The Illinois and Detroit.—In the Illinois country the French Jesuits labored from the time of Marquette, among his successors being Fathers Allouez and Hennepin. In 1699 a Sulpician mission was established at Cahokia and in 1700 the Jesuits moved down the Illinois River to Kaskaskia. A year later Detroit was founded to protect the route from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, cut off English trade with the Indians, and afford a base for the Illinois trade. Missionaries entered the region of the lower Mississippi and the lower Ohio, where Tonty and other Frenchmen maintained a considerable trade.
Traders on the Tennessee.—Because of Iroquois control of the country south of the Great Lakes and as far as the Tennessee River, the French in La Salle's time had little knowledge of the Ohio and its tributaries. At that period the Shawnee of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers were declining under Iroquois attacks. On the upper Tennessee lived the Cherokees. In spite of the Iroquois, however, by the end of the century several coureurs de bois of Canada had ascended the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, crossed the divide, and descended the Savannah River into South Carolina, in defiance of the government, which tried to maintain a trade monopoly. Their activities brought them into rivalry with the English on the Carolina frontier.
Couture and Bellefeuille.—Among these pathfinders was Jean Couture, who had been left by Tonty at the Arkansas post. As early as 1693 he deserted the French colony and made his way overland to the English. In 1699 he was on the Savannah, where he proposed to lead the English to certain mines in the west. Returning, he led a party of English traders, sent by Governor Blake of South Carolina, up the Savannah, and down the Tennessee and Ohio, in an attempt to divert the western trade from Canada to the English. In February, 1700, they reached the Arkansas River, where they were met by Le Sueur on his way up the river to Minnesota. At the request of Iberville, the new governor of Louisiana, the government now permitted Illinois traders to sell their peltry in Louisiana, to prevent them from earning it over the mountains to the English. In 1701 a party of Frenchmen under Bellefeuille and Soton crossed the mountains to South Carolina, and attempted to open up trade. Returning they descended the Mississippi and visited Biloxi. It was now proposed, in order to stop the road to Carolina, that posts be established on the Miami and the lower Ohio. For this purpose Juchereau de St. Denis established a post at Cairo in 1702. Through the establishment of Louisiana and the opening of trade with Canada, this danger was largely averted.
READINGS
EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND COLONIZING EFFORTS
Baird, C.W., Huguenot Emigration; Brevoort, J.C., Verrazano the Navigator; Channing, Edward, History of the United States, I, 90-112; De Costa, B.F., Verrazano the Explorer; French, B.F., Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, 117-362; Hamilton, P.J., The Colonization of the South, 27-41; Hart. A.B., Contemporaries, I, 102-112; Leacock, Stephen, The Mariner of St. Malo; Lescarbot, Marc, History of New France; Munro, W.B., Crusaders of New France, 11-32; Murphy, H.C., Voyage of Verrazano; Parkman, Francis, The Pioneers of France in the New World, 1-228; Shea, J.G., in Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, II, 260-283; Tracy, F.B., Tercentenary History of Canada, I, 20-37; Winsor, Justin, Cartier to Frontenac, 1-47; Biggar, H.P., The Precursors of Jacques Cartier.
ACADIA AND THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY
Biggar, H.P., Early Trading Companies of New France; Bourne, E.G., Voyages and Explorations of Champlain (Trail Makers' Series); Champlain, Samuel, Œuvres (Laverdière, ed.); Colby, C.W., The Founder of New France; Dionne, N.E., Champlain; Grant, W.L., Voyages of Champlain (Original Narratives Series); Kingsford, William, The History of Canada, I, 147-294; Le Sueur, W.D., Frontenac, 1-60; Marquis, T.G., The Jesuit Missions; Parkman, Francis, Old Régime in Canada, 3-168; Pioneers of New France, 324-454; The Jesuits in North America; Thwaites, R.G., France in America, 10-48; Tracy, F.B., Tercentenary History of Canada, I, 41-279; Winsor, Justin, From Cartier to Frontenac, 77-183; Munro, W.B., Crusaders of New France.
REORGANIZATION AND THE WEST INDIES
Chapais, Thomas, The Great Intendant; Haring, C.H., The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century; Mims, S.L., Colbert's West India Policy; Munro, W.B., The Seigneurs of Old Canada; Parkman, Francis, The Old Régime, 169-330.