that these two great sheets^
of water are formed, with the third that I have mentioned, and it is thence
that they plunge, leaping in a frightful manner into this prodigious gulf,
more than six hundred feet down, as we have remarked. I have already
said that the waters falling on the east plunge and descend with less
violence, and on the other hand, those on the west descend all at once»
and form two cascades, one moderate, the other very violent. But finally
these two last falls makes a kind of hook or bent form and descend from
south to north and from west to east. After which they meet the waters
of the other sheet, which falls on the east, and then it is that they both
fall, although unequally into this fearful abyss, with all the impetuosity
that can be imagined in a fall six hundred feet high, forming the finest
and at the same time the most awful cascade in the world.

After these waters have thus plunged into this frightful gulf, they
resume their course and continue the great River St. Lawrence for two
leagues to the three mountains, on the east side of this river, and to the
great rock which is on the west and which seems to rise very high out of
the water three fathoms from the land or thereabouts. The abyss into
which tnese waters descend, continues thus for two leagues between two

NIAGARA FALLS

chains of mountains, forming a great rock-lined ravine, on both sides of
the river.

It is into this gulf then that all these waters fall with an irapetuousity
that can be imagined in so high a fall, so prodigious, for its horrible mass
of water. There are formed those thunders, those roarings, those fearful
bounds and seethings, with that perpetual cloud rising above the cedars
and spruces, that are seen on the projecting island, already mentioned.

After the channel reunites below this horrible fall, by the two ranges
of rocks of which we have spoken, and which is filled by this prodigious
quantity of water, continually falling there, the River St. Lawrence begins
again to flow from that place; but it is with so much violence, and it,
waters lash the rocks on both sides with such terrible impetuosity, that if
is impossible to sail there even in a bark canoe, in which however by
sailing close in shore you can pass the most violent rapids.

These rocks and tlm ravine continue for two leagues from the great
fall to the three mountains and great rock already mentioned. However
all this diminishes insensibly as you approach the three mountains and
the great rock ; and then the ground begins to be almost even with the
river and this continues to Lake Frontenac or Ontario.

When you are near the great fall and cast your eyes down this fearful
gulf, you are filled with awe, and all who attempt to look steadily at this
horrible fall get giddy. But at last this ravine diminishes and becomes
a mere nothing, at the three mountains, the waters of the River St.
Lawrence begin to flow more gently. This great rapid slackens, the river
almost resuming the level of the land. It is thence navigable to Lake
Frontenac, across which you sail to reach the new channel formed by its
discharges. Then you re-enter the River St. Lawrence, which soon after
forms what is called the Long Fall, a hundred leagues from Niagara.

I have often heard people talk of the Cataracts of the Nile, which
deafen those who are near. I do not know whether the Iroquois who
formerly dwelt near this fall and who lived on deer which the waters of
this fall dragged with them, and which they hurled down such a prodi
giouB depth, have retired from the neighborhood of this great waterfall
from fear of losing their hearing, or whether this was induced by the
danger they were constantly exposed to from rattlesnakes, which are
found here during the great heats, and which retire to cavities in the
rocks as far as the mountains two leagues below, where they cannot be
attacked. ”

3 82

BIBL10CRAPHY.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HENNEPIN.*

1. THE “DESCRIPTION DE LA LOUISIANE;’

French.

Privilege granted Sept 3, 1682, registered Sept. 10. Printing completed
Jan. 5, 1683.

The map carries the Mississippi below the mouth of the Illinois, does
not indicate the Ohio or Missouri : Pictures a tree with the French
arms, and marks the spot near Lake Buade, and a church and “ Missions
des Recollects ” near the Lake des Assenipoils, evidently to inform readers
that a church indicated a Recollect mission.

2. Some copies of this edition with the same privilege and note
as to printing, have on title, Apostolique, in a line by itself and.
A Paris, | Chez Amable Auroy, Proche la Fontaine S. Severin, |
M.DC.LXXXIV. |

The A A on the title is the monogram of Amable Auroy.

12mo, pages as is No. 1. After privilege “Achevé d’imprimer pour la
seconde fois, le 10. Mars 1688. De l’Imprimerie de Laurent Rondet.” Same
map.

• In this I received valuable aid from Dr. George II. Moore, Hon. John R. Bart¬
lett, and Mr. Sabin’s Dictionary.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Italian.

12°, pp. 12, 396. Map.

Page 2 contains Yidit and Imprimatur. Then follows a Dedication
by the translator Casimiro Freschot dated Jan. 21,1686. Bologna, 10 pp.

Dutch.

4°. Engraved title, pp. (4), 158, (5), map, 6 plates, pp. (4), 200 (4).

German.

383

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

3 8 4

7. Same. Nürnberg: Andreas Otto, 1692,18°, pp. 427, map.

English.

8°, pp. 408, map, facsimile ot title of edition of 1683, view of Niagara
from the Nouvelle Découverte, 1697.

IL THE “ NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE.”

French.

12°, pp. (70) 1-312, 10 pp. marked 313,* 313-506. 2 maps, plate of
Niagara Falls, p. 44 and of Bison.

This work begms with Epistre Dedicatoire 23 pp., Avis an Lecteur, 26
pp., giving details as to his trials and difficulties. Table de Chapitres, 19
pp. The text begins with some general remarks, and biographical details,
and then follows the Description de la Louisiane, expanding it, to p. 200
when it copies from Le Clercq’s Etablissment de la Foi, p. 153. From p. 249
to 312 is an account of a pretended voyage down the Mississippi. The
star pages and most of the remainder are from the Description de la

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE.” 3^5

Louisiane enlarged. From 813 to end is in different type from preceding
portion, the chapter heads have arabic figures, while in the earlier part
they have Homan numerals, the head lines differ, being nouvell découv
before 313 and Nouvel. Decouv., after 313. The spacing is also different,
all tending to show that it was set iu another office and by other hands.
The introduction of star pages shows that the succeeding portion was
printed first. The type on last page is smaller than the body of the work.
The work has been rewritten by some literary man, not versed in Canadian
affairs or Catholic terms. The Moeurs des Sauvages is omitted. Whether
all fiom 249 to the last 313 * w'as inserted after the work was printed in its
original form is a question on which Hennepin’s credit depends.

The map continues the Mississippi to the gulf, calls the Missouri. R.
Otenta, puts the Chiquacha on the R. Tamaroa below it, the Akansa on a
R* Ouma, and to two rivers below on the w T est absurdly gives the names
Hiens and Snblonniere taken from La Salle’s last voyage It omits the
tree with the French arms.

12°, pp. (70) 506 Engraved title, 10 star pages 313 as before, 2 maps
2 plates. This edition corresponds page for page w ith the edition of 1697
including the star pages to p. 500, but is uniformly printed as regards head¬
ings. After that a little is gained on each page to bring it all in on p.
506 in the same type.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

386

12°, pp. (34) 604, (32). 493 printed 293. 2 maps, engraved title, 6 plates
Niagara, Bison, the Building of the Griffin, Indians alarmed at a Mon¬
strance, the Buffalo country, and Hennepin’s companions taking goods
from the cache.

Hennepin’s voyage ends on p. 516.

12°, Engraved title, pp (32) 604 (32) 2 maps, 6 plates, same misprint of
293 for 493.

5. Same A Leide, | Chez Pierre Van der Aa, 1704.

Same as preceding, but with title printed oblong and folded in. Same
misprint of 293 for 493.

7. Voyage | ou Nouvelle Découverte d’un très | grand Pais, dans Y

Amérique, | entre le Nouveau Mexique | et la | Mer Glaciale. |..

. . . Augmenté de quelques figures en taille douce | avec un voyage
| qui contient une relation exacte de Y Origine, Mœurs, Contûmes, Reli¬
gion, Guerres et Voyages des Caraibes, | Sauvages des Isles Antilles de 1’
Amérique. Faite par le Sieur de la Borde. Amsterdam. Jacques Des¬
bordes, 1712.

THE “NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE.”

3 8 7

12% Engraved title. Title, dedication (11) avis au lecteur
604 pp Table de matières (30). Map, 6 plates.

(13) Table (9)

12°, pp (2) 464 (10). Map.

Dutch.

9. Nieuwe Ontdekkinge | Van ecu groot Land, gelegen in | America
| tussclien nieuw Mexico | en de Ys-Zee. | Bekelzende de gelegentkeid der
zelve nieuwe ontdekte Landen : de Rivieren eu | groote Meereu in’t
zelve. Eu voor al van de groote Rivier Meschasipi genaanul. | De
Kolonien die men by de zelve tot voor deel van dezen Staat, zo ten
opzicli | te van deu Koophandel, als tôt verzekeringe der Spaansche
Goud-Mijnen, zou konuen oprecliten. De uitneemende vruchtbaar-
heid van’t Land; over- | vloed der Visscben in den Rivieren. De ge-
daanten, inborst, geloove en oeffe- | nuigen der Wilden aldaar woonende
De vreemde Dieren in liaare Rosschen en | velden. Met een Kortc aan-
merkinge oevr de 20 genaamde Straat Aniam ; en | ’t middel om door een
korteweg, zonder de Liuie Æquinoctiaal te passeeren, | na China en
Japan te komen met veele curieuse dingen meer. Ailes met goede |
Kaarten tôt deze aanwijzinge nodig, en met Kopere Plaaten vercierd*
met goed-vindinge van den | Koning van Engeland. | Willielmus
deen III. | In’t liclit gegeeven : | En aan de Zelve zijne Majesteit opgc-
draageu door | Lodewyk Hennepin, | Missionaris Recollect en Notaris
Apostoliek. | Tot Amsterdam, | By Abraham van Someren. 1699. |

4° pp (26), 220, (14). 2 maps, 2 plates.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

388

4 ° engraved title, pp. (24) 220. (14) 2 maps, 2 plates. 2nd part, pp. 47,
map, plate.

11. Aenmerkelyke Voyagie | Gedaan na’t | Gedeelte van Noorder
America, | Behelzende een nieuwe ontdekkinge van een seer | Groot
Land, gelegen tussclien | Nieuw Mexico en de Ys-Zee. | Yervattende de
gelegentheid der zelve nieuw ontdckte Lan- 1 den ; de Revieren en groote
Meeren in’t zelve. | En voor al van de groote Revier Meschasipi genaamd-
Die Kolonien die men by de zelve tot voordeel van dezen Staat, zo ten
opziclite van den | Koopbandel, als tot verzekeringe der Spaansche
Gond Mijnen | zou konnen opreckten. De uitnemende vruchtbaarheid
van’t I Land ; overvloed der Visschen in die Rivieren. De gedaanten, |
inborst, geloove en oeffeningen der Wilden aldaar woonende. | De
vreemde Dicren in Haare Boeschen en Velden. Met een | korte aanmer-
kinge over de zogenaamde Straat Aniam; en’t | middel om door een
korte weg, zonder der Linie Æquinoctiaal | te passeeren, na China en
Japan te komcn met veele andere by-1 sonderheden meer. Door Lode-
wyk Hennepin, | Missionaris Recollect en Notaris Apostoliek. | Desen
laasten Druk is niet alleen verçierd, met noodige Ivaarten | maar ook met
verschede Kopere Printverbeeldingen, | noyt te vooren soogesien. | Te
Leyden, | By Pieter van der Aa, 1704. |

4°, pp. (22), 219, (13), 2 maps, 6 plates: Niagara, Buffalo, Building of
Uriflin, Indians alarmed at Monstrance, Buffalo country, At the Cache.

4°, pp. 22, (219,) 13. 2 maps, 6 plates.

4°, pp. 22 (219,) 13. 2 maps, 6 plates.

14. Nieuwe Ontdekkinge, van groote Lande in Amerika, tusschen

THE “NOUVEAU VOYAGE.”

389

Nieuw-Mexico en de Ys-Zee. Benevens een Aanhangsel, be-

helzende een Reize door een gedeelte van de Spaansch West Indien door
L. de C. Amsterdam 1722.

German.

12° pp. (66), 382. Engraved frontispiece, map and two plates.

18°, pp. 425. 2 maps.

ABRIDGEMENTS.

Spanish.

12°, pp. (8) 86, map, 2 plates.

English.

III. THE “NOUVEAU VOYAGE.’’

French.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

390

8°, pp. (70) (2) 389, 4 plates, 1 map.

12°, pp. 197-370.

Also one called second edition, 1720.

The first edition of the Voyages au Nord in four volumes 1715-9,
did not include Hennepin at all.

The second edition gave the Nouveau Voyage ; the third edition, 10 vols.,
the Nouveau Voyage in Vol. V,and the Nouvelle Découverte in Vol. IX.

Dutch.

4 (Engraved title) Reyse | door | Nieuwe Ondekte | Landen | (Printed
title) Aenmerckelycke | Historische | Reijs Beschryvinge | Door verscheyde
Landen veel grooter als die van geheel | Evropa | onlanghs ontdeckt. | Be-
helsende eeu nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge van gelegentheyd, natuur, en |
vrughtbaerheyd, van’t Zuyder, en Noorder gedeelte van America ; mits-
gaders | de gedaente, aerd, manieren, kledingen, en’t geloove der talrijke
Wilde Natien, de Hooftstad van Cana | da, door de Englischen. De geivig-
tige aenmerkingeu op de onderneminge van de Heer de la Salle, op de
Goud-Mijncn van St. Barbara, met veel meerandere | waeragtige en selsd-
same geschiedenissen. En in’t besonder de aenwijsingen om | door een
korten wegli sonder de Linie Equinoetiael te passeeren, na China en | Japan
te komen ; en de groote voordeelen die men hier door, als mede door de |
nieuwe Volckplantigen in dese vrughtbaare Landen sou konnen trecken.
Ailes I met een nette Kaert tot dese | aenwijsinge nodig, en kopere Platen

‘‘NEW DISCOVERY, ETC.”

39 1

4 °> PP- (28) 142, last page misprinted 242, (18).

Map “Carte d’un Nouveau Monde entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer
Glaciale. Gasp. Bouttats fecit.*’

Gehman.

5 Neue f Reise Beschreibung J durch viele Lander weit grosser als
gantz Europa | .... durch L. Hennepin. | Bremen : Phil. Gottfr.
Saurmans, 1698.|

8°, pp. (64) 288, 4 plates.

18°, pp. (24) 382, 2 maps, 2 plates.

THE “NOUVELLE DECOUVERTE” AND “NOUVEAU VOYAGE”

TOGETHER.

English.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

392

8% Engraved title, pp. (20) 209; pp. (32), 178 (2), 301-855. 2 maps,
7 plates.

This is evidently the first English edition. The 299 pages of Part I
contain a translation of the [Nouvelle Decouverte, and supplementary
matter embracing Marquette’s voyage was printed in the same time and
folied 301-355, 300 being blank. Then apparently, it was resolved to
translate also the Nouveau Voyage, and this was printed in smaller type as
Part II, making 178 pages with a catch word on last page, and in binding
up the work, the [supplemental portion of Part I was placed after this
without regardjto'folios.

2. Same Title, but H. Bon- in imprint on the first line.

8% Engraved title, title, pp. (20) 248 (32), 228. 2 maps, 7 plates.

It is not a reprint of No. 1.

There are slight alterations on Part I, hut Part II is entirely rewritten
and improved. | This part in the first edition begins “ Men ought to be
satisfy’d”: but in this one “Reason ought to rule” : and in this edition
two chapters are numbered[XXII.

3. Same title asJNo. 1. otherwise apparently as No. 2 but without the
error in chapter XXII.

8°, Engraved title, pp. (20) 240, pp. (24) 216. 2 maps, 6 plates.

Reprint of No 2.

INDEX.

Abenaki’s, 375.

Accault, Michael, 360-1, 368, see Ako, Dacan.

Account of a Voyage down the Mississippi, from the u Mou
velle Découverte,” 343.

Account of Hennepin and the Sioux, 360.

Affaire Roland, 64.

Agniers (Mohawks), 23.

Agrenipoualacs, 374.

Aiounouea, 370.

Akansa, 186, 347-8, 356-7.

Ako, Michael, 190, 225, 241-2, 25C-1, 353, 360, 368.
Allart, Rev. Germain, 62.

Allouez, Father Claude, 164.

Andris (Andros), Major, 23.

Anian, Aniam, strait of, 237.

Aquipaguetin, chief, 211, 215-6, 219, 225-8, 248.
Arpentigny, 63.

Artois, 12.

Assenipoits, 373 ; Asscnipovalacs, 236; Assinipoulak, 36 r

374 -

Ath, 9.

Atreouati, (Grande Gueule), 308, 310.

Auguelle, Anthony, nicknamed Le Picard du Guay, 188, 191,
225, 235, 361, see Picard.

Bailiequet. Father, 377.

INDEX.

394

Bay of the Puants (Green B: y), 104 , 119 , 25 8 2 Ô 9.

3 6i > 3 6 7-

Belmont, Abbé, 32.

Benton Harbor, 131.

Bernou, Abbé, 37, 372.

Bison, 143.

Black River, 197, 365.

Blaithwayt, 27.

Bois cT Ardenne, 269.

Bourg Royal, 21.

Brassart, Anthony, 77.

Brisset, F. Luke, 271.

Broedelet, William, 29.

Bruyas, F. James, 24, 25, 285.

Buffalo River, 198, 251, 365.

Buisset, F. Luke, 59, 88, 63, 264, 271.

Buttes, The, 97.

Calais, 11.

Calumet, 112.

Cap de St. Antoine, 357.

Cap Enragé, 81.

Cap Tourmente, 21.

Casquin, 163.

Castorie, 365.

Cayuga Creek, 82.

Chaa Indians, 189.

Chabadeba, Chabaoudeba, 197, 365
Charlevoix, Father, 34..

Charon, Sieur, 88.

INDEX.

395

Charpentier, Thomas, 69.
Chassagouasse, Chief, 166.
Chikacha, 346, 357, see 163, 186.
Chinnien, 226.

Chongaskabes, 373.
Chongaskethon (Sisitonwan), 203.
Cicaca, 163; Ciceaca, 186.

Dacan, M., 372, see Accault.

Dakota language, 45, 45*.

Dalëra, M., 367.

Daminoia, 163.
d'Auteuil, M., 366.
d’Autray, Sieur, 135.
de Barrois, Mr., 18.
de Belizani, Mr., 56.
de Cauroy, 235.
de Courcelles, Gov., 52-3.
de Coxis, Mr., 28.
de Groseilliers, Sieur, 362.
de Lassay, Marquis, 374.

de la Ribourde, Father Gabriel, 10, 43, 55, 63, 89, ni, 117,
122, 133, 140, 155, 177, 187, 189, 267, 269.

Description of Louisiana, 41 ; Bibliography of, 382.
de Tonty, Chevalier, 61, 87, 103, 133, 135, 188, 267.
Detroit, 91.

Dollier de Casson, Rev., 52, 60.

Du Guay, the Picard, 224, 353, 356, see Auguelle.

du L’hut (Lude, Luth), 253, 255, 261, 365. Memoir of, 373.

Dunkirk, 11.

39 6

Enjalran, Father, 377.
Espiritu Santo Bay, 352.

Faffart, 361, 366.

Falls of St. Anthony, 197, 200, 220. 24 r-4, 358-9.
Fillatre, Father Luke, 265.

Fort Chambly, 53.

Fort Champlain, 270.

Fort Crèvecœur, 175-6, 184, 194, 266, 349-50, 359, 361.
Fort de Conty, (Niagara), 74, 106, 262, 324.

Fort Frontenac, 43, 53-4, 106, 264, 266, 363, 366.

Fort of the Miamis, 131.

Fort Sorel, 53.

Frontenac, Count de, 54-5, 57, 73, 264, 270, 335.

Câlinée, Abbé, 52, 60.

Ganniekez or Agniez (Mohawks), 23.

Ganniessinga Indians, 80.

Garakonthie, Chief, 307.

Gamier, Father Julian, 76-7.

Gastacha (Mississippi), 361.

Goiogoins (Cayugas), 307.

Grande Gueule, 308.

Great Rock, 69, 72, 89.

Green Bay, 258, see Puants.

Griffin, first vessel on Lake Erie, commenced, 74 ; question as
to place where built, 82 ; named 85, 89 ; enters Lake Erie,

INDEX. 397

9 r ; at Mackinac, 97, 10| ; at Green Bay, 104 : sent back to
Niagara, 105; lost, 107.

Halle, Hennepin at, 11.

Hanetons, 373.

Ilarpentinie, see Arpcntigny.

Hempin, Father, 371.

Hennepin, Father Louis, Notice of, 9; birth, 9 ; becomes a
Recollect friar, travels, 10 ; army chaplain, 13, 124; at
Battle of SenefF, 13 ; sent to Canada, 14 ; trouble on voyage
with La Salle, 17 ; first mission labors, 20-1 ; visits Mo¬
hawks, 22 ; builds Mission house at Fort Frontenac, 59 ;
selected to go with La Salle, 62 *, dines with Frontenac, 63 ;
visits Iroquois cantons, 64 ; leaves Fort Frontenac, 64 ;
enters Niagara, ib; says mass near Falls, ib ; visits Senecas,
76 ; at Fort Frontenac, 88 ; returns to Niagara, 89 ; on
Lake Michigan, 111 ; in affair with the Foxes, 122; erects
bark cabin as a chapel on Benton Harbor, 133 ; at Fort
Crevccceur, 177; sent by La Salle to upper Mississippi,
188; reluctance, 189; sets out, 192; captured by Sioux,
205 ; had some idea of descending the Mississippi, 212 ; at
Falls of St. Anthony, 220 ; begins Dakota Dictionary, 229 :
found by du Lhut, 253 ; returns, 256; at Fort Frontenac,
265 ; returns to France, 25 ; at St. Germain-en-Laye, ib ;
at Chateau Cambrésis, 26 ; at Renti, ib ; at Gosselies, 27 ;
at Antwerp, 28; Amsterdam, 29 ; Utrecht, 2Q ; his Nou¬
velle Découverte published, 29 ; forbidden to return to
Canada, 30 ; at Rome, ib ; examination of his veracity, 31 ;
testimonies in his favor, 32, 43* ; impeached, 33, 35 ; voyage
down the Mississippi from the Nouvelle Décou vei te, 343 ,

INDEX.

398

account of voyage up from Margry, 360 5 from Tonty, 372;
Du L’hut’s memoir, 374 ; account of Niagara Falls, 377 ;
letter of, to Renaudot, 372 ; bibliography of, 382.

Herinx, Rt. Rev. William, bishop of Ipres, opposes Hennepin,

11.

Hillaret, Moyse, 191.

Hohio (Ohio), 51.

Honnehioats (Oneidas), 23.

Honnontaguz (Onondagas), 21.

Humber, 64.

Hunaut, 103.

Huron Isles, 107.

Hurons, 100, 260, 276, 315, 358.

Hontouagaha, 80.

Houetbatons, 374.

Ikoueta, 369.

Indians, manners of the, 273 ; fertility of country, ib ; origin
°f> 2 77 > physical condition, 280 ; dress, 287 ; marriages,
290 ; feasts, 297 ; games, 300 ; rudeness, 304 ; courtesy,
306; cruelty, 311; policy, 316; hunting, 318; fishing,
323 ; utensils, 325 ; burial, 327 ; superstitions, 328 ; ridi-
culousbeliefs, obstacles to conversion of, indifference, 335; 337

Illinois, 361, 371, see Islinois.

Illinois river, 141, 361.

Iroquois, 57, 164, 186, 262, 266, 268, 315.

Islati (Issati), 197.

Islinois (Illinois), 60, 130, 152-3,155, 168, 186,205, 242,
259, 266, 343, 352, 359, 369, 373.

INDEX.

Issati, 20i, 203, 236, 256, 3|4, 373, 37.J,

Isle of St. Laurent, 21.

Izatys, 374.

Joliet, Louis, 60, 358.

Kakaling, 364.

Kankakee river, 136, 141.

Keroas, 339.

Kickapoos, 269 ; Kikapous, 258, 269-70, 371.

Koroa, 339, 349, 350, 354-5.

La Chine, 52, 310,

Lake'Buade or Issati (Mille Lake), 201-2, 373-4.

Lake Condé or Tracy (Superior), 69, 70, 98, 199, 202.

Lake Conty, Comty, or Erié (Erie), 52, 69, 71, 83-4, 89-91,
261-2, 363, 377.

Lake Dauphin, or Islinois (Michigan), 6ç ; described, 70 ;

La Salle on, 104, 118.

Lake Frontenac (Ontario), 52, 57, 262, 264, 276, 324.

Lake Huron, 69.

Lake Michigan, 69.

Lake of the Issati, 368.

Lake of Tears (Pepin), 198, 217.

Lake Ontario or Frontenac, 57, 70, 2 ]S.

Lake Orleans, or of the Hurons (Huron), 69, 70, 91, 260-1.
Lake St. Clare, 92, 261.

INDEX.

400

Lake Superior, called Condé, 69, 365, 3C6, 374.

Lake Tracy, 69.

La Motte, Sieur, 61, 64, 74.

La Rousselière, 103.

La Salle, René Cavelier, Sieur de, projects discoveries by the
other route, 51; acquires establishment at Lachine, 52;
encouraged by de Courcelles, 52 ; sets out with Dolicr and
Gaünée, falls sick, ib ; solicits command of Fort Frontenac,

55 ; governor of Fort Frontenac, 15, 43, 56 ; rebuilds fort,

56 ; returns to France, 60 ; obtains commission and exclu¬
sive privilege, 61 ; sails with Hennepin, 15 ; trouble with,
17 ; at Fort Frontenac, 63; wrecked on his way to Niagara,
81 ; returns to Frontenac, 83; at Niagara,, 89; sails in
Griffin, 90; at Mackinac, 97; at Green Bay, 104; sends
back Griffin, 105 ; proceeds in canoes, 108 ; meets Pottawa-
tamies, 115 ; trouble with f'oxes, 119; builds fort of the
Miamis, 131 ; ascends river of the Miamis, 135 -, lost, 137 ;
reaches Illinois village, 152 ; at Illinois camp, 156 ; Monso
prejudices Illinois against, 164; deserted by men, 172; begins
Fort Crevecœur, 175 ; begins a bark, 178 ; sets out for Fort
Frontenac, 188 ; sends Hennepin to Mississippi, 1 83 ; reaches
mouth of Mississippi, 338 ; extract from letter of, 361.

Laval, Francis de, bishop of Petræa, and of Quebec, 15, 62,
265.

Le Barbier, 103.

Le Fevre, Father Hyacinth, 26, 62, I2|.

Le Fevre, Father Louis, 27.

Le Maître, Rev. James, 310.

Le Roux, Rev. Valentine, 62, 268.

Le Talon, 261.

Lewiston, 69.

Long Point, 91.

INDEX,

40 I

Louisiana, 44, 149, 273, 295, 322, 325.

Luke, pilot, 96, 107, 133.

Luke, Father, 264,^ Buisset.

Maestricht, 11.

Malquenech, Baron dc, 28.

AJamenisi, 235, 250.

Manza Ouakangé, 21 r.

Marne, river, 141.

Margry, Pierre, 35.

Maroa, 358, 362 ; Maroha, 205 ; see Tamaroi.

Marquette, Father James, 258.

Mascoutens, 140, 164, 258, 364, 369.

Maskoutens Nadouesioux, 371.

Matsigamca, 358.

Membré, Father Zenobiu-, 26, 89, 155, 157, 177, 187, 259,
265, 267, 271.

Meschasipi, 52, 60, 343-5, 35 °~ 3 > 357~ 5 3 see Colbert.
Alcschetz, Odeba, 197, 364.

Messenecqz (Outagamis), 243.

Mcssorite, 344, 357.

Meuse, river, 141, 153, 193.

Miamis, 140, 143, 186, 205-6, 216, 258, 266, 270, 358, 363.
Miamis, river of the, 129, 131.

Michelimakinac, 376.

Mille Lake, 199.

Minime, 103.

Misconsin, 187; Misconsing, 364.

Missilimakinac, 97, 104, 133, 259, 260.

Missisipi, 360 ; Mississipy, 361*

4-02

INDEX.

Missorites, 344.
Mitchinchi, 225.

Mohawks, 24, 324.
Mohegans, 85, 276.

Monso, Chief, 164, 170-1.
Montreal, 264.

Nachié (Natchez), 349.

Nadouecioux, 374-5, Nadouesioux, 364; Nadonessiou, 203 ;
Nadouessans, 203, 373 ; Nadouessious, 197, 236, 258, 360-1 ;
Nadonessiouz, 257 ; Nadouessiouz, 256 ; Nadousiouz, 315 ;
Nadoussions, 201 ; Nadoussions, 254; Nadousiouz, 315.
Namur, 153, 193.

Narrhetoba, Chief, 166, 169-70.

Nemissakouat river, 199 ; Nemitsakouat, 366.

New England, 276.

New Jork, Jortz, 276, 324.

New Mexico, 351.

New Netherland, 23, 276.

New Sweden, 276.

New York, 23, 276, 324.

Nez Persez, 276.

Niagara river, 64, 89, 324, 363.

Niagara Falls, 68; described, 71 ; description from Nouvelle
Découverte, 377.

Nicanapé, Chief, 166, 169-70.

Nipissingue, 375.

Nipissiriniens, 375.

Nouvel, Father, 377.

INDEX.

+03

Nouvelle, Decouverte, The, how made up, 46 ; matter from
Le Clercq, 47* ; errors in, that Hennepin could not make,
15, 16, 48 -, 200, 201, 218, 265, 345, 346 ; prepared by an
editor ignorant of Canada, 49* ; extract from, 343; biblio¬
graphy of, 382.

Nouveau Voyage, The, 51*, bibliography of, 389.

Oiatinon (Weas), 140.

Omaouha or Omoahoha or Oumahoul.a, chief, 165, 187,
means Wolf, 187.

Oneidas, 21.

Onisconsin river, 197.

Onnontaguez, 269.

Onontio, Iroquois name for French governors of Canada, 77,
127, 268.

Onondagas, 21, 269, 317.

Ononhouaroia, 317.

Ontaonatz (Ottawas), 276.

Ontario, 54,

Onttaouactz (Ottawas), 52.

Openagaux, 375.

Osages, 186, 343.

Otchimbi, 252.

Otontenta, Outontanta, 196; Otoutantas, (Ouocs), 371.
Otoutantas Paoté, 364.

Ottawas, 52, 97, 99, 260-2, 276, 361, 366.

Oua, 373 > Ouadebathon or River people (Warpctonwan), 203.
Ouadebache, 345.

Ouakanché, 209.

Ouamats, 339.

Ouasicoudé (Pierced Pine), chief, 234, 238, 240, 255.

INDEX.

4.04

Ouisconsin river, 237, 361; Ouisconsing, 366; Ouscousin,
256-7; Oviscousin, 241, 248 (Wisconsin),

Ounonhayenty, 302.

Ounontaguez, 317.

Outagamis (Foxes), 376; Outouagamis, 119, 126, 243, 257

37 °> 37 &-

Outaouacs, 366 ; Outaouas, 361 ; Outtaouats, 358 ; Outta-
ouaetz, 99, 261, 2; Outtacuctz, 260.

Palmas, 352.

Payez, F. Rennere dc, 28.

Peoria, 175.

Peoria Lake, 155.

Picard, The, 240,241, 243,245-50, 252,253, 261, see Au
guelle.

Pierced Pine (Ouasicondé), 257.

Pierson, Father, 260, 377.

Pimiteoui, Lake, 155, 262-3.

Poerius, V. Rev. F., 28.

Pointe de Levi, 21.

Poupart, 103.

Poutouatamis (Pottawatamies), 104 ; chief devoted to Fron¬
tenac, 105; island of the, 108 ; second village, no.

Puants (Winnibagocs), 104, 258, 269, 361, 367..

Ouappas, 186.

Quebec, 363.

Quinipissa, 350, 353.

Rafeix, Father, 74, 261.

INDEX.

Randin, Sieur, 366.

Recollects, 14, 185.

Red Sea (Gulf of California), 212.
Relation des Decouvertes, 36-7, 42*.
Richelieu river, 53.

Rio Bravo, 352.

Rio Escondido, 351.

Rio de Panuco, 352.

River Seignelay, 136, 192.

River of the Issati (Rum), 201.
Rochelle, 14, 55.

Roy, 9.

Sagard, Brother, 232.

Saint Anthony of Padua, 96.

Saint Croix, deserter, 103.

Sainte Croix river, 199.

Saint Francis river, 201, 241, 256.

Saint Hour (Ours), 63.

Saint Joseph’s river, 131.

Saint Lawrence river, 264, 276.

Saint Louis river, 199.

Sainte Anne, 21.

Sakinam (Saginaw), 94.

Sambre river, 141.

Sault, St. Marie, 98 ; Indians of, 101.
Sauteurs, 101, 366.

Seignelay (Illinois) river, 136, 14L x 97 i 2 57
Seine river, 362.

Senecas, 64, 73, 262.

INDEX.

406

Seneff, Hennepin at battle of, 13, Du Llmt at, 374.
Sikacha (Chickasaw), 346, sa Cicaca.

Soto, Ferdinand, 163.

Taensa Indians, 348, 355 -
Talon, Sieur, 53.

Tamaroa Indians, 193, 345 ? 3 ^ 2 > see Maroa.

Tangibao Indians, 351, 353 *

Tchatchakigoua Indians, 3 ^°> 3 ^ 9 -
Teakiki river, 361.

Teganeout, 263.

Tegarondies, 74.

Teiaiagon, 64.

Theakiki river (Kankakee), 136, 361, 362.

Thinthonha (Titonwan) Indians, Tintonha, Nation of the
Prairies, 90, 203, 357? 373 > Tintonbas, 373 -
Three Rivers, 21.

Thirty Mile Point, 81.

Tomb River, 199, 202.

Tonty, Chevalier de, 61, 87, 103, 133, 135, 188, 267.

Tracy, Marquis de, 53.

Tsonnontouan (Senecas), 64, 73 » 84-
Tula, 163.

Utica, 153.

Virginia, 276.

Voile, Father Alexander, 26.

INDEX.

407

Watteau, F. Melithon, at Niagara, 88, 90.

Wazikuté (Ouasicondé), 234.

Wild rice, 201.

William III. Hennepin presented to, 29 ; the Nouvelle Dé¬
couverte dedicated to, ib ; De Michel's remarks, 33.
Wisconsin river, 197, 237, 241, 249, see Ouisconsin, Mis-
cousin.

Wolf Indians (Mohegans), 85, 276.

ERROR.

Page 384 line 13, for 408 read 407-16.

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