1679]

LA SALLE.

193

LA SALLE. AN IROQUOIS WAR.

At the time of Marquette's and Joliet's discovery, the COUNT DE FRONTENAC was governor-general of Canada. Near the eastern extremity of Lake Ontario, on the Canada side (where Kingston now stands), was built, in 1675, Fort Frontenac. Like the forsaken Oswego settlement to the south, it was intended to serve as a bulwark against the Iroquois. An enterprising Frenchman, by name LA SALLE, educated as a Jesuit but turned fortune-hunter, was appointed to the command of this post, and, as a condition that he should discharge his duties acceptably, was granted a large tract of land adjacent, and the sole right of trade with the Five Nations. But La Salle, whose ardor appeared to be quite uncontrollable, refused to be confined by the walls of a fort, and accordingly, being desirous of completing the discovery of the Mississippi, he repaired to France, obtained the royal permit, and likewise the monopoly of trade in buffalo skins.

Elated at his success, La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac, and, with some assistants and supplies, passed up Lake Ontario (1678), and around Niagara Falls into Lake Erie. Near where Buffalo now stands, the little bark "Griffin" was built, the pioneer of all the modern craft on those inland seas. Accompanied by Tonti, the lieutenant of his company, by HENNEPIN, a priest, and several Recollect friars, La Salle sailed westward in the summer of 1679, passed through the Strait of Detroit and Lake St. Clair into Lake Huron; thence northward, the length of the latter, to the Strait of Mackinaw. Here was the mission-station from which Marquette had started. La Salle kept on by Marquette's route to Green bay, where the Griffin, laden with furs, was sent back, with orders to return quickly with supplies, to the south end of Lake Michigan.

Unfortunately, the Griffin was wrecked. La Salle, in the meantime, had gone to the appointed rendezvous and built there a trading-post. Weary of waiting for the vessel, of the disaster to which he as yet knew nothing, he and his men continued on their course to the Illinois river, and below the present Peoria built a second fort, called Crevecœur. From here La Salle with but three attendants made his way back to Fort Frontenac, in order to hasten the forwarding of supplies, leaving instructions with Hennepin to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi. Hennepin and a companion. accordingly descended the Illinois to its outlet; then ascending the Mississippi as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, returned by the Wisconsin and Fox river route to Green bay. Hennepin, without reporting himself again at Fort Crevecœur, went back to France, and published an account of his lake-andriver voyages.

When La Salle returned from Fort Frontenac, he found the two posts at Miami and Crevecœur deserted. The Iroquois, in addition to their former exploits, had recently driven southward the Guyandots and Shawnees of the Ohio river, leaving the way open to attack the tribes of the Illinois, and, in consequence of this war, Tonti and his men had fled in alarm to Green bay. La Salle, however, built another fort, and having obtained further assistance, constructed a barge, and descended the Mississippi to the Gulf. To the country on both sides of the river the name of LOUISIANA was given, in honor of the reigning French king; and La Salle, having taken formal possession of the same for his royal employer, returned by way of Quebec to France.

Two hundred and eighty persons joined the new expedition which, in 1684, sailed with the design of planting a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. There were priests and soldiers, farmers and artisans, besides an ample supply of food and implements, that there might be no delay in establishing

1684]

AN IROQUOIS WAR.

195

homes and in beginning life in the New World under happy auspices. But sorrowful was the actual result: for, the voyagers having missed the entrance of the river, passed to the westward, after a futile search, and landed somewhere on the Texas coast, where they built a fort. Having vainly endeavored to reach the Mississippi by land, at last La Salle, with but sixteen men, took up his march for Canada, leaving the rest of the survivors, only twenty in number, at the fort. In a dispute or mutiny, La Salle was murdered by some of his men, a few only of whom were finally found by Tonti, who had descended the Mississippi in search of the commander. The men who had been left at the fort probably perished, for nothing was heard of them afterward.

While these events were transpiring in the west, the French in Canada had become involved in a war with the Five Nations. At a council held at Albany in 1684, those tribes had been met by Governors Effingham of Virginia, and Dongan, of New York, and, having professed peace for the English, they were then counselled not to treat the French also as brethren and Christians, but to let them feel the full weight. of their enmity. Hence, when a messenger arrived immediately afterward from DE LA BARRE, the French governorgeneral, his complaints were not heeded.

De la Barre, with about 1500 French and Indians, now crossed the east end of Lake Ontario, and disembarking, advanced into the country of the Onondagas-the central tribe of the Five Nations. But his men were so wasted by malaria contracted while on the shore of the lake, that they were glad to make peace with the Indians, without venturing the issue of a battle. Soon afterward, De la Barre was superseded by DENONVILLE, whose army of French and allies advanced into the country of the Senecas.

An infamous deed is connected with this invasion. Lamberville, a French missionary among the Onondagas, was re

quested to invite some of the Iroquois chiefs to a conference. The invitation was trustfully accepted; but the warriors being surrounded were overcome, placed in irons, and sent to France to work in the galleys. Though Lamberville, the innocent occasion of this act of perfidy, might have properly looked for death at the hands of the savages, yet a chief who loved him well, furnished him with a guide, by whom he was led away to a place of safety.

Denonville and his troops then overran the Seneca country, and at Niagara constructed a fort, that the French might better control the fur-trade of the Great Lakes. But as soon as Denonville withdrew from the interior, the Senecas in their turn threatened an invasion; whereupon the garrison in alarm abandoned the fort (1688). The following year the Iroquois, burning with revenge, advanced to Montreal, killed 200 persons and took prisoners as many more, spreading the terror of their name far up and down the St. Lawrence. The evil deed of Denonville had produced a ripe harvest of ruin and wretchedness.

CHAPTER XV.

NEW ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES II. AND JAMES II.

1660-1689.

CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND.

A NUMBER of those judges who had condemned Charles the First to death, and who were known thereafter as the Regicides, were, at the Restoration, apprehended and hung. Others of them sought safety in flight. Three of these, Whalley, Goffe and Dixwell, escaped to New England. Dixwell settled at New Haven, and was not disturbed; but Whalley and Goffe, for whose apprehension large rewards had been offered, were hotly pursued from one place of refuge to another, by Indians as well as by the English. Sometimes they lodged in houses, sometimes in the forest, in clefts of the rock and in caves, until at last they were offered shelter at the little hamlet of Hadley, in the valley of the Connecticut, near the base of Mount Holyoke.

The younger Winthrop was chosen (1662) by the Connecticut colonists to obtain from the new king a charter. He was well adapted for the important service, being a man of much intelligence, of amiable address and gentle manners, who in his younger days had travelled extensively in Europe, seeking the society of men of learning and of piety. Subsequently, as the founder of a State in the New World, he had given proof of his liberality of heart by refusing to assent to the persecution of the Quakers, begging of the other magis