Chapter V: Discovery Along the Great Lakes (4)

At this time the young French engineer, Franquelin, was in Quebec making record as best he could, from such information as reached headquarters, of the progress of the various discoverers. There are maps of his as early as 1679 and 1681 which are enumerated by Harrisse.[613] Parkman is also inclined to ascribe to Franquelin a map with neither date nor author, but of superior skill in drafting, which is called _Carte de l’Amérique septentrionale et partie de la meridionale ... avec les nouvelles decouvertes de la Rivière Mississipi, ou Colbert_. It records an event of 1679 in a legend, and omits the lower Mississippi; which would indicate that the record was made before the results of La Salle’s explorations were known.[614] A sketch of the Map of 1682 is given herewith from a copy in the Barlow Collection.

From La Salle, on his arrival in Quebec late in 1683, Franquelin undoubtedly got new and trustworthy information of that explorer’s expedition down the Mississippi; and this he embodied in what is usually known as Franquelin’s Great Map of 1684. It professed to have been made in Paris, and as Franquelin was not in that city in 1684, Harrisse contends that it was the work of De la Croix upon Franquelin’s material. It is called _Carte de la Louisiane, ou des voyages du Sieur de la Salle et des pays qu’il a découverts depuis la Nouvelle-France jusqu’au Golfe de Mexique, les années 1679-80-81 et 82, par Jean-Baptiste Louis Franquelin, l’an 1684, Paris_. It was formerly in the Archives du Dépôt de la Marine; but Harrisse[615] reports it as missing from that repository, and describes it from the accounts given by Parkman and by Thomassy.[616] A manuscript copy of this map was made for Mr. Parkman, which is now in Harvard College Library, and from this copy another copy was made in 1856, which is now in the Library of Parliament at Ottawa. Mr. Parkman’s copy has been used in the annexed sketch.

Harrisse says that De la Croix made the _Carte de l’Amérique septent^{le}_,[617] which also purports to be Franquelin’s, and shows the observations of “douze années.” Harrisse places this map also in 1684, for the reason that a third map by Franquelin, _Carte de la Amérique septentrionale_,[618] is dated 1688, and claims to embody the observations of “plus de 16 années,” giving names and legends not in the earlier ones.[619]

“It indicates,” says Mr. Neill, “the post which had been recently established by Du Lhut near the lower extremity of Lake Huron, and gives the present name, Manitoulin, to the large island of Lake Huron, and marks on the west shore a Baye de Saginnam. It places the mission on the south shore of Sault Ste. Marie, and names the rivers and points on the north and south shores of Lake Superior. A stream near the present northern boundary-line of the United States is called ‘R. des Grossillers,’ after the first explorer of Minnesota. The river entering Lake Superior at the present Fort William is ‘Kamanistigouian, ou Les Trois Rivières.’ Isle Royale is called ‘Minong;’ upon the northeast part of ‘Lac Alepimigon’ is Du Lhut’s post, ‘Fort La Tourette.’ At the portage between the sources of the St. Croix and a stream entering Lake Superior is ‘Fort St. Croix,’ which Bellin says was afterward abandoned. The St. Croix River is called ‘R. de la Magdelaine.’ At the lower extremity of Lake Pepin is ‘Fort St. Antoine;’ and the site of the present town of Prairie du Chien, near the mouth of the Wisconsin, appears as ‘Fort St. Nicolas,’ named in compliment to the baptismal name of Perrot. The Minnesota River is marked ‘Les Mascoutens Nadouescioux,’ indicating that it ran through the country of the Prairie Sioux. After Pierre Le Sueur had explored this river, De l’Isle, in his map of 1703, gives it the name of St. Pierre, as it is supposed in compliment to Le Sueur.”

A map of the next year (1689), also in the Archives, claims to be based on “Mémoires et relations qu’il a eu soin de recueillir pendant pres de 17 années.” Harrisse thinks this also a copy by De la Croix, and notes others of the probable dates of 1692 and 1699 respectively.[620] Harrisse also records[621] a manuscript map, “composée, corrigée, et augmentée sur les journaux, mémoires, et observations les plus justes qui en ont été f^{tes}. en l’année 1685 et 1686,” which is also preserved in the French Archives; and a _Carte Gēralle du voyage que Mons^r De Meulles ... a fait; ... commencé le 9^e Novembre et finy le 6^e Juillet, 1686_,[622] which was dedicated to Seignelay in the same year.

Parkman[623] says of the maps of Franquelin subsequent to his Great Map of 1684, that they all have more or less of its features, but that the 1684 map surpasses them all in interest and completeness.

* * * * *

It is convenient to complete here this enumeration of the maps of the western lakes and the Mississippi basin before we turn to La Salle’s explorations from the Gulf side.

One of the earliest of the printed maps is that called _Partie occidentale du Canada, ou de la Nouvelle France, ou sont les nations des Ilinois, de Tracy, les Iroquois, et plusieurs autres peuples, avec la Louisiane nouvellement découverte, ... par le P. Coronelli, corrigée et augmentée par le Sr. Tillemon à Paris, 1688_, of which the annexed sketch follows a copy in Harvard College Library. This was united with the _Partie orientale_ in 1689 in a single smaller map.[624]

The routes of several of the early explorers, like those of Du Lhut, Joliet, and Marquette (1672), and La Salle (1679-1680), are laid down on a manuscript map, _Carte des parties les plus occidentales du Canada, par le Père Pierre Raffeix, S. J._,[625] which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and of which a sketch as “Raffeix, 1688,” is given on the next page.

A map of Lakes Ontario and Erie, by the Père Raffeix, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris;[626] and from a copy in the Kohl Collection at Washington the sketch on page 234 is taken. It is called, _Le Lac Ontario avec les lieux circonvoisins et particulierment les cinq Nations Iroquoises_.

Another map, thought to be the work of Raudin, Frontenac’s engineer,[627] should be found in the Archives of the Marine, but according to Harrisse it is not there.[628] The Barlow Collection, however, has a map which Harrisse believes to be the lost original; a sketch of the western part is given herewith.[629] It also gives the eastern seaboard with approximate accuracy, but represents Lake Champlain as lying along the headwaters of the Connecticut and the Hudson. Lake Erie is a squarish oblong, larger than Ontario, and of a shape rarely found in these early maps. In the upper lakes it resembles the map of 1672-1673, which Harrisse[630] also found missing from the Bibliothèque Nationale.

The maps which pertain to Hennepin and Lahontan are separately treated on a later page.

This sketch is from a copy in the Kohl Washington Collection. There is another copy in the Barlow Collection. The original is in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. (Harrisse, _Notes_, etc., no. 238.) It is marked, _Parties les plus occidentales du Canada, Pierre Raffeix, Jesuite_. Harrisse puts it under 1688; Kohl says between 1681 and 1688. The lines of exploration, as indicated on it, are explained in the marginal inscriptions as follows:—

Voyage et premiere descouverte de la riviere de Mississipi faite par le P. Marquette, Jesuitte, et Mr. Jolliet, en 1672.

(—.—.) signifie l’allée.

(.....), le retour.

Ils furent jusques pres du 32 degré d’elevation. (.——.) Mr. du Lude, qui le premier a esté ches les Sious ou Nadouesiou en 1678, et qui a esté proche la source du Mississipi, et qui ensuitte vint retirer le p. Louis [Hennepin], qui avoit esté fait prisonnier ches les Sious au P., et sen reviendre finir leur descouverte par ou le P. Marquette et Mr. Jolliet commencer la leur.

(..—..—) Voyage de Mr. de la Salle en 1679, qui ariva au fond du lac des Illinois et qui voula commencer un petit fort, et une barque a Crevecoeur, d’ou le Pere Louis [Hennepin] partit pour aller en haut a la descouverte. Mr. de la Salle escrit qu’en 1681 il descendit sur le Mississipi, et qu’il a esté jusqua la mer.

(E) Voyage a faire et plus facile pour descouvrir tout le Missĩpi en venant du lac Ontario au bourg des Senontonans et de la en E.

(F) 1. De l’Embouchure de cette petite riviere jusqu’aux Assinipouals et aleurs lacs Ilne a que 100 lieues.

2. Le pais des Assinipouals qui est le plus a l’ouest est un pais de continuelles prairies cõme tout le long du Missĩpi, et l’on y voit quelque fois passer dans un jour plus de 2 a 3,000 beufs sauvages. Il faut remarquer que osté la forme exacte de lacs que le peu de temps na pas permis de rechercher et que l’on trouve dans d’autres cartes; les rivieres y sont marques avec beaucoup de soin.

PIERRE RAFFÆIX, _Jesuitte_.]

La Salle once in Paris (1684) succeeded in obtaining an interview with the King, to whom he then and subsequently in Memorials,[631] which have been saved to us, presented an ambitious scheme of fortifying the Mississippi near its mouths, and of subjugating the neighboring Spanish colonies, of whose propinquity he had very confused notions, as Franquelin’s map showed.

Peñalosa was at the same time pressing on the Court a plan for establishing a French colony at the mouth of the Rio Bravo. La Salle’s personal address, too, turned the scales against La Barre.

Accordingly, La Forest, the rejected commander of Fort Frontenac, was sent back to Canada with letters from the King commanding the Governor to make restitution to La Salle’s lieutenant both of Fort Frontenac and of Fort St. Louis. La Salle’s shining promises so affected Louis, that the King gave him more vessels than he asked for; and of these one, the “Joly,” carried thirty-six guns, and another six.[632] Among his company were his brother Cavelier and two other Sulpitian priests, and three Recollects, Membré, Douay, and Le Clercq.

A captain of the royal navy, Beaujeu, was detailed to navigate the “Joly,” but under the direction of La Salle, who was to be supreme. La Salle’s distrust and vacillation, and Beaujeu’s jealousy and assumptions boded no good, and a dozen warm quarrels between them were patched up before they got to sea.[633]

Harrisse says: “This is the only map in which the name Bazire is given to the Arkansas River. Bazire was a merchant of Canada who in 1673 supported Frontenac in his design of building Fort Frontenac, with which Raudin had also a great deal to do.” This follows the Barlow original. There is in the Parkman Collection a copy of a part of it by Harrisse.]

There was not a little in all this to point to a state of mental unsoundness in La Salle. At a late day Joutel, a fellow-townsman of La Salle, destined to become the expedition’s historian, joined the fleet at Rochelle, and on the 24th of July (1684) it sailed, only to put back, four days later, to repair a broken bowsprit of the “Joly.” Once again they put to sea.

This is a reduced sketch from a copy in the Barlow collection of a _Plan de l’entrée du lac ou l’on a laissé Mon^r de la Salle_, which is preserved in the Archives of the Marine. It is Harrisse’s no. 226. The key is as follows: 1. Le camp de M. de la Salle. 2. Endroit ou la flutte c’est perdue. 3. La frigatte la “Belle” mouillée. 4 and 5. Cabannes des sauvages.]

Everything still went wrong. The leaders chafed and quarrelled as on land.[634] The Spaniards captured their smallest vessel.[635] At Santo Domingo the Governor of the island and his officers joined in the quarrel on the side of La Salle, who now fell prostrate with disease. When he recovered he set sail again with his three remaining ships on the 25th of November, coasted the southern shore of Cuba, and on New Year’s Day (1685) sighted land somewhere near the River Sabine. He supposed himself east of the Mississippi mouths, when in fact he was far to the west of them. He knew their latitude, for he had taken the sun when there on his canoe voyage in 1682; but he had at that time no means of ascertaining their longitude. The “Joly” next disappeared in a fog, and La Salle waited for her four or five days, but in vain. So he sailed on farther till he found the coast trending southerly, when he turned, and shortly after met the “Joly.” Passages of crimination and recrimination between the leaders of course followed.[636] La Salle all the while was trying to make out that the numerous lagoons along the coast were somehow connected with the mouths of the Mississippi, while Beaujeu, vexed at the confusion and indecision of La Salle’s mind, did little to make matters clearer. They were in reality at Matagorda Bay. Trying to make an anchorage within, one of the vessels struck a reef and became a total wreck, and only a small part of her cargo was saved.[637] La Salle suspected it was done to embarrass him; and landing his men, he barricaded himself on the unhealthy ground, amid a confusion of camp equipage, including what was saved from the wreck. A swarm of squalid savages looked on, and saw a half-dozen of the Frenchmen buried daily. The Indians contrived to pilfer some blankets, and when a force was sent to punish them they killed several of the French. Beaujeu offered some good advice, but La Salle rejected it; and finally, on the 12th of March the “Joly” sailed, and La Salle was left with his forlorn colony.[638] Beaujeu steered, as he thought, for the Baye du St. Esprit (Mobile Bay [?]); but his belief that he was leaving the mouths of the Mississippi made him miss that harbor, and after various adventures he bore away for France, and reached Rochelle about the 1st of July. With him returned the engineer, Minet, who made on the voyage a map of the mouths of the Mississippi doubly interpreted,—one sketch being based on the Franquelin map of 1684, as La Salle had found it in 1682; and the other conformed to their recent observations about Matagorda, into whose lagoons he made this great river discharge.[639]

This is a reduced sketch from a copy (Barlow Collection) of the original in the Archives of the Marine, giving two plans of the mouth of the river,—the one in the body of the map as “La Salle le marque dans sa carte,” and the other (here put in the small square), “Comme nous les avons trouvez.” It is Harrisse’s no. 225.]

It soon dawned upon La Salle that he was not at the Mississippi delta; and it was imperative that he should establish a base for future movements. So he projected a settlement on the Lavaca River, which flowed into the head of the bay; and thither all went, and essayed the rough beginnings of a post, which he called Fort St. Louis.[640] He was also constrained to lay out a graveyard, which received its tenants rapidly. As soon as housing and stockades were finished, La Salle, on the last day of October (1685), leaving Joutel in command, started with fifty men to search for the Mississippi.

The first tidings Joutel got of his absent chief was in January (1686), when a straggler from La Salle’s party appeared, and told a woeful story of his mishaps. By the end of March La Salle himself returned with some of his companions; others he had left in a palisaded fort which he had built on a great river somewhere away. While on his return he detached some of his men to find his little frigate, the “Belle,” which he had left at a certain place on the coast. These men also soon appeared, but they brought no tidings of the vessel. The loss of her and of what she had on board made matters very desperate, and La Salle determined on another expedition, this time to the Illinois country and to Canada, whence he could send word to France for succor. On the 22d of April they started,—La Salle, his brother Cavelier, the Friar Douay, and a score or so others.

Joutel was still left in command; and a few days later the appearance of six men, who alone had been saved from the wreck of the “Belle,” and reached the fort, confirmed the worst fears of that vessel’s fate. Meanwhile La Salle was experiencing dangers and evils of all kinds,—the desertion and death of his men, and delays by sickness, and the spending of ammunition. Once again there was nothing for him to do but to return to Joutel, and so with eight out of his twenty men he came back to the fort. The colony had dwindled from one hundred and eighty to forty-five souls, and another attempt to secure succor was imperative. So in January (1687) a new cheerless party set out, Joutel this time accompanying La Salle; and with the rest were Duhaut, a sinister man, and Liotot the surgeon. For two months it was the same story of suffering on the march and of danger in the camp. Then quarrels ensued; and the murder of La Salle’s nephew and two others who were devoted to him compelled the assassins to save themselves by killing La Salle himself; and from an ambuscade Duhaut and Liotot shot their chief. The party now succumbed to the rule of Duhaut. They ranged aimlessly among the Indians for a while, and fell in with some deserters of La Salle’s former expedition now living among the savages. One of these conspired with Hiens, one of those privy to La Salle’s death, and killed the assassins Duhaut and Liotot. Joutel with the few who were left now parted amicably with Hiens and the savage Frenchmen, and pushed their way to find the Great River. At a point on the Arkansas not far from its confluence with the Mississippi, they were rejoiced to find the abode of two of Tonty’s men. This sturdy adherent of La Salle’s fortunes had been reinstated, as we have seen, by the King’s order, in the command of the fortified rock on the Illinois, and had in due time, after the return of Beaujeu to Rochelle, got the news of La Salle’s landing on the Gulf. In February, 1686, he had started down the river with a band of French and Indians to join his old commander. He reached the Gulf,[641] but of course failed to find La Salle; and returning, had left several men in the villages of the Arkansas, of whom Couture and another now welcomed Joutel and his weary companions. After some delay the wanderers floated their wooden canoe down the Arkansas, and then began their weary journey up the Great River, and by the middle of September they reached the Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. They found Tonty absent, and Bellefontaine in command. They foolishly thought to increase their welcome by presenting themselves as the forerunners of La Salle, who was on the way,—tidings which kept all in good spirits except the Jesuit Allouez, who happened to be in the fort, and was ill, for he was conscious of his machinations against La Salle, and dreaded to encounter him.[642] Cavelier and Joutel soon started for the Chicago portage. A storm on the lake impeded them subsequently, and they came back to the fort to find Tonty returned from Denonville’s campaign against the Senecas.[643] The same deceit regarding La Salle’s fate was practised on Tonty, and he gave them money and supplies as to La Salle’s representatives, only to learn a few months later, when Couture came up from the Arkansas, of La Salle’s murder. The wanderers, however, had now passed on, had reached Quebec in safety, still concealing what they knew, and not disclosing it till they reached France; and even in France there is a suspicion that Cavelier held his peace till he had secured some property against the seizure of La Salle’s creditors. Why Joutel connived at the deception is less comprehensible, for otherwise he bears a fair name. No representations of his, however, could induce the King to send succor to the hapless colony; and all the result, so far as known, of the tardy acknowledgment of La Salle’s death was an order sent to Canada for the arrest of his murderers.

The story which Couture told to Tonty in September inspired that hero with a determination to try to rescue La Salle’s colony on the Gulf. So in December he left his fortified rock, with five Frenchmen and three others. Late in March he was on the Red River, where all but two of his companions deserted him. He was himself finally, by the loss of his ammunition, compelled to turn back, but not till he had learned of the probable death of Heins.[644] In September he reached his fort on the Illinois; and here, with La Forest, he continued to live, holding the seigniory jointly under a royal patent, and trading in furs, till 1702, when the establishment was broken up.[645] Tonty now joined D’Iberville in Louisiana, and of his subsequent years nothing is known. The French again occupied his rocky fastness; but when Charlevoix saw it, in 1721, it was only a ruin.

The fate of the Texan colony is soon told. The Spaniards who had searched for it by sea had always missed it, though they had found the wrecked vessels.[646] A Frenchman, probably a deserter from La Salle, fell into the Spaniards’ hands in New Leon. From him they learned its position, and despatched under the Frenchman’s guidance a force to capture it. They found the fort deserted, and three dead bodies a little distance off. From the Indians they learned of two Frenchmen who were living with a distant tribe. They sent for them under a pledge of good treatment; and when they came, they proved to be L’Archevêque, one of Duhaut’s accomplices, and one of the stray deserters whom Joutel had discovered after the murder. They told a story of ravages from the small-pox and of slaughter by the savages. A few of the colonists had been saved by the Indian women; but these were subsequently given up to the Spaniards, and they added their testimony to the sad and ignominious end of the colony.

* * * * *

It is necessary to define the historical sources regarding this hapless Texan expedition, about the purpose of which there have been some diverse views lately expressed. It is clear that under cover of a grand plan of Spanish conquest, La Salle had dazed the imagination of the King in memorials,[647] which may possibly have been only meant to induce the royal espousal of his more personal schemes. Shea contends that La Salle’s real object was not to settle in Louisiana, but to conquer Santa Barbara and the mining regions in Mexico, and to pave the way for Peñalosa’s expedition.[648]

For the broader relations of the expedition to the earlier explorations of 1682, we must go to a source of the first importance preserved in the Archives of the Marine. It is entitled _Mémoire envoyé en 1693 sur la découverte du Mississipi et des nations voisines par le Sieur de la Salle, en 1678, et depuis sa mort par le Sieur de Tonty_, and is printed by Margry;[649] and Parkman calls it excellent authority. Out of this and an earlier paper, written in Quebec in 1684,[650] a book, disowned by Tonty, as Charlevoix tells us, was in part fabricated, and appeared at Paris in 1697 under the title of _Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique septentrionale de M. de la Salle, mises au jour par M. le Chevalier Tonti, gouverneur du Fort St. Louis, aux Islinois_.[651] Parkman[652] calls it “a compilation full of errors,” and does not rely upon it. Shea says of it that, “although repudiated by Tonti, it must have been based on papers of his.” It has been held apocryphal by Iberville and Margry; but Falconer, La Harpe, Boimare, and Gravier put trust in it.

It is thought that a Journal by Joutel was written in part to counteract the statements of the _Dernières découvertes_. This Joutel paper was given first in full by Margry,[653] and Parkman[654] says of it that it seems to be “the work of an honest and intelligent man.”[655] It was printed in Paris in 1713, but abridged and changed in a way which Joutel complained of, and bore the title, _Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Salle fit dans le Golfe du Mexique, pour trouver l’embouchure du Mississipi. Par M. Joutel_.[656]

To these there are various supplemental narratives, with their interest centring in the death of La Salle.[657] Joutel gives an account of the scene as he learned it at the time.[658] Tonty’s account was at second hand. Douay saw the deed, and what he reported is given in Le Clercq’s _Établissement de la Foi_.[659] A document in the Archives of the Marine—_Relation de la mort du Sr. de la Salle, suivant le rapport d’un nommé Couture, à qui M. Cavelier l’apprit en passant au pays des Akansa_—is given by Margry;[660] and Harrisse thinks that it merits little confidence.

Cavelier is known to have made a report to Seignelay; and his rough draft of this was recovered in 1854 by Parkman,[661] who calls it “confused and unsatisfactory in its statements, and all the latter part has been lost,” the fragment closing several weeks before the death of his brother.[662]

The character of Beaujeu has certainly been put in a more favorable light by the publication of Margry, and the old belief in his treachery has been somewhat modified.[663]

The Spanish account of the fate of the colony is translated from Barcia’s _Ensayo cronologico de la Florida_,[664] in Shea’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_;[665] and Margry[666] adds to our knowledge, as does Buckingham Smith in his _Coleccion_.[667]

It remains now to speak of the Collections which have been formed, and the theories regarding these Western explorations which have been maintained, by M. Pierre Margry, who has occupied till within a few years the office of archivist of the Marine and Colonies in Paris, having been for a long period assistant and principal. Margry may be said to have discovered what that department contained in manuscripts relating to the explorations of the Mississippi Valley and River, particularly as regards La Salle’s agency. On more than one occasion he has done good service in helping to enrich the archives of New York[668] and Canada with copies of documents known to him,—so far, apparently, as they did not interfere with his own projects of publication. His position created relations for him with other departments of the French Government, and his eager discernment found an abundance of manuscript treasures even in private hands. These he assiduously gathered, and on a few occasions he published papers[669] which seemed to indicate more than he chose to disclose explicitly; for his fellow-students were not quite satisfied, and longed for the documents which had yielded so much. As the guardian of the public archives, he was by office the agent and servant of the public; but other investigators, it is feared, failed, through obstacles thrown in their way, to profit as they might by what that office contained. There is in the Sparks Collection of Manuscripts in Harvard College Library a volume of copies of such documents as could be found in the Paris Archives which that historian intended to use in another edition of his _Life of La Salle_. While Mr. Sparks was regretting that not a single document or letter in the hand of the great explorer had come down to us, enough to fill a large volume was immured in these Paris Archives. At a later day Mr. Parkman, in turn, failed of access to documents which were of the first importance to him, and he was obliged to make the best use he could of what it was possible to obtain. Environed by these disadvantages Mr. Parkman published, in 1869, his _Discovery of the Great West_. In his Preface, speaking of the obscurity which had enshrouded the whole subject, he referred to the “indefatigable research of M. Pierre Margry, Assistant-Custodian 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.”

Gravier about the same time referred to the twenty years of study which had made M. Margry the most learned of students of La Salle’s history.

It was evident that investigators could not profit by this accumulation of material, unless M. Margry’s hopes of publication were realized. He refused offers to purchase. In conjunction with M. Harrisse, an effort was made by him in 1870-1871 to enlist the aid of the United States Congress; but a vote which passed the Senate failed in the House. The great fire at Boston in 1872 stayed the progress which, under Mr. Parkman’s instigation, had been made to insure a private publication. At last, by Mr. Parkman’s assiduous labors in the East, and by those of Colonel Whittlesey, Mr. O. H. Marshall, and others in the West, and with the active sympathy of the Hon. George F. Hoar, a bill was passed Congress in 1873, making a subscription for five hundred copies of the intended work.[670]

With this guaranty M. Margry put to press the series of volumes entitled _Mémoires et documents pour servir à l’histoire des origines Françaises de pays d’outre-mer: découvertes et établissements des Français dans l’ouest et dans le sud d’Amérique septentrionale_. The first volume appeared in 1876. It contained an Introduction by M. Margry, and was prefixed by a very questionable likeness of La Salle,—the picture (of which nothing was said by the editor) having no better foundation than the improbable figure of the explorer in a copperplate, published some years after his death, representing the scene of his murder, and of which a fac-simile is annexed.[671] Of the intended volumes, three are devoted to La Salle, and appeared between 1876 and 1878: vol. i., _Voyages des Français sur les grands lacs, et découvertes de l’Ohio et du Mississippi_, 1614-1684; vol. ii., _Lettres de La Salle, et correspondance relative à ses entreprises_, 1678-1685 (these include letters also preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale); vol. iii., _Recherche des bouches du Mississipi et voyage à travers le continent depuis les côtes du Texas jusqu’à Québec_.

The later volumes (the Editor has seen in Mr. Parkman’s hands the proofs of vols. iv. and v., and there is to be one more) pertain to Iberville and the following century; but a volume of the early cartography is promised as a completion of the publication. On the issue of these three volumes Mr. Parkman in considerable part rewrote his _Discovery of the Great West_, and republished it in 1879 as _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West_. In his Preface he speaks of the collection of documents in Margry’s keeping “to which he had not succeeded in gaining access,” and which, besides the papers in his official charge, included others added by him from other public archives and from private collections in France. “In the course of my inquiries,” says Mr. Parkman, “I owed much to [M. Margry’s] 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.”

This follows a design given in Gravier (pp. 1, 202), which is said to be based on an engraving preserved in the Bibliothèque de Rouen, entitled CAVILLI DE LA SALLE FRANÇOIS,—and is the only picture meriting notice, except possibly a small vignette of which Gravier gives a fac-simile in his _Cavelier de la Salle_. Mr. Parkman has a photograph, given to him by Gravier, of a modern painting drawn from the first of these two pictures. In the _Magazine of American History_, May, 1882, there is an engraving, “after a photograph of the original painting,” leading the reader to suppose a veritable original likeness to have been followed, instead of this photograph of a made-up picture.]

It was fortunate that in regard to one point only this deprivation had led Mr. Parkman astray in his earlier edition; and that was upon La Salle’s failure to find the mouth of the Mississippi in 1684, and the conduct therewith of Beaujeu. Mr. Parkman has testified to the authenticity of the La Salle letters in the _North American Review_, December, 1877, where (p. 428) he says: “The contents of these letters were in good measure known through a long narrative compiled from them by one of the writer’s friends, who took excellent care to put nothing into it which could compromise him. All personalities are suppressed. These letters of La Salle have never been used by any historical writer.” Margry’s publication has been reviewed by J. Thoulet in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_, November and December, 1880, where a modern map enables the reader to track the explorer’s course. A sketch of this map is given on an earlier page.

The severest criticism of Margry’s publication has come from Dr. Shea, in a tract entitled _The Bursting of Pierre Margry’s La Salle Bubble_, New York, 1879,—a paper which first appeared in the _New York Freeman’s Journal_. Margry is judged by his critic to have unwarrantably extended the collection by repeating what had already elsewhere been printed, sometimes at greater length.[672] The “bubble” in question is the view long entertained by Margry that La Salle was the real discoverer of the Mississippi, and which he has set forth at different times in the following places:—

1. “Les Normands dans les vallées de l’Ohio et du Mississippi,” in the _Journal general de l’instruction publique_, July-September, 1862, placing the event in 1670-1671.

2. _Revue maritime et colonial_, Paris (1872), xxxiii. 555.

3. _La priorité de La Salle sur le Mississipi_, Paris, 1873,—a pamphlet.

4. The preface to his _Découvertes_, etc., 1876.

5. A letter in the _American Antiquarian_ (Chicago, 1880), ii. 206, which was addressed to the Wisconsin Historical Society (_Collections_, ix. 108), and which first appeared in J. D. Butler’s translation in the _State Journal_, Madison, Wisconsin, July 30, 1879.

Margry, who has wavered somewhat, first claimed that La Salle reached the Mississippi by the Ohio in 1670; and later he has contended for the route by the Illinois in 1671. He bases his claim upon four grounds:—

First, upon a _Récit d’un ami de l’Abbé de Galinée_, 1666-1678 (printed in the _Découvertes_, etc., i. 342, 378),[673] which is without date, but which Margry holds to be the work of Abbé Renaudot, derived from La Salle in Paris in 1678, wherein it is stated that La Salle, after parting with Dollier and Galinée, made a first expedition to the Ohio, and a second by the Illinois to the Mississippi.

Second, upon a letter of La Salle’s niece, dated 1756 (i. 379), which affirms that the writer of it possessed maps which had belonged to La Salle in 1676, and that such maps showed that previous to that date he had made two voyages of discovery, and that upon these maps the Colbert (Mississippi) is put down.

Third, upon a letter of Frontenac in 1677 to Colbert (i. 324), which places, as is alleged, the voyage of Joliet after that of La Salle; but at the same time (ii. 285) he prints a paper of La Salle virtually admitting Joliet’s priority.

Fourth, upon the general antagonism between the Jesuits, who espoused Joliet’s claim, and the merchants, who were, with La Salle, the adherents of the Sulpitians and Recollects.

Sides have been taken among scholars in regard to the irrefragability of these evidences, but with a great preponderance of testimony against their validity.

The principal supporter of Margry’s view (though Henri Martin has adopted it) has been Gabriel Gravier in the following publications:—

1. _Découvertes et établissements de la Cavelier de la Salle de Rouen dans l’Amérique du nord_, Paris, 1870.

2. _Cavelier de la Salle de Rouen_, Paris, 1871, p. 23. This work is in good part a commentary on Parkman, to whom it is dedicated.

3. “La route du Mississipi,” in the _Compte rendu, Congrès des Américanistes_, Nancy, 1878, placing it in 1666.

4. In _Magazine of American History_, viii. 305 (May, 1882).

Views in support of the prior discovery of Joliet and Marquette, and opposed to the claim for La Salle, are given in the following places, without enumerating Charlevoix, Sparks, and the other upholders of the Joliet discovery, before Margry’s theory was advanced:—

1. Tailhan, as editor of Perrot’s _Sauvages_, Paris, 1864, p. 279.

2. Verreau, _Voyage de MM. Dollier et Galinée_, p. 59.

3. Parkman, _La Salle_.

4. Faillon, in his _Colonie Française en Canada_, iii. 312; while at the same time he testifies to Margry’s labors in vol i. p. 24.

5. Harrisse, _Notes, etc., sur la Nouvelle France_, 1872, p. 125, where he reviews the controversy; and again in the _Revue maritime et coloniale_ (1872), xxxii. 642.

6. J. Brucker, _Jacques Marquette et la découverte de la vallée du Mississipi_, Lyons, 1880, taken from _Les études réligieuses_, vol. iv.

7. H. H. Hurlbut, in _Magazine of American History_, September, 1882.

8. John G. Shea, in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s _Collections_, vii. 111; and in the _Bursting of the La Salle Bubble_, already referred to. In his edition of _Le Clercq_, ii. 89, he speaks of the theory as “utterly absurd.”

FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN

AND HIS REAL OR DISPUTED DISCOVERIES.

BY THE EDITOR.

THE life of this Recollect missionary is derived in its particulars mainly from his own writings; and the details had never been set forth in an orderly way till Dr. J. G. Shea in 1880 prefixed to a new translation of Hennepin’s first book a satisfactory sketch. He seems to have been born in Hainault, though precisely when does not appear. Felix Van Hulst, in the title of his tract, gives the date approximately: _Notice sur le Père Louis Hennepin, né à Ath_ (_Belgique_) _vers 1640_. Liege, 1845. He early joined the Franciscans, served the Order in various places, travelled as he could, was inspired with a desire to see the world, and felt the impulse strongest when, at Calais, he listened to the narratives of sea-captains who had returned from long voyages. This inclination prompted him to continued missionary expeditions, and to attendance upon armies in their campaigns. In 1675 Frontenac succeeded in his attempt to recall to Canada the Recollects, as a foil to the Jesuits; and among the first of that Order to go was Hennepin, who crossed the ocean in the same ship with La Salle, the ambitious explorer, and De Laval, the new Bishop of Quebec. According to his own account, Hennepin had his first quarrel with La Salle about some girls who were on their way to reinforce the family life of the new colony.[674]

La Salle enjoyed their dances, and Hennepin, as their spiritual guide, kept them under restraint. This, at least, is the Recollect story of the origin of La Salle’s enmity for the missionary.

From Quebec Hennepin continued his missionary wanderings, sometimes to remote stations, and at one time, in the spring of 1677, among the Iroquois,—not going, however, to Albany, as has been sometimes asserted. (Cf. Brodhead’s _New York_, ii. 307; _Hist. Mag._ x. 268.) Next he accompanied La Salle in his explorations west. Of Niagara he offers us the earliest picture in his 1697 publication,—of which a reduced fac-simile is here given. Others are in Gay’s _Pop. Hist. U. S._, ii. 511; Shea’s _Hennepin_, p. 379, and in his _Le Clercq_, ii. 112; and in the _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, vol. ii. no. 561. The original cut was repeated in the later editions and translations of Hennepin. These Falls had been indicated on Champlain’s map, in 1632, with the following note: “Sault d’eau au bout du Sault [Lac] Sainct Louis fort hault, où plusiers sortes de poissons descendans s’estourdissent.” This was from the natives’ accounts. Ragueneau, in the _Relation_ of 1648, was the first to describe them, though they had been known by report to the Jesuits some years earlier (Parkman’s _Jesuits_, p. 142). Lalemant, in 1641, called them _Onguiaahra_. Ragueneau gave them no definite altitude, but called them of “frightful height.” Hennepin, in his 1683 book, calls them five hundred feet, and in 1697 six hundred feet high, and describes a side-shoot on their western verge which does not now exist. Sanson, in his map of 1657, had somewhat simplified Ragueneau’s name into _Ongiara_; but Hennepin gives the name in its present form. There is a great variety in the early spelling of the name. (See _Canadian Journal_, 1870, p. 385.) The word is of Iroquois origin, and its proper phonetic spelling is very like the form now in use (Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 126; O’Callaghan, _Col. Doc., index_, 465). Hennepin had also been anticipated in a brief notice by Gendron, in his _Quelques Particularites_, etc., 1659. Hennepin’s account is also translated in the _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, v. 47. His engraving was reproduced, in 1702, in Campanius’ work on New Sweden.

Hennepin accompanied La Salle to the point where Fort Crèvecœur was built, on the Illinois, and parting from La Salle here in February, 1680, he pursued his further wandering down the Illinois to the Mississippi, and thence up to the Falls of St. Anthony, which were named by him in reference to his being a Recollect of the province of St. Anthony in Artois. On the 3d of July, 1880, the bi-centenary of the discovery of these Falls was observed, when C. K. Davis delivered an historical address. Thence, after being captured by the Sioux and rescued by a party under Du Lhut,[675] Hennepin made his way to the Wisconsin, passed by Green Bay, and reached Quebec. He soon after returned to France, where, on the 3d of September, 1682, he obtained the royal permission to print his first book, which was issued from the press Jan. 5, 1683.

From this point his story[676] can be best followed in connection with the history of his books, and as they are rare and curious, it has been thought worth while to point out a few of the repositories of copies, which are indicated by the following heavy-faced letters:—

=BA.= Boston Athenæum.
=BPL.= Boston Public Library.
=C.= Library of Congress.
=CB.= Carter-Brown Library, Providence.
=HC.= Harvard College Library.
=HCM.= Henry C. Murphy.
=L.= Lenox Library, New York.

For full titles, see the Bibliography in Shea’s edition of the _Description of Louisiana_, and the article “Hennepin,” in Sabin’s _Dictionary_. Cf. also Brunet, _Supplément_, 598.

I. DESCRIPTION DE LA LOUISIANE.

This first book was entitled _Description de la Louisiane nouvellement découverte au Sud-Oüest de la Nouvelle France. Les Mœurs des Sauvages. Par le R. P. Louis Hennepin_, Paris, 1683. Pages 12, 312, 107. Some copies are dated 1684.

COPIES: =BA.=, =C.=, =CB.=, =HC.=, =L.= (both dates).

REFERENCES: Shea (ed. of Hennepin), nos. 1, 2; Sabin, _Dictionary_, no. 31,347; Ternaux, _Bibliothèque Amér._ no. 985; Harrisse, _Notes sur la Nouv. France_, nos. 150, 352; _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, vol. ii. no. 1,266, with fac-simile of title; _Hist. Mag._, vol. ii. no. 24 (by Mr. Lenox), 346; Dufossé, _Americana_, 70 francs, with genuine map, and 40 or 50 francs with fac-simile; Leclerc, _Bibl. Americana_, nos. 897, 898 at 90 and 150 francs; Rich, _Catalogue_ (1832), no. 402, 12_s._

The map, of which a section is herewith given in fac-simile, measures 10.2 X 17.2, “Guerard inven. et fecit. Roussel sculpsit,” and is often wanting. Cf. Harrisse, no. 352; _Hist. Mag._, vol. ii. 24.

Harrisse (no. 219; also see no. 238) cites a map preserved in the Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine, which seems to embody the results of Hennepin’s discoveries.

The next edition (Paris, 1688) shows the same pagination, with some verbal changes in the text, and is accompanied by the same map.

COPIES: =B.A.=, =CB.=, =HC.=

REFERENCES: Shea, no. 3; Sabin, no. 31,348; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,354; _Hist. Mag._ vol. ii. p. 346; Harrisse, no. 160; O’Callaghan, _Catalogue_, no. 1,068; Beckford, _Catalogue_, no. 674, bought by Quaritch, who advertised it at £3 3_s._

An extract from the _Carte de la Nouvelle France et de la Louisiane, nouvellement découverte, dediée au Roy l’an 1683_. _Par le Révérend Père Louis Hennepin, Missionaire Recollect et Notaire Apostolique_, belonging to the _Description de la Louisiane_, 1683. There is a full fac-simile in Shea’s translation of this book, and another one was made in 1876 by Pilinski, in Paris (36 copies). The letter A near a tree signifies “Armes du Roy telle qu’elle sont gravée sur l’escorce d’un chesne.” This map (Harrisse, no. 352) seems to resemble closely a map described by Harrisse (no. 219), as indicating the discoveries of Du Lhut, of which there is a copy in the Barlow Collection.]

The following translations may be noted:—

* * * * *

ENGLISH.—Some portions of Hennepin’s first work had been translated in Shea’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, pp. 107-145; but no English translation of the whole work appeared till Dr. Shea edited a version in 1880, comparing Hennepin’s text with the second publication of that missionary (issued in 1697) with the La Salle documents, published by Margry, and with other contemporaneous papers.

* * * * *

DUTCH.—The engraved title, _Ontdekking van Louisania_; the printed title, _Beschryving van Louisania_. It appeared at Amsterdam in 1688, under the same covers with a Dutch version of Denys’ _Coast of North America_, accompanied by a map which is a reduction of the map of the 1683 edition, and is called “Kaart van nieuw Vrankrijk en van Louisania;” together with four plates.

COPIES: =CB.=, =HC.=, =L.=

REFERENCES: Shea, no. 5; Sabin, no. 31,357; Harrisse, no. 161; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,355, with fac-simile of title; _Historical Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 24; O’Callaghan, no. 1,069; Stevens, _Historical Collections_, vol. i. no. 1,433; Muller, _Books on America_, 1870, no. 908, and 1877, no. 1,395.

It is usually priced at from $8 to $10.

* * * * *

GERMAN.—There were two editions,—_Beschreibung der Landschaft Louisiana_, to which was appended a German version of Marquette’s and Joliet’s exploration, published at Nuremberg in 1689. It should have two maps.

COPIES: =CB.=, =L.=

REFERENCES: Shea, no. 6; Ternaux, no. 1,041; Carter-Brown, vol. ii no. 1,379; O’Callaghan, no. 1,071; Muller, 1877, no. 1,399.

The other German edition of the same title appeared at Nuremberg in 1692.

COPIES: =CB.=, =L.=

REFERENCES: Shea, no. 7; Harrisse, no. 163; _Historical Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 24; Sabin, no. 31,364.

* * * * *

ITALIAN.—_Descrizione della Luigiana._ Rendered by Casimiro Freschot, and published at Bologna in 1686, with a map.

COPIES: =CB.=

REFERENCES: Shea, no. 4; Harrisse, no. 157; Sabin, no. 31,356; _Historical Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 346; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,326; Ternaux, no. 1,012; Leclerc, no. 900; 60 francs.

An abridgment was printed in _Il Genio Vagante_, Parma, 1691, with a map, “Nuova Francia e Luigiana.” Cf. Harrisse, no. 365.

In this earliest work of Hennepin the Mississippi, it will be seen by the map, forms no certain connection with the Gulf of Mexico, but is connected by a dotted line, and there is no claim for explorations further south than the map indicates. Hennepin’s later publications have raised doubts as to the good faith of his narrative of discoveries on the Upper Mississippi. Harrisse (no. 150), for instance, says “Cette _Relation_ de 1683 n’est en réalité qu’une pâle copie d’un des mémoires de Cavelier de la Salle;” and goes on to deny to Hennepin the priority of giving the name of Louisiana to the country. La Salle and others of his contemporaries threw out insinuations as to his veracity, or at least cautioned others against his tendency to exaggerate. (Cf. Neill, _Writings of Hennepin_.) The publication of an anonymous account of La Salle’s whole expedition in Margry’s _Découvertes et Établissements des Français_, has enabled Dr. Shea, in his edition of Hennepin, to contest Margry’s views of Hennepin’s plagiarism, and to compare the two narratives critically; and he comes to the conclusion that probably Hennepin was La Salle’s scribe before they parted, and that he certainly contributed directly or indirectly to La Salle’s despatches what pertains to Hennepin’s subsequent independent exploration,—thus making the borrowing to be on the part of the anonymous writer, who, if he were La Salle, did certainly no more than was becoming in the master of the expedition to combine the narratives of his subordinates. It is Shea’s opinion, however, that the Margry document was not written by La Salle, but by some compiler in Paris, who used Hennepin’s printed book rather than his notes or manuscript reports. Margry claims that this _Relation officielle de l’enterprise de La Salle, de 1678 à 1681_, was compiled by Bernou for presentation to Colbert. Parkman thinks, as opposed to Shea’s view, that Hennepin knew of the document, and incorporated many passages from it into his book (_La Salle_, pp. 150, 262). Dr. Shea sided with the detractors of Hennepin in his earlier _Discovery of the Mississippi_; but in this later book he makes fair amends for what he now considers his hasty conclusions then. Cf. further Sparks’s _Life of La Salle_, and the _North American Review_, January, 1845. Mr. Parkman’s conclusion is that this early book of Hennepin is “comparatively truthful.”

II. NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERTE.

According to Hennepin’s own story, some time after his first book was published, he incurred the displeasure of the Provincial of his Order by refusing to return to America, and was in more ways than one so pursued by his superior that in the end he threw himself on the favor of William III. of England, whom he had met at the Hague. Hennepin searched Amsterdam for a publisher of his new venture, but had to take it to Utrecht, where it came out, in 1697, with a fulsome dedication to the English king. It is called in the printed title (the engraved title is abridged): _Nouvelle Découverte d’un très grand Pays, situé dans l’Amérique, entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer glaciale_, Utrecht, 1797, pp. 70, 506, with two maps and two plates, one being the earliest view of Niagara Falls, as given on p. 86.

This is an extract from the second of Hennepin’s maps, _Carte d’un très grand pays entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer glaciale, dediée à Guillaume III.... à Utreght_. The same plate was used in later editions (1698, 1704, 1711, etc.), with additions of many names, and some topographical changes, and alterations of place of publication. Those of 1698 have _à Utreght_ in some cases, and in others _à Amsterdam_.]

Extract from _Carte d’un très grand pais nouvellement découvert dans l’Amérique septentrionale, entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer glaciale, avec le Cours du Grand Fleuve Meschasipi ... à Utreght_. The same plate was used for the editions, _à Leiden_, 1704, etc. The plate was re-engraved with English names for the English editions.]

COPIES: =BA.=, =CB.=, =HC.=

REFERENCES: Shea, no. 1; Sabin, no. 31,349; Ternaux, no. 1,095; Harrisse, no. 175; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,513; _Historical Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 346; Beckford, no. 675, bought by Quaritch, and advertised by him at £4 4_s._; Stevens, vol. i. no. 1,434; Leclerc, no. 902, 80 francs; Harrassowitz, _Catalogue_, 1883, no. 58, 50 marks; Brinley, _Catalogue_, no. 4,491. It is usually priced in English catalogues at two or three guineas.

The portions repeated in this book from the _Description de la Louisiane_ are enlarged, and the “Mœurs des Sauvages” is omitted.