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On the night of his arrival he was denounced to the Illinois Indians as a friend of the Iroquois; that is to say, as a dangerous enemy, whom it was needful to slay. The men were seized with a panic, and some deserted, after having put into his saucepan a heavy dose of poison. They escaped by means of some antidote, says Conty, which had been given him by his friends in France.

According to Zenobe Membre, the deserters had been corrupted at Michillimachinac. Conty, Hennepin, and the same P. Membre accuse the French to the Illinois with having denounced La Salle. The documents recently published by M. Margry are still more explicit. La Salle foresaw an end to his enterprise, but the idea of retreating even partially was not to be thought of. He sent Michel Accau du Gay, called Picard, and Hennepin, the monk, to explore the sources of the Mississippi. Ten days afterward, March 4th, 1680, he went with four Frenchmen, and Nika, his faithful chaouanon, in a most rigorous winter, over deep snows in which they sunk to their knees, to seek at Frontenac rigging, furniture, and provisions which he needed in order to continue the expedition.

On returning at Fort Conty, he learned of the loss of the vessel which he had sent to Michillimachinac, and of a vessel from France, on which he had 2,200 livres. But this was not all. Of twenty-two men whom he had engaged in France, eighteen were detained by his enemy, the Intendent, Duchesneau, and upon news of his death four were sent out anew; still more, his men had deserted with his goods and his boats. the meantime the force of Conty had dispersed, forts Crêvecœur and Niagara were laid waste, and the magazine at Michillimachinac had been plundered. It seemed, to use his own expression, that all Canada had conspired against his undertaking.

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Who in his place would not have owned himself vanquished? Who would not have renounced so dangerous an enterprise, in order to enjoy calmly at Frontenac the pleasures of a noble position? La Salle did not even think of pleasure. He hastened to Montreal, arranged matters with his creditors, who made him new advances, arrested a a party of his deserters, and started on his way with twenty-five men, workmen and soldiers, by the Humber, Lake Simcoe, the Severn, Lake Huron, and rested five days at Michillimachinac in order to obtain provisions. He left again with twelve men, revisited the ruins of the Fort Miama, and passed on to the Illinois. The seventeen villages which he had seen upon this great river, his Fort Crêvecœur, his vessel, all were in ruins. The whole shore, even to the Mississippi, presented a fright

tul spectacle. The Iroquois had burned the villages, disinterred the dead, killed and eaten the living. The dogs, wolves and ravens even now fed upon the remains.

Upon a tree on the banks of the Mississippi, he made a representation of himself, carrying a pipe of peace, and he left a letter for Conty. After incredible fatigue, he reached Fort Miami, and made it his winter. quarters. He studied the situation anew.

The skillful intrigues had placed across his path the terrible Iroquois. All that he had done would be without practical result; at least he would hardly shut out this savage horror from the west. He remembered, however, that a commercial and military centre was necessary between the basins of the St. Lawrence and the Missisippi. Fort St. Louis, which he built upon Starved Rock, and the rich prairies of Illinois, seemed to him to be equally fitted for the necessities of war or the needs of commerce. His plan conceived, he began immediately to execute it, that is to say, he plunged into diplomacy without limit. He visited all the neighboring tribes, induced them to make peace and to settle around Fort St. Louis, under the protection of the King of France, in order that they might live, calm and happy in the abundance which Europe would supply, without fear of the Iroquois.

What speeches, what subtleties, what compliments! It is necessary to see these papers published by M. Margry. His efforts were crowned with success. He could see, before leaving Canada, around Fort St. Louis, the villages of twelve nations who recognized him as father of the King of France. As Lord of the country, by virtue of his letters patent, he granted concessions of land to the French. It is well understood that this great work brought him the detractions of all his enemies, beginning with the aged La Barre, the unworthy successor of Count Frontenac. With the culmination of coldness, came the movement to complete the discovery. La Salle returned once more to Frontenac, obtained credit for fresh advances, made his deposition, took with him Conty, the Recollect, Zenobe Membre, Jaques Metairie, notary of Fort Frontenac, twenty French, eighteen Abenakis or Mahingins, who carried with them. ten women and three children, and started on his route. The 6th of February he arrived at the Mississippi, on the 12th he embarked upon the stream; March 14th, at the Arkansas, he planted the cross and arms of France; April 7th, he arrived at the mouth of the stream, and on the 9th, in the name of the King, he formally took possession of Louisiana. At the same time he traversed fifteen hundred leagues of desert, not having any provisions, except the product of the chase,

having the compass for his guide. This discovery is the most important. of the age, but we shall see how General de la Barre viewed it.

The intention of La Salle was to build a fort at the mouth of the Mississippi, but the lack of provisions forced him to adjourn his project to the following year. He retook, therefore, his route for Canada. At his coming all the tribes on the border of the river had given him a good reception; at his return, many desired to slay him. To what is it necessary to refer this fickleness of Indian character? Upon arriving at Fort Prudhomme, which he had constructed with the Chickasaws, he suddenly fell sick; and when, after being confined to his bed forty days, he returned to Illinois, it was not to be glorified, as he deserved, but to be persecuted. La Barre, who was only a puppet in the hands of his managers, denied boldly, not only the result of the discovery, but the discovery itself. Yet he did not rest with this. He authorized not only the pillage of the canoes of La Salle, but even his murder, while P. Allouez blessed the bullets of his deserters, assuring them that they might break (pierce) the head of the honest and valiant Conty. Against all law, La Barre arrested the men whom La Salle sent to seek, in Canada, the merchandise and munitions of which he had need. He refused to send

to Fort Frontenac the soldiers that were asked for. In fine, he confiscated the Forts of Frontenac and St. Louis, compromised the results of the discovery, ruined Cavalier de La Salle and those associated with him in the enterprise.

La Salle returned to France, went to find Seignelay, convinced him of the foolishness of La Barre, who was immediately recalled, proposed to return by sea to the mouth of the Mississippi, and to capture the mines of Sainta Barbara. The reports and memoirs furnished by Cavalier La Salle, both on his own discoveries and his projects, carried conviction into the mind of Minister Seingelay. In accordance with his request, July 24th, 1684, he set sail for the Gulf of Mexico. This fleet was composed of four ships, and was commanded by Le Gallois de Beaujeu, Captain of the Line. Beaujeu left with the conviction, we may say, with the hope of failure, as one may see in his correspondence with Cabart de Villermont. "The devotion of Madame de Beaujeu to the Jesuits" was suspected by La Salle. The Minister warned Beaujeu, that, by this "difficully he would fail of success in the enterprise of La Salle." La Salle was suspicious of Beaujeu. This Captain, who believed himself to be the ablest Captain of the French marine, passed, without recognizing, the mouths of the Mississippi. This man who always spoke of his own impeccability,

forgetting his sojourn for nine months at the Tower of Rochelle, and his cassation, refused to comply with the demand of La Salle, who told him that he had passed their destinaton. But I do not desire to accuse him of the loss of the fly-boat Aimiable, for which the Chevalier Aigron was imprisoned upon his return to France, but I am not able to repress the remark, that he did all that was necessary to defeat the enterprise, in order to justify his prejudices against La Salle. It suffices to say, that he debarked La Salle in the Bay of Matagorda, instead of landing him at the mouth of the Mississippi, that he gave him cannon without balls, because to obtain the balls which were intended for the expedition, it would be necessary to derange the storage.

His jealousy survived La Salle. When Le Moyne and Iberville were sent to find the mouths of the Mississippi, which they discovered by the indications of La Salle, Beaujeu did not cease to predict failure, and after success, to depreciate the value of its utility.

La Salle, abandoned by his companions, constructed forts, made attempt on attempt to reach the Mississippi by land. One should read in the Journal of Joutel of Rouen, the accounts of his prodigious efforts. He was about to succeed, when he was assassinated at the corner of a forest, March 19, 1687. He was forty-three years and four months old, and it was twenty years since he entered into our colonial domain.

Let us recapitulate the acts of the discoverer. He explored North America, north and south; he established a chain of forts from the entrance of Lake Ontairio to the mouths of the Mississppi; he inaugurated navigation on the Great Lakes, by the discovery of the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois and the Mississippi; he opened the commerce with the Gulf of Mexico; by his colonies of Frontenac and of Illinois, he fortified us against the English; by his point against the Spanish mines, he showed us the possibility, the necessity of conquering Texas. It is with much reason that the Americans have placed his great name upon the map of Texas and of Illinois; it is with reason that they have placed his portrait in the Capitol at Washington; it is assuredly a wrong that his native city has done nothing to honor his

memory.

GABRIEL GRAVIER,

Honorary President, and General Secretary

of the Normand Geographical Society.

THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUNICII AL

GOVERNMENT OF NEW YORK CITY

I. THE DUTCH PERIOD

The most important prerequisite to the study of any institution is a correct view of the character of the people among whom they are found. The character of the settlers of New Netherland has not commonly been treated with justice, partly because their political institutions have disappeared, and partly because the present inhabitants are not in the main descended from them. Nor is it easier, in the face of Knickerbocker's History, to attempt a sober vindication of them, than to inspire respect for Amadis de Gaul or Don Beliarius in spite of Cervantes. Inevitably, the name New Netherland calls up before us the images of Oloffe the Dreamer and Walter the Doubter, of Abraham with the Ten Breeches, and Stuyvesant with the Wooden Leg, of doughty armies marching forth to engage in mimic wars or to parley with lank, nasal-voiced Yankees, of sleepy burghers with expressionless faces, and comfortable, placid dames devoted to knitting and scouring. Probably it always will. Certainly no one would have it otherwise, or agree with those solemn old Knickerbockers who deplored the sacrilegious attempt to poke fun at the fathers of New Netherland. The more Irvings we have in the world, the better. But while undoubtedly there is, in the history of the first beginnings of any great enterprise, from the time of Romulus to our own day, much that is ridiculous, we ought not to be so strongly influenced by a work of humorous fiction as seriously to imagine that the New Netherlanders are in that respect any worse off than the settlers of the other colonies, that the incessant smoking of New Amsterdam was at all more absurd that the incessant funeral-going and the savory discourses of Boston, or Governor Stuyvesant and Dominie Bogardus more ridiculous than valiant Miles Standish and "reverend and much-desired" Mr. John Cotton. Therefore, in considering the development of the municipal government of New Amsterdam, we should bear in mind that the disputes of Governor and burghers, however petty they appear at this distance, were to them far from ridiculous. Above all things, we should never forget of what nation they were a part. They were the countrymen and contempora ries of De Ruyter, the Van Tromps and the De Witts, and but a gen

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