chapter vii

. A plan of this fort is given on a later page.—ED.]

[483] Margry, i. 329.

[484] Ibid., i. 277.

[485] Du Lhut and Hennepin.

[486] Margry, i. 283.

[487] Ibid., i. 287.

[488] Ibid., i. 334.

[489] Margry, i. 333.

[490] Ibid., i. 337.

[491] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 104.

[492] Margry, ii. 252.

[493] La Salle and Hennepin both write _Du Luth_.

[494] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 795.

[495] Du Lhut’s letter to Seignelay, in Harrisse, speaks of the Izatys. The Issati or Isanti—Knife Indians—was the name of an eastern division of the Sioux that dwelt near Knife River, and perhaps made and traded stone knives.

[496] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 132.

[497] Du Lhut’s letter, in Harrisse.

[498] Margry, ii. 252.

[499] Margry, ii. 251.

[500] Perhaps intended for Meshdeke Wakpa, River of the Foxes.

[501] Chapa Wakpa in the Sioux language is Beaver River.

[502] La Salle writes: “Michel Accault qui estoit le conducteur leur fit présenter le calumet.” Margry, ii. 255.

[503] La Salle, who probably received his information from the leader, Accault, gives a different version. [See the note on Hennepin on a later page.—ED.]

[504] Harrisse makes the date of the letter 1685, at which time its writer was near Lake Superior; Shea, in its translation appended to his edition of _Hennepin_, retains the same date.

[505] He probably established the post near the Sioux at the portage of the St. Croix River, which upon Franquelin’s map of 1688 is called Fort St. Croix. The hostility of the Indians at the Bay may have led him to seek the point by way of Lake Superior.

[506] Louis XIV. confusedly writes on July 31, 1684: “It also appears to me that one of the principal causes of this war proceeds from the man named Du Lhut having two Iroquois killed who assassinated two Frenchmen on Lake Superior.”

[507] Tonty in Margry, i. 614.

[508] Margry, ii. 343.

[509] Bellin, in _Remarques sur la Carte de l’Amérique Septentrionale_, Paris, 1755, writes: “In the eastern part of Lake Nepigon there is a river by which one may ascend to the head of Hudson’s Bay. It is said this was discovered by a Canadian named Perray, who was the first to travel this route, and gave his name to the river.”

[510] Son of Groseilliers.

[511] Fort La Tourette. See Franquelin’s map of 1688 on a later page.

[512] Greyselon de la Tourette.

[513] De la Barre, Oct. 1, 1684; _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 243.

[514] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 231.

[515] La Potherie.

[516] La Potherie, chap. xv. 165.

[517] Franquelin, in his map of 1688, as will be seen, marks the hill where the French wintered as a few miles above the Black River, probably _montagne qui trempe l’eau_. Major Long, in 1817, writes of “high bluff-lands at this point towering into precipices and peaks, completely insulated from the main bluffs by a broad flat prairie.”

[518] Franquelin’s map of 1688.

[519] Denonville, Nov. 12, 1685, _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 263.

[520] The history of this soleil has been given by Professor J. D. Butler, of Madison, in _Wisconsin Historical Society’s Collections_. In 1686 it was presented to the Jesuit mission at Depere, Wisconsin. In 1687 the mission-house was burned; in 1802 the soleil was ploughed up, and is now in the vault of the Bishop of the Church of Rome at Green Bay. See Shea’s _History of Catholic Missions_, p. 372.

[521] Nicholas Perrot married Marie Madeleine Raclot. His child Francois was born at Three Rivers, Aug. 8, 1672; Nicolas was born in 1674; Clemence in 1676; Michel, in 1677; Marie, in 1679; Marie Anne, on July 25, 1681; Claude, ——; Jean Baptiste in 1688; Jean, Aug. 15, 1690. In his old age he resided at the seigniory, Becancour, not far from Three Rivers, on the St. Lawrence. About the year 1718 he died.

[522] Tonty had been ordered to raise a party of Illinois and attack in the rear, while Denonville was charging in front; but he could not find enough men, and therefore joined Du Lhut, his cousin.

[523] [See chap. vii.—ED.]

[524] Denonville, Aug. 25, 1687. _N. Y. Col. Docs._ ix.

[525] La Hontan writes: “I am to go along with M. Dulhut, a Lyons gentleman, and a person of great merit, who has done his King and his country very considerable service. M. de Tonti makes another of our company.” Joutel in his Journal mentions that Tonty reached his post in the Illinois country October 27, 1687.

[526] The post at Wisconsin River was called Fort St. Nicholas, suggested by Perrot’s baptismal name. In August, 1683, Engelran wrote to Governor de la Barre from Mackinaw: “M. de Boisguillot fulfils faithfully the duties of the position which has been assigned him during the absence of those who are under your command.” Le Sueur says St. Croix River was called from a Frenchman, and it is thought the River St. Pierre was named in compliment to Pierre Le Sueur.

[527] Sir Edmund Andros, the successor of Dongan as governor of New York, and subsequently governor also of New England.

[528] [See chap. iii.—ED.]

[529] [See chap. vi.—ED.]

[530] [Cf. also Benjamin Sulte’s papers, _Mélanges_, published at Ottawa, in 1876, and the Note on the _Jesuit Relations, sub anno_ 1640 and 1642-1643.—ED.]

[531] [See the Note on the _Jesuit Relations, sub anno_ 1645-1646.—ED.]

[532] [For an account of these general sources, see the Note following chap. vii., and the statements regarding Margry’s labors on a subsequent page.—ED.]

[533] [Cf. Shea’s _Charlevoix_, iii. 165, _Historical Magazine_, ix. 205; and the Note on the _Jesuit Relations_.—ED.]

[534] [See the Note on the _Jesuit Relations_.—ED.]

[535] In Margry’s _Découvertes_, etc.

[536] In his _Notes pour servir à l’Histoire, etc., de la Nouvelle France_.

[537] The bibliography of Hennepin is examined in a later note.

[538] There have been papers on the ancient mining on Lake Superior, by Daniel Wilson, in _The Canadian Journal_, New Series, i. 125, and by A. D. Hager, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, xv. 308.

[539] The North American Missions of the Catholics, particularly those of the West among the Hurons, etc., have been followed by A. J. Thébaud in _The Month_, xxxiii. 480; xxxv. 352; xxxvi. 168, 524; xxxvii. 228; xl. 379; xli. 60; xlii. 379; xliii. 337; and they of course make an important part of Dr. Shea’s _History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States_. See the Note elsewhere in the present volume on “The Jesuit Relations.”

[540] Cf. “Early Notices of the Beaver in Europe and America,” by D. Wilson, in _The Canadian Journal_, 1859, p. 359; “French Commerce in the Mississippi Valley, 1620-1720,” in the _American Presbyterian Review_, iv. 620; v. 110.

[541] Cf. “Early French Forts in the Mississippi Valley,” in the _United States Service Magazine_, i. 356.

[542] Field, no. 1,081, who calls it the best of the books on Western history; Thomson’s _Ohio Bibliography_, no. 842.

[543] Mr. Perkins also published a paper on “French Discovery in the Mississippi Valley” in _The Hesperian_ (Columbus, Ohio), iii. 295; cf. papers by R. Greenhow, in _De Bow’s Review_, vii. 319.

[544] Made mainly about 1856, by P. L. Morin.

[545] There is a memoir of Colonel Thorndike in Hunt’s _Merchants’ Magazine_, ii. 508.

[546] An excellent bibliographical summary of the sources of the history of these early Western explorations, by Mr. A. P. C. Griffin, appeared in the _Magazine of American History_, 1883, also separately. The account of the sources of La Salle’s discoveries given in Edouard Frère’s _Manuel du Bibliographe Normand_ is scant. Mr. John Langton’s paper on “The Early Discoveries of the French in North America,” printed in _The Canadian Journal_, 1857, p. 393, enumerates some of the early maps. Dr. George E. Ellis’s “French Explorations in the West,” in the _North American Review_, cx. 260, is a review of Parkman; and J. H. Greene’s “Early French Travellers in the West,” in _Ibid._, xlviii. 63, is a review of Sparks’s _Life of Marquette_, which is one of the volumes of his _American Biography_.

[547] Margry, i. 81.

[548] _La Salle_, p. 450.

[549] _Histoire de la Colonie Française_, iii. 305.

[550] _Notes_, etc., no. 200.

[551] _Catalogue_, 1858, p. 1615.

[552] _Histoire de la Colonie Française_, vol. iii. p. 284.

[553] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 66. Margry (i. 73) gives various papers indicating the views of Talon on western exploration.

[554] Vol. i. p. 112.

[555] He edited it for the Historical Society of Montreal in 1875. An English translation of part of it is given in Mr. O. H. Marshall’s _First Visit of La Salle to the Senecas in 1669_, which was privately printed in 1874.

[556] A heliotype of it is given in the note on “The Jesuit Relations,” following