A Half-Century of Conflict, vol 2 | Page 3

colony,
instead of Canada, as his base of operations. Thither, therefore, he went;
and in April, 1700, set out for the Sioux country with twenty-five men,
in a small vessel of the kind called a "felucca," still used in the
Mediterranean.
Among the party was an adventurous youth named Penecaut, a
ship-carpenter by trade, who had come to Louisiana with Iberville two
years before, and who has left us an account of his voyage with Le
Sueur. [Footnote: Relation de Penecaut. In my possession is a
contemporary manuscript of this narrative, for which I am indebted to
the kindness of General J. Meredith Reade.]
The party slowly made their way, with sail and oar, against the muddy
current of the Mississippi, till they reached the Arkansas, where they
found an English trader from Carolina. On the 10th of June, spent with
rowing, and half starved, they stopped to rest at a point fifteen leagues
above the mouth of the Ohio. They had staved off famine with the buds
and leaves of trees; but now, by good luck, one of them killed a bear,
and, soon after, the Jesuit Limoges arrived from the neighboring
mission of the Illinois, in a canoe well stored with provisions. Thus
refreshed, they passed the mouth of the Missouri on the 13th of July,
and soon after were met by three Canadians, who brought them a letter
from the Jesuit Marest, warning them that the river was infested by
war-parties. In fact, they presently saw seven canoes of Sioux warriors,
bound against the Illinois; and not long after, five Canadians appeared,
one of whom had been badly wounded in a recent encounter with a
band of Outagamies, Sacs, and Winnebagoes bound against the Sioux.
To take one another's scalps had been for ages the absorbing business
and favorite recreation of all these Western tribes. At or near the

expansion of the Mississippi called Lake Pepin, the voyagers found a
fort called Fort Perrot, after its builder; [Footnote: Penecaut, _Journal.
Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession du Pays des Nadouessioux, etc.,
par Nicolas Perrot_, 1689. Fort Perrot seems to have been built in 1685,
and to have stood near the outlet of the lake, probably on the west side.
Perrot afterwards built another fort, called Fort St. Antoine, a little
above, on the east bank. The position of these forts has been the subject
of much discussion, and cannot be ascertained with precision. It
appears by the Prise de Possession, cited above, that there was also, in
1689, a temporary French post near the mouth of the Wisconsin.] and
on an island near the upper end of the lake, another similar structure,
built by Le Sueur himself on his last visit to the place. These forts were
mere stockades, occupied from time to time by the roving fur-traders as
their occasions required.
Towards the end of September, Le Sueur and his followers reached the
mouth of the St. Peter, which they ascended to Blue Earth River.
Pushing a league up this stream, they found a spot well suited to their
purpose, and here they built a fort, of which there was great need, for
they were soon after joined by seven Canadian traders, plundered and
stripped to the skin by the neighboring Sioux. Le Sueur named the new
post Fort l'Huillier. It was a fence of pickets, enclosing cabins for the
men. The neighboring plains were black with buffalo, of which the
party killed four hundred, and cut them into quarters, which they placed
to freeze on scaffolds within the enclosure. Here they spent the winter,
subsisting on the frozen meat, without bread, vegetables, or salt, and,
according to Penecaut, thriving marvellously, though the surrounding
wilderness was buried five feet deep in snow.
Band after band of Sioux appeared, with their wolfish dogs and their
sturdy and all-enduring squaws burdened with the heavy hide coverings
of their teepees, or buffalo-skin tents. They professed friendship and
begged for arms. Those of one band had blackened their faces in
mourning for a dead chief, and calling on Le Sueur to share their
sorrow, they wept over him, and wiped their tears on his hair. Another
party of warriors arrived with yet deeper cause of grief, being the
remnant of a village half exterminated by their enemies. They, too,

wept profusely over the French commander, and then sang a dismal
song, with heads muffled in their buffalo-robes. [Footnote: This
weeping over strangers was a custom with the Sioux of that time
mentioned by many early writers. La Mothe-Cadillac marvels that a
people so brave and warlike should have such a fountain of tears
always at command.] Le Sueur took the needful precautions against his
dangerous visitors, but got from them a large supply of beaver-skins in
exchange for his goods.
When spring