Box 2, Folder 2: Scrapbook - Historical Societies

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To Marquette and Joliet, is undoubtedly to be ascribed the merit of having discovered the upper Mississippi, and of having been the first white men that sailed on its bosom from the mouth of the Wisconsin to within a short distance of its discharge into the Mexican gulf; to Pere Louis Hennepin belongs a more questionable honor. In the two published accounts given to the world of his discoveries by Hennepin himself, he claims to have explored the Mississippi from its mouth to its source, and from these accounts the only truth that can be extracted, and relied on, is, that he proceeded from the mouth of the Illinois river, up the Mississippi; was taken prisoner by the Sioux above the present site of Prairie du Chien, and was carried up the river, above the great Falls, which he names the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua; that he remained a prisoner with his captors many months, at their village of Issati on the River St. Francis, and was liberated by a Canadian trader, named St. Luth; that he returned to Quebec by ascending the Wisconsin river, crossing the portage at the present site of Fort Winnebago, and descending the Fox River to Green Bay. The pretended claims of his voyage of discovery to the mouth of the Mississippi, and his attempt to rob La Salle of his merited honors have been often successfully refuted and exposed. Nevertheless a brief account of the true journeyings of Hennepin, intermingled with his false statements of travel and adventure, may not here be superfluous.

On the 2nd of September, 1679, Hennepin accompanied La Salle from Michilimackinac, and entering Lake Michigan, landed on an island at the mouth of Green Bay, inhabited by the Potowatamies (1); on the 19th, they left this, and pursued a southern course along the western shore of the Lake, finding scarcely any spot where they could land, on account of the steepness of the banks. On the 18th of October they reached the southern end of the lake and landed. On the 1st of November, they crossed to the mouth of the Miami, built a Fort there, and placed buoys in the river to mark the channel, as La Salle expected the arrival of his bark, the Griffin. On the 3d of December they went up the Miamies in order to seek for the portage across to the Illinois river, which falls into the Meschasipi, or Great River, and found the marshy lands to quaking that they could scarcely walk over them (2); they finally entered the Illinois and descended it to the point where La Salle built Fort Crevecoeur. La Salle directed Hennepin to proceed with two men in a canoe to the Mississippi, and to ascend it, and endeavor to gain the friendship of

(1) Hennepin's New Discovery, edition 1698, page 89. (2) Ibid 108, 111.

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the natives along its banks, and accordingly Hennepin left Fort Crevecoeur 29th of February, 1680, with Michel Ako and Picard du Gay, and descended the Illinois, arriving at the Mississippi on the 8th of March, (1) and were stayed here by floating ice until the 12th of the same month.

From the mouth of the Illinois, according to Hennepin's "Account of Louisiana," printed at Paris in 1684, the party proceeded to fulfill the instructions of La Salle, and ascended the Mississippi; on the 12th of April, when they had got about 150 leagues up the river from that of the Illinois (2) they were taken prisoners by the Sioux and carried 250 leagues farther up the Mississippi, where they remained at Issati on the St. Francis river, (or at lake St. Francis) until September, when they returned by the way of the Wisconsin river to Green Bay.

The accounts of Hennepin even thus far stated, and published in 1684, contained many gross exaggerations, and cannot implicitly be relied on. For instance, he says that the Falls St. Anthony are 50 or 60 feet in height, and speaks with confidence as to rivers, lakes, and even the source of the Mississippi, and distances between the mouths of rivers flowint into it; but in many important matters for the first time made known to the world he is to be believed; he is the first writer who calls the Mescousin of Marquette, "Wisconsin." (Note F)

Fourteen years after the "Account of Louisiana," was published by order of the King of France, Hennepin having become, in 1698, a sycophant of the King of England, gave to the world his "New Discovery," together with a second part, or "continuation of the New Discov"ery, giving an account of the attempts of the Sieur de la Salle "upon the mines of St. Barbe, &c." These books were both dedicated to King William III., and as they contained many things of which Hennepin had not previously spoken in his first account, he makes several strange apologies in his prefaces to the latter volumes to excuse and account for the omissions in the former; the principal of which is, that he would, by mentioning his discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi, incur the enmity of Monsieur De la Salle. (3).

The fabrications of Hennepin, and his own interpolations, consist in part, in his stating that on the 18th of March, 1680, when he was at the mouth of the Illinois river, he descended the Mississippi, in place of ascending it to explore the country of the Sioux, as he was directed by La Salle, according to his own account, and also by the testimony of the Chevalier Tonti, as given in his memoir to the King of France, made in 1693.

(1) Ibid 145. (2) Ibid 193. (3) New Discovery, edition of 1698.

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Hennepin proceeds to state, that passing down the river, he came to the river of the Osages, (Missouri) in six hours; on the 10th of March, he reached the Wabash or Ohio; on the 18th, he was near the Akansa; on the 21st at Taensa, and on the 24th and 25th at the mouth, or the Sea. Being in fear of the Spaniards he set out on his return on the 1st of April, (1) leaving the mouth of the river, and on the 7th of April was again at Taensas; on the 9th at Akansas, which place he twice mentions as leaving on the 24th, (2) and yet, on the 12th of April, as we have seen by his first account, and doubtless the true one, in going up the Mississippi he was taken prisoner by the Sious 150 leagues above the mouth of the Illinois river. It is unnecessary to remark further on Hennepin's falsities except that so far as they bear on his pretended discovery of the lower Mississippi, they may have been intended as the foundation of a claim on the part of England to Louisiana, and the whole valley of the Mississippi. His work was dedicated to the English king, and his protection as a warlike sovereign, invoked for the newly discovered country. All merit of discovery is not only taken away from La Salle and denied to him, but even Joliet is asserted by Hennepin, to have denied that he had ever descended the Mississippi (3). It is an historical fact, that in 1699 an attempt was made by the English king to colonize Louisiana by French refugees, and to take possession of the Mississippi; the private enterprise of Coxe of New Jersey, to colonize "Carolana," was encouraged by the King in council; and vessels of war were sent by England to the Gulf of Mexico, under pretext that the whole South belonged to that power; (4) it is true that they returned when they found that the prior claims of France were asserted, but it was then understood that it was on the information contained in, and the supposed authenticity of Hennepin's books, that such attempt at colonization was made. (Note G) The pretended claims of discovery, on the part of England, in our own times, of the Columbia river, and the assumption of rights founded on travelers falsehoods, and interpolations in books, are very similar to those of which we have herein spoken.

Inseparable from the history of Mississippi valley, and well deserving honor and fame, is the name of Robert Cavelier de la Salle. In his youth he had entered the seminary of the Jesuits, and thus had relinquished his patrimony, and having left the society with honor, but in poverty, we find him in the spirit of enterprise, about the year 1667, seek-

(1) Idem 162. (2) Idem 168. (3) Idem 170. (4) Charl. Nouv. Fr. M. 3. page 384.

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ing fame and fortune in New France. As a fur-trader established near the present site of Montreal, he explored Lakes Ontario and Erie; and having repaired to France filled with enthusiasm for the discovery and colonization of the West, he obtained the rank of nobility, valuable grants of land at Fort Frontenac, and the protection of Colbert the French minister, together with the friendship of Seignelay, Colbert's son. In 1678, he returned to Fort Frontenac, (now Kingston) and in a wooden canoe, of ten tons, the first that ever sailed into Niagara river, he carried a company to the vicinity of the Falls. In 1679, La Salle had built a vessel of sixty tons burthen, and on the 7th of August, on the upper Niagara river, amidst the astonishment of the Indians, the discharge of artillery and the chant of a solemn Te deum the "Griffin" was launched, and her sails spread to the breezes of Lake Erie; La Salle passed over the lake, through the "Detroit," built a trading-house at Mackinaw, and cast anchor in Green Bay. Having sent back his "Griffin" to Niagara river, well laden with furs, he repaired with a part of his company (among whom we find Hennepin) along the western shore of Lake Michigan to its head, near St. Josephs. Determined to penetrate through the country to the great River of the West, he ascended the St. Josephs and having discovered a portage over swamps and bogs, entered the Kankakee, and thence descending the Illinois river he first met with the natives on the banks of Lake Peoria. An alliance offensive and defensive was formed between the Illinois and the French, and La Salle learned the course of the Mississippi to its mouth, and received the promise of guides to conduct him there. But misfortunes then irremediable, and sufficient to cause the stoutest heart to despond, and almost despair, overwhelmed De LaSalle; his beloved "Griffin" was wrecked in her voyage around the Lakes; his fortune was greatly impaired, his expected store of supplies for colonization was effectually cut off, and his men became discontented, and fearful for their situation. Yet under these discouraging circumstances, the great mind, the all-powerful will, and indomitable energy of De La Salle was exhibited in his determination and his acts. He commenced building a Fort, below Peoria lake, which was named Crevecoeur, or Broken heart; he set his men to work to prepare timber for building a Bark; he sent Hennepin on a voyage of discovery up the Mississippi; and as sails and cordage were necessary for his contemplated exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth, he determined on endeavoring to reach the nearest French Settlement, fifteen hundred miles distant, on foot, in the depth of winter, without food or drink, except such as the chase and the brook would supply, and with only three companions for solace and pro-

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tection. What an exhibition of the energy of De La Salle's character! But in all these well devised plans for future action in his discoveries, he succeeded, only, where he himself was present.

During his absence to Fort Frontenac, the Chevalier Tonti had been left in command of Fort Crevecoeur, with directions to build a new fort on a cliff about two hundred feet above the river near a village of the Illinois, now called Rock Fort. In attempting to fortify this post, men deserted from Crevecoeur; and the Iroquois Indians, in September 1680, descended the river, threatening destruction to the new colony. Tonti, after a parley with the enemy, fled with the few men that remained with him to the Potawatamies on Lake Michigan, and when La Salle returned in 1681 with large supplies of men and stores, he found the post in Illinois deserted. In the meanwhile, Hennepin had proceeded according to his directions, up the Mississippi to the country of the Sioux.

After the unavoidable delay of another year in building a Barge, in searching for Tonti and his men, and in visiting Green Bay for the purpose of conducting some traffic there, La Salle descended the Mississippi to the sea, and formally taking possession of the whole new country, watered by the Mississippi from its mouth to its source, for France, he named it "Louisiana"; erected a column and a cross with an inscription "Louis "the Great, King of France and Navarre, reigning, April 9th 1682"; issued a process verbal on the event of his journey and discovery, attested by Jacques de la Metairie, Notary, and the men who accompanied him, as witnesses; called the great river "Colbert," after the name of the minister of Louis XIV.; ascertained the three channels by which the river entered the sea, to be in the latitude of about 27 degrees; and no doubt exulting in the success of this great enterprise and discovery, he ascended the river Illinois, and in May 1783 returned to Quebec for the purpose of sailing to France. (1)

The remaining history of De La Salle is a tissue of misfortunes and disasters which terminated in his death. When he arrived in France, Colbert was dead, but his son, Seignelay, was minister of Marine, and on the reports of La Salle in regard to the importance of Louisiana to the French crown, a fleet was prepared and great preparations made for colonizing the new country; two hundred and eighty persons, of whom one hundred were soldiers, and a proportion were young women and mechanics, were destined for the work of permanent colonization. From the commencement of the voyage disputes arose between Beaujeu, who __________ (1) See Bancroft, vol. 3. passim, Historical collec. of Louisiana, passim.

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had command of the fleet, and La Salle, whose correct judgment on the contemplated objects of the expedition were constantly thwarted. They entered the Gulf of Mexico, and on the 10th of January 1685, they were probably near the mouth of the Mississippi, but the fleet sailed by; La Salle wished to return, Beaujeu refused, and persisted in sailing still to the West, till they reached the bay of Matagorda where La Salle resolved to disembark and search for the mouth of his River Colbert. Having landed his men, his store-ship was unfortunately wrecked on entering the harbor, and Beaujeu cruelly deserted him, and sailed for France with the remainder of the ships, leaving on the beach of Matagorda the devoted La Salle with two hundred and thirty followers, crowded in a fort hastily constructed of the fragments of their stranded vessel. Not despairing, La Salle selected a beautiful site for a fort and town, which he named St. Louis, and this is the settlement which made Texas a part of Louisiana. (1)

After various and fruitless searches for the Mississippi, La Salle, in December 1685 proposed to seek it in canoes, and after four months absence, he returned having failed to find the fatal river. In April, 1686, he turned his steps towards New Mexico, with twenty companions in hopes to discover the rich mines of St. Barbe, the El Dorado of Northern Mexico (2). Returning once more, he found his little colony reduced by misforturnes to about forty, and he then resolved to travel on foot to Illinois, and Canada, and return to renew his colony in Texas. Accordingly in January 1687, La Salle departed with sixteen men for Canada --they passed the basin of the Colorado, and had reached a branch of Trinity river--there, on the 17th of March 1687, the enterprising, daring, and unforturnate La Salle, together with his nephew Moranget, was assassinated by his own men. Father Anastasius witnessed the murder, and detailed the facts, to Joutel who afterwards became the accurate historian of the expedition, and who together with the brother and surviving nephew of La Salle and others, in all but seven, obtained a guide to the Arkansas, whence they reached the country above Red River, and at length came to the Mississippi, where to their great joy they discovered a large cross erected, and there found Tonti, who had descended the river, expecting to meet La Salle. (3)

Thus perished the Father of French Settlement in the valley of the Mississippi. His able biographer (4a) says truly of him--"Not a hint "appears in any writer that has come under our notice which casts a shade __________ (1) Bancroft vol. 3, p. 171. (2) Idem 172. (3) Idem, also Joutel passim. (4) Sparks.

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"upon his integrity or honor. Cool and intrepid at all times, never "yielding for a moment to despair, or even to despondency, he bore the "heavy burden of his calamities to the end, and his hopes expired "only with his last breath. To him must be mainly ascribed the discov"ery of the vast regions of the Mississippi valley and the subsequent oc"cupation and settlement of them by the French; and his name justly "holds a prominent place among those which adorn the history of civili"zation in the New World."

There were not wanting those, in his life time, who employed means to destroy his usefulness, to impede his efforts, and to decry his merits. After his death we have seen, the Hennepin, who was one of his followers and under his command, basely attempted to rob him of the reputation justly attached to his discoveries; and yet it cannot be denied that in his last expedition to discover the mouth of the Mississippi by sea, other motives than mere colonization may have acted on the zeal of La Salle. In his memoir to the King, and also in his report to Monsieur Seignelay, urging the fitting out of the expedition to take possession of Louisiana he urges the richness of the silver mines of St. Barbe in New Mexico, as a powerful inducement for the undertaking. If Hennepin may in this matter be believed, he had spoken to him on the same subject previous to their leaving Canada, and it is certain that he made one attempt to search for them after his landing in Texas. It has been urged by his biographer, that in all his searches for the mouth of the Mississippi, or for the River itself, after his landing at Matagordas his journeyings were East and North-east, that is to say, that he believed himself to be West of the river. Now, after a careful examination of Joutel's account, I have been unable to discover any indication of La Salle's eastern searches; his journeys appear to have been directed Westward, Northwest, and Northward; it also appears that he was approaching nearer to the Spaniards, and certainly he could have obtained some correct information on the subject from the Cenis Indians. Charlevoix is of this opinion, and harshly says, that La Salle, finding himself lost in his rank in the Bay of St. Bernard, and having quickly discovered that he was West of the river he was seeking, if he had no other design but to find it, he could have obtained guides from the Cenis, as Joutel did, afterwards; but he desired to approach the Spanish settlements to take observations respecting the mines of St. Barbe, and wishing to do too much, he not only did nothing, but destroyed himself, and was pitied by no one. (Note H.)

The generally received opinion of the great mineral wealth of the Valley of the Mississippi was doubtless first entertained by the early ex-

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plorers, from the known, as well as the supposed richness of the mines of New Mexico. Fruitless searches for gold were made in Western Louisiana, as early as the year 1700, in the month of April, Le Sueur, by order of Iberville, led a company of twenty men to take possession of a copper mine, far to the North-west, in the country of the Sioux. They passed up the Mississippi beyond the Wisconsin, the Chippewa, the St. Croix, and reaching the mouth of the St. Peters, ascended that River as far as the confluence of the Blue earth; (Note I) passing the winter there in hopes of filling their boar with copper ore in the spring, they worked at the copper mine in April 1701, and descended the Mississippi with 30,000 pounds of green earth; 4,000 pounds of which was afterwards sent to France, as a proof of the mineral wealth of the country; but, says Charlevoix, the want of means prevented Le Sueur from prosecuting his enterprise. Immense grants of land lavished by the Crown on court favorites and visionary speculators; the whole French nation became infatuated by the famous Mississippi scheme of Law, in 1716-17, and the ruin of countless families was the result of the bursting of the airblown bubble.

But the time was fast approaching when the search for gold mines, and pearl fisheries, for copper and other minerals, and for the establishment of an extended commerce in the wool of the buffalo, were all to yield to the employment of the only means of a permanent settlement, and development of the resources and true wealth of a country, the cultivation os the soil and the encouragement of the Agriculturalist.

Conspicuous among the romances of the day, are the volumes of Baron La Hontan, published at the Hague in 1706. He had battled with the Iroquois in 1688, and had been as far west as the lake of the Illinois. Willing to give his aid also, to western discovery, he followed the route of Marquette by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi, and ascending it, he came to the mouth of a stream which he calls "the Long river" flowing from the West. By his map, this river empties itsel near the mouth of the St. Peters as now known; upon it, the Baron says he sailed for more than eighty days, meeting with the most extensive and civilized Indian natons yet known; and in that length of time he had only got less than half way to the head of the river, which as he learned from the red men was two thousand miles long; they also drew for him a map of its course above his stopping point, tracing the river to a lake whence another river led to the South Sea; so that in the estimation which La Hontan had of himself and his discoveries, the great problem was at length solved, and the wealth of China and the East were by him 5

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thrown open to European commerce, by way of the Mississippi, the Long river, and the unexplored North-west passage to the Sea. It is not difficult to separate the truth from the fable of La Hontan, but his account shows as well the proneness of the travelers of that day to exaggerate and falsify, as the easy credulity with which their tales were received. (1)

Few events of importance occurred in the history of the Northwest during the first half of the eighteenth century; the military occupation of Illinois was continued after the death of La Salle, and when Tonti again descended the Mississippi in 1700, he was accompanied with twenty Canadian residents of Illinois. The oldest European permanent settlement in the Mississippi valley is Kaskaskia, which from a Jesuit mission gradually became a central point of French colonization (2). In June 1750, Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois writes from Fort Chartres, that the population comprises whites, negroes and Indians to say nothing of cross-breeds; that there are five French villages, and three villages of natives, within a space of twenty-one leagues, situated between the Mississippi and the Kaskaskias: that the French villages contain eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves; that the three Illinois towns, (exclusive of Peoria) contain eight hundred souls; that most of the French till the soil, raise wheat, cattle, pigs and horses, and live like Princes; but that the three Illinois towns were in a bad condition, owing to the bad example of the French, and the introduction of ardent spirits. Again he writes, November 1750, that New Orleans contains twelve hundred persons; that to this point come all kinds of lumber, bricks, salt beef, tallow, tar, skins, and bear's grease, but above all, pork and flour from the Illinois; that in the Illinois are numberless mines, but no one to work them as they deserve: yet some in dividuals dig lead from time to time near the surface and supply the Indians and Canada; that two Spaniards who claim to be adepts, say that our mines are like those of Mexico, and if we would dig deeper we should find silver under the lead; at any rate the lead is excellent. There are also in this country copper mines beyond doubt, as from time to time large pieces are found in the streams. (3)

Sufficient then, appears all testimony to lead to the conclusion, that not only by military occupation (Note K) but by the arts of peace, the whole of the Valley of the Mississippi from its mouth to the great lakes northward, was in a gradual although slow advancement of settlement up to the middle of the eighteenth century, the great West had already be__________ (1) Western Annals p. 29, La Hontan's voyage, vol. 1, p. 194. (2) Bancroft vol. 3, p. 195. (3) Lettres Edifiantes, 1781. vol. 7, p. 79 to 106.

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come an object of importance in the eyes of the two great powers, France and England, whose colonies extended into and bordering upon the Mississippi valley. By the peace of Utrecht in 1713, England had obtained large concessions of territory in America; the attention of the eastern colonies was awakened to the vast importance of the West; the Assembly of New York had addressed Queen Anne against the French Settlements; William Penn advised the establishing of the St. Lawrence as the boundary on the North, and to include in our colonies the Valley of the Mississippi; and in a spirit of prophecy, he said, "it will make a glorious country." Yet, at the peace of Utrecht the whole of Louisiana remained to France. How far this immense region extended was an unsettled question, not amicably to be adjusted; according to French ideas it included the whole basin of the Mississippi. (1)

The history of the Border wars in the West, the struggles, the privations, the sufferings and the courageous perseverance of the infant European settlements in the great work of colonization, well deserve investigation and minute detail: but this is properly a subject of future labour and research for the Historical Society. We hasten to glace at the prominent events which, transpiring in the Valley of the Mississippi during the period of the American Revolution, may in this discourse perhaps correctly find a termination in the peace of 1783, and the cession of Virginia to the United States, of her claims to the North West Territory, followed by the Ordinance of 1787; events which have secured to the Union five of the richest and most important States of which she is composed, and which in the future must inevitably have deserved influence in a commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural view, over the political and social action of the whole American People.

On the 10th of February, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was concluded and Peace between the European powers restored. By this Treaty, France ceded to England Nova Scotia or Acadia in all its parts and with all its dependencies; cedes and guarantees to England Canada with all its dependencies; the island of Cape Breton, and all other islands and coasts in the gulf and river of St. Lawrence, and the whole and complete Sovereignty over the same, without liberty to depart from the said cession and guarantee under any pretense whatever. The confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of the most Christian King, on the Continent of North America, are irrevocably fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iber__________ (1) Bancroft, vol. 3, p. 234.