FROM LA SALLE TO DE TONTI
Continued

La Salle’s inability to handle men now surfaced. The men he had were not of the best class, many being picked up in the streets of La Rochelle. Mutinies and desertions happened almost every day as the disease and hunger spread. As his troubles escalated, La Salle took twenty men in April, 1686, to go northeast to find the Mississippi. He was forced back after a trip of several hundred miles due to desertions of four men, illnesses of him self and some of his men, and a shortage of ammunition.

But back at Matagorda Bay, La Salle’s troubles did not get any better. More men died or deserted. Finally, in January, 1687, he set out again with twenty men and headed eastward to find the Mississippi. He stopped on the Brazos River in March to obtain some provisions by hunting the abundant game. One of his men had been killed by Indians, and a kinsman wanted to avenge the killing. La Salle wanted to keep peace with the Indians as he already had troubles enough. Because of La Salle’s refusal to avenge the killing, the kinsman and one of his friends shot and killed La Salle on March 19, 1687.

What remained of La Salle’s expedition decided to all head back to Illinois and De Tonti at Fort Saint Louis. Burying La Salle, six men led by Abbe Jean and Joutel set off on foot. They reached the Arkansas River on July 24, 1687. Across the river they saw, much to their surprise and joy, a large cross and a house built by Frenchmen. They crossed the river, met with the two men there, and realized they were among Frenchmen and with the friendly Quapaw, and deliverance was at hand.

Where had the Poste de Akansea come from? Let us backtrack to 1683 with Henri de Tonti at Fort Saint Louis in Illinois.

When La Salle left to go back to France, he left no instructions beyond the fact he would soon be returning, up the Mississippi and the Illinois. De Tonti waited. For two years, no word was received. In February, 1686, out of anxiety and lack of instructions or information about La Salle from France, he set off with twenty-five French men and nine Indians to learn the fate of his friend. Arriving at the mouth of the Mississippi in late March, he found no trace of a settlement. Sadly, he abandoned the search for his friends and he returned to the Quapaw settlement.

In 1682, La Salle using the authority given to him by King Louis XIV had granted De Tonti a seigneury on the Arkansas. De Tonti, in April of 1686, decided to kill two birds with one stone: establish a post here among the Quapaw to watch out for La Salle and to begin commerce - the fur trade with the Quapaw. In a letter left with one of the Quapaw chiefs, and picked up by Joutel in 1687, we have direct word of the founding of Poste de Akansea, or Arkansas Post.

In the letter, dated April 20, 1686, De Tonti said that ten men wished to stay at Osotouy and trade with the Indians. He agreed and Coutoure Charpenter and five other Frenchmen and four Indians would erect a cross, build a house and set up the fur trading post.

Something about this letter does not sound right. De Tonti says the men asked to build the fort at Arkansas Post. No one in his right mind would ask to be left in the wilderness with a few men and a group of Indians, no matter how friendly, unless the boss had something on him, or he had something going with one of the local Indian maidens, and he was not anxious to return to civilization. Such must have been the case with the ten men that established Arkansas Post in 1686. When La Salle’s survivors showed up over a year later, only Coutoure Charpenter and De Launey were left here. No one is sure, but it appears four went back to Illinois and four were absorbed into the Quapaw community. Thus, we feel that De Tonti’s letter saying the men asked to be left behind must be taken with a large grain of salt.

Be that as it may, April, 1686, is the date of the founding of Arkansas Post.