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

;1671.] LA SALLE'S DISCOVERIES. 36Had they led him to the Mississippi, it is reasonablycertain that she would have made it known in hermemorial. La Salle discovered the Ohio, and in allprobability the Illinois also; but that he discoveredthe Mississippi has not been proved, nor, in the light \oof the evidence we have, is it likely.tion de l'androit auquel M. de Lasalle aborda pres le fleuve de Mississipi;un autre androit qu'il nomme le fleuve Colbert; en unautre il prans possession de ce pais au nom du roy et fait planterune crois."The words of the aged and illiterate writer are obscure, but herexpression " aborda pres " seems to indicate that La Salle had notreached the Mississippi prior to 1675, but only approached it.Finally, a memorial presented to Seignelay, along with the officialnarrative of 1679-81, by a friend of La Salle, whose object was toplace the discoverer and his achievements in the most favorablelight, contains the following :" II [La Salle] a estdrle premier aformer le dessein de ces descouvertes, qu'il communiqua, il y aplus de quinze ans, a M. de Courcelles, gouverneur, et a M. Talon,intendant du Canada, qui l'approuverent.II a fait ensuite plusieursvoyages de ce coste-la, et un entr'autres en 1669 avec MM. Dolier etGalinee, prestres du Seminaire de St. Sulpice. // est vray que lesieur Jolliet, pour le prevenir ,Jit un voyage in 1673, a la riviere Colbertmais ce fut uniquement pour y faire commerce." See Margry, ii.285. This passage is a virtual admission that Joliet reached theMississippi (Colbert) before La Salle.Margry, in a series of papers in the Journal General de V InstructionPublique for 1862, first took the position that La Salle reached theMississippi in 1670 and 1671, and has brought forward in defence ofit all the documents which his unwearied research enabled him todiscover. Father Tailhan, S. J., has replied at length, in the copiousnotes to his edition of Nicolas Perrot, but without having seen theprincipal document cited by Margry, and of which extracts havebeen given in the notes to this chapter.