The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-04-27
OAvELiER DE La SALE.
rhe story of the Brave but Hap
less Frenchman who Found
Ihe Mississippi Just 200
Years Ago.


pean explorer to reach the valley
with his expedition, in June, 1541,
near the present site of Helena.
Crossing the river he marched to
the highlands of the White river,
and turning by way of Hot Springs,
wintered on the Washita. In the
spring of 1912 he followed the
Washita TO the Mississippi, aud
while attempting to descend the
latter was seized with fever, and dy-
ing, was buried at midnight in its
waters, in May or June, 1912. No
settlements were made by the Span
iards, nor did they use their discOv-
cry. In 1885 or 1858. Jean Nicollet,
the interpreter at Three Rivers. on
the ST. Lawrence, visited the Win
nebagoes at Green Bay, and by way
of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers,
got within three days distance of
the "great water" which he took for
the sea. In 1878, on the recommen-
dation of the Intendant Talon, Louis
Joliet, a young man of twenty-eight,
a native of Quebec, who had taken
minor orders but afterwards turned
fur-trader, was despatched to find
the Mississippi, in company with the
Jesuit, Jacques Marquette, who had
for two years been laboring among
the Huron refugees at Mackinac.
On the 18th OF May they set out
with five men, in two bark canoes
laden with maize and smoked meat,
and following NicOllets route
reached the Mississippi, near where
now stands Prairie du Chen, on the
18th of June. On the 25th they came
upon three Illinois villages on a
river, probably the Des Moines, and
having been given a friendly well
come and farewell, padded south
ward past the Missouri and Ohio to
the mouth of the Arkansas, where,
having settled the point that "the
great water of the west" was not a
sea but a river discharging into the
Cult of Mexico, they resolved to
turn back, and by way of the Illinois
river and Lake Michigan reached
Green Bay in September.
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de
La Sale, born at ROuen in 1913 of
an old and rich family of burghers,
was destined to complete the work
Of discovery. He became connected
with the Jesuits at an early age, but
left them afterwards, parting with
them on good terms, and in 1866
went to Montreal to join his brother,
a Sulpitian priest. First he founded
the seigniory of Lachlne, where he
spent some time studying the Indian
dialects and meditating following
the Ohio and Mississippi to the YER
million sea (Gulf of California;, into
which it was thought they flowed,
thus gaining a western passage to
China. In 1869 he accompanied the
Sulpitian mission to the Senecas
near Victor, and to the head of Lake
Ontario, near Hamilton, where he
parted with them and by way of
Onondaga reached the Ohio and
followed it at least TO the rapids at
Louisville, if not to point beyond
its confluence with the Missis-
sippi. In 1871, embarking on Lake
Erie, he is said to have gone round
the Michigan peninsula and followed
the Chicago and Illinois rivers to
the Mississippi, which lie descended
to the thirty-siXth degree of latitude,
but the weight of evidence does not
support the claim. With Fronte-
nae in 1878 he founded the settle
ment of Cataraqui fort Frontenac)
where Kingston now stands, where
he reigned the autocrat OF lonely
little empire, making profit of
some $4,000 livres a year from his
fur trade till 1873, when he obtained
leave to labor for five years in dis
covering the western part of New
| France, with view to finding way
10 Mexico. With that deli ghtful
liar, Father Louis Hennepin, and
his devoted lieutenant, TOnty, La
Sale set out in November, 1878, for
Niagara, where the next spring he
built a fort and constructed and
launched the Griffin Of As tons and
five guns. Embracing in this ves-
sci, August z, 1879, he sailed to
Mackinaw and Green Bay, when
he sent her back laden with furs
to satisfy his creditors-and never
to be heard of again. Amid many
hardships he circled the southern
coast of Lake Michigan, and enter
ing the ST. Joseph, pushed on tO.the
1
the great towns of the Illinois and
met with kindly welcome at
Peoria. There, in January, 1880, he
built Fort CrevecGur, the first civil
lied occupation of the present state
| of Illinois. Desperate as was his
condition. owing to the loss of the
Griffin, he at least learned that the
Mississippi was navigable to the
| sea, and that the tribes upon its
banks would welcome him, and in
March he set out for Canada with a
Mohegan hunter and four French
men to replace the articles lost with
his vessel, while Hennepin, with two
men, was sent to explore the Illinois
to its mouth and the upper Missis-
| sippi. In -sixty-five days La Sale
reached FrOntenac, and with great
difficulty obtained supplies, only to
learn, on the 22d of July, that near
" all his men had deserted Fort
| CrevecRur, plundering and dismant-
ling il. and were on their way to
FrOntenac 10 to kill him. Intercept
ing and Furnishing the marauders,
he set out, August 10, to succor Ton
ty, and found the towns of the Illi-
nois blackened waste, the Iroquols
having descended on them and mas
sacred their inhabitants by hun
dreds, and the fort deserted. Tonty,
with the four surviving Frenchmen,
he did not discover till the midsum-
mer of 1851, wheu they joined COIN
pany at Mackinac. La Sale had in
| the interim established friendly re-
lations with the Miamis and Illinois,
while Hennepin, ascending the Mis-
sissippi, had been captured by the
Sioux and taken through their coun-
try, now Minnesota, at last meeting
Du Lhut and returning to Montreal.
La Sale and Tonty set out with
their supplies, thirty men and 100
Indians, left Montreal in the late
summer of 1851, and crossing
from Toronto to Lake Slmcoe,
reahed Lake Huron in October,
and month later Fort
Miami, at the mouth of the st.
Joseph, whence, December 81, he set
out on his successful journey. They
had twenty-three Frenchmen and
eighteen Abenakis and Mohegans.
with ten squaws and three pap
pooses. From Chicago to the Des
PLANES and adown the frozen Illinois
they Jagged their cauoes, and
launched them at Lake Peoria issued
upon the Mississippi February 6. On
the. oath they landed near the third
ChicasaW Bluffs, where they built q