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 from La Salle to ? (one of his partners)
Sieur de La Salle, Robert Cavelier,
Margry, microfilm, vol. II, pp. 26-94.
Also in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds Clairambault, 1016, fol. 65 recto.
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Letter from the explorer to one of his partners. The beginning is wanting; but, in order to complete it, reference can be made to the Relation officielle de 1679 a 1681, the compiler of which was more than inspired by this letter and the following one, for he often copies them, taking care however to cut out the awkward passages, in which La Salle speaks of intrigues and names the persons of whom he has reason to complain.
1679-- 29th of September, 1680.
. . . . Boys, they are quick, keen and active far beyond the
other Indians; and of all the tribes they alone are liable to quarrel and fight
among themselves, for all those whom we have hitherto known never get angry. Drink
they do not know, nor the vices which result from it. They are given up to the
same superstitions as the rest of the American tribes, observing their dreams,
and believing very nearly the same fables as to the creation of the world,
except that, whereas some of the Indians believe that it is the tortoise that
holds up the earth, these attribute that to the otter. Moreover they are very
indifferent as to what will become to them after death; and they listen readily
to all that you wish to tell them, but (page 27) without believing any
of it; and they even take pleasure in hearing what is told them, as we do in
reading romances. They could not believe that God is angry with sinners, or
wishes to punish them. They are much addicted to thieving, and are much fonder
of freedom than any other tribe, and have very little respect for their old
men, so that peace and war do not last so long with them, since they depend
solely on the caprices of the young men. They number about two thousand
fighting men, who inspire fear in their neighbors, for they excel them in
energy and in the use of firearms. There are none equal to them in running; but
the Iroquois are braver and are so much feared by them that they have already
made them abandon their country twice, although they are four hundred leagues
away, and they would have compelled them to do so again this year had they not
been reassured by our presence near them. The calumet usually puts an end to
the wars between them and their neighbors; the weaker ones come with that as a
safe-conduct and make a present to the victors and stay their hatchets, which
are generally taken up only in order to avenge the death of some relative who
has been surprised and killed or slain treacherously; and they are satisfied as
soon as they have had their revenge.
It is not so with
the war which the Iroquis have declared against them. They have undertaken it
simply with the object of destroying the tribe which they have attacked, and
will never cease until they have succeeded. They began the war against the
Illinois at the time when I first decided to go there; and if I might write
down all that I think, I could show reason for believing that that was done on
the instigation of those who made use of them (page
28) for
the purpose of terrorizing the men and putting me in difficulties; for they
gave the Iroquois among whom they dwelt to understand that my errands had no
other purpose than to supply the Islinois with arms and hatchets, and the
Islinois, that I was settling in their country only in order to deliver them up
to their enemies, making the latter think that I ought to deliver them up. In
fact, Father Alloues, a Jesuit, left the Islinois at this juncture and
increased the suspicion by withdrawing to the Miamis, whom he advised to send to
the Iroquois to request their neutrality, by any [an?] envoy whom I met at one
of their villages called Tsonnontouan, with letters for the Jesuit Fathers who
live there. But they, apparently, did not consider my presence favorable to
their scheme; for, the night after I arrived, they sent word to these envoys to
retire, telling them that if they delayed doing so one moment the Iroquois
would tomahawk them. They fled before daybreak; and I was unable to learn how
that intrigue ended. I found myself, however, in a dangerous predicament,
whatever course I might take; for on the one hand, I knew that the Iroquis had
for a long time been incited to make war upon us, and that they were trying to
lay the blame of it upon me, by making me the occasion of it. They spare
nothing for that end, and intrigues are carried on which one dare not disclose
because they are incredible. I saw clearly that this was a favorable
opportunity for their success, and that the Iroquis would readily accept the
opinion that I was going to assist their enemies, seeing the large quantity of
arms and ammunition which I was taking (page 29) through their own
country, which they themselves were helping me to convey at a place where the
Sault de Conty interrupts the navigation. It is impossible to convey these
things unknown to them, and even more dangerous still to try to conceal the
fact from them. A word would have been sufficient to induce them to resist my
passage, and I could not have forced my way without disturbing the peace of the
country. I bethought myself, as I told you last year, of forestalling them. I
went to Tsonnontouan; I told them my project, and put it before them in the
best light I could in order to make it probably according to their modes of
action, and I succeeded. I gave them to understand that, for so great a
project, I needed a large quantity of arms and ammunition, pretending that,
besides the men I had, there was a larger number who were to join me by another
route, which they know as a rougher way, in which the portages are more
difficult, and that this obstacle had made me bring their stores through the
country of the Iroquis, where I hoped that they would assist me so far as they
could, since they were my friends; that, moreover, I would not conceal from
them that I should pass through the country of the Islinois; that I did not
intend to attack any tribe on my way,- not on account of any friendship I might
feel for them, but because I was bound to obey the wishes of the King who was
as just as he was powerful and would not have me ill treat those who should
receive us and be willing to acknowledge his authority; that I should perhaps
even take their land and their country for sowing corn (page 30) and building a barque to enable me to continue my
journey; but that, although I would use no violence to the Islinois unless they
compelled me to do so by their conduct, neither would I support them against
the Iroquis in any quarrels there might be between them, provided that the
Iroquis did not go and attack them near to the spots where I was settled, for
in that case I should be bound to defend them.
I caused two Jesuit Fathers to be present at this conference in order to make it impossible for them afterwards to destroy the effect of what I had stated. . . . Having apparently calmed the minds of the Iroquois by this explanation and by the presents which I gave with it, it was necessary to (page 31) do the same with the Islinois. On arriving at their village I found myself compelled to do what might have had a bad effect upon their minds; but it was necessary to waive all other consideration, as we were unable to find provisions in any other way. It was the first of January, and the village was empty as usual, all the Indians having gone away to the places where they generally pass the winter hunting; but they leave there, in hiding places which they make in the ground, all the Indian corn which they intend to use for sewing in the spring and for their food during the summer when meat usually fails them by turning bad, because it is not their custom to salt it, and their large numbers when they are gathered together frighten the wild animals, which fly to places which are uninhabited. This store is precious to them, for it is their only resource; and one cannot offend them more than by touching it in their absence. However, winter had begun and we were at the end of our provisions, for it is impossible to carry sufficient in the canoes to last for so long a time as had elapsed since we had left the barque. There was no likelihood of our living by hunting; the fire which had spread through all the grass of these plains, a short time before, had driven away the animals. We did not know where we might meet with these tribes; and as they are in large parties, we feared we might be burdensome to them, and might not obtain any help from them. Moreover, I feared that, as we continued down the river, the masses of ice might stop us in some place where we should be unable to get food. I did not like the idea of undertaking the building of a vessel so far up the river without being sure that it was (page 32) navigable lower down; and I was equally unwilling to take the quantity of corn which would have been necessary for thirty men through the winter, because the large number of Indians (enemies of the Islinois), who had passed that way before us, had taken some. Finally I decided to take about thirty minots, and to go down the river as far as the ice would permit; and, when the Spring came, to have the wood of the vessel which had been begun higher up the river, brought down by means of the large piroques which the Islinois use, as I feared that I should not find any wood lower down, according to what I had been told, which we found to be entirely false.
We went on for four days towards the south-southwest along this river; and on the 5th of January we arrived at a place which the Indians call Pimiteoni in their language. The day before, we had seen smoke when crossing a small lake; and on this day at about nine o'clock in the morning, we found a number of piroques on both sides of the river, and saw a quantity of smoke issuing from eight huts full of Indians; we saw them first, and they did not see us until after we had rounded headland behind which they were encamped within half a gunshot distance. We were in eight canoes, in a line, letting ourselves be carried along by the current of the river, and holding our arms in our hands. I made by men shout first, by way of asking whether they wished for peace, or to fight. The children, the women and the old men at once fled through the woods with which the bank of the stream is fringed at that place. The young men, (page 33) and those who were fit to bear arms, seized them in such confusion that they were unable to recover themselves before we had landed. I jumped on to the bank first; and when I saw the state of confusion in which these savages were, and that my men were disposed to fall upon, I called a halt in order to prevent the massacre which would have followed, which would have formed an insuperable obstacle to carrying out my project. A chief, who was on the other side, observing that I had prevented my men from firing upon seven or eight of his, whom we could easily have killed, began to speak to them to stop those who were beginning to shoot from the other bank of the river, which was too broad for the range of their bows. Those encamped on the side on which I disembarked, at first took to flight; but when they recovered themselves, they sent two of their most important men to offer us the calumet; they held it out to us from the top of a hill when we were advancing towards those who were on the other side of the stream, who did the same; and thereupon we also made signs to them that we accepted peace. Their joy was now as great as their fear had been; and that had been so great that it took many of them three days to return from the places to which they had fled to hide themselves. Finally, after the mutual rejoicings and feasts, which occupied the remainder of the day, I summoned the head men of the families contained in these two little villages; and after I had made them a present of tobacco and a few hatchets, I told them that I had called them together to discuss a matter which I wished to explain to them before speaking of anything else; that I knew how necessary and how valuable to them was the Indian corn (page 34) which they kept in reserve; that, nevertheless, the state of destitution in which we had found ourselves, because the animals had gone away after the fire had burned up their plains, had compelled me to take the quantity which we had in our canoes,- to make use of it, if they could do without it, giving them in exchange hatchets and other things which they most needed, or to return it to them if they could not let us have it without causing suffering to their wives and children; that, with that object, we had not yet touched it; and that we left them free to choose, either the commodities which we should offer them in exchange or the corn which belonged to them; but that, if they could not supply us with the provisions we needed, we should go to their neighbors the Osages to buy what we wanted from them; and that, in return, the blacksmith who had come with me to assist them would remain with those who gave us assistance during the winter.
I knew well that the place where the blacksmith was to be would be the greatest inducement to them, as they have very great need of him, and that they would be anxious not to let him go to other tribes. Accordingly they very soon made up their minds and accepted joyfully the payment I offered them for their corn, gave us some more, and begged us to settle among them. Then I told them that I would willingly do so; but that the Iroquis were subjects of the King, and therefore our brothers, and I could not make war upon them; that I therefore advised them to make peace with them, and offered them my services for that purpose; and I said that if, in spite of my remonstrances, anyone came to their place to attack them, I would defend them, (page 35) provided they would let me build a fort in which I could cope with the Iroquis, with the few Frenchmen I had; that I would even supply them with arms and ammunition, provided they would use them only for repulsing their enemies and would not make a bad use of them by employing them for attacking tribes which lived under the King's protection; and that, if they lived on good terms with us, we should be followed by a large number of people who would supply them with all they wanted in return for their furs, but that, as the distance from New France, the difficulty of the ways, caused by the rapids in the rivers and the great extent of the lakes, and the risks which had to be run, prevented the things they required from being brought to them, I had determined to have a great boat build which would be able to go down their river to the sea, so as to fetch these things more easily; . . .
They accepted my proposals at once, promised to satisfy me in all matter, and, deferring the business details until Spring when all the old men, most of whom were now absent, would be gathered together, they began to describe to me the beauty of the River Colbert. . . (page 36) . . . They day passed in this way with mutual satisfaction. Next day there came to the place where we were one of the chiefs of the Miamis, with whom the Jesuit Father Allouez was living, as a missionary. This Father had heard of our march on Christmas Eve from some young men who met us as they were going to the village where he lived.
The next day this Indian, named Monso, (which in the language of the country means a roebuck), set out accompanied by five or six others all loaded up with pots, hatchets and knives,- presents with which to confirm what they were to tell the Islinois. Several of those who were with me believed that they were sent by some Frenchmen, on account of the particulars which the Indian gave concerning me, whom he had never seen, and of the place where I lived, which he had never been within four hundred leagues of. He got together the old men and secretly warned them that I came with the intention of going (page 37) further on, joining their enemies who live on the great river Colbert, supplying them with arms, and all of us joining with the Iroquis so as to inclose them between two armies and entirely exterminate them; that I was a friend of the Iroquis, that I had a fort in the midst of their country, that it was I who supplied them with arms and powder, and in fact that there was no means of avoiding their destruction except by preventing my journey and compelling me to do nothing; that that would be an easy matter because most of my men were to leave me very soon and that, as I was an imposter, they must not believe anything I said to them. All this was said in secret to the old men, and at night Monso went off without saying a word, fearing lest, if I were warned of it, he would be obliged to say things contrary to what he had stated. On my arrival I had gained over one of the chiefs of the Islinois named Omoahoha, belong to the tribe called the Koeracoenetanon, by making him a present of two hatchets and three knives. As soon as the morning came, after Monso had left, he came to me secretly and informed me of what had taken place. I thanked him, and in order to encourage him to continue to reveal to me what went on, I gave him ten leaden bullets and the same number of charges of powder; and for fear lest he might be suspected by the rest, I waited for a favorable opportunity to undeceive them as to what Monso had told them, I found it in the afternoon, when an Islinois named Nicanape, a brother of the most important of all the chiefs, called Chassagoach, who was absent at that time, invited me to a feast with all my men. He told me that his object in feasting (page 38) was not to appease our hunger but to heal our minds (such is their manner of speaking) of their disease of thinking of descending a river which no one had ever gone down except to die; that the friendship he felt for the French compelled him to warn us; and, having exhorted us to listen attentively to what he was about to say, he began to depict its dangers so seriously and with so much detail that all my men, two or three of whom understood the language, lost courage and resolved to follow the advice which had been given to them to desert me and give up an enterprise which they believed to be a most dangerous one. He began by enumerating an endless number of savage tribes whom we should have to pass who, having many people, would overwhelm us by their numbers, however great the advantage our arms gave us. [etc., etc. e. j. b.]. . .(page 40) . . .
He had no answer to make; and, offering us food, he changed the subject. . . .
(page 42). . . Having strengthened their [the Frenchmen] courage by these words, I decided to separate them from the Indians; and, hiding the vexation I felt at their irresolutions and the loss of the sawyers who were among the deserters, without whom I could not (page 43) build a barque of any vessel to reach the sea, I went in search of a position easy to fortify. I found one, fairly near, suitable for my purpose, and I told those who were with me that it was dangerous for us to stay with the Islinois, and it might expose us to the weapons of the Iroquis, to whom we should be left as a prey if they came where we were in the winter; for it was only too certain that the Islinois would fly on the first attack, and that the Iroquis, despairing of overtaking them, would vent their fury upon us and that we should not be able to drive them off as there were so few of us; that in that case we had not so much our own ruin to fear as the devastation of Canada, to which the said Iroquis would be certain to carry the way, after they had begun it against us; and that the evil consequent upon it would be set down to our imprudence; that there was only one remedy for that, namely, to fortify ourselves in some spot apart from the dwellings of the Indians which I should consider favorable; that if the Iroquis found us some distance off they would not venture to attack us in a fort before conquering the Islinois, for fear of being set upon when they tried to storm our fort; and that, after defeating them, any victory they might gain would certainly cost them many lives, after which they would think rather of retaining their prisoners and carrying off their wounded than of making any attack upon a fort before which, however short a time they might stop, they would lose some men and give their enemies time to rally and come down upon them either in the attack or retreat, when they could easily lay ambushes for them by their knowledge of the country. (page 44). . . and we went to the place I had selected on the 15th of January, towards evening, a great thaw, which came on opportunely, having set the river free from Pimiteoui to that place. It was a small height at a distance of about three arpents from the bank of the river which spread to its foot whenever much rain fell. Two broad and deep ravines inclosed two other sides and half of the fourth side, of which I completed the protection by a trench joining the two ravines. I had the further side of the ravines edged with good chevaux-defrise, and the slope of the hill cut down steeply all around; and, with the earth so taken away, I had a parapet made on the top sufficient to cover a man, the whole faced from the foot of the hill up to the top of the parapet. In front of this work I set everywhere pointed stakes twenty-five feet high by one foot through, stuck three feet in the ground, fastened by pegs to cross pieces which held the upper part of the beams with a fraise at the top two and a half feet long, to prevent a surprise. The flat top of the fort I left its original shape which, though it was irregular, was nevertheless (page 45) tolerably well flanked against the Indians. I had two sets of quarters made for my men, in two of the flanking angles, so that they might all be in their places in case of an attack; the middle part made of thick pieces of wood, musket proof; in the third, the smithy, made of the same material, along the curtain looking towards the wood; the quarters of the Recollets in the fourth angle; and I had my tent and the Sieur de Tonty's placed in the middle of the fort.
[La Salle resolves to go to Fort Frontenac because
the men he has sent to the Sault de Conty to get the iron, sails, and rigging
for the ship had not returned. He decided to leave the first of March, taking
only a few with him so as not to weaken Tonty whom he was leaving in charge of
Fort Crevecoeur.]
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