1677-1678.
THE GRAND ENTERPRISE.
LA SALLE AT FORT FRONTENAC.--LA SALLE AT COURT.--HIS PLANS APPROVED.
--HENRI DE TONTY.--PREPARATION FOR DEPARTURE.
When La Salle gained possession of Fort Frontenac, he secured a base for
all his future enterprises. That he meant to make it a permanent one is
clear from the pains he took to strengthen its defences. Within two years
from the date of his grant he had replaced the hasty palisade fort of
Count Frontenac by a regular work of hewn stone; of which, however, only
two bastions, with their connecting curtains, were completed, the
enclosure on the water side being formed of pickets. Within, there was a
barrack, a well, a mill, and a bakery; while a wooden blockhouse guarded
the gateway. [Footnote: Plan of Fort Frontenac, published by Faillon, from
the original sent to France by Denonville, 1685.] Near the shore, south of
the fort, was a cluster of small houses of French _habitans_; and farther,
in the same direction, was the Indian village. Two officers and a surgeon,
with half a score or more of soldiers, made up the garrison; and three or
four times that number of masons, laborers, and canoe-men, were at one
time maintained at the fort. [Footnote: _État de la dépense faite par Mr.
de la Salle, Gouverneur du Fort Frontenac_, MS. When Frontenac was at the
fort in September, 1677, he found only four _habitans_. It appears by the
_Relation des Découvertes du Sr. de la Salle_, that, three or four years
later, there were thirteen or fourteen families. La Salle spent 34,426
francs on the fort.--_Mémoire au Roy, Papiers de Famille_, MSS.] Besides
these, there were two Récollet friars, Luc Buisset and Louis Hennepin; of
whom the latter was but indifferently suited to his apostolic functions,
as we shall soon discover. La Salle built a house for them, near the fort;
and they turned a part of it into a chapel.
Partly for trading on the lake, partly with a view to ulterior designs, he
caused four small decked vessels to be built: but, for ordinary uses,
canoes best served his purpose; and his followers became so skilful in
managing them, that they were reputed the best canoe-men in America.
[Footnote: _Relation des Découvertes_, MS. Hennepin repeats the
statement.] Feudal lord of the forests around him, commander of a garrison
raised and paid by himself, founder of the mission, patron of the church,
La Salle reigned the autocrat of his lonely little empire.
But he had no thought of resting here. He had gained what he sought, a
fulcrum for bolder and broader action. His plans were ripened and his time
was come. He was no longer a needy adventurer, disinherited of all but his
fertile brain and his intrepid heart. He had won place, influence, credit,
and potent friends. Now, at length, he might hope to find the long-sought
path to China and Japan, and secure for France those boundless regions of
the West, in whose watery highways he saw his road to wealth, renown, and
power. Again he sailed for France, bearing, as before, letters from
Frontenac, commending him to the king and the minister. We have seen that
he was denounced in advance as a madman; but Colbert at length gave him a
favoring ear, and granted his petition. Perhaps he read the man before
him, living only in the conception and achievement of great designs, and
armed with a courage that not the Fates nor the Furies themselves could
appall.
La Salle was empowered to pursue his proposed discoveries at his own
expense, on condition of completing them within five years; to build forts
in the new-found countries, and hold possession of them on terms similar
to those already granted him in the case of Fort Frontenac; and to
monopolize the trade in buffalo skins, a new branch of commerce, by which,
as he urged, the plains of the Mississippi would become a source of
copious wealth. But he was expressly forbidden to carry on trade with the
Ottawas and other tribes of the Lakes, who were accustomed to bring their
furs to Montreal. [Footnote: _Permission an Sr. de la Salle de découvrir
la partie occidentals de la Nouvelle France_, 12 _May_, 1678, MS. Signed
_Colbert_; not, as Charlevoix says, _Seignelay_.]
Again La Salle's wealthy relatives came to his aid, and large advances of
money were made to him. [Footnote: In the memorial which La Salle's
relations presented to the king after his death, they say that, on this
occasion, "ses frères et ses parents n'épargnèrent rien." It is added that
between 1678 and 1683 his enterprises cost the family more than 500,000
francs. By a memorandum of his cousin, François Plet, M.D., of Paris, it
appears that La Salle gave him, on the 27th and 28th of June, 1678, two
promissory notes of 9,805 francs and 1,676 francs respectively.] He bought
supplies and engaged men; and in July, 1678, sailed again for Canada, with
thirty followers,--sailors, carpenters, and laborers,--an abundant store
of anchors, cables, and rigging; iron tools,--merchandise for trade, and
all things necessary for his enterprise. There was one man of his party
worth all the rest combined. The Prince de Conti had a _protégé_ in the
person of Henri de Tonty, an Italian officer, one of whose hands had been
blown off by a grenade in the Sicilian wars. His father, who had been
Governor of Gaeta, but who had come to France in consequence of political
convulsions in Naples, had earned no small reputation as a financier, and
devised the form of life insurance known as the Tontine. The Prince de
Conti recommended the son to La Salle; and, as the event proved, he could
not have done him a better service. La Salle learned to know his new
lieutenant on the voyage across the Atlantic; and, soon after reaching
Canada, he wrote of him to his patron in the following terms: "His
honorable character and his amiable disposition were well known to you;
but perhaps you would not have thought him capable of doing things for
which a strong constitution, an acquaintance with the country, and the use
of both hands seemed absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, his energy and
address make him equal to any thing; and now, at a season when everybody
is in fear of the ice, he is setting out to begin a new fort, two hundred
leagues from this place, and to which I have taken the liberty to give the
name of Fort Conti. It is situated near that great cataract, more than a
hundred and twenty _toises_ in height, by which the lakes of higher
elevation precipitate themselves into Lake Frontenac [Ontario]. From there
one goes by water, five hundred leagues, to the place where Fort Dauphin
is to be begun, from which it only remains to descend the great river of
the Bay of St. Esprit to reach the Gulf of Mexico." [Footnote: _Lettre de
La Salle au Prince de Conti_, 31 _Oct_. 1678, MS. Fort Conti was to have
been built on the site of the present Fort Niagara. The name of Lac de
Conti was given by La Salle to Lake Erie. The fort mentioned as Fort
Dauphin was built, as we shall see, on the Illinois, though under another
name. La Salle, deceived by Spanish maps, thought that the Mississippi
discharged itself into the Bay of St. Esprit (Mobile Bay).
Henri de Tonty signed his name in the Gallicised, and not in the original
Italian form, _Tonti_. He wore a hand of iron or some other metal, which
was usually covered with a glove. La Potherie says that he once or twice
used it to good purpose when the Indians became disorderly, in breaking
the heads of the most contumacious or knocking out their teeth. Not
knowing at the time the secret of the unusual efficacy of his blows, they
regarded him as a "medicine" of the first order. La Potherie ascribes the
loss of his hand to a sabre-cut received in a _sortie_ at Messina; but
Tonty, in his _Mémoire_, says, as above, that it was blown off.]
Besides Tonty, La Salle found another ally, though a less efficient one,
in the person of the Sieur de la Motte; and at Quebec, where he was
detained for a time, he found Father Louis Hennepin, who had come down
from Fort Frontenac to meet him.