ROBERT LA SALLE-

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

ROBERT LA SALLE-

The First White Man. To Navigate The Mississippi

History tells us tliat the first white man to sail down the Mississippi River was the French explorer, Robert La Salle. Last year was the 250 th anniversary of this great traveller's death. In this busy world the event passed almost unnoticed, but a company of Frenchmen did go all the way from France to attend the celebrations in America. It was La Salle who gave Louisiana its ✓name, so honouring Louis the Fourteenth, his king and patron, as our own Baleigh named Virginia after Queen Elizabeth. A county of Illinois 'bears'the name of this distinguished explorer, his statue adorns the streets of Chicago with those of Columbus, Humboldt, Linnaeus, and other pioneers; and it is fitting that it should, for his surprising adventure gave France a colony which stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of and would probably have, given France dominion over North * America' had the settlers treated the Red Indians fairly. It was La Salle's-supreme quality that he was just to the natives, "who, on the whole, • were better disposed toward him' than his brother Frenchmen, who were jealous of him and sought to bring about his death. It was as a fur trader that La Salle came to New France, as Canada was then called, at the age of 23, He was born in 1043, the son of a -wealthy merchant of Eouen. Handsome, clever, resolute and reserved, he was fascinated by the tales brought back by Jesuit missionaries about the mysterious land of unexplored forests, wide rivers, pitiles! Indians and prowling bears. Adventure beckoned him to this young colony with its tiny population of 2000 white men, and with 400 francs in his pocket he set out for Montreal. His brother was a priest, and some priests belonging to the same Order in Montreal gave the young trader a piece of land on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Life was hard for French colonists then. Not' only were they subject to- the severe rule of the French "king's agent, who fixed the price to be paid for furs, the period during which furs might be exported; and even the age at which settlers might marry, but they were also in daily peril from the fierce Iroquois Indians, who had conquered and driven off the friendly tribes with whom the earlier colonists had traded. The Iroquois had'become too sullen to bring their skins into the white men's settlements, so La Salle dared

all and pushed his way into the forests to barter with them. He learned their language and respected their customs, always paying them their due and never tricking them. The result was that, though his fellow colonists disliked him for his proud bearing, the Indians, more clear-sighted, came to love him as a brave and loyal man, so that he prospered. The Indians thrilled La Salle with tales of a mighty river which flowed through fertile lands to a> "great water." , The thought of this river began to haunt him, and. he obtained the Governor's leave to explore westward. He found the Illinois River andnavigated the Great Lakes, establishing a trading station- on Lake Ontario and being rewarded with a title. He had not found the great river, but he had learned that such a river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico not far from Spanish territories. . Probably it was the same river, its course behind those new British colonies of which the French were so jealous. La Salle resolved to find this river and claim the banks for France before English or Spanish or Dutch reached them. He went to Paris toj

see the King and those lace-clad courtiers who had thrived on the wealth which lie and his fellows had won for the homeland at the risk of their lives. King Louis agreed, stipulating that La Salle, now a hardy deader of men and 35 yeai's old, should build forts along the river at his own expense, receiving in return monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins. • Back in Montreal La Salle made ready for one of the most terrible; journeys in the history of America, i Obliged to take a great store of provisions and presents for 'the Red Indians, he had a ship and some canoes. In addition he took materials for building a ship above "the demon whose moaning could be heard leagues away," a queer way of referring to the Niagara Falls. His ship and its treasures, purchased with borrowed money, were wrecked in the rapids, and while his men were building a second ship beyond the Falls La Salle made his way back to. secure fresh stores, nearly perishing from hunger on the way. He returned to Niagara to find the new ship (the Griffin) ready, and in it his party were the first to cross Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan. Sufficient furs were secured to pay back. his debts, and the furs were placed on the Griffin and sent home, while La Salle, with 13 white men, went forward in canoes. •Constantly they met Red Indians, whose enmity was set at rest when La Salle showed them a peace-pipe given him by a tribe. The Illinois were, however, hostile, for white men who hated I-a Salle had spread a

rumour through the wilds that the ■ object of the expedition was to destroy them. Undaunted, however, La Salle pressed on, sometimes bv river, sometimes dragging the eanoes overland. Resting in a villa'ge where the town of Peoria now stands on the broad Illinois River, he was warned not to proceed, for the river he was seeking was all whirlpools, cataracts, and alligators. So he built a- fort, left a few white men and again returned to Canada for more supplies. The men he had left quarrelled and tried to kill him when he was on his way back. But he captured these rebels and sent them to -Montreal. His fort at Peoria had been burnt, and so had the Indian village, the Illinois being found dead from horrible tortures. His loyal friend, Tonti, an Italian, \vho had accompanied liim from the French Court, could not be found, so La Salle spent the long winter months in seeking him. Seekers and sought both suffered terribly from cold and hunger, but at last they met in the camp of a friendly tribe. For three long years La Salle had been striving to reach the Mississippi, and one would have thought that he and his gallant company had endured enough j but in spite of dangers past and unknown perils to come they launched their canoes yet again and let the current sweep them along. It carried them into the wide Mississippi, and the day at last came when, dipping their fingers into the water and placing them to their lips, they tasted salt. They had reached the tide sweeping up from the Gulf of Mexico and their goal, the sea, was at hand. La Salle had not only planted the standard of France in new and precious territory, but he had made alliances with many important tribes of Indians. Yet during his journey his* personal foes had seized his property and so poisoned the ear of the French king- that La Salle returned to France a ruined man. On the outbreak of war with Spain he offered his services once again to lu's country, and took a party to strengthen the mouth of the river against the Spaniards. But he could not find it, and 'landed 400 miles away. Two years passed, and La Salle resolved to try to reach Canada on foot. There were traitors, as usual, in his party, and one night a French surgeon took an axe and killed La Salle and his nephew while they slept. The assassin refused to allow La Salle to be -buried, and the company marched on, even La Salle's own brother consenting. It is just over 250 years since this bitter tragedy. The traitors fell out and killed each other, but some of the party managed to reach Canada. But even then the exploits of La Salle were little appreciated, his brother concealing his death in order to borrow money in his name. The Americans have kept his memory green down the ages, realising how heroic was his journey, and the French count him among their great immortals.