What La Salle did after parting with the Sulpitians in 1669 is a question over which there has been much dispute. The absence of any definite knowledge of his movements for the next two years leaves ample room for conjecture, and Margry believes that maps which he made of his wanderings in this interval were in existence up to the middle of the last century. It is from statements regarding such maps given in a letter of an aged niece of La Salle in 1756, as well as from other data, that Margry has endeavored to place within these two years what he supposes to have been a successful attempt on La Salle’s part to reach the Great River of the West. If an anonymous paper (“Histoire de Monsieur de la Salle”) published by Margry[558] is to be believed, La Salle told the writer of it in Paris,—seemingly in 1678,—that after leaving Galinée he went to Onondaga (?), where he got guides, and descending a stream, reached the Ohio (?), and went down that river. How far? Margry thinks that he reached the Mississippi: Parkman demurs, and claims that the story will not bear out the theory that he ever reached the mouth of the Ohio; but it seems probable that he reached the rapids at Louisville, and that from this point he retraced his steps alone, his men having abandoned him to seek the Dutch and English settlements. Parkman finds enough amid the geographical confusions of this “Histoire” to think that upon the whole the paper agrees with La Salle’s memorial to Frontenac in 1677, in which he claimed to have discovered the Ohio and to have coursed it to the rapids, and that it confirms the statements which Joliet has attached to the Ohio in his maps, to the effect that it was by this stream La Salle went, “pour aller dans le Mexique.”[559]
The same “Histoire” also represents that in the following year (1671) La Salle took the course in which he had refused to follow Galinée, and entering Lake Michigan, found the Chicago portage, and descending the Illinois, reached the Mississippi. This descent Parkman is constrained to reject, mainly for the reason that from 1673 to 1678 Joliet’s claim to the discovery of the Mississippi was a notorious one, believed by Frontenac and by all others, and that there was no reason why La Salle for eight years should have concealed any prior knowledge. The discrediting of this claim is made almost, if not quite, conclusive by no mention being made of such discovery in the memorial of La Salle’s kindred to the King for compensation for his services, and by the virtual admission of La Salle’s friends of the priority of Joliet’s discovery in a memorial to Seignelay, which Margry also prints.[560]
In 1672 some Indians from the West had told Marquette at the St. Esprit mission of a great river which they had crossed. Reports of it also came about the same time to Allouez and Dablon, who were at work establishing a mission at Green Bay; and in the Relation of 1672 the hope of being able to reach this Mississippi water is expressed.
Frontenac on his arrival felt that the plan of pushing the actual possession of France beyond the lakes was the first thing to be accomplished, and Talon, as we have seen, on leaving for France recommended Joliet[561] as the man best suited to do it. Jacques Marquette joined him at Point St. Ignace. The Jesuit was eight years the senior of the fur-trader, and of a good family from the North of France.
JOLIET’S MAP, 1673-1674.
Key: 1. Les sauvages habitent cette isle. 2. Sauvages de la mer. 3. Kilistinons. 4. Assiniboels. 5. Madouesseou. 6. Nations du nord. 7. Lac Supérieur. 8. Le Sault St. Marie. 9. Missilimakinak. 10. Kaintotan. 11. Lac Huron. 12. Nipissing. 13. Mataouan. 14. Tous les poincts sont des rapides. 15. Les trois rivieres. 16. Tadoussac. 17. Le Saguenay. 18. Le Fleuve de St. Laurent. 20. Montroyal. 21. Fort de Frontenac. 22. Lac Frontenac ou Ontario. 24. Sault, Portage de demi lieue. 25. Lac Erie. 26. Lac des Illinois ou Missihiganin. 27. Cuivre. 28. Kaure. 29. Baye des Puans. 30. Puans. 31. Maskoutins. 32. Portage. 33. Riviere Miskonsing. 34. Mines de fer. 35. Riviere de Buade. 36. Kitchigamin. 37. Ouaouiatanox. 38. Paoutet, Maha, Pana, Atontanka, Illinois, Peouarea, 300 Cabanes, 180 Canots de bois de 50 pieds de long. 39. Minongio, Pani, Ouchagé, Kansa, Messouni. 40. La Frontenacie. 41. Pierres Sanguines. 42. Kachkachkia. 43. Salpetre. 44. Riviere de la Divine ou l’Outrelaize. 45. Riv. Ouabouskigou. 46. Kaskinanka, Ouabanghihasla, Malohah. 47. Mines de fer; Chouanons, terres eiseléez, Aganatchi. 48. Akansea sauvages. 49. Mounsoupria. 50. Apistonga. 51. Tapensa sauvages. 52 and 53 (going up the stream which is called Riviere Basire). Atatiosi, Matora, Akowita, Imamoueta, Papikaha, Tanikoua, Aiahichi, Pauiassa. 54. Europeans. 55. Cap de la Floride. 56. Mer Vermeille, ou est la Califournie, par ou on peut aller au Perou, au Japon, et à la Chine.
Their course has been sketched in the preceding chapter. They seemed to have reached a conviction that the Great River flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. Their return was by the Illinois River and the Chicag portage.[562] During the four months of their absence, says Parkman, they had paddled their canoes somewhat more than two thousand five hundred miles.
While Marquette remained at the mission Joliet returned to Quebec. What Joliet contributed to the history of this discovery can be found in a letter on his map, later to be given in fac-simile; a letter dated Oct. 10, 1674, given by Harrisse;[563] the letter of Frontenac announcing the discovery, which must have been derived from Joliet,[564] and the oral accounts which Joliet gave to the writer of the “Détails sur le voyage de Louis Joliet; and a Relation de la descouverte de plusieurs pays situez au midi de la Nouvelle France, faite en 1673,” both of which are printed by Margry.[565]