The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-02-18
HISTORIC SOUTH BEND
More Than Two Hundred Years
Ago LaSalle Visited Its Site,
He Being the First White Man to Set
Foot on Indiana Soil-StOry of a
Hazardous Tour of Discovery.
South Bend Tribune.

ian, alive, and should he visit South Bend
to-day as he did over forty years ago in
gathering material for his interesting BIZ
ography of La Sale, the French explorer.
he would no doubt be more favorably i'm
pressed with the town than he was then.
He wrote of South Bend in 1913 as a shabby
and uninviting place, and truthfully it was,
for at that time 1t was but an unpretentious
frontier village. To-day he would find a
busy and beautiful city Of $4,000 souls. But
while the historian might note the great
improvement made in the appearance of
the place, the increase in the spires of
its temples OF worship, its many large
schools and the domes and towers of it's
great institutions of learning near by, it's
shops, it's princely homes and
the evidence of progress, thrift, culture and
refinement on every hand, he would have
reason to severely criticise the lack of in
tereSt taken in the very event connected
with the city's history which he came here
to investigate and which he has chronicled
so faithfully in his famous works.
South Bend occupies historic ground.
Somewhere near its northern boundary is
the spot where the first white man to ex-
plore this region set foot upon the soil of
Indiana 1t was IN the year 1879, two hun
dred and fourteen years ago, that LaSalle
came up the ST. Joseph river from Lake
Michigan to the old Indian portage, crossed
over to the head waters of the kankakee
just west OF the city and went on down
that stream to the Illinois, and thence TO
the Mississippi on his hazardous tour of
discovery. There had been other Europeans
before him in the western wilderness
Fathers Allouez and Dablon and Father
Marquette, but they had reached the Missis-
sippi by the Wisconsin,, Chicago and Illinois
river routes. LaSalle. according to reliable
historians, was the first to come this way
western side of Lake Michigan with a small
party of followers in canoes, and they land
ed at Chicago. Thence came across the
lake and up the eastern shore to the mouth
called the River of the Miamis,' after
the tribe Of Indians by that name at the
time inhabiting this region.
A BOAT THAT NEVER CAME.
This was in the month of November, and
Lasalle halted at that point. remaining
there through the month to await the ar
rival of others OF his party in canoes COM
ing by another route, and also his vessel,
the Griffin, which had been sent from the
Green bay region to Quebec in Canada,
laden with furs, and which was to meet
him here for another cargo. 1t never
came; in fact, was never heard of after
leaving Green bay. LaSalle constructed a
fort on the bluffs at St joseph; and also
an interesting landmar of the town until
q few years ago, when 1t. was removed.
The explorer brought with him as a guide
through the wilderness one of the New
England Mohegan Indians. who knew the
route to get to the Mississippi by the port
age from the St. Joseph to the Kankakee.
This portage was known to the tribes all
over America as the shortest one going
from the great lakes to the great river
that flows into the gulf. Parkman, Abbott
and other historians agree that II had
been in existence for countless ages. There
traVerSed this historic trail. The march
Of civilization has obliteraJed all trace of
1t, nothing now being left to mark its
course.
The failure of the Griffin to reach the
fort at st. Joseph with supplies caused a
great deal of grumbling among LaSalle's
men, and with increased hardShips star
ing them In the face there was open mu-
tiny on the part of some against proceed
ing further. LaSalle was made of indom-
liable stuff, however, else he wuld not
have been an explorer, and, according to
Abbott's history, he called his murmuring
companions about him and addressed them
thus: II have set out to explore the Mis-
sissippi. II you abandon me 1 cannot pro-
coed. But l shall remain here with the
missionaries. You may find your way back
as you can. or disperse through the forest:
bringing the men TO time, as they had
rather trust their fate with LaSalle than
undertake to so alone, SO they resolved 10
Father Hennepin was the religious head
of the expedition, and Tonty was LaSalle's
chief lieutenant.
Il S1OI IolA(
Parkman, in his Life of LaSalle and the
Discovery of the Great West gives this
interesting account of the trip up the river
and over the portage:
ION the Sd of December the party re-
embarked, thirty three In all, in eight canoes,
and assembled the chill current OF the st;
Joseph. bOrdered with dreary meadows ana
bare, gray forests. When they approached
the site of the present village of South Bend
they looked anxiously along the shore on
their RIGHT IN find the DOrtaRe, or pain,
leading to the headquarters of the Illinois.
The Mohegan was absent, hunting, and;
unaided by his practiced eye, they passed
the path without seeing it. LaSalle landed
to search the woods. Hours passed and ne
did not return; Hennepin and T9nty grew
uneasy, disembarked, bivouacked, ordered
guns to be fired and sent out men 10 Scour
the country. Night came, but not their lost
leader. Muffled in their blankets and pow
dered by the thick-falling snow1akes, they
sat ~ruefully specializing as to what had be-
fallen him; nor was 1t ua : CLOCK Oh II ne
ing along the margin of the river. His face
and hands were besmirched with charcoal,
and he was further decorated with two
opossums which hung from his belt, and
which he had killed with a suck as they
were swinging head downwaTds from a
bough OF a tree, after the fashion of that
singular beast. He had missed his way in
the forest, and had been forced to make a
wide circuit around the edge OF a swamp
while the snow, of which the air was full,
added to his perpleXities. Thus he pushed on
through the rest of the day and the greater
part OF the night, Un, dbPuL Z % CfOCh III
the morning. he reached the river again,
and fired his gun as a signal To his party.
Hearing no answering shot, he pursued his
way along the bank, when he presently saw
the CLEAN of q fire among the dense thick
cts close at hand. Not doubling that he had
found the biVouac OF his party, he FASTENED
to the spot. To his surprise no human be-
ing was to be seen. Under a tree beside the
fire was a heap of dry grass impressed with
the form of a man who must have lied but
a moment before, for his couch was still
warm. 1t was no doubt an Indian, ambushed
on the bank, watching to kill some passing
enemy. LaSalle called out in several Indian
languages, but there was dead silence all
around. He then, with admirable GOODNESS,
took possession of the quarters he had
found, shouting to their invisible proprietor
that he was about to sleep in his bed; piled
a barricade of bushes around the spot, re-
kiadled the fire, warmed his benumbed
hands, stretched himself on the dry grass
and slept undisturbed till morning.
The Mohegan had reJolned the party be-
fore LaSalle'S return, and with his aid the
portage was soon found. Here the party
encamped. LaSalle, who was excessively
fatigued, occupied, together with Hennepin,
a wigwam covered in the Indian manner
to kindle a fire, which before daybreak set
the mats irs a blaze, and the two sleepers
narrowly escaped being burned along with
their nut.
I'm the morning the party shouldered their
canoes and baggage and began their march
for the sources of the river Illinois, some
five miles distant. Around them stretched
a desolate plain, half covered with snow
and strewn with the skulls and bones of
buffalo, while on its furthest verge they
could see lodges of the Miami Indians, who
had made this place their abode. As they