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ROBERT DE LA SALLE

Born 1643—Died 1687

We that had loved him so,

followed him,

honored him,

Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,

Learned his great language,

caught his clear accent,

Made him our pattern to live and to die.

—   BROWNING'S "The Lost Leader."

—

IN 1641 three ships sailed across the Atlantic from France and anchored in the St. Lawrence River. They had brought men to establish a settlement at Montreal, at the foot of the stately hill Cartier had discovered. Montreal was destined to grow into a beautiful city, and to hold an important place in Canadian commerce, but for years it was only a small community, struggling for existence.

The people in Quebec and Montreal were devout Catholics, and with the exception of fur trading, their chief thought seemed to be to convert the Indians to the Catholic faith. Jesuit priests came over from France to teach the Indians. These missionaries endured great hardships in their wanderings from tribe to tribe. They suffered from cold, hunger, and exposure, but they never lost courage or cheerfulness. They pushed farther and farther west, and established many missions in the wilderness.

The Iroquois were a source of constant trouble to the French. One of the Jesuit missionaries, Father Joques, was captured by the savages and cruelly tortured. The Indians took the priest with them on one of their visits to the fur- trading station at Fort Orange, and the Dutch governor helped Jogues to escape and return to France. The priest thrilled his countrymen with the tales of his torture; but with true heroism he returned to Canada and to his work. He was finally captured again by the Indians and put to death for a sorcerer.

By the year 1670 the French had explored as far west as Wisconsin. Three years later a fur trader named Joliet, and a priest, Father Marquette, set out with five companions from a mission on the Strait of Mackinac to find a great river that the Indians called the Father of Waters. The Frenchmen hoped that it might lead to China.

They went in canoes across Lake Michigan to Green Bay; then they followed the Fox River until they reached the Wisconsin, and gliding down this stream they came out on the broad Mississippi. "This," said Father Marquette, "is such joy as we cannot express."

The Frenchmen floated with the current down the Mississippi past the mouths of the Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio rivers. They made frequent landings and met many Indians, who, as a rule, were friendly and treated the travelers well.

At the mouth of the Arkansas River the explorers turned back, having made up their minds that the Father of Waters did not lead to the Pacific Ocean. Without knowing it, they had passed the spot where De Soto, the first explorer of the Mississippi, had found his grave more than a century before.

Joliet and Marquette reached Green Bay in safety. In four months they had covered in canoes more than two thousand miles.

In the year 1666 La Salle came from France to seek his fortune in America. He was the son of an old and rich family and had been carefully educated and surrounded with luxury. He settled at Montreal and began to study the Indian language. Soon he started out to find a pathway to China.

Slowly making his way toward the southwest, he explored Lake Ontario, discovered the Ohio River, and sailed down its waters as far as Louisville. Later he traveled northward as far as Lake Michigan and crossed to Illinois.

After a time La Salle returned to France and obtained permission from King Louis XIV to push explorations in America, to colonize the lands he might discover, and the young explorer had little difficulty in interesting his friends and relatives in his proposed ventures in New France, as the French possessions in America were called. He raised a considerable sum of money for the enterprise, and returned to Montreal accompanied by a young friend, Henri de Tonty.

By this time La Salle had entirely given up hope of finding a sea route to China through the continent of America. Henceforth he devoted all his efforts to opening up the interior of the country. His bold idea was to build a chain of forts from Niagara to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

These were to grow into settlements of French and Indians, who would carry on a trade in furs, timber, and other products of the new country. Thus would a province many times the size of France be added to the French possessions. Truly this was a great plan.

It was not long before Count Frontenac was appointed governor of Canada. He was a warm friend of La Salle, and the explorer obtained from him a grant of land which included Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, on Lake Ontario.

Four years later, in 1677, La Salle began his famous exploration of the Mississippi Valley. He and his companions proceeded as far as Niagara, where they stopped for the winter and built a small vessel. On her prow was carved a great monster, a griffin, taken from Count Frontenac's coat-of-arms, and the vessel was called the Griffin. It was the first ship ever launched on the Great Lakes.

In the summer the explorers sailed through Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. The simple Indians along the banks of these inland waters were speechless with astonishment when they beheld this ship with its white sails. Never before had they seen a boat larger than a canoe.

From Lake Michigan, La Salle sent the Griffin, loaded with furs, back to Niagara, and instructed his men to return with a supply of provisions. With the remainder of his company the explorer worked his way through the forests to the Illinois River. Not far from the present town of Peoria, the men built a fort, and because of their hardships and suffering, they called it Crevecceur, meaning Heartbreak. The Griffin did not return, and it was never known whether she had been wrecked, or was deserted by the crew in order that they might barter the furs for their own profit.

The loss of the Griffin was indeed a severe blow, but La Salle was a man of determination, and he began to plan a way out of the difficulty. Intrusting the little band of men to the care of Tonty, the explorer set out on foot in 168o for Fort Frontenac.

In spite of cold and snow, the thick tangle of the forest, and insufficient food, he pushed bravely forward, with an Indian hunter and four Frenchmen as companions. Often they tramped for miles through blinding storms, their clothing frozen stiff; at other times, in crossing marshes, they would wade waist- deep through mud and water. La Salle was obliged to leave his worn-out companions on the way, and was nearly exhausted when a familiar sight greeted his eyes; before him loomed the gray walls of Fort Frontenac. He had walked a distance of one thousand miles.

But continued misfortune pursued this brave man. For a long time many had been jealous of him, and he found bitter enemies on all sides who tried in every way to crush him. Once he was poisoned and barely escaped death. He now found that his agents had plundered him, and that creditors had seized his property. Before he could start back with provisions and men for the relief of Tonty and his party, La Salle heard further disastrous news.

From two exploring traders he learned that soon after his departure from the Illinois, nearly all the men had deserted Tonty and destroyed the fort. These mutineers, it was said, were now on the coast of Lake Ontario watching for La Salle in order to kill him. La Salle immediately chose nine trusted men, and hastened to meet the deserters. Soon his canoes overtook those of the faithless Frenchmen, who were captured and punished.

 La Salle's chief thought was now of Tonty. Was he alive? And had the handful of men who remained true been able to survive the dangers of the wilderness? In August of 1680 La Salle once more set out for the Illinois, taking with him twenty-five men. The long journey was made in safety, but, alas, the camp was in ruins, and the explorer found that the Iroquois Indians had swept over the Illinois country, spreading terror and destruction in their path.

In every direction, far and near, did La Salle search for some clue to the missing men, but none could he find. He made friends with the Miami Indians and other neighboring tribes, and then started once more for Montreal. He was still determined to raise enough men and supplies to carry out his plan for establishing settlements. Imagine his joy when, on reaching Mackinac on Lake Michigan, he found his lost comrade! Tonty had escaped from the Indians, and was making a brave struggle to reach Fort Frontenac.

The two friends traveled together to Niagara, where discouraging news again greeted La Salle. A ship from France, carrying several thousand dollars for his use, had been wrecked and the money lost.

No amount of ill luck, however, could turn this heroic man from the course he had determined upon, and it is not long until we find him starting on another expedition. Accompanied by Tonty and a party of French and Indians, he proceeded by way of Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, thence through the Chicago and Illinois rivers to the Mississippi.

As the canoes sped over this broad river, the Frenchmen viewed with delight the level prairie lands and miles of forest. Herds of buffalo and deer came down to drink at the water's edge, and only the cries of birds and wild animals broke the stillness.

On the 9th of April, 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Father of Waters, and looked out over the great Gulf of Mexico, "tossing its restless billows, lonely, without a sail, without a sign of life." A short distance above the mouth of the river the party landed. With impressive ceremonies, La Salle planted the banner of France, and in the name of the king took possession of the whole valley of the Mississippi, naming the region Louisiana, or Louis's land. This included all the territory lying between the Alleghany and Rocky mountains.

The next step was to establish a fortified post at the mouth of the river, to guard the Mississippi valley against the Spanish and English. As a beginning toward this and the colony he hoped soon to establish, La Salle directed the cutting away of the forest, and the building of cabins and a storehouse for furs. On the top of a cliff a palisade was erected, and the fort named St. Louis. "La Salle looked down from his rock on a scene of wild human life. Lodges of bark and rushes, or cabins of logs were clustered on the open plain or along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children whooped and gamboled on the grass. Beyond the river, the banks were studded with the lodges of the Illinois Indians."

When Fort St. Louis was finished La Salle made his way back to Montreal, and from there sailed to France to lay his plans before the king. Although he was as brave as a lion in the wilderness, the explorer had a shy, reserved nature. He preferred to lodge in a poor street, and to meet few people.

He had many misgivings about asking the king for help to plant a colony in Louisiana, but his request had come at the right moment. For a long time the king had been angered because the Spaniards had forbidden French vessels to trade at Spanish ports in America, or to enter the Gulf of Mexico.

French sailors who had dared to enter the gulf had been seized and imprisoned. Now war had been declared between France and Spain, and here was La Salle ready to help break the power of Spain in America. King Louis, therefore, willingly placed at La Salle's command a French squadron of four vessels.

With a light heart La Salle set sail for the Gulf of Mexico. As we know, he had reached the mouth of the Mississippi by coming from the north, but he had never seen it from the gulf. He had not doubted, however, that he should be able to find it; but all his efforts were vain. He passed the spot for which he was so anxiously looking, and landed on the coast of Texas, probably at Matagorda Bay, four hundred miles west of the mouth of the river.

Truly this explorer has been well called "a man of iron," for he immediately set to work to build a fort and make his little band of colonists comfortable; then he started out to find the lost river. Now followed two long years of bitter disappointment and disaster. One of the vessels, loaded with supplies, was wrecked through the treachery of the crew; the others sailed back to France and left La Salle and his colonists alone.

Week after week, month after month, he tried to find the Mississippi, which he might ascend it, reach Montreal, and procure help. In 1687, when near a branch of the Trinity River, some of his men, desperate from continued hardship, resolved to take his life. They hid themselves in the tall grass and waited for an opportunity to shoot their leader. Thus died the great La Salle in the land for which he had dared and suffered so much.

A few of La Salle's companions succeeded in reaching Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, and bitterly did the noble Tonty grieve when he learned of the death of his friend. These Frenchmen at last found their way back to Montreal, but nothing was ever heard of the few colonists left at the fort in Texas.

"Where La Salle had plowed, others were to sow the seed." His great plan was carried out, and settlements were established from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. By 1689 the French were in possession of the broad valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and were watching for an opportunity to seize the land in the Hudson valley. They feared that the English would reach the Great Lakes and become rivals in the rich fur trade of the northwest. But standing like watch dogs guarding New York state were the Five Nations, ready always to fight their old enemies and to help their friends, the English.

De La Salle
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