La Salle’s first return to France. Bearing strong letters of recommendation from Frontenac to the French Minister of State, Colbert,[6] he met with a cordial reception at home. In response to his petitions to the King, he was, in consideration of his services as an explorer, raised to the ranks of the untitled nobility[7] and was granted the seigniory of the new post on Lake Ontario, which, in honor to his patron, was named Fort Frontenac. He was also invested with the command of the same, together with that of the settlement around it, subject to the authority of his friend the Governor-General. On his part he undertook to repay to the King the cost of the fort, to maintain it, at his own charge, with a garrison equal to that of Montreal, besides laborers; to form a French colony around it, as well as one of domesticated Indians near by; to build a church and support one or more Récollet friars.
He had but little trouble, now that he was in the sunshine of royal favor, in obtaining from his gratified family and friends the needed funds; and on his return to Canada (1675), proceeded to comply with the terms of his seigniorial grant. Within two years, the original wooden fort was replaced by a much larger one of cut stone, on the land side, and on the outer side by palisades, and its walls manned by nine small cannon. On the inside it contained barracks, a guard-house, officers’ quarters, a forge, a well, a mill, and a bakery—all of substantial build. Its garrison consisted of two officers, a surgeon, and ten or twelve soldiers, with a large number of masons, laborers, and canoe-men. Near the two villages which stretched along the shore south of the fort (one of French farm-tenants, the other of friendly Iroquois) were the chapel and residence of two Récollet friars. Over a hundred (French) acres of cleared and cultivated land, and cattle, fowl, and swine, brought from Montreal, gave ample evidence of permanent occupation; and four vessels for lake and river navigation, as well as a fleet of canoes, hinted strongly at the seignior’s predilection for travel and exploration. Feudal lord of the entire region around him (for the nearest settlement was a week’s journey distant), commander of a garrison paid by himself, founder and patron of a church, he was now literally “master of all which he surveyed;” and had he been content so to remain, would soon have become a merchant-prince, for, ere long, as estimated by a friend, he was “making more than 25,000 livres a year.”
His cup of success, however, was not without its infusion of bitterness. He found himself in a very maelstrom of opposition and detraction, arising from the jealousy of those interested in the Montreal fur-trade, (especially among the Jesuits), who saw in the royal favors conferred on La Salle the ultimate downfall of their own interests. In this violent imbroglio of commercial, political and priestly rivalry, envy, malice, contemptible, and persistent espionage, and even poison, played their respective parts.
Meanwhile, the free life of Nature was wooing his spirit, the fever of exploration was still strong upon him; and he valued the position he had attained only as a stepping-stone to the realization of his life-long dream.
La Salle’s second return visit to France. So, in the autumn of 1677, leaving his fort and seigniory in charge of a trusted lieutenant, La Forest, who was also one of his partners in the proposed fur-trade, La Salle sailed again for France. There, lodged modestly in a rather obscure quarter of Paris, he renewed the friendships and associations which he had formed during his previous visit; and added to them by making new and valuable friends. Among these were the Marquis de Seignelay, the Prince de Conti, La Motte de Sussière, and last but not least, Henri de Tonti, thenceforth his foremost companion in his Western labors.[8] La Salle also received from the King a royal patent authorizing him to explore and occupy the Mississippi country, “through which, to all appearances, a way may be found to Mexico.” This patent, confirmatory of that granted him in 1675, imposed upon him the erection and maintenance of such forts as he might deem necessary, and gave him a monopoly for five years of the trade in buffalo hides. The whole expense was to be borne (as was the custom of the monarchs of that day, in granting lands which they did not own, and the privileges which such grants carried with them) by the grantee. The fur-trade of the Montreal colony was not to be interfered with; nor did the patent include any provision or encouragement of the industrial or colonization scheme which had fully taken possession of La Salle’s mind. Content, however, with what he could get in the way of kingly favor—on the principle, perhaps, that “half a loaf is better than no loaf,” the adventurer turned his attention to securing the needed funds, and soon, by loans from friends and family, and by mortgages upon his Fort Frontenac property, had raised sufficient to carry out his purpose.
On the 14th July, 1678, Le Sieur La Salle, as he must thenceforth be called, with Tonti, La Motte, and 30 men, mostly ship carpenters, with a cargo of iron, cordage, anchors, etc., sufficient for the equipment of two vessels, set sail for Quebec, where they arrived after a two months’ voyage. Here they met with Father Hennepin, a Récollet friar, who had come to Canada three years before, and whose name from this point is prominently connected with American Western exploration.[9]
The Second Voyage of Exploration (1678–1679) was virtually commenced, under the orders of La Salle (who was with Tonti) detained at Quebec by his own affairs, and the difficulties arising from the machinations of his enemies,[10] by La Motte and Hennepin. They set sail, from Fort Frontenac, November 18th, 1678, in a small vessel of ten tons; but it was not until the 6th of December that they reached the mouth of the Niagara river and saw the grand cataract of which Hennepin’s pencil has preserved the first known picture and description. Two leagues above the mouth of the Niagara river La Motte began the erection of a fort, where he was joined later by La Salle and Tonti. Here, under almost unsurmountable obstacles, due to the excessive cold, and hunger, as well as jealousies among the men, and the distrust of the Indians, a ship-yard was improvised, and a vessel of about 45 tons was builded and equipped with five small cannon. She was named the Griffin, in honor of the Governor-General, and her prow was ornamented with a grotesque figure of that somewhat apocryphal animal, in compliment to his family arms.[11]
The building of this fort and of the Griffin was a masterstroke of La Salle’s, for Niagara was the key to the four great upper lakes (Erie, Huron, Superior, and Michigan), and by its position would control the fur-trade of the whole northern country. In time of peace it would intercept the trade between the Iroquois and the Dutch and English at Albany; in time of war it would be a menace to both.
Any forward movement, however, was delayed from February until August, 1679, by the absence of La Salle, who had been obliged to return, with Tonti, to Fort Frontenac for needed supplies, and to attend to some of his private affairs. For his creditors, excited by false reports of his insolvency, had seized upon all his available property, outside of his seigniory.
Despite these embarrassments, however, he pushed forward his enterprise, and by the 7th of August the Griffin was sailing upon the waters of Lake Erie, never before ploughed by the keel of a white man’s ship. Passing through the Straits of Detroit and into Lake Huron, they stayed not their course, although nearly wrecked by a fierce gale, until, early in September, they dropped anchor at the entrance of Green Bay, within the waters of Lake Michigan. Here, at Michilimackinac, was a Jesuit mission and centre of Indian trade, where they were received with show of welcome by the holy fathers, and with evident distrust by their Indian protegés. Here La Salle found that a party of his men whom he had sent on in advance to the Illinois, to trade for him and make preparations for his coming, had been tampered with, had appropriated the goods in their charge to their own uses, and that many of them were missing. Six of these rascals were found at Michilimackinac, and with two found by Tonti at the Sault Ste. Marie, were captured with their plunder and the remainder had taken to the woods. It had been La Salle’s intention to leave his party at this point to proceed on their way to the Illinois, under Tonti, while he himself should return to Canada, to look after and protect his own concerns there. But Tonti was just then absent, and there was great need of his remaining with his men, lest they should again be enticed away from their duty. Besides, he was desirous to frustrate a plan of his enemies, which he thought he had discovered, to set the Iroquois “by the ears” with the Illinois, with a view to draw him into the war, and thus interrupt his plans.