CHAPTER XXIII.
1684.
A NEW ENTERPRISE.
La Salle at Court: his Proposals.--Occupation of
Louisiana.--Invasion of Mexico.--Royal Favor.--Preparation.--A
Divided Command.--Beaujeu and La Salle.--Mental Condition of La
Salle: his Farewell to his Mother.
When La Salle reached Paris, he went to his old lodgings in Rue de la
Truanderie, and, it is likely enough, thought for an instant of the
adventures and vicissitudes he had passed since he occupied them before.
Another ordeal awaited him. He must confront, not painted savages with
tomahawk and knife, but--what he shrank from more--the courtly throngs
that still live and move in the pages of Sévigné and Saint-Simon.
The news of his discovery and the rumor of his schemes were the talk of
a moment among the courtiers, and then were forgotten. It was not so
with their master. La Salle's friends and patrons did not fail him. A
student and a recluse in his youth, and a backwoodsman in his manhood,
he had what was to him the formidable honor of an interview with royalty
itself, and stood with such philosophy as he could command before the
gilded arm-chair, where, majestic and awful, the power of France sat
embodied. The King listened to all he said; but the results of the
interview were kept so secret that it was rumored in the ante-chambers
that his proposals had been rejected.[262]
On the contrary, they had met with more than favor. The moment was
opportune for La Salle. The King had long been irritated against the
Spaniards, because they not only excluded his subjects from their
American ports, but forbade them to enter the Gulf of Mexico. Certain
Frenchmen who had sailed on this forbidden sea had been seized and
imprisoned; and more recently a small vessel of the royal navy had been
captured for the same offence. This had drawn from the King a
declaration that every sea should be free to all his subjects; and Count
d'Estrées was sent with a squadron to the Gulf, to exact satisfaction of
the Spaniards, or fight them if they refused it.[263] This was in time
of peace. War had since arisen between the two crowns, and brought with
it the opportunity of settling the question forever. In order to do so,
the minister Seignelay, like his father Colbert, proposed to establish a
French port on the Gulf, as a permanent menace to the Spaniards and a
basis of future conquest. It was in view of this plan that La Salle's
past enterprises had been favored; and the proposals he now made were in
perfect accord with it.
[Sidenote: LA SALLE'S PROPOSALS.]
These proposals were set forth in two memorials. The first of them
states that the late Monseigneur Colbert deemed it important for the
service of his Majesty to discover a port in the Gulf of Mexico; that to
this end the memorialist, La Salle, made five journeys of upwards of
five thousand leagues, in great part on foot; and traversed more than
six hundred leagues of unknown country, among savages and cannibals, at
the cost of a hundred and fifty thousand francs. He now proposes to
return by way of the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi to
the countries he has discovered, whence great benefits may be expected:
first, the cause of God may be advanced by the preaching of the gospel
to many Indian tribes; and, secondly, great conquests may be effected
for the glory of the King, by the seizure of provinces rich in silver
mines, and defended only by a few indolent and effeminate Spaniards. The
Sieur de la Salle, pursues the memorial, binds himself to be ready for
the accomplishment of this enterprise within one year after his arrival
on the spot; and he asks for this purpose only one vessel and two
hundred men, with their arms, munitions, pay, and maintenance. When
Monseigneur shall direct him, he will give the details of what he
proposes. The memorial then describes the boundless extent, the
fertility and resources of the country watered by the river Colbert, or
Mississippi; the necessity of guarding it against foreigners, who will
be eager to seize it now that La Salle's discovery has made it known;
and the ease with which it may be defended by one or two forts at a
proper distance above its mouth, which would form the key to an interior
region eight hundred leagues in extent. "Should foreigners anticipate
us," he adds, "they will complete the ruin of New France, which they
already hem in by their establishments of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New
England, and Hudson's Bay."[264]
The second memorial is more explicit. The place, it says, which the
Sieur de la Salle proposes to fortify, is on the river Colbert, or
Mississippi, sixty leagues above its mouth, where the soil is very
fertile, the climate very mild, and whence we, the French, may control
the continent,--since, the river being narrow, we could defend ourselves
by means of fire-ships against a hostile fleet, while the position is
excellent both for attacking an enemy or retreating in case of need. The
neighboring Indians detest the Spaniards, but love the French, having
been won over by the kindness of the Sieur de la Salle. We could form of
them an army of more than fifteen thousand savages, who, supported by
the French and Abenakis, followers of the Sieur de la Salle, could
easily subdue the province of New Biscay (the most northern province of
Mexico), where there are but four hundred Spaniards, more fit to work
the mines than to fight. On the north of New Biscay lie vast forests,
extending to the river Seignelay[265] (Red River), which is but forty or
fifty leagues from the Spanish province. This river affords the means of
attacking it to great advantage.
In view of these facts, pursues the memorial, the Sieur de la Salle
offers, if the war with Spain continues, to undertake this conquest with
two hundred men from France. He will take on his way fifty buccaneers at
St. Domingo, and direct the four thousand Indian warriors at Fort St.
Louis of the Illinois to descend the river and join him. He will
separate his force into three divisions, and attack at the same time the
centre and the two extremities of the province. To accomplish this great
design, he asks only for a vessel of thirty guns, a few cannon for the
forts, and power to raise in France two hundred such men as he shall
think fit, to be armed, paid, and maintained six months at the King's
charge. And the Sieur de la Salle binds himself, if the execution of
this plan is prevented for more than three years, by peace with Spain,
to refund to his Majesty all the costs of the enterprise, on pain of
forfeiting the government of the ports he will have established.[266]
[Sidenote: LA SALLES'S PLANS.]
Such, in brief, was the substance of this singular proposition. And,
first, it is to be observed that it is based on a geographical blunder,
the nature of which is explained by the map of La Salle's discoveries
made in this very year. Here the river Seignelay, or Red River, is
represented as running parallel to the northern border of Mexico, and at
no great distance from it,--the region now called Texas being almost
entirely suppressed. According to the map, New Biscay might be reached
from this river in a few days; and, after crossing the intervening
forests, the coveted mines of Ste. Barbe, or Santa Barbara, would be
within striking distance.[267] That La Salle believed in the possibility
of invading the Spanish province of New Biscay from Red River there can
be no doubt; neither can it reasonably be doubted that he hoped at some
future day to make the attempt; and yet it is incredible that a man in
his sober senses could have proposed this scheme with the intention of
attempting to execute it at the time and in the manner which he
indicates.[268] This memorial bears some indications of being drawn up
in order to produce a certain effect on the minds of the King and his
minister. La Salle's immediate necessity was to obtain from them the
means for establishing a fort and a colony within the mouth of the
Mississippi. This was essential to his own plans; nor did he in the
least exaggerate the value of such an establishment to the French
nation, and the importance of anticipating other powers in the
possession of it. But he thought that he needed a more glittering lure
to attract the eyes of Louis and Seignelay; and thus, it may be, he held
before them, in a definite and tangible form, the project of Spanish
conquest which had haunted his imagination from youth,--trusting that
the speedy conclusion of peace, which actually took place, would absolve
him from the immediate execution of the scheme, and give him time, with
the means placed at his disposal, to mature his plans and prepare for
eventual action. Such a procedure may be charged with indirectness; but
there is a different explanation, which we shall suggest hereafter, and
which implies no such reproach.[269]
Even with this madcap enterprise lopped off, La Salle's scheme of
Mississippi trade and colonization, perfectly sound in itself, was too
vast for an individual,--above all, for one crippled and crushed with
debt. While he grasped one link of the great chain, another, no less
essential, escaped from his hand; while he built up a colony on the
Mississippi, it was reasonably certain that evil would befall his
distant colony of the Illinois.
[Sidenote: LA BARRE REBUKED.]
The glittering project which he now unfolded found favor in the eyes of
the King and his minister; for both were in the flush of an unparalleled
success, and looked in the future, as in the past, for nothing but
triumphs. They granted more than the petitioner asked, as indeed they
well might, if they expected the accomplishment of all that he proposed
to attempt. La Forest, La Salle's lieutenant, ejected from Fort
Frontenac by La Barre, was now at Paris; and he was despatched to
Canada, empowered to reoccupy, in La Salle's name, both Fort Frontenac
and Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. The King himself wrote to La Barre
in a strain that must have sent a cold thrill through the veins of that
official. "I hear," he says, "that you have taken possession of Fort
Frontenac, the property of the Sieur de la Salle, driven away his men,
suffered his land to run to waste, and even told the Iroquois that they
might seize him as an enemy of the colony." He adds, that, if this is
true, La Barre must make reparation for the wrong, and place all La
Salle's property, as well as his men, in the hands of the Sieur de la
Forest, "as I am satisfied that Fort Frontenac was not abandoned, as you
wrote to me that it had been."[270] Four days later, he wrote to the
intendant of Canada, De Meules, to the effect that the bearer, La
Forest, is to suffer no impediment, and that La Barre is to surrender to
him without reserve all that belongs to La Salle.[271] Armed with this
letter, La Forest sailed for Canada.[272]
A chief object of his mission, as it was represented to Seignelay, was,
not only to save the colony at the Illinois from being broken up by La
Barre, but also to collect La Salle's scattered followers, muster the
savage warriors around the rock of St. Louis, and lead the whole down
the Mississippi, to co-operate in the attack on New Biscay. If La Salle
meant that La Forest should seriously attempt to execute such a scheme,
then the charges of his enemies that his brain was turned were better
founded than he would have us think.[273]
[Sidenote: PREPARATION.]
He had asked for two vessels,[274] and four were given to him. Agents
were sent to Rochelle and Rochefort to gather recruits. A hundred
soldiers were enrolled, besides mechanics and laborers; and thirty
volunteers, including gentlemen and burghers of condition, joined the
expedition. And, as the plan was one no less of colonization than of
war, several families embarked for the new land of promise, as well as a
number of girls, lured by the prospect of almost certain matrimony. Nor
were missionaries wanting. Among them was La Salle's brother, Cavelier,
and two other priests of St. Sulpice. Three Récollets were
added,--Zenobe Membré, who was then in France, Anastase Douay, and
Maxime Le Clerc. The principal vessel was the "Joly," belonging to the
royal navy, and carrying thirty-six guns. Another armed vessel of six
guns was added, together with a store-ship and a ketch.
La Salle had asked for sole command of the expedition, with a subaltern
officer, and one or two pilots to sail the vessels as he should direct.
Instead of complying, Seignelay gave the command of the vessels to
Beaujeu, a captain of the royal navy,--whose authority was restricted to
their management at sea, while La Salle was to prescribe the route they
were to take, and have entire control of the troops and colonists on
land.[275] This arrangement displeased both parties. Beaujeu, an old and
experienced officer, was galled that a civilian should be set over
him,--and he, too, a burgher lately ennobled; nor was La Salle the man
to soothe his ruffled spirit. Detesting a divided command, cold,
reserved, and impenetrable, he would have tried the patience of a less
excitable colleague. Beaujeu, on his part, though set to a task which he
disliked, seems to have meant to do his duty, and to have been willing
at the outset to make the relations between himself and his unwelcome
associate as agreeable as possible. Unluckily, La Salle discovered that
the wife of Beaujeu was devoted to the Jesuits. We have seen the extreme
distrust with which he regarded these guides of his youth, and he seems
now to have fancied that Beaujeu was their secret ally. Possibly, he
suspected that information of his movements would be given to the
Spaniards; more probably, he had undefined fears of adverse
machinations. Granting that such existed, it was not his interest to
stimulate them by needlessly exasperating the naval commander. His
deportment, however, was not conciliating; and Beaujeu, prepared to
dislike him, presently lost temper. While the vessels still lay at
Rochelle; while all was bustle and preparation; while stores, arms, and
munitions were embarking; while boys and vagabonds were enlisting as
soldiers for the expedition,--Beaujeu was venting his disgust in long
letters to the minister.
[Sidenote: BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE.]
"You have ordered me, Monseigneur, to give all possible aid to this
undertaking, and I shall do so to the best of my power; but permit me to
take great credit to myself, for I find it very hard to submit to the
orders of the Sieur de la Salle, whom I believe to be a man of merit,
but who has no experience of war except with savages, and who has no
rank, while I have been captain of a ship thirteen years, and have
served thirty by sea and land. Besides, Monseigneur, he has told me that
in case of his death you have directed that the Sieur de Tonty shall
succeed him. This, indeed, is very hard; for, though I am not acquainted
with that country, I should be very dull, if, being on the spot, I did
not know at the end of a month as much of it as they do. I beg,
Monseigneur, that I may at least share the command with them; and that,
as regards war, nothing may be done without my knowledge and
concurrence,--for, as to their commerce, I neither intend nor desire to
know anything about it."
Seignelay answered by a rebuff, and told him to make no trouble about
the command. This increased his irritation, and he wrote: "In my last
letter, Monseigneur, I represented to you the hardship of compelling me
to obey M. de la Salle, who has no rank, and _never commanded anybody
but school-boys_; and I begged you at least to divide the command
between us. I now, Monseigneur, take the liberty to say that I will obey
without repugnance, if you order me to do so, having reflected that
there can be no competition between the said Sieur de la Salle and me.
"Thus far, he has not told me his plan; and he changes his mind every
moment. He is a man so suspicious, and so afraid that one will penetrate
his secrets, that I dare not ask him anything. He says that M. de
Parassy, commissary's clerk, with whom he has often quarrelled, is paid
by his enemies to defeat his undertaking; and many other things with
which I will not trouble you....
"He pretends that I am only to command the sailors, and have no
authority over the volunteer officers and the hundred soldiers who are
to take passage in the 'Joly;' and that they are not to recognize or
obey me in any way during the voyage....
"He has covered the decks with boxes and chests of such prodigious size
that neither the cannon nor the capstan can be worked."
La Salle drew up a long list of articles, defining the respective rights
and functions of himself and Beaujeu, to whom he presented it for
signature. Beaujeu demurred at certain military honors demanded by La
Salle, saying that if a marshal of France should come on board his ship,
he would have none left to offer him. The point was referred to the
naval intendant; and the articles of the treaty having been slightly
modified, Beaujeu set his name to it. "By this," he says, "you can judge
better of the character of M. de la Salle than by all I can say. He is a
man who wants smoke [form and ceremony]. I will give him his fill of it,
and, perhaps, more than he likes.
"I am bound to an unknown country, to seek what is about as hard to find
as the philosopher's stone. It vexes me, Monseigneur, that you should
have been involved in a business the success of which is very uncertain.
M. de la Salle begins to doubt it himself."
While Beaujeu wrote thus to the minister, he was also writing to Cabart
de Villermont, one of his friends at Paris, with whom La Salle was also
on friendly terms. These letters are lively and entertaining, and by no
means suggestive of any secret conspiracy. He might, it is true, have
been more reserved in his communications; but he betrays no confidence,
for none was placed in him. It is the familiar correspondence of an
irritable but not ill-natured veteran, who is placed in an annoying
position, and thinks he is making the best of it.
La Salle thought that the minister had been too free in communicating
the secrets of the expedition to the naval intendant at Rochefort, and
through him to Beaujeu. It is hard to see how Beaujeu was to blame for
this; but La Salle nevertheless fell into a dispute with him. "He could
hardly keep his temper, and used expressions which obliged me to tell
him that I cared very little about his affairs, and that the King
himself would not speak as he did. He retracted, made excuses, and we
parted good friends....
"I do not like his suspiciousness. I think him a good, honest Norman;
but Normans are out of fashion. It is one thing to-day, another
to-morrow. It seems to me that he is not so sure about his undertaking
as he was at Paris. This morning he came to see me, and told me he had
changed his mind, and meant to give a new turn to the business, and go
to another coast. He gave very poor reasons, to which I assented, to
avoid a quarrel. I thought, by what he said, that he wanted to find a
scapegoat to bear the blame, in case his plan does not succeed as he
hopes. For the rest, I think him a brave man and a true; and I am
persuaded that if this business fails, it will be because he does not
know enough, and will not trust us of the profession. As for me, I shall
do my best to help him, as I have told you before; and I am delighted to
have him keep his secret, so that I shall not have to answer for the
result. Pray do not show my letters, for fear of committing me with him.
He is too suspicious already; and never was Norman so Norman as he,
which is a great hinderance to business."
Beaujeu came from the same province and calls himself jocularly _un bon
gros Normand_. His good-nature, however, rapidly gave way as time went
on. "Yesterday," he writes, "this Monsieur told me that he meant to go
to the Gulf of Mexico. A little while ago, as I said before, he talked
about going to Canada. I see nothing certain in it. It is not that I do
not believe that all he says is true; but not being of the profession,
and not liking to betray his ignorance, he is puzzled what to do.
"I shall go straight forward, without regarding a thousand whims and
_bagatelles_. His continual suspicion would drive anybody mad except a
Norman like me; but I shall humor him, as I have always done, even to
sailing my ship on dry land, if he likes."
[Sidenote: AN OPEN QUARREL.]
A few days later, there was an open quarrel. "M. de la Salle came to me,
and said, rather haughtily and in a tone of command, that I must put
provisions for three months more on board my vessel. I told him it was
impossible, as she had more lading already than anybody ever dared to
put in her before. He would not hear reason, but got angry and abused me
in good French, and found fault with me because the vessel would not
hold his three months' provisions. He said I ought to have told him of
it before. 'And how would you have me tell you,' said I, 'when you never
tell me what you mean to do?' We had still another quarrel. He asked me
where his officers should take their meals. I told him that they might
take them where he pleased; for I gave myself no trouble in the matter,
having no orders. He answered that they should not mess on bacon, while
the rest ate fowls and mutton. I said that if he would send fowls and
mutton on board, his people should eat them; but, as for bacon, I had
often ate it myself. At this, he went off and complained to M. Dugué
that I refused to embark his provisions, and told him that he must live
on bacon. I excused him as not knowing how to behave himself, having
spent his life among school-boy brats and savages. Nevertheless, I
offered to him, his brother, and two of his friends, seats at my table
and the same fare as myself. He answered my civility by an
impertinence, saying that he distrusted people who offered so much and
seemed so obliging. I could not help telling him that I saw he was
brought up in the provinces."
This was touching La Salle on a sensitive point. Beaujeu continues: "In
fact, you knew him better than I; for I always took him for a gentleman
(_honnête homme_). I see now that he is anything but that. Pray set Abbé
Renaudot and M. Morel right about this man, and tell them he is not what
they take him for. Adieu. It has struck twelve: the postman is just
going."
Bad as was the state of things, it soon grew worse. Renaudot wrote to La
Salle that Beaujeu was writing to Villermont everything that happened,
and that Villermont showed the letters to all his acquaintance.
Villermont was a relative of the Jesuit Beschefer; and this was
sufficient to suggest some secret machination to the mind of La Salle.
Villermont's fault, however, seems to have been simple indiscretion, for
which Beaujeu took him sharply to task. "I asked you to burn my letters;
and I cannot help saying that I am angry with you, not because you make
known my secrets, but because you show letters scrawled in haste, and
sent off without being even read over. M. de la Salle not having told me
his secret, though M. de Seignelay ordered him to tell me, I am not
obliged to keep it, and have as good a right as anybody to make my
conjectures on what I read about it in the _Gazette de Hollande_. Let
Abbé Renaudot glorify M. de la Salle as much as he likes, and make him a
Cortez, a Pizarro, or an Almagro,--that is nothing to me; but do not let
him speak of me as an obstacle in his hero's way. Let him understand
that I know how to execute the orders of the court as well as he....
[Sidenote: LA SALLE'S INDISCRETION.]
"You ask how I get on with M. de la Salle. Don't you know that this man
is impenetrable, and that there is no knowing what he thinks of one? He
told a person of note whom I will not name that he had suspicions about
our correspondence, as well as about Madame de Beaujeu's devotion to the
Jesuits. His distrust is incredible. If he sees one of his people speak
to the rest, he suspects something, and is gruff with them. He told me
himself that he wanted to get rid of M. de Tonty, who is in America."
La Salle's claim to exclusive command of the soldiers on board the
"Joly" was a source of endless trouble. Beaujeu declared that he would
not set sail till officers, soldiers, and volunteers had all sworn to
obey him when at sea; at which La Salle had the indiscretion to say, "If
I am not master of my soldiers, how can I make him [Beaujeu] do his duty
in case he does not want to do it?"
Beaujeu says that this affair made a great noise among the officers at
Rochefort, and adds: "_There are very few people who do not think that
his brain is touched._ I have spoken to some who have known him twenty
years. They all say that he was always rather visionary."
It is difficult not to suspect that the current belief at Rochefort had
some foundation; and that the deadly strain of extreme hardship,
prolonged anxiety, and alternation of disaster and success, joined to
the fever which nearly killed him, had unsettled his judgment and given
a morbid development to his natural defects. His universal suspicion,
which included even the stanch and faithful Henri de Tonty; his needless
provocation of persons whose good-will was necessary to him; his doubts
whether he should sail for the Gulf or for Canada, when to sail to
Canada would have been to renounce, or expose to almost certain defeat,
an enterprise long cherished and definitely planned,--all point to one
conclusion. It may be thought that his doubts were feigned, in order to
hide his destination to the last moment; but if so, he attempted to
blind not only his ill wishers, but his mother, whom he also left in
uncertainty as to his route.
[Sidenote: AN OVERWROUGHT BRAIN.]
Unless we assume that his scheme of invading Mexico was thrown out as a
bait to the King, it is hard to reconcile it with the supposition of
mental soundness. To base so critical an attempt on a geographical
conjecture, which rested on the slightest possible information, and was
in fact a total error; to postpone the perfectly sound plan of securing
the mouth of the Mississippi, to a wild project of leading fifteen
thousand savages for an unknown distance through an unknown country to
attack an unknown enemy,--was something more than Quixotic daring. The
King and the minister saw nothing impracticable in it, for they did not
know the country or its inhabitants. They saw no insuperable difficulty
in mustering and keeping together fifteen thousand of the most wayward
and unstable savages on earth, split into a score and more of tribes,
some hostile to each other and some to the French; nor in the problem of
feeding such a mob, on a march of hundreds of miles; nor in the plan of
drawing four thousand of them from the Illinois, nearly two thousand
miles distant, though some of these intended allies had no canoes or
other means of transportation, and though, travelling in such numbers,
they would infallibly starve on the way to the rendezvous. It is
difficult not to see in all this the chimera of an overwrought brain, no
longer able to distinguish between the possible and the impossible.
Preparation dragged slowly on; the season was growing late; the King
grew impatient, and found fault with the naval intendant. Meanwhile, the
various members of the expedition had all gathered at Rochelle. Joutel,
a fellow-townsman of La Salle, returning to his native Rouen, after
sixteen years in the army, found all astir with the new project. His
father had been gardener to Henri Cavelier, La Salle's uncle; and being
of an adventurous spirit he volunteered for the enterprise, of which he
was to become the historian. With La Salle's brother the priest, and
two of his nephews, one of whom was a boy of fourteen, Joutel set out
for Rochelle, where all were to embark together for their promised
land.[276]
[Sidenote: A PARTING LETTER.]
La Salle wrote a parting letter to his mother at Rouen:--
Rochelle, 18 July, 1684.
Madame my Most Honored Mother,--
At last, after having waited a long time for a favourable wind, and
having had a great many difficulties to overcome, we are setting sail
with four vessels, and nearly four hundred men on board. Everybody is
well, including little Colin and my nephew. We all have good hope of a
happy success. We are not going by way of Canada, but by the Gulf of
Mexico. I passionately wish, and so do we all, that the success of this
voyage may contribute to your repose and comfort. Assuredly, I shall
spare no effort that it may; and I beg you, on your part, to preserve
yourself for the love of us.
You need not be troubled by the news from Canada, which are nothing but
the continuation of the artifices of my enemies. I hope to be as
successful against them as I have been thus far, and to embrace you a
year hence with all the pleasure that the most grateful of children can
feel with so good a mother as you have always been. Pray let this hope,
which shall not disappoint you, support you through whatever trials may
happen, and be sure that you will always find me with a heart full of
the feelings which are due to you.
Madame my Most Honored Mother, from your most humble and most obedient
servant and son,
De la Salle.
My brother, my nephews, and all the others greet you, and take their
leave of you.
This memorable last farewell has lain for two hundred years among the
family papers of the Caveliers.[277]
FOOTNOTES:
[262] _Lettres de l'Abbé Tronson, 8 Avril, 10 Avril, 1684_ (Margry, ii.
354).
[263] _Lettres du Roy et du Ministre sur la Navigation du Golfe du
Mexique, 1669-1682_ (Margry, iii. 3-14).
[264] _Mémoire du Sr. de la Salle, pour rendre compte à Monseigneur
de Seignelay de la découverte qu'il a faite par l'ordre de sa Majesté._
[265] This name, also given to the Illinois, is used to designate Red
River on the map of Franquelin, where the forests above mentioned are
represented.
[266] _Mémoire du Sr. de la Salle sur l'Entreprise qu'il a proposé à
Monseigneur le Marquis de Seignelay sur une des provinces de Mexique._
[267] Both the memorial and the map represent the banks of Red River as
inhabited by Indians, called Terliquiquimechi, and known to the
Spaniards as _Indios bravos_, or _Indios de guerra_. The Spaniards, it
is added, were in great fear of them, as they made frequent inroads into
Mexico. La Salle's Mexican geography was in all respects confused and
erroneous; nor was Seignelay better informed. Indeed, Spanish jealousy
placed correct information beyond their reach.
[268] While the plan, as proposed in the memorial, was clearly
impracticable, the subsequent experience of the French in Texas tended
to prove that the tribes of that region could be used with advantage in
attacking the Spaniards of Mexico, and that an inroad on a comparatively
small scale might have been successfully made with their help. In 1689,
Tonty actually made the attempt, as we shall see, but failed, from the
desertion of his men. In 1697, the Sieur de Louvigny wrote to the
Minister of the Marine, asking to complete La Salle's discoveries, and
invade Mexico from Texas. (_Lettre de M. de Louvigny, 14 Oct., 1697._)
In an unpublished memoir of the year 1700, the seizure of the Mexican
mines is given as one of the motives of the colonization of Louisiana.
[269] Another scheme, with similar aims, but much more practicable, was
at this very time before the court. Count Peñalossa, a Spanish Creole,
born in Peru, had been governor of New Mexico, where he fell into a
dispute with the Inquisition, which involved him in the loss of
property, and for a time of liberty. Failing to obtain redress in Spain,
he renounced his allegiance in disgust, and sought refuge in France,
where, in 1682, he first proposed to the King the establishment of a
colony of French buccaneers at the mouth of Rio Bravo, on the Gulf of
Mexico. In January, 1684, after the war had broken out, he proposed to
attack the Spanish town of Panuco, with twelve hundred buccaneers from
St. Domingo; then march into the interior, seize the mines, conquer
Durango, and occupy New Mexico. It was proposed to combine his plan with
that of La Salle; but the latter, who had an interview with him,
expressed distrust, and showed characteristic reluctance to accept a
colleague. It is extremely probable, however, that his knowledge of
Peñalossa's original proposal had some influence in stimulating him to
lay before the court proposals of his own, equally attractive. Peace was
concluded before the plans of the Spanish adventurer could be carried
into effect.
[270] _Lettre du Roy à La Barre, Versailles, 10 Avril, 1684._
[271] _Lettre du Roy à De Meules, Versailles, 14 Avril, 1684._ Seignelay
wrote to De Meules to the same effect.
[272] On La Forest's mission,--_Mémoire pour representer à Monseigneur
le Marquis de Seignelay la nécessité d'envoyer le Sr. de la Forest en
diligence à la Nouvelle France; Lettre du Roy à La Barre, 14 Avril,
1684; Ibid., 31 Oct., 1684._
There is before me a promissory note of La Salle to La Forest, of 5,200
livres, dated at Rochelle, 17 July, 1684. This seems to be pay due to La
Forest, who had served as La Salle's officer for nine years. A
memorandum is attached, signed by La Salle, to the effect that it is his
wish that La Forest reimburse himself, "_par préférence_," out of any
property of his (La Salle's) in France or Canada.
[273] The attitude of La Salle, in this matter, is incomprehensible. In
July, La Forest was at Rochefort, complaining because La Salle had
ordered him to stay in garrison at Fort Frontenac. _Beaujeu à
Villermont, 10 July, 1684_. This means an abandonment of the scheme of
leading the warriors at the rock of St. Louis down the Mississippi; but,
in the next month, La Salle writes to Seignelay that he is afraid La
Barre will use the Iroquois war as a pretext to prevent La Forest from
making his journey (to the Illinois), and that in this case he will
himself try to go up the Mississippi, and meet the Illinois warriors; so
that, in five or six months from the date of the letter, the minister
will hear of his departure to attack the Spaniards. (_La Salle à
Seignelay, Août, 1684._) Either this is sheer folly, or else it is meant
to delude the minister.
[274] _Mémoire de ce qui aura esté accordé au Sieur de la Salle._
[275] _Lettre au Roy à La Salle, 12 Avril, 1684; Mémoire pour servir
d'Instruction au Sieur de Beaujeu, 14 Avril, 1684._
[276] Joutel, _Journal Historique_, 12.
[277] The letters of Beaujeu to Seignelay and to Cabart de Villermont,
with most of the other papers on which this chapter rests, will be found
in Margry, ii. 354-471. This indefatigable investigator has also brought
to light a number of letters from a brother officer of Beaujeu,
Machaut-Rougemont, written at Rochefort, just after the departure of the
expedition from Rochelle, and giving some idea of the views there
entertained concerning it. He says: "L'on ne peut pas faire plus
d'extravagances que le Sieur de la Salle n'en a fait sur toutes ses
prétentions de commandement. Je plains beaucoup le pauvre Beaujeu
d'avoir affaire à une humeur si saturnienne.... Je le croy beaucoup
visionnaire ... Beaujeu a une sotte commission."