Pressing on down the valley, not long afterwards, he met with a band of Illinois. They told him the story of the Iroquois raid and showed him letters from black-robed priests, which had been given them by the Iroquois. These letters seemed to be in the nature of passports safeguarding the Iroquois in case of their capture by the Illinois. The Illinois added that their enemies had other letters addressed to Father Allouez, and they interpreted the whole affair as meaning that the Black Gowns wished them to be attacked.
Now La Salle had for many years disliked the Jesuits, and he had accused them of trying to block his plans and wreck his enterprises. Especially did he hate the black-robed Father Allouez. The priest knew this, and it was the news of La Salle’s coming that had caused him to slip out of the village of the Kaskaskias on that Christmas Eve of 1679. But now La Salle wished to quiet the fears of the Illinois, and so he assured them that their distrust of the black-robed priests was groundless. He told them of his plans to start a colony in the Illinois Valley and settle many French soldiers there to protect the tribes that made their homes along the river; and he urged them to make friends again with the Miamis and join forces with them against their common foe from the outside.
The Illinois were well pleased with the plans of La Salle, and they went off promising to carry his message to their people. La Salle sent a messenger to tell Tonty to wait for him at Mackinac, and then returned to his fort on the St. Joseph. He had made a beginning with the Illinois; his next step was to bring the Miamis into an alliance.
In the Miami village south of his fort, during this time, there was much uncertainty. The Indians watched the white men’s movements with anxiety and dreaded the wrath of the Illinois when they should return. Yet the Iroquois still seemed to hold them under a spell. Into the Miami village that spring came three Iroquois warriors, swaggering and boastful. But in spite of their treachery the Miamis dared not harm them. The visitors told of their feats of battle, derided the French, and urged the Miamis to continue the war against the Illinois.
But one fine spring day La Salle himself, with ten of the despised Frenchmen and a handful of New England Indians, entered the village. With curious eyes the Miamis watched the boastful Iroquois. Would they defy the French now? Upon the moment of La Salle’s arrival, the three warriors made haste to visit him and pay him devout respect. But the white chief received them coldly, threatened them, and dared them to say in his presence what they had said before his coming. Abashed and silent they slunk away and fled from the village that night.
The Miamis had had their lesson—a lesson which they had been slow to learn. The discomfiture of the boasting Iroquois had broken the last tie that held them to their false friends of the Five Nations. They came together now in a grand council with La Salle in the lodge of the principal chief, and in order that all might hear they stripped the bark sides from the lodge and opened it up to the throng outside.
CHAPTER XIX
A CHIEF COME TO LIFE
When the Miamis had assembled in and about the open lodge of the chief, La Salle had one of the New England Indians bring into the council the presents which he wished to give. Then he chose first from the pile a roll of tobacco, and presenting it to the Miamis said:—
“May this tobacco, as you smoke it in your pipes, clear the mists from your minds, that you may think without confusion.