Heroes of the Middle West: The French

Ottawas, French traders, and coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, ran out to see the huge winged creature scudding betwixt Michilimackinac Island and Round Island. She was of about forty-five t

e gray robe of St. Francis, appeared on the deck. But two men, one in a mantle of scarle

ING OF TH

n Father Hennepin's "Nouvelle

ils and her anchor, and come up in that deep crescent-shaped bay. She had weathered a hard storm in Lake Huron; but the

Sal

s the ship he hath been building at Niagara. First one hears that creditors have seized his fort of F

with him," said the

panion

as iron. But men hereabouts who have been in his service will take to the woods when they hear he has arrived; traders that he

Robert Cavelier de la Salle ever since he came to the province more than ten years ag

ommended to him yon swart Italian in white and gold that he brought with him on his last voya

ch h

right

He wears long gauntlets pul

ord hilt. Doth he not hold

The fingers a

be bent. It is

copper hand be of serv

ng been maimed in European wars and fitted with a cop

Italian the uni

ving been exiled with his f

reached the settlement late

riffin crew thyself, with the lat

ave only been in the woods with Grey

name of this Italian

er hand is Sieur Greysolon du Lhut's c

de Tonty: a better made man never

aph of

d to restrain them within civilized bounds. But when they took service to shoulder loads and march into the wilderness, the strongest hand could not keep them from open rebellion and desertion. There were few devoted and faithful voyageurs, such

rs, Ottawas, Hurons, coureurs de bois, squaws, and children. When the priest turned from the altar, he looked do

of the

d to Detroit and Sandusky, the priests having decided to abandon St. Ignace and burn the chapel. In our own day we hea

im means for carrying on his plans. He had meant, after sending Tonty on to the Illinois country, to return to Canada and settle his affairs. But it became necessary, as soon as he landed at St. Ignace, to divide his party and send Tonty with some of the men to Sault Ste. Marie after plunderers who had made off with his goods. The others would doubtless desert if left any length of time without a leader. It was a risk also to send his ship back to the colony without standing guard over

products of the undeveloped west. Thus France would acquire a province many times its own size. The undertaking was greater than conquering a kingdom. Nobody else divined at that time the wonderful promise of the west as La Salle pictured

rn from his Mississippi voyage. La Salle, then master of Fort Frontenac, must have examined these charts and journals with interest. It does not appear that the two men were ever very friendly. Jolliet was too easily

in her as far as the Bay of Puans, where many of his furs were collected. He parted with this good ship in September. She pointed

November. La Salle had the three Récollet friars with him. Though one was a man sixty-four years old, he bore, with his companions, every hardship patien

were afraid of starving if they reached the Illinois country after the Indians had scattered to winter hunting grounds. But La Salle would not go on until Tonty appeared.

. More than time enough had passed for her to reach Fort Niagara, unload her cargo, and return. La Salle watched the lake constantly for her sails

the Illinois. This brought them within the present state of Indiana; and when they had reached that curve of the river where South

nd searched; but he was gone all night and until the next afternoon. The stars were blotted overhead, for a powder of snow thickened the air, weirdly illuminating naked trees in the

a home hearth prepared in the wilderness, and no welcome to it but silence. La Salle called out in every Indian language he knew. Dead branches grated, and the stream rustled betwixt its edges of ice. A heap of dry grass was gathered for a bed under a tree by the fire, and its elasti

done his last missionary work, was a long canoe journey. It has been said the rivers of the New World made its rapid s

en the covered pits in which the Indians stored their corn. Nothing was more precious than this hidden grain; but he paid for what he took whe

ad done with Jolliet and Marquette when those explorers passed them on the Mississippi, tried to coax their guests to go no farther. They and other Indians wh

ime convinced that the Griffin was lost. Whether she went down in a storm, or was scuttled and sunk by those to whom he intrusted her, nothing was ever heard of

i ran. But the loss of the Griffin hurt him sorely. He could not go on without more supplies; and having no vessel to br

el being partly finished by the first of March, he left her and Fort Crèvec?ur in Tonty's charge, and,

issippi. Father Ribourde and Father Membré remained. The young Sieur de Boisrondet might also be relied on, as well as a Parisian lad named étienne Renault, and their servant L'Esperance. As for the others, smiths, shipwrights, and soldiers

xperiment. But he took some men and ascended the river to the rock. Straight-way smiths, shipwrights, and soldiers in Crèvec?ur, seizing powder, lead, furs, and provisions, deserted and made their way back to Canada. Boisrondet, the friars, and L'Esperance hurried to tell Tonty; and thus Fort Crèvec?ur and the partly finished ship had to be abandoned. Tonty dispatched four men to warn La Salle of the disaster. He could neither hold this position nor fortify the

rees. No man could ascend it except at the southeast corner, and at that place a ladder or a rope was needed by the unskillful. It had a flat, grassy top shut in by trees, through which one could see the surrounding country as from a tower. A ravine behind it was banked and floored with dazzling white sand, and walled at the farther side by a timbered cliff rising to a prairie. With a score of men Tonty could have held this natural fortress against any

alo robes, gambling with cherry stones, and on peaceful lodges above which the blue smoke faintly wavered. It was so warm the fire

ue up the river to make what they called a retreat for prayer and m

es, Illinois Indians of a past generation slept their winters and summers away. Crows flapped across them and settled o

river. When he had talked an instant old braves bounded to their feet with furious cries, t

rapid jargon. The Frenchmen drew together with the instinct of uni

it?" cr

are coming to eat us up! These French

Frenchmen crowded back to back, facing the savage crowd. Hampered by his imperfect knowledge of their language, he hearkened intently to the jangle of raging voices, his keen dark eyes sweeping from face to face. Tonty was a man of impressive presence, w

oquois are at peace with the French! B

shouted Tonty. "If they are coming w

ere put the women and children, with supplies, and all were paddled down river to an island, where guards could be set. The warriors then came back and prepared for fighting. They greased their

the prairie on the opposite side, slipping under cover of woods along a small branch of the Illinois River. They had guns,

of maddened, screeching savages Tonty and his men once more st

le is not with the Iroquois, nor is any priest leading them! Do you not remember the good Father Marquette? Would such men as he lead tribes to fig

s brought the Ir

ng about the Iroquois! But we wi

hrow themselves into the canoes. Warfare with American Indians was always

rondet and étienne Renault while they paddled as fast as they could across the

him since last night,"

were embarking their women and childre

ad slipped away to bring back Father Membré an

e of the

been appalling. These Hodenosaunee, or People of the Long House, as they called themselves, were the most terrible force in the New World. Tonty saw at once it would go hard with the Illinois

nt a young Indian with him. Boisrondet and étienne Renault also walked at his side into the open space between two barbaric armies. The Iroq

ult and the young Indian. "What need is ther

tated to

ing himself among furious wolves. Snarling lips and snaky eyes and twisting sinuous bodies made nightmares around him. He felt himsel

chief. "This is a Frenchma

d him faint. His black hair clung in rings to a forehead wet with cold perspi

rotection of the French king and Governor Fron

e Illinois began a frenzied attack, thinking he was killed. Tonty was spun a

o himself, "was in such

m!" shou

ch!" others cri

which Governor Frontenac had given to that name had effect on them. Besides, they had not surprised

llinois. He staggered across the prairie. Father Ribourde and Father Membré, who had just

nd children, while he attempted as long as possible to keep the invaders at bay. Lodges were set on fire, and the Illinois withdrew quietly down river, leaving some of their men in the bluffs less than a league from

affolds. They were angry at the French for threatening them with that invisible power of France, and bent on chasing the Illinois. Yet Tonty was able to force a kind of treaty b

er flowed placidly, and the sun shone on desolation and on the unaltered ferny buttresses of the great rock and its castellated neighbors. Tonty heard with half delirious ears the little creatures which sing in th

selves, adding a ruff of freshly chopped trees, the two white men sat down in a ring of glowering savag

mised that his nation would not eat Count F

plaster to heal

nd the Récollets, so their joint

d that the s

k ordered the French to ge

r skins piled before them. Then he looked around the circle of hard weath

on you yourselves intend to leave the c

aves burst out with the declaration that

ry way they would have rejected a one-sided treaty themselves. Up they

d massacred in their lodge. At daybreak the chiefs ordered them

could. With the two Récollets, Boisrondet, young Renault, an

ST. LOUIS OF

ecent Ph