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had them in possession for fifty years; to others they had descended from time out of mind, presented by the gods who dwell beneath the waters." At St. Theresa Bay this missionary found a few of the converts of Father Menard, "whose memories he refreshed with the mysteries of his religion," and pressed on his journey. "After many discouragements by means of famine, storms and great weariness both day and night," he landed at Che-goi-me-gon (La Pointe) on the first day of October, 1665. Here Allouez remained nearly two years, winning converts to the faith and establishing peace between the Chippewas and the Sioux. Great bands of Indians gathered about the mission and listened to his instruction. also visited Fond du Lac, and there the Sioux informed him of vast plains farther west where roamed immense herds of buffalo. Becoming more and more enthusiastic in his mission, and feeling the need of better aid in establishing stations among the various tribes, he repaired to Quebec in the fall of 1667. With burning words he appealed to his brethren, and was so successful in interesting them that his object was accomplished in two days. He imme. diately returned to the Indians with fresh re cruits and augmented zeal.

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Father Marquette and Claud Dablon were so thoroughly interested in the project that they soon followed, and succeeded in establishing the first permanent mission at the Sault de Ste. Marie, and the second was soon begun on the Island of Michilimackinac. Both were wisely chosen as important points. Marquette calls them "the keys or gates for the tribes north and south," as they were obliged to go through them in order to reach the French settlements. Soon after the establishment of the mission the French Government, in May, 1671, convened the long-desired congress of the Indians at the Falls of Ste. Marie. Here they consolidated as far as possible the interosts of the various tribes of the Northwest. Representatives of the Indian nations came in great numbers from the St. Lawrence on the north, and from as far south as the Red River. They sat in council with the veteran French officers and priests. The Governor-General of New France was represented by M. de Lusson, who took possession of "all lands between the east and west, and from Montreal on the north to the south where any land existed," in the name

of his Majesty, the King of France. The tribes were assembled upon a hill near the village, the standard of the cross was erected with the most solemn ceremonies of the church, while the soldiers chanted the Vaxilla to the admiration of the Indians. Then the lilies of France were marked upon a cedar post, while the French chanted the inspiring Exaudeat, and offered prayers for the sacred person of his Majesty. The chiefs were informed they were under the protection of the French king, and guns were fired. After much ceremony Father Allouez addressed the savages in their own tongue as follows, which is a sample of the oratory impressive to the Indians of that time:

"It is a most important affair that calls us together. Cast your eyes on that cross which is high above your heads. It is there where the Son of God was willing to be attached and to die in order to satisfy His eternal Father for your sins. He is the master of your lives and also of heaven and earth and hell. It is He of whom I have often spoken, and whose name and words I have borne into these distant lands. But at the same time look upon that other column, to which are attached the arms of that great chief of France whom we call King. He lives beyond the sea. He is the chief of chiefs, and has not his like in the world. All the chiefs of whom you have heard are but children compared with him. He is like a great tree, while they are mere shrubs which we tread upon. You know Onontio [the GovernorGeneral], the renowned chief of Quebec. You know that he is the terror of the Iroquois, and that his name is sufficient to make them tremble, since he has desolated their lands, and carried fire among their settlements. There are beyond the sea ten thousand Onontios like him, who are but warriors of the great chief, our King of whom I speak. When he says go to war,' everybody obeys, and these ten thousand chiefs raise bands of warriors, both for the land and the sea. Some embark in ships like those you have seen at Quebec. Your canoes will hold but four or five men, twelve at the utmost. Our vessels carry four or five hundred and even a thousand.

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"Another portion go to war on land, but in such numbers that when arrayed in double ranks, they would reach to Mississaquenk, which is twenty leagues from here. When he attacks he is more fearful than thunder. The

earth trembles, and the air and sea are on fire from the discharge of his cannon. He has been seen in the midst of his squadrons covered with the blood of his enemies, so many of whom has he put to the sword, that he does not number their scalps, but merely the rivers of blood which he causes to flow. He carries such a number of captives with him that he does not value them, but lets them go where they please, to show that he does not fear them. Nobody dares make war on him. All nations beyond the sea have sued for peace with great submission. They come from every quarter of the globe to listen to him, and to admire him. It is he who decides upon the affairs of the world.

“What shall I say of his riches? You think yourselves rich when you have ten or twelve sacks of corn, and batchets, and kettles, and other things of the kind. He has more cities than you have men, which are scattered over a space of more than five hundred leagues. In each city there are hatchets enough to cut all your wood, kettles enough to cook all your caribou, and sugar enough to fill all your wigwams. His house extends farther than from here to the Sault, is higher than the tallest of your trees, and contains more people than the largest of your settlements ever contained."

A military post was soon established at the Sault Ste. Marie, invested with a commandant and small garrison. An industry in copper articles sprung up. Bracelets and other ornaments were made for the Indians, as well as crosses, censers and candlesticks for the church. These were manufactured from masses of pure copper brought by the natives from the shores of Lake Superior. A large Indian village flourished near. Their dwellings were surrounded by palisades, sometimes in triple rows, with platforms built within, where they kept supplies of stones to hurl upon intruders. The Indian dwellings were sometimes more than a hundred feet in length, were thatched with, bark, and secured on the sides by a network of poles covered with bark. They contained several distinct families, who were assigned compartments on the side, like stalls of a stable, where their couches were spread with the skins of the chase. The ceiling was decorated with the ripened ears of corn. In these comfortable habitations they passed the long and bitter winters. A bright fire blazed upon

the earthen hearth, and the blue smoke curled to an outlet in the roof. Around these lodge fires clustered the warriors, squaws, and little children, and listened and listened to the legends of ancient chiefs and mighty medicine men, whose deeds of valor fired their impulsive hearts; or while the pipe was passed from hand to hand the story-teller recounted to these superstitious children of the forests, the mission of the spirits who dwelt in the fire, water and air, whose messages came upon the wings of the wind, were written in the lightning and spoken in the thunder.

The life of the Indian was one of contrastfrom the excitement of the chase, to the long, patient fishing days on the ice; from the dangers on the war-path, to the festivals and dance. Political ambition burned with a fervid heat within the breast of the red man, and he would dare many dangers to be counted among the notable men of the tribe. When the great chiefs of the confederations had deliberated before the council fires and decided on war, they sent forth their messengers to call the warriors to arms from the East and West, wherever their allies might be found. Their warlike natures responded with speed and gladness, although first must be consulted the omens and dreams of the prophet, and a preparation made to insure success, by fasting, and prayer to the great war-god, ending in a wardance, during which they chanted the story of former exploits, and promised superior feats of strength and bravery in the coming expedition. When the required rites were concluded, they began to steal away through the wilderness, carrying their arms, food and canoes with them until they reached the rivers or lakes, when they paddled rapidly to their destination. They stormed the strongholds of their enemies, using their canoes as scaling ladders. They fell like tigers upon the unprepared, and butchered them without mercy. Their victories were stained with excess of cruelty, and not until they were exhausted in their vengeance did they spare the lives of those who remained and adopt them into their tribe. Wives were separated from husbands, and children from parents, and they were distributed among different villages that old affections and associations might be obliterated. Thus their losses, which were considerable in the practice of almost constant warfare, were repaired by this means, which the

Indians designated by a word meaning "flesh cut into pieces and scattered among the tribes." The Five Nations-or, as the French named them, the Iroquois-were the most powerful people. They dwelt within the present limits of the State of New York, and owed their triumphs in part to the importance of their position. The rivers and lakes were highways through the regions for their roving and ambitious warriors. They were as a people thoroughly organized. Each of the Five Nations had several sachems, who, with subordinate chiefs and honorable men, regulated all affairs of importance. When a foreign power was to be treated with, a general assembly of all the chiefs convened at the great council house in the Onondaga valley. The order of debate was prescribed by custom, and during the fiercest arguments they preserved an iron self-control.

The Iroquois in boundless pride styled themselves "the men surpassing all others," and their ambition for conquest was insatiable. Their war-parties were sent over half America, and their victories were so frequent that their name was a terror from the Atlantic to the far West. They were a superior people intellectually, and were thoroughly organized. Their greatest numerical strength in their most prosperous age was not four thousand warriors; and yet, in less than a quarter of a century, they destroyed and scattered four nations as brave and powerful as any in America. The Hurons or Wyandots occupied the peninsula between the lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario. Their population has been variously estimated at from ten to thirty thousand souls. They were an agricultural people, and bartered their corn to surrounding tribes, receiving in exchange fish and other articles they valued. The early Fathers called this country the granary of the Algonquins, which family surrounded the powerful Iroquois, and braced the country on the north from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, from the Atlantic on the east to Lake Winnipeg on the west. The Hurons, like the Iroquois, were divided into tribes, but unlike them were not professional warriors. The peaceful Hurons met a disastrous fate in the depths of the winter of 1649. The Iroquois swept down upon them and destroyed all before them. They dispersed the whole nation. Some found refuge among the French of Can. ada, others established themselves upon the

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shores of Lake Superior and the islands in the northern part of Lake Huron, while numbers were absorbed in the victorious ranks of the Iroquois. Some years afterwards the Hurons descended to the Straits of Detroit, where they flourished for a time.

The Neutral Nation inhabited the northern shores of Lake Erie as far east as the Straits of Niagara. They derived their name from their neutrality in the war between the Hurons and Iroquois. But they soon met the fate of the peaceful Hurons, and the Iroquois had scarcely rested from their vengeance when they attacked the Eries with their usual success. The Andastes received their next siege, and though they had resisted their enemies for years, they fell as ingloriously as the Hurons, in 1672. The Five Nations soon absorbed all the adjacent tribes and received into their ranks as equals the warlike Tuscaroras, admitting them as a Sixth Nation, and giving their sachems a seat in the councils at Onondaga. The wrongs the Tuscaroras had sustained at the hands of white settlers, in the loss of land and over-reaching in trade of various kinds, the Iroquois made their own; and with an intrepid, unreasoning vengeance, peculiar to the Indian, they nursed a cruel hatred of all white settlers and sought to wreak it upon the French in Canada. They also had treasured their own wrongs and the injury they received at the hands of Champlain in 1609, when he came into their midst with a band of Algonquins and shot with his arquebuse two of their chiefs; and when they fled in terror to the woods and caves to escape further destruction, Champlain imagined he had for all time taught the red man to respect the power of France. From that time the Iroquois never ceased to harass them. They burned their houses, laid waste their fields. They kept a vigilant watch upon the route between Quebec, Montreal and other points. They attacked Montreal with fire and steel, and their horrible cruelties were scarcely credible. They placed infants on the embers and required their own mothers to turn the spit. Others suffered torments too barbarous to describe. At times the Jesuits would obtain an influence over the savages and for some weeks they would rest from their raids upon their peaceful neighbors. Hope would again cheer the struggling and afflicted settlers, only to be again deceived by the treacherous Indians.

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M. TALON THE GRIFFIN

OUNT FRONTENAC was appointed Governor-General of New France in the year 1672, when he was fifty-two years old. He was descended from an old and noble house, and was the godchild of Louis XIII. Owing to the position held by his father in the household of the King, Count Frontenac was rapidly promoted to positions of importance during the stirring times of that age. When merely a boy he fought M. Holland and distinguished himself for bravery, and before he was twentyone had been actively engaged in several battles. Frontenac was made colonel of a regiment when twenty-three, and at the age of twenty-six was raised to the rank of marechal de camp (brigadier-general). His worldly prospects were not commensurate with his military glory, and his siege to the heart of a young lady of sixteen was for a long time unsuccessful. The young lady's guardians opposed the match, as they thought she might do better than unite her fortunes to a man who had but twenty thousand francs a year. But both were imperious and restive under opposition, and soon settled the matter by a secret marriage. The union was short-lived. Mad

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Frontenac was ambitious, brilliant in society, and utterly worldly. She seemed to soon tire of her husband and child. The child was placed in charge of a nurse, devoting herself to the society of Mademoiselle de Montpensier. From time to time various disputes (in regard to property) with the Count widened the breach and embittered the nature of her husband, so be welcomed the appointment to Canada ard was glad to escape from his an

In his case, like many others, "distance lent enchantment," for during all Count Frontenac's exile in the New World, his wife constantly exerted an influence for his advancement, and succeeded in a great measure in counteracting the intrigues of his enemies. Frontenac stands a conspicuous figure of the age, and was a man of great ability, brave,

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M. JOLIET
COUREURS DE-BOIS DEATH OF LA SALLE.

energetic, and peculiarly fitted to administer the affairs of a new country. He encouraged the establishment of a chain of military posts along the lakes and rivers. Exploring companies were sent forth and treaties made with the “Far Indians," as they were called, in the vicinity of the great lakes. Two years before Frontenac was made Governor-General, in 1670, Father Marquette removed the mission of Michilimackinac to St. Ignace, where he remained three years, engaged in his holy office, and also perfecting his plans for the dis covery of the Mississippi. The great Father of Waters was supposed to be the direct passage to China and the East Indies through the mythical South Sea, into which it was believed it emptied. Vast wealth was supposed to await the monarch whose subjects were enterprising enough to discover this highway to wealth. The ambitious Louis XIV. and his ministers schemed to control this passage to Eastern treasure, and encouraged their representatives in New France to search out this long-hidden path. M. Talon, a former Intendant General, ambitious for the honor of the discovery, dis. patched M. Joliet, a citizen of Quebec, to Father Marquette, whom he found ready and anxious to embark in the project, his desire to spread his faith equal to that of France for treasure. They selected five Frenchmen to accompany them, and left Mackinac the 13th of May, 1673, in two canoes, supplied with Indian corn and jerked meat. They crossed Lake Michigan to the Wisconsin River, “a beautiful stream, bordered by green banks, groves of trees and pleasant slopes." Floating down this placid stream they reached the Mississippi on the 17th of June. They saw "great herds of buffalo and deer roaming the borders of the river. Swans floated before them and great fish endangered their canoes." At length they discovered footprints in the sand, and leaving their bark canoes in charge of the crew they followed the trail leading to a meadow, where

they found a large Indian village. Joliet and Marquette made known their presence and waited to be received. An embassy of four old men soon approached and presented the pipe of peace. They were informed that the tribe belonged to the Illinois, whose country they were in. The next day they were entertained by a feast of four courses; the first was hominy cooked in the Indian style, the second of fish, the third of dog, and the fourth of roasted buffalo. They were treated with great consideration, attended through the village, and given a lodge where they rested comfortably through the night, and in the morning signifying their intention of proceeding on their voyage, were escorted to their canoes by six hundred Indians. They pursued their They pursued their journey unmolested until they reached the Arkansas, where they were attacked by a crowd of warriors, but Marquette's usual diplomacy saved them from any serious trouble. He presented a pipe of peace, and, as he quaintly said, "God touched their hearts." Their provisions were nearly exhausted, and being convinced the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf at no great distance from that place, they retraced their way. Joliet repaired to Quebec to render an account of the expedition, and Father Marquette again entered upon his chosen mission among the Indians. The wonderfully glowing description of this voyage kindled the adventurous spirit of Robert Cavalier de la Salle, a native of Normandy, and a descendant of a noble but impoverished family. His early life had been passed with the been passed with the Jesuits, where the natural tendency of his mind was confirmed and strengthened. His iron will could brook no obstacle, and with great sagacity and penetration into the hearts of men, he possessed sound judgment and boundless enterprise. La Salle took counsel of no man, and was stern and austere toward those under his command. He had been among the Indians, traders, and bushrangers of Canada for a number of years, and in various ways had been actively engaged in extending the interests of France. He found in Count FronHe found in Count Frontenac, the Governor General, a friend and abettor in his great designs to build a chain of forts along the lakes and rivers, complete the exploration of the Mississippi, and plant the standard of his King upon the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The far-seeing and judicious

Frontenac advised La Salle to apply directly to the King of France, and gave him a letter to the Minister of Marine, who proved a valuable friend to his interests. ble friend to his interests. La Salle was invested with the title of chevalier, and the seigniory of Fort Frontenac on condition that he would rebuild it. Encouraged by the King and nobility of France, he with his devoted friend and comrade, the Chevalier Tonti, and thirty men, left France in July, 1678, and reached Quebec the 15th of September. Although La Salle returned with but little money he was rich in resources. He soon found means to advance his plans.

Fort Frontenac was to be altered and repaired, a new fort was to be built on Lake Erie, and the navigation of Lake Ontario to be completed, for which latter purpose a barque was to be built. Materials for these objects existed in the wilds, and what to other men, perhaps as practical, would have been insurmountable obstacles, but fired his energy. He sent men into the wilderness to gather choice furs, from which he hoped to realize enough to pay his heavy expenses. These men were also commissioned to conciliate and prepare the Indians for his coming. The French traders, or as they were then called, coureurs de bois, were often men whose youth had been passed in the gay and extravagant court of the King of France, or among the excitements of the camp. Their lack of fortune and natural restlessness led them to seek this life of adventure and hardship. They were naturally cheerful and gay, and always hopeful of a golden reward in the service of the fur trade (the chief source of income to the colony). The coureur de bois, or land loper, lived happy in the midst of poverty, braved cold and peril of every sort, and his rollicking songs rang over the plains and down the rivers to the delight of the Indian. He was ever welcome to the wigwam, and mingled in the dance. He was often adopted into the tribe and became the favorite leader in all their sports. Many of these hardy men were lured on to explore the farthest confines of the wilderness by the hope of military or political advancement.

In the latter part of the year 1678 La Salle with his command repaired to the western bank of the Niagara River, two leagues above the cataract, where, protected within a fort of palisades, he built a vessel of sixty tons burden,

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