The h2g2 Literary Corner:What Did the Friar Recollect?
Created | Updated Oct 23, 2016
More weirdness from the historical annals.
Why the Upper Mississippi should really be called 'River of the Holy Ghost'
This is all strange, but true, and comes to us courtesy of historian Austin Carroll (1835-1909), whose 1908 book A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas will probably make interesting reading for Florida Sailor and others interested in the wanderings of the Spanish and French in that region. This odd snippet describes a rather boastful Belgian priest and the toponymy he left behind.
All About Father Hennepin
Another associate of La Salle was the celebrated Recollect Friar1, Hennepin, to whom he gave special instructions for the exploration of the Upper Mississippi. This intrepid missioner was the first to discover coal in America; the primitive mine is near Ottawa, Ills. He explored the river with much success; and he named a beautiful waterfall he met, "The Falls of St. Anthony" after the beloved Portuguese Franciscan, St. Anthony of Padua. Strange things have been told of him, about his claiming the honor of discoveries due to others, for it is certain he never navigated the Mississippi below the Ohio. If he ever made such a claim, it was a blunder, and might even be called by a harsher name2. For Hennepin's brilliant activity did enough to secure a respectable share of glory for himself. Many a mariner enjoys high honors who did no more. He has been called the picturesque Hennepin, and the Recollect, who never recollects anything correctly3. But this is too severe4.
. . .
In 1675, he went to Canada with Bishops Laval and La Salle. He visited the Five Nations5 and the Dutch at Albany6. With La Salle and Tonty, he went to Niagara 1676, said the first mass there, and published the first description of the Falls7. They seemed to him hundreds of feet high. Near them is a rock that still bears his name. He erected near the Falls a bark house and a chapel. La Salle sent Hennepin to explore the Upper Mississippi. The river was called the River of Holy Ghost and the Immaculate Conception.8 Inured to hardship and to forest life, he "undertook an enterprise," capable he says of "terrifying anyone but me9." On a tree near St. Anthony's Falls he engraved a cross and the arms of France10. He was imprisoned by the Sioux11 for several months, and taken to the head waters of the river, where he saw the Source, Lake Itaska. Du L'Hut, who gave his name to the city of Duluth12, and a party of Coureurs de[s] Bois13 rescued him.
Parkman says : "Hennepin had seen much and dared much; among his failings fear had no part14."
On Hennepin's return to Europe, he wrote a book of travels which gained him much renown. Fourteen years later, when La Salle was dead, he wrote another which is said to be a plagiarism on Father Membre15. This he dedicated to Willian III., having renounced his allegiance to France. He was not allowed to return to Canada16, and is said to have died in obscurity in Europe.
