THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed. The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather, indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was published.

 

Account of the Discoveries and Journies of the
Sieur de La Salle, 1679-80-81


Sieur de La Salle, Robert Cavelier or Father Membré
In: Margry, I-1-472-586.



pp.		497, 498, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506,
		507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 517.

 

(p. 497)
On the next day, the first of the month of November, he re-embarked with all his men and arrived the same day at the meeting-place which he had appointed for the Sieur de Tonty. It was at the mouth of the river of the Miamis, which, coming from the south, falls into the Lake of the Illinois. He was surprised to find nobody there, for the Sieur de Tonty had had a much shorter distance to go, and his boats were much more lightly laden. However, he took advantage of this state of affairs to gain time, and to carry out the plan which he had formed. He had made up his mind to wait until the winter to go to the Illinois, in order to avoid running unnecessary risks; for at that season these tribes disperse, and live apart by families or companies of two or three hundred persons, for (p. 498) convenience in hunting; and when he had been joined by the Sieur de Tonty, who was to bring him twenty men, he could safely make himself known the first band he might meet, whom he could gain over by kind treatment and by making presents to them; from them he might gain some slight knowledge of the Illinois language; and by these means he could easily form an alliance with the rest of the nation.

With this intention he made use of the Sieur de Tonty's lateness in arriving at this juncture. He told his men that he had decided to wait for him, and in order to amuse them by some useful occupation, he proposed that they should build a fort and a house for the safety of the barque and the goods it was to bring, and to serve them as a place of refuge in case of need.

(p. 502)
It was on the edge of an extensive plain, at the further end of which, on the western side, was a village of Miamis, Mascoutens and Ouyatanons combined.

"The River of the Illinois takes its rise in this plain among a number of morasses, which it is scarcely possible to cross. This river is only a league and a half away from the River of the Miamis; and so the Sieur de La Salle had his canoes and all his baggage conveyed to it, by a good path which he found, leaving letters at the place where he quitted the River of the Miamis, as he had done at the fort which he built at its mouth, for the information of the men who, to the number of twenty-five, were to come in his barque to join him.

The River of the Illinois is navigable for canoes within a hundred yards of its source, and it increases in size so quickly that, after a short distance, it is almost as broad and deep as the Marne. It flows through very extensive marshes, in which its course is so winding that, although the current is fairly strong, they sometimes found that they had not advanced as much as two leagues in a direct line after having rowed a whole day. They saw nothing, as far as the eye could reach, except marshes, reeds and alders; and for a distance of over forty leagues they would have found no place to encamp, but for a few mounds of frozen ground on which they made fires and slept.

Moreover, after they had traversed these marshes, they did not find any hunting, as they had hoped to do, for the country consists of nothing but wide open plains, where only very high grass grows, which is dry, at this season, and the Miamis had burned it down when hunting the wild oxen; usually there are (p. 503) large numbers of animals there, as it was easy to tell from the bones and heads of animals which they saw on all sides. The Miamis hunt them at the end of the autumn in the following manner: when they see a herd, they assemble in large numbers and set fire to the grass in all directions round the animals except for a few places which they leave on purpose, posting themselves in them with their bows and arrows. The oxen, in trying to avoid the fire, are thus compelled to pass close to the Indians, who sometimes kill as many as two hundred of them in one day. These oxen have very fine wool instead of hair, and with the females it is still longer than with the males; their horns are almost all black, much thicker than those of oxen in Europe, but a little shorter. Their heads are an enormous size. Their necks are thick and short, and they have a large hump between the shoulders; their legs are also thick and short and are covered with very long wool. Over the shoulders and round the neck and the horns they have long black hair which falls over their eyes and gives them a terrible appearance. The body, especially in the front, is much larger than that of our oxen, but this great bulk does not prevent them from running very quickly, so that none of the Indians can keep pace with them, and the oxen often kill those by whom they have been wounded.

Animals of many other kinds are found in these vast plains of Louisiana, stags, roebucks, beavers and otters are common there. In the season, herds of two hundred and even four hundred wild oxen are seen, and there are bustards, swans, turtle-doves, turkeys, parrots, partridges and many other birds in very large numbers. The rivers abound in fish, and the land is extremely (p. 504) fertile. There are boundless prairies, interspersed with forests of lofty trees, among which are timber trees of all kinds, including excellent oaks, wide-spreading like those of France, very different from those in Canada. The bulk and the height of the trees is amazing, and we should obtain from them the finest pieces of timber in the world for building ships. Several kinds of fruit trees are also found in the forests, and wild vines which produce bunches of grapes nearly eighteen inches long which ripen fully, from which very good wine has been made. There are also wide stretches of country covered with very good hemp, which grows wild there, from six to seven feet high. Lastly, from the experiments which the Sieur de La Salle made among the Miamis, on the return from his second Journey, we are convinced that the land is capable of growing all kinds of fruits, herbs and grains and much heavier crops than the best lands in Europe. The air there is very mild and very healthy. The country is watered by innumerable lakes, rivers and brooks, most of them navigable. One is hardly troubled at all by mosquitos or other noxious creatures. There are deposits of coal, slate and iron; and the pieces of pure copper which are found in various places lead us to conclude that there are mines of copper, and perhaps of other metals and minerals, which will be discovered some day; for already a spring of salty alum and sulphur has been found in the Iroquois country.

The Sieur de La Salle continued his journey by the River of the Illinois during the remainder of the month of December, and eventually, after he had proceeded 120 or 130 leagues from the Lake of the Illinois, and had killed two oxen and many turkeys (p. 505) along the river of the same name, he arrived at the village of the Illinois on the first of January in the year 1680.

This village is situated at 40 degrees latitude in a slightly marshy plain, on the right bank of the river, which is as wide there as the Seine at Paris, and is intersected by some very pretty islands. It contains 460 huts, built like long-shaped arbours, and roofed with double mats of flat reeds, so well sewn together that neither the wind, nor the snow nor the rain ever penetrates them. Each hut holds four or five households and each household one or two families who all live together on good terms.

As the Sieur de La Salle had anticipated, he found the village deserted. All the Indians had gone to pass the winter hunting, in various places, according to their custom; but their absence put him in a great difficulty. He was in want of provisions, and did not dare to take the Indian corn, which the Illinois conceal underground in pits, in order to preserve it and use it on their return from hunting for sowing and to live on until the harvest. This store is of the utmost value to them, and one could not annoy them more than by touching it in their absence. Nevertheless, as it was not likely that he would run the risk of going on down the river without provisions, and as the fire which had been started in the plains had driven away all the animals, he decided to take 30 minots of Indian corn, hoping that he might be able by some means to pacify the Illinois.

He re-embarked the same day with these new supplies and for four days he went down the same river, which ran to the south by west. Towards the close of the fourth day, when crossing a small (p. 506) lake which the river forms, they observed smoke which showed that the Indians were encamped near. And indeed, on the fifth day, about nine o'clock in the morning, they saw a number of pirogues(see fn. 1) on both sides of the river and about eighty huts full of Indians who did not see the canoes until they doubled a point, behind which the Illinois had encamped, within half a gun-shot. The Frenchmen were in eight canoes, in a line, all with arms in their hands, letting the canoes be carried down by the stream.

The Sieur de La Salle caused a shout to be raised first, according to the custom of those tribes, as if to ask whether they desired peace or war, for it was very important to show determination at the outset. At first the old men, the women and the children took to flight through the woods with which the river is fringed; the warriors hastened to take arms, but in such confusion that, before they had recovered themselves, the canoes had reached the shore. The Sieur de La Salle was the first to leap ashore; and he could have destroyed the Indians in the state of confusion in which they were; but as that was not his intention, he made his men halt, so as to give the Illinois time to recover themselves. One of their chiefs, who was on the other side of the river, and had observed that the Sieur de La Salle had prevented anyone from firing at seven or eight Indians who could easily have been killed, began to speak to them, to stop the young men who were getting ready (p. 507) to shoot arrows across the river. Those who were encamped on the side where the Frenchmen had landed, and had at first fled, recovered themselves and sent two of their chief men to offer the calumet from the top of a small hill; a little while after, those who were on the other side did the same; and then the Sieur de La Salle made known to them that he consented to peace. Their joy was then as great as their fear had been; and the fear of some of them had been such that they were three days in returning from the places where they had gone to hide themselves.

At the conclusion of the rejoicings, dances and feasts in which the remainder of the day was passed, the Sieur da La Salle called together the head men of the villages on both sides of the river. He first made them a present of some tobacco and a few hatchets and then he told them that he had summoned them to speak of a matter which he wished to explain to them before talking to them about anything else: that he knew how necessary to them the corn was which they kept in reserve; but, nevertheless his need of provisions when he arrived at their village, and the fact that it was impossible to find any animals in the country, had compelled him to take a certain quantity of Indian corn, which he had in his canoes, and that it had not yet been touched; that if they were willing to leave it with him he would give them hatchets and the other things they were in want of in exchange and if they could not do without it, they were at liberty to take it back; but that, if they were not able to supply him with the provisions necessary for his subsistence and that of his men, he would go to their neighbours the Osages, who would furnish him with provisions on payment, and that, in return, (p. 508) he would leave with them the blacksmith whom he had brought, to mend their hatchets and other tools.

The Sieur de La Salle spoke to them in this manner because he knew that the Illinois would be sure to be jealous of the advantages which the Frenchmen could confer upon their neighbours, and especially of the advantages they would obtain from the smith, of which they themselves were in very great need. They accordingly accepted with many manifestations of delight what he offered them in payment for the Indian corn; they gave him some more, and urgently requested him to settle among them. He replied that he would willingly do so, but that, as the Iroquois were subjects of the King and therefore his brothers, he could not make war upon them; that he therefore advised them to make peace with the Iroquois, and that he would help them to do so; and if, in spite of his remonstrances, that proud tribe should come and attack them, he would defend them, if they would permit him to build a fort in which he could cope with the Iroquois with the few Frenchmen he had; and that he would even supply them with arms and ammunition on condition that they would use them only to repulse their enemies and would not employ them against the tribes which lived under his Majesty's protection.

He added that he also intended to bring more Frenchmen, who would be a protection to them against the attacks of all their enemies and would supply them with all that they needed; that the only thing which prevented him from doing so was the length and difficulty of the way; and that, in order to remove that obstacle, he had determined to have a large boat built for going down to the sea and bringing them goods of all kinds by that way, which was shorter and easier. But, as that undertaking involved great expense, he first wished to learn whether their (p. 509) river was navigable all the way to the sea, and whether other Europeans lived near its mouth.

They replied that they agreed to all his proposals and that they would assist him in every way that they could. Then they gave a description of the great river Colbert of Mississippi, they told him wonderful things of its breadth and its beauty, and assured him that it was easy to navigate and unobstructed throughout, and that there were no Europeans near its mouth. But the fact which did most to persuade the Sieur de La Salle that this river was navigable was that they named four tribes to him of whom mention is made in the Account of the Journey of Ferdinand Soto in Florida, namely those of Tula, Casquia, Cicaca and Aminoia. They added that slaves whom they had made in war in the direction of the sea said that they had seen ships out at sea which fired shots with a noise like thunder; but that they had not settled on the coast, for, if they had been there, they would certainly have gone to trade with them, for the sea was only twenty-days' journey in their pirogues.

The day passed in this way with mutual satisfaction; but matters did not long remain in that state. The next day came one of the chiefs of the Miamis, named Monto, accompanied by five or six others laden with pots, hatchets and knives, to prepare the minds of the Illinois by these presents to believe what he had to say to them. He called together the old men secretly and assured them that the Sieur de La Salle intended to go and join their enemies who dwelt on the banks of the Great River; that he would supply them with arms and ammunition, and after he had gathered them together they would join with the (p. 510) Iroquois and would hem them in on all sides in order to exterminate them absolutely; that he was a friend of the Iroquois, and had a fort in the midst of their country, and that he would supply them with guns and powder, and that the only means of avoiding their destruction was for them to prevent his journey or to delay him, for some of his men would very soon desert him; and that they would not believe anything that he said to them.

After saying many similar things, he went back by night, as secretly as he had come, for fear lest the Sieur de La Salle should discover all these mysterious proceedings. But one of the Illinois chiefs, called Omoahoha, whom he had gained over on his arrival by a present of two hatchets and a few knives came to him the next morning and secretly informed him of all that had taken place. The Sieur de La Salle thanked him; and in order to induce him to continue to inform him of everything, he made him another present of powder and bullets. The Sieur de La Salle and all his men readily concluded that this Miami had been taught and despatched by French people, for Monso did not know him, and had never even been within 500 leagues of Fort Frontenac; yet he had spoken of his affairs with an much circumstantial detail as if he had passed his whole life in his company.

Nevertheless this affair made him the more uneasy because he knew that the Indians are by nature suspicious, and that already many things had been said to his men to prejudice their minds, in order to induce them to desert, as their comrades had already done at Missilimakinak.

After dinner on the same day Nicanapé, the brother of Chassagoac, the most important of the Indian chiefs, who was (p. 511) away at that time, invited the Sieur de La Salle and all his men to a feast; and when everyone was seated in the hut Nicanapé spoke and made a speech to the Sieur de La Salle which was very different from what all the old men had said to him on his arrival. He said that he had invited him, not so much to make a feast for him as to heal him of his disease of desiring to descend the Great River; . . . .

(p. 517)
At the same time the Sieur de La Salle proposed to seek out beforehand the route he would have to take to the River Mississippi and the course of that river above and below the junction of the Divine River or River of the Illinois Father Louis Henpin (sic) offered to make this journey in order to begin to make acquaintance with the people, among whom he thought of going to settle very soon, to preach the gospel. The Sieur de La Salle was reluctant to charge him with this business; but, seeing that he was determined to go, he consented. He gave him a calumet and a canoe with two men, one of whom, named Le Picard, is now in Paris and the other, named Michel Ako, understood the language of the Illinois and the Nadouessioux moderately well. He entrusted to the latter some goods intended for making presents which were worth 1000 or 1200 livres. They left fort de Crevecoeur in the evening of the 29th of February. On their way they met a party of Illinois who were returning to their village and wanted to induce then to return there with them; but Michel Ako, who is brave and prudent, encouraged by the example of Father Louis, was determined to proceed, and they persuaded Picard, who was disposed to give way to the Indians.

The River Divine, on which they were rowing, is smooth and deep, and as broad as the Seine at Paris, and in two or three places it spreads out to a width of one or two leagues. It is bordered by two heights, the sides of which are covered with fine, tall trees. These hills retreat to a distance of half a league from one another at times, leaving between them and the river a marshy stretch of land which is often flooded, but nevertheless grows some very big trees. Going up the heights,
___________________

1 We have not attempted to follow, in the "Description de la Louisiane" the alterations which Father Hennepin made in order to hide his plagiarisms, or to direct attention to himself with characteristic vanity; but it is amusing to note how he changes the word 'pirogue' here: "They saw" (he writes) "a number of parrots ("perroquets") on both sides of the river." Elsewhere Hennepin inserted the word "tortues" (tortoises) instead of "tourtres" (turtle-doves) (p. 465)

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