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Rene La Salle Biography

Rene La Salle Image

LA SALLE, RENÉ ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE (1643-87). The discoverer of the Ohio and the first explorer of the greater part of the Mississippi River. He was a member of a wealthy merchant family of Rouen, but on becoming a Jesuit novice he lost the right of inheriting his father's fortune and in his twenty-fourth year emigrated to Canada, where the superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice made him a grant of a large tract of land at the place now called Lachine, 8 or 9 miles above Montreal, on the St. Lawrence. His imagination was stirred by the tales of the Indians respecting a mighty river which they called the Ohio, which flowed into the sea at a distance of some eight months' journey. La Salle conceived that "the sea" could be no other than the long-sought Gulf of California, and that the northern water route to China was probably within his reach. He disclosed his views to Courcelles, the Governor of New France, and received letters patent authorizing his venture. In order to obtain the necessary funds, he sold his seigniory. He bought four canoes and hired 14 men, and was joined by another expedition under Dollier de Casson, which was fitted out by the seminary priests for the conversion of the Indians. The combined forces consisted of seven canoes and 24 men. They started up the St. Lawrence on July 6, 1669. They went through Lake Ontario, at the western end of which they met the explorer Joliet, returning to Canada. From him a map of the northern lakes was obtained, and with it such accounts of the spiritual destitution of the Indians in that region as determined Dollier to strike north and establish a mission.

La Salle separated from the missionaries and for the next two years devoted himself to explorations, of which we have only vague and unsatisfactory information. His maps and journals have disappeared, although it was asserted, as late as 1756, that they were in existence. It would seem that La Salle turned southeast from Lake Erie, reached a branch of the Ohio, and followed that river certainly as far as the Louisville Rapids, possibly to its junction with the Mississippi. Here his men deserted, and La Salle returned to Lake Erie alone. In 1671 he organized another expedition, respecting which we have no authentic and detailed information; passed up the Detroit River to Lake Huron; thence to Lake Michigan, and across the Chicago portage to the Illinois River, and may have descended this stream to the Mississippi. He returned to Montreal before 1673, when he laid before Count Frontenac his project for the exploration of the Mississippi. The Governor placed La Salle in command of a party sent to erect the new Fort Frontenac, near the present town of Kingston, on Lake Ontario. In 1674, and again in 1677, Frontenac sent La Salle to France, to push his fortunes at court. He was favorably received on both occasions, and on his first visit was granted the seigniory of Frontenac on condition that he reconstruct the fort of masonry and maintain it at his own charge, and on his second visit received a patent empowering him to pursue his discoveries at his own expense, on condition of completing them within five years, to build forts, and to monopolize the trade in buffalo skins. Ile raised funds and returned to Canada with 30 men and the equipment for another expedition.

Seventeen men under La Mothe Cadillac, and including the Franciscan Hennepin (q.v.), sailed from Fort Frontenac in a little vessel of 10 tons on Nov. 18, 1678. They reached Niagara River on December 5 and began the construction of a palisade fort. They were joined by La Salle and Tonty on Jan. 8, 1679. The vessel was wrecked soon after, but the stores were saved, and the keel of a new vessel of 45 tons was soon laid at the mouth of Sayuga Creek, an affluent of the Niagara River. This was named the Griffon. Meanwhile La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac for supplies, and on Aug. 7, 1679, the voyagers set sail on Lake Erie for the great river. By September they had reached Green Bay (Lake Michigan). Here La Salle loaded the Griffon with furs and sent her back to the settlements. She was never again heard from. With four canoes and 14 men La Salle followed up the western shores of Lake Michigan, while his lieutenant, Tonty, with 20 men, took the eastern. The two finally met at the Miami, or St. Joseph River, at the southeast corner of the lake, where Fort Miami was built. The party started up the St. Joseph on Dec. 3, 1679, and crossed the portage to the Kankakee, a tributary of the Illinois River. Near the present town of Utica, Ill., they found an Indian village of 460 lodges. A little below Peoria Lake another Indian village was reached, and there La Salle heard circumstantial accounts of the efforts made by his enemies-both Jesuits and fur traders in Canada-to thwart his plans and even endanger his life. Several of the party deserted at this place. In January (1680) La Salle built a fortified camp, which he named Fort Crèvecoeur, and soon after began the construction of another vessel of 40 tons. Leaving Tonty in command of the fort, La Salle with four men and a guide started in March to return to Fort Frontenac for supplies. He arrived there in safety, in May, to find his supplies lost and the revenues plundered by dishonest agents. News followed him that Tonty's men had mutinied and deserted. La Salle at once organized another expedition and started in search of his friend. The Illinois country had suffered a terrible invasion of the Iroquois, and devastation met him everywhere. He reached the ruins of Fort Crevecoeur and went down the Illinois to the Mississippi, finding no trace of Tonty, who had made his way down the western side of Lake Michigan to Green Bay.

La Salle returned to Fort Miami. He now exerted himself to form a league of the Western Indian tribes, under his own leadership, and thus to keep the Iroquois in check. The Indians received the idea with favor, and, after spending the spring of 1681 in securing their cooperation, he returned in May to Michillimackinac, where he found Tonty, and thence to Fort Frontenac for supplies. Count Frontenac exerted his influence in behalf of the discoverer, and another expedition was equipped. In December La Salle crossed the Chicago portage to the Illinois, followed the frozen river on sledges to Lake Peoria, and from there floated downstream, reaching the Mississippi on Feb. 6, 1682. Ile kept on down the great river to the mouths of the Arkansas and Red rivers, where he took formal possession of the country in the name of his King. On April 6 the party reached the delta. There La Salle divided his men into three bands, and each took one of the branches which led to the Gulf. On April 9, 1682. they reunited, and La Salle erected at one of the mouths of the river a monument and a cross bearing the arms of France, and proclaimed the river and all the lands drained by it to be by right of discovery the dominions of Louis XIV, King of France. To La Salle belongs the glory of tracing the great river for the first time from its upper waters to the sea, and of determining the connection between the discoveries of De Soto near its mouth and those of Joliet and Marquette in the north.

La Salle now formulated plans to establish colonies throughout this new-found country. Ascending the river in December, he built Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock, on the Illinois, as a rallying point for the Indians, 20,000 of whom established themselves in villages in the vicinity. It proved, however, impossible to obtain the necessary supplies from Canada. Frontenac had been succeeded by De la Barre, and La Salle was without a friend at court. The new Governor was a weak and avaricious man, who looked upon La Salle's monopolies and privileges as legitimate spoil. He seized Fort Frontenac and sent an officer to supersede La Salle at Fort St. Louis, ordering him at the same time to return to Quebec. La Salle obeyed and sailed at once for France. In Paris the discoverer and his plans for colonizing the West found favor at court. Royal letters were sent to De la Barre, commanding him to make restitution. Four vessels with about 400 men were placed at the disposal of La Salle, that he might make the voyage directly from France to the mouth of the Mississippi, and he was authorized to govern the country from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. The fleet left La Rochelle July 24, 1684. The naval officer of the fleet, Captain Beaujeu, did not act harmoniously with La Salle, and the voyage was inauspicious from the outset. When at length the shore of the Gulf of Mexico was sighted, the expedition was unable to find the mouth of the Mississippi, amid the confusion of lagoons and inlets. La Sale knew its latitude, but had been unable to take its longitude. Mistakes were followed by recriminations. La Salle became convinced that Beaujeu was attempting to thwart his designs and finally established his men on shore, at Matagorda Bay, mistaking its inlets for the mouths of the Mississippi. Beaujeu sailed away on March 12, 1685, reaching La Rochelle about July 1. La Salle realized his mistake, established his colony on Lavaca River, and, leaving his lieutenant, Joutel, in charge, started (October, 1685) on a fruitless search for the Mississippi. In March, 1686, he was back again, and in April had started for Canada, but was obliged to turn back. His colony had dwindled from 180 to 45 men. Another attempt to reach Canada was made in January, 1687. The party wandered about for two months. Repeated quarrels led to a mutiny, and La Salle was treacherously shot from ambush. Joutel assumed the leadership of the few men who remained loyal and succeeded in reaching one of Tonty's posts on the Arkansas River. Little is known of the fate of those who took part in the mutiny, except that most of the men joined the roving troops of Indians, and two of them eventually made themselves known to Spanish exploring expeditions and returned to civilization by way of Mexico.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 580-581.