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.
Journal of a Voyage to North America
(Letter XI, May 1, 1721)
Charlevoix, P. de in: Journal of a Voyage to North
America, vol. 1, London, 1756, pp. 269-289.
LETTER XI.
|
Of |
the Iroquoise village of the Fall of St. |
|
|
Lewis. Of the
different nations inhabiting |
|
Fall of St. Lewis, May 1, 1721. |
Madam,
I Came hither to spend a part of the Easter holidays; this is a time of devotion, and in this village every thing inspires one with sentiments of piety. All the exercises of religion are carried on in a very edifying manner, and we still feel the impression which the fervor of the first inhabitants has left behind it; for it is certain, that this for a long time was the only place in Canada, where you could perceive the great examples of those heroick virtues with which God has been used to enrich his churches when in their infancy; and the manner in which it has been erected is something very extraordinary.
The missionaries after having for a long time watered the Iroquoise cantons with the sweat of their brows, and some of them even with their blood, were at last sensible that it was impracticable to establish the christian religion amongst them upon a solid foundation; but they still had hopes of reducing a con-
two or three times*. There is no nation, at least that I know of, settled on the banks of Lake Superior; but in the posts which we possess there a trade is carried on with the Christinaux, who come from the north-east, and speak the Algonquin language, and with the Assiniboils, who come from the north-west.
Lake Michigan, which is almost parallel to Lake Huron, into which it discharges itself, and is separated from it by a peninsula, about a hundred leagues in length, growing continually narrower towards the north, has but few inhabitants on its banks; I do not even know if ever any nation was fixed there, and it is without foundation, that it has been called in some maps the lake of the Illinois. Going up the River St. Joseph, the waters of which it receives, you find two villages of different nations, who have come from some other place not long since. On the west side of this lake is a large bay, extending eight and twenty leagues to the south, and called the Baye des Puans, or simply the Bay. Its entrance is very large, and interspersed with islands, some of which are from fifteen to twenty leagues in circumference. They were formerly inhabited by the Poutewatamies, whose name they bear, excepting some few on the right hand, where there are still some Indians called Noquets. The Poutewatamies possess at present one of the smallest of these islands, and have besides two other villages, one at the river St. Joseph, and the other at the Narrows. At the bottom of this bay are the Sakis and Otchagras, which last are likewise called Puans or Stinkards, for what reason I know not; but before you arrive amongst them you leave upon your right hand, another small nation (page 287) called Malhomines, or Folles Avoines; that is, wild Oat Indians.
A small river very much incommoded with falls, discharges itself into the bottom of this bay, and is known under the name of the Riviere des Renards, or, river of the Foxes, on account of its neighbourhood to the Outagamies, commonly called the Renards or Foxes. All this country is extremely beautiful, and that which stretches to the southward as far as the river of the Illinois is still more so; it is, however, inhabited by two small nations only, who are the Kicapous, and the Muscoutins. Some of our geographers have been pleased to give the latter the title of the Nation of Fire, and their country that of the Land of Fire. An equivocal expression has given rise to this denomination.
Fifty years ago, the Miamis were settled on the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicagou, from the name of a small river, which runs into the lake, the source of which is not far distant from that of the river of the Illinois; they are at present divided into three villages, one of which stands on the river St. Joseph; the second on another river which bears their name, and runs into Lake Eri, and the third upon the river Ouabache, which empties its waters into the Missisippi; these last are better known by the appellation of Ouyatanons. There can be no doubt, that this nation and the Illinois were not long ago the same people, considering the great affinity which is observed between their languages; but I shall be able to speak of this with greater certainty when I shall be on the spot. I shall only observe farther, that the greatest part of the Algonquin nations, if we except those who are farther advanced to the (page 288) southward, busy themselves very little in cultivating the ground, but live almost entirely by fishing and hunting, and are likewise very little disposed to a sedentary life. A plurality of wives is in use amongst some of them; yet, so far from encreasing, they diminish every day. There is not one nation in which there are reckoned above six thousand souls, and in some there are not above two thousand.
The Huron language is not so extensive as the Algonquin, which is undoubtedly owing to the nations who speak it, having always been of a less wandering disposition than the Algonquins. I say, the Huron language, to conform myself to the opinion most commonly received, for some still maintain, that the Iroquoise is the mother-tongue; be this as it will, all the Indians to the southward of the river St. Laurence, from the river Sorel to the extremity of Lake Eri, and even bordering upon Virginia, belong to this language, and whoever is acquainted with the Huron understands them all. Its dialects are multiplied extremely, and there are almost as many as there are villages. The five cantons which compose the Iroquois republick, have each their own, and all that was heretofore indifferently called Huron was not the same language. I have not been able to learn to what language the Cherokees belong, a pretty numerous nation, inhabiting those vast meadows between Lake Eri and the Mississippi.
But it ought to be observed, that as the greatest part of the Indians of Canada have had at all times an intercourse with one another, sometimes as allies, sometimes as enemies, though the three mother-tongues of which I have spoken have no sort of affinity or analogy with one another, these people, (page 289) have, notwithstanding found means to do business together without having occasion for an interpreter; whether through long custom they have acquired a facility of making themselves understood by signs; or, whether they have formed a sort of a common jargon which they have learned by practice. I am just now informed I must embark, I shall conclude this article the first leisure I have.
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I have the honour to be, &c. |
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* PANOIRIGOUEIOUHAK.
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