CHAPTER XXV.
1685.
LA SALLE IN TEXAS.
A Party of Exploration--Wreck of the "Aimable."--Landing of the
Colonists.--A Forlorn Position.--Indian Neighbors.--Friendly
Advances of Beaujeu: his Departure.--A Fatal Discovery.
Impatience to rid himself of his colleague and to command alone no doubt
had its influence on the judgment of La Salle. He presently declared
that he would land the soldiers, and send them along shore till they
came to the principal outlet of the river. On this, the engineer Minet
took up the word,--expressed his doubts as to whether the Mississippi
discharged itself into the lagoons at all; represented that even if it
did, the soldiers would be exposed to great risks; and gave as his
opinion that all should reimbark and continue the search in company. The
advice was good, but La Salle resented it as coming from one in whom he
recognized no right to give it. "He treated me," complains the engineer,
"as if I were the meanest of mankind."[293]
He persisted in his purpose, and sent Joutel and Moranget with a party
of soldiers to explore the coast. They made their way northeastward
along the shore of Matagorda Island, till they were stopped on the third
day by what Joutel calls a river, but which was in fact the entrance of
Matagorda Bay. Here they encamped, and tried to make a raft of
drift-wood. "The difficulty was," says Joutel, "our great number of men,
and the few of them who were fit for anything except eating. As I said
before, they had all been caught by force or surprise, so that our
company was like Noah's ark, which contained animals of all sorts."
Before their raft was finished, they descried to their great joy the
ships which had followed them along the coast.[294]
[Sidenote: LANDING OF LA SALLE.]
La Salle landed, and announced that here was the western mouth of the
Mississippi, and the place to which the King had sent him. He said
further that he would land all his men, and bring the "Aimable" and the
"Belle" to the safe harborage within. Beaujeu remonstrated, alleging the
shallowness of the water and the force of the currents; but his
remonstrance was vain.[295]
The Bay of St. Louis, now Matagorda Bay, forms a broad and sheltered
harbor, accessible from the sea by a narrow passage, obstructed by
sand-bars and by the small island now called Pelican Island. Boats were
sent to sound and buoy out the channel, and this was successfully
accomplished on the sixteenth of February. The "Aimable" was ordered to
enter; and, on the twentieth, she weighed anchor. La Salle was on shore
watching her. A party of men, at a little distance, were cutting down a
tree to make a canoe. Suddenly some of them ran towards him with
terrified faces, crying out that they had been set upon by a troop of
Indians, who had seized their companions and carried them off. La Salle
ordered those about him to take their arms, and at once set out in
pursuit. He overtook the Indians, and opened a parley with them; but
when he wished to reclaim his men, he discovered that they had been led
away during the conference to the Indian camp, a league and a half
distant. Among them was one of his lieutenants, the young Marquis de la
Sablonnière. He was deeply vexed, for the moment was critical; but the
men must be recovered, and he led his followers in haste towards the
camp. Yet he could not refrain from turning a moment to watch the
"Aimable," as she neared the shoals; and he remarked with deep anxiety
to Joutel, who was with him, that if she held that course she would soon
be aground.
[Sidenote: WRECK OF THE "AIMABLE".]
They hurried on till they saw the Indian huts. About fifty of them,
oven-shaped, and covered with mats and hides, were clustered on a rising
ground, with their inmates gathered among and around them. As the French
entered the camp, there was the report of a cannon from the seaward.
The startled savages dropped flat with terror. A different fear seized
La Salle, for he knew that the shot was a signal of disaster. Looking
back, he saw the "Aimable" furling her sails, and his heart sank with
the conviction that she had struck upon the reef. Smothering his
distress,--she was laden with all the stores of the colony,--he pressed
forward among the filthy wigwams, whose astonished inmates swarmed about
the band of armed strangers, staring between curiosity and fear. La
Salle knew those with whom he was dealing, and, without ceremony,
entered the chief's lodge with his followers. The crowd closed around
them, naked men and half-naked women, described by Joutel as of singular
ugliness. They gave buffalo meat and dried porpoise to the unexpected
guests, but La Salle, racked with anxiety, hastened to close the
interview; and having without difficulty recovered the kidnapped men, he
returned to the beach, leaving with the Indians, as usual, an impression
of good-will and respect.
When he reached the shore, he saw his worst fears realized. The
"Aimable" lay careened over on the reef, hopelessly aground. Little
remained but to endure the calamity with firmness, and to save, as far
as might be, the vessel's cargo. This was no easy task. The boat which
hung at her stern had been stove in,--it is said, by design. Beaujeu
sent a boat from the "Joly," and one or more Indian pirogues were
procured. La Salle urged on his men with stern and patient energy, and
a quantity of gunpowder and flour was safely landed. But now the wind
blew fresh from the sea; the waves began to rise; a storm came on; the
vessel, rocking to and fro on the sand-bar, opened along her side, and
the ravenous waves were strewn with her treasures. When the confusion
was at its height, a troop of Indians came down to the shore, greedy for
plunder. The drum was beat; the men were called to arms; La Salle set
his trustiest followers to guard the gunpowder, in fear, not of the
Indians alone, but of his own countrymen. On that lamentable night, the
sentinels walked their rounds through the dreary bivouac among the
casks, bales, and boxes which the sea had yielded up; and here, too,
their fate-hunted chief held his drearier vigil, encompassed with
treachery, darkness, and the storm.
Not only La Salle, but Joutel and others of his party, believed that the
wreck of the "Aimable" was intentional. Aigron, who commanded her, had
disobeyed orders and disregarded signals. Though he had been directed to
tow the vessel through the channel, he went in under sail; and though
little else was saved from the wreck, his personal property, including
even some preserved fruits, was all landed safely. He had long been on
ill terms with La Salle.[296]
All La Salle's company were now encamped on the sands at the left side
of the inlet where the "Aimable" was wrecked.[297] "They were all," says
the engineer Minet, "sick with nausea and dysentery. Five or six died
every day, in consequence of brackish water and bad food. There was no
grass, but plenty of rushes and plenty of oysters. There was nothing to
make ovens, so that they had to eat flour saved from the wreck, boiled
into messes of porridge with this brackish water. Along the shore were
quantities of uprooted trees and rotten logs, thrown up by the sea and
the lagoon." Of these, and fragments of the wreck, they made a sort of
rampart to protect their camp; and here, among tents and hovels, bales,
boxes, casks, spars, dismounted cannon, and pens for fowls and swine,
were gathered the dejected men and homesick women who were to seize New
Biscay, and hold for France a region large as half Europe. The
Spaniards, whom they were to conquer, were they knew not where. They
knew not where they were themselves; and for the fifteen thousand Indian
allies who were to have joined them, they found two hundred squalid
savages, more like enemies than friends.
In fact, it was soon made plain that these their neighbors wished them
no good. A few days after the wreck, the prairie was seen on fire. As
the smoke and flame rolled towards them before the wind, La Salle caused
all the grass about the camp to be cut and carried away, and especially
around the spot where the powder was placed. The danger was averted; but
it soon became known that the Indians had stolen a number of blankets
and other articles, and carried them to their wigwams. Unwilling to
leave his camp, La Salle sent his nephew Moranget and several other
volunteers, with a party of men, to reclaim them. They went up the bay
in a boat, landed at the Indian camp, and, with more mettle than
discretion, marched into it, sword in hand. The Indians ran off, and the
rash adventurers seized upon several canoes as an equivalent for the
stolen goods. Not knowing how to manage them, they made slow progress on
their way back, and were overtaken by night before reaching the French
camp. They landed, made a fire, placed a sentinel, and lay down on the
dry grass to sleep. The sentinel followed their example, when suddenly
they were awakened by the war-whoop and a shower of arrows. Two
volunteers, Oris and Desloges, were killed on the spot; a third, named
Gayen, was severely wounded; and young Moranget received an arrow
through the arm. He leaped up and fired his gun at the vociferous but
invisible foe. Others of the party did the same, and the Indians fled.
[Sidenote: BEAUJEU AND LA SALLE.]
It was about this time that Beaujeu prepared to return to France. He had
accomplished his mission, and landed his passengers at what La Salle
assured him to be one of the mouths of the Mississippi. His ship was in
danger on this exposed and perilous coast, and he was anxious to find
shelter. For some time past, his relations with La Salle had been
amicable, and it was agreed between them that Beaujeu should stop at
Galveston Bay, the supposed chief mouth of the Mississippi; or, failing
to find harborage here, that he should proceed to Mobile Bay, and wait
there till April, to hear from his colleague. Two days before the wreck
of the "Aimable," he wrote to La Salle: "I wish with all my heart that
you would have more confidence in me. For my part, I will always make
the first advances; and I will follow your counsel whenever I can do so
without risking my ship. I will come back to this place, if you want to
know the results of the voyage I am going to make. If you wish, I will
go to Martinique for provisions and reinforcements. In fine, there is
nothing I am not ready to do: you have only to speak."
La Salle had begged him to send ashore a number of cannon and a quantity
of iron, stowed in the "Joly," for the use of the colony; and Beaujeu
replies: "I wish very much that I could give you your iron, but it is
impossible except in a harbor; for it is on my ballast, and under your
cannon, my spare anchors, and all my stowage. It would take three days
to get it out, which cannot be done in this place, where the sea runs
like mountains when the slightest wind blows outside. I would rather
come back to give it to you, in case you do not send the 'Belle' to Baye
du St. Esprit [Mobile Bay] to get it.... I beg you once more to consider
the offer I make you to go to Martinique to get provisions for your
people. I will ask the intendant for them in your name; and if they are
refused, I will take them on my own account."[298]
To this La Salle immediately replied: "I received with singular pleasure
the letter you took the trouble to write me; for I found in it
extraordinary proofs of kindness in the interest you take in the success
of an affair which I have the more at heart, as it involves the glory of
the King and the honor of Monseigneur de Seignelay. I have done my part
towards a perfect understanding between us, and have never been wanting
in confidence; but even if I could be so, the offers you make are so
obliging that they would inspire complete trust." He nevertheless
declines them,--assuring Beaujeu at the same time that he has reached
the place he sought, and is in a fair way of success if he can but have
the cannon, cannonballs, and iron stowed on board the "Joly."[299]
Directly after he writes again, "I cannot help conjuring you once more
to try to give us the iron." Beaujeu replies: "To show you how ardently
I wish to contribute to the success of your undertaking, I have ordered
your iron to be got out, in spite of my officers and sailors, who tell
me that I endanger my ship by moving everything in the depth of the hold
on a coast like this, where the seas are like mountains. I hesitated to
disturb my stowage, not so much to save trouble as because no ballast is
to be got hereabout; and I have therefore had six cannon, from my lower
deck battery, let down into the hold to take the place of the iron." And
he again urges La Salle to accept his offer to bring provisions to the
colonists from Martinique.
[Sidenote: DEPARTURE OF BEAUJEU.]
On the next day, the "Aimable" was wrecked. Beaujeu remained a fortnight
longer on the coast, and then told La Salle that being out of wood,
water, and other necessaries, he must go to Mobile Bay to get them.
Nevertheless, he lingered a week more, repeated his offer to bring
supplies from Martinique, which La Salle again refused, and at last set
sail on the twelfth of March, after a leave-taking which was courteous
on both sides.[300]
La Salle and his colonists were left alone. Several of them had lost
heart, and embarked for home with Beaujeu. Among these was Minet the
engineer, who had fallen out with La Salle, and who when he reached
France was imprisoned for deserting him. Even his brother, the priest
Jean Cavelier, had a mind to abandon the enterprise, but was persuaded
at last to remain, along with his nephew the hot-headed Moranget, and
the younger Cavelier, a mere school-boy. The two Récollet friars, Zenobe
Membré and Anastase Douay, the trusty Joutel, a man of sense and
observation, and the Marquis de la Sablonnière, a debauched noble whose
patrimony was his sword, were now the chief persons of the forlorn
company. The rest were soldiers, raw and undisciplined, and artisans,
most of whom knew nothing of their vocation. Add to these the miserable
families and the infatuated young women who had come to tempt fortune in
the swamps and cane-brakes of the Mississippi.
La Salle set out to explore the neighborhood. Joutel remained in command
of the so-called fort. He was beset with wily enemies, and often at
night the Indians would crawl in the grass around his feeble stockade,
howling like wolves; but a few shots would put them to flight. A strict
guard was kept; and a wooden horse was set in the enclosure, to punish
the sentinel who should sleep at his post. They stood in daily fear of a
more formidable foe, and once they saw a sail, which they doubted not
was Spanish; but she happily passed without discovering them. They
hunted on the prairies, and speared fish in the neighboring pools. On
Easter Day, the Sieur le Gros, one of the chief men of the company,
went out after the service to shoot snipes; but as he walked barefoot
through the marsh, a snake bit him, and he soon after died. Two men
deserted, to starve on the prairie, or to become savages among savages.
Others tried to escape, but were caught; and one of them was hung. A
knot of desperadoes conspired to kill Joutel; but one of them betrayed
the secret, and the plot was crushed.
La Salle returned from his exploration, but his return brought no cheer.
He had been forced to renounce the illusion to which he had clung so
long, and was convinced at last that he was not at the mouth of the
Mississippi. The wreck of the "Aimable" itself was not pregnant with
consequences so disastrous.
[Sidenote: CONDUCT OF BEAUJEU.]
Note.--The conduct of Beaujeu, hitherto judged chiefly by the printed
narrative of Joutel, is set in a new and more favorable light by his
correspondence with La Salle. Whatever may have been their mutual
irritation, it is clear that the naval commander was anxious to
discharge his duty in a manner to satisfy Seignelay, and that he may be
wholly acquitted of any sinister design. When he left La Salle on the
twelfth of March, he meant to sail in search of the Bay of Mobile (Baye
du St. Esprit),--partly because he hoped to find it a safe harbor, where
he could get La Salle's cannon out of the hold and find ballast to take
their place; and partly to get a supply of wood and water, of which he
was in extreme need. He told La Salle that he would wait there till the
middle of April, in order that he (La Salle) might send the "Belle" to
receive the cannon; but on this point there was no definite agreement
between them. Beaujeu was ignorant of the position of the bay, which he
thought much nearer than it actually was. After trying two days to reach
it, the strong head-winds and the discontent of his crew induced him to
bear away for Cuba; and after an encounter with pirates and various
adventures, he reached France about the first of July. He was coldly
received by Seignelay, who wrote to the intendant at Rochelle: "His
Majesty has seen what you wrote about the idea of the Sieur de Beaujeu,
that the Sieur de la Salle is not at the mouth of the Mississippi. He
seems to found this belief on such weak conjectures that no great
attention need be given to his account, especially as _this man_ has
been prejudiced from the first against La Salle's enterprise." (_Lettre
de Seignelay à Arnoul, 22 Juillet, 1685._ Margry, ii. 604.) The minister
at the same time warns Beaujeu to say nothing in disparagement of the
enterprise, under pain of the King's displeasure.
The narrative of the engineer, Minet, sufficiently explains a curious
map, made by him, as he says, not on the spot, but on the voyage
homeward, and still preserved in the Archives Scientifiques de la
Marine. This map includes two distinct sketches of the mouth of the
Mississippi. The first, which corresponds to that made by Franquelin in
1684, is entitled "Embouchure de la Rivière comme M. de la Salle la
marque dans sa Carte." The second bears the words, "Costes et Lacs par
la Hauteur de sa Rivière, comme nous les avons trouvés." These "Costes
et Lacs" are a rude representation of the lagoons of Matagorda Bay and
its neighborhood, into which the Mississippi is made to discharge, in
accordance with the belief of La Salle. A portion of the coast-line is
drawn from actual, though superficial observation. The rest is merely
conjectural.
FOOTNOTES:
[293] _Relation de Minet; Lettre de Minet à Seignelay, 6 July, 1685_
(Margry, ii. 591, 602).
[294] Joutel, _Journal Historique_, 68; _Relation_ (Margry, iii.
143-146) Compare _Journal d'Esmanville_ (Margry, ii. 510).
[295] _Relation de Minet_ (Margry, ii. 591).
[296] _Procès Verbal du Sieur de la Salle sur le Naufrage de la Flûte
l'Aimable_; _Lettre de La Salle à Seignelay, 4 Mars, 1685_; _Lettre de
Beaujeu à Seignelay, sans date_. Beaujeu did his best to save the cargo.
The loss included nearly all the provisions, 60 barrels of wine, 4
cannon, 1,620 balls, 400 grenades, 4,000 pounds of iron, 5,000 pounds of
lead, most of the tools, a forge, a mill, cordage, boxes of arms, nearly
all the medicines, and most of the baggage of the soldiers and
colonists. Aigron returned to France in the "Joly," and was thrown into
prison, "comme il paroist clairement que cet accident est arrivé par sa
faute."--_Seignelay au Sieur Arnoul, 22 Juillet, 1685_ (Margry, ii.
604).
[297] A map, entitled _Entrée du Lac où on a laisse le Sr. de la
Salle_, made by the engineer Minet, and preserved in the Archives de la
Marine, represents the entrance of Matagorda Bay, the camp of La Salle
on the left, Indian camps on the borders of the bay, the "Belle" at
anchor within, the "Aimable" stranded at the entrance, and the "Joly"
anchored in the open sea.
[298] _Lettre de Beaujeu à La Salle, 18 Fév., 1685_ (Margry, ii. 542).
[299] _Lettre de La Salle à Beaujeu, 18 Fév., 1685_ (Margry, ii. 546).
[300] The whole of this correspondence between Beaujeu and La Salle will
be found in Margry, ii.