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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(page 50). . . They [the Illinois] were still more reassured when they sa[w?] the arrival of some Cocacas, Akansas and Osages who, hearing of our coming, had come from the southwest to see some Frenchmen and get some hatchets mended. Although their language was different from that of the Illinois, yet they expressed themselves so well by signs that they made us understand easily that the river was navigable, that the news of our arrival had been spread abroad everywhere, and that we should be very well received. I made small presents to them all, to show to their fellow tribesmen, and promised that I would bring them hatchets, knives, needles and awls, which they value greatly; and that, as we had an abundant supply of them, we would also supply their neighbors with them, and I invited them to make it known to them. They went away very pleased, assuring us that we should be welcome.
From another direction, two of the most noted men of the tribe of the Matoutentas, who live eighty or a hundred leagues towards the west, arrived on the 17th of February, to see us. One of them had a horse's foot hanging at his girdle, which he said he had brought from a country which is five days' journey towards the west, the inhabitants of which fight on horseback, use lances as weapons, and have long hair, which none of the Indians of these parts allow to grow longer than a thumb's breadth.
Some others, called Chaa, who live at the upper part of the great river, arrived on the 24th of February and invited us to go to their homes where they said they had a large (page 51) quantity of beaver-skins and furs, and that they were near the western sea.
(page 53). . . That day we went seven or eight leagues in that way; and next day, when we had gone six leagues further, we reached the village and stayed there two days, detained by heavy rain, which brought down from the upper part of the river such a large number of blocks of ice that they broke up the ice with which the river was covered in front of the village. There they were stopped by the islands and banks against which they were carried, and great heaps were formed by the ice blocks which were driven up, one on top of another with extraordinary force. Thus we lost hope of being able to send back provisions to the fort for a long time to come; not only because there was no liklihood of the river being free soon, but also because there was even less probability of any Indians coming to the village at that season to sell us any. However, I had no doubt that there were some near the place, hunting, for I had seen their trails printed in the snow, before the rain came; and, the night of the 13th [March] having been very cold, I bethought myself of setting fire to some reeds which the frost had dried up, hoping that the smoke, visible from a great distance on these plains, would attract some Indian to the village to learn the cause of it. As it turned out, the next day while we were dressing the flesh of an ox which we had killed nearby, two Indians who had seen our smoke the day before, who were followed by Chassagoach the most important man of them all, came to see what it was. I saw them at a good distance and went to them and told them that I had made (page 54) this signal in order to let them know that we were there, and to obtain from them a supply of provisions of which the Frenchmen who remained at the fort were in need, for which I could give them payment. They replied that the one who could settle that matter was near at hand, and was following them.
When he arrived I made him a present of a red blanket, a pot, and some knives and hatchets, and I told him that those whom I had left at the fort were in danger of starvation, on account of the length of the winter, that I urged him to relieve them and that when I came back from the journey which I was about to make I would requite the service he would be doing us on this occasion. He promised me to do all he could to that end, and to load with corn my men's canoe, whom I was leaving to take it back, keeping only four Frenchmen to come with me. Then he asked me the object of my journey, and why I was leaving them so soon. As he was, of all his tribe, the most esteemed, the most feared and the most favorable to the French, and had not been with the others near whom we had wintered, I gave him an exact account of it, and explained to him all that had taken place; and I also told him, as I had told the others when I left the fort, that I was going away in order to come back very soon with a larger number of Frenchmen, bringing iron and hatchets to supply to them; that I was going also to obtain news of my barque, and to try and incline the Iroquis to peace; and that I left to him the care of the Frenchmen pending my return.
(page 56). . . we reached the shore of the Lake of the Islinois, after crossing three other streams in the same manner; and at last on the 24th, we got to the river of the Miamis where, in the autumn, I had had a redoubt built, which I found still uninjured, a hundred and twenty leagues from the village of the Islinois. . . .(page 57). . . The rain which lasted all the day, and the necessity for making a raft to cross the river (which is very broad), delayed us until noon on the 25th, when we resumed our march through the woods which were so tangled with thorns and briars that, in two days and a half, we tore all our clothes and were most of us unrecognizable, our faces being so covered with blood. On the 28th we found the woods finer and began to fare better, for we met with numbers of animals, which we found so constantly after that that we gave up carrying provisions with us and eat meat which we roasted on the spot where we killed the stag, bear or turkey. Those are the finest feasts on these expeditions, which until then we had missed, many times walking until nightfall without breaking our fast before we arrived at that place.
The Indians do not hunt there because it is situated between five or six tribes which are at war with one another, who, because (page 58) they fear one another, dare not go to these parts without the greatest precaution; they never appear there except with the intention of surprising one another, and as secretly as possible. The sound of our guns and the carcasses of the animals we killed, very soon made the people of those tribes find our trails. Indeed, on the evening of the 28th, when we had lit a fire on the edge of a plain, we were surrounded by them, but the man who was on watch awoke us, and we placed ourselves each behind a tree with our guns. The Indians, who are called Ouapaus, believed us to be Iroquis; and being convinced that there must be a larger number of us, since we had not concealed ourselves, as they are accustomed to do when they go in small bands, they fled without shooting an arrow, and raised such an alarm that we were two days without meeting anyone. As we easily imagined the reason of their flight, I left all the signs which an army of the Iroquis would have done, lighting many fires, and painting slaves and scalps on the trees in accordance with their custom, when they are taking any along with them, and afterwards, when we were in the midst of the plain, which was four or five leagues broad and so long that we could not see the end of it, we set fire to the dry grass with which it was covered, in order to hide from the Indians the way we had gone, and it was very soon all burnt up. Every night we made us of the same device, which succeeded well as long as the plains continued; but, on the 30th, we came into extensive fens which were flooded by the thaw, and had to cross them in mud or water up to our waists, and our tracks going deep into the mire revealed us to a band of Maskoutens who wanted to kill some Iroquois. They followed (page 59) [La Salle and party were pursued by the Maskoutens for three days; finally recognized (questioned by La Salle) them as Frenchmen, speaking to them in Islinois "that some of them understood that we were brothers, and that they had taken us for Iroquois, they went off in the direction they had come, and we continued our journey. . ." e. j. b.] (page 60) After much effort . . . ., we resumed our march and reached the strait by which Lake Huron falls into Lake Erie which is a league broad at this place, and almost throughout. I crossed it on a raft with two of my men, and sent orders to the other two Frenchmen to make a canoe and go to Missilimakinac to obtain news of my barque which I did not yet know to be lost. We followed the shore of Lake Erie on foot until the Indian and one of my men succumbed to the toil (page 61) of walking continually in water, the constant rain and the great thaw having flooded nearly all the woods, so that, thirty leagues from the Sault de Conty, they were attacked by a very violent fever with an inflammation of the lungs, bringing up blood; this made it necessary for me and the one man I had left who was not sick to make a canoe to convey them, which I did in two days; and on the day after Easter Day I arrived at the said Sault de Conty. . . .(page 62). . . I had seventy leagues further to go to reach Fort Frontenac. . .
(page 68)
The men Jacques Messier, Nicolas Laurent and Nicolas Crevel arrived on the 22nd
of July; the first two had been sent from the Islinois country by the Sieur de
Tonty, who was in command there in charge of a report of the desertion of all
the ships' carpenters, the blacksmith, the joiner and several others of the men
I had left there who, in the Sieur de Tonty's absence, had broken open and
pillaged the storehouses, and carried off the furs, goods and ammunition in
them, had thrown down the stakes of the fort, and had left the few who remained
destitute of everything. I embarked immediately, with nine men in my barque, to
go and look for them, and sent word to fifteen other men to follow me; but they
were unable to arrive in time, and I was myself compelled by the winds to put
in for shelter several times. Finally, on the 2nd of August I went and anchored
at the extremity of an island by one of the sides of which they would have to
pass unless they went to New Holland, as some of them did. Towards four o'clock
in the afternoon I saw a canoe containing two of my settlers who, having fallen
in with some of the deserters, had come on in advance travelling day and night
to inform me that they were twenty in number; and that, not content with what
they had done in the Islinois country, they had destroyed the redoubt which I
had left at the River of the Miamis, had taken some beaver skin which I had in
store at Missilimakinang and robbed the warehouse above the Sault de Conty;
that they had divided into two companies, that eight of them had taken the
route to New Holland, and twelve were making for the Fort intending, if they
met me, to kill me, firing at me along; that they could not be far off, and
were coming in two canoes, six in each.
[La Salle captures the twelve deserters, killing two of them in the process. He tried to capture the ones going to New Holland, but didn't succeed. e.j.b.]
(page 71). . ., I left with twenty-five men to go and join M. de Tonty. I am taking one of the ships' carpenters, to finish the vessel which is nearly built in the Islinois country. We are taking all that is necessary for that purpose, and I hope to go down in it as far as the sea this winter, or at least in the autumn. Since I arrived here, I have arrested two more of my deserters and I have at least learned the accident which happened to my barque. (page 72) Some Indians, called Pouteatamis, tell me that two days after the vessel left the island where I had quitted her on the 18th of September 1679, this storm arose, of which I have told you; and the pilot, who had anchored with them on the northern coast, where they were encamped, believing the wind to be favorable for going to Missilimakinak, as in fact it was out in the lake, set sail contrary to their advice, not perceiving the violence of the wind because the land over which it blew was so near. They assured him that there was a great tempest in the offing, where the lake seemed all white; but the pilot laughed at them, replying that his vessel was not afraid of the wind, and set sail. [evidently the ship ran aground during this storm, e.j.b.]
(page 74). . . Thirdly. You complain that I tell you nothing special in my letters about the Islinois and the riches or the . . . . . . which may be there. It seems to me inconceivable that you should have expected it, otherwise you have not reflected on the remoteness of these places, whence it was not possible that I should have had any great information in six weeks, while I remained ill at Quebec, distant six hundred leagues from that country. I did indeed receive a letter about it from the man Michel Ako and his companions, who had gone there the previous Spring, which was brought to me by a canoe which I sent specially to the Fort upon my arrival, from which letter I learned what I told you about the copper and that they had bought the number of ox-hides I mentioned to you. But that was done before my arrival; and, apart from that letter, I knew no more when I left Quebec than when I had left France. The fort and the small vessel which I told you had been commenced were at the Sault de Conty. . . .
(page 79). . .But nevertheless I am ready to do so by the river, which I call La Baudrane, (the Iroquois call it Ohio, and the Outaouais Olighin-cipou). . .(page 80). . . This river Baudrane rises behind Oneiout and, after a course of about four hundred and fifty leagues towards the west, about equally wide or wider throughout than the Seine is at Rouen, and much deeper, it discharges its waters into the River Colbert twenty or twenty-five leagues to the south by west of the mouth of the River of the Islinois where it falls into the same river. A barque can go very high up on this river towards Tsonnontouan, and at that place you are only twenty to twenty-five leagues from the southern shore of Lake Ontario or Frontenac; from there you can go to Fort Frontenac in a barque in fifteen hours with a favorable wind. So, by this route, there would be only one post to establish, at the mouth of the river of the Tsonnontouans on the shore of Lake Ontario, and another on the river I call Baudrane, where one could raise horses and use them for transport, which would be easy, the track being made.
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