HENNEPIN
216
HENNEPIN
was gratified by journeys as a missionary to most of
the various towns of Holland. At Maastricht he
remained for eight consecutive months during the
year 1673, and was in the midst of the war then in
progress between the French and the Spanish. He
states: "During the eight months I administered the
sacraments to over three thousand wounded men.
In which occupation I \entured many dangers among
the sick people, being taken ill both of a spotted fever
and a dysenterie which brought me very low and near
unto death; but God at length restored me my former
health by the care and help of a very skilful Dutch
physician."
The young monk continued his career amid scenes of battle for some time and, during the succeeding year, was present at the battle of iSeneffe (1674), where he busied him.self in administering comfort to the wounded. He then received orders from his superiors to go to Rochelle, France, in order to embark there and go to Canada as a missionary. While waiting for the sailing of the ship upon which his voyage was to be made, Hennepin performed at a place near Rochelle the duties of a curate for nearly two montlis at the request of the local pastor, who had occasion to be absent from his charge. At last, during the summer of the year 1675, Hennepin was destined to realize his fondest hopes, because he then set sail, 14 July, for the New World, leaving France as a member of an expedition approved by Colbert and placed by "I>e Grand Monarque", Louis XIV, under the leadership of that famous cavalier, Rene Robert, Sieur de la Salle, who had been recently endowed with a title and had been appointed to the governorship of Fort Fron- tenac, one of the principal outposts of "La Nouvelle France", as the French dominions in America were then called. The sliip arrived at Quebec in September, having successfully withstood attacks by Turkish, Tunisian, and Algerian pirates. The first experience of the young missionary was to serve during the first four years of his life in Canada as a preacher in Advent and Lent in the cloister of St. Augustine in the hospi- tal at Quebec, in addition to performing the usual duties of the monastic life. This appointment as preacher was due to the fa\our acquired Ijy Hennepin, during his voyage, in the opinion of Francois de Laval de Montmorency, newly appointed Bishop of Quebec, who had been a passenger upon the ship which brought Hennepin to New France.
During his period of residence at Quebec, Hennepin employed his leisure time with great industry in travel- ling to regions within twenty or thirty leagues of that city — often on snow-shoes, his luggage being trans- ported upon sledges drawn by dogs, sometimes travel- ling in a canoe — always witn a view to learning the languages and custonis of the Indians so as to prepare himself for missionary labours among the savages of the North American Continent. He was an acute observer, and his books contain most minute and accurate descriptions of the characteristics, arts, and customs of the Indians. Hennepin 's first independ- ent labours in America began when he was sent in company with Father Luke Buisset to take care of a mission at a place on the north shore of I^ake Ontario near the head-waters of the River St. LawTence. The mission station had borne the Iroquois name, Cafor- nkouy, and was the place at which Count Frontenac, Governor-General of Canada, had built in 1673 a fort which subsequently bore his name. This site is now occupied by the city of Kingston, Ontario. After remaining two years and a half at Fort Frontenac, where they built with their associates a large mission- house and laboured assiduously for the conversion of the natives, the two missionaries went down the River St. Lawrence in a canoe. I^pon reaching Q\iebec, Hennepin entered the RecoUet convent of St. Mary's, in order, as he states, to prepare and sanctify himself for the long expedition to the westward under the
leadership of La Salle which was then in process of
preparation. On IS November, 1678, La Salle inaugu-
rated his expedition by sending forward from Fort
Frontenac in a brigantine of about ten tons burden a
detachment of his followers under the command of
Pierre de St-Paul,Sieurdela Motte-Lussicre,a French
military officer, with directions to establish a post
on the Niagara River near Lake Erie and to make prep-
arations for the building of a ship for the navigation
of the Great Lakes. This detachment arrived at
the River Niagara on 6 December after encounter-
ing great perils. On 20 January La Salle arrived at
the same jilace and took command. During the win-
ter Hennepin went to Fort Frontenac, but returned
to the Niagara outpost shortly before 30 July,
1679, accompanied by two other Recollet Fathers,
Galiriel de la Ril)ourde and Z^nobe Mambr(;, who, in
common with Hennepin, had been directed by the
superior of their order to accompany the expedition
of the Chevalier de la Salle. jAIeanwhile La Motte had
disconnected himself entirely from the expedition and
returned to Fort IVontenac.
On 7 August, l(i79, the famous expedition sailed from the Niagara River on a ship which had been built during the preceding winter and was named" (irifl'on ", a grillin being one of the figures on the coat of arms of La Salle. The mouth of the Detroit River was reached on 10 August, and received from La Salle the name which it has since borne. Sailing up this river and through Lake St. Clair, named by the same ex- plorer after the saint on whose feast-day he first be- held it, they i)assed through the St. Clair River and up Lake Huron, and late in the same month arrived at a place, called by the Indians Michilimacinac, and christened by the famous Maniuette with the more religious name, St-Ignace. Leaving this place on 2 September, the expedition soon reached Green Bay, made a short stop there, and departed for the south on 19 September. Storms prevailed and great dan- gers were encountered, but on 1 November La Salle and his followers reached the mouth of a river, then called the River of the Miamis and now named the River St. Joseph, the greater part of which lies within the present State of Michigan. At the mouth of this river La Salle built a fort, and on 20 Novem- ber his principal lieutenant, an Italian named Enrico di Tonti, arrived with certain members of the expedi- tion who had come along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, while La Salle, Hennepin, and the rest fol- lowed the western shore. Setting out on 3 December, the expedition traversed the River St. Josejih to a point near its head-waters, then made a port;ige to the Kankakee river, and went down that river to the stream called by Hennepin "the River of the Illinois" and still called the Illinois River. Down this stream the expedition travelled imtil they arrived, during the latter days of December, at a village of the Illinois Indians, which lies, as Hennepin states, one hundred and thirty leagues from the fort built at the mouth of the RiverSt. Joseph.
They continued their journey, a halt was soon made and a celebration held upon the river banks on 1 Jan- uary, 1680. Mass wascelebratedandall wisheda Happy New Year to M. de la Salle, the missionaries adding words of encouragement and congratulation to their leader and at the same time exhorting all the members of the expediticm to preserve confidence and fidelity. On the same day the expedition passed through a lake which has since been known as Lake Peoria, and soon after reached the principal village of the Illinois Indi- ans. The members of the La Salle expedition here smoked the calumet with the Indians and enjoyed a brief rest. A short distance below the outlet of the lake, a fort was constructed which La Salle called Fort Creve-cccur, so named, according to Hennepin, "becau.se the desertion of our men, and the other difBculties we laboured under had almost broken our
