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THE LAST FRENCH POST IN THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

LAKE PEPIN, MINNESOTA.

THE recent discovery of two cannon balls, one of six-pound and the other of four-pound calibre, at Frontenac station,

Lake Pepin, Minnesota, renders desirable a notice of the last French establishment in the valley of the upper Mississippi river.

The department of trade called "La Baye" included all the French posts between Green Bay and the Falls of Saint Anthony. Bellin, the distinguished geographer in Remarques sur la carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale,' published in 1755, at Paris, refers to those on the shores of the River Mississippi and its tributaries, and mentions "Fort St. Nicholas at the mouth of the Wisconsin ;" a small fort at the entrance of Lake Pepin; one above, on the opposite side of the lake; and another on the largest isle just above the lake, built in 1695, by Le Sueur. Nicholas Perrot, when commandant of the "La Baye" district, in the autumn of 1685, ascended the Mississippi and passed the winter at "Montagne qui tremps dans l'cau," just beyond Black river, according to Franquelin's map, and subsequently built. the fort on the east side of the lake, on the same map marked "Fort St. Antoine." In 1689 Le Sueur was one of his associciates at Lake Pepin, and Boisguillot, for a time in charge at Mackinaw, then at the post on the Mississippi just above the mouth of the Wisconsin.

The first calling of the lake as Pepin appears in the journal of Le Sucur in 1700, and was perhaps given to the sheet of water in compliment to Monsieur Pepin* who, in 1679, was with Du Luth on the shores of Lake Superior, or some other member of that Canadian family.

After the year 1703, owing to the hostility of the Renards (Fox Indians), the French abandoned all their existing posts in the "La Baye" district of the upper Mississippi, and, with the exception of a few lawless voyageurs left the country. By the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, France yielded to Great Britain all the country around Hudson's bay, and after this the former power turned its attention to the region west of Lake Superior and the discovery of a route to the Western ocean. In July, 1717, Lieutenant La Nouet was ordered to establish a post at the extremity of Lake Superior, and to explore the chain of lakes westward, and Captain Paul Saint Pierre, in 1718, was ordered to Chagouamigon bay and Lake Superior. Pachot, an ensign, was at the same time

Stephen Pepin, the Sieur de la Fond, married Marie Boucher, the aunt of the Sieur de la Perriere. + Killed in 1734 by a band of Iroquois.

Captain Paul Legardeur Saint Pierre was the son of J. Baptiste Legardeur, who, on the eleventh day of July, 1656, married Marguerite, the daughter of the brave explorer, Jean Nicolet, the first white man who, in 1634-5. visited Green Bay and vicinity in Wisconsin.

sent to the Sioux to persuade them to make peace with the Christinaux. Soon after Pachot's return to Saint Pierre's post at Chagouamigon, the Sioux attacked the Indians near Kamanistigouya* and killed seventeen, which so alarmed the Saulteurs (Ojibways) of Chagouamigon bay that they began to prepare to go to war against the Sioux. Saint Pierre directed the officers, Pachot and Linctot, to visit the Sioux and censure them for their hostility to the Christinaux, but they found that they had formed an alliance with the Renards (Foxes) and were implacable.

Pachot, in a letter to the French government, dated Quebec, October 27, 1722, suggested that as the Sioux were hostile to the Lake Superior tribes, a trading post for their benefit should be established near the Falls of St. Anthony, and that the of ficer of the post with the traders' canoes should first proceed to Chagouamigon bay, and then to the Neouissakouete (Bois Brulé) river. At that period the "Outabatonha," or "Scioux of the Rivers," dwelt in the valley of the Saint Croix river, fifteen leagues below Snake river. Charlevoix, a learned Jesuit, in 1721, under the auspices of the French government, visited Canada and Louisiana, and upon his return urged the establishment of a trading post, and sending two missionaries among the Sioux to learn the language, in the belief that through their country a route to the Pacific ocean could be discovered. His suggestions were favorably considered, but delay ensued in

* Also written Gamanetygoya and Kamanistigoya. Baraga, in his Ojibway dictionary, defines Ningitawitigweing as the place where a river divides into several branches.

carrying out the project, by the hostility of the Renards, who had killed several Frenchmen, and also refused to allow traders to pass to the Sioux through their country. De Lignery was therefore dispatched, in 1726, to confer with the tribes near Green Bay, and on the seventh of June made a treaty with the chiefs of the Renards (Foxes), Sakis (Sauks) and Puans (Winnebagoes).

The way now being opened, a company to trade with the Sioux was formed, and among the associates were Jean Baptiste Boucher, the Sieur de Montbrun, Francois Boucher de Montbrun and Francois Campeau. Campeau was a blacksmith and armorer, and in the articles of agreement it was provided that upon the payment of four hundred livres in coin or peltries he could work for any who might wish his services.

The commandant appointed to conduct the expedition was René Boucher, the Sieur de la Perriere,† and a relative of two of the trading company. The chaplains. attached were the Jesuits Louis Ignatius Guignas and De Gonor. They left Montreal on the sixteenth of June, 1727, and on the seventeenth of September reached the enlargement of the Mississippi, the

The Boucher family was one of the most distinguished in Canada.

Children of Gaspard, the immigrant: Pierre, governor of Three Rivers; Marie, wife of Stephen Pepin.

Children of Pierre of Three Rivers: Pierre, born A. D. 1653; Marie, born A. D. 1655, married Rene Gaultier Varennes; Jean, born A. D. 1667, Sieur Montbrun; Rene, born A. D. 1668, Sieur de la Perriere; J. Baptiste, born A. D. 1673, Sieur de Niverville.

Children of Rene: Tanguay gives as children of Rene: Rene, born January 10, 1699; Jean Baptiste, born August 10, 1700; Francois, born July 14, 1704.

picturesque Lake Pepin. Immediately René Boucher, the Sieur de la Perriere, selected a site upon a low point, about the middle of the lake shore, opposite Maiden's Rock, and ordered the erection of a stockade of pickets, each twelve feet in length, forming a square of one hundred feet, with two bastions. Within the enclosure was a log house for the commandant, a residence for the missionaries, and a storehouse, all of which by the last of October was completed. The fort was named "Beauharnois," in compliment to the governor of Canada; and the missionaries called their mission "St. Michael the Archangel." Father Guignas in a letter from the fort writes :†

The fourth of the month of November we did not forget that it was the Saint's Day of the general. The holy mass was said for him in the morning, and

they were well prepared to celebrate in the evening;

gone to war against the Mahas toward the Missouri. The missionary De Gonor left at this time, and when he reached Mackinaw on his way to Montreal, found there Pierre Gualtier Varennes, the Sieur Verendrye (Verandrie), who had been in command at Lake Nepigon and desired to seek for the western ocean by way of Lake Winnipeg.

A year after the expedition of Sieur de la Perriere, on the fifth of June, 1728, the Sieur de Lignery left Montreal with a force to punish the Renards (Foxes), who continued to molest traders. During the night of the seventeenth of August he reached Green Bay, and the next day at midnight arrived at the mouth of Fox river, where Fort St. Francis|| was situated. The Renards fled at the approach of the army, abandoning everything in their vil lages, and retreating to the country of the Aioues (Ioway), beyond the Mississippi. On the twenty-fourth of the month he reached the village of the Puans (Winnebagoes), who had also run away. Upon his return he burned Fort St. Francis, lest the Renards should return, take possession and make war upon the Folles and the more courageous of the men cried for mercy Avoines, who were allies of the French. De Beaujeu was the second in command of this expedition, and was not satisfied with De Lignery's conduct.

but the slowness of the pyrotechnists and the varia

bleness of the weather led to the postponement of the celebration to the fourteenth of the same month, when they shot off some very beautiful rockets, and made the air resound with a hundred shouts of "Vive le Roy" and of "Vive Charles de Beauharnois.".... That which contributed a great deal to the merry making was the fright of some Indians. When these poor people saw the fire-works in the air, and the stars fall from the sky, the women and children fled

and earnestly begged that we would stop the astonishing play of that terrible medicine (medecin).

On the fifteenth of April, 1728, the water rose so high in the lake that for several weeks it was necessary to abandon the fort. During the spring the commandant ascended the Mississippi for sixty leagues, but found no Sioux, as they had

The houses were all sixteen feet in width. One was twenty-five feet, one thirty feet, and the third thirty-eight feet long.

+'Margry, Vol. VI.

ere.

His mother was a sister of Boucher de la PerriHe was a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 served in an expedition to New England, and the next year was in New Foundland. Desirous of distinction, he went to France and was connected with a Bretagne regiment. He attracted attention by his bravery at Malplaquet, in September, 1709, where the Duke of Marlborough defeated the French. After he returned to Canada he had the rank of ensign.

|| Fort St. Francis is the name given in Crespel's 'Voyages.'

On account of the hostility of the Indians, the post on Lake Pepin, in October, 1728, was left in charge of a youth twenty years old, Christopher Dufrost,* the Sieur de la Jemeraye; and twelve persons, among whom were the Sieur de Boucherville, Jean Baptiste Boucher, the Sieur Montbrun, and the Jesuit Guignas, embarked with their goods, in canoes, for Montreal, by way of the Illinois river, as the hostility of the Foxes prevented the route by the Wisconsin. On the twelfth of the month, twenty-two leagues above the Illinois river, they were captured by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, who were allies of the Foxes.

Governor Beauharnois, on the twentyninth of October, wrote to the French government:

I have the honor to report upon what has passed upon the part of the Kickapoos and Mascoutens who arrested the French coming from the post of the

Sioux, and the enterprise of Sieur de Montbrun,

after his escape from the village of the savages to bring us the news of the affair. He is a person zealous in the service of his majesty, and I cannot refuse the request he has made to write to you to procure his promotion. He is cadet of the troop and a most excellent officer.

The Sieur de la Jemeraye, who remained among the Sioux with some Frenchmen, left Lake Pepin and brought the Renards' chief to the River St. Joseph, also deserves your protection.

Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners for several months, and the former did not reach Detroit until June, 1729. The account of expenditures made during his captivity is interesting as showing the value of merchandise at that time. It reads as follows:

Among the manuscript in the Parliament library of Canada, at Ottawa, there is a communication of De Tilly, dated April 29, 1729, which mentions that "eleven Frenchmen and Father Guignase having left the Fort Pepin to descend the river Mississippi as far as the Illinois, and to go from thence to Canada, were captured by Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the service of

Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de

the king, from the time of his detention among the Kickapoos, on the twelfth of October, 1728, until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729, in the month of June. On arriving at the Kickapoo village he made a present to the young men to secure their opposition to some evil-minded old warriors

the Mascoutens and Quicapous, and brought to the Riviere au Boeuf, with the intention to deliver them to the Renards, and that the Sieur de Montbrun and his brother, with another Frenchman, escaped from their hands the night before they were to be surrendered to these Indians. The Sieu de Montbrun left his brother sick among the Tamaroides, † and brought the intelligence to M. le General, avoiding Four coats, braided, at twenty francs...... 80 fr. certain posts on the way to escape the Mascoutens and Quicapous."

* He was the son of a naval officer who in 1698 was in command at Fort Frontenac. His mother's maiden name was Marie Gualtier, and on December 7, 1707, he was born.

+ The Tamarois were a band of the Illinois Indians.

Two barrels of powder, each fifty pounds at
Montreal price, valued at the sum of....150 liv.
One hundred pounds of lead and balls
making the sum of..
50 liv.
Four pounds of vermilion, at 12 francs the
pound.

48 fr.

Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen.. 24 fr.

Governor Beauharnois, in a communication dated May 6, 1730, alludes to the defeat of the Renards by the allied Menomonees, Ojibways and Winnebagoes, and writes: "It is also confirmed by the journey taken since this last adventure by the great chief of the Renards to the River St. Joseph."

? In Michigan.

- Four hundred flints, one hundred gunworms, two hundred ramrods and one hundred and fifty files, the total at the maker's prices.....

90 liv. After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to the Renards (Foxes) they wished some favors, and I was obliged to give them the following which would allow them to weep over and cover their dead: Two braided coats at 20 fr. each.. Two woolen blankets at 15 fr..

........

........

40 fr. 30 fr.

24

One hundred pounds of powder at 30 sous 75 One hundred pounds of lead at 10 sous.... 25 Two pounds of vermilion at 12 fr....... Moreover, given to the Renards to cover their dead and prepare them for peace, fifty pounds of powder, making... 75 fr. One hundred pounds of lead at 10 sous.... 50 Two pounds of vermilion at 12 fr.............. 24 During the winter a considerable party was sent to strike hands with the Illinois. Given at that time : Two blue blankets at 15 fr. Four men's shirts at 6 fr.... Four pairs of long-necked bottles at 6 fr... 24 Four dozen of knives at 4 fr... 16 Gun-worms, files, ramrods and flints, estimated.....

30

24

40

Given to engage the Kickapoos to establish themselves upon a neighboring isle, to protect from the treachery of the Renards

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In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, by the Canadian government, the following reference is made to Fort Beauharnois :

They agree that the fort built among the Scioux on the border of Lake Pepin, appears to be badly situated on account of the freshets, but the Indians assure that the water rose higher than it ever did before, and this is creditable inasmuch as it did not reach the fort this year [1729]. When Sieur de la Perriere located it at that place it was on the assurance of the Indians that the waters did not rise so high; however, he could not locate it more advantageously in regard both to the quantity of land suitable for cultivation, and to the abundance of game. . . . As the water might possibly rise as high, this fort could be removed four or five arpents from the lake shore without prejudice to the views entertained in building it on its present site.

It is very true that these Indians did leave shortly after on a hunting excursion, as they are in the habit of doing for their own support and that of their families, who have only that means of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed that their absence was occasioned only by having fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie Scioux, by whom they were invited to accompany them on a war expedition against the Mahas, which invitation they accepted, and returned only in the month of July following.

The interests of religion, of the service and of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of this establishment, which has been the more necessary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when routed, would have found an asylum among the Scioux had not the French been settled there, and the docility and submission manifested by the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause except the attention entertained by the Scioux for the French, and the offers which the former made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully cognizant.

It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes in check and counteract the measures they might adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invariably reject their propositions so long as the French remain in the country, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these advantages and the importance of preserving that establishment, M. de Beauharnois can not take any steps until he has news of the French who asked his permission

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