Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter 10, 1880

Chapter 10

Iroquois War - Invasion of ihe Huron Country - Destruciion of the Hurons and the Huron Missions - Conflagration of the fnilian Villages and the Misvion Houses - Bravery of the Missionaries - Their Terrible Death - Indian Battle - The Hurons iind Ottawas Abandon their Country and Settle in the Northwest, at MichilimacUinac, Sault St. Marie and Green Bay.

|N an inlet of the Bay of Matchedash, on Lake Huron, is the outlet of a .small ake situated two miles inland. Near the shore of this lake was the Central Huron Mission, Fort Sainte Marie. The buildings were in an enclosure, two sides of which were built of stone masonry, the other two sides of palisades. This was the scene of a bountiful hospitality, to which the converts frequently flocked from the most distant villages. Here, on festival days, immense assemblages gathered to witness the ceremonies of the church and receive instructions in its doctrines. There were, in the Huron country, at the several missions, eighteen priests, thirty men attached to them in different capacities, and eight soldiers.

The country of the Hurons, as before described, was abeautiful and fertile one, interspersed with meadows, luxuriant forests, and cultivated fields. It contained about twenty villages. The ravages of the pestilence and the Iroquois combined had greatly reduced the population; and now, in 1648, the Iroquois had again broken the peace and taken the war-path, desolating the country in every direction. They had sacked and burned the mission of St. Joseph, killed the missionary Daniel, and laid waste the country around it.

In the following spring, 1649, the inmates of Sainte Marie saw dense clouds of smoke arising to the south-east; it was the conflagration of St. Louis. The Iroquois had renewed their work. A thousand warriors appeared before the mission of St. Louis where were stationed Brebeuf and Lalemant. The greater part of the Hurons of the village were absent on a hunt, and there were only about eighty warriors left to defend it. The Jesuits encouraged these to make a valiant resistance, which they did, but of no avail. They were overcome; the village was set on fire, and the inmates slaughtered. Brebeuf was bound to a stake; and as he threatened them in the most undaunted manner, showing no signs of fear, and exhorting his Huron converts to merit Heaven by their conduct, they tried to silence him by scorching him, after strippinghim naked. Hecontinuedto speak with unchanged countenance; when they cut off his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. His majestic form, in all the dignity of the sublimcst courage, still stood erect and undaunted. They then took Lalemant and enveloped him with bark smeared with pitch, which they ignited. In his agony he threw up his arms in stipplication to Heaven. They next cut strips of flesh from Brebeuf and poured hot water on him, but he would not flinch.

At last they scalped him, and opened his breast, when a number of them drank his blood, to imbibe his courage. One tore out his heart and ate it. Thus died the brave founder of the Huron Missions.

A large body of Huron warriors, appearing near Sainte Marie, intercepted a body of the Iroquois, whom they defeated, when the latter fled toward St. Louis. Although they had burned the village, the palisades were yet standing, and within them the Iroquois took shelter. They were followed by the Hurons, who again attacked and dislodged them, putting them again to rout. The Hurons held the place, and the enemy fled to their main body, which turned in rage back to St. Louis, to obtain revenge for the defeat of their comrades. Here, now, occurred one of the most desperate Indian battles on record. The Hurons did not exceed two hundred, while the Iroquois were more than quadruple that number. The latter were largely armed with guns, while the arms of the former were principally bows and arrows, hatchets and knives; but they fought bravely, repelling again and again the attacks of their assailants. It was a handto-hand fight, and was kept up till after night. The forests resounded with the yells of battle, and it did not end till all of the Hurons were slain except twenty. The Iroquois lost a hundred in killed, while many more were wounded.

The priests of St. Marie, learning that the invaders had retreated, immediately proceeded to the scene of carnage. St. Louis and St. Ignace presented a spectacle of horror. The ground was strewn with the dead and mutilated bodies of men, women and children, some of them partly consumed in the conflagration which destroyed the villages. The remains of Brebeuf and Lalemant were found, and conveyed to St. Marie, and consigned to their last resting place.

War and pestilence had done their work on the Hurons; their ranks were sadly decreased; large numbers were fugitives; their fields were running to waste; their supply of food scanty;

Their former beautiful country was a scene of havoc and desolation. The ravages of the Iroquois were exterminating them. There was no alternative, but the abandonment of their country, and flight. The Hurons, as a nation, had perished, and their country relapsed into the solitude of the wilderness.

Some of them found an as)'lum among kindred nations, while others sought out new homes in the wilds of the islands of Lake Huron. The following year, this point was abandoned, and the Jesuits returned to Quebec, accompanied by some of the Huron bands. Other bands of Hurons and Ottawas went to Michilimackinac, Sault St. Marie and Green Bay, to seek out new homes in the Northwest, where, in alliance with the powerful Ojibewas ( Chippewas ) , who had preceeded them, they might be able to resist the further ravages of their deadly enemy.

" Several of the priests set out to follow and console the scattered bands of fugitive Hurons. One embarked in a canoe, and coasted the dreary shores of Lake Huron northward, among the labyrinth of rocks and islets, whither his scared flock had fled for refuge ; another betook himself to the forest with a band of half-famished proselytes, and shared iheir miserable rovings through the thickets and among the mountains. Those who remained took counsel together at Sainte Marie. Whither should they go, and where should be the new seat of the Mission ? They made choice of the Grand Manitoulin Island, called by them Isle Sainte Marie, and by the Hurons Ekaentoton. It lay near the northern shores of Lake Huron, and by its position would give a ready access to numberless Algonquin tribes along the borders of all these inland seas. Moreover, it would bring the priests and Iheir flock nearer to. the French settlements, by the route of the Ottawa, whenever the Iroquois should cease to infest that river. The fishing, too, was good ; and some of the priests, who knew the island well, made a favorable report of the soil. Thither, therefore, they had resolved to transplant the mission, when twelve Huron chiefs arrived, and asked for an interview with the Father Superior and his fellow Jesuits. The conference lasted three hours. The deputies declared that many of the scattered Hurons had determined to re-unite, and form a settlement on a neighboring island of the lake, called by the Jesuits Isle St. Joseph ; that they needed the aid of the Fathers ; that without them they were helpless, but with them they could hold their ground, and repel the attacks of the Iroquois. They urged their plea in language which Ragueneau describes as pathetic and eloquent ; and, to confirm their words, they gave him ten large collars of wampum, saying that these were the voices of their wives and children. They gained their point. The Jesuits abandoned their former plan, and promised to join the Hurons on Isle St. Joseph.

" They had built a boat, or small vessel, and in this they embarked such of their stores as it would hold. The greater part were placed on a large raft made for this purpose, like one of the rafts of timber which, every summer, float down the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa. Here was their stock of corn in part the produce of their own fields, and in part bought from the Hurons in former years of plenty - pictures, vestments, sacred vessels and images, weapons, ammunition, tools, goods for barter with the Indians, cattle, swine and poultry. Sainte Marie was stripped of everything that could be moved. Then, lest it should harbor the Iroquois, they set it on fire, and saw consumed in an hour the results of nine or ten years of toil. It was near sunset, on the fourteenth of June. The houseless band descended to the mouth of the Wye, went on boanl their raft, pushed it from the shore, and, with sweeps and oars, urged it on its way all night. The lake was calm and the weather fair; but it crept so slowly over the water that several days elapsed before they reached their destination, about twenty miles distant.

" Near the entrance of Malchedash Bay lie the three islands, now known as Faith, Hope and Charity. Of these Charily, or Christian Island, called Ahoendoe by the Hurons, and St. Joseph by the Jesuits, is by far the largest. It is six or eight miles wide ; and, when the Hurons sought refuge here, it was densely covered with the primeval forest. The priests landed with their men, some forty soldiers, laborers and others, and found about three hundred Huron families bivouacked in the woods. Here were wigwams and sheds of bark, and smoky kettles slung over fires, each on its tripod of poles, while around lay groups of famished wretches, v\'ith dark, haggard visages, and uncombed hair, in every posture of despondency and woe. They had not been wholly idle ; for they had made some rough clearings, and planted a little corn ; the arrival of the Jesuits gave them new hope; and, weakened as they were with famine, they set themselves to the task of hewing and burning down the forest, making bark houses, and planting palisades. The priests, on their part, chose a favorable spot* and began to clear the ground, and mark out the lines of a foil. Their men - the greater part serving without pay - labored with admirable spirit, and before winter, had built a square, bastioned fort of solid masonry, with a deep ditch, and walls about twelve feet high. Within were a small chape', houses for lodging, and a well, which, with the ruins of the walls, may still be seen on the southeastern shore of the island, a hundred feet from the water. Detached redoubts were also built near at hand, where French nuisketeers could aid in defending the adjacent Huron village. Though the island was called St. Joseph, the fort, like that on the Wye, received the name of Sainte Marie. Jesuit devotion scattered iIilm; names broadcast over all the fields of their labors.

" The island, thanks to the vigilance of the French, escaiwd attack throughout the summer; but Iroquois scalping-pariies ranged the neighboring shores, killing stragglers, and keeping the Hurons in peri)etual alarm. As winter drew near, great numbers, who, trembling and by stealth, had gathered a miserable subsistence among the northern forests and islands, rejoined their countrymen at St. Joseph, until six or eight thousand expatriated wretches were gathered here under the protection of the French fort. They were housed in a hundred or more bark dwellings, each containing eight or ten families Here were widows without children, and children without parents; for famine and the Iroquois had proved more deadly enemies than the pestilence which, a few years before had wasted their towns. Of this multitude, but few had strength enough to labor, scarcely any had made provision for the winter, and numbers were already perishing from want, dragging themselves from house to house like, living skeletons. Thel priests had spared no effort to meet the demands upon their charity. They sent men during the autumn to buy smoked fish from thj Northern Algonquins, and employed Indians to gather acorns in the woods. Of this miserable food they succeeded in gathering five or six hundred bushels. To diminish its bitterness, the Indians boiled it with ashes, or the priests served it out to them pounded, and mixed with corn.

"As winter advanced, the Huron houses became a frightful spectacle. The inmates were dying by scores daily. The priests and their men buried the bodies, and the Indians dug them from the earth or the snow and fed on them, sometimes in secret and sometimes openly ; although, notwithstanding their superstitious feasts on the bodies of their enemies, their repugnance and horror were extreme at the thought of devouring those of relatives and friends. An epidemic presently appeared to aid the work of famine. Before spiing, about half of their number were dead.

" Late in the preceding autumn the Iroquois had taken the war-path in force. At the end of November two escaped prisoners came to Isle St. Joseph with the news, that a band of three hundred warriors was hovering in the Huron forests, doubting whether to invade the island, or to attack the towns of Tobacco Nation, in the valleys of the Blue Mountains. The Father Superior, Ragueneau, sent a runner thither in all haste, to warn the inhabitants of their danger.

" There were at this time two missions in the Tobacco Nation, St. Jean and St Matthias, the latter under the charge of the Jesuits Garreau and Grelon, and the former under that of Gamier and Chabanel. St. Jean, the principal seat of the mission of the same name, was a town of five or six hundred families. Its population was, moreover, greatly augmented by the bands of fugitive Hurons who had taken refuge there. When the warriors were warned by Ragueneau's messenger of a probable attack from the Iroquois, they were far from being daunted, but, confiding in their numbers, awaited the enemy in one of those fits of valor which characterize the unstable courage of the savage. At St; Jean all was paint, featheis and uproar - singing, dancing, howling, and stamping. Quivers were filled, knives whetted and tomahawks sharpened ; but when, after two days of eager expectancy, the enemy did not appear, the warriors lost patience. Thinking, and probably with reason, that the Iroquois were afraid of them, they resolved to sally forth, and take the offensive. With yelps and whoops they defiled into the forest, where the branches were gray and bare, and the ground thickly covered with snow. They pushed on rapidly till the following day, but could not discovei their wary enemy, who had made a wide circuit, and was approaching their town from another quarter. By ill-luck, the Iroquois captured a Tobacco Indian and his squaw, straggling in the forest not far from St. Jean ; and the two prisoners, to propitiate them, told them the defenseless condition of the place, where none remained but women, children and old men. The delighted Iroquois no longer hesitated, but silently and swiftly pushed on towards the town.

" It was two o'clock in the afternoon, of the seventh day of December. Chabanel had left the place a day or two before, in obedience to a message from Ragueneau, and Garnier was here alone. He was making his rounds among the houses, visiting the sick and instructing his converts, when the horrible din of the war-%\hoop rose from the borders of the clearing, and, on the instant the town was mad with terror. Children and girls rushed to and fro, blind with fright ; women snatched their infants and fled, they knew not whither. Garnier ran to his chapel, where a few of his converts had sought asylum. He gave them his benediction, exhorted them to hold fast to the Faith, and bade them fly while there was yet time. For himself, he hastened back to the houses, running from one to another , and giving absolution or baptism to all whom he found. An Iroquois met him, shot him with three balls through the body and thigh, tore off his cassock, and rushed on in pursuit of the fugitives. Garnier lay for a moment on the ground as if stunned ; then, recovering his senses, he was seen to rise in a kneeling posture. At a little distance from him lay a Huron, mortally wounded, but still showing signs of life. With the Heaven that awaited him glowing before his fading vision, the priest dragged himself towards the dying Indian, to give him absolution ; but his strength failed him, and he fell again to the earth. He arose once more, and again crept forward, when a party of Iroquois rushed upon him, split his head with two blows of a hatchet, stripped him, and left his body on the ground. At this time the whole town was on fire. The invaders, fearing that the absent warriors might return and take their revenge, hastened to finish their work, scattering fire brands everywhere, and threw children alive into the burning houses. They killed many of the fugitives, captured many more, and then made a hasty retreat through the forest with their prisoners, butchering such of them as lagged on the way. St. Jean lay a waste of smoking ruins, thickly strewn with blackened corpses of the slain.

" Towards eveniug, parties of fugitives reached St. Matthias with tidings of the catastrophe. The town was wild with alarm, and all stood on the watch, in e.\pectation of an attack; but when, in the morning scouts came in and reported the retreat of the Iroquois, Garreau and Grelon set out with a party of converts to visit the scene of havoc. For a long time they looked in vain for the body of Garnier ; but at length they found him lying where he had fallen - so scorched and disfigured that he was recognized with difficulty. The two priests wrapped his body in a part of their own clothimg; the Indian converts dug a grave on the spot where his church had stood ; and here they buried him. Thus, at the age of forty-four, died Charles Garnier, the favorite child of wealthy and noble parents, nursed in Parisian luxury and ease, then living and dying, a more than willing exile, amid the hardships and horrors of the Huron wilderness. His life and his death are his best eulogy. Brebeuf was the lion of the Huron mission, and Garnier was the Iamb; but the lamb was as fear- 'ess as the lion.

" When, on the following morning, the warriors of St. Jean returned frqm their rash and bootless sally, and saw the ashes of their desolated homes, and the ghastly relics of their mur. dered families, they seated themselves amid the ruin, silent and motionless as statues of bronze, with heads bowed down and eyes fixed on the ground. They thus remained through half the day. Tears and wailing were for women ; this was the mourning of warriors.'' - Parkmaii's yesuits in North America,

Parkman continues: " ' It was not without tears,' writes the Father Superior, 'that we left the country of our hopes and our hearts, where our brethren had gloriously shed their blood. ' The fleet of canoes held its melancholy way along the shores where two years before had been the seat of one of the chief savatre communities of the continent, and where now all was a waste of death and desolation. Then they steered northward, alonj,' the eastern coast of the Geort^ian Hay, with its countless rocky islets; and everj'wliere they saw the traces of the Iroquois. When they reached Lake Nipissintj. tliey found it deserted - nothing reniainin;4 of the Altijonquins who dwelt on its shore, e.xcept the ashes of their burnt wigwams. i\ little further on there was a fort built of trees, where the Iroquois who made this desolation had spent the winter; and a league or two below, there was another similar fort. The River Ottawa was a solitude. The Algonquinsof Aliumette Island and the shores adjacent had all been killed or dri\'en awa}', never again to return."

The country was, for j'cars after this, one vast battle ground, but the F"rench,_ making vigorous war against the Iroquois, subdued them, and, in tlic cntl, formed an alliance with them.

C 11. Alter Xi

Migration of the Algoiir|iiin Tribes to the South Shore of L.ike Superior, Miclu!imacl<inac, and Green 13.ay - First Commerce of the Northwest - Allouez, Marquette and Dablon Pioneers in Western Discovery and Settlement - First Western Settlements - The Fox River Valley a Great Centre of Indian t'opulation - Alloue/. and Dahlon Visit the Present Site of Oshkosh and Buttes des Moris, and are Hospitably Entertained - Grand Council of the F>ench and Indians - Count Frontcjiac - Joliet and Marquette - Lovely Scenery of Lake Winnebago and of the Adjoining Country - The Discovery of the Mississippi - Man]uetle's Death and Burial.

I'.OUT the time that Champlain Iciiinded Quebec, the Ojibewas (Chippewas), a powerful Algonquin nation s=^'s of Canada, began their migration to the south shore of L'ake Superior, and cornmenced contesting with the Siou.x for the possession of that territory; and were now occupying the Sault St. Marie, and the country between that point and Michilimackinac. Thither, now, went many of the bands of the scattered 1 (tirons and Ottawas, for the purpose of finding homes adjacent to the Chippewas, and where they could unite with the latter in resisting the attacks of the Iroquois.

By the year 1659, the country around the Straits of St. Marie and Straits of Mackinaw, and from those points to Green Hay, was in possession of the Algonquins.

In 1659, two French traders passed the winter on the shores of Lake Superior, and caine to Ouebec in the sjiring, with sixty canoes loaded with furs, aiul paddled b>- three hundred Algonquins. This was the first commerce of the northwest. That region, now- being fast peopled by tribes, partially civilized, was a promising scene of labor for the Jesuits; and notwithstanding that the ruin of the Huron missions had been a terrible blow to the courageous disciples of Loyola, they renewed their labors with great vigor; and, undismayed by the fate of Hrebeuf, Jouges and their three other comrades, they still occupied the post of danger. Says Bancroft, in his history of the United States, "It may be asked if these massacres quenched enthusiasm. I answer that the Jesuits never receded one foot; but, as in a bra\e army, new troops press forward to fill the places of the fallen, there were never wanting heroism and enterprise in behalf of the cross and French dominion. "

In all this .dark and trj-ing period, not one of those soldiers of the cross flinched. They met death under circumstances of the most terrifying form. In every direction their mission houses were sacked and burned, and the inmates slaughtered; but they would not desert the field of duty; and new victims eagerly sought to take the places <if those who fell in the cause.

Their converts, now settled in the northwest, needed their services, and they must follow them to this new scene of hardship and danger. Hut, in their new enterprise, they united the ends of discovery, settlement and commerce, with that of Christianizing the Indians. We consequently find them mapping out the geography of the country, tracing its lakes and rivers, to many of them giving the names they now bear, examining the soil, mineral and vegetable productions of the country, and giving to the civilized world its first knowledge of the physical features and resources of the Great West.

Their industry was unremitting, and the records of their daily journal furnish us with the only reliable history of the earlier discoveries in the West, and of the first intercourse of the Indians with the whites; and it is they who have left us the most faithful description of the manners and habits of the original inhabitants before they were modified by long social contact with civilized beings. It was from the Jesuits that the Indians learned to believe in the existence of a Great Spirit. Prior to the advent of the missionaries, Indians believed in amultiplicity of manitous. There wasamanitou of fire, of water, of animals and of almost ever\- phj'sical thing.*

The Algonquins of the West being desirous of commerce with the French, and of the assistance of the latter in resisting the Iroquois, it was decided to establish missions and trading posts among them.

In 1665, Father Claude Allouez embarked on the Ottawa for Lake Superior. In September he reached the Straits of St. Mary, and carrying his canoe around the rapids, was soon paddling along the shore of the great lake. In silent admiration he gazed at the pictured rocks and the sublime scene of the vast expanse of waters, as he glided over their sur face. At last he reached the great village of the Chippewas, on Che-goe-me-gon Bay. At the time of his arrival, there was a grand council of various Algonquin tribes, to determine the question of the expediency of taking up the hatchet against the warlike Sioux. He was admitted to an audience and, in the name of the great Frencii F'ather, commanded peace. The " F"rench soldiers would smooth the path between the Chippewas and Quebec, and punish all the piratical tribes who disturbed the peace." On the shore of the bay a chapel soon arose, and thither thronged the scattered tribes to listen to the teaching of the missionary. After residing two years on the shores of Lake Superior, he went to Quebec for the purpose of urging the establishment of permanent missions on Lakes Superior and Michigan, to be accompanied b}' little colonies of French emigrants. His endeavors were successful; and he returned with Fathers Dablon and Marquette, whose name was soon to become famous as the discoverer of the Upper Mississippi. The two latter went to the Straits of St. Mary in 1668, and established the mission at that place. In the same year the Sioux resisting the intrusion on what they claimed as their territory, Father Allouez abandoned the mission at La Pointe, and moved to Green Bay, and, on the present site of Depere, built a chapel. A few years afterwards Nicholas Perrot was commissioned by the Governor of New France "to manage the interests of commerce of the Indian tribes and people of La Baye des Puants (Green Bay) and the western nations regarded by Bancroft and other eminent American historians, who consider it truthful and accurate in the highest degree. It is simply the journals of the several missions, in which each recorded the events of their daily lives and the history of the times, with discoveries - explorations and descriptions of the several sections of the country - their classification of Indian tribes, Indian wars - their relations with the Indians, and in fact everything appertaining to the history of the country during that period. Each mission was required to keep a journal and send a copy to the Father Superior at Quebec. The whole collectively form what is known as the "Jesuit Relations " of the American missions, a work that is now highly valued by the historical associations of this country.

of the Upper Mississippi, and to take possession in the King's name of all the places where he has heretofore been and whither he will go. " He established his headquarters at Rapide des Peres, which place, for more than a century, was the initial point of the travel and traffic of the great West. Here, then, two centuries ago, was the first permanent habitation of civilized man in the upper valley of the Mississippi.

At this period the continent was one vast, barbarous solitude, with the exception of a few little settlements scattered at long intervals apart in the wilderness; for besides the little English and Dutch settlements on the sea-coast, and the P"rench at Acadia and on the St. Lawrence, there were no others in all that illimitable territory, stretching away from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, e.xcept our pioneer missionaries and their attaches, who, undismayed at the fate of their comrades, had pushed their way into the very heart of the continent, exploring the majestic lakes and rivers, the broad prairies and vast forests over which rested the silence of primeval solitude, and where the adventurous traveler frequently journeyed for weeks without meeting a human being. The whole Indian population, according to reliable authority, in all the territory east of the Mississippi, did not e.xceed two hundred thousand - not much more than half the present population of Chicago - and that so widely diffused, that uninhabited tracts of hundreds of miles frequently intervened between the villages and planting-grounds of the several tribes.

The Sioux having made war on the Algonquins, whom they largely outnumbered, the latter abandoned their settlement at La Pointe, and the Hurons took up their abode at Michilimackinac, whither Marquette accompanied them and established a mission on the mainland at Point St. Ignace. Many of the Ottawas went to the Manitouline Islands; and in the following year some of them returned to their old homes on the shore of Lake Huron and the country on the Ottawa, which had remained a desolation since the time it was ravaged by the Iroquois. The French, in the mean time, had partially suppressed these ferocious tribes; their invasions had been checked, and the fugitives began to return to their former country.

The Sault St. Marie and Michilimackinac, with their Ojibewas, Hurons and Ottawas; Green Bay, with its tribes of Menominees and Sauks; the Fox River, with its tribes of Foxes and Miamis and the adjacent Lake Winne- bago, witli the Winncbagocs, now became a great center of Indian population. Heing one of the most favored regions for game and fish, while the lovely country around Lake Winnebago and on the Upper Fox afforded sites for the most productive planting-grounds, the tribes increased in numbers, and enjoyed a full share of Indian prosperity.

The locality, embracing the junction of the Great Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, and the adjacent Green Bay, with its Fox River, affording a water communication with the Mississippi, by the easy portage between the I^'ox and Wisconsin, became a great center of Indian travel and commerce - the Indian metropolis of the Northwest - and hither flocked at seasons, for the purpose of fishing and barter, the Pottawattamics and Illinois. These tribes, all being of the Algonquin family, were on friendly terms.

Wiien Father Allouez established his mission at Green Bay, he was accompanied by Dablon, who writes that, "the country is an earthly paradise." He says that the Indians so honored them that a squad of warriors paraded up and down before them, in imitation of the guard they had seen before the Governor's tent at Montreal. He says: "We could hardly keep from laughing, though we were discoursing on the most important subjects, namely, the mysteries of our religion. "

They went up Fox River, and paddled iq^ Lake Wiqnebago to the mouth of the Upper Fox, which they ascended to visit the town of the Mascoutins and Miamis, two tribes living together, and whose village was enclosed with palisades. They numbered about three thousand souls. This was the present site of Buttes dcs Morts. They were charmed with these Indians, who gave them a most cordial reception and listened to them with the most respectful attention. They were delighted with the charming country; and well they might be, for a lovelier spot is seldom met with. Here they were told of the great river, Mississippi.

Father Allouez next visited the Foxes, but found them a more intractable tribe. He was horrified at their polygamy, some of the Chiefs having eight wives, and their lodges seemed like seraglios. They were not well disposed towards him, but he succeeded in overcoming their hostility; and as a war-party was starting out on one of their predatory raids, he told them the story of the cross and the Emperor Constantine. This so much attracted them, as he could talk eloquently in Algonquin, that they each daubed the figure of a cross on their shields of hide, and took the war-path. As

The missionary chapels and buildings connected with them were built of logs and surrounded with palisades, like a stockade fort, and adjacent to them were cultivated fields. Attached to each mission were a number of mechanics, woodsmen and laborers, who were employed in building and repairing the mission houses, hunting, fishing and tilling the ground. Jean Talon was at this time Intendant of Canada, and instituted a \'igorous administration. He, therefore, deputized Nicholas Perrot, a man of great experience in Indian affairs, and whose imposing address and executive ability gave him great influence with the Indians, to hold a grand council with the various tribes of the Northwest at Sault St. Marie. ' Notice having been given to the several tribes, they repaired in great numbers to the appointed rendezvous, Sault St. Marie, in May, 16.71, to meet the deputy governor. He was accompanied by a military officer and a body of soldiers. The priests joined them, dressedin their vestments, and around them thronged the great body of Indians, delighted s[)ectators. A large cross of cedar, which had been prepared, was then set up by planting the end in the ground, while the I'"renchmen sang Vcxilla Regis, Uablon pronounced a blessing; then a post, to which was attached a metal plate engra\ed with the King's arms, was planted near it, and the Jesuits made a prayer for the King. St. Lusson, the military officer, in full uniform, holding his sword in one hand, and raising a sod of earth with the other, proclaimed in loud tones his announcement of possession, in the name of Louis XIV.

In 1672, Count Frontenac, from F'rance, arrived at Quebec, and was installed as Governor. His name occupies a most distinguished position in our history, from the vigor with w'hich he pushed forward western explorations, and his brilliant campaigns against the warlike Iroquois. A man of the most imposing address and personal presence, fearless, energetic and enterprising, with a natural vigor of mind and high culture, he was well calculated forexecutive duties, andleft anenduring impress of his administration, in which he saved the colony from impending ruin. He appointed Louis Joliet to make a voyage for the purpose of discovering the Upper Mississippi, and the young missionary Marquette, of Michilimackinac, was appointed to accompany him.

cated and accomplished, he was seized with a fervor of devotion to the cause of Christianity, and with the most intense zeal abandoned all the gaitics, comforts and luxuries of life in the circles in which he was raised, and subordinated himself to the strict and hard discipline of the life of the Jesuits. This order selected the very purest and bravest of its ranks for the American missions. He was chosen for one, and with the greatest delight embraced the opportunity to take up the hard lot of a life among the savages of the American wilds. Highly gifted by nature, and of great attainments in learning and science, his proficiency as a linguist was so great that he learned in a few years to speak six Indian languages fluently. Let those who disbelieve in his faith call him credulous; but when they have become familiar with his life, they must admire his transcendant loveliness of character, the sublimity of his faith, his sincerity and truthfulness, his unbounded benevolence and courageous daring. He was idolized by the Indians, and his name and virtues will be forever associated with the early history of the Northwest.

Our Wisconsin State Historical Society honored the event of Marquette and Joliet's discovery of the Mississippi, by celebrating the bi- centennial of the occurrence in 1873, at which was read an address, written for the occasion by John G. Shea, LL. D., of Canada, and which was published in the Wisconsin State Historical Collections, in which he says :

"Even in the hurry and whirl of the active life of an energetic nation, we may well pause on a day like this, to commemorate the bold and Christian energy of men of other days, who faced all the dangers of the untried wilderness, to explore, for thousands of miles, the heart of our Northern Continent in the interest of religlion and science. "

"On this day, two hundred years ago, a ittle bark canoe that had threaded the marshy maze between the Fox and Wisconsin, glided from the latter of these Rivers into the clear broad bosom of the Mississippi, which still bears the simple title Great River, which the Northern Algonquin tribes had given it. "

"From the far North the River came, as its volume of water showed. Whither it bore its swelling tide, was the question that Louis Joliet and Father James Marquette were now practically to decide. "

And who were they? To imagine the one a bush-ranger, an ignorant courcur dc hots, whose sole knowledge was wood-craft and shrewd dealings with the Indians, or the other a pious missionary, equally ignorant of all

"The missionaries who step by step threaded the net work of Lakes and Rivers, not only reported the data which they obtained, and preserved them; but they gleaned from members of distant tribes statements as to the geography, fauna and mineralogy of the lands beyond. Nearer and nearer they came to the Great River - the Mississippi of the Algonquin tribes, and they urged the Government at Quebec to undertake its exploration. It is little wonder that at first their hints and suggestions remained unheeded, For the little Canada colony on the St. Lawrence to seek to penetrate some untold thousands of miles into interior America, seemed as yet too bold and rash. Canada was scientific in tone. This may seem a strange view to many, but even down to the days of Kalm, a scientific traveler would have found more cultivated men in Canada than in New England or New York, to converse with him in regard to the topography, climate, botany, mineralogy, and natural history of America, as well as the ethnology and linguistics of its native tribes. " "Geography was especially cultivated. France had long had at Dieppe and other ports, her schools of hydrography, sometimes directed by navigators, often, too, by priests, who seem to have worked in most heartily with the men of the sea. From these schools came men, who, on a new coast, at once with practiced eye and hand noted down its outline, and, if time permitted, gave exact charts. Such was Champlain, whose charts of the New England coast, overlooked by many students, excited the wonder of Thoreau by their accuracy, as he followed his course two centuries and a half after the founder of Quebec sailed along the coast. "

"In the same spirit, the little hamlet of Quebec had a school of hydrography connected with its college, and a King's hydrographer stationed there. And we may safely aver that no English colony of that day had any such department for coast survey.

Louis Joliet was a native of American soil; he was born in 1645 at Quebec, where his father was a worthy wheel-wright. Talent and piety distinguished the boy, who received an education at the College of Quebec, the more careful and extended as he evinced a desire to study for the ministry. He even took the preliminary steps and entered the Theological Seminary of Quebec. But mathematical and geographical study seems to have had its charms for him, and it was cultivated as a science that in a colony underthe French navy

"Gradually his views changed. Plunging into the busy world without the cloistered life, he sought a field for his talents in the West. Soon after 1667, he is reported as exploring Lake Superior, and as having gone, very near the Mississippi. The last writer who has thrown light on this period, in his 'Notes on the History, Bibliography and Cartology of New F"rance and the adjacent country,' sums up Joliet's character: 'He was a very well educated and upright man. '

" His companion in the adventurous journey was one of that body to which Joliet owed his education. Father James Marcjuette, a young native of Laon in Picardy, one of those devoted men of skill and learning, in whom devotion to his calling and tender piet)' outshine all else. He had been nine years on the Western missions; was familiar with many of the dialects, fearless, energetic; who had longed for years to thread the course of the Great River that lay beyond, ' impelled by his ardent desire of extending the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and of making him known and adored by all the nations of that country; ' that River as to which he had gleaned so many details, and down whose mighty current the red warriors seeking foemen to engage, had day after day plied the paddle with nothing to show them where it emptied.

Marquette and Joliet embarked in two birchbark canoes, accompanied by five more men. Their provisions were principally smoked meat and Indian corn. They ply their paddles, and their canoes glide over the transparent waters of Michilimackinac. They pass along the dreary coast of Lake Michigan, and at night build their camp-fireon thcshore. .\t last they reach Green Bay and ascend the Fo.x, carrying their canoes around the several rapids, and soon enter the beautiful lake of the Winnebagoes. They paddle along its leafy shores, delighted with its picturesque scenery, and obtain glimpses of the loxelj- prairies and openings which at intervals approach its banks, and entering the mouth of the Upper F"ox, now the site of the city of Oshkosh, pass up that stream, and on the seventh of June they arrive at the village of the Miamis and Mascoutins. Marquette describes the place as a most charming one, on a handsome elevation, rising from the river; while adjoining it, stretched away the prairie, interspersed with gro\'es of trees (oak openings). It was the present site of liuttes des Morts. Here they obtained two Indian guides to conduct them.

and were soon on their way. Arriving at the portage between the I'^o-X and Wisconsin, they transported their canoes and entered upon the waters of the Wisconsin. Here their guides bid them adieu and they were left alone in the midst of thegrand solitude - to pur;;uetheir way through unknown lands and dangers. On the seventeenth of Junetheyarrived at tlie mouth of the river, and the broad current of the Mississippi, with its high bluffs in thcdistance, greeted their delighted vision. The long sought river, flowing in mysterious grandeur, was found. Floatingalongin the midst of the most])rofound solitude, they admire the picturesque scenery, and glimpses occasionally obtained of the broad prairies stretching away in the illimitable distance, with herds of elk and deer browsing undisturbed and frequently approaching them on the river bank.

" At what they calculated to be about fortyone degrees and twenty-eight minutes north latitude, they came upon the bison country and gaze with wonder on the vast hertls that dotted the plains before them."

What glowing visions of the splendors of the New France, that was to arise out of this mighty wilderness, must have inspired Marquette and his companions, as they viewed this vast countr}- in all its primeval grandeur and wild loveliness? The mighty ri\'er fiowing from the distant north in such majestic volume, until its waters laved the banks of far-off southern shores, overhanging with tropical veiidure - the magnificent scenery, which from some points of obser\ation, spread out before them, like an endless panorama, and the fertile soil and luxuriant vegetation, all giving evidence of the " most magnificent dwelling place e\er prepared for the abode of man."

Nearly two weeks had now passed since leaving the portage on the Wisconsin, and so sparsely was the country inhabited, that in all that time, they had not obtained the sight of a human being. Now, for the first time they discovered foot prints, .ind a well worn Indian trail. Leaving the men with the canoes, Marquette and Joliet followed the trail for a ilistance of six miles, where they discovered an Indian \-ill;!ge on the hanks of a small sti'c.i!ii. The)' had long tlesireil lo meet with sonic of the inhabitants of the country, anil now their longings were to be gratified. They halted and called out in loud \'oices to announce their presence, when the astonishcel Indians swarmed out to meet them.

which were smoked in friendship. They then went to the village and had a grand reception, the chief addressing them as follows : "Frenchmen, how bright the sun shines when you come to visit us! All our village awaits you, and you shall enter our wigwams in peace." Here they were feasted, and Marquette announced himself as a messenger sent by God, whom they were in duty bound to recognize and obey. They were importuned to remain with their new friends, but, feeling compelled to decline, proceeded on their voyage, down to where the Missouri pours out its muddy waters. By the united currents they were rapidly borne on, and soon passed the mouth of the Ohio. Voyaging onward, they met Indians who were in communication with the Spaniards ; for they were armed with guns, and wore garments of cloth. These gave them a kind reception, and feasted Marquette and his companions on buffalo meat and wild plums. Taking leave of these, they resumed their course, and reached the mouth of the Arkansas, on the bank of which was an Indian village. The inhabitants, yelling the war-whoop, plunged into their canoes and paddled out into the stream, above and below them, to cut off their escape; while a number of young warriors waded out into the stream to attack them. The current prevented them from reaching the canoes of the French, but one threw his war club at them.

Marquette, in the meantime, was holding out his peace pipe; but this did not restrain them, till some of the elder chiefs arrived on the scene; when peace was proclaimed, and the Frenchmen invited to land, which they did, and were again entertained with an Indian feast. Proceeding on their voyage, they reached an Arkansas tribe that received them kindly, and entertained them with every mark of Indian hospitality. These Indians had earthen pots and platters of their own manufacture. They were also supplied with European hatchets, guns and trinkets.

The travelers, having now learned that the Mississippi emptied into the gulf of Me.xico, resolved on returning, as the natives told them that the river below was infested by hostile Indians that would be likely to capture them.

They therefore commenced the toilsome ascent, and, after paddling wearily, day after day in the mid-summer heat, at length reached the mouth of the Illinois. Marquette, suffering with a severe attack of dysentery, was much exhausted. They ascended the Illinois, and Were charmed with the views of its prairies and forests abounding in buffalo and deer. They stopped at the Illinois village, Kaskaskia, where a chief and band of warriors offered to guide them to the Lake of the Illinois. They thankfully accepted the escort, and, passing up to the head of the Illinois River, crossed the portage to the small stream which empties into Lake Michigan, at the present site of Chicago, which they followed to its mouth. From thence they followed the shore of Lake Michigan to Green Bay, which they reached the last of September, having been absent nearly four months on the voyage, in which time they had paddled their canoes a distance of two thousand five hundred miles. Marquette remained at the Green Bay Mission to recuperate; Joliet went to Quebec to report the discovery of the Mississippi. At the Rapids, above Montreal his canoe was capsized; two of his men and an Indian were drowned; the valuable record of his voyage was lost, and he narrowly escaped losing his life.

Marquette passed the following year at Green Bay, and in the autumn of 1674, though still suffering from the effects of his disease, he determined on going to establish a mission among the Illinois, at their village at Kaskaskia. Embarking with ten canoes, he reached Chicago River, and, having ascended it for two leagues, was prostrated by sickness; hemorrhage ensued, and he declared to his companions that this voyage would be his last. As it was impossible for him to proceed any further, his two men built a log cabin, and here they lived through the winter. Wild game was abundant, and they were plentifully supplied with buffalo meat, venison and wild turkeys, which they frequently shot in the vicinity of their log cabin. The Indians also brought them corn and game.

In the spring, Marquette, having somewhat regained his strength, proceeded on his voyage to Kaskaskia, where he arrived, and was received, he says, " like an angel from Heaven. " Here he held a grand council, in which were assembled over three thousand Indians, to whom he explained the doctrines of Christianity, urging them to adopt the belief in God and to conform their lives to His commands. As he was an eloquent speaker and familiar with the Algonquin language, they were charmed with his fervent appeal, and listened with great approval. They begged him to take up his abode among them; but as he was conscious of approaching death, he felt admonished to hastily return to Michilimackinac. He therefore started, and was accompanied as far as Lake Michigan by a large body of Indians. He was now a confirmed invalid, and, as he lay in his canoe exposed to the cold winds of the early spring, his two men urged it along the eastern shore of the lake. On the nineteenth of Ma)-, he feh that his death was at hand, and, as they were passintj a small river, he asked his men to land. They complied, and built a small bark hut on the bank of the stream, into which they carried the dying missionary. With the greatest cheerfulness and composure, he gave instructions for his burial, and, with that kind regard for the happiness of others which ever characterized his actions, he instructed them on the duties of life, expressed his fervent gratitjjde to them for their devoted kindness; and, as they were tired, requested them to take their sleep, saying that he would call them when he felt that his hour of death had come. A few hours afterward they heard his feeble appeal, and coming to him, found him at the point of dissolution, which he met with peaceful resignation. They dug his grave near the hut on that lonely river, as he had directed, and then pursued their way to Michilimackinac, where they conveyed to the priests of St. Ignace the sad intelligence of the decease of their comrade.

A party of Ottawas, in the spring of 1676, passing near the place, disinterred the remains and placed them in a birch box. Then, in a procession of' thirty canoes, they bore them to St. Ignace, where they were met by the priests, Indians and traders, who received them with befitting ceremony, and. chanting the funeral rites, consigned them to their last resting place, beneath the little chapel of St. Ignace.