Rice County, Minnesota - Events Whicu Led to Building Fort Beattharnois on Lake Pepin, 1882

Events Whicu Led to Building Fort Beattharnois on Lake Pepin

Be-EsUblishment of Mackinaw. - Sieur de Louvigny at Mackinaw. - De Lignerjat Mackinaw.^-Louvigny Attacks the Foxes. - Du Luth's Post Reoccupicd. - Saint Pierre at La Pointe on Lake Superior, - Preparations for a Jesuit Mission among the Sioux. - La Perriere Boucher's Expedition to Lake Pepin. - De Conor and Guiguas, Jesuit Missionaries. - Visit to Foxes and Winnebagoes. - Wisconsin River Described. - Fort Beauharnois Built. - Fireworks Displayed. - High Water at Lake Pepin. - De Conor Visits Mackinaw. - Boucherville, Montbrun and Guiguas Captured by Indians. - Montbrun's Escape. - Boucher%-ilIe's Presents to Indians. - Exaggerated Account of Father Cuignas' Capture. - Ijispatches Concerning Fort Beauharnois. - Sieur de la Jenieraye. - Saint Pierre at Fort Beauharnois. - Trouble between Sioux and Foxes - Sioux Visit Quebec. - De Lusignan Visits the Sioux Country. - Saint Pierre Noticed in the Travels of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike.

After the Fox Imliaus drove away Le Sueur's men, in 1702, from the ISIakahto, or Bhie Earth river, the merchants of :SIoiitreal ;hrI Quebec did not encourage trade with tlie tribes beyond JSIaekinaw.

D'Aigreult, a French oflicer, sent to inspect that post, in tlie summer of 170S, reported that he arrived there, on the 19th of August, and found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen. He also wrote: " Since there are now only a few wanderers at ]\Iichilimackinack, the greater part of the furs of the savages of the north goes to the English trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The Outawas are unable to make this trade 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 Vie 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 imtil 1(J9I 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 tlie war has caused to return to Michilinuiciiiac. ******

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, especially if the Foxes were to attiick them or us."

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

" Michilimackinac might be re-established, without expense to his Majestj', 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 furnish 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 permits, if the King should not think proper to grant an exclusive commerce. It is absolutely necessary to know the wishes of tlie Kmg concerning these two propositions ; and as M. Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it will not be any greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estabment 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 AVest.

Early in 1714, ^Mackinaw was re-occupied, and on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition under Lieuteuiint Louvigny, left Quebec. His arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long expected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hundred men, he proceeded agamst the Foxes in AVisconsin. He brought with htm 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 declaration which can scarcely be credited. After

Besibe Fob A Nobihern Route 10 The Facific

The paddles of the birch bark canoes and the gay songs of the voyagenrs now began to bo heard once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du i.ulli. on I,al<t' Sujierior near the northern boundary of ^Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Kobertcl de la Xone.

In view of tlic troubles among the tribes of the nortliwest, in the month of September, 171S, Captain St. Pierre, who had great influence with the Indians of Wisconsin and iSIinnesota, was sent with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-occupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Haylield, in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The chiefs of the baud there, and at Keweenaw, had threatened war against the Foxes, who had killed some of their number.

Wlien 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 Pacilio Ocean by an inland route, and suggested that an expedition should proceed from the mouth of the ilissouri and follow that stream, or that a post should be established among the Sioux which shoidd be the point of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 1722 an allowance w^as made by the French Government, of twelve hundred livres, for two .Jesuit missionaries to accompany those who should establish the new post. D'Avagour, Superintendent of ilissions, 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, announced that Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesiuts, expected that, the next spring. Father Guymoneau, and another missionary from Paris, woidd go to tlie Sioux, l)ut that they had Ijeen hindered by the Sioux a few months before killing 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 m ilontreal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who

On the seventh of June. 172(;, peace was concluded l)y De Ligncry w itli the Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who liad succeeded Saint Pierre in coiuniaiid at La Pointe. was ordered, by ])reseuts 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 Ojibways and Dahkotas, and sent two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the latter, with a promise tliat. 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 sjiring of 1727 the (iovernor of Cana<la wrote that the fathers, appointed forthe Sioux mission, desired a case of mathematical instruments, a universal astronomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stakes, and a telescope of .six or seven feet tube.

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

La I'erriere had served in Xe\\-fomKlland and been associated \\ith Ilertel de Kouville in raids into Xew England, and gained an unenviable notoriety as the leader of the savages, while Kouville led the French in attacks upon towns like Haverhill. Massachusetts, where the Indians exultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped liis loving wife, and dashed out his infant's brains against a rock. He was accompanied by his brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers, De (ionor and Pierre Michel Guignas, were also of the party.

In Shea's " Early French Voyages" there was printed, 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. ii., and reached Michili- mackinac the 22d of the month of July. This post is two luuulred and fifty-one leagues from Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 minutes north latitude.

" ^Ye spent the rest of the mouth at this post, in the hope of receiving from day to day some new.s 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 sotitheast, we reached the Bay [Green] on the Sth of the same month, at 5:30 r. M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north latitude.

" We stopped there two days, and on the llth 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 [AVinuebagoes] came out tln'ee 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 the village, sixty to eighty men, l)ut 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,atthecabinsof the Foxes, a nation so much dreaded, and really so little to be dreaded. From all that we could see, it is composed 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 boxuig 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 arid wild rice of almost impenetrable thicluiess. 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 doftii withtheir peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain, and all smoked.

"We stayed among them the rest of this day, and all the next, to know what were their designs and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux. The Sieur Keaume, 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 Cliardon, an old missionary, was of very great assistance there, and the presence of three missionaries reassured these cut-throats 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 followmg Smiday, 17th of the month of August, very early in the morning. Father Cliardon 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.

" ^"ever 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. AV^e kept on, as it were feeling our way for eight days, for it was only on the ninth, abcnit three o'clock p. m., that we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsm, which is forty-five leagues from the Foxes, counting all the twists and turns of this abominable river.

'- The Ouisconsin is quite a liandsome river, but far below what we liad been told. aii|)arently, 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 iiuieksand, which forms bars almost everywhere, and these often ehange 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 Jlississijipi, I estimated thirty-eight leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. -\ min. north latitude.

" The Mississippi from the mouth of tlie Ouisconsin ascending, goes northwest. Tliis beautifvd river extends between two chains of high, bare and vei'y sterile mountains, constantly a league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is narrowest, half a league i.part. Its centre is occupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that regarding fi-om the lieights 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 Pei>in. 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 Ouisconsui.

"On the 17tli of September, 1727, at noon, we reached this lake, which had been chosen as the bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on the shore about the middle of the north side, on a low point, where tlie soil is excellent. The wood is very dense there, but is already thinned in consequence of the rigor and length of the whiter, 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 oui- lauding we put .our axes to the wood: on the fourth day folli3wing the fort v,i3 entirely linished. 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-eight 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 loth of the month of April, we \vere obliged to camp out^ and the water ascended to the height of two feet and eight indies in the houses, and it is idle to say that it was the quantity of snow that fell this year. Tlie snow in the vicinity had melted long before, ami there was only a foot and a half from the Sth of February to the loth of JSIarch; you could not use snow-shoes.

" I have great reason to think tliat this spot is inundated more or less every year; I have always thought so. but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people who said that they had lived iu 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 furnished, and each one found himself traiKpiilly lodged at home. They then thought only of gohig out to explore the hills and rivers and to see tliose 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 voyiiyeura left the comitry; they are no longer in such great numbers, and are killed with dilUculty.

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

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-' What contributed much to the amusement, was the terror of some cabins of Indians, wlio were at the time around the fort. When tliese poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take flight, and the 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 dayL<, around the French fort to the number of ninety-flve 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 band of about sixty men, who came on tlie 26th of the month of Feliruary. who were of those nations called Sioux of the Prairies.

" At the end of November, the Indians set out for their winter q\iarters. 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, during a week, for more than sixty leagues of the Mississippi. He [La Perriere V] 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 thieves, great dancers, and great medicine men. The men are almost all large and well made, but the women are very ugly and disgustuig, whicli does not, however, check debauchery among them, and is perhaps an eifect 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 l)e Lignery and Beaujeu marched against their stronghold, to find they had retreated to the Mississippi Kiver.

On the 12tli of October i^niclierville. his brother ;Montbrun, a younj^ jadet of enterprising spirit, the Jesuit Guiguas, and other Frenchmen, eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by way of the Illinois River. They were captured by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained at the river " Au Boeuf ,'" which stream was probably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twentytwo leagues above the Illinois River, althougli the same name was given liy Hennepin to the Chippewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were held as prisoners, with the view of delivering them to the Foxes. The night before the delivery tlie Sieur Montbrun and his brother and another Frenchman escaped. ^lontbnm, leaving his sick brother in tlie Illinois country, journeyed to Canada and informed the authorities.

Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners for several months, and the former did not reach Detroit until .Tune, 1729, The account of expenditures made during his captivity is interesting as showing the value of merchandize at that time. It reads as follows:

" Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de Boucherville was obliged to furnisli in the service of the King, from the time of his detention among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October, 1728. 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 - Two barrels of powder, each fifty pounds

Four coats, braided, at twenty francs... 80 fr. Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen 21 fr. Four hundred flints, one hundred gunworms, two hundred rann-nds and one hundred and fifty files, the total iit the

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 would allow them to weep over and cover their dead: i Two braided coats ((ji 20 fr. each... >. . 40fr.

The Eenards having betrayed and killed their brothers, the Kickapoos, I seized the favorable opportimity, and to encourage the latter to avenge themselves, I gave - Twenty-five poundsof powder, («: 80sous oTf.lOs.

In departing from the Kikapoos village. I gave them the rest of the goods for their good treatment, estimated at ... . SOf In a letter, written by a priest, at Xew Orleans, on July 12. 1730. is tlie following exaggerated account of the capture of Father Guignas: " We always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians, although they did not longer dare to midertake anything, since Father Guignas has detached from their alliance the tribes of the Kika|>ous and IMaskoutins. You know, my Reverend Father, that, being in

Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to the Sioux near the sources of the IMississippi, at the distance of eight hundred leagues from Xew t)rleans and livi^ hundred from Quebec. Obliged to abandon this important mission by the unfortunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes, he descended the river to repair to the Illiiuiis. On the loth of October in the year 172.S he was arrested when half way by the Kickapous and .Maskoutins. For four months he was a captive among the Indians, where he had much to suffer and everything to fear. The time at last came when he was to be burned alive, when he was adopted Ijy an old man whose family saved his life and procured his liljerty.

" Our missionaries who are among the Illinois were no sooner acquainted with the situation than tliey 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 wlience, 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 account of the freshets, but the Indians assure that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever (lid before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it at that place it was on the assurance of the Indians that the 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 in the habit of doing, for their own support and that of their families, who have only that means of liveUhood, as they do not cultivate the soil at all. M. de iieaidiarnois has just lieen informed that their al)sence was occasioned only by having fallen in wliile hunting with a number of prairie Si-ioux, by whom they were invited to occompany them on a war expedition against the ^Iahas>

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" The interests of religion, of the service, and of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of this establishment, whicli 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 coxmteract the measures they might adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invariably reject their propositions so long as the French remain in the coimtry, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these advantages and the importance of preserving that establishment, M. de Beanharnois cannot take any steps until he has news of the French who asked his permission this summer 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 other hand, tlie greatest portion of the traders, who applied in 1727 for the establishment of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send thither 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 oilier case might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all probabiUty, come or send next year to sue for peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on advantageous conditions, tliere need be no aiii>rehension 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 difBculties would be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and that is, to send a commanding and sub-officer, and some soldiers, up there, whicli are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of good order at that post; the missionaries would not go there without a commandant. This article, which regards the service, and the expense of which must be on his majesty's account, obliges them to apply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their power, induce the traders to meet that expense, which will possibly amount to 1000 livres or 1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in proportion for the officer under him; but, as in the begimdng of an establishment the expenses exceed the profits, it is improbable tliat 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 Royale, 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 oi'ders before doing anything."

Sieur ds la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la Perriere Boucher, with a few French, during the troubles remained in the Sioux country. After peace was estalilished vrtth the Foxes, Legardeur Saint Pierre was in command at Fort Beanharnois, and Father Guignas again attempted to establish a Sioux mission. In a communication dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian authorities is the following : "In regard to the Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have written to Sieur de Beanharnois 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 Beanharnois annexes an extract of these letters, and although the Scioux seemveryfriendly, the result only can tell whether this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, for the imrestrained andinconsistent 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 Lusignan Visits The Sioux Covntky

X^'. dated ^'ersailles, Alay 10th, 1737, was in these words : As respects the Scioiix. accordiiiii' to what the commandant and missicinary at that post have written to Sienr (U' lieaiiliarnois relative to tlie disposition of tliese Indians, nothin,;;' appears to be wanting on that iioint.

'- But their delay in coming down to Montreal since tlie time they have promised to do so. must render their sentiments somewhat suspected, and nothing but facts can determine whetlK-r their fidelity can be absolutely relied on. iiut what must still further increase the imeasiness to he entertained in tlieir regard is the attack on the convoy of M. de Yerandrie. espei-ially if this ofllccr has adopted the course he had informed the Marquis de Beauharnois he should take to have revenge therefor."

The particulars of the attack alluded to will lie found in the next chapter. Soon after this the Foxes again became troublesome, and the post on Lake Pepin was for a time abandoned by the French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language : " The Marquis de Beauharnois' opinion respecting the war against the Foxes, has been the more readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil, Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Corne, de Lignery, LaXoue. and l)uplessis-Fabert. whom he had assembled at his house, as it apjiears from all the lettersthat the Count has writ n for several years, that he has nothing so much at heart as the destruction of that Indian nation, which ca]i not be prevailed on by the presents and the good treatment of the French, to live in peace, notwithstanding all its promises.

" Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a secret understanding with the Iroquois, to secure a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged to abandon their villages. Tliey have one already seciu'ed among the Sioux of the prairies, with Vv-hom they are allied ; so that, should they be advised beforehand of the design of the French to wage war against tliem, it would be easy for thcin to rclii.' to the one or the other before their passage could l)e intersected or themselves attacked in their villages."

In the summer of 17tH, a deputation of the Sioux came down to tiuebec. to ask that trade might be resumed. Three years after this, four Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and asked that a commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois ; which was not granted.

During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan visited the Sioux country, ordered l)y the government to hunt up the --(-oiueurs des bois,"" and withdraw them from the country. They started to return with him, but learning that they would be arrested at JMackinaw, for violation of law, they ran aw'ay. While at the villages of the Sioux of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to this officer nineteen of their young men, bound with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at the Illinois. Wlxile he remained with them, they made peace with the Ojibways of La Pointe, with whom they had been at war for some time. On his return, foiu- chiefs accompanied him to Montreal, to solicit pardon for their >oung Ijraves.

Keminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1766, "observed the ruins of a French factory, where, it is said. Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a great trade with the Nadouessies before the reduction of Canada."

Pike, in iso.j, wrote in his joui-nal: Just below Pt. Le Sable, the French, who had driven the Penards [Foxes] from Wisconsin, and chased them up the Mississippi, built a stockade on this lake, as a barrier against the savages. It became a ntited factory for the Sioux."

Conversation of Verendrye with Father De Conor. - Parentage and Early Life - Old Indian Map Preserved. - Vtrendrye's Son and Nephew Explore Pigeon River and Reach Rainy I.ake. - Father Messayer a Companion. - Fort St. Pierre Established. - Lake of the Woods Reached and Fort St. Charles Built. - De la Jeiueraye's Map. - Fort on the Assinaboine River. - Verendrye's Son, Fntlier Oiineau and .Associates Killed hy Sioux, on Massacre Isle, in Liike of the Woods - Fort La Reine. - Verendrye's Eldest Son, with Others, Reaches tile Missouri River. - Discovers the Rocky Mountains. - Returns to Lake of the Woods. - Exploration of Saskatchewan River. - Sieur de la Verendrye Jr. - Verendrye the Father, made CapUin of the Order of St. Louis. - His Death.- The Swedish Traveler, Kalin, Notices Verendrye. - Bougainville Descrilies Verendrye's Explorations. - Legardeur de St. Pierre at Fort La Reine. - Fort .lonquiere Est.'ihlished. - De la Corne Succeeds St, Pierre. - St. Pii^re Meets Washington at French Creek, in Pennsylvania. - Killed in Battle, near Lake George.

Early in the year 1728, t'wo travelers met at the secluded post of Mackinaw, one was named De Gonor, a Jesuit Father, who with Guignas, had gone vith the expedition, that the September before had built Fort Beauharnois on the shores of Lake Pepin, the other was Pierre Gualtier Varennes, the Sieur de la Yerendrj'e the commander of the post on Lake Nepigoii of the north shore of Lake Superior, and a relative of the Sieur de la Perriere, the commander at Lake Pepin.

Verendrye was the son of Rene Gualtier Varennes who for tAventy-two years was the chief magistrate at Three Piivers, whose wife was Marie Boucher, the daughter of his predecessor whom he had married when she was twelve years of age. lie became a cadet in H)l)7, and in 1704 accompanied an expedition to New England. The next year he was in Newfoundland and the year follo'v\dng he went to France, joined a regiment of Brittany and was in the conflict at ilalplaquet when the French troops were defeated by the Duke of Marlborough. Waen he returned to Canada he was obU.ged to accept the position of ensign notwithstanding the gallant manner in which he had behaved. In time he became identified with the Lake Superior region. Wliile at Lake Nepigouthe Indians assured him that there was a communication largely by water to the Pacific Ocean. One, named Ocliagachs, drew a rude map of the country, which is still preserved among the French archives. Pigeon lliver is marked thereon Mantohavagane, and the River St. Louis is marked R. fond du L. Superior, and the Indians appear to have passed from its headwaters to Rainy Lake. Upon the western ex-« tremity is marked the River of the West.

De Gonor conversed much upon the route to the Pacific with Verendrye, and promised to use his influence with the Canadian authorities to advance the project of exploriitiou.

Charles De Beauhfirnois, the Governor of Canada, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing, and carefully examined the map of the region west of the great lakes, which had been drawn by Ochagachs (Otchaga), the IniUan guide. Orders were soon given to tit out an expedition of fifty men. It left Montreal in 1731, under the conduct of his sons and nephew De la Jemeraye, he not joining the party till 1733, La conseq-uence of the detentions of business.

In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy Lake, by the Nantouagan, or Groselliers river, now called Pigeon. Father Messayer, who had been stationed on Lake Superior, at the Groselliers river, was taken as a spiritual guide. At the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and called Fort St. Pierre, and the next year, having crossed Minittie, or Lake of the Woods, they established Fort St. Charles on its southwestern l)ank. Five leagues from Lake Winnipeg they established a post on the Assinaboine. An unpublished miip of these discoveries by De la Jemeraye still exists at Paris. The river Winnipeg, called by them Maiirepas, in honor of the minister of France in 1734, was protected by a fort of the same name.

About this time their advance was stopped by the exhaustion of supplies, but on the 12th of April, 1735, an arrangement was made for a second equipment, and a fourth son jomed the expedition.

tiou were camped upon an isle in the Lake of the NVooils, they were siniirised hy a hand of Sioux hostile 1(1 the French allies, the Cristinaux. ami all killed. The island, upon tliis account, is called Massacre Island. A few da.\s after, a jiarty of Ave Canadian voyageurs discovered their ilcad bodies and scalped heads. Father Ouncau, tlie missionary, was found upon one knee, an arrow in his head, his breast bare, his left hand louchmg the ground, and the right hand raised.

Among the slaughtered was also a son of A'crendrye, wlio had a tomahawk in his back, and his body adorned with garters and In-acelets of porcupine. The father was at tlie foot of the Lake of the Woods when he received the news of his son's murder, and about the same time heard of the death of his enterprising nephew, Dufrost de la Jemeraye, the son of his sister ilarie Keine de Varennes, and brother of Madame Youville, the foundress of the Hospitallers at jNIontreal.

On the 3d of October, 1738, they built an advanced post. Fort La Reine, on the river Assiniboels, now Assiual)oine, which tliey called 81 Charles, and beyond was a branch called 8t. Pierre. These two rivers received the baptismal name of A'erendrye. which was Pierre, and governor neauharuois. which was Charles. The post became the centre of trade and point of departure for explorations, either ncn'tli or south.

It was by ascending the Assinaboine, and by tbe present trail from its tributary. Mouse river, they reached tlie country of the Mantanes, and in 1741, came to the upper Missouri, jiassed the Yellow Stone, and at length arrived at the llocky Mountains. The party was led by the eldest son and his lirother, the chevalier. They left the Lake of the "Woods on the 29th of April, 1742, came in sight of the Kocky Mountains on the 1st of January, 1743, and on the 12th ascended them. On the route they fell in witli the beaux Ilonimes, Pioya, T'etits Renards. and ^Vrc tribes, and stopped among the Snake tribe, but covdd go no farther in a southerly direction, owing to a war between the Arcs and Snakes.

On the 19th of May, 1744, tliey had relumed to the upper Missouri, and. in the country of the Petite Cerise tribe, they planted on an enunence a leaden plate of the arms of France, and raised a monument of stones, which they called ]5eauharnois. They retui-ned to the Lake of the Woods on the 2d of .July.

Xoilh of the Assiniboine they ])rocceded to Lake Dauphin, Swan's Lak<', explored the river "Des Biches," and ascended even to the fork of the Saskatchewan, which Ihey called Poskoiac. Two forts were subsei|uenlly established, one near Lake Danplnn and the other on the liver " des Biches," called F(}rt Bourbon. The northern route, by the Saskatchewan, was thought to have some advantage over the ]\Iissouri, because there was no danger of meeting with the Spaniards.

Governor Beauharnois having been prejudiced against Verendrye by envioiis persons, De Noyelles was appointed to take command of the posts. During these difflculties, we find Sieur de la Verendrye, Jr., engaged in other duties. In August, 1747, he arrives from Mackinaw at Montreal, and in the autumn of that year he accompanies St. Pierre to Mackhiaw, and brings back the convoy to ilontreal. In February, 1748, with live Canadians, five Cristenaux, two Ottawas, and one Sauteur, he attacked the Mohawks near Sclienectady. and returned to Montreal with two scalps, one that of a chief. On June 20tli. 1748, it is recorded that Chev;ilier de la A'erendrye departed from Montreal for tlie head of Lake Superior. iSIargry states that he perislied at sea in Xovember, 1764, by the wrec'k of the " Auguste."

Fortunately, Galissioniere the successor of Beiluharnois, although deformed and insigniflcant in appearance, was fair minded, a lover of science, especially liotany, and anxious to push discoveries toward the I'acific. Verendrye the father was restored to fa^'(lr, and made Captain of the Order of St. Louis, and ordered to resume explorations, but he died on Decemlier (ith, 1749, while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan.

The Swedish Professor, Kalni. met him in Canada, not long before his decease, anil had interesting conversations with him about tlie furrows on the plains of the Missouri, which he erroneously conjectured indicated tlie former abode of an agricultural peo]ile. These ruts are familiar to moih'rn travelers, and may be only buffalo trails.

Explobers Axd Pioneers Of Minnesota

Veremlrye. says that they first met the ilantanes, and next the Brochets. After these -were the Gros Ventres, the Crows, the Flat Heads, the Black Feet, and Dog Feet, who were established on the Missouri, even np to the falls, and that about thirty leagues beyond they found a narrow pass in the mountains.

Bougainville gives a more full account: he says; 'He who most advanced this discovery was the Sieiu- de la Veranderie. He went from Fort la Reine to the JVlissouri. He met on the banks of this river the JNlandans, or "White Beards, who had seven villages with pine stockades, strengthened by a ditch. Next to these were the Kinongewiniris. or the Brochets, in three villages, and toward the upper part of the river were three villages of the Mahantas. All along the mouth of the Wabeik, or Shell River, were situated twenty-three villages of the Panis. To the southwest of this river, on the banks of the Ouanaradeba, or La Graisse, are the Hectanes or Snake tribe. They extend to the base of 'a chain of mountains which runs north northeast. South of tills is the river Karoskiou, or Cerise Pelee. which is supposed to flow to California.

" He found in the immense region watered by the jNIissouri, and in tlie vicinity of forty leagues, the Mahantas, the Owiliniock, or Beaux Hommes, four villages; opposite the Brochets the P^lack Feet, three villages of a hundred lodges each; op_ posite the Mandansare the Ospekakaerenousques. or Hat Heals, foui- villages: opposite the Panis are the Arcs of Cristinaux, and Utasibaontchatas of Assiniboel, three villages; following these the Makesch, or Little Foxes, two villages; the Piwassa, or great talkers, three villages; the Kakokoschena, or (iens de la Pie, five villages: the Kiskipisounoium,, or the Garter tiibe, seven villages."

Galassoiiiere was succeeded l)y Jonquiere in the governorshii> of Canada, who proved to lie a grasjiing, peevish, and very miserly person. For the sons of Verendrye he had no sympathy, and forming a clique to prolit by their father's toils,

Father Coquard, one of the companions of Verendrye, was consulted as to the probability of finding a pass in the Rocky Mountains, through i,\hich they might, in canoes, reach the great lake of salt water, perhaps Puget's Somid.

The enterprise was at length confided to two experienced oflicers, Laraarque de JSIarin and Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. The former was assigned the way, by the Missouri, and to the latter was given the more northern route; but Saint Pierre in some way excited the hostility of the Cristinaux, who attempted to kill him, and burned Fort la Reine. His lieutenant, Boucher de Niverville, who had been sent to establish a post toward the source of the Saskatchewan, failed on account of sickness. Some of his men, however, pushed on to the Rocky Mountains, and in 1753 established Fort Jonquiere. Henry says St. Pierre established Fort Bourbon.

In 17-53, Saint Pierre was succeeded in the command of the posts of the "West, by de la Corne, and sent to French Creek, in Pennsylvania. He had been but a few days there when he received a visit from "Washington, just entering upon manhood, bearing a letter from Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia, complaining of the en croachments of the French.

Soon the clash of arms between France and England began, and Saint Pierre, at the head of the Indian allies, fell near Lake George, in September, 1755, in a battle with the English. After the seven years' war was concluded, by the treaty of Paris, the French relinquished all their posts in the Northwest, and the work begun by Verendrye, was, in 1805, completed by Lewis and Clarke ; and the Northern Pacific Railway is fast approaching the passes of the Rocky Mountains, through the valley of the Yellow Stone, and from thence to the great land-locked bay of the ocean, Puget's Sound.

English Influence Increasinfr. - Lp Due Robbed at Uko Superior. - St. Pierre ;il Mackaiaw. - Kscape of Indian Prisoners. - U Ronde and Verendrye. - Influenee of Sieur Marin. - St. Pierre Recalled from Winnipeg Region. - Interview witli Washington. - Langlade Urges Attack Upon Troops of Braddock. - Saint Pierre Killed in Battle. - Marin's Boldne.-^s.- Rogers, a Partis.an Ranger. Commands at Mackinaw. - At Ticonderoga, - French Deliver up the Posts in Canada. -('apt. Balfour Takes Possession of Mackinaw and Green Bay. - Lieut. Gorrcll in.Coin, raand at Green Biiy.- Sionx Visit Green Bay. - Penncnsha a French Trader Among the Sious. - Treaty of Paris.

Euglish mfluence produced increasing dissatisfaction among tlie Indians that were beyond ]Mackina\v. Not only were tlie viiyageurs rolilied and maltreated at Sault St. Marie and other points on Lake .Superior, but even the commandant at Mackiuciw was exposed to insolence, and there was no security anywhere.

On the twenty-third of August. 1747, Philip Le Due arrived at Mackinaw from Lake Superior, stating that he bad been robbed of his goods at Kamanistigoya, and that the Ojibways of the lake were favorably disposed toward the English. The Dahkotahs were also becoming unruly in the absence of French officers.

In a few weeks after Le Due's robbery, St. Pierre left Montreal to become commandant at Mackinaw, and Vercheres was appointed for the post at Green Bay. In the language of a document of the day, St. Pierre was " a very good officer, much esteemed among all the nations of those parts ; none more loved and feared." On his arrival, the savages were so cross, that he advised that no Frenchman should come to trade.

By promptness and boldness, he secured the Indians who had murdered some Frenchmen, and obtained the respect of the tribes. "While the three murderers were being conveyed in a canoe down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, in charge of a sergeant and seven soldiers, the savages, with characteristic cunning, thou.gh manacled, succeeded in killing or dro\\niing the guard. Cutting their irons with an axe, they sought the woods, and escaped to their own country. "Thus," vTites Galassoniere, in 1748, to Count Maurepas, was lost in a great measure the fruit of Sieur St. Pierre's good management, and of all tlii' fatigue I endured to get the nations who surrendered these rascals to listen to reason."

Under the influence of Sieur Marin, who was in command at Green Bay in 1753, peaceful relations were in a measure restored between the French and Indians.

As the war between England and France deepened, the officers of tiie distant French posts were called in and stationed nearer tlie enemy. Legardeur St. Pierre, was brought from the Lake "Winnipeg region, and, in December, 17o3, was in command of a rude post near lOric. I'enusylvania. Langlade, of Green Bay, ^^'is(-(lllsin. arrived early in July, 17o5, at Fort Duquesne. With Beauyeu and De Lignery. who had been engaged in lighting the Fox Indians, he left that fort, at nine o'clock of the morinng of the 9th of July, and, a little after noon, came near the English, who had halted on the south shore of the Monougahela, and were at dinner, with their arms stacked. By the rn-gent entreaty of Langlade, the western half-breed, Beauyeu. the oflii-er in command ordered an attack, and Braddock was overwhelmed, and Washington was obliged to say, " We have lieen beaten, shamefully beaten, by a handful of Frenchmen."

Under Baron Dieskau, St. Pierre commanded the Indians, in September. 17.55. during the campaign near Lake George, where he fell gallantly fighting the English, as did his commander. The Rev. Claude Coquard, alluding to the French defeat, in a letter to his brother, remarks:

" We lost, on that occasion, a brave officer. M. de St. Pierre, and had his advice, as well as that of several other Canadian officers, been followed, Jonckson [Johnson] was irretrievably destroyed.

Other officers who had been stationed on the borders of Minnesota .also distmguished themselves during the French war. The ilarquis Montcalm, in camp at Ticonderoga, on the twenty-seventh of .July, 1757, writes to Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada:

" Lieutenant Marin, of the Colonial troops, who has exliiliited a rare audacity, did not consider iiimself bound to lialt, although his detachment of about four hundred men was reduced to about two hundred, the balance having been sent back on account of inability to follow. He carried off a patrol of ten men, and swept away an ordinary guard of fifty lilie a wafer; went up to the enemy's camp, under Fort Lydias (Edward), where he was exposed to a severe fire, and retreated like a warrior. He \Aas luiwilllng to amuse Iiimself maliing prisoners; he brought in only one, and thirty-two scalps, and must have killed many men of the enemy, in the midst of whose ranks it was neither wise nor prudent to go in search of scalps. Tlie Indians generally all behaved well. * * * The Outaouais, wlio arrived with me, anil -wlioni I designed to go on a scouting party towards tlie lake, liad conceived a project of administering a corrective to the English barges. * * * On tlie day before yesterday, your brother formed a detacliment to accompany tliem. I arrived at Iris camp on the evening of the same day. Lieutenant de Corbiere, of the Colonial troops, was returning, in consequence of a misunderstanding, and as I knew the zeal and intelligence of that ofticer, I made him set out with a new instruction to join Messrs de Langlade and Hertel de Cliantly. They remained in ambush all day and night yestei'day; at break of day the English appeared on Lake St. Sacrament, to the number of twenty-two barges, under the commanl of Sieur Parker. The whoops of our Indians impressed them with such terror that they made but feeble resistance, and only two barges escaped."

After De Corbiere's victory on Lake Chamjilain, a large French army was collected at. Ticonderoga, with which there were many Indians from the tribes of the Northwest, and the loways ajipeared for the first tiiiK^ in the e;ist.

Pierre, Lusignan, Marin, Langlade, and others, became the pioneers of the British, a few years afterwards, in the occupation of the outposts of the lakes, and in the exploration of Alinnesota.

Kogers, the celebrated captain of rangers, subsequently commander of Mackinaw, and Jonathan Carver, the first British explorer of Minnesota, were both on duty near Lake Champlain, the latter narrowly escaping at the battle of Fort Gieorge.

On Christmas eve, 1757, Rogers approached Fort Ticonderoga, to fire the outhouses, but was prevented by discharge of the cannons of the Fren h.

He contented himself with killing fifteen beeves, on the horns of one of which he left this laconic and amusing note, addressed to the commander of the post:

'- I am obliged to you. Sir, for the repose you have allowed me to take; I thank you for the fresh meat you have sent me, I i-fequest you to present my compliments to the Marquis du Montcalm."

On the thirteenth of March, 1758, Durantaye, formerly at Mackinaw, had a skirmish with Rogers. Both had been trained on the frontier, and they met '' as Greek met Greek." The coiifiict was fierce, and the French victorious. The Indian allies, finding a scalp of a chief underneath an officer's jacket, we'-e furious, and took one hundred and fourteen scalps in return. "Wlien the French retiu-ned, they supposed that Captain Kogers was among the killed.

On the eighth of September, 1700, the French delivered up all their posts in Canada. A few days after the capitulation at jSIontreal, Major Rogers was sent with I^nglish troops, to garrison the posts of the distant Northwest.

On the eighth of September, 1761, a year after the surrender. Captain Balfour, of the eightieth regiment of the British army, left Detroit, with a detachment to lake possession of the French forts at Mackinaw and Green Bay. Twenty-five soldiers were left at ^lackinaw, in command of Lieutenant Leslie, and the rest sailed to Grc-en Bay, under Lieutenant Gorrell of the Royal

Americans, where tlie>' arrived on the twelfth of October. Tlie fort liad been abaiuhmed for several years, and was in a dilapidated condition. In charge of it there was left a lieutenant, a corporal, and fifteen soldiers. Two English traders arrived at the same time, McKay from Albany, and Goddard from ^lontreal.

" On Itlarch 1, 1703, twelve warriors of the Sous came here. It is certainly the greatest nation of Indians ever yet found. IN'ot above two thousand of them were ever armed witli tirearms ; the rest depending entirely on bows and arrows, which they use with more skill than any other Indian nation in America. They can shoot the wildest and largest beasts in the woods at seventy or one hundred yards distant. They are remarkable for their dancing, and the other nations take the faslnons from them. ***** This nation is always at war with the Chippewas, those who destroyed Mishamakinak. They told me with warmth that if ever the Chippewas or any other Indians wished to obstruct the passage of the traders coming up. to send them word, and they would come and cut them olf from the face of the earth ; as all Indians were their slaves or dogs. I told them I was glad to see them, and hoped to have a lasting peace with them. They then gave me a letter wrote in French, and two belts of wampmn from their king, in wiiich he expressed great joy on hearing of there being English at his post. The letter was written by a French trader whom I had allowed to go among them last fall, with a promise of his behaving well ; which he did, better than any Canadian I ever knew. ***** With regard to traders, I would not allow M\y to go amongst them, as I then understood they lay out of the govcrnmenL of Canada. ))ut made no tloubt they would liave Iradi'i's fioin llic Mississippi in the spring. They went away extremely well pleased. June Mlh, 17()3, the traders came down from the Sack country, and conlirmed the news of Laudsiiig and his son being killed by the French. There came with the ti'aders some Puans, and four young men w itji one chief of the Avoy [loway] nation, to demand traders. *****

" On the nineteenth, a deputation of Winnebagoes. Sacs, Foxes and Meuomiuees ai'rived with a Frenchman named Pemiensha. This rennenslia is the same man who wrote the letter the Sous brought with them in French, and at the same time held council with that great nation in favour of the English, by which he much promoted the interest of the latter, as appeared liy the behaviour of the Sous. He brouglit with him a jiipe from the Sous, desiring that as the road is now clear, they would by no means allow the Chippewas to obstruct it. or give the English any disturbance, or pi'event the traders from coming up to them. If they did so they woiUd send all their warriors and cut them off."

By the treaty of Paris of 1703, France ceded to (;reat Britain all of the country east of the Mississippi, and to Spain the whole of Louisiana, so that the latter power for a time held the whole region between the Mississippi River and the Pacilic Ocean, and that portion of the city of JSIinneapolis known as the East Division was then governed by the British, while the West Division was subject to the Spanish code.