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.
Letter from La Salle
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Letter [1679 to Sept. 29, 1680]
In: English Translation of Margry, vol.
2, pp. 26-94.
(From same letter as "La Salle to ?" but sometimes different
pages/parts of pages)
pp. 31, 32, 33, 57, 58, 59
page 31 do the same with the Islinois. On arriving at their
village I found myself compelled to do what might have had a bad effect upon
their minds; but it was necessary to waive all other considerations, as we were
unable to find provisions in any other way. It was the first of January, and
the village was empty as usual, all the Indians having gone away to the places
where they generally pass the winter hunting; but they leave there, in hiding
places which they make in the ground, all the Indian corn which they intend to
use for sowing in the spring and for their food during the summer when meat
usually fails them by turning bad, because it is not their custom to salt it,
and their large numbers when they are gathered together frighten the wild
animals, which fly to places which are uninhabited. This store is precious to
them, for it is their only resource; and one cannot offend them more than by
touching it in their absence. However, winter had begun and we were at the end
of our provisions, for it is impossible to carry sufficient in the canoes to
last for so long a time as had elapsed since we had left the barque. There was
no likelihood of our living by hunting; the fire which had spread through all
the grass of these plains, a short time before, had driven away the animals. We
did not know where we might meet with these tribes; and as they are in large
parties, we feared we might be burdensome to them, and might not obtain any
help from them. Moreover, I feared that, as we continued down the river, the
masses of ice might stop us in some place where we should be unable to get
food. I did not like the idea of undertaking the building of a vessel so far up
the river without being sure that at it was (page
32)
navigable lower down; and I was equally unwilling to take the quantity of corn
which would have been necessary for thirty men through the winter, because the
large number of Indians (enemies of the Illinois), who had passed that way
before us, had taken some. Finally I decided to take about thirty minots, and
to go down the river as far as the ice would permit; and, when the Spring came,
to have the wood of the vessel which had been begun higher up the river,
brought down by means of the large pirogues which the Islinois use, as I feared
that I should not find any wood lower down, according to what I had been told,
which we found to be entirely false.
We went on for four days towards the south-southwest along this river; and on the 5th of January we arrived at a place which the Indians call Pimiteoni in their language. The day before, we had seen smoke when crossing a small lake; and on this day at about nine o'clock in the morning, we found a number of pirogues on both sides of the river, and saw a quantity of smoke issuing from eighty huts full of Indians; we saw them first, and they did not see us until after we had rounded the headland behind which they were encamped within half a gunshot distance. We were in eight canoes, in a line, letting ourselves be carried along by the current of the river, and holding our arms in our hands. I made my men shout first, by way of asking whether they wished for peace, or to fight. The children, the women and the old men at once fled through the woods with which the bank of the stream is fringed at that place. The young men, (page 33) and those who were fit to bear arms, seized them in such confusion that they were unable to recover themselves before we had landed. I jumped on to the bank first; and when I saw the state of confusion in which these savages were, and that my men were disposed to fall upon them, I called a halt in order to prevent the massacre which would have followed, which would have formed an insuperable obstacle to carrying out my project. A chief, who was on the other side, observing that I had prevented my men from firing upon seven or eight of his, whom we could easily have killed, began to speak to them to stop those who were beginning to shoot from the other bank of the river, which was too broad for the range of their bows. Those encamped on the side on which I disembarked, at first took to flight; but when they recovered themselves, they sent two of their most important men to offer us the calumet; they held it out to us from the top of a hill when we were advancing towards those who were on the other side of the stream, who did the same; and thereupon we also made signs to them that we accepted peace. Their joy was now as great as their fear had been; and that had been so great that it took many of them three days to return from the places to which they had fled to hide themselves. Finally, after the mutual rejoicings and feasts, which occupied the remainder of the day, I summoned the head men of the families contained in these two little villages; and after I had made them a present of tobacco and a few hatchets, I told them that I had called them together to discuss a matter which I wished to explain to them before speaking of anything else; that I knew how necessary and how valuable to them was the Indian corn
page 57
who had came from various places on the lakes, seen any sign of a wreck; and
some Indians said that one night they had heard three shots fired by the cannon
in the barque, the sound being carried by a strong south-west wind, which was
favorable for going past Missilimakinang but not for coming there to anchor.
These men also told me some of the troubles which have been raised for me at
Quebec in order to ruin my affairs, and the ill turn which my brother was the
first to do me on the advice of those who had told you that he intended doing
do, because they themselves meant to induce him to do it, in which they have
succeeded. I postpone telling you of it until I have finished the narrative of
my journey to Fort Frontenac.
The rain which lasted all the day, and the necessity for making a raft to cross the river (which is very broad), delayed us until noon on the 25th, when we resumed our march through the woods which were so tangled with thorns and briars that, in two days and a half, we tore all our clothes and were most of us unrecognizable, our faces being so covered with blood. On the 28th we found the woods finer and began to fare better, for we met with numbers of animals, which we found so constantly after that that we gave up carrying provisions with us and eat meat which we roasted on the spot where we killed the stag, bear or turkey. Those are the finest feasts on these expeditions, which until then we had missed, many times walking until nightfall without breaking our fast before we arrived at that place.
The Indians do not hunt there because it is situated between five or six tribes which are at war with one another, who, because page 58 they fear one another, dare not go to those parts without the greatest precaution; they never appear there except with the intention of surprising one another, and as secretly as possible. The sound of our guns and the carcasses of the animals we killed, very soon made the people of those tribes find our trails. Indeed, on the evening of the 28th, when we had lit a fire on the edge of a plain, we were surrounded by them, but the man who was on watch awoke us, and we placed ourselves each behind a tree with our guns. The Indians, who are called Ouapous, believed us to be Iroquois; and being convinced that there must be larger numbers of us, since we had not concealed ourselves, as they are accustomed to do when they go in small bands, they fled without shooting an arrow, and raised such an alarm that we were two days without meeting anyone. As we easily imagined the reason of their flight I left all the signs which an army of the Iroquis would have done, lighting many fires, and painting slaves and scalps on the trees in accordance with their custom, when they are taking any along with them; and afterwards, when we were in the midst of the plain, which was four or five leagues broad and so long that we could not see the end of it, we set fire to the dry grass with which it was covered, in order to hide from the Indians the way we had gone, and it was very soon all burnt up. Every night we made use of the same device, which succeeded well as long as the plains continued; but, on the 30th, we came into extensive fens which were flooded by the thaw, and had to cross them in mud or water up to our waists, and our tracks going deep into the mire revealed us to a band of Maskoutens who wanted to kill some Iroquis. They followed page 59 us across these marshes for the three days which we took to traverse them; but we made no fire at night, contenting ourselves with taking off our clothes, which were wet, and wrapping ourselves in our blankets on some dry knoll, where we passed the night. At last there came an unusually severe frost on the night of the second of April, and next day we were obliged to thaw our clothes before a fire in order to be able to use them, for they had become as stiff as sticks because we had taken them off all soaked. Our fire showed us to the Indians who had slept at the other end of the marsh, from which they ran with loud cries to about the middle, where there was a rather deep stream which they could not cross, because the ice which had formed in the night was not strong enough to bear them, and they had nothing to break it with. When we saw that, we went to within gunshot of them; and either they were frightened by our position of advantage and our firearms, or believed there were more of us than there were, or else recognizing that we were Frenchmen, they did not wish to attack us; for, telling us in Islinois that some of them understood that we were brothers, and that they had taken us for Iroquois, they went off in the direction they had come, and we continued our journey until the 4th, when two of my men fell ill and could walk no longer, and I went to look for some stream near which might fall into Lake Erie, where we wished to go, to make a canoe, so as to relieve those who were worn out with toil. I found a stream and had a sort of elm cut down which the Iroquois call Arondugalté, the bark of which can be stripped off at all times though with more difficulty at this season, when it must be continually
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