Canada

by John George Bourinot

LA DÉCOUVERTE DU THE DISCOVERY OF THE
MISSISSIPPI. MISSISSIPPI.
Jolliet . . . Jolliet . . . O, Jolliet, what splendid faery
quel spectacle féérique dream
Dut frapper ton regard, quand Met thy regard, when on that
ta nef historique mighty stream,
Bondit sur les flots d'or du Bursting upon its lonely
grand fleuve inconnu unknown flow,
Quel éclair triomphant, à cet Thy keel historic cleft its
instant de fièvre, golden tide:--
Dut resplendir sur ton front Blossomed thy lip with what
nu? . . . stern smile of pride?
What conquering light shone
on thy lofty brow?
Le voyez-vous là-bas, debout Behold him there, a prophet,
comme un prophète, lifted high,
L'oeil tout illuminé d'audace Heart-satisfied, with bold,
satisfaite, illumined eye,
La main tendue au loin vers His hand outstretched toward
l'Occident bronzé. the sunset furled,
Prendre possession de ce Taking possession of this domain
domaine immense, immense,
Au nom du Dieu vivant, au nom In the name of the living God,
roi de France. in the name of the King
Et du monde civilisé? . . . of France,
And the mighty modern world.
Puis, bercé par la houle, et Rocked by the tides, wrapt in
bercé par ses rêves, his glorious moods,
L'oreille ouverte aux bruits Breathing perfumes of lofty
harmonieux des grèves, odorous woods,

Humant l'acre parfum des Ears opened to the shores'
grands bois odorants, harmonious tunes,
Rasant les îlots verts et les Following in their dreams and
dunes d'opale, voices mellow,
De méandre en méandre, au fil To wander and wander in the
l'onde pâle, thread of the pale billow,
Suivre le cours des flots Past islands hushed and
errants. . . . opalescent dunes.
A son aspect, du sein des Lo, as he comes, from out the
flottantes ramures, waving boughs,
Montait comme un concert de A rising concert of murmurous
chants et de murmures; song upflows,
Des vols d'oiseaux marins Of winging sea-fowl lifting
s'élevaient des roseaux, from the reeds;
Et, pour montrer la route à la Pointing the route to his swift
pirogue frèle. dripping blade,
S'enfuyaient en avant, traînant Then skimming before, tracing
leur ombre grèle their slender shade
Dans le pli lumineux des eaux. In luminous foldings of the
watery meads.
Et, pendant qu'il allait voguant And as he journeys, drifting
à la dérive, with its flow,
On aurait dit qu'au loin, les The forests lifting their glad
arbres de la rive, roofs aglow,
En arceaux parfumés penchés sur In perfumed arches o'er his
son chemin, keel's swift swell,
Saluaient le héros dont Salute the hero, whose undaunted
l'énergique audace soul
Venait d'inscrire encor le nom Had graved anew "LA FRANCE"
de notre race on that proud scroll
Aux fastes de l'esprit humain. Of human genius, bright,
imperishable.

Jolliet's companion, the Jesuit missionary, never realised his dream of many years of usefulness in new missions among the tribes of the immense region claimed by France. In the spring of 1675 he died by the side of a little stream which finds its outlet on the western shore of Lake Michigan, soon after his return from a painful journey he had taken, while in a feeble state of health, to the Indian communities of Kaskaskia between the Illinois and Wabash rivers. A few months later his remains were removed by some Ottawas, who knew and loved him well, and carried to St. Ignace, where they were buried beneath the little mission chapel. His memory has been perpetuated in the nomenclature of the western region, and his statue stands in the rotunda of that marble capitol which represents, not the power and greatness of that France which he loved only less than his Church, but the national development of those English colonies which, in his time, were only a narrow fringe on the Atlantic coast, separated from the great West by mountain ranges which none of the most venturesome of their people had yet dared to cross.

The work that was commenced by Jolliet and Marquette, of solving the mystery that had so long surrounded the Mississippi, was completed by Réné Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, a native of Rouen, who came to Canada when quite a young man, and obtained a grant of land from the Sulpician proprietors of Montreal at the head of the rapids, then known as St. Louis. Like so many Canadians of those days he was soon carried away by a spirit of adventure. He had heard of the "great water" in the west, which he believed, in common with others, might lead to the Gulf of California. In the summer of 1669 he accompanied two Sulpician priests, of Montreal, Dollier de Casson and Gallinée, on an expedition they made, under the authority of Governor Courcelles, to the extreme western end of Ontario, where he met Jolliet, apparently for the first time, and probably had many conversations with him respecting the west and south, and their unknown rivers. He decided to leave the party and attempt an exploration by a southerly route, while the priests went on to the upper lakes as far as the Sault. Of La Salle's movements for the next two years we are largely in the dark—in some respects entirely so. It has been claimed by some that he first discovered the Ohio, and even reached the Mississippi, but so careful an historian as Justin Winsor agrees with Shea's conclusion that La Salle "reached the Illinois or some other affluent of the Mississippi, but made no report and made no claim, having failed to reach the great river." It was on his return from these mysterious wanderings, that his seigniory is said to have received the name of La Chine as a derisive comment on his failure to find a road to China. In the course of years the name was very commonly given, not only to the lake but to the rapids of St. Louis.

Réné Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle

We now come to sure ground when we follow La Salle's later explorations, on which his fame entirely rests. Frontenac entered heartily into his plans of following the Mississippi to its mouth, and setting at rest the doubts that existed as to its course. He received from the King a grant of Fort Frontenac and its surrounding lands as a seigniory. This fort had been built by the governor in 1673 at Cataraqui, now Kingston, as an advanced trading and defensive post on Lake Ontario. La Salle considered it a most advantageous position for carrying on his ambitious projects of exploration. He visited France in 1677 and received from the King letters-patent authorising him to build forts south and west in that region "through which it would seem a passage to Mexico can be discovered." On his return to Canada he was accompanied by a Recollet friar, Father Louis Hennepin, and by Henry de Tonty, the son of an Italian resident of Paris, both of whom have associated their names with western exploration. Of all his friends and followers, Tonty, who had a copper hand in the place of the one blown off in an Italian war, was the most faithful and honest, through the varying fortunes of the explorer's career from this time forward. To Father Hennepin I refer in another place.