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 563 courage and their devotion, but told them that he
would not take an, unfair advantage of them; that they were too few in number
to undertake to push their way through so many tribes; that such an act would
be attributed either to rashness or to despair; that they had not even
sufficient ammunition; that they could carry it out more safely the following
year; and that moreover he could not abandon the three men whom he had left at
the great village of the Illinois, nor could he help seeking for the Sieur de
Tonty until he had ascertained what had become of him.
On the 7th of December he began to go up the river again, and in three days and a half he arrived at the village where he had left his men, and found them in perfect health. The cold at that time was so unusually severe that on the 13th of December the river was frozen over, a thing which had perhaps never happened before. During the following days he busied himself with gathering Indian corn in the fields, and he hid about 300 minots in the ground for use on his return. He also had sledges made to take his canoes, and his provisions and baggage over the ice.
On the 19th of December he observed the comet for the first time. The village of the Illinois, where he then was, is at latitude 40 degrees and a few minutes. The head of the comet at nightfall appeared on the horizon, and its tail extended through a distance of thirty degrees. He saw it until the 17th of January, when it appeared at the zenith at midnight, but after that he was not able to observe it very exactly.
He also saw mock suns several times during the winter; page 564 and, among others, he observed one which showed eight suns besides the real one,
The upper semicircle was a little more distant from the middle one, and more to the right of it, than the lower semicircle, at the right extremity of which there was nothing to be seen.
This phenomenon lasted from half past seven in the morning until a quarter to twelve. The upper arc gradually disappeared first, and then the lower one, and lastly the circle in the middle.
On the 26th of December, seeing that the frost continued, he set fire to the fort and huts of the Iroquois, as he wished to speak to some of the Indians in order to obtain news of the Sieur de Tonty and to inform them of his departure; so that, if they should come across the tracks which he and his men would leave on the snow, they should not follow them as enemies; but this care was fruitless, although he waited two days longer.
Finally he started on the 28th with three canoes, twenty minots of Indian corn and his baggage, which he and his men dragged over the snow although it weighed altogether forty hundredweight, and on the 6th of January 1681 he arrived at the confluence of the River Divine and the River Teatiki. He decided to follow the former, because he had found an encampment six leagues lower down, where he thought the Sieur de Tonty had passed; and as he had not met him along the River Teatiki, he thought that he must necessarily have followed the River Divine. His wish to overtake him made him determine to leave all his goods at that place, which was far from the routes of the page 565 Indians, in order to get on faster. He hid them as well as he could, and left the Sieur d'Autray there, who offered to guard them in company with the surgeon.
On the sixth of January he set out with the other five; and, the same day, he found along the river a camping-ground, and knew that the Sieur de Tonty had been there, by the sawn wood; and from various indications he concluded that it was about two months previous. It had snowed all day, and the snow continued for nineteen days, in succession, with very severe cold and a stormy wind which blew over the plains, where they could scarcely find wood enough to warm themselves, and none at all of the kind from which the bark is peeled for making huts. But he was obliged to travel sixty leagues, in spite of all these difficulties, which were so great that the Sieur de La Salle, who seems to be proof against hardships of this kind, states that he has never had to endure such cold nor such suffering. They could have borne these hardships more easily if he and his men had been able to get on faster, making use of their snowshoes; but the snow was as yet too soft and hanging as it were, on the grass, so that the Sieur de La Salle, walking in front as he usually did to encourage his men by showing them the way, found great difficulty, although he was rather tall, in striding over the snow, in which he sank up to his waist, and was often obliged to push it aside with his body to make his way through it.
At the end of January he arrived at the mouth of the River of the Miamis. He did not find the Sieur de Tonty there, as he had hoped, but only the Sieur de La Forest and his three soldiers; he informed him that the men whom he had ordered him to wait for page 566 had wintered at the channel of Lake Erie, and that a canoe had been seen passing Missilimakinak but had not stopped there. The Sieur de La Salle thought, from the time mentioned, that it was the Sieur de Tonty; and as he was anxious to communicate with him, and feared the ill effect which the rumour of the rout of the Illinois might have upon the minds of his men, he asked those who were round him whether they would undertake to convey a letter to the Sieur de Tonty at the, channel of Lake Erie. Two young men, knowing that it was only a third of the distance which he had travelled the winter before; offered to go, and he gave them the necessary instructions and stores and sent them off on the 2nd. of February.
Amidst all these anxieties, he was yet greatly pleased that the men whom he had left at this place had remained loyal to him and had made good use of their time in accordance with his orders. The carpenter had begun to build a bark, which he had intended for use on Lake Erie, as will be explained hereafter, and had squared all the timber required for the side planks; moreover his comrades had cleared a rather large piece of ground, and they had all worked together to prepare materials for building a barn. These preparations pleased him the more because the overthrow of the Illinois made it necessary for him to settle among the Miamis until his exploration was completed; and he was still further induced to take that course by the following occurrence.
Twenty-five or thirty Indians of various tribes who are at war with the English, had arrived at the mouth of the River of the Miamis before him with their wives and children. They had page 567 left their own district partly because the beaver had become very rare there, and partly on account of their hatred for the English and they had come to hunt in these parts intending to give themselves up to the Iroquois on their return and to be incorporated with that tribe. The Indian named Nanangoucy, whom the Sieur de La Salle had left with his men at the mouth of the River of the Miamis, fortunately belonged to the same district as these Indians. As he was very fond of the Sieur de La Salle he persuaded them to wait for him and speak to him before carrying out the intention which they had formed. A few hours before the Sieur de La Salle arrived, Nanangoucy, who knew that he was near by the return of one of his dogs who ran before him to the house, went to meet him, and told him what he had done, saying that if he would settle among the Illinois or the Miamis these Indians would join him together with thirty others who were to follow them; that he would serve him faithfully in that matter, and that he asked no other reward than that he would make him chief of his tribe.
The Sieur de La Salle had in his company another Indian, called Ouiouilamet, son of the chief of a village near Boston, the capital of New England. He was a wise and prudent young man, and the Sieur de La Salle had great confidence in him. He had followed him for two years most devotedly, and he had acquired considerable knowledge of the languages of the neighbouring tribes during the four years he had lived in that district. The Sieur de La Salle gave him the task of negotiating this matter with Nanangoucy and the other Indians, and directed them*sic to show them that, considering the condition in which page 568 matters were with the Illinois it would be better than they should settle among the Miamis, because the Iroquois could not object to them settling with their allies; that the Illinois also would be well satisfied when they knew that this choice was made only in order to induce the Miamis to grant them peace; that he hoped to get the Miamis to consent to this by showing them the interest they had in preserving the Illinois, who would be able to keep the Iroquois occupied for a long time, and prevent them from turning their arms against the Miamis, as they would be certain to do as soon an they had wiped out the Illinois; that in order to ensure the success of this plan he wished, before the Miamis came back from their hunting, to go to the Illinois and incline their minds to peace, and prevent them from taking umbrage at his staying among the Miamis; and that while he was on that journey, he and his fellow tribesmen must go to the Miamis and prepare their minds to do, on their part, what he wished.
While he was taking these steps for the safety of the settlements which he was planning, and in order to form a barrier which should hold the Iroquois in check and secure the peace of Canada, an incident occurred which assisted him greatly in carrying out his schemes.
The Iroquois, after the defeat of the Tamaroa, one of the Illinois tribes, returned to their country with 400 slaves by the River Ohio which, taking its rise thirty or forty leagues to the south of Niagara, flows towards the west for more than two hundred leagues and throws itself into the River Colbert twenty-five leagues below its confluence with the River of the Illinois. They came across two huts of the Miamis, who were page 569 hunting at that place, and they captured or killed the whole party, and afterwards came and encamped near the country of the Miamis; and, winter having overtaken them there, they built three forts at a distance of two leagues from one another, forming a triangle. The Miamis, learning of the defeat of their men, sent envoys to the Iroquois to demand reparation, and to take a present of three thousand beaverskins in order to obtain more easily the release of those of their tribe whom they had made slaves. But the Iroquois, contrary to the custom among all those tribes, who never accept presents without granting what they are asked, kept the beaverskins and did not send back the prisoners. This extraordinary action showed the Miamis plainly enough that the Iroquois were nothing but traitors, and that they need expect no better treatment from them than their neighbours.
At the same time a hundred Illinois of the
Cascacia tribe, led by one of their chiefs called Paessa, who had been on the
warpath when the Indians came to their village, returned to their own country
with the prisoners they had made. They found the savage tokens of the defeat of
the Tamaroas, and resolved, although few in number, to take vengeance on them;
they followed the Iroquois, and came by night and stationed themselves in the
midst of their three forts, intending to attack one of them on the following
day. It even appears that they would have succeeded, but for a mischance which
happened to them. Two Iroquois who were returning from hunting came by the spot
where the Illinois were encamped, and they pretended that they belonged to the
tribe of the Miamis. The two hunters were deceived and went to place themselves
in their hands; but a
__________________
(*sic Query, should be 'directed him')
Translator's note.
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