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CHAPTER IV
The next expedition sent to the valley of the
Mississippi was led by Cavalier de La Salle. He was a young and
ambitious Frenchman who had recently come to New France; a man of
great courage and robust constitution. He was highly educated and
well equipped for the work. Governor Frontenac heartily cooperated
with La Salle in his plans to explore the river to its mouth.
The expedition embarked on Lake Frontenac (Ontario)
on the 18th of November, 1678. When it reached Niagara Falls the
weather had become so cold that it was necessary to go into winter
quarters. In the spring reinforcements came, and among them was
Father Louis Hennepin, a daring Franciscan friar, who had been a
missionary among the Indians. As the vessel could not proceed
beyond the falls, another had to be built, detaining the explorer
for six months. On the 7th of August, 1679, they reembarked and
reached Green Bay on the 8th of October.
Collecting a load of furs, La Salle sent his vessel
back with them and set out with thirty-five men for the Illinois
River. Sixty miles below he erected a fort and opened trade with
the Indians. Here the party remained until March, 1680, when a
company of seven, led by Father Hennepin, was sent down the
Illinois River to explore the upper Mississippi Valley. these men
ascended the river in a canoe for 800 miles, past the eastern shore
of Clayton and Allamakee counties in Iowa as well as the States of
Wisconsin and Minnesota. They reached the falls above the present
site of St. Paul, and gave them the name of St. Anthony.
Father Hennepin with five men then started down the
river intending to explore to its mouth, passing along the entire
eastern borders of Iowa. Arriving at the mouth of the Arkansas, and
learning that it was still a long distance to the Gulf, he returned
to the posts on the Illinois, and soon after sailed for France.
There he published a glowing account of the regions he had visited,
naming the country Louisiana. Hennepin and his party traveled in
all a distance of more than three thousand miles and discovered a
large tract north of Wisconsin, but he did not explore the
Mississippi to its mouth as he claimed after the death of La Salle,
who completed this enterprise in 1682.
The river had been named by Marquette "Conception";
by Hennepin the "St. Louis," and by La Salle "Colbert," for the
French minister.
On the 27th of Mach the party reached the mouth of
Red River, and on the 6th of April arrived at the Mississippi delta.
Sending D'Antray down the east, Truly down the middle, La Salle
followed the west channel, all in time reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
He here took formal possession of the great valley in the name of
his sovereign, Louis XIV, thus securing to France Louisiana.*
*Near the mouth of the river, La Salle
erected a column and a cross upon which the following inscription
was made: Louis the Great, King of France and Navarre, reigning
April 9th, 1682.
The fate of this first explorer of the lower
Mississippi was a sad one. In 1685 he organized a party of two
hundred and eighty persons to found a colony near the mouth of the
Mississippi, to hold the territory of Louisiana for France. Not
knowing the longitude of the mouth of the river, the fleet sailed
too far west and landed the colonists near the Colorado in the
present limits of Texas. The fleet then returned to France. After
two years of hardship, sickness and suffering La Salle started with
a small party to try to reach the nearest settlements in Illinois,
and while in the wilderness was treacherously assassinated by some
members of his own company. His body was left unburied in the
forest. A few of his devoted friends hunted down and killed the
murderers and finally reached the Illinois settlements.
The colonists thus left to their fate nearly all
died from disease and Indian raids. Finally the survivors were
overcome by the natives, captured and reduced to slavery. In 1690
the few who were alive were rescued by a Spanish expedition sent out
to destroy the French colony. In 1682 La Salle wrote a lengthy
account of Father Hennepin's exploration of the upper valley, and in
it makes the first mention of the Ai-o-un-on-ia (Iowa) Indians, and
from this tribe our State takes its name.
In 1684 Louis Franguelin published the best map
that, up to that time, had been made of Louisiana, which comprised
all of the French possessions south, and west, and northwest of the
great lakes. On this map first appeared the two rivers bearing
their present names, "Mississippi" and "Missouri."
The Ontavus Indians living along the valley of the
great river, called it the Mis-cha-si-pi, and posterity has united
in preserving the beautiful Indian name, with a slight change in the
orthography.
For forty years French settlers were slowly entering
the Mississippi Valley, while trappers, fur traders and missionaries
penetrated remote regions exploring the rivers of the territory
lying west of the Mississippi. It was from these pioneers that many
of our Iowa water courses received their first names, several of
which have been retained.
Twelve years elapsed after the disastrous attempt of
La Salle to plant a colony in the lower Mississippi Valley, before
another movement was made by the French to establish settlements in
that region. In 1699 D'Iberville, a distinguished French naval
officer, collected a colony at San Domingo for settlement in
Louisiana. The company landed west of Mobile Bay, where the ships
and most of the settlers remained. D'Iberville, with a party of
sailors, started in small boats westward along the coast in search
of the mouth of the Mississippi. Ascending one of the channels,
they met a band of Indians, among whom they found various articles
which had been given them by La Salle in 1682. Some time later a
letter was found in possession of the Indians written April 20,
1685, to La Salle by De Tonti, who was searching at that time for
the lost French colony. They also fond a Spanish coat-of-mail that
must have been taken from De Soto's army one hundred and sixty years
before.
After exploring the country along the river for some
distance, D'Iberville selected a place for his colony eighty miles
east of where New Orleans stands, on the north coast of Biloxi Bay.
This was the first permanent settlement established in the lower
Mississippi Valley.
From here D'Iberville and his younger brother,
Bienville, examined the valley of the Mississippi as far north as
Natchez. On the bluff where that city now stands the commander
selected a site for the future capital of the French possessions.
The Natchez Indians, a powerful nation, had made some progress
toward civilization. Fire was the emblem of their divinity, and the
sun was their god. In their principal temple a fire was kept
continually burning by their priests. D'Iberville concluded a
treaty of peace with the Natchez chief, with permission to found a
colony and erect a fort. From this place the French commander
explored the Red River Valley for more than a thousand miles.
In 1702 Lesueur, a French explorer, with a party of
adventurers ascended the Mississippi River, past the entire eastern
boundary of Iowa. They went northward to the mouth of the St. Peter
and up that stream to the Blue Earth, and there erected a fort.
This was probably the first attempt to take formal possession of
the region now embraced in the States of Minnesota, Iowa and the
Dakotas.
In 1705 Frenchmen traversed the Missouri to the
Kansas River and built a fort at the mouth of the Osage. In 1710
the first African negroes were taken into the new French colony and
slavery was established in Louisiana.
After the death of D'Iberville, his brother,
Bienville, became Governor of Louisiana. In 1717 the entire trade
of the Mississippi Valley was granted by a charter from the French
king to the "Western Company" for twenty-five years. The absolute
control of the French possession was by this grant turned over to
the corporation, even to the selection of its Governor and all
military officers, the command of its forts, vessels and armies.
The company was bound to introduce into Louisiana, during the
period of its charter, six thousand white settlers and three
thousand negro slaves. Bienville was chosen Governor of the whole
province. He at once founded a city and established a colony on the
banks of the Mississippi.
The shores were low, flat and swampy for more than a
hundred miles from its mouth, but the Governor selected a site where
New Orleans now stands for the capital, and proceeded to clear the
dense forest that covered it. He laid out the city and gave it the
name it now bears. The first cargo of slaves, direct from Africa,
was landed on the west bank of the river opposite the new city in
1719. It consisted of five hundred men, women and children,
forcibly torn from their homes, transported in a slave ship, and
sold out to the colonists at an average price of one hundred and
fifty dollars each.
From 1756 to 1762 war was waged by England against
France for the conquest of Canada, and all of the French possessions
in the Mississippi Valley. After a conflict in which the colonists
and many tribes of Indians took part, the English armies succeeded
in wresting Canada from the French, and in 1763 a treaty of peace
was concluded by which England secured all of the French territory
east of the Mississippi River, except a region east of New Orleans.
The king of France at the same time, by a secret treaty, ceded to
Spain all of the remainder of Louisiana, embracing the entire
country west of the Mississippi to its remotest tributaries,
including Iowa and all north to the source of the river.
Thus after nearly a century from the time France
became the owner of Louisiana, its entire possessions were
surrendered and its French inhabitants became the unwilling subjects
of England and Spain.
The French settlers in the Mississippi Valley were,
for the most part, small farmers, supplying nearly all of their
wants by the products of the fertile soil. They were simple in
their habits and lived in peace with the Indians. In religion they
were devoted Catholics. There were no public houses, as every house
entertained travelers. Lawyers, courts, prisons and instruments for
punishment were unknown, as were crimes and quarrels for which they
are maintained. In village schools the children acquired a limited
education, but sufficient for their simple lives. Priests were
almost the only well educated men among them. They did not enter
into political contest, but cheerfully accepted the government of
the King, as one that must not be questioned. Worldly honors were
troubles they never desired. Without commerce, they knew nothing of
the luxuries or refinement of European countries. There were no
distinctions of rank and wealth. They were free from envy, avarice
and ambition. The wives of the household had entire control of all
domestic affairs, and were the supreme umpires in settling all
disputes. They exercised a greater influence than in any other
civilized country. Agriculture was almost the only occupation,
where every man had his herd of cattle, ponies, sheep and swine; and
each was his own mechanic.
This lived the first settlers in the Mississippi
Valley for more than a hundred years. But when their country was
surrendered to English rule, many left their peaceful homes along
the Illinois, the Mississippi and Wisconsin, so strong was their
affection for France and its government.
During the time that Iowa had been under the
dominion of France, no towns had been laid out or permanent colonies
established. Fur traders, within its limits, hunters, trappers and
missionaries had ascended the Des Moines, the Iowa, the Cedar,
Wapsipinicon and the Missouri. Their cabins had been built in the
beautiful groves; but the Indian nations that occupied the State
when Columbus discovered America still held undisputed possession.
No record has been left of the French traders and missionaries who
for a century visited the "beautiful land" and named many of its
water courses. They made no war on the natives, but mingled with
them in friendly intercourse. Little can ever be known of the
history of the inhabitants during all the years which elapsed from
1492 up to 1800.
One consideration which led to the early exploration
of the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri and their
tributaries, was the importance of the fur trade in all of that
region. As early as 1667 the Hudson's Bay Company had been
organized by English capitalists. The principal business was
dealing in buffalo, elk, bear and deer skins and furs in the British
possessions of North America. The company sent its hunters,
trappers and traders far north into the Arctic regions, as well as
south through Canada, and westward to the Pacific Coast. Its
operations grew to such magnitude, and its profits became so large,
that the stock of the company was sold at a premium of two thousand
per cent. The visions of rich gold mines that had lured the first
Spanish adventurers into the far west, had gradually faded away.
New sources of wealth were sought by those who were yearly
penetrating the wilderness of America.
A strong rivalry grew up between the English and
French over the fur trade, and it was one of the chief causes
leading to the war with French and Indians on the frontier. French
traders had pushed their traffic up the rivers of Missouri, Kansas,
Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, more than a hundred years before these
States had an existence on the map. These pioneers acquired their
first knowledge of the lakes and rivers from the Indians with whom
they traded. Rude maps were made from the information thus gained.
In 1762 a fur company was organized in New Orleans
for the purpose of extending the profitable traffic among the
Indians of the region lying between the upper Mississippi and the
Rocky Mountains. Pierre Laclede was one of the projectors and took
charge of establishing trading posts. He stopped at St. Genevieve,
where a French colony settled in 1755. He also landed on the west
shore of the Mississippi, about eighteen miles below the mouth of
the Missouri, to establish a trading station. While here he was
impressed with the spot as a favorable site for a town, and on the
15th of February, 1764, he caused a plat to be made, naming it St.
Louis in honor of Louis XV, then king of France, little suspecting
that his trading post was destined to become one of the great cities
of America.
Louisiana had already been ceded to Spain by that
weak monarch for whom the new town was named, but the disgraceful
act had not been made public. England was extending its settlements
in the Illinois country lately wrested from the French. The French
settlements in that region were largely confined to the east side of
the upper Mississippi, and the Illinois rivers.
The acquisition of this country by the English was
very distasteful to its French inhabitants. When Captain Stirling
of the British army took command of Fort Chartres in 1765, in order
to extend the government of Great Britain over the country, many of
the citizens abandoned their homes and moved to the French
settlements of St. Genevieve and St. Louis. The French population
of the whole Illinois country at the time it passed under English
rule, was about five thousand. Nearly one-half of this number
refused to become British subjects and joined their own countrymen
on the west side of the Mississippi. Ten years later the population
of Kaskaskia had become reduced to about one hundred families, and
Kahokia to fifty. This region received but few immigrants from the
English provinces while it was under British rule, but remained an
isolated French settlement in the heart of a wild country surrounded
by Indians, and unreconciled to the hated English Government. Its
only means of communication with the civilized world was by canoes
or bateaux to Detroit or New Orleans. The military government that
was arbitrarily extended over these people, who had braved every
danger and endured all the hardships inseparable from making homes
in that remote but beautiful and fertile territory, was despitic and
oppressive.
When the English colonies in America united in the
determination to free themselves from British rule, the people of
the Mississippi Valley were not slow to make common cause with them.
In 1777 George Rogers Clark, a gallant young
Kentuckian, projected a military expedition to aid the patriots of
the far west. Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, of Virginia,
secured authority for young Clark to raise troops and seize the
British frontier posts. Speedily enlisting one hundred and eighty
young backwoodsmen, who were expert riflemen, fearless and injured
to hardships, he embarked on the "Ohio" and finally arrived at
Kaskakia. This town was on the west bank of Kaskaskia River, five
miles from its mouth, about sixty-five miles south of St. Louis and
was the oldest settlement in Illinois.
Colonel Clark surprised the English garrison
occupying the town and seized the place. He followed up his
brilliant success by capturing Kahokia and Vincennes. The French
population of these places was greatly rejoiced over the expulsion
of the English and cordially cooperated with Colonel Clark.
When Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, the English
commander at Detroit, heard of the capture of these places, he
started with an army of British and Indians to "punish the rebels."
He determined to recover the Illinois towns, and carry the war into
Kentucky. He recaptured Vincennes* and sent a force to destroy
Colonel Clark's little army. But that young officer was on the
alert, made a bold dash upon Fort Vincennes, where General Hamilton
was in command, and captured the post, taking the British general
prisoner, seizing his stores, baggage and army equipments.
*Fort Vincennes, or St. Vincent as the
French named it, was on the Wabash River, one hundred and fifty
miles from its mouth. It was on a direct line from Detroit to
Kashkashis. The entire region northwest of Ohio was commanded by
these posts.
But the English made yet another effort to recover
possession of the Mississippi Valley. An army of fourteen hundred
was speedily equipped with Indian allies to march on St. Louis. The
citizens sent a special messenger to Colonel Clark for aid. The
fearless young commander did not hesitate, but selecting five
hundred of his best men hastened to the relief of the besieged town.
The citizens were making a gallant defense against overwhelming
numbers and anxiously watching for the arrival of their friends.
Suddenly the sharp report of hundreds of rifles smote the Britishs
army in the rear. The Indian allies, who had a wholesome fear of
the young American commander, were panic stricken and fled in
terror, soon followed by the British, and St. Louis was saved.
Colonel Clark had a fort erected at the "Falls of
the Ohio," where Louisville was subsequently built. In the spring
of 1780 he built Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi below the mouth
of the Ohio. Natchez had been taken from the British and Colonel
Clark now held the entire upper Mississippi Valley, from Illinois to
the Spanish boundary. If he could have been reinforced by two
thousand men, he was confident that he could have captured Detroit
and expelled the British from the entire northwest. But the
American armies were so hard pressed by the British in the Atlantic
colonies, that it was impossible to reinforce him. But he had by
his foresight, skill and courage already wrested the West from the
English, never again to pass under the dominion of a foreign nation.
The Virginia Legislature inscribed a memorial of
Colonel Clark's brilliant achievements upon its records and granted
to each soldier to his army two hundred acres of land.*
*George Rogers Clark was a brother of
Captain William Clark who was one of the commanders of the Lewis and
Clark exploring expedition of 1804; and who was appointed by
President Jefferson Governor of Missouri Territory. One of Col.
Clark's soldiers in his western campaign was John Todd who became a
prominent citizen of Kentucky and was the great uncle of Mary Todd,
wife of Abraham Lincoln.
The first English adventurers found their way into
the upper Mississippi Valley in about 1766. They were lawless
hunters and trappers and there is little doubt that they extended
their traffic with the Indians up several of the Iowa rivers. From
this crude beginning developed finally the great Northwest Fur
Company, which in 1806 had extended its trade from the St. Lawrence
to Hudson's Bay; and from headquarters on the west shore of Lake
Superior, their hunters, trappers and traders penetrated the west as
far as the Rocky Mountains, embracing Iowa and Minnesota in their
range.
At the close of the war of the Revolution, Great
Britain relinquished to the United States its possessions east of
the Mississippi River, from its sources to the 31st parallel of
latitude, and with it free navigation of the river to its mouth as
derived by previous treaties with France and Spain. |
