Magazine of western history, illustrated, Vol. I, No. 1, November 1884

by Various

Did he reach this conclusion, and find himself baffled by the clamors or the desertion of his men? Did he find means to procure other men and supplies without returning to Montreal? It appears from the Colonie Francaise, vol. iii, that in the summer of 1671 he had communication with Montreal, where he obtained a credit of 454 livres tournois. Did this enable him to pass from the waters of the Ohio to those of Lake Erie, and undertake a long cruise through the lakes to the Illinois country?

Whatever reply should be made to these queries, it is reasonably evident that when his great work of 1679 was undertaken he did not know that the Ohio is a tributary of the Mississippi, or whether the great unknown river would conduct them to the South Sea. The discoveries of Joliet in 1673 did not remove these doubts from the minds of the governor-general or the geographers of that period.

La Salle, as late as 1682, after having been at the mouth of the Mississippi, was inclined to the opinion that the Ohio ran into a great (but imaginary) river, called Chucugoa, east of the Mississippi, discharging into the Gulf or the Atlantic in Florida. The French had not followed the Ohio from the falls to its junction with the Wabash. On a map made in 1692, ten years later, the Wabash is equivalent to the lower Ohio, formed by the Miami and the upper Ohio, the Wabash of our maps being omitted.

The main facts which residents of the Ohio valley are most curious to know concerning La Salle’s operations here are yet wanting. We have made diligent search for them, and are as yet unable to say, precisely, how much time he spent on the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie prior to 1673; what trading posts he established, if any; what streams he navigated, or with what tribes he became acquainted. The instructions to Governor-General DuQuesne in 1752, above referred to, claim that the French had occupied this country ever since it was discovered by La Salle. Governor Burnet, of the colony of New York in 1721, states that, three years before, the French had no establishments on Lake Erie.

We may infer that La Salle was busily occupied during the years 1670 and 1671, on the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie, collecting furs, for he had no other means of support. The credit he obtained at Villemarie in 1671 was payable in furs. If his map should be discovered in some neglected garret in France, we should no doubt find there a solution of many historical difficulties that now perplex us. It was the custom at that time to make very full memoranda on maps, amounting to a condensed report of the author’s travels. If this map exists, Europe does not contain a paper of more value to us.

Mr. Shea, whose labors on the history of French occupation have been wonderfully persistent and minute, is of the opinion that we may presume that unauthorized voyageurs, trappers, traders and coureurs des bois, both French and English, were among the Indians in advance of the explorers.

The Dutch on the Hudson, and after 1664 the English, were on good terms with the Iroquois, who carried their wars to Lake Superior and the Mississippi. We have no records of the movements of those half savage traders, except in the case of Etienne Brulé, and that is of little value.

La Salle was probably on the waters of the Ohio when Governor Woods, of the colony of Virginia, sent a party to find that river in September, 1671. This party reached the falls of the Kanawha on the 17th of that month, where they found rude letters cut upon standing trees. They took possession of the country in the name of Charles II., of England, and proceeded no farther.—(Botts’ Journal, New York Colonial Documents, vol. iii, p. 194). William Penn’s colony was not then organized. In 1685 or 1686 some English traders penetrated as far as Mackinaw, by way of Lake Erie. They were probably from New York, and having made their purchases of the Ottawas, returned under the protection of the Hurons or Wyandots, of the west end of Lake Erie.

If the Virginians were engaged in the Indian trade at this early period, their route would be up the Potomac to the heads of the Youghiogeny, and from the forks of the Ohio at Pittsburgh to Lake Erie, by the Allegheny River and French creek, or by way of the Beaver, Mahoning, and the Cuyahoga Rivers. These Arabs of the forest would carry axes and hatchets having a steel bit, whether Dutch, French or English; and thus may have done the hacking upon our trees which I have described. None of these people would be likely to leave other records of their presence in a country claimed by their different governments, on which one party or the other were trespassers.

I am aware that this presentation of the most interesting period in the history of Ohio is desultory and incomplete. If there had been a reasonable prospect of more facts, it would have been delayed; but it is doubtful if we may expect much more light on the subject of the discovery of the Ohio valley.