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 to Mons. de La Barre
(The Portage of Checagou, June 4, 1683)
Ministere des Colonies, Amerique du Nord, Enterprises de
Cavelier de la Salle, Lacs et Misissipi 1695-1736, fol. 43
and in Margry, microfilm, vol. II, pp. 316-328.
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Two of my settlers dwelling at this fort, where they built a house of timber last winter, are now going to fetch the ammunition necessary for us to defend ourselves against two powerful enemies, the Iroquois and the Panimaha. I hope you will be good enough to grant them permission to come up again with their load, and also such men as Cauchois may find disposed to accompany them.
We have received news of the march of the Iroquois, who killed a Miamy twelve days ago by stabbing him when the Miamys were already on their way, moving their camping grounds in search of a refuge which they hope to find near to the French. They had fled previous to this, last autumn, alarmed by what Alemioua told them,- an Indian belonging to a tribe allied to theirs,- on his return from Montreal where he had gone down to trade, who frightened them so much that they left behind all their corn so that they might not be hampered by it in their retreat. During the winter, on hearing the news of my return, they took courage again and came back to their villages; and the Illinois, on their example, came near fort Saint Louis, which I have built on their river. This murder, occurring towards the end of the snows, frightened them again, for they had lost ten whole households, destroyed by the Iroquois. Nevertheless as I feared that their flight might be followed by that of the Illinois, Chaouenon, and Cisca, whom I had brought together near here with considerable difficulty, and might prevent the (page 318) Emisourites and Matchinkoa from coming to join us, which they would do in a short time if they did not turn back through fear. I came to the Miamy with the intention of putting courage in to them, and I pressed them to hold out until I should receive the news I was expecting by the men last autumn, upon which I should have made arrangements for coming down myself to give you an account of all that was passing. But they were very late, and I thought that some obstacle must have placed in the way of their journey; and I foresaw, what has now occurred, that some attack would be made by the Iroquois upon the Miamy, who would be sure to believe that I had deceived them in order to cause their destruction as almost all Hurons, Kiskakons and Frenchmen up here tell all these tribes with impunity. I therefore called together the old men and told them that, as I had not received your orders, I was unable to give them any assurance, since I had not the management of affairs, which rested with you alone; that I should be sorry, since they were trusting to my presence, if the Iroquois should take advantage of that trust and massacre them before my eyes when I had no means of avenging them; that they must therefore make up their minds, themselves; so that they might not lay upon me the blame for what happened, if it should be unfavourable; that, if they considered they would be safer near my fort, by joining with the Islinois and the others who were settled there, they would be received there as brothers, and we would defend them at the risk of our own lives; that I was going to ask you for assistance for them and for us; and that in case I received news of the approach of the Iroquois, I would hasten to come and rejoin them. Their decision was soon made, and their (page 319) resolve to retire was carried into effect the next day. I went down the river and was stopped for four days at its out fall by bad weather. On the fourth day, in the evening, some Kiskakons who had come to trade with the Miamy and had followed them on their march, brought us news that the latter tribe had discovered a broad path over which an Iroquois army had certainly passed; that they had apparently made a fort near there; and that four of them, three of whom had arrows only and the other a gun, had mortally wounded a Miamy who has hunting roebucks away from the camp; that his dog had put the Iroquois in fear of being discovered, because of his extraordinary barking, and they retired on the main body; that the Miamy braves followed up the trails of their enemies and traced them as far as this wide beaten path, on meeting which they went back because their numbers were not sufficient for attacking that army. They were, in fact, divided into three bands: the Ouiatenon were the nearest to the Iroquois; the Peipikokia occupied the middle place, with a party of Tohatchaking; the rest, with a few Kilatika were a long way off, keeping along the shore of the Lake of the Islinois in their retreat. This occurrence caused them all to join the last named party and pursue one and the same route; for they preferred to take the risk of provisions running short as a result of this junction, rather than that of becoming the food of the Iroquois by marching separately.
You may judge from that, Sir, of the excellence of this country, when eight or nine hundred families, marching without any provisions, find their food everywhere, even in the neighborhood of several other villages just as populous, which take as little care as the Miamys. This news made me change my intention (page 320) of going to Missilimakinac and thence to Montreal, so that I might not fail in the promise I had given, on leaving the fort, to all the Indians living there. The Illinois made known to me that my departure made them uneasy, because the Frenchmen trading at the Baye des Puants had told some of their men who were there last autumn that I was going to build a fort in their country, but that, if they came near it, I should not fail to abandon them to the Iroquois. You see, Sir, how important this sort of talk is; I hope to prove to you who are the originators of it, and that you will then be good enough to give me justice against them. I replied that, if any young man had had so little sense as to talk this noncense to them, they ought not to believe it; that they were certainly no friends of mine, and therefore they could not know my plans; that perhaps the desire to get their beaver skins and to attract them to the Bay made them speak without thinking; and that, in order to show them how untrue this foolish talk was,- although I had most important business at Montreal,- I would retrace my steps and give up my journey if I heard the slightest news of the approach of the Iroquois; that, on my return, they might choose, either to await them steadfastly and fight them with me, or leave the contest to me alone and retire to a place of safety. They were not contented with that, but pledged me by a present, which I dared not refuse for fear of increasing their suspicions, not to go beyond Missilimakinac. If I were now to fail to go back, and during my absence the Iroquois gain any victories, they would be certain to believe that I was plotting to destroy them, and would perhaps vent their (page 321) fury upon the Frenchmen I have left in the fort; moreover, that would entirely ruin me in the estimation of all the other Indians, by whom I should become as strongly suspected as I shall be trusted if, as I hope, the Iroquois are repulsed if they venture to attack my fort or those who live around it. . . . .
(page 323). . . .
We have only twenty Frenchmen left to resist the Iroquois and the Panimaha, whom the Illinois are expecting this summer. Some are required for cultivating the land, others for hunting, others for the defence of the fort. Consider, Sir, if you please, whether it is possible for me to reduce the number. We have not a hundred livres of powder left, and a proportionate number of bullets. Yet if it comes to a fight, we shall have to share them with the Illinois. . . .
The eagerness which I have observed until now in certain persons, to induce me to proceed against the Pouteatami as if they had plundered and burned the barque which was lost on (page 234) this lake, always made me think there was some mystery concealed under it. I saw no likelihood that Indians could have destroyed the vessel without any remains of it being found anywhere, or anything which had formed part of its cargo being seen in their possession. . . .
A young Indian of a very distant tribe, aged fourteen or fifteen years, was given to me last year on my return from my exploration by the village of Matchinkoa. He had been captured by the Panimaha, then by the Osages who gave him to the Emissourites, and they to the tribe from which I had him. He followed me about a hundred leagues, and then stole away at night at the instigation of a Panneassa woman who had also been presented to me. Some of my men who had gone back to hunt, forty leagues from there, found him and brought him back. He now speaks French well enough to make himself understood easily. He told us several times that he had seen two Frenchmen, three years ago, prisoners among his tribe; and he described them to us in such a manner that I could not doubt that one of them was my pilot. He said they had been captured on the River Mississippi, which we call Colbert, when going up towards the Nadoessiou with four others in two birchbark canoes laden with (page 325) goods, in which they had, among other things, a few grenades of those which I had left in the barque; that the pilot exploded one of them in the presence of the savages who had captured him, and gave them to understand that he would burn the village of their enemies with similar ones if they preserved his life and his companions, and so had not been eaten like the rest; that he did not yet understand the language of those with whom he is, when my little Indian saw him. They came in peace to the village of the Missourites where he then was, and there a similar grenade was exploded,- a thing which the little Indian could not have invented, any more than the portrait of the pilot. He also explained something to me which confirms his statement,- a thing which Father Zenobe will remember well, because it caused us much uneasiness last. Near to the village of Matchinkoa we saw a tree the bark of which had been stripped off three or four years before; and on it was painted a man with a . . . As we found near the tree a broad beaten track, with traces of men and fires quite recent, we thought that, although the tree had lost its bark some years ago, these signs had been newly made. . . . When I had obtained reliable news of M. de Tonty, I asked the Matchinkoa the explanation of that (page 326) drawing. They replied that the children had made it, without meaning. I believed that readily at the time. Afterwards I was of opinion that they had not dared to tell us the truth, lest we should suspect them of being the perpetrators of this murder which was committed by their allies. My little slave informed me of it, stating that the people who captured these Frenchmen had gone down in a wooden canoe to this path, which leads to their village, five days' march into the interior; and that they set up this token, according to the custom of all these tribes; that they had made a similar one towards Misconsin, at the place where they fell upon my men. . . .
(page 327) . . .
If I had had enough men to send and reconnoitre the army of the Iroquois and still keep some here to defend this place, I would have done so some days ago; but it would be running too great a risk, with my small force. . . .
From the Sieur de Tonty's letter I also learn that an army of the Illinois set out ten days ago against the Iroquois and the Matchakingoa.
As I was closing this letter, I received one from the Sieur (page 328) Tonty by two special messengers who tell me that, if I do not return immediately to the Illinois, they have determined to do as I told you they would, and retire to such a distance that the Iroquois cannot catch them. They captured one, out of forty they have been fighting with, and have had him burned, in accordance with their custom, giving him to the Chaouanons, who burned him. They had offered him to the Sieur Tonty, to put to death; but, as he did not think it right to ask for his pardon from people to whom the Iroquois give no quarter, with whom also an attempt is being made to make them believe that I am in league with the Iroquois, he answered the Illinois that we do not put our prisoners of war to death, and that, as this one belonged to them, they must dispose of them.
I offer you a thousand apologies, Sir, for the roughness of this paper; but I hope you will be so good as to permit some to be brought to us together with the supplies I am asking of you, as war is beginning here in earnest in two or three directions, although I have induced the Islinois to make peace with several of their neighbors.
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