others had their heads cloven by swords, others were thrust through the body with pikes, and many of the rest grievously wounded, so that they began to run out faster than they came in. Such was their hurry and confusion in endeavoring to escape, that they rather tumbled or threw themselves overboard with their weapons in their hands, than went offsome falling into the sea, and others getting into the boats and making all the haste they could towards the city; and this is to be noticed, that although a great number of them came thither, only a small company of them returned. Of the English only one was killed and six hurt. After all, it was dismal to behold how the Spaniards lay swimming in the sea, and were not able to save their lives."

Thus was the Primrose cleared of her treacherous visitors; and if we consider that they were as four to one, well armed, and had actual possession, it must be allowed that it was an exceedingly gallant achievement-one that can hardly be surpassed by any thing in the annals of the military marine. It is not, however, the only instance of the kind that the merchant service has to boast. The gallantry of the English and American commercial marine would fill volumes of exciting and brilliant adventure.

Of the miserable Spaniards driven overboard from the Primrose, four were saved by the English, among whom was the corregidor, who was governor of one hundred cities and towns, and who had about him the king's secret order under which he had made the attempt to seize the ship. He offered large sums to be put on shore, but Foster would not consent, and he was taken a prisoner to England, where the Primrose safely arrived in June.

In 1588, a voyage was made to Benin, beyond Guinea, an account of which was written by the master, James Welsh. It is the last of the early African voyages of the English that we can notice, as the voyages to the East Indies, the first of which was performed the year after, will demand our attention in the next chapter.

The expedition was got up by Bird and Newton, two London merchants, and consisted of the Richard, of one hundred tons, and a pinnace. Starting on the twelfth of October, they were weather-bound for several weeks and did not get fairly to sea until December. On the second of January they came in sight of the African coast near 'the Rio del Oro; the eighteenth they were off Cape Mesurado, and on the fourteenth of February they anchored in the river Benin, now known to be one of the mouths of the Niger. Here they anchored in the road, as there was not enough water to carry the vessel over the bar, and sent the pinnace and boat, into which they had transferred the principal part of their merchandise, up the river to a place called Gotto. From thence they sent up negroes to the city of Benin, to apprise the king of their coming, and their desire to trade. He directed them to come up to court, and sent two hundred negroes to carry their goods, as the pinnace could get no further by water.

Arrived at court, they were at first prevented from seeing the king on account of a religious feast, but they received every assurance of friendship. On the first of March they were admitted to the king's presence, who made a courteous answer to their demand as to traffic. Next day there were sent twelve baskets of pepper, and a little every day until the ninth of March, when they had collected sixty-four cerons of pepper, and twenty-eight elephant's teeth, with which the pinnace went off to the ship.

By this time the climate began to show its usual effects, and the master and all of the crew of the pinnace were sick. On the thirteenth the pin nace again returned from an expedition up the river, bringing some elephant's teeth and a hundred and fifty more cerons or sacks of pepper.

The sickness had now made such progress that they were compelled to give up the trade and start for home with such pepper and teeth as they had obtained. "At coming away, the veadore or governor of the city of Benin, told them that if they could stay any longer, he would use all possible expedition to bring in more commodities. But the sickness so increased and continued, that by the time the rest got on board, so many of the ship's company were sick and dead that none of them expected to get home alive, but to leave their ship and bones behind. It was with the greatest difficulty that they could get up their anchors, but having done it at last, they left the pinnace and set sail homeward."

On leaving the coast the men began to recover, but in passing the Cape de Verds they were taken worse, and had they not luckily met with a bark belonging to the same owners, from which they had six men, they would not have been able to work their way home.

The history of this voyage is the history of a thousand that have been made since to that most dangerous gulf, the Bight of Benin. Many of them have however been much more disastrous, and there have been instances where whole crews have been swept off within a few days, leaving not a single officer or man to take charge of the ship. The disastrous results of the recent British expedition up the Niger prove the virulence of the climate at the present day.

In 1590 the same master made a second voyage to Benin, taking out a cargo of broadcloths, kersies, baize, linen, iron, bracelets of copper, coral, hawk-bells, horse-tails, hats, &c., and bringing home five hundred and eighty-nine sacks of pepper, one hundred and fifty elephant's teeth, and thirty-two barrels of palm oil.

In this voyage they suffered less from the climate than in the first, which was partly attributed by the captain to a way he had of preserving his water fresh; so that the water that came from the river Benin on the first of April, 1591, was perfectly sweet in June, 1592. The secret however is not explained.

ART. VI.-CONSTRUCTION AND FIRST VOYAGE OF THE GRIFFIN;

A VESSEL BUILT BY LA SALLE AND HIS COMPANIONS IN 1679, NEAR THE FALLS OF NIAGARA, AND WHICH SAILED FROM THENCE TO GREEN BAY, AND WAS LOST ON HER RETURN VOYAGE. TAKEN FROM THE NARRATIVE OF FATHER HENNESSIN.

To the Editor of the Merchants' Magazine:

In an old French work in my possession, printed in 1698, entitled, “An account of the discovery of a very great country situated in America," by Father Hennessin, I find an account of the building of the first vessel that navigated the waters of the western lakes.

I am aware that Father Hennessin has been charged by Charlevoix, and subsequent writers, on his authority, with being a "great liar;" but I believe the volume of travels first published by him, and in which the above is contained, is now generally admitted to be authentic.

In a subsequent volume, published after the death of La Salle, and from whose fame as first discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi, he wished to detract, Hennessin gives an account of his descent to the mouth of the Mississippi, and which, being evidently fictitious, has cast suspicion upon his former publication.

Since the vast increase of the commerce of the western lakes, there is a peculiar interest connected with the construction and voyage of the adventurous bark of La Salle; and as the work from which I have translated the account is very rare, I have made, and herewith send an abstract of the same, which will be found more full and satisfactory than the one contained in the first volume of the collections of the New York Historical Society; and its publication at this time, in connection with your articles on "Early Commercial Voyages and Discoveries in America," may not be uninteresting to your numerous readers. "MARQUETTE."

LE GRIFFON.

Previous to the year 1679, the intrepid Jesuits, in their ardent desire to Christianize the ignorant savages, performed their long and toilsome voy. ages to those parts west and south of Lake Michigan, in bark canoes, after the manner of the savages, traders, and courieurs du bois, either through the River St. Lawrence, Niagara, and the lakes, or by ascending the Ottawa river to the source of one of its western branches, and thence by portages, through Nepissing lake and the River des Francais, by which they reached Lake Huron. The latter route was generally preferred, the distance being several hundred miles less, although the occurrence of numerous rapids, requiring tedious ad difficult portages, often decided them in favor of the former. The Sieur de la Salle, a native of Rouen, in France, who conceived the design of building the Griffin, was a man of genius and courage. Desirous of prosecuting the discoveries which the bold Marquette had opened, La Salle and his little band left Fort Frontenac (now Kingston) on the 18th of November, 1678, on board a vessel of 40 tons burden, and 16 men, commanded by Sieur de la Motte, which was the first vessel that sailed on Lake Ontario. They arrived in the mouth of the Niagara river on the 6th of December, and chanted the Te Deum as they entered its beautiful stream. After remaining one day at the mouth of the river, they ascended its current in a canoe for six miles, in search of a convenient place for building. The rapids above Lewistown preventing them from advancing further by water, they continued their search nine miles by land, and not finding a soil proper for cultivation, they encamped above the falls at the mouth of a small river now called Chippewa creek. The snow being a foot deep, they were obliged to remove it before encamping. The next day they retraced their steps to their vessel, meeting in their route numbers of deer and wild turkeys. Their commander, the Sieur de la Motte, no longer able to endure the rigor of such a life, returned to Fort Frontenac. The wind continuing contrary the 12th, 13th, and 14th of December, the party left with the vessel were unable to ascend the river to the point where they had determined to erect some buildings. On the 15th La Salle placed Father Hennessin at the rudder, and three of their company towed the vessel as far as the Great Rock, or mountain ridge at Lewistown, where they moored their vessel to the bank. The next day they built a cabin of stakes or palisades.

The neighboring Senecas being extremely jealous of their constructing

a fort, they pretended it was only a magazine in which to store the goods which should be brought for the purpose of trade.

On the 27th of December the Sieur de la Motte, accompanied by Hennessin and seven of their companions, went on an embassy with presents to a village of the Senecas called Tegarondies, (near Geneseo,) about 96 miles distant. After 5 days' march they arrived at the village, and were well received. After holding a council and delivering their presents they returned, but without effecting the object of their mission. Their presents were received, but the suspicions and jealousies of the cunning savage were not allayed. On the 14th of January they arrived at their little cabin on the banks of the Niagara, worn out with the fatigue of the embassy, right glad to exchange their coarse fare of Indian corn for the white fish, just then in the season, and which were pronounced to be the finest fish in the world. On the 20th of January M. de la Salle returned from Fort Frontenac, whither he had gone for provisions, and necessaries for the vessel he intended building above the falls, but his bark, through the carelessness of the pilot, was wrecked on the south side of Lake Ontario, about 30 miles from the mouth of the Niagara; nothing was saved but the anchors and cables. Such a calamity would have dispirited any one but the enterprising La Salle.

In the mean time the construction of a fortification was commenced at the mouth of the river on the site of the present Fort Niagara; but the jealous savages soon discovered the design, and it was temporarily discontinued, and a building surrounded with palisades substituted.

It now became necessary for La Salle, in furtherance of his object, to construct a vessel above the falls of Niagara, sufficiently large to transport the men and goods necessary to carry on a profitable trade with the savages residing on the western lakes. On the 22d of January, 1679, they went 6 miles above the falls to the mouth of a small creek, and there built a dock convenient for the construction of their vessel.*

On the 26th of January the keel and other pieces being ready, La Salle requested Father Hennessin to drive the first bolt, but the modesty of the good father's profession prevented.

During this rigorous winter La Salle determined to return to Fort Frontenac; and leaving the dock in charge of an Italian named Chevalier Touti, he started, accompanied by Father Hennessin as far as Lake Ontario; from thence he traversed the dreary forests to Fort Frontenac on foot, with only two companions and a dog which drew his baggage on a sled, subsisting on nothing but parched corn, and even that failed him two days' journey from the fort. In the mean time the building of the vessel went on under the suspicious eyes of the neighboring savages, although the most part of them had gone to war beyond Lake Erie. One of them, feigning intoxication, attempted the life of the blacksmith, who defended himself successfully with a red-hot bar of iron. The timely warning of

* There can be but little doubt that the place they selected for building their bark, was the mouth of Cayuga Creek, about 6 miles above the falls. Governor Cass says, "the vessel was launched at Erie." Schoolcraft in his journal says, "near Buffalo ;" and the historian Bancroft locates the site at the mouth of Tonawanda Creek. Hennessin says the mouth of the creek was two leagues above the great falls; the mouth of the Tonawanda is more than twice that distance, and the Cayuga is the only stream that answers to the description.

a friendly squaw averted the burning of their vessel on the stocks, which was designed by the savages. The workmen were almost disheartened by frequent alarms, and would have abandoned the work had they not been cheered by the good father, who represented the great advantage their perseverance would afford, and how much their success would redound to the glory of God. These and other inducements accelerated the work, and the vessel was soon ready to be launched, though not entirely finished. Chanting the Te Deum, and firing three guns, they committed her to the river amid cries of joy, and swung their hammocks in security from the wild beasts and still more dreaded Indians.

When the Senecas returned from their expedition they were greatly astonished at the floating fort, "which struck terror among all the savages who lived on the great lakes and rivers within 1,500 miles." Hennessin ascended the river in a bark canoe, with one of his savage companions, as far as Lake Erie. They twice poled the canoe up the rapids, and sounded the lake for the purpose of ascertaining its depth. He reported that with a favorable strong north or northwest wind the vessel could ascend to the lake, and then sail without difficulty over its whole extent. Soon after the vessel was launched and anchored in the current of Niagara about 44 miles from the lake, Hennessin left it for Fort Frontenac, and returning with La Salle and two other fathers, Gabriel and Zenobe Mambre, anchored in the Niagara the 30th of July, 1679. On the 4th of August they reached the dock where the ship was built, which he calls distant 18 miles from Lake Ontario, and proceeded from thence in a bark canoe to their vessel, which they found at anchor three miles from the "beautiful Lake Erie."

The vessel was of 60 tons burden, completely rigged and found with all necessaries, arms, provisions, and merchandise; it had 7 small pieces of cannon on board, two of which were of brass. There was a griffin flying at the jib-boom, and an eagle above. There were also all the ordinary ornaments and other fixtures which usually grace a ship of war.

They endeavored many times to ascend the current of the Niagara into Lake Erie without success, the wind not being strong enough. Whilst they were thus detained, La Salle employed a few of his men in clearing some land on the Canadian shore opposite the vessel, and in sowing some vegetable seeds for the benefit of those who might happen to inhabit that place.

At length the wind being favorable, they lightened the vessel by sending most of the crew on shore, and with the aid of their sails and ten or a dozen men at the tow-lines, ascended the current into Lake Erie. Thus on the 7th of August, 1679, the first vessel set sail on the untried waters of Lake Erie. They steered southwest, after having chanted the never-failing Te Deum, and discharged their artillery in the presence of a vast number of Seneca warriors. It had been reported to our voyagers that Lake Erie was full of breakers and sand-banks, which rendered a safe navigation impossible; they therefore kept the lead going, sounding from time to time. After sailing without difficulty through Lake Erie, they arrived on the 11th of August at the mouth of the Detroit river, sailing up which they arrived in Lake St. Clair, to which they gave the name it bears. After being detained several days by contrary winds at the mouth of the St. Clair river, they at length succeeded in entering Lake Huron on the 23d of August, chanting Te Deum through gratitude for a safe navigation thus far.