Houston County, Minnesota - Chapter 6: Baron La Hontan's Fabulous Voyage, 1882

L« HonUn, * 0 - eon by Birth - Early Life. - Description of Vox snd Wisconsin Riwr* - Indian Pesst. - Alleged Ascent of Long Hirer. - Bobe Exposes the Deception. - Route to the Pacific.

The " Travels " of Baron La Hontan 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 expedition oi 1684, toward Niagara, and was also in the battle near Rochester, 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 Poutouatamis, and a few of the Malominis have their villages on the border of this river, and the Jesuits have a house there. In the place there is carried on quite a commerce in furs and Indian corn, 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. The 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 the 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 with 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 observed the same formalities."

He alleges that, on the 23d of October, he reached the Mississippi River, and, ascending, on the 3d of November he entered into a river, a tributary from the 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 upon 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 the Congregation of the Mission, dated Versailles, March 15, 1716, and addressed to De L'Isle, tfie geographer of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, which exposes the deception.

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

44 All the Canadians, and even the Governor General, have told me that this river is unknown. If it existed, the French, who are on the Illinois, and at Ouabache, would know of it. The last volume of the ' Lettres Edifiantes' of the Jesuits, in which there is a very fine relation of the Illinois Country, 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 country. They send me some quite pretty work, made by the 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 [MinnesotaJ River is ascended to its source they will, according to all appearance, find in the highland another river leading to the Western Ocean.

" For the last two years I have tormented exceedingly the Governor-General, M. Baudot, and M. Duche, to move them to discover this ocean. If I succeed, as I hope, we shall hear tidings before three 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 Hontan's voyage, writes: " The voyage up the Long River is as 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 roughly made map of his Long River, I was struck with the resemblance of its course as laid down with that of Cannon River, which I had previously sketched 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 growth of wild grass that propagates itself around all old Indian settlements."