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inforcement, cables and rigging for the last bark, which he left built up to the ribband. He begged me to consent to take the pains to go and explore in advance the route which he would have to take to the River Colbert and to the Sioux on the Upper Mississippi. H. W. B. , on his return from Canada, but as I had an abscess in the mouth, which suppurated continually, and which had continued for a year and a half, I manifested to him my repugnance, and told him that I needed to return to Canada to have it treated. He replied that if I refused this voyage, that he would write to my superiors, that I would be the cause of the want of success of our new missions.
The Reverend Father Gabriel de la Ribourde, who had been my Father Master in the Novitiate, begged me to proceed, saying that if I died of this infirmity, God would be one day glorified by my apostolic labors. "It is true, my son," said this venerable old man to me, who had whitened more tban forty years in the austerity of penance, "that you will have many monsters to overcome, and precipices to pass in this enterprise, which demands the strength of the most robust. You do not know a word of the language of these nations, whom you are going to try and gain to God, but courage, you will gain as many victories as combats."
Considering that this Father had at his age volunteered to come and aid me in my second year of our new discovery, in the view that he had to announce Jesus Christ to the unknown nations, and that this aged man was the only male child and heir of his father's house, who was a gentleman of Burgundy, I offered to undertake this voyage to endeavor to go and form an acquaintance with the nations among whom I hoped soon to settle in order to preach the faith. The Sieur de la Salle told me that I gratified him.
He gave me a peace calumet and a canoe with two men, one of whom was called the Picard du Gay, who is now in
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Paris, and the other Michael Ako. He entrusted this latter with some goods intended to make presents, which were worth a thousand or twelve hundred livres, and he gave me ten knives, twelve awls, a small roll of tobacco, to give the Indians, about two pounds of black and white beads, and a small package of needles, assuring me that he would have given me more if he had been able. In fact he is very liberal to his friends.
Having received the blessing of the Reverend Father Gabriel and leave from the Sieur de la Salle, and after having embraced all our men who came to escort us to our place of embarking, Father Gabriel finishing his adieus by these words: "Viriliter age et confortetur cor tuum." We set out from Fort Crevecoeur the 29th of February, 1680, and toward evening, while descending the river Seignelay, we met on our way several parties of Islinois returning to their village in their periaguas pirogues or wooden canoes or gondolas, loaded with meat.
They would have obliged us to return, our two boatmen were strongly influenced, but as they would have had to pass by Fort Crevecoeur, where our Frenchmen would have stopped them, we pursued our way the next day, and my two men afterward confessed the design which they had entertained.
The river Seignelay Illinois on which we were sailing, is as deep and broad as the Seine at Paris, and in two or three places widens out to a quarter of a league. It is skirted by hills, whose sides are covered with fine large trees. Some of these hills are half a league apart, leaving between them a marshy strip, often inundated, especially in the autumn and spring, but producing, nevertheless, very large trees.
On ascending these hills, you discover prairies further than the eye can reach, studded, at intervals, with groves
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of tall trees, apparently planted there intentionally. The current of the river is not perceptible, except in time of great rains; it is at all times navigable for large barks about a hundred leagues, from its mouth to the Islinois village, whence its course almost always runs south by west*
On the 7th of March we found, about two leagues from its mouth, a nation called Tamaroa, or Maroa, composed of two hundred families. They would have taken us to their village lying west of the river Colbert Mississippi , six or seven leagues below the mouth of the river Seignelay, but our two canoemen, in hopes of still greater gain, preferred to pass on as they were required by La Salle to do. H. W. B. , according to the advice I then gave them.
These last Indians seeing that we carried iron and arms to their enemies, and unable to overtake us in their periaguas, which are wooden canoes, much heavier than our birch bark one, which went much faster than their boats, despatched some of their young men after us by land, to pierce us with their arrows at some narrow part of the river, but in vain; for soon after discovering the fire made by these warriors at their ambuscade, we promptly crossed the river, gained the other side and encamped in an island, leaving our canoe loaded and our little dog to wake us, so as to embark more expeditiously should the Indians attempt to surprise us by swimming across.
Soon after leaving these Indians, we came to the mouth of the river Seignelay, fifty leagues distant from Fort Crevecoeur, and about a hundred leagues from the great Islinois village. It lies between 36 degrees and 37 degrees north latitude, and consequently one hundred and twenty or thirty leagues from the Gulf of Mexico.
In the angle formed on the south by this river at Graf-ton , at its mouth, is a flat precipitous rock, aboujt forty feet high, very well suited for building a fort On the-
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northern side, opposite the rock, and on the west side beyond the river, are fields of black earth, the end of which you can not see, all ready for cultivation, which would be very advantageous for the existence of a colony.
The ice which floated down from the north kept us in this place till the 12th of March, whence we continued our route, traversing the river and sounding on all sides to see whether it was navigable. There are, indeed, three islets in the middle, near the mouth of the river Seignelay, which stop the floating wood and trees from the north, and form several large sand bars, yet the channels are deep enough, and there is sufficient water for barks, large flat-boats can pass there at all times.
The river Colbert runs south-southwest, and comes from the north and northwest; it runs between two chains of mountains, very small here, which wind with the river, and in some places are pretty far from the banks, so that between the mountains and the river, there are large prairies, where you often see herds of wild cattle browsing. In other places these eminences leave semi-circular spots covered with grass or wood. Beyond these mountains you discover vast plains, but the more we approach the northern side ascending, the earth did not appear to us so fertile, nor the woods so beautiful as in the Islinois country.
This great river is almost everywhere a short league in width, and in some places, two leagues; it is divided by a number of islands covered with trees, interlaced with so many vines as to be almost impassable. It receives no considerable river on the western side except that of the Oton-tenta, and another, which comes from the west north-west, seven or eight leagues from the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua.
On the eastern side you meet first an inconsiderable river, and then further on another, called by the Indians Oniscon--7
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sin, or Misconsin Wisconsin , which comes from the east and east north-east. Sixty leagues up you leave it, and make a portage of half a league to reach the Bay of the I'uans by another river which, near its source, meanders most curiously. It is almost as broad as the river Seigne-lay, or Islinois, and empties into the river Colbert, a hundred leagues above the river Seignelay.
Twenty-four leagues above, you come to the Black river called by the Nadouessious, or Islati, and the Chabadeba, or Chabaoudeba, it seems inconsiderable. Thirty leagues higher up you find the Lake of Tears, Lake Pepin, which we so named because the Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us, some of them wept the whole night to induce others to consent to our death. This lake, which is formed by thf river Colbert, is seven leagues long, and about four wide; there is no considerable current in the middle that we could perceive, but only at its entrance and exit. Half a league below the Lake of Tears, on the south side, is Buffalo river, full of turtles. It is so called by the Indians on account of the number of Buffalo found there. We followed it for ten or twelve leagues; it empties with rapidity into the river Colbert, but as you ascend it, it is always gentle and free from rapids. It is skirted by mountains far enough in some places to form prairies. The mouth is wooded on both sides and is full as wide as that of the Seignelay.
Forty leagues above ia a river the St. Croix , full of rapids, by which, striking northwest, you can proceed to Lake Conde Superior , as far as Nimissakouat river, which empties into that lake. This first river is called Tomb river because the Isati left there the body of one of their warriors killed by a rattlesnake, on whom, according to their custom, I put a blanket. This act of humanity gained me much importance by the gratitude displayed by the men of the deceased's tribe, in a great banquet which they gave
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me in their country, and to which more than a hundred Indians were invited.
Continuing to ascend this river ten or twelve leagues more, the navigation is interrupted by a cataract which I called the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, in gratitude for the favors done me by the Almighty through the intercession of that great saint, whom we had chosen patron and protector of all our enterprises.
This cataract is forty or fifty feet high, divided in the middle of its fall by a rocky island of pyramidal form. The high mountains which skirt the river Colbert last only as far as the river Onisconsin, about one hundred and twenty leagues. At this place it begins to flow from the west and northwest without our having been able to learn from the Indians, who have ascended it very far, the spot where this river rises.
They merely told us that twenty or thirty leagues below, there is a second fall, at the foot of which are some villages of the prairie people, called Thinthonha, who live there a part of the year.
Eight leagues above St. Anthony of Padua falls, on the right you find the river of the Issati or Nadoussion with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend to the north for about seventy leagues to Lake Buade Mille lake , or of the Issati where it rises. We gave this river Rum river the name of St. Francis. This last lake spreads out into great marshes, producing wild rice, like many other places, down to the extremity of the Bay of the Puans. This kind <*f grain grows in marshy places without anyone sowing it; it resembles oats, but tastes better, and the stalks are longer a? well as the ear. The Indians gather it in due season. The women tie several ears together with white wood bark to prevent its being all devoured by the flocks of duck and
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teal found there. The Indians lay in stock for part of the year, and to eat out of the hunting season.
Lake Buade, or Lake of the Issati, is situated about seventy leagues west of Lake Conde; it is impossible to go from one to the other by land on account of the marshy and quaggy nature of the ground; you might go, though with difficulty on the snow in snowshoes; by water there are many portages, and it is a hundred and fifty leagues, on account of the many turns to be made.
From Lake Conde, to go conveniently in canoe, you must pass by Tomb river, where we found only the skeleton of the Indian whom I mentioned above, the bears having eaten the flesh, and pulled up poles which the deceased's relatives had planted in form of a monument. One of our boatmen found a war calumet beside the grave, and an earthen pot upset, in which the Indians had left fat buffalo meat, to assist the departed, as they say, in making his journey to the land of souls.
In the neighborhood of Lake Buade are many other lakes, whence issue several rivers, on the banks of which live the Issati, Nadouessans, Tinthonha which means prairie-men , Ouadebathon, River People, Chongaskethon, Dog, or Wolf tribe for chonga among these nations means dog or wolf , and other tribes, all of which we comprise under the name of Nadonession. These Indians number eight or nine thousand warriors, very brave, great runners, and very good bowmen. It was by a part of these tribes that I and our two canoemen were taken in the following way:
"We scrupulously said our morning and evening prayers every day on embarking, and the Angelus at noon, adding some paraphrases on the Response of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal, in honor of St. Anthony of Padua. In this way we liegged of God to meet these Indians by day, for when they discover people at night they kill them as enemies, to rob
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those whom they murder secretly of some axes or knives <which they value more than we do gold and silver; they even kill their own allies, when they can conceal their death, so as afterward to boast of having killed men, and thus pass for soldiers.
We had considered the river Colbert with great pleasure, and without hindrance, to know whether it was navigable up and down; we were loaded with seven or eight large turkeys, which multiply of themselves in these parts. We Wanted neither buffalo nor deer, nor beaver, nor fish, nor bear meat, for we killed those animals as they swam across the river.
Our prayers were heard, when, on the 11th of April, 1680, at two o'clock in the afternoon, we suddenly perceived thirty-three bark canoes, manned by a hundred and twenty Indians, coming down with extraordinary speed to make war on the Miamis, Islinois and Maroha. These Indians surrounded us, and while at a distance, discharged some arrows at us, but as they approached our canoe, the old men seeing us with the calumet of peace in our hands, prevented the young men from killing us.
These brutal men, leaping from their canoes, some on land, others into the water with frightful cries and yells, approached us, and as we made no resistance, being only three against so great a number, one of them wrenched our calumet from our hands, while our canoe and theirs were made fast to the shore. We first presented them a piece of Petun or French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs, and the eldest among them uttered these words, "Miamiha, Miamiha."
As we did not understand their language, we took a little stick and by signs which we made on the sand, showed them that their enemies, the Miamis, whom they sought, had fled across the river Colbert to join the Islinois; when they
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saw themselves discovered and unable to surprise their enemies, three or four old men, laying their hands on my head, wept in a lugubrious tone, and I, with a wretched handkerchief I had left, wiped away their tears.
These savages would not smoke our peace-calumet. They made us cross the river with great cries, which all shouted together with tears in their eyes; they made us paddle before them, and we heard yells capable of striking the most resolute with terror. After landing our canoe and our goods, some part of which they had already stolen, we made a fire to boil our kettle; we gave them two large wild turkeys that we killed.
These savages having called their assembly to deliberate on what they were to do with us, the two head chiefs of the party approaching, showed us, by signs, that the warriors wished to tomahawk us.
This compelled me to go to the war chiefs with one of my men, leaving the other by our property, and throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives, and six fathom of our black tobacco, then bowing down my head, I showed them, with an axe that they might tomahawk us, if they thought proper.
This present appeased several individuals among them, who gave us some beaver to eat, putting the three first morsels in our mouth according to the custom of the country, and blowing on the meat, which was too hot, before putting their bark dish before us, to let us eat as we liked. We spent the night in anxiety because, before retiring at night, they had returned us our peace-calumet.
Our two canoemen were, however, resolved to sell their lives dearly, and to resist if attacked; they kept their arms and swords ready. As for my part, I determined to allow myself to be killed without any resistance, as I was going to announce to them a God who had been falsely accused, un-
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justly condemned, and cruelly crucified, without showing the least aversion to those who put Him to death. In our uncertainty we watched one after the other, so as not to be surprised asleep.
In the morning, April 12th, one of their captains named Narrhetoba, with his face and bare body smeared with paint, asked me for our peace-calumet, filled it with tobacco of his country, made all his band smoke first, and then all the others who plotted our ruin. He then gave us to understand that we must go with them to their country, and they all turned back with us; having thus broken off their voyage.
I was not sorry in this conjuncture to continue our discoveries with these people. But the greatest trouble I had was, that I found it difficult to say my office before these savages, many of whom seeing me move my lips said, in a fierce tone, Ouackanche; and as we did not know a word of their language, we believed that they were angry at it.
Michael Ako, all out -of countenance, told me, that if I continued to say my breviary we should all three be killed and the Picard a nickname for Anthony Auguel begged me at least to conceal myself for my devotions, so as not to provoke them further. I followed the latter's advice, but the more I concealed myself, the more I had the Indians at my heels, for when I entered the wood, they thought I was going to hide some goods under ground, so I knew not on what side to turn to pray, for they never let me out of sight.
This obliged me to beg pardon of my two canoemen, assuring them that I ought not dispense with saying my office, that if we were massacred for that, I should be the innocent cause of their death, as well as of my own. By the word Ouakanche, these savages meant that the book I was reading was a spirit; but by their gesture they never-
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theless showed a kind of aversion, so that to accustom them to it, 1 chanted the Litany of the Blessed Virgin in the canoe with my book open. They thought that the breviary was a spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion, for these people are naturally fond of singing.
The outrages done us by these Indians during our whole route were incredible, for seeing that our canoe was much larger and more heavily laden than theirs for they have only a quiver full of arrows, a bow and a wretched dressed skin, to serve two as a blanket during the night, which was -still pretty cold at that season, always going north , and that we could not go faster than they, they put some warriors with us to help us row to oblige us to follow them.
These Indians sometimes make thirty or forty leagues by water, when at war and pressed for time, or anxious to surprise some enemy. Those who had taken us were of different villages and of different opinions as to us; we cabined every night by the young chief who had asked for our peace calumet, and put ourselves under his protection ; but jealousy arose among these Indians, so that the chief of the party named Aquipaguetin, one of whose sons had been killed by the Mlamis, seeing that he could not avenge his death on that nation which he sought, turned all his rage on us.
He wept through almost every night for him he had lost in war, to oblige those who had come out to avenge him, to kill us and seize all we had, so as to be able to pursue his enemies; but those who liked European goods were much disposed to preserve us, so as to attract other Frenchmen there and get iron, which is extremely precious in their eyes; but of which they knew the great utility only when they saw one of our French canoemen kill three or four wild geese or turkeys at a single gun shot, while they can scarcely kill even one with an arrow.
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In consequence, as we afterward learned, that the words Manza Ouackange, mean "iron that has understanding," and so these nations called a gun which breaks a man's bones, while their arrows only glance through the flesh they pierce, rarely breaking the bones of those whom they strike, and consequently producing wounds more easily cured than those made by our European guns, which often cripple those whom they wound.
Explanatory Note by the Editor. Hennepin's captors, in the fall of 1680, took him and his comrades down the Mississippi towards the Wisconsin, on a buffalo hunt. Here they were rescued by Daniel Greysolon Du Lhut, or Duluth, a veteran trader of the Lake Superior region. Coming by way of the River St. Croix he heard of these captives, and continued down the Mississippi and obtained their release. Hennepin, with Du Gay or AntoiDe Auguel, took the route of Joliet and Marquette by way of the Wisconsin, and down Green Bay to Mackinac, where they remained until spring. The next year they continued on to France, where Hennepin published his "La Louisiane" in 1683, from whence the foregoing pages were taken. He never returned to America.
Michel Accau remained, and in 1695, was married at the Peoria Mission to an Indian girL H. W. B.
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