^^ . F r F r^ P ^ ^' "^

i^ I-

/

THE

LAST fre:^^ch post

THE VALLEY OF THE LITER JHSSISSII'PI

NEAR FRONTENAC, MINN.;

WITH NOTICES OF ITS COMMANDANTS.

EDWARD D. NEILL.

^'^^^^i,^

SAINT PAUL, MINN.: The Pionkkr Press Companv.

1887.

"They who make researches into an- tiquity may be said to pass often through many dark lobbies and dusky places, be- fore they come to the Aula lueia, the great hall of light; they must repair to old archives, and peruse many moulded and moth-eaten records, and so bring light as it were from darkness, to inform the present world what the former did, and make us see truth through our ancestors' eyes." — Howell's "Londinopolis,^^ London, A. D. 1657.

FRENCH POST,

Lake Pepin, Minnesota.

The recent discovery of two cannon balls, one of six-pound and the other of four-pound calibre, at Frontenac station, near Lake Pepin, Minn., renders desirable a notice of the last French establish- ment in the valley of the upper Mississippi river.

The department of trade called '• La Baye " included all the French posts between Green Bay and the Falls of Saint Anthony. Bellin, the distinojuished geographer in "Eemarques sur la carte do [ TAmeriqueSeptentrionale," published in 1755, at Paris, refers to those on the shores of the river Mississippi and its tributaries, and men- tions "Fort St. Nichoks at the mouth of the Wisconsin;" a small fort at the entrance of Lake Pepin; one above, on the opposite side of the lake; and another on the largest isle just above the lake, built in 1695, by Le Sueur. Nicholas Perrot, when commandant of the ■La Baye". district, in the autumn of 1685, ascended the Mississippi , and passed the winter at "Montague qui tremps dans I'cau," just be- l yond Black river, according to Franquelin's map, and subsequent!}' J built the fort on the east side of the lake, on the same map marked j "Fort St. Antoine." In 1689 Le Sueur was one of his associates at I Lake Pepin, and Boisguillot, for a time in charge at Mackinaw, then ; at the post on the Mississippi just above the mouth of the Wisconsin. The tirst calling of the lake, as Pepin appears in tbe journal of Le Sueur in 1700, and was perhaps given to the sheet of water in com- pliment to Monsieur Pepin^ who, in 1679, vvas with Du Luth on the shores of Lake Superior, or some other member of that Canadian family.

1. Stephen Pepin, the Sieiir de hi Fond, married .^[a^ie Boucher, theaiint of theSieurde la I'erriere.

After the year 1703, owing to the hostility of the Eenards (Fox Indians), the French abandoned all their existing posts in the "La Baye" district of the upper Mississippi, and, with the exception of a few lawless voyageurs left the country. B}' the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, France yielded to Great Britain all the country- around Hud- son's ba}', and after this the former power turned its attention to the region west of Lake Superior and the discovery of a route to the Western ocean. In July, 1717, Lieutenant La Noue' was ordered to estal)]isli a post at the extremity of Lake Superior, and to explore the chain of lakes westward, and Captain Paul Saint Pierre'- in 1718, was ordered to Chagouaniigon hay and Lake Superior. J*a- chot, an ensign, at the same time was sent to the Sioux to persmule them to make peace with the Cristinaux. Soon after Pachot's return to Saint Pierre's post at Chagouamigon, the Sioux attacked the In- <lians near Kamanistigouya' and killed seventeen, which so alarmed the Saulteurs (Ojibwa\'s) of Chagouan)igon bay that they began to prepare to go to war against the Sioux. Saint Pierre directed the officers, Pachot and Ijinctot, to visit the Sioux and censure them for their hostility to the Cristinaux, but they found that they had formed an alliance with the Renards (Foxes), and were implacable.

Pachot in a letter to the French government, dated Quebec. Oct. 27, 1722, suggested that as the Sioux were hostile to the Lake Supe- rior tribes, a trading post for their benefit should be established near the Falls of St. Anthony, and that the officer of the post Avith the traders' canoes should first proceed to Chagouamigon bay, and then to the Neouissakouete (Bois Brule) river. At that period the "Outa- batonha," or "Sciouxof the Eivers," dwelt in the valle}' of the Sainl Croix river, fit'teen leagues below Snake river. Charlevoix, a leai'ned Jesuit, in 1721, under the auspices of the French government, visited Canada and Louisiana, and upon his return urged the establishment of a trading ])ost and sending two missionaries among the Sioux to learn the language, in the belief that through their country a routi' to the Pacific ocean could be discovered. ILs suggestions were favoi--

1. Killed in 1734, by a band of Irociuois.

2. Captain Paul Lcgardeur, Saint Pierre was the son of J. Baptiste Legardeiir, who on tlu' eleventh of .Tuly, 10r>(;, married Marguerite, the daughter of the brave explorer, Jean Nicolet, tin first white man who in lG;)4-.5 visited (ireCn Bay and vicinity in Wisconsin.

3. Also written (ianianetygoya and Kamanistignya. Baraga in his Ojibway dictionary de- fines Ningitawiligweiag as the place wliere a river divides into several branches.

ably considered but delay ensued in carrying out the project, by tiie hostility of the Rcnards, Avho had killed several Frenchmen, and also refused to allow traders to pass to the Sioux through their country. De Lignery was therefore dispatched, in 172G, to confer with the tribes near Crreen Bay, and on the seventh of .Tune made a treaty with the chiefs of the Eenards (Foxes), Sakis (Sauks) and Puans (Winnebtigoes).

The way now being opened, a company to trade with the Sioux was formed, and among the associates were Jean Baptiste Boucher, the Sieur de Montbrun, Francois Boucher de Montbrun, and Francois Campeau. Campeau was a blacksmith and armorer and in the arti- cles of agreement it was provided that upon the payment of four hundred livres in coin or peltries he could work for an}' who might wish his services.

The commandant appointed to conduct the expedition was Rene Boucher, the Sieur de la Perriere, ' and a i-elative of two of the trading company. The chaplains attached were the Jesuits Louis Ignatius Guignas and De Gonor. The}' left Montreal on the sixteenth of June, 1727, and on the seventeenth of September reached the enlargement of the Mississippi, the picturesque Lake Pepin. Lnmediately Bene Boucher, the Sieur de la Perriere, selected a site upon a low point, about the middle of the lake shore, opposite Maiden's Rock and ordered the erection of a stockade of pickets, each twelve feet in length, forming a square of one hundred feet, with two bastions. Within the enclosure was a log house for the commandant, a resi- dence for the missionaries, and a storehouse,^ all of which by the last

]. The Boucher family was one of the most distinguished in Canada. Children of Gaspard, the immigranl: Pierre, governor of Tliree Rivers. Marie, wife of Stephen Pepin. Children of Pierre of Three Rivers: Pierre, born A. D. 1653.

Marie, " " 165.5 ; married Rene (Mialtier Varennes.

Jean, " " 1667; Sieur Montbrun.

Rene, " " 1668; " de la Perriere.

J. Baptiste, " " 1673; " de Niverville. Children of Rene: Tanguay gives as children of Rene; Ren6, born Jan. 10, 16it9. Jean Baptiste, born Aug. 10, 1700. Francois, born July 1-1, 1704. 2 The houses were all sixteen feet in width. One was twenly-five feet, one thirty feet, and the third, thirty-eight feet long.

6

of October was completed. The tort was named " Beauharnois," in compliment to the governor of Canada; and the missionaries called their mission "St. Michael the Archangel." Father Guignas in a let- ter from the fort writes:^ -'The fourth of the month of November we did not forget that it was the Saint's Day of the general. The holy mass was said for him in the morning, and the}' were well pre- pared to celebrate in the evening, but the slowness of the pyrotechnists and the variableness of the weather led to the postponement of the celebration to the fourteenth of the same month, when they shot off some very beautiful rockets, and made the air resound with a hun- dred shouts of 'Vive le Ro}^' and of 'Vive Charles de Beauharnois.' * * * * That which contributed a great deal to the merry making was the fright of some Indians. When these poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the stars fall from the sk}', the women and children fled, and the more courageous of the men cried for mercy, and earnestly begged that we would stop the astonishing play of that terrible medicine (medecin)."

On the fifteenth of April, 1728, the water rose so high in the lake that for several weeks it was necessarj^ to abandon the fort. During the spring the commandant ascended the Mississippi, for sixty leagues, but found no Sioux, as they had gone to war against the Mahas toward the Missouri. The missionary De Conor left at this time, and when he reached Mackinaw on his way to Montreal, found there Pierre Gualtier Varennes,' the Sieur Verendrye (Vcrandrie), who had been in command at Lake Nepigon and desired to seek for the west- ern ocean by way of Lake Winnipeg.

A year after the expedition of Sieur de la Perriere, on the fifth of June, 1728, the Sieur de Lignery left Montreal Avith a force to punish the Renards (Foxes), who continued to molest traders. During the night of the seventeenth of August he reached Green Bay, and the next day at midnight arrived at the mouth of Fox river, where Fort St. Francis^ was situated. The Renards fled at the approach of the

1. Margry. Vol. VI.

2. Hi.s mother was a sister of TSouchcr de la Perriere. He was a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 served in an expedition to New Kngland, and the ne.xt year was in New Foiindland. Desirous of distinction, he went to France and was connected with a Hretagne regiment. He attracted atten- tion by his bravery at Malplncjuet, in Septomber, 1709, where the Duke of Marlborough defeated the French. After he returned to Canada he had the rank of ensign.

3. Fort St. Francis is the name given in Crespel's Voyages.

array, abandoning everything in their villages, and retreating to the country of the Aioues (loway), beyond the Missifssippi. On the twenty-fourth of the month he reached the village of the Puans (Winnebagoes), who had also run away. Upon his return he burned Fort St. Francis, lest the Henards should return, take possession, and make war ujion the Folles Avoines, who were allies of the French. De Beaujeu was the second in command of this expedition, and was not satisfied with De Lignery's conduct.

On account of the hostility of the Indians, the post on Lake Pepin, in October, 1728, was left in charge of a youth twenty years old, Christopher Dufrost,^ the Sieur de la Jemeraye; and twelve persons, among whom were the Sieur de Bouc-herville, Jean Baptiste Boucher, the Sieur Montbrun, and the Jesuit Guignas, embarked with their goods, in canoes, for Montreal, by Avay of the Illinois river, as the hostility of the Foxes prevented the route by the Wisconsin. On the twelfth of the month, twentj'-two leagues above the Illinois river, they were captured by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, who Avere allies of the Foxes.

Among the manuscript in the Parliament library of Canada, at Ottawa, there is a communication of De Till}^ dated April 29, 1729, which mentions that '• eleven Frenchmen and Father Guignase hav- ing left the Fort Pepin to descend the river Mississippi as far as the Illinois, and to go from thence to Canada, were captured by the Mas- coutens and Quicapous, and brought to the Eiviere au Boeuf, with the intention to deliver them to the Renards, and that the fSieur de Montbrun and his brother, Avith another Frenchman, escaped from their hands the night before they Avere to be surrendered to these In- dians. The Sieur de Montbrun left his brother sick among the Tamaroides,'^ and brought the intelligence to M. le General, avoiding certain posts on the way to escape the Mascoutens and (Juicapous."

Governor Beauharnois, on the tAventy-ninth of October, wrote to the French Government: " I have the honor to report, upon what has passed upon the part of the Kickapoos and Mascoutens Avho arrested the French coming from the post of the Sioux, and the enterprise ot Sieur de Montbrun, after his escape from the village of the savages

1. He was the son of a naval officer who in H'.'.ts was in comiuand at Fort Frontenac. His mother's maiden name was Marie Gualtier, and on Pec. 7, 1707, he was born.

2. The Tamarois were a band of the Illinois Indians.

8

to bring us the news of tlit- artair. He is a pei-son zealous in the service of his majesty, and I can not refuse the request he has made ta write to you to procure his promotion. He is cadet of the troop and a most excellent officer.

The Sieur de la Jemeraye, who remained among the Sioux with some Frenchmen, left Lake Pe])in and brought the Renards' chief' to the River St. Joseph^ also deserves your protection."

Boucherville and Guignas i-emained ])risoners for several months, and the former did not reach Detroit until June, 1729. The account of expenditures made during his captivity is interesting as showing the value of merchandise at that time. It reads as follows:

" Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de Boucherville was- obliged to furnish in the serviceof the king, from the time of his de- tention among the Kickapoos, on the twelfth of October, 1728. until hia return to Detroit, in the year 172D, in the month of June. On arriv- " ing at the Kiekapoo village, he made a present to the young men to se- cure their oj^position to some evil minded old warriors — Two barrels of powder, each fift}' pounds at Montreal price,

valued at the sum of 150 liv.

One hundi'ed pounds of lead and balls making the sum of 50 liv.

Four pounds of vermilion, at 12 francs the pound 48fr.

Four coats, braided, at twenty francs SOfr.

Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen 24fr.

Four hundred flints, one hundred gun- worms, two hundred

ramrods and one hundred and fifty files, the total at the

maker's prices 90 liv.

After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to the Renards (Foxes) they wished some favors, and 1 was obliged to give them the following, which would allow them to weep over and cover their dead:

Two braided coats @ 20 fr. each 40fr.

Two woolen blankets @ 15 fr HO

One hundred pounds of powder @ 30 sous 75

One hundred pounds of lead («) 10 sous 25

Two pounds of vermilion @ 12 fr 24

1. Governor Beauliarnois, in a coiiimunication dated May fi, 17:!0, alludes to the defeat of the Renards by the allied Mcnoinonees, Ojibways and Winncbagos, and writes: " It is also confirnied by the journey taken since this last adventure by the great chief f'f the Renards to the River St. Joseph."

2. In Michigan.

Moreover, given to the Rcnuvds to cover their dea<l tuid pre- pare them for peace, fiity jwuiids of powder, malting 75fr.

One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous 50

Two pounds of vermilion @ 12 fr 24

During the winter a considerable party was sent to strike hands with the Illinois. Given at that time :

Two blue blankets @ 15 fr 30

Four men's shirts @ 6 fr 24

Four pairs of long-necked bottles @ 6 f r 24

Four dozen of knives @ 4 fr Ifi

Gun-worms, files, ramrods, and flints, estimated 40

Given to engage the Kickapoos to establish themselves upon a neighboring isle, to protect from the treachery of the Renards —

Four blankets @ 15fr 60f.

Two pairs of bottles, 6fr 24

Two pounds of vermilion, 12fr 24

Four dozen butcher knives, 61 r 24

Two woolen blankets @ 15fr 30

Four pairs of bottles @ 6fr 24

Four shirts @ 6fr 24

Four dozen of knives @ 4fr 16

The Renards having betrayed and killed their brothers, the Kicka- poos, I seized the favoi-able opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge themselves, I gave —

Twenty-five pounds of powder, @ 30 sous 37f.l0s.

Twenty-five pounds of lead, @ 10s 12f lOs.

Two guns at 30 livres each 60f.

One-half pound of vermillion 6f.

Flints, guns, worms and knives 20f.

The Illinois coming to the Kikapoos village, I supjiorted them at my expense, and gave them powder, balls and shirts val- ued at '^Of

In departing from the Kickapoos village, I gave them the

rest of the goods for their good treatment, estimated at 80f

In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, by the Canadian

gvernment, the following reference is made to Fort Beauharnois :

"They agree that the fort built among the Scioux, on the border of

Lake Pepin, appears to be badly situated on account of the freshets,

*2

10

tint tlu' Indians assure that the water rose higher than it ever did belbre, and this is credible inasmuch as it did not reach the fort this year [1729]. When Sieur de la Perriere located it at that place it was on the assurance of the Indians that the waters did not rise so high ; however, he could not locate it more advantageously in regard both to the quantity of land suitable for cultivation, and to the abundance of game. * * * As the water might possibly rise as high, this fort could be removed four or five arpents from the lake shore without prej- udice to the views entertained in building it on its present site.

"It is very true that these Indians did leave shortly after on a hunt- ing excursion, as they are in the habit of doing, for their own support and that of their families, who have only that means of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed that their absence was occasioned only by having fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie Scioux, by whom they were invited to accompany them on a war expedition against the Mahas, which invitation they accepted, and returned only in the month of July following.

"The interests of religion, of the service, and of the colony, are in- volved in the maintenance of this establishment, which has been the more necessary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when routed, Avould have found an asylum among the Scioux had not the French been settled there, and the docility and submission manifested by the Poxes cannot be attributed to any cause except the attention enter- tained by the Scioux for the French, and the offers which the former matle the latter, of which the Foxes were fully cognizant.

"It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these favorable di8i)ositions, ill order to keep the Foxes in check, and counteract the measures they might adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invariably reject their propositions so long as the French remain in the countiy, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these advantages and the importance of preserving that establishment, M. de Beauhar- nois can not take any steps until he has news of the French who asked his permission this summer to go up there with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that those who wintered there have not dis- mantled the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same sentiments. Jiosides, it does not seem very easy, in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post unless there is 9> solid peace with the Foxes; on

11

the other hand, the greatest portion of the traders who applied in 1727 for the establishment of that post have withdrawn, and will not send thither any more, as the ruptui-e with the Foxes, through whose country it is necessary to pass in order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them to abandon the idea. But the one and the other case might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all probability, come or send next year to sue for peace ; thei'efore, if it be granted to them on ad- vantageous conditions, there need be no apprehension when going to the Scioux, and another company could be formed, less numerous than the first, through whom, or some responsible merchants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty could he made, whereb}' these difficulties would be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and that is, to send a com- manding and sub-officer and some soldiers up there, which are abso- lutely necessary for the maintenance of good order at that ]iost; the missionaries would not go there without a commandant. This article, which regards the service, and the expense of which must be on his majesty's account, obliges them to apply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their power, induce the traders to meet that expense, which will possibly amount to 1,000 livres or 1,500 livres a year for the com- mandant, and in proportion for the officer under him; but, as in the beginning of an establishment the expenses exceed the profits, it is improbable that any company of merchants will assume the outlay, and in this case they demand orders on this point, as well as his ma- jesty's opinion as to the necessity of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which has already afforded proofs of its fidelity and attach- ment."

The Canadian authorities determined to send an expedition against the insolent Eenards and their allies. In March, 1730, the Sieur Marin then in command among the Folles Avoines (Menomonees), with a number of friendly Indians, moved against the Eenards and had an engagement of the "warmest character." During the month of September of the same year a force under Sieur de Villiers vanquished the tribe, and the French government was informed that "two hun- dred of their wari'iors have been killed on the spot, or burned after having been taken as slaves, and six hundred women and children were destroyed."

After the victor}'- over the Eenards steps were taken to rebuild the post on a more elevated spot near the first site on Lake Pepin. In

12

June, 1731, Sieur Linctot was appointed commandant, and Sieur Port- neuf was the next oflficer in rank. Among those now interested in trade with the Sioux were Francis Campeau, Joseph and Pierre Le Due, and the son of Linctot, a cadet. A new stockade was ordered to be constructed one hundred and twenty feet square, with four bastions, and nccommodations within for the commandant.

Linctot passed the winter of 17;U-2 at Pcrrot's first establishment ''Montague qui trempe dans lean." In the spring he ascended to the site of the post on Sandy Point, where he found a large number of Sioux who expressed satisfaction at the return of the French.

Upon the sixteenth of September, 1733, the Ilenards (Foxes) and Sakis (Sauks) appeared at Green Bay, but were put to flight by the son of Sieur de Villiers. The Sioux and Ayouais (loway) refused to protect them and they were obliged to descend the "Ouapsipinckam" river, which flows into the Mississippi above Eock Island.

Black Hawk, the celebrated Sauk chief captured in 1832, told his biographer that his people moved to that vicinity about one hundred years before, and that in 1768 he was born.

At the request of the elder Linctot he was relieved of the command opposite Maiden Rock, Lake Po])in. and in 1735, Legardeur Saint i*ierre took command. In a communication dated twelfth of October, 1736, by the Canadian authorities, is the following: "In regard to the Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have written to Sieur de Beauharnois on the tenth and eleventh of last April, that these Indians appeared well in- tentioned toward the French, and had no other fear than that of being abandoned by them. Sieur de Beauharnois annexes an extract of these letters, and although the Scioux seem very friendly, the result only can tell whether this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, for the unrestrained and inconsistent spirit which composes the Indian character may easily change it. They have not come over this summer as yet, but M. de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so next year, and to have an eye on their proceedings."

Upon the sixth of May, 1736, one hundred and forty Sioux arrived at the fort, and said they were taking back to the Puans a slave who had fled to them. Saint Pierre told them that he thought it was a large guard for one woman, and they then alleged that they were going to hunt turkeys to obtain feathers for their arrows. Contin-

13

uing their journey down the Mississippi, they met and scalped two Frenchmen. When .Saint Pierre was on a visit up the river to see about building another post, the hiwless party returned, and for four daj^s danced the scalp dance in the vicinity of the fort.

Two canoes of Saulteaux (Ojibways) arrived from La Pointe, Lake Superior, on the twenty-third of August with letters from Nolan, Legros and Bourassa, conveying the startling news that the Sioux of the Woods with a few of the Sioux of the Prairies had killed a num- ber of Verendrye's exploring party, at the Lake of the Woods.

On the fifteenth of August, 1731, arrived at the Grand Portage, near Pigeon river, the northeastern extremity of Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior. Pierre Gualtier Varennes, the Sieur Veren- drye (Verandrie), with an expedition in search of a route to the Pa- cific ocean. The second in command was his nephew, the brave youth Christopher Dufrost, the Sieur de la Jemeraye, who for a time was in charge of Fort Beauharnois. During the autumn, by difficult portages the Sieur de la Jemeraye and two sons of Verendrye reached JRainy Lake, and established a trading post, called Foi't St. Pierre.

About the middle of July, 1732, Fort St. Pierre was left, and the ex- plorers ascended to the Lake of the Woods, where they erected Fort St. Charles. During the j-ear 1733 the Sieur de la Jemeraye wont to Montreal to attend to his uncle's business, and in the beginning of March a party, conducted by the eldest son of Verendrye, moved westward and established Fort Maurepas, near the entrance to Lake Winnipeg, which in September, 1735, was in charge of Sieur de la Jemeraye, who had returned, and during the following winter two sons of Verendrj^e remained there. During the spring of 1736 Jeme- raye died at the post. Upon the eighth of June Auneau, the chaplain, and one of the sons of Vereiulrye, with some voyageurs, left the post on the shore of the Lake of the Woods to go to Mackiiuuv, and while encamped upon an island in the lake, seven, leagues from Fort St. Charles, they were surprised by the Sioux, and the whole party of twenty-one killed. Some days after, five voyageurs stopped at the island, and found the Jesuit chaplain. Auneau, with an arrow in his brain. The son of Verendrye was lying upon his back, and his flesh hacked by tomahawks. His head had Itcen removed and was orna- mented with garters and bracelets of porcupine quills.

The sixteenth of September there came to the Lake Pepin post ton

14

Indians, three chiefs, and two young slaves, bringing a quantity of beaver skins, which they delivered to Saint Pierre as a pl«dge of friendship, and declared that they had no part in the attack at the Lake of the Woods. They were then asked as to their knowledge of the killing of two Frenchmen on the Mississippi. The next day a chief came with three young men, one of whom wore in his ear a silver pendant. When asked by Saint Pierre how he obtained the ornament, he smiled but would not answer. The captain tore it from his ear, and found it was similar to those sold by the traders, and placed him under guard.

Thirty-six men and their families, on the eighteenth of December arrived and passing the Fort, visited some Puans ( Winnebagoes) en- camped in the vicinity. Ouakantape (Wah-kan-tah-pay) was the chief and quite insolent, and some of the party burned the pickets around the garden of Father Guignas, the chaplain.

The gates of the post were opened about eight o'clock of the morn- ing of the twenty-fourth of January 1737, to admit a wood cart, when some of the Sioux pushed in and defiantly behaved. Upon the twentieth of March thirty Sioux appeared from Fond du Lac Supe- rior where thej^had scalped an Ojibwa}", his wife and child. The next May a war party of Ojibways came and wished the Puans to unite with them against the Sioux. While they were parleying, five Sioux came to the Fort to trade, and were protected until night, when they were permitted to leave. An Ojibwa}' lying in an ambush, who spoke Sioux, arose and asked " Who are you ?", when the Sioux fired and escaped. In view of the hostilit}^ of the Indians, Saint Pierre, after conferring with Sieur Linctot the second in command, Father Guig- nas, and some others, on the thirteenth of May 1737, burned the post, and descended the Mississippi.

Upon the eighteenth of June, 1738, the Sieur Verendrye left Mon- treal to continue his discoveries. Ke arrived at Fort Maurepas on twenty-third of September, and ])ushed on through Lake Winnij)eg, to the mouth of the Assiniboine liiver, ascending which sixty leagues, on the thii'd of October stopped and built Fort La Reine. A lit- tle while before, the eldest son of Verendrja^ ' built a post at the mouth of the Assiniboine and Red River ol" the North, which was soon aban- doned. On a maj) of the tribes, rivers and lakes west of Lake Supe-

l. For an account of a tour to the Uocky >fountains by the sons of Verendrye, see Appendix.

15

rior, in 1737, appears Red Lake of Minnesota, the Red River, and the " Bois Fort,'' the Big Woods.

A few days after Fort La Keine was established, the Sieur de la Marque, whose family name was Marin, arrived with his brother de- siring to visit the countrj^ of the Mandans.

The Foxes in 1740 again became troublesome, and the post on Lake Pepin was for a time abandoned by the French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language: "The Marquis de Beauharnois' o]>inion respect- ing the war against the Foxes, has been the more rcadil3^ aj)proved by the Baron de Longeuil, Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Corne, de Lig- nery, La None, and Duplessis-Fabert, whom he had assembled at his house, as it appears from all the letters that the Count has written for several years, that he has nothing so much at heart as the destruc- tion of that Indian nation, which can not be prevailed on by the presents and the good treatment of the French, to live in peace, not- withstanding all its promises.

" Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a secret understand- ing with the Iroquois, to secure a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged to abandon their villages. They have one already se- cured among the Sioux of the prairies, with Avhom they are allied; so that, should they be advised beforehand of the design of the French to Avage war against them, it would be easy for them to retire to the one or the other before their passage could be intersected or them- selves attacked in their villages."

In the summer of 1743, a deputation of the Sioux came down to Quebec, to ask that trade might be resumed. Three years after this, four Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and Avished that a commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois; which Avas not granted.

During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan visited the Sioux coun- try, ordered by the government to hunt up the " coureurs des bois," and withdraw them from the country. The}^ started to return with him, but learning that they would be arrested at Mackinaw, for vio- lation of law, they ran away. While at the villages of the Sioux of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to this officer nineteen of their young men, bound with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at the Illinois. While he remained with them they made peace with the OJibways of La Pointe, with whom the}' had been at war for some time. On his return, four chiefs accompanied him to Montreal, to solicit pardon for their young braves.

16

The lessees of the tradini^ post lost inimy of their peltries that winter in consequence of a fire.

In November, 1745, Legardeur de Saint Pierre, St. Lucde la Corne, Marin and his son left Montreal to attack the English settlements in New York. Passing Fort St. Frederick, at Crown Point, on the thir- teenth of the month, by the twenty-seventh, the French and Indians were at Fort Edward. On the next da}' they crossed Fish creek, a trib- utary of the Hudson, and the combined forces under the elder Marin, attacked the settlement of Saratoga, killed Capt. Philip Schuyler and many others, took sixty prisoners, and burned nearly all the houses. They then retraced their stei)S and on the seventh of De- cember returned to Montreal. Upon the thirtieth of the same month Saint Pierre was sent again to Crown Point with a large force to surprise the frontier settlements of New York and New England. He passed the winter in alarming the English, and in April Avas again in Montreal. During the latter part of the next year he was sent to Mackinaw, whither he was accompanied by his brother Louis Le- gardeur, the Chevalier de Repentign}'.

In 1749 the Sioux earnestly entreated the elder Marin ^ to use his influence with the governor of Canada to re-establish the post at Lake Pe])in. The next year Marin was sent to the Sioux, and La Jon- quiere, the governor of Canada, directed him to proceed to the source of the Mississippi river to see if some stream could not be discovered, at the height of lands, which flowed toward the western ocean. Ma- rin's son, known as the Chevalier and cajitain of the militar}^ oi'der of St. Louis, the same year that his father went to Lake Pepin, was ordered to "La Pointe de Chagouamigon " of Lake Superior and re- mained two 3'ears, and in 1752 Covernor La Jonquiere directed him to relieve his father at the Lake Pepin post, and to prosecute discov- eries. He remained here ior two years, and on foot journeyed many leagues both in Avintcr and summer. Saint Pierre had been active in the service front the time that he evacuated the post at Lake Pepin. After the death of Sieur Verendr3'e, in December, 1749, he was com- missioned by the governor of Canada to continue the explorations toward the western ocean. He left Montreal in June, 1750, atid on

1. Pierre Paul, son of Csesar Marin, and his wife, who was the daughter of De Callieres, gov- ernor of Canada, was born March 19, 1692, and from his youth was distinguished for his boldness and energy. He was married March 21, 1718, to Marie Guyon.

17

the twenty-ninth of September reached Ruiny lake, and in a confer- ence with the Cristnaux told them that the younger Marin had been sent to the Sioux, and that he now hojied the war between the two tribes would cease.

During the winter of 1751 he Avas at Fort La Eeine on the Assini- boine river, on the twenty-ninth of May of that year, sentBouchei- de JSiverville, with two canoes and ten men, to ascend the Saskatchewan and build a post near the Rocky mountains which was called La Jon- quiere. The latter part of this 3'ear the Assiniboines and other tribes' toward the Rocky mountains showed hostilities to the French, and Saint Pierre declared that during the thirty-six years he had been among Indians, he had never witnessed greater perfid}'.

Upon the twenty-second of February, 1752, two hundred Assini- boines appeared at Fort La Reine, passed its gates, took possession of the guard house, and showed a disposition to kill Saint Pierre. Dur- ing the summer he abandoned the fort, and on the twenty-fifth of .luly arrived at the Grand Portage of Lake Superior, south of Pigeon River- The next winter he passed in the valley of the Red river, where hunt- ing was good. On the twenty-ninth of Februarj-, 1753, he received, a letter from Marin's son, who wrote that the Sioux of the rivers and. lakes deplored the attack of the Sioux of the prairies upon the Cris- tinaux the year before, and they would be pleased to hold a confer- ence at Mackinaw. This letter was not received by Legardeur Saint Pierre until the twenty-sixth of May, at the lower part of the river Ounepik (Winnipeg), and on the twenty-eighth of July he and Boucher de Niverville came to Grand Portage, below Pigeon river. Lake Su- perior. The month before, the elder Marin who had returned ironx the Sioux country, arrived at Presque Isle, Lake Erie, with an armj- of French and Indians to prevent the advance of the English into the valle}' of the Ohio river. Cutting a road thi-ough the woods of North- western Pennsylvania to a branch of the Au Bceuf, called b}^ the- p]nglish French creek, he in August, built a stockade, with pickets- twelve feet high, and placed before the gate a four-pound cannon, and in the bastions six-pounders. During the fall he was attacked with dysentery, and while sick a messenger came from Montreal, bearing for him the decoration of the cross of the military order of Saint Ijouis. He was too ill to wear it, and on the twenty-ninth of October, died.

r I

18

The following record^ has been preserved: ''In the year one thou- sand seven hundred and fifty-three, on the twenty-ninth day of Octo- ber, at four and a half in the exening, at 'Eiviere aux Boeuf' called Saint Peter, Monsieur Pierre Paul, Esq., Sieur de Marin, chevalier of royal military- order of Saint Louis, captain general, and in command of the army of Belle Hiviere (Ohio), at the age of sixty-three 3'ears, after having received the sacraments of penance, extreme unction, and the viaticum. His remains were interred in the cemetery of said fort, and during the campaign of the ]k'lle Riviere. There were pre.sent at his interment Monsieur Repentigny, commander of the above-mentioned arm}-; Messieurs du Muy. lieutenant of infantr}- ; Bonois, lieutenant of infantry; de Simblin, major of the above-men- tioned fort; Laforce, guard of the magazine."

The register is signed by a priest of the Recollect Franciscans, ■chaplain of the fort Fr. Denys Baron.

Saint Pierre arrived at Montreal from the distant west on the seventh da}'' of October, and on the third of N^ovember the Marquis du Quesne wrote to the Minister of war in France that he had sent the Sieur de Saint Pierre to succeed Marin in the command of the Army of the Ohio. He did not reach the stockade at French creek until the first week in December, and seven days after his arrival, ■came young George Washington with a letter from Governor Din- widdle, of Virginia. After courteous treatment from Saint Pierre for several days he was sent back with the following note:

'•Sir: As I have the lionor to be here the commander-in-chief M- Washingtort delivered to me the letter which y(ni wrote to the com- mandant of the French troo])s. 1 should have been pleased that you had given him order, or that he had been disposed to go to Canada to see our General to whom it better belongs, than to me, to set forth the evidence of the incontestable rights of the King, my master, to the lands along the Ohio, and to refute the pretentions of the King of Great Britain thereto. I shall transmit your letter to M. the Marquis ■du Quesne. His reply will be law to me, and if he shall order me to communicate with you, you may be assureil that I shall not fail to act promptly.

As to the summons you send me to retire, I do not think I am obliged to obey. Whatever may be j^our instructions, I am here b}^ order of my general, and 1 beg you not to doubt for a moment but that I am determined to conform with the exactness and resolution

1- LambiDg's Fort Duqueme Regitlers.

19

which becomes a good officer. I do not know that in the progress of this campaign anything has passed which can be regarded an act of hostilit}', or contrary to the treaties between the two crowns, the con- tinuation of which pleases us as much as it does the English. If you had been pleased to enter into particulars as to the facts which caused your complaint, I should have been honored to give as full and satis- factory reply as possible.

I have made it a duty to receive M. Washington with the distinc- tion due on account of your dignity, and his personal worth. I have the honor to be, Monsieur, your very humble and very obedient ser- vant, Legardeur De Saint Pierre.

At the Fort of the Eiver aux Boeufs, the 15 December, 1753.

Eight weeks after the defeat of Braddock, in 1755, commenced another struggle between the troops of England and France. In the advance of the latter, at the head of the Indian allies was Le- gardeur de Saint Pierre. On the eighth of September a battle took phxce near the bottom of Lake George. The conflict was desjicrate, on the side of the English fell Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams college, Massachusetts; while upon the part of the French Legardeur de Saint Pierre was fatall3' wounded. His last words were : ^ ■"Fight on boys, this is Johnson not Braddock."

In 1755, Marin, the son of the commander who died at French •creek, Pennsylvania, was again sent by Governor Du Quesne to com- mand the department " La Baye." The next year, with sixty Indians, he was fighting the English in New York, and in 1757 was engaged in the capture of Fort William Henry, and attacked with great bold- ness Fort hidward. He was also present in 1758, at Ticonderoga.

Louis Legardeur the Chevalier de Kepentigny was the brother oi Captain Saint Pierre, and, in 17-19, an officer under him at Mackinaw. In 1750 he built a trading establishment one hundred and ten feet square, at his own expense at Sault Ste. Marie, and also began a farm. In 1755, he served with his brother at the time of his death, and in 1758 was with Montcalm at Quebec. At the battle of Sillery, 1760, he was at the head of the French centre, and with his brigade resisted the English, the only brigade before whom the foe did not gain an inch. He was taken prisoner in 1762, and two j'-ears later visited France. From 1769 to 1778 he was commandant at Isle of Ehe, and then for four years at Guadeloupe. After this ho was governor of

1. stone's Sir Will. Johnson, vol 1, page 51('i.

20

Senegal, Africa, and on the ninth of October, 1786, died in Paris v.-hile on furlough.

St. Luc de la Corne tookchargeof the posts beyond Lake Superior, after Saint Pierre was recalled, and on the third of September, 1757,^ married Marie the Avidow of his predecessor.

During the war of the English colonies for independence. La Corne, was in the service of the British king. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Page, of Virginia, dated Philadelphia, Oct. 1P>. 1775, alludes to him: '-Dear Page: We have nothing new from England, or the camp before Boston. By a private letter this day to a gentleman of con- gress from General Moiitgomerv we learn that our forces before St. John's are 4,000 in number, besides 500 Canadians, the latter of whom have repelled with great intrepidity three different attacks from the fort.

"We apjn-ehend it will not hold out much longer, as Monsieur St> Luc de la Corne, and several other principal inhabitants of Montreal^ who have been our great enemies, have offered to make terms. This St. Luc is a great Seigneur amonst the Canadians, and almost abso- lute with the Indians. He has been our most bitter enemy. He is acknowledged to be the greatest of all scoundrels. To be assured of this I need onlj' to mention to you that he is the ruffian who, during the late war, when Fort William Henry was surrendered to the French and Indians on condition of saving the lives of the garrison, had every soul "murdered in cold blood."

A descendant of one of the commandants at Lake Pepin, however, adhered to the Americans. Depe3'ster, the British commander at Mackinaw, under date of April 12, 1781, wrote to the Delaware In- dians: '• Send me that little balibling Frenchman named Monsieur Linctot, he who poisons your (y.xrs, one of those who says he can amuse you with words ; only send him to me, or be the means of get- ting him, and I will then put confidence in you. * * * * sic If you have not the opportunity to bring me the little Frenchman, you may bring me some Virginia prisoners. I am pleased when I see what you call live meat, because I can speak to it and get infor- mation."'

The post ojiposite Maiden's Kock, Lake Pepin, was never occupied after the surrender of Canada to the British. The first English troops entered Minnesota by way of Lake Superior. Major Thomp-

21

son Maxwell, in his jonrnal, nionlions that in May, 17G2, he an-ivcdat Grand Portage, now in Minnesota, with a few soldiers, as a guard to the goods of traders. Captain Jonathan Carver, the first British traveler in Minnesota, in 17G6, observed "the ruins of a French fac- tor}' where, it is said, Capt. St. Pierre resided, and carried on a very great trade with the Naudowessies before the reduction of Canada."

Lieut. Z. M. Pike, the first officer of the U. S. Army to pass through Lake Pepin, in 1805, reached "Point du Sable" or Sandy Point, on the same day of the same month as La Perriere in 1727 arrived. lie writes "The French, under the government of M. Frontenac, drove the Eeynards or Ottaquamies from the Wisconsin, and pursued them up the Mississippi, and as a barrier built a stockade on Lake Pepin, on the west shore just below Point du Sable, and, as was generally

the case with that nation blentled the military and mercantile profes- sions by making their fort a factor}' for the Sioux."

The point in the engraving without a house is Santly Point. A short distance from the point, near the mouth of what Pike on his map calls Sandy Point creek, there is an elevated ]tlateau from which there is an extensive view. There is evidence that there has

22

been lony; ago a clearing made there, and as it is. the most suitable spot in the vicinity for a stockade,, and visible to any one coming in a canoe from the direction of Lake City, it was probabl}- the site of a French post. The Indian trail to the head of the lake ran through the valle}' of the creek and passed Frontenac station, where the two- cannon balls were recently found. They may have been bui-ied by the Indians as "wakan" or supernatural.

APPEXDIX.

In an article from the pen of the writer upon Sieur Verendrye and sons, published in 1875, there were some erroneous inferences. Since then the itinerary of Verendrj^e's sons of their journey to the Eocky mountains has been published, and it is now more easy to trace the i-oute of the explorers.

On the tenth of April, 1739. Verendrye sent his son. the Chevalier, to look out for a site for a fifth post, north of La Reine, at the Lake of the Prairies, which was built and called Fort Dauphin, and at a later period a sixth post was established at the Saskatchewan (Pas- koyac) river, and named Fort Bourbon. The father passed the sum- mer of 1740 at Montreal and Quebec, but on the thirteenth of October returned to Fort La Reine.

The two sons of Verondrye left Fort La Reine on an exploration towai'd the Rocky mountains on the twenty-ninth of April, 1742, and on the twenty-first of May reached the Mandan villages, on the l)anks of the Missouri river. Here they rested two months, and from thence traveled for twenty days west-southwest, probably in the valley of the Yellowstone river. Moving south-southwesterly about the mid- dle of Sc])tember they arrived in a village of Beaux Ilommes, and re- mained Avith them until the ninth of November, when again proceed- ing south-southwesterly, on the twelfth day they came to a village of Petite Cerise. From thence they marched to a Pioya village, and con- tinuing southwesterl}- arrived at a village of the '• Gens des Chevaux," which had been destroyed by the Snake Indians. Here guides were obtained to lead them to the " Gens de I'Ai'C," and on the eighteenth

23

of November they reached a vlllace of "Gens de la Belle Riviere,"" and three days later found the Arcs.

From this point they journeyed generally in a southwesterly course, but sometimes moved northwesterly. On the first of January, 1743, the first view of the mountains was obtained. Under the guidance of an Are chief they marched, and on the twelfth day halted anion ti- the mountains, as the Arcs were unwilling to proceed further owinc to the hostility of the Snake Indians.

Coquard, a priest who had been associated Avith Verendrye, mentions that his sons found falls of water, probably the Yellowstone Falls, and that thirty leagues beyond (au-dessus), they found a narrow pass ; also between the mountains and the Missouri (Yellowstone tributary?) there is the outlet of a lake.

Bougainville wrote that southwest of the river Wabick or La Coquile, on the banks of La Graisse river are the Hactanes, or Snake tribe Avho stretch to the base of a chain of mountains which has a northeasterl}' trend and that south of this is the Karoskiou river or Cerise Pelee, which flows toward California.

An examination of anj" good modern map Avill show that the head waters of Green river, a branch of the Colorado Avhieh empties into the Gulf of Califoi'nia, rise near Fremont's Peak. Some of the Snake Indians in Texas are still called Hictans.

Eeturning from the Kocky Mountains, the Verendr^-e brothers oi> the ninth of February, 1743, came to the first of the Arc villages, and on the fifteenth of March they met some of the Petite Cerise tribe, and on the nineteenth arrived at their post on the banks of the Mis- souri. Upon an eminence in the vicinit}' they placed a lead plate with the arms of the king of France, and over it stones in the form of a pyramid in honor of the governor of Canada. Pursuing a course generally to the northeast, they reached the Mandan country on the eighteenth of Ma}", and on the twenty-seventh passed the Butte in the Assiniboine region. To the joy of their father, the sons reached Fort La Peine on the second of Julj'.