THE VÉRENDRYES DISCOVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Vérendrye's Experience as a Fur-trader.--As a Soldier.--He returns to
the Forests.--His Plan for reaching the Pacific.--Tremendous
Difficulties in his Way.--He reaches the Mandans.--His Sons discover
the Rocky Mountains.--Alexander Mackenzie follows the Mackenzie River
to the Arctic Ocean.--He achieves a Passage over the Mountains to the
Pacific.--Note on Mandan Indians.--Mah-to-toh-pa's Vengeance.--Singular
Dwellings of the Mandans.--Their Bloody Ordeal.--Skin-boats.--Catlin's
Fanciful Theory.
We have seen how the dream of a short route to China and the Indies
inspired a long line of adventurous explorers. At the first it was
hoped that the Mississippi afforded such a passage. When it was known
beyond all doubt that the Great River flows into the Gulf, not the
"Western Sea," longing eyes were turned toward the western part of the
continent, in the hope that some stream would be found flowing into the
Pacific which would carry the keels of commerce Indiaward. The huge
barrier of the Rocky Mountains was {314} not known, and it was only in
the effort to reach the Pacific by water that they were discovered.
So important was the desired route considered that, in 1720, the French
King sent out the noted historian of New France, Father Charlevoix, to
explore westward and discover a way to the Pacific. He recommended two
plans, either to follow the Missouri River to its head-waters or to
push a chain of trading-posts gradually westward until the continent
should be crossed. The former plan was the one actually carried out,
eighty-three years later, by the famous Lewis and Clark expedition,
which crossed the Rockies and followed the Columbia River to the ocean.
The second plan was the easier and less expensive, and it was the
earlier to be tried. Still several years elapsed before the effort was
made.
The hardy adventurer was Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Vérendrye,
son of the Governor of Three Rivers. Early experience as a fur-trader
taught him to know the Indians and the hard life of the northern
forests. Then came the war of the Spanish Succession, and, a loyal
French subject, he left his fur-trade, hastened to Europe, asked to
serve the King, and was given a commission as a lieutenant. The famous
field of {315} Malplaquet came near to witnessing the end of his
career. He lay on it for dead, gashed with the sabre and pierced with
bullets. Still he recovered, returned to New France, and plunged again
into the woods as a trader.
Being placed in command of the French outpost on Lake Nipigon, where he
also carried on a brisk trade, he heard many a tale from Indians who
came with furs. One of these stories fired his imagination. It was of
a great river flowing westward out of a lake into water in which there
was a tide. Then the Indian drew a rough map on birch bark, a copy of
which is still in existence. Could this be the long-desired route to
the Pacific? He hoped it and was resolved to ascertain the truth. But
first he must get leave and an outfit. Having made the long and
dangerous journey in his birch-bark canoe, that is, gone from Lake
Nipigon into Lake Superior, traversed the entire length of the lakes,
and then descended the St. Lawrence to Quebec, he laid before the
French governor, Beauharnais, his plan for reaching the Pacific by the
net-work of lakes and rivers north and west of Lake Superior. The
Governor approved, but Vérendrye, applying to the King for men and
means, got nothing but a grant {316} of the monopoly of the fur-trade
north and west of Lake Superior. He must raise the money himself.
With difficulty and at exorbitant rates of interest, he obtained
advances from Quebec merchants and set out, June 8, 1731, with his
three sons and a nephew, LaJemeraye. At the close of the season he
built his first fort, St. Pierre, on Rainy River. The next year he
established his second fort, St. Charles, on the southwest shore of the
Lake of the Woods.
Terribly embarrassed by lack of money, he returned to Quebec and
represented his deplorable situation. The Governor reported it to the
King, but could get no more from him than the renewal of the fur-trade
monopoly. Undaunted, Vérendrye persisted, though obliged to suspend
exploration and devote himself for a while to trading, in order to
secure money. There was enough to dishearten a man of less than heroic
stuff. In 1736, his eldest son, with a Jesuit priest and twenty
others, was surprised and massacred by the Sioux on an island in the
Lake of the Woods. Also he was harassed by creditors and compelled
repeatedly to make the long and tedious journey to Montreal. In spite
of all these mishaps, he pushed his posts gradually westward and by
1738 {317} he had established six, viz., St. Pierre, on Rainy Lake; St.
Charles, on the Lake of the Woods; Maurepas at the mouth of the
Winnipeg River; Bourbon on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg; La Reine on
Assiniboine River; and Dauphin on Lake Manitoba.
In 1738 he made a bold push for the Pacific, with fifty persons, French
and Indians. After many devious wanderings, seeking a band that could
conduct him to the Western Ocean, he reached the Mandans, on the upper
Missouri, the singularly interesting people among whom Lewis and Clark
spent the winter sixty-six years later. But, having been robbed of the
presents which he had provided, he was unable to get a guide to lead
him further and was obliged to return. The journey was made in
midwinter and was full of frightful hardships.
His eldest surviving son, Pierre de la Vérendrye, full of his father's
spirit, devoted himself to the same quest. He had with him his brother
and two other men. They started from Fort La Reine, reached the
Mandans, and pushed on to the West. All through the summer, autumn,
and early winter they toiled on, going hither and yon, beguiled by the
usual fairy-tales of tribesmen. {318} At last, on New Year's day,
1743, two hundred and fifty years after the Discovery, doubtless first
of all white men, they saw the Rocky Mountains from the east. This
probably was the Big Horn Range, one hundred and twenty miles east of
the Yellowstone Park. Finding this tremendous obstacle across their
path to the Pacific, they turned back. On July 12 they reached La
Prairie, to the great joy of their father, who had given them up for
lost.
A later Governor of Canada not only ignored the heroic services of the
Vérendryes, but seized their goods, turned over their posts to another,
and reduced them to poverty.
It was a long time before their work was taken up, and it remained for
a man of another race to accomplish what they had so bravely striven
for. Alexander Mackenzie, a Scotch Highlander by birth, was an
energetic young agent of the Montreal Company in the Athabasca region.
He determined to undertake certain explorations. In June, 1789, he set
out from Fort Chippewyan, on the south shore of Lake Athabasca, with
four birch canoes and a party of white men and several Indians,
including a guide and interpreter. Going down Snake River, the
explorers reached Great {319} Slave Lake, then entered a heretofore
unknown river, the one which now bears the name of its discoverer, and
followed it until, on July 12, they sighted the Arctic Ocean, filled
with ice-floes, with spouting whales between.
In October, 1792, he set out, determined this time to reach the Pacific
Ocean. He left Fort Chippewyan, skirted the lake to Slave River, then
ascended its southwest tributary, Peace River. He wintered on this
stream in a trading-house which he had sent an advance party to build,
employed in hunting and trading. In May, having sent back a large
cargo of furs to Fort Chippewyan, he started up the river with a party
of seven white men and two Indians. The voyagers traveled in a birch
canoe twenty-five feet long, "but so light that two men could carry her
on a good road three or four miles without resting." "In this slender
vessel," he says, "we shipped provisions, goods for presents, arms,
ammunition, and baggage, to the weight of thirty thousand pounds, and
an equipage of ten people."
The difficulties and dangers were tremendous. Paddling and pushing and
poling up the rocky bed of a swift stream abounding in rapids, they
made slow progress. More than once the canoe {320} was broken.
Portages were often necessary. Again and again the crew, exhausted and
their clothing in tatters, sullenly insisted that there was no choice
but to turn back. But Mackenzie was a man of indomitable courage and
all the persistency of the Scotch race. He had already shown this
quality by taking the long journey and voyage from the wilds of
Athabasca to London, in order to study the use of astronomical
instruments, so that he might be qualified to make scientific
observations. Now he would not hear of turning back.
So the discouraged party, animated by Mackenzie, pushed on, climbed
over the dividing mountains, and came upon the head-waters of a stream
flowing westward, the one now called Fraser River. After following it
for several days, they struck off through dense forests, sometimes on
dizzy trails over snow-clad mountains, until they reached a rapid
river. On this they embarked in two canoes with several natives, and
thus reached the ocean--_the Pacific_!
Vérendrye's dream was realized at last. The continent had been spanned
from East to West.
Twelve years later the same thing was done within the territory of the
United States by Lewis {321} and Clark, at the head of an expedition
sent out by President Jefferson. They spent the winter among the
Mandan Indians, the interesting people with whom the Vérendryes had
come in contact. A note is added in which some information is given
about them.
NOTE ON THE MANDANS
These Indians first became known to white men through the expedition of
the elder Vérendrye. They showed themselves hospitable and friendly to
him, as they always have been to our race, and they aided his sons in
their efforts to reach the Western Sea. Next we have quite full
references to them in the journals of Lewis and Clark. These explorers
were sent out by President Jefferson in 1803, immediately on the
completion of the Louisiana Purchase, to get a better knowledge of the
northern portion of the vast territory recently acquired, with a
particular view to developing the fur-trade and to opening a route to
the Pacific. All these ends were accomplished with a degree of success
that made the enterprise one of the greatest achievements in our
history. The explorers, having ascended the Missouri in their boats,
and finding themselves, as winter came on, near the Mandan villages,
{322} decided to remain there until the spring. Accordingly they
passed the winter, 1803-4, among these interesting tribesmen. It being
a part of their prescribed duty to keep full journals of all that they
experienced or saw, they have left extended accounts of the people and
their customs.
Thirty-four years later George Catlin, a famous artist and student of
Indian life, who spent many years in traveling among the wild tribes of
the West and in describing them with pen, pencil, and brush, came among
the Mandans. He was so much impressed with them as a singular and
superior people that he remained among them a considerable time,
painted many of their men and women, studied and made drawings of some
of their singular ceremonies, and devoted a large part of his two
volumes to a highly interesting account of what he saw among them.
Catlin certainly was wholly free from the silly prejudice expressed in
the familiar saying, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." His two
volumes, "The North American Indians," furnish "mighty interesting
reading." As we accompany him in his long journeys by canoe and on
horseback and read his descriptions of the tribes he visited and the
warriors and chiefs he learned to know, and of whom he has left us
pictures, it is a satisfaction to feel that we are traveling with a man
who looked on the Indian as a human being. Sometimes we are inclined
to suspect that, in the enthusiasm of his artistic nature, he idealized
his subject and viewed him with a degree of sentiment as remote from
the truth in one direction as {323} was the hostile prejudice of the
average white man in the other. We know that he either did not see or
purposely ignored certain aspects of Indian life, notably the physical
dirt and the moral degradation.
When he comes to the Mandans, this disposition to make heroes of his
subjects fairly runs away with him. No language is strong enough to do
justice to his admiration of some of them. We easily let pass such
phrases as the "wild and gentlemanly Mandans," for many observers have
reported that there is a native dignity and courtesy about the true
Indian. But there are other things which make it plain that Catlin, in
his extravagant admiration, where his Indian friends were concerned was
incapable of discriminating between the noble and the base. Here is an
instance:
A certain chief of the Mandans, Mah-to-toh-pa (the Four Bears), was
very friendly to Catlin, who painted his portrait, and who speaks of
him in terms of unbounded admiration. He gave his artist friend a
handsomely embroidered deerskin shirt on which he had depicted in
Indian fashion his various achievements. One, of which he was
especially proud, he recounted at length to Catlin, acting it out
before him, and he in turn relates it to his readers.
Mah-to-toh-pa had a brother slain--in open fight, let us remember--by a
Rickaree, who left his lance sticking in the dead man. Mah-to-toh-pa
found the body, drew out the lance, and carried it to his village,
where it was recognized as the property of a famous warrior named
Won-ga-tap. He kept the bloodstained weapon, {324} vowing that some
day he would with it avenge his brother's death. Four years passed by,
and still he nursed his wrath. Then one day he worked himself up to a
frenzy and went through the village crying that the day of vengeance
had come.
Off he started across the prairie alone, with a little parched corn in
his pouch, went two hundred miles, traveling by night and hiding by
day, until he reached the Rickaree village. Knowing it and the
location of Won-ga-tap's lodge--which suggests that he had visited the
place in some friendly relation--he entered at dusk and loitered about
for a time, and then through rents in the covering watched Won-ga-tap
smoke his last pipe and go to bed by the side of his wife. Then
Mah-to-toh-pah went in, coolly seated himself by the smouldering fire,
and, using the privilege of Indian hospitality, helped himself to meat
that was in a kettle over the embers, and ate a hearty meal.
"Who is that man who is eating in our lodge?" asked the wife several
times.
"Oh, let him alone. No doubt he is hungry," the easy-going Won-ga-tap
answered.
His meal finished, the intruder helped himself to his host's pipe,
filled and lighted it, and began to smoke. When he had finished, he
gently pushed the coals together with his toes, so that he got a better
light and was able to discern the outline of his intended victim's
body. Then he rose softly, plunged his lance into Won-ga-tap's heart,
snatched off his scalp, and ran away with it and with the dripping
lance.
{325}
In a moment the Rickaree camp was in an uproar. But before pursuers
were started the assassin was far out on the plains. The darkness
protected him, he successfully eluded pursuit, returned safely to his
home, and entered the village, triumphantly exhibiting Won-ga-tap's
scalp and the fresh blood dried on his lance.
This story, which Catlin says is attested by white men who were in the
Mandan village at the time, may stand as a notable instance of savage
vengefulness and daring, cunning and treachery, but it will scarcely
serve to make us believe in Catlin's "noble Mandan gentlemen," of whom
he puts forward Mah-to-toh-pa as a conspicuous example.
When we read Lewis and Clark's account of the Mandans, we are in quite
another atmosphere, not that of romance but of simple reality. They
spent several months among them, on the friendliest terms, and they
speak kindly of them, but do not disguise the brutality of savage life.
Between these two authorities we have ample information, from opposite
points of view.
The first thing that would impress a visitor with the fact that he had
come among a peculiar people, is the character of their dwellings,
absolutely unlike any used by any other tribe, either of the woods or
plains, except their near neighbors and friends, the Minitarees. The
lodge is a circular structure, set in an excavation about two feet
deep. A framework of stout posts supports a roof of poles converging
toward the centre, where an opening is left for the entrance of light
and the escape of smoke. On these poles brush is spread, and over this
{326} earth is laid to the depth of about two feet. In this earth
grass grows abundantly, and thus a Mandan village presents the
appearance of an assemblage of green mounds.
Lewis and Clark were much impressed with the fearlessness of the Mandan
women in crossing the Missouri, even when it was quite rough, in a
tub-like boat consisting of a single buffalo-hide stretched under a
frame-work of wicker.[1] Catlin saw the same boat in use, and it
afforded him confirmation for a peculiar theory which he advanced.
He was much surprised at the light complexion of the Mandans generally
and at the fact that he actually saw some blue eyes and gray eyes among
them and some whitish hair. These circumstances seemed to him to point
clearly to an admixture of European blood. He wrote at a time when
fanciful theories about the native Americans were much in vogue. He
had read somewhere that a Welsh prince, Madoc, more than two hundred
years before the time of Columbus, sailed away from his country with
ten ships. By some unexplained process, he traced him to America.
Then he supposed him to ascend the Mississippi as far as the mouth of
the Ohio and there to found a colony. This, being entirely cut off
from communication with the mother country, was compelled to ally
itself with the nearest Indians and took wives among them. From these
unions sprang a mixed race, the Mandans, who eventually formed a {327}
separate tribe and were gradually driven up the Missouri to the point
where he found them.
There is not any doubt of the large admixture of European blood among
the Mandans, and it is easily accounted for. Catlin does not seem to
have known of any white visitors before Lewis and Clark. But we have
seen that the Vérendryes reached these people a full hundred years
before Catlin's day. There is every reason for believing that, from
that time, white hunters and traders never ceased to visit them. These
Indians being, from the first, very hospitable and friendly, their
villages were favorite resorts for fur-traders, who took up their abode
among them for several years at a time and married there. One can
easily see that, in the course of a hundred years, there would be
several generations of mixed blood, and that, through inter-marriages,
there would probably be few families whose color would not be lighter
in consequence. The persons whose peculiar whitish hair Catlin
noticed, undoubtedly were albinos, a class of persons in whom the
natural coloring of the hair is wanting and the eyes are red or pink.
The Mandans probably are nothing more than an interesting tribe of
Indians who, through long intermingling with the white race, have
undergone considerable lightening of their original color.
A year after Catlin's visit his Mandan friends experienced a frightful
calamity. A trading steamboat brought the small-pox to them, and, as
happened in the case of many other tribes in the West, its ravages were
fearful. Not being protected by vaccination, and knowing nothing {328}
of the treatment of the disease, the poor creatures died horribly. Not
a few, in the height of their fever, threw themselves into the Missouri
and so found a quicker and easier death. Nearly the whole tribe
perished.
The remnant, along with that of their long-time friends and neighbors,
the Minitarees, may be found to-day at Fort Berthold, in North Dakota.
[1] We may remember that La Salle and his followers found Indians on
the plains of Texas crossing rivers in boats made of buffalo-hide.
{329}
BOOKS FOR REFERENCE
The Origin of the American aborigines is treated briefly by Dr. John
Fiske in "The Discovery of America," Chapter I, and at great length and
with wide research by Mr. E. J. Payne in his "History of the New World
Called America."
Their Distribution, also sketched by Dr. Fiske, is satisfactorily
detailed by Dr. D. G. Brinton in his "Races and Peoples."
Those who may wish to study Indian Social Life in its primitive
conditions will do well to read the work of Baron de Lahontan, recently
edited by Dr. R. G. Thwaites. He was among the earliest writers on
aboriginal affairs, and his "New Voyages to North America" gives the
results of travel and observation about the years 1683-1701. "Three
Years' Travels through North America," by Jonathan Carver, relates an
interesting experience among the Indians between the years 1766 and
1768. Some of his general remarks, however, are drawn from the
preceding writer. An inexhaustible store of information on this
subject is found in the famous "Jesuit Relations," which have been
edited, in an English translation, by Dr. Thwaites. For ordinary
readers, however, the very interesting treatment by Dr. Fiske, in the
chapter already cited, and especially by {330} Mr. Francis Parkman, in
the Introduction to his "The Jesuits in North America," will amply
suffice.
In the same chapters will be found a satisfactory account of the
Iroquois League. Students, however, who may wish to go to the
fountain-head are referred to Mr. Lewis Morgan, whose work, "The League
of the Iroquois," is the accepted authority.
As to Cartier, Ribaut, Laudonnière, Champlain, and La Salle, the writer
has not gained any new light by referring to the original documents,
and has drawn his material chiefly from that great master, Parkman, by
whom the first four are treated in his "Pioneers of France in the New
World," and the last-named in his "La Salle and the Discovery of the
Great West."
The story of the Jesuit missionaries runs through what is practically a
whole library, the "Jesuit Relations." Parkman, in a volume devoted to
setting forth the nobler aspects of their work, "The Jesuits in North
America," does ample justice to the heroism of the best of these
pioneers.
For Radisson the only authority is himself. His "Voyage," not
published until after it had lain in manuscript two hundred and
twenty-five years, and of which but two hundred and fifty copies are in
existence, is one of the quaintest of books and "mighty interesting
reading."
The story of Joliet and Marquette's exploration is told most
interestingly by Dr. Thwaites, in his "Father Marquette," and by
Parkman, in his "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West." The
observations of {331} Jonathan Carver, who went over a part of their
route about one hundred years later, throw much interesting light on
some of their experiences.
Father Hennepin receives ample justice from Parkman in his account of
the opening of the Great West. Readers, however, who may desire a
first-hand acquaintance with the erratic friar will find curious, much
of it stolen, reading in his "New Discovery in North America," his
"Description of Louisiana," and his "Curious Voyage."
In Dr. Thwaites's "Rocky Mountain Exploration" may be read the story of
the heroic Vérendryes and dauntless Alexander Mackenzie.
{335}
INDEX
ABNAKIS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
ACADIA, old name for Nova Scotia and adjacent region, 106.
ACCAU, a companion of Father Hennepin in exploration, 293.
ACOMANS, a tribe of Pueblo Indians, 10.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, story of fountain of immortality, 78, note.
ALGONQUINS, one of the great divisions of the Indian race, 4, its range
and its families, 7; close allies of the French, 114; shiftless and
improvident, often relieved by them, 124; those of Massachusetts
thriftier, 109, note.
ALLOUEZ, FATHER, noted missionary; one of his speeches, 147.
ANNAPOLIS, originally Port Royal; re-named for Queen Anne, 111.
APACHES, an offshoot of Athapascan stock, 7.
APPALACHEE, probably southwestern Georgia, supposed to be rich in gold,
82.
ASSICKMACK, Indian name for whitefish, 206; much prized, 206, note.
ATHAPASCANS, a native stock; one of the larger divisions of Indian
race, 7.
AUBRY, NICHOLAS, his perilous adventure, 106.
AYLLON, LUCAS VASQUEZ DE, his treachery punished, 70.
BASQUES, early activity of, on northern coasts of America, 53; resist
the royal monopoly of fur-trade, 122.
BAYAGOULAS, THE, a tribe on the Mississippi, 281.
BERING SEA, probably once dry land, 3.
BIENVILLE, JEAN BAPTISTE LEMOYNE DE, comes to Louisiana, 280; founds
New Orleans, 183; adversity in closing years, 285.
BILOXI, site of first French settlement on Gulf of Mexico, 282.
BIMINI, fabled fountain of immortality, 78.
BOISRONDET, SIEUR DE, narrow escape from starvation, 247.
BRANT ROCK, Champlain's stop there, 109.
BRÉBEUF, FATHER, an early French missionary, 152.
BRETONS, THE, early frequented the Newfoundland fisheries, 54.
BRULÉ, ÉTIENNE, Champlain's interpreter, 133.
CALUMET, or peace-pipe, old description of, 178, note.
CAP BLANC, name which Champlain gave to Cape Cod, 110.
CAP ROUGE, fortified by Cartier; seat of Roberval's settlement, 63.
CARTIER, JACQUES, his first voyage, 54; his duplicity, 55; believed
that he had found sea-route to India, 56; in second voyage explored the
St. Lawrence, 57; names Mont Royal (later Montreal), 60; his fearful
experience, 61; his treachery, 62; his last voyage futile, 62.
CARVER, JONATHAN, early traveler, describes remains of ancient
fortification, 301, note; and Falls of St. Anthony, 306, note.
CAT ISLAND (Ile des Chats), origin of name, 281.
CATLIN, GEORGE, 322; his theory of the origin of the Mandans, 326.
CAVELIER, ROBERT, SIEUR DE LA SALLE. _See_ La Salle.
CAYUGAS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9.
CENIS INDIANS, branch of Caddo (Pawnee) family, visited by La Salle,
269.
CHALEUR, BAY OF, name how originating, 54.
CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE, his birth, 104; takes part in the Religious Wars
in France, 104; sails to the West Indies, 104; suggests a Panama Canal,
105; sails for Canada, 105; conceives a plan of colonization, 105;
makes a settlement at mouth of St. Croix River, 107; cruel winter, 108;
visits and names Mt. Desert, 108; explores New England coast, 108;
welcomed by natives in Plymouth Harbor, 109; trouble with Indians at
Nausett, 110; transfers settlement to Port Royal, 110; second voyage to
New France, 119; seeks sea-route to China, 119; explores the St.
Lawrence, 120; seeks to establish stronghold on the inland waters, 120;
eager to promote conversion of the Indians, 120; overcomes resistance
of Basques to fur-trade monopoly, 123; quells mutiny of his men, 124;
great suffering in first winter at Quebec, 124; goes with war-party of
Algonquins into Iroquois country, 125; hostile encounter on Lake
Champlain, 128; disastrous results of his success, 130; his second
fight with Iroquois, 131; founds Montreal, 133; second raid into
Iroquois country, 133, names Lake Huron, 134; Iroquois palisaded town,
136; his unsuccessful attack on, 137; wounded, 138; lost in the woods,
140; returns to Quebec, 142; a prisoner at London, 143; dies, 143.
CHARLEVOIX, FATHER, sent out to explore route to Pacific, 314.
CHATHAM HARBOR, scene of Champlain's fight with Indians, 111.
CHICAGO, La Salle near the site of, 236.
CHICKASAWS, a branch of the Maskoki family, 181; hostile to the French,
253, note.
CHICORA, native name of coast region of South Carolina, 69.
CHIEFS, INDIAN, how chosen, 34.
CHIPPEWAYS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
CHOCTAWS, a Maskoki tribe, 9, who sided with the French, 253, note.
CHRISTINOS, or Crees, an Indian tribe on Lake Superior, 210.
CLAN, a group of families of common blood, 20.
COLIGNY, ADMIRAL, sends a second expedition to Florida, 77.
COLUMBIA AND SACRAMENTO VALLEYS, Indians inhabiting, lowest specimens
of the race, 10.
COMANCHES, Indian tribe of Shoshonee stock, 10; visited by La Salle,
269; their fine horsemanship, 270; jockeying, 270, note.
CONESTOGAS, a Huron-Iroquois tribe, 9.
COPPER, in large quantities, seen by Radisson, 207.
COROAS, Indian tribe on the Lower Mississippi, attack La Salle, 256.
COUNCIL, An Indian, how conducted, 32.
COUREURS DE BOIS, their origin and influence, 114; their mode of life,
189.
COUTURE, a companion of Father Jogues, 156.
CREEKS, a Maskoki tribe, 9.
DAGONOWEDA, a sachem of the Onondagas, who proposed union, 17.
DAKOTA, or SIOUX, the, a native stock; its range, 10.
DANIEL, FATHER, an early French missionary, 152.
DAVOST, FATHER, an early French missionary, 152.
DES PLAINES RIVER, route used by Joliet and Marquette in returning,
183; followed by La Salle, 245.
DISTRIBUTION of various Indian tribal families, 7.
DIVINATION by Indian sorcerer, 126.
DU GAY, a companion of Father Hennepin in exploration, 293.
DU LHUT, DANIEL GREYSOLON, noted leader of coureurs, 190, his testimony
to having found Hennepin among the Sioux, 297.
DULUTH, CITY OF, for whom named, 190.
DUTCH PROTESTANTS try to effect the release of Father Jogues, 159;
ransom him and send him to Europe, 160.
EMPEROR, none in North America, 15.
ERIES, a Huron-Iroquois tribe, 8.
ESKIMO, descendants, perhaps, of ancient "Cave-men," 5.
EUROPEANS, their early mistakes as to Indian life, 16.
FAMILY, THE, the root of all society, 18; the family-tie the central
principle of Indian social life, 20.
FILLES À LA CASSETTE sent out to New Orleans by Louis the Fourteenth,
284.
FISHERIES, NEWFOUNDLAND, early attracted European visitors, 53.
FISKE, The late Dr. John, his theory about the Eskimo, 6.
FIVE NATIONS, THE, what tribes constituted, 9; only friends of the
English, 114.
FLORIDA, as understood by Spaniards; extent, 90.
FORT CAROLINE, the fort built by Laudonnière on the St. John's, 82;
great misery through want and sickness, 86; distress relieved by coming
of Ribaut, 89; massacre, 90 _et seq._
FORT CRÈVECOEUR built, 240, origin of name, 240; destroyed, 242.
FORT FRONTENAC (on site of Kingston) built, 228; turned over to La
Salle, 229.
FORT MIAMI, at mouth of St. Joseph River, 245, 256.
FORT ORANGE, Dutch settlement on site of Albany, 159.
FORT ROSALIE, on the Lower Mississippi; slaughter at, 253, note.
FORT ST. LOUIS, at Lavaca, Texas, built, 266.
FORT ST. LOUIS, on the Illinois, built, 256.
FRANCE desirous of christianizing the natives, 120.
FRENCH attitude to Indians; how necessarily different from the Spanish,
47.
FRENCHMEN, what they achieved in North and Northwest, 45; their
material object, Furs, 46; their conduct contrasted with Spaniards', 46.
FRONTENAC, LOUIS DE BUADE, COUNT OF, comes to Canada, 227; makes
alliance with La Salle, 227; opposed by fur-traders, 228; recalled, 255.
FUNDY, BAY OF, how name originated, 110.
FUR-TRADERS classified, 188.
FURS, great object of French commercial activity, 188.
GASPÉ, French sovereignty first asserted at, 55.
GOUPIL, a companion of Father Jogues; his death, 158.
GOURGUES, DOMINIQUE DE, takes ample vengeance on the Spaniards at Fort
Caroline, 96.
GOVERNMENT, INDIAN, what it was like, 29.
GRAND COUNCIL of Iroquois League, how composed, 31.
"GRIFFIN," THE, first vessel on the Upper Lakes, 233.
GROSEILLERS, SIEUR DES, title assumed by Médard Chouart, co-explorer
with Radisson of Lake Superior, 199. For rest, _see_ Radisson.
GUNS sold to Iroquois by Dutch, 131.
HAKLUYT, RICHARD, a chronicler of old explorations, 86.
HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, founder of English African slave-trade, relieves the
distressed Frenchmen, 88.
HELPFULNESS, MUTUAL, characteristic of Indian life, 41.
HENNEPIN, FATHER Louis, comes to Canada, 290; describes Niagara Falls,
291; describes a council of Senecas, 292; is sent to explore the Upper
Mississippi, 293; his fraud, 294; captured by Sioux, 298; his
experiences among the Sioux, 298 _et seq,_; sees and names Falls of St.
Anthony, 306; rescued by Du Lhut, 308.
HIAWATHA inspires the union of Iroquois tribes, 27.
HIAWATHA, Poem of, recalled by Radisson's descriptions, 207, 210, 215.
HOCHELAGA, Indian name for site of Montreal, 105.
HOUSEHOLD life of Indians based on community-idea, 38; very sociable,
40.
HOUSES, INDIAN, how built and arranged, 37.
HUDSON BAY FUR COMPANY, its organization by whom suggested, 191.
HURON-IROQUOIS, a native stock; its tribes, 8.
HURON INDIANS, more advanced than Algonquins, 134; Champlain visits
their country, 134.
IBERVILLE, PIERRE LEMOYNE DE, comes to Louisiana, 280.
ILE DES CHATS (Cat Island), why so called, 281.
ILLINOIS INDIANS, branch of Algonquin Family, harassed by Iroquois and
Sioux, 238, 244 _et seq._
INDIANS, probable origin of, 3; of one blood, 4.
IROQUOIS, one of the great divisions of the Indian race, 4; IROQUOIS
LEAGUE, 27 _et seq._, why relentless towards Hurons and Eries, 28.
"JESUIT RELATIONS," Value of, as historical material, 149.
JESUITS, Great activity of, in early history of Canada, 149; their
policy to establish missions, 151.
JOGUES, FATHER, Jesuit missionary, discovers Lake George, 149; his
heroism, 158; his pathetic end, 164.
JOLIET, Louis, 171; sent with Father Marquette to explore the
Mississippi, 172; their route, 172 _et seq._, meet with friendly
Illinois, 177; receive gift of peace-pipe, 178; pass Missouri and Ohio
Rivers, 180; in danger, above mouth of Arkansas River, 181; saved by
exhibiting peace-pipe, 181; start on return voyage, 182; what they
accomplished, 183; Joliet's misfortune, 184; Marquette's death, 184.
JOUTEL, a lieutenant of La Salle, in command of fort, 267.
KANKAKEE RIVER, route followed by La Salle, 237.
KASKASKIA, famous village of the Illinois, visited by Joliet and
Marquette, 183.
KEOKUK, site of, near place where Joliet and Marquette met friendly
Illinois, 179.
KEWEENAW POINT, its wealth in copper, 210.
KICKAPOOS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
KING, none in North America, 15.
"KING PHILIP," Mistake as to, 15.
KINGSTON, Ontario, Fort Frontenac near the site of, 228.
LA BARRE, successor of Frontenac as Governor of Canada, hostile to La
Salle, 257.
LA CHINE, how name originated, 226.
LAKE CHAMPLAIN discovered by Champlain, 127.
LAKE GEORGE, route through, the Indian thoroughfare, 127, note.
LAKE NIPISSING, on the Ottawa River route, 133.
LAKE PEPIN, for whom called, 301; remains of ancient fortification
near, 301, note.
LAKE SIMCOE, on route of Hurons to Iroquois country, 135.
LAKE SUPERIOR explored by Radisson and Groseillers, 201 _et seq._
LA SALLE, SIEUR DE, early connection with the Jesuits, 225; comes to
Canada, 225; goes exploring, 226; becomes a supporter of Frontenac,
227; goes to France and wins the King, 228; in command of Fort
Frontenac, 229; his ambition, 229; visits France and procures
extraordinary commission, 230; begins his great exploration, 231,
builds stronghold at mouth of Niagara River, 232; builds first vessel
launched on Upper Lakes, 233; sails on his great enterprise, 234; the
"Griffin," 235; goes in canoes down Illinois River, 238; allies himself
with the Illinois, 239; builds Fort Crèvecoeur, 240; reaches the
Mississippi, 245; starts for the Gulf of Mexico, 250; adventures by the
way, 251 _et seq._, reaches the Gulf, 254; bestows the name Louisiana,
254; hardships and hostility on return voyage, 255; goes to France,
257; appears on coast of Texas, 261, his purpose, 262; his difficulties
and his dilemma, 263 _et seq._; mistake of his pilots, 264; loss of his
vessels, 264, 265; loss of men by sickness and Indians, 266; builds
fort at Lavaca, 266; vainly seeks the Mississippi, 266 _et seq._; sets
out for Canada, 272; assassinated, 275; what he had achieved, 275; by
whom his plan was carried out, 278 _et seq._
LAUDONNIÈRE, RENÉ DE, an officer under Ribaut, 68; goes in command of a
second expedition to Florida, 77; seizes Outina, 86; releases him, 87;
declines proposal of Hawkins to carry him and his men home, 88; buys a
vessel from him, 89; escapes the massacre, 94.
LAVACA, Texas, site of La Salle's fort, 266.
LE CARON, friar, discoverer of Lake Huron, 133, 149.
LE JEUNE, an early French missionary, winter's experience with
hunting-party of Algonquins, 150.
LENAPE, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
LÉRY, BARON DE, an early adventurer, left cattle on Sable Island, 103.
LEWIS AND CLARK sent out to explore route to Pacific, 321; winter among
Mandans, 321, note.
LIPANS, an offshoot of Athapascan stock, 7.
LONG HOUSE, THE, Indian name of Iroquois League, 28.
LOUISIANA, the name given by La Salle, 254.
MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER, discovers Mackenzie River, 318; reaches the
Pacific, 320.
MANDANS, Indian tribe, first visited by Vérendrye, 317; by Lewis and
Clark, 321, note; by George Catlin, 322; his enthusiasm about them,
323; his peculiar theory of their origin, 326; their singular
dwellings, 325; story of a Mandan's revenge, 323.
MANHATTAN ISLAND first occupied by Dutch as a trading-post, 130, note.
MANITOU, Indian for "spirit," 126.
MARQUETTE, FATHER, missionary and explorer. _See_ Joliet.
MARRIAGE must not be between two persons of same clan, 22.
MASCOUTINS, western Algonquins, 174.
MASKOKI, a native stock; its tribes and its range, 9.
MASSACRE ISLAND (Dauphin Island), why so called, 280.
MATAGORDA BAY, Texas, scene of La Salle's landing, 261.
MATANZAS INLET, French Huguenots butchered there by Menendez, 95.
MAUNDEVILLE, SIR JOHN, story of fountain of immortality, 78, note.
MAY, RIVER OF, now called the St. John's, 67.
"MEDICINE," in what sense the word used, 138, note.
MEMBRÉ, FATHER, accompanies La Salle down the Mississippi, 251, his
description of the Arkansas Indians, 251.
MENENDEZ, PEDRO, DE AVILES, appointed Spanish Governor of Florida, 83;
attacks Ribaut's vessels off the St. John's, 89; founds St. Augustine,
90; surprises Fort Caroline, 92; massacres the garrison, 93, and
shipwrecked crews of Ribaut's vessels, 94.
MIAMIS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
MICHILLIMACKINAC, trading-post and mission-station, 235.
MICMACS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
MILLE LACS, a lake in Minnesota, 301.
MILWAUKEE, La Salle near the site of, 236.
MISSIONARIES, ROMAN CATHOLIC, unselfish devotion of, 147 _et seq._
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, western boundary of Maskoki group, 9.
MISSOURI RIVER, Mouth of, first seen by Joliet and Marquette, 180.
MITCHIGAMEAS, a branch of the Maskoki family, 181.
MOBILE settled, 283; first capital of Louisiana, 283.
MOHAWKS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9.
MOHEGANS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
MONOPOLY OF FUR-TRADE, evils of, 122.
"MONTEZUMA, EMPEROR," Mistake as to, 15.
MONTREAL founded by Champlain, 133.
MONTS, SIEUR DE, an associate of Champlain, 106.
MOQUIS, a tribe of Pueblo Indians, 10.
MUSKHOGEES (same as Creeks), a Maskoki tribe, 9.
NANTICOKES, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
NARRAGANSETTS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
NATCHEZ INDIANS visited by La Salle, 252; described by Father Gravier,
253, note; their subsequent history, 253, note.
NAUSETT HARBOR, Champlain's trouble there with Indians, 110.
NAVAJOES, an offshoot of Athapascan stock, 7.
NEW BISCAY, northern province of Mexico, 262.
NEW FRANCE, FATHER OF, title of Samuel de Champlain, 104.
NEW ORLEANS founded, 283; early struggles, 285.
NIAGARA FALLS described by Father Hennepin, 232.
NICOLLET, JEAN, ambassador to Winnebagoes, 169; reaches Wisconsin
River, 171.
OHIO RIVER, Mouth of, first seen by Joliet and Marquette, 180.
ONEIDAS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9.
ONONDAGAS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9; in what sense leading
tribe, 31.
ONONTIO, Indian name for French Governor, 177.
ORATORS, Indian, how trained, 33.
OTTAWA RIVER, Indian route followed by Champlain, 133.
OTTIGNY, a lieutenant under Laudonnière, 77.
OUTINA, an Indian chief, dupes the Frenchmen into fighting his battles,
85.
PACIFIC, THE, reached by northern route, 320.
PASSAMAQUODDIES, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
PAWNEES, a native stock; its range, 10.
PEORIA, the first habitation of white men in Illinois near the site of,
241.
PEQUOTS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
PHRATRY, a group of clans, 23.
"PICTURED ROCKS," THE, described by Radisson, 208.
PIERRIA, ALBERT DE, left in command of the fort at Port Royal, 71;
murdered by his own men, 73.
POCAHONTAS, not a princess, 16.
PONTGRAVÉ, an associate of Champlain, 105.
PORT ROYAL, Nova Scotia, settled, 108; abandoned, 115.
PORT ROYAL, South Carolina, named by Ribaut, 69.
PORT ST. LOUIS, name which Champlain gave to site of Plymouth, 109.
PORTAGE, CITY OF, site described by Jonathan Carver, 174, note.
POTTAWATTAMIES, a friendly Algonquin tribe, 248.
POWHATANS, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
PUEBLO INDIANS, THE, a native stock; some of its tribes, 10.
QUEBEC (Indian, Kebec, "The Narrows"), founded by Champlain, 123, slow
growth of, 142.
QUINIPISSAS, Indian tribe above site of New Orleans, attack La Salle,
256.
RADISSON, PIERRE ESPRIT, comes to Canada, 191; his adventure and
capture, 191; his escape and re-capture, 196, his second escape, 198,
why he is not better known, 200; starts for the Upper Lakes, 201;
perilous adventures by the way, 201; enters Lake Superior, 206;
describes the "Pictured Rocks," 208; builds a fort on Lake Superior,
211; describes a famine, 212; witnesses interesting games, 218; brings
to Montreal an enormous canoe-fleet loaded with skins, 221; offers his
services to the English King, 221.
RIBAUT, CAPTAIN JEAN, his first expedition to America, 67; comes, with
large colony, to Fort Caroline, 89; goes with his whole force to attack
Menendez, at St. Augustine, 90; is overtaken by hurricane, driven down
the coast and wrecked, 91; crews massacred, 91 _et seq._
RIBOURDE, FATHER, murdered, 247.
RICHELIEU OR SOREL RIVER, route followed by Champlain, 115.
ROBERVAL, SIEUR DE, vainly attempts to colonize Canada, 63.
ROCHE, MARQUIS DE LA, story of his disastrous venture, 102.
ROCKY MOUNTAINS, THE, western boundary of Dakota-Sioux, 10; discovered,
318.
SABLE ISLAND, southeast of Nova Scotia, 102.
SACS AND FOXES, Algonquin tribes, 7; slaughter of, 173.
SACHEMS, who they were, 31.
ST. ANTHONY, FALLS OF, discovered and named, 306.
ST. AUGUSTINE founded, 90.
ST. CROIX RIVER, Mouth of, place of Champlain's first settlement, 107.
ST. JOHN'S BLUFF, site of first fort on the St. John's River, 79.
ST. LAWRENCE, Gulf and River, why so named, 57.
SAULT STE. MARIE, furthest western post of French missionaries, 45; a
missionary's description of, 206, note.
SAVANNAH RIVER, southern boundary of Algonquins, 7.
SEMINOLES, a Maskoki tribe, 9.
SENEGAS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9.
SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA, 69, note.
SHAWNEES, an Algonquin tribe, 7.
SHOSHONEES, a native stock; its range, 10.
SIX NATIONS, THE, what tribes included, 9.
STADACONÉ, Indian village, near site of Quebec, 58.
"STARVED ROCK," probable site of La Salle's Fort St. Louis, 256.
SUSQUEHANNOCKS, a Huron-Iroquois tribe, 9.
TADOUSSAC, early post, well situated for fur-trade, 121.
TAENSAS INDIANS visited by La Salle, 251; described, 253, note.
THIMAGOAS, an Indian tribe in Florida, 80.
THREE RIVERS, one of earliest French posts on the St. Lawrence, 191.
THWAITES, DR. REUBEN GOLD, authority on colonial history, his judgment
as to Radisson, Preface; recites tradition of slaughter of Sacs and
Foxes, 173.
TONTY, HENRI DE, La Salle's faithful lieutenant, 237; trying
experiences in the Illinois country, 245 _et seq._; his efforts to
rescue La Salle and his men, 276 _et seq._
TOTEM, a clan-symbol used by Indians, 21.
TRENT RIVER, on route of Hurons to Iroquois country, 135.
TRIBE, THE, an aggregation based on the family-tie, 23; in some aspects
an ideal republic, 36.
TUSCARORAS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9.
VASSEUR, a lieutenant under Laudonnière, 80.
VÉRENDRYE, PIERRE GAULTIER DE VARENNES DE LA, his early experiences,
314; his efforts to reach the Pacific, 315, establishes a chain of
posts, 316; disappointed of reaching the Pacific, 317.
VÉRENDRYE, PIERRE DE LA, son of former, discovers the Rocky Mountains,
318.
"VERMILION SEA," old name for Gulf of California, 175.
VERMILION RIVER, Rock at mouth of, probable site of La Salle's Fort St.
Louis, 256.
"VIRGINIA SEA," old name for the Atlantic, 175.
VOYAGEURS, who they were, their influence, 114.
WILD RICE, THE, or MENOMONIE, Indians, an Algonquin branch, welcome
Joliet and Marquette, 172.
WINNEBAGOES, branch of the Dakotas or Sioux, 170.
YAZOOS, Indian tribe, hostile to the French, 253, note.
ZUNIS, a tribe of Pueblo Indians, 10.