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.

[Sidenote: THE NIAGARA PORTAGE.]

A more important work than that of the warehouse at the mouth of the

river was now to be begun. This was the building of a vessel above the

cataract. The small craft which had brought La Motte and Hennepin with

their advance party had been hauled to the foot of the rapids at

Lewiston, and drawn ashore with a capstan, to save her from the drifting

ice. Her lading was taken out, and must now be carried beyond the

cataract to the calm water above. The distance to the destined point was

at least twelve miles, and the steep heights above Lewiston must first

be climbed. This heavy task was accomplished on the twenty-second of

January. The level of the plateau was reached, and the file of burdened

men, some thirty in number, toiled slowly on its way over the snowy

plains and through the gloomy forests of spruce and naked oak-trees;

while Hennepin plodded through the drifts with his portable altar

lashed fast to his back. They came at last to the mouth of a stream

which entered the Niagara two leagues above the cataract, and which was

undoubtedly that now called Cayuga Creek.[124]

Trees were felled, the place cleared, and the master-carpenter set his

ship-builders at work. Meanwhile, two Mohegan hunters, attached to the

party, made bark wigwams to lodge the men. Hennepin had his chapel,

apparently of the same material, where he placed his altar, and on

Sundays and saints' days said mass, preached, and exhorted; while some

of the men, who knew the Gregorian chant, lent their aid at the service.

When the carpenters were ready to lay the keel of the vessel, La Salle

asked the friar to drive the first bolt; "but the modesty of my

religious profession," he says, "compelled me to decline this honor."

Fortunately, it was the hunting-season of the Iroquois, and most of the

Seneca warriors were in the forests south of Lake Erie; yet enough

remained to cause serious uneasiness. They loitered sullenly about the

place, expressing their displeasure at the proceedings of the French.

One of them, pretending to be drunk, attacked the blacksmith and tried

to kill him; but the Frenchman, brandishing a red-hot bar of iron, held

him at bay till Hennepin ran to the rescue, when, as he declares, the

severity of his rebuke caused the savage to desist.[125] The work of the

ship-builders advanced rapidly; and when the Indian visitors beheld the

vast ribs of the wooden monster, their jealousy was redoubled. A squaw

told the French that they meant to burn the vessel on the stocks. All

now stood anxiously on the watch. Cold, hunger, and discontent found

imperfect antidotes in Tonty's energy and Hennepin's sermons.

[Sidenote: SUFFERING AND DISCONTENT.]

La Salle was absent, and his lieutenant commanded in his place. Hennepin

says that Tonty was jealous because he, the friar, kept a journal, and

that he was forced to use all manner of just precautions to prevent the

Italian from seizing it. The men, being half-starved, in consequence of

the loss of their provisions on Lake Ontario, were restless and moody;

and their discontent was fomented by one of their number, who had very

probably been tampered with by La Salle's enemies.[126] The Senecas

refused to supply them with corn, and the frequent exhortations of the

Récollet father proved an insufficient substitute. In this extremity,

the two Mohegans did excellent service,--bringing deer and other game,

which relieved the most pressing wants of the party, and went far to

restore their cheerfulness.

La Salle, meanwhile, had gone down to the mouth of the river, with a

sergeant and a number of men; and here, on the high point of land where

Fort Niagara now stands, he marked out the foundations of two

blockhouses.[127] Then, leaving his men to build them, he set out on

foot for Fort Frontenac, where the condition of his affairs demanded his

presence, and where he hoped to procure supplies to replace those lost

in the wreck of his vessel. It was February, and the distance was some

two hundred and fifty miles, through the snow-encumbered forests of the

Iroquois and over the ice of Lake Ontario. Two men attended him, and a

dog dragged his baggage on a sledge. For food, they had only a bag of

parched corn, which failed them two days before they reached the fort;

and they made the rest of the journey fasting.

[Sidenote: THE SHIP FINISHED.]

During his absence, Tonty finished the vessel, which was of about

forty-five tons' burden.[128] As spring opened, she was ready for

launching. The friar pronounced his blessing on her; the assembled

company sang _Te Deum_; cannon were fired; and French and Indians,

warmed alike by a generous gift of brandy, shouted and yelped in chorus

as she glided into the Niagara. Her builders towed her out and anchored

her in the stream, safe at last from incendiary hands; and then,

swinging their hammocks under her deck, slept in peace, beyond reach of

the tomahawk. The Indians gazed on her with amazement. Five small cannon

looked out from her portholes; and on her prow was carved a portentous

monster, the Griffin, whose name she bore, in honor of the armorial

bearings of Frontenac. La Salle had often been heard to say that he

would make the griffin fly above the crows, or, in other words, make

Frontenac triumph over the Jesuits.

They now took her up the river, and made her fast below the swift

current at Black Rock. Here they finished her equipment, and waited for

La Salle's return; but the absent commander did not appear. The spring

and more than half of the summer had passed before they saw him again.

At length, early in August, he arrived at the mouth of the Niagara,

bringing three more friars; for, though no friend of the Jesuits, he was

zealous for the Faith, and was rarely without a missionary in his

journeyings. Like Hennepin, the three friars were all Flemings. One of

them, Melithon Watteau, was to remain at Niagara; the others, Zenobe

Membré and Gabriel Ribourde, were to preach the Faith among the tribes

of the West. Ribourde was a hale and cheerful old man of sixty-four. He

went four times up and down the Lewiston heights, while the men were

climbing the steep pathway with their loads. It required four of them,

well stimulated with brandy, to carry up the principal anchor destined

for the "Griffin."

La Salle brought a tale of disaster. His enemies, bent on ruining the

enterprise, had given out that he was embarked on a harebrained venture,

from which he would never return. His creditors, excited by rumors set

afloat to that end, had seized on all his property in the settled parts

of Canada, though his seigniory of Fort Frontenac alone would have more

than sufficed to pay all his debts. There was no remedy. To defer the

enterprise would have been to give his adversaries the triumph that they

sought; and he hardened himself against the blow with his usual

stoicism.[129]

FOOTNOTES:

[124] It has been a matter of debate on which side of the Niagara the

first vessel on the Upper Lakes was built. A close study of Hennepin,

and a careful examination of the localities, have convinced me that the

spot was that indicated above. Hennepin repeatedly alludes to a large

detached rock, rising out of the water at the foot of the rapids above

Lewiston, on the west side of the river. This rock may still be seen

immediately under the western end of the Lewiston suspension-bridge.

Persons living in the neighborhood remember that a ferry-boat used to

pass between it and the cliffs of the western shore; but it has since

been undermined by the current and has inclined in that direction, so

that a considerable part of it is submerged, while the gravel and earth

thrown down from the cliff during the building of the bridge has filled

the intervening channel. Opposite to this rock, and on the east side of

the river, says Hennepin, are three mountains, about two leagues below

the cataract. (_Nouveau Voyage_ (1704), 462, 466.) To these "three

mountains," as well as to the rock, he frequently alludes. They are also

spoken of by La Hontan, who clearly indicates their position. They

consist in the three successive grades of the acclivity: first, that

which rises from the level of the water, forming the steep and lofty

river-bank; next, an intermediate ascent, crowned by a sort of terrace,

where the tired men could find a second resting-place and lay down their

burdens, whence a third effort carried them with difficulty to the level

top of the plateau. That this was the actual "portage," or carrying

place of the travellers, is shown by Hennepin (1704), 114, who describes

the carrying of anchors and other heavy articles up these heights in

August, 1679. La Hontan also passed the Falls by way of the "three

mountains" eight years later. La Hontan (1703), 106. It is clear, then,

that the portage was on the east side, whence it would be safe to

conclude that the vessel was built on the same side. Hennepin says that

she was built at the mouth of a stream (_rivière_) entering the Niagara

two leagues above the Falls. Excepting one or two small brooks, there is

no stream on the west side but Chippewa Creek, which Hennepin had

visited and correctly placed at about a league from the cataract. His

distances on the Niagara are usually correct. On the east side there is

a stream which perfectly answers the conditions. This is Cayuga Creek,

two leagues above the Falls. Immediately in front of it is an island

about a mile long, separated from the shore by a narrow and deep arm of

the Niagara, into which Cayuga Creek discharges itself. The place is so

obviously suited to building and launching a vessel, that, in the early

part of this century, the government of the United States chose it for

the construction of a schooner to carry supplies to the garrisons of the

Upper Lakes. The neighboring village now bears the name of La Salle.

In examining this and other localities on the Niagara, I have been

greatly aided by my friend O. H. Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo, who is

unrivalled in his knowledge of the history and traditions of the Niagara

frontier.

[125] Hennepin (1704), 97. On a paper drawn up at the instance of the

Intendant Duchesneau, the names of the greater number of La Salle's men

are preserved. These agree with those given by Hennepin: thus, the

master-carpenter, whom he calls Maître Moyse, appears as Moïse Hillaret;

and the blacksmith, whom he calls La Forge, is mentioned as--(illegible)

dit la Forge.

[126] "This bad man," says Hennepin, "would infallibly have debauched

our workmen, if I had not reassured them by the exhortations which I

made them on fête-days and Sundays, after divine service." (1704), 98.

[127] _Lettre de La Salle, 22 Août, 1682_ (Margry, ii. 229); _Relation

de Tonty_, 1684 (Ibid., i. 577). He called this new post Fort Conti. It

was burned some months after, by the carelessness of the sergeant in

command, and was the first of a succession of forts on this historic

spot.

[128] Hennepin (1683), 46. In the edition of 1697, he says that it was

of sixty tons. I prefer to follow the earlier and more trustworthy

narrative.

[129] La Salle's embarrassment at this time was so great that he

purposed to send Tonty up the lakes in the "Griffin," while he went back

to the colony to look after his affairs; but suspecting that the pilot,

who had already wrecked one of his vessels, was in the pay of his

enemies, he resolved at last to take charge of the expedition himself,

to prevent a second disaster. (_Lettre de La Salle, 22 Août, 1682_;

Margry, ii. 214.) Among the creditors who bore hard upon him were

Migeon, Charon, Giton, and Peloquin, of Montreal, in whose name his furs

at Fort Frontenac had been seized. The intendant also placed under seal

all his furs at Quebec, among which is set down the not very precious

item of two hundred and eighty-four skins of _enfants du diable_, or

skunks.