France and England in North America, a Series of Historical Narratives, Part Third

F >> Francis Parkman >> France and England in North America, a Series of Historical Narratives, Part Third

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We now come to the map of Marquette, which is a rude sketch of a portion
of Lakes Superior and Michigan, and of the route pursued by him and Joliet
up the Fox River of Green Bay, down the Wisconsin, and thence down the
Mississippi as far as the Arkansas. The River Illinois is also laid down,
as it was by this course that he returned to Lake Michigan after his
memorable voyage. He gives no name to the Wisconsin. The Mississippi is
called "Riviere de la Conception;" the Missouri, the Pekitanoui; and the
Ohio, the Ouabouskiaou, though La Salle, its discoverer, had previously
given it its present name, borrowed from the Iroquois. The Illinois is
nameless, like the Wisconsin. At the mouth of a river, perhaps the Des
Moines, Marquette places the three villages of the Peoria Indians visited
by him. These, with the Kaskaskias, Maroas, and others, on the map, were
merely sub-tribes of the aggregation of savages, known as the Illinois. On
or near the Missouri, he places the Ouchage (Osages), the Oumessourit
(Missouris), the Kansa (Kanzas), the Paniassa (Pawnees), the Maha
(Omahas), and the Pahoutet (Pah-Utahs?). The names of many other tribes,
"esloignees dans les terres," are also given along the course of the
Arkansas, a river which is nameless on the map. Most of these tribes are
now indistinguishable. This map has recently been engraved and published.

Not long after Marquette's return from the Mississippi, another map was
made by the Jesuits, with the following title: _Carte de la nouvelle
decouverie que les peres Jesuites ont fait en l'annee 1672, et continuee
par le P. Jacques Marquette de la mesme Compagnie accompagne de quelques
francois en l'annee_ 1673, _qu'on pourra nommer en francois la
Manitoumie._ This title is very elaborately decorated with figures drawn
with a pen, and representing Jesuits instructing Indians. The map is the
same published by Thevenot, not without considerable variations, in 1681.
It represents the Mississippi from a little above the Wisconsin to the
Gulf of Mexico, the part below the Arkansas being drawn from conjecture.
The river is named "Mitchisipi, ou grande Riviere." The Wisconsin, the
Illinois, the Ohio, the Des Moines (?), the Missouri, and the Arkansas,
are all represented, but in a very rude manner. Marquette's route, in
going and returning, is marked by lines; but the return route is
incorrect. The whole map is so crude and careless, and based on
information so inexact, that it is of little interest.

The Jesuits made also another map, without title, of the four Upper Lakes
and the Mississippi to a little below the Arkansas. The Mississippi is
called "Riuuiere Colbert." The map is remarkable as including the earliest
representation of the Upper Mississippi, based, perhaps, on the reports of
Indians. The Falls of St. Anthony are indicated by the word "Saut." It is
possible that the map may be of later date than at first appears, and that
it may have been drawn in the interval between the return of Hennepin from
the Upper Mississippi and that of La Salle from his discovery of the mouth
of the river. The various temporary and permanent stations of the Jesuits
are marked by crosses.

Of far greater interest is the small map of Louis Joliet, made and
presented to Count Frontenac immediately after the discoverer's return
from the Mississippi. It is entitled _Carte de la decouuerte du Sr.
Jolliet ou l'on voit La Communication du fleuue St. Laurens auec les lacs
frontenac, Erie, Lac des Hurons et Ilinois._ Then succeeds the following,
written in the same antiquated French, as if it were a part of the title:
"Lake Frontenac [Ontario], is separated by a fall of half a league from
Lake Erie, from which one enters that of the Hurons, and by the same
navigation, into that of the Illinois [Michigan], from the head of which
one crosses to the Divine River (Riviere Divine; i.e., the Des Plaines
branch of the River Illinois), by a portage of a thousand paces. This
river falls into the River Colbert [Mississippi], which discharges itself
into the Gulf of Mexico." A part of this map is based on the Jesuit map of
Lake Superior, the legends being here for the most part identical, though
the shape of the lake is better given by Joliet. The Mississippi, or
"Riuiere Colbert," is made to flow from three lakes in latitude 47 deg., and
it ends in latitude 37 deg., a little below the mouth of the Ohio, the rest
being apparently cut off to make room for Joliet's letter to Frontenac
(_ante_, p. 66), which is written on the lower part of the map. The valley
of the Mississippi is called on the map "Colbertie, ou Amerique
Occidentale." The Missouri is represented without name, and against it is
a legend, of which the following is the literal translation: "By one of
these great rivers which come from the west and discharge themselves into
the River Colbert, one will find a way to enter the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of
California). I have seen a village which was not more than twenty days'
journey by land from a nation which has commerce with those of California.
If I had come two days sooner, I should have spoken with those who had
come from thence, and had brought four hatchets as a present." The Ohio
has no name, but a legend over it states that La Salle had descended it.
(See _ante_, p. 23, _note_.)

Joliet, at about the same time, made another map, larger than that just
mentioned, but not essentially different. The letter to Frontenac is
written upon both. There is a third map, bearing his name, of which the
following is the title: _Carte generalle de la France septentrionale
contenant la descouuerte du pays des Illinois, faite par le Sr. Jolliet_.
This map, which is inscribed with a dedication by the Intendant Duchesneau
to the minister Colbert, was made some time after the voyage of Joliet and
Marquette. It is an elaborate piece of work, but very inaccurate. It
represents the continent from Hudson's Strait to Mexico and California,
with the whole of the Atlantic and a part of the Pacific coast. An open
sea is made to extend from Hudson's Strait westward to the Pacific. The
St. Lawrence and all the Great Lakes are laid down with tolerable
correctness, as also is the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi, called
"Messasipi," flows into the Gulf, from which it extends northward nearly
to the "Mer du Nord." Along its course, above the Wisconsin, which is
called "Miskous," is a long list of Indian tribes, most of which cannot
now be recognized, though several are clearly sub-tribes of the Sioux. The
Ohio is called "Ouaboustikou." The whole map is decorated with numerous
figures of animals, natives of the country, or supposed to be so. Among
them are camels, ostriches, and a giraffe, which are placed on the plains
west of the Mississippi. But the most curious figure is that which
represents one of the monsters seen by Joliet and Marquette, painted on a
rock by the Indians. It corresponds with Marquette's description (_ante,_
p. 59). This map, if really the work of Joliet, does more credit to his
skill as a designer than to his geographical knowledge, which appears in
some respects behind his time.

A map made by Raudin, Count Frontenac's engineer, may be mentioned here.
He calls the Mississippi "Riviere de Buade," from the family name of his
patron, and christens all the adjoining region "Frontenacie," or
"Frontenacia."

In the Bibliotheque Imperiale is the rude map of the Jesuit Raffeix, made
at about the same time. It is chiefly interesting as marking out the
course of Du Lhut on his journeys from the head of Lake Superior to the
Mississippi, and as confirming a part of the narrative of Hennepin, who,
Raffeix says in a note, was rescued by Du Lhut. It also marks out the
journeys of La Salle in 1679, '80.

We now come to the great map of Franquelin, the most remarkable of all the
early maps of the interior of North America, though hitherto completely
ignored by both American and Canadian writers. It is entitled _"Carte de
la Louisiane ou des Voyages du St de la Salle et des pays qu'il a
decouverts depuis la Nouvelle France jusqu'au Golfe Mexique les annees
1679, 80, 81 et 82. par Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin. l'an 1684. Paris."_
Franquelin was a young engineer, who held the post of hydrographer to the
king, at Quebec, in which Joliet succeeded him. Several of his maps are
preserved, including one made in 1681, in which he lays down the course of
the Mississippi,--the lower part from conjecture,--making it discharge
itself into Mobile Bay. It appears from a letter of the Governor, La
Barre, that Franquelin was at Quebec in 1683, engaged on a map which was
probably that of which the title is given above, though, had La Barre
known that it was to be called a map of the journeys of his victim La
Salle, he would have been more sparing of his praises. "He" (Franquelin),
writes the Governor, "is as skilful as any in France, but extremely poor
and in need of a little aid from his Majesty as an Engineer: he is at work
on a very correct map of the country which I shall send you next year in
his name; meanwhile, I shall support him with some little assistance."--
_Colonial Documents of New York_, ix. 205.

The map is very elaborately executed, and is six feet long and four and a
half wide. It exhibits the political divisions of the continent, as the
French then understood them; that is to say, all the regions drained by
streams flowing into the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi are claimed as
belonging to France, and this vast domain is separated into two grand
divisions, La Nouvelle France and La Louisiane. The boundary line of the
former, New France, is drawn from the Penobscot to the southern extremity
of Lake Champlain, and thence to the Mohawk, which it crosses a little
above Schenectady, in order to make French subjects of the Mohawk Indians.
Thence it passes by the sources of the Susquehanna and the Alleghany,
along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across Southern Michigan, and by
the head of Lake Michigan, whence it sweeps north-westward to the sources
of the Mississippi. Louisiana includes the entire valley of the
Mississippi and the Ohio, besides the whole of Texas. The Spanish province
of Florida comprises the peninsula and the country east of the Bay of
Mobile, drained by streams flowing into the Gulf; while Carolina,
Virginia, and the other English provinces, form a narrow strip between the
Alleghanies and the Atlantic.

The Mississippi is called "Missisipi, ou Riviere Colbert;" the Missouri,
"Grande Riviere des Emissourittes, ou Missourits;" the Illinois, "Riviere
des Ilinois, ou Macopins;" the Ohio, which La Salle had before called by
its present name, "Fleuve St. Louis, ou Chucagoa, ou Casquinampogamou;"
one of its principal branches is "Ohio, ou Olighin" (Alleghany); the
Arkansas, "Riviere des Acansea;" the Red River, "Riviere Seignelay," a
name which had once been given to the Illinois. Many smaller streams are
designated by names which have been entirely forgotten.

The nomenclature differs materially from that of Coronelli's map,
published four years later. Here the whole of the French territory is laid
down as "Canada, ou La Nouvelle France," of which "La Louisiane" forms an
integral part. The map of Homannus, like that of Franquelin, makes two
distinct provinces, of which one is styled "Canada" and the other "La
Louisiane" the latter including Michigan and the greater part of New York.
Franquelin gives the shape of Hudson's Bay, and of all the Great Lakes,
with remarkable accuracy. He makes the Mississippi bend much too far to
the West. The peculiar sinuosities of its course are indicated; and some
of its bends, as, for example, that at New Orleans, are easily recognized.
Its mouths are represented with great minuteness; and it may be inferred
from the map that, since La Salle's time, they have advanced considerably
into the sea.

Perhaps the most interesting feature in Franquelin's map is his sketch of
La Salle's evanescent colony on the Illinois, engraved for this volume. He
reproduced the map in 1688, for presentation to the king, with the title
_Carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale, depuis le 25 jusq'au 65 degre de
latitude et environ 140 et 235 degres de longitude, etc._ In this map
Franquelin corrects various errors in that which preceded. One of these
corrections consists in the removal of a branch of the River Illinois
which he had marked on his first map,--as will be seen by referring to the
portion of it in this book,--but which does not in fact exist. On this
second map La Salle's colony appears in much diminished proportions, his
Indian settlements having in good measure dispersed.

The remarkable manuscript map of the Upper Mississippi, by Le Sueur,
belongs to a period subsequent to the close of this narrative.

APPENDIX II.

THE ELDORADO OF MATHIEU SAGEAN.

Father Hennepin had among his contemporaries two rivals in the fabrication
of new discoveries. The first was the noted La Hontan, whose book, like
his own, had a wide circulation and proved a great success. La Hontan had
seen much, and portions of his story have a substantial value; but his
account of his pretended voyage up the "Long River" is a sheer
fabrication. His "Long River" corresponds in position with the St. Peter,
but it corresponds in nothing else; and the populous nations whom he found
on it, the Eokoros, the Esanapes, and the Gnacsitares, no less than their
neighbors the Mozeemlek and the Tahuglauk, are as real as the nations
visited by Captain Gulliver. But La Hontan did not, like Hennepin, add
slander and plagiarism to mendacity, or seek to appropriate to himself the
credit of genuine discoveries made by others.

Mathieu Sagean is a personage less known than Hennepin or La Hontan; for,
though he surpassed them both in fertility of invention, he was
illiterate, and never made a book. In 1701, being then a soldier in a
company of marines at Brest, he revealed a secret which he declared that
he had locked within his breast for twenty years, having been unwilling to
impart it to the Dutch and English, in whose service he had been during
the whole period. His story was written down from his dictation, and sent
to the minister Ponchartrain. It is preserved in he Bibliotheque
Imperiale, and in 1863 it was printed by Mr. Shea. Sagean underwent an
examination, which resulted in his being sent to Biloxi, near the mouth of
the Mississippi, with instructions from the minister that he should be
supplied with the means of conducting a party of Canadians to the
wonderful country which he had discovered; but, on his arrival, the
officers in command, becoming satisfied that he was an impostor, suffered
the order to remain unexecuted. His story was as follows:--

He was born at La Chine in Canada, and engaged in the service of La Salle
about twenty years before the revelation of his secret; that is, in 1681.
Hence, he would have been at the utmost, only fourteen years old, as La
Chine did not exist before 1667. He was with La Salle at the building of
Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, and was left here as one of a hundred men
under command of Tonty. Tonty, it is to be observed, had but a small
fraction of this number; and Sagean describes the fort in a manner which
shows that he never saw it. Being desirous of making some new discovery,
he obtained leave from Tonty, and set out with eleven other Frenchmen and
two Mohegan Indians. They ascended the Mississippi a hundred and fifty
leagues, carried their canoes by a cataract, went forty leagues farther,
and stopped a month to hunt. While thus employed, they found another
river, fourteen leagues distant, flowing south-south-west. They carried
their canoes thither, meeting on the way many lions, leopards, and tigers,
which did them no harm; then they embarked, paddled a hundred and fifty
leagues farther, and found themselves in the midst of the great nation of
the Acanibas, dwelling in many fortified towns, and governed by King
Hagaren, who claimed descent from Montezuma. The king, like his subjects,
was clothed with the skins of men. Nevertheless, he and they were
civilized and polished in their manners. They worshipped certain frightful
idols of gold in the royal palace. One of them represented the ancestor of
their monarch armed with lance, bow, and quiver, and in the act of
mounting his horse; while in his mouth he held a jewel as large as a
goose's egg, which shone like fire, and which, in the opinion of Sagean,
was a carbuncle. Another of these images was that of a woman mounted on a
golden unicorn, with a horn more than a fathom long. After passing,
pursues the story, between these idols, which stand on platforms of gold,
each thirty feet square, one enters a magnificent vestibule, conducting to
the apartment of the king. At the four corners of this vestibule are
stationed bands of music, which, to the taste of Sagean, was of very poor
quality. The palace is of vast extent, and the private apartment of the
king is twenty-eight or thirty feet square; the walls, to the height of
eighteen feet, being of bricks of solid gold, and the pavement of the
same. Here the king dwells alone, served only by his wives, of whom he
takes a new one every day. The Frenchmen alone had the privilege of
entering, and were graciously received.

These people carry on a great trade in gold with a nation, believed by
Sagean to be the Japanese, as the journey to them lasts six months. He saw
the departure of one of the caravans, which consisted of more than three
thousand oxen, laden with gold, and an equal number of horsemen, armed
with lances, bows, and daggers. They receive iron and steel in exchange
for their gold. The king has an army of a hundred thousand men, of whom
three-fourths are cavalry. They have golden trumpets, with which they make
very indifferent music; and also golden drums, which, as well as the
drummer, are carried on the backs of oxen. The troops are practised once a
week in shooting at a target with arrows; and the king rewards the victor
with one of his wives, or with some honorable employment.

These people are of a dark complexion and hideous to look upon, because
their faces are made long and narrow by pressing their heads between two
boards in infancy. The women, however, are as fair as in Europe; though,
in common with the men, their ears are enormously large. All persons of
distinction among the Acanibas, wear their finger-nails very long. They
are polygamists, and each man takes as many wives as he wants. They are of
a joyous disposition, moderate drinkers, but great smokers. They
entertained Sagean and his followers during five months with the fat of
the land; and any woman who refused a Frenchman was ordered to be killed.
Six girls were put to death with daggers for this breach of hospitality.
The king, being anxious to retain his visitors in his service, offered
Sagean one of his daughters, aged fourteen years, in marriage; and, when
he saw him resolved to depart, promised to keep her for him till he should
return.

The climate is delightful, and summer reigns throughout the year. The
plains are full of birds and animals of all kinds, among which are many
parrots and monkeys, besides the wild cattle, with humps like camels,
which these people use as beasts of burden.

King Hagaren would not let the Frenchmen go till they had sworn by the
sky, which is the customary oath of the Acanibas, that they would return
in thirty-six moons, and bring him a supply of beads and other trinkets
from Canada. As gold was to be had for the asking, each of the eleven
Frenchmen took away with him sixty small bars, weighing about four pounds
each. The king ordered two hundred horsemen to escort them, and carry the
gold to their canoes; which they did, and then bade them farewell with
terrific howlings, meant, doubtless, to do them honor.

After many adventures, wherein nearly all his companions came to a bloody
end, Sagean, and the few others who survived, had the ill luck to be
captured by English pirates, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He spent
many years among them in the East and West Indies, but would not reveal
the secret of his Eldorado to these heretical foreigners.

Such was the story, which so far imposed on the credulity of the Minister
Ponchartrain as to persuade him that the matter was worth serious
examination. Accordingly, Sagean was sent to Louisiana, then in its
earliest infancy as a French colony. Here he met various persons who had
known him in Canada, who denied that he had ever been on the Mississippi,
and contradicted his account of his parentage. Nevertheless, he held fast
to his story, and declared that the gold mines of the Acanibas could be
reached without difficulty by the River Missouri. But Sauvolle and
Bieuville, chiefs of the colony, were obstinate in their unbelief; and
Sagean and his King Hagaren lapsed alike into oblivion.

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