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

276 HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX. [1680.When Hennepin met him, he had been about twoyears in the wilderness.In September, 1678, he leftQuebec for the purpose of exploring the region of theUpper Mississippi, and establishing relations offriendship with the Sioux and their kindred theAssiniboins.In the summer of 1679 he visited threelarge towns of the eastern division of the Sioux,including those visitedby Hennepin in the followingyear, and planted the King's arms in all of them.Early in the autumn he was at the head of LakeSuperior, holding a council with the Assiniboins andthe lake tribes, and inducing them to live at peacewith the Sioux. In all this, he acted in a publiccommand at Fort Frontenac. In 1697 he succeeded to the commandof a company of infantry, but was suffering wretchedly from thegout at Fort Frontenac. In 1710 Vaudreuil, in a despatch to theminister Ponchartrain, announced his death as occurring in the previouswinter, and added the brief comment, " c'etait un tres-honnetehomme." Other contemporaries speak to the same effect. "M r -Dulhut, Gentilhomme Lionnois, qui a beaucoup de merite et decapaciteV'— La Hontan, i. 103 (1703). " Le Sieur du Lut, hommed'esprit et d'experience." — Le Clerc, ii. 137. Charlevoix calls him" one of the bravest officers the King has ever had in this colony."His name is variously spelled Du Luc, Du Lud, Du Lude, Du Lut>Du Luth, Du Lhut. For an account of the Iroquois virgin, Tegahkouita,whose intercession is said to have cured him of the gout,see Charlevoix, i. 572.On a contemporary manuscript map by the Jesuit Kaffeix, representingthe routes of Marquette, La Salle, and Du Lhut, are thefollowing words, referring to the last-named discoverer, and interestingin connection with Hennepin's statements :" Mr -du Lude lepremier a este chez les Sioux en 1678, et a este proche la source duMississippi, et ensuite vint retirer le P- Louis [Hennepin] qui avoiteste* fait prisonnier chez les Sioux." Du Lhut here appears as thedeliverer of Hennepin. One of his men wa*i Uamed Pepin ; hence,no doubt, the name of Lake Pepin.