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.

What were the Jesuits doing? Since the ruin of their great mission of

the Hurons, a perceptible change had taken place in them. They had put

forth exertions almost superhuman, set at naught famine, disease, and

death, lived with the self-abnegation of saints and died with the

devotion of martyrs; and the result of all had been a disastrous

failure. From no short-coming on their part, but from the force of

events beyond the sphere of their influence, a very demon of havoc had

crushed their incipient churches, slaughtered their converts, uprooted

the populous communities on which their hopes had rested, and scattered

them in bands of wretched fugitives far and wide through the

wilderness.[26] They had devoted themselves in the fulness of faith to

the building up of a Christian and Jesuit empire on the conversion of

the great stationary tribes of the lakes; and of these none remained but

the Iroquois, the destroyers of the rest,--among whom, indeed, was a

field which might stimulate their zeal by an abundant promise of

sufferings and martyrdoms, but which, from its geographical position,

was too much exposed to Dutch and English influence to promise great and

decisive results. Their best hopes were now in the North and the West;

and thither, in great part, they had turned their energies.

[Sidenote: REPORTS OF THE JESUITS.]

We find them on Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, laboring

vigorously as of old, but in a spirit not quite the same. Now, as

before, two objects inspired their zeal,--the "greater glory of God,"

and the influence and credit of the Order of Jesus. If the one motive

had somewhat lost in power, the other had gained. The epoch of the

saints and martyrs was passing away; and henceforth we find the Canadian

Jesuit less and less an apostle, more and more an explorer, a man of

science, and a politician. The yearly reports of the missions are still,

for the edification of the pious reader, filled with intolerably tedious

stories of baptisms, conversions, and the exemplary deportment of

neophytes,--for these have become a part of the formula; but they are

relieved abundantly by more mundane topics. One finds observations on

the winds, currents, and tides of the Great Lakes; speculations on a

subterranean outlet of Lake Superior; accounts of its copper-mines, and

how we, the Jesuit fathers, are laboring to explore them for the profit

of the colony; surmises touching the North Sea, the South Sea, the Sea

of China, which we hope ere long to discover; and reports of that great

mysterious river of which the Indians tell us,--flowing southward,

perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the Vermilion Sea,--and the

secrets whereof, with the help of the Virgin, we will soon reveal to the

world.

The Jesuit was as often a fanatic for his Order as for his faith; and

oftener yet the two fanaticisms mingled in him inextricably. Ardently as

he burned for the saving of souls, he would have none saved on the Upper

Lakes except by his brethren and himself. He claimed a monopoly of

conversion, with its attendant monopoly of toil, hardship, and

martyrdom. Often disinterested for himself, he was inordinately

ambitious for the great corporate power in which he had merged his own

personality; and here lies one cause, among many, of the seeming

contradictions which abound in the annals of the Order.

Prefixed to the _Relation_ of 1671 is that monument of Jesuit hardihood

and enterprise, the map of Lake Superior,--a work of which, however, the

exactness has been exaggerated, as compared with other Canadian maps of

the day. While making surveys, the priests were diligently looking for

copper. Father Dablon reports that they had found it in greatest

abundance on Isle Minong, now Isle Royale. "A day's journey from the

head of the lake, on the south side, there is," he says, "a rock of

copper weighing from six hundred to eight hundred pounds, lying on the

shore where any who pass may see it;" and he further speaks of great

copper boulders in the bed of the river Ontonagan.[27]

[Sidenote: STE. MARIE DU SAUT.]

There were two principal missions on the Upper Lakes, which were, in a

certain sense, the parents of the rest. One of these was Ste. Marie du

Saut,--the same visited by Dollier and Galinée,--at the outlet of Lake

Superior. This was a noted fishing-place; for the rapids were full of

white-fish, and Indians came thither in crowds. The permanent residents

were an Ojibwa band, whom the French called Sauteurs, and whose bark

lodges were clustered at the foot of the rapids, near the fort of the

Jesuits. Besides these, a host of Algonquins, of various tribes,

resorted thither in the spring and summer,--living in abundance on the

fishery, and dispersing in winter to wander and starve in scattered

hunting-parties far and wide through the forests.

The other chief mission was that of St. Esprit, at La Pointe, near the

western extremity of Lake Superior. Here were the Hurons, fugitives

twenty years before from the slaughter of their countrymen; and the

Ottawas, who, like them, had sought an asylum from the rage of the

Iroquois. Many other tribes--Illinois, Pottawattamies, Foxes,

Menomonies, Sioux, Assiniboins, Knisteneaux, and a multitude

besides--came hither yearly to trade with the French. Here was a young

Jesuit, Jacques Marquette, lately arrived from the Saut Ste. Marie. His

savage flock disheartened him by its backslidings; and the best that he

could report of the Hurons, after all the toil and all the blood

lavished in their conversion, was, that they "still retain a little

Christianity;" while the Ottawas are "far removed from the kingdom of

God, and addicted beyond all other tribes to foulness, incantations, and

sacrifices to evil spirits."[28]

[Sidenote: MARQUETTE AND ANDRÉ.]

Marquette heard from the Illinois--yearly visitors at La Pointe--of the

great river which they had crossed on their way,[29] and which, as he

conjectured, flowed into the Gulf of California. He heard marvels of it

also from the Sioux, who lived on its banks; and a strong desire

possessed him to explore the mystery of its course. A sudden calamity

dashed his hopes. The Sioux--the Iroquois of the West, as the Jesuits

call them--had hitherto kept the peace with the expatriated tribes of La

Pointe; but now, from some cause not worth inquiry, they broke into open

war, and so terrified the Hurons and Ottawas that they abandoned their

settlements and fled. Marquette followed his panic-stricken flock, who,

passing the Saut Ste. Marie, and descending to Lake Huron, stopped at

length,--the Hurons at Michilimackinac, and the Ottawas at the Great

Manitoulin Island. Two missions were now necessary to minister to the

divided bands. That of Michilimackinac was assigned to Marquette, and

that of the Manitoulin Island to Louis André. The former took post at

Point St. Ignace, on the north shore of the Straits of Michilimackinac,

while the latter began the mission of St. Simon at the new abode of the

Ottawas. When winter came, scattering his flock to their

hunting-grounds, André made a missionary tour among the Nipissings and

other neighboring tribes. The shores of Lake Huron had long been an

utter solitude, swept of their denizens by the terror of the

all-conquering Iroquois; but now that these tigers had felt the power of

the French, and learned for a time to leave their Indian allies in

peace, the fugitive hordes were returning to their ancient abodes.

André's experience among them was of the roughest. The staple of his

diet was acorns and _tripe de roche_,--a species of lichen, which, being

boiled, resolved itself into a black glue, nauseous, but not void of

nourishment. At times, he was reduced to moss, the bark of trees, or

moccasins and old moose-skins cut into strips and boiled. His hosts

treated him very ill, and the worst of their fare was always his

portion. When spring came to his relief, he returned to his post of St.

Simon, with impaired digestion and unabated zeal.

[Sidenote: THE GREEN BAY MISSION.]

Besides the Saut Ste. Marie and Michilimackinac, both noted

fishing-places, there was another spot, no less famous for game and

fish, and therefore a favorite resort of Indians. This was the head of

the Green Bay of Lake Michigan.[30] Here and in adjacent districts

several distinct tribes had made their abode. The Menomonies were on the

river which bears their name; the Pottawattamies and Winnebagoes were

near the borders of the bay; the Sacs, on Fox River; the Mascoutins,

Miamis, and Kickapoos, on the same river, above Lake Winnebago; and the

Outagamies, or Foxes, on a tributary of it flowing from the north. Green

Bay was manifestly suited for a mission; and, as early as the autumn of

1669, Father Claude Allouez was sent thither to found one. After nearly

perishing by the way, he set out to explore the destined field of his

labors, and went as far as the town of the Mascoutins. Early in the

autumn of 1670, having been joined by Dablon, Superior of the missions

on the Upper Lakes, he made another journey, but not until the two

fathers had held a council with the congregated tribes at St. François

Xavier; for so they named their mission of Green Bay. Here, as they

harangued their naked audience, their gravity was put to the proof; for

a band of warriors, anxious to do them honor, walked incessantly up and

down, aping the movements of the soldiers on guard before the governor's

tent at Montreal. "We could hardly keep from laughing," writes Dablon,

"though, we were discoursing on very important subjects; namely, the

mysteries of our religion, and the things necessary to escaping from

eternal fire."[31]

The fathers were delighted with the country, which Dablon calls an

earthly paradise; but he adds that the way to it is as hard as the path

to heaven. He alludes especially to the rapids of Fox River, which gave

the two travellers great trouble. Having safely passed them, they saw

an Indian idol on the bank, similar to that which Dollier and Galinée

found at Detroit,--being merely a rock, bearing some resemblance to a

man, and hideously painted. With the help of their attendants, they

threw it into the river. Dablon expatiates on the buffalo, which he

describes apparently on the report of others, as his description is not

very accurate. Crossing Winnebago Lake, the two priests followed the

river leading to the town of the Mascoutins and Miamis, which they

reached on the fifteenth of September.[32] These two tribes lived

together within the compass of the same enclosure of palisades,--to the

number, it is said, of more than three thousand souls. The missionaries,

who had brought a highly colored picture of the Last Judgment, called

the Indians to council and displayed it before them; while Allouez, who

spoke Algonquin, harangued them on hell, demons, and eternal flames.

They listened with open ears, beset him night and day with questions,

and invited him and his companion to unceasing feasts. They were

welcomed in every lodge, and followed everywhere with eyes of curiosity,

wonder, and awe. Dablon overflows with praises of the Miami chief, who

was honored by his subjects like a king, and whose demeanor towards his

guests had no savor of the savage.

Their hosts told them of the great river Mississippi, rising far in the

north and flowing southward,--they knew not whither,--and of many tribes

that dwelt along its banks. When at length they took their departure,

they left behind them a reputation as medicine-men of transcendent

power.

[Sidenote: THE CROSS AMONG THE FOXES.]

In the winter following, Allouez visited the Foxes, whom he found in

extreme ill-humor. They were incensed against the French by the

ill-usage which some of their tribe had lately met when on a trading

visit to Montreal; and they received the Faith with shouts of derision.

The priest was horror-stricken at what he saw. Their lodges, each

containing from five to ten families, seemed in his eyes like seraglios;

for some of the chiefs had eight wives. He armed himself with patience,

and at length gained a hearing. Nay, he succeeded so well, that when he

showed them his crucifix they would throw tobacco on it as an offering;

and, on another visit which he made them soon after, he taught the whole

village to make the sign of the cross. A war-party was going out against

their enemies, and he bethought him of telling them the story of the

Cross and the Emperor Constantine. This so wrought upon them that they

all daubed the figure of a cross on their shields of bull-hide, set out

for the war, and came back victorious, extolling the sacred symbol as a

great war-medicine.

"Thus it is," writes Dablon, who chronicles the incident, "that our holy

faith is established among these people; and we have good hope that we

shall soon carry it to the famous river called the Mississippi, and

perhaps even to the South Sea."[33] Most things human have their phases

of the ludicrous; and the heroism of these untiring priests is no

exception to the rule.

[Sidenote: TRADING WITH INDIANS.]

The various missionary stations were much alike. They consisted of a

chapel (commonly of logs) and one or more houses, with perhaps a

store-house and a workshop; the whole fenced with palisades, and

forming, in fact, a stockade fort, surrounded with clearings and

cultivated fields. It is evident that the priests had need of other

hands than their own and those of the few lay brothers attached to the

mission. They required men inured to labor, accustomed to the forest

life, able to guide canoes and handle tools and weapons. In the earlier

epoch of the missions, when enthusiasm was at its height, they were

served in great measure by volunteers, who joined them through devotion

or penitence, and who were known as _donnés_ or "given men." Of late,

the number of these had much diminished; and they now relied chiefly on

hired men, or _engagés_. These were employed in building, hunting,

fishing, clearing, and tilling the ground, guiding canoes, and (if faith

is to be placed in reports current throughout the colony) in trading

with the Indians for the profit of the missions. This charge of

trading--which, if the results were applied exclusively to the support

of the missions, does not of necessity involve much censure--is

vehemently reiterated in many quarters, including the official

despatches of the governor of Canada; while, so far as I can discover,

the Jesuits never distinctly denied it, and on several occasions they

partially admitted its truth.[34]

FOOTNOTES:

[26] See "The Jesuits in North America."

[27] He complains that the Indians were very averse to giving

information on the subject, so that the Jesuits had not as yet

discovered the metal _in situ_, though they hoped soon to do so. The

Indians told him that the copper had first been found by four hunters,

who had landed on a certain island, near the north shore of the lake.

Wishing to boil their food in a vessel of bark, they gathered stones on

the shore, heated them red hot, and threw them in, but presently

discovered them to be pure copper. Their repast over, they hastened to

re-embark, being afraid of the lynxes and the hares, which, on this

island, were as large as dogs, and which would have devoured their

provisions, and perhaps their canoe. They took with them some of the

wonderful stones; but scarcely had they left the island, when a deep

voice, like thunder, sounded in their ears, "Who are these thieves who

steal the toys of my children?" It was the God of the Waters, or some

other powerful manito. The four adventurers retreated in great terror;

but three of them soon died, and the fourth survived only long enough to

reach his village, and tell the story. The island has no foundation, but

floats with the movement of the wind; and no Indian dares land on its

shores, dreading the wrath of the manito. Dablon, _Relation_, 1670, 84.

[28] _Lettre du Père Jacques Marquette au R. P. Supérieur des Missions;_

in _Relation_, 1670, 87.

[29] The Illinois lived at this time beyond the Mississippi, thirty

days' journey from La Pointe; whither they had been driven by the

Iroquois, from their former abode near Lake Michigan. Dablon

(_Relation_, 1671, 24, 25) says that they lived seven days' journey

beyond the Mississippi, in eight villages. A few years later, most of

them returned to the east side, and made their abode on the river

Illinois.

[30] The Baye des Puants of the early writers; or, more correctly, La

Baye des Eaux Puantes. The Winnebago Indians, living near it, were

called Les Puans, apparently for no other reason than because some

portion of the bay was said to have an odor like the sea.

Lake Michigan, the "Lac des Illinois" of the French, was, according to a

letter of Father Allouez, called "Machihiganing" by the Indians. Dablon

writes the name "Mitchiganon."

[31] _Relation_, 1671, 43.

[32] This town was on the Neenah or Fox River, above Lake Winnebago. The

Mascoutins, Fire Nation, or Nation of the Prairie, are extinct or merged

in other tribes. See "The Jesuits in North America." The Miamis soon

removed to the banks of the river St. Joseph, near Lake Michigan.

[33] _Relation_, 1672, 42.

[34] This charge was made from the first establishment of the missions.

For remarks on it, see "The Jesuits in North America" and "The Old

Régime in Canada."