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 Cavelier de La Salle
(Dated Fort Frontenac, the 22nd of August, 1682)
de La Salle in Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds Clairambault 1018, fol. 170
and in Margry, vol. 2, Microfilm 1, pp. 215-269.
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(page 218)...The second reason I had for making the journey
was the knowledge which I obtained, as I passed through Taonnontouan, of the
plot that was being hatched to begin the war between the Iroquois and the
Ilinois through the Miamis, whom they entangled in this intrigue either in
order to get me and my men massacred by one or other of these tribes, or else
to embroil me with the Iroquois when they met me on their way. This state of
affairs rendered my enterprise most difficult, and I should have been very glad
to forestall it, as I certainly should have done if my carpenters had not left
unfinished the vessel they had begun in the Ilinois country, which they could
have finished in a month, and more (page 219) than six months
before the Iroquois came, for they deserted in the month of March, and the
Iroquois did not overthrow the Illinois until the following autumn. You shall
judge from the faithful account of the matter which I am going to give you
whether I was right in wishing to hasten a thing which delay might have ruined.
This is what took place:
The Miamis had formerly been obliged to abandon their old district by their fear of the arms of the arms of the Ilinois, and had fled beyond the River Colbert to the West, mingling with the Otoutanta, the Paote, the Maskoutens and Nadouessioux who had received them perforce, four years ago. When they had made their peace with the Ilinois, some of the said Miamis, being invited by presents from the Jesuits living at the Bay des Puants, came and settled near them under the leadership of the Ouabibichagan which means the White Necklace, chief of the principal tribe, called Tohatchakigoa, which in their tongue means The Crane, and of a man named Schaouao, which means The Eagle. This tribe settled on the west of the Lake of the Ilinois on this side of the Great River, and for some years did a great trade with the Jesuit Fathers. The latter thought them all the more convenient for their plans, because they do not use canoes, and have therefore no means of going down to the settlements, so that they ran no risk of people learning their secrets. The difference between the Miamis' dialect and all the others was favourable to secrecy. As a reward, they represented this tribe as a consecrated people, in the manuscript Narratives which they send to France every year, since they do not dare to print them, and related tales of them as astonishing as these which are told of the first Christians. What the truth is, you shall see hereafter. (page 220) The other tribes making up the Miami people remained in their old settlements, either out of jealousy of their chiefs, or because of their hatred of the people who live at the Bay des Puants. Just in the Spring of 1679, immediately after the Jesuits in these parts learned the purport of my commission , which was known to others besides myself, the Jesuits formed the plan of making these Tohatchakigoa migrate; and, in order to induce them hem to do so, made presents to other tribes, such as the Aoiatenon, Maskoutens , Kalatekoe and Pepeoake, all of them distant tribes and enemies of the Ilinois, to get them to join the Miamis who, but for that reinforcement, would not have ventured nearer. This union having succeeded, through the common interests of the tribes which entered into it, it was necessary, in order to carry out their design of locating these tribes between the Ilinois and the Iroquois, right across our path, to assure them as regards the Iroquois, who are feared everywhere. For that purpose they arranged an embassy, made up of three Miamis, two Aoiatenons and one Maskouten, who came laden with presents for the Iroquois, under the protection of Father d' Allouez, a Jesuit , from whom they brought letters to the people living there. They arrived at Teonnountouan, the largest of the Iroquois villages, two days before me, and did not begin to speak of their business until the evening I arrived. This was awkward for the intrigue, and unfortunately I also went and stayed with the chief of the Tsonnountouans , called Tegaronhies , where the embassy were living. They were afraid that I should discover their secret during my stay at this village, called Ganochiaragon, where Father Garnier was (page 221) living, a young Jesuit who came to this country at the expiration of his novitiate, whose experience is limited to the language and customs of the Iroquois, with whom he has lived longer than anywhere else for he has been thirteen or fourteen years with them. It was easy for him to let the chiefs of his village understand that it was dangerous to do anything in my presence and to negotiate a matter so much against my interests, which were entirely opposed to those of the Iroquois; and in order to gain sufficient time to get the advice of Father Raffeix, who was living at Ganagaro, another village of the Tsonnountouans four or five leagues away towards the east by north, he wasted the following day in councils, for the Iroquois and all Indians are accustomed to hold debates on the smallest point, generally without settling anything. The delegates from the Miamis were not surprised at this delay; but that night they were extremely astonished at the information given to them by a woman who came from the village of Ganagaro, where Father Raffeix lived, and I have always believed that she was sent by him. The woman slept with one of them and told him privately that they were to be tomahawked the next day, and that their only course was to take flight, when they would have nothing to fear, because the Iroquois do not run as swiftly as they do, and could not catch them. This woman was a slave among the Tsonnountouans, who had captured her at one time in a war expedition which they had made to the country of the Miamis. She obtained credence in the minds of her fellow- countrymen all the more readily because all these tribes keep the law of nations very badly as regards envoys of this kind, whom they massacre on the slightest suspicion. (page 222) These men, in fact, took to flight that very hour, except one who had slept in another hut, where he was indulging in a concubinage which is tolerated even among Christians, because it is, as they say, oohonestatus nomine matrimonii. The rain, of which a prodigious quantity fell next day, compelled the fugitives to seek hiding places to obtain shelter from it. One of them, who had concealed himself in a hollow tree was discovered by his trail which guided some Tsonnountouans to the place, who had come upon them in pursuing a stag; they pulled him out and took him to the village, where he told them the reason why they had left. The old men looked everywhere for this woman; but the person who had sent her concealed her from them, until he came to Canoghiaragon himself , where he made the chiefs appreciate his reasons for having sent in that way. The matter rested there until I left, for the mistrust which had been instilled into the Iroquois with regard to me and my journey made all my inquiries fruitless and all the expedients I made use of in order to discover the secret. All that I learned was that it was a question of establishing a close union between the Iroquois and the Miamis for the overthrow of the Ilinois. The letters from Father d'Allouez, which I had seen in the hands of the Miamis, and the posture of affairs at the time, enabled me to guess the rest nearly enough. I well understood that the plot was prepared as much against me as against the Ilinois; and I determined to forestall the effect of it; and to make known my intentions and plans to the Iroquois who, I clearly saw, would be made to suspect me, as you may see from the letter I wrote (page 223) last year to M. Thouret, in which I told him what I said to them on that point; but their interest in the trade which the Miami delegates had offered to the Iroquois, who have a very great longing to obtain plenty of beaver-skin, and the opportunity of avenging the death of several of their men who had been slaughtered by the Ilinois, and the secret intrigues of the good friends of M. Andros, Governor of New Holland, who was to have a hand in it, rendered my remonstrances useless, and caused them to go on with what had been begun. Notwithstanding the abortive ending of the first conference, they managed to persuade the Iroquois, after my departure, in order to continue the matter, to depute four of the old men to take back to the Miamis the two who had been unable to run away, and to complete there what they had not been able to finish in my presence. Although this proposal was agreed upon, yet it did not have the success which they had anticipated. The Miamis took fright and fled, abandoning their conductors who, nevertheless, protected by the letters of the Jesuit Fathers, continued their journey; but the Maskoutens, the allies of the Miamis, either out of spite because this embassy was addressed to the latter only, or from distrust of the Iroquois, who had often deceived them, went to meet the delegates who were coming to their country, took them prisoners and treated them as slaves, and they would have put them to death if the Miamis had not opposed it. As the latter were not able to have all the presents which they had brought returned to them, which had been taken away from them when they were captured, the plan was put off until the following year, and almost broken off by the dissension which the ill treatment of the delegates caused (page 224) shortly after, between the Miamis and the Maskoutens, who separated from their alies and retired to their old district. That took place between the month of July and the month of September 1679, and the information I obtained about it was the chief motive for my leaving, which, however, I could not publish here, where it would only have served to upset my men, already shaken by various devices. However I gave a short account of it last year to the Recollet Father Melithon, who was then going to France, from which it may be seen that my conjectures were well founded, on comparing them with what followed, which you will allow me to leave to the narrative of the continuation of my journey. . . .
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