History of the Ojibway Nation/Neill

by Edward Duffield Neill

 

HISTORY OF THE OJIBWAYS,

AND

THEIR CONNECTION WITH FUR TRADERS,

BASED UPON OFFICIAL AND OTHER RECORDS.

BY
Rev. EDWARD D. NEILL, A.B.,
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
HON. VICE-PRESIDENT NEW ENGLAND HIST. GEN. SOCIETY.

 

 

HISTORY OF THE OJIBWAYS,

AND

THEIR CONNECTION WITH FUR TRADERS,

BASED UPON OFFICIAL AND OTHER RECORDS.

 

---

 

The entrance to Lake Superior is obstructed by a succession of rapids, first called by traders Sault, or in modern French, Saut du Gaston, in compliment to Jean Baptiste Gaston,^[1] the younger brother of Louis the Thirteenth, but in 1669, named by Jesuit missionaries, Sault de Sainte Marie. Here, the French traders arrived in the days of Champlain, and found a band of Indians, who largely subsisted upon the white fish of the region, and were known among the Iroquois, as Estiaghicks or Ostiagahoroones. By the Hurons they were called Pauotigoueieuhak, dwellers at the falls, or Pahouitingouachirini, men of the shallow cataract.^[2] In the Jesuit relations of 1647–8 mention is made of the Paouitagoung, in these words: "These last, are those whom we call the nation of the Sault, distant from us a little more than a hundred leagues, whose consent to a route, it would be necessary to have, if one wished to go beyond, to communicate with numerous other more distant Algonquin nations, who dwell upon the shores of another lake [Superior] still larger than the Mer Douce [Huron], into which it discharges itself, by a very large, and very rapid river, which before mingling its waters with our fresh-water sea [Lake Huron], makes a fall or leap that gives a name to those people, who come to live there during the fishing season."^[3]

 

MEANING OF THE WORD OJIBWAY.

This tribe, however, called themselves Achipoué or Ojibway.^[4] The origin of the name has not been satisfactorily determined. Schoolcraft writes: "They call themselves Ojibwas. Bwa in this language denotes voice. Ojibwamong signifies Chippewa language or voice. It is not manifest what the prefixed syllable denotes."

Belcourt, for many years a Roman Catholic missionary among the Indians of the Red River of the North, writing of the word Odjibwek, uses this language: "This word has been the object of a great many suppositions. Some say it was given on account of the form of their plaited shoes, teibwa, plaited, but this interpretation is not admissible, for the word does not contain the least allusion to shoes. Others say that it comes from the form the mouth assumes in pronouncing certain words, wishing always to hold on to the adjective, teibwa; this is not more satisfactory. I would venture, then, to say that the word Odjibwek comes from shibwe in order to make a proper name. Oshibwek, in the plural, the pronouncing slowly of shib (root), to draw out; that is to say, to lengthen out a word by the slow pronunciation of its syllables; the particle we signifying articulate, pronounce; the k is an animated plural, which here can only be applied to men. In truth the pronunciation of the Saulteuse characterizes them in an eminent manner."^[5]

The "Men of the Shallow Cataract" lived where the "noise of many waters" sounded like a voice or hoarse murmur, and as the discharge from Lake Superior was contracted, into the narrow shallow channel, the waters became ruffled or puckered. Gov. Ramsey, of Minnesota, in 1850, in a report to the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes as to the word Ojibway: "As there is no discernible pucker in their voice, or mode of speaking, a more natural genesis of the word could probably be derived from a circumstance in their past history. Upwards of two centuries ago they were driven by the Iroquois, or Six Nations of New York, into the strait of Mackinaw, where Lake Huron, Michigan, and Superior, are "puckered" into a small channel or narrow compass."

 

BRULÉ, EARLY VOYAGEUR TO LAKE SUPERIOR.

Stephen Brulé, one of the reckless and enterprising voyageurs under Champlain, in A.D. 1618, appears to have been the first man who brought to Quebec a description of Lake Superior, as well as a specimen of its copper. On Champlain's Map of 1632, appears Lake Superior, and in the accompanying description Sault du Gaston is described as neariy two leagues broad, and discharging into Mer Douce (Lake Huron).

 

NICOLET, FIRST EXPLORER WEST OF GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN.

On the 4th of July, 1634, another person,^[6] Jean Nicolet, in the service of the fur company known as the "Hundred Associates," of whom Champlain was the agent, left Three Rivers, on his way to the upper lakes, and during the next autumn and winter became acquainted with the Ojibways at Sault du Gaston, and the Ochunkgraw or Winnebagoes of Green Bay.

In 1641, the Hurons, then living on the east side of the lake which bears their name, gave a great feast, at which several tribes were present, and there the Jesuit missionaries saw for the first time the Ojibways.

Year after year, the adventurous fur traders became better acquainted with the tribes of the Upper Lakes. Father Le Mercier,^[7] in a letter dated at Quebec, the 21st day of September, 1654, alludes to a flotilla of canoes guided by traders, loaded with furs belonging to friendly Indians, who came from the west, a distance of four hundred leagues. In the same relation, it is mentioned, that if a person could be found, who would send thirty Frenchmen into that country, not only would they gain many souls to God, but they would receive a profit that would surpass the expenses they would incur for the support of the Frenchmen that might be sent, because the finest peltries came, in the greatest abundance, from those quarters.

In August, 1654, while those Indians were trading at Quebec, thirty young Frenchmen equipped themselves to return with them, and engage in the fur trade, but after they commenced their journey were driven back by the Iroquois.

 

GROSEILLIERS AND RADISSON THE EARLIEST EXPLORERS OF MINNESOTA.

The great impulse to trade with the natives of Lake Superior was given by the explorations of two natives of France, Medard Chouart, afterwards called Sieur des Groseilliers, and his brother-in-law, Pierre d'Esprit, the Sieur Radisson.^[8]

They were the first to push to the head of Lake Superior, and after visiting the Tionnontantes Hurons, who had fled from their enemies to the vicinity of the headwaters of the Black and Chippeway Rivers in Wisconsin, they wintered with the Dahkotahs or Sioux, west of Lake Superior, in the Mille Lacs region of Minnesota.

During the spring and early summer they became familiar with the shores of Lake Superior, and upon Franquelin's Map of 1688, what is now Pigeon River, and a portion of the boundary between the United States and Dominion of Canada, is called Groseilliers.^[9] On the 19th of August, 1660, Groseilliers, by way of the Ottawa River, reached Montreal, with three hundred of the Upper Algonqnins. He had left Lake Superior with one hundred canoes, but forty turned back, and the value of the peltries was 200,000 livres. From that time traders gathered at Sault Ste. Marie, Keweenaw, and Chagouamigon Bay. In a few days the furs were sold, and on the 28th Groseilliers left "Three Rivers," and again turned his face westward, accompanied by six traders, and the first missionary for that region, the aged Menard, and his servant Jean Guerin. The party passed Sault Ste. Marie, and on the 15th of October, 1660, were at Keweenaw Bay,^[10] and here Menard spent the winter. Several Frenchmen engaged in fishing and trading, also, were at this point.

 

FIRST TRADERS AT CHAGOUAMIGON BAY.

Groseilliers returned to Canada in 1662, and on the second of May, with ten men, left Quebec, to extend his explorations toward Hudson's Bay.^[11] The presence of traders attracted the the Ojibways to Keweenaw, and the refugee Hurons and Ottawas were drawn from the Ottawa Lakes, in the interior of Wisconsin, to Chagouamigon Bay, where a trading post had also been established.

Here the latter fished, hunted, and cultivated Indian corn and pumpkins. Upon one occasion, about the year 1660, while on a hunting excursion, they met a party of Ojibways with some Frenchmen on their way to Chagouamigon, to trade. A war party of one hundred Iroquois came not long after to Sault Ste. Marie, and encamped about five leagues above the rapids. Some Ojibways, Ottawas, Nepissings, and Amikouëts were in the vicinity engaged in catching white fish and hunting in the forests. Two of their number discovered the smoke of the Iroquois encampment, and informed the Ojibway chief, who sent a canoe of warriors to reconnoitre.

 

CONFLICT AT IROQUOIS POINT, LAKE SUPERIOR.

Under the cover of a dense forest, they advanced and discovered the number of Iroquois, and came back and reported. The Ojibways and allies then marched by night and arrived near the Iroquois, and hid behind a ridge of earth. The dogs of the enemy were kept from barking, by throwing food at them,^[12] and as soon as it was sufficiently light they gave the war-whoop. The Iroquois roused from sleep, wished to seize their arms, but could not face the discharge of arrows. The Ojibways then, tomahawk in hand, entered the tents of their ancient foes, slaughtered many, and were elated with their complete victory. After this, the Ojibways and their allies visited Keweenaw, and Chagouamigon.^[13]

 

THE VOYAGEURS OF GROSEILLIERS DISCOVER COPPER.

Some of the voyageurs who left Montreal, in 1660, with Groseilliers, did not return until the summer of 1663, and were the first to give an extended account of Lake Superior. Pierre Boucher, an honored citizen of Canada, in a little book published in Paris, in 1664, mentions that a large island full of copper, had been discovered in the western extremity of Lake Superior. He also wrote: "There are other places, in that neighborhood, where there are similar mines, as I have learned from four or five Frenchmen, lately returned from there, who went with a Jesuit Father [Menard, who died in the summer of 1661, toward the sources of the Black River of Wisconsin]. They were gone three years, before they could find an opportunity to return. They told me they had seen a nugget of copper, at the end of a hill, which weighed more than eight hundred pounds. They said that the Indians, as they pass it, make fires on top of it, and then hew pieces out of it with their axes."

 

FATHER ALLOUEZ ACCOMPANIES TRADERS.

In 1665, some of the French traders, with Indians of the Upper Lakes, came to Quebec, to trade, and Father Allouez was invited to return with them. In his journal^[14] he writes: "The eighth day of August of the year 1665, I embarked at 'Three Rivers,' with six Frenchmen, in company with more than four hundred savages of divers nations, who were returning to their homes, after having finished their traffic." The month of September was passed in coasting along the southern shore of Lake Superior, or Tracy, as it was then called. On the 1st day of October, the party reached Chagouamigon. Allouez describes it, as "a beautiful Bay, at the bottom of which is situated the great village of the savages, who, there, plant their fields of Indian corn, and lead a stationary life. They are there, to the number of eight hundred men bearing arms, but collected from seven different nations, who dwell in peace with each other." In another place, Allouez writes: "This quarter of the lake where we have stopped, is between two large villages, and as it was the centre of all the nations of these countries, because fish are abundant there, which forms the principal subsistance of this people. We have erected there a small chapel of bark." Franquelin's Map of 1688 places a settlement near the southwestern extremity of the bay. There was no village on the island near the entrance.^[15]

 

BANDS IN A.D. 1665, AT CHAGOUAMIGON BAY.

Among the refugees from the Iroquois at this time at Chagouamigon Point were the Tionnontateheronnons, formerly called Hurons of the Tobacco Nation, the three bands of Ottawas, Ottawa Sinagos, and Kis-ka-kons.^[16] There also came to trade the Ousakis^[17] (Sauks) and Outagamis (Foxes), an allied people who spoke a difficult Algonquin dialect. The Illinois came, moreover, to this place from sixty leagues southward; and, wrote a missionary, far "beyond a great river that discharges itself as near as I can conjecture, into the sea towards Virginia," Here too was occasionally encamped the Ojibways. As the fear of the Iroquois subsided, some Hurons returned to the Bay of the Puants (Green Bay), and others went back to Sault Ste. Marie, and there, in 1669, the missionaries resolved to make their principal residence at the foot of the rapids.

 

FIRST MISSION HOUSE AT SAULT STE. MARIE, A.D. 1669.

The voyageurs, at this early period, congregated here, amounted to twenty or twenty-five, and the Jesuits constructed a square of pine and cedar pickets, twelve feet high, with a small log chapel and house within the inclosure.

Gallinée, a Sulpitian priest, who had been with La Salle on Lake Erie in May, 1670, visited the post,^[18] and thus described the Ojibways: "The Saulteux, or in the Algonquin, Paouitikoungraentaouak, or the Outchipoué, where the Fathers are established, from the melting of the snow until the commencement of winter, dwell on the banks of a river about a half league in breadth, and three leagues in length, where the Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron. Here the river is abundant in fish, called white, in the Algonquin, Attikamegue."

In 1671, the frail bark chapel at Chagouamigon Bay was abandoned, and missionaries did not again reside in that vicinity, until after one hundred and fifty years.^[19]

 

CHAGOUAMIGON BAY MISSION ABANDONED.

The "Relation of 1670–71," alluding to the mission at the extremity of Lake Superior, describes a difficulty with the Dakotahs or Sioux: “Our Outaonacs and Hurons of the Point of the Holy Ghost have to the present time kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs having become embroiled during last winter, and some murders even having been committed on both sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that the storm would soon burst upon them, and judged that it was safer for them to leave the place, which in fact they did in the spring, when they retired to the Lake of the Hurons."^[20]

 

CONVOCATION OF A.D. 1671, AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

To prevent Groseilliers, now in the employ of the English at Hudson's Bay, from drawing the Indians of Lake Superior thither for trade, Talon, the Intendant of Canada, in September, 1670, invited Nicholas Perrot, well acquainted with the Upper Algonquin tribes, to act as guide and interpreter to his deputy Simon Francois Daumont, known in history as the Sieur Saint Lusson. In the spring of 1671, in accordance with a notification from Perrot, the tribes of the Upper Lakes began to move toward Sault Ste. Marie, and there on the 14th of June, Saint Lusson formed a treaty of friendship with the "Achipoés" or Ojibways and many other tribes.^[21]

When the Hurons fled to Lake Huron, from Lake Superior, the Ojibways occupied their hunting grounds, and pressed west of Lake Superior, and descended to the Mississippi, by way of the river in Wisconsin which still bears their name,^[22] but it was not till the French, in 1692, reestablished a trading post at Chagouamigon that it became an important Ojibway village.

 

TRAGEDY AT SAULT STE. MARIE, A.D. 1674.

In 1674, some Sioux warriors arrived at the Sault to make peace with the adjacent tribes. While there an Indian assassinated one of the Sioux, and a fight ensued. Nine of the Sioux were killed, and the two survivors fled to the Jesuits' house for safety, where they found arms, and opened fire upon their foes. The Indians of the Sault wished to burn them, with the house, which the Jesuits would not allow, as many peltries were stored there. Louis Le Bohesme, or Boeme, the armorer and blacksmith of the mission, at length allowed a cannon to be fired at the house, by which the Sioux were killed.

Governor Frontenac was indignant at Le Boeme's course, and reported the case to Colbert, the Colonial Minister of Louis the Fourteenth.

 

HENRY TONTY AND LA SALLE AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

Henry Tonty was sent in September, 1679, by La Salle to arrest some deserters who were trading at Sault Ste. Marie, and had induced Louis Le Bohesme, the lay brother of the Jesuits, to conceal their peltries in the mission house. Two years afterwards La Salle visited the place, to obtain his peltries. Father Balloquet told him that there was a large number of similar skins in the loft, above the chapel, and if he could prove which were his, he could remove them. La Salle with some sharpness replied, "That he feared he might be excommunicated if by mistake he took peltries which he could not distinguish from his own,"^[23] and returned to Mackinaw.

 

DU LUTH VISITS OJIBWAYS OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

After the great council at Sault Ste. Marie, the number of traders increased around Lake Superior. Frontenac, Governor of Canada, sent his engineer Raudin to the extremity of the lake with presents, to conciliate the Sioux and Ojibways, and on the 1st of September, 1678, Du Luth who had been a gendarme in his French majesty's guard, at the battle of Seneffe in 1674, left Montreal for Lake Superior, with three Indians and three Frenchmen. He wintered in the woods about nine miles from Sault Ste. Marie, and after the ice disappeared in the spring of 1679, he proceeded to the head of the lake, and was the first person to erect a trading post at Kaministigoya, not far from the Fort William, which at the beginning of the present century, was built by the Northwest Company. During the year 1679 the Sioux and Ojibways were on friendly terms, and Du Luth^[24] with some Ojibways visited the former. La Salle mentions that "the Sauteurs [Ojibways] who are the savages who carry peltries to Montreal, and who dwell on Lake Superior, wishing to obey the repeated words of the Count [Governor Frontenac] made a peace to unite the Sauteurs and French, and to trade with the Nadouesioux situated about sixty leagues west from Lake Superior."

In June, 1680, Du Luth not satisfied with his visit to the Sioux country by land left his stopping place eight leagues above the Nemitsakouat, now Bois Brulé River, with two canoes, and an Ojibway guide, a Sioux, and four Frenchmen. Ascending the Bois Brulé, by breaking down many beaver dams, he reached its sources; and then, by a short portage, reached the lake from which the River Saint Croix flows, and descended this stream to its junction with the Mississippi, and by way of the Wisconsin, in the spring of 1681 reached Quebec, after an absence of two and a half years. In the fall of 1682, he went to France, and wrote there a memoir, early in 1683, which Harrisse was the first to print, and which Shea has translated and appended to his edition of Hennepin's Louisiana, both of whom, in giving 1685 as the date of its composition, have fallen into error.

As soon as Du Luth returned from France, in 1688, he hastened to Mackinaw with a number of canoes, and on the 8th of August left that post with thirty men, with goods for trading with the Sioux, and proceeded towards the Mississippi by the Green Bay route. Father Engelran, in a letter from Mackinaw on the 26th of August, to Governor De la Barre, writes:^[25] "The result from such an expedition will be of no little importance, if we can only prevent a rupture between the Outagamis [Foxes] and Sauteurs [Ojibways]." Du Luth is supposed to have erected the post upon the borders of the Sioux and Ojibway country at the portage at the head of the Saint Croix River, which on Franquelin's Map of 1688 is called Fort Saint Croix.

In a few months Du Luth had returned to Mackinaw, and soon was called upon to make an impressive exhibition of the majesty of the French law among the Ojibways.^[26]

 

EXECUTION OF OJIBWAYS BY DU LUTH.

During the summer of 1683, Jacques Le Maire and Colin Berthot were surprised by three Ojibways, while on their way to trade at Keweenaw, and murdered. Their bodies were thrown into a marsh, and covered with pine boughs to keep them from floating, and the merchandise in their canoes was hidden at different points in the woods. On the 24th of October, Du Luth was informed that Folle Avoine, one of the murderers, had arrived at Sault Ste. Marie with fifteen families of Ojibways, who had fled from Chagouamigon from fear of the Sioux. The French at Sault Ste. Marie, twelve in number, had not arrested him, because the Ojibways had declared that they would not allow the French to redden the land of their fathers with the blood of their brothers. Immediately Du Luth resolved to go to the Sault and seize the assassin. At dawn of the next day he embarked with two canoes. In one was the Jesuit missionary Enjalran, Chevalier Fourcelle, Cardonniere, and Du Luth; in the other, Baribaud,^[27] Le Mere, La Fortune, and Maçons. A league from the Sault, Du Luth and party left the canoe, and through the woods walked to the mission house to prevent the guilty one from escaping, and soon arrested him, and placed him under a guard of six Frenchmen.

Peré,^[28] the expert voyageur, who is supposed to have been the same person who discovered that the river Perray, a tributary of Lake Nepigon, was a good route to Hudson's Bay, was sent to Keweenaw to capture the other murderers. During his absence Du Luth held councils with the Ojibways and told them that they must separate the guilty from the innocent or the whole nation would suffer. They accused Achiganaga and his sons, but believed that Peré would never be able to take them.

At ten o'clock of the night of the 24th of November Peré came through the forest, and said that he had arrested Achiganaga and four of his sons, all of whom were not guilty, and that Folle Avoine already at the Sault was the most guilty. Peré found at Keweenaw eighteen Frenchmen who had passed the winter of 1682 at that point.

Peré had left his prisoners in charge of twelve Frenchmen, at a place four leagues from the post, and at dawn of the 25th, with four more men he went back, and by two o'clock in the afternoon returned with the captives, who were placed under guard in a room in Du Luth's house.

On the 26th a council was held, and each prisoner was allowed two of his relatives to defend his interests. Each of the accused was questioned, and his answers written, and afterwards read to him, and inquiry made whether they were correct.

As Folle Avoine had insinuated that his father Achiganaga was an accessory to the murder, the latter was brought into the presence of his four sons, and when the latter were asked if he had advised them to kill the Frenchmen they answered, "No."

"This confrontation," writes Du Luth, "which the savages did not expect, surprised them, and seeing the prisoners had convicted themselves, the chiefs in council said, 'It is enough; you accuse yourselves; the French are masters of your bodies.'"

On the 28th another council was held in the lodge of the chief Brochet, where it was hoped that the Indians would say what ought to be done, but it only ended "in reducing tobacco to ashes."

On the 29th all the French at the Sault were called together, and the questions to, and answers of the prisoners read, after which it was the unanimous opinion that three of the sons were guilty. As only two Frenchmen had been killed Du Luth and De la Tour, the Superior of the Jesuit mission, decided that only Folle Avoine, and the brother next in age to him, should suffer the penalty of the law.

Du Luth then returned to the lodge of Brochet, accompanied by Boisguillot,^[29] Peré, De Repentigny, De Manthet, De la Ferte, and Maçons. Here were gathered all the chiefs of the Outawas du Sable, Outawas Sinagos, Kiskakons, Sauteurs, D'Achiliny, some Hurons and Oumamens, the chief of the Amikoues, and Du Luth announced that the Frenchmen had been killed, and it had been decided that two of those engaged in the murder should be put to death, and left the council. The Jesuit missionaries now baptized the culprits, and Du Luth writes: "An hour after I put myself at the head of forty-two Frenchmen, and in sight of more than four hundred savages, and within two hundred paces of their fort, I caused the two murderers to be shot."^[30] In 1684, by order of Gov. De la Barre, he went to Niagra with Indian allies, but returned to the Lake Superior region the same autumn. In the fall of 1686 he withdrew from the Upper Lakes, and constructed a fort, near the entrance of Lake Huron, about thirty miles above the site of the city of Detroit, to intercept the English traders who were beginning to carry goods to the Upper Lakes, and undersell the French.^[31]

During the summer of 1687, he proceeded with the Indians of the Upper Lakes to aid the French against the Seneca Iroquois. The Governor of Canada in his report to the French government mentions the good service rendered by Du Luth, and wrote, that on the 18th of July "M. de Callieres, who was at the head of three companies commanded by Tonty, De la Durantaye, and Du Lhu, and of all our Indians, fell about three o'clock in the afternoon into an ambuscade of Senecas, posted in the vicinity of that defile." After a short conflict, the French, at night, maintained a bivouac, and the next day pursued the flying Senecas.

The Governor writes: "We witnessed the painful sight of the usual cruelties of the savages, who cut the dead in quarters, as is done in slaughter-houses, in order to put them into the kettle; the greater number was opened while still warm that their blood might be drank. Our rascally Otaoas distinguished themselves particularly by these barbarities, and by their poltroonery; the Hurons of Michilimaquina did very well."^[32]

 

CHECK TO FUR TRADE OF UPPER LAKES.

After this battle, fear of the Iroquois stopped the fur trade beyond Lake Erie, and the merchants of Montreal and Quebec were impoverished.

Du Luth, in the summer of 1687, came back for a short time to Fort St. Joseph, and one of his escorts was Lahontan.

 

LAHONTAN AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

Early in June, 1688, Lahontan visited the Falls of Saint Mary, where he found a village of Outchipoués, or Saulteurs, not far from the Jesuit's house. On the 13th, he left with forty Saulteurs, in five canoes, and at Mackinaw was joined by a party of Ottawas. On the first of July he reached Fort St. Joseph. Two days later, he and the Indians embarked for Lake Erie, and on the 28th the Saulteurs had a fight with the Iroquois, in which they lost four of their number, but killed three, wounded five, and took prisoners the remainder of the Iroquois party. On the 24th of August, Lahontan returned to Fort St. Joseph, which had been built in 1686–87 by Du Luth. A Miami Indian having brought the intelligence that the fort at Niagara had been demolished by order of the Governor of Canada, on the 27th of August, he burned Fort St. Joseph, and retired to Mackinaw.

Lahontan mentions that when he was at Sault Ste. Marie there was no permanent Indian village on the banks of Lake Superior. The first trading post of Du Luth at Kaministigoya was given up, while a post existed at Chagouamigon, Lemipiscki (Nepigon), and at the River Bagouache, on the north shore, a short distance east of the outlet of Lake Nepigon.

 

SAULT STE. MARIE ABANDONED.

After 1689, the trading post and mission house was abandoned at Sault Ste. Marie, and Mackinaw became the central point for traders and missionaries.

In May, 1690, Governor Frontenac sent M. de Louvigny, a half-pay captain, to relieve Sieur du la Durantaye, at Mackinaw, and Nicholas Perrot accompanied him, with presents and messages for the upper nations. As a result of this visit, in August, five hundred of the upper Indians arrived at Montreal to trade, and the merchants rejoiced, as so large a number had not appeared for a long time.

On the 25th, Count Frontenac, the Governor, gave them a grand feast of two oxen, six large dogs, two barrels of wine, some prunes, and plenty of tobacco to smoke.^[33]

 

MACKINAW A.D. 1700.

Sieur de Lamothe Cadillac, commandant at Mackinaw for several years, has left an accurate description of the place. After describing the island of Missilimackinak he writes:^[34] "Opposite this island is a large sandy cove on the border of the lake, and in the middle of this is the French fort, where the garrison and commandant reside. The post is called the Fort de Buade. The monastery of the Jesuits, the village of the French, and that of the Hurons and Ottawas adjoin one another and fill up the border at the bottom of the anse or cove."

The Hurons and Ottawas were the same which had once lived on the shores of Chagouamigon Bay, and had been driven away by the Sioux.^[35] While they lived in perfect harmony, they did not speak the same language. The Hurons were separated by a palisade. The settlement of Mackinaw on the mainland was at that time well fortified. The pickets of the outside circle were of pine and about thirty feet high. The second circle was a foot from the former, the third, four feet from the second, three feet and a half in diameter, and fifteen or sixteen feet high. The pickets were closely planted, with loop holes at certain distances. The Indian cabins were arched, made by planting poles, bending them at the top, and fastening with the roots of the birch. They were covered with the bark of fir or cedar trees. They were one hundred or one hundred and thirty feet long, twenty-four wide, and twenty in height. At each end was an opening.

 

TRADE WITH UPPER INDIANS RESUMED.

In May, 1692, Frontenac determined to obtain the furs which had accumulated at Mackinaw, and Lt' d Argenteuil with eighteen Canadians, who undertook the voyage in the hope of a handsome reward, bore dispatches to Louvigny, the officer at the post, ordering him to send down not only the peltries, but the two hundred Frenchmen who were dispersed among the upper tribes. On the 17th of August, more than two hundred canoes arrived at Montreal with furs, Indians, and Frenchmen. In the language of a "Narrative" of that period,^[36] "It is impossible to conceive the joy of the public in beholding such a vast quantity of riches. For several years Canada had been impatiently waiting for this prodigious heap of beaver, which was reported to be at Missilimakinac. The merchant, the farmer, and other individuals who might have some peltries there, were dying of hunger, with property they did not enjoy. Credit was exhausted, and the apprehension universal, that the enemy would become masters, on the way, of the last resource of the country."

Frontenac came down from Quebec, and on the sixth of September, which was Sunday, he entertained the principal chiefs, and the next day distributed presents, and made arrangements for the reoccupation of the Northwest.

 

TRADING POST ESTABLISHED AT CHAGOUAMIGON BY LE SUEUR.

Pierre Le Sueur was sent to remain at Chagouamigon, and the Narrative of Occurrences of 1692–93 writes that he was "to endeavor to maintain the peace lately concluded between the Sauteurs and the Sioux. This is of the greatest consequence, as it is now the sole pass by which access can be had to the latter nation, whose trade is very profitable, the country to the south being occupied by the Foxes and the Mascontins, who have already several times plundered the French, under pretence that they were carrying ammunition to the Sioux their ancient enemies. These frequent interruptions would have been punished ere this, had we not been occupied elsewhere. Le Sueur it is to be hoped will facilitate the northern route for us, by means of the great influence he possesses among the Sioux."^[37]

 

OJIBWAYS SETTLE AT CHAGOUAMIGON.

It is supposed, that at this time, the Ojibways began to concentrate in a village, upon the shores of Chagouamigon Bay. It was the interest of the French to draw them as far away as possible from the influence of English traders, who had appeared in the vicinity of Mackinaw.

A deputation of the Indians, around Mackinaw, arrived at Montreal, in the summer of 1694, and went back with a number of traders, about the end of September. The convoy was commanded by Sieur Delamothe Cadillac, captain of marines, on his way to relieve Sieur de Louvigny.

Sieur Le Sueur arrived at Montreal, on the 15th of July, 1695, with five Frenchmen, and a party of Lake Superior Indians, as well as a Sioux Indian and squaw, the first who ever visited Montreal.^[38]

 

CHINGOUABÉ, OJIBWAY CHIEF IN MONTREAL.

The Indians were much impressed, by witnessing the army, under Chevalier Cresafi, distinguished by ancestry and bravery, march through the streets on their way to Lake Ontario. On the 18th of July they were formally received by Governor Frontenac, in presence of the principal persons of the town. Chingouabé, chief of the Sauteurs (Ojibways) said: "That he was come to pay his respects to Onontio, in the name of the young warriors of Point Chagouamigon, and to thank him for having given them some Frenchmen to dwell with them; and to testify their sorrow for one Jobin, a Frenchman who was killed at a feast. It occurred accidentally not maliciously. We came to ask a favor of you. We are allies of the Sciou. Some Outagamis or Mascoutens have been killed. The Sciou came to mourn with us. Let us act, father, and take revenge. Le Sueur alone, who is acquainted with the language of the one and the other, can serve us. We ask that he return with us."

 

GOVERNOR FRONTENAC'S REPLY TO CHINGOUABÉ.

After the council was over, the Indians passed several days in trading their furs, and wondering at the ways of the white man, but on the 29th, they were called together again, and Frontenac replied to the Ojibway chief: "Chingouabé, my son, I am very glad to have learned, by the thanks you present me, for having giving you some Frenchmen to reside with your nation, that you are sensible of the advantages you derive from the articles they convey you; and to behold your family now clothed like my other children, instead of wearing bear skins as you formerly were in the habit of doing. If you wish me to continue sending you the same aid, and to increase it more hereafter, you must also resolve to listen attentively to my voice; to obey the orders that will be given to you in my name, by Le Sueur, whom I again send to command at Chagouamigon, and to think only of making war on the Iroquois tribe, your mortal enemy, as well as the deadly foe of all the upper nations, and who has become mine, because I have taken your part, and prevented him oppressing you.

"Embarrass not yourself then with new quarrels, nor meddle with those the Sioux have with the Foxes and Mascoutens, and others, except for the purpose of allaying their resentments. I reply not to the regret you have expressed to me, for the misfortune that overtook the Frenchman named Jobin, because I am informed that it was an accident, and that you are not to blame therefore."

 

REPLY OF CHINGOUABÉ.

After the distribution of presents, Chingouabé said: "Father! it is not the same with us, as with you. When you command, all the French obey you and go to war. But I shall not be heeded, and obeyed by my nation in like manner. Therefore I cannot answer, except for myself, and those immediately allied or related to me. Nevertheless I shall communicate your pleasure to all the Sauteurs, and in order that you may be satisfied of what I say, I will invite the French who are in my village to be witnesses of what I shall tell my people in your behalf."

Two days after this the Ojibways left for Lake Superior.^[39]

 

FRENCH TRADERS PUSH WESTWARD.

Owing to the hostility of the Sacs and Foxes, for some time after the year 1700, the French had little intercourse with the Ojibways. By the Treaty of Utrecht, concluded in 1713, the French relinquished all posts on Hudson's Bay to the English, and it was necessary to check Indians disposed to go there to trade. In 1716, therefore, the Canadian authorities decided to open the Lake Superior trade, and seek for a sea toward the west. A dispatch of the 7th of December to the French governor uses the language:—

"MM. de Vaudreuil and Begon having written last year that the discovery of the Sea of the West would be advantageous to the colony, it was agreed that to reach it M. de Vaudreuil should establish three posts which he had proposed, and he was notified at the same time to have them established without any cost to the king, seeing that the commerce would indemnify those who founded them; and to send a detailed estimate of the cost of continuing the discovery. They stated in reply that M. Vaudreuil in the month of July last [1717] had caused Sieur de la Noüe, lieutenant, with eight canoes to carry out this project of discovery. He was ordered to establish the first post at the river of Kamanistiquoya, and the north part of Lake Superior, after which he was to go to Takamunigen, toward the lake of the Christineaux to build the second, and to acquire the necessary information from the Indians to find the third, at the Lake of the Assinipoëlles [Winnepeg].

“This journey costs the king nothing because those engaged in it will be remunerated for their outlay by the trade which they will engage in; but to follow up the discovery it is absolutely necessary that his Majesty should bear the expenses because the persons employed in it will have to give up all idea of trade. They estimated that fifty good canoes will be required; of these, twenty-four will be engaged in making the discovery from the Lake of the Assinipoëlles to the Sea of the West. They calculated the wages of these men at 800 francs a year each, and estimated that the expenditure as well for provisions and canoes, and for goods for presents will amount

to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	f. 29,023.10
There will have to be added for supplementary outfit, 600 francs for each of the six officers employed in the discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	3,600.10
Total, 32,623.20

As it will take about two years to make this journey, they estimate the expenditure may amount to fifty thousand francs."^[40]

 

ST. PIERRE AT CHAGOUAMIGON BAY.

Lt. Robertel le la Noüe late in the fall of 1717 was at Kaministiquoya and found few Indians. He wrote by a French trader, who was at Point Chagouamigon, to the chief of the Sioux, in the hope of effecting a peace with the Christineaux.

Captain St. Pierre^[41] and Ensign Linctot in September, 1718, were ordered to Chagonamigon, because the Ojibway chief there, and also at Keweenaw, were threatening war against the Foxes. Upon De l'Isle's Map, revised by Buache in 1745, a French establishment (Maison Française) appears at Chagouamigon Bay.

The authorities of Canada^[42] on the 14th of November, 1719, wrote: "The Sieur Vandreuil has not received any letter from Sieur de la Noüe: he has only learnt by way of Chagouamigon, which is in the south extremity of Lake Superior, where Sieur St. Pierre has been in command since last year, that Sieur Pachot had passed there, on his way to the Sioux, where he was sent by the Sieur de la Noüe, on the subject of the peace he was trying to bring about between this nation and that of the Christenaux, but that Pachot had not returned to Chagouamigon when the canoes left."

 

OJIBWAYS VISIT GOVERNOR LONGEUIL.

Linctot, who had succeeded Saint Pierre in the command at Chagouamigon, made peace between the Sioux and Ojibways, and when the latter visited Montreal, they were thus addressed by Longeuil, then Governor of Canada: "I am rejoiced, my children of the Sauteurs, at the peace which Monsieur De Linctot has procured for you, with the Sioux your neighbors, also, on account of the prisoners you have restored to them. I desire him, in the letter, which I now give you, my son Cabina, for him, that he maintain this peace, and support the happy reunion which now appears to exist between the Sioux and you. I hope he will succeed in it, if you are attentive to his words, and if you follow the lights he will show you.

"My heart is sad on account of the blows which the Foxes of Green Bay have given you, of which you have just spoken, and of which the commandant has written in his letter. It appears to me that Heaven has revenged you for your losses, since it has given you the flesh of a young Fox to eat.

"You have done well to listen to the words of your commandant to keep quiet and respect the words of your Father. . . . . There is coming from France a new Father, who will not fail to inform you, as soon as he shall be able to take measures and stop the bad affair which the Foxes wish to cause in future."

 

ALLEGED COPPER MINE AT CHAGOUAMIGON.

In the year 1730, an Indian brought to the French post, at Chagouamigon Bay, a nugget of copper, which led to the supposition that there was a mine of this metal in the vicinity. On the 18th of October, 1731, the Canadian authorities wrote to the French government that they had received no satisfactory report of the situation or quality of the mine alleged to be in the neighborhood of the "Bay of Chagouamigon," and that the Indians were very superstitious about such discoveries, and were unwilling to reveal.

 

FIRST SAILING-VESSEL ON LAKE SUPERIOR

The officer in command at Chagouamigon at this time was Sieur La Ronde Denis, who had received a concession to work copper mines. He and his son Ensign Denis de la Ronde were zealous in this business, and the latter explored one of the islands. A dispatch of the day mentions that La Ronde "had been ordered with his son to build at the river St. Anne a house of logs two hundred feet long, with a fort and curtain, which he assures us he has executed. He has had other expenses on account of the mines, such as voyages and presents for the Indians. He has constructed at his own expense a bark of forty tons on Lake Superior, and was obliged to transport in canoes, as far as Sault Ste. Marie, the rigging and materials for the vessel. The post Chagouamigon was given him as a gratuity to defray expenses."

In 1786, the Governor of Canada wrote to France that there was increased hope of obtaining copper from Lake Superior, and that the Indians had reported that a certain isle, which appears on the new map, abounded in copper. "If this were true they will pass by the Rivière au Fer,^[43] from which had been taken the lumps of copper which were sent this year. The son of De la Ronde will visit this isle and make a report.” Allusion is made in the same communication, that the Renards and their allies hunted in the vicinity of the River Tounagaune [Ontanagon], and it was recommended that the region should be explored by an experienced miner.

During the winter of 1740, La Ronde was in Canada and ordered to return to Chagouamigon. On his arrival at Mackinaw, in the spring, he was so sick that he returned to Montreal.^[44]

On Bellin's Map of 1744, the island opposite Bayfield, now called Madaline, is named La Ronde.^[45]

 

VÉRANDERIE EXPLORES WEST OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

The Sieur Véranderie, who had been stationed in 1727 at Lake Nepigon, was the first to perfect an expedition for the exploration of the chain of lakes which form the northern boundary of Minnesota. Three of his sons, and a nephew, in the autumn of 1731, succeeded in reaching Rainy Lake; and the next year, the Lake of the Woods, and year after year they pushed westward, until two of his sons in January, 1743, were the first Frenchmen to reach the Rocky Mountains.^[46]

 

OJIBWAYS FOLLOW THE FRENCH.

Until after 1736, the Ojibways did not have any foothold west of Lake Superior.

There is extant a statement of the position of the tribes of Lake Superior and vicinity in 1736, which that year was prepared at Mackinaw.^[47]

 

LAKE SUPERIOR OJIBWAYS, 1736.

At the Saut St. Marie were the Sauteurs (Ojibways) to the number of thirty men, they were in two divisions, and had for a device the Crane and the Catfish.

At Kiouanau (Keweenaw) were forty Sauteurs, with the device of the Crane and the Stag.

At Point Chagouamigon there were one hundred and fifty Sauteurs.

 

TECAMIOUEN, RAINY LAKE.

Here there were one hundred Indians, not Ojibways, of the same tribe as those at Lake Nepigon.

 

LAKE OF THE WOODS.

The Christenaux to the number of two hundred were in this vicinity. Their device was the Wild Goose.

 

LAKE OUNEPIGON (WINNIPEG).

In this region were Christenaux to the number of sixty, and south of the lake one hundred and fifty Assinipoëls or Assineboines.

While twenty-one of Véranderie's party, in June, 1736, were camped upon an isle in Lake of the Woods, they were surprised by a band of the Sioux, and among the killed were five voyageurs, a priest, and a son of Véranderie.^[48] Four years after this attack, Joseph Le France, a half-breed born at Saut St. Marie, whose mother was an Ojibway, in 1740, by the north shore of Lake Superior and the chain of lakes to Winnipeg, reached the Hudson Bay Company posts, and in his narrative he mentions the tribes he found.

After the discovery of the Rocky Mountains, Véranderie prepared to send his sons toward the Saskatchewan River. They were succeeded by Jacques Legardeur Saint Pierre^[49] whose party went along that river, and built in 1752 Fort Jonquiere, toward the Rocky Mountains. The Christenaux burned down Fort La Reine on the Assineboine River, and attempted to kill Saint Pierre.

Marquis Du Quesne, Governor of Canada, recalled Saint Pierre, and sent him to the forests of Pennsylvania. St. Luc de la Corne then took charge of the posts beyond Lake Superior.^[50]

 

FRENCH Posts WEST OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

Bougainville, an Aide de Camp of General Montcalm, in a memoir on the state of Canada, published in 1757, gives a good account of the posts west of Lake Superior. He writes: "La Mer d'Ouest is a post that includes the Forts St. Pierre, St. Charles, Bourbon, de la Reine, and Dauphin, Poskoyac, and des Prairies, all of which are built with palisades that can give protection only against Indians." Fort St. Pierre is described as on Rainy Lake; Fort St. Charles as on a peninsula that goes far into the Lake of the Woods; Fort Bourbon, 150 leagues from Fort St. Charles, at the entrance of the Poskoyac or Saskatchewan into Lake Winnipeg. Fort La Reine was on the right bank of the Assineboine River, 60 leagues from Fort Bourbon; Fort Dauphin 80 leagues from La Reine. Fort Poskoyac was built on the river of that name 180 leagues from Dauphin. The Fort des Prairies is eighty leagues from Poskoyac on the banks of the same river.

This post, writes Bougainville, "called 'The Sea of the West,' embracing as it did the whole country from Rainy Lake to the Rocky Mountains, and from North Saskatchewan to the Missouri, was in the gift of the Governor General of Canada, and was bestowed by him upon his favorites. It produced yearly from 300 to 400 bundles of furs, and the commanding officer leased the post for the annual sum of 8000 francs."

 

OJIBWAY HOSTILITY TO THE FRENCH.

During the year 1746, under English influence, the Ojibways of Lake Superior became unfriendly to the French. Two canoes from Montreal, on their way to Lake Superior, were attacked at La Cloche, an isle in Lake Huron, by Ojibways. Members of the same tribe at Grosse Isle, near Mackinaw, stabbed a Frenchman, and the horses and cattle at Mackinaw were killed, and to prevent surprise, the officer of the fort was obliged to beat the "tap-too."^[51] Governor Galissoniere of Canada, in a dispatch of October 1748, to Count Maurepas in charge of the colonies of France^[52] wrote: "Voyageurs robbed and maltreated at Sault Ste. Marie, and elsewhere on Lake Superior; in fine there appears to be no security anywhere."

 

LAST FRENCH OFFICER AT CHAGOUAMIGON.

The last French officer at Chagouamigon Point was Hertel de Beaubassin. When an ensign of infantry, in 1748, with some Indian allies he made an incursion toward Albany, and thirty houses of unsuspecting settlers were burned. In August, 1749, he came to Albany^[53] by direction of the Governor of Canada, relative to the exchange of prisoners. After this he was the commandant at La Pointe,^[54] and left in 1756, with Ojibways, as allies for the French, in the war against the English of New York and New England.^[55]

 

TRAGIC OCCURRENCE AT LA POINTE ISLAND.

The editor of the Detroit Gazette, on the 30th of August, 1822, published^[56] an account of a tragedy which is said to have occurred on Cadotte's, Middle, or Montreal Island of the old voyageurs, now called La Pointe or Madaline Island. The trader William Morrison had related the following story to a friend.

In the autumn of 1760, there was only one trader on the Island, with his wife from Montreal, a young son, and a servant. During the next winter the servant killed the trader and his wife and son. When traders, in the spring, returned to the post they inquired for the missing trader and family. The servant said that in March they went to a sugar camp, and had never come back. After the snow melted they found the bodies buried near the post. The servant was then seized, and in a canoe sent to Montreal for trial. When the Indians, in charge of the canoe, reached the Longe Saut, of the St. Lawrence River, they learned of the advance of the English forces in Canada, and with the prisoner became a war party against the English and allied Indians. Not being successful, they commenced the return voyage, bringing the murderer with them. When they approached the Sault Ste. Marie, they stopped, and held a dance. Each one struck the post, and told the story of his exploits. The murderer, when he came up, boastfully narrated that he had killed the trader and his family. The next day the chief called his men aside, and said that the white man should never have boasted of murdering his employer and family: and added, "We boast of having killed our enemies, never our friends. Now he is going back to the place where we live, and perhaps he will again murder. He is a bad man; neither we nor our friends are safe. If you are of my mind, we will strike this man on the head."

They then invited him to a feast, and urged him to eat all he could, and as soon as he ceased to eat he was killed. The chief cut up the body and boiled it for another feast, but the Indians refused to partake of it, and said: "He was not worthy to be eaten; he was worse than a bad dog. We will not taste him, for if we do, we shall be worse than dogs."

 

OJIBWAYS AT TICONDEROGA A.D. 1757.

As the French began to attack the settlements of New England and New York, the upper Indians offered their services. Governor Beauharnois, under date of the 28th of October, 1745, wrote to the French government: "Sieur de la Corne, the elder, whom I have sent to command at Missilimakinak, wrote to me on the 29th of August last that at that post sixty Outaouacs and Saulteaux applied to him, for M. Noyelle, Jr., who is deputy there, to conduct them to Montreal, in order to attack the English; I have reason to expect them from day to day."

Among the Indians at Ticonderoga with the French army in 1757, with La Plante, De Lorimer and Chésne as interpreter, were thirty-three Ojibways from Chagouamigon, twenty-three of Beaver, fourteen of Coasekimagen, thirty-seven of the Carp, and fifty of Cabibonké.

 

LAST FRENCH OFFICER AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

Louis Legardeur, Chevalier de Repentigny, belonged to one of the most distinguished families of Canada. As early as 1632 his great-grandfather came to Canada. His grandfather was the eldest of twenty-three brothers. His father, Paul Legardeur Sieur St. Pierre, after the treaty of Utrecht, in 1718, re-established the post at Chagouamigon, and in 1733 died. Louis was born in 1727, and at the age of fourteen entered the service. In 1746 he was in an expedition toward Albany, and then went to Mackinaw, and in 1748 returned with eighteen canoes of Indians. With these and other Indians he made an attack near Schenectady, and eleven prisoners and twenty-five scalps were taken.

In 1749 he was again at Mackinaw, the second in command. His brother, Jacques Legardeur St. Pierre, was in command, the same who was once in charge at Lake Pepin, and afterwards, in 1753, at a post near Erie, Pa., where Washington visited him, bearing a dispatch from the Governor of Virginia.

The grasping and miserly Governor Jonquiere in 1750 gave to his nephew, Captain De Bonne, and Chevalier de Repentigny, a grant at Sault Ste. Marie of six leagues front upon the portage by six leagues in depth, bordering on the river below the rapids.

Repentigny, brought J.B. Cadot^[57] and other hired persons there, to revive a post, which since 1689 had been abandoned.

 

GOVERNOR LA JONQUIERE'S LETTER.

The letter of Governor La Jonquiere, to the French Colonial Minister, dated at Quebec, October 5, 1751, explains the object of the grant, and is given in full:—

"My Lord: By my letter of the 24th of August last year, I had the honor to let you know, that in order to thwart the movements, that the English do not cease to make, in order to seduce the Indian natives of the north, I had sent the Sieur Chevalier de Repentigny to the Sault Ste. Marie, in order to make there an establishment, at his own expense; to build there a palisade fort, to stop the English; to interrupt the commerce they carry on; stop and prevent the continuation of the 'talk,' and of the presents which the English send to those natives to corrupt them, to put them entirely in their interests, and inspire them with feelings of hate and aversion for the French.

"Moreover, I had in view in that establishment to secure a retreat to the French travellers, especially to those who trade in the northern post, and for that purpose, to clear the lands which are proper for the production of Indian corn there, and to subserve thereby the victualling necessary to the people of said post and even to the needs of the voyageurs.

"The said Sieur de Repentigny has fulfilled in all points the first objects of my orders. As soon as he arrived at Missilimakinac, the chief of the Indians of the Sault Ste. Marie gave to him four strings of wampum, and begged of him to send them to me, to express how sensible they were for the attention I had for them, by sending the Sieur de Repentigny, whom they had already adopted as their nephew, which is a mark of distinction for an officer amongst the Indians, to signify to them my will in all cases to direct their steps and their actions.

"I have given orders to said Sieur de Repentigny to answer at the 'talk' of that chief, by the same number of strings of wampum, and to assure him and his natives of the satisfaction I have at their good dispositions.

 

REPENTIGNY'S RECEPTION AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

"The Indians received him at the Sault Ste. Marie with much joy. He kindled my fire in that village, by a necklace, which these Indians received with feelings of thankfulness. He labored first to assure himself of the most suspected of the Indians. The Indian named Cacosagane told him in confidence, that there was a necklace in the village from the English: the said Sieur de Repentigny succeeded in withdrawing that necklace which had been in the village for five years, and which had been asked for in vain until now. This necklace was carried into all the Saulteur villages, and others at the south and the north of Lake Superior, to make all these nations enter into the conspiracy concerted between the English and the Five Nations, after which it was brought and remains at Sault Ste. Marie. Fortunately for us this conspiracy was revealed and had not any consequence. . . . .

 

REPENTIGNY'S FORT.

"He arrived too late last year at the Sault Ste. Marie to fortify himself well; however he secured himself in a sort of fort large enough to receive the traders of Missilimakinac. The weather was dreadful in September, October, and November. The snow fell one foot deep on the 10th of October, which caused him a great delay. He employed his hired men during the whole winter in cutting 1100 pickets of 15 feet for his fort, with the doublings, and the timber necessary for the construction of three houses, one of them 30 feet long by 20 wide, and two others 25 feet long and the same width as the first. His fort is entirely finished with the exception of a redoubt of oak, which he is to have made 12 feet square, and which shall reach the same distance above the gate of the fort. His fort is 110 feet square.

 

FARMING AT SAULT STE. MARIE.

"As for the cultivation of the lands: the Sieur de Repentigny had a bull, two bullocks, three cows, two heifers, one horse and a mare from Missilimakinac. He could not on his arrival make clearing of lands, for the work of his fort had entirely occupied his hired men. Last spring he cleared off the small trees and bushes within the range of the fort. He has engaged a Frenchman, who married at the Sault Ste. Marie an Indian woman, to take a farm; they have cleared it up and sowed it, and without a frost, they will gather 30 to 35 sacks of com. The said Sieur de Repentigny so much feels it his duty to devote himself to the cultivation of these lands, that he has already entered into a bargain for two slaves,^[58] whom he will employ to take care of the corn that he will gather upon these lands."

 

APPROVAL OF COLONIAL MINISTER AT PARIS.

In a letter to Governor Duquesne, the successor of Jonquiere, the French minister for the colonies, wrote from Versailles on June 16, 1752: "By one of my despatches, written last year to M. de la Jonquiere, I intimated to him that I had approved of the construction of a fort at Sault Ste. Marie, and the project of cultivating the land, and raising cattle there. We cannot but approve the dispositions which have been made, but it must be considered that the cultivation of the lands, and the multiplication of cattle must be the principal object of it, and that trade must be only accessory to it. As it can hardly be expected that any other grain than corn will grow there, it is necessary, at least for awhile, to stick to it, and not to persevere stubbornly in trying to raise wheat."^[59]

Governor Duquesne, in a despatch to France, dated October 18, 1754, writes: "Chevalier de Repentigny, who commands at Sault Ste. Marie, is busily engaged with the settlement of his post, which is essential to stop the Indians who come down from Lake Superior to go to Chegoneu [Oswego, N.Y.]." In the campaign of 1755, he served under Captain St. Pierre, in command of 600 Canadians, and was in the battle at the head of Lake George. In 1756, he formed a partnership with De Langy [Langlade], and another to continue the fur trade at Sault Ste. Marie, he to furnish the goods and receive a third of the profits. He brought from Mackinaw this year 700 Indians to aid the French. In 1758 he appears to have been again at Mackinaw.^[60] The next year he was with Montcalm at Quebec.

He was assigned to guarding the pass at the Falls of Montmorency. One night four Ojibways sought the English camp at Ange Gardienr and killed two men. On the 26th of July, 1759, at dawn, Wolfe sent troops to dislodge him, and he retreated with the loss of twelve killed and wounded. In the spring of 1760, he was in the battle at Sillery three miles above Quebec and distinguished himself. The Governor of Canada wrote: "Repentigny was at the head of the centre, and with his brigade resisted the enemy's centre." "The only brigade before whom the enemy did not gain an inch of ground." In 1762 he was with troops in New Foundland, and taken prisoner. In 1764 he visited France, and from 1769 to 1778 was commandant at Isle of Rhé. From 1778 to 1782 was with the "Regiment d'Amérique" at Guadeloupe. In 1783 was appointed Governor of Senegal, Africa. In October, 1785, he visited Paris, on furlough, and there on the 9th of October, 1786, died.

 

---

 

1. Gaston the younger son of Henry the Fourth, and his wife, Marie de Medicis.
2. J. Hammond Trumbull in January number of Historical Magazine, Morrisania, 1870, writes: "The Powhatans and their great Emperor derived their name, Smith informs us, from a place near the falls in James River, where is now the city of Richmond.
   "'Powhat-hanne' or 'pau't-hanné' denotes 'falls in a stream.' The first part of the name is found in the Massachusetts and Narragansett 'Pawtuck' (pau't-tuck) 'falls in a tidal river,' whence the name of Pawtucket, 'at the falls,' and its derivative Pawtuxet 'at the little falls:' again in the Chippeway name of the Saut Ste. Marie 'pawateeg,' and with the place termination 'pawating,' 'at the falls.' The Algonkin name for Indians who lived near the Saut, among whom were reckoned the Chippeways, was Pawitagou-ek or Pawichtigou-ek, 'Sauteurs,' or People of the Falls."
3. Schoolcraft writes: "The French word Sault (pronounced So) accurately expresses this kind of pitching rapids or falls. The Indians call it Bawateeg or Pawateeg when speaking of the phenomenon; and Bawating or Pawating when referring to the place. Pangwa is an expression denoting shallow water on rocks. The inflection eeg is an animate plural. Ing is the local terminal form of nouns. In the south or American channel there is no positive leap of the water, but an intensely swift current."
4. Sir William Johnson, British Superintendant of Indian Affairs, calls them Chippeweighs, also Chippewæ. In the treaty of 1807, at Detroit, this tribe are called Chippeways; and in that of 1820 at Sault Ste. Marie they are "the Chippeway tribe of Indians."
5. Rev. G. A. Belcourt. Annals of Minnesota Historical Society, 1853, pp. 25–26.
6. Sulte in vol. vii. Wis. Hist. Soc. Col.
7. Relation 1653-54.
8. Medard Chouart was born near Ferte Sous Jouarre, eleven miles east of Meaux in France, and in 1641, when only sixteen years old, came to Canada. In 1647 he married Helen, widow of Claude Etienne, the daughter of a pilot, Abraham Martin, whose baptismal name is still attached to the "Plains of Abraham" in the suburbs of Quebec. His first wife in 1651 died, and in 1653 he married another widow, whose maiden name was Margaret Hayet Radisson, and a sister of his fellow explorer.
   
   Pierre d'Esprit, the Sieur Radisson, was born at St. Malo, and in 1656 at Three Rivers, Canada, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Madeleine Hainault, and after her death, the daughter of Sir John Kirk or Kertk, a zealous Huguenot, became his wife.
9. See Neill's History of Minnesota, 5th edition. 1883.
10. In the 5th vol. of Schoolcraft's Statistical Information p. 646, there is an article with the name of Rev. Edw. D. Neill attached, which erroneously mentions that Menard went to Chagouamigon Bay.
    
    Mr. Neill never saw, nor corresponded, with Mr. Schoolcraft, and it is an enigma how an article which Mr. Neill never wrote, could appear, with his name attached, as the author.
11. Journal det Jesuites, par MM. les Abbés Laverdiere et Cosgrain, Quebec, 1871.
12. Perrot's Memoir, edited by Tailhan. Leipzig and Paris, 1864.
13. Schoolcraft defines Shaugwamegin as low lands. A writer in the Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, vol. ii., alludes to a tavern of the last century in Montreal, known as the "Chagouamigon," and thinks it is the Algonquin word Chaboumikon, eye of a needle. Baraga in his Otchipwé Dictionary defines Jabonigon as needle. The low sandy point projected like a long needle.
14. Relation of 1666–67.
15. The Map of Lake Superior, which is attached to the Jesuit Relations of 1670–71, marks the projection into Lake Superior, forming the west shore of Chagouamigon Bay as La Pointe du St. Esprit. By the voyageurs it was called La Pointe. It is not until the 19th century we find La Pointe, or Madaline, applied to the island, about three miles from Bayfield, Wisconsin.
    
    This island on Franquelin's Map of 1688 is called Isle Detour ou St. Michel. Bellin's complete French map of Lake Superior, which is in Charlevoix's Histoire et description générale de Nouvelle France, Paris, A.D. 1744, shows Ance [Bay] de Chagouamigon, and marks a little bay, within this, near the modern hamlet of Washburn, Baye St. Charles, in compliment to Charles Beauharnois, then governor of Canada; the then long sandy peninsula, the eastern arm of Chagouamigon Bay, now become an island, is called Pointe de Chagouamigon. The group of islands is called the Apostles, and the two, in front, of the town of Bayfield, are named St. Michel and La Ronde, the latter after a French officer. At the bottom of Chagouamigon Bay, is the mark O, the sign of a trading post or Indian village with the remark that there was once there an important village "Ici étoit une Bourgade considérable." In the map of Canada, in De L'Isle's Atlas, corrected by his son-in-law Philip Buache, in A.D. 1745, a "Maison Françoise," French trading house, is indicated at Pt. Chagouamigon.
16. La Mothe Cadillac in 1695, commander at Mackinaw, wrote, that the Ottawas were divided into four bands, the Kiskakons or Queues Coupées; the Sable so called because their old residence was on a sandy point; the Sinago; and the Nassauaketon, or People of the Fork, because they had resided on a river which had three forks or branches, perhaps the Chippeway River of Wisconsin. Nassauaketon was the Algonquin word for a river which forked.
17. Lake Osakis or Ousaukee in Minnesota has its name from this tribe.
18. Margry, vol. i. p. 161.
19. At the request of the principal trader Lyman M. Warren, In the summer of 1830, Frederick Ayer, who had been one of the teachers under the Rev. William Ferry, Presbyterian missionary at Mackinaw, came to the Island St. Michel, which was now called La Pointe, and established a school for Indian children, and after a short period returned to Mackinaw. The next year, 1831, Mr. Warren, brought up as a missionary, the Rev. Sherman Hall, a graduate of Dart- mouth College, with his wife, and Frederick Ayer and wife as catechists and teachers. In June, 1832, Mr. Hall was joined by his classmate, the Rev. W. T. Boutwell, and the latter in October, 1833, established a mission at Leech Lake, the first attempted west of Lake Superior among the Ojibways of Minnesota. After this mission was established, Father Baraga, an estimable Roman Catholic missionary, built a chapel on the island.
    
    A guide book published in 1884, with the title "Summer Tours via the Great Lakes," promulgates the following fiction: "The Church still stands, a portion of it being the identical log structure built by Pere Marquette. The visitor is shown an old picture which it is said the Pope of that time gave Marquette for his mission church in the wilderness. . . . . The half-breed Indian who acts as guide will open a closet and show the visitor an ancient vestment which it is said Pere Marquette wore on great occasions."
    
    Myths, like the above, silently creep into history, as moths into cloth, and are difficult to expel.
20. Cadillac corroborates this statement, in a letter, written in 1703, from Detroit. His words are: "It is proper that you should be informed that more than fifty years since [about 1645] the Iroquois by force of arms drove away nearly all of the other Indian nations from this region [Lake Huron] to the extremity of Lake Superior, a country north of this post, and frightfully barren and inhospitable. About thirty-two years ago [1671] these excited tribes collected themselves together at Michillimakinak." Margry, vol. v. p. 317.
21. The treaty was signed in the presence of D'Ablon, Superior of the mission, and his colleagues Dreuilletes, Allonez, and André of the Society of Jesus; Nicholas Perrot, interpreter; Sieur Joliet; Jacques Mogras of Three Rivers; Pierre Moreau, the Sieur de la Taupine; Denis Masse; François de Chavigny, Sieur de la Chevrottiere; Jacques Lagillier; Jean Maysere; Nicholas Dupuis; François Bibaud; Jacques Joviel; Pierre Porteret; Robert Duprat; Vital Driol; Guillaume Bonhomme. In the Process Verbal the Jesuit Fathers are described as then making their mission—Margry, vol. i. p. 97.
22. The Chippeway River, upon Franquelin's Map of 1688, is marked R. des Sauteurs.
23. Margry, vol. ii. 116, 226.
24. The spelling of La Salle, and Hennepin, is followed, while du L'Hut is more correct.
25. Margry, vol. v. p. 5.
26. The letter of Du Luth copied from the original containing the account which follows, may be found in 2d series, vol. iv., Paris Documents in Parliament Library, Ottawa, Canada. It has been translated in Sheldon's Michigan from a copy of the original among Cass MSS.
27. Baraboo, in Wisconsin, is a corruption it is said of Baribaud.
28. Peré and Nicholas Perrot have sometimes been considered as the same person. In 1677, the Sieur Peré was with La Salle, at Fort Frontenac. In 1679, Peré was alienated from La Salle, and employed by Governor Andros of New York. After this he appears to have been "a close prisoner at London for eighteen months." Governor Dongan of New York, on Sept. 8, 1687, sends La Perre (Peré) to Canada "with an answer to the French Governor's angry letter."
29. Boisguillot was afterwards a trader near the mouth of the Wisconsin.
30. While Du Luth was thus occupied Groseilliers and Radiseon, who had left the English, were in Paris, as will be seen from the following dispatches of Lord Preston, the English Ambassador, which have never been published in this country.
    
    Preston, in 1683, informs the English government that the French Canadians had burned the Hudson Bay Company's house, taken prisoners John Bridge and servants, planted the French standard, and changed the names of two branches of the river, calling one Port Bourbon, and that in August they had seized an English ship called the "Bachelors' Delight," and requested the French authorities to arrest Radisson the leader of the assault on Port Nelson. Under the date of 19th of January, 1683–84, he writes to England: “Sent my Secretary, to know if the King had ordered any answer concerning the attack upon Nelson's Port. I find the great support of Mons. de la Barre, the present Governor of Canada, is from the Jesuits of this Court, which order always hath a great number of missionaries in that region, who besides the conversion of infidels, have had the address to engross the whole castor trade, from which they draw considerable advantage. The late Governor, the Marquis de Frontenac, did ever oppose himself to their designs, and executed the King his Master's right to that traffique, but they found the means by the interests of Father de la Chaise, to have him recalled and the present Governor sent, who complyeth wholly with them, and giveth them no kind of trouble in ther commerce. . . . . Raditon [Radisson] arrived about the time you mentioned, at Rochelle, and hath been in Paris these five days. There came on shore, at the same time, from a merchant vessel, Des Groselieres, a person whose story is well known, in those countries, and who accompanied the others in his action. I am told that they both took possession for the English, this very Nelson's River and Port, by a commission which they had from England. A friend of mine who hath seen the former since his arrival tells me that he finds him much alarmed with the charge against him."
    
    After asking that charts, and the voyages of Baffin, Nelson, Fox, and others may be sent to him, Lord Preston continues: "I rather desire this, because I hear Radisson is come charged with a great number of them which are doubtless drawn for his purpose. I am told privately, that a relation of the taking possession of Port Nelson in the name of the English, by these very men Des Groselieres and Radisson may be found among the papers of Prince Robert [Rupert]."
    
    On the 26th of January he writes again: "I am informed that Radisson and Des Groselieres have seen Mons. de Seignelay since their arrival, who informed him, that they had lived in that country for many years, in very good intelligence with the English, having furnished them with provender, but that they having a design once to insult them, and to take from them three or four hundred pounds of powder, they defended themselves, and that the English commenced hostilities."—Seventh Report of the Royal Historical Commission.
31. The following table in N. Y. Col. Docs. ix. 408, shows the cheapness of English goods in 1689:—

    The Indian pays for	At Orange (Albany).	Montreal.
    8 pounds of powder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	One beaver.	Four.
    A gun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	Two beav"	Five.
    40 lbs. of lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	One beav"	Three.
    Red blanket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	One beav"	Two.
    White blank" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	One beav"	Two.
    6 pr' stockings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	One beav"	Two.
    4 shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	One beav"	Two.

    The English give 6 q'ts of eau de vie West India rum for one beaver. The French have no fixed rate in trading brandy, but never give a quart for one beaver.
    

    The English do not discriminate in the quality of beaver but take all, at the same rate, 50 per cent. higher than the French.

32. Denonville, N. Y. Col. Docs. ix. 338, 365.
33. Occurrences of 1689–90, N. Y. Col. Docs. ix. 478, 479.
34. Margry, vol. v. p. 80.
35. Margry, vol. v. p. 80. For description of Hurons at Chagouamigon, see page 405.
36. Occurrences of 1692–93, N. Y. Col. Docs. ix. 569.
37. Pierre Le Sueur was the son of a Frenchman from Artois, and in 1657 was born. In company with Nicholas Perrot, by way of the Wisconsin, he visited the Upper Mississippi, and in 1689 was at Fort St. Antoine on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin, when Perrot took formal possession of the country. In the Proces Verbal the Minnesota River is for the first time called St. Pierre. As the post at the mouth of the Wisconsin in a map of 1688 is called Fort St. Nicolas in compliment to Perrot, and as the Assineboine River was once called St. Charles, in compliment to Charles Beauharnois, Governor of Canada, and the St. Croix after a voyageur of that name, it has been supposed that the St. Pierre River was called after the baptismal name of Pierre Le Sueur. In 1690, he married Marguerite Messier, the first cousin of Pierre Lemoyne, the Sieur D'Iberville, who was the first Governor of Louisiana.
38. Narrative of Occurrences 1694–95, N. Y. Col. Docs. ix. vol.
39. N. Y. Col. Docs. ix. 612.
40. French MSS. 3d series, vol. vi., Parliament Library, Ottawa. Lindsey's Boundaries of Ontario, pp. 206, 207; Mills' Boundaries of Ontario, pp. 231, 232.
41. Captain Paul Legardeur Saint Pierre was the son of J. Baptiste Legardeur, who on the 11th of July, 1656, had married Marguerite, the daughter of the brave explorer Jean Nicolet, the first white man who in 1634–35 visited Green Bay and vicinity in Wisconsin.
42. Ottawa MSS., 3d series, vol. vii.
43. On modern maps still called Iron River. N. Bellin, in a map of Lake Superior, in Charlevoix's Nouvelle France, Paris, A.D. 1744, calls the stream Piouabic or R. au Cuivre. Baraga gives Miskwabik, as the Ojibway word for copper. Lahontan gives Piouabic for iron, which Carver writes Pewawbick. Iron River is east of Bois Brulé River.
44. Letter of Beauharnois among Martin MSS. in Ottawa Library.
45. The first Sieur de La Ronde was Pierre Denis or Denys, born A.D. 1630, married in 1655 to Catharine Le Neuf, of Quebec. It was his grandson who received the monopoly of the fur trade at Chagouamigon.
46. Sulte, in an article in Nouvelles Soirees Canadiennes for January, 1884, published at Montreal, mentions that this name is spelled in documents in fourteen different ways, among others Veranderie, Verandrie, Verendrie, Verenderie, and Verendrye. He also gives the extract from the parish register of Three Rivers as to the baptism of this explorer. Freely translated it reads "The 18th day of November, 1684, by me F. G. de Brullon, cure of the parish church Notre Dame of Three Rivers has been baptised in said church, Pierre Gualtier, son of René Gualtier Esquire, the Sieur de'Varenne and Governor of Three Rivers, and Marie Boucher, his wife. The infant was born on the 17th of November. His godfather was Pierre Boucher his grandfather, in the place of his son Lambert, and the godmother was Magdeleine Gualtier his sister.
    
    Véranderie's brother Louis was in 1689 an ensign in Canada. In the register of Varennes in 1702, 1704, 1707, the name of the explorer appears as Pierre Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de "Boumois." In a document of 1707 he is called Sieur de Boumois de la Veranderie. After this he went to Europe, and was on Sept. 11, 1709, at the battle of Malplaquet. Returning to Canada he was married at Quebec, October 29, 1712, to Anne Dandonneau.
47. N. Y. Col. Doc. vol. ix.
48. After this it was French policy to encourage the Ojibways to expel the Sioux between Lake Superior and Mississippi River.
    
    On the map prepared in 1737, to show Véranderie's route, the Red River of the North, and the point of the Big Woods thereon, and Red Lake are marked, and the Christineaux are represented around Lake Winnipeg, and the Assineboines in the valley of the Red River.
49. Saint Pierre, born in 1701, was the son of Paul Legardeur, the Sieur St. Pierre, born in 1661. His grandfather married Marguerite the daughter of Jean Nicolet, the brave explorer, who as early as 1634 reached Green Bay, Wisconsin. See Neill's History of Minnesota, 5th edition, 1883, p. 863. His interview with Washington is well known. He was killed in battle in September, 1755, near Lake George. His widow married the noted La Corne.
50. La Corne was at Ticonderoga, and at Quebec in the battles with the British. During the American war for independence he was with the Indian allies of the British, at the battle of Saratoga. In a letter of Thomas Jefferson's dated Oct. 11, 1775, published for the first time, in Nov. 1868, in Dawson's Historical Magazine, he alludes to La Corne in these words: "This St. Luc is a great Seigneur amongst the Canadians, and almost absolute with the Indians, he has been our most bitter enemy, and is acknowledged to be the greatest of all scoundrels: to be assured of this I need only mention to you that he is the ruffian, who, when during the late war 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."
    
    St. Luc on Sept. 3, 1757, married Marie Joseph Gualtier, the widow of Legardeur de St. Pierre.
51. N. Y. Col. Docs. vol. x. p. 119.
52. N. Y. Col. Docs. x. 182.
53. N. Y. Col. Docs, vi. 526.
54. N. Y. Col. Docs. x. 424.
55. De Ramelia was in 1744 commandant at Nepigon. In 1747, Du Plessis de Morampont was in command at Kamanetiguia, afterwards Fort William. In 1752 Beaujeu de Ville Monde was there. The next year he was sent to Mackinaw. He did not die until June 5, 1802, in Canada.
56. The entire article has been reprinted in the 8th volume of the Wisconsin Historical Society Collections.
57. See page 448.
58. The slaves were Indians. In the Mackinaw parish register it is recorded that Louis Herbert, a child slave of Chevalier de Repentigny, was baptized. On July 13, 1758, at Mackinaw he stood as godfather for Mariame, a slave of Langlade.
59. Millions of bushels of wheat from the region west and north of Lake Superior pass every year in steamers and other vessels through the ship canal at Sault Ste. Marie.
60. On July 13th he was present at the baptism of a child.