We now come to the second part of the memoir, entitled "History of Monsieur de la Salle." After stating that he left France at the age of twenty-one or twenty-two, with the purpose of attempting some new discovery, it makes the statements repeated in a former chapter, concerning his discovery of the Ohio, the Illinois, and possibly the Mississipi. It then mentions the building of Fort Frontenac, and says that one object of it was to prevent the Jesuits from becoming undisputed masters of the fur-trade. [Footnote: Mention has been made of the report set on foot by the Jesuit Dablon, to prevent the building of the fort.] Three years ago, it pursues, La Salle came to France, and obtained a grant of the fort; and it proceeds to give examples of the means used by the party opposed to him to injure his good name, and bring him within reach of the law. Once, when he was at Quebec, the farmer of the king's revenue, one of the richest men in the place, was extremely urgent in his proffers of hospitality, and at length, though he knew him but slightly, persuaded him to lodge in his house. He had been here but a few days when his host's wife began to enact the part of the wife of Potiphar, and this with so much vivacity, that on one occasion La Salle was forced to take an abrupt leave, in order to avoid an infringement of the laws of hospitality. As he opened the door, he found the husband on the watch, and saw that it was a plot to entrap him. [Footnote: This story is told at considerable length, and the advances of the lady particularly described.]
Another attack, of a different character, though in the same direction, was soon after made. The remittances which La Salle received from the various members and connections of his family were sent through the hands of his brother, the Abbé Cavelier, from whom his enemies were, therefore, very eager to alienate him. To this end, a report was made to reach the priest's ears, that La Salle had seduced a young woman, with whom he was living, in an open and scandalous manner, at Fort Frontenac. The effect of this device exceeded the wishes of its contrivers; for the priest, aghast at what he had heard, set out for the fort, to administer his fraternal rebuke; but, on arriving, in place of the expected abomination, found his brother, assisted by two Récollet friars, ruling, with edifying propriety, over a most exemplary household.
Thus far the memoir. From passages in some of La Salle's letters, it may be gathered that the Abbé Cavelier gave him at times no little annoyance. In his double character of priest and elder brother, he seems to have constituted himself the counsellor, monitor, and guide of a man, who, though many years his junior, was in all respects incomparably superior to him, as the sequel will show. This must have been almost insufferable to a nature like that of La Salle; who, nevertheless, was forced to arm himself with patience, since his brother held the purse-strings. On one occasion, his forbearance was put to a severe proof, when, wishing to marry a damsel of good connections in the colony, the Abbé Cavelier saw fit, for some reason, to interfere, and prevented the alliance. [Footnote: Letter of La Salle in possession of M. Margry.]
To resume the memoir. It declares that the Jesuits procured an ordinance from the Supreme Council, prohibiting traders from going into the Indian country, in order that they, the Jesuits, being already established there in their missions, might carry on trade without competition. But La Salle induced a good number of the Iroquois to settle around his fort; thus bringing the trade to his own door, without breaking the ordinance. These Iroquois, he is farther reported to have said, were very fond of him, and aided him in rebuilding the fort with cut stone. The Jesuits told the Iroquois on the south side of the lake, where they were established as missionaries, that La Salle was strengthening his defences, with the view of making war on them. They and the Intendant, who was their creature, endeavored to embroil the Iroquois with the French, in order to ruin La Salle; writing to him at the same time that he was the bulwark of the country, and that he ought to be always on his guard. They also tried to persuade Frontenac that it was necessary to raise men and prepare for war. La Salle suspected them, and, seeing that the Iroquois, in consequence of their intrigues, were in an excited state, he induced the Governor to come to Fort Frontenac, to pacify them. He accordingly did so, and a council was held, which ended in a complete restoration of confidence on the part of the Iroquois. [Footnote: Louis XIV. alludes to this visit, in a letter to Frontenac, dated 28 April, 1677. "I cannot but approve," he writes, "of what you have done in your voyage to Fort Frontenac, to reconcile the minds of the Five Iroquois Nations, and to clear yourself from the suspicions they had entertained, and from the motives that might induce them to make war." Frontenac's despatches of this, as well as of the preceding and following years, are missing from the archives.
In a memoir written in November, 1680, La Salle alludes to "le désir que l'on avoit que Monseigneur le Comte de Frontenac fist la guerre aux Iroquois." See Thomassy, Géologie Pratique de la Louisiane, 203.] At this council they accused the two Jesuits, Bruyas and Pierron, [Footnote: Bruyas was about this time stationed among the Onondagas. Pierron was among the Senecas. He had lately removed to them from the Mohawk country. —Relation des Jésuites, 1673-9, p. 140 (Shea). Bruyas was also for a long time among the Mohawks.] of spreading reports that the French were preparing to attack them. La Salle thought that the object of the intrigue was to make the Iroquois jealous of him, and engage Frontenac in expenses which would offend the king. After La Salle and the Governor had lost credit by the rupture, the Jesuits would come forward as pacificators, in the full assurance that they could restore quiet, and appear in the attitude of saviors of the colony.
La Salle, pursues his reporter, went on to say, that about this time a quantity of hemlock and verdigris was given him in a salad; and that the guilty person was a man in his employ, named Nicolas Perrot, otherwise called Solycoeur, who confessed the crime. [Footnote: This puts the character of Perrot in a new light, for it is not likely that any other can be meant than the famous voyageur. I have found no mention elsewhere of the synonyme of Solycoeur. Poisoning was the current crime of the day; and persons of the highest rank had repeatedly been charged with it. The following is the passage:—
"Quoiqu'il en soit, Mr. de la Salle se sentit quelque temps aerés empoissonné d'une salade dans laquelle on avoit meslé du ciguë, qui est poison en ce pays là, et du verd de gris. Il en fut malade à l'extrémité, vomissant presque continuellement 40 ou 50 jours après, et il ne réchappa que par la force extrême de sa constitution. Celuy qui luy donna le poison fut un nominé Nicolas Perrot, autrement Solycoeur, l'un de ses domestiques…. Il pouvait faire mourir cet homme, qui a confessé son crime, mais il s'est contenté de l'enfermer les fers aux pieds."— Histoire de Mr. de la Salle.] The memoir adds that La Salle, who recovered from the effects of the poison, wholly exculpates the Jesuits.
This attempt, which was not, as we shall see, the only one of the kind made against La Salle, is alluded to by him, in a letter to the Prince de Conti, written in Canada, when he was on the point of departure on his great expedition to descend the Mississippi. The following is an extract from it:
"I hope to give myself the honor of sending you a more particular account of this enterprise when it shall have had the success which I hope for it; but I have need of a strong protection for its support. It traverses the commercial operations of certain persons, who will find it hard to endure it. They intended to make a new Paraguay in these parts, and the route which I close against them gave them facilities for an advantageous correspondence with Mexico. This check will infallibly be a mortification to them; and you know how they deal with whatever opposes them. Nevertheless, I am bound to render them the justice to say that the poison which was given me was not at all of their instigation. The person who was conscious of the guilt, believing that I was their enemy because he saw that our sentiments were opposed, thought to exculpate himself by accusing them; and I confess that at the time I was not sorry to have this indication of their ill-will: but having afterwards carefully examined the affair, I clearly discovered the falsity of the accusation which this rascal had made against them. I nevertheless pardoned him, in order not to give notoriety to the affair; as the mere suspicion might sully their reputation, to which I should scrupulously avoid doing the slightest injury, unless I thought it necessary to the good of the public, and unless the fact were fully proved. Therefore, Monsieur, if any one shared the suspicion which I felt, oblige me by undeceiving him." [Footnote: The following words are underlined in the original: "Je suis pourtant obligé de leur rendre une justice, que le poison qu'on m'avoit donné n'éstoit point de leur instigation."—Lettre de la Salle au Prince de Conti, 31 Oct. 1678.]
This letter, so honorable to La Salle, explains the statement made in the memoir, that, notwithstanding his grounds of complaint against the Jesuits he continued to live on terms of courtesy with them, entertained them at his fort, and occasionally corresponded with them. The writer asserts, however, that they intrigued with his men to induce them to desert; employing for this purpose a young man named Deslauriers, whom they sent to him with letters of recommendation. La Salle took him into his service; but he soon after escaped, with several other men, and took refuge in the Jesuit missions. [Footnote: In a letter to the king, Frontenac mentions that several men who had been induced to desert from La Salle had gone to Albany, where the English had received them well.—Lettre de Frontenac au Roy, 6 Nov. 1679. MS. The Jesuits had a mission in the neighboring tribe of the Mohawks, and elsewhere in New York.] The object of the intrigue is said to have been the reduction of La Salle's garrison to a number less than that which he was bound to maintain, thus exposing him to a forfeiture of his title of possession.