menu_book Chapter 8

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kurt from Tucson, Arizona. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley by John Gilmery Shea. Notice on Father Doublon, Part 1, Voyages and Discoveries of Father James Marquette, Relation of the Voyages, Discoveries, and Death of Father James Marquette,

and the Subsequent Voyages of Father Claudius Allouet by Father Claudius Doublon, Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus in New France, prepared for publication in 1678. Notice on Father de Blanc. Father Claudius de Blanc came to Canada in 1655 and was immediately sent to Onondaga, where he continued with but one short interval of absence till the mission was broken up in 1658.

Three years later, he and the hardy Douillette attempted to reach Hudson's Bay by the Saguenay, but were arrested at the sources of the Nakuba by Iroquois war parties. In 1668, he followed Father Marquette to Lake Superior, became superior of the Ottawa Mission, founded Sault Ste. Marie's, visited Green Bay, and reached the Wisconsin with Alloway. then returned to Quebec to assume his post as superior of all the Canada missions. This office

he held with intervals for many years, certainly till 1693, and he was still alive, but not apparently superior in the following year. As the head of the missions, he contributed in no small degree to their extension, and above all to the exploration of the Mississippi by Marquette. He published the relations of 1670 to 71 and 72 with their accurate map of Lake Superior, and prepared for press those of 1672 to 73 and 1673 to 79, which still remain in manuscript,

and the following narratives of Marquette and Aloué. The period of his death is unknown. His writings are the most valuable collection on the topography of the Northwest which have come down to our days. The Voyages and Discoveries of Father James Marquette in the Valley of the Mississippi. Chapter 1 of the first voyage made by Father Marquette toward New Mexico and how the design was conceived. Father Marquette had long projected this enterprise, impelled by his

ardent desire of extending the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and of making him known and adored by all the nations of that country. He beheld himself, as it were, at the door of these new nations, when in 1670 he was laboring at the mission of La Pointe de Saint-Esprit. Footnote, this place is now called simply La Pointe, as the lake is called Superior, retaining only the first word of its former name, Lac Supérieur aux Antuac, which is at the extremity of the upper lake of the

Ottowas. He even saw at times many of those new tribes, concerning whom he gathered all the information that he could. This induced him to make several efforts to undertake the enterprise, but always in vain. He had even given up all hopes of succeeding when the Almighty presented him the following opportunity. In 1673, the Count de Frontenac Louis de Boisde, Count de Frontenac, succeeded Monsieur de Creusselles in the government of

Canada in 1672. Monsieur Talon, the wise and energetic intendant of the colony, seeing the advantages to be derived to France from the discovery of the Mississippi River, immediately on the arrival of Comte de Frontenac, laid before him his plan for exploring that river, which was adopted and the administration of Frontenac is signalized by the first exploration of the Mississippi by Marquette and Juliet between the Wisconsin and Arkansas, and by the subsequent

voyage of La Salle, who continued the survey to the Gulf, while his companion Hennepin visited the between the Wisconsin and St. Anthony's Falls. But before the return of La Salle, Comte de Frontenac's term had expired, and he was in 1682 succeeded by Monsieur Lefebvre de la Barre. But he was afterward reinstated governor of Canada in 1689 and died at the age of 77. He was a brave and ambitious man, and to his wise administration may be attributed the consolidation of French power in North America.

End of footnote. Our governor and Mr. Talon, then our intendant, knowing the importance of this discovery, either to seek a passage from here to the China Sea by the river which empties into the California or Red Sea. Footnote. The Gulf of California was called by the Spaniards Mar de Cotes, or more commonly Mar Bermejo, from its resemblance in shape and color to the Red Sea. In ignorance of this fact, the French translated Bermejo by Vermeille and English writers Vermillion.

End of footnote. Or to verify what was afterwards said of the two kingdoms of Teguayo and Quivira, which border on Canada and where gold mines are, it is said, abundant. Footnote. Teguayo, or commonly Tegu, and sometimes apparently Tejas, and Quivira, were two kingdoms as to which the imagination of the Spaniards, and especially of the Mexicans, had become so aroused that Fiehu, in his Teatro Cartico, includes them in the category of fabled

lands, St. Brandon's Isle, the El Dorado, etc., although he admits that he hesitated as he found Quivira mentioned by every geographer. These two kingdoms, which lay east of the country, north of the River Gila, and are probably the present New Mexico and Texas, were first made known by the attempt of a Franciscan missionary to reach the rich countries of the interior, which had been spoken of by Cabeza de Vaca. The missionary in question, Frémarque?

a native of Nico in Italy, crossed the Gila and from the well-built houses and cotton dresses of the people, easily gave credit to the accounts of more wealthy tribes. A subsequent expedition showed that he had been mistaken, and none but hardy missionaries sought to penetrate to the fabled land. The belief of its mineral wealth was, however, too deeply rooted to be easily shaken, and the discovery of California's resources in our days has justified it and shows

that Talon, in seeking to reach California from Canada, attempted no chimerical project. These gentlemen, I say, both at the same time selected for the enterprise the Sieur Juliet, whom they deemed competent for so great a design, wishing to see Father Marquette accompany him. Footnote. It would seem by this wording that Marquette was not officially chosen for the expedition. The troubles at the time between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities will account

for this, while the research is made by Marquette as to the river, and his knowledge of the Indians and their dialects rendered it important that he should be one of the party. That his account alone survived and that it was published in his name was something neither expected nor intended by any of those concerned, as Monsieur Joliet had prepared an account of the expedition, the loss of which, as stated in the text, alone raised the journal of Father Marquette to its

present degree of importance. In 1680, the French government rewarded the Sieur Joliet for this eminent service by a grant of the island of Anticosti in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and in 1697, by the Signory of Joliet, in Beauce County, Canada, which is now the property of the Honorable Tita Cheren, one of the judges of the court of King's Bench. End of footnote.

They were not mistaken in their choice of the Sieur Joliet, for he was a young man born in this country and endowed with every quality that could be desired in such an enterprise. He possessed experience and a knowledge of the languages of the Ottawa country. The Aroa or Antauka were first called by the French Cheveux-re-leve and placed on Great Manitoulin. Their Indian name is then given in the form Andatahuata. The earlier Jesuit relations

called them Andatawawak and Brasani Andawawat under the form Utawak, Atawaks. It was applied it as a general term to all the Algonquin tribes on Lake Superior and Michigan, who traded with the French. The English in the same way applied to them the name of the tribe, which they called Chippeways, and the French Uchibwek, which is still more diversified by the new spelling Ojibwa pronounced by Schoolcraft. End of footnote. Country where he had spent several years, he had

the tact and prudence so necessary for the success of a voyage equally dangerous and difficult. And lastly, he had courage to fear nothing where all is to be feared. He accordingly fulfilled the expectations entertained of him, and if, after having passed through dangers of a thousand kinds, he had not unfortunately been wrecked in the very harbor, his canoe having upset below the Saint Louis near Montréal, where he lost his men and papers and only escaped by a kind of miracle

with his life. The success of his voyage had left nothing to be desired. Section 1. Departure of Father James Marquette for the discovery of the great river called by the Indians Mississippi, which leads to New Mexico. The day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, Virgin, whom I had always invoked since I have been in this Ottawa country, to obtain of God the grace to be able to visit the nations on the River Mississippi. Footnote. The name of this river is

derived from the Algonquin language, one of the original tongues of our continent. It was spoken by every tribe from the Chesapeake to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and running westward to the Mississippi and Lake Superior. The Abnakis, Montagnus, Algonquins proper, Ottawa's, Nipissing's, Nez Perce's, Illinois, Miami's, Saks, Fox's, O'Higgins, Delawares, Shawnees, and Virginia Indians, as well as the minor tribes of New England, all spoken dialects of this widespread

language. The only exception in this vast strip of territory was the Huron-Iroquois language, spoken by the Hurons, Petunanuters, and Iroquois, which is distinct from the Algonquin. The word Mississippi is a compound of the word Missy, signifying great, and Sepe, a river. The former is variously pronounced Missal, or Michal, as in Michilimackinac, Mishy, as in Michigan, Missou as in Missouri, and Missy as in Mississippi. The word Sippy may be considered in the English

pronunciation derived through the medium of the French of sepe and affords an instance of an Indian term of much melody, being corrupted by Europeans into one that has a harsh and hissing sound. End footnote. Was identically that on which Monsieur Juliet arrived with orders of the Count de Frontenac, our governor, and Monsieur Talon, our intendant, to make this discovery with me. I was the more enraptured at this good news as I saw my designs on the point of being accomplished,

and myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the salvation of all these nations, and particularly for the Illinois, who had, when I was at La Pointe de Saint-Esprit, very earnestly entreated me to carry the word of God to their country. We were not long in preparing our outfit, although we were embarking on a voyage, the duration of which we could not foresee. Indian corn, with some dried meat, was our whole stock of provisions.

With this we set out in two bark canoes. Footnote. The two frail canoes which bore these adventurous travelers from the snows of Canada to the more genial clime of the Arkansas were constructed entirely different from those wood canoes with which the Indians navigated the Hudson and the Delaware, and which we still occasionally see in use among our western tribes.

The Canadian canoe made use of in this expedition was built of birch bark, cedar splints, and ribs of spruce roots covered with yellow pine pitch, so light and so strong that they could be carried across portages on the shoulders of four men, and paddled at the rate of four miles per hour in smooth water. For river navigation, where there are no rapids or portages, nothing could be better adapted for explorations,

and they were used in subsequent expeditions to explore the Missouri, St. Peter's, Columbia, and Mackenzie Rivers. End footnote. Monsieur Joliet, myself, and five men, firmly resolved to do all and suffer all for so glorious an enterprise.

It was on the 17th of May, 1673, that we started from the mission of St. Ignatius at Michili-Mackinac. Footnote. This is not the island, but the point north of it in the present county of that name, Charlevoix. The mission was subsequently on the south, if we credit Charlevoix's map, and finally on the island of that name. End footnote. Where I then was. Our joy at being chosen for this expedition roused our courage and sweetened the

labor of rowing from morning till night. As we were going to seek unknown countries, we took all possible precautions that, if our enterprise was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy. For this reason, we gathered all possible information from Indians who had frequented those parts, and even from their accounts traced a map of all the new country, marking down the rivers on which we were to sail, the names of the nations and places through which we were to pass,

the course of the great river, and what direction we should take when we got to it. Above all, I put our voyage under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, promising her that if she did us the grace to discover the great river, I would give it the name of Conception, and that I would also give that name to the first mission which I should establish along these new nations, as I have actually done among the Illinois. Footnote,

the name which the pious missionary gave to the Mississippi is found only here, and on the accompanying map, which corresponds perfectly with his narrative. The name of the Immaculate Conception, which he gave to the mission among the Cascassius, was retained as long as that mission lasted and is now the title of the church in the present town of Cascassia. Although his wish was not realized in the name of the great river, it has been fulfilled in the fact that

the Blessed Virgin, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, has been chosen by the prelates of the United States assembled in a national council as the patroness of the whole country, so that not only in the vast valley of the Mississippi, but from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Blessed Virgin, Immaculate, is as dear to every American Catholic as is Our Lady of Guadalupe to our Mexican neighbors. End of footnote. Section 2. The Father visits, by the way, the

wild oats tribes. What these wild oats are. He enters the Bay of the Fetid. Some particulars as to this bay. He reaches the Fire Nation. With all these precautions, we made our paddles, play merrily over a part of Lake Huron and that of the Illinois into the Bay of the Fetid. The first nation that we met was that of the wild oats. Footnote. This plant, the Zazenia aquatica of Lynn, is perennial and forms the principal food of most of the northwestern tribes. It is called,

in English, wild rice, and in French, falavoin, or wild oats. It was first accurately described in the rel 1662-63, apparently from Menard's letters. The tribe here alluded to are the Umaluminic, Malhominis, or Menomones, whose river still shows their locality. End footnote. I entered their river to visit them, as we have preached the gospel to these tribes for some years past, so that there are many good Christians among them. The wild oats,

from which they take their name, as they are found in their country, are a kind of grass which grows spontaneously in little rivers with slimy bottoms and in marshy places. They are very like the wild oats that grow up among our wheat. The ears are on stalks knotted at intervals. They rise above the water about the month of June and keep rising till they float about two feet above it. The grain is not thicker than our oats, but is as long again, so that the meal is much more abundant.

The following is the manner in which the Indians gather it and prepare it for eating. In the month of September, which is the proper time for this harvest, they go in canoes across these fields of wild oats and shake the ears on their right and left into the canoe as they advance. The grain falls easily if it is ripe, and in a little while their provision is made. To clear it from the chaff and strip it of a pellicle in which it is enclosed,

they put it to dry in the smoke on a wooden lattice, under which they keep up a small fire for several days. When the oats are well dried, they put them in a skin of the form of a bag, which is then forced into a hole made on purpose in the ground. They then tread it out so long and so well that the grain being freed from the chaff is easily winnowed, after which they pound it to reduce it to meal, or even unpounded boil it in water seasoned with grease. And in this way,

wild oats are almost as palatable as rice would be when not better seasoned. I informed these people of the wild oats of my design of going to discover distant nations to instruct them in the mysteries of our holy religion. They were very much surprised and did their best to dissuade me. They told me that I would meet nations that never spare strangers, but tomahawk them without any provocation. That the war which had broken out among various nations on

our route exposed us to another evident danger, that of being killed by the war parties which are constantly in the field. That the great river is very dangerous, unless the difficult parts are known. That it was full of frightful monsters who swallowed up men and canoes together. That there is even a demon there who can be heard from afar, who stops the passage and engulfs all who dare approach. Lastly, that the heat is so excessive in those countries that it would infallibly cause

our death. I thanked them for their kind advice, but assured them that I could not follow it, as the salvation of souls was concerned, that for them I should be too happy to lay down my life, that I made light of their pretended demon, that we would defend ourselves well enough against the river monsters, and besides, we should be on our guard to avoid the other dangers with which they threatened us. After having made them pray and given them some instruction, I left them, and embarking in our canoes,

we soon after reached the extremity of the Bay of the Fetid, where our fathers labored successfully in the conversion of these tribes. having baptized more than 2,000 since they have been there. This bay bears a name which has not so bad a meaning in the Indian language, for they call it rather Salt Bay than Fetid Bay, although among them it is almost the same, and this is also the name which they give to the sea. This induced us to make very exact researches to discover whether there were not in these parts

some salt springs, as there are among the Iroquois, but we could not find any. Footnote. The tribe called by the French Pouance were the Unabaguic our Winnebagoes. REL 1672-73. In the relation of 1636, they are called Ouitzi-Ran-Wan-Ans, which as the termination shows was their name among the Hurons. Charlevoix, on what ground I know not, calls them Atchagrass. As Marquette justly remarks, their name signified salt rather than fetid,

and they are undoubtedly the gendarmer discovered by the adventuist Nicolet, 300 leagues west of the Hurons, several years prior to his death in 1642. REL 1642-43, page 8. Indeed, the dislike of the Indians to salt was so great that they confounded the two terms. When Father Lemoine visited Ondaga, he heard of a spring in which there was a devil that made it fetid. It was in fact a salt spring. So too the accounts of the death of the heroic

missionaries, Brebeuf and Lemont, shows that the Iroquois detected in the flesh of the latter, who had recently left European food, traces of salt which they disliked, and they showed their disgust in the additional torture they inflicted. All this establishes the identity of the terms fetid and salt, and confirms what is stated in the relation of 1653 to 54, and by Brassani and his brave relations that the Winnebago's were so called because they came from the fetid water

or ocean, which was then said to be nine days journey to the west. In point of fact, the Winnebagoes are a branch of the Dahota family, which advancing further east than the rest, became cut off from them and surrounded by Algonquins. Hence the very name comes in to confirm the philological researches which connect them with the Tartars. The bay called formerly Bay des Poins, or Le Grand Bay, has now become Green Bay, and the town of that name is near the

site of the old mission of Saint Francis Xavier, founded in 1670. End of footnote. We accordingly concluded that the name has been given on account of the quantity of slime and mud there, constantly exhaling noisome vapors, which caused the loudest and longest peals of thunder that I ever heard. The bay is about 30 leagues long and eight wide at its mouth. It narrows gradually to the extremity, where it is easy to remark the tide which has its regular flow and ebb, almost like that of the sea.

This is not the place to examine whether they are real tides, whether they are caused by the winds or by some other age, whether there are winds, outriders of the moon, or attached to her suite, which consequently agitate the lake and give it a kind of flow and ebb whenever the moon rises above the horizon. What I can certainly aver is that when the water is quite tranquil, you can easily see it rise and fall with the course of the moon, although I do not deny that this movement may be caused by distant winds, which pressing on the center of the lake, make it rise and fall on the shore in the way that meets our eyes. Footnote. This last opinion now prevails, and the tides of the lake which have been so much discussed

are now ascribed to the action of the winds, although Charlevoix supposed it was owing to the springs at the bottom of the lakes, and to the shock of their currents, with those of the rivers which fall into them from all sides, and thus produce those intermitting motions. End footnote. We left this bay to enter a river. Footnote. The Fox River of Green Bay is about 260 miles in length. The portage between the headwaters of this river and the Wisconsin, Masconsing, is over a level

plain and during high water canoes frequently pass over the lowest parts of the prairie from one river to the other. End footnote. Emptying into it. It is very beautiful at its mouth and flows gently. It is full of bustards, duck, teal, and other birds attracted by the wild oats of which they are very fond. But when you have advanced a little up this river, it becomes very difficult, both on account of the currents and of the sharp rocks which cut the canoes and the feet

of those who are obliged to drag them, especially when the water is low. For all that, we passed the rapids safely, and as we approached Machkutans, the fire nation, I had the curiosity to drink the mineral waters of the river, which is not far from this town. I also took time to examine an herb, the virtue of which an Indian, who possessed the secret head with many ceremonies made known to Father Aloué. Its root is useful against the bite of serpents, the almighty having been pleased to

this remedy against a poison very common in the country. It is very hot and has the taste of powder when crushed between the teeth. It must be chewed and put on the bite of the serpent. Snakes have such an antipathy to it that they fly from one rubbed with it. It produces several stalks, about a foot long, with pretty long leaves and a white flower much like the gilly flower. This plant is called by the French serpent à sonnette and is an infallible

remedy against the poison of snakes. The root is commonly reduced to a powder, which the Indians chew or make a poultice of, which prevents the poison from taking effect. It may be taken in water with the same effect. It has a nauseous smell and is always avoided by snakes. If two or three drops are put into a snake's mouth, it immediately dies. End footnote. I put some into my canoe to examine it at leisure while we kept on our way toward

Muscutin's where we arrived on the 7th of June. End of section 8.