HE BOYS'J 
 RKMAN I 
 
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 Hntt Qlallege of JVgticuUitre 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 F 1030.P245 
 
 The boys' Parkman; selections from the hi 
 
 3 1924 014 019 222 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
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THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
A War Embassy. Frontispiece. 
 
THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 Selections from the Historical 
 Works of Francis Parkman 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 LOUISE S. HASBROUCK 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1912 
 
Copyright, igiz, 
 By Little, Brown, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published, September, 1912 
 
 8. J. Paskbill ft Co., BosTOK, n, S. Aa 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Francis Par km an was born in Boston, 
 September i6th, 1823. He was a delicate 
 boy, and for that reason was sent out into the 
 country when he was seven years old to live 
 with his grandfather near Medford, Mass. He 
 went to day-school there, and did not learn 
 much; but in another school that he attended 
 very willingly he gained knowledge that was 
 to be of much use to him in later hfe. This 
 was the school of the woods, where he picked 
 up all sorts of lore about trees, stones, beasts 
 and birds, which helped mightUy in making 
 real and vivid the background of the histories 
 he was to write. After four years in the coun- 
 try he went back to Boston to Hve with his 
 parents; and he entered Harvard at the age 
 of seventeen. 
 
 When Francis Parkman was thirteen or 
 fourteen years old a party of chiefs and 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 warriors of the Sacs and Foxes visited Boston, 
 and, as he says, " danced a war-dance, on the 
 Common in full costume to the dehght of the 
 boy spectators, of whom I was one." Soon 
 after that he read Cooper's novels, and be- 
 came so thoroughly identified with his red 
 men that he used to dream and talk about 
 them constantly. 
 
 It was while Parkman was at Harvard that 
 he conceived the idea of writing the story of 
 the French and Enghsh in North America, 
 and he at once began to prepare for it, not only 
 by study and reading, but in his vacations, by 
 visiting scenes of historic interest, going on long 
 camping expeditions, and becoming acquainted 
 with Indian tribes in New York, New Eng- 
 land, and southern Canada. 
 
 Soon after leaving coUege, he and a friend 
 went West to the Black Hills. As he says in 
 the introduction to the " Conspiracy of Pon- 
 tiac: " "Here, by the camp-fire, or in the 
 canoe, I gained famihar acquaintance with 
 the men and scenery of the wilderness. In 1846 
 I visited various primitive tribes of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and was, for a time, domesticated 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 in a village of the western Dahcotah, on the 
 high plains between Mt. Laramie and the 
 range of Medicine Bow." " The Oregon 
 Trail " is an account of this experience, during 
 which he underwent hardships that seriously 
 impaired his health for the rest of his hfe. 
 
 Parkman was about fifty years in writing the 
 great series of histories to which he gave the 
 name " France and England in North Amer- 
 ica," and, as has been aptly said, this period is 
 best described by a phrase which he used as the 
 name of one of his books: " a half -century of 
 conflict." He did not enjoy a well day during 
 that time. John Fiske, the historian, says of 
 him: " The heroism shown year after year in 
 contending with physical ailments was the in- 
 dex of a character fit to be mated, for its per- 
 tinacious courage, with the heroes that Hve in 
 his shining pages." An account of one diffi- 
 culty imder which he labored is told by him- 
 self in the introduction to the " Conspiracy 
 of Pontiac." " For about three years," he 
 says, " the Ught of day was insupportable, and 
 every attempt at reading or writing completely 
 debarred. Under these circumstances, the task 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 of sifting the materials and composing the work 
 was begun and finished. The papers were re- 
 peatedly read aloud, copious notes and ex- 
 tracts were made, and the narrative written 
 down from my dictation." 
 
 In spite of this trouble with his sight, and 
 other distressing ailments, Parkman was in- 
 tensely thorough in all the preparations for his 
 work. He neglected not the smallest source 
 of information, and his histories are noted for 
 their accuracy and impartiaHty as well as for 
 their vividness and Hterary style. To quote 
 Fiske again: "This elaborateness of prepara- 
 tion had its share in producing the intense viv- 
 idness of Mr. Parkman's descriptions. Pro- 
 fusion of detail made them seem hke the ac- 
 counts of an eye-witness. The reahsm is so 
 strong that the author seems to have come in 
 person fresh from the scenes he described, with 
 the smoke of the battle hovpring about him, 
 and its fierce light glowing in his eyes." 
 
 One other subject must be mentioned in es- 
 timating the value of Parkman's histories. 
 This was his portrayal of the Indian. Through 
 the previously mentioned circumstances of his 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 early life, he was enabled to Imow the Indian 
 at first hand at a time when he had changed 
 scarcely at aU from the aboriginal men who had 
 greeted the first explorers centuries before. 
 Students of evolution call the Indian " our 
 contemporary ancestor," because he exempli- 
 fies a stage of fife through which white people 
 passed long before the Odyssey and the Book 
 of Genesis were written. In studying him we 
 learn what we were like before history began; 
 and it is in a great measure owing to Park- 
 man's knowledge and portrayal of the Indian 
 that his works have their peculiar and perma- 
 nent value. 
 
 He died on the 8th of November, 1893, after 
 having finished his work and received many 
 honors. 
 
 Students of Parkman's life and work wiU 
 do well to consult Famham's " Life of Francis 
 Parkman," Sedgwick's "Life of Parkman," 
 and the article on Parkman by John Fiske in 
 the Atlantic Monthly for May, 1894. It was 
 from these sources that the information in the 
 foregoing sketch was taken. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB '*°^ 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 I. Indian Tribes and Traditions . i 
 
 II. The Discovery of the Mississippi . 26 
 
 III. La Salle's Winter Journeys . . 38 
 
 IV. Tonty's Adventures with the In- 
 
 dians ss 
 
 V. La Salle Finds the Mouth of the 
 
 Mississippi . .' . . . . 71 
 
 VI. The Assassination of La Salle . 82 
 VII. The French, the English and the 
 
 Indians 96 
 
 VIII. The Fall of Quebec .... 109 
 IX. Henry's Adventures with the In- 
 dians ........ 126 
 
 X. The Siege of Detroit .... 135 
 
 Notes 167 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A War Embassy Frontispiece 
 
 ToNTY Offering Presents to the Chief 
 
 OF THE Taensas Page 78 
 
 The Assassination of La Salle . . " 91 
 
 The Fall of Montcalm . . , . " 125 
 
THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS* 
 
 THE Indian is a true chUd of the for- 
 est and the desert. The wastes and 
 solitudes of nature are his congenial 
 home. His haughty mind is imbued 
 with the spirit of the wilderness, and the light 
 of civilization falls on him with a blighting 
 power. His unruly pride and untamed free- 
 dom are in harmony with the lonely mountains, 
 cataracts and rivers among which he dwells; 
 and primitive America, with her savage scenery 
 and savage men, opens to the imagination a 
 boundless world, unmatched in wild subhm- 
 ity. 
 The Indians east of the Mississippi may be 
 
 ' See Notes at end of text, Page 167. 
 
% THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 divided into several great families, distin- 
 guished by differences in language but possess- 
 ing several characteristics in common. All are 
 alike a race of hunters, sustaining life wholly, 
 or in part, by the fruits of the chase. In an 
 Indian commimity each man is his own mas- 
 ter, owning no other authority than his own 
 capricious will; and yet this wild notion of 
 Uberty is not inconsistent with certain grada- 
 tions of rank and influence. Each tribe has its 
 sachem, or civil chief, whose province is to ad- 
 Adse, but not to dictate; but should he be a man 
 of energy, talent and address he may often ac- 
 quire no smaU measure of respect and power. 
 Anyone may be a war-chief whose prowess and 
 reputation are sufficient to induce the young 
 men to follow him to battle; and he may, 
 whenever he thinks proper, raise a band of 
 volunteers and go out against the conunon 
 enemy. 
 
 A peculiar social institution exists among the 
 Indians. Their commimities, independently 
 of their local distribution into tribes, bands, 
 and villages, are composed of several distinct 
 clans.^ Each clan has its emblem, consisting 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 3 
 
 of the figure of some bird, beast or reptile; and 
 each is distinguished by the name of the animal 
 which it thus bears as its device; as, for ex- 
 ample, the clan of the Woh, the Deer, the Otter, 
 or the Hawk. In the language of the Algon- 
 quins, these emblems are known by the name 
 of Totems. To different totems attach differ- 
 ent degrees of rank and dignity; and those of 
 the Bear, the Tortoise and the Wolf are among 
 the first in honor. Each man is proud of his 
 badge, jealously asserting its claims to respect; 
 and the members of the same clan, though they 
 may, perhaps, speak different dialects and 
 dwell far asunder, are yet bound together by 
 the closest ties of fraternity. If a man is killed, 
 every member of the clan feels called upon to 
 avenge him; and the wayfarer, the hunter or 
 the warrior is sure of a cordial welcome in the 
 distant lodge of a clansman whose face perhaps 
 he has never seen. 
 
 The three great families into which the In- 
 dians east of the Mississippi may be divided 
 are the Iroquois, the Algonquin, and the Mo- 
 bilian. To these must be added a few stragglers 
 from the great western race of the Dahcotah, 
 
4 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 besides several distinct tribes of the south, 
 each of which has been regarded as speaking 
 a tongue peculiar to itself. The MobUian 
 group embraces the motley confederacy of the 
 Creeks, the crafty Choctaws, and the stanch 
 and warlike Chickasaws. Of these, and of the 
 distinct tribes dwelling in their vicinity, or 
 within their limits, I shall only observe, that 
 they offer, with many modifications, and imder 
 different aspects, the same essential features 
 which mark the Iroquois and the Algonquins, 
 the two great families of the north. 
 
 Foremost in wai;, foremost in eloquence, 
 foremost in their savage arts of poUcy, stood 
 the fierce people called by themselves the Hode- 
 nosaunee, and by the French the Iroquois, a 
 name which has since been appHed to the en- 
 tire family of which they formed the dominant 
 member. They extended their conquests and 
 their depredations from Quebec to the Caro- 
 linas, and from the western prairies to the for- 
 ests of Maine. On the south, they forced trib- 
 ute from the subjugated Delawares, and pierced 
 the moimtain fastnesses of the Cherokees with 
 incessant forays. On the north, they uprooted 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 5 
 
 the ancient settlements of the Wyandots; on 
 the west they exterminated the Eries and the 
 Andastes, and spread havoc and dismay among 
 the tribes of the Illinois; and on the east, the 
 Indians oi New England fled at the first peal 
 of the Mohawk war-cry. Nor was it the Indian 
 race alone who quailed before their ferocious 
 valor. All Canada shook with the fury of their 
 onset; the people fled to the forts for refuge; 
 the blood-besmeared conquerors roamed like 
 wolves among the bvuming settlements, and 
 the colony trembled on the brink of ruin. 
 
 The origin of the Iroquois is lost in hopeless 
 obscurity. That they came from the west; 
 that they came from the north; that they 
 sprang from the soil of New York, are the tes- 
 timonies of three conflicting traditions, all 
 equally worthless as aids to historic inquiry. 
 It is at the era of their confederacy — the event 
 to which the five tribes * owed all their great- 
 ness and power, and to which we need assign 
 no remoter date than that of a century before 
 the first arrival of the Dutch in New York, 
 that faint rays of Hght began to pierce the 
 gloom, and the chaotic traditions of the earlier 
 
6 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 epoch mould themselves into forms more pal- 
 pable and distinct. 
 
 Taounyawatha, the God of the Waters — 
 such is the beUef of the Iroquois — descended 
 to the earth to instruct his favorite people in 
 the arts of savage life; and when he saw how 
 they were tormented by giants, monsters and 
 evil spirits, he urged the divided tribes, for 
 the common defence, to band themselves to- 
 gether in an everlasting league. He was re- 
 called to the Great Spirit; but soon afterwards, 
 as a band of Mohawk warriors was threading 
 the funereal labyrinth of an ancient pine for- 
 est, they heard, amid its blackest depths, a 
 hoarse voice chanting in measured cadence, 
 and, following the sound, they saw, seated 
 among the trees, a monster so hideous that they 
 stood benumbed with terror. 
 
 He was encompassed by hissing rattlesnakes, 
 which. Medusa-like, 1 hung writhing from his 
 head; and on the ground around him were 
 strewn implements of incantation and magic 
 vessels formed of human skulls. Recovering 
 from their amazement the warriors could per- 
 ceive that in the mystic words of the chant, 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 7 
 
 which he still poured forth, were couched the 
 laws and prmciples of the destined confeder- 
 acy. 
 
 The tradition further declares that the mon- 
 ster, being surrounded and captured, was pres- 
 ently transformed to human shape, that he 
 became a chief of transcendent wisdom and 
 prowess, and to the day of his death ruled the 
 councils of the united tribes. To this hour the 
 presiding sachem of the council at Onondaga 
 inherits from him the honored name of Ato- 
 tarho. 
 
 In the evil days before their confederacy, so 
 runs their tradition, the scattered and divided 
 Iroquois were beset with every form of peril 
 and disaster. Giants, cased in armor of stone, 
 descended on them from the moimtains of the 
 north. Huge beasts trampled down their for- 
 ests like fields of grass. Human heads, with 
 streaming hair and glaring eyeballs, shot 
 through the air like meteors, shedding pesti- 
 lence and death throughout the land. A great 
 homed serpent rose from Lake Ontario; and 
 only the thimder-bolts of the sky could stay 
 his ravages, and drive him back to his native 
 
8 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 deeps. The skeletons of men, victims of some 
 monster of the forest, were seen swi mmi ng in 
 the Lake of Teimgktoo; ^ and around the Seneca 
 village on the HUl of Genundewah,^ a two- 
 headed serpent coiled himself, of size so mon- 
 strous that the wretched people were vmable 
 to ascend his scaly sides, and perished in multi- 
 tudes by his pestilential breath. Mortally 
 woimded at length by the magic arrow of a 
 child, he roUed down the steep, sweeping away 
 the forest with his writhings, and plunging into 
 the lake below, where he lashed the black waters 
 till they boiled with blood and foam, and at 
 length, exhausted with his agony, sank and 
 perished at the bottom. Under the Falls of 
 Niagara dwelt the Spirit of the Thunder, with 
 his brood of giant sons; and the Iroquois 
 trembled in their villages when, amid the black- 
 ening shadows of the storm, they heard his deep 
 shout roll along the firmament. 
 
 The energy of fancy, whence these barbarous 
 creations drew their birth, displayed itself, at 
 a later period, in that pecuUar eloquence which 
 the wild democracy of the Iroquois tended to 
 call forth, and to which the mountain and the 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 9 
 
 forest, the torrent and the storm, lent their 
 stores of noble imagery. That to this imagina- 
 tive vigor was joined mental power of a differ- 
 ent stamp, is witnessed by the caustic irony of 
 Garangvda^ and Sagoyewatha,^ and no less 
 by the subtle policy, sagacious as it was treach- 
 erous, which marked the dealings of the Iro- 
 quois with surrounding tribes. 
 
 With all this mental superiority, the arts of 
 life among them were still rude; and their 
 coarse pottery, their spear and arrow heads of 
 stone, were in no way superior to those of many 
 other tribes. Their agriculture deserves a 
 higher praise. In 1696, the invading army of 
 Count Frontenac ' found the maize fields ex- 
 tending a league and a half or two leagues from 
 their villages; and, in 1779, the troops of Gen- 
 eral Sullivan * were fiUed with amazement at 
 their abimdant stores of com, beans and 
 squashes, and at the old apple orchards which 
 grew around their settlements. 
 
 Their dwellings and works of defence were 
 far from contemptible, either in their dimen- 
 sions or in their structure; and though by the 
 several attacks of the French, and especially 
 
10 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 by the invasion of Denonville ^ in 1687, and of 
 Frontenac, nine years later, their fortified towns 
 were levelled to the earth, never again to re- 
 appear; yet in the works of Champlain and 
 other early writers we find abundant evidence 
 of their pristine condition. 
 
 Along the banks of the Mohawk, among the 
 hills and hoUows of Onondaga, in the forests 
 of Oneida and Ca3mga, on the romantic shores 
 of Seneca Lake and the rich borders of the 
 Genesee, surrounded by waving maize fields, 
 and encircled afar by the green margin of the 
 forest, stood the ancient strongholds of the 
 confederacy. The clustering dwellings were 
 encompassed by palisades, in single, double or 
 triple rows, pierced with loopholes, furnished 
 with platforms within, for the convenience of 
 the defenders, with magazines of stone to hurl 
 upon the heads of the enemy, and with water 
 conductors to extinguish any fire which might 
 be kindled from without. 
 
 If we seek for a single trait pre-eminently 
 characteristic of the Iroquois, we shall find it 
 in that boundless pride which impelled them to 
 style themselves, not inaptly as regards their 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 11 
 
 own race, " the men surpassing all others." 
 " Must I," exclaimed one of their great war- 
 riors, as he fell wounded among a crowd of 
 Algonquins, — " must I, who have made the 
 whole earth tremble, now die by the hands of 
 children? " Their power kept pace with their 
 pride; but when we ask the numerical strength 
 of the dreaded confederacy, when we discover 
 that, in the days of their greatest triumphs, 
 their united cantons could not have mustered 
 four thousand warriors, we stand amazed at 
 the folly and dissension which left so vast a 
 region the prey of a handful of bold marauders. 
 Of the cities and villages now so thickly scat- 
 tered over the lost domain of the Iroquois, a 
 single one might boast a more numerous popu- 
 lation than all the five united tribes. 
 
 The Iroquois family was confined mostly to 
 the region south of the lakes Erie and Ontario, 
 and the peninsula east of Lake Huron. They 
 formed, as it were, an island in the vast expanse 
 of Algonquin population, extending from Hud- 
 son's Bay on the north to the Carolinas on the 
 south; from the Atlantic on the east to the 
 Mississippi and Lake Winnipeg on the west. 
 
12 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 They were Algonquins who greeted Jacques 
 Cartier/ as his ships ascended the St. Law- 
 rence. The first British colonists found sav- 
 ages of the same race hunting and fishing along 
 the coasts and inlets of Virginia; and it was 
 the daughter of an Algonquin chief who inter- 
 ceded with her father for the life of the adven- 
 turous EngHshinan.^ They were Algonquins, 
 who, under Sassacus the Pequot,^ and PhiUp 
 of Mount Hope,* waged war against the Puri- 
 tans of New England; who, under the great 
 tree at Kensington, made the covenant of peace 
 with WiUiam Penn; and when French Jesuits 
 and fur-traders explored the Wabash and the 
 Ohio, they found their valleys tenanted by the 
 same far-extended race. At the present day,^ 
 the traveller, perchance, may find them pitch- 
 ing their bark lodges along the beach at Mack- 
 inaw, spearing fish among the rapids of St. 
 Mary's, or skimming the waves of Lake Su- 
 perior in their birch canoes. 
 
 Of aU the members of the Algonquin family, 
 those called by the English the Delawares, and 
 by themselves Lenni Lenape, or Original Men, 
 hold the first claim to attention; for their 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 13 
 
 traditions declare them to be the parent stem 
 whence other Algonquin tribes have sprung. 
 For a while they were in a state of degrading 
 vassalage to the Five Nations, or Iroquois con- 
 federacy, who forced them to assiune the name 
 of women and forego the use of arms. After 
 the encroachments of white men had pushed 
 them westward, partially beyond the reach of 
 their conquerors, their native spirit began to 
 revive and they assimied a tone of defiance. 
 At the opening of the Revolution they boldly 
 asserted their freedom from the yoke of their 
 conquerors, and, a few years later, the Five 
 Nations confessed, at a pubUc council, that 
 the Lenape were no longer women, but men. 
 Ever since that period, they have stood in high 
 repute for bravery, generosity, and aU the 
 savage virtues. At the present day, the small 
 remnant scattered beyond the Mississippi are 
 among the bravest marauders of the West. 
 Their war-parties pierce the farthest wUds of 
 the Rocky Moimtains; and the prairie traveller 
 may sometimes meet the Delaware warrior 
 retiiming from a successful foray, a gaudy 
 handkerchief boimd about his brows, his snake 
 
14 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 locks fluttering in the wind, and his rifle rest- 
 ing across his saddle-bow, while the tarnished 
 and begrimed equipments of his half -wild horse 
 bear witness that the rider has waylaid and 
 plimdered some Mexican cavaher. 
 
 Adjacent to the Delawares, and associated 
 with them in some of the most notable passages 
 of their history, dwelt the Shawanoes, a tribe 
 of bold, roving and adventurous spirits. About 
 the year 1672 they fled to escape destruction 
 by the Five Nations and finally found new 
 settlements in the vaUey of the Ohio. 
 
 Of the tribes which dwelt within the limits 
 of Lower Canada, Acadia and New England 
 it is needless to speak; for they offered no dis- 
 tinctive traits demanding notice. Passing the 
 country of the Lenape and the Shawanoes, and 
 descending the Ohio, the traveller would have 
 foimd its vaUey chiefly occupied by two nations, 
 the Miamis and the Illinois. Turning his course 
 northward, traversing Lakes Michigan and 
 Superior, and skirting the western margin of 
 Lake Huron, he woifld have seen the soHtudes 
 of the wild waste around him broken by scat- 
 tered lodges of the Ojibwas, Pottawattamies 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 15 
 
 and Ottawas. About the bays and rivers west 
 of Lake Michigan he would have seen the Sacs, 
 the Foxes and the Menomonies; and pene- 
 trating the frozen wilderness of the north, he 
 would have been welcomed by the rude hospi- 
 tality of the wandering Crees. 
 
 The Ojibwas, with their kindred, the Potta- 
 wattamies, and their friends the Ottawas, — 
 the latter of whom were fugitives from the east- 
 ward, whence they had fled from the wrath of 
 the Iroquois, — were banded into a sort of 
 confederacy. They were closely allied in blood, 
 manners, language and character. The Ojib- 
 was, by far the most numerous of the three, 
 occupied the basin of Lake Superior and exten- 
 sive adjacent regions. In their boundaries the 
 career of Iroquois conquest found at length a 
 check, and tradition relates that, at the outlet 
 of Lake Superior, an Iroquois war-party once 
 encountered a disastrous repulse. 
 
 In their mode of life they were far more rude 
 than the Iroquois, or even the southern Algon- 
 quin tribes. The totemic system was found 
 among them in its most imperfect state. The 
 original clans have become broken into frag- 
 
16 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 ments and indefinitely multiplied; and many 
 of the ancient customs of the institution are 
 but loosely regarded. Agriculture is but little 
 known, and, through summer and winter, they 
 range the wilderness with restless wandering, 
 now gorged to repletion, and now perishing 
 with want. In the calm days of smnmer, the 
 Ojibwa fisherman pushes out his birch canoe 
 upon the great inland ocean of the north; and, 
 as he gazes down into the pellucid depths, he 
 seems like one balanced between earth and 
 sky. The watchful fish-hawk circles above his 
 head; and below, further than his Une will 
 reach, he sees the trout gUde shadowy and silent 
 over the glimmering pebbles. The little is- 
 lands on the verge of the horizon seem now 
 starting into spires, now melting from the sight, 
 now shaping themselves into a thousand fan- 
 tastic forms, with the strange mirage of the 
 waters, and he fancies that the evil spirits of 
 the lake he basking their serpent forms on those 
 unhallowed shores. 
 
 Again, he explores the watery labyrinths 
 where the stream sweeps among pine-tufted 
 islands, or runs, black and deep, beneath the 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND, TRADITIONS 17 
 
 shadows of moss-bearded firs, or he drags his 
 canoe upon the sandy beach, and, while his 
 camp-fire crackles on the grass-plat, reclines 
 beneath the trees, and smokes and laughs away 
 the sidtry hours in a lazy luxury of enjoyment. 
 But when winter descends upon the north, 
 sealing up the fountains, fettering the streams, 
 and turning the green-robed forests to shiver- 
 ing nakedness, then, bearing their frail dwell- 
 ings on their backs, the Ojibwa family wander 
 forth into the wilderness, cheered only on their 
 dreary track by the whistling of the north wind 
 and the hungry howl of wolves. By the banks 
 of some frozen stream, women and men, chil- 
 dren and dogs. He crouched together around 
 the fire. They spread their benumbed fingers 
 over the embers, while the wind shrieks through 
 the fir-trees like the gale through the rigging 
 of a frigate, and the narrow concave of the 
 wigwam sparkles with the frostwork of their 
 congealed breath. In vain they beat the magic 
 drum, and caU upon their guardian manitoes; 
 the wary moose keeps aloof, the bear lies close 
 in his hoUow tree and famine stares them in 
 the face. And now the hunter can fight no 
 
18 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 more against the nipping cold and blinding 
 sleet. Stiff and stark, with haggard cheek and 
 shrivelled lip, he Ues among the snowdrifts; 
 tiU, with tooth and claw, the famished wildcat 
 strives in vain to pierce the frigid marble of 
 his hmbs. Such harsh schooKng is thrown 
 away on the incorrigible mind of the northerh 
 Algonquin. He Hves in misery, as his fathers 
 lived before him. Still in the brief hour of 
 plenty he forgets the season of want; and still 
 the sleet and the snow descend upon his house- 
 less head. 
 
 The fireside stories of every primitive people 
 are faithful reflections of the form and coloring 
 of the national mind; and it is no proof of 
 sound philosophy to turn with contempt from 
 the study of a fairy-tale. The legendary lore 
 of the Iroquois, black as the midnight forests, 
 awful in its gloomy strength, is but another 
 manifestation of that spirit of mastery which 
 uprooted whole tribes from the earth, and del- 
 uged the wilderness with blood. The tradi- 
 tionary tales of the Algonquins wear a cfiflfer- 
 ent aspect. The credulous circle around an 
 Ojibwa lodge-fire listened to wild recitals of 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 19 
 
 necromancy and witch-craft, men transformed 
 to beasts, animated trees, and birds who spoke 
 with human tongue. They heard of maUg- 
 nant sorcerers dwelling among the lonely islands 
 of spell-bound lakes; of grisly weendigoes ^ and 
 bloodless geebi; ^ of evil manitoes lurking in 
 the dens and fastnesses of the woods; of pigmy 
 champions, diminutive in stature but mighty 
 in soul, who by the potency of charm and 
 tahsman subdued the direst monsters of the 
 waste; and of heroes, who not by downright 
 force and open onset, but by subtle strategy, 
 tricks or magic art, achieved marvellous tri- 
 umphs over the brute force of their assail- 
 ants. 
 
 Sometimes the tale will breathe a different 
 spirit, and teU of orphan children abandoned 
 in the heart of a hideous wilderness, beset with 
 fiends and cannibals. Some enamoured maiden, 
 scornful of earthly suitors, pHghts her troth to 
 the graceful manito of the grove; or bright 
 aerial beings, dwellers of the sky, descend to 
 tantalize the gaze of mortals with evanescent 
 forms of loveliness. 
 
 The mighty giant, the God of the Thvmder, 
 
20 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 who made his home among the caverns, be- 
 neath the cataract of Niagara, was a charac- 
 teristic conception of the Iroquois imagination. 
 The Algonquins held a simpler faith, and 
 maintained that the thimder was a bird who 
 built his nest on the pinnacle of towering moun- 
 tains. Two daring boys once scaled the height, 
 and thrust sticks into the eyes of the porten- 
 tous nesthngs; which thereupon flashed forth 
 such wrathful scintillations that the sticks 
 were shivered to atoms. 
 
 The religious beHef of the Algonquins — 
 and the remark holds good, not of the Algon- 
 quins only, but of all the himting tribes of 
 America — is a cloudy bewilderment, where 
 we seek in vain for system or coherency. 
 Among a primitive and savage people there 
 were no poets to vivify its images, and no 
 priests to give distinctness and harmony to its 
 rites and symbols. To the Indian mind, all 
 nature was instinct with deity. A spirit was 
 embodied in every mountain, lake and cata- 
 ract; every bird, beast or reptile, every tree, 
 shrub or grass-blade was endued with mystic 
 influence; yet this untutored pantheism did 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 21 
 
 not exclude the conception of certain divinities, 
 of incongruous and ever-shifting attributes. 
 The sun, too, was a god, and the moon was a 
 goddess. Conflicting powers of good and evil 
 divided the universe; but if, before the arrival 
 of Europeans, the Indian recognized the exist- 
 ence of one, almighty, self-existent Being, the 
 Great Spirit, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, 
 the beUef was so vague and dubious as scarcely 
 to deserve the name. His perceptions of moral 
 good and evil were perplexed and shadowy; 
 and the belief in a state of future reward and 
 punishment was by no means universal. 
 
 Of the Indian character, much has been 
 written fooUshly, and credulously beHeved. By 
 the rhapsodies of poets, the cant of sentimen- 
 taHsts, and the extravagance of some who 
 should have known better, a counterfeit image 
 has been tricked out, which might seek in vain 
 for its likeness through every corner of the 
 habitable earth; an image bearing no more 
 resemblance to its original than the monarch of 
 the tragedy and the hero of the epic poem bear 
 to their Uving prototypes in the palace and the 
 camp. Yet to the eye of rational observation 
 
22 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 there is nothing unintelligible in him. He is 
 full, it is true, of contradictions. He thinks 
 himself the centre of greatness and renown; his 
 pride is proof against the fiercest torments of 
 fire and steel; and yet th.6 same man would 
 beg for a dram of whiskey, or pick up a crust 
 of bread thrown to him, Hke a dog, from the 
 tent door of the traveller. At one moment, he 
 is wary and cautious to the verge of cowardice; 
 at the next, he abandons himself to a very in- 
 sanity of recklessness; and the habitual self- 
 restraint which throws an impenetrable veil 
 over emotion is joined to the unbridled passions 
 of a madman or a beast. 
 
 His pride sets all language at defiance. He 
 loathes the thought of coercion; and few of his 
 race have ever stooped to discharge a menial 
 office. A wild love of Uberty, an utter intoler- 
 ance of control. He at the basis of his character 
 and fire his whole existence. Yet, in spite of 
 this haughty independence, he is a devout hero- 
 worshipper; and high achievement in war or 
 policy touches a chord to which his nature never' 
 fails to respond. With him the love of glory 
 kindles into a burning passion; and to aUay 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 23 
 
 its cravings, he will dare cold and famine, fire, 
 tempest, torture, and death itself. 
 
 These generous traits are overcast by much 
 that is dark, cold, and sinister, by sleepless dis- 
 trust and rankling jealousy. Treacherous him- 
 self, he is always suspicious of treachery in 
 others. Brave as he is, — and few of mankind 
 are braver, — he wiU vent his passion by a 
 secret stab rather than an open blow. 
 
 Over all emotion he throws the veil of an 
 iron self-control, originating in a peculiar form 
 of pride, and fostered by rigorous discipUne 
 from childhood upward. The inscrutable war- 
 rior is aptly imaged by the hackneyed figure 
 of a volcano covered with snow; and no man 
 can say when or where the wild-fire wiU break 
 forth. This shallow self-mastery serves to give 
 dignity to pubhc deliberation, and harmony to 
 social Ufa. Wrangle and quarrel are strangers 
 to an Indian dwelling; and while an assembly 
 of the ancient Gauls was as noisy as a convo- 
 cation of magpies, a Roman senate might have 
 taken a lesson from the grave solemnity of an 
 Indian council. In the midst of his family and 
 friends, he hides affections, by nature none 
 
24 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 of the most tender, under a mask of icy cold- 
 ness; and in the tortxiring fires of his enemy, 
 the haughty sufferer maintains to the last his 
 look of grim defiance. 
 
 His intellect is as peculiar as his moral or- 
 ganization. An acute judge of character, at 
 least such parts of it as his experience enables 
 him to comprehend; keen to a proverb in all 
 exercises of the war and the chase, he seldom 
 traces effects to their causes, or follows out ac- 
 tions to their remote results. Though a close 
 observer of external nature, he no sooner at- 
 tempts to account for her phenomena than he 
 involves himself in the most ridiculous absurd- 
 ities. His curiosity, abundantly active within 
 its own narrow circle, is dead to aU things else. 
 He seldom grasps general or abstract ideas; 
 and his language has scarcely the power to 
 express them, except through the medium of 
 figures drawn from the external world, and often 
 highly picturesque and forcible. 
 
 Some races of men seem moiilded in wax, 
 soft and melting, at once plastic and feeble. 
 Some races, like some metals, combine the 
 greatest flexibility with the greatest strength. 
 
INDIAN TRIBES AND TRADITIONS 25 
 
 But the Indian is hewn out of a rock. You can 
 rarely change his form without destruction of 
 the substance. Races of inferior energy have 
 possessed a power of expansion and assimila- 
 tion to which he is a stranger; and it is this 
 fixed and rigid quahty which has proved his 
 ruin. He wiU not learn the arts of civilization, 
 and he and his forest must perish together. We 
 look with deep interest on the fate of this irre- 
 claimable son of the wilderness, the child who 
 win not be weaned from the breast of his rugged 
 mother, and our interest increases when we see 
 in the imhappy wanderer the germs of heroic 
 virtues mingled among his vices, — a hand 
 botmtiful to bestow as it is rapacious to seize, 
 and even in extremest famine imparting its 
 last morsel to a fellow sufferer; a heart which, 
 strong in friendship as in hate, thinks it not too 
 much to lay down Hfe for its chosen comrade; 
 a soul true to its own idea of honor, and burn- 
 ing with an unquenchable thirst for greatness 
 and renown. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI^ 
 
 JACQUES MARQUETTE was a Jesuit ^ 
 priest who in 1666 was sent to the mis- 
 sions of Canada. The traits of his charac- 
 ter are unmistakable. He was one of the 
 brotherhood of the early Canadian mission- 
 aries, the true counterpart of Garnier ' or 
 Jogues,^ who were martyrs for their faith. 
 A subtile element of romance was blended with 
 the fervor of his worship, and hung like an il- 
 lumined cloud over the harsh and hard realities 
 of his daily lot. Kindled by his reHgion, his 
 gentle and noble nature knew no fear. He 
 burned to dare and to suffer, discover new lands 
 and conquer new realms for its sway. 
 
 Louis Joliet,^ the son of a wagon-maker and 
 a fur-trader by profession, was sent with orders 
 from Count Frontenac,* the governor of Can- 
 ada, and M. Talon, the intendant,'' to join 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 27 
 
 Father Marquette at Michilimackinac, and ac- 
 company him on the visit which he proposed 
 to make to the nations of the Mississippi. " I 
 was delighted," wrote Marquette in his jour- 
 nal, " because I saw my plans about to be ac- 
 compHshed, and found myself in the happy 
 necessity of exposing my life for the salvation 
 of aU these tribes." 
 
 The outfit of the travellers was very simple. 
 They provided themselves with two birch 
 canoes, and a supply of smoked meat and In- 
 dian com; embarked with five men, and began 
 their voyage on the 17th of May.^ 
 
 Their course was westward; and, plying their 
 paddles, they passed the Straits of MichiKmack- 
 inac, and coasted the northern shores of Lake 
 Michigan, landing at evening to build their 
 camp-fires at the edge of the forest, and draw 
 up their canoes on the strand. They soon 
 reached the river Menomonie, and ascended it 
 to the vUlage of the Menomonies, or Wild-rice 
 Indians. When they told them the object of 
 their voyage, they were filled with astonish- 
 ment, and used their best ingenuity to dissuade 
 them. They added that there was a demon in a 
 
28 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 certain part of the river, whose roar could be 
 heard at a great distance, and who would en- 
 gulf them in the abyss where he dwelt; that its 
 waters were fuU of frightful monsters, who 
 would devour them and their canoe; and finally, 
 that the heat was so great that they would 
 perish inevitably. Marquette set their counsel 
 at naught, gave them a few words of instruc- 
 tion in the mysteries of the Faith, taught them 
 a prayer, and bade them farewell. 
 
 The travellers next reached the mission at 
 the head of Green Bay; entered Fox River; 
 with difl&culty and labor dragged their canoes 
 up the long and tumultuous rapids; crossed 
 Lake Winnebago; and followed the quiet wind- 
 ings of the river beyond, where they ghded 
 through an endless growth of wild rice, and 
 scared the innumerable birds that fed upon it. 
 On either side rolled the prairie, dotted with 
 groves and trees, browsing elk and deer. On 
 the 7th of June, they reached the Mascoutins 
 and Miamis, who had been joined by the Kick- 
 apoos. Here they begged two guides to show 
 them the way to the waters of the Wisconsin. 
 All the town came down to the shore to see 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 29 
 
 their departure: the Miamis, with long locks 
 of hair dangling over each ear, after a fashion 
 which Marquette thought very becoming; and 
 the Mascoutins and the Kickapoos, whom he 
 describes as mere boors in comparison with 
 their Miami townsmen. All stared alike at the 
 seven adventurers, marvelling that men could 
 be found to risk an enterprise so hazardous. 
 
 The river twisted among lakes and marshes 
 choked with wild rice; and, but for their guides, 
 they could scarcely have followed the per- 
 plexed and narrow channel. It brought them 
 at last to the portage, where, after carrying 
 their canoes a mile and a half over the prairie 
 and through the marsh, they launched them 
 on the Wisconsin, bade farewell to the waters 
 that flowed to the St. Lawrence, and committed 
 themselves to the current that was to bear 
 them they knew not whither, — perhaps to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the South Sea or 
 the Giilf of CaHfomia. They glided calmly 
 down the tranquil stream, by islands choked 
 with trees and matted with entangHng grape- 
 vines; by forests, groves and prairies, the parks 
 and pleasure-grounds of a prodigal Nature; by 
 
30 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 thickets and marshes and broad bare sand- 
 bars; under the shadowing trees, between 
 whose tops looked down from afar the bold 
 brow of some woody bluff. At night, the biv- 
 ouac, — the canoes inverted on the bank, the 
 flickering fire, the meal of bison-flesh or veni- 
 son, the evening pipes, and slmnber beneath 
 the stars; and when in the morning they em- 
 barked again, the mist hxmg on the river like 
 a bridal veil, then melted before the sun, tiU 
 the glassy water and the languid woods basked 
 breathless in the sultry glare. 
 
 On the 17th of Jime they saw on their right 
 the broad meadows, bounded in the distance 
 by rugged hiUs, where now stand the town and 
 fort of Prairie du Chien. Before them a wide 
 and rapid current coursed athwart their way, 
 by the foot of lofty heights wrapped thick in 
 forests. They had fovmd what they sought, 
 and " with a joy," writes Marquette, " which 
 I cannot express," they steered forth their 
 canoes on the eddies of the Mississippi. 
 
 They had journeyed more than a fortnight 
 without meeting a hiunan being, when, on the 
 2Sth, they discovered footprints of men in the 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 31 
 
 mud of the western bank, and a well-trodden 
 path that led to the adjacent prairie. JoUet 
 and Marquette decided to follow it; and leav- 
 ing the canoes in charge of their men, they set 
 out on their hazardous adventure. The day 
 was fair, and they walked two leagues in silence, 
 following the path through the forest and across 
 the sunny prairie, tiU they discovered an In- 
 dism village on the banks of a river. 
 
 Now, with beating hearts they invoked the 
 aid of heaven, and again advancing, came so 
 near, without being seen, that they could hear 
 the voices of the Indians among the wigwams. 
 Then they stood forth in fuU view, and shouted 
 to attract attention. There was great commo- 
 tion in the village. The inmates swarmed out 
 of their huts, and ioui of their chief men pres- 
 ently came forward to meet the strangers, 
 advancing very deliberately, and holding up 
 toward the sun two calumets ^ or peace-pipes, 
 decorated with feathers. They stopped 
 abruptly, before the two Frenchmen, and stood 
 gazing at them without saying a word. Mar- 
 quette was much relieved on seeing that they 
 wore French cloth, whence he judged that they 
 
Sa THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 must be friends and allies. He broke the silence, 
 and asked them who they were; whereupon 
 they answered that they were Illinois, and of- 
 fered the pipe; which having been duly smoked, 
 they all went together to the village. 
 
 Here the chief received the travellers after a 
 singular fashion, meant to do them honor. He 
 stood stark naked at the door of a large wig- 
 wam, holding up both hands as if to shield his 
 eyes. " Frenchmen, how bright the sun shines 
 when you come to visit us! All our village 
 awaits you; and you shall enter our wigwams 
 in peace." So saying, he led them into his 
 own, which was crowded to suffocation with 
 savages, staring at their guests in silence. 
 Having smoked with the chiefs and old men, 
 they were invited to visit the great chief of all 
 the Illinois, at one of the villages they had seen 
 in the distance; and thither they proceeded, 
 followed by a throng of warriors, squaws and 
 children. 
 
 On arriving, they were forced to smoke again, 
 and listen to a speech of welcome from the 
 great chief, who deUvered it standing between 
 two old men, naked Hke himself. His lodge 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 33 
 
 was crowded with the dignitaries of the tribe, 
 whom Marquette addressed in Algonquin, an- 
 nouncing himself as a messenger sent by the 
 God who had made them, and whom it be- 
 hooved them to recognize and obey. He added 
 a few words touching the power and glory of 
 Coimt Frontenac, and concluded by asking 
 information regarding the Mississippi, and the 
 tribes along its banks, whom he was on his way 
 to visit. 
 
 The chief replied with a speech of compli- 
 ment; assuring his guests that their presence 
 added flavor to his tobacco, made the river 
 more calm, the sky more serene, and the earth 
 more beautiful. In conclusion, he gave them 
 a young slave and a calumet, begging them at 
 the same time to abandon their piirpose of 
 descending the Mississippi. 
 
 A feast of four comses now followed. First, 
 a wooden bowl fuU of a porridge of Indian meal 
 boiled with grease was set before the guests; 
 and the master of ceremonies fed them in turn, 
 like infants, with a large spoon. Then appeared 
 a platter of fish; and the same functionary, 
 carefully removing the bones with his fingers, 
 
34 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 and blowing on the morsels to cool them, 
 placed them in the mouths of the two French- 
 men. A large dog, killed and cooked for the 
 occasion, was next placed before them; but, 
 failing to tempt their fastidious appetites, was 
 supplanted by a dish of fat buffalo meat, which 
 concluded the entertainment. The crowd hav- 
 ing dispersed, buffalo robes were spread on the 
 ground, and Marquette and JoUet spent the 
 night on the scene of the late festivity. In the 
 morning the chief, with some six himdred of 
 his tribesmen, escorted them to their canoes 
 and bade them, after their stohd fashion, a 
 friendly farewell. 
 
 Again they were on their way, slowly drift- 
 ing down the great river. They passed the 
 mouth of the lUinois, and ghded beneath that 
 line of rocks on the eastern side, cut into fan- 
 tastic forms by the elements, and marked as 
 " The Ruined Castles " on some of the early 
 French maps. Presently they beheld a sight 
 which reminded them that the Devil was still 
 lord paramount of this wilderness. On the flat 
 face of a high rock were painted, in red, black 
 and green, a pair of monsters, each " as large 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 35 
 
 as a calf, with horns like a deer, red eyes, a 
 beard like a tiger, and a frightful expression of 
 countenance. The face is something like that 
 of a man, the body covered with scales; and 
 the tail so long that it passes entirely around 
 the body, over the head and between the legs, 
 ending Uke that of a fish." Such is the accoimt 
 which the worthy Jesuit gives of these mani- 
 toes, or Indian gods. He confesses that at 
 first they frightened him; and his imagination 
 and that of his credulous companions was so 
 wrought upon by these unhallowed efforts of 
 Indian art, that they continued for a long time 
 to talk of them as they pHed their paddles. 
 
 They were thus engaged, when they were 
 suddenly aroused by a real danger. A torrent 
 of yellow mud rushed furiously athwart the 
 calm blue current of the Mississippi, boiling 
 and sxurging, and sweeping in its coiurse logs, 
 branches and uprooted trees. They had reached 
 the mouth of the Missouri, where that savage 
 river, descending from its mad career through 
 a vast unknown of barbarism, povured its turbid 
 floods into the bosom of its gentler sister. 
 
 Their Ught canoes whirled on the miry vortex 
 
36 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 like dry leaves on an angry brook. " I never," 
 writes Marquette, " saw anything more ter- 
 rific; " but they escaped with their fright, and 
 held their way down the turbulent and swollen 
 current of the now united river. 
 
 They passed the lonely forest that covered 
 the site of the destined city of St, Louis, and, 
 a few days later, saw on their left the mouth 
 of the stream to which the Iroquois had given 
 the weU-merited name of Ohio, or the " Beauti- 
 ful River." 
 
 Soon they began to see the marshy shores 
 buried in the dense growth of the cane, with its 
 tall straight stems and feathery light-green 
 foliage. The sun glowed through the hazy air 
 with a languid, stifling heat, and by day and 
 night mosquitoes in myriads left them no peace. 
 
 They had another encounter with some 
 friendly Indians, who feasted the Frenchmen 
 with buffalo-meat, bear's oil, and white plimis; 
 and gave them a variety of doubtful informa- 
 tion, including the agreeable but delusive as- 
 surance that they would reach the mouth of 
 the river in ten days. It was, in fact, more 
 than a thousand miles distant. 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 37 
 
 After voyaging three hundred miles further, 
 they decided that they had gone far enough to 
 estabUsh one important point, — that the Mis- 
 sissippi discharged its waters, not into the At- 
 lantic or sea of Virginia, nor into the Gulf of 
 California or Vermilion Sea, but into the Gulf 
 of Mexico. They thought themselves nearer 
 to its mouth than they actually were, and they 
 feared that if they went farther they might be 
 killed by Indians or captured by Spaniards, 
 whereby the results of their discovery would 
 be lost. Thereupon they resolved to return to 
 Canada, and report what they had seen. 
 
 It was no easy task to urge their way up- 
 ward, in the heat of midsummer, against the 
 current of the dark and gloomy stream, toiling 
 aU day under the parching sun, and sleeping 
 at night in the exhalations of the xmwholesome 
 shore, or in the narrow confines of their birch 
 canoes, anchored on the river. Marquette 
 fell ill; but in spite of that they pushed on, 
 and reached Green Bay at the end of Septem- 
 ber, after an absence of four months, during 
 which they had paddled their canoes somewhat 
 more than twenty-five himdred miles. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LA SALLE'S winter JOURNEYS* 
 
 CONSPICUOUS in the annals of Canada 
 stands, the memorable name of Robert 
 Caveher de la SaUe, the man who, be- 
 beyond all his compeers, contributed 
 to expand the boundary of the French empire 
 in the west. La Salle commanded at Fort 
 Frontenac,^ erected near the outlet of Lake 
 Ontario, on its northern shore. It formed then 
 the most advanced military outpost of the 
 colony. Here he lived among Indians and 
 half-breeds, traders, wyageurs, bush-rangers and 
 Franciscan monks, ruling his little empire with 
 absolute sway, enforcing respect by his energy, 
 but offending many by his sternness. Here he 
 brooded upon the grand design which had long 
 occupied his thoughts. He had resolved to 
 finish the achievement of Father Marquette, 
 to trace the imknown Mississippi to its mouth. 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 39 
 
 to plant the standard of his king in the newly 
 discovered regions, and found colonies which 
 should make good the sovereignty of France 
 from the Frozen Ocean to Mexico. 
 
 At the close of the year 1678, his prepara- 
 tions were complete, and he sent his attendants 
 to the banks of the river Niagara, where he soon 
 followed in person. Here he began a Uttle fort 
 of palisades, and here, above the Falls, he buUt 
 the first ship which ever explored the waters 
 of the upper lake. Her name was the " Griffin " 
 and her burden was forty-five tons. On the 
 seventh of August, 1679, she began her adven- 
 turous voyage amid the speechless wonder of 
 the Indians, who stood amazed, both at the 
 unwonted size of the wooden canoe, at the flash 
 and roar of the cannon from her decks, and at 
 the carved figure of a griffin which sat crouched 
 upon her prow. 
 
 She bore on her course along the virgin waters 
 of Lake Erie, through the beautifxil windings 
 of the Detroit, and among the restless biUows 
 of Lake Huron, where a furious storm had well 
 nigh engulfed her. La SaUe and his party 
 continued his voyage along Lake Michigan in 
 
40 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 birch canoes, and after much suffering from 
 famine and exposure, reached its southern end 
 on the 1 8th of October. 
 
 He led his followers to the banks of the river 
 now called the St. Joseph. Here again he built 
 a fort. From there he pushed on into the im- 
 known region of the Illinois; and now dangers 
 and difficulties began to thicken about him. 
 Indians were threatening; his men lost heart, 
 clamored, grew mutinous, and repeatedly de- 
 serted; and worse than aU, nothing was heard 
 of the " Griffin," which had been sent back to 
 Canada for necessary supphes. Weeks wore 
 on, and doubt became certainty. She had 
 foundered among the storms of those wilderness 
 oceans; and her loss seemed to involve the ruin 
 of the enterprise, since it was useless to go 
 further without the expected supplies. 
 
 In this crisis. La SaUe formed a resolution 
 characteristic of his courage. He made up his 
 mind to leave his men in charge of his officer, 
 Tonty,^ at a fort called Crevecoeur,^ which he 
 had bmlt on the river Illinois, and to go back 
 to Canada for supplies. He knew that he could 
 trust nobody else to go in his stead, and that, 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 41 
 
 unless the articles lost in the " Griffin " were re- 
 placed without delay, the expedition would be 
 kept back a whole year and all of his money 
 and that of the people interested in it would 
 be lost in paying for its expenses. 
 
 He wrote in a letter at this time: " Though 
 the thaws of approaching spring greatly in- 
 creased the difficulties in the way, interrupted 
 as it was everywhere by marshes and rivers, 
 to say nothing of the length of the journey, 
 which is about five hundred leagues in a 
 direct line, and the danger of meeting Indians 
 of four or five different nations through whose 
 country we were to pass, as well as an Iroquois 
 army which we knew were coming that way; 
 though we must suffer aU the time from hunger; 
 sleep on the open groimd, and often without 
 food; watch by night and march by day, loaded 
 with baggage, such as blanket, clothing, kettle, 
 hatchet, gim, powder, lead, and skins to make 
 moccasias; sometimes pushing through thick- 
 ets, sometimes climbing rocks covered with ice 
 and snow, sometimes wading whole days 
 through marshes where the water was waist- 
 deep and even more, at a season when the snow 
 
42 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 was not entirely melted, — though I knew all 
 this, it did not prevent me from resolving to 
 go on foot to Fort Frontenac, to learn for my- 
 self what had become of my vessel, and to 
 bring back the things we needed." 
 
 After a journey fuUy as arduous as he had 
 anticipated, they reached Niagara on Easter 
 Monday. There several of La Salle's men had 
 been left the year before and there they still 
 remained. They told him very bad news. Not 
 only had he lost the " Griffin " and her lading 
 often thousand crowns in value, but a ship from 
 France, freighted with his goods, valued at 
 more than twenty thousand livres,^ had been 
 totally wrecked at the mouth of the St. Law- 
 rence; and of twenty hired men on their way 
 from Europe to join him, some had been de- 
 tained by his enemy, the Intendant Duches- 
 neau, while aU but four of the remainder, 
 being told that he was dead, had returned 
 hoihe. 
 
 His three followers were all imfit for travel; 
 he alone retained his strength and spirit. Ta- 
 king with him three fresh men at Niagara he 
 resimied his journey, and on the sixth of May 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 43 
 
 saw, looming through floods of rain, the familiar 
 shores of his seignory and the bastioned walls 
 of Fort Frontenac. During sixty-five days he 
 had toiled almost incessantly, travelling, by 
 the course he took, about a thousand miles 
 through a country beset with every kind of 
 danger and obstruction — " the most arduous 
 journey," says a chronicler, " ever made by 
 Frenchmen in America." 
 
 At Frontenac he heard more bad tidings. 
 Man and Nature seemed in arms against him. 
 His agents had plundered him; his creditors 
 had seized his property; and several of his 
 canoes, richly laden, had been lost in the rapids 
 of the St. Lawrence. Undismayed, he hurried 
 to Montreal, and, within a week, succeeded in 
 getting the suppUes which he required. He 
 returned to Fort Frontenac, and was on the 
 point of going back to the rehef of the party 
 he had left at Fort Crevecoeur, when he re- 
 ceived word that most of his men there had de- 
 serted, plundering the magazine, and throwing 
 into the river aU the arms, goods and stores 
 which they could not carry off. 
 
 And now La Salle's work had to be begun 
 
44 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 afresh. He had staked all, and all had appar- 
 ently been lost. His friends were despondent; 
 his foes exulted. Did he bend before the storm? 
 No human eye could pierce the depths of his 
 reserved and haughty nature; but the surface 
 was calm, and no sign betrayed a shaken resolve 
 or an altered purpose. When weaker men 
 would have given up everything, he turned 
 again to his work with the same vigor and the 
 same apparent confidence as if borne on the 
 full tide of success. 
 
 His best hope was in Tonty. If that brave 
 and true-hearted officer and the three or four 
 faithful men who had stayed with him could 
 make good their foothold on the lUinois, and 
 save from destruction the vessel on the stocks 
 and the forge and the tools which had so labo- 
 riously been carried there, it was possible that 
 his plan to explore the Mississippi might still 
 be carried out. 
 
 There was no time to lose. Tonty must be 
 helped soon or help would come too late. La 
 Salle had already provided the necessary ma- 
 terial, and in a few. days he was ready. On the 
 tenth of August he embarked again. With 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 45 
 
 him went his Heutenant La Forest, a surgeon, 
 ship-carpenters, masons, soldiers, voyageurs, etc., 
 twenty-five men in all. 
 
 They ascended the river Humber; crossed 
 to Lake Simcoe, and thence descended the 
 Severn to the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron; 
 followed its eastern shore, coasted the Manitou- 
 lin Islands, and at length reached Michilimack- 
 inac. Here, as usual, all was hostile; and he 
 had great difficulty in inducing the Indians, 
 who had been excited against him, to sell him 
 provisions. 
 
 As he was in a hurry to reach Tonty, he 
 pushed forward with twelve men, leaving La 
 Forest to bring on the rest. A deep anxiety 
 possessed him. He had heard some time before 
 that the fierce tribes of the Iroquois Indians 
 were on the point of invading the coimtry of 
 the more peaceful lUinois. If they had done so 
 Tonty and his men, who were living with the 
 lUinois, were in great danger. 
 
 He came finally to the northenibranch of the 
 Illinois River. When he had passed there be- 
 fore, aU was solitude; but now the scene was 
 changed. The boundless waste was thronged 
 
46 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 with life. He beheld that wonderful spectacle, 
 not so many years ago ^ to be seen on the plains 
 of the far West, the memory of which can 
 quicken the pulse and stir the blood after the 
 lapse of years; far and near, the prairie was 
 alive with buffalo; now Uke black specks dot- 
 ting the distant swells; now trampUng by in 
 ponderous columns, or fiHng in long lines, morn- 
 ing, noon, and night, to drink at the river, — 
 wading, plunging, and snorting in the water; 
 climbing the muddy shores, and staring with 
 wild eyes at the passing canoes. It was an op- 
 portvmity not to be lost. The party landed, and 
 encamped for a hunt. Sometimes they hid 
 under the shelving bank, and shot them as 
 they came to drink; sometimes, flat on their 
 faces, they dragged themselves through the 
 , long dead grass, till the savage bulls, guardians 
 of the herds, ceased their grazing, raised their 
 huge heads, and glared through tangled hair 
 at the dangerous intruders. The hunt was 
 successful. In three days the himters kflled 
 twelve buffalo, besides deer, geese, and swans. 
 They cut the meat into thin flakes, and dried 
 it in the sun or in the smoke of their fires. The 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 47 
 
 men were in high spirits, — delighting in the 
 sport, and rejoicing in the prospect of relieving 
 Tonty and his hungry followers with a plenti- 
 ful supply. 
 
 Soon afterwards, floating down the river, 
 they approached the great town of the Illinois,* 
 which according to Indian custom, had been 
 deserted during the winter. Here he expected 
 to find Tonty, for, passing through it on his 
 way east, his attention had been attracted to 
 a remarkable clifE of yellow sandstone, a natural 
 fortress, a mile or more above the village, which 
 a score of resolute white men might make good 
 against a host of savages; and he had sent 
 Tonty an order to examine it and make it his 
 stronghold in case of need. 
 
 It was time for the hunters to be back, but 
 none were to be seen; no saluting whoop greeted 
 their ears. They came under the cliff which 
 La Salle had ordered Tonty to occupy; but as 
 he scaimed its lofty top he saw no paUsades, 
 no cabins, no sign of human hand. Now the 
 meadow opened before them where the great 
 town had stood. They gazed, astonished and 
 confounded; all was desolation. The town had 
 
48 THE BOYS* PARKMAN 
 
 vanished, and the meadow was black with fire! 
 They plied their paddles, hastened to the spot, 
 landed; and as they looked around their cheeks 
 grew white, and the blood was frozen in their 
 veins! 
 
 Before them lay a plain once swarming with 
 wild himian Ufe and covered with Indian dwell- 
 ings, now a waste of devastation and death, 
 strewn with heaps of ashes, and bristling with 
 the charred poles and stakes which had formed 
 the framework of the lodges. At the points 
 of most of them were stuck hiunan skulls. All 
 the caches, or subterranean store-houses of the 
 villagers, had been broken open and the con- 
 tents scattered. The cornfields were laid waste, 
 and much of the corn thrown into heaps and 
 half burned. Near at hand was the burial 
 groimd of the village. The travellers sickened 
 with horror as they entered it. Every grave 
 had been rifled, and the bodies flung down from 
 the scaffold where, after the Illinois custom, 
 many of them had been placed. The field was 
 strewn with broken bones and torn and mangled 
 corpses. There were no signs of a battle with 
 the living, but a hyena warfare had been waged 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 49 
 
 against the dead. La Salle knew the handi- 
 work of the ferocious Iroquois. 
 
 As he siurveyed this scene of havoc one 
 thought engrossed him; where were Tonty and 
 his men? He searched a rough fort of trunks, 
 boughs and roots of trees laid together; there 
 were many traces of its savage occupants, and, 
 among them, a few fragments of French cloth- 
 ing. He examined the skulls; but the hair, 
 portions of which clung to nearly all of them, 
 was in every case that of an Indian. Evening 
 came on before he had finished the search. The 
 sim set, and the wilderness sank to its savage 
 rest. Night and silence brooded over the 
 waste, where, far as the raven could wing his 
 flight, stretched the dark domain of solitude 
 and Jiorror. 
 
 Yet there was no silence at the spot where 
 La Salle and his companions made their biv- 
 ouac. The howling of the wolves filled the 
 air. More dangerous foes were not far off, for 
 before nightfall they had seen fresh Indian 
 tracks; but, " as it was very cold," says La 
 Salle, " this did not prevent us from making 
 a fire and Ijdng down by it, each of us keeping 
 
50 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 watch in tiirn. I spent the night in a distress 
 which you can imagine better than I can write 
 it; and I did not sleep a wink with trying to 
 make up my mind as to what I ought to do." 
 
 La Salle had found one clue which made him 
 imagine that possibly Tonty and his party had 
 been carried away by the Illinois, and not 
 killed by the Iroquois. This was the discovery 
 of six pointed sticks set in the ground and 
 painted red, near the garden of the Indians. 
 On each of them was the figure of a man with 
 bandaged eyes, drawn in black. He writes, 
 " as the savages often set stakes of this sort 
 where they have killed people, I thought, by 
 their number and position, that when the Iro- 
 quois came, the Illinois, finding our men alone 
 in the hut near the garden, had either killed 
 them or made them prisoners." , 
 
 Feeble as this hope was, it made him decide 
 to push forward in order to learn more. In 
 the morning he set out with four of his men, 
 leaving the others to keep watch near the 
 ruined village. Each of La Salle's party was 
 armed with two guns, a pistol, and a sword; 
 and a number of hatchets and other goods were 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 51 
 
 placed in the canoe, as presents for Indians 
 whom they might meet. 
 
 Several leagues below the village they found, 
 on their right hand close to the river, a sort of 
 island, made inaccessible by the marshes and 
 water which surroimded it. Here the flying 
 Illinois had sought refuge with their women 
 and children, and the place was full of their 
 deserted huts. On the left bank, exactly oppo- 
 site, was an abandoned camp of the Iroquois. 
 On the level meadow stood a hundred and thir- 
 teen huts, and on the forest trees which cov- 
 ered the hills behind were carved the totems, 
 or insignia of the chiefs, together with marks 
 to show the nimiber of followers which each 
 had led to the war. La Salle counted five hun- 
 dred and eighty-two warriors. He found 
 marks for the Illinois kiUed or captured but 
 none to indicate that any of the Frenchmen 
 had shared their fate. 
 
 As they descended the river, they passed 
 on the same day, six abandoned camps of the 
 Illinois; and opposite to each was a camp of 
 the invaders. The former, it was clear, had 
 retreated in a body; while the Iroquois had 
 
52 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 followed their march, day by day, along the 
 other bank. 
 
 La Salle and his companions hastened on 
 and during the following day passed four op- 
 posing camps of the savage armies. The silence 
 of death now reigned along the deserted river, 
 whose lonely borders, wrapped deep in for- 
 ests, seemed Ufeless as the grave. As they 
 drew near the mouth of the stream they saw 
 a meadow on their right and on its farthest 
 verge several hmnan figures, erect, yet mo- 
 tionless. They landed, and cautiously exam- 
 ined the place. The long grass was trampled 
 down, and all aroimd were strewn the relics 
 of the hideous orgies which formed the ordinary 
 sequel of an Iroquois victory. The figures they 
 had seen were the half-consumed bodies of 
 women, still bound to the stakes. All the 
 remains were those of women and children. 
 The men, it seemed, had fled, and left them to 
 their fate. 
 
 Here, again, La Salle sought long and anx- 
 iously, without finding the smallest sign that 
 could indicate the presence of Frenchmen. 
 Once more descending the river they soon 
 
LA SALLE'S WINTER JOURNEYS 53 
 
 reached its mouth. Before them, a broad 
 edd3dng current rolled swiftly on its way; and 
 La Salle saw the Mississippi — the object of 
 his day-dream, the destined avenue of his 
 ambition and hopes. 
 
 It was no time for reflections. The moment 
 was too engrossing, too heavily charged with 
 anxieties and cares. From a rock on the shore, 
 he saw a tree stretched forward above the 
 stream; and stripping off its bark to make it 
 more conspicuous, he hung upon it a board on 
 which he had drawn the figures of himself and 
 his men, seated in their canoes and bearing 
 a pipe of peace. To this he tied a letter for 
 Tonty, telling him that he had returned up the 
 river to the ruined village. 
 
 He and his men now took their way back. 
 After they had passed the deserted village they 
 followed a different route than that by which 
 they had come, and soon discovered by the 
 margin of the Hhnois River, a rude cabin of 
 bark. La Salle landed and examined the spot, 
 when an object met his eye which cheered him 
 with a bright gleam of hope. It was only a 
 piece of wood; but the wood had been cut with 
 
54 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 a saw! Tonty and his party, then, had passed 
 this way! With rekindled hope, the travellers 
 pursued their journey, leaving their canoes, 
 and making their way overland towards the 
 fort on the St. Joseph. 
 
 At last, after encountering severe snow- 
 storms they reached their goal, and found 
 shelter and safety within the walls of Fort 
 Miami. Here was the party left in charge of 
 a lieutenant; but, to his surprise and grief. La 
 Salle heard no tidings of Tonty. 
 
 And now while he rests at Fort Miami, let 
 us trace the adventures which befeU Tonty and 
 his followers, after their chief's departure from 
 Fort Crevecoeiur. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 TONTY's adventures with the INDIANS^ 
 
 THE situation of Tonty, La Salle's 
 lieutenant, has been described in the 
 previous chapter. With a feeble band, 
 consisting of three men and two 
 priests, he was left among a horde of treacher- 
 ous savages, the Illinois, who had been taught 
 to regard him as a secret enemy. ^ He himself 
 was not strong physically, and was disabled, 
 moreover, by the loss of a hand, but he pos- 
 sessed extraordinary coxirage. 
 
 Making up his mind, apparently, to disarm 
 the jealousy of the Indians by a show of confi- 
 dence, he took up his abode in the midst of 
 them, making his quarters in the great village, 
 whither, as spring opened, its inhabitants re- 
 tiuned, to the number of seven or eight thou- 
 sand. Here he conveyed the forge and such 
 tools as he could recover, and here he hoped to 
 
56 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 maintain himself till La Salle should reappear. 
 The spring and the summer passed, and he 
 looked anxiously for his coming, unconscious 
 that a storm was gathering in the East, soon to 
 burst with fury over the fertUe wilderness of 
 the Illinois. 
 
 The ferocious Iroquois, throughout a wide 
 semicircle aroimd their cantons, had made the 
 forest a soHtude; had destroyed the Hurons, 
 exterminated the Neutrals and the Eries, 
 reduced the formidable Andastes to helpless 
 insignificance, swept the borders of the St. 
 Lawrence with fire, and spread havoc and deso- 
 lation among the Algonquins of Canada. Now, 
 tired of peace, they were seeking new nations 
 to devoiu:. The chiefs met together, war was 
 decreed, the war-dance was danced, the war- 
 song sung, and five hundred warriors began 
 their march. 
 
 Let us stand in fancy on the banks of the 
 Illinois River, on the site of the present village 
 of Utica, in the year 1680. We are in the midst 
 of the great town of the Illinois, — hundreds 
 of mat-covered lodges, and thousands of con- 
 gregated savages. Enter one of their dwellings; 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 57 
 
 they will not think you an intruder. Some 
 friendly squaw will lay a mat for you by the fire; 
 you may seat yourself upon it, smoke your pipe, 
 and study the lodge and its inmates by the 
 light that streams through the holes at the top. 
 Three and four fires smoke and smoulder on 
 the ground down the middle of the long arched 
 structure; and as to each fire there are two 
 families, the place is somewhat crowded when 
 aU are present. But now there is breathing 
 room, for many are in the fields. A squaw sits 
 weaving a mat of rushes; a warrior, naked 
 except his moccasins, and tattooed with fantas- 
 tic devices, binds a stone arrow-head to its 
 shaft, with the fresh sinews of a buffalo. Some 
 lie asleep, some sit staring in vacancy, some are 
 eating, some are squatted in lazy chat around 
 a fire. The smoke brings water to your eyes; 
 the fleas annoy you; small, unkempt children, 
 naked as young puppies, crawl about yovir 
 knees and wiU not be repelled. You have seen 
 enough; you rise and go out again into the 
 svmlight. 
 
 It is, if not a peaceful, at least a languid 
 scene. A few voices break the stillness, mingled 
 
58 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 with the joyous chirping of crickets from the 
 grass. Young men he flat on their faces, bask- 
 ing in the sun; a group of their elders are smo- 
 king around a buffalo-skin on which they have 
 just been playing a game of chance with cherry- 
 stones. Not far off is the graveyard, where 
 lie the dead of the village, some buried in the 
 earth, some wrapped in skins and laid aloft 
 on scaffolds, above the reach of wolves. In 
 the cornfields around, you see squaws at their 
 labor, and children driving off intruding birds; 
 and your eye ranges over the meadows beyond, 
 spangled with the yeUow blossoms of the resin- 
 weed and the Rudbeckia, or over the bordering 
 hills stUl green with the foliage of smnmer. 
 
 This, or something like it, one can safely 
 say, was the appearance at noon of the tenth 
 of September, 1680. In a hut apart from the 
 rest were the four Frenchmen, Tonty, the 
 young Sieur de Boisrondet, the servant L'Espe- 
 rance, and a Parisian youth named Etienne 
 Renault. The friars, Membre and Ribourde,^ 
 were not in the village, but at a hut a league 
 distant, where they had gone for prayer and 
 meditation. Their missionary labors had not 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 59 
 
 been fruitful; they had made no converts, and 
 were in despair at the stubbornness of the In- 
 dians. As for the other Frenchmen, time, 
 probably, hung heavy on their hands; for noth- 
 ing can surpass the vacant monotony of an 
 Indian town, when there is neither hunting, 
 nor war, nor feasts, nor dances, nor gambUng, 
 to beguile the lagging hours. 
 
 Suddenly the village was wakened from its 
 quiet as by the crash of a thunderbolt. A Sha- 
 wanoe, lately there on a visit, had left his Illi- 
 nois friends to return home. He now reap- 
 peared, crossing the river in hot haste, with the 
 announcement that he had met, on his way, an 
 army of Iroquois approaching to attack them. 
 AH was panic and confusion. The lodges dis- 
 gorged their frightened inmates; women and 
 children screamed, startled warriors snatched 
 their weapons. There were less than five hun- 
 dred of them, for the greater part of the young 
 men had gone to war. A crowd of excited In- 
 dians thronged about Tonty and his French- 
 men, already objects of their suspicion, charg- 
 ing them, with furious gestmres, with having 
 stirred up their enemies to invade them. Tonty 
 
60 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 defended himself in broken Illinois, but the 
 naked mob were but half convinced. They 
 seized the forge and tools and flung them into 
 the river, with aU the goods that had been 
 saved from the deserters; then, distrusting 
 their power to defend themselves, they manned 
 the wooden canoes which lay in multitudes by 
 the bank, embarked their women and children, 
 and paddled down the stream to that island of 
 dry land in the midst of marshes which La Salle 
 afterwards fotmd filled with their deserted huts. 
 Sixty warriors remained here to guard them, 
 and the rest returned to the village. All night 
 long fires blazed along the shore. The excited 
 warriors greased their bodies, painted their 
 faces, befeathered their heads, sang their war- 
 songs, danced, stamped, yeUed, and brandished 
 their hatchets, to work up their courage to face 
 the crisis. The morning came, and with it 
 came the Iroquois. 
 
 Young warriors had gone out as scouts, and 
 now they returned. They had seen the enemy 
 in the line of forest that bordered the river 
 Aramoni, or Vermilion, and had stealthily re- 
 connoitred them. They were very numerous, 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 61 
 
 and armed for the most part with guns, pistols, 
 and swords. Some had bucklers of wood, or 
 rawhide, and some wore those corselets of tough 
 twigs interwoven with cordage which their 
 fathers had used when firearms were unknown. 
 The scouts declared that they had seen a Jesuit 
 priest among the Iroquois; nay, that La SaUe 
 himself was there, whence it must follow that 
 Tonty and his men were enemies and traitors. 
 The supposed Jesuit was only an Iroquois chief 
 arrayed in a black hat, doublet and stockings; 
 while another, clothed in a somewhat similar 
 fashion, passed in the distance for La SaUe. 
 But the mtnois were fxirious. 
 
 Tonty's life hung by a thread. A crowd of 
 savages surrounded him, mad with rage and 
 terror. He had come lately from Europe and 
 knew little of Indians, but, as the friar Membr6 
 says of him, " he was full of intelligence and 
 courage," and when they heard him declare 
 that he and his Frenchmen would go with them 
 to fight the Iroquois, then- threats grew less 
 clamorous and their eyes glittered with a less 
 deadly lustre. 
 
 Whooping and screeching, they ran to their 
 
62 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 canoes, crossed the river, climbed the woody 
 hill, and swarmed down upon the plain beyond. 
 About a himdred of them had guns; the rest 
 were armed with bows and arrows. They were 
 now face to face with the enemy, who had 
 emerged from the woods of the Vermihon, and 
 were advancing on the open prairie. With 
 unwonted spirit, for their reputation as warriors 
 was by no means high, the Illinois began, after 
 their fashion, to charge; that is, they leaped, 
 yeUed, and shot off bullets and arrows, advan- 
 cing as they did so; while the Iroquois rephed 
 with gymnastics no less agile and howlings no 
 less terrific, mingled with the rapid clatter of 
 their guns. Tonty saw that it would go hard 
 with his allies. It was of the greatest impor- 
 tance to stop the fight, if possible. The Iro- 
 quois were, or professed to be, at peace with 
 the French; and, taking counsel of his courage, 
 he resolved on an attempt to make peace, which 
 may well be called a desperate one. 
 
 He laid aside his gun, took in his hand a 
 wampum belt^ as a flag of truce, and walked 
 forward to meet the savage multitude, attended 
 by Boisrondet, another Frenchman, and a young 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 63 
 
 Illinois who had the courage to accompany 
 him. The guns of the Iroquois flashed thick 
 and fast. Some of them were aimed at him, 
 on which he sent back the two Frenchmen and 
 the Illinois, and advanced alone, holding out 
 the wampum belt. 
 
 A moment more, and he was among the in- 
 furiated warriors. It was a frightful spectacle, 
 — the contorted forms, bounding, crouching, 
 twisting, to deal or dodge the shot; the small 
 keen eyes that shone like an angry snake's; 
 the parted Ups pealing their fiendish yeUs; the 
 painted features writhing with pain and fury; 
 and every passion of an Indian fight, — man, 
 wolf, and devil, all in one. With his swarthy 
 complexion and half-savage dress, they thought 
 he was an Indian, and thronged about him, 
 glaring murder. A young warrior stabbed at 
 his heart with his knife, but the point glanced 
 aside against a rib, inflicting only a deep gash. 
 A chief called out that as his ears were not 
 pierced he must be a Frenchman. On this, 
 some of them tried to stop the bleeding, and 
 led him to the rear, where an angry conversa- 
 tion ensued, while the yells and firing still re- 
 
64 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 sounded in the front. Tonty, breathless and 
 bleeding at the mouth with the force of the 
 blow he had received, found words to declare 
 that the Illinois were under the protection of 
 the Edng and the governor of Canada, and to 
 demand that they shoiild be left in peace. 
 
 A young Iroquois snatched Tonty's hat, 
 placed it on the end of his gun, and displayed 
 it to the Illinois, who, thereupon thinking he 
 was kiUed, renewed the fight; and the firing 
 in front clattered more angrily than before. 
 A warrior ran in, crying that the Iroquois were 
 giving groimd, and that there were Frenchmen 
 among the lUinois, who fired at them. On this, 
 the clamor around Tonty was redoubled. Some 
 wished to kiU him at once; others resisted. 
 " I was never," he writes, " in such perplexity; 
 for at that moment there was an Iroquois be- 
 hind me, with a knife in his hand, lifting my 
 hair as if he were going to scalp me. I thought 
 it was aU over with me, and that my best hope 
 was that they would knock me in the head in- 
 stead of burning me, as I believed they would 
 do." 
 
 In fact, a Seneca chief demanded that he 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 65 
 
 should be burned; while an Onondaga chief, 
 a friend of La Salle's, was for setting him free. 
 The friendly Onondaga carried his point; and 
 the Iroquois, having failed to surprise their 
 enemies, as they had hoped, now saw an oppor- 
 timity to delude them by a truce. They sent 
 back Tonty with a belt of peace; he held it 
 aloft in sight of the Illinois; chiefs and old war- 
 riors ran to stop the fight; the yeUs and the 
 firing ceased; and Tonty, like one waked from 
 a hideous nightmare, dizzy, almost fainting 
 with loss of blood, staggered across the inter- 
 vening prairie, to rejoin his friends. A 
 
 The Illinois now withdrew to their island in 
 the stream, while the Iroquois took possession 
 of the abandoned town, building for themselves 
 the fort which La Salle found later on. Tonty 
 and his companions stiU occupied their hut; 
 but the Iroquois, becoming suspicious of them, 
 forced them to remove to the fort, crowded as 
 it was with the savage crew. On the second 
 day he was sent to negotiate with the lUinois, 
 and a treaty of peace was concluded; but no 
 sooner was it made than the Iroquois prepared 
 to break it, and set about constructing canoes 
 
66 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 of elm-bark, in which to attack the Illinois 
 women and children in their island sanctuary. 
 Tonty warned his allies, in consequence, not 
 to pay any attention to the pretended peace. 
 The Iroquois, on their part, grew hourly more 
 jealous of him, and would certainly have killed 
 him, if it had not been their poUcy to keep the 
 peace with Frontenac and the French. 
 
 Several days after, they summoned him and 
 Membre to a council. Six packs of beaver- 
 skins were brought in; and the savage orator 
 presented them to Tonty in turn, explaining 
 their meaning as he did so. The first two were 
 to declare that the children of Count Frontenac 
 — that is, the Illinois — should not be eaten: 
 the next was a plaster to heal Tonty 's wound; 
 the next was oil to anoint him and Membre, 
 that they might not be fatigued in travelling; 
 the next proclaimed that the sun was bright; 
 and the sixth and last required them to decamp 
 and go home. Tonty thanked them for their 
 gifts, but demanded when they themselves 
 meant to go and leave the Illinois in peace. At 
 this, the conclave grew angry; and, in spite 
 of their late pledge, some of them said that 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 67 
 
 before they went they would eat Illinois flesh. ^ 
 Tonty instantly kicked away the packs of 
 beaver-skin, the Indian symbol of the scornful 
 rejection of a proposal, teUing them that since 
 they meant to eat the governor's children he 
 woxild have none of their presents. The chiefs, 
 in a rage, rose and drove him from the lodge. 
 The French withdrew to their hut, where they 
 stood aU night on the watch, expecting an at- 
 tack, and resolved to sell their hves dearly. At 
 daybreak, the chiefs ordered them to begone. 
 
 Tonty now thought that he had done aU he 
 could to protect the Illinois against their fero- 
 cious assailants, so he embarked in a leaky 
 canoe with his men and began to ascend the 
 river. 
 
 In the ruined village of the Illinois their 
 savage foes now wreaked their fury on the dead. 
 They dug up the graves; they threw down the 
 scaffolds. Some of the bodies they burned, 
 some they threw to the dogs; some, they ate. 
 Then they turned to pursue the Illinois, who, 
 when the French withdrew, had abandoned 
 their asylum and retreated down the river. 
 The Iroquois followed them along the opposite 
 
68 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 bank, each night encamping face to face with 
 them; and, thus the adverse bands moved 
 slowly southward, till they were near the mouth 
 of the river. 
 
 The lUinois now rashly separated into their 
 separate tribes, some descending the Missis- 
 sippi, others crossing to the western side. One 
 of the principal tribes, the Tamaroas, was so 
 foolish as to remain near the mouth of the Illi- 
 nois, where the Iroquois very soon assailed 
 them. The men fled, and very few of them 
 were killed; but the women and children were 
 captured. Then followed that scene of torture 
 of which, some two weeks later. La SaUe found 
 the revolting traces. 
 
 At length the conquerors withdrew, exulting 
 in their triimaphs over women, children, and 
 the dead. 
 
 MeanwhUe Tonty and his party had met with 
 a sad accident in the death of Father Ribourde, 
 who had been murdered by a band of Kickapoo 
 Indians while stroUing alone through the woods. 
 The others, though not attacked by Indians, 
 had hard work to keep alive, as aU they had 
 to eat was acorns and roots. After a while the 
 
TONTY'S ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS 69 
 
 cold became intense, and it was no easy task 
 to grub up wild onions from the frozen ground 
 to save themselves from starving. Tonty fell 
 ill of a fever and a swelling of the limbs, which 
 disabled him from travelling, and hence ensued 
 a long delay. At length they neared Green 
 Bay, where they would have starved, if they 
 had not found a few ears of com and frozen 
 squashes in the fields of an empty Indian town. 
 
 After a while they f eU in with some friendly 
 Indians, a party of Kiskakon Ottawas. Tonty 
 writes, " They took us into their canoes, and 
 carried us to an Indian village, only two leagues 
 off. There we found five Frenchmen, who re- 
 ceived us kindly, and all the Indians seemed to 
 take pleasure in sending us food; so that, after 
 thirty-four days of starvation, we found our 
 famine turned to abundance." 
 
 This hospitable village belonged to the Pot- 
 tawattamies, and was under the sway of a chief 
 who had befriended La Salle the year before, 
 and who was wont to say that he knew but 
 three great captains in the world — Frontenac, 
 La SaUe, and himself. 
 
 They spent the winter at this village, and 
 
70 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 in the spring succeeded in reaching Michili- 
 mackinac. 
 
 There they found La Salle. The meeting 
 was one at which even the latter's stoic nature 
 must have melted. Each had for the other a 
 tale of disaster; but when La Salle recounted 
 the long succession of his reverses, it was with 
 the tranquil tone and cheerful look of one who 
 relates the incidents of an ordinary journey. 
 Without loss of time they embarked together 
 for Fort Frontenac, paddled their canoes a 
 thousand miles, and safely reached their desti- 
 nation. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 LA SALLE FINDS THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI^ 
 
 AT the third beginning of his enterprise, 
 La Salle found himself beset with em- 
 barrassments. Not only was he bur- 
 dened with the fruitless cost of his 
 two former efforts, but the heavy debts which 
 he had incurred in bioilding and maintaining 
 Fort Frontenac had not been whoUy paid. The 
 fort and the seignory were already deeply 
 mortgaged; yet through the influence of Count 
 Frontenac and the help of others, he found 
 means to appease his creditors and even to 
 gain fresh advances. Once more he mustered 
 his men and set forth, resolved to trust no more 
 to agents, but to lead on his followers in a 
 imited body, imder his own personal command. 
 At the beginning of autumn he was at To- 
 ronto. It was October before he reached Lake 
 Huron. Day after day and week after week 
 
72 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 the heavy-laden canoes crept on along the 
 lonely wilderness shores, by the monotonous 
 ranks of bristhng moss-bearded firs; lake and 
 forest, forest and lake; a dreary scene haunted 
 with yet more dreary memories, — disasters, 
 sorrows and deferred hopes; time, strength 
 and wealth spent in vain; a ruinous past and a 
 doubtftd future; slander, obloquy and hate. 
 With unmoved heart the patient voyager held 
 his coiurse, and drew up his canoes at last on the 
 beach of Fort Miami on the St. Joseph. 
 
 The season was far advanced. On the bare 
 limbs of the forest hung a few withered rem- 
 nants of its gay autumnal Uvery; and the 
 smoke crept upward through the sullen No- 
 vember air from the squalid wigwams of La 
 Salle's Abenaki and Mohegan alHes. These, 
 his new friends, were savages whose midnight 
 yells had startled the border hamlets of New 
 England; who had danced around Puritan 
 scalps, and whom Puritan imaginations painted 
 as incarnate fiends. La Salle chose eighteen of 
 them, whom he added to the twenty-three 
 Frenchmen who remained with him, some of 
 the rest having deserted and others lagged be- 
 
LA SALLE FINDS THE MISSISSIPPI 73 
 
 hind. The Indians insisted on taking their 
 squaws with them. These were ten in number, 
 besides three children; and thus the expedition 
 included fifty-four persons, of whom some were 
 useless and others a burden. 
 
 On the 2ist of December, Tonty and Membre"^ 
 set out from Fort Miami with some of the party 
 in six canoes, and crossed to the httle river 
 Chicago. La SaUe, with the rest of his men, 
 joined them a few days later. It was the dead 
 of winter and the streams were frozen. They 
 made sledges, placed on them the canoes, the 
 baggage and a disabled Frenchman; crossed 
 from the Chicago to tbe northern branch of 
 the Illinois, and filed in a long procession down 
 its frozen course. They reached the site of the 
 great lUinois village, found it tenantless, and 
 continued their journey, stiU dragging their 
 canoes, tiU at length they reached open water 
 below Lake Peoria. 
 
 La Salle had abandoned for a time his original 
 plan of buUding a vessel for the navigation of 
 the Mississippi. Bitter experience had taught 
 him the difficulty of the attempt, and he re- 
 solved to trust to his canoes alone. They em- 
 
74 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 barked again, floating prosperously down be- 
 tween the leafless forests that flanked the tran- 
 quil river; till, on the sixth of February, they 
 issued upon the majestic bosom of the Missis- 
 sippi. Here, for a time, their progress was 
 stopped; for the river was full of floating ice. 
 La SaUe's Indians, too, had lagged behind; but 
 within a week aU had arrived, the navigation 
 was once more free, and they resumed their 
 course. 
 
 Towards evening they saw on their right 
 the mouth of a great river; and the clear cur- 
 rent was invaded by the headlong torrent of 
 the Missouri, opaque with mud. They built 
 their camp-fires in the neighboring forest; and 
 at daylight, embarking anew on the dark and 
 mighty stream, drifted swiftly down towards 
 unknown destinies. 
 
 With every stage of their adventurous prog- 
 ress the mystery of this vast New World was 
 more and more unveiled. More and more they 
 entered the realms of Spring. The hazy sun- 
 Ught, the warm and drowsy air, the tender 
 foliage, the opening flowers, betokened the re- 
 viving life of Natiure. For several days more 
 
LA SALLE FINDS THE MISSISSIPPI 75 
 
 they followed the wri things, of the great river 
 on its tortuous course through wastes of 
 swamps and cane-brake, till on the thirteenth 
 of March they found themselves wrapped in a 
 thick fog. 
 
 Neither shore was visible; but they heard 
 on the right the booming of an Indian drima 
 and the shrill outcries of the war-dance. La 
 Salle at once crossed to the opposite side, where, 
 in less than an hour, his men threw up a rude 
 fort of felled trees. Meanwhile the fog cleared; 
 and from the farther bank the astonished In- 
 dians saw the strange visitors at their work. 
 Some of the French advanced to the edge of 
 the water, and beckoned them to come over. 
 Several of them approached in a wooden canoe, 
 to within the distance of a gun-shot. La Salle 
 displayed the calumet,^ and sent a Frenchman 
 to meet them. He was well received; and the 
 friendly mood of the Indians now being appar- 
 ent, the whole party crossed the river. 
 
 On landing, they foimd themselves at a town 
 of the Kappa band of the Arkansas, a people 
 dwelling near the mouth of the river which 
 bears their name. " The whole village," 
 
76 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 writes Membr6 to his superior, " came down to 
 the shore to meet us, except the women, who 
 had run off. I cannot tell you the civility and 
 kindness we received from these barbarians, 
 who brought us poles to make huts, supplied 
 us with firewood during the three days we were 
 among them, and took turns in feasting us. 
 We did not lose the value of a pin while we 
 were with them." 
 
 Various were the dances and ceremonies 
 with which they entertained the strangers, 
 who, on their part, responded with a solemnity 
 which their hosts would have liked less if they 
 had imderstood it better. La Salle and Tonty, 
 at the head of their followers, marched to the 
 open area in the midst of the village. Here, 
 to the admiration of the gazing crowd of war- 
 riors, women and children, a cross was raised 
 bearing the arms of France. Membre sang a 
 h3ann; the men shouted " Vive le Roi; " and 
 La Salle, in the King's name, took formal pos- 
 session of the country. 
 
 After touching at several other towns of this 
 people, the voyagers resumed their course, 
 guided by two of the Arkansas; passed the 
 
LA SALLE FINDS THE MISSISSIPPI 77 
 
 sites, since become historic, of Vicksburg and 
 Grand Gulf; and, about three hundred miles 
 below the Arkansas, stopped by the edge of a 
 swamp on the western side of the river. 
 
 Here, as their two guides told them, was the 
 path to the great town of the Taensas.^ Tonty 
 and Membr6 were sent to visit it. They and 
 their men shouldered their birch canoe through 
 the swamp, and launched it on a lake which 
 had once formed a portion of the channel of 
 the river. In two hours they reached the town; 
 and Tonty gazed at it in astonishment. He had 
 seen nothing like it in America, — large square 
 buildings, built of sun-baked mud mixed with 
 straw, arched over with a dome-shaped roof 
 of canes, and placed in regular order around 
 an open area. Two of them were larger and 
 better than the rest. One was the lodge of the 
 chief; the other was the temple, or house of 
 the Sun. 
 
 They entered the former, and found a single 
 room, forty feet square, where, in the dim light, 
 — for there was no opening but the door, — 
 the chief sat awaiting them on a sort of bed- 
 stead, three of his wives at his side; while sixty 
 
78 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 old men, wrapped in white cloaks woven of 
 mxilberry-bark, formed his divan. ^ When he 
 spoke, his wives howled to do him honor; and 
 the assembled councillors Hstened with the 
 reverence due to a potentate for whom, at his 
 death, a hundred victims were to be sacrificed. 
 
 He received the visitors graciously, and joy- 
 fully accepted the gifts which Tonty laid be- 
 fore him. The interview over, the Frenchmen 
 went to the temple, wherein were kept the bones 
 of the departed chiefs. It was built in much 
 the same way as the royal dwelling. Over it 
 were rude, wooden figures, representing three 
 eagles tmned towards the east. A strong mud 
 wall siurrounded it, planted with stakes, on 
 which were stuck the skulls of enemies sacri- 
 ficed to the Sun; while before the door was a 
 block of wood, on which lay a large shell sur- 
 rounded with the braided hair of the victims. 
 
 The interior was rude as a bam, dimly lighted 
 from the doorway, and full of smoke. There 
 was a structure in the middle which Membre 
 thinks was a kind of altar; and before it burned 
 a perpetual fire, fed with three logs laid end to 
 end, and watched by two old men devoted to 
 
Tonty offering presents to the Chief of the 
 Taensas. Page 78. 
 
LA SALLE FINDS THE MISSISSIPPI 79 
 
 this sacred office. There was a mysterious 
 recess, too, which the strangers were forbidden 
 to explore, but which, as Tonty was told, con- 
 tained the riches of the nation, consisting of 
 pearls from the Gulf, and trinkets, obtained 
 probably through other tribes, from the Span- 
 iards and other Europeans. 
 
 The chief condescended to Adsit La SaUe at 
 his camp, — a favor which he would by no 
 means have granted, had the visitors been 
 Indians. A master of ceremonies and six at- 
 tendants preceded him, to clear the path and 
 prepare the place of meeting. When aU was 
 ready, he was seen advancing, clothed in a 
 white robe and preceded by two men bearing 
 white fans, while a third displayed a disk of 
 burnished copper, — doubtless to represent the 
 Sim, his ancestor, or as others will have it, his 
 elder brother. He looked marvellously grave, 
 and he and La SaUe met with gestures of great 
 courtesy. The interview was very friendly; 
 and the chief returned weU pleased with the 
 gifts which his entertainer bestowed on him, 
 and which, indeed, had been the principal 
 motive of his visit. 
 
80 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 Towards the sixth of April they began to near 
 their journey's end. The river divided itself 
 into three channels. La SaUe foUowed that of 
 the west, one of his followers that of the east; 
 while Tonty took the middle passage. As he 
 drifted down the turbid current, between the 
 low and marshy shores, the brackish water 
 changed to brine, and the breeze grew fresh 
 with the salt breath of the sea. Then the broad 
 bosom of the great Gulf opened on his sight, 
 tossing its restless billows, voiceless, lonely as 
 when born of chaos, without a sail, without a 
 sign of life. 
 
 La SaUe, in a canoe, coasted the marshy 
 borders of the sea; and then the reunited 
 parties assembled on a spot of dry ground, a 
 short distance above the mouth of the river. 
 Here a column was made ready, bearing the 
 arms of France, and inscribed with the words, 
 " Louis Le Grand, Roy de France et de Navarre, 
 regne; le Neuvieme Avril, 1682."^ 
 
 The Frenchmen were mustered under arms; 
 and while the New England Indians and their 
 squaws looked on in wondering silence, they 
 held religious services and La SaUe planted 
 
LA SALLE FINDS THE MISSISSIPPI 81 
 
 the column, claiming for the King of France 
 " possession of this country of Louisiana." 
 Shouts of Vive le Roi and volleys of musketry 
 responded to his words. A cross was planted 
 beside the colmnn, and a leaden plate buried 
 near it, bearing the arms of France. The 
 weather-beaten voyagers joined their voices 
 in the grand hymn, 
 
 " The banners of Heaven's King advance, 
 The mystery of the Cross shines forth" 
 
 and renewed shouts of Vive le Roi closed the 
 ceremony. 
 
 On that day, the realm of France received 
 on parchment a stupendous accession. The 
 fertile plains of Texas, the vast basin of the 
 Mississippi, from its frozen northern springs 
 to the sultry borders of the Gulf; from the 
 woody ridges of the Alleghanies to the bare 
 peaks of the Rocky Mountains, a region of 
 savannahs and forests, sun-cracked deserts 
 and grassy prairies, watered by a thousand 
 rivers, ranged by a thousand warlike tribes, 
 passed beneath the sceptre of the Sultan of 
 Versailles; ' and aU by virtue of a feeble human 
 voice, inaudible at half a rmle. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE ^ 
 
 AFTER La Salle had discovered the 
 Mississippi and found his way back 
 to Canada, he felt that the first stage 
 of his enterprise was accompHshed. 
 Much more, however, remained to be done. 
 Accordingly, he returned to France, where he 
 had an interview with the King,^ who regarded 
 his plans favorably. The latter had long been 
 irritated against the Spaniards, because they 
 not only excluded his subjects from their Amer- 
 ican ports, but forbade them to enter the Gulf 
 of Mexico, even in time of peace. The two 
 nations were now at war, and it was thought 
 desirable to estabUsh a French port on the 
 Gulf, as a permanent menace to the Spaniards 
 and as a basis of future conquest. This La 
 Salle promised to do. 
 All his requests were granted, and he set 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 83 
 
 sail with four vessels, carrying one hundred 
 soldiers, besides mechanics and laborers, thirty 
 volunteers, some missionaries, and several fam- 
 ilies with women and children. 
 
 The journey was marked by hardship and 
 ill-feeling throughout. La Salle was on bad 
 terms with the commander, who thought him 
 suspicious and unreasonable. One of the ships 
 was taken by Spanish buccaneers, another was 
 wrecked; but the worst disaster was the fact 
 that they missed the mouth of the Mississippi 
 by more than 1400 miles. Finally, they en- 
 camped at the entrance of Matagorda Bay on 
 the coast of what is now the state of Texas. 
 Here, among tents and hovels, bales, boxes, 
 spars, dismounted cannon, and pens for fowls 
 and swine, were gathered the dejected men 
 and homesick women who were to seize the 
 Spanish province of New Biscay and hold for 
 France a region half as large as Europe. 
 
 La SaUe explored the country and found a 
 spot which he thought weU-fitted for a tempo- 
 rary estabKshment. It was on the river which 
 he named La Vache, and here he finally re- 
 moved some of the colonists by land, putting 
 
84 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 others of the men and all his stores on board 
 a frigate called the " Belle." 
 
 Death made withering havoc among his fol- 
 lowers. Before the summer had passed, the 
 graveyard had more than thirty tenants. The 
 bearing of La Salle did not raise their drooping 
 spirits. The results of the enterprise had been 
 far distant from his hopes; the present was 
 beset with trouble, the future thick with 
 storms. The consciousness rendered him the 
 more active; but it made him stern, harsh and 
 often unjust to those beneath him. 
 
 After the necessary work was accompHshed, 
 and the colony to some extent housed and for- 
 tified in a place which he christened Fort St. 
 Louis, La Salle set out on an exploring expedi- 
 tion to find the mouth of the Mississippi. He 
 met with no success, and furthermore learned 
 on his way back that the " Belle " had probably 
 been lost. The disaster was incalculable. He 
 had rehed on this vessel to transport the colo- 
 nists to the Mississippi as soon as it should 
 be foimd; and thinking her a safer place of 
 deposit than the fort, he had put on board of 
 her all his papers and personal baggage, besides 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 85 
 
 a great quantity of stores, ammunition and 
 tools. The boat was, moreover, their only- 
 chance for getting back to France, for the one 
 which had brought them there had long since 
 returned home. 
 
 La Salle now fell dangerously ill; but no 
 sooner recovered than he made a resolution 
 which could only have been the restdt of a des- 
 perate necessity. He determined to make his 
 way by the Mississippi and the Illinois to Can- 
 ada, whence he might bring help to the colo- 
 nists, and send a report of their condition to 
 France. The Mississippi was first to be found, 
 then followed through aU the perilous monot- 
 ony of its interminable windings to a goal which 
 was to be but the starting point of a new and 
 not less arduous journey. 
 
 On the day after Twelfth Night ^ the band of 
 adventurers mustered for the fatal journey. 
 Five horses, bought by La Salle of the Indians, 
 stood in the area of the fort, packed for the 
 march; and here were gathered the wretched 
 remnants of the colony, — those who were to 
 go, and those who were to stay behind. The 
 latter were about twenty in aU — including 
 
86 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 seven women and girls, and several children. 
 La Salle had made them a last address; deUv- 
 ered, we are told, with that winning air, which, 
 though alien from his natural bearing, seems 
 to have been at times a natural expression of 
 this unhappy man. It was a bitter parting, 
 one of sighs, tears and embracings, — the fare- 
 well of those on whose souls had sunk a 
 heavy boding that they would never meet 
 again. Equipped and weaponed for the jour- 
 ney, the adventurers filed from the gate, 
 crossed the river, and held their slow march 
 over the prairies beyond, till intervening woods 
 and hills shut Fort St. Louis from their sight. 
 
 It is impossible, as it would be needless, to 
 follow the details of their daily march. It was 
 such a one, though with unwonted hardship, 
 as is familiar to the memory of many a prairie 
 traveller of our own time. They met Indians 
 almost daUy, — sometimes a band of hunters, 
 mounted or on foot, chasing buffalo on the 
 plains; sometimes a party of fishermen; some- 
 times a winter camp, on the slope of a hiU or 
 imder the sheltering border of a forest. 
 
 Holding a northerly course, the travellers 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 87 
 
 crossed the Brazos, and reached the waters of 
 the Trinity. It was not an harmonious com- 
 pany. La Salle's cold and haughty reserve 
 had returned, at least for those of his followers 
 to whom he was not partial. 
 
 There were two men in the party, Duhaut 
 and the surgeon Liotot, who, being men of 
 some property and interested financially in the 
 enterprise, were disappointed and angry at its 
 ruinous result. They had had a quarrel with 
 La Salle's nephew Moranget, who was of a hot 
 and hasty temper; and Liotot, it is said, had 
 secretly sworn vengeance against La SaUe, 
 whom he charged with having caused the death 
 of his brother, or, as some will have it, his 
 nephew. On a former joiurney with La Salle 
 the young man's health had failed; and La 
 Salle having ordered him to return to the fort, 
 he had been lulled by Indians on the way. 
 
 Another quarrel with Moranget over some 
 buffalo's meat added fire to the fuel of Duhaut's 
 old grudge. There is reason to think that he 
 had long harbored deadly designs, the execu- 
 tion of which was only hastened. He was a man 
 of respectable birth and education; and, at 
 
88 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 home, perhaps, both he and Liotot might have 
 lived and died with a fair repute; but the 
 wilderness is a rude touchstone, which often 
 reveals traits that would have lain buried and 
 unsuspected in civilized life. The surgeon bore 
 hatred against Moranget, because, after he had 
 nursed him with constant attention when 
 wounded by an Indian arrow, he had repaid 
 him with abuse. These two now took coimsel 
 apart with three others in the party; and it 
 was resolved to kill Moranget that night. 
 Nika, La Salle's devoted Indian follower, and 
 Saget, his faithful servant, must die with 
 him. 
 
 The plotters and the plotted against were 
 camping at some distance from the rest of the 
 party, having been sent on an expedition in 
 search of food. When night came on, the order 
 of the guard was arranged, and doubtless by 
 design the first hour of the night was assigned 
 to Moranget, the second to Saget, and the 
 third to Nika. Gun in hand, each stood watch 
 in turn over the silent but not sleeping forms 
 around him, tiU, his time expiring, he called 
 the man who was to relieve him^ wrapped 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 89 
 
 himself in his blanket, and was soon buried 
 in a slumber that was to be his last. 
 
 Now the assassins rose. Duhaut and Hiens 
 stood with their guns cocked, ready to shoot 
 down any one of the destined victims who 
 should resist or fly. The surgeon, with an axe, 
 stole toward the three sleepers, and struck a 
 rapid blow at each in turn. Saget and Nika 
 died with Httle movement; but Moranget 
 started spasmodically into a sitting posture, 
 gasping and vmable to speak; and the mur- 
 derers compelled De Marie, who was not in the 
 plot, to compromise himself by despatching 
 him. 
 
 The floodgates of murder were open, and the 
 torrent must have its way. Vengeance and 
 safety alike demanded the death of La Salle, 
 who was at his camp about six miles distant. 
 
 When a whole day had passed and Moranget 
 and his companions had not appeared. La SaUe 
 became very anxious. He resolved to go and 
 look for them; but not weU knowing the way, 
 he told the Lidians who were about the camp 
 that he would give them a hatchet if they would 
 guide him. One of them accepted the offer. 
 
90 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 and on the next morning La Salle set out with 
 him and the friar, Anastase Douay. 
 
 " All the way," writes the friar, " he spoke 
 to me of nothing but matters of piety; enlarg- 
 ing on the debt he owed to God, who had saved 
 him from so many perils during more than 
 twenty years of travel in America. Suddenly 
 I saw him overwhelmed with a profound sad- 
 ness, for which he himself could not account. 
 He was so much moved that I scarcely knew 
 him." 
 
 He soon recovered his usual calmness; and 
 they walked on tiU they approached the camp 
 of Duhaut, which was on the farther side of a 
 small river. Looking about him with the eye 
 of a woodsman. La Salle saw two eagles circling 
 in the air nearly over him, as if attracted by the 
 carcasses of beasts or men. He fired his gun 
 and his pistol, as a summons to any of his fol- 
 lowers who might be within hearing. 
 
 The shots reached the ears of the conspira- 
 tors. Rightly conjecturing by whom they were 
 fired, several of them, led by Duhaut, crossed 
 the river at a little distance above, where trees 
 or other intervening objects hid them from 
 
The Assassination of La Salle. Page 91. 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 91 
 
 sight. Duhaut and the surgeon crouched like 
 Indians in the long, dry, reed-like grass of the 
 last summer's growth, while L'Archeveque, 
 another of the party, stood in sight near the 
 bank. La Salle, continuing to advance, soon 
 saw him, and, caUing to him, demanded where 
 was Moranget. The man, without hfting his 
 hat, or any show of respect, replied in an agi- 
 tated and broken voice, but with a tone of 
 studied insolence, that Moranget was stroUing 
 about somewhere. La Salle rebuked and men- 
 aced him. He rejoined with increased insolence, 
 drawing back as he spoke, towards the am- 
 buscade, while the incensed commander ad- 
 vanced to chastise him. At that moment a 
 shot was fired from the grass, instantly followed 
 by another; and, pierced through the brain. 
 La Salle dropped dead. 
 
 The friar at his side stood terror-stricken, 
 xmable to advance or to fly; when Duhaut, 
 rising from the ambuscade, called out to him 
 to take courage, for he had nothing to fear. 
 The murderers now came forward, and with 
 wild looks gathered about their victim. " There 
 thou liest, great Bashaw! ^ There thou liest! " 
 
92 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 exclaimed the surgeon Liotot, in base exulta- 
 tion over the unconscious corpse. With mock- 
 ery and insult, they stripped it naked, dragged 
 it into the bushes, and left it there, a prey to 
 the buzzards and the wolves. 
 
 Some time later the assassins in their turn 
 were kiUed by one of their party, called Hiens, 
 the buccaneer, who was dissatisfied that they 
 should have engrossed all of the plunder: and 
 it is said that he himself was murdered by a 
 Frenchman turned savage. JouteP and some 
 of the others escaped from the rest and much 
 to their joy, encountered a party which Tonty, 
 La SaUe's brave and loyal lieutenant, had led 
 down the Mississippi in an effort to rescue his 
 chief, of whose pUght he had heard. After long 
 wanderings they reached Quebec, embarked 
 for France, and reached Rochelle safely. None 
 of the party were men of especial energy or 
 force of character, and yet, under the spur of a 
 dire necessity, they had achieved one of the 
 most adventurous journeys on record. 
 
 In France they disburdened themselves of 
 their gloomy secret, which, before this, for va- 
 rious reasons, they had not revealed; but the 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 93 
 
 sole result seems to have been an order from 
 the King for the arrest of the murderers, should 
 they appear in Canada. Joutel was disap- 
 pointed. It had been his hope throughout that 
 the King woiold send a ship to the rehef of the 
 wretched band at Fort St. Louis of Texas. But 
 Louis XrV hardened his heart, and left them to 
 their fate. 
 
 Meanwhile, a power dark, ruthless, and ter- 
 rible, was hovering around the feeble colony on 
 the Bay of St. Louis. Spain claimed the GuH 
 of Mexico and aU its coasts as her own of un- 
 answerable right, and the viceroys of Mexico 
 were strenuous to enforce her claim. 
 
 But when the Spaniards, who marched on 
 Fort St. Louis with intent to destroy it, reached 
 the place, they found it had already been des- 
 troyed. No hving thing was stirring. Doors 
 were torn from their hinges; broken boxes, 
 staved barrels, and rusty kettles, mingled with 
 a great number of stocks of arquebuses and 
 muskets, were scattered about in confusion. 
 It was in vain to question the imperturbable 
 savages, who, wrapped to the throat in their 
 buffalo-robes, stood gazing on the scene with 
 
94 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 looks of wooden immobility. Two strangers, 
 however, at length arrived. Their faces were 
 smeared with paint; yet these seeming Indians 
 were L'Archeyeque, the tool of La Salle's mur- 
 derer, Duhaut, and GroUet, a sailor who had 
 deserted to Uve with the Cenis. They said that, 
 three months before, the Indians had attacked 
 the fort and killed or carried away the inhabit- 
 ants. Thus died the last embers of the doomed 
 colony of La SaUe. 
 
 Here ends the wild and mournfid story of the 
 explorers of the Mississippi. Of all their toil 
 and sacrifice, no fruit remained but a great 
 geographical discovery, and a grand type of in- 
 carnate energy and wiU. It is easy to reckon 
 up the defects of La SaUe, but it is not easy to 
 hide from sight the Roman virtues that re- 
 deemed them. Beset by a throng of enemies, 
 he stands, Uke the King of Israel, head and 
 shoulders above them all. He was a tower of 
 adamant, against whose impregnable front 
 hardship and danger, the rage of man and of the 
 elements, the southern sun, the northern blast, 
 fatigue, famine, disease, delay, disappointment, 
 and deferred hope emptied their quivers in 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE 95 
 
 vain. Never, under the impenetrable mail of 
 paladin or crusader, beat a heart of more in- 
 trepid mettle than within the stoic panoply 
 that aimed the breast of La SaUe. To estimate 
 aright the marvels of his patient fortitude, one 
 must follow on his track through the vast scene 
 of his interminable joumeyings, — those thou- 
 sands of weary nules of forest, marsh and river, 
 when, again and again, in the bitterness of 
 baffled striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed 
 onward towards the goal he was never to at- 
 tain. America owes him an enduring memory; 
 for in this masculine figure she sees the pioneer 
 who guided her to the possession of her richest 
 heritage. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FRENCH, THE ENGLISH AND THE INDIANS* 
 
 THE American colonies of France and 
 England grew to maturity under 
 widely different auspices. Canada, 
 the offspring of Church and State, 
 nursed from infancy in the lap of power, its 
 puny strength fed with artificial stimulants, 
 its movements guided by rule and discipUne, 
 its hmbs trained to martial exercise, languished, 
 in spite of all, from the lack of vital sap and 
 energy. The colonies of England, outcast and 
 neglected, but strong in native vigor and self- 
 confiding courage, grew yet more strong with 
 conflict and with striving, and developed the 
 rugged proportions and imwieldy strength of a 
 youthful giant. 
 
 In the vaUey of the St. Lawrence, and along 
 the coasts of the Atlantic, adverse principles 
 contended for the mastery. Feudalism stood 
 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND INDIANS 97 
 
 arrayed against democracy; Popery against 
 Protestantism; the sword against the plough- 
 share. The priest, the soldier and the noble 
 ruled in Canada. The ignorant, hght-hearted 
 Canadian peasant knew nothing and cared 
 nothing about popular rights and civil hberties. 
 Born to obey, he Hved in contented submission, 
 without the wish or the capacity for self-rule. 
 Power, centred in the heart of the system, left 
 the masses inert. The settlements along the 
 margin of the St. Lawrence were like a camp, 
 where an army lay at rest, ready for the march 
 or the battle, and where war and adventure, 
 not trade or tillage, seemed the chief aims of 
 life. The lords of the soil were petty nobles, 
 for the most part soldiers, proud and ostenta- 
 tious, thriftless and poor; and the people were 
 their vassals. Over every cluster of small white 
 houses glittered the sacred emblem of the cross. 
 The church, the convent, and roadside shrine 
 were seen at every turn, and in the towns and 
 villages one met at each moment the black robe 
 of the Jesuit, the gray garb of the Recollet,^ 
 and the formal habit of the Ursuline ^ nun. 
 The names of saints, St. Joseph, St. Ignatius, 
 
98 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 St. Francis, were perpetuated in the capes, 
 rivers and islands, the forts and villages of the 
 land; and with every day, crowds of simple 
 worshippers knelt in adoration before the coimt- 
 less altars of the Roman faith. 
 
 If we search the world for the sharpest con- 
 trast to the spiritual and temporal vassalage 
 of Canada, we shall find it among her immediate 
 neighbors, the Pmritans of New England, where 
 the spirit of non-conformity was sublimed to 
 a fiery essence, and where the love of Uberty 
 and the hatred of power burned with sevenfold 
 heat. The Enghsh colonist, with thoughtful 
 brow and limbs hardened with toil; calling no 
 man master, yet bowing reverently to the law 
 which he himself had made; patient and labori- 
 ous, and seeking for the sohd comforts rather 
 than the ornaments of life; no lover of war, yet, 
 if need were, fighting with a stubborn, indomi- 
 table courage, and then bending once more 
 with steadfast energy to his farm, or his mer- 
 chandise, — such a man might well be deemed 
 the very pith and marrow of a commonwealth. 
 
 In every quaHty of efficiency and strength, 
 the Canadian feU miserably below his rival; 
 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND INDIANS 99 
 
 but in all that pleases the eye and interests the 
 imagination he far surpassed him. Buoyant 
 and gay, like his ancestry of France, he made the 
 frozen wilderness ring with merriment, an- 
 swered the surly howHng of the pine forest with 
 peals of laughter, and warmed with revelry 
 the groaning ice of the St. Lawrence. Careless 
 and thoughtless, he Mved happy in the midst 
 of poverty, content if he could but gain the 
 means to fill his tobacco-pouch and decorate 
 the cap of his sweetheart with a ribbon. The 
 example of a beggared nobility, who, proud 
 and penniless, could only assert their rank by 
 idleness and ostentation, was not lost upon 
 him. A rightful heir to French bravery and 
 French restlessness, he had an eager love of 
 wandering and adventure, and this propensity 
 found ample scope in the service of the fur- 
 trade, the engrossing occupation and chief 
 source of income to the colony. When the 
 priest of St. Ann's had shrived him of his sins; 
 when, after the parting carousal, he embarked 
 with his comrades in the deep-laden canoe; 
 when their oars kept time to the measured ca- 
 dence of their song, and the blue, sunny bosom 
 
100 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 of the Ottawa opened before them; when their 
 frail bark quivered among the milky foam and 
 black rocks of the rapid; and when, around 
 their camp-fire, they wasted half the night 
 with jests and laughter, — then the Canadian 
 was in his element. His foot-steps explored 
 the farthest hiding-places of the wilderness, 
 and in the evening dance his red cap mingled 
 with the scalp-locks and feathers of the Indian 
 braves. 
 
 The fur-trade engendered a peculiar class of 
 restless bush-rangers more akin to Indians than 
 to white men. Those who had once felt the 
 fascinations of the forest were unfitted ever 
 after for a Ufe of quiet labor; and with this 
 spirit the whole colony was infected. From 
 this cause, no less than from occasional wars 
 with the English, and repeated attacks of the 
 Iroquois, the agriculture of the country was 
 sunk to a low ebb; while feudal exactions, a 
 ruinous system of monopoly, and the inter- 
 meddlings of arbitrary power, cramped every 
 branch of industry. Yet, by the zeal of priests 
 and the daring enterprise of soldiers and ex- 
 plorers, Canada, though sapless and infirm, 
 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND INDIANS 101 
 
 spread forts and missions through all the 
 western wildemess. Feebly rooted in the soil, 
 she thrust out branches which overshadowed 
 half America; a magnificent object to the eye, 
 but one which the first whirlwind would pros- 
 trate in the dust. 
 
 Such enterprise was alien to the genius of 
 the British colonies. Daring activity was rife 
 among them, but it did not aim at the found- 
 ing of military outposts and forest missions. 
 By the force of energetic industry, their popu- 
 lation swelled -with an unheard-of rapidity, 
 their wealth increased in a yet greater ratio, 
 and their promise of future greatness opened 
 with every advancing year. But it was a great- 
 ness of peace rather than of war. The free 
 institutions, the independence of authority, 
 which were the source of their increase, were 
 adverse to that imity of coimsel and prompti- 
 tude of action which a,re the soil of war. 
 
 It was far otherwise with their military rival. 
 France had her Canadian forces well in hand. 
 Now here, now there, in sharp and rapid onset, 
 they could assail the cumbrous masses and un- 
 wieldy strength of their antagonists, as the 
 
102 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 king-bird attacks the eagle, or the swordfish 
 the whale. Between two such combatants the 
 strife must needs be a long one. 
 
 The French colonists of Canada held, from 
 the beginning, a pecuKar intimacy of relation 
 with the Indian tribes. With the English colo- 
 nists it was far otherwise; and the difference 
 sprang from several causes. The fur-trade 
 was the life of Canada; agriculture and com- 
 merce were the chief sources of wealth to the 
 British provinces. The Romish zealots of 
 Canada burned for the conversion of the 
 heathen; their heretic rivals were fired with 
 no such ardor. And finally while the ambition 
 of France grasped at empire over the farthest 
 deserts of the west, the steady industry of the 
 English colonists was contented to cultivate 
 and improve a narrow strip of seaboard. Thus 
 it happened that the farmer of Massachusetts 
 and the Virginia planter were conversant with 
 only a few bordering tribes, while the priests 
 and emissaries of France were roaming the 
 prairies with the buffalo-hunting Pawnees,^ 
 or lodging in the winter cabins of the Dahco- 
 tah; 2 and swarms of savages, whose uncouth 
 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND INDIANS 103 
 
 names were strange to English ears, descended 
 yearly from the North, to bring their beaver 
 and other skins to the market of Montreal. 
 
 In respect to direct political influence, the 
 advantage was whoUy on the side of France. 
 The English colonies, broken into separate 
 governments, were incapable of exercising a 
 vigorous and consistent Indian policy; and 
 the measures of one government often clashed 
 with those of another. Even in the separate 
 provinces, the popular nature of the constitu- 
 tion and the quarrels of governors and assem- 
 lies were imfavorable to efi&cient action; and 
 this was more especially the case in the province 
 of New York, where the vicinity of the Iro- 
 quois rendered strenuous yet prudent measures 
 of the utmost importance. These powerful 
 confederates inclined to the English alliance, 
 and a proper treatment would have secured 
 their firm and lasting friendship. But, at the 
 early periods of her history, the Assembly of 
 New York was made up in great measure of 
 narrow-minded men, more eager to consult 
 their own petty interests than to pursue any 
 far-sighted scheme of public weKare. Other 
 
104 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 causes conspired to injure the British interest 
 in this quarter. The annual present sent from 
 England to the Iroquois was often embezzled 
 by corrupt governors and their favorites. The 
 proud chiefs were disgusted by the cold and 
 haughty bearing of the EngUsh officials, and 
 a pernicious custom prevailed of conducting 
 Indian negotiations through the mediiun of 
 the fur-traders, a class of men held in contempt 
 by the Indians and known among them by the 
 significant title of " rum carriers." In short, 
 through aU the councils of the province Indian 
 affairs were grossly and madly neglected. 
 
 With more or less emphasis, the same re- 
 mark holds true of all the other English colo- 
 nies. With those of France it was far other- 
 wise; she labored with eager diligence to con- 
 ciliate the Indians and espouse them to her 
 cause. Her agents were busy in every village, 
 studying the language of the inmates, comply- 
 ing with their usages, flattering their prejudices, 
 caressing them, cajoling them, and whispering 
 friendly warnings in their ears, against the 
 wicked designs of the English. When a party 
 of Indian chiefs visited a French fort, they were 
 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND INDIANS 105 
 
 greeted with the firing of cannon and rolling 
 of drums; they were regaled at the tables of 
 the officers, and bribed with medals and deco- 
 rations, scarlet uniforms and French flags. 
 Far wiser than their rivals, the French never 
 ruffled the self-complacent dignity of their 
 guests, never insulted their rehgious notions, 
 nor ridiculed their ancient customs. 
 
 At an early period they discerned the pecu- 
 liarities of the native character, and clearly 
 saw that while on the one hand it was necessary 
 to avoid giving offence, it was not less necessary 
 on the other to assimie a bold demeanor and 
 a show of power; to caress with one hand and 
 grasp a drawn sword with the other. Every 
 crime against a Frenchman was promptly 
 chastised by the sharp agency of miHtary law; 
 while among the English, the offender could 
 only be reached by the medium of the civil 
 courts, whose delays, uncertainties and evasions 
 excited the wonder and provoked the contempt 
 of the Indians. 
 
 In its efforts to win the friendship and alli- 
 ance of the Indian tribes, the French govern- 
 ment found every advantage in the peculiar 
 
106 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 character of its subjects, — that pliant and 
 plastic temper which forms so marked a con- 
 trast to the stubborn spirit of the Englishman. 
 From the beginning, the French showed a 
 tendency to amalgamate with the forest tribes. 
 " The manners of the savages," writes the 
 Baron La Hontan,^ " are perfectly agreeable 
 to my palate; " and many a restless adventurer 
 of high or low degree might have echoed the 
 words of the erratic soldier. At first, great 
 hopes were entertained that, by the mingling, 
 of French and Indians, the latter would be 
 won over to civilization and the Church; but 
 the effect was precisely the reverse; for, as 
 Charlesvoix ^ observes, the savages did not 
 become French, but the French became sav- 
 ages. Hundreds betook themselves to the for- 
 est, nevermore to return. These outflowings 
 of French civilization were merged in the waste 
 of barbarism, as a river is lost in the sands of 
 the desert. The wandering Frenchman chose 
 a wife among his Indian friends; and in a few 
 generations, scarcely a tribe of the west was 
 free from an infusion of Celtic blood. The 
 French empire in America could exhibit among 
 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND INDIANS 107 
 
 its subjects every shade of color from white 
 to red, every gradation of culture from the 
 highest civilization of Paris to the rudest bar- 
 barism of the wigwam. 
 
 The borders of the EngMsh colonies displayed 
 no such phenomena of mingling races; for here 
 a thorny and impracticable barrier divided the 
 white man from the red. The English fur- 
 traders, and the rude men in their employ, 
 showed, it is true, an ample alacrity to throw 
 off the restraints of civilization; but though 
 they became barbarians they did not become 
 Indians; and scorn on the one side and hatred 
 on the other stiU marked the intercourse of the 
 hostile races. With the settlers of the frontiers 
 it was much the same. Rude, fierce and con- 
 temptuous, they daily encroached upon the 
 hunting groimds of the Indians, and then paid 
 them for the injury with curses and threats. 
 Thus the native population shrank back from 
 before the EngKsh as from before an advan- 
 cing pestilence; while, on the other hand, in 
 the very heart of Canada, Indian communities 
 sprang up cherished by the government, and 
 favored by the easy-tempered people. At Lo- 
 
108 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 rette, at Caughnawaga, at St. Francis, and else- 
 where within the province, large bands were 
 gathered together, consisting in part of fugi- 
 tives from the borders of the hated Enghsh, 
 and aiding in time of war to swell the forces of 
 the French in repeated forays against the 
 settlements of New York and New England. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FALL OF QUEBEC ^ 
 
 IN 1755 began that memorable war ^ which, 
 kindling among the forests of America, 
 scattered its fires over the kingdoms of 
 Europe and the sultry empire of the 
 Great Mogul; the war made glorious by the 
 heroic death of Wolfe, the victories of Frederic,' 
 and the exploits of CHve,^ the war which con- 
 trolled the destinies of America, and was first in 
 the chain of events which led on to her Revolu- 
 tion with all its vast and undeveloped conse- 
 quences. On the old battle-groimd of Europe, 
 the contest bore the same familiar features of 
 violence and horror which had marked the 
 strife of former generations, — fields ploughed 
 by the cannon-ball, and walls shattered by the 
 exploding mine, sacked towns and blazing 
 suburbs, the lamentations of women, and the 
 license of a maddened soldiery. But in America, 
 
110 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 war assumed a new and striking aspect. A 
 wilderness was its subKme arena. Army met 
 army under the shadows of primeval woods; 
 their cannon resounded over wastes unknown 
 to civilized man. And before the hostUe powers 
 could join in battle, endless forests must be 
 traversed, and morasses passed, and every- 
 where the axe of the pioneer must hew a path 
 for the bayonet of the soldier. 
 
 The war was prosecuted for five succeeding 
 years with the full energy of both nations. The 
 earKer years were unpropitious to the English, 
 whose commanders displayed no great degree 
 of vigor or ability. In the year 1758, the war 
 began to assume a different aspect, for Pitt^ 
 was at the head of the government. Sir Jeffrey 
 Amherst laid siege to the strong fortress of 
 Louisbourg, and at length reduced it; while, 
 in the south. General Forbes marched against 
 Fort Duquesne, and, more fortunate than his 
 predecessor, Braddock, drove the French from 
 that important point. Another successful 
 stroke was the destruction of Fort Frontenac, 
 which was taken by a provincial army under 
 Col. Bradstreet. These achievements were 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 111 
 
 counterbalanced by a great disaster, — the 
 defeat of Lord Abercrombie's army of 16,000 
 men at Lake George. 
 
 This repulse, far from depressing the energies 
 of the British coromanders, seemed to stimulate 
 them to new exertion; and the campaign of 
 the next year, 1759, had for its object the im- 
 mediate and total reduction of Canada. It 
 was to be assailed on three sides at once. Upon 
 the west. General Prideaux was to attack Ni- 
 agara; upon the south. General Amherst was 
 to advance upon Ticonderoga and Crown 
 Point; while upon the east, General Wolfe 
 was to besiege Quebec; and each of these ar- 
 mies, having accomplished its particular ob- 
 ject, was directed to push forward, if possible, 
 until aU three had united in the heart of Can- 
 ada. 
 
 The first two operations, which there is not 
 space to describe here, were successful, and, 
 in further accordance with the plan, General 
 Wolfe sailed up the St. Lawrence early in June 
 with a force of eight thousand men, forming 
 his camp immediately below Quebec, in the 
 island of Orleans. From thence he could dis- 
 
112 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 cern, at a single glance, how arduous was the 
 task before him. Piles of lofty cliffs rose with 
 sheer ascent on the northern border of the 
 river; and from their smnmits the boasted 
 citadel of Canada looked down in proud se- 
 curity, with its churches and convents of stone, 
 its ramparts, bastions and batteries; while 
 over them all, from the brink of the precipice, 
 towered the massive walls of the Castle of St. 
 Louis. Above, for many a league, the bank 
 was guarded by an unbroken range of steep 
 accUvities. Below, the river St. Charles, flow- 
 ing into the St. Lawrence, washed the base of 
 the rocky promontory on which the city stood. 
 Lower yet lay an army of fourteen thousand 
 men, under an able and renowned commander, 
 the Marquis of Montcahn.' His front was 
 covered by intrenchments and batteries, which 
 Uned the bank of the St. Lawrence; his right 
 wing rested on the city and the St. Charles; 
 his left, on the cascade and deep gulf of Mont- 
 morenci; and thick forests extended along his 
 rear. Opposite Quebec rose the high promon- 
 tory of Point Levi; and the St. Lawrence, 
 contracted to less than a mile in width, flowed 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 113 
 
 between, with deep and powerful current. To 
 a chief of less resolute temper, it might have 
 seemed that art and nature were in league to 
 thwart his enterprise; but a mind like that of 
 Wolfe could only have seen in this majestic 
 combination of forest and cataract, mountain 
 and river, a fitting theatre for the great drama 
 about to be enacted there. 
 
 Yet natitre did not seem to have formed the 
 young EngHsh general for the conduct of a 
 doubtful and almost desperate enterprise. His 
 person was sKght, and his features by no means 
 of a martial cast. His feeble constitution had 
 been undermined by years of a protracted and 
 painful disease. His kind and genial disposi- 
 tion seemed better fitted for the quiet of do- 
 mestic Uf e than for the stem duties of miUtary 
 command; but to these gentler traits he joined 
 a high enthusiasm, and an unconquerable spirit 
 of daring and endurance, which made him the 
 idol of his soldiers, and bore his slender frame 
 through every hardship and exposure. 
 
 The work before him demanded all his cour- 
 age. How to invest the city, or even bring the 
 army of Montcalm to action, was a problem 
 
114 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 which might have perplexed a Hannibal.^ A 
 French fleet lay in the river above, and the 
 precipices along the northern shore were guarded 
 at every accessible point by sentinels and out- 
 posts. Wolfe would have crossed the Mont- 
 morenci by its upper ford, and attacked the 
 French army on its left and rear; but the plan 
 was thwarted by the nature of the ground and 
 the vigilance of his adversaries. Thus baffled 
 at every other point, he formed the bold design 
 of storming Montcahn's position in front just 
 above the beach of the Montmorenci; but 
 the attempt was unsuccessful, and with bitter 
 agony of mind, Wolfe saw more than four him- 
 dred of the flower of his army fall a useless 
 sacrifice. The anxieties of the siege had told 
 severely upon his slender constitution; and 
 not long after this disaster, he felt the first 
 sjrmptoms of a fever, which soon confined him 
 to his couch. StiU his mind never wavered 
 from its purpose ; and it was while l3ang helpless 
 in the chamber of a Canadian house, where he 
 had fixed his headquarters, that he embraced 
 the plan of the enterprise which robbed him of 
 life, and gave him immortal fame. 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 115 
 
 It was resolved to divide the little army; and 
 while one portion remained before Quebec to 
 alarm the enemy by false attacks, and distract 
 their attention from the scene of actual opera- 
 tion, the other was to pass above the town, 
 land under cover of darkness on the northern 
 shore, climb the guarded heights, gain the 
 plains above, and force Montcahn to quit 
 his vantage-ground, and perhaps to offer 
 battle. The scheme was daring even to rash- 
 ness; but its audacity was the secret of its 
 success. 
 
 Early in September, a fleet of ships and 
 transports, under Admiral Hohnes, passed the 
 city imder the hot fire of its batteries; while 
 the troops designed for the expedition, amount- 
 ing to scarcely five thousand, marched upward 
 along the southern bank, beyond reach of 
 the cannonade. AU were then embarked; 
 and on the evening of the twelfth, Holmes's 
 fleet, with the troops on board, lay safe at an- 
 chor in the river, several leagues above the 
 town. These operations had not failed to 
 awaken the suspicions of Montcalm; and he 
 had detached M. Bougainville to watch the 
 
116 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 movements of the English, and prevent their 
 landing on the northern shore. 
 
 The eventful night of the twelfth was clear 
 and calm, with no Hght but that of the stars. 
 Within two hours before daybreak, thirty 
 boats, crowded with sixteen hundred soldiers, 
 cast off from the vessels and floated downward, 
 in perfect order, with the current of the ebb 
 tide. To the boundless joy of the army, Wolfe's 
 malady had abated, and he was able to com- 
 mand in person. His ruined health, the gloomy 
 prospects of the siege, and the disaster at Mont- 
 morenci had oppressed him with the deepest 
 melancholy, but never impaired for a moment 
 the promptness of his decisions, or the impetu- 
 ous energy of his actions. He sat in the stern 
 of one of the boats, pale and weak, but borne 
 up to a calm height of resolution. Every order 
 had been given, every arrangement made, and 
 it only remained to face the issue. The ebbing 
 tide sufficed to bear the boats along, and noth- 
 ing broke the silence of the night but the gur- 
 gling of the river, and the low voice of Wolfe, 
 as he repeated to the officers about him the 
 stanzas of Gray's " Elegy in a Country Church- 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 117 
 
 yard," which had recently appeared and which 
 he had just received from England. Perhaps, 
 as he uttered those strangely appropriate 
 words, — 
 
 " The paths of glory lead but to the grave," — 
 
 the shadows of his own approaching fate stole 
 with mournful prophecy across his mind. 
 " Gentlemen," he said, as he closed his recital, 
 " I would rather have written those lines than 
 take Quebec tomorrow." 
 
 As they approached the landing-place, the 
 boats edged closer in towards the northern 
 shore, and the woody precipices rose high on 
 their left, Hke a wall of undistinguished black- 
 ness. 
 
 " Qui vive?"^ shouted a French sentinel, from 
 out the impervious gloom. 
 
 " La France ! " answered a captain of Eraser's 
 Highlanders, from the foremost boat. 
 
 " A quel regiment V ^ demanded the soldier. 
 
 " Be la Reine ! " promptly repUed the High- 
 land captain, who chanced to know that the 
 regiment so designated formed part of Bou- 
 gainville's command. As boats were frequently 
 
118 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 passing down the river with supplies for the 
 garrison, and as a convoy from Bougainville 
 was expected that very night, the sentinel 
 was deceived, and allowed the EngHsh to 
 proceed. 
 
 A few moments after, they were challenged 
 again, and this time they could discern the 
 soldier running close down to the water's edge, 
 as if all his suspicions were aroused; but the 
 skilful repUes of the Highlander once more 
 saved the party from discovery. 
 
 They reached the landing-place in safety, 
 — an indentation in the shore, about a league 
 above the city, and now bearing the name of 
 Wolfe's Cove. Here a narrow path led up the 
 face of the heights, and a French guard was 
 posted at the top to defend the pass. By the 
 force of the current, the foremost boats, inclu- 
 ding that which carried Wolfe himself, were 
 borne a Httle below the spot. The general was 
 one of the first on shore. He looked upward 
 at the rugged heights which towered above 
 him in the gloom. " You can try it," he coolly 
 observed to an ofl&cer near him; " but I don't 
 think you'll get up." 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 119 
 
 At the point where the Highlanders landed, 
 one of their captains, Donald MacDonald, 
 apparently the same whose presence of mind 
 had just saved the enterprise from ruin, was 
 climbing in advance of his men, when he was 
 challenged by a sentinel. He repHed in French, 
 by declaring that he had been sent to reheve 
 the guard, and ordering the soldier to with- 
 draw. Before the latter was undeceived, a 
 crowd of Highlanders were close at hand, while 
 the steeps below were thronged with eager 
 climbers, dragging themselves up by trees, 
 roots and bushes. The guard turned out, and 
 made a brief though brave resistance. In a 
 moment, they were cut to pieces, dispersed, 
 or made prisoners; while men after men came 
 swarming up the height, and quickly formed 
 upon the plains above. Meanwhile, the vessels 
 had dropped downward with the current, and 
 anchored opposite the landing-place. The 
 remaining troops were disembarked, and, with 
 the dawn of day, the whole were brought in 
 safety to the shore. 
 
 The sim rose, and, from the ramparts of 
 Quebec, the astonished people saw the plains 
 
120 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 of Abraham glittering with arms, and the dark- 
 red lines of the Enghsh forming array of battle. 
 Breathless messengers had borne the evil tidings 
 to Montcalm, and far and near his wide-ex- 
 tended camp resomided with the roUing of 
 alarm drums and the din of startled prepara- 
 tion. He, too, had had his struggles and his 
 sorrows. The civil power had thwarted him; 
 famine, discontent and disafifection were rife 
 among his soldiers; and no small portion of the 
 Canadian mihtia had dispersed from sheer 
 starvation. In spite of aU, he had trusted to 
 hold out tiU the winter frosts should drive the 
 invaders from before the town; when, on that 
 disastrous morning, the news of their successful 
 temerity feU like a cannon-shot upon his ear. 
 StiU he assumed a tone of confidence. " They 
 have got to the weak side of us at last," he is 
 reported to have said, " and we must crush 
 them with our nimibers." 
 
 With headlong haste, his troops were pour- 
 ing over the bridge of the St. Charles, and gath- 
 ering in heavy masses under the western ram- 
 parts of the town. Could mmibers give assur- 
 ance of success, their triumph would have been 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 121 
 
 secure; for five French battalions and the armed 
 colonial peasantry amounted in all to more 
 than seven thousand five hundred men. Full 
 in sight before them stretched the long, thin 
 lines of the British forces, — the half -wild 
 Highlanders, the steady soldiery of England, 
 and the hardy levies of the provinces, — less 
 than five thousand in number, but all inured 
 to battle, and strong in the full assurance of 
 success. Yet, could the chiefs of that gallant 
 army have pierced the secrets of the future, 
 could they have foreseen that the victory which 
 they burned to achieve would have robbed 
 England of her proudest boast, that the con- 
 quest of Canada would pave the way for the 
 independence of America, their swords would 
 have dropped from their hands, and the heroic 
 fire have gone out within their hearts. 
 
 It was nine o'clock, and the adverse armies 
 stood motionless, each gazing on the other. 
 The clouds hung low, and, at intervals, warm 
 light showers descended, besprinkling both 
 aUke. The coppice and cornfields in front of 
 the British troops were filled with French sharp- 
 shooters, who kept up a distant, spattering fire. 
 
122 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 Here and there a soldier fell in the ranks, and 
 the gap was fiUed in silence. 
 
 At a little before ten, the British could see 
 that Montcahn was preparing to advance, and, 
 in a few moments, aU his troops appeared in 
 rapid motion. They came on in three divisions, 
 shouting after the manner of their nation, and 
 firing heavily as soon as they came within 
 range. In the British ranks, not a trigger was 
 puUed, not a soldier stirred; and their ominous 
 composure seemed to damp the spirits of the 
 assailants. It was not till the French were 
 within forty yards that the fatal word was 
 given, and the British muskets blazed forth 
 at once in one crashing explosion. Like a ship 
 at fuU career, arrested with sudden ruin on a 
 sunken rock, the ranks of Montcalm stag- 
 gered, shivered, and broke before that wasting 
 storm of lead. The smoke, rolling along the 
 field, for a moment shut out the view; but 
 when the white wreaths were scattered on the 
 wind, a wretched spectacle was disclosed: men 
 and officers tumbled in heaps, battahons re- 
 solved into a mob, order and obedience gone; 
 and when the British muskets were levelled 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 123 
 
 for a second volley, the masses of the militia 
 were seen to cower and shrink with uncontrol- 
 lable panic. For a few minutes, the French 
 regulars stood their ground, returning a sharp 
 and not ineffectual fire. But now, echoing 
 cheer on cheer, redoubKng volley on volley, 
 trampling the d)dng and the dead, and driving 
 the fugitives in crowds, the British troops ad- 
 vanced and swept the field before them. The 
 ardor of the men burst all restraint. They 
 broke into a nm, and with unsparing slaughter 
 chased the flying multitude to the gates of 
 Quebec. Never was victory more quick or 
 more decisive. 
 
 Yet the triumph of the victors was mingled 
 with sadness, as the tidings went from rank to 
 rank that Wolfe had fallen. In the heat of 
 the action, as he advanced at the head of the 
 grenadiers of Louisbourg, a bullet shattered 
 his wrist; but he wrapped his handkerchief 
 about the wound, and showed no sign of pain. 
 A moment more, and a ball pierced his side. 
 Still he pressed forward, waving his sword and 
 cheering his soldiers to the attack, when a third 
 shot lodged deep within his breast. He paused, 
 
124 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 reeled, and staggering to one side, fell to the 
 earth. Brown, a Ueutenant of the grenadiers, 
 Henderson, a volunteer, an ofl&cer of artillery, 
 and a private soldier, raised him together in 
 their arms, and, bearing him to the rear, laid 
 him softly on the grass. They asked if he would 
 have a surgeon; but he shook his head, and 
 answered that all was over with him. His eyes 
 closed with the torpor of approaching death, 
 and those aroimd sustained his fainting form. 
 Yet they could not withhold their gaze from the 
 wild turmoil before them, and the charging 
 ranks of their companions rushing through 
 fire and smoke. " See how they run," one of 
 the ojQ&cers exclaimed, as the French fled in 
 confusion before the levelled bayonets. " Who 
 run? " demanded Wolfe, opening his eyes like 
 a man aroused from sleep. " The enemy, sir," 
 was the reply; " they give way ever3rwhere." 
 " Then," said the dying general, " tell Colonel 
 Burton to march Webb's regiment down to 
 Charles River, to cut off their retreat from 
 the bridge. Now, God be praised, I will die 
 in peace," he murmured; and, turning on his 
 side, he calmly breathed his last. 
 
The Fall of Montcalm. Page 125. 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 125 
 
 Almost at the same moment fell his great 
 adversary, Montcahn, as he strove, with vain 
 bravery, to rally his shattered ranks. Struck 
 down with a mortal wound, he was placed upon 
 a Utter and borne to the General Hospital on 
 the banks of the St. Charles. The surgeons 
 told him that he could not recover. " I am 
 glad of it," was his calm reply. He then asked 
 how long he might survive, and was told that 
 he had not many hours remaining. " So much 
 the better," he said; " I am happy that I shall 
 not live to see the surrender of Quebec." He 
 died before midnight, and was buried at his 
 own desire in a cavity of the earth formed by 
 the bursting of a bombshell. 
 
 The victorious army encamped before Que- 
 bec, and pushed their preparations for the 
 siege with zealous energy; but before a single 
 gun was brought to bear, the white flag was 
 hung out, and the garrison surrendered. On 
 the eighteenth of September, 1759, the rock- 
 built citadel of Canada passed forever from the 
 hands of its ancient masters.^ 
 
CHAPTER rX 
 
 henry's adventures with the INDIANS^ 
 
 ALEXANDER HENRY was a pioneer 
 of the English fur-trade in the region 
 of the Great Lakes. In the years fol- 
 lowing the French and Indian war, the 
 Indians of that neighborhood were strongly 
 hostile to the English,^ and Henry had many 
 narrow escapes from death at the hands of the 
 Ojibwas and Ottawas. 
 
 He had one friend, however, in an Ojibwa 
 chief named Wawatam, who had conceived for 
 him one of those attachments which often 
 form so pleasing a feature in the Indian char- 
 acter. Henry had made his acquaintance 
 under the following circumstance. One morn- 
 ing when he was staying in the English garri- 
 son at Michilimackinac Wawatam entered his 
 house, and placing before him on the ground 
 a large present of furs and dried meat, delivered 
 
HENRY'S ADVENTURES 127 
 
 a speech to the following effect: Early in hfe, 
 he said, he had withdrawn, to fast and pray 
 in soUtude, that he might propitiate the Great 
 Spirit, and learn the future career marked out 
 for him.i In the course of his dreams and 
 visions on this occasion, it was revealed to him 
 that in after years he should meet a white man, 
 who should be to him a friend and brother. 
 No sooner had he seen Henry than the irrepress- 
 ible conviction rose up within him, that he was 
 the man whom the Great Spirit had indicated 
 and that the dream was now fulfilled. Henry 
 repUed to the speech with suitable acknowledge- 
 ments of gratitude, made a present in his turn, 
 smoked a pipe with Wawatam, and as the latter 
 soon after left the fort, speedily forgot his In- 
 dian friend and brother altogether. 
 
 Many months had elapsed since the occiir- 
 rence of this very characteristic incident when, 
 on the second of Jime, 1763, Henry's door was 
 pushed open without ceremony, and the dark 
 figure of Wawatam glided silently in. He said 
 that he had just returned from his wintering 
 ground. Henry, at length recollecting him, 
 inquired after the success of his hunt; but the 
 
128 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 Indian, without replying, sat down with a de- 
 jected air and expressed his surprise and regret 
 at finding his brother still in the fort. He said 
 he was going on the next day to the Sault Ste. 
 Marie, and that he wished Henry to go with 
 him. He then asked if the English had heard 
 no bad news, and said that through the winter 
 he himseK had been much distressed by the 
 singing of evil birds. Seeing that Henry gave 
 little attention to what he said, he went away, 
 but on the next day returned, with his squaw, 
 and, offering the trader a present of dried meat, 
 again pressed him to go with him. 
 
 His words were spoken in vain; and at length 
 he and his squaw took their departure, but not, 
 as Henry declares, before each had let fall 
 some tears. 
 
 On this same afternoon, Henry remembers 
 that the fort was full of Indians, moving about 
 among the soldiers with a great appearance of 
 friendship. Many of them came to his house 
 to purchase knives and small hatchets, often 
 asking to see silver bracelets, and other orna- 
 ments, with the intention, as afterwards ap- 
 peared, of learning their places of deposit, in 
 
HENRY'S ADVENTURES 129 
 
 order the more easily to lay hands on them at 
 the moment of pillage. As the afternoon drew 
 to a close the visitors quietly went away; and 
 many of the imhappy garrison saw for the last 
 time the sim go down behind the waters of 
 Lake Michigan.^ 
 
 On the following morning the Indians, xmder 
 cover of a baU-game, surprised the EngHsh and 
 rushed into the fort. The ofl&cers were led 
 away, and the men slaughtered without mercy. 
 
 Henry had not gone to see the baU-game, but 
 was in his house, writing letters, when he heard 
 the Indian war-cry. Looking out of his window, 
 he saw the Indians within the fort furiously 
 cutting down and scalping every EngHshman 
 they found, and concluded very soon that no 
 resistance could be made to the enemy and that 
 he himself must look for shelter. 
 
 He found it in the house of a Canadian, M. 
 Langlade, whose servant, a Pawnee 2 (or Pani) 
 slave, allowed him to hide in the attic. Henry says : 
 
 " Having followed me up to the garret door, 
 she locked it after me, and, with great presence 
 of mind, took away the key. . . . 
 
 " No long time elapsed before everyone being 
 
130 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 destroyed who could be found, there was a 
 general cry of ' AU is finished.' At the same 
 time I heard some of the Indians enter the 
 house where I was. 
 
 * " The garret was separated from the room 
 below only by a layer of single boards, at once 
 the flooring of the one and the ceiHng of the 
 other. I could, therefore, hear everything that 
 passed; and the Indians no sooner came in than 
 they inquired whether or not any Enghshmen 
 were in the house. M. Langlade repHed that 
 ' he could not say, he did not know of any; ' 
 answers in which he did not exceed the truth; 
 for the Pani woman had not only hidden me by 
 stealth, but kept my secret and her own. . . . 
 He added . . . that they might examine for 
 themselves. . . . Sajdng this, he brought them 
 to the garret door. 
 
 " The state of my mind wiU be imagined. 
 Arrived at the door, some delay was occasioned 
 by the absence of the key; and a few minutes 
 were thus allowed me, in which to look around 
 for a hiding-place. In one corner of the garret 
 was a heap of those vessels of birch-bark used 
 in maple-sugar making. 
 
HENRY'S ADVENTURES 131 
 
 " The door was unlocked and opening, and 
 the Indians ascending the stairs, before I had 
 completely crept into a small opening which 
 presented itself at one end of the heap. An 
 instant after four Indians entered the room, 
 armed with tomahawks, and all besmeared 
 with blood upon every part of their bodies. 
 
 " The die appeared to be cast. I could 
 scarcely breathe; but I thought the throbbing 
 of my heart occasioned a noise loud enough to 
 betray me. The Indians walked in every di- 
 rection about the garret; and one of them ap- 
 proached me so closely that, at a particular 
 moment, had he put forth his hand, he must 
 have touched me. StUl I remained imdiscov- 
 ered; a circumstance to which the dark color 
 of my clothes and the want of Hght . . . must 
 have contributed. In a word, after taking 
 several turns of the room, during which they 
 told M. Langlade how many they had killed 
 and how many scalps they had taken, they 
 retiimed downstairs; and I, with sensations 
 not to be expressed, heard the door, which was 
 the barrier between me and my fate, locked 
 for the second time." 
 
132 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 He was not to have this refuge long, however, 
 for Langlade, who had discovered his place of 
 concealment, soon after gave him up to the 
 Indians, in fear lest they should take revenge 
 on him or his children if they should find out 
 that he had hidden the Englishman. 
 
 After many narrow escapes from death Henry 
 and some other captives were put in a large 
 lodge, which served as prison, and which was 
 soon fiUed with Indians, who came to gratify 
 themselves by deriding and jeering at them. 
 One day Henry observed an Indian stooping 
 to enter at the low opening which served for a 
 door, and, to his great joy, recognized his friend 
 and brother Wawatam, whom he had last seen 
 on the day before the massacre. Wawatam 
 said nothing; but as he passed the trader he 
 shook him by the hand, in token of encourage- 
 ment, and, proceeding to the head of the lodge, 
 sat down with Minavavana and Wenniway, 
 the war-chiefs. After he had smoked for a 
 while in silence, he rose and went out again. 
 Very soon he came back, followed by his squaw, 
 who brought in her hands a valuable present, 
 which she laid at the feet of the two chiefs. 
 
HENRY'S ADVENTURES 133 
 
 Wawatam then made a speech in which he 
 said: 
 
 " Friends and relatives, what is it that I shall 
 say? You know what I feel. You aU have 
 friends and brothers and children, whom as 
 yourselves you love; and you, — what would 
 you experience, did you, like me, behold your 
 dearest friend — your brother — in the condi- 
 tion of a slave; a slave, exposed every moment 
 to insult and to menaces of death. . . . 
 
 "He is my brother; and because I am your 
 relation, he is therefore your relation too; and 
 how, being your relation, can he be yotu" 
 slave? . . . 
 
 " You, Minavavana, who had the command 
 in this enterprise, gave me your promise that 
 you would protect my friend, delivering him 
 from aU danger, and giving him safely to me. 
 
 " The performance of this promise I now 
 claim. I come not with empty hands to ask 
 it. You, Minavavana, best know whether or 
 not, as it respects yourself, you have kept your 
 word; but I bring these goods to buy off every 
 claim which any man among you all may have 
 on my brother as his prisoner." 
 
134 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 To this speech the war-chief returned a fa- 
 vorable answer. Wawatam's request was ac- 
 ceded to, the present was accepted, and the 
 prisoner released. Henry soon found himself 
 in the lodge of his friend, where furs were spread 
 for him to lie upon, food and drink brought 
 for his refreshment, and everything done to 
 promote his comfort that Indian hospitahty 
 could suggest. When, after some months, 
 famine began among the Indians, he followed 
 Wawatam and spent the winter among the 
 frozen forests, hunting the bear and moose. 
 
 Henry was Uving at Montreal as late as the 
 year 1809. He wrote a book about his ad- 
 ventures, from which this account was taken. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE SIEGE OF DETROIT ^ 
 
 ONE May morning, in the year 1763, 
 the open common behind the fort at 
 Detroit, which had lately been taken 
 over from the French by the EngUsh, 
 was thronged with squaws, children and war- 
 riors, some naked and others fantastically ar- 
 rayed in their barbarous finery. AU seemed 
 restless and imeasy, moving hither and thither, 
 in apparent preparation for a general game of 
 ball. Many tail warriors, wrapped in their 
 blankets, were seen stalking towards the fort, 
 and casting malignant furtive glances upwards 
 at the palisades. Then, with an air of assiuned 
 indifference, they would move towards the gate. 
 They were all admitted. 
 
 Meanwhile Pontiac, a great Ojibwa chief, 
 who had crossed with the canoes from the 
 eastern shore, was approaching along the river 
 
136 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 road, at the head of his sixty chiefs, all gravely- 
 marching in Indian file. They reached the fort, 
 at ten o'clock, and the gateway was thronged 
 with savage faces. All were wrapped to the 
 throat in colored blankets. Some were crested 
 with hawk, eagle or raven pliunes; others had 
 shaved their heads, leaving only the fluttering 
 scalp-lock on the crown; while others, again, 
 wore their long black hair flowing loosely at 
 their backs, or wildly hanging about their brows 
 like a lion's mane. Their bold, yet crafty fea- 
 tures, their cheeks besmeared with ochre and 
 vermilion, white lead and soot, their keen, deep- 
 set eyes gleaming in their sockets, like those of 
 rattle-snakes, gave them an aspect grim, un- 
 couth and horrible. For the most part they 
 were tall, strong men, and all had a gait and 
 bearing of peculiar stateHness. 
 
 It was just after the close of the French and 
 Indian war, and though the treaty of peace had 
 not been signed, the EngHsh were in possession 
 of Canada and the Great Lake region. There 
 were, of course, not nearly as many people there 
 then as there are now; and it was by a few in- 
 significant forts, separated by oceans of fresh 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 137 
 
 water and uncounted leagues of forest, that the 
 two great European powers, France first, and 
 now England, endeavored to enforce their 
 claims to this vast domain. The Enghsh did 
 not think they had reason to be afraid of the 
 Indians, but they were soon to learn their mis- 
 take. 
 
 The country was scarcely transferred to the 
 Enghsh when smothered murmurs of discon- 
 tent began to be audible among the Indian 
 tribes. From the head of the Potomac to Lake 
 Superior, and from the Alleghanies to the Mis- 
 sissippi, in every wigwam and hamlet of the 
 forest, a deep-rooted hatred of the Enghsh^ 
 increased with rapid growth. They had fought 
 with their friends, the French, against them, 
 and they entertained towards the Enghsh that 
 rancorous hatred which an Indian always feels 
 against those to whom he has been opposed in 
 war. This was aggravated by the fooHsh pohcy 
 of the British government, which, now that the 
 Indians were no longer important as allies, 
 treated them as mere barbarians. Already 
 their best hunting-grounds were invaded, and 
 from the eastern ridges of the Alleghanies they 
 
138 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 might see from far and near, the smoke of 
 the settler's clearings rising in tall columns from 
 the dark green bosom of the forest. The 
 doom of the race was sealed, and no human 
 power could avert it; but they in their igno- 
 rance beheved otherwise, and vainly thought 
 that, by a desperate efifort, they might yet up- 
 root and overthrow the growing strength of 
 their destroyers. 
 
 When, early in 1763, it was announced to the 
 tribes that the King of France had ceded aU 
 their country to the King of England without 
 even asking their leave, a ferment of indigna- 
 tion at once became apparent among them; 
 and, within a few weeks, a plot was matured, 
 such as was never, before or since, conceived 
 or executed by an American Indian. It was 
 determined to attack aU the EngMsh forts upon 
 the same day; then, having destroyed the gar- 
 risons, to turn upon the defenceless frontier, 
 and ravage and lay waste the settlements,, 
 until, as many of the Indians fondly beheved, 
 the EngUsh should aU be driven into the sea, 
 and the country restored to its primitive owners. 
 It was Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, who gave 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 139 
 
 order and method to these attacks, and changed 
 what would have been a wild burst of fury into 
 a formidable and protracted war, and it was 
 he who was now to direct the siege of Detroit. 
 
 The officer in command of the fort at De- 
 troit was Major Gladwyn. He had been warned 
 the day before that Indians woxild try to gain 
 admission with guns under their blankets, and 
 at a given signal would kUl the officers, while 
 those in the town outside would attack the 
 inhabitants. Nevertheless, Gladwyn allowed 
 every one of them to enter. He had a surprise 
 of his own prepared. 
 
 As Pontiac came in, it is said that he started, 
 and a deep ejaculation half escaped from his 
 breast. Well might his stoicism fail, for at a 
 glance he read the ruin of his plot. On either 
 side, within the gateway, stood ranks of sol- 
 diers and hedges of glittering steel. The 
 swarthy engages ^ of the fur-traders, armed to 
 the teeth, stood in groups at the street corners, 
 and the measured tap of a drum fell ominously 
 on the ear. Soon regaining his composure, 
 Pontiac strode forward into the narrow street, 
 and his chiefs filed after him in silence, while 
 
140 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 the scared faces of women and children looked 
 out from the windows as they passed. Their 
 rigid muscles betrayed no sign of emotion; yet, 
 looking closely, one might have seen their small 
 eyes glance from side to side with restless 
 scrutiny. 
 
 Traversing the entire width of the little town, 
 they reached the door of .the council-house, a 
 large building standing near the margin of the 
 river. On entering, they saw Gladwyn, with 
 several of his oflScers, seated in readiness to 
 receive them, and the observant chiefs did not 
 fail to remark that every Englishman wore a 
 sword at his side, and a pair of pistols in his 
 belt. The conspirators eyed each other with 
 imeasy glances. " Why," demanded Pontiac, 
 " do I see so many of my father's young men 
 standing in the street with their guns? " , Glad- 
 wyn replied through his interpreter, La Butte, 
 that he had ordered the soldiers under arms 
 for the sake of exercise and discipline. With 
 much delay and many signs of distrust, the 
 chiefs at length sat down on the mats prepared 
 for them; and after the customary pause Pon- 
 tiac rose to speak. Holding in his hand the 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 141 
 
 wampum belt which was to have given the fatal 
 signal, he addressed the commandant, profess- 
 ing strong attachment to the English, and de- 
 claring, in Indian phrase, that he had come to 
 smoke the pipe of peace, and brighten the chain 
 of friendship. The officers watched him keenly 
 as he uttered these hollow words, fearing lest, 
 that though conscious that his designs were sus- 
 pected, he might still attempt to accomplish 
 them. And once, it is said, he raised the wam- 
 pum belt as if about to give the signal of attack. 
 But at that instant Gladwjni signed slightly 
 with his hand. The sudden clash of arms 
 sounded from the passage without, and a drum 
 rolling the charge filled the council-room with 
 its stimniag din. At this, Pontiac stood like 
 one confotmded. Gladwyn made a brief reply, 
 assiuing the chiefs that friendship and protec- 
 tion should be extended towards them as long 
 as they continued to observe it, and the council 
 shortly afterwards broke up. The baffled 
 savages were suffered to depart, rejoiced, no 
 doubt, to breathe once more the free air of the 
 open fields. 
 Balked in his treachery, the great chief with- 
 
142 THE BOYS' PARK.MAN 
 
 drew to his village, enraged and mortified, yet 
 still resolved to persevere. On the following 
 morning the common behind the fort was once 
 more thronged with Indians of all the four 
 tribes, Ottawas, Wyandots, Pottawattamies 
 and Ojibwas. Pontiac, advancing from the 
 multitude, approached the gate. It was closed 
 and barred against him. He shouted to the 
 sentinels, and demanded why he was refused 
 admittance. Gladwyn himself replied, that the 
 great chief might enter if he chose, but that the 
 crowd he had brought with him must remain 
 outside. Thus repulsed, Pontiac threw off the 
 mask which he had worn so long. With a grin 
 of hate and rage, he turned abruptly from the 
 gate, and strode toward his followers, who, in 
 great multitudes, lay flat upon the ground, just 
 beyond reach of gun-shot. At his approach, 
 they all leaped up and ran off, yelping, in the 
 words of an eye-witness, " Hke so many devils." 
 Looking out from the loopholes, the garrison 
 could see them running in a body towards the 
 " house of an old English woman who lived, with 
 her family, on a distant part of the common. 
 They beat down the doors, and rushed tumul- 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 143 
 
 tuously in. A moment more, and the mournful 
 scalp-yell told the fate of the wretched inmates. 
 Another large body ran, yelling, to the river- 
 bank, and, leaping into their canoes, paddled 
 with all speed to the Isle-au-Cochon, where 
 dwelt an Englishman, named Fisher, formerly 
 a sergeant of the regulars. They soon dragged 
 him from the hiding-place where he had sought 
 refuge, murdered him on the spot, took his 
 scalp, and made great rejoicings over this 
 miserable trophy of brutal maUce. 
 
 Pontiac had borne no part in the wolfish 
 deeds of his followers. When he saw his plan 
 defeated, he turned towards the shore; and 
 no man dared approach him, for he was terrible 
 in his rage. Pushing a canoe from the bank, 
 he urged it with vigorous strokes, against the 
 current, towards the Ottawa village on the 
 farther side. As he drew near he shouted to the 
 inmates. None remained in the lodges but 
 women, children and old men, who aU came 
 flocking out at the sound of his imperious voice. 
 Pointing across the water, he ordered that all 
 should prepare to remove the camp to the 
 western shore, that the river might no longer 
 
144 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 interpose a barrier between his followers and 
 the English. The squaws labored with eager 
 alacrity to obey him. Provisions, utensils, 
 weapons, and even the bark covering to the 
 lodges, were carried to the shore; and before 
 evening all was ready for embarkation. Mean- 
 while, the warriors had come dropping in from 
 their bloody work, until, at nightful, nearly all 
 had returned. Then Pontiac, hideous in his 
 war-paint, leaped into the central area of the 
 village. Brandishing his tomahawk, and stamp- 
 ing on the ground, he recounted his former ex- 
 ploits, and denounced vengeance on the Eng- 
 lish. The Indians flocked about him. Warrior 
 after warrior caught the fierce contagion, and 
 soon the ring was filled with dancers, circling 
 round and round with frantic gesture, and 
 startling the distant garrison with unearthly 
 yells. 
 
 Every Englishman in the fort, whether trader 
 or soldier, was now ordered under arms. No 
 man lay down to sleep, and Gladwyn himself 
 walked the ramparts throughout the night. 
 
 All was quiet till the approach of dawn. 
 But as the first dim redness tinged the east, 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 145 
 
 and fields and woods grew visible in the morn- 
 ing twilight, suddenly the war-whoop rose on 
 every side at once, and fierce Indians came 
 bounding naked to the assault. The men ha- 
 stened to their posts. And truly it was time; 
 for not the Ottawas alone, but the whole 
 barbarian swarm — Wyandots, Pottawattamies 
 and Ojibwas — were upon them, and buUets 
 rapped hard and fast against the pahsades. 
 The soldiers looked from the loopholes, think- 
 ing to see their assailants gathering for a rush 
 against the feeble barrier. But, though their 
 clamors filled the air, and their guns blazed 
 thick and hot, yet very few were visible. Some 
 were ensconced behind bams and fences, some 
 skulked among bushes, and some lay flat in 
 hoUows of the groimd; while those who could 
 find no shelter were leaping about with the 
 agility of monkeys, to dodge the shot of the 
 fort. Each had filled his mouth with bullets, 
 for the convenience of loading, and each was 
 charging and firing without suspending these 
 agile gymnastics for a single moment. There 
 was one low hUl, at no great distance from the 
 fort, behind which countless black heads of 
 
146 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 Indians alternately appeared and vanished; 
 while, all along the ridge, their guns emitted 
 incessant white puffs of smoke. Every loophole 
 was a target for their bullets; but the fire was 
 returned with steadiness, and not without 
 effect. 
 
 For six hours, the attack was unabated; but 
 as the day advanced, the assailants grew weary. 
 Their fire slackened, their clamors died away, 
 and the garrison was left once more in peace, 
 though from time to time a solitary shot, or 
 lonely whoop, stUl showed the presence of some 
 Lingering savage, loath to be balked of his re- 
 venge. Among the garrison, only five men had 
 been wounded, while the cautious enemy had 
 suffered but trifling loss. 
 
 Gladwyn was stiU convinced that the whole 
 affair was a temporary uprising, and being in 
 great want of provisions, he resolved to open 
 negotiations with the Indians, under cover of 
 which he might obtain the necessary supplies. 
 At their request he sent Capt. Campbell, a 
 venerable officer who had gained the confidence 
 of the Indians, together with another officer, 
 to treat with them. 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 147 
 
 As these men approached the camp of the 
 Ottawas, they saw a dark multitude gathered 
 along its outskirts, who had no sooner recog- 
 nized their red uniforms, than they aU raised 
 at once a horrible outcry of whoops and howl- 
 ings. Indeed, they seemed disposed to give 
 the ambassadors the reception usually accorded 
 to captives taken in war; for the women seized 
 sticks, stones and clubs, and ran towards 
 Campbell and his companions, as if to make 
 them pass the cruel ordeal of running the gaunt- 
 let.' Pontiac came forward, and his voice 
 quieted the tumult. He led the way to a large 
 lodge, and entering, pointed to several mats 
 placed on the ground at the side opposite to the 
 opening. Here, obedient to his signal, the two 
 officers sat down. Instantly the lodge was 
 thronged with savages. At their first entrance, 
 Pontiac had spoken a few words. A pause then 
 followed, broken at length by Campbell, who 
 from his seat addressed the Indians in a short 
 speech. It was heard in perfect silence, and no 
 reply was made. For a full hour the unfortu- 
 nate officers saw before them the same con- 
 comrse of dark, inscrutable faces, bending an 
 
148 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 unwavering gaze upon them. At length Capt. 
 Campbell rose to his feet and declared his in- 
 tention of returning to the fort. Pontiac made 
 a sign that he should resume his seat. " My 
 father," he said, " wiU sleep tonight in the 
 lodges of his red children." The gray-haired 
 soldier and his companion were betrayed into 
 the hands of their enemies. 
 
 Many of the Indians were eager to kill the 
 captives on the spot, but Pontiac would not 
 carry his treachery so far. He protected them 
 from injury and insult, and took them to the 
 house of a Canadian, where they were safe for a 
 while. Before the war was over the other officer 
 had escaped, but Capt. Campbell was killed 
 barbarously by his captors. 
 
 The garrison meanwhUe was in a desperate 
 condition, and it was the opinion of most of 
 the officers that they ought to surrender it and 
 sail for Niagara. There were only about i6o 
 men as opposed to, some writers say, as many 
 as 2000 savages; they had scarcely enough pro- 
 visions to sustain them three weeks, and the 
 houses, being of wood and chiefly thatched with 
 straw, could easily be set on fire with burning 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 149 
 
 missiles. But the chief fears of the ofl&cers 
 arose from their dread that the enemy would 
 make a general onset, and cut or burn their 
 way through the pickets, — a mode of at- 
 tack to which resistance would be unavailing. 
 Their anxiety on this score was reheved by 
 a Canadian in the fort, who had spent half 
 his life among Indians, and who now assured 
 the commandant that every maxim of their 
 warfare was opposed to such a measure. In- 
 deed, an Indian's idea of miKtary honor widely 
 differs from a white man's; for he holds it to 
 consist no less in a wary regard for his own life 
 than in the courage with which he assails his 
 enemy. Yet he is not a coward, and, in his 
 own way of fighting often exhibits no ordinary 
 courage. Stealing alone into the heart of an 
 enemy's country, he prowls aroimd the hostile 
 village, watching every movement; and when 
 night sets in, he enters a lodge, and calmly stirs 
 the decaying embers, that by their light he 
 may select the sleeping victim. With cool de- 
 liberation he deals the mortal thrust, kills foe 
 after foe, and tears away scalp after scalp, until 
 at length an alarm is given; then, with a wild 
 
150 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 yell, he bounds out into the darkness and is 
 gone. 
 
 Time passed on, and brought little change 
 and no relief to the endangered garrison. Day 
 after day the Indians continued their attacks, 
 untU their war-cries and the rattle of their guns 
 became familiar sounds. For many weeks no 
 man lay down to sleep, except in his clothes, and 
 with his weapons by his side. Parties of vol- 
 unteers sallied, from time to time, to burn the 
 outbuildings which gave shelter to the enemy. 
 They cut down orchard trees, and levelled 
 fences, untU the ground about the fort was clear 
 and open, and the enemy had no cover left 
 from whence to fire. Two vessels in the river, 
 which belonged to the EngHsh, sweeping the 
 northern and southern curtains of the works 
 with their fire, prevented the Indians from ap- 
 proaching those points, and gave material aid 
 to the garrison. Still, worming their way 
 through the grass, sheltering themselves behind 
 every rising ground, the persevering savages 
 would crawl close to the pahsade, and shoot 
 arrows, tipped with burning tow, upon the 
 roofs of the houses: but cisterns and tanks of 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 151 
 
 water were everywhere provided against such 
 an emergency, and these attempts proved useless. 
 
 Meanwhile, great efforts were made to pro- 
 cure a supply of provisions. Every house was 
 examined, and all that could serve for food, 
 even grease and taUow, was collected and placed 
 in the public store-house, the owners having 
 been paid for it. In spite of these precautions, 
 Detroit must have been abandoned or des- 
 troyed, if it had not been for a few friendly 
 Canadians, who provided the garrison with 
 cattle, hogs and other supplies. These were 
 carried to the fort by boat under cover of night, 
 the Indians long remaining ignorant of what 
 was going forward. 
 
 Day after day passed on, and the red cross 
 of St. George still floated above Detroit. The 
 keen-eyed watchfulness of the Indians had 
 never ceased; and woe to the soldier who 
 showed his head above the palisades, or exposed 
 his person before a loophole. The garrison was 
 now waiting anxiously for a fleet of boats which 
 had been sent up the lakes, with a supply of 
 provisions and ammunition for the use of 
 Detroit and the other western posts. 
 
152 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 The fort, or rather town, of Detroit had by 
 this time lost its wonted vivacity and Hfe. Its 
 narrow streets were gloomy and sUent. Here 
 and there strolled a Canadian, in red cap and 
 gaudy sash; the weary sentinel walked to and 
 fro before the quarters of the commandant; 
 an officer, perhaps, passed with rapid step and 
 anxious face; or an Indian girl moved silently 
 by, in her finery of beads and vermilion. Such 
 an aspect as this the town must have presented 
 on the morning of the thirtieth of May, when, 
 at about nine o'clock, the voice of the sentinel 
 sounded from the southeast bastion; and loud 
 exclamations, in the direction of the river, 
 roused Detroit from its lethargy. 
 
 Instantly the place was astir. Soldiers, 
 traders and habitants hurr5dng through the 
 water-gate, thronged the canoe-wharf and the 
 narrow strand without. The half -wild coureurs 
 de bois,^ the tall and sinewy provincials, and the 
 stately British soldiers stood crowded together, 
 their uniforms soiled and worn, and their faces 
 haggard with imremitted watching. Yet all 
 alike wore a joyous look. The long expected 
 fleet of boats was in sight! On the farther side 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 153 
 
 of the river, some distance below the fort, they 
 were rounding a point, their oars flashing in the 
 sun, and the red flag of England flying from the 
 stem of the foremost. The toils and dangers 
 of the garrison were drawing to an end. With 
 one accord, they broke into three hearty cheers, 
 again and again repeated, while a cannon, 
 glancing from the bastion, sent its loud voice 
 of defiance to the enemy, and welcome to ap- 
 proaching friends. 
 
 But suddenly every cheek grew pale with 
 horror. Dark naked figures were seen rising, 
 with wild gesture, in the boats, while, in place 
 of the answering salute, the distant yell of the 
 war-whoop fell faintly on their ears. The con- 
 voy was in the hands of the enemy ! The boats 
 had all been taken, and the troops of the de- 
 tachment slain or made captive. Ofl&cers and 
 men stood gazing in mournful silence, when 
 an incident occurred which made them forget 
 the general calamity in the absorbing interest 
 of the moment. 
 
 In the foremost boat were only three Indians 
 to four soldiers. As it came opposite one of 
 the two EngKsh vessels which were anchored 
 
154 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 in the river, the soldier who acted as steersman 
 thought of a daring plan of escape. The prin- 
 cipal Indian sat immediately in front of one 
 of the soldiers. The steersman called, in Eng- 
 lish, to his comrade to seize the savage and 
 throw him overboard. The man answered that 
 he was not strong enough; on which the steers- 
 man directed him to change places with him, 
 as if fatigued with rowing, a movement which 
 would excite no suspicion on the part of their 
 guard. As the bold soldier stepped forward, 
 as if to take his companion's oar, he suddenly 
 seized the Indian by the hair, and gripping 
 with the other hand the girdle at his waist, 
 lifted him by main force, and flung him into 
 the river. The boat rocked till the water surged 
 over her gunwale. The Indian held fast to his 
 enemy's clothes, and, drawing himself upward 
 as he trailed alongside, stabbed him again and 
 again with his knife, and then dragged him over- 
 board. Both went down the swift current, 
 rising and sinking; and, as some relate, perished, 
 grappled in each other's arms. The two re- 
 maining Indians leaped out of the boat. The 
 prisoners turned, and puUed for the distant 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 155 
 
 vessel, shouting aloud for aid. The Indians 
 on shore opened a heavy fire upon them, and 
 many canoes paddled swiftly in pursuit. The 
 men strained with desperate strength. A fate 
 inexpressibly horrible was the alternative. The 
 bidlets hissed thickly aroimd their heads; one 
 of them was soon wounded, and the Hght birch 
 canoes gained on them with fearful rapidity. 
 Escape seemed hopeless, when the report of a 
 cannon bm-st from the side of the vessel. The 
 ball flew close past the boat, beating the water 
 in a line of foam, and narrowly missing the 
 foremost canoe. At this, the pursuers drew 
 back in dismay; and the Indians on shore, 
 being farther saluted by a second shot, ceased 
 firing, and scattered among the bushes. The 
 prisoners soon reached the vessel, where they 
 were greeted as men snatched from the jaws of 
 fate; " a living monument," writes an oflScer 
 of the garrison, " that Fortune favors the 
 brave." 
 
 After the bitter disappointment of the cap- 
 ture of the convoy, the besieged garrison heard 
 for a long while nothing but bad news. Pontiac 
 had sent his messengers with their war-belts 
 
156 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 and hatchets stained red all over the Great 
 Lake country, and massacres all along the 
 frontier were the result. The forts at San- 
 dusky, St. Joseph's, MichUimackinac, Outa- 
 non, Presqu' Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, and Fort 
 Pitt, they learned, had all been taken; but stiQ 
 Detroit held out. 
 
 At last one of the two vessels, which had been 
 sent down to Niagara, came back after an ex- 
 citing fight with some Indians on the way, and 
 brought the garrison a much-needed supply 
 of men, provisions and ammunition. She 
 brought also the important tidings that peace 
 was at length concluded between France and 
 England by formal treaty. The Canadians 
 were now subjects of the EngUsh king, and to 
 many of them the change was extremely odious, 
 for they cordially hated the British. They went 
 about among the settlers and the Indians, de- 
 claring that the pretended news of peace was 
 only an invention of Major Gladwyn's; that 
 the King of France would never abandon his 
 children; and that a great French army was 
 even then descending the St. Lawrence, while 
 another was approaching from the country of 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 157 
 
 the Illinois. The Indians, including Pontiac, 
 were dehghted to beHeve this, and kept up the 
 war. 
 
 About this time Pontiac tried to win the 
 neighboring Canadians as auxUiaries. For this 
 purpose he sent messengers to the principal 
 inhabitants, inviting them to meet him in 
 councU. When they were all assembled, he 
 rose, threw down a war-belt at their feet, and 
 made a speech to the effect that the Indians 
 were fighting for the good of the French as well 
 as for themselves, and that the French ought 
 to join them. Most of the Canadians knew too 
 well that their cause was lost, and refused to do 
 so. There was, however, a collection of trap- 
 pers, voyageurs, and nondescript vagabonds of 
 the forest, who were seated with the council, 
 or stood looking on, variously attired in greasy 
 shirts, Indian leggins, and red worsted caps. 
 Not a few of them had thought proper to adopt 
 the style of dress and ornament peculiar to their 
 friends, the red men, and appeared with paint 
 rubbed in their cheeks, and feathers dangling 
 from their hair. One of these now took up the 
 war-belt, and declared that he and his com- 
 
158 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 rades were now ready to raise the hatchet for 
 Pontiac. The better class of Canadians were 
 shocked at this proceeding, and vainly pro- 
 tested against it. Pontiac, on his part, was 
 much pleased at such an aUianee to his forces, 
 and he and his chiefs shook hands in turn with 
 each of their new auxiharies. The aUies re- 
 mained in the Indian camp all night, being 
 afraid of the reception they might meet among 
 their feUow-whites in the settlement. The 
 whole of the following morning was employed 
 in giving them a feast of welcome. For this 
 entertainment a large number of dogs were 
 killed and served up to the guests, none of 
 whom, according to the Indian custom on such 
 formal occasions, were permitted to take, their 
 leave imtil they had eaten the whole of the 
 enormous portion placed before them. 
 
 The new allies were not much of a help to 
 their friends, for, before the war was over, 
 fearing the resentment of the EngHsh and the 
 other inhabitants, they had fled to the country 
 of the Illinois. 
 
 The Indians by this time were very much 
 afraid of the two armed vessels in the river, 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 159 
 
 which every httle while left their anchorage 
 and fired with great effect on their vUlages. 
 Once in particular — and this was the first 
 attempt of the kind — Gladwyn himself, with 
 several of his ofl&cers, had embarked on board 
 the smaller vessel, while a fresh breeze was 
 blowing from the northwest. The Indians, on 
 the bank, stood watching her as she tacked from 
 shore to shore, and pressed their hands against 
 their mouths in amazement, thinking that 
 magic power alone could enable her thus to 
 make her way against wind and current. Ma- 
 king a long reach from the opposite shore, she 
 came on directly towards the camp of Pontiac, 
 her sails sweUing, her masts leaning over till 
 the black muzzles of her guns almost touched 
 the river. On she came, tiU their fierce hearts 
 exulted in the idea that she would run ashore 
 within their clutches, when suddenly a shout 
 of command was heard on board, her progress 
 was arrested, she rose upright, and her sails 
 flapped and fluttered as if tearing loose from 
 their fastenings. Steadily she came round, 
 broadside to the shore; then, leaning once more 
 to the wind, bore away gaUantly on the other 
 
160 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 tack. She did not go far. The wondering spec- 
 tators, quite at a loss to understand her move- 
 ments, soon heard the hoarse ratthng of her 
 cable, as the anchor dragged it out, and saw her 
 furhng her vast white wings. As they looked 
 unsuspectingly on, a puff of smoke came out 
 from her side; a loud report followed; then 
 another and another; and the balls, rushing 
 over their heads, flew through the midst of their 
 camp, and tore wildly among the forest trees 
 beyond. All was terror and consternation. 
 The startled warriors bounded away on all 
 sides; the squaws snatched up their children, 
 and fled screaming; and, with a general chorus 
 of yells, the whole encampment scattered in 
 such haste that httle damage was done, except 
 knocking to pieces their frail cabins of bark. 
 
 Twice, after this, the Indians sent burning 
 rafts down the river to destroy the ships; but 
 fortunately, in each case, they missed them. 
 
 It was now two or three months since the 
 siege began, and the red men, hke children, were 
 growing tired of the task they had undertaken. 
 Two of the tribes, the Wyandots and Potta- 
 wattamies, begged for peace, but the Ottawas 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 161 
 
 and O jib was still held their places. On the 
 29th of July, however, another fleet of boats 
 came up the lake and succeeded in reaching De- 
 troit. There were 22 barges in this fleet, about 
 280 men, several smaU cannon, and a fresh 
 supply of provisions and ammunition. 
 
 With all these fresh men and supplies the 
 garrison should have felt much encouraged; 
 but unfortunately Capt. Dalzell, one of the 
 ofl&cers who had just come, was anxious to make 
 an attempt upon the camp of the Indians, and 
 Gladwyn, though he felt it was unwise, con- 
 sented. This resulted in the worst disaster of 
 the whole siege. 
 
 About two o'clock on the morning of the 31st 
 of July, the gates were thrown open in silence, 
 and the detachment, 250 in number, passed 
 noiselessly out. They filed two deep along the 
 road, while two large bateaux, each bearing a 
 swivel on the bow, rowed up the river abreast 
 of them. To reach the Indian camp, the sol- 
 diers who were marching had to cross a bridge 
 over a gully, beyond which the land rose in 
 abrupt ridges. Along the summits were rude 
 intrenchments, piles of firewood, and picket 
 
162 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 fences overlooking orchards and gardens be- 
 longing to the Canadians. 
 
 The night was exceedingly dark. As the 
 EngHsh drew near the pass, they pushed rapidly 
 forward, not whoUy unsuspicious of danger. 
 The advance guard were halfway over the 
 bridge, and the main body just entermg upon 
 it, when a horrible biust of yells rose in their 
 front, and the Indians, who had been lying 
 silent as snakes behind the entrenchments and 
 fences, began firing upon them. Half the ad- 
 vanced party were shot down; the appalled 
 survivors shrank back aghast. Again the In- 
 dians poured in their voUey, and again the Eng- 
 Ksh hesitated; but DalzeU shouted from the 
 van, and in the madness of mingled rage and 
 fear, they charged at a run across the bridge 
 and up the heights beyond. Not an Indian 
 was there to oppose them. In vain the furious 
 soldiers sought the enemy behind fences and 
 entrenchments. The active savages had fled; 
 yet stUl their guns flashed thick through the 
 gloom, and their war-cry rose with undiminished 
 clamor. The order to retreat was given, but on 
 the way back a great many were kiUed by the 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 163 
 
 enemy in ambush. Altogether 59 EngUsh were 
 killed and wounded in this encounter. 
 
 StiU the fort held out, and when fall came 
 the Indians began to beg for peace that they 
 might go immolested to their winter quarters. 
 As the garrison was threatened with famine, 
 and it was impossible to procure provisions 
 while completely surrounded by the enemy, 
 Gladwyn consented to a truce, and the Indians 
 melted away, to find food during the winter for 
 themselves and their famihes. 
 
 In the spring they came back to the attack, 
 but with much less vigor than before, for they 
 had heard that an army was coming up the 
 lake to reheve Detroit. 
 
 And on the 26th of August this came — 
 Bradstreet's army of 1200 men. Well might 
 Gladwyn's soldiers rejoice! They had been 
 beset for more than fifteen months by their 
 wily enemy; and though there were times when 
 not an Indian could be seen, yet woe to the 
 soldier who should wander into the forest in 
 search of game, or stroll too far beyond range 
 of the cannon. They had been cut off for. 
 months together from all communication with 
 
164 THE BOYS' PARKMAN 
 
 other white men; shut up in a tiresome im- 
 prisonment; ill suppHed with provisions and 
 with clothing worn threadbare. No wonder 
 they hailed with dehght their return to a world 
 from which they had been banished so long. 
 The army was no sooner landed than the gar- 
 rison was reheved, and fresh troops substituted 
 in their places. 
 
 As for Pontiac, the great war-chief had re- 
 tired to the banks of the Maumee, whence he 
 sent a haughty defiance to the EngUsh com- 
 mander. Later on, he was to stir up aU the 
 tribes of the West in a struggle to retrieve his 
 broken cause; but after that he saw aU his 
 hopes in the dust, and the whole structure of 
 his plot crumbling in ruins around him. Fi- 
 nally he came to Detroit and in behalf of several 
 of the Indian nations spoke to the English am- 
 bassador, Croghan, in council. " Father," he 
 said, in part, " I declare to all nations . . . 
 that I have settled my peace . . . and now 
 deUver my pipe to Sir William Johnson, ^ that 
 he may know that I have made peace, and 
 taken the King of England for my father." 
 
 As he paddled his canoe on Lake Erie after- 
 
THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 165 
 
 wards, he probably little dreamed that within 
 the space of a single human Ufe that lonely lake 
 would be studded with the sails of commerce; 
 that cities and villages would rise upon the 
 ruins of the forest; and the poor mementoes 
 of his lost race — the wampimi beads, the rusty 
 tomahawk, and the arrowhead of stone, turned 
 up by the ploughshare — would become the 
 wonder of schoolboys, and prized rehcs of 
 antiquarians. Yet it did not need a prophet 
 to foresee that, sooner or later, the doom must 
 come. The star of his people's destiny was 
 fading from the sky; and, to a mind Mke his, 
 the black and withering future must have stood 
 revealed in all its desolation. 
 
NOTES 
 
 Page I, No. I. Chapter I. (Indian Tribes and 
 Traditions.) This chapter is taken from " The Con- 
 spiracy of Pontiac." As all of the chapters in the 
 " Boys' Parkman " are connected in one way or other 
 with Indians, their manners, customs, or fate, it has 
 seemed best to place this vivid description of Indian 
 tribes and traditions at the beginning of the book. 
 
 " The Conspiracy of Pontiac " was the first of Park- 
 man's histories to be pubHshed. John Fiske called it 
 " one of the most brUUant and fascinating books that 
 has ever been written by any historian since the days 
 of Herodotus." Its main subject, as indicated by the 
 title, is the rebeUion of the Indians, headed by Pontiac, 
 against the English, who assumed possession of their 
 country after the French and Indian War; but a good 
 part of the first volume is taken up by a general survey 
 of French, EngUsh, and Indian history in America, 
 told in a pecuharly vivid and interesting way. It is 
 hoped that the extracts given here will lead to a knowl- 
 edge of the book at first hand. 
 
 Page 2, No. I. Clans. Members of a clan are either 
 actually or theoretically blood-relations. In the Iro- 
 quoian and Muskhogean tribes the kinship was traced 
 through the female line. 
 
168 NOTES 
 
 Page s, No. i. Five Tribes. The confederacy of 
 the Iroquois was known as the Five Nations. The 
 tribes were the Senecas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Oneidas 
 and Mohawks. Later on, a kindred people, called the 
 Tuscaroras, joined them, and the confederacy was 
 called the Six Nations. 
 
 Page 6, No. i. Medusa-like. Medusa was the 
 most terrible of the three Gorgon sisters celebrated in 
 Greek mythology. A glance from her turned mortals 
 to stone. Her hair was intertwined with serpents. 
 
 Page 8, No. i. Lake Teungktoo. This is an 
 Anglicised form of the Seneca Iroquois name for Cross 
 Lake, N. Y. 
 
 Page 8, No. 2. Hill of Genundewah. This was the 
 name the Seneca Iroquois had for the hill on which 
 their capital stood. It was not far from Honeoye Falls 
 in central New York. 
 
 Page 9, No. I. Garangula. An Onondaga chief. 
 " The governor of Canada equipped an army in 1684 
 to crush the Five Nations because they interfered 
 with French trade. Sickness among the troops having 
 prevented the expedition, Governor de la Barre crossed 
 Lake Ontario to offer peace, which he sought to make 
 conditional on the restoration to French merchants of 
 the trade that the Iroquois had diverted to the English. 
 Garangula, representing the Five Nations, replied de- 
 fiantly that the Iroquois would trade with English or 
 French as they chose, and would continue to treat as 
 enemies French traders who supplied the Miami, Illi- 
 
NOTES 169 
 
 nois, Shawnee, or other tribes with arms and ammuni- 
 tion to fight them." (Handbook of American In- 
 dians.) 
 
 Page 9, No. 2. Sagoyewatha. Sagoyewatha, com- 
 monly called Red Jacket, was a celebrated chief of the 
 Seneca Indians. He received his Enghsh name from 
 the great pride he took in a scarlet jacket given him by 
 an English officer. He was considered the most elo- 
 quent speaker the Indian race had ever produced. He 
 took the part of the British during the Revolution. In 
 1784 he bitterly opposed the treaty of Fort Stanwix, 
 by which the Iroquois ceded some of their land to the 
 United States. At the time of Tecumseh's rebelUon 
 he aided the United States troops. 
 
 Page 9, No. 3. Count Frontenac. Count Fronte- 
 nac is called by Parkman " the most remarkable man 
 who ever represented the crown of France in the New 
 World. . . . Under the rule of Frontenac occurred the 
 first serious colUsion of the rival powers, (France and 
 England) and the opening of the grand scheme of mih- 
 tary occupation by which France strove to envelop 
 and hold in check the industrial populations of 
 the English colonies." (Preface to " Frontenac and 
 New France.") He waged war against the Iroquois, 
 who had reduced Canada to desolation, and against 
 the English, who were their alUes. He repeatedly rav- 
 aged the frontier towns of New England and New York. 
 
 Page 9, No. 4. General Sullivan. A major-general 
 in the Revolutionary War. In 1779 he marched into 
 
170 NOTES 
 
 western New York and defeated the Iroquois and their 
 Tory allies at Newton (Elmira). 
 
 Pageio, No. I. Denonville. The Marquis of Denon- 
 ville, governor of Canada, determined to chastise the 
 Senecas, and to that end moved up the St. Lawrence 
 with a strong force. He invited a number of chiefs 
 to a conference at Fort Frontenac, treacherously seized 
 them, and sent them to France to be worked to death 
 in the King's galleys. He also ravaged two villages of 
 peaceful Iroquois. Then he crossed Lake Ontario and 
 destroyed the towns and store-houses of the Senecas, 
 most of whom had fled. It was in revenge for his 
 treacherous actions that the Indians massacred the 
 people of La Chine, in 1689. Denonville was recalled 
 in that year, and Frontenac succeeded him. 
 
 Page 12, No. I. Cartier. Jacques Cartier, the Breton 
 mariner, discovered the St. Lawrence in 1535, while 
 seeking a highway to China, and took possession of the 
 new-found land in the name of the King of France. 
 
 Page 12, No. 2. Adventurous Englishman. The 
 reference is, of course, to the story of John Smith and 
 Pocahontas. Smith's fiery spirit, miHtary reputation 
 and sagacity made him an influence among the early 
 colonists of Virginia. He was sent on several expedi- 
 tions for forage and discovery among the Indians, and 
 in 1607 was captured by the Indian chief Powhatan. 
 He asserted in a letter to the Queen that he was about 
 to have his brains knocked out against a large stone 
 when Pocahontas, the chief's daughter, " hazarded the 
 
NOTES 171 
 
 beating out of her owne braines " to save his. His 
 story, however, has been discredited. Pocahontas 
 married John Rolfe, an EngUshman, and was taken 
 to England, where she was received with great enthu- 
 siasm as the daughter of an " American King." 
 
 Page 12, No. 3. Sassacus the Pequot. The war 
 referred to took place at the time of the early settle- 
 ment of Connecticut. The Pequot tribe was practi- 
 cally destroyed in 1637. 
 
 Page 12, No. 4. Philip of Mount Hope. Philip was 
 chief of the Wampanoags. He was prominent in the 
 Indian war against the New England colonists, begun 
 in 1675, in which 600 colonists were killed, 600 build- 
 ings burned, and thirteen towns destroyed. It is said 
 that less than 200 individuals were left of the two once 
 powerful Indian tribes engaged in the war. PhiHp was 
 captured in a swamp, where he was killed by another 
 Indian while trying to escape. His body was quar- 
 tered on a Thanksgiving Day especially appointed, and 
 his head was kept for a long time on a gibbet at Plym- 
 outh. 
 
 Pagei2, No. 5. Present day. About the year 1869. 
 
 Page 17, No. T. Manitoes. " Manitou and Oki 
 meant anything endowed with supernatural powers, 
 from a snake-skin or a greasy Indian conjurer, up to 
 Manabozho and Jouskeha." (Parkman, " The Jesuits 
 in North America," Introduction, P. 79.) 
 
 Page 19, No. I. Weendigoes. " A mythical tribe 
 of cannibals, said by the Chippewa and Ottawa to 
 
172 NOTES 
 
 inhabit an island in Hudson Bay." (Handbook of 
 American Indians. Bulletin 30, Bureau of American 
 Ethnology, Washington, D. C.) 
 
 Page 19, No. 2. Geebi. An Algonquin word for 
 spirit. , 
 
 Page 26, No. I. Chapter II. (The Discovery of 
 the Mississippi.) This chapter is taken from " La 
 Salle and the Discovery of the Great West." " The 
 Spaniards discovered the Mississippi," the author 
 says in the introduction to this book. " De Soto was 
 buried beneath its waters; and it was down its muddy 
 current that his followers fled from the Eldorado of 
 their dreams, transformed to a wilderness of misery and 
 death. The discovery was never used, and was well- 
 nigh forgotten. On early Spanish maps the Mississippi 
 is often indistinguishable from other affluents of the 
 Gulf. A century passed after De Soto's journeyings in 
 the South before a French explorer reached a northern 
 tributary of the great river." This was Jean Nicollet, 
 who was sent as ambassador to the Winnebagoes, a 
 tribe Uving near the head of the Green Bay of Lake 
 Michigan. He ventured as far as the Wisconsin River, 
 which he descended some distance. The Iroquois war 
 put a stop to exploration for a time, but in 1658 two 
 traders reached Lake Superior, spent the winter there, 
 and brought back tales of the ferocious Sioux, and of 
 the great western river on which they dwelt. Jesuit mis- 
 sionaries, pushing into the wilderness, confirmed these 
 
NOTES 173 
 
 stories. " More and more," Parkman says, " the 
 thoughts of the Jesuits — and not of the Jesuits alone 
 
 — dwelt on this mysterious stream. Through what 
 regions did it flow; and whither would it lead them, 
 
 — to the South Sea, or the ' Sea of Virginia,' to 
 Mexico, Japan, or China? The problem was soon to 
 be solved and the mystery revealed." 
 
 Page 26, No. 2. Jesuits. A Roman Catholic order 
 founded by Loyola. Bancroft says: " In Canada, 
 not a cape was turned, not a mission founded, nor a 
 river entered, nor a settlement begun, but a Jesuit 
 led the way. ' ' One of Parkman's most interesting books 
 is " The Jesuits in North America." 
 
 Page 26, No. 3. Garnier. Father Charles Gamier 
 was a Jesuit priest sent to the missions of the Hurons 
 in 1635. He was of noble birth and gentle breeding, 
 of delicate constitution and keen sensibilities, but his 
 religious enthusiasm was such that he embraced gladly 
 a Ufe of suffering and peril. He was killed by the Iro- 
 quois. (Parkman's " The Jesuits in North Amer- 
 ica.") 
 
 Page 26, No. 4. Jogues. Father Isaac Jogues was 
 a Jesuit missionary of great courage and heroism. He 
 was taken captive by the Iroquois, and " led from 
 canton to canton, and village to village, enduring fresh 
 torments and indignities at every stage of his progress. 
 Men, women, and children vied with each other in 
 ingenious malignity. Redeemed, at length, by the 
 humane exertions of a Dutch officer, he repaired to 
 
174 NOTES 
 
 France, where his disfigured person and mutilated 
 hands told the story of his sufferings. But the prompt- 
 ings of a sleepless conscience urged him to return and 
 complete the work he had begun; to illumine the moral 
 darkness upon which, during the months of his dis- 
 astrous captivity, he fondly hoped that he had thrown 
 some rays of Hght. Once more he bent his footsteps 
 towards the scene of his hA^ing martyrdom, saddened 
 with a deep presentiment that he was advancing to 
 his death. Nor were his forebodings untrue. In a 
 village of the Mohawks, the blow of a tomahawk closed 
 his mission and his life." ( Parkman's " Conspiracy 
 of Pontiac," P. 54, Vol. i.) 
 
 Page 26, No. 5. Joliet. Louis Joliet was a native 
 of the colony, having been bom at Quebec in 1645. He 
 was a well-educated man, with considerable knowledge 
 of higher mathematics, logic and metaphysics, 
 and he apparently possessed prudence and good judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Page 26, No. 6. Frontenac. See p. 169, No. 3. 
 Frontenac was noted also for his encouragement of 
 French explorations in the West. 
 
 Page 26, No. 7. Intendant. " The intendant was 
 an oflScer charged with the duty of enforcing a minute 
 system of regulations in the colony, and incidentally 
 of keeping a watch upon the governor's actions, ac- 
 cording to the universal system of surveillance for 
 which the old regime in France was so notable." 
 (Fiske's " New France and New England," P. 102.) 
 
NOTES 175 
 
 Page 27, No. I. The 17th of May. This was in 
 the year 1763. 
 
 Page 31, No. I. Calumets. The Indians had pipes 
 of various shapes and sizes, made of clay, stone, or 
 bone, but the ceremonial pipe was usually of large 
 size, in the East and Southeast of white stone, and in 
 the West of the red catHnite from the noted pipestone- 
 quarry in Minnesota. The stem was made long, of 
 wood or reed ornamented with feathers and porcupine 
 quill-work. Although frequently referred to as the 
 " peace pipe," the ceremonial pipe was in fact used 
 in the ratification of all solemn engagements, both of 
 war and of peace. 
 
 Page 38, No. I. Chapter III. (La Salle's Winter 
 Journeys.) This chapter is taken partly from the 
 summary of La SaUe's life in the " Conspiracy of Pon- 
 tiac," Volume I, and partly from "La Salle and the Dis- 
 covery of the Great West." La Salle was, without 
 doubt, one of the most remarkable of the pioneers of 
 France. He came of a wealthy and respected family of 
 Rouen, and his early training was received at the 
 hands of the Jesuits. Feeling no inclination towards the 
 priesthood, he parted from them and went to Canada, 
 where he had an elder brother, Jean Caveher, a priest. 
 He received at first a tract of land at the place now 
 called La Chine, on the St. Lawrence, above the rapids 
 of that name. Here he learned the Iroquois language 
 and several dialects of the Algonquin. After Joliet's 
 
176 NOTES 
 
 and Marquette's discovery of the Mississippi he de- 
 veloped his scheme of planting not only a town at the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, but a chain of forts connect- 
 ing Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Sault Ste. Marie 
 with the Illinois and the Mississippi. Thelntendant 
 Talon and the Governor Frontenac were also in favor 
 of this plan. 
 
 The main thing lacking was money; and 'to raise 
 this La Salle was inclined to resort to monopoly, or the 
 obtaining of the exclusive trading rights in the country 
 which he explored. This excited the anger of the fur- 
 traders, a very powerful class of men. He also incurred 
 the enmity of the Jesuits, whose service he had aban- 
 doned and whose plans ran counter to his. His stern 
 discipline also offended many lawless spirits under his 
 control. From first to last he was plotted against and 
 hampered by his enemies. 
 
 After several preUminary exploring trips La Salle 
 went to France and had an interview with the King, 
 Louis XIV, which resulted in his obtaining that 
 monarch's authority for an expedition to find the 
 Mississippi. La Salle was then placed in command 
 of Fort Frontenac, upon his promise to rebuild and 
 strengthen it. 
 
 The main traits in his character and events in his 
 career are brought out in the next four chapters. It is 
 hard to imagine more inspiring reading for young 
 people than the story of this shy, taciturn, ambitious, 
 invincibly determined and gloriously heroic explorer. 
 
NOTES 177 
 
 Page 38, No. 2. Fort Frontenac. This was about 
 where Kingston now stands. 
 
 Page 40, No. I. Tonty. See introduction to Chapter 
 IV. 
 
 Page 40, No. 2. Crevecoeur. " Heartbreak." Sel- 
 dom has a fort been more appropriately named. 
 
 Page42, No. I. 20,000 livres. This was worth about 
 $30,000 in our modem money. 
 
 Page 46, No. I. Not so many years ago. Parkman 
 wrote this about the year 1869. 
 
 Page 47, No. I. Great town of the Illinois. For 
 a description of a typical Indian town see pp. 56-58. 
 
 Page 55, No. r. Chapter IV. (Tonty's Adven- 
 tures.) This chapter is taken from " La Salle and the 
 Discovery of the Great West." Henri de Tonty was a 
 native of Naples, the son of the man who invented a 
 kind of insurance still known as the Tontine. He had 
 had one hand blown off in battle in his youth, and 
 had replaced it with an iron hand covered with a glove; 
 hence he was called by the Indians " Iron Hand." His 
 presence of mind, courage, and absolute loyalty to La 
 Salle have made him an interesting and admirable 
 figure. 
 
 Parkman says: " There are very few names in 
 French-American history mentioned with such una- 
 nimity of praise as that of Henri de Tonty. . . . The 
 despatches of the governor, Denonville, speak in strong 
 terms of his services in the Iroquois war, praise his 
 
178 NOTES 
 
 character, and declare that he is fit for any bold enter- 
 prise, adding that he deserves reward from the King. 
 The missionary, St. Cosme, who travelled under his 
 escort in 1699, says of him: ' He is beloved by all the 
 voyageurs: ... It was with deep regret that we 
 parted from him: ... he is the man who best knows 
 the country; ... he is loved and feared every- 
 where ' . . ." (Parkman's " La Salle," P. 440, note.) 
 
 For further information about him, see P. 92 of this 
 volume, and Parkman's " La Salle." 
 
 Page 55, No. 2. Secret enemy. La Salle's enemies 
 had been among the Illinois, telling them that the 
 French were instigating the Iroquois to invade their 
 country. (Parkman's " La Salle," P. 148.) 
 
 Page 58, No. I. Membre and Ribourde. These 
 were the two RecoUet friars whom La SaUe had brought 
 with him. " Though no friend of the Jesuits, he was 
 zealous for the Faith, and was rarely without a mis- 
 sionary in his journeys." (Parkman's " La Salle," 
 P- 136.) 
 
 Page 62, No. I. Wampum belt. " Wampum is the 
 name given to strings of perforated shells, usually the 
 great clam, the pearl oyster, or the Venus shell, which 
 are woven into belts of various patterns, into which 
 dates, treaties, and national events are ' talked.' " 
 (Isaac Taylor, " Alphabet," V. I, ch. i, p. 18.) 
 
 Page 67, No. I. Eat Illinois flesh. " The Indians 
 are not habitual cannibals. After a victory, however, 
 it often happens that the bodies of their enemies are 
 
NOTES 179 
 
 consumed at a formal war-feast — a superstitious rite, 
 adapted, as they think, to increase their courage and 
 hardihood." (Parkman's " Conspiracy of Pontiac," 
 V. I, 357.) 
 
 Page 71, No. I. Chapter V. (La Salle Finds the 
 Mouth of the Mississippi.) This chapter also is 
 taken from " La Salle and the Discovery of the Great 
 West." Though it bears some resemblance to the 
 account of Father Marquette's discovery of the Missis- 
 sippi, it is included because the vivid description of La 
 Salle's one successful expedition Ughtens to some extent 
 the gloomy story of his life, and because the informa- 
 tion about the historic tribe, the Taensas, is particu- 
 larly interesting. 
 
 Page 73, No. I. Membr€. See note to P. 58. 
 
 Page 75, No. i. Calumet. See note to P. 31. 
 
 Page 77, No. I. Taensas. " The Natchez and the 
 Taensas, whose habits and customs were similar, did 
 not, in their social organization, differ radically from 
 other Indians. The same principle of clanship, or 
 totemship, so widely spread, existed in full force among 
 them, combined with their religious ideas, and de- 
 veloped into forms of which no other example, equally 
 distinct, is to be found. Among the Natchez and 
 Taensas, the principal clan formed a ruling caste; and 
 its chiefs had the attributes of demi-gods. As descent 
 was through the female, the chief's son never suc- 
 ceeded him, but the son of one of his sisters; and as 
 
180 NOTES 
 
 she, by the usual totemic law, was forced to marry in 
 another clan, — that is, to marry a common mortal, 
 — her husband, though the destined father of a demi- 
 god, was treated by her as little better than a slave." 
 (Parkman's, " La Salle," 284, note.) 
 
 Page 78, No. I. Divan. The word is used here in 
 the sense of council. 
 
 Page 80, No. I. Louis le Grand, etc. " Louis the 
 Great, King of France and of Navarre, reigns; the 
 ninth of April, 1682." 
 
 Page 81, No. I. Sultan of Versailles. This refers 
 of course to Louis XIV, whose palace was at Versailles 
 and who was noted as a despotic monarch. 
 
 Page 82, No. I. Chapter VI. (The Assassination 
 of La Salle.) This account is taken from " La Salle 
 and the Discovery of the Great West." It has of ne- 
 cessity been much shortened. Part of La Salle's plan, 
 as outlined to the King, has led people to think that 
 his mind was unhinged. This was his proposal to col- 
 lect 15,000 savages at the mouth of the Mississippi, and 
 with them and his French and Abenaki followers, to in- 
 vade New Biscay, the northern province of Mexico, 
 which belonged to Spain. The impossibility of not 
 only collecting, but of keeping together such an army 
 of Indians in a march of unknown distance through 
 unknown country is obvious. Other circumstances, 
 such as his extreme suspicion, which included even 
 Henri de Tonty, his doubts at the last moment 
 
NOTES 181 
 
 whether he should sail for the Gulf or for Canada, point 
 to the conclusion that his mind had been affected by 
 the terrible strain of hardship, anxiety and loss. 
 
 Page 82, No. 2. King. Louis XIV. 
 
 Page 85, No. I. Twelfth Night. A feast-day, other- 
 wise known as the Epiphany, occurring twelve days 
 after Christmas. 
 
 Page 91, No. I. Great Bashaw. Bashaw, or pasha, 
 was a title given to Ottoman or Egyptian generals, 
 admirals or governors. It was also used to designate 
 a haughty or pompous official. 
 
 Page 92, No. I. Joutel. Joutel was a fellow-towns- 
 man of La Salle's who had accompanied him on the 
 expedition of which he became the historian. An ab- 
 stract of his narrative, under the title of " Journal 
 Historique," was published in 1713. 
 
 Page 96, No. I. Chapter VII. (The French, the 
 English and the Indians.) This summary of the 
 opposing aims and characters of the French and Eng- 
 lish in America is taken from Volume I of the 
 " Conspiracy of Pontiac." It is an extremely valuable 
 and interesting piece of writing, which cannot fail to 
 be of service to any student of American history; and 
 it is one which strikes the key-note for Parkman's whole 
 series, " France and England in North America." 
 The reason is obvious for its being inserted in this vol- 
 ume before the account of the sharp struggle which 
 marked the end of French supremacy in America. 
 
182 NOTES 
 
 Page 97, No. i. Re collet. A name given to the 
 members of certain reformed bodies of monastic orders, 
 whether of men or women, in the Roman Catholic 
 church. 
 
 Page 97, No. 2. Ursulines. A religious order for 
 women in the Roman Catholic church, particularly 
 devoted to the education of girls. 
 
 Page I02, No. i. Pawnees. The Pawnees were a 
 tribe who estabUshed themselves in the valley of the 
 Platte River, Nebraska. 
 
 Page I02, No. 2. Dahcotah. The Dahcotah In- 
 dians, commonly known as the Sioux, roamed over the 
 region now called by their name. They are con- 
 ceded to be of the highest type, physically, men- 
 tally, and probably morally, of any of the western 
 tribes. 
 
 Page 106, No. I. Baron La Hontan. Baron La 
 Hontan wrote a book called " New Voyages to North 
 America," which gives the results of his observations 
 while travelUng in this country from, approximately, 
 1683 to 1701. 
 
 Page 106, No. 2. Charlevoix. Pierre Francois Xa- 
 vier de Charlevoix was a French missionary and trav- 
 eller. He was sent by the Duke of Orleans in 1720 to 
 find the " Western Sea." He ascended the St. Law- 
 rence and the Great Lakes, and reached New Or- 
 leans by way of the Mississippi. He wrote a book 
 called " Histoire de la Nouvelle France." (" History 
 of New France.") 
 
NOTES 183 
 
 Page 109, No. I. Chapter VIII. (The Fall of 
 Quebec.) This account of the decisive battle of the 
 French and Indian War is taken from the general his- 
 torical summary ia Volume I of " The Conspiracy of 
 Pontiac." Those interested, however, should read 
 Parkman's " Montcalm and Wohe," which he re- 
 garded as his best book, and in which the subject is 
 treated in detail. John Fiske said: " Perhaps never 
 hcis there been a historic drama in which the leading 
 parts have been played by men of nobler stuff than 
 Montcalm and Wolfe." 
 
 Page 109, No. 2. Memorable war. This was known 
 as the Seven Years' War. It involved aU the European 
 powers and their colonies, and in it France and England 
 fought out their struggle for supremacy in North 
 America and India. 
 
 Page 109, No. 3. Frederick. This was Frederick the 
 Great, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. Maria 
 Theresa of Austria formed an alliance against Prussia 
 with France, Russia, Saxony and Sweden. England 
 sided with Frederick, who at once marched upon 
 Saxony, thus begiiming the Seven Years' War, which 
 changed the map of the world and brought about 
 the downfall of France in North America and 
 India. 
 
 Page 109, No. 4. Clive. Robert CUve, Baron of 
 Plassey, was an Enghsh administrator whose achieve- 
 ments laid the foundation of the British Indian Em- 
 pire. (See Macaulay's " Essay on Clive.") 
 
184 NOTES 
 
 Page no, No. i. Pitt. William Pitt, First Earl of 
 Chatham, was a famous English statesman. He en- 
 tered Parliament in 1735 and immediately gained 
 great influence on account of his oratorical ability. 
 In 1756 the King called upon him to carry on the gov- 
 ernment. A new Cabinet was formed, of which the 
 Duke of Devonshire was nominally the head, but Pitt 
 had the real power. His war policy was unusually 
 vigorous and sagacious, and under his rule French 
 armies and fleets met with signal defeats. Pitt was the 
 idol of the people, who called him " The Great Com- 
 moner." (See Green's " William Pitt, Earl of Chatham," 
 Macaulay's " Chatham," and Thackeray's " History 
 of the Earl of Chatham.") 
 
 Page 112, No I. Montcalm. Montcalm had been 
 sent in 1756 to command the French forces in America. 
 After gaining victories at Fort Wilham Henry, Ticon- 
 deroga, and other places, he was forced to retreat to 
 Quebec on account of lack of men, ammunitions and 
 provisions. He was ill supplied by the French govern- 
 ment and harassed by disaffection among the authori- 
 ties in Canada. 
 
 Page 114, No. I. Hannibal. Hannibal's invasion of 
 Italy in 218 b. c. was one of the triumphs of ancient 
 warfare. 
 
 Page 117, No. I. " Qui vive? " " Who goes there?" 
 (LiteraUy: " Who Uves? ") 
 
 Page 117, No. 2. " De la Reine." " The Queen's! " 
 
 Page 125, No. I. The capture of Montreal by 
 
NOTES 185 
 
 Amherst in the following summer put the finishing 
 touch to the conquest of Canada. 
 
 Page 126, No. I. Chapter IX. (Henry's Adventures 
 with the Indians.) This chapter is from " The 
 Conspiracy of Pontiac," Volume I. It is included, not 
 so much for its historical value, as on accoimt of the 
 lively nature of the story and the light which it 
 throws upon the generosity and devotion of the In- 
 dian character, traits not dwelt upon in the other parts 
 of this book. 
 
 Page 126, No. 2. Hostile to the English. See 
 P. 2. 
 
 Page 127, No. I. The future career marked out 
 for him. " At about fifteen years of age, in the old 
 days, throughout the entire eastern and central region, 
 the boy made solitary fast and vigil to obtain communi- 
 cation with the medicine spirit which was to be his 
 protector through life." (Handbook of American 
 Indians.) 
 
 Page 129, No. I. Waters of Lake Michigan. See 
 P. 155 and P. 156. 
 
 Page 129, No. 2. Pawnee. " How the term Paid or 
 Pawnee, as applied to Indian slaves, came into use is 
 not definitely known. It was a practice among the 
 French and English of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries to obtain from friendly tribes their captives 
 taken in war and to sell them as slaves to white settlers. 
 . . . The Pawnee do not seem to have suffered espe- 
 
186 NOTES 
 
 dally from this traffic." (Handbook of American 
 Indians.) 
 
 Page 13s, No. I. Chapter X. (The Siege of De- 
 troit.) This account is taken from the " Conspiracy of 
 Pontiac," of which it is the culminating incident. Park- 
 man's introduction to this work may well be quoted here : 
 
 " The conquest of Canada was an event of momen- 
 tous consequence in American history. It changed the 
 poUtical aspect of the continent, prepared a way for 
 the independence of the British colonies, rescued the 
 vast tracts of the interior from the rule of miUtary 
 despotism, and gave them, eventually, to the keeping 
 of an ordered democracy. Yet to the red natives of the 
 soil its results were wholly disastrous. Could the 
 French have maintained their ground, the ruin of the 
 Indian tribes might long have been postponed; but 
 the victory of Quebec was the signal of their swift 
 decline. Thenceforth they were destined to melt and 
 vanish before the advancing waves of Anglo-American 
 power, which now rolled westward unchecked and un- 
 opposed. They saw the danger, and led by a great 
 and daring champion, struggled fiercely to avert it. 
 The history of that epoch, crowded as it is with scenes 
 of tragic interest, with marvels of suffering and vicis- 
 situde, of heroism and endurance, has been, as yet, 
 unwritten, buried in the archives of governments, 
 or among the obscurer records of private adventure. 
 To rescue it from oblivion is the object of the following 
 
NOTES 187 
 
 work. It aims to portray the American forest and the 
 American Indian at the period when both received their 
 final doom." 
 
 Page 137, No. I. Hatred of the English. See 
 pp. 104, 107. 
 
 Page 139, No. I. Engages. Hired men. 
 
 Page 147, No. I. Running the gauntlet. " The 
 Iroquois, some Algonquins, and several western tribes, 
 forced prisoners to run between two lines of people 
 armed with clubs, tomahawks and other weapons, 
 and spared, at least temporarily, those who reached 
 the chief's house, a certain post, or some other goal." 
 (Handbook of American Indians.) 
 
 Page 152, No. I. Coureurs de bois. Bush-rangers, 
 or, hterally, " nmners of the woods." 
 
 Page 164, No. I. Sir William Johnson. Sir William 
 Johnson was one of the most interesting figures in 
 American colonial history. He owned a large tract of 
 land in the Mohawk Valley and, on account of his great 
 influence with the Indians, was made superintendent 
 of all the affairs of the Six Nations and other Northern 
 Indians. It was owing to him that the Six Nations 
 sided with the EngUsh instead of with the French in 
 the French-Indian War. He was also noted in war- 
 fare. (See Stone's " Life of Sir William Johnson.")