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 Uefiiiet. 
 
The Man with the Iron Hand, 
 
 CHEVALIER HENRY DE TONTY'S EXPLOITS IN THE VALLEY 
 OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 HENRY E. LEGLER. 
 
 Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
 
 1896. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction, - - . - - 5 
 
 Chapter I. — Under the Lilies op France, ----- 9 
 
 Chapter II. — The Building of the Griffon, - - - - 11 
 
 Chapter III. — Into the Wilderness of the West, - - - 14 
 
 Chapter IV. — The Country of the Illinois, - - - - 16 
 
 Chapter V. — The Fort of the Broken Heart, - - - 18 
 
 Chapter VI. — Raid of the Iroquois, ------ 20 
 
 Chapter VII. — Death of Father Gabriel, 23 
 
 Chapter VIII. — Flight to Green Bay, ----- 25 
 
 Chapter IX. — At the Mouth op the Mississippi, - - - 27 
 
 Chapter X. — Fort St. Louis on the Rock, - - - - 29 
 
 Chapter XI. — In the Wilderness op the South, - - - 33 
 
 Chapter XII. — With the Colony op Old Biloxi, - - - 36 
 
 Appendix, - - 38 
 
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INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the geographical nomenclature of the North American conti- 
 nent are perpetuated the names of the adventurous men whose achieve- 
 ments have made the story of the great lakes region the most roman- 
 tic period of American history. Cities, rivers and islands suggest by 
 their names the adventures of hardy coureur de bois and zealous 
 Jesuit and Sulpitian priests. The names of La Salle, DuLuth, Joliet, 
 Perrot, d'Iberville, Bienville, Marquette and Allouez have been thus 
 associated vi^ith the scenes of their adventures. Even Louis Hennepin, 
 the vainglorious Franciscan friar, has had honor done his name by 
 two great commonwealths of the old Northwest. But nowhere on 
 the modern map — from the Gulf of Mexico to Baffin's Bay and from 
 the Vermilion Sea to the Bay of Fundy, appears the name of 'Che- 
 valier Henry de Tonty. 
 
 Historians have accorded Tonty a meagerness of mention amount- 
 ing to neglect. With singular unanimity — for, like the doctors, histo- 
 rians are wont to disagree in their judgments — they have recognized 
 his right to a leading place among the men whose courage and for- 
 titude rendered possible the exploration and settlement of the great 
 Mississippi basin; but a connected narrative of Tonty's life remains 
 to-day unwritten. It can be found only in scattered fragments, inci- 
 dents that figure in the telling of other men's careers.^ 
 
 1. A valuable article on the Tonty family has recently been written by the eminent 
 Canadian historian, Benjamin Siilte. It is in French, and appears in Vol. XI. of the 
 proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada. Mr. Suite does not pretend to treat the 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Perhaps the brilliance which has invested the achievements of the 
 Sieur deJa Salle has cast into shadow the part played by his steadfast 
 friend and devoted companion. Perhaps, as has been suggested by 
 Jared Sparks, Tonty's remarkable history has never been fitly told be- 
 cause there were with him few to observe and fewer to record his 
 achievements. 
 
 The memoir of Tonty preserved in the archives of the French ma- 
 rine department, is a bare recital, disappointing in its lack of detail, 
 though admirably free from vaunting comment or self-praise. The 
 narrative, moreover, conies to an abrupt conclusion during the middle 
 of its author's career in the Mississippi valley region. 
 
 subject exhaustively, but aims rather to inspire tho writing of a complete biogi-aphy of 
 Henry de Tonty by calling attention to the unwritten history of La Salle's companion, 
 and suggesting the abundant possibilities contained in such material. 
 
(Fac-simile of Tonty's signature »s it appears on the 
 document reciting the foimalities attendant upon tak- 
 ing possession of the Mississippi Valley.) 
 
THE MAN WITH THE IRON HAND. 
 
 UNDER THE LILIES OP FRANCE. 
 
 When the lazzaroni of Naples were stirred to bloody revolt by 
 the peasant fisherman Masaniello, in 1647, two men of distinction took 
 a leading part in the insurrection. One was the famous painter Sal- 
 vator Rosa; the other Lorenzo Tonty, a Neapolitan banker who had 
 achieved some note as a financier. The Spanish viceroy's arbitrary 
 rule over the peasantry prompted these men to warm espousal of 
 the people's cause. Tonty seized the fortress of Gaeta, in the sub- 
 urbs of Naples, and successfully maintained possession during Masa- 
 niello's reign of seven eventful days. When Masaniello, whom suc- 
 cess converted from a patriot into a capricious despot, was assassinated 
 by his own men, Tonty sought an asylum in Paris. There his fel- 
 low-countryman, the crafty Cardinal Mazarin, reigned prime minis- 
 ter of France, the chosen successor of Cardinal Richelieu. It was an 
 era when wars and corrupt officials had depleted the royal treasury. 
 In the year 1653 Tonty suggested to the cardinal that the king's 
 purse might be replenished by a system of life insurance that to this 
 day retains the name tontine. The first trial resulted in failure, though 
 later the French king used the tontine plan to good advantage as a 
 means to fill his coffers. Tonty incurred the royal displeasure and was 
 committed to the Bastile. There he languished many years. 
 
 Henry de Tonty was the son of this man. Born in the year 1650, 
 he was eighteen years old when he entered the French army as a 
 cadet, serving in 1668 and 1669. In seven campaigns he fought under 
 the lilies of France, four on beard ships of war and three in the gal- 
 leys. That he served with valor is indicated by his successive promo- 
 tion from cadet to midshipman, to lieutenant and to the rank of cap- 
 tain. At Messina he was placed in charge of a camp of 20,000 men. 
 
 During the fierce fighting at Libisso a grenade shot away his right 
 hand. It is related of him that while awaiting the delayed services of 
 a surgeon, Tonty, with admirable nerve, amputated the ragged rem- 
 
10 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 nant of his hand with a knife. The lost member of flesh was replaced 
 by a hand constructed of iron, which he usually wore gloved.^ 
 
 Taken prisoner at Libisso, for six months Tonty was confined 
 at Metasse. His release was effected by exchanging for him the son 
 of the governor of that place. Upon his return to France, the king 
 bestowed 300 livres upon him in recognition of his services. He 
 again joined in the hardships of the Sicilian campaign, serving as a 
 volunteer in the galleys. Peace threw him out of employment and 
 Tie was again an inactive soldier of fortune in Paris, restlessly hoping 
 for renewal of hostilities. 
 
 It was in 1677 that Robert de la Salle reached France from Mon- 
 treal, to seek the countenance of the court in the prosecution of the 
 vast designs he had formed for exploring the unknown interior of 
 the continent south of the great lakes. Upon recommendation of 
 Prince Conti, whose favor Tonty seems to have won by his valorous 
 conduct in the French wars, La Salle engaged the young man as his 
 lieutenant. 
 
 2. "Tonty carried a hand made of copper, in lieu of one lost in battle."— History 
 ■of Illinois, by Moses. Vol. I., p. 73. 
 
 "He (Tonty) wore a band of iron or some other metal, which was usually covered 
 •with a glove."— Parkman's La Salle, p. 116. 
 
 "Duluth was a cousin of Tonty with the silver hand, as La Salle's friend was desig- 
 nated because of his metal member."— Winsor's Cartier to Frontenae, p. 273. 
 
 "La Salle returned from Prance, accompanied by the brave oflBcer Henry Tonty. 
 who had lost one hand in battle, but who, with an iron substitute for the lost mem- 
 ber, could still be efficient in case of a conflict."— Edw. D. Neill in "Discovery Along- 
 the Great Lakes." 
 
 La Potherie is quoted by Parkman as saying that Tonty used his metal hand once 
 or twice to good purpose when the Indians became disorderly, "in braking the heads 
 of the most contumacious or knocking out their teeth. Not knowing at the time the 
 eecret of the unusual efficacy of his blows, they regarded hir a 'medicine' of the 
 
 first order." 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 11 
 
 II. 
 
 THE BUILDING OP THE GRIFFON. 
 
 On the voyage from Rochelle, whence they sailed July 14, 1678, to 
 Quebec, where they arrived two months later, La Salle learned to ap- 
 preciate the many good qualities of which his lieutenant was later 
 to give him such signal proof. Here La Salle formed the only inti- 
 mate friendship of his life, and was rewarded by attaching to himself 
 a man whose loyalty and disinterested devotion ceased only with 
 death. 
 
 It was the purpose of La Salle to follow up the discoveries of 
 Joliet and Marquette in their Mississippi voyage, and to ascertain 
 by descending to the mouth whether <hat stream disembogued into 
 the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of California), the Gulf of Mexico, or was 
 indeed the long-sought medium of communication with Japan and 
 China — the Cipango and Cathay of Marco Polo. In the ship that 
 bore the adventurers to New France were the materials for building 
 a vessel to navigate the lakes. Artisans skilled in such construction 
 had also been brought along. 
 
 Without loss of time, the companions set about in making prep- 
 arations for their journey into an unknown country. The marvelous 
 energy and fertility of resource displayed by Tonty astonished and 
 delighted La Salle. 
 
 "His honorable character and his amiable disposition were well- 
 known to you," he wrote to Prince Conti with enthusiasm unusual in 
 this cold man, "but perhaps you would not have thought him capable 
 of doing things for which a strong constitution, an acquaintance 
 with the country and the use of both hands seemed absolutely nec- 
 essary. Nevertheless, his energy and address make him equal to any- 
 thing; and now, at a season when everybody is in fear of the ice, he 
 is setting out to begin a new fort, two hundred leagues from this 
 place." 
 
 In making the trip to Niagara from Ft. Frontenac, on Lake On- 
 tario where the modern city of Kingston now is, Tonty experienced 
 the first evidence of the secret treachery directed against La Salle. The 
 boat in which they came was wrecked through the obstinacy of the 
 pilot, who had doubtless been tampered with by the enemies of La 
 Salle. Niagara was selected as the site of the shipyard. It was win- 
 
12 ^ HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 ter, but the work of building the boat was begun with great energy, 
 the distrustful Seneca Indians having been first placated in a measure 
 by liberal presents. They had brought up the St. Lawrence and 
 along the twelve-mile portage trail of the Niagara gorge the anchors, 
 cordage, sails and other material needful for equipment of the vessel 
 they were to build. La Salle remained long enough to drive the first 
 bolt, and returned to Ft. Frontenac, at the other end of the lake. He 
 left Tonty in command with instructions to complete the vessel. 
 
 It was a task of some magnitude that devolved upon this man. 
 If he had an iron hand, he had a will of steel. The Senecas of the vi- 
 cinity, doubtless inspired to hostility not only by the enemies of La 
 Salle at Montreal, but also suspicious that the ribbed structure grow- 
 ing before their eyes meant menace to the western fur trade which 
 they had heretofore monopolized, threatend to make a bonfire of the 
 vessel. Provisions were scant, the boat wrecked by the treacherous 
 pilot having contained a needed supply. But for the prowess of two 
 New England Indians whom La Salle had attached to his service 
 and who became his devoted followers, the thirty men and the Father 
 Recollect (Hennepin) with Tonty would have starved. The Senecas 
 would furnish no corn, and even the Mohegan hunters could not 
 supply enough game to fill the stomachs of the hungry, cold and dis- 
 pirited men. These men grumbled and were with difficulty prevented 
 from resorting to mutiny or desertion. To add to the trials of this 
 stranger in a strange land, Father Hennepin, the Recollect accom- 
 panying the party, did not spare his peevish complaints — doubtless 
 prompted by envy, because La Salle had not placed him in commanS. 
 It was here that Tonty made an enemy of the Franciscan by bluntly 
 advising him to confine his efforts to the spiritual affairs of the party. 
 
 Under these trying conditions was constructed the first vessel 
 that ever plowed the waters of Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan. 
 As it progressed towards completion, the Iroquois braves grew more 
 menacing. One of them attempted to kill the blacksmith, but the 
 latter kept the Indian at bay with a bar of red-hot iron, till assistance 
 arrived. The feverish energy of Tonty spurred the men to similai 
 exertion, despite their sullen discontent bred by privation, cold and 
 danger of attack. 
 
 In May the vessel was ready to launch. Amid the roar of her 
 cannon and the chorus of the Te Deum from thirty bearded throats, 
 the vessel slid from her stocks into the Niagara river — safe at last 
 from the threatened molestation of the Indians. As a further precau- 
 tion, the vessel was towed into mid-stream. Five cannon ominously 
 glowered from her portholes upon the Indians on the bank and gave 
 warning of the danger that lay in wait for hostile visitors. 
 
 The testimony of the hardships and trials that beset Tonty during 
 this winter's work of boat-building is furnished by others than him- 
 self. In his own memoir he assumes no credit for himself. The 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 13 
 
 building of a vessel in the midst of hostile Indians, several hundred 
 miles from the nearest settlement of Frenchmen, with a half-starved 
 and half-frozen crew inspired to mutiny by agents of the Montreal 
 merchants, is a long story, but he tells it in a line. It is worth while 
 to quote what he says about it in his memoir, as characteristic of this 
 man: 
 
 "The boat was completed in the spring of 1679" is his laconic 
 description of the winter's eventful experiences. 
 
14 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 III. 
 
 INTO THE WILDERNESS OF THE WEST. 
 
 It was not until summer was well advanced that La Salle joined 
 the party aboard the Griffon, as the vessel of 45 tons burden was 
 christened. The heraldic emblem of Count Frontenac, governor of 
 New France, was a representation of this fabulous monster, half eagle 
 and half lion. In his honor had the name been given, and a griffin 
 had been rudely carved in wood at the prow. 
 
 "I will yet make the griffin fly above the crows," were the savage 
 words of La Salle in emphasizing his regard for Count Frontenac 
 and his cordial dislike of the black-gowned Jesuits. 
 
 It was thus with moody satisfaction that he named his vessel the 
 "Griffon" and sailed in quest of the means that should bring confu- 
 sion upon his enemies. Upon his return to Ft. Frontenac he had 
 learned that their machinations had resulted in the seizure of his fort 
 and all his possessions on some specious pretexts. 
 
 Tonty did not sail in the first trip that the Griffon made. He 
 went ahead in a bark canoe in quest of some men whom La Salle had 
 dispatched into the Illinois country some months before to secure 
 supplies and to barter for beaver skins. Arrived at the Straits (De- • 
 troit), Tonty sent up three columns of smoke, and on the tenth of 
 August his signal greeted the party on the vessel. Tonty here em- 
 barked with his men, and the Griffon passed up the straits. On the 
 23d, Lake Huron first felt upon its surface the cutting keel of a sail- 
 ing vessel. It was not long before one of the terrible fall gales which 
 sweep over that broad sheet of water sent the little craft trembling be- 
 tween the engulfing waves. 
 
 "Our people lost all hope of escape," says the account of Father 
 Membre, one of the Recollets of the party, "but a vow which they 
 made to St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of mariners, delivered them 
 by a kind of miracle, so that, after long making head against the wind, 
 the vessel on the 27th reached Missilimakinak." 
 
 The good father does not give minute details as to the nature of 
 the vow offered to St. Anthony of Padua. When their terror had abat- 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 15 
 
 ed with the storm, the crew doubtless forgot all about it. The vessel 
 was destined to meet with sad mishap later on.^ 
 
 At this time Michilimackinac was the Jesuit stronghold in the 
 western country. Here were gathered also the lawless rangers of the 
 woods, wko set at defiance the inhibition of the authorities at Mon- 
 treal relative to the trade in beaver furs. The Ottawas and Hurons 
 gathered here were also inimical to La Salle. Four of La Salle's men 
 who had been sent ahead to barter .were found here and were arrested. 
 They had dissipated the goods entrusted to them and bred hostility 
 to their chief. Tonty went to the Sault Ste. Marie and captured two 
 other deserters; the others of the fifteen men escaped. 
 
 Early in September the Griffon sailed into Green Bay, mooring at 
 one of the islands (probably Washington Island) whose astonished 
 inhabitants gazed with wonder at this "house that walked on 'he 
 water." Nearly half a century before Jean Nicolet had skirted the 
 same island, the first white man to step upon Wisconsin soil. The 
 Pottawattamies who then inhabited the cluster of islands at the en- 
 trance of the Bay proved friendly. La Salle loaded his vessel with 
 beaver skins and dispatched it back to Niagara in order to appease his 
 creditors with the valuable cargo. He directed that this done, the 
 Grififon should immediately return to Lake Michigan with additional 
 supplies. 
 
 The Griffon was never seen again. Whether she foundered in a 
 storm or whether the crew — ripe for mutiny before their departure, — 
 scuttled the vessel after rifling the cargo and then escaped to the 
 Indians of the North, forever remained a mystery.^ 
 
 3. Hennepin gives a highly-colored picture of the storm. He remarks that even 
 La Salle's courage disappeared before the storm's fury. 
 
 4. "They sailed the 18th, with a westerly wind, and fired a gun on taking leave. 
 It was never known what course they steered, nor how they perished; but it is supposed 
 that the ship struck upon a sand, and was there hurried. This was a great loss, for 
 that ship with its cargo cost above 60,000 livres."— Hennepin's Description de la Louis- 
 lane," Paris, 1683. 
 
16 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE COUNTRY OP THE ILLINOIS. 
 
 It had been agreed by La Salle and Tonty to rendezvous at the 
 mouth of the Aliamis river (St. Joseph) and to proceed thence to the 
 Illinois river. La Salle, journeying down the western shore of Lake 
 Michigan, passed the future sites of Milwaukee and Chicago. He 
 arrived at the appointed place first, Tonty's search for the deserters 
 at the Sault Ste. Marie having delayed him. Tonty made his way 
 along the eastern shore of the lake. When within 90 miles of the 
 Miamis, provisions gave out, and the party landed to hunt. Tonty 
 pushed on to La Salle's camp. There he found a stockade partly 
 constructed. La Salle was in an irritable frame of mind over the 
 prolonged absence of the men, and Tonty's inability to give him news 
 concerning the vessel which had left Green Bay freighted with furs, 
 did not tend to soothe him. Tonty records in his narrative: 
 
 "He told me he wished all the men had come with me, in order 
 that he might proceed to the Illinois. I therefore retraced my way to 
 find them, but the violence of the wind forced me to land, and our 
 canoe was upset by the violence of the waves. It was, however, saved, 
 but everything that was in it was lost. For want of provisions we 
 lived for three days on acorns." 
 
 Upon Tonty's return, the reunited party descended the Miamis, 
 portaged to the desolate marshes that give birth to the Kankakee, 
 and finally glided into the Illinois river. Near the site of the present 
 town of Utica, they came upon a village of the Illinois Indians. The 
 wigwams were vacant, for it was the season of the great winter hunt. 
 The Frenchmen had consumed all their provisions, and in their ne- 
 cessity they did not scruple to open the village caches and to help 
 themselves to corn stored therein.^ 
 
 5. "The term cache, meaning a place of concealment, was originally used by the 
 French Canadian trappers and traders. It is made by digging a hole in the ground, 
 eomewhat In the shape of a jug, which Is lined with dry sticlis, grass, or anything 
 else that will protect Its contents from the dampness of the earth. In this place th« 
 goods to be concealed are carefully stowed away." — Gregg's (Commerce of the Prairies, 
 vol. I, p. 68. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 17 
 
 Dispirited by the fatigues of the journey, and the certainty of hard- 
 ships and dangers yet to come, some of the men had planned to de- 
 sert. Fortunately — or rather unfortunately as the sequel proved — it 
 turned so bitterly cold that they did not venture to do so. 
 
 Continuing their river route, the entire party floated into Lake 
 Peoria — an expansion of the stream, and at its lower end were made 
 aware of the proximity of Indians by curling columns of smoke. 
 Uncertain as to the reception that would be accorded them by Indi- 
 ans whose underground granaries they had pillaged, and who had 
 been represented to them long before as hostile, the Frenchmen at 
 once placed themselves oji the defensive. The boats were ranged in 
 line, La Salle on the left and Tonty on the right, and they boldly 
 headed for the Indian encampment. 
 
 There the unexpected appearance of the little fleet had created 
 the utmost consternation. The squaws and their children ran scream- 
 ing into the woods, and some of the valiant red men deemed it 
 prudent to follow. Others, however, as the white men landed and 
 gave no evidence of hostile intentions, advanced with that universally 
 recognized emblem of good will — the calumet. The Frenchmen re- 
 sponded by holding aloft the same token of peace. The calumet was 
 thereupon danced to La Salle and Tonty, who hastened to cement the 
 friendship by compensating the Illinois for the fifty bushels of corn 
 taken from their caches. This alliance with the Illinois, which was to 
 ))lay such a large part in the career of Tonty, occurred Jan. 3. 1680. 
 
18 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE PORT OF THE BROKEN HEART. 
 
 It was not long before troubles accumulated. No word came to- 
 the anxious voyageurs concerning the Griffon. Letters had been sus- 
 pended conspicuously from the branches of trees along the route to 
 guide expected messengers upon the return of the vessel. 
 
 But no messengers came. 
 
 Instead, the altered demeanor of the Indians gave ground for the 
 belief that the emissaries of La Salle's enemies had followed him even 
 to these remote regions. 
 
 So it proved. 
 
 Under cover of night a Wisconsin Indian entered the village and 
 in a secret council of the chiefs poisoned their good will by declaring 
 that the strangers enjoying their hospitality were agents come to be- 
 tray them to their dreaded foes — the Iroquois. He then returned to 
 his Wisconsin wilderness as silently as he had come. 
 
 When La Salle and Tonty sought to enlist the Illinois chiefs in 
 their Mississippi exploration, the Indians responded by describing, 
 with the picturesque exaggeration appertaining to their phraseology, 
 the terrible dangers that would have to be encountered. Alarmed by 
 these tales, the insubordination of the miserable crew accompanying 
 La Salle and Tonty came to the surface. An attempt was made to 
 poison La Salle. Some of the men deserted, and their departure re- 
 doubled the suspicions of the Illinois that treachery was meditated. 
 
 Amid such discouragements a fort was built, and the construction 
 begun of a vessel designed for sailing down the Mississippi. Yield- 
 ing to an impulse of despondency unusual in this man of unbending 
 will. La Salle called the fort Crevecoeur — Broken Heart. 
 
 Early in March La Salle's impatience concerning the long ex- 
 pected tidings of his vessel prompted him to the sudden resolution to 
 go back to Ft. Frontenac. Two days before he had sent Father Hen- 
 nepin and two companions down the Illinois with instructions to ex- 
 plore the upper Mississippi. He departed on his own perilous trip of 
 1,200 miles overland with a faithful Indian hunter and three French- 
 men. He left Tonty in command of the fort. 
 
 Tonty had but eighteen men, including two Recollet fathers, Gab- 
 
HENRY DE TOATY. 19 
 
 riel de la Ribourde and Zenobe ]\Icmbre. The latter later became 
 the historian of the party. 
 
 Shortly after La Salle's departure messengers arrived from Ft. 
 Miamis. They told Tonty that La Salle had been there and had dis- 
 patched them hither to tell him to erect a fort on a commanding 
 eminence facing the Illinois river some distance further up. While 
 Tonty, with four men, was making a preliminary survey of this place, 
 the messengers from the Miamis completed the defection of the 
 men at Crevecoeur by telling them that La Salle's ambitious projects 
 had crumbled; that the Grififon had foundered in a gale; that his 
 effects at Frontenac had been seized by the Montreal creditors and 
 that there remained no hope of recompense from him for services that 
 had remained unpaid since the beginning of the disastrous trip. The 
 men seized the opportunity afforded by Tonty's absence. They pil- 
 laged the fort and wantonly destroyed what they could not carry 
 away. On a plank of the unfinished vessel one of the deserters scrawled 
 this message with charcoal: "Nous sommes tous sauvages." ("We 
 are all savages.") 
 
 The Recollect fathers, the Sieur de Boisrondet, and three other 
 men, the remnant of the party, hastened to Tonty to apprise him of 
 the serious events occurring in his absence. On the way two of these 
 men also deserted, after destroying the firearms of the Sieur de 
 Boisrondet and the only other man who proved loyal. In this extrem- 
 ity Tonty at once dispatched the four men who had been with him 
 in quest of the Sieur de La Salle with an account of the unfortunate 
 sacking of the fort. With his four remaining companions, he resigned 
 himself to the dreary prospect of awaiting the return of their chief 
 with re-enforcements. To maintain Fort Crevecoeur or to fortify the 
 rock designated by La Salle as a site for a fort was out of the ques- 
 tion. The two Recollects thereupon became domiciled in the Indian 
 community in an earnest endeavor at conversion of the savages and 
 the acquirement of their language. Tonty and the other two men 
 took up their habitation in a cabin near the Indians. 
 
20 HENBY DE TONTY. 
 
 .VI. 
 
 RAID OF THE IROQUOIS. 
 
 So the summer wore away in impatient inactivity. But for the de- 
 pendence placed upon him by La Salle to hold in close alliance the 
 tribes of the Illinois country, (a most important factor in his plans) 
 Tonty would have been tempted to retrace his steps out of this region 
 of prairie and wood, delightful as it was after the melting of the 
 snows had been succeeded by the swelling of buds and deepening 
 verdure of the fertile prairie lands. 
 
 Tonty had succeeded in winning the friendship of the chiefs and 
 in allaying suspicions aroused by the Mascoutin Indian from Wiscon- 
 sin in their early coming, but untoward events again aroused them. 
 In mid-September, while most of the young warriors were absent 
 on a hunt, there came breathless into camp an Indian runner with 
 the news that the dreaded Iroquois were on the war-path; that with 
 them was La Salle and that they were then but a day's march away. 
 
 It was a critical moment for Tonty. Surrounded by the yelling 
 braves, who were almost in a frenzy between fear of the fierce Iroquois 
 and eagerness for revenge upon the supposed treacherous confeder- 
 ate in their midst, the life of Tonty seemed forfeit to their fury. His 
 vehement denials of the accusation of treachery had less effect than 
 his expressed willingness to lead them against the Iroquois — to fight 
 if need be, to act as a messenger with peace proposals, if possible. 
 
 But the Illinois lacked the bravery that characterized their foes 
 from the East, and but for Tonty's inspiring counsel they would 
 doubtless have sought safety in flight, as they had done before. The 
 Iroquois, who had expected to surprise the Illinois, were greatly cha- 
 grined to find that their plans had miscarried, and no less so to ob- 
 serve the unwonted courage of the Illinois in coming to meet them. 
 Seeing their hesitation and likewise noting the greater strength of the 
 opposing force, Tonty concluded that he would attempt to bring 
 about peace. Bearing a necklace in his hand as an offering, he ap- 
 proached tmarmed the hostile columns, accompanied by the Recollect 
 fathers and the Sieur de Boisrondet. As the Iroquois greeted their 
 advance with musket shots, Tonty sent back all his companions and 
 continued alone on his mission. 
 
 He received no friendly greeting. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 21 
 
 Immediately surrounded by the young braves, whom the older 
 chiefs could not restrain, Tonty received a knife thrust over the 
 heart. The blade glanced off a rib, or his career would have ended 
 here. An Indian contemptuously seized the necklace he had carried 
 and threw it on the ground. Another grasped Tonty's hair and was 
 about to add that trophy to his belt when the older chiefs interfered. 
 An angry altercation ensued. Some wanted to make a living torch 
 of Tonty; others wanted to set him at liberty, so as not to engage 
 the French in their battle with the Illinois. Though suffering from 
 • his wound and surrounded by captors thirsting for his blood, Tonty 
 assumed a bold attitude. He told the assembled braves that the Illi- 
 nois warriors numbered 1,200 fighting men; that with them were 60 
 Frenchmen who would aid them in the fight; that the Iroquois, in 
 making war upon the Illinois, were fighting the children of the king 
 of France, and would incur his displeasure. He counseled them to 
 peace. 
 
 The crafty Iroquois, who were masters of the art of forest di- 
 plomacy, as they were of savage warfare, pretending acquiescence, en- 
 gaged Tonty to carry proposals of peace. Bleeding from his wound 
 and weakened by the loss of blood, Tonty undertook this mission. 
 
 In the meantime there had been some harmless skirmishing. 
 When Tonty had been stabbed, an Indian brave had seized the Ital- 
 ian's hat and poising it upon the muzzle of his gun had waved it ex- 
 ultingly in the sight of the Illinois. Supposing Tonty to have been 
 killed, the French fathers were overcome with joy when they saw 
 Tonty coming towards them. He staggered into their welcoming 
 arms, and they gave him such attention as their skill would allow. 
 
 The proposals of peace delighted the Illinois, who were on the 
 verge of flight when Tonty came back to them. Many of them had 
 already departed with the squaws and children to a place of refuge 
 on an island near the mouth of the river. They told Tonty they 
 would gladly make a peace. Tonty therefore returned to the Iroquois 
 to further negotiate the terms. A young Illinois Indian, who had 
 been sent as a hostage, nearly upset his plans by telling the Iroquois 
 chieftains that his tribe was very glad to make the peace; that most 
 of the men were away on a hunt; that if the Iroquois really wished fof 
 peace the Illinois were ready to give up the beaver skins they had 
 stored and some slaves they had. 
 
 "I had much difficulty in getting out of the scrape," quaintly re- 
 marks Tonty in his memoir. "The Iroquois called me to them and 
 loaded me with reproaches; they told me that I was a liar to have 
 said that the Illinois had 1.200 warriors, besides the allies who had 
 given them assistance. Where were the 60 Frenchmen who I ha(i 
 told them had been left at the village?" 
 
 Meantime the Illinois had burned the huts of their village and 
 retreated to their island refuge. The Iroquois occupied the site and 
 
22 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 built a fort. Tonty and his companions remained in their cabin near 
 by. The crafty Iroquois, though pretending peace, began building 
 elm-bark canoes. Observing this Tonty sent word to the Illinois that 
 their foes meant to follow them to their island; he counseled them to 
 retire to some distant nation while they yet had time. 
 
 On the eighth day after the arrival of the Iroquois, their chiefs 
 called Tonty and Father Z.enoble to council. Upon conclusion of the 
 usual ceremonials, six packets of beaver skins were set before Tonty. 
 Addressing him in the figurative speech which none knew how to em- 
 ploy to better advantage than the orators of the Five Nations, one 
 of the chiefs explained their meaning: 
 
 The first two packets were "to inform M. de Frontenac that 
 they would not eat his children and that he should not be angry at 
 what they had done. 
 
 The third was a plaster for Tonty's wound. 
 
 The fourth was some oil to rub on his and Father Zenoble's 
 limbs, on account of the long journeys they had taken. 
 
 The fifth that the sun was bright. 
 
 The sixth that the Frenchmen should profit by it and depart the 
 next day for the French settlements. 
 
 Tonty received this polite invitation to depart with ill-concealed 
 impatience. To leave the Iroquois to carry out their hostile intentions 
 towards the Illinois meant the serious marring of the plan to es- 
 tablish a fortified chain of communication from Frontenac to the 
 mouth of the great river, with the Indians of the country enroute as 
 allies to maintain "French supremacy. Undaunted by his apparent 
 helplessness, he boldly faced the chiefs and inquired when they, too, 
 would go away. 
 
 "We will eat some of the Illinois first," said one of them, whose 
 diplomacy evaporated before the heat of his fierce eagerness for battle. 
 
 Upon this Tonty rose from his place in the council ring. 
 
 "Since you desire to eat the children of the Governor," he said 
 sternly, "I will have none of your presents," and with a vigorous 
 kick he sent the packets of beaver skins tumbling in all directions. 
 
 In a rage at this contemptuous treatment, the chiefs drove Tonty 
 f»om the council. In their cabin near the Indian fort, the Frenchmen 
 barricaded themselves, determined to sell their lives as dearly as pos- 
 sible, for none of them expected to live out the night. Here they re- 
 mained till daybreak, when, realizing the uselessness of further en- 
 dangering the lives of himself and companions, Tonty directed the 
 party to a canoe and they hastily departed — which they were en- 
 abled to do unmolested. The sufferings which they underwent and the 
 fortitude they displayed in their Journey in search of relief at Green 
 Bay scarcely finds a parallel in the history of the Northwest. 
 
Historic Places in Tonty's Career. 
 
 Niagara— -The Shipyard of the Griffon,' as 
 Cyrus K Remington terms the spot where 
 
 Tonty built the pioneer vessel. 
 Ft. Miarais — Base rf operations for La Salle 
 
 and Tonty's two Mississippi expeditions. 
 Washington Island. — The Island in Green 
 
 Bay whence thu Griffon sailed on her 
 
 disastrous voyage. 
 Ft Crevecoeur. — The Fort of the Broken 
 
 Heart. 
 Starved Rock. — Site of Tonty's stronghold, 
 
 the For* of St. Louis on the Illinois. 
 Michihraackinac. — French Post, where Ton* 
 
 ty and La Salle met after the great Iro- 
 quois raid. 
 Old Biloxi— Where Tonty lies buried. 
 
HENRY DE TON TV. 23 
 
 VII. 
 
 DEATH OF FATHER GABRIEL. 
 
 In their leaky canoe, Tonty and his companions toiled for five 
 hours up the stream, and were finally compelled to land to repair 
 their frail craft. Here the career of aged Father Gabriel de la Ribourde 
 <:ame to a tragic close. A leafy arbor i,ooo paces away invited him to 
 its friendly shelter for meditation and prayer. 
 
 He never returned. 
 
 Alarmed at his prolonged absence, Tonty went to look for him. 
 Instead of the good father, he found the recent trail of many Indians, 
 -whether of pursuing Iroquois or others it was impossible to tell. 
 Vainly he fired his musket. In vain he shouted the name of Father 
 Gabriel; there was no answering voice save reverberating echo. With 
 sad hearts the men crossed the river to spend the night. They built 
 a huge fire as a beacon, and kept guard for signs of the father's com- 
 ing. At midnight the forms of several men were descried on the oppo- 
 site shore, and gave confirmation to their fears. 
 
 With daybreak they recrossed to reconnoitre. They vainly 
 searched for Father Gabriel till long past noon, despite the danger 
 they incurred by deferring their departure. At last reluctantly thej'' 
 resumed their way, keeping a sharp lookout along the bank. 
 
 Years afterwards the breviary of Father Gabriel was found among 
 the Kickapoo Indians in Wisconsin, and the mystery of his fate be- 
 came known. While absorbed in prayer, he had been discovered by 
 a wandering band of these Indians, and they cruelly crushed in his 
 skull with a club, scalped him, and threw his body into a deep hole. 
 It was perhaps a blessing in disguise that Father Gabriel's sufferings 
 ended at the beginning of this journey, for this man of 70 years could 
 never have withstood the terrible privations and fatigues to which his 
 companions were about to be subjected.^ 
 
 6. According to Hennepin, as quoted by Shea, Father Gabriel Ribourde was the 
 last scion of a noble Burgundian house, who not only renounced his inheritance and 
 the world to enroll himself among the lowly children of St. Francis, but even when 
 advanced in life and honored with the dignities of his order, sought the new and toll- 
 -some mission of Canada. Consulting his zeal, rather than his age, he embarked with 
 .La Salle. He was 70 years old when killed. 
 
24 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 By mischance Tonty determined to seek succor at Green Bay 
 among the friendly Pottawattamies, instead of going by the longer 
 route along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Michilimackinac 
 He thus missed La Salle, who with re-enforcements was hurrying 
 along that route by way of Ft. Miamis to relieve Tonty. La Salle 
 had reached Frontenac only to learn of further misfortunes. The 
 Griffon had never been heard of after leaving what is known as Wash- 
 ington Island; a vessel from France sent to him with supplies had 
 been wrecked in the St. Lawrence. His hopes seemed in ruins. To fill. 
 his cup of bitterness to overflowing Tonty's messengers reached him 
 with the story of the dismantling of Ft. Crevecoeur and the intention 
 of the deserters to seek and to assassinate La Salle. Ambuscading 
 the traitors, he killed two of them and took the others prisoners. 
 Despite his fallen fortunes he managed to organize another com- 
 pany and hurried to the help of Tonty, whose position he knew to 
 be critical on account of the threatened Iroquois invasion. He came 
 to the rock whereon he had ordered a fort built; he reached the de- 
 serted Ft. Crevecoeur, where the message of the deserters scribbled on 
 the side of the half-finished boat greeted him as if in derision of his 
 hopes. In the deserted village of the Illinois he came upon the un- 
 buried bodies of the dead, disinterred by the vandal Iroquois, whose 
 fury found full vent after Tonty's restraining presence had been re- 
 moved. They had pursued the Illinois as Tonty had foretold, and 
 with revolting atrocity had not only despoiled the graves of the dead, 
 but had inflicted upon several hundred women and children the bar- 
 barities and tortures which Indian warfare demanded as the fitting 
 sequel of victory. Among the dead La Salle searched with heavy 
 heart for the body of his loyal friend, and then returned to his fort 
 on the Miamis. There he spent the winter. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 2& 
 
 VIII. 
 
 FLIGHT TO GREEN BAY. 
 
 While La Salle was thus engaged, Tonty and his companions 
 were painfully toiling along the western shore of Lake Michigan. 
 In their crazy craft they coasted for days, living on nuts, roots and 
 wild garlic which they dug from under the frozen snow. It grew 
 bitterly cold, their footgear gave out and they improvised moccasins 
 by cutting the beaver mantle of poor Father Gabriel into strips and 
 tieing them on with thongs made of the same material. For fifteen 
 days they subsisted on the scanty fare they dug out of the frozen 
 ground, when the providential killing of a stag gave them renewed 
 courage and sustenance. The Sieur de Boisrondet became lost in the 
 forest and for ten days was looked upon as forever lost by his dispir- 
 ited companions. When he rejoined them he told how he had lived 
 alone in the woods, armed with a musket, but unprovided with flint 
 and bullets. In his extremity he had melted a pewter dish into pellets 
 and with the touch of a live coal successfully discharged his musket 
 at a flock of wild turkeys. Thus he had kept alive his emaciated frame 
 till he found his companions. 
 
 On St. Martin's day (Nov. ii) the eyes of the weary travelers 
 were gladdened by the sight of a Pottawattamie village. But new 
 disappointments awaited them. The village was deserted. The fam- 
 ished men eagerly gathered together a few handfuls of scattered corn 
 and a few frozen gourds. While searching for more, a belated member 
 of the party came up and began devouring the provisions, which he 
 supposed had been left there for him. When the gleaners returned 
 they found that he had not spared the corn and the gourds. 
 
 "We had much pleasure in seeing him again," says Tonty, "but 
 little to see our provisions partly consumed." 
 
 They had formed the reckless determination to make an attempt 
 to reach Michilimackinac in a canoe as a last hope, when they came 
 upon another Indian trail. It led to another village, but the Indians 
 had departed, leaving the slumbering embers of a fire. This was about 
 the place where the Sturgeon Bay canal opens into Lake Michigan. 
 In the hope of coming upon the Indians, the weary men made a 
 portage to Sturgeon creek. Failing to come upon the savages, they 
 
26 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 determined to go back to the Indian village to secure at least the 
 comfort of dying by a fire. 
 
 They were now in their last extremity. Tonty was attacked by a 
 fever and his legs were swollen terribly. In his hunger one of the 
 men had made a meal of part of Father Gabriel's mantle of hide, 
 and suffered so excruciatingly from indigestion as to be unable to 
 proceed. The creek had frozen so as to render navigation by canoe im- 
 possible. The last hope seemed to be gone, when two Indians chanced 
 that way and brought the long-sought relief to the famishing men. 
 Among the well-disposed Pottawattamies, in what is now the penin- 
 sula of Door County, Wis., Tonty spent the winter and recuperated 
 from the hardships of his terrible journey. In the spring he crossed 
 to Michilimackinac. To their mutual joy, Tonty and La Salle there 
 met and told each other what adventures had befallen each, since 
 their parting- at Ft. Crevecoeur, twelve months before. 
 
HENRY DE TOyTY. 27 
 
 IX. 
 
 AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Rejoiced to find his loyal lieutenant ready to second his efforts, 
 La Salle energetically prepared for another expedition to explore the 
 lower Mississippi. While he was collecting the sinews of war, the en- 
 ergetic Tonty repaired in advance to the Illinois country. In October 
 (1681) La Salle joined him. Tonty had prepared sledges with which 
 to cross the frozen rivers, and these conveyances greatly facilitated 
 their journey. This time their route to the Illinois was by way of the 
 Chicagou river. By the end of January (1682) they had reached the 
 mouth of the Illinois river. For the first time Henry de Tonty saw 
 the mighty Mississippi. For twenty years thereafter Tonty succeeded 
 in maintaining French supremacy on this great stream. When the 
 Wisconsin route to the river was practically closed to the French by 
 the Foxes, the southern portage routes remained open through the 
 exertions of Tonty. 
 
 The voyage down the Mississippi lasted three months. Tonty was 
 the first white man to visit the Taensa Indians, a nation that dwelt in 
 adobe huts, covered with cane mats. These Indians wore clothing 
 woven from the bark of the mulberry tree; they worshiped the sun and 
 had a large temple made of mud, wherein a fire was kept perpetually 
 burning in adoration of their god. The ordinarily laconic Tonty has 
 left a fairly full description of the curious customs which he noted 
 among these Indians. 
 
 After numerous adventures, the party came to the deltas of the 
 great river. La Salle went down one channel, Tonty's canoe another 
 and a third party proceeded along the remaining channel. Soon the 
 broad gulf of Mexico opened to their gaze, and the reunited parties 
 prepared to encamp. The next day the solemn ceremony of taking 
 possession in the name of the king of France was performed. Upon a 
 column that v/as reared in this lonely spot were af^xed the arms of 
 France suitably inscribed. The Franciscan priest led the chant of the 
 Te Deum and Exaudiat, the muskets rang out in unison, the men 
 shouted "Vive le Roi" in hoarse accord, and the Indian followers — 
 scarce knowing why — raised their voices in savage acclaim. Then a 
 cross was erected and a notary drew up an account, which was signed 
 
28 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 by La Salle, Tonty and eleven others. Thus was performed the cere- 
 mony whereby the king of France added to his goodly domain in the 
 new world that vast region that came to be known as Louisiana, whose 
 boundaries were later claimed to be the Rocky mountains and the 
 Appalachian system on the west and east, the frozen sources of the 
 Mississippi on the north and from Spanish Florida to Mexico on the 
 south. "This stretch ran from corn to oranges; from sycamore to 
 palmettos. The flood that coursed this enormous basin was one of 
 the world's largest, draining an area of more than twelve hundred and 
 fifty thousand square miles, sending twenty million of millions of cu- 
 bic feet of water annually into the sea."J 
 
 This ceremony of tremendous future import occurred April pth, 
 1682. Without loss of time, for food had become exhausted, the party 
 prepared to return. They defeated an attacking band of Indians after 
 killing ten of these swamp savages, and finally reached a friendly tribe, 
 who gave them shelter. * 
 
 La Salle was taken seriously sick, and he despatched Tonty to 
 bear the news of their discovery to Count Frontenac. Thus Tonty 
 was the first to give the intelligence that the waters of the Mississippi 
 poured their vast volume into the gulf of Mexico. 
 
 On the way up the river, Tonty was waylaid by wandering Indi- 
 ans, who mistook him for an Iroquois and decided to burn him. But 
 for the strenuous interposition of the Illinois Indians who accompa- 
 nied him, Tonty would have been burned at the stake. He reached 
 Michilimackinac in July, and three months later La Salle joined him. 
 
 Tonty at once repaired to the Illinois river to begin the construc- 
 tion of a fort. Here La Salle followed, and they completed the historic 
 Ft. St. Louis on the massive clifif that to-day is known as Starved 
 Rock.s 
 
 7. The language of La Salle in taking possession, was somewhat obscure. Doubt- 
 less, says Sparks, his purpose wa-s to take possession of the whole territory watered by 
 the Mississippi and its tributaries on both sides. 
 
 8. A traditional interest attaches to this rock, says Parkman. A party of Illinois, 
 assailed by the Pottawattamies, here took refuge and defied attack. At length they 
 were all destroyed by starvation; hence the name of "Starved Rock." 
 
Site of Tonty's Fort at Starved Rock. 
 (Near the town of Utica, 111.) 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 29 
 
 X. 
 
 FORT ST. LOUIS ON THE ROCK. 
 
 Starved Rock rises one hundred and fifty feet from the edge of 
 the water and is a sheer precipice on three sides. Only from behind 
 can the top be reached, and thence with difficulty. The place is a nat- 
 ural fortress. Properly provisioned, a handful of men occupying the 
 level acre on top could defy the siege or assault of an army. 
 
 The fort completed, Tonty went among the Indians of the sur- 
 rounding country to seek allies. How well he succeeded in his mis- 
 sion is shown by the fact that soon the valley beneath him was a vast 
 encampment of Illinois, Miamis, Shawanoes, Weas and Piankishaws — 
 four thousand warriors. In the dozen villages of bark lodges were 
 housed not less than 20,000 Indians, counting the women and the chil- 
 dren. It had required all the tact and diplomacy of Tonty to bring 
 about this confederation of hitherto mutually unfriendly tribes. Its 
 continuance meant not only the supremacy of the French on the Mis- 
 sissippi, but the control of the whole western fur trade, which the Iro- 
 quois by conquest and plunder had been seeking to divert to the 
 Dutch and English on the eastern coast. 
 
 Intent upon planting a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi to 
 supplement Tonty's at Ft. St. Louis, on the Rock, La Salle decided 
 to sail for France to secure more aid. He named his faithful friend 
 as governor of the fort, and bade him farewell. 
 
 Tonty never saw him again. 
 
 La Salle had scarcely gone beyond recall when there came to the 
 Rock the Chevalier de Baugis to displace Tonty as commandant, by 
 order of the governor at Montreal. Count Frontenac had been recalled 
 to France and the enemies of La Salle were triumphant in Montreal. 
 Tonty surrendered the fort, but remained there; and before the corn 
 grew again de Baugis was glad indeed to ask Tonty to share the com- 
 mand, for in March the Iroquois came. For six days the fierce In- 
 dians from the East besieged the Rock, eager to destroy the garrison. 
 For once they met a foe whose valor and whose cunning exceeded 
 their own. Tonty repulsed them with great loss and they retired into 
 their own country. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the court of France, La Salle had found renewed 
 royal favor, one evidence of which was that his confiscated fort of St. 
 
30 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 Louis on the Illinois was restored to him. He sent the joyful news to 
 Tonty, again placing him in command, and advising him that the ex- 
 pedition for the Mississippi mouth would soon be under way. 
 
 The fate of La Salle's disastrous quest for the mouth of the great 
 river has often been told. First he quarreled with the naval com- 
 mander, Beaujeu, who chafed because he had to serve under La 
 Salle. The old captain seems to have been especially offended because 
 La Salle expressly stipulated that in case ought happened to himself, 
 Tonty should be sent for to comm.and the expedition. When the 
 ships passed by the mouth of the Mississippi and La Salle's vessel 
 was wrecked in Matagorda Bay, Beaujeu set sail and abandoned La 
 Salle on this inhospitable shore. On the Trinity river. La Salle was 
 assassinated by some of his own men. 
 
 All unconscious of the fate of his friend, Tonty organized a party 
 to descend the Mississippi and to meet La Salle. He had indeed heard 
 that La Salle had landed, for in the autumn of 1685 Tonty journeyed 
 from his eyrie on the Rock to Michilimackinac and there learned in 
 a letter from the new governor that news had been received in France, 
 upon the return of Beaujeu, that La Salle's expedition had safely 
 landed. He returned on foot to the Rock, and in February (1686) left 
 there with eleven Indians and twice that number of Frenchmen to 
 meet his friend. 
 
 But no trace of his friend did the loyal Tonty find, save the col- 
 umn erected at the delta four years before — now fallen and half-sub- 
 merged in the ooze of this swampy region. Fie sent canoes to coast 
 along the shore both east and west, but the crews returned without 
 tidings. In his anxiety to reach La Salle, he proposed to his men to 
 cruise along the coast till they should come to Manhatte, but the un- 
 known dangers appalled the men and they refused to accompany him. 
 Disconsolately, Tonty prepared to return to Ft. St. Louis. The fallen 
 column was again erected, out of reach of the hungry waters of the 
 gulf, and Tonty wrote a letter for La Salle, which he entrusted to the 
 keeping of a chief of the Bayagoulas. 
 
 The tenor of this letter is pathetic in the sincerity of the concern 
 which the writer expresses for the welfare of La Salle and the assur- 
 ances he gives that he would sacrifice everything to advance the inter- 
 ests of his friend. This letter, fourteen years later, was given by the 
 Bayogoula chief to Pierre d'Iberville, and convinced that explorer that 
 he had found the Mississippi, after Hennepin's misleading and spuri- 
 ous narration had led him to doubt that he was upon that river. ^ 
 
 9. Hennepiii never descended the Mississippi, but after La Salle's death claimed 
 to have done so and wrote an account of his alleged trip. It was based on Le Clercq"s 
 narrative, which had been suppressed, but of which Hennepin had secured a copy. It. 
 was this fable of Hennepin's and the plagiarized and garbled version of Tonty's me- 
 moirs which Iberville had taken along as guides to give him an idea of the Mississippi 
 country. Of course he failed to reconcile the descriptions with the actual facts. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 31 
 
 At the Arkansas river, where on the previous voyage La Salle had 
 conferred a seigneury upon the devoted Tonty, several of the men re- 
 quested to be allowed to form a settlement and Tonty gave his con- 
 sent. 
 
 Before Tonty's departure in search of La Salle, the new governor, 
 Denonville, had sent word to Tonty that his aid would be wanted in 
 a contemplated attack on the Iroquois in their own country. Upon his 
 return from the fruitless trip down the Mississippi, Tonty raised a 
 force of Indians and coureur de bois and proceeded to make the thou- 
 sand-mile journey to the St. Lawrence. Before starting he gave his 
 savages a dog-feast — a ceremony that ends with the devouring of a 
 dog's heart raw, and which seems to inspire the Indians with un- 
 wonted courage. At the Straits (Detroit) he joined his cousin Du 
 Luth and another party under Durantye. Shortly after the three chief- 
 tains made an important capture, in intercepting some Englishmen 
 who were bound for the western country to set the Indians on the 
 heels of the French. 
 
 Tonty's part in the campaign against the Senecas is told by Den- 
 onville in his official dispatches. He praises Tonty highly.^" While 
 advancing into the Indian country, the vanguard was ambuscaded by 
 the crafty Senecas. Tonty was at the head of this ambushed force, 
 and his knowledge of Indian warfare enabled him to meet the foe in 
 such unexpected manner as to turn an anticipated rout of his men into 
 a pursuit of the discomfited enemy. ^^ The Seneca villages were laid 
 waste, their ripening crops were leveled to the ground, and then for 
 some unknown reason Denonville ceased his pursuit. | 
 
 Tonty returned to the Rock, and there found Abbe Cavelier, La 
 Salle's brother, and a number of companions who had found their way 
 out of the Texas wilderness after La Salle's assassination. Instead of 
 telling Tonty what had happened they deceived him into believing that 
 La Salle was still alive and well in Texas, and would shortly follow 
 them to the Illinois. Delighted to hear these welcome tidings, the 
 generous Tonty not only treated the wanderers with every courtesy, 
 but loaned the lying abbe merchandise to the value of 4,000 livres to 
 enable him to continue his journey to France. The abbe and his com- 
 panions departed on their way, rejoicing at the successful outcome of 
 their deception. 
 
 10. Documentary History of New York, vol. 
 
 11. Cf. Tonty's memoir, Margry, toI. I. 
 
32 HENR Y BE TO N TY. 
 
 XI. 
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS OP THE SOUTH. 
 
 To the intense indignation of Tonty, shortly after he learned from 
 one of the men who arrived from his post on the Arkansas, that he 
 had been grossly deceived and that his generosity had been expended 
 upon liars and ingrates. The priest, who later justified his deception of 
 Tonty on the ground that the first news of La Salle's assassination was 
 due the court of France, had not hesitated to tell the story to the men 
 within the stockade on the Arkansas, when the haphazard wanderings 
 of himself and companions brought their weary footsteps to that 
 friendly shelter. 
 
 The faithful heart of Tonty was wrung by the intelligence, and the 
 distressing situation in which the feeble remnant of La Salle's party at 
 Matagorda Bay had been left by the conspirators appealed to his sense 
 of chivalry. He determined to effect their rescue if possible, unde- 
 terred^by the tremendous risks he ran in traversing the unknown wil- 
 derness intervening — a distance of hundreds of miles of swamp, forest 
 and brake. Unconscious that the little colony had been swept into 
 captivity by hostile savages, early in December of the year 1688 a canoe 
 bore him, accompanied by live Frenchmen and three Indians, down 
 the current of the Illinois for his third expedition down the Missis- 
 sippi. It was not till the last of March that they found themselves on 
 the Red River. The journey had been so arduous that all but one 
 of the Frenchmen and one of the Indians refused to proceed. Despite 
 his urgent entreaties, they retraced their steps. 
 
 With his two remaining followers and a slave Tonty pushed on. 
 The Frenchman lost himself in a wood. Tonty found him, only to 
 learn of new misfortunes,' for in crossing a stream the latter had al- 
 lowed the ammunition bag to slip off into the water. They had but 
 a trifling quantity of powder remaining, and were thus in a sorry 
 plight. Still Tonty would not give up. He pushed on from one Indi- 
 an village to another, cementing friendships which he designed to use 
 later on to secure a confederation of tribes for an attack upon the 
 Spaniards of Mexico, with whom the French were now at war. At 
 last he reached an Indian village where he learned that Frenchmen 
 had not long before had their abode. The demeanor of these Indians 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 33 
 
 and their unsatisfactory explanation in accounting for the absence of 
 the Frenchmen, aroused his suspicions that the Frenchmen had been 
 murdered. 
 
 "I told them," he recounts in his narrative, "that they had killed 
 the Frenchmen. Directly all the women began to cry, and thus I saw 
 that what I had said was true. I would not, therefore, accept the cal- 
 umet." 
 
 Reluctantly Tonty concluded to return, for the Indians would fur- 
 nish him no more guides and his ammunition had become exhausted. 
 He was then within 250 miles of the place where the ill-fated colony 
 had been planted, and within three days' journey of the spot where the 
 unburied bones of La Salle lay bleaching in the sun. 
 
 The return journey to the Mississippi was an uninterrupted series 
 of incredible hardships, lasting from the beginning of May till July. 
 The rainy season came on. Night and day the heavens opened their 
 floodgates, till the whole country for a stretch of many miles was in- 
 undated. They made a raft, but found no dry land. Once they joy- 
 fully came upon a band of savages. 
 
 "We called to them in vain," narrates Tonty, "they ran away, and 
 we were unable to come up with them. Two of their dogs came to 
 us, which with two of our own we embarked the next day on our raft. 
 We crossed fifty leagues of flooded country. The water, where it was 
 least deep, reached half-way up the legs; and in all this tract we found 
 only one little island of dry land, where we killed a bear and dried its 
 flesh. It would be difficult to give an idea of the trouble we had to get 
 out of this miserable country, where it rained night and day. We were 
 obliged to sleep on the trunks of two great trees placed together, and 
 to make our fire on the trees, to eat our dogs and to carry our bag- 
 gage across large tracts covered with reeds. In short, I never suffered 
 so much in my life as in this journey to the Mississippi, which we 
 reached on the nth of July." 
 
 Finally Tonty reached a village of the Coroas and was hospitably 
 received. For three days not a morsel of food had he eaten. The sav- 
 ages sympathized with his sufferings and feasted him royally. He pur- 
 sued his way, but in the miasmatic region he had traversed he had ab- 
 sorbed the germs of a fever, and he lingered on the Arkansas for a 
 fortnight before he could pursue his toilsome way back to the Illinois. 
 He wearily climbed his beloved Rock in September, 1690. 
 
 The narrative of Tonty's life, which was sent to Paris in 1693, ends 
 here. Four years later it was made the basis of a spurious work by 
 an anonymous writer, whose fertility of imagination supplied the embel- 
 lishments. Tonty repudiated this document. 
 
 For ten years after this last trip down the Mississippi Tonty re- 
 mained at the Rock, endeavoring to enlist the aid of the French court 
 in carrying out the plan left uncompleted by La Salle's untimely 
 death. Tonty was the only man who realized the vast possibilities in 
 
M HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 this undeveloped empire. Despite the discouraging indifference at 
 •Court that repulsed his efforts, he sought with his feeble forces at the 
 Rock to hold the western portal to this empire for his adopted coun- 
 try, till stronger influences than his own should succeed in spurring 
 the French to fuller realization of neglected opportunities. On his 
 lofty rock he reigned like a monarch over the surrounding tribes, and 
 his inspiration and diplomacy banded them to united action in repuls- 
 ing the Iroquois. The advance of the Five Nations was thus checked 
 and English conquest of the western soil delayed for many years. His 
 iervices were but ill-requited. The greedy policy of the French author- 
 ities led to a proclamation against the Frenchmen who were trapping 
 in the western country, ordering their arrest and seizure of their furs. 
 Tonty and his companion La Forest were shown some consideration, 
 it is true. They were expressly excluded from this inhibition; but they 
 were limited to two canoes in trading, not a princely resource to main- 
 tain their establishment on the Illinois. Tonty was reduced to sending 
 a petition to the minister of marine for a company "that he may con- 
 tinue his services in this country, where he has not ceased to harass 
 the Iroquois by enlisting the Illinois against them in his majesty's 
 cause." In this petition, wherein his services are recited without adorn- 
 ment and in the briefest possible manner, Tonty presents his prayer 
 for a company "in consideration of his voyages and heavy expenses 
 and considering also that during his services of seven years as cap- 
 tain he has not received any pay." Count Frontenac, who was again 
 governor of New France, strongly endorsed this petition, but nothing- 
 ever came of it.^^ 
 
 But if Tonty's attempt to secure aid in bringing to fruition the 
 plans of La Salle met with but cold response, his efforts finally bore 
 fruit. After La Salle's disastrous expedition to Matagorda Bay, the 
 Mississippi river colonization scheme was discredited at court. Not 
 till Tonty's narrative was received, together with an estimate prepared 
 by him for building a vessel at the Arkansas to secure a cargo of buf- 
 falo hides and pearls with which to sail for France, was interest in 
 the scheme revived. An added impetus was the rumor that the Eng- 
 lish and Spanish were also about to sail for the mouth of the Mississ- 
 ippi to secure possession of this great highway. The gallant Le Moyne 
 d'Iberville, whose remarkable exploits in New France and in the Hud- 
 son Bay country had given him great prestige, had the influence at 
 court which Tonty lacked. With a goodly retinue he sailed for the 
 Mississippi country and went up that stream to found a colony. Un- 
 
 12. Ingratitude was the meed of nearly all of the courageous pioneers of New 
 France. Joliet and Perrot were allowed to die in poverty, if not neglect; Bienville's 
 lU-fated colony was left to starvation or pestilence; La Salle's unfortunate compan- 
 ions at Matagorda Bay were abandoned, and no effort was made to rescue the survivors 
 from their captors. Even the lion-hearted Frontenac was made the victim of an Indif- 
 ferent monarch's caprices. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 35 
 
 •certain whether he had reached his destination, all doubts were re- 
 moved when an old Indian chief clad in a coat of blue gave into his 
 liands the letter which fourteen years before Tonty had confided to 
 the Bayagoula chief to be given to La Salle. At Biloxi Bay they 
 erected a stockade and began the settlement that was destined to be 
 the foundation of Old Louisiana. 
 
36 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 XII. 
 
 WITH THE COLONY OP OLD BILOXI. 
 
 Here Henry de Tonty joined the colonists in the year 1700. For 
 nearly twenty years he had toiled in the face of every discouragement. 
 to maintain his fort of St. Louis. On the 25th day of November, 1698^ 
 the Count Frontenac died, and the last hope that Tonty might have 
 entertained that he vi^ould be permitted to pick up the thread dropped 
 by his dead friend was shattered. Men less friendly and less sympa- 
 thetic came into power. A royal decree came abandoning the fort on 
 the Rock. Determined to join d'Iberville, with a few faithful follow- 
 ers Tonty floated down the Illinois, waving a sad farewell to the bold 
 escarpment on whose topmost level he had made his home so many 
 years. 
 
 The Louisiana colonists received him with open arms. For four 
 years he shared their varied fortunes, aiding them with his knowl- 
 edge of woodcraft and savage lore. He made an expedition to the 
 Chickasaw nation, when the security of the colony was threatened. He 
 persuaded them to peace despite the instigation of the English, who 
 sought to extinguish French colonization through the medium of 
 these savage allies. The efforts thus resulted in enlisting in the French 
 interests 2,000 Chickasaws. Among his old Indian friends, too, he 
 sought good will for the new arrivals. His services were of inesti- 
 mable value. Nor were they all of a pacific nature. When by an act 
 of treachery the Alabamas raised the hatchet, Tonty aided Bienville 
 in executing vengeance upon the treacherous Indians. He led the 
 night surprise on the camp of the enemy, who fled and left the camp, 
 with war canoes and hunting booty, to the attacking Frenchmen. 
 
 In 1704 there arrived at the colony a vessel with supplies from 
 Havana. While the colonists were rejoicing over the acquisition of 
 the stores, their joy turned to terror, for with the vessel there came 
 the germs of the pestilential scourge, yellow fever. The vessel's crew 
 was almost exterminated. More than half the colonists lay dead or 
 dying. Tonty nursed the living and helped to bury the dead. Finally 
 he, too, succumbed. In the soil of Old Biloxi, in the month of Sep- 
 tember, 1704 was dug the grave of the most unselfish and loyal, as he 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 37 
 
 ^was one of the most courageous and intrepid, of the many knightly 
 anen who blazed the path whence entered civilization into what later 
 'became known as the old Northwest. 
 
 Where Tonty lies buried is not known. Some day the farmer's 
 plowshare or the workman's spade will unearth in the narrow penin- 
 sula of Old Biloxi a skeleton with a rusted iron hand. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 41 
 
 TOXTY'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 
 
 It has been the lot of few voyageurs associated with the stirring history of the 
 West to receive such universal commendation as has been given Henry de Tonty, both 
 as to his character and achievements. It is the more disappointing to the student of 
 history that the recorded facts of Tonty's part In the exploration of the great valley 
 of the Mississippi are fragmentary and scattered. All of the numerous accounts that 
 have been written of La Salle's explorations perforce have allusions to his association 
 with Tonty, but they obscure Tonty's part in these explorations or ignore it. It is only 
 by putting together these widely scattered fragments, and patching them with Tonty's 
 brief autobiography, that a connected narrative can be obtained. In this particular Ben- 
 jamin Suite's recent contribution to the Canadian Royal Society's publications, en- 
 titled "Les Tonty" and published in Vol. XI., is very helpful to the student. Of the 
 numerous books demoted to La Salle, those that contain the fullest details concerning 
 Tonty's achievements are Sparljs' "Life of La Salle" and Parkman's "Discovery of the 
 Great West." The last chapter of Tonty's life— his connection with the struggling col- 
 ony at Biloxi— is best told in Grace King's "Sieur de Bienville." 
 
 In some of the local histories of Illinois, reference is made to Tonty's life at Starved 
 Rock, but much misinformation is interspersed. 
 
 Tlie memoir of Tonty is published in Margry's "Memoirs et Documents," Vol I. A 
 translation is given in Falconer's "Discovery of the Mississippi" and in French's "His- 
 torical Collections of Loiiisiana," Vol I. These books are now rare. 
 
 Tonty's memoir was sent to France in 1693, and comprises an account of "the 
 discovery of the Mississippi and neighboring nations by M. de La Salle, from the .year 
 1678 to the time of his death, and by the Sieur de Tonty to the year 1601." This 
 memoir forms the basis of a spurious work printed four years later in Paris, entitled 
 "Derniers Decouvertes dans I'Amerique Septrentrionale, de M. de La Salle, par Che- 
 valier Tonti, Gouverneur du Fort St. Louis, atix Illinois." 
 
 When Tonty joined d'lberville, he was shown this document, and promptly dis- 
 avowed authorship. 
 
 Of Tonty's contemporaries, Father Membre relates the story of the retreat from 
 the Iroquois, to Green Bay; also the first expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 Joutel mentions the reception of La Salle's unfortunate companions at Ft. St. Louis, 
 after their long wanderings in the morasses and wildernesses of the South; so does 
 Father Anastasius Douay. Parts of these memoirs are published in Shea's "Discovery 
 and Exploration of the Mississippi." 
 
 Hennepin, in his "History of Louisiana," gives an account of Father Ribourde's 
 death, and censures Tonty for deserting the venerable priest. Hennepin admits that his 
 account is based on hearsay evi^dence. He is the only historian who has a word of cen- 
 sure for Tonty. As Parkman aptly says, Hennepin's censure Is equivalent to commenda- 
 tion. J 
 
 The journals of Sauvole, La Harpe and d'lberville have references to Tonty's careei 
 of four years with the Biloxi colonists. Charlevoix (Vol. 3, Shea's translation) gives 
 some account of Tonty's connection with the Fort St. Louis on the Illinois. 
 
 Magazine writers have written without limit concerning the achievements of La 
 Salle, Duluth, Joliet and many other voyageurs of that period, but the lack of acces- 
 sible material referring to Tonty has discouraged them from including his achievements 
 in the list of favorite subjects. Poole's Index does not contain a single reference to 
 Tonty. 
 
 Parkman says: "Those intimate with the late lamented Dr. Sparks will remember 
 his often-expressed wish that justice should be done to the memory of Tonty." 
 
 In fiction. Sirs. Mary Hartwell Catherwood has made Tonty the hero of her charm- 
 ingly-told "Story of Tonty." The man of the iron hand also figures in her shorter 
 tale of "Little Renault." In these stories Mrs. Catherwood has with rare fidelity 
 limned scences of the picturesque life of a most picturesque period. 
 
 These are the* estimates of Tonty's character recorded by contemporaneous and later 
 historians: 
 
42 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 "He (Tonty) is beloved by all the Toyageurs. It was with deep regret that we 
 parted from him. He is the man who best knows the country; he is loved and feared 
 every where. "—St. Cosme, a missionary whom Tonty escorted on a journey in 1699. 
 
 "Tonty was a man of capacity, courage and resolution. • * » All the facts that 
 can be ascertained concerning the Chevalier de Tonty are such as give a higlily favorable 
 impression of his character, both as an officer and a man. His constancy and his steady 
 devotion to La Salle are marlied not only by a strict obedience to orders, but by a 
 faithful friendship and chivalrous generosity. His courage and address were striK- 
 ingly exhibited in his intercourse with the Indans, as well in war as in peace; but 
 his acts were performed where there were few to observe and fewer to record 
 them. Hence it is that historians have done him but partial justice. And it is most 
 unfortunate that the narrative from his own pen, originally written, as his character 
 justifies us in believing, with fidelity and truth, should have been so mutilated and de- 
 formed by some mischievous hand, as to render it a reproach to his name, rather than 
 what it might have been, a testimony to his merits and an honorable monument to his 
 memory." — Jared Sparlis. 
 
 "He (La Salle) arrived in Canada toward the close of September, 1678, with the 
 Sieur de Tonty, an Italian gentleman full of spirit and resolution, who afterward so 
 courageously and faithfully served him' in all his designs."— Father Membrg. 
 
 "About the middle of February— an exceedingly cold February, even Iberville re- 
 marks—while the clearing, cutting and building were in progress (at Biloxi) there 
 arrived of an afternoon a visitor than whom no one on the continent could have been 
 more useful or more welcome to Iberville; this was Henry de Tonty, wlthont question 
 the most unselfish, loyal, stralghtford and intelligent pioneer France ever possessed In 
 America. He had heard of the settlement at the mouth of the river and came to make 
 proffer of his services. Tonty here had opportunity to discover the fraudulent manu- 
 script imposed as his upon Iberville."- Grace King. 
 
 "The Sieur de Tonty arrived at the beginning of winter with several Frenchmen; 
 this made our stay (at Ft. St. Louis) much more agreeable, as this brave gentleman 
 was always inseparably attached to the interests of the Sieur de La Salle, whose 
 lamentable fate we concealed from him, it being our duty to give the first news to the 
 court." Father Douay's narrative, as related by Le Clerq. 
 
 "Although we were destitute of succor, yet the Sieur de Tonty never lost courage; 
 he kept up his position among the Illinois either by inspiring them with the hopes which 
 he built on the Sieur de La Salle's return, or by Instructing them in the use of fire- 
 arms and many arts in the European way. He taught them how to defend themselves 
 by palisades, and even made them erect a kind of little fort with intrenchments. so 
 that, had they had a little more courage, I have no doubt they would have been in a 
 position to sustain themselves."- Membre's relation of the Iroquois raid in the Illinois 
 country. 
 
 "I cannot sufficiently praise his (Tonty's) zeal for the success of this enterprise. 
 (Expedition against the Iroquois). He is a lad of great enterprise and boldness, who un- 
 dertakes considerable. He left Fort des Illinois i^st February to seek M. de La Salle 
 at the lower end of the Mississippi. He has been as far as the sea, where he learned 
 nothing of M. de La Salle except that some savages had seen him set sail and go 
 towards the South. He returned to Ft. St. Louis des Illinois and thence to Montreal, 
 where he arrived in the beginning of July. You will see, my Lord, the orders I have 
 issued for marching the Illinois in the rear of the Iroquois. He will have to walk 300 
 leagues overland, for these savages are not cccustomed to canoes. "—Denonville, gov- 
 ernor of New France, in official reports to the minister of marine. 
 
 "Tonty must be ranked next to La Salle, who contributed the most towards the 
 exploration and settlement of the Mississippi valley."— B. F. French. 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 43 
 
 TONTY'S PETITION. 
 
 The petition of the Chevalier de Tonty to the Count de Pontchartrain, minister of 
 marine, bears no date. It is believed to have been written at Quebec in tlie year 1690, 
 at which time Count Frontenac was governor-general of New France. The petition 
 of Tonty, as translated by Sparks from the original, deposited in the archives of the 
 Marine department at Paris, is here given: 
 
 Monseigneur: 
 
 Henry de Tonty humbly represents to your highness that he entered the military 
 service as a cadet, and was employed in that capacity in the years 1668 and 1669; and 
 that he afterwards served as a midshipman four years, at Marseilles and Toulon, and 
 made seven campaigns, that is, four on board ships of war and three in the galleys. 
 While at Messina he was made a captain, and in the interval lieutenant of the first 
 company of a regiment of horse. When the enemy attacked the post of Libisso his 
 right hand was shot away by a grenade, and he was taken prisoner and conducted to 
 Metasse, where he was detained sis months and then exchanged for the sons of the 
 governor of that place. He then went to France, to obtain some favor from his majesty, 
 and the king granted him three hundred livres. He returned to the service in Sicily, 
 made the campaign as a volunteer in the galleys, and when the troops were discharged, 
 being unable to obtain the employment he solicited at court, on account of the general 
 peace, he decided, in 1678, to join th late Monsieur de LaSalle, in order to accompany 
 him in the discoveries of Mexico, during which, until 1682, he was the only officer wha 
 did not abandon him. 
 
 These discoveries being finished, he remained, in 1683, commandant of Fort St. 
 Louis of the Illinois; and, in 1684, he was there attacked by two hundred Iroquois, 
 whom he repulsed with great loss on their side. During the same year he repaired to- 
 Quebec under the orders of M. de la Barre. In 1685 he .returned to the Illinois, 
 according to the orders which he received from the court, and from M. de La Salle, 
 as a captain of foot in a marine detachment, and governor of Fort St. Louis. In 
 1686, he went with forty men in canoes at his own expense, as far as the Gulf of 
 Mexico, to seek for M. de La Salle. Not being able to find him there, he returned to 
 Montreal and put himself under the orders of Monsievir Denonville, to engage in the 
 war with the Iroquois. At the head of a bapd of Indians, in 1687, he proceeded two 
 hundred leagues by land, and as far In canoes, and joined the army, when, with 
 these Indians and a company of Canadians, he forced the ambuscade of the 
 Tsonnonthouans. 
 
 The campaign over, he returned to the Illinois, whence he departed In 1689, to 
 go in search of the remains of M. de La Salle's colony; but, being deserted by 
 his men, and unable to execute his design, he was compelled to relinquish it. 
 when he had arrived within seven days' march of the Spaniards. Ten months were- 
 spent in going and returning. As he now finds himself without employment, he 
 prays that, in consideration of his voyages and heavy expenses, and considering also 
 that during his service of seven years as captain he has not received any pay, your 
 highness will be pleased to obtain for him from his majesty a company, with which 
 he may continue his service in this country, where he has not ceased to harass 
 the Iroquois by enlisting the Illinois against them in his majesty's cause. 
 
 And he will continue his prayers for the health of your highness. 
 
 HENKY DE TONTY. 
 
 Nothing can be more true than the account given by the Sieur de Tonty in this 
 petition; and should his majesty reinstate the seven companies which have been 
 disbanded in this country, there will be justice in granting one of them to him, 
 or some other recompense for the services which he has rendered, and which he is 
 now returning to render, at Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. FRONTENAC. 
 
44 HENRY DE TONTY 
 
 TAKING POSSESSION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALXiEY. 
 
 When La Salle and Tonty, at the deltas of the Mississippi, planted a column and 
 attached the arms of France thereto, they secured for the king of France an empire, 
 ■whose remarkable richness even they did not dream of. Of the enormous area which 
 France acquired in the new world through the ei^terprise of her early explorers — from 
 Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Aijplachian to the RoclJy mountains, 
 a region drained by the greatest rivers of the North American continent — she retains 
 to-day not as much as an acre. It has been truly said that the French are quick to 
 seize and as quick to release; the Anglo-Saxon slow to acquire, but tenacious in hold- 
 ing. 
 
 The French took possession of these inland empires without much care in defining 
 limits. When at the Sault St. Marie, in 1671, St. Lusson in the grandiose manner 
 of the early French commanders, took possession of the entire Western country, he 
 little knew how vast that territory was; at that time the upper Mississippi had not 
 been discovered. The territory which La Salle by proclamation added to the pos- 
 sessions of the French crown was of even vaster extent. That part of it situated 
 west of the Mississippi doubled the territory of the United States, when in 1803 
 Napoleon relinquished it for the sum of $15,1^KX),000. 
 
 It took La Salle about five minutes to formally take possession. These were his 
 words: 
 
 "In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious Prince, Louis 
 the Great, by the grace of God king of France and of Navarre, fourteenth of that 
 name, this ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, I, in virtue 
 of the commission of his Majesty which I bold in my hand, and which may be 
 seen by all whom it may concern, have taken and do now take, in the name of 
 his Majesty and of his successor to the crown, possession of this country of Louis- 
 iana, the seas, harbors, ^orts, bays, adjacent straits; and all nations, people, prov- 
 inces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers, com- 
 prised in the extent of the said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. 
 Louis, on the eastern side, otherwise called Ohio, Aligbin, Sipore, or Chukagona, 
 and this with the consent of the Chaounons, Chikachas and other people dwelling 
 therein, with whom we have made alliance; as also along the River Colbert, or 
 Mississippi, and rivers which discharge themselves therein, fiom its source beyond 
 the country of the Kious or Nadouessious, and this with their consent, and with 
 the consent of the Motantees, Ilinois, Mesigamaas, Natches, Koroas, which are the 
 ttost considerable nations dwelling therein, with whom also we have made alliance 
 either by ourselves, or by others in our behalf, as far as its mouth at the sea, or 
 Gulf of Mexico, about the twenty-seventh degree of the elevation of the North Pole, 
 and also to the mouth of the River of Palms; upon the assurance which we have 
 received from all these nations that we are the first Europeans that have descended 
 or ascended the said River Colbert; hereby protesting against all those who may 
 in future undertaJce to invade any or all of these countries, people or lands above 
 •described, to the prejudice of the right of his majesty, acquired by the consent of 
 the nations herein named. Of which, and of all that can be needed, I hereby take to 
 witness those who hear me, and demand an act of the notary, as required by law." 
 
HENRY DE TONTY. 45 
 
 THE FORT ON STARVED ROCK. 
 
 Francis Farkman's description of Starved Rocli and tlic great Illinois village: 
 Tlie cliff called "Starved Rock," now pointed out to travelers as the chief 
 Batiiral curiosity of the region, rises— steep on three sides as a castle wall — to the 
 height of a hundred and twenty-live feet above the river. In front, it overhangs 
 the water that washes its base; its western brow looks down on the tops of the 
 forest trees below; and on the east lies a wide gorge or ravine, choked with the 
 mingled foliage of oaks, walnuts and elms; while in its rocky depths a little brook 
 creeps down to mingle with the river. From the trunk of the stunted cedar that 
 leans forward from the brink, you may drop a plummet into the river below, where 
 the catfish and the turtles may plainly be seen gliding over the wrinkled sands of 
 the eler and shallow cun-ent. The cliff is accessible only from behind, where a 
 man may climb up, not witliout difflciiUy, by a steep and narrow passage. The 
 top is about an acre in extent. Here, in the month of December, La Salle and 
 Tonty began to entrench themselves. They cut away the forest that crowned 
 the rock, built tsorehouses and dwellings of its remains, dragged timber up the 
 rugged pathway, and encircled the summit with a palisade. 
 
 Go to the banks of the Illinois, wliere it flowes by the village of Utiea, and 
 stand on the meadow that borders it on the north. In front glides the river, a 
 musket-shot in width; and from the farther bank rises, with a gradual slope, 
 a range of wooded hills that hide from sight the vast prairie behind them. A 
 mile or more on your left these gentle acclivities end abruytly in the lofty 
 front of the great cliff, called by the French the Rock of Ft. Louis, looking 
 boldly out from the forests that environ it; and, three miles distant on your 
 right, you discern a gap in the steep bluffs that here bound the valley, marking 
 the mouth of the river Vermilion, called Aramoni by the French. Now stand 
 In fancy on this same spot in the early autumn of the year 16S0. You are in the 
 midst of the great town of the Illinois — hundreds of mat-covered lodges, and thou- 
 sands of congregated savages. 
 
 Enter one of their dwellings: they will not think you an intruder. Some friendly 
 squaw will lay a mat for you by the fire; you may seat yourself upon it, smoke your 
 pipe and study the lodge and its inmates by the light that streams through the holes 
 at the top. Three or four fires smoke and smoulder on the gi-ound down the middle 
 of the long arched structure; and , as to each fira there are two families, the place 
 is somewhat crowded when all are present. But now there is breathing room, for 
 manj- are in the fields. A squaw sits weaving a mat of rushes; a warrior, naked 
 except his moccasins, and tattooed with fantastic devices, binds a stone arrow-head 
 to its shaft, with the fresh sinews of a buffalo. Some lie asleep, some sit staring 
 in vacancy, some are eating, some are squatted in lazy chat around a fire. The 
 smoke brings water to your eyes; the fleas annoy you; small unkempt children, naked 
 as young puppies, crawl about your knees and will not be repelled. 
 
 You have seen enough. You rise, and go out again into the sunlight. It is, if 
 not a peaceful, at least a languid scene. A few voices break the stillness, min- 
 gled with the joyous chirping of crickets from the grass. Young men lie Hat on 
 their faces, basking in the sun. A group of their elders are smoking around a 
 buffalo-skin on which they h^ive .iust been playing a game of chance with cherry- 
 stones. A lover and his mistress, perhaps, sit together under a shed of bark, without 
 uttering a word. Not far off is the graveyard, where lie the dead of the village, 
 some buried in the earth, some wrapped in skins and laid aloft on scaffolds, above the 
 reach of wolves. In the cornfields around, you see squaws at their labor, and chil- 
 dren driving off intruding birds; and your eye ranges over the meadows beyond 
 spangled with the yellow blossoms of the river-weed and the Rudbeckia, or over the 
 bordering hills still green with the foliage of summer. 
 
46 HENRY DE TONTY. 
 
 This, or something like it, one may safely affirm, was the aspect of the Illinois 
 village at noon of the tenth of September (1680). In a hut apart from the rest, 
 you would probably have found the Frenchmen. Among them was a man, not strong 
 in person, and disabled, moreover, by the loss of a hand; yet, in this den of bar- 
 barism, betraying the language and bearing of one formed in the most polished civ- 
 ilization .of Europe. This was Henri Ue Tonty. 
 
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