Fillmore County, Minnesota - Chapter 6: Baron La Hontan's, 1882 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 6: Baron La Hontan's

L« HonUn, aQiMOon by Birth. - Early Life. - Description of Fox and Wisconsin Rivers - Indian Feast. - Alleged Asecnt of Long River. - Bobe Exposes the Deeeption. - Roate to the Pacific.

The " Travels " of Baron La Ilontan appeared in A. D. 1703, both at London and at Hague, and were as saleable and readable as those of Hennepin, which were on the counters of booksellers at the same time.

La Hontan, a Gascon by birth, and in style of writing, when about seventeen years of age, arrived in Canada, in 1683, as a private soldier, and was with Gov. De la Barre in his exi)edition of 1684, toward Niagara, and was also in the battle near Eochester, New York, in 1687, at which Du Luth and Perrot, explorers of Minnesota, were present.

In 1688 he appears to have been sent to Fort St. Joseph, which was built by Du Luth, on the St. Clare River, near the site of Fort Gratiot, Michigan. It is possible that he may have accompanied Perrot to Lake Pepin, who came about this time to reoccupy his old post.

From the following extracts it will be seen that his style is graphic, and that he probably had been in 1688 in the valley of the Wisconsin. At Mackinaw, after his return from his pretended voyage of the Long River, he writes:

I left here on the 24th September, with my men and five Outaouas, good hunters, whom I have before mentioned to you as having been of good service to me. All my brave men being provided with good canoes, filled with provisions and ammunition, together with goods for the Indian trade, I took advantage of a north wind, and in three days entered the Bay of the Pouteouatamis, distant from here about forty leagues. The entrance to the bay is full of islands. It is ten leagues wide and twenty-five in length.

" On the 29th we entered a river, which is quite deep, whose waters are so affected by the lake that they often rise and fall three feet in twelve hours. This is an observation that I made during these three or four days that I passed here. The Sakis, the Poulouatamis, and a few of the Malominis liave their villages on the l)order of this river, and the Jesuits have a house tliere. In the place there is carried on quite a commerce in furs and Indian com, which the Indians traffic with the ' coureurs des bois' that go and come, for it is their nearest and most convenient passage to the Mississippi.

" The lands here are very fertile, and produce, almost without culture, the wheat of our Europe, peas, beans, and any quantity of fruit unknown in France.

" The moment I landed, the warriors of three nations came by turns to my cabin to entertain me with the pipe and chief dance ; the first in proof of peace and friendship, the second to indicate their esteem and consideration for me. In return, I gave them several yards of tobacco, and beads, with which they trimmed their capots. Tlie next morning, I was asked as a guest, to one of the feasts of this nation, and after having sent my dishes, which is the custom, I went towards noon. They began to compliment me of my arrival, and after hearing them, they all, one after the other, began to sing and dance, in a manner that I will detail to you when I have more leisure. These songs and dances lasted two hours, and were seasoned with whoops of joy, and quibbles that they have woven into their ridiculous musique. Then the captives waited upon us. The whole troop were seated in tlie Oriental custom. Each one had his portion before him, like our monks in their refectories. They commenced by placing four dishes before me. The first consisted of two white fish simply boiled in water. The second was chopped meats with the boiled tongue of a bear ; the third a beaver's tail, all roasted. They made me drink also of a syrup, mixed with water, made out of the maple tree. The feast lasted two hours, after which, I requested a chief of the nation to sing for me ; for it is the custom, when we have business witli them, to employ an inferior for self in all the ceremonies they perform. I gave him several pieces of tobacco, to oblige him to keep the party till dark. The next day and the day following, I attended the feasts of the other nations, where I ol)served tlie same formaUties."

lie alleges that, on the 23d of October, he reached the Mississippi Kiver, and, ascenduig, on the 3d of November he entered into a river, a tributary from tlie west, that was almost without a current, and at its mouth filled with rushes. He then describes a journey of five hundred miles up this stream. He declares he found ui>on its banks three great nations, the Eokoros, Essanapes, and Gnacsitares, and because he ascended it for sixty days, he named it Long River.

For years his wondrous story was believed, and geographers hastened to trace it upon their maps. But in time the voyage up the Long River was discovered to be a fabrication. There is extant a letter of Bobe, a Priest of tlie Congregation of the Mission, dated Versailles, March 15, 1716, and addressed to De L'Isle, the geographer of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, which exposes the deception.

lie writes: "It seems to me that you might give the name of Bourbonia to these vast coimtries which are between the Missouri, Mississippi, and the Western Ocean. Would it not be well to efface that great river which La Ilontan says he discovered?

" All the Canadians, and even the Governor General, have told me that tlus river is unknown. If it existed, the Trench, who are on the Illinois, and at Ouabache, would know of it. The last volume of the ' Lettres Edifiantes' of the Jesiuts, in wliich there is a very fine relation of the Illinois Comitry, does not speak of it, any more than the letters which I received this year, which tell wonders of the beauty and goodness of the coimtry. They send me some quite pretty w^ork, made by tlie wife of one of the principal chiefs.

" They tell me, that among the Scioux, of the Mississippi, there are always Frenchmen trading; that the course of the Mississippi is from north to west, and from west to south; that it is known that toward the source of the Mississippi there is a river in the highlands that leads to the western ocean; that the Indians say that they have seen bearded men with caps, who gather gold-dust on the seashore, but that it is very far from this country, and that they pass through many nations unknown to the French.

" I have a memoir of La Motte Cadillac, formerly Governor of Missilimackinack, who says that if St. Peters [Minnesota] River is ascended to its source they will, according to all appearance, find in the highland another river leading to the Westem Ocean.

"For the last two years I have tormented exceedingly tlie Governor-General, M. Baudot, and M. Duche, to move them to discover tlus ocean. If I succeed, as I hope, we shall hear tidings before tliree years, and I shall have the pleasure and the consolation of having rendered a good service to Geography, to Religion and to the State."

Charlevoix, in his History of New France, alluding to La Ilontan 's voyage, writes: "The voyage up the Long River is Jia fabulous as the Island of Barrataria, of which Sancho Panza was governor. Nevertheless, in France and elsewhere, most people have received these memoirs as the fruits of the travels of a gentleman who wrote badly, although quite lightly, and who had no religion, but who described pretty sincerely what he had seen. The consequence is that the compilers of historical and geographical dictionaries have almost always followed and cited them in preference to more faithful records."

"Having procured a copy of La Hontan's book, in which there is a rouglily made map of liis Long River, I was stmck with the resemblance of its course as laid down with that of Cannon River, which I had previously sketehed in my own field-book. I soon convinced myself that the principal statements of the Baron in reference to the country and the few details he gives of the physical character of the the river, coincide remarkably with what I had laid down as belonging to Cannon River. Then the lakes and swamps corresponded; traces of Indian villages mentioned by him might be found by a groi^lh of wild grass that propagates itself around all old Indian settlements."

Le Sueur, Explorer Of The Minnesota River Lb Sueur, Exploker Of The 3Iinnesota River

L« Boeor Tiiriti lake Pppln. - Stationed at La Poinie. - EstaWishcs a Pos>t on an Ikluid A»»ovc Lake Pepin. - Island Described l>y Penicoiit. - First S oux Chief at Montreal. - Cjibway Chicfa' Speeches. - Speech of Sioux Chief. - Teeoskuhtay'a Death. - Le Sueur Goes to France. - Posts West of Mackinaw Ahandont'd - Le Sueur*« Lieenae Revoked. - Second Visit to France.- Arrives in Gulf of Mexico with D' Iberville. - Aacends the Mississippi. - l>?ad Mines. - Canadians Fleeing from the Swux. - At the Mouth of the Wisconsin. - Sioux Robl)eni,- -Klk Hunting. - Lake Pepin Described. - Rattlesnakes. - La Place Killad. - St. Croix River Named After a Frenchman. - Lo Sueur Reaches St. Pterrc, now Minne* sota River. - Enten Mankahto, or Blue Earth, River. - Sioux of the Plains. - Fort L'Uuillier Completed. - Conferencca with Sioux Bands - Assinaboino* a Separated Sioux Band. - An Indian Feast. - Names of the Sioux Bands.- Charlevoix's Account. - Le Sa«ur Ctoen with D'Ibcrville to France. - D'lberville's Memorial. - Early Census of Indian Tribes. - Penicaut's Account of Fort L'Huil Uer. - Le Soeur's Departure from the Fort. -D'Evuqo Left in Charjre.- Return' to Mobile. - Juchercau at Mouth of Wisconsin. - Bondor a Montreal Merchant - Sioux Attack Miamis. - Boudor Robbed by the Sioux.

Le Sueur was a native of Canada, and a relative of D'lberville, the early Governor of Louisiana. He came to Lake Pepin in 1683, with Nicholas Perrot, and his name also appears attached to the dociment prepared in May, 1689, after Perrot had re-occupied his post just above the entrance of the lake, on the east side.

In 1692, he was sent by Governor Frontenac of Canada, to La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and in a dispatch of 1693, to the French Government, is the following : " Le Sueur, another voyageur, is to remain at Chagouamagon [La Pointe] to endeavor to maintain the peace lately concluded between the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and Sioux. Tills is of the greatest consequence, as it is now the sole pass by which access can be had to the latter nation, w^hose trade is very profitable ; the country to the south being occupied by the Foxes and Maskoutens, who several times plundered the French, on the ground they were carrying ammunition to the Sioux, their ancient enemies."

Entering the Sioux country in 1694, he established a post upon a prairie island in the Mississippi, about nine miles below the present town of Hastings, according to Bellin and others. Penicaut, who accompanied him in the exploration of the Minnesota, writes, " At the extremity of the lake [PepinJ you come to the Isle Pelee, so called because tliere are no trees on it. It is on this island that the French from Canada established their fort and storehouse, and they also winter here, because game is very abundant. In the month of September they bring their store of meat, obtained by hunting, and after having skhuied and cleaned it, hang it upon a crib of raised scaffolding, in order that the extreme cold, which lasts from September to March, may preserve it from spoiling. During the whole winter they do not go out except for water, when they have to break the ice every day, and the cabin is generally built ui)on tlio bank, so as not to have far to go. AVhen spring aiTives, the savages come to the island, bringing their merchandize."

On the fifteenth of July, 1695, Le Sueur arrived at Montreal with a party of Ojibways, and the first Bakotah brave that had ever visited Canada.

The Indians were much impressed with the power of France by the marching of a detachment of seven hundred picked men, under Chevalier Cresafi, who were on their way to La Chine.

" That he was come to pay his respects to Onontio [the title given the Governor of Canada] in the name of the young warriors of Point Chagouamigon, and to thank him for having given them some Frenchmen to dwell with them; to testify tlieir sorrow for one Jobin, a Frenchman, who was killed at a feast, accidentally, and not maliciously. We come to ask a favor of you, which is to let us act. We are allies of the Scion. Some Outagamies, or Mascoutins, have been killed. Tlie Sciou came to mourn with us. Let us act, Father; let us take revenge.

Explobers And Pioneers Of Minnesota

Teeoskahtay, the Dahkotah chief, before he spoke, spread out a beaver robe, and, laying another with a tobacco pouch and otter skin, began to weep bitterly. After dryiug his tears, he said:

" All of the nations had a father, who afforded them protection; all of tliem have iron. But he was a bastard in quest of a father; he was come to see him, and hopes that he will take pity on him."

He then placed upon the beaver robe twentytwo arrows, at each arrow naming a Dahkotah village that desired Frontenac's protection. Resiuning his speech, he remarked:

" It is not on account of what I bring that I hope him who rules the earth will have pity on ^ me. ' I learned from the Sauteurs that he wanted nothing; that he was the Master of the Iron; that he had a big heart, into which he could receive all the nations. This has induced me to abandon my x)eople and come to seek his protection, and to beseech bim to receive me among the number of his children. Take courage, Great Captain, and reject me not; despise me not, though I appear poor in your eyes. All the nations here present know that I am rich, and the little they offer here is taken from my lands."

Count Frontenac in reply told the chief that he would receive the Dahkotahs as his children, on condition that they would be obedient, and that he would send back Le Sueur with him.

Teeoskahtay, taking hold of the governor's knees, wept, and said: "Take pity on us; we are well aware that we are not able to speak, being children; but Le Sueur, who understands our language, and has seen all our villages, will next year inform you what will have been achieved by the Sioux nations represented by those arrows before you."

Having finished, a Dahkotah woman, the wife of a great chief whom Le Sueur had purchased from captivity at Mackinaw, approached those in authority, and, with downcast eyes, embraced their knees, weeping and saying:

" I speak like a man penetrated with joy. The Great Captain; he who is the Master of Iron, assures me of his protection, and I promise him that if he condescends to restore my children, now pi-isoners among the Foxes, Ottawas and Huroiis, I will return hither, and bring with me the twenty-two villages whom he has just restored to life by promising to send them Iron."

On the 14th of August, two weeks after the Ojibway chief left for his home on Lake Superior, Nicholas Perrot arrived with a deputation of Sauks, Foxes, Menomonees, MiftniiH of Maramek and Pottowatomies.

" I see that you are a young man; your nation has quite turned away from my wishes; it has pillaged some of my young men, whom it has treated as slaves. I know tliat your father, who loved the French, had no hand in the indignity. You only imitate the example of your father who had sense, when you do not co-operate with those of your tribe who are wishing to go over to my enemies, after they grossly insulted me and defeated the Sioux, whom I now consider my son. I pity the Sioux; I pity the dead whose loss I deplore. Perrot goes up there, and he will speak to your nation from me for the release of their prisoners; let them attend to him."

Teeoshkahtay never returned to his native land. While in Montreal he was taken sick, and in thirty-three days he ceased to breathe; and, followed by white men, his body was interred in the white man's grave.

Le Sueur instead of going back to Minnesota that year, as was expected, went to France and received a license, in 1697, to open certain mines supposed to exist in Minnesota. The ship in which he was returning was captured by the English, and he was taken to England. After his release he went back to France, and, in 1698, obtained a new commission for mining.

While Le Sueur was in Europe, the Dahkotas waged war agamst the Foxes and Miamis. In retaliation, the latter raised a war party and entered the land of the Dahkotahs. Finding their foes intrenched, and assisted by " coureurs des bois," they were indignant; and on their return they had a skirmish with some Frenchmen, who were carrying goods to the Dahkotahs.

Le Sujsue Ascends The Mis8Isippi River

friendly Foxes. The Miamis, after this, were disposed to be friendly to the Iroquois. In 1696, the year previous, the authorities at Quebec decided that it was expedient to abandon all the posts west of Mackinaw, and withdraw the French from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The voyageurs were not disposed to leave the country, and the governor wrote to Pontchartrain for instructions, in October, 1698. In his dispatch he remarks:

" In this conjuncture, and under all these circumstances, we consider it our duty to posti)one, until new instructions from the court, the execution of Sieur Le Sueur's enterprise for the mines, though the promise had already been given him to send two canoes in advance to Missilimackinac, for the purpose of purchasing there some provisions and other necessaries for his voyage, and that he would be permitted to go and join them early in the spring with the rest of his hands. What led us to adopt this resolution has been, that the French who remained to trade off with the Five Nations the remainder of their merchandise, might, on seeing entirely new comers arriving there, consider themselves entitled to dispense with coming down, and perhaps adopt the resolution to settle tliere; whilst, seeing no arrival there, with permission to do what is forbidden, the reflection they will be able to make during the winter, and the apprehension of being guilty of crime, may oblige them to return in the spring.

" This would be very desirable, in consequence of the great difficulty there will be in constraining them to it, should they be inclined to lift the mask altogether and become buccaneers; or should Sieur Le Sueur, as he easily could do, furnish them with goods for tlieir beaver and smaller peltry, which he might send down by the return of other Frenchmen, whose sole desire is to obey, and who have remained only because of the impossibility of getting their effects down. Tliis would rather induce those who would continue to lead a vagabond life to remain tliere, as the goods they would receive from Le Sueur's people would afford them the means of doing so. " * execution of the license granted to the man named Le Sueur to proceed, with fifty men, to explore some mines on the banks of the Mississippi. He has revoked said license, and desires that the said -Le Sueur, or any other person, be prevented from leaving the colony on pretence of going in search of mines, without his majesty's express permission."

Fortunately for Le Sueur, D'Iberville, who was a friend, and closely connected by marriage, was appointed governor of the new territory of Louisiana. In the month of December he arrived from France, with tliirty workmen, to proceed to the supposed mines in Minnesota.

On the thirteenth of July, 1700, with a felucca, two canoes, and uuieteen men, having ascended tlie Mississippi, he had readied the mouth of the Missouri, and six leagues above this he passed the Illinois. He there met three Canadians, who came to join him, with a letter from Father Marest, who had once attempted a mission among the Dahkotahs, dated July 13, Mission Inmiaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin, in Ilhnois.

" I have the honor to write, in order to inform you that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the Scioux and Ayavois [lowas]. Tlie people have formed an alhance with the Quincapous [Kickapoosj, some of the Mecoutins, Renards [Foxes], and Metesigamias, and gone to revenge themselves, not on the Scioux, for they are too much afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably upon the Osages, for tliese suspect nothing, and the others are on their guard.

"As you will probably meet these allied nations, you ought to take precaution against their plans, and not allow them to board your vessel, since they are traitors, and utterly faithless. I pray God to accompany you in all your designs."

Twenty-two leagues above the Illinois, he passed a small stream which he called the River of Oxen, and nine leagues beyond this he passed a small river on the west side, where he met four Canadians descending the Mississippi, on their way to the Illinois. On the 30th of July, nine leagues above tlie last-named river, he met seventeen Scioux, in seven canoes, who were going to re- veiige the death of three Scioux, one of whom had been burned, and the others killed, at Tamarois, a few days before his arrival in that village. As he had promised the chief of the Illinois to appease the Scioux who should go to war against his nation, he made a present to the chief of the party to engage him to turn back. He told them the King of France did not wish them to miake tills river more bloody, and that he was sent to tell them that, if they obeyed the king's word, they would receive in future all things necessary for them. The chief answered that he accepted the present, that is to say, that he would do as had been told him.

From the 30th of July to the 26th of August, Le Sueur advanced fifty-three and one-fourth leagues to a small river which he called the Kiver of the Mine. At the mouth it runs from the north, but it turns to the northeast On the right seven leagues, there is a lead mine in a prairie, one and a half leagues. The river is only navigable in high water, that is to say, from early spring till the month of June.

From the 25th to tlie 27th he made ten leagues, passed two small rivers, and made himself acquainted with a mine of lead, from which he took a supply. From the 27th to the 80th he made eleven and a half leagues, and met five Canadians, one of whom had been dangerously woimded in the head. Tliey w^ere naked, and had no ammunition except a miserable gun, witli five or six loads of powder and balls. They said they were descending from the Scioux to go to Tamarois, and, when seventy leagues above, they perceived nine canoes in the Mississippi, in which were ninety savages, who robbed and cruelly beat them. This party were going to war against the Scioux, and were composed of four different nations, the Outagamies [Foxes], Poutouwatamis [Pottowattamies], and Puans [Winnebagoes], who dwell in a country eighty leagues east of the Mississippi from where Le Sueur then was.

Tlie Canadians determined to follow the detachment, which was composed of twenty-eight men. Tliis day they made seven and a half leagues. On the 1st of September he passed the Wisconsin river. It runs into the Mississippi from the northeast. It is nearly one and a half miles wide. At about seventy-five leagues up this river, on the right, ascending, there is a portage of more than a league. Tlie half of this portage is shaking ground, and at the end of it is a small river which descends into a bay called Winnebago Bay. It is inhabited by a great number of nations who carry their furs to Canada. Monsieur Le Sueur came by the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi, for the first time, in 1683, on his way to the Scioux country, where he had already passed seven years at different periods. Tlie Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin, is less than half a mile wide. From the 1st of September to the dth, our voyageur advanced fourteen leagues. He passed the river " Aux Canots," which comes from the northeast, and then the Quincapous, named from a nation which once dwelt upon its banks.

From the 5th to the 9th he made ten and a half leagues, and passed the rivers Cachee and Aux Ailes. The same day he perceived canoes, filled with savages, descending the river, and the five Canadians recognized them as the party who had robbed them. They placed sentinels in the wood, for fear of being surprised by land, and when they had approached within hearing, they cried to them that if they approached farther they would fire. They then drew up by an island, at half the distance of a gun shot. Soon, four of the principal men of the band approached in a canoe, and asked if it was forgotten that they were our brethren, and with what design we had taken arms when we perceived them. Le Sueur replied that he had cause to distrust them, since they had robbed five of his party. Nevertheless, for the surety of his trade, being forced to be at peace with all the tribes, he demanded no redress for the robbery, but added merely that the king, their master and his, wished that his subjects should navigate that river without insult, and that they had better beware how they acted.

The Indian who had spoken was silent, but another said they had been attacked by the Scioux, and that if they did not have pity on them, and give them a little powder, they should not be able to reach tlieir villages. The consideration of a missionary, who was to go up amon^ the Scioux, and whom these savages might meet, induced them to give two pounds of powder.

M. Le Sueur made the same day three leagues; passed a stream on the west, and afterward another river on the east, which is navigable at all times, and which the Indians call Bed Biver.

Battlesnakes On Shobes Of Lake Pepin

On the 10th, at daybreak, they heard an elk whistle, on the other side of the river. A Canadian crossed in a small Scioux canoe, which they had found, and shortly returned with the body of the animal, which was very easily killed, " quand il est en rut," that is, from the begimiing of September until the end of October. The hunters at this time made a whistle of a piece of wood, or reed, and when they hear an elk whistle they answer it. The animal, believing it to be another elk, approaches, and is killed with ease.

From the 10th to the 14th, M. Le Sueur made seventeen and a half leagues, passing the rivers Raisin and Paquilenettes (perhaps the Wazi Ozu and Buffalo.) The same day he left, on the east side of the Mississippi, a beautiful and large river, which descends from the very far north, and called Bon Secours (Chippeway), on account of the great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears and deers which are found there. Three leagues up this river there is a mine of lead, and seven leagues above, on the same side, they found another long river, in the vicinity of which there is a copper mine, from which he had taken a lump of sixty pounds in a former voyage. In order to make these mines of any account, peace must be obtained between the Scioux and Ouatagamis (Foxes), because the latter, who dwell on the east side of the Mississippi, pass this road continually when going to war against the Sioux.

Penicaut, in his journal, gives a brief description of the Mississippi bet^veen the Wisconsin and Lake Pepin. lie writes: "Above the Wisconsin, and ten leagues higher on the same side, begins a great prairie extending for sixty leagues along the bank; this prairie is called Aux Ailes. Opposite to Aux Ailes, on tlie left, there is another prairie facing it called Paquilanet which is not so long by a great deal. Twenty leagues above these prairies is foimd Lake Bon Secours " [Good Help, now Pepin.]

In this region, at one and a half leagues on the northwest side, commenced a lake, which is six leagues long and more than one broad, called Lake Pepin. It is bounded on the west by a chain of mountains; on the east is seen a prairie; and on the northwest of the lake there is another prairie two leagues long and one wide. In the neighborhood is a chain of mountains quite two hundred feet high, and more tlian one and a half miles long. In these are found several caves, to which the bears retire in winter. Most of the caverns are more than seventy feet in extent, and two hundred feet high. There are several of which the entrance is very narrow, and quite closed up with saltpetre. It would be dangerous to enter them in summer, for they are filled with rattlesnakes, the bite of which is very dangerous. Le Sueur saw some of these snakes which were six feet in length, but generally they are about four feet. They have teeth resembling those of the pike, and their gums are full of small vessels, in which their poison is placed. The Scioux say they take it every morning, and cast it away at night. They have at the tail a kind of scale which makes a noise, and this is ealled the rattle.

Le Sueur made on this day seven and a half leagues, and passed another river, called Hiambouxecate Ouataba, or the River of Flat Rock. [The Sioux call the Cannon river Inyanbosndata.]

On the 15th he crossed a small river, and saw in the neighborhood several canoes, filled with Indians, descending the Mississippi. He supposed they w^ere Scioux, because he could not distinguish whether the canoes were large or small. The arms were placed in readiness, and soon they heard the cry of the savages, which they are accustomed to raise when they rush upon their enemies. He caused them to be answered in the same manner; and after having placed all the men behind the trees, he ordered them not to fire until they were commanded. He remained on shore to see what movement the savages would make, and perceiving that they placed two on shore, on the other side, where from an eminence they could ascertain the strength of his forces, he caused the men to pass and repass from the shore to the -wood, in order to make them believe that they were numerous. This ruse succeeded, for as soon as the two descended from the eminence the chief of the party came, bearing the calumet, which is a signal of peace among the Indians. They said that having never seen the French navigate the river with boats like the felucca, they had supposed them to be English, and for that reason they had raised the war cry, and arranged themselves on the other side of the Mississippi; but having recognized their flag, they had come without fear to inform them, that one of their number, who was crazy, had accidentally killed a

The Frenchman they brought was Denis, a Canadian, and he reported that his companion was accidentally killed. His name was Laplace, a deserting soldier from Canada, who had tahen refuge in this country.

Le Sueur replied, that Onontio (the name they give to all the governors of Canada), being their father and his, they ought not to seek justification elsewhere than before him; and he advised them to go and see him as soon as possible, and beg him to wipe off the blood of this Frenchman from their faces.

The party was composed of forty-seven men of different nations, who dwell far to the east, about the forty-fourth degree of latitude. Le Sueur, discovering who the chiefs were, said the king whom they had spoken of in Canada, had sent him to take possession of the north of the river; and that he wished the nations wlio dwell on it, as well as those under his protection, to live in peace.

He made this day three and three-fourths leagues; and on the 16th of September, he left a large river on the east side, named St. Croix, becatise a Frenchman of that name teas shipwrecked at its mouth. It comes from the north-northwest. Four leagues higher, in going up, is found a small lake, at the mouth of which is a very large mass of copper. It is on the edge of the water, in a small ridge of sandy earth, on the west of this lake. [One of La Salle's men was named St. Croix.]

From the 16th to the 19th, he advanced thirteen and three-fourths leagues. After having made from Tamarois two hundred and nine and a half leagues, he left the navigation of the Mississippi, to enter the river St. Pierre, on the west side. By the 1st of October, he had made in this ' river forty-four and one-fourth leagues. After he entered Blue river, thus named on account of the mines of blue earth found at its mouth, he founded his post, situated in forty-four degrees, thirteen minutes north latitude. He met at this place nine Scioux, who told him that the river belonged to the Scioux of the west, the Ayavois (lowas) and Otoctatas (Ottoes), who lived a little farther off; tliat it was not their custom to hunt on ground belonging to others, unless invited to do so by the owners, and that when they would come to the fort to obtain provisions, they would be in danger of being killed in ascending or descending the rivers, which were narrow, and that if they would show their pity, he mxist establish himself on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St. Pierre, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the other Scioux could go as well as they.

Having finished their speech, they leaned over the head of Le Sueur, according to their custom, crying out, "Ouaechissou ouaepanimanabo," that is to say, " Have pity upon us." Le Sueur had foreseen that the establishment of Blue Earth river would not please the Scioux of the East, who were, so to speak, masters of the other Scioux and of the nations which will be hereafter mentioned, because they were the first with whom trade was commenced, and in consequence of which they had already quite a number of guns.

As he had commenced his operations not only with a view to the trade of beaver but also to gain a knowledge of the mines which he had previously discovered, he told them that he was sorry that he had not known their intentions sooner, and that it was just, since he came expressly for them, that he should establish himself on their land, but that tlie season was too far advanced for him to return. He then made them a present of powder, balls and knives, and an armful of tobacco, to entice them to assemble, as soon as possible, near the fort he was about to construct, that when they should be all assembled he might tell them the intention of the king, their and liis sovereign.

The Scioux of the West, according to tlie statement of the Eastern Scioux, have more than a thousand lodges. They do not use canoes, nor cultivate the earth, nor gather wild rice. They remain -^'enerally on the prairies which are between tne Upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and live entirely by the chase. The Scioux generally say they have three souls, and that after death, that which has done well goes to the warm country, that which has done evil to the cold regions, and the other guards the body. Polygamy is common among them. They are very jealous, and sometimes fight in duel for their wives. They manage the bow admirably, and have been seen several times to kill ducks on the wing. They make their lodges of a number of buffalo skins interlaced and sewed, and carry them wherever they go. They are all great smokers, but their manner of smoking differs from that of other Indians. There are some Scioux who swallow all the smoke of the tobacco, and others who, after having kept it some time in their mouth, cause it to issue from the nose. In each lodge there are usually two or three men with their families.

On the third of October, they received at the fort several Scioux, among whom was Wahkantape, chief of the village. Soon two Canadians aiTived who had been hunting, and who had been robbed by the Scioux of the East, who had raised their guns against the establishment which M. Le Sueur had made on Blue Earth river.

On the fourteenth the fort was finished and named Fort L'Huillier, and on the twenty-second two Canadians were sent out to invite the Ayavois and Otoctatas to come and establish a village near the fort, because these Indians are industrious and accustomed to cultivate the e^irth, and they hoped to get provisions from them, and to make them work in the mines.

On the twenty-fourth, six Scioux Oujalespoitons wished to go into the fort, but were told that they did not receive men who had killed Frenchmen. This is the term used when tliey have insulted them. The next day tliey came to the lodge of Le Sueur to beg him to have pity on them. They wished, according to custom, to weep over his head and make him a present of packs of beavers, which he refused. lie told them he was siuprised that people who had ro]> bed should come to him ; to which they replied that they had heard it said that two Frenchmen had been robbed, but none from their village had been present at that wicked action.

but," continued he, "you are Scioux ; it is the Scioux who have robbed me, and if I were to follow your manner of acting I should break your heads ; for is it not true, thpt when a stranger (it is thus they call the Indians who are not Scioux) has insulted a Scioux, Mendeoucanton, Oujalespoitons, or others - all the villages revenge upon the first one they meet?"

to them, they wept and repeated, according to custom, " Ouaechissou ! ouaepanimanabo I" Le Sueur told them to cease crying, and added that the French had good hearts, and that they had come into the country to have pity on them. At the same time he made them a present, saying to them, " Carry back your beavers and say to all the Scioux, that they will have from me no more powder or lead, and they will no longer smoke any long pipe until they have made satisfaction for robbing the Frenchman.

The same day the Canadians, who had been sent off on the 22d, arrived without having found the road which led to the Ayavois and Otoctatas. On the 25th, Le Sueur went to the river with three canoes, which he filled with green and blue earth. It is taken from the hills near which are very abimdant mines of copper, some of which was worked at Paris in 1696, by L'Huillier, one of the chief collectors of the king. Stones were also found there which would be curious, if worked.

On the ninth of November, eight Mantanton Scioux arrived, who had been sent by their chiefs to say that the Mendeoucantmis were still at tlieir lake on t/ie east of Hue Mississippi^ and they could not come for a long time ; and that for a single village which had no good sense, the others ought not to bear the j^unishment ; and that they were willing to make reparation if they knew how. Le Sueur replied that he was glad that they had a disposition to do so.

On the loth the two Mantanton Scioux, who had been sent expressly to say that all of the Scioux of the east, and part of those of the west, were joined together to come to the French, l)ecause they had heard that the Christianaux and the Assinipoils were making war on them. These two nations dwell above the fort on the east side, more than eighty leagues on the Upper Mississippi.

The Assinipoils speak Scioux, and are certainly of that nation. It is only a few years since that they became enemies. The enmity thus originated: The Christianaux, having the use of arms before the Scioux, through the English at Hudson's 13ay, they constantly warred upon the Assinipoils, who were their nearest neighbors. The latter, being weak, sued for peace, and to render it more lastuig, married the Christianaux women. The other Scioux, who had not made the compact, continued the war; and, seeing some Christianaux with the Asslnipoils, broke their heads. The Christianaux furnished the Assinipoils with arms and merchandise.

On the 16th the Scioux returned to their village, and it was reported that the Ayavois and Otoctatas were gone to establish themselves towards the Missouri River, near the Maha, who dwell in that region. On the 26th the Mantantons and Oujalespoi tons arrived at' the fort; and, after they had encamped in the woods, Wah kantape came to beg Le Sueur to go to his lodge. He there found sixteen men with women and children, with their faces daubed with black. In the middle of the lodge were several buffalo skins which were sewed for a carpet. After motioning him to sit down, they wept for the fourth of an hour, and the chief gave him some wild rice to eat (as was their custom), putting the first three spoonsful to his mouth. After which, he said all present were relatives of Tioscate, whom Le Sueur took to Canada in 1695, and who died there in 1696.

At the mention of Tioscate they began to weep again, and wipe their tears and heads upon the shoulders of Le Sueur. Then Wahkantape again spoke, and said that Tioscate begged him to forget the insult done to the Frenchmen by the Mendeoucantons, and take pity on his brethren by giving them powder and balls whereby they could defend themselves, and gain a living for their wives and children, who languish in a coimtry full of game, because they had not the means of killing them. " Look," added the chief, " Behold thy children, thy brethren, and thy sisters; it is to thee to see whether thou wishest them to die. They will live if thou givest them powder and l>all; they will die if thou refusest."

Le Sueur granted them their request, but as the Scioux never answer on the spot, especially in matters of importance, and as he had to speak to them about his establishment he went out of the lodge without saying a word. The chief and all those within followed him as far as the door of the fort; and when he had gone in, they went around it three times, crying with all their strength, " Atheouanan! " that is to say, " Father, have pity on us." [Ate unyanpi, means Our Father.]

The next day, he assembled in the fort the principal men of both villages; and as it is not possible to subdue the Scioux or to hinder them from going to war, unless it be by inducing them to cultivate the earth, he said to them that if they wished to render themselves worthy of the protection of the king, they must abandon their erring life, and form a village near his dwelling, where they would be shielded from the insults of of their enemies; and that they might be happy and not hungry, he would give them all the com necessary to plant a large piece of ground; that the king, their and his chief, in sending him, had forbidden him to purchase beaver skins, knowing that this kind of hunting separates them and exposes them to their enemies; and that in consequence of this he had come to establish himself on Blue River and vicinity, where they had many times assured him were many kinds of beasts, for the skins of which he would give them all things necessary; that they ought to reflect that they could not do without French goods, and that the only way not to want them was, not to go to war with our sdlied nations.

As it is customary with the Indians to accompany their word with a present proportioned to the affair treated of, he gave them fifty poimds of powder, as many balls, six guns, ten axes, twelve armsful of tobacco, and a hatchet pipe.

On the first of December, the Mantantons invited Le Sueur to a great feast. Of four of their lodges they had made one, in which were one hundred men seated around, and every one his dish before him. After the meal, Wahkantape, the chief, made them all smoke, one after another, in the hatchet pipe which had been given them. He then made a present to Le Sueur of a slave and a sack of wild rice, and said to him, showing him his men: " Behold the remains of this great village, which thou hast aforetimes seen so numerous! All the others have been killed in war; and the few men whom thou seest in this lodge, accept the present thou hast made them, and are resolved to obey the great chief of all nations, of whom thou hast spoken to us. Thou oughtest not to regard us as Scioux, but as French, and instead of saying the Scioux are miserable, and have no mind, and are fit for nothing but to rob and steal from the French, thou shalt say my brethren are miserable and have no mind, and we must try to procure some for them. They rob us, but I will take care that they do not lack iron, that is to say, all kinds of goods. If thou dost this, I assure thee that in a little time the Mantantons will become Frenchmen, and they will have none of those vices, with which thou reproachest us."

Having finished his speech, he covered his face with his garment, and the others imitated him. They wept over their companions who had died in war, and chanted an adieu to their country in a tone so gloomy, that one could not keep from X)artaking of their sorrow.

Wahkantape then made them smoke again, and distributed the presents, and said that he was going to the Mendeoucantons, to inform them of the resolution, and invite them to do the same.

On the twelfth, three Mendeoucauton chiefs, and a large number of Indians of the same village, arrived at the fort, and the next day gave satisfaction for robbing the Frenchmen. They brought four hundred pounds of beaver skins, and promlBed that the summer following, after their canoes were built and they had gathered their wild rice, that they would come and establish themselves near the French. The same day they returned to their village east of the Mississippi.

The Scioux Of The West

In the narrative of Major Long's second expedition, there are just as many villages of the Gens du Lac, or M'dewakantonwan Scioux mentioned, though the names are different. After leaving the MiUe Lac region, the divisions evidently were different, and the villages known by new names.

Charlevoix, who visited the valley of the Lower Mississippi in 1722, says that Le Sueur spent a winter in his fort on the banks of the Blue Earth, and that in the following April he went up to the mine, about a mile above. In twenty-two days they obtained more than thirty thousand pounds of the substance, four thousand of which were selected and sent to France.

On the tenth of February, 1702, Le Sueur came back to the post on the Gulf of Mexico, and found D'Iberville absent, who, however, arrived on the eighteenth of the next month, with a ship from France, loaded with supplies. After a few weeks, the Governor of Louisiana sailed again for the old country, Le Sueur being a fellow passenger.

On board of the ship, D'Iberville wrote a memorial upon the Mississippi valley, with suggeations for carrying on commerce therein, which contains many facts f ugiished by Le Sueur. A copy of the manuscript was in possession of the Historical Society of Minnesota, from which are the following extracts:

" If the Sioux remain in their own coimtry, they are useless to us, being too distant. We could have no commerce with them except that of the beaver. M. Le Sueur ^ who goes to France to give an account of this country ^ is the proper person to make these movements. He estimates the Siojux at four thousand families, who could settle upon the Missouri.

" He has spoken to me of another which he calls the Mahas, composed of more than twelve hundred families. The Ay ooues ( loway s) and the Octoctatas, their neighbors, are about three hundred families. They occupy the lands be- tween the Mississippi and the Missouri, about one hundred leagues from the Illinois. These savages do not know the use of arms, and a descent might be made upon them in a river, which is beyond the Wabash on the west. * * *

" The Assinibouel, Quenistinos, and people of the nortli, who ai'e upon the rivers which fall into the Mississippi, and trade at Fort Nelson (Hudson Bay), are about four hundred. We could prevent them from going there if we wish."

" In four or five years we can establish a commerce with these savages of sixty or eighty thousand buffalo skins; more than one hundred deer skins, which will produce, delivered in France, more than two million four hundred thousand livres yearly. One might obtain for a buffalo skin four or five pomids of wool, which sells for twenty sous, two pounds of coarse hair at ten sous.

In the third volume of the " History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes," prepared under the direction of the Commissioner of Indian affairs, by Mr. Schoolcraft, a manuscript, a copy of wliich was in possession of General Cass, is referred to as containing the first enumeration of the Indians of the Mississippi Valley. The following was made thirty-four years earlier by D'Iberville:

" The savage tribes located in the places I have marked out, make it necessary to establish three posts on the Mississippi, one at the Arkansas, another at the Wabash (Ohio), and the third at the Missouri. At each post it would be proper to have an officer with a detachment of ten soldiers with a sergeant and corporal. All Frenchmen should be allowed to settle there with their families, and trade with the Indians, and they miglit establish tanneries for properly dressing the buffalo and deer skins for transportation.

" No Frenchman shall be allowed to follow the Indians on tfieir hunts^ as it tends to keep tfietn hnnters^ as is seen in Canada, and when they are in the woods, they do not desire to become tillers of the soil *******

" I have said nothing in this memoir of which I have not i>er8onal knowlecjge or the most reliable sources. The most of what I propose is founded upon personal reflection in relation to what might be done for the defence and advancement of the colony. * * * * * * It will be absolutely necessary that the king should define the limits of this country in relation to the government of Canada. It is important that the commandant of the Mississippi should have a report of those who inliabit the rivers that fall into the Mississippi, and principally those of the river Illinois.

'' The Canadians intimate to the savages that they ought not to listen to xis but to the governor of Canada, who always speaks to them with large presents, that the governor of Mississippi is mean aiid never sends them any thing. This is tnie, and what I cannot do. It is imprudent to accustom the savages to be spoken to by presents, for, with so many, it would cost the king more than the revenue derived from the trade. When they come to us, it will be necessary to bring them in subjection, make them no presents, and compel them to do what we wish, as if they were Frenchr 7neii, trade with them, and threaten to draw down the hostility of other Indians. We rectify the difficulty by having missionaries, who will bring them into obedience secretly.

" The Illinois and Mascoutens have detained the French canoes they find upon the Mississippi, saying that the governors of Canada have given them permission. I do not know whether this is so, but if true, it follows that we have not the liberty to send any one on the Mississippi.

"M. Le Sueur would have been taken if he had not been the strongest. Only one of tlie canoes he sent to the Sioux was plundered." * * * Penicaut's account varies in some particulars from that of La Harpe's. He calls the Mahkahto Green River instead of Blue and writes: " We took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty leagues, when we found another river f alluig into the Saint Pierre, wliich we entered. We sailed this the Green River because it is of that color by reason of a green earth which loosening itself from from the copper mines, becomes dissolved and makes it green.

" A league up this river, we found a point of land a quarter of a league distant from the woods, and it was upon this point that M. Le Sueur resolved to build his fort, because we could not go any higher on account of the ice, it being the last day of September. Half of our people went hunting whilst the others worked on the fort. We killed four hundred buffaloes, which were our provisions for the winter, and which we placed upon scaffolds in our fort, after having skinned and cleaned and quartered them. We also made cabins in the fort, and a magazine to keep our goods. After having drawn up our shallop within the inclosure of the fort, we spent the winter in our cabins.

" When we were working in our fort in the b^inning seven French traders from Canada took refuge there. They had been pillaged and stripped naked by the Sioux, a wandering nation living only by hunting and plundering. Among these seven persons there was a Canadian gentleman of Lie Sueur's acquaintance, whom he recognized at once, and gave him some clothes, as he did also to aU the rest, and whatever else was necessary for them. They remained with us during the entire winter at our fort, where we had not food enough for all, except buffalo meat which we had not even salt to eat with. We had a good deal of trouble the first tvfo weeks in accustoming ourselves to it, having fever and diarrhoea and becoming so tired of it as to hate the smell. But by degrees our bodies became adapted to it so well that at the end of six weeks there was not one of us who could not eat six pounds of meat a day, and drink four bowls of broth. As soon as we were accustomed to this kind of living it made us very fat, and then there was no more sickness.

" When spring arrived we went to work in the copper mine. This was the beginning of April of this year [1701.] We took with us twelve laborers and four hunters. This mine was situated about three-quarters of a league from our post. We took from the mine in twenty days more than twenty thousand pounds weight of ore, of which we only selected four thousand pounds of the finest, which M. Le Sueur, who was a very good judge of it, had earned to the fort, and which has since been sent to France, though I have not learned the result.

This mine is situated at the beginning of a very long mountain, which is upon the bahk of the river, so that boats can go right to the mouth of the mine itself. At this place is the green earth, which is a foot and a half in thickness, and above it is a layer of earth as firm and hard as stone, and black and biumt like coal by the exhalation from the mine. The copper is scratched out with a knife. There are no trees upon this mountain. * * * After twenty-two days' work, we retiuned to our fort. When the Sioux, who belong to the nation of savages who pillaged the Canadians, came they brought us merchandize of furs.

"They had more than four hundred beaver robes, each robe made of nine skins sewed together. M. Le Sueur purchased these and many other skins which he bargained for, in the week he traded with the savages. « « « » We sell in return wares which come very dear to the buyers, especially tobacco from Brazil, in the proportion of a hundred crowns the pound; two little horn-handled knives, and four leaden bullets are equal to ten crowns in exchange for skins ; and so with the rest.

earth that had been taken out of the river, anil witli the furs we had traded for, of wliich we had three canoes full. M. Le Sueur before going held council with M. D'Evaque [or Eraque] the Canadian gentleman, and the three great chiefs of the Sioux, three brothers, and told them that as he bad to return to the sea, he desired them to live in peace with M. D'Evaque, whom he left in command at Fort L'Huillier, with twelve Frenchmen. M. Le Sueur made a considerable present to the three brothers, chiefs of the savages, desiring them to never abandon the French. Afterward we the twelve men whom he had chosen to go down to the sea with him embarked. In setting 'out, M. Le Sueur promised to M. D'Evaque and the twelve Frenchmen who remained with him to guard the fort, to send up munitions of war from the Illinois country as soon as he should arrive there ; which he did, for on getting there he sent off to him a canoe loaded with tw o thousand pounds of lead and powder, with three of our people in charge."

Le Sueur arrived at the French fort on the Gulf of Mexico in safety, and in a few weeks, in the spring of 1701, sailed for France, with his kinsman, D'lberville, the first governor of Louisiana.

In the spring of the next year (1702) D'Evaque came to Mobile and reported to D'lber\ille, who had come back from France, that he had been attacked by the Foxes and Maskoutens, who killed three Frenchmen who were working near Fort L'Huillier, and that, being out of powder and lead, he had been obliged to conceal the goods which were left and abandon the post. At the Wisconsin Kiver he had met Juchereau, formerly criminal judge in Montreal, with thirty-fivo men, on his way to establish a tannery for buffalo skins at the Wabash, and that at the Illinois he met the canoe of supplies sent by Bienville, D'Iberville's brother.

La Motte Cadillac, in command at Detroit, in a letter wTitten on August 31st, 1703, alludes to Le Sueur's expedition in these words: "Last year they sent Mr. Boudor, a Alontreal merchant, into the country of the Sioux to join Le Sueur, lie succeeded so w ell in that journey he transiwrted thither twenty-five or thirty thousand pounds of merchandize with which to trade in all the country of the Outawas. This proved to him an unfortunate investment, as he has been robbed of a part of the goods by the Outagamies. The occasion of the robbery by one of our own allies was as follows. 1 speak with a full knowledge of the facts as they occurred while I was at Micliillimackiaiic. From time immemorial our allies liave been at war with the Sioux, and on my arrival there in conformity to the order of M. Frontenac, the most able man wiio has ever come into Canada, I attempted to negotiate a truce between the Sioux and all our allies. Succeeding in this negotiation I took the occasion to turn their arms against the Iroquois with whom we were then at war, and soon after I effected a treaty of peace between the Sioux and the French and their allies wiiich lasted two yeiirs.

"At the end of tha. time the Sioux came, in great niunbers, to the villages of the Miamis, imder pretense of ratifying the treaty. They were well received by the Miamis, and, after spending several days in their villages, departed, apparently perfectly satisfied with their good reception, as they certainly had every reason to be.

"The Miamis, believing them already far distiint, slept quietly; but the Sioux, who had premedi tilted the attack, returned the same night to the principal village of the Miamis, where most of the tribe were congregated, and, taking them by surprise, slaughtered nearly three thousand(?) and put the rest to flight..

"This perfectly infuriated all tne nations. They came with their complaints, begging me to join with them and exterminate the Sioux. But the war W' e then had on our hands did not permit it, so it became necessary to play the orator in a long harangue. In conclusion I advised them to ' weep their dead, and w rap them up, and leave them to sleep coldly till the day of vengeance should come;' telling them we must sweep the land on this side of the Iroquois, as it was necessar>' to extinguish even their memory, after which the allied tribes could more easily avenge the atrocious deed that the Sioux had just committed uiK)n them. In short, I managed them so well that the affair was settled in the manner that I proposed.

" But the twenty-five permits still existed, and the cupidity of the French induced them to go among the Sioux to trade for beaver. Our allies complained bitterly of this, saying it was injust>- ice to them, as they liad taken up anns in our quarrel against the Iroquois, while the French traders were carrying munitions of war to the Sioux to enable them to kill the rest of our allies as they had the Miamis.

I immediately informed M. Frontenac, and M. Champigny having read the communication, and commanded that an ordinance be published at Montreal forbidding the traders to go into the country of the Sioux for the purpose of trafllc under penalty of a thousand francs fine, the confiscation of the goods, and other arbitrary penalties. The ordinance was sent to me and faithfully executed. The same year [1699] I descended to Quebec, having asked to be relieved. Since that time, in spite of this prohibition, the French have continued to trade with the Sioux, but not without being subject to affronts and indignities from our allies themselves which bring dishonor on the French name. I do not consider it best any longer to allow the traders to fearry on commerce with the Sioux, under any pretext whatever, especially as M. Boudor has just been robbed by the Fox nation, and M. Jucheraux has given a thousand crowns, in goods, for the right of passage through the country of the allies to his habitation.

" The allies say that Le Sueur has gone to the Sioux on the Mississippi; that they are resolved to oppose him, and if he offers any resistance they will not be answerable for the consequences. It would be well, therefore, to give Le Sueur warning by the Governor of Mississippi.

"The Sauteurs [Cliippeways] being friendly with the Sioux wished to give passage through their country to M. Boudor and others, permitting them to carry arms and other mimitions of war to this nation; but the other nations being opposed to it, differences have arisen between them which have resulted in the robbery of M. Boudor. This has given occasion to the Sauteurs to make an outbreak upon the Sacs and Foxes, killing thirty or forty of them. So there is war among the people."

Events Which Led To Building Fout Beauiiauitois On Lake Pepin

Re-Establi<(hraent of Mackinaw. - Sicur do Louvistny at Mackinaw. -De I.ipnory at Mackinaw. - Louvigny Attiirks the Foxea.- Pu l.tilh's P<»1 U(-tKcuj>it>.l. - S»int Pierre at Ui Pointe on V.^kv, Siipfnor. - Preparations fur u Jesuit >IisMon among tlio Siou.x. - Ipi Perriorc Bouchi^r's E.\poUition to Lake Po|.ui. - I>e Oonor and (Jiiiguas, Jcs<iit .Missionaries. Visit to Foxes ajjd Winnehat;<>«-5. - Wisrunsin Uiver Dosrriboil - Fort Beauharnois Built. - Firc»v<.rk5 Displayed - High Watx?r at bike Pepin. - De Uonor Visits Mackinaw.- Bouchcr\ille. Montbrun and (iuif;uiui Captured liy Indians - Montbrun's Escape. - Boucherville's Presents to lndianH. - Kxar-'<Tat(Hl Account of Fallier Guiguas' Capture. - Irispatches ConcprninK Fort ReauharnoLM. - Sieur do la Joinorayc. - Saint Pierre at Fort B«'auhanioi5. - Trouble between Sioux and Foxes - Siou.x Vi.sit vjueUr. - Dc Lusipnan Visits the Sioux Country. - Saint I»icrre Noticed in the Travels of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike.

After the Fox Indians drove away Le Sueur's men, in 1702, from the Makahto, or Bhie Earth river, the merchants of Montreal and Quebec did not encourage trade with the tribes beyond Mackinaw.

D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect that post, in the summer of 170S, reported that he arrived there, on the 19tli of August, and found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen, lie also wrote: " Since there are now only a few wanderers at Michilimackinack, the greater part of the furs of the savages of the north goes U) the English trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The Outawas are unable to make this tntde by themselves, because the northern savages are timid, and will not come near them, as they have often been plundered. It is, therefore, necessary that the French be allowed to seek these northern tribes at the mouth of their own river, which empties into Lake Superior."

Louis de la Porte, the Sieur De Louvigny, in 1690, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a detachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1604 was in command, when he was recalled.

In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit missionary wrote, If this country ever needs M. Louvigny it is now ; the savages say it is absolutely necessary that he should come for the safety of the country, to unite the tribes and to defend those whom the war has caused to return to Michilimacmac. ******

I do not know what course the Pottawatomies will take, nor even what course they will pursue who are here, if M. Louvigny does not come, espe(!ially if the Foxes were to attack them or us."

The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the authorities the establishment of a garrison of trained soldiei-s at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Canada wrote to the King of France :

Michilimackinac might be re-established, witliout expense to his Majesty, either by surrendering the trade of the post to such individuals as will obligate themselves to pay all the expenses of twenty-two soldiers and two officers; to funiish munitions of war for the defense of the fort, and to make presents to the savages.

" Or the expenses of the post might be paid by the sale of pennits, if the King should not tlunk proper to grant an exclusive commerce. It is absolutely necessary to know the wishes of the King concerning these two propositions; and as M. Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it wilt not be any greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estabnient of this post, than it has been for eight or ten years past."

The war with England ensued, and in April, 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was ratified. France had now more leisure to attend to the Indian tribes of the West.

Early in 1714, Mackinaw was re-occupied, and on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition under Lieutenant Louvigny, left Quebec. His arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long expected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and friendly Indians, and with a of eight hundred men, he proceeded against the Foxes in Wisconsin. He brought with him two pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar, and besieged the fort of the Foxes, which he stated contained five hundred warriors, and three thousand men, a declamtion which can scarcely be credited. After

The paddles of the birch hark canoes and the gay songs of the voyage iirs now began to be heard once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du Luth, on Lake Superior near the nortliern boundary of Miimesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Robertel de la Xoue.

In view of the troubles among the tribes of the northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Cap^ tahi St. Pierre, who had great influence with the Indians of Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-occupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Bayfield, in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The chiefs of the band there, and at Keweenaw, had threatened war against the Foxes, who had killed some of their nu mber.

When the Jesuit Charlevoix returned to France after an examination of the resources of Canada and Louisiana, he urged that an attempt should be made to reach the Pacific Ocean by an inland route, and suggested that an expedition should proceed from the mouth of the Missouri and follow that stream, or that a post should be estab- Ushed among the Sioux which should be the point of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 1722 an allowance was made by the French Govenmient, of twelve hundred livres, for two Jesuit missionaries to accompany those who should establish the new post. D'Avagour, Superintendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the authorities to grant a separate canoe for the conveyance of the goods of the proposed mission, and as it was necessary to send a commandant to persuade the Indians to receive the missionaries, he recommended Sieur Pachot, an officer of experience.

A dispatch from Canada to the French government, dated October 14, 1723, aimounced that Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, expected that, the next sprmg. Father Guymoneau, and another missionary from Paris, w^ould go to the Sioux, but that they had been hmdered by the Sioux a few months before kilhng seven Frenchmen, on their way to Louisiana. The aged Jesuit, Joseph J. Marest, who had been on Lake Pepin in 1689 with Perrot, and was now in Montreal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who

On the seventli of Juue, 172(), peace was concluded by Do Lignery with the Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who had succeeded Saint Pierre in command at La Pointe, was ordered, by presents and the promise of a missionary, to endeavor to detach the Dahkotahs from their alliance with the Foxes. At this time Linctot made arrangements for peace between the Ojil)vvays and Dahkotas, and sent two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the latter, with a promise that, if they ceased to fight the Ojibways, they should have regular trade, and a "black robe'' reside in their country.

Traders and missionaries now began to prepare for visiting the Sioux, and in the spring of 1727 the Governor of Canada wrote that the fathers, appointed for the Sioux mission, desired a case of mathematical instruments, a universal astronomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stiikes, and a telescope of six or seven feet tube.

On the sixteenth of June, 1727, the expedition for the Sioux country left Montreal in charge of the Sieur de la Perriere who was son of the distinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Boucher, the Governor of Three Rivers.

La Perriere had ser\'ed in Newfoundland and been associated with Ilertel de Rouville in raids into New England, and gamed an inienviable notoriety as the Ictwler of the savages, while Rouville led the French in attacks upon towns like Haverhill, Massachusetts, where the Indians exultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped his loving wife, and dashed out liis uifanCs brains against a rock. He was accompanied by his brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers, De Gonor and Pierre Michel Guignas, were also of the party.

In Shea's " Early French Voyages" there was prmted, for the first time, a letter from Father Guignas, from the Brevoort manuscripts, written on May 29, 1728, at Fort Beauharnois, on Lake Pepin, which contains facts of much interest.

He writes: " The Scioux convoy left the end of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of June last year, at 11 a. m., and reached Michili- mackinac the 22d of the month of July. Tliis post is two hundred and fifty-one leagues from Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 minutes north latitude.

" We spent the rest of the month at this post, in the hope of receiving from day to day some news from Montreal, and in the design of strengthening ourselves against the alleged extreme difficulties of getting a free passage through the Foxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out on our march, the first of the month of August, and. after seventy-three leagues quite pleasant sail along the northerly side of Lake Michigan, running to the southeast, we reached the Bay [Green] on the 8th of the same month, at 5:30 p. M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north latitude.

" We stopped there two days, and on the 11th in the morning, we embarked, in a very great impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day after our departure from the bay, quite late in the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the chiefs of the Puans [Winnebagoes] came out three leagues from their village to meet the French, with their peace calumets and some bear meat as a refreshment, and the next day we were received by that small nation, amid several discharges of a few guns, and with great demonstrations.

" They asked us with so good a grace to do them the honor to stay some time with them that we granted them the rest of the day from noon, and the following day. There may be in all tlie village, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and women of very tall stature, and well made. They are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a most agreeable spot for its situation and the goodness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the bay and eight leagues from the Foxes.

" Early the next morning, the 15th of the month of August, the convoy preferred to continue its route, with quite pleasant weather, but a storm coming on in the afternoon, we arrived quite wet, still in the rain, at the cabins of the Foxes, a nation so much dreaded, and re^dly so little to be dreaded. From all that we could see, it is comiK)sed of two hundred men at most, but there is a perfect hive of children, especially boys from ten to fourteen years old, well formed.

They are cabined on a little eminence on the bank of a small river that bears their name, extremely tortuous or winding, so that you are constantly boxing the compass. Yet it is apparently quite wide, with a chain of hills on both sides, but there is only one miserable little channel amid this extent of apparent bed, which is a kind of marsh full of rushes and wild rice of almost impenetrable thickness. They have nothing but mere bark cabins, without any kind of palisade or other fortification. As soon as the French canoes touched their shore they ran down with their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain, and all smoked.

" We stayed among them the rest of ^this day, and aU the next, to know what were their designs and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux. The Sieur Reaume, interpreter of Indian languages at the Bay, acted efficiently there, and with devotion to the King's service. Even if my testimony. Sir, should be deemed not impartial, I must have the honor to tell you that Rev. Father Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great assistance there, and the presence of three missionaries reassured these cut-throata and assassins of the French more than all the speeches of the best orators could have done.

" A general council was convened in one of the cabins, they were addressed in decided friendly terms, and they replied in the same way. A small present was made to them. On their side they gave some quite handsome dishes, lined with dry meat.

On the following Sunday, 17th of the month of August, very early in the morning. Father Chardon set out, with Sieur Reaume, to return to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly rejoiced to have so easily got over this difficulty, which had everywhere been represented as so insurmountable, got under way to endeavor to reach its journey's end.

"Never was navigation more tedious than what we subsequently made from uncertainty as to our course. No one knew it, and we got astray every moment on water and on land for want of a guide and pilots. We kept on, as it were feeling our way for eight days, for it was only on the ninth, about three o'clock p. m., that we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsin, which is forty-five leagues from the Foxes, countuig all the twists and turns of this abominable river.

Situation And Description Of Fort Beauiiarnois

" The Ouisconsin is quite a handsome river, but far below what we had been told, apparently, as those who gave the description of it in Canada saw it only in the high waters of spring. It is a shallow river on a bed of quicksand, which forms bars almost everywhere, and these often change place. Its shores are either steep, bare mountains or low points with sandy base. Its course is from northeast to southwest. From the portage to its mouth in the Mississippi, I estimated thirty-eight leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. 24 min. north latitude.

" The Mississippi from the mouth of the Ouisconsin ascending, goes northwest. This beautiful river extends bet\^'een two chains of high, bare and very sterile mountains, constantly a league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is narrowest, half a league apart. Its centre is occupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that regarding from the heights above, you would think you saw an endless valley watered on the right and left by two large rivers ; sometimes, too, you could discern no river. These islands are overflowed every year, and would be adapted to raising rice. Fifty-eight leagues from the mouth of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation, ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of islands at that point, where it may be half a league wide. This river, in what I traversed of it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places, because its bed is moving sands, like that of the Ouisconsin.

" On the 17th of September, 1727, at noon, we reached tliis lake, which had l)een chosen as the bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on the shore about the middle of the north side, on a low point, wliere the soil is excellent. The wood is very dense there, but is already thinned in consequence of the rigor and length of the winter, which has been severe for the climate, for we are here on the parallel of 43 deg. 41 min. It is true that the difference of the winter is great compared to that of Quebec and Montreal, for all that some poor judges say.

" From the day after our landing we put our axes to the wood: on the fourth day following the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve feet long, with two good bastions. For so small a space there are large buildings quite distinct and not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eighty and twenty-live feet long by sixteen feet wide.

" All would go well there if the spot were not inundated, but this year [1728], on the 15th of the month of April, we were obliged to camp out, and the water ascended to the height of two feet and eight inches in the houses, and it is idle to say that it was the quantity of snow that fell this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted long before, and there was only a foot and a half from the 8th of February to the 15th of March; you could not use snow-shoes.

I have great reason to tliink that this spot is inundated more or less every year; I have always thonght so, but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people who said that they had lived in this region fifteen or twenty years declared that it was never overflowed. We could not enter our much-devastated houses until the 30th of April, and the disorder is even now scarcely repaired.

" Before the end of October [1 727] all the houses were finished and funiished, and each one found himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then thought only of going out to explore ^e hills and rivers and to see those herds of all kinds of deer of which they tell such stories in Canada. They must have retired, or diminished greatly, since the time the old voyageurs left the country; they are no longer in such great numbers, and are killed with diflficulty.

" After beating the field, for some time, all reassembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a little the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of November we did not forget it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada] in the morning, and they were well disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tarduiess of the pyrotechnists and the inconstancy of the weather caused them to post^wne the celebration to the 14th of the same month, when they set off some very fine rockets and made the air ring with an hundred shouts of Vive le Roy! and Vive Charles de Beavhamois! It was on this occasion that the wine of the Sioux was broached; it was par ex-

Explojiebs And Pioneers Of Minnesota

What contributed much to the amusement, was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who were at the time around tlie fort. AVlien these poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and tlie stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take flight, and tlie most courageous of the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earnestly to stop the surprising play of that wonderful medicine. ^

As soon as we arrived among them, they assembled, in a few days, around the Freuch fort to the number of ninety-five cabins, which might make in all one hundred and fifty men; for there are at most two men in their portable cabins of dressed skins, and in many there is only one. This is all we have seen except a baud of about sixty men, who came on the 2(>th of the month of F( bruary, who were of those nations called Sioux of the Prairies.

At the end of November, the Indians set out for their winter quarters. They do not, indeed, go far, and we saw some of them all through the winter; but from the second of the month of April last, when some cabins repassed here to go in search of them, [he] sought them in vain, duling a week, for more than sixty leagues of the Mississippi^ He [La PerriereV] arrived yesterday without any tidings of them.

" Although I said above, that the Sioux were alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new phenomena, it must not be supposed from that they were less intelligent than other Indians we know. They seem to me more so ; at least they are much gayer and open, apparently, and far more dextrous tliieves, great dancers, and great medicine men. The men are almost all large and well made, but the women are very ugly and disgusting, which does not, however, check debauchery among them, and is perhai)s an effect of it.-'

In the summer of 1728 the Jesuit I)e Gonor left the fort on Lake Pepin, and, by way of Mackinaw, returned to Canada. The Foxes had now become very troublesome, and De Lignery and Beaujeu marched agahist their stronghold, to find they had retreated to the Mississippi Iliver.

eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by way of the Illinois Iliver. They were captured by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained at the river " An B(puf which stream w^as probably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twentytwo leagues above the Ilhnois River, although the same name was g' veu by Hennepin to the Chippewa Eiver, just below Lake Pepin. They were held as prisoners, with the view of delivering them to the Foxes. The night before the delivery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and another Frenchman escaped. Montbrun, leaving his sick brother in the Illmois country, journeyed to Canada and informed the authorities.

Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners for several months, and the former did not reach Detroit until June, 1720, The account of expenditures made during his c^iptivity is interesting as showing the value of merchandize at that time. It reads as follows:

^^lemorandum of the goods that Monsieur de Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the service of the King, from the time of his detention among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October, 172.S. until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729, in the month of June. On arriving at the Kickapoo village, he made a present to the young men to secure their opposition to some evil minded old warriors -

After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to the Renards [Foxes] they wished some favors, and I was obliged to give them the following which

Bovvherville'S Pbesents While In Captivity

In a letter, written by a priest, at New Orleans, on July 12, 1730, is tlie following exaggerated a^feount of the capture of Father Guignas: We always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians, although they did not longer dare to undertake anything, since Father Guignas has detached from their alliance the tribes of the Kikapous and Maskoutina. You know, my Reverend Father, that, l)eing in

Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to the Sioux near the sources of the Mississippi, at the distance of eight hundred leagues from New Orleans and five hundred from Quebec. Obliged to almndon this important mission by the unfortunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes, he descended the river to repair to the Illinois. On the loth of October in the year 1728 he was arrested when lialf way by the Kickapous and Miiskoutins. For four months he was a captive among the Indians, where he had much to suffer and everything to fear. The time at hist came when he was to be burned alive, when he was adopted by an old man whose family saved his life and procured his liberty.

Our missionaries who are among the Illinois were no sooner acquainted with the situation than they procured him all the alleviation they were able. Everything which he received he employed to conciliate the Indians, and succeeded to the extent of engaging them to conduct him to the Illinois to make peace with the French and Indians of this region. Seven or eight months after this peace was concluded, the Maskoutins and Kikapous returned again to the Illinois country, and took back Father Guignas to spend the winter, from whence, in all probability, he will return to Canada."

In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, by the Canadian government, the following reference is made to Fort Beauharnois : They agree that the fort built among the Scioux, on the border of Lake Pepin, appears to be badly situated on accoiuit of the freshets, but the Indians assure that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever did before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it at that place it was on the assurance of the Indians that tlie waters did not rise so high." In reference to the absence of Indians, is the following :

"It is very true that these Indians did leave shortly after on a hunting excursion, as they are i!i the habit of doing, for their o\m support and that of their families, who have only that means of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed that their absence was occasioned only by having fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie Scioux, by whom they were invited to occompany them on a war expedition against the Mahasj

" The interests of religion, of the service, and of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of this estabUshment, which has been the more necessary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when routed, would have found an asylum among the Scioux had not the French been settled there, and the docility and submission manifested by the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause except the attention entertained by the Scioux for the French, and the offers which the former made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully cognisant.

" It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes in check and counteract the measures they might adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invariably reject their propositions so long as the French remain in the country, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these advantages and the importance of preserving that establishment, M. de Beauhamois cannot take any steps until he has news of the French who asked his permission this sunmier to go up there with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that those who wintered there have not dismantled the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same sentiments. Besides, it does not seem very easy, in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post unless there is a solid peace with the Foxes; on the otlier hand, the greatest portion of the traders, who appUed in 1727 for the establislmient of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send thitlier any more, as the rupture with the Foxes, through whose country it is necessary to pass in order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them to abandon the idea. "But the one and the other caso might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all probability, come or send next year to sue for peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on advantageous conditions, there need be no apprehension when going to the Sioux, and another company could be formed, less numerous than the first, through whom, or some responsible merchants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty could be made, whereby these difficulties would be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and that is, to send a commanding and sub-oflScer, and some soldiers, up there, which are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of good order at that post; the missionaries would not go there without a conmiandant. This article, which regards the service, and the exi)en8e of which must be on his majesty's accoimt, obliges them to ai>- ply for orders* They will, as far as lies in their power, induce the traders to meet that expense, which will possibly amoimt to 1000 livres or 1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in proportion for the officer under him; but, as in the begimiing of an establishment the expenses exceed the profits, it is improbable that any company of merchants will assume the outlay, and in this case they demand orders on this point, as well as his majesty's opinion as to the necessity of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which has already afforded proofs of its fidelity and attachment.

" These orders could be sent them by the way of He Koyale, or by the first merchantmen that will sail for Quebec.. The time required to receive intelligence of the occurrences in the Scioux country, will admit of their waiting for these orders before doing anything."

Sieur de la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la Peniere Boucher, with a few French, during the troubles remained in the Sioux country. After peace was estabUshed with the Foxes, Legardeur Saint Rerre was in command at Fort Beauharnois, and Father Guignas again attempted to establish a Sioux mission. In a communication dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian authorities is the followmg: '*ln regard to tho Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have written to Sieur de Beauhamois on the tenth and eleventh of last April, that these Indians appeared well intentioned toward the French, and had no other fear than that of being abandoned by them. Sieur de Beauhamois annexes an extract of these letters, and although the Scioux seem very friendly, the result only can tell whether this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, for the imrestrained and inconsistent spirit which composes the Indian character may easily change it. They have not come over this summer as yet, but M, de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so next year, and to have an eye on their proceedings."

Be Lusionan Visits The Sioux Country

XV. dated Versailles, May 10th, 1737, was in these words : " As respects the Scioux, according to what the commandant and missionary at that post liave written to Sieur de Beauhamois relative to the disposition of these Indians, nothing appears to be wanting on that point.