After Champlain: from Montreal to the Mississippi
A very remarkable series of further explorations were carried out as
the indirect result of Champlain's work. In 1610 he had allowed a
French boy of about eighteen years of age, named ÉTIENNE BRULÉ, to
volunteer to go away with the Algonkins, in order to learn their
language. Brulé was taken in hand by Iroquet,[1] a chief of the
"Little Algonkins", whose people were then occupying the lands on
either side of the Ottawa River, including the site of the now great
city of Ottawa. After four years of roaming with the Indians, Brulé
was dispatched by Champlain with an escort of twelve Algonkins to the
headwaters of the Suskuehanna, far to the south of Lake Ontario, in
order to warn the Andastes[2] tribe of military operations to be
undertaken by the allied French, Hurons, and Algonkins against the
Iroquois. This enabled Brulé to explore Lake Ontario and to descend
the River Suskuehanna as far south as Chesapeake Bay, a truly
extraordinary journey at the period. This region of northern Virginia
had just been surveyed by the English, and was soon to be the site of
the first English colony in North America.[3]
[Footnote 1: Mentioned on p. 80.]
[Footnote 2: The Andastes were akin to the Iroquois, but did not
belong to their confederacy; they lived in Pennsylvania.]
[Footnote 3: The inaccurate statement has frequently been written
about Newfoundland being "the first British American colony".
Newfoundland was reached by the ship in which John Cabot sailed on his
1497 voyage of discovery, and a few years afterwards its shores were
sought by the English in common with the French and the Portuguese,
and later on the Spaniards and Basques, for the cod fishery. But no
definite British settlement, such as subsequently grew into an actual
colony, was founded in Newfoundland until the year 1624; the island
was not recognized as definitely British till 1713, and no governor
was appointed till 1728. The first permanent English colonial
settlement in America was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607; and
in the Bermudas and Barbados (West Indies) soon afterwards.]
In attempting to return to the valley of the St. Lawrence in 1616,
with his Andaste guides, Brulé lost his way, and to avoid starvation
surrendered himself to the Seneka Indians (the westernmost clan of the
Iroquois) against whom the recent warlike operations of the French
were being directed. Discovering his nationality, the Senekas decided
to torture him before burning him to death at the stake. As they tore
off his clothes they found that he was wearing an _Agnus Dei_ medal
next his skin. Brulé told them to be careful, as it was a medicine of
great power which would certainly kill them. By a coincidence, at that
very moment a terrific thunderstorm burst from a sky which until
recently had been all sunshine. The Senekas were so scared by the
thunder and lightning that they believed Brulé to be a person of
supernatural powers. They therefore released him, strove to heal such
slight wounds as he had incurred, and carried him off to their
principal town, where he became a great favourite. After a while they
gave him guides to take him north into the country of the Hurons.
His further adventures led him to discover Lake Superior and the way
thither through the Sault Ste. Marie, and to reach a place probably
not far from the south coast of Hudson Bay, in which there was a
copper mine. Then he explored the Montagnais country north of Quebec,
and even at one time (in 1629) entered the service of the English, who
had captured Quebec and Tadoussac from the French. When the English
left this region Brulé travelled again to the west and joined the
Hurons once more.
His licentious conduct amongst his Indian friends seems to have
roused them to such a pitch of anger that in 1632 they murdered him,
then boiled and ate his body. But immediately afterwards misfortune
seemed to fall on the place. The Hurons were terrified at what they
had done, and thought they heard or saw in the sky the spirits of the
white relations of Brulé--some said the sister, some the
uncle--threatening their town (Toanche), which they soon afterwards
burnt and deserted.
In 1615 Champlain, returning from France, had brought out with him
friars of the Récollet order.[4] These were the pioneer missionaries
of Canada, prominent amongst whom was FATHER LE CARON, and these
Récollets traversed the countries in the basin of the St. Lawrence
between Lake Huron and Cape Breton Island, preaching Christianity to
the Amerindians as well as ministering to the French colonists and fur
traders. One of these Récollet missionaries died of cold and hunger in
attempting to cross New Brunswick from the St. Lawrence to the Bay of
Fundy, and another--Nicholas Viel--was the first martyr in Canada in
the spread of Christianity, for when travelling down the Ottawa River
to Montreal he was thrown by the pagan Hurons (together with one of
his converts) into the waters of a rapid since christened Sault le
Récollet. Another Récollet, Father d'Aillon, prompted by Brulé,
explored the richly fertile, beautiful country known then as the
territory of the Neutral nation, that group of Huron-Iroquois
Amerindians who strove to keep aloof from the fierce struggles between
the Algonkins and Hurons on the one hand and the eastern Iroquois
clans on the other. This region, which lies between the Lakes
Ontario, Erie, and Huron, is the most attractive portion of western
Canada. Lying in the southernmost parts of the Dominion, and nearly
surrounded by sheets of open water, it has a far milder climate than
the rest of eastern Canada.
[Footnote 4: The Récollet (properly Recollect) friars were a strict
branch of the Franciscan order that were sometimes called the
Observantines. They were also known as "Recollects" (pronounced in
French _récollet_) because they were required to be constantly keeping
guard over their thoughts. This development of the Franciscan order of
preaching missionary friars was originally a Spanish one, founded
early in the sixteenth century, and becoming well established in the
Spanish Netherlands. Many of them were Flemings or Walloons.]
In 1626 the Jesuit order supplanted the Récollets, and commenced a
campaign both of Christian propaganda and of geographical exploration
which has scarcely finished in the Canada of to-day.
In 1627 the war between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Huron and
Algonkin tribes recommenced, and this, together with the British
capture of Quebec and other portions of Canada, put a stop for several
years to the work of exploration. This was not resumed on an advanced
scale till 1634, when Champlain, unable himself, from failing health,
to carry out his original commission of seeking a direct passage to
China and India across the North-American continent, dispatched a
Norman Frenchman named JEAN NICOLLET to find a way to the Western Sea.
Nicollet, as a very young man, had lived for years amongst the
Amerindian tribes, especially amongst the Nipissings near the lake of
that name. Being charged, amongst other things, with the task of
making peace between the Hurons and the tribes dwelling to the west of
the great lakes, Nicollet discovered Lake Michigan. He was so
convinced of the possibility of arriving at the Pacific Ocean, and
thence making his way to China, that in the luggage which he carried
in his birch-bark canoe was a dress of ceremony made of Chinese damask
silk embroidered richly with birds and flowers. He was on his way to
discover the Winnebago Indians, or "Men of the Sea", of whom Champlain
had heard from the Hurons, with whom they were at war. But the great
water from which they derived their name was not in this instance a
sea, but the Mississippi River. The Winnebago Indians were totally
distinct from the Algonkins or the Iroquois, and belonged to the
Dakota stock, from which the great Siou confederation[5] was also
derived.
[Footnote 5: See p. 160.]
Nicollet advanced to meet the Winnebagos clad in his Chinese robe and
with a pistol in each hand. As he drew near he discharged his pistols,
and the women and children fled in terror, for all believed him to be
a supernatural being, a spirit wielding thunder and lightning.
However, when they recovered from their terror the Winnebagos gave him
a hearty welcome, and got up such lavish feasts in his honour, that
one chief alone cooked 120 beavers at a single banquet.
Nicollet certainly reached the water-parting between the systems
of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and under that
name--Misi-sipi--"great water"--he heard through the Algonkin Indians
of a mighty river lying three days' journey westward from his last
camp. Winnebago (from which root is also derived the names of the
Lakes Winnipeg and Winnipegosis much farther to the north-west) meant
"salt" or "foul" water. Both terms might therefore be applied to the
sea, and also to the lakes and rivers which, in the minds of the
Amerindians, were equally vast in length or breadth.
From 1648 to 1653 the whole of the Canada known to the French settlers
and explorers was convulsed by the devastating warfare carried on by
the Iroquois, who during that period destroyed the greater part of the
Algonkin and Huron clans. The neutral nation of Lake Erie (the Erigas)
was scattered, and between the shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron and
Montreal the country was practically depopulated, except for the
handfuls of French settlers and traders who trembled behind their
fortifications. Then, to the relief and astonishment of the French,
one of the Iroquois clans--the Onondaga--proposed terms of peace,
probably because they had no more enemies to fight of their own
colour, and wished to trade with the French.
The fur trade of the Quebec province had attracted an increasing
number of French people (men bringing their wives) to such settlements
as Tadoussac and Three Rivers. Amongst these were the parents of
PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON. This young man went hunting near Three Rivers
station and was captured in the woods by Mohawks (Iroquois) who
carried him off to one of their towns and intended to burn him alive.
Having bound him at a stake, they proceeded to tear out some of his
finger nails and shoot arrows at the less vital parts of his body. But
a Mohawk woman was looking on and was filled with pity at the
sufferings of this handsome boy. She announced her intention of
adopting him as a member of her family, and by sheer force of will she
compelled the men to release him. After staying for some time amongst
the Mohawks he escaped, but was again captured just as he was nearing
Three Rivers. Once more he was spared from torture at the intercession
of his adopted relations. He then made an even bolder bid for freedom,
and fled to the south, up the valley of the Richelieu and the Hudson,
and thus reached the most advanced inland post of Dutch America--then
called Orange, now Albany--on the Hudson River. From this point he was
conveyed to Holland, and from Holland he returned to Canada.
Soon after his return he joined two Jesuit fathers who were to visit a
mission station of the Jesuits amongst the Onondagas (Iroquois) on a
lakelet about thirty miles south-east of the present city of
Rochester. The Iroquois (whose language Radisson had learnt to speak)
received them with apparent friendliness, and there they passed the
winter. But in the spring Radisson found out that the Onondaga
Iroquois were intending to massacre the whole of the mission.
Instructed by him, the Jesuits pretended to have no suspicions of the
coming attack, but all the while they were secretly building canoes at
their fort. As soon as they were ready for flight, and the sun of
April had completely melted the ice in the River Oswego, the French
missionaries invited the Onondagas to a great feast, no doubt making
out that it was part of the Easter festivities sanctioned by the
Church. They pointed out to their guests that from religious motives
as well as those of politeness it was essential that the _whole_ of
the food provided should be eaten, "nothing was to be left on the
plate". They set before their savage guests an enormous banquet of
maize puddings, roast pigs, roast ducks, game birds, and fish of many
kinds, even terrapins, or freshwater turtles. The Iroquois ate and ate
until even _their_ appetites were satisfied. Then they began to cry
off; but the missionaries politely insisted, and even told them that
in failing to eat they were neglecting their religious duties. To help
them in this respect they played hymn and psalm tunes on musical
instruments. At last the Onondagas were gorged to repletion, and sank
into a stertorous slumber at sunset. Whilst they slept, the Jesuits,
their converts, and Radisson got into the already prepared canoes and
paddled quickly down the Oswego River far beyond pursuit.
Radisson next joined his brother-in-law, Medard Chouart, and after
narrowly escaping massacre by the Iroquois (once more on the warpath
along the Ottawa River) reached the northern part of Lake Huron, and
Green Bay on the north-west of Lake Michigan. From Green Bay they
travelled up the Fox River and across a portage to the Wisconsin,
which flows into the Mississippi. Down this river they sped, meeting
people of the great Siou confederation and Kri (Cree) Indians, these
last an Algonkin nation roaming in the summertime as far north as
Hudson's Bay, until at length they reached the actual waters of the
Mississippi, first of all white men. Returning then to Lake Michigan,
the shores of which seemed to them an earthly paradise with a climate
finer than Italy, they journeyed northwards into Lake Huron, and
thence north-westwards through the narrow passages of St. Mary's River
into Lake Superior. The southern coast of Lake Superior was followed
to its westernmost point, where they made a camp, and from which they
explored during the winter (in snowshoes) the Wisconsin country and
collected information regarding the Mississippi and its great western
affluent the Missouri. The Mississippi, they declared, led to Mexico,
while the other great forked river in the far west was a pathway,
perhaps, to the Southern Sea (Pacific).
The Jesuits, on the other hand, were convinced that Hudson's Bay (or
the "Bay of the North") was at no great distance from Lake Superior
(which was true) and that it must communicate to the north-west with
the Pacific Ocean or the sea that led to China.
In 1661, without the leave of the French Governor of Canada, who
wanted them to take two servants of his own with them and to give him
half the profits of the venture, Chouart and Radisson hurried away to
the west, picked up large bodies of natives who were returning to the
regions north of Lake Huron, with them fought their way through the
ambushed Iroquois, and once more navigated the waters of Lake
Superior. Once again they started for the Mississippi basin and
explored the country of Minnesota, coming thus into contact with
native tribes which lived on the flesh of the bison. In Minnesota they
met a second time the Kri or Kinistino Indians of north-central
Canada, and joined one of their camps in the spring of 1662, somewhere
to the west of Lake Superior. With Kri guides they started away to the
north and north-east, no doubt by way of the Lake of the Woods, the
English River, Lake St. Joseph, and the Albany River, thus reaching
the salt sea at James Bay, the southernmost extension of Hudson Bay.
Or they may have proceeded by an even shorter route, though with
longer portages for canoes, through Lake Nipigon to the Albany.
The summer of 1662 they passed on the islands and shores of James Bay
hunting "buffalo"[6] with the Indians. Then, in 1663, travelling back
along the same route they had followed in the previous year, they
regained Lake Superior, and so passed by the north of Lake Huron to
the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence. But on their return to Three
Rivers they were arrested by the French Governor, D'Avaugour, who
condemned them to imprisonment and severe fines. The courts of France
gave them no redress, and in their furious anger Chouart and Radisson
went over to the English, offered their services to England, and so
brought about the creation of the Hudson Bay Company.
[Footnote 6: More probably musk oxen.]
Radisson's journey from England to Hudson Bay has been treated of in
an earlier chapter: it is preferable to follow out to its finish the
great, western impulse of the French, which led them to neglect for a
time the doings of the British on the east coast of North America and
in the sub-Arctic regions of Hudson Bay.
From 1660 onwards the Jesuit missionaries again took up vigorously
that work of Christianizing the Amerindians which had been so
completely checked by the frightful ravages of the Iroquois between
1648 and 1654.
By 1669 the Jesuits had three permanent stations in western Canada.
The first was the mission station at Sault Ste. Marie, the second was
the station of Ste. Esprit, on Lake Superior (not far from the modern
town of Ashland), and the third was the station of St. François Xavier
at the mouth of the Fox River, on Green Bay, Lake Michigan.
As regards some of the sufferings which these missionaries had to go
through when travelling across Canada in the winter, I quote the
following from _The Relations of the Jesuits_ (p. 35):--
"I [Father de Crépieul] set out on the 16th of January, 1674, from the
vicinity of Lake St. John, near the Saguenay River, with an Algonkin
captain and two Frenchmen. We started after Mass, and walked five long
leagues on snowshoes with much trouble, because the snow was soft and
made our snowshoes very heavy. At the end of five leagues, we found
ourselves on a lake four or five leagues long all frozen over, on
which the wind caused great quantities of snow to drift, obscuring the
air and preventing us from seeing where we are going. After walking
another league and a half with great difficulty our strength began to
fail. The wind, cold, and snow were so intolerable that they compelled
us to retrace our steps a little, to cut some branches of fir which
might in default of bark serve to build a cabin. After this we tried
to light a fire, but were unable to do so. We were thus reduced to a
most pitiful condition. The cold was beginning to seize us to an
extraordinary degree, the darkness was great, and the wind blew
fearfully. In order to keep ourselves from dying with cold, we resumed
our march on the lake in spite of our fatigue, without knowing whither
we were going, and all were greatly impeded with the wind and snow.
After walking a league and a half we had to succumb in spite of
ourselves and stop where we were. The danger we ran of dying from cold
caused me to remember the charitable Father de Noue, who in a similar
occasion was found dead in the snow, kneeling and with clasped
hands.... We therefore remained awake during the rest of the night....
On the following morning two Frenchmen arrived from Father Albanel's
cabin very opportunely, and kindled a great fire on the snow.... After
this we resumed our journey on the same lake, and at last reached the
spot where Father Albanel was.... A serious injury, caused by the fall
of a heavy load upon his loins, prevented him from moving, and still
more, from performing a missionary's duties."
One of the Jesuit fathers, Allouez, in founding the station of St.
François Xavier on Green Bay, Lake Michigan, had gained further
information about the wonderful Mississippi, which he called "Messi
Sipi". He also thoroughly explored Lake Nipigon, to the north of Lake
Superior. In 1669 two missionaries, named Dollier de Casson and
Galinée, started from the seminary of St. Sulpice (Montreal) to reach
the great tribes of the far west, supposed to be eager to learn of
Christianity and known to be much more tractable than the Iroquois.
These two missionaries, in their expedition of seven canoes and
twenty-one Amerindians, were accompanied by a remarkable young man
commonly known as La Salle, but whose real name was Robert
Cavalier.[7]
[Footnote 7: La Salle was the name of his property in France.]
Before leaving Lake Ontario, they actually passed the mouth of the
Niagara River and heard the falls, but had not sufficient curiosity to
leave their canoes and walk a short distance to see them. The
wonderful cascades of Niagara, where the St. Lawrence leaving Lake
Erie plunges 328 feet down into Lake Ontario (which is not much above
sea level), remained nearly undiscovered and undescribed until the
year 1678, when they were visited by Father Hennepin. Near the western
end of Lake Ontario the two Sulpician missionaries met another
Frenchman, Jolliet, who had come down to Lake Superior by way of the
Detroit passage, which is really the portion of the St. Lawrence
connecting Lake Huron with Lake Erie. Jolliet told the missionary de
Casson of a great tribe in the far west, the Pottawatomies, who had
asked for missionaries, and who were of Algonkin stock. La Salle, on
the other hand, was determined to make for the rumoured Ohio River,
which lay somewhere to the south-west of Lake Erie.
The two Sulpicians wintered in "the earthly paradise" to the north of
Lake Erie, passing a delightful six months there in the amazing
abundance of game and fish. They then met with various disasters to
their canoes, and consequently gave up their western journey, passing
northwards through Detroit and Lake St. Clair into Lake Huron, and
thence to the Jesuit mission station of the Sault Ste. Marie. Here
they were received rather coldly, as being rivals in the mission field
and in exploration. They in their turn accused the Jesuits of thinking
mainly, if not entirely, of the foundation of French colonies, and
very little of evangelizing the natives.
JOLLIET, a Canadian by birth,[8] was dispatched by the Viceroy of
Canada in 1672 to explore the far west. Two years--1670--previously
the French Government had for the first time adopted a really definite
policy about Canada, and had taken formal possession of the Lake
region and of all the territories lying between the lakes and the
Mississippi. A great assembly of Indians was held at Sault Ste. Marie,
near the east end of Lake Superior; and here a representative of the
French Government, accompanied by numerous missionaries and by
Jolliet, read a proclamation of the sovereignty of King Louis XIV of
France and Navarre. Below a tall cross was erected a great shield
bearing the arms of France. Father Allouez addressed the Indians in
the Algonkin language, and told them of the all-powerful Louis XIV,
who "had ten thousand commanders and captains, each as great as the
Governor of Quebec". He reminded them how the troops of this king had
beaten the unconquerable Iroquois, of how he possessed innumerable
soldiers and uncountable ships; that at times the ground of France
shook with the discharge of cannon, while the blaze of musketry was
like the lightning. He pictured the king covered with the blood of his
enemies and riding in the middle of his cavalry, and ordering so many
of his enemies to be slain that no account could be kept of the number
of their scalps, whilst their blood flowed in rivers. The Amerindians
being what they were, addicted to warfare, and only recognizing the
right of the strongest, it may be that this gospel of force was not
quite so shocking and unchristian as it reads to us nearly 250 years
afterwards, though it jars very much as coming from the lips of a
missionary of Christianity. However, it must be remembered that but
for the valour of the French soldiers in the awful period between 1648
and 1666 (when the Mohawks received a thorough and well-deserved
thrashing) many of the tribes addressed on this occasion by the Jesuit
missionaries would have been completely exterminated; the Iroquois
would have depopulated much of north-eastern America. It is obvious,
indeed, from our study of the conditions of life amongst the
Amerindians, that one reason why the New World was so poorly populated
at the time of its discovery by Europeans was the wars of
extermination between tribe and tribe; for America between the Arctic
regions and Tierra del Fuego is marvellously well supplied with
natural food products--game, fish, fruits, nuts, roots, and
grain--much more so than any area of similar extent in the Old World.
[Footnote 8: Born at Quebec in 1645.]
Jolliet was to be accompanied on his westward expedition by Father
JACQUES MARQUETTE,[9] a Jesuit missionary who had become well
acquainted with the tribes visiting Lake Superior, and had learnt the
Siou dialect of the Illinois people. On May 17, 1673, Jolliet and
Marquette started from the Straits of Michili-Makinak with only two
bark canoes and five Amerindians. They coasted along the north coast
of Lake Michigan, passed into Green Bay, and thence up the River Fox.
They were assisted by the Maskutins, or Fire Indians, and were given
Miami guides. Thence the natives assisted them to transport their
canoes and baggage over the very short distance that separates the
upper waters of the Fox River from the Wisconsin River, and down the
Wisconsin they glided till they reached the great Mississippi. The
Governor of Quebec, who had sent Jolliet on this mission, believed
that the Great River of the west would lead them to the Gulf of
California, which was then called the Vermilion Sea by the Spaniards,
because it resembled in shape and colour the Red Sea.
[Footnote 9: Father Jacques Marquette was born in the province of
Champagne, eastern France. He came to Canada when he was twenty-nine
years old, having already been prepared by the Jesuits for priesthood
and missionary work since his seventeenth year. He spent nine years in
Canada, and died at the age of thirty-eight. He has left an enduring
memory for goodness, courage, and purity of life.]
"On the 17th of June (1673)", writes Father Marquette, "we safely
entered the Mississippi with a joy that I cannot express. Its current
is slow and gentle, the width very unequal. On its banks there are
hardly any woods or mountains. The islands are most beautiful, and
they are covered with fine trees. We saw deer and cattle (bison),
geese, and swans. From time to time we came upon monstrous fish, one
of which struck our canoe with such violence that I thought it was a
great tree. On another occasion we saw on the water a monster with the
head of a tiger, a sharp nose like that of a wild cat, with whiskers
and straight erect ears. The head was grey, and the neck quite black
(possibly a lynx).... We found that turkeys had taken the place of
game, and the _pisikiou_, or wild cattle, that of the other animals."
Father Marquette, of course, by his wild cattle means the bison, of
which he proceeds to give an excellent description. He adds: "They are
very fierce, and not a year passes without their killing some savages.
When attacked, they catch a man on their horns if they can, toss him
in the air, throw him on the ground, then trample him under foot and
kill him. If a person fires at them from a distance with either a bow
or a gun, he must immediately after the shot throw himself down and
hide in the grass, for if they perceive him who has fired they run at
him and attack him."
Soon after entering the Mississippi, Marquette noticed some rocks
which by their height and length inspired awe. "We saw upon one of
them two painted monsters which at first made us afraid, and upon
which the boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes. They are as
large as a calf; they have horns on their heads like those of deer, a
horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger's, a face somewhat like
a man's, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds
all round the body and ends like that of a fish. Green, red, and black
are the three colours composing the picture. Moreover, these two
monsters are so well painted that we cannot believe that any savage is
their author, for good painters in France would find it difficult to
paint so well, and, besides, they are so high up on the rock that it
is difficult to reach that place conveniently to paint them."[10]
[Footnote 10: These remarkable rock pictures were situated immediately
above the present city of Alton, Illinois. In 1812 they still remained
in a good state of preservation, but the thoughtless Americans had
gradually destroyed them by 1867 in quarrying the rock for building
stone.]
As the Jolliet expedition paddled down the Mississippi--ever so easily
and swiftly--a marvellous panorama unfolded itself before the
Frenchmen's fascinated gaze. Immense herds of bison occasionally
appeared on the river banks, flocks of turkeys flew up from the glades
and roosted in the trees and on the river bank. Everywhere the natives
seemed friendly, and Father Marquette was usually able to communicate
with them through his knowledge of the Illinois Algonkin dialect,
which the Siou understood.
[Illustration: INDIANS HUNTING BISON]
On their first meeting with the Mississippi Indians, the French
explorers were not only offered the natives' pipes to smoke in token
of peace, but an old man amongst the latter uttered these words to
Jolliet: "How beautiful the sun is, O Frenchman, when thou comest to
visit us. Our village awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins
in peace."... "There was a crowd of people," writes Marquette; "they
devoured us with their eyes, but nevertheless preserved profound
silence. We could, however, hear these words addressed to us from time
to time in a low voice: 'How good it is, my brothers, that you should
visit us'.
"... The council was followed by a great feast, consisting of four
dishes, which had to be partaken of in accordance with all their
fashions. The first course was a great wooden platter full of
sagamité, that is to say, meal of Indian corn boiled in water, and
seasoned with fat. The Master of the Ceremonies filled a spoon with
sagamité three or four times, and put it to my mouth as if I were a
little child. He did the same to Monsieur Jollyet. As a second course
he caused a second platter to be brought, on which were three fish. He
took some pieces of them, removed the bones therefrom, and, after
blowing upon them to cool them, he put them in our mouths as one would
give food to a bird. For the third course, they brought a large dog
that had just been killed, but, when they learned that we did not eat
this meat, they removed it from before us. Finally, the fourth course
was a piece of wild ox, the fattest morsels of which were placed in
our mouths.... We thus pushed forward and no longer saw so many
prairies, because both shores of the river are bordered with lofty
trees. The cotton wood, elm and bass wood are admirable for their
height and thickness. There are great numbers of wild cattle whom we
hear bellowing. We killed a little parroquet, with a red and yellow
head and green body.... We have got down to near the 33° of
latitude.... We heard from afar savages who were inciting one another
to attack us by their continual yelling. They were armed with bows and
arrows, hatchets, clubs, and shields.... Part of them embarked in
great wooden canoes, some to ascend, others to descend the river in
order to surround us on all sides.... Some young men threw themselves
into the water and seized my canoe, but the current compelled them to
return to land. One of them hurled his club, which passed over without
striking us. In vain I showed the calumet (pipe of peace), and made
them signs that we were not coming to war against them. The alarm
continued; they were already preparing to pierce us with arrows from
all sides when God suddenly touched the hearts of the old men who were
standing at the water's edge, who checked the ardour of their young
men.... Whereon we landed, not without fear on our part. First we had
to speak by signs, because none of them understood the six languages
which I spoke. At last we found an old man who could speak a little
Illinois. We informed them that we were going to the sea.
"The next day was spent in feasting on Indian corn and dogs' flesh.
The people here had an abundance of Indian corn, which they sowed at
all seasons. They cook it in great earthen jars which are very well
made, and also have plates of baked earth. The men go naked and wear
their hair short; they pierce their noses, from which, as well as from
their ears, hang beads.... Their cabins are made of bark, and are long
and wide. They sleep at the two ends, which are raised two feet above
the ground. They know nothing of the beaver, and their wealth consists
in the skins of wild cattle. They never see snow in their country, and
recognize the winter only through the rains."
The expedition had passed the confluence of the Missouri and that of
the Ohio, and had finally reached the place where the Arkansas River
enters the Mississippi. Here the Frenchmen gathered from the natives
that the sea was only ten days distant, and this sea they knew (for
Jolliet was able to take astronomical observations and to make a rough
survey) could only be the Gulf of Mexico. Jolliet feared if he
prosecuted his journey any farther, he and his people would fall into
the hands of the Spaniards and be imprisoned, if not killed.
Therefore, at this point on the Lower Mississippi, the expedition
turned back. Its return journey was a weary business, for the current
was against the canoes as they were propelled northwards up the Great
River. But Jolliet learnt from the natives of a better homeward route,
that of following the Illinois River upstream until the expedition
came within a very short distance of Lake Michigan, near where Chicago
now stands. The canoes were carried over a low ridge of ground,
launched again in the Chicago River, and so passed into Lake Michigan.
(There is, in fact, at this point the remains of an ancient water
connection between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, and a canal
now connects the two systems.) Jolliet, in describing this region,
realized that by cutting a canal through two miles of prairie it would
be possible to go "in a small ship" from Lake Erie or Lake Superior
"to Florida".
Father Marquette remained at his new mission on the Fox River (he died
two years afterwards on the shores of the Straits of Michili-makinak).
Jolliet, on returning by way of the Ottawa River to Quebec, was nearly
drowned in the La Chine Rapids (Montreal), and all his papers and maps
were lost. The natives with him also perished, but he struggled to
shore with difficulty, and went on his way to Quebec to report his
wonderful discoveries to the Governor, Frontenac. Fortunately Father
Marquette had also kept a journal and had made maps, and these
reaching the superior of his mission arrived in time to confirm
Jolliet's statements.
Jolliet married at Quebec, and proceeded to explore and develop the
regions along the north coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, travelling
in this work as far as Hudson's Bay. He was given by the French
Government the Island of Anticosti as a reward for his achievements,
but the work and capital which he put into the development of this
long-neglected island came to nothing; for it was captured by the
English, and Jolliet died a poor man whilst attempting to explore the
coast of Labrador.
As to ROBERT CAVALIER DE LA SALLE, he had, after all, discovered the
Ohio, and had descended that river as far as the site of the present
town of Louisville. Then he interested the Governor (Frontenac) of
Canada in his enterprises. A fort, called Fort Frontenac, was built at
what is now Kingston, at the point where the St. Lawrence leaves Lake
Ontario. La Salle returned to France, and obtained the grant of the
lordship of this fort and the surrounding country on conditions of
maintaining the whole cost of the establishment, and making a
settlement of colonists. Another visit to France in 1677-8 secured him
further support and capital, and he returned from France with a
companion, Henry de Tonty.
La Salle, with de Tonty, started from Fort Frontenac in September,
1678, so intensely anxious to commence his discoveries that he
disregarded the difficulties of the winter season. On his way to
Niagara he paid a visit to the Iroquois to conciliate them, and
cleverly got from them permission to build a vessel on Lake Erie and
also to erect a blacksmith's forge, near where Niagara now stands. The
blacksmith's forge grew rapidly into a fort before the Indians were
aware of what was being done. By August, 1679, he had built and
launched (in spite of extraordinary calamities and misfortunes) on the
Upper Niagara River the first sailing boat which ever appeared on the
four great upper lakes of the St. Lawrence basin.
In this ship he sailed through Lake Erie and past Detroit into Lake
Huron, and thence to Green Bay (Lake Michigan), stopping at intervals
amongst the canoes of the amazed natives, who for the first time heard
the sound of cannon, for he had armed his vessel with guns. At Green
Bay he collected a large quantity of furs, which had been obtained in
trade by the men he had sent on in advance. He loaded up his sailing
boat, the _Griffon_, and sent her on a voyage back to the east to
transport this splendid load of furs to the merchants with whom he had
become deeply indebted. Unhappily the _Griffon_ foundered in a storm
on Lake Michigan, and was never heard of again. Meantime La Salle,
with de Tonty and Father HENNEPIN, the discoverer of Niagara, had
travelled in canoes to the south-east end of Lake Michigan, had passed
up the Joseph River, and thence by portage into the Kankaki, which
flows into the Illinois. This river he descended till he stopped near
the site of the modern Peoria. Below this place he built a fort--for
it was winter time--and although the natives were not very friendly he
collected enough information from them to satisfy himself that he
could easily pass down the Illinois to the Mississippi.
He sent one of the Frenchmen, Michel Accault, together with Father
Hennepin, to explore the Illinois down to the Mississippi; de Tonty he
placed in charge of the fort with a small garrison; and then himself,
on the last day of February, 1680, started to walk overland from Lake
Michigan to Detroit. Eventually, by means of a canoe, which he
constructed himself, he regained Fort Frontenac and Montreal. When he
returned to Fort Crèvecoeur, on the Illinois River,[11] it was to meet
with the signs of a horrible disaster. The Iroquois in his absence had
descended on the place with a great war party. They had massacred the
Illinois people dwelling in a big settlement near the fort, and the
remains of their mutilated bodies were scattered all over the place.
Their town had been burnt; the fort was empty and abandoned. There
were no traces of the Frenchmen, however, amongst the skulls and
skeletons lying around him; for the skulls retained sufficient hair to
show that they belonged to Amerindians. Nevertheless, he deposited his
new stock of goods and most of his men in the ruins of the Fort
Crèvecoeur, and descended the River Illinois to the Mississippi. But
he was obliged to turn back. On the west bank of the river were the
scared Illinois Indians, on the east the raging Iroquois. Whenever La
Salle could safely visit a deserted camp he would examine the remains
of the tortured men tied to stakes to see if amongst them there was a
Frenchman.
[Footnote 11: He had named this place "Heartbreak" because when
building it he had learnt of the loss of his sailing ship _Griffon_,
with the splendid supply of furs which was to have paid off his debts,
with all his reserve supplies and his men. This was not the limit of
his troubles; for, after the overland journey of appalling hardships
through a country of melting ice, flood, swamp, and hostile
Iroquois--the Iroquois being furious with La Salle for having
outwitted them in the building of this fort, and seeking him
everywhere to destroy him--when he got to Montreal it was only to
learn that a ship, coming from France with further supplies for his
great journey had been wrecked at the mouth of the St. Lawrence!]
But de Tonty was not dead. After incredible adventures he had escaped
the raids of the Iroquois and had reached the Straits of
Michili-makinak, between Lakes Michigan and Huron, and there met La
Salle, who was once more on his way to Montreal.
Again de La Salle and de Tonty, in the winter of 1681, returned to the
south end of Lake Michigan, and made their way over the snow to the
Illinois River. On the 6th February, 1682, they left the junction of
the Illinois and the Mississippi to trace that great river to its
outlet in the sea. La Salle reached the delta on the 6th April, 1682,
having on the way taken possession of the country in the name of the
King of France. Accault and Father Hennepin had meantime paddled up
the Northern Mississippi as far as its junction with the Wisconsin. At
this place their party was surrounded and captured by a large band of
Siou warriors.
The Frenchmen were at first in danger of being killed, as the Sious
refused to smoke with them the pipe of peace. But being much less
bloodthirsty than the Iroquois, they soon calmed down and treated
their captives with a certain rough friendliness. All their goods were
taken from them, even the vestments worn by Father Hennepin. But they
were well supplied with food such as the country produced--bison,
beef, fish, wild turkeys, and the grain of the wild rice, which made
such excellent flour. They were gradually conveyed by the Siou[12] to
a large settlement of that tribe on the shore of Mille Lacs, a sheet
of water not far distant from the westernmost extremity of Lake
Superior. Whilst staying at this Siou town Hennepin conversed with
Indians from the far north and north-west, and from what they told him
came to the conclusion that there was no continuous waterway or
"Strait of Anian" across the North-American continent, but that
the land extended to the north-west till it finally joined the
north-eastern part of Asia--a guess that was not very far wrong. But
he also surmised that there were rivers in the far west which led to
an ocean--the Pacific--across which ships might go to Japan and China
without passing to the southward of the Equator.
[Footnote 12: The real name of the Siou, as far as we can arrive at it
through the records of the French pioneers, was Issati or Naduessiu.]
Whilst moving up and down the northern Mississippi, bison-hunting with
the Indians, the Frenchmen were met near the site of St. Paul by one
of the great French pioneers of the seventeenth century, the Sieur
DANIEL DE GREYSOLON DU L'HUT. This remarkable man, who was an officer
of the French army, had already planted the French arms at the
Amerindian settlement of Mille Lacs in 1679, and had established
himself as a powerful authority at the west end of Lake Superior. He
had also summoned a great council of Amerindian tribes--the Siou from
the Upper Mississippi, the Assiniboins from the Lake of the Woods
(between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg), and the Kri Indians from
Lake Nipigon. He had further discovered, in 1679, the water route of
the St. Croix River from near Lake Superior to the Mississippi.
Du L'Hut soon persuaded the Siou to let his fellow countrymen return
with him to Lake Superior. Accault remained behind with the Siou,
delighted with their wild, roving life, and no doubt married an Indian
wife and became the father of some of those bold half-breeds who
played such a great part in the subsequent history of innermost
Canada. But Father Hennepin returned to Montreal, and made his way
eventually to France, where he fell into great disgrace and was
unfrocked. He had richly merited this treatment, for after he heard of
the death of La Salle he impudently claimed the discovery of the whole
course of the Mississippi River for himself, and for a long time was
believed. He will certainly go down in history as the man who
discovered and described Niagara Falls (in 1678), and he also assisted
greatly to clear up the geography of the time by the information he
collected from the Amerindians as to the vast extent of the
North-American continent; but he was a boastful, unscrupulous man.
Du L'Hut, who came to the rescue of Accault and Hennepin, was of noble
family, and a member of the king's bodyguard. He decided, however, to
seek his fortune in Canada, and obtained a commission as captain. It
was his cousin, Henri de Tonty, who had accompanied La Salle. After
returning to France to fight in the wars then going on, he came back
to Canada with a younger brother, Claude. He had in him the spirit of
great adventurers, and longed to visit the unknown countries of the
upper Mississippi. In the early part of these journeys he rescued his
fellow countrymen from the keeping of the Sious in the manner
described. After that he spent _thirty_ years travelling and trading
about North America, from the northern Mississippi into what we
should now call Manitoba, and from the vicinity of Lake Winnipeg to
Hudson Bay. He brought the great Amerindian nation of the Dakotas into
direct relations with the French. He was absolutely fearless, and in
no period of Canadian history has France been more splendidly
represented in the personality of any of her officers than she was by
Daniel de Greysolon du L'Hut. His was a tiresome name for English
scribes and speakers. It was therefore written by them "Duluth" and
pronounced D[)a]l[)a]th (instead of "Dülüt"). It is the name given to
the township near the southernmost extremity of Lake Superior.
When the journeys of du L'Hut came to an end--he died at Montreal in
1710--and after the era of great French explorations in North America
drew to a close, the French power was beginning to be eclipsed by that
of the British, who were building up the foundations of a colony on
the shores of Hudson's Bay, and were taking steps to acquire
Newfoundland and to colonize New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Nevertheless, in 1720, the King of France, or rather the regent acting
for the king, decided that a serious attempt must be made to discover
the Western Sea, or Pacific Ocean, from the French posts which had
been established in what is now known as Manitoba. The French had
already discovered the Missouri, and had heard from several Indian
tribes that it was possible to cross the Rocky Mountains and descend
by other rivers to the waters of a great ocean, the coasts of which
were visited by Spaniards. Several expeditions were sent out, more or
less under the control of Jesuits, but did not accomplish much.
The really great discoveries which link the "Great North-West" for all
time in history with France and French names were initiated by PIERRE
GAULTIER DE LA VÉRENDRYE, who was born in 1685 at the town of Three
Rivers, in Lower Canada, where his father was Governor. He entered
the army at the age of twelve, and took part in the French campaigns
in Flanders, winning the rank of lieutenant at the battle of
Malplaquet, where he received nine wounds and was left for dead on the
field. He then returned to Canada, not having the necessary means with
which to support the position of a lieutenant; and then, as France
seemed to have entered upon a period of protracted peace, he
determined to become an explorer. In 1728, when he was commandant of
the trading post of Nipigon, to the north of Lake Superior, he heard
from an Indian that there was a great lake beyond Lake Superior, out
of which flowed a river towards the west, which ultimately led to a
great salt lake where the water ebbed and flowed. As a matter of fact,
these stories simply referred to Lake Winnipeg, but the importance of
them lay in the fact that they acted as a powerful incentive to La
Vérendrye to push his explorations westwards, and perhaps discover a
route to the Pacific Ocean.[13]
[Footnote 13: The water of Lake Winnipeg--whatever it may be now--was
frequently stated by Amerindians in earlier days to be "stinking
water", or salt, brackish water, disagreeable to drink, and this lake
exhibits a curious phenomenon of a regular rise and fall, reminding
the observer of a tide, a phenomenon by no means confined to Lake
Winnipeg, but occurring on sheets of water of much smaller extent.]
La Vérendrye afterwards went to Quebec, where he discussed his plans
for Western exploration with the Governor of New France, the Marquis
de Beauharnais, who was a distant connection of the Beauharnais family
from which sprang the first husband of the Empress Joséphine, the
grandfather of Napoleon III.
This Governor entered into his scheme with enthusiasm, though he could
obtain little or no money from the ministers of Louis XVI. But a way
out of the difficulty was found by the Governor giving La Vérendrye
the monopoly of the fur trade in the far North-West.[14] This
monopoly enabled La Vérendrye to obtain the funds for his expenditure
from the merchants of Montreal, and in the summer of 1731 he started
out on his explorations, accompanied by three of his sons, his nephew,
fifty soldiers and French Canadian canoe men, and a Jesuit missionary.
For a guide they had the Indian, Oshagash, who had first told La
Vérendrye of the western river and the salt water. After many delays,
necessitated by the need for trading in furs to satisfy the merchants
of Montreal, La Vérendrye and his expedition skated on snowshoes down
the ice of the Winnipeg River and reached the shores of Lake Winnipeg.
They were probably the first white men to arrive there. La Vérendrye
established forts and posts along his route from Lake Nipigon, but his
expedition had not been a commercial success. There was a deficit of
£1700 between the amount realized in furs and the cost of the
equipment and wages of the French and French Canadians. De Beauharnais
made a fresh appeal to the French Court; he urged that the expenditure
to convey La Vérendrye's expedition to the Pacific Ocean would not be
a large one--perhaps only £1500.
[Footnote 14: What we should call to-day a "concession".]
But the French Court was obdurate; it would not furnish a penny. Thus
La Vérendrye, in all probability, was prevented from forestalling the
British explorers of sixty and seventy years later, besides the
expeditions of Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver, which secured for
Great Britain a foothold on the Pacific seaboard of British Columbia.
La Vérendrye in his fort on Lake Winnipeg was in a desperate position.
He made a hasty journey back to Montreal and even Quebec, to beat up
funds and to pacify the capitalists of his fur-trading monopoly. He
painted in glowing colours the prospects of cutting off the trade of
the Hudson's Bay Company and the building up of an immense commerce in
valuable furs, and these men agreed once again to furnish the funds
for the extension of the expedition. On his return he took back with
him his youngest son, Louis, a boy of eighteen. Whilst he had been
absent from Fort St. Charles (a post which he had built on the Lake of
the Woods, in communication by water with the Winnipeg River), on Lake
Winnipeg, that place was visited by a party of Siou Indians. They
found the fort occupied in the absence of the French by a number of
Kri or "Knistino" Indians in French service. These Kris were
frightened at the arrival of the Sious and fired guns at them. "Who
fired on us?" demanded these haughty Indians from Dakota, and the Kris
replied, "The French". Then the Sious withdrew, but vowed to be
completely revenged on the treacherous white man.
When La Vérendrye reached Fort St. Charles its little garrison was
almost at the point of starvation. He had travelled himself ahead of
his party, and the immense stock of supplies and provisions he was
bringing up country were a long way behind him when he reached the
fort. He therefore sent back his son Jean, together with the most
active of his Canadian voyageurs and the Jesuit missionary, in order
that they might meet the heavily laden canoes and hurry them up
country as fast as possible. But this party was met by the Sious on
Rainy River, who massacred them to a man. They were afterwards found
lying in a circle on the beach, decapitated and mutilated. The heads
of most of them were wrapped ironically in beaver skins, and La
Vérendrye's son, Jean, was horribly cut and slashed, and his
mutilated, naked body decorated with garters and bracelets of
porcupine quills.
Meantime, during his absence in Lower Canada, two of his sons in
charge of Fort Maurepas, on Lake Winnipeg, had been very active. They
had discovered the great size of this lake, and also the entrance of
the Red River on the south. They then proceeded to explore both the
Red River and its western tributary the Assiniboin. On the Assiniboin
was afterwards built the post of Fort La Reine, and from this place in
1738 La Vérendrye started with two of his sons, several other
Frenchmen, a few Canadian voyageurs, and twenty-five Assiniboin
Indians. Leaving the Assiniboin River, they crossed the North Dakota
prairies on foot. Owing to the timidity of his Indian guides, La
Vérendrye was not led direct to the Missouri River, the "Great River
of the West", but along a zigzag route which permitted his guides to
reinforce their numbers at Assiniboin villages, and every now and then
join in a bison hunt. All the party were on foot, horses not then
having reached the Assiniboin tribe. But on the 28th of November,
1738, they drew near to the Missouri and were met by a chief of the
great Mandan tribe, who was accompanied by thirty of his warriors, and
who presented La Vérendrye with young maize cobs and leaves of native
tobacco, these being regarded as emblems of peace and friendship.
The Mandan tribe differed materially in its habits and customs from
the Indians to the north, who supported themselves mainly, if not
entirely, by hunting, who cared very little for agriculture, and moved
continually like nomads over great stretches of country, living
chiefly in tents or temporary villages. The Mandans, on the other
hand, were a people who practised agriculture, and had permanent and
well-constructed towns. In fact, their civilization and demeanour made
such an impression on the Assiniboin and other northern tribes that
they had been considered a sort of "white people", somewhat akin to
Europeans, and La Vérendrye was a little disappointed to find them
only Amerindians in race and colour.
The six hundred Assiniboins who had gathered about La Vérendrye's
expedition proved to be a great trouble to him, as they were
constantly picking quarrels with the Mandans, who were very dishonest.
Accordingly, La Vérendrye arranged with the Mandans to frighten them
away by pretending that the Siou Indians were on the warpath. The six
hundred Assiniboins bolted, but took with them La Vérendrye's
interpreter, so that he was henceforth obliged to communicate with the
Mandans by means of signs and gestures. This and other reasons decided
him to return--even though it was the depth of winter, to Fort La
Reine, but not before he had given the head chief of the Mandans a
flag and a leaden plate which (unknown to the Mandans) meant taking
possession of their country in the name of the French king.
The journey back to Fort La Reine, over the plains of the Assiniboin,
was a terrible experience. The party had to travel in the teeth of an
almost unceasing north-east wind which was freezingly cold. Night
after night they were obliged to dig deep holes in the snow for their
sleeping places. La Vérendrye nearly died of agonizing pain and
fatigue during this journey, and was a long time recovering from its
effects.
As they continued to receive friendly messages from the Mandans,
inviting them to make further discoveries, LA VÉRENDRYE'S sons, PIERRE
and FRANCOIS, set out in the spring of 1742, and, after some checks
and disappointments, managed with a single Mandan guide to reach Broad
Lands on the Little Missouri River, where they noticed the earths of
different colours, blue, green, red, black, white, and yellow, which
are so characteristic of this region. They reached the village of the
Crow Indians, passed through a portion of the friendly tribe, the
Cheyennes (the name was probably pronounced Shian) and got into the
country which was constantly being ravaged by the Snake Indians, or
Shoshones. Here, on the 1st of January, 1743, when the mists of
morning cleared away, they saw upon the horizon the outline of huge
mountains. As they travelled westwards or south-westwards, day after
day, the jagged blue wall resolved itself into towering snow-capped
peaks, glittering in the sun and provoking the appellation of "the
Mountains of Bright Stones", a name probably given to the Rocky
Mountains by the Amerindians, but used in all the earlier French and
English maps until the end of the eighteenth century.[15]
[Footnote 15: The term Rocky Mountains was probably first officially
applied by the American expedition, under Lewis and Clarke, sent out
by the United States Government in 1804 to take possession of the
coast of Oregon, but it was used twenty or thirty years earlier by
British explorers of Western Canada.]
On the 12th of January they reached the very foot of the mountains,
the slopes of which they saw were thickly covered with magnificent
forests of pine and fir--forests, that have since suffered to an
appalling extent from annual bush fires, which so far the United
States Government seems unable to check. Here they were to meet with a
bitter disappointment. They were travelling with a very large war
party of the Bow Indians for the purpose, if need be, of attacking and
routing the Shoshones; but a Shoshone camp at the base of the
mountains was found to be deserted, and the Bow Indians jumped to the
conclusion that the Shoshones had turned back through the forest
unseen, and were now making with all speed for the principal war camp
of the Bow Indians, where they would massacre the women and children.
They would listen to no remonstrances from the two Frenchmen, who
perforce had also to travel back, either alone or with the Bow
Indians, in the direction of their war camp, where the idea of a
Shoshone attack was found to be baseless. Eventually, the two La
Vérendrye brothers were obliged to make their way to the Missouri
River, and abandon any idea of finding a way to the Western Ocean
across the Rocky Mountains.
The French pioneers had already heard of the Spaniards in California,
and the possibility of getting into touch with them. They had now
discovered, first of all Europeans, the Rocky Mountains--that great
snowy range of North America which extends from Robson Peak on the
eastern borders of British Columbia to Baldy Peak in New Mexico.
Afterwards the La Vérendryes directed their attention more to the
opportunities of reaching the Far West through the streams that flowed
into the system of Lake Winnipeg, and in this way discovered, in or
about 1743, the great River Saskatchewan. This river La Vérendrye's
sons followed up till they reached the junction between the North and
the South Rivers, and then they probably learnt a good deal more of
the Southern Saskatchewan, on which they may have built one or two
posts. La Vérendrye himself thought that this would prove to be the
best route by which the French could reach the Western Sea.
By this time the French Government was becoming alive to the
importance of these discoveries, and it conferred a decoration on La
Vérendrye, and allowed him to hope that he might be furnished with
means for further exploration. But he died soon afterwards, at the
close of 1749, and after his death his sons were treated with gross
ingratitude and neglect. The self-seeking Governor of New France
endeavoured to secure the fur trade for his own friends, and sent an
officer with a terribly long name--Captain Jacques Répentigny Le
Gardeur de Saint Pierre--to continue the exploration towards the
Pacific. From 1750 to 1763 the French occupation of this region of the
two Saskatchewan Rivers was extended till in all probability the
French got within sight of the northern Rocky Mountains in the
vicinity of Calgary. Then came the English conquest of Canada to stop
all further enterprise in this direction, and the story was next to be
taken up by English, Scottish, and Canadian explorers.
It will be men with English and Scottish names, mainly, who will
henceforth complete the work begun and established so magnificently by
Cartier, Brulé, Nicollet, Jolliet, La Salle, du L'Hut, and La
Vérendrye, though the French Canadians will also play a notable part,
together with "Americans", from New England.