for leagues round, and entered into a formal covenant with them. His
new project was hopefully begun. It remained to achieve the enterprise,
twice defeated, of the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi. To
this end, he must return to Canada, appease his creditors, and collect
his scattered resources. Towards the end of May he set out in canoes
from Fort Miami, and, after a prosperous voyage, reached
Michillimackinac. Here, to his great joy, he found Tonty and one Zenobe
Membré, who had lately arrived from Green Bay. Without loss of time,
they embarked together for Fort Frontenac, paddled their canoes a
thousand miles, and safely reached their destination. Here, in this
third beginning of his enterprise, La Salle found himself beset with
embarrassments. Not only was he burdened with the fruitless cost of his
two former efforts, but the heavy debts which he had incurred in
building and maintaining Fort Frontenac had not been wholly paid. The
fort and the seigniory were already deeply mortgaged; yet, through the
influence of the Count de Frontenac, and the support of a wealthy
relative, he found means to appease his creditors, and even to gain
fresh advances. He mustered his men, and once more set forth, resolved
to trust no more to agents, but to lead on his followers in a united
body under his own personal command.
Returning westward, he once more reached Fort Miami, whence, on the 26th
of December, 1682, he set out for the mouth of the Mississippi, whither
he arrived during the month of April following. "As he drifted down the
turbid current, between the low and marshy shores, the brackish water
changed to brine, and the breeze grew fresh with the salt breath of the
sea. Then the broad bosom of the great Gulf opened on his sight, tossing
its restless billows, limitless, voiceless, lonely as when born of
chaos, without a sail, without a sign of life." La Salle, in a canoe,
coasted the marshy borders of the sea; and then assembled his companions
on a spot of dry ground, a short distance above the mouth of the river.
In this wild spot, on the ninth of the month, which was the month of
April, 1682, he planted a column bearing the arms of France and an
inscription to Louis Le Grand. "On that day," says the writer already
quoted from, "the realm of France received on parchment a stupendous
accession. The fertile plains of Texas; the vast basin of the
Mississippi, from its frozen northern springs to the sultry borders of
the Gulf, from the woody ridges of the Rocky Mountains--a region of
savannahs and forests, sun-cracked deserts and grassy prairies,
inhabited by innumerable warlike tribes--passed beneath the sceptre of
the Sultan of Versailles; and all by virtue of a feeble human voice,
inaudible at half a mile." Louisiana was the name bestowed by La Salle
on this new domain of the French crown, which stretched from the
Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains; from the Rio Grande and the Gulf to
the farthest springs of the Missouri.
Retracing his steps, he founded on the banks of the Illinois River a
colony of French and Indians, to answer the double purpose of a bulwark
against the Iroquois and a place of storage for the furs of all the
western tribes; and he hoped in the following year to secure an outlet
for this colony, and for all the trade of the valley of the Mississippi,
by occupying the mouth of that river with a fort and another colony. The
site of the colony was near the spot now occupied by the village of
Utica, in the State of Illinois. Early in the following autumn he placed
Tonty in charge of it, and made the best of his way to Quebec, whence he
soon afterwards sailed for France. He had an interview with the King, to
whom he unfolded his schemes. Louis, notwithstanding the machinations of
La Salle's enemies, took a favourable view of the latter's enterprises,
and in the month of July, 1684, we find him setting sail from Rochelle
with a fleet of four vessels and a small army of recruits, composed of
soldiers, gentlemen, artisans and labourers. Their destination was not
Canada, but the Gulf of Mexico; La Salle having obtained the royal
authority for a vast scheme of trade and colonization on the
Mississippi, to which was tacked on a wild and impracticable scheme of
conquest of the Spanish settlements in Mexico. One of the vessels, laden
with provisions and other necessaries for the projected colony, was
captured by buccaneers. The other three, after calling at St. Domingo,
entered the Mexican Gulf. La Salle, when at the mouth of the Mississippi
nearly three years before, had taken the latitude, but for some reason
or other had no clue to the longitude, and the consequence was that he
now sailed more than four hundred miles too far west. He landed on the
coast of Texas, and spent some time in exploration before he became
convinced of his error. Meanwhile he was constantly quarrelling with
Beaujeu, his naval commander, as well as with other members of the
expedition. Add to this that he was repeatedly prostrated by attacks of
fever, and in constant expectation of being attacked by the savages of
the neighbourhood; and it will be confessed that his situation was not a
very enviable one. To add to his perplexities, one of his vessels went
aground, and a great part of the cargo was lost. About this time Beaujeu
set out to return to France. He had accomplished his mission, and landed
his passengers at what La Salle assured him to be one of the mouths of
the Mississippi. His ship was in danger on this exposed and perilous
coast, and he was anxious to find shelter. After some delay, La Salle
erected a fort on Lavaca River, in which he placed the women and
children and most of the men who formed part of the expedition, and with
the rest of the men set out to renew his search for the mouth of the
Mississippi. He set out from the fort--which he called Fort St.
Louis--with fifty men, on the 31st of October, 1685, to find the mouth
of "the fatal river"--by which name it had come to be known among the
band of adventurers. Five months were spent in wanderings through the
wilds of that region, during which the hardships and sufferings were
such as to baffle description, but the object of their quest still
seemed as remote as ever. At last, weary and dispirited, the survivors
returned to Fort St. Louis, where La Salle fell dangerously ill, and for
some time his life was despaired of. No sooner had he recovered than he
determined to make his way by the Mississippi and the Illinois to
Canada, whence he might bring succour to the colonists, and send a
report of their condition to France. The attempt was beset with
uncertainties and dangers. The Mississippi was first to be found, then
followed through all the perilous monotony of its interminable windings
to a goal which was to be but the starting point of a new and not less
arduous journey. Twenty men, including La Salle's brother, the Abbé
Cavelier, and Moranget, his nephew, were detailed to accompany him. On
the 22nd of April, 1686, after mass and prayers in the chapel, they
issued from the gate, each bearing his pack and his weapons, some with
kettles slung at their backs, some with axes, some with gifts for
Indians. In this guise they held their way in silence across the
prairie. They travelled north-easterly, and encountered a due share of
adventures with wild beasts and Indian savages. They traversed a large
extent of country, but the attempt to discover the mouth of the
Mississippi proved wholly ineffectual. After several months La Salle and
eight of his twenty men returned to Fort St. Louis. Of the rest, four
had deserted, one had been lost, one had been devoured by an alligator;
and the rest, giving out on the march, had probably perished in
attempting to regain the fort.
The journey to Canada, however, was clearly the only hope of the
colonists, and on the 6th of January, 1687, the attempt to make it was
renewed. The band of adventurers this time consisted of eighteen
persons. At their head was La Salle himself. His brother and nephew,
already mentioned, were also of the party. Of the others the only ones
necessary to specify are Joutel, La Salle's trusty henchman, the second
in command; Hiens, a German, formerly a pirate of the Spanish Main;
Duhaut, a man of respectable birth and education, but a cruel and
remorseless villain; and l'Archévêque, his servant; Liotot, the surgeon
of the expedition; Teissier, a pilot; Douay, a friar; and Nika, a
Shawnee Indian, who was a devoted friend of La Salle's. They proceeded
northward. The members of the party were incongruous, and did not agree
one with another. Duhaut and Liotot were disappointed at the ruinous
result of their enterprise. They had a quarrel with young Moranget.
Already at Fort St. Louis Duhaut had intrigued against La Salle, against
whom Liotot had also secretly sworn vengeance. On the 15th of March they
encamped within a few miles of a spot which La Salle had passed on his
preceding journey, and where he had left a quantity of Indian corn and
beans in a _caçhe_. As provisions were falling short he sent a party
from the camp to find it. These men were Duhaut, Liotot, Hiens the
buccaneer, Teissier, l'Archévêque, Nika the hunter, and La Salle's
servant, Saget. They opened the _caçhe_, and found the contents spoiled;
but as they returned they saw buffalo, and Nika shot two of them. They
now encamped on the spot, and sent the servant to inform La Salle, in
order that he might send horses to bring in the meat. Accordingly, on
the next day he directed Moranget and another, with the necessary
horses, to go with Saget to the hunters' camp. When they arrived they
found that Duhaut and his companions had already cut up the meat, and
laid it upon scaffolds for smoking, and had also put by for themselves
certain portions to which, by woodland custom, they had a perfect right.
Moranget fell into an unreasonable fit of rage, and seized the whole of
the meat. This added fuel to the fire of Duhaut's old grudge against
Moranget and his uncle. The surgeon also bore hatred against Moranget.
The two took counsel apart with Hiens, Teissier, and l'Archévêque, and
it was resolved to kill Moranget, Nika and Saget. All the five were of
one mind, except the pilot Teissier, who neither aided nor opposed the
scheme. When night came on, the order of the guard was arranged; and the
first hour was assigned to Moranget, the second to Saget, and the third
to Nika. Gun in hand, each stood watch in turn. Duhaut and Hiens stood
with their guns cocked, ready to shoot down any one of the victims who
should resist. Saget, Nika and Moranget were ruthlessly butchered, and
then it was resolved that La Salle should share their fate. La Salle was
still at his camp, six miles distant. Next morning, having heard nothing
of Moranget or the others, he set out to find them, accompanied by his
Indian guide, and by Douay, the friar. "All the way," writes the friar,
"he spoke to me of nothing but matters of piety, grace, and
predestination; enlarging on the debt he owed to God, who had saved him
from so many perils during more than twenty years of travel in America.
Suddenly, I saw him overwhelmed with a profound sadness, for which he
himself could not account. He was so much moved that I scarcely knew
him." He soon recovered his usual calmness, and they walked on till they
approached the camp of Duhaut, on the farther side of a small river.
Looking about him, La Salle saw two eagles circling in the air, as if
attracted by the carcasses of beasts or men. He fired his gun and his
pistol as a summons. The shots reached the ears of the conspirators, who
fired from their place of concealment, and La Salle, shot through the
brain, sank lifeless on the ground. Douay stood terror-stricken. Duhaut
called out to him that he had nothing to fear. The murderers came
forward and gathered about their victim. "There thou liest, great
Bashaw! There thou liest!" exclaimed the surgeon Liotot, in base
exultation over the unconscious corpse. With mockery and insult, they
stripped it naked, dragged it into the bushes, and left it there a prey
to the buzzards and the wolves. It is sad to think that such was the
fate of the veritable Discoverer of the Great West.
"Thus," says Mr. Parkman, "in the vigour of his manhood, at the age of
forty-three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle, 'one of the greatest
men,' writes Tonty, 'of this age;' without question one of the most
remarkable explorers whose names live in history. The enthusiasm of the
disinterested and chivalrous Champlain was not the enthusiasm of La
Salle; nor had he any part in the self-devoted zeal of the early Jesuit
explorers. He belonged not to the age of the knight-errant and the
saint, but to the modern world of practical study and action. He was the
hero, not of a principle nor of a faith, but simply of a fixed idea and
a determined purpose. It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not
easy to hide from sight the Roman virtues that redeemed them. Beset by a
throng of enemies, he stands, like the King of Israel, head and
shoulders above them all. He was a tower of adamant, against whose
impregnable front hardship and danger, the rage of man and of the
elements, the southern sun, the northern blast, fatigue, famine and
disease, delay, disappointment and deferred hope, emptied their quivers
in vain. Never under the impenetrable mail of paladin or crusader beat a
heart of more intrepid mettle than within the stoic panoply that armed
the breast of La Salle. To estimate aright the marvels of his patient
fortitude, one must follow on his track through the vast scene of his
interminable journeyings, those thousands of weary miles of forest,
marsh and river, where again and again, in the bitterness of baffled
striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed onwards towards the goal which he
was never to attain. America owes him an enduring memory; for in this
masculine figure she sees the pioneer who guided her to the possession
of her richest heritage."
THE RIGHT REV. JAMES W. WILLIAMS, D.D.,
_BISHOP OF QUEBEC._
Bishop Williams is a son of the late Rev. David Williams, who was for
many years Rector of Banghurst, Hampshire, England. He was born at the
town of Overton, Hampshire, in 1825, and his childhood was chiefly
passed in that neighbourhood. He was intended for holy orders from his
earliest years. In his boyhood he attended for some time at an
educational establishment at Crewkerne, a town in the south-eastern part
of Somersetshire, whence he passed to Pembroke College, Oxford. His
collegiate course was not specially noteworthy, but was marked by
considerable diligence. He graduated as B.A. in 1851, taking honours in
classics. He in due course obtained his degrees of M.A. and D.D. He was
admitted to Deacon's Orders by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and (in 1856)
to Priest's Orders by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. He for a short
time held curacies respectively in Buckinghamshire and Somersetshire.
His classical attainments were of more than average excellence, and
seeing no prospect of immediate advancement in England, he in 1857 came
over to Canada to assist in organizing a school in connection with
Bishop's College, Lennoxville. Within a short time after his arrival he
was appointed Rector of the College Grammar School, and soon afterwards
succeeded to the Classical Professorship of the College, a position
which he retained until his elevation to the Episcopacy.
Upon the death of the late Right Rev. George Jehoshaphat Mountain,
Bishop of Quebec, in 1863, the subject of this sketch was appointed his
successor by the Synod; and on the 11th of June of that year he was
consecrated at Quebec by the Most Reverend the Metropolitan, assisted by
the Bishops of Toronto, Ontario, Huron and Vermont. His first Episcopal
act was to advance three Deacons to the Priesthood.
The See over which his jurisdiction extends was constituted in the year
1793, and formerly comprised the whole of Upper and Lower Canada. Its
extent has since been from time to time curtailed, and it is now
confined to that part of the Province of Quebec extending from Three
Rivers to the Straits of Belleisle and New Brunswick, on the shores of
the St. Lawrence and all east of a line drawn from Three Rivers to Lake
Memphremagog.
Bishop Williams is a plain and unaffected preacher, and a man of
scholarly tastes. He makes no pretence to showy or splendid gifts of
pulpit oratory, but is known as an energetic and industrious
ecclesiastic, careful for the spiritual welfare of his diocese and
clergy. Several of his lectures and sermons have been published, and
have been highly commended by the religious press of Canada and the
United States. Among them may be mentioned his Charge delivered to the
Clergy of the Diocese of Quebec, at the Visitation held in Bishop's
College, Lennoxville, in 1864; and a lecture on Self-Education,
published at Quebec in 1865.
[Illustration: CASIMIR STANISLAUS GZOWSKI, signed as C. S. GZOWSKI]
LIEUT.-COL. CASIMIR STANISLAUS GZOWSKI,
_AIDE-DE-CAMP TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA._
In compiling the various sketches which have appeared in the present
series, the editor has frequently been compelled to encounter the
difficulty of constructing a readable narrative out of very sparse and
prosaic materials. A collection of this kind must necessarily include
the lives of many professional and scientific men; and eminence in
literature, in science, and in the learned professions, is commonly
attained by means which--however interesting to those most immediately
concerned--seem wonderfully commonplace to the general public, when
reduced to plain, matter-of-fact narration. As a rule, stirring and
romantic incidents are incompatible with a successful professional
career, and in recounting the life of a learned divine, Chief Justice,
or man of science, it is rarely necessary to deal with thrilling
incidents or dramatic situations. The lives of such men are usually
passed within a narrow and restricted groove, and the salient points may
easily be comprised within a few lines. In the life of Colonel Gzowski,
on the other hand, we have an instance of a remarkably successful
professional career, combined with a chapter of vicissitude and
adventure which, in the hands of a writer familiar with all the details,
might very well form the groundwork of a sensation novel. His elasticity
of spirits, strength of will, and vigour of constitution have supported
him through an amount of labour, fatigue and suffering to which a more
feeble mind and a more delicately-constructed frame must inevitably have
succumbed long ago. Such a life as his commonly leaves very perceptible
traces behind it. In his case no such traces are discernible. Neither in
his visage, his gait, nor his manner, can the most observant eye detect
any sign that his pathway has not always been strewn with roses. No one
remarking his erect and firmly-knit figure, his jauntiness of step, and
his keenness of glance, as he perambulates our streets, would readily
believe that he is rapidly approaching his sixty-eighth birthday. Still
less would it be supposed that he has passed through adventures enough
for a knight-errant; that he has fought and bled in the fierce struggle
for a nation's existence; that he has had his full share of the horrors
of war; that he has languished in a patriot's prison; and that some of
the best years of his life were passed in a hard struggle for existence
in a foreign land. As we pass in review the alternating phases of his
chequered career we seem to be contemplating a shifting panorama of the
novelist's fancy, rather than a veracious chronicle of facts. The story
of his life can be adequately narrated by no other pen than his own, and
for many years past he has found more profitable employment for his
talents than the inditing of autobiographical memoirs. In the absence of
any such memoirs, be it ours to place on record such of the more salient
points of his life as are readily ascertainable.
He is descended from an ancient Polish family which was ennobled in the
sixteenth century, and which for more than two hundred years thereafter
continued to exercise an influence upon the national affairs. His
father, Stanislaus, Count (Hrabia) Gzowski, was an officer of the
Imperial Guard. He himself was born on the 5th of March, 1813, at St.
Petersburg, the Russian capital, where his parents were then temporarily
sojourning. His childhood was spent as the childhood of most Polish
children of his station in life was passed in those days--viz., in
preparation for a military career. At nine years of age he entered a
military engineering college at Kremenetz, in the Province of Volhynia,
where he remained until 1830, when he graduated as an engineer, received
a commission, and entered the army of Russia.
The Russian Empire was at this time on the verge of one of those
periodical insurrections to which she had long been subject, more
especially since the final partition and absorption of Poland, and the
annihilation of the Polish monarchy. In 1825, Nicholas I. succeeded his
elder brother Alexander on the throne of Russia. He had not long been
installed there before he gave evidence of that aggressive policy which
he pursued through life, and which nearly thirty years later involved
him in the Crimean War. Some years before his accession, his elder
brother Constantine, the heir-apparent to the throne, had been entrusted
with the military government of Poland, and in 1822 had resigned his
right to the Russian throne in Nicholas's favour. Upon the latter's
accession he continued his elder brother in his sovereignty of Poland.
Constantine's administration of affairs in that unhappy country was
arbitrary and despotic in the extreme, and little calculated to mollify
the heartburnings of the inhabitants. His oppressions were not confined
to the serfs, but extended to the nobility. The result of his tyranny
was the formation of secret societies with a view to striking one more
blow for Polish liberty. A widespread insurrection, wherein most of the
Polish officers in the Imperial army were involved, finally broke out in
1830--the year in which the subject of this sketch received his
commission. The success of the concurrent revolution in France, and the
forced abdication of Charles X., inspired the insurgents with high
hopes. In November of the year last mentioned the Grand Duke Constantine
and his Russian adherents were driven out of Warsaw, the Polish capital.
If the insurrectionary forces had been thoroughly organized, and if they
had not been subjected to extraneous interference, there is reason for
believing that their country might have been freed from the hateful
domination of the Czar. Notwithstanding all the manifold disabilities
under which they carried on the contest, they achieved a temporary
success. After the expulsion of Constantine, a provisional government
was formed under the presidency of Prince Czartoryski, and a series of
desperate engagements was fought in which the patriots had in almost
every instance a decided advantage. Their desperate courage and
self-devotion, however, were of no permanent avail, for Prussia and
Austria both lent their assistance to crush them, and towards the close
of 1831 Warsaw was recaptured by the allied forces under Count
Paskevitch, who was forthwith installed as viceroy of Poland. The
crushing of the insurrection was of course marked by merciless severity
and cruelty. In 1832 Poland was declared to be an integral part of the
Russian Empire, and all the important prisoners were either put to
death, banished to Siberia, or compelled to endure the horrors of a
Russian prison.