'ill! 
 
 nia 
 
 
 M) II
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT LOS angele:
 
 /^
 
 ^^"0 
 
 ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 / 
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS: 
 OLD FORT CHARTRES; 
 
 AND 
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD - BOOK: 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD G. ^lASON, 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY. 
 I 88i. 
 
 
 ' J ,■>, 
 
 3 i J 3 J 
 
 J ' > '. 33
 
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 A Paper read before the Chicago Historical Society, Dec. i6, 1879. 
 
 In Southern Illinois, near the Mississippi, a hundred miles or 
 
 more above the mouth of the Ohio, is situated the ancient village 
 
 of Kaskaskia, supposed to be the oldest permanent European 
 
 settlement in the valley of the Father of the waters. The eminent 
 
 gg historian who concedes to it this distinction finds it difficult to 
 
 55 fix the date of its origin, and leaves that undetermined.* Its 
 
 ^ foundation has been variously ascribed to members of La Salle's 
 
 expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi on their return in 
 
 ^ 1682, t to Father James Gravier in 1683 or in 1685,; to Tonti in 
 
 ^ i686,§ and to others still, missionaries or explorers, at different 
 
 ■< dates in the latter part of the seventeenth century. But the 
 
 uncertainty upon this point has arisen, in part at least, from the 
 
 confounding of Kaskaskia with an earher Indian settlement of 
 
 the same name on the Illinois River, where was established the 
 
 •^Jesuit mission afterwards removed to the existing village. And 
 
 \ this, perhaps, will be more apparent from a brief sketch of the 
 
 rv .history of that mission. 
 
 ^ When Father Marquette returned from his adventurous voyage 
 . upon the Mississippi in 1673, by the way of the Illinois, he found 
 ^on the latter river a village of the Illinois tribe, containing 
 •^ seventy-four cabins, which was called Kaskaski^. Its inhabitants 
 V,received him well, and obtained from him a promise to return 
 /%nd instruct them. He kept that promise faithfully, undaunted 
 by disease and toilsome journeys and inclement weather, and, 
 'mfter a rude wintering by the Chicago River, reached the Illinois 
 'village again, April 8th, 1675. || The site of this Indian settle- 
 ment has since been identified with the great meadow south of 
 the modern Town of Utica in the State of Illinois, and neariy 
 opposite to the tall cliff soon after known as Fort St. Louis of 
 the Ilhnois, and in later times as Starved Rock.H Marquette 
 
 * Bancroft's History of the United States, I. p. 195. 
 
 t Davidson and Stuve's History of Illinois, p. no. 
 
 X Atlas of State of Illinois, pp. 169, 202. 
 
 § Montague's History of Randolph County, Illinois, p. 12. 
 
 II Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 55. 
 
 H Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, p. 69. 
 
 290746
 
 2 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 established there a mission, to which he gave the name of the 
 Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and, for a little 
 time, was able to teach the chiefs and the people. But continued 
 illness soon obliged him to set forth upon that return voyage 
 which brought him to a lonely grave in the wilderness. 
 
 To him succeeded the zealous priest, Claude AUouez, who 
 seems to have been at the mission the following year, and at all 
 events reached it in April, 1677. He was lodged, as he says, in 
 Marquette's cabin, and erected a cross 25 feet high in the midst 
 of the town, which the old men earnestly commended him to 
 place well so that it could not fall. Departing shortly after, he 
 returned in 1678, but the incursions of the resistless warriors of 
 the Five Nations scattered the Illinois, and checked the mission, 
 and the approach of La Salle, who was unfriendly to him, com- 
 pelled Allouez's retirement the following year. The attempts of 
 the priests who accompanied La Salle to continue the work, were 
 set at naught by the attacks of the Iroquois upon the Illinois, 
 Avho fled before their fierce oppressors. In 1684, however, 
 Allouez returned under more favorable auspices, and was at the 
 mission the greater part of the time until his death in 1690. 
 
 He was followed by the famous Jesuit, Sabastian Rasle, who 
 embarked in a canoe at Quebec, in August, 1691, to go to the 
 Illinois, and completed his journey of more than eight hundred 
 leagues the following spring, ^^'ithin two years, he was recalled 
 to his original charge among the Abnaki Indians, to find a 
 martyr's fate long after at the hands of New England soldiers b\- 
 the waters of the Kennebec. 
 
 Father James (jravier, who had been at the mission during 
 Allouez's absence in 1687, received it from Father Rasle, and 
 built a chapel within the walls of Fort St. Louis which over- 
 looked the village. His journal of the Mission of the Immaculate 
 Conception of Our Lady at the Illinois from March 20th, 1693, 
 to February 15 th, 1694, gives a very interesting account of his 
 labors among the Indians upon the Illinois River.* This, it will 
 be noticed, is ten years or more after the time when some have 
 supposed he founded the present Kaskaskia, three hundred miles 
 or more to the southward, upon the Mississippi. The Illinois 
 nation or confederacy was composed of five bands or tribes, 
 the Kaskaskias, the Peorias, the Cahokias, the Tamaroas, and 
 the Mitchigamias. Gravier's work was -principally among the 
 first of these, but extended also to the Peorias. He longed to 
 include in it the Tamaroas and the Cahokias, who were on the 
 Mississippi, between his mission and the site of the Kaskaskia of 
 
 • Shea's History of Catholic Missions, pp. 410-415.
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 3 
 
 to-day, but was unable to do more than to make them a single 
 brief visit, because he was alone in the land. Of the Mitchi- 
 gamias, who were still lower down the great river, but north of 
 the place he is said to have founded in 1683 or 1685, and whose 
 village he must have passed in order to reach it, Gravier seems 
 hardly to have heard, and it is but reasonable to infer that at the 
 date of his journal he had not traveled as far as their settlement. 
 
 During his stay in this region, Father Gravier studied the 
 language of the Illinois, and reduced it to grammatical rules, and 
 was regarded by his successors as the real founder of the mission, 
 because he ensured its permanency.'' When recalled to Michil- 
 imackinac, about 1699, he left the Fathers Bineteau and Pinet 
 in charge of the different branches of the original establishment, 
 and with them labored (rabriel Marest, who seems to have been 
 particularly associated with the Kaskaskia tribe. It will readily 
 be seen that in the writings of such a number of missionaries, at 
 these various dates, concerning a mission frequently spoken of as 
 at Kaskaskia, or the village of the Kaskaskias, many allusions might 
 occur which would seem to refer to the present place of the name. 
 
 But the evidence that this mission remained upon the Illinois 
 River until the year 1700, and that there was no settlement before 
 that time upon the site of the Kaskaskia we now know, appears 
 to be well-nigh conclusive. A letter written to the Bishop of 
 Quebec by John Francis Buisson de St. Cosme, a missionary 
 priest, describes the journey of his party from Michilimackinac 
 to the mouth of the Arkansas, by the Illinois and Mississippi 
 Rivers, in the year i699.t They stayed at the house of the 
 Jesuit Fathers at Ghicago, and set out from there about Novem- 
 ber first, on what one of their predecessors calls the divine river, 
 named by the Indians Checagou, and mad©' the portage to the 
 River of the Illinois. Passing the Illinois village before referred 
 to, they learned that most of the Indians had gone to Peoria 
 Lake to hunt. Arriving there, they met the Fathers Pinet and 
 Maret, with their flock, of which St. Cosme gives a good account, 
 and he speaks of their work as the Illinois mission. The party 
 journeyed onward, under the guidance of La Salle's trusty 
 lieutenant, Tonti. While on the Illinois River, certain Indians 
 attempted to prevent their going to the Mississippi, and intimated 
 that they would be killed if they did so. Tonti replied that he 
 did not fear men, that they had seen him meet the Iroquois, and 
 knew that he could kill men; and the Indians offered no further 
 opposition. They reached the Mississippi the 6th of 1 )ecember, 
 
 * Marest's Letter, Kip. p. 206. 
 
 + Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi, p. 43.
 
 4 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 1699, and the next day reached the village of the Tamaroas, who 
 had never seen any "black gown," except for a few days when 
 the reverend Father Gravier paid them a visit. A week later, they 
 ascended a rock on the right, going down the river, and erected a 
 beautiful cross, which their escort saluted with a volley of muske- 
 try, and St. Cosme prayed that God might grant that the cross, 
 which had never been known in those regions, might triumph 
 there. From the context of the letter, it is evident that this 
 ceremony took place not far below the site of the present Kas- 
 kaskia, which St. Cosme must have passed to reach this rock, 
 but he makes no mention of such a village. Furthermore, within 
 fifteen miles or so of Kaskaskia, there is a rocky bluff on the Mis- 
 souri side of the river, known now as the Cape of the Five Men, 
 or Cap Cinq Hommes. This doubtless is a corruption of the 
 name of the good Father St. Cosme, as appears from a map made 
 a little more than one hundred years ago, which gives both names, 
 Cinqhommes and St. Cosme, to this very bluff. It probably is 
 the identical one which he ascended, and he could not have 
 spoken of the cross as unknown in those regions, had there been 
 any settlement so near the spot as the Kaskaskia we now know. 
 Tonti, who was the leader of this party, is thought by some to 
 have founded Kaskaskia in 1686. Nobler founder could no town 
 have had than this faithful and fearless soldier, but the facts just 
 narrated make such a theory impossible. 
 
 Again, in the early part of the year 1700, a bold voyager, Le 
 Sueur, whose journal is in print,* pushed up the Mississij)pi from 
 its mouth, where D'Iberville had just planted the banner of 
 France, and passed the site of Kaskaskia, without notice of such 
 a place. He speaks of the village of the Tamaroas, where, by 
 this time, St. Cosme had taken up his abode on his return from 
 the south. About July 15th, going northward, Le Sueur arrived 
 at the mouth of the Illinois, and there met three Canadian voyage- 
 7trs coming to join his party, and received by them a letter from 
 the Jesuit Marest, dated July loth, 1700, at the Mission of the 
 Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin at the Illinois. 
 The letter of St. Cosme, and the journal of Le Sueur, seem to 
 show clearly enough that down to the middle of the year 1700, 
 the present Kaskaskia had not been settled, and that the Mission 
 was still on the Illinois River. 
 
 And lastly, we have the journal of the voyage of Father James 
 Gravier, in 1700, from the country of the Illinois to the mouth of 
 the Mississippi ;t from which we learn that he returned from 
 Michilimackinac, and set out from Chicago on the 8th of Sep- 
 
 * Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi, p. 92. t P. 116.
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 5 
 
 tember, 1700. He says he arrived too late at the Illinois, of 
 whom Father Marest had charge, to prveent the transmigration of 
 the village of the Kaskaskias, which was too precipitately made, 
 on vague news of the establishment on the Mississippi, evidently 
 referring to the landing of D'lberville the year before. He did 
 not believe that the Kaskaskias, whom Marest accompanied, 
 would have separated from the Peorias and other Illinois, had 
 he arrived sooner; and he obtained a promise from the Peorias 
 to await his return from the Mississippi. After having marched 
 four days with the Kaskaskias, Gravier went forward with Marest, 
 whom he left sick at the Tamaroas village, and departed from 
 there October 9th, 1700, to go to the lower part of the Missis- 
 sippi, accompanied only by some Frenchmen. The Indians with 
 Marest, we may presume, halted upon the peninsula between the 
 Kaskaskia and the Mississippi Rivers, where we soon after find 
 them; and thus doubtless was accomplished the transfer of the 
 mission to its final location. The eagerness of the Illinois tribes 
 to be in closer communication with the French was probably 
 intensified by their desire to escape any further assaults from 
 their dreaded enemies, and to rear their wigwams where they 
 would never hear the war-cry of the Iroquois. Both motives 
 would operate more powerfully with the Kaskaskias than with 
 any others, because they had been longer under the influence of 
 the French, and because, in their old location, they were the 
 first to receive the onslaughts of the relentless foemen of the 
 Illinois. Hence they set out to go to the lower Mississippi, but 
 Gravier's influence, and perhaps Marest's illness as well, led them 
 to pause at the first suitable resting-place, and that became their 
 permanent abode. And when we consider that a few years later, 
 this same Father Marest, who accompanied these Indians on 
 their migration, was stationed at the present Kaskaskia, in charge 
 of the Mission of the Immaculate Conception, as appears from 
 his letters ;'^ that he died and was buried there, as is shown by the 
 parish records ;t and that we hear nothing further of a mission of 
 this name on the Illinois River; we may reasonably conclude that 
 the Kaskaskia of our time should date its origin from the fall of 
 of the year 1700, and should honor James Gravier and Gabriel 
 Marest as its founders. 
 
 From Marest's letters we know that some Frenchmen inter- 
 married with the Indians of this village, and dwelt there, and we 
 may naturally infer that their presence attracted others of their 
 race, trappers, fur traders, and voyagairs to the new location. 
 And so, almost at the dawn of the history of the territory included 
 
 * Marest's Letter, Kip. p. 197. 
 
 t Kaskaskia Parish Records, p. 9. Buiial Register.
 
 6 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 within tlie limits of the State of IlHnois, the present Kaskaskia 
 was inhabited by a mixed population of whites and Indians, 
 under the sway of the priest of the Order of Jesus. At first a 
 mission simply, then a trading station, and soon a military post; 
 within twenty years from its foundation, it had enough of the 
 features of a permanent settlement to justify the worthy priests 
 in organizing there a parish, which succeeded to their beloved 
 mission, and was known by the same name. 
 
 A large portion of the church records of this parish, beginning 
 perhaps with its establishment, and some extracts from those of 
 the earlier mission, have fortunately been preserved to this day; 
 and they throw many a curious and interesting side-light upon 
 the events of the times in which they were written. Of their 
 authenticity there can be no question. Some of them are still in 
 the custody of the priest of the parish, and others are in the 
 possession of a prelate* of the church that has labored so long 
 and so zealously in the region of which these records illustrate the 
 history. By his thoughtful care, the earlier books, which suffered 
 damage at Kaskaskia in the flood of 1844, were removed to a 
 place of greater security. And recently the volumes containing 
 the entries made between the years 1695 '^^^'^ ^^35 have been 
 arranged and re-bound, and with proper care may remain a monu- 
 ment of the early history of what is now the State of Illinois for 
 many years to come. 
 
 In the re-binding, has been preserved intact the old parchment 
 cover of the first of these records, on which may be dimly traced 
 in the faded ink the words '■'■Rcgi strum pro anno i6g6,'' but the 
 remainder of the inscription is too indistinct to be deciphered. 
 Probably it is the same in which Father Marest carried the scanty 
 records of the mission at its removal. The originals of these 
 mission records have not been preserved, and we have in their 
 stead a copy of a i)ortion only, entitled '"''Exti-ait des Rcgifres de 
 Baptemc de la Mission des Illinois sous Ic litre de F Inimaculee 
 Conseption de la S. F.'' The copy itself, a small (juarto of six 
 pages, is in Latin, and the first entry is of the ba])tism, March 
 20th, 1695, by James Gravier, of Pierre Aco, the newly born son 
 of Michael Ato and Maria Aramipinchicoue. The godfather was 
 D. de Mautchy, in whose place stood D. Montmidy, and the 
 godmother was Maria Joanna, grandmother of the boy. This 
 Michael Aco was one of the Frenclimen who accompanied Father 
 Hennepin on his journey to the Upper Mississippi, when the Falls 
 of St. Anthony were discovered and named, and probably was 
 the leader of the party, although the intrej^id fitlsificr, Hennepin, 
 
 * Right Reverend P. J. Baltes, Pishop of Alton, III.
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 7 
 
 assumes that honor for himself in his account of the expedition. 
 Acq's wife was the daughter of the chief of the Kaskaskias, and 
 Gravier's journal describes their marriage in 1693. She was a 
 convert, and through her influence her parents embraced Christi- 
 anity, and she rendered great service to the missionaries as a 
 teacher of the children. The boy, Pierre Aco, lived to be a 
 citizen of the second Kaskaskia, and the transcript of the old 
 French title records now in the office of the recorder of Randolph 
 County, Illinois, contains a deed from him of a lot in Kaskaskia, 
 executed September 12th, 1725. The two other entries in the 
 mission record in 1695 are of the baptisms of children of French 
 fathers and Indian mothers; the second of Michael, son of Jean 
 Colon La Violette and Catherine Ekipakinoua, whose godfather 
 was Michael Aco. It is curious to notice the difficulty the good 
 fathers seem to have found in writing the names of the Indian 
 women who appeared at these baptisms, as mothers and god- 
 mothers of the infants, as shown by their use of Greek characters 
 for this purpose. We can imagine them standing at the font, 
 listening to the many syllabled titles of parents and sponsors, 
 smoothly uttered in the Illinois tongue, and vainly trying to re- 
 produce them, until in despair they have resource to their classi- 
 cal learning for symbols of something akin to the new sounds. 
 
 In the year 1697, another son of La Violette and Catherine of 
 the lengthy name, was baptized by Father Julian Bineteau, who 
 had been a missionary in Maine in 1693, and the next year was 
 stationed on the St. Lawrence. St. Cosme met him at Chicago, 
 in 1699, when he had recently come in from the Illinois and 
 was ill. He died, not long after, while following his Indians on 
 their summer hunt over the parched prairies, when fatigue and 
 exposure led to a severe sickness, of which he expired in the 
 arms of his devoted colleague, Gabriel Marest. 
 
 In September, 1699, Father Marest baptized Theresa Panicoue; 
 and the same year, in November, another son of La Violette was 
 baptized by De Montigny of the same party with St. Cosme, and 
 Tonti was the godfather. St. Cosme in the letter from which 
 quotation has been made, speaking of their descent of the Illinois 
 and landing at an Indian village, November 28, 1699, says: "We 
 said mass in the cabin of a soldier named La Violette, married to 
 a squaw, whose child Mr. De Montigny baptized.'' The entry in 
 the mission record and the letter therefore confirm each other. 
 
 The first ceremony recorded after the removal of the mission 
 to the present village, is a baptism performed April 17, 1701, by 
 Gabriel Marest; and the first, and indeed the only one at which 
 Gravier officiated, after this removal, occurred April 13, 1703, 
 when he baptized the infant son of Pierre Bizaillon and Maria
 
 8 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 Theresia. No further mention is made of Father Gravier in these 
 records; but we know from other sources that he returned to the 
 Peorias to labor among them, was dangerously wounded in a 
 tumult excited by the medicine men, and descended the river in 
 search of medical treatment, and that his injuries, aggravated by 
 the long voyage, proved fatal to him at Mobile in 1706. 
 
 Under date of April 13, 1703, there appears in the midst of 
 the entries of baptisms the single sentence ''Ad ripam Mdchaga- 
 mia dictam venivius." Whether this commemorates an expedition 
 by some priest to the shore of Lake Michigan, which perhaps he 
 gazed upon from the site of Chicago, or a visit to the little river 
 flowing into the Mississippi, by which dwelt the Mitchagamias, 
 who gave their name to both lake and river, we cannot tell. But 
 it indicates an event which to some one seemed of importance 
 enough to be recorded in the archives of the mission as carefully 
 as were the ceremonies of the church. In 1707, first appears the 
 name of the Father P. J. Mermet, who came from the great 
 village of the Peorias, after the death of Pinet and Bineteau, to 
 join Marest, with whom he was happily associated for many years. 
 The latter, writing of their life at Kaskaskia, says: "Mermet 
 remains at the village for the instruction of the Indians who stay 
 there, the delicacy of his constitution placing it entirely out of 
 his power to sustain the fatigues of the long journeys. Never- 
 theless, in spite of his feeble health, I can say that he is the soul 
 of this mission. For myself, who am so constituted that I can 
 run on the snow with the rapidity with which a paddle is worked 
 in a canoe, and wlio have, thanks to God, the strength necessary 
 to endure all these toils, I roam through the forests with the rest 
 of our Indians, much the greater part of whom pass a portion of 
 the winter in the chase." 
 
 A])ril 26, 1707, Mermet performs the baptismal ceremony for 
 the daughter of Tinioe Gutauticoue, (godmother Maria Oucani- 
 coue), and George Thorel, commonly called the Parisian. It is 
 strange to think that there .should have been at that early day in 
 the western wilderness, one so having so much of the airs and 
 graces of the gay capital of ?>ance, as to be known distinctively 
 as its citizen. The subsequent baptisms at the mission seem 
 all to have been by Mermet and Marest, and the names of the 
 women are usually Indian, including such remarkable ones as 
 Martha Merounouetanioucoue and Domitilla Tehuigouanakiga- 
 boucoue. Occasionally, however, both parents are French. 
 Thus, March 3d, 17 15, was baptized Joannes son of Jean 
 Baptiste Potier and Francoise Le Brise, who officiated as god- 
 mother at a ceremony in November of the same year. These 
 are the earliest appearances of one of the matrons of the hamlet,.
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 9 
 
 who seems from subsequent notices to have afterwards become a 
 perennial godmother. She figures in that capacity on two occa- 
 sions in 17 17, having also presented a child of her own for 
 baptism in that year, and on one of the only two chronicled in 
 1 7 18, and we find her at the font again in 17 19. With an entry 
 made October 2d of the latter year, the baptismal register of the 
 mission proper seems to end; although a very few entries in 
 1732-3 and 1735 are appended, but these seem to belong rather 
 to the parish. 
 
 For the parish, by this time, had been established; and the 
 next in order of these documents is a quarto of twenty-two pages, 
 written in French, as all the rest of these records are, beginning 
 with the '■'■Registre Des Baptcmcs fails dans L'eglisc de la Alissmi et 
 dans la Paroisse de la Conception de Ne dame. Commence le 18 
 yuin, lyig." It is evident from this that the mission chapel was 
 still in use, but that a parish had been duly formed. And we 
 learn from the first entry that another element had been added 
 to the population, and that the soldiers of France were at the 
 httle village. This is of a baptism performed June 18, 17 19, by 
 Le Boullenger of the Society of Jesus, chaplain of the troops, and 
 the godfather is Le Sieur Jacques Bouchart de Verasae, ensign of 
 the troops. We may mention in passing that the infant is the 
 daughter of the marriage of Jean B. Potier and Francoise Le Brise. 
 The priest here named, Joseph Ignatius le Boullenger, is said to 
 have been a man of great missionary tact and wonderful skill in 
 languages. His Illinois catechism, and instructions in the same 
 dialect concerning the mass and the sacraments, were considered 
 to be masterpieces by other missionaries, for whose benefit he 
 prepared a literal French translation. The names of French 
 ofticers, Charles Legardeur de L'Isle and Claflide Charles du 
 Tisne, appear as godfathers in two succeeding entries, and our 
 good friend Francoise Le Brise officiates on both occasions as 
 godmother. We regret to notice that the godmothers as a rule, 
 and she is no exception, declare that they are unable to write, 
 and therefore make their marks. One baptism is of the daughter 
 of a slave woman bearing an Indian name. January 20, 1720, 
 was baptized the son of Charles Danis, a name well known at 
 Kaskaskia as that of one of the first settlers, to whom was made 
 the earliest recorded land-grant in that locality. It was dated 
 May 10, 1722, and executed by Pierre Duque Boisbriant, Knight 
 of the military order of St. Louis, and first king's lieutenant of 
 the province of I>ouisiana, commanding at the Illinois, and Marc 
 Antoine de la loire des Ursins, principal secretary for the Royal 
 India Company. The godfather for Danis' child was this same 
 Pierre Duque Boisbriant, who was the first military commander
 
 lO kASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 in that region, and in one sense may be called the first governor 
 of Illinois. And about this time we meet with the name of Jean 
 Charles (niymonneau of the Company of Jesus, who was the 
 l)rincipal officer of the church at the Illinois, and had special 
 charge of an Indian village si.\ miles inland from the Mississippi. 
 And now another change takes place, and Kaskaskia is no 
 longer in the pastoral care of a missionary or military chaplain, 
 but has its regular parish priest. Father Nicholas Ignatius de 
 Beaubois, who describes himself as ''cure de cette Paroisse,'^ signal- 
 izes his accession by opening a new "■ Registre des Baptemes faits 
 dans reglise Paroissiale de la Conception de Nc Dame des Cascaskias," 
 which he commences July 9, 1720. And this, perhaps, indicates 
 the time of the substitution of a parish church for the earlier 
 mission chapel. The entries preceding this date, made by Boul- 
 lenger and (luymonneau are. as the manuscript plainly shows, 
 copies, and not the original record, and how this happened we 
 speedly learn. For the precise Beaubois inserts in his register 
 the following statement: "All that which preceeds is an extract 
 which I, Nicholas Ig. de Beaubois, S. J., Cure' of the parish of 
 the Conception of our lady of the Cascaskias, certified to be 
 correct and conformed to the original, which I liave suppressed 
 l)ecause it was not in order, and because it was kept on scattered 
 leaves, and the present extract is signed by two witnesses, who 
 have compared the present copy with the original; the 25th of 
 July, 1720: De Beaubois, S. J." We could wish that this choleric 
 I)riest had been a little more patent, or his predecessor a little 
 more careful, for the .scattered leaves of that suppressed original 
 contained jjrobably the only autograph of Commandant Bois- 
 briant ever written in the ])arish register, and would have been a 
 little earlier original record than any we know of now in Illinois. 
 But it was not .so to be, and w^e must content ourselves with the 
 fact that this register which Beaubois began is an undoubted 
 original, containing perhaps the earliest existing manuscript 
 ])enncd in what is now the State of Illinois. And its ojjening 
 entry of July 9th, 1720, has a special interest of its own, for the 
 godfather at that bai)tism was "Le Sieur Pierre D'Artaguiette," 
 captain of a company, and his signature is appended. He was a 
 gallant young officer of good family in France, who some years 
 later distinguished himself greatly in the wars with the Natchez 
 Indians, and won promotion thereby, and the position of Com- 
 mandant at the Illinois. From his station there, in 173G, he 
 marched against the Chicka.saws, under the orders of the royal 
 governor of Louisiana, and bravely met a tragic death in the 
 campaign. Next we have an entry of a child baptized by a 
 .soldier, because it was in danger of death before it could be
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS J'ARISH RECORDS. II 
 
 brought to a priest, but I^eaubois, nevertheless, ]3erfornis the 
 ceremony over again. In the year 1720, le Sieur Girardot, ensign 
 of the troops, appears as godfether, and from this time on regu- 
 larly officiates in that capacity, vieing with Francoise Le Brise 
 in frequency of attendance at the baptismal rite in the character 
 of sponsor. His name was long known in Kaskaskia and its 
 neighborhood, where he spent many years, and it is probably 
 borne to-day by the town of Cape Girardeau in Missouri. In 
 172 1, Le Sieur Nicholas Michel Chassin, Commissary of the 
 Company of the West in the country of the Illinois, signs the 
 register. He was one of the representatives of John Law's famous 
 Mississippi Company, or Company of the West, afterwards merged 
 in the Company of the Indies. In the same year, a child was 
 re-baptized, over whom the ceremony had been once performed, 
 on account of the risk and danger of the voyage up the Missis- 
 sippi, by le Sieur Noyent, Major de la Place, at New Orleans, 
 September 10, 1720, which seems to show that the date of 1723, 
 usually given for the founding of New Orleans, is incorrect. So 
 too a child, born at the Natchez in December, 1720, and baptized 
 there by a voyagei/r, Pierre La Violette, probably a son of the 
 soldier named in the mission records, was again baptized at 
 Kaskaskia in May, 1721. And in the following June, that worthy 
 woman, Francoise Le Brise, comes once more to the front in her 
 favorite role of godmother, and unhesitatingly asserts that she is 
 not able to sign her name, and is permitted to make her mark, 
 which she does with a vigor and emphasis, which indicates that 
 she was a woman of weight and influence in the community. Bv 
 this time she has a competitor in one Catharine Juillet, who 
 almost divides the honors with her, and who about this period 
 officiates at the baptism of the son of a Pawnee slave, in company 
 with le Sieur Philippe de la Renaudiere, dirccteur des mines pour 
 hi Compagiiie d^ Occident^ who signs his name to the i^gister. And 
 the succeeding entry is that of the baptism of the son born of 
 the marriage of this Renaudiere, who was a great man in the new 
 
 olony, and the lady Perrine Pivet. This affair was one of state, 
 ind to the record of it are affixed the signatures, not only of the 
 Darents and the godfather, Le Gardeur de L'IsIe, but of D'Arta- 
 
 uiette, Chassin, St. Jean Tonty — perhaps a relative of the great 
 Fonti — Jean Baptiste Girardot and others. The last entry of a 
 Daptism in this book is on July 28th, 1721, and no baptismal 
 egister between that date and the year 1759 can now be found. 
 But next in order of time comes the Registrc dcs Decedcs dans 
 \t Pafoisse de la Conception de Notre Dame des Cascaskias, Coni- 
 ncnce le 4e de Janvier 1721, which begins with "the death in 
 he parish on that day, at two hours after midnight, of Adrien
 
 12 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 Robillard, aged about forty-one years, an inhabitant of the parish, 
 married the preceding night to Domitilla Sacatchioucoua. He 
 had made confession and received the viaticum and the sacra- 
 ment of extreme unction. His body was buried with the 
 accustomed ceremonies in the cemetery of the parish, upon the 
 high ground near the church, the same day of the month and 
 year aforesaid. In witness whereof I have signed. N. Ig. de 
 Beaubois, S. J- In 1721, appears the death of the wife of 
 Francois Freiul, called the Good- Hearted One, of the King's 
 Brigade of Miners; and also a solemn service for the repose of 
 the soul of the deceased Sieur Louis Tessier, church-warden of 
 the said parish, who died at Natchez the third of the month of 
 June. In 1722, an entry is made, which strikingly illustrates the 
 perils which beset the people of that little village on the great 
 river, which was their only means of communication with the 
 nearest settlements, hundreds of miles away. It reads as follows 
 "The news has come here this day of the death of Alexis Blaye 
 and Laurent Bransart, who were slain upon the Mississippi by 
 the Chickasaws. The day of their death is not known." Then, 
 in a different ink, as if written at another time, is added below 
 "It was the 5th or 6th of March, 1722." And this state of 
 things is sadly emphasized by the entry immediately following, 
 "The same year, on the 22d of June, was celebrated in the parish 
 church of the Kaskaskias a solemn service for the repose of tht 
 soul of the lady Michelle Chauvin, wife of Jacques Nepvea 
 merchant of Montreal, aged about 45 yeans, and of Jean Michelle 
 Nepven, aged twenty years, and Elizabeth Nepven, aged 13 
 years, and Susanne Nepven, 8 years, her children. They were 
 slain by the savages from 5 to 7 leagues from the Wabash. It 
 is believed that Jaques Nepven was taken prisoner, and carried! 
 away with one young boy, aged about nine years, named Prever, 
 and one young slave girl, not baptized.'" This family, doubtless, 
 was removing from Canada to Kaskaskia, as a number did about 
 this time, and had traveled the long and weary way by the St 
 Lawrence and Lakes Ontario and Erie, the Miami River, th^ 
 portage to the Wabash, and the Ohio. From fifteen to twent;, 
 miles above the moudi of the latter river, then called the WabasI 
 by the I-'rench, or within eighty miles or so of their destination 
 when they were counting the hours to their glad arrival there 
 they were waylaid by the merciless savages, the mother, son, am 
 two daughters killed, and the father and two servants take: 
 cajjtives. One daughter appears, from other minutes in thes 
 records, to have escaped this catastrophe, and she became the 
 wife of the young ensign, Jean B. Girardot, whose signature 
 becomes so familar to us as we turn these ancient pages. There
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 13 
 
 follows another solemn service for Jean B. Robillard, who died 
 and was buried at Point Coupe'e, upon the Mississippi, the 14th 
 of July of the year 1722, and then the death of Pierre Barel, a 
 married man having wife a.nd children in Canada. 
 
 The register is kept entirely by Father Beaubois during these 
 years, e.xcept one entry by Boullenger, who states that he made 
 it for Beaubois in his absence, which words are heavily under- 
 lined. As he inserts this in the wrong place, by order of dates, 
 and styles it an omission, it is a wonder that Beaubois permitted 
 it to remain. And we can but be thankful that he did not lose 
 his temper on .his return, and suppress all that had gone before 
 ion this account. 
 
 In 1724, the simple relation of what happened in a single day 
 
 gives us a graphic picture of the sad scenes the infant settlement 
 
 had sometimes to witness. In that year, "the 12th of April, 
 
 were slain at break of day by the Fox Indians four men, to-wit: 
 
 Pierre Du Vaud, a married man about twenty-five years of age, 
 
 Pierre Bascau dit Beau Soleil, also a married man about 28 or 30 
 
 years of age, and two others, of whom one was known by the 
 
 name of the Bohemian, and the other by the name of L'Etreneu- 
 
 bieu, the three last dwelling and employed at Fort de Chartres. 
 
 Their bodies, having been brought to Cascaskia the same day by 
 
 the French, were buried at sunset in the cemetery of this parish." 
 
 From break of day to set of sun ! These four, who perhaps had 
 
 just begun their daily labor in the forest or the fifelds, were set 
 
 apon in the early morning by the wily savages, who had come 
 
 from the far away Fox villages in quest of scalps, and made 
 
 ^ood their retreat with their trophies, before the sad news was 
 
 cnown at the stronghold where the victims dwelt, or at the little 
 
 illage which gave them sepulchre before the evening shades had 
 
 alien. It is interesting to notice also that one of these men was 
 
 called the BoJiennait, probably the first of that race who came to 
 
 Illinois, and the earliest use of the name in the annals of the 
 
 ^Vest. September 15, 1725, is mentioned the death of Martha, 
 
 laughter of M. Girardot, ''officier des troupes," and of Theresa 
 
 Nepven, his wife. In 1726, inserted in this burial register are 
 
 the baptisms of a negress and negro belonging to residents of the 
 
 tallage, and in 1727, that of a slave of the Padoucah tribe of 
 
 Indians. These, with others following, seem to refer to baptisms 
 
 Derformed during fatal illness, and hence included in the list of 
 
 leaths. The attention is attracted by the larger handwriting, and 
 
 ;he crosses and heavy lines in the margin of the last entry in this 
 
 Durial register, which reads: "On the i8th of December, 1727, 
 
 lied Zebedee Le Jeune Donne', of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, 
 
 laving received the sacraments, and was buried in the parish
 
 14 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 church, under the second bench from the middle. The same 
 day were transferred from the old chapel to the said church the 
 bodies of the Reverend Fathers Gabriel Marest and Jean Mermet, 
 religious priests of the Company of Jesus, Missionaries to the 
 Illinois, who died at the said mission." Thus we learn that 
 Marest, one of the founders of Kaskaskia, and Mermet, who 
 likewise was most intimately associated with the early history of 
 the place, both labored there until the end, and found there a 
 grave. The good shepherds, who had followed their wandering 
 flock from the banks of the lUinois to a home by the Mississippi, 
 and had seen the roving mission change to a permanent settle 
 ment, where they had toiled long and zealously, were buried firs 
 in the mission chapel. But when this structure had fallen into 
 decay, and a new edifice had taken its place, loving hands rever- 
 ently brought thither the precious dust, that the faithful pastor 
 might still sleep in the midst of their own people. 
 
 The record of the deaths occurring in the parish, between th 
 termination of this register in 1727 and the commencement of th 
 burial register opened in 1764, has disappeared. After the firs 
 burial register, and in the same book, is a portion of the firsi 
 marriage register of the parish, which begins abruptly in 1724,! 
 with the nuptials of Antoine and Marie, slaves of the Reveren 
 Fathers the Jesuits. Among the witnesses who sign, are Girardot 
 who seems as ready to officiate at a wedding as at a christening, 
 Zebedee Le Jeune, the priest whose death in 1727 is noted i 
 the burial register, and one Francoise, the last name not given,! 
 who makes a' mark we think we recognize, and who does no 
 seem to be at all deterred from oftering her services as a witnes.s 
 by her inability to write her name. 'Ilie same year was the 
 marriage of the widow of a sergeant of the king's miners, whic 
 Girardot witnesses, and that of a Frenchman, a widower, to a; 
 Indian woman, the widow of Charles Danis. This seems to have' 
 been a notable wedding, and D'Artaguiette and Legardeur de 
 LTsle sign among the witnesses, and the inevitable Francoise 
 le Brise makes her mark. Then follows the marriage of a native 
 of Brittany with Anne, a female savage of the Nachitoches tribe, 
 which both Girardot and Francoise le Brise grace with their 
 presence; and the next year, that of a Frenchman with a German 
 woman, which seems to have attracted the attention of the Abo- 
 rigines, as two chiefs, one the head of the Tamaroa tribe, make 
 their marks as witnesses. In 1726, Jacques Hyacinthe, of the 
 Pawnee nation, was married to Therese, a freed savage woman of 
 the Padoucah tribe, and the whole party signed with their marks. 
 
 Turn we now to another entry of which the handwriting, clear i 
 as copper-plate, and the ink almost as dark as if used but yester-
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS I'ARISIF RF.CORDS. 
 
 15 
 
 day, make it well-nigli impossible to realize that more than one 
 hundred and fifty years have passed since the characters were 
 formed, and the event described took place. It tells us that in 
 the year 1727, the twentieth day of the month of October, the 
 nuptial benediction was pronounced over two inhabitants of the 
 parish, Joseph Lorrin and Marie Philippe, and shows that this 
 was a great social event in the early day. Chassin of the Royal 
 India Company, Girardot, Pierre de Franchomme, and others of 
 the gentry of Kaskaskia sign the register as witnesses, and then 
 appear two signatures, distinct and bold as though freshly written, 
 which we have not met with hitherto. These are the names of 
 Vinsenne and St. Ange fils; the Chevalier Vinsenne, commandant 
 of the post by the Wabash, on the site of which the city of Vin- 
 cennes, in Indiana, bearing a name derived from his, has grown 
 up, and the young St. Ange, one of his officers, a relative doubt- 
 less of the sterling soldier, who was to be the last French Com- 
 mandant of the Illinois. They had come from their distant 
 station, the nearest neighbor of Kaskaskia, a hundred leagues, in 
 bark canoes, or had traversed the prairie and threaded the forest 
 for days together, to greet old friends and new, and to dance 
 gaily at the wedding, all unmindful of the sad fate to which they 
 were doomed; for, ere ten years passed by, these two, with the 
 knightly D'Artaguiette and the heroic Jesuit Senat, were to perish 
 at the stake among the savage Chickasaws, who wondered to see 
 the white men die so bravely. 
 
 The last entry in this marriage record is under date of June 
 7th, 1729, and for a space of nearly twelve years, or until January 
 3d, 1 741, there is no register of marriages in this parish extant, 
 and the book containing the intervening entries has probably 
 been destroyed. On the day last mentioned it begins again, 
 with R. Tartarin as Cure, and from that time on it is kept in a 
 folio volume of 220 pages, apparently containing a complete 
 record of the marriages at Kaskaskia, from 1741 to 1835. In 
 November, 1741, is noted the marriage of the widow of Pierre 
 Groson de Ste. Ange, lieutenant of a company detached from the 
 marine, perhaps the young officer who died wi^h D'Artaguiette 
 five years before. September 19th, 1746, Father P. J. Watrin 
 becomes Cure, and about this period the names of natives of 
 Quebec and of Detroit, residing at Kaskaskia, frequently occur 
 in the register. Brother Charles Magendie, of the Company of 
 Jesus, acts as assistant to Father Watrin, and we hear also of 
 Monseigneur Mercier, Vicaire General, who occasionally exercises 
 his authority. Slaves, red and black, and freed men and freed 
 women of both colors, give light and shade to the good father's 
 pages, and are dismissed with brief mention. But when, on Jan.
 
 1 6 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 yth, 1748, the wedding of Monsieur Joseph Buchet, exercising 
 the functions of Principal Secretary of the Marine, Sub-delegate 
 of Monsieur the Commissary Ordonnateur and Judge at the 
 Illinois, once a widower, and Marie Louise Michel, twice a 
 widow, is celebrated, and the Reverend Father Guyenne, Superior 
 of the Missions of the Company of Jesus in Illinois, performs 
 the ceremony, assisted, as we should say, by the priest of the 
 parish, the entry is thrice as long as usual. And the Chevalier 
 de Bertel, Major commanding for the King at Fort Chartres, and 
 Benoist de St. Clair, Captain commanding at Kaskaskia, sign the 
 record, and others of the tirst circles of Kaskaskia, and all are 
 able to write their names. Then follows the wedding of the 
 daughter of Sieur Leonard Billeront, Royal Notary at the Illinois, 
 with the son of Charles Valle'e, another name known long and 
 well at Kaskaskia. 
 
 In this year. Father S. L. Meurin, who describes himself as a 
 missionary priest of the Company of Jesus, exercising the 
 functions of Cure, signs one marriage entry; and the next year 
 Father M. T. Fourre officiates at the wedding of two slaves of 
 Mr. de Montchevaux, Captain commanding at the Cascaskias. 
 And January 13th, 1750, Father Watrin performed the ceremony 
 at the union of Jean Baptiste Benoist de St. Claire, Captain of 
 infantry, who had now become commandant at the Illinois, and 
 Marie Bienvenue, daughter of Antoine Bienvenue, Major of 
 militia, who had not long before removed from New Orleans to 
 Kaskaskia, where his decendants still reside. And the same year 
 De Giradot signs once more as a witness. In 1751, there 
 appears the name of St. Gemme, which later was prominent in 
 the history of the place. When the property of the Jesuits in 
 Kaskaskia was sold by the French commandant for the crown, 
 under the royal decree for the suppression of the order, St. 
 Gemme was the purchaser, and he became the richest subject in 
 the village, furnishing to the King's magazines as much as 86,000 
 weight of flour in a single season, which was only part of one 
 year's harvest. The family came from Beauvais, in France, and 
 its members were often called by the name of that town, but the 
 true pacronymic was St. Gemme, which some descendants of that 
 stock to-day write St. James. In 1755, De Girardot's signature 
 greets us again, and for the last time in these records. Aubert, 
 Jesuit, relieves Watrin in 1759, and the succeeding year joins in 
 wedlock Dussault de la Croix, officier des troupes du Roy, son of 
 Messire Dessault de la Croix, Chevalier of the military order of 
 St. Louis, and the widow of Antoine de Gruye, Lieutenant of the 
 troops, written permission having been given by Monsieur de 
 Macarty, Major Commandant at the Illinois. One of the wit-
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. \y 
 
 nesses is Neyon de Villier, a bold officer in the old French war, 
 who did much damage on the frontiers of the colonies. He wa.s 
 one of the seven brothers, who all held commissions under Kin^ 
 Louis, and was Macarty's successor as Commandant of the 
 Illinois country. April nth, 1763, the bans of marriage were 
 published for the third time between Messire Philippe Francois 
 de Rastel, "■ CheiHilier de Rocheblave, officier dcs troupes de cttte 
 £olotne, natif de Savoiirnon Diocese de Gap en Daiiphine, fils de 
 Messire yeati Joseph de Bastel, Chevalier Marquis de Rochcblave, 
 Seigneur de Savournon le Bersac place du hourg et de vallee de 
 vitrolles," and Michel Marie Dufresne, daughter of Jacques Michel 
 Dufresne, officer of militia of this parish; written permission 
 having been given by Monsieur De Neyon de Villiers, Major 
 Commandant at the country of the Illinois, who signs the reg- 
 ister. This Rocheblave, at the transfer of the country by the 
 French to the English, took service under the banner of St. 
 George, and was the last British Commandant of the Illinois, 
 being captured at Fort Gage, on the bluff above Kaskaskia, July 
 4th, 1778, by the able leader, George Rogers Clark. In 1764, 
 Father Meurin seems to take charge of the parish, which he 
 describes as that of the Immaculate Conception of the holy 
 virgin, Village of Kaskaskias, Country of the Illinois, Province 
 of Louisiana, Diocese of Quebec; and associated with him at 
 times was Brother Luc Collet, Missionary Priest at the Illinois. 
 
 The sturdy priest, Pierre Gibault, assumes the functions of 
 Cure' des Kaskaskias et Vicaire General des lUinois et Tamarois, 
 in 1768, and his bold signature, with its unique flourish, greets 
 us through these records for fifteen years or more. We should 
 know that the man with such a chirography would have been just 
 the one to render the efficient assistance given to George Rogers 
 Clark, and must have belonged to the church militant. He was 
 very slow to recognize the change in the civil government of the 
 country, when it was ceded by France to England, which was quite 
 distasteful to him, and hardly notices it in these records. But in 
 1776, when the Vicar-General of the Illinois country, the former 
 cure, S. L. Meurin, officiated, we find this transfer indicated in the 
 mention of Mr. Hugh Lord, Captain commanding for his Britan- 
 nic Majesty, and his signature and those of some of his officers 
 are subscribed to one entry. In May, 1778, Father Gibault con- 
 descends to speak of Mr. De Rocheblave as Commandant-in-Chief 
 in the country of the Illinois, but does not say under which king; 
 and before he made the next entry, 4th August of same year, the 
 hapless Rocheblave, to Gibault's great satisfaction, was on his 
 way to Virginia, a prisoner of war, and Clark and his "Long 
 Knives," as his men were called, held the fort.
 
 1 8 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 Reluctantly we see the last of the handwriting of this friend of 
 the new republic, which is followed in 1785, by that of De Saint 
 Pierre as Cure, and De la Valiniere as Vicar-General; and in 
 their time, from 1792 onward, English names begin to appear, 
 such as Archibald McNabb, of Aberdeen, and William St. Clair, 
 son of James St. Clair, captain in the Irish Brigade in the service 
 of France, and John Edgar, once an English officer, and after- 
 ward a prominent citizen of Kaskaskia and of Illinois, and 
 Rachel Edgar, his American wife, who persuaded him to for- 
 swear the King of Great Britain and all his works ; and William 
 Morrison, who emigrated from Philadelphia, in 1790, to establish 
 a mercantile business in the old French town. And with these 
 are the new French names, representing the arrivals from Canada 
 during that period, and noticeable among them that of Pierre 
 Menard, afterwards the first Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, the 
 son of a liberty-loving Canadian, who fought by the side of 
 Montgomery, at Quebec. In 1793, Gabriel Richard takes up the 
 record as parish priest. Later he was stationed at Detroit, and 
 took a leading part in the early history of Michigan, representing 
 that Territory in Congress, and was the only Catholic priest who 
 was ever a member of that body. 
 
 The register runs oh without a break well into the present 
 century, and we note as we pass the marriage on May 2 2d, 1806, 
 of Pierre Menard, widower, and Angelique Saucier, grand- 
 daughter of Jean B. Saucier, once a French officer at Fort 
 Chartres, who resigned and settled in the Illinois country. 
 Donatien Ollivier was the officiating priest. In 181 7, at the 
 wedding of a daughter of William Morrison, Ninian Edwards, 
 then Governor of the Territory of Illinois, afterward third Gov- 
 ernor of the State, and Shadrach Bond, first Governor of the 
 State, sign as witnesses. July 11, 1819, at the marriage of a son 
 of Pierre Chouteau to a daughter of Pierre Menard, it is recited 
 that the husband was born at St. Louis in the Missouri Territory, 
 and the wife at Kaskaskia in the State of Illinois, which is the 
 first mention of the State of Illinois in these records. Many 
 members of these two families, both prominent in the early 
 history of the Illinois country, witness this entry. In April, 
 1820, William Morrison, Eliza, his wife, Governor Shadrach 
 Bond, and William H. Brown, in after years a leading citizen of 
 Chicago, appear as witnesses, and the last entry in this book, 
 commenced in 1741, is made in 1820. A smaller volume in the 
 same cover continues the list of marriages to 1835, ^^d in a 
 clerkly hand, Sidney Breese, late Chief-Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of Illinois, affixes his signature to an entry made February 
 nth, 1822. John Reynolds, afterwards Governor of Illinois, is
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS rARISlI RECORDS. 19 
 
 a witness in 1824, and two years later, Felix St. Vrain, the Indian 
 agent, murdered by the savages at the outbreak of the J Mack- 
 Hawk war, signs the record, and with him Nathaniel Pope, 
 delegate to Congress from the Territory of Illinois, and first 
 United States Judge for the District of Illinois— all in the time 
 of Francois Xavier Dahmen, priest of the Congregation. 
 
 In a folio volume, imported, as it would appear, from Bordeaux, 
 the Register of P'aptisms is resumed in 1759, and continued to 
 1 80 1, and is carried on in a smaller volume to 1815. Une of its 
 many curious entries is of the baptism of "the son of an infidel 
 savage woman of the Choctaw tribe, and a savage man of the 
 Peorias;" and numerous baptisms among negro slaves take place. 
 
 In a smaller book, the Burial Register begins again with this 
 statement, "The old register of persons deceased in the Parish 
 of the Immaculate Conception of the Kaskaskias having been 
 filled, I have continued to register in the old book of accounts, of 
 Avhich a large part was blank. The Register of Deaths commenc- 
 ing only at this leaf, the 8th day of September, i 764." Of the old 
 register, thus referred to, which probably filled the gap from Dec. 
 1 8th, 1727, to September 8th, 1764, no trace can be discovered, 
 and it is probably destroyed. One of the first entries in 1764, by 
 Father Meurin, is of the death and burial of a poor voyageur, of 
 whom he says: "I know neither the family, nor the parish, nor 
 where or when he was born." Some years later, Father G.'s 
 vault buries a Httle Illinois savage eight hours after baptism; and 
 in 1779, 3. negro slave belonging to "Mr. Le Colonel Klark." 
 And the same year, he performs the funeral service over Joseph 
 Brayeau, aged seventy-eight years, slain the night before, by the 
 savages on the Kaskaskia River. He also buries two little Illi- 
 nois savages, one named P'rancois and the other Michael, and, 
 shortly after, holds a solemn service for Charles Robbin, native 
 of Canada, aged about thirty-eight years, killed b)- the savages, 
 at the point of the River of the Kaskaskias; "his body was found 
 and buried on an island of the Mississippi." He next chants a 
 solemn service in memory of Joseph Bineau, a young man from 
 Detroit, slain on the banks of the Beautiful Ri^^er by the savages 
 with four other Frenchmen in the same canoe. And the follow- 
 ing year, one is sung for the repose of the soul of Jean De Noyon, 
 slain by the savages on the Beautiful P>.ivcr, and Iniried on L'Isle 
 aux Boeufs "by all those who belonged to the barge who have 
 certified that they were present at his death, and at that of Joseph 
 la Fleur, killed and buried with him." It appears that the Indians 
 did not always confine themselves to white victims, for he records 
 the death of one named Pierre, an Illinois indian, killed by his 
 enemies along the River of the Kaskaskias. In 1792, died Archi-
 
 20 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 bald McNabb, native of the Shire of Perth, in Scotland, and next 
 is mentioned the kiUing of two men, from the village of Kaskas- 
 kia, who fell by the hand of the savages upon the River Cumber- 
 land or Shawanon. In 1827, the death of a slave of Mr. Cain is 
 noted. Probably Elias K. Kane is referred to, one of the first 
 senators from Illinois. And we learn, at this last date, that Kas- 
 kaskia has ceased to be a part of the diocese of Quebec, and now 
 belongs to that of Baltimore. 
 
 We might continue thus to cull from these old records things 
 grave and gay, quaint and interesting, but the limits of this paper 
 compel us to forbear, and we. must leave the greater part of them 
 untouched. It is pleasant to pour over the brown pages, to 
 decipher the cramped handwriting, and to imagine the long 
 succession of worthy priests making their careful entries, little 
 thinking that they would ever be read beyond the bounds of 
 their own parish, or be of value to any but the dwellers therein, 
 but they made them none the less faithfully. And so these 
 parish records, intended simply to show the births, marriages, 
 and deaths among the people of one little village, for the greater 
 part of its existence an outpost of civilization in the heart of 
 the western wilderness, unconsciously and so most accurately 
 reveal much of the early history of the region which is now a 
 great State. 
 
 They tell us of the black-robed missionaries, who made those 
 long and weary journeys to plant the cross among the savages, 
 and toiled to spread their faith with a zeal and devotion unsur- 
 passed; of the bold pioneers, who, for the sake of gain and 
 adventure, traversed the wilds with their lives in their hands and 
 of their merciless foes; of the days of wild speculation, when the 
 streets of Paris were full of eager purchasers of shares in the 
 Avonder-working company which was to found an empire on the 
 banks of the Mississippi, and draw endless riches from the mines 
 to be opened there; of the high-born officers, who sought dis- 
 tinction or promotion by service in this far-away colony, and of 
 their soldiers, trained to war across the sea; and, as we read, 
 plumes and banners wave, and sabres clank, and the red men look 
 curiously at the musketeers, and those whose names are written 
 in the pages of these time-worn books pass before us, and the 
 old scenes come back again. They give us glimpses too of the 
 struggle between two mighty nations for the valley of the Beauti- 
 ful River, and for dominion in the New World, the prelude to 
 the mightier struggle in which the victor in the earlier strife lost 
 its conquests and its ancient possessions as well; and of the part 
 which this early settlement played in those contests. We see 
 the sceptre pass from one nation to another, and when the sound
 
 KASKASKIA AND ITS I'ARISH RliCORDS. 2 1 
 
 of war is hushed we note the coming of peace, with commerce 
 and agriculture in its train. And, as the tide of enterprise 
 reaches the old French village, we see its temporary transforma- 
 tion into an American town, and can realize its astonishment at 
 finding its limits extending, its population doubling, its streets 
 thronged, and itself the seat of government of a vast territory 
 and the first capital of a State. And we can appreciate its relief 
 when the wave recedes and the new names disappear, and rejoice 
 with it that this episode is over, and it is left to its ancient ways 
 and its own familiar people, and to a rest which has since been 
 almost undisturbed. 
 
 And hence, for. one who approaches it to-day, there is little to 
 disturb the impression that it is really the Kaskaskia of the olden 
 time to which he draws near. The way still lies, as of yore, 
 through a forest, in which stands the old residence of Pierre 
 Menard, vacant, and fast going to decay, but with its furniture 
 and books still in place, as if its occupants of long ago had left 
 but yesterday. It is a type of the village itself, once astir with 
 life, now full of stillness. As you cross the Kaskaskia River by 
 the old-fashioned ferry, and are greeted by the ancient ferryman, 
 the illusion is not dispelled. And the wide streets, unmarked by 
 wheel-tracks; the antique French houses, with their high dormer- 
 windows; the old brick buildings, the first erected of that ma- 
 terial in Illinois, each with a history — this one the earliest court- 
 house in the State, and that one the old United States land-office 
 — built of three-inch bricks, brought from Pittsburg in flatboats, 
 in 1792; the priest's house, constructed of materials from the 
 ruins of the nunnery once located there; and the parish church, 
 containing the bell cast at Rochelle, in France, in 1741, for this 
 parish, the first that rang between the Alleghanies and the 
 Mississippi — all give one a mingled impression of antiquity and 
 departed greatness. 
 
 You may dine at the village tavern, in the same great room, 
 fully thirty feet square, in which dinner was served to the Mar- 
 quis de Lafayette, in 1825, when he tarried here on his way down 
 the Mississippi, and note the quaint wood-cafving of the high 
 mantlepiece, and of the mouldings of the doors and wmdows, and 
 see beneath the porch the heavy ^hewn timbers of which the house 
 is built, justifying the tradition that it is a century and a-c|uarter 
 old, and was already venerable when Edward Coles, the second 
 Governor of Illinois, made it his residence. You may see part 
 of the foundation of the William Morrison house, at which a 
 reception was given to Lafayette, and the dilapidated framework 
 of the Edgar mansion, where he was a guest. I he .site ol tlie 
 house of the French commandant, which was afterwards the first 
 
 a
 
 22 KASKASKIA AND ITS PARISH RECORDS. 
 
 State House of Illinois, will be pointed out to you, and the 
 place where stood the nunnery, and such landmarks as the 
 corner-stone of the property of the Jesuits confiscated by the 
 French Crown, and the post of Cahokia Gate, once giving pas- 
 sage through the fence that bounded the Common Fields, which 
 are still divided and held by the old French measurement and 
 title. And you will learn that the little village, now containing 
 less than three hundred souls, is the owner of some eleven 
 thousand acres of the most fertile land in the Valley of the 
 Mississippi, under the grant to it of Kaskaskia Commons, by his 
 Most Christian Majesty Louis the XV., in 1725, and derives 
 therefrom abundant revenue. The older residents will talk to 
 you of the flood of 1784, of which they have heard their fathers 
 tell; and of Lafayette's visit, which they remember as boys, when, 
 perched on the fence, they saw the stately form, in foreign garb, 
 pass into the Edgar mansion, or peered at him through the 
 windows as he sat at dinner in the large room of the tavern; 
 and of the great flood of 1S44, when the water was five feet deep 
 above the floors of their houses, and large steamboats came up 
 the Kaskaskia River and through the streets of the village, and, 
 gathering the terror-stricken inhabitants from trees and roofs, 
 went straight away across the Common Fields to the Mississippi. 
 Of more modern events they have little to say, nor do the later 
 years furnish them topics to take the place of these. 
 
 The little community, content to believe itself the first perma- 
 nent European settlement in the Valley of the Mississippi, sleeps 
 on, dreaming of its early days and of its former importance. It 
 pays little heed to the warnings which the mighty river has 
 already given it, and is seemingly unmindful that the third and 
 last is at hand. The distance from the village centre to the 
 the river bank, once three miles, has been reduced one-half, and 
 the rich farm lands, which once bordered the stream, have gone 
 in its current to the Gulf of Mexico. And now the Mississippi, 
 unsatisfied even with this rapid destruction, in the very wanton- 
 ness of its strength has cut its way above the town towards the 
 Kaskaskia River, despite the efforts of the Government engineers 
 to check it, until but a space of three hundred yards separates 
 the two. The grave of Illinois' first Governor has been dis- 
 turbed, and but recently his remains were removed to a safer 
 resting-place. And when the junction is made, the united rivers 
 at the next flood-time will spare nothing of the ancient village, 
 which meanwhile listens idly to the murmur of the approaching 
 waters, and smiles in the shadow of its impending doom, which, 
 before another spring has passed, may be so complete that there 
 will remain no memento of Kaskaskia save its old Parish Records.
 
 OLD FORT CHART RES. 
 
 A Paper read before the Chicago Historical Society, June 16, 1880. 
 
 The marvellous growth of the Great West obscures all relat- 
 ing to it, save what is of recent date. It has a past and a 
 history, but these are hidden by the throng of modern events. 
 Few realize that the territory of Illinois, which seems but yester- 
 day to have passed from the control of the red man to that of 
 our Republic, was once claimed by Spain, occupied by France, 
 and conquered by England. And fewer still, may know that 
 within its boundaries vet remain the ruins of a fortress, in its 
 time the most formidable in America, which filled a large place 
 in the operations of these great powers in tiie valley of the 
 Mississippi. Above the walls of old Fort Chartres, desolate now. 
 and almost forgotten, have floated, in turn, the flags of two 
 mighty nations, and its story is an epitome of their strife for 
 sovereignty over the New World. 
 
 The union of Canada, by a line of forts, with the region of the 
 ^^^est and South, was a favorite scheme of the French crown at 
 an early day. It originated in the active brain of the great ex- 
 plorer, LaSalle, whose communications to the ministers of Louis 
 XIV. contain the first suggestions of such a policy. These 
 military stations were intended to be centres of colonization for 
 the vast inland territory, and its protection against rival nations. 
 Spain laid claim to nearly the whole of North America, under 
 the name of Florida, by the right of first discover}--, and by virtue 
 of a grant from the Pope, who disposed of a continent— which 
 he did not own — with reckless liberality. Fr.Ynce relied on the 
 possession taken by LaSalle for her title to the Mississippi \'alley.: 
 and a long altercation ensued. The ordinary state of feeling 
 between their officers may be inferred from a correspondence 
 which has come down to us from the early part of the eighteenth 
 century. Bernard de la Harpe established a French post on the 
 Red River, and this aroused the ire of Don Martin de la Come, 
 the nearest Spanish commandant. Writes the Spaniard : " I am 
 compelled to sav that your arrival surprises me very mucli.
 
 24 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 Your governor could not be ignorant that the post you occupy- 
 belongs to my government. I counsel you to give advice of this 
 to him, or you will force me to oblige you to abandon lands that 
 the French have no right to occupy. I have the honor to be, 
 Sir, &c., De la Come.'' To him replies the courteous French- 
 man: "Permit me to inform you that M. de Bienville is perfectly 
 informed of the limits of his government, and is very certain that 
 this post depends not upon the dominions of his catholic majesty. 
 If you will do me the favor to come into this quarter, I will con- 
 vince you I hold a post I know how to defend. I have the honor 
 to be. Sir, &c., De la Harpe." 
 
 Here and elsewhere, the French held their own, and continued 
 to occupy the disputed territory. In the Illinois country, the 
 mission villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia sprang up and throve 
 apace. From the latter place, as early as 17 15, the good father 
 Mermet reported to the Governor of Canada that the encroach- 
 ing English were building forts near the Ohio and the Mississippi. 
 So the shadow of the coming power of her old enemy was cast 
 athwart the path of France in the Western wilderness, while Spain 
 watched her progress there with a jealous eye. And the need of 
 guarding the Illinois settlements became more manifest v.'hen the 
 discovery of valuable mines in that locality was announced. 
 Such rumors often repeated, and the actual smelting of lead on 
 the west bank of the Mississippi, had their effect in the Mother 
 Country. And when the grant of the province of Louisiana to 
 the merchant Crozat, was surrendered, in 17 17, John Law's 
 famous Company of the West, afterward absorbed in that of the 
 Indies, was ready to become his successor, and to dazzle the 
 multitude with the glittering lure of the gold and silver of 
 Illinois. The representatives of this great corporation, in unison 
 with those of the French crown, recognizing the many reasons 
 for a military post in that far-away region, made haste to found 
 it; and thus Fort Chartres arose. It was established as a link 
 in the great chain of strongholds, which was to stretch from the 
 St. Lawrence to the Gulf, realizing the dream of LaSalle; a bul- 
 wark against Spain and a barrier to England; a protector of the 
 infant colony, and of the church which planted it ; a centre for 
 trade, and for the operation of the far-famed mines; and as the 
 chief seat in the New World of the Royal Company of the 
 Indies, which wove a spell so potent that its victims saw, in the 
 near future, crowded cities all along the course of the Mississippi,, 
 and stately argosies afloat upon its waters, one hundred and fifty 
 years ago. 
 
 On the 9th of February, 17 18, there arrived at Mobile, by
 
 OLD FORT CIIARTRES. 25 
 
 ship, from France, Pierre Duque Boisbriant, a Canadian gc-ntle- 
 man, with the commission of Commandant at the Illinois. He- 
 was a cousin of Bienville, then (Governor of Louisiana, and had 
 already served under him in that province. In October, of the 
 same year, accompanied by several officers and a detachment of 
 troops, he departed for the Illinois country, where he was ordered 
 to construct a fort. The little t^otilla, stemming the swift current 
 of the Mississippi, moved slowly on its way, encountering no 
 enemies more troublesome than "the mosquitoes, which,"' says 
 the worthy priest Poisson, who took the same journey .shortly 
 after, "have caused more swearing since the French have been 
 here, than had previously taken place in all the rest of the 
 world." Late in the year, Boisbriant reached Kaskaskia, and 
 selected a site for his post sixteen miles above that vilage, on the 
 left bank of the Mississippi. Merrily rang the axes of the 
 soldiers in the forest by the mighty river, as they hewed out the 
 ponderous timbers for palisade and bastion. And by degrees 
 the walls arose, and the barracks and commandant's house, and 
 the store-house and great hall of the India Company were built, 
 and the cannon, bearing the insignia of Louis XJV., were [)laced 
 in position. In the spring of 1720, all was finished, the banner 
 of France was given to the breeze, and the work was named 
 Fort Chartres. An early governor of the State of Illinois, who 
 wrote its pioneer history, has gravely stated that this Fort was 
 so called, because it had a charter from the crown of France for 
 its erection. But it is feared that the same wag who persuaded 
 an Illinois legislature to name the second capital of the State, 
 Vandalia, by reason of the alleged traces of a tribe of Indians 
 named the Vandals in the neighborhood of the site, also victim- 
 ized a governor. We can hardly accept his derivation, when it 
 seems so much more probable that the name was taken, by way 
 of compliment to the then Regent, from the title of his son, the 
 Due de Chartres, for whom, about this time, streets were named 
 in New Orleans and Kaskaskia, which are still thus designated. 
 
 The first important arrival at the new post \yis that of Philip 
 Francis Renault, formerly a banker in Paris, the director-general 
 of the mines of the India Company, who reached Fort Chartres 
 before its completion, and made his headquarters there. He 
 brought with him 250 miners and soldiers, and also a large 
 number of slaves from St. Domingo. This was the beginning of 
 negro slavery in Illinois. The practice of enslaving Indian 
 captives was already in vogue, but from this time on, the records 
 of the French settlements there, speak of both black slaves, and 
 red slaves. The Fort was finished not at all too soon. I he
 
 26 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 tardy Spaniards had at last decided to strike a blow at their 
 neighbor on the Mississippi, and Boisbriant hardly had everything 
 in readiness, when news reached him of the march of a force 
 from Mexico against his stronghold. But this invasion was 
 repelled by the natives on the route, and all concerned in it 
 slain, except the chaplain of the expedition, who was taken 
 prisoner by the Pawnees. He finally escaped in a dexterous 
 manner. While delighting the Indians with feats of horseman- 
 ship, he gradually withdrew to a distance, and described a final 
 elaborate figure which had no return curve. Two Indian chiefs, 
 who displayed, as trophies, a Catalonian pistol and a pair of 
 Spanish shoes, gave this account to Father Charlevoix, at Green 
 Bay. 
 
 This pleasant old traveler was then making the journey through 
 North America, of which he has left such a charming account. 
 On the 9th of October, 1721, he passed Fort Chartres, which 
 stood a musket-shot from the river, as he tells us, and he further 
 says, "M. Duque' de Boisbriant commands here for the Company 
 to whom the place belongs. The French are now beginning to 
 settle the country between this Fort and Kaskaskia.'' The leader 
 of Charlevoix' escort was a young Canadian officer, Jean St. 
 Ange de Belle Rive, destined in later years to have a closer 
 acquaintance with Fort Chartres than this passing glimpse of its 
 newly-built walls and structures afforded him. He hardly antici- 
 pated then that to him would come the honor of commanding 
 it, and that on him, almost half a century later, would fall the 
 sad duty of finally lowering there his country's flag, which waved 
 so proudly above it on that autumn morning. 
 
 No sooner was the Fort erected, than a village began to grow 
 up at its gates, in which the watchful Jesuits forthwith established 
 the parish of Sainte Anne de Fort Chartres. All that remains of 
 the records of this parish, is in the writer's possession. They 
 begin with an ancient document, tattered and worn, written in 
 Quebec, in the year 17 16. It is a copy of a curious decree of 
 Louis XV., promulgated in the same year, which seems to be 
 something in the nature of a manual of church etiquette. Recit- 
 ing that his majesty has considered all the ordinances on the 
 subject of honors in the churches of New France, and wishes to 
 put an end to all the contests on the subject, it proceeds to 
 regulate the whole matter. Twelve articles provide that the 
 governor-general and the intendant shall each have a prie Dieu 
 in the cathedrals of Quebec and Montreal, the governor-general 
 on the right, the intendant on the left; the commander of the 
 troops shall have a seat behind the governor-general; in church-
 
 OLD FORT CHARTRKS. 2/ 
 
 processions, the governor-general shall march at the head of the 
 council, his guards in front, the intendant to the left and behind 
 the council, and the chief notary, first usher, and captain of the 
 guard, with the governor-general, yet behind him, but not on the 
 same line with the council; and similar minute directions cover 
 all contingencies. In all other churches of New France, the same 
 rules of precedence are to be observed according to the rank of 
 those in attendance. Doubtless, copies of this important decree 
 were kept in readiness, that one might be furnished to each new 
 church at its establishment. And probably the one from 
 which we quote was sent from Quebec to Ste. Anne of Fort 
 Chartres some time in 1721, the year in which the first entries 
 seem to have been made in the parish registers. We may pre- 
 sume that Boisbriant followed its instructions strictly, and took 
 care to be on the right hand in the church, and also that the 
 intendant or civil officer should be on the left. That position 
 was filled by Marc Antoine de la Loire des Ursins, princiijal 
 director for the Company of the Indies. These two, together 
 with Michel Chassin, commissary for the Company, formed the 
 Provincial Council of the Illinois, and speedily made Fort 
 Chartres the centre of the civil government of the colony. To 
 this council applications for land were made, and its members 
 executed the grants upon which many titles rest to this day. 
 Boisbriant, doubtless believing that he that provideth not for his 
 own household is worse than an infidel, had a large tract con- 
 veyed to himself, beginning at the little hill behind the Fort. He 
 and his associates dispensed justice, regulated titles, and ad- 
 ministered estates, and, in fact, established the court, which, 
 for more than forty years, decided the causes which arose in the 
 Illinois country, according to the civil law. Their largest land 
 grant was made in 1723, to M. Renault, and comprised a tract 
 west of the Mississippi, another, fifteen leagues square, near the 
 site of Peoria, and another above Fort Chartres, one league along 
 the river and two leagues deep, the latter to raise provisions for 
 his settlements among the mines. Of this last tl'act, a large part 
 was never sold by Renault, and to this day the unconveyed 
 portion is marked upon the maps of Monroe County, 111., as the 
 property of the Philip Renault heirs. 
 
 About this time word came to the F^ort that the faithful allies 
 of the French, the Illinois Indians, who dwelt about Peoria Fake, 
 and the Rock of St. Louis, now called Starved Rock, were hard 
 pressed by their ancient enemies, the Foxes. Boisbriant sent a 
 force to their relief which arrived at the close of a contest, m 
 which the Foxes were defeated, but so greatly had the Illinois
 
 28 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 sufifered that they returned with the French to the shelter of the 
 Fort, leaving the route to the settlements from the north unpro- 
 tected. In the year 1725, Bienville, the Governor of Louisiana, 
 was summoned to France, and Commandant Boisbriant became 
 acting Governor in his stead, with headquarters at New Orleans. 
 His old position was filled by M. De Siette, a captain in the 
 royal army. In the parish register in his administration, appears 
 the baptism of a female savage of the Padoucah nation, by the 
 chaplain at the Fort, who records with great satisfaction that he 
 performed the ceremony, and gave her the name of Therese, but 
 does not say whether she consented, or what she thought about 
 it. She apparently paid a casual visit to the Fort, and he bap- 
 tized her at a venture, and made haste to write down another 
 convert. The Fox Indians were a thorn in the side of De Siette. 
 The way by the Illinois River was now open to them, and their 
 war parties swooped upon the settlers, murdering them in their 
 fields, even within a few miles of the Fort. In great wrath, De 
 Siette opened a correspondence on the subject with De Lignerie, 
 the French commandant at Green Bay, and proposed that the 
 Fox tribe should be exterminated at once. The calmer De 
 Lignerie, replies in substance that this would be the best possible 
 expedient, provided the Foxes do not exterminate them in the 
 attempt. And he suggests a postponement of hostilities until 
 De Siette and himself could meet ''''at Chickagau or the Rock," and 
 better concert their plans. But soon the French authorities 
 adoped the views of the commandant at the Illinois, and the 
 Marquis de Beauharnois, grandfather of the first husband of the 
 Empress Josephine, then commanding in Canada, notified him to 
 join the Canadian forces at Green Bay, in 1728, to make war 
 upon the Foxes. A battle ensued, in which the Illinois Indians, 
 headed by the French, were victorious. But hostilities continued 
 until De Siette's successor, by a masterly piece of strategy, way- 
 laid and destroyed so many of the persistent foemen, that peace 
 reigned for a time. 
 
 This officer, M. de St. Ange de Belle Rive, Avho, as we have 
 seen, first visited the Illinois country with Father Charlevoix, had 
 since been stationed there, and made it his home, for the ancient 
 title records of this region show that in 1729 he purchased a 
 house in the prairie bounding on one side the road leading to 
 Fort Chartres. And in an old package of stained and moulder- 
 ing papers, but lately disinterred from the dust of at least one 
 century, is the original petition addressed by St. Ange to the 
 ])roper authorities for the confirmation of his title to certain land, 
 not far from the Fort, acquired "from a savage named Chicago,
 
 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 2y 
 
 who is contented and satisfied with the payment made to liini." 
 During his term of office, in 1732, the Koyiil Iniha Company 
 surrendered its charter to the crown, which thenceforward had the 
 exchisive government of the country. A few years before, the 
 French warfare with the Natchez Indians, that strange tribe of 
 sun-worshippers, probably of the Aztec race, had resulted in the 
 dispersion of the natives, some of whom joined the Chickasaws, 
 who, under English influence, kept up the strife. A young 
 officer, Pierre D'Artaguiette, distinguished himself so greatly in 
 the Natchez war, that he was appointed to the Illinois district, 
 in 1734, taking the place of St. Ange, who was transferred to 
 another post. The new commander was a younger brother of 
 Diron D'Artaguiette, a man very prominent in the early history of 
 Louisiana, and his family connections, his services and virtues, 
 his brilliant career and untimely death, have surrounded his 
 name with a halo of romance. With pride and pleasure, he 
 received his promotion to the rank of major, and his orders 
 to take command at Fort Chartres. For two years he ruled 
 his province well, and then the summons to the field came 
 to him again. Bienville had resumed the (iovernorshij) and 
 resolved to crush the Chickasaws. In preparation for the 
 campaign he strengthened all the posts, that they might better 
 spare a part of their garrisons for active work. De Coulanges, 
 an officer sent to Fort Chartres with a supply of ammunition, 
 disobeyed orders, transporting merchandise instead, leaving the 
 powder at the Arkansas. A party of D'Artaguiette's men going 
 after it, was routed by the Chickasaws. "For this," Bienville 
 says, "I have ordered D'Artaguiette to imprison De Coulanges 
 for six months in Fort Chartres. I hope this _ examjile will 
 moderate the avidity for gain of some of our officers. " \\'hen 
 everything was in readiness, D'Artaguiette set forth from Fort 
 Chartres with all his force, on a morning in February, makmg a 
 brave show as the fleet of bateaux and canoes floated down the 
 Mississippi. This first invasion of Southern soil by soldiers from 
 Illinois, comprised nearly all of the garrison of^the Fort, a com- 
 pany of volunteers from the French villages, almost the whole of 
 the Kaskaskia tribe, and a throng of Indian warriors who had 
 flocked to the standard even from the far away Detroit. Chicago 
 led the Illinois and the Miamis, and at the mouth of the ( )hio. 
 the Chevalier Vinsenne joined the expedition, with the garrison 
 from the post on the Wabash, and a number of Indians, including 
 a party of Iroquois braves. Landing, and marching inland, they 
 reached the Chickasaw villages at the appointed time, but the 
 troops from New Orleans, who were to meet them there, failed to
 
 30 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 appear. Compelled to fight or retreat, D'Artaguiette chose the 
 former, and was at first successful, but the tide turned, when he 
 fell, covered with wounds. De Coulanges, released from durance 
 that he might redeem his fame, and many other officers, were 
 slain, most of the Indians fled, and D'Artaguiette, Vinsenne, the 
 Jesuit Senat, and young St. Ange, son of the Illinois command- 
 ant, were taken prisoners by the unconquered Chickasaws, who 
 burned them at the stake, and triumphantly marched to the 
 Georgia coast to tell their English allies there of the French 
 defeat. The broken remnants of the little army, under the 
 leadership of a boy of sixteen, pursued by the savages for five 
 and twenty leagues, regained the river, and slowly and sadly 
 returned to the Fort. On the sorrow caused there by the 
 mournful news, the masses that were said in the little church for 
 the repose of the souls of the slain, and the deep grief felt 
 throughout the country of the Illinois, in cabin and wigwam alike, 
 we will not dwell. The impression made by the life and death 
 of D'Artaguiette was so abiding, that his name remained a 
 household word among the French for years; and well into the 
 present century, the fivorite song among the negroes along the 
 Mississippi was one, of which the oft -repeated chorus ran, 
 
 "In the days of D'Artaguiette, Ho! Ho! 
 In the days of D'Artaguiette, O ho!" 
 
 Three years later, La Buissoniere, who succeeded him, led an 
 expedition from Fort Chartres, composed of Frenchmen and 
 natives, to take part in another campaign against the dauntless 
 Chickasaws. Soldiers from Quebec and Montreal, with recruits 
 from all the tribes along their route, overtook him on the way, 
 and the Northern forces joined the troops under Bienville, 
 newly reinforced from Paris, near the site of the city of Memphis. 
 The dominions of the King of France, in the Old World and the 
 New, were laid under contribution to concentrate this army at the 
 rendezvous, but not a blow was struck. White and red men 
 lay in camp for months, apparently unwilling to risk an encounter, 
 and at length a dubious peace was arranged, and all marched 
 home again, without loss or glory. Hardly had the Fort-Chartres 
 detachment returned, when a boat, going from New Orleans to 
 the Illinois, was attacked by the Chickasaws, above the mouth of 
 the Ohio, and all on board were killed, save one young girl. She 
 had recently arrived from France, and was on her way to join 
 her sister, the wife of an officer at the Fort. Escaping by a 
 miracle to the shore, she wandered through the woods for days, 
 living on herbs, until sore spent and ready to die, she chanced to
 
 DIJ) FORT CHARTRKS. 
 
 31 
 
 reach an elevation from which she caught a glimpse of iIk- Hag 
 floating over Fort Chartres, and, with new iiojjc and strcngtli, 
 struggled onward, and came safely to the friends who had 
 mourned for her as dead. 
 
 Among the few original documents relating to this period 
 which are still preserved, is a deed executed at Fort Chartres hy 
 Alphonse de la Buissonie're, commandant at the Illinois, and 
 Madame Theresa Trudeau, 'his wife. During his govern<jrshi|) 
 were the halcyon days of the French settlers at the Illinois. 'I'lie 
 Indians were kept in check, the fertile soil yielded bounteous 
 harvests, two convoys laden with grain and provisions, went each 
 year to New Orleans, and Lower Louisiana became almost entirely 
 dependent upon them for supplies. Other villages had grown up 
 near the Fort. Prairie du Rocher, five miles away, was situated 
 upon a grant made by the India Company to Boisbriant, and by 
 him transferred to his nephew, l>anglois, who conveyed it by 
 parcels to the settlers, reserving to hinfself certain seigneurial 
 rights according to the customs of Paris. And Renault, on a 
 portion of his grant above the Fort, established the village of 
 St. Philip, which became a thriving place. These were laid out 
 after the French manner, with Commons and Common Fields, 
 still marked upon the local maps, and in some cases held and 
 used to this day under the provisions of these early grants. In 
 each of the villages was a chapel, under the jurisdiction of the 
 parent church of Ste. Anne of Fort Chartres. To the colony 
 came scions of noble families of France, seeking fame and adven- 
 ture in that distant land, and their names and titles appear at 
 length in the old records and parish registers. Among them was 
 Benoist St. Claire, captain of a com])any detached from the 
 marine service, who followed La Buissonie're in the chief com- 
 mand, and held it for a year or more. He found little to do in 
 those piping times of peace, made an occasional grant of land, 
 and sought other service early in 1742. 
 
 The Chevalier de Bertel, who describes himself as Major Com- 
 manding for the King, took charge in his spead. The parish 
 register of Ste. Anne, in his time, is extant, and the title-jjage of 
 the volume, then newly opened, bears the following inscrij)lion: 
 "Numbered and initialed by us, Principal Secretary of the Mannc 
 and Civil Judge at the Illinoi.s, the present book, contanniig 
 seventy-four leaves, to serve as a Register of the Parish ol St. 
 Anne, of Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths. Done at I-ort 
 Chartres the first of August, 1743- 
 
 "Chevalier de Bertel, De la Loire, 
 
 Major Commandant. Flancour.
 
 32 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 The pages which remain, by their careful numbering and joint 
 initials, show how important it was deemed to preserve and 
 identify this register. It was soon to contain the record of the 
 sudden death of Flancour himself, the Civil Judge at the Illinois. 
 One of his last acts was to grant to the village of Prairie du 
 Rocher, a tract of land for Commons, from which it now derives 
 a revenue. And with Bertel he executed a deed to a young man 
 at St. Philip, for the reason that he was the first one born in 
 Illinois to marry and settle himself And to another, who asked 
 the gift of a farm, because he had seven children, they granted a 
 tract of land for each child. Renault made his last conveyance 
 of a lot at St. Philip by deed, executed in his rooms at Fort 
 Chartres, September 2d, 1740, and, three years later, returned to 
 Paris, after a residence in the Illinois country of nearly a quarter 
 of a century. In the same season. Governor Bienville went to 
 France, finally resigning his trust to the Marquis de Vandreuil. 
 And here a word may' be spoken of the first royal governor of 
 the province, of which Illinois was a part, and in whose admin- 
 istration Fort Chartres w^as constructed. Le Moyne de Bienville, 
 a Canadian l)orn, was one of an illustrious family. His father 
 was killed in battle in the service of his country, seven of his 
 brothers died naval officers, and of the three others, then surviv- 
 ing, one was Governor of Montreal, one captain of a ship of the 
 line, and one a naval ensign. He distinguished himself at the 
 capture of Port Nelson from the English, and in a brilliant naval 
 engagement in Hudson's Bay; was one of the founders of 
 Louisiana; and chose the site of the city of New Orleans. He 
 served as Lieutenant-Governor and Governor of the Province for 
 nearly forty years, and won the reputation of being the bravest 
 and best man in the colony. His portrait, which adorns the 
 mansion, at Longueil, in Canada, of Baron Grant, the repre- 
 sentative of the family, shows a martial figure, and a noble face, 
 in keeping with his record; and his intimate connection with its 
 early history would make it fitting to preserve a copy of this 
 original in the State of Illinois. 
 
 The Chevalier de Bertel had a diftrcult part to play. France 
 and England were at war, because Frederick the Great and Marie 
 Theresa could not agree, and this disturbed the settlements at 
 the Illinois. Some Englishmen, found on the Mississippi, were 
 arrested as spies, and confined in the dungeon as Fort Chartres, 
 and whispers of an English attack were in the air. The Fort was 
 out of repair, and poorly supplied, and a number of its soldiers, 
 tiring of the confinement of the garrison, deserted, to try the free 
 life of the woods and prairies. The old-time Indian allies were
 
 OLD FORT CHAKTKKS. j.3 
 
 won over by the Eritish, and agreed to destroy the French post 
 during the moon of the fall of the leaf, but they were thwarted 
 by the skill and address of De Bertel. Many anxious thoughts he 
 had as he paced the enclosure of Fort Chartres, and many an 
 earnest episde he addressed to his superior officers, assuring them 
 that it was only by great good fortune that lie could hold his 
 post, which must be reenforced and strengthened. The aban- 
 donment of the Fort was at one time contemijlated. This plan, 
 however, was given up when the Marquis de Galissoniere, Gov.'- 
 General of Canada, presented a memorial on the subject to the 
 home government. He says, "The little colony of Illinois ought 
 not to be left to perish. The King must sacrifice for its support. 
 The principal advantage of the country is its extreme productive- 
 ness, and its connection with Canada and Louisiana must be 
 maintained.'' The peace of Aix la Chapelle came in time to 
 gi\-e both parties a breathing space, in which to pre|)are for the 
 sterner contest, soon to follow. Chevalier de Bertel, knowing 
 that his wise counsels had borne fruit, transferred the command 
 again to Benoist St. Clair, who signalized his return by wedding 
 the daughter of a citizen of Kaskaskia, in January, 1750. The 
 same year, De Gahssoniere once more urged upon the King the 
 importance of preserving and strengthening the post at the 
 Illinois, describing the country as open and ready for the plough, 
 and traversed by an innumerable multitude of buffaloes. "And 
 these animals," he says, "are covered with a species of wool, 
 sufficiently fine to be employed in various manufactories!" And 
 he further suggests, and, doubtless, correctly, that "the buffalo, if 
 caught, and attached to the plow, would move it at a speed 
 superior to that of the domestic ox!" 
 
 In the succeeding autumn, the Chevalier de Makarty,"'^ a major 
 of engineers, with a few companies of troops, arrived from 
 France, under orders to rebuild the citadel of the Illinois 
 country. Other detachments followed, until nearly a full regiment 
 of French grenadiers answered to the roll-call at Fort Chartres. 
 They toiled busily to transform it from a fortress: of wood to one 
 of stone, under the skilful guidance of the trained officer, whose 
 Irish blood, as well as his French commission, made hostile pre- 
 parations against Britain, a labor of love to him. Vou may see, 
 to this day, the place in the bluffs to the eastward of the Fort, 
 where they quarried the huge blocks, which they carried in boats 
 
 * This is the same officer whose name is spelled Macarty in the Parish Kcc- 
 ords of Kaskaskia. The discovery of the records of the church of .^t. .\nne ol 
 Fort Chartres, containing his name, written by himself, shows the proper 
 spelling to be Makarty. 
 3
 
 3-4 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 across the little lake lying between. The finer stone, with which 
 the gateways and buildings were faced, were brought from beyond 
 the Mississippi. A million of crowns seemed to the King of 
 France but a reasonable expense for this work of reconstruction, 
 which was to secure his empire in the West. And hardly was it 
 completed when the contest began, and the garrison of Fort 
 Chartres had a hand in the opening struggle. In May, 1754, 
 the young George Washington, with his Virginia riflemen, sur- 
 prised the party of Jumonville at the Great Meadows, and slew 
 the French leader. His brother, Neyon de Villiers, one of the 
 captains at Fort Chartres, obtained leave from Makarty to 
 avenge him, and with his company, went by the Mississippi and 
 the Ohio, to Fort du Quesne, where he joined the head of the 
 family, Coulon de Villiers, who was marching on the same errand. 
 Together, with "a force as numerous," said the Indians, "as the 
 pigeons in the woods," they brought to bay "Monsieur de Wac- 
 henston," as the French despatches call him, at Fort Necessity, 
 which he surrendered on the 4th of July. The capture of this 
 place by the French, is one of the causes assigned by George the 
 Second, for the declaration of hostilities by Britain; and thus 
 the Old French War began. The little detachment, with its bold 
 leader, returned, flushed with victory, to celebrate, at Fort 
 Chartres, the triumph of Illinois over Virginia. Soon the 
 demands upon this post for supplies and men grew constant, and 
 the veteran Makarty labored steadily to keep pace with them. 
 The commandant at Fort du Quesne, whose communications 
 with Canada were interrupted by the British, writes him: "We 
 are in sad want of provisions. I send to you for flour and pork." 
 The Governor-General of Canada, in an epistle to the Minister of 
 Marine, observes: "I knew the route from the Illinois was as 
 fine as could be desired. Chevalier de Villiers, who commands 
 the escort of provisions from there, came up with a bateaux of 
 18,000 weight. This makes known a sure communication with 
 the Illinois whence I can derive succor in provisions and men." 
 Nor did our garrison confine itself to commissary work. The 
 tireless De Villiers, hardly resting from his escort duty, crossed 
 the Alleghanies with his men, and captured Fort Granville, on 
 the Juniata. The Marquis de Montcalm, writing to the Minister 
 of War, thus pleasantly alludes to this little attention paid by 
 Illinois to Pennsylvania: "The news from the Beautiful River is 
 excellent. We continue to devastate Pennsylvania. Chevalier 
 de Villiers, brother of Jumonville, who was assassinated by the 
 British, has just burned Fort Granville, sixty miles from Phila- 
 delphia." The next year, Aubry, another of the Fort Chartres
 
 OLD FORT CHARTRI S. 35 
 
 captains, was sent by Makaity, with 400 men, to reenfurcc l-ort 
 du Quesne, then threatened by the British, The morning' aftt-r 
 his arrival, he salHed out and routed Majuv Crant and his liigh- 
 landers, and, a tew days later, surprised the British camp forty- 
 five miles away, captured their horses, and brought his parly 
 back mounted. Soon, however, the approach of a superior force. 
 with Washington and his riflemen in the van, compelled the 
 abandonment of Fort du Quesne. By the light of its burning 
 stockade, the Illinois troops sailed down the Beautiful River, and 
 sadly returned to their homes. 
 
 The British star was now in the ascendant, yet still the 
 French struggled gallantly. Once more the drum 'beat to-arms 
 on the parade-ground at Fort Chartres, at the command to 
 march to raise the siege of Fort Niagara. All the Illinois 
 villages sent volunteers, and Aubry led the expedition by a 
 devious route, joining the detachments from Detroit and Michi- 
 limackinac, on Lake Erie. As they entered the Niagara 
 River, Indian scouts reported that they were "'like a floating 
 island, so black was the stream with their bateaux and canoes." 
 The desperate charge upon the British lines failed, Aubry, 
 covered with wounds, fell into the hands of the enemy, and the 
 bulletin reads, "Of the French from the Illinois, many were 
 killed and many taken prisoner." Despair and gloom settled 
 upon the Fort and its neighborhood, when the sorrowful news 
 came back. Makarty writes to the Oovernor-General: "The 
 defeat at Niagara has cost me the flower of my men. My garri- 
 son is weaker than ever. The British are building bateaux at 
 Pittsburg. I have made all arrangements, according to my 
 strength, to receive the enemy."' And the Governor-Cieneral 
 replies, 'T strongly recommend you to be on your guard." The 
 surrender, at Montreal, of the Canadas, followed upon the victory 
 on the plains of Abraham, but still the Illinois held out for the 
 King. Neyon de Villiers received his well-earned jiromotion. 
 and assumed command at Fort Chartres. And the tine old 
 soldier, Makarty, doubtless, regretting that h«r had not had the 
 opportunity to test the strength of the goodly stone walls he h.id 
 builded, sheathed his sword, twirled his moustache, made his 
 bow, and departed. 
 
 The village at the Fort gate, which, after the rebuilding, was 
 called New Chartres, had become a well-established comnninit\-. 
 The title records t|uaintly illustrate its ways of transacting busi- 
 ness, as when, for instance, the royal notary at the Illinois 
 declares that he made a certain public sale in the forenoon c»l 
 Sunday, after the great parochial mass of St. Anne "f N'-w
 
 T,6 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 Chartres. at the main door of the church, offering the property in 
 a high and audible voice, while the people were going out in 
 great numbers from said church. And the parish register, which, 
 briefly and drily, notes the marriages of the common people, 
 spares neither space nor words in the record of the weddings in 
 the families of the officers at the Fort. When Jean la Freile' de 
 Vidrinne, othcer of a compau}-, is married to Elizabeth de Mon- 
 charveaux, daughter of Jean Francois Liveron de Moncharveaux, 
 captain of a company, and when the Monsieur Andre Chevalier, 
 royal solicitor and treasurer for the King at the country of the 
 Illinois, weds Madeleine Loisel, names, and titles, and ancestry, 
 are set forth at length, and Makarty. the commandant, Buchet, 
 the principal writer. Du Barry, a lieutenant, all the dignitaries 
 of fort and village, and all the relatives, subscribe the register as 
 witnesses. The ladies sign with a careful deliberation, indicating 
 that penmanship was not one of their recreations: the gentlemen 
 with flourishes so elaborate, that they seem to have been hardly 
 able to bring them to a close. These entries appear in a separate 
 volume, the last in date of the parish books, entitled "Register 
 of the iSIarriages made in the Parish of St. Anne, containing 
 seventeen sheets, or sixty-eight pages, numbered and initialed by 
 Mr. Buchet. principal writer and judge." (Signed) Buchet. And 
 in the Baptismal register of the chapel of St. Joseph, at Prairie 
 du Rocher, appears an entry which has a strangely familiar sound. 
 For it recites that several persons, adults and children, were 
 baptized together, in the "presence of their parents, brothers, 
 uncles, mutual friends, their sisters, their cousins, and their aunts." 
 This, palpably, is the germ of "Pinafore," which Illinois may 
 therefore take the credit of originating, long before our era ! 
 
 New Chartres, and the other villages in the neighborhood, and 
 the Fort, rested secure in the belief that, although Canada had 
 surrendered, Louisiana, with the Illinois country, would still be 
 preserved by the King, who might thence reconquer his lost pos- 
 sessions. Hence, like a thunder-clap, came the news that on the 
 loth of Feb.. 1763, Louis XV. had ratified the treaty transferring 
 them to the British Government. The aged Bienville, then living 
 in Paris, with tears in his eyes, begged that the colony, to which 
 he had given the best years of his life, might be spared to France, 
 but in vain. AVith a stroke of his pen. the weak King ceded to 
 Great Britain the Canadas, the Illinois, and all the valley of the 
 Mississippi east of the river. While at Fort Chartres they were 
 in daily expectation of news of the coming of British troops to 
 take possession, an expedition arrived from New Orleans to settle 
 at the Illinois. It was headed by Pierre Laclede, the repre-
 
 OLD FORT ClIARTKKS. 
 
 sentative of a company of merchants engaged in the fur trade. 
 Learning here of the treaty of cession, he at once decided to 
 estabhsh a new post in the territory, west of the Mississijipi, sup- 
 posed to be still French ground. Neyon de Villiers iicriuiitcd 
 him to store his goods and quarter his company at the I'ort. and 
 Laclede, after an e.xjjloring tour, selected a fine bluft", si.My miles 
 to the northward, for the site of his colony. He foresaw some- 
 thing of its future importance, and, returning to Fort Chartres fur 
 the winter, discoursed with enthusiasm upon its prospects, and 
 took possession in the spring. This was the beginning of the 
 city of St. Louis. Many of the French from the Illinois followed 
 him, even transporting their houses to the other sh re. so great 
 was their desire to live under their own flag. And terrible was 
 their disappointment, when the secret treaty with S])ain was made 
 known, by which their faithless King ceded all his dominions 
 beyond the Mississippi to the nation which had so long disputed 
 with France her foothold there. Their last estate seemed worse 
 than their first, for much as they detested the defiant banner of 
 Britain, with a deeper hatred they regarded the gloomy ensign 
 of Spain. Many more of the unhaijpy colonists descended the 
 Mississippi, with Neyon de Villiers, in the belief that lower 
 Louisiana was to remain under French control, and that their 
 condition would be bettered there, only to be bitterly disap- 
 pointed. Those who remained felt their hopes revive, as time 
 passed on and the red-coats came not. 
 
 The veteran St. Ange, who had returned from Vincennes to 
 play the last sad act of the drama, with a little garrison of 
 forty men, still held the Fort, although it was the only place 
 in North America at which the white tlag of the L.ourlions 
 was flying. All else had been ceded and surrendered, but 
 the way to the west was not yet open, for Pontiac was a lion 
 in the path. The British victory was not complete until that 
 flag was lowered, and repeated efforts to accomplish this were 
 made. Again and again were they thwarted by the Forest 
 Chieftain. ^Lajor Loftus, ascending the Misi^ssippi with a force 
 to take possession of Fort Chartres, was greeted with a volley 
 at the bluffs, still called Loftus Heights, and retreated to 1 en- 
 sacola. Captain Pitman, seeking to find Iv.^. way irom Mobile 
 in the guise of a trader, gave up the attempt as too hazard- - 
 Captain Morris, sent from Detroit to arrange for the surreiuiu 
 of the Fort, was met by Pontiac, who, sciuatting in front ol 
 him, opened the interview bv observing that the British were 
 liars, and asked if he had come to lie to them hke the res . 
 Attentions much less courteous were received from individuals ol 
 
 29074G
 
 38 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 the Kickapoo persuasion, and Morris turned back, while still 
 several hundred miles from his destination. Lieutenant Frazer, 
 pushing down the Ohio, reached Kaskaskia, where he fell into 
 Pontiac's hands, who kept him all one night in dread of being 
 boiled alive, and at da3'break shipped him to New (3rleans by 
 canoe express, with the cheerful information that the kettle was 
 boiling over a large fire to receive any other Englishmen who 
 came that way. Frazer could only console himself, for his other- 
 wise fruitless voyage down both the Ohio and the Mississippi, 
 with the thought that he had been nearer to the objective point 
 than any other officer, and had seen a great deal of the country. 
 George Croghan, Sir ^^'illiam Johnson's interpreter, following 
 Frazer on the same errand, was waylaid by the Shawnees 
 on the Ohio and sent to the Indian villages on the Wabash, 
 whence he took Morris' route to Detroit. The French and 
 Spanish officers in Louisana, laughed at the British failures to 
 reach a fort they claimed to own, and suggested that an import- 
 ant party had been omitted in the treaty of cession, and that a 
 new one should be made with King Pontiac. Meanwhile that 
 sovereign was ordering into service some Illinois Indians, 
 assembled near Fort Chartres, and when they showed a reluctance 
 to engage in hostilities against their new rulers, said to them : 
 "Hesitate not, or I destroy you as fire does the prairie grass. 
 Listen, and recollect these are the words of Pontiac!" Their 
 scruples vanished with amazing rapidity, and they did his bidding. 
 Then with his retinue of dusky warriors, he led the way through 
 the tall gateway of Fort Chartres, and greeting St. Ange, as he 
 sat in the government house, said " Father, I have long wished 
 to see thee, to recall the battles which we fought together against 
 the misguided Indians and the English dogs. I love the French, 
 and I have come here with my warriors to avenge their wrongs." 
 But St. Ange plainly told him that all was over; Onontio, their 
 great French father could do no more for his red children; he 
 was beyond the sea and could not hear their voices; and they 
 must make peace with the English. Pontiac, at last convinced, 
 gave up the contest, and made no opposition to the approach 
 from Fort Pitt, by the Ohio, of a detachment of the 42d High- 
 landers, the famous Black Watch, under Captain Sterling, to 
 whom St. Ange formally surrendered the Fort on the loth of 
 October, 1765. The lilies of France gave place to the red cross 
 of St. George, and the long struggle was ended. At Fort 
 Chartres the great empire of France in the New World ceased 
 forever. 
 
 The minute of the surrender of Fort Chartres to M. Sterling,
 
 OLD FORT CHARTRES. -i^ 
 
 appointed by M. de Gage, Governor of New \ork. Cuiiiiuandcr 
 of His Britannic Majesty's troops in North America, is preserved 
 in the French archives at Paris. The Fort is carefully described 
 in it, with its arched gateway, fifteen feet high; a cut-stone plat- 
 form above the gate, with a stair of nineteen stone steps, having 
 a stone balustrade, leading to it; its walls of stone eighteen feet 
 in height; and its four bastions, each with forty-eight loop holes, 
 eight embrasures, and a sentry-box, the whole in cut stone. And 
 within, the great store-house, ninety feet long by thirty wide, two 
 stories high, and gable-roofed; the guard-house having two rooms 
 above for the chapel and missionary cjuarters ; the government- 
 house 84 X 32, Avith iron gates and a stone porch, a coach-house 
 and pigeon-house adjoining, and a large stone well inside; the 
 intendant's house of stone and iron, with a portico; the two 
 rows of barracks, each 128 feet long: the magazine thirty-five 
 feet wide, thirty-eiglit feet long, and thirteen feet high above the 
 ground, with a doorway of cut stone, and two doors, one of 
 wood and one of iron ; the bake-house with two ovens, and a 
 stone well in front; the prison with four cells of cut stone, and 
 iron doors; and one large relief gate to the north; the whole 
 enclosing an area of more than four acres. The English had 
 insisted that, under the treaty of cession, the guns in all the forts 
 belonged to them. The French Governor, of Louisiana, dis- 
 puted the claim, but consented to leave those at the Illinois, 
 with a promise of their restoration, if his view proved correct. 
 Hence the cannon of Fort Chartres were transferred with it, for 
 the time at least. 
 
 St. Ange and his men took boat for St. Louis, where, feeling 
 that their sovereign had utterly deserted them, they soon decided 
 to exchange the service of his Most Christian .NLijesty of France, 
 for that of his Most Catholic Majesty of Spain. They were 
 speedily enrolled in the garrison of St. Louis, of which St. .\nge 
 was appointed to the command, to the great satisfaction ot his 
 comrades and his old neighbors from the Illinois. One tragedy 
 signalized the accession of the new government at Fort Chartres. 
 Two young officers, one French and the other English, were rival 
 suitors for the hand of a young lady in the neighborhood, and a 
 quarrel arose which led to a duel. They fought with small-swords 
 early on a Sundav morning, near the Fort, the Englishman was 
 slain, and the Frenchman made haste to descend the river to 
 New Orleans. The story of this, no doubt the first duel fought 
 in Illinois, was related, nearly fortv years after its occurrence, by 
 an aged Frenchman, who was an eye-witness of the combat, to 
 the chronicler who has preserved the account. W ith the depar-
 
 40 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 ture of the French soldiers, the last spark of life in the village of 
 New Chartres went out. On the register, then in use in the 
 church of St. Anne, was written, ''The above-mentioned church 
 (parochial of St. Anne of New Chartres) having been abolished, 
 the rest of the paper which was in this book has been taken for 
 the service of the church at Kaskaskia." And the Mississippi, 
 as if bent upon destroying every vestige of the once happy and 
 prosperous village, encroached upon its site until a large portion 
 of it was swept away. Shortly after its abandonment, the parish 
 register of Prairie du Rocher, which place continued to be 
 occupied by the French, records the removal of the bodies of the 
 Reverend Fathers Gagnon and Collet, priests of St. Anne of 
 New Chartres, from the ruined cemetery near that church on the 
 })oint in the river, and their burial in the chapel of St. Joseph, at 
 Prairie du Rocher. 
 
 The Illinois had now become an British colony, "in the days 
 when George the Third was King." The simple French inhabi- 
 tants with difficulty accustomed themselves to the change, and 
 longed for the paternal sway of the commanders of their own 
 race. It is said that soon after the British occupation, the 
 officer, in authority at Fort Chartres, died suddenly, and there 
 being no one competent to succeed him, the wheels of govern- 
 ment stopped. And that St. Ange, hearing, at St. Louis, of the 
 confusion in his old province, repaired to Fort Chartres, restored 
 order, and remained there until another British officer could 
 reach the spot. The story is typical of the man, who deserves a 
 wider fame than he has won. For he was a fine exemplar of the 
 tidelity, the courage, and the true gentleness, which are worthy of 
 the highest honor. He spent a long life in the arduous duties of 
 a frontier officer, commanding escorts through the wilderness, 
 stationed at the different posts in the North-West in turn, and for 
 more than fifty years associated with the Illinois country, which 
 became the home of his family. Born in Canada, and entering 
 the French army as a boy, he grew gray in the service, and when 
 surrendered to the foeman, he had so long opposed, by the 
 unworthy King, who made no provision for the men who had 
 stood so steadfastly for him, he was more faithful to France than 
 -Louis XV. had been. For his removal to St. Louis, and accept- 
 ance of a Spanish commission, were in the interest and for the 
 protection of his misled countrymen, who had settled at that 
 place solely that they might still be French subjects. There he 
 remained, the patriarch of the infant settlement, beloved and 
 honored by all, until his death, at the age of seventy-six, in the 
 year of the commencement of our revolution. And all who
 
 OLD FORT CllAKTKHS. 41 
 
 knew him, friends and foes, countrymen and foreigners, white 
 men and red, ahke bear testimony to the uprightness, the steady 
 fortitude, the unshrinking courage, the kindhness and nol»iHiy of 
 Louis St. Ange de Belle Rive, the last French Commandant of 
 the Illinois. 
 
 In December of the year of the surrender, Major Farmer, with 
 a strong detachment of the 34th British Foot, arrived at the P'ort 
 from Mobile, and took command. The following year he was 
 relieved by Colonel Edward Cole, a native of Rhode Island, an 
 officer in the Old French War, who comanded a regiment under 
 (ieneral Wolfe at the siege of Quebec, and was at the capture of 
 Havana by the Earl of Albemarle. In letters written from the 
 Fort, in 1766 to 1768, to his old comrade and partner in busi- 
 ness. Colonel Henry Van Schaick, he says, "This country is far 
 from answering my expectations in any other jioint than the soil. 
 I have enjoyed but a small share of health since I arrived. 1 
 have been much deceived in the description of this country, and 
 am determined to quit it as soon as I can. No comfort. Indians 
 eternally about me." During his term of ottice, Captain I'hilip 
 Pitman, a British engineer officer, the same who had unsuccess- 
 fully endeavored to reach the Illinois during Pontiac's rule, 
 visited the Fort in pursuance of his orders to e.xamine the 
 British posts in the Mississippi Valley. In his report he says: 
 "The walls of Fort Chartres are two feet two inches thick, and 
 the entrance is through a very handsome gate." He describes 
 the works and buildings very fully, and concludes as follows: "It 
 is generally believed that this is the most convenient and best 
 built Fort in North America." In 1768, Col. Cole was followed 
 by a Col. Reed, who became so notorious for his oj.pression of 
 the people, that he was speedily relieved by John Wilkins, Lieut.- 
 Colonel of the i8th or Royal Irish, the former commander of 
 Fort Niagara, who reached the Illinois, with seven comjianies of 
 his regiment, from Philadelphia, by way of Pitt.sburg, in Sept.. 
 1768. From the correspondence of Ensign Ceorge Butricke, an 
 officer in this expedition, we learn that, on th^ir way down the 
 Ohio, they killed so many buffalo that they commonly served out 
 one a day to each companv, and they were forty-three days on 
 the way, from Pittsburg to Kaskaskia. Speaking of Fort Chartres 
 as "built of stone, with bastions at each angle, and very good 
 barracks of stone," he describes the land around it as the finest in 
 the known world, and gives his opinion to the effect that "it is a 
 shocking unhealthy country." Col. Wilkins, under a proclamation 
 from General Gage, established a court of law, with seven judges, 
 to sit at Fort Chartres, and administer the law of England, the
 
 42 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 first court of common-law jurisdiction, west of the AUeghanies. 
 The old French court of the royal jurisdiction of the Illinois, with 
 its single judge, governed by the civil law, had ceased with the 
 surrender. Its records for many years were preserved at Kaskas- 
 kia, where the late Judge Breese saw and made extracts from 
 them. When the county-seat was removed, less care was taken 
 of them, and within a few years past, these documents, so inter- 
 esting and valuable to the antiquarian and the historian, have 
 been used by veritable Illinois Vandals to light the fires in a 
 country court-house, and but a solitary fragment now remains. 
 In Wilkins' time, that famous warrior, Pontiac, was basely slain at 
 Cahokia, by an Illinois Indian. St. Ange, then commanding at 
 St. Louis, honoring the noble red man, whom he had known long 
 and well, brought the body to his fort, and gave it solemn burial. 
 The friends of Pontiac, avenging his death, pursued one fragment 
 of the Illinois tribe to the walls of Fort Chartres, and slew many 
 there, the British refusing them admission. At Prairie du 
 Rocher, about this period, is recorded the marriage of a French 
 soldier, of the garrison of St. Louis, with the written permission 
 of M. de St. Ange, his commander, to an Englishwoman from 
 Salisbury, in Wiltshire, which the good priest writes, "Solbary, in 
 the province of Wuilser." It is significant of the different races, 
 and the varying sovereignties in that portion of our country, that 
 a French soldier, from the Spanish city of St. Louis, should be 
 married to an Englishwoman by a French priest, in the British 
 colony of Illinois. 
 
 The occupation of Fort Chartres, however, by the soldiers of 
 any nation, was drawing to a close. For seven years only the 
 British ruled there, though, doubtless, believing it to be their 
 permanent headquarters for the whole North- West. But the 
 Mississippi had ever been a French river, and could not bide the 
 presence of the rival nation on its banks. Its waters murmured 
 the names of Marquette and Joliet, of LaSalle and Tonti, and 
 their memories would not suffer it to rest contented with success- 
 ors of another race. So it rose in its might and assailed the 
 Fort, arid on a stormy night in spring-time its resistless flood tore 
 away a bastion, and a part of the river wall. The British in all 
 haste fled across the submerged meadows, taking refuge on the 
 hills above Kaskaskia; and from the year 1772, Fort Chartres 
 was never occupied again. 
 
 The capricious Mississippi, as if satisfied with this recognition 
 of its power, now devoted itself to the reparation of the damage 
 it had wrought. The channel between the Fort and the island in 
 front of it, once forty feet deep, began to fill up, and, ultimately.
 
 OLD FORT CIIARTRtS. 
 
 4.^ 
 
 the main shore and the island were united, leaving the Fort a 
 mile or more inland. A thick growth of trees speedily concealed 
 it from the view bf those passing upon the river, and the high 
 road from Cahokia to Kaskaskia, which at first ran between the 
 Fort and the river, was soon after locatetl at the foot of the hliifts. 
 three miles to the eastward. These changes, which left the Kurt 
 completely isolated and hidden, together with the accounts of 
 the British evacuation, gave rise to the reports of its total dis- 
 truction by theriver. Parkman, alluding to it as it was in 1764, 
 says, "The encroaching Mississippi was destined before many 
 years to engulf curtain and bastion in its ravenous abyss." A 
 work relating to the history of the North-West, published only 
 last year, informs us that "the spot on which Fort Chartres 
 stood became the channel of the river," and even some who have 
 lived for years in its neighborhood will tell you that it is entirely 
 swept away. But this is entirely erroneous; the ruins still remain ; 
 and had man treated it as kindly as the elements, the old Fort 
 would be nearly perfect to-day. 
 
 After the British departed, an occasional band of Indians 
 found shelter for a little time in the lonely buildings, but other- 
 wise, the solitude which claimed for its own the once busy fortres.s, 
 remained unbroken for many a year to come. Congress, in 1788, 
 reserved to our government a tract of land one mile square, on 
 the Mississippi, extending as far above as below Fort Chartres, 
 including the said Fort, the buildings, and improvements adjoin- 
 ing the same. It would have been well to provide for the pre- 
 servation of this monument of the romantic era of our history, 
 but, of course, nothing of the sort was done. The enactment 
 simply prevented any settlement upon the reservation, and left 
 the Fort to become more and more a part of the wilderness, and 
 its structures a prey to the spoiler. Now and then an adventur- 
 ous traveler found his way thither. Quaint old Gov. Reynolds. 
 who saw it in 1802, says, "It is an object of antujuarian 
 curiosity. The trees, undergrowth, and brush are mi.xed and 
 interwoven with the old walls. It presented the most stnkuig 
 contrast between a savage wilderness, filled with wild beasts and 
 reptiles, and the remains of one of the largest and strongest 
 fortifications on the continent. Large trees were growuig in the 
 houses which once contained the elegant and accomplished 
 French officers and soldiers." And then, with a hazv idea of 
 rivalling the prophecy of the lion and the lamb, he adds, ."^'i"" 
 non, snakes, and bats were sleeping together in peace m and 
 around this fort." Major Amos Stoddard, of the U.S. Engineers, 
 who took possession of Upper Louisiana for our government
 
 44 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 under the treaty of cession, in 1S04, visited Fort Chartres and 
 thus describes it, "Its figure is quadrilateral with four bastions, 
 the whole of lime-stone, well cemented. The \\%lls are still entire. 
 A spacious square of barracks and a capacious magazine are in 
 good preservation. The enclosure is covered with trees from 
 seven to twelve inches in diameter. In fine this work exhibits a 
 splendid ruin. The inhabitants have taken away great quantities 
 of material to adorn their own buildings."' Brackenridge, U.S. 
 Judge for the District of Louisiana, in a work published in 181 7, 
 has this passage, "Fort de Chartres is a noble ruin, and is visited! 
 by strangers as a great curiosity. I was one of a party of ladies 
 and gentlemen who ascended in a barge from Ste. Genevieve, 1 
 nine miles below. The outward wall, barracks, and magazine] 
 are still standing. There are a number of cannon lying half 
 buried in the earth with their trunnions broken off. In visiting] 
 the various parts, we started a flock of wild turkeys, which had I 
 concealed themselves in this hiding-place. I remarked a kind of^ 
 enclosure near, which, according to tradition, was fitted up by the] 
 officers as a kind of arbor where they could sit and converse in I 
 the heat of the day." In 1820, Beck, the publisher of a GazeteerJ 
 of Illinois and Missouri, made a careful survey of the remains of 
 the Fort. He speaks of it then as a splendid ruin, "the walls inl 
 some places perfect, the buildings in ruins, except the magazine,] 
 and in the hall of one of the houses an oak growing, eighteenj 
 inches in diameter." Hall, the author of a book entitlec 
 Romance of the West, was at Fort Chartres, in 1829. "Althougl" 
 the spot was familiar to my companion," he says, "it was witi 
 some difficulty that we found the ruins, which are covered] 
 with a vigorous growth of forest trees and a dense undergrowth 
 of bushes and vines. Even the crumbling pile itself is thus 
 overgrown, the tall trees rearing their stems from piles of stone,] 
 and the vines creeping over the tottering walls. The build- 
 ings were all razed to the ground, but the lines of the] 
 foundations could be easily traced. A large vaulted powder-J 
 magazine remained in good preservation. The exterior wall was 
 thrown down in some places, but in others retained something 
 like its original height and form. And it was curious to see in^ 
 the gloom of a wild forest these remnants of the architecture of 
 a past age." The Fort Chartres Reservation was opened to 
 entry in 1849, "o provision being made concerning what remained 
 of the Fort. The land was taken up by settlers, the area of the 
 works cleared of trees, and a cabin built within it, and the pro- 
 cess of demolition hastened by the increasing number of those 
 who resorted there for building material. Governor Reynolds
 
 PLAN OF FORT CllAKTRKS 
 ON THE MISHISSiri'I. 
 Drawn fn,m a survey made by N. Hansen, Ks.,., „f llli„„is, an.l 1. . 
 
 Beck, in 1820. 
 
 \ 
 
 G 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 G 
 
 
 •- RAVINE 
 
 AAA The exterior wall — 1447 feet. 
 
 I! The gate or entrance to the fort. 
 
 C A small gate. 
 
 D D The two houses formerly occupied by the commandant anl cummis- 
 
 sary, each 96 feet in length and 30 in breadth. 
 E The well. 
 F The magazine. 
 GGGG Houses formerly occupied as barracks, 135 'feel in lenqlh, 36 in 
 
 breadth. 
 H H Formerly occupied as a storehouse and guard-house, 90 feci \>y 24 
 I The remains of small magazine. 
 K The remains of a furnace. 
 L E L A ravine, which in the spring is filled with water, lietween this and 
 
 the river, which is about half-a-mile, is a thick growth of cotton wood. 
 
 The area of the fort is about four square acres.
 
 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 45 
 
 came again in 1854, and found "Fort Chartrcs a pile of mould- 
 ering ruins, and the walls torn away almost even with the surface." 
 To one visiting the site but a year ago, the excursion afforded 
 as strong a contrast between the past and the present as may 
 readily be found. Leaving the railway at the nearest point to 
 the ruins, the brisk new town of Red Bud, twenty miles distant, 
 the greater part of the drive over the prairie and through the 
 forest which intervene, is as monotonous as a ride anywhere in 
 Illinois may properly be. But when you reach the bluft", far 
 overlooking the lordly Mississippi, and its lowlands to the 
 Missouri hills beyond, and wind down the road cut deeply into 
 its face to the little village of Prairie du Rocher, lying at its foot, 
 a change comes over the scene. The wide and shaded village 
 streets with the French names above the little stores, the houses 
 built as in Canada, with dormer-windows and piazzas facing to 
 the south, the mill bearing the name the Jesuits gave the site, the 
 foreign accent and appearance of the people, the very atmosphere, 
 so full of rest and quiet, to which hurry is unknown, all combine 
 to make one feel as if in another time and another land than 
 ours. It is as though a little piece of old France had been 
 transplanted to the Miss^'ssippi, a.century since, and forgotten; or 
 as if a stratum of the earlv French settlements at the Illinois, a 
 hundred )-ears ago or more, had sunk down below the reach of 
 time and change, with its ways and customs and people intact, 
 and still pursued its former life unmindful of the busy nineteenth 
 century on the uplands above its head. It was not surprising to 
 be told that at the house of the village priest some ancient relics 
 were to be seen, and that some ancient documents had once 
 been there. In such a place such things should always be. But 
 it was a surprise, when shown into a room adorned with portraits 
 of Pius IX. and Leo XIII., and expecting to see a venerable 
 man with black robes, and, perhaps, the tonsure, to be suddenly 
 greeted by a joyous youth, in German student costume, with a 
 mighty meerschaum in his hand, who introduced himself as the 
 priest in charge of the parish of St. Joseph of Prairie du Rocher. 
 Arrived but six months before from the old country, he had been 
 stationed here because of his knowledge of French, which is 
 spoken by nearly all of the 250 families in the parish, including a 
 number of colored people, the descendants of the slaves of the 
 early settlers. He led the way to his sanctum, where he dis- 
 played, with pride, three chalices and a monstrance, or receptacle 
 for the wafer, very old and of quaint workmanship, made of solid 
 silver, and a tabernacle of inlaid wood, all supposed to have 
 belonged to the church of St. Anne of Fort Chartres. He had
 
 46 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 also a solid silver table-castor, marked 1680, the property of his 
 parish, the history of which is unknown. At an inquiry for old 
 manuscripts, he produced, from a lumber-room, a bundle of dis- 
 colored papers, fast going to decay, which he had found in the 
 house when he took possession, but of which he knew but little. 
 Almost the first inspection revealed a marriage register of the 
 church of St. Anne, with the autographs of Makarty and De 
 Villiers, and subsequent examination showed that these papers 
 comprised a large part of the registers of that parish, as well as 
 the early records of St. Joseph of Prairie du Rocher. 
 
 Such an experience was a fitting prelude to the sight of the old 
 Fort itself, though this was, 'indeed, difficult to find. In the 
 early day all roads in the Illinois country led to Fort Chartres. 
 Highways thither are the most prominent feature of the old 
 village plats and ancient maps of the region. Now, not even a 
 path leads to it. The simple French people along the way could 
 not believe that any one could really wish to visit the old Fort, 
 and with kindly earnestness insisted that the intended destination 
 must be the river landing, which takes its name from the Fort, 
 but is some miles away from it. By dint of repeated inquiries, a 
 course was found which led to the goal after a five -mile drive 
 from Prairie du Rocher. The ruins were approached by a farm- 
 road across a beautiful level field, green with winter wheat, and 
 the first sight of the low bank, which marks the position of the 
 walls, and of the old magazine standing bravely up against the 
 forest background, was a sufficient reward for the journey. En- 
 tering the enclosure through a rude farm-gate, which stands just 
 in the place of its lofty predecessor of carved stone, the line of 
 the walls and the corner bastions can be readily traced by the 
 mounds of earth covered with scattered fragments of stone, 
 beneath which, doubtless, the heavy foundations remain, except 
 at the corner swept away by the river.- On two sides the outline 
 of the ditch can be seen, and the cellars of the commandant's 
 and intendant's houses, and of the barracks, are plainly visible, 
 half filled with debris, under which, perhaps, the old cannon of 
 Louis XIV. are still lying. .Time has settled the question of 
 title to them, and they belong neither to France nor Britain 
 now. One angle of the main wall remains, and is utilized as the 
 substructure of a stable. Two rude houses, occupied by farm 
 tenants, are within the enclosure, which has been cleared of trees, 
 save a few tall ones near the magazine and alongside the ditch. 
 In front, the ground is open and under cultivation, and, looking 
 from the old gateway, you have before you the prospect which] 
 must often have pleased the eyes of the officers of France and
 
 OLD FORT CHARTRKS. 
 
 47 
 
 Britain, gazing from the cut-stone platform above the arch; the 
 little knoll in front where Boisbriant's land-grant to himself cotn- 
 menced, the level plateau dotted with clumps of forest trees, the 
 gleam of the little lake in the lowland and beyond, the beautiful 
 buttresses of rock, rounded and shaped as if by the hand of man, 
 supporting the upland which bounds the view. Of the vanished 
 village of St. Anne, scarcely a vestige remains, save a few garden- 
 plants growing wild on the plain. Occasionally a well belonging 
 to one of its houses is found, but there is no sign of the church, 
 where "sales were made in a high and audible voice, while the 
 people went in and out in great numbers."' The site of St. Philip 
 is covered by a farm, but to this day a part of its long line of 
 fields is known as '"the King's Highway," though there is no road 
 there, and it is supposed that this was the route along which 
 Renault brought the supplies from his grant to the river for 
 transfer to his mines. 
 
 Yet, though so much has gone of the ancient surroundings and 
 of the Fort itself, it was an exceeding pleasure to find the old 
 magazine, still almost complete, and bearing itself as sturdily as 
 if conscious that it alone is left of all the vast domain of France 
 in America, and resolute to preserve its memory for the ages to 
 come. It stands within the area of the south-eastern bastion, 
 solidly built of stone, its walls four feet in thickness, sloping 
 upward to perhaps twelve feet from the ground, and rounded at 
 the top. It is partially covered with vines and moss, and one 
 might travel far and wide in our land to find an object so 
 picturesque and so venerable. But for the loss of its iron doors, 
 and the cut stone about the doorway, it is well-nigh as perfect as 
 the day it was built. AVithin, a few steps lead to the .solid stone 
 floor, some feet below the surface, and the interior, nearly thirty 
 feet square, is entirely uninjured. You may note the arched 
 stone roof, the careful construction of the heavy walls, and the 
 few small apertures for light and air, curiously protected agamst 
 injurv from without. Here one may invoke the shades of 
 Makarty, and De Villiers, and St. Ange, and easily bnng back 
 the past. For, as it is to-day, it has seen them all, as they went 
 to and fro before it, or examined its store of shot and shell: it 
 has heard the word of command as the grenadiers drilled on the 
 parade-ground hard by; it has watched the tawny chieftains and 
 their followers trooping in single file through the adjacent gate- 
 way; and past its moss-grown walls the bridal processions ol 
 Madeleine Loisel and Elizabeth Montcharveaux, and the other 
 fair ladies from the Fort, have gone to the little church ol .^t 
 Anne. And gazing at it in such a mood, until all about w.i>
 
 48 OLD FORT CHARTRES. 
 
 peopled with "the airy shapes of long ago," and one beheld 
 again the gallant company which laid the foundations of this 
 fortress with such high hope and purpose, the hurrying scouts 
 passing through its portals with tidings of Indian foray or Spanish 
 march, the valiant leaders setting forth from its walls on distant 
 expeditions against savage or civilized foe, the colonists flocking 
 to its store-house or council-chamber, the dusky warriors throng- 
 ing its enclosure with Chicago or Pontiac at their head, the 
 gathering there of those wlio founded a great city, the happy 
 village at its gates, and the scenes of its momentous surrender, 
 which sealed the loss of an empire to France; it seemed not 
 unreasonable to wish that the State of Illinois might, while yet 
 there is time, take measures to permanently preserve, for the sake 
 of the memories, the romance, and the history interwoven in its 
 fabric, what still remains of Old Fort Chartres.
 
 COL. lOHX TODD'S RECORD -lidol 
 
 \. 
 
 The early records of "the Illinois," as the region includini,' our 
 State was formerly called, unfortunately, have not been preserved. 
 Those of its civil and judicial administration, during the sixty 
 years of its organized government as a royal province, and the 
 subsequent period of its existence as a county of \'irginia, 
 would be of exceeding value to him who shall properly wTite 
 the history of Illinois. A large collection of such jfajters re 
 mained at Kaskaskia, once the capital, successively, of pro- 
 vince, territory, and state, until the day came when the ancient 
 village was obliged to yield even the honor of being a county- 
 seat to the neighboring city of Chester. To the latter i)lace. 
 several boxes filled with these papers were then removed, and 
 stood for years in the hall of its court-house, until, by neglect or 
 wanton misuse, their contents were lost or destroyed. One, how- 
 ever, of these mementos of the past, and not the least in worth 
 among them, was recently found in an office of this court-house, 
 in a receptacle for fuel, just in time to save it from the fiery 
 fate of many of its companions, and is now in the custody of tlie 
 Chicago Historical Society. This is the original Record or 
 Minute-Book of Colonel John Todd, tlie first civil governor ol 
 the Illinois country. 
 
 When George Rogers Clark had cai)tured the British i)0.sts 
 beyond the Ohio, under the authority of Virginia, that State was 
 quick to act for the preservation of the rights thus ac«iuired. 
 Kaskaskia was taken on the 4th of July, 177-^: t^^ first surrender 
 of Vincennes. or St. Vincent, as it was sometuiies called, occurred 
 soon after; and in October, of the same year, the Oeneral 
 Assembly of Virginia passed "An Act for estabhshuig the 
 County of Illinois, and for the more effectual protection and 
 defence thereof." The young Commonwealth, only in the third 
 year of its own independent existence, and then with the other 
 revolted colonies, engaged in a death-struggle with the .Mother 
 Country, did not shrink from the duty of providing a suitable 
 4
 
 50 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 government for the immense territory thus added to its domain. 
 The Act recites the successful expedition of the Virginia militia- 
 men in the country adjacent to the Mississippi, and that good 
 faith and safety require that the citizens thereof, who have 
 acknowledged the Commonwealth, shall be supported and pro- 
 tected, and that some temporary form of government, adapted to 
 their circumstances, shall be established. It provides that all the 
 citizens of Virginia, settled on the western side of the Ohio, shall 
 be included in a distinct county, to be called Illinois County. 
 The vast area, afterwards ceded to the United States under the 
 name of the North-West Territory, and now divided into five 
 States, then composed a single county of Virginia. Of this 
 county the governor of the State was authorized to appoint a 
 county-lieutenant, or commandant, who could appoint and com- 
 mission deputy-commandants, militia-officers, and commissaries. 
 The religion and customs of the inhabitants were to be respected, 
 and all civil officers were to be chosen by a majority of the 
 inhabitants of the respective districts. The County- Lieutenant 
 had power to pardon all offenders, except murder and treason. 
 The Governor was authorized to levy five hundred men to garri- 
 son and protect the county, and keep up communications with 
 Virginia, and with the Spanish settlements, and to take measures 
 to supply goods to the inhabitants and friendly Indians. Such 
 was the first Bill of Rights of Illinois. 
 
 The Governor of the State of Virginia, upon whom devolved 
 the duty of selecting the commandant of the country of Illinois, 
 was the first who ever held that office, the immortal patriot, 
 Patrick Henry; and the man whom he chose for this difficult and 
 responsible position was John Todd. He was not unknown on 
 the frontier nor at the capital. Born in Pennsylvania, and 
 educated in Virginia, he had practised law in the latter colony 
 for several years, when, in 1775, he removed to the Kentucky 
 country. He was one of those who met at Boonesboro', in the 
 spring of that year, under the great elm tree, near the fort, to 
 establish the proprietary government of the so-called colony of 
 Transylvania, comprising more than half of the modern State of 
 of Kentucky, and he was very prominent in the counsels of its 
 House of Delegates or Representatives, the first legislative body 
 organized west of the AUeghanies. He preempted large tracts of 
 land near the present city of Lexington, and is said to have been 
 one of the band of pioneers, who, while encamped on its site, 
 heard of the opening battle of the Revolution in the far East, and 
 named their infant settlement in its honor. When the agents of 
 the Kentucky settlers had obtained a gift of powder from Virginia
 
 COL. JOHN TODDS RF.C( )R1 )-I>.()()K. 5 I 
 
 for the defence of the frontier, in the following year, and had 
 brought it down the Ohio to the Three Islands, Todd led a 
 small party through the forests to transport it to one of ihc 
 forts, but was beaten back, after a bloody contest with the 
 Indians. Early in 1777, the first court in Kentucky opened its 
 sessions at Harrisburg, and he was one of the justices. Shortly 
 after, he was chosen one of the representatives of Kentucky in 
 the legislature of Virginia, and went to the capital to fulhl this 
 duty. The following year he accompanied (ieorge Rogers Clarke 
 in his expedition to the Illinois, and was the first man to enter 
 Fort Gage, at Kaskaskia, when it was taken from the Hritish, 
 and was present at the final capture of Vincennes. 
 
 Meanwhile the Act, above mentioned, had been passed, and 
 the Governor had no difficulty in deciding whom to ajjpoint 
 County- Lieutenant of Illinois. At Williamsburg, then the cai)ital 
 of the Old Dominion, in the former mansion of the royal rulers 
 of the whilom colony, Patrick Henry, on the 12th of December, 
 1778, indited his letter of appointment to John Todd, Esq., and 
 entered it in the very book now before us. It occupies the first 
 five pages, and probably is in Patrick Henry's handwriting. At 
 all events his own signature is subscribed thereto. This letter is 
 not such a one as territorial governors would be likely to receive 
 in these later days. It deals with higher things than those which 
 occupy the modern politician. The opening paragraph informs 
 John Todd, Esq., that by virtue of the Act of the General 
 Assembly, which establishes the County of Illinois, he is ap- 
 pointed County- Lieutenant, or Commandant, there, and refers 
 him to the law for the general tenor of his conduct. It con- 
 tinues as follows: "The grand objects which are disclosed_ to 
 the view of your countrymen will prove beneficial, or otherwise, 
 according to the value and abilities of those who are called to 
 direct the aff"airs of that remote country. The present cnsis» 
 rendered favorable by the good disposition of the French and 
 Indians, may be improved to great purposes, but if, unhappily, it 
 should be lost, a return of the same attachi^ents to us may 
 never happen. Considering, therefore, that early prejudices are 
 so hard to wear out, you will take care to cultivate and conciliate 
 the aftections of the French and Indians." * ' * ".-Mihciigh 
 great reliance is placed on vour prudence in managing the peoi.le 
 you are to reside among, yet considering you as unacquamtec in 
 some degree with their genius, usages, and manners, as well a.s 
 the geography of the country, I recommend it to you to consult 
 and advise with the most intelligent and upright persons who 
 may fall in your way."
 
 52 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 His relations to the military, under Col. Clark, are next con- 
 sidered: the necessity of cooperation with and aid to them, in 
 defence against, or attack upon, hostile British and Indians, sum- 
 ming up with the general direction, to consider himself "at the 
 head of the civil department, and as such, having the com- 
 mand of the militia who are not to be under the command of 
 the military, until ordered out by the civil authority, and to act 
 in conjunction with them." He is advised "on all occasions to 
 inculcate on the people the value of liberty, and the difference 
 between the state of free citizens of this Commonwealth, and 
 that of slavery, to which the Illinois was destined, and that they 
 are to have a free and equal representation, and an improved 
 jurisprudence." His care must be to remove "the grievances 
 that obstruct the happiness, increase, and prosperity of that 
 country, and his constant attention to see that the inhabitants 
 have justice administered." He is to discountenance and punish 
 every attempt to violate the property of the Indians, particularly 
 in their land. To the Spanish commandant, near Kaskaskia, he 
 is to tender friendshij:* and services, and cultivate the strictest 
 connection with him and his people, and a letter to him, from 
 Governor Henry, Todd is to deliver in person. And he is 
 warned that the matters given him in charge "are singular in 
 their nature and weighty in their consequences to the people 
 immediately concerned, and to the whole State. They require 
 the fullest exertion of ability and unwearied diligence." Then 
 with that high sense of justice and humanity which distinguished 
 the man, Henry turns from State aftairs to right the wrongs of the 
 helpless wife and children of his country's enemy. The family 
 of Mr. Rocheblave, the late British commandant at Kaskaskia, 
 had been left among the hostile people there, while the husband 
 and father was a prisoner in Virginia, and their possessions had 
 been confiscated. Todd is informed "that they must not sutler 
 for want of that property of which they had been bereft by our 
 troops: it is to be restored to them, if possible; if this can not 
 be done, the public must su])port them." And the letter con- 
 cludes with a direction to send an express once in three months, 
 bringing a general account of affairs, and with the mention of a 
 contemplated plan for the api)ointment of an agent to supply the 
 Illinois with goods on public account. 
 
 Conciliation of the newly enfranchised inhabitants, selection of 
 competent advisers, defence against foreign and native enemies, 
 subordination of the militarv to the civil arm of the government, 
 establishment of Republican institutions, administration of equal 
 justice to all. an alliance with friendly neighbors, encouragement
 
 COL. JOHN Todd's RliCORD-HOOK. 53 
 
 of trade, and the exertion by the commandant of unwearied 
 abiUty, dihgence, and zeal, in behalf of his people; such are the 
 principal heads of this able and, for its time, extraordinary State 
 paper. It shows us that the man who had taken the grave 
 responsibility of the secret instructions which led to the capture 
 of the Illinois country, was competent to direct the next step in 
 its career. He could wisely govern what had been bravely won. 
 With all the cares of a new State engaged in a war for its inde- 
 pendence resting upon his shoulders, proscribed as a traitor to 
 the Mother Country, and writing almost within sound of the guns 
 of the British fleet upon the James, he looked with calm vision 
 into the future, and laid well the foundations of another Com- 
 monwealth beyond the Ohio. 
 
 This book, made precious by his pen, was entrusted to a faith- 
 ful messenger, who carried it from tidewater across the mountains 
 to Fort Pitt, thence down the Ohio, until he met with his destined 
 recipient, and delivered to him his credentials. It is supposed 
 that Todd received it at Vincennes, then known to Virginians as 
 St. Vincent, not long after the surrender of that place, on Feb- 
 ruary 24th, 1779, and thereupon returned to the Kentucky 
 country to make some necessary preparations for his new duties. 
 and possibly to enlist some of the soldiers authorized to be 
 raised by the Act under which he was appointed. At all events, 
 he did not reach the Illinois country until the spring of 1779. as 
 we learn from the journal of Colonel (leorge Rogers Clark, wht) 
 says, "The civil department in the Illinois had heretofore robbed 
 me of too much of my time that ought to be spent in military 
 reflection. I was now' likely to be relieved by Col. John ["odd. 
 appointed by Government for that purpose. I was anxious tor 
 his arrival, and happy in his appointment, as the greatest mtimacv 
 
 and friendship subsisted between us; and on the dav of 
 
 May, {1779), had the pleasure of seeing him safely landed at 
 Kaskaskias, to the joy of every person. I now saw myself 
 happily rid of a piece of trouble that I had no delight in. 
 
 So came the new governor to his post, the ^bearer ot Republi- 
 can institutions to a land and a people but just freed troni the 
 rule of a foreign king. And with him he brought this very book 
 containing in the memorable letter inscribed in its pages his own 
 credentials, as well as the best evidence these new citizens could 
 have that they were subjects no longer. This was no ordmary 
 arrival at the goodly French village of Kaskaskia. In the eigiu> 
 years of its existence, it had seen explorers and m'^^HMianes. 
 priests and soldiers, famous travelers and men ot 'I'g'^ ^^^f^*;' 
 come and go, but never before one sent to administer the la«s
 
 54 
 
 COL. JOHN TODD S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 of a peoples' government for the benefit of the governed. We 
 may imagine its inhabitants gathered at the river side to watch 
 the slow approach of a heavy boat, Hying a flag still strange to 
 them, as it toils against the current to the end of its long voyage 
 down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. And when there lands 
 from it one with the mien of authority, (having, perchance, this 
 book under his arm), they are ready to render him the homage 
 exacted by royal governors, and here and there a voice even 
 xries, "Vive le Roi." And, as they are reminded that they are 
 under a free government now, and learn that the new comer is 
 their own County-Lieutenant, on their way back to the village, 
 we may hear Francois and Baptiste say to one another, "Who is 
 it that rules over us now?" and, "What is this free government 
 of which they speak?" "Is it a good thing, think you?" Small 
 blame to them if their wits were puzzled. Less than fourteen 
 years before they had been loyal liegemen to King Louis of 
 France; then came a detachment of kilted Highlanders and 
 presto ! they were under the sway of King George of Great 
 Britain; a few years passed, and one July morning, a band with 
 long beards and rifles looked down from the heights of Fort Gage 
 and raised a new banner over them, and now there was yet another 
 arrival, which, though seemingly peaceful, might mean more than 
 appeared. Perhaps the very last solution of the mystery which 
 occurred to them, was that thenceforth they were to take part in 
 their own government. 
 
 Whether Todd regarded his department as such "a piece of 
 trouble," as Clark found it, we have no means of knowing, but 
 certainly he addressed himself at once to his work. Under the 
 clause of the statute which authorized him to appoint and com- 
 mission deputy-commandants and militia-ofticers, he took action, 
 probably as soon as he arrived, and recorded it in his book. At 
 page 6 is the first entry in Todd's handwriting, which reads as 
 follows: 
 
 "Made out the military commissions for the District of Kas- 
 kaskia, dated May 14th, 1779: 
 
 Richard Winston, Commandant, as Capt. 
 
 Nicholas Janis, First Co. Capt. 
 
 Baptiste Charleville, i Lieut. 
 
 Charles Charleville, 2 Lieut. 
 
 Michael Godis, Ensign. 
 
 Joseph Duplassy, 2d Capt. 
 
 Nicholas le Chanie, i I.ieut. 
 
 Charles Danee, 2 Lieut. 
 
 Batiste Janis, Ensign."
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECDRD-Iiook. 55 
 
 " 1 7th May, sent a Com. of Command of Prairie du Roclu-r 
 
 and Capt. of the Militia to Jean B. Barbeaii. 
 The District of Kohokia: 
 Francois Trotter, Comnd't. 
 
 TOURANGEAU, Capt. I. 
 
 Beaulieu, Capt. 2. 
 
 GuRADiN, Lieut. 
 
 P. Marthir, Lieut. 
 
 Sanfaron, Ensign. 
 
 Comns dated 14th May, 1779, 3d year of the Commonwcahh." 
 
 This was the earhest organization of a mihtia force proper, in 
 this region, and these officers were the first of the long line, 
 adorned by many brilliant names, of those who have held Illinois 
 commissions. There was significance, too, in the concluding of 
 this entry with the words, "Third year of the Commonwealth." 
 It meant that in this "remote country," as Patrick Henry called 
 it, men felt the change from subjects to freemen then being 
 wrought by the great Revolution, and that they were playing a 
 part in it. 
 
 And this is emphasized in the succeeding minute. 
 
 Todd appears to have next put in force the statutory provision 
 that all civil officers were to be chosen by a majority of the 
 citizens in each district, and on pages 7 and 8 he records the 
 "List of the Court of Kaskaskia, the Court of Kohokias, and the 
 Court of St, Vincennes," and adds, ''(7s elected by the peopled As 
 elected by the people, and not as appointed by a king — as 
 chosen by the citizens of each district, and not by the whim of 
 some royal minister, thousands of miles away, across the sea. 
 This was indeed a change. For more than half a century the 
 the settlements at the Illinois had known a court and a judge. 
 But the laws, and the administrators thereof, had been imported 
 from a distant kingdom, and with the framing of the one or the 
 selection of the other, they had had nothing whatever to do. 
 And, without doubt, the election here recorded was their first ex- 
 ercise of the rights of citizens of a republic, and the first exercise 
 of such rights within the territory of lUinois. In these lists appear 
 a number of names of more or less note in the old time, and 
 some of those already recited in the militia appointments. 
 Richard Winston. Deputy-Commandant at Kaskaskia, filled also 
 the office of Sherift' of that district, and Jean K. Barbeau found 
 no inconsistency between his duties as Deputy-Commandant at 
 Prairie du Rocher, and those of one of the judges of the court 
 of his district. Nicholas Janis and Charles Charleville were also 
 liable to be called from the Kaskaskia bench to do military duty.
 
 56 COL. JOHN TODD's RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 and at Cahokia, five of the seven judges held officers' commis- 
 sions. This state of things may have been occasioned by the 
 scarcity of men to take the new positions, so that "there were 
 offices enough to go around" and to give some public -spirited 
 citizens two apiece. If so, the modern office-seeker might well 
 sigh for those good old times. An unusual circumstance appears 
 in connection with the court of Vincennes. Against the name 
 of one Cardinal, elected by the people as a judge, Todd has 
 written "refused to serve." This is believed to be the only 
 instance in our annals of a refusal to take an office. And it is 
 feared that this unique individual left no descendants. No other 
 of the name appears in any subsequent record of the territory, so 
 far as known. It is possible that we ought to share the glory of 
 this rara avis with the citizens of Indiana, since Vincennes is 
 within the limits of that State. But, as he was at the time of this 
 unexampled refusal a citizen of Illinois, we should strenuously 
 claim him as one whose like will ne'er be seen again. After the 
 list of the court of Vincennes, Todd notes his militia appoint- 
 ments at that place, the Chief -Justice P. Legras being also 
 appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, and the first Associate-Justice, 
 Major. Opposite two of the names is written, "rank not 
 settled," as if already that jealousy, which is the bane of the 
 profession of arms, had sprung up. And a number of blanks 
 are left, apparently to await the determination of that controversy, 
 which seem never to have been filled. 
 
 Having organized the military and judicial departments of his 
 government, the new commandant appears next to have given his 
 attention to the encouragement of business. On page 1 1 of this 
 book, appears a License for Trade, permitting "Richard M'Car- 
 thy, Gentleman, to traffick and merchandize, with all the liege 
 subjects and Friends of the United States of America, of what 
 nation soever they be, and to erect Factories and Stores at any 
 convenient place or places he shall think proper within the Com- 
 monwealth."" A careful proviso is made that "by virtue hereof 
 no pretence shall be made to trespass upon the effects or property 
 of individuals"'; and the license is given under the hand and 
 seal of John Todd, at Kaskaskia, the 5th June, 1779, in the 3rd 
 year of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The financial question was the next to claim the attention of 
 the busy County-Lieutenant, and he grappled with it sturdily. It 
 was now the fourth year of the Revolutionary war, and the 
 peculiar disadvantages of the continental currency, which had 
 been severely felt at the East, began to be appreciated at the 
 West as well. But John Todd did not hesitate to confront this
 
 COL. JOHN TODU'S RLC()Rl)-li( m .K. 
 
 57 
 
 evil, and, at any rate, devised a plan for its correction. Within a 
 month of his arrival at Kaskaskia, on the nth of June. i;-.;. he 
 addressed a letter to the court of Kaskaskia, whicli appear^ on 
 page 12 of his Record -Book. He informs it that "the only 
 method America has to support the present just war is Ity her 
 credit, which credit consists of her bills emitted from the dilfcrcnt 
 treasuries by which she engages to pay the bearer, at a certain 
 time, gold and silver in exchange; that there is no friend to 
 American Independence, who has any judgment, but soon 
 expects to see it equal to gold and silver, but "that merely from 
 its uncommon quantity, and in proportion to it, arises the com- 
 plaint of its want of credit. And one only remedy remains 
 within his power, which is to receive, on behalf of government, 
 such sums as the people shall be induced to lend upon a sure 
 fund, and thereby decrease the quantity.'' He states that the 
 mode of doing this is already planned, and recjuests the concur- 
 rence and assistance of the judges. His zeal for the cause led 
 him slightly astray when he predicted that these bills would soon 
 be equal to gold and silver, since, in the following year, conti- 
 nental money was worth just two cents on the dollar, and never 
 became more valuable. But in other respects his scheme was 
 not so erroneous. He did not indulge in the delusion that all 
 troubles could be removed by an unlimited issue of paper money. 
 On the contrary, he favored the retirement of a jiortion of that 
 in circulation, and of a kind of redemption of the public 
 promises to pay. On page 14 is set forth at length, **Plan for 
 borrowing S33S3}i dollars of Treasury notes, both belonging to 
 this State and the United States."' The preamble recites that 
 owing to no other reason than the prodigious quantity of treasury 
 notes, now in circulation, the value of almost every commodity 
 has risen to most enormous prices, the preserving the credit of 
 the said bills by reducing the quantity, requires some immediate 
 remedy. And it is therefore declared that 21,000 acres of land. 
 belonging to tlie Commonwealth, shall be laid off on the bank of 
 the Mississippi in the district of Cahokia, 1000 acres to be 
 reserved for a town, and the remainder to constitute a fund; and 
 that the lender of money shall take a certificate for the sum, 
 entitling him to demand, within tv.-o years, a title to his \>ro\toT- 
 tion of the land in said fund, or the sum originally advanced in 
 gold and silver, with five per cent interest per annum. It is 
 prudently provided that the State shall have the option of giving 
 land or money, and to further protect a paternal government 
 against any undue advantage being taken of it by its sons, 
 notice is given that a deduction shall be made for all money
 
 58 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 hereafter discovered to be counterfeited. Then follow the com- 
 mencement of a French translation of the plan, a copy of the 
 instructions to the Commissioner for borrowing money upon this 
 fund, which direct him to keep every man's money by itself, and 
 the form of receipt to be issued. Henry H. Crutcher appears to 
 have been appointed such Commissioner, and his bond, with 
 George Slaughter and John Roberts as sureties to Mr. John 
 Todd, Commander-in-Chief of the County of Illinois, in the 
 penalty of $33,333^3 for the safe keeping of the money, is next 
 recorded under date of June 14th, 1779. 
 
 On the same date, this energetic '•Commander-in-Chief" ad- 
 dresses himself to the subject of the land under his jurisdiction, 
 and the title thereto. He issues a proclamation strictly enjoining 
 all persons from making any new settlements on the flat lands 
 within one league of the rivers Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, and 
 Wabash, except in the manner and form of settlements as here- 
 tofore made by the French inhabitants ; and every inhabitant is 
 required to lay before the persons appointed in each district for 
 that purpose a memorandum of his or her land with their vouch- 
 ers for the same. Warning is given that the number of adven- 
 turers who will soon run over this country, renders the above 
 method necessary, as well as to ascertain the vacant land as to 
 guard against trespasses which will be committed on land not of 
 record. The object of this step evidently was not to discourage 
 actual settlers, but to prevent the taking up of large tracts of 
 land by speculators; and it shows both wisdom and foresight on 
 the part of the head of the Government. 
 
 The graver duties associated with that position were quickly to 
 devolve upon John Todd, and on page 18 of his Record-Book is ' 
 inscribed an entry, which reads very strangely at the' present day. 
 It is Terbatijn as follows : 
 
 "Illinois, to wit: To Richard Winston, Esq., Sheriff in chief of 
 the District of Kaskaskia. 
 
 Negro Manuel, a Slave, in your custody, is condemned by the 
 Court of Kaskaskia, after having made honorable Fine at the 
 Door of the Church, to be chained to a post at the Water Side 
 and there to be burnt alive and his ashes scattered, as appears 
 to me by Record. This Sentence you are hereby required to put 
 in execution on tuesday next at 9 o'clock in the morning, and 
 this shall be your warrant. Given under my hand and seal at 
 Kaskaskia the 13th day of June in the third year of the Com- 
 monwealth." 
 
 This is a grim record, and reveals a dark chapter in the early 
 history of IlHnois. It is not surprising that some one has drawn
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORl )-l;()( )K. 59 
 
 heavy lines across it as if to efface it forever. It is startling to 
 reflect that barely one hundred years ago, witliin the territory 
 now composing our State, a court of law deliberately scntcnt ed a 
 liuman being to be burned alive! It is possible that the at- 
 tempted cancellation of the entry may mean that the warrant was 
 revoked. And so let us hope for the sake of humanity. No 
 other evidence, so far as known, of this peculiar case e.xists. lUit 
 it is palpable that this inhuman penalty was actually fixed by the 
 court, and as the statute deprived the commandant of the power 
 to pardon in such cases, it is more probable that the .sentence 
 was actually executed. The cruel form of death, the color of 
 the unfortunate victim, and the scattering of the ashes, all seem 
 to indicate that this was one of the instances of the imagined 
 crime of Voudouism or Negro Witchcraft, for which it is known 
 that some persons suffered in the Illinois country about this 
 time. Reynolds, in his Pioneer History, says, "In Cahokia 
 about the year 1790, this superstition got the ujjperhand of 
 reason, and several poor African slaves were immolated at the 
 shrine of ignorance for this imaginary offence. An African negro, 
 called Moreau, was hung for this crime on a tree not far south- 
 east of Cahokia. It is stated that he had said he poisoned his 
 master, but his mistress was too strong for his necromancy." 
 There is no doubt that this is a correct statement of the facts, 
 although the date of their occurrence is erroneously given. For 
 on the next page of this Record-Book appears Todd"s order for 
 the detail of a guard for this very negro Moreau to the place of 
 execution, dated June 15th, 1779, which, of course goes to show 
 the probability of' the infliction of the penalty above mentioned 
 in the case of the negro, Manuel. This order in regard to 
 Moreau, is as follows : 
 
 "To Capt. Nicholas Janis. 
 
 You are hereby required to call upon a party of your militia to 
 guard Moreau, /a slave condemned to execution, up to the town 
 of Kohos. Put them under an officer. Thev shall be entitled 
 pay rashtions and refreshment during the Time they shall be 
 upon Duty to be certifyed hereafter by you. 
 
 I am sir your hble servant, 
 
 JNO. TODD. 
 15th June 1779. 
 
 I recommend 4 or 5 from your 
 Compy and as many from Capt. Placey and 
 consult Mr. Lacroix about the time necessary. 
 
 I. T." . . 
 
 Nicholas Janis was, as we have seen. Captain ot the first C om-
 
 6o COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 pany of Militia at Kaskaskia, and the Captain Placey mentioned 
 is, undoubtedly, Joseph Duplessis, Captain of the second Com- 
 pany at the same place. Kohos. was the familiar abbreviation of 
 Cahokia, and the Mr. Le Croix, who was to be consulted, must 
 have been J. B. L. Croix, first sheriff of the Cahokia district, by 
 whom, no doubt, the execution of Moreau was conducted. These 
 two entries, therefore, confirm Reynold's account of this matter, 
 the accuracy of which has sometimes been questioned, and give 
 to old Cahokia the sad distinction of having been a Western 1 
 Salem. " 
 
 The different subjects thus far included in this interesting 
 Record-Book, were all dealt with by Todd between May 14th 
 and June 15th, 1779. He certainly was not idle, nor did he 
 lack for important business during the first month of his admin- 
 istration. His duties appear then to have called him away from ■ 
 Kaskaskia, probably to Vincennes, to make the appointments 
 there already noticed. And as he was about to leave, he- 
 addressed a letter to his deputy-commandant, Richard Winston, ■ 
 which is sufficiently interesting to be quoted entire. H 
 
 "Sir: During my absence the command will devolve upon you * 
 as commander of Kaskaskia. — if Colo. Clark should want any- 
 thing more for his expedition, consult the members of the court 
 upon the best mode of proceeding, if the people will not spare 
 wilingly, if in their power, you must press it, valuing the property 
 by Two men upon Oath. — let the military have no pretext for 
 forcing property — When you order it and the people will not find 
 it, then it will be Time for them to Interfere. — by all means Keep 
 up a Good Understanding with Colo. Clark and the Officers. — if 
 this is not the Case you will be unhappy. I am sir 
 
 Yr Hble Servt JOHN TODD 
 
 June 15, 1779." 
 
 The expedition of Colonel Clark, referred to in this letter, is 
 supposed to have been that planned against the British at 
 Detroit, which he and Governor Henry were very anxious to 
 undertake. They were ultimately prevented by lack of means. 
 Todd's determination to keep the military in subordination to 
 the civil power is very plain, but at the same time his doubt of 
 his success, and his appreciation of Clark's peculiarities, are 
 curiously shown by the concluding paragraph of this letter. 
 When he tells Richard Winston by all means to keep up a good 
 understanding with Colo. Clark, and that, if this is not the case, 
 he will be unhappy, he evidently is speaking of that of which he 
 knows by personal experience. 
 
 Upon his return to Kaskaskia, July 27th, 1779, the resolutions
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S Rr:coRi)-r.o(>K. 6i 
 
 of Congress concerning the issues of the continental moncv, 
 dated May 20th, 1777, and April nth. 177S, engaged his atten- 
 tion. And he put forth a short proclamation in I-'rench and 
 English, both copies being duly transcribed in his Record at 
 pages 19 and 20, notifying persons having money of those issues 
 that unless they shall as soon as possible pay the same into some 
 continental treasury, the money must sink on their hands, and that 
 the vouchers must be certified by himself or some deputy-com- 
 mandant of this county, and have reference to the bundle of 
 money numbered and sealed. Whether this Congressional plan 
 superceded that of Todd's own devising, we do not know, but at 
 all events we hear nothing further of his land fund. 
 
 It would appear that during his brief absence, the newly- 
 appointed court at Kaskaskia had not transacted business with 
 the diligence and celerity required by John Todd. The judges 
 were all elected from among the French settlers, and we may 
 assume that their easy-going ways did not find favor with the 
 busy man from beyond the Ohio. They seem to have adjourned 
 court to what appeared to him to be too long a day, and his 
 consequent action savors somewhat of a direct interference of 
 the executive with the judiciary, but, doubtless, was eft'ective. 
 On page 21 we read the following document: 
 
 "To Gabriel Cerre &c. Esqrs. Judges of the Court for the 
 District of Kaskaskia: 
 
 You are hereby authorized and required to hold and constitute 
 a court on Satterday, the 21st of July at the usual i)lace of hold- 
 ing court within yr District, any adjournment to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. Provided that no suitor or party be comi)eled 
 to answear any process upon said Day unless properly summoned 
 by the Clark and Sheriff. Given under my hand and seal at Kas- 
 kaskia July 31st 1779. JOHN TODD." 
 
 He was tender of the rights of parties, but proposed that the 
 judges should attend to their work. Doubtless, Gabriel and his 
 associate's grumbled not a little at this interference with their 
 comfort, and insisted, the one to the other, that they had not 
 accepted the judicial office upon any such understanding. Pleas- 
 ure first and business afterwards, had always been the rule at 
 Kaskaskia, and to compel a man to hold court when he preferred 
 to smoke his pipe in the sun, or go fishing, was an unprecedented 
 hardship. But all the same, we may be very sure that they did 
 "hold and constitute a court on Satterday the 21st of July, any 
 adjournment to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 Mindful of Governor Henry's advice to cultivate a connection 
 with the Spanish commandant, near Kaskaskia, Commandant
 
 62 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 Todd sends a letter, in French, on August 9th, 1779, to Monsieur 
 Cartabonne, commanding at St. Genevieve, and a letter to same 
 effect to Monsieur Leyba, at St. Louis. It will be remembered 
 that all the region west of the Mississippi then belonged to 
 Spain, at that time at war with Britian, and was garrisoned 
 by her troops. In these letters he proposes an arrangement 
 concerning the commerce of the Illinois country, for the mutual 
 advantage of their respective governments, his Catholic Majesty 
 on the one hand, and the State of Virginia on the other, and for 
 the disadvantage of their common enemy, the British. He 
 informs the Spaniards that Colonel Clark has not yet departed 
 from Post Vincennes, and further states that, if they are attacked 
 by any enemies, and he can be of service to them, he is ordered 
 by the Governor of Virginia to give aid to them. 
 
 The slow-moving French settlers seem to have been in other 
 ways a trial, and probably were dilatory in providing supplies for 
 the troops, which were soon expected from Virginia. And on 
 Aug. nth, Todd enters, on page 22 of his Book, a brief address, 
 in which the inhabitants of Kaskaskia are, for the last time, invited 
 to contract with the persons appointed for provision, especially 
 "Flower," for the troops who Avill shortly arrive. He says, 'T 
 hope they will use properly the Indulgence of a mild Govern- 
 ment. If I shall be obliged to give the military permission to 
 press It will be a disadvantage, and what ought more to influence 
 Freemen, it will be a dishonor to the people."' It is evident that 
 Baptiste, Francois, and the rest, while willing enough to be 
 "Freemen," on their money still preferred a king. And the 
 supplies which they would have readily furnished in exchange 
 for coins stamped with the head of George III. or Louis XV., 
 were not forthcoming when continental currency was offered in 
 return, despite all of Todd's efforts in that behalf It is said 
 that the early French inhabitants were so puzzled by the machin- 
 ery of free government, that they longed for the return of the 
 despotic authority of their military commandants. If so, there 
 must have been a familiar sound about this brief address which 
 might have made them think their good old times had come 
 again. After this he copies an order upon the Governor of Vir- 
 ginia, in favor of J. B. La Croix, the Sheriff of Cahokia, in 
 payment of supplies furnished, probably one of the few, if not 
 the only one who paid any attention to the address. 
 
 The Commandant found it necessary to resort to more string- 
 ent measures. And on August 2 2d, he issued another proclama- 
 tion laying an embargo upon the exportation of any provisions 
 whatsoever, by land or water, for sixty days, unless he has
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S RKCORD-IK »()K. 63 
 
 assurances before that time that a sufficient stock is laid up for 
 the troops, or sufficient security is given to the cfintractors for its 
 delivery when required. And the offender is to be subjected to 
 imprisonment for one month and forfeit value of such exported 
 provision. This he records in English and in French, apparently 
 having special reference to those of the latter race. And seem- 
 ingly becoming weary of the delay of the jieople as to the 
 surrender of the continental money, he gives notice, in l)oth 
 languages, that after August 23d, 1779, no more certificates will 
 be granted at Kaskaskia to persons producing the called-in 
 emissions. It does not appear whether this delay was due to the 
 fact that the prudent French setders really had no continental 
 money on hand, or to their wish to get .some return for what 
 little they did own, and they were unable to see any such outcome 
 from a deposit in a continental treasury. 
 
 October 7th, 1779, he makes a note of an order given to 
 Patrick M'Crosky on the Gov't for 140 Dollars being No. 2 
 issued "by a certificate from Mr. Helm." This Mr. Helm was 
 one of Clark's trusty lieutenants, and was, probably, then com- 
 manding the fort at Vincennes. 
 
 A short and simple method of forfeiting realty to the State, is 
 illustrated in the proceedings set forth on pages 25 and 26. On 
 the 4th of October, 1779, a notification was given at the door of 
 the church of Kaskaskia, that the half- a- lot above the church, 
 joining Picard on the east, and Langlois on the west, unless some 
 person should appear and support their claim to the said lot 
 within three days, would be condemned to the use of the Com- 
 monwealth. On the 13th day of October, 1779, accordingly. 
 John Todd, under his hand and seal, at Kaskaskia, i)roclainied 
 that after publicly calling any person or persons to shew any 
 claim they might have to said lot, and no one appearing to 
 claim the same as against the Commonwealth of \'irginia, he 
 declares and adjudges the said lot to belong to the said Com- 
 monwealth, and that all persons, whatsoever, be thenceforth 
 debarred and precluded forever from any claim thereto. 
 
 The heading of the following entry in this book is, "Copy of 
 a Grant to Colonel Montgomery,'' but the remainder of that 
 page, and one or two more, have been deliberately torn out. 
 The explanation of this mutilation may be found in a report 
 made, in 18 10, by the Commissioners appointed by Congress to 
 examine the claims of persons claiming lands in the district of 
 Kaskaskia. from which it appears that many of the ancient 
 evidences of title had been deliberately destroyed m the interest 
 of speculators claiming under forged deeds or perjured testimony.
 
 64 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 Some one, interested in opposition to this grant, may have had 
 access to this book years after the entry, when the land had 
 become valuable, and attempted to defeat the title in this way. 
 The Colonel Montgomery, named in it, was probably the Captain 
 Montgomery who came to the Illinois with Clark, and rendered 
 good service on that expedition. He is described as a jovial 
 Irishman, whom Clark fell in with at the Falls of the Ohio, on 
 his way down the river, and who readily joined in the perilous 
 adventure, from pure love of fighting. He commanded the 
 garrison of Fort Gage, at Kaskaskia, after its surrender by the 
 British. 
 
 This is the last entry in the book in Todd's handwriting. 
 
 We know that he continued to hold his position as Command- 
 ant and CountyT.ieutenant at the Illinois for some three years 
 more, devoting most of iiis time to its affairs. And in that 
 period he made the difficult and often dangerous journey between 
 his distant post and the Kentucky settlements, or Virginia, two 
 or more times in every year. In 1779, Virginia ordered two 
 regiments to be raised for service in its western counties, and it 
 is supposed that Todd was appointed Colonel of one of them.. 
 In the spring of 1780, he was elected a delegate from the count) 
 of Kentucky to the Legislature of Virginia, and was married, 
 while attending its session of that year. In the fall, he returnee 
 to Kentucky, and, having established his bride in the fort alj 
 Lexington, resumed his journey to Illinois. It is worthy o^ 
 remark that the foundation of Ttansylvania LTniversity, the first 
 institution of learning west of the mountains, is attributed to the 
 State aid obtained from the Virginia Legislature by his exertions 
 in its behalf In November, 1780, the county of Kentucky was! 
 divided into the three counties of Fayette, Lincoln, and Jeffer-] 
 son, and in the summer of 1781, Governor Thomas Jeft'erson 
 appointed Todd, Colonel of Fayette .County, Daniel Boone^ 
 Lieutenant-Colonel, and Thomas Marshall, (father of Chief-Justice 
 Marshall), Surveyor. In December, 1781, Todd secured a town 
 lot at Lexington, and in May, 1782, he was made one of the 
 trustees of Lexington by Act of Virginia. In the summer of that 
 year he visited Richmond, on the business of the Illinois country, 
 where it is said he had concluded to permanently reside, and 
 stopped at Lexington on his return. While here, an Indian 
 attack upon a frontier station summoned the militia to arms, and 
 he, as Senior Colonel, took command of the little force of 180 
 men who went in pursuit of the retreating savages. It included 
 Daniel Boone and many other pioneers of note, sixty of their 
 number being commissioned officers. At the Blue Licks, on the
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S RliCORD-liOOR. 65 
 
 1 8th of August, 1782, the enemy was overtaken, and the head- 
 long courage of those who would not observe the prudent 
 counsels of Todd and Boone, precipitated an action which was 
 very disastrous to the whites. One-third of those who went into 
 battle were killed, a number wounded and several made prisoners. 
 And among the heroes who laid down their H\es that da\- was 
 Colonel John Todd. He was shot through the body while gal- 
 lantly fighting at the head of his men, and, says an eye-witness. 
 "When last seen he was reeling in his saddle, while the blood 
 gushed in profusion from his wounds." 
 
 A few other minutes were made in this book in Colonel Todd's 
 life-time, which are not in his handwriting. On two pages, near 
 the end, is kept his "Peltry Account,"' which is charged with his 
 drafts on the Virginia Government, in favor of Monsieur Beaure- 
 garde, to the amount of $30,000, dated at St. Louis, September 
 14th, 1779, the value thereof having, apparently, been received. 
 one-third in paper currency and two-thirds in peltries. Tlie 
 account is credited with payments made for supplies • for the 
 garrison at Kaskaskia, purchased by Colonel John Montgomery, 
 and for the garrison at Cahokia, purchased by Capt. M'Carthy, 
 probably that Richard M'Carthy, gentleman, to wliom a "License 
 for Trade" was granted, as we have seen. The principal item in 
 these supphes seems to have been a beverage called "Tatlia," 
 which was laid in by the hogshead. On page 28 is an oath of 
 allegiance taken by one James Moore, at Kaskaskia, to the 
 United States of America, on July loth, 1872, while the States 
 were still under the articles oY confederation, showing the form 
 then used. He renounces all fidehty to King George the Third. 
 ■ King of Great Britain, his heirs and successors, and agrees to 
 make known to some one Justice of the Peace for the United 
 States, all treasonous, all traitorous conspiracies which may come 
 to his knowledge to be formed against said United States, or any 
 one of them. 
 
 Duririg Todd's later absences from his government, a French 
 gentleman named Demunbrunt, appears to have been his deputy 
 and acting-commandant in his place. And it is curious to notice 
 on the inside of one of the covers of this book a little penman- 
 ship, which may indicate that this individual was rather proud of 
 his temporary dignity. It reads "Nota bene, Nous Thimothe 
 Demunbrunt Lt. Comdt Par interim &c &c;" and it seems as if 
 Thimothe could not resist the temptation to see how his name 
 and title would look, and so wrote it out in a tuie, bold hand 
 for all men to see for a hundred years to come. On the last 
 page are two memoranda, apparently in the same bold hand. 
 
 5
 
 66 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK. 
 
 which, in pencil underneath, are said to be by Thimothe Demun- 
 brunt Lt. Comdt par interim, and, doubless, this is correct. 
 They read: "February 1782, Arived a small tribe of the Wabash 
 Indians Imploring the paternal succour of their Father the Bos- 
 tonians, having their patent from Major Linctot, in consequence 
 I did on Behalf of the Commonwealth give them Six Bushell 
 Indian Corn, Fifty Pounds of Bread, four Pounds of Gun 
 Powder, Ten Pounds of Ball and One Gallon of Taffia, from 
 Carbonneaux." And, "March 2 2d, Came here Deputys from the 
 Delawars, Shawanoes and Cherokee nations of Indians Begging 
 that the Americans wold grant them Pease, as likewise the 
 French and Spanish, and after hearing their Talk, Smoaking the 
 pipe of peace and friendship with them, and from their conduct 
 while here as well as many marks they gave us of their Sincerity 
 I could not avoid giving them on Behalf of the Americans the 
 Following articles, vizt. 
 
 10 Bushells Indian Corn, 100 lb. Flour and 100 lb. Bisquit, 
 6 lb. Tobaco, one Gallon Tafia, 5 qts wampum and Canoe which 
 cost me 20 Dollars." 
 
 The use of the word "Bostonians" by the Wabash Indians, to 
 indicate the whites, is interesting, and may, perhaps, show that 
 this tribe contained or was made up of fragments of tribes of 
 New England Indians, who would naturally use this phrase. The 
 evidence furnished by these memoranda of the weakness and 
 destitution of once powerful Indian nations, is very striking, 
 although their real condition may have been slightly exaggerated, 
 in order to obtain larger supplies of Tafia. Probably they fared 
 better at the hands of the simple Frenchman, from the good-will 
 of his race to the red man, than if Colonel Todd had been at 
 the helm. 
 
 But, it may be asked, what had become of Richard Winston, 
 who was Deputy-Commandant in the early part of Todd's ad- 
 ministration, and how came he to be superseded by this soft- 
 hearted Thimothe'? 
 
 We should have been utterly unable to answer these questions 
 but for a paragraph written upon the inside of the front cover of 
 this book, which is as follows : 
 
 "Kaskaskias in the Illinois 29th April 1782. This day 10 
 o'clock A.M. I was taken out of my house by J. Neal Dodge on 
 an order given by J no. Dodge in despite of the Civil authority 
 disregarding the laws, and on the malitious alugation of Jno. Wil- 
 liams and Michel Pevante as may appear by their deposition. I 
 was confined by tyrannick military force without making any legal 
 aplication to the Civil Magistrates — 30th The Attorney for the
 
 COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-lloc .K. 67 
 
 State, La Buinieux, presented a petition to the court -viinst 
 Richard Wmston, State Prisoner in their custody the contents of 
 which he (the Attorney for the State) ought to have communicated 
 to me or my attorney, if any I had." It will be remembered that 
 when Todd first went away from Kaskaskia, leaving Winston in 
 command, he advised him, by letter, by all means to keei) up a 
 good understanding with Colonel Clark and the officers, tellinc 
 him if this was not the case he would be unhai)py. We can only 
 conclude that the unlucky Winston had at this time neglected this 
 injunction, as his trouble seems to have been wiUi the military, 
 and in consequence was very unhappy. At all events he liad 
 fallen into disgrace, of course had lost his office, and was im- 
 prisoned, doubtless, in the old French commandant's house, 
 which served as the headquarters of the successive governments 
 of the Illinois country, even down to the organization of our 
 State when it became the first State House. Here shut u]\ ]>ct- 
 haps in the governor's room, he found this Record-Book," and 
 wrote his sorrowful tale within it. And so it preserves to us, a 
 century after, poor Richard Winston's protest against "tyranni'ck 
 military force." 
 
 The remaining pages of this book are occupied with a brief 
 record in the French language of the proceedings of the Court of 
 Kaskaskia, from June 5th, 1787, to February 15th, 1788. Dur- 
 ing this period it seems to be pretty much in the hands of one 
 family, as three of the five justices are named Beauvais. Antoine 
 Beauvais is the presiding justice, and Vital Beauvais, and St. 
 Gemme Beauvais, are two of his four associates. For a long 
 time they apparently do nothing but meet one month and adjourn 
 to the next, as if determined in this way to regain the dignity of 
 which the court was deprived by Col. Todd's perenqitory order 
 to their predecessors to hold a session, despite their order of 
 adjournment. On October 25th, 1787, they settle down to busi- 
 ness, at what they call an extraordinary session, to try a case 
 betweeA our good friend Demunbrunt, and one Francis Carbon- 
 eaux. It will be remembered that Thimothe bought the Tafia 
 he gave to the Indians from Carboneaux, and perhaps he had 
 forgotten to pay for it. The details, and the result of the cause, 
 are not given. The court pursues the even tenor of its way with 
 commendable regularity, meeting once a month, in the morning, 
 and immediately adjourning to the next month, but holding an 
 extraordinary session whenever it had a case to try, (and it had 
 two, all told), until January 15th, 1788. At this date, it, for the 
 first time, seemingly, has to deal with the subject of jurymen, 
 and solemnly determines that each juror from Prairie du Rocher
 
 68 COL. JOHX todd's record-book. 
 
 shall have twenty-five francs, and thereupon adjourns. It meets 
 in the afternoon and impanels a jury to try a cause in which 
 John Edgar is plaintiff, and Thomas Green, defendant, and with 
 a few similar minutes its record ceases, and this book comes to 
 an end. 
 
 Its own story is curious enough to entitle it to preservation, if 
 only for its age and the vicissitudes through which it has passed. 
 Made in Virginia more than one hundred years ago, brought the 
 long journey thence to Illinois, at that day exceeding in risk and 
 time a modern trip around the world, in use here in the infancy 
 of the Republic, then cast aside and forgotten for almost a 
 century, and lately rescued by the merest chance from destruc- 
 tion, it has now, by the formal vote of the Board of Commis- 
 sioners of Randolph County, Illinois, the lineal successors of our 
 first County- Lieutenant, been placed, we hope permanently, in 
 the custody of the Chicago Historical Society. And when we 
 consider that its opening pages were inscribed by the first 
 Governor of the State of Virginia, who was one of the foremost 
 men of the Revolution, that it is mainly filled with the handiwork 
 of the first County-Lieutenant of the great Xorth-^Vest Territory, 
 that it contains the record of one of the first courts of common 
 law in Illinois, and above all, that it is a summary of the begin- 
 ning of Republican institutions here, and, in fact, the record of 
 the origin of our State, this common-looking book, with its 
 coarse paper and few pages of faded handwriting, becomes an 
 unique historical memorial, worthy to be treasured by the people 
 of Illinois with reverent care for all time to come. 
 
 And with it too should be treasured the memory of that brave 
 and able man, John Todd, a pioneer of progress, education, and 
 liberty, and the real founder of this Commonwealth, who served 
 his countrymen long and well, and died a noble death, fighting 
 for their homes and firesides against a savage enemy, and giving 
 his life, as he had given the best of his years and strength, for the 
 cause of civilization and free government in the Western World. 
 
 The foregoing Paper was read before the Chicago Historical Society, Feb. 15, 1881.
 
 ■'-^S^V*^^^;SJv^;J/;^■
 
 FERGUS- HISTORICAL SERIES, No. 20. 
 
 A WINTER IX THH \M;sI 
 
 [-ETTERS DESCRirrn K 
 
 OF 
 
 CHICACiO AND VlCIXri'V 
 
 IN 
 1833-4. 
 
 r.Y 
 CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN. 
 
 author of 
 
 Wild Scenes ix Forest .-vnd Prairie;" "Gravslaek ;" "The Likk op Jacoh 
 
 Leirler;" "The Vigil of Faith; and other Poems;" " Love's Calknda*:" 
 
 "The Echo; or Borrowed Notes for Home Circulation ;" etc., 
 
 editor of 
 
 "Knickekhocker Magazine;" "American Monthly 
 
 Magazine;" and "New-York Mirror." 
 
 4<F.1'RINT. WITH THK ORIGIN A I, .'\.M) NtW Ndlis. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 rEROUS PRINTIX(i (•()Mr.\NV 
 1882.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 
 
 Fergus Printing Company, 
 
 In tlie office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Charles Fenno Hoffman, an American author, born in New Vork, 1800. 
 Son of Judge J. Ogden Hoffman. Sent to Academy at rou-Iikeepsie, and 
 ran away to escape harsh treatment. In 1S17, his leg was crushed between a 
 steamboat and the wharf, and had to be amputated. This did not prevent his 
 becoming proficient in manly sports, for which, in Columbia College where 
 he was educated, he was more noted than for scholarship. Was admittetl to 
 the bar at the age of 21, practised three years, during which time he made 
 contributions to literature, and became associated with diaries King in the 
 editorship of the Nruj- York American. In 1833, he went West for his health, 
 and published a series of letters entitled "A Winter in the West," 1S35; also, 
 "Wild Scenes in Forest and Prairie," 1837; his only novel, "(jrayslaer," 
 in 1840; "The Life of Jacob Leisler;" and numerous essays which have never 
 been collected. He was a lover of nature and the natural, and spent mo^>t of 
 his leisure in excursions on the Hudson and into the Adirondack*, at that time 
 a trackless wilderness. Of these wild haunts he was pxssionatcly fond, and 
 took great interest in the hunters and Indians, at that time the only inhabitants. 
 
 In Dec, 1832, Hoffman established \\\q Knickerbocker Masaziue, of which 
 he edited several numbers. He afterward edited the American Monthly yl/<;;.;- 
 zine and the Nr^- York Mirror. In 1842, a volume of his lyrics was publishwl, 
 entitled "The Vigil of Faith; and other Poems." A more complete e<lition 
 appeared in 1845, entitled "Love's Calendar." "The Kcho; or Horrowc*! 
 Notes for Home Circulation," was the title of a second volume of iwctry. In 
 1846-8, he edited the Literary World, and, after leaving that journal, con- 
 tributed to it a number of essays and storie-s, entitled "Sketches of Society." 
 A mental disorder has, since 1850, kept him in complete retirement from the 
 world; his writings have been for many years out of print; and his reputation 
 has been only kept alive by "Monterey," "Sparkling and Bright." "Rosalie 
 Clare," and other of his most popular songs which have found their way into
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the various compendiums of American literatilre. He possessed fine social 
 qualities, conversational powers of a high order, taste, scholarship, and a 
 chivalrous personal character which made him a favorite with all. 
 
 A new edition of his poems, edited by his nephew, Edward Fenno Hoff- 
 man, was published by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1873. — Appleton, etc.
 
 A WINTER IN THE \V1-,ST 
 
 NiLES, Berrien Co., Mich.. Dec. 26\ /Sjj. 
 * * * ■:.- * ;> 
 
 My journey through Michigan is now nearly finished, as it began, 
 entirely alone. At White Pigeon, where I found (im'te a i)retty 
 village of four years' growth, I seemed, in getting upon the post- 
 route from Detroit to Chicago, to get back once more to an old 
 country. I found a good inn and attendance at Savary's, and 
 discovered, by the travelers going north and south, that traveling 
 was not as yet completely frozen up. 'riiere are a great many 
 English emigrants settled upon this prairie, who, I am told, are 
 successfully introducing here the use of live hedges instead of 
 fences in farming. They are generally of a respectable class, and 
 seem to be quite popular with the American settlers. 
 
 The morning was fine when I left White Pigeon to-da\ ; and as 
 the sun shot down through the tall woods, nothing could be more 
 cheering than my ride among the beautiful hills of Cass County. 
 The road, which is remarkably good, meanders through ravines 
 for a distance of many miles, the conical hills resting upon the 
 plain in such a manner as barely to leave a wheel-track between 
 them, except when at times some pretty lake or broad meadow 
 pushes its friths far within their embrace. A prairie of some ex- 
 tent Avas to be traversed on this side of these eminences, and the 
 floating ice on the St. Joseph's was glistening beneath its shadowy 
 banks in the rays of the cold winter moon when I reached its^ 
 borders, and arrived at the stage-house in this flourishing town ol 
 Niles. Mine host, who does not seem to be the most accommo- 
 dating person in the world, has refused to provide supper for my- 
 self and two other gentlemen at so late an hour, assigning as a 
 reason, that "his women are not made of steel," — an instance ot 
 cause and effect which I merely put upon record as being the 
 only one of the kind I have met with in all Michigan. M\ 
 
 * A Winter in the Far West; by Charles Fenno Hoffman, of New \ork. 
 2 Volumes. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington .Street. 1835.
 
 6 A WINTER IN THE ^YEST. 
 
 fellow-sufferers api:)ear to be both agreeable men ; and as we are 
 . to travel in company to Chicago, the sympathy arising from our 
 present melancholy condition may ensure a pleasant intercourse 
 under happier auspices. 
 
 The county of Cass, through which I have passed to-day, has 
 a population of more than two thousand; and contains seven 
 prairies, of six or eight miles in diameter, besides many smaller 
 ones. They produce, when cultivated, from thirty to eighty 
 bushels of new corn, or forty of wheat, to the acre. The mode 
 of planting the former is to run a furrow, drop the corn in, and 
 cover it with a succeeding furrow, which is planted in a similar 
 way, and the field is rarely either plowed or hoed after planting. 
 There are several ]:)retty lakes in this county; but it is not so well 
 watered as St. Joseph's, through which I passed yesterday; which, 
 for local advantages of every kind, as well as fertility of soil, is 
 generally considered one of the best in the peninsula. I like 
 Kalamazoo County, however, as much as any part of Michigan I 
 have seen. I am now within eight or ten miles of the Indiana 
 boundar)', and some twenty or thirty only from the shores of 
 Lake Michigan, having described nearly a semicircle in my tour 
 through the peninsula, including, with some deviations, the coun- 
 ties of ^^'ayne, Monroe, Lenawee, and Washtenaw on the east, 
 Jackson in the centre, and Calhoun, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph'.s, 
 Cass, and Berrien on the west; and I have not met a resident in 
 that whole range but what was pleased with the country, and, I' 
 may almost say. attached to its soil. The females, indeed, will 
 sometimes murmur; and in some remote places I have heard 
 those whose conversation indicated that they had not been brought 
 up with the most ordinary advantages complain of "the want of 
 society!" But even these would love to dilate upon the beauties 
 of the country when the flowers were in bloom. Others, again, 
 who had been more gently nurtured, would sigli at one moment 
 for the comforts and elegancies of their maternal homes, while 
 their eyes would kindle with enthusiasm the next, when speaking 
 of the appearance which the woods around their new dwellings 
 wore in summer. Small communities form but slowly in a coun- 
 try where the settlers, instead of gradually pushing their way to- 
 gether into the depths of the forest, as at the eastward, drive their 
 wagons in any direction a hundred miles through the openings, 
 and plant themselves down a day's journey apart, just where their 
 fancy prompts them. This will account for my so often lighting 
 upon a pleasant hamlet, after a day's travel through a perfect 
 wilderness. 
 
 The River St. Joseph debouches into Lake Michigan in this
 
 A WINTER IX rill, \vi;sr. 
 
 ■county; and as a steam-boat will probably run the next scxsoii 
 ■from the town rapidly growing at its mouth to Chicago, a railroad 
 from Detroit to this steam-boat harbor is only wanting [o bring the 
 visitor of Niagara within a few days' travel of Chicago, and .' arry 
 Jiim through the ilowery groves of Michigan to one of the most 
 important points in the Union, and what may be termed the een 
 tral head of the Mississippi Valley. J:)ehnonico may then stock 
 his larder with grouse from the meadows of Michigan, and (lassin 
 try his skill upon the delicious fish that swarm her lakes and 
 rivers; (would that I could at this moment witness some of their 
 curious orgies I) while sportsmen will think no more of a irij. 
 hither than they do now of an excursion to Islip. Rayner-Soulh. 
 or Patchogue. In the meantime, I have secured you the seed*. 
 of more than twenty varieties of wild flowers, which I shall send 
 to their destination as soon as possible, lest, from the rapid increase 
 of internal communication, they may lose half their value from 
 ceasing to be a rarity. 
 
 Door Prairie, Indi.^n.a, Bfi. 2g, iSjj. 
 
 Being now on the mail-route between Detroit and Chicago. I 
 am traveling very comfortably in a four-horse wagon, with the 
 gentlemen mentioned in my last. I found my horse's back so 
 chafed at White Pigeon, that it was unpleasant to use him longer 
 under the saddle; and having met with my trunk at Niles, which 
 was forwarded from Monroe by a friend, I am in a measure com- 
 pelled to adopt what is certainly the most agreeable mode of travel- 
 ing at this season through a bleak prairie lountry. 
 
 The cold winter moon was still riding high in the heavens as 
 we ferried over the St. Joseph's at Niles this morning. .V low 
 sided scow was the means of conveyance ; and, after breaking the 
 solid ice near the shore to loose us from our moorings, it rei|uired 
 some pains to shun the detached cakes which came driving down 
 the centre of the dark -rolling river; while, near the opposite 
 shore, they had become so wedged and frozen together, that it 
 required considerable exertion to break away with our long poles, 
 and make good our landing. At length, ascending the bank, a 
 beautiful plain, with a clump of trees here and there upon its sur- 
 face, opened to our view. The establishment of the Carey Mis^ 
 sion,* a long, low, white building, could be distinguished afar off 
 
 * The Carey Mission-house, so designated in honor of llie late -Mr Carey. 
 the indefatigable apostle of India, is situated williin about a mile of t'>c "-'^f ', 
 and twenty-five miles (by land) above its mouth. The ground upon whicn it 
 is erected is the site of an ancient and extensive I'oltaw.ilonue village, nou 
 no longer in existence. The establishment was instituted by the liaptist .mis-
 
 8 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 faintly in the moonlight; while several wintert lodges of the Pot- 
 
 sionary Society in Washington, and is under the superintendence of the Rev. 
 Mr. M'Coy; a man whom, from all the reports we heard of him, we should 
 consider as very eminently qualified for the important trust committed to him. 
 'I'he plan adopted in the school proposes to unite a practical with an intellect- 
 ual education. The boys are instructed in the English language, in reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic. They are made to attend to the usual occupations of 
 a farm, and to perform every occupation connected with it — such as plowing, 
 planting, harrowing, etc., in these pursuits they appear to take great delight. 
 The system being well regulated, they find time for everything, not only for 
 study and labor, but also for innocent recreation, in which they are encouraged 
 to indulge. The females receive in the school the same instruction which is 
 given to the boys; and are, in addition to this, taught spinning, weaving, and 
 sewing (both plain and ornamental). They were just beginning to embroider 
 — an occupation which may by some be considered as unsuitable to the situa- 
 tion which they are destined to hold in life, but which appears to us to be very 
 judiciously used as a reward and stimulus : it encourages their taste and nat- 
 ural talent for imitation, which is very great; and, by teaching them that 
 occupation may be connected with amusement, prevents their relapsing into 
 indolence. They are likewise made to attend to the pursuits of the dairy; 
 such as the milking of cows, churning of milk, etc. The establishment is 
 intended to be opened for children from seven to fourteen years old; they very 
 properly receive them at a much earlier age, and even — where a great desire 
 of learning was manifested — older persons have been admitted. All appear 
 to be very happy, and to make as rapid progress as white children of the same 
 age would make. Their principal excellence rests in works of imitation; they 
 write astonishingly well, and many display great natural talent for drawing. 
 The institution receives the countenance of the most respectable among the 
 Indians, who visit the establishment occasionally, appear pleased with it, and 
 show their favor to it by presents of sugar, venison, etc., which they often 
 make lo the family of the missionary. The establishment, being sanctioned 
 by the War Department, receives annually one thousand dollars from the 
 United States, for the support of a teacher and blacksmith, according to the 
 conditions of the treaty concluded at Chicago, in 1821, by Governor Cass and 
 Mr. Sibley, commissioners on the part of the United States. 
 
 [The above interesting account of the Carey Mission is abridged from that 
 given in the narrative of Long's expedition. The time that has elapsed since 
 it originally appeared has of course diminished its present value; but the author 
 not having had an opportunity of visiting the establishment, and finding from 
 all the inquiries he could make regarding it, that the institution is sustaining 
 itself efficiently upon the plan above detailed, he has thought that it would be 
 more satisfactory to the reader to have this compendium of an official report 
 than to dwell upon any hearsay information which he might have supplied in 
 the text] 
 
 + " They made their winter cabins in the following form : they cut logs about 
 fifteen feet long, and laid these logs upon each other, and drove posts in the 
 ground at each end, to keep them together; the posts they tied together at the 
 top with bark; and by this means raised a wall fifteen feet long and about four 
 feet high, and in the same manner they raised another wall opposite to this at 
 about twelve feet distance : then they drove forks in the ground in the centre 
 of each end, and laid a strong pole from end to end on these forks; and from 
 these walls to the pole they set up poles instead of rafters, and on these they 
 tied small poles in place of laths, and a cover was made of lynn-bark, which
 
 . A WINTER IX nil; WKST. cf 
 
 tawatomies, three or four hundred of which tril)c inhabit tins fine 
 district, were plainly perceptible over tlie plain. The moon 
 indeed, shone with an effulgence such as I have never witnessed! 
 except beneath the pearly skies of the West. Morning came at 
 last; still, but excessively cold; our horses" manes and our own 
 clothes being covered with hoar-frost, while each blade- of gra.ss 
 that shot its wilted spear above the snow glistened like a diamond's 
 point beneath the uprising sun. 
 
 About ten o'clock, we reached a shanty on Terre Coupe prairie, 
 and finding no one at home, we rummaged the establishment to 
 find the materials for a breakfast, which we cooked ourselves, and 
 left payment upon the table. (Air next stage carried us over a 
 rollmg prairie to Laporte. The undulating surface resembled the 
 ground-swell of the sea; and nothing could be more dreary at 
 this season, when the bright sky of the morning became overcast, 
 than moving mile after mile over this frozen lake — for such it 
 appeared — with nothing but its monotonous swell to catch the 
 eye wherever its glances roamed. 
 
 It was afternoon when we reached the little settlement of L;i- 
 porte, which is situated on a pretty lake, in a prairie of the same 
 name, the skirts of which are beautifully timbered. There was 
 just light enough remaining when we reached our ])resent stop- 
 ping-place, a comfortable log-cabin, to see the opening ahead 
 through the timber, from which this prairie takes its name. It 
 forms a door opening upon an arm of the (Irand Prairie, \yhich 
 runs through the States of Indiana and Illinois, and extends after- 
 ward, if I mistake not, to the base of the Rocky Mountains. I 
 am now in the land of the Hoosiers, and find that long-haired race 
 much more civilized than some of their western neiglibors arc 
 willing to represent them. The term '"Hoosier," like that oi 
 Yankee, or Buck-eye, first applied contemptuously, has now be- 
 come a soubriquet, that bears nothing invidious with it to the car 
 of an Indianian. This part of the State is as yet but thinly set- 
 tled; but the land is rapidly coming into market, and it is calcu- 
 lated to support a dense population. A new town and harbor, 
 called Michigan City, about thirty miles oft", on the shore of the 
 
 will run (peel) even in the winter season. At the end of Uiese \vall> they .set 
 up split timber, so that they had timber all round, e.xceptiilg a door at each 
 end: at the top, in place of a chimney, they left an open place; and for I Kid- 
 ding they laid down the aforesaid kind of bark, on which they spread l*ear^ 
 skins: from end to end of this hut, .along the middle, there were fires, which 
 the squaws made of dry split wood; and the holes or open places that aiipcared 
 the squaws stopped with moss, which they collected from old l(;i:>; »"* •■»' ""• 
 door they hung a bear-skin; and, notwilhst.anding the winters arc hanl here, 
 our lodging was much better than I expected."— Cc/. ^»i,th s Aarra/nt.
 
 10 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 lake, is fast coming into notice, and giving a spur to the settle- 
 ments in these parts. The country is, however, still wild enough, 
 .and I have a wilder yet to pass before reaching Chicago. 
 
 Chicago, Jan. i, 1834. 
 
 We left the prairie on the east, after passing through "the door," 
 and entering a forest, where the enormous black-walnut and syca- 
 more trees cumbered the soil with trunks from which a comforta- 
 ble dwelling might be excavated. The road was about as bad 
 iis could be imagined; and after riding so long over prairies as 
 smooth as a turnpike, the stumps and fallen trees over which we 
 were compelled to drive, with the deep mud-holes into which our 
 horses continally plunged, were anything but agreeable. Still the 
 stupendous vegetation of the forest interested me sufficiently to 
 make the time, otherwise enlivened by good company, pass with 
 sufficient fleetness, though we made hardly more than two miles 
 an hour throughout the stage. At last, after passing several un- 
 tenanted sugar-camps* of the Indians, we reached a cabin, prettily 
 situated on the banks of a lively brook winding through the forest. 
 A little Frenchman waited at the door to receive our horses, while 
 a couple of half-intoxicated Indians followed us into the house, 
 in the hope of getting a'netos (vulgarly, "a treat") from the new- 
 comers. The usual settlers' dinner of fried bacon, venison cut- 
 lets, hot cakes, and wild honey, with some tolerable tea and Indian 
 sugar, — as that made from the maple-tree is called at the West, — 
 w-as soon placed before us; while our new driver, the frizzy little 
 Frenchman already mentioned, harnessed a fresh team, and hur- 
 ried us into the wagon as soon as possible. The poor little fellow 
 had thirty miles to drive before dark, on the most difficult part of 
 
 * The ordinary appendages of a "sugar camp," and the process of making 
 sugar, are described in the following extract from the work above quoted. 
 " In this month we began to make sugar. As some of the elm-bark will strip 
 at this season, the squaws, after finding a tree that would do, cut it down; 
 and with a crooked stick, broad and sharp at the end, took the bark off the 
 tree; and of this bark made vessels in a curious maimer, that would hold about 
 two gallons each : they made about one hundred of these kind of vessels. In 
 the sugar-tree they cut a notch, and stuck in a tomahawk : in the place where 
 they stuck the tomahawk they drove a long chip, in order to carry the water 
 out from the tree, and under this they set their vessel to receive it; they also 
 made bark-vessels for carrying the water, that would hold about four gallons 
 each; they had two brass kettles that held about fifteen gallons each, and other 
 smaller kettles, in which they boiled the water as fast as it was collected; they 
 made vessels of bark that would hold about one hundred gallons each, for con- 
 taining the water; and though the sugar-trees did not run every day, they had 
 always a sufficient quantity of water to keep them boiling during the whole 
 sugar-season." — Col. Smit/i's A^arrative.
 
 A WINTER IN THK WEST. 1 i 
 
 the route of the Hue between Detroit and Chicago. It was easy 
 to see that he knew nothing of driving the moment he took his 
 reins in hand; but when one of my fellow-travelers mentioned thai 
 little Victor had been preferred to his present situation of trust 
 from the indefatigable manner in which, before the stage-route 
 was established last season, he had for years carried the mail 
 through this lonely country — swimming rivers and sleeping in the 
 woods at all seasons — it was impossible to dash the mixture of 
 boyish glee and official pomposity with which he entered upon 
 his duties, by suggesting any improvement as to the mode of per 
 forming them. Away then we went, helter-skelter, through the 
 woods — scrambled through a brook, and galloping over an arm 
 of the prairie, struck again into the forest. A fine stream, called 
 the Calamine, made our progress here more gentle for a moment. 
 But immediately on the other side of the river was an Indian 
 trading-post, and our little French Phseton — -who, to tell the truth, 
 had been repressing his fire for the last half-hour, while winding 
 among the decayed trees and broken branches of the forest — 
 could contain no longer. He shook the reins on his wheel-horses, 
 and cracked up his leaders with an air that would have distin- 
 guished him on the Third Avenue, and been envied at Cato's. 
 He rises in his seat as he passes the trading-house; he sweeps by 
 like a whirlwind: but a female peeps from the portal, and it is all 
 over with poor Victor. 
 
 "Ah, wherefore did he turn to look? 
 That pause, that fatal gaze he took, 
 Hath doomed — " 
 
 his discomfiture. The infuriate car strikes a stump, and the un- 
 lucky youth shoots off at a tangent, as if he were discharged from 
 a mortar. The whole operation was completed with such velocity 
 that the first intimation I had of what was going forward, was on 
 finding myself two or three yards from the shattered wagon with 
 a tall Indian in a wolf-skin cap standing over me. My two fellow- 
 passengers were dislodged from their seats with the same want ot 
 ceremony; but though the disjecta membra of our company were 
 thus prodigally scattered about, none of us providentially received 
 injury. Poor Victor was terribly crest-fallen; and had he not un- 
 packed his soul by caUing upon all the saints in the calendar, in 
 a manner more familiar than respectful, I venly believe that ms 
 tight little person would have exploded like a torpedo. A %er> 
 respectable-looking Indian female, the wife, i.robably, ot tnc 
 French gentleman who owned the post, came out, and c«vi"> mr- 
 nished us with basins and towels to clean our hands and faces,
 
 12 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 which were sorely bespattered with mud; while the gray old Indian 
 before-mentioned assisted in collecting our scattered baggage. 
 
 The spot where our disaster occurred was a sequestered, wild- 
 looking place. The trading establishment consisted of six or 
 eight log-cabins, of a most primitive construction, all of them gray 
 with age, and so grouped on the bank of the river as to present 
 an appearance quite picturesque. There was not much time, how- 
 ever, to be spent in observing its beauties. The sun was low, and 
 we had twenty-five miles yet to travel that night before reaching 
 the only shanty on the lake shore. My companions were com- 
 pelled to mount two of the stage-horses, while I once more put 
 the saddle on mine; and leaving our trunks to follow a week 
 hence, we slung our saddle-bags across the cruppers and pushed 
 directly ahead. 
 
 A few miles' easy riding through the woods brought us to a 
 dangerous morass, where we were compelled to dismount and 
 drive our horses across, one of the party going in advance to 
 catch them on the other side. A mile or two of pine barrens 
 now lay between us and the shore, and winding rapidly among the 
 short hills covered with this stinted growth, we came suddenly 
 upon a mound of white sand at least fifty feet high. Another of 
 these desolate-looking eminences, still higher, lay beyond. We 
 topped it: and there, far away before us, lay the broad bosom of 
 Lake Michigan, — the red disk of the sun just sinking beneath it, 
 and the freshening night-breeze beginning to curl its limpid waters 
 on the shore; and now, having gained their verge, whichever way 
 we turned there was nothing discernible but the blackening lake 
 on one side and these conical hills of shifting white sand on the 
 other. Some of them, as the night advanced, and objects were 
 only discernible by the bright starlight, assumed a most fantastic 
 appearance, and made me regret that I could not visit the "Sleep- 
 ing Bear," and other singularly-formed mounds, which, many miles 
 farther to the north, swell from two to three hundred feet above 
 the level of the Lake. The deep sand, into which our horses 
 sunk to the fetlocks, was at first most wearisome to the poor 
 brutes; and having twenty miles yet to travel entirely on the lake- 
 shore, we were compelled, in spite of the danger of quicksands, 
 to move as near the water as possible. But though the day had 
 been mild, the night rapidly became so cold that, before we had 
 proceeded thus many miles, the beach twenty yards from the surf 
 was nearly as hard as stone, and the finest macadamized road in 
 the world could not compare with the one over which we now 
 galloped. Nor did we want lamps to guide us on our way. 
 Above, the stars stood out like points of lights; while the resplen-
 
 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 13 
 
 dent fires of the Aurora Rorealis, shooting along the heavL-ns on 
 our right, were mocked by the hvid glare of the Kankakee 
 marshes, burning behind the sand-hills on our left. The J.akc 
 alone looked dark and lowering; though even its gathering waves 
 would smile when touched with light as they broke uj)on ihc 
 shore. The intense cold seemed to invigorate our horses; and 
 dashing the fire from the occasional pebbles, they clattered along 
 the frozen beach at a rate that brought us rapidly to our destina- 
 tion for the night. 
 
 It was a rude cabin, built of stems of the scrub pine, standing 
 behind a sandy swell about two hundred yards from the shore. 
 My fingers were numb with cold; and seeing a rough-looking 
 fellow moving from the door toward the horses of my companions. 
 I requested him to take mine also; but, upon his politely rejoin- 
 ing that "he was nobody's servant but his own,'' I could only 
 wish him "a more civil master," and proceeded to take care of 
 the animal myself A brake of stunted evergreens near-by sup- 
 plied the place of a stable; and passing a wisp of dry grass over 
 the reeking limbs of my four-footed friend. I fiung my cloak over 
 his back and tethered him for the night. The keeper of the rustic 
 hostelrie came up just as I had got through with this necess:u-y 
 task, and explaining to me that the insolent lounger was a dis- 
 charged mail-carrier, returned with me to the house for a measure 
 of corn; while I, guided by the light flickering through the crevices 
 of his frail dwelling, rejoined my companions, nestled with two 
 other half-frozen travelers around the grateful fire within. The 
 strangers were both western men; one, I believe, a tartner, lor 
 some time settled in Illinois, and the other an Indian trader of 
 long standing in Chicago. W'arlike incidents in border story, and 
 the pacific dealings between the whites and Indians, formed the 
 chief subjects of conversation, which soon became general, and 
 was prolonged to a late hour; finally the late treaty held at C hi- 
 cago-^at which, as you- have probably seen m the newspapers, 
 several thousand Indians were present— was discussed, and the 
 anecdotes that were told of meanness, rapacity, and highway rob- 
 bery (in cheating, stealing, and forcibly taking away) fr-m the 
 Indians, exasperated me so that I exi)ressed my indignation and 
 ' disgust in unmeasured terms. The worthy trader, who was a 
 middle-aged man, of affable, quiet, good manners, seemed lo 
 sympathize with me throughout; but the whole current ol my 
 feelings was totally changed when, upon mv olJ^^';^;'"^^ ;'';;'■"> 
 afterward to another gentlemen, that 'T should have liked to ha^c 
 been at Chicago a year ago," my warm coadjutor ejacuUi ed fmm 
 under the bedclothes, where he had in the meantime bestoucd
 
 14 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 himself, "Ah, sir, if you had, the way in which you'd have hooked 
 an Indian blanket by this time would be curious." The chivalric 
 knight of La Mancha himself could not have sustained heroics 
 under such a home-thrust, but must have burst into the hearty 
 laugh in which I was joined by all present. The hour of sleep 
 for all at last arrived, and a couple of wooden bunks, swung from 
 the roof, falling to the lot of those who had come in first, I 
 wrapped myself in a buffalo-skin, and placing my saddle under my 
 head for a pillow, soon "slept like a king;" a term which, if 
 
 "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" 
 
 be true doctrine, is, probably, quasi Incus, etc. 
 
 Our transient acquaintances parted from us in a most friendly 
 manner in the morning; and after waiting in vain till near noon 
 to see if by any chance little Victor might not be able to forward 
 our trunks to this point, we mounted once more, and pushed 
 ahead with all speed, to accomplish the remaining twenty or thirty 
 miles between the shanty and Chicago. Our route was still along 
 the shore ; and after passing round the end of the Lake and tak- 
 ing a northwardly direction, the way in which the icy blast would 
 come down the bleak shore of the Lake "was a caution." We 
 galloped at full speed, every man choosing his own route along 
 the beach, our horses' hoofs ringing the while as if it were a pave- 
 ment of flint beneath them. The rough ice piled up on the coast 
 prevented us from watering our beasts; and we did not draw a 
 rein till the rushing current of the Calamine, which debouches 
 into Lake Michigan some ten miles from Chicago, stayed our 
 course. A cabin on the bank gave us a moment's opportunity to 
 warm, and then, being ferried over the wintry stream, we started 
 with fresh vigor, and crossing about a mile of prairie in the neigh- 
 borhood of Chicago, reached here in time for an early dinner. 
 Our horses this morning seemed none the worse for this furious 
 riding; their escape from ill consecjuences being readily attributa- 
 ble to the excellence of the road, and the extreme coldness of 
 the weather while traveling it. For my own part, I never felt 
 better than after this violent burst of exercise. 
 
 We had not been here an hour before an invitation to a public 
 ball was courteously sent to us by the managers;* and though my 
 
 * During the winter of 1833-4, Chicago, for the first time, was enabled to 
 present a scene of social intercourse and gayety. A large emigration had 
 rushed in from all parts of the country. Chiefly young people, full of vivacity 
 and enthusiasm, mostly strangers to each other. Naturally they sought to 
 cultivate acquaintance and by social intercourse to lay the foundation for what
 
 A WINTER IN Till. WKSI'. i; 
 
 soiled and travel-worn riding-dress was not exactly the thin}^ .u> 
 present one's self in before ladies of an evening, yet, in my car 
 nestness to see life on the frontier, I easily allowed all ohjc-c lions 
 to be overruled by my companions, and we acctjrdin^jy drove to 
 the house in which the ball was given. It was a frame-building', 
 one of the few as yet to be found in Chicago; which, although 
 
 might be called society. Frequent gatherings at private houses, where danc- 
 ing, plays, and charades constituted their amusements, and familiarized ' ' 
 with each other. But beyond this, a number of what might be called \,u: ... 
 balls were given, to which everybody of respectability were invited. Among 
 the first of these was the one so graphically described in the text. The com- 
 pany could not be called select, in the strict sense of the term, but it was every 
 way respectable. The female population was considerably less than the male, 
 so it was necessary to secure the presence of all to equalize the sexes as far a-s 
 possible, and to secure respectable numbers. If the servant-girls were inviie<l 
 and danced in the same sets with their mistresses, it must be remembered that 
 those servant-girls were well-educated daughters of respectable families who- 
 had lately arrived, with more energy and intelligence than wealth, and wjjo 
 were willing to work at high wages to secure the means for a start in the new 
 place. Indeed, there was no place for drones or luxurious idlers in Chicago 
 then, and industry and frugality were alone respectable. Those girls who were 
 not ashamed to wait upon the table then were destined soon to become the 
 wives and mothers of whom Chicago has ever had cause to be proud. Then 
 were laid the foundations of Chicago society, and the result has shown tlicy 
 were well laid. 
 
 A printing-press had lately been established here by John Calhoun, so th.nt 
 ball-tickets could then be printed. We copy one of these tickets issued for .n 
 ball, given at the same hall as the one attended by Mr. Hoffman, and a few 
 weeks later, to show how such things were done nearly fifty years ago, and in 
 the very infancy of society in Chicago: 
 
 it 
 
 §il^ll|) 15Jl-^A-?t(5>. 
 
 Misses H. and L. Harmon are respectfully solicited at 
 Mr. Graves' Assembly Room,* on Wednesday, February jlh, 
 at 6 o'clock P. M. 
 
 R. A. KINZIE, ) d ( I. I' IlAKM'»N, 
 
 G. Spring, J '^ { J'"- ^- •'^^""'' 
 
 J. D. CaTON, ) ^, ( M. I- BKAIBIKN. 
 
 Chicago, February i, 1834." 
 1 Mn the rear part of what is now Nos. 82, 84, 86, and 88 Lake Street. I 
 It may be interesting to notice that three of the managers whose name.
 
 1 6 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 one of the most ancient French trading-posts on the Lakes, can 
 only date its growth as a village since the Indian war, eighteen 
 months since.* When I add that the population has qidntnpled 
 
 appear upon this ball-ticket are still living after the lapse of forty-eight years, 
 ziz.: Caton, Harmon, and Beaubien. We may note, too, that at that time it 
 was considered quite the thing to borrow a word from the Pottawatomies, who 
 still had their home here, which signifies a social dance as distinguished from 
 a war-dance. 
 
 The month of January had been very cold, and early in February the thaw 
 came and made the streets, or rather the low wet prairie, almost impassable; 
 so that the company had to be taken to the ball in lumber-wagons, or ox-carts, 
 or other similar heavy conveyance. Indeed, there were but few carriages in 
 the town and they could not be used when the mud was deep. For several 
 year^ after this, in place of carriages, one-horse carts were used by the ladies 
 in making calls, or in attending church, parties, or weddings, and when all did 
 it, it was considered quite the proper thing to do. In truth, in deep mud, it 
 was the most comfortable conveyance that could have been invented. A cart 
 half-filled with prairie-hay, covered with a buffalo-robe, and others for cover- 
 ing, which could be backed up to the door — sidewalks, except a single plank, 
 were then unknown in Chicago— out of which the passengers could step into 
 the house, and was the most comfortable and convenient thing imaginable. 
 As late as 1837 or 1838, and probably later, ladies did their shopping in these 
 horse-carts, and thus met each other wading through the mud with a merry 
 salutation, or at the stores and shops, in front of which their carts were ranged, 
 with a jolly, happy greeting, far more joyous than later, when they could go 
 in their landaus at any season of the year. — John Dean Caton, Chicago, 
 March 20th, 1882. 
 
 * The town of Chicago has become so important a place, and is so rapidly 
 developing its resources, as to call for a more particular notice than it receives 
 in the text. Its sudden strides to prosperity can be best estimated, however, 
 by first perceiving the condition and prospects of Chicago as they presented 
 themselves to Major Long's party when they visited it ten years .since. "The 
 village presents no cheering prospect, as, notwithstanding its antiquity, it con- 
 sists of but few huts, inhabited by a miserable race of men, scarcely equal to 
 the Indians, from whom they are descended. Their log or bark-laouses are 
 low, filthy, and disgusting, displaying nof the least trace of comfort. Chicago 
 is, perhaps, one of the oldest settlements in the Indian country. A fort is said 
 to have formerly existed there: mention is made of the place as having been 
 visited in 1671 by Perot, who found 'Chicagou' to be the residence of a power- 
 ful chief of the Miamis. The number of trails centering all at this spot, and 
 their apparent antiquity, indicate that this was probably for a long while the 
 site of a large Indian village. As a place of business, it offers no inducement 
 to the settler; for the whole annual amount of the trade on the Lake did not 
 exceed the cargo of five or six schooners, even at the time when the garrison 
 received its supplies from Mackinac. " — Long's Second Expedition, vol. i. p. 164. 
 
 Contrast this desolate picture— not with the representation made in the text,
 
 A WINTER TX lin.; WKST ,- 
 
 last summer, and that but few mechanics have come in with the 
 prodigious increase of residents, you can readily imagine that the 
 influx of strangers far exceeds the means of accommodation- 
 while scarcely a house in the place, however comforiahlclooking 
 outside, contains more than two or three finished rooms. In the 
 present instance, we were ushered into a tolorahly-sized dancing 
 room, occupying the second story of tlie house', and having its 
 vmfinished walls so ingeniously covered with pine branches and 
 flags borrowed from the garrison, that, with the whitewashed ceil- 
 ing above, it presented a very complete and quite pretty ai)i)ear- 
 ance. It was not so warm, however, that the fires of cheerful 
 hickory, which roared at either end, could have been readily dis- 
 pensed with. An orchestra of unplaned boards was raised against 
 the wall in the centre of the room ; the band consisted of a dandy 
 negro with his violin, a fine military-looking bass drummer from 
 the Fort, and a volunteer citizen, who alternately played an accom- 
 paniment upon the flute and triangle. Blackee, who flourished 
 about with a great many airs and graces, was decidedly the king 
 of the company; and it was amusing, while his head followed the 
 direction of his fiddle-bow with pertinacious fidelity, to see the 
 Captain Manual-like precision with which the soldier dressed to 
 the front on one side, and the nonchalant air of importance which 
 the cit attempted to preserve on the other. 
 
 As for the company, it was such a complete medley of all ranks, 
 ages, professions, trades, and occupations, brought together from 
 all parts of the world, and now for the first time brought together, 
 that it was amazing to witness the decorum with which they com- 
 mingled on this festive occasion. The managers (among whom 
 were some officers of the garrison) must certainly be an fait at 
 
 but — with the existing condition of the place, with the alterations that have 
 taken place since the writer left there, not yet a year ago. He is inforine<i hy 
 a gentleman, recently from Illinois, that Chicago, which but eighteen niontli^ 
 since cont4ined but two or three frame-buildings and a few miserable hut-., 
 has now five hundred houses, four hundred of which have been erecte.1 thi- 
 year, and two thousand two hundred inhabitants. A year ago, there w.as not 
 a place of public worship in the town; there are now five churches and two 
 school-houses, and numerous brick stores and warehouses. The shipping-lisls 
 of daily arrivals and departures show how soon the enterprise and activity of 
 our citizens have discovered and improved the capabilities of that port. 1 here 
 have been three hundred arrivals this year, and more than 50,000 <lol!ar> wortli 
 •of salt has been sold there this season, and of European and domestic mer- 
 chandise to the amount of 400,000 dollars. A line of four steam-boats, of 
 the largest class of lake-boats, and regular lines of brigs and schooners arc 
 now established between that port and the principal ports of the lower lakes. 
 It is gratifying to hear of .such improvement in the western country, and to 
 have predictions^ so recently made of the growth and prosperity of this jwint 
 in particular, thus far more than fulfilled. 
 2
 
 1 8 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 dressing a lobster and mixing regent's punch, in order to have 
 produced a harmonious compound from such a collection of con- 
 trarieties. The gayest figure that was ever called by quadrille- 
 playing Benoit never afforded me half the amusement that did 
 these Chicago cotillons. Here you might see a veteran officer in 
 full uniform balancing to a tradesman's daughter still in her short 
 frock and trousers, while there the golden aiguillette of a handsome 
 surgeon* flapped in unison with the glass beads upon a scrawny 
 neck of fifty. In one quarter, the high-placed buttons of a linsey- 
 woolsey coat would be dos a dos to the elegantly turned shoulders 
 of a delicate-looking Southern girl ; and in another, a pair of Cin- 
 derella-like slippers would chassez cross with a brace of thick-soled 
 broghans, in making which, one of the lost feet of the Colossus 
 of Rhodes may have served for a last. Those raven locks, dressed 
 a la Madoivie, over eyes of jet, and touching a cheek \\4iere blood 
 of a deeper hue mingles with fehe less glowing current from Euro- 
 pean veins, tell of a lineage drawn from the original owners of the 
 soil ; while these golden tresses, floating way from eyes of heaven's 
 own color over a neck of alabaster, recall the (lOthic ancestry of 
 some of "England's born." How piquantly do these trim and 
 beaded leggius peep from under that simple dress of black, as its 
 tall nut-brown wearer moves, as if unconsciously, through the 
 graceful mazes of the dance. How divertingly do those inflated 
 gigots, rising like windsails from that little Dutch-built hull, jar 
 against those tall plumes which impend over them like a commo- 
 dore's pennant on the same vessel. 
 
 But what boots all these incongruities, when a spirit of festive 
 good-humor animated every one \)resent? "It takes all kinds o 
 people to make a world," (as I hear it judiciously observed this 
 side the mountains); and why should not all these kinds of peo- 
 ple be represented as well in a ballroom as in a legislature? At 
 all events, if I wished to give an intelligent foreigner a favorable 
 opinion of the manners and deportment of my countrymen in the 
 aggregate, I should not wish a better opportunity, after explaining 
 to him the materials of which it was composed, and the mode in 
 which they were brought together from every section of the Union, 
 than was afforded by this very ball. "This is a scene of enchant- 
 ment to me, sir," observed an officer to me, recently exchanged 
 to this post, and formerly stationed here. "There were but a few' 
 traders around the Fort when I last visited Chicago; and now I 
 can't contrive where the devil all these well-dressed people have 
 come from!" I referred him to an old resident of three months 
 
 * Dr. Philip Maxwell, born at Guilford, Winham Co.,Vt., April 3, 1799; app'c 
 Ass't-.Surg. U.S.A., 1832; arr'd at Chicago, Mar. 15, 1833; died Nov. 5, 1859,
 
 A \\1N11;r in Tin; WKSI'. lo 
 
 standing, to whom I had just been introduced, but he could throw 
 no Hght u])on the subject; and we left the matter of i)c()|»lint; Chi- 
 cago in the same place where philosophers have put the (luc^tioii 
 of the original peopling of the continent. 1 made several new- 
 acquaintances at this new-year's ball, and jjarticularly with ihi- 
 officers of the garrison, from whose society I promise myself much 
 pleasure during my stay. 
 
 The geographical position of Chicago is so important, that I 
 must give you a more minute description of the place in my next. 
 Would that in folding this I could enclose you half the warm'wishfs 
 for your welfare Avhich the season awakens in my bosom ! 
 
 Chicago, III., yan. lo, iSj^. 
 I HAVE been here more than ten days, without fulfilling the 
 promise given in my last. It has been so cold, indeed, as almost 
 to render writing impracticable in a place so comfortless. 'J'he 
 houses were built with such rapidity, during the summer, as to be 
 mere shells; and the thermometer having ranged as low as 28 be- 
 low zero during several days, it has been almost impossible, not- 
 withstanding the large fires kept up by an attentive landlord, to 
 prevent the ink from freezing while using it, and one's fingers 
 become so numb in a very few moments when thus exercised. 
 that, after vainly trying to write in gloves, I ha\e thrown by my 
 pen, and joined the group, composed of all the household, around 
 the bai'-room fire. This room, which is an old log-cabin aside of 
 the main house, is one of the most comfortable places in town, 
 and is, of course, much frequented; business being, so f;ir as one 
 can judge from the concourse that throng it, nearly at a stand- 
 still. Several persons have been severely frost-bitten in paiising 
 from door to door; and not to mention the quantity of poultry 
 and pigs that have been frozen, an ox, I am told; has perished 
 from cold in the streets at noonday. An occasional Indian.* 
 
 * The indians that frequent the neighborhood of Chicago ( i)ronoiincc<l 
 Tskkazo^o), though not so numerous, are composed of the same ijiixturc of 
 different tribes which Major Long noticed ten years since. They are chit-dy 
 Pottawatomies and Ottawas, with a few Chippewas (n-ciic-pe-wag), and a 
 straggHng Kickapoo or Miami; and a great admixture of the diflcrenl lan- 
 guages (or rather dialects, for they are radically the same,) of the three hn.t 
 prevails there. Among them are many who have borne arms .ig.-iinst the 
 Americans; and some who doubtless took a part in the mas.sacre at the fall o 
 the place in 1S12. The particulars of that bloody affan- are yet mentioneU 
 with horror by the old settlers. They may be briefly summed up as follows: 
 
 It was soon after* the infamous surrender of (Sen. Hull .at Detroit, when, in 
 pursuance of the terms entered into with the enemy. by that onicer, who wa.s 
 commandant-in-chief upon the North-west frontier, Capt. Ilea.!, the com- 
 mandant at Chicago, prepared to surrendert his post to the brilish. 1 he 1 oi- 
 The day before, Aug. 15, 1812. ' Kraaiate.
 
 20 A WINTER IX THE WEST. 
 
 wrapped in his blanket, and dodging about from store to store 
 after a dram of whiskey; or a muffled-up Frenchman, driving 
 furiously in his cariole on the river, are almost the only human 
 beings abroad: while the wolves, driven in by the deep snows 
 which preceded this severe weather, troop through the town after 
 nightfall, and may be heard howling continually in the midst of it. 
 The situation of Chicago, on the edge of the Grand Prairie, 
 with the whole expanse of Lake Michigan before it, gives the 
 freezing winds from the Rocky Mountains prodigious effect, and 
 renders a degree of temperature, which in sheltered situations is 
 but little felt, almost painful here. 
 
 "The bleak winds 
 Do sorely ruftle; for many a mile about, 
 There's scarce a bush." 
 
 The town lies upon a dead level, along the banks of a narrow 
 forked river, and is spread oter a wide extent of surface to the 
 shores of the Lake, while vessels of considerable draught of water 
 can, by means of the river, unload in the centre of the place. I 
 believe I have already mentioned that four-fifths of the population 
 have come in since last spring; the erection of new buildings 
 during the summer has been in the same proportion : and although 
 
 lavvatomies and other hostile Indians in the vicinity were on the watch for the 
 movement; and on the morning when the garrisoa evacuated the place, they 
 had so completely succeeded in duping Capt. Wells, the credulous and unfor- 
 tunate Indian agent, that the fatal march of the 15th October,* 1812, was pre- 
 cipitated by his advice. The Americans were about seventy in number, with 
 several women and children; and they were escorted from the shelter of the 
 Fort by a band of about thirty Miamis. The road led along the beach of the 
 Lake, with those short sand-hills, spoken of in a previous letter, extending 
 along the route between the Lake and the open prairie. Behind these the British 
 Indians lay concealed; and when the Americans had proceeded about a mile 
 from the Fort, the wily enemy sprang from his lair, and poured down a mur- 
 derous fire from the beach. Capt. Heald immediately brought his men to a 
 charge, and drove the Indians from the nearest sand-hill; but their numbers 
 were so great that they formed instantly again upon his flank. His party was 
 surrounded; and while the Miamis in a manner withdrew their protection, 
 and helped to swell the number of his opponents, the little force of Captain 
 Heald was completely cut off from the women and children, who were cower- 
 ing beneath the baggage on the lake-shore. The Americans fought with des- 
 peration: but such a handful of men was soon cut to pieces; and scarcely a 
 man survived to witness the atrocities that were practised upon the helpless 
 creatures upon the beach. There were four officers killed upon the spot; 
 Capt. Heald and his wife were both badly wounded; and twelve childrent 
 were butchered on the shore, or shared the fate of their mothers, who ran 
 shrieking over the prairie. The unhappy Indian agent, who was among the 
 slain, is said to have had his breast cut open, and his heart roasted arid eaten 
 by the savage foe. 
 
 -August 15th, 1812. t Captain Heald's Letter, dated Pittsburg, October 23, 1S12.
 
 A WINTKR IX Till-: W l>r. 21 
 
 a place of such mushroom growth can, of cuurse, boast of but 
 httle soHd improvement in the way of l)uilding, yet contracts have 
 been made for the ensuing season which must soon give C'hicago 
 much of that metropohtan appearance it is destined so promptly 
 to assume. As a pkice of lousiness, its situation at the central 
 head of the Mississippi ^'aUe\• will make it tlie New Orleans of 
 the North; and its easy and close intercourse with the most tlour 
 ishing Eastern cities will give it the advantage, as its capital in- 
 creases, of all their improvements in the mode of living. 
 
 There is one improvement to be made, however, in this section 
 of the country, which will greatly influence the permanent value 
 of property in Chicago. I allude to a canal from the head of 
 Lake Michigan to the head of the steam navigation on the Illi- 
 nois, the route of which has been long since surveyed. The 
 distance to be overcome is something like ninety miles; and when 
 you remember that the head-waters of the Illinois rise within 
 eleven miles of Chicago River,'' and that a level plain of not 
 more than eight feet elevation above the latter is the only inter- 
 vening obstacle, you can conceive how easy it would be to drain 
 Lake Michigan into the Mississippi by this route: boats of eigh- 
 
 * "The Chicago River, is about two [one] hundred and fifty feet wide, has 
 sufficient depth of water for lake-vessels to where it forks in the centre of the 
 town. The southern and principal branch takes its rise about six miles from 
 the Fort, in a swamp, which communicates also with Desplaines, one of tiie 
 head branches of the Illinois. This swamp, which is designated by the Can.y 
 dian voyageurs as Le Petit Lac, is navigable at certain seasons of the year: it 
 has been frequently traveled by traders in their pirogues; and a bateau from 
 St. Louis, loaded with provisions for the garrison at Chicago, has through thi- 
 medium passed from the Mississippi into Lake Michigan. Major Long ob- 
 serves, upon passing through this marsh in a canoe, " We were delighted at 
 beholding for the first time a feature so interesting in itself, but which we had 
 afterward an opportunity of observing frequently on the route; rt:.: the divi- 
 sion of waters starting from the same source and running in two chfTerent direc- 
 tions, so as to become the feeders of streams that discharge themselves into 
 the ocean/at immense distances apart. '' * * When we consider the 
 facts above stated, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion that an elevation 
 of the Lakes a few feel (not e.xceeding ten or twelve) above their present cvcl 
 would cause them to discharge their waters, partly at least, into the t.im " 
 Mexico. That such a discharge has at one time existed, every one con^xr«ln 
 with the nature of the country must admit; and it is equally ^Pf'^"'/.''"' ^'' 
 expenditure trifling in comparison to the importance of the object w..uia ai.ain 
 render Lake Michigan a tributary of the Mexican C.ulf. 
 
 " In July, 1S33, Giles Spring and myself went in a large canoe from Chicago 
 to Riverside, passing through Mud-Lake. At the dividing part of the water, 
 we paused, and diverted ourselves by sending the water either into the (.«ll 
 of Mexico or the Gulf of St. Lawrence by a single motion of the paddle. ^- 
 JOHN Dean Caton, Chicago, April 7, 18S2.
 
 22 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 teen tons have actually passed over the intervening prairie at high 
 water. Lake Michigan, which is several feet above Lake Erie, 
 would afiford such a never-failing body of water, that it would 
 keep steam-boats afloat on the route in the dryest season. St. 
 Louis would then be brought comparatively near to New York; 
 while two-thirds of the Mississippi Valley would be su]3plied by 
 this route immediately from the markets of the latter. This canal 
 is the only remaining link wanting to complete the most stupen- 
 dous chain of inland communication in the world. I had a long 
 conversation this morning on the subject with Major H.,* the 
 
 * Henry S. Handy, born about 1804, and educated at Pontiac, N. Y. 
 
 Practised law and edited a newspaper at Salem, Indiana Annotator, for three 
 years, about 1827. He was afterward, for a time, in the Pension Office at 
 Washington. Came to Chicago June 17, 1833, as Assistant- Superintendent 
 of Chicago Harbor; appointed by President Jackson. 
 
 Died at Byfield, Mich., in 1846. 
 
 Chicago, III., April jtli, 1882. 
 
 Dear Sir: — Complying with request contained in your note of the 23d ult.. 
 I have made investigation in relation to the "Major H." referred to in "Hoff- 
 man's Winter in the West, 1834," and am satisfied that through some mistake, 
 probably in copying from the original manuscript, the letter " H " has been 
 substituted for "A." 
 
 In 1834, the construction of the pier was in charge of Lieut. James Allen, 
 ist-Dragoons, U. S. Army, serving on Engineer duty at this place from Janu- 
 ary 10, 1834, to October 15, 1836. A synopsis of his military record, taken 
 from " Cullom's Register of the Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy, " 
 is as follows: 
 
 James Allen. Graduate No. 575. Class Rank, jj. 
 
 Born in Ohio. Appointed from Indiana. 
 
 Military History: Cadet at the U. S. Military Academy from July i, 1825, 
 to July I, 1829, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to Bvt.- 
 2d-Lieut., 5th Infantry, July i, 1829. 2d-Lieut., 5th Infantry, July i, 1829. 
 Served on frontier duty at Fort Brady, Mich., 1829-33, and Fort Dearborn. 
 111., (2d-Lieut., ist-Dragoons, March 4, 1833,) 1833-34. On Engineer duty, 
 Jan. 10, 1834, to Oct. 15, 1836. On Frontier duty, (ist-Lieut., ist-Dragoons, 
 May 31, 1835,) at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., 1837. On Engineer duty, April 
 10, 1837, to Dec. 28 (Captain, ist-Dragoons, June 30, 1837), 1838. On 
 Frontier duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., 1839 and '40. Pottawatomie coun- 
 try, 1840. Fort Leavenworth, Kan., 1840-42. Fort Gibson, I. T., 1842. 
 March to Fort Atkinson, lo., 1842. Fort .Sanford, lo., 1842. Raccoon 
 Fork, lo., 1843. Fort DesMoines, lo., 1843-44. Raccoon Fork, lo., 1844. 
 Fort DesMoines, lo., 1844-45. lixpedition to Lac qui parle, 1845. Fort 
 DesMoines, lo., 1845-46; and in the War with Mexico, 1846, as Lieut.-
 
 A Wl.XrKR IN THE WKST. 23 
 
 United States' engineer, who is engaged in superinlemliiig tin- 
 construction of a pier at this place.* He was polite enough Xo 
 sketch the main features of the route with his i)encil, in sucli a 
 manner as to make its feasibility very apparent. The canal would 
 pass for the whole distance through a prairie country, where evcr\ 
 production of the held and tlie garden can be raised with scarcel) 
 any toil, and where the most prolific soil in the world reciuires no 
 other preparation for planting than passing the i)lough over its 
 
 Colonel, commanding Mormon Battalion of Missouri Volunteers, on the inarcli 
 to New Mexico, July 16 to August 23, 1846. 
 
 ]J)ied, August 23, 1846, at Fort Leavenwortli, Kan. Aged 40. 
 
 In addition to the above, it may be of interest to note in this connection 
 that while on duty at Fort Brady, Mich. (Sault Ste. Marie), in 1832, beinj; 
 then a lieutenant of the 5th Infantrj', he accompanied .Schoolcraft on an expe- 
 dition to, and beyond, the sources of the Mississippi River, and on his return. 
 submitted a very interesting report and map of the expedition, whicli were 
 printed in Ex. Doc. No. 323; H. R., ist Sess., 23d Congress. 
 
 Referring to his death at Fort Leavenworth, while in command of the Mor- 
 mon Battalion en route to Mexico, Capt. T. J. Lee, a graduate of the U. .s. 
 Military Academy, in the Class of 1830, speaks of it as "A great loss to thr 
 Service. " Respectfully yours, 
 
 C. J. Lydecker, Major of Engineers, U.S.A. 
 
 * Chicago Harbor.— The following figures, giving the amounts appro- 
 priated in the years named by Congress for the Improvement of the Harbor 
 at this Tort, will prove interesting. The work done by the Government in- 
 cludes the straightening at the mouth of the river, and the building of the 
 outer harbor south of the piers, and the work already done under Maj. G. J. 
 Lydecker's supervision north of the entrance to the river. When the comple- 
 tion and placing in position of the cribs for the outer breakwater north of the 
 lighthouse, a safe harbor of refuge will be afforded for all the vessels that ar- 
 rive at the port. The following are the appropriations and the years in which 
 they \^re made : 
 
 1833 $25,000 
 
 1834 32,801 
 
 1835 32,800 
 
 1836 32,000 
 
 1837 - 40,000 
 
 1838 --- 30,000 
 
 1843 25,000 
 
 1844 - 30,000 
 
 1852 20,000 
 
 1866 88,704 
 
 1868 35,000 
 
 1870 100,000 
 
 1871 ..- \QO,<XXi 
 
 1872 '^.«» 
 
 1873 ...- '^•0°° 
 
 ,874 75.000 
 
 1875 "•'^•«« 
 
 1876.. 5-«» 
 
 1878 75.000 
 
 1879 "i^'"^ 
 
 18S0 '45.000 
 
 _. 1881 _i55:2E2 
 
 1869 29^700! Total, $1,404,005 
 
 -Daily Chicago Trilnotc, March 30, 1882.
 
 24 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 bosom. I'he most effectual mode of making this canal would be 
 to give the lands along its banks to an incorporated company^ 
 who should construct the work within a certain time. The mat- 
 ter is now merely agitated at elections as a political handle. 
 
 yajuiary ij. 
 
 I have got thus far in a letter to you, when several officers of 
 the garrison, to whom I am indebted for much hospitable atten- 
 tion and many agreeable hours, stopped opposite the door with a 
 train of carioles, in one of which I was offered a seat, to witness- 
 a pacing-match on the ice. There were several ladies with gen- 
 tlemen in attendance already on the river, all muffled up, after the 
 Canadian fashion, in fur robes, whose gay trimmings presented a 
 rich as well as most comfortable appearance. The horses, from 
 which the most sport was expected, were a black pony bred in the 
 country, and a tall roan nag from the lower Mississippi. They 
 paced at the rate of a mile in something less than three minutes. 
 I rode behind the winning horse one heat, and the velocity with 
 which he made our cariole fly over the smooth ice was almost 
 startling. The Southern horse won the race; but I was told that 
 in nine cases out of ten, the nags from his part of the country 
 could not stand against a French pony. 
 
 In the middle of the chase, a wolf, probably roused by the 
 sleigh-bells from his lair on the river's bank, trotted along the 
 prairie above, within gunshot, calmly surveying the sport. The 
 uninvited presence of this long-haired amateur at once suggested 
 a hunt for the morrow, and arrangements were accordingly made^ 
 by the several gentlemen present, for that most exciting of sports, 
 a wolf-chase on horseback. 
 
 It was a fine bracing morning, with the sun shining cheerily- 
 through the still cold atmosphere far over the snow-covered prai- 
 rie, when the party assembled in front of my lodgings, to the 
 number of ten horsemen, all well mounted and eager for the 
 sport. The hunt was divided into two squads; one of which was 
 to follow the windings of the river on the ice, and the other to 
 make a circuit on the prairie. A pack of dogs, consisting of a 
 greyhound or two for running the game, Avith several of a heavier 
 and fiercer breed for pulling it down, accompanied each party. 
 I was attached to that which took the river; and it was a beauti- 
 ful sight, as our friends trotted off in the prairie, to see their dif- 
 ferent colored capotes and gayly e(iuipped horses contrasted with 
 the bright carpet of spotless white over which they rode, while the 
 sound of their voices was soon lost to our ears, as we descended 
 to the channel of the river, and their lessening figures were hid
 
 A WINTER IN rilK WHST. 2$ 
 
 from our view by the low brush which in some places skirted iis 
 banks. The brisk trot in which we now broke, brought us ra|ji(lly 
 to the place of meeting; where, to the disappoininient of i.-a<:h 
 party, it was found that neither had started any game. Wc nciw 
 spread ourselves into a broad line, about gunshot ajiart from each 
 other, and began thus advancing into the prairie. We iiad not 
 swept it thus more than a mile, when a shout on the e.xtreme left, 
 with the accelerated pace of the two furthermost riders in that 
 direction, told that they had roused a wolf " The devil take the 
 hindermost," was now the motto of the company, and each one 
 spurred for the spot with all eagerness. Unhappily, Jiowever, the 
 land along the bank of the river, on the right, was so broken by 
 ravines, choked up with snow, that it was impo.ssible for us, who 
 were half-a-mile from the game when started, to come up at all 
 with the two or three horsemen who led the pursuit. Our horses 
 sunk to their cruppers in the deep snow-drift. Some were re|)eat- 
 edly thrown ; and one or two, breaking their saddle-girth.s, from 
 the desperate struggles their horses made in the snow-banks, were 
 compelled to abandon the chase entirely. My stout roan carried 
 me bravely through all; but when I emerged from the last ravine 
 on the open plain, the two horsemen who led the chase, from 
 some inequality in the surface of the prairie, were not visil)le; 
 while the third, a fleet rider, whose tall figure and Indian head- 
 dress had hitherto guided me, had been just unhorsed, and, aban- 
 doning the game afoot, was now wheeling off apparently with 
 some other object in view. Following on the same course, we 
 soon encountered a couple of oflicers in a train, who were just 
 coming from a mission of charity in visiting the half- starved or- 
 phans of a poor woman,* who was frozen to death on the prairie, 
 a day or two since— the wolves having already picked her bones 
 before her fate became known. One by one, our whole i)arty 
 collected around to make inquiries about the poor children. 
 
 It <vas now about eleven o'clock ; we were only twel\ e miles 
 from Chicago; and though we had kept up a pretty round pace, 
 considering the depth of the snow, in coursing backward and for- 
 ward since eight, our horses generally were yet in good condition, 
 and we scattered once more over the prairie, with the hope ot 
 rousing more game. 
 
 * "Mrs. Smith, wife of a Mr. Smith residing at Bhie Isl.nmi, "''o '«;;' ''''^ 
 place 2d of January (which was the coldest day ^e have experienced t h s «,n 
 ter) for her home, and when within a mile and a half of her ^^'^ ''"g.;»; J"^ 
 benumbed (ind exhausted to rise no more. ^Vhen found, -^'!*= V\; ^'^ fi^ 
 mangled and torn to pieces by the wolves. She has le t .a husb.ind and h>c 
 children to mourn her untimely end."-C/nca!;o Democrat, Jan. -N l^J4•
 
 26 A WIXTER IX THE WEST. 
 
 Not ten minutes elaped before a wolf, breaking from the dead 
 -weeds which, shooting eight or ten feet above the level of the 
 .snow, indicated the banks of a deep ravine, dashed off into the 
 prairie, pursued by a horseman on the right. He made instantly 
 for the deep banks of the river, one of whose windings was within 
 a few hundred yards. He had a bold rider behind him, however, 
 in the gentleman who led the chase (a young educated half-blood, 
 of prepossessing manners, and well connected at Chicago*). 
 The precipitous bank of the stream did not retard this hunter 
 for a moment; but, dashing down to the bed of the river, he was 
 hard upon the wolf before he could ascend the elevation on the 
 opposite side. Four of us only reached the open prairie beyond 
 in time to take part in the chase. Nothing could be more beauti- 
 ful. There was not an obstacle to oppose us in the open plain; 
 and all our dogs having long since given out, nothing remained but 
 to drivethe wolf to death on horseback. Away, then, we went, shout- 
 ing on his track; the hotly-pursued beast gaining on us whenever the 
 crust of a deep snow-drift gave him an advantage over the horse, 
 and we in our turn nearly riding over him when we came to ground 
 comparatively bare. The sagacious animal became at last aware 
 that his course would soon be up at this rate, and turning rapidly 
 in his tracks as we were scattered over the prairie, he passed 
 through our line, and made at once again for the river. He was 
 cut off and turned in a moment by a horseman on the left, who 
 happened to be a little behind the rest; and now came the keen- 
 est part of the sport. The wolf would double every moment 
 u])on his tracks, while each horseman in succession would make 
 
 " Madore Benjamin Beaubien was born at Grand River, Mich., July 15, 
 1809, and is the second and oldest living son of the late Gen. Jean Baptiste 
 Beaubien, whose grandfather was a Frenchman, and Mah-naw-bun-no-quah, 
 his first wife, a Pottawatomie woman. His early days were spent in Chicago 
 and vicinity. When about fourteen, he was sent to school at Carey Mission, 
 near Niles, Mich., then in charge of Rev. Isaac McCoy, where he was pre- 
 pared for and sent to Hamilton College, Madison Co., X.Y., being there four 
 3'ears — his elder brother, Charles H., who died about 1858, was educated 
 at Princeton College, N.J. — he was a member of the first Board of Trustees 
 of the Town of Chicago; was a merchant and did business on the S.-W. cor. 
 of South Water and Dearborn Streets, and his old-time partner was our well- 
 known citizen, Dr. ^'alentine A. Boyer, whose sister was Mr. Beaubien's first 
 wife. He left Chicago for his Western home, in the fall of 1840, with his 
 Pottawatomie friends, whose business agent he has been, as well as the Mayor 
 of the city near where they now reside, .Silver Lake, .Shawnee Co., Kansas. — 
 Geo. H. Fergus, Chicago, April 12, 1S82.
 
 A WINTKR IX Till'; \Vi;ST. 
 
 27 
 
 I dash at and turn him in a different direction. Twice I was near 
 enough to strike him with a liorsewhip. and once he was under my 
 horse's feet; while so furiously did each rider ])ush at him, that as 
 we brushed by each other and confronted horse to horse, while- 
 Tiding from different quarters at full speed, it re<|uired one some- 
 what used "to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus" to maintain his 
 seat at all. The rascal, who would now and then look over liis 
 shoulder and gnash his teeth, seemed at last as if he was about 
 to succumb; when, after running a few hundred yards in an 
 oblique direction from the river, he suddenly veered his course, 
 at a moment when every one thought his strength was s])ent, and 
 gaining the bank before he could be turned, he disa])peared in an 
 instant. The rider nearest to his heels became entangled in the 
 low boughs of a tree which grew near the spot; while I, who fol- 
 lowed next, was thrown out sufticiently to give the wolf time to 
 get out of view by my horse bolting as he reached the sudden 
 edge of the river. The rest of the hunt were conseciueiitly at 
 fault when they came up to us; and after trying in vain to track 
 our lost quarry over the smooth ice for half an hour, we were most 
 vexatiously compelled to abandon the pursuit as fruitless, and pro- 
 ceed to join the other squad of our party, who could now be seen 
 at some distance, apparently making for the same point to which 
 our route was leading. A thicket on the bank soon hid them fron) 
 our view; and we then moved more leisurel\- along in order to 
 breathe our horses. But suddenly the distant cry of hounds gave 
 intimation that new game was a-foot; and, on topping a slight 
 elevation, we discerned a party of horsemen far awa\'. with three 
 wolves running apparently about a pistol-shot ahead of them. 
 Our squad was dispersed in an instant. Some struck off at once 
 in the prairie, in a direct line for their object, and were .soon 
 brought to in the deep snow-banks: others, taking a more circuit- 
 ous course, proceeded to double the ravines that were filled with 
 the freacherous drift; and some, more fortunate, took to the 
 frozen river, where the clatter of their hoofs on the hard ice 
 seemed to inspirit their horses anew. I chanced to be one of the 
 latter, and was moreover the first to catch sight again of one o! 
 the animals we were pursuing, and find mysel! nearer to Inm than 
 any of our party. The wolf was of the large gray kind. Hut one 
 of the hunters had been able to keep uj) with him; ancl him 1 
 could distinguish far off in the prairie, turning and winding n.s 
 foaming horse as the wolf would double every in..meiit upon his 
 tracks, while half-a-dozen dogs, embarrassed in the deep rmov,. 
 were slowly coming up. 1 reached the spot just as the woll first 
 stood at bay. His bristling back, glaring eyes, and ler... .ous|^
 
 28 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 distended jaws might have appalled the dogs for a moment; when 
 an impetuous greyhound, who had been for some time pushing 
 through the snow-drifts with unabated industry, having now 
 attained a comparatively clear spot of ground, leaped with such 
 force against the flank of the wolf as to upset him in an instant, 
 while the greyhound shot far ahead of the quarry. He recovered 
 himself instantly, but not before a fierce, powerful hound, whose 
 thick neck and broad muzzle indicated a cross of the bull-dog 
 blood with that of a nobler strain, had struck him first upon the 
 haunch, and was now trying to grapple him by the throat. Down 
 again he went, rolling over and over in the deep snow, while the 
 clicking of his jaws, as he snapped eagerly at each member of the 
 pack that by turns beset him, was distinctly audible. The power- 
 ful dog, already mentioned, secured him at last by fixing his muz- 
 zle deeply into the breast of the prostrate animal. This, however^ 
 did not prevent the wolf giving some fearful wounds to the other 
 dogs which beset him; and, accordingly, with the permission of 
 the gentleman who had led the chase, 1 threw myself from my 
 horse, and gave the game the coup-de-grace with a dirk-knife which 
 I had about me. Two of our party soon after joined us, each 
 with a prairie-wolf hanging to his saddle-bow; and the others 
 gradually collecting, we returned to Chicago, contented at last 
 with the result of our morning's sport. 
 
 It was with no enviable feelings, I assure you, that, on making 
 my arrangements an hour ago to start in the new line of stage- 
 coaches which has just been established between this point and 
 St. Louis, I found myself compelled to part with the friend to 
 whom I was chiefly indebted for my share in the glorious sports 
 I have just attempted to describe to you — the four-footed com- 
 panion of my last six weeks' rambles. I remember being once 
 struck with the remark of an ingenious writer in the Library of 
 Useful Knowledge, when, in discussing the real and the relative 
 value of horses, he observes that the commonest hackney, if in 
 every respect suiting his owner, is priceless to the possessor. A 
 favorite horse, in fact, though his estimation may only depend 
 upon the whim of his master, is one of this world's goods which 
 can never be thoroughly replaced. It is not, however, when the 
 charge of such property falls exclusively to grooms and others 
 from one end of the year to another that you feel its value : the 
 stall-fed palfrey, which you drive along a turnpike from one hotel 
 to another, and abandon when he falls sick for some other means 
 of conveyance, with as little concern as you would exchange your 
 trunk for a portmanteau, or vice versa, has but little hold on one's 
 feelings in comparison with the hearty animal witli which you
 
 A WINTER IN TIIK Wl.ST. 29 
 
 wander away, where he meets with no care but such as you bestow 
 upon him; and when you in turn become wholly dcitendc-nl upon 
 him for overcoming distances and difficulties Ix-twcen jjlaccs so 
 remote from each other, that not only your comfort, but some- 
 times your personal safety, depend upon'acc()mi)lishing the inter- 
 vals within certain periods; when you push ahead through falling 
 sleet, ford rivers, plunge through snow-banks, or cross morasses, 
 where the matted grass, spreading its carpet over the shaking 
 slough, embarrasses and wearies the stej) of your sagacious ([uad- 
 ruped, while it prevents his feet from sinking into the dangerous 
 quagmire beneath. Three weeks of such intercourse between 
 man and brute are like three rainy days when one is shut up in a 
 country-house with strangers: they cherish a fellowshijj more cor- 
 dial than years of ordinary intercourse could engender. It is no 
 little consolation to me ihat I leave my Bucephalus in excellent 
 hands; nor does this necessary separation so engross my syin|)a- 
 thies that I have none to spare for other partings. Upoi: these 
 however, I shall not dilate here ; though you must not be surprised 
 to find me returning more than once hereafter to characters, 
 scenes, and incidents at Chicago, which 1 have hitherto left un- 
 touched. 
 
 Banks of the Au Sabi.i:. Illinois, jfaii. /j. 
 
 It was about eight o'clock, and a bright, cold morning, when a 
 handsome four-horse stage-coach, built in New York, and placed 
 with more liberality than judgment on a route where a broad- 
 tired, low-hung, and light wagon would be much more appropri- 
 ate, — drove up to my cpiarters at Chicago; and, having received 
 my luggage, crossed the river on the ice, and was, a few moments 
 after, traveling through the deep snow over the Crand Prairie. 
 My fellow-passengers were, a respectable, middle-aged female and 
 a smartly-dressed young man of amiable appearance, who.se hand 
 some'' broadcloth suit, worn as a traveling-dress, besi;uke the fav- 
 ored beau of some country village, or possibly a thriving young 
 clerk from the city, engaged upon some agency business, and 
 traveling in the style which he thought would best comport with 
 the dignity of his emplovers. The driver was also accompanied 
 on the box by a well-made young half-blood Chip])ewa. ol about 
 five-and-twenty, who had come down from Mackmac to se A em- 
 ployment, and was now going further south for the same object. 
 The air being rather sharp on the prairie, the lady took •i^t j-^'i^* 
 between the young gentleman and myself and thus wedged in 
 together, we contrived to keep very comfortable : though our near 
 neighborhood did not render us more communicative than people
 
 30 A WINTER IX Tin: WEST. 
 
 generally are after an early Ijreaktast. We merely exchanged the 
 ordinary commonplaces whicji custom exacts from people thus 
 thrown together; and then, unless when a wolf passing near our 
 track, or a particularly large pack of grouse rising before us, 
 called forth some exclamation, but few words were spoken by any 
 of the company. At length, after having counted six wolves 
 within twice as many miles, we approached a grove of timber, 
 where, while the trees grew quite densely in the centre, a few 
 thin rows shot out like a reef of rocks from the shadowy island, 
 far into the prairie. Here, on the edge of a deep gully, through 
 which winds the River Au Plaine, was the log-tavern at which {he 
 first stage of our day's journey, being twelve miles, concluded. 
 The horses were in a complete foam with their exertions in get- 
 ting through the deep snow-drifts across the prairie, and I easily 
 persuaded the driver to abandon the comibrtable but cumbersome 
 vehicle which had brought us so far, and hitch his smoking team, 
 which had still twelve miles to go, to a rough but strongly-built 
 sled before the door. My fellow-passengers approved the arrange- 
 ment, and subsequent events proved it a very fortunate one; for 
 so deep was the snow on many parts of the road afterward tra- 
 versed, that it would have been impracticable to get a wheel- 
 carriage forward, and it must have been deserted on the prairie. 
 There was much to do, however, about our new equipage, before 
 we could get started; and while our driver looked after his horses, 
 one of the passengers had to shovel the snow out of the sleigh, 
 another, to drive a pin through the tongue, in order to fasten on 
 the leaders ; and a third, after filling the bottom with hay, to ad- 
 just the baggage, etc. All this, with the aid of the stout Chippe- 
 wa and the active young eastern traveler, was soon eftected; and 
 the former, taking his seat with the driver on a board in front, 
 while the latter shared half of my buffalo robes, and stowed him- 
 self upon the hay with me in the rear : tnadamc was well accom- 
 modated, with the cushions taken from the stage, on a trunk 
 placed in the middle; and some heated stones being brought 
 from the house and placed beneath her feet, just as we started, 
 no grandmother could sit more comfortably in her cushioned pew 
 in old Trinity. A fast drive of twelve miles brought us at noon 
 to another island of timber, where a little piquant girl of sixteen, 
 ■with !?loe-black eyes and glossy locks as dark as night, arranged a 
 plain but neat meal for us, and gave a rehsh to the entertainment 
 by loosing one of the most vivacious tongues I had heard wag in 
 the last three months. Here we changed horses, and a ride of 
 sixteen miles more brought us about nightfall to a place called 
 "Walker's Grove,"" where two or three log-huts were sheltered
 
 A WINTKR 1\ Till': WKsT. 3, 
 
 from the north wind under an island of tall tinil)cr, and in one ui 
 which we have established ourselves for the iii_t;ht. A pile of bur- 
 oak, which makes a capital fire, flames up the enormous woodc-n 
 chimney before me, and a number of stout yeomen around it, 
 engaged in discussing the price of horses on the Wabash, prevent 
 me, while handling a matter of such moment, from cnlar^-inj^ 
 more upon the few objects of interest which have presented them- 
 selves today. 
 
 • Ottawa, li iinois, yanuary 16. 
 
 I was hardly dressed this morning, wiien my only remaining 
 fellow-traveler — the lady and the half-blood having parted com- 
 pany last evening — called me to the door to "see the cloud ot 
 prairie hetis before it."' I looked out, and there indeed, true 
 enough, the oaks within gun-shot of the porch were so loaded 
 with grouse, that they showed more like a flock of pigeons than 
 a covey of game birds. Having broken my gun, however, it was 
 intolerably vexatious to see such capital shots thrown away; while 
 these fine birds, in those districts where I was prepared to bag 
 them, were too wild to approach within shooting distance at all. 
 
 The sleigh soon after came to the door, our driver having dimin- 
 ished his team by two horses, to meet probably the reduction of 
 passengers already mentioned : and about a hundred yards from 
 the house, we crossed a broad brook, known as the Au .Sable 
 River, and commenced ascending the bank beyond. Hut the 
 snow was deep, and the heavy drift having had its surfice frozen 
 over during the preceding night, our single pair of horses were 
 unable to drag through it the clumsy sled l)ehind them. They 
 ])lunged in up to their chests. "Go ahead, Sam! gie up, >Iajor 
 shouted the driver. But Sam was thoroughly planted; while the 
 Major, in trying to sustain his military character by <jlieying 
 orders, gave one spring, and, floundering over the traces, was 
 buried in the snow up to his crupper, and placed, nolens vol f us. in 
 full as quiescent a condition as the already settled Sam. For all 
 of us to get out and take hold of the bits was the next move: 
 but it wouldn't do. Sam, indeed, seemed a little mclmed to 
 make a retrograde movement, by kicking out the footboard with 
 his heels; while the Major, having gathered new energy for .in- 
 other charge, wasted his fire in lifting up his knees as high as his 
 mouth, and ineff"ectually throwing his fore hoois in advance on 
 the crusted snow; handling his feet the while much alter the maiv 
 ner of the rampant unicorn on a calico stamj), who, unmindlul 
 of the mottoed garter he treads under his foot, so bravelv ijaus 
 the crown which the complaisant lion is pushing toward hi" 
 
 im.
 
 32 A WINTER IX THE WEST. 
 
 'J'he driver at last became convinced of the necessity of return- 
 ing for another pair of horses ; and a young colt called Blackhawk, 
 with a hoary old plough-horse named Judge, were, after a little 
 delay, procured, and placed in advance of Sam and the Major on 
 the top of the bank. Poor Sam seemed to dislike having the 
 Judge's fetlocks brought so immediately in contact with his nose, 
 they being nearly on a horizontal line; and he was accordingly 
 inclined to retreat upon his haunches, beneath which the snow 
 formed so easy a cushion ; but a single crack from the driver's 
 whip sent the Major charging so vigorously' upon Blackhawk, that 
 the sable young chief gave a bound which carried us through the 
 difficulty in a trice, and sent our vehicle skimming far over the 
 prairie. 
 
 The grove in which we had passed the night soon vanished 
 from sight, and a boundless expanse of snow-covered surface lay 
 like an ocean before us. The arch of the clear blue sky seemed 
 to spring at once from the silvered earth, which shown under the 
 bright January sun with an intensity almost painful to the eye. 
 The blue vault above, and the white plain below, were the only 
 objects that met its glances as they roamed for miles around; yet 
 no one could complain of sameness in the tints of a picture so 
 vast, a scene so illimitable. The immensity of the prospect 
 seemed to exclude the idea of monotony, and perfect solitude was 
 only wanting in such a scene to make one feel its grandeur. The 
 lively rattle of my companion, however, whose society, after travel- 
 ing so long entirely alone, I found no slight acquisition, prevented 
 me from realizing its full effect; and when, after riding for about 
 twelve miles, an island of timber hove in sight, while the beautiful 
 sky of the morning clouded over, and the cold wind, which began 
 to set in from the west, indicated that the twelve miles we had 
 yet to travel before we should reach the first house across this 
 arm of the prairie would be anything but agreeable, — I was con- 
 tented to wrap myself as closely as possible in my buffalo robe, 
 and join him in a game oi prairie loo. Lest you might search 
 vainly in Hoyle for this pastime, I must inform you that the game 
 consists merely in betting upon the number of wild animals seen 
 b}" either party toward the side of the vehicle on which he is rid- 
 ing, a wolf or deer counting ten, and a grouse one. The game is 
 a hundred ; and you may judge of the abundance of these animals 
 from our getting through several games before dinner, — my com- 
 panion looing me with eleven wolves. Some of these fellows 
 would stand looking at us within half-gunshot, as we rode by them; 
 while tlie grouse would rise continually from under our very horses' 
 feet.
 
 A WIMKR l.\ uii; WKST. 
 
 a 
 
 Before we had got through the twenty-four miles, the scent- 
 enacted at starting was to be repeated with iniprovL-nicnt ; for on 
 coniing to the edge of a frozen gully, our two leaders, in ihcir 
 anxiety to avoid former difficulties, gave such a spring that they 
 sunk through the ice to their shoulders on the ojiposite side; 
 while the wheel-horses, being thrown down, were driven by ihe 
 runners of the sleigh against the sharp edges of the ice tluis ex 
 posed, and one of them was terribly lacerated. It was the unfor- 
 tunate Sam, who, poor fellow, not laaving been watered since the 
 morning, lay quietly on his side in the traces, with his fore-legs 
 up the slope, and his hinder ones in the pool, eating the snow 
 thus brought in contact with his mouth, apparently j)errectly un- 
 conscious of his wounds. Blackhawk and the Judge, of course, 
 came to an anchor when they found such an accumulated weight 
 dragging behind them; while the spirited Major seemed to be 
 thoroughly dejected at this second discomfiture, and allowed us to 
 turn him over and jnit him on his feet with scarcely the interposi- 
 tion of a struggle. Not far from the scene of this catastrophe, we 
 crossed the Au Page, a narrow stream, with smooth banks, utterly 
 divested of shrubbery; and after, in the next eight miles, encoun- 
 tering two or three tremendous snow-banks, where our horses 
 were frequently immersed to their cruppers, and whence nothing 
 but the leaders, from their firm footing beyond, dragging the 
 wheel-horses through the heavy drift, could have extricated us, we 
 reached a beautiful grove of elms and oaks, and stopped to change 
 our worn-out team. 
 
 Entering a log-cabin, not at all diftering from the usual dwell- 
 ings of the frontier settlers, I found a choice collection of books 
 in one corner,— a volume, a fine old edition, of Algernon Sidney's 
 works being the first book I took up; and, upon entering into con- 
 versation with the occupants of the cabin, I found that degree ol 
 general cultivation which, though not unfrecjuently met with on 
 the frontier, still always strikes a stranger with novelty; and yet I 
 know no reason while the fullest expanding of the intellect is m- 
 compatible with the handling of an axe, or the most luxunani 
 development of the imagination with following the plough. 'I'he 
 farmer, of all operatives, has, perhaps, the most time tor nnprove- 
 ment; and when he dwells in a land where, while Nature showers 
 her choicest bounties, man passes toward it from every side, and 
 contributes on his new coming to the general stock of ideas. 
 keeping, by this lively interchange, those already afloat m a«:tive 
 circulation, there is everything in his circumstances to make him 
 acute and reflective, and to liberalize his mind, if not to i)olish 
 his manners. 
 3
 
 34 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 It would be giving you a wrong impression, however, did I 
 allow you to gather from this that the oldest western settlers of 
 this country are by any means so familiar with books as the emi- 
 grants from the East; for among the latter there are many persons 
 of altered circumstances, who, having once enjoyed better oppor- 
 tunities for literary culture, carry the traces of their old habits 
 with them into the new scenes to which they so readily adapt 
 themselves. Fluency of language, with an ease and power of 
 expression which sometimes swells to the dignity of eloquence, 
 and often displays itself in terms of originality at once humorous 
 and forcible, constitute the conversational resources of the western 
 man; but as his knowledge is gathered almost altogether from 
 conversation, he wants that exact acquaintance with facts and 
 things which enriches the intellectual armory of his eastern brother 
 in a similar situation of life. My opportunities as yet of forming 
 an opinion might, perhaps, be ^[uestioned by one who did not 
 know that the southern part of Michigan, and the northern sec- 
 tions of Illinois, are settled by people from almost every State in 
 the Union. Having now traversed them both, I may venture the 
 above observation, at least with you. 
 
 A dinner of grouse at this place came very opportunely after 
 our keen ride of twenty-four miles over the prairie without once 
 stopping; and, by way of varying our customary fare of bacon and 
 corn-bread along the road, we purchased a few brace of these fine 
 birds for a mere trifle, there being at hand a coopful of them just 
 caught alive upon the premises. 
 
 It was just sunset when, after riding about thirteen miles over a 
 dreary-looking prairie, we came suddenly to one of those steppes 
 into which these singular plains sometimes break so beautifully ; 
 and, looking down over two broad platforms, which successively 
 projected their flat surfaces and angular edges below us, beheld 
 the Illinois River winding through the lowest meadow, and receiv- 
 ing its tributary, the Fox River, opposite the little village of 
 Ottawa. It seemed to repose upon a rich alluvial flat, with the 
 rocky bluffs of the Illinois rising in a regular line to the height of 
 seventy or eighty feet immediately in the rear ; while their rugged 
 and varying outline, both above and below, towered opposite to 
 a much greater height. The warm light of the setting sun resting 
 upon their mossy edges, and touching with freshness an evergreen 
 that sprouted here and there among the cliff's, while the rising 
 mists of evening imparted a bluish tint to the distant windings of 
 the smooth valley below, gave an Italian softness to the landscape 
 but little in unison with the icy rigors that enchained the streams 
 to which in summer it must owe its greatest beauty. A mile or
 
 A WINTER IN THK WKST. 
 
 35 
 
 two farther brought us over the frozen river to ihe comlbnal>lc 
 frame-Iiouse from which this letter is dated. 
 
 (Ottawa, which is situated a few miles above the head of steam- 
 boat navigation on the Illinois, is, from its central situation, grad- 
 ually becoming a place of some commercial importance, though 
 still a mere hamlet in size. It was within si.\ miles of this phu e 
 that the worst of the Indian horrors were perpetrated during the 
 difficulties with the Sacs and Foxes in 1832. You must reniem 
 ber the newspaper accounts of every member of two fiimilies be- 
 ing butchered, except two young girls, who were carried intu lap- 
 tivity, and afterward recovered from the Indians.* There was a 
 singular fatality attending this melancholy affair, which makes it 
 worth while to recall some of the particulars. According to my 
 informant, the heads of both families, who lived in the .same ur 
 adjoining houses, had more than once removed their wives and 
 children into Ottawa, upon false alarms of the approach of the 
 Indians; and one of them, from some new warning on the very 
 day on which the event took place, was again mo\ing the united 
 establishment in wagons to the same i)lace of security, when he 
 met the other, who so opposed and ridiculed the idea, that they 
 returned together. An hour or two after, they were at work with- 
 in a few yards of the door, when a band of Indians appeared, and 
 with a triumphant yell surrounded the house in an instant. Armed 
 only with their tools of husbandry, they did not hesitate to make 
 an attack upon an enemy that outnumbered them so as to make 
 the attempt to get into the house and reach their rifles i)erfe( i 
 madness. It is needless to add that they were shot down, toma- 
 hawked, and scalped in an instant; not, however, as some say, 
 before they had witnessed some of the atrocities practised upon 
 
 ■* Mr. Schoolcraft says tliat no female captive is ever saved by the Indian^ 
 from base motives, or need fear the violation of her lionor : "'I'he whole \u- 
 -tory of their wars may be challenged for a solitary instance of the violation oi 
 female chastity. When they resolve to spare life, they also resolve to -part- 
 that reputation without which life is not worth jiossessing. 'I'hey treat thc-ni 
 with kindness and attention, carrying them dry across rivers, and directini; 
 what with them is accounted an act of distinguished attention— that their hair 
 shall be combed every morning. The precise reason for this trait of then 
 character has never been fully explained. innate principles of virtue can 
 hardly be supposed to be sufficient to produce so universal an etlect, thouj;!! 1: 
 would be uncharitable to deny that they have their .share. It is .issertejl that 
 the Indians believe that the taking of .such a dishonorable advantage ol tiicir 
 female prisoners would have the effect to .lestroy their luck in huntint;. H 
 would be considered as a trait of weakness and cfleminacy in a w.nrrior, un- 
 worthy of his fame and reputation for manly achievement. It would cxuu 
 the ridicule of his companions, and, as they believe, be displeasing 10 mc 
 C.reat .Spirit. "— 7;wrA- /« t/u Cottral Forlkms of the Mississippi I ^'H^v jj.
 
 36 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 the feebler members of their famiHes. These, before and after 
 death, are too shocking to mention. 
 
 "Why, sir," said an IHinois man to me, who was on the spot 
 shortly afterward, "those Indians behaved most ridicu/ous. They 
 dashed children's brains against the door-posts; they cut off their 
 heads; they tore— ;" but the detail to which my informant ap- 
 plied so quaint an epithet is one that I would not think for a 
 moment of giving you. I must not forget to add, that the two 
 surviving females, after losing every near blood-relative in this 
 horrible manner, have lately found legal protectors, and are now 
 settled in life as respectable married woman. I had previously, 
 even as far north as the borders of Michigan in Indiana, seen 
 stockades erected in the open prairie as a place of refuge for the 
 settlers, with other similar marks of the late border-strife, but had 
 no idea, till this evening, that 1 was approaching the seat of the 
 bloodiest acts of the unhappy contest. The neutral Indians, who 
 disappeared from this part of the country at the time, are now, I 
 am told, disjiersed again in large numbers over the neighborhood. 
 They are perfectly harmless; but, thou treated with great kind- 
 ness, by the new emigrants, there will jirobably never again be 
 much confidence between them and the old settlers. The latter 
 somehow seem to have long regarded the Indians as hereditary 
 enemies; and the events of 1832 have given new vigor to dislikes 
 which seemed to be gradually losing their rancor. A man who 
 has to plough with a heavy rifle, ready-loaded, slung to his back, 
 day after day, while he fears even to send his child to the spring 
 for a pail of water, may be well excused for being warm upon a 
 subject which must thus fill his thoughts and harass his mind 
 throughout each hour of the day. It is therefore useless to argue 
 with an Illinois "Indian-hater." What cares he for the "lean 
 famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire," which you tell him 
 often beset the red man's wigwam before his ancestors made good 
 their footing on another's land. He thinks but of the frantic out- 
 rages he has witnessed in his own day. He thinks of his often- 
 abandoned husbandry, "while that the coulter rusts" corrupting 
 in its own fertility. He thinks of his butchered friends and 
 neighbors, — of his wife and offspring slaughtered upon his hearth- 
 stone, — and asks bitterly how you could 
 
 " Look to see 
 The blind and bloody savage with his foul hand 
 Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters; 
 Your fathers taken by the silver beards, 
 And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls; 
 Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, 
 While the mad mothers with their howls confused 
 Do break the clouds. "
 
 A WINTER IN TIIK WKSr. 37 
 
 An accumulation of horrid images, which shows wiili wliat fL-arfwl 
 fidelity Shakspeare would have painted Indian warlan-. h.ul these 
 wild tragedies of our day been acted in his. 
 
 Boyd's Grove, Illinois, yan. .>j//,, /Sj^. 
 
 It was so long since 1 had seen a stone at all deserving the 
 name of a rock, that I took a good deal of satisfaction in scaling 
 the bluffs of the Illinois, and traversing the adjacent ravines, be 
 before getting out on the prairie, the morning that I left Ottawa. 
 In one of these rocky gullies, — which run generally at right angles 
 to the river, and with their precipitous walls in one place, and 
 cavernous passages beneath the jutting limestone in another, 
 often form some picturesque dell, or afford a romantic glimpse nf 
 the open country beyond, — I saw the first cascade 1 have met 
 with since leaving Pennsylvania. The fall was not more than ten 
 feet; but the column of water, being frozen in a solid sheet, as 
 white as the purest porcelain, presented a very singular ajjpear- 
 ance as it raised its pale glistening front beneath a canopy of 
 stunted cedars, whose green branches impended from the rocks 
 above. Our sleigh, after winding for some time among this broken 
 ground, and passing over one or two small but beautiful pieces oJ 
 bottom land laying among the ravines, reached at last the top of 
 the bluff, where, instead of descending on the other side, the 
 level prairie extended as far as the eye could reach beyond. A 
 few hours' drive brought us to a log-cabin, which was our plate 
 for dining and changing horses, and here we found that, owing to 
 the newness of the route, arrangements were not yet completed 
 for the public conveyances going farther. Hearing a stranger 
 speaking in terms of enthusiasm of the fine view from " .Starved 
 Rock,"''^ — a detached crag some 250 feet high, on the banks oi 
 the Illinois, where one band of Indians was surrounded and 
 starved to death by another (I refer you to "Flint's Valley of the 
 ' Mississippi" for the legend),*— I made arrangements to visit ih.- 
 spot in the morning. 
 
 A chill north-easter swept over the bleak prairie as my travel- 
 ing companion and myself, mounted vqion two miserable nags, 
 neither of which was shod, struck on an Indian trail, that brouglit 
 us in an hour's ride to the craggy and precipitous banks ol ilu- 
 Vermilion River, which it was necessary to cross. .\ sickly-look- 
 ing but rather interesting woman came out of a miserable log-luit 
 —beside which, housed under a few boards, stood a handsome 
 barouche— to direct us where to descend the bank : and my fnend 
 
 * See Fergus' Historical Series, No. 3. "The Last of the Illinois." I'-y 
 John Dean Caton, LL. D.
 
 38 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 on foot leading his horse, mine followed trembling after him ; and. 
 notwithstanding the steep path was glazed with ice, we descended 
 the first pitch in safety. 
 
 Pausing for a moment, the confused masses of rock, with trees 
 and shrubs of all kinds growing in their crevices, reminded me, 
 as I looked around, of more than one scene of the kind in the 
 river counties of my native State. It was now my turn to lead 
 down the next pitch, which led to the frozen bed of the river. 
 Upon gaining the edge, I perceived that the descent was a perfect 
 glare of ice; and pausing a moment to hand a loaded gun, which 
 I carried, to my companion, lest it might be discharged in the 
 accident which I anticipated, my horse lost his footing even as I 
 turned in the saddle, and falling flat over upon me, down we slid 
 together. I had not gone two yards, however, before a small jut- 
 ting rock brought me, but little bruised, to an anchorage, while 
 my unfortunate consort, after sliding over a part of my person, 
 went, though struggling fearfully to regain his feet, slipping to the 
 bottom. He landed at last erect, with his face up the ascent, 
 and though now on the level ice of the river, the poor brute 
 seemed to think he was still midway on the declivity he had been 
 hurried over so roughly ; for without looking at all behind him, 
 he stood trembling for an instant, and then, in spite of all the 
 outcry we could raise to keep him back, commenced ascending 
 to where we stood, and actually persevered till he had gained the 
 place from whence he had started. The only way now to effect 
 our purpose was for one to go below, and the other to drive the 
 horses down to him. This we indeed did, and I do not know 
 when I have been more amused, than upon seeing my worthy 
 Rozinante, as if taught by past experience, quietly — when he 
 found he must go — placing himself upon his haunches, and slid- 
 ing down the little hill with a degree of coolness and skill that 
 would have been envied by the boldest schoolboy on Flatteti- 
 harrack. 
 
 Crossing the Vermilion, we were compelled to drive our horses 
 in the same way up the bank on the opposite side; and by catch- 
 ing hold of the branches of trees, drag ourselves after them as we 
 best could. Once on the height, nothing but a level plain of rich 
 prairie land lay between us and the bluffs of the Illinois. It was 
 crossed here and there at intervals of a few miles with Indian 
 trails, about a foot in width, and worn as deep as if they had been 
 trod for centuries. They ran in various directions, and were 
 generally as straight as the flight of an arrow. A heavy rain 
 throughout the previous night had swept all the snow from the 
 l)rairie, and these black lines drawn over its brown surface were
 
 A WINTER IN THE WEST 
 
 39 
 
 now perceptible at a great distance. A long reach of woodland 
 immediately before us indicated our approach to the lilinnis 
 bottoms ; but on entering the timbered ground, wlicrc the snow 
 ^till lingered in considerable quantities, we found ourselves on 
 the slippery blufifs, a hundred feet above the level of the river 
 opposite, without the possibility of descending to its bed. These 
 bluffs were divided at intervals by the romantic ravines already 
 described; having now discovered that we had entirely missed 
 the road to "The Starved Rock,'" it only remained for us to at- 
 tempt descending through these passages, and find the place by 
 ;i route of our own. We led the way by turns, and urging our 
 unwilling horses down the frozen beds of the little streams which 
 impart their coolness in autumn to these seiiuestered dells, we 
 tried three ravines in succession, without attaining our object. 
 One would bring us up against a dead wall of limestone, in the 
 crevices of whose base the rill we had been following suddenly 
 disappeared; a second carried us to the abrupt edge of a preci- 
 pice, about lifty feet above the river, whose rich bottoms, extend- 
 ing far away below, reminded me, with the occasional cojjscs and 
 detached clumps of trees which studded them, of points of views 
 in the valley of the Mohawk. Nothing, on so small a scale, 
 could be more picturesque than the nook to which the third 
 ravine led us. It was to the upper edge of a double cascade, 
 over the second fall of which an arch of rock projected, so as 
 to shut out from view the basin into which the water finally fell 
 below. The passage through whicli we reached the spot was a 
 mere lissure in the side-hill; and when, not wishing to get my 
 feet wet, I urged my horse to the brink of the little cascade, the 
 long icicles pendent from the hanging rock above were almost 
 within reach of my riding-whip. A number of gnarled and sliinted 
 cedars, ^' moist trees, that have outlived the eagle," tling their 
 dusky branches over the chasm, and when summer foilage glitters 
 on the tall stems whose naked boughs project above them, the 
 sun must be wholly excluded from this cool retreat. 
 
 Our horses were so fagged out when we extricated ourselves 
 from this ravine, that we did not think it well to try another; and 
 my companion being afraid of freezing his feet, which were wet 
 from his having dismounted at the most difficult parts of the de- 
 scent, I was sorry to be compelled to give up the search and 
 return to our lodgings, after an eight hours' ride, without haMng 
 seen the interesting point we had taken so much trouble to attain. 
 
 * An unknown correspondent has politely furnished tlj'^ ^^"''/-^ ^^^IV^Jj 
 following account of this interesting point, as g.vcn in "a letter from a Inena 
 .-still roaming over the beautiful prairies of Illinois.
 
 40 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 The mail-contractor, resident at Chicago, had arrived at the 
 farm-house during our absence; and hearing that two gentlemen 
 were detained upon the road, had, with great politeness, at once 
 taken measures to send us on the next morning. The room, too, 
 
 " I climbed the Indian path until I reached the summit of Starved Rock. 
 This celebrated rock is said to be two hundred and fifty feet high. It is a stu- 
 pendous pile, nearly as large at the top as at the base, and is accessible at one 
 place only; in every other direction it is nearly perpendicular, and more than 
 half of its base is washed by the Illinois, which is here from three to four feet 
 deep. 
 
 "The summit is circular and almost level, containing about an acre; and 
 now has on it a thick growth of young timber. There is still lying a great 
 quantity of the bones of the Indians who were starved to death by a hostile 
 tribe. I picked up on the side of the pass, and dug out of the earth, several 
 arrow-points. At one place, where there appears a possibility of scaling the 
 rock, an intrenchment is dug and breastwork thrown up. After passing an 
 hour on the summit, we descended to our boat at the foot of the rock, and 
 proceeded on our journey. " 
 
 "Starved Rock." — This remarkable isolated hill, termed by the French Z'oy- 
 ageurs Le Rocher, or Rockfort, as Mr. Schoolcraft calls it, is described by that 
 accurate traveler as an elevated cliff on the left bank of the Illinois, consisting 
 of parallel layers of white sandstone. It is not less than two hundred and 
 fifty feet high, perpendicular on three sides, and washed at its base by the 
 river. On the fourth side it is connected with the adjacent range of bluffs by 
 a narrow peninsular ledge, which can only be ascended by a precipitous wind- 
 ing path. The summit of the rock is level, and contains about three-fourths 
 of an acre. It is covered with a soil of several feet in depth, bearing a growth 
 of young trees. Strong and almost inaccessible by nature, this natural battle- 
 ment was the scene of a desperate conflict between the fierce and haughty Pot- 
 tawatomies and one band of the Illinois Indians; the latter fled to this place 
 for refuge from the fury of their enemies. The post could not be carried by 
 assault, and tradition says that the beseigers finally attempted, after many 
 repulses, to reduce it by starvation. This siege, as is remarked by a popular 
 writer, is singularly characteristic on either side of those remarkable traits of 
 savage character, undaunted resolution, and insatiable and ever vigilant thirst 
 for vengeance. Its result is well told in "'Tales of the Border," the newly- 
 published work of Judge Hall. The pangs of hunger, the tortures of thirst, 
 pressed upon the besieged; but they maintained their post with invincible cour- 
 age, determined rather to die of exhaustion than to afford their enemies the 
 triumph of killing them in battle or exposing them at the stake. Every strata- 
 gem which they attempted was discovered and defeated. The scorching sun 
 that beat upon their towering hold maddened them to taste the cool stream 
 that glided beneath it; but when they endeavored to procure water during the 
 night by lowering vessels attached to cords of bark into the river, the vigilant 
 besiegers detected the design, and placed a guard in canoes to prevent its exe- 
 cution. They all perished — one, and one only excepted. The last surviving 
 warriors defended the entrance so well that the enemy could neither enter nor 
 discover the fatal progress of the work of death; and when at last, all show 
 of resistance having ceased, and all signs of life disappeared, the victors ven- 
 tured cautiously to approach, they found but one survivor — a squaw, whom 
 they adopted into their own tribe, and who was yet living when the first white 
 man penetrated this region. * 
 
 * Charlevoix, Schoolcraft, Hall.
 
 A WINTER IN TIIK WKST. ^, 
 
 in which we had slept before— four in two beds ami tlirce on the 
 floor— had now been vacated by five of its occupants, and inv 
 companion and I each appropriated a couch to himself. Wc were 
 hardly warm under the cover, however, before the tramjiing of 
 horses, with the sound of travelers' voices, was heard without ; 
 and the good dame thrust her head into the room, in the vain 
 expectation of showing them an unoccupied bed. My companion 
 pretended to be in a sound sleep; and I intimated that I should 
 betake myself to my buffalo-robe and the floor, in case a bedfel- 
 low were thrust in upon me : whereat the kind lady was exceed- 
 ing miffed; and we could hear her through the board i)artition, a 
 moment afterward, expressing herself after this amiable lashion: — 
 "Ugh: great people truly!— a bed to themselves, the hogs! They 
 travel together — and they eat together— and they eat enough, too, 
 — and yet they can't sleep together!" Here the husband, a re- 
 spectable, middle-aged man, who did everything to make our sit- 
 uation comfortable during the thirty-six hours we spent at hi.s 
 cabin, interposed, and silenced his better half; and, the newcomers 
 wrapping themselves in their cloaks before the fire, in a few min- 
 utes all became still about the establishment. 
 
 The good dame, who must have been a fine-looking woman in 
 her day, and was, I believe, in spite of her scolding ways, really 
 well-disposed toward us at heart, gave us a capital cup of coffee 
 and a kind farewell in the morning. A four-horse wagon, with an 
 active driver, quickly accomplished a mile of rough road through 
 the grove, and brought us once more to the edge of the smooth 
 prairie. I can conceive nothing more desolate than the appear- 
 ance of that boundless plain. The fires had traversed it in the 
 autumn as far as the eye could reach, and the snow having now 
 disappeared entirely from the upland, the black and charred sur- 
 face was all that met our vision wherever it wandered: a dark 
 sullen sky which lowered overhead added not a little to the gloomi- 
 ness of the prospect; and the day being excessively cold, our ride 
 for the next fifteen miles over this dreary plain was anything but 
 agreeable. At last we came to some broken ground, dotted here 
 and there with a handful of shrubbery, from which every moment 
 a pack of grouse, and occasionally a bevy of ([uail, would rise. 
 The little village of Hennepin— called after Father Hennepin 
 next hove in sight; though it lay so sheltered along the l)anks ot 
 the Illinois that we were nearly upon the hamlet before its vu iiiity 
 was discoverable. 
 
 After stopping an hour or two to dine and feed our horses, we 
 left the driver to take a circuitous route down the steep bank. 
 which, though not rocky, is about sixty feet high, and very precipi-
 
 42 A WINTER IX THE WEST. 
 
 tons on that side of the river; while my friend and I descended 
 to the ice, and walked over the river, which was here a broad and 
 noble stream, with some beautiful alluvial islands on its bosom. 
 " The difference of temperature here and on the bleak prairie above 
 was astonishing; and when I sat down upon a fallen tree among 
 the tangled vines of the rich bottom opposite to Hennepin, and 
 watched a flock of green parroquets fluttering among the wych- 
 elms which here and there skirted the shore, while the sun, for a 
 moment piercing his murky veil, touched with gold the icicles that 
 glazed their drooping branches, 1 could fancy myself transported 
 to a different climate. The driver overtook us at last, and then 
 we commenced making our way through a timbered bottom, which, 
 for appearance of rank fertility, excelled any spot I have ever be- 
 held. The trees were of enormous size, and seemed chained to- 
 gether at every point by huge vines, which clambered to their very 
 summits, locking the stately stems in their ponderous embrace, 
 and clasping each outer bough with some twining tendril. Hav- 
 ing thus secured its prey on one tree, the vine would seem, like a 
 living animal, to have bounded to another, and fastened its eager 
 grasp upon some limb as yet untouclied. Beneath the whole an 
 interminable growth of underwood, protected by the woven canopy 
 above, and flourishing rankly in its living fetters, 
 
 " Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, 
 Put forth disordered twigs. " 
 
 A half-hour's ride carried us through this teeming region to the 
 foot of a steep and open-wooded hill, which ascending with some 
 difficulty, we came out once more upon the prairie, and the change 
 of temperature instantaneous. The road over the dry grassy 
 plain was very good, however, for the first six or eight miles; and 
 as the evening began to close in intensely cold, we rattled them 
 off in a very short time. At last we came to a deep frozen gully, 
 in crossing which our leaders bruised themselves so badly by 
 Ijreakmg through the ice, that when we reached a spot of the 
 same kind, but rather worse, a mile or two in advance, the fright- 
 ened animals recoiled from the place, and refused to cross it. 
 Our driver, a doughty little chap, about four feet eleven, who 
 rejoiced in the name of Samson, and was a capital whip by-the- 
 by, after using every exertion to get his whole team over, was at 
 last compelled to give up the point, and proceed to detach the 
 leaders from the wheel-horses. This, with our aid, was soon 
 done; and my companion remaining with the leaders on one side, 
 Samson and I made a dash at the frozen brook, and, breaking 
 through in the midst, the horses gave such a spring to free them-
 
 A WINTER TX TIIK WKST. 
 
 43 
 
 selves from the wagon, that the swingletree-bolt snapped; and 
 had not the heroic, httle champion held on to the reins as tcna- 
 ( iously as did his namesake to the gates of Cia/.a. we might have 
 !)een left a prey to the next drove of Philistinean wulves tluit 
 should rove the prairie in quest of a supper. 
 
 Samson, however, was true to his name; and with a mighty arm 
 bringing up his foaming steeds all standing, we crawled over the 
 head of the rampant wagon, (the hind-wheels only had gone 
 through the ice), and sprang to the firm ground. The swingletrcc 
 was soon tinkered fast again; but now came the difiicully of get- 
 ting the unwilling leaders over, who, it is presumed, had been n(» 
 uninterested spectators of what had just been going forward : coax- 
 ing and whipping availed nothing; and we at last succeeded only 
 ])V buckling two pair of reins together and passing them over the 
 brook, two of us pulling on the horses' mouths, while the third 
 applied a smart castigation behind. One of the poor animals 
 again broke in, and floundered dreadfully before he reached a tirni 
 footing on the other side. But this was not the worst ; our poor 
 little Samson, in attempting to jump, floundered in up to his knees, 
 and suffered much inconvenience from it afterward. The evening 
 was indeed so cold, that our wheel-horses, who were coated with 
 ice, their long tails being actually frozen solid, were in danger of 
 freezing to death, had we been compelled to delay much longer. 
 JJut, placing now the leaders on the firm ground beyond them, 
 one smart pull served to extricate the wagon from the hole and 
 deliver us from our quandary. 
 
 We had five or. six miles still to go before reaching a house; 
 and feeling some anxiety about Samson's wet feet,^ we urged hini 
 to put the horses— nothing loath when once started— to the top 
 of their speed. He did indeed drive furiously; but when we 
 arrived at the house whence I write, the poor fellow's feet were 
 frozen. Rushing at once to the fire, he would undoubtedly have 
 lost them, had there not chanced to be a physician present, who 
 directed us what to do. The good-humored little patient was 
 removed without delay to the back part of the room ; and wc 
 commenced pouring water into his boots until they melted Irom 
 his feet, the temperature of the water being gradually heightened 
 until it became blood-warm, while a bucket ot ice-water stood Dy 
 for the suff-erer to thrust his feet in, whenever the returning circu- 
 lation became too violent for him to endure. In the morning. 
 though his feet were dreadfully swollen, he was enabled, by ly ng 
 them up in thick horse-blankets, to move about, and even return 
 with his team. To the simple and judicious suggestions of he 
 traveling physician present, our little hero was, in all pr..bal..i.t>.
 
 44 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 indebted for escaping a most awful calamity; a settler in this 
 neighborhood having lost both legs a few days since by an expos- 
 ure similar to Samson's. 
 
 I am now staying at the house of a flourishing farmer, whose 
 sturdy frame, bold features, and thick long black hair, would, with 
 his frank address, afford as fine a specimen of the western bor- 
 derer as one could meet wath, and never allow you to suspect that 
 ten or fifteen years ago he was a New- York tradesman. He lives, 
 like all other people of this country, in a log-cabin, which has 
 many comforts about it, however, not usually found in these primi- 
 tive domicils. Having a large family, with no neighbors nearer 
 than ten miles on one side and twenty on the other, he maintains 
 a schoolmaster to instruct his children : the room I occupy at 
 night being fitted up with desks and benches as a school-room. 
 His farm, which lies along the edge of a beautiful and well-watered 
 grove, supplies him with almost everything he wants; and having 
 once pursued a different mode of life, he seems now to realize the 
 full independence of his situation, more even than those who have 
 always been brought up as farmers. I told him this morning, as 
 he sallied out to cut wood, with his two sons, axe in hand, all clad 
 in their belted capotes and white woollen hoods, that I should 
 like to meet his sun-burnt features and independent step in Broad- 
 way, to see how many of his old acquaintances would recognize 
 the pale mechanic in the brown backwoodsman. He promised 
 me, if he came in winter, to appear with the guise in which I then 
 beheld him; adding, in western phraseology, "The way in which 
 folks '11 stare, squire, will be a caution^ 
 
 After being detained here some days waiting for the St. Louis 
 mail-wagon, and losing my traveling-companion, who, having 
 bought a horse, has gone on by himself, I have concluded that it 
 would never do to go out of this country without visiting Galena 
 and the mining country; and, as there is now a public conveyance 
 thither, I shall take the first opportunity to go with it. I have 
 amused myself for the last three nights in watching for wolves by 
 moonlight, at the edge of the wood, a few hundred yards from the 
 house. They come howling round the house after nightfall, and 
 if one is "in luck" at all, are easily shot. But last night, after 
 leaving my position but for five minutes, I heard the report of a 
 rifle; and hastening to the spot, where a lad stayed to fill my 
 place for a moment, I found that a gray and a black wolf, of the 
 largest kind, had approached suddenly within two or three yards 
 of the muzzle of his gun, and startled him so that he missed them 
 both. In the confident hope of their return — for the bait that we 
 had thrown about the place was still there — I took the little fel-
 
 A WINTER IX riir: \vi;sr. ^- 
 
 low's place, and wrapping myself in a buffalo-skin, lav watchinK 
 on the ground till nearly daybreak; and the enemy then not mak 
 ing his appearance, I was glad to creep shivering to bed. 
 
 Upon entering my room, which contained two beds, I observed, 
 after striking a light, that the one opposite to mine was occu|jieil 
 by some newcomers; while a sheet suspended from the ccihng 
 near the pillow, and concealing the phrenology of its occupants 
 from view, was evidendy meant as a caveat against reconnoitring 
 that part of the apartment. I had some piquant reflections when 
 a respectable-looking traveler and a pretty young woman, wliu I 
 Avas told was a bride on her way to St. Louis, breakfasted with u>. 
 the next morning. 
 
 You shall hear from me next at Galena. Till then, farewell ' 
 
 Galena, Uppkr Mississippi, Feb. /. 
 A FURIOUS squall of snow, which would have rendered it iid 
 possible to keep a given road in crossing the prairie, subsided 
 before nightfall, on the day that I left Boyd's (irove, bound for 
 the Upper Mississippi ; and as the calm clear sky of evening suc- 
 ceeded, our sleigh glided over the open plain at a rate which soon 
 made the cabins behind us disappear in the distance; while four 
 fleet horses, with a good driver, and but one passenger, swiftly ac- 
 complished the short stage of twelve miles, and brought us to the 
 room where we were to pass the night. The intervening prairie, 
 for the first six miles, was high and level, with not a stick of tim- 
 ber, — one broad snow-covered plain, where you could see the 
 dark figure of a wolf for miles off, as it stood in relief against the 
 white unbroken surface. A prospect more bleak and lonelv. when 
 night is closing in, and you press toward some distant grove. 
 whose treetops can not yet be discovered above the monotonou.s 
 plains, is inconceivable. Presently, however, you come to a 
 break in the prairie; a slight descent next shelters you somewhat 
 from the wind, and now you can discover a wood, which hitherto 
 had appeared man}' miles off, or perhaps was not percei)tible at 
 all, that has pushed a scattered clump of trees here and there, like 
 an advanced guard under cover df the ravine. Vou come to tlie 
 brink of another platform, and you are on the edge of a grove; 
 while for twenty miles ahead the eye ranges over what looks hke 
 a shallow basin of immense extent, broken occasionally by dusky- 
 masses, which seem rather to repose upon than to spring out of 
 its surface; such*was the view in advance, from a point al)OUt si\ 
 miles from Boyd's Grove. The elevation from which we de 
 scended was not more than twenty feet, and it commanded a 
 prospect of as many miles. It was like looking irom the edge ot
 
 46 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 a snow-covered desert upon a frozen lake, with its isles, head- 
 lands, and scattered rocks, and its waters riveted as fast as they. 
 The rosy rays of the setting sun still lingered over the scene, as 
 on one they longed to set free from the icy chains which bound 
 it; while the calm pale moon grew momentarily more bright, as 
 if her cold beams borrowed lustre from the extent of pure white 
 surface over which they shone. 
 
 A single room, miserably built of logs,^ — the interstices of which 
 were, so unskilfully filled up with mud that I could hear the night- 
 wind whistling through them as we drove up to the door, — was to 
 be our lodging for the night. A couple of rifles, with a powder- 
 horn and a pair of Indian blankets, lay without, and two painted 
 Pottawatomies were crouched on the hearth, as I entered the 
 cabin. One of them, a slight but elegantly -formed youth of 
 twehty, sprang at once to his feet; while the other, a dark ill- 
 looking negro-faced fellow, retained his scjuatting posture. They 
 were dressed in complete suits of buckskin; both having their 
 ears bored in several places, with long drops of silver pendent in 
 thick bunches therefrom; while broad plates suspended over their 
 chests, with armlets of the same metal, made quite a rich display. 
 Their dress''' was, however, the only point in which they resem- 
 
 * "The usual dress of the men (among the northern tribes) at the present 
 day consists of a figured cotton shirt; a blanket, or French capote of blue 
 cloth; a pair of blue, green, or red cloth metasses or leggins; an azeeaun or 
 breech cloth, and moccasins of dressed deer-skin. The metasses are generally 
 ornamented, and a garter of colored worsted tied around the knee. The front 
 fold of the azeeaun is also ornamented around the edges. A necklace of wam- 
 pum, or a silver crescent, or both, are often worn together with silver arm- 
 bands and wrist-bands. The latter are not exclusively confined to chiefs, so 
 far as we have observed, but their use depends rather upon the ability of the 
 individual to purchase them. Ear-rings are common to both sexes. A knife 
 is commonly worn in a scabbard confined under the string or narrow belt 
 which sustains both the azeeaun and the metasses. The head is ornamented 
 with a band of skin, dressed with the hair or pelt on, surmounted with feathers. 
 In this respect there seems to be less uniformity than in any other part of their 
 costume. Often the headpiece is wanting. Long hair is prevalent : it is some- 
 times braided and ornamented with silver brooches. Paints are still used for 
 the face, both for the purposes of dress and mourning. Each Indian youth, 
 from the time he is acknowledged as a hunter capable of supporting himself, 
 ordinarily carries a pipe, and a skipetagun, or tobacco-pouch. This pouch is 
 commonly the entire skin of an otter, lynx, or other small animal, dressed with 
 the pelt on; and drawing an aperture upon the throat, this sack, besides the 
 usual quantity of tobacco and smoking-weed (kinnekinic), commonly contains 
 a fire-steel, flint, and bit of spunk, and sometimes a knife. But this append- 
 age is not to be confounded with the sacred metawiiaun, or medicine-sack, 
 which is the consecrated repository, not only of his medicines, but also of his 
 personal manitos and relics." — Sckoohraft's Tnuuls in the Central Portions oj 
 the Mississippi Valley.
 
 A WINTER IX II ll.; \Vi:s|-. ^7 
 
 bled each other; and the acquiUne nose, keen eyes, and l)caiiii- 
 fuUy-arched brows of the one contrasted as strongly wiili the 
 heavy inexpressive look and thick lips of tiic other, as did the 
 closely-fitting hunting-frock of the first, which a bla( k belt, sown 
 thick with studs of brass, secured to his erect form, with the loose 
 shirt that crumpled around the crouching person of the otlier. 
 A hard-featured borderer, with long sandy hair (lowing from 
 under a cap of wolf-skin, and dressed in a bright-green capote 
 with an orange-colored sash, sat smoking a j)ii)e on the other side 
 of the fireplace; while one foot dangled from the bed on which 
 he had placed himself, and another rested on a Spanish saddle, 
 whose holsters were brought so near to the fire, as it lay thus 
 carelessly thrown in a corner, that the brazen butts of a jtair of 
 heavy pistols were continually exposed to view by the tlickering 
 light. A pale, sickly-looking woman, with an infant in her arms, 
 and two small children clinging around her lap, sat in the centre, 
 and completed the group. Her husband and another, a hanger- 
 on of the establishment, had stepped out to look afier our horses, 
 as we drove up to the door. The apartment, which was not more 
 than twenty feet square, was cumbered up with four beds: and 
 when I thought how many there were to occupy them, anti ob- 
 served a thin, cotton curtain flapping against a wide ungla/ed 
 opening, which formed the only window of this forlorn chamber, 
 1 thought that the prospect of comfortable accommodation for 
 the night was any thing but promising. Presently, however, the 
 landlord entered, with an armful of burr-oak and split hickory, 
 which crackled and sputtered at a rate that made the Indians 
 withdraw from the ashes. The goodwoman placed her child in a 
 rude cradle, and bestirred herself with activity and good-hnnior 
 in getting supper; while the frontiers -man. knocking the a-slio 
 from his tomahawk-pipe, passed me a flask of Ohio whisky, which, 
 after my cold ride, had all the virtue of Monongahela. Some 
 coarse fried pork, with a bowl of stewed hominy, hot rolls, and 
 wild honey, did not come amis^;, especially when backed by a cup 
 of capital coffee from the lower country; though the right good- 
 will with which we all bent to this important business of eatmg 
 did not prevent me from noticing the Frcnrluiian-Iike iiarlicii- 
 larity with which the Indians ate from but one dish at a time, 
 though tasting every thing upon the tal)le. 
 
 The best-looking of the two, though daubed with paint to a 
 degree that made him look perfectiv savage, was almost the only 
 Indian I had yet found who couk'l talk Knglish at all: ami he 
 seemed both amused and interested while I read over to hnn a
 
 48 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 slight vocabulary of words in his own language, as I had taken 
 down the terms occasionally in my pocket-book, and was evi- 
 dently gratified when I added to their number from his lips. He 
 spoke the language, indeed, with a clearness and distinctness of 
 enunciation such as I have only heard before from a female 
 tongue ; and the words thus pronounced had a delicacy and 
 music in their sound entirely wanting in the usual slovenly utter- 
 ance of Indians. You would have been struck, too, in the midst 
 of our philological task, to see the grim-looking savage bend over 
 and rock the cradle, as the shivering infant would commence cry- 
 ing behind us. In this way, the evening passed rapidly enough; 
 and then the good dame, with her husband and children taking 
 one bed, the green rider and I took each another, while the stage- 
 driver and remaining white man shared the fourth together. The 
 Indians brought in their guns and blankets from without, and, 
 making a mattress of my buffalo-skin, they placed their feet to the 
 fire, and, after a chirping conversation of a few minutes beneath 
 their woollen toggery, sunk to slumber. 
 
 The moon was still shining brightly above, as I sallied out an 
 hour before dawn to wash in the snow, and finish in the open air 
 the toilet commenced in the crowded shanty. Our sleigh, a low, 
 clumsy pine box on a pair of ox-runners, was soon after at the 
 door; and covering up my extremities as well as I could in the 
 wild hay which filled the bottom (for the morning was intensely 
 cold), I wound my fur robe around my head to keep my face from 
 freezing, and soon found myself gliding at a prodigious rate over 
 the smooth prairie. The sun was several hours high when we 
 struck a fine grove of timber, through which the small but rapid 
 River Huron takes its way; and thrashing through the wintry 
 stream, we merely paused long enough at a shanty on the oppo- 
 site side to adjust some of our harness which was broken while 
 fording the torrent, and reached a comfortable log-cabin, in which 
 we breakfasted at noon. There was an Indian encampment with- 
 in gun-shot of the house; and seeing a melancholy-looking squaw 
 with an infant in her arms hanging about the farm-house, I left my 
 landlady turning some venison cutlets and grilled grouse, to see 
 how the aborigines fared in this cold weather. A pretty Indian 
 girl of fourteen, driving a couple of half-starved ponies, indicated 
 the camp of her friends. They proved to be a very inferior band, 
 having but two hunters, and those inefiicient-looking fellows, to a 
 score of women and children. Sheer necessity had compelled 
 them to encamp near the settlement; and a more squalid, misera- 
 ble-looking set of creatures I never beheld. The chief of the
 
 A WINTER IN Tin: WIST. .o 
 
 party, contrary to the usual Indian custom, had U-l hi.>> heard* 
 ■grow till it stood out in small tufts from every part of his sinister- 
 looking, smoke-dried face; and the thong of leather which sus- 
 tained his scalping-knife seemed to answer the duul)k- purpose of 
 binding the fragments of his greasy and tattered capote to his 
 "body, and of keeping the loosely-hung comijonent parts of the 
 body itself together. A bluff-faced, Kngiish-looking white youth 
 of eighteen, with a shock head of reddish curly hair, and wearing 
 a hunting-frock of some coarse material, striped like a bed-ticking, 
 secured to his body with a red belt, from which a hatchet was sus- 
 pended, was assisting him in "spancelling" a refractory pony. 
 The young gentleman, as I afterward learned, belonged to the tribe 
 — some runaway apprentice, perhaps, who thought he was plaving 
 Rolla. The rest of the mongrel concern dodged like l)ea\ers 
 beneath the mats of their smoky wigwams, as I approaclied their 
 •common fire to warm myself 
 
 Returning to the farm-house, I found a little girl jilaying on the 
 floor with several strings of beads, which the s(|uaw first uieinioiied 
 had just parted with to purchase food for her starving infant. 
 The family, however, though they suffered the child to retain the 
 ornaments, supplied the poor woman with food and comforts to 
 ten times their value. The Indian mother, I was told, though 
 nearly fainting from exhaustion, asked for nothing e.vcept for her 
 child ; and seemed deeply affected w hen, after by signs ap|)rizing 
 the whites of her situation, she obtained the required sustenance. 
 
 Upon emerging from this grove and getting out once more on 
 the prairie, I could distinguish a solitar\- horseman, followed by 
 his dog, coming toward us, at least a mile oft": and remarking, 
 that as they approached us the distance between the man and his 
 canine companion increased at a very unusual rate, I was induced 
 to scan the appearance of the latter as he passed within rirte-shot 
 of our sleigh after his master was out of hail. It proved to be 
 
 * Robertson, Charlevoix, and other European writers, meiilion thai (he 
 American Indians have naturally no beards. Mr. Schoolcraft, in oi»ervmg 
 that a beard is less common to our aborigines than to the native^ of l-iurojie or 
 Asia, ascribes its absence chiefly to the fashion of pliicking it out in early hfc. 
 " It is esteemed necessary to the decency of appearar.cc among the young ami 
 middle-aged to remove the beard; and, as the ra/.or is unknown to thcMn, they 
 employ the only means at command to eradicate it. Hence it l^ mure cum- 
 mon to see beards upon old men, who become careless and neglectful of |H;r. 
 sonal appearance. Of the Indians of the Algon(iuin stock, the Unppewa-s 
 are perhaps the most exempted from beards, the Oltawas less so, and the I oe- 
 tavvatomies still less. Among the two last tribes there is a custom sufhc.cntly 
 frequent, though not universal, of letting the beard grow on y upon the under 
 lip, or upon the chin, from which it depends in a compact lock, or a kmd ol 
 bunch." — Travels in the Mississippi Valley.
 
 50 A WINTER IX THE WEST. 
 
 an enormous wolf; and we actually tracked the fellow for eighteen! 
 miles, to a thick brake on the banks of a frozen stream, froni 
 which he had first leaped into the traveler's tracks, and steadily 
 followed on in his horses steps to the point where he passed us. 
 The cowardly rascal, being hard pushed with hunger, though he- 
 could have no idea of attacking the traveler by himself, had prob- 
 ably just trudged along mile after mile in hope of raising 2. posse 
 lomitatus of his long-haired brethren along the road, or of availing 
 himself after nightfall of some accident that might overtake the 
 horseman, who was so unconscious of his volunteer escort. Had 
 the man but turned his horse and run the wolf a hundred vards, 
 he would have rid himself of a companion that circumstances 
 might possibly have rendered inconvenient. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when we reached the lianks of Rock 
 River, whose broad and limpid current was, of course, congealed 
 by the rigors of winter. The enterprising and intelligent settler 
 from the city of New York, who, though repeatedly driven off by 
 the Indians, has been for fifteen years established at "Dixon's- 
 Ferry,'' detained me some time at dinner in expatiating upon tlie 
 healthfulness of the adjacent country, and the abundance of fish 
 and game of all kinds which frequent the waters of the fine stream, 
 upon which he resides. The river, which is navigable for boat.s- 
 of fifty tons nearly a hundred miles above the Mississippi, flows 
 through a gentle valley, with the prairie sloping to its edge upon 
 either side, excei)t when a group of bold rocks, forming a cave, 
 whose entrance has a perfect Ciothic arch of some twenty feet 
 high, rear their sudden pinnacles above the farther bank. The ' 
 smoothness of the adjacent ground is broken here and there b)^ 
 an open grove: while an occasional thicket, ^\ith one or two rank- 
 ly overgrown alluvial islands in the river, must constitute a beau- 
 tiful landscape in summer. This spot was Gen. Atkinson's head- 
 quarters during the Black-Hawk war, and may be considered 
 about the centre of operations during the recent Indian difficul- 
 ties. A sharp ride of twelve miles over the open prairie brought 
 us after dark to Buffalo Grove, the scene of some of the most 
 melancholy incidents that attended those commotions. 
 
 A party of four or five mounted travelers, bound from Galena for 
 the lower country, were obliged to pass the grove on their route 
 just after the difficulties with the Indians commenced. They had 
 reached the edge of the grove, when one of the number, conceiv- 
 ing that it might harbor an ambush, suggested the expediency of 
 deviating from the usual path, and taking a somewhat circuitous 
 course. He was opposed, however, by his companions ; and one 
 of them, taunting him with an unnecessary regard to prudence,,
 
 A WINTER I\ TIIK \VI-;ST. ;, 
 
 si)iirred his horse, and advanced first into the latal wnod. His 
 horse could have made but a few l)ounds--l have seen his ^ravf, 
 just within the edge of the grove- when an ImUan hullel hr. ' 
 him to the ground: and his companions, wiiecHiig on ihcir ti... ^. 
 for the present escaped farther mischief On arriving at Dixon's 
 Ferry, it was proposed the next day to return and bury the poor 
 fellow, who had thus fallen a victim to his own rashness. Kiglit 
 persons, among whom was Mr. Savary, the Indian agent fortlic 
 hostile tribes, volunteered upon the kind office, which was per- 
 formed without molestation; and the agent, with the greater pari 
 of those present, then kept on his way to the upper country; the 
 rest, among whom was my informant, returning to their hoine on 
 Rock River. A confused account is given of what followed; as 
 four of Mr. Savary's party, including himself, were slain in another 
 ambush; and those who escaped b}- the speed of their horses had 
 but little opportunity, after the first surprise, to observe how their 
 companions met their fate. It is agreed. hnwe\er, that the un- 
 fortunate agent, turning in his saddle after the first fire, was shot 
 in the act of appealing to the Indians as their friend and "father," 
 — the reply being a disclaimer of his official character, and the 
 words, "We have no longer any white father," accompan\ing the 
 discharge of the piece whose bullet pierced his brain. The head 
 of the ill-fated gentleman, carried oflf by the Indians, is said to 
 have been afterward recognized and recovered from the savage 
 band. The Indians fired the house of the settler (an old New- 
 Yorker) at Buftalo Grove; and the half-burnt timbers and lonely 
 doorposts contrasted strangly, as I viewed them, in jmssing, by 
 the morning sun, with the neat new log dwelling a few j)aces off. 
 in which I had most comfortabl}' spent the night before. 
 
 But these traces of savage war soon, by their frequency, become 
 familiar. 
 
 The aspect of the country changes considerably soon after pass- 
 ing Rock River. The prairie is frequently broken by sudden 
 ravines; the number of groves increases; the streams run more 
 rapidly over their i)ebbly beds ; and huge masses of crunil)ling 
 rock rise like the ruined walls of old castles along the mimic vales 
 through which they take their way. In tliese secluded dells, a 
 number of settlers had ventured to fix themselves along the (lalena 
 route; and though manv have now returned to their precarious 
 homes, the humble dwellings and various little im|)rovenients of 
 others remain as thev left them when fleeing with their families 
 before the dreaded savage. With the api)earance of one ol these 
 cottages I was struck particularlv. The roots of a large tree. 
 whose branches brushed a wall of rock opposite to it, had caused
 
 52 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 a sparkling brook to describe the form of a horse-shoe in winding 
 through a small alluvial bottom, while a row of wild plum-trees 
 across the little peninsula thus formed divided it from the rest of 
 the valley, and just left room enough for the cabin of the settler, 
 with a few acres for a garden around his door. A few acres more 
 along the margin of the brook supplies another enclosure; and 
 the fences and fixtures exhibited a degree of care and arrangement 
 by no means common in this region. But the exiled owner had 
 never returned to his tasteful though humble home. The open 
 door swung loose upon a single hinge ; the snow lay far within 
 the threshold ; and a solitary raven, perched upon the roof, seemed 
 to consider the abode of desolation so much his own, that, heed- 
 less of a flock of his brothers which rose from some carrion near 
 as we approached the place, he only moved sideways along the 
 rafter, and gave a solitary croak as we drove liy. 
 
 Approaching (lalena, the country becomes still more broken 
 and rocky, until at last a few short hills, here called "knobs," in- 
 dicated our approach to Fever River: the river itself at once 
 became visible when we had wound round the last of these, and 
 got among the broken ravines that seam the declivity, sloping 
 down for nearly a mile to its margin. Short sudden hills, the 
 bluffs of the prairie beyond, partly wooded and partly faced with 
 rock, formed the opposite shore; while the town of Galena lay 
 scattered along their broken outline, as if some giant had pitched 
 a handful of houses against the hill-side, and the slimy mud (for 
 which the streets of Galena are celebrated) had caused them to 
 stick there. We crossed on the ice, and I am now once more in 
 a frame-house. 
 
 Prairie du Chikx, Uppkr Mississippi, Feb. jt/i. 
 I HAD only been in Galena a few hours, when I learned that a 
 mail-carrier was to start in the morning for Fort Crawford on the 
 Upper Mississippi, and determined at once to accompany him; 
 deferring an examination of the country around Galena till my 
 return. It was about eleven o'clock of a fine, clear, cold day, 
 whsn my conipagnon dc voyagr, a bluff-faced, curly-pated fellow, in 
 a green blanket coat, drove up to the door in a better sleigh than 
 1 had seen on any of the post-routes below ; and wrapping my- 
 self up in a couple of bufiflilo-robes and sundry blankets, I found 
 myself, after ascending the rugged bluffs of Fever River, armed at 
 all points to encounter the biting wind which swept the open plain 
 beyond. And here I may remark, that although the cold winds 
 in this prairie country have a power that I had no idea of till I 
 experienced it, yet the people dress so much more rationally than
 
 A WIXTKR TX llll-. Wi.si'. 5^ 
 
 they do at the north on the sea-board, that health and even conv 
 fort are but Httle invaded. 
 
 I remember, when first overtaken by the cold weather un the 
 prairies, I was traveling with a simple furred wrapper as an over- 
 coat and a pair of carpet socks over my boots ; tlie last of which. 
 from their clumsy and effeminate appearance, I loni< neglected tii 
 put on. But on arriving one night at a lonely shanty, I found an 
 old Indian trader just disencumbering himself of his traveling 
 gear, and the lesson has not been readily forgotten. His disrob- 
 ing reminded me of the grave-digger in Hamlet with his sixteen 
 jackets, (a stale joke, by the by, which is now rarely practised 
 upon the stage,) — and a man-at-arms of the fifteenth century, witli 
 his armor of plate and triple coat of twisted mail, was not ca.scd 
 in better proof than was my Indian trader. Among the articles 
 of dress that I recollect, were a blanket-coat over an ordinary sur- 
 tout, a plaid cloak upon that, and a buffalo-robe trumping the 
 whole; while three pair of woollen socks, buckskin moccasins, 
 and long boots of buffalo-skin with the fur inside, assisted his 
 leggins of green baize in keeping his extremities warm; and a 
 huge hood and visor of fur set Jack Frost at defiance should he 
 assail from above. I do not by any means mention all these 
 defences as constituting the ordinary apparel of the country; for 
 every one on the frontier dresses just as he pleases, and whether 
 he has his blankets and skins made up into i oats and boots, or 
 wears them loose about his person, no one comments upon it. 
 The utmost freedom of dress prevails ; and you may see the same 
 person three days in succession with a leather hunting-shirt, a sur- 
 tout of scarlet woollen, or a coat of superfine broadcloth just from 
 St. Louis, all worn in any company with the same air of independ- 
 ence; and while several colors and textures frequently combine 
 in the same dress, the result is of course an outrageous violation 
 of taste in individual instances, but great picturesqueness oi cos- 
 tume upon the whole: the very figure whose apparel is most ob- 
 noxious to the laws of good taste as last enacted by fashion, bcmg 
 often that which, of all others, a painter wouUl introduce uito a 
 landscape to relieve its colors, or copy for some romantic charm 
 of its own. 
 
 The country through which we now drove, though only inter- 
 spersed here and there with woodland, presented a very difierent 
 appearance from the open prairie below. In the vicmity ot 
 Galena it was much broken bv rocky ravmes and deep gullies. 
 which, in the spring of the year, must aftord a ready pass.ige lor 
 the water created by the melting of large bodies of snow; and lar 
 away toward the Mississippi, the inequalities of the surface showed
 
 54 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 like a distant range of mountains, that on nearer approach resolved 
 themselves into three or four distinct hills, which again on reach- 
 ing their banks proved to be only rocky eminences, of a few hun- 
 dred feet elevation — standing isolated on the vast plain, like 
 excrescences thrown up by some eruption from its surface. Be- 
 yond these, again, the country became beautifully undulating; 
 and when the warm light of sunset glanced along the tall yellow 
 grass which raised its tapering spears above the snowy surface, 
 and the purple light of evening deepened in the scattered groves 
 that rested on its bosom, it required no exercise of fancy to con- 
 ceive that these were sloping lawns, and smooth meadows, and 
 open parks, which the gathering shades of night were stealing 
 from the eye. But at last, just where the landscape was becom- 
 ing almost too broken to keep up these associations of high culti- 
 vation, a distant light appeared glimmering at the bottom of a 
 rocky valley; and slipping and floundering through the snow 
 which partially smoothed the rugged descent, we entered a small 
 hamlet of log-huts, and drove up to the door of a frame-building, 
 which proved to be the public-house of "-Mineral Point." 
 
 A pordy Tennesseean, of some six feet high, received us warmly 
 at the door, and hurried me into a room where a large fire of burr- 
 oak, and a smoking supper of venison and hot corn-cakes, were 
 alike welcome. Half a dozen miners in leather shirts or belted 
 coats of Kentucky jean were lounging about the establishment; 
 while a tall backwoodsman, in a fringed hunting-frock, was 
 stretched on several chairs, with a pipe in one hand, and the 
 other resting on a Pelham novel, which, with a volume of Shakes- 
 peare, an old biBle, and the "Western Songster," formed a pyra- 
 mid beneath his brawny arm. "Whirling Thunder," the AVinne- 
 bago chief, had, as I was informed, just left the establishment, or 
 our party would have been perfect. The old fellow, who, I pre- 
 sume, is superannuated, had been breathing revenge and slaughter 
 against the Sauks and Foxes, who, he says, have killed a number 
 of his tribe, and he avows a determination to come down upon 
 the enemy with seven hundred warriors;* though I believe it is 
 
 * The animosity existinij between these warlike tribes, it would seem, has 
 lately manifested itself beneath the very guns of Fort Crawford. In an article 
 which appeared in the St. Louis papers, while these pages were passing 
 through the press, it is stated, under date of November iSth, that "The In- 
 dians in the vicinity of Prairie du Chien have again been engaged in hostile 
 acts, which portend a serious termination. A party of .Sauks and Fo.xs, after 
 killing several Menomones on Grant River, attacked a lodge of Winnebagoes 
 on an island about three miles above Prairie du Chien. It was occupied at 
 the time by women and children only, the warriors being absent on a hunting 
 excursion. Suddenly the -Sauk-and-Fox party made their appearance before
 
 A WINTER IN Till-; WKST. 
 
 55 
 
 -well known that there are not at present half the numher in his 
 .tribe, and they scattered far and wide on their hunting expeditions. 
 As it was, however, I found the company into which I was thrown 
 in more than one way agreeable. 'I'hey were civil anil cunvcr.vi- 
 l)le; and when a cigar was handed me by a well-dressed gentle- 
 man engaged in the mines, who had sat down to supper with us, 
 1 stretched my legs before the fire, and soon felt myself i)errectly 
 at home. The rumors of Indian wars, with the incitlenls in those 
 already gone by, being thoroughly discussed, feats of strength and 
 activity were next introduced; whereat, a burly, broad-shouldered 
 fellow, with a head of hair like a boat's swab, junijied on his fc-ct, 
 .and shaking the flaps of his rough kersey doublet like pair of 
 wings, he crowed and swore that he could throw anv man of his 
 weight in the mines. "Why, Bill Armstrong,'' cried a little old 
 man, who I was assured was nearly eighty years of age, shaking 
 the ashes from his pipe the while, "1 could double up two such 
 fellows as you in my time ; and I think as it is (slowly rising and 
 collaring the puissant Bill), I'll whip one of them now for a treat ;" 
 they grappled at once, and Armstrong good-naturedly allowing 
 the old man to put him down, a laugh was raised at his exi>ense. 
 But Bill was too much a cock-of-the-walk to mind it; and, strid- 
 ing up to the bar, he called out, "Come here, old fellow, and take 
 your treat — your a steamboat; but who couldn't be beat by a fel- 
 low that had forty years the advantage of him!" 
 
 The next day's sun found us, when a few hours high, in a 
 country which, though not a house was to be seen for miles, 1 can 
 
 the lodge, fired into it, tomahawked and scalped tai of the inmates. ^ Hut one 
 of the Sauk warriors lost his life, and that was by the iiand of a Winnebago 
 boy, about fifteen years of age. The youth was standing at the door of the 
 lodge, between a younger brother and sister, when two of the warriors made 
 their appearance and fired upon them. Recollecting instantly that an old jjun 
 remained in the lodge loaded, he procured it, and awaited the return of the 
 foe, who had retreated for the purpose of reloading their guns. As soon as 
 they appeared before him, he took deliberate aim at one of them, tired. .inU 
 the bullet went through the heart of his enemy. He then escaped at the m- 
 terior of the lodge, made his way for the river, swam it, and gave mform.-ition 
 of the massacre at Fort Crawford. A detachment of troops was immediately 
 ordered out in pursuit of the murderers, but, as far as known, withuut micccss. 
 The Winnebagoes, it is said, had determined on retaliation, and ihoir warriors 
 were already collecting. Their foe, it is also known, are ready to receive 
 them; having been recently arming and equipping themselves for hglit. o- 
 ward the Winnebagoes all parties of the Sauks and I'oxes have an un-lyinK 
 hatred. They view them as having been the cause, by their bad coun-v .. 
 all the calamities brought upon them by the late war, and as having .= 
 treacherous and infamous part at the termination of it. .Many '•'f;-'""^ ;"'';;' 
 concur to make it more than probable that, should a contlict lake place, H 
 ')e a long and bloody one."
 
 56 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 only compare, with its intermingling of prairies and groves, rocky- 
 ravines and rapid brooks of sparkling water, to the appearance 
 which the beautiful cultivated districts along the Hudson would 
 present if the fences and farm-houses were taken away. Its varied 
 aspect was far more pleasing to my eye than the immense plains- 
 of table-land below, where the sound of a waterfall is never to be 
 heard, and a stone larger than a pebble is (unless on the banks of 
 the Illinois) rarely met with. The soil, indeed, is not so rich, 
 but the country is unquestionably more healthy; and though the 
 climate is actually more severe in winter, yet the wind is so much 
 broken by the numerous groves and the general inequalities of 
 surface, that one suffers much less from cold. A great error is- 
 committed by Government in keeping the wild land of this regions 
 out of market ; for the patches of woodland, though frequent, are 
 not so dense as those below; and the number of smelting-furnaces- 
 of lead-ore, which are scattered over the whole country betweert 
 Rock River and the Ouisconsin, tends to diminish them so rapid- 
 ly, that a dozen years hence wood enough will hardly be left forj 
 the ordinary purposes of the farmer. Whatever measures are! 
 adopted, however — and I believe there is a bill in relation to these 
 lands now pending in Congress — the pre-emption rights of thej 
 tirst settlers should be secured in the most liberal manner. Their| 
 sufferings from three Indian wars within ten years, and their en- 
 durance of every risk and privatiorij are almost incredible; and,! 
 considering that it will take them some time now- to recover from] 
 the last affair of Black Hawk, Government ought to give them 
 several years' credit; but the early sale of the lands I believe to I 
 be indispensable to the future welfare of one of the finest regions] 
 in the world. The truth is, that no smelting should be done in 
 the interior; but the mineral should be transported to points 
 where fuel is more abundant, and the timber now growing upon 
 the spot left for the use of the farmers and miners, to whom it is 
 indispensable for the prosecution of their labors. Such will hardly 
 be the case until a property in lands is established, and individuals 
 are no longer permitted to sweep grove after grove from the soil, 
 till the country begins to assimilate in some places to those leaf- 
 tracks in Illinois, which will probably remain unsettled prairie for 
 a century to come. 
 
 I was particularly struck with the bold life which these miners 
 have long led— the chief dangers of which, it is presumed, are now 
 over— by observing a strong block-house erected among a cluster 
 of small shanties, where two brothers lived, with whom we stopped 
 to take some refreshment at noon. Thev were miners and farmers
 
 A WIXTKR IN THE WKST. 5;- 
 
 together; and carrying on their business remote from any otlu-r 
 house or settlement, they probably sent the mineral and vegetal lie- 
 productions of their favored soil to market at (lalena in the same 
 car. They had struck the vein of ore which they were working 
 in badger-hunting — the habits of that animal being of great assist 
 ance to the miner in exploring for mineral. 1 saw at the sanu- 
 place a fine dog terribly gored by a wild boar — the descendant of 
 the domestic hog, which runs wild in this region, and sometimes 
 makes a good hunt. 
 
 Our route hither, which was by no means direct, carried us 
 through a broken savage country, where a thousand clear streams 
 seemed to have their birth among the rocks, singing away, though 
 the earth was wrapped 
 
 "In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow," 
 
 as if the leaves of June (juivered over their crystal currents. .\t 
 one time, these crisped fountains were the only objects that gave 
 life to a burnt forest through which we rode, where the tall, brandi- 
 less, and charred trees stood motionless on the steep hill-side, or 
 lay in wild disorder as they had tumbled from the rocky height.s 
 into a ravine below. Emerging from this desolate region, where 
 the tracks of bears and other wild animals were to be seen on 
 every side, we launched out on one of the loveliest prairies I ever 
 beheld. It was about a mile wide, and not more than four or fi ve- 
 in length, and smooth as a billiard-table, with two small isjets of 
 wood in the centre. Our horses, which had seemed almost tagqtil 
 out by slipping and stumbling among the rocks and fallen trees in 
 the timbered land, now pricked up their ears and snorted with 
 animation as they made our light sleigh skim over the smooth 
 plain. 
 
 It was afternoon on the third day after leaving Oalena, that on 
 descending an abrupt steppe of about fifty yards, we came to a 
 small tributary of the Ouisconsin, winding tlirough a narrow valley 
 below. Following down the slender rill, whose banks exhibited 
 no shrubbery save a few dwarf willows, we crossed a wooded but 
 tom, where the long grass among the trees shot above the snow 
 to the height of our horses' shoulders, and reached at last the 
 Ouisconsin, where the stream might be near a-cpiarter of a mile 
 wide. After trying the ice in se\eral places with long poles, we 
 ventured at last to cross; and, scaling a bold bhift at the opp.- •■ 
 side, paused a moment at a trading-house, owned by a l-rn.. 
 man, to let our horses blow. A band of Winnebagoes were 
 standing at the door; and as they were all in mourning for some
 
 58 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 recently-deceased relations,* their broad blunt features, blackened 
 as they were, made them look like Hottentots. A ride of six 
 miles, through a high rolling prairie interspersed with open groves 
 of oak, brought us at last in view of the bluffs of the Upper Mis- 
 sissippi, rising in rocky masses to the height of four or five hun- 
 dred feet above the bed of that beautiful 'river, whose iron-bound 
 banks and gentle crystalline current bear but little affinity to the 
 marshy shores and turbid tide which are distinguished by the 
 same name, after the Missouri gives a new character to its waters. 
 Never shall I forget the first view of "The Father of Rivers," as 
 a reach of several miles — shut in, partly by its own bluffs, and 
 partly by those of the Ouisconsin, with its numerous islets smiling 
 in the light of the setting sun — stretched like some comely lake 
 of the west before my eye. It was girdled, apparently, by inac- 
 cessible clifts on three sides, and fringed by a broad meadow, 
 which, in its turn, was bounded and sheltered by lofty bluffs, on 
 the fourth. That meadow lay now beneath me, and it was Prairie 
 du Chien. 
 
 Prairie du Chien, Upper Miss., Feb. 12th, 1834. 
 
 The shadows of its western bluffs had deepened far over the 
 broad surface of the ice-bound Mississippi, though a flooc^ of yel- 
 low light still bathed the gray walls of Fort Crawford, as its exten- 
 
 * The Winnebagoes, as they are the most savage-looking, are among the 
 haughtiest of the tribesmen. They differ in many respects from the neighbor- 
 ing clans; and Carver says, that in his time there was a tradition in the coun- 
 try that the nation sprung from "some strolling bands from the Mexican coun- 
 tries. " In " Long's Expedition" they are mentioned as being of distinct origin 
 from the Algonquin tribes, and their language is said to present greater diffi- 
 culties than any of the northern dialects. "It abounds," says that work, "in 
 harsh and guttural sounds, and in the letter r, which does not appear to be 
 common in the Algonquin languages. It is difficult to obtain correct informa- 
 tion concerning the manners and characters of the Winnebagoes, as a strong 
 prejudice appears to prevail against them. They are considered unfriendly to 
 white men, and this, instead of being viewed in the light of a favorable trait 
 of their character, as indicative of a high spirit which can resent injustice and 
 oppression, and which will not crouch before the aggressor, has been the occa- 
 sion of much ill-wind toward them." — Long's Expedition, page 216. 
 
 The custom of blacking the face by way of mourning, as mentioned in the 
 text, is by no means peculiar to the Winnebagoes : — 
 
 "The Indians are particular in their demonstrations of grief for departed 
 friends; they consist in darkening their fices with charcoal, fasting, abstaining 
 from the use of vermilion and other ornaments in dress, etc. ; they also make 
 incisions in their arms, legs, and other parts of the body. These are not made 
 for the purposes of mortification, or to create a pain which shall, by dividing 
 their attention, efface the recollection of their loss; but entirely from a belief 
 that their grief is internal, and that the only way of dispelling it is to give it 
 a vent through which to escape." — Ibid., page 226.
 
 A \VINTER TX Till, W KS'I'. 
 
 59 
 
 sive barracks lay in the form of an isolated S(|uare on the level 
 meadow beneath us; while, farther to the north, a number of 
 dingy-wooden buildings, which looked like a fishing haml'Jt,* on 
 the immediate bank of the river, were momentarily growing more 
 indistinct in the advancing twilight as we approached their pur- 
 lieus, and drove up to a cabaret about half a mile from the 
 
 garrison. 
 
 It was within pistol-shot of the river; a comfortable frame 
 building, with a stockade-fence around it. made with pickets, some 
 ten or tifteen feet high; a voyagciir or two, with a few half-breed- 
 looking residents, were loitering about the door; and a tall .\lc- 
 nomone Indian, with a tuft of drooping feathers on his crown, was 
 standing with folded arms apart from the rest. 
 
 A portly soldier-like Cierman, who had formerly been a non- 
 commissioned officer in the infantry, proved to be the landlord, 
 and bowed me, like a master of his business, into a room heated 
 to suffocation by a large Canadian stove, placing at the same 
 time a strip of newly-written paper in my hands. Imagine m\ 
 surprise when I discovered it to be a ]jlay-l)ill! "The ////'//V 
 were respectfully informed, that the sterling Knglish comedy of 
 
 * Carver, who visited Prairie du Chien in 1766, describes it, under the 
 name of "The Lower Town of the Ottagaumies, " a, a larjje place, "contain- 
 ing three hundred families. The houses," he adds, "are well liuilt, .nftcr the 
 Indian manner, and pleasantly situated on a very rich soil, from which they 
 raise every necessary of life in abundance. This town is the great mart wlicre 
 all the adjacent tribes, and even those who inhabit the most remote branches 
 of the Mississippi, annually assemble about the latter end of .May, brini^inj; 
 with them their furs to dispose of to the traders." The aspect of the village 
 is very different at present. It consists, e.xclu.sive of two or three frame-built 
 stores, of some five-and-twenty rude and ruinous dwelling-houses, whirli arc 
 almost black with age, and the population can hardly amount to twu hundred 
 souls. The situation of the hamlet and the features of the country adj.accnt 
 are thus described in "Long's Second Expedition :"—" The village of I'r^inc 
 du Chien is situated four or five miles above the mouth of the \N i.cons.-in on 
 a beautiful prairie, which extends along the eastern bank of the river for .il>.>u« 
 ten miles in length, and which is limited to the east by a range of steep liilU, 
 rising to a height of about four hundred and thirty-five feet, and nmmiii; par- 
 allel with the course of the river about a mile and a-half. On the western 
 bank are bluffs which rise to the same elevation, and are washed at their Iws* 
 by the river. 'Pike's Hill,' which is on the west b.ank, .mmedialely opj>o*uc 
 to the mouth of the Wisconsan, is about five hundred and lifty Icet hi-li. l ne 
 hill has no particular limits in regard to its extent, bem^ merely a i-art ol inc 
 river's bluffs, which stretch along the margin of the river on "'^ «'^'' *"'' 
 retain pretty nearly the same elevation above the water. In general the atcm- 
 
 ma] 
 page 238.
 
 60 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 "Who Wants a Guinea?' and Fielding's afterpiece of "Don 
 Quixote in England," with songs, recitations, etc., would be pre- 
 sented this evening, by the soldiers of the First Regiment at Fort 
 Crawford. Nothing could be more apropos. I had just ascertained 
 that on account of the present deep snows, with the prospect of 
 an early thaw, it would be almost impossible to get up to the 
 Falls of St. Anthony, whither my ambition led me, at this season; 
 and having now no further plans to arrange during the evening, 
 and being wholly unprovided with letters to the officers of the 
 garrison, I was really rejoiced at such an opportunity of entering 
 its walls incognito. 
 
 The sleigh in which I had come carried me in a few minutes 
 within the sally-port, and handing the ticket with which mine 
 host had provided me to a soldier who acted as door-keeper, I 
 entered a large barrack-room, fitted up very neatly as a theatre by 
 the soldiers themselves; the scenery, quite cleverly done, being 
 all painted by them, and the lights, ingeniously placed in bayo- 
 nets, prettily arranged, — a contrivance suggested by their own 
 taste. The seats, rising like the pit of a theatre, were so adjusted 
 as to separate the audience into three divisions : the officers with 
 their families furnished one, the soldiers another, and "gumboes,"' 
 Indians, and a negro servant or two made up the third. A 
 superb-looking squaw of the Sauk-and-Fox* tribe attracted my 
 attention as I entered the room, and prevented me from advan- 
 cing beyond the worshipful part of the assemblage last mentioned, 
 as she sat between two pretty but plainly-dressed Menomonet 
 girls, in a more rich and beautiful costume than I ever saw at a 
 fancy ball. The curtain rose while I was studying her noble 
 features and tasteful finery, and contrasting the striking and some- 
 what voluptuous character of both with the simple attire and less 
 mature charms of the two nut-brown beauties beside her. Every 
 eye was then directed to the stage, and I remained standing 
 
 * "The united bands of the Saukies and Ottigaumies, the French nicknamed, 
 according to their wonted custom, Des Sacs and Des Renards — the Sacks and 
 tlie Foxes." — Carver. 
 
 t The Me-no-mo-ne, or wild-rice-eaters, is a broken band that served with 
 effect against the Sauks and Foxes in the Indian difficulties of 1832. They 
 are a finely-shaped people, of a much lighter complexion than the other north- 
 western tribes, and exhibit a great deal of taste in preparing, and neatness in 
 wearing, the various articles of Indian dress — ornamented belts, gaiters, sheaths 
 for knives, moccasins, etc. In Long's Expedition they are mentioned as "The 
 White Indians," and are supposed not to belong to the Algonquin stock. It 
 is said that few white men have ever been able to learn their language; and 
 in their intercourse they use the melange of the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pot- 
 tawatomie dialects, which is the common medium of communication on the 
 frontier. — See Long' s Expedition, Charlevoix, etc.
 
 A WINTER IN Tin-: \VKST. 6l 
 
 against the door-post till the act was concluded: and then, just 
 as I was wishing for some one to whom to express my surprise ai 
 the degree of skill and judgment with which the soklicrs played, 
 considering they were but amateurs, an officer made his way uj) 
 to me, and very politely insisted upon my taking his seat in life 
 more favored part of the house. The ordinary interchange of 
 commonplaces between gentlemen who are strangers to each 
 other ensued, and then, without his knowing my name or the 
 slightest circumstance in relation to me, an invitation to take up 
 my quarters in the garrison followed. I declined the invitation, 
 but we exchanged cards; and I had hardly got through breakfast 
 in the morning, when my new acquaintance, accompanied by 
 Colonel T., the commandant, and a young sTibaltern. called to 
 repeat the invitation of the evening before; bringing a soldier 
 with a sled to transport my baggage, and a led liorse to carry my- 
 self over to the garrison. It w^ould have been absurd to meet 
 such cordial proffers of hospitality with further ceremony: and 
 an hour after found me with a handsomely-furnished room of my 
 own, a fine saddle-horse placed at my disposal, and a servant at 
 my call, sitting down to the mess with as fine a set of )-oung fel- 
 lows as I ever met with. I have been particular in describing my 
 initiation into this agreeable and accomi)lished circle, merely to 
 give you some idea of the gentleman-like courtesy and frank hos- 
 pitality which distinguish the officers of the army, wherever 1 have 
 been fortunate enough to meet with them. 
 
 I have now been here nearly two weeks. The weather has 
 been mild and beautiful, and my time, in such congenial society, 
 passes delightfully; so much so, indeed, that when I wake each 
 morn at rei'eiUe, it is with a kind of sad feeling I remember that 
 the twenty-four hours just passed brings me nearer to the time 
 when I must start again on my solitary tour, through a region 
 where fortune can hardly throw me a second time among si't-Ii 
 companions. . , 
 
 The garrison here consists of five companies of inkmtry. under 
 the command of a lieutenant-colonel. They are well quartered 
 in very handsome barracks, built by the soldiers themselves ol 
 cut stone; the buildings being arranged m the lorm ol a s.juare. 
 and enclosing an area large enough for a battalion to drill in. 
 The parade is nicely graveled, and a colonnade winch e.xtcnds 
 round three sides of the parade, gives a cheerful asi^ect to nc 
 whole. The hospital stands by itself on a slight knol al.ou a 
 hundred yards from the barracks, and both are pleasantly situ.itui 
 near the banks of the Mississippi. The place, as it ""J ^^^"^^' 
 would be easily tenable against hordes of Indians, sh..uld lhc)^i)e
 
 62 A WINTER IN THE WEST. 
 
 mad enough to assail it. There is not a tree around it, and it is 
 furnished with a park of artillery, which, from an open interval 
 left at each angle of the parallelogram, could sweep the whole 
 prairie. But these openings, which are flanked by no works- 
 whatsoever, by breaking the unity of the square, destroy even the 
 appearance of a fortification ; and the i)lace, if not carried by an 
 assault from a regular force, would easily fall before its formal 
 approaches. Such an attack was indeed never contemplated 
 when Fort Crawford — which was only intended to overawe the 
 Indians — was erected; but even in a collection of barracks, one 
 likes to see them so disposed as to preserve a military air. There 
 is a small but well-chosen library belonging to the post, and sev- 
 eral of the companies have quite good miscellaneous libraries of 
 their own, — a fact exceedingly creditable to the private soldiers. 
 The amusements of the ])lace, so far as society is concerned, are 
 of course limited. The officers" families do indeed make a small 
 circle; and for those who like to study life in all its phases, there 
 is the little village of Prairie du Chien about half a mile from the 
 garrison, with its antique-looking timber-built houses, containing 
 an amphibious population of voyagenrs and hunters, half- French 
 and half-l,ndian. Here the officers sometimes amuse themselves 
 in getting up what is called a gumbo ball, which, from the descrip- 
 tions I have had of them, must be a kind of harlequinade I should 
 very much like to see. Sporting, however, — when the resources 
 of the library are exhausted, or a pipe of kinnekinic ceases tO' 
 charm, — is the great source of amusement at Prairie du Chien. 
 The grouse now keep in large packs near the garrison; snipe, too, 
 1 am told, are abundant when in season, and of ducks I am as- 
 sured it is easy to kill a canoe-load, when they begin to fly along 
 the Mississippi. Klk, bear, and wolves are the game of those 
 who are more ambitious in their sport, and choose to go farther 
 to seek it. The meat of the first I have not yet tasted, but I 
 made a capital dinner yesterday from a sirloin of the second, at 
 the commandant's (juarters. Bruin was served up in handsome 
 style, and some old wine from Colonel T.'s hospitable cellar 
 relished in this latitude. 
 
 The scenery round Prairie du Chien would please you much.. 
 The snow has now entirely left the bosom of the prairie, though 
 it still hangs like flakes of morning mist round the rocky brows of 
 the adjacent bluffs. The singular landscape created by these 
 bold heights has been called monotonous; but I do not find it so. 
 Not a day, not an hour passes, but they i>resent some new appear- 
 ance. Each shifting cloud brings out some new angle of the 
 gigantic blocks; and, whether the rosy tints of dawn warm their
 
 A WINTER IN THE WEST. r,^ 
 
 Steep sullen brows, or the glare of noon settles on ilicir roiui.l 
 summits, and tries to pierce the deep ravines which hh^lc then) 
 out from each other, or sunset, with its mellow hues, lingers 
 among the long grass which i)aints their "umbered face," where 
 they first swell from the plain, — to me they are always lovely, 
 grand, and peculiar. I ascended one of them, accompanied hy 
 an officer on horseback, the other day, by winding up a ravine in 
 the rear, which brought us on a round, bold, grassy height, about 
 one hundred feet above the prairie; to which the bluff desceiuled 
 by two sheer precipices of rock, of about a hundred feet each, 
 with alternate slopes of soil, covered with long yellow grass the 
 whole having the appearance of some vast fortress — an enormous 
 bastion thrown up in huge layers of earth and stone. On the 
 very summit was one of those ancient fortifications, the mysteri- 
 ous mementoes of an unknown race, whose gigantic and enduring 
 works are scattered over thousands of leagues of this continent, 
 to puzzle the curious and set at naught the surmises of the anti- ' 
 quary.* I trod each winding of the turf-covered rampart, and 
 counted what appeared to be the embrasures for artillery, as my 
 military friend commented upon the position, and described a 
 number of similar remains which he had examined in dilierent 
 parts of the Western country: while we alike dissented from the 
 unsatisfactory conclusions of those closet theorists who would 
 attribute the fortified appearance of this tall elevation, — the enor- 
 mous mounds in the vicinity of St. Louis, — the sunken remains on 
 the alluvial bottoms of Illinois, — the perfect forms which give its 
 name to Circleville in Ohio, and the deep intrenchments which 
 channel the rocky hills of eastern Kentucky, alike to the action 
 of water: suppositions upon a par for ingenuity with those which 
 
 * These curious remains are very mimerous in the vicinity of rr.iiric <lu 
 Chien, and extend alike along the bluffs which face the Mississippi and ihosc 
 which run parallel to the Ouisconsin (or Wisconsan, as it is sometinics writ- 
 ten). The former, which are the works alluded to in the text, are thus des- 
 cribed by Major Long, in his journal of 1817: — 
 
 "The remains of ancient works, constructed probably for military purjwscs 
 were found more numerous and of greater extent on the Inghlands, juM alHivc 
 the mouth of the Wisconsan, than any of which a d.-^cnpt.un ha> been ni.idc 
 public, or that have as yet been discovered in the western country. Ilierc the 
 parapets and mounds were found connected in one series of work-.. W hcrevcr 
 there was an angle in the principal lines, a mound of the largest .m/c w.is 
 erected at the angle; the parapets were terminated by mounds at each cMrcmi- 
 ty, and also at the gateways. No ditch was observed on either side of the 
 • parapet. In many places the lines were composed of parai>ets an.i mounds in 
 conjunction, the mounds being arranged along the parapets at their UMial dis- 
 tance from each other, and operating as Hank defences to the lines. 
 
 "The Indians in the vicinity of I'rairie du Chien can give no account of
 
 64 A WINTER IX THE WEST. 
 
 account for the existence of the prairies by the sudden withdrawal 
 of the same element from what was formerly the beds of a chain 
 of vast inland lakes. The same prairies, in every instance that I 
 have yet seen, except the single one of Prairie du Chien, being 
 high table-land, some sixty or a hundred feet above the streams 
 and groves which occasionally chequer them. I forget whether I 
 have before mentioned that the Indian name for prairie (scutay) 
 Avhich means also Jire, would account for their origin with any one 
 who had had an opportunity of observing how the action of that 
 element extends these grassy domains every season in one direc- 
 tion, while it leaves them to shoot up into a luxuriant growth of 
 young forest in another.* 
 
 But turn with me to yonder view of the Mississippi, where a 
 hundred wooded islets of every possible form repose upon the 
 glistening ice that silvers its broad bosom. How grandly does 
 the bold promontory of "Pike's Hill," interlocked as it seems with 
 the gray crags of the Ouisconsin, shut in the lordly stream on the 
 south; and there, where the blue water has broken its white fetters, 
 and those diminutive figures are leaping from one ice-cake. to an- 
 other, as they sparkle in the sun along the smooth eastern shore, 
 how beautifully the tall, brown grass bends over the pebbly mar- 
 gin ! \'ou may look now, though it is two miles ofif, into the very 
 centre of Fort Crawford, where the gleam of arms Hashing over 
 the sanded parade tells of troops in motion, though the sound of 
 their drums can hardly reach your ears. What a point would this 
 be from which to view the meeting of hostile forces 1 The armies 
 of Europe might manoeuvre on the smooth prairie below, and not 
 a guide could indicate a position without its being manifest to 
 your eye long before a battalion could attain it. 
 
 these ancient works, and their only mode of explaining their existence is by 
 supposing that the country was inhabited, at a period anterior to the most 
 remote traditions, by a race of white men similar to those of European origin, 
 and that they were cut off by their forefathers. 'It is said that tomahawks of 
 brass and other metals, differing from those in use among the present Indians, 
 have been found under the surface of the ground.' — [A'ea/ino-.] And stories 
 are told of gigantic skeletons being often disinterred in the neighborhood. 
 Mr. Brisbois, who has been for a long time a resident of Prairie du Chien, 
 informed me that he saw the skeletons of eight persons that were found in 
 cligging a cellar near his house, lying side by side. They were of a gigantic 
 size, measuring about eight feet from head to foot. He added, that he took a 
 leg-bone of one of them and placed it by the side of his own leg, in order to 
 compare the length of the two; the bone of the skeleton extended six inches 
 above his knee. None of these bones could be preserved, as they crumbled 
 to dust soon after they were exposed to the atmosphere." — [Major Long's MS. 
 us i]iioted in his Second Expedition.'\ 
 
 * See Fergus' Historical Series, No. 3. "Origin of the Prairies." By 
 Hon. John Dean Caton, LL.D., late Chief-Justice of Illinois.
 
 FERGUS' HISTORICAL SERIES. N.j. 2 7. 
 
 T H I< 
 
 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS 
 
 BY 
 
 HIRAM W. BECKWlLll 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 FERGUS PRINTING COM I' \ N V. 
 
 ILLINOIS STRKKT. 
 
 1884.
 
 luitered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by 
 
 P'krgus Printing Company, 
 In the oftice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 J.ETTKR FROM 'i'H I'. Al TIIOR. 
 
 D.\N\ ii.i.K, 111.., Nov. 5, 1K83. 
 
 Mv 1)i;ar Fer(;u.s:— Herewith is the wind-up. The Introductory to the 
 chapter on "IIHnois and Indiana Indians", also a foot-note on |udge Hall, to 
 be put as marked. I could find no other jilace where I could place it with 
 any propriety. It cost me more time and labor to chip it out than any other 
 side-spur I have undertaken. I have one of the very few comidete sets of \\i> 
 publications extant, which I have been years in collecting, and they contain 
 "lots of good things." I revised and condensed the note two or three times 
 and have, for brevity's sake, squeezed everything out of it except dry facts. 
 Vet I hope that even these may revive or keep in memory the debt Illinois 
 and the West owe to Judge Hall. The statute of limitations has ran too long 
 against him, John 'SI. I'eck, and a few others who might be named; while 
 semi-annual dividends of praise have been regularly, often in advance, to 
 much less deserving men. 
 
 The proof-slips I return O. K.'d with corrections of my own and the ailup- 
 tion, with thanks, of those queried by the proof-reader, whom I take to be 
 your father. I will be obliged if you will lay away the proof-slips and page- 
 proofs for me to have when I come up, which will be about the 2ist instant, 
 when I expect to remain two or three days. 
 
 I hope the work will now soon be out, and that you will get back more than 
 your money and labor on the venture. I feel that the matter is as reliable 
 as to facts, dates, names, places, etc. , as painstaking research can well make 
 it. Every statement has been compared and verified with all original authori- 
 ties, as well as the several collators upon the same subject that I could com- 
 mand for reference. Nothing has been retained that would not bear these 
 tests; and, as a sequence, many pleasing fictions have been discarded. 
 Should you ever subsoil in this field of inquiry, you will be amazed at the 
 carelessness and the discrepancies, the prejudices, and the pure fancies of 
 writers upon our aboriginal history that you will unearth on every hand, unlil, 
 in the course of your investigations, you will come to doubt if much true 
 history is to be found for your pains at last. \ ours truly, 
 
 H. W. Bfxkwiiii.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The account given of the Indians, in the following chapters, i> 
 condensed from a volume prepared by the writer four years a|;o. 
 with some new matter added in the revision. It is mostly the 
 result of his gleanings over a wide fiald of antiquated books of 
 travel and maps long since out of print, or copies of manuscrij)!- 
 correspondence of a private or official character, little of which 
 is accessible to the general reader. 
 
 Our knowledge of the aboriginal occupants of this country is 
 fragmentary, at best. They kept no records and had no histori- 
 ans. The little we know of them is to be found in the writings 
 of persons who, if not their natural enemies, had little interest in 
 doing them justice. As a rule, early travelers and observers have 
 alluded to their capabilities, their manners and customs, only in 
 an incidental way. We know but very little of the Indians who 
 formerly occupied the territory between the Alleghanies and Mi> 
 sissippi; and the little information that has been preserved con 
 cerning them is so scattered through the volumes of authors who 
 wrote from other motives, or at different dates, or of diflercnt 
 nations, without taking thought to discriminate, that no .salisfat 
 tory account of any particular tribe is now attainable. The i)csl 
 that may be done is to select such of these disjointed scraps as 
 bear evidence of being the most reliable, and arrange them in 
 something like chronolotrical order. In his endeavor to do this, 
 the writer has had no theories to bolster up or morbid sentnnenis 
 to gratify. He has only quoted or condensed from authorities 
 regarded as standard; and this without prejudice in favor of oi 
 against the people whose history he has attempted to briefly give. 
 
 The mental and physical training of the two races, their habits 
 and purposes of life were so radically difterent that they couKI 
 not peaceably occupy the same territory in common, hither the 
 red hunter must quit the chase and give up his nomadic life, or 
 the civilized white must degenerate into a savage. Hence the 
 Indian, being the weaker party, gave away before the operations 
 of an inexorable law, the severity of which could, at best, have 
 been only tempered. It was but obeying a natural law, inherent 
 in humanity everywhere, that he defended his country agamst tin- 
 encroachments of another race; and the strife between the tw..
 
 VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for its possession, furnishes material for many thrilling events con- 
 nected with its history. 
 
 In spite of whatever ofticial injunctions to the contrary, the 
 Indians were as systematically debauched with whisky, contami- 
 nated with vices, and as persistently overreached by the servants 
 of Count Frontenac, governor of New France, over two centu- 
 ries ago, as they have been, from that time until now, by the 
 agents and traders of every successive executive in charge, 
 whether French or British, dictating at Quebec or New York, or 
 American, directing from Washington City. And the complaints 
 of the early Jesuit priests against these wrongs were as unavail- 
 ing in correcting them as the protests of President Jefferson, Gov. 
 Harrison, Gen. Cass, Judge Hall,* and other good-minded men 
 
 * The writer feels it a duty to recur to tlie obligation the West, and partic- 
 ularly Illinois, owes to the memory of the late Judge James Hall, the pioneer 
 of our early literature, who was born at Philadelphia, Penn., Aug. 19, 1793; 
 served in the war of 1812, on the Niagara frontier; was with Com. Stephen 
 Decatur in the expedition against Algiers in 1815; resuming his law studies 
 at Pittsburg in 1818; and in 1820, located at Shawneetown, 111., and began 
 to practise. The next year, he was made States attorney for the judicial cir- 
 cuit, embracing some ten counties in Southeastern Illinois. This section was 
 at that time overrun with horse-thieves, slave-stealers, counterfeiters, and des- 
 peradoes, many of whom had fled hither from other States to escape punish- 
 ment for their crimes. By their numbers and organized bold actions, they set 
 all law at defiance, and terrorized over honest citizens. Mr. Hall, aided by 
 the law-abiding, prosecuted these criminals with such unrelenting vigor that 
 he broke up their gangs, and restored security to life and property. In 1S25, 
 he was elected judge of the same circuit — hence the prefix to his name. The 
 honor was all the more creditable to his abilities and moral worth, when it is 
 remembered that the legislature (of 1824-5) conferring it, was largely "anti- 
 convention", while he was classed with the "convention-party", as those were 
 designated who had favored the call of a convention to so amend the consti- 
 tution as to convert Illinois into a slave -state. [/Vi/t.' "Ford's History ot 
 Illinois. "J His term was short; for the next legislative session of 1826-7, 
 repealed the law creating the office and turned out all of the judges holding 
 commissions under it. Within the next two or three years, he removed to 
 Vandalia, then the State capital, where he early associated with Robt. Blacic- 
 well, State-printer, in publishing The Illinois Intelligencer. The legislature 
 of 1830-1 elected him State treasurer. In the meantime, he and Mr. Black- 
 well arranged to bring out "The Illinois Monthly Magazine", it being the 
 first attempt at periodical literature in the State. 
 
 Judge Hall's reputation as a writer was already established. Beginning in 
 1820, many of his contributions, descriptive of the West and its people,
 
 INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 in later limes. The clironic "Indian Queslion i.s no nearer a 
 settlement now than it was in colonial days, and it never will be 
 until either the unfortimate subjects of it are all dead, or we shall 
 have abandoned the prolonged attempt to reconcile the indul- 
 gences of a remorseless greed with the ways of justice and 
 humanity. 
 
 The remnants of tribes, who formerly owned the country east 
 of the Missouri, were sent beyond that river to live, mostly, by 
 hunting in competition with other natives in regions where game 
 had already become scarce. The lapse of time has neutralized 
 
 appeared in "The Portfolio", a monthly, conducted by his brother, John I:. 
 Hall, at Philadelphia, from which they were copied by papers in America and 
 England, and received a wide circulation. A residence, afterward, of several 
 years in the country described, so enlarged his opportunities that, to a num- 
 ber of the original articles was added much new matter, and the whole was 
 published in 1828 in London, England, in a volume entitled "Letters from 
 the West. Containing Sketches of Scenery, Manners, Customs, and Anec- 
 dotes connected with the First Settlements of the Western Sections of the 
 United States ", etc. 
 
 The first number of the "Illinois Magazine " appeared fur October, 1S30. 
 It run for two years. 'J"he second volume was published in part at St. Louis 
 and part at Cincinnati; owing to the difficulty of getting material and labor 
 at Vandalia, which, at that time, stood on the verge of a primitive popula- 
 tion, isolated from the literary world, and not possessing even the conven- 
 iences of country-roads that were passable for more than a few months during 
 the year. Commencing with January, 1833, Judge Hall resumed his i>eriodi- 
 cal at Cincinnati under the name of "The Western Monthly Magazine; a 
 Continuation of the Illinois Monthly Magazine", remaining with it here for 
 three years. In 1833, he went to Cincinnati and resided there until his death. 
 July 5, 1868. Ilis other principal literary labors are as follows: "LegcmU 
 of the West", 1832; second edition the next year; "The Soldier's Hridc". 
 1S33; "The Harp's Head, a Legend of Kentucky", 1833; "Tales of the 
 Border", 1835; "Sketches of History, Life, and ^Llnners in tlie West", 1835; 
 "Statistics of the West", etc., 1836. This last was reissued in 1838 (from 
 the same plates, with a few pages of a^^^mi/a relating to steamboat n 
 lion), under the better title of "Notes on the Western States. ConU 
 Descriptive Sketches of their Soil, Climate, Resources, and Scenery"; sub- 
 stantially the same matter appeared in 1848, under the name of '^'^The NNcst; 
 its Commerce and Navigation"; " Romance of Western History", 1857; re- 
 published in 1871, by Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati, O., with fine portrait 
 of author; "The Wilderness and the War- Path", 1845; republish^! in Lon- 
 don in 1846. The last two run into previous volumes, embracmg much of 
 the same matter; while the whole are largely made up of papers drawn from
 
 VIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the bitterness of the conquest that ended with their final removal 
 from our midst; so that now we ought to accord them the even- 
 handed justice to which they are historically entitled. 
 
 When attainable, the writer has preserved the aboriginal names 
 of lakes, rivers, Indian villages, and other historical localities 
 coming within range of the subjects treated. In the choice of 
 material he has also endeavored to make such selections as will 
 best serve the double purpose of sketches of the several tribes 
 named, and illustrate characteristics common to them all. 
 
 H. W. Beckwith. 
 
 Danville, III., November, 1883. 
 
 "The Letters from the West", "The Illinois Monthly Magazine", and its 
 continuation, where many of the originals may be found, or the germs can be 
 traced from which elaborations were subsequently made. The whole, aside 
 from their acknowledged literary merits, possess great historical value, as they 
 present while they preserve a faithful picture of the early West. 
 
 Besides the above, in 1S36, he published a life of Gov. Wm. II. Harrison, 
 which, for perspicuity, fidelity, and elegance of diction, is the best of the 
 many that have appeared. In 1848, he prepared a "Memoir of Thos. Posey, 
 Major-General and Governor of Indiana", published in "Sparks' American 
 Biographical Series". He also wrote the "History of the Indian Tribes of 
 North America", aided by Col. Thomas L. McKenney of the Indian Depart- 
 ment; published 1838-44 and 1858, in three large volumes, with 120 Indian 
 portraits, taken mainly from the Indian Gallery, formerly in the Department 
 of War at Washington. Judge Hall early became identified with our State, and 
 aided its material and intellectual progress with all the warmth of his ardent 
 nature. His pen was busy in praise of its climate, its soil, and its capabili- 
 ties; and prompt and trenchent in defence of the sterling traits of its pioneer 
 people, by whose successors he ought to be remembered. The writer has 
 collated this note, mainly from the above volumes, in his library with such 
 other scraps of information as he could gather elsewhere. The biographical 
 sketch in the American Cyclopedia, to which the writer is likewise indebted, 
 is in error as to the date of publication of the "Letters from the West", as 
 well, also, in alleging the existence of a " uniform edition of Judge Hall's 
 works"; and is defective in that it omits his " Sketches of the West " (the two 
 volumes possessing more historical value than any of the others), and makes 
 no mention of "The Illinois Monthly Magazine" and its continuation, which, 
 with the "Letters from the West", are measurably the fountains of them all. 
 
 His writings, except, perhaps, "The Romance of Western History", and a 
 reprint of "The Legends of the West", by Robert Clarke & Co. of Cincin- 
 nati, in 1 87 1 and 1874, respectively, are long since out of print. Many of 
 them are quite rare, and appear only at long intervals in the catalogues of 
 dealers in "Americana".
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 INDIAN TRIBES 
 
 FORMERLY I N H A V, I T I N O 
 
 INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 
 
 Bv HIRAM \V. BECKWITH. Danmij.i;, 111.
 
 THH ILLINOIS AND I.\1)L\.\A L\liiA.\.\ 
 
 THE ILLINOIS. 
 
 THE several Indian tribes, whicli from time to time occupied 
 parts of Illinois, so far as we have written accounts of tlu-m, 
 were the Miamis, Illinois, ^Vinnebagos, Sacs and Foxes, Kicka- 
 poos, Pottawatomies, and, at short intervals, the Winnebagocs 
 and Shawnees. They, with the exception of the AVinnebagoes. 
 who were of the Dakota or Sioux stock, were classed among 
 the' Algonquin-Lenape nations on account of the similarity of 
 their dialects and to distinguish them from the Irocjuois tribes on 
 the east, the Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws. and others south 
 of the Ohio River, and the Dakotas west of the Mississij^pi. The 
 different tribes living in Illinois will be referred to in the order of 
 priority of time in which written accounts refer to their respective 
 names. 
 
 The Illinois Indians were composed of five subdivisions: Kas- 
 kaskias, Cahokias, Tamaroas, Peorias, and Metchigamis, the last 
 being a foreign tribe residing west of the Mississippi River, who 
 being reduced to small numbers by wars with tlieir neiglibors. 
 abandoned their former hunting-grounds and became incorporated 
 with the Illinois. The first historical mention of this trilie is 
 found in the "Jesuit Relations for the year 1670-1," prepared by 
 Father Claude Dablon, from the letters of priests stationed at 
 LaPointe on the southwest of Lake Superior.+ At this jilace. 
 
 * A more detailed account of these tribes, togellier willi a narration of their 
 manners, customs, and implements (illustrated) will be found in IJeckwithV 
 " Historic Notes on the Northwest. " 
 
 + " ThepoinV' of land extending out into Lake Superior and hey-nd which 
 are the Apostle Islands, so named by the early Jesuits, because there are or 
 were twelve of them in number. The construction of the mission chain:! of 
 the "Holy Ghost" was begun at the Pointe by Father Claudius Alloue/ m 
 1665; and the place was afterward known by the Jesuits as " I.apomt du Saint
 
 lOO ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 prior to 1670, the French had a trading-post, to which the Indians 
 came for many miles, to barter their peltries for knives, hatchets, 
 kettles, guns, ammunition, clothes, ])aints, trinkets, and other 
 articles of European manufacture; and as the Indians that first 
 came to LaPointe from the south called themselves Illinois, the 
 French called them ever afterward by this name. Father Dablon 
 states in the "Relations for the year 1670": "As we have given 
 the name of Ottawas to all the savages of these countries, although 
 of different nations, because the first who have appeared among 
 the French were Ottawas, so also it is with the name Illinois, 
 very numerous, and dwelling toward the south, because the first 
 who came to the Pointe of the Holy Ghost for commerce, called 
 themselves Illinois." In the Jesuit Relations and in the writings 
 of other French authors, the name Illinois is variously spelled as 
 "lUi-mouek", "Ill-i-no-u-es", "Ill-i-ne-wek", "AUini-wek", and "Lin- 
 i-wek". The terminations oues^ wek, ois, and oi/ck were almost 
 identical in pronunciation. Lewis Evans, the great geographer in 
 colonial days, Spelled the name Will-i-nis. Major Thomas For- 
 syth, for many years trader and Indian-agent in the Illinois Terri- 
 tory, and stationed at the then French village of Peoria, says the 
 "Illinois confederation call themselves Linni-wek, and by others 
 they were called Min-ne-way." Father James Marquette, who, 
 with Louis Joliet, came up the Illinois River in 1673, and Father 
 Louis Hennepin, who descended the same stream in 1679, and 
 both coming in direct contact with the natives dwelling upon the 
 borders of its waters, giving them opportunities of knowing where- 
 of they wrote, in their journals of their respective voyages spell 
 the name Illinois.* Father Marquette, as well as Father Henne- 
 pin, give in their journals the signification that the Illinois Indians 
 gave to their name. The former in his narrative journal observes: 
 "To say Illinois is, in their language, to say 'the men', as if other 
 Indians compared to them were mere beasts." "The word Illi- 
 nois," says Father Hennepin, "signifies a man of full age in the 
 vigor of his strength. Tliis word Illinois comes, as has already 
 been observed, from lUini, which in that language signifies a 
 
 Esprit" [the point of the Holy Ghost]. By the Algonquin tribes and the 
 ungodly fur-tradeis, who seriously interfered with the good father's mission 
 work, the locality was called " Che-goi-me-gon", or [the place of] " T/ie Sandy 
 Point", which, as is usual with aboriginal names, is highly descriptive, and 
 characterizes its physical features in contrast with prevailing rugged shores of 
 Lake Superior. Upon this tongue of land, in modern atlases, is shown the 
 City of Bayfield, county-seat of Bayfield County, Wisconsin. 
 * Pronounced Ill-i-noi, the terminal s being silent.
 
 THE 1 I.I.I XOIS. 101 
 
 perfect and accomplished man." Originally the word Illiiicwck, or 
 Linnewek, had only a general meaning, and was a word used buast- 
 ingly by other tribes of the great Algonquin family when spcakiuj; 
 of themselves. The Delawares, considered the oldest branch oJ 
 this family, called themselves " T.enno-Lenape', which," savs 
 Albert (iallatin, in his synojjsis of Indians tribes of Norih 
 America, "means original or 'unmi.\ed men'; perhaps, originally, 
 'manly men '." In the Delaware language Laiiio means a man and 
 Nape means a male. Again, the tribes that occupied the country 
 about the southern extremity of Hudson l!ay, and who bclimgetl 
 to this same tamily of aboriginals, says Dr. Robertson: "call 
 themselves, as many other Indian tribes do, 'men', ' E-if/iin-yook\ 
 or 'In-ir-i-wrik', prefixing occasionally the name of their especial 
 tribes. Thus the true name of the 'IVIon-so-nies' or Swamp 
 Indians who inhabited Moose River is 'Mon-so-a-Eith-yu-yook', 
 or 'Moose-deer-men'." Later, and, as it were, by the uniform 
 concurrence of nearly all writers, when referring to the original 
 occupants of this country, the name Ill-i-mouek, lU-i-ne-wek, Lcn- 
 i-wek, and Ill-i-ni was applied only to the Illinois Confederation. 
 
 From the earliest accounts we have, the principal stream ol 
 this State was called "The River of the Illinois"; and a wide 
 region of comitry, lying north of the mouth of the Ohio and upon 
 both sides of the Mississippi, was called "The Country of the 
 Ilhnois", and "The Illinois". Tl^pse designations ai)pear in the 
 records and official letters under the administrations and owner- 
 ship of this region under both the P^rench and S|)anish C.overn- 
 ments. For example, letters, deeds, and other ofticial documcnls 
 bore date at "Kaskaskiaof the lUinois"', "St. Louis of the Illi- 
 nois", "Chicago of the Illinois", "Vincennes of the Ilhnois", etc. 
 
 While the Revolutionary war was in progress, C.en. Ceo. Rogers 
 Clark of Virginia (though a resident of Kentucky, which was 
 then a county of that colony) wrested the territory, now em- 
 braced within the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Michigan, and 
 ^^^isconsin, from the British Government. Afterward and in the 
 spring of 1779, Col John Todd, commissioned by \ irgmia as its 
 Heutenant, went to Vincennes and Kaskaskia and organized ( .en. 
 Clark's con(iuest into a county of \'irginia, to which was gnen 
 the name of "Illinois County". Later this domain became ihc 
 property, by cession of the several states claiming interest, oi 
 the United States. On the 4th of July. 180., the Act of Con- 
 gress for the division of the Northwest Territory went into etleii, 
 bv the terms of which all that part lying to the westward ot nc 
 west boundary line of the State of Ohio was con-.iiuited a sep.v 
 rate territory, under name of "Indiana Territory , and so reinaiiaU
 
 102 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 until when by Act of Congress, February 3, 1S09, all that part 
 of it lying west of the Wabash River, and a line drawn due north 
 from Vincennes to the British possessions, was organized into a 
 separate territory, to be called the "Illinois Territory". Still later, 
 October 5, 1818, was passed an Act for the admission of the 
 lUinois Territory as a state into the Federal Union, to be desig- 
 nated as the "State of Illinois". Such, agreeably to approved 
 authorities, is the origin of the word Illinois; and such are the 
 various uses it has served. A great State perpetuates the name, 
 in memory of a populous and powerful race of redmen, once 
 living in its borders, but now utterly perished from the earth. 
 
 From all accounts, it seems the Illinois Confederation claimed 
 the extensive county bounded on the east by the ridge that divides 
 the waters flowing into the Illinois from the streams that drain 
 into the Wabash, between the headwaters of Saline Creek and a 
 point as far north on the Illinois as the Desplaines, reaching still 
 northward to the debatable ground between themselves, the Win- 
 nebagoes, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Kickapoos; and extending 
 westward of the Mississi])pi. Their favorite and most populous 
 villages were upon the Illinois and its two principal branches, the 
 Desplaines and the Kankakee. 
 
 The area of the original country of the Illinois was soon reduced 
 by continuous wars with their neighbors. The Sioux (Da-ko-ta) 
 pressed them from the west; ^le Sacs and Foxes and Kickapoos, 
 confederates, encroached upon their territory from the north; 
 while war parties of the fierce Iroquois, coming from the ea^t, 
 rapidly decimated their numbers. These destructive influences 
 were doing their fatal work, and the power of the Illinois was 
 waning w'hen they first came in contact with the French. Their 
 sufferings rendered them pliable to the voice of the missionary; 
 and, in their weakness, the}' hailed with deliglii the coming of the 
 Frenchmen, with his promise of protection assured with gifts of 
 guns and powder. The Illinois drew so kindly to the priests, the 
 coureurs des bois, and soldiers that the friendship between the two 
 races never abated; and when, in the order of events, the sons ot 
 France had departed from Illinois, the love of the natives for the 
 departed Gaul was handed down as a precious memory to their 
 children. 
 
 The military establishments at Detroit, Mich., and at Starved 
 Rock, 111.,-'' for a while checked the incursions of the Iroquois 
 
 * Under his letters patent, granted by the king of France to the seigniory 
 of "The Country of the Illinois," LaSalle [so called after the name of the 
 landed estate, near Rouen, France, belonging to his family, but whose primal
 
 THE ILLINOIS. 
 
 "'>3 
 
 and stayed the calamity that was to betall tlic llHnoi>. W c ^ivc 
 a condensed account of some of tliese campaigns of the Iroijuois 
 into the lUinois country, as embraced in extracts which are 
 taken from a Memoir on Western Indians, by M. DiiChesneaii, 
 Intendent of Canada, and successor to Jean 'lallon, dated at 
 Quebec, September 13, 1681: "To convey a correct idea," says 
 this French officer, "of the present state of all those Indian 
 nations it is necessary to explain the cause of the cruel war waged 
 by the Iroquois for these three years past against the Illinois. 
 The former are great warriors, can not remain idle, and jjretend 
 to subject all other nations to themselves, and never want a ])rc- 
 text for commencing hostilities. The following is their assumed 
 excuse for the present war: going about twent)- years ago to 
 attack the Foxes, they met the Illinois, and killed a considerable 
 number of them. This continued during the succeeding years, 
 and finally having destroyed a great many, they forced them to 
 abandon their country and seek refuge in very distant parts. The 
 Iroquois, having got rid of the Illinois, took no more trouble with 
 them, but went to war against another nation called the 'An-dos- 
 tagues,' [the Fries or Cats, so-called, and who were entirely des- 
 troyed by the Iroquois]. Pending this war, the Illinois returned 
 to their country, and the Iroquois complained that they had killed 
 forty of their people while on their way to hunt beaver in the 
 Illinois country. To obtain satisfaction, the Iroquois resolved 
 to make war upon them. Their true motive, however, was to 
 gratify the British at 'Ma-nat-te' [New York] and "Orange" 
 [Albany], of whom they are too near neighbors, and who, by 
 means of presents, engaged the Iroquois in this expedition, the 
 object of which was to force the Illinois to bring their beaver to 
 them, so that they may go and trade it afterward to the British; 
 also to intimidate the other Indians, and constrain them to do the 
 same thine:. 
 
 '&• 
 
 name was Rene— Robert Cavelire] erected a fort and trading-post on the 
 eminence of this rocky height, situated on the south side of, and overlooking, 
 the Illinois River, some eight miles below Ottawa. The fort was callctl "Iron 
 St. Louis", in honor of his patron Lonis 11', and the place U A'.- 'ler [the 
 Rock]. The now generally received name of " .Starved Rock " is derived from 
 an alleged starving to death of a party of Indians corraled there l-y a remorse- 
 less enemy of besiegers. The occurrence is without authority to support it. 
 other than several vague (though charming) traditions drawn from the "won- 
 der-stories " of as many different tribes. One of the most intereslmg of these. 
 both in matter and the manner of treating it, is preserved in a paper on " he 
 Last of the Illinois," from the able pen of Hon. Judge Caton, ..nd pubhshe.1 
 in Number Three of Fercus' Historical Series.
 
 I04 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 "The improper conduct of Sieiir de LaSalle, governor of Ft. 
 Frontenac, has contributed considerably to cause the latter to 
 adopt this proceeding; for after he had obtained permission to 
 discover the great river Mississippi, and had, as he alleged, the 
 grant of the [country of the] Illinois, he no longer observed any 
 terms with the Iroquois, and avowed that he would convey arms 
 and ammunition to the Illinois, and would die assisting them." 
 We break the thread of Chesneau's official letter to say to the 
 reader that it must be remembered that FaSalle was not exempt 
 from the attacks of that jealousy and envy which is inspired in 
 the souls of little men toward those who plan and execute great 
 undertakings. We see this spirit manifested in this letter. La 
 Salle could not have done otherwise than supply fire-arms to the 
 Illinois Indians; they were his friends and the owners of the 
 country, the trade of which he had opened up at great hardship 
 and expense to himself 
 
 Proceeding with Chesneau's letter: "The Iroquois despatched 
 in the month of April, of last year, an army consisting of between 
 five and six hundred men, who approached an Illinois village 
 [near the present site of Utica, LaSalle Co., 111.], where Sieur 
 Henry de Tonty, LaSalle's principal officer, happened to be with 
 some Frenchmen and two Recollect Fathers [the catholic priests. 
 Fathers Gabriel Ribourde and Zenobe Membre, whom the Iro- 
 quois left unharmed]. One of these, a most holy man [Father 
 Ribourde] has since been killed by the Indians. But they would 
 listen to no terms of peace proposed to them by Tonty, who was 
 slightly wounded at the beginning of the attack; the Illinois, 
 having fled a hundred leagues, were pursued by the Iroquois, who 
 killed and captured as many as twelve hundred of them, includ- 
 ing women and children, having lost only thirty men.* The victory 
 achieved by the Iroquois rendered them so insolent that they 
 have continued ever since that time to send out divers war parties. 
 The success of the last is not yet known, but it is not doubted 
 they have been successful, because they are very warlike, while 
 the Illinois are but indiff"erently so. Indeed, there is no doubt, 
 and it is the universal opinion, that if the Iroquois are allowed to 
 proceed, they will subdue the Illinois, and in a short time render 
 themselves masters of all the Ottawa tribes, and direct the trade 
 to the British, so that it is absolutely essential to make them our 
 friends or to destroy them." 
 
 The building of Fort St. Louis upon the heights of Starved 
 Rock by LaSalle, in 16S2, gave confidence to the Illinois and 
 
 * In this foray, the Iroquois drove the fugitive Illinois beyond the Mississippi.
 
 THE ILLINUIS. IO5 
 
 their scattered remnants who had again returned to their favorite 
 viUage. They were followed by bands of W'cas, i'i-an-kcslias, 
 and Mi-am-ies, near kinsmen of the Illinois, and by the Shaw- 
 nees and other tribes of remoter affinity; and soon'a cordon of 
 populous towns arose about the fort. The military forces of 
 these villages at the colony of LaSalle, in 1684, was estimated 
 at three thousand six hundred and eighty fighting men, the Illinois 
 furnishing more than one-third of this numl)er. Thus were the 
 Iroquois barred out of the country of the Illinois, who, for a season, 
 enjoyed a respite from their old enemies. The abandonment of 
 Fort St. Louis as a military post, in 1702, was followed by a dis- 
 persion of the tribes and fragments of tribes, except at the Illinois 
 village, where a straggling population retained possession. The 
 Kaskaskias learning, in the year 1700, that France was making a 
 military establishment and colony near the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, started thither. They were intercepted on the way, and 
 persuaded to halt above the mouth of the Ohio, and soon there- 
 after made themselves a permanent home on the banks of a stream 
 which since then has borne their name, the Kaskaskia. 
 
 The Iroquois came no more, having war enough on their hands 
 nearer home; but the Illi|iois were constantly harrassed by other 
 enemies, the Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos, and the Poltawato- 
 mies. Their* villages at Starved Rock and at Peoria Lake were 
 besieged by the Foxes in 1722, and a detachment of a hundred 
 men, commanded by Chevalier de Artaguiette and Sieur de Tisne, 
 was sent from Fort Chartres to their assistance. The Foxes hav- 
 ing lost more than a hundred of their men, abandoned the siege 
 before the reinforcements arrived. "This success [says Charle- 
 voix, the great French historian] did not, however, i>revent the 
 Illinois, although they had lost only twenty men, with some 
 women and children, from leaving the Rock and Pim-i-toey 
 [Peoria Lake] where they were kept in constant alarm, and to 
 proceeding to unite with those of their brethren [the Kaskaskias] 
 who had ^settled upon the Mississippi. This was a stroke of 
 grace for most of them, the small number of missionaries prevent- 
 ing their supplying so many towns scattered far ai)art; but. on 
 the other side, as there was nothing to check ihe raids of the 
 Foxes along the Illinois River, communication between Louisiana 
 and New France [Canada] became much less practicable. 
 
 The next fifteen vears show a further decline in their numbers. 
 In an enumeration of the Indian tribes connected with the t.ov- 
 ernment of Canada, prepared in the year 1736, the name, loca- 
 tion, and number of fighting-men of the Illinois are set down as 
 follows: "Mitchigamias, near Fort Chartres, two hundred and
 
 I06 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 fifty ; Kaskaskies, six leagues below, one hundred ; Peorias, 
 and the Rock, fifty; the Cahokias and Tamarois, two hun- 
 dred;" making a total of six hundred warriors. The killing 
 of Pontiac, some thirty years later, at Cahokia, whither he hadj 
 retired after the failure of his bold efforts to rescue the country 
 from the British, was laid upon the Illinois, a charge which,! 
 whether true or false, hastened their destruction. In an ofiicialj 
 letter to the secretary of war, of date March 22, 1814, Gen. Wm. 
 H. Harrison says, "When I was first appointed governor of the) 
 Indiana Territory [May, 1800], these once powerful tribes were] 
 reduced to about tliirty warriors, of whom twenty-five were Kas- 
 kaskias, four Peorias, and a single Mitchigamian. A furious warl 
 between them and the Sacs and Kickapoos reduced them to that] 
 miserable remnant which had taken refuge among the white peo^ 
 pie in the towns of Kaskaskia and St. Genieve." Since 1800, bj 
 successive treaties, they ceded their lands to the United States,] 
 and were removed to reservations, lying southwest of Kansas] 
 City, where, in 1872, they had dwindled to forty persons — men,[ 
 women, and children, all told. 
 
 Thus have wasted away the original occupants of the larger! 
 l)art of Illinois, and portions of low^ and Missouri. In theirj 
 single village near Starved Rock, says Father Membre, who was 
 there in 1680, "there were seven or eight thousand souls;" and,] 
 in 1684, their warriors were set down at twelve hundred. In thel 
 days of their power, they nearly exterminated the Win-ne-ba-goes.[ 
 Their war-parties penetrated the towns of the Iroquois in the 
 valleys of the Mohawk and the Genesee. They took the Mitchi-j 
 gamies under their protection, giving them security against enej 
 mies with whom they were unable to contend. They assistec 
 the French in their wars against the Cherokees and the Chicka-! 
 saws; and. in the bitter struggle between the American colonies 
 and the mother country on the one side, and Canada and France 
 on the other, the Illinois tribes gave bountifully of their braves,| 
 who fought heroicly and to the last in the loosing cause of their 
 Father 0-ni-to [the king], across the great water. 
 
 This people who had dominated over surrounding tribes, claim-! 
 ing for themselves the name of Illini or Linneway, to distinguish! 
 their superior manhood, have disappeared from the earth; another 
 race, representing a higher civilization, occupy their former do-i 
 mains; and, already, even the origin of their name and the places 
 of their villages have become the subjects of antiquarian research. 
 
 to
 
 THE MI AM IS. 
 
 THE MI AM IS. 
 
 107 
 
 THE people known to u.s as the Miamis formerly lived beyond 
 the Mississippi. Their migration from thence eastward 
 through Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, around the southern hcnd 
 of Lake Michigan to Detroit, thence up the Mauniee, and down 
 the Wabash, and eastward through Indiana into Ohio, as far as 
 the Great Miami, can be followed through the writings of ofti( ers. 
 missionaries, and travelers connected with the Freiit:ii. Referring 
 to the mixed village of Mascoutins and others upon Fo.\ River, 
 near its mouth, in Wisconsin, Father Claude Dabloii, who was 
 there in 1670, says the village "is joined in the circle of the same 
 barriers of another people named Ou-mi-a-mi, which is one of the 
 Illinois nations, which is, as it were, dismembered from the others, 
 in order to dwell in these quarters.", "It is beyond this great 
 river [the Mississippi, of which the father had been speaking in 
 the paragraph preceding that quoted] that are j^laced the Illinois 
 of whom we speak, and from whom are detached those who dwell 
 here with the Five Nations [Mascoutins, or Kickapoos] t«i fi)rn) 
 here a transplanted colony." 
 
 From these quotations, there remains little doubt but that the 
 Miamis were a branch of the great Ill-i-ni. This theory is not 
 only declared by all French authorities, but is sustained by many 
 British and American writers, among the latter of whom may be 
 named Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, whose long actjuaintance and 
 official relations with the Northwestern Indians, especially the .sev- 
 eral sub-divisions of the Miami and Illinois tribes, gave him 
 opportunities of which he availed himself to acquire an intimate 
 knowledge concerning them. He says, "Although the language. 
 manners^ and customs of the Kaskaskias make it sufficiently cer- 
 tain that they derive their origin from the same source with the 
 Miamis; the connection had been dissolved before the Freiirii 
 had penetrated from Canada to the Mississippi." This as.sertion 
 of Gen. Harrison that the tribal relations between the Illinois and 
 Miamis had been broken ])rior to the exploration of the Mi--i~ 
 sippi Valley is sustained with great unanimity by all other auth-i: 
 ties, and is illustrated in the long and disastrous wars waged upon 
 the Illinois by the Iroquois, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos, and other 
 enemies, in which there is no instance given where the Miamis 
 ever offered assistance to their ancient kinsmen ; on the contnirv. 
 they often lifted the bloodv hatchet against them. 
 
 The Miami confederation was subdivided into tour i-nn- 11 u 
 bands, since known under the name of Miainis, heI-Ki\er>. We.is.
 
 lOS ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 and Piankeshaws. French writers, and some of the colonial 
 traders, have given names of two or three other subdivisions ot 
 the bands named; their identity, however, can not be clearly 
 traced, and they figure so little in the accounts which we have of 
 the Miamis that it is not necessary to specify their obsolete names. 
 The ^liamis, proper, have by different writers been called "Ou- 
 mi-a-mi", "Ou-mi-am-wek", "Mau-mees", "Au-mi-am-i' (which 
 has been contracted to Au-mi and to "0-mee"), and "Min-e- 
 am-i". The Weas, whose name more properly is "We-we-hah", 
 is called "Sy-a-ta-nous", "Oui-at-a-n'ons"', and "Ou-i-as" by the 
 French, and in whose orthography the "8y" and "Ou" are equiv- 
 alent in sound nearly to the letter of the English W. The British 
 and colonial otiicers and traders spelled the word "Oui-ca-ta-non' , 
 " Way-ough-ta-nies", " Waw i-ach-tens"', and "We-hahs". The 
 name Piankeshaws, in early accounts, figure as "Pou-an-ke-ki-as", 
 "Pe-an-gui-chias", "Pi-angui-shaws", "Py-an-ke-shaws", and "Pi- 
 an-qui-shaws". The Miami tribes were known to the Iroquois of 
 New York as the Twigh-twees, a name generally used by the 
 British as well as by the American colonists when referring to any 
 of the Miami tribes. 
 
 In tlie year 1684, at LaSalle's Colony, at Starved Rock, the 
 Miamis had populous villages, where the Miamis, proper, counted 
 thirteen hundred warriors, the Weas five hundred, and the Pian- 
 keshaw band one. Inmdred and fifty. At a later day, 17 18, the 
 Weas had a village "at Chicago, but, being afraid of the canoe- 
 people [the Chippeways and Pottawatomies], left it, and passing 
 around the head of Lake Michigan to be nearer their brethren 
 farther to the east." Father Charlevoix, writing from this vicinity, 
 in I 72 1, says: "P'ifty years ago, the Miamis [/. c. the Wea band] 
 were settled on the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a 
 '"place called Chicago^ from the name of a small river which runs 
 into the lake, the source of which is not far distant from that of 
 the river of the Illinois [meaning the Desplaines, which is the 
 name by which it was often called in French authorities]. They 
 are at present divided into three villages, one of which stands on 
 River St. Joseph, the second on another river [the Maumee] which 
 bears their name and runs into Lake Erie, and a third upon the 
 River Ouabache, which empties its waters into the Mississippi. 
 The last are better known by the appellation of (3uyatanons." In 
 1694, the governor of New France, in a conference with the 
 Western Indians, requested the Miamis of the Pe-pe-ko-kia band 
 who resided upon the Maramek [Kalamazoo River, in Michigan] 
 to remove and join their tribe located on the St. Josejjh of Lake 
 Michigan ; the governor giving it as his reason that he wished the
 
 THE MIAMIS. 
 
 10«; 
 
 several Miami bands to unite, "so as to be able to execute with 
 greater facility the commands which he might issue." At that 
 time the Iroquois were making war upon Canada, aud the l-"renili 
 w ere trying to induce the western tribes to take uj) the tomahawk 
 ill their behalf. The Miamis promised to comply with the gov- 
 ernor's wishes; and "late in August, 1696, they started to join 
 their brethren on the St. Joseph. On their way they were attackeil 
 by the Sioux, and lost several men. The Miamis of the St. Joseph 
 learning this hostility, resolved to avenge their slaughter. 'l"hev 
 pursued the Sioux to their owii country, and found them entrenched 
 in a fort with some Frenchmen of the class known as courcurs dcs 
 hois [bush-lopers.] They nevertheless attacked them rei)eatedly. 
 but were repulsed and were compelled to retire after losing several 
 of their braves. On their way home, meeting other Frenchmen 
 carrying arms and ammunition to the Sioux, they seized all they 
 had, but did them no harm." 
 
 The Miamis were greatly enraged with the French for sup])ly- 
 ing the Sioux with fire-arms. It took all the address of (iov. 
 Frontenac to persuade them from joining the lro<|Uois. Indeed, 
 they seized Nicolas Perrot, the French trader, who had been com- 
 missioned to lead the Maramek band to the River St. Joseph, and 
 would have burned him alive had it not been for the intercession 
 of the Foxes in his behalf This was the beginning of an aliena- 
 tion of kindly feeling of the Miamis to\^rd the French, which 
 was never restored; and from this period, the movements of the 
 tribe were observed by the French with jealous susjMcion. 
 
 The country of the Miamis extended west to the watershed 
 between the Illinois and Wabash Rivers, which separated liieir 
 possessions from those of their brethren, the Illinois. On the 
 north were the Pottawatomies, who were slowly but persistently 
 pushing their line southward through Wisconsin and around the 
 west shore of Lake Michigan, as we shall see when coming to 
 treat of them in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 Unlike the Illinois, the Miamis held their own until 1. laced on 
 an equal footing with tribes eastward of them, by obtaining pos- 
 session of fire-arras. Their superior numbers and bra\-er\- enabled 
 them to extend the limits of their hunting-grounds eastward into 
 Ohio, far within the territory claimed by the Iroquois; and says 
 Gov. Harrison, they "were the undoubted proprietors of all tiia 
 beautiful country watered by the Wabash and its trilnitaries, and 
 there remains as litde doubt that their clami extended as lar casi 
 as the Scioto." With implements of civilized warfare in their 
 hands, they maintained their tribal integrity and '"dei-endencc. 
 and they traded with and fought against the 1-rench. l.ntish. ana
 
 no ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 Americans by turns, as their interests or passions inclined; and 
 made peace with or declared war against other nations of their 
 own race as policy or caprice moved them. More than once they 
 compelled the arrogant Iroquois to beg from the governors of the 
 American colonies that protection which they themselves had 
 failed to secure by their own prowess. Bold, independent, and 
 flushed with success, the Miamis afforded a poor field for mission- 
 ary work, and the Jesuit Relations and pastoral letters of the 
 French priesthood have less to say of the Miamis than of any 
 other westward tribe, the Kickapoos alone excepted. Referring 
 to their military powers. Gen. Harrison says of them that, "saving 
 the ten years preceding the Treaty of (ireenville [1795], the 
 Miamis alone could have brought more than three thousand war- 
 riors in the field : that they composed a body of the finest light 
 troops in the world, and had they been under an efficient system 
 of discipline, or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the 
 settlement of the country would have been attended with much 
 more difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it and their 
 final subjugation would have for years been delayed. But con- 
 stant wars with our frontier had deprived them of many of their 
 warriors, the ravages of the small-pox, however, was the principal 
 cause of the great decrease in their numbers." 
 
 It was only the Piankeshaw band of the Miamis, however, that 
 occupied portions of Ininois subsequent to the dispersion of La 
 Salle's colony about Starved Rock. The principal villages of the 
 latter were upon the A^ermilion River, and at and in the vicinity 
 of Vincennes, Ind. 
 
 Their territory extended eastward to the Ohio River and west- 
 ward to the ridge that divides the waters flowing respectively into 
 the Kaskaskia and the Wabash. They were found by French 
 officers in populous towns upon the Vermilion as early as 17 18; 
 later, they pushed the degenerating Illinois bands to the vicinity 
 of Kaskaskia and neighboring villages, and hunted and dominated 
 over the territory to the Mississippi, as high up, nearly, as the 
 mouth of the Illinois. 
 
 After the conquest of the Northwest Territory by the colonies 
 and the mother country, and the subsequent overthrowof Pontiac, 
 the British Government sent out George Croghan to obtain the 
 consent of the Indians to the occupation of Kaskaskia and other 
 forts erected by the French in the western country. Croghan was 
 captured by a war-party of Kickapoos, near the mouth of the 
 Wabash, and taken prisoner to Vincennes; from thence he came 
 overland, following the (Jreat Trail leading to Detroit, through 
 the prairies, along the crest of the dividing ridge before named,
 
 THE MIAMIS. I I I 
 
 crossing the Vermilion River west of Danville. He describes 
 that part of the hunting-ground of the Piankcshaws between \'in- 
 cennes and the Vermilion of the Wabash. That liie reader may 
 know how the Illinois country appeared to an eye-witness in 176^. 
 who wrote down his observations at the time, we ciuote the fol- 
 lowing extracts from Col. Croghan's daily journal, of June iSth to 
 the 2 2d, inclusive: 
 
 "^Ve traveled through a prodigious large meadow [prairie] called 
 the Piankeshaw's hunting-ground. Here is no wood to be -• 
 and the country appears like an ocean. The ground is e.\( ■ ■ , 
 ingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemjj. The land is 
 well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild 
 game. * * * AVe passed through some very large meadows, 
 part of which belongs to the Piankeshaws on the \'ermilion River. 
 The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over 
 for these three days past. AVild hemp grows here in abundance. 
 Game is very plenty. At any time, in a half an hour, we could 
 kill as much as we wanted.'' '^ * We passed through a part 
 of the same meadow mentioned yesterday; then came to a high 
 woodland, and arrived at Vermilion River, so called from a fine 
 red earth found there by the Indians, with which they paint them- 
 selves. About a half of a mile from where we crossed this river is 
 a village of Piankeshaws, distinguished by the addition of name 
 of the river." 
 
 Next to the Illinois, the Piankeshaws were the most peacefully 
 inclined toward the whites. Early intermarriages of their daugh- 
 ters with French traders, at A'incenne.s, and elsewhere, and with 
 whom this tribe lived on terms of social equality, begat a genera- 
 tion that united them all in a common interest. It was, therefore, 
 that General Clark, in his conquest of the Illinois country, found 
 little trouble in transferring this friendliness of the Piankeshaws 
 at Vincennes and the Vermilion towns to the American cause, 
 the same as he had previously done at Kaskaskia and the iiei.uh- 
 boring mixed French and Indian villages upon the MissisMpi-i. 
 The Piankeshaws, barring individual exceptions, took no part \\\ 
 those bloody wars against the whites that followed the Revoiutit.n- 
 ary struggle. It was not thev, but war-parties of the Kickapuos, 
 Pottawatomies, and other northwestern tribes that terrorized over 
 
 * There must have been more than one hundred persons in thi~ 
 provide food for; as the party alone by whom Croghan and h.^ _> 
 
 were captured, numbered eighty warriors. Hence, it would require a good 
 deal o^meat, doubtless their only means of sustinance, to supply their daily 
 wants.
 
 112 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 the white settlements, crystaUzing along the Ohio, the Wabash, 
 and their tributaries, and in southwestern Illinois. In the retalia- 
 tory raids of the Americans into the Indian territory, the innocent 
 Piankeshaws often suffered avenging blows that should have fallen 
 upon the guilty ones. The pioneer, l)urning with a sense of his 
 wrongs, only considered that all redskins were Indians, and, 
 without stopping to inquire whether they were of a friendly tribe 
 or not, remorselessly slew upon sight any one of them whom he 
 discovered. This state of affairs grew so bad that the Pianke- 
 shaws appealed to the Government, and General Washington 
 issued his proclamation, especially forbidding the Piankeshaws 
 from being harmed by the white people. 
 
 The capital of the Miami tribe, from earliest times, was at Ft. 
 Wayne. As far back as the year 1700 they were there, and shortly 
 before had assisted Canadians in making the "Portage" — the land 
 carriage from the St. Marys across to Little River, a tributary of 
 the A\"abash. The near proximity of the headwaters of the Mau- 
 mee, flowing eastwardly into Lake Erie, and Little River and the 
 Wabash, flowing westward and south into the Mississippi, gave 
 great importance to this Portage, making it the key to and giving 
 it control of the communication between the vast area of countrv 
 l}ing upon either side. The Miamis well knew this, and held 
 possession until forced, at last, to yield it to the United States, in 
 1795, by the terms of t^ treaty at Greenville. At that treaty. 
 Little Turtle, the great orator of the Miamis, protesting against 
 its surrender, said: "Elder brother [meaning Gen. Wayne], when 
 our forefathers saw the French and the English at the Miami vil- 
 lage [as Ft. Wayne was then known], that g/orioiis gate which your 
 younger brothers [the Miamis] had the happiness to own, and 
 through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass [that 
 is, messages between the several tribes], from north to south, and 
 east to west, the French and the English never told us they wished 
 to purchase our lands from us.'' "The next place you pointed 
 out to us was the Little River, and said you wanted two 'miles 
 square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French 
 or British, never made of us; it zvas alicays ours. This carrying 
 place has heretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of 
 your brothers. That place has brought us, in the course of one 
 day, the amount of twelve hundred dollars. Let us both own 
 this place, and enjoy in common the advantages it affords." Gen. 
 Wayne was inexorable; and, by the terms of the treaty, a piece 
 of land six miles square, near the confluence of the Rivers St. 
 Marys and St. Joseph, at Ft. Wayne, and a piece two miles square 
 at the confluence of Little River with tlie Wabash, was ced^d to 
 the United States.
 
 THE MIAMIS. 11^ 
 
 The Miamis at Ft. Wayne were regarded as ilie senior band of 
 the tribe, from their superior intelhgence and ninnl)i,-Di: and to 
 whom the other bands, except the I'iankeshaws, at a later dav, 
 deferred in all matters of peace or war or affairs affecting tlie 
 common- interests of the tribe. The otlier brandies of the great 
 Miami family had extensive villages and cultivated fields on the 
 Mississineway, near and above Peru, Indiana: along Eel Kivcr. 
 near Logansport and above; upon the Wea plains, below Lafay- 
 ette; upon Sugar Creek; and upon the beautiful i)rairie strip in 
 the neighborhood of Terre Haute. 
 
 Subsequent to the Treaty of Greenville, their demoralization 
 was rapid in its progress and terrible in its consetiuences. .So 
 much so, that when the Baptist missionary, the Rev. Isaac McCo_\-, 
 was among them between the years 1817 and 1822, and drawing 
 his conclusions from his own observation, he declared that the 
 Miamis were not a warlike people. At the villages on Sugar 
 Creek, Eel River, and the Mississineway, and i)articularly at I-'t. 
 Wayne, it was a continuous round of drunken debauchery when- 
 ever whisky could be obtained, of which men, women, and chil- 
 dren partook alike; and life was often sacrificed in personal broils, 
 or by exposure of the debauchees to the inclemency of the 
 Aveather. 
 
 By treaties, entered into at various times from 1795 to 1845, 
 the Miamis ceded their lands in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and 
 removed west of the Mississippi; going in villages or by detach- 
 ments from time to time. In 1838, at a single cession, they sold 
 the U. S. Government 177,000 acres of land in Indiana, which 
 was only a fragment of their former possessions, still retaining 
 large tracts. Thus they alienated their heritage piece by piece to 
 make room for the incoming white population, while they gradu- 
 ally disappeared from the valleys of the AN'abash and Mauniee. 
 Few of them clung to their reservations, adapted themselves to 
 the ways of the Americans, and their descendants are now to be 
 met with in or about the cities that have sprung u[) in the locali- 
 ties named. The money received frftm the sales of their lands 
 proved a calamity, as the proceeds were wasted for whisky. 
 
 The last of the Miamis to go westward was the Mississineway 
 band. This remnant, comprising in all about 350 persons, in 
 charge of Christmas Dazney,* left their old homes, where many of 
 
 * His name was also spelled Dazney, Dashney, and Daynett, the latter 
 
 being the French orthography. He was born Dec. 25, 1799. at the so-called 
 
 "Lower Wea Village", or "Old Orchard Town", or "/r<-<;//-/-f«..", (The 
 
 Rising Sun], within the-southern suburbs of the present City of Terre Haute, 
 
 8
 
 114 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 them had farm houses and had made considerable progress in 
 agricukure^in the fall of 1846, going to Cincinnati. Here they 
 were placed on a steamboat, taken down the Ohio, up the Missis- 
 sippi and Missouri, and landed, late in the season, at Westport, 
 near Kansas City. Ragged men and nearly naked women and 
 
 Ind. His father, Ambroise Dagney, was a native Frenchman, of Kaskaskia, 
 and served throughout the Tippecanoe campaign, in Capt. Scott's Company 
 of MiHtia, raised at Vincennes. He received a severe flesh wound at the 
 battle near the Prophet's Town ; lived for many years witli his daughter, 
 Mary Cott, formerly Mary Shields, on a reservation secured to her by the 
 Treaty of St. Mary's, Oct. 2, 1818, and situated at the ancient Indian village 
 near the "Vermilion Salines", some four miles west of Danville, III., where 
 he died and was buried, in 1848. He was well known to the early citizens 
 of Danville, andtof the Wabash Valley from Danville to Vincennes. Upon 
 all convivial occasions, which were by no means infrequent, he indulged his 
 fondness for telling over the many thrilling incidents and dangerous experi- 
 ences of his wild nomadic life, as hunter, trapper, boatsman, guide, and 
 soldier. He boasted the fact of a personal acquaintance with Gov. Harrison, 
 whose memory he held in the highest esteem; and anathematized with volu- 
 able profanity, all " bad Inguns ", as he called those who were unfriendly to 
 the whites. 
 
 Ambroise Dagney's wife — the only one he ever had, and the mother of 
 Christmas Dagney and Mary Cott, was Me-chin-quam-e-sha, [The Beautiful 
 .Shade Tree], a sister of Jocco, or Jack-ke-kee-kah, [The Tall Oak], head 
 chief of the Wea Band of Miamis, whose old and principal village was 
 the one we have named near Terre Haute. Later, this band went higher 
 up the Wabash to a secondary village near the mouth of Sugar Creek. 
 
 Under the instruction of Catholic teachers, the son, Christmas Dagnay re- 
 ceived a good education. He spoke the English and French languages with 
 great fluency, and was master of the dialects of the several Indiana and Illi- 
 nois Indians. He served for many years at Fort Harrison [on the east bank 
 of the Wabash, near and above Terre Haute], and elsewhere, as Government 
 interpreter and Indian agent, filling these various (positions of confidence and 
 trust efficiently and honestly. Peb. 16, 1819, he was married to Mary Ann 
 Isaacs, an educated Christian woman, of the Brothertown, N.V. [Mohegan] 
 Indians, whose acquaintance he had made while she was spending a few 
 weeks on a visit at the Mission House of Rev. Isaac McCoy, then situated on 
 Raccoon Creek, near Rosedale, Park Co., Ind. Mr. McCoy performed the 
 marriage ceremony, as he says, "in the presence of our Indian neighbors, 
 who were invited to attend; and we had the happiness to have twenty-three 
 of the natives partake of a meal prepared for the occasion. " 
 
 Christmas Dagney died in 184S, at Cold Water Grove, Kansas, and his 
 widow subsequently married^ Baptiste Peoria, mentioned in a note further on.
 
 THE MIAMIS. 1 i^ 
 
 children, forming a motley group, were huddled upon the shore 
 of a strange land, without food or friends to relieve^hcir wants 
 and exposed to the l)itter December winds that blew from the 
 chilly plains of Kansas. 
 
 From Westport the MississineA\ays were conducted to a place 
 near the present village of Lewisburg, Kansas, in the county .since- 
 named Miami, 'lliey suffered greatly and nearly fine-third of 
 their number died the first year. Mrs. Mary Babtiste Peoria, then 
 wife of Christmas Dazney, the agent having these unfortunate 
 people in charge, and who accompanied her husband in this work, 
 stated to the writer "that strong men would actually cry when 
 they thought about their old homes in Indiana, to which many of 
 them would make journeys bare-footed, begging their way and 
 submitting to the imprecations hurled upon them from the door 
 of the white man as they asked for a crust of bread. I saw 
 fathers and mothers give their little children away to others of the 
 tribe for adoption, and then singing their funeral songs and join- 
 ing in the solemn dance of death. Afterward go calml)' away 
 from the assemblage, never again to be seen alive." 
 
 In 1670, the Jesuit father, Claude Dablon, introduces to our 
 notice the Miamis at the village of Maskoutench; where, as we 
 have already shown, the chief was surrounded by his officers of 
 state in all the routine of barbaric display, to whom the natives 
 of other tribes paid the greatest deference. Advancing eastward, 
 in the rear line of their valorous warriors, the Miamis pushed 
 their villages through Illinois into Michigan and Indiana, and as 
 far into Ohio as the river still bearing their name. Coming in 
 collision with the French, the British, and the Americans; reduced 
 by constant wars; and decimated, more than all, by vices con- 
 tracted by intercourse with a superior race, whose virtues they 
 failed to emulate, they make a westward turn ; and having in the 
 progress of time described the round of a most singular journey, 
 we at last behold the miserable remnant on the same side of the 
 Mississippi from whence their warlike ])rogenitors had con>' ncarlv 
 two centuries before. 
 
 The Wea and Piankeshaw band had preceded the Misbi.s.Mnc- 
 way to the westward ; thev too had become reduced to al)out two 
 hundred and fifty ])ersons. They, with the Miamis and remain- 
 ing fragments of the Kaskaskias, the latter contammg under that 
 name what yet remained of the several subdivisions of the o d 
 mini confederacv, were collected by Baptiste Peoria and consoli- 
 dated under the title of The Confederated Tribes.* Ihis httle 
 
 * This remarkable man was the son of a daughter of a suh-chicf of the
 
 Il6 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 confederation sold out their reservations in Miami County, Kan- 
 sas, and retired to a tract of reduced dimensions within the Indian 
 
 Peoria Tribe, and was born, according to the best information, in 1793, near 
 the confluence of the Kankakee and Maple, as the DesPlaines River was 
 called by the Illinois Indians. His reputed father's name was Baptiste, a 
 French Canadian and trader, among the Peoria Band. Young Peoria was 
 called Batticy, by his mother; later in life, he was known as Baptise '■'the 
 Peoria", and finally, as Baptiste Peoria. The people of his tribe gave the 
 name a liquid sound, pronouncing the name as if it were spelled Paola. The 
 county-seat of Miami Co., Kansas, is named after him. He was a man of 
 large stature, and possessed of great strength, activity, and courage; and, like 
 Keokuk, the great chief of the Sac-and-Fox Indians, a fearless and expert 
 horseman. Having a ready command of the French and English languages, 
 and being familiar, as well, with the several dialects of the Pottawatomies, 
 Shawnees, Delawares, Miamis, Illinois, and Kickapoos; these qualifications 
 as a linguist soon brought him into prominence among the Indians, while his 
 known integrity as readily commended his services to the United States. 
 From the year 1821 to 1838, he was employed in assisting the removal of the 
 above tribes from Indiana and Illinois to their respective reservations west- 
 ward of the ^Missouri. His duties in these relations brought him in contact 
 with many of the early settlers on the Illinois, the Kaskaskia, and the Wa- 
 bash Rivers and their constituent streams. He represented his tribe at the 
 Treaty of Edwardsville, 111., September 25, t8i8. By this treaty, at which 
 there were present representatives from each of the five Tribes comprising the 
 Illinois or lUini nation, it appears that for a period of years anterior to that 
 time, the Peoria band had lived and were then living separate and apart from 
 the othors. 
 
 Baptiste Peoria was in the service of the General Government for nearly 
 thirty years, in the Indian Department; and in 1867, became head chief of 
 the consolidated Miami and Illinois tribes, and went with them to their newly- 
 assigned reservation in the north-east part of the Imlian Territory, where he 
 died at an advanced age, Sept. 13, 1873. Some years before, he married 
 Mrs. Mary Dagney, widow of Christmas Dagney, and to this lady is the author 
 indebted for copies of the "Western Spirit", and the "Fort Scott Monitor", 
 newspapers published at Paola and Ft. Scott, Kansas, respectively, containing 
 biographical sketches and obituary notices of her late husband, from which 
 this note has, in the main, been collated. 
 
 It may well be said that Baptiste was "The Last of the Peorias". By 
 precept and example he spent the better portion of a busy life in persistent 
 efforts to save the fragment of the Illinois and Miamis by encouraging them 
 to adopt the ways of civilized life. His widow, Mary Baptiste, 7ice Dagney, 
 survives, and is living in her elegant homestead at Paoli, Kansas, in com- 
 fortable circumstances.
 
 THE MIA.MIS. I I- 
 
 Territory. Since this last change of location, in 1S67, they have 
 made but little progress toward a higher ci\ili/;uion. Those that 
 remain of the once numerous lllini and Miami tribes are now- 
 reduced to less than two hundred persons, and for the most part 
 are a listless, idle people, possessing none of the spirit that had 
 inspired the breasts of their ancestors. 
 
 THE KICKAPOOS. 
 
 The Kickapoos and Mascoutins are treated here as but one 
 tribe, for the difference between them was only nominal at best. 
 The name is found written in French authorities as "Kic-a- 
 poux", "Kick-a-pous", "Tvik-a-poux", "Kik-a-bou", "Quick-a- 
 pous", and "Kick-a-pous". Some authors claim the name to 
 have been derived from the Algonquin word Nee-gig [the otter, 
 or the spirit of an otter]. Prof Henry R. Schoolcraft, a rc( 01^- 
 nized authority on the ethnology of the northwestern tribt-s, 
 alluding to the Kickapoos, says, they are "an erratic race, who, 
 under various names, in connection with the Sacs and Foxes, 
 have, in good keeping with one of their many names, which is 
 said, by one interpretation, to mean 'Rabbits-Ghost" [Wah- 
 boos, with little variation in dialect, being the word for rabbit], 
 skipped over half the continent, to the manifest discomfort of 
 both German and American philologists and ethnograi^hers, who, 
 in searching for the so-called 'Mascontens', have followec^, so far 
 as their results are concerned, an ignis fatitus'\ 
 
 This tribe has been long connected with the history of the 
 Northwest, in which they acquired great notoriety, as well for 
 the wars in which they were engaged with other tribes, as for 
 their presistent hostility to the white race throughout a i)eriod of 
 nearly one hundred and fifty years. They are first noticed l)y 
 the French explorer, Samuel Champlain, who, m 161 2, discovered 
 the "Mascoutins residing near the place called S;ik-in-am . or. 
 rather, Sac-e-nong, meaning, in Chii)peway, the country ol the 
 Sacs, which, at this time, comprised that part of the Stale ol 
 Michigan, lying between the head of Lake Erie and Saginaw 
 Bay, on Lake Huron. In 1669-70, as seen in an extract from 
 Father Allouez, quoted in the chapter relaimg to the Miamis 
 the Kickapoos and Mascoutins were found in connection with 
 the Miamis, near the mouth of Fox River, ^^ isconsm. In the 
 same letter, Father Allouez says that "four leagues from ihiN
 
 Il8 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 mixed village are the Kickabou, who speak the same language 
 with the Mascoutench".* 
 
 This people were not pliant material in the hands of the mis- 
 sionaries. In fact, they appear to have acquired early notoriety 
 in history by seizing Father Gabriel Ribourde as he was walking 
 near the banks of the Illinois River, absorbed in religious medi- 
 tation, and whom they "carried away, and broke his head", as 
 Henry de Tonti quaintly expresses it, in referring to this ruthless 
 murder. Again, in 1728, as Father Ignatius Guignas, compelled 
 to abandon his mission among the Sioux, on account of a victory 
 which the Foxes had obtained over the French, was attempting 
 to reach the Illinois, he, too, fell into the hands of the Kicka- 
 poos and Mascoutens, and for five months was held a captive, 
 and constantly exposed to death. During this time he was con- 
 demned to be burned, and was only saved through the kindly 
 intervention of an old man in the tribe, who adopted him as a 
 son. While a prisoner, his brother missionaries of the Illinois 
 relieved his necessities by sending timely supplies, which Father 
 
 * The Mascoutins, in the works of French authors, appear as "Mascou- 
 tench", "Mackkoutench", " M&chkouteng ", "Masqutins", and "Maskou- 
 teins". English and American called them "Masquattimies", " ^Mascoutins ", 
 " Musquitons ", " Musquitos ", a corruption used by American colonial traders, 
 and "Meaows", which was the English synonym for the French word prab-ie, 
 before the latter had become naturalized into the English language. 
 
 The derivation of the name was a subject of discussion among the early 
 French missionaries. Father Marquette, with some others who followed the 
 Huron Indian rendition of it, says, "Maskoutens in Algonquin may mean 
 Fire Nation", and this is the "name given th'em"; while Fathers Allouez 
 and Charlevoix (whose opportunities to know were better), together with the 
 still more recent American authors, claims that the word signifies a prairie or 
 "a land bare of trees". The Ojebway word for prairie is " Mus/t-koo-da". 
 Bands of the same tribe on the upper Mississippi, on the authority of Dr. 
 James, call it Mus-ko-tia. Its derivitive or root is Ish-koo-ta, skoutay, or 
 scote (ethnologists differ as to its orthography), and which is the algonquin 
 word for Jire. The great plains westward of the Wabash and the lakes, was 
 truly " a land barren of trees ", kept so by the annually recurring fires that 
 swept over through the tall grass in billows of flame and smoke; and this dis- 
 tinguishing feature is aptly preserved in the name the Indians gave it. Major 
 Forsyth, long a trader at Peoria, in his manuscript account of the Indian 
 tribes of his acquaintance, quoted by Dr. Drake in his Life of Black Hawk, 
 says, "The Mascos or Mascoutins were, by French traders of a more recent 
 day, called gens des frairies [men of the prairie], and lived and hunted on 
 the great prairies between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers".
 
 THE KICKAPOos. ng 
 
 (uiignas used to gain over the good will of his captors. Having 
 induced them to make peace, he was taken to one of the Illinois 
 missions, where he was suftered to remain or ])arole until Nov., 
 1729, when his captors returned and took him back to their own 
 country; since which it seems nothing has ever been heard of 
 him. 
 
 The Kickapoos early incurred the displeasure of the Frencli 
 by depredations south of Detroit. In 17 12, a band of them, 
 living in a village near the mouth of the Maumee River, in com- 
 pany with about thirty Mascoutens, were about to make war 
 upon the French Post at Detroit. They took prisoner one Lang- 
 lois, a messenger, on his return from the Miami country, whither 
 he was bringing many letters from the Jesuit fathers of the sev- 
 eral Illinois villages, as well, also, despatches from Louisiana. 
 The mauraders destroyed the letters and despatches, which gave 
 much uneasiness to M. Du Boisson, commandant at Detroit. 
 As a result of this act, a canoe, laden with Kickapoos on their 
 Avay to the villages near Detroit, was captured by the Hurons 
 and Ottawas, residing near by, and who were allies of the Frencii. 
 Among the slain was the principal Kickapoo chief, whose head. 
 with three others of the same tribe, were brought to Du Hoisson, 
 who informs us "that the Hurons and Ottawas committed this 
 act for the alleged reason, that the previous winter the Kicka- 
 poos had taken some of the Hurons and Iroiiuois prisoners, and 
 also because they had considered the Kickapoo chief a "true 
 Outtagamis"; that is, they regarded him as one of the Fox nation. 
 
 From the village of Machkoutench, on Fo.\ River, Wis., the 
 Kickapoos seemed to have passed to the south, e.xtending their 
 right flank in the direction of Rock River, and their left toward 
 the southern trend of Lake Michigan. Prior to 17 18, they had 
 villages on Rock River and in the vicinity of Chicago. Indeed, 
 Rock River appears as Kickapoo River on cotemporaneous 
 
 French maps. 
 
 In 1712, the Mascoutins entered the plot formed tor the cap- 
 ture of the post of Detroit ; their associates repaired to the 
 neighborhood, and, whereas they were awaitmg the arny.il of the 
 Kickapoos, they were attacked by a confederation ol ndians. 
 who were^friendly to the French and had hastened to the rehei 
 of the garrison. The destruction that followed this attempt 
 against Detroit, was, perhaps, one of the most remorseless^ in 
 which white men took a part, of which we have an account in 
 the annals of Indian warfare. The French and Indian forces 
 after protracted efforts, compelled the enemy to abandon her 
 position and flee to Presque Isle, opposite Hog I>land, near
 
 I20 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 Lake St. Clair, some distance above the fort. Here they held 
 out for four days; their women and children, in the meantime, 
 actually starving, numbers of whom were dying every day from 
 hunger. Messengers were sent to the French commander, beg- 
 ging for quarter, and offering to surrender at discretion, only 
 craving that the remaining survivors might be spared the horrors 
 of a general massacre. Perpetual servitude as the slaves of vic- 
 tors; anything rather than a wholesale destruction. The Indian 
 allies of the French would listen to no terms. "At the end of 
 fourth day", says the French commander, "after fighting with 
 much courage, and not being able to resist further the Muscotins 
 surrendered at discretion to our people, who gave them no quar- 
 ter. Our Indians lost sixty men, killed and wounded. The 
 enemy lost a thousand souls — men, women, and children. All 
 our allies returned to our fort [at Detroit] with their slaves [cap- 
 tives], and their amusement was to shoot four or five of them 
 every day. The Hurons did not spare a single one of theirs". 
 
 From references given, it is apparent that this people, like the 
 Miamis and Pottawatomies, were progressing south and eastward. 
 This movement was probably caused by the Sioux, whose fierce 
 warriors were pressing them from the northwest. As early as 
 1695, the Foxes, with the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, were 
 meditating a migration toward the Wabash as a place of security. 
 From an official document sent from Quebec, relating to the 
 occurrences in Canada during that year, the department at Paris 
 is advised "that the Sioux, who have mustered some two thou- 
 sand warriors for the ]Hirpose, would come in large numbers and 
 seize ///<^/;- village. This has caused the Outagamies to quit their 
 country and disperse themselves for a season, and afterward to 
 return and save their harvest. They are then to retire toward 
 the Wabash and form a settlement so much the more permanent, 
 as they will be removed from the incursions of the Sioux, and in 
 a position to easily effect a junction with the Iroquois and Eng- 
 lish, without the French being able to present it. Should this 
 project be realized, it is very apparent that the Mascotins and 
 the Kickapoos will be of the party, and that the three tribes,, 
 forming a new village of fourteen or fifteen hundred men, would 
 experience no difficulty in considerably increasing it by attracting 
 other nations thither, which would be of most pernicious con- 
 sequences". That the Mascoutins, at least, did go soon after 
 this toward the lower Wabash, is shown by the fact of their 
 presence about Juchereau's trading-post, which erected near the 
 mouth of the Ohio, in the year 1700. It is questionable, how- 
 ever, if either the Foxes or Kickapoos followed the Muscoutins
 
 THE KICK A POOS. 121 
 
 to the Wabash country, and it is evident that tlie Mascoiitins, wh) 
 survived the epidemic that broke out among them wlulc at 
 Juchereau's post, returned to the north. The French having 
 effected a conciHation with the Sioux, we find that, for a number 
 of years subsequent to 1705, the Mascoutins were again l)ack 
 among their affinities, the Foxes and Kickapoos upon their com- 
 mon hunting grounds in northern IlHnois and southern Wisconsin. 
 Later, and by progressive approaches, the Kickai)oos worked 
 further southward, and estabhshed tliemselves in the territory 
 lying between the Ilhnois and Wabash Rivers, and south of the 
 Kankakee. This migration was not accomphshed without oijpo- 
 sition and blood shed in punishing the Piankeshaws east and 
 south to the Wabash, and the Illinois tribes south and west upon 
 the lower waters of the Kaskaskia. We are without authentic 
 i/afa as to the period of the time when this conquest was con- 
 sumated. At the treaty, ocncluded at Edwardsville, 111., July 30, 
 1 8 19, between Augusta Chouteau and Benjamin Stephenson, 
 commissioners on the part of the United States, and the i)rin- 
 cipal chiefs and warriers of the Kickapoo tribe, the latter ceded 
 the following lands, residue of their domain until then undis- 
 posed of, viz.: "Beginning on the Wabash, at the f//>/>ir point of 
 their cession made by the second Article of their Treaty at \'in- 
 cennes, on the 9th day of December, iSog;"' running thence 
 northwestwardly to the dividing line between the State of Illinois 
 and Indiana; thence north along said line to the Kankakee; 
 thence with said river to the Illinois River; thence down the 
 latter to its mouth; thence with a direct line to the nortlmest cor- 
 ner of the Vinceiines tract, as recognized in the Treaty with the 
 Piankashaw tribe of Indians at Vincennes, on the 30th day of 
 December, 1805 ;t and thence with the western and northern 
 
 * The beginning point here referred to is "on the Wabash", ,// the inouih 
 of the Big Vermilion River. By previous cessions it appears that the 
 acknowledged territory of the Kickapoos extended down the Wabash nearly 
 as far as Vincennes. Vide 9th Article of the Treaty of September 30, 1S09, 
 concluded at Ft. W^ayne, between the United States and tlie Delewarcs, Tol- 
 tawatomies, Miamis, and Eel River tribes; Treaty of Vincennes of Dec 9. 
 1809, between the United States and the Kickapoos. 
 
 T The boundaries of "the Vincennes tract" were settled by the terms of the 
 treaty at Ft. Wayne, Tuly 7, 1803, between Cov. Harrison of lh<| •"J'-''"-'' 
 Territory (which, at that time, embraced all of the present States of Michigan, 
 Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin), and the several Deleware. Shawnee lot- 
 tawatomie, Miami, Eel River, Wea, Piankeshaw, Kickapoo, and KasV.^- - 
 tribes within his jurisdiction. The first Article of this treaty also ex.
 
 122 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 boundaries of the cessions heretofore made by the said Kickapoo 
 tribe of Indians,* to the beginning. Of which last described tract 
 of land, the said Kickapoo tribe claim a large portion by descent 
 from their ancestors, and the balance by conquest from the Illinois 
 nation, and 7/n inter rnpted possession for more than half a century". 
 The claim of the Kickapoos to the country referred to does not 
 rest alone upon the assertion of the Kickapoos, but is supported 
 by officers of the French, English, and American governments, 
 when they respectively asserted dominion over it. Under date 
 of April 2ist, 1752, M. de Longueil, commandant at Detroit, 
 incorporates in an official report upon the condition of Indian 
 affairs in his department, that he had received advices from 
 "M. de Lingeris, commandant at the Oy-a-ta-nons,+ who believes 
 that great reliance is not to be placed on the Mascoutens, and 
 
 the reasons that led to its consumation. It is as follows : " Whereas, it is 
 declared by the 4th Article of the Treaty of Greenville, that the United 
 States reserve for their use the post of Vincennes, and all the lands adjacent, 
 to which the Indian titles have been extinguished. And, whereas, it has been 
 found difficult to determine the precise limits of said tract as held by the 
 French and British Governments; it is hereby agreed, that the boundaries of 
 said tract shall be as follows: Beginning at Point Coiipce ["cut-off" or noted 
 bend in the river some eighteen miles above Vincennes], on the Wabash, and 
 running thence, by a north seventy-eight degrees west, twelve miles [into Illi- 
 nois]; thence [south by west] by a line parallel to the general course of the 
 Wabash, until it shall be intersected by a line at right angles to the same, 
 passing through the mouth of White River [about eighteen miles below Vin- 
 cennes]; thence, by the last mentioned line [east liy south], across the Wabash 
 and toward the Ohio River, seventy-two miles; thence by a line north twelve 
 degrees west, until it shall be intersected by a line at right angles with the 
 same, passing through Point Coupee, and, by the last mentioned line, to the 
 place of beginning." The boundaries of "the \'incennes tract", as thus 
 defined, appear on many of the early maps, and displays a tract of land in 
 the shape of a parallelogram, some thirty-six miles wide, by seventy-two 
 long, lying, for the most part, on the east side of the Wabash and in Indiana, 
 an average width of about ten miles, only, off of the west end of it being in 
 Illinois, the northwest corner of which, referred to in the text, is about 
 twenty miles north, and some ten miles west of Vincennes. 
 
 * By previous treaties, the Kickapoos had ceded to the United States their 
 claims to the territory from " the Vincennes tract " as high up the Wabash as 
 the mouth of Pine Creek, Warren Co., Ind., and extending west of the same 
 stream an average width of thirty miles. 
 
 + Fort Ouiatanon situated on the west bank of the Wabash River, a few 
 miles above Attica, Ind.
 
 THE KICKAPOOS. I 23 
 
 that their remaining neutral is all that is to be expected from 
 them and the Kickapoos." Later, and after the northwest terri- 
 tory had been lost to France and ceded to Great Britain as the 
 fruit of the French colonial war, and after the failure of the 
 Indian confederation under Pontiac to reconquer the same terri- 
 tory. Sir ^Villiam Johnson, having in charge the Indian affairs of 
 the western nations, sent his deputy, George Croghan, to the 
 Illinois to pacify the Indians "to soften their antipathy to the 
 English, to expose the falsehood of the French, to distribute 
 presents, and prepare a way for the passage of troops '* who 
 were preceding westward to take possession of Fort Chartes and 
 other military establishments within the ceded territory. Groghan 
 left Fort Pitt on May t7th, 1765, starting down the Ohio in two 
 batteaux, having with him several white persons, and a number 
 of Deleware, Iroquois, and Shawnee Indians, as deputies of 
 tribes inhabiting the upper waters of the Ohio, with whom 
 Croghan had already concluded treaties of reconciliation toward 
 the British. On the evening of the 6th of June, Croghan 
 reached the mouth of the Wabash. They dropped down the 
 river six miles, "and came to a place called the old Shawnee 
 village, some of that nation having previously lived there"'. He 
 remained here the next day, occupying his time in preparing and 
 sending despatches to Fort Chartes. We quote from his journal: 
 "On the 8th, at daybreak, we were attacked by a party of Indi- 
 ans, consisting of eighty warriors of the Kickapoos and Musqua- 
 timies, who killed two of my men and three Indians, wounded 
 myself and all the rest of my party, except two white men and 
 one Indian; then made myself and all the white men prisoners, 
 plundering us of everything we had. A deputy of the Shawnees, 
 who was shot through the thigh, having concealed himself in the 
 woods for a few minutes after he was shot — not knowing but that 
 they were southern Indians, who were always at war with the 
 northward Indians — after discovering what nation they were, 
 came np to them and made a very bold speech, telling them that 
 the whole northward Indians would join in taking revenge for 
 the insult and murder of their people. This alarmed those sav- 
 ages very much, who began to excuse themselves, saying, their 
 fathers, the French, had spirited them up, telling them that the 
 Indians were coming with a large body of southern Indians to 
 take their country from them and enslave them ; that it was this 
 that induced them to commit this outrage. After dividing the 
 plunder (they left a great part of the heaviest effects behind), they 
 set off with us to their village of Ou-at-to-iion in a great hurry, 
 
 * Vide^ Parkman's History Conspiracy of Pontiac.
 
 124 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 being in dread of a large party of Indians, which they suspected 
 were coming after me. Our course was through a thick woody 
 country, crossing a great many swamps, morrasses, and beaver 
 ponds.""* From the dafa given, taken with the well-estabhshed 
 historical fact that the Kickapoos approached the \\'abash from 
 the northwest, it is evident that, prior to 1752, they had driven 
 the Illinois tribes from the hunting grounds lying eastward and 
 south of the Illinois River. In this conquest they were assisted 
 
 * The war party continued up the river the 9th, loth, nth, 12th, 13th, and 
 14th; and on the 15th reached Vincennes. "On my arrival there", says 
 Croghan, " I found a village of eighty or ninety French families, seated on 
 the east side of the river, being the one of the finest situations that can be 
 found. The country is level and clear, the soil very rich, producing vv^heat 
 and tobacco. I think the latter preferable to that of Maryland or Virginia. 
 The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a parcel of rene- 
 gades from Canada, and much worse than the Indians. They took a secret 
 pleasure at our misfortunes, and the moment we arrived they came to the 
 Indians, exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder. As the savages took 
 from me a considerable quantity of gold and silver, the French traders ex- 
 torted ten half johnies from them for one pound of Vermilion. Here is 
 likewise an Indian village of the Pyan-ke-shaws [in their language called 
 ' Chip-kavv-kay', rendered the town of Brushwood. Dillon's History of Indi- 
 ana,] who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them 
 that 'our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun a war 
 for which our women and children will have reason to cry.' * * ^' Port 
 Vincent is a place of great consequence for trade, being a fine hunting coun- 
 try along the Wabash, and too far for the Indians, which reside hereabouts, 
 to go enter to the Illinois, or elsewhere, to fetch their necessaries." On the 
 17th, Croghan and his captors crossed the Wabash, and came up through the 
 prairies referred to in the chapter on the Miamis, and on the 23d entered a 
 large bottom on the Wabash, within six miles of Fort Oui-a-ta-non, Croghan 
 further says: "The Kickapoos and Musquatamies, whose warriors had taken 
 us live nigh the fort, on the same side of the river, where they have two vil- 
 lages." Croghan"s Journal continues a daily account of his movements np 
 the Wabash to Ft. Wayne, down the Maumee, and up the lakes to Detroit, 
 and from thence to Niagara Falls; and gives a fair insight into the appear- 
 ance and topography of the extensive country he traversed as it then appeared, 
 and illustrates the temper of the Indians who inhabited it. The original 
 manuscript diary was obtained by Air. Featherstonhough, and first published 
 in his "American Journal of Geology", and in December, 1831, a reprint of 
 100 copies was issued in pamphlet form. It may also be found in the appen- 
 dix of Mann Butler's valuable History of Kentucky, in either of the editions 
 of 1834 or 1836.
 
 THE KICKAPOOS. 12; 
 
 by the Sacs and Foxes, and Pottawatomies, who made ;i i (hmuhjii 
 pause of warfare upon the IlHnois tribes. "Tradition (says the 
 Pioneer Historian of IlHnois, the Rev. John M. Peck) tells us of 
 many a hard fought battle between the original owners of the 
 country and these intruders. Battle Ground Creek is well-known 
 on the road from Kaskaskia to Shawneetown, twenty five miles 
 from the former place, where the Kaskaskias and their allies 
 were dreadfully slaughtered by the united forces of the Kicka- 
 poos and Pottawatomies.'"* 
 
 ^Vithin the limits of the territory defined by the treaty at 
 Edwardsville in 1S19, the Kickapoos, for generations before that 
 time, had many villages. The principal of these were Kickapo- 
 go-oui, on the west bank of the Wabash, near Hudson ville, Craw- 
 ford Co., Ill, and known, in the early days of the Northwest 
 Territory, as Musquiton [Mascoutine] ; another on both sides of 
 the Vermilion River, at its confluence with the ^\'abash. 'J'his 
 last village w-as destroyed by Maj. John F. Hamtramck, in Oct., 
 1790, whose military forces moved up the river from ^'incennes 
 to create a diversion in favor of Gen. Harmer, then leading the 
 main attact against the Miami town at Fort Wayne and other 
 Indian villages in that vicinity. Higher up the Vermilion were 
 other Kicka'poo towns, particularly the one some four miles west 
 of Danville, and near the mouth of the Middle Fork. The 
 remains of one of the most extensive burial-grounds in the 
 Wabash Valley, still attest the magnitude of this once populous 
 Indian city; and. although the village site has been in cultivation 
 for over fifty years, every recurring year the ploughshare turns uji 
 flint arrow-points, stone-axes, gun-flints, gun-locks, knives, silver 
 brooches, or other mementoes of its former inhabitants. These 
 people were greatlv attached to the country watered by the Ver- 
 milion and its tributaries; and Gov. Harrison found a diflicult 
 task to reconcile them to ceding it away. In his letter to the 
 secretary of war, of Dec. 10, 1809, referring to his ettorts to m- 
 duce the Kickapoos to part with it, the governor says he "was 
 extremely anxious that the extinguishment of tide should extern! 
 as high up as the Vermilion River, but it was objected to because 
 
 * "An Historical Sketch of the early American settlements in Illinois, from 
 17S0 to 1800. Read before the Illinois State Lyceum, at its Anniver,ary. 
 August 16, 1S32. By J. M. Peck." Published in No. 2 of VoK '- ^^ "'<-■ 
 Western Monthly Magazine for February, 1833. Other accounts fix the date 
 of this last great battle about the year 1800, and ascribe its planing and exe- 
 cution to the great Pottawatomie warrior and medicine man known as ah- 
 bun-ou We-ne-ne or '' Tlie Jujgler".
 
 126 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 it would include a Kickapoo village. This small tract of about 
 twenty miles square"* is one of the most beautiful that can be 
 conceived, and is, moreover, believed to contain a very rich cop- 
 per mine. I have myself frequently seen specimens of the cop- 
 per; one of which I sent to Mr. Jefferson in 1802. The Indians 
 were so extremely jealous of any search being made for this 
 mine, that traders were always cautioned not to approach the 
 hills which were supposed to contain the mine."t 
 
 The Kickapoos had other villages on the Embarras, some 
 •miles west of Charlestown, and still others about the headwaters 
 of the Kaskaskia. During the period when the territory west of 
 the Mississippi belonged to Spain, her subjects residing at St. 
 Louis "carried on a considerable trade among the Indians east- 
 ward of the Mississippi, particularly the Kickapoos near the head- 
 waters of the Kaskaskia.'" t Further northward they had still 
 other villages, among them one toward the headwaters of Sugar 
 Creek, a tributary of the Sangamon River, near the southwest 
 corner of McLean County. § The Kickapoos had, besides, vil- 
 lages west of Logansport and Lafayette, in the groves upon the 
 prairies, and finally, a great or capital village near what is well- 
 , known as ''Old ToK'n" timber, in West Township, McLean Co., 
 111. These last were especially obnoxious to the pioneer settlers 
 of Kentucky, because the Indians living or finding a refuge in 
 them, made frequent and exasperating raids across the Ohio, 
 where they would murder men and women, and carry off captive 
 children, to say nothing of the lesser crimes of burning houses 
 and stealing horses. So annoying did these offences become, 
 that several expeditions were sent out in retaliation. That, com- 
 
 * It extended up the Vermilion River a distance of twenty miles in a direct 
 line from its mouth. 
 
 fThe specimens referred to were doubtless "drift copper", now supposed to 
 have drifted in from their native beds in the neighborhood of Lake Superior. 
 Since the settlement of the Vermilion county by the whites, many similar 
 specimens have been found. Only within the present year, 1883, some work- 
 men, while engaged in digging a cellar in Danville, unearthed, from near the 
 surface of the ground, a piece of pure copper, weighing eighty-seven pounds. 
 It was secured by Dr. J. C. Winslovv of Danville, for Prof. John Collett, 
 state geologist of Indiana, who has deposited it in the State Cabinet at Indi- 
 anapolis. 
 
 X Sketches of Louisiana, by Maj. Amos Stodard. 
 
 § This village was burned in the fall of 1812, by a part of Gov. Edwards' 
 forces, while on their march from Camp Russell to Peoria Lake. Vide Gov. 
 Reynolds' My Own Times.
 
 THE KICKAPOOS. 
 
 127 
 
 manded by Gen. Qias. Scott, in the month of Ma_\. i;.;i, de- 
 stroyed the Kickapoo town near Oui-a-ta-non [referred to in con- 
 nection with the capture of Croghan]. In the month of August of 
 the same year, a second expedition, lead by (Icn: Jas. Wilkinson, 
 left Kentucky on a similar mission. In the instructions given \)y 
 Gov. St. Clair (then the executive head of the military as well as 
 of the civil affairs of the Northwest I'erritory) to (ien. Wilkinson, 
 we find the following: "Should the success attend you at 
 LWnguile,''*' which I wish and hope, you may find yourself e(iual 
 to the attacking the Kickapoo town situated in the prairie nofc 
 far from Sangamon River, which empties itself into the Illinois 
 River. By information, that town is not distant from L'Anguile 
 more than three easy days' marches. A visit to thaf plate will 
 be totally unexpected, and most probably attended with decided 
 good consequences; neither will it be hazardous, for the men, at 
 this season, are generally out hunting beyond the Illinois country. 
 Should it seem feasible from circumstances, I recommend the 
 attempt in preference to the towns higher up the Wabash, and 
 success there would be followed by great eclat." The general 
 did not reach the great Kickapoo town. His troops, jaded by 
 forced marches, and the effectual destruction of the Eel River 
 village, and encumbered with prisoners,t "launched westwanl 
 through the boundless prairies", only to^ become "environed on 
 all sides with morasses, which forbade his advancing". They 
 were compelled, toward the end of the day, to return. On their 
 way back, however, they struck the Kickapoo town west of 
 Lafayette, and destroyed it. 
 
 The people of Kentucky were not the only sufferers from 
 depredations of this tribe. From their towns near the Wabash, 
 the Kickapoo war parties lurked upon the skirts of the settle- 
 ments on the American Bottom from Kaskaskia to Cahokia, l)em 
 on the murder or capture of any unprotected person that tell in 
 their way, excepting alone those of French blood, who, with their 
 property, were, wit1i rare exceptions, exempt from molestation 
 So strong was the regard of the Kickapoos, in common with all 
 other Algonquin tribes, for the Frenchman. 
 
 * The Eel River town on Eel River, some six miles above Logansjwrt, 
 Ind., and which was to be attacked. 
 
 + His prisoners consisted mostly of women and children, and numbered 
 thirty-four in all. His instructions, like those issued to C.cn. Scott, roiuircd 
 him to take all women and children they could, and turn them over to the 
 officer in command at Ft. Washington (now Cincinnati), m the hope that by 
 thus paying the Indians back in kind, they would cease their cruel forays 
 upon helpless and unoffending non-combatants.
 
 128 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 Mr. Peck's historical sketch of the early American settlements 
 in Illinois, before quoted, is largely taken up with narrations of 
 the killing and capture of white settlers in the neighborhoods 
 named, and the destruction or the plunder of their property. 
 AVc summarize a few paragraphs from his address, by way of 
 illustration : 
 
 "The Kickapoos were numerous and warlike, and had their 
 principal towns on the Illinois and the Vermilion of the Wabash. 
 They were the most formidable and dangerous neighbors to the 
 whites, and, for a number of years, kept the settlements [on the 
 American Bottom] in continual alarm.'" The address then takes 
 up a narration of yearly events from 1783 to 1795, showing the 
 sufferings and danger-; to which the white ])opulation was ex- 
 posed on account of Indian depredations, inflicted in the main 
 by Kickapoos. 
 
 Among the most notable cai)tures was that of Wm. Biggs, in 
 1788. On the morning of March 28 of that year, while he, in 
 company with young John Vallis, was going from Bellefountaine 
 to Kahokia, they were surprised by a war party of sixteen Kicka- 
 poo Indians. Vallis was wounded in the thigh, and, being 
 mounted on a fine horse, was soon beyond reach of the flying 
 balls, and made his escape only to die, howev'er, of his wounds. 
 Four bullets were shot into Biggs' horse; and the animal became 
 so frantic with pain, and frightened, more than all, with the yells 
 of the savages, that it became unmanageable; Biggs' "gun was 
 thrown from his shoulder, and twisted out of his hands"; in try- 
 ing to recover his gun, and being incumbered "with a large 
 bag of beaver fur, which prevented him from recovering his 
 saddle, which had neither 'girth or crupper", it turned and fell 
 off of the horse, and Biggs 'fell with it".'' The rider held on to 
 the horse's mane, and was soon upon his feet, making ineffectual 
 attempts to remount, as his terrified horse dragged him along for 
 some "twenty or thirty yards", when his "hold broke, and he fell 
 on his hands and knees, and stumbled along four or five steps 
 before he could recover himself." "By the time I got fairly on 
 my feet", continues the narrator, "the Indians were about eight 
 or ten yards off me. I saw there was no other way to make my 
 escape but by fast running, and I was determined to try it, and 
 had but little hopes at first of being able to escape, I ran about 
 one hundred yards before I looked back — I thought almost every 
 step I could feel the scalping-knife cutting my scalp off. I found 
 that I was gaining ground on them, I felt encouraged, and ran 
 about three hundred yards further, and looking back, saw that I 
 had gained about one hundred yards, and considered myself
 
 THE KICKAI'UOS. 
 
 129 
 
 quite out of danger." Biggs' hopes, however, were not well 
 grounded. Tlie morning was cold, and before setting out from 
 home on his journey, he had clothed himself in a heavy under- 
 coat, over which was a greatcoat, securely tied about the waist 
 with a large, well-worn silk handkerchief, tied, in the hurrv of the 
 moment, in a double hard knot. Anticipating a long race, he 
 endeavored to divest himself of all surplus garments; the knotted 
 handkerchief would not untie; he pulled his arms out of the 
 sleeves of his greatcoat, which, trailing on the ground, would 
 "wrap around his legs and throw him down", so that he "made 
 no headway at running". His pursuers, seeing his predicament, 
 renewed the chase with more vigor, and soon overtook and secured 
 him. His captor, says Biggs, "took the handle of his tomahawk, 
 and rubbed it on my shoulder and down my arm, which was a 
 token that he would not kill me, and that 1 w-as his prisoner." 
 
 At the risk of "traveling further out of the record" of the gen- 
 eral scope of this chapter, we quote a few more extracts from Mr. 
 Biggs' Narrative, as they admirably illustrate some of the caprices 
 and traits of Indian character. At the first evening's encamp- 
 ment, and the Indians having finished their eating, one of them 
 sat, "with his back against a tree, with his knife between his legs. 
 I, says Biggs, was sitting facing him with my feet nearly touching 
 his. He began to inquire of me what nation I belonged to. I 
 was determined to pretend that I was ignorant and could not 
 understand him. I did not wish them to know that I could 
 speak some Indian languages, and understood them better than I 
 could speak. He first asked me, in Indian, if I was Mat-to-cush 
 (that is, in Indian, a Frenchman); I told him no. He then 
 asked me if I was a Sag-e-nash (an Englishman); 1 told him no. 
 He again asked if I was a She-mol-sea (that is, a long knife or 
 Virginian); I told him no. He then asked me if I was a Hos- 
 tonely* (that is an xAmerican); I told him no. About a minute 
 afterward, he asked me the same questions over again, and I 
 answered him jrs.' He then spoke P^nglish, and catched up his 
 
 knife, and said, 'You are one d — son of a b ". I really 
 
 thought he intended stabbing me with his knife. I knew it would 
 not do to show cowardice. I, being pretty well accjuainted with 
 their manners and ways, jumped up on my feet, and spoke in 
 Indian, and said, ' Man-e-t-wa, Kieji-de-pa-7C'ay' (in English it is, 
 'No: I am very good'); and clapped my hands on my breast 
 
 * Mr. Biggs' interpretation is a liltle too broad. Bos/on-e-/v was an epithet 
 obtained by the Indians from the Canadian French, who applied it to the New 
 Enfjlanders or Vankies.
 
 130 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 when I spoke, and looked very bold. The other Indians all set 
 up such a ha I ha I and laughter, that it made him look very fool- 
 ish, and he sat still and became quite sulky." 
 
 The Kickapoos took their prisoner across the prairies of Illi- 
 nois, reaching their village on the west bank of the Wabash, near 
 old Fort Weaoatanon (which, at the time of this occurrence, was 
 merely a trading-post), on the tenth day of his capture. Remain- 
 ing several weeks with the Kickapoos and at the trading-post, 
 Mr. Biggs effected his release through the kindly interference of 
 the traders at the latter ])lace, prominent among whom was an 
 Englishman, Mr. McCauslin, and Mr. Bazedone, a Spaniard, with 
 whom Biggs "had an acquaintance in the Illinois country", and 
 who paid the Indians in trade an equivalent of $260 for his ran- 
 some, for which sum Biggs "gave his note, payable in the Illinois 
 country." Later, he passed down the Wabash.' and the Ohio, 
 and up the Mississippi, in a pirogue or large canoe, and safely 
 reached his family. 
 
 Mr. Biggs was greatly liked by his captors and their kinsmen, 
 who complimented for his bravery, his fleetness of foot, his 
 shapely limbs, long and beautiful hair, and handsome physique. 
 They adopted him into their tribe, giving him the name of Moh- 
 cos-se-a, after the name of a chief who had been killed by the 
 whites the year before. After which he "was to be considered 
 one of that Kickapoo family, in place of their [slain] father.'" He 
 was also offered, in marriage, a handsome Indian girl, a relation 
 of the same family, who, encouraged by her parents, exhausted 
 her arts, in a manner of becoming modesty, to win his consent; 
 Mr. Biggs protesting that he was already a married man, the 
 father of three children, whose mother was his wife, and that it 
 was against the laws of his country for a man to have more than 
 one wife at a time. This Indian girl had prepared his first regu- 
 lar meal after his arrival at the Wabash. Says Biggs, "it was 
 hominy, beat in a mortar, as white as snow, and handsome as I 
 ever saw, and very well cooked. She fried some dried meat, 
 pounded very fine in a mortar, in oil, and sprinkled it with sugar. 
 She prepared a very good bed for me, with bear-skins and blank- 
 ets." She brought him "hot water in a tin cup, and shaving 
 soap, and more clean water in a basin", and a cloth to wipe his 
 hands and face after the process of shaving was done with, i 
 "She then told me to sit down on a bench. I did so. She got 
 two very good combs — a coarse and a fine one. It was then 
 the fashion to wear long hair. Mine was very long and thick, 
 and much tangled and matted — I traveled without any hat or 
 anything else on my head, and that was the tenth day it had not
 
 THE KICKArOOS. I3, 
 
 been combed. She combed out iny hair very tenderly, and then 
 took the fine one and combed and looked my head nearly one 
 hour. She went to a trunk and got a ribbon, and grea.se'd my 
 hair very nicely. The old chief [father of the girl, as we learn 
 elsewhere] gave me a fine regimental blue cloth coat, diced with 
 yellow buff cloth; the son-in-law gave me a very good l)ca\-er 
 Mackinaw hat. These they had taken from some ofllcers they 
 had killed. Then the widow squaw took me into her cabin and 
 gave me a new ruffled shirt and a very good blanket." All these 
 he put on, and, at the request of the donors, he walked the floor 
 to their delight. The girl followed him to the abode of the 
 widowed and orphaned family to whom he had been given, and 
 which was in another neighborhood, where she took her place at 
 his cabin door, silently waiting, in the hope he would relent and 
 invite her in. "She stood by my door for sometime after dark — I 
 did not know when she went away. She stayed two days and 
 three nights before she returned home. I never spoke to her 
 while she was there. She was a very handsome girl, about 18 
 years of age, a beautiful full figure, and handsomely featured, and 
 very white for a squaw. She was almost as white as dark com- 
 plexioned women generally are; and her father and mother were 
 very white skinned Indians."'' 
 
 To resume. In the desperate plans of Tecumthe, the Kicka- 
 poos took an active part. Thi.s tribe caught the infection at an 
 early day of those troubles; and in 1806, Gov. Harrison sent 
 Capt. Wm. Prince to the Vermilion towns with a speech addressed 
 to all the warriors and chiefs of the Kickapoo tribe; giving Capt. 
 Prince further instructions to proceed to the villages of the \)vai- 
 
 * Mr. Biggs had been one of Gen. Clark's soldiei's in the conquest of tlie 
 Illinois, and liking the country, early after the close of the Revolutionaiy 
 War, he returned and settled at the Bellefountaine, the name of an early set- 
 tlement in Monroe Co., 111., ten miles north of Kaskaskia. lie held several 
 territorial and state offices, and filled them with honor and ability. In 1S26, 
 shortly before his death, he published "a narrative" of his capture by and his 
 experience while with the Kickapoos. It is a pamphlet of twenty-three 
 pages, printed with poor type on very common paper. But few copies were 
 issued, and scarcely any of these seem to have been preserved. It was only 
 after a search of several years that the writer was so fortunate as to get sight 
 of one. Gov. Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, gives a fair sketch 
 of Mr. Biggs. That given in the text is condensed or quoted directly frqm 
 the "Narrative", and differs from J. M. Peck's, as it makes no mention, 
 whatever, of the Ogle Brothers being in company with Biggs and \'allis at the 
 time of the capture.
 
 132 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 rie bands, if, after having delivered the speech at the Vermilion 
 towns, he discovered there would be no danger to himself in pro- 
 ceeding beyond. The speech, which was full of good words and 
 precautionary advice, had little effect; and "shortly after the 
 mission of Capt. Prince, the Prophet found means to bring the 
 whole of the Kickapoos entirely under his influence." [ Vide 
 Memoirs of Gen. Harrison. We produce extracts of Gov. Har- 
 rison's "talk", referred to, to show the style of such addresses. 
 Gen. Harrison, being an adept in this kind of literature, could 
 suit such papers to the occasion, and draft them within the range 
 and to the understanding of the people for whom they were in- 
 tended, better, perhaps, than any other agent the Government 
 ever had in the troublesome field of Indian diplomacy. "Wm. H. 
 Harrison, Gov., etc., Supt. of Indian affairs, etc., etc., to his chil- 
 dren, the chiefs and warriors of the Kickapoo tribe." My chil- 
 dren : I lately sent you a message by one of your warriors, but 
 I have not yet received an answer. The head chief of the We-as 
 has, however, been with me, and has assured me that you still 
 keep hold of the chain of friendship, which has bound you to 
 your father since the treaty made with ( ren. Wayne [referring to 
 the Treaty of Greenville, of 1795]- 
 
 "My children, this information has given me great pleasure, 
 because I had heard that you had suffered bad thoughts to get 
 possession of your minds. 
 
 "My children, what is it you wish for? Have I not often tolc 
 you that you should inform me of all your grievances, and that 
 you should never apply to your father in vain. 
 
 "My children: Be wise, do not follow the advise of those who 
 would lead you to destruction; what is it they would persuade 
 you to? — to make war upon your fathers, the Seventeen Fires? 
 [The United States, then seventeen in number.] — What injury 
 has your father done you? — If he has done any, why do you not 
 complain to him and ask redress? — Will he turn a deaf ear to 
 your complaints? He has always listened to you, and will listen 
 to you still; you will certainly not raise your arm against him. 
 
 "My children, you have a number of young warriors, but when 
 compared to the warriors of the United States, you know they 
 are but as a handful. My children, can you count the leaves 
 on the trees, or the grains of sand in the ri\'er banks? So numer- 
 ous are the warriors of the Seventeen Fires. 
 
 "My children, it would grieve your father to let loose his war- 
 riors upon his red children; nor will he do it, unless you compel) 
 him ; he had rather that they would stay at home and make corn 
 for their women and children ; but he is not afraid to make war 
 he knows that thev are brave. 

 
 THE KICKAPOOS. 
 
 133 
 
 "My children, he has men armed with all kinds of wcajions; 
 those who live on the big waters [the sea coast] and in the big 
 towns, understand the use of muskets and bayonets [of which 
 last the Indians had become very mucli afraid since their disas- 
 trous encounter with (len. Wayne in the engagement on the 
 Maumee, in 1794, where the bayonet was used with terrilile 
 effect], and those who live on this side the mountains [the Alle- 
 ghanies] use the same arms that you do [long range riiles]. 
 
 "My children: The Great Spirit has taught your fathers to 
 make all the arms and ammunition which they use; but you do 
 not understand this art; if you should go to war with your fathers, 
 who would supply you with those things? The Ih'itish can not; 
 we have driven them beyond the lakes, and tliey can not send a 
 trader to you without our permission. 
 
 "My children, open your eyes to your true interest; your father 
 wishes you to be happy. If you wish to have your minds set at 
 ease, come and speak to him. My children, the young man 
 [Capt. Prince] who carries this is my friend, and he will speak to 
 you in my name; listen to him as if I were to address you, and 
 treat him with kindness and hospitality." 
 
 The Kickapoos fought in great numbers and with frenzied 
 courage at the battle of Tippecanoe. They early sided with the 
 British in the war that was declared between that power and the 
 United States the following June; and sent out many war parties, 
 that kept the settlements in Indiana and lUinois in constant 
 peril; while other warriors of their tribe participated in almost 
 every battle fought during this war along the western frontier. 
 
 As a military ]5eople, the Kickapoos were inferior to the Mia- 
 mis, Delawares, and Shawnees, in movements requiring large 
 bodies of men ; but they were preeminent in predatory warfare. 
 Small parties, consisting of from five to twenty or more, were the 
 usual number comi)rising their war parties. These would push 
 out hundreds of miles from their villages, and swoop down upon 
 a feeble settlement, or an isolated pioneer cabin, and burn the 
 property, kill the cattle, steal the horses, capture the women and 
 children, and be off again before an alarm could be given. 
 
 \\hile the Pottawatomies and other tribes, in alliance with the 
 British, laid siege to Ft. AN'ayne, the Kickapoos, assisted by the 
 Winnebagoes, were assigned to the capture of Ft. Harrison. 
 
 * Finished Oct. 28, 181 1, and situated on the east bank of the Wahasli, 
 about two miles above the lower Wea Town of " Wa-au-ta-no", and a mile 
 or move above the present City of Terra Haute, Ind. It was erected by the 
 forces under Gov. Harrison, while on their way from Vincennes to the Proph-
 
 134 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 They nearly succeeded, and would have taken it but for the most 
 heroic and determined defence, that gave its commander, Capt. 
 Zachary Taylor, a national renown. 
 
 The plan of the attack was matured by the Kickapoo war chief, 
 Pa-koi-shee-can,''' who, in person, undertook the execution of the 
 most difficult and dangerous part of it. First the Indians loi- 
 tered about the fort, ha\ing a few of their women and children 
 with them, to induce a belief that their presence was friendly, 
 while the main body of warriors were secreted at a distance Avait- 
 ing for favorable developments. Pretending they were in want 
 of provisions, the men and women were allowed to approach 
 near the fort, and were thus given opportunity to inspect the fort 
 and its defences. A dark night, giving the appearance of rain, 
 favored the plan which was at once executed. The warriors were 
 brought to the front, and women and children sent to the rear. 
 Pa-koi-shee-can, with a large butcher knife in each hand, threw 
 himself at length upon the ground. He drove a knife, held in 
 one hand, into the ground, and drew his body up against it; 
 then reached forward with the knife in the other hand, and driv- 
 ing that into the ground, again drew himself along. In this way, 
 like a snake in the grass, he approached the lower block-house. 
 He heard the sentinels on their rounds on the inside of the pali- 
 sade. As the guards advanced toward that part of the works 
 where the lower block-house ivas situated, Pa-koi-shee-can would 
 lie still; and when the guards made the turn and moved in the 
 opposite direction, he again crawled nearer. In this way the 
 crafty savage gained the very walls of the block-house. There 
 was a crack between the logs of the block-house,t and through 
 this opening the Kickapoo placed a quantity of dry grass, bits of 
 Avood, and other combustibles, brought for the purpose in a 
 blanket, tied pouch fashion upon his back. While the prepara- 
 tion for this incendiarism was in progress, the sentinels, in their 
 
 et's Town, during the memorable Tippecanoe campaign; and, by unanimous 
 request of all the officers, christened after the name of their commander. It 
 was enclosed with palisades, and officers and soldiers barracks, and defended 
 at two angles with two block-houses, similar to that seen in illustrations of 
 old Forts Wayne and Dearborn. 
 
 * The Blackbury Fl(rwer, abreviated by the French to La Farine [The 
 Flower], the name by which he was generally known among the white people. 
 
 t Gen. Harrison also mentions this fact, and adds that this building was 
 used for the storage of whisky and salt; that the cattle had licked the chink- 
 ing out to get at the salt, and that the opening between the logs was made in 
 this way.
 
 THE KICKAPOOS. I 35 
 
 rounds on the opposite side of the block-house, passed within a 
 few feet of the place where the fire was about to be lighted. All 
 being in readiness, and the sentinels at the further side of the 
 enclosure, Pa-koi-shee-can struck a fire with his flint, and thrust 
 it within, and threw his blanket quickly over the opening, to jire- 
 vent the blaze from flashing outside, alarming the garrison before 
 the building was well on fire, ^^"hen assured that the fire was 
 well under way, he fell back and gave the signal, when the attack 
 was immediately begun by the Indians at the opposite extremity 
 of the fort with great fury. The lower block-house burned down 
 in spite of all the efforts of the garrison to prevent it; and, for a 
 while, the Indians were exultant, feeling assured of a complete 
 ^•ictory. Capt. Taylor constructed a barricade with material taken 
 from another building; and, by the time the block-house had 
 consumed, the Indians, to their great disappointment, discovered 
 a new line of defence, closing the breach through which they had 
 expected to effect an entrance. [The Indian account of the 
 attack on Ft. Harrison, as above given, was first published in 
 1879, in the writer's "Historic Notes", etc. It is in harmony 
 with official reports, except that the latter, for want of information 
 on the part of those who wrote them, contain nothing as to plans 
 of the Indians, nor how the block-house was fired. The account 
 given in the text was narrated to the writer by INIrs. Mary A. 
 Baptiste, as it was told to her by Pa-koi-shee-can himself. This 
 lady, with Christmas Dagney, her first husband, were at Ft. Har- 
 rison in 182 1, where the latter was assisting in the disbursement 
 of annuities to the Indians then assembled there to receive them. 
 The business and spree that followed, occupied two or three days. 
 Pa-koi-shee-can was present with some of his people, to receive 
 their share of the annuities; and the old chief, havmg leisure, 
 edified Mr. Dagney and his wife with a minute account of his 
 attempt to take the fort, pointing out the positions and move- 
 ments of himself and his warriors. As he related the story, he 
 warmed up, and indulged in a great deal of pantomime, wliich 
 gave force to, as it heightened the effect of, the narration. The 
 particulars are given substantially as Mrs. Baptiste repeated them 
 to the writer. She had never read an account of the engagement.] 
 AVe find no instance in w^hich the Kickapoos were allied with 
 either the French or the British, in any of the intrigues or wars 
 for the control of the fur trade, or the acquisition of disputed 
 territory, in the Northwest. They did not mix or mingle their 
 blood with French or other white people; and, as compared in 
 this regard with other tribes, in the voluminous treaties with the 
 Federal Government, there is a singular absence of land reserva-
 
 136 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 tions in favor of half-breed Kickapoos. Unlike, the Illinois, the 
 Miamis, and other tribes living upon the lines of the early com- 
 merce of the country, or whose villages were marts of the fur 
 trade, the Kickapoos kept at a distance, and escaped the demor- 
 alization which this trade, and a contact with its unscrupulous 
 emissaries, inflicted upon the tribes coming within their baneful 
 influence. '•■ As compared with other Indians, the Kickapoos- 
 were industrious, intelligent, and cleanly in their habits, and were 
 better armed and clothed. As a rule, the men were tall, sinewy, 
 and active; the women lithe, and many of them by no means 
 lacking in beauty.t Their dialect is soft and liquid when con- 
 trasted with rough, guttural language of the Pottawatomies. 
 
 With the close of the war of 181 2, the Kickapoos ceased their 
 hostilities toward the whites, and a few years later, disposed of 
 the residue of their lands in Illinois and Indiana, and, with the 
 exception of a few bands, emigrated west of the Mississippi. 
 Gov. Reynolds says of them, "They disnked the United States 
 so much, that they decided when they left Illinois, that they 
 would not reside within the limits of our Government, but would 
 settle in Texas. ''t A large body of them did go to Texas; and 
 when the Lone Star Republic became a member of the Federal 
 Union, these Kickapoos retired to New Mexico; and later, some 
 of them went even to old Mexico. Here, on these frontier bor- 
 ders, these wild bands have, for years, maintained the reputation 
 of their sires, and enterprising race. Col. R. B. Marcy, in 1854, 
 found one of their bands upon the Chocktaw reservation, near 
 the Witchita River. He says of them, "They, like the Dela- 
 wares and Shawnees, are well armed with good rifles, in the use 
 of which they are very expert, and there are no better hunters 
 or warriors upon the borders. They hunt together on horseback, 
 and after a party of them have passed through a section of coun- 
 try, it is seldom that any game is left in their trace. They are 
 intelligent, active, and brave, and frequently visit and traffic with 
 
 * Says Maj. Stoddard, in his Sketches of Louisiana, "There is a striking 
 difference between those Indians who live in the neighborhood of the whites 
 and those who reside at a distance from them. The former, especially if 
 accustomed to a long intercourse, have wonderfully degenerated. They have 
 gradually imbibed all the vices of the whites, and forgotten their own virtues. 
 They are drunkards and thieves, and act on all occasions with the most con- 
 sumate duplicity." The observations of Maj. Stoddard are corrobor"ated by 
 Gov. Harrison, Judge Jacob Burnett, and other eminent men, speaking from 
 their own experience. 
 
 + Gov. Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois.
 
 THE KICKAPOOS. I 37 
 
 the prairie Indians, and have no fear of meeting those people in 
 battle, providing the odds are not more than six to one against 
 them."* 
 
 The Kickapoos of the Vermihon, comprising the bands of 
 Mac-ca-naw, or Mash-e-na\v (77/6' Elk-Horn), Ka-an-a-kuck, and 
 Pa-koi-shee-can, were the last to emigrate. 'J'hey lingered in 
 Illinois upon the waters of the PLmbarrass, the Vermilion, and 
 its northwest tributaries, until 1832 and 1833; when they joined 
 a body of their people upon a reservation set apart for their use- 
 west of Fort Leavenworth, and within the limits of lirown and 
 Jackson Counties, Kansas, where the survivors and the descen- 
 dants of those who have died now reside upon their farms. 
 Their good conduct, comfortable homes, and well - cultivated 
 fields, attest their steady progress in the ways of civilized life. 
 The wild bands have always been troublesome along the south- 
 western borders; every now and then their depredations form 
 the subject of some 'item of current newspaper notices. P'or 
 years the Government failed in its efforts to induce these bands 
 to remove to some place within the Indian Territory, where they 
 might be restrained from annoying the border settlements of Texas 
 and New Mexico. Some years ago, a part of the semi-civiHzed 
 Kickapoos in Kansas, preferring their old, wild life, left their 
 reservations, and joined the bands to the Southwest. After years' 
 wanderings in quest of plunder, they were persuaded to return, 
 and in 1875, settled in the Indian Territory, and supi)lied with 
 the necessary implements and provision.'^, to enable them to go 
 to work and earn an honest li\ing. In this effort toward reform, 
 they are now making commendable progress.t In 1875, ^|''*^ 
 civilized Kickapoos in the Kansas Agency numbered 385 ; while 
 the wild or Mexican band numbered 420, as appears from the 
 official report on Indian affairs for that year. Their numbers 
 were never great, as compared with the Miamis, or Pottawato- 
 mies; however, they made up for this deficiency l)y the energy 
 of. their movements. In language, manners, and customs, the 
 Kickapoos bear a very close resemblance to the Sac and Fox 
 Indians, whose allies they generally were, and with whom they 
 have, by some writers, been confounded.:}: 
 
 * Marcy's "Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border." 
 
 t Report of Commrs. on Indian Affairs. 
 
 % Corroborative of this, Geo. Catlin, in his admirable work on the North 
 American Indians, says, "The Kickapoos had long lived in alliance willi 
 Sacs and Foxes, and their language was so similar, that the two seemed to be 
 almost one family." Dr. Jediah IMorse, Albert Gallatin, and other American 
 attthorities could be cited to the same effect, were it at all necessary.
 
 138 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 THE WINNEBAGOS. 
 
 In "The Jesuit Relations", for the years 1653 to 1670, inclu- 
 sive, this tribe are alluded to under various names, as Ouimbe- 
 gouc, Ouimpegouec, and Ouinibegoutz — the French "Ou" being 
 nearly synonymous in the sound of its pronunciation with the 
 English letter W, — and was a name given them by the Algon- 
 quins, with whom the meaning was Fetid, translated by the French 
 as Puants. The Algonquin tribes called the Winnebagoes, say 
 the missionary fathers, by this name because the latter came from 
 the westward ocean, or 'salt water, which the Indians designated 
 as the "Fetid ^V^ater".''' The Winnebagoes called themselves 
 Hochungara [0-chun-ga-ra], or Ochungarand, which is to say, 
 on the authority of Dr. Schoolcraft, "the trout nation, or Horoji 
 [fish eaters].'" They were of the Dacota, or Sioux stock, to 
 whose language their own assimilated as nearly as it differed 
 radically from that of their Algonquin neighbors. .Their incur- 
 sion into the ancient territory of the Illinois was strenuously 
 opposed by the latter; and the disputed boundary line between 
 the two shifted north or south, as the fortune of war favored the 
 one or the other. The final chances, however, were with the 
 Illinois, whose greater numbers and equal bravery were more 
 than a match for their adversaries, who, for the most part, were 
 driven well back within the present limits of Wisconsin, and 
 where, in more modern times, they have been regarded as a tribe 
 
 * The Winnebagoes were first met with by tlie Jesuit fathers, near the 
 mouth of Fox River — originally called the Kan-kan-lin — at the head of Green 
 Bay, Wis. Their presence here gave to the waters of Green Bay the first 
 name, by which it was designated in the Jesuit Relations, and the early maps, 
 '■'■ Lac-des- Puants", and "Zi? Baye des PziaHts''\ As early as 1647 and 1648, 
 it is referred to in "The Relations" as follows: A peninsula, or strip of land, 
 quite small, seperates this Superior Lake [referring to Lake Superior] from 
 another third lake, called by us '' the la/ce of the Puants\ which also discharges 
 itself into our fresh-water sea, aliout ten leagues more toward the west than 
 the Sault, " — /. e., the Sault de Ste. Marie, connecting Lake Superior with 
 Lake Huron. "On its shores", continues this "Relation", "dwell a different 
 people, of an unknown language; that is to say, a language that is neither 
 Algonquin nor Huron. These people are called Puants [stinkards], not on 
 account of any unpleasant odor that is peculiar to them, but because they say 
 they came from the shores of a sea far distant toward the West, the waters of 
 which being salt, they call themselves 'the people of the sea'."
 
 THE WINNEBAGOES. I 39 
 
 of that State. Still, the territorial claims of the contestants was 
 not finally settled until 1825, when, after a nearly continuous 
 warfare of almost two centuries with the Illinois or their succes- 
 sors, it was agreed at a treaty, held at Prairie du Chien, between 
 the United States, the Winnebagoes, the Sacs and Foxes, the 
 Pottawatomies, and other attending tribes, that "the Winnebago 
 country should be bounded as follows : Southeasterly, by Rock 
 River, from its source near the Winnebago Lake [in Central- 
 eastern Wisconsin], to the Winnebago Village, about forty miles 
 above its mouth," etc., etc.; [near the mouth of the Peck-a-ton- 
 o-kea, Jo Daviess Co., Ill] A map will indicate what portion of 
 Illinois this boundary describes. 
 
 As compared with the Algonquin tribes, history records but 
 few complaints against the Winnebagoes in the predatory war- 
 fare upon the white settlements. The bravery of their warriors 
 is fully attested, however, in the several engagements with the 
 forces of Gov. St. Clair and Gen. Wayne, in which they fought 
 ■with conspicuous courage. The whole tribe were fairly carried 
 by Tecumthe and his brother, the Prophet, and gave hearty sup- 
 port to all the nefarious schemes of these agitators. Naw-kaw, 
 the principle chief of their nation, and Hoo-tshoop-kaw, of lesser 
 note, were two of Tecumthe's personal attendants, and followed 
 him in all his extended missions of proselytism among the nations 
 of the Mississippi Valley. In the war of 181 2, these two Win- 
 nebagoes were members of the sacred band, that guarded 
 Tecumthe's person; they were near him when he fell, with mor- 
 tal wounds, at the battle of the Thames, and assisted in bearing 
 his dead body from the field to a place of secure interment.* 
 
 * At the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, concluded Aug. i, 1829, at which the 
 Winnebagoes ceded their lands in Illinois and Wisconsin to the United 
 States, Caleb Atwater, Esq., one of the commissioners acting on the part of 
 the latter, there met Naw-kaw, who, he says, "complained to me tiiat, in all 
 of our accounts of Tecumthe, we had only said of him that, 'Winnebago, who 
 always accompanies Tecumthe', without calling the Winnebago by his name, 
 Naw-kaw Caromaine."—"At\vater's Tour to Prairie du Chien." The same 
 author, in his "History of Ohio", says, in this connection, while at Prairie 
 du Chien, in 1S29, " Naw-caw [Wood] and Hoo-tshoop-kaw [Four legs] were 
 with him; and that, from statements of these constant companions of Tecum- 
 the, during nearly twenty years of his life, we proceed to state, that Tecumtiie 
 lay with his warriors in a thick underbrush, on the left of the American army; 
 that these Indians were at no period of the battle out of their tliick under- 
 brush; that Naw-caw saw no officer between them and the American army; 
 that Tecumthe fell [at] the very first fire of the Kentucky dragoons, pierced by
 
 I40 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 At the engagement at Tipi)ecanoe, the conduct of the Winne- 
 bago braves was a matter of especial mention. We quote from 
 Gen. Harrison's Memoirs: "A Winnebago chief approached the 
 exterior [camp] fire of Capt. Barton's company, where the Hnes 
 had been considerably drawn in, and pushing up the brands to 
 make a light, squatted down to peck his [gun] flint, or to do 
 something with his gun. He was, however, immediately fired at 
 from Capt. Cook's company, which was not more than twenty 
 yards from him, and fell dead into the fire. One of the men 
 asked the captain's permission to go and scalp him; and, as no 
 attack had been made on that part of the line for some time, he 
 was allowed to go. The Yankee, however, being inexperienced 
 in the business, it took him some time to effect it; he was fired 
 at, and returned to his company with the scalp in his hand, 
 indeed, but with a ball through his body, which caused his death 
 in a few hours after. In the course of the battle, the Indian was 
 taken off, without being observed by Captain Cook, and conveyed 
 to the [Prophet's] town, where his body was found and known 
 by its having been scalped and much burned. The body had 
 been taken away without Capt. Cook's perceiving it, and is an 
 instance of the care with which the Indians remove the dead 
 bodies of their friends in action. At Tippecanoe, they rushed 
 up to the bayonets of our men, and in one instance, related by 
 Capt. Snelling, an Indian adroitly put the bayonet of a soldier 
 aside, and clove his head with a war-club — an instrument on 
 which there is fixed a triangular piece of iron, broad enough to 
 project several inches from the wood." "Their conduct on this 
 occasion, so different from what it usually is, was attributed to a 
 confidence of success, with which their Prophet had inspired 
 them, a//// to the distiiigiiishcd bravery of the Wuinebago warriors.'' 
 
 The only disturbances with which this people seem to have 
 been connected, subsequent to the war of 1812, was that of the 
 so-called Winnebago War [or scare] of 1827. Several acts of 
 reciprocal hostility had been committed between individual Win- 
 nebagoes and whites along the upper Mississippi, which soon 
 defected the whole tribe, and, for a while, threatened the peace 
 of the entire northwestern frontier. Gov. Reynolds, in his "My 
 Own Times", gives the following account of the cause that pro- 
 voked the breach of the i)eace: "x-Vbout the last of July, 
 
 tliirty bullets, and was carried four or five miles into the thick woods, and 
 there buried by the warriors, who told the story of his fate. This account 
 was repeated to me three several times word for word, and neither of the 
 relaters ever knew the fictions to which Tecumthe's death has "iven use."
 
 THE ^YINNEBAGOES. I41 
 
 1827,* the Winnebago War occurred in the country around and 
 north of Galena, in this State. The cause of tliis small s])e(k of 
 of war was a great outrage committed by the whites on the 
 Indians, which was of such brutality, that it is ])ainful to record. 
 Two keel-boats, of the contractor to furnish provisions for the 
 troops at the Falls of St. Anthony, stopped at a large camp of 
 the Winnebago Indians, on the river not far above Prairie du 
 Chien. The boatman made the Indians drunk — and, no doubt, 
 were so themselves — when they captured some si.\ or seven 
 squaws, who were also drunk. These squaws were forced on the 
 boat for corrupt and brutal purposes." [The words are i)ut in 
 Italics by the Governor.] "But not satisfied with this outrage on 
 female virtue, the boatmen took the squaws with them in the 
 boats to Fort Snelling, and returned with them. \\Mien the Indi- 
 ans became sober, and knew the injury done them in this drlicatc 
 point, they mustered all their forces, amounting to several hun- 
 dreds, and attacked the boats in which the squaws were confined. 
 The boats were forced to approach near the shore in a narrow 
 pass of the river,t and thus the infuriated savages assailed one 
 boat, and permitted the other to pass down in the night. The 
 boatmen were not entirely prepared for the attack, although to 
 some extent they were guarded against it. They had procured 
 some arms, and were oil the alert to some degree. The Indians 
 laid down in their canoes, and tried to paddle them to the boat ; 
 but the whites, seeing this, fired their muskets on those in the 
 canoes. It was a desperate and furious fight, for a few moments, 
 between a good many Indians exposed in open canoes, and only 
 a few boatmen, protected to some extent by their boats. One 
 boatman, a sailor by profession on the lakes and ocean, who had 
 been in many battles with the British during the war of 181 2, 
 saved the boat and those of the crew who were not killed. The 
 man was large and strong, and possessed the courage of an 
 African lion. He seized a part of the setting-pole of the boat, 
 which was about four feet long, and having on the end a piece of 
 iron, which made it weighty, and a powerful weapon in the hands 
 of Saucy Jack, as this champion is called. It is stated that when 
 
 * Gov. Reynolds errs as to the time. The attack on the keel-boat, men- 
 tioned a little further on, was on the evening of June 26; and the grievances 
 which induced the assault, occurred some days before tliat. Vide ^ vahiablc 
 paper on the "Early Times in Wisconsin", contributed by Hon. James \\. 
 Lockwood, of Prairie du Chien, and published in Vol. 2, Wis. Hi.st. Col. 
 
 + The place was near the mouth of Bad- Ax River; and the attack wa, 
 made near sunset. Judge Lockwood's paper, before quoted.
 
 142 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 the Indians attempted to board the boat, Jack would knock 
 them back into the river as fast as they approached. The boat 
 got fast on the ground, and the whites seemed doomed, but with 
 great exertion, courage, and hard fighting, the Indians were 
 repelled. The savages killed several white men and wounded 
 many more, leaving barely enough to navigate the boat. It is 
 said that Jack had four Indian scalps, which he took from the 
 same number of Indians that he killed himself In the battle 
 the squaws escaped to their husbands, and, no doubt, the whites 
 did not try to prevent it. Thus conmienced, and thus ended the 
 bloodshed of the Winnebago War.' 
 
 The effusion of blood would not have ended here, but for the 
 prompt measures taken by Gen. Lewis Cass to prevent it. The 
 latter, with Col. Thos. L. McKenney, as commissioners on behalf 
 of the United States, were at Butte des Morts-'' on a day fixed 
 for a treaty to be held, in part, to settle some matters as to boun- 
 daries that were "left undefined by the treaty of Aug. 19, 1825, 
 at Prairie du Chien", and to establish the boundaries of "the 
 tract claimed by the former French and British Governments" at 
 Green Bay. We quote the following from an article on "Early 
 Times in Wisconsin", written by Hon. H. A. Tenney:t "On the 
 day fixed for the council, not an Indian appeared. Alarmed at 
 this and other hostile signs, Gen. Gas.? rapidly descended the 
 river [Wisconsin] to Prairie du Chien, where the people had all 
 taken shelter in the garrison, j and where he heard of the attack 
 on the government boat. Hastening to Galena, he notified the 
 citizens there of their danger, and advised them to build a block- 
 house for their protection. From Galena Gen. Cass proceeded . 
 to Jefferson Barracks [a few miles below St. Louis]. A large 
 force, under Gen. [Henry] Atkinson, immediately came up the 
 
 * The "Butte des jNIorts"— hill of the dead— near the banks of Fox River, 
 in Winnebago Co., Wis.; a large and apparently artificial mound, said to 
 contain the remains of Indian warriors, killed in ancient battles. Its notoriety 
 dates back of all written history, however early, of this part of the Northwest, 
 and gathers about it the charms of many traditions. 
 
 t Published in Vol. i, of the "Wisconsin Historical Collections." 
 X Fort Crawford, Wis., on the left bank of the Mississippi, just above the 
 the mouth of the Wisconsin, and so named in honor of Wm. H. Crawford, 
 Secretary of War. Previous to this, June, 1814, during the war of 1812, 
 Prairie du Chien was captured, from emissaries of the British, by an expedi- 
 tion sent up the Mississippi by Gov. Wm. Clark of Missouri, under command 
 of Capt. Z. Taylor; and sixty of the latter's men, in charge of Lieut. Perkins, 
 remained there and erected a fort, which they named Fort Shelby.
 
 THE WINNEBAGOES. 1 43 
 
 river in boats as far as the portage at Fort Winnebago,'' ( Generals 
 Dodge and Whitesides, with companies of vohniteers, following 
 along each side on land, and scouring out the lurking savages. 
 A force from Green Bay concentrated on the same spot ; and the 
 In4ians beheld, with dismay, a formidable army in the midst of 
 their country. The result was a treaty of peace, and the giving 
 lip of Red Bird [a Winnebago chief], who had, a year previou.s, 
 massacred a family near Prairie du Chien." 
 
 While these events were taking place on the Mississippi and 
 in Wisconsin, then a part of the Territory of Michigan, matters 
 were by no means (^uiet in northern Illinois. The inhabitants at 
 Fort Dearborn, alarmed at the quite apparent unfriendly demeanor 
 of the Indians frequenting that Post, and from which the United 
 States military forces had been withdrawn, dispatched messengers 
 to the Pottawatomie village of l>ig-Foot, at (Geneva Lake, to learn 
 the purposes of the Winnebagoes, and ascertain if Big-Foot"s 
 band intended joining them. The report brought back was not 
 favorable, and the excited citizens, at the suggestion of Cnirdon 
 S. Hubbard, looked toward the ^Vabash for assistance. Accord- 
 ingly, Mr. tlubbard, leaving Chicago about four o'clock in the 
 evening, following an Indian trail, a distance of a hundred and 
 twenty -seven miles, through an uninhabited country, reaclfing 
 the settlements two miles south of Danville in the early afternoon 
 of the next day. Within the next twenty-four hours, the Vermil- 
 ion-County Battalion, as the inhabitants capable of bearing arms 
 
 * Erected near the head of Fox River, at the Portage, or land carriage, 
 between it and the Wisconsin, which, at the time referred to, was right in 
 • the heart of the "Winnebago country". This "carrying place" is a noted 
 spot in the discovery and exploration of the Northwest. Here Father Mar- 
 quette and Louis Joliet, on the loth day of June, 1673, with the assistance of 
 their two friendly Miami guides, transported their canoes a distance of "twenty- 
 seven hundred paces" from the scarcely-discernible channel of Fox River, 
 choked as it was with a rank and tangled growth of wild oats, to the broad 
 current of the Wisconsin; down which they voyaged, says the good father, 
 "alone in an unknown country, in the hands of Providence"; and we may 
 add, on a journey that immortalized him aij unsought fame, and first gave the 
 Mississippi River the name it bears, and (to that part of the stream above the 
 mouth of the Arkansas) a place in geography. Mrs. John 11. Kinzie, in her 
 "Wau-Bun"— a volume replete with valuable historical matter entertainingly 
 arranged, relating to "The Early Day in the Northwest "-gives a beautiful 
 sketch 'jf Fort Winnebago, drawn by her own pencil, as it appeared m 1S31, 
 while she resided there, her husband having charge of the Indian agency at 
 that station.
 
 144 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 were called, were assembled at Butler's Point, the then county- 
 seat; and a volunteer force of fifty men organized; and on the 
 next day-shaving dispersed, in the meantime, to their homes to 
 cook up m-e-days' rations — were on their way to Fort Dearborn, 
 where they and Mr. Hubbard arrived on the seventh day after 
 his departure. Several days later, word was received of the suc- 
 cess of Gen. Cass' movements, and the termination of hostilities.* 
 
 In the so-called Black-Hawk War, in Illinois and Wisconsin in 
 1832, "it was feared", say Judge Jas. Hall and Col. Thos. L. 
 McKenney, in their History of the Indian Tribes of North 
 America, "that the Winnebagoes, inhabiting the country immedi- 
 ately north of the hostile Indians, would unite with them, and, 
 forming a powerful combination, would devastate the defenceless 
 before our Government could adopt measures for its relief The 
 opportunity Avas a tempting one to a savage tribe naturally dis- 
 posed to war, and always prepared for its most sudden exigen- 
 cies; and many of the Winnebagoes were eager to rush into the 
 contest. But the policy of Naw-caw was decidedly pacific, and 
 his conduct was consistant with his judgment and his professions. 
 To keep his followers from temptation, as well as to place them 
 under the eye of an agent of our Government, he encamped with 
 thern near the agency, under the charge of Mr. [John H.] Kinzie, 
 expressing on all occasions his disapprobation of the war, and 
 his determination to avoid all connection with those engaged in 
 it. The Indian tribes are often divided into parties, having their 
 respective leaders, who alone can control their partisans in times 
 of excitement. So among the Winnebagoes; a few restless and 
 unprincipled individuals, giving loose to their propensity for blood 
 and plunder by joining the war ])arties, while the great body of 
 the tribe remained at peace, under the influence of their vener- 
 able chief" 
 
 Immediately on the close of the Black-Hawk War, by a treaty 
 concluded Sept. 15, 1832, at Ft. Armstrong, at Rock Island, III, 
 the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all of their lands 
 lying south and east of the Wisconsin River and the Fox River 
 of Green Bay; and, by a subsecjuent treaty concluded Nov. i, 
 1837, they parted with the residue of their lands lying east of 
 the Mississippi. By the terms of this last treaty, they were to 
 remove beyond the river named within eight months thereafter, 
 an engagement they did not comply with until some three years 
 
 * A more detailed account of the Winnebago War, as it manifested itself 
 in the vicinity of Chicago, will be found in Number Ten of Fergus' Historical 
 Series.
 
 THE WINNEBAGOES. 
 
 145 
 
 after. After being unceremoniously changed about from one 
 reservation to another, by the United States Covernment, with 
 little regard for its solemn stipulations, to suit cai)rices aiij^avarice 
 of the ever-encroaching white immigration, we lind the W'inneba- 
 goes, in 1865, settled (let us trust permanently) on the (Jmaha 
 Reservation in Nebraska, where the superintendent of Indian 
 affairs, in his report for that year, says of them: "This tribe is 
 characterized by frugality, thrift, and industry to an extent 
 unequaled by any other tribe of Indians in the Northwest. 
 Loyal to the Government, and peaceful toward their neighbors, 
 they are entitled to the fostering care of the General Govern- 
 ment." It seems that the shifting of them about for a number of 
 preceding years had been their means of education and religious 
 instruction; for, in December, 1864, we find they addressed the 
 President as follows: "It is our sincere desire to have acain 
 established among us such schools as we see in operation among 
 your Omaha children. Father, as soon as you find a permanent 
 home for us, will you not do this for us? And, father, as we 
 w^OLild like our children taught the Christian religion as before, 
 we would like our schools placed under the care of the Presby- 
 terian Board of Foreign Missions. And last, father, to show you 
 our sincerity, we desire to have set apart for its establishment, 
 erection, and support, all of our school funds, and whatever more 
 is necessar}'."' 
 
 Again; the Government agent, in his report for 1866, says, 
 concerning the Winnebagoes: "There has returned to the tribe, 
 within the few past weeks, about one hundred soldiers, who have 
 served, with credit to themselve'and to their tribe, in defence of 
 their county. I consider the Winnebagoes one of the best tribes 
 of Indians in the country, and, with proper treatment, they will 
 soon become a self-sustaining, prosperous people."" In 1863, their 
 fighting men were estimated at three hundred and sixty. The 
 census report of their numbers in 1865 gave them nineteen hun- 
 dred, omitting those still remaining in Wisconsin. "They are a 
 vigorous, athletic race, and received from the Sioux the name of 
 0-toN-ka, which is said to mean 'the large and strong people'.'"* 
 They have given a name to a lake, a fort, a town, and county in 
 Wisconsin, and to a county in northern Illinois. 
 
 * Geo. Gale's "Upper Mississippi."
 
 146 , ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. 
 
 The Foxes called themselves Mosk-wah-ha-kee, a name com- 
 pounded from the two words in their language,- Mosk-wah [red] 
 and Ha-kee [earth], Red Earths, or, they of the Red Earth. 
 Their totem or armorial device was a fox,''" and it is, doubtless, 
 from this circumstance that they were called Outagamies (accord- 
 ing to French orthography) or Foxes by neighboring tribes, and 
 the signification of which French writers have preserved in the 
 translation '■'Les Reiiards". Like the Illinois, Miamis, and Kick- 
 apoos, already treated of, the Foxes were, also, a subdivision of 
 the great Algonquin family; and their differences in dialect, man- 
 ners, and customs from those of other tribes of the same stock, 
 were caused by the differences of their surroundings. t 
 
 We first hear of the Foxes on the north shore of Lake Ontario, 
 engaged in an unnatural alliance with the Iroquois in the exter- 
 minating war then being waged by the latter upon the Hurons; 
 and, "by attempting to keep terms with both parties, pleased 
 neither. They soon drew upon themselves the enmity of their 
 kindred tribes, and the execrations of the French, who heaped 
 ui)on them and their vacillating policy every term of reproach. 
 And later they were driven from old Toronto through the straits 
 of Niagara to Detroit.''! From Detroit they seem to have run 
 the gauntlet of neighboring and hostile tribes around the shores of 
 Lake Huron to Mackinac, an(Ffrom thence to the river which 
 has ever since borne their name, where, near its debouchment 
 with the southern extremity of Green Bay, Wisconsin, they found 
 a refuge from their enemies that was only temporary at best. 
 Here we leave them, for the moment, to notice their brethren, 
 the Sacs, and give the brief account, which meager historical 
 mention has preserved of the latter, down to the period of time 
 
 * Official report of M. de la Chauvignerie on the " Indian Tribes connected 
 with the Government of Canada, the Warriors and armorial bearings of each 
 Nation, 1736." 
 
 t "The Foxes speak a well-characterized dialect of the Algonquin; a not- 
 able differenee being the substitution of the letter 1 wherein the Chippewas- 
 use the letter n." Address (and note appended) of Hon. Henry R. School- 
 craft on "The Origin and Character of the North American Indians", etc.^ 
 etc. Delivered before the Historical Society of Michigan. 
 
 X Schoolcraft's same Address.
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. ' 147 
 
 when the two tribes again met, this time upon the waters of Vo\ 
 River, Wisconsin, and united in a bond of fellowship that was 
 never after broken. • 
 
 Ousakis- Sakys; Sauks; O-sauk-ies; Ou-sa-ki-uek [the iit-k 
 giving the plural number to the noun]; 0-sau-kee; and, by cus- 
 tom of modern writers, abbreviated to Sacs, are the appellations 
 by which this people were known. The name seems to have 
 originated with the tribe, and to have been derived from two 
 words in their tongue, I'iz.: Os-sa-wah [yellow] and Ha-kee 
 [earth or land]; which is to say, the Yellow F:arths, or they of 
 the Yellow Land. French writers have very little to .say of the 
 Sacs — and for the matter of that, the Foxes, too— prior to the 
 time when they effected a lodgment in Wisconsin. 
 
 The great chief. Black Hawk, distinguished alike as a warrior 
 and a historian, well learned in the traditions of his tribe, in his 
 autobiography gives the following early account of his people:* 
 
 "I was", says Black Hawk, ''born at the Sac village, on Rock 
 River, in the year 1767, and am now in my 67th year. My 
 great-grandfather, Na-na-ma-kee, or Thunder (according to the 
 tradition given me by my father, Py-e-oa), was born in the vici- 
 nity of Montreal, where the Great Spirit first placed the Sac 
 nation, and insjnred him with a belief that, at the end of four 
 years, he would see a 7C'/2ifc man [alluding to the coming of the 
 French] who would be to him a father." * * * . "''After a 
 long time, the British overpowered the French (the two nations 
 being at war), drove them away from Quebec, and took posses- 
 sion of it themselves.t The diflerent tribes of Indians around 
 our nation envying our people, united their forces against them, 
 and succeeded, by their great strength, to drive them to I\Ion- 
 treal, and from thence to Mackinac. Here our peojjle first met 
 our British father, who furnished tliem with goods. ;{: Their ene- 
 
 * The contents of this little book was dictated by Black IIa«k liinisclf, in 
 1833, to Antoine Le Clair, U. .S. Interpreter for the .Sacs and Fo.xe.s at Rock 
 Island, Illinois, in presence of J- Ij- Patterson of the same place, and by the 
 latter written down at the time, and by whom it was, llie next year, 1834, 
 copyrighted and published. 
 
 t lilack Hawk doubtless refers here to the surrender of (^)aebec by M. de 
 Champlain to the British fleet commanded by the brothers Sir David, Louis, 
 and Thomas Kertk, or Kirke, in 1629. 
 
 X 'laken in the sense that the Fox and Sacs -ivent to Mackinac for the pur- 
 poses of barter; Black Hawk's statement as to meeting British traders there 
 is confirmed by official documenis, both French and ICnglish. Otherwise, and 
 owing to an infirmity common to a race having no written records and giving
 
 148 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 mies still pursued them, and drove them to different ])laces on 
 the lake, until they made a village near Green Bay, on what is 
 now called S(7C River, having derived its name from this circum- 
 stance. Here they held a council with the Foxes, and a national 
 treaty of friendship and alliance was concluded upon. The 
 Foxes abandoned their village and joined the Sacs. This ar- 
 rangement being mutually obligatory upon both parties, as nei- 
 ther was sufficiently strong to meet their enemies with any hope 
 of success, they soon became as one band or nation of people." 
 On their way up the lakes, the Sacs remained in Northeastern 
 Michigan a sufficient time to give their name to Saginaw Bay, as 
 the word is now spelled; the orthography of early French writers 
 being Sac-e-nong [the place of the Sacs] ; Sak-i-nau ; Sag-i-nau, 
 in all wliich its derivation is more nearly preserved. They could 
 not, however, have occupied that vicinity long enough to make 
 it "the principal seat of their power", as affirmed by Judge 
 James Hall and Col. Thos. L. McKinney, in their "History of 
 the Indian Tribes of North America"'; elsewise French authori- 
 ties would contain a more extended mention of them in this con- 
 nection.'" 
 
 little care to chronology, there is a confusion as (0 dates. Traders from the 
 J3ritisli Colony of New York were at Mackinac with Indian goods in 16S5, 
 where they made so profitable a venture as to invite a larger expedition in the 
 fall of 1686. This last, the following year, paddling their canoes up the lakes 
 by way of Niagara, in two detachments, one commanded by Roseboom, an 
 Albany Dutchman, in advance, the other by McGregory, were intercepted 
 and captured by the watchful French and their Indian allies; the former, on 
 Lake Huron, by Durantaye, and McGregory's party by LaSalle's lieutenant, 
 the Chevalier Henry de Tonty, on Lake Erie, "at the distance", says Tonty, 
 "of twenty leagues from Niagara". The immediate building of a fort at the 
 mouth of the Niagara River, and the establishment of a similar defence near 
 Detroit shortly after, effectually barred British subjects out of the Western 
 country. Fn/e "Tonty's Account, etc., of LaSalle", "Francis Parkman's 
 Frontenac", and "New France under Louis XIV.", and authorities there 
 cited. It will be seen further on that the Jesuit fathers make mention of the 
 Foxes and Sacs as living about the upper extremity of Green Bay in 1666, 
 some twenty years before the breaking up of the British trade upon the upper 
 lakes. 
 
 * Professor Schoolcraft and Dr. E. B. O'Callyhan— the able editor of the 
 Documentary, as well "The Colonial History of New York" — both adepts 
 in this special field of enquiry, concur with the traditions given by Black 
 Hawk of his people as having formerly lived along the north shore of Lake 
 Ontario. Dr. John Gilmary Shea — of e<pial high standard authority in the
 
 THE F<.)X AND SACS. 149 
 
 The years 1669-1670 bring the Fox and Sac fairly within the 
 ranije of reHable liistorical mention, ahhough thev had been 
 referred to, two years before, in definite terms in the "Jesuit 
 Relations'' of 1666 and 1667. Father Claude Allouez, who had 
 already, early in December, 1666, established a mission at the 
 mixed village of Ottawas, Pottawatomies, F^oxes and Sacs, near 
 the site of the i)resent city of Cireen Bay, calling it "The Mis- 
 sion of St. Francis Xavier", for the reason that he said his first 
 mass there on the festival day of that saint* In a pastoral 
 letter sent from this mission to his rev'd father superior, says : 
 "The i6th of April [1670], I embarked to go and commence 
 the mission of the Oiiiagamis, a people well known in all these 
 ])arts.+ ^Ve were lying at the head of the bay, at the entrance 
 of River of the Puants [Fox River], which we have named the 
 
 whole department of aboriginal history — on the contrary, dissents and says he 
 "can find nothing in early French writers to support the assertion." And 
 that "the Sacs certainly were never much to the eastward of Lake St. Clair." 
 Vide :i valuable paper on "The Indian Tribes of Wisconsin", contributed by 
 him to and published in Vol. III., of the "Historical Collections of that 
 State". This conflict of opinion may be readily reconciled on the theory 
 that the absence of mention of the Foxes and Sacs as dwelling along Lake 
 Ontario, by early French writers, may be owing to the fact that they may 
 have been referred to under some other name, as was the case with the Ojeb- 
 ways or Chippeways about Lake Superior. It is notorious that the Jesuit 
 fathers, whose iirincipal missions were in that quarter, in their many enumer- 
 ations of the surrounding Indian nations, say the "Chippeways are never once 
 mentioned by i/iat name, " although they were the most numerous, and the 
 tribe with which the fathers had most to do, and in the very heart of whose 
 country their sacred altars were erected. Vide Albert Gallatin's " Synopsis of 
 the Indian Tribes of North America". 
 
 * Father Claude Allouez's Journal and Dr. Shea's Catholic Missions. 
 
 + Hall and McKinney, in their "History of N. A. Indians", not having 
 access to reliable dala, erroneously state that a/ier their defeat and almost 
 destruction near Detroit, already referred to in the chapter on the Kickapoos, 
 "the remainder of the Foxes, with the Sauks, migrated to the country be- 
 tween Cireen Bay and the Mississippi, and established themselves upon Fo.\ 
 River." The official report of the officer, IJuisson, who commanded the 
 French and their Indian allies, shows that this attack upon Detroit took place 
 in 1 712; while, as is clearly seen from Father Allouez's letter, the Foxes and 
 Sacs were "a people well known" about Green Bay and up Fox River nearly 
 a half of a century before the time assigned by Hall and McKinney as the 
 date of their migration thither.
 
 I50 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 Sf. Francis; in passing we saw clouds of swans, bastards, and 
 ducks; the savages take them in nets at the head of the bay, 
 where they catch as many as fifty in a night; this game in tlie 
 autumn seek the wild-rice that the wind has shaken off in the 
 month of September. The seventeenth, we Avent up the River 
 St. Francis, which is two and sometimes three arpents wide. "' 
 After having advanced four leagues, we found the village of the 
 savages named Sakl^ who began a work that merits well to have 
 its place here. From one side of the river to the other, they have 
 made a barricade, planting great stakes, two fathoms from the 
 water, in such a manner that it is, as it were, a bridge above [the 
 stream] for the fishers, who, by the aid of a little bow-net, easily 
 take sturgeons and all other kinds of fish which this barricade 
 stops, while it permits the water to flow between the stakes. 
 They call this device Mitch-i-can, and make use of it in the 
 spring and a part of the summer. The eighteenth, we made the 
 portage which they call Ke-kal-ing [the first or little rapids of 
 Fox River]; our sailors drew the canoe through the rapids; while 
 I walked along the bank of the river, where I found appletrees 
 and vine-stocks in abundance. 
 
 "The nineteenth, our sailors ascended the [second] rapids, by 
 using poles, for two leagues. I went by land as far as the other 
 portage, which they call Ou-ko-ci-ti-ming, which is to say, the 
 highway. We observed this day the eclipse of the sun predicted 
 by.the astrologers, which lasted from mid-day until two o'clock. 
 The third, or near it, of the body of the sun api)eared eclipsed; 
 the other two-thirds formed a crescent. We arrived in the even- 
 ing at the entrance of the Lake of the Puants [Lake Winnebago], 
 which we have called Lake Francis; it is about twelve leagues 
 long and four wide; it is situated from northeast to southwest, 
 and abounds in fish; but is uninhabited on account of the Nad- 
 oue-cis [Sioux] who are here dreaded. t The twentieth, which 
 
 *' The arpent is, primarily, a French acre of land, the sides of which arc in 
 in length one hundred and eighty Paris feet, equal to one hundred and ninety- 
 two feet and nearly three inches English measurement. 
 
 + This fact, stated by Father AUouez, illustrates the extent to which the 
 Dak-co-tas pushed their incursions, for game and scalps, eastward. Indeed, 
 they claimed as their exclusive hunting-grounds the territory clear up to the 
 shores of Lake Superior and Green Bay; and the history of the Ojebways, 
 not within the scope of this volume, and who made common cause with the 
 Fox and Sac, is but the story of a continuous warfare of nearly one hundred 
 and fifty years duration against the Sioux, which resulted finally in driving 
 Ihem permanently westward beyond the Mississippi.
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. ' 131 
 
 was on Sunday, 1 said mass, after having navigated five or six 
 leagues in the lake; after which we arrived in a river that conies 
 from a lake [Pahwaikan Lake] of wild-rice, into which we came, 
 and at the foot of which we found the river [Fox] which leads, 
 on the one side, to the Outagamis, and on the other, the stream 
 [^Volf River] that leads to the Machkoutenck [Mascoutins]. We 
 entered the former, Avhich comes from a lake where we saw two 
 wild turkeys perched on a tree, male and female, exactly like, 
 in size, color, and cry, those of France. The bustards, ducks, 
 swans, and geese are of great numbers in all these lakes and 
 rivers, attracted thither by the wild-rice, which is their food. 
 There is also to be found here large and small deer, bears, and 
 beavers in sufficient numbers. The twenty-fourth, after many 
 turns and windings in the different lakes and rivers,* we arrived 
 at the village of the Outagamis. 
 
 "This nation is renowned for being numerous. They have 
 more than four hundred men bearing arms. The number of 
 women and children is greater on account of jjolygamy whicli 
 exists among them — each man having commonly four wi\-es, some 
 of them six, and others as high as ten. * * '"" These sav- 
 ages have retreated to these parts to escape the Iroquois; they 
 are settled in an excellent country; the soil, which is here black, 
 yields them Indian-corn in abundance. In the winter, they live 
 by the chase; about the end of it they return to their cabins, and 
 there live on Indian-corn, which they had put in cache [the name 
 of pits prepared in the ground for that purpose] in autumn, and 
 Avhich they season with fish. They have a fort in the midst ot 
 their forest, where their cabins of thick bark are, to resist all 
 kinds of attacks. In traveling they lodge themselves with mats. 
 They are at war with the Nadiouecious, their neighbors.t They 
 
 * For many miles below the portage to the Wisconsin, Fox River expands 
 into several little lakes; and the crooked meanders of the stream through the 
 prairies well justifies the tradition of the Winnebagoes, related by Mrs. Kin- 
 2ie in her " Wau-bun ", concerning its origin. A great serpent, living in the 
 waters of the Mississippi, took a notion to visit the lakes; he left his trail 
 where he crossed over the prairie, which, collecting the rains as they fell from 
 heaven, in time became Fox River! And, that lady adds, "the little lakes 
 along its course were, probably, the places where he flourished about at night 
 in his uneasy slumbers." 
 
 t Nadioue-cious, or Nadous-sioux, was in general terms a word signifying' 
 enemies, and was especially applied, by all the westward tribes, to the Daco- 
 tas (as the latter have always called themselves); and by common custom of 
 writers in later times, only the terminal part of the word, Sioux, is used.
 
 152 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 do not make use of canoes; for this reason they do not make 
 ^var upon the Iroquois, although they are often killed by them. 
 They are very much disparaged, and reputed by other nations as 
 penurious, avaricious, thievish, and quarrelsome. They have a 
 small idea of the French since two traders in beaver-skins have 
 appeared among them. If they had conducted themselves there 
 as they ought, 1 would have had less trouble to give these poor 
 people other ideas of the French nation, whom they began to 
 esteem since I explained to them the principal and only motive 
 which brought me among them."* 
 
 The Foxes and Sacs had no more than secured a firm lodg- 
 ment in their fortified villages in Wisconsin, until we find their 
 marauding parties stirring up mischief in every direction. One 
 of these, October 28, 1679, struck LaSalle, who, on his voyage 
 of exploration of the Mississippi, had navigated the western 
 shore of Lake Michigan, and, reaching its southern extremity, 
 was compelled, by stress of weather, to land his canoes upon the 
 sand-hills not a great way east of South-Chicago. LaSalle, see- 
 ing a footprint, enjoined his men to be on their guard and to 
 make no noise. Says Father Hennepin (who is the historian of 
 this expedition — from the time of its organization at Fort Fron- 
 tenac, as Toronto, Canada, was then called, in the fall of 1678, 
 until the time of its abandonment at the foot of Peoria Lake, 
 Illinois, early in January, 1680): "All of our men obeyed for a 
 time, but one of them, perceiving a bear, could not restrain him- 
 self from firing his gun at the animal, which, being killed, rolled 
 from top to bottom of the mountain [as he calls the sand-hill] to 
 the very foot of our cabins. The report of the gun discovered 
 to us one hundred and twenty-five Indians of the nation of the 
 Outonagamies, living near the extremity of the Bay of the Puants, 
 and who were cabined in our vicinity.'' That LaSalle, to guard 
 against surprises, placed a sentinel over his upturned canoes, 
 under which he had sheltered his goods against the rain. Not- 
 
 * It is difficult to locate, with any degree of certainty, the site of the forti- 
 fied village of the Fo.xes, visited by Father Allouez. From the statement in 
 his journal of his having passed through several of the lakes or expansions of 
 Fox River before reaching the town, it may be assumed that it was situated 
 not a great way northeast of Portage City, and probably in Marquette County, 
 Wisconsin. It could not have been in the near vicinity of the Portage; or 
 else the Father's journal— so replete with details of the topography of the 
 country through which he traveled, as well that laying adjacent to his route — 
 would have contained some reference to the Portage, and, more than all, to 
 the Wisconsin River flashing its broad current onward to the Mississippi.
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. 1 55 
 
 Avithstanding these precautions, thirty of these Foxes, under the 
 dark cover of a rainy night, sneaked along on their belhes, one 
 behind the other, making, as it were, a chain from their comrades 
 stationed at a safe distance to the canoes, from which they passed 
 their stolen plunder backward from hand to hand. The negli- 
 gent sentinel finally aroused the camp to arms; which stopped 
 further depletion ot the canoes. The rogues, finding themselves 
 discovered, their spokesman called out that "he was a friend." 
 In answer he was told "that it was an unseasonable hour, and 
 that people did not come in that way by night except to steal or 
 kill those who were not on their guard. He replied that, in truth, 
 the shot that had been fired had made his countrymen all think 
 that it was a party of Iroquois, their enemies, as the other Indi- 
 ans, their neighbors, did not use such fire-arms, and that they 
 had accordingly advanced with the intent of killing them; but 
 having discovered that they were Frenchmen, whom they regarded 
 as their brethren, the impatience which they felt to see them had 
 prevented their waiting for daylight to visit us and to smoke in 
 our calumet with us, which is the ordinary complement of these 
 Indians and the greatest mark of aftection."' Nothing short of 
 LaSalle's skilful, prompt, and daring measures would have saved 
 his party from wholesale robbery and total destruction. Feign- 
 ing assurance of the Foxes" friendly intentions, until morning, 
 when, with pistol in hand, he seized one of their braves, and — 
 through another whom he captured and released — notified the 
 band that he would kill him unless restitution of the stolen pro- 
 perty was made. The Foxes would have complied on the spot, 
 but for the dilemma they found themselves in from the circum- 
 stance that among the property taken was the coat of LaSalle"s 
 attendant, which they, in making a fair division of the spoils, had 
 torn in pieces and cut ofl:' the buttons. Therefore they resolved 
 to rescue their comrade at the hazard of a fight. They advanced 
 in full force upon the camp of LaSalle, Avho boldly went out to 
 meet them, his men having blankets half rolled about their left 
 arms as a shield against their enemies' arrows. The savages 
 wavered; and having no stomach for an encounter upon a lair 
 field in the glare of daylight, a parley ensued. They agreed to 
 give back all except the coat, and to pay for that. 
 
 The bad name of the Foxes among their neighbors clung to 
 them in later times: and Judge James Hall, drawing his conclu- 
 sions from sources reviewed while preparing his volumes on the 
 North American Indians, fitly characterizes them as "always [the] 
 restless and discontented Tshmaelites of the lakes: their hand 
 aofainst everv man. and everv man's hand against them." Ol all
 
 154 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 the Western Algonquin tribes they alone (and their immediate 
 kinsman, the Kickapoos) were the solitary exception, in their 
 irreconcilable enmity toward the French, who— barring the single 
 instance during a brief interval of the French Colonial War, 
 where twenty Foxes and thirty- three Sacs, influenced, probably, 
 out of motives of plunder, or a personal regard for the Canadian 
 traders who recruited them, assisted in the capture of Forts 
 George and William Henry — had no jjermanent peace and never 
 any alliance with them. The fur- trade with tribes along the 
 upper Mississippi had no more than been fairly established, until 
 the Foxes effectually blockaded its passage through their country 
 by way of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, by far the most feasible 
 route, and compelled the courenrs de bois to take the more cir- 
 cuitous and difficult one around the south and western shore of 
 Lake Superior.* 
 
 We have seen from official documents referred to in the chap- 
 ter on the Kickapoost that, in 1694, the Foxes, fearing the Sioux 
 would come and seize their village, meditated a migration to the 
 Wabash. Three years later, Aug. 29th, 1697, M. de la Motte 
 Cadillac — illustrious for eminent services other than that of being 
 the layer of the foundation of Fort Ponchartrain, in 1701, in the 
 present city of Detroit — arrived at Montreal with several canoes 
 of French traders, and a large delegation of Indians from the 
 upper lakes, whose several tribes the intendant (as the French 
 provincial governor was called) was trying to induce to cease 
 their warfare upon each other, and join the French in a grand 
 effort to break the power of the Iroquois, the dreaded enemy of 
 all. Four days later, Cadillac repaired to Quebec with the prin- 
 cipal chiefs, and appeared with them before the intendant. Count 
 Frontenac. Among the deputation was a Fox, who, on behalf of 
 
 * In a lengthy resume of the occurrences in Canada in 1692-3 (and of 
 which the whole of the Northwest was then a part), the crown is officially 
 advised that " Le Sueur, another voyager [conreur de bois or trader], is to 
 remain at Chagouamigon, and to endeavor to maintain the peace lately con- 
 cluded between the Saulteurs \i.e., the Ottawas and others living at the Sault 
 de Sainte Marie] and the Scioux. " " This is of the greatest consequence, as it 
 is now tlie sole pass by which access can be had to the latter nation, whose 
 trade is very profitable, the country to the south being occupied by the Foxes 
 and the Masscoutins, who have already, several times, plundered the French 
 under pretence that they were carrying ammunition to the Scioux, their an- 
 cient enemies. These frequent interruptions would have been punished ere 
 this, had we not been occupied elsewhere. " 
 
 + Page 1 1 7.
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. 133 
 
 his tribe, addresses the intendant thus: "AVhal shall 1 say to niv 
 father? I have come all naked to see him; I can give no assist- 
 ance; the Sioux ties my arms; I kill him because he began; 
 father, be not angry with me for doing so. I liave come here 
 only to hear you and execute your will." To which Count Fron- 
 tenac replies: "Fox! I now speak to you. A'our young men 
 have no sense. You have a bad heart, and mine was beginning 
 to be worse disposed than yours, had you not come to hear my 
 word and do my will. I had resolved to send M. de la Motte 
 [Cadillac] with a party of my young men on a visit to your \ 11- 
 lage; and that would have been unfortunate, for, no doubt, your 
 women and children would have been frightened by them. * ■' ■' 
 1 am not willing you should return home naked, as you would have 
 probably done if you had not come to see me. * * * Here 
 are some guns, powder, and ball that I give you. Make good 
 use of them; not in killing your allies; not in killing buftalo or 
 deer; but in killing the Jroquois, who is in much greater want of 
 i:)Owder and iron [meaning guns, hatchets, knives, and other 
 implements manufactured from this metal]. Remember, it is 
 7var alone that causes true men to be distinguished; and that it 
 is oiuifig to 7var that I, this day, knowji^;// by your name. Noth- 
 ing gives me greater pleasure than to see the face of a warrior. 
 Here is what I give you, and you can now depart as soon as 
 you please." After the presents had been distributed, Frontenac 
 added: "No more powder and iron will be conveyed to the 
 Sioux; and if my young men [/.<'., subordinates, traders] carry 
 any thither, I will punish them severely."'^ 
 
 The Fox and Sacs were blamed as being the principals who 
 induced British traders to come up the lakes; and their hatred 
 was the more inflamed toward the French because the latter, in 
 1 701, erected a permanent garrison on the Detroit River in order, 
 
 * In the diplomacy of words, uttered to disguise rather tliaii to express, the 
 true sentiments of the speakers, the lienors between the Indian and the 
 Frenchman were even. There was no sincerity in eitlier. Indeed, we are 
 informed, further on in the document from which these speeches are taken. 
 that Frontenac, expecting no peace with them, was merely talking to gain 
 time to withdraw his traders out of the reach of the Fo.xes, having already 
 resolved not to send any more goods to their country. The war with the 
 Sioux was a circumstance from which the spokesman of the Foxes could 
 frame a pretext for their declining to let their enemies nearer home, alone, to 
 join in a war upon the Iroquois; and had there been no war at his cabin 
 doors, the wiley speaker would have as readily framed some otiier excuse, for 
 the conduct of his people, in its stead.
 
 156 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 among other reasons, to shut those traders out. For several 
 years after, their busy marauding bands infested the coast Hne of 
 northern Ohio and eastern Michigan, from the Maumee to Lake 
 Huron; intercej^ting the postal-route communication with "the 
 Illinois country;" plundering French traders; and harassing the 
 French settlement, then crystallizing about the fort at Detroit. 
 Affairs went on at this rate for ten or eleven years, until 1 7 1 2, 
 when the Foxes and their brethren, the Kickapoos and embold- 
 ened Mascoutins, by the war between England and France, 
 massed their warriors for the purpose of capturing Detroit and 
 driving the French out of the country. And they would have 
 succeeded but for the timely arrival of Indian allies, who hastened 
 to the succor of the beleaguered garrison. What terrible retribu- 
 tion befell the aggressors in this attack is shown in that part of 
 the French commander's report already quoted. Father Charle- 
 voix, in his "History of New France",* says: "They [the Iro- 
 quois] had shortly before [171 1] raised up against us a new 
 enemy as brave as themselves, less politic, much liercer, whom 
 we have never been able to tame or subdue; and who, like those 
 insects that seem to have as many lives as parts of their body, 
 spring to life again, so to say, after their defeat, and reduced 
 almost to a handful of brigands, appear everywhere, aroused the 
 hatred of all the nations on this continent, and, for the last 
 twenty-five years and more, have interrupted commerce, and ren- 
 dered the roads almost impracticable for more than five hundred 
 leagues around. These are the Outagamis, or commonly called 
 the Foxes. * ""' -^ They had recently confederated with Iro- 
 quois, and had apparently, through them, just formed an alliance 
 with the British. They had promised the latter to burn the fort 
 of Detroit, to massacre all the French, and introduce British 
 troops into the fort," etc. Charlevoix then describes the siege 
 and its results, after which he says : " However, the Outagamis 
 incensed rather than subdued by the severe loss sustained at 
 Detroit in 17 12, infested with robberies and filled with murders 
 not only the neighborhood of T/ie Bay [Green Bay], their natu- 
 ral territory, but almost all the routes communicating with the 
 remote colonial posts, as well as those leading from Canada to 
 Louisiana. Except the Sioux, who often joined them, and the 
 
 * We quote from this most extended and authentic history of the coloniza- 
 tion of the French upon the North American continent ever published, and 
 only recently (in 1871) translated into the English language by Prof. John 
 Gilmary Shea, whose addition of copious foul-notes to the text has greatly 
 enhanced its value.
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. 13J 
 
 Iroquois, with whom they had formed an aUiancc but wlio did 
 not seem to help them, at least openly, all the nations in com- 
 merce with us suffered greatly from their hostilities; and there 
 was reason to fear that, unless a remedy was jiromptly applied, 
 most of them would make terms with these Indians to our detri- 
 ment. This induced the Marquis de Vaudreuil [governor-gen- 
 eral of New France] to i)ropose to the neighboring tribes that they 
 .should join him in exterminating the common enemy. All con- 
 sented, and the general raised a party of l-'renchmen, assigning 
 the command to Louvigny, who was then the kings lieuten- 
 ant at Quebec. Many Indian's joined this conmiandant on the 
 route, and he soon found himself at the head of eight hundred 
 men, firmly resolved not to lay down their arms as long as an 
 Outagamie was left in Canada. All supposed that tribe on the 
 brink of utter destruction; and the tribe itself judged so too, 
 when it saw the storm gathering against it, and they only thought 
 of selling their lives as dearly as possible.' 
 
 We here leave off Charlevoix's account, and quote from M. de 
 Louvigny's official report of the action, which, lor the first lime, 
 appears printed in a late volume of the ''Wisconsin Historical 
 Collections". 
 
 On reaching the ])rincipal fortified town of the Foxes — a 
 stronghold on Fox River, Wisconsin, and located, according to 
 Judge Wm. H. Smith of that State, at Butte des Marts, or hill ot 
 the dead — a theory, too, that is sujiported by several traditions 
 of the Foxes themselves; and, says Louvigny, "after three days 
 of open trenches, sustained by a continuous fire of fusileers, with 
 two pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar, they were reduced 
 to ask for peace, although they had five hundred warriors in the 
 fort, who fired briskly, and more than three thousand women ; 
 they also expected shortly a reinforcement of three hundred 
 men. But the promptness with which n)y ofiicers pushed for- 
 ward the trenches that I had opened at only seventy yards from 
 the fort, made the enemy fear, the third night, that they would 
 be taken. As I was now only twenty-four yards from their fort, 
 my aim was to reach their triple-oak stakes by a ditch of a foot 
 and a-half in the rear. Perceiving very well that my balls had 
 not the eftect I anticipated, I decided ro take the place at the 
 first outset, and to explode two mines under their curtains. 'UK- 
 boxes being in place for this purpose, 1 did not listen to the ene» 
 mies' first proposition. They having made a second one, I sub- 
 mitted it to my allies, who consented to it on the conditions: diat 
 the Foxes and their allies would make peace with all Indians 
 who are submissive to the king, and with whom the French are
 
 158 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 engaged in trade. That they would return to me all the French 
 prisoners that they have, and those captured during the war from 
 all our allies (all which was complied with immediately). That 
 they would take slaves from distant nations and deliver them to 
 our allies to replace their dead. That they would hunt to pay 
 the expenses of this war. And, as a security for keeping their 
 word, they were required to deliver me six of their chiefs, or chil- 
 dren of chiefs, as hostages, until the entire execution of our 
 treaty; which they did, and I took them with me to Quebec.'' 
 
 Having already occupied more space than is allotted to the 
 Fox and Sacs, we forbear further quotations from authorities and 
 copies of official manuscripts at hand to show the troublesome 
 relations between them and the French colonies for the following 
 fifty years; but from these sources of information we summarize 
 the statement that the Foxes and Sacs were far from being either 
 subdued or exterminated; that, in 17 18, they had gained a firm 
 footing upon Rock River, Illinois ; and four years later, without 
 yielding their hold of the territory conquered in Wisconsin, 
 they and the Kickapoos and Mascoutins had driven the last rem- 
 nants of the Illinois tribes south beyond the Illinois, leaving 
 nothing to check their raids along that river, and rendering com- 
 munication between the lower-Mississippi settlements and those 
 of Canada almost impracticable. Black Hawk says the Sacs 
 and Foxes "were driven, by the combined forces of their ene- 
 mies, to the Wisconsin. They remained there some time, until 
 a party of their young men (who had descended Rock River to 
 its mouth) returned and made a favorable report of the country; 
 when they all descended Rock River,''' drove the Kas-kas-kias 
 from the country, and commenced the erection of a village 
 [shortly above Rock Island] determined never to leave it; and 
 at this village I was born,'" etc. 
 
 It may be inquired how the Foxes and Sacs repaired the in- 
 cessant drain on their numbers caused by their constant wars 
 east, west, and south against neighboring tribes, who always had 
 the moial support and often the direct assistance of the French. 
 Their polygamous practices would aid only in a degree ; while the 
 real explanation will be found in their custom — borrowed, per- 
 haps, from their friends, the Iroquois — of adopting their prisoners 
 of war, and incorporating them into their tribe, instead of killing 
 » 
 
 * In the Algonquin Usin-e [stony] See-be [river], meaning the rocky river, 
 and designated on early French maps as ^'■Riviere dc la Roch ", which has the 
 same signification.
 
 thp: fox and sacs. i5(^ 
 
 or making women [slaves] of ihcm, as was tlie general rule 
 among other Indians.''' 
 
 Having taken no hand in the border wars that ])egan westward 
 of the Alleghanys with the near close of the Revolutionary War, 
 and ended with (ien. ^^'ayne's victory over the confederated 
 tribes at Maumee rapids in 1794, the Sacs and Foxes were not 
 represented at the resulting treaty of Greenville the following 
 year. Previous to this, they had subdued the lowas, and incor- 
 porated them in their own tribe, and extended their domain up 
 the Des Moines River in the present State of Iowa; thence 
 northwestwardly, says Judge Hall, "beyond Council Bluffs and 
 into the immense prairies periodically visited by the buffalo.'" 
 They claimed the country for a distance on both sides of the 
 Mississippi from Rock River up to Prairie-du-Chien, which in- 
 cluded all the valuable mines of lead ore in that region. The 
 principal village of the Foxes was at l)ul)uque"s mine, some 
 seventy-five miles below the former place. They had another at 
 Rock-River rapids; while, on the ea.st bank of the Mississippi, 
 near the foot of the island (known as Rock Island), was a village' 
 of "Foxes and Sacs, living promiscuously together: it being (says 
 Schoolcraft, writing in 1820) one of the largest and most popu- 
 lous Indian villages on the continent." 
 
 From these villages the Foxes and Sacs warred upon the 
 nations to the west, particularly the (ireat and Little Osages, 
 against whom they waged a contest that would have been one of 
 extermination had not the United States authorities, through 
 Gov. Wm. H. Harrison, interfered and put a stop to it. In 
 181 1, when the Indian disturbances, egged on by Tecumthe and 
 his followers, foreshadowed the war declared by the United States 
 against Great Britain the following year, the Foxes and Sacs sent 
 a committee of their chiefs to Wa.shington City to offer the ser- 
 vices of their tribe to President Madison; and when the war had 
 actually begun, they sent a second delegation to St. Louis, and 
 again tendered their warriors to the Government. A\'hile these 
 offers were politely declined, as it was decided, at that time, not 
 
 * Wan-e-bea Na-mo-eta (Spinninj^ top), a Sac, whose village, in 1S23, 
 was upon the Pek-tan-non (meaning, in the Sac dialect, muddy), as the I'eek- 
 a-ton-o-kee River, a tributary of Rock River, was called by the Ko.xes and 
 Sacs, stated to Maj. Long that in his estimate his tribe enumerated nearly * 
 one thousand able-bodied and middle-aged men; that not more than two hun- 
 dred of these were, in his opinion, of pure Sac extraction; while the others 
 were principally of a foreign stock obtained in the way we have stated. I'itie 
 "Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peters River."
 
 l6o ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 to employ such auxiliaries, the Foxes and Sacs were sorely puz- 
 zled to comprehend how a fight should be going on without their 
 taking a hand in it. Divided councils ensued; a majority, mainly 
 Foxes, remained neutral, while a brigade estimated at from two 
 to four hundred, mostly Sacs, easily seduced by the ])resents and 
 promises of Robt. Dickson,'^ went over to the British. They 
 were commanded by the Sac chief, Ma-ka-tia-me-she Kia-kiak, — 
 the Black Sparrow-Hawk, abbreviated, through common consent, 
 to Black Hawk — whom Col. Dickson commissioned as a general 
 in the military services of his king. From these circumstances 
 this division of the Foxes and Sacs were afterward known as the 
 '■'British band". 
 
 The writer has neither the space or desire now or here to nar- 
 rate occurrences relating to the so-called Black-Hawk War of 
 1832. That war and the events that lead up to it are given by 
 several authors, whose volumes are easily accessible to the inquir- 
 ing reader.t At the conclusion of this war, the Foxes and Sacs, 
 
 * A subject of Great Britain, and a fur-trader, whose depot of supplies was 
 at Prairie du Chien. For many years before, without warrant or authority, 
 he trafficked within the acknowledged boundaries of the United States along 
 the upper Mississippi, where, it seems, he was as industriously engaged, all 
 the while, in distributing British flags and medals of King George III. among 
 the Indians as he was in collecting peltries. This pernicious practice kept 
 alive in their untutored breasts their love for their "British father across the 
 big water", and fanned their hatred of the "Americans who had thrown him 
 •on his back." The seed of his teachings was all too ripe for the harvest 
 when the war broke out. He visited all the tribes on the Mississippi and 
 Illinois rivers and their tributaries, from Prairie du Chien to Green Bay; 
 and, early in June, 1813, had collected, at the ruins of Fort Dearborn (now 
 Chicago), a horde numbering nearly one thousand of the most cruel and 
 abandoned desperadoes he could find. From Chicago he led them in separ- 
 ate bodies to Detroit and Maiden, and turned them over to Gen. Proctor; 
 and the latter sought in vain to find a gap in Gov. Harrison's lines through 
 which he might hurl these fiends upon our border settlements. Instead of 
 finding the promised cabins to burn, children to brain, and women to disem- 
 bowel, they were confronted everywhere by men armed with guns and bayo- 
 nets. A few months' campaigning against such implements of war, and their 
 thirst for the blood of defenceless victims waned; they deserted in squads of 
 front three to a score in number, and started back to their several countries, 
 cursing, as they journeyed, the name of Dickson, who had so wofully deceived 
 them. 
 
 t Brown's and Ford's "History of Illinois", Gale's " Upper Mississippi", 
 and Dr. Benj. Drake's "Life of Black Hawk". 1 he inore rare, miscellane-
 
 THE FOX AND SACS. 161 
 
 by the treaty made Sept. 21st, 1832, at Rock Island, ceded all 
 their lands along the Mississippi, covering nearly the whole east- 
 ern half of Iowa and a large tract of country on the east side of 
 that river not embraced in previous treaties; further agreeing to 
 leave them and to quit hunting and fishing upon them after the 
 June then next following. This treaty opened the door to a press 
 of emigration, whose daily swelling volume ([uickly poured itself 
 across the Mississippi into Iowa, and spread the ne\vly-ac(|uired 
 domain with golden fields, fragrant orchards, happy cottage-homes, 
 nestled amid shady groves, churches, and school-houses, and 
 other evidences of the highest type of civilization. Still the 
 hardy emigrant from the elder States* required more room; and 
 by subsequent treaties, in 1837 and 1842, the Foxes and Sacs, 
 and other tribes that may have claimed any title, the whole coun- 
 try to the Missouri River was given up to him. The sounding 
 axe is again heard everywhere; everywhere is seen the straining 
 team turning up the tough prairie-sod; and on March 3d, 1845, 
 Iowa, said to mean in the Algonquin language, "///<' beautiful 
 lainr, became a State, the fifteenth of the sisterhood admitted 
 under the federal constitution. 
 
 After the treaty of 1842, the Mississippi bands of the Foxes 
 and Sacs were placed on a reservation of 435,200 acres located 
 on the Osage River; while the Missouri band was placed on the 
 south side of Ne-ma-ha River, near the northeast corner of Kan- 
 sas. They of the Kansas agency, in 1865, raised 7500 bushels 
 of corn, and owned 1700 horses; and the estimated value of 
 their personal effects was $71,910. By the enumeration of their 
 
 ous and historical writings of Judge fas. Hall; the statements of Col. Thos. 
 Forsyth (preserved in Mrs. Kinzie's "Wau-bun", and who, for many years 
 prior to 1830, was a trader or United States Indian agent among the Fo.\es 
 and Sacs) contain many interesting facts, as does Black Hawk's account of 
 his own life; while the publications of the Wisconsin Historical Society of 
 Wisconsin abound with crude material upon the same subject. When the 
 varient biases and prejudices of the respective writers shall have been elimi- 
 nated from these and other sources of information, and a fair average of truth 
 is formed from the residuum, it will show that the manner in which the treaty 
 of 1S04, for the cession of a large body of lands of the I'oxes and Sacs east of 
 the Mississippi, including Black Hawk's ancient village, was negotiated, 
 reflects liule credit for fair dealing on the part of the dominant race; while 
 the manner in which the war was conducted, that arose out of confliciing con- 
 structions of this treaty, reflects still less upon their military fame. 
 
 * There was little of the foreign element in the early settlement of Iowa as 
 compared with the native. 
 II '
 
 l62 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 numbers taken the same year, there were 364 men and 441 
 women of the Mississippi band in Kansas, and only 44 men and 
 51 women of the Missouri band remaining on the Nemaha. If 
 the census taker had gone further west out upon the great ]:)lains 
 toward the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, he would, doubt- 
 less, have found many more, engaged there in hunting and fight- 
 ing, the employment of men, instead of hoeing corn, a drudgery, 
 according to their ethics, fit only to be endured by women. 
 
 Judge Hall, who enjoyed a long and extended personal acquaint- 
 ance with this people, says: "The Foxes and Sacs are remark- 
 able for the symmetry of their form and fine personal appearance. 
 Few of the tribes resemble them in these particulars: still fewer 
 equal their intrepidity. They are, physically and morally, among 
 the most striking of their race. Their history abounds with dar- 
 ing and desperate adventures and romantic incidents ilir beyond 
 the usual course of Indian exertion." 
 
 THF POTTAWATOMIES. 
 
 This people was one of the three subdivisions of the Ojibbe- 
 ways, a numerous family of the Algonquin tribes, the other two 
 members, and of whom it is not the present purpose to write, 
 being the Chippeways, or Ojibbeways, who retained the family 
 name, and the Otta\<'ays. From causes, not here necessar}' to 
 name, they early became separated; and, in the progress of time, 
 the Chippeways extended themselves westward and south of Lake 
 Superior to the eastward sources of the Upper Mississippi River. 
 The Ottaways sjuead south to (irand River, in the State of Michi- 
 gan, down the western extremity of Lake Erie, and for quite a 
 distance up the Maumee River (one of the early names by which 
 that stream was known was the Ottaway); while the Pottawato- 
 mies advanced by way of the islands at the entrance of Green 
 Bay to the south into the country along the west shore of Lake 
 Michigan. That these three tribes were originally one people is- 
 evidenced, says Mr. Schoolcraft, in that one of his journals en- 
 titled, "The Central Mississippi Valley,'" derives additional "weight 
 from their general resemblance in person, manners, customs, and 
 dress, but, above all, by their having one council-fire and speaking 
 one language. Still there are obvious characteristics which will 
 induce an observer, after a general acquaintance, to pronounce
 
 11 IK roTTAWAlO.MlKS. l6j 
 
 the Pottawatomies tall, fierce, haughty; the Ottaways thick-set, 
 good-natured, industrious; the Chippeways war-hke, daring, etc! 
 But the general lineaments, or to borrow a phrase from natural 
 history, 'the suite features are identical."" Confirmatory of thi- 
 above statement, we have the speeches of distinguished chiefs of 
 each of tlie three sub-tribes, at the treaty of Chicago, August 291!!, 
 182 1, when the question of ownership of a large domain, south 
 of Grand River, sought to be purchased, was under discussion. 
 Kee-way-goosh-kum, a learned man among the Ottaways, said : 
 
 "The Chippeways, the Pottawatomies, and the Ottaways were 
 origiiially one nation, ^^'e separated from each other near Michi- 
 hmackinac. We were related by the ties of lilood, language, and 
 interest; but in the course of a long time these things have bern 
 forgotten." 
 
 After which Michel, an aged chief of the Chippeways, arose 
 and, among other things, said: 
 
 "My Brethren — you have heard the man who has just s])oken. 
 We are all descended from the same stock, the Pottawatomies 
 and the Chippeways. We consider ourselves as one. Win 
 should we not always act in concert?" 
 
 Metea, the orator and historian of the Pottawatomies, and a 
 chieftain renowned for his knowledge of the traditions of his tribe, 
 gave his assent to these declarations in this language: 
 
 "Brothers, Chippeways and Ottaways, we consider ourselves as 
 one people, which you know, as also does our father here (alluding 
 to Gov. Lewis Cass, the principal commissioner in the negotia- 
 tions of this treaty), who has travelled over our country." 
 
 The declaration of Metea carries more weight from the fact 
 that his tribe alone had been the occupants of by far the greater 
 portion of the territory about to be purchased, the Chii)i)e\vays. 
 so far as is known, never having lived upon it, while the Ottaways 
 never resided upon but a small part of it, in common with the 
 Pottawatomies, in the vicinity of Detroit and about the head of 
 the Maumee Bav.''^ 
 
 "" To the same effect was the speech of tlie Chippevvay chief Mas-sass at the 
 treaty of (Jreenville, in 1795, who, as the journal of th-nt council states, "arose 
 and spoke in behalf of the I'hrce Fu-es, the Ottaways, Chippeways, and Tot- 
 tawatomies." In his speech he constantly alludes to the Ottaways, Chippe- 
 ways, and Pottawatomies, as "We the Three Fires." Later on he is followetl 
 by the great Kesis (the sun), who lived upon the Wabash, a day's journey 
 below old Fort Ouiatenon, and who said to Gen. Wayne : 
 
 "Elder Brother, if my old chiefs were living, I would not presume to speak 
 in this assembly, but as they are dead, I now address you in the name of \\\<: 
 
 \
 
 l64 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 In the writings left by early French authors, the word Potta- 
 watomies was spelled, as is the case with the names of other 
 tribes, to suit the arbitrary tastes of the various authors. Some 
 of the forms are Poutouatimi, Pouotatamis, Poutouamies, Poute- 
 watamis, Pautawattamies, Pouttewatamies, Pottawattamies, and 
 Poux. The tribe was divided into four clans: the golden-carp, 
 the frog, the crab, and the tortoise. 
 
 Unlike the Illinois, Miamis, and several others, the Pottawa- 
 tomies were not divided into separate tribes, but their different 
 bands would separate and unite according to the abundance or 
 scarcity of game, or the emergencies of war. The name Potta- 
 watomie, in their own language signifies 7C'c are i/uiki//g a fire; 
 and for the origin of which Joseph Barron, Ciov. Harrison's In- 
 dian interpreter, related to Prof W. H. Keating, at Fort Wayne, 
 Ind., in 1824, this tradition: "A Miami, having wandered out 
 from his cabin, met three Indians whose language was unintelli- 
 gible to him; by signs and motions he invited them to follow him 
 to his cabin, where they were hospitably entertained, and where 
 they remained until dark. During the night, two of the strange 
 Indians stole from the hut, while their comrade and the host were 
 asleep. They took a few embers from the cabin, and placing these 
 near the door of the hut, they made a fire, which, being afterward 
 seen by the Miami and his remaining guest, was understood to 
 imply a council-fire between the two nations. From this circum- 
 stance the Miami called them, in his language, Wa-ho-na-ha, or 
 fire-makers, which, being translated into the other language, pro- 
 duced the term by which the Pottawatomies have ever since 
 been distinguished, and the pronunciation of which, as spoken by 
 themselves, is Po-ta-wa-to-me, in their language. We are making 
 a fire. * 
 
 Pottawatomies, as Massas has spoken in the name of the Three Fires, of 
 which 7oe are one. « * * Jt ig two years since I assisted at the treaty of 
 Vincennes (referring to the treaty conchided at that place by Gen. Rufus 
 Putnam, and the several Wabash River and Illinois tribes, Sept. 27th, 1792, 
 nearly three instead of two years before the treaty at Greenville); my voice 
 then represented the Three Fires." 
 
 * " Major Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peter's River ". Prof. 
 Keating adds a foot-note to the effect that the above tradition was narrated 
 to him by the Indian "agent's interpreter, Mr. Joseph Parron, a man whose 
 long residence among the Indians, extensive acquaintance with their character, 
 together with his unimpeachable veracity, confer much value upon all the 
 information obtained from him." Joseph Barron for many years was the 
 interpreter, friend, and constant companion of Gen. Harrison during all his
 
 THE rOTTAWATOMIES. 165 
 
 The first mention we find of the Pottawatomies is in the "Jesuit 
 Relations" for the years 1639-40; where they are referred to as a 
 tribe dweUing beyond the River St. Lawrence, and to the north 
 of Lake Huron. Twenty-six or seven years later, in 1666, in the 
 journal of Father Allouez, as preserved in the "Jesuit Relation.s", 
 they are described as "a people whose country is about the lake 
 of the Ill-i-mouek, a great lake that has not come to our knowl- 
 edge, adjoining the lake of the Hurons and that of the Puants 
 [Green Bay], between the east and the south."* "They arc a 
 warlike people, hunters and fishers. Their country is good for 
 Indian-corn, of which they plant fields, and to which they repair 
 to avoid the famines that are too frequent in these quarters. They 
 are in the highest degree idolaters, attached to ridiculous fables, 
 and devoted to polygamy. * * ■■' Of all the people that I 
 have associated with in these countries, they are the most docile 
 and affectionate toward the French. Their wives and daughters 
 are more reserved than those of other nations. They have a kind 
 of civility among them, and make it quite apparent to strangers, 
 which is very rare among our barbarians." 
 
 The Pottawatomies formed an early attachment to the French 
 
 official career, as Governor of the Indiana Territory and Commander of the 
 military forces of the Northwest, in the war of i8i2, assisting, as interpreter, 
 at all of the treaties conducted by Gov. Harrison, and acting as spy, guide, 
 and confidential messenger in the many perilous movements of his principal, 
 during these times of troublesome Indian difficulties. He was a native French- 
 man, of Detroit, and died July 31, 1843, at the home of his son, on the 
 Wabash, near Logansport, Indiana. 
 
 * In the " Relations", for the same year, Lake Michigan is again referred to 
 as "Lake lU-e-aouers," and "Lake Ill-i-ni-oues, as yet unexplored; * * 
 and that the Fox Indians call it Match-i-hi-gan-ing." Father Hennepin, 
 writing at a period some thirteen years later, in 1679, when its genera! coast- 
 line had become better ascertained, says: "The lake is called by the Indians 
 111-i-nouck, and by the French Illinois, and adds in the same paragraph that 
 'it is called bythe Miamis Misch-i-gon-ong, that is, the Great Lake.' Father 
 Marest, in his letter written from Kaskaskia, Illinois, Nov. 9, 1712, and 
 which has become famous on account of the valuable historical matter it con- 
 tains, drops the ('«^^(the place of) and contracts the word to Mk/iii^'nii, and is, 
 perhaps, the first writer who ever spelled it in the way that has become uni- 
 versal. He naively says that "on tlie maps this lake has the name, without 
 any authority, of the 'Lake of the Illinois,' since the Illinois do not dwell in 
 its neighborhood." The name is derived from the two Algonquin words, Mu/i-i 
 (Missi or Missi), which signifies great, as it does also several or many ; and .Sag- 
 ay-i-gan, a lake.— T/r/^ "Henry's Travels."
 
 l66 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 ihat remained unbroken through all the vicissitudes of good and 
 Ijad fortune attendant upon their exploration and attempted hold- 
 ing of the great Northwest. This friendshi]j was so uniform and 
 reliable that the Pottawatoniies figure much less in official 'docu- 
 ments than the Miamies, the Foxes, or other erratic tribes with 
 whom the French had to do. Whatever speculations might arise 
 as to what these latter might do, no concern was had as to the 
 Pottawatomie; he was always ready to bloody his hatchet on 
 the ' enemies of his Father's children, the French, be they white 
 Britishers, or red natives of his own race. While Nicholas 
 Perrot was on his Avay from Saulte de Ste. Mary to the head of 
 (jreen Bay, in 1671, engaged in notifying the several nations to 
 meet St. Lusson, the king's deputy at the former place, and hear 
 the king's will, and give their assent to the act of taking formal 
 possession of the country, the Pottawatoniies supplied Perott 
 with an escort of their braves, as he passed one of their villages 
 on the east shore of Green Bay, to ensure his safety, the route 
 being considered dangerous on account of a threatened war 
 between the Sioux and the Mascoutins. As Perott ai)proached 
 the village of the Miamis, he sent forward a troop of young men 
 from his escort to announce his arrival. The great Miami chief, 
 Te-tin-choua, wished to "give the envoy of the general of the 
 French a reception that would attest his own power. He sent out 
 a detachment to meet him, giving it orders to receive him in mili- 
 tary style. 'J 'he detachment advanced in battle order, all the 
 braves adorned with feathers, armed at all points, uttering war-cries, 
 from time to time. The Pouteouatamis who escorted Perrot, 
 seeing them come in this guise, prepared to receive them in the 
 same manner, and Perrot put himself at their head. When the 
 two troops were in face of each other, they stopped as if to take 
 breath, then all at once Perrot's took the right, the Miamis the 
 left, all running in Indian file, as though they wished to gain 
 an advantage to charge. But the Miamis, wheeling in the form 
 of an arc, the Pouteouatamis were invested on all sides. Then 
 iDoth uttered loud yells, which were the signal for a kind of a 
 combat. The Miamis fired a volley from their guns, which were 
 loaded only with powder, and the Pouteouatamis returned it in 
 the same way ; after this they closed, tomahawk in hand, all the 
 blows being received on the tomahawk. Peace was then made ; 
 the Miamis presented the calumet to Perrot, and led him with all 
 his escort into the chief town, where the great chief assigned him 
 a guard of fifty men, and regaled him splendidly after the custom 
 of the country."'-' 
 
 * Charlevoix's "New France."
 
 THE POTTAWATOMIES. 1 67 
 
 Prior to 1670, the Pottawatomies had collected n\)on the 
 islands in Lake Michigan lying westward of the Straits of Macki- 
 nac and on those near the entrance of Green Bay; dwelling there, 
 as appears from a letter written that year by Father Claude Dab- 
 Ion from the mission of St. Francis Xavier, at (ireen Bay, "but 
 as sij-a/igcrs. the fear of the Iroquois having driven them from 
 their lands, which are between the Lake of the Hurons and that 
 of the Illinois"; \_i.e., the Peninsula of Michigan.] 
 
 From these islands they advanced southward between the 
 shores of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, populating both with 
 their villages. Father Hennepin's narrative of La SaFle's voyage 
 mentions the fact, that, the year prior to LaSalle's coming west- 
 ward, 1678, he had sent out a party of traders in advance; who, 
 having bartered successfully with the Pottawatomies at the islands 
 named, were anxiously waiting for La Salle at the time of his 
 arrival there in the Griffon. The same author notes the further 
 fact that LaSalle's party, as they coasted southward, traded at 
 another village of the same tribe, situated, probably, at She- 
 boygan, Wisconsin, certainly not south of Milwaukee. When 
 La'Salle reached the St. Josephs of Lake Michigan there were 
 no Pottawatomies in that vicinity. Shortly after this time, 1678, 
 they seem to have swarmed from their prolific hives on the 
 islands named, and advanced southward to the head of the lake, 
 from which, in time, they spread out like a great fan ; their left 
 extreme covering that part of the State of Michigan lying south 
 of Grand River and a line drawn from its source to the mouth of 
 Lake Huron ; their right extending over that portion of Illinois 
 lying north of the Kankakee and Illinois rivers, as far west as 
 the territory claimed by the Winnebagoes and the Sacs and 
 Foxes ; while their front was pushed eastward into the country 
 of the Miamis to the banks of the Wabash and the Maumee. 
 Father Charlevoix who visited the localities in 1721 says, "the 
 Pottawatomies possessed only one of the small islands at the 
 mouth of Green Bay, but had two other villages, one on the 
 St. Joseph -^ [of Lake Michigan] and the other at ' the Narrows ' 
 [Detroit.] 
 
 Concerning the village near Detroit, and also some of the 
 customs of its occupants, we have the following account, taken 
 
 • 
 
 * The Pottawatomie villages were on the west side of the river, in the near 
 vicinity of Niles. Old Fort St. Joseph and the Jesuite Mission from which 
 the stream and the fort were named, stood on the same shore, wliile the 
 great Miami's town, for whom the river was originally called, was upon the 
 opposite bank.
 
 l68 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 from an official "Memoir, prepared in 1718, on the Indians 
 l)etween Lake Erie and the Mississippi: "The port of Detroit is 
 south [west] of the river. The village of the Pottawatomies ad- 
 joins the fort; they lodge partly under apaquois * which are 
 made of mat-grass." 
 
 "The women do all the work. The men belonging to that 
 nation are well clothed, like our domiciliated Indians at Montreal. 
 Their entire occupation is hunting and dress. They make use of 
 a great deal of vermilion, and in winter wear buffalo robes richly 
 painted, and in summer either blue or red cloth. They play a 
 good deal at LaCrosset in summer, twenty or more on a side.'" 
 
 * Uh-puh-quay, in the Ojebway dialect, meaning a mat for the floor or 
 covering of a wigwam ; made by plaiting or weaving reeds together, like a 
 carpet. The cat-tail flag furnished a popular material for this purpose; and 
 they were so skilfully fastened together by the women, who made them, that 
 when new, the rain would "not penetrate them." — Vide Father Marest. The 
 frame of the wigwam was made with poles fastened in the ground, in a 
 circular form, the tops drawn together in a cone, and over these the mattings 
 were placed. 
 
 + The Indian game of ball, or cricket, known among the Algonquin tribes 
 l)y the name of Bag-gat-i-ioay, called by the Canadians le jeu de la crossc, 
 (the game of the bat) from the bat used in the play. It was popular among 
 the aborigines as base-ball is with the whites at the present day, and is still 
 played among them substantially as described nearly two centuries ago by the 
 author quoted in the text. George Catlin, the great Indian portrait painter, 
 in his interesting and finely illustrated " History of the North American 
 Indians," says, "I made it an uniform rule while in the Indian country to 
 attend every ball-play I could hear of, if I could do it by riding a distance 
 of twenty or thirty miles. * * * jt is no uncommon occurence for six or 
 eight hundred or a thousand young men to engage in a game of ball, with 
 more than that number of spectators — men, women, and children — surround- 
 ing the ground and looking on. * * * In the game every player is 
 dressed alike, that is, dhested of all dress, except the girdle, etc. And in the 
 desperate struggles for the ball when it is up, where hundreds are running 
 together and leaping, actually over each others head, and darting between 
 their adversaries legs, tripping and throwing, and foiling each other in every 
 possible manner, and every voice raised to tlje highest key, in shrill yelps and 
 barks, there are rapid successions of feats and of incidents, that astonish and 
 amaze far beyond the conception of any one who has not had the singular 
 good luck to witness them." In Pontiac's war, the capture of the British 
 garrison at Mackinac was assigned to the Ojebways, who effected an entrance 
 to the fort through the stratagem of a game of bag-gat-i-way. Notice was
 
 THE I'OTT AW ATOMIES. 1 69 
 
 "Their bat is a sort of a little racket,* and the ball wiili whiih 
 they play is made of very heavy wood, somewhat larger tlian the 
 balls used at tennis. They are entirely naked except a breech- 
 cloth, and moccasins on their feet. Their bodies are completely 
 painted with all sorts of colors. Some, with white clay, trace 
 white lace on their bodies, as if on all the seams of a coat, and, 
 at a distance, it would be taken for silver lace. They play very 
 deep and often the bets sometimes amounting to more than eight 
 hundred livres. They set up two poles, and commence the game 
 from the centre ; one party propels the ball from one side, and 
 the others from the opposite; and whichever reaches the goal 
 wins. It is a fine recreation well worth seeing. They often play 
 village against village. The Poux [a nickname for the Potta- 
 watomies] against the Ottawas, or Hurons, and at heavy stakes. 
 Sometimes the French join in the game with them. 
 
 "The women cultivate Indian-corn, beans, squashes, and melons, 
 which come up very fine. The women and girls dance at night. 
 They adorn themselves considerably; grease their hair, paint 
 their faces with vermilion, put on a white chemise, wear what- 
 ever wampum they possess, and are very tidy in their way. 
 They dance to the sound of the drum and si-si-quoi, which is a 
 sort of gourd containing some grains of shot. Four or five young 
 men sing and beat time with the drum and rattle, and the women 
 keep time, and do not lose a step. It is very interesting, and 
 lasts almost the entue night.'' 
 
 "The old men often dance the medicine. [The medicme or 
 sorcerer's dance.] They resemble a set of demons ; and all this 
 takes place during the night. The young men often dance \n a 
 circle, and strike posts. It is then they recount their achieve- 
 ments, and dance, at the same time, the war-dance; and when- 
 ever they act thus they are highly ornamented. It is altogetlier 
 
 given that on King George's birthday, June 4, 1763. ^^^ Chippewas would 
 play against the Sacs for a high wager. And when the excitement ol tl.c 
 game was at its height, the ball, as if by chance, was thrown over the 
 palisade; the players, as if only eagerly intent on the game, rushed, pell- 
 mell, by the unsuspecting soldiers, through the onP-i gate, an.l, dropping 
 their bats, seized the knives and tomahawks concealed under the blankets of 
 their squaws, who were already within the fort, and at once, says Alexander 
 Henry, an eve- witness, "began cutting down and scalping every Englishman 
 they found."— F/</.- Henry's "Travels and Adventures in Canada." 
 
 * The sticks are bent into an oblong hoop at the end, with a sort of sle.g it 
 web of small thongs tied across to prevent the ball from passing throujjh. 
 — C.vn.iN.
 
 170 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 very curious. They often perform these things for tobacco. 
 When they go hunting, which is every fall, they carry their 
 apaquois with them, to hut under at night. Everybody follows — 
 men, women, and children. They winter in the forest and return 
 in the spring." 
 
 . In all the broils, growing out of the bitter competition for the 
 fur-trade, between French and British adventurers, and in the 
 intrigues of the respective executives of New France and the 
 British colonies to win over the Indian tribes, or incite them to 
 acts of hostility against the other, and in which neither the 
 French nor the British ever once consulted the welfare of the 
 Indians themselves, the Pottawatomies maintained an unswerving 
 alliance with the French. A\'hen these troubles in the American 
 provinces, with many years of accumulated grievances, at length 
 provoked a formal declaration of hostilities between France and 
 Great Britian, and the French- Colonial War was began, the 
 Pottawatomies fought it through to the end under the flag of 
 their old friends. After the Northwest, with its mihtary estab- 
 lishments, was turned over to the victor, they were ready to join 
 the chief (and their own kinsman), Pontiac, in his bold attempt 
 to capture these posts and drive the British from the country.* 
 Fort St. Joseph being in the country of the Pottawatomies, it was 
 given over for them to take. Ensign Schlosser was in command 
 at the time, with only fourteen soldiers to support him. He w'as 
 confronted on the 25th of May, 1763, by a horde of Pottaivato- 
 
 * Pontiac was the great chief of the Ottawas. "His plans were matured, 
 and late in 1762, his messengers carried black wampum belts and red toma- 
 hawks" — ensignas of war — "to the villages of the Ottawas, Ojibwas, Potta- 
 watomies, Sacs, Foxes, Menonionies, lilinois, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, 
 Wayandots [llurons], Senecas, " etc. On a certain day, in the ne.\t year, 
 said the messengers, all the tribes were to rise, seize all the British posts and 
 at once attact the whole British border. " — Vide " Western Annals. " Accord- 
 ingly, the several forts were nearly simultaneously attacked. Fort St. Joseph, 
 on the river of that name in Michigan; Fort Ouatanon, on the Wabash, near 
 La P'ayette, Indiana ; Miamis, at Ft. Wayne, in the same State ; Sandusky, 
 near the city of the same name in Ohio; Presque Isle, at Erie, Penn. ; Forts 
 Le BcEuf and ^'enango, on the water route between Erie and Pittsburg ; and 
 Fort Mackinac, as stated in a previous note, were all surprised and captured. 
 The forces at the Saulte de Ste. Mary, at "the outlet of Lake Su]3erior, had 
 been withdrawn and were among the massacred at Mackinac; while the gar- 
 rison at Green Bay, through the concilatory and brave conduct of their com- 
 manding officer, Lieut. James Gorrell, escaped to a place of safety; leaving 
 both these places to fall into the hands of the enemy. Only three of the
 
 THE rOTTAWATOMIKS. \J\ 
 
 mies from Detroit, ostensibly on a friendly visit to their kinsman 
 living on the St. Joseph. 'J'he commandant was ai)i)risL'd that 
 the fort was surrounded by hostile Indians. At this, SciiJosser 
 ran out of his apartment, and crossed the parade grounds, which 
 were full of Canadians and Indians. He entered the barracks, 
 and these were also crowded with disorderly and insolent savages. 
 He called his sergeant to get the soldiers under arms ; and, hurry- 
 ing back again to the parade, endeavored to muster the unwilling 
 Canadians. All at once a wild cry came from within the barracks, 
 Avhen the Indians in the fort rushed to the gate, where the\' killed 
 the sentinel, and opened the gate for ingress to their friends with- 
 out. In less than two minutes, as the officer declares, the fort 
 was plundered, eleven men were killed, and himself, with the 
 three survivors, made prisoners and bound fast.* 
 
 In the border troubles preceding the Revolutionary War; dur- 
 ing the latter contest, and throughout the Indian ditificulties that 
 followed it, down to the close of Gen. Waynes successful cam- 
 paign against the confederated Indian tribes in i 794, war-parties 
 of the Pottawatomies made frequent and destructive raids along 
 the lines of the settlements in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, 
 and Indiana. However, those of this tribe living upon the 
 Wabash and in near communication with Vincennes, were much 
 less annoying in this regard; and several of their chiefs and 
 bands manifested an early friendship for the Americans, whom 
 they called their brother, the Big-Knife.-^ 
 
 thirteen posts were saved. P'orts Detroit and I'itt, after withstanding severe 
 sieges, were relieved by forces timely sent to their succor; while the remain- 
 ing one, Fort ^Niagara, at the mouth of Niagara River, was assailed Ijy the 
 Senecas, who shortly, after abandoned the attempt, fearing the hostility of 
 the other tribes of their own nation, the Iroquois, whose sympathies were 
 always with the British. 
 
 * Vide Parkmen's "History of the Conspiracy of l^ontiac," from which the 
 foregoing details are taken : Ensign John Joseph Schlosser, a native (Jennan, 
 capt.-lieut. 60 Reg't Royal Americans, May 12, 1756; capt. July 20, 1758; 
 at the siege of Ft. Niagara in I759; after its surrender, commanded a po>t on 
 American side of the river about a mile above the Falls and below the mouth 
 of Gill Creek, which, in honor of him, has since borne the name of "OKI 
 Fort Schlosser." In command of and taken prisoner at Ft. St. Joseph, Michi- 
 gan, May 25, 1763; taken to Detroit shortly after, and exchanged; was serv- 
 ing with same regiment at Philadelphia in 1772.-" Army Li>ts"; " Pcnn. Ar- 
 chives"; "Parkman's Pontiac"; Military Map of Niagara frontier in W m. 
 James' (British) "Account of Occurrences of the Late War (of 1812) between 
 Great Britain and the United States." . 
 
 t The Virginians, Kentuckians, and other early border-men usually carried
 
 1/2 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 They were greatly influenced, for a while, by the schemes of 
 Tecumthe and his brother, the Prophet, in a much less prolonged 
 degree, however, than the Kickapoos and several of the other 
 tribes; and a fair representation of their warriors took part in 
 the battle of Tippecanoe.* 
 
 very large knives, and Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark's campaigners were notably 
 equipped in this way. From this circumstance the Western hunters and fighters 
 were called, in the Miami-Illini dialect, S/ie-mol-sea, meaning the big-knife. 
 At a later day, the same name under the Chippewayan word Che-mo-ko-mon 
 was extended by kindred tribes to the white people generally — always except- 
 ing the Englishmen proper, whom they called the '•'■ Sag-e-nash'", and the New 
 Englanders, whom they styled '' Bos-to-ue-iy", i. e., the Bostonians. The term 
 is derived from the Miami word, Mal-s/iea, or Mol-sea, a knife, or the Ojeb- 
 way Moo-ko-tnan, which means the same thing; while the prefix she or che 
 seems to emphasize the character of the instrument as a huge or long knife. 
 Such is the origin of the expression "long-knives" and "big-knife", frequently 
 met with in Indian discourses, and in books where Indian characters appear. 
 * Wa-bun-see, The Looking-glass, principal war-chief of the prairie band 
 of Pottawatomies, residing on the Kankakee River in Illinois, distinguished 
 himself, the last of October, iSii, by leaping aboard of one of Gov. Har- 
 rison's supply boats, loaded with corn, as it was ascending the Wabash, five 
 miles above Terre Haute, and killing a man, and making his escape ashore 
 without injury. — Official letter of Gov. Harrison; Reynolds' "My Own 
 Times." This chief's name is notably connected with the massacre ^t Chi- 
 cago. While he approved and participated in the deed, through the stronger 
 regards of personal friendship, he tried to save the wounded and heroic Capt. 
 Wm. Wells from a pursuing savage of his own nation by whom the death- 
 stab was given; and he was one of the five Indians who stood at the door of 
 Kinzie's house, at the peril of their lives, guarding its inmates from a terrible 
 fate that would have surely followed but for their timely intervention. He 
 and his band were embraced in the treaty of peace concluded at Greenville, 
 July 22, 1814; and ever after were on terms of friendship with the people of the 
 United States. In the so-called Black-Hawk War of 1832, he and his war- 
 riors volunteered their services to the whites, and campaigned and fought by 
 the side of the Illinois militia. The chief bore conspicuous parts in the 
 several treaties conducted at Chicago, and was well known and is still remem- 
 bered by many of its early citizens. In 1836, his people, having ceded all 
 their lands in Indiana and Illinois, he went with them to their reservation 
 near Council Bluffs. A fine portrait of him is preserved in the Indian gal- 
 lery at Washington. A copy of it would be appropriate in the collections of 
 the Historical Society of the great city of the West, whose aboriginal remi- 
 niscences this society, besides a wide field of other meritable labor, is engaged 
 in gathering and storing for future reference.
 
 THE I'UTTAWATUMIES. I 73 
 
 The official letters of the governors of the Indiana and Illi- 
 nois Territories; the current news items of the day, piiblislied in 
 the Viiicejines Siin, the Missouri Gazette at St. Louis, and N'iles" 
 Weekly Register at Washington, sufficiently illustrate the threaten- 
 ing attitude of the Pottawatomies (along with other tribes) before 
 and subsequent to the collision of arms at the Prophet's Town; 
 and show that subjects of Great Britain, or from its Province of 
 Canada, engaged in the Indian trade within our borders, were 
 but so many busy and influential agents in supitlying the Indians 
 with munitions of war, and stirring up a discontent among them 
 that would burst into aggressive hostility as soon as war should 
 be declared between the two powers. And when the war was 
 declared, the Pottawatomies went over to the standard of (ireat 
 Britain in a body. Their first blood was that of innocent vic- 
 tims, mingled with the slaughter of a body of brave soldiers, 
 whose too-contiding officer, against the admonitions of those 
 better acquainted with the treacherous ways of Indians, left the 
 fortress and exposed his men, and the women and children under 
 liis care to their savage fury. The horrors of the massacre at 
 Chicago, August 15, 1812, have been so often told and published 
 in so many books, as to render their repetition wholly unneces- 
 sary here. It was Pottawatomies (assisted probably by a few 
 Winnebaoges) who did it; and their several bands from the Illi- 
 ) nois and Kankakee rivers; from the St. Joseph of the Lake, and 
 the St. Joseph of the Maumee, and those of the Wabash and its 
 tributaries were all represented in the despicable act.* 
 
 Their hostility ceased with the war of 1812, after which their 
 relations Avere uniformly peaceable; and they endured the many 
 impositions and grievances put upon them by not a few of their 
 unprincipled and unfeeling white neighbors, with a forbearance 
 that ought to have aroused public sympathy. 
 
 * The statement in the text as to the participants in the Chicago massacre, 
 is i^iven in harmony with all contemporaneous and subsequent accounts, the 
 single exception being the version of Walter Jordan, who (in a letter to his 
 wife, dated at Ft. Wayne, Oct. 19, 1812, and which appeared in Niles' ll'fd/y 
 Register for May 8, 1813) says the retreating gatrison "were attacked by 6cx) 
 Kickapoo and Wynabago Indians. " lie is as clearly mistaken in this as he 
 is in several other statements in his letter. He says Capt. Wells had with 
 him one Imndred confute [Miami] Indians, and that these >//W the enemy. 
 Capt. Heald, the commanding officer, says Wells had about thirty Miamis. a 
 part of whom were placed in front, while the remainder brou-ht up in the 
 rear as an escort; and that they refused assistance when the fight came on. 
 .Samuel R. Brown, in his valuable history, published in 1815, concurs; while 
 Mrs. John II. Kin/.ie (in "Wau-Bun"), drawing her material from several
 
 174 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 After their migration from the islands near the outflow of (ireen 
 Bay southward, they seem to have multiphed with wonderful 
 fecundity. Thg time of this movement is not definitely known. 
 Their advance line had reached the St. Joseph as early, probably, 
 as the year 1700. The same writer whose description of the 
 Pottawatomies of the village at Detroit in 17 18 we have quoted, 
 says they came from the St. Joseph River, their former residence. 
 They were the most populous tribe between the lakes and the 
 Ohio, the Wabash and the Mississippi; they claimed Southeastern 
 Wisconsin from long occupation, and crowded themselves into 
 the ancient territory of the Miamis, "their younger brothers,'' in 
 Southern Michigan and Northwestern Indiana, taking possession 
 through sheer force of superior numbers, rather than by gage of 
 battle. Always on friendly terms with the Kickapoos, with whom 
 they frequently lived in mixed villages, they joined the latter and 
 the Sacs and Foxes in the exterminating war upon the Illinois 
 tribes, and afterward obtained their allotment of the despoiled 
 domain. By other tribes the Pottawatomies were called "squat- 
 ters", charged with never having had any lands of their own, and 
 being mere intruders upon the prior estates of others. "They 
 were foremost at all treaties where lands were to be ceded, clam- 
 oring for a lion's share of the presents and annuities, particularly 
 where these last was the price paid for the sale of others' lands 
 rather than their own."'*' Between the years 1789 and 1837, 
 they, by themselves, or in connection with other tribes, made no 
 less than thirty-eight treaties with the United States, all of which, 
 excepting two orthree, which were treaties of peace only, were 
 for alienations of lands claimed wholly by them or in common 
 with other tribes. These cessions embraced territory extending 
 from Cleveland, Ohio, westward to the Mississippi; portions of 
 Wisconsin and Michigan east of Oreen f>ay and south of Mil- 
 eye-witnesses, and whose opportunities for acquiring the details in all their 
 minnthe were better, perhaps, than those of any other person who has ever 
 written on the subject, says: Capt. Wells had only fifteen Miamis, who /ft/ 
 at the outset; and that their chief "rode up to the Pottawatomies and said: 
 ' You have deceived the Americans and us. Vou have done a bad action and 
 (brandishing his tomahawk) I will be the tirst to head a party of Americans 
 to return and punish your treachery.' So saying, he galloped after compani- 
 ons who were now scouring across the prairies." Mr. Jordan says he went 
 from Ft. Wayne to Chicago with Capt. Wells, was taken prisoner, and made 
 his escape. His whole letter is colored with exaggeration, and those parts of 
 it that stand contradicted by writers more competent than he to know the 
 facts, are not to be relied on. 
 
 * Schoolcraft's "Central Mississippi Valley."
 
 THE POTTAWATOMIES. i;5 
 
 waukee: the mouth of (Irand River and the south end of l.akr 
 Huron; and covering a hirge part of the valleys of the llhnois. 
 the Wabash, the Maumee, and their tributary waters. Contem- 
 poraneous maps and government surveys display their numerous 
 villages, and indicate their many reservations throughout this 
 vast area of country.'' 
 
 The Indians themselves were not blind to the ultimate result 
 of the relentless demands of the white people for more and more 
 of their lands. On several occasions when they confronted the 
 agents of the general government, who had invited them to coun- 
 cil for the purpose of buying still another part of their posses- 
 sions, they protested, as best they could, against making further 
 sales. A notable instance of this occurred at the treaty con- 
 cluded Aug. 29, 182 1, at Chicago, 111., with the Pottawatomie, 
 Ottawa, and Chippeway tribes. By this treaty the United States 
 proposed to extinguish the Indian title to, substantially, all that 
 country lying south of Grand River, from its source to its mouth; 
 and east of Lake Michigan, between its southern extremity and 
 Grand River; bounded on the south by a line drawn from the 
 south end of the lake east, through Northern Indiana, to the 
 
 * Besides the villages already referred to in this volume, the Pottawatomie^ 
 had others of historical interest, namely: a large settlement on the "Mil-le- 
 wac-kie" (as they called the Milwaukee) River; on the "Schip-i-co-ten ", or 
 Root River, at the conlluence of which with the lake is the city of Racine; at 
 '• Wah-kuh-e-gun" (the fort), or Waukegan; a scattering village upon both 
 the north and south branches of the "Chicago", the name of the stream sig- 
 nifying a skunk in its primary, and a wild onion in its secondary sense; others, 
 on the "She-shick-ma-o-shi-ke" (the tree from which the water flows), or the 
 River des Plaines, from French-Canadian word J'taiiie or Pleiii, meaning a 
 variety of maple growing along its borders; and still other towns upon the 
 DuPage, so called from a Frenchman who formerly lived and died on its banks, 
 and the Pottawatomie name for which was "O-to-ka-ke-nog" (the uncovered 
 l)reast). Westward of these was the village of "Shaw-way-ne-be-nay" (con- 
 tracted to Shab-eh-nay and Shau-be-nay), at " As-sim-in-eh-kon", or Pawpaw 
 (hove. On the Illinois River and its northern tributaries above Peoria were 
 still others; among them Cotno or Go/no's town, near the head of the lake; 
 " Wabunsee's ", or " Wau-pon-eh-see ", near the mouth of " Pish-ta-ka", or 
 " Poish-tah-te-Awj/^ " (antelope), as the Natives called the Fo.\ River of the 
 Illinois; while " Muck-e-te-po-kee's" (the black partridge) town was near the 
 mouth of the "Au Sable" (French for Sandy Creek), three miles below the 
 junction of the des Plaines and the Kankakee. Higher up the last-named river, 
 some twenty miles, stood the town of the notorious "Main-poc", ".Mai-pock", 
 or "Mai-po", as his name is variously spelled. At the mouth of Rock Creek,
 
 1/6 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 mouth of the Au Glaze River at Defiance, Ohio, and thence north 
 l)y the west boundary-hne of a previous cession to the source of 
 Grand River in Michigan. As the proceedings of this treaty 
 fairly illustrate the manner in which such affairs are conducted, a 
 portion of them are given here, as taken down at the time by 
 Hon. Henry R. Schoolcraft, who was officially connected with 
 the commission, and preserved in one of the more scarce vol- 
 umes of his several narrative journals.* 
 
 "Aug. 14, 182 1. ■•' ■•■ ■•' On crossing the Desplaines, we 
 found the opposite shore thronged with Indians, whose loud and 
 obtrusive salutations caused us to make a few moments' halt. 
 From this point we were scarcely ever out of sight of straggling 
 parties, all proceeding to the same place. Most commonly they 
 were mounted on horses, and apparelled in their best manner, 
 decorated with medals, silver bands, and feathers. The gaudy 
 and showy dresses of these troops of Indians, with the jingling 
 caused by the striking of their ornaments, and their spirited man- 
 ner of riding, created a scene as novel as it was interesting. 
 Proceeding from all parts of a very extensive circle of country, 
 
 at Kankakee City, and Yellow-Heads Point, a few miles north of Momence, 
 were the respective villages of " Shaw-waw-nay-see" (the Shawnee); " She- 
 mar-ger" (the soldier); and " Min-ne-mung" (the yellow head). The latter's 
 sister was the wife of Billy Caldwell, whose name is so intimately connected 
 ■with early Chicago. — Vide paper by the Hon. Wm. Hickling, published in 
 No. 10 of the Ff.rgis Historical .Series. Reservations at the three last- 
 named villages were secured to the above presiding chiefs b}' the Treaty of 
 Camp Tippecanoe, held near Logansport, Ind., October 20, 1832; and, with 
 other reserves in those neighborhoods, were surveyed off in the presence of 
 the beneficiaries and Gen. Tipton, Indian agent, by the writer's father, Major 
 Dan. W. Beckwith, U. S. Deputy Surveyor, in May, 1834. 
 
 More numerous and populous villages of the Pottawatomies were in South- 
 ern Michigan and Northern Indiana, on the St. Joseph, the Kalamazoo (these 
 Indians called it Kek-a-la-ma-zoo, signifying a "boiling pot"), and the several 
 streams flowing into the Detroit River and Maumee Bay, between Detroit and 
 Toledo. Of these may be named that of "To-pen-ne-bee", their great heredi- 
 tary chief, at "Pare aux Vaches" (the cow-pen), as the Canadian- French 
 traders facitiously nick-named the vicinity of old Fort St. Joseph; " Chip-pe- 
 outi-pe", at South Bend; and the villages of the Five Medals and " Wap-pe- 
 me-me" (the white pigeon), higher up the river. North and westward of the 
 Wabash were others; "Chit-cha-kos" on the Tippecanoe, and "Chip-poy", 
 twenty-five miles below the mouth of the latter stream. Others might be 
 named, but enough have been given to illustrate the assertion of the text. 
 
 * His "Travels, etc., in the Central Mississippi Valley."
 
 THE POTT AW ATOMIES. 1 77 
 
 like rays converging to a focus, the nearer we approached, the 
 more compact and concentrated the body became; and we found 
 our cavalcade rapidly augmented. Consequently, the dust, con- 
 fusion, and noise increased at every by-path that intersected our 
 way. After crossing the south-fork of the Chicago, and emerg- 
 ing from the forest that skirts it, nearly the whole number of 
 those who had preceded us appeared on the extensive and level 
 l)lain that stretches along the shore of the lake, while the refresh- 
 ing and noble spectacle of the lake itself, with 'vast and sullen 
 swell', appeared beyond. We found, on reaching the post, that 
 between two and three thousand Indians were assembled — chiefly 
 Pottawatomies, Ottawas, and Chippeways. Many arrived on the 
 following days; and provisions were daily issued by the Indian 
 department, to about three thousand, daily, during the treaty. 
 To accommodate the large assemblage mentioned, an open 
 bower, provided with seats for the principal chiefs and headmen, 
 had been put up on the green, extending along the north bank 
 of Chicago Creek. [Near the old John Kinzie house.] This 
 site, being at some distance from the principal encampments, 
 and directly under the guns of the fort, ensured both safety and 
 order for the occasion. The formalities which custom has pre- 
 scribed in negotiations of this kind, occupied the first two or 
 three days after our arrival, during which the number of Indians 
 was constantly augmenting. It was not until the 17th that they 
 were formally met in council, when Governor [Lewis] Cass, on 
 behalf of the commissioners [Solomon Sibley was then the asso- 
 ciate-commissioner], stated to them the following proposition: — 
 
 "Your father [referring to the president of the United States] 
 has observed that you possess an extensive country about the St. 
 Joseph, which you do not cultivate nor appear to want. He has 
 instructed us to come here for the purpose of making a purchase 
 of a part of that land, and to pay you a liberal price for it, which 
 we shall agree upon. The quantity of game you now kill in that 
 part of the country is very litde— almost nothing: and we can 
 give you for it that which will be more valuable and serviceable 
 to yourselves. We have brought with us a large amount of goods 
 to be distributed among you; and we shall also stipulate to ixay 
 you a certain sum of money annually. It was agreed by the 
 Treaty of St. Marys to pay you an annuity of one thousand two 
 hundred and fifty dollars, and by the Treaty of , one thou- 
 sand dollars ; both of which sums of money are now here and read>- 
 to be paid to you.* Should we conclude an agreement for the 
 
 * The St. Marys referred to was a stockade erected in 1794 by Gen. Wayne 
 as a depot for his military supplies, at the Portage of the St. Marys' River, 
 12
 
 178 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 purchase of the lands on the St. Joseph, we feel wilUng that such 
 reservations shall be made as may be proper. It will be many 
 years before the country will be settled by the Americans; during 
 all that time you will retain possession of the lands, at the same 
 time that you are drawing your annuities for them. * * * 
 You can take time to consider the proposition we have now 
 made. Counsel among yourselves, and deliver your answer as 
 soon as you can agree. Above all, let me entreat you to refrain 
 from whisky durmg the treaty, that you may be able to see justice 
 done to yourselves. '■' 
 
 Each sentence, being distinctly translated, was received with a 
 Ho-ah! — a term that on these occasions merely indicates atten- 
 tion. The interjection (subjoins Mr. Schoolcraft in a foot-note), 
 when strongly emphasized and responded by many voices, alsO' 
 denotes approbation— and is nearly equivalent to our "hear him I"" 
 and it is an easy matter to perceive by the maiincr of its enuncia- 
 tion whether the matter spoken excites pleasure, indifference, or 
 disapprobation. 
 
 A short pause ensued, during which the customary presents 
 were issued, when Me-te-a, a Pottawatomie chief ixom the 
 Wabash,*'' made the following laconic reply: — 
 
 "My Father: — We have Hstened to what you have said. 
 We will now return to our camps and consult upon it. You will 
 hear nothing more from us at present." 
 
 The council being again convened on the 19th, the same Pot- 
 Mercer Co., Ohio; and last commanded by Capt. John Whistler, who succes- 
 sively commanded at Forts St. Mary, Wayne, and old Fort Dearborn at Chi- 
 cago; the latter he built in 1803. 
 
 The blank space in Gen. Cass' address before the words " one thousand 
 dollars", should be supplied by inserting the "Treaty of Edwardsville", 111., 
 Aug. 24, 1816, by which the United States, for the purpose of controlling the 
 water communication, since improved as the " Illinois and Michigan Canal", 
 purchased from the united Pottawatomie, Ottawa, and Chippeway tribes, 
 "residing on the Illinois and Milwaukee rivers and their waters, and the south- 
 western parts of Lake Michigan", a strip of land ten miles wide on both 
 sides o'i the same, and extending from the mouth of Fox River at Ottawa, 111., 
 easterly to the confluence of Chicago Creek with Lake Michigan. 
 
 * Mus-qua Was-e-peo-tan (the old town of Redwood or Cedar Creek), of 
 which Me-te-a was presiding war and civil chief, was situated near the con- 
 fluence of that stream with the St. Joseph of the Maumee, some nine miles 
 northeast of Ft. Wayne, Ind. — "Long's Second Expedition"; other accoimts; 
 and contemporaneous maps, etc.
 
 THE rOTTAWATQMIES. 1 79 
 
 awatomie was delegated by the three tribes to deliver their rejilv 
 to Gen. Cass' speech. Me-te-a arose and said: — 
 
 "My Father: — We meet you here today, because we had 
 promised it, to tell you our mind and what we liave agreed 
 among ourselves. You Avill listen to us with a good mind, and 
 believe what we say. My father, you know that we first came to 
 this country a long time ago, and sat ourselves down upon it; 
 we met with a great many hardships and difficulties [referring to 
 their wars with its former occupants]. Our country was then 
 very large; but it has dwindled away to a small spot; and you 
 wish to purchase that ! This has caused us to reflect much upon 
 what you have told us; and we have, therefore, brought along all 
 the chiefs and warriors, and the young men, and women, and 
 children of our tribe, that one part may not do what the others 
 object to; and that all may be witnesses of what is going forward. 
 
 "My Father: — You know your children. Since you first 
 came among them,* they have always hearkened to your coun- 
 cils. Whenever you have had a proposal to make us — whenever 
 you have had a favor to ask of us, we have always lent a favor- 
 able ear; and our invariable answer has been 'Yes." This you 
 know. 
 
 "My Father: — A long time has passed since we first came 
 upon our lands; and our old people have all sunk into their 
 graves. They had sense. We are all young and foolish, and do 
 not wish to do anything that they would not approve, were they 
 living. We are fearful we shall offend their spirits if we sell our 
 lands; and we are fearful we shall offend jv// if we dont sell them. 
 This has caused us great perplexity of thought, because we have 
 counselled among ourselves, and do not know how we can part 
 with the land. My Father:— Our country was given us by the 
 Great Spirit, who gave it to us to hunt upon; to make our corn- 
 fields upon; to live upon; and to make down our beds upon 
 when we die. And he would never forgive us, should we now 
 bargain it away. When you first spoke to us for lands at St. 
 Marys,+ we said we had a litde, and agreed to sell you a piece of 
 
 * Gen. Cass had been in charge of government affairs over these tribes for 
 many years, and acquired an extensive acquaintance; had conducted a number 
 of treaties with them; and was highly esteemed by them for his uniformly kind 
 and honorable treatment in all official and social relations with them. 
 
 t At St. Marys, Ohio, mentioned in a previous note, where, Oct. 2, 181S, 
 Gen. Cass, with Jonathan Jennings and Capt. Benj. Park of Indiana, con- 
 cluded a treaty with the Pottawatomie tribe for tlic purchase of a large tract
 
 l8o ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 it; but we told you we could spare no more. Now you ask 
 us again' You are never satisfied! 
 
 "My Father: — -We have sold you a great tract of land* 
 already; but it is not enough! We sold it to you for the benefit 
 of your children, to farm and to live upon. \\q have now but 
 little left; and we shall want it for ourselves. We know not how 
 long we may live, and we wish to have some lands for our chil- 
 dren to hunt upon. You are gradually taking away our hunting- 
 grounds. Your children are driving us before them. We are 
 growing uneas)'. What lands you have you may retain forever: 
 but we shall sell no more. 
 
 "My Father: — You think, perhaps, that 1 speak in anger; but 
 my heart is good toward you. I speak like one of your children. 
 I am an Indian — a red-skin, and live by hunting and fishing. 
 My country is already too small; and I do not know how to 
 bring up my children if I give it all away. We sold you a fine 
 tract of land at St. Marys. t We said then to you, it was enough 
 to satisfy your children, and the last we would sell; and we 
 thought it would be the last you would ask for. 
 
 "My Father: — We have now told you what we had to say. It 
 was determined on in council among ourselves; and what I have 
 spoken is the voice of my nation. On this account all of our 
 people have come here to listen to me; but do not think we have 
 a bad opinion of you. Where should we get a bad opinion of 
 you? We speak to you with a good heart and the feelings of a 
 friend. 
 
 "My Father: — You are acquainted with this piece of land — 
 the country we live m.X Shall we give it up? Take notice, it is 
 
 of country lying in Central-western Indiana and Eastern Illinois, fronting on 
 the Wabash from the mouth of the Tippecanoe to the mouth of the \'ermilion, 
 and extending westward to a line drawn as nearly parallel with the Wabash 
 as practicable, so as to strike the two latter streams twenty-five miles from 
 their respective confluence with the Wabash; and now embraced in parts of 
 Tippecanoe, White, Benton, all of Warren, the north half of Vermilion 
 counties in Indiana, and the greater portion of Vermilion County in Illinois. 
 
 * Referring to the several other treaties at which extensive tracts of land 
 claimed by them had been ceded. 
 
 t Me-te-a participated at the Treaty of .St. Marys, and his name appears 
 among the signers of the treaty. 
 
 X Through the war of 1812, and during his long relations as governor of 
 Michigan Territory, and at the head of the Western Indian Department, 
 there was, perhaps, no one better acquainted with this suburb country in 
 question than Gen. Cass.
 
 THE rOTTAWATOMIES. l8l 
 
 a small piece of land, and if we give it up, what will become of 
 us? The Great Spirit, who has provided it for our use, allows us 
 to keep it to bring up our young men and sui)])ort our families. 
 We shall incur his anger if we barter it away. If we liad more- 
 land, you should get more; but our land has been wasting away 
 ever since the white peoi)le became our neighbors, until now we 
 have hardly enough left to cover the bones of our tribe. 
 
 "My Father: — You are in the midst of your red children. 
 What is due to us in money, we wish and will receive it at this 
 place.* 
 
 "My Father: — We all shake hands with yon. "I" llehold our 
 warriors, our women and children. Take pity on us and on our 
 words.'" 
 
 Mr. Schoolcraft says in a note at this place: "I wish it to be 
 distinctly understood, that in my reports of these speeches I have 
 adhered, literally, to the spirit and form of e.xpression of the 
 interpreters, and have seldom ventured to change the particular 
 phraseology. This will be apparent on perusal, and will account 
 for the familiar cast of many of the sentences. Authenticity was 
 deemed a paramount object, and to the attainment of this, I have 
 sacrificed all attempt at ornament or embellishment. Hy this 
 course, undoubtedly, great injustice is done to the spirit of the 
 original; but it must be recollected that it is not the original, but 
 the verbal interpretation that I have undertaken to preserve.'" 
 The foot-notes of the writer to Me-te-a's speech, are supplied to 
 give clearness to passages or allusions that, to the reader of 
 today, might otherwise seem vague or lacking in force. Consid- 
 ered as a categorical reply to Gen. Cass' address, and as a resume 
 of the relations of the white people toward the red man on the 
 North American Continent, particularly the tribes in question, 
 involving the ultimate destruction of the latter, as the inexorable 
 result of the contact; the speech of Me-te-a, mangled as it was 
 and shorn of its strength and imagery in rendering it into Eng- 
 lish, is logical, persuasive, pithy, and to the [Joint; and shows that 
 .this uneducated savage, like many others of his race, possessed 
 'a capacity of mind and gifts of oratory not inferior to those of 
 the white people. :[ 
 
 * By the terms of the treaty at Edwardsville, the annuity was to he paid at 
 some place on the IlHnois River not lower down than I'eoria; while the 
 moneys agreed to be given yearly, under the provisions of the Treaty of .St. 
 Marys, were to be paid half at Detroit and the residue at Chicago. Me-tc-a 
 accepts Gen. Cass' offer to receive it at Chicago, instead. 
 t "A figurative expression", says Schoolcraft, "much used." 
 i Chica<T0 was familiar ground to Me-te-a, and his hands were stained with
 
 1 82 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 
 
 The Pottawatomies were among tlie last to close out their 
 reservations and retire beyond the Mississippi. They were loth 
 to give up their old homes; and for years mingled on friendly 
 terms with the early white settlers. The final emigration from 
 the Wabash and St. Joseph was deferred until 1838. Coercive 
 measures were required in the removal of the bands from the 
 latter river. The Kankakee and some of the other Illinois bands, 
 as stated in a former foot-note, went westward some two years 
 before. 
 
 In 1846, the scattered families of the Pottawatomies, Ottawas, 
 and Chippeways were united to be thereafter known as the Potta- 
 watomie Nation. For $850,000, to be paid them by the United 
 States, they released all claims to their several reservations in 
 Iowa, Missouri, or in any other place whatever. In lieu of 
 $87,000 of the above sum, they took 576,000 acres of land of 
 the general government, situated on both sides of the Kansas 
 River, I'opeka, Kansas, being very nearly in the centre of the 
 tract. \\'hile Kansas was going through its territorial stages, the 
 so-called "squatter sovereigns" intruded upon these lands, sold 
 the Pottawatomies whisky and spread a general demoralization 
 among them. The white trespassers killed the stock of the 
 farmer Indians, burned some of their habitations, and resorted 
 to all the well-known methods practised on the borders, time out 
 of mind, to make it unpleasant for the Indians who were here 
 struggling up successfully from barbarism to the wa}'s of civilized 
 society. The usual result, a dismemberment of the reservation, 
 followed. The farmer Indians, so desiring, had their portions set 
 off in severalty; the wilder members of the tribe had their share 
 allotted in common. For the most part, the squatters got the 
 lands of the first, while an alleged needy railroad corporation* 
 was subsidized with the latter. 
 
 From the several reports of the commissioners of Indian affairs 
 
 the blood of the massacre there in 1812. The same autumn, liis right arm 
 was shattered, and ever after hung a withered limb at his side, from a bullet 
 wound received, near Ft. Wayne, from a skirmisher in advance of Gov. Har- 
 rison's forces marching to the relief of that place. The last council he 
 attended, says Gen. John Lipton of Indiana, was at Ft. Wayne in 1827, 
 where the dignity and propriety of his conduct was a subject of remark. The 
 business at an end, he remarked that he must liave a frolic. He got drunk, 
 and roamed the village in a frenzy, demanding more liquor. At last, as was 
 supposed, he took a bottle of aipta fortis from a shop-window, and drank it, 
 and died from its effects within half-an-hour afterward. 
 
 * The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. K. Co.
 
 THE I'OTTAWATOMIES. • 183 
 
 for the year 1863, it appears that there was 2274 in tlio tribe, all 
 told; that the farmers among them raised 3720 l)iishels of wheat; 
 45,000 of corn; 1200 of oats; and 1000 tons of hay; and thai 
 they owned 1000 cattle, 1200 horses, and 2000 hogs. 'I'he same 
 year, there were ninety-five boys and seventy-five girls; and in 
 1866 a total of two hundred and forty scholars attending the 
 Catholic school at St. Marys, a few miles north of Topeka, where 
 they were making gratifying i)rogress. 
 
 Some seventy-five of their young warriors volunteered on the 
 union side during the late civil war, and faithfully served "their 
 country." There was no way of computing their numbers accu- 
 rately — so many of the young and adventurous having strayed 
 away in quest a more exciting life; — still, in 1867, out of a popu- 
 lation of 2400, 1400 elected to become citizens of the United 
 States under an enabling act passed by Congress. Some did 
 well by the change; while others squandered their lands, and 
 went away and joined the wild bands or mixed with other tribes 
 out upon the plains. There are still a few left in Indiana and 
 Michigan, and over a hundred in Wisconsin. 
 
 Fergus Printing Company. Chicago.
 
 TH !•: 
 
 LAST OF THE ILLINOIS 
 
 AXI> 
 
 A Sketch of the Pottawatoinics. 
 
 READ BKFORK THr. 
 
 CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 Decemhkk 13, 1870, 
 
 JOHN DEAN CATON, LL.D. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 FERGUS PRINIING COMPANY, 
 244-8 Illinois Street, 
 
 1876.
 
 On the evening of December 13, 1870, the Honorable JoHX D. 
 Caton, LL. D., late of the Supreme Court of lUmois, read before 
 the Chicago Historical Society a paper entitled "The Last of the 
 Illinois, and a Sketch of the Pottawatomies. " Upon the conclusion 
 of which, on motion of Mr. Arnold, seconded by Jas. I-. Stark, 
 Esq., it was unanimously — 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the So'ciety are tendered to the Hon. 
 John Dean Caton for the able and interesting paper he has read, and 
 that he be requested to place the same among the archives of the 
 Society and furnish a copy for publication.
 
 The Last of the Illinois. 
 
 Of the ancieut civilizations we know l)ut little. The Ijcf^in- 
 
 to 
 
 nings of the EgyiDtians, the Etrurians, the Grecians, tlic 
 Romans, and even the Milesians, are either entirely shrouded 
 in the dark shadows of the far distant past, or are only I'lt 
 up by the feeble rays afforded by uncertain fiiblcs or mythical 
 traditions. Even far beyond these, great peoples lived, whose 
 existence and civilization are testified to, by broken monu- 
 ments and ruined architecture, widely scattered, especially over 
 Arabia, and some parts of Africa, while in our own country 
 and particularly in Yucatan, we see by their works that 
 nations have lived of whom wc know absolutely nothing 
 as to whence they came or whither they have gone. 
 
 Geologists tell us of older peoples who occupied many por- 
 tions of our globe, whose times they have divided into differ- 
 ent ages, as the stone age, the bronze age, and the iron age, 
 because of the materials which they used in their arts, but of 
 their coming and their going they can tell us nothing, except 
 that they existed one after another and ceased to be. Whence 
 came the mound-builders of our own land, or those who 
 worked the copper mines of Lake Superior, or those whose 
 old inscriptions are found on the great stones of New Me.\ico, 
 or when they disappeared, none can tell ; they lived, made 
 their record, and are gone, all else is as silent and as dark as 
 the tomb that covers them. Yet, in all these records history 
 is written, dim and shadowy though it be, still it is history, 
 and we seize upon each sentence of it as upon a precious 
 treasure, and we ponder it and strain our eyes to Hnd more 
 than it really tells, but the misty veil of antiquity hangs "v.-i 
 it, and finally we turn away unsatisfied. 
 
 When America was first visited by Europeans, at Ica^jt those 
 who recorded what they saw, it was occupied by barbarou;;
 
 4 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 tribes, some much more advanced than otliers, but still all 
 were barbarians. Tradition, • among the more advanced, pre- 
 tended to tell how their ancestors had come from more north- 
 ern climes, till finally they settled in the milder countries of 
 Mexico or Peru, where they attained a sort of semi-civilization 
 far in advance of the wilder nations, either to the north or 
 south of them, but whether their ancestors were the mound- 
 builders or the copper-workers, who once lived where we live, 
 and were driven away by fierce northern hordes, more athletic 
 than they, or peacefully left the land in search of a climate less 
 rigorous, we can never know, nor can we satisfy ourselves of the 
 degree of credence which we should place in their own tradi- 
 tions as told by their old men to the first Europeans who saw 
 them, and by whom their stories have been handed down to us. 
 
 We do know, certainly, that when the Atlantic coast was first 
 visited by white men, who have transmitted to us accounts of 
 what they saw, they found here tribes of Indians who subsisted 
 principally by fishing and the chase, although they practised 
 agriculture to a limited extent, for they supplied the first 
 immigrants to New England with corn from their hidden 
 stores. The early explorers occasionally found the same grain 
 cultivated in the valley of the ^Mississippi, and Lewis and 
 Clarke procured supplies of it on the Upper Missouri. Still 
 their agriculture was too limited to have had much influence on 
 the density of pojjulation ; and without the cultivated products 
 of the soil no country can sustain a large population of men, 
 if we except some tropical countries where spontaneous fruits 
 are in perpetual season, and even there the aboriginal popula- 
 tion was found to be very sparse as compared with countries 
 where agriculture furnishes the principal sustenance to man. 
 
 From the changes which had recently taken place among 
 the original inhabitants of this country, when they were first 
 discovered, as told by their old men, and also from the changes 
 which occurred after their discovery, but before the extermin- 
 ating influence of civilization bore upon them, we may safely 
 assume that national and even tribal formations had been 
 <[uite recent, yet recent as they no doubt were, we know almost 
 nothing of them. While we know that some nations became 
 totally extinct by reason of aboriginal warfare alone, we cannot 
 point to a single instance of the birth and growth of any native
 
 AND A SKETCJI OF THE PO TTAWATo.MlKS. r, 
 
 tribe, unless the uniting of the remnants of several broken 
 tribes into one, may be so considered. 
 
 At last we are forced back to the conclusion that it is only 
 comparatively in modern times and of civilized comniunities 
 that history, whether written in books or among tlie rocks, 
 tells us of the origin of nations. To this we can mention one 
 notable excei)tion. By divine inleiposition, we are told of the 
 beginning and of the progress, and by profane history of the 
 final extinction of one of the great ancient nations of the earth. 
 There we are told of its founder, Abraham, of its struggles, of 
 its triumphs and its misfortunes, of its victories and its defeats, 
 of its pure worship and its gross idolatry, and of its final 
 extinction as a nation under the Roman Empire. 
 
 Necessarily, the history of the aborigines of this country is 
 confined to the period since their first discovery by the educated 
 man, and to the few uncertain traditions told by them of their 
 comparatively very recent times, and most of these traditions 
 as handed down to us are purely of a mythological cliaracter, 
 and serve to teach us of the nature of the imagination or mental 
 condition of the native rather than of actual facts that had 
 gone before. Nor do those who have made the study of the 
 native American a specialty seem to have given that stucfy the 
 form of connected history to any large degree, and he that 
 would inform himself of such history must gather it from a 
 thousand difl'ei'ent .sources, picking up a grain here and theit-. 
 as he can find it. 
 
 More than thirty-seven years ago, when I first became a 
 citizen of Chicago, I found this whole country occupied as the 
 bunting grounds of the Pottawatomie Indians. I soon lormetl 
 the acquaintance of many of their chiefs, and this acquaintance 
 ripened into a cordial friendship. I found them really intelli- 
 gent and jDOssessed of much information resulting from their 
 careful observation of natural objects. I traveled with them 
 over the prairies, I hunted and i fished with them, I cam])ed 
 with them in the groves, I drank with them at tlie native 
 springs, of which they were never at a loss to find one, an<l I 
 partook of their hospitality around their camp fires. 
 
 Wild scenes have always had a charm for me. I have ever 
 been a lover of nature, and the enjoyment of those scenes when 
 prairie and woodland, lake shore and river were almost every-
 
 6 THE LA.ST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 where as nature made them, have left behind a pleasing mem- 
 ory which sometimes makes me almost wish that I could live 
 over again my younger days. Since nature's handiwork has 
 been defaced all around us ))y the hand of civilized man, I love 
 to hie away to distant shores and the far-off mountains, and 
 with a few friends of tastes similar to my own, enjoy the 
 wild scenery among the rock-bound islands of Puget's Sound, 
 or the still solitude of the high Sierras. Who would have 
 thought, at the time of which I speak, that he who then here 
 enjoyed the charms which nature throws over all her works, 
 would ever seek the far-off scenes of the Pacific slopes in which 
 to indulge his favorite reveries'? There are some who hear me 
 now, who remember the lake beach, with its conical sand-hills 
 covered oyer by the evergreen juniper, whose fragrance loaded 
 with a rich aroma the soft breeze as it quietly crept in from 
 the rippling waters of the lake. 
 
 That old lake shore, fashioned as God had made it by his 
 winds and waves for ten thousand years before, had more 
 charms for me, than since the defacing hand of man has builded 
 there Inroad avenues and great marble palaces, which are as far 
 beneath the works of nature's Architect, as man himself is 
 beneath Him who made all things well. 
 
 I thought that then a romantic place fit for the meeting of 
 ■ native lovers, in which to say soft words, and I felt assured that 
 it was so thought by them when once I was called upon to unite 
 in wedlock there a happy i3air, whose ambition it was to con- 
 form to the white man's mode in that solemn rite, and, as the 
 dusky bride explained, that it might last forever. 
 
 As might have been anticipated, neither history nor tradition 
 pretends to go back to the origin of any of the native ti'ibes 
 who occupied this land when first explored by civilized man. 
 At that time, the country where we live was principally occu- 
 pied l)y the Illinois Indians, who where an important people, 
 who ranged from the Wabash to the Mississii^pi, and from the 
 Ohio even to Lake Superior, although there were a great many 
 other tribes occupying the same territory. Their chief location 
 was in Northern Illinois. Here was their home, and their 
 great metropolis was w'here Utica now stands, in LaSalle 
 county. There then stood the largest city ever built by north- 
 ern natives. It was a delightful place, in the bosom of a beau-
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIES. 7 
 
 tiful valley, and the city occupied all the intervening space 
 between the river and the bluflF, nearly a mile in extent. Their 
 great cemeteries there testify to the populousncss of the place, 
 even were the testimony of the lirst discoverers wanting. If 
 we do not know of the beginning of any native nation, we are 
 credibly told of the extinction of this great people, and that, 
 too, within a century after they were found so populous and so 
 prosperous by the enterprising explorers. ' 
 
 Soon after their discovery by LaSalle, the great Iroquois 
 confederation, wliose battle fields were strewn with their vic- 
 tims almost from the Atlantic coast to the Wabash, and from 
 the Great Lakes, and even north of them, to the Alleghaiiies 
 and the Ohio, finally extended their enterprises to the Illinois. 
 With a great slaughter they defeated this hitherto invincible 
 people, laid waste their great city, and scattered them in 
 l^rokeu bauds over their wide domain. From this terrible 
 l)low they never recovered. For a century later they struggled 
 with waning fortunes against northern encroachments, till 
 finally they were exterminated by the Pottawatomies and the 
 Ottawas, at Starved Rock, the Fort St. Louis of LaSalle, which 
 overlooks the site of their great city and the scene of their first 
 great defeat and slaughter by the conquering Iroquois, as 1 shall 
 presently relate. There still stands this high isolated rock as 
 it has stood for thousands of years gone by, the swift current of 
 the river bathing its feet on one side, its summit overlooking 
 the I)road valley and the many wood-clad islands for many 
 miles above and below it, fit monument to the great departed 
 who had, during many long years of peace and security, looked 
 upon its impregnable heights as a secure refuge in case of dis- 
 aster. Alas! if it was secure against the approach of hum:;n 
 hands, gaunt famine could scale its ascents and do its .leadly 
 work. There is, and ever will be, a charm about the place- 
 both from its own romantic surroundings and the melancholy 
 story of the bloody scenes it has looker! down upon. While 
 the visitor stands upon its native battlements, silently ponder- 
 ing what has been told him, insensibly his imagination carries 
 him back to ages long ago, and he thinks lie hears the wail of 
 woe, oft and oftentimes repeated, and then again tlie song of 
 revelry and joy sung by those departed long before the wliite 
 
 /
 
 8 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 mau saw it. The ancestors of my ancient friends were respon- 
 sible for the last sad catastroi^he. 
 
 The Pottawatomies were a tribe of the great Algonquin con- 
 federation, whose power was so severely felt by the British 
 forces when at war with France, in the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, though we do not know the story of their individual 
 prowess in that sanguinary warfare. 
 
 When Fathers Allones and Doblon tirst visited Green Bay, 
 and there established a mission, just two hundred years ago, 
 they found the Pottawatomies established on those verdant 
 shores, and this is the first mention I can find of them in his- 
 tory. That was then their settled home, though they roamed 
 far away, for they were in the habit of extending their visits to 
 the shores of Lake Superior. In 1671, they are mentioned as 
 met with at LaPoint, on that Lake, Ijy the missionary fathers, 
 not as residents, but as visitors. At that time they were not 
 known south of the lakes, for when Joliet and Marquette 
 returned from their discovery of the Mississippi, by way of the 
 Illinois river, in 1674, tliey met none of the Pottawatomies 
 here. 
 
 In 1675, Marquette, no doubt by invitation of the Illinois 
 Indians, whom he had met the year before on his return with 
 LaSalle from the ^lississippi, came from Green Bay to establish 
 a Mission here. In tliis journey he was attended ])j a party of 
 Illinois Indians, and also by a band of the Pottawatomies. So 
 far as we know, these were the first of the tribe who ever saw 
 the country south of Lake Michigan. They coasted the west 
 side of the lake in oi)en boats or canoes, in the latter jiart of 
 the season, when the lake is boisterous and forbidding. It was 
 a perilous and fatiguing voyage of four months' duration, and 
 sorely tried (he endurance of the zealous missionary. They at 
 last leached Chicago, just as winter was closing in, and pro- 
 ceeded up the South Branch of the river to where Bridgeport 
 now .stands, and there built a hut, in which the missionary 
 wintered. After the lonely and tedious winter was passed, he 
 proceeded down the Illinois rivei' to the great city of the 
 Illinois, below Starved Rock, and there established the first 
 Mission ever founded in the Illinois country, and named it 
 '\ Kaskaskia.
 
 AND A SKETCH OF TIIIO POTTAW ATOM IKS. !• 
 
 How soon after this the Pottawatomies Id't tlicii- old limiif 
 ou Green Bay, and sought more hospitable regions fiu-thcr 
 south, we are not informed; nor can we tell wlietlicr the emi- 
 gration was gradual, or if thej' broke up altogthcr, but as we 
 find them in their southern iiomes in different ijands, the prob- 
 abilities are that they left in parties. A portion settled on tlie 
 Saginaw Bay, in Michigan, who were subsequently Iniown as 
 the Pottawatomics of Saginaw, or of Huron. Others deseended 
 as far as Detroit, and settled in that neighljorhood. Others 
 found their way to the St. Jo,seph River, on the east side of 
 Lake Michigan; and others, it may be presumed, came directly 
 to Northern Illinois, though it is possiljle they si^read from 
 Michigan into Illinois. The precise date of these several mi- 
 grations we cannot give, but Ci'agon and Bouqu(!t found them, 
 in the middle of the last century, occupying the country about 
 Detroit and Fort St. JosejDh ; and we find no account of them 
 within the last hundred years and more at Oreen Bay. From 
 these explorers we get the first intimation of their numbers, and 
 yet this is of the most unsatisfactory kind. They set them down 
 at three hundred and fifty; and Dodge, a quarter of a century 
 later, places them at four hundred and fifty, while Hutchins 
 places them at a still lower number than the first. Upon these 
 numbers we can place but little reliance; at I)est, it could have 
 been but imperfect estimates, including no doubt only those 
 bands whom they met at Fort St. Josei)h and Detroit, without 
 taking into account those at Saginaw or in Illinois. We may 
 safely assume, ajso, that these figures are designed oidy co ex- 
 press the number of their warriors, for Sir "William Johnson, 
 who assembled the Algonquin confederation at Niagara, in 
 1763, informs us, that of the nineteen hundred and thirty war- 
 riors there assem1)led, four hundred and fifty were Potiawato- 
 raies, or, according to the old orthography, PouteoUiiiius. With 
 them and their associate warriors, Genei-al Bradstreet there 
 concluded a treaty, which pacitie<l all the Indian tribes bor- 
 dering the upper lakes, who had hitherto l)een such inveterate 
 enemies to the British Government and tlie English innnigrant. 
 A reasonably conciliatory course with them since, and a mod- 
 erate share of good faith towards them, have enabled tlie ("an- 
 adas to live with those who resided on the north shores, in 
 amitv in times of peace, and depend upon them as alli.s in
 
 10 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 time of war. The uumbei- of warriors representing the Potta- 
 watomies at the Algonquin convocation at Niagara, shows that 
 the whole tribe must have been largely in excess of the num- 
 l^ers given by Bouquet and others, and their report so nearly 
 approximates to the number of warriors at Niagara, as to con- 
 vince us at once that they spoke only of their able-bodied men. 
 Nor is it very proljable that all the warriors which the several 
 l)ands of that tribe could furnish, made the long journey to 
 Niagara to attend the council. The fact that the Pottawato- 
 mies furnished nearly one-fourth of the representatives in that 
 council of the whole Algonquin confederation, should convince 
 us of the commanding importance of this tribe in that jjowerful 
 association of the Indians, and so were they the last, south of 
 the lakes, as we shall see, to yield up their i)lace to the irre- 
 sistible advance of civilization. 
 
 The fraternal relations existing between the Pottawatomies 
 and the Ottawas, were of the most harmonious character. They 
 lived together almost as one people, and were joint owners of 
 their hunting grounds. Their relations were quite as intimate 
 and friendly as among different bands of the same tribe. Nor 
 were the Chippewas scarcely more strangers to the Pottawato- 
 mies and the Ottawas than the latter were to each other. They 
 too claimed an interest in the lands occupied, to a certain 
 extent by all jointly, so that all three tribes joined in the first 
 treaty for the sale of their lands ever made to the United 
 States. 
 
 Chicago was ever an important point in the estimation of 
 the Pottawatomies and their associates, and here Was the coun- 
 cil held which resulted in that first treaty in 1821, when the 
 three tribes named ceded to the United States live millions of 
 acres in Michigan. 
 
 Since their emigration from the north, a sort of distinction 
 had grown up among the different bands of the Pottawatomies, 
 arising from their several locations, which seem to have 
 stamped upon their tenants distinct characteristics. Those 
 occupying the forest lands of Michigan and Indiana were 
 called by themselves and by the traders the Indians of the 
 ^ Woods, while those who roamed these great grassy plains were 
 called the Prairie Indians. 
 
 The former were much moi-e susceptible to the influence of
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIES. 11 
 
 civilization than the latter. They devoted themselves, in a 
 very appreciable degree, to agricnlture, and so supplemented 
 the fruits of the chase very largely in their support. They 
 welcomed the missionary among them with a warm cordiality. 
 They listened to his teachings, and meekly suhuiitted to his 
 admonitions. They learned by heart the story of our crucitieil 
 Redeemer, and with tremliling voices recounted to each other 
 the sufferings of the cross. They bent the knee and bowed 
 the head reverently in prayer, and raised their melodious voices 
 in sacred songs taught them by the holy fothers. They received 
 the sprinklings with holy waters, and partook of the conse- 
 crated elements, believing devoutly in their saving grace. 
 They went to the confessional with downcast looks, and with 
 deep contrition told the story of their sins, and with a radiant 
 joy received the absolution, which in their estimation blotted 
 them out forever. Here indeed was a bright field of promise 
 to those devoted missionaries, who deeply felt that to save one 
 heathen soul from the awful doom, which they believed 
 awaited all those who died without the bosom of the church, 
 was a rich reward for a whole life of pinching privation and 
 of severe suffering : and their great ambition was to gather as 
 many redeemed souls as possible to their account, each of 
 wdiich should appear as a bright jewel in the crown which 
 awaited them in that future state, to which we are all so mpidly 
 hastening. 
 
 It was very different, however, with the Prtiirie Indians. 
 They despised the cultivation of the soil as too mean even for 
 their women and children, and deemed the captures of the 
 chase as t'he only fit food for a valorous people. The corn which 
 grew like grass from the earth which they trod beneatii their 
 feet, was not proper meat to feed their greatness. Nor did they 
 open their ears to the lessons of love and religion tendered them 
 by those who came among them and sought to do them good. 
 If they tolerated their presence tliey did not receive them with 
 the cordiality evinced by their more eastern brethren. If tiiey 
 listened to their sermons in respectful silence they did not 
 receive the truths they taught with eager gladness. Kvi'n if 
 they believed for the moment what they were told, it made uo 
 permanent impression on their thoughts and action.s. If they 
 understood something of the principles of thr Cliristuui relig-
 
 / 
 
 12 THE LA.ST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 iou whicii were told them, they listened to it as a sort of 
 theory which might be well adapted to the white man's con- 
 ditiou. but was not fitted for them, cor they for it. They 
 enjoyed the wild roving life of the prairie, and in common 
 with almost all other native Americans, w^ere vain of their 
 prowess and manhood, both in war and in the chase. They 
 did not settle down for a great length of time in a given place, 
 but roamed across the broad prairies, from one grove or belt of 
 timljer to another, either in single families or in small bands, 
 packing their few effects, their children and infimi on their 
 little Indian ponies. They always traveled in Indian file upon 
 well beaten trails, connecting, by the most direct routes, promi- 
 nent points and trading posts. These native highways served 
 as guides to our early settlers, who followed them with as much 
 confidence as we now do the roads laid out and worked by 
 civilized man. 
 
 Northern Illinois w^as more particularly the possession of the 
 Pottawatomies, but, as before stated, I have sought in vain for 
 some satisfactory data ,to fix the time wdien they first settled 
 here. They undoubtedly came in by degrees, and by degrees 
 established themselves, encroaching at first upon the Illinois 
 tribe, advancing more and more, sometimes by good-natured 
 tolerance, and sometimes by actual violence. I have the means 
 of approximating the time wiien they came into exclusive 
 jjossession here. That occurred upon the total extinction of 
 the Illinois, which must have been sometime between 1766 and 
 1770. Meachelle. the oldest Pottawatomie chief when I 
 became acquainted wath them, thirty-seven years ago, associated 
 his earliest recollection with their occupancy of the country. 
 His recollection extended back to that great event in Indian 
 history, the siege of Starved Rock, and the final extinction of 
 the Illinois tribe of Indians, which left his people the sole pos- 
 sessors of the land. He was present at the siege and the final 
 catastrophe, and, although a boy at the time, the terrible event 
 made such an impression on his young mind, that it ever re- 
 mained fresh and vivid. I am indebted to Mr. William Hick- 
 ling for assisting my memory on a point so important. 
 
 The death of Pontiac, the great Ottawa chief, occurred in 
 1766. He was the idol of his own people, and was beloved 
 and obeyed scarcely less by the Pottawatomies. They believed
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIES. i;; 
 
 tliat the Illinois Indians were at least accessory to his murder, 
 and so held them responsible, and conseqnently tiie Ottawas 
 and Pottavvatomies united all their forces in an attack iipnn 
 those whose deadly enemies they had now become. I am not 
 satisfied that their previous relations had been those of cordial 
 friendship, but if the peace had not been broken by open war 
 there was that l^ad blood existing between them which must 
 have arisen between those who were making and tliosc who 
 were suffering encroachments. 
 
 The Illinois Indians never fully recovered from tliu great 
 calamity, which they had suffered a century before at the hands 
 6f the Iroquois. By that their spirit and their courage seemed 
 broken, and they submitted to encroachments from tlie north, 
 by their more euterprising neighbors, with an ill grace, no 
 doubt, but without jirotecting their rights by force of arms, iis 
 they would have done in former times, and sought to revenge 
 themselves upon those upon whom they looked as tlieir actual 
 enemies in an underhand and treacherous way. 
 
 In the war thus waged by the allies against the Illinois, tlie 
 latter suffered disaster after disaster till the sole remnants of 
 that once proud nation, whose name had been mentioned with 
 respect from Lake Superior to the mouth of the Ohio, and from 
 the Mississippi to the Wabash, now found sufficient space upon 
 the half acre of ground which crowns the summit of Starved 
 Rock. As its sides are perpendicular, except on the south 
 where it may be ascended with difficulty by a sort of natural 
 stairway, where some of the steps are a yard high and but a 
 few inches wide, and not more than two can ascend abreast, 
 ten men could repel ten thousand with the means of warfare 
 then at their command. The allies made no attempt to take 
 the fort by storm, but closely besieged it on every side. On 
 the north or river side, the upjx'r rock overiiaugs the water 
 somewhat, and tradition tells us how the confederates placed 
 themselves in canoes under tlio slielving rock and cut the 
 thongs of the besieged when they lowered their vessels to 
 obtain water from the river, and so reduced them by thirst, but 
 Meachelle, so far as I know, never mentioned this as one of the 
 means resorted to by the confederates to reduce their enemies, 
 nor from an examination of the ground do I think this proba- 
 ble, but tliey depended upon a lack of provisions, wliidi we
 
 14 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 can readily appreciate must soon occur to a savage people, who 
 rarely anticipate the future in storing up supplies. No im- 
 provident people could have subsisted long in such a i)lace. 
 How long they did hold out Meachelle did not, and jirobably 
 could not, tell us; but at last the time came when the unfortu- 
 nate remnant could hold out no longer. They awaited but a 
 favorable opportunity to attempt their escape. This was at 
 last afforded by a dark and stormy night, when, led by their . 
 few remaining w^arriors, all stole in profound silence down the 
 steep and narrow declivity to be met by a solid wall of their 
 enemies surrounding the point, where alone a sortie could be 
 made, and which had been confidently expected. The horrid 
 scene that ensued can be better imagined than described. No 
 quarter was asked or given. For a time tlie bowlings of the 
 tempest were drowned by the yells of the combatants and the 
 shrieks of the victims. 
 
 Desperation lends strength to even enfeebled arms, but no 
 efforts of valor could resist the overwhelming numbers, actu- 
 ated by the direst hate. The braves fell one by one, fight- 
 ing like very fiends, and terribly did they revenge themselves 
 upon their enemies. The few women and children, whom fam- 
 ine had left but enfeebled skeletons, fell easy victims to the 
 war-clubs of the terrible savages, who deemed it as much a 
 duty, and almost as great a glory, to slaughter the emaciated 
 women and the helpless children as to strike down the men 
 who were able to make resistance with arms in their hands. 
 They were bent upon the utter extermination of their hated 
 enemies, and most successfully did they bend their savage 
 energies to the bloody task. 
 
 Soon the victims were stretched upon the sloping ground 
 south and west of the impregnable rock, their bodies lying 
 stark ujoon the sand which had been thrown up by the j^rairie 
 winds. The wails of the feeble and the strong had ceased to 
 fret the night winds, whose mournful sighs through the neigh- 
 boring pines sounded like a requiem. Here was enacted the 
 fitting finale to that work of death which had been commenced, 
 scarcely a mile away, a century before by the still more savage 
 and terrible Iroquois. 
 
 Still, all were not destroyed. Eleven of the most athletic 
 warriors, in the darkness and confusion of the fight, broke
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIES. ir, 
 
 through the l)esieging lines. They had marked w«ll from 
 their high perch on the isolated rock, the little nook below, 
 where their enemies had moored at least a ])art of their canoes, 
 and to these they rushed with headlong speed, imnoticed l»y 
 their foes. Into these they threw themselves, and hurrieil 
 down the rapids below. They had been trained to the use of 
 the paddle and the canoe, and knew well every intricacy of 
 the channel, so that they could safely tliread it, even in the 
 dark and boisterous night. They knew their deadly enemies 
 would soon be in their wake, uud that there was no safe refuse 
 for them short of St. Louis. They had no provisions to sustain 
 their waning strength, and yet it was certain death to stop by 
 the way. Their only hope was in pressing forward liy night 
 and by day, without a moment's pause, scarcely looking back, 
 yet ever fearing that their pursuers would make their appear- 
 ance around the point they had last left behind. It was truly 
 a race for life. If they could reach St. Louis, they were safe ; 
 if overtaken, there was no hope. We must leave to the imagi- 
 nation the details of a race where the stake was so momentous 
 to the contestants. As life is sweeter even than revenge, we 
 may safely assume that the pursued were impelled to even 
 greater exertions than the pursuers. Those who ran for life 
 won the race. They reached St. Louis before their enemies 
 came in sight, and told their appalling tale to the commandant 
 of the fort, from whom they received assurances of jirotection. 
 and were generously supplied with food, which their famished 
 condition so much required. This had barely been done when 
 their enemies arrived, and fiercely demanded their victim!>. 
 that no drop of blood of their hated enemies might longer 
 circulate in human veins. This was refused, when they retired 
 with impotent threats of future vengeance, which they never 
 had the means of executing. 
 
 After their enemies had gone, the Illinois, wlio never after 
 even claimed that name, thanked their entertainers, and. full 
 of sorrow Avhich no words can express, slowly paddled their 
 way across the river, to seek new friends among tiie tribc.< 
 who then occupied the southern part of this State, and who 
 would listen with sympathy to the sad tale they liad to relate. 
 They alone remained the broken remnant and last representa- 
 tives of their once great nation. Tiieir name, even, now must
 
 16 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 be blotted out from among the names of the aboriginal 
 tribes. Hencefortli tliey must cease to be of the present, and 
 could only be .remembered as a part of the joast. This is the 
 last we know of the last (5f the Illinois. They were once a 
 great and a prosperous people, as advanced and as humane as 
 any of the aborigines around them ; we do not know that a 
 drop of their blood now animates a human Ijeing, but their 
 name is perpetuated in this great State, of whose record of the 
 past all of us feel so proud, and of whose future the hopes of 
 us all are so sanguine. 
 
 Till the morning light revealed that the canoes were gone 
 the confederates believed that their sanguinary work had been 
 so thoroughly done that not a living soul remained. So soon 
 as the escape was discovered, the pursuit was conmienced, but 
 as we have seen, without success. The jjursuers i-eturned dis- 
 appointed and dejected that their enemies' scalps were not 
 hanging from their Ijelts. But surely ):)lood enough had been 
 spilled — vengeance should have been more than satisfied. 
 
 I have failed, no doubt, to properly render Meachelle's ac- 
 count of this sad drama, for I have been obliged to use my own 
 language, without the inspiration awakened in him by the 
 memor}'- of the scene which served as his first baptism in blood. 
 Who can wonder that it made a lasting impression on his 
 youthful mindv Still, he was not fond of relating ic, nor would 
 he speak of it except to those who had acquired his confidence 
 and intimacy. It is proljably the only account to be had 
 related by an eye-witness, and we may presume that it is the 
 most authentic, and may well deserve preservation, and so may 
 be worthy of a place in the archives of this Society, whose 
 proper mission it is to gather up and bring to light whatever 
 still remains to be gatliered from the memories of those who 
 are fast fading away, of scenes whose theatre was the land we 
 live in, and of peoples who once occupied this territory. The 
 few dim lights still remaining will soon be put out. and dark- 
 ness and oblivion must shroud forever all that is then unre- 
 corded. 
 
 This great event in Indian history secured to the Pottawato- 
 mies all the territory then Ijelonging to the Illinois, and the 
 exclusive right to which was undisjjuted by other tribes. It 
 extended their possessions to the lands of the Peorias on Peoria
 
 AND A SKETCH OK Tlli: I'ol'TA \VA TOMIES. IT 
 
 lake. Tlioy occupied to the Wahasli a.s far soutli as Daiivilh 
 and even beyond. On the other side tlicy occupied to the 
 Rock river, though tlieir right to a .strip of hind on tlie east 
 .side of that river was disputed by the Sac and P'ox Indians wiio 
 ranged the prairies west of there and Ijeyond tlie .^Iissi.ssij)pi. 
 They extended north into Wisconsin as far as ^Milwaukee, 
 though their northern boundary was never well defmeil, liut 
 their friendly relations with the Chippewas prevented tiiis 
 from ever becoming a source of disagreement between them. 
 After the extermination of the Illinois, their general condition 
 w^as that of peace, and I have learned of few incidents since 
 Avorthy of record. As ))efore intimated, they had a perpetual 
 dilReulty with the Sacs and Foxes about the lands bonh-r- 
 ing on the east side of Rock river, and when the braves of the 
 contestants met on the disputed territory they Anight it out, 
 l)ut I have not learned that the war \vas often carried beyon<l 
 the contested grounds, though the eastern l)oundary of these 
 was quite undefined. 
 
 As a tribe, the Pcttawatomies may not have taken an active 
 part against the I'nited States in the war of 1812, yet it is 
 certain that many of their young chiefs and liraves did so. < >n 
 this subject they were extremely reticent. At one time, when 
 riding over the prairie south of Blue Islaml, in lS3o, with Billy 
 Caldwell, when the old chief as usual w'as answering my ijues- 
 tions about the past and what portion of the country he had 
 visited, as it seemed inadvertently, he commenced giving an 
 account of an expedition of the British from Canada across ti> 
 Ohio, of which he and a numl)er of his warriors formed a part, 
 but he had hardly got them landed on our shores, when in- 
 seemed to remember that I was an American and that it was 
 better not to enlighten me further on the subject, and he broki- 
 oli" suddenly, nor could I l>y any means jjrevail upon him to 
 return to the suliject. 
 
 During the Black Hawk war. .-is it was called, in IH'^'i, as n 
 people they remained loyal to the United States, but it wa.s 
 with great difficulty that many of the young men were kept 
 from particij)ating in the affray with the Sacs and Foxes. But 
 the part they acted in that affair may be found in the writt.-n 
 history of the times. 
 
 Chicago was ever a iixvorite resort of the Pottawatomies. 
 
 2
 
 18 THE LAST f)F THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 Here they chose to hold their great councils, and here they, 
 concluded the last treaty with our Government as they had tht- 
 first, as I have already stated, twelve years before. This last 
 treaty was made in 1833, and I was a daily attendant upon the 
 deliberations of the council. By this time the Ottawas and 
 the Pottawatomies had become so blended and intermixed that 
 they had become practically one i^eople, and were generally 
 designated by the latter name. I do not remem))er the number 
 of Indians in town at the time of the treaty, but the assemblage 
 was by no means confined to the chiefs who participated in the 
 deliberations. There were certainly several thousand natives 
 here, who were supplied with regular rations of beef and flour 
 by the Government, and it was manifest that they were quite 
 willing to protract the conference so long as these should last. 
 
 At the close of each important deliberation, especially if 
 much progress seemed to have been made, a keg of twisted 
 plug tobacco was rolled into the council house, the staves cut 
 in the middle with an ax, and the chiefs told to help them- 
 selves. This was accompanied with a box of white clay pipes. 
 They helped themselves with great decorum, and even some 
 ceremony. 
 
 By this last treaty, concluded at Chicago, in 1833, the Indians 
 disjjosed of all their remaining lands to the L^nited States, 
 except some specific reservations to some of their chiefs, and 
 asrreed to remove to a limited location assigned them west of 
 the Missouri river. When the treaty was finally concluded 
 and the presents all distributed, and no more rations served out, 
 they gradually dispersed till only those who resided in and 
 aljout Chicago remained. For two years longer this people 
 continued among us, subsisting as they had done before, noth- 
 ing worthy of note, so far as I know, occurring in the mean- 
 time. 
 
 In 1835, and for the last time, the whole assembled at 
 Chicago, to receive their annuity from the Government, and 
 to make their final start for their new home. I was absent at 
 the time of their assemblage, and have no means of stating at 
 what date they began to make their appearance in the town, 
 for now Chicago had really begun to present an appearance 
 which would well justify the name. Here for the first time, 
 many who had through their whole lives been in the habit of
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIE?. 1'.' 
 
 visiting this favorite location, wiien tlic rank grass grew wai^t 
 liigh where the Trcmont and the Sherman houses now stan.i, 
 must have been deeply impressed with the marks of civiliza- 
 tion vastly more extensive than any they hud ever seen l)ef()rc 
 or been able to comprehend. It assured them, and they com- 
 prehended it, that they were already strangers in their native 
 land. That a mightier race had come, so far their snijerior 
 that they must fade away before ic. It is em))hatically true of 
 all our American Indians, that they cannot exist, multiply, ami 
 jjrosper in the light of civilization. Here their physical vigoi- 
 fails, their reproductive powers diminish, their spirit and their 
 very vitality dwindle out, and no philanthrojjy, no kindness, no 
 fostering care, of government, of societies, or of individual.'?, 
 can save them from an inevitable doom. They are plainly the 
 sick man of America; with careful nursing and the kindest 
 care, we may prolong his stay among us for a few years, but Ik- 
 Is sick of a disease which can never be cured except by isolat- 
 ing him from civilization, and remanding him to nature's wild- 
 iless, which in truth has more charms in many cases for even 
 the white man, than the refinements and the restraints of the 
 white man's mode of life. Our tastes for these are the results 
 of artificial training, and our tendency is constantly to rcla))sc 
 to a wilder life in the woods and in the mountains. The 
 bivouac of the soldier has a charm to which he often recurs 
 with animated pleasure. The camj)-tire of the liunter has a 
 fascination which he who lias enjoyed it can never forget. 
 And in our earliest childhood we showed oui' natural tastes and 
 inclinations by listening to stories of these, with more avidity 
 than any other. Mayne Reid built his hopes on this juvenile 
 taste, which he knew was stronger than any other, wiicn In- 
 wrote his charming stories which have made his name so popu- 
 lar, yes, and so dear, too, to the rising generation. Account? 
 of huntings and fishings, of living in the woods and in the 
 plains, or in some sweet little nook at the foot of the mountain, 
 down which the babbling brook comes from the melted snows 
 far above, and where nature in her unbroken beauty ami her 
 sublimity reigns around her supreme silence, and there is no 
 mark and no sound of civilization near,— these have fascina- 
 tions for even the white race as well, which are entirely want- 
 ino' in the most glowing accounts of cathedrals, and palaces'.
 
 20 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 and pictures, descriptions of which fail to interest those whose 
 tastes have not been cultivated up to their full appreciation. 
 Tf a love of nature in her wildest moods and scenes be a reWc 
 of barbaric taste, which civilization has failed to eradicate, then 
 to that extent, at least. I am a savage still. 
 
 This tendency in the white race to revert to what we maj- 
 tcrm the natural tastes, is strongly manifested, whenever we see 
 one taken in infancy and I>rought uji among savages. Almost 
 always he i.s the greatest .savage of them all, notwithstanding 
 the hereditary influence through many generations of those cul- 
 tivated tastes and habits which distinguish the civilized man 
 from the savage. This observation may not l)c coniined to the 
 case cited, although that is perhaps the most convincing of 
 this tendency to revert to the savage state. We often see cases 
 where men have grown to maturity in the midst of civilized 
 society, uniting themselves with the native tribes, and enjoy- 
 ing tliat life l)etter than the former, and chosing to spend their 
 days with their new found friends, although it involves a sacri- 
 iice of all those ties which so strongly bind us to friends anci 
 kindred and early associations. In such cases we rarely find 
 them practicing those arts which they had early learned, or 
 those habits of industry which is the aistinguishing character- 
 istic of civilized man. It is undoubtedly true, in these latter 
 eases, that he who liecomes a savage after ])u))ertj\ has an 
 exceptional inclination to revert to the wild state ; still the 
 number is .so considerable as to show us that civilization has 
 not been so long continued as to wholly change our natures., 
 and that it is almost, if not entirely, artificial. 
 
 I think the facts will warrant the conclusion that this ten- 
 dency to reversion is nmch stronger in the male than the 
 female. In the few instances where the white female has been 
 reared in savage life, and has then been reclaimed, she lia.s 
 more readily conformed to civilized habits, and has shown less 
 longing for the wild scenes among which she was reared; and 
 when she has been introduced to savage life after maturity, she 
 seems always happy to esca])e it. In observing this fact, how- 
 ever, we ought not to forget that the harder lot of the female 
 among savage peoples may tend to make her more willing to 
 escape from what is really a state of bondage and servitude, 
 than with the man, who is in every sense an equal, or, fron\
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE PoT'l'AWATOMIES. ','1 
 
 iiis higher intellectual endowments, may most likely occupy a 
 superior position. 
 
 Reverse the state of things, and how rarely do we iiud the 
 savage ever civilized. In the numerous instances where tin 
 •savage infant has been removed fron\ the influences and allure- 
 ments of his ancestors, and reared entirely among us, and 
 taught all that civilization and Christianity could teach him, 
 but very few have been wholly weaned from thf tastes ami 
 inclinations which they have inherited from their savage an- 
 cestors. Some notable and brilliant exceptions are no douljt 
 to be met with, but they are so rare as to inspire rather our 
 ■remark and admiration than a well grounded hope tliat we can 
 ever succeed in reclaiming them as a peojjle. 
 
 The native American is in some respects a proud and a sensi- 
 tive being, and is not wanting in reflective powers. When 
 brought in contact with civilization, he recognizes his inferi- 
 ority, and appreciates his inability ever to overcome it. He 
 feels that he cannot live with the stranger, except as an infe- 
 (rior, and, inspired by his native pride, he would rather cease 
 to be than to do this. He appreciates his inevitable doom. 
 He ceases to hope, and them comes despair, which contributes 
 more than all else to hasten the result which he foresees. 
 While all have seen from the Ijeginning that the aborigines 
 melt away and die out before the advance of civilization, in 
 spite of the most humane eflbrts to produce a diflforcnt result, 
 we may not have appreciated all the causes which have con- 
 tributed to this end. Those which have been the most readily 
 understood, because the most patent, are the vices and disca.ses 
 and poisonous drinks wliich the white race has introduced 
 among them from the very iirst. If these were tlie only causes 
 we might deem it possible, by municipal regulations, to remove 
 them. While this would be a great boon which civilization 
 undoubtedly owes to the original owners of the soil where wc- 
 are so rapidly expanding into a gieat nation, I am satisfied it 
 ■would not secure the great end which pliilanthropy must most 
 ardently desire. Still they would not amalgamate with civili 
 zation, nor become civilized as a separate people. They can 
 only live and prosper and multiply by continuing as their an- 
 cestors have lived, in a wild state, roaming over large area.> 
 sparsely populated, depending upon what they can secure ot
 
 22 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 nature's raising, and when their numbers become too great for- 
 subsistence u^Don such sujoijlies, they must become reduced by 
 wars, disease, or famine. 
 
 The vievvs I have suggested, of the effect upon the mind 
 and the sensibilities of the Indian, which is produced by his 
 observations of advancing civilization as it intrudes upon him, 
 and its reflected influence upon his ])hysical organization, I 
 think well illustrated and confirmed by the observations of 
 ISlv. Sproat in his " Scenes and Studies of Savage Life." He 
 employed a large number of natives about his saw-mills at 
 Barclay Sound, on Vancouver's Island. Here the natives were 
 settled around him in comfortable dwellings with their fam- 
 ilies, and worked promiscuously with the white laborers. The 
 strictest temperance was enforced throughout the settlement, 
 and no violence was permitted toward the natives, but they 
 were treated with the utmost kindness and fairness. They 
 were well fed, well clothed, and carefully taught. Here they 
 were surrounded with all the best influences of civilization, and 
 as few of the vices as we may expect to find, when the red man 
 is brought in contact with the white. 
 
 For a time, all seemed to go on well, and tlie experiment 
 promised a success. At length, however, a change became 
 observable, especially among the Indians who lived nearest the 
 white settlements. A few of the sharpest of the young natives 
 had become off"ensively European, as he calls it, but the mass 
 of the Indians had ceased to visit the settlement in their free, 
 easy, and indejjendent way, jjut lived listlessly in their vil- 
 lages, brooding seemingly over heavy thoughts. They seemed 
 to have acquired a distrust, nay, almost a disgust for them- 
 selves. At first they had looked upon mills and machinery, 
 upon steamshijjs and upon great houses, indeed upon all the 
 wonderful works of the new comer, with curiosity and interest, 
 but now, with distrust, with disgust, and even with despair; 
 the effect of this despair was now manifest. They even began 
 to abandon their old tribal habits, practices, and ceremonies. 
 Presently, without any ajjparent cause, an unusual amount of 
 sickness was observed among them, and the death-rate was 
 largely increased, and so continued during the five years that 
 our author remained among them. Nobody molested them.
 
 AND A SKETCH OF TTTE POTTAWATO.MIES. 2:! 
 
 Notwithstanding all their comforts and all the care bestowed 
 ui)on them, they sunk into a gradual but sure decay. 
 
 The light of civilization instead of warming them into new 
 life seemed to bring a blight upon them, they felt that they 
 were an inferior race. Tliey lacked the energy, and therefore 
 the ability, to become and live as civilized men, and tlioir 
 jjroud hearts were crushed at the thoughts of living with tlie 
 white race as inferiors and therefore a degraded race, and then 
 necessarily followed disgust and despair, and then came disease 
 and death. 
 
 Had they lacked that lofty pride and that love of indepen- 
 dence which are so marked a characteiistic of our Indians, they 
 iliight have enjoyed the comforts which civilization brought 
 tliem, without mortification at the consciousness of living as 
 inferiors among a superior race. But no kindness, no assistance, 
 no proffered recognition of equality, could hide from tlieir view 
 that they were and must be inferiors, while they could in 
 contentment l^rook no superiors in fact. 
 
 In several cases advanced aboriginal Indian tribes, have by 
 act of Congress been declared citizens and endowed with all 
 the rights and privileges of citizenship. Still they were con- 
 scious of their inability to properly exercise and enjoy tliose 
 rights and privileges. They knew they could n()t exercise tlie 
 franchise side by side with the white man, with the same 
 degree of intelligence and judgment, and so they scorned to 
 use it. Perhaps it would have ))een better for them could 
 they have ignored the real disthiction which existed between 
 them and the white race, and persuaded themselves, or been 
 persuaded by others, that they were the equals of any. They 
 had too much shrewdness to be thus i>linded, and so they 
 recognized a truth which another disposition would liavc con- 
 cealed from them, and submitted to what seemed to be a fate 
 in a sort of reckless, sullen silence, at least till a possible 
 opportunity should occur for a striking blow, though it might 
 be an expiring one, for what they believed existence; and if 
 not for existence then for revenge-if not for the future then 
 
 for the past- 
 Laying aside what all must recognize as i)alpablc evils intro- 
 duced among them, as fraud, whisky, and demoralizatu.n, there 
 is upon a deeper look i)eneath the surface, a fatal .lifficulty
 
 24 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 which all the kindness and service which civilization, philan- 
 thropy, and Chi-istiauity can render them cannot oveicome. 
 
 The proud and liaughty chieftian clearly sees in the com- 
 ing of the stranger, and in his proffered kindness, the un- 
 avoidable dcgredation of his people from that lofty estate of 
 proud independence which his forefathers maintained, and 
 that at last, after being driven from their envied inheritance, 
 and finding no place of rest but in the grave itself, their final 
 extinction from the face of the earth. It is a sad picture, and 
 yet it stands out before us in the light of the past as if painted 
 on the wall before us by the Divine finger. V/e may not deny 
 that the sacrifice is necessary to promote the greatest good to 
 the greatest number, but surely we may heave a sigh of sym- 
 pathy for the victim whose immolation is necessary to carry out 
 even a Divine plan. And so may we ])ave some compassion for 
 him if in his death-throe.s he manifests his savage and untama- 
 ble nature. If it was his misfortune to be born a savage, with 
 no rights which the white man is bound to respect, then it was 
 his misfc)rtune also to be born with a nature which renders him 
 incapable of civilization, a lofty desire for independence, a 
 profound detestation for everything like servitude, a deep- 
 seated sentiment of revenge, and, above all, a total inability to 
 appreciate how it is that he has no rights which he may call 
 his own, and which even a superior race should regard. 
 
 We must admit that even our boasted civilization has its 
 strange phases, and sometimes its manifest inconsistencies. We 
 repeat the maxim that might makes right always with re- 
 proach, and yet act upon it whenever the public weal is sup- 
 posed to require it. Perhaps the truest and the best justifica- 
 tion which we can plead for insisting upon taking the lands of 
 the aborigines whenever we wish them, using no more force 
 than is necessary to accomplish what we deem necessary — 
 whether the owner is willing to sell them or not — is that a few 
 useless savages, who can do no good for the world at large, and 
 little good even for themselves, must not stand in the way of 
 the march of civilization; that God made the earth and all 
 that is upon it for His own honor and glory, and that both 
 they and we are but tenants at His will ; and that it is His 
 undoubted right, whenever in His good pleasure He sees fit, to 
 eject those who in His estimation do Him no honor, and replace
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE I'OTTAWATo.MlES. j:, 
 
 them by those who may contribute more to His glory, and tliat 
 thus He is working out His great scheme conceived from the 
 lieginuing of all time. I say if we can but thus console our- 
 selves that in what, to the superficial observer seems to be 
 spoliations of the weak by the strong, we are Ijut instruments 
 in the hands of the Almighty to work out His great purposes 
 and to execute His solemn decrees, then, indeed, we may feel 
 that we have washed our hands in innocency. For myself I 
 have never been a very ardent believer in what is sometimes 
 called special missions, and merely suggest this as the most 
 plausible justification which I have ever been able to contrive. 
 Still, I do believe that my old friends did not see it exactly in 
 that light when they turned their backs upon Chicago, the 
 scene of so many of their grave councils and of their happy 
 gatherings — when they looked for the last time upon the ever 
 bright waters of the lake, and bent their slow and reluctant 
 steps to a land of which they knew not, and in which tliey 
 would he strangers ; and yet there were old men among thenv 
 who could have told them that their fathers had with bloodier 
 liands expelled another nation who had occupied the land 
 before them, and that no douI)t the title had been thus trans- 
 ferred many times, tlie conveyance always sealed by the blood 
 of the last owner. 
 
 At this last gathering of the tril)e at Chicago the total nuiii- 
 ])er of souls was about five thousand. ^Vhile here they weic- 
 well fed by the Government ; and when they went they wen- 
 removed by the Government under the charge of the late Cajjt. 
 J. B. F. Russell. By him they were transported to their new 
 home on a reservation assigned them by tlie Government in 
 Clay county, Missouri, opi)osite Fort Leavenworth. Almost 
 from the beginning a feeling of hostility was manifeste;! 
 toward them by the citizens of Missouri, which finally resulted. 
 at the end of two yeais, in another removal t)y the Government, 
 when they were located in Iowa, near Council Bluft's. Hei-e, 
 again, their home was of short duration, and they were rcmovcil 
 a third time by the Government to tlieir present location in 
 Ivan.sas, where they have remained for over thirty years. Tlii.- 
 reservatton, however, they have now sold, and are about to 
 remove for a fourth time within little more than a third of a 
 century. Their new location is in the Indian country .south
 
 26 THE LA.ST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 and west of Kansas. How long it will )je before the pressure 
 of advancing civilization will again jjush them on in search 
 of a new home, we cannot certainlj"^ predict. We may safelj' 
 say, however, that it cannot be very long. We may scarcely 
 hope that they will ever find a quiet resting-place above the 
 earth. 
 
 In their Kansas home, the Indians of the woods have con- 
 tinued to manifest their greater adaiitability to conform to the 
 habits of civilized life. They have there subsisted to a large 
 extent by agriculture. Some progress has been made in teach- 
 ing them in schools, and the influence of religion still exerts its 
 sway over them, or at least their religious teachers still com- 
 mand their attention and resjject. Out of seventeen hundred 
 and fifty of which this band still consisted, according to the 
 last report which I have seen, sixteen hundred are rejjresented 
 as subsisting by agriculture. 
 
 'The prairie Indians yet remain as wild and untamable as 
 'ever. They are still averse to the labors of the field, and enjoy 
 the life of indolence or else the excitement of the chase, by 
 which and their annuities from the Government they eke out 
 a scanty subsistence. The finger of fate seems to be pointed 
 alike at the most civilized and the most savage. Final extinc- 
 tion is the end of the way down which all are swiftly rushing, 
 and it would seem almost practicable to calculate with mathe- 
 matical certainty, the day when they will live only in memory 
 and in history. 
 
 They left Illinois thirty-five years ago with five thousand 
 souls. At the date of the last report they had dwindled down 
 to three thousand five hundred, and at this moment their num- 
 Ijers can scarcely exceed three thousand. From this each one 
 may calculate for himself when the last day shall have passed 
 — when there will be no living representative of that powerful 
 people who but a century ago exterminated a nation at a single 
 blow at Starved Rock. The last of the Pottawatomies will 
 then have ceased to be. 
 
 I shall close this paper with an account of the great war 
 dance which was performed by all the braves which could be 
 mustered among the five thousand Indians here assembled. 
 The number who joined in the dance was probably about eight
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIES. -,'7 
 
 hundred. Although I cannot give the precise day, it must 
 liave occurred about the last of August, 18:35. It was tlie last 
 war dance ever performed by the natives on the ground M-hcre 
 now stands this great city, though how many thousands liail 
 preceded it no one can tell. They appreciated that it was tin- 
 last on their native soil — that it was a sort of funeral ceremony 
 of old associations and memories, and nothing was omitted to 
 lend to it all the grandeur and solemnity possible. Truly I 
 thought it an impressive scene of which it is quite impo.ssible 
 to give an adequate idea by words alone. 
 
 They assembled at the council-house, near where the Lake 
 House now stands,* on the north side of the river. All were 
 entirely naked, except a strip of cloth around the loins. Their 
 bodies were covered all over with a great variety of brilliant 
 paints. On their faces, particularly, they seemed to have 
 exhausted their art of hideous decoration. Foreheads, cheeks,, 
 and noses were covered with curved stripes of red or vermilion, 
 which were edged with black points, and gave the appearance 
 of a horrid grin over the entire countenance. The long, coarse, 
 black hair was gathered into scalp-locks on the tops of their 
 heads, and decorated with a profusion of hawk's and eagle's 
 feathers, some strung together so as to extend down the back 
 nearly to the ground. They were principally armed with toma- 
 hawks and war clubs. They w^ere led by wliat answered for a 
 band of music, which created what may be termed a discordant 
 din of hiaeous noises produced by beating on hollow vessels 
 and striking sticks and clubs together. They advanced, not 
 with a regular march, but a continued dance. Their actual 
 progress w^as quite slow. They proceeded up and along the 
 bank of the river, on the north side, stopping in front of every 
 house they passed, where they performed some extra exi)loits. 
 They crossed the North Branch on the old bridge, which stood 
 near where the railroad bridge now stands, and thence pro- 
 ceeded south along the west side to the liridgc across the South 
 Branch, which stood south of where Lake street bridge is nnw 
 located, which was nearly in front and in full view from t la- 
 parlor window^s of the Sauganash Hotel. At that time, tliis wa.< 
 the rival hotel to the Tremont, and stood ujjon the same groinid 
 lately occupied by the great Republican wigwam where Mr 
 
 * North-east corner of North Water and Rush Streets.
 
 28 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 Lincoln was nominated for the presidency — 80 feet south of the 
 S.E. corner of Lake and IMarket streets. It was tlien a fashion- 
 able boarding-house, and quite a number of young married 
 people had rooms there. The parlor was in the second story 
 fronting west, from the windows of which the best view of the 
 dance was to be oljtained, and these were filled with ladies so 
 .soon as the dance commenced. From this point of view my 
 own observations were principally made. Although the din 
 and clatter had been heard for a considerable time, they did 
 not come into view from this point of observation till they had 
 proceeded so far west as to come on a line with the house, 
 which was before they had reached the North Branch bridge. 
 From that time on, they were in full view all the way to the 
 South Branch bridge, which was nearly before us, the wild 
 band, which was in front as they came upon the bridge, redoub- 
 ling their blows to increase the noise, closely followed by the 
 warriors, who had now wrought themselves into a perfect 
 frenzy. 
 
 The morning was very warm, and the prespiration was x)our- 
 ing from them almost in streams. Their eyes were wild and 
 bloodshot. Their countenances had assumed an expression of 
 all the worst passions which can find a place in the breast of a 
 savage — fierce anger, terrible hate, dire revenge, remorseless 
 cruelty — all were expressed in their terrible features. Their 
 muscles stood out in great hard knots, as if wrought to a tensicm 
 which must burst them. Their tomahawks and clubs were 
 thrown and brandished about in every direction, witli the most 
 terrible ferocity, and with a force and energy which could only 
 result from the highest excitement, and with every step and 
 every gesture, they uttered the most friglitful yells, in every 
 imaginable key and note, though generally the highest and 
 shrillest possible. The dance, which was ever continued, con- 
 sisted of leajjs and simsmodic steps, now forward and now back 
 or sideways, with the whole body distorted into every imagi- 
 nable unnatural position, most generally stooping forward, with 
 tjie head and face thrown up, the back arclied down, first one 
 foot thrown far forward and then withdrawn, and the other 
 similarly thrust out, frequently squatting quite to the ground, 
 and all with a movement almost as quick as lightning. Their 
 weapons were brandished as if they would slay a thousand
 
 AND A SKETCH OF Till-: POTTA\VAT( >MI i:s. •.'!» 
 
 enemies at every blow, while the yells and sereams they uttered 
 were broken up and multiplied and rendered all the more 
 hideous by a rapid clapping of the mouth with the palm nf the 
 hand. 
 
 To see such an exhibition by a single individual would have 
 been suflBcient to excite a sense of fear in a person n(it over 
 nervous. Eight hundred such, all under the influence of the 
 strongest and wildest excitement, constituting a raging sea of 
 dusky, painted, naked fiends, presented a spectacle al)solutely 
 appalling. 
 
 When the head of the colunni had reached the front of the 
 hotel, leaping, dancing, gesticulating, and screaming, while 
 they looked up at the windows with hell itself depicted on 
 their faces, at the "chemokoman S(|uaws" with which they 
 were filled, and brandishing their weapons as if they were 
 about to make a real attack in deadly earnest, the rear was still 
 on the other side of the river, two hundred yards off; and all 
 the intervening space, including the bridge and its approaches, 
 was covered with this raging savagery glistening in the sun. 
 reeking with streamy sweat, fairly frothing at the mouths a& 
 with unaftected rage, it seemed as if we had a picture of hell 
 itself before us, and a carnival of the damned spirits their con- 
 fined, wdiose pastimes we may suppose should present .some 
 such scenes as this. 
 
 At this stage of the spectacle, I was interested to observe 
 the effect it had upon the different ladies who occupied the 
 windows almost within reach of the war clubs in the hands of 
 the excited savages just below them. I^Iost of theui had be- 
 come accustomed to the sight of the naked savages during the 
 several weeks they had occupied the town, and had even seen 
 them in the dance before, for several minor dances had bnn 
 previously performed, but this far excelled in the horri.l .uiy- 
 thing wliich they had previously witnessed. Others, howevei-, 
 had "but just arrived in town, and had never seen an Indian 
 before the last few days, and knew nothing of our wild western 
 Indians but what they had learned of their savage butelieiie> 
 and tortures in legends and in histories. To those most fan.il- 
 iar with them, the scenes seemed actually appalling, and l)ut 
 few stood it through and met the fierce glare of the savoge eyes 
 below them without shrinking. It was a place to try ilw
 
 30 THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS, 
 
 human nerves of even the stoutest, and all felt that one such 
 sight was enough for a lifetime. The question forced itself on 
 even those who had seen them most, what if they should, in 
 their maddened frenzy, turn this sham warfare into a real 
 attack ? how easy it would be for them to massacre us all, and 
 leave not a living soul to tell the story. Some such remark as 
 this was often heard, and it was not strange if the cheeks of all 
 paled at the thought of such a possibility. However, most of 
 them stood it bravely, and saw the sight to the very end ; but 
 I think all felt relieved when the last had disappeared around 
 the corner as they passed down Lake street, and only those 
 ' horrid sounds which reached them told that the war dance 
 was still progressing. They paused in their progress, for 
 extra exploits, in front of Dr. John T. Temple's house, near 
 the north-east corner of Lake and Franklin streets, then in 
 front of the Exchange Coifee House, a little further east on 
 Lake street; and then again in front of the Tremont, then 
 situated on the north-west corner of Lake and Dearborn streets, 
 where the aj^pearance of the ladies in the windows again 
 inspired them with new life and energy. From thence they 
 passed down to Fort Dearborn, where they concluded their 
 performance in the presence of the officers and soldiers of the 
 garrison, where we will take a final leave of my old friends, 
 with more good wishes for their future welfare than I really 
 dare hope will be realized.
 
 Origin OF the prairies 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 OTTAWA ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCKS. 
 December 30TH, 1869, 
 
 BY 
 
 Hon. John Dean Caton. LL.D., 
 
 LATE CHIEF-IUSTICE OF HJ.IXOIS. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 FERGUS PRINTING COM PAN V, 
 
 244-S Illinois Street. 
 1876.
 
 Origin of the Prairies. 
 
 I PROPOSE to offer ^()lne observations on the Origin of tlie 
 Prairies, though it may seem like ])resumptiou in me to attempt 
 the discussion of a subject which that greatest of nature's stu- 
 dents, the immortal Humboldt, seems studiously to have avoid- 
 ed. He describes to us all ihe prairies of the world, a great 
 portion of which he had personally examined. He gives us 
 their area, their geography, their topography, their surround- 
 ing, their components, and their products, but gives us no word 
 of suggestion or explanation why they are destitute of trees, 
 when surrounded and interspersed everywhere by forests. 
 This, indeed, seems very remarkable itj^ one who was, perhaps, 
 the most extraordinary man that ever lived for observiuf'. 
 studying, and explaining every interesting phenomenon in 
 nature. Why has not he, the most able of all men to di.scuss 
 it, favored us with his views on this subject"? We are hardly 
 at liberty to supjiose it was a mere oversight, and are lotii to 
 l)elieve that he considered the inquirj^ of so little importauce 
 as to be unworthy of his notice. This would be too severe a 
 reflection upon all those who have since considered the incjuiry 
 worthy of the most serious consideration. Since his time it 
 has been the subject of much study and of many and conrtict- 
 ing theories. Altliough he, whom of all others we sliould li- 
 ten to with the greatest interest, in answer to his in((uiiy, has, 
 so far as I know, not chosen to enlighten us with his vii-ws, yet 
 the origin of the Prairies is a theme wliicii has commanded the 
 attention of many, both of those whose eminent attainmeuts 
 entitle them to the appellation of learned, and those who JwcII 
 upon them Ijut make no pretensions to sucli distinction. My 
 the former, theories have been advanced, and elaborated, ami 

 
 34 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES, 
 
 placed on record, some of which are quite inconsistent with 
 others, so that all of them, at least, cannot be true ; and proba- 
 ]Ay we should not be very far out of the way should we con- 
 clude that some errors have crept into all, and also that none of 
 them are entirely destitute of truth. Indeed, we are some- 
 times inclined to the belief that each one has written as if 
 called upon to advance something entirely original, and this 
 may have led some to the very borders of al:»surdity, and would 
 almost induce the belief that their autJiors had never seen a 
 prairie. Upon this, as upon all other subjects where we must 
 depend upon evidence to lead us to correct conclusions, it is 
 indispensable that we proceed upon fads and, so far as possi- 
 ble, all the facts which can enlighten our judgments upon the 
 suliject. The very moment we proceed upon assumed facts 
 which in truth do not exist, then most likely the first step will 
 be error, and so we .shall be led by false lights to the very end, 
 and it will be remarkable if our conclusions are not erroneous. 
 
 All men, and especially the learned, are, perhaps, too prone 
 to theorizing, and such is the weakness of human nature that 
 when a theory is once formed and announced, it is our child, our 
 offspring, our fondling, and we seem to feel the obligation of a 
 parent to ever after n^intain and support it. Though, as it 
 grows up, it may Ijecome deformed and ugly, and unworthy of 
 our further care, it requires the stoicism of the Roman father 
 to discard it and order its execution. All manner of violence 
 is done to facts to win support and sustenance for the bantling, 
 and every grain of proof in its defense is made to weigh a 
 pound. 
 
 Each of the theories which have been advanced on this 
 subject undoubtedly has some facts for its support, and possi- 
 bly may account for the formation of some prairies; but neither 
 is capable of accounting for all prairies. Hence I conclude that 
 various causes have contributed to the formation of the prairies. 
 It may be that some prairies have been formed by processes 
 entirely different from processes which have formed others. 
 
 But, first of all, in the discussion of this subject, and so it is ' 
 of all others, it is necessary to have a distinct understanding of 
 the»subject to be discussed. We must know jirecisely what 
 particular facts are to be explained — what phenomena are to be 
 accounted for. There are two distinct elements to be consid-
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIHIE.S. :ir, 
 
 ered in the discussion of this sulyecl. Thu one is Uio deposi 
 tion of the soils and the configuration of the surfaces of the 
 prairies; and the other is the absence of arborescent vegetation 
 upon them, in what may be termed their natural state, while 
 they are clothed with a rich.coat of herbaceous vegetation. So 
 it Avill be seen that I only propose to discuss wliat may hv 
 called the fertile prairies, laying entirely out of view those arid 
 deserts formed in many portions of the globe where rains an- 
 so seldom that few varieties of the vegetable kingdom can exist 
 without artificial irrigation. 
 
 My attention has been lately recalled to this subject by the 
 re-persual of a paper prepared by Professor Leo Lesquereaux 
 for the report of the Geological Survey of Illinois, and jiuli- 
 lislied in that Report, Vol. 1, page 238. Hence has it become 
 the property of our State, and invites the criticism of all her 
 citizens, thousands of whom have devoted much study to the 
 subject, with better means of understanding it than is possible- 
 to one whose observations are confined to a mere superficial 
 examination of them, as was evidently the case with the learned 
 author of this jiajjer, as I think I shall show before I conclude, 
 although I attempt it with the greatest deference and respect 
 for such high authority. 
 
 The theory of the learned Professor may be briefiy stated 
 .thus : Prairies were originally formed in the shallow margins 
 of agitated waters, either lakes or running streams. By the 
 agitation of the waters of lakes drifting material is thrown up 
 at a greater or less distance from the sliores, forming dams or 
 dykes, which serve to cut off shallow sections of water from the 
 main body,. These shallow ponds of water, being protected 
 from the agitations of the main body, become the habitat of 
 aquatic plants, which in successive crops decay and an- repro- 
 duced, thus contributing to fill up the shallow pools, whicli end 
 is also promoted hy atmospheric dejjosits and the growth and 
 decay of animal aquatic life, until iinally the bottom of the 
 pent up waters is raised above the surface, and a prairie is 
 formed. The same process is repeated along the margins of 
 rivers, where similar deposits are made in the still waters on 
 either side of the active current, which cuts off sections of slial- 
 low water into quiet ponds along the river bottoms, which 
 become filled up and are converted into prairies in tiie same
 
 36 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES, 
 
 way. TJie paper says : "This ijeculiarity of formation explains,. 
 lirst, tlie peculiar nature of the soil of the prairies. It is- 
 neither peat nor humus, but a black, soft mould, impregnated 
 with a large proportion of ulmic acid, produced by the slow 
 decomposiiion, mostly under water, of aquatic plants, and thus 
 partaking as mui;h of the nature of j^eat as true humus. In all 
 the depressions of the prairies, where water is permanent and; 
 unmixed with mineral matter, the ground is true peat. It is 
 easy to understand why trees cannot grow on such kind of 
 ground." 
 
 Now, the first criticism which the consideration of this 
 theory invites is, that it assumes that all prairie soils are of the 
 same character and constituents, and hence the conclusion that 
 tliey are all formed in the same way and are alike unfitted \o 
 the growth of trees. 
 
 All familiar with the prairies, even the most superficial 
 observers, know tliat this is not the case. There is almost, if 
 not quite, as great a variety of prairie soils as of woodland 
 soils. Scarcely one acre in the thousand of the great prairies 
 of Illinois and Iowa would be recognized by this description. 
 Peat bogs, as described by our author, are frequently met with, 
 and sometimes bordering them the kind of soil he describes- 
 where jwnds have l:)een filled ujJ and converted into marshes, 
 and these, by a continuance of the same ])rocess, have finally 
 become dry prairies ; but a very large pro2)ortion of our dry ' 
 prairies abound in true humus, while many are scantily fur- 
 nished with vegetable matter. Such is the character of all our 
 sandy prairies, a striking example of which is found near 
 Pekin, in this State, stretching clear away to the banks of the 
 Mackinaw, and even beyond it. Of the same character, also, 
 are the prairies at Peoria, at Ciiillicothe, at Lacou, at Hennepin, 
 and at Henry, and twenty others which I could name in Ill- 
 inois. This soil is as permeable to the atmosphere, is as acces- 
 sible to oxj'gen as any soil capable of sustaining vegetable life. 
 
 Surely these prairies are not treeless because the seeds of 
 arborescent plants deposited on or in them are not accessible to 
 the oxygen necessary to their development, which is, in fact, 
 the only reason which the writer assigns for the al)seuce of 
 trees on the prairies. He says, immediately after my last quo- 
 tation : " The germination of seeds of arborescent plants needs
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. :!? 
 
 the free access of oxygen for its dovolopinents, and tlie trees, 
 especially in their youth, absorb by their roots a great amount 
 of air, and demand a solid point of attachment to fix them 
 selves. Moreover, the acid of this, l)y its particularly antiseptic 
 properties, promotes the vegetation of a peculiar grouji of 
 plants principally herbaceous." The truth is, all the vegetation 
 found on the high prairies requires the accessiljility (^f oxygen 
 to its roots for its proper nutrition — nay, its vitality. Transfer 
 the grasses on the rolling prairies into the swamps, or even the 
 humid soil of the swales, and they will die as if burned with 
 fire. Tlie vegetation upon the prairies changes as tlicy become 
 dryer, no matter from what cause. Artificial draining produces 
 this effect with appreciable rapidity. Tliis, no doubt, is not 
 entirely owing to the absence of stagnant water in tlie soil, 
 but also to the absence of certain salts, which have been washed 
 out by aftbrding a passage to the water percolating through the 
 soil. Although I cannot assert from actual analysis that this 
 change takes place in the constituents of the soil by the 
 ])rocess of draining. I think it is not a hazardous conjecture to 
 suppose so, nor is it more unreasonable to suppose that the 
 pores left vacant by draining off the water are directly filled by 
 air, and so is the soil at once supplied with an abundance of 
 oxygen necessary to the vitality of a new class of vegetation, 
 which succeeds the old. The difterence in the vegetation found 
 on the different prairies, or on different parts of the same prai- 
 ries, testifies to the different constituents in their soils. So 
 soon as the soil is raised above the water, atmos])heric air 
 will penetrate It, .more and more, in almost the exact ratio that 
 it becomes dryer. Both mechanical and chemical changes aic 
 thence continually going on, and so are the constituents of the 
 soil continually changing, and so does the character of the vege- 
 tation found upon them change, so that the soil will always 
 be covered with some class of vegetatif)n to which it is adapted. 
 But it does not follow that all the kinds of vegetation wliicli 
 the soil is adapted to sustain, will Ije found there. Indeed, but 
 a very few may be looked for. The selection of tliose that 
 are found, and the exclusion of those absent, arc determined 
 by causes quite independent of the constituents of the soil. 
 They are dependent upon accidental causes. 
 
 The theory under consideration also assumes tliat the subsoil
 
 38 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 of the prairies is uniformly clay. A more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the prairies would have corrected this misapprehen- 
 sion. The super-soil of the prairies sometimes rests upon 
 gravel and sometimes upon rock, and sometimes this gravel 
 subsoil, at a greater or less depth, rests upon either a stratum of 
 clay or upon rock. An example of the former may be found 
 on the east side of the DuPage river, above Plainfield, in this 
 State, — where we have the exceptional case of the entire 
 absence of timber along the borders of a considerable river for 
 many miles, — and in many places along the Fox river. Also, 
 near Lisbon and at Joliet, we find tlie soil resting upon rock, 
 with no clay interposed. Near Lisbon, particularly, this is 
 found on the high, rolling prairie, far aw^ay from the river 
 bottoms and from timber. I might cite many similar examples, 
 l)Ut it is unnecessary. The vegetation covering all these, when 
 not controlled by the humidity of the soil, is substantially the 
 same, but neither the surface or the subsoil has in general any- 
 thing to do with absence of arborescent vegetation. 
 
 That the prairies — that is, the land itself — have been formed 
 under water, except the very limited portion of the surface 
 which has been added from decomposed animal and vegetable 
 matter since their emergence, will not be questioned by any 
 one of the least observation ; but that is not the main question 
 involved in the present inquiry. Why are they not covered 
 with forests? It is the cause of this feature whici) Prof. Les- 
 quereaux undertakes to explain. II is theory of the territorial 
 formation is introduced solely for the purpose of explaining 
 this phenomenon, and which it fails to explain, at least to my 
 satisfaction. 
 
 If the Grand Prairie of Illinois was formed under water, 
 from which it emerged hj a slow process of elevation or by a 
 subsidence of the waters, a theory to which I am prepared to 
 assent, or if it was formed ijiecemeal by having one section of 
 shallow water, and then another, cut off from the main body 
 by the accumulation of deposits by the agitated waters, as 
 described in the theory under consideration, then the lands 
 now covered by the immense forests lying north and east of us, 
 in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, and of the .^ame 
 general altitude, were formed in the same way ; and if this 
 process of formation is the true cause why trees are not found
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 30 
 
 on our prairies, then the same cause should liave proiUiccd the 
 same effect there. But more, if this theory be correct, then the 
 latest formations of land should be nearest the great bodies of 
 water from which they have been detaclied, and less congenial 
 to the growth of trees, and we should expect to find the forests 
 most remote from the waters. Now, the very reverse of tliis i^ 
 found, in fact, to be the case. At one single point alone does 
 tlie Grand Prairie abut on Lake Michigan, and that for the 
 short distance of four miles south of the mouth of the Chicago 
 river. The great forests of Indiana are in the north part of 
 that State, and we must go south of those forests to find her 
 large and luxuriant prairies. In Northwestern Indiana we find 
 those large swamps, which may have been cut off from the 
 waters of the lakes in the manner supposed ))y Prof Lesquere- 
 aux, and which are now in the process of being filled up; but 
 it is a remarkable and interesting fact, that, wherever a point, 
 no matter how small, in any of these great marshes has l)cen 
 raised above high water, it is covered with trees. No traveler 
 can pass over the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad, 
 for instance, without having his attention arrested by the 
 innumerable islands, all covered with trees, rising everywhere 
 oat of this great marsh, all with surfaces but a very few feet 
 above the water. If he has ever passed down the St. Lawrence, 
 among the Thousand Islands, he is at once reminded of the 
 fact by the similarity of the relative location, size, and number 
 of the islands. I have in vain sought among these marshes for 
 a dry place devoid of trees, except on the dykes themselves, 
 portions of which may be found (luite destitute of any vegeta- 
 tion, where the dry sand will afford sustenance to none. 
 
 That these marshes once formed a portion of tlie body of the 
 lake, and have been cut off from it by dykes thrown up l)y 
 agitated waters, may be true. Indeed, these dykes are as 
 readily traced to-day as are the shores of the lake or the l)or- 
 ders of the marshes themselves; but they are not uniformly 
 overgrown with trees, as is supposed l)y the author of tiic 
 theory under consideration. More than thirty-five years ago I 
 examined one of the most remarkable of tliese ridges, south of 
 where the village of Thornton now stands. It is composed 
 principally of compact gravels, as straight as possible, nearly 
 north and south; I should think, perhaps, three hun.lnd leet
 
 40 0IIIC4IN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 wide, and elevated, probalily, ten feet above the marslics on 
 each side. It is as regular in its grade as if thrown up by the 
 hand of man, under the direction of a skillful engineer, and 
 constitutes the most beautiful natural drive I ever saw, and, I 
 understand, is now u.sed as a public road. Not a tree was 
 standing on it, nor the evidence that there had ever been one. 
 The soil was light, but sufficient to sustain the pine or the 
 l)lack oak. 
 
 Although it is reasonable to suppose that this dyke cut off 
 the waters to the west long before the waters to the east of it 
 were separated from the lake by a similar process, yet the 
 marsh on the west was not, and I venture to say is not now, 
 elevated appreciably more than that on the east. This may 
 serve to teach us how extremely slow is the filling up process 
 of these marshes, even after they have been elevated so as to 
 become passable to animals, and are annually covered with a 
 heavy growth of grass — so slf)W, indeed, that it is inappreciable 
 from one generation of men to anothei'. I accept this as an 
 evidence of the formation of some prairies in the manner sup- 
 posed In' our author, but not as a reason why they arc destitute 
 of trees. It seems to me that he does not sufficiently appreci- 
 ate the effect of the chemical and mechanical action of the 
 elements upon all things aljove the waters even in a short 
 period, as reckcmed Ijy geological time, in which the life of 
 man is so short as to be hardly an appreciable moment, and the 
 entire historic period is scarcely long enough for a single 
 breath. Although, geologically speaking, we can consider this 
 a new country, yet time enough has elapsed since these high 
 prairies were lii'st elevated, or rathei, I will say, were last 
 elevated above the waters, to add to them something, at least, 
 from animal and vegetable deposits and ])articles floating in 
 the atmosphere, though slow indeed has been and will be this 
 accumulation upon the surface, accelerated or retarded by 
 liuman industry where civilization directs its energies. 
 
 Through the changes of accumulating ages, the soils of our 
 prairies and woodlands have, no doubt, at different times, been 
 adapted to the healthy growth of almost every variety of 
 vegetation of the temperate zone, Ijoth herbaceous and arbores- 
 cent, nor do I think it unreasonable to suppose that not only 
 our present prairies, but the great forest land covering the
 
 ORIGIN OF THE IMJAIIUHS n 
 
 plains which siJrcad nwny clear to the foot of the mountaiiKs 
 east of us, may have l)eeu many times clothed with lieuvy 
 forests, and these again denuded to naked i)rairies. It is a 
 familiar fact, that places have been found covered witli what 
 appeared a primeval forest of hard wood, showing abundant 
 remains of a growtli of pine, which must once have occupied 
 the same place. No fact is better settled in agricultural science, 
 than that any particular crop of vegetation, if long continued, 
 will in tim(! exhaust the element necessary to its vigorous 
 growth, when, if vegetation requiring a different clement he 
 substituted, it will grow with peculiar luxuriance. Hence the 
 necessity for rotation of crops, which has been thus enforced 
 by the laws of nature herself long before man appreciated its 
 utility or adopted it in practice. 
 
 When the vegetation is not taken from the ground, but is 
 allowed to return to it, the process of exhaustion i.s, no doul>t, 
 retarded to a certain extent, Init is not entirely arrested, and 
 hence we see this rotation of crops wrought out l)y the hand of 
 nature itself, although at longer intervals than is re<|uireil fdr 
 the husbandman. 
 
 I entirely concur in the popular opinion, that among the 
 most important of the causes which have produced this inter- 
 esting result is fire, while the exhaustion and replenishing the 
 soil with particular elements have, no doubt, had their in- 
 fluence. 
 
 The opinions of the first settlers on the prairies, who are 
 often good observers of many phenomena, are entitled to 
 respect, and, s© far as I am aware, they universally attribute the 
 absence of trees from the prairies to the ]K'riodical (ires whi<-li 
 swept over them, overlooking, no doubt, many minor causes. 
 The hard, impenetrable character of the sward, formed by 
 most of the herbaceous vegetation of the piairics, forms a 
 serious impediment to the germination of seeds of trees, when. 
 by accident, they fall upon it. It is not the composition of the 
 soil that prevents the germination of this class of seeds, but 
 whatever difficulty is experienced in this regard arises from 
 the mechanical cause above suggested. The hrrl)aceous vege- 
 tation which covers the prairies is furnished with an immense 
 number of very strong roots,— far more so than any of tlie tame 
 or cultivated grasses. In general, these form a complete mat
 
 42 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 ml the surface and penetrate to a great depth. They are often 
 met with of a considerable size at a depth of six or eight feet. 
 The extraordinary system of ca))illary roots witli which tiiey 
 are furnished enables them to remain green and vigorous during 
 the long droughts, which much more frequently occur on the 
 prairies than in the timbered lands and in mountainous coun- 
 tries, during which the cultivated grasses, and even the clover, 
 with its long tap-roots, greatly suffer. These long droughts, no 
 doubt, also exert their influence to pre\ent the germination of 
 arborescent seeds on the prairies, or to destroy the young 
 plants, or, at least, to prepare them for certain destruction 
 when the autumnal fires shall sweep over them. 
 
 It is a familiar fact to all careful observers that fire is much 
 more destructive to the vitality of arborescent than to herba- 
 ceous plants, caeteris paribus. A fire that will destroy the last 
 vestige of life in a tree of considerable size will leave the 
 roots of the grasses surrounding it unharmed, from which will 
 spring a more luxuriant growth the succeeding season. Indeed, 
 it is a most interesting fact, familiar to all the early settlers 
 who depended upon the prairie grasses for jjasturage and for 
 hay, that a much more luxuriant growth is produced on the 
 prairies where the old grass is burned off than where it i& 
 allowed to remain and decay upon the ground. I have in per- 
 son often made careful observations on this subject, and uni- 
 formly with the same result. The farmer does not burn ofl[" the 
 old grass in the fall solely that it may not obstruct the scythe 
 \vhen mowing the next year's crop, but the most casual obser- 
 vation will show one that the actual growth of grass is, ordin- 
 arily, at least, one-third greater where the old grass has been 
 burned oft" in the fall. I ^lall not stop now to explain why 
 this is so, although I think it susceptible of a most satisfactory 
 solution, but at present content myself with the fact that the 
 roots ot the prairie herbage are not injured by a very consider- 
 able degree of heat where even large trees would be liable to 
 1)6 destroyed. What, then, must be the fate of the tree of but 
 a few months' growth? Utter annihilation seems absolutely 
 inevitable. So long as the j^rairies are subject to the annual 
 conflagrations, to which they are so much exposed in a state of 
 nature, there is a manifest cause why trees get a lodgment on 
 them with so much difficulty.
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 48 
 
 While I will make no question with Prof. Lescjuercaii.x ius to 
 the process by which the marshes or swamps in the vicinity of 
 some of our lakes and rivers have been formed, or the reasons 
 why trees do not grow in them, conceding that perpetual stag- 
 nant water is destructive of arboraceous vitality, tlie error, I 
 conceive, consists in carrying the proposition too far, and ai)ply- 
 ing it where the existing conditions render it inapplicable — 
 in extending it from the marshes perpetually covered with 
 water to the high, rolling prairie.s, where none of the condi- 
 tions exist which prevent the growth of trees in the stagnant 
 waters of the marshes. The cause of the absence of trees on 
 the upland prairies is the problem most important to the agri- 
 cultural interests of our State, and it is the inquiry which 
 alone I propose to consider, but I cannot resist the rcmaik that 
 wherever we do find timber throughout this broad field of prai- 
 rie, it is always in or near the humid jwrtions of it, — as along 
 the margins of streams, or upon or near the springy uplands;. 
 3Iany most luxuriant groves are found on the highest portions 
 of the uplands, but always in the neighborhood of water. For 
 a remarkable example, I may refer to that great chain of groves, 
 extending from and including the AuSable Grove on the east 
 and Holderman's Grove on the west, in Kendall county, occupy- 
 ing the high divide between the waters of the Illinois and the 
 Fox rivers. In and around all the groves flowing springs 
 abound, and some of them are separated by marshes, to the very 
 Ijorders of which the great trees apprf)ach, as if the forest were 
 ready to seize upon each yard of ground as soon as it is elevated 
 above the swamps. Indeed, all our groves seem to be located 
 where water is so disposed as to protect them, to a great or less 
 extent, from the prairie fire, although not so situated as to ini- 
 gate them. If the head waters of the stieams on the prairies 
 are most frequently without timber, so soon as they l:ave at- 
 tained sufiicient volume to impede the progress of the fires, 
 with very few exceptions, we find forests on their borders, 
 becoming broader and more vigorous as the magnitude of the 
 streams increase. It is manifest that land located on the ljor-» 
 ders of streams which the fire cannot pass are only expose.l to 
 one-half the fires to which they would be exposed but for such 
 protection. This tends to show, at least, that if but onchnlf 
 the fires that have occurred had been kindled, the arboraceous
 
 44 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 growth could have withstood their destructive influences, and 
 the whole surface of what is now prairie would be forest. 
 Another confirmatory fact, patent to all observers, is, that the 
 prevailing winds upon the prairies, especially in the autumn, 
 tire from the west, and these give direction to the prairie fires. 
 Consequently, the lands on the westerly sides of the streams 
 are the most exposed to the fires and, as might be expected, we 
 find much the most timber on the easterly sides of the streams. 
 
 Another fact, always a subject of remark among the dwellers 
 on the prairies, I regard as conclusive evidence that the prairie 
 soils are peculiarly adapted to the growth of trees is, that 
 wherever the fires have been kept from the groves by the set- 
 tlers, they have rapidly encroached upon the prairies, unless 
 closely depastured by the farmer's stock or prevented by culti- 
 vation. This fact I regard as established by careful observa- 
 tion of more than thirty-five years, during which I have been 
 an interested witness of the settlement of this country, — from 
 the time when a few log cabins, many miles apart, built in the 
 borders of the groves, alone were met with, till now nearly the 
 whole of the great prairies, in our State at least, are brought 
 under cultivation by the industry of the husbandman. Indeed, 
 this is a fact as well recognized by the settlers as that corn 
 Avill grow ujjon the prairies when properly cultivated. Ten 
 years ago I heard the observation made, by intelligent and 
 observing men, that within the preceding twenty-five years the 
 area of the timber in the prairie portions of the State had actu- 
 ally doubled Ijy the spontaneous extension of the natural 
 groves. However this may be, certain it is that the encroach- 
 ments of the timber upon the prairies have been universal and 
 rajjid, wherever not impeded by fire or other physical causes, 
 without regard to the constituents of the soil. 
 
 The manner and jirogress of the encroachments are familiar 
 to all. Tlie hazel is the usual pioneer in these encroachments, 
 though sometimes even this is preceded by the wild aj^ple. 
 No one can at this day travel two hours on any of the railroads 
 through our prairies without passing some grove of timber bor- 
 dered l^y considerable belts of hazel, among wiiich, not far 
 from the outer edge, young forest trees will appear, and these 
 will be oljserved larger and larger as they are farther and 
 father from the edge of the grass, and are found nearer and
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 45 
 
 nearer the original forest, and this where tliere has been no 
 cultivation. Tliis is the usual though not universal appearance 
 of the surroundings (/f the groves at the present day. Some- 
 times, no doubt, large trees will be found as advance sentinels, 
 standing out quite in the prairie, l)ut liow they have been able 
 to maintain their ground there we may not at all times be able 
 to explain. Such instances are rixvc exceptions. The general 
 rule is, that the hazel is in tlie advance, and from tliis we may 
 safely conclude that this shrulj can maintain the struggle for 
 life witli the prairie grass better tiian forest trees, while ii> 
 turn it succumbs to the latter. In the hazel rough tlie seeds 
 of the trees iind an accessible soil, wheie the young plants are 
 indifferent to or are benefited by the shade. In time tiiey rise 
 above the hazel, and at length grow to sufficient size to con- 
 stitute a forest, and shade the ground, which destroys the 
 hazel, which was their protecting nurse in infancy. The facts 
 stated, I think, clearly warrant the conclusion drawn. 
 
 In the paper under consideration, the author, in answer ti> 
 some, I think, well-considered remarks of Prof. Winchell, says: 
 "The second assertion, that tree.^ will groir i»i the prairies irJien 
 introduced or planted, is certainly true. But we should take 
 care to make a distinction l^etween the results of an artificial 
 process and a natural one. AVlien trees are jilanted on the prai- 
 rie tiie soil is conveniently prepared The clayey subsoil 
 mixed with the black mould forms a compound which com- 
 bines density of certain parts with lightness of others, and con- 
 tains a great proportion of nutritive elements. If the clay of 
 the subsoil is not too thick to be im])ermeable to water, and 
 thus to retain it around the roots, this prepared or artificial 
 ground is very appropriate to the growth of trees. But has 
 ever anybody seen oaks or hickories, or any other kind of trees, 
 grow in the prairies from a bushel of acorns or of nuts tlirown 
 upon their surface? Why, then, if trees will grow on the prai- 
 ries, do we not see those isolated and far-between clusters of 
 trees which appear here and there on the borders of ancient 
 lakes cover a wider area and by and by invade the wliole prai- 
 ries? Some of those trees have lived there for ages, then- 
 trunks are strong and thick, and their l)ranchcs, widely ex- 
 panded, are shaken and their fruits swept away by the impetu- 
 osity of the autumnal storms; and, nevertlieless, their domain
 
 46 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 is restricted by the nature of the ground to limits which they 
 have never surpassed." 
 
 Xow, the observations already stated, and about which I 
 cannot be mistaken, and in support of which thousands of 
 witnesses who have dwelt ui)on the prairies for many years, and 
 have been in the constant habit of observing tlie various phe- 
 nomena which they present* can l^e met with everywhere in 
 this prairie country, fully answer the suggestions contained in 
 the full extract which I have made. Arboreous seeds, when 
 thrown upon the unbroken prairie, do germinate and grow to 
 trees, but with difficulty, no doubt, on account of the sward on 
 which ihey fall, and the great danger to which they are ex- 
 posed, especially from fires. Where they have no protection 
 from these their destruction is almost certain, no matter how 
 readily the seed may germinate or how vigorously the young 
 plants may grow. It does not require the cultivation of the 
 soil, the mixing of the clayey subsoil with the black mould of 
 the surface, to insure the successful growth of trees upon the 
 prairies. Indeed, I have already shown that not all the jjrairies 
 have a clayey subsoil, and, as is elsewhere shown in the paper 
 under consideration, in but few instances does the clay ap- 
 proach the surface to within the reach of the plow. The whole 
 theory under consideration is based on tlie fatal error that the 
 prairie soils are not adapted to the gn^wth of trees. I do not 
 speak from mere conjecture, but from carefully observed and 
 well attested facts, when 1 say that the exact reverse is the 
 case. 
 
 We have, then, oljvious reasons why the scattered clusters of 
 trees referred to, the isolated groves upon the prairies, have not 
 extended their domain so as to embrace the whole field. The 
 prairie fires, the matted, tough sward, the grazing of wild ani- 
 mals in the neighborhood of the groves to which they resorted, 
 the aboriginal encampments usually located around the borders 
 of the groves would seem to present sutficient explanation why 
 the groves have not extended, independently of the quality of 
 the soil. That the cultivation of the prairie soils improves 
 their condition for the growth of trees is jj roved by the more 
 vigorous growth of those where the ground is cultivated than 
 those which spring from seeds accidentally scattered on the
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PIlAIRIi:S. 47 
 
 prairie along the borders of tlie groves; but this is true of 
 herbaceous vegetation as well. 
 
 Who that is intimately acquainted witli and has carefully 
 studied the prairies will dispute that the soil of the groves ha> 
 1jeen formed by the same process that has formed the soil of 
 the treeless prairies? The theory that these groves mark out 
 the places where the agitated waters have thrown up eml)ank- 
 ments, which cut oif the shallow waters where the nakcvl prai- 
 ries have been formed, is not sustained by either the topog- 
 raphy or the geography of the ground. If this theory wort- 
 true, we should find the groves in continuous lines, upon ele- 
 vated ridges, composed of sand and gravel, such as we uni- 
 formly find to comj^rise those dykes, which, undoubtedly, have 
 been formed as supposed, and have performed the office as- 
 signed them. Such, however, is not the case. In very few 
 instances do we fmd the groves occupying continuous, unbroken 
 ridges of any considerable extent. We find them scattered over 
 the prairies, without law or order, excepting only the condition 
 of water in some form in their vicinity, which may serve to 
 protect them from the contiagrations of the ])rairies. This water 
 need not charge the soil itself with humidity in order to secuie 
 the growth of trees, for it is not uncommon to find the groves 
 occupying the highest and dryest knolls, l)ut at their feet, or at 
 least so near as to serve as a protection, water is sure to be 
 found. In former times, when the traveler, in crossing the 
 great, wild prairies, saw a grove in the distance, he shaped his 
 course to it, with the absolute certainty of finding water there, 
 no matter how dry or parched the prairie might be. 
 
 The soil, too, gives no evidence of an accumulation of mate- 
 rial, such as is usually thrown up by agitated waters. When 
 we penetrate the soil of the woodlands, even to great depths, as 
 in digging wells, and the like, we find the same formations 
 which are met wath in the surrounding prairies. I have already 
 alluded to the fact that whenever we find a chain of groves 
 occupying the high divides of the water sheds of the pnuries, 
 they are generally separated by deep depressions, wliich would 
 have destroyed them as dykes for tiie separation of the waters. 
 
 As I have already stated, I am prepared to admit, a.s almost a 
 demonstrated fact, that not only our great prairies, I)ut also our 
 c^reat forest lands and the desert plains, filling all the space
 
 4S ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 between the AUeglienies nnd the Rocky Mountains, were orig- 
 inally formed or dejiosited ufider water, from which they have 
 emerged by some i^rocess of nature, probably very slow; but 
 this elevation has not been dependent, to any considerable 
 degree, upon additional deposits, but npun the actual upheaval 
 of the mass of matter originally submerged, or the subsidence 
 of the waters by the removal of barriers whicli once restrained 
 them. And yet, if all prairies have been formed as supposed 
 l)y the theory which I have taken the liberty of criticising, 
 they have been formed l:)y deposits in the water till, by succes- 
 sive accumulations, they have iinally emerged above the waters. 
 
 To me the evidence that this is not so is aljsnlutely conclu- 
 sive, as well as that the deposits have been very insignificant, 
 since they were deeply buried under the waters. I will state 
 some of the facts, within the observation of all men, which have 
 led me to this conclusion. 
 
 I think it is universally accepted, at least among scientific 
 men, that the rocks (called boulders) scattererd over most of our 
 prairies, at least east of the Missouri river and north of latitude 
 forty, have Ijeen transported from their original beds in the 
 north to their present jjlaces by means of floating ice. Apart 
 from the admitted fact that this is not their native place, or 
 that they did not grow here, and hence must have been trans- 
 ported by some agency, and of our absolute inability to con- 
 ceive of any other caj^able of j'l'odwcing such results, many of 
 the masses, especially in the Iowa prairies, weighing Imndreds 
 of tons each, and the additional fact that their rounded form 
 has been acquired by alirasion, by which their sharp angles 
 liave been worn away since they were detached from their origi- 
 nal beds, and we can conceive of no other adequate agency to 
 produce this result but moving water and ice, — I sav, aside fiom 
 all this evidence, within two miles of where I now write, the 
 most convincing evidence exists tliat these boulders were 
 brought by icebergs. To the norti), but more especially to the 
 west, of the city of Ottawa, and ahnost within its limits, it is 
 easy to trace the exact size and form of the masses of ice, wlierc 
 they grounded and deposited their freight of boulders. There 
 one may walk over a quarter of an acre, a half an aci-e, or several 
 acres, according to the size of the mass, always stepping on 
 these stones, thus deposited close together as they were when
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 49 
 
 embraced by the congealing waters, and outside of the borders 
 not a single stone can be found till another similar collection 
 is met with. The borders of these collections are as sharply 
 defined as if marked with a wall. Here, too, another interest- 
 ing fact may be observed, which shows that they were not 
 transported in one voyage from their original homes to their 
 present resting place. We observe a single collection com- 
 posed of a great variety of rocks — several kinds of granite, trap 
 gneis, sienite, and perhaps a dozen others, which we know, 
 from their far distant beds, had been drifted or rolled together 
 from long distances, and worn to their present form, before 
 they were picked up for their last voyage. 
 
 The rock-bound shores of Lake Superior show us how these 
 boulders were formed. There, in many places, we may see 
 before us the lately-detached blocks of rock, with all their 
 angles sharp, and, as we pass down from the top of the cliff 
 over the broken masses to the very edge of the water, and even 
 look beneath it, we find the angles of the blocks more and 
 more worn, and the masses themselves smaller, till at last, 
 when we reach the water and look into it, we see before us the 
 smooth, rounded boulders, as we see them on our prairies ; and 
 if we will stand there when a heavy sea is rolling in, we shall 
 see the great blocks of stone jostled together and the process 
 of abrasion going on before our eyes. It may take a thousand 
 great storms to wear away an ounce from a single block, yet 
 enough millions of such storms will at least do the work, and 
 that effectually. Perhaps the most accessible point where this 
 manufacturing of boulders can be witnessed is on the mainland 
 west of Partridge Island, a few miles above Marquette. I can- 
 not forbear to mention one other interesting evidence of the 
 transportation of these boulders. A few miles south of Water- 
 loo, in Black Hawk county, Iowa, is the fragment of an im- 
 mense boulder, which must weigh many hundred tons, showing 
 on one side a distant face of a comparatively recent fracture, 
 and I was crediljly informed that many miles distant a similar 
 fragment existed, with a face the counterpart of this, s'howiug 
 that at one time both had constituted one mass. 
 
 Now, assuming that our prairie boulders were transportc.i by 
 icebergs to their present places, and that we are, in some cases 
 at least, enabled to determine the minimum sizes of the bergs 
 
 4
 
 50 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 which brought them, we are forced to the conclusion that the 
 prairies were covered by deep waters at the time of their trans- 
 portation. We may safely assume that ancient bergs resembled 
 those now seen floating from the frigid zones into lower lati- 
 tudes, where they often ground and are melted away, depositing 
 whatever heavy material they have brought with them from 
 tlieir starting point, which we are told by arctic navigators is 
 always at or near the shore. If this be so, we know they must 
 have required a great depth of water to float them. Bergs are 
 now frequently met with projecting hundreds of feet above the 
 water ; and, as they float with at least five sixths of the mass 
 under water, we may form an apiDroximate idea of the depth of 
 the water here when these boulders were deijosited. At least, 
 we may assume that is was very considerable. Had there been 
 any considerable deposit after these boulders were dropped 
 where we now see them, while they were being elevated above 
 the waters, they must have been deeply buned beneath this 
 deposit, and we should not have this clear evidence, at least, of 
 tlie former submergence and of the very insignificant deposi- 
 tion during the process of elevation from beneath the waters. 
 I claim no originality in these suggestions. I have only 
 stated what I believe to be the acce])ted theory by the most 
 observing and reflecting men in accounting for the presence of 
 the prairie boulders ; but what I claim is, that the patent facts 
 stated are inconsistent with the theory that the great body of 
 our prairies have been built up by accumulations and deposits 
 in shallow water till they were I'aised above it, and then finally 
 till they have attained their present altitudes. I say the 
 boulders alone absolutely forbid this, unless they, too, were 
 deposited in very shallow water, or in most cases long after the 
 emergence. But few facts have ever been established by cir- 
 cumstantial evidence more conclusively than this. 
 
 But even admitting the shallow pond theory as fully estab- 
 lished, and clearly showing liow all the soil of the prairies has 
 been formed, and it by no means aflbrds as satisfactory a solu- 
 tion of the problem ])resented by the absence of trees upon 
 the prairies as I have attempted to show in a previous portion 
 of this paper. 
 
 Indeed, we venture upon very much whenever we assume to 
 explain all the laws l^y which nature works out her great
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 51 
 
 results, or to state all the causes which may have tended to 
 produce this one result. One cause or set of causes, if I may 
 use the expression, may have produced it in anotlier place. 
 While we may have clear proofs of the existence and operation 
 of some of these causes, we may not deny that others, and 
 many of them, have been operatiuj,' for ages since the prairies 
 became dry land, first to promote the growth of one kind of 
 vegetation which by other causes has been destroyed and 
 replaced by another, and, for aught we know, this process may 
 have been many times repeated. In contemplating these works 
 of nature we are too apt to confine our reflections to yesterday. 
 When we pause, and let the mind run back through the vista 
 of time till it becomes bewildered and lost in the contempla- 
 ^ tion of distance without end, we are then prepared, wlien we 
 return to complete consciousness, to appreciate that the growth 
 of the oldest tree of tlie forest, when considered in relation to 
 past time, has been as rapid as is that of the eastern magician, 
 who plants the seed of the orange before your eyes, and wliile 
 you yet look the tender plant springs from the ground and 
 grows up to a full sized tree, bears blossoms, which fade and 
 fall, and the green fruit appears in their places, which immedi- 
 ately grows to its full size, matures and ripens, and you are 
 invited to pluck and eat, and you find in your hands a verita- 
 ble orange, rich, juicy, and nourishing. I say this is but the 
 history of our oldest forest trees, when contemplated with 
 reference to the ages that must have elapsed since this land 
 emerged from the bosom of the waters. During all these roll- 
 ing years surely there has been time enough for the prairies to 
 have been clothed with forests, and again denuded of their 
 trees, and for the j^rocess to have been many times repeated, by 
 agencies not beyond our comprehension of nature's laws. But 
 because this may have been, I have no warrant for saying tliat 
 it has been, for the want of tangible proof of the fact. I may 
 even assert its probability, or my belief that it has l.)een so, but 
 at last it is but conjecture, and as such alone may be suggest- 
 ed. Still we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the study of 
 the geology of this country, in some of its departments at least, 
 is yet in its earliest inflmcy. May we not reasonably hope that 
 its maturity will develop facts which will dispel the oltscurity 
 which now veils many subjects of most interesting inquiry,
 
 52 ORIGIN OP THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 and enable us to read the past in a clear and convincing light? 
 For instance, the prairies abound in beds of peat, of greater or 
 less extent, some of vast proportions. As yet these are com- 
 paratively sealed volumes of history, which, when they shall 
 be opened and read, as they have been in what we call the 
 older countries of the world, will reveal the record of bygone 
 ages. What treasures of truths have been revealed by the 
 examinations of the peat-beds of Denmark, to which reference 
 may be made as quite appropriate to the present inquiry! 
 These are of depths varying only from ten to thirty feet, 
 formed like ours, in basins in the drift. They tell us as jjlainly 
 as if written in a book, of the different successive forests which 
 there have lived and flourished, and finally disappeared, and 
 been succeeded by others. The oldest which they reveal is 
 the Scotch Fir, {pinus sylvestris,) which is not now found in Den- 
 marK, and cannot even be domesticated there. Then succeed 
 several varieties of the oak, one after another, and so on, until 
 finally at the last the beech is found, which is still the common 
 forest tree of Denmark, and so it was two thousand years ago, 
 as we learn from wi'itten history. How admirably do we here 
 find united into a long chain of history the various links which 
 we see deposited in these beds of peat, the; last of which, 
 being united with and interpreted by written history enable 
 us to read nil the rest, with almost as much confidence as if 
 tlic written history extended back to the time when the first 
 layer of peat was deposited. How shall we restrain our im- 
 patience till the seal shall be broken to similar volumes of 
 history, which lie profusely scattered all over prairie land, 
 waiting to be opened and read by the discriminating geologist? 
 There we may reasonably hope to find facts which will throw a 
 flood of light on the suliject of our present inquiry. There 
 alone may we hope to learn, with a reasonable degree of cer- 
 tainty, what kinds of vegetation have grown on these great 
 plains in the long gone ages of the far distant past. 
 
 But the supposition of igneous agency in producing the 
 effect under consideration is not a mere speculation or con- 
 jecture. It is an established fact, proved by such evidence as 
 leaves no room for controversy. So that, whatever else maj' also 
 have contributed to the same result, fire at least has done its 
 share. In almost every year, in some part of the country, whole
 
 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 53 
 
 forests are consumed by fire. In a majority of instances, no 
 doubt, a new growth of trees takes the place of the old, but 
 such is not always the case. Mr. Daniel Ebcrsol, of this city, 
 who is a good observer, and of undoubted veracity, informs me 
 that many years ago, on the Vermilion River, a fire occurred, 
 under his own observation, which utterly destroyed, root and 
 branch, an entire hard-wood forest, and that the entire liurnt 
 district was directly taken possession of by the herbaceous 
 plants peculiar to the prairies, and that in a very few years it 
 could not be distinguished from the adjoining prairie, except 
 by its greater luxuriance. The testimony of Mr. J. E. Shaw, 
 who has resided upon the prairies of Illinois for more than 
 fifty, and upon his farm, within two miles of Ottawa, for more 
 than forty years, is equally to the point. He assures me that 
 he has known many forest districts entirely burned over and 
 every living thing upon them destroyed. Generally they were 
 replaced with trees similar to the former growth ; but that 
 sometimes the prairie herbage takes and maintains possession. 
 He cites an instance on his own farm, where, forty years ago, 
 when he took possession, there was a forest of large trees, 
 which was destroyed liy a fire, when a part of the burned 
 district was again covered with trees, and a part was taken 
 possession of by the prairie grass, and in a comparatively short 
 time could not be distinguished from the adjoining prairie. 
 He mentions another occurrence of the same kind, within his 
 own observation, in Putnam county. All who know Mr. Shaw, 
 as I have for a third of a century, will place implicit confi- 
 dence in the truth of his statements and the accuracy of his 
 observations. Indeed, the character of the latter is such as 
 scarcely to admit of mistake. But corroljorating testimony is 
 abundant. I have conversed with many old settlers in difiVrent 
 parts of the prairie regions, who mention similar occurrences. 
 I venture the assertion, that a thousand witnesses may be found 
 still living who can state particular instances of the same kind. 
 In my early wanderings over the wild prairies it several times 
 occurred, when approaching a body of timber, that I met in 
 the prairie grass charred remains of forest trees, perhaps half a 
 mile or more from the edge of the wood, and I have in no 
 instance inquired of one who had similar facilities for ob.-^erva- 
 tion who did not remember having oljserved the same thing.
 
 54 ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 In a former part of this paper I have shown, ))y evidence 
 which may be seen and comprehended at this day by every 
 observer, how jjrairies have been and are still being converted 
 into forests. I have now stated, with considerable particularity, 
 evidence satisfactorily showing how forests have been con- 
 verted into prairies. This seems to me of the very essence of 
 the inquiry, which can alone be solved by evidence of autheu-- 
 ticated facts, one ounce of which should be entitled to more 
 weight than a pound of ingenious conjecture. 
 
 How vain, then, are the most plausible theories and fine-spun 
 speculations, when we have this palpable, tangible proof of the 
 actual process by which the result has been produced, and that 
 by a simple cause adequate to the result. If the thousand wit- 
 nesses who have observed this process going on before their 
 very eyes had been in the habit of writing and publishing their 
 observations for the last half century, the question would have 
 been long since' so conclusively settled, both among the learned 
 and the unlearned, that all men would be surprised that it was 
 ever a subject of dispute. The great danger to truth would 
 have been that too much eflFect would have been attributed to 
 igneous agency. For myself, while I am prepared to believe 
 that this has been the most potent of all the causes contributing 
 to the result, I am also prepared to admit that there have been 
 many minor auxiliary causes aiding the principal one, which 
 may have escaped the attention of observers. Least of all of 
 these are the facts, which may be considered established as 
 such, and which tend to support what may be termed the shal- 
 low pond theory. Those which are invoked in sujoport of what 
 may be termed the arid theory may have had a considerable 
 influence in aid of the prairie fires on wdiat may be termed the 
 fertile prairie, and even the most controlling cause on the desert 
 plains, where both herbs and trees are nearly wanting for the 
 lack of moisture to sustain them, even if once there planted. 
 Where there is not suflnlcieut rainfall to sustain trees when 
 planted, we maj' reasonably assume that that is the cause of 
 their absence ; but I am slow to believe that this, or the pecu- 
 liar constituents of the soil, is the principal cause where trees 
 grow and flourish vigorously when once introduced. The same 
 cause which keeps them away should kill them when present, 
 if still operating. If there is less annual rainfall in prairie
 
 OKIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES. 55 
 
 than in timber districts, we may appreciate that fires, from that 
 cause, may have been more frequent and more destructive, wliilc 
 our daily observation proves that the limited quantity of rains 
 does not render the soil or the atmosphere unadajjted to the 
 growth of trees, at least on the prairies east of the Missouri 
 River. 
 
 In grouping together some of the focts in support of what 
 may be denominated the igneous theory, I but state a theory 
 which is as old as the first white settlements upon the prairies; 
 but because it has been universally accepted by those who have 
 had the greatest opportunities for ol)servi»o- the facts bearing 
 upon the question, although they make no pretensions to scien- 
 tific attainments,— for that reason I do not feel called upon to 
 reject it, and with it a great volume of facts which seem to 
 conclusively establish it. At least till some one else shall pro- 
 duce other tangible facts, as well supported by proof as these, 
 in support of some other theory, and tendiug to prove the fal- 
 lacy of the conclusions deduced from these, I must believe that 
 the popular opinion of the country is in the main correct. 
 
 Perhaps I have too little respect for mere theories, and too 
 much reverence for facts. I cannot be content with general 
 observations of facts witliout descending to their minute de- 
 tails, which in my view become of immense importance as qual- 
 ifying or explaining more general observation. If without the 
 careful study of well-established fiicts, mere theories may be 
 draped in the tinsel glitter of learned speculations, they can 
 never satisfy that ^wholesome craving for exact knowledge, 
 which alone forms a sure basis for definite conclusions. Science 
 has sometimes sufl^ered'grievous wrong from some of her votaries, 
 who have felt called jupon to explain everything, whether expli- 
 cable or not by ascertained facts; and, indeed, the more occult 
 the explanation, the more profound would their learning ap- 
 pear. If it so happen that manifest facts are opi)osed to their 
 theories, wiiy — so, much the worse for the facts!
 
 ( '
 
 University of California Library 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Rf 
 
 ^ 
 
 X'U-C 
 
 -X 
 
 MAR 1 Z0D2 
 
 DUE 2 WKS FROM DA"E RECEIVED 
 
 OCLALRL/fLL 
 
 Form L(-0 
 20m-l, '41(1122) 
 
 <^ir< *"■ ^ 
 
 imwssai 
 
 ijv> 
 
 iU
 
 3 1158 00849 7447 
 
 -/ 
 
 UC'^'^i 
 
 iTMfRN REGIONAL UBRftRY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 529 074