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

;50 FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION, ETC. [1670.address, — the last being especially shown in hisdealings with Indians, over whom he had greatinfluence. He spoke Algonquin fluently, and wasfavorably known to many tribes of that family.Saint-Lusson wintered atthe Manitoulin Islands;while Perrot, having first sent messages to the tribesof the north, inviting them to meet the deputy ofthegovernor at the Saut Ste. Marie in the followingspring, proceeded to Green Bay, to urge the sameinvitation upon the tribes of that quarter. Theyknew him well, and greeted him with clamors ofwelcome. The Miamis, it is said, received him witha sham battle,which was designed to do him honor,but by which nerves more susceptible would havebeen severely shaken. 1 They entertained him alsowith a grand game of la crosse, the Indian ball-play.Perrot gives a marvellous account of the authorityand state of the Miami chief, who, he says, wasattended day and night by a guard of warriors, — anassertion which would be incredible, were it notsustained by the account of the same chief given bythe Jesuit Dablon. Of the tribes of the Bay, thegreater part promised to send delegates to the Sautbut the Pottawattamies dissuaded the Miami potentatefrom attempting so long a journey, lest thefatigue incident to it might injure his health ;and he1See La Potherie, ii. 125. Perrot himself does not mention it.Charlevoix erroneously places this interview at Chicago. Perrot'snarrative shows that he did not go farther than the tribes of GreenBay ; and the Miamis were then, as we have seen, on the upper partof Fox River.