Claude Dablon
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PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON 1618 February: Claude Dablon was born in Dieppe, France. 1639 Claude Dablon entered the Society of Jesus. 1655 After his course of studies as a Jesuit had been completed, and after a stint at teaching in France, the Society of Jesus forwarded Claude Dablon to Québec. He was at once sent with Father Chaumonot to begin a central mission among the Iroquois at Onondaga, Canada. His diary of this journey and of his return to Québec in the year following would appear during his lifetime, in the JESUIT RELATIONS. BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON 1661 Père Claude Dablon had been among the Iroquois at Onondaga in Canada since 1655. At this point he accompanied Father Druillettes, the Apostle of Maine, on an expedition overland to Hudson Bay, the purpose of which was to establish missions among the Native Americans in that region and perhaps discover an outlet through Hudson Bay to the China Sea. The expedition would prove unsuccessful.1 1. In 1668 Père Claude Dablon would be on Lake Superior with Claude-Jean Allouez and Jacques Marquette, forming with them what Bancroft would describe as the “illustrious triumvirate,” and he would be the one to inform the world of the rich copper mines of that region, which would become of such great economic value. It would be Dablon who would appoint Marquette to undertake the expedition which would result in the discovery of the upper Mississippi River and it would be he who would give Marquette’s letters and charts to the world. In connection with this discovery it would be he who would call attention to the feasibility of passing from Lake Erie to Florida “by cutting a canal through only half a league of prairie to pass from the end of the Lake of the Illinois (Lake Michigan) to the River of St. Louis” (Illinois River). This canal, projected by Dablon, would be built in the 1840s as “The Illinois and Michigan Canal.” 2 Copyright 2010 Austin Meredith BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON 1668 Mr. de Talon, to encourage colonization, induced the French government to disband within Canada the Carignan regiment, and to ship from France about 300 women of loose character, who were, in less than 15 days, disposed of among the inhabitants, to whom, on marriage, considerable presents were made. Pensions were also granted to all individuals who had ten children lawfully begotten. Père Claude Dablon was on Lake Superior with Claude-Jean Allouez and Jacques Marquette, forming with them what George Bancroft would describe as the “illustrious triumvirate,” and he would be the one to inform the world of the rich copper mines of that region, which would eventually prove so economically valuable. It would be Dablon who would appoint Marquette to undertake the expedition which would result in the discovery of the Upper Mississippi River; he would also give Marquette’s letters and charts to the world. In connection with this discovery he would call attention to the feasibility of passing from Lake Erie to Florida “by cutting a canal through only half a league of prairie to pass from the end of the Lake of the Illinois (Lake Michigan) to the River of St. Louis (Illinois River).” This canal projected by Dablon would be dug during the 1840s as the “Illinois and Michigan Canal.” (The above drawing is from the manuscript “Relation particulière de ce qui s’est passé dans le voyage des Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus en la Nouvelle-France dans l’année 1668.”) “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON 1670 Père Claude Dablon, S.J. visited the Straits of Mackinac and wintered on Mackinac Island, beginning the Mission of St. Ignace and thus founding, more or less, what we know as Sault Ste. Marie. He would leave there because he was designated as the Superior General of all the Canadian Missions (he would hold that position until 1680). 1686 Père Claude Dablon was reappointed as Superior General of all the Canadian Missions. He would hold that position until 1693. 4 Copyright 2010 Austin Meredith BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON 1697 Adam Winthrop maintained, in Latin at the Harvard College Commencement in this year, that no Jesuit could be a good citizen. (“An Jesuitae possint esse Boni Subditi? Negat Respondens Adamus Winthrop.”) CATHOLICS May 3: Claude Dablon died at Québec. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON 1858 December 7, Tuesday: Henry David Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, Henry, Chevalier de Tonti’s 2 RELATION DE LA LOUISIANA OU MISSISSIPPI PAR LE CHEVALIER DE TONTI (1734). 2. Henry, Chevalier de Tonti was born in Gaeta, Italy in about 1650, a son of Lorenzo Tonti. He entered the French army as a cadet and served in addition in the French navy. In 1678 he accompanied René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687) to Canada. In 1680, during an exploration of the Mississippi he was left in command of Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois River near Peoria, Illinois. After making an unsuccessful attempt to found a settlement in Arkansas, in 1685 he took part in an expedition of the Western Indians against the Senecas. He twice went down the Mississippi to its mouth while in search of La Salle, and then needed to go down the river a third time to meet M. D’Iberville. During September 1704 he died at Fort Saint Loûis (now Mobile, Alabama). There is a report by him in Margry’s RELATIONS ET MEMOIRES, and an English translation of this report, “An Account of Monsieur de la Salle’s Last Discoveries in North America. Presented to the French King, and Published by the Chevalier Tonti, Governour of Fort St. Louis, in the Province of the Illinois ...,” would be printed in London by J. Tonson, S. Buckley, and R. Knaplock in 1698 and reprinted in New-York in 1814. Refer to Benjamin F. French’s HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA (Volume I, 1846). 6 Copyright 2010 Austin Meredith BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON Henry David Thoreau also checked out Jean-Frédéric Bernard’s RECUEIL DE VOYAGES AU NORD, CONTENANT DIVERS MÉMOIRES TRÈS UTILES AU COMMERCE & À LA NAVIGATION, 1715-1738 (A Amsterdam, Chez J.F. Bernard), and would make extracts in his Indian Notebook #11. According to the edition statement contained in the 4th volume, this is the 4th edition of the work and Volume 2 had been printed in 1715, Volumes 1 and 3 in 1716, Volume 6 in 1723, Volume 5 in 1724, Volume 7 in 1725, and Volume 8 in 1727 (of the final two of the 10 volumes, Volumes 9 and 10, this 1732 printing says nothing, of course because they had not yet been put through the press). Unfortunately, Google Books has scanned so far of these ten volumes only Volume 4 — so that is all I am able to provide for you here: JEAN-FRÉDÉRIC BERNARD “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON Henry David Thoreau also checked out Father Louis Hennepin’s VOYAGES CURIEUX ET NOUVEAUX DE MESSIEURS HENNEPIN & DE LA BORDE OU L’ON VOIT UNE DESCRIPTION TRÈS PARTICULIERE, D’UN GRAND PAYS DANS L’AMERIQUE, ENTRE LE NOUVEAU MEXIQUE, & LA MER GLACIALE, AVEC UNE RELATION CURIEUSE DES CARAIBES.... (Amsterdam: Aux Depens de la Compagnie, 1711). While he was in Cambridge, Henry David Thoreau also checked out Père Claude Dablon’s RELATION OF THE VOYAGES OF FATHER JAMES MARQUETTE, 1673-75 (1677). “There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away” — Emily Dickinson After leaving the Harvard Library with his load of books of the history of French Catholic3 exploration to study, such as JESUIT RELATIONS for 1670-1672, from which he would copy into his Indian Notebook # 11, Henry David Thoreau visited the Boston Society of Natural History to do some ornithology. December 7. To Boston. At Natural History Rooms. The egg of Turdus solitarius is light-bluish with pale-brown spots. This is apparently mine which I call hermit 3. It never ceases to amaze me how Thoreau, with his Huguenot family history of persecution by French Catholics, and despite the rampant anti-Catholicism that marred the USer attitudes of those times, was able so benignly to consider the positive accomplishments of French Catholics! Clearly he carried with him no grudge at all in regard to what had been in its day the largest mass religious expulsion and genocide (prior, of course, to the Holocaust). 8 Copyright 2010 Austin Meredith BACK WHAT? ACTIVE TRACK INDEX PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON PÈRE CLAUDE DABLON thrush, though mine is [sic] redder and distincter brown spots. The egg of Turdus brunneus (called hermit thrush) is a clear blue. The rail’s egg (of Concord, which I have seen) is not the Virginia rail’s, which is smaller and nearly pure white, nor the clapper rail’s, which is larger. Is it the sora rail’s (of which there is no egg in this collection)? My egg found in R. W. E.’s garden is not the white-throated sparrow’s egg. Dr. Bryant calls my seringo (i. e. the faint-noted bird) Savannah sparrow. He says Cooper’s hawk is just like the sharp-shinned, only a little larger commonly. He could not tell them apart.