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.
La Salle on the Illinois Country, 1680
La Salle, Robert Sieur de In: (Pease, T. C., and Raymond C. Werner,
French Series, vol. I, 1934, pp. 3-16) [A. N., C., C13C3:23-26-
D. N. S.; printed in Pierre Margry, Decouvertes et
Etablissements de Francais, 2:93-102].
(page 6) It is important that this exploration be carried out because the river on which the Chickasaw live, and which probably is the (page 7) Sakakoüa (footnote, Franquelin's map of 1708 would indicate that this is the Yazoo.), has its source near Carolina, where the English are, 300 leagues to the east of the river Colbert in French Florida near Apalachee; whence the English would be able to come by ship to the Illinois, to the Miami, and close to the Baye des Puans (footnote, Green Bay, Wisconsin) and the country of the Sioux, and secure thereby a great portion of our trade.
Father d'Allouez has retired to a village composed partly of Miami and partly of Mascoutin and Wea who have abandoned their old village and most of their kinsmen in order to make an alliance with the Iroquois and along with them carry on war against the Illinois. For that reason they sent five men and a woman last summer as an embassy with a letter from Father d'Allouez. The purpose of their embassy was to urge the Iroquois to join them in making war on the Illinois. This matter had been under negotiation for twenty-four days when I arrived at the Sanchioragon village of the Seneca, but as it was known that I was at Kanagaro, where Father Raffeiz was, a woman who had (page 12) once upon a time been captured by the Miami came from this village to tell the ambassadors their heads would be broken, and they had better flee, fearing perhaps that by my being there I might learn the object of this embassy.
It is nevertheless true that the Iroquois had no desire to harm them for, although their flight was bound to raise suspicions against them, they were well received after they had been ensnared but they had no desire to talk so long as I was present.
Having since met in their own country these same ambassadors, one of whom spoke Huron, I became aware of things which I wish to believe were the invention of Indian malixiousness. However, when the news that I had arrived in the Illinois had been carried to the village where Father d'Allouez is, a man called Monceau, one of the chiefs, who carried four large copper kettles, a dozen hatchets, and twenty knives secretly to the Illinois, was sent to say that I was a brother to the Iroquois, that I was breathing his breath, that I ate the serpents of his country, that they had given me a net to hem them in from one side which the (page 13) Iroquois came from the other, that I was abhorred by all the blackrobes, who, regarding me as an Iroquois, had given me up, that I previously had wished to kill the Miami, that I had taken two prisoners, and that I possessed a drug to be used in poisoning them all.
It was easy for me to disprove all these lies, and this poor Monceau was almost obliged to stay there as a hostage, he having been told it was he that had the Iroquois serpent under his tongue, that his comrades who had been sent there as ambassadors had brought some and had not been able to smoke the same calumet without inhaling the breath of the Iroquois. If I had not intervened, the Illinois would have killed this Monceau.
Here is another matter wherein I suspect a trap and which is apparently a sequel of the desire which they have that Monseigneur the Comte de Frontenac make war on the Iroquois if it becomes apparent that he has abandoned the Illinois. The vehemence with which the Iroquois wished him to make war is entirely abated although, in fact, there are some who have taken (page 14) the warpath, a fact which is concealed from the Ottawa in order that they may continue to go to trade, and that the Iroquois, taking them for the Illinois, may kill them in order to embroil them. Moreover, negotiations are being carried on that the greater part of the Miami, who are our allies, will come to live with the Illinois. Thus the Iroquois could not fall upon one without the other; and thus Monseigneur the comte might be compelled either to abandon his allies or make war on the Iroquois in order to prevent them from warring on the Illinois. Perhaps this is rash judgment, but nevertheless the small number of Miami, among whom Father d'Allouez has retired, seeing that the Iroquois did not begin the war soon enough against the Illinois, have killed some of the Iroquois this winter in order to precipitate it, and have cut off the fingers of a Seneca, whom they then sent back to his own country to say that the Miami joined with the Illinois to kill Iroquois. Perhaps the knowledge which Father d'Allouez must have had of the evil intentions of these savages and of their bad faith is what is obliging him to leave them as he was to do this spring.
However, I am certain of stopping this war, especially if Monseigneur the comte will come this year to lament for the deaths of the Onondaga, as I have prevented the Illinois from going in search of the Iroquois and obtained of them the return of some slaves that they have; the Iroquois learning this of me appeared perfectly satisfied.
It is not to be wondered at that the Iroquois speak of waging war against our allies inasmuch as they receive affronts from them every year. I have seen, among the Potawatomi and Miami at Michillimackinac, the spoils and scalps of numerous Iroquois whom the Indians from this region had treacherously killed while hunting last spring and earlier; which is not unknown to the Iroquois, our allies having the imprudence of celebrating this feat in their presence while they were trading among them, as I have seen Potawatomi at Michillimackinac who, dancing with the calumet, boasted of this treachery, holding up the scalps at arm's length in the sight of three Mohawk who were there to trade.
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