Passenger Testimonies

Pierre Talon

I was eleven years old when I sailed for the New World with La Salle. After things became desperate at Fort St. Louis, I went with La Salle and his party to seek help for the rest of the colonizers. La Salle planned to leave me behind with the Cenis Indians to learn their language and enlist their help.

I witnessed La Salle’s murder. It was his nephew who provoked the incident. La Salle sent Moranget to locate a small hunting party formed by La Salle. When Moranget found the hunters, he took their meat and rationed it back out to them, arguing that they needed to share with the other members of the expedition. The men rebelled and during the night they murdered Mornaget and others and then ambushed La Salle the next day. They took La Salle’s guns and clothes and left him in the open to be eaten by the animals.

Spanish explorers arrived to the area and treated us kingly, helping me to find my lost siblings. They eventually took us south to Mexico City, where I lived and work as a servant in the viceroy’s home. I had many adventures after this, traveling back to Europe and returning again to the New World.