



Produced by Sharon Joiner, Christian Boissonnas, Charles
Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net









  +----------------------------------------------------------------+
  | Transcriber's Note:                                            |
  |                                                                |
  |    * Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.         |
  |      Original spelling and its variations were not harmonized. |
  |                                                                |
  |    * Footnotes were moved to the ends of the chapters in which |
  |      they belonged and numbered in one continuous sequence.    |
  |      The pagination in index entries which referred to these   |
  |      footnotes was not changed to match their new locations    |
  +      and is therefore incorrect.                               |
  +----------------------------------------------------------------+




Francis Parkman's Works.

NEW LIBRARY EDITION.

Vol. III.




  FRANCIS PARKMAN'S WORKS.

  New Library Edition.

  Pioneers of France in the New World                  1 vol.

  The Jesuits in North America                         1 vol.

  La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West         1 vol.

  The Old Regime in Canada                             1 vol.

  Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.      1 vol.

  A Half Century of Conflict                           2 vols.

  Montcalm and Wolfe                                   2 vols.

  The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after
  the Conquest of Canada                               2 vols.

  The Oregon Trail                                     1 vol.




[Illustration]

_La Salle Presenting a Petition to Louis XIV._

Drawn by Adrien Moreau.

La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, _Frontispiece_




  LA SALLE
  AND THE
  DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST.

  FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN
  NORTH AMERICA.

  Part Third.

  BY
  FRANCIS PARKMAN.

  BOSTON:
  LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
  1908.


  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
  Francis Parkman,
  In the Clerk's Office
  of the
  District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
  Francis Parkman,
  In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

  _Copyright, 1897,_
  By Little, Brown, and Company.

  _Copyright, 1897,_
  By Grace P. Coffin and Katharine S. Coolidge.

  _Copyright, 1907,_
  By Grace P. Coffin.

  Printers
  S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.


TO

THE CLASS OF 1844,

Harvard College,

THIS BOOK IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED

BY ONE OF THEIR NUMBER.




PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.


When the earlier editions of this book were
published, I was aware of the existence of a collection
of documents relating to La Salle, and
containing important material to which I had
not succeeded in gaining access. This collection
was in possession of M. Pierre Margry, director
of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at
Paris, and was the result of more than thirty
years of research. With rare assiduity and zeal,
M. Margry had explored not only the vast depository
with which he has been officially connected
from youth, and of which he is now the
chief, but also the other public archives of
France, and many private collections in Paris
and the provinces. The object of his search
was to throw light on the career and achievements
of French explorers, and, above all, of La
Salle. A collection of extraordinary richness
grew gradually upon his hands. In the course
of my own inquiries, I owed much to his friendly
aid; but his collections, as a whole, remained
inaccessible, since he naturally wished to be the
first to make known the results of his labors.
An attempt to induce Congress to furnish him
with the means of printing documents so interesting
to American history was made in 1870
and 1871, by Henry Harrisse, Esq., aided by the
American minister at Paris; but it unfortunately
failed.

In the summer and autumn of 1872, I had
numerous interviews with M. Margry, and at his
desire undertook to try to induce some American
bookseller to publish the collection. On returning
to the United States, I accordingly made
an arrangement with Messrs. Little, Brown &
Co., of Boston, by which they agreed to print
the papers if a certain number of subscriptions
should first be obtained. The condition proved
very difficult; and it became clear that the best
hope of success lay in another appeal to Congress.
This was made in the following winter,
in conjunction with Hon. E. B. Washburne;
Colonel Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland; O. H.
Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo; and other gentlemen
interested in early American history. The attempt
succeeded. Congress made an appropriation
for the purchase of five hundred copies of
the work, to be printed at Paris, under direction
of M. Margry; and the three volumes devoted
to La Salle are at length before the public.

Of the papers contained in them which I had
not before examined, the most interesting are
the letters of La Salle, found in the original by
M. Margry, among the immense accumulations
of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies and
the Bibliotheque Nationale. The narrative of
La Salle's companion, Joutel, far more copious
than the abstract printed in 1713, under the
title of "Journal Historique," also deserves
special mention. These, with other fresh material
in these three volumes, while they add new
facts and throw new light on the character of
La Salle, confirm nearly every statement made
in the first edition of the Discovery of the Great
West. The only exception of consequence relates
to the causes of La Salle's failure to find
the mouth of the Mississippi in 1684, and to the
conduct, on that occasion, of the naval commander,
Beaujeu.

This edition is revised throughout, and in part
rewritten with large additions. A map of the
country traversed by the explorers is also added.
The name of La Salle is placed on the titlepage,
as seems to be demanded by his increased prominence
in the narrative of which he is the central
figure.

Boston, 10 December, 1878.

       *       *       *       *       *

Note.--The title of M. Margry's printed collection is "Decouvertes
et Etablissements des Francais dans l'Ouest et dans le Sud
de l'Amerique Septentrionale (1614-1754), Memoires et Documents
originaux." I., II., III. Besides the three volumes relating to La
Salle, there will be two others, relating to other explorers. In
accordance with the agreement with Congress, an independent edition
will appear in France, with an introduction setting forth the
circumstances of the publication.




PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION.


The discovery of the "Great West," or the
valleys of the Mississippi and the Lakes, is a
portion of our history hitherto very obscure.
Those magnificent regions were revealed to the
world through a series of daring enterprises,
of which the motives and even the incidents
have been but partially and superficially known.
The chief actor in them wrote much, but printed
nothing; and the published writings of his associates
stand wofully in need of interpretation
from the unpublished documents which exist,
but which have not heretofore been used as
material for history.

This volume attempts to supply the defect.
Of the large amount of wholly new material
employed in it, by far the greater part is drawn
from the various public archives of France, and
the rest from private sources. The discovery of
many of these documents is due to the indefatigable
research of M. Pierre Margry, assistant
director of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies
at Paris, whose labors as an investigator of
the maritime and colonial history of France can
be appreciated only by those who have seen their
results. In the department of American colonial
history, these results have been invaluable;
for, besides several private collections made by
him, he rendered important service in the collection
of the French portion of the Brodhead documents,
selected and arranged the two great
series of colonial papers ordered by the Canadian
government, and prepared with vast labor analytical
indexes of these and of supplementary
documents in the French archives, as well as a
copious index of the mass of papers relating to
Louisiana. It is to be hoped that the valuable
publications on the maritime history of France
which have appeared from his pen are an earnest
of more extended contributions in future.

The late President Sparks, some time after the
publication of his Life of La Salle, caused a
collection to be made of documents relating to
that explorer, with the intention of incorporating
them in a future edition. This intention
was never carried into effect, and the documents
were never used. With the liberality which
always distinguished him, he placed them at my
disposal, and this privilege has been kindly continued
by Mrs. Sparks.

Abbe Faillon, the learned author of "La Colonie
Francaise en Canada," has sent me copies
of various documents found by him, including
family papers of La Salle. Among others who
in various ways have aided my inquiries are Dr.
John Paul, of Ottawa, Ill.; Count Adolphe de
Circourt, and M. Jules Marcou, of Paris; M. A.
Gerin Lajoie, Assistant Librarian of the Canadian
Parliament; M. J. M. Le Moine, of Quebec;
General Dix, Minister of the United States
at the Court of France; O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo;
J. G. Shea, of New York; Buckingham
Smith, of St. Augustine; and Colonel Thomas
Aspinwall, of Boston.

The smaller map contained in the book is a
portion of the manuscript map of Franquelin, of
which an account will be found in the Appendix.

The next volume of the series will be devoted
to the efforts of Monarchy and Feudalism under
Louis XIV. to establish a permanent power on
this continent, and to the stormy career of Louis
de Buade, Count of Frontenac.

Boston, 16 September, 1869.




  CONTENTS.


                                                                    Page

  INTRODUCTION                                                         3


  CHAPTER I.

  1643-1669.

  CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.

  The Youth of La Salle: his Connection with the Jesuits; he goes to
  Canada; his Character; his Schemes; his Seigniory at La Chine; his
  Expedition in Search of a Western Passage to India.                  7


  CHAPTER II.

  1669-1671.

  LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS.

  The French in Western New York.--Louis Joliet.--The Sulpitians on Lake
  Erie; at Detroit; at Saut Ste. Marie.--The Mystery of La Salle: he
  discovers the Ohio; he descends the Illinois; did he reach the      19
  Mississippi?


  CHAPTER III.

  1670-1672.

  THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES.

  The Old Missions and the New.--A Change of Spirit.--Lake Superior and
  the Copper-mines.--Ste. Marie.--La Pointe.--Michilimackinac.--Jesuits
  on Lake Michigan.--Allouez and Dablon.--The Jesuit Fur-trade.       36


  CHAPTER IV.

  1667-1672.

  FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION OF THE WEST.

  Talon.--Saint-Lusson.--Perrot.--The Ceremony at Saut Ste. Marie.--The
  Speech of Allouez.--Count Frontenac.                                48


  CHAPTER V.

  1672-1675.

  THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

  Joliet sent to find the Mississippi.--Jacques
  Marquette.--Departure.--Green Bay.--The Wisconsin.--The
  Mississippi.--Indians.--Manitous.--The Arkansas.--The
  Illinois.--Joliet's Misfortune.--Marquette at Chicago: his Illness;
  his Death.                                                          57


  CHAPTER VI.

  1673-1678.

  LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.

  Objects of La Salle.--Frontenac favors him.--Projects of
  Frontenac.--Cataraqui.--Frontenac on Lake Ontario.--Fort
  Frontenac.--La Salle and Fenelon.--Success of La Salle:
  his Enemies.                                                        83


  CHAPTER VII.

  1678.

  PARTY STRIFE.

  La Salle and his Reporter.--Jesuit Ascendency.--The Missions and the
  Fur-trade.--Female Inquisitors.--Plots against La Salle: his Brother
  the Priest.--Intrigues of the Jesuits.--La Salle poisoned: he
  exculpates the Jesuits.--Renewed Intrigues.                        106


  CHAPTER VIII.

  1677, 1678.

  THE GRAND ENTERPRISE.

  La Salle at Fort Frontenac.--La Salle at Court: his
  Memorial.--Approval of the King.--Money and Means.--Henri de
  Tonty.--Return to Canada.                                          120


  CHAPTER IX.

  1678-1679.

  LA SALLE AT NIAGARA.

  Father Louis Hennepin: his Past Life; his
  Character.--Embarkation.--Niagara Falls.--Indian Jealousy.--La Motte
  and the Senecas.--A Disaster.--La Salle and his Followers.         131


  CHAPTER X.

  1679.

  THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN."

  The Niagara Portage.--A Vessel on the Stocks.--Suffering and
  Discontent.--La Salle's Winter Journey.--The Vessel launched.--Fresh
  Disasters.                                                         144


  CHAPTER XI.

  1679.

  LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES.

  The Voyage of the "Griffin."--Detroit.--A Storm.--St. Ignace of
  Michilimackinac.--Rivals and Enemies.--Lake Michigan.--Hardships.--A
  Threatened Fight.--Fort Miami.--Tonty's Misfortunes.--Forebodings. 151


  CHAPTER XII.

  1679, 1680.

  LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS.

  The St. Joseph.--Adventure of La Salle.--The Prairies.--Famine.--The
  Great Town of the Illinois.--Indians.--Intrigues.--Difficulties.--
  Policy of La Salle.--Desertion.--Another Attempt to poison
  La Salle.                                                          164


  CHAPTER XIII.

  1680.

  FORT CREVECOE]UR.

  Building of the Fort.--Loss of the "Griffin."--A Bold
  Resolution.--Another Vessel.--Hennepin sent to the
  Mississippi.--Departure of La Salle.                               180


  CHAPTER XIV.

  1680.

  HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE.

  The Winter Journey.--The Deserted Town.--Starved Rock.--Lake
  Michigan.--The Wilderness.--War Parties.--La Salle's Men give
  out.--Ill Tidings.--Mutiny.--Chastisement of the Mutineers.        189


  CHAPTER XV.

  1680.

  INDIAN CONQUERORS.

  The Enterprise renewed.--Attempt to rescue Tonty.--Buffalo.--A
  Frightful Discovery.--Iroquois Fury.--The Ruined Town.--A Night
  of Horror.--Traces of the Invaders.--No News of Tonty.             202


  CHAPTER XVI.

  1680.

  TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS.

  The Deserters.--The Iroquois War.--The Great Town of the
  Illinois.--The Alarm.--Onset of the Iroquois.--Peril of
  Tonty.--A Treacherous Truce.--Intrepidity of Tonty.--Murder
  of Ribourde.--War upon the Dead.                                   216


  CHAPTER XVII.

  1680.

  THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN.

  Hennepin an Impostor: his Pretended Discovery; his Actual Discovery;
  captured by the Sioux.--The Upper Mississippi.                     242


  CHAPTER XVIII.

  1680, 1681.

  HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX.

  Signs of Danger.--Adoption.--Hennepin and his Indian Relatives.--The
  Hunting Party.--The Sioux Camp.--Falls of St. Anthony.--A Vagabond
  Friar: his Adventures on the Mississippi.--Greysolon Du Lhut.--Return
  to Civilization.                                                   259


  CHAPTER XIX.

  1681.

  LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW.

  His Constancy; his Plans; his Savage Allies; he becomes
  Snow-blind.--Negotiations.--Grand Council.--La Salle's
  Oratory.--Meeting with Tonty.--Preparation.--Departure.            283


  CHAPTER XX.

  1681-1682.

  SUCCESS OF LA SALLE.

  His Followers.--The Chicago Portage.--Descent of the Mississippi.--The
  Lost Hunter.--The Arkansas.--The Taensas.--The Natchez.--Hostility.--The
  Mouth of the Mississippi.--Louis XIV. proclaimed Sovereign of the Great
  West.                                                              295


  CHAPTER XXI.

  1682, 1683.

  ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS.

  Louisiana.--Illness of La Salle: his Colony on the Illinois.--Fort
  St. Louis.--Recall of Frontenac.--Le Febvre de la Barre.--Critical
  Position of La Salle.--Hostility of the New Governor.--Triumph of
  the Adverse Faction.--La Salle sails for France.                   309


  CHAPTER XXII.

  1680-1683.

  LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF.

  Difficulty of knowing him; his Detractors; his Letters; vexations of
  his Position; his Unfitness for Trade; risks of Correspondence; his
  Reported Marriage; alleged Ostentation; motives of Action; charges
  of Harshness; intrigues against him; unpopular Manners; a Strange
  Confession; his Strength and his Weakness; contrasts of his
  Character.                                                         328


  CHAPTER XXIII.

  1684.

  A NEW ENTERPRISE.

  La Salle at Court: his Proposals.--Occupation of Louisiana.--Invasion
  of Mexico.--Royal Favor.--Preparation.--A Divided Command.--Beaujeu
  and La Salle.--Mental Condition of La Salle: his Farewell to his
  Mother.                                                            343


  CHAPTER XXIV.

  1684, 1685.

  THE VOYAGE.

  Disputes with Beaujeu.--St. Domingo.--La Salle attacked with
  Fever: his Desperate Condition.--The Gulf of Mexico.--A Vain Search
  and a Fatal Error.                                                 366


  CHAPTER XXV.

  1685.

  LA SALLE IN TEXAS.

  A Party of Exploration.--Wreck of the "Aimable."--Landing of the
  Colonists.--A Forlorn Position.--Indian Neighbors.--Friendly Advances
  of Beaujeu: his Departure.--A Fatal Discovery.                     378


  CHAPTER XXVI.

  1685-1687.

  ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS.

  The Fort.--Misery and Dejection.--Energy of La Salle: his Journey of
  Exploration.--Adventures and Accidents.--The Buffalo.--Duhaut.--Indian
  Massacre.--Return of La Salle.--A New Calamity.--A Desperate
  Resolution.--Departure for Canada.--Wreck of the
  "Belle."--Marriage.--Sedition.--Adventures of La Salle's Party.--The
  Cenis.--The Camanches.--The Only Hope.--The Last Farewell.         391


  CHAPTER XXVII.

  1687.

  ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE.

  His Followers.--Prairie Travelling.--A Hunters' Quarrel.--The Murder
  of Moranget.--The Conspiracy.--Death of La Salle: his Character.   420


  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  1687, 1688.

  THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY.

  Triumph of the Murderers.--Danger of Joutel.--Joutel among the
  Cenis.--White Savages.--Insolence of Duhaut and his
  Accomplices.--Murder of Duhaut and Liotot.--Hiens, the
  Buccaneer.--Joutel and his Party: their Escape; they reach the
  Arkansas.--Bravery and Devotion of Tonty.--The Fugitives reach
  the Illinois.--Unworthy Conduct of Cavelier.--He and his Companions
  return to France.                                                  435


  CHAPTER XXIX.

  1688-1689.

  FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY.

  Tonty attempts to rescue the Colonists: his Difficulties and
  Hardships.--Spanish Hostility.--Expedition of Alonzo de Leon: he
  reaches Fort St. Louis.--A Scene of Havoc.--Destruction of the
  French.--The End.                                                  464




  APPENDIX.

  I. Early Unpublished Maps of the Mississippi and the Great
     Lakes                                                           475


  II. The Eldorado of Mathieu Sagean                                 485




  INDEX                                                              491

[Illustration:

COUNTRIES
traversed by
MARQUETTE, HENNEPIN
AND
LA SALLE.

G.W. Boynton, Sc.]




LA SALLE
AND THE
DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST.




INTRODUCTION.


The Spaniards discovered the Mississippi. De
Soto was buried beneath its waters; and it was down
its muddy current that his followers fled from the
Eldorado of their dreams, transformed to a wilderness
of misery and death. The discovery was never used,
and was well-nigh forgotten. On early Spanish
maps, the Mississippi is often indistinguishable from
other affluents of the Gulf. A century passed after
De Soto's journeyings in the South, before a French
explorer reached a northern tributary of the great
river.

This was Jean Nicollet, interpreter at Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence.
He had been some twenty years in Canada, had lived among the savage
Algonquins of Allumette Island, and spent eight or nine years among the
Nipissings, on the lake which bears their name. Here he became an Indian
in all his habits, but remained, nevertheless, a zealous Catholic, and
returned to civilization at last because he could not live without the
sacraments. Strange stories were current among the Nipissings of a
people without hair or beard, who came from the West to trade with a
tribe beyond the Great Lakes. Who could doubt that these strangers were
Chinese or Japanese? Such tales may well have excited Nicollet's
curiosity; and when, in 1635, or possibly in 1638, he was sent as an
ambassador to the tribe in question, he would not have been surprised if
on arriving he had found a party of mandarins among them. Perhaps it was
with a view to such a contingency that he provided himself, as a dress
of ceremony, with a robe of Chinese damask embroidered with birds and
flowers. The tribe to which he was sent was that of the Winnebagoes,
living near the head of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. They had come to
blows with the Hurons, allies of the French; and Nicollet was charged to
negotiate a peace. When he approached the Winnebago town, he sent one of
his Indian attendants to announce his coming, put on his robe of damask,
and advanced to meet the expectant crowd with a pistol in each hand. The
squaws and children fled, screaming that it was a manito, or spirit,
armed with thunder and lightning; but the chiefs and warriors regaled
him with so bountiful a hospitality that a hundred and twenty beavers
were devoured at a single feast. From the Winnebagoes, he passed
westward, ascended Fox River, crossed to the Wisconsin, and descended
it so far that, as he reported on his return, in three days more he
would have reached the sea. The truth seems to be that he mistook the
meaning of his Indian guides, and that the "great water" to which he was
so near was not the sea, but the Mississippi.

It has been affirmed that one Colonel Wood, of Virginia, reached a
branch of the Mississippi as early as the year 1654, and that about 1670
a certain Captain Bolton penetrated to the river itself. Neither
statement is sustained by sufficient evidence. It is further affirmed
that, in 1678, a party from New England crossed the Mississippi, reached
New Mexico