the French. Accompanying him were Courcelles,
as Governor, and M. Talon, who subsequently figures in Northwestern history. By 1665, affairs were settled and new attempts to found a mission among the lake tribes were projected.
"With better hopes — undismayed by the sad fate of their predecessors" in August, Claude Allouez embarked on a mission by way of Ottawa to the Far West. Early in September he reached the rapids through which rush the waters of the lakes to Huron. Sailing by lofty sculptured rocks and over waters of crystal purity, he reached the Chippewa village just as the young warriors were bent on organizing a war expedition against the Sioux. Commanding peace in the name of his King, he called a council and offered the commerce and protection of his nation. He was obeyed, and soon a chapel arose on the shore of the bay, to which admiring crowds from the south and west gathered to listen to the story of the Cross.
The scattered Hurons and Ottawas north of Lake Superior; the Pottawatomies from Lake Michigan; the Sacs and Foxes from the Far West; the Illinois from the prairies, all came to hear him, and all be sought him to go with them. To the last nation Allouez desired to go. They told him of a "great river that flowed to the sea," and of "their vast prairies, where herds of buffalo, deer and other animals grazed on the tall grass." "Their country," said the missionary, "is the best field for the Gospel. Had I had leisure, I would have gone to their dwellings to see with my own eyes all the good that was told me of them."
He remained two years, teaching the natives, studying their language and habits, and then returned to Quebec. Such was the account that he gave, that in two days he was joined by Louis Nicholas and was on his way back to his mission.
Peace being now established, more missionaries came from France. Among them were Claude Dablon and James Marquette, both of whom went on to the mission among the Chippewas at the Sault. They reached there in 1668 and found Allouez busy. The mission was now a reality and given the name of St. Mary. It is often written "Sault Ste. Marie," after the French method, and is the oldest settlement by white men in the bounds of the Northwest Territory. It has been founded over two hundred years. Here on the inhospitable northern shores, hundreds of miles away from friends, did this triumvirate employ themselves in extending their religion and the influence of their King. Traversing the shores of the great lakes near them, they pass down the western bank of Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay, along the southern shore of Lake Superior to its western extremity, everywhere preaching the story of Jesus. "Though suffering be their lot and martyrdom their crown," they went on, only conscious that they were laboring for their Master and would, in the end, win the crown.
The great river away to the West of which they heard so much was yet unknown to them. To explore it, to visit the tribes on its banks and preach to them the Gospel and secure their trade, became the aim of Marquette, who originated the idea of its discovery. While engaged at the mission at the Sault, he resolved to attempt it in the autumn of 1669. Delay, however, intervened — for Allouez had exchanged the mission at Che-goi-me-gon for one at Green Bay, whither Marquette was sent. While here he employed a young Illinois Indian to teach him the language of that nation, and thereby prepare himself for the enterprise.
Continued commerce with the Western Indians gave protection and confirmed their attachment. Talon, the intendant of the colony of New France, to further spread its power and to learn more of the country and its inhabitants, convened a congress of the Indians at the Falls of St. Mary, to which he sent St. Lusson on his behalf Nicholas Perrot sent invitations in every direction for more than a hundred leagues round about, and fourteen nations, among them Sacs, Foxes and Miamis, agreed to be present by their embassadors.
The congress met on the fourth day of June, 1671. St. Lusson, through Allouez, his interpreter, announced to the assembled natives that they, and through them their nations, were placed under the protection of the French King, and to him were their furs and peltries to be traded. A cross of cedar was raised, and amidst the groves of maple and of pine, of elm and hemlock that are so strangely intermingled on the banks of the St. Mary, the whole company of the French, bowing before the emblem of man's redemption, chanted to its glory a hymn of the seventh century :
"The banners of heaven's King advance; The mysteries of the Cross shines forth."*
A cedar column was planted by the cross and marked with the lilies of the Bourbons. The power of France, thus uplifted in the West of which Ohio is now a part, was, however, not destined
- Bancroft.
