DeSoto's Midwestern Trail
by Donald E. SheppardThe island where Pacaha sought refuge in the Wabash River was drawn on the Illinois Township Survey of 1848; five miles west (on Hulman Road) of the man-made pond at the head of Thompson Ditch. Pacaha's Village fronted that pond's northeast side between the ponds arms on the bluff near today's airport; well above the villages on the plain where Terre Haute is today. The northeast side of the village was walled but gated, allowing Pacaha's escape when the Spanards came in from the river on Hulman Road.
"Governor DeSoto and his people, being some days in Pacaha, made some excursions into the interior..."
"...they told him that in some mountains (Hoosier State Forest) forty leagues away (105 miles) there was a great deal of very good salt (at today's French Lick), and to the repeated questions they asked them, they replied that there was also in that country much of the yellow metal (gold) they asked for. The Castilians rejoiced greatly at this news, and two soldiers offered to go with the Indians to confirm it... they were directed to note the nature of the country through which they passed (so the army could go there later) and bring a report as to whether it were fertile and well populated (so the Spaniards could settle that land). To barter for the purchase of salt and the gold, they took pearls and deerskins and some vegetables... They also took Indians to accompany them and two of the merchants (from other tribes who knew the trails) to act as guides. Thus prepared, the Spaniards set out, and at the end of eleven days that they spent on their journey they returned (from French Lick, exactly 105 miles from Terre Haute) with six loads of rock-salt crystals, not made artificially, but found in this state. They also brought back a load of very fine and resplendent brass, and concerning the quality of the lands they had seen, they said that they were not good, for they were sterile and thinly populated (same today). Because they needed it so badly, the Spaniards consoled themselves with the salt for their disappointment and misunderstanding regarding the gold."
"Hence DeSoto sent thirty men of horse and fifty of foot to the province of Calusa (Kankakee, supposedly) to see whether they could bend back toward Chisca (a ficticious place, mentioned above) by that way where the Indians said there was a foundary for gold and copper." That was, at least, DeSoto's publicly stated reason for sending them.
The King's Agent with DeSoto reported, "We were in this town (Terre Haute) 27 or 28 days to see if we could find a road north in order to travel to the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean, the only way Spaniards could get to China's markets to spend their New World fortunes)... some expeditions were made to capture Indians who might inform us (of trails to a sea reported to lie in that direction). One expedition in particular was made to the northwest because they told us that there were Indian villages through which we could go..." He went with DeSoto's scouts (probably the Thirty Lancers with select foot-soldiers) into Illinois along the Indian trail which crossed the Wabash River just northwest of Terre Haute at the Old Fort Harrison Site. DeSoto usually dispatched his Lancers on a filling half moon (July 1st, 1541, in this case) because they needed moonlight for surprise raids on Indian villages for stored food. They could not carry enough for their horses. Indian merchants were sought to guide them to the next village along their way (TO CHICAGO).
"(Since) the chief of Casqui (Vincennes) had stolen away (with the goods from Pacaha's Island Refuge on the Wabash River)... without asking for permission... Governor DeSoto tried to make peace with Pacaha (of Terre Haute), and he came in to retrieve a brother of his whom the Christians had captured... and DeSoto struck an agreement with Pacaha that he should go make war on Casqui (at Vincennes), which was very gratifying to Pacaha. But Casqui had warning of that intent, and he came with fifty of his Indians in very fine array; and he brought a jester in front of himself for grandeur, who, saying and doing witty things, gave occasion for much laughter to those who saw him. The Governor displayed anger and harshness in order to please Pacaha... Pacaha asked the Governor for permission to give a slash to Casqui's face with a knife which the Christians had given him, and the Governor said to Pacaha that he should not do such a thing... the Governor asked Casqui why he had gone without permission. Casqui replied, "You gave me the cross to defend myself from my enemies, and with that same cross you wish to destroy me (given that Pacaha's people now wore crosses high on their heads so the Spaniards could recognize them as allies). My Lord, now that God heard us, by means of the cross (which the Christians had placed on the Indian mound at Vincennes)... all those of my land knelt down to it to ask for rain from the God who you said suffered on it, and he heard us and gave it to us in great abundance and saved our cornfields and seed beds; now that we have more faith in it and in your friendship, you wish to destroy those children and women who love you and your God so much..."
"Casqui gave DeSoto one of his daughters, saying that his greatest desire was to unite his blood with that of so great a lord as he was..." The Governor replied... "Look Casqui, we did not come to destroy you, but rather to make you know and understand the cross and our God... But since you went away without my permission, I thought that you held little regard for the doctrine that we had given you; and for the contempt that you had for it, I wished to destroy you... Now that you come humbly, you may be certain that I wish you more good than you think; and if you are in need of something from me, tell me and you will see it... because you and your people are our brothers, and thus our God tells us."
"The Indians were as amazed at this as the Christians were at what Casqui had said..." ...given that DeSoto seldom changed his mind and had little patience with Indians. It's likely that he wanted to keep the peace in that neighborhood with two very strong allies. If he was to establish a port on America's northern sea to trade Spain's New World fortunes with China, he would need both Casqui and Pacaha to aid in his defense, being so deep inside this continent. He had done so in South America, with local allies, and had claimed a city of gold, but his Illinois scouts were about to return with news that sailing to China, across the northern sea anyway, was not going to happen.
When the foot soldiers of the Illinois scouting party returned they told the army what they knew, "They went for seven days through an uninhabited region and returned after much hardship, eating green plums and corn stalks which they found in a poor town of six or seven houses (probably at Paris, Illinois). From there on, toward the north, the Indians said that the land was very poorly inhabited because it was very cold (in Winter), and that there were so many cattle (buffalo) that no field could be protected because of them (that's why Buffalo Bill would become America's hero three centuries later, he slaughtered the buffalo which otherwise trampled the great plains), and that the Indians sustained themselves on their flesh. The governor, seeing that in that direction the land was so poor in corn that they could not sustain themselves (and that Lake Michigan was NOT the Pacific Ocean), asked the Indians where the most populous district lay. They said that they had heard of a large province of very well provided land called Quiguate toward the south."
The King's Agent, who had traveled eight days north with the Lancers, leaving the uninformed foot soldiers behind the day before sighting "America's Northern Sea" (Lake Michigan), told DeSoto the bad news. Had that Northern Sea been the Pacific Ocean, DeSoto knew he might have had a rebellion on his hands; most of his people wanted nothing more than to go home. They would have fled to that sea for escape if the mouthy foot soldiers had seen it and told them about it. DeSoto then ordered his army to retreat for the first time in his life. The army was never told why, only that food was not to be found in that direction. The foot soldiers were sent immediately back to Vincennes ("...we turned south and returned to where we had placed the cross, and from there we headed southwest to another province which is called Quiguate...") to gather what they could for a long westward journey in search of "The South Sea." DeSoto and his riders would join them within a week just below Vincennes.
"The governor rested in Pacaha for forty days. During that time the two chiefs gave him service of abundance of fish, blankets, and skins, and they tried to see which of them could perform the greater services. At the time of his departure, the chief of Pacaha gave two of his sisters to him saying that if he would remember him he should take them as wives as a testimonial of love. The name of one was Macanoche and the other Mochila. They were very well disposed, tall of body and plump of figure. Machanoche was of good appearance and in her address and face appeared to be a lady; the other was robust." DeSoto would give them to several officers "...commanding that the women should deal from one land to the other with other tribes' commodities and business, and so they agreed to do it..." One of them would see Spain in her lifetime. "The chief of Casqui ordered the bridge (over Busseron Creek) repaired and the governor (with the horsemen) gave a turn (a U-turn) through his land and lodged in the open field near his town, whither the chief came with a quantity of fish and two Indian women whom he exchanged with two Christians for two shirts. He gave a guide and couriers. The governor went to sleep at one of his towns (probably near Dicksburg Hill) and the next day (he joined the foot soldiers) at another near a river (at the junction of the White and Wabash Rivers), where chief Casqui ordered canoes brought for him in which to cross (the Wabash River into Mount Carmel, Illinois)."
"...alongside the river of Casqui (the Wabash River), which is a branch that comes forth from the great river of Pacaha (the Ohio River)... this branch is as large as the Guadalquivir (River of Spain; it still is at that place). There Casqui came and helped them cross the (Wabash) river by canoe on Tuesday the second of August. They spent the night on Wednesday at a burned town..." Mount Carmel, Illinois, directly opposite the White River's mouth on the Wabash River's flat west bank. Chief Casqui had probably raided that town with Spanish weapons during his absence from Terre Haute several weeks earlier, which would account for his surprise "gifts" of clothing and skins to DeSoto before Chief Pacaha. It took two days for the army and its livestock to cross the wide, rain flooded, Wabash River at that point.
"The governor took his way toward Quiguate..." (with the horsemen, well ahead of the army, while they were still crossing the river).