1681.
LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW.
HIS CONSTANCY.--HIS PLANS.--HIS SAVAGE ALLIES.--HE BECOMES SNOW-BLIND.
--NEGOTIATIONS.--GRAND COUNCIL.--LA SALLE'S ORATORY.--MEETING WITH
TONTY.--PREPARATION.--DEPARTURE.
In tracing the adventures of Tonty and the rovings of Hennepin, we have
lost sight of La Salle, the pivot of the enterprise. Returning from the
desolation and horror in the valley of the Illinois, he had spent the
winter at Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph, by the borders of Lake Michigan.
Here 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 rear the fabric of a
triumphant 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 nought; 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; and 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 would 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. The scheme was but a new
feature, the result of new circumstances, added to the original plan of
his great enterprise; and he addressed himself to its execution with his
usual vigor, and with an address which never failed him in his dealings
with Indians.
There were allies close at hand. Near Fort Miami were the huts of twenty-
five or thirty savages, exiles from their homes, and strangers in this
western world. Several of the English colonies, from Virginia to Maine,
had of late years been harassed by Indian wars; and the Puritans of New
England, above all, had been scourged by the deadly outbreak of King
Philip's war. Those engaged in it had paid a bitter price for their brief
triumphs. A band of refugees, chiefly Abenakis and Mohegans, driven from
their native seats, had roamed into these distant wilds, and were
wintering in the friendly neighborhood of the French. La Salle soon won
them over to his interests. One of their number was the Mohegan hunter,
who, for two years, had faithfully followed his fortunes, and who had been
for four years in the West, He is described as a prudent and discreet
young man, in whom La Salle had great confidence, and who could make
himself understood in several western languages, belonging, like his own,
to the great Algonquin tongue. This devoted henchman proved an efficient
mediator with his countrymen. The New-England Indians, with one voice,
promised to follow La Salle, asking no recompense but to call him their
chief, and yield to him the love and admiration which he rarely failed to
command from this hero-worshipping race.
New allies soon appeared. A Shawanoe chief from the valley of the Ohio,
whose following embraced a hundred and fifty warriors, came to ask the
protection of the French against the all-destroying Iroquois. "The
Shawanoes are too distant," was La Salle's reply; "but let them come to me
at the Illinois, and they shall be safe." The chief promised to join him
in the autumn, at Fort Miami, with all his band. But, more important than
all, the consent and co-operation of the Illinois must be gained; and the
Miamis, their neighbors, and of late their enemies, must be taught the
folly of their league with the Iroquois, and the necessity of joining in
the new confederation. Of late, they had been made to see the perfidy of
their dangerous allies. A band of the Iroquois, returning from the
slaughter of the Tamaroa Illinois, had met and murdered a band of Miamis
on the Ohio, and had not only refused satisfaction, but entrenched
themselves in three rude forts of trees and brushwood in the heart of the
Miami country. The moment was favorable for negotiating; but, first, La
Salle wished to open a communication with the Illinois, some of whom had
begun to return to the country they had abandoned. With this view, and
also, it seems, to procure provisions, he set out on the first of March,
with his lieutenant, La Forest, and nineteen men.
The country was sheeted in snow, and the party journeyed on snow-shoes;
but when they reached the open prairies, the white expanse glared in the
sun with so dazzling a brightness that La Salle and several of the men
became snow-blind. They stopped and encamped under the edge of a forest;
and here La Salle remained in darkness for three days, suffering extreme
pain. Meanwhile, he sent forward La Forest, and most of the men, keeping
with him his old attendant Hunaut, Going out in quest of pine-leaves, a
decoction of which was supposed to be useful in cases of snow-blindness,
this man discovered the fresh tracks of Indians, followed them, and found
a camp of Outagamies, or Foxes, from the neighborhood of Green Bay. From
them he heard welcome news. They told him that Tonty was safe among the
Pottawattamies, and that Hennepin had passed through their country on his
return from among the Sioux. [Footnote: _Relation des Découvertes_, MS. A
valuable confirmation of Hennepin's narrative.]
A thaw took place; the snow melted rapidly; the rivers were opened; the
blind men began to recover; and, launching the canoes which they had
dragged after them, the party pursued their way by water. They soon met a
band of Illinois. La Salle gave them presents, condoled with them on their
losses, and urged them to make peace and alliance with the Miamis. Thus,
he said, they could set the Iroquois at defiance; for he himself, with his
Frenchmen, and his Indian friends, would make his abode among them, supply
them with goods, and aid them to defend themselves. They listened, well
pleased, promised to carry his message to their countrymen, and furnished
him with a large supply of corn. [Footnote: This seems to have been taken
from the secret repositories, or _caches_, of the ruined town of the
Illinois.] Meanwhile, he had rejoined La Forest, whom he now sent to
Michillimackinac to await Tonty, and tell him to remain there till he, La
Salle, should arrive.
Having thus accomplished the objects of his journey, he returned to Fort
Miami, whence he soon after ascended the St. Joseph to the village of the
Miami Indians on the portage, at the head of the Kankakee. Here he found
unwelcome guests. These were a band of Iroquois warriors, who had been for
some time in the place, and who, as he was told, had demeaned themselves
with the insolence of conquerors, and spoken of the French with the utmost
contempt. He hastened to confront them, rebuked and menaced them, and told
them that now, when he was present, they dared not repeat the calumnies
which they had uttered in his absence. They stood abashed and confounded,
and, during the following night, secretly left the town, and fled. The
effect was prodigious on the minds of the Miamis, when they saw that La
Salle, backed by ten Frenchmen, could command from their arrogant visitors
a respect which they, with their hundreds of warriors, had wholly failed
to inspire. Here, at the outset, was an augury full of promise for the
approaching negotiations.
There were other strangers in the town,--a band of eastern Indians, more
numerous than those who had wintered at the fort. The greater number were
from Rhode Island, including, probably, some of King Philip's warriors;
others were from New York, and others again from Virginia. La Salle called
them to a council, promised them a new home in the West, under the
protection of the Great King, with rich lands, an abundance of game, and
French traders to supply them with the goods which they had once received
from the English. Let them but help him to make peace between the Miamis
and the Illinois, and he would insure for them a future of prosperity and
safety. They listened with open ears, and promised their aid in the work
of peace.
On the next morning, the Miamis were called to a grand council. It was
held in the lodge of their chief, from which the mats were removed, that
the crowd without might hear what was said. La Salle rose, and harangued
the concourse. Few men were so skilled in the arts of forest rhetoric and
diplomacy. After the Indian mode, he was, to follow his chroniclers, "the
greatest orator in North America." [Footnote: "En ce genre, il étoit le
plus grand orateur de l'Amerique Septentrionale."--_Relation des
Découvertes_, MS.] He began with a gift of tobacco, to clear the brains of
his auditory; next, for he had brought a canoe-load of presents to support
his eloquence, he gave them cloth to cover their dead, coats to dress
them, hatchets to build a grand scaffold in their honor, and beads, bells,
and trinkets of all sorts, to decorate their relatives at a grand funeral
feast. All this was mere metaphor. The living, while appropriating the
gifts to their own use, were pleased at the compliment offered to their
dead; and their delight redoubled as the orator proceeded. One of their
great chiefs had lately been killed; and La Salle, after a eulogy of the
departed, declared that he would now raise him to life again; that is,
that he would assume his name, and give support to his squaws and
children. This flattering announcement drew forth an outburst of applause;
and when, to confirm his words, his attendants placed before them a huge
pile of coats, shirts, and hunting-knives, the whole assembly exploded in
yelps of admiration.
Now came the climax of the harangue, introduced by a farther present of
six guns.
"He who is my master, and the master of all this country, is a mighty
chief, feared by the whole world; but he loves peace, and the words of his
lips are for good alone. He is called the King of France, and he is the
mightiest among the chiefs beyond the great water. His goodness reaches
even to your dead, and his subjects come among you to raise them up to
life. But it is his will to preserve the life he has given: it is his will
that you should obey his laws, and make no war without the leave of
Onontio, who commands in his name at Quebec, and who loves all the nations
alike, because such is the will of the Great King. You ought, then, to
live at peace with your neighbors, and above all with the Illinois. You
have had causes of quarrel with them; but their defeat has avenged you.
Though they are still strong, they wish to make peace with you. Be content
with the glory of having obliged them to ask for it. You have an interest
in preserving them; since, if the Iroquois destroy them, they will next
destroy you. Let us all obey the Great King, and live together in peace,
under his protection. Be of my mind, and use these guns that I have given
you, not to make war, but only to hunt and to defend yourselves."
[Footnote: Translated from the _Relation_, where these councils are
reported at great length.]
So saying, he gave two belts of wampum to confirm his words; and the
assembly dissolved. On the following day, the chiefs again convoked it,
and made their reply in form. It was all that La Salle could have wished.
"The Illinois is our brother, because he is the son of our Father, the
Great King." "We make you the master of our beaver and our lands, of our
minds and our bodies." "We cannot wonder that our brothers from the East
wish to live with you. We should have wished so too, if we had known what
a blessing it is to be the children of the Great King." The rest of this
auspicious day was passed in feasts and dances, in which La Salle and his
Frenchmen all bore part. His new scheme was hopefully begun; the ground
was broken, and the seed sown. It remained to achieve the enterprise,
twice defeated, of the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi, that
vital condition of his triumph, without which all other successes were
meaningless and vain.
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 reached Michillimackinac after a prosperous voyage. Here,
to his great joy, he found Tonty and Zenobe Membré, who had lately arrived
from Green Bay. The meeting was one at which even his stoic nature must
have melted. Each had for the other a tale of disaster; but, when La Salle
recounted the long succession of his reverses, it was with the tranquil
tone and cheerful look of one who relates the incidents of an ordinary
journey. Membré looked on him with admiration. "Any one else," he says,
"would have thrown up his hand, and abandoned the enterprise; but, far
from this, with a firmness and constancy that never had its equal, I saw
him more resolved than ever to continue his work and push forward his
discovery." [Footnote: Membré, in Le Clercq, ii. 208. Tonty, in his
unpublished memoir, speaks of the joy of La Salle at the meeting. The
_Relation_, usually very accurate, says erroneously, that Tonty had gone
to Fort Frontenac. La Forest had gone thither not long before La Salle's
arrival.]
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 disastrous enterprise, La Salle found
himself beset with embarrassments. Not only was he burdened with the
fruitless costs 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 Count Frontenac, the assistance of his
secretary, Barrois, a consummate man of business, and the support of a
wealthy relative, he found means to appease his creditors and even to gain
fresh advances. To this end, however, he was forced to part with a portion
of his monopolies. Having first made his will at Montreal, in favor of a
cousin who had befriended him, [Footnote: _Copie du testament du deffunt
Sr. de la Salle, 11 Août_, 1681, MS. The relative was François Plet, M.D.,
of Paris.] 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. [Footnote: "On apprendra à la fin de cette
année, 1682, le suceès de la découverte qu'il étoit résolu d'achever, au
plus tard le printemps dernier, ou de périr en y travaillant. Tant de
traverses et de malheurs toujours arrivés en son absence l'ont fait
résoudre à ne se fier plus à personne et à conduire lui-même tout son
monde, tout son équipage, et toute son entreprise, de laquelle il espéroit
une heureuse conclusion."
The above is a part of the closing paragraph of the _Relation des
Déscouvertes_, so often cited, and of the excellent guidance of which we
are henceforth deprived. It is a compilation made up from material
supplied by the various members of La Salle's party, on their return to
Canada, in 1681; and the greater portion is substantially the work of La
Salle himself. It is a document of great interest and undoubted
authority.]
The summer was spent when he reached Lake Huron. Day after day, and week
after week, the heavy-laden canoes crept on along the lonely wilderness
shores, by the monotonous ranks of bristling moss-bearded firs; lake and
forest, forest and lake; a dreary scene haunted with yet more dreary
memories,--disasters, sorrows, and deferred hopes; time, strength, and
wealth spent in vain; a ruinous past and a doubtful future; slander,
obloquy, and hate. With unmoved heart, the patient voyager held his
course, and drew up his canoes at last on the beach at Fort Miami.