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Historical Background

The French: Trappers and Traders (continued)

TO THE MISSISSIPPI

Pere Claude Jean Allouez explored Lake Superior from 1665 to 1667. At his little mission station near the western end of the lake, he heard from the Indians of a great river to the west. Père Jacques Marquette determined to investigate. In 1673, accompanied by Louis Jolliet and five others, he left St. Ignace Mission and ascended the Fox River, which flows into Green Bay, crossed over to the Wisconsin River, and followed it to the upper Mississippi. The party then descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas. These Frenchmen were not the first Europeans to sight or travel the Mississippi; De Soto and Moscoso had done so a century and a half before.

The report of the exploration was rushed back to Quebec, where, in 1672 Count Frontenac had arrived as Governor of the province. He and his friend, the remarkable La Salle—who earlier may have penetrated the Ohio River Valley—listened with deep interest. Prior to that time, the two men had been involved in projects to open the western lake country to French trade.

PROBING THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, envisioned a French empire in North America. He did much to achieve his dream by exploring and founding posts in the vast Illinois country. From an 1882 conjectural painting by G. P. A. Healy. (Courtesy, Chicago Historical Society.)

In 1673, La Salle established Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario to de fend against the intrusion of English traders from the east. On two trips back to France, he obtained a title of seignior in the new Canadian nobility, a right to trade in furs, and authorization to erect additional posts and seek a water passage to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1678, he and his lieutenant, Henry de Tonty, and a party of Franciscans arrived at Niagara Falls. There, in 1679, above the falls they built a blockhouse fort, Fort Niagara, to guard Lake Ontario and the approaches to the west, and constructed a special boat to transport them through the Great Lakes.

Overcoming one obstacle after another, La Salle led his party to the site of Green Bay to trade, from where he sent the boat, loaded with furs, back to Fort Niagara for supplies. He then traveled by canoe down Lake Michigan and around its southern tip to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, where he built the semipermanent Fort Miami. After waiting in vain about 3 months for the supply boat to arrive, he ascended the St. Joseph to the site of South Bend, crossed to the Kankakee River, and descended it to the Illinois, which he followed to Lake Peoria. In 1680, at this lake he built Fort Crevecoeur. After sending Michel Accou and Pere Louis Hennepin to explore the upper Mississippi, he set out to return to his base at Fort Frontenac for supplies, and left Henry de Tonty in charge of Fort Crevecoeur. Subsequently, by messenger La Salle directed Tonty to move to Starved Rock.

Disaster struck. The Sioux captured Accou and Hennepin, who had followed the Illinois and Mississippi up to the Wisconsin. The Frenchmen stationed at Fort Crevecoeur pillaged and deserted it. Iroquois and Illinois hostilities in the Starved Rock area forced Tonty to withdraw to Green Bay, from where he moved to Mackinac. La Salle himself was met at Montreal by creditors, political enemies, and the news that the boatful of furs he had dispatched from Green Bay the previous year had never been heard from. Again his indomitable will prevailed. He obtained renewed backing, and in the summer of 1680 set out once more for the Illinois country, where he found that Fort Crevecoeur had been destroyed and that Tonty had left Starved Rock. After spending the winter at Fort Miami, he returned to Mackinac and rejoined Tonty.

DESCENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Meanwhile, Accou and Hennepin, after wandering about Minnesota and falling captive to Indians, were rescued by another explorer, Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Dulhut (Duluth), Tonty's cousin. Dulhut traversed both the Fox-Wisconsin and St. Croix portages and renewed the fur trade with the Indians west of Lake Superior. Hennepin later made the absurd claim that he had traveled to the mouth of the Mississippi. This feat was accomplished by La Salle and Tonty and recorded by Pere Zenobius Membre, who accompanied them. The party entered the Mississippi from the Illinois River in February 1682. In April they reached the mouth of the Mississippi, where La Salle ceremoniously planted the French flag and claimed the entire drainage system for Louis XIV.

"Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Dulhut (Duluth), at the Head of the Lakes, in 1679." Dulhut, a fur trader, explored the lands west of Lake Superior. (From a painting by F. L. Jaques. Courtesy, Minnesota Historical Society.)

LA SALLE'S TEXAS VENTURE

La Salle returned to France to report his magnificent addition to the empire and to answer those who attempted to discredit him. In 1682-83, Tonty constructed Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock and reoccupied Fort Miami. With renewed support from the Crown and intending to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, La Salle gathered an expedition of 4 ships and nearly 400 colonists. He sailed from France in July 1684, little realizing the disaster that lay ahead. He fell sick and almost died; the Spaniards captured one of his ships; he quarreled with his principal mariner, Captain Beaujeau, and his men almost mutinied. The three ships passed the mouth of the Mississippi, and early in 1685 sailed into Matagorda Bay, on the Texas coast. One ship foundered in the bay and was lost. Then Beaujeau treacherously sailed away in another ship, loaded with men and supplies. The remaining ship landed near the mouth of the Lavaca River, and the colonists hastily erected Fort St. Louis. A month later, they moved to a new location 5 miles away. Meanwhile, the debilitated La Salle undertook to lead overland reconnaissances to locate the Mississippi. Strangely enough, he apparently traveled westward. Was the great explorer lost? Or was he, in reality, more interested in locating Spanish mines for some secret purpose of his sovereign?

Indians plundering Père Hennepin's party, in 1681. From an engraving in a book by Hennepin, published in 1704. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.)

La Salle lands in Matagorda Bay, Texas, 1685. From an engraving in a book by Pere Louis Hennepin, published in 1704. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.)

In any event, circumstances soon forced La Salle to abandon his reconnaissances. Supplies at Fort St. Louis dwindled, and he lost his last ship in eastern Matagorda Bay. Unerringly now, he set out northeast—toward the Mississippi—to return to the Illinois country for provisions. The strength of the post had been reduced to less than 100; La Salle took 17 men with him and left the remainder behind. On this, his last trek, mutineers assassinated him, in 1687, somewhere in east Texas. They stripped his body and left it to the wolves, divided the meager spoils, and forced the innocent members of the party to accompany them. But soon the murderers quarreled among themselves, and La Salle's friends, including Henry Joutel, escaped.

All the mutineers except the enigmatic Jean l'Archeveque, who turned up in Santa Fe years later, were lost or killed by the Indians. Ascending the Mississippi, Joutel and his party met at the mouth of the Arkansas none other than Henry de Tonty, who had floated down from Starved Rock with a party looking for La Salle. Leaving some of his men to establish what came to be known as Arkansas Post, Tonty returned to Canada with Joutel. Arkansas Post was of intermittent value to France in the years that followed.

Back at Fort St. Louis, in Texas, after months of waiting for La Salle's return, the starving remnant of his colony despaired. Some died; the rest deserted the fort and went to live with the Indians. Fear of French encroachment in Texas stimulated Spanish efforts there. In 1689, the Spanish expedition of Capt. Alonso de León burned the French fort to the ground. La Salle was dead and his most ambitious venture a failure. But scores of intrepid trappers, traders, and missionaries followed him into the heartland of North America.