gp^KMAN C LUB PUBLICATIONS No. 1. Milwaukee, Wis., Dec. 10, 1895 Nicholas Perrot A STUDY IN WISCONSIN HISTORY GARDNER P s STICKNEY \ Councilor American Folk-Lore Society [Copyright, 1896, by Gardner P. NICHOLAS PERROT. A. STUDY IN WISCONSIN HISTORY. Chief among the many treasures of the Wisconsin Historical So ¬ ciety is a silver monstrance or ostensorium, fifteen inches in height, and weighing more than twenty ounces. It is elaborately made in French repousse. From an oval base rises a standard, nine inches high, supporting a circular, radiated, glazed rim, which is in turn surmounted by a cross. This was used to hold the sacred wafer when at the celebration of the sacrament it was exposed to the view of the pious worshippers; and was called a soleil from its supposed ray-like resemblance to the sun, and monstrance because it was used to demonstrate the body of Christ. This particular monstrance was once the property of the Jesuit mission of St. Francis Xavier on the lower Fox. Buried in the earth on the burning of the mission in 1687, it was not recovered until 1802, when it was found by some workmen digging a foundation. Then it passed into the hands of the Grignon family, and was occasionally used by some itinerant priest until it was taken to Detroit in 1828. Ten years later Father Bon- duel redeemed it for twenty-six dollars, and carried it back to Green Bay. There it remained until it was sent to its present resting place, only a few years ago. 1 According to Prof. Butler, but four memorials older than this monstrance remain to prove the early presence of white men within Wisconsin borders. Of these, two are maps, both preserved in archives in Paris, one showing Lake Superior as it was understood in 1671, the other giving “the Messipi where the Misconsing comes in' in 1679; a third of these memorials is Marquette’s manuscript of his journey down the Mississippi in 1673; this was written at Green Bay during the following winter, and is now preserved in the college of St. Mary at Montreal; and the fourth is Joliet’s journal of the same trip, written in Paris in 1674, and now in the seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris. Around the rim of the base of the monstrance these words are rudely but clearly engraved in French: “This soleil was given by Mr. Nicholas Perrot to the mission of St. Francis Xavier, at the Bay of the Puans, 1686.” 2 1. Cf. Prof J. D. Butler, Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume VIII, np. 199 et seq. 2. Pictures of the monstrance and its bottom, showing the inscription, are given In Winsor’s Narrative and Crit cal History, Volume IV, pages 192 and 193. 2 NICHOLAS PERROT. When the monstrance was found in 1802, but little was known about Nicholas Perrot; but the painstaking investigation of recent years has brought to light many interesting facts concerning him. His name is continually found in the records of Canada from 1665 to 1700, and always in an honorable, often an important, connec¬ tion. His integrity and ability were unquestioned. His influence with the Indians was unequalled, even Du Lhut being obliged at one time to call for his assistance. His patience and courage, and his calmness under misfortune alike command our admiration. The most successful of all the French emissaries among the Western Indians 3 Perrot was a man of humble birth. So unimportant did he seem that neither his parentage, the place of his birth, nor the year of his arrival' in New France is matter of record, so far as re¬ cent research has been able to ascertain. Tailhan thus introduces his biographical sketch: “Nicolas Perrot, born in 1644, came to New France, in wh.it year I know not; he belonged to an honest family, but one of small fortune; so, after receiving some instruction in letters, he was obliged to interrupt his studies to enter the service of the missionaries.” 4 This service among the missionaries was of a peculiar nature, a combination of body-servant, farm-hand and hunter, rendered neces¬ sary by the wildness and roughness of the country, and the zeal of the missionaries for the ingathering of the harvest of souls before them to the exclusion of their own bodily comfort or welfare. Most of the Canadian missionaries were men of delicate nature and high education, little fitted for the hardships of their life, and as little fitted for the manual labors necessary around their mission stations. Occasionally there came a brave heart like Breboeuf or Dollier de Casson, able and ready to buffet any kind of a storm; but their na¬ tures were more than ordinary natures, and they serve but to accentu¬ ate the common life of the others. The missionaries could not de¬ pend for their food upon the generosity of the Indian hunters, and so they early began to employ young French Canadians to hunt, fish and till the ground for them. These young men were known as donnes and engages, the former giving their services, and the latter receiving a small salary. Perrot was enrolled among the engages. These men not only labored for the fathers around the mission sta¬ tions, but accompanied them on long voyages, caring for their needs, and sharing their dangers and privations, as in the case of Jean Guerin, who served Father Menard. No doubt in this close com¬ panionship they received much instruction in temporal as well as in spiritual affairs. The nature of the country, and the language and customs of the Indians around them were ever fruitful topics, and it is not unlikely that we owe the writing of Perrot’s Memoires to im¬ pressions he received at an Indian campfire, from some Jesuit father. 3. Prof. J. D. Butler, Wisconsin Historical Colections, Volume VIII, page 200. •4. Tailhan-Perrot’s Memoire, page 257. 1 XlWovS. C OvX' s ) (L 'f kVW I) 0 l-fa-f j ,7 b CD v£> Nicholas perrot. 3 Perrot remained at this employment some four or five years 5 , learning much about the Indians and their life; and in 1665 he came West for the first time as his own master, free to follow his own plans. He was at this time about twenty-one years old, and was already imbued with the importance of combining the western In¬ dians against their common enemy, the Iroquois; and fully alive to the advantages of allying them to the French. The Pottawattomies believed that his coming brought them great good fortune, although his firearms alarmed them, and his appearance excited great sur¬ prise. Tailhan says: “They did not think the French were men, modelled in form like themselves.” Perrot was feasted and smoked over as a god, and these poor savages even assigned supernatural powers to his hatchet and knives, and to his various articles of cloth¬ ing. But as Tailhan says, 0 Perrot was no. vulgar trafficker turning all this to his personal advantage. He learned that his hosts, the Pottawattomies, were about to become embroiled with their neigh¬ bors, the Maloumines or Menominees, and he offered his services as peacemaker, and at once set out for the Menominee village. The Me¬ nominees had some knowledge of the French and considered them¬ selves greatly honored by his visit. It required only a little per¬ suasion to get them to forego their war-like plans. Perrot then re¬ turned to the Pottawattomies, and wished to visit other neighboring tribes. His hosts endeavored to dissuade him, and for a while succeeded in doing so. They knew the advantages of their geo- graphal position, and wished to become the intermediaries between the French and the western Indians, monopolizing the trade in beaver and other valuable skins. But Perrot penetrated their designs, and in spite of their warnings about the fierceness of the men whom he would meet, and the difficulties of the journey, he set out with some Sac Indians in the spring of the following year to visit the Fox village on the Wolf River. Taking the route so often travelled in later years, he passed up the Fox River, through Lakes Winnebago and Butte des Morts to the village of the Foxes, or Outagamies. He found these Indians in a state of destitution, the sight of their misery exciting his compassion. Their arrogance, however, and the bad re¬ ports he had received concerning them, led him to withdraw from them, leaving the Sacs among them, to trade in his interests. The good judgment he here displayed bore fruit in later years, the Foxes saving him at one time from being burned by the Miamis, and always showing him an unusual confidence and affection. The Mascoutins and Miamis, dwelling on the upper Fox and to the south of it, had heard from the Hurons and Ottawas, fleeing from the Iroquois, about the French, their bravery, and their firearms and improved tools. Learning that the French were among the Potta¬ wattomies, they sent an invitation to the latter to visit them, and 5. Tailhan-Perrot’s Memoire, page 258. 6. Tailban-Perrot’a Meinoire, page 260. p 80777 4 NICHOLAS PERROT. to bring the Frenchmen with them. But the Pottawattomies did not wish to place the French in communication with their own western customers, and so they set out alone, leaving Perrot at the Bay with no knowledge of the invitation. But a Mascoutin and a Miami finally reached him in person, and he started with them for their villages, despite the many objections of the Pottawattomies. He was received with high honors, being smoked with and addressed in speeches of great length; and in turn he made a speech which he ended with piesents, among other things a gun to the warriors, a kettle to the old men, and a knife to the women, “to render the accomplishment of their daily tasks more easy.” Eight days later the Miami chief gave a great feast. In the center of the banquet hall was a kind of altar, erected to the Indian gods in whose honor the feast was given. When he learned of this, Perrot refused to eat, until the chief be¬ sought him to eat to the great spirit of the French, and added that he hoped for as much help from that source as from the gods he had ordinarily worshipped. The Pottawattomies sent emissaries to the allied Miamis and Mascoutins, hoping to prevent any treaty or alliance between them and the French. Unluckily for their plans, these emissaries told their lies in Perrot’s presence, thus enabling him to counteract their in¬ fluence. And a treaty was finally concluded. On his return to the Bay, the Pottawattomies disavowed any action on their part against the French; but Perrot’s manner showed them that he had no con¬ fidence in their protestations, and they presented him with a bag of corn and five beaver robes to remove the anger from his heart. Tailhan attaches great importance to this visit of Perrot to the Miamis and Mascoutins, 7 as it brought the French into friendly communication with the kindred of the Illinois, and gave them their first footing in the great valley of the Mississippi. Having obtained this footing, the discovery of the river itself and the opening up of the country were only questions of time. These two journeys are the only ones of Perrot, during these years, of which we have any record. But it seems right to suppose that between 1665 and 1670 he visited most of the western tribes, and was highly esteemed by them, and acquired great influence over them. We are told that the Ottawas loved him, and the various na lions of the Bay regarded him as their father. With the Foxes his influence was stronger than that of all other Frenchmen. In the spring of 1670, after five years among these western Indians, he started for the French settlements, joining a flotilla of thirty canoes bound from the Bay to Montreal. Joined on the way by many Ottawas, the party followed the Ottawa route, French River, Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa River, to Montreal. As Perrot says, “More 7. Tailhan-Perrot’s Memolre, page 276. NICHOLAS PERROT. 5 than nine hundred Ottawas came down to Montreal in canoes. We were five Frenchmen in their company.” 8 Most of the party, finishing their trading, soon turned their faces westward, but Perrot remained behind and in July visited Que¬ bec. Talon, the acute intendant, had before this written from France to Courcelles, the governor. He advised the selection of some man of known influence among the western Indians, that under such leadership they might be gathered at some convenient place, there to acknowledge their dependency on the French crown. Charle¬ voix says: “For this purpose none bettter could be found than Nicolas Perrot,” 9 and he was accordingly selected. Talon confirmed the selection on his arrival from France, soon after. The action of the French in taking formal possession of the western country was hastened by their jealousy of the English at Hudson’s Bay, and Sr. Lusson was commissioned for this purpose Sept. 3d, 1670. As the centralized monarchy was fast superseding the old feudal govern¬ ment, it was the sub-delegate of the intendant, rather than the repre¬ sentative of the governor, who was to play the prominent part in the scene. In October the party left Montreal, small in numbers, but the “indispensable Perrot” was among them. Reaching Manitouli,n Island late in the year, it was decided that Perrot, after sending mes¬ sages to the northern tribes, should hurry on to summon the western Indians in person, leaving St. Lusson to winter on the island. At Green Bay, 10 for he went no further west, Perrot found the great chief of the Miamis, Tetinchoua by name. This chief was always accompanied by a body guard of thirty or forty chosen warriors, and held himself away from his people, rarely giving dirept orders, but: transmitting his wishes through his officers. 11 He is reported to have had four or five thousand warriors under his command. When lie was told of Perrot’s approach, he sent a detail to receive him and escort him into camp. This detail advanced in warlike array, brand¬ ishing their weapons, and uttering their war cries. Perrot’s party prepared themselves in like style. When they came face to face there was a momentary halt, after which the Miamis in single file ran to the left, and Perrot’s Pottawattomies to the right. The Miamis be¬ ing much the larger party, completely surrounded the Pottawatto¬ mies. A mock fight ensued, guns being fired and tomahawks used, after which peace was declared, the calumet was smoked, and Perrot was escorted to Tetinchoua. 1 The chief entertained him royally after the Miami custom, among other things giving him an escort of fifty 8. Perrot’s Memoire, page 119. 9. History of New France, Shea’s translation, Volume III, page 165. 10. Charlevoix places this meeting at Chicagou. See Parkman, La Salle and Discovery of the Great West, page 4l, note. 11. Parkman thought that these statements would he considered preposterous if they were net corroborated by Dablon, La Salle and Discovery of the Great West, page 41. 6 NICHOLAS PERROT. Miamis. Then Perrot stated his errand. Tetinchoua wished to ac¬ company him to Sault Ste. Marie, but he was old and growing feeble, and was finally persuaded by the Pottawattomies not to go in person, but to authorize them to represent him and his people. Perrot’s great influence among the other western tribes enabled him to per¬ suade the principal chiefs of the Pottawattomies, Sacs, Winnebagos and Menominees to accompany him to the Sault Ste. Marie, the ap¬ pointed meeting place. The chiefs of the Foxes, Mascoutins and Kickapoos were at the Bay, but would go no further. Perrot says that on. his arrival at the Sault, on May 5th, 1671, he found not only the chiefs of the northern tribes, but also those of the Kiristinons and the Monsonis from the Hudson Bay country, with all their neighbors; also the chiefs of the Nipissings, the Amikouets and the Saulteurs of the immediate vicinity. 12 The Hurons and Ottawas did not arrive until after the ceremonies were completed, the Ottawas accompanied by Father Marquette. The ceremony began with a speech after the Indian style and in the Algonquin tongue by Father Allouez, showing forth the giories of the French king, Louis XIV., “he of infamous memory,” and the great advantages accruing to the Indians from so powerful an ally, and proposing that all present join in acknowledging him as their head chief. St. Lusson, interpreted by Father Allouez, followed in a brief speech in which he asked if all agreed to the proposition. He was met by presents and cries of assent from the Indians, and "Live the King” from the Frenchmen. One writer states that the Indians repeatedly threw earth into the air as an additional token of their submission. Then, while the Frenchmen sang the Vexilla Regis, a hymn of the seventh century, Perrot directed the digging of two holes, and the planting of a cedar pole in one, and a cedar cross in the other. To the accompaniment of the Exaudiat, the 20B1 psalm, the arms of France imprinted on a leaden block were then fastened to the pole. St. Lusson with sword in hand followed with a declaration that the country was by these ceremonies given to the king, and all its inhabitants were placed under his protection. This speech was received in characteristic manner by both French and Indians, and the ceremonies were concluded with the singing ot the Te Deum. The documentary return of the affair was signed by St. Lusson, Perrot as interpreter, Fathers Dablon, Allouez, Andre and Dreuillettes and fourteen others, among them Louis Jolliet. All the ceremonies being completed, the Indian Tribes returned each to its own country, and all lived in harmony for several years. Perrot and Jolliet returned to Quebec with St. Lusson. It is perhaps worthy of note that the Indians pulled down the arms of France about as soon as the Frenchmen had departed. Courcelles and Talon got into trouble and the governor was recalled late in 1671. Courcelles was succeeded by Louis de Buade, Count Frontenac. 12. Perrot’s Mejuoire, page 127. NICHOLAS PERROT. 7 One of the greatest of the rulers of New France, Frontenac’s frank and somewhat choleric nature had but little in common with the Jesuits. He was continually having trouble with them and their friends. Unlike most of the voyageurs, Perrot was a good church¬ man and a firm friend of the priests, and so he came under the ban. Perhaps his enforced idleness in the settlements turned his thoughts in other directions. At any rate during this year, 1671, he married Marie Madeline Raclot, who brought him a considerable fortune. For the next ten years he lived in retirement with his wife and chil¬ dren at the seignory, Becancour, on the St. Lawrence, near Three Rivers. This must have been the most comfortable and in many ways the pleasantest period of Perrot’s life. 13 The French archivist, Margry, has printed a record of talks with La Salle by some unknown person, who he thinks was the Abbe Renaudot, a learned churchman. In this record one Nicolas Perrot, otherwise known as Jolycoeur, a house servant, is accused of an at¬ tempt to poison La Salle by putting hemlock in a salad, about 1678. Parkman states that this anonymous manuscript is sometimes sup¬ ported by contemporaneous accounts, and sometimes rests solely upon itself. 14 He partially endorses it, and adds that “this places the character of Perrot in a new light; for it is not likely that any other can be meant than the famous v®yageur,” 15 and then in half defense says that poisoning was a common crime in those days, persons of high rank being often accused, of it. Winsor says: “There is a strong tendency among careful investigators to give it scant cre¬ dence,” 10 referring to the whole account. Even if we follow Parkman in accepting the paper, we may be justified in refusing to identify our Perrot as the culprit, first, be¬ cause this was the period of his greatest prosperity, and it is ex¬ tremely improbable that he would be in any one’s domestic service; second, the pseudonym Jolycoeur, if applied to such a well-known man as our Perrot, would be very likely to occur elsewhere, whereas Parkman says he has been unable to find mention of it in any other connection; and third, such an act is entirely out of harmony with his nature, as it is shown to us in well authenticated records. The only motive that can be alleged for such an act is a blind devotion to the cause of the Jesuits. While a man of Perrot’s training and experience might have knocked a man on the head for the priests, such a man is hardly the one to enter another’s employ in the de¬ liberate purpose of poisoning him, or the one to carry such a plan to successful issue. 13. Perrot’s child, Francois, was horn at Three Rivers, August 8, 1672: Nicolas, in 1674; Clemence, 1676; Michel, 1677; Marie, 1679; Marie Anne, July 25, 1681; Claude, -; Jean Baptiste, 1688; Jean, August 15, 1690. Neill, in Narrative and Critical History, Volume IV, page 191, note. 14. Winsor, in Narrative and Critical History, Volume IV, pages 242-246, givey a full bibliography of the discussion on the historical value of the manuscript, 15. La Salle, etc., page 104 and note. 16. Cartier to Frontenac, page 223, 8 NICHOLAS PERROT. By 1681 Perrot must have been trading again, as Du Chesneau, the intendant, complains to Seignelay (Nov. 13th) that “the governor, Sieurs Perrot, Boisseau, Du Lhut and Patron are sending peltries to the English.” 17 In 1683 he was sent westward again to gather up the allies of France, and get them ready for an expedition against the Iroquois. The following year he arrived at Mackinac on a trad¬ ing trip to find the commandant Durantaye and the famous Du Lhut vainly attempting to get the Indians to go to Niagara, there to join the governor, La Barre, in an expedition against the Iroquois. Du Lhut besought Perrot’s assistance. This was readily given, and about five hundred warriors, Ojibwas, Foxes, Hurons, Ottawas and Potta- wattomies set out for Niagara with more than one hundred French¬ men. Charlevoix says that Perrot gained the Indians over by show¬ ing them that they (the Indians) had much more to fear from the Iroquois than had the French, and that therefore they ought to give ready assistance to any movement the French might choose to make against the Iroquois. Upon their arrival at Niagara they found that La Barre, whose whole policy was weak, had concluded a truce with the Iroquois. There was nothing to do but turn homeward, which they did in some indignation. Parkman describes at some length the difficulties which Perrot overcame on the way to Niagara, how he humored their fancies, oVfercame their superstitions, and taunted them into a semblance of bravery. 18 At the close of this campaign, Perrot returned to Becancour, where he had a house and eighteen arpents of land. While through his wife he had inher¬ ited considerable money, his affairs at this time were in a very embarrassed condition. He had left his furs in the west, when at the call of the government he had collected the Indians and led them eastward. Indeed, for several years, only a few western furs reached Montreal, the passage of small parties being extremely haz¬ ardous because of the Iroquois, whose war parties were continually along the Ottawa. A letter from Perrot to one of his creditors has been preserved. 19 It is dated August 20th, 1684. In it he acknowl¬ edges the debt, and explains that he has been unable to bring any furs. He then authorizes his creditor to sell furs to satisfy the debt from the first of Perrot’s which come down. In the spring of 1685, Perrot was sent to take chief command at Green Bay and its dependencies, and his authority was also to extend over any new regions to the westward which he might ex¬ plore. He took twenty men with him from Montreal, and arrived at Green Bay just in time to prevent a threatened war between the Foxes and Ojibwas. 20 Here he was told by some of the Indians of the western countries where there were precious stones, and also 17. Neill, in Narrative and Critical History, Volume IV, page 185. 18. Frontenac and Louis XIV in New France, page 112. 19. Tailhan, Perrot’s Memoire, page 301. .— 20. His influence was greatly increased by his rescuing a maiden of one tribe from the hands of the other. NICHOLAS PERROT. 9 men like the Frenchmen—probably the Spaniards of New Mexico. Other Indians showed hatchets which they had bought from ihe English at Hudson’s Bay—the men who lived in the house that walked on the water. After settling the difficulties at the Bay, Perrot started westward over the well-known Fox-Wisconsin route to ex¬ plore the country of the Sioux, and if advisable to establish a trading post. When he reached the Mississippi he sent word to the “Aiouez” (lowas, a Sioux tribe) that he was about to locate among them for trading, and that they could find him by the smoke which would rise from his fires. He soon found a suitable place, convenient to water and wood, “at the foot of a high hill, behind which there was v. large prairie.” This was near the site of the present town of Trempeleau. Eleven days later some of the lowas reached the river quite a distance above Perrot’s camp, and he went up to meet them. As he approached, the Indian women disappeared in the woods but a number of the men drew near and escorted him to the cabin of the chief. Then Perrot was subjected to that curious ceremony of the Sioux described by Radisson, Hennepin and other early writers. The Sioux chieftain, relieved, when exhausted, by his principal retainers, wept over him until he was thoroughly wet from the process, the chief being careful to stand in such a position that his tears would fall on his guest. After the completion of this ordeal, boiled buffalo tongues were served, the chief placing a small piece in Perrot’s mouth, as an expression of his great respect for his visitor. Perrot traded with the Sioux all of the winter, and during the time he moved up the river and built the post known as Ft. St. An¬ toine. In the mean time another expedition against the Iroquis had been planned, and Perrot was ordered to gather up his Indain war¬ riors and start eastward. During the summer he visited the Miamis, but he was among the Sioux when this order reached him, and his canoes had been destroyed by ice during the winter. But before long he reached Green Bay, accompanied by some of his Indians, whom Parkman describes as “a race unsteady as aspens, and fierce as wild cats; full of mutual jealousies, without rulers and without laws.” 21 It was at this time that Perrot gave to the fathers of che Jesuit mission of the Bay the silver monstrance before described. In June 1687 Durantaye left his post at Mackinac with a “horde of western Indians,” and was followed soon after by Perrot. Tonty also joined this expedition, which proceeded to Niagara, capturing two English trading parties on the way, sixty persons in all, and much valuable plunder. Then it turned eastward and joined the main expedition under the governor, Denonville. This expedition accom¬ plished nothing but the destruction of the town and crops of the Senecas. After withdrawing to Niagara, Denonville built a fort and then returned to Canada. But while all this was going on a grievous calamity had befallen Perrot. A large party of Mascoutins, Foxes 21. Frontenac and Louis' XIV in New France, page 145. 10 NICHOLAS PERROT. and Kickapoos had combined in an attack on the French at Green Bay, which was entirely successful. They burned the mission build¬ ings and the warehouses, and carried away almost everything of value. Perrot was the greatest sufferer, losing furs valued at 40,000 livres, about $7,500. 22 He had received no pay from the govern¬ ment for his great services, beyond the right of trading. These furs were the result of two or more years trading, held at the Bay because of the Iroquois wars, and their loss left him very poor. In 1688 he was ordered to return to the Mississippi and take formal possession of the country in the name of the King. He reached the Bay in the fall, accompanied by forty men. Here he had a conference with the Foxes, and then went on to his post on the Mississippi, some Pottawattomies assisting in the transportation of his goods. As soon as the ice was out in the spring, the Sioux gathered around him to trade. He was carried to one of their villages, around which he was escorted by a procession of warriors, singing and each carrying a pipe. Then he was again subjected to the wetting process previously performed over him by the Iowas. He took occasion at this time to complain of an attempted robbery of his post by a Sioux chief after he had left the country in 1686. On the 8th of May, 1689, Perrot took possession of the country, in the presence of the Jesuit Marest, Le Seuer, Boisguillot and four other Frenchmen. The ceremonies were similar to those of St. Lusson eighteen years before at the Sault, and took place at Ft. St. Antoine on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Pepin. 23 Late in the year Perrot went to Quebec, whence Frontenac, again appointed gover¬ nor, sent him with Louvigny’s expedition to Mackinac to allay troubles among the Ottawas. Frontenac thus writes to Seignelay: 24 “I also sent Sieur Nicolas Perrot, an inhabitant of the upper part of this country, who by the long practise and knowledge he has of the dispositions, manners and languages of all the nations of the upper part of this country has acquired much influence among them.” The Ottawas plotted the destruction of all the outlying French posts, and the robbing or killing of the French traders. “But,” Parkman says, 25 “Perrot took the disaffected chiefs aside and by his usual bold adroitness diverted them from their purposes.” This mission successfully accomplished, he was returned to his Wis¬ consin posts and duties. On the Wisconsin River he met a delegation of Miamis who wished him to establish a trading post among them, because the Pottawattomies paid them so little for furs, and charged them so much for supplies. Among other presents they gave him a small specimen of lead ore, which they said came from one of the small 22. La Potherie, quoted by Hebberd, Wisconsin Under the Dominion of France, page 63. 23. See. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XI, page 35, for the text of Perrot’s minute of taking possession. 24. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume V, page 65. 25. Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, page 206. NICHOLAS PER ROT. 11 tributaries of the Mississippi. Perrot investigated and promised to build a fort. Within twenty days he had built it in a strong posi¬ tion. Soon after, six sub-tribes of the Miamis arrived and made a treaty with him. Then Perrot hilrried up to Ft. St. Antoine to mediate between the Sioux and the Ottawas and the allied Miamis, Mascoutins and Outagamies. Returning in a short time he met others of the southern Indians, and visited and tested the lead mine which for years was known by his name. He says. “The lead was hard to work because it lay between rocks which required blasting. It had very little dross, and was easily melted.” This new post was probably on the east shore of the Mississippi opposite the lead mines, and should not be confounded with Perrot’s main post, Fort St. Nicholas, just above the confluence of the Wis¬ consin and Mississippi. Perrot’s so-called forts have been the subject of much discus¬ sion. In fact, none of them were forts, properly so termed. Only one, that one opposite the lead mines, was built with much attention to its location for defence. All of his posts were just what Potherie calls them, establishments, or factories for trading, built in location-* convenient for such a purpose. After Perrot was sent westward as commandant of La Baye and its dependencies in 1685, he passed' through to the Mississippi, and put in the winter with a few companions “near a mountain behind which was a large prairie.” Franquelin’s are the best contempora¬ neous maps of this period, and that of 1688, which Parkman so strongly commends, shows “Le butte d’hyvernement” on the east bank of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Black River. This no doubt refers to Perrot’s wintering place. The small collection of rude cabins was built not more than a mile or two from the loca¬ tion of the present town of Trempealeau. In the Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. X, pp 505-506, 26 some ruins are described which probably mark the location of this post. These ruins consist of eight small heaps of stones. One of them is described as having been cleaned away, disclosing a hearth and fire-place laid with flag-stones, in clay mor¬ tar, the fire place being five and a half feet wide, and two feet deep, the hearth two feet wider and two feet deeper. The fire place was covered with an inch and a half of ashes, then a layer of bones, and finally with the refuse of the chimney as it had decayed and fallen. The chimney was probably built of sticks, chinked with mud, this being the common method in a temporary building. Fort St. Antoine, Perrot’s most northern post, was located on the eastern, the Wisconsin, shore of Lake Pepin, or Bon Secours, at it was then called, about six miles above the outlet. Vestiges of this fort were plainly visible forty years ago. It seems to have been 26. Mr. R. G. Thwaites, Secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, writes: “These ruins were on the east bank of the river, below the Black, and one mile from the village of Trempeleau. They were completely unearthed in April, 1888, by 8, party of residents under my general direction,” 12 NICHOLAS PERROT. about sixty feet by forty-five; and had a pleasant location on a gentle rise, not far from the lake. It was probably built in the early spring of 1686, as Perrot moved out from his winter quarters. This fort ap¬ pears on Franquelin’s map of 1688, and it was here that Perrot in 1689 performed the ceremony of taking possession of the surround¬ ing country, “in order to render incontestible his Majesty’s right to the countries discovered by his subjects” on the upper Mississippi. Pf nicaut, a companion of Le Seuer, saw this post in 1700. He states that it then bore Perrot’s name. Perrot also built a fort on the western shore of Lake Pepin, at the outlet. This was known as Fort Perrot and was a place of com¬ paratively small importance. The exact location of Fort St. Nicholas has caused more acri¬ monious dispute than any point in Wisconsin history. A goodly share of Volume X of the Collections is given up to this question> Mr. C. W. Butterfield opposing the views of Dr. Neill, Prof. Butler and Mr. Draper. Mr. Draper seems to have the best of the argu¬ ment, and cites a great array of authorities to prove that the fort was just above the mouth of the Wisconsin, on the Mississippi, 111 other words, a little below the site of the present city of Prairie du Chien. 27 This post was probably built in 1683 at the time when Perrot came west to form an alliance with and among the .western Indians against the Iroquois. It was Boisguillot’s post “command¬ ing the French near the Wisconsin, on the Mississippi,” when he was present at the ceremonies at Ft. St. Antoine in 1689. The post was abandoned before 1700, for Penicaut makes no mention of it. Perrot’s southernmost post, opposite the lead mines, has already been mentioned. In 1692 Perrot was ordered to go to the eastern Miamis of "V Marameg, on the St. Joseph River, in western Michigan. He was sent there to prevent outbreaks among them and neighboring tribes, and still more to counteract the influence of the English traders, then beginning to come into the country, and to hold the Indians to their allegiance to the French king. He also retained his western command, and 1694 we find him at Montreal with a mixed dele¬ gation of Miamis, Sacs, Menominees, Pottawattomies and Foxes. This delegation was sent to interest the French in the establishment of a fort on the St. Joseph, to thwart the supposed plans of the Iroquois. A memento of Perrot at this period is also preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society. It is a note or draft in the following form: 27. Mr. Thwaites in a personal note says: “It was about half a mile below “Lower Town.’’ at the “pip’s eye.” Draper is right. I am sure. He never exam¬ ined the ground in person; but I have, in great detail, and am willing heartily to subscribe to his conclusions.” NICHOLAS PERROT. 13 “I consent that from the first beaver which M. Le Seuer will find at the Ottawas or elsewhere, belonging to me, he pay himself the sum of two thousand, and two hundred and eighty one livre, eight sols, six deniers, in beaver at the rate of the Quebec office, and this for a same amount which he paid to me to my quittance to M. Bertrand Armand, merchant at Montreal. In testimony of which I have signed the present made in duplicate at Montreal this 28th August 1695. I will pay the cartage of said beaver. N. Perrot.” 28 In 1692 or 1693 the Mascoutins sought vengeance for the death of one of their warriors which they attributed to Perrot, and getting him into their village they robbed him of all his goods. With his companion, a Pottawattomie chief, he was condemned to death by fire. But both escaped almost miraculously while being conducted to the place of sacrifice, and reached the Bay in safety. From 1695 to 1699 Perrot passed the time fighting the Iroquois and holding the western tribes together. In 1696 all these western tribes were restive and the Sioux, Miamis, Mascoutins and Ottawas were about to engage in a four handed war. Perrot again essayed the difficult role of peacemaker. The Miamis seized him and would have burned him but for the intervention of his faithful friends, the Foxes. This treatment of Perrot aroused a great deal of feeling among the western tribes, some of them being eager to avenge it. In 1699 King Louis XIV issued a sweeping order evacuating the western posts and calling all traders and soldiers in to the lower country. The order was peremptory and could not be evaded. It closed Perrot’s career, although for some years the western Indians complained of his removal and sought for his return. He made claim against the government for sums spent in public service, but this claim was rejected. He then sent his claim to France, but the War of the Spanish Succession was on, and Louis had other uses for his money than the payment of just debts to his worthy subjects, no matter what their necessity. So the claim was pigeon-holed, although Callieres, the governor, had written: “He is very poor. Large sums are justly due him for his services to this colony.” 29 So far as we know nothing was paid to him. So he resigned himself to end his days in poverty. In this, says Tail- ban, he was not much worse off than others, the Durantayes, for example, and Jolliet reduced to the same extremity. Perrot received a proof of the affection and esteem in which he was held by the western tribes, when, in July and August, 1701, a general congress was held at Montreal. Ounanguisse, chief of the Pottawattomies, obtained an audience with the governor. Throw- ing a pack of beaver skins at his feet, he said: “My father, I am 28. See Milwaukee Sentinel. May 20, 1896. 29. Tailhan, Perrot’s Memoire, page 333. 14 NICHOLAS PERROf. come only to hear your word. I am the cause of the coming of all the nations of Lake Huron. I ask but one favor because of my obedience. Perrot is my body. I pray you give him to me. He is the best beloved of all the French who have ever been among us.” Nero, chief of the Foxes, followed in the same strain. And he was in turn followed by the chiefs of the Ottawas, making the same request. Vague promises were made in reply, never fulfilled, and the fulfillment of which was never intended. Vaudreuil, who succeeded Callieres as governor, was very friendly to Perrot, and conferred one or two petty offices upon him in 1708 and 1710. In 1716 trouble was on with some of the western tribes, and an expedition against the Foxes was planned. Perrot, then seventy- two years old, roused himself and addressed a memoir to the gover¬ nor in behalf of his old friends. And if an expedition must be sent he asked permission to accompany it. He assured the governor of his ability to settle the difficulties without bloodshed or warfare. But the decree had gone forth, Louvigny’s expedition had started, the Foxes were to be exterminated, and the old man’s appeal was of no avail. This was his last public act. ^The time of his death is not known. He was alive in 1718, 30 and probably died soon after, at his home on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Tailhan lists the writings of Perrot, I. The Memoir on the Outagamis, or Foxes, written in 1716, ' II. Some notes on the wars of the Iroquois, and III. The Memoirs on the manners, customs and religion of the North American Indians. The first and second are lost to us, no copy, so far as known, having been preserved. The third remained in manuscript until 1864, when it was pub¬ lished in the Bibliotheca Americana, a collection of rare or unedited works upon America by A. Frank. The editor was the Jesuit father Tailhan. Charlevoix saw the manuscript, and used it freely. He says: “It is by a voyageur of Canada, Nicholas Perrot, who long traversed almost all New France, and was often employed by the Governors-general, from his skill in managing the minds of the Indians, almost all of whose dialects he spoke, and whose customs he had carefully studied. He was, moreover, a man of much ability.” 31 Governor Cadwallader Colden translated portions of it, incor¬ porating the translations in his “History of the Five Nations of Canada,” a very good work on the Iroquois. John Gilmary Shea lists it among the manuscripts consulted by him, in preparing his 30. Tailhan, Perrot’s Memoire, page 336. 31. History of New Prance, Shea’s translation, Volume I, page 94. NICHOLAS PARROT. 15 “History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States,” published in 1854. Some authorities think that this manuscript was written in Perrot’s later years, after his retirement from active life, but Harrisse, whose opinion is entitled to consideration, says that it bears evidence of having been composed year by year from 1665 until his death. 32 The volume as published is a small octavo of three hundred and eighty-one pages. Perrot’s matter fills one hundred and fifty-six pages, Tailhan’s notes and index the rest. The first twelve chapters are devoted to the religious beliefs and superstitions of the Indians; their marriages and funeral cere¬ monies; their games and hunting customs, and the manner of their daily life. The following sixteen chapters are more of the nature of a journal, and embrace accounts of various expeditions against the Iroquois, St. Lusson’s ceremonies at Sault Ste. Marie, and other actions in which Perrot was concerned, or of which he had im¬ mediate knowledge. Tailhan’s notes are excellent. They include long explanatory extracts from the Relations, the Lettres Edifiantes, Charlevoix, Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, and other authorities, corrob¬ orative of Perrot’s statements. As might be expected, Perrot’s style is rude, and often times involved. Taking Tailhan’s notes in connection with the text, how¬ ever, one cannot help being impressed by Perrot’s fidelity to fact, and his modesty, which are assuredly the essentials in a worl^. of this character. Gardner P. Stickney. 32. Geo. Stewart, Jr., in Narrative and Critical History, Volume IV, page 359. If writing from year to year Perrot would hardly have given the date 1669 for the gathering at Sault Ste. Marie UDder St. Lusson, an error of two years. V