HENNEPIN
217
HENNEPIN
hearts". Other authorities, however, express the
opinion that the name was given in compliment to
Louis XIV, and in reference to his capture during the
year 1672 of a fortress named Creve-coeur near Bois-
le-duc in the Netherlands.
Leaving Tonti in command at the fort, La Salle departed for a journey on foot to Fort Frontenac and Quebec, having given directions to Hennepin to pro- ceed down the Illinois River and then up the Missis- sippi River as far as possible upon a voyage of dis- covery. The members of this expedition were the intrepid RecoUet and two Frenchmen — Antoiue Au- gelle, born at .\miens, in Picardy, and surnamed Picard du Gay, and Michel .\ccault, a native of the province of Poitou. These three men started out from Fort Creve-cceur on 29 February, 16S0, soon after reached the Mississippi River, and then turned northwards. On 12 April they were captured by a band of the Issati Sioux, living on or near the shores of a lake called by the original European explorers " the Lake of the Issati" (afterwards called Lac Buade in honour of Count P'rontenac, his family name being Buade) and now known as Mille Lacs, one of the largest lakes in the State of Minnesota. Hennepin's captors were on their way to make war against the Miamis and the Illinois, but abandoned their design and turned back towards their homes carrying with them the three explorers. They travelled nineteen days, passing en route Lake Pepin, which was named by Hennepin the Lake of Tears because of the demonstrative grief manifested at a certain place upon its banks by an Indian cliief mourning for his son who had been killed in liattle. On 21 April they stopped at an Indian village situated about fifteen miles below the present site of the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. At this point they left their canoes and travelled on foot to the principal village of the Issati at or near the place where a river, called by Hennepin the River St. Fran- cis and now known as Rum River, emerges from Mille Lacs.
Hennepin and his companions had then to undergo all the hardships which would naturally be the lot of civilized men thrown into close association with bar- barians. Whenever the Indians moved about from place to place, according to their nomadic inclinations, they carried with them the Franciscan Father and the two other captives. During one of these excursions the wanderers stopped at the great cataract in the Mississippi River which is now encircled by the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and which still Ijears the name of St. Anthony Falls, given to it by Hennepin in honour of St. .Anthony of Padua. In July the Indians went down the St. Francis River, and, after camping there a while, permitted Hennepin and Augelle to leave them for the purpose of going down the Mississippi River to get the supplies which La Salle had promised to send and deposit at the mouth of the Wisconsin River. After making a journey down the river of about one hundred and sixty miles, a large band of the Issati overtook them and carried them Ijack to the great camp at Mille Lacs. While on the journey to that place, Hennepin and his savage companions met the famous French explorer, Daniel Greysolon Du Lhut, who had been roaming about the region to the west and south-west of Lake Superior. At the end of September, owing to the vigorous and determined insistence of Du Lhut, Hennepin and his companions were released by the Indians and accom- panied Du Lhut and his followers down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, thence up the Wiscon- sin River to the famous portage between the head- waters of that river and those of the Fox River, down the Fox River to the French settlement at Green Bay, and thence to St-Ignace.
At St-Ignace Hennepin was agreealily surprised to meet a Jesuit named Father Pierson, whose birthplace was also Ath. After spending the winter there,
pleasantly interspersing with his missionary labours
some recreation, Hennepin left St-Ignace during
Easter week in the year 1681, and arrived safely at
Fort Frontenac soon after Pentecost Sunday. A few
days later he arrived at Montreal where he made a
report to Count Frontenac, the Governor-General of
New France, concerning his wanderings and experi-
ences. At the request of the governor-general and
as his guest, Hennepin proceeded to Quebec. On the
way, at Fort Champlain, they met Bishop Laval, who
was ascending the St. Lawrence River on a tour of
episcopal visitation. The bishop was greatly inter-
ested in the thrilling narrative of Father Hennepin,
and, knowing his need of rest, granted him permission
to retire to the Franciscan monastery, " Oiu- Lady of
the Angels", in the city of Quebec. Having passed
the remainder of the summer within the cloisters of
this institution, Hennepin sailed for Europe in the
autumn of the same year, and for a year or more was
secluded in a monastery of liis order at St. Germain-en-
Laye, during which period he published his first book,
entitled " Description de la Louisiane, nouvellement
decouverte au Sud-Ouest de la Nouvelle France, par
ordre du Roy. Avec la carte du Pays: Les Moeurs et
la Maniere de vivre des Sauvages. Dediee a Sa Ma-
jeste par le R. P. Louis Hennepin Missionnaire Recol-
let et Notaire Apostolique". The book was printed
at Paris, and was issued during the month of January in
the year 168.3. This book is regarded as not only very
interesting, but as fairly accurate. In the year 1697
Hennepin published at Utrecht another book, entitled
" Nouvelle D6couverte d'un tres grand Pays, situe
dans r.\merique". In this book Hennepin for the first
time claims that he had not only traversed the up]3er
but also the lower Mississippi, and had traced tlie
course of the stream to its outlet in the Gulf of Mexico.
As the time which elapsed between the date when
Hennepin left the country of the Illinois and the date
upon which he was captured by the Issati was not
sufficient for a canoe voyage from Fort Creve-cceur to
the mouth of the Mississippi and then up stream to a
point near the present southern boundary of Minne-
sota, Hennepin has been denounced by manj' his-
torians and historical critics as an arrant falsifier.
Certain writers have sought to repel this charge by
claiming that the erroneous statements are in fact
interpolations by other persons. The weight of evi-
dence is however adverse to such a theory. The
" Nouvelle Decouverte" was followed by another book
coming from the press at Utrecht in the year 1698.
This was entitled " Nouveau Voyage". Almost si-
multaneously, English translations of the two last-
mentioned works appeared in London under the title
of " .A new discovery of a vast country in America".
Both the " Nouvelle Decouverte" and the " New Dis-
covery" were dedicated to William the Third, Iving
of England. At that time Hennepin had lost the
favour of the French king, and the archives of the
French Government contain an order from Louis XIV
directing the governor of New France to arrest the
famous missionary and traveller in case of his appear-
ance in America and to send him home.
Memorials of the expedition to the upper Mississippi exist in the names of certain places. The county in Minnesota wherein are situated the Falls of St. Anthony bears the name of Hennepin, and the same name ap- pears on the map of the State of Illinois designating a township close to the site of Fort Creve-coeur. The last years of Father Hennepin were in all probability passed at Rome, since a letter is in existence written from that city by a man named Dubos, which con- tains mention of the fact that the famous Recollet, then in his sixty-first or sixty-second year, was, at that time (1701), in a monastery in Rome and had hopes of returning soon afterwards to America under the protection of Cardinal Spada. The actual time and place of the death of Pere Louis Hennepin are not
