Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/52

32 The French being in possession of Canada, were the first to make the plunge into the boundless wilderness. And this final and successful effort to get into the interior of the continent, was made only after a long and bitter war with the Iroquois Indians, who had destroyed the previously established Catholic missions along Lake Huron, and driven back the French to the gates of Quebec. Protection being finally guaranteed to the Jesuits, and a regiment of French soldiers being sent out to overcome the Indians, the five nations finally made a peace which assured an end of further hostilities. Starting from Old Fort Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario as early as 1665, we find the faithful pirest, Allouez, braving all the dreaded dangers of the unknown, and following up through the chain of Great Lakes, and finally reaching Lake Superior, with Marquette, establishing the mission of St. Mary, the first settlement of white men, within the limits of our northwestern states. Following this, various other Missions were established, and explorations made. Fired by rumors of a great river in the far distant west, Marquette was sent by the superintendent. Talon, to find it. Marquette was accompanied on this exploration of the trackless wilderness by Joliet, a merchant of Quebec, with five Frenchmen and two Indian guides. Leaving the lakes by the way of Fox river, they ascended that stream to the center of the present state of Wisconsin, where they carried their canoes across a portage, until they struck the Wisconsin river. Here the Indian guides, fearful of unknown terrors in the wilderness beyond, refused to go farther, and left the white men to make their own way alone. For seven days the Frenchmen floated down the Wisconsin, and finally came out on the mighty flood of the Mississippi—the "Great River"—for such is the meaning of the name. With the feelings of men who had discovered a new world, they floated down the great river, charmed and delighted with the wondrous scene, passing through vast verdant meadow-land prairies, covered with uncounted herds of bufifalo, with the unbroken silence of ages they passed the outpouring floods of other rivers—the Des Moines, the Illinois, the Missouri, the Ohio, and on down to the Arkansas. Here they landed to visit the- astonished natives on the shore, who received them with the utmost kindness, and invited them to make their homes with them. And it was from these Indians, as we shall see further along, that was bred the first man who crossed the continent from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, and gave an intelligible account of his trip. But leaving the Arkansas, Marquette and his companions floated on down the Father of Waters, until greeted by a different climate, by cottonwoods, palmettos, heat and mosquitos. Marquette was satisfied that to follow the river they must fall into the Gulf of Mexico; and fearful of falling into the hands of the Spaniards, reluctantly turned the prows of their canoes up stream and made their way back to Canada over the same route. Leaving Marquette at Green bay on Lake Michigan, Joliet carried the news back to Quebec. Shortly after this Marquette's health gave way, and while engaged in Missionary work among the Illinois Indians, died May 18, 1675, 3-t the age of thirty-eight. He had fallen at his post, and his self-appointed work of enlightening and blessing the benighted American Savage, and unselfishly consecrated his life to the highest and noblest impulses of the human soul. No higher or greater encomium of praise or honor could have been bestowed on any man.

And now we strike a different character, Robert Cavalier de La Salle, a dashing young Frenchman who had shown great energy and enterprise in explorations of Lakes Ontario and Erie, was roused to great interest and resolved at once that he would explore the course of the great river to its outlet in the ocean, wherever that might lead them. Leaving his Fort Frontenac, and his fur trade, he hurried back to France to get a commission from the government to explore the Mississippi river. Nothing could be done in those days by the French, Spanish or English, without government license. It was different on the American Colonial side of the line after the Battle of Bunker Hill. La Salle