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.
Letter: at the Mississippi River, June 3, 1682
Membre, Father Zenobe In: Habig, Marion A., The Franciscan Pere Marquette,
Franciscan Studies, June, 1934, pp. 207-214. (Bibliotheque Nationale,
Collection
Clairambault, Vol. 1016, fol. 163-165. Printed in Margry; Découverte set.)
pp. 207, 208, 209.
At the Mississippi River,(see fn. 2) June 3, 1682. The prompt departure of M. de Tonty(see fn. 3) deprives me of the opportunity to write to you in detail about all that has happened to me since my departure from Fort Frontenac last year; and I find myself compelled, after begging your holy blessing, to limit myself to an account of the principal things.
Your Reverence has known the motives which induced me to return to the
Miamis(see fn. 5) to accompany M. de La Salle in his discovery
of the sea, in which undertaking I have been (page 208) engaged till now.
After his [La Salle's] arrival at that place [that of the Miamis], we departed
thence with M. de Tonty several days in advance of M. de La Salle, who joined
us on the Checagou [Des Plaines], whither another group of his party also came
to join us.(see fn. 6) Thus, after all had
assembled, at the beginning of January 1682, at the place where the Checagou
[Des Plaines] enters the river of the Illinois, since it was frozen over, as
well as the one on which we had come, we pursued our route on the ice, dragging
our canoes and our baggage not only to the village of the Illinois,(see
fn. 7) where we met no one, they having gone to winter elsewhere, but even
thirty leagues farther down, as far as the end of Lake Pimedy [Lake Peoria],
where we found free navigation and descended the stream by canoe to the
Mississipi River. After we had tarried for several days, having detained by the
ice which drifted down from the north, we departed from there on the...(see fn. 8) and arrived on the morrow at a village, abandoned
like that of the Illinois.(see fn. 9) At both M. de La Salle
left marks of his coming in peace and signs of his route, which we pursued upon
the river for more than one hundred leagues without seeing anyone.(see
fn. 10) We went by slow stages, because it was necessary to go hunting for
provisions. One of our men,(see fn. 11) having been lost in
the woods while hunting, we remained eight days to look for him, during which
our hunters finally met two savages, whom they persuaded and induced merely by
gestures to come into our cabin,(see fn. 12) where M. de la
Salle treated them very kindly; and (page 209) having learned from
them that they were Chicachas, he gave them handsome gifts in order to oblige
them to surrender the lost man whom we thought had fallen into their hands.(see fn. 13) But this was not the case, for he was found on the
ninth day and brought back to the cabin. Having departed from the latter on the
next day,(see fn. 14) and having continued our route during
foggy weather till the 13th of March, we found ourselves opposite a large
village of the Akansas.(see fn. 15). . .
____________________________
2 The missionary's superior in Quebec, the Commissary Provincial Father Valentine Le Roux, is the person to whom this letter is addressed. It was written on the return journey from the mouth of the Mississipi, at Fort Prudhomme, near present Memphis.
3 Tonti with four companions proceeded in advance of the rest on June 4, 1682.
5 He reached Fort Miami, now St. Joseph, Mich., October 15, 1681. He had been with La Salle on his previous expedition into this region, 1679- 1680.
6 This second group came with La Salle, January 4, 1682.
7 The so-called Great Village of the Illinois Indians.
8 They reached the Mississippi on February 6, 1682, and proceeded on the 13th.
9 On February 14, they stopped at the uninhabited village of the Tamaroas.
10 To a place halfway between the mouth of the Ohio and the Arkansas. There one of the party was lost for more than a week; and they built a fort.
11 Pierre Prudhomme.
12 Fort Prudhomme
13 La Salle, Father Membre and some others started to march to the Chickasaw village, but returned to the fort when they learned that the village was farther distant than the captured Indians had said it was.
14 March 3, 1682.
15 The Kappa village of the Arkansas, near the mouth of the Arkansas River, on the west bank of the Mississippi.
Return
to TOC, p. 5
Continue
to next part of Miami Collection
[return to Miami
Collection Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last updated: 10 January 2001
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University