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 Discovery of the River Mississippi and the Adjacent Country
Hennepin, Father Louis, in: B. F. French,
Historical Collections of Louisiana,
Vol. I, pp. 195-214.
(page 208). . .We left the habitations of the Akansas, the 4th of April, and during sixty leagues was no savage. Our provisions being spent, we had nothing to live upon but the game we killed or the fish we could catch. On the 12th, [of April 1680] as my two men were boiling a buzzard, and myself refitting our canoe on the bank of the river, I perceived on a sudden, about two o'clock in the afternoon, no less than fifty canoes made of bark, manned with one hundred and twenty savages stark naked, coming down the river with an extraordinary swiftness, to surprise the Miamis and Illinois, their enemies.
We threw away the broth which was preparing, and getting aboard as fast as we could, made towards them, crying out in the Iroquois and Algonquin languages, "Comrades, we are men of wooden canoes;" for so they call those that sail in great vessels. This had no effect, for they understood not what we said; so that surrounding us immediately, they began to let fly their arrows at us, till the eldest amongst them perceiving that I had a calumet of peace in my hand, came up to us and prevented our being murdered by their warriors.
They presently jumped out of their canoes, some upon lands, other into the water; surrounding us on all sides with shrieks and outcries that were indeed terrifying. It was to no purpose to resist, being but three to so great a number. One of them snatched the pipe of peace out of my hand. We presented them with some small pieces of Martinico tobacco, and made signs to them with our oars upon the (page 209) sand, that the Miamis, their enemies, whom they were in search of, had passed the river, and were gone to join the Illinois.
Being then out of all hopes of surprising their enemies, three or four of the eldest of them laid their hands on my head, and began to weep bitterly, accompanying, their tears with such mournful accents as can hardly be expressed; while I, with a sorry handkerchief I had left, made shift to dry up their tears; however, to very little purpose; for refusing to smoke in our calumet, they thereby gave us to understand that their design was still to murder us; and one hundred of their leaders coming up to us, made us to understand by signs, that their warriors were resolved upon our death. This obliged me to apply myself to their chiefs, and presented them with six hatchets, fifteen knives and some pieces of tobacco; after which, bending my neck and pointing to a hatchet, I signified to them, by that submission, that we threw ourselves on their mercy.
The present had the good effect to soften some of them, who, according to their custom, gave us some beavers' flesh to eat, themselves putting the three first bits in our mouths, having first blown upon it, because it was hot; after this they set their platter before us, made of the bark of a tree, leaving us at liberty to feed after our own fashion. These civilities did not hinder us from passing the night away very uneasily, because in the evening, before they went to sleep, they had returned us our calumet of peace. The two canoemen resolved to sell their lives as dear as they could, and to defend themselves like men to the last, in case they should attack us. For my part I told them, I resolved to suffer myself to be slain without the least resistance, in imitation of our Savior. However, we watched all night by turns, that we might not be surprised in our sleep.
The next morning early, one of their captains who had been for killing us, came and demanded my pipe of peace; it being delivered him, he filled it with tobacco, and made the rest who had been for putting us to death to smoke in it; then he made signs that we must go along with them into their country, to which they were then returning. This proposal was very welcome to us, and we rowed in their company for nineteen days together, sometimes north, and sometime northeast, according to the best observations we could made by our compass; so that after these barbarians had forced us to follow them, we made more than two hundred and fifty leagues up the river Mississippi, and we were got about one hundred and fifty leagues up the same, above that of the Illinois, when we were (page 210) first taken by them. One of the nineteen days of our most tiresome voyage, a captain called Aquipaguetin, who afterwards adopted me for his son, had killed a large fat deer, to which he invited the chief captains of the warriors. After the repast, the savages, with their hair anointed with oil of bears, and stuck all over with red and white feathers, and their heads covered with the down of birds, began to dance with their hands upon their hips, and striking their feet with great force against the ground. During the dance, one of the sons of the master of the ceremonies made them all smoke in the pipe of war, himself shedding abundance of tears. The father in the meanwhile laying his hands on our heads, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, bathed himself in tears. As for us, as far as we could judge, all this grimace boded us no good; and indeed, we afterwards understood that he meant nothing less than our destruction by it. But finding the opposition he was like to meet from the other chiefs, who were of a contrary opinion, he was content to suffer us to re-embark, resolving, however, to make use of some other stratagem to get into his own hands, by little and little, the rest of our things; not daring to take them from us openly by force, for fear of the rest of his own nation; by which it plainly appears, that he was a crafty designing knave. His son was killed by the Miamis, and finding he could not revenge himself on that nation, he vented his passion upon us. Having thus travelled nineteen days in our canoe by water, we came within six leagues of the fall of St. Anthony, where they held an assembly to consult what they should do with us. At last they separated and gave us to three of their chiefs, instead of three of their sons which had been killed in the war; then they seized our canoe and took away all our equipage; our canoe they pulled to pieces; their own they hid among, the alders, so that though we might have gone conveniently enough quite up into their country by water, yet we were obliged by their conduct to travel no less than sixty leagues afoot.
Our ordinary marches were from break of day till ten at night; and when we met with any rivers, we swam them, themselves (who for the most part are of an extraordinary size) carrying our clothes and equipage on their heads. We never eat but once in twenty-four hours, and then nothing but a few scraps of meat dried in smoke, after their fashion, which they afforded us with abundance of regret.
I was so weak that I often lay down, resolving rather to die than follow these savages any farther, who travelled at a rate so extraordinary, as far surpasses the strength of any European. However, (page 211) to hasten us, they sometimes set fire to the dry grass in the meadows through we passed, so that our choice was, march or burn. When we had thus travelled sixty leagues afoot, and undergone all the fatigues of hunger, thirst, and cold, besides a thousand outrages daily done to our persons; as soon as we approached their habitations, which are situated in morasses inaccessible to their enemies, they thought it a proper time to divide the merchandize they had taken from us. Here they were like to fall out and cut one another's throats about the roll of Martinico tobacco, which might still weigh about fifty pounds. Then arose a high dispute about the distribution they were to make of our persons. At last, Aquipaguetin, as head of the party, carried it; who turning towards me, presented me his calumet of peace to smoke in, receiving from me at the same time that which we had brought, and then adopted me for his son, in the room of him he had lost in the war.
Two other captains did the same by the two canoe-men. This separation was very grievous to us, though somewhat allayed by the satisfaction we had to find our lives were safe. Picard, being sensible of the uncertain condition his life was in among so barbarous a people, took me aside to confess him. I should have been overjoyed to have seen Ako so well disposed. Being thus parted, the savages led us away, each to his own village.
I came to Aquipaguetin's habitation in the month of May, 1680. The next day he showed me to six or seven of his wives, telling them that they were to esteem me as one of their sons, and ordered those about him to give me the title that was due to the rank which I was to hold amongst my new kindred.
I spent three months very ill in this place among the Issati and Nadovessians. My now father gave me nothing to eat but a few wild oats five or six timer a week, and the roes of dried fish. He sent me into a neighboring isle with his wives, children, and servants, where I digged, with a pickaxe and shovel I had recovered from those that robbed us. Here we planted tobacco, and some European pulse which I brought from thence, and were highly prized by Aquipaguetin.
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