July 25, 2025 • 37 mins
Embark on a historical journey through the early narratives of the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi Valley. This podcast brings to life Marquettes authentic maps and voyages as they were originally documented. Listen to the stories of the missionaries who accompanied La Salle on his expedition, previously unpublished and now accessible for the first time. This detailed study of the life of Marquette and the exploration itself is the culmination of years of research into early Spanish and French sources, many of which have never before been publicly explored.
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Section seventeen of Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Patrick mccaffee, Chicago. Discovery
(00:22):
and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley by John Gilmery Shay.
Bibliographical notice of the works of Father Louis nappin a
recollect of the Province of Saint Anthony in Artois. We
have already in the notice on Les clairec alluded to
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the uncertainty which hangs around many of the works connected
with the history of LaSalle. In them, however, it was
a question as to authorship, alterations made by publishers, or
the influence of party spirit in the original writers. Against
an however, there is a still heavier charge. A good
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man may be so blinded by party zeal as to
be unjust to others, and be guilty of acts which
he would personally shrink from doing. And in this case
we must to attain the truth realize fully the position
of the antagonistic parties at the time. Such is peculiarly
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the case with Les Clarec. As we have shown, and
in judging the work, we have endeavored to go back
to his own period. The charge against Anapan is that
he was vain conceded, exaggerating, and even mendacious. To weigh
so serious an accusation, we shall examine his several volumes, which, however,
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as will be seen, resolve themselves into two published at
an interval of fourteen years. It is the more necessary
to enter in to a full discussion of his merits,
as few works relative to America have been more widely
spread than that of Anapan. Published originally in French, it
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appeared subsequently in Dutch, English, Italian and Spanish, and if
I am not mistaken, in German and in a large
class of writers, is quoted with the commendation. It was, however,
soon attacked. The editor of Jutel in seventeen thirteen calls
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it in question, but he was too ignorant of Canadian
history to give his charge any weight. Severer strictures were
passed upon it by Harris and by Calm, the celebrated
Swedish traveler. Harris says in volume two, page three fifty,
as to the accounts of La Hontan and Father Anapan.
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They have been formerly very much admired. Yet we are
now well satisfied that they are rather romances than relations,
and that their authors had their particular schemes so much
in view that they have made no scruple of abusing
the confidence of mankind in this country. Within the last
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few years, a more thorough examination of authorities has consigned Anapan,
la Montaine, and le Beau to that amiable class who
seemed to tell truth by accident and fiction by inclination.
The works of Napin are one description de la lucien
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nouvelle mont de couvert as sous dueste de la nouvelle France,
par Ordu du Rois, avec car du Pais, les moueres
e la maniere de vive de salvages de die as
sam Majeste barle r pe Luis and asioneer recole notaire apostolique,
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pages three, twelve and one O seven, Paris au Rois,
sixteen eighty four. Charlevois takes exception to the title of
this work on the ground that he misapplies the name Louisiana,
but in fact Illinois from LaSalle's time was included under
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that name. The title is however, false in the words
newly discovered to the southwest of Canada, as no new
discovery had been made in that direction, and the whole
volume can show nothing in the way of new exploration
beyond what had already been published in Europe, except of
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so much of the Mississippi as lies between the Wisconsin
River and the Falls of Saint Anthony, which he was
the first European to travel. But let us enter on
the volume itself, which, apart from any intrinsic faults, possesses
considerable value as being the first published and by far
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the fullest account of LaSalle's first expedition, such it pretends
to be, and accordingly opens with an account of that
adventurous project of reaching China, his attempt with some Sulpitians
in sixteen sixty nine, and his establishment at Fort Frontenac,
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and A. Penn introduces himself to us for the first
time on page twelve as having established a mission at
that fort with Father Luc Buisse, then mentions Juliet's voyage
down the Mississippi as far as the Illinois Indians, which
he represents as the work of LaSalle's enemies then follow
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the latter's voyage to France in sixteen seventy seven, his
return the next year with an order for the author
to accompany him in his discoveries, and his own voyage
to Fort Frontenac, which he details as though it were
his first trip to that place. At Fort Frontenac, LaSalle's
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expedition begins, and our author relates all that happened with
great detail and a vast profusion of nautical expressions, down
to the building of Fort Crevecoeur and his own departure
from it February twenty ninth, sixteen eighty his journal from
this point being given in the present volume. We need
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not analyze it further than to say that, being sent
to explore the Illinois to its mouth in the Mississippi,
page one eighty four, he reached that point on the
eighth of March one ninety two, and, after being detained
there by floating ice till the twelfth, continued his route,
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traversing and sounding the river. Then follows not a journal
of his voyage, but a geographical description of the upper
Mississippi from the Illinois River to Mill Lake and the
Sioux Country. After this description. He resumes his journal and
tells us page two o six, that he was taken
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by the Indians on the eleventh of April, after having
sailed two hundred leagues page two hundred eighteen from the
Illinois Indians, he was taken by them to their villages,
relieved by de Luth in July, and returned to Mackinaw
by way of the Wisconsin and Green Bay. Thence in
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the spring he proceeded to the Seneca country, Fort Frontenac
and Montreal. His work contains, besides the journal, given, only
some account of the party he left at Fort Crevecoeur,
from letters he saw at Quebec, and of Losal's descent
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to the Gulf, from others received by him in France.
This is followed by an account of the manners of
the savages page one oh seven. Taking this volume by itself,
the reader is struck by the unclerical character of the writer,
his intense vanity and fondness for exaggeration. The manner in
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which he rises in importance is truly amusing. Not only
does he, to all appearance make himself the superior of
the little band of missionaries in Lesalle's expedition, but even
a kind of joint commander with Lesalle himself. Take as
a specimen the following passage, which we select the more
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readily as it bears, on his voyage to the Mississippi.
Fort Crevacour was almost built. The Dauphine had sent no
tidings of her voyage. The men were discontented and mutinous.
All was dark and gloomy around the exploring party in Illinois.
We must remark, says Anaphin, that the winter in the
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Illinois country is not longer than that in Provence. But
in sixteen seventy nine the snow lasted more than twenty days,
to the great astonishment of the Indians, who had never
seen so severe a winter, so that the Sieur de
la Salle and I beheld ourselves exposed to new hardships
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that will appear incredible to those who have no experience
of great voyages and new discoveries. Fort Crevacour was almost completed.
The wood was all prepared to finish the bark, but
we had not cordage, nor sails, nor iron enough. We
received no tidings of the bark we had left on
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Lake Dauphin, nor of those sent to find what had
become of her. Meanwhile, the Sieur de la Salle saw
that summer was coming on, and that if he waited
some months in Vain, our enterprise would be retarded one
year and perhaps two or three. Because being so far
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from Canada, he could not regulate affairs nor have the
necessary articles forwarded. In this extremity, we both took a
resolution as extraordinary as it was difficult to execute. I
to go with two men in unknown countries, where we
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are every moment in great danger of death, and he
on foot to Fort Frontenac, more than five hundred leagues distant.
We were then at the close of winter, which had been,
as we have said, as severe in America as in France.
The ground was still covered with snow, which was neither
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melted nor able to bear a man in snow shoes.
He had to carry the usual equipment in such cases,
that is, a blanket, pot, axe, gun powder and lead,
with dressed skins to make Indian shoes, which last only
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a day, French shoes being of no use in the
western countries. Besides, he had to resolve to pierce through thickets,
march through marshes and melting snow, sometimes waist high for
whole days, at times with nothing to eat, because he
and his three companions could not carry provisions, being compelled
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to rely for subsistence on what they killed with their guns,
and to expect to drink only the water they found
on the way. Finally, he was exposed every day, and
especially every night, to be surprised by four or five
nations at war with each other, with this difference that
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the nations through which he had to pass all know
the French, while those where I was going had never
seen Europeans. Yet all these difficulties did not astound him
any more than myself. Our only difficulty was to find
some of our men stout enough to accompany us and
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prevent the rest, already much shaken, from deserting on our departure.
This is a remarkable passage and has struck almost every
writer on LaSalle, as their accounts often seem inspired by
this graphic sketch of Anapan. It is more than we
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said at first. Anapan is here even greater than LaSalle
in the resolution he took at this trying crisis. After this,
we expect to see the two commanders depart on their
dangerous expeditions. We run over the succeeding pages. The high
flown language cools down, and we come to some details
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of LaSalle's appointment of Tonti to command, which are followed
by these matter of fact words, completely destroying the delusion
created by the preceding passage. He begged me to take
the trouble to go and discover in advance the route
he would have to take as far as the River
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Colbert on his return from Canada. But as I had
an abscess in my mouth which had separated constant for
a year and a half, I showed my repugnance and
told him that I needed to go back to Canada
to have medical treatment. He replied that if if I
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refused this voyage, he would write to my superiors that
I would be the cause of the failure of our
new missions. The Reverend Father Gabriel de la Rebord, who
had been my novice master, begged me to go, telling
me that if I died of that infirmity, God would
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one day be glorified by my apostolic labors. Quote true.
My son said that venerable old man, whose head was
whitened with more than forty years austere penance, you will
have many monsters to overcome and precipices to pass in
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this enterprise, which requires the strength of the most robust.
You do not know a word of the language of
these tribes whom you are going to endeavor to gained God.
But take courage you will gain as many victories as
you have combats. Considering that this father had a his age,
been ready to come to my aid in the second
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year of our new discoveries with the view of announcing
Christ to unknown tribes, and that this old man was
the only male descendant and heir of his father's house,
for he was a Burgundian of rank, I offered to
make the voyage and endeavor to make the acquaintance of
the tribes among whom I hoped soon to establish myself
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and preach the faith. The Sieur de la Salle showed
me his satisfaction, gave me a calumet of peace and
a canoe with two men, one of whom was called
the Picard du Guai, who is now at Paris, and
the other Michael Acco. The latter he entrusted with some
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merchandise fit to make presents and worth ten or twelve
thousand livre, and to myself. He gave ten knives, twelve awls,
a little roll of tobacco to give to the Indians,
about two pounds of white and black beads, a little
package of needles, declaring that he would have given me
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more if he could. In fact, he is quite liberal
to his friends. Having received the blessing of the reverend
Father Gabriel, and taken leave of the Sieur de la Salle,
and embraced all the party who came down to see
us off, Father Gabriel, concluding his adieu with the words
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vere letter age et confetetur cortum, we set out from
Fort Crevacour on the twenty ninth of February end quote
et cetera. Can anything be more striking than the difference
of these two accounts. In one he seems a leader,
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in the other a reluctant member of the expedition. But
Losalle is not the only one proficed to his vanity
delivered by de Luth from his Sioux captivity. He seems
to lay that officer under great obligations to him, and
disposes of him so summarily that the name of Duluth,
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after being only three times mentioned, disappears from his pages,
and he seems to be the commander of the United Parties.
He passes by one Jesuit mission at Green Bay without
mentioning its existence, winters at another at mckinaw, not only
without uttering a word to induce us to suppose a
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missionary there, but actually using expressions which give us the
idea that he was the only missionary to be found
in all those parts to minister to the Christians and
instruct the Heathen. When he leaves mckinaw in April sixteen
eighty one, our recollect rises still high in importance. He
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is fired at the wrongs of an Ottawa chief, and,
apparently considering it beneath him to look for LaSalle or
give him any account of the expedition on which he
had been sent, proceeds to the Seneca country, convenes a council,
compels that haughty tribe to make amends to the injured Ottawa,
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and returns to Fort Frontenac. After this, somewhat curious proceeding
in a good friar who never meddled in civil affairs
as some other people did, he crowns the whole by
telling us at the close of the volume that LaSalle
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descended to the Gulf, quote, as I had made peace
with the nations of the north and northwest, five hundred
leagues up the river Colbert, who made war on the
Illinois and southern tribes. This is enough to show to
what extent even then he pushed his self glorification. As
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to the object of his expedition, we are completely in
the dark. We cannot tell whether he was sent to
explore the Illinois to its mouth, or to open intercourse
with some tribe or tribes where it was intended to
begin a mission. At all events, he says nothing of
having been sent up the Mississippi. But whatever was his mission,
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he seems to have so well avoided LaSalle that they
never met again. Enapa hastened back to France, and by
the third of September sixteen eighty two had the royal
permission to print his work, which issued from the press
on the fifth of January sixteen eighty three, though most
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copies have on the title page the date sixteen eighty four.
He was then, for a time, it would seem, at
Chateau Cambrainet, still ordered by his superiors to return to America.
This he refused, and was in consequence, compelled to leave France,
falling in with mister Blaithwaite, secretary of War to William
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the Third. He passed to the service of the English
king as a Spanish subject by permission of his own
sovereign and his clerical superiors. As he Averirs, he assumed
a lays dress in a convent at Antwerp and proceeding
to Utrecht. Published in sixteen ninety seven a new work
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entitled two Nouvelle de scripsion duntre grand pais situe dans
la Merique entrellas nouveau Merxique et la mer glacial, reprinted
the next year as Nouvelle de couvert dumpais plue granque
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les lurut, a translation of which appeared in England in
sixteen ninety nine. Entitled A New Discovery of a vast
country in America extending above four thousand miles between New
France and New Mexico. This work begins with his own
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personal history, and from it we derived the following data
for a life of this worthy, should any one deem
it worth while to attempt it. He was born at
AaTh in Ainau, and feeling a strong inclination to retire
from the world, entered the Order of Saint Francis. He
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was soon seized with a desire for rambling, and while
studying Dutch at Ghent, was strongly tempted to go to
the East Indies, but was appeased by a tour through
the Franciscan convents of Italy and Germany back to Ainau,
where for a whole year he was compelled to discharge
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the ministry. This year of permanent residence in one spot
seems to have been an epoch in his erratic life.
He next roamed to Artois, thence set out to beg
at Calais, returned by Dunkirk to Dies, and after sauntering
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through several Dutch towns, spent eight months at Maastricht in
the care of an hospital, where, acquiring some military ardor,
he was next an army chaplain at the Battle of
Senneff sixteen seventy four, immediately after which he was sent
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to Rachelle to embark for Canada. A convent life was,
it is clear, irksome to him, and how little he
was sensible of the dignity of the priesthood, either before
God or Man. We made judge. By this extraordinary admission,
I used oftentimes to skulk behind the doors of victualling
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houses to hear the seamen give an account of their adventures.
This occupation was so agreeable to me that, despite he
tells us the nausea caused by their smoking, I spent
whole days and nights at it without eating. Arrived in Canada,
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he preached the advent and lent to the hospital nuns
at Quebec, being chosen by Bishop Laval, whose favor he
had secured on the voyage by a display of zeal, which,
by a train of incidents, drew on him all Lassalle's enmity.
This brings him to sixteen seventy six, when, after rambling
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around Quebec as far as three rivers, he was sent
to Fort Frontenac with Father Buissey to direct the Indians
gathered there. This now became the center of new rambles,
which he extended to the cantons of the five Nations,
visiting Onondaga, Oneida, and the Mohawk, in the last of which,
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while entertained by the Jesuit missionary, probably Father Buias, he
copied his Iroquois dictionary for in this work, as if
despite his former friends, he mentions those missionaries in several
places with terms of praise. He then visits Albany, and,
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though entreated by the Dutch to stay, returned to Fort Frontenac.
In sixteen seventy eight, he went down to Quebec, and
soon after his arrival received orders to join LaSalle's expedition.
From this point his journal rolls on, as in the
Descriptionion de la Luisiane, down to the twelfth of March
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sixteen eighty, till which day he was detained by the
floating ice. But here a new scene breaks on. The
startled reader Annapan tells us that he actually went down
the Mississippi to the Gulf, but had not published the
fact to avoid the hostility of Lesalle. Amazed at so
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unexpected a revelation, we read on carefully, but find that
he waited till the twelfth, yet started on the eighth,
being consequently in two places at once each moment during
those four days. Thus aided, he reached the mouth of
the Mississippi by the twenty fifth or at most twenty
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sixth of March, after celebrating on the twenty third of
March the Festival of Easter, which unfortunately for his accurate
fell that year on the twenty first of April, as
he himself knew, for in his former work he states
that he reached the Esati village about Easter, which in
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his loose style means some days after it. But to
return to his voyage down achieved in thirteen or at
most eighteen days. He planted a cross and wished to
wait a few days to make observations, but his men refused,
and he was compelled to embark again. They did wait, however,
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some days, it seems, for he started only on the
first of April. By the twenty fourth he had reached
and left the Arkansas, as he tells us, in two
different places, and ascending toward the Illinois, advanced only by
night for fear of a surprise by the French of
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Fort Kredecour. By the twelfth of the same month of April,
being twelve days before he reached the Arkansas, he was
taken by the Sioux one hundred and fifty leagues above
the mouth of the Illinois, making all that distance from
the Gulf in eleven days, and the distance from the
Arkansas inconsiderably less than no time at all. From this point.
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It continues with but occasional variations as in the Descrizion
de la Louisiana, except that de Luthe appears more frequently
down to their ascending the Wisconsin. The second part or
second volume, contains an account of LaSalle's last voyage, in
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which Father Anastasius is frequently cited. The subsequent part, from
page forty nine to one fifty one, treats of the
manners and customs of the Indians and their conversion, and
then follows an account of the capture of Quebec in
sixteen twenty eight by the English and of the early
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recollect missions. Two things in this volume at once meet
us the horrible confusion of dates and the utter impossibility
of performing the voyages in the times given. These objections
were made at the time, but were stoutly met by Ennepa,
although the former seems not to have been much attended
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to by him. He gives us, however, a dissertation on
the variation of the needle and the difference of time
in Europe and America, which had confused him somewhat in
his ideas and prevented his accuracy in that point as
to the impracticability of the matter. He denies it, a
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varying that he had time enough and to spare as
a bark canoe can, if necessary, go ninety miles a
day upstream. But a heavier charge was made when his
new work was compared to the Establishment de la Fois.
His new journal down was but a set of scraps
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from that of father Mambre, And the reader may verify
the truth of this charge by examining the parallel passages
given by the accurate and judicious Sparks in his Life
of LaSalle, or by comparing Mambre's journal in this volume
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with the English Anapin, or even with the abridgment of
it in volume one of Historical Collections of Louisiana. Apin
admits the similarity and accuses les Clarec or Leroux, whom
he asserts to be the real author, of having published
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as Membres his napan's journal, which he had lent to
le Roux at Quebec. Let us hear his own words quote,
But if I do not blame father le Clarec for
the honorable mention he makes of his relative Membree, I
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think everybody will condemn him for his concealing the name
of the author he has transcribed, and thereby attributing to
himself membre or le Clarec, the glory of my perilous voyage.
This piece of injustice is common enough in this age
end quote Sparks, who has the honor of having completely
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exposed nipin end quote the injustice common in that age.
End quote, which induced Anapin Le Clarec, Duet Jutel and
others to endeavor to rob Marquette of the glory due
to his perilous voyage. Shows this pretext of an apparent
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to be groundless. We might stop to examine it if
only here he had copied Les Clarec. But on examination
we find that almost all the additional matter in the
Novelle de Couvet is drawn from the Establishment de la Fois,
and almost literally. This is the case with the whole
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second part, where though he cites Father Anastasius, he copies
the remarks of the author of the establishment. What relates
to the Indians is full of extracts from the latter work,
and the capture of Quebec, and the early missions are
mere copies. In the edition of seventeen twenty which Charlevois
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calls the second, and perhaps in some previous edition. The
amount of stolen matter is still larger. But some was
of such a nature as to bring ecclesiastical censure on
the work. For strange as it may seem, and residing
unfrocked in Holland, the flatterer and pensioner of William the
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third seems to have remained a Catholic and Franciscan to
the last. At least I have seen nothing to establish
the contrary. Had interest or ambition been his only motive,
he would certainly have thrown off both titles at a
time when the frenzy of religious animosity possessed the English public.
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But while doing him this justice that he does not
seem to have been led by interest or ambition of place,
while admitting that many of his descriptions are graphic and
to some extent reliable, we say all that can be
said in his favor, where in the main fact he
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is supported by others. We have followed him with caution
in details, but we must admit that the charges brought
against him are too well substantiated to allow us to
hesitate as to his character. A question still remains as
to what he really did do on leaving Fort Crevacour.
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In his first work, as we have already remarked, he
states that he was sent to explore the Illinois to
its mouth, or to visit some tribes where a mission
was to be established, and he tells us that he
had some design of going down the Mississippi to the Gulf,
but he nowhere says that he ascended it before he
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was taken In the last he was sent to the
Mississippi and the tribes on it to get the friendship
of the nations inhabiting its banks, and as he tells us,
he went down in both at a very late period.
He tells us that LaSalle promised to send him further
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supplies at the mouth of the Wisconsin. In neither have
we any journal of his voyage up the river. The
geographical description is not that of a traveler ascending, as
he describes first what he saw last, and though voyaging
with Sue, gives the Wisconsin the same name as Marquette,
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who reached it through the utagamis what then did he
do between March twelfth and April twelfth. This must remain
a mystery. That he went down to the Gulf is
too absurd to be received for a moment. That he
went up is nowhere asserted by him, and is I
think very doubtful. For my own part, I should rather
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believe that he was taken in an attempt to descend,
or in some way acting contrary to the directions of LaSalle.
His evident avoiding of the latter is suspicious and shows
that he could not give a satisfactory account of his
proceedings for wintering at Mackinaw. He must have known that
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LaSalle had passed out to rejoin them at Fort Crevecoeur,
and that his own companions had been compelled to leave
the fort and were then at Green Bay. Footnote Nappin
left Mackinaw on Easter Week sixteen eighty one, April sixth
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through the thirteenth, and Father Membree arrived there on the
thirteenth of June, and LaSalle from Illinois about the fifteenth.
On Volume one, page fifty nine of this series, there
is a typographical error fit due in October should be
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octave of Corpus Christie, being that year June thirteenth. In
footnote then two. As to his description of the Upper Mississippi,
I am inclined to think it due to Duluth, who,
as Les Cleric tells us, was the first to reach
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the Lake of the Isatis and open the way to
the missionaries. This seems more probable, as in his last
work Nipan attacks Duluth and endeavors to destroy the credit.
As though Duluth could and perhaps did, tell another story.
It will therefore be a matter of interest to learn
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whether any reports of his are still to be found,
as the mere fact of Nipan's attacking him gives them
considerable value. In the meantime, Nipan's account of the Upper
Mississippi must stand as first published, though we cannot tell
how much of it he really saw. Standing on its
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own merits, is an account which the first American ex
floors of the upper River compared as they went along,
and found sufficiently accurate in one who could only guess
at the various distances which he had to mention. As
a valuable paper connected with the discoveries of the Mississippi,
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we insert it here, regretting our inability to give injustice
a more flattering portrait of the writer. End of Section
seventeen
Section seventeen of Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Patrick mccaffee, Chicago. Discovery
(00:22):
and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley by John Gilmery Shay.
Bibliographical notice of the works of Father Louis nappin a
recollect of the Province of Saint Anthony in Artois. We
have already in the notice on Les clairec alluded to
(00:42):
the uncertainty which hangs around many of the works connected
with the history of LaSalle. In them, however, it was
a question as to authorship, alterations made by publishers, or
the influence of party spirit in the original writers. Against
an however, there is a still heavier charge. A good
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man may be so blinded by party zeal as to
be unjust to others, and be guilty of acts which
he would personally shrink from doing. And in this case
we must to attain the truth realize fully the position
of the antagonistic parties at the time. Such is peculiarly
(01:25):
the case with Les Clarec. As we have shown, and
in judging the work, we have endeavored to go back
to his own period. The charge against Anapan is that
he was vain conceded, exaggerating, and even mendacious. To weigh
so serious an accusation, we shall examine his several volumes, which, however,
(01:50):
as will be seen, resolve themselves into two published at
an interval of fourteen years. It is the more necessary
to enter in to a full discussion of his merits,
as few works relative to America have been more widely
spread than that of Anapan. Published originally in French, it
(02:12):
appeared subsequently in Dutch, English, Italian and Spanish, and if
I am not mistaken, in German and in a large
class of writers, is quoted with the commendation. It was, however,
soon attacked. The editor of Jutel in seventeen thirteen calls
(02:32):
it in question, but he was too ignorant of Canadian
history to give his charge any weight. Severer strictures were
passed upon it by Harris and by Calm, the celebrated
Swedish traveler. Harris says in volume two, page three fifty,
as to the accounts of La Hontan and Father Anapan.
(02:57):
They have been formerly very much admired. Yet we are
now well satisfied that they are rather romances than relations,
and that their authors had their particular schemes so much
in view that they have made no scruple of abusing
the confidence of mankind in this country. Within the last
(03:19):
few years, a more thorough examination of authorities has consigned Anapan,
la Montaine, and le Beau to that amiable class who
seemed to tell truth by accident and fiction by inclination.
The works of Napin are one description de la lucien
(03:41):
nouvelle mont de couvert as sous dueste de la nouvelle France,
par Ordu du Rois, avec car du Pais, les moueres
e la maniere de vive de salvages de die as
sam Majeste barle r pe Luis and asioneer recole notaire apostolique,
(04:04):
pages three, twelve and one O seven, Paris au Rois,
sixteen eighty four. Charlevois takes exception to the title of
this work on the ground that he misapplies the name Louisiana,
but in fact Illinois from LaSalle's time was included under
(04:25):
that name. The title is however, false in the words
newly discovered to the southwest of Canada, as no new
discovery had been made in that direction, and the whole
volume can show nothing in the way of new exploration
beyond what had already been published in Europe, except of
(04:47):
so much of the Mississippi as lies between the Wisconsin
River and the Falls of Saint Anthony, which he was
the first European to travel. But let us enter on
the volume itself, which, apart from any intrinsic faults, possesses
considerable value as being the first published and by far
(05:08):
the fullest account of LaSalle's first expedition, such it pretends
to be, and accordingly opens with an account of that
adventurous project of reaching China, his attempt with some Sulpitians
in sixteen sixty nine, and his establishment at Fort Frontenac,
(05:29):
and A. Penn introduces himself to us for the first
time on page twelve as having established a mission at
that fort with Father Luc Buisse, then mentions Juliet's voyage
down the Mississippi as far as the Illinois Indians, which
he represents as the work of LaSalle's enemies then follow
(05:52):
the latter's voyage to France in sixteen seventy seven, his
return the next year with an order for the author
to accompany him in his discoveries, and his own voyage
to Fort Frontenac, which he details as though it were
his first trip to that place. At Fort Frontenac, LaSalle's
(06:13):
expedition begins, and our author relates all that happened with
great detail and a vast profusion of nautical expressions, down
to the building of Fort Crevecoeur and his own departure
from it February twenty ninth, sixteen eighty his journal from
this point being given in the present volume. We need
(06:36):
not analyze it further than to say that, being sent
to explore the Illinois to its mouth in the Mississippi,
page one eighty four, he reached that point on the
eighth of March one ninety two, and, after being detained
there by floating ice till the twelfth, continued his route,
(07:01):
traversing and sounding the river. Then follows not a journal
of his voyage, but a geographical description of the upper
Mississippi from the Illinois River to Mill Lake and the
Sioux Country. After this description. He resumes his journal and
tells us page two o six, that he was taken
(07:24):
by the Indians on the eleventh of April, after having
sailed two hundred leagues page two hundred eighteen from the
Illinois Indians, he was taken by them to their villages,
relieved by de Luth in July, and returned to Mackinaw
by way of the Wisconsin and Green Bay. Thence in
(07:47):
the spring he proceeded to the Seneca country, Fort Frontenac
and Montreal. His work contains, besides the journal, given, only
some account of the party he left at Fort Crevecoeur,
from letters he saw at Quebec, and of Losal's descent
(08:07):
to the Gulf, from others received by him in France.
This is followed by an account of the manners of
the savages page one oh seven. Taking this volume by itself,
the reader is struck by the unclerical character of the writer,
his intense vanity and fondness for exaggeration. The manner in
(08:31):
which he rises in importance is truly amusing. Not only
does he, to all appearance make himself the superior of
the little band of missionaries in Lesalle's expedition, but even
a kind of joint commander with Lesalle himself. Take as
a specimen the following passage, which we select the more
(08:53):
readily as it bears, on his voyage to the Mississippi.
Fort Crevacour was almost built. The Dauphine had sent no
tidings of her voyage. The men were discontented and mutinous.
All was dark and gloomy around the exploring party in Illinois.
We must remark, says Anaphin, that the winter in the
(09:16):
Illinois country is not longer than that in Provence. But
in sixteen seventy nine the snow lasted more than twenty days,
to the great astonishment of the Indians, who had never
seen so severe a winter, so that the Sieur de
la Salle and I beheld ourselves exposed to new hardships
(09:37):
that will appear incredible to those who have no experience
of great voyages and new discoveries. Fort Crevacour was almost completed.
The wood was all prepared to finish the bark, but
we had not cordage, nor sails, nor iron enough. We
received no tidings of the bark we had left on
(09:58):
Lake Dauphin, nor of those sent to find what had
become of her. Meanwhile, the Sieur de la Salle saw
that summer was coming on, and that if he waited
some months in Vain, our enterprise would be retarded one
year and perhaps two or three. Because being so far
(10:20):
from Canada, he could not regulate affairs nor have the
necessary articles forwarded. In this extremity, we both took a
resolution as extraordinary as it was difficult to execute. I
to go with two men in unknown countries, where we
(10:40):
are every moment in great danger of death, and he
on foot to Fort Frontenac, more than five hundred leagues distant.
We were then at the close of winter, which had been,
as we have said, as severe in America as in France.
The ground was still covered with snow, which was neither
(11:02):
melted nor able to bear a man in snow shoes.
He had to carry the usual equipment in such cases,
that is, a blanket, pot, axe, gun powder and lead,
with dressed skins to make Indian shoes, which last only
(11:23):
a day, French shoes being of no use in the
western countries. Besides, he had to resolve to pierce through thickets,
march through marshes and melting snow, sometimes waist high for
whole days, at times with nothing to eat, because he
and his three companions could not carry provisions, being compelled
(11:47):
to rely for subsistence on what they killed with their guns,
and to expect to drink only the water they found
on the way. Finally, he was exposed every day, and
especially every night, to be surprised by four or five
nations at war with each other, with this difference that
(12:10):
the nations through which he had to pass all know
the French, while those where I was going had never
seen Europeans. Yet all these difficulties did not astound him
any more than myself. Our only difficulty was to find
some of our men stout enough to accompany us and
(12:31):
prevent the rest, already much shaken, from deserting on our departure.
This is a remarkable passage and has struck almost every
writer on LaSalle, as their accounts often seem inspired by
this graphic sketch of Anapan. It is more than we
(12:53):
said at first. Anapan is here even greater than LaSalle
in the resolution he took at this trying crisis. After this,
we expect to see the two commanders depart on their
dangerous expeditions. We run over the succeeding pages. The high
flown language cools down, and we come to some details
(13:16):
of LaSalle's appointment of Tonti to command, which are followed
by these matter of fact words, completely destroying the delusion
created by the preceding passage. He begged me to take
the trouble to go and discover in advance the route
he would have to take as far as the River
(13:39):
Colbert on his return from Canada. But as I had
an abscess in my mouth which had separated constant for
a year and a half, I showed my repugnance and
told him that I needed to go back to Canada
to have medical treatment. He replied that if if I
(14:00):
refused this voyage, he would write to my superiors that
I would be the cause of the failure of our
new missions. The Reverend Father Gabriel de la Rebord, who
had been my novice master, begged me to go, telling
me that if I died of that infirmity, God would
(14:20):
one day be glorified by my apostolic labors. Quote true.
My son said that venerable old man, whose head was
whitened with more than forty years austere penance, you will
have many monsters to overcome and precipices to pass in
(14:41):
this enterprise, which requires the strength of the most robust.
You do not know a word of the language of
these tribes whom you are going to endeavor to gained God.
But take courage you will gain as many victories as
you have combats. Considering that this father had a his age,
been ready to come to my aid in the second
(15:03):
year of our new discoveries with the view of announcing
Christ to unknown tribes, and that this old man was
the only male descendant and heir of his father's house,
for he was a Burgundian of rank, I offered to
make the voyage and endeavor to make the acquaintance of
the tribes among whom I hoped soon to establish myself
(15:27):
and preach the faith. The Sieur de la Salle showed
me his satisfaction, gave me a calumet of peace and
a canoe with two men, one of whom was called
the Picard du Guai, who is now at Paris, and
the other Michael Acco. The latter he entrusted with some
(15:48):
merchandise fit to make presents and worth ten or twelve
thousand livre, and to myself. He gave ten knives, twelve awls,
a little roll of tobacco to give to the Indians,
about two pounds of white and black beads, a little
package of needles, declaring that he would have given me
(16:09):
more if he could. In fact, he is quite liberal
to his friends. Having received the blessing of the reverend
Father Gabriel, and taken leave of the Sieur de la Salle,
and embraced all the party who came down to see
us off, Father Gabriel, concluding his adieu with the words
(16:31):
vere letter age et confetetur cortum, we set out from
Fort Crevacour on the twenty ninth of February end quote
et cetera. Can anything be more striking than the difference
of these two accounts. In one he seems a leader,
(16:52):
in the other a reluctant member of the expedition. But
Losalle is not the only one proficed to his vanity
delivered by de Luth from his Sioux captivity. He seems
to lay that officer under great obligations to him, and
disposes of him so summarily that the name of Duluth,
(17:15):
after being only three times mentioned, disappears from his pages,
and he seems to be the commander of the United Parties.
He passes by one Jesuit mission at Green Bay without
mentioning its existence, winters at another at mckinaw, not only
without uttering a word to induce us to suppose a
(17:37):
missionary there, but actually using expressions which give us the
idea that he was the only missionary to be found
in all those parts to minister to the Christians and
instruct the Heathen. When he leaves mckinaw in April sixteen
eighty one, our recollect rises still high in importance. He
(18:02):
is fired at the wrongs of an Ottawa chief, and,
apparently considering it beneath him to look for LaSalle or
give him any account of the expedition on which he
had been sent, proceeds to the Seneca country, convenes a council,
compels that haughty tribe to make amends to the injured Ottawa,
(18:23):
and returns to Fort Frontenac. After this, somewhat curious proceeding
in a good friar who never meddled in civil affairs
as some other people did, he crowns the whole by
telling us at the close of the volume that LaSalle
(18:43):
descended to the Gulf, quote, as I had made peace
with the nations of the north and northwest, five hundred
leagues up the river Colbert, who made war on the
Illinois and southern tribes. This is enough to show to
what extent even then he pushed his self glorification. As
(19:07):
to the object of his expedition, we are completely in
the dark. We cannot tell whether he was sent to
explore the Illinois to its mouth, or to open intercourse
with some tribe or tribes where it was intended to
begin a mission. At all events, he says nothing of
having been sent up the Mississippi. But whatever was his mission,
(19:30):
he seems to have so well avoided LaSalle that they
never met again. Enapa hastened back to France, and by
the third of September sixteen eighty two had the royal
permission to print his work, which issued from the press
on the fifth of January sixteen eighty three, though most
(19:53):
copies have on the title page the date sixteen eighty four.
He was then, for a time, it would seem, at
Chateau Cambrainet, still ordered by his superiors to return to America.
This he refused, and was in consequence, compelled to leave France,
falling in with mister Blaithwaite, secretary of War to William
(20:17):
the Third. He passed to the service of the English
king as a Spanish subject by permission of his own
sovereign and his clerical superiors. As he Averirs, he assumed
a lays dress in a convent at Antwerp and proceeding
to Utrecht. Published in sixteen ninety seven a new work
(20:40):
entitled two Nouvelle de scripsion duntre grand pais situe dans
la Merique entrellas nouveau Merxique et la mer glacial, reprinted
the next year as Nouvelle de couvert dumpais plue granque
(21:01):
les lurut, a translation of which appeared in England in
sixteen ninety nine. Entitled A New Discovery of a vast
country in America extending above four thousand miles between New
France and New Mexico. This work begins with his own
(21:22):
personal history, and from it we derived the following data
for a life of this worthy, should any one deem
it worth while to attempt it. He was born at
AaTh in Ainau, and feeling a strong inclination to retire
from the world, entered the Order of Saint Francis. He
(21:42):
was soon seized with a desire for rambling, and while
studying Dutch at Ghent, was strongly tempted to go to
the East Indies, but was appeased by a tour through
the Franciscan convents of Italy and Germany back to Ainau,
where for a whole year he was compelled to discharge
(22:03):
the ministry. This year of permanent residence in one spot
seems to have been an epoch in his erratic life.
He next roamed to Artois, thence set out to beg
at Calais, returned by Dunkirk to Dies, and after sauntering
(22:24):
through several Dutch towns, spent eight months at Maastricht in
the care of an hospital, where, acquiring some military ardor,
he was next an army chaplain at the Battle of
Senneff sixteen seventy four, immediately after which he was sent
(22:44):
to Rachelle to embark for Canada. A convent life was,
it is clear, irksome to him, and how little he
was sensible of the dignity of the priesthood, either before
God or Man. We made judge. By this extraordinary admission,
I used oftentimes to skulk behind the doors of victualling
(23:09):
houses to hear the seamen give an account of their adventures.
This occupation was so agreeable to me that, despite he
tells us the nausea caused by their smoking, I spent
whole days and nights at it without eating. Arrived in Canada,
(23:30):
he preached the advent and lent to the hospital nuns
at Quebec, being chosen by Bishop Laval, whose favor he
had secured on the voyage by a display of zeal, which,
by a train of incidents, drew on him all Lassalle's enmity.
This brings him to sixteen seventy six, when, after rambling
(23:54):
around Quebec as far as three rivers, he was sent
to Fort Frontenac with Father Buissey to direct the Indians
gathered there. This now became the center of new rambles,
which he extended to the cantons of the five Nations,
visiting Onondaga, Oneida, and the Mohawk, in the last of which,
(24:19):
while entertained by the Jesuit missionary, probably Father Buias, he
copied his Iroquois dictionary for in this work, as if
despite his former friends, he mentions those missionaries in several
places with terms of praise. He then visits Albany, and,
(24:41):
though entreated by the Dutch to stay, returned to Fort Frontenac.
In sixteen seventy eight, he went down to Quebec, and
soon after his arrival received orders to join LaSalle's expedition.
From this point his journal rolls on, as in the
Descriptionion de la Luisiane, down to the twelfth of March
(25:07):
sixteen eighty, till which day he was detained by the
floating ice. But here a new scene breaks on. The
startled reader Annapan tells us that he actually went down
the Mississippi to the Gulf, but had not published the
fact to avoid the hostility of Lesalle. Amazed at so
(25:29):
unexpected a revelation, we read on carefully, but find that
he waited till the twelfth, yet started on the eighth,
being consequently in two places at once each moment during
those four days. Thus aided, he reached the mouth of
the Mississippi by the twenty fifth or at most twenty
(25:51):
sixth of March, after celebrating on the twenty third of
March the Festival of Easter, which unfortunately for his accurate
fell that year on the twenty first of April, as
he himself knew, for in his former work he states
that he reached the Esati village about Easter, which in
(26:13):
his loose style means some days after it. But to
return to his voyage down achieved in thirteen or at
most eighteen days. He planted a cross and wished to
wait a few days to make observations, but his men refused,
and he was compelled to embark again. They did wait, however,
(26:37):
some days, it seems, for he started only on the
first of April. By the twenty fourth he had reached
and left the Arkansas, as he tells us, in two
different places, and ascending toward the Illinois, advanced only by
night for fear of a surprise by the French of
(26:58):
Fort Kredecour. By the twelfth of the same month of April,
being twelve days before he reached the Arkansas, he was
taken by the Sioux one hundred and fifty leagues above
the mouth of the Illinois, making all that distance from
the Gulf in eleven days, and the distance from the
Arkansas inconsiderably less than no time at all. From this point.
(27:24):
It continues with but occasional variations as in the Descrizion
de la Louisiana, except that de Luthe appears more frequently
down to their ascending the Wisconsin. The second part or
second volume, contains an account of LaSalle's last voyage, in
(27:45):
which Father Anastasius is frequently cited. The subsequent part, from
page forty nine to one fifty one, treats of the
manners and customs of the Indians and their conversion, and
then follows an account of the capture of Quebec in
sixteen twenty eight by the English and of the early
(28:06):
recollect missions. Two things in this volume at once meet
us the horrible confusion of dates and the utter impossibility
of performing the voyages in the times given. These objections
were made at the time, but were stoutly met by Ennepa,
although the former seems not to have been much attended
(28:29):
to by him. He gives us, however, a dissertation on
the variation of the needle and the difference of time
in Europe and America, which had confused him somewhat in
his ideas and prevented his accuracy in that point as
to the impracticability of the matter. He denies it, a
(28:50):
varying that he had time enough and to spare as
a bark canoe can, if necessary, go ninety miles a
day upstream. But a heavier charge was made when his
new work was compared to the Establishment de la Fois.
His new journal down was but a set of scraps
(29:15):
from that of father Mambre, And the reader may verify
the truth of this charge by examining the parallel passages
given by the accurate and judicious Sparks in his Life
of LaSalle, or by comparing Mambre's journal in this volume
(29:35):
with the English Anapin, or even with the abridgment of
it in volume one of Historical Collections of Louisiana. Apin
admits the similarity and accuses les Clarec or Leroux, whom
he asserts to be the real author, of having published
(29:57):
as Membres his napan's journal, which he had lent to
le Roux at Quebec. Let us hear his own words quote,
But if I do not blame father le Clarec for
the honorable mention he makes of his relative Membree, I
(30:17):
think everybody will condemn him for his concealing the name
of the author he has transcribed, and thereby attributing to
himself membre or le Clarec, the glory of my perilous voyage.
This piece of injustice is common enough in this age
end quote Sparks, who has the honor of having completely
(30:42):
exposed nipin end quote the injustice common in that age.
End quote, which induced Anapin Le Clarec, Duet Jutel and
others to endeavor to rob Marquette of the glory due
to his perilous voyage. Shows this pretext of an apparent
(31:04):
to be groundless. We might stop to examine it if
only here he had copied Les Clarec. But on examination
we find that almost all the additional matter in the
Novelle de Couvet is drawn from the Establishment de la Fois,
and almost literally. This is the case with the whole
(31:26):
second part, where though he cites Father Anastasius, he copies
the remarks of the author of the establishment. What relates
to the Indians is full of extracts from the latter work,
and the capture of Quebec, and the early missions are
mere copies. In the edition of seventeen twenty which Charlevois
(31:51):
calls the second, and perhaps in some previous edition. The
amount of stolen matter is still larger. But some was
of such a nature as to bring ecclesiastical censure on
the work. For strange as it may seem, and residing
unfrocked in Holland, the flatterer and pensioner of William the
(32:15):
third seems to have remained a Catholic and Franciscan to
the last. At least I have seen nothing to establish
the contrary. Had interest or ambition been his only motive,
he would certainly have thrown off both titles at a
time when the frenzy of religious animosity possessed the English public.
(32:38):
But while doing him this justice that he does not
seem to have been led by interest or ambition of place,
while admitting that many of his descriptions are graphic and
to some extent reliable, we say all that can be
said in his favor, where in the main fact he
(32:58):
is supported by others. We have followed him with caution
in details, but we must admit that the charges brought
against him are too well substantiated to allow us to
hesitate as to his character. A question still remains as
to what he really did do on leaving Fort Crevacour.
(33:20):
In his first work, as we have already remarked, he
states that he was sent to explore the Illinois to
its mouth, or to visit some tribes where a mission
was to be established, and he tells us that he
had some design of going down the Mississippi to the Gulf,
but he nowhere says that he ascended it before he
(33:41):
was taken In the last he was sent to the
Mississippi and the tribes on it to get the friendship
of the nations inhabiting its banks, and as he tells us,
he went down in both at a very late period.
He tells us that LaSalle promised to send him further
(34:02):
supplies at the mouth of the Wisconsin. In neither have
we any journal of his voyage up the river. The
geographical description is not that of a traveler ascending, as
he describes first what he saw last, and though voyaging
with Sue, gives the Wisconsin the same name as Marquette,
(34:24):
who reached it through the utagamis what then did he
do between March twelfth and April twelfth. This must remain
a mystery. That he went down to the Gulf is
too absurd to be received for a moment. That he
went up is nowhere asserted by him, and is I
think very doubtful. For my own part, I should rather
(34:47):
believe that he was taken in an attempt to descend,
or in some way acting contrary to the directions of LaSalle.
His evident avoiding of the latter is suspicious and shows
that he could not give a satisfactory account of his
proceedings for wintering at Mackinaw. He must have known that
(35:08):
LaSalle had passed out to rejoin them at Fort Crevecoeur,
and that his own companions had been compelled to leave
the fort and were then at Green Bay. Footnote Nappin
left Mackinaw on Easter Week sixteen eighty one, April sixth
(35:29):
through the thirteenth, and Father Membree arrived there on the
thirteenth of June, and LaSalle from Illinois about the fifteenth.
On Volume one, page fifty nine of this series, there
is a typographical error fit due in October should be
(35:50):
octave of Corpus Christie, being that year June thirteenth. In
footnote then two. As to his description of the Upper Mississippi,
I am inclined to think it due to Duluth, who,
as Les Cleric tells us, was the first to reach
(36:11):
the Lake of the Isatis and open the way to
the missionaries. This seems more probable, as in his last
work Nipan attacks Duluth and endeavors to destroy the credit.
As though Duluth could and perhaps did, tell another story.
It will therefore be a matter of interest to learn
(36:33):
whether any reports of his are still to be found,
as the mere fact of Nipan's attacking him gives them
considerable value. In the meantime, Nipan's account of the Upper
Mississippi must stand as first published, though we cannot tell
how much of it he really saw. Standing on its
(36:56):
own merits, is an account which the first American ex
floors of the upper River compared as they went along,
and found sufficiently accurate in one who could only guess
at the various distances which he had to mention. As
a valuable paper connected with the discoveries of the Mississippi,
(37:17):
we insert it here, regretting our inability to give injustice
a more flattering portrait of the writer. End of Section
seventeen
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