[m'lennan] death of DULHUT 43 



the friend of LaSalle, were their cousins, and so apiparently was De- 

 lietto. The Tonti were sons of Lorenzo Tonti, the Neapolitan banker, 

 who, when a refugee in France founded the system of what we now 

 know as Tontine Insurance. Delietto was an officer in the French army. 



At that time there was no indication that Dulhut would become a 

 wanderer. He had ample means, and, tired of lodgings, built for 

 himself a handsome house with grounds running down to the river. 

 T?he house stood on the northern side of the street across the foot of 

 the present Jacques-Cartier Square, the gardens were behind and the 

 lot between the street and the river was afterwards purchased to secure 

 the view. Here he settled with his brother La Tourette and their fat 

 and choleric friend Jacques Bizard, formerly captain of Frontenac's 

 guard, now town-major. It certainly was a handsome establishment 

 for a young man, probably the best in Montreal at that day and yet ere 

 a year had gone Dulhut sold the place to his uncle, Jacques Patron, and 

 started for the West, "le pays d'en-haut,'^ This was; on the 1st Sep- 

 tember, 1678, and he had with him, his brother La Tourette, six French- 

 men and three slaves, probably Panis, presented to him by friendly In- 

 dians, to serve as guides. 



That he had great personal courage perhaps counted but for little 

 in a day when most men had to be brave. But Dulhut's courage was 

 not that of mere personal braving of danger, though no doubt he faced 

 that often enough; it was the greater courage for duty's sake. When 

 in command at one of his forts on Lake Superior in 168-i, he actually 

 pursued, captured, tried and convicted the Indian murderers of two 

 Frenohmen, and despite all the threats, lies and cajoleries of a powerful 

 and hostile tribe of Indians, at the imminent risk of his life and at the 

 risk of the life of every Frenchman in the Northwest, but simply be- 

 cause he believed it his duty, replied to all the entreaties of the chiefs 

 that had the culprits been prisoners of war he would gladly have released 

 them but as murderers they must die. " It was a hard stroke for them,'* 

 he says, "' none of them believed I would undertake it.'^ 



There was not another post within possible reach, but he held that 

 the safety of every white man west of Fort Frontenac lay in his hand 

 and though he had not more than forty-two followers in all, probably 

 not more than half of whom were white, he marched his little force out 

 of his fort to within two hundred paces of the Indian encampment, and 

 there in the face of over four hundred sore and truculent savages he 

 carried out the sentence to which their own chiefs had agreed. 



Thereafter there was no question of Dulhut's word in the North- 

 west. The Indians both feared and trusted him, his friends loved him, 

 he was generous in thought and act and no one speaks of him dispa- 



