THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Official Account of the Enterprise
of
Cavelier de la Salle from 1679 to 1681
[Zenobius Membré?]
In: English Translation of Margry,
vol. 1, pp. 472-586.
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page 503 large numbers of animals there, as it was easy to
tell from the bones and heads of animals which they saw on all sides. The
Miamis hunt them at the end of the autumn in the following manner: when they
see a herd, they assemble in large numbers and set fire to the grass in all
directions round the animals except for a few places which they leave on
purpose, posting themselves in them with their bows and arrows. The oxen, in
trying to avoid the fire, are thus compelled to pass close to the Indians, who
sometimes kill as many as two hundred of them in one day. These oxen have very
fine wool instead of hair, and with the females it is still longer than with
the males; their horns are almost all black, much thicker than those of oxen in
Europe, but a little shorter. Their heads are an enormous size. Their necks are
thick and short, and they have a large hump between the shoulders; their legs
are also thick and short and are covered with very long wool. Over the
shoulders and round the neck and the horns they have long black hair which
falls over their eyes and gives them a terrible appearance. The body,
especially in front, is much larger than that of our oxen, but this great bulk
does not prevent them from running very quickly, so that none of the Indians
can keep pace with them, and the oxen often kill those by whom they have been
wounded.
Animals of many other kinds are found in these vast plains of Louisiana; stags, roebucks, beavers and otters are common there. In the season, herds of two hundred and even four hundred wild oxen are seen: and there are bustards, swans, turtle-doves, turkeys, parrots, partridges and many other birds in very large numbers. The rivers abound in fish, and the land is extremely p. 504 fertile. There are boundless prairies, interspersed with forests of lofty trees, among which are timber trees of all kinds, including excellent oaks, wide-spreading like those of France, very different from those in Canada. The bulk and the height of the trees is amazing, and we should obtain from them the finest pieces of timber in the world for building ships. Several kinds of fruit trees are also found in the forests, and wild vines which produce bunches of grapes nearly eighteen inches long which ripen fully, from which very good wine has been made. There are also wide stretches of country covered with very good hemp, which grows wild there, from six to seven feet high. Lastly, from the experiments which the Sieur de La Salle made among the Miamis, on the return from his second journey we are convinced that the land is capable of growing all kinds of fruits, herbs and grains and much heavier crops than the best lands in Europe. The air there is very mild and very healthy. The country is watered by innumerable lakes, rivers and brooks, most of them navigable. One is hardly troubled at all by mosquitos or other noxious creatures. There are deposits of coal, slate and iron; and the pieces of pure red copper which are found in various places lead us to conclude that there are mines of copper, and perhaps of other metals and minerals, which will be discovered some day; for already a spring of salt, alum and sulphur has been found in the Iroquois country.
The Sieur de La Salle continued his journey by the River of the Illinois during the remainder of the month of December, and eventually, after he had proceeded 120 or 130 leagues from the Lake of the Illinois, and had killed two oxen and many turkeys
page 506
lake which the river forms, they observed smoke which showed that the Indians
were encamped near. And indeed, on the fifth day, about nine o'clock in the
morning, they saw a number of pirogues(see fn. 1)
on both sides of the river and about eighty huts full of Indians who did not
see the canoes until they doubled a point, behind which the Illinois had
encamped, within half a gunshot. The Frenchmen were in eight canoes, in a line,
all with arms in their hands, letting the canoes be carried down by the stream.
The Sieur de La Salle caused a shout to be raised first, according to the custom of those tribes, as if to ask whether they desired peace or war, for it was very important to show determination at the outset. At first the old men, the women and the children took to flight through the woods with which the river is fringed; the warriors hastened to take arms, but in such confusion that, before they had recovered themselves, the canoes had reached the shore. The Sieur de La Salle was the first to leap ashore; and he could have destroyed the Indians in the state of confusion in which they were; but as that was not his intention, he made his men halt so as to give the Illinois time to recover themselves. One of their chiefs, who was on the other side of the river, and had observed that the Sieur de La Salle had prevented anyone from firing at seven or eight Indians who could easily have been killed, began to speak to them, to stop the young men who were getting ready
page 509
river was navigable all the way to the sea, and whether other Europeans lived
near its mouth.
They replied that they agreed to all his proposals and that they would assist him in every way that they could. Then they gave a description of the great river Colbert of Mississippi, they told him wonderful things of its breadth and its beauty, and assured him that it was easy to navigate and unobstructed throughout, and that there were no Europeans near its mouth. But the fact which did most to persuade the Sieur de La Salle that this river was navigable was that they named four tribes to him of whom mention is made in the Account of the Journey of Ferdinand Soto in Florida, namely those of Tula, Casquia, Cicaca and Aminoia. They added that slaves whom they had made in war in the direction of the sea said that they had seen ships out at sea which fired shots with a noise like thunder; but that they had not settled on the coast, for, if they had been there, they would certainly have gone to trade with them, for the sea was only twenty-days' journey in their pirogues.
The day passed in this way with mutual satisfaction; but matters did not long remain in that state. The next day came one of the chiefs of the Miamis, named Monto, accompanied by five or six others laden with pots, hatchets and knives, to prepare the minds of the Illinois by these presents to believe what he had to say to them. He called together the old men secretly and assured them that the Sieur de La Salle intended to go and join their enemies who dwelt on the banks of the Great River; that he would supply them with arms and ammunition, and after he had gathered them together they would join with the page 510 Iroquois and would hem them in on all sides in order to exterminate them absolutely; that he was a friend of the Iroquois, and had a fort in the midst of their country, and that he would supply them with guns and powder, and that the only means of avoiding their destruction was for them to prevent his journey or to delay him, for some of his men would very soon desert him; and that they would not believe anything that he said to them.
After saying many similar things, he went back by night, as secretly as he had come, for fear lest the Sieur de La Salle should discover all these mysterious proceedings. But one of the Illinois chiefs, called Omoahoha, whom he had gained over on his arrival by a present of two hatchets and a few knives came to him the next morning and secretly informed him of all that had taken place. The Sieur de La Salle thanked him; and in order to induce him to continue to inform him of everything, he made him another present of powder and bullets. The Sieur de La Salle and all his men readily concluded that this Miami had been taught and despatched by French people, for Monso did not know him, and had never even been within 500 leagues of Fort Frontenac; yet he had spoken of his affairs with an much circumstantial detail as if he had passed his whole life in his company.
Nevertheless this affair made him the more uneasy because he knew that the Indians are by nature suspicious, and that already many things had been said to his men to prejudice their minds, in order to induce them to desert, as their comrades had already done at Missilimakinak.
After dinner on the same day Nicanape, the brother of Chassagoac, the most important of the Indian chiefs, who was page 511 away at that time, invited the Sieur de La Salle and all his men to a feast; and when everyone was seated in the hut Nicanape spoke and made a speech to the Sieur de La Salle which was very different from what all the old men had said to him on his arrival. He said that he had invited him, not so much to make a feast for him as to heal him of his disease of desiring to descend the Great River; that no one had ever done so without perishing in it; that its banks were peopled by an endless succession of savage tribes who, by their numbers would overwhelm the French, whatever their arms and their valour; that the waters of the river were full of monsters and serpents; and that, even if the great size of his boat protected him from all these perils there was another which could not be avoided, namely that the lower part of the river was full of cataracts and precipices with such a violent current above them that people could not help falling into them, and all these precipices ended at an abyss where the river lost itself under ground and no one knew where it went. He added to this so many details, and delivered his speech so gravely and with so many signs of affection that the Sieur de La Salle's men, who were not used to the ways of the Indians, and two or three of whom understood their language, were frightened by it.
The Sieur de La Salle saw their fear in their faces; but as it is not customary to interrupt the Indians, and moreover by doing so he would have deepened the suspicions of his men, he allowed him to finish his speech in peace; and then he replied unconcernedly that he and his men were greatly obliged by the news which he told them, for the more obstacles there page 512 were to surmount, the greater the glory they would acquire; that they served the greatest of all the chiefs who are in command beyond the seas and that they considered themselves fortunate to die in carrying his fame to the ends of the earth; but that they feared that all he had said was an invention of his friendship designed to prevent them from leaving his tribe, or rather that it was a trick of some evil spirit which had inspired them with distrust of his scheme, although he was full of sincerity; that if the Illinois felt true friendship for him; they ought not to hide from him, the causes of their uneasiness from which he would try to deliver them, otherwise he would have reason to think that the friendship they testified to him on his arrival was on their lips only. Nicanapé made no reply to this; and offering him food, changed the subject.
After the meal was over, the Sieur de La Salle spoke of the matter again and told him that he was not surprised that their neighbours should become jealous of the advantages which they would obtain from the intercourse which they were going to have with the French; nor that they should make statements to them to their disadvantage; but that he was astonished that they were so ready to give credence to them and that they concealed their minds from a man who had told them all his intentions so openly. And he added, addressing Nicanapé, "I was not asleep, my brother, when Monso spoke to you at night and in secret against the French, whom he Pictured to you as spies of the Iroquois. The presents which he gave you to make you believe his falsehoods are still hidden in this hut. Why did he take flight immediately after? Why did he not speak in the daylight, if he had nothing page 513 to say but what was true? Did you not see that, on my arrival, I could have killed your children, and that in the disordered state in which they were, I could have done alone what they wish to persuade you that I am going to do with the help of the Iroquois after I have settled down with you and have made friends with your tribe? Could not my men, at this very moment, slaughter all you old men while your young men are away hunting? Do you not know that the Iroquois whom you fear, have had experience of the valour of the French, and that therefore the latter would have no need of their aid if they intended to make war upon you? But, in order that your mind may be entirely healed, hasten after that imposter, and I will await him here that I may convict him and put him to confusion. How does he know me when he has never seen me, and how can he know the plots which he says I have formed with the Iroquois, of whom he knows as little as he does of me." Look at our baggage. It contains nothing but tools and merchandise which can only serve us to do you good and are not fitted either for attacks or for retreats.
This speech moved them and made them send runners after Monso to bring him back. But the snow, which fell heavily in the night, covering up his trail, made it impossible for them to come up with him. However, the Sieur de La Salle's men, who had already become half disloyal, were not relieved of their groundless fears. Six of them, who were on guard, ran away the next night, taking what they thought they would need, and exposed themselves to a risk of perishing and dying of hunger which was much greater than the danger which they were trying to avoid.
The Sieur de La Salle went out of the hut an hour after
page 516
supported as far as necessary by strong pieces of wood with madriers; and, for
fear of surprise, he had a palisade erected round it, made of stakes twenty
feet long and proportionately stout. He left the top of the hill its natural
shape, which was that of an irregular square, and contented himself with
bordering it with a good breastwork of earth, sufficient to protect his men,
whose quarters he made in the angles of the fort, so that they might always be
ready in case of attack. The Recollects were quartered in the third. The
storehouse, solidly built, was placed in the fourth; and the smithy along the
curtain overlooking the wood. As for himself, he stationed himself in the
middle with the Sieur de Tonty.
While he was proceeding with this task, the Sieur de La Salle, who was constantly thinking how to attain success in his exploration, and saw that it would be very difficult to build his barque on account of the desertion of his sawyers, bethought himself one day to tell his men that he had determined, if there was any very willing man among them who would assist him, to try to make side planks for the vessel; that he hoped to succeed in doing so by taking a little extra time and trouble, and that the worst that could happen would be spoiling a few. Two of his men immediately offered to set to work at it; they tried it, and succeeded fairly well, although they had never attempted anything of the kind; and he began to build a barque forty-two feet in keel, and only twelve feet wide; and he pressed on the work so earnestly that, notwithstanding the work for the fort, all the planks were sawn, all the wood ready, and the barque put on the stocks on the first day of March.
page 519
and north-north-west. It flows between two chains of somewhat high mountains
which follow the windings of the river from which they sometimes recede leaving
semicircular spaces covered with grass or woods. Beyond these mountains are
found extensive plains, but the lands are not so fertile nor the woods so fine
as those of the country of the Illinois. This great river is one or two leagues
wide almost everywhere, and the stream is divided up by a number of islands
covered with trees, having so many vines entwined about them that it is
difficult to move about there. It receives no large tributatry on the west side
except the River of the Outoutanta. On the east side is found; first, the river
called by the Indiana Ouisconsin, or Misconsing, which comes from the east and
east-north-east for sixty leagues after which one leaves it in order to reach
the Baye des Puans by another stream. It is almost as wide as the river of the
Illinois and runs into the Mississippi a hundred leagues above the River
Divine.
Twenty-four leagues higher up is the Black
River called by the Nadouessioux, Chabadeba. It is of no importance. Thirty
leagues further up, still on the east side, is the Oxen River (Riviere des
Boeufs) so named an account of the number of these animals that are met
there. They followed its course for ten or twelve leagues, throughout which it
is level and free from rapids. It has mountains along both banks which recede
from it at intervals, giving place to meadows. At its outfall, it has woods on
both sides, and is as broad as the Divine River. Forty leagues above this river
is another which is full of rapids by which one can reach Lake Superior, going
north-eastwards until
____________________
1 We have not attempted to follow, in the "Description de la Louisiane" the alterations which Father Hennepin made in order to hide his plagiarisms, or to direct attention to himself with characteristic vanity; but it is amusing to note how he changes the word 'pirogue' here: "They saw" (he writes) "a number of parrots ("perroquets") on both sides of the river." Elsewhere Hennepin inserted the word "tortues" (tortoises) instead of "tourtres" (turtle-doves) - (See page 465).
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