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A discourse delivered before the Historical Society of Louisiana, January 13, 1836.Joutel's Historical Journal of Monsieur de La Salle's Last Voyage to Discover the River Mississippi.
JOUTEL'S HISTORICAL JOURNAL*
MONSIEUR DE LA SALLE'S
LAST VOYAGE
TO DISCOVER THE
RIVER MISSISSIPPI
¦lil
At the time when M. de la Salle was preparing for his last voyage into North America, I happened to be at Rouen, the place where he and I were both born, being returned from the army, where I had served sixteen or seventeen years.
The reputation gained by M. de la Salle, the greatness of his undertaking, the natural curiosity which all men are possessed with, and my acquaintance with his kindred, and with several of the inhabitants of that city, who were to bear him company; easily prevailed with me to make one of the number, and I was admitted as a volunteer.
Our rendezvous was appointed at Rochelle, where we were to embark. MM. Cavelier, the one brother, the other nephew to M. de la Salle, MM. Chedeville, Planteroze, Thibault, Ory, some others, and I, repaired thither in July, 1684.
M. de la Salle having provided all things necessary for his voyage, surmounted all the difficulties laid in his way by several ill-minded persons, and received his orders from M. Arnoult, the Intendant at Rochelle, pursuant to those he had received from the king, we sailed on the 24th of July, 1684, being twenty-four vessels, four of them for oar voyage, and the others for the islands and Canada.
The four vessels appointed for M. de la Salle's enterprise, had on
* This journal has been always esteemed one of the most authentic works on Louisiana. Joutel's description of the country of Texas, although written upwards of one hundred and fifty years ago, is still amons: the best we have.
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board about two hundred and eighty persons, including the crews ; of which number there were one hundred soldiers, with their officers ; one Talon, with his Canada family, about thirty volunteers, some young women, and the rest hired people and workmen of all sorts, requisite for making of a settlement.
The first of the four vessels was a man-of-war, called Le Joly, of about thirty-six or forty-guns, commanded by M. de Beaujeu, on which M. de la Salle, his brother the priest, two Recollet friars, MM. Dainmaville and Chedeville, priests, and I embarked. The next was a little frigate, carrying six guns, which the king had given to M. de la Salle, commanded by two masters ; a flyboat of about three hundred tons burden, belonging to the Sieur Massiot, merchant at Rochelle, commanded by the Sieur Aigron, and laden with all the effects M. de la Salle had thought necessary for his settlement, and a small ketch, on which M. de la Salle had embarked thirty tons of ammunition, and some commodities designed for St. Domingo.
All the fleet, being under the command of M. de Beaujeu, was ordered to keep together as far as Cape Finisterre, whence each was to follow his own course ; but this was prevented by an unexpected accident. We were come into 45° 23' of north latitude, and about 50 leagues from Rochelle, when the bowsprit of our ship, the Joly, on a sudden broke short, which obliged us to strike all our other sails, and cut all the rigging the broken bowsprit hung by.
Every man reflected on this accident according to his inclination. Some were of opinion it was a contrivance ; and it was debated in council, whether we should proceed to Portugal, or return to Rochelle or Rochefort ; but the latter resolution prevailed. The other ships designed for the islands and Canada, parted from us, and held on their course. We made back for the river of Rochefort, whither the other three vessels followed us, and a boat was sent in to acquaint the Intendant with this accident. The boat returned some hours after, towing along a bowsprit, which was soon set in its place, and after M. de la Salle had conferred with the Intendant, he left that place on the first of August, 1684.
We sailed again, steering W. and by S., and on the 8th of the same month weathered Cape Finisterre, which is in 43° of north latitude, without meeting anything remarkable. The 12th, we were in the latitude of Lisbon, or about 39° north. The 16th, we were in 36°, the latitude of the Straits, and on the 20th, discovered the island of Madeira, which is in 32°, and where M. de Beaujeu pro-
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posed to M. de la Salle to anchor, and take in water and some refreshments.
M. de la Salle was not of that mind, on account that we had been but twenty-one days from France, had sufficient store of water, ought to have taken aboard refreshments enough, and it would be a loss of eight or ten days to no purpose ; besides, that our enterprise required secresy, whereas the Spaniards might get some information, by means of the people of that island, which was not agreeably vto the King's intention.
This answer was not acceptable to M. de Beaujeu, or the other officers, nor even to the ship's crew, who muttered at it very much ; and it went so far, that a passenger called Paget, a Huguenot of Rochelle, had the insolence to talk to M. de la Salle in a very passionate and disrespectful manner, so that he was fain to make his complaint to M. de Beaujeu, and to ask of him whether he had given any encouragement to such a fellow to talk to him after that manner. M. Beaujeu made him no satisfaction. These misunderstandings, with some others which happened before, being no way advantageous to his majesty's service, laid the foundation of those tragical events which afterwards put an unhappy end to M. de la Salle's life and undertaking, and occasioned our ruin.
However, it was resolved not to come to an anchor at that island, whereupon M. de Beaujeu said, that since it was so, we should put in nowhere but at the island of St. Domingo. We held on our course, weathered the island of Madeira, and began to see those little flying fishes, which, to escape the dorados, or gilt-heads, that pursue them, leap out of the water, take a little flight of about a pistol shot, and then fall again into the sea, but very often into ships, as they are sailing by. That fish is about as big as a herring, and very good to eat.
On the 24th we came into the trade wind, which continually blows from east to west, and is therefore called by some authors ventus sub-solanus, because it follows the motion of the sun. The 28th, we were in 27° 44' of north latitude, and in 344° of longitude. The 30th, we had a storm, which continued violent for two days, but being right astern of us, we only lost sight of the ketch, for want of good steering, but she joined us again in a few days after.
The 6th of September, we were under the tropic of Cancer, in 23° 30' of north latitude, and 319° of longitude. There M. de la Salle's obstructing the ceremony the sailors call ducking, gave them occasion to mutter again, and rendered himself privately odious. So
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many have given an account of the nature of that folly, that it would be needless to repeat it here ; it may suffice to say, that there are three things to authorize it : 1. Custom ; 2. The oath administered to those who are ducked, which is to this effect, that they will not permit any to pass the tropics or the line, without obliging them to the same ceremony ; and 3, which is the most prevailing argument, the interest accruing to the sailors upon that occasion, by the refreshments, liquors, or money, given them by the passengers, to be excused from that ceremony.
M. de la Salle being informed that all things were preparing for that impertinent ceremony of ducking, and that a tub full of water was ready on the deck (the French duck in a great cask of water, the English in the sea, letting down the person at the yard-arm), sent word that he would not allow such as were under his command to be subject to that folly, which being told to M. de Beaujeu, he forbid putting it in execution, to the great dissatisfaction of the inferior officers and sailors, who expected a considerable sum of money and quantity of refreshments, or liquors, because there were many persons to duck, and all the blame was laid upon M. de la Salle.
On the 11th of September we were in the latitude of the island of St. Domingo, or Hispaniola, being 20° north, and the longitude of 320°. We steered our course west, but the wind flatting, the ensuing calm quite stopped our way. That same day M. Dainmaville, the priest, went aboard the bark La Belle, to administer the sacraments to a gunner, who died a few days after. M. de la Salle went to see him, and I bore him company.
The 21st, the ketch, which we had before lost sight of, joined us again ; and some complaints being made to M. de la Salle, by several private persons who were aboard the flyboat, he ordered me to go thither to accommodate those differences, which were occasioned only by some jealousies among them.
The 16th, we sailed by the island Sombrero, and the 18th had hard blowing weather, which made us apprehensive of a hurricane. The foul weather lasted two days, during which time we kept under a main course, and lost sight of the other vessels.
A council was called aboard our ship, the Joly, to consider whether we should lie by for the others, or hold on our course, and it was resolved that, considering our water began to fall short, and there were above five persons sick aboard, of which number M. de la Salle and the surgeon were, we should make all the sail we could, to reach the
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first port of the island Hispaniola, being that called Port de Paix, or Port Peace, which resolution was accordingly registered.
The 20th we discovered the first land of Hispaniola, being Cape Samana, lying in 19° of north latitude, and of longitude 308°. The 25th we should have put into Port de Paix, as had been concerted, and. it was not only the most convenient place for us to get refresh, ments, but also the residence of M. de Cussy, Governor of the island of Tortuga, who knew that M. de la Salle carried particular orders for him to furnish such necessaries as he stood in need of.
Notwithstanding these cogent reasons, M. de Beaujeu was positive to pass further on in the night, weathering the island of Tortuga, which is some leagues distant from Port de Paix and the coast of Hispaniola. He also passed Cape St. Nicolas, and the 26th of the said month we put into the bay of Jaguana, coasting the island of Guanabo, which is in the middle of that great bay or gulf, and in conclusion, on the 27th, we arrived at Petit Gouave, having spent 58 days on our passage from the port of Chef de Bois, near Rochelle.
This change of the place for our little squadron to put into, for which no reason could be given, proved very disadvantageous ; and it will hereafter appear, as I have before observed, that those misunderstandings among the officers insensibly drew on the causes from whence our misfortune proceeded.
As soon as we had dropped anchor, a piragua, or great sort of canoe, came out from the place, with twenty men, to know who we were, and hailed us. Being informed that we were French, they acquainted us that M. de Cussy was at Port de Paix, with the Marquis de St. Laurent, Lieutenant-General of the American Islands, and M. Begon, the Intendant, which very much troubled M. de la Salle, as having affairs of the utmost consequence to concert with them ; but there was no remedy, and he was obliged to bear it with patience.
The next day, being the 28th, we sang Te Deum, in thanksgiving for our prosperous passage. M. de la Salle being somewhat recovered of his indisposition, went ashore with several of the gentlemen of his retinue, to buy some refreshments for the sick, and to find means to send notice of his arrival to MM. de St. Laurent, De Cussy, and Begon, and signify to them how much he was concerned that we had not put into Port de Paix. He wrote particularly to M. de Cussy, to desire he would come to him, if possible, that he might be of assistance to him, and take the necessary measures for rendering his enterprise successful, that it might prove to the King's honor and service.
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In the meantime, the sick suffering very much aboard the ships by reason of the heat, and their being too close together, the soldiers were put ashore, on a little island, near Petit Gouaves, which is the usual burial-place of the people of the pretended reformed religion, where they had fresh provisions, and bread baked on purpose, distributed to them. As for the sick, I was ordered by M. de la Salle to provide a house for them, whither they were carried, with the surgeons, and supplied with all that was requisite for them.
Some days after, M. de la Salle fell dangerously ill ; most of his family were also sick. A violent fever, attended with lightheaded-ness, brought him almost to extremity. The posture of his affairs, want of money, and the weight of a mighty enterprise, without knowing whom to trust with the execution of it, made him still more sick in mind than he was in his body, and yet his patience and resolution surmounted all those difficulties. He pitched upon M. le Gros and me to act for him, caused some commodities he had aboard the ships to be sold, to raise money ; and through our care, and the excellent constitution of his body, he recovered health.
Whilst he was in that condition, two of our ships, which had been separated from us on the 18th of September, by the stormy winds, arrived at Petit Gouave on the 2d of October. The joy conceived on account of their arrival, was much allayed by the news they brought of the loss of the ketch, taken by two Spanish piraguas; and that loss was the more grievous, because that vessel was laden with provisions, ammunition, utensils, and proper tools for the settling of our new colonies; a misfortune which would not have happened, had M. de Beaujeu put into Port de Paix, and MM. de St. Laurent, De Cussy, and Begon, who arrived at the same time, to see M. de la Salle, did not spare to signify as much to him, and to complain of that miscarriage.
M. de la Salle being recovered, had several conferences with these gentlemen, relating to his voyage. A consult of pilots was called to resolve where we should touch before we came upon the coast of America, and it was resolved to steer directly for the western point of the Island of Cuba, or for Cape St. Antony, distant about 300 leagues from Hispaniola, there to expect the proper season, and a fair wind to enter the gulf or bay, which is but two hundred leagues over.
The next care was to lay in store of other provisions, in the room of those which were lost, and M. de la Salle was the more pressing for us to embark, because most of his men deserted, or were debauched by the inhabitants of the place ; and the vessel called L'Aimable,
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being the worst sailer of our little squadron, it was resolved that she should carry the light, and the others to follow it. M. de la Salle, M. Cavelier, his brother, the Fathers Zenobrius and Anastasius, both Recollets, M. Chedeville, and I, embarked on the said Aimable, and all sailed the 25th of November.
We met with some cairns and some violent winds, which, nevertheless, carried us in sight of the island of Cuba on the 30th of the same month, and it then bore from us N. W. There we altered our course and steered W. and by N. The 31st, the weather being somewhat close, we lost sight of that island, then stood W. N. W,, and the sky clearing up, made an observation at noon, and found we were in 19° 45' of north latitude ; by which we judged that the currents had carried us off to sea from the island of Cuba.
On the first of December we discovered the island of Cayman. The 2d we steered N. W. and by W. in order to come up with the island of Cuba, in the northern latitude of 20° 32'. The 3d we discovered the little island of Pines, lying close to Cuba. The 4th, we weathered a point of that island, and the wind growing scant, were forced to ply upon a bowline, and make several trips till the 5th, at night, when we anchored in a creek, in 15 fathom water, and continued there till the 8th.
During that short stay, M. de la Salle went ashore with several gentlemen of his retinue on the island of Pines, shot an alligator dead, and returning aboard, perceived he had lost two of his volunteers, who had wandered into the woods, and perhaps lost their way. We fired several musket shots to call them, which they did not hear, and I was ordered to expect them ashore, with 30 musqueteers to attend me. They returned the next morning with much trouble.
In the meantime our soldiers, who had good stomachs, boiled and eat the alligator M. de la Salle had killed. The flesh of it was white, and had a taste of musk, for which reason I could not eat it. One of our hunters killed a wild swine, which the inhabitants of those islands call maron. There are of them in the island of St. Domingo, or Hispaniola. They are of the breed of those the Spaniards left in the islands when they first discovered them, and run wild in the woods. I sent it to M. de la Salle, who presented the one-half to M. de Beaujeu.
That island is all over very thick wooded, the trees being of several sorts, and some of them bear a fruit resembling the acorn, but harder. There are abundance of parrots, larger than those at Petit Gouave, a great number of turtle doves and other birds, and a sort of créa-
it'
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tures resembling a rat, but as big as a cat, their hair reddish. Our men killed many of them and fed heartily on them, as they did on a good quantity of fish, wherewith that coast abounds.
We embarked again as soon as the two men who had strayed were returned, and on the 8th, being the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, sailed in the morning, after having heard mass, and the wind shifting, were forced to steer several courses. The 9th we discovered Cape Corrientes, of the island of Cuba, where we were first becalmed, and then followed a stormy wind, which carried us away five leagues to the eastward. The 10th, we spent the night making several trips. The 11th, the wind coming about, we weathered Cape Corrientes, to make that of St. Antony ; and at length, after plying a considerable time, and sounding, we came to an anchor the 12th, upon good ground, in fifteen fathom water, in the creek formed by that cape, which is in 22° of north latitude, and 288° 35' of longitude.
We stayed there only till next day, being the 13th, when the wind seemed to be favorable to enter upon the Bay of Mexico. We made ready and sailed, steering N. W. and by N. and N. N. W. to weather the said cape,puB prosecute our voyage : but by the time we were five leagues from the place of our departure, we perceived the wind shifted upon us, and not knowing which way the currents sate, we stood E. and by N. and held that course till the 14th, when M. de Beaujeu, who was aboard the Joly, joined us again, and having conferred with M. de la Salle about the winds being contrary, proposed to him to return to Cape St. Antony, to which M. de la Salle consented, to avoid giving him any cause to complain, though there was no great occasion for so doing, and accordingly we went and anchored in the place from whence we came.
The next day, being the 15th, M. de la Salle sent some men ashore, to try whether we could fill some casks with water. They brought word, they had found some in the wood which was not much amiss, but that there was no conveniency for rolling of the casks ; for which reason rundlets were sent, and as much water brought in them as filled six or seven of our water casks.
The same men reported that they had found a glass bottle, and in it a little wine, or some other liquor, almost dead. This was all the provision we found in that place, by which it appears how much M. Tonty was misinformed, since in his book, page 242, he says, we found in that island several tuns of Spanish wine, good brandy, and
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Indian wheat, which the Spaniards had left or abandoned ; and it is a mere invention, without anything of truth.
The 16th, the weather being still calm, the men went ashore again for five or six more casks of water. I was to have gone with them, had not an indisposition, which I first felt in the Island of Pines, and afterwards turned to a tertian ague, prevented me. Therefore I can give no account of that island, any further than what I could see from the ships, which was abundance of that sort of palm-trees in French called lataniers, fit for nothing but making of brooms, or scarce any other use. That day we saw some smokes far within the island, and guessed they might be a signal of the number of our ships, or else made by some of the country hunters who had lost their way.
The next night preceding the 17th, the wind freshening from the N. W., and starting up all on a sudden, drove the vessel called La Belle upon her anchor, so that she came foul of the bowsprit of the Aimable, carrying away the spritsail-yard and the spritsail-top-sail-yard ; and had not they immediately veered out the cable of the Aimable, the vessel La Belle would have been in danger of perishing, but escaped with the loss of her mizen, which came by the board, and of about a hundred fathoms of cable and an anchor.
The 18th, the wind being fresh, we made ready, and sailed about ten in the morning, stand N. and N. and by W., and held our course till noon ; the point of Cape St. Anthony bearing east and west with us, and so continued steering north-west, till the 19th at noon, when we found ourselves in the latitude of 22° 58' north, and in 287° 54' longitude.
Finding the wind shifting from one side to another, we directed oui course several ways, but that which proved advantageous to us was the fair weather, and that was a great help, so that scarce a day passed without taking an observation.
The 20th we found the variation of the needle was 5° west, and we were in 26° 40' of north latitude, and 285° 16' longitude. The 23d it grew very cloudy, which threatened stormy weather, and we prepared to receive it, but came off only with the apprehension, the clouds dispersing several ways, and we continued till the 27th in and about 28° 14', and both by the latitude and estimation it was judged that we were not far from land.
The bark called La Belle was sent out to discover and keep before, sounding all the way ; and half an hour before sunset we saw the vessel La Belle put out her colors and lie by for us. Being
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come up with her, the master told us he had found an oozy bottom at thirty-two fathom water. At eight of the clock we sounded also, and found forty fathom, and at ten but twenty-five. About midnight, La Belle sounding again, found only seventeen, which being a demonstration of the nearness of the land, we lay by for the Joly, to know what M. de Beaujeu designed, who being come up, lay by with us.
The 27th, M. de Beaujeu sent the Chevalier d'Aire, his lieutenant, and two pilots to M. de la Salle, to conclude upon the course we were to steer, and it was agreed we should stand W. N. W. till we came into six fathom water ; that then we should run west, and when we had discovered the land, boats should be sent to view the country. Matters being thus agreed on, we sailed again, sounding all the way for the more security, and about ten were in ten or eleven fathoms water, the bottom fine greyish sand and oozy. At noon, were in 26° 37' of north latitude.
The 28th, being in eight or nine fathom water, we perceived the bark La Belle, which kept ahead of us, put out her colors, which was the signal of her having discovered something. A sailor was sent up to the main-top, who descried the land, to the N. E., not above six leagues' distance from us, which being told to M. de Beaujeu, he thought fit to come to an anchor.
There being no man among us who had any knowledge of that bay, where we had been told the currents were strong, and sate swiftly to the eastward, it made us suspect that we were fallen off", and that the land we saw must be the Bay of Apalache, which obliged us on the 29th to steer W. N. W., still keeping along the land, and it was agreed that the Joly should follow us in six fathom water.
The 30th, the Chevalier d'Aire and the second pilot of the Joly came aboard us to confer and adjust by our reckonings what place we might be in, and they all agreed, according to M. de la Salle's opinion, that the currents had set us to the eastward, for which reason we held on our course, as we had done the day before, to the N. W., keeping along the shore till the 1st of January, 1685, when we perceived that the currents forced us towards the land, which obliged us to come to an anchor in six fathom water.
We had not been there long before the bark La Belle made a signal that she had discovered land, which we descried at about four leagues' distance from us. Notice was given to M. de Beaujeu, who drew near to us, and it was resolved to send some person to discover and take an account of the land that appeared to us.
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Accordingly a boat was manned, and into it went M. de la Salle, the Chevalier d'Aire, and several others ; another boat was also put out, aboard which I went with ten or twelve of our gentlemen, to join M. de la Salle, and the bark La Belle was ordered to follow, always keeping along the shore ; to the end that if the wind should rise we might get aboard her, to lose no time.
Some of those who were in M. de la Salle's boat, and the foremost, went ashore and saw a spacious plain country of much pasture ground, but had not the leisure to make any particular discovery, because, the wind freshening, they were obliged to return to their boat, to come aboard again ; which was the reason why we did not go quite up to the shore, but returned with them to our ship. All that could be taken notice of was a great quantity of wood along the coast. We took an observation, and found 29° lCK of north latitude.
The 2d, there arose a fog, which made us lose sight of the Joly. The next day, the weather clearing up, we fired some cannon-shot, and the Joly answered ; and towards the evening we perceived her to the windward of us. We held on our course, making several trips till the 4th, in the evening, when, being in sight and within two leagues of the land, we came to an anchor to expect the Joly, for which we were in pain.
The 5th, we set sail, and held on our course, W. S. W., keeping along the shore till about six in the evening, when we stood away to the southward, and anchored at night in six fathom water. The 6th, we would have made ready to sail, but the pilot perceiving that the sea broke astern of us, and that there were some shoals, it was thought proper to continue at anchor till the wind changed, and we accordingly stayed there the 6th and all the 7th. The 8th, the wind veering about, we stood out a little to sea, to avoid those shoals, which are very dangerous, and anchored again a league from thence. Upon advice that the bark La Belle had discovered a small island, which appeared between the two points of a bay, M. de la Salle sent a man up to the round-top, from whence both the one and the other were plainly to be seen, and according to the sea charts we had with us, that was supposed to be the bay of the Holy Ghost.
The 9th, M. de la Salle sent to view those shoals. Those who went reported there was a sort of bank which runs along the coast ; that they had been in one fathom water, and discovered the little island before mentioned, and as for the sand-bank there is no such thing marked down in the charts. M. de la Salle having examined the
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reckonings, was confirmed in his opinion that we were in the Bay of Apalache, and caused us to continue the same course.
The 10th, he took an observation and found 29° 23' north latitude. The 11th, we were becalmed, and M. de la Salle resolved to go ashore, to endeavor to discover what he was looking for ; but as we were making ready, the pilot began to mutter because five or six of us were going with M. de la Salle, who too lightly altered his design, to avoid giving offence to brutish people. In that particular he committed an irretrievable error ; for it is the opinion of judicious men who, as well as I, saw the rest of that voyage, that the mouth of one of the branches of the Mississippi River, and the same whose latitude M. de la Salle had taken when he travelled to it from Canada, was not far from that place, and that we must of necessity be near the Bay of the Holy Ghost.
It was M. de la Salle's design to find that bay, and having found it, he had resolved to have set ashore about thirty men, who were to have followed the coast on the right and left, which would infallibly have discovered to him that fatal river, and have prevented many misfortunes ; but Heaven refused him that success, and even made him regardless of an affair of such consequence, since he was satisfied with sending thither the pilot, with one of the masters of the bark La Belle, who returned without having seen anything, because a fog happened to rise ; only the master of the bark said he believed there was a river opposite to those shoals, which was very likely ; and yet M. de la Salle took no notice of it, nor made any account of that report.
The 12th, the wind being come about, we weighed and directed our course S. W., to get further from the land. By an observation found 25° 50' north latitude, and the wind shifting, and the currents which set from the seaward driving us ashore, it was found convenient to anchor in four or five fathom water, where we spent all the night.
The 13th, we perceived our water began to fall short, and therefore it was requisite to go ashore to fill some casks. M. de la Salle proposed it to me to go and see it performed, which I accepted of, with six of our gentlemen who offered their service. We went into the boat, with our arms ; the boat belonging to the bark La Belle followed ours, with five or six men ; and we all made directly for the land.
We were very near the shore when we discovered a number of naked men marching along the banks, whom we supposed to be na-
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live savages. We drew within two musket shots of the land, and the shore being flat, the wind setting from the offing, and the sea running high, dropped our anchors, for fear of staving our boats.
When the savages perceived we had stopped, they made signs to us with skins, to go to them, showed us their bows, which they laid down upon the ground, and drew near to the edge of the shore ; but because we could not get ashore, and still they continued their signals, I put my handkerchief on the end of my firelock, after the manner of a flag, and made signs to them to come to us. They were some time considering of it, and at last some of them ran into the water up to their shoulders, till perceiving that the waves overwhelmed them, they went out again, fetched a large piece of timber, which they threw into the sea, placed themselves along both sides of it, holding fast to it with one arm and swimming with the other ; and in that manner they drew near to our boat.
Being in hopes that M. de la Salle might get some information from those savages, we made no difficulty of taking them into our boat, one after another, on each side, to the number of five, and then made signs to the rest to go to the other boat, which they did, and we carried them on board.
M. de la Salle was very well pleased to see them, imagining they might give him some account of the river he sought after ; but to no purpose, for he spoke to them in several of the languages of the savages, which he knew, and made many signs to them, but still they understood not what we meant, or if they did comprehend anything, they made signs that they knew nothing of what he asked ; so that having made them smoke and eat, we showed them our arms and the ship, and when they saw at one end of it some sheep, swine, hens, and turkeys, and the hide of a cow we had killed, they made signs that they had of all those sorts of creatures among them.
We gave them some knives and strings of beads, after which, they were dismissed, and the waves hindering us from coming too near the shore, they were obliged to leap into the water, after we had made fast about their necks, or to the tuft of hair they have on the top of the head, the knives and other small presents M. de la Salle had given them.
They went and joined the others who expected them, and were making signs to us to go to them ; but not being able to make the shore, we stood off again and returned to our ship. It is to be observed, that when we were carrying them back, they made some signs
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to us, by which we conceived they would signify to us that there was a" great river that way we were passed, and that it occasioned the shoals we had seen.
The wind changing the same day, we weighed anchor and stood to the southward, to get into the offing, till the 14th, in the morning, when we were becalmed. At noon we were in 28° 51' of north latitude. The wind freshened, and in the evening we held on our course, but only for a short time, because the wind setting us towards the shore, we were obliged to anchor again, whereupon M. de la Salle again resolved to send ashore, and the same persons embarked in the same boats to that effect.
We met with the same obstacles that had hindered us the day before, that is, the high sea, which would not permit us to come near the shore, and were obliged to drop anchor in fourteen feet water. The sight of abundance of goats and bullocks, differing in shape from ours, and running along the coast, heightened our earnestness to be ashore. We therefore sounded to see whether we might get to land by stripping, and found we were on a flat, which had four feet water, but that beyond it there was a deep channel. Whilst we were consulting what to do, a storm arose, which obliged M. de la Salle to fire a gun for us to return aboard, which we did against our inclination.
M. de la Salle was pleased with the report we made him, and by it several were encouraged to go ashore to hunt, that we might have some fresh meat. We spent all that night, till the next morning, in hopes of returning soon to that place ; but the wind changing, forced us to weigh and sail till the evening, when we dropped anchor in six fathom water. The land, which we never departed from very far, appeared to us very pleasant, and having lain there till the 16th, that morning we sailed W. S. W. We weathered a point, keeping a large offing, because of the sea's beating upon it, and stood to the southward. At noon we were in 28° 20/ of north latitude, and con-sequently found the latitude declined, by which we were sensible that the coast tended to the southward. At night we anchored in six fathom water.
The 17th, the wind continuing the same, we held on our course S. W., and having about ten discovered a sort of river, M. de la Salle caused ten of us to go into a boat to take a view of that coast, and see whether there was not some place to land. He ordered me, in case we found any convenient place, to give him notice either by fire or smoke.
We set out, and found the shoals obstructed our descent. One of
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our men went naked into the water to sound that sand bank, which lay between us and the land ; and having shown us a place where we might pass, we with much difficulty forced our boat into the channel, and six or seven of us landed, after ordering the boat to go up into that which had appeared to us to be a river, to see whether any fresh water could be found.
As soon as we were landed, I made a smoke to give notice to M. de la Salle, and then we advanced both ways, without straggling too far, that we might be ready to receive M. de la Salle, who was to come, as he did, soon after, but finding the surges run high, he returned, and our boat finding no fresh water, came back and anchored to wait for us.
We walked about every way, and found a dry soil, though it seemed to be overflowed at some times ; great lakes of salt water, little grass, the track of goats on the sand, and saw herds of them, but could not come near them ; however, we killed some ducks and bustards. In the evening, as we were returning, we missed an English seaman ; fired several shots to give him notice, searched all about, waited till after sunset, and at last, hearing no tidings of him, we went into the boat to return aboard.
I gave M. de la Salle an account of what we had seen, which would have pleased him had the river we discovered afforded fresh water. He was also uneasy for the lost man ; but about midnight we saw a fire ashore, in the place we came from, which we supposed to be made by our man, and the boat went for him as soon as it was day on the 18th.
After that we made several trips, still steering towards the S. W.. and then ensued a calm, which obliged us to come to an anchor. Want of water made us think of returning towards the river, where we had been the day before. M. de la Salle resolved to set a considerable number of men ashore, with sufficient ammunition, and to go with them himself, to discover and take cognizance of that country, and ordered me to follow him. Accordingly we sailed back, and came to an anchor in the same place.
All things necessary for that end being ordered on the 19th, part of the men were put into a boat ; but a very thick fog rising, and taking away the sight of land, the compass was made use of, and the fog dispersing as we drew near the land, we perceived a ship making directly towards us, and that it was the Joly, where M. de Beaujeu commanded, which rejoiced us ; but our satisfaction was not lasting, and it will appear by the sequel, that it were to have been wished that
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M. de Beaujeu had not joined us again, but that he had rather gone away for France, without ever seeing of us.
His arrival disconcerted the execution of our enterprise. M. de la Salle, who was already on his way, and those who were gone before him, returned aboard, and some hours after, M. de Beaujeu sent his Lieutenant, M. de Aire, attended by several persons, as well clergymen as others, among whom was the Sieur Gabaret, second pilot of the Joly.
M. de Aire complained grievously to M. de la Salle, in the name of M. de Beaujeu, for that, said he, we had left him designedly ; which was not true, for, as I have said, the Joly lay at anchor ahead of us when we were separated from her ; we fired a gun to give her notice of our departure, as had been concerted, and M. de Beaujeu answered it ; besides that, if we had intended to separate from him, we should not have always held our course in sight of land, as we had clone, and that had M. de Beaujeu held the same course, as had been agreed, he had not been separated from us.
There were afterwards several disputes between the Captains and the pilots, as well aboard M. de la Salle as aboard M. de Beaujeu, when those gentlemen returned, about settling exactly the place we were in, and the course we were to steer ; some positively affirming we were farther than we imagined, and that the currents had carried us away ; and the others, that we were near the Magdalen River.
The former of those notions prevailed, whence, upon reflection, M. de la Salle concluded that he must be past his river, which was but too true ; for that river emptying itself in the sea by two channels, it followed that one of the mouths fell about the shoals we had observed on tho 6th of the month ; and the rather because those shoals were very near the latitude that M. de la Salle had observed when he came by the way of Canada to discover the mouth of that river, as he told me several times.
This consideration prevailed with M. de la Salle to propose his design of returning towards those shoals. He gave his reasons for so doing, and exposed his doubts ; but his ill fortune made him not be regarded. Our passage had taken up more time than had been expected, by reason of the calms ; there was a considerable number of men aboard the Joly, and provisions grew short, insomuch that they said it would not hold out to return, if our departure were delayed. For this reason M. de Beaujeu demanded provisions of M. de la Salle ; but he asking enough for a long time, M. de la Salle answered he could only give him enough for a fortnight, which was
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more time than was requisite to reach the place he intended to return to ; and that besides he could not give him more provisions, without rummaging all the stores to the bottom of the hold, which would endanger his being cast away. Thus nothing was concluded, and M. de Beaujeu returned to his own ship.
In the meantime, want of water began to pinch us, and M. de la Scrile resolved to send to look for some about the next river. Accordingly he ordered the two boats that had been made ready the day before, to go off. He was aboard one of them himself, and directed me to follow him. M. de Beaujeu also commanded his boat to go for wood. By the way, we met the said Sieur de Boaujeu in his yawl returning from land, with the Sieur Minet, an engineer, who told us they had been in a sort of salt pool, two or three leagues from the place where the ships were at anchor ; we held on our way and landed.
One of our boats, which was gone ahead of us, had been a league and a half up the river, without finding any fresh water in its chan. nel ; but some men wandering about to the right and left, had met with divers rivulets of very good water, wherewith many casks were filled.
We lay ashore, and our hunters having that day killed a good store of ducks, bustards, and teal, and the next day two goats, M. de la Salle sent M. de Beaujeu part. We feasted upon the rest, and that good sport put several gentlemen that were then aboard M. de Beaujeu, among whom were M. du Uarnel, the ensign and the king's clerk, upon coming ashore to partake of the diversion ; but they took much pains and were not successful in their sport.
In the meantime many casks were filled with water, as well for our ship as for M. de Beaujeu's. Some days after M. d'Aire, the lieutenant, came ashore to confer with M. de la Salle, and to know how he would manage about the provisions ; but both of them persisting in their first proposals, and M. de la Salle perceiving that M. de Beaujeu would not be satisfied with provisions for fifteen days, which he thought sufficient to go to the place where he expected to find one of the branches of the Mississippi, which he with good reason believed to be about the shoals I have before spoken of, nothing was concluded as to that affair. M. d'Aire returned to his captain, and M. de la Salle resolved to land his men ; which could not be done for some days, because of the foul weather ; but in the meantime we killed much game.
During this little interval, M. de la Salle being impatient to get
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some intelligence of what he sought after, resolved to go himself upon discovery, and to seek out some more useful and commodious river than that where they were. To this purpose he took five or six of us along with him. We set out one morning in so thick a fog, that the hindmost could not perceive the track of the foremost, so that we lost M. de la Salle for some time.
We travelled till about three in the afternoon, finding the country for the most part sandy, little grass, no fresh water, unless in some sloughs, the track of abundance of wild goats, lakes full of ducks, teals, water-hens, and having taken much pains returned without success.
The next morning M. de la Salle's Indian, going about to find wild goats, came to a lake which had a little ice upon it, the weather being cold, and abundance of fish dying about the edges of it. He came to inform us ; we went to make our provision of them, there were some of a prodigious magnitude, and among the rest extraordinary large trouts, or else they were some sort of fish very like them. We caused some of each of a sort to be boiled in salt water, and found them very good. Thus having plenty of fish and flesh, we began to use ourselves to eat them both without bread.
Whilst we lived thus easy enough, M. de la Salle expected with impatience to know what resolution M. de Beaujeu would take, that he might either go to the place where he expected to find the Mississippi, or follow some other course ; but at last, perceiving that his affairs did not advance, he resolved to put his own design in execution, the purport whereof was to land one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and thirty men, to go along the coast, and continue it till they had found some other river, and that at the same time the bark La Belle should hold the same course at sea, still keeping along the coast, to relieve those ashore in time of need.
He gave me and M. Moranget, his nephew, the command of that small company, he furnished us with all sorts of provisions for eight or ten days, as also arms, tools, and utensils, we might have occasion for, of which every man made his bundle. He also gave us written instructions of what we were to do, the signals we were to make : and thus we set out on the 4th of February.
We took our way along the shore. Our first day's journey was not long ; we encamped on a little rising ground, heard a cannon shot, which made us uneasy, made the signals that had been appointed, and the next day, being the 5th, we held on our march, M. Moranget bringing up the rear, and I leading the van.
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I will not spend time in relating several personal accidents, inconsiderable in themselves, or of no consequence, the most considerable of them being the want of fresh water ; but will proceed to say, that after three days' march we found a great river, where we halted and made the signals agreed on, encamping on a commodious spot of ground till we could hear of the boat, which was to follow us, or of our ships.
But our provisions beginning to fall short, and none of our ships appearing, being, besides, apprehensive of some unlucky accident occasioned by the disagreement between M. de la Salle and M. de Beau-jeu, the chief of our company came together to know what resolution we should take. It was agreed that we should spare our provisions to endeavor to goon to some place where we might find bullocks ; but it was requisite to cross the river, and we knew not how, because we were too many of us. and therefore it was decreed to set some carpenters there were among us at work to build a little boat, which took them up the eleventh and twelfth of February.
The 13th we were put out of our pain by two vessels we discovered at sea, which we knew to be the Joly and La Belle, to whom we made our signals with smoke. They came not in then, because it was late, but the next day, being the 14th, in the morning, the boat, with the Sieur Barbier, and the pilot of the bark La Belle, came up, and both sounded the mouth of the river.
They sounded on the bar from ten to twelve feet water, and within it'from five to six fathom ; the breadth of the river being about half a quarter of a league. They sounded near the island, which lies between the two points of the bay, and found the same depth. The boat of the Joly came and sounded on the other side of the channel, and particularly along the shoals, I know not to what purpose. The same day M. de la Salle, for whom we were much in pain, came also, and as soon as he arrived he caused the boat to be laden with such provisions as we stood in need of, but the wind being contrary, it could not come to us till the next day, being the 15th.
That same day M. de la Salle came ashore to view the place and examine the entrance into the river, which he found to be very good. Having considered all particulars, he resolved to send in the barks La Belle and L'Aimable, that they might be under shelter, to which purpose he ordered to sound, and to know whether those two vessels could both come in that same bay. M. de Beaujeu caused also the place to be sounded, and lay ashore on the other side of the river, where he took notice there were vines which run up the trees like
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our wall vines, some woods, and the carcasses of bullocks, which ho supposed to have died with thirst.
The 16th, the pilots of the Joly, L'Aimable, and La Belle, went again to sound. They found the entrance easy, and gave it under their hands. The 17th, they fixed stakes to mark out the way, that the vessels might come safe in. All things seemed to promise a happy event.
The 18th the Chevalier d'Aire came ashore to confer with M. de la Salle, who, being desirous to have the flyboat L'Aimable come in that day, ordered the most weighty things in her to be unloaded, as the cannon, the iron, and some other things. It was my good fortune that my chest stood in the way, and was also unloaded, but that unlading could not be done till the next day, being the 19th. That being performed, the Captain affirmed it would go in at eight feet water.
The 20th M. de la Salle sent orders to that Captain to draw near the bar, and to come in at high water, of which a signal should be given him ; he also ordered the pilot of the bark La Belle to go aboard the flyboat, to be assisting when it came in. The Captain would not receive him aboard, saying he could carry in his ship without his help. All these precautions proved of no use ; M. de la Salle could not avert his ill fate. He having taken notice of a large tree on the bank of the river, which he judged fit to make a canoe, sent 7 or 8 workmen to hew it down, two of whom returned some time after, in a great fright, and told him they had narrowly escaped being taken by a company of savages, and that they believed the others had fallen into their hands. M. de la Salle ordered us immediately to handle our arms, and to march with drums beating against the savages, who seeing us in that posture, faced about and went off.
M. de la Salle being desirous to join those savages, to endeavor to get some information from them, ordered ten of us to lay down our arms and draw near them, making signs to them at the same time, to come to us. When they saw us in that posture and unarmed, most of them also laid down their bows and arrows and came to meet us, caressing us after their manner, and stroking first their own breasts and then ours, then their own arms and afterwards ours. By these signs they gave us to understand that they had a friendship for us, which they expressed by laying their hands on their hearts, and we did1 the same on our part.
Six or seven of those savages went along with us, and the rest kept three of our men in the nature of hostages. Those who went
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with us were made much of, but M. de la Salle could learn nothing of them, either by signs or otherwise ; all they could make us understand was, that there was good hunting of bullocks in the country. We observed that their yea consisted in a cry, fetched from the bottom of the throat, not unlike the call of a hen to gather her chickens. M. de la Salle gave them some knives, hatchets, and other trifles, with which they seemed well pleased, and went away.
M. de la Salle was glad to be rid of those people, because he was willing to be present when the flyboat came in ; but his ill fate would not permit it. He thought fit to go himself along with those savages, and we followed him, thinking to have found our men in the same place where we left them ; but perceived, on the contrary, that the savages had carried them away to their camp, which was a league and a half from us, and M. de la Sablonniere, lieutenant of foot, being one of those the savages had taken with them, M. de la Salle resolved to go himself to fetch him away, an unhappy thought which cost him dear.
As we were on our way towards the camp of the savages, happening to look towards the sea, we saw the flyboat L'Aimable under sail, which the savages who were with us admired, and M. de la Salle observing it narrowly, told us those people steered wrong, and were standing towards the shoals, which made him very uneasy, but still we advanced. We arrived at the camp of the savages, which stood upon an eminence, and consisted of about fifty cottages made of rush mats, and others of dried skins, and built with long poles bowed round at the top, like great ovens, and most of the savages sitting about, as if they were upon the watch.
We were still advancing into the village when we heard a cannon-shot, the noise whereof struck such a dread among the savages, that they all fell flat upon the ground ; but M. de la Salle and we were too sensible it was a signal that our ship was aground, which was confirmed by seeing them furl their sails ; however, we were gone too far to return, our men must be had, and to that purpose we must proceed to the hut of the commander-in-chief.
As soon as we arrived there M. de la Salle was introduced ; many of the Indian women came in, they were very deformed, and all naked, excepting a skin girt about them which hung down to their knees. They would have led us to their cottages, but M. de la Salle had ordered us not to part, and to observe whether the Indians did not draw together, so that we kept together, standing upon our guard, and I was always with him.
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They brought us some pieces of beef, both fresh and dried in the air and smoke, and pieces of porpoise, which they cut with a sort of knife made of stone, setting one foot upon it and holding with one hand whilst they cut with.the other. We saw nothing of iron among them./1 They had given our men, that came with them, to eat, and M. de la Salle being extraordinary uneasy we soon took leave of them to return. At our going out we observed about forty canoes, some of them like those M. de la Salle had seen on the Mississippi, which made him conclude he was not far from it.
We soon arrived at our camp, and found the misfortune M. de la Salle had apprehended was but too certain. The ship was stranded on the shoals. The ill management of the captain, or of the pilot, who had not steered by the stakes placed for that purpose ; the cries of a sailor posted on the main-top, who cried amain, " luff," which was to steer towards the passage marked out, whilst the wicked captain cried out " Come no nearer," which was to steer the contrary course ; the same captain's carelessness in not dropping his anchor as soon as the ship touched, which would have prevented her sticking aground ; the folly of lowering his main-sheet and hoisting out his sprit-sail, the better to fall into the wind and secure the shipwreck ; the captain's refusing to admit the pilot of the bark La Belle, whom M. de la Salle had sent to assist him ; the sounding upon the shoals to no purpose, and several other circumstances reported by the ship's crew, and those who saw the management, were infallible tokens and proofs that the mischief had been done designedly and advisedly, .which was one of the blackest and most detestable actions that man could be guilty of.
This misfortune was so much the greater, because that vessel contained almost all the ammunition, utensils, tools, and other necessaries for M. de la Salle's enterprise and settlement. He had need of all his resolution to bear up against it ; but his intrepidity did not forsake him, and he applied himself, without grieving, to remedy what might be. All the men were taken out of the ship ; he desired M. de Beaujeu to lend him his long boat, to help save as much as might be. We began with powder and meal. About thirty hogsheads of wine and brandy were saved, and fortune being incensed against us, two things contributed to the total loss of all the rest.
The first was, that our boat which hung at the stern of the ship run aground, was maliciously staved in the night, so that we had none left but M. de Beaujeu's. The second, that the wind blowing in from the offing made the waves run high, which beating violently
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against the ship split her, and all the light goods were carried out at the opening by the water. This last misfortune happened also in the ' night. Thus everything fell out most unhappily, for had that befal- .. len in the day abundance of things might have been saved.
Whilst we were upon this melancholy employment, about a hundred or a hundred and twenty of the natives came to our camp with their bows and arrows. M. de la Salle ordered us to handle our arms and stand upon our guard. About twenty of those Indians mixed themselves among us to observe what we had saved of the shipwreck, upon which there were several sentinels to let none come near the powder.
The rest of the Indians stood in parcels, or peletons. M. de la Salle, who was acquainted with their ways, ordered us to observe their behavior, and- to take nothing from them, which nevertheless did not hinder some of our men from receiving some pieces of meat. Some time after, when the Indians were about departing, they made signs to us to go a hunting with them ; but, besides that there was sufficient cause to suspect them, we had enough other business to do. However, we asked whether they would barter for any of their canoes, which they agreed to. The Sieur Barbier went along with them, purchased two for hatchets, and brought them.
Some days after, we perceived a fire in the country, which spread itself and burnt the dry weeds, still drawing towards us ; whereupon M. de la Salle made all the weeds and herbs that were about us be pulled up, and particularly all about the place where the powder was. Being desirous to know the occasion of that fire, he took about twenty of us along with him, and we marched that way, and even beyond the fire, without seeing anybody. We perceived that it run towards the W. S. W., and judged it had begun about our first camp, and at the village next the fire.
Having spied a cottage near the bank of a lake, we drew towards it, and found an old woman in it, who fled as soon as she saw us ; but having overtaken and given her to understand that we would do her no harm, she returned to her cottage, where we found some pitchers of water, of which we all drank, i Some time after we saw a canoe coming, in which were two women and a boy, who being landed, and perceiving we had done the old woman no harm, came and embraced us in a very particular manner, blowing upon our ears,!and making signs to give us to understand that their people were a hunting.
A few minutes after seven or eight of the Indians appeared, who, it is likely, had hid themselves among the weeds when they saw us
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coming. Being come up, they saluted us after the same manner as the. women had done, which made us laugh. We stayed there some time with them. Some of our men bartered knives for goats' skins, after which we returned to our camp. Being come thither, M. de la Salle made me go aboard the bark La Belle, where he had embarked part of the powder, with positive orders not to carry or permit any fire to be made there, having sufficient cause to fear everything after what had happened. For this reason they carried me and all that were with me, our meat every day.
During this time it was that L'Aimable opening in the night, the next morning we saw all the light things that were come out of it floating about, and M. de la Salle sent men every way, who gathered up about 30 casks of wine and brandy, and some of flesh, meal, and grain.
When we had gathered all, as well what had been taken out of the shipwrecked vessel as what could be picked up in the sea, the next thing was to regulate the provisions we had left proportionably to the number of men we were ; and there being no more biscuit, meal was delivered out, and with it we made hasty pudding with water, which was none of the best ; some large beans and Indian corn, part of which had taken wet ; and everything was distributed very discreetly. We were very much incommoded for want of kettles, but M. de Beaujeu gave M. de la Salle one, and he ordered another to be brought from the bark La Belle, by which means we were all served.
We were still in want of canoes. M. de la Salle sent to the camp of the Indians to barter for some, and they who went thither observed that those people had made their advantage of our shipwreck, and had some bales of Normandy blankets, and they saw several women had cut them in two and made petticoats of them. They also saw bits of iron of the ship that was cast away, and returned immediately to make their report to M. de la Salle, who said we must endeavor to get some canoes in exchange, and resolved to send thither again the next day. M. du Hamel, ensign to M. de Beaujeu, offered to go up in his boat, which M. de la Salle agreed to, and ordered MM. Moran-get, his nephew, Desloges, Oris, Gayen, and some others to bear him company.
No sooner were those gentlemen, who were more hot than wise, landed, but they went up to the camp of the Indians with their arms in their hands, as if they had intended to force them, whereupon several of those people fled. Going into the cottages they found others, to whom M. du Hamel endeavored to signify by signs that he would
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have the blankets they had found restored ; but the misfortune was, that none of them understood one another. The Indians thought it their best way to withdraw, leaving behind them some blankets and skins of beasts, which those gentlemen took away, and finding some canoes in their return, they seized two, and got in to bring them away.
But having no oars, none of them knowing how to manage those canoes, and having only some pitiful poles, which they could not tell the right use of, and the wind being also against them, they made little way, which the Sieur du Hamel, who was in his boat, perceiving, and that night drew on, he made the best of his way, forsook them, and returned to the camp.
Thus night came upon them, which obliged those inexperienced canoe-men, being thoroughly tired, to go ashore to take some rest, and the weather being cold, they lighted a fire, about which they laid them down and fell asleep ; the sentinel they had appointed doing the same. The Indians returning to their camp, and perceiving our men had carried away two canoes, some skins, and blankets, took it for a declaration of war, resolved to be revenged, and discovering an unusual fire, presently concluded that our men had halted there. A considerable number of them repaired to the place, without making the least noise, found our careless people fast asleep, wrapped up in their blankets, and shot a full volley of their arrows upon them altogether on a sudden, having first given their usual shout before they fall on.
The Sieur Moranget awaking with the noise, and finding himself wounded, started up and fired his piece successfully enough ; some others did the same, whereupon the natives fled. The Sieur Moranget came to give us the alarm, though he was shot through one of his arms, below the shoulder, and had another slanting wound on the breast. M. de la Salle immediately sent some armed men to the place, who could not find the Indians, but when day appeared they found the Sieurs Oris and Desloges dead upon the spot, the Sieur Gayen much hurt, and the rest all safe and sound.
This disaster, which happened the night of the 5th of March, very much afflicted M. de la Salle ; but he chiefly lamented M. Desloges, a sprightly youth, who served well ; but in short, it was their own fault, and contrary to the charge given them, which was to be watchful, and upon their guard. We were under apprehensions for MM. Moranget and Gayen, lest the arrows should be poisoned. It
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afterwards appeared they were not ; however, M. Moranget's cure proved difficult, because some small vessel was cut.
The consequences of this misfortune, together with the concern most of the best persons who had followed M. de la Salle were under, supported the design of those who were for returning to France, and forsaking him, of which number were M. Dainmaville, a priest of the seminary of St. Sulpice, the Sieur Minet, engineer, and some others. The common discourses of M. de la Salle's enemies tending to discredit his conduct, and to represent the pretended rashness of his enterprise, contributed considerably towards the desertion ; but his resolution prevailing, he heard and waited all events with patience, and always gave his orders without appearing the least discomposed.
He caused the dead to be brought to our camp, and buried them honorably, the cannon supplying the want of bells, and then considered, of making some safer settlement. He caused all that had been saved from the shipwreck to be brought together into one place, threw up intrenchments about it to secure his effects, and perceiving that the water of the river, where we were, rolled down violently into the sea, he fancied that might be one of the branches of the Mississippi, and proposed to go up it, to see whether he could find any tokens of it, or of the marks he had left when he went down by land to the mouth of it.
In the mean time M. de Beaujeu was preparing to depart : the Chevalier de Aire had many conferences with M. de la Salle about several things; the latter demanded of M. de Beaujeu particularly the cannon and ball which were aboard the Joly, and had been designed for him, which M. de Beaujeu refused, alleging that all those things lay at the bottom of the hold, and that he could not rummage it without evident danger of perishing ; though, at the same time, he knew we had eight pieces of cannon, and not one bullet.
I know not how that affair was decided between them, but am sure he suffered the captain of the flyboat L'Aimable to embark aboard M. de Beaujeu, though he deserved to be most severely punished, had justice been done him. His crew followed him, contrary to what M. de Beaujeu had promised, that he would not receive a man of them. All that M. de la Salle could do, though so much wronged, was to write to France to M. de Saignelay, minister of state, whom he acquainted with all the particulars, as I was informed when I returned, and he gave the packet to M. de Beaujeu, who sailed away for France.
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Having lost the notes I took at that time, and being forced to rely much upon memory for what I now write, I shall not pretend to be any longer exact in the dates, for fear of mistaking, and therefore I cannot be positive as to the day of M. de Beaujeu's departure, but believe it was the 14th of March, 1685.
When M. de Beaujeu was gone, we fell to work to make a fort of the wreck of the ship that had been cast away, and many pieces of timber the sea threw up ; and during that time several men deserted, which added to M. de la Salle's affliction. A Spaniard and a Frenchman stole away and fled, and were never more heard of. Four or five others followed their example, but M. de la Salle, having timely notice, sent after them, and they were brought back. One of them was condemned to death, and the others to serve the King ten years in that country.
When our fort was well advanced, M. de la Salle resolved to clear his doubts, and to go up the river, where we were, to know whether it was not an arm of the Mississippi, and accordingly ordered fifty men to attend him, of which number were M. Cavelier, his brother, and M. Chedeville, both priests ; two Recollet Friars, and several volunteers, who set out in five canoes we had, with the necessary provisions. There remained in the fort about a hundred and thirty persons, and M. de la Salle gave me the command of it, with orders not to have any commerce with the natives, but to fire at them if they appeared.
Whilst M. de la Salle was absent, I caused an oven to be built, which was a great help to us, and employed myself in finishing the fort, and putting it in a posture to withstand the Indians, who came fre-quently in the night to range about us, howling like wolves and dogs; but two or three musket shots put them to flight. It happened one night that, having fired six or seven, shot, M. de la Salle, who was not far from us, heard them, and being in pain about it, he returned with six or seven men, and found all things in a good posture.
He told us he had found a good country, fit to sow and plant all sorts of grain, abounding in beeves and wild fowl ; that he designed to erect a fort farther up the river, and accordingly he left me orders to square out as much timber as I could get, the sea casting up much upon the shore. He had given the same orders to the men he had left on the spot, seven or eight of whom, detached from the rest, being busy at that work, and seeing a number of the natives, fled, and unadvisably left their tools behind them. M. de la Salle returning thither, found a paper made fast to a reed which gave him
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notice of that accident, which he was concerned at, because of the tools ; not so much for the value of the loss, as because it was furnishing the natives with such things as they might afterwards make use of against us.
About the beginning of April, we were alarmed by a vessel which appeared at sea, near enough to discern the sails, and we supposed they might be Spaniards who had heard of our coming, and were ranging the coast to find us out. That made us stand upon our guard, to keep within the fort, and see that our arms were fit for service. We afterwards saw two men in that vessel, who, instead of coming to us, went towards the other point, and by that means passed on without perceiving us.
Having one day observed that the water worked and bubbled up,
¦ and afterwards perceiving it was occasioned by the fish skipping
. ;from place to place, I caused a net to be brought, and we took a
prodigious quantity of fish ; among which were many dorados, or
gilt-heads, mullets, and others about as big as a herring, which
afforded us good food for several days. This fishery, which I caused
to be often followed, was a great help towards our subsistence.
About that time, and on Easter-day that year, an unfortunate accident befel M. le Gros. After divine service, he took a gun to go kill snipes about the fort. He shot one, which fell into a marsh ; he took off his shoes and stockings to fetch it out, and returning, through carelessness trod upon a rattle-snake, so called, because it has a sort of scale on the tail, which makes a noise. The serpent bit him a little above the ankle ; he was carefully dressed and looked after, yet after having endured very much, he died at last, as I shall mention in its place. Another more unlucky accident befel us, one of our fishermen swimming about the net to gather the fish, was carried away by the current, and could not be helped by us.
Our men sometimes went about several little salt water lakes, that were near our fort, and found on the banks a sort of flat fishes, like turbots, asleep, which they struck with sharp pointed sticks; and they were good food. Providence also showed us that there was salt made by the sun, upon several little salt water pools there were in divers places, for having observed that there grew on them a sort of white substance, like the cream upon milk, I took care every day to send and fetch that scum off, which proved to be a very white and good salt, whereof I gathered a quantity, and it did us good service. S'srne of our hunters having seen a parcel of wild goats running as if trf§| were frighted, judged they were pursued by the Indians,
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and came for refuge to the fort, and to give me notice. Accordingly some time after, we discovered a parcel of natives, who came and posted themselves on an eminence, within cannon shot; some of them drew off from the rest, and approached the fort by the way of the downs. I caused our men immediately to handle their arms, and wet blankets to be laid on our huts, to prevent their being burnt by the fire the savages sometimes shoot with their arrows. All this time those who had separated themselves from the rest, being three in number, still drew nearer, making signs for us to go to them ; but M. de la Salle had forbidden me having any commerce with them ; however, since they had neither bows nor arrows, we made signs to them to draw near, which they did without hesitating.
We went out to meet them, M. Moranget made them sit down, and they gave us to understand by signs, that their people were hunting near us ; being able to make no more of what they said, M. Moranget was for knocking out their brains, to revenge their having murdered our companions, but I would not consent to it, since they had come confiding in us. I made signs to them to be gone, which they did as fast as they could, some small shot we fired into the air making them run, and a cannon shot, I pointed towards the rising ground, where the rest were, put them all to flight.
These accidents made us double our guards, since we were at open war with that crafty nation, which let slip no opportunity to surprise us, and therefore penalties were appointed for such as should be found asleep upon sentinel ; the wooden-horse was set up for them without remission ; and by means of such precautions we saved our lives.
Thus we spent the rest of the month, till the beginning of June. In the meantime, M. de la Salle had begun to make another settlement, in the place he before told us of, looking upon it as better, because it was further up the country. To that purpose he sent to us the Sieur de Villeperdry, with two canoes and orders for the Sieur Moranget to repair to him, if he were recovered, and that all the men should march, except thirty of the ablest to make a good defence, who were to stay with me in the fort. The rest being seventy persons, as well men and women, as children, set out with the Sieur Moranget; and we '"being but a small number remaining, I caused the fort to be brought into a less compass, to save posting so many sentinels.
Our little company began to take satisfaction in the ease of getting, and the nature of our provisions, which a greater number has more
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA.
difficulty to be supplied with, and which we had plenty of, by means of hunting and fishing, those being our principal employments, and we lived well enough contented, expecting to be removed. However, there were some malecontents, who resolved to desert ; but finding a difficulty to put it in execution, for that they could neither get arms, nor powder, nor ball, because the Sieur le Gros and I kept all locked up, and were very vigilant, that none might be lavishly spent, they took the cruel resolution to rid themselves of us.
That bloody massacre was to begin by me, when I was asleep, and then to proceed to the Sieur le Gros, who lay in the magazine, or warehouse, and was in no condition to defend himself, because his leg was still swollen, and put him to much pain. The execution was to be by stabbing. One of the conspirators revealed this to the Sieur Davault, a hunter, who immediately came and acquainted me. I did not just then take notice of what I had been told ; but in the evening, when they returned from hunting, I caused one to be secured, who presently confessed all. His accomplice was also seized, and it was very troublesome to secure them till the time when we should remove.
About the middle of July, the bark La Belle came and anchored near us. An order was brought me from M. de la Salle, directing me to put aboard it all the effects that were in our fort, to make a float of the timber 1 had caused to be squared, if time would permit, if not, to bury it in the ground. Every man set his hand to the work, with all possible diligence, and our two prisoners were put aboard, as was also M. le Gros and his surgeon, with all our effects. The float was begun with immense labor, but the weather proving very stormy, and holding very long, I was obliged to cause what had been done to be taken in pieces, and to bury the timber in the sand, the best we could, that the natives might not find it.
We then set out towards the place where the Indians had been encamped, when M. de la Salle went the first time to see them. We found no creature, and lay there that night, and so proceeded along the sea coast without any accident to the camp of Sieur Hurie, which was a post in the way, where M. de la Salle had ordered all our effects to be laid up. It had no other inclosure but chests and barrels, but there was nothing to fear from the Europeans.
We spent the night at that post, and two canoes coming thither the next morning I went aboard one of them with part, of my company, and joined M. de la Salle the next day at the place where he had resolved to make his new settlement. I gave him an account of all
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that had happened, and was amazed to see things so ill begun and so little advanced. As for the plantation, the seed and grain put into the ground was either lost through drought or eaten by birds or beasts. There were several dead, and among them the Sieur de Villeperdry ; many sick, and of that number M. Cavelier, the priest ; no shelter but a little square place staked in, where the powder was and some casks of brandy ; many other inconveniences there were, which made all things appear in a miserable condition.
It was requisite to think of building a large lodgment ; M. de la Salle designed it, but the difficulty was to get proper timber for building. There was a little wood where a good quantity might be had, but it was a league up the country, and we had neither carts nor horses to carry it ; however, M. de la Salle sent workmen thither, with others to guard them. The trees were cut down and squared, but the carpenters were so ignorant that M. de la Salle was forced to act the master-builder, and to mark out the pieces for the work he designed. Some of those pieces of timber were dragged to the camp over the grass and weeds the plain was covered with, afterwards the carriage of a gun was made use of; but all cost so much labor that the ablest men were quite spent.
This excessive toil, the poor sustenance the laboring men had, and that often retrenched as a penalty for having failed in doing their duty, the uneasiness M. de la Salle was under to see nothing succeed as he had imagined, and which often made him insult the men when there was little reason for it, all these things together afflicted very many so sensibly that they visibly declined, and above thirty died. The loss of so many men was followed by that of the master-carpenter, who was returning one evening with me, but I happening to step aside to kill some wild fowl, when I came to our habitation I found him not. and it was never known what became of him ; an accident which added to our vexation, for though he had but little skill at his trade, yet we stood in need of him.
Notwithstanding all these disappointments, enough timber was carried, or rather dragged, to build the house M. de la Salle designed, and he was himself the architect. He marked out the lengths, the tenons and mortices, and made good the defect of the workmen ; and calling to mind that I had buried several pieces of timber at our first habitation, which might be of use, he ordered me to take two canoes and twenty men to go fetch them in the bark La Belle, which was with us.
Being come to the place, we found the natives had discovered our
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA.
timber, and carried away some planks, to pick out the nails there were in them, which they value very much, to point their arrows. We labored to make a float, loaded the bark La Belle with the rest of the planks and other effects, and set out again. Some of the natives appeared whilst we were at work, but seeing us advance toward them, with our arms in our hands, they fled.
We returned safe to M. de la Salle, who was glad to see us, though we had lost one of the canoes for want of its being well made fast to the float ; but the timber we brought was a mighty help towards carrying on his design, and much fitter than what we had hewed in the wood with so much labor ; so that this timber occasioned the raising another structure contiguous to the former. All was covered with planks, and bullocks' hides over them. The apartments were divided, and all of them well covered. The stores had a place apart, and that dwelling had the name of St. Louis given it, as well as the neighboring bay.
The Sieur le Gros, who had remained aboard the bark La Belle ever since the first voyage she made to our former habitation, was carried ashore to the new one, and his leg still swelling, the surgeon was apprehensive of a mortification, and advised him to consent to have it cut off. He did so, though with regret ; the operation was made, but a fever followed immediately, and he lived but two days, dying on the feast of the decollation of St. John Baptist, much lamented by all the men, and particularly by M. de la Salle, to whom he was very serviceable by reason of his general knowledge, and his particular fidelity towards him. M. Carpentier, son to the master of the works, and the Sieur Thibault, both of Rouen, and some others, died about the same time.
M. de la Salle being desirous to take a progress, to find his fatal Mississippi River, and only expecting the recovery of his brother M. Cavelier, who was to bear him company, he began to make some preparations towards it, and in the meantime took some small journeys of four or five leagues about, but could learn nothing further than that it was a very fine country, hemmed in on one side by a small mountain which appeared at about fifteen or twenty leagues distance, beautified with very fine trees, and watered by many little rivers, whereof that on which we had built our habitation was the least. We called it La Rivière aux B ufs, that is, the River of Bullocks, by reason of the great number of them there was about it. These bullocks are very like ours ; there are thousands of them, but instead of hair they have a very long curled sort of wool.
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M. de la Salle studying all ways to find out the river Mississippi, imagined it might fall into the adjacent bay, and resolved to go view all the coasts about it, and to make use of the bark La Belle. Accordingly, he ordered me to repair to the said bark, with five men and a canoe, into which he put his clothes and other effects in several chests.
That short voyage was very troublesome to us, by reason of the foul weather, with contrary winds and storms, which had like to have overwhelmed us ; and what was still worse, we did not find the bark where we had left her. We went on a league further to no purpose, and provisions beginning to fall short, because we had been six days on the way, instead of three, we resolved to return to the place from whence we came.
M. de la Salle seeing us return at a distance, came to meet us. Our report troubled him for the bark, which he stood in need of, so that he resolved to go himself to seek her. He embarked in a canoe, and sent me another way, in another. After having wandered about all that day, and the next night, and the day following, we at last perceived her, where she lay under shelter in a little creek, having been in danger of perishing by the foul weather we had been in, and had lost her boat, which was not well made fast.
The bark was also discovered by M. de la Salic, who was on the other side, which made him draw near and land, whence he sent his canoe to the said bark, and M. Moranget, who commanded it, went aboard to meet him. The loss of the boat troubled M. de la Salle. I sent a canoe to bring him, but to no purpose ; however, the trunks were put aboard the bark.
M. Cavalier, the priest, being recovered, M. de la Salle prepared to set out with all speed. Fie was pleased to honor me with the command during his absence, and left me an inventory of all that was in our habitation, consisting of eight pieces of cannon, two hundred firelocks, as many cutlasses, a hundred barrels of powder, three thousand weight of balls, about three hundred weight of other lead, some bars of iron, twenty packs of iron to make nails, some iron work and tools, as hatchets and the like.
As for provisions, all that were left me amounted to twenty casks of meal, one cask and a half of wine, three-quarters of a cask of brandy, and for living creatures some few swine, a cock, and a hen ; which is very short of what has been published by the author of a book entitled, " The First Establishment in New France :" but the reason of it is, that he compiled his work upon the credit of relations,
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA.
which were as false as to the point of the ammunition and provisions remaining in our habitation when M. de la Salle set out that time, as concerning the fort well conditioned, and the magazines or storehouses under ground, which are all imaginary, there being nothing but the house I have mentioned, palisaded with some old stakes.
M. de la Salle farther ordered me not to receive any man of those he took along with him, unless they brought an order from him in writing ; nor to hold or admit of any communication with the natives, but rather to fire upon them, and some other particulars he thought fit to be observed. He had made himself a coat of mail with smalî laths, to secure himself against the arrows, which he took along with him; he also took the canoes, and promised to send me one back. Five cannon shots were the signal of his departure.
He took his way along the lower part of the river, to march by land along the neighboring bay, which was called of St. Louis, the canoes keeping within sight. I was left in the habitation with thirty-four persons, men, women, and children, and of that number were three Recollet Friars, the Sieur Hurie, who was to command in my absence, one of the Sieurs Duhaut, the Sieurs Thibault, and a surgeon.
Our provisions being very small, and it being requisite to spare them for the sick, we were obliged to apply ourselves to fishing and shooting. Both of them at first proved very unsuccessful, especially the latter, because we were not yet well versed in them, and M. de la Salle had taken our huntsman along with him ; but at length necessity made us more expert. We killed beeves, some of which I caused to be dried, and they were a considerable help to subsist us.
Some days after, the canoe M. de la Salle had promised me, arrived with three soldiers, who brought us the news of the loss of the huntsman M. de la Salle had taken with him, and who had been found dead with cold in a ditch, where he had lain down to rest after hunting, which troubled us all very much. They also informed us that M. de la Salle, advancing towards some dwellings the natives had abandoned after a small resistance, some of whom had been wounded as they fled, they had taken and brought a girl and a woman, who was shot through the thigh, of which she died.
The canoe was a great help to us to carry what we killed, which being brought to our habitation, found employment for all persons, some to flay, others to cut up, and others to dry it. At other times I set some of our men to throw up a trench about our habitation.
Thus we spent our time till about the middle of January, 1686,
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when, being all, one evening, in our mansion, the sentinel came in to acquaint me that he heard a voice towards the river. Some men ran thither immediately, and found a man in a canoe, crying Domi-nick, which was the name of young Duhaut, who was with us. The sight of that made me apprehensive lest some disaster was befallen M. de la Salle. I drew near and perceived it was Duhaut the elder that was returned.
I asked him whether he had any letters from M. de la Salle; he answered he had not. It gave me some uneasiness, considering I was forbid admitting any man without an order in writing, and I was almost resolved to secure him ; but the account he gave me of the occasion of his returning, wholly cleared him. I admitted him, and he told me the whole matter, as follows :
M. de la Salic, having stayed some time on the sea shore, near the place where the bark was at anchor, he resolved to try the anchoring places of the coasts round about, to know how near the bark La Belle might come. To that purpose he sent the pilot with five of the best men to sound.
The pilot did as he was ordered, he sounded and observed the proper places to come near several coasts. At night he and his men being in all likelihood tired, they thought fit to go ashore and lie upon the land. They made a fire, perhaps to dress some meat, but neglecting to stand upon their guard they were surprised, and all six of them killed by the savages ; who also broke their canoe, and thus avenged themselves for the irruption M. de la Salle had lately made among them.
More time being elapsed than M. de la Salle had allotted those men to return, he grew uneasy and went himself along the coast, to see if any news could be had of them, and keeping along the shore he found the sad remains of those unfortunate wretches, whose carcases, scattered about, were torn and almost devoured by wolves or wild dogs, a spectacle which went to his heart.
However, this loss which afflicted him, and particularly for the sake of the pilot, who was an able man, did not quite cast him down ; but exerting himself against his misfortunes he caused flesh to be dried, and with that and the other provisions he victualled the bark La Belle. He caused it to advance into the bay, put a good number of men on board to secure it, among whom were M. Chedeville, the priest, and Planterose of Rouen, and ordered them not to stir from that place till they heard from him, and not to go ashore, unless with a good guard and necessary precautions.
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA.
Next, he chose out twenty men, embarked on two canoes he had left, and being come ashore, caused the canoes to be sunk in the river, and every man to take up his bundle, consisting of arms, tools, some utensils for the kitchen, a few goods to trade with the natives, if he should find any sociable, and so advanced into the country, to try if any notice could be had of the Mississippi.
After several days' march, they came to a good pleasant river, which they afterwards called La Maligne. M. de la Salle marching at the head of the company, and having ordered M. Moranget to keep in the rear, it happened that Duhaut stopping to mend his knapsack and shoes which were in a bad condition, the Sieur Moranget coming up, commanded him to march ; he desired him to stay a little, Moranget would not, but held on his way. Duhaut followed some time after, but having stayed too long, he could not overtake the company, and found himself about night-fall in a plain full of weeds, where there were several tracks the way cattle had gone, but knew not which of them to take. He fired his piece several times without hearing anything of his company, and was obliged to pass the night in that same place.
In the morning he shot again, spent the day and night again in that place, so that not knowing what to do, he returned the same way he had gone, and after a month's march, for he travelled only by night, for fear of meeting with the savages, living upon what he killed with much difficulty and danger, having before spent all his own provisions, at length, after most unaccountable hardships and sufferings, he arrived at the place where the canoes had been sunk, He took one of them up, with incredible labor, and too long to relate, and so came to our habitation of St. Louis. Thus it pleased God that he who was to be one of the murderers of M. de la Salle, should come off safe, and surmount almost infinite dangers.
This account, which seemed to carry the face of probability, prevailed with me to receive the Sieur Duhaut, and in reality I could do no otherwise, and I made it my business to examine into his beha-.'. vior, but could find nothing to lay to his charge. We continued some time longer as we had been before ; during which, caused another little wooden structure to be made of timber I had got together, and in it I lodged the women and maidens by themselves. Having hitherto said nothing of the situation of our dwelling of St. Louis, nor of the nature of the country we were in, I will here venture upon a plain but true description.
We were in about the 27th degree of north latitude, two leagues
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up the country, near the bay of St. Louis and the bank of the river aux B ufs, on a little hillock, whence we discovered vast and beautiful plains, extending very far to the westward, all level and full of greens, which afford pasture to an infinite number of beeves and other creatures.
Turning from the west to the southward, there appeared other plains adorned with several little woods of several sorts of trees. Towards the south and east were the bay and the plains that hem it in from the east ; to the northward was the river running along by a little hill, beyond which there were other large plains, with some little tufts of wood at small distances terminating in a border of wood, which seemed to us to be very high.
Between that little hill and our dwelling, was a sort of marsh, and in it abundance of wild fowl, as curlews, water hens and other sorts. In the marsh there were little pools full offish. We had also an infinite number of beeves, wild goats, rabbits, turkeys, bustards, geese, swans, fieldfares, plovers, teal, partridges and many other sorts of fowl fit to eat, and among them one called le grand gosier, or the great gullet, because it has a very large one ; another as big and fleshy as a pullet, which we called the spatula, because its beak is shaped like one, and the feathers of it being of a pale red, are very beautiful.
As for fish, we had several sorts in the river and in the lakes I have mentioned. The river afforded a sort of barbel, differing from ours in roundness, in their having three bones sticking out, one on the back, the others on each side of the head, and in the flesh, which is like cod, and without scales. The river supplied us with abundance of other fishes, whose names we know not. The sea afforded us oysters, eels, trout, a sort of red fishes and others, whose long, sharp and hard beak tore all our nets.
We had plenty both of land and sea tortoises, whose eggs served to season our sauces. The land tortoises differ from those of the sea, as being smaller, round, and their shell more beautiful. They hide themselves in holes they find or make int he earth. It was in looking for these tortoises that one of our surgeons thrust his arm into a hole, and was bit by some venomous creature, which we supposed to be a sort of toad, having four feet, the top of his back sharp and very hard, with a little tail. Whether it was this creature or a snake, his arm swelled very much ; however, he was cured by such applications as were made use of, but it cost him a finger, which was cut off.
Among the venomous sorts of snakes, as vipers, asps and others,
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whereof there are many, those called rattle-snakes are the most common. They generally lie among the brambles, where they make a noise by the motion of two scales they have at the end of their tail, which is heard at a considerable distance, and therefore they are called rattle-snakes. Some of our men had eaten of them and found their flesh was not amiss, and when we had killed any of them, our swine made a good meal.
There are also many alligators in the rivers, some of them of a frightful magnitude and bulk. I killed one that was between four and five foot about, and twenty feet in length, on which our swine feasted. This creature has very short legs, insomuch that it rather drags along than walks, and it is easy to follow the track of it, either among the weeds or on the sands, where it has been. It is very ravenous, and attacks either men or beasts when they are within reach in the river, and comes also ashore to seek for food. It has this particular quality, that it flies from such as pursue, and pursues those who fly from it. I have shot many of them dead.
The woods are composed of trees of several sorts. There are oaks, some of them ever-green and never without leaves ; others like ours in Europe, bearing a fruit much like our galls, and lose their leaves in winter, and another sort not unlike ours in France, but the bark of them thicker ; these as well as the second sort bear an acorn, differing from ours both in taste and bigness.
There is a sort of tree which bears small berries, which, when ripe, are red, and indifferent pleasant. It bears twice a year, but the second crop never ripens. There is another tree, bearing a fruit not unlike cassia, in taste and virtue.
There are others of the sort I had seen in the islands, whose leaves are like rackets, whence the tree bears the name. The blossoms grow out about the leaves, and of them comes a fruit somewhat resembling figs, but the leaves and the fruit are full of prickles, which must be carefully rubbed and taken off, before it is eaten, else they dangerously inflame the mouth and the throat, and may prove mortal, as happened to one of our soldiers, who had eaten of them too greedily, and without that precaution.
I have seen some trees resembling the palm, whose lofty and long branches spread like that called the latanier, bearing a fruit said to be indifferent good. Others of the same sort, but whose leaves are like gutters, harsh and so sharp pointed that they will pierce the thickest stuffs. This tree has a sprout on the top which shoots out flowers in the shape of a nosegay, of a whitish yellow, and some of them at
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the top of that sprout have sixty or eighty flowers hanging down, not unlike the flower de luce, and after those flowers follows a fruit as long as a man's finger, and thicker than the thumb, full of little seeds, so that there is scarce anything but the rind fit to eat, the taste whereof is sweet and delicate.
There are abundance of creeping vines, and others that run up the bodies and to the tops of trees, which bear plenty of grapes, fleshy and sharp, not to compare to the delicacy of ours in Europe ; but we made verjuice of them, which was very good in sauce. Mulberry trees are numerous along the rivers ; their fruit is smaller, but sweeter and more delicious than ours ; their leaves are beautiful and large, which would be of good use for feeding of silkworms.
The plains are strewed with a sort of small sorrel, the leaf whereof is like trefoil, and the taste of it sharp like ours. There are abundance of small onions no bigger than the top of a man's finger, but very well tasted, and when the heat has scorched up the plains, that plant shoots out first, and produces flowers which look like an agreeable enamel. Nothing is more beautiful than to behold those vast plains when the blossoms appear ; a thousand sorts of different colors, whereof many have an agreeable scent, adorn those fields, and afford a most charming object to the eye. I have observed some that smelt like a tuberose, but the leaf resembles our borage. I have seen primroses having a scent like ours, African gilliflowers, and a sort of purple wind flowers. The autumn flowers are almost all of them yellow, so that the plains look all of that color.
The climate is mild and temperate, though we were about 27° of north latitude, and yet the seeds I caused to be sowed did not thrive ; whether it was because they had been soaked in the sea water, or for any other reason. Some came up pretty well, as pompions, melons, parsnips and endive ; but the beasts and the insects left us not much. When we come to the Cenis, and have traversed so many nations as lay between us and them, I shall speak of the religion, manners, clothingpjiouses, and customs of the natives, wherein they differ but little from\one another, though of several countries.
M. de la Salle bad beerftpow long gone, and we began to be in pain for him, when} about tbi middle of March, 1686, happening to be on the top of the\Jiouse,/ spied seven or eight persons coming towards us. I presently ordered eight armed men to follow me, to go meet them, and as soon as we drew near them we knew M. de la Salle, M. Cavelier, his brother, M. Moranget, his nephew, and five or
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six men with them, the rest being gone another way to find out the bark La Belle, to give notica of M. de la Salle's arrival.
They were in a bad condition, their clothes ragged ; M. Cavelier's short cassock hung in tatters ; most of them had not hats, and their linen was no better ; however, the sight of M. de la Salle rejoiced us all. The account he gave us of his journey revived our hopes, though he had not found the fatal river, and we thought only of making ourselves as merry as we could. Only the sight of the Sieur Duhaut interrupted it for some time. M. de la Salle asked me in an angry manner, why I had received him, and Duhaut having given his reasons, as I and my men did, we were all satisfied.
The next day, the Sieurs le Barbier, Biborel, Le Petit, Cavelier, the nephew, the surgeon and others, whom M. de la Salle had sent to find out and carry advice to the bark La Belle, returned, and said they could not find her, which was another fresh cause of much uneasiness to M. de la Salle. He had been guilty of the fault of putting aboard her, his clothes, his linen, his papers, and all his best effects, of all which he was then in the utmost need. Besides, that loss broke all the measures he had concerted during his last expedition, because he had resolved to cause the said bark to go up one of the rivers he had discovered, to advance towards those nations, with whom he had contracted some friendship, and to send me in the same bark, with his nephew Moranget, to the islands to seek for some assistance, or else to return by sea to look for his river.
All these designs being disappointed, he resolved to set out a second time, and travel by land, to find out his river. He stayed to rest him a while, and to provide for his departure, but having neither linen nor clothes, I supplied him with some I had ; I also afforded some linen to M. Cavelier, his brother, and M. Moranget, his nephew. All I had was at their service, and I deprived myself of all that was fit for them, even to ten or twelve pounds of strings of beads, and some knives and nails, which M. de la Salle took.
The Sieur Duhaut, having several effectuas linen, hatchets, and other tools and commodities, which had wreck, M. de la Salle took linen to as also the tools they stood in need o: MM. Thibault, Le Gros, and Carpentie distributed. A great belt I had, served to Salle and M. Cavelier.
All things being thus provided, M. de la Salle took twenty men along with him, among whom were M. Cavelier, his brother, F.
saved from the ship-jbr such as wanted, thes belonging to 're dead, were also
e shoes for M. de la
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Anastasius, a Recollet, M. Moranget, his nephew, the Sieurs Biborel, Le Clerk, Hurier, Duhaut, the younger, Hiens, his surgeon, and his servants. He left behind those who were not fit to undertake that second journey, among whom were little M. Cavelier, his nephew, the Sieur Barbier, Canadien, and some others. Each of the travellers made up his pack, and they set out towards the latter end of April, 1686, after having given me the necessary orders, and we parted without ceremony, M. de la Salle desiring it should be so.
Some days after he was gone, I heard a voice towards the lower part of the river, crying twice qui vive, or who are you for. I made that way, and perceived the Sieur Chedeville, a priest, the Sieur de la Sablonniere, and some others of those who had been put aboard the bark La Belle, and were now in a canoe. I asked abruptly what was become of the bark, and was informed, our continual misfortunes still pursuing us, that it had run aground on the other side of the bay. I caused the canoe to be unloaded, there being in it, among other things, M. de la Salle's clothes, part of his papers, some linen, a small quantity of beads, and thirty or forty pounds of meal, which was all they had left.
The next day, M. de Chedeville told me the particulars of that misfortune, and said, that having been some time with the bark, in the place where M. de la Salle had appointed them to wait, their water falling short, they had thought fit to send the boat ashore, with four or five casks to fill ; that the Sieur Planterose went in it with six of the best men. That towards evening they saw the boat coming back, but the wind being contrary and night coming on, they put out a light, which going out and the captain neglecting to put up another, in all likelihood the boat could not see the bark, and they never heard of it after, nor of any of those in it, who, it was probable, had all perished.
That nevertheless, they continued some days in the same place, during which time three or four of their men died ; and at last, having no water, they eat up their swine, before they died with thirst, and resolved to weigh anchor and draw near to the dwelling ; but having few hands and those spent, and to add to their misfortune the wind proving contrary, they were driven to the other side of the bay, where they run aground.
That having no boat, nor men enough to land their effects, they had endeavored to make a float with some casks and planks, but that being ill made and joined together, the first that went upon it had perished. That having made another float better fastened together
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than the first, they had by that means saved some sails and rigging, several inconsiderable things, linen, clothes and papers belonging to M. de la Salle and others, and then stayed ashore, expecting to hear some news, and had found a canoe, being the same that was before lost on the edge of the bay, which had been driven to the other side ; and that provisions at last beginning to fall short, they went aboard the said canoe and came to us ; fortunate in that they had not been discovered by the natives, during their stay ashore, which was for the space of three months, and in finding the canoe to bring them back.
When M. de la Salle went away, the Sieur Barbier had taken upon him to go a hunting, as also to provide bark to cover our houses, instead of hides, because the sun drying and contracting them, part of the top of our buildings was uncovered. I farther enjoined him to cut stakes, to make a palisade about our dwelling, and the Sieur Chedeville having told me they had buried several things they could not bring away, I sent the Sieur Barbier with two canoes and fifteen men to the place, where they found some pedreroes, rigging and sails. The natives having discovered the concealment, had taken away some pieces of linen and iron tools, which they very much covet.
The Sieur Barbier after his return, continuing his exercise of hunting, happened to meet with a parcel of the natives, some of whom had firelocks, which they had taken from our men, and with which they made some shots at him, but very weak ; and he firing three or four shot at them, they retired. He was then in a canoe on the river, and designed to have gone upwards ; but that rencontre having obliged him to take another way, and the savages perceiving it, eight of them swan over the river, hastening to get before the canoe, hid themselves among the weeds, near the way he was to pass, and when he was near enough, let fly their arrows, which wounded several men. One shot the Sieur Barbier made, put them all to flight again ; he held on his way and returned to our habitation.
Some days after, we perceived a herd of bullocks flying, and guessed they were pursued by the savages, which afterwards appeared to be true. Some of them drew near to our habitation, but a cannon shot I pointed towards the gang of them, and a musket-shot M. Barbier fired at the nearest, made them all fly farther off.
When the Sieur Barbier went out a hunting, I commonly sent with him some women and maids, to help the hunters to dress and
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dry the flesh ; but being informed that he used to slip aside from the company, with a young maid he had a kindness for, and which gave occasion to some well-grounded railleries, the said Barbier being told I was acquainted with that affair, came and spoke to me in private, desiring leave to marry that young woman. I made some difficulty of it at first, advising him to stay till M. de la Salle returned ; but at last, considering they might have anticipated upon matrimony, I took the advice of the Recollet Fathers, and of M. Chedeville, the priest, and allowed them to marry. M. le Marquis de la Sablonniere following this example, asked the same liberty, being in love with a young maid, which I absolutely refused, and forbid them seeing one another.
Some time passed in which nothing happened to us worth observing ; however, I will mention two things which befel our Recollet Fathers. One was, that Father Anastasius, being a hunting bullocks with me, and coming too near one I had shot, and was fallen, the beast, as much hurt as he was, started up, attacked and threw him down ; he had much ado to get off, and I to rescue him, because I durst not shoot for fear of killing him. The bullock being weak, fell again ; the Father was delivered, but lay ill some months. The other was, that Father Maximus had written some memoirs concerning M. de la Salle's conduct, condemning him upon several occasions. I was told of it, found means to get those memoirs, threw them into the fire, and so the Father came off.
About the same time, most of our men seeing M. de la Salle did not return, began to mutter. The Sieur Duhaut, who, perhaps, had been the first fomenter of those discontents, backed the complaints of the disgusted party, promised them great matters under his conduct, and offered to supply them with such effects as he had in possession, endeavoring, as I suppose, by those means to gain their affections, for a mischievous design, which it is likely he had even then conceived.
It was not long before I had intimation of the whole affair, and I had done M. de la Salle a singular piece of service, had I then put to death the person who was to be his murderer ; but I rested satisfied with giving him a severe reprimand, and threatening to cause him to be secured if he persisted, being able to do no other under my circumstances. However, I talked to all concerned, and put them in such hopes of M. de la Salle's return, and that things would soon change to their satisfaction, that they were all pacified.
But in regard that idleness often occasions uneasiness and impa-
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.M; hi!
tience, I used all possible means to keep them employed in the most obliging manner I could, setting some to cut down the bushes about our dwelling, others to hew down trees that hindered the prospect, others to mow the grass that fresh might grow up for our cattle ; and at night I made them divert themselves with dancing and singing.
Whilst we thus passed away the time the best we could, M. de la Salle had penetrated very far up into the country, inclining towards the northern part of Mexico. He had travelled through several nations, the inhabitants whereof were, for the most part, sociable, and had concluded a sort of alliance with them, and particularly with the Cenis and others whose names I shall mention. He had discovered charming countries abounding in all things that could be wished, as well for sustenance as for making of easy settlements, and after he and his nephew Moranget had escaped two dangerous sicknesses, he returned to our habitation with five horses he had purchased, and arrived at it in August, 1686.
Hearing of his voice, I was one of the first that ran towards the river. We took our canoes to bring him, his luggage and some provisions over, and the horses swam. We were extraordinary glad to see our commander-in-chief return safe, though his journey had not advanced his design. M. de la Salle had not found out his river, nor been towards the Illinois as we had hoped. Only eight men returned with him of twenty he carried out, and all the visible advantage of that journey consisted in five horses, laden with Indian wheat, beans and some other grain, which was put into the store.
M. de la Salle asked me, as soon as he came, whether the Sieurs Clerc, Hurie, Duhaut the younger and two others, were come, because they not being able to endure the fatigue of the journey, he had given them leave to return, and hearing they were not, he concluded the savages had killed them. We were also informed that the Sieur Biborel had strayed and was lost, so that there had been no news of him since ; that one of M. de la Salle's servants had been dragged down to the bottom of the water and devoured by an alligator, and that four others had deserted and abandoned M. de la Salle, when he was about the country of the Cenis.
This was a very dismal and deplorable account ; but the even temper of our chief made all men easy, and he found, by his great vivacity of spirit, expedients which revived the lowest ebb of hope. He rejoiced at the return and sight of M. Chedeville ; he was pleased at the recovering of his clothes and part of his papers ; and after some time of rest, he proposed to undertake a journey towards the
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Illinois, and to make it the main business, by the way, to find the Mississippi ; but it was thought proper to let the great heats pass before that enterprise was taken in hand.
In the mean time he gave orders to stake about a place to make a new magazine, or storehouse. He put to that use the timber I had caused to be cut, and would have more provided for the same use. Detachments being sent to work, seven or eight of our men, who were sent with the Sieur Barbier, were discovered by the savages, who being superior in number, made as if they would hem them in ; but each of our men having taken a tree upon their shoulders and fired their pieces, which made one of the natives drop, the others took him up and withdrew. Yet it was not long before they were revenged, for they killed us two men, one of them close by our dwelling, and the other, who bad separated from the rest of the company to gather purslain, and could not be relieved.
There being every day some discourse of the journey to the Illinois, M. de la Salle asked me one day whether I would make one of the company, and go by the way of Canada to France for succors. I assured him I was entirely devoted to his will, and would faithfully attend him. Then he began by degrees to provide what he thought necessary for that expedition. I had two pair of sheets which he took to make him linen. Canvas clothes were made of the sails of the bark La Belle. The Sieur Duhaut having linen, he took some to distribute among several persons. Thus he hasted on the execution of his design, but an accident put it off.
It was occasioned by a flux which troubled M. de la Salle, who, having told me he could not perform that journey as long as he continued in such condition, I offered to undertake it for him, if he would allow me his Indian, and about fifteen men ; but he answered, that his presence was requisite among the Illinois, and that it was requisite his brother should go to France. Thus he refused my offer, and could not shun the ill fate of that journey.
We spent some time longer after this manner, during which there arose a controversy about the privileges the King grants to the first-born of the French colonies in America. The Sieur Barbier's wife was with child, and he claimed the privilege granted for that child. The widow Talon had a child born in the passage from France to America, and alleged that her child, though born before our arrival, ought to be preferred ; but the Sieur Barbier's wife miscarrying, the dispute was not decided.
M. de la Salle being recovered of his indisposition, preparations
10
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were again made for his journey ; but we first kept the Christmas holydays. The midnight mass was solemnly sung, and on twelfth day, we cried, the king drinks (according to the custom of France), though we had only water ; when that was over we began to think of setting out. M. de la Salle gave the command of the settlement to the Sieur Barbier, directing him what he was to do and observe in his absence.
There remained in that habitation, the Fathers Maximus and Ze-nobius, Recollets, M. Chedeville the priest, the Marquis de la Sablon-niere, the Sieur Barbier, commander, his wife, a surgeon and others, to the number of twenty, among whom were seven women or maidSj and only the Sieur Barbier married ; which is much short of the number some have given out remained in the dwelling, without any ground; for the truth is, there were no more, and particularly no natives, M. de la Salle having absolutely forbidden holding any communication with them. As for beasts they amounted to seventy, or seventy-five swine, great and small, which was a good stock ; for fowl, eighteen or twenty hens ; some casks of meal, which was kept for the sick ; powder, ball, and eight pieces of cannon, without any bullets.
We set out the 12th of January, in the year 3 687, being seventeen in number, viz. M. de la Salle, M. Cavelier, the priest, his brother, Father Anastasius, the Recollet, MM. Moranget and Cavelier, nephews to M. de la Salle, the Sieurs Dehaut, the elder, L'Arcleveque, Hiens, Liotot, surgeon, young Talon, an Indian, and a footman belonging to M. de la Salle, &c. We carried along with us part of the best things every man had, and what was thought would be of use, wherewith the five horses were loaded, and we took our leaves with so much tenderness and sorrow, as if we had all presaged that we should never sec each other more. Father Zenobius was the person who expressed it to me most significantly, saying, he had never been so sensibly touched at parting with anybody.
We went that day to the place we called Le Boucon, because there we had often dried flesh (which the French call boucanner from the Indian word). This place was not far from our habitation. The 13th we crossed a plain, about two leagues over, where we saw several herds of beeves and flocks of goats, turkeys, bustards, and other sorts of wild fowl. Wo met with marshy lands, which tired our horses, and came to a wood that terminates the plain, across which runs a branch of a river full of reeds, by M. de la Salle called the
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Princess's river. That branch joins the other, and they both fell together into the bay of St. Louis.
We killed five beeves at the entrance into the wood, forded the river, and encamped half a league beyond it, whence M. de la Salle sent men with the horses to bring the flesh of the bullocks we had killed ; the hides of them, which served to cover us, being very useful against a violent shower of rain that fell.
The 14th, the rain ceasing, we travelled over another spacious plain, where there is a multitude of beeves and wild fowl. We saw several tracks, leading every way, made by the bullocks, of which we saw several herds, some moving on hastily, and others running outright, which made us suppose they were driven by the natives. In short, having halted to help up one of our horses that had fallen, we saw an Indian following them very close. M. de la Salle caused a horse to be immediately unloaded, which a man mounted, rode after, overtook, and brought the Indian.
When the savage saw himself among us, he concluded he was a lost man ; he quaked for fear, and not without reason, for most of our men had resolved to kill him; M. de la Salle opposed it, alleging that we were but a small number, that very few were left behind at the habitation, and therefore we ought not to render ourselves odious to the natives, but to use them kindly, that we might have peace ; an infallible maxim, the practice of which might have been fortunate to him, had he followed it sooner.
He therefore caused a fire to be made, gave him to eat and smoke, and afterwards a bit of roll-tobacco, and some other trifles. M. de la Salle gave him to understand that he came not to hurt any man, but to settle peace in all places, and so dismissed him. The Indian recovered himself a little of his fright, but being still dubious what his fate might be, he at first walked away gently, still looking about him, and when at a good distance made off as fast as he could. We held on our way, and soon after saw another Indian running after the bullocks. M. de la Salle caused him to be taken, brought to us, and treated as the first had been.
We had not gone far before we spied a company of natives coming towards us, on our left, but we held on our way till they were over against us, when M. de la Salle caused us to halt. The savages seeing us halt, stood still also, which M. de la Salle perceiving, he laid his firelock on the ground, and advanced towards them, making signs to him that commanded them, who was a handsome man, to draw near. That Indian came forward, and was followed by the
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rest, all of them caressing us after their manner, which we returned the best we were able, and then made them smoke.
Next M. de la Salle gave them to understand, that we were going towards the Cenis, that we desired to be at peace with them all, and that we would return to our own country, whence we would bring them all they had occasion for. Then we distributed among them some bits of roll-tobacco, some strings of beads, and knives, which they seemed to be pleased with, and all this was done by signs. Then every man went his own way. We advanced half a league farther, to get into a wood, where M. de la Salle had encamped when he went that way before ; we cut down trees to secure our post, and lay there that night.
Before our entrenchment was finished, we discovered, first one Indian, then two, and afterwards three, coming one after another ; which giving M. de la Salle some jealousy, he caused us to handle our arms, with orders to stand upon our guard, for fear of being surprised, and went towards them. They signified to him, that their people had told them we did not hurt anybody, which was very well, and that they were come to see us. They were entertained as the others had been, and then signs were made to them to withdraw, because night drew on, and having observed that they took notice of our fortifying ourselves, we kept a good guard all the night, without any disturbance.
The 15th, we marched on, intending to find out a ford, in the river called the Princess, where M. de la Salle had passed before ; but missing it, and the river being swollen, we were obliged to go up higher, sometimes crossing curious meadows, and sometimes woods of tall trees of several sorts, but all young, of the same thickness, and straight, looking as if they had been planted by a line. The river running through the midst of those curious shady groves, which were also watered by several little brooks of very clear and good water, afforded a most delightful landscape.
We also met with some woods so thick, that it was requisite to hew a passage for the horses. Towards the evening we killed a bullock, and went to encamp in a little coppice, with our usual precautions.
The 16th, we continued our journey, still following the river upwards, and from time to time meeting the same sort of pasture grounds and the obstacles of woods, where we were fain to cut our way through, which fatigued us very much ; but the plenty of wild fowl, and particularly of turkeys, whereof we killed many, was an
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ease to our sufferings, and help to bear our toil with more satisfaction.
The 17th was a very toilsome day's journey, by reason of the woods and rivulets we were to cross ; after which we came to a little hill, on which there were 2 or 300 cottages of the natives. Those huts were like large ovens, consisting of long poles stuck in the earth in a circle, and joining above to make the dome or round top. They had been dwellings of the natives, who being gone, had .carried away the hides that covered them, and the mats which are used to hang the insides, and to make their beds of.
After a march of some hours, our Indian having found a herd of beeves, we killed seven or eight, took the best of the meat, and held on our way across a wood. We forded a branch of the river, and proceeded to the bank of another, the bottom whereof being foul, we encamped on the edge of it, and the rain falling at night and continuing all the next day, were obliged to stay there.
The 19th, the rain ceasing, we proceeded through a thick fog, and over places where the water was often up to our knees, and sometimes higher ; which, together with our being forced to cut the way athwart the bushes, with our hatchets, gave us inexpressible trouble, and it had been much greater, had we not resolved to follow the ways beaten by the bullocks, whom a natural instinct always leads to those parts which are easiest to pass.
We were not free from another inconveniency in those tracts, which was their being full of water and very rugged, a thing no way agreeable to our shoes, which were no other than a piece of bullock's hide or goat's skin quite green, whereof we made a sort of buskins, to serve instead of shoes, but when those wretched boots were dried by the heat, upon our feet, they hurt us very much, and we were often obliged to set our feet in the water, to soften those buskins. However, we marched all the day, notwithstanding all those inconveniences, without finding a proper place to encamp, and at last came to a river, whose high bank afforded us a spot to rest on.
The 20th, a small rain did not obstruct our march, and having crossed a wood, half a league athwart, and a marsh of the same extent, we came into a large plain, cut across by great tracks of bullocks, which went towards the river, and made us suppose there might be a ford. We followed that way, but found the river so swollen, and its stream so rapid, that it was impossible to cross it, but were obliged to halt upon its bank, whence we went to hunt bullocks, whereof we had no want, nor of turkeys and other wild fowl.
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The 21st, we proceeded up that river, and found a narrow place, near which we hewed down a tree, making it fall so as to reach from the one bank to the other, in the nature of a plank, and handed our baggage from one to another over it. The horses swam over, and we encamped on the other side, near a very beautiful plain.
Whilst we were hewing down some little wood to entrench ourselves, we heard a voice, whereupon, handling our arms and going to the place where we heard it, we saw a company of fifteen savages, who were coming towards us, and made signs to us to go to them, laying down their bows, in token of peace. We also made our sign to them to draw near ; they did so, and caressed us after their manner. We made them sit down and smoke, after which M. de la Salle began to converse with them by signs, and by help of some words of the language of the Cenis, which he was skilful in, he understood that these were their neighbors and allies ; that their village was not far off, and that their nation was called Hebahamo. Some small presents were given them, and they withdrew, promising to return the next day.
The 22d, our horses being spent and hurt, and we much tired, the day was given to rest, and the natives did not fail to come, being twenty-five in number, some of whom had bucklers or targets made of the strongest part of the bullocks' hides. They gave us to understand that they were engaged in war towards the N.W., and told us they had seen men like us, who were but ten days' journey from that place. Other tokens they gave made us suppose it was New Spain that they talked of.
M. de la Salle took several words of their language, which is very different from that of the Cenis, and more difficult. As for their customs, they are much alike. In fine, having shown us, that towards the N.W. we should meet with plains, where the wav would be easier, and we should shun the woods, we gave them to eat, and some presents, and they took leave of us. A rain falling and holding all the night, we did not march the 24th. The 25th, we travelled not far, by reason of the rains continuing, and that there were several rivers in the way much swollen.
The 26th, we proceeded on our journey, and came to the river called La Sablonniere, from the many sand banks there are in it. The 27th, departing from it, we came to another little narrow river, but very deep ; going up higher we found a ford, and went to encamp beyond it, in a little wood, where we had a very bad night, because of the rain which fell again, and the overflowing of the
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river, which obliged us to make a little sort of scaffold, to lay our powder and clothes on, that they might not be wet. The next day being the 28th, observing that the water was still rising, we decamped to go a league farther, to a higher ground, where we made a great fire to warm and dry us.
We took notice the country was very good, the plains extending as far as the eye could reach, and adorned with many little coppices, affording a very agreeable prospect. We marched over part of them the 29th and 30th ; after three hours' travel, found a way full of water, which obliged us to encamp on the bank of a river ; passed it the 31st, and encamped in a wood close by.
The next day, being the first of February, 1687, M. de la Salle left me to guard the camp, and took along with him M. Cavelier, his brother, and seven men, to go see whether he could find anybody in several cottages our hunters had discovered. He found twenty-four or twenty-five of them, built round like those I have before mentioned, standing on a rising ground, almost encompassed by the river, in each of which there were four or five men, and several women and children.
The savages were somewhat surprised at M. delaSalle's coming; however, they received him in a friendly manner, and conducted him to their commander's hut, which was immediately filled with people, who came to see him. The elders came together there, bullocks' hides were laid upon the ground, on which they made M. de la Salle and his company sit. They gave them hung beef to eat, and then signified to them that some of their allies had given them notice of our being in this country, and that we were going to the Cenis, and they had imagined that we would pass through their country.
M. de la Salle presented them with some knives and bits of tobacco, and they gave him bullocks' hides, very well dressed with the hair ; they gave one for a knife, and would have given many more, but that we told them that we had no conveniency to carry them, and that if they had any horses, he would give them axes in exchange. They answered, they had but two, which they could not part with. It being late when M. de la Salle returned, we stayed there the rest of the day, and several Indians came to see us, in hopes of receiving some present, offering us bullocks' hides dressed, which we would not burden ourselves with.
The second, we set out again, and halted some time in that village,
, where, by the way, we bartered for some collars, or a sort of knots
made of bullocks' hides well dressed, which the natives make use of
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to cany their burdens, whether of wood, utensils, or the meat they kill. They proved of use both to us and our horses, because the thongs of those collars served to make fast our burdens.
We proceeded on our journey, through a country pleasant enough, but sandy, and having crossed a large plain, came to the bank of a fine river, called La Maligne, or the Mischievous, because in M. de la Salle's former journey, an alligator devoured one of his servants, who was swimming over it. This river is as wide as the Seine at Rouen, seems to be very navigable, and has a very pleasant country about it. We encamped in a little wood adjoining to it, and barked the aspen trees to hut.
Our hunters killed beeves, wild goats, turkeys, and other wildfowl ; and among the rest, some creatures as big as an indifferent cat, very like a rat, having a bag under their throat, in which they carry their young. They feed upon nuts and acorns, are very fat, and their flesh is much like pig.
Hard by there, we found a place where M. de la Salle, in his former journey, had hid some parcels of strings of beads in the trunks of trees, and we rested there till the eighth of the month. During that time, no day passed without seeing some of the natives, who sometimes spent the whole day with us, and said they were of several nations. We made them smoke, and always gave them some small presents. They admired that after we had written down some words they spoke to us, we repeated them, looking on the paper.
Whilst we stayed, M. de la Salle set men at work to make a portable canoe, of long poles, hewed and joined, and then covered with bullocks' hides sewed together, having pulled off the hair or wool, as it may be called there. That canoe was of great use to us, to cross rivers, as well for ourselves as for our baggage, but the horses swam over.
The ninth, we put our canoe into the water, and passed the river in it, and encamped half a league from thence, on account of the grass, which our horses stood in need of to recover themselves a little. The tenth, we held on our journey, crossing several spacious plains, the grass whereof was burnt, whence M. de la Salle concluded that there were many natives thereabouts. He thought it convenient to provide a store of dried flesh, for fear we should not find game in the country we were.going to enter upon, and accordingly caused several beeves to be killed for that purpose.
For that reason, we continued there till the 12th, when we went
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and encamped on the bank of a river, which M. de la Salle had in his former journey called d'Eure. At night there arose a storm, followed by thunder and rain, which swelled the streams, and obliged us to stay there. The 13th and 14th, we crossed four or five large rivulets, and then a fine curious country, diversified with several little woods, hills, and small brooks, affording a delightful prospect. That pleasant country was terminated by a wood, which we were to cross, and were favored in it by a way beaten by the bullocks, and at night we encamped there.
The 15th, we travelled along a fine meadow, then over plains that had been burnt, and at night went to take our rest on the bank of a small rivulet, about which we saw several footsteps of natives, which made us conclude we were not far from them ; and therefore we doubled our guard, to prevent being surprised.
The 16th, M. de la Salle left me at the guard of the camp, and took M. Cavelier his brother, and seven men with him, to go find out the Indians. They had not gone half a league before they spied horses and a number of cottages, without being themselves seen by the savages. That village stood on the side of a hill, and contained about forty huts, standing together, besides several others straggling.
When M. de la Salle entered the village, the savages seeing him, came to meet and conduct him to the cottage of their chief, where he and his company were seated on bullocks' hides. The elders being come, he signified to them the occasion of his coming, as he had done the other nations, with which they seemed to rest satisfied. Some presents were made them, according to custom, and they offered him a quantity of hides, which he refused, telling them, that when he returned from the Cenis he would trade with, and furnish them with all they had occasion for. They confirmed what the others had told us, concerning a nation, where some of them had been, the men whereof were like us, meaning the Spaniards: He named to them the nations we had passed through from our dwelling of St. Louis, to the river Maligne, which we had lately passed. The names of those nations are as follows :
The Spicheats, Kabayes, Thecamons, Theauremets, Kiahoba, Choumenes, Kouans, Arhan, Enepiahe, Ahonerhopiheim, Korenkakey Korkone, Omeaoffe, Keremen, Ahehoen, Maghai, Thecamenes, Oteh- ' marhem, Kavagan and Meracouman. These are the nations that lay on our road ; those on the west and north-west of the said river, were the Kannehonan, Tohaka, Pehir, Coyabegux, Onapien, Pichar,
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Tohan, Kiaffess, Chanzes, Tsera, Bocrettes, Tsepehoen, Fercouteha, Panego, Petao, Petzares, Peisacho, Peihoum and Orcampion.
Those we were with then, were called Teao, whom we had not before heard named. They talked of a great nation called Ayona and Canohatino, who were at war with the Spaniards, from whom they stole horses, and told us, that one hundred Spaniards were to have come to join the Cenis, to carry on that war, but that having heard of our march, they went back. M. de la Salle gave them to understand, that we were at war with the Spaniards, and that we feared them not ; and that he was sent on their account by the great captain of the world, who had charged him to do them all good, and to assist them in their wars against such nations as were their enemies.
Those savages gave M. de la Salle notice, that he would find three of our men among the Cenis, which put him in hopes they were those he had given leave to depart at his former journey, and of whom he never since heard. He proposed to them to barter for horses ; but they had caused them to be conveyed out of the way, for fear we should take them away, excepting only one bay, which M. de la Salle agreed for and returned to us.
The 17th, we passed a small river, with some difficulty, and encamped beyond it. The 18th, one of our horses going along the edge of an upright bank, fell into the water, and came off with only a hurt on the shoulder ; but we were fain to unload him, and distribute his burden among us, every one making a pack ; and thus we crossed a curious plain diversified with woods, hills, rivulets, and delightful meadows.
The 19th, we travelled along the tops of those hills, to avoid the bottoms, and found a difficulty to get down, by reason of the rocks we met with at the end of them, and a river we were to cross. Whilst we were passing that river, we heard dogs hunting the bullocks, two of which coming near us, one of them was shot dead. The natives who were hunting spying us, sent out two of their number, who, creeping from tree to tree, drew near, and then stood still, without daring to proceed any further. We made signs to them to come, which they did, and we made them smoke till M. de la Salle returned, being gone a little way to observe the body of those people.
When come, he told them he would entertain peace with them, that we were going to the Cenis, and he believed that these very men were of their nation, because they had their accent and some of their words. They told him their village was near that place,
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and bore us company to our camp, where, after some small presents given them, they were dismissed.
The 20th, M. de la Salle sent M. Moranget and some others to the village of those natives, to try whether they could barter with them for some horses. In the meantime two savages came to us, one of them being the same that was with us the night before, and they expressed much friendship for us. That particular Indian told us his name was Palaqueehaune, that they were allies to the Cenis, that their chief had been among the Choumans with the Spaniards ; that the Choumans were friends to the Spaniards, from whom they got horses, and added some farther particulars, which the others had before signified to us ; so that we had good reason to judge we were not far from North Mexico.
He also told us, that the Choumans had given their chief some presents to persuade him to conduct us to them ; that most of the said nation had flat heads ; that they had Indian corn, which gave M. de la Salle ground to believe, that those people were some of the same he had seen upon his first discovery. That same native had a very fine goat's skin, which I purchased of him for four needles, after I had shown him how to use them, and that skin was of good use to make us shoes instead of raw bullocks' hides.
Some time after M. Moranget returned, gave M. de la Salle an account of his short journey, and said that one of the natives, who saw us the night before, came to meet and conduct him to the chief's cottage, where forty ancient Indians were, by whom he had been kindly received ; that the chief had in his hand a reed, at the end whereof was made fast a leaf of a French book, which he had an extraordinary respect for ; that they had been made to sit on bullocks' hides, and treated with dried beef.
That after these first ceremonies, the chief had given them to understand that some of their people had been conducted, by a man like us, to our habitation, and that the said man had promised to bring them to talk with us, in order to treat of peace ; but that, on the contrary, we had fired on them and killed one of their men, which had obliged them to kill the man that led them, and that then they returned. It is not improper here to put the reader in mind, that I have before mentioned this accident, when the Sieur Barbier, crossing the river in a canoe, was called upon by some person, who was among the natives on the bank of the river, who had made two shots, as it had been only the priming of a piece, which the Sieur Barbier had looked upon as an insult, and therefore he had also
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fired, with all the other particulars, as mentioned before ; an accident that happened for want of understanding one another ; which, together with M. de la Salle's forbidding us to have any communication with the natives, was very prejudicial to us afterwards.
After much other discourse, M. Moranget having given them some small presents, they made their return in bullocks' hides, and goats' skins well dressed. He asked them for some horses to barter ; they answered, they had no more than what they stood in need of. We immediately proceeded on our journey, and that day being the 21st, went to encamp at the edge of a wood.
The 22d, we went up to an eminence, terminated by a rock, at the foot whereof ran a little river, the bottom whereof was all of flat rocks, fit for building. Thence we descried two natives driving of bullocks, which made us stand upon our guard, and it appeared to be our Indian, who had met another, with whom he had been acquainted among the Cenis, and whom he had brought along with him.
M. de la Salle was very glad to see him, and remembered he was one of those of whom he had purchased a horse. He asked several questions of him, and among the rest, whether he had not seen the four men who deserted in his former journey, or heard any talk of the others, to whom he had given leave to return to our dwelling. He answered, he had seen one among the Cenis, and two others among the Assonis ; but that he had not heard of any more, and that they must needs be dead ; as also the Sieur Biborel, who was likewise mentioned to him.
He further told us that there were four or five cottages thereabouts, in which about fifteen men resided. At night he went away. Our Indian had killed a cow at a great distance, and shot her quite through, at which the other, who had been an eyewitness to it, stood a long time amazed, without speaking one word, admiring the effect of our pieces. That cow was sent for, and the flesh brought to our camp.
The 23d, we passed by the cottages we had been told of, where the natives were with their wives and children. M. de la Salle caused us to halt in the village. We were well received ; they presented us with dried beef, and we returned it in some knives. We saw two horses, one of them a little grey, indifferent handsome. They told us they would soon depart that place, to go join their companions, who were in war with their enemies. The rest of our men being come up, we went on to encamp a league from thence,
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on the bank of a rivulet, and at the foot of one of the highest mountains in the country.
Unloading our horses, we perceived there wanted a large axej which served us for hewing down trees. M. de la Salle sent his Indian to demand it, at the village we came from last ; the savages said they had not seen it, and it was lost. He brought back word that the savages had told him that if we would stay for them, they would go along with, and show us the way.
However, we went on the 24th, and encamped on the edge of a marsh. The 25th, the rain hindered us from marching. The 26th, M. de la Salle perceiving how difficult and dangerous it was to cross that marsh, sent his Indian to the others, to know whether they really designed to go with us. They answered, we must return thither to join them. The 27th, we decamped, in order to it ; but took another way to go meet the Indians. The 28th, we saw them marching at a distance. One of them was detached to come tell us, that he would show us the way to cross the marsh, and we went on and encamped at the foot of the high mountain I have spoken of.
The 1st of March we joined the Indians, on the edge of the marsh, which we had just crossed, where the rains kept us till the 5th, during which time we went to find out where we might pass a rapid torrent that discharges itself into the river, called Canoes, which we passed the 6th, in the canoe we had made, and which did us good service, to pass other rivers we met with, the 7th and the 8th, on our way.
The 9th, we did not stir, because of the rain. The 10th, encamped on the bank of a small river, which we crossed the 11th, and the same day another, and encamped on the bank of it, and found it adorned with very fine mulberry trees. The 12th, wo crossed another river, and encamped near it. The 13th, came again to the river of Canoes, so called by M. de la Salle, because he the first time put canoes into it, at his former journey. We passed it the 14th, and encamped on the other side, where we again joined the Indians.
The 15th, we held on our journey with them, and found a plea santer country than that we had passed through ; and M. de la Salle having, in his former journey, hid some Indian wheat and beans, two or three leagues from that place, and our provisions beginning to fall short, it was thought fit to go to that place. Accordingly he ordered the Sieurs Duhaut, Hiens, Liotot, the surgeon, his own Indian, and his footman, whose name was Saget, who were followed
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by some natives, to go to the place he described to them, where they found all rotten, and quite spoilt.
The 16th, in their return, they met with two bullocks, which M. de la Salle's Indian killed, whereupon they sent back his footman, to give him notice of what they had killed, that if he would have the flesh dried he might send horses for it. The 17th, M. de la Salle had the horses taken up, and ordered the Sieurs Moranget and De Male, and his footman, to go for that meat, and send back a horseload immediately, till the rest was dried.
M. Moranget, when he came thither, found they had smoked both the beeves, though they were not dry enough ; and the said Sieurs Liotot, Hiens, Duhaut, and the rest, had laid aside the marrow-bones and others to roast them, and eat the flesh that remained on them, as was usual to do. The Sieur Moranget found fault with it ; he in a passion seized not only the flesh that was smoked and dried, but also the bones, without giving them anything ; but, on the contrary, threatening they should not eat so much of it, as they had imagined, and that he would manage that flesh after another manner.
This passionate behavior, so much out of season, and contrary to reason and custom, touched the Surgeon Liotot, Heins, and Duhaut, to the quick, they having other causes of complaint against Moranget. They withdrew, and resolved together upon a bloody revenge; they agreed upon the manner of it, and concluded they would murder the Sieur Moranget, M. de la Salle's footman, and his Indian, because he was very faithful to him.
They waited till night, when those unfortunate creatures had supped and were asleep. Liotot, the surgeon, was the inhuman executioner ; he took an axe, and began by the Sieur Moranget, giving him many strokes on the head ; the same he did by the footman and the Indian, killing them on the spot, whilst his fellow villains, viz., Duhaut, Hiens, Teissier, and Larchevaque, stood upon their guard, with their arms, to fire upon such as should make any resistance. The Indian and the footman never stirred, but the Sieur Moranget had so much vigor as to sit up, but without being able to speak one word ; and the assassins obliged the Sieur de Marie to make an end of him, though he was not in the conspiracy.
This slaughter had yet satisfied but one part of the revenge of those murderers. To finish it, and secure themselves, it was requisite to destroy the commander-in-ehief. They consulted about the safest method to effect it, and resolved to go together to M. de la Salle, to knock out the brains of the most resolute immediately, and then it
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would be easier to overcome the rest. But the river, which was between them and us, being much swollen, the difficulty of passin" it made them put it off the 18th and 19th. On the other hand, M. de la Salle was very uneasy, on account of their long stay. His impatience made him resolve to go himself to find out his people, and to know the cause of it.
This was not done without many previous tokens of concern and apprehension. He seemed to have some presage of his misfortune, inquiring of some, whether the Sieur Liotot, Hiens, and Duhaut, had not expressed some discontent ; and not hearing anything of it, he could not forbear setting out the 20th, with Father Anastasius and an Indian, leaving me the command in his absence, and charging me from time to time to go the rounds about our camp, to prevent being surprised, and to make a smoke for him to direct his way in case of need. When he came near the dwelling of the murderers, looking out sharp to discover something, he observed eagles fluttering about a spot not far from them, which made him believe they had found some carrion about the mansion, and he fired a shot, which was the signal of his death, and forwarded it.
The conspirators hearing the shot, concluded it was M. de la Salle, who was come to seek them. They made ready their arms, and provided to surprise him. Duhaut passed the river, with Larcheveque. The first of them spying M. de la Salle at a distance, as he was coining towards them, advanced and hid themselves among the high weeds, to wait his passing by, so that M. de la Salle, suspecting nothing, and having not so much as charged his piece again, saw the aforesaid Larcheveque at a good distance from him, and immediately asked for his nephew Moranget, to which Larcheveque answered, that he was along the river. At the same time the traitor Duhaut fired his piece and shot M. de la Salle through the head, so that he dropped down dead on the spot, without speaking one word.
Father Anastasius, who was then by his side, stood stock still in a fright, expecting the same fate, and not knowing whether ho should go forwards or backwards; but the murderer Duhaut put him out of that dread, bidding him not to fear, for no hurt was intended him ; that it was despair that had prevailed with him to do what he saw ; that he had long desired to be revenged on Moranget, because he had designed to ruin him, and that he was partly the occasion of his uncle's death. This is the exact relation of that murder, as it was presently after told me by Father Anastasius.
Such was the unfortunate end of M. de la Salle's life, at a time when
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r! i ' '
he might entertain the greatest hopes, as the reward of his labors. He had a capacity and talent to make his enterprise successful; his constancy and courage, and his extraordinary knowledge in arts and sciences, which rendered him fit for anything, together with an indefatigable body, which made him surmount all difficulties, would have procured a glorious issue to his undertaking, had not all those excellent qualities been counterbalanced by too haughty a behavior, which sometimes made him insupportable, and by a rigidness towards those that were under his command, which at last drew on him implacable hatred, and was the occasion of his death.
The shot which had killed M. de la Salle was also a signal of the murder to the assassins for them to draw near. They all repaired to the place where the wretched dead corpse lay, which they barbarously stripped to the shirt, and vented their malice in vile and opprobrious language. The surgeon, Liotot, said several times in scorn and derision, " There thou liest, great bassa, there thou liest." In conclusion, they dragged it naked among the bushes, and left it exposed to the ravenous wild beasts. So far was it from what a certain author writes, of their having buried him, and set up a cross on his grave.
When those murderers had satiated their rage, they set out to come to us at our camp, with the dried flesh which they had caused to be brought over the river by the Indians, who had been spectators of the murder, and of all the inhuman actions that had been committed, with amazement and contempt of us. When they were come to the camp they found MM. Cavelier, the one brother, the other nephew, to the murdered commander, whom Father Anastasius acquainted with the dismal end of our chief, and enjoined them silence, which it is easy to imagine was very hard upon them ; but it was absolutely necessary.
However, M. Cavelier, the priest, could not forbear telling them, that if they would do the same by him he would forgive them his murder, and only desired them to give him a quarter of an hour to prepare himself. They answered, they had nothing to say to him ; that what they had done was the effect of despair, to be revenged for the ill usage they had received.
I was absent at that time ; he they called Larcheveque, who, as I have said, was one of the conspirators, had some kindness for me, and knowing they designed to make me away too, if I stood upon my defence, he parted from them, to give me notice of their mischievous resolution. He found me on a little rising ground, where I was looking upon our horses as they grazed in a little adjacent bot-
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torn. His intelligence struck me to the heart, not knowing whether I should fly or stay ; but at length, having neither powder, nor shot, nor arms, and the said Larcheveque giving me assurances of my life, provided I was quiet and said nothing, I committed myself to God's protection, and went to them, without taking any notice of what had been done.
Duhaut, puffed up with his new gotten authority, procured him by his villainy, as soon as he saw me cried out, " Every man ought to command in his turn ;" to which I made no answer ; and we were all of us obliged to stifle our resentment, that it might not appear, for our lives depended on it. However, it was easy to judge with what eyes Father Anastasius, MM. Cavelier, and I, beheld these murderers, to whom we expected every moment to fall sacrifices. It is true we dissembled so well that they were not very suspicious of us, and that the temptation we were under of making them away in revenge for those they had murdered would have easily prevailed and been put in execution, had not M. Cavelier, the priest, always positively opposed it, alleging that we ought to leave vengeance to God.
However, the murderers seized upon all the effects, without any opposition, and then we began to talk of proceeding on our journey. We decamped the 2lst, with our Indians, and marched with such a heavy rain, that we were obliged to halt on the bank of a great stream, where one of the natives that had left us arrived with his wife. We went on the 22d and 23d, and passed the river where Father Anastasius, M. Cavelier, and I, who could not swim, had been drowned but that the natives assisted and saved us. The 24th, we went on through a marshy country, never quitting a small path which led to the village of the Cenis, till the 28th, when we rested on the bank of a river of the same name, though about ten leagues distant from the village.
We had hoped to ford that river, as M. de la Salle had done, when he returned from that country ; but it was so swollen that there was no doing it, and we were forced to make a canoe of bullocks' hides. Whilst we were employed at that work, the Indians swam over and went to give notice to the Cenis of our arrival.
We found the country pleasant enough about that river, though the land did not seem to be any of the best ; but still it was delightful to the eye, well planted with fine trees of several sorts, among which is one that M. de la Salle had named Copal, being very beautiful, the leaves of it between those of the maple and the lime trees in resemblance, and from it comes a gum of a very agreeable scent.
11
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.¦I.;
In the same place we saw a great tree, on which the late M. de la Salle had caused crosses and the arms of France to be carved.
The hunting of bullocks had failed us, and we had seen none from the place where our late leader had been murdered. Thus our provisions began to fall short, and it was resolved on the 29th, to send some men before to the village of the Cenis, to know whether they had any Indian corn, and were willing to barter for it. I was appointed, with the surgeon Liotot, the Tessieers, and Hiens, who was a buccaneer M. de la Salle had taken up at Petit Gouave, to go with him upon this expedition. I was very unwilling to undertake that journey with a murderer and two of his companions, of whom I was suspicious ; but it was very requisite to obey, and Duhaut having all the effects in his possession, alleging that a great part of them belonged to him, he gave us some axes and knives to barter for Indian corn, as also for horses, if any were to be had, and accordingly we passed the river.
We found the country made up of several little hills of an indifferent height, on which there are abundance of walnut trees and oaks, not so large as what we had seen before, but very agreeable. The weeds which had been some time before burnt by the natives, began to spring up again, and discovered large green fields very pleasing to the sight.
When we had travelled some time we discovered three men on horseback, coming towards us from the village, and being come near them, saw one dressed after the Spanish fashion, with a little doublet, the body whereof was of blue, and the sleeves of white fustian, as it were embroidered, with very straight breeches, white worsted stockings, woollen garters, a broad-brimmed, flat-crowned hat, and long hair. We presently concluded he was a Spaniard, and the rather because we had been told that some of them were come to join in league with the Cenis against an enemy nation, and we were at a nonplus ; for if we fell into their hands we must never expect to get away, but be condemned to serve either in the mines, or in the quarries, in the kingdom of Mexico, for which reason we provided to give the pretended Spaniard an unkind reception, and then to make the best of our way back.
Being come up to him, I spoke some words of Spanish and Italian, to which he returned no answer ; but, on the contrary, made use of the word coussica, which, in the language of the Cenis, signifies, I do not understand you ; which answer of his removed our apprehensions. The two others were quite naked, one of them being mounted on a
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fine grey mare, and on her were besides two panniers, handsomely made of reeds, full of very fine meal parched, or roasted. After several questions, to which we had no very satisfactory answers, we lighted fire to make them smoke, and then they presented us with the two panniers full of meal, giving us to understand that their chief expected us in the village, and having signified that they were sent to meet us, we gave them some knives and strings of beads.
We asked them whether they had any men among them like him that was a horseback in the Spanish habit ; they answered, there were two in a neighboring nation, called Assony, and that he who was clad, had been in their country, and brought thence the clothes we saw him wear. That man then showed us a Spanish printed paper, containing the indulgences granted to the missioners of New Mexico. After this they left us to go on, to our people, for which reason I wrote a note, giving an account of our having met them.
We alighted to eat, and let our horses graze on the bank of a rivulet ; but it was not long before the same natives, who had been with us before, appeared again hard by us. We made signs to them to draw near and eat with us ; which they did, and then went along with us towards the village, which we would not go into, because it was night. The Indian that was clad, stayed all night with us, and the two others went away.
When it was day, we held on our way to the village ; the Indian that was with us conducting us to their chief's cottage. By the way, we saw many other cottages, and the elders coming to meet us in their formalities, which consisted in some goats' skins dressed and painted of several colors, which they wore on their shoulders like belts, and plumes of feathers of several colors, on their heads, like coronets. Six or seven of them had square sword blades, like the Spanish, on the hilts whereof* they had fastened great plumes of feathers, and several hawk's bells ; some of them had clubs, which they call head-breakers, some only their bows and arrows ; others, bits of white linen, reaching from shoulder to shoulder. All their faces ¦f were daubed with black or red. There were twelve elders who walked in the middle, and the youth and warriors in ranks, on the sides of those old men.
Being come up to us in that manner, he that conducted us made a sign for us to halt, which, when we had done, all the old men lifted up their right hands above their heads, crying out in a most ridiculous manner ; but it behoved us to have a care of laughing. That done, they came and embraced us, using all sorts of endearments.
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Then they made us smoke, and brought to us a Frenchman of Provence, who was one of those that had forsaken the late M. de la Salle, at his first journey.
The whole company conducted us after the same manner, to their chief's cottage ; and after we had stayed there a short time, they led us to a larger cottage, a quarter of a league from thence, being the hut in which they have their public rejoicings, and the great assemblies. We found it furnished with mats for us to sit on. The elders seated themselves round about us, and they brought us to eat some sagamite, which is their pottage, little beans, bread made of Indian corn, and another sort they make with boiled flour, and at last they made us smoke. )(
During our repast, they entertained us with the discourse of their design to make war on a nation, who were their enemies, and whom they called Cannokantimo. When it was over, we presented them, according to custom, with some knives and strings of beads for their wives. We desired them to afford us some Indian corn in exchange for other things, which they promised, and the Frenchman who was with them, having told us that there was a district which afforded more corn than that where we were, and where his cottage was, we resolved to go thither. We proposed it to the elders, who would needs go along with us, attended by a great number of youth, and having got ready our horses, we set out for that place.
By the way, we saw several cottages at certain distances, straggling up and down, as the ground happens to be fit for tillage. The field lies about the cottage, and at other distances there are other large huts not inhabited, but only serving for public assemblies, either upon occasion of rejoicings, or to consult about peace and war.
The cottages that are inhabited, are not each of them for a private family, for in some of them there are fifteen or twenty, each of which has its nook or corner, bed and other utensils to itself; but without any partition to separate it from the rest. However, they have nothing in common besides the fire, which is in the midst of the hut,' and never goes out. It is made of great trees, the ends whereof are laid together, so that when once lighted, it lasts a long time, and the first comer takes care to keep it up.
The cottages are round at the top, after the manner of a bee-hive, or a rick of hay. Some of them are sixty feet diameter. In order to build them they plant trees as thick as a man's thigh, tall and straight, and placing them in a circle, and joining the tops together
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from the dome or round top, then they lash and cover them with weeds. When they remove their dwellings, they generally burn the cottages they leave, and build new on the ground they design to inhabit.
Their moveables are some bullocks' hides and goat skins well cured, some mats close wove, wherewith they adorn their huts, and some earthen vessels which they are very skilful at making, and wherein they boil their flesh or roots, or sagamise, which, as has been said, is their pottage. They have also some small baskets made of canes, serving to put in their fruit and other provisions. Their beds are made of canes, raised two or three feet above the ground, handsomely fitted with mats and bullocks' hides, or goat skins well cured, which serve them for feather beds, or quilts and blankets ; and those beds are parted one from another by mats hung up.
When they design to till the ground, they give one another notice, and very often above a hundred of each sex meet together. When they have tilled that piece of land, after their manner, and spent part of the day, those the land belongs to give the others to eat, and then they spend the rest of the day in dancing and merry making. This same is practised from canton to canton, and so they till the land all together.
This tillage consists in breaking up just the surface of the earth with a sort of wooden instrument, like a little pickaxe, which they make by splitting the end of a thick piece of wood, that serves for a handle, and putting another piece of wood sharp pointed at one end into the slit. This instrument serves them instead of a hoe, or spade, for they have no iron tools. When the land has been thus tilled or broken up, the women sow and plant the Indian com, beans, pompions, water melons, and other grain and garden ware, which is for their sustenance.
The India.! ¦ are generally handsome, but disfigure themselves by ...aking scoivs or streaks on their faces, from the top of the forehead down the nose to the tip of the chin ; which is done by pricking the skin with needles, or other sharp instruments, till it bleeds, whereon they strew fine powder of charcoal, and that sinks in and mixes with the blood within the skin. They also make, after the same manner, the figures of living creatures, of leaves and flowers on their shoulders, thighs, and other pans of their bodies, and paint themselves, as has been said before, with black or red, and sometimes both together.
The women are generally well shaped, and would not be disagreeable, did they adhere to nature, but they disguise themselves as ridi-
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culously as the men, not only with the streak they have like them down their face, but by other figures they make on it, at the corners of their eyes, and on other parts of their bodies, whereof they make more particular show on their bosom, and those who have the most, are reckoned the handsomest, though that pricking in that part be extremely painful to them.
It is they that do all the vork in the cottage, either in pounding the Indian corn and baking the meal, or making the pottage of the said meal, by them called sagamite, or in dressing their other provisions, or drying, or parching, or smoking their flesh, fetching the wood they have occasion for, or the flesh of bullocks, or other beasts killed by their husbands in the woods, which are often at a great distance, and afterwards dressing them, as has been said. They sow and plant, when the land has been broken up, and, in short, do almost all that is requisite for the support of life. I \
I did not observe that those women were naturally given to lewd-ness ; but their virtue is not proof against some of our toys, when presented them, as needles, knives, and more particularly strings of beads, whereof they make necklaces and bracelets, and that temptation is rarely resisted by them, and the less, because they have no religion or law to prohibit that vile practice. It is true their husbands, when they take them in the fact, sometimes do punish them, either by separation or otherwise ; but that is rare.
The country of those Indians being generally subject to no cold, almost all of them go naked ; unless when the north wind blows, then they cover themselves with a bullock's hide, or goat's skin cured. The women wear nothing but a skin, mat, or clout, hanging round them like a petticoat, and reaching down halfway their legs, which hides their nakedness before and behind. On their heads they have nothing but their hair platted and knotted behind.
As for their manners, it may be said of these, as of all other Indians of that great continent, that they are not mischievous, unless wronged or attacked ; in which case they are all fierce and revengeful. They watch all opportunities to be revenged, and never let any slip, when offei'ed, which is the cause of their being continually at war with their neighbors, and of that martial humor, so predominant among them.
As to the knowledge of a God, they did not seem to us to have any fixed notion of him ; it is true, we met with some on our way, who, as far as we could judge, believed there was some superior Being, which was above all things, and this they testified by lifting
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up their hands and eyes to heaven, yet without any manner of concern, as believing that the said exalted Being does not regard at all what is done here below. However, none of them having any places of worship, ceremonies or prayers, to denote the divine homage, it may be said of them all, that they have no religion, at least those that we saw.
However, they observe some ceremonies ; but whether they have any regard to a real or pretended superior Being, or whether they are only popular, and proceeding from custom, is what we were not able to discover./' Those ceremonies are as follow : When the corn is ripe, they gather a certain quantity in a maund or basket, which is placed on a sort of seat or stool, dedicated to that use, and serving only upon those mysterious occasions, which they have a great veneration for.
The basket, with the corn, being placed on that honored stool, one of the elders holds out his hands over it, and talks a long time ; after which, the said old man distributes the corn among the women, and no person is allowed to eat of the new corn, till eight days after that ceremony. This seems to be in the nature of offering up or blessing the first fruits of their harvest.
At their assemblies, when the sagamite, or pottage, which is the most essential part of their meal, is boiled in a great pot, they place that pot on the stool of ceremony above mentioned, and one of the elders stretches out his hands over it, muttering some words between his teeth for a considerable time, after which, they fall to eating.
When the young folks are grown up to be fit to go to the wars, and take upon them to be soldiers, their garment, consisting of some skin, or clout, together with their bow, quiver and arrows, is placed on the aforesaid stool ; an old man stretching out his hands over them, mutters the words as above, and then the garments, bows, quivers, and arrows are given to the persons they belong to. This may be compared to something of a ceremony of knighting among them. The same ceremonies are used by them in the cultivation of their grain and product, but particularly of the tobacco, whereof they have a sort which has smaller leaves than ours ; it is almost ever green, and they use it in leaves. '
This is what we observed among the Cenis, whose customs and manners differ very little from those of other nations, which we had seen before and saw afterwards. As to the point of religion, it is not to be inferred from what 1 have said above, that" there is none throughout that vast continent. The account I have given only re-
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gards those nations we saw ; there may be others that have some worship, and I remember I have heard M. de la Salle say, that the nation called Takensa, neighboring on the Illinois, adored the fire, and that they had cottages which they made use of as temples.
Before I conclude this short account of the religion, customs, and manners of the Cenis, which belonged properly to this place, it is fit here also to observe, that the word nation is not to be understood, among those Indians, to denote a people possessing a whole province, or vast extent of land. Those nations are no other than a parcel of villages, dispersed for the space of twenty or thirty leagues at most, which compose a distinct people or nation ; and they differ from one another rather in language than in manners, wherein they are all much alike, or at least they vary but little, as has been mentioned above. As for the names of them, here follow those of such as we travelled through, or were near the way we held from our leaving our habitation near the bay of the Holy Ghost, till we came among the Cenis.
The Spicheats, Kabayes, Thecamons, Thearemets, Niabaha, Chaumenes, Kouans, Arhau, Enepiahe, Abonerhopiheim, Koienkahe, Konkone, Omeaosse, Keremen, Ahekouen, Meghty, Tetamenes, Otemnarhen, Kouayon, and Meracouman. All these nations are on the north of the river called La Maligne. Those that follow, are on the west and north-west of the same river.
The Kannehouan, Tohaha, Pihir, Cagabegux, Onapien, Pickar. Tokau, Kuasses, Chancres, Toserabocretes, Tsepehouen, Fercou-teha, Panego, Petao, Petzare, Peisacho, Peihoun, Orcan and Piou. This last nation borders upon the Cenis, at the entrance into whose first village I left my reader, to give an account of the inhabitants, and thither I return, to proceed with my relation on our journey to the village, the Frenchman who lived among the natives was to conduct us to.
We arrived there at night, and found other elders coming out to meet us, much after the same manner as the others mentioned before. They led us to their cottage, made us sit down on mats and smoke, but not with so much ceremony as the others. That done, it was time for us to take our rest, having given them to understand that we were weary.
The French provençal would needs have us go to his cottage, that is, to the hut where he had his dwelling ; for, as I have said, there are several families in one of them, and that was one of the greatest
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in the canton, having been the habitation of one of their chiefs lately deceased.
They allotted us a place there for our goods and packs ; the women immediately made sagamite or pottage, and gave it us.*. Having eaten, we asked the Frenchman whether we were safe, and he answering we were, we lay down, but yet could not sleep sound.
The next day, being the 1st of April, the elders came to receive and conduct us to the cottage where we had been the day before. After the usual ceremonies, we traded with them for corn, meal and beans, giving in exchange for the same, needles, knives, rings, and other toys. We also purchased a very fine horse, that would have been worth twenty pistoles in France, for an axe.
The day was spent in driving our small bargains, and gathering provisions, which the women brought. When that was done, it was agreed that I should remain there to lay up more store, and that the others should return to our company, which we had left near the river, to carry the provisions, and satisfy them they might come safely.
Though I thought myself not over secure among the Indians, and, besides, had the dissatisfaction of understanding none of their language, yet was I not unwilling to stay, that I might have an opportunity of seeing the two other Frenchmen, who had forsaken the late M. de la Salle, when he first travelled into that country, that I might inquire of them, whether they had heard no talk of the Mississippi river, for I still held my resolution of parting from our wicked murderers.
As soon as they were gone, I gave a young Indian a knife, to go bid those two other Frenchmen come to me, and whilst he was going I drove on my little trade for provisions, and had frequent visits from the elders, who entertained me by signs, with an account of their intended war ; to which I still answered, nodding my head, though very often I knew not what they meant. It was some difficulty to me to secure my small merchandize, especially at night, for the natives were covetous of them.
This care, which kept me from sleeping sound, was the occasion, that one night I heard somebody moving near my bed, and opening my eyes, by the light of the fire, which never goes out in those cottages, perceived a man stark naked, with a bow and two arrows in his hand, who came and sat down by me, without saying anything. I viewed him for some time ; I spoke to him ; he made me no an-
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swer ; and not knowing what to think of it, I laid hold of my two pistols and my firelock, which the man perceiving, he went and sat by the fire; I followed, and looking steadfastly on him, he knew and spoke to me, throwing his arms about and embracing me, and then made himself known to be one of the Frenchmen I had sent for.
We fell into discourse ; I asked him for his comrade, he told me he durst not come, for fear of M. de la Salle. They were both sailors ; this man, who was of Britany, was called Buter ; the other, of Rochelle, Grollet. They had, in that short space of time, so perfectly inured themselves to the customs of the natives, that they had become mere savages. They were naked, their faces and bodies with figures wrought on them, like the rest. They had taken several wives, been at the wars, and killed their enemies with their firelocks, which had gained them reputation ; but having no more powder nor ball, their arms had grown useless, and they had been forced to learn to shoot with bows and arrows. As for religion, they were not troubled with much of it, and that libertine life they led, was pleasing to them.
I acquainted this man with the unfortunate death of M. de la Salle, his nephew, and the rest, at which he was surprised and concerned, at least in outward appearance. I asked him whether he had heard talk of the Mississippi ; he told me he had not, but only that there was a great river forty leagues from thence towards the N. W., where the natives said there were many nations along its banks. That made me believe it was the very river we were in search of, or at least that it must be the way to come at it. I gave him to eat, and we went to rest.
The next and the following days I continued trading, and the elders their visits, and their discourse, by signs, concerning their intended war. Some of them gave me to understand that they had been among the Spaniards, who are, nevertheless, about two hundred leagues from them. They spoke some words of broken Spanish, as capita, instead of capitan, a captain, and cohavillo instead of cavallo, a horse, and so of some others. Buter, the Frenchman, returned to his dwelling ; I gave him some strings of beads for his wives, and desired him to send the other Frenchman to me.
In the mean time my being alone, as to any person I could converse with, grew very irksome to me, and I know not whether an old man did not perceive it ; for he thought it would be proper to bring a companion to divert me, and at night I was surprised to see
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a young maid come sit down by me, and to hear the old man tell me he had brought her to be my wife, and gave her to me ; but I had far different thoughts to disturb me. I spoke not one word to y that poor maid ; she stayed some time, expecting I would take notice of her, and perceiving I did not stir, or speak one word, she withdrew.
Thus I continued without hearing any news till the 6th of April, when the two Frenchmen I have spoken of, came both, in the Indian dress, each of them having only a coat about him, some turkey feathers on their shoulders, their heads and feet bare. The latter of them, whose name was Grollet, had not consented to have his face marked like the other, nor to cut his hair after the Indian manner ; for those people cut off all theirs, except a small lock on the crown of the head like the Turks, only some of them have small tresses on the temples.
I repeated to them the narrative of M. de la Salle's unfortunate story. They confirmed what I had been told before, that the natives had talked to them of the great river, which was forty leagues off, towards the N.E., and that there were people like us that dwelt on the banks of it. This confirmed me in the opinion that it was the river so much sought after, and that we must go that way to return to Canada or towards New England. They told me, they would willingly go with us. T desired them to keep it secret, which they did not, for, being informed that M. Cavelier and the others were coming, they went to meet them, and I was again left alone.
The 8th, three men came to me, one of whom was the Frenchman of Provence, with each of them a horse, sent by our people to carry away all the provisions I had got together, having taken a resolution, as those persons they had sent told us, to return to the dwelling of St. Louis, about the bay of the same name, from whence we came ; designing, as they pretended, to build a boat there to carry them over to the islands of America : an impracticable notion, for all our carpenters were dead, and though they had been alive, they were so ignorant that none of them would have known which way to go about that work; besides that, we were destitute of all necessaries for that effect. However, we must obey, and set out with our provisions. The rain having detained us the 9th on the way, we could not come up to them till the next day, being the 10th.
Father Anastasius gave me the confirmation of that design, and farther told me how roughly they had been treated by those murderers since my departure. I know not what it was that moved
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them to it, but they had resolved to separate themselves from those villains, and that we should eat apart, viz., M. Cavelier, the priest, F. Anastasius, young Cavelier and I, which was very agreeable to us, because, at least, we could talk freely, which we dare not do before ; but, at the same, time, they allowed us no more provisions than would suffice to keep us from starving, without giving us share of any flesh, though they often killed.
Our tyrants still holding their resolution to return to our former habitation, thought they had not horses enough, and therefore deputed four of their number, one of whom was the Frenchman, half-turned Indian, to return to the village of the Cenis and endeavor to barter for some. At the same time we agreed together to let those gentlemen know, that we were too much fatigued to return with them to the said habitation, and were resolved to remain in the village of the Cenis. M. Cavelier undertook to be our speaker, and to desire Duhaut, who was master of all, to give us some axes, knives, and strings of beads, powder and shot, offering to give him a note of his hand for the same.
To conclude, M. Cavelier made the proposal to Duhaut, disguised it the best he was able, and Duhaut took till next day to return his answer. He consulted with his companions, and acquainted us that they would deal handsomely by us, and give us half the effects, and all the axes, intending to make the most speed they could, to get to our former dwelling, and to put into execution what they had before designed, as to the building of a bark. But in case they could not succeed, for want of necessaries, they would immediately return to us, and bring F. Zenobius along with them, who would be serviceable to us, because, having been with M. de la Salle upon his first discovery, he understood the language of the nations about the Mississippi river. That whilst they were upon that journey, we should take care to gather a stock of provisions, and that if they succeeded in building the bark, they would send us word, that we might repair to them. M. Cavelier approved of all they said, though we had other designs. However, it proved we were all mistaken, for Providence had ordered affairs otherwise.
We stayed there some time, expecting those who were gone to the Cenis, they staying longer than was requisite for that journey. The overflowing of the river was their pretence, but the true reason was the women, who, as I have said, are not so forward as to offer themselves, but on the other hand, will not be over difficult in complying for some little present, and those who were sent did not grudge their
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time. In the meanwhile the posture of our affairs changed as follows :
One of our savage Frenchmen, whom I had acquainted with our design, communicated it to Hautot, telling him all the particulars he had before acquainted me with ; whereupon Duhaut changed his mind as to the design of going to the habitation of St. Louis, resolving to follow our intended way and execute our project. He imparted his thoughts to his companions, who were of the same opinion, and all of them acquainted us that they were ready to put into execution the enterprise we had formed.
This change troubled us very much, there being nothing we coveted more than to part with those miscreants, from whom we could at a long run expect no better usage than they had afforded our commander and his friends. However, it was still requisite to dissemble, there being no other remedy at that time : but God's justice provided for and rescued us. We continued in that camp all the remaining part of April, expecting the persons that had been sent to the Cenis, and Duhaut intending to begin to put in execution his design of going to find out the Mississippi with us, made us advance towards the river that was near, in order to pass it as soon as fallen, and repair to the village of the Cenis.
We stayed three days longer in that post, at the end whereof he we called Larcheveque, one of those that had been sent out, crossed the river. He was Duhaut's creature, and an accomplice in the murder of M. de la Salle. He informed Duhaut that one they called Hiens, who also was one of our messengers, and had stayed on the other side of the river, had heard of Duhaut and the rest altering their resolution, and that he was not of their mind. Hiens was a buccaneer, and by birth a German. M. de la Salle had brought him from Petit Gouave, and he also was accessory to the late murders.
After we had been some days longer in the same place, Hiens arrived with the two half-savage Frenchmen and about twenty natives. He went immediately to Duhaut, and after some discourse, told him he was not for going towards the Mississippi, because it would be of dangerous consequence for them, and therefore demanded his share of the effects he had seized upon. Duhaut refusing to comply, and affirming that all the axes were his own, Hiens, who it is likely had laid the design before to kill him, immediately drew his pistol, and fired it upon Duhaut, who staggered about four paces from the place, and fell down dead. At the same time, Ruter, who had been with
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Hiens, fired his piece upon Liotot, the surgeon, and shot him through with three balls.
These murders committed before us, put me into a terrible consternation ; for believing the same was designed for me, I laid hold of my firelock to defend myself; but Hiens cried out to me, to fear nothing, to lay down my arms, and assured me he had no design against me ; but that he had revenged his master's death. He also satisfied M. Cavelier and Father Anastasius, who were as much frighted as myself, declaring he meant them no harm, and that though he had been in the conspiracy, yet had he been present at the time when M. de la Salle was killed, he would not have consented, but rather have obstructed it.
Liotot lived some hours after, and had the good fortune to make his confession ; after which, the same Ruter put him out of his pain with a pistol shot. We dug a hole in the earth, and buried him in it with Duhaut, doing them more honor than they had done to M. de la Salle and his nephew Moranget, whom they left to be devoured by wild beasts. Thus those murderers met with what they had deserved, dying the same death they had put others to.
The natives Hiens had brought with him, having been spectators of that murder, were in a consternation, and that affair was of dangerous consequence to us, who stood in need of them. It was therefore requisite to make the best of it, giving them to understand that there had been reason for punishing those dead persons, because they had all the powder and ball, and would not give any to the rest. They remained satisfied with that excuse, and he who was called Larcheveque, and who was entirely devoted to Duhaut, being abroad a hunting since the morning, and not knowing what misfortune had happened to his protector, and Hiens being resolved to make away with him, Father Anastasius and M. Cavelier took so much pains, that they dissuaded him from it, and I went out and met Larcheveque, to give him notice of that disaster, and to inform him how he was to behave himself. Thus I requited him for having come to give me notice of M. de la Salle's death. I brought him to Hiens, who declared he designed him no harm, and Larcheveque gave him the same assurances on his part. Thus all things are again composed, and nothing remained, but for us to set out, but first to know what we were to do, and which way to direct our course.
Hereupon, Hiens took upon him to speak, and said he had promised the natives to go to the war with them, and designed to be as good as his word ; that if we would expect his return, we might by that time
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consider which way he would move, and that in the meantime we might stay in the village among the Cenis. This was resolved on ; we loaded all our effects on our horses, and repaired to the same place and the same cottage where we had been before, the chief of it assigning us the one-half to lodge and lay up our baggage.
When the day for setting out for the war was come, Hiens departed with the natives, four of our comrades, and the two half-savage Frenchmen going along with him ; so that there were six of them, and each took a horse. Hiens left us all the effects, and desired we would stay for him, which we promised, not knowing how to avoid it, considering that the Indians might have done us harm, and even have obstructed our departure. Thus we resigned ourselves to Providence, and remained, six of us, together, viz., Father Anastasius, M. Cavelier, his nephew, young Cavelier, young Talon, another youth of Paris, and I. There also remained some old men, who could not go to the war, and the women. We were also joined by two other Frenchmen, who had been left on the other side the river, being the Provençal and one Teissier.
During our stay, and our warriors being abroad upon that expedition, the old men often visited us, and told us news from the army by signs, which we understood nothing of. We were from time to time alarmed, seeing the women weep, without any visible cause. The late M. de la Salle had often told us that the women bewailed those that were to be killed ; but we were informed they did so when they called to mind some who had been slain in the former wars ; which dispelled our apprehensions. However, we were uneasy, because those old men and women examined us every morning and evening when we performed our devotions.
We laid hold of that opportunity to give them to understand that we paid our duty to one God, the only supreme sovereign of all things, pointing to heaven, and endeavoring in the best manner we were able, to signify to them that he was almighty, that he had made all things, that he caused the earth to produce its fruits to prosper, and the growth of it, which maintained them to thrive ; but this being only by signs, they did not understand us, and we labored in vain.
The 18th, we were surprised to see several women come into our cottage, their faces all besmeared with earth, and they set up their throats, singing several songs as loud as they were able, whereof we understood not one word. That done, they fell a dancing in a ring, and we could not tell what to think of that rejoicing, which lasted
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full three hours; after which, we were informed they had received advice of the victory obtained by their warriors over their enemies. The dance concluded, those in the cottage gave some bits of tobacco to those without.
The same day, about noon, we saw him that had brought the news, who affirmed they had killed at least forty of their enemies. After the rejoicing, all the women applied themselves to make ready their provisions, some to pound Indian corn, others to boil meal, which they call grouller, and others to bake bread, to carry to the warriors. They all set out on the 19th to meet them, and we thought it in policy convenient to send meat to our men, which was done by the Frenchman of Provence, who went with the women.
The same day, at night, the victorious army returned, and we were informed that their enemies, whom they call Cannohatinno, had expected them boldly, but that having heard the noise, and felt the effects of our men's firearms, they all fled, so that the Cenis had either killed or taken forty-eight men and women. They had slain several of the latter, who fled to the tops of trees, for want of time to make their escape otherwise ; so that many more women had perished than men.
They brought home two of those women alive, one of whom had her head flayed for the sake of her hair and skin. They gave that wretched creature a charge of powder and a ball, and sent her home, bidding her carry that present to her nation, and to assure them, they should be again treated after the same manner, that is, killed with firearms. )".
The other woman was kept to fall a sacrifice to the rage and vengeance of the women and maids ; who, having armed themselves with thick stakes, sharp pointed at the end, conducted that wretch to a by-place, where each of those furies began to torment her, sometimes with the point of their staff, and sometimes laying on her with all their might. One tore off her hair, another cut off her finger, and every one of those outrageous women endeavored to put her to some exquisite torture, to revenge the death of their husbands and kinsmen, who had been killed in the former wars ; so that the unfortunate creature expected her death stroke as mercy.
At last, one of them gave her a stroke with a heavy club on the head, and another ran her stake several times into her body, with which she fell down dead on the spot. Then they cut that miserable victim into morsels, and obliged some slaves of that nation they had been long possessed of, to eat them. M
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y\ Thus our warriors returned triumphant from that expedition. They spared none of the prisoners they had taken, except two little boys, and brought home all the skins of their heads, with the hair, to be kept as trophies and glorious memorials of their victory.
The next day all those savages met in their chief's cottage, whither all the above-mentioned heads of hair were carried in state. Then they made extraordinary rejoicings in that cottage, whence they went to the huts of the other prime men, to perform the same ceremony. This rejoicing lasted three days, our French companions, who had been the cause of their victory, being called to it, and highly entertained, after their manner. It will not be disagreeable to the reader, that I here particularly describe that ceremony, which, after being performed in the cottages of the chief men, was repealed in ours.
In the first place, the cottage was made very clean, adorned, and abundance of mats laid on the floor, on which the elders and the most considerable persons sat ; after which, one of them, who is in the nature of an orator, or master of the ceremonies, stood up and made a speech, of which we understood not a word. Soon after that discourse was ended, the warriors arrived, who had slain any in battle, marching in their proper order, each of them carrying a bow and two arrows, and before every one of them went his wife, carrying the enemy's head of hair. Two little boys, whose lives they had spared, as has been said before, one of them who was wounded, being on horseback, closed the procession ; at the head whereof was a woman, carrying a large reed or cane in her hand.
As they came up to the orator, the warrior took the head of hair his wife had brought, and presented it to him,, which the said orator received with both his hands, and after having held it out towards the four quarters of the world, he laid it down on the ground, and then took the next, performing the same ceremony, till he had gone over them all.
When the ceremony was ended, they served up the sagamite, in the nature of hasty pudding, which those women had provided, and before any one touched it, the master of the ceremonies took some in a vessel, which he carried as an offering to those heads of hair. Then he lighted a pipe of tobacco, and blew the smoke upon them. That being performed, they all fell to the meat. Bits of the woman that had been sacrificed were served up to the two boys of her nation. They also served up dried tongues of their enemies, and the whole concluded with dancing and singing after their manner. Af-
12
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ter which, they went to other cottages to repeat the same ceremony.
There was no talk of our design till those rejoicings were over, and I began to conceive good hopes of our success. The two murderers, Teissier and Larcheveque, who had both a hand in the death of M. de la Salle, had promised to go along with us, provided M. Cavelier would pardon them, and he had given them his word so to do. In this expectation we continued till the 25th, when our Frenchmen who had been at the war, repaired to our cottage, and we consulted about our business.
Hiens and others of his gang, disapproving of our design, represented to us such difficulties as they looked upon to be insurmountable, under which we must inevitably perish, or at least be obliged to return to the same place. Hiens told us, that for his own part, he would not hazard his life to return into France, only to have his head chopped off, and perceiving we answered nothing to that, but that we persisted in our resolution; it is requisite then, said he, to divide what effects remain.
Accordingly he laid aside for F. Anastasius, MM. Cavelier, the uncle and the nephew, thirty axes, four or five dozens of knives, about thirty pounds of powder, and the like quantity of ball. He gave each of the others two axes, two knives, two or three pounds of powder, with as much ball, and kept the rest. As for the horses, he kept the best, and left us the three least. M.'Cavelier asked him for some strings of beads, which he granted, and seized upon all the late M. de la Salle's clothes, baggage and other effects, besides above a thousand livres in money, which belonged to the late M. le Gros, who died at our dwelling of St. Louis. Before our departure it was a sensible aflwtion to us to see that villain walk about in a scarlet coat, wijtf^p\jajpns, which had belonged to the late M. de la Salle, and whi$^as IJfàve said, he had seized.
After that, Hiens and his companions withdrew to their own cottage, and we resolved not to put off our departure any longer. Accordingly we made ready our horses, which much alarmed the natives, and especially the chief of them, who said and did all he could to obst^jjjjour journey, promising us wives, plenty of provisions ; representing to us ,the immense dangers, as well from enemies who surrounded them, ;as from the bad and impassable ways and the many woods and rivers we were to pass. However, we were not to be moved, and only asked one kindness of him, in obtaining of which ¦there were many difficulties, and it was, that he would give us guides
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to conduct us to Cappa,; but at length, after much trouble and many promises of a good reward, one was granted, and two others went along with him.
All things being thus ordered for our departure, we took leave of our hosts, passed by Hiens's cottage, and embraced him and his companions. We asked him for another horse, which he granted. He desired an attestation in Latin of M. Cavelier, that he had not been concerned in the murder of M. de la Salle, which was given him, because there was no refusing of it ; and we set forward without Larcheveque and Meunier, who did not keep their word with us, but remained among those barbarians, being infatuated with that course of libertinism they had run themselves into. Thus there were only seven of us that stuck together to return to Canada, viz. : Father Anastasius, MM. Cavelier, the uncle and the nephew, the Sieur de Marie, one Teissier, a young man born at Paris, whose namew as Bartholomew, and I, with six horses and the three Indians, who were to be our guides ; a very small number for so great an enterprise, but we put ourselves entirely into the hands of divine Providence, confiding in God's mercy, which did not forsake us.
After the first day's journey we encamped on the bank of the river we had left not long before ; lay there that night, and the next day cut down trees to make a sort of bridge of planks to pass over it ; handing over our goods from one to another, and swimming over our horses ; which work we were frequently obliged to repeat, and as often as we had afterwards occasion to pass rivers on our way, which we held on till the 29th, every day meeting with some cottage, and at last, a hamlet or village, into which we went, and the Indian inhabitants told us they were called Nahordikhe, and that they were allies to the Cenis.
We bartered with them for some provisions, and their chief offered to go with us as far as the Assonys, who were not farther off than about three leagues, which he accordingly did ; but it happening to rain when we came thither, and the Assonys having had no notice beforehand, we found but indifferent reception.
However, we were conducted to the chief's cottage ; the elders had notice given them, they resorted thither, and when our horses were unloaded, and our goods placed in a corner of the cottage, which the chief had allotted us, we gave them to understand, that our intention was to go further, to fetch commodities to trade with them, at which they were pleased. They gave us to eat, and the elders stayed some part of the evening with us, which made us somewhat uneasy, and
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obliged us to be upon our guard ; however, the night passed without any disturbance.
The next morning the elders came to us again. They had provided mats without the cottage, and made signs to us to go thither and sit down upon them, as we did, leaving two of our company to guard the baggage. We repeated to them what we had said the night before, and made them some presents of axes, knives, strings of beads and rings. They signified they were sorry we would go away, and endeavored the best they could to make us sensible of the same obstacles the others had signified to us)i but it was all in vain ; however, we stayed till the first of June, all the while bartering and gathering the best stock of provisions we could.
The second, we removed from that cottage, where we had some jealousy, and went to another, a quarter of a league from it, where the chief of it gave us a very good reception. An old woman, who was either his mother or governess of the cottage, took particular care of us. We were first served at eating, and to keep her in that good mind, we now and then made her some little presents, whilst she, by her care and kindness, spared our provisions, which were necessary for our journey.
A continual rain obliged us to stay there till the 13th. During our stay the natives made several feasts, to which we were always invited ; and at length the rain ceasing we resolved to set out, notwithstanding all M. Cavelier and tho priest's apprehensions, which we surmounted, and directed our course towards the N. E. with two Indians, who were to conduct us only a small way, and who accordingly soon left us, whatsoever promises we could make them. They departed to return home, promising they would come to us again. We encamped that night on the bank of a rivulet.
The 14th and 15th, we held on our way, frequently meeting with sloughs, which very much fatigued us, because we were obliged to unload our horses for them to pass, and prevent their sticking in the mire and fat soil, whence we could not have drawn them out, and consequently we were fain to carry all our luggage on our own backs.
Whilst we halted about noon that our horses might graze, as was usually done by us, we discovered our two Assony Indians returning towards us, at which we were much rejoiced, because they had a better notion than ourselves of the way we were to go. We made them eat and smoke, and then set out again.
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' The 16th, we came to a great river, which we passed as we had done the first, and after that met with very bad ways.
The 17th, one of our company being indisposed, we could not set out till noon, and held on till the 21st, crossing several sloughs and rivers, and then one of our Indians being out of order, it obliged us to stay on the bank of a river we had passed. The other Indian, seeing his comrade sick, went a hunting, and brought a wild goat; for there are many in that country. The Jndians have the art of dressing the heads of those creatures, which they put upon their own, and imitate them so exactly, that they can come very near to them, and then seldom fail of kifling. The same method Jhey use for turkeys and other wild fowl, and so draw them close to themselves.
The 22d, our Indian being somewhat recovered, we decamped, and proceeded along a better way and pleasanter country than that we had left behind, and as we inquired the best we could of those our Indians concerning the neighboring nations and those we were going towards, among others they named to us, that they called Cappa. M. Cavelier told us he remembered he had heard his late brother, M. de la Salle, name that nation, and say that he had seen it as he went from Canada towards the Mississippi. This put us in hopes that we should succeed in our discovery.
The 23d, being near a village we had been in search of, one of our Indians went before to give notice of our arrival. In the meantime we crossed most lovely plains and meadows, bordered with fine groves of beautiful trees, where the grass was so high that it hindered our horses going, and we were obliged to clear the passage for them.
When we were within half a league of the village, we saw an Indian mounted on a large grey mare, coming along with our native to meet us, and were told that horseman was the chief of the village, attended by some others of the same place. As soon as that chief came up to us he expressed very much kindness and affection ; we gave him to understand that we did nobody any harm, unless we were first attacked. Then we made him smoke, and when that was done he made signs to us to follow him, which we did till we came to the bank of a river, where he again desired us to stay whilst he went to give notice to the elders.
Soon after a number of them came, and having joined us, signified that they were come to carry us to their village. Our Indians made signs that it was the custom of the country, and we must sub-mit and let them do as they thought fit. Though we were much out
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of countenance at that ceremony, seven of the prime men among them would have us mount on their backs or shoulders. M. Cave-lier, being our chief, mounted first, and then the rest did the same.
As for my own part, being of a pretty large size, and loaded with clothes, a firelock, a case of pistols, powder, and ball, a kettle, and other implements, there is no doubt but I made a sufficient burden for him that carried me, and because I was taller than he and my feet would have hung upon the ground, two other Indians held them up for me ; so that I had three to carry me. Other Indians took hold of our horses to lead them, and in that ridiculous equipage we arrived at the village. Our carriers, who had gone a long quarter of a league, had need enough to rest, and we to be set down, that we might laugh in private, for it behoved us to take care not to do it before them.
1 As soon as we were come to the chief's cottage, where we found above two hundred persons who were come to see us, and that our horses were unloaded, the elders gave us to understand that it was their custom to wash strangers at their first coming ; but that we being clad, they would only wash our faces ; which one of those elders did with fair water they had in a sort of earthen vessel, and he only washed our forehead.
After this second ceremony, the chief made signs to us to sit down on a sort of little scaffold raised about four feet above the ground, and made of wood and canes, where, when we were placed, the chiefs of the villages, being four in number, came and made speeches to us one after another. We listened to them with patience, though we understood not one word of what they said to us ; being tired with the length of their harangues, and much more with the violent heat of the sun, which was just over our heads.
When the speeches were ended, the purport whereof, as near as we could guess, was only to assure us that we were very welcome, we gave them to understand that we were going into our own country, designing to return speedily, to bring them several sorts of commodities and such things as they should stand in need of.
Next, we made them the usual presents of axes, knives, strings of beads, needles, and pins, for their wives, telling them, that when we returned we would give them more.
We farther signified to them that if they would afford us some corn or meal we would give them other things in exchange' which they agreed to. l After this they made us eat sagamite, or hasty-pudding, bread, beans, pumpkins, and other things,'which we had
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sufficient need of, most of us having scarce eaten anything all that day, some for want, and others out of devotion, as M. Cavelier, who would observe the fast of St. John Baptist's Eve, whose name he bore. It is to be observed that the pumpkins are incomparably better there than with us.
The 24th, the elders met again in our cottage. We gave them to understand they would oblige us in furnishing guides to conduct us to the village of Cappa, which was in our way ; but instead of granting it, they earnestly entreated us to stay with them, and go to the wars against their enemies, having been told wonders of our firelocks, which we promised to do when we returned, and that it should be shortly, and they seemed to rest satisfied.
Thus our hopes increased, but the joy it occasioned was allayed by a dismal accident that befel us. M. de Marie, one of the prime men of our company, having breakfasted, would needs go bathe himself in the river we had passed the day before, and not knowing how to swim, he went too far and stepped into a hole, whence he could not recover himself, but was unfortunately drowned. Young M. Cavelier having been told that M. de Marie was going to bathe himself, ran after him, and coming to the river, saw he was drowning, he ran back to acquaint us. We hasted thither with c. number of Indians, who were there before us, but all too late ; some of them dived, and brought him up dead from the bottom of the water.
We carried him to the cottage, shedding many tears ; the Indians bore part in our sorrow, and we paid him the last duties, offering up the usual prayers, after which he was buried in a small field behind the cottage ; and, whereas, during that doleful ceremony, we prayed, reading in our books, particularly M. Cavelier, the priest and Father Anastasius, the Indians gazed on us with amazement, because we talked, looking upon the leaves, and we endeavored to give them to understand that we prayed to God for the dead man, pointing up to heaven.
We must do this right to those good people, as to declare, that they expressed singular humanity upon that doleful accident, as appeared by the sensible testimony of their actions, and all the methods they used to let us understand how great a share they bore in our sorrow ; which we should not have found in several parts of Europe.
During our short stay in that place, we observed a ceremony that was performed by the chief's wife, viz. : that every morning she went to M. de Marie's grave, and carried a little basket of parched
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i I
ears of corn to lay on it, the meaning whereof we could not understand. Before our departure, we were informed that the villages belonging to our hosts, being four in number, all allied together, were calk- ; Assony, Nathosos, Nachitos, and Cadodaquio.
On the 27th, having been informed by the natives that we should find canoes to pass a river that was on our way, Father Anastasius and I went to see whether what they told us was true. We found that river was a branch of the same we had already passed, the channel of it being pleasant and navigable, and saw some canoes, in one of which the Indians carried us over to the other side, whither we went to see what convenient place there was for our horses to come ashore. We found a very proper place, and, returning, made our report to M. Cavelier, who being then much out of order, with pains in his feet, we were obliged to stay there till the 30th.
During that time we were frequently visited by the Indians, both old and young, and of both sexes, and even the chiefs of the nation, called Janiquo, came to see us, and with them we often conversed in dumb show ; and every evening the women, attended by the warriors, with their bows and arrows, resorted to our cottage to sing a doleful sort of song, shedding tears at the same time. This would have, given us some uneasiness, had we not before seen the same ceremony, and been informed that those women repair in that manner to the chief's cottage to entreat him, singing and weeping, to take revenge on those who have killed their husbands or relations, in former wars, as I have observed before. In all other respects, the manners and customs of this nation being much the same as those of the Cenis, I shall add no more concerning them.
The 29th, at night, we gave notice to the chief that we would set out the next day ; we made him some presents in particular, and the like to his wife, because she had taken special care of us, and departed on the 30th. The chief, attended by many other Indians whom we found in the cottages on our way, went to conduct us as far as the river, which we crossed in canoes, and swam over our horses. There we took leave of our conductors, to whom we gave some strings of beads for their wives, and their chief would needs conduct us to the next village.
By the way we came to a cottage, where our guide made us halt, and there they gave us to eat. Then we held on our journey to a village called Cadodaquio, and were conducted to the chief's cottage, who received us courteously, being a friend to him that went with us. It was requisite to unload our horses to lie there, and we
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signified to the chief that we stood in need of provisions. He spoke to the women, who brought us some meal, which we purchased with strings of beads, and the chief, who conducted us thither, took his leave.
Having no design to stay there any time, we had desired the chief to appoint some person to guide us to the village called Cahainihoua, which was in our way. It happened by good fortune that there were then in that place some men and women of the said village, who were come to fetch some wood fit to make bows, there being plenty of that sort of trees they make them of, about the village we were in. We signified our design to them, and they gave us to understand they would be glad to bear us company. In the conversation we had with them, they made us comprehend that they had seen people like us, who had firelocks and a house, and that they were acquainted with the Cappas, which was very pleasing to us. Because they were not to depart till two days after, we resolved to stay for them.
We observed, that there was a difference between the language of those people and the inhabitants of the village we were in from that of the Cenis, and that they had some peculiarceremonies, one whereof is, that when the women have their terms, they leave the company of their husbands and withdraw into other cottages appointed for that purpose, which no person is to come near, upon pain of being reputed unclean.
Those women have their faces still more disfigured than the others we had seen before ; for they make several streaks or scores on them, whereas the others had but one. They adorn themselves with little locks of fine red hair, which they make fast to their ears, in the nature of pendants. In other respects they are not disagreeable, and neither women nor maids are so ill-natured as to make their lovers pine for them. They are not difficult of access, and they soon make a return for a small present.
The men wear their hair short, like our capucins ; they anoint it with a sort of oil or grease, and curl it like snails, after which they strew on it a sort of down or lint, dyed red, as we do powder, which is done when they design to be very fine, in order to appear in their v' assemblies. They are very fond of their children, and all the way of chastising .them they use is to throw water at them, without ever beating or giving them ill words.
The Indians that were of the village of Cohainihoua and to conduct us thither, not being ready to set out on Wednesday, the 2d of
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July, as they had promised, a young Indian offered himself, saying, he would conduct us safe thither, and we set out with him, still directing our course towards the N.E. We kept close along the same river we had crossed, and found it very pleasant and navigable, the banks of it covered with fine trees of several sorts.
We had not travelled above a league, before our guide gave us to understand, that he had forgotten a piece of hard dried skin he had to make him shoes, which he would go fetch and return to us, pointing to us with his hand which way we were to go, and telling us we should soon come to a river.
This sudden change in the Indian was somewhat surprising, and very much perplexed us ; however, we held on our way, and soon came to the river he had mentioned to us, which was very pleasant and deep. We crossed it the next day, on a sort of float, which we made with much toil and labor, and our horses swam over. Some time after we were passed, we saw the Indians coming, who had promised to bear us company, and were glad to find our float, to cross the same river, as they did, and proceeded on our journey all together.
The 4th, 5th and 6th, we did the same, crossing a very fine country, but watered by many brooks, streams and rivers. We found abundance of wild goats, turkeys and other wild-fowl, whereof our Indians killed many.
On the 6th, whilst we halted on the bank of a river to eat, we heard the tinkling of some small bells ; which making us look about, we spied an Indian with a naked sword-blade in his hand, adorned with feathers of several colors, and two large hawks' bells, that occasioned the noise we had heard.
He made signs for us to come to him, and gave us to understand, that he was sent by the elders of the village, whither we were going, to meet us, caressing us after an extraordinary manner. I observed that it was a Spanish blade he had, and that he took pleasure in ringing the hawks' bells.
Having travelled about half a league with him, we discovered a dozen of other Indians coming towards us, who made very much of and conducted us to the village, to the chief's cottage, where we found dried bear-skins laid on the ground, and they made us sit on them, where we were treated with eatables, as were the elders after us, and a throng of women came to see us.
The 7th, the elders came to give us a visit, bringing us two bullocks' hides, four otters' skins, one white wild-goat's skin, all of
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them well dried, and four bows, in return for the present we had before made them. The chief and another came again some time after, bringing two loaves, the finest and the best we had yet seen. They looked as if they had been baked in an oven, and yet we had not observed that there were ovens among any of them. That chief stayed with us some hours ; he seemed to be very ingenious and discreet, and easily understood our signs, which were most of the language we had. Having ordered a little boy to bring us all we had occasion for, he withdrew.
Towards the evening, we were entertained with a ceremony we had not seen before, y A company of elders, attended by some young men and women, came to our cottage in a body, singing as loud as they could roar. The foremost of them had a calumet, so they call a very long sort of tobacco-pipe, adorned with several sorts of feathers. When they bad sung a while, before our cottage, they entered it, still singing on for about a quarter of an hour. After that, they took M. Cavelier the priest, as being our chief, led him in solemn manner out of the cottage, supporting him under the arms. When they were come to a place they had prepared, one of them laid a great handful of grass on his feet, two others brought fair water in an earthen dish, with which they washed his face, and then made him sit down on a skin, provided for that purpose.
When M. Cavelier was seated, the elders took their places, sitting round about him, and the master of the ceremonies fixed in the ground two little wooden forks, and having laid a stick across them, all being painted red, he placed on them a bullock's hide dried, a goat's skin over that, and then laid the pipe thereon.
The song was begun again, the women mixing in the chorus, and the concert was heightened by great hollow calabashes or gourds, in which there were large gravel stones, to make a noise, the Indians striking on them by measure, to answer the tone of the choir ; and the plcasantest of all was. that one of the Indians placed himself behind M. Cavelier to hold him up, whilst at the same time he shook and dandled him from side to side, the motion answering to the music.
That concert was scarce ended, when the master of the ceremonies brought two maids, the one having in her hand a sort of collar, and the other an otter's skin, which they placed on the wooden forks above-mentioned, at the ends of the pipe. Then he made them sit down, on each side of M. Cavelier, in such a posture that they looked one upon the other, their legs extended and intermixed, on which
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the same master of the ceremonies laid M. Cavelier's legs, in such manner that they lay uppermost, and across those of the two maids.
Whilst this action was performing, one of the elders made fast a dyed feather to the back part of M. Cavelier's head, tying it to his hair. The singing still continued all that time, so that M. Cavelier, grown weary of its tediousness, and ashamed to see himself in that posture between two maids, without knowing to what purpose, made signs to us to signify the same to the chief, and having given him to understand that he was not well, two of the Indians immediately took hold of him under the arms,-conducted him back to the cottage, and made signs to him to take his rest. This was about nine in the evening, and the Indians spent all the night in singing, insomuch that some of them could hold out no longer.
In the morning they returned to M. Cavelier, conducted him again out of the cottage, with the same ceremony, and made him sit down, still singing on. Then the master of the ceremonies took the pipe, which he filled with tobacco, lighted, and offered it to M. Cavelier, but drawing back and advancing six times before he gave it him. Having at last put it into his hands, M. Cavelier made as if he had smoked, and returned it to them. Then they made us all smoke round, and every one of them whiffed in his turn, the music still continuing.
About nine in the morning, the sun growing very hot, and M. Cavelier being bareheaded, made signs that it did him harm. Then at last they gave over singing, and conducted him back into the cottage, took the pipe, put it into a case made of a wild goat's skin, with the two wooden forks and the red stick that lay across them, all which one of the elders offered to M. Cavelier, assuring him that he might pass through all the nations that were allied to them by virtue of that token of peace, and should be everywhere well received. This was the first place where we saw the calumet, or pipe of peace, having no knowledge of it before, as some have written. This nation is called Cahaynohoua.
This sort of ceremonies being never performed among the Indians without the expectation of receiving some present, and we having besides observed that some of them had withdrawn themselves, with tokens of dissatisfaction, perhaps because we had interrupted their ceremony, we thought it convenient to give them something more, and I was appointed to carry them an axe, four knives, and some strings of beads, with which they were satisfied.
We afterwards showed them an experiment of our arms, the noise
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and fire whereof frightened them. They earnestly pressed us to stay with them, offering us wives, and whatsoever else we should want. To be better quit of them we promised to return, saying we were going to fetch commodities, arms, and tools, which we stood in need of, that we might afterwards stay with them.
The 9th and 10th were spent in visits, and we were informed by one of the Indians that we were not far from a great river, which he described with a stick on the sand, and showed it had two branches, at the same time pronouncing the word Cappa, which, as I have said, is a nation near the Mississippi. We then made no longer question that we were near what we had been so long looking after. We entreated the elders to appoint some men to conduct us, promising to reward them well, which they granted, and we set out the 11th, to the great sorrow of those good people, who had entertained us so courteously.
We travelled several different ways, which we could never have found, had we wanted guides, and so proceeded, till, on the 12th, one of our guides pretended to be sick, and made signs that he would go back ; but observing that we seemed to be no way concerned, which we did on purpose, he consulted with his companion, and then came to tell us he was recovered. We made him eat and smoke, and continued our journey the 13th, finding the way very bad and difficult.
The 14th, our Tndians, having seen the track of bullocks, signified they would go kill some, to eat the flesh, which made us halt for two or three hours. Whilst we stayed for our hunters, we prepared some sagamite, or their sort of hasty-pudding. They returned loaded with flesh, part whereof we dressed, and eat it with very good stomachs. Then we proceeded on our journey till the 18th, and by the way killed three bullocks and two cows, which obliged us to halt, that we might make use of our flesh, drying it.
The night between the 19th and the 20th, one of our horses breaking loose, was either taken away by the natives or lost in the woods. That did not obstruct our departure, though the loss was grievous to us, and we held on our way till the 24th, when we met a company of Indians, with axes, going to fetch barks of trees, to cover their cottages. They were surprised to see us, but having made signs to them to draw near, they came, caressed, and presented us with some watermelons they had. They put off their design of going to fetch bark till another time, and went along with us, and one of our guides having gone before in the morning to give notice
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of our coming at the next village, met with other parcels of Indians, > who were coming to meet us, and expressed extraordinary kindness. V We halted in one of their cottages, which they call Desert, because they are in the midst of their fields and gardens. There we found several women who had brought bread, gourds, beans, and watermelons, a sort of fruit proper to quench thirst, the pulp of it being no better than water.^X
We set out again to come to the village, and by the way met with very pleasant woods, in which there were abundance of stately cedars. Being come to a river that was between us and the village, and looking over to the further side we discovered a great cross, and at a small distance from it, a house built after the French fashion.
It is easy to imagine what inward joy we conceived at the sight of that emblem of our salvation. We knelt down, lifting up our hands and eyes to heaven, to return thanks to the Divine Goodness, for having conducted us so happily ; for we made no question of finding French on the other side of the river, and of their being Catholics, since they had crosses.
Jn short, having halted for some time on the bank of that river, we spied several canoes making towards us, and two men clothed coming out of the house we had discovered, who, the moment they saw us, fired each of them a shot to salute us. An Indian, being chief of the village, who was with them, had done so before, and we were not backward in returning their salute, by discharging all our pieces.
When we had passed the river, and were all come together, we soon knew each other to be Frenchmen. Those we found were the Sieurs Couture Charpentier, and De Launay, both of them of Rouen, whom M. de Tonty, governor of Fort St. Louis, among the Illinois, had left at that post when he went down the Mississippi to look after M. de la Salle ; and the nation we were then with was called Accancea.
It is hard to express the joy conceived on both sides ; ours was unspeakable, for having at last found what we had so earnestly desired, and that the hopes of returning to our dear country were in some measure assured by that happy discovery. The others were pleased to see such persons as might bring them news of that commander from whom they expected the performance of what he had promised them ; but the account we gave them of M. de la Salle's unfortunate death was so afflicting that it drew tears from them, and the dismal history of his troubles and disasters rendered them almost inconsolable.
We were conducted to the house, whither all our baggage, was
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honestly carried by the Indians. There was a very great throng of those people, both men and women, which being over, we came to the relation of the particular circumstances of our stories. Ours was delivered by M. Cavelier, whom we honored as our chief, for being brother to him who had been so.
We were informed by them, that they had been six, sent by M. Tonty, when he returned from the voyage he had made down the Colbert or Mississippi river, pursuant to the orders sent him by the late M. de la Salle, at his departure from France, and that the said Sieur Tonty had commanded them to build the aforesaid house. That having never since received any news from the said M. de la Salle, four of them were gone back to M. Tonty, at the fort of the Illinois.
In conclusion, it was agreed among us to go away as soon as possible, towards the Illinois, and conceal from the Indians the death of M. de la Salle, to keep them still in awe and under submission, whilst we went away with the first ships that should happen to sail from Canada for France, to give an, account at court of what had happened, and to procure succors. '''In the meantime the chief of the Indians came to invite us to eat. We found mats laid on the ground for us to sit on, and all the village met to see us.
We gave them to understand, that we came from M. de la Salle, who had made a settlement on the Bay of Mexico ; that we had passed through many nations, which we named, and that we were going to Canada for commodities, and would return down the river ; that we would bring men to defend them against their enemies, and then settle among them ; that the nations we had passed through had appointed men to guide us, and we desired the same favor of them, with some canoes and provisions, and that we would reward our guides and pay for what they furnished us.
The conveniency of an interpreter, we then had, gave us the opportunity of making ourselves be easily understood, and the chief answered to our proposals, that he would send men to the other villages to acquaint them with our demands, and to consult with them what was to be done in that case ; that as for the rest, they were amazed at our having passed through so many nations, without having been detained, or killed, considering what a small number we were.
When the discourse was ended, that chief caused meat to be set before us, as dried flesh, bread made of Indian corn of several sorts, and watermelons ; after which he made us smoke,; and then we
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returned to our house, where being eased of all those impediments, we gave each other an account of our affairs, at leisure, and were informed that those people impatiently expected the return of M. de la Salle, which confirmed us in the resolution of concealing his death. We observed the situation of that post, and were made acquainted with the nature of the country and the manners of those people, of which I shall give the following remarks.
The house we were then in, was built of pieces of cedar laid one upon another, and rounded away at the corners. It is seated on a small eminence, half a musket-shot from the village, in a country abounding in all things. The plains lying on one side of it are stored with beeves, wild goats, deer, turkeys, bustards, swans, teal and other game.
The trees produce plenty of fruit, and very good, as peaches, plums, mulberries, grapes and walnuts. They have a sort of fruit they call piaguimina, not unlike our medlars, but much better and more delicious. Such as live near the rivers, as that house is, do not want for fish of all .sorts, and they have Indian wheat, whereof they make good bread. There are also fine plains diversified with several sorts of trees, as I have said before.
The nation of the Accanccas consists of four villages. The first is called Otsotchove, near which we were ; the second Toriman, both of them seated on the river ; the third Tonginga, and the fourth Cappa, on the bank of the Mississippi. These villages are built after a different manner from the others we had seen before, in this point, that the cottages which are alike as to their materials and rounding at the top, are long, and covered with the bark of trees, and so very large that several of them can hold two hundred persons, belonging to several familio-.
The people are not so neat as the Cenis, or the Assonis, in their houses, for some of them lie on the ground, without anything under them but some mats or a dressed hide. However, some of them have more conveniences, but the generality has not. All their moveables consist in some earthen vessels and oval wooden platters, which are neatly made, and with which they drive a trade.
They are generally very well shaped and active ; the women are handsome, or at least have a much better presence than those of the other villages we passed through before. They make canoes all of one piece, which are well wrought. As for themselves they are very faithful, good-natured, and warriors, like the rest,
The 25th, the elders being assembled came to see us, and told the
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Sieur Couture, that they designed to sing and dance the calumet, or pipe ; because the others had sung it, some of them to the late M. de la Salle, and the rest to M. Tonty, and therefore it was but reasonable they should do the same to get a firelock, as well as the others. M. Cavelier was informed of it, and it was requisite to consent to it to please those Indians, because we stood in need of them.
The ceremony began with M. Cavelier, who was led under the arms and seated on a hide without the cottage. The forks, the skins laid on it in honor of the pipe, the singing as loud as they could roar, both by men and women, and all the other ceremonies were observed, as I have mentioned them before ; so that M. Cavelier being weary of them, he caused the chief to be told that he was out of order, and desired his nephew might be put in his place, which was done accordingly, and they spent the whole night in singing. In the morning they performed some other ceremonies not worth relating.
The solemnity being ended by every man's smoking of the pipe, the Indians took it, with some bullocks' hides, and goats' and otters' skins, and a collar made of shells, all which they carried to our house, and we gave them a firelock, two axes, six knives, one hundred charges of powder, as much ball, and some strings of beads for their wives. The chief having given notice of our coming to the other villages, their deputies came to see us ; we entertained them in the house, and proposed to them our designs, as had been done to the chief. They stood considering a while, then held a sort of consultation among themselves, which held not long without talking, and then agreed to grant us what we asked, which was a canoe and a man of each village to conduct us, upon the promised consideration, and so they went away to the cottage of the chief of the village.
The 27th, the chief and the elders met again to consult about what we demanded of them ; the length of the journey made them apprehensive for those who were to conduct us; but at length we having dispelled their fears by our arguments, and they having again deliberated some time, agreed to our request. We again made them a present, promising a good reward to our guides, and so we prepared to set forwards. Little Bartholomew, the Parisian, having intimated to us that he would willingly stay in that house, because he was none of the ablest of body, we recommended him to the Sieur Couture. We desired those that remained there to keep the secret of M. de la Salle's death, promised to send them relief, left them our horses, which were of great use to go a hunting, and gave them fifteen or sixteen pounds of powder, eight hundred balls, three hundred flints,
13
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twenty-six knives, and ten axes, two or three pounds weight of beads ; M. Cavelier left them part of his linen, hoping we should soon be in a place where we should get more ; and all of them having made their peace with God, by means of the sacrament of penance, we took leave of them, excepting the Sieur Couture, who went to conduct us a part of the way.
We embarked on a canoe belonging to one of the chiefs, being at least,twenty persons, as well women as men, and arrived safe, without any trouble, at a village called Toriman, for we were going down the river. We proposed it to these people, or rather demanded it of them to confirm what had been granted us by the others, and they referred giving us their answer till the next day ; for they do nothing without consulting about it, and we having brought a sack of Indian wheat from the Frenchmen's house, desired the chief to cause women to pound it, for which we would give them something. Immediately he made a sign to his officers to go call them, and they went as readily.
There were seven or eight of those officers always about him, stark-naked, and besmeared, some after one fashion and others after another. Each of them had three or four calabashes, or gourds, hanging at a leather girdle about their waists, in which there were several pebbles, and behind them hung a horse's tail, so that when they ran the gourds made a rattling noisêpand the tail being borne up by the wind, stood out at its full length, so that nothing could be seen more ridiculous.; but it behooved us to take heed of showing the least smile.X ^
The-remaining part of the day was spent in going with Sieur Couture to see the fatal river so much sought after by us, called Colbert, when first discovered, and Mississippi, or Mechassippi, by the natives that were near us. It is a very fine river, and deep ; the breadth of it about a quarter of a league, and the stream very rapid. The Sieur Couture assured us that it has two branches or channels which parted from each other above us, and that we had passed its other branch when we came to the first village of the Accanceas, with which nation we still were.
The 28th,£tjie chief and the elders being assembled, they granted our requests.^ We were to part, in order to be entertained in several places, where we took notice of some particular ceremonies, which we had not seen among the other nations. One of them is, that they serve up their meat in two or four large dishes, which are first set down before the two principal guests, who are at one end, and when
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they have eaten a little, those dishes are shoved down lower, and others are served up in their place, in the same manner ; so that the first dishes are served at the upper end, and thrust down lower as others come in.
He who treats does not sit down with the company, nor does he eat, but performs the part of a steward, taking care of the dressing and of the placing of the meat served up ; and to the end he may appear the finer, he never fails to besmear himself with clay, or some red or black coloring they make use of. X
The 29th we set out from that village, and embarked on two canoes to cross the Mississippi. The chief and about a score of young folks bore us company to the next village, called Tonningua, seated on the bank of that river, where we were received in the chief's cottage, as we had been in the others. The elders treated us in their turns, and the descriptions before given will serve for this place, there being but little difference between them and their neighbors.
The 30th, we set out for Cappa, the last village of the Accanceas, eight leagues distant from the place we had left. We were obliged to cross the river Mississippi several times in this way ; because it winds very much, and we had some foul weather, which made it late before we could reach Cappa. A great number of youths came to meet us ; some of them conducted us to the chief's cottage, and others took care of our baggage, which was restored to us very honestly. We found the elders waiting for us ; a great fire was kindled to dry us, and the cottage was lighted by several burning reeds, which they make use of instead of flambeaux ; after which we were served as in other places.
The 31st, we received visits from the elders. Their discourse ran upon the war they designed to make, thinking to engage «s in it, and we returned the same answer as we had done to the others, that we should soon return with all things we stood in need of. We asked a man of them, which was granted, and the day ended in feasting.
We would willingly have set out the first of August; but the chief came and told us it could not be, because the women had not pounded our corn, which, however, was done ; but they made use of that pretence to oblige us to stay, and to have leisure to give us some diversion, after their manner. Accordingly, about ten in the morning, the warriors and youth came together to dance. They were dressed after their best manner, some of them wearing plumes of several colors, wherewith they adorn their heads ; others, instead of feathers, had two bullocks' horns, and were all besmeared with clay, or black
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:¦'¦¦ I
and red, so that they really looked like a company of devils or mon-sters,l&nd in those figures they danced as I have described it, speaking oT the other nations.
The 2d, we made ready to be going. The Indian given by the first village for our guide, would not go any farther. A man, said to be a hermaphrodite, offered to supply his place, saying he was willing to go to the Illinois. We took leave of the Sieur Couture, to whom M. Cavelier made an exhortation, encouraging him to persevere and have patience, in hopes of the relief we would send him, and so we embarked on the Mississippi in a canoe, being nine in number, that is, five of us, and the four Indians that were our guides. We were obliged to cross that river very often, and no less frequently to carry our canoe and goods, as well on account of the rapidity of the river, and to find it slacker on the one or the other side of it, which was very troublesome to our guides, as because of the little islands we met with, which are formed by the impetuous beating of the water upon the banks, that oppose its course, where the channels happen not to lie straight ; there it washes away the earth, and bears" down great trees, which in process of time form little islands, that divide the channel. At night we encamped on one of those small islands, for our greater safety, for we were then come into an enemy's nation, called Machigamea, which put our Indians into great fright.
It is certain our toil was very great, for we were obliged to row in the canoe, to help our Indians to stem the current of the river, because we were going up, and it was very strong and rapid; we were often necessitated to land, and sometimes to travel over miry lands, where we sunk up halfway the leg; other times over burning sands, which scorched our feet, having no shoes, or else over splinters of wood, which ran into the soles of our feet, and when we were come *o the resting place, we were to provide fuel to dress our meat, and p-ovide all things for our Indians, who would not have done so much
;*o fetch a cup of water, though we were on the bank of the river, !..-il yet we were happy enough in having them.
We proceeded on, continually undergoing the same toil, till the 7th, when we saw the first bullock we had met on our way since our coming among the Accanceas. The Indians, who had a great mind to eat flesh, made a sign to me, to go kill it. I pursued and shot, but it did not fall ; the Indians ran after, killed, and came to tell us it must be parched, or dried, which was accordingly done. I
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must here take notice of a ceremony our Indians performed when they came near the bullock, before they flayed it.
In the first place they adorned his head with some swan's and bustard's down, dyed red, and put some tobacco into his nostrils, and between the clefts of the hoofs. When they had flayed him, they cut out the tongue and put a bit of tobacco into its place ; then they stuck two wooden forks into the ground, laid a stick across them, on which they placed several slices of the flesh, in the nature of an offering. The ceremony being ended, we parched or dried the best parts of the beast, and proceeded on our journey.
The 9th, we found the banks of the river very high, and the earth of them yellow, red and white, and thither the natives came to furnish themselves with it, to adorn their bodies on festival days. We held on our way till the 14th, when we met a herd of bullocks, whereof we killed five, dried part of them, and proceeded till the 18th.
The 19th, we came to the mouth of the river, called Houabache, said to come from the country of the Iroquois, towards New England. That is a very fine river, its water extraordinarily clear, and the current of it gentle. Our Indians offered up to it, by way of sacrifice, some tobacco and beefsteaks, which they fixed on forks, and left them on the bank, to be disposed of as the river thought fit. We observed some other superstitions among those poor people, one whereof was as follows.
There were some certain days on which they fasted, and we knew them, when, as soon as they awaked, they besmeared their faces and arms, or other parts of their bodies, with a slimy sort of earth, or pounded charcoal ; for that day they did not eat till ten or eleven of the clock at night, and before they did eat they were to wipe off that smearing, and had water brought them for that purpose. The occasion of their fasting was, as they gave us to understand, that they might have good success in hunting, and kill abundance of bullocks.
We held on our way till the 25th, when the Indians showed us a spring of salt water, within a musket shot of us, and made us go ashore to view it. We observed the ground about it was much beaten by bullocks' feet, and it is likely they love that salt water. The country about was full of hillocks, covered with oaks and walnut trees, abundance of plum trees, almost all the plums red and pretty good, besides great store of other sorts of fruits, whose u.ames we know not, and among them one shaped like a middling
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pear, with stones in it as big as large beans. When ripe it peels like a peach ; the taste is indifferent good, but rather of the sweetest.
The 27th, having discovered a herd of beeves, we went ashore to kill some ; I shot a heifer, which was very good meat ; we put aboard the best of it, and held on our way till the evening, when we en camped on an island, where we observed an alteration in the humor and behavior of our Indians. This put us under some apprehension, and the more, for that he who was reckoned a hermaphrodite, told us they intended to leave us, which obliged us to secure our arms, and double our watch during the night, for fear they should forsake us.
With that jealousy we proceeded on our journey the 28th and 29th, coasting along the foot of an upright rock, about sixty or eighty feet high, round which the river glides. Held on. the 30th and 31st, and the 1st of September passed by the mouth of a river called Missouri, whose water is always thick,, and to which our Indians did not forget to offer sacrifice.
The 2d, we arrived at the place where the figure is of the pretended monster spoken of by Father Marquet. That monster consists of two scurvy figures drawn in red, on the flat side of a rock, about ten or twelve feet high, which wants very much of the extraordinary height that relation mentions. However, our Indians paid homage, by offering sacrifice to that stone ; though we endeavored to give them to understand that the said rock had no manner of virtue, and that we worshipped something above it, pointing up to heaven ; but it was to no purpose, and they made signs to us that they should die if they did not perform that duty We proceeded, coasting along a chain of mountains, and at length, on the 3d, left the Mississippi, to enter the river of the Illinois.
We found a great alteration in that river, as well with respect to its course, which is very gentle, as to the country about it, which is much more agreeable and beautiful than that about the great river, by reason of the many fine woods and variety of fruit its banks are adorned with. It was a very great comfort to us to find so much ease in going up that river, by reason of its gentle stream, so that we all stayed in the canoe and made much more way.
Thus we went on till the 8th, without stopping any longer than to kill a bullock, and one of our Indians, who had a craving stomach, having eaten some of its suet hot and raw, was taken very ill, and died of it, as I shall mention in its place.
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The 9th, we came into a lake, about half a league over, which we crossed, and returned into the channel of the river, on the banks whereof we found several marks of the natives having been encamped there, when they came to fish and dry what they caught. The 10th, we crossed another lake, called Primitehouy, returned to the river, and the 11th, saw Indians before us, encamped on the bank of a river, whereupon we stopped and made ready our arms. In the meantime, one of them came towards us by land, and we put on our canoe towards him.
When that Indian was near, he stood gazing on us without speak, ing a word, and then drawing still nearer, we gave him to understand that we were sent by M. de la Salle, and came from him. Then he made signs to us to advance towards his people, whom he went before to acquaint with what we had said to him, so that when we were come near them they fired several shot to salute us, and we answered them with our firelocks.
After that mutual salutation, they came into our canoe to signify they were glad to hear news of M. de la Salle. We asked them what nation they were of; they answered, they were Illinois, of a canton called Cascasquia. We inquired whether M. Tonty was at Fort Louis ; they gave us to understand that he was not, but that he was gone to the war against the Iroquois. - They invited us ashore to go with them to eat of such as they had ; we thanked them, and they brought us some gourds and watermelons, in exchange for which we. gave them some parched flesh.
We had not, by the way, taken notice of a canoe, in which was a man with two women, who, being afraid of us, had hidden themselves among the reeds ; but that man seeing us stop among his countrymen, took heart, came to us, aud having told us that he belonged to a village near Fort Louis, we set out together, and one of our Indians went into that canoe to help them to shove, so they call the way of pushing on the canoe with poles instead of rowing.
On Sunday, the 14th of September, about two in the afternoon, we came into the neighborhood of Fort Louis. Drawing near, we were met by some Indians that were on the bank, who having viewed us well, and understanding we came from M. de la Salle, and that we belonged to him, ran to the fort to carry the news, and immediately we saw a Frenchman come out, with a company of Indians, who fired a volley of several pieces, to salute us. Then the Frenchman drew near and desired us to come ashore, which we did, leaving only one in the canoe to take care of our baggage, for the Illinois are very sharp
.! ;iJli
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.Ml!!
at carrying off anything they can lay their hands on, and consequently nothing near so honest as the nations we had passed through.
We all walked together towards the fort, and found three Frenchmen coming to meet us, and among them a clerk who had belonged to the late M. de la Salle. They immediately asked us where M. de la Salle was ; we told them he had brought us part of the way, and left us at a place about forty leagues beyond the Cenis, and that he was then in good health. All that was true enough ; for M. Ca-velier and I, who were the persons that then spoke, were not present at M. de la Salle's death ; he was in good health when he left us, and I have told the reasons we had for concealing his death, till we came into France.
It is no less true that Father Anastasius, and he they called Teissier, could have given a better account, the one as an eyewitness, and the other as one of the murderers, and they were both with us ; but to avoid lying, they said nothing. We farther told them we had orders to go over into France, to give an account of the discoveries made by M. de la Salle, and to procure the sending of succors.
At length we entered the fort, where we found and surprised several persons who did not expect us. All the French were under arms, and made several discharges to welcome us. M. de la Belle Fontaine, lieutenant to M. Tonty, was at the head of them, and complimented us. Then we were conducted to the chapel, where we returned thanks to God, from the bottom of our hearts, for having, preserved and conducted us in safety ; after which we had our lodgings assigned us, M. Cavelier and Father Anastasius had one chamber, and we were put into the magazine or warehouse. All this while the natives came by intervals to fire their pieces, to express their joy for our return, and for the news we brought of M. de la Salle, which refreshed our sorrow for his misfortune, perceiving that his presence would have settled all things advantageously.
The day after our arrival, one of the Indians who had conducted us having been sick ever since he eat the raw beef suet I mentioned before, died, and his companions took away and buried him privately. We gave them the promised reward, and the part belonging to the dead man, to be delivered to his relations. They stayed some time in the fort, during the which we took extraordinary care of them, and at last they returned to their own homes.
As far as we could gather by half words dropped there by one or other at the fort, something had been done there prejudicial to the service of M. de la Salle, and against his authority, and therefore
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some dreaded his return, but more especially a Jesuit was in great consternation. He was sick ; M. Cavelier, Father Anastasius, and I, went to visit him. He inquired very particularly of all points, and could not conceal his trouble, which we would not seem to take notice of.
Our design being to make the best of our way to Canada, in order to set out aboard the first French ships that should sail for France, we inquired how we were to proceed, and met with several difficulties. The navigation on that river was very dangerous by reason of the falls there are in it, which must be carefully avoided, unless a man will run an inevitable hazard of perishing. There were few persons capable of managing that affair, and the war with the Iro-quois made all men afraid.
However, the Sieur Boisrondet, clerk to the late M. de la Salle, having told us he had a canoe in which he designed to go down to Canada, we prepared to make use of that opportunity. Care was taken to gather provisions for our voyage, to get furs to barter as we passed by Micilimaquinay. The visits of two chiefs of nations, called Cascasquia Peroueria and Cacahouanous, discovered by the late M. de la Salle, did not interrupt our affairs, and all things being got ready we took leave of those we left in the fort- M. Cavelier wrote a letter for M. Tonty, which he left there to be delivered to him, and we repaired to the lake to embark.
It would be needless to relate all the troubles and hardships we met with in that journey ; it was painful and fruitless, for having gone to the bank of the lake in very foul weather, after waiting there five days for that foul weather to cease, and after we had embarked, notwithstanding the storm, we were obliged to put ashore again, to return to the place where we had embarked, and there to dig a hole in the earth to bury our baggage and provisions, to save the trouble of carrying them back to Fort Louis, whither we returned, and arrived there the 7th of October, where they were surprised to see us come back.
Thus were we obliged to continue in that fort all the rest of autumn and part of the winter, to our great sorrow, and not so much for our own disappointment as for being, by that means, obstructed from sending succors as soon as we had expected, as well to the said fort as to those French of our own company, whom we had left on the coast of the Bay of Mexico.
It was then the good season for shooting. Those gentlemen at the fort had secured two good Indian sportsmen, who never let us want
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for wild-fowl of all sorts ; besides we had good bread, and as good fruit, and had there been anything to drink besides water, we had fared well. The leisure we had during our stay there, gave me an opportunity of making the following remarks, as well of my own observation, as what I learned of the French residing there.
Fort Louis is in the country of the Illinois, and seated on a steep rock, about two hundred feet high, the river running at the bottom of it. It is only fortified with stakes and palisades, and some houses advancing to the edge of the rock. It has a very spacious esplanade, or place of arms. The place is naturally strong, and might be made so by art, with little expense. Several of the natives live in it, in their huts. 1 cannot give an account of the latitude it stands in, for want of proper instruments to take an observation, but nothing can be pleasanter ; and it may be truly affirmed, that the country of the Illinois enjoys all that can make it accomplished, not only as to ornament, but also for its plentiful production of all things requisite for the support of human life.
The plain, which is watered by the river, is beautified by two small hills, about half a league distant from the fort, and those hills are covered with groves of oaks, walnut-trees, and other sorts I have named elsewhere. The fields are full of grass, growing up very high. On the sides of the hills is found a gravelly sort of stone, very fit to make lime for building. There are also many clay-pits, fit for making of earthenware, bricks, and tiles ; and along the river there are coal-pits, the coal whereof has been tried and found very good.
There is no reason to question but that there are in this country mines of all sorts of metals, and of the richest, the climate being the same as that of New Mexico. We saw several spots, where it appeared there were iron mines, and found some pieces of it on the bank of the river, which nature had cleansed. Travellers who have been at the upper part of the Mississippi, affirm they have found mines there, of very good lead.
That country is one of the most temperate in the world, and consequently whatsoever is sown there, whether herbs, roots, Indian, and even European corn, thrives very well, as has been tried by the Sieur Boisrondet, who sowed all sorts, and had a plentiful crop, and we eat of the bread, which was very good. And whereas we were assured, that there were vines which run up, whose grapes are very good and delicious, growing along the river, it is reasonable to believe, that if those vines were transplanted and pruned, there might
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be very good wine made of them. There is also plenty of wild-apple and pear-trees, and of several other sorts, which would afford excellent fruit, were they grafted and transplanted.
All other sorts of fruit, as plums, peaches, and others, wherewith the country abounds, would become exquisite, if the same industry were used ; and other sorts of fruit we have in France would thrive well, if they were carried over. The earth produces a sort of hemp, whereof cloth might be made and cordage.
. As for the manners and customs of the Illinois, in many particulars they are the same as those of the other nations we have seen. They are naturally fierce and revengeful, and'among them the toil of sowing, planting, carrying of burdens, and doing all other things that belong to the support of life, appertains peculiarly to the women. The men have no other business but going to the war and hunting, and the women must fetch the game when they have killed it, which sometimes they are to carry very far to their dwellings, and there to parch, or dress it any other way.
When the corn, or other grain, is sown, the women secure it from the birds till it comes up. Those birds are a sort of starlings, like ours in France, but larger, and fly in great swarm:-...
The Illinois have but few children, and arc extremely fond of them ; it is the custom among them, as well as others I have men-tioncii, never to chide or beat them, but only to throw water at il,cm, by way of chastisement.
The nations we have spoken of before, are not at all, or very little, addicted to thieving ; but it is not so with the Illinois, and it behoves every man to watch their feet as well as their hands, for they know how to turn anything out of the way most dexterously. They are subject to the general vice of all the other Indians, which is to boast very much of their warlike exploits, and that is he main subject of their discourse, and they are very great liars.
They pay a respect to their dead, as appeal's by their special care of burying them, and even of putting into lofty coffins the bodies of such as are considerable among them, as their chiefs and others, which is also practised among the Accanceas, but they differ in this particular, that the Accanceas weep and make their complaints for some days ; whereas the Chahouanous, and other people of the Illinois nation, do just the contrary ; for when any of them die, they wrap them up in skins, and then put them into coffins made of the barks of trees, then sing and dance about them for twenty-four hours. Those dancers take care to tie calabashes or gourds about
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their bodies, with some Indian wheat in them, to rattle and make a noise, and some Of them have a drum, made of a great earthen pot,, on which they extend a wild goat's skin, and beat thereon with one stick, like our tabors.
During that rejoicing, they throw their presents on the coffin, as bracelets, pendants, or pieces of earthenware, and strings of beads, encouraging the singers to perform their duty well. If any friend happens to come thither at that time, he immediately throws down his present, and falls a singing and dancing like the rest. When that ceremony is over, they bury the body, with part of the presents, making choice of such as may be most proper for it. They also bury with it some store of Indian wheat, with a pot to boil it in, for fear the dead person should be hungry on bis long journey ; and they repeat the same ceremony at the year's end.
A good number of presents still remaining, they divided them into several lots, and play at a game, called of the stick, to give them to the winner. That game is played, taking a short stick, very smooth and greased, that it may be the harder to hold it fast. One of the elders throws that stick as far as he can, the young men run after it, snatch it from each other, and at last, he who remains possessed of it, has the first lot. The stick is then thrown again ; he who keeps it then has the second lot, and so on to the end. The women, who"*; husbands have been slain in war, often perform the same ceremo-,y, and treat the singers and dancers whom they have before invite.'.
The marriages of the Illinois last no longer than the parties .v;ree together ; for they freely part after a hunting bout, each going which way they please, without any ceremony. However, tljo men are jealous enough of their wives, and when they catch them in a fault, they generally cut up their noses, and I saw one who had been so served.
Nevertheless, adultery is not reckoned any great crime among them, and there are women who make no secret of having had to do with Frenchmen. Yet are they not sufficiently addicted to that vice to offer themselves, and they never fall, unless they are sued to, when they are none of the most difficult in the world to be prevailed on. The rest I leave to those who have lived longer there than me.
We continued some time in Fort Louis without receiving any news. Our business was, after having heard mass, which we had the good fortune to do every day, to divert ourselves the best way we could. The Indian women daily brought in something fresh ; we
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wanted not for watermelons, bread made of Indian corn, baked in the embers, and other such things, and we rewarded them by little presents in return.
On the 27th of October, of the same year, M. Tonty returned from the war with the Iroquois. Our embraces and the relation of our adventures were repeated ; but still concealing from him the death of M. de la Salle. He told us all the particulars of that war, and said that the Iroquois having got intelligence of the march of the French forces and their allies, had .all come out of their villages and laid themselves in ambush by the way ; but that having made a sudden and general discharge upon our men, with their usual cries, yet without much harm done, they had been repulsed with loss, took to flight, and by the way, burnt all their own villages. That M. d'Hennonville, chief Governor of New France, had caused the army to march, to burn the rest of their villages, set fire to their country and corn, but would not proceed any farther. That afterwards he had made himself master of the several canoes belonging to the English, most of them laden with brandy, which had been plundered; that the English had been sent prisoners to Montreal, they being come to make some attempt upon the Illinois.
We continued after this manner, till the month of December, when two men arrived from Montreal. They came to give notice to M. Tonty, that three canoes, laden with merchandize, powder, ball, and other things, were arrived at Chicagon ; that there being too little water in the river, and what there was being frozen, they could come no lower ; so that it being requisite to send men to fetch those things, M. Tonty desired the chief of the Chahouanous to furnish him with people. That chief accordingly provided forty, men as well as women, who set out with some Frenchmen. The honesty of the Chahouanous was the reason of preferring them before the Illinois, who are naturally knaves.
That ammunition and the merchandize were soon brought, and very seasonably, the fort being then in want. We stayed there till the end of February, 1688, at which time we fixed our resolution to depart, though we had no news from Canada, as we expected. We found there were some canoes ready to undertake that voyage, and we laid hold of that opportunity to convey each other to the Micili-maquinay, where we hoped to meet some news from Canada.
M. Cavelier, the priest, had taken care, before the death of M. de la Salle, his brother, to get of him a letter of credit, to receive either a sum of money or furs in the country of the Illinois. He tendered
Kl if
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that letter to M. Tonty, who believing M. de la Salle was still alive, made no difficulty of giving him to the value of about 4000 livres in furs, castor and otter skins, a canoe and other effects, for which the said M. Cavelier gave him his note, and we prepared for our journey.
I have before observed that there was a Jesuit, whose name was Dalouez, at Fort Louis, and who had been very much surprised to hear that M. de la Salle was to come in a short time, being under great apprehensions on account of a conspiracy intended to have been carried on against M. de la Salle's interest. That father perceiving our departure was fixed, moved first, and went away foremost, to return to Micilimaquinay ; so that they were left without a priest at Fort Louis, which was a great trouble to us, because we were the occasion of it, and therefore, those who were to remain in the fort, anticipated the time, and made their Easter, taking the advantage of the presence of F. Anastasius and M. Cavelier.
At length, we set out the 21st of March, from Fort Louis. The Sieur Boisrondet, who was desirous to return to France, joined us ; we embarked on the river, which was then become navigable, and before we had advanced five leagues, met with a rapid stream which obliged us to go ashore, and then again into the water, to draw along our canoe. I had the misfortune to hurt one of my feet against a rock that lay under water, which troubled me very much for a long time ; and we being under a necessity of going often into the water, I suffered extremely, and more than I had done since our departure from the Gulf of Mexico.
We arrived at Chicagon on the 29th of March, and our first care was to seek what we had concealed at our former voyage, having, as was there said, buried our luggage and provisions. We found it had been opened, and some furs and linen taken away, almost all of which belonged to me. This had been done by a Frenchman, whom M. Tonty had sent from the fort during the winter season, to know whether there were any canoes at Chicagon, and whom he had directed to see whether anybody had meddled with what he had concealed, and he made use of that advice to rob us.
The bad weather obliged us to stay in that place till April. That time of rest was advantageous for the healing my foot ; and there being but very little game in that place, we had nothing but our meal or Indian wheat to feed on ; yet we discovered a kind of manna, which was a great help to us. It was a sort of trees, resembling our maple, in which we made incisions, whence flowed a sweet liquor,
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and in it we boiled our Indian wheat, which made it delicious, sweet, and of a very agreeable relish.
There being no sugar-canes in that country, those trees supplied that liquor, which being boiled up and evaporated, turned into a kind of sugar somewhat brownish, but very good. In the woods we found a sort of garlic, not so strong as ours, and small onions very like ours in taste, and some charvel of the same relish as that we have, but different in the leaf.
The weather being somewhat mended, we embarked again, and entered upon the lake on the 5th of April, keeping to the north side to shun the Iroquois. We had some storms also, and saw swelling waves like those of the sea ; but arrived safe on the 15th at a river called Quinetonan, near a village, whence the inhabitants depart during the winter season, to go a hunting, and reside there all the summer.
The sport is not there as in those countries from whence we came ; but, on the contrary, very poor, and we found nothing but some very lean wild goats, and even those very rarely, because the wolves, which are very numerous there, make a great havoc of them, taking and devouring great numbers after this manner.
When the wolves have discovered a herd of wild goats, they rouse and set them a running. The wild goats never fail to take to the first lake they meet with. The hunting wolves, who are used to that, guard the banks carefully, moving along the edges of them. The poor goats being pierced by the cold of the lake, grow weary and so get out, or else the river swelling forces them out with its waves, quite benumbed, so that they are easily taken by their enemies, who devour them. We frequently saw those wolves watching along the side of the lake, and kept off'to avoid frightening them, to the end the wild goats might quit their sanctuary, that we might catch some of them, as it sometimes fell out.
The 28th, we arrived among the Poutouatannis, which is half way to Micilimaquinay, where we purchased some Indian corn for the rest of our voyage. We found no news there from Montreal, and were forced to stay some time to wait an opportunity to go down the river, no man daring to venture, because of the war with the Iroquois.
There are some Frenchmen in that place, and four Jesuits, who have a house well built with timber, enclosed with stakes and palisades. There are also some Hurons and Outahouacs, two neighboring nations, whom those fathers take care to instruct, not without
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very much trouble, those people being downright libertines, and there arc very often none but a few women in their churches. Those fathers have each of them the charge of instructing a nation, and to that effect have translated the proper prayers into the language peculiar to each of them, as also all other things relating to the Catholic faith and religion.
They offered Father Anastasius and M. Cavelier a room, which they accepted of, and we took up our lodging in a little hovel some travellers had made. There we continued the rest of May and part of June, till after the feast of Whitsuntide. The natives of the country about till the land and sow Indian corn, melons and gourds, but they do not thrive so well as in the country we came from. However, they live on them, and besides they have fish they catch in the lake, for flesh is very scarce among them.
On the 4th of June, there arrived four canoes, commanded by M. do Porneuf, corning from Montreal, and bringing news from the Marquis d'Hennonville, and orders to send to the settlements which were towards the Lake des Puans and others higher up, towards the source of the river Colbert, to know the posture and condition of affairs. We prepared to be gone with the two canoes. M. Cavelier bought another, to carry our baggage, and left part of his furs with a merchant, who gave him a note to receive money at Montreal. I did the same with those few furs I had, the rest of them having been left at Micilimaquinay.
We took leave of the Jesuits, and set out in four canoes, viz., two belonging to M. de Porneuf, and two to M. Cavelier, one of which had been brought from Fort Louis, and the other bought as I have just now said, we being twenty-nine of us in those four canoes. We rowed on till the 24th, when M. de Porneuf left us to go to St. Mary's Fall, to carry the orders given him. The 25th we got out of the lake of the Illinois, to enter that of the Hurons, on the banks whereof stands the village called Tessalon, where M. de Porneuf came again to us, with a canoe of the natives, and with him we held on our way.
We proceeded to Chebonany the 30th of June, and the 3d of July entered the French river, where we were forced several times to carry our canoes to avoid the falls and the rapid streams, observing as we went a barren and dry country, full of rocks, on which grew cedar and fir trees, which take root in the clefts of those rocks.
The 5th, we entered upon the little lake of Nipicingue, adjoining to a nation of that name. We got out of it again and entered upon
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the great river, where, after having passed the great fall, we arrived the 13th at the point of the island of Montreal. We landed at a village called Lachine, which had belonged to the late M. de la Salle. M. Cavelier set out the 14ih for Montreal, where we came to him the 17th.
At Montreal we found the Marquis d'Hennonville, M. de Noroy the Intendant, and other gentlemen, to whom we gave an account of our long and painful travels, with the particulars of what we had seen, which they listened to with satisfaction, but without mentioning M. de la Salle's death. We told them the occasion of our going over into France, and they approved of it, being of opinion with us that we ought to hasten our departure as much as possible.
We made us some clothes, whereof we stood in need. The Sieur Teissier, who came along with us, and was of the reformed religion, knowing the exercise of it was forbid in France, abjured it in the great church of Montreal.
The 27th, we went aboard a bark to go down the river to Quebec, where we arrived the 29th. Father Anastasius carried us to the monastery of the fathers of his order, seated half a league from the town, on a little river, where we were most kindly received by the father-guardian and the other religious men, who expressed much joy to see us, and we still more for being in a place of safety, after so many perils and toils, for which we returned our humble thanks to Almighty God, our protector.
We chose rather to take up our lodging there than in the town, to avoid the visits and troublesome questions every one would be putting to us with much importunity, which we must have been obliged to bear patiently. M. Cavelier and his nephew, whom we had left at Montreal, arrived some days after us, and were lodged in the Seminary.
We stayed in that monastery till the 21st of August, when we embarked in a large boat, eighteen persons of us, to go down the river of St. Lawrence, aboard a ship, that was taking in and fishing of cod ; we went aboard it the 30th of the same month, and after hearing mass, made ready and sailed for our dear country ; arrived safe at Rochelle on Saturday, the 9th of October, 1688, whence setting out by land, the 15th, the same Providence, which had protected and conducted us, brought us without any misfortune to Rouen, the 7th of October, the same year.
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