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.

In tracing the adventures of Tonty and the rovings of Hennepin, we have

lost sight of La Salle, the pivot of the enterprise. Returning from the

desolation and horror in the valley of the Illinois, he had spent the

winter at Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph, by the borders of Lake

Michigan. Here he might have brooded on the redoubled ruin that had

befallen him,--the desponding friends, the exulting foes; the wasted

energies, the crushing load of debt, the stormy past, the black and

lowering future. But his mind was of a different temper. He had no

thought but to grapple with adversity, and out of the fragments of his

ruin to build up the fabric of success.

He would not recoil; but he modified his plans to meet the new

contingency. His white enemies had found, or rather perhaps had made, a

savage ally in the Iroquois. Their incursions must be stopped, or his

enterprise would come to nought; and he thought he saw the means by

which this new danger could be converted into a source of strength. The

tribes of the West, threatened by the common enemy, might be taught to

forget their mutual animosities and join in a defensive league, with La

Salle at its head. They might be colonized around his fort in the valley

of the Illinois, where in the shadow of the French flag, and with the

aid of French allies, they could hold the Iroquois in check, and acquire

in some measure the arts of a settled life. The Franciscan friars could

teach them the Faith; and La Salle and his associates could supply them

with goods, in exchange for the vast harvest of furs which their hunters

could gather in these boundless wilds. Meanwhile, he would seek out the

mouth of the Mississippi; and the furs gathered at his colony in the

Illinois would then find a ready passage to the markets of the world.

Thus might this ancient slaughter-field of warring savages be redeemed

to civilization and Christianity; and a stable settlement, half-feudal,

half-commercial, grow up in the heart of the western wilderness. This

plan was but a part of the original scheme of his enterprise, adapted to

new and unexpected circumstances; and he now set himself to its

execution with his usual vigor, joined to an address which, when dealing

with Indians, never failed him.

[Sidenote: INDIAN FRIENDS.]

There were allies close at hand. Near Fort Miami were the huts of

twenty-five or thirty savages, exiles from their homes, and strangers

in this western world. Several of the English colonies, from Virginia to

Maine, had of late years been harassed by Indian wars; and the Puritans

of New England, above all, had been scourged by the deadly outbreak of

King Philip's war. Those engaged in it had paid a bitter price for their

brief triumphs. A band of refugees, chiefly Abenakis and Mohegans,

driven from their native seats, had roamed into these distant wilds, and

were wintering in the friendly neighborhood of the French. La Salle soon

won them over to his interests. One of their number was the Mohegan

hunter, who for two years had faithfully followed his fortunes, and who

had been four years in the West. He is described as a prudent and

discreet young man, in whom La Salle had great confidence, and who could

make himself understood in several western languages, belonging, like

his own, to the great Algonquin tongue. This devoted henchman proved an

efficient mediator with his countrymen. The New-England Indians, with

one voice, promised to follow La Salle, asking no recompense but to call

him their chief, and yield to him the love and admiration which he

rarely failed to command from this hero-worshipping race.

New allies soon appeared. A Shawanoe chief from the valley of the Ohio,

whose following embraced a hundred and fifty warriors, came to ask the

protection of the French against the all-destroying Iroquois. "The

Shawanoes are too distant," was La Salle's reply; "but let them come to

me at the Illinois, and they shall be safe." The chief promised to join

him in the autumn, at Fort Miami, with all his band. But, more important

than all, the consent and co-operation of the Illinois must be gained;

and the Miamis, their neighbors and of late their enemies, must be

taught the folly of their league with the Iroquois, and the necessity of

joining in the new confederation. Of late, they had been made to see the

perfidy of their dangerous allies. A band of the Iroquois, returning

from the slaughter of the Tamaroa Illinois, had met and murdered a band

of Miamis on the Ohio, and had not only refused satisfaction, but had

intrenched themselves in three rude forts of trees and brushwood in the

heart of the Miami country. The moment was favorable for negotiating;

but, first, La Salle wished to open a communication with the Illinois,

some of whom had begun to return to the country they had abandoned. With

this view, and also, it seems, to procure provisions, he set out on the

first of March, with his lieutenant La Forest, and fifteen men.

The country was sheeted in snow, and the party journeyed on snow-shoes;

but when they reached the open prairies, the white expanse glared in the

sun with so dazzling a brightness that La Salle and several of the men

became snow-blind. They stopped and encamped under the edge of a forest;

and here La Salle remained in darkness for three days, suffering extreme

pain. Meanwhile, he sent forward La Forest and most of the men, keeping

with him his old attendant Hunaut. Going out in quest of pine-leaves,--a

decoction of which was supposed to be useful in cases of

snow-blindness,--this man discovered the fresh tracks of Indians,

followed them, and found a camp of Outagamies, or Foxes, from the

neighborhood of Green Bay. From them he heard welcome news. They told

him that Tonty was safe among the Pottawattamies, and that Hennepin had

passed through their country on his return from among the Sioux.[224]

[Sidenote: ILLINOIS ALLIES.]

A thaw took place; the snow melted rapidly; the rivers were opened; the

blind men began to recover; and launching the canoes which they had

dragged after them, the party pursued their way by water. They soon met

a band of Illinois. La Salle gave them presents, condoled with them on

their losses, and urged them to make peace and alliance with the Miamis.

Thus, he said, they could set the Iroquois at defiance; for he himself,

with his Frenchmen and his Indian friends, would make his abode among

them, supply them with goods, and aid them to defend themselves. They

listened, well pleased, promised to carry his message to their

countrymen, and furnished him with a large supply of corn.[225]

Meanwhile he had rejoined La Forest, whom he now sent to

Michilimackinac to await Tonty, and tell him to remain there till he, La

Salle, should arrive.

Having thus accomplished the objects of his journey, he returned to Fort

Miami, whence he soon after ascended the St. Joseph to the village of

the Miami Indians, on the portage, at the head of the Kankakee. Here he

found unwelcome guests. These were three Iroquois warriors, who had been

for some time in the place, and who, as he was told, had demeaned

themselves with the insolence of conquerors, and spoken of the French

with the utmost contempt. He hastened to confront them, rebuked and

menaced them, and told them that now, when he was present, they dared

not repeat the calumnies which they had uttered in his absence. They

stood abashed and confounded, and during the following night secretly

left the town and fled. The effect was prodigious on the minds of the

Miamis, when they saw that La Salle, backed by ten Frenchmen, could

command from their arrogant visitors a respect which they, with their

hundreds of warriors, had wholly failed to inspire. Here, at the outset,

was an augury full of promise for the approaching negotiations.

There were other strangers in the town,--a band of eastern Indians, more

numerous than those who had wintered at the fort. The greater number

were from Rhode Island, including, probably, some of King Philip's

warriors; others were from New York, and others again from Virginia. La

Salle called them to a council, promised them a new home in the West

under the protection of the Great King, with rich lands, an abundance of

game, and French traders to supply them with the goods which they had

once received from the English. Let them but help him to make peace

between the Miamis and the Illinois, and he would insure for them a

future of prosperity and safety. They listened with open ears, and

promised their aid in the work of peace.

[Sidenote: GRAND COUNCIL.]

On the next morning, the Miamis were called to a grand council. It was

held in the lodge of their chief, from which the mats were removed, that

the crowd without might hear what was said. La Salle rose and harangued

the concourse. Few men were so skilled in the arts of forest rhetoric

and diplomacy. After the Indian mode, he was, to follow his chroniclers,

"the greatest orator in North America."[226] He began with a gift of

tobacco, to clear the brains of his auditory; next, for he had brought a

canoe-load of presents to support his eloquence, he gave them cloth to

cover their dead, coats to dress them, hatchets to build a grand

scaffold in their honor, and beads, bells, and trinkets of all sorts, to

decorate their relatives at a grand funeral feast. All this was mere

metaphor. The living, while appropriating the gifts to their own use,

were pleased at the compliment offered to their dead; and their delight

redoubled as the orator proceeded. One of their great chiefs had lately

been killed; and La Salle, after a eulogy of the departed, declared that

he would now raise him to life again; that is, that he would assume his

name and give support to his squaws and children. This flattering

announcement drew forth an outburst of applause; and when, to confirm

his words, his attendants placed before them a huge pile of coats,

shirts, and hunting-knives, the whole assembly exploded in yelps of

admiration.

Now came the climax of the harangue, introduced by a further present of

six guns:--

"He who is my master, and the master of all this country, is a mighty

chief, feared by the whole world; but he loves peace, and the words of

his lips are for good alone. He is called the King of France, and he is

the mightiest among the chiefs beyond the great water. His goodness

reaches even to your dead, and his subjects come among you to raise them

up to life. But it is his will to preserve the life he has given; it is

his will that you should obey his laws, and make no war without the

leave of Onontio, who commands in his name at Quebec, and who loves all

the nations alike, because such is the will of the Great King. You

ought, then, to live at peace with your neighbors, and above all with

the Illinois. You have had causes of quarrel with them; but their defeat

has avenged you. Though they are still strong, they wish to make peace

with you. Be content with the glory of having obliged them to ask for

it. You have an interest in preserving them; since, if the Iroquois

destroy them, they will next destroy you. Let us all obey the Great

King, and live together in peace, under his protection. Be of my mind,

and use these guns that I have given you, not to make war, but only to

hunt and to defend yourselves."[227]

[Sidenote: THE CHIEFS REPLY.]

So saying, he gave two belts of wampum to confirm his words; and the

assembly dissolved. On the following day, the chiefs again convoked it,

and made their reply in form. It was all that La Salle could have

wished. "The Illinois is our brother, because he is the son of our

Father, the Great King." "We make you the master of our beaver and our

lands, of our minds and our bodies." "We cannot wonder that our brothers

from the East wish to live with you. We should have wished so too, if we

had known what a blessing it is to be the children of the Great King."

The rest of this auspicious day was passed in feasts and dances, in

which La Salle and his Frenchmen all bore part. His new scheme was

hopefully begun. It remained to achieve the enterprise, twice defeated,

of the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi,--that vital condition

of his triumph, without which all other success was meaningless and

vain.

To this end he must return to Canada, appease his creditors, and collect

his scattered resources. Towards the end of May he set out in canoes

from Fort Miami, and reached Michilimackinac after a prosperous voyage.

Here, to his great joy, he found Tonty and Zenobe Membré, who had lately

arrived from Green Bay. The meeting was one at which even his stoic

nature must have melted. Each had for the other a tale of disaster; but

when La Salle recounted the long succession of his reverses, it was with

the tranquil tone and cheerful look of one who relates the incidents of

an ordinary journey. Membré looked on him with admiration. "Any one

else," he says, "would have thrown up his hand and abandoned the

enterprise; but, far from this, with a firmness and constancy that never

had its equal, I saw him more resolved than ever to continue his work

and push forward his discovery."[228]

Without loss of time they embarked together for Fort Frontenac, paddled

their canoes a thousand miles, and safely reached their destination.

Here, in this third beginning of his enterprise, La Salle found himself

beset with embarrassments. Not only was he burdened with the fruitless

costs of his two former efforts, but the heavy debts which he had

incurred in building and maintaining Fort Frontenac had not been wholly

paid. The fort and the seigniory were already deeply mortgaged; yet

through the influence of Count Frontenac, the assistance of his

secretary Barrois, a consummate man of business, and the support of a

wealthy relative, he found means to appease his creditors and even to

gain fresh advances. To this end, however, he was forced to part with a

portion of his monopolies. Having first made his will at Montreal, in

favor of a cousin who had befriended him,[229] he mustered his men, and

once more set forth, resolved to trust no more to agents, but to lead on

his followers, in a united body, under his own personal command.[230]

[Sidenote: THE TORONTO PORTAGE.]

At the beginning of autumn he was at Toronto, where the long and

difficult portage to Lake Simcoe detained him a fortnight. He spent a

part of it in writing an account of what had lately occurred to a

correspondent in France, and he closes his letter thus: "This is all I

can tell you this year. I have a hundred things to write, but you could

not believe how hard it is to do it among Indians. The canoes and their

lading must be got over the portage, and I must speak to them

continually and bear all their importunity, or else they will do nothing

I want. I hope to write more at leisure next year, and tell you the end

of this business, which I hope will turn out well: for I have M. de

Tonty, who is full of zeal; thirty Frenchmen, all good men, without

reckoning such as I cannot trust; and more than a hundred Indians, some

of them Shawanoes, and others from New England, all of whom know how to

use guns."

It was October before he reached Lake Huron. Day after day and week

after week the heavy-laden canoes crept on along the lonely wilderness

shores, by the monotonous ranks of bristling moss-bearded firs; lake and

forest, forest and lake; a dreary scene haunted with yet more dreary

memories,--disasters, sorrows, and deferred hopes; time, strength, and

wealth spent in vain; a ruinous past and a doubtful future; slander,

obloquy, and hate. With unmoved heart, the patient voyager held his

course, and drew up his canoes at last on the beach at Fort Miami.

FOOTNOTES:

[224] _Relation des Découvertes._ Compare _Lettre de La Salle_ (Margry,

ii. 144).

[225] This seems to have been taken from the secret repositories, or

_caches_, of the ruined town of the Illinois.

[226] "En ce genre, il étoit le plus grand orateur de l'Amérique

Septentrionale."--_Relation des Découvertes._

[227] Translated from the _Relation_, where these councils are reported

at great length.

[228] Membré in Le Clerc, ii. 208. Tonty, in his memoir of 1693, speaks

of the joy of La Salle at the meeting. The _Relation_, usually very

accurate, says, erroneously, that Tonty had gone to Fort Frontenac. La

Forest had gone thither, not long before La Salle's arrival.

[229] _Copie du Testament du deffunt Sr. de la Salle, 11 Août, 1681._

The relative was François Plet, to whom he was deeply in debt.

[230] "On apprendra à la fin de cette année, 1682, le succès de la

découverte qu'il étoit résolu d'achever, au plus tard le printemps

dernier ou de périr en y travaillant. Tant de traverses et de malheurs

toujours arrivés en son absence l'ont fait résoudre à ne se fier plus à

personne et à conduire lui-même tout son monde, tout son équipage, et

toute son entreprise, de laquelle il espéroit une heureuse conclusion."

The above is a part of the closing paragraph of the _Relation des

Découvertes_, so often cited.