US History/US History (Bureau Development Inc.)(1991).ISO/dp/0011/00118.txt

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$Title{Our Country:  Volume 2
Chapter XXXVIII}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{la
mississippi
salle
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french
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france
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marquette}
$Volume{Vol. 2}
$Date{1905}
$Log{}
Book:        Our Country:  Volume 2
Author:      Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.
Volume:      Vol. 2
Date:        1905

Chapter XXXVIII

     Review of the History of Discoveries - Settlements and Colonization in
America - Planting the Seeds of French Dominion in America - The Labors,
Influence and Success of the Jesuits - Adventures Beyond the Great Lakes -
Father Marquette and His Discovery of the Mississippi River - His Voyage upon
that Stream and Its Results - La Salle - His Expedition to the Valley of the
Mississippi - Voyages on that River to the Gulf of Mexico - He Discovers and
Names Louisiana - His Attempts to Colonize that Region - Discovery of Texas -
Death of La Salle - Subsequent Colonization by the French.

     WE have now traced the history of our country from its discovery at near
the close of the fifteenth century, until the time when European colonies
planted here, were forming that political union for mutual defence which
speedily crystallized into the grand form of an independent nation late in the
eighteenth century.

     In the course of these investigations, we have noted how the allurements
of science, human enterprise, a lust for dominion and power, and the greed of
individuals, impelled men to spend fortunes and risk their lives in making
voyages of discovery along the coasts of the American continent, from the
regions of the frozen ocean to those under the equator; also among the islands
that lie in American waters within the tropic of Cancer.  We have seen how the
monarchs and navigators of Spain, Portugal, France and England struggled for
the honors and emoluments to be derived from such discoveries; how the
Spaniards extended their dominions by force over the islands and coasts of the
western world in the space of a few years, by the help of the Roman Pontiff,
and obtained the mastery over vast and fertile regions in the warm zone, while
the French, English and Dutch discovered and took possession of extensive
domains in the temperate zone and far toward the verge of the Arctic Circle.

     These great movements were made in the fullness of time, as if in
preparation for that expansion of the human intellect and those wonderful
human achievements which had then begun in Europe.  Geographical science was
then a favorite study, and the cosmographers were enthusiasts in the field of
speculative philosophy founded upon that science.  Stimulated by the few
revelations of the learning of the East which commerce had brought into
Europe, men were impelled to make those great discoveries on the surface of
our planet, which were soon succeeded by the marvels revealed by the
newly-found telescope, by which astronomy was released from the dull chrysalis
of astrology and allowed to soar into the higher regions of celestial truths.

     Then followed the era of settlements.  To this end, a desire for winning
riches was the first powerful impulse given to men and women that led them to
make the sacrifice.  It was soon followed by the higher motives which were
born of aspirations for personal, intellectual and spiritual liberty, at a
time when the tocsin or alarm-bell of the Reformation had aroused the powers
of church and state into the most active opposition to everything which seemed
to endanger their absolute domination.  These motives led to the plantation of
devotees of freedom in isolated communities all along the Atlantic seaboard
from Maine to Florida.

     Then followed the gradual change of settlements into colonies.  We have
seen how many of these settlements seemed, at first, to be only temporary
asylums from the grasp of oppression, or the abiding-place of men until they
should get sufficient wealth to return to their native land and live in ease.
But many of them, contrary to their early promise, became permanent colonies,
whose members determined to make America their final earthly abode.  We have
traced the progress of these colonies, step by step, from their inception.  We
have seen how the spirit of liberty which pervaded these communities led them
by cautious methods to assert their right to the exercise of self-government.
New political ideas were then stirring the popular mind in Europe, and bold
thinkers were expressing them audibly and through the new-born printing-press.
These were the seeds of republicanism which, when wafted to America, found
here a congenial soil. These ideas took vigorous root, as we have seen, in
every community, and flourished even among the sour elements of theological
controversy and the persecution of bigots.  They were made vigorous by the
peculiar circumstances of the colonists, among whom existed affinities of
race, language, and Christian tenets of great strength, and they were
accustomed to common political institutions and thought.  These formed the
groundwork in the structure of each colony for union, and composed the broad
foundations of the nation that was finally developed.

     We have traced, in rapid outline, the history of each of these colonies,
showing their material and moral growth, their advance in political ideas and
practices from feudalism to independence, and their general condition as great
and flourishing commonwealths, animated by a national spirit, and coalescing
in measures for the defence of the common domain on which they were destined
to raise the strong and beautiful structure of our Republic.  It now remains
for us to take a brief survey of the history of the French dominion and
influence among the savage tribes on and beyond the frontiers of the English
settlements in America, and to view the social condition of the European
colonists who, at the middle of the last century, occupied a selvedge of the
continent along the Atlantic, averaging about a hundred miles in width and
almost a thousand miles in length.

     We have already observed that the French in America, through the
influence of the Jesuits, made a powerful impression upon the minds of the
savages of this country, and easily persuaded them to become the friends of
Frenchmen in peace and their allies in war.  We have seen how the seeds of
French dominion in America were planted by Champlain at Quebec.  He had
selected for his companions and spiritual co-workers some of the mild and
benevolent priests of the Franciscan Order, who, he said, were free from
ambition, except to be instrumental in the salvation of souls.  But these
priests were not sufficiently aggressive to suit the ambitious Gallican
Church, nor worldly-wise enough to serve the state in carrying out its
political designs for enlarging its dominions in America.  They were
withdrawn, and the task of converting the heathen of Canada and serving the
church and state at the same time was entrusted to the Jesuits.  With their
help Champlain established an alliance with the Hurons on the St. Lawrence and
in the country westward and so began that wide-spread affiliation of the
French and Indians that became so disquieting to the English colonists.

     So early as 1636 there were fifteen Jesuit priests in Canada - a band of
zealous, obedient, self-sacrificing men, ready to endure every privation and
encounter every danger in the service of their church.  At an assembly of
Huron chiefs and sachems at Quebec, Champlain introduced three of these
black-robed missionaries to his savage allies as men who were to teach good
things for themselves and their children.  These were Brebeuf, Daniel and
Davost.  With faith that never forsook them, these men followed the bare-
footed Indians through the dreadful forests of the Huron dominions stretching
along the northern borders of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario to the shores
of Lake Huron, near which they established the first mission-house of the
Jesuits among the dusky barbarians.  It was a journey full of fatigue and
peril.  The priests shared in all the toil.  They waded streams and swamps;
climbed rocks; plied the oar when on the waters assisted in carrying the
canoes around almost forty waterfalls slept on the bare earth with no covering
but the sky, and for daily bread ate pounded Indian corn mixed with water.  In
the script of Brebeuf were materials for the administration of the Holy
Communion and around the neck of each was a cord that held a heavy breviary or
order of the daily service in the Roman Catholic Church.  The devotion of
Brebeuf in particular, was marvelous in the eyes of the wondering savages.
Twice a day, often, he whipped his own bare back with hard cords; he wore a
bristling hair-shirt next to his skin, and under it an iron girdle studded
with sharp points; and while others slept, he "watched and prayed."  The
barbarians regarded him with reverence and awe, as the greatest "medicine man"
they had ever known; and when he told them of visits he had received from the
Mother of God, and how he had battled with foul fiends, they believed him and
it was not long before whole tribes bowed at altars in rude Jesuit chapels in
the forest, and became nominal Christians.  They were taught to believe in
Jesus as the guardian spirit of their lives and that it was he, and not one of
the many deities with which they had peopled earth, air and water, that had
all along afforded them protection in great perils.  So the Jesuits took a
firm grasp of the savage minds, and held a controlling influence over the
children of the forest far and near, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf
of Mexico.  The Church in France, and the Pope, took a deep interest in the
work and a year before Massachusetts provided for the establishment of a
college in that province, one was founded in Canada for the education of
Indian boys.  And very soon afterward a young and rich widow of France
established the Ursuline Convent at Quebec for the education and religious
training of Indian girls.  She came with three nuns.  They were received on
the shore at Quebec by the governor and garrison of the fort.  As they touched
the ground when stepping from the boat, these devoted women stooped and kissed
the earth in token of their adoption of the country as their home.  Then they
were escorted to the church, followed by a crowd of Indian men, women and
children, where the Te Deum was chanted in the midst of thanksgivings.

     So began the expansion of the dominions of the French in America.  In
1640 they took possession of Montreal, and a united prayer went up from the
people of France that the Queen of Angels might take that region under her
protection.  Missionary after missionary followed and in the space of thirteen
years, forty-two of them had carried the Gospel and French power from the
Niagara River to the remotest bounds of Lake Superior.  They established
mission-houses here and there, and encountered the greatest perils among the
savages, who were continually at war.  These Jesuits carried their lives in
their hands, and often lost them.  Upon those seemingly weak props rested the
fabric of French colonization in America. At times these props seemed to be
giving way, for whole villages of converted Indians would sometimes be
destroyed in an hour by some hostile tribe, and the pitiful sight of women and
children clinging to the knees of the priest for protection from the tomahawk
would be presented.

     In 1654, two young traders went from Quebec to the wilderness far
west-ward toward the Mississippi River.  Two years afterward they returned
with fifty canoes and a retinue of Indians.  Their tales of the magnificent
countries which they had traversed excited great enthusiasm, and the church
and state determined to possess that goodly land.  Father Allouez, a daring
Jesuit, went boldly into that region.  Among the Chippewas he proclaimed the
King of France as their sovereign, and built mission-houses there.  He
preached to the fiery Sioux; and from them he heard of the magnificent
Mississippi River, which the Indians called the Father of Waters.  This
intelligence was sent back to Quebec, and Fathers Marquette and Dablon, two
energetic priests, set out to explore the mysterious land and plant the banner
of the Cross in the very heart of the heathen world.  Among the Chippewas they
labored lovingly for their God and their king.  And when Joliet, an agent of
the French government of Canada, arrived there, Marquette gave him efficient
aid in his political designs.  He summoned a convention of all the surrounding
tribes, at the Falls of St. Mary, between Lakes Superior and Huron, where he
had erected a rude chapel and founded a mission.  There, by the side of the
cross, the national emblems of France were raised in token of the dominion of
Louis the Fourteenth.

     Marquette resolved to seek for the Mississippi River.  "He, an ambassador
of God," and Joliet, an "envoy to discover new countries," went up the Fox
River to the water-shed between the Mississippi and the Lakes, in birch
canoes, and crossing the portage went down the Wisconsin River until its
waters were mingled with those of the great stream.  Late in June, [673, they
were upon the bosom of that mighty river which De Soto had discovered, nearer
the Gulf a century and a quarter before.  The Indians called it Mississippi
which, in their language, signified The Great Water. So it was that the seeds
of civilization and Christianity were first planted in the Valley of the
Mississippi.

     Marquette and his companions spread light sails over their canoes and
voyaged quite rapidly on the bosom of the Mississippi with winds and currents,
past the inflowing waters of the Missouri and Ohio, and other less
tributaries, stopping on the shores and holding friendly intercourse with the
natives.  At length they reached a point below the mouth of the Arkansas
River, where they found a tribe of sun-worshippers who appeared hostile.  The
missionaries would, undoubtedly, have been destroyed had not a revered symbol
been held by Marquette.  On the borders of Iowa a chief had presented him with
a beautifully wrought and richly ornamented calumet, or pipe of peace, which
the good father held aloft.  Its well-known form, and the rich plumage that
adorned it, commanded the attention of the fierce savages, when their leader,
a venerable man, with nine others in an immense log canoe, came toward those
of Marquette and Joliet.  The old man bore in his hand a calumet, and, singing
as he approached, lie offered it to Marquette as a token of friendship.  These
Indians had axes of steel, which implied intercourse with Europeans.

     Having satisfied himself that the Mississippi did not flow into the
Atlantic nor the Pacific Ocean, but at some intermediate receptacle, Marquette
turned the prow of his canoe northward, and he and Joliet reached Green Bay
before the frosts of October were seen there.  Two years longer Marquette
labored among the barbarians in the vicinity of Chicago, when he crossed to
the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  Suffering from mortal sickness, and
conscious that his death was near, he passed along that shore in his canoe,
propelled by two men, until it entered a small stream which bore his name a
long time afterward.  They carried him tenderly ashore, and laid him upon the
leaves in the shadows of the forest.  He told them, with joy, that he was
about to die, but requested them to leave him alone while they should unload
the canoe and promising to call them when his end should be nigh.  He did so
very soon.  Then he asked for some holy water which he had prepared, and
taking a crucifix from his neck, placed it in the hands of one of his
companions and desired him to hold it constantly before his eyes while he
lived.  With clasped hands he then pronounced aloud the profession of his
faith, and soon afterward he died, as he had desired to do, in the bosom of
the wilderness in the service of his Master, without human aid.  Then his
companions carried him to a grave they had dug, ringing his little chapel bell
which he had brought with him and so wished them to do.  Near his grave they
erected a large cross as a mark for passers-by.  So disappeared the mortal
remains of a discoverer of the Mississippi and the founder of Michigan.  "The
people of the West," wrote Bancroft almost forty years ago, "will build his
monument."  Steps were taken late in 1873 for the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Marquette's remains lie in the bosom of Michilimackinac or Mackinack.

     At this time Robert Cavalier de la Salle, a young Frenchman who had been
educated for the priesthood in a Jesuit seminary, but who preferred a secular
life, was seated at the foot of Lake Ontario, and was enjoying a monopoly of
the fur trade with the Five Nations south of the lake.  He had built a fort on
the site of modern Kingston and named it Frontenac, in honor of his patron.
The mild Franciscans, who were now tolerated in Canada, were carrying on their
religious work among the Indians under the favor of La Salle.

     The enterprising young Frenchman had been stirred by accounts of the
Spanish voyages to America, and especially by the adventures of De Soto, and
the events attending his discovery of the Mississippi River in the warmer
regions of the continent.  His ambition was influenced by the story of
Marquette's voyage on that stream so mighty in the higher latitudes, with a
desire to become a pioneer in those far-off regions and perfect the
explorations of "the Great Water."  He had heard, also, of the Ohio River, and
the beauty and wealth of the country through which it flowed; and he resolved
to attempt the establishment of a widely-extended commerce with the natives
there, and, if possible, plant colonies in the vast wilderness. With these
aspirations he went to France, and there found favor with Colbert, the famous
minister of Louis the Fourteenth.

     The sagacity of Colbert comprehended the possibilities of La Salle's
scheme, and he induced the king to extend La Salle's monopoly of the fur trade
among the Indians, and to give him a commission to perfect the explorations of
the Mississippi River.  With some mechanics and others and Tonti, an Italian,
as his lieutenant, La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac late in 1678.  With
these, and Franciscan priests, in a great canoe, they crossed Lake Ontario and
went up the Niagara River to the site of Lewis ton.  In that region a
trading-house was established and at near the site of Buffalo, above the
cataract, they built a sailing vessel in which they crossed the lakes to
Mackinack, and pushing forward, anchored in Green Bay, west of Lake Michigan.
From Mackinack or Mackinaw, La Salle sent back his brig laden with a rich
cargo of furs, and awaited her return.  He tarried impatiently among the
Miamis at Chicago, for some time, when with Tonti, Father Hennepin and two
other Franciscans, and about thirty followers, he boldly penetrated the
wilderness westward on foot and in canoes, until he reached Lake Peoria, in
Illinois.  There he built a fort, and sent Father Hennepin forward to explore
the Upper Mississippi, while he returned to Frontenac to look after his
property.

     Hennepin, with two oarsmen, went down the Illinois River to "the Great
Water," which they reached late in March.  When the floating ice in the
Mississippi had passed by, he invoked the aid of St. Anthony of Padua, and
ascended the stream to the great falls which bear the name of his patron
saint.  Hennepin was a man much given to romancing, and permitting the
creations of imagination to be represented as realities.  He claimed to have
discovered the source of the Mississippi, when it is known that he never went
above the Falls of St. Anthony.  These he described with tolerable accuracy,
and near them he carved across and the arms of France upon the forest trees.
In the autumn of 1680 he returned to Green Bay by the way of the Wisconsin and
Fox rivers.  In the meantime Tonti had been driven out of Illinois by the
savages, and had taken refuge among the barbarians on the western shore of
Lake Michigan.

     La Salle returned to the Illinois country with men and supplies for an
exploration of the Mississippi.  That enterprise was undertaken early in 1682.
La Salle was accompanied by twenty-three Frenchmen, and eighteen New England
Indians with ten women and three children.  They reached the Mississippi in
February, and embarked upon its bosom in a strong and spacious barge which had
been constructed, and his people followed in canoes.  They descended the
Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, everywhere observing the evidences of
unbounded wealth in the bosom of the soil along its course.  They stopped at
many places and held intercourse with the natives, who came to the river banks
in large numbers to meet them.  At one place below the mouth of the Arkansas
River, they found a powerful king over many tribes, to whom La Salle sent
presents.  His ambassadors were received with great respect, and the monarch
sent word by them that he should visit their chief in person.  He came in
great state.  He was preceded by two horses, and by a master of ceremonies
with six men, who cleared the ground over which his majesty was to pass, and
erected a pavilion of mats to shield the king from the sun.  The monarch was
dressed in a white robe falling to his knee, that had been beautifully woven
of the inner bark of trees.  He was on foot, and was preceded by two men
bearing immense feather fans as white as snow.  A third carried plates of
copper highly polished.  With grave demeanor and gracious words, he held an
interview with La Salle, and they parted with mutual assurances of friendship.
The people over whom the king ruled were a part of those barbarians of the
Gulf region who worshipped the sun.  They were called Taenses.

     La Salle proceeded southward, planted a cross and the arms of France on
the borders of the Gulf of Mexico, and proclaimed that the whole Mississippi
Valley was a part of the dominions of King Louis.  He named the magnificent
domain Louisiana in honor of that monarch, who was then at the height of his
power.  So was planted in the heart of our continent the germ of the French
empire that grew up there early in the eighteenth century.

     Having performed this great service, La Salle went back to Quebec, and
thence hastened to France and laid a report of his great discovery before the
delighted court.  Colbert was dead, but his son was in power and inherited his
father's genius and enterprise.  He procured for La Salle the king's
commission to colonize Louisiana.  With four ships and almost three hundred
emigrants, La Salle sailed from Rochelle late in July, 1684, for the
Mississippi River by way of St. Domingo.  His company was composed of one
hundred soldiers, and the remainder (one hundred and eighty souls) were
chiefly artisans and farmers, with a few young women.  Unfortunately Beaujeu,
the commander of the ships, was cold and proud.  He could not comprehend the
lofty purposes of La Salle, and often thwarted them in a degree.  His pride
would not allow him to listen to La Salle, and caused him to miss the mouths
of the Mississippi while sailing westward over the Gulf of Mexico.  They soon
found themselves in Matagorda Bay, on the coasts of Texas, and there La Salle
determined to disembark.  His storeship was wrecked at the entrance to the
bay, and its precious cargo was scattered over the bosom of the sea by a gale
that arose in the evening.  Despondency seized a part of the company, and they
returned to the vessels.  The remainder adhered to La Salle.  The ships with
the timid ones sailed away to France, leaving two hundred and thirty emigrants
on the beach.  These, with La Salle for the architect, soon constructed a fort
on a stream that flowed into the western part of Matagorda Bay, and called it
Fort St. Louis.  This was the beginning of the settlement of Texas, and so it
was made a portion of Louisiana.  France took possession of the domain, and
caused the arms of the kingdom to be carved on the great trees of the forest
there.

     La Salle now proposed to seek the Mississippi.  In December, 1685, he
departed, with some of his men.  They forded small streams, crossed the larger
ones on rafts which they constructed, and encountered many fearful perils.
One man was eaten up by alligators.  The bite of a rattlesnake killed another.
Some of the Indians were hostile.  Discontent arose in the party and some of
the men deserted.  La Salle had penetrated almost to the Red River, when his
necessities compel led him to retrace his steps.  When he reached the fort he
had a dozen men less than when he departed.

     La Salle was now allured in another direction by stories concerning rich
mines in New Mexico.  With a few followers he started in search of the
treasures.  He found a country wealthy in fertile soils, but not in precious
metals and he returned to the fort disappointed.  That was in the spring of
1686.

     La Salle now determined to go to Canada for reinforcements and supplies
for his colony in Louisiana.  Leaving a garrison at Fort St. Louis, lie
departed with sixteen men and five wild horses which he had procured in New
Mexico.  They had crossed Texas to the uplands of Trinity River, when some of
the men became mutinous.  Two of them, who had embarked all their fortunes in
the enterprise, and who blamed La Salle for their losses, conspired against
his life.  One of them, named Duhaut, invited one of La Salle's nephews (who
was of the party) to go with him on a buffalo hunt.  Duhaut quarrelled with
the young man, and murdered him.  The leader, ignorant of the cause of his
nephew's absence, went in search of him, and found the two conspirators near
the brink of the river.  Duhaut hid in the grass, but his companion approached
La Salle with apparent friendliness. "Where is my nephew?" inquired the
leader.  He was answered by a musket-ball from the skulking Duhaut, and fell
dead.  Then the conspirators plundered his body, and left it to be devoured by
eagles and wolves. Joutel (a friend of La Salle), and two of the great
leader's kinsmen, escaped, made their way to the Mississippi, and returned to
Canada with the sad tidings of the explorer's death.

     The French had now traversed the interior of America from Newfoundland
and Nova Scotia by way of the St. Lawrence, the chain of the great lakes and
the Mississippi River, to the Gulf of Mexico, and asserted the authority of
King Louis everywhere.  Trading-posts, mission-stations, and colonies followed
in the path of the explorers.  New Orleans was founded early in the eighteenth
century.  Other places were settled on the Mississippi, the Illinois, and the
lakes.  At the middle of the last century, the French claimed dominion over
the whole continent north of the Spanish possessions, excepting the narrow
border of territory on the sea-coasts occupied by the English.  They coveted
the whole country, and resolved to possess it.  Their alliance with the
Indians, through the influence of the Jesuits, had that permanent object in
view and we have seen how fearfully those allies worked along the frontier
settlements of New England, with torch and hatchet, to accomplish that end.
Had they succeeded in their attempted conquest of New England, the Iroquois
Confederacy, that stood like a wall of defence for the settlers in New York
and Pennsylvania, might have been swept away, and the day-dreams of Louis the
Fourteenth, that he was to become sole master of North America, been realized.
The struggle for that mastery continued forty-five years after his death, and
was ended only when the English had destroyed French dominion in America, by
force of arms, and by conquest stripped France of a great portion of its
claimed territory in our country.