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.
Relation of Henri de Tonty
Concerning the Exploration of La Salle
from 1678 to 1683.
Tonty, Henri de, Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1898.
pp. 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 33.
page 21 . . .On the 27th we arrived at Missilimakinak,
where there are two villages of Savages, one of Kiskakons and the other of
Hurons. The Jesuit Fathers have two churches there, in which they carry on
their mission both among the Savages and among the French who remain over. Here
we found the men who whom I was to have met at the Detroit. They were in great
consternation, having been told that they were madmen to undertake the journey,
and that no one could escape its perils. Some of them had already deserted. M.
de La Salle having reassured them, he sent me to the Sault St. Marie, a
distance of thirty leagues, to seek the deserters.
I set out on the 29th, and, having taken the deserters, brought them back with me to Missilimakinak, where I arrived the 17th of September. M. de La Salle had sailed up the lake of the Illinois. On the 17th, one of our men having been wounded by a Savage, 1 put our Frenchmen under arms to punish him who had done the deed and to put an end to the insults from these wretches. (page 23) We marched to their fort and, as they were sallying forth with their weapons, we were about to fire upon them, when we perceived among them a Jesuit Father who was doing everything in his power to prevent what seemed about to take place. The chiefs of the nations came and asked my pardon, and the affair ended by their presenting me with some skirts, saying that it was for a salve to the wound of the injured man. On the 5th of October I set out for the river of the Miamis, where I arrived on the 12th of November. . . .
. . . On account of the bad weather we suffered on the way for want of food; and, after coasting the lake of the Illinois for a hundred and twenty leagues, we ran into the aforesaid river. I had been obliged to leave some of my men to hunt while I pushed forward., having met a canoe which M. de La Salle had sent back toward Missilimakinak to get news of me and of the bark, about which he was very anxious on account of a wind that had been raging for five days after his departure. At the mouth of the river I found M. de La Salle engaged in the construction of a fort for the protection of the equipments necessary for his undertaking; but the season being advanced, M. de La Salle, wishing to see the Illinois (page 25) who dwell a hundred and fifty leagues from there, ordered me to return for the men whom I had left to hunt. After sailing eight leagues, the weather became so bad that we resolved to run into a river; but the breakers were so high that we found ourselves compelled to run ashore. As we were approaching land our boat was at one time full of water; afterwards it was overset and we lost our entire equipment. I sent word to M. de La Salle, and for three days we lived only upon acorns which we found under the snow. He sent me orders to turn back and, on the 6th of December, we began our journey toward the country of the Illinois, having in the meantime ascended the river of the Miamis about twenty-seven leagues, and having no one to guide us to find a portage to the river of the Illinois. M. de La Salle marched on foot with the intentions of meeting me. Night came on and we encamped; but M. de La Salle, becoming entangled in a swamp, was obliged to make a detour. Seeing a fire, he approached it, expecting to find Savages with whom he might encamp. He called out in the language of the Savages and, receiving no reply, entered the bushes where the fire was. He found no one; it was certainly the camping place of a warrior who had been frightened by him. There he lay (page 27) down, with two firebrands before him. Although it was very cold and was even snowing, he joined me the next day. There also came a Savage, employed as a hunter by M. de La Salle, who informed us that the men whom I had left behind to hunt were awaiting us at the portage, two leagues below. The portage found and our men all together again, there was great joy. We were in all twenty-nine Frenchmen; but this joy was near being cut short, for (as there are always dissatisfied persons in enterprises of this nature) while we were making the portage, M. de La Salle chanced to be walking in front of one named Duplessis, when this man had the effrontery to take aim with his gun at M. de La Salle with the intention of killing him. But this design was frustrated by one of his comrades, and it was not until long afterwards that we learned of the circumstance.
On the 15th, after we had accomplished our portage and had traveled by water for some fifty leagues, a conspiracy was formed, including two-thirds of our men, to run away by night with the boats and reduce us to wigwam life, but, by some presentiment, M. de La Salle had the boats discharged of their canoes, and so that plot was foiled. We were suffering great dearth, on account of prairie fires, and had nothing to subsist upon (page 29) but game and turkeys, the animals having fled. On the 31st we reached the village of the Illinois, where we found no one. They were all away hunting; but, visiting the caches where they put their Indian corn, we took about forty bushels' of it, which greatly cheered our company for we were all worn with fasting. M. de La Salle found the latitude to be 39 degrees, 50 minutes. The country is as charming as can be found anywhere, consisting almost wholly of plains studded with groups of trees; several unknown fruits are found; the soil produces excellent roots; and here one first finds the wild cattle, called by the Spaniards Sibola. When the prairies have not been desolated by fire, they are populous with all sorts of wild beasts in herds like sheep, great numbers of turkey and much game. The Savages are extremely well formed. Their lodges are built of reed mats. They are the best runners in America.
We continued our journey thirty leagues farther down the river, and killed some cattle as they were crossing the stream. Having noticed some smoke, M. de La Salle had the canoes put in order for battle. On rounding a point, we came upon a small hunting-camp. They were much alarmed, mistaking us for Iroquois. The women and children fled to the woods; but when they saw that we were Frenchmen, they held out the calumet, which is the token of peace among them. We also showed them one, and landed; they received us humanely and caused the fugitives to return. The men go without clothing, have the nose and ears pierced, and the hair cut within an inch of the scalp. The females only are clad. Their disposition is much like that of the French. The day we arrived, which was the 4th of January, 1680, the river was frozen over. On the eve of Twelfth-night six of our men deserted, and, as we afterwards learned, came near dying of starvation. Apparently one of the deserters had poisoned the food of M. de La Salle, for, in the morning, upon eating his porridge, he was seized with all the symptoms of poisoning. We refrained from pursuit of the fugitives for fear of making a bad impression upon the Savages.
On the 15th, a place was found suitable for the construction of a vessel of forty tons, for the descent of the Mississipy or Colbert River. There a fort was built and named Crevecoeur, and work was begun upon a bark of forty tons. Sometime afterwards the Reverend Father Louis Hennepin (page 33) set out with Michel and Picard for the land of the Sioux. M. de La Salle also determined to undertake a land journey of four hundred leagues to Fort Frontenac. This he did, setting out on the 10th of March with five men, and leaving me in command in his place. On his way he met the men whom he had sent to Missilimakinak, who told him the sad news of the destruction of the second vessel, by which his loss amounted to about forty thousand livres. He did not flinch from continuing his journey, and sent me orders to go back to the Illinois village and build a fort upon an eminence a half-league from there. For this purpose I set out, leaving at Fort Crevecoeur those who had brought me the orders. But they had been won over by the enemies of M. de La Salle, and a man named Noel Leblanc debauched them almost all. I found myself with two Recollet priests and three young men, deprived of everything and compelled to take pot-luck with the Savages, the deserters having stolen all that we had. I drew up reports of this and sent them to M. de La Salle, who caught the deserters on Lake Frontenac where two of them were killed. All this delayed his return. . .
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