Historical Collections of Louisiana, embracing many rare and valuable documents relating to the natural, civil and political history of that State. Compiled, with historical and biographical notes, and an introduction, by B. F. F

Front matter

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: WITH THE ORIGINAL NARRATIVES OF MARQUETTE, ALLOUEZ, MEMBRE, HENNEPIN, AND ANASTASE DOUAY. BY JOHN GILMARY SHEA. WITH A FACSIMILE OF THE NEWLY -DISCOVERED MAP OF MARQUETTE. REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL, NEW YORK. 1852. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, By J. S. REDFIELD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED BY C. C SAVAGE, 13 Chambers Street, N. Y. TO JARED SPARKS, LL.D. PRESIDENT OF HAEVAED UNI VEES IT Y, €l;is Unlnmt is inarrM, AS A MARK OF PERSONAL REGARD, By the Authoe.

Preface

. It has long been a desideratum to have in English the early narratives of the discovery and exploration of the Mis sissippi. Marquette's map and voyage have indeed appeared, but the narrative varies in no small degree from the authentic manuscript, and the map is not at all a copy of that still preserved, as it came from the hand of the great explorer. These published from original manuscripts, and accompanied by the narratives of the missionaries in La Salle's expedition, are now first presented in an accessible shape, and complete the annals of the exploration. The life of Marquette, and the history of the exploration itself, are the result of many years study of the early Spanish and French authorities, both printed and manuscript, some of which have never before been consulted. Besides my own researches, I have been aided by those of the President of St. Mary's College, and of the Hon. James Viger, of Montreal, and I trust that the volume will be found to be as faithful as the subject is interesting.

New York, Sept., 1852. J. G. S. CONTENTS. History of the Discovery of the Mississippi Valley i-age vii Life of Father James Marquette, of the Society of Jesus, first explorer of the Mississippi xli Notice on the sieur Jolliet lxxix Notice on Father Claudius Dahlon 2 Voyages and Discoveries of Father James Marquette, of the Society of Jesus, in 1613, and the following years 3 Notice on Father Claude Allouez 67 Narrative of a Voyage made to the Illinois, by Father Claude Allouez 67 Bibliographical Notice of the Etallissement de la Foi of Father Christian le Clercq, Eecollect 78 Narrative of La Salle's first attempt to explore the Mississippi, by Father le Clercq 83 Bibliographical Notice of the Works of Father Louis Hennepin 99 Narrative of a Voyage to the Upper Mississippi, by Father Louis Hennepin. 107 Notice on Father Zenobius Menibre 147 Narrative of the Adventures of La Salle's Party, from February, 1680, to June, 16S1, by Father Membre 147 Narrative of La Salle's Voyage down the Mississippi, by the same 165 Account of La Salle's Attempt to reach the Mississippi by sea, by Father Christian le Clercq pgj Narrative of La Salle's Attempt to ascend the Mississippi, in 1687, by Father Anastasius Douay -iq*j Spanish account of the Destruction of La Salle's Fort in Texas 208

Appendix

. Recit des Voyages et des decouvertes du P. Jacques Marquette, <te 231 Unfinished Letter of Father James Marquette, containing his last journal . . 258 La Salle's Patent of Nobility 265 La Salle's Second Commission 267 Comparative Table of the names on the Map published by Thevenot, and Marquette's real Map HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. ON glancing at a map of America, we are at once struck by the mighty river Mississippi, which, with its countless branches, gathers the waters of an immense valley, and rolls its accumulated floods to the gulf of Mexico, affording a line of uninterrupted communication for thousands of miles, which has in our day peopled its ' banks with flourishing towns and cities. So large a stream, so important a means of entering the heart of the continent, could not, it would be supposed, long remain unknown — or, known, remain unap preciated : yet so, in fact, it was.

Columbus himself entered the gulf of Mexico, but the southern coast only was explored by the discoverer of the New World. By whom the northern shore was first explored we do not know ; but it is laid down with considerable accu racy in an edition of Ptolemy printed at Venice in 1513. This map is the more remarkable as the delta of a river cor responding to the Mississippi is traced upon it more distinctly than in the maps of the next century. Several adventurers now sailed along the northern or Florida shore, till it was HISTOEY OF THE DISCOVEEY completely examined by Garay in 1518. Three years later, a map was drawn up by the arbitrator appointed to decide between the claims of rival discoverers, and on it we find the Mississippi again traced on the part assigned as peculiarly Garay's, and on it the name it subsequently bore, Rio del Espiritu Santo, or River of the Holy Ghost.* • Several expeditions were now fitted out to explore and reduce the realms of Florida.

Brilliant, daring, and adven turous attempts they were, and give the time that hue of chivalry which almost makes us forget the crimes which marked it — crimes, magnified and distorted indeed by for eign writers, but still coolly and dispassionately examined crimes that we must condemns It was the last age of the political freedom, of the nicely-poised balance between the * These facts and the maps are to be found in an English version of the " Ship wrecks of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca," printed for private distribution at Wash ington, in 1851, for Geo. W. Riggs, jr. The translator is Mr. Buckingham Smith. f It is not so much the cruelty here as the wantonness of it that Bhocks our modern taste. That was an age of cruelty. The Spaniard, from his long guerilla wars with the early Moors, was necessarily a man used to blood : and when the Reformation came, and the new religionists sprang at the rich plunder of the churches, those who adhered to old ideas clung to them with desperation ; and when deprived of them, unable to retaliate on the church property of their antagonists who had none, vented their rage on their spoilers themselves.

In countries where the advocates of the new ideas had not entered, the example of what had occurred elsewhere taught the old-idea party to prevent their entrance at all hazard, if they wished to worship at the shrines raised by their ancestors. Had they been angels, they might have been mild ; but they were men, and necessarily cruel, and the retaliations were so too. The sixteenth century, then, is marked by constant scenes of blood, not only in America, but in Europe, and only bigots would attempt to represent any one case as isolated and build a the ory on it In this age, and from this very cruelty, the English and French navies rose ; both were in their origin piratical flotillas, which lived by plunder ing the Spanish main and the rich argosies which were crossing to Cadiz. Even these bore a religious appearance, for the mariners, not only of England but of France, at the time professed a horror of the religion of the Spaniard, equalled only by their love for his gold.

In fact, it is not easy to express now all that a Spaniard, on terra firma or the Spanish main, comprised in that fearful word "herege." ruler and the ruled. Not yet had the worh" "3d by the extremes of a claim of divine right in the person of the monarch, and annual revolutions in the name of the people. The Spaniard was the freest man in Europe : the various powers of the state, still unbroken, maintained on each other that salutary check which prevents all tyranny. The time was yet when the tutor of the heir-apparent of the Spanish crown could inculcate on his pupil the doctrine that a tyrant might be put to death ; while, at the same time, the people were taught that religion required their obedience to the ruling powers, with submission and support from which only extreme cases could absolve them.* Besides this, " many circumstances concurred at this epoch of overwrought excitement, violence, and a mania for discovery by land and sea, to favor individuality of character, and ena ble some highly-gifted mind to develop noble germs drawn from the depth of feeling.

They err," says Humboldt, " who be lieve that the Spanish adventurers were incited by mere love of gold and religious fanaticism. Perils always exalt the po etry of life; and besides, this remarkable age, unfolding as it did new worlds to men, gave every enterprise and the natural impressions awakened by distant travels, the charm of nov elty and surprise." Leon, Cordova, and Ayllon, had successively found death on the shores of Florida ; but the spirit of the age was not damped : in 1528, Pamphilus de Narvaez undertook to con quer and colonize the whole northern coast of the gulf. He landed, and, after long and fruitless marches, returned to the coast, and in wretched boats endeavored to reach Tampico. Almost all perished : storms, disease, and famine, swept them * Mariana's De Rege Tyranno was written for a Spanish prince, X HISTOEY OF THE DISCOVEEY away, and the coast was whitened with their bleaching bones.

A few with Cabeza de Vaca were thrown on an island on the coast of Mississippi. After four years' slavery } De Vaca escaped and struck inland with four -companions. Taken for supernatural beings, they became the medicine men of the tribes through which they passed, and, with as little difficulty as the Indian jugglers, established their reputation. "With lives thus guarded by superstitious awe, they rambled across to the gulf of California, traversing the bison plains and the adobe towns of the half-civilized natives of New Mexico, perched on their rocky heights. De Vaca is the first known to have traversed our territory from sea to sea. In this long wandering, he must have reached and crossed the Mississippi ; but we in vain examine his narrative for something to distinguish it from any other large river that he met.

He remains then in history, in a distant twilight, as the first European known to have stood on the banks of the Mississippi, and to have launched his boat upon its waters ; but his "shipwrecks" shed no new light on its history7.* "When he and his companions suddenly appeared amid their countrymen in Mexico, their strange accounts, and an air of mysterious secresy which they affected, gave a new impulse to the adventurous spirit of the age. In the sprint of 1539, two attempts were made to reach the realm in the interior, which De Vaca had protested to be "the richest country in the world." One of these expeditions started from the Pacific, the other from the Atlantic. The former was led by the Franciscan friar Mark, a native of Nice in Italy, who burning with a desire of conquering for Christ the many tribes within, set out with a negro companion of De Vaca's * De Vaca's narrative in Spanish is in Barcia's collection, and in French in that of Ternaux-Compans. from Culiacan, and crossing the desert wastes, reached the Colorado ; but after gazing from a commanding height on the embattled towers of Cibola, with its houses rising story above story, and its gateways so well glazed that they seemed masses of turquoise, returned with baffled hopes, for the natives had refused him entrance, and actually cut off his negro guide and a large party of friendly Indians.

Friar Mark, on his return, raised the hopes of the Spanish authorities still higher, and his statements, apparently true in themselves, were so understood by the excited imaginations of all, as to leave impressions far from the reality. An ideal kingdom rose into existence, and a new expedition was projected. This reached the valley of the Mississippi ; but before we trace its course, we must go back to the Atlantic expedition of 1539.* It was commanded by the successful Ferdinand de Soto, who had risen by the conquest of Peru to rank and wealth, and was now governor of the rich island of Cuba. "With a force far superior to any that had yet landed on the continent, he entered Florida, and, with his gallant array, struck into the unknown interior. The Mississippi, under the name of Espiritu Santo, was not unknown to him ; for, after proceed ing westward and turning slightly northeast to Hurripacuxi — after striking westward to Eteocale, whose heroes wore (the natives said) helmets of burnished gold — after carrying, by stubborn fight, the gallant town of Napetuca — after pressing on through Ivetachuco, fired like another Moscow by its dauntless people — after reaching.

Anaica Apalache, — he sent Maldonado back to Havana, with orders to meet him in six months at the mouth of the Mississippi.-)- * The narrative of Friar Mark is in the Appendix to the Narrative of Casta fiedo de Najera, published by Ternaux. It deserves to be read, for it is not so much a fiction as is generally supposed. f Historical Coll. of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 99. HIST0EY OF THE DISCOVEEY XII Here began his second campaign ; lured by the glittering promises of an Indian guide, he marched to the northeast, crossing the Altamaha, and perhaps entered the territory of Carolina, a land full of remembrances of Ayllon. "Weary with a march of twelve hundred miles, his men were fain to settle there; but no, on they must go, and turning northward, he traversed unconsciously the golden sands of the Cha laques, with a heavy heart, for it was poor in maize.

At last he reached a great river by the western course, and with his mind still full of great hopes from the river of Espiritu Santo, he took the Coosa for the Mississippi, and traced it to its source,* then following down its gentle current, crossing as villages invited him, he reached Mavila to waste the lives and property of his men in a terrible contest with the gigan tic Tuscalosa, the chieftain of the land. Here any but the resolute Soto would have renounced his schemes, and joined his vessels in Pensacola bay ; but no, though winter was coming on, he marched north, fighting his way across river after river to the heart of the Chickasaw country, and win tered there, although they, too, burned their village in which the invaders were quartered ; thence he marched northwest to the country of the Alibamons, who threw up a palisade entrenchment to prevent his passage.

"With considerable loss De Soto carried it, and captured corn enough to carry him across the desert land to Quizquiz, and here at last he really came to the long-sought Rio del Espiritu Santo. It was the Mississippi. Here all doubt vanishes. Listen to the characteristic description of the most detailed narrative. "The river," says the unknown Portuguese, "was almost half a league broad ; if a man stood still on the other side it could not be discerned whether he was a man or no. The * Historical Coll. of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 101. river was of great depth, and of a strong current; the water was always muddy ; there came down the river continually many trees and timber, which the force of the water and stream brought down."* And the inhabitants were not un worthy of the great river. " The cacique came with two hundred canoes full of Indians with their bows and arrows, painted, with great plumes of white and many-colored feathers, with shields in their hands, wherewith they de fended the rowers on both sides, and the men of war stood from the head to the stern, with their bows and arrows in their hands.

The canoe wherein the cacique sat, had a can opy over the stern, and he sat beneath it, and so were the other canoes of the principal Indians. And from under the canopy where the chief man sat, he commanded and gov erned the other people. From the frequent mention of the river in Biedma's narrative we may infer that allusion to it was suppressed, or at most, mysteriously made by De Vaca, and that it was supposed to be the key to his land of gold. Certain it is, that their hopes seem here to brighten ; they build boats, the first European craft to traverse the river, and crossed to the western side some twenty or thirty miles, as modern investiga tors tell us, below the mouth of the Arkansas. f The country now reached by the Spaniards, was one of large and populous towns, well defended by walls and towers, pierced with regular loop-holes, and surrounded by well-made ditches.

De Soto ascended the river, and striking on a higher, drier, and more champaign country than he had yet seen, proceeded onward to Pacaha, a place it would not be easy now to locate. The Mississippi was thus explored * Historical Coll. of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 168. f See the opinions collected in Bancroft, vol. i., p. 61. HISTOEY OF THE DISCOVEEY for a considerable distance ; but far other than commercial or colonial projects filled the mind of De Soto; he stood by what he knew an outlet to the sea, a great artery of the con tinent, but his splendid array had dwindled down, and the rich realm of De Vaca had not yet rewarded his many toils. Nerved by despair, he marched northeast till he found himself among the wandering Indians of the plains, with their portable cabins. This was his highest point, and could not have been far from the Missouri.

He then turned southwest again to the Arkansas, at the large town of Quigata, to seek guides to lead them to the southern sea ; but Coligoa beyond the mountains tempted him to the northwest again ; yet Coligoa ill-repaid their toil ; it was poorer than the well-built towns they had left behind. Striking west and southwest again, he seems to have once more reached the Arkansas at Cayas, and ascended it to the town of Tanico, with its lake of hot water and saline marshes. Turning then to the south and east, he again reached Vicanque also on the Arkansas, and wintering there, descended it in the spring of 1542 to die on the banks of the Missis sippi ; after having thus explored the valley of the Arkansas, and examined its inhabitants, who, from the scanty notices we bave, seem quite different from those afterward found there, and apparently an offshoot of the New Mexican tribes.* De Soto was now dead, the expedition was abandoned, the only object was to leave the fatal country.

Muscoso their new leader, despaired of reaching the gulf by the Mississippi, and struck westward in hopes of reaching New Spain, as De Vaca had done. In this western march of over seven hundred miles, he explored a considerable part of the valley of the Red river, passing by the tribes which were not * In confining these rambles of De Soto to the valley of the Arkansas, I am not alone; see JU'Culloch's Researches, pp. 529, 531, cited by Bancroft. EsVEE. XV expelled or exterminated when the country was ultimately explored by the French. Nazacahoz, in the province of Gu asco, was the most westerly town in their march. Here they found turquoises, pottery, and cotton mantles from New Mex ico, and even an Indian woman who had escaped from the Pacific expedition, of which we shall next speak. From her statement, and the account given by the Indians of the large river of Daycao to the west, they marched ten days more, and crossing this river, probably the Pecos branch of the Rio Grande, found themselves in the country of the roving tribes.

Disheartened at the prospect before him, Muscoso returned to the Mississippi, and ascending above Guachoya where De Soto had died, entered at Aminoya, and working up all their chains and iron into nails, began to build vessels to navigate the Mississippi. The place where these first brigantines were built, has not been clearly settled, its Indian name Aminoya has left no trace. Here " seven brigantines were constructed, well made, save that the planks were thin, be cause the nails were short, and were not pitched, nor had any decks to keep the water from coming in. Instead of decks, they laid planks, whereon the mariners might run to trim their sails, and the people might refresh themselves above and below." They were finished in June, and "it pleased God that the flood came up to the town to seek the brigantines, from whence they carried them by water to the river."

Thus three hundred and twenty-two Spaniards sailed from Minoya on the 2d of July, 1543, and passing Guachoya, were attacked by the people of Quigalta, who pursued them for many days, and did considerable harm to the little fleet. At last, however, on the eighteenth day they reached the gulf of Mexico, after having sailed, as they computed, two hundred and fifty leagues down the river. Thence, after many dangers and hardships, the survivors coasting along reached Tampico, " whereat the viceroy and all the inhabitants of Mexico wondered," says the chronicle* Such is, in brief, the history of the Mississippi as explored by De Soto, and his successor, Muscoso, the first who sailed " Down the great river to the opening gulf." The account they gave received additional confirmation from the second expedition of Father Mark's from the Pacific coast.

This expedition commanded by Coronado, and guided by the adventurous missionary, reached and took Cibola, which proved of little value. Ascending the Colorado, the com mander left its valley and crossed the Rio Grande in search of Quivira; a faithless guide promised him gold in all abun dance, and others as faithless now led him up and down the prairies watered by the upper branches of the Arkansas and Platte. He was thus on the upper waters of the former river, in 1542, at the time when Muscoso heard of him by his run away slave ; but neither trusted the accounts which he re ceived and they did not meet. At Tiguex before he reached the Rio Grande, Coronado had found a "Florida Indian" whose description of the Mississippi tallies quite well with with that of the gentleman of Elvas. " This river in his country," he said, " was two leagues wide, and that they found fish in it as large as horses, and that they had on it canoes which could hold twenty rowers on each side : and that the lords sat at the stern under a canopy ."f At the Rio Grande, too, Coronado heard from the Querechos, or roving Indians of the plains, " that marching toward the rising sun, he should meet a very great river, the banks of which he could * For an account of De Soto's expedition, see Biedma's narrative and that of the gentleman of Elvas, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. ii.

La Flori da del Inca, is a romance. \ Castanedo de Nagera in Ternaux, p. 77. OF THE MISSISSIPPI ETVEE. XVII follow ninety days without leaving inhabited country. They added that the first village was called Haxa, that the river was more than a league wide, and that there was a great number of canoes."* Such clear accounts of a great river, which the party of De Soto had found navigable for at least a thousand miles, would naturally have drawn attention to it; but we find no notice of any Spanish vessels entering the river to trade in furs or slaves, or simply to explore. Accident occasionally brought some to its banks, but these visits are few and brief, and they led to no result. Thus, in 1553, a rich argosy from Vera Cruz, after stopping at Havana, was wrecked on the Florida coast, and a few survivors reached Tampico by land, escaping from the constant and terrible attacks of the na tives, f In consequence of this and other disasters the king, in 1557, ordered the reduction of Florida, and an army of 1,500 men was fitted out two years after under Don Tristan de Luna, who carried with him every survivor of any expedition or shipwreck in Florida, who could be found.

De Luna reached St. Mary's bay in safety, and had sent back two vessels to announce his arrival in Florida, when a sudden storm came on, and all his vessels were dashed to pieces. Thus left in as miserable a state as any shipwrecked party before, Tristan was not disheartened ; he advanced to an Indian town Nanipacna, which had been taken and wasted by De Soto4 Hearing very flattering accounts of the rich country of Coosa, he despatched a party of two hundred there, under his sargente mayor accompanied by two Domin icans. The party reached Coosa in safety, entered into an alliance offensive and defensive with the cacique, who was * Castanedo de Nagera in Ternaux, p. 117. f Ensayo Crono ad ann. \ It must be the Napetuca of the Portuguese relation. For De Luna, 6ee En.^ Cron. 1559. I! then at war with the Napochies (probably the Natchez), who lay on the Ochechiton, or great water, which the Spaniards took to be the sea.

An expedition was soon set on foot against the Natchez, and the cacique went at the head as chief of Coosa never went before, on a gallant Arabian steed, with a negro groom at his horse's head. Defeating the ene my, they reached the Ochechiton which proved to be a mighty river, the Rio del Espiritu de Santo, in other words, the Mississippi, thus reached again by the Spanish adventurers and missionaries. Revolts had meanwhile arisen in De Luna's camp, and vessels soon came to bear the survivors back to Mexico, and none now looked in hope to that fatal quarter. The entrance of some missionaries into New Mexico in 1580, though fatal to themselves, led to new expeditions, and to the final establishment of Spanish colonies there ; here as before, they heard continually of the Mississippi, or Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo, and some seem actually to have reached it ;* but no steps were taken to explore it, and the Rio Grandee is so called merely because some one mistook it for the great river of De Soto.f A work published in 16304 indeed an account of a Portuguese captain, Vincent Gonzalez, who is said to have sailed up a large river between Apalache and Tampico, and to have approached quite near the kingdom of Quivira, but though this is supposed by the author to be the Espiritu Santo, the notice is too vague to found any inference.

The Mississippi was now forgotten, and although explored for at least a thousand miles, known to have at least two * See Ensayo Chronologico, p. 170 ; and tit Bonilla Torquemada, vol. iii. p. 358. \ I have seen this fact stated, but can not now state the work. •f Benavides Memorial. OF THE MISSISSIPPI ETVEE. XIX branches equal in size to the finest rivers of Spain, to be nearly a league wide and perfectly navigable, it is laid down on maps as an insignificant stream, often not even distin guished by its name of Espiritu Santo, and then we are left to conjecture what petty line was intended for the great river of the west.* The Spaniards had thus abandoned the valley of the Mis sissippi, and a few years after the French at the north began to hear of it, and it was finally reached and explored by the Jesuit missionaries, the great pioneers of the north and west.

Quebec was founded by Champlain, in 1608. He was soon joined by Recollect friars, and while he entered the Seneca country with his Huron allies, the intrepid Father Le Caron had ascended the Ottawa and reached the banks of Lake Huron. Subsequently others joined him there ; they invited the Jesuits to aid them, and the tribes in the peninsula were visited from Detroit to Niagara, and from Lake Nipissing to Montreal. The capture of Canada by the English, in 1629, defeated any further missionary efforts for a time; but it was restored in 1632, and the Jesuits sent out to continue the mis sions alone. They " now became the first discoverers of the greater part of the interior of this continent. They were the first Europeans who formed a settlement on the coast of Maine, and among the first to reach it from the St. Lawrence.

They, it was, who thoroughly explored the Saguenay, discovered Lake St. John, and led the way overland from Que bec to Hudson's bay. It is to one of them that we owe the discovery of the rich and inexhaustible salt springs of Onon- * An English voyage up in 1648, or thereabouts, and a Spanish one up into New York by the Mississippi and Ohio, in 1669, have found advocates; but.I confess inv skepticism. That a 3hip may have occasionally entered the Delta, is not improbable, and Indian report, seems to fix one somewhere near 1669. See Sparks's Life of La Salle, Life of Marquette, Henlon's New-York. HISTOEY OF THE PISCOVEEY XX daga. "Within ten years of their second arrival, they had completed the examination of the country from Lake Superior to the gulf, and founded several villages of Christian neophytes on the borders of the upper lakes.

"While the inter course of the Dutch was yet confined to the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Orange, and five years before Elliott of New- England had addressed a single word to the Indians within six miles of Boston harbor the French missionaries planted the cross at Sault Ste. Marie, whence they looked down on the Sioux country and the valley of the Mississippi. The vast unknown west now opened its prairies before them. " Fortunately the early missionaries were men of learning and observation. They felt deeply the importance of their position, and while acquitting themselves of the duties of their calling, carefully recorded the progress of events around them."* Year after year these accounts reached Europe, and for a long time were regularly issued from the press, in the same epistolary form in which they were written.