"Discovery of the Great West" has made the compilation of a sketch of La
Salle's life a very easy task. Mr. Parkman has told about everything
that is worth telling--indeed, every important fact that is known--with
reference to the great explorer; and for the future, any brief account
of his life must necessarily be little more than a condensation of Mr.
Parkman's book. "It is the glory and the misfortune of France," says M.
Guizot, "to always lead the van in the march of civilization, without
having the wit to profit by the discoveries and the sagacious boldness
of her children. On the unknown roads which she has opened to human
enterprise she has too often left the fruits to be gathered by nations
less inventive, but more persevering." The life of the ardent explorer
whose achievements form the subject of this sketch affords an apt
commentary on the text of the eminent French historian above quoted.
Long prior to the date of La Salle's discoveries, Samuel de Champlain
had dreamed of and fruitlessly sought for a continuous water passage
across the American continent, and hoped to thereby establish a
profitable commerce with the Indies, China, and Japan. La Salle,
following in Champlain's footsteps, and dreaming the same wild dreams,
spent a great part of his life in attempting to do what his great
predecessor had failed in accomplishing. His discoveries, however,
extended over a much broader field. La Salle may practically be said to
have discovered the Great West. He crossed the Mississippi, which the
Jesuits had been the first to reach, and pushed on to the far south,
constructing forts in the midst of the most savage districts, and taking
possession of Louisiana in the name of King Louis XIV. Abandoned by many
of his comrades, and losing the most faithful of them by death; attacked
by savages, betrayed by his own hirelings, thwarted in his projects by
his enemies and his rivals, he at last met an inglorious death by
assassination, just as he was about to make his way back to New France.
He left the field open after him to the innumerable explorers of every
nation and every language who have since left their mark on those
measureless tracts. If but little benefit accrued to France from his
discoveries, the fault was not his. He has left an imperishable record
on the page of American history, and as a discoverer his name occupies a
place in early Canadian annals second only--_if_ second--to that of
Champlain himself.
Réné-Robert Cavelier, better known by his territorial patronymic of La
Salle, was born at Rouen, in Normandy, some time in the year 1643. The
exact date of his birth is unknown, but his baptism took place on the
22nd of November of that year, at which time it is probable that he was
only a few days old. His family had long been wealthy burghers of
Rouen, and there were no obstacles in the way of his receiving a liberal
education. He early displayed an aptitude for science and mathematics,
and, while still young, entered a Jesuit Seminary in his native town. By
this act, which constituted the first step towards taking holy orders,
he forfeited the inheritance which would otherwise have descended to
him--a forfeiture which does not seem at any time to have weighed very
heavily on his mind. He seems to have occupied for a short time the
position of a teacher in the Seminary. After profiting for several years
by the discipline taught in the establishment he requested and obtained
his discharge, obtaining high praise from the directors of the Seminary
for the diligence of his studies and the purity of his life. "The
cravings of a deep ambition," says Mr. Parkman, "the hunger of an
insatiable intellect, the intense longing for active achievement,
subdued in him all other passions; and among his faults the love of
pleasure had no part." His father had died a short time before La Salle
quitted the Seminary, and he would then have at once succeeded to a
large patrimony but for his connection with the Jesuits. A small
sum--amounting to several hundred livres--was handed over to him, and in
the spring of 1666 the young adventurer embarked for fame and fortune in
New France, towards which the attention of all western Europe was at
that time directed. He had already an elder brother in this country--the
Abbé Jean Cavelier, a Sulpician priest at Montreal. The Sulpicians had
established themselves there a few years before this time, and had
already become proprietors and feudal lords of the city and island. They
were granting out their lands to settlers on very easy terms, and La
Salle obtained a grant of a large tract of land a short distance above
the turbulent current now known as the Lachine Rapids. Here he became a
feudal proprietor and fur trader on his own account. Such a pursuit,
however, was far from satisfying the cravings of his ambition. Like
Champlain and all the early explorers, he dreamed of a passage to the
South Sea, and a new road for commerce to the riches of China and Japan.
Indians often came to his secluded settlement; and on one occasion he
was visited by a band of Seneca Iroquois, some of whom spent the winter
with him, and told him of a river called the Ohio, rising in their
country and flowing into the sea, but at such a distance that its mouth
could only be reached after a journey of eight or nine months. Evidently
the Ohio and the Mississippi are here merged into one. In accordance
with geographical views then prevalent, La Salle conceived that this
great river must needs flow into the "Vermilion Sea;" that is, the Gulf
of California. If so, it would give him what he sought--a western
passage to China, while, in any case, the populous Indian tribes said to
inhabit its banks might be made a source of great commercial profit. His
imagination took fire. His resolution was soon formed; and he descended
the St. Lawrence to Quebec, to gain the countenance of the Governor for
his intended exploration. Few men were more skilled than he in the art
of clear and plausible statement. Both the Governor (Courcelle), and the
Intendant (Talon) were readily won over to his plan; for which, however,
they seem to have given him no more substantial aid than that of the
Governor's letters patent authorizing the enterprise. The cost was to be
his own; and he had no money, having spent it all on his seigniory. He
therefore proposed that the Seminary, which had given it to him, should
buy it back again, with such improvements as he had made. Queylus, the
Superior, being favourably disposed towards him, consented, and bought
of him the greater part; while La Salle sold the remainder, including
the clearings, to one Milot, an ironmonger, for twenty-eight hundred
livres. With this he bought four canoes, with the necessary supplies,
and hired fourteen men. This being accomplished, he started on his
expedition, in the course of which he explored the southern shore of
Lake Ontario, and visited the Senecas in Western New York. Continuing
his journey, he passed the mouth of the Niagara River, where he heard
the roar of the mighty cataract, and passed on to an Indian encampment
near the present site of Hamilton. After much delay he reached a branch
of the Ohio, and descended at least as far as the rapids at Louisville,
where he was abandoned by his attendants, and was compelled to return,
his problem being yet unsolved.
But the time was not far distant when he was to make a much more
extended voyage than he had hitherto accomplished, and with somewhat
more important results. In 1672 Count Frontenac came over to Canada and
succeeded Courcelle as Governor of the colony. A friendship sprang up
between him and La Salle, and they began to form schemes of western
enterprise. Erelong we find the latter paying a flying visit to France,
and receiving from the King, mainly through his patron's influence, a
patent of nobility and a grant of Fort Frontenac--which had just before
been founded by the new Governor with imposing ceremonies--together with
a large tract of the contiguous territory. Then La Salle's serious
troubles may be said to have begun. His grant involved the exclusive
right of fur-traffic with the Indians on Lake Ontario, and though trade
was a secondary object with him, he nevertheless engaged in it as a
means of furthering his more ambitious schemes of exploration. The
merchants of Canada, envious of his influence and success, leagued
themselves against him, and resolved to accomplish his downfall. The
Jesuits also placed themselves in opposition to him, for his avowed
projects conflicted with theirs. La Salle aimed at the control of the
valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and the usufruct of half a
continent. The Jesuits were no longer supreme in Canada. In other words,
Canada was no longer simply a mission. It had become a colony. Temporal
interests and the civil power were constantly gaining ground. Therefore
the Jesuits looked with redoubled solicitude to their missions in the
West. They dreaded fur-traders, partly because they interfered with
their teachings and perverted their converts, and partly for other
reasons. La Salle was a fur-trader, and moreover aimed at occupation and
settlement. In short, he was a stumbling block in their path, and they
leagued themselves against him. Many of them engaged in underhand
dealings with the Indians, and while they refused absolution to all
Europeans who sold brandy to the natives, they turned a good many
dishonest pennies by selling it themselves. They laid all kinds of traps
for La Salle, and did not escape the suspicion of attempting to poison
him. It is certain that an attempt to destroy him in this fashion was
made, though he himself exonerates the Jesuits from participation in the
attempt. In the autumn of 1677 he again sailed for France, and while
there procured Royal letters patent authorizing him to prosecute his
schemes of western discovery, to erect forts at such places as he might
deem expedient, and to enjoy the exclusive right of traffic in buffalo
skins. With Henri de Tonty, an Italian officer, as his lieutenant, he
soon afterwards returned to Fort Frontenac, whence, in the autumn of
1678, he set out for the Great West.
The historian of this expedition was a mendacious Recollet friar, Father
Louis Hennepin, a name which has attained some notoriety in early
Canadian annals. Father Hennepin had come out to Canada three years
before the date at which we have arrived. Upon landing at Quebec he was
at once sent up to Fort Frontenac, as a missionary. He found that wild
spot in the western wilderness very much to his liking. He had not been
there long before he erected a gigantic cross, and superintended the
building of a chapel for himself and his colleague, Father Luke Buisset.
He seems to have discharged his duties with a reasonable amount of zeal.
He for some time gave himself up to instructing and endeavouring to
convert the Indians of the neighbourhood. Later on he visited other
Indian settlements, and made a noteworthy journey into the interior of
what is now the State of New York, where he preached the Gospel to
various tribes of the Five Nations, with indifferent success.
Upon receiving intelligence of La Salle's projected western journey, in
1678, Father Hennepin felt and expressed great eagerness to accompany
the expedition. Permission to do so having been obtained from his
Provincial, as well as from La Salle, he set out in advance of the
latter from Fort Frontenac, early in November, accompanied by the Sieur
De La Motte and a crew of sixteen sailors, embarked in a brigantine of
ten tons. They skirted the northern shore of Lake Ontario, and in due
time arrived at the Indian village of Taiaiagon, situated at the mouth
of a river near the present city of Toronto. The river was probably the
Humber, and the village was doubtless a collection of wigwams which have
left no trace behind them. From this point the explorers crossed the
lake to the mouth of the Niagara River, which they entered on the
morning of the 6th of December. They landed on the eastern side of the
stream, where the old fort of Niagara now stands. The site was then
occupied by a small village inhabited by Seneca Indians, many of whom
probably then beheld for the first time those wondrous pale-faces, the
fame of whose exploits had preceded them into the wilderness. As the
vessel rounded the opposite point the entire crew burst forth into
sacred song, and chanted "Te Deum Laudamus" until the anchor was cast
into the river. Later in the day they ascended several miles farther up
the stream, until they reached the present site of Lewiston, where they
built a rude dwelling of palisades. After remaining for some time,
waiting for La Salle to join them, they set off on an expedition into
the interior of New York, to pay a visit to a village of the Senecas.
In the meantime La Salle and Tonty had started from Fort Frontenac, with
a band of men and a goodly store of supplies for the expedition. After
encountering rough weather and being nearly wrecked off the Bay of
Quinté, they crossed the lake and landed at the mouth of the Genesee
River. Here they disembarked, and after a brief delay, started on a
visit to the same Indian village which had just been visited by Hennepin
and La Motte, and which was a short distance south-east of the present
site of the city of Rochester. La Salle called a council of the natives,
and did his utmost to conciliate them, for they looked upon his
proceedings with no friendly eye, and were not slow in expressing their
disapproval. They were wise enough to know that European exploration
would be but the forerunner of European settlement, and that European
settlement must be the "sullen presage of their own decay." La Salle,
however, had a great deal of personal magnetism and force of character,
and contrived to gain the good-will of several of the chiefs. After much
argument and cajoling, he succeeded in gaining their consent to the
conveyance of his arms and ammunition by way of the portage at Niagara.
They also acquiesced in his proposal to establish a fortified warehouse
at the mouth of the river, and to build a vessel above the falls in
which to prosecute his researches in the west. Having accomplished so
much--and considering the jealousy of the Indians, it is surprising
that he should have obtained such concessions--he set out to join
Hennepin and La Motte in the Niagara River, which had been appointed as
their place of meeting.
Father Hennepin and La Motte had not long taken up their quarters on the
banks of the Niagara River before they ascended the stream to regale
themselves with a view of the mighty cataract of which they had so often
heard with awe and astonishment. To the skill of the mendacious priest
we are indebted for the first verbal description of the falls by an
eye-witness, as well as for the first artistic delineation of them. The
friar had a keen eye for the beauties and grandeur of natural scenery;
but, like other travellers before and since his time, he was much given
to dealing in the marvellous. His view is drawn in direct violation of
the laws of perspective, and the proportions are not correctly
preserved. It must be remembered, however, that during the two hundred
years which have elapsed since the sketch was made, nature has been
steadily at work, and that the external appearance of the falls has
undergone many changes in that time. It is probable, too, that the
cross-fall depicted in his sketch as pouring over what has since been
called "Table Rock" really existed in 1678. Upon the whole, there is no
reason for doubting that in its general outlines the sketch made by
Father Hennepin pourtrayed the scene more faithfully than did his
written description, of which the following is a literal translation:
"Betwixt the Lake Ontario and the Lake Erie there is a vast and
prodigious cadence of water, which falls down after a surprising and
astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its
parallel. This wonderful downfall is about six hundred feet, and is
composed of two great cross-streams of water, and two falls, with an
island sloping across the middle of it. The waters which fall from this
horrible precipice do foam and boil after the most hideous manner
imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more terrible than that of
thunder; for when the wind blows out of the south their dismal roaring
may be heard more than fifteen leagues off."
Hennepin and La Motte were soon afterwards joined by La Salle and Tonty,
accompanied by a party consisting of mechanics, labourers and voyageurs,
who arrived in a small schooner. After a short exploration of the
country thereabouts La Salle set about the construction of a large
vessel of forty-five tons, for the prosecution of his western voyage.
The ship-yard was located six miles above the Falls, near the mouth of
Cayuga Creek, where the work of shipbuilding was carried on throughout
the winter, spring, and early summer. At last the new vessel--the
ill-fated _Griffin_ (the first European craft that ever navigated the
waters of the upper lakes)--was completed, and on the 7th of August,
1679, the adventurers embarked and sailed into Lake Erie--"where sail
was never seen before." They passed on to the westward end of the lake,
and up between the green islands of the stream now known as the Detroit
River; crossed Lake St. Clair, and entered Lake Huron. In due course,
after encountering a furious tempest, they reached Michillimackinac,
where was a Jesuit Mission and centre of the fur trade. Passing on into
Lake Michigan, La Salle and his company cast anchor in Green Bay. The
_Griffin_ was forthwith laden with rich furs, and sent back to Niagara,
with orders to turn over the cargo to La Salle's creditors, and return
immediately. This is the last item respecting her which history affords.
Whether she foundered or was captured by the Jesuits or Indians remains
an open question to this day, and no certain tidings of her, subsequent
to her departure eastward from Green Bay, ever reached the ears of her
commander.
Meanwhile, his creditors, from whom he had purchased his supplies, and
with whom he was heavily involved, were selling his effects at Montreal.
He himself, with his company in scattered groups, repaired in bark
canoes to the head of Lake Michigan; and at the mouth of the St. Joseph
he constructed a trading-house with palisades, known as the Fort of the
Miamis. Of his vessel, on which his fortunes so much depended, no
tidings came. Weary of delay, he resolved to penetrate Illinois; and
leaving ten men to guard the Fort of the Miamis, La Salle himself, with
Hennepin, Tonty, and about thirty followers, ascended the St. Joseph,
and by a short portage over bogs and swamps made dangerous by a snow
storm, entered the Kankakee. Descending this narrow stream, before the
end of December, 1679, the little company had reached the site of an
Indian village on the Illinois, probably not far from Ottoway, in La
Salle county. The tribe was absent, passing the winter in the chase. On
the banks of Lake Peoria Indians appeared, who, desirous to obtain axes
and firearms, offered the calumet of peace, and agreed to an alliance.
They described the course of the Mississippi, and they were willing to
guide the strangers to its mouth. The spirit and prudence of La Salle,
who was the life of the enterprise, won the friendship of the natives.
But clouds lowered over his path. The _Griffin_, it seemed certain, was
wrecked, thus delaying his discoveries as well as impairing his
fortunes. His men began to despond. He toiled to revive their courage,
and assured them that there could be no safety but in union. "None," he
added, "shall stay after the spring, unless from choice." But fear and
discontent pervaded the company; and when La Salle, thwarted by destiny,
and almost despairing, planned and began to build a fort on the banks of
the Illinois, four days' journey below Lake Peoria, he named it
Crèvecoeur (Heart-break). Yet even here the immense power of his will
appeared. Dependent on himself, fifteen hundred miles from the nearest
French settlement, impoverished, harassed by enemies at Quebec and in
the wilderness, he inspired his men with resolution to saw trees into
plank and prepare a barque. He despatched Hennepin to explore the Upper
Mississippi; he questioned the Illinois and the captives on the course
of that river; he formed conjectures respecting the course of the
Tennessee. Then, as new recruits and sails and cordage for the barque
were needed, in the month of March, with a musket and pouch of powder
and shot, with a blanket for his protection and skins of which to make
moccasins, he, with three companions, set off on foot for Fort
Frontenac, to trudge through thickets and forests, to wade through
marshes and melting snows; without drink, except water from the running
brooks; without food, except such precarious supplies as could be
provided by his gun. After enduring dangers and hardships which would
have effectually damped the ardour of any one but a French adventurer of
that time; after narrowly escaping a plot to poison him; after being
deserted by some of his followers, and threatened with all sorts of
unknown penalties by the savages, he finally, after sixty-five days'
journeying, arrived at Fort Frontenac on the 6th of May, 1680. But "man
and nature seemed in arms against him." He found that during his absence
his agents had plundered him, that his creditors had seized his
property, and that several of his canoes, richly laden, had been lost in
the rapids of the St. Lawrence. Another vessel which had been despatched
with supplies for him from France had also been shipwrecked. Instead of
sitting down to mourn over these mishaps, however, they seemed to
inspire him with fresh vigour. Descending to Montreal, he in less than a
week procured what supplies he needed, and returned to Fort Frontenac.
Just as he was about to embark for Illinois, messengers arrived with
intelligence that Tonty had been abandoned by his companions, and had
been compelled to take shelter with a band of Pottawatomie Indians.
Undiscouraged by the manifold disasters which had befallen him, La Salle
once more set out from Fort Frontenac for the regions of the Great West.
Instead of following the route by Lake Erie and the Detroit and St.
Clair Rivers, as he had previously done, he crossed over to the Georgian
Bay by way of the River Humber, which was on the line of one of the
three great westward routes in those times. He was accompanied by
twenty-five assistants, including his lieutenant, one La Forest, and a
surgeon. In due course they reached Michillimackinac, which was then the
great north-western dépôt of the fur trade. Here he found that his old
enemies the Jesuits had been busy poisoning the minds of the natives
against him, insomuch that it was only with difficulty that he could
induce the latter to sell him provisions. After a brief delay he resumed
his journey, passing numerous camps of the terrible Iroquois, who, tired
of devastating the more eastern districts, were now spreading desolation
through these western regions. Upon reaching Fort Crèvecoeur he found it
deserted, and neither here nor elsewhere, for many days to come, was he
able to gain any intelligence of his trusty ally, Tonty, who had been
left behind on the former expedition, as already narrated. He continued
his course southward, and erelong found himself on the banks of the
Mississippi--the mighty Father of Waters, "the object of his day dreams,
the destined avenue of his ambition and his hopes." Finding no traces of
Tonty, he determined to look for him further northward, and retraced his
footsteps to Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph, near Lake Michigan, where he
spent the winter. "Here," says Mr. Parkman, "he might have brooded on
the redoubled ruin that had befallen him; the desponding friends, the
exulting foes; the wasted energies, the crushing load of debt, the
stormy past, the black and lowering future. But his mind was of a
different temper. He had no thought but to grapple with adversity, and
out of the fragments of his ruin to build up the fabric of success. He
would not recoil; but he modified his plans to meet the new contingency.
His white enemies had found--or rather, perhaps, had made--a savage ally
in the Iroquois. Their incursions must be stopped, or his enterprise
would come to naught; and he thought he saw the means by which this new
danger could be converted into a source of strength. The tribes of the
west, threatened by the common enemy, might be taught to forget their
mutual animosities and join in a defensive league, with La Salle at its
head. They might be colonized around his fort in the valley of the
Illinois, where, in the shadow of the French flag, and with the aid of
French allies they could hold the Iroquois in check, and acquire in some
measure the arts of a settled life. The Franciscan friars could teach
them the Faith; La Salle and his associates could supply them with
goods, in exchange for the vast harvest of furs which their hunters
could gather in these boundless wilds. Meanwhile, he could seek out the
mouth of the Mississippi; and the furs gathered at his colony in the
Illinois would then find a ready passage to the markets of the world.
Thus might this ancient slaughter-field of warring savages be redeemed
to civilization and Christianity, and a stable settlement, half feudal,
half commercial, grow up in the heart of the western wilderness. This
plan was but a part of the original scheme of his enterprise, adapted to
new and unexpected circumstances; and he now set himself to its
execution with his usual vigour, joined to an address that, when dealing
with Indians, never failed him."