After many adventures, wherein nearly all his companions came to a bloody end, Sâgean, and the few others who survived, had the ill luck to be captured by English pirates, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He spent many years among them in the East and West Indies, but would not reveal the secret of his Eldorado to these heretical foreigners.
Such was the story, which so far imposed on the credulity of the minister Ponchartrain as to persuade him that the matter was worth serious examination. Accordingly, Sâgean was sent to Louisiana, then in its earliest infancy as a French colony. Here he met various persons who had known him in Canada, who denied that he had ever been on the Mississippi, and contradicted his account of his parentage. Nevertheless, he held fast to his story, and declared that the gold mines of the Acanibas could be reached without difficulty by the river Missouri. But Sauvolle and Bienville, chiefs of the colony, were obstinate in their unbelief; and Sâgean and his King Hagaren lapsed alike into oblivion.
INDEX.
prominent among the Jesuit explorers, 109;
his journey up the Saguenay to Hudson's Bay, 109.
Jean Nicollet among, 3;
at Ste. Marie du Saut, 39;
the Iroquois spread desolation among, 219.
See also Arkansas Indians, the.
explores a part of Lake Superior, 6;
name of Lake Michigan, 42, 155;
sent to Green Bay to found a mission, 43;
joined by Dablon, 43;
among the Mascoutins and the Miamis, 44;
among the Foxes, 45;
at Saut Ste. Marie, 51;
addresses the Indians at Saut Ste. Marie, 53;
population of the Illinois Valley, 169;
intrigues against La Salle, 175, 238;
at Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, 458;
his fear of La Salle, 459.
debt due La Salle from, 432.
reduced to helpless insignificance by the Iroquois, 219.
mission of the Manitoulin Island assigned to, 41;
makes a missionary tour among the Nipissings, 41;
his experiences among them, 42;
at Saut Ste. Marie, 51.
granted to Joliet, 76.
Joliet and Marquette among, 72, 184;
La Salle among, 299;
various names of, 300;
tallest and best-formed Indians in America, 300, 308;
villages of, 466.
See also Du Gay, Picard.
devotion to the Jesuits, 361.
divides with La Salle the command of the new enterprise, 353;
lack of harmony between La Salle and, 354-361;
letters to Seignelay, 354-356;
letters to Cabart de Villermont, 357, 360;
sails from Rochelle, 366;
disputes with La Salle, 366;
the voyage, 368;
complaints of, 370;
La Salle waiting for, 374;
meeting with La Salle, 375;
in Texas, 381;
makes friendly advances to La Salle, 385;
departure of, 387;
conduct of, 389;
coldly received by Seignelay, 389, 454.
on the character of La Salle, 342.
her marriage to Louis Joliet, 76.
reaches the Mississippi, 5.
See also Dautray.
burned alive, 179.
among the Onondagas and the Mohawks, 115, 135;
the "Racines Agnières" of, 136.
Frontenac's treaty with the Indians confers an inestimable blessing on all, 95;
no longer merely a mission, 104, 483.