THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
The discovery of the Mississippi by Ferdinand de Soto was not
immediately productive of benefit. For nearly a century and a half
after this ill-fated explorer slept beneath the waters which he had
been the first to cross, the “Father of Rivers” continued to flow
through unpeopled solitudes, unvisited by civilized men. The French
possessed the valley of the St. Lawrence. The English had thriving
settlements on the Atlantic sea-board; but the Alleghany Mountains,
which shut them in on the west, allowed room for the growth of many
years, and there was yet therefore no reason to seek wider limits. The
valley of the Mississippi remained a hunting-ground for the savages who
had long possessed it.
In course of years it became evident that England and France must
settle by conflict their claims upon the American continent. The
English still maintained their right, originating in discovery, to
all the territory occupied by the French; and from time to time they
sent out expeditions to re-assert by invasion the dormant claim. To
the French, magnificent possibilities offered themselves. The whole
enormous line of the Mississippi and its tributaries, from the Great
Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, could be seized and held; a military
settlement could secure the mouth of the river; the English could be
hemmed in between the Alleghanies and the ocean, and the increase of
their settlements frustrated.
[Sidenote: 1671 A.D.] Nicholas Perrot, a French officer, met, on the
King’s business, a gathering of Indian delegates, at a point near the
northern extremity of Lake Michigan. There he was told of a vast river,
called by some Mechasepé, by others Mississippi. In what direction
it flowed the savages could not tell, but they were sure it did not
flow either to the north or to the east. The acute Frenchman readily
perceived that this mysterious stream must discharge its waters into
the Pacific or into the Gulf of Mexico, and that in either case its
control must be of high value to France.
[Sidenote: 1673 A.D.] An exploring party, composed of six men and
furnished with two slight bark canoes, undertook the search. They
ascended the Fox River from the point where it enters Lake Michigan;
they crossed a narrow isthmus; and launching upon the River Wisconsin,
they floated easily downwards till they came out upon the magnificent
waters of the Mississippi. Their joy was great: the banks of the
river seemed to their gladdened eyes rich and beautiful; the trees
were taller than they had ever seen before; wild cattle in vast herds
roamed over the flowery meadows of this romantic land. For many days
the adventurers followed the course of the river. They came where the
Missouri joins its waters to those of the Mississippi. They passed the
Ohio and the Arkansas, and looked with wonder upon the vast torrents
which reinforced the mighty river. They satisfied themselves that the
Mississippi fell into the Gulf of Mexico; and then, mistrusting the
good-will of the Spaniards, they turned back and toilsomely reascended
the stream.
[Sidenote: 1680 A.D.] Some years later, a young and energetic
Frenchman--Sieur de la Salle--completed the work which these explorers
had begun. The hope entertained by Columbus, that he would discover
a better route to the East, had only now, after two hundred years of
disappointment, begun to fade out of the hearts of his followers,
and it was still eagerly cherished by La Salle. He traversed the
Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf. He
saw the vast and dreary swamps which lie around the outlet of the
Mississippi. He erected a shield bearing the arms of France; he claimed
the enormous region from the Alleghany Mountains to the Pacific, from
the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, as the possession of the French
King.
For a full half century France took no action to secure the vast
possession which she claimed. The later years of Louis XIV. were full
of disaster. England, persuaded by King William that French ambition
was a standing menace to Europe, waged wars which brought France to
the verge of ruin. Her colonial possessions could receive little care
when France was fighting for existence in Europe. [Sidenote: 1746 A.D.]
A wise Governor of Canada--the Compte de la Galissonnière--perceived
the rapid growth of the English settlements and the growing danger to
France which their superior strength involved. He proposed that the
line of the Mississippi should be fortified, and that ten thousand
peasants should be sent out to form settlements on the banks of
the great lakes and rivers. In time, the growing strength of these
settlements would give to France secure possession of the valley of
the Mississippi; while the English colonists, confined within the
narrow region eastward of the Alleghany Mountains, must lie exposed to
the damaging assault of their more powerful neighbours. So reasoned
the Governor; but his words gained no attention from the pre-occupied
Government of France. To the utmost of his means he sought to carry
out the policy which would preserve for France her vast American
possessions. He endeavoured to exclude English traders, and to persuade
the Indians to adopt a similar course. He marked out the confines of
French territory by leaden plates bearing the arms of France, sunk in
the earth or nailed upon trees. He brought a few settlers from Nova
Scotia. But all his efforts were in vain. The Anglo-Saxons were the
appointed rulers of the American continent; and the time was near when,
brushing aside the obstruction offered by Frenchmen and by Indians,
they were to enter into full possession of their magnificent heritage.