La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

1676-77.] BURIAL OF MARQUETTE. 81ing the names of Jesus and Mary, with his eyes fixedon the crucifix which one of his followers held beforehim. They dug a grave beside the hut, and herethey buried him according to the directions which hehad given them ; then, re-embarking, they made theirway to Michilimackinac, to bear the tidings to thepriests at the mission of St. Ignace. 1In the winter of 1676, a party of Kiskakon Ottawaswere hunting on Lake Michigan; and when, in thefollowing spring, they prepared to return home, theybethought them, in accordance with an Indian custom,of taking with them the bones of Marquette,who had been their instructor at the mission of St.Esprit. They repaired to the spot, found the grave,opened it, washed and dried the bones and placedthem carefully in a box of birch-bark. Then, in aprocession of thirty canoes, they bore it, singing theirfuneral songs, to St. Ignace of Michilimackinac. Asthey approached, priests, Indians, and traders allthronged to the shore. The relics of Marquette werereceived with solemn ceremony, and buried beneaththe floor of the little chapel of the mission. 21The contemporary Relation tells us that a miracle took placeat the burial of Marquette. One of the two Frenchmen, overcomewith grief and colic, bethought him of applying a little earth fromthe grave to the seat of pain. This at once restored him to healthand cheerfulness.* For Marquette's death, see the contemporary Relation, published by Shea, Lenox, and Martin, with the accompanying Lettreet Journal. The river where he died is a small stream in the westof Michigan, some distance south of the promontory called the" Sleeping Bear." It long bore his name, which is now borne by a6