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 the Discovery of the
Mouth of
the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico
Accomplished by the Sieur de la Salle
During the Past Year, 1682/83
Membre, Zenobe in: Habig, Marion A., The Franciscan
Pere Marquette. Franciscan Studies, June
1924,
(Archives Scientifiques de la Marine 67, no. 15), pp. 244-256.
The sieur De la Salle embarked on Lake Taronto,2 which discharges itself into the Lake of the Hurons,3 at the end of the month of August in the year 1681, and towards the beginning of November4 he arrived at the river of the Miamis, at the head of the lake of the Illinois, on the south side. Immediately after his arrival he undertook the work of preparing all things necessary for accomplishing the discovery. He selected 23 Frenchmen and 18 Nahingans5 and Abenaquis, savages who had left their country near New England and had placed themselves under his protection. The latter wished to take along ten of their women to prepare their food according to their custom while they were hunting or fishing, and these women took with them three children. Thus the whole party consisted of 54 persons, among whom was the sieur De Tonty, Father Zenobe, a Recollect,6 and the sieur Dautray, son of the procurator general of Quebec.
On the 21st of December, the sieur De la Salle caused the sieur De Tonty with a part of his men7 to embark on the lake of the Illinois, for the purpose of going to the Divine River, called by the savages Checagou,8 and of preparing at that place the canoes and the other thing necessary for his voyage. The Sr. De la Salle, with the rest of his party, joined him there on the 4th of January, 1682, and found that the sieur De Tonty, since the Checagou River was frozen, had had sleds made for the purpose of placing upon them their entire equipment.
They departed from this place on the 27th of the same month, and dragged their baggage and their provisions about eighty leagues. They passed the Great Village of the Illinois where they found no one, since the savages had gone to winter elsewhere. Thirty leagues farther down and at the extremity of a widening of the river, called Lake Pimedy,9 where Fort Crevecoeur is situated, they found the ice melted. Hence they embarked in their canoes and on the 6th of February they arrived at the mouth of the river of the Illinois, situated at the 38th degree latitude.
The ice which was floating down the Mississippi River detained them at this place till the 13th of the same month. They departed thence on the same day, and six leagues farther down, on the right hand side, they found a large river which comes from the west, called the Missoury River. On the 14th, six leagues from that place, on the left hand side, they saw the village of the Tamaroa, where they met no one because all had gone to the chase toward the Ouabache River10, 46 leagues from that place. The sieur De la Salle left in this village, as he had left in that of the Illinois, some marks of his peaceful coming and some signs of (page 246) the route, which he pursued for upwards of 100 leagues without meeting anybody.
He went by short stages, because he was obliged to go hunting almost every day, not having been able to take along other provisions besides Indian corn. Nevertheless he made 42 leagues without stopping, because the banks were low and marshy and full of very dense reeds.
On the 24th of February all those who had been sent to the chase returned, except one of his men, named Peter Preudhomme,11 and when the others reported that they had seen the tracks of men, it was feared that he had been captured or killed by the savages. The sieur De la Salle at once caused a fort to be built and ordered some Frenchmen and some savages to follow the tracks which had been seen.
Return
to TOC, p. 4
Continue
to next part of Miami Collection
[return to Miami
Collection Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last updated: 19 October 2000
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University