Shortly after his arrival at Montreal, he received from the Superior of the Sulpitian Seminary, which had recently become the feudal lord of that city, a large grant of land (a “seigniory”) in that vicinity.[3] This he immediately proceeded to improve, by the introduction of new settlers as tenants, the erection of buildings, and the cultivation of the soil. It is probable, however, that even before coming to Canada he had outlined to himself a much wider sphere of activity. For, with the prevision which was a feature of his character, he spent much of his time during the first two years of his life at La Chine, in mastering the Indian languages, especially those of the Iroquois and Algonquin dialects. And in this, he evidently struck upon the initial point of his future career. For, from a party of Senecas who visited with him several weeks at his seigniory, he learned of a great river (which they called the Ohio) “flowing into the sea,” and only to be reached by a journey of eight or nine months. This, he conceived, might be the river of which he had already heard as emptying into the “Vermilion Sea,” or Gulf of California, and, thinking that perchance it might possibly prove to be a northwest route to China, he projected a voyage of discovery thither.[4] With this in view he planned a visit to the Senecas, to learn all that they might know in relation to the matter. Communicating his plans to the Governor (Courcelle) and the Intendant (Talon) of Canada, he received from them the necessary authorization to make the attempt. But first, as it must be made at his own expense, and as he had already spent all his means upon the improvement of his seigniory, he was obliged to sell his lands, etc., mainly to the Seminary, from which he had obtained them. He, also, though perhaps rather unfortunately, joined his interests with those of the Sulpitians, in a voyage of discovery which that order were about to make for missionary purposes, in the same direction.
The First Voyage of Exploration, 1669–1675.
This joint expedition, under command of La Salle, started from La Chine, July 6th, 1669, with the Ohio river as its objective point. It consisted of 4 canoes, and 15 men of La Salle’s party; 3 canoes and 7 men of the Sulpitian contingent, and 2 canoes of Seneca Indians, acting as guides—9 canoes and 24 men in all. Thirty-five days travel brought them to the Seneca village (Irondequoit, on the south side of Lake Ontario), where they found a cordial welcome, but, also, difficulty in obtaining guides. While thus delayed, there arrived in camp two Frenchmen, one of whom was Louis Joliet, fur-trader and voyageur, himself an honorable figure in the annals of western discovery. Joliet, who had visited the upper lakes, whither he had been sent by Talon, the French Intendant at Montreal, to discover and report upon the copper mines of Lake Superior, showed to the priests of La Salle’s party a map which he had made of that region, and of which he gave them a copy; and he told them, moreover, of the heathenish condition of the Pottawatomies and other tribes dwelling in those parts. This so inflamed the religious zeal of the priests that they incontinently lost all their interest in the Ohio project, and determined to deflect their course toward the lake region, despite all the objections which La Salle could urge. So that, being firmly set in his own designs, he urged a recent illness as his excuse for parting with them; and the Sulpitians started northward, and got back to Montreal in June, 1670, with nothing to show (owing to sundry misfortunes and losses, especially that of their altar-service, without which they could not convert the heathen) either in the way of discovery, or of missionary results. La Salle’s movements, after this “parting of the ways,” and for two years following, are somewhat involved in obscurity. There is little doubt, however, that he was busily engaged in explorations and discoveries of some importance.[5] Certain it is, that he discovered the Ohio, since his own assertion of the fact, in a memoir addressed to Count Frontenac, in 1677, is confirmed by the testimony of his rival, Joliet, upon whose two maps of the Mississippi and the great lakes, the Ohio is depicted with an inscription stating that it had been explored by La Salle.
The evidence of his having, on this voyage, reached and descended the Mississippi is not so clear. What militates most strongly against the assumption that he did so, is the fact, that, though he kept journals and made maps of this trip, which were, as late as 1765, in possession of a niece then living in France, at an advanced age; yet, when, after La Salle’s death, this niece together with an uncle and a nephew of the explorer petitioned the King for a certain grant in consideration of the discoveries made by their distinguished relative, they made no mention of such discovery, as they would most likely have done if they had known of it.
But the discovery of the Illinois river must, undoubtedly, be credited to him.
Returning to Canada, from his long wanderings, he found great changes going on in that country. It was no longer simply a missionary field, but was fast assuming the form and character of a colony. A royal Viceroy, or Governor-General, had taken the place of the former Governor and Intendant; and the controlling interests of the Sulpitian order were now largely overshadowed by those of the Jesuits. Both Count Frontenac, the Governor, and the Intendant Talon, were men of similar character and held like views with La Salle. Like him, they entertained plans of wider scope than those of any previous Canadian officials. And when he broached his plan of finding and opening up of the Mississippi, and the rich southern country through which it ran, and of fortifying along its course, and especially at its outlet, against the incursions of the Spanish and English, he enlisted their ready sympathy. Thus, leaving to the Jesuits, with a dislike of whom they all three seemed to have been imbued, the frozen Canadian country; and to the English, that portion of the continent east of the Alleghanies, they proposed to themselves to conquer the remainder of this vast territory for the King of France.
The generally accepted French policy of that day, in regard to the acquisition of new territory in North America, was that the discovery of a great river gave to all the territory drained by such river an inchoate (or inceptive) title, which later could be completed by occupation. It was the attempt to carry out this policy which cost (and lost) France the Seven Years War, in which the politics and history of America and Europe became inextricably mixed. And of this policy, Count Frontenac, the Governor, Talon, the Intendant, and La Salle, the explorer, now became the leading exponents in Canada. They were all exceptionally strong men, full of ambitions and untiring energy, and their scheme combined not only military occupation, but the reclamation of the Indian tribes and their concentration around the proposed chain of French forts, together with colonies of French immigrants of an agricultural and industrial character, the extension of the buffalo fur-trade, etc.—in fact a most enchanting mirage of future civilization and Christianity in the vast central area of this continent. In itself, the scheme was too vast to be more than a sketch of future possibilities; and, moreover, it ignored certain needs and facts which were most important to its success. For instance, the French immigration to this country, at that time, was totally inadequate to furnish settlers enough, and with sufficient rapidity to ensure the successful colonization of the new territory. Again, the pacification among themselves, of the numerous and warring Indian tribes which occupied this western continent, and the securing of their peaceful and friendly co-operation with the whites, was a work almost impossible within the limits of a generation or more—and, until it was done, colonization would be slow, and its difficulties and dangers deterrent to such emigration. Another inherent point of weakness in the plan was the difficulty of keeping in touch with and depending upon a home government thousands of miles away, as well as the uncertain nature of such dependence in the political, commercial, and ecclesiastical conflicts which would be apt to arise, and necessarily would have to be adjusted, more or less, through the medium of Colonial officials—whose motives would not always be free from the imputation of self-interest.
The jealousy of the Jesuits, now conscious of their waning power in the affairs of the new Colonial régime, had always been felt by La Salle—and probably with good reason—to be inimical to his plans; and the future held out no hope of its being less persistent or bitter.
The personality of the explorer, also, weighed fully as much against, as for, the success of his undertaking. By nature cold, reserved, and reticent, he was not a genial man; and possessed little or none of that magnetism which wins men’s hearts. Absorbed, as he was, with the details of his great plans, and the responsibilities which they imposed upon him, he was ever self-contained and self-repressed. Even the few most faithful and trusted companions of his labors could hardly be considered as on terms of intimacy with him. And the necessity of maintaining the strictest discipline among the class of men by whose following and aid he had to carry on his work—voyageurs, courriers des bois, traders, canoeists, and Indians—who comprehended him not, but were simply compelled by the force of his will, certainly did not tend to establish that community of interest which should have existed between them. It was, in fact, this lacking quality in an otherwise magnificent character, which was ever thwarting his plans and which rendered his brief career of eight years in exploration work an almost uninterrupted record of disaster—leading—though with one momentary triumph—to a tragic end.
Omniscience is denied to Man. It belongs only to the Creator, who has given to men, in its place, the limited faculty of foresight. And, with such foresight as they had, the three promoters of the fortunes of New France—Count Frontenac, Talon, and La Salle—formulated their plans, and in the autumn of 1674 the latter sailed for France, to obtain the royal sanction and the moneyed help which were needed. Whatever the strength or the weaknesses of their project, money was their sine qua non.