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[1698 |
On the 28th we crossed from island to island. The Bay of the Puants is about twenty or thirty leagues long. One passes on the right hand another small bay called that of the Noquest.1 The Bay of the Puants is inhabited by several savage tribes: the Noquest, the Folles Avoine, the Renards, the Poûtoûatamis and the Saki.2 The Jesuit Fathers have a mission at the bottom of that bay.3 We should have liked very much to pass by the bottom of that bay and it would have greatly shortened our journey. A small river has to be ascended wherein there are only three leagues of rapids and which is about sixty leagues long; then by means of a short portage one reaches the River Ouiskonsin, which is a very fine one, and by going down it one takes only two days to reach the Miçissipi; the current however is so strong that the distance is sooner passed. But the Renards, who live on that little river that one ascends on leaving the bay to reach Ouiskonsin, will not allow any persons to pass lest they might go to the Sioux, with whom they are at war, and consequently have already pillaged several Frenchmen who tried to go that way. This compelled us to take the route by way of Chikagou.
On the 29th of September we arrived at the village of the Poûs, distant about twenty leagues from the crossing of the bay.4 There had formerly been a very large village here, but after the death of a chief a portion of the savages had gone to live in the bay and the remainder were preparing to go there when we passed. We stopped in that village. On the 30th we purchased some provisions which we needed. We started on the 31st5 and on the 4th of October we came upon
1Both Big and Little Bay de Noquet
are northern arms o Green Bay in Delta County, Michigan. The city of Escanaba
lies on the latter bay.
2The Noquet, Menominee, Fox, Potawatomi, and Sauk Indians.
3The mission of St. François Xavier at De Pere, Wisconsin, for which
see the Introduction to Allouez's Journal, p. 97.
4The site of this Potawatomi (Poûs) village has not been positively
determined. It was on the Lake Michigan side of the Door County peninsula; the
distances would seem to indicate that it was not far from the present Kewaunee,
Wisconsin.
5Sic.
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another small village of Poûx, on a small river, where Reverend Father Marais
has spent the winter with some Frenchmen and had planted a cross.1
We stayed there for the remainder of the day. We left on the 5th and after
being windbound for two days we started and after two days of heavy wind we
reached Milouakik on the 9th.2 This is a river where there is a
village which has been a large one, consisting of Mascoutins, of Renards, and
also of some Poux. We stayed there two days, partly on account of the wind and
partly to recruit our men a little, because there is an abundance of duck and
teal in the river.
On the eleventh of October we started early in the morning from the fort of Milouakik, and at an early hour we reached Kipikaoui, about eight leagues farther.3 Here we separated from Monsieur de Vincenne's party, which continued on its route to the Miamis. Some savages had led us to hope that we could ascend this river and after a portage of about two leagues might descend by another river called Pesioui4 which falls into the River of the Illinois about 25 or 30 leagues from Chikagou, and that we should thereby avoid all the portages that had to be made by the Chikagou route. We passed by this river [Root] which is about ten leagues in length to the portage5 and flows through agreeable prairies, but as there was no water in it we judged that there would not be any in the Peschoui either, and that instead of shortening out journey we should have been obliged to go over forty leagues of portage roads; this compelled us to take the route by way of Chikagou which is distant about twenty leagues.
1This appears to have been on the
site of the present Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The priest was probably Father
Gabriel Marest of the Jesuit order, who came to Canada in 1694. His first
service was as chaplain to Iberville's expedition of 1695 to Hudson Bay, where
Marest was captured by the English. As soon as he was exchanged he returned to
New France, and was sent to the Illinois mission, where he remained until his
death in 1714.
2Milwaukee.
3The present site of Racine, Wisconsin, at the mouth of Root River.
4The present Fox River of Illinois, which was called on Franquelin's
map of 1684 the Pestekouy. One of its affluents is still known as Lake
Pistakee, in Lake County, Illinois.
5The portage is from the upper waters of Root River to Muskego Lake
in the southwestern part of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, thence by its outlet
into Fox River.
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EARLY NARRATIVES OF THE NORTHWEST |
[1698 |
We remained five days at Kipikaoui, leaving on the 17th and after being windbound on the 18th and 19th we camped on the 20th at a place five leagues from Chikagou. We should have arrived there early on the 21st but the wind which suddenly arose on the lake compelled us to land half a league from Chicagou. We had considerable difficulty in landing and in saving our canoes; we all had to jump into the water. One must be very careful along the lakes, and especially Lake Mixcigan, whose shores are very low, to take to the land as soon as possible when the waves rise on the lake, for the rollers become so high in so short a time that one runs the risk of breaking his canoe and of losing all it contains. Many travellers have already been wrecked there. We, Monsieur de Montigny, Davion, and myself, went by land to the house of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers while our people remained behind.1 We found there Reverend Father Pinet and Reverend Father Binneteau,2 who had recently arrived from the Illinois country and was slightly ill.
I cannot describe to you, my lord, with what cordiality and manifestations of friendship these Reverend Fathers received and embraced us while we had the consolation of residing with them. Their house is built on the bank of a small river, with the lake on one side and a fine and vast prairie on the other. The village of the savages contains over a hundred and fifty cabins, and a league up the river is still another village almost as large. They are all Miamis. Reverend Father Pinet usually resides there except in winter, when the savages are all engaged in hunting, and then he goes to the Illinois. We saw no savages there; they had already started for their
1For the Jesuit mission at Chicago, known as that of the Guardian
Angel, see M. M. Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest (Chicago,
1913>, pp. 40-42.
2Pierre François Pinet was born at Périgueux, France, November 11,
1660. He entered the Jesuit order in 1682 and was sent to Canada twelve years
later. He was first sanctioned at Mackinac, and in 1696 founded the mission at
Chicago. He was obliged to leave in 1697, but returned the following year. In
1700 he abandoned the Chicago mission and settled among the Tamarois Illinois,
where he died in 1704. Some authorities state that he died at Chicago July 16, 1704.
Julien Binneteau came as missionary to Canada in 1691. He was two years at an Acadian mission, went West in 1695, and the next year was sent to the Illinois mission, where his death, December 24, 1699, was due to an illness contracted while following his neophytes in their hunting expeditions.
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hunt. If one may judge of the future from the short time that Reverend Father
Pinet has passed in this mission, we may believe that if God will bless the
labors and the zeal of that holy missionary there will be a great number of
good and fervent Christians. It is true that but slight results are obtained
with reference to the older persons, who are hardened in profligacy, but all
the children are baptized, and the jugglers even, who are the most opposed to
Christianity, allow their children to be baptized. They are also very glad to
let them be instructed. Several girls of a certain age and also many young boys
have already been and are being instructed, so that we may hope that when the
old stock dies off, they will be a new and entirely Christian people.
On the 24th of October the wind fell and we sent for out canoes with all our effects, and finding that the water was extraordinarily low, we made a cache in the ground with some of them and took only what was absolutely necessary for our journey, intending to send for the remainder in the spring. We left Brother Alexandre in charge thereof, as he agreed to remain there with Father Pinet's man. We started from Chikagou on the 29th, and slept about two leagues from it on the little river1 that afterward loses itself in the prairies. On the following day we began the portage, which is about three leagues in length when the waters are low, and is only one-fourth of a league in the spring, for them one can embark on a small lake2 that discharges into a branch of the river of the Illinois, and when the waters are low a portage has to be made to that branch. On that day we got over half our portage, and would have gone still further, when we perceived that a little boy given us by Monsieur de Muis,3 and who had set out alone although he was told to wait, was lost. We had not noticed it because all our people were busy. We were obliged to stop and look for him; everybody went and
1The south fork of Chicago River.
2Mud or Portage Lake. For an early map of this region, see Wis.
Hist. Coll., XVIII. 146.
3Nicolas Daneaux, sieur de Muy, came to Canada in 1685 and served
with distinction in King William's War (1689-1697). After the commencement of
the colony of Louisiana, he was in 1707 chosen governor, but died on his way to
assume his post.
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leagues to do, as far as Mont Joliet. This took us three days, and we arrived
on the 8th of the month.
From the Isle à la Cache to the said Mont Jolliet, a distance of seven leagues, everything has to be portages, as there is no water in the river except in the spring. The banks of this river are very agreeable; they consist of prairies bounded by small hills and very fine thickets; there are numbers of deer in them and along the river are great quantities of game of all kinds, so that after crossing the portage one of our men, while taking a walk, procured enough to provide us with an abundant supper as well as breakfast on the following day. Mont Jolliet is a very fine mound of earth in the prairie to the right, descending a little. It is about thirty feet high. The savages say that at the time of the great deluge one of their ancestors escaped, and that this small mountain is his canoe which he upset there.
On leaving Mont Jolliet we proceeded about two leagues by water. We remained two whole days at our short portage, about a quarter of a league in length. As one of our men named Charbonneau had killed several turkeys and bustards in the morning, together with a deer, we were very glad to give our people a good meal and to let them rest for a day. On the tenth we made the short portage and found half a league of water, after which two men carried the canoe for about a league, the others walking behind, each carrying his load; and we then embarked for a league and a half. We slept at a short portage, five or six arpents in length. On the eleventh, after making the short portage, we came to the river Teatiki,1 which is the true river of the Illinois, that which we descended being only a distant branch. We put all our baggage in the canoe, which two men paddled, while Monsieur de Tonty and ourselves, with the remainder of our men, proceeded by land, walking all the time through fine prairies. We came to the village of the Peangichias,2 Miamis who formerly dwelt at the falls of the Miçipi and who have for some years been settled at this place. There was no one in
1The present Kankakee River.
2This tribe was known to American settlers as the Piankeshaw. It was
a branch of the Miami that later removed to the lower Wabash, and settled in
the neighborhood of Vincennes.
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