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.
La Salle, Letter Covering Period
from August 22, 1680 to the Autumn of 1681
La Salle, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de In:
English Translation of Margry, vol. 2,
pp. 121-166.
(page 149) between their three forts, intending to attack one of them next day; but unfortunately, two hunters who were returning from the chase passed by the camp of the Ilinois and asked who they were. They passed themselves off as Miamis, and the Iroquois entered; and a young Ilinois, without waiting till the second man had got right in, killed the first, and the second man escaped and gave the alarm. The Ilinois, surrounded an all sides, defended themselves valiantly until the evening of the next day when, Paessa and thirteen or fourteen of the bravest Of them being dead, and the Iroquois having lost eight men, both parties drew off. The Ilinois returned to the attack three times after that but, finding that they were too weak, went off to kill Iroquois hunters towards Lake Erie, where the Iroquois warriors dared not follow them.
That dismayed the Miamis. Seeing that the Ilinois had not lost courage, they feared that when the Iroquois had gone, they would vent their anger upon them, and punish their treachery towards them in inviting the Iroquois to come and kill them, and this strongly disposed them to listen to what I wished to say to them.
Meanwhile a Chaouenon Chief who is in command of a hundred and fifty warriors, living on a large river which falls into the Ohio and so into the Mississipy, sent to me when he heard of my arrival to ask for the protection of the King. I made him the same reply as I had given the Ilinois, that if he would join me that autumn to proceed to the sea I could, after that, assure him of His Majesty's protection; but that, as his country was so far off that it was inaccessible to us, I could not promise him protection through Canada. He accepted my proposal, and is (page 150) to come to the outfall of the said river with as many of his men as possible.
This matter made it necessary for me to see the Ilinois, to treat with them, and I set out with all my men on the 1st of March to go there. There were fifteen of us, well equipped with arms and snow-shoes; and a sharp frost had so hardened the snow that we got over it easily, the dogs killing as many roebucks as we wished before our eyes. But the sun, which beat down upon us in the midst of these plains so dazzled our eyes that I was blinded for three days, with extraordinary pains, which prevented me from resting day or night, and compelled me to stop on the border of a plain, for I could not walk at all. I sent on the rest of my men, and, constrained by the pain I was suffering, I told another one to go and look for some pine leaves for me, which are a sovereign remedy for this trouble. On his way, he found the trails of seven or eight men, who had snow-shoes made differently from ours. He informed me of this on his return. I had no one left but the man You and him, with two Indians who were suffering in the same way.
Ouiouilamech, whom I have mentioned to you, told me that it was absolutely necessary to go and find out about those men, and speak to them, lest they should find our trails and, not knowing us, should attack us by night. I was very much of the same opinion, but I would not force anyone to go, because I saw danger in it; and I was unable to go, being blind. Finally when they both offered to go, and the Indian also, I sent Hunault and Ouiouilamech. They went on for two days without overtaking them; at last, on the third day in the evening, they reached their huts. They found eighty of them, belonging to the Outagami (page 151) tribe, who were hunting. From them they obtained news of M. de Tonty, who had gone to the Pouteatami, because they were the nearest; suffer from starvation short of death.
You may imagine the course I took. We learned also of the return of the men who had been to the Nadouessioux; and so, freed from that anxiety, we proceeded to the Ilinois village on the 15th of March, when the ice melted. On our arrival, when I was in advance, with four others in a canoe, I saw ten Ilinois, who, when they caught sight of us, took to flight, but they came back when I made myself known. They told us the details of their defeat. I made them a small present, to console them, urged them to make peace with the Miamis, and told them my intention of reconciliating them to one another. They thanked me; and, taking a paper from a bag, they said, "That is a paper which the Iroquois gave us to show that it is by the orders of the French that they slay us. It was a Black Robe who wrote it, and it says that the man to whom the Black Robe gave it will be delivered by the French, if we capture him alive." "It must be," he added, "that the Black Robes desire our destruction, since they encourage the Iroquois in this way to kill us, giving them safeguards against the thing we fear most, namely, being burned after being captured. Our enemies had other safeguards, much greater, which Father Allouez alone was to see. Their chief was clad in a black robe, and it is the Black Robes who are killing us. As soon as the Miamis joined the Iroquois against us, Father Allouez left us to go and live with them, and only came back here last Spring to bring trouble to the land."
I already had a similar note by Father Morin, a Jesuit, -which I am keeping; and, taking the one which the Indian was holding, I read it. It was from the same priest and stated that the bearer, who was going on the warpath against the Ilinois, had asked Father Morin for this note, by which he testified that he was their friend and requested any Frenchman who might fall in with him, in case the Iroquois should be captured, to deliver him. That was certainly encouraging the Iroquois to attack the Ilinois, for they well knew that there were Frenchmen there, assuring them that they would be rescued from burning; and it was exposing the Frenchmen who were with the Ilinois to be considered spies and to be tomahawked; which was very imprudent of the good Father, to say the very least of it, though I have some difficulty in preventing myself from suspecting that it was by his advice that the Iroquois showed these letters to the Ilinois, and the letters which they had for Father d'Allouez.
During the eight days which were passed, as I stated above, in peace parleyings, during which the Ilinois often went to dance the calumet dance in the Iroquois fort, the Iroquois perhaps intended, by showing these papers and letters, to induce the Ilinois to make some attempt against the Frenchmen who were still living outside the fort, with the object of irritating the French against them, and depriving them of their help; but, so difficult is it to put any good construction on these letters from the Iroquois Jesuits to Father d'Allouez, whom they believed to be with the Miamis, and on all these safe-conducts, that I immediately replied: "That, my brother, is not a letter from a Black Robe, it is a useless piece of paper in which some pigment was wrapped which was sold to them, and they are making (page 153) use of it to deceive you; what is written in this paper has no authority and has quite a different meaning from that which the Iroquois give it.
Fortunately the paper was coloured red from having been in the bag of the Iroquois, for they always carry vermilion to paint themselves before fighting, which made what I had said probable. I added that the other large papers, which the Iroquois said were addressed to Father d'Allouez were perhaps the wrappers of some powder, and the Iroquois were using them to inflame them against the French, who alone were able to help them; that they had seen what M. de Tonty had done for them, and the way in which he had been treated by the Iroquois, who had clearly shown, by trying to kill him, that they were not in league with him; and that the black dress of the Iroquois chief was not that of a Jesuit but was made of some other black stuff which had come from the Dutch, to whom they go to trade; that I was going to seek M. de Tonty with a larger number of Frenchmen, and that we should all return together, to defend them; and I said that, to show them the paper was of no importance, and that I did not listen to what it said, I would tear it up at once. And after I had again urged them to agreement with the Miamis, they made us a feast, and I made them a present; after which I left, and went back with my four men to find those I had left in charge of the baggage, where we took about a hundred minots of corn.
When navigation was open, I sent a canoe by the western side of the Lake of the Ilinois to look for M. de Tonty among the Pouteatamis and to bring me my papers, if they had been saved; and as soon as I arrived at the River of the Miamis
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