Yale University Library mmS:^M^^^^^mmmW¥^^^^^"^'' ¦*" arms, but most took to flight with horrid cries and bowlings. La Salle might have reassured them by showing his calumet, but feared this might be considered a sign of weakness. His party halted, preserving a warlike attitude, but he restrained his men from attacking the savages whom they might easily have defeated, although many times their number. One of the chiefs of the Illinois, who was on the other side of the river, perceived that it was not the purpose of the white men to slay them, and prevented his young warriors from discharging their arrows across the river. Those on the side where they had landed sent two of the chief men of the village to show the pipe of peace from the summit of a hill. This being graciously accepted, great joy ensued, and messengers were sent to recall those who had run away, but some had fled so fast and far that they did not return from their hiding places until three days after. Membr6 and Hennepin, taking the children by the hand and going to the wigwams of the parents, aided in the restoration of confidence, and when the dancing and feasting were over, made known to them that the R6collets had come not to gather beaver, but to give them a knowledge of the great Master of Life, and to be of the number of their greatest friends. A loud chorus of voices replied "Tepatoui Nicka," which means, "Well, my brother, my friend, thou hast done very well"; and while some rubbed the limbs of the good priests with bear's oil and buffalo grease to relieve ^8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY their fatigue, others presented them some flesh to eat, putting the three first morsels into their own mouths with much ceremony, which, says Hennepin, is considered a great piece of civility by them. La Salle, now for the first time among the lUinois in their own land, proceeded forthwith to hold a council with the head men summoned from the two villages situ ated on either side of the river. After making them presents of Martinique tobacco and hatchets, he informed them of the necessity which had compelled him to take from their winter stores the corn which he still had in his canoes. He offered to return it, if it could not be spared, or to give in exchange things of which they were in want, but warned them that if they could not furnish him with the necessary provisions, he must pass on to their neighbors the Osages to purchase what he required, and leave with them the blacksmith whom he had brought to mend axes and other instruments for the Illi nois.*' This was a shrewd suggestion for they greatly needed the services of this artificer, nor would their jeal ousy permit such a prize to go to another tribe. They gladly accepted the payment offered for their precious corn, adding to the amount alr.eady taken, and prayed the Frenchmen to establish themselves among them. This La Salle told them he was willing to do, upon the understanding that he could not make war upon the Iroquois who were subjects of the King and therefore his brethren. He advised the Illinois to make peace with the Five Nations, and offered his services to bring this about. But he deftly suggested that should these war riors, despite his remonstrances, come to attack the Illinois in their homes, he would defend them, provided they would permit him to build there a fort in which he THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 59 would be able with his few Frenchmen to make head against the Iroquois. He promised to furnish them with arms and ammunition upon condition that they should use them only to repel their enemies and not against those tribes who were living under the protection of the King whom the Indians call the Great Chief, who was beyond the sea. He added that their treatment of his party would determine the coming of many more of his nation, who would protect them and furnish all that they needed in exchange for their peltries; although the dis tance of New France, the difficult way by river and rapid, the extent and perils of the great lakes, hindered their bringing goods by that route. To overcome this obstacle he had resolved to build a great canoe to descend their river to the sea, to obtain more quickly and more easily such merchandise for them. But as this work would require much expense and labor, he wished before com mencing it to ascertain from them if their river was navigable, without fall or rapid, and if they knew whether other Europeans dwelt at its mouth. The Illinois agreed to his propositions, promised to satisfy him in all respects, and having postponed the details of the affair until spring when their chiefs would reassemble, gave him a glowing description of the width and beauty and easy navigation of the great river which La. Salle called the Colbert and the Meschasipi, and of its tributaries. They assured him that there were no Euro peans upon the river, and had there been, they would not have failed to go to trade with them as the sea was only distant twenty days' journey in their pirogues. Some of their slaves, whom they had taken in war on the coast, said they had seen vessels far out in the sea which made discharges that resembled thunder.*" This information 6o CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY doubtless increased La Salle's eagerness to reach the Gulf before any other explorer should discover the mouth of the Father of the Waters, and as he lay down to rest that night he must have felt that the events of his first day among the Illinois had made easier the way to his wished-for goal. Twenty-four hours, however, brought a change. The next evening, Monso, a chief of the Miamis, arrived at the Indian lodges, accompanied by five or six young men bearing kettles, hatchets and knives, as gifts to open the hearts of the Illinois to his words. He assembled their sachems in the night, and assured them that La Salle was going to join their enemies on the banks of the great river, furnishing arms and ammunition in order to unite them with the Iroquois and surround and exterminate the Illinois. He described La Salle as a friend of the Iroquois, in whose country he had a fort and whom he supplied with guns and powder, and warned his troubled hearers that the only way to avoid ruin was to prevent or delay the proposed voyage of La Salle, a part of whose men would soon desert him, and that they should believe nothing which he told them. After saying many such things this emissary of evil departed before daybreak, lest his machinations should be discovered. La Salle's remarkable influence over the native mind, of which his career furnishes so many examples, stood him in good stead here. An Illinois chieftain, named Omoahoha, whom the French leader had won over on his arrival by a present of hatchets and knives, came to him the next morning and secretly informed him of all that had occurred. La Salle thanked him, and to secure his con tinued services in this regard made him a further gift of powder and shot. It seemed apparent that the Miamis THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 6i had been instructed and sent by Frenchmen jealous of the success of La Salle ; since Monso had never met him, and had never been within four hundred leagues of Fort Frontenac, and yet spoke of both with the familiarity of long acquaintance. Later La Salle received information that Monso's party had been sent by AUouez from the village of the three tribes to which he retired when he left the Kaskaskia town, and thereupon laid this plot at the door of the Jesuits." At the time, however, he was uncertain whether the blow had been struck by them or by the traders at Mackinac with whose business he was likely to interfere. He was much disquieted by the affair, knowing the suspicious nature of the savages, and that his men had received bad impressions liable to lead them to desert as their comrades had done at Mackinac. There was little time to indulge in foreboding, as the same day, after the noon-tide meal. La Salle and his people were invited to a feast by Nicanap6, brother of the head chief of the Illinois.*' When the company were seated in their entertainer's wigwam, Nicanape made them a very different address from that which they had heard the day of their arrival. He told them that he wished to cure them of their mad desire to descend the great river which no one had done save to perish, that its banks were peopled with numerous nations who would destroy the French, its water alive with monsters, crocodiles and serpents, and its lower portion full of falls and precipices, and ending in a gulf where the stream disappeared under ground. Two or three of La Salle's men who understood the Indian tongue were visibly affected by this harangue. Their leader knowing it was not the custom of the savages to interrupt such dis courses, and that by doing so he would only increase the 62 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY suspicions of his disaffected people, suffered the dusky orator to finish his speech in peace When the time came to reply. La Salle calmly assured Nicanap6 that he and his party were very much obliged for the news he had given them, because they would win so much more glory as they found more difficulties to overcome, that they served the greatest of captains across the sea, and deemed themselves happy to die in bearing his name to the ends of the earth. But he feared that what they had heard was only a friendly device to prevent their leaving the Illinois, or rather the artifice of an evil spirit who had given them some distrust of the Frenchmen, and if the Illinois were really friendly they should not conceal the grounds of their disquietude which he would endeavor to remove ; otherwise there would be reason to believe that their professed friendship was of the lips only. Nicanap6 made no answer, and changed the sub ject by presenting food to his guests.** After the barbaric feast was over, La Salle resumed his discourse, and told the listening redskins that he did not wonder that their neighbors were jealous of the advantages which trade with the French would bring them, nor that reports should be spread to his disadvan tage, but he was surprised that the Illinois should give these credence and conceal them from a man who had so frankly revealed all his plans to them. Then addressing himself directly to Nicanape, and overwhelming the astonished savage by his unsuspected knowledge of the intrigue, he cried; "I was not asleep, my friend, when Monso spoke to you at night and in secret to the prejudice of the French, whom he represented to you as spies of the Iroquois . The presents which he made to persuade you to believe his lying tales are still hidden under the earth THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 63 in this wigwam. Why did he take to flight immediately after? Why did he not speak by daylight, if he had only the truth to tell? Do you not see that when I came among you I could have slain your people, and in the confusion of your camp could have done alone what he would persuade you I will accomplish with the aid of the Iroquois? At this very hour could not my party put to death you old men while your young men are away hunt ing? Do you not know that the Iroquois whom you fear have experienced the valor of the French, and that we should not need their aid if we wished to make war on you? But to satisfy you entirely, run after this man while I wait here to convict and confound him. How does he know me, since he has never seen me, and how does he know the plots which he says I have formed with the Iroquois whom he knows as little as he does me? Look at our stores. They are only tools and merchandise which we can use simply to do you good, but neither for attack nor retreat. ' '*' This bold stroke made La Salle master of the situation. The natives sent runners after Monso to bring him back, but the snow which had fallen heavily the night before covered his footprints and prevented their overtaking him. This was fortunate for the unsuccessful ambassa dor, since the Illinois were so incensed against him that they would have slain him, had he fallen into their hands. This danger averted, the cloud lifted, but only for a day. The following night, six of the Frenchmen, who were on guard, deserted their comrades and fled into the wilder ness.** It is almost incredible that they should have taken this desperate step without some assurance of pro tection and aid, which they may have had from the same agency which sent Monso to the lodges of the Illinois. 64 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY He certainly was advised of the approaching desertion when he came there, and it is possible that the returned runaway whom Hennepin found in camp on New Year's Day was the medium of communication between La SaUe's enemies and his dissatisfied men.** At all events this recreant band followed the route which Monso had taken the preceding night, with the purpose of finding shelter in his village, either of their own motion, or because of some invitation secretly given to them." Their farewell piece of malignity was the putting of some noxious compound into La Salle's camp kettle, by which, upon taking his soup next day, he was so poisoned that most alarming symptoms followed. His life was saved by an antidote which a friend had given him in France." One of the comrades of the deserters states that they departed because La Salle wished to make them con struct sledges to draw his merchandise and stores to the Illinois village, apparently that at which they had obtained the supplies of com. But this is probably a mere excuse. He gives their names as Chartier, Bari- bault, Lacroix, Duplessis, Monjault, and La Rousselifere.*' Duplessis was the would-be assassin of La Salle at the Kankakee portage,*" and La Rousselifere was one of the two deserters at Mackinac who were brought back from the Sault Ste. Marie by Tonty.'" Willingly would that fearless soldier have gone on their trail again, and compelled the return of the whole party, or punished them as they deserved, but the danger of revealing their disunion to the savages forbade. This defection was a sore blow to La Salle, and when, in the gray of the morning he made the rotmds of the encampment and found no sentry at his post, and the quarters of these men empty, he might well have despaired of his under- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 65 taking. But he bore up bravely and forthwith aroused his remaining followers, and informing them of what had happened, directed that they should pretend to the natives that it was by his order that these persons had gone in pursuit of the lying Monso, and that he had caused them to do so by night, lest some one of the Illinois should precede them to warn the fugitive. Then he begged them to pay no attention to the tales of Nica- nap6, and gave them his word that all who desired should return to Canada in the spring safely and in good repute, while if they left him then, it would be at the peril of their lives and of punishment on their arrival at Que bec." They seemed but faint-hearted, however, and, realizing the little dependence that could be placed upon them, he determined to separate them from the Indians that he might have them under better control. Without the two pit sawyers who were among the deserters it was hardly possible to construct a vessel to go to the sea, and it seemed wisest to establish a fortified post at once. To this end La Salle told his men that they were in danger while among the Illinois of an attack from the Iroquois, who would surely vent their rage upon the French, and that their only safeguard was to entrench themselves in some position easy of defence, such as the one he had found near at hand. His arguments convinced them, and they undertook with a good grace a task very severe for so small a company.'* The spot which La Salle had chosen was on the left bank of the Illinois River about two and a half miles below its exit from Pimiteoui Lake." A great thaw which fortunately set in opened the river from the lake to the place selected, whither the party went with all their canoes on the evening of the 15th of January, 66 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 1680. It was a low hill a little more than a mile from the Indian village, two hundred paces distant from the bank of the river which spread to its foot in the time of hea-^ry rains. Two ravines, broad and deep, encompassed two other sides, and half of the fourth, the protection of which was completed by a trench which joined the ravines. Their outer slopes which served as a counter scarp were bordered with stout chevaux de frise. All sides of the hill were made more steep, and the earth from the trench was used for a parapet on the summit capable of covering a man. Heavy timbers were joined around the lower part of the elevation in which were set upright joists united by cross pieces mortised into beams projecting from the thickness of the parapet. Thus substantial walls were made in front of which were planted pointed stakes twenty-five feet high, one foot in diameter, buried three feet in the earth and bolted to cross pieces from the tops of the joists, the whole com posing a formidable palisade. The interior of the fort thus constructed was an irregular square. In two of the angles protected by logs thick enough to be shot-proof were the quarters of the men, and the RdcoUet friars occupied a cabin covered with boards in the third. The magazine, solidly built, and the forge, were placed in the fourth angle along the side which looked towards the forest. In the center were pitched the tents of Tonty and La SaUe.'* Thus was completed the fourth of that chain of for tresses between the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mex ico, which La Salle's far-reaching plans contemplated. To Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario and Fort Conti on the River Niagara and Fort Miami was added Port Crfevecoeur on the Illinois. Its construction further- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 67 more signalized the establishment of white men upon the soil of Illinois, in whose history the date of January 15, 1680, when La Salle's party assembled at the site of this fort to undertake its erection thus marks an era. It was named Crfevecoeur, for other than the romantic reason usually given for the title. It is true that the RdcoUet friar. Christian Le Clercq, who was not, how ever, of the party, in his "First Establishment of the Faith in New France," published in 1691, says. La SaUe called the fort Crfevecoeur on account of many vexations experienced there, adding that these never shook his firm resolve ; and that Hennepin in his New Discovery, published in 1698, says, they named it the fort of Creve coeur because the desertion of their men and the many other difficulties they labored under had almost broken their hearts.'* But on the other hand, Hennepin in his earlier and more reliable Description of Louisiana, pub lished in 1683, does not give this reason; Tonty does not mention it in either of his authentic accounts of the fort dated in 1684 and 1693; and La Salle himself, although frequently alluding to Crevecoeur in his letters, one written in the year of its building, never gives this mean ing to the name." John Gilmary Shea suggests that as Louis XIV had recently demolished Fort Crfevecoeur, a stronghold in the Netherlands near Bois le Due, captured by him in 1672, the name may have been a compliment to that monarch, and this view is strengthened by the researches of H. A. Rafferman who has found proof that Tonty had taken part in the capture of the Netherland Crbvecceur." So La Salle's faithful lieutenant may have named it from the scene of his service. Or, as it was furthermore a name of high renown among the ancient nobility of France, it may have been selected by- 68 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY La Salle, like that of Fort Conti, in compliment to one of his noble friends at court. Certainly there is no likeli hood that such a leader under such circumstances would have further discouraged his followers by thus emphasiz ing his misfortunes which were not so great to him then as they afterwards became. It has been thought that La Salle was now convinced of the loss of his vessel, and so was broken hearted." But he was not in fact hopeless in regard to her at this time, and did not abandon all expec tation of seeing her again, until months after this period. The weight of the evidence seems to be against the com mon theory in regard to the origin of this name. While the work on the fort was progressing La Salle again turned his thoughts to the construction of a vessel to descend the Mississippi. As it would cause the loss of a year's time to wait for other pit sawyers from Mon treal, he said to his men that if one of them would attempt to cut plank he would assist. Two volunteered and succeeded so well, that the building of a vessel of forty-two feet keel, and twelve feet beam was undertaken and pushed so rapidly that all the planks were sawed, all the wood ready, and the vessel on the stocks and sheathed to the string piece by the ist of March." She needed iron and cordage and sails which could only be obtained from Le Griffon, if she were still afloat, or Fort Fron tenac. La Salle resolved to undertake the long journey to the latter place to obtain tidings of his bark and sup plies for his expedition, leaving Tonty in command at Crfevecoeur. But first he earnestly desired to restore the spirits of his men who were still cast down by the accounts the natives had given them of the dangers of the Mississippi voyage. Fortune favored him by an encounter with a young Illinois warrior on the way to THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 69 the village in the advance of a war party returning from the Gulf. La Salle, while shooting wild turkeys two leagues from the fort, fell in with this herald and gave him a turkey, which the hungry savage proceeded at once to boil in the kettle which he carried with him. While his meal was preparing, the shrewd Frenchman questioned him about the Mississippi, assuming to have a general knowledge of the subject. The unsuspicious Indian drew a map of the great river and its tributaries with charcoal upon birch bark, said that he had traversed it throughout in his pirogue, and that as far as the sea there was neither fall nor rapid, and gave the names of the tribes who dwelt near it. La Salle, by the present of a hatchet, bound him to secrecy as to their nieeting, and took him to the fort to spend the following day. Early in the morning the French leader appeared at the Indian village and found that one of their principal men was giving a feast of bear's meat, to which he was invited. As they were assembled for this purpose in a lodge, he arose in their midst and smilingly informed them that the Providence which watched over his party had at his prayer revealed to him the truth concerning the grand river, the streams which fell into it, and the nations living along its banks. Then he launched into the description which he had only received the evening before, and as the wondering natives marked its accuracy from point to point, they placed their hands upon their mouths in token of admiration, and at its close freely admitted its correctness, and that they had concealed the truth in order to keep the white men always with them.'" This put a little heart into La Salle's men, who were still further encouraged by the corroborating testimony of savages from other tribes who now began to arrive at 70 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the little timber fortress on the banks of the Illinois. Strange news traveled fast even through the wilderness, and in hardly more than a month from the arrival of the Frenchmen at Pimiteoui, tidings of their coming had reached the Chickasaws, the Arkansas and the Osages in the south, and bands from all of these nations had set up their wigwams around Fort Crfevecoeur. Although their speech differed from that of the Illinois, their sign language easily made it plain that the great river was navigable, and that the strangers, whose approach had been made known everywhere, would be well received along its shores. La Salle gave them all presents, and promised to bring an abundance of hatchets, knives, needles and awls to them and their neighbors to whom he sent this good news. They departed well satisfied, earnestly assuring their generous host of a cordial wel come to the expedition when it should reach their ter ritories." A few days later a more remarkable embassy arrived, consisting of two chiefs of a people calling themselves the Matoutentas who lived a hundred leagues toward the sunset. One of them wore at his belt a horse's foot, taken, he said, in a country five days' journey west of his home, where the inhabitants fought on horseback, had lances and wore long hair, unlike the Illinois whose locks were closely shorn. These chiefs were probably from one of the villages of the Mandans on the Missouri River, and the equestrian warriors of whom they spoke were one of the mounted tribes of the great plains, or the Spaniards of New Mexico as the French believed. They also had heard of the white men and wished to gaze upon their faces and to receive gifts of their wonderful imple ments of iron and steel. But a week behind these dele- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 71 gates from the west came others from the far north, who dwelt near the sources of the Mississippi and were spoken of as the Chaa, which, perhaps, is a variation of an Algonquin name for the Sioux. They invited the party to visit their country, whose attractions, as they alleged, were a wealth of beaver and other furs, and its nearness to the westem sea.'* Almost at the same time the advent of the Miamis, the new neighbors of the Illinois on the east, in pacific guise brought relief to La Salle and his allies. These Indians, of the same stock as the Illinois and speaking almost the same tongue, formerly established on the Fox River of Wisconsin, had fled across the Mississippi through fear of the Iroquois, and had been at enmity with the Illinois. An advance party had removed to the River St. Joseph, and the main body were preparing to follow. In their new home they were exposed to the machinations of the Iroquois incited by La Salle's enemies. Fears of their hostility had been increased by the Monso incident, but were now allayed by their willingness to be friends. The two tribes joined in the calumet or peace dance, and formed a league against the Iroquois, which La Salle confirmed by presents to both parties." This surprising concourse of representatives of so many nations, so quickly assembled from all points of the compass, amen able to control and eager to trade, must have greatly encouraged La Salle in his plans for commercial and political supremacy in the valley of the Mississippi. The picturesque gathering around Fort Cr&vecoeur indicated what might take place at each of the points he desired to occupy, if fortune would but favor the brave and the deserving. The priests during the construction of the fort had had 72 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY public prayers in their cabin every moi'ning and evening, and held mission services for the French and the Illinois Indians who came in crowds, but the lack of wine pre vented the celebration of the mass. Father Membr6 made his headquarters at the Indian viUage near by where the chief, named Oumahouha or the Wolf, had lodged him and considered him as one of his children, ' his paternal affection being quickened by a timely pres ent of three axes from La Salle, given to secure attention to the wants of his adopted son. Membrd desired to have the mission to the Illinois, that he might convert that numerous nation comprising by his estimate some seven or eight thousand souls. He rapidly acquired their language, but his first experience of their ways almost changed his resolve to live among them.'* Father Ribourde preferred to stay at the fort,'* while for Henne pin another destiny was preparing. The cunning sav ages from the upper Mississippi had either met with French explorers before, or very quickly divined that trade and discovery were their ruling motives. The peltries and the route to the western ocean, which they promised to visitors to their land, were temptations too strong to be resisted. La Salle determined, while he himself was absent on his necessary journey to and from Fort Frontenac, to send a party to their homes, and it was decided that Hennepin should be one of the number. The leader of the expedition was Michel Ako, a native of Poitou in France, of whom we shall hear more in con nection with the early days of Illinois, and with him was Antony Auguel, of the province of Picardy, surnamed Le Picard du Gay. They were two of La Salle's best and bravest men." Ako was fairly versed in the language of the Illinois and of the Sioux, and had successfully THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 73 executed various commissions among the natives for La Salle, who describes him as prudent, brave and cool. To him was entrusted goods worth a thousand livres, of the kind most esteemed among the savages, and the invalu able calumet as a protection and a token of their peaceful purpose." La Salle tells us simply, but with perhaps a touch of sarcasm, that Hennepin offered to make this voyage to gain the opportunity of carrying the gospel to the peoples who had never heard it, and to make the acquaintance of those among whom he expected soon to establish himself to preach the faith." But the voluble priest himself informs us fully of the difficulty with which he was brought to this laudable resolution. After La Salle had arranged for his going, he offered to take Membr6's place among the Illinois, while the latter should go in his stead to the upper Mississippi. Mem- br6, however, prudently decided that he would rather bear the ills he had than fly to the Sioux whom he knew not of. Hennepin then concluded that an affection of the gums which had troubled him for a year or more had become so serious that he was obliged to return to Canada to be cured, and suggested that he should go and come back with La SaUe.'" But his inflexible commander replied, that if he refused to make the voyage, his cler ical superiors would be informed that he was the cause of the want of success of the new missions. The venerable Ribourde, who had been his master during his novitiate in the convent of Bethune in the province of Artois, and who volunteered to come and aid him the next year, begged him to proceed, saying that if he died of his infirmity God would be one day glorified by his apostolic labors ; and that he would have many monsters to over come and precipices to pass, and knew not a word of the 74 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY language of the nations whom he was going to try to win to God, but with courage he would gain as many victories .as combats. Hennepin yielded to this advice, to the sat isfaction of La SaUe, who gave him for his own use a small supply of knives, awls, tobacco, beads and needles, assuring him that he would have given more had he been able. All of their companions escorted the travelers to the place of embarkation. Father Gabriel gave his bless ing in the words of Scripture; "Be of good courage and let your heart be comforted" ; the farewells were spoken, and the reluctant apostle took his place in the canoe which quickly disappeared down the river." The party left Fort Crfevecoeur on February 29, 1680, and toward evening met a number of the Illinois return ing to the village in their pirogues loaded with buffalo meat. They used every effort to induce the trio to turn back. The Picard would have yielded, but Ako, who deemed his honor pledged to carry out the enterprise, seconded by Hennepin, resolutely proceeded on his way. They likened the Illinois River, to which La Salle had given the name of Seignelay, in honor of the son-in- law and successor of the great minister Colbert, to the Seine at Paris in width and depth. Its bordering hills covered with fine trees, and occasionally separated by marsh land, they climbed to behold from their summits prairies extending further than the eye could reach, studded at intervals with groves seemingly planted in regular order." About five miles from its mouth on the 7th of March they met the tribe of the Tamaroa Indians, to the number of two hundred families or more, who wished to take them to their village west of the Missis sippi, and some sixteen miles below the mouth of the Illinois. When they declined, these savages believing THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 75 that they carried supplies to their enemies pursued them in their heavy wooden pirogues. Unable to overtake the lighter craft of birch bark, they sent some of their young men by land to waylay the white men at a narrow part of the river. But the wary Ako, noticing the smoke of the encampment where these warriors lay ready to discharge a shower of arrows, crossed the stream to an island on the other side, and halted to rest, trusting to the watch fulness of a little dog they had brought with them, to apprise them if the savages attempted to swim across. The next day they came to the mouth of the Illinois, and noted in the angle on its south side a flat precipitous rock forty feet in height, very well suited for building a fort,'* which La Salle afterwards planned to do;" and on the opposite shore fields as it were of black earth, all ready for cultivation and very advantageous for the existence of a colony. The floating ice detained them here until March 1 2th, when they turned the prow of their canoe into the Mississippi and commenced its ascent. As they followed the great windings of the mighty river, paddling against its powerful current, they observed the bluffs on Either side approaching the banks near the mouth of the Illinois, and elsewhere receding, leaving great open meadows between them and the river. These were cov ered with an infinite number of buffalo ; and the whole country beyond the bluffs seemed so fine and pleasant that Hennepin says, one might justly call it the Delight of America.'* With this compliment to the land of the Illinois, the vain, good - natured and sadly unreliable friar passes beyond its confines and ceases to be con nected with its story. We need not follow him in his adventures among the Sioux with whom Ako remained for a time, ultimately returning to the Illinois country, 76 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY while Hennepin and Du Gay made their way to Canada, and thence returned to France. On the ist of March, the day after the departure of Ako's party for the Upper Mississippi, La Salle himself set out for Frontenac with six of his strongest French men, and a savage called the Wolf,'* in two canoes. The rapid current kept the river free from ice in the neigh borhood of Crevecoeur, but an hour's paddling brought them to the frozen waters of Pimiteoui Lake. They could not abandon their canoes, since the careful leader designed to send these back filled with corn, and there fore built two sledges on which they placed the canoes and lading and dragged them over the snow for fifteen miles or more. La Salle encouraged his men with the hope of open water at the end of the lake, but with keen disappointment they found the ice there and beyond too weak to bear their weight, and too strong for their bark canoes to sever. After a desolate night's encampment they took up their line of march through the leafless woods on the river bank, and toiled onward, mid-leg deep in snow, carrying their canoes and equipage for four leagues or more. This dreary day's journey brought them at evening to some deserted Indian cabins, where they thankfully took shelter from a heavy rain which fell all night. The third day they were able to navigate the river for four hours, occasionally breaking their way with poles through frozen places until they encountered ice a foot in thickness, so rough and full of air holes as to be impassable. Another detour of two leagues of sledging over icebound marshes ended at a point where the flow ing current permitted another embarkation. In the after noon masses of drifting ice obliged them to land from time to time till these passed by, and nightfall compelled THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 77 another wintry camp in the forest. The following morn ing they made a portage of half a league, continued their route bj' a side channel for two leagues more, sometimes rowing, sometimes parting the ice by dint of sturdy blows from hatchet and club, and sometimes wading knee deep in the icy stream, towing their canoes. Then they resumed their toilsome progress with the sledges uijtil the evening of the 5th, when a snowstorm set in which caused a three days' halt. On the 9th the severe cold glazed the surface of river and prairie, and they mounted their snowshoes and proceeded at a rapid pace. They traversed eight leagfues that day, and six the next, and at sunset of March loth saw before them the lodges of the great Indian village from whose subterranean hiding places they had taken a supply of corn as they passed down the Illinois." Ten days of exhausting labor and privation had been spent in the arduous journey from near Peoria Lake to a point within a few miles of the site of the city of Ottawa, a distance which we now pass over in three hours. The contrast illustrates the difference between transportation by canoe and by rail. A great rain during the two days following opened the river, but the sheets of ice crowded amid the islands and sandbanks below the Indian village heaped upon one another with a mighty noise until huge dams were formed. La Salle despaired of sending timely supplies to his people at Crevecoeur because of these obstacles and because not a soul was in the viUage ; he could not take their corn except by purchase and there was no prospect of any of the Illinois returning at such an inclement season. Nevertheless, a trail in the snow which they had crossed suggested that some natives might be hunt ing in that region. A fire of reeds was kindled in the 78 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY hope that the smoke, visible from afar on the prairies, might attract attention; and such was the result. The next day, as the restless La Salle was exploring the neighborhood, while his men were smoking the flesh of a buffalo they had slain, he saw approaching two natives who had seen the distant column of vapor as they roamed the snowy waste. They were soon followed by Chas- sagoac, the chief of the Illinois, who was known to be well disposed toSvards the French. His name seems to be another form of the word "Chicago," and the similar ity of title and description goes far to identify him with the chief called Chachagouessiou, who accompanied Mar quette from Sturgeon Bay to the Chicago portage only six years before. Each i§ spokeUvOf as the leading man among the Illinois, and each is said to be very friendly to the French. Chassagoac had not previously met any of La Salle's party, and must therefore have been acquainted with other Frenchmen, who not improbably were Marquette and his companions. And the variation in the names as they appear in the manuscripts is not greater than might be expected in the attempts of differ ent writers to represent the same Indian sounds." La Salle, with politic generosity, presented, from his small store, a red blanket, a kettle, and some hatchets and knives to Chassagoac, and then told hiiii that the French at Cr&vecoeur were in want of provisions, and prayed him to furnish these, promising recompense on the return of the party from Frontenac. Chassagoac readily assented and loaded one of the canoes with corn. This La Salle directed two of his men to take back to Cr&ve- cceur, keeping four Frenchmen and the Indian with him." A long conference ensued between the white leader and the chief of the red men on the shore of the lonely THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 79 river under the inclement sky. All that had taken place at the villages near Crevecoeur, which Chassagoac had not visited that season, was duly recounted to him, and then La Salle spoke of the future. We can see him pac ing back and forth through the snow, oblivious of his wintry surroundings, of his scanty resources, and of the sore need of his people at the fort, while, with the light of inspiration on his brow, he unfolds his far-reaching plans to one whose co-operation would be of special value. He tells of his designs to make a lasting peace between the tribes of the Illinois and the fierce warriors of the Six Nations, to find the mouth of the Great River, and to bring arms and merchandise and many of his people to form an establishment among the Illinois, so soon as this great discovery should be made. The listening savage, wrapped in his blanket by the campfire, nods approval as the orator goes on, and soon, in a burst of unwonted enthusiasm, evoked by the ardent eloquence which found its way to the savage heart so well, pledges his influence in behalf of the French, confirms all that La Salle has recently heard concerning the Mississippi, and assures him that everything in his power shall be done to bring his enterprise to a happy ending." The news of impend ing events so important and so beneficial to his tribe con soled Chassagoac for the departure of his new friend, and the parties to this sudden alliance, which went far to cir cumvent the machinations of La Salle's enemies, bade each other farewell. The four hardy voyageurs and their native comrade had meanwhile taken one canoe and their supplies as far as the rapids, four leagues above the village, at what is now known as North Kickapoo Creek. Here La Salle joined them, and they embarked on the river on the i6th 8o CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY of March, continuing this route on the following day and advancing a dozen leagues, although the masses of ice often obliged them to travel on shore. The next morn ing the river was so solidly frozen that it was navigable no further. They hid their canoe on what is now called Treat's Island, just above the junction of the Du Page with the Illinois; and continued their journey on foot. Laden with their outfit, they plodded on through melting snow, and across a great marsh until at noon of the 2 2d the deep and rapid waters of the Little Calumet brought them to a halt. It was necessary to build a raft, but only oak trees could be found, and the wood of these was not sufficiently buoyant. At length by binding the driest branches and bunches of rushes together with twisted willows, they made shift to reach the opposite bank, standing deep in the water on this frail support. The next day a similar contrivance carried them over the Grand Calumet, and two ponds or sloughs encountered in their course, and at evening they were greeted by the waves of Lake Michigan breaking in surf upon its shores. Fol lowing its strand, they arrived on March 24th at the River St. Joseph, where Fort Miami gave them shelter." Here La Salle found the two men, Nicolas Laurent dit La Chapelle and Noel Le Blanc, whom he had sent the preceding autumn from this same place to meet his ves sel. They increased his anxiety concerning her by reporting no news of her at Michillimackinac, which place they had left more than three months after she should have touched there. But, on the other hand, there was some ground for hope, because they had made the tour of the entire lake without finding any wreckage, nor had any been seen by the many Indians and French men whom they met at different points along their route. THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 8i But some of the natives told an ominous tale of three can non shots in the night, the sound of which was borne to their wigwams by a great wind from the southwest. The ever-sanguine La SaUe, however, reasoned that a gale from that direction might have prevented the vessel's coming to anchor at Michillimackinac and carried her beyond that island, whence she had held oli her way down Lake Huron, and refused to admit that she could have been wrecked." These men also brought the unwelcome tidings that disaster had happened to La Salle's affairs at Quebec through the intrigues of his opponents, among whom his own brother was conspicuous. The undaunted chieftain only set his face more resolutely eastward. He ordered La Chapelle and Le Blanc to follow the route of the Kankakee and report to Tonty at Fort Crevecoeur, and sent directions by them to his faithful lieutenant to visit the great Indian village, inspect a high rock in its neigh borhood, and build a strong fort upon it. He resolved to change the location of his Illinois citadel, because the Illinois wished that he should build it near their great village, as he learned, doubtless, at his interview with Chassagoac. The new site was not the bold bluff over looking the valley of the Illinois River for miles in either direction, known in our time as Starved Rock, which was later to bear the structure known as Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. At this period the great Indian village was some eight miles above this point, and the high rock in its neighborhood referred to by La Salle was probably that known to-day as Buffalo Rock, or one of the bluffs near it."* With his little party of five La Salle built a raft, crossed the St. Joseph, plunged into the almost impenetrable 82 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY forests of what is now southern Michigan, and despite famine, storm, sickness and Indian alarms, found his way to the strait between Lakes Huron and Erie, from which the city of Detroit takes its name. Still unwilling to give up Le Griffon, he sent two of his men, Hunault and Collin, to Mackinac to obtain the latest information con cerning her, and with the other three rafted across the strait and followed the shore of Lake Erie on foot, until the illness of two of his comrades compelled him with the other to build a canoe, by means of which the party reached the Niagara, April 21st. Some of his men had wintered in a cabin above the cataract, perhaps at the shipyard of Le Griffon. No word of her had come to them, but they told him of fresh misfortunes. The ship St. Pierre, in which were sent from France more than twenty thousand francs' worth of merchandise for him, had foundered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and all the cargo was lost, and of twenty workmen whom she had brought for his new colony, sixteen had gone back to Europe, discouraged by the current reports that he would never return. Of his stores on the Niagara, a part had been stolen, and the rest were exposed to the same risk, for he had' no one there to trust. His companions also were completely exhausted, and not one could go with him further. But taking three fresh men from those who had spent the winter there, he crossed Lake Ontario in a steady downpour of rain, and on the 6th day of May Fort Frontenac welcomed its unconquerable commander. In sixty-seven days and over more than five hundred leagues of country, he had performed a journey which the official relation calls the most laborious ever under taken by any Frenchman in America." From Fort Conti La Salle sent back D'Autray with THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 83 three soldiers. La Violette, Dulignon and Pierre You, and La Salle's servant, La Brie, in two canoes laden with arms and supplies, and means for the completion of the bark at Crevecoeur. He directed the young leader to take with him three more of their men whom he would meet on the way and the two whom he had sent to Mack inac, and to warn Tonty of the march of the Iroquois against the Illinois, and to remain neutral in the impend ing conflict. As soon as he arrived at Frontenac, he sent his lieutenant who had been commanding there, Frangois Daubin, Sieur de La Forest, who held of him the island of Belle Isle, at the entrance of Lake Ontario, with five men to overtake D'Autray's party and bear tidings to Tonty that La Salle was coming with all speed to his aid. Next he dispatched a canoe to Quebec for additional men, but of the whole party brought by the St. Pierre to join him, one named Pinabel alone came to accompany him to the Illinois country. He learned withal that some canoes ascending the St. Lawrence laden with his goods had been lost in the rapids, and that dire confusion pre vailed in his affairs at Montreal. A brief visit to that place enabled him in eight days time to restore order and secure fresh supplies, and he returned with all speed to Frontenac to complete his preparations for a second journey to the land of the Illinois. Here, on July 2 2d, arrived Nicolas Laurent, dit La Chapelle, again the bearer of evil tidings, and with him Jacques Messier and Nicolas Crevel, a colonist at Frontenac, who had met the others on their way. The first two had been sent by Tonty to report that most of the men left at Crevecoeur had, while Tonty was obtaining provisions at the great Illinois village, pillaged the magazine, dismantled the fort, and decamped with all the peltries and supplies. «4 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY They had taken the route to Montreal, and some of them had already been seen on Lake Frontenac. La Salle set forth at once to intercept them. Two of his colonists sent by La Forest met him on the way, bringing the further information that these deserters had demolished Fort Miami and robbed the storehouses at Mackinac and Niagara, and while eight of them had fled towards New York, twelve were coming to slay him. La Salle lay in wait for them, and made his dispositions with such skill that two of the miscreants were slain and the others were taken in irons to the dungeon of Fort Frontenac. Hence, on August lo, 1680, he departed with five and twenty men to the relief of the loyal Tonty. On the 15th he reached Teioiagon, an Iroquois village not far, perhaps, from the site of Toronto, and made it his headquarters till the 22d, while his effects were trans ported by land to Lake Simcoe, which he called Lake Toronto. As he reached its shore on the 23d, two more of his deserters, making their way to Montreal, fell into his hands. One, Gabriel Minime, who had left him at Mackinac, was permitted to re-enter his service. The other, Grandmaison, escaped with his portion of the stolen furs.'* But they also brought sad news to La Salle, and he was compelled at last to believe that his woes had culminated in the total loss of Le Griffon and her cargo. These men had met some Pottawattamie Indians, who told them that two days after the bark left the island where La Salle bid her farewell September 18, 1679, a great gale arose. The pilot, who had anchored off the north shore of the lake under the shelter of a headland near the wigwams of these savages, determined to pro-' ceed to Mackinac, despite their warnings that a mighty tempest was raging in the open lake, which was white THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 85 with foam. Mocking at their fears and asserting that no wind could stay his course, he set sail in the face of the increasing storm. Hardly had the little vessel gone a quarter of a league from its anchorage when the natives saw it rolling wildly amid the huge waves, and then with its canvas furled driven irresistibly before the blast. In the gathering gloom and floods of rain it disappeared from view, and they never saw it more. The following spring they found some clothing along the shore, and in the summer a hatchway, a bit of cordage and a few pack ages of beaver skins were discovered in the sand. These, with the head of a flag staff, were the sole relics of the unfortunate craft, which undoubtedly foundered not many hours after it was last seen from the Pottawattamie vUlage."* And those midnight guns heard by the won dering savages on the other shore above the roar of the tempest were her last appeals for help as she went to her doom in the depths of the Lake of the Illinois. Romance has been busy with her fate, and has even fancied that Le Griffon, shaped as we see her in the picture in Hen nepin's New Discovery, after the fashion of ancient men of war, her bow and stern built high and her beak head displaying a flying griffin and an eagle, with her five small cannon, three of brass and two of arquebus pattern, and all the rest of her antique equipment is pre served to this day beneath one of the sand dunes on the eastern coast of Lake Michigan." The long suspense was over, and the hope which had cheered the dreary journey from Crevecceur and prom ised tidings at every station in the wilderness was sor rowfully abandoned. But La Salle was not discouraged. He had sent six of his men, a blacksmith, two sailors, a rope maker and two soldiers to take powder, lead, sails. 86 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY tools and other supplies from the Niagara storehouse by Lake Erie to Mackinac. He, with the rest of his party, descended the Severn River to Lake Huron, and coast ing its lonely shores and islands reached Sault Ste. Marie on September i6th. He presented here Frontenac's order for the delivery to him of the peltries left at the mission by the deserters, but the priests had mingled them with those belonging to the church, and to avoid a charge of sacrilege La Salle departed empty handed. He pursued his way the next day to Mackinac, where he was delayed three weeks by the hostility of the Jesuits, who prevented his obtaining supplies, and sought to entrap him into trading in that region contrary to the royal commission. At this place he seems to have been joined by D'Autray and La Forest, who in turn had met some of the deserters from Crevecoeur, by whose false tales of Tonty's death and other disasters the men of the relief parties had been so discouraged that their leaders were compelled to retrace their steps. The Lake Erie detachment did not make its appearance, and La Salle was compelled to send two canoes by different routes in search of it. He could not wait longer, and exchanging his stock of spirits with the natives for Indian corn, and leaving La Forest with three soldiers 1% follow with the rear guard, he left Mackinac on the 4th of October, 1680."' The advance party now consisted of La Salle, D'Au tray, whom his commander calls "the ever faithful," a proud title to win in those days of treachery, the ship carpenter, Noel Blanc, whose desertion had been for given, a surgeon, three soldiers, two sawyers, two masons, two laborers and an Indian. Frequent storms delayed their arrival at the river of the Miamis until No- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 87 vember 4th. Here they expected to meet La Forest, who had been ordered to leave Mackinac not later than Octo-. ber 20th, and being less encumbered with heavy lading should have made the trip by this time. He did not appear, and most of their equipment being useless with out the blacksmith, who was with the Lake Erie detach ment, it was left in charge of Le Blanc and five French men, and an Indian hunter named Nanangoucy, of a New England tribe, was employed to supply them with pro visions. They were directed to prepare timbers for the building of the ruined fort and construction of a vessel, while waiting for La Forest, for whom orders were left to join the vanguard if he arrived before winter. La Salle, with D'Autray, whom he again compliments as a "very brave young man," the surgeon, and the man named You, also called "a very brave fellow," Tamisier, Baron, and Hunault, who had made the terrible winter journey from Crevecoeur, together with La §alle's faith ful Indian, Le Loup, set out on November 8th. They ascended the river, and on the isth were at the Miami village near the portage, which they were surprised to find totally deserted. Crossing the two leagues of marshy land which in times of low water were all that inter vened between the two rivers, on the 17 th they were afloat on the Kankakee, and pursued their course as swiftly as its tortuous windings would allow."' By the 23d they were once more in the land of the Illinois, and at the mouth of the River Iroquois, passed the recent camping place of a war party of Kickapoos, two hundred or more in number, of whose deeds they were soon to hear. An abundance of game rejoiced the hearts of the men, but La Salle was filled with a vague inquietude as he noted the unusual Indian signs and the failure of the 111- 88 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY inois to burn the prairies according to their custom in the buffalo season. The 27th they arrived at the place where, as La Salle says, the River Divine falls into the Teaki, being the junction of the Des Plaines and the Kan kakee. Here careful search was made for signs of Ton ty's passing. As none were found, and he must have followed one or the other of these rivers had he left the country, it seemed that he was still at the Illinois village. Encouraged by this belief La Salle halted for three days to indulge his men in a grand hunting expedition. The neighborhood, then as in later times the paradise of the sportsman, soon yielded to their pursuit a dozen fat buf falo, seven or eight deer, and swans and other birds in profusion. They prepared and stored a supply for the winter, loaded one canoe with the choicest viands to regale Tonty and his comrades, and cheerily embarked on the Illinois River for the great Indian village only fif teen leagues away." Here they arrived the evening of December ist only to find it a place of indescribable hor ror. The long rows of lodges had been burned, and their site was marked by blackened poles on which were fixed ghastly human heads. The plain was strewn with man gled bodies and with bones from the violated burial places of the village. The underground storehouses had been broken open, and the supplies of corn burned or trampled under foot, the village utensils shattered and every spe cies of diabolical mischief wrought. And this place of carnage was inhabited only by wolves and birds of prey, whose howls and cries filled the air while they seemed ready to oppose the landing of the horror-stricken trav elers. The terrible scourge of an Iroquois invasion had fallen upon the land of the Illinois, and there seemed no one left to tell the tale. An eager search revealed no THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 89 indications of the slaying of Tonty's party, except that by a planted space, a league from the village and near the river, which apparently had been their garden, La Salle found six pointed stakes set in the earth, painted red, with the figure of a man in black upon each with his eyes bandaged. He knew it was the custom of the sav ages to erect such trophies where they had slain people, and feared that such had been the fate of his men. But it was possible that they had only been made prisoners and forced to descend the river with some of the Illinois fleeing from the Iroquois. After a night of sleepless anxiety La Salle resolved to follow. Storing his goods in an opening in the steep side of a cliff, he detailed three of his men to occupy a neighboring island between two rapids to gather corn for winter supplies for his party and that which he expected to follow, warning them to remain in concealment as much as possible. These three were the surgeon, Tamisier and Baron.'"" The next day, December 2d, La Salle himself, at three in the afternoon, embarked with D'Autray, You, Hun ault, and Le Loup, in a canoe. They made six leagues before night, and came to the place of refuge which the Illinois had established for their women and children, on a point of land between the river and the marsh. It was crowded with lodges defended by a kind of parapet built of their pirogues. On the opposite shore the insatiable Iroquois, prevented from crossing by their lack of canoes, had erected their one hundred and thirteen lodges, and on the bark of trees near by were rudely drawn the tokens of their chiefs and the tallies which showed that five hundred and eighty-two braves had fol lowed them to the war. In neither camp was there any trace of the missing Frenchmen. At daybreak. La SaUe 90 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY was again afloat, and steadily paddling untU nightfall, his party arrived at what remained of Fort Crevecoeur, which the deserters had left in ruins. On the way they passed six encampments of the Illinois, and as many of the Iro quois, face to face with these, on the opposite shore. Relentlessly these human tigers had tracked their vic tims, halting when they halted, marching when they marched, and waiting only for the decisive moment to glut their thirst for blood. With mournful thoughts La Salle stood again by the side of the unfinished vessel which he had expected to bear hiift proudly to the mouth of the Mississippi. The Iroquois had drawn a few nails from its moldings, but it was otherwise uninjured, and could have been completed in a month, had the tools been at hand which were taken to the Indian village by Tonty and ruined in its destruction. On a broken plank were written the words; "Nous sommes tons sauvages ce 15 A , 1680," and the latter part of the sentence was missing. La Salle recognized the handwriting of Le Parisien, and at first thought that Tonty had caused this to be done in August, when retreating with the Illinois. It was afterwards learned that it was part of an inscrip tion traced in April before Tonty went to the great Illi nois village. La Salle set out on December 4th to follow the river to its mouth, believing that his lieutenant and companions had descended it with the savages. Passing four of their camps and as many of their ruthless foes directly opposite these, and traveling all night, the next day they came upon another dreadful scene of slaughter.'"' Only twelve days before, as the hapless survivors later told the tale, the Illinois tribes, trusting to a treaty of peace with the Iroquois, separated for their more con venient support. The Kaskaskias, the bravest of all, THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 91 with the Cahokias and others, ascended the Mississippi. The Peorias, the most numerous and apparently the wis est, crossed it, and the Omouhoa and others went down the stream. Only the Tamaroas with two other tribes or sub-tribes remained, and upon them the relentless war riors of the Five Nations wreaked their vengeance, leav ing behind them horrible proofs of their demoniac cruelty. Afterwards it was said that the warriors who went northward and there battled with the Sioux, returned and had several engagements with the Iroquois with equal loss on both sides, but finally the greater part of the Illinois retired beyond the Mississippi among the Osages, two hundred leagues from their own country, but even to this distant refuge some of the Iroquois pur sued them.'"* No trace of the French being found. La Salle pushed forward to the Mississippi, whose swollen stream he now saw probably for the first time. On a rock to the left of the mouth of the Illinois he trimmed a young tree, and nailed to its trunk a board on which he painted a canoe and a calumet as a sign of peace, and attached a letter to Tonty, telling him of his own return to the village, and that he had hidden near by a supply of hatchets, knives and other supplies of use to him if he were with the savages. D'Autray and the other men now proposed to descend the great river and to risk their lives to achieve the great discovery which they knew their leader had so much at heart. He praised their fearless courage and the spirit so akin to his own, but he could not thus abandon the men left at the Illinois village, or those who were to follow, or give up the search for Tonty, nor had they the equipment or the force for such an undertak ing. He assured them that he would accomplish it in safety and honor the following spring when all his men 92 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY would be re-united and proper preparation made, but now he must retrace his steps. The thin ice was forming on the surface of the river on December 7th, when the prow of their canoe was turned northward. They urged it for ward with such remarkable speed that they reached the Illinois village within four days, and were greeted there by their three comrades the night of the nth. During the two weeks following, they collected and stored the Indian corn which had been scattered about the plain, and built sledges to carry their canoes and supplies over the ice. As they rested from their work in the evening of the 19th, they beheld the great comet of 1680 appear ing above the horizon. Night after night they watched its fiery splendors increase until it culminated in the fol lowing month and slowly faded away. During that win ter also they repeatedly saw parhelions or mock suns, and on one notable occasion, of which La Salle carefully noted the particulars, eight of these were seen besides the true sun, and remained visible for hours.'"' The day after Christmas, they fired the rude fort and the cabins which the Iroquois had built at the ruined village, that the smoke might attract some of the Illinois with news of Tonty, and to advise them of the presence of the relief party. It was in vain. The country was deserted, and perhaps at that time La Salle and his four men were the only human beings in all the region which is now comprised in the State of Illinois. They departed on December 28th, with three heavily loaded canoes which they drew on the sledges over the ice. Six leagues below the junction of the Kankakee with the Des Plaines, which La Salle says Jolliet named the Divine, they came upon a -hut missed in their downward voyage, which seemed to be one of Tonty's. Believing then that he had THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 93 not accompanied the savages, and knowing that there was no trace of him on the Kankakee, La Salle felt sure that he had taken the route of the Des Plaines to Lake Michigan ; and resolved to follow him. A league above the junction, which he reached January 6, 1681, he left all his equipage in charge of D'Autray and the surgeon, probably Jean Michel, who volunteered to remain and guard it, and proceeded on foot with his five other men. The first day's weary tramp through heavy snow brought them to another hut on the bank of the stream, where La Salle's quick eye fell upon a piece of wood cut with a saw, which told him that Tonty must have passed that way. From other signs he judged that this was at least two months before, and hence it was impossible to over take him.'"* Turning, therefore, in the direction of the St. Joseph, he crossed the open country during nineteen days of contin uous snowfall, finding no bark to make a hut and hardly wood enough for the evening fires, pressing forward ever in advance of his men, and breaking for them a passage through the drifts. His chronicler informs us that La Salle, who seemed always insensible to every kind of fatigue, assured him that he never endured so much cold or such suffering as on this memorable journey. At the end of January he was again at the mouth of the St. Joseph, but did not find there Tonty, who he hoped had traversed the Chicago portage to Lake Michigan and coasted its southern shore to this meeting place. La Forest had arrived with three soldiers and reported that the party for whom he had waited had wintered at the strait flowing into the west end of Lake Erie, and that he had seen from Mackinac a canoe passing by which did not stop there but held on its way down Lake Huron. La 94 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY SaUe thought this might be Tonty's craft, and eager to communicate with him as well as to prevent the news of 'the Iroquois invasion from discouraging his men who were in winter quarters, asked for volunteers to carry messages to their camp. Two of his comrades, realizing that it was only a third of the journey which their com mander had made the preceding spring, willingly under took this task, and set forth on February 2, 1681.'"* In the midst of these anxieties it was a comfort to La Salle to find that the men left at the St. Joseph had faith fully executed his orders. The carpenter had laid the keel and shaped the knees of a bark, and squared the wood for her sheathing, while his companions had cleared a large space of ground for cultivation, and prepared the materials for the construction of a barn. The vessel might have been completed, had the blacksmith only arrived with the saws and the rigging and other supplies, which his party were to bring from the storehouse at Tiotontaracton, at the foot of Lake Erie, to the River of the Miamis. The work done here was the more impor tant as La Salle had concluded to make an establishment at this place, and give ' up that among the Illinois, as he feared that the formidable enemies of that tribe would never permit their return to their own country.'" For the time it seemed as if they must be left out of his plans, and all hope abandoned of maintaining a settlement in the land of the Illinois. III. Occupation Tonty meanwhile was undergoing experiences rivaling those of La Salle in interest and in danger. Some six weeks after he was left in command of Fort Crevecoeur, THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 95 La Chapelle and Le Blanc arrived from Fort Miami, bringing the order for the construction of a stronghold near the great Indian village.' Membr6 had already gone there with his adopted father, Oumahouha, who was returning with other savages from their winter quarters. Tonty at once ascended the river with a few men to commence the new fort and obtain further sup plies. The messengers remained with the rest of the party, and the tale of misfortune which they had brought from Mackinac was repeated again and again. Le Blanc did not hesitate to assure his comrades that La SaUe was a lost man and would never return to the Illinois country, and advised them to shift for themselves, taking pay for their arrears of service from the goods at hand. Under his lead, about the middle of April,* Moyse Hillaret and Frangois Sauvin, called La Roze, ship carpenters like him self, and Jean Le Meilleur, nicknamed La Forge, the black smith, forced the magazine at Crevecoeur, and carried away all the ammunition, provisions and peltries there in store. Two other faithless ones, named Petit Bled and Boisardenne, on their way to the great village with Father Gabriel de La Ribourde, deserted him in the woods at night, taking the canoe and spiking the guns of Bois- rondet and L'Esperance, who were with them, but not in the plot. The six disaffected men seem also to have done as much damage as they could at the fort, and then departed for Canada. Etienne Renault, known as the Parisian, first writing on one of the planks of the bark the despairing sentence which La Salle later found partly effaced, made haste, with the others, to join Tonty. That steadfast man was thus at a blow deprived of everything and made utterly dependent upon the savages. But, regardless of himself, he thought only of La Salle, and 96 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY forthwith dispatched four of his men, two to take the Lake Erie route and two to go by Lake Simcoe, to carry the sorrowful tidings to his commander.' Of these La Chapelle and Messier, as we have seen, were faithful to their trust. The others, Jacques Richon arid Jean Lemire, overtook and made common cause with the deserters. These went by the Illinois, the Kankakee and the St. Joseph to Fort Miami, which La SaUe had left in good order but a little time before, and deliberately destroyed it. Thence they coasted Lake Michigan to Mackinac, where they were joined by some of those who had deserted there, and seized La Salle's furs stored at that place. These they deposited at Sault Ste. Marie for their own account. Somewhere on their route they met the parties of D'Autray and La Forest, and persuaded them to abandon the journey to the Illinois, telling them that Tonty was dead and Fort Crevecoeur deserted. At Niagara they robbed the storehouse and induced the guards to go with them. Then they divided into two companies, as heretofore related, one making for Albany and the other falling into the hands of La SaUe, by whom Boisardenne and one named Paulmier were shot, and the rest of their band imprisoned.* By these desertions and the detachments sent to carry the news, Tonty's command was reduced to the two friars, Ribourde and Membr6, and three young men who had come from France only the year before, Le Sieur Boisrondet, L'Esperance, and Renault. The two latter were at first La Salle's personal servants, but the rough training of the wilderness soon transformed them into hardy voyageurs. Crevecoeur was no longer tenable, and the forge and tools which the deserters had not time to destroy were removed to the great Indian village.* The THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 97 friars labored among the natives who assembled there, Membr6 says, to the number of seven or eight thousand souls. An Illinois chieftain named Asapista, with whom La Salle had formed a friendship, adopted Ribourde as his son and gave him a home and subsistence in the Indian fashion in his cabin. His aged comrade thus cared for, the more active Membr6 was free to visit other tribes in the pursuit of his calling. He made a journey to the villages of the Miamis along the River St. Joseph to learn something of their dispositions, and also went to other encampments of the Illinois. He mentions a vil lage of the Kaskaskias situated a little southwest of the foot of Lake Michigan, which he called Lake Dauphin, at about latitude 41 degrees," perhaps on the Kankakee River. He heard of, and possibly visited, the nation of the Mascoutens and the Outagamis, who were dwelling on the banks of the river called Melleoki, and who had their village very near its entrance into Lake Dauphin or on the site of the city of Milwaukee. West of these again were the Kickapoos and the Ainoves or lowas, the way to whose two villages was up the River Checagoume- mant, a name here apparently applied to the Des Plaines. Of the Sioux and other distant nations some information reached him through the intercourse of the Illinois with them. He had little success with any of the savages whom he met, finding only cause for chagrin at their deplorable state. He could not rely upon any conver sions, and felt great scruples as to the efficacy of native baptism after he learned that an Indian whom he calls Chassagouache, once duly baptized, had died in the hands of the medicine men, abandoned to their superstitions and consequently doubly a child of hell — "duplo filium gehennae. " This backslider was undoubtedly the head- 98 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY chief of the Illinois, already spoken of as Chassagoac, who must have died shortly after his memorable inter view with La SaUe.' Tonty had expected his commander to return by the end of May, and encouraged the Illinois to believe this, while he instructed them in the use of firearms and other European arts. They were disquieted by a rumor that the Miamis were forming a league with the Iroquois against them, and he taught them how to defend them selves by palisades and even made them erect a kind of little fort with entrenchments. But the summer wore on without a word from the absent leader. An Indian of the Kiskakon tribe named Winipeg, appeared at the vil lage with a tale of La Salle's death, supported by proofs so carefully prepared by his enemies, clerical or commer cial, that Tonty was forced to believe it. His own posi tion was becoming critical, for a story ran among the Illinois that La Salle was coming to deliver them to the Iroquois to be destroyed, and that Tonty was not a Frenchman, but of a nation hostile to the great King. The worthy priests meanwhile following their Indians in their camps and to the chase, had no greater grievance than the lack of wine for the celebration of the mass.' They were rejoiced to supply this want towards the end of August from the juice of wild grapes, which began to ripen then in clusters of prodigious size, of very agree able taste, and with seeds larger than those of Europe. They made a kind of retreat, a league's distance from the village near the river, in a cabin in the midst of a plain which the savages had sown with grain. Here they set up their portable chapel service and performed the offices of their faith, with a dusky neophyte in the person of the Indian with whom they lodged. This peaceful THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 99 time was destined to be of short duration. Tonty decided that it was unsafe to tarry longer, and gathering his party set out for Mackinac on September 2, 1680, despite the opposition of the natives who suspected some design against them. The river, shmnken by summer drought, was too low for the passage of a canoe, and the French men very unwillingly were obliged to return. On the loth the stream was swollen by a sudden rain, and Tonty directed that the canoe should be re-coated with gum and everything in readiness to depart the next morn ing." But strange events were at hand to delay the execution of this purpose. The following day, while the usual quiet pervaded the village, a friendly Shawnee, who had left it but the night before to go to his home on the Ohio, returned in haste with the startling intelligence that he had met an Iro quois army, four or five hundred strong, on the march to attack the Illinois. A few hours more would bring them to the village, which at once was all confusion and uproar. The chiefs, coupling the unwelcome announce ment with Tonty's attempted departure, turned fiercely upon him, and asserted that he was in reality a friend of the Iroquois and was seeking to destroy the Illinois, just as they had been warned by certain Frenchmen who they now knew were speaking the truth.'" It was a critical moment for this much-tried man and his few companions, alone in the wilderness, beyond the hope of aid, with one hostile savage host approaching, and another surround ing them, eager for their blood. But Tonty never lost courage. Facing his accusers with a steady eye, he simply replied that he would show them that they were wrong by joining them with his young men to do battle against the Iroquois to the death. The fickle loo CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY crowd, rejoicing at the prospect of such support, at once changed their demeanor and haUed him as their leader. In better spirits they sent out their spies, who soon reported that the Iroquois numbered six or seven hun dred warriors, mostly .bearing firearms. The opposing forces were unequal, for many of the Illinois were away, and there remained barely five hundred, the greater part of whom had only bows and arrows. Their young men passed the night in feasting, and their women and children were sent to a place of safety. At daybreak, in battle array, they forded the stream with Tonty, Boisrondet and Renault, and climbed the hills opposite the village to the great prairie lying beyond. L'Esperance remained at their cabin to guard La Salle's papers, which they had brought from Crevecoeur. As they reached the open space they saw the Iroquois, who were massed in front of the woods lining the course of the River Aramoni, now called the Vermilion. The Illinois, realizing their danger, besought Tonty to hasten to their foes with a col lar of wampum as a sign for a parley, and to make a peace with them. The intrepid soldier did not hesitate, though he could not speak the Iroquois tongue, and crossed the intervening space, accompanied by a single Indian, and leaving his arms behind. At a musket shot's distance he displayed the collar, the meaning of which the Iroquois well knew, but they opened fire notwith standing. Sending back his companion Tonty pressed on amid the discharge of the guns, and entered the Iroquois lines, resolved to hold his parley and save the Illinois, or die in the attempt." A Mohegan chief, a wanderer from far New England, serving with the Five Nations, gave him a friendly embrace, and, taking the collar from his hand, cried out ; " It is a Frenchman. ' ' At the word other THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS loi Mohegans gathered to protect him, but one of the Onon- dagas, who had been incited against La Salle, either mis taking the ambassador for him or not recognizing Tonty in his savage garb as a white man at all, gave him a cruel stab in the left breast. Others fell upon him, he received another wound in the side, and was stripped of his cloth ing and his hat was placed on the end of a gun. The young Illinois whom he had ordered to retire, saw as he looked back the treatment Tonty was receiving, and when the hat was waved aloft fully believed that he had been killed. He so announced to the Illinois, who put them selves in motion at once, and boldly advanced to avenge the gallant Frenchman, with the brave young Boisron det and Renault at their head. The chiefs of the Iroquois meanwhile held a council, squatting in a circle on the grass, and Tonty, stunned and bleeding, was brought before them. They seated him among them and pro ceeded to interrogate him, while one of them at his back, with a knife in his hand, every now and then raised his hair as if to take his scalp. Wounded and half naked as he was, and able to speak to them only through another New England Indian, of the Saco tribe, who acted as interpreter, Tonty dauntlessly reproached them for mak ing war upon the Illinois, and threatened them with the vengeance of Count Frontenac.'* At this juncture the assembly was interrupted by the intelligence that the Illinois with their French allies had driven back the left wing of the Iroquois and wounded nine and slain one. This fortunate diversion changed the situation. The chiefs, who a moment before had been ready to slay Tonty, now hurriedly assured him that he had nothing to fear, and eagerly asked the numbers of their opponents. Making the best of the matter, he gave I02 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY them to understand that eleven hundred Indians and fifty of the French were arrayed against them. With such odds they thought it useless to contend, and begged him forthwith to carry a wampum collar from them to the Illinois, to urge them to return to their viUage, to send corn to their hungry foes and to make peace. In great joy at this unexpected ending of his perilous adven ture, Tonty regained the Illinois lines, though so weak from loss of blood that he could hardly stand. The truce which both parties desired was readily agreed upon ; the Iroquois pretended to retrace their steps, and the Illinois moved towards the river, bearing Tonty with them. A league from the village they met the good priest Mem bra, who in his secluded retreat had been late to hear of Tonty's danger, and was now hurrying to stanch his wounds or render him the last offices of the Church, if he were mortally hurt. The wily Iroquois were meanwhile following closely upon the rear detachment of the Illinois and becoming mingled with them. Their leaders entreated Tonty to prevent this, and, too much exhausted to go in person, he sent Membr6 to deliver his com mands that they should advance no further. They halted for the moment, and the man who alone had stayed the battle that day struggled through the ford, and, bleeding from side and breast and mouth, lay down in the nearest cabin." It was not long before the Iroquois, in constantly increasing numbers, began to find their way to the vil lage on the pretext of needing provisions. The Illinois, distrusting them, withdrew and went to join their wives and children. Their foes' burned most of the cabins to guard against surprise, and built a rude fort with the materials of the others. The Frenchmen at first were THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 103 suffered to remain in a cabin some distance away, per haps the same in which the priests were dwelling, but soon were suspected of communicating with the Illinois, and compelled to remove to the Fort. Tonty and Mem bra, with an Iroquois hostage, were sent to induce the Illinois to make peace, for Tonty's story of their strength was still believed. A young Illinois hostage, however, who came to the Iroquois in return, revealed the truth to them, and owned that his people had only four hun dred warriors and would gladly give many beaver skins and release their Iroquois captives, if only peace could be made. The leaders of the Iroquois host, in great wrath at the deception practiced upon them, summoned Tonty to the fort and upbraided him for his stratagem, asking in fine scorn for the eleven hundred warriors and fifty Frenchmen of whom he had told them. He admits that he had much difficulty in explaining the matter, and doubtless many in that throng were ready to take his life. '* But there was something in his utter fearlessness which impressed even these ferocious creatures, and his appeal to Count Frontenac had weight. It may be, too, that the tales of the strange might of his right arm invested him in their eyes with supernatural power. Never did old Baldwin of Flanders so truly deserve the name of Bras de Fer as did this slender, quiet man, who had more than once on this perilous journey restored order among brawling savages by blows so weighty that the recipients with one accord hailed him as a "great med icine, ' ' and spread far and wide the fame of him to whom they gave a name in their own tongue meaning the man with the iron arm.'* The Iroquois did not harm him, and decided to make a false peace with the Illinois, which they concluded in their usual fashion with gifts, signify- I04 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY ing that Count Frontenac and La SaUe were angry at their coming to molest their brethren, and that there after they would act towards them as brothers should. They secretly offered presents to Tonty for his consent to the overthrow of the lUinois. These he spurned, and warned the intended victims to put no faith in their ene mies, who were covertly constructing canoes of elm bark" in order to follow them more easily, and urged them to fly to distant parts before they were betrayed. The chiefs of the Five Nations, suspecting this inter ference with their plans, but hardly daring to make away with Tonty, resolved that his party should leave. Call ing him and Membr6 to a council, they gave them seats and placed before them six packets of beaver skins." The first two were to inform Count Frontenac that they would not eat his children, and to assuage his wrath for what they had already done ; the third was a plaster for Tonty's wound, which they said had been inflicted by a heedless youth; the fourth was oil for his and Membr^'s limbs after their lung journeys; the fifth betokened that the sun was bright; and the sixth meant that they should take advantage of that fact and leave the next day for Canada. Tonty sturdily demanded to know when they themselves were going away. Their anger rose at this implied defiance. Murmurs were heard, and some of them replied that they would first devour some of the Illinois. Upon this he thrust away their gifts with his foot, saying that he would have none of them, since they desired to eat the children of Onontio. This, according to savage etiquette, was an almost unpardonable affront, and so he was told by an Abenaki Indian among them, who spoke French. One of the offended dignitaries seized Tonty by the arm, and ordered him to retire, and the THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 105 others rising drove him from the council. At once they began to sing their war songs as at the opening of a bat tle. Tonty and his comrades went to . their cabin and passed the night on guard, believing that no quarter would be given them, and that they would not live till morning, but resolved to make some of their assailants bite the dust before their own lives should be taken. But again the danger passed by, and at daybreak the Iro quois contented themselves with a peremptory order to depart forthwith, only requiring a letter to Count Fron tenac to show that the white men had suffered no harm at their hands. This Tonty gave them, taking advantage of this means of communication to send to the Governor a brief account of what had taken place in the Illinois country." On September i8th Tonty, with the two priests and three soldiers, for Boisrondet, Renault and L'Esperance had well earned that title, embarked to ascend the river. He had done all that mortal could do in most trying times, with a valor and a loyalty beyond praise, and only withdrew under compulsion and after he had rendered every possible service to his allies. Even now his pros pects were far from promising. The party of six had but one wretched bark canoe, with little ammunition or pro visions. Tonty believed La Salle to be dead, but desir- ' ing still the success of his plans, took all the beaver skins he could carry, to use them in the accomplishment of his leader's great project of discovery.'" Father Ribourde threw several of these to the Iroquois, saying that he was not there to amass furs, but was persuaded to leave the cargo in charge of the secular members of the expedi tion.*" The next day their sorry craft striking a rock and breaking, they were compelled to land about noon io6 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY to repair it, and to dry their clothes and peltries.*' Father Ribourde, seeing before him a beautiful stretch of prairie swelling into hills clad with groves of noble trees stand ing in as regular order as if planted by man, bethought himself to seek amidst their shades a quiet place for prayer and meditation. Setting forth with his breviary in his hand, he told Tonty of his purpose, and was warned not to stray far away, because they were not yet safe from their enemies. The others were busy with the canoe until evening, when, alarmed at their companion's failure to return, they went in search of him, and fired their guns repeatedly to direct him to them. Tonty fol lowed his footprints for a mile or more, until these were lost among the fresh tracks of a number of persons, and no further trace could be found. Returning with this ;sad news, all felt that the good priest had been killed or taken prisoner, and that they themselves were in danger. They crossed the river in the canoe, leaving its lading on the bank, and keeping watch through the night, saw sev eral human forms prowling about their camp fire on the opposite shore. In the morning they re-crossed and waited until noon, but no one came. Upon searching the woods they found signs of ambuscades, which made it perilous to remain longer. At three in the afternoon they •embarked, designing to proceed by short journeys, in the hope that the missing one might escape or might only have lost his way, and would be able to overtake them. It was barely possible, too, that he had preceded them along the bank, but they looked in vain for the familiar form at every bend of the stream. Later they learned that their comrade had met his fate soon after leaving them, at the hands of some cowardly Kickapoos, skulking in the rear of the Iroquois, with whom they professed to THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 107 be at war. Three of them in the advance came upon the venerable man at his devotions in the woods, and cruelly pierced him with arrows and took his scalp. This they bore in triumph to their village, pretending it was that of an Iroquois, and carried thither also his breviary and rosary, which ultimately fell into the hands of a Jesuit missionary, who ascertained the particulars of the death of Ribourde. His body, hidden by his slayers, was found by some of the Illinois, who bore it reverently to their village, where they buried it in their manner, doing honor to him who had gone among them for their good.** So perished the first martyr upon Illinois soil, Gabriel de La Ribourde. He was in the sixty-fourth year of his age, the only male child and heir of a gentleman of Burgundy, and noted in France and in Canada for his saintliness and devotion to the mission cause, for which he gave up home and friends, fortune and life. He had for a long time, in his extreme grief at the utter blindness of the natives, declared that he longed to be sacrificed for their salva tion. His colleague, mourning his loss, yet believed that he would not have wished for a happier fate than to die in the exercise of his apostolic functions, by the hands of those to whom he had been sent. Somewhere on the south bank of the Illinois River, midway between the Fox and the Des Plaines, is the place where closed the noble career of this Apostle of the West. His late associates went sorrowfully forward, but ere they reached their journey's end they almost rejoiced that he had been spared the terrible sufferings they were forced to endure. The next evening they heard a shot in the woods near them, and stood to their arms all night, believing that they were pursued. Arriving at the junc tion of the Kankakee and the Des Plaines, they took the io8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY latter stream, which they called the Divine, as JoUiet had done. Tonty left no mark there of their passing, for which he was afterwards blamed, but he doubtless thought it useless, because so certain that his commander was dead, and that no other man could come to his relief. La Salle and La Forest were at this very time at Mack inac, urgently preparing an expedition to the Illinois. Had Tonty taken the route of the Kankakee and St. Joseph and the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Mack inac, as he first intended, he would have met them by the way. But he had no means of knowing this, and the lateness of the season and his scanty equipment naturally led him to think it best to make for the nearest French settlement, the Mission of St. Frangois Xavier at Green Bay. Soon after entering the Des Plaines need of food obliged Tonty, although suffering from a severe attack of fever, to seek for game. He was fortunate enough to kill a buffalo, and laden with its meat returned to camp exhausted. A little rest was necessary, but the best canoeman, Renault, alarmed at the prospect of delay, wished to leave the others and push forward by land alone. Tonty nobly gave him full permission, but Father Membr6 would not suffer it, and shamed him into remain ing. The party soon moved onward along the winding Des Plaines, until they reached a:shallow valley leading eastward, and through it came to Mud Lake," and by a portage to the south branch of the Chicago River,*' pass ing on its waters the hillock on which Marquette had wintered six years before. This was Tonty's first visit to the site of Chicago, and on the roll of the early explor ers associated with it his name comes next after those of JoUiet and Marquette and La Salle. Doubtless more than one enterprising coureur de bois, or voyageur, by THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 109 this time knew the place well, but their names have not come down to us. The little band followed the Chicago River, also known like the Des Plaines as the Divine, by its long southward bend to the waves of Lake Michigan. Then turning northward they coasted the western shore, while Tonty's increasing fever and swollen limbs made him almost help less. On the evening of November ist a sudden gale wrecked their canoe on the beach. Too feeble to carry their peltries, they placed them in a cache or underground hiding place, which Boisrondet, with food for ten days, was left to guard. The other four sought to go afoot to the Pottawattamie village, believed to be but eight leagues distant. It was really twenty leagues away, and their provisions soon gave out. They lived on acorns and wild garlic found under the snow, and Tonty's con dition made their progress very slow, especially through the great ravines which crossed their path. Saint Mar tin's Daj'^, the nth of November, they came upon the skin and feet of a deer left by the wolves, and made a feast of these at the Pottawattamie village, which they reached only to find it deserted. Halting here, they devoured the leather straps of the lodge poles, and even a shield of buffalo hide discarded by some savage warrior. By good fortune they discovered a quantity of frozen squashes and stored them for future use in a cabin by the lake. They took for their habitation another cabin in the woods on a hill, where they found a little Indian corn and roasted it for food. Disappointed at not meeting the friendly tribe on which they had relied for aid to reach Green Bay, they determined that their only course was to go to Mackinac, and to leave Boisrondet to his fate, since it was impossible to return with supplies to him. no CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY They had repaired an old canoe left in the village by the Pottawattamies, and were preparing to depart when a noise was heard in the cabin by the lake, and their miss ing comrade suddenly appeared. He had set ou|: to follow his companions, missed the way, and wandered for ten days in the wintry wastes. He had exhausted his supply of bullets and lost his gun flint, but melted a pewter cup into slugs and discharged his piece with a firebrand, and so managed to kill some wild turkeys, on which he sub sisted until he came to the village. At the shore cabin he fancied that the store of provisions had been left for him by his friends at their departure, and had regaled himself with these for three days before he discovered their proximity. They felt great joy at seeing him, and great sadness at the diminution of their small supply of portable food.** The recruited party once more embarked and paddled northward for a. few hours, when a great wind compelled them to land. Fresh footprints and a beaten trail showed them the way to a portage of about a league, over which they with difficulty dragged their canoe and its contents the next day. They followed Sturgeon Creek into Green Bay, and went northward again in the hope of finding the savages, who seemed ever just before them. At the distance of two leagues some cabins were seen which apparently had been but recently abandoned. The next day they made five leagues more, but a northeast wind, with a heavy fall of snow, stayed their progress for five days, in which their scanty stock of provisions was entirely consumed. Despairing of overtaking the natives they determined to return to the Pottawattamie village, where there was wood and shelter, so that they could at least die warm. Re-entering Sturgeon Creek, they saw THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS in the smoke of a fire, and joyfully hastened to it, to be again disappointed, as there was no one there. They encamped, thinking to follow the elusive savages back to the village in the morning, but the creek froze in the night so solidly that they could not use their canoe. To go on foot it was necessary to replace their womout shoes, and they set about making these from poor Father Gabriel's cloak. Tonty reproved Renault for delaying his portion of the task, which prevented their starting as soon as they had expected. He excused himself because of indigestion resulting from his breakfast of a piece of the rawhide shield. The next day, December 4th, while Tonty was pressing him to finish his shoes, and he was still excusing himself on the score of illness, it proved that this delay was the cause of their being saved. Two Kiskakon Indians, on their way to the place where the Pottawattamies were encamped, noticed the smoke of the Frenchmen's campfire, and landed to investigate. When the poor wretches saw them they made a great rejoicing, and most gladly went with them to the Pottawattamies, who were only two leagues distant. Had the white men gone to the deserted village they must have perished there for lack of food. Now they found themselves among friends, and some of their own race, for five French hunters, who were wintering with these Indians, vied with them in ministering to the wants of this forlorn company. The chief, Onanghisse, well known among all the tribes of that region, welcomed them most cordially and harangued his people in their behalf. He was the same who met La Salle at the entrance of Green Bay the year before, and was so impressed by him that he used to say that he knew only three great captains. Monsieur de Frontenac, Monsieur de La Salle and himself. 112 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Thus, as Tonty says, from the dire heed in which they had been, they came at once into abundance after thirty- four days of terrible want. Since the wreck of their first canoe until now they had suffered everything but death. We may well beUeve Father Membr6 when he tells us that not one of them could stand for weakness ; that they were all like skeletons, and that Tonty was extremely ill. When recruited a little the priest joined some natives going to the Mission of St. Frangois Xavier, and after further great hardships reached the home of the Jesuit Fathers, who received him very kindly. Tonty spent the winter with the friendly Pottawattamies, who cared for him assiduously, and seems later to have followed Membr^ to the little mission settlement at the head of Green Bay.** Thus was completed another of those ardu ous journeys which characterize the early history of Illi nois, and one which resulted directly from the first attempt to establish civilization within its borders. For heroic endurance it can hardly be surpassed in any annals. While Tonty and his companions were toiling north ward, the great Illinois village had become a scene of desolation. Even before his departure the Iroquois had begun to destroy the corn stored there and to desecrate its burial places. They continued their ghoulish work until they set out to follow the fleeing Illinois down the river. Later a band of Kickapoos, dogging the steps of the Iroquois as jackals those of a lion, and probably the same who had slain the blameless Ribourde, completed the devastation which La Salle found there in the suc ceeding December. Some of the Illinois fugitives, among whom apparently was the native assistant of Mem bra and Ribourde, in their rude chapel near the great vil- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 113 lage, went northward, and ultimately reached Green Bay. They brought the chalice and sacerdotal vestments from this chapel, with reverent care, to the Mission of St. Frangois Xavier. Here Hennepin obtained them on his return, late in 1680, from his adventurous journey to the country of the Sioux, and thus was enabled to celebrate the mass for his party.*' The cause of this Iroquois raid, which utterly depopu lated the land of the Illinois, and brought La Salle's plans to naught for a time, was threefold. The] first is found in the character of the famous confederacy of the Five Nations, well described in the contemporary chronicle of the enterprises of La Salle. The five tribes inhabiting central New York, between the Hudson and the Niagara, and collectively named Iroquois by the French, were known among themselves as Hodenosaunee, or People of the Long House, of which the Ganeagaono or Mohawks kept the eastern door, and thence westward in order were the Onayotekaono or Oneidas, the Onundagaono or Onon- dagas, the Gweugwehono or Cayugas, and the Nundawa- ono or Senecas. The French synonyms for their sepa rate tribal names were Agniers, Onneiouts, Onnontagu6s, Oiogouins, and Tsonnontouans, the last and westernmost being the most powerful of all. The Iroquois lived in perfect harmony themselves, but were almost always embroiled with other people. They were politic, artful, perfidious, vindictive and indescribably cruel. Though numbering but twenty-five hundred warriors, their supe rior weapons and experience in warfare had enabled them to defeat and finally to exterminate all their neighbors. They had carried their arms on every side eight hundred leagues around, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north to Florida on the south, and beyond the Mississippi 114 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY on the west. They had destroyed more than thirty nations, caused the death of more than six hundred thou sand persons within eighty years, and rendered the country about the Great Lakes a desert. Some twenty years before the period under consideration, they had made an expedition against the Outagamis in Wiscon sin, and on their way came in contact with the Illinois and killed a number of them. These hostilities were renewed in succeeding years, untU the Illinois were forced to abandon their country and retire across the Mis sissippi. Later the Iroquois had made war upon and entirely destroyed the Andastes, a powerful people dwelling on the lower Susquehanna. The southern tribes had submitted to their despotic rule, and those of the north were under the protection of the French. Hence, when they sought fresh occupation fot their blood-stained weapons, these insatiable demons naturally turned their restless eyes westward. The Miamis and the Illinois were their nearest prey. The former were just establish ing themselves on the banks of the St. Joseph. The lat ter, while the Iroquois were busied elsewhere, had returned to their own land, and recently had cut off small parties of their dreaded foemen coming thither in scorn ful confidence to hunt the beaver. Together the tAvo western tribes might have withstood the onslaught, but the crafty sachems of the Five Nations skillfully plotted to array them against each other, and made their own losses at the hands of the Illinois the pretext for the war.*' Next to the savage desire of the Iroquois to devour new nations, the commercial interests involved tended to set their gory hordes in motion. Situated as they were between the English and the French, and alternately THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 115 conspiring against and dealing with the one and the other, they controlled the exchange of furs for the liquor and ammunition which only the white men could fur nish. As the supply of beaver and other animals decreased in their neighborhood, they were forced to seek new hunting fields and to wrest them from their native owners. To this also they were urged by the secret advices of the English governor of New York, who saw with concern the increasing trade between the west ern tribes and the French at Montreal, and trusted through the Iroquois to turn it to his own colony. Fur thermore, La Salle's plans were opposed to the interests of the middlemen and dealers in peltries among his own nation.*' They feared the monopoly he might establish under his royal patent, and his direct dispatch of furs to the home market either by sea or by his own vessels on the Great Lakes. Then, too, the news of the discoveries made by the early visitors to the country of the Illinois had spread rapidly, and already many coureurs de bois had found their way to this wonderful land.*" These poachers on La Salle's preserves joined with the mer chants who employed them, to arouse the Iroquois against him and his allies. Evidence of this had come to La Salle's knowledge before leaving Fort Frontenac on his first journey to the Illinois country, and further proofs were afforded during his visit to the Senecas near the Niagara River, when he secured their consent to the building of Le Griffon. He found there an embass]' from the Miamis, sent to arrange concert of action with the Iroquois, bearing letters from some Frenchmen who were ill disposed to him. There was good reason to believe that these enemies of his own race were seeking to bring about the direct destruction of La Salle and his ii6 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY party, or to accomplish the same end by embroiling them with the Iroquois.'" Lastly, combined with this commercial opposition to La SaUe, was the clerical enmity he had provoked, and which sometimes, perhaps unwittingly, supplied fuel to Iroquois wrath. Count Frontenac was a bitter opponent of the Jesuits, and to La SaUe, as his protigS, they were hostile. His plans of colonization and trade, moreover, were opposed to theirs, since they desired to be both church and state in the wilderness, and to control it abso lutely. Father AUouez' withdrawal from the great Illi nois village at the approach of La Salle certainly indicated opposition if not hostility. That it was the latter feeling was shown by this priest's resorting to the Miamis and furnishing the information with which the chief Monso attempted to array the Illinois against La Salle, and suc ceeded in leading away the deserters at Pimiteoui. AUouez again visited the Illinois while the bold French leader was absent on his marvelous journey to Fort Fron tenac, and incited the natives against both La Salle and Tonty, and is directly charged with giving aid and com fort to the Crevecoeur deserters, blessing their bullets and predicting a broken head for the valiant soldier whopi they had left in such extremity." In the same line were the protection given by the Jesuits at Sault Ste. Marie to these men and to their ill-gotten gains, and the preven tion by the missionaries at Mackinac of La Salle's obtain ing supplies there on his second voyage to the Illinois country.'* To the Jesuits was due the settlement of th? Miamis along the River St. Joseph. They were induced to remove from beyond the Mississippi by the gifts and ,persuasion of the Jesuit Fathers, who had such influence with them as to induce them to agree to remain neutral THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 117 in the impending war between the Iroquois and the Illi nois. This exactly suited the crafty sachems of the Five Nations, who moreover induced some of the Miamis, as we have seen, to become members of their war party. And so strong was the bias of the Jesuit missionaries in favor of the Iroquois, that several of these savage war riors, when setting out on their campaign against the Illinois, were furnished by the priests in their villages with certificates intended as safeguards in case they were taken prisoners. Whatever the real animus of the order was, these and other circumstances of like tenor caused the Illinois to firmly believe that the "black robes" were opposed to them and to the Frenchmen in alliance with them." Against such opposing forces it might well have seemed useless to contend. The last and bitterest drop was added to La Salle's cup of sorrow, when a Huron named Scortas arrived at the lonely post at the mouth of the St. Joseph with the intelligence that Tonty had been burned at the stake by the Illinois. This falsehood, deliberately contrived, as it afterwards appeared, by his enemies, con vinced him for the time that his faithful lieutenant was no more." And thus these two brave men, one at Green Bay and one at Fort Miami, were each mourning the other's death in the early days of the year 1681. During La Salle's recent absence from Fort Miami, twenty or thirty savages of different tribes which had been at war with the English colonies on the seaboard, wandering westward, had found their way to this post. They intended to join themselves to the Iroquois, but were per suaded to delay the execution of their design until La Salle's return, by Nanangoucy, who, like themselves, was a fugitive from the east. This savage, apprised of La ii8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Salle's approach by one of his dogs, which ran before him to the fort, made haste to meet hiih, and to inform him of the situation. He told La SaUe that these strangers, with about thirty others who were on the way, would join him either at the Illinois or among the Miamis, as he chose, and only asked that he would make his informant chief of the band. La Salle entrusted the matter to his own native attendant, Ouiouilamech, the son of the chief of a viUage of New England Indians not far from Boston, who had lived at the west for four years, and during the past two had followed the fortunes of the French com mander with unswerving fidelity. Through him was unfolded to these wanderers a plan for a firm union between them, the Miamis and the Illinois, under La Salle's leadership, which they received with joy." The Miamis were soon disposed to favor the new alli ance by the insolent conduct of the Iroquois. These haughty warriors, after their slaughter of the Tamaroas and pursuit of the other tribes, returned by the River Ohio, or Baudrane, as La Salle called it, and encamped in the Miami country. Here, in mere wantonness, they slew or took captive twenty of that tribe, and establishing themselves in three strong forts, mocked at the Miamis, who demanded redress, and after accepting gifts of three thousand beaver skins as ransom for their prisoners, refused to release them. A gallant chief of the Kaskas kia tribe, named Paessa, who had been absent on a war party at the time of inroad of the Iroquois, now came to seek vengeance upon them with a band of a hundred of his tribesmen, and attacked these forts. The battle raged all day, and the Illinois made three desperate charges, but Paessa and fourteen of his bravest comrades were slain, with eight of the Iroquois, and both sides THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 119 retired from the conflict. The rest of the lUinois boldly pursued their way towards Lake Erie to cut off Iroquois hunting parties there. This exhibition of valor also impressed the Miamis with the importance of a reconcili ation with their ill-treated neighbors, who might visit upon them condign punishment for their furtherance of the Iroquois invasion. About this time a Shawnee chief tain of a band of one hundred and fifty warriors dwelling on one of the rivers flowing into the Ohio, having heard of La Salle's arrival, sent to request that his people might be placed under the guardianship of the French King. La Salle replied that his country was too distant to receive aid from Canada, but that if the chief chose to join him in the autumn to go to the sea, he would assure him of the royal protection. The Shawnee promised to be at the mouth of the St. Joseph at the time appointed with as many as possible of his band." La Salle could delay no longer his return to the assist ance of D'Autray and the surgeon Michel, who were keeping their lonely watch over the merchandise left on the banks of the Des Plaines. Furthermore, he desired to obtain the supplies of corn which he had stored, prob ably at the great Illinois village during his last stay there, for the support of those whom he had resolved to leave at the mouth of the St. Joseph during the summer, that they might rebuild Fort Miami. And he wished also to find the Illinois and secure their adherence to his new scheme. Accordingly he set forth on the ist of March, 168 1, for the village, with all of his men, including Le Blanc and the five other Frenchmen who had remained at the river mouth, the four who had but a month before returned there with La Salle, and La Forest and the three men who came with him, fifteen in all. Two savages. I20 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Ouiouilamech and another, probably Nanangoucy, accompanied the party. They traveled on snowshoes over the smooth white crust, their dogs captured before their eyes deer and other game sufficient for their wants, and they made rapid progress until the reflection of the sun from the frozen surface made La SaUe and some of his men snow-blind. He was compelled to encamp for three days^ but sent forward most of his companions, keeping with him only the two savages and You and Hunault. The latter discovered a fresh trail of strange Indians, which he and Ouiouilamech followed for three days and overtook a hunting party of eighty Outagamis or Foxes, whose home was in the Green Bay region. These received them very well, and informed them of the arrival of Tonty at the Pottawattamie encampment, and the return of Hennepin, Ako and Du Gay from the land of the Sioux. This fortunate intelligence borne quickly back to La Salle rejoiced his heart, and he was soon able to resume his journey. The melting ice rendering nav igation possible, they proceeded in canoes. On March iSth they reached the great village of the Illinois, and met there -ten of that tribe mourning over their ruined homes. La Salle consoled them with presents, exhorted them to make peace with the Miamis, and told them of his design to unite the several tribes. He listened with sympathy to their tale i of the woes they had suffered at the hands of the Iroquois, and received from them papers showing the complicity of the Jesuits with their enemies. The Illinois with gratitude for his plans in their behalf, heartily approved of them and passed the rest of the day in feasting and dancing. The next day they loaded their canoes with a hundred minots of corn, and ascended the river to the place where D'Autray and his associate THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 121 awaited their welcome arrival. Hence La Salle sent a canoe party by the River Divine, or Des Plaines, and the Chicago portage and along Lake Michigan's western shore to find Tonty among the Pottawattamies, and to bring back La Salle's papers if perchance they had been saved. The others returned to the junction of the Kan kakee and followed its winding course to the portage, and so along the River of the Miamis to its mouth, where they found everything in good condition, though unguarded since their departure." Immediately upon their arrival here La Salle dis patched La Forest and four men in a canoe to find the blacksmith and his companions, who had wintered at the Detroit, and to request Tonty, in case he found him at Mackinac, to await La Salle there. La Forest met the delayed party at Mackinac, but learned that Tonty was still at Green Bay, and sent Jacques Messier, Pierre You and Andr6 Mass6 to meet him, with a canoe load of mer chandise to repay the friendly Pottawattamies and their chief Onanghisse for their care of the Frenchmen. Meanwhile the New England Indians, described by La Salle as the savages from Boston, "Les Sauvages de Bas-' ton," notified him that they were waiting at the Miami village to conclude the proposed treaty. He left a part of his men to clear the ground for cultivation and to pre pare materials for the rebuilding of the fort, and with the rest ascended the St. Joseph to the Kankkkee portage. He found there three Iroquois emissaries urging the Mia mis to make war upon the lUinois. These he treated so haughtily that a sudden terror fell upon them and they decamped in the night. Their flight gave the Miamis a new sense of the power of the French leader, of whom the Iroquois, who had not feared their whole nation,. 122 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY showed such dread. He first assembled the eastern Indians, among whom seveji or eight tribes were repre sented. Fugitives from King Philip's war and from border conflicts with the white men from Maine to Vir ginia were here, homeless wanderers in the forests for years, who joyously acceded to the proposition that they should establish themselves permanently at the west. Thirty Mohegans from among them attended La Salle like a bodyguard the next day when he held a solemn parley with the Miamis, observing all the ceremony so dear to their barbaric hearts. Many presents were given «ach with its symbolic meaning appropriate to the occa sion, and La Salle made a master stroke when he announced that the spirit of their dead chief, Ouabi- colcata, had entered into his person, and that hereafter he should be called by that name and not Okimao, which had been his title among the Miamis. They made sim ilar presents in return, and sealed the treaty with dances and feasts. Three days later the Frenchmen returned to the mouth of the river, whence La Salle persuaded his eastern allies to send two of their number, named Oua- bach and Amabauso, with presents of beaver skins to their respective tribes, to invite them to join him. This done he embarked on May 2sth for Mackinac, and passed on the way the remainder of the blacksmith's party at last en route for Fort Miami." Tonty coming from Green Bay with his associates and Father Enjalran, of the St. Frangois Mission, reached Mackinac on the eve of Corpus Christi, June 4, 168 1, and La Salle came there the next day. The two heroes who had parted more than fourteen months before on the banks of the Illinois, and had each believed the other dead, greeted one another as if returned from the spirit THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 123 land. The good father Membr6, in his narration, leaves us to conceive their mutual joy chastened though it was by their accounts of the tragical adventures which had happened to both. La Forest had been charged to pro ceed to Fort Frontenac as fast as possible, to exchange his peltries for supplies and ammunition, and to return to Mackinac by the last of May. He did not appear, and therefore La Salle, Tonty, Membr6 and their men set out themselves for Frontenac by the route of Lake Simcoe. At Teioiagon, Tonty, with three of the party, encamped on an island while the others went forward, expecting soon to return. At Fort Frontenac they found the laggard La Forest attending to other matters and not realizing the consequences of his delay. Letters from Count Frontenac awaited La Salle, summoning him to Montreal, whither he went at once, and although he missed the Count, his secretary, Barrois, assisted him to satisfy his creditors, and even to obtain fresh aid from them. His cousin Frangois Plet was also of signal serv ice in preserving his seignory at Frontenac against the efforts of those who wished to deprive him of it, and in gratitude and recompense he executed at Montreal, Aug ust II, 1681, a will bequeathing to Plet this seignory and all of La Salle's rights in the country of the Miamis, the Illinois and the regions of the South, and his other prop erty. He had intended to- make his voyage to the sea the same season, but his Montreal trip delayed him too long. Returning to Frontenac as soon as possible, he sent a brigantine to Teioiagon, conveying Father Membr6, bear ing letters to Tonty directing him to go to the Miami country, and to assemble there as large a party of French and Indians as possible. The untiring soldier and the intrepid priest set forth at once, and were among the 124 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Miamis by the loth of November. La Salle followed, leaving La Forest in command at Frontenac, but delayed by a fifteen days' portage of his merchandise to Lake Simcoe, and an epidemic of fever among his men, both red and white alike, he did not reach Fort Miami until December 19 th.'" Ap their commander landed at the appointed meeting place, Tonty and Membr6 and two of their men came to greet him. Five others, among whom was the interpre ter, disheartened by malicious tales of the dangers of the Mississippi, had stolen off, and were in hiding along a neighboring river. The remainder of the detachment, by their leader's orders, were hunting fifty leagues away on the Illinois plains, to obtain supplies of food. La Salle brought with him ten Frenchmen as well as four savages hired for the voyage, and employed fourteen others for the same service from among those at Fort Miami, promising each a hundred beaver skins as his wages. These eighteen Indians were all from New England, belonging to the Mohegan, Abenaqui and Saco tribes, and with them were ten squaws and three children. The frozen river barred the usual route by the Kankakee portage, and after waiting till December 21st, in the hope of a timely thaw, Tonty embarked on Lake Michi gan with most of the party and Membr6, "to go," as the latter says, "towards the Divine River, called by the Indians Checagou. " Three days' journey brought them to the Chicago portage and after one day's canoeing down the stream called by them the Checagou, now the Des Plaines, the increasing firmness of the ice prevented further navigation. Tonty, ever ready for an emergency, established a winter camp, and set his command at work to build sledges for the transportation of the canoes and THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 125 their lading. These were made of the hardest wood found in the forests along the river, such as the wild cherry, maple or walnut, the side pieces smoothly pol ished, curved in front and connected by three cross bars on which the load was placed. A man, harnessed to one by a neck collar attached to the runners, could readily draw a hundred or a hundred and fifty pounds weight eight or ten leagues a day. La Salle meanwhile, with a few assistants, was constructing caches in the sand ridges at the mouth of the St. Joseph, placing in deep excava tions his surplus commodities in boxes, lined and covered with sheets of birch bark, supported on stakes and pro tected with heavy timbers, above which the sand was heaped high, and every trace of human presence care fully effaced. These completed, he left Fort Miami on December 28th, by the lake route, following his vanguard to the Chicago portage, where winter storms arrested his progress. New Year's Day, 1682, he passed upon the site of the future metropolis snow-bound, looking out upon a dreary waste of which his little party were the sole inhab itants. This probably was the first time La Salle trav ersed the site of Chicago, although he may have touched the lake shore at some point now within the city limits on his journey along the westem shore of Lake Michigan in 1679. Delayed here by the drifts for several days, he was able at length to proceed on foot, and reached the place where Tonty awaited him on the 6th of January.*" The sledges completed, these were loaded with the canoes, provisions, ammunition, and one of the French men disabled by a wound, and the march commenced along the icy surface of the river. On the loth of the month they reached the junction of the Kankakee, where the trail of Tonty's hunters was discovered. Search was 126 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY made, and one of the parties was found. Two others had gone to the river St. Joseph, to obtain news of La Salle. They returned on the nth, and as the remainder of this detachment were expected soon, the main body moved forward by short journeys, leaving provisions for the others, and directions to follow. In a day or two more the whole company were gathered together, twenty-three Frenchmen and thirty-one savages in all. Tonty appro priately takes this occasion to record in his narrative the roster of the expedition which had undertaken so great an enterprise. We read there next after La Salle, Mem- hr6 and Tonty, the names so honorably associated with the early history of Illinois, of Tonty's gallant comrade, the young Sieur Frangois de Boisrondet, and of the ever faithful Jacques Bourdon, Sieur d 'Autray. There, too, are three of La Salle's companions on that trying winter journey from Crevecoeur to Frontenac, Hunault, La Vio lette, and Collin Crevel ; two of the party sent from Niag ara to Tonty's relief, Pierre You and Jean du Lignon, the repentant deserter Gabriel Barbier or Minime ; and others of whom we first hear by this list. Of these was the young Nicolas de La Salle, a son of a French Commis sary of Marine, not a relative of the discoverer, whose narrative of this expedition we have, and who was, later, to be associated with the early history of Louisiana, and Pierre Prudhomme, the armorer for whom a fort on the Mississippi was to be named. The Indian contingent was commanded by Clance, a Mohegan chief, who had been prominent at the conclave of the New England savages at the Kankakee portage. In single file along the frozen Illinois, which Membr^ also calls the Seignelay, dragging their weighty burdens, they plodded stoutly on, passing, with no desire to halt, the ruins of the great Illinois vil- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 127 lage, silent and tenantless. Arriving January 25th at Fort Crevecoeur, which was in fair condition, they found the river open, and halted that their Indian allies might make for themselves canoes of elm bark. Then exchang ing the collar for the paddle, they embarked again, and on the 6th of February saw before them the mighty stream of the Mississippi, to which La Salle gave the name of the great minister Colbert.*' Here a week's delay was caused by the ice, which made the navigation of the great river perilous, and also impeded the Indians, who had fallen behind in the jour ney from Crevecoeur. When they joined the others, they were obliged to build more canoes, and so failed to obtain sufficient supplies of game. The Frenchmen resorted to fishing, and caught a huge creature, doubtless of the catfish species, of such extraordinary size, says Tonty, that it furnished meat sufficient for soup for twenty -two men. On the 13th they floated out upon the stream of the Mississippi, and turning towards the sea, encoun tered at a distance of six leagues or more, the furious current of the great river coming from the west, called by them the Emissourita, or Missouri, and also the River of the Osages. They landed near its mouth, and repeated around their campfires tales told by the savages of its great size and length, its sources in the far-off mountains, and the numerous peoples on its banks, some of whom waged war and hunted the buffalo on horseback. The next day, gliding past the high tableland on which the city of St. Louis was to be founded almost a century later, they came to the great village of the Tamaroas on the east bank, probably near the site of the present town of Cahokia. It contained one hundred and twenty cabins, all abandoned like those of the chief settlement of the 128 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY lUinois. Here La SaUe left marks to indicate that he was traveling towards the sea on a peaceful errand, and suspended from posts gifts of merchandise for the inhab itants if they returned. Such was the terror inspired by the Iroquois that the country along the river for a hun dred leagues below the mouth of the Illinois was entirely deserted. Two leagues beyond the Tamaroas the expe dition went into camp on the right bank, perhaps where Jefferson Barracks now stand, and remained for two days hunting buffalo, deer, turkeys and swans in a beautiful region of swelling hills and rolling plains, where there was no ice or snow. The third day they made ten leagues, and passed the night on a level opening in the forest, which was subject to overflow at flood time in the river. The following evening they reared their bark shelters on the Illinois side, a fine country but with many rocks, says Nicolas de La Salle, speaking perhaps of the locality now known as Prairie Du Rocher. Here they halted three days to hunt, and resuming their course, found themselves at nightfall between bold shores bor dered with a low growth of canes, apparently at the pres ent Grand Tower. Setting forth in the early morning and making good progress, they saw towards sunset on their left the embouchure of the river, which the differ ent chroniclers of this expedition call by the various names of the River of St. Louis, the Ouabache, the Chi- cagoua, and the Oyo. Nicolas de La Salle, referring per haps to his leader's early dreams of discovery, mentions that this river coming from the country of the Iroquois had led some to believe that by following it one could find a passage to China — "La Chine." It was the Ohio, the Beautiful River. Such was the meaning of Oyo in the Iroquois tongue, and it thus soon became known among THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 129 the French as La Belle Riviere. A league beyond the first view of its waters they pitched their camp on the western bank, directly opposite to its mouth.** Thenceforth their course took them beyond the con fines of Illinois, as they went on to accomplish the great discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi, for which La Salle had labored with such titanic energy. Many were their adventures on the way, and numerous strange tribes were met, who were usually well disposed. Tonty volun teered to bear the calumet to one band, whose intentions were uncertain. At his approach they joined their hands in token of friendship, but he says; "I, who had but one hand, could only tell my men do the same in response. ' ' *' As they neared the sea, some of the party climbing trees to reconnoitre, reported what seemed a great bay in the distance. La Salle went to explore, returning with the news that he had gone to a point where the water had a briny taste and found some crabs like those of the ocean. April 6th they came to the place where the Mississippi divided into three branches. On the 7th, La Salle took the right, Tonty, with whom was Membr^, the center and D'Autray the left. Two leagues below, they issued upon the open gulf and explored its shores either way until they were assured that the great project had been accomplished. On April 9, 1682, they ascended to a spot on the right bank where the ground was firm and a few trees grew. Of the squared trunk of one of these they made a rude column, to which were attached the arms of France, wrought from the copper of one of their kettles, with the inscription, "Louis le Grand, Roy de France et de Navarre, regno le 90 Avril, 1682." Amid salvos of musketry and cries of; "Vive le Roi," La Salle erected the column, and took formal possession in the name of 130 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the King, of the Mississippi, its tributaries and the lands watered by them. A cross was also affixed to one of the trees, while the Te Deum was chanted, and all united in the hymn of the VexUla Regis. Beneath the cross was buried a leaden plate engraved with the arms of France and the King's title and the date in Latin on one side, and on the other a Latin inscription reciting that La SaUe, Tonty, Membr6 and twenty Frenchmen were the first to navigate this river from the land of the Illinois to its mouth. An official statement, or Proces- Verbal, of the expedition was prepared by Jacques de la M^terie, notary of Fort Frontenac, who had been duly authorized to exercise the functions of his office during this voyage, and signed by him and eleven others. By this act France obtained her title to the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, to which our nation has succeeded. The name of the State of Louisiana to-day preserves the des ignation which La Salle gave to the whole of the grand realm which he brought under the sway of the French crown.** The whole party commenced the ascent of the river on the loth of April, but La SaUe pushed forward with three light canoes, manned chiefly by his Mohegans, as far as Fort Prudhomme. This was a stockade on a high stone bluff near the mouth of the Arkansas, built by his men on their way down the river, and named for Pierre Prud homme, the armorer. Here La Salle fell dangerously ill, and needed the services of the surgeon, who was with the rear guard. His attendant, Cauchois, went some dis tance down the river to meet them without success, and fearing to leave his master any longer, tied a letter to a tree on a projecting point of sand. Tonty, following slowly, was startled at the sight of this, and made haste. TH E LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 131 as requested by it, to hurry forward Jean Michel to bleed La SaUe. Arriving himself at the fort the last of May, he was profoundly distressed to find his commander seemingly at the point of death. The state of his affairs, the danger of robbery of his caches at Fort Miami, and the importance of a speedy report of his success, made it necessary for the faithful lieutenant to go forward at once. With a heavy heart he proceeded up the river on June 4th, accompanied by Antoine Brossard, Jacques Cauchois, Jean Mass6, and a Saco Indian. Below the Ohio he met four forlorn Iroquois, the survivors of a band of a hundred recently defeated by the Sioux, and gave them a part of his scanty supplies. Four days later he steered his canoe towards a smoke on the Illinois shore of the river. ThirtJ' Tamaroa warriors issued from the woods and advanced with bended bows and fierce war cries, taking the travelers for Iroquois. Tonty presented his calumet, and an Indian whom he had known among the Illinois, recognizing him, cried out: "It is my com rade! They are French." He landed and found a war party composed of Missouris, Tamaroas and Kaskaskias. Those of the two former tribes would have put Tonty and his companions to death, but the latter prevented and made them safe for the night. The Tamaroas then escorted them to their village, which they had reoccu- pied, where Tonty was welcomed by the chiefs, who entertained him for two days. On the 20th, after dis tributing presents, he departed, and on the 27th passed the great Illinois village, still unoccupied. Low water obliged him to abandon his canoe, and the party trav ersed on foot the forty leagues' distance to Lake Mich igan. On its shore they fortunately met an Outagami Indian, who sold them a canoe with which they reached 132 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Fort Miami, and found everything undisturbed and the place deserted. Paddling onward, Tonty landed at Mackinac July 22d, bringing Membr6's letter to his Superior, written June 3d at Fort Prudhomme, which is stiU preserved. La Salle had been too iU to write when the advance party left him, but Tonty forwarded dis patches in his behalf to Count Frontenac, containing the first news of the great discovery which slowly found its way to Quebec and thence to France.** La Salle's iron constitution triumphed over disease and blood-letting after a forty days' contest. With Membr6 to aid him, though still very feeble, he left Fort Prud homme at the close of July, with the remainder of his men. Proceeding by short stages and with frequent fests to the Tamaroa village he was made there a guest of honor, the calumet dance was performed before him, and he was presented with a set of mats and two Pawnee cap- , fives, a woman and a boy. He gave two muskets in return. This Pawnee youth, who soon acquired a knowl edge of French, told La Salle a strange story which led him to believe it possible that the pilot and crew did in fact escape from the wreck of Le Griffon. Two years before, the young Indian said he had seen two French men prisoners among one of the Upper Mississippi tribes. They had been taken with four others while ascending the river in two canoes loaded with merchan dise, and their comrades had been slain and devoured. The one, whose description tallied with that of the pilot, had saved the lives of himself and companion by his ready exhibition of an explosive, seemingly one of the hand grenades of which there had been a supply on the vessel ; and assuring , the savages that he could destroy with these the villages of their enemies. One of the THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 133 crew, named La Riviere, from Tours, had formerly been in the service of Duluth, who was at the time of the cap ture among the Sioux, and La Salle thought it probable that this man was seeking to join his former employer, with his fellows and the more valuable merchandise from Le Griffon. The story seems never to have been fully confirmed.*' From the Tamaroas La Salle's party ascended to the mouth of the Illinois, and turned into that stream. Their hunters along its banks supplied them with an abundance of swans, ducks, turkeys, deer and buffalo, and after fifteen days foraging they halted at Fort Crevecoeur, which they found nearly destroyed. The unfinished vessel, sad me morial of the failure of the first ^.ttempt to explore the Great River, had been fired, and a few blackened timbers alone remained. La Salle left eight Frenchmen here, and passing the Illinois village, where no one was seen, kept on his way to Lake Michigan, and so to Fort Miami again. Here he learned that the diligent Tonty had left D'Autray and Cauchois among the Miamis, and sent others to the Illinois, and that two hundred lodges of other Indians were going to re-enforce the latter nation. La Salle and Membr^ hastened on to Mackinac, where they landed at the end of September. The former, hear ing rumors of another Iroquois invasion which 'boded ill to his newly-formed plans, resolved to remain and oppose it, and indeed was hardly equal to his intended journey to France. He wrote Count Frontenac that, having heard that the Iroquois were ready to march, he proposed to return to the Miami country with his twenty-five Frenchmen, and strongly fortify a post there, resolved to defend it against the warriors of the Five Nations. To secure the proper presentation of the official account of 134 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY his great discovery to the King, he appointed Membr6 to go to Paris in his stead for that purpose. The clerical deputy made all speed down the lakes and rivers to Quebec, where he reported himself two days before the departure on November 1 7th, of the last vessels of the season, and sailed in that which bore away La Salle's steadfast friend. Count Frontenac, just retiring from the governorship of Canada. So Membr6 left New France never to return, and sorrowfully wrote of his labors in the Illinois land; "I cannot say that my little efforts pro duced certain fruits. With regard to these nations per haps some one by a secret effort of grace has profited ; this God only knows. All we have done has been to see the state of these nations, and to open the way to the Gospel, and to missionaries; having baptized only two infants whom I saw at the point of death and who in fact died in our presence." *' The threatened inroad of the Iroquois promised disas ter to the savages on the River St. Joseph, who had so recently formed an alliance with the French and the Illinois. Tonty was dispatched in haste thither to assem ble the men who had remained in that region at the Kankakee portage, and to erect a fort there for the pro tection of the Shawanoes, whom La Salle had invited to move their village, and of the Miamis.*' But on his arrival Tonty found the Shawanoes all absent in hunting parties, and the Miamis beginning to take flight because rumors had reached them that the Iroquois were coming to destroy them. As those French men whom he had expected to meet were scattered, and he had too few in his company to undertake the appointed task with them alone, he proceeded to Fort Crevecoeur, intending to winter there and to gather his forces in the THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 135 spring.*" La Salle meanwhile assumed that the fort at the Kankakee portage was well under way and on Octo ber 5th wrote to the Governor at Quebec, that he had caused such a fort to be constructed, which was on the point of being attacked by the Iroquois, and asked to have one hundred muskets, five hundred pounds of powder and one thousand pounds of balls with some grenades and falconets sent to it at the risk of La Salle. And to one of his friends he wrote in the same month that he had built one of the forts which his letters patent author ized him to construct, at the portage of the River of the Illinois, and stationed thirty men there with the Sieur de Tonty. But by degrees contradictions of the rumors concerning the Iroquois, and information of Tonty's repairing to Crevecoeur reached La Salle at Mackinac, with such assurances of the amenability of the savages as induced him to return to his original plan of a permanent establishment upon the River Illinois. Fort Crevecoeur was too distant from the general abiding place of the natives, and it probably could not be fortified to the extent deemed necessary since the Iroquois campaign. The strong fort which Tonty was ordered to build on the high rock near the old Indian village, if commenced, was never completed. After La Salle's first visit to the mouth of the Illinois, he was inclined when he returned from the sea to make his stronghold on the rock on the south shore of the Illinois River just where it flows into the Mississippi, having then perhaps some idea of bring ing the far western and northern tribes under his sway. But this plan was never carried out.*" A new location was advisable, and one which should be most convenient for the tribes of the Illinois. The former inhabitants of the great village had definitely 136 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY abandoned that site of bitter memories, and it was there fore unwise to resume the project of a fortress on the rock adjoining it. As La Salle revolved these matters in his mind, his thoughts recurred to a still more command ing position six leagues farther down the river on its southern shore. Here was an eyrie which he resolved to make his own, and he forthwith chose for it the name of Fort St. Louis, in honor of the canonized king, Louis IX. of France. Some of his party he sent to Montreal for provisions and ammunition, and set out with the rest from Mackinac for the Illinois. The 2d of Decem ber, 1682, he was on the River St. Joseph and there executed to one of his men, Michel Dizy, a concession of two hundred arpents of land in the district dependent upon his new fort, similar to those which he had already made to others in his service. These grants were sub jected to certain seignorial charges, which were reduced for those making early application.*' He seemed to feel that his wanderings were about to end, and he desired to offer inducements to his followers to make permanent settle ment in his new seignory. Its hills and valleys, forests and open plains lay before him as he descended the Illinois, and in imagination he saw them occupied by people of two races united in commercial enterprise under his protecting sway. Disembarking at Crevecoeur on the 30th of December, he directed Tonty's com mand to break camp and to follow him to the chosen place in the heart of the land of the Illinois.** This land, which Jolliet and Marquette had found so beautiful was equally so to La SaUe and to his associates who had now summered and wintered there. The glow ing descriptions given by all whose accounts we have make it a paradise, the attractions of which they are THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 137 never weary of depicting. Tonty, whose brief chronicles waste no words, cannot resist the spell.. In his Memoir of 1684*' he says it is as charming a country as one can anywhere see, for the most part a great plain adorned with clusters of trees and rich in strange fruits. There the first buffalo are seen, and its prairies abound with every kind of animal, deer in flocks like sheep, turkeys and game. And again in his Memoir of 1693 he says the country of the Illinois contains some of the finest lands ever seen.** So Father Membr6 writes that the River Seignelay, as he calls the Illinois, is very beautiful, forming lakes as far as the Mississippi, edged with hills covered with beautiful trees whence one sees vast prai ries on which herds of wild cattle pasture in profusion. The soil is good and capable of producing all that can be desired for subsistence. The whole country along this river is charming in its aspect.** The Relation Officielle repeats these praises and adds that the air is very tem perate and very healthful, the country is watered by numberless lakes, rivers and streams for the most part navigable, one is hardly ever incommoded there by mosquitoes or other harmful creatures, and there are mines of coal, slate and iron.*' La Salle's own letters are full of similar statements. In one of them he speaks of the country nine leagues below the confluence of the Kankakee and the Des Plaines as the most beautiful in the world, and adds that the savages call it Massane because of the great quantity of hemp that grows there, and that there could be no other region so intersected with rivers and diversified with prairies, islands, groves, hills, valleys and plains of the most fertile soil.*' The novelty of such a land to natives of Europe or of the bleak forests of Canada evoked this enthusiasm and deepened 138 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY these impressions. And it was with the feeUng that they had come to the garden of the earth that La Salle's retainers began the preparations for a feudal establish ment within its borders after the pattern of those of the old world. IV. Settlement The lines of La Salle's new citadel were traced just as the year 1683 began, and its construction went steadily forward despite the winter weather. The tall rock on which it stood rose to a height of one hundred and twenty-five feet, so sheer from the river's edge that water could be drawn at its summit from the stream directly below. The circuit of its level top measured six hundred feet, and on three sides it was so steep as to be totally inaccessible. On the fourth the approach was toilsome enough, and here it was fortified by a formida ble palisade of trunks of white oak trees ten inches in diameter and twenty-two feet high. This was flanked by three redoubts, built of squared beams, so located that each could defend the others. A like palisade but only fifteen feet in height encompassed the remainder of the rock, and along its line four similar redoubts frowned upon the region below. A parapet of large trees laid lengthwise and covered with earth ran along the inner •side of the whole fortification, and the palisades were crowned with heavy timbers set , with wooden spikes, iron pointed. Within the enclosure were rude dwellings, a store house for supplies and peltries, and a chapel. All was completed in the month of March, 1683, when the royal ensign of France was unfurled above the walls of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois.' It overlooked the country THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 139 far and wide, for its foundation rock towered above the neighboring bluffs in splendid isolation. From the near est of these to the eastward it was separated by a ravine two hundred feet across, and on the other side was a wide valley through which a little stream made its way to the Illinois. The farther shore of the river was a broad prairie, and midway lay a beautiful island, both of which had formerly been cultivated by the natives. The island was within musket shot, and could be planted and its harvest gathered under protection of the fort. It seemed that at last La Salle had found an appropriate center for his great design of a commercial colony in the heart of the West, communicating on the one hand with the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the other with the Gulf of Mexico. The assurance given to the friendly tribes had been fulfilled, and of this they were speedily advised. No sooner was the fortress completed than the indefatigable Tonty set forth to summon the dusky retainers to the castle of their chief. East, south and west, he journeyed over the prairies for well nigh three hundred miles, pass ing from one group of lodges to another, and distributing presents in the name of La Salle. He told his eager hear ers of the mighty stronghold which their white father had built to defend them against the ruthless Iroquois, and urged them to encamp about its walls. The machinations of La Salle's enemies had estranged some of the natives, but by persistent effort Tonty won them back, and one and all agreed to come to the appointed place.* They kept their word, and soon from his watch tower the French leader saw band after band of lUinois, Miamis and Shawanoes approach and establish themselves in the near neighborhood until three hundred cabins were I40 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY reared round about Fort St. Louis. Other Indians fol lowed and some with strange names whose tribes we cannot now identify, but who probably came from the Mississippi region in which La SaUe's recent voyage to the sea had spread his name abroad.' Ere long he was able to report to the home government that he had assembled at the fort four thousand savage warriors, which number would represent a native population of fully twenty thousand souls.* To make the settlement all that he wished it remained only to attract there a sufficient number of Frenchmen. He had given liberal grants of land to those of his com rades who were willing to make their homes in the wilderness, and anxiously awaited the return of the men whom he had sent to Montreal in the fall, and the coming of new colonists with them. But these did not appear and April came without reliable news from the lower St. Lawrence, although disquieting rumors repeated from one tribe to another, or carried by wandering coureurs de bois, were in the air. A disastrous change for La Salle had taken place in the government at Quebec. Count Frontenac had been recalled and Le Febvre de La Barre had succeeded him on October 9, 1682. The new Governor sided with the enemies of La Salle, and almost at once showed hostility to him. Writing" to the minister Colbert on the 12th of November, La Barre mentioned the receipt of the letter which Tonty had written for La Salle when the latter lay ill at Fort Prud homme, to announce the finding of the mouth of the Mississippi; and made light of the discovery and ex pressed doubts of its utility. This opinion he repeated in another letter to Colbert, dated two days later, in which he blamed La Salle for the threatened Iroquois THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 141 war, and charged him with falsehood. The men sent from Mackinac in the fall were detained at Montreal, and the Governor gave ready credence to all charges against them or their employer. He determined to bring La Salle to Quebec and to take possession of his establish ment on the Illinois River. To arrange this and other matters he commissioned an officer to proceed to Macki nac and points beyond.* This person, whose name was to be connected with the Illinois country and with the beginning of Chicago, was Olivier Morel Sieur de La Durantaye. Born at Gasure in the ancient bishopric of Nantes, February 17, 1640, of an old and noble family, he grew to manhood in his native France, and at the age of 22 commenced his long career of faithful military service to his king. He attained the rank of lieutenant in the fine infantry regiment which bore the name of its Colonel, Sieur de Chambelle, and in 1665 was appointed one of its cap tains. The same year he exchanged into the famous regiment of Carignan-Salieres that he might proceed with it to Canada where it was sent to bring the Iroquois to terms. After peace was concluded he returned with his company to France, but the charms of the New World led him thither again. In 1672 the Intendant Jean Talon granted him a concession near the River Richelieu of seventy arpents of land, which he was engaged in cultivating when the course of events brought him into the service of the government again.' His commission from La Barre, dated March i, 1683, recites that he was selected because a man of experience, worth and approved wisdom was needed to carry out the instruc tions which he would receive. Fourteen days later the Governor, fearing lest the work he had planned was too 142 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY much for one person to accomplish, commissioned as Durantaye 's lieutenant the Chevalier Louis Henri de Baugy, a young officer, son of a royal counselor, who had arrived from France the preceding autumn.' La Salle meanwhile not realizing the storm which was brewing at Quebec but uneasy because of the non-arrival of his men, determined to appeal directly to La Barre. On the 2nd of April, 1683, he wrote from Fort St. Louis a pathetic letter, setting forth his reverses and his resolve, notwithstanding, to meet his obligations. He recounted his great discovery ; the building of the fort, and the assembling of the Indians ; set forth his future plans, and besought the Governor not to delay parties going from the post to the settlements. Another detach ment was ready to set out to bring back supplies of ammunition, but feared that they might be detained on the charge of illegal trading. La Salle assured La Barre of the falsity of any such allegation, informed him that these supplies were absolutely necessary for the defence of the fort which was on the eve of being attacked, and begged him to permit all of the people belonging there to return.' In the hope that he had thus made certain of fair treatment, La Salle permitted Andr^ Eno and Jean Filastreau to take the route for Montreal with a load of peltries belonging to Tonty and Jacques Cauchois, which they had generously permitted to be exchanged for powder and ball for the common defence. In May came the rumor that the Iroquois were on the warpath, and the Miamis who had returned to their villages to gather their com were so alarmed that they resolved to flee to far distant parts. Such a course would have disinte grated La Salle's colony, and he went at once to the St. Joseph region, assembled the Miami chiefs and persuaded THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 143 the tribe to retire in a body to Fort St. Louis. Then he descended the stream to its mouth with the intention of going to Mackinac and thence to Montreal, to see the Governor. He was delayed at Fort Miami four days by bad weather. The fourth evening some Kiskakon sav ages who had been trading with the Miamis brought the tidings that thp latter had come upon the recent trail of an army of Iroquois one of whose parties had slain a Miami hunter, while chasing a deer near their camp. La Salle had promised the Illinois at Fort St. Louis to retrace his steps at the first sure intelligence of the approach of the Iroquois, and therefore changed his plans forthwith and returned with the Miamis. These were divided into the Ouiatenons from about the Kanka kee portage, the Pepikoia who dwelt midway between this point and the mouth of the St. Joseph, and the Tchatchaking who were near Lake Michigan, and fol lowed its coast in their retreat. The others came to join them as soon as they heard that the Iroquois were near. Each sub-tribe had intended to take its own route, lest their crossing the country together, should too greatly tax its resources. But they now preferred, as the chron icler aptly says, to risk a scarcity of provisions by their union, rather than to become bread for the Iroquois by marching separately." The motley host of from four thousand to forty-five hundred souls pursued its course around the southern end of Lake Michigan and along its western shore. The country was so rich in game as to supply their wants without difficulty, although as many more natives were dependent upon the same region for their sustenance. There was a busy scene at the Chicago portage when the Miamis arrived and by degrees passed on down the Des 144 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Plaines. La SaUe himself halted here at the Uttle stock ade with a log house within its enclosure which two of his men had erected at this point during the winter of 1682 and 1683.'" This was the first known structure of anything like a permanent character upon the site of Chicago, and the first habitation of white men there since Marquette's encampment in the winter of 16^4. It was an outlying post of Fort St. Louis, established for the procuring of beaver and other furs, and its occupants at this time were Jacques Cauchois, the faithful attendant of La SaUe in his illness on the Mississippi, and an Indian whose name has not been preserved." Disappointed in his hope of a personal interview with La Barre, the earliest opportunity to communicate with him was seized by La Salle who now sent his two Chicago colonists to Montreal with all the peltries they could carry.'* By the hand of Cauchois he forwarded a second letter to the Governor dated " Du portage de Checagou 4 Juin, 1683," which is probably the first document wholly writ ten at that place, and comes next in point of time to that portion of Marquette's journal actually indited there. In this epistle La Salle plainly tells La Barre that the detaining of all the men who had gone to Montreal had caused a lack of everjrthing needful, and that these two now came to procure means for the actual defence pf the fort against formidable enemies. He asks him to have the goodness to permit them to return with their charge, and with as many others as Cauchois might persuade to accompany them. After recounting -what had taken place since his last communication and the straits the colony was in, he reproachfully says; "But, monsieur, it is in vain that we risk our lives here and that I exhaust myself to fulfill the wishes of His Majesty, if, at the THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 145 settlements below, all the measures are thwarted which I take to procure success, and if on far fetched pretexts those are kept back who go to obtain the supplies with out which we cannot defend ourselves. It is useless for the King to permit me to build forts and to do what is necessary for the accomplishment of my design, if I am prevented from bringing arms, powder and lead here. ' ' Again, changing his tone, he shows that he has only twenty Frenchmen at the fort with but a hundred pounds of powder and bullets in proportion, and that unless he has more he cannot withstand an attack. And he closes with an earnest appeal to La Barre to save the post as the key to a country capable of becoming a powerful colony which will always honor him as its preserver in its infancy." In a memorandum added to the letter he says he has learned from Tonty that an armed band of the Illinois went on the warpath against the Iroquois and their allies ten days before, and just as he was closing, another dispatch from Tonty arrived, brought by two of his men to the Chicago portage, to tell La Salle that, unless he came back at once, the Illinois would forsake them to go to some region beyond the reach of the Iroquois. The war party previously spoken of had returned, having met forty of the enemy and captured one whom they offered to Tonty to put to death. He declined, telling them it was not the custom of the French to kill their prisoners of war; but he feared to ask clemencyfor the Iroquois lest it should seem that the whites were ip sympathy with the Five Nations, as La Salle's enemies were continually alleging. The luckless captive therefore "was burned in the ordinary manner," says La Salle, "he having been presented to the Shawa noes, who put him to the fire. " '* To neither of these 146 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY letters does the stolid old soldier who sat in the chair of state in the Governor's chateau at Quebec seem to have made any reply. Five months after the last was written, he sent copies of both to the Minister Colbert, and asserted that La Salle's head was turned, that his discov ery was false, and that he was setting up an imaginary kingdom. So far was La Barre from realizing his own shameful conduct that he gloated over the failure of La Salle's men to return to him, and rejoiced that he was deprived of the means necessary to maintain his post, which he contemptuously spoke of as more than five hun dred leagues distant from Quebec." La Salle's previous visit to the Chicago portage was made in mid-winter," when one could not easily deter mine the character of the region. On this occasion he came in the early summer," and doubtless then prepared or obtained the facts for his description of the place, probably written later in 1683, He says : "The portage de Checagou is an isthmus of land at forty-one degrees and fifty minutes north latitude to the west of the lake of the Illinois, which is reached by a channel formed by the meeting of many rivulets or rainfalls of the prairie. It is navigable about two leagues to the border of the prai rie a quarter of a league westward. There is there a lit tle lake divided into two by a beaver dam about a league and a half in length, whence there flows a little stream which, after meandering half a league among the rushes, falls into the river Checagou, and by it into the river Illi nois. This lake, when filled by the great rains of sum mer or the floods of spring, flows into the channel leading to the lake of the Illinois, the surface of which is seven feet lower than the prairie in which the former lake lies. The river Checagou does the same in the spring when its THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 147 channel is full ; it discharges by this little lake a part of its waters into the lake of the Illinois. And at this time, which would be the summer, Jolliet says that a little canal a quarter of a league long from this lake to the basin which leads to the lake of the Illinois, would enable barks to enter the Checagou and descend to the sea. That perhaps might happen in the spring, but not in summer, because there is then no water in the river as far as Fort St. Louis, where the navigation of the Illinois commences in summer time and thence is good as far as the sea. It is true, there is besides a difficulty that this ditch would not be able to remedy, which is that the lake of the Illi nois always forms a bank of sand at the entrance of the channel leading from it. And I greatly doubt, whatever any one says, whether this could be swept away or scat tered by the force ot the current of the Checagou, if made to flow there, since much stronger ones in the same lake have not been able to do it. Furthermore, the utility of it would be small, since I doubt whether, when all was completed, a vessel would be able to ascend against the great flood which the currents cause in the Checagou in the spring, much more violent than those of the Rhone. Then it would be for only a little time, and at most for only fifteen to twenty days a year, after which there would be no more water. What confirms me besides in the opinion that the Checagou would not be able to keep the mouth of the channel clear, is that the lake is full of ice which blocks the navigable openings at the time in question, and when the ice is melted, there is not water enough in the Checagou to prevent the sand from stop ping up the channel. Indeed I would not have mentioned this matter, if Jolliet had not proposed it, without having sufficiently guarded against the difficulties. " " The chan- 148 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY nel first spoken of is the present Chicago River, the little lake is Mud Lake, since drained away, and the then Che cagou is now the Des Plaines, whose spring floods rushing through the Chicago River to Lake Michigan are but a thing of yesterday, while the sand bar at the junction of river and lake is not yet forgotten. In every particular the description coincides so exactly with the existing or former characteristics of the place that it alone deter mines the location of the Chicago portage within the lim its of the present city of the name, beyond the shadow of a doubt. It speaks also of the power of the man who, amid all of the cares then pressing upon him, could make such a careful topographical examination of this important point. We may imagine him as he completes it, after his men have embarked for Montreal and his Miami allies have journeyed onward down the Des Plaines, once more alone upon the site of Chicago, whence he takes his soli tary way to Fort St. Louis. Recurring now to events at Quebec, La Barre had matured his instructions to Durantaye and delivered them to him under date of April 21, 1683. These describe him as the bearer of the Governor's commission to the Ottawas, the Miamis and other distant people, and direct him to establish good relations with them, to repress the coureurs de bois, and to bear to Sieur de La SaUe the orders of La Barre, in whose behalf also he was to seek out the Illinois, if this could easily be done. At Mackinac he was to inquire whether it was true that La Salle had set himself up as a potentate among the Miamis and towards the head of Green Bay, had plun dered some French canoes bearing the permits of Fron tenac, and had issued permits in his own name. If Durantaye found proof of these charges, and La Salle THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 149 was within reach, he was to go in person with his lieu tenant and four or five canoes and read and place in the hands of La Salle the Governor's order to immediately report to him, and to make La Salle understand that if he did not obey he would be arrested. If the proofs were not conclusive, or La Salle was too far away, Durantaye was to send him and his companions the letters which the Governor had written them by De Baugy, who at the same time could bear La Barre's dispatches to the Illi nois. De Baugy was also instructed to take occasion to withdraw young Nicolas La Salle from the company of the elder La Salle, and to send him to the Governor. Just as La Barre was completing this document he had a fresh access of rage against La Salle upon learning that he had brought the Shawanoes, who were declared ene mies of the Iroquois, into a union with the Miamis and the Illinois. And he added a peremptory command to Durantaye to go or send De Baugy to the mission at Green Bay to entreat the Reverend Father Nouvel to accompany one of them to the Miamis, to tell them that the Governor had made peace for them with the Iroquois, but could not maintain it unless they separated from the Shawanoes, and to do the same with the Illinois if they could be reached.'" The false charges against La Salle and the misconception of his plans revealed in these instructions so worked upon the aged Governor's mind that later he prepared dispatches to La Salle ordering him to leave the West at once and come to Quebec to render an account of his pretended discovery.*" La Barre had by this time so firmly persuaded himself of the falsity of the account of the Mississippi voyage that he took the posi tion that La SaUe's patent from the King, of May 12, 1678, which provided that the discovery must be accom- I50 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY plished within five years, was really null and void. Insisting, therefore, that all of La Salle's privileges were forfeited, and that he had no right to be in the Illinois country at all, the governor issued another order to Dur antaye arid De Baugy, telling them to exercise the authority he had given them, without any preliminary, and to compel La Salle to depart from the West and to report to him. And he enjoined all of the comrades of La Salle to separate from him and to give him no further recognition. This cruel decree was dated May 9, 1683, three days before the patent could expire, even if the mouth of the Mississippi had not been discovered.*' Durantaye and De Baugy set out from Quebec April 23d, and came to Montreal, where the Governor, who fol lowed them thither, issued this latest order. They left this place May 12th, and spent thirteen days in traversing the nine leagues of rapids to Lachine. Hence they departed May 25th, arrived at Sault Ste. Marie June 26th, and at Mackinac the 2d of July.** We have a very interesting letter from De Baugy to his brother, de scribing the journey, written "k Messilimakina, ce 7 Juillet, 1683," in which he says that the journey is very fatiguing, there being twenty-eight portages and about sixty places where the canoes have to be drawn through the rapids and lifted over the rocks. De Baugy served his apprenticeship to "these little machines," as he calls the canoes, and learned to handle the paddle, but suffered grievously from the flies at the carrying places in the woods. He was looking forward hopefully to the journey which lay before him of more than two hundred leagues, to his winter quarters among the Illinois Indians, a very numerous nation in a beautiful country where there are great prairies. With pleasurable anticipation THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 151 he remarks that one sees there quantities of huge wild oxen and turkeys, and that there is good cheer in that land. But it was necessary that he should reach it scon, because he had orders to make M. de La SaUe, who was there, come down to render an account of his actions. To this letter a postscript dated July 22d was added, say ing that the writer believed that during the following winter he would be engaged in warfare with the sav ages, who might take his life, though this did not trouble him so much. But what he dreaded most, as he was just departing in his "little machines," was the flies, which tormented a person so cruelly that one did not know what to do.*' Durantaye accompanied De Baugy as far as the mis sion at the foot of Green Bay, whence in August the lat ter set out for the Illinois country,** doubtless taking the route of the Chicago portage. La Salle meanwhile was at Fort St. Louis, encouraging his colonists to make clear ings and plant crops, and preparing concessions of land to his employes and creditors and to religious orders. The names of twenty or more of these early settlers or grantees of land in what is now Illinois are preserved in the records of the Superior Council of Quebec, where they may be seen to-day. Among them are Riverin, Pierre Chenet Frangois Pachot, Chanjon,. Frangois Hazeur, Louis Le Vasseur, Mathieu Martin, Frangois Charron, les Sieurs d'Artigny and La Chesnaye, Jacques de Faye, Pierre Le Vasseur, Michel Guyon, Poisset, Andr€ de Chaulne, Marie Joseph le Neuf, Michel de Gr^z Philipes Esnault, Jean Petit, Ren^ Fezeret, les Sieurs Laporte, Louvigny et de St. Castin, Frangois de La Forest, Henri de Tonty, and the Jesuit Fathers.** But the lack of sup plies, the failure of his parties to return, and the hostility 152 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY of the Governor, which he could no longer doubt, ren dered his position intolerable. He resolved to proceed to France and appeal in person to the K.ng.*' Everything was put in the best possible condition at the fort, his peo ple there were promised early supplies, and Tonty was placed in command.*' In the latter part of the month of August, 1683," La Salle, with some of his Frenchmen and two Shawanoes, departed from his rocky citadel and ascended the River Illinois. Fourteen leagues from the fort*" or about midway between the Fox and Kankakee rivers, he saw another party approaching, and soon was greeted by a young officer, who announced himself as the bearer of the orders of the Governor of New France. It was De Baugy, at last arrived iii the land of the Illinois, who now delivered to La Salle La Barre's harsh edict of May 9, 1683," and thus made the first service of a legaV writ within the territory now comprised in the State of Illinois." It more than confirmed La SaUe's gravest apprehensions, and must have been a severe blow to him. But he treated the deputy with great courtesy, and gave him letters recommending Tonty to receive him well and to live in great harmony with him. So La Barre's agent passed on to the fort, where Tonty says he did receive him as he was directed, but drily observes that it was not much trouble for his chief to be obliged to make the journey, since he was on his way when the order reached him.'* La Salle continued his route to the Chicago portage, which he reached by the ist of September, and on that day wrote a letter to the inhabitants of Fort St. Louis which brings the situation very vividly before us. It is dated "at Checagou," the ist of September, 1683, and begins with an expression of gratitude to his people at THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 153 the rock for their fidelity, and a promise to reward them therefor as soon as he shall have scattered the little storm, as he hopes to do. He tells them that RoUand is awaiting him at Missilimackinac with a good cargo," and he is taking there with him La Fontaine, La Violette, the Sieur d' Autray, and the two Shawanoes whom he will send back to bring them some of it. He assures them that from the King, who is the greatest and most just prince of the universe, they have cause to expect only the recompense due to the courage they have shown in the discovery and the making of the post, and urges them to work, since the gain of their cause and his own depends on their establishment. They should therefore all settle themselves on large clearings, and if there remains any thing to be done at the fort, they should work at it as at a thing for their true interests. He proposes to return by sea in the spring, and they will have merchandise and all their requirements, and even something to drink his health with, as RoUand has saved him a barrel of whisky. They must be united and follow Tonty's counsel and orders. And one thing of great consequence is to gather as many buffalo skins as possible for which Boisrondet (his commissary at the fort)'* will give for the larger two beaver skins, and for the smaller, one. They must always speak with great respect of the Governor, and obey his orders, even if he were to command them to abandon the fort, and do nothing that looks like plotting and combining. This letter is addressed to Antoine Brossard, one of his Mississippi party, and all other inhabitants residing at Fort St. Louis in Louisiana, and is signed; "Your most humble and most affectionate serv ant de La SaUe.'"* It is his farewell to the region in which he had toiled and suffered, hoped and sorrowed in 154 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the cause of civilization in the West, of which he was the pioneer. As he pursued the long and weary way which led to the settlements on the St. Lawrence, the beautiful land of the Illinois must have been often in his thoughts. He never failed to sound its praises in all that he wrote thereafter, and it held a most important place in his future plans which always contemplated his return thither, but fate was adverse, and he never saw it more. At Fort St. Louis, De Baugy and Tonty were exer cising a divided authority, the one representing La Barre and the other La Salle, and the latter's advice that they should live in harmony was not strictly followed. When Tonty found his associate doing his utmost to create dis affection among the colonists, and Durantaye, who made them occasional visits, sparing no trouble in the same direction, the sturdy defender of the rights of his absent leader took them both to task. Quarrels followed, and they passed the winter in discord." As spring approached the rumors of an Iroquois invasion postponed from the preceding year were revived. La Barre's animosity to La Salle had led the Five Nations to believe that he was without the pale of the government, and that they were free to attack his settlement and wreak upon the Illinois tribes their ancient grudge, which had been aggravated by the death of one of their chiefs at Mackinac at the hands of an Illinois warrior." The traders, however, who held permits from La Barre, felt perfectly secure, and did not hesitate to invade the territory of La Salle, whom all the Governor's friends felt privileged to rob." A party of fourteen Frenchmen accordingly set out from Mack inac as early as August lo, 1683, with the express pur pose of trading in the Illinois country, under the lead of Ren^ Le Gardeur, Sieur de Beauvais. They were sup- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 155 plied with permits and protections from the Governor himself, of whose orders in regard to La Salle they were undoubtedly well advised. Hunting by the way, they progressed slowly, and by December 4th only gained the Kankakee River, where they were compelled to winter. They were visited by a small party of Iroquois, who departed apparently for their own country, professing most friendly intentions, and on May 8th the party resumed the descent of the Kankakee on the way to Fort St. Louis. At the passage of a rapid they fell into the hands of two hundred Iroquois, who to their extreme sur prise pillaged their merchandise and took their canoes, contemptuously tearing in pieces the Governor's permits and his letters to Durantaye and De Baugy which Beau vais produced. The white men were compelled to march along the river bank for nine days, until they reached the Des Plaines, where they were dismissed without provi sions or canoes, and with only two wretched muskets and a little ammunition. They were saved from starvation by a fortunate meeting with a band of Mascoutens, who gave them guides to Green Bay, and they ultimately reached Quebec, where they made a very long and indig nant protest on the subject of their unwarranted misfor tunes.'" It is some satisfaction to know that La Barre had provided the outfit for this expedition, having a large share in the venture, and that the entire loss fell upon him.*" When the Iroquois were leading these captives along the Kankakee, they asked them whether Tonty, whom they called Le Bras Coup^, or Cut Arm, was in the fort, and how many men he had, and if La Salle were not there also. When they were told that La Salle had been recalled, and that there was another commandant in 156 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY his place, they said they knew it well, and inquired only to see whether the white men spoke the truth ; and that they were on their way to attack the fort.*' On March 2oth Tonty and De Baugy heard of the approach of the Iroquois, and sent a canoe to Durantaye at Mackinac for aid, and made every preparation to give them a warm reception.** The next day they appeared,*' and De Baugy's prediction to his brother was realiz.ed. He and Tonty forgot their differences, and fought side by side during the six days' siege that followed. Around the good Fort St. ^ouis the crafty savages seized every coign of vantage, searching the palisades with musketry^'by day, and arousing the garrison with repeated alarms by night. They even attempted. to storm the defenses, but the trained soldiers- within were more than a match for the forest chieftains, whose forces were repulsed with signal loss.** They sullenly withdrew, humiliated by the check which they had received, resolved upon revenge, and took with them some native prisoners, who all escaped and made their way back to the fort.** Hard upon the trail of the retreating Iroquois came war parties from the tribes at the fort, who slew a number of their enemies, and returned in triumph with their scalps.*' The story of the Iroquois capture of the trading party was brought to the Mission of St. Frangois Xavier at Green Bay by the victims, and even before their arrival dispatches came from the fort narrating its successful defense against the Iroquois.*' Beauvais' party carried these to Quebec with a letter to La Barre from the Jesuit Father Nouvel, dated April 23, 1684, in which it is not difficult to detect the sympathy of his order with the opponents of La SaUe.** Nouvel teUs La Barre that Monsieur le Chevalier de Baugy, seconded by some THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 157 Frenchmen whom he had with him and some savages, had valiantly defended the fort. Not a word is said of Ton ty's part in the affair, but could we refer to any Iroquois accounts of the siege we may be sure that these would not ignore Le Bras Coupe's share in their defeat. The letter also says that Durantaye is just setting out for his twelfth trip towards the Illinois country, for the purpose of aiding Monsieur le Chevalier de Baugy. And we likewise learn from this epistle that Father AUouez, whose visits to the land of the Illinois usually coincided with La Salle's departures from it, would accompany Dur antaye to perform the offices of his faith among the French and savages on the route.*" The 2 1 St of May there arrived at Fort St. Louis AUouez and Durantaye, who led some sixty Frenchmen, osten sibly for the relief of the post, although the Iroquois had retired nearly two months before.*" The real reason was that La Barre had determined to remove Tonty, and Dur antaye brought force enough to quell any opposition to this arbitrary act among the colonists. Upon the 22d Durantaye presented to Tonty the Governor's commands that he should leave Fort St. Louis, putting De Baugy in possession of all that had belonged to La Salle, and report at Quebec." Tonty, mindful of La Salle's advice, promptly obeyed the distasteful order, and surrendered his charge to De Baugy,*' leaving in disgrace, as it were, the place to which he was to return in honor. His tried comrade, Boisrondet, and a few other faithful ones gath ered around him one May morning as he pushed off from the landing below the fort, while his opponents looked down in triumph from the parapets above." Almost alone, he urged his solitary canoe against the stream, and then by portage, lake and river went steadily onward 158 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY until, perhaps two months later, he saw the little town of Montreal, which he had last visited nearly six years before. After a brief respite he proceeded to Quebec, where he found little favor at the court of the Governor.** La Salle was now in France. He had reached Quebec, accompanied by Nicolas de La Salle, November 13, 1683, and sailing for Europe soon after, they had landed at La Rochelle January 17, 1684.** While still in Canada, how ever, the Governor had contrived to do him another wrong. La Salle's seignory of Fort Frontenac he had always carefully maintained, and in October, 1682, when prevented from going there by the threatened Iroquois invasion of the West, he had sent a petition to Count Frontenac fi»om Mackinac, begging him to increase the garrison, if necessary, at La SaUe's expense. The Count handed the petition to his successor. La Barre, who prom ised to attend to it, but, instead of so doing, recalled all the soldiers at the post, which would have been aban doned had not Frangois Noir, a merchant of Montreal, reoccupied it in La Salle's behalf. La Barre neverthe less forced Noir to surrender the property to two of the Governor's associates, Le Chesnaye and Le Vert, who took possession of it, and refused to permit La Salle's lieutenant, La Forest, to return to command there unless he became their partner. This La Forest declined to do, knowing what injustice they were committing towards La Salle and his creditors, and returned to France.*' By the time La Salle appeared at Quebec, La Barre had become convinced that in this case at least he had gone too far, and was ready to promise restitution of Fort Frontenac" and to advance to La Salle the sum of four thousand livres for his present necessities, taking secur ity, however, upon his stock of beaver skins at Fort St. THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 159 Louis. Winter and spring passed, midsummer came, and still nothing was heard from La Salle's appeal to the King. The Governor took courage, and regretting his improvident loan, determined to collect it by summary process. On the 26th of July, 1684, La Barre, being then in camp at Lachine at the inception of his fruitless cam paign against the Iroquois, found time to issue an order to the Chevalier de Baugy, reciting that La Salle had obtained the loan by false pretenses, such as that he had left at Fort St. Louis of the Illinois beaver enough to pay the sum lent, which had been found to be untrue ; and commanding that all of La Salle's effects at the fort should be seized and applied to this debt, without regard to the demands of any other creditors.*' La Barre evidently believed that there could be no redress for this despotic action, but soon had reason to change his opinion in this regard. La Salle's new scheme for the control of the Mississippi by a fort and colony near its mouth, communicating directly with the Illinois country, had received the approval of the King, who listened with ready sympathy to the story of his wrongs.*" The minister Seignelay wrote La Barre April 10, 1684, that the King wished him, if the accounts received of his acts at Fort Frontenac were true, to attend to the reparation of the wrong done La Salle and to restore all the property belonging to him to Sieur de La Forest, who was returning to Canada by His Majesty's order." The King himself wrote the Governor to the same effect four days later, and on the same day issued a new commission to La Salle as Commandant of the whole region from Fort St. Louis on the River of the Illinois unto New Biscay (the northern province of Mexico)." And again, on July 31, 1684, thl King addressed the Governor, i6o CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY reiterating his former commands, and warning him to do nothing adverse to the interests of La Salle, whom he had taken under his particular protection.'* The trem bling La Barre could only marvel at the good fortune of the man whom he had so deeply wronged, and await the coming of his representative, to whom he must make full restitution. La Forest sailed from La Rochelle in the latter half of July, 1684." When he landed at Quebec two months later he was warmly greeted by Tonty. To him he brought the well deserved commission of a cap tain of foot in the French army, which La Salle had obtained for him,' and the appointment of Governor of Fort St. Louis.'* La Forest also brought a positive order from the King, dated April 15, 1684, for the return to La Salle's officers of Forts St. Louis and Frontenac, and departed in the autumn to assume command of the lat- ten'* He had taken measures with Tonty to procure an outfit costing twenty thousand livres for the replenishing of Fort St. Louis, so long deprived of necessary supplies. As soon as this was ready Tonty embarked with it for the Illinois country, expecting to be there the same season, but the ice forming early in the St. Lawrence barred his path, and he was obliged to halt at Montreal, where, after a visit to Quebec, he passed the winter. In the springtime La Forest descended the river to Montreal, arranged La Salle's affairs there in conjunc tion with Tonty, and returned to Fort Frontenac. Tonty accompanied him as far as that post, and rejoiced that it was no longer in the possession of those who had used its advantages to the prejudice of La Salle. Thence the new Governor of Fort St. Louis pushed forward to his own command." He bore an order from La Barre to De Baugy, issued at Quebec September 29, 1684, directing THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS i6i the latter by the command of the King to restore the fort to Tonty as La Salle's representative, with all of La Salle's property, and to return with his men to Mackinac." Late in June the little flotilla, as it descended the River Illinois, was sighted from the lookout of Fort St. Louis ; and soon the trusty soldier resumed the position of which he had been so unjustly deprived the year before. He may well have worn an air of quiet triumph as he saluted De Baugy within the enclosure of the fort, while won dering savages and expectant white men gathered around him as he presented the order which it had wrung La Barre's soul to sign. The original Tonty retained in his own hands, but gave De Baugy a copy. He also gave him a formal receipt, in which Tonty, describing himself as first seigneur of the Isle of Tonty, captain of a com pany detached from the marine, sub-delegate of Monsieur de MeuUe, Intendant of New France, to the country of the Ottawas and other nations, and Governor of Fort St. Louis, certified that Chevalier de Baugy had restored the fort to him by order of Monsieur de La Barre, Governor- General of Canada, which he had received from the King. He also certified that he had found the fort in the same condition in which he had left it the 2 2d of May the pre ceding year," when obliged to go down to Quebec by the order of the said Monsieur de La Barre. There were at the fort some military supplies which the Governor had sent thither -by one Sieur Vital, while De Baugy was in command, although such aid had been steadily refused in La Salle's time. La Barre did not choose that these should benefit Tonty, and so directed De Baugy to remove them with his own possessions, after he had col lected the four thousand livres loaned La Salle. These were the last orders which the Governor had the oppor- i62 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY tunity to issue in regard to Fort St. Louis, and pre sumably were complied with. The papers delivered by Tonty to De Baugy were dated June 26, 1685, and the latter with his men doubtless set out on that day for Mackinac where he was instructed to report for further orders.'" Tonty found that under De Baugy's adminis- traiion differences had arisen between the Illinois and the Miami tribes." The latter suddenly attacked the former, and the quelling of the outbreak taxed Tonty's resources to the utmost. It cost him a thousand crowns worth of presents and infinite toil and persuasion to heal the breach between these nations, whose separation meant the destruction of both by the Iroquois." When this was accomplished and autumn had come, startling rumors concerning La Salle began to fill the air. The story reached Fort St. Louis that its founder had landed on the coast of Florida in April, 1685, that one of his vessels had been wrecked, and that he was fighting with the savages and was in need of provisions.'* Tonty sent some of his Indian allies to the Mississippi to seek for further news, and determined to go in person to Mackinac to obtain the latest reliable advices of La Salle. He desired also to counteract the malice of La Barre who had actu ally issued an order to Durantaye to confiscate supplies going to Fort St. Louis. Arriving at Mackinac Tonty rejoiced to hear that La Barre was no longer in power." His shameful peace with the Iroquois concluded in Sep tember, 1684, in which he had abandoned the Illinois tribes to the fury of the Five Nations, had, so incensed the King that he had recalled the recreant Governor. His successor the Marquis de Denonville, had taken his seat August 13, 1685, and one of his first acts was to send a letter to Tonty telling him that he wished to see him to THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 163 concert measures for a war with the Iroquois, and that La Salle had gone by sea to search for the mouth of the Mississippi.'* This letter was entrusted to the trader RoUand who had touched at Mackinac and passed on westward before the arrival of Tonty. But he learned of it there and also heard some confirmation of the dis quieting accounts concerning La SaUe.'* The faithful lieutenant therefore resolved to go with a party of his Canadians in search of his chief, to whom he felt he owed his first duty, and, having found him and relieved his wants, to retrace his steps and report to Denonville. The toilsome canoe journey of more than three thousand miles commencing in late autumn on Lake Michigan's storm-tossed waters, had no terrors for this brave and loyal soul whom nothing could turn from the discharge of his duty. On the day of St. Andrew the Apostle, November 30th, in the year 1685, his little craft sped forth from the shore at Mackinac, and began to skirt the coast. Soon floating ice was encountered, and later the frozen surface held fast the canoe. Its intrepid occupant and his few companions were obliged to abandon it, and make their way to the shore which they traversed on foot for nearly three hundred miles. They suffered greatly for want of provisions, as the severe weather had driven away the game; but they plodded stoutly on for full twenty weary days and came at last to the fort of Chi cago." This was a new structure, apparently built during the summer of 1685." When Fort St. Louis was restored to the representative of La Salle, the Jesuits, ever at odds with him, ceased their attempts to gain a foothold there. They determined to have a post of their own in the Illinois country and as La Salle's latest royal com mission made him commandant of the region from Fort i64 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY St. Louis to New Biscay, it was apparently assumed that his jurisdiction no longer extended to Lake Michigan." The present Chicago River was one of the natural routes to the interior, and a location upon it was accordingly selected as the headquarters of this powerful organization in the land of the Illinois. A fort was erected there, but it seems to have occupied a different position from that of La SaUe's stockade of 1683." The latter is spoken of as at the Chicago portage, but the former as the fort of Chicago." Franquelin's map of 1684 shows an Indian village of eighty warriors, representing a population of perhaps four hundred souls, situated just west of the junction of the two branches of the River Chicago." These are said to have been Miamis persuaded by AUouez to leave the neighborhood of Fort St. Louis in 1683.'* The Jesuits usually established themselves near the Indian habitations, and it is not improbable that their fort was established at this junction. This structure or a successor upon the same site was doubtless that referred to more than a hundred years later in Wayne's treaty with the North Westem Indians, which identifies the Chicago River as the place where a fort formerly stood." Other savages were induced to remove from Fort St. Louis to the new settlement, and the favor of La Barre made it a royal post. Durantaye was placed in command, and this was the beginning of civilized gov ernment where the westem metropolis now stands. The name of Olivier Morel, Sieur de La Durantaye, should be remembered in this connection as that of a brave and able officer who was the first commandant at Chicago. With him Tonty made a brief stay and proceeded thence to his own Fort St. Louis where he arrived the middle of January, 1686. He set forth again by a differ- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 165 ent route to seek for the trader RoUand, whom he met, and received from him the letter from Denonville whose favor made an agreeable change in affairs at the fort. The colonists felt themselves now to be under the pro tection of a friendly Governor, and readily volunteered for the expedition down the Mississippi. The Indian scouts returned in February with no further news, and Tonty felt that he must again and forthwith go to the sea.'* La Forest, leaving Dorvilliers, one of Denonville's staff in charge at Frontenac, came to Fort St. Louis to command the garrison of thirty-one white men during Tonty's absence. On February i6th, twenty-five French men with Tonty at their head descended from the rocky citadel to the frozen river, and manned the drag ropes of the sledges laden with their equipage. In this hardy band were some who had accompanied La Salle from the Illinois country to the Gulf of Mexico, one of whom was the surgeon Jean Michel ; and we note also the name of Ren6 Cuillerier, prominent in the annals of Lachine and Montreal, and an ancestor of the Beaubiens, so well known in the early days of Chicago. Four Shawnee Indians were hired to go with the party who tracked the ice-clad stream to a point forty leagues below where open water appeared. Forty leagues beyond they found the Illinois in their winter quarters and distributed presents and invitations from Denonville to march in the spring, to unite with the French from Canada in a war upon the Iroquois. The savages willingly agreed to do their part, and five of them joined Tonty at once, and descended the river with him. The natives were friendly along the whole route, and in Holy Week they were at the mouth of the Mississippi just three years to a day after La Salle's former occupation of the region. They explored i66 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the shore thirty leagues in either direction, but found no trace of the lost leader. Denonville's urgent commands weighed upon Tonty and he made the daring proposal to his men that the party should follow the Atlantic coast to Manhatte (New York) and go thence to Montreal. He could not unite them in this project, and so was obliged to return the way he came. At the Isle of St. Henry by the coast of the sea of Florida, opposite the western mouth of the River Colbert, on April 13, 1686, a formal proces verbal of their voyage was executed by or in behalf of Tonty and his twenty-five Frenchmen, four Shawanoes and five Illinois, thirty-four men in all. As they ascended the mighty stream, they halted at the point where the royal arms erected by La Salle had been thrown down by a flood, and replanted them on a more elevated site. In an augur hole in a tree near by Tonty placed a letter for La Salle. At the Quinnipissa village a hundred and fifty leagues from the coast he left another, recounting what had been done and expressing the greatest regret at the unsuccessful search." This epistle the chief sacredly preserved and gave to D' Iber ville when he entered the Mississippi fourteen years later." From these savages and some Illinois captives in another village near by, accounts of La Salle's arrival on the coast were received, but it was said that he had put to sea in the spring, whether for France or the West India Islands or for further exploration no one could tell. It was useless to linger and Tonty uttering a prayer for La Salle's safety, proceeded northward. At the Arkan sas River ten of his men besought him for concessions in the seignory there which La Salle had given him when he descended the Mississippi. He made grants to some who remained at this point, and set about the construe- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 167 tion of a house protected by palisades. The rest of the party kept on their way to Fort St. Louis, arriving on June 24th, after an absence of a little more than four months. The Frenchmen were glad to rest, but Tonty knew not the meaning of the word. He persuaded two Illinois chiefs to embark with him, and pressed forward to Montreal, where he landed at the end of July. Re maining during August to hold the necessary conferences with Denonville, he left again for the Illinois country at the commencement of September, and beached his canoe at the foot of the rock of Fort St. Louis early in Decem ber. One year before he had left Mackinac to go to the sea, and during ten of the ensuing twelve months, he had been journeying constantly on foot or in a canoe, covering a distance of more than five thousand miles and twice traversing the continent between the Gulf of Mexico and the lower St. Lawrence." Preparations were going on apace for the war with the Iroquois. Their fierce determination to destroy the Illinois tribes to which La Barre had yielded in his dis graceful treaty, their pillage of Beauvais' party, and their attack upon Fort St. Louis were among the reasons for the French King's resolve to humble the pride of the Five Nations." The Marquis de Denon-viUe, from the day he assumed office, had been actively engaged in the necessary arrangements. His letters to La Forest's successor at Frontenac ; to Duluth who was placed this - year in command of a palisaded fort at the foot of Lake Huron with a garrison of fifty men; and to Durantaye who had returned from Chicago to Mackinac; disclose the plan of campaign. As large a force as possible was to proceed from Canada to the south shore of Lake Ontario where they were to meet as many coureurs de i68 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY bois, colonists and savages as could be gathered at the western posts, and together they were to attack the villages of the Senecas, the most powerful and the most troublesome tribe of the Iroquois." To La Forest as commandant at the Illinois; the Governor wrote on the 6th of June, 1686, to impress upon him the importance of having the Illinois force in readiness to march, and himself at their head, as soon as the signal should be given. If Tonty should return, it would be well for him to take the lead, but if the poor man had perished on his voyage to the sea, which the Governor seemed greatly to fear, then La Forest was to choose the best man for the place, if he himself were unable to command. The Governor promised to send muskets for the Illinois con tingent to Duluth's fort, and again expressed his solici tude for Tonty concerning whom alarming rumors had reached him. And La Forest was instructed to com municate with the Jesuit Father Engelran of the Green Bay Mission, who was Denonville's principal adviser."* But ere this letter arrived at Fort St. Louis, the man who had been almost given up for lost appeared there in such health and spirits that he was able, as we have seen, to go at once to Montreal to reassure the Governor and give him most valuable aid and counsel for the approach ing campaign. When Tonty returned to Fort St. Louis in December he sent out trusty messengers among the Illinois tribes to bid them rendezvous at his post in good season in the spring for the long march to the country of the Iroquois. They joyfully complied and early in April, 1687, the lodges of the war parties arose on the prairie near the fort. Tonty welcomed his allies with appropriate cere monies including a dog feast which gave much satisfac- THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 169 tion, and announced to the warriors that the great King beyond the ocean, and his servant at Quebec, Onontio, desired them to go on the war path against the children of the Long House. They heard him with clamorous delight, and one and all decked themselves for the fray and performed their war dance. La Forest had already departed with thirty Frenchmen- in canoes, arranging to meet Tonty on the strait between Lakes Huron and Erie at the end of May. Tonty left twenty of his men in the fort with Sieur de Bellefontaine in command, and set forth on April 17th, having with him sixteen Frenchmen and a Miami guide. He made his first encampment but a mile away and awaited there his savage companions. Fifty Shawanoes, four Mohegans and seven Miamis joined him the first night and the next day more than three hundred Illinois warriors came up, but only one hundred and forty-nine of them were willing to go further. The little army marched on foot across what is now northern Indiana and southern Michigan, and on May 19th went into camp on the strait leading to Lake Erie near a little stockade called by them Fort Detroit. While they were making canoes of elm bark, Tonty sent a messenger to Fort St. Joseph, as Duluth^s new post was called. The second in command, Beauvais de Tilly, soon appeared and was followed by La Forest, Durantaye and Duluth with their respective detachments. As they disembarked, Tonty formed his Frenchmen and savages in two rows, between which the new comers marched and exchanged salutes with the soldiers from the distant land of the Illinois. The combined forces numbered one hundred and eighty Frenchmen and four hundred Indians and now launched their canoes on Lake Erie to go to join the troops from the St. Lawrence. 170 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY The expedition landed on the Niagara River and estab lished itself below the portage, where a stockade was built, while advices were awaited from Denonville then at Fort Frontenac. La Forest went in a swift canoe, to report to him, and returned with orders to meet the main body on July loth at Irondequoit Bay on the south shore of Lake Ontario."' The Governor led a force of about two thousand French regulars, militia and Indians who crossed the lake in barques and canoes. And as these approached the bay on the evening of the appointed day the western forces were seen plying their paddles along the lake. This well timed junction aroused the greatest enthusiasm among all of the troops as they disembarked together. "Never," says a contemporary writer, "has Canada seen, and never will it see, a spectacle like to this ; the three barques moored vis-k-vis to the camp, in which in one quarter were the regular troops of France, with the court of the Governor-General ; in another the four battalions of the Canadian soldiery commanded by the chief men of the country ; in a third the Christian Indians from the missions near the settlements; and in the remaining space a tumultuous crowd of untamed savages of different tribes, almost naked, undisciplined, their bodies painted with all sorts of figures, wearing horns on their heads and tails at their backs, armed with bows and arrows and keeping up an endless chatter the live long night, with songs and dances of every kind. " '* M. de Vaudreuil, who had brought the royal troops from France acted as Chief of Staff to the Marquis de Denon ville; M. de CalUeres commanded the regulars, and Sidrac Dugu6 the militia, with Berthier, de La Valterye, Granville, and Le Moyne de Longueuil as battalion officers, and Sainte H^iene, another scion of the famous THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 171 family of Le Moyne, ruled the three hundred Christian Indians. Very prominent were the three captains from the west, Tonty, Duluth and Durantaye, and very pic turesque were their motley companies of bold wood rangers and wild Indian warriors. Tonty occupied a defensive position with his band of French and Illinois, while a fort was built at the bay to protect the line of communication. On Julj' 12th the whole army moved towards the Seneca villages, with the three western captains and their men in the van. Two dangerous defiles were passed without attack, but as the line was crossing a little stream and ascending a wooded ridge beyond, the war cries of the Senecas were heard and five hundred of their warriors fell upon the advance. Most of the westem Indians fled at the first discharge and left exposed the flanks of Tonty's detachment which was at the immediate front. But the Frenchmen held their ground, and those tried soldiers, Duluth and Dur antaye ably supported their comrade Tonty. In the hot fight which ensued Tonty's lieutenant and two of his men were slain, and the army lost five white men and six Indians in all, while eleven were wounded including the Jesuit Father Engelran. The main body came up led by Denonville in his shirt sleeves, sword in hand, shouting orders to fire constantly and beat the drums, the sound of which was more terrifying to the savages than even the roll of musketry. The baffled Senecas, losing heart and seeing themselves outnumbered, fled the field, leaving twenty-seven dead behind, and fourteen others were over taken and scalped by the French Indians. The steady courage of the men of the West saved the day. Denon ville, in his dispatches, praises most highly the conduct of the three captains and their French followers. Duran- 172 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY taye received a commission in one of the regular regi ments, and Duluth and Tonty and La Forest as well were specially recommended to the home government for reward. A week was spent in destroying the crops and villages of the Senecas, and while this work was going on seven Illinois warriors arrived, armed with bows and arrows, who had made the long journey on foot from their distant land to take part in the fray."' Denonville withdrew to the coast, and his forces returned to their respective homes. Tonty and Duluth, accompanied by the Baron La Hontan, a picturesque figure in these early annals, and later an alleged visitor to the Illinois region, proceeded to Duluth's Fort St. Joseph, of which La Hon tan was now put in command. Thence Father Jacques Gravier, thereafter to be closely associated with the land of the Illinois, went with Tonty to Mackinac. From this p^int the latter and his Frenchmen set out in their canoes for Port St. Louis, their Indian companions havii^g returned by the land route." While Tonty and his comrades were merrily pursuing their homeward way, rejoicing in the victory and the honors they had won, a melancholy company were slowly approaching Fort St. Louis from the opposite direction. La Salle lay dead in the wilderness on the bank of one of the branches of the stream now known as the Trinity River, in the State of Texas." His vast plans had all been thwarted by a complication of disasters, and he met his dpath at an assassin's hand on the 19th day of March in the year 1687, His few companions had escaped with difficulty from his murderers, and made the desperate attempt to find their way to the Mississippi and so to the Illinois. One of their number was drowned while bath ing, and the six others, after a toilsome two months' THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 173 journey, emerged from the forest upon the bank of the Arkansas River. On the other shore, to their inexpres sible delight, they saw a great cross, and near it a house built after the French fashion. It was the settlement made by six of Tonty's men on his return from his last journey to the sea, four of whom had since gone to the Illinois region, and the wayfarers were most heartily welcomed by the remaining two. These were Couture and Delaunay, both natives of Rouen, who heard with exceeding sorrow of the untoward fate of their former leader and fellow townsman." One of the travelers cast in his lot with Tonty's men, and the remaining five departed on July 27th to ascend the Mississippi." These were the Abb6 Cavelier, La Salle's elder brother, his nephew, young Cavelier, Father Anastase Douay, of the R^coUet order, Teissier, a mariner, and Henri de Joutel."' The latter ^was a native of Rouen, son of a gardener, who had been employed by La Salle's uncle. He had served sixteen years in the French army, and had volunteered in La Salle's last expedition, of which he has left us a very full and well written account." When this expedition set forth from France in 1684 it comprised one hundred and seventy-three men, besides some women and children. The only fragments of the organization which remained were barely twenty people at La Salle's new fort on the Texas coast, a single soldier at the Arkansas, and this forlorn band of five persons now seeking refuge at Fort St. Louis.'"" On August 19th they passed the mouth of the Ohio River, of which Joutel says it is a very beautiful stream, with very clear water and a very gentle current. To it their Indian guide whom they had secured at a village on the Mississippi offered sacrifices of tobacco and broiled 174 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY meat placed on forked sticks on its banks to be disposed of as the river might think fit. As they skirted the Illi nois shore of the Mississippi they found the country diversified with hillocks covered with oak and walnut groves. There was great store of plums and of fruits whose names they did not know, and an abundance of buffalo and other game. September ist they saw on their left the muddy waters of the headlong Missouri, to which also their Indians made offerings, and the next day arrived at the place where were the paintings of the monsters described by Marquette, as Joutel supposed. But as he speaks of these as two wretched figures drawn in red on the flat side of a rock ten or twelve feet high, it is evident that he could not have seen those mentioned by Marquette. Poor as these were, the superstitious natives paid homage to them also, despite Joutel's remon strances, to which they replied that they should die, if they did not perform this duty. On the 3d, the party left the Mississippi to enter the River of the Illinois.'"' Its gentle current and beautiful shores were very agreeable to them, and they made good progress except when they attempted to follow some directions given them by Cou ture, and missed the channel. Passing many abandoned Indian camps and the landmark of the two isolated and rounded hills to which the voyageurs had given the name of Les Deux Mamelles, they came on the nth to Lake Pimiteoui. Signs that a band of natives was just in advance of them were observed, and on the 13th several were seen on the river bank. One came to reconnoitre, and upon learning that the strangers were La Salle's men, great delight was shown and salutes of musketry were interchanged. The savages, upon being asked of what nation they were, replied that they were Illinois of THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 175 the Kaskaskia tribe. They also informed the Frenchmen that Tonty had not yet returned from the Iroquois war. The next day, as they neared their goal, other natives appeared on the shore, to whom the travelers repeatedly called that they were of the people of La Salle. At length the magic name was recognized, and a swift run ner of the Shawanoe tribe called Turpin sped away to carry the news to Fort St. Louis, which loomed in the distance, above the valley. The breathless messenger, understanding that La Salle himself was of the party, so announced at the gateway. Quickly a Frenchman was seen descending the steep path amid a throng of Indians, who were firing their pieces in welcome. He uttered friendly greetings as he drew near, and joined with the natives in inviting them to land. They did so, leaving one man to guard the canoe, and their dusky hosts presented them with dried pumpkins, water melons, corn and bread. Then with their tumul tuous escort they walked towards the fort, whence other Frenchmen, one of whom was Boisrondet, came to meet them. These all embraced them, and with one voice inquired for La Salle. Cavelier had agreed with his associates to conceal his brother's death, pretending this to be necessary to control the Indians, but really for his own advantage as the representative of the absent chief. He therefore replied that La Salle had come part of the way with them, and was in good health when they parted, and had instructed them to proceed in advance to France to report his discoveries. His companions acquiesced in this deception, which was readily accepted as the truth by the inquirers who joined the throng which accompanied the newcomers to the fort. Here they found the Sieur de Bellefontaine, Tonty's lieutenant, and 176 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY commanding in his absence, at the head of his garrison paraded under arms, who had received them with salvos of musketry and every sign of rejoicing."* As soon as the wayfarers entered, the Abb6 Cavelier asked for the chapel, and led the way thither to return thanks to God for their marvelous preservation. A Te Deum was chanted within the rude walls, while volleys were fired without. The worshipers performed their devotions with uneasy consciences, for they realized that such enthusiasm would make it easy to send aid forthwith to La Salle's miserable colonists on the gulf. But now their falsehood had sealed their lips and obliged them to delay the much-needed succor until they could reach France. They went next to the building in which were the officers' quarters, and while they were there made at home, bands of savages came in quick succession to dis charge their pieces at the door in token of their joy at the news from La Salle. Bellefontaine gave the Ahh6 an apartment by himself, and Father Douay, Joutel and the rest were lodged in the great storeroom of merchandise and peltries of which Boisrondet had charge. The fort appeared much as at the time of its erection four years before. The palisades and wooden redoubts surrounding the acre and a half on the summit of the rock, the log houses and the lighter picket structures, and the four great beams from which water could be drawn to the top of the cliff in case of siege, were all noted by the trained eye of the soldier Joutel. A number of huts had also been erected within the walls of the fort by the savages, who took refuge there at the approach of an Iroquois invading force."' And in one part of the enclosure was a striking illustration of the burial customs of the lUinois and of their reverence for their mighty dead. In a sort THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 177 of wooden coffin supported upon four posts were the bones of one whom they described as that ruler of their nation who had welcomed La Salle to that land and made him a present of it, and recognized him as the father of that people.'"* This must have been the great chief Chas sagoac, with whom La Salle had the remarkable confer ence at the old Indian village six leagues above the site of Fort St. Louis, on his way from Crevecoeur to Fronte nac in the spring of 1680. It seemed as if the tribe held Chassagoac in such reverence as to take special care that his remains should not be desecrated by such outrages as the Iroquois had committed in their terrible invasion, and so had brought these to sleep undisturbed within the white man's stronghold. In one of the apartments of the fort there lay ill La Salle's old opponent, the Jesuit Father AUouez. He manifested great alarm upon the arrival of Cavelier's party understanding at first that La Salle was with them. When the priests and Joutel came to call upon him he inquired concerning their leader, and was told that when La Salle left them he intended to come to the Illinois country and might be there in a little time. AUouez heard the news with much agitation, and began at once to plan, as on other occasions, to depart before La Salle's arrival. Cavelier was impatient to be off that he might reach Quebec in season to sail for Prance that year, and tarried but three days at Fort St. Louis. He made the acquaintance of the chiefs of the Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes who were established there, of the Shawanoes who had dwelt in the neighborhood since they came at La Salle's invitation in 1683, and of the Miamis who were encamped a league or more up the river upon the eleva tion now known as Buffalo Rock. The fortunate arrival 178 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY of three voyageurs from Mackinac, who were willing to act as their guides and canoemen thither, enabled the five Frenchmen who had traveled all the way from the Texas coast to resume their adventurous journey on September 18, 1687. Accompanied by a dozen savages detailed by the chief of the Shawanoes to carry their provisions and peltries, they made such expedition, considering the shal lowness of the river, that in a week's time they arrived at the place called Checagou. Joutel carefully records, and this is probably the earliest definition of the word, establishing its meaning beyond all doubt, that it takes this name from the quantity of garlic which grows in the woods in this locality. He describes the portage, the streams on either side, and the other natural features so minutely that there can be no question but that the place referred to is the site of the great city of to-day. Here they were storm-stayed for eight days, and, when at length they embarked on Lake Michigan, waves as large as those of the ocean, and fear of a scarcity of provisions com pelled them to return to the entrance of the River of Che cagou. At this point they made a cache of their goods, peltries and ammunition, built a platform on which they left the canoe since low water made the streams unnavi- gable, and set out on foot for Fort St. Louis, where they appeared again on October 7th, to the great surprise of the garrison, who had believed them to be far on their way to Montreal."* Some of Tonty's Indian cohorts had already reached the fort, bringing tidings of the attack upon the Five Nations, and on the 27th of October the "man with the iron arm" himself appeared with his soldier comrades, among whom was one of his cousins, Greysolon de La Tourette, a younger brother of the famous Greysolon THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 179 Duluth. Tonty gave Cavelier's party a cordial greet ing, and listened with absorbing interest to their accounts of La Salle's ill-starred expedition and their own experi ences. They concealed from him also the death of La Salle, having agreed not to speak of this until they were in France. Tonty, at their request, gave them a sketch of what had taken place in the recent campaign, including the capture of English trading parties on Lakes Huron and Erie, who were on their way to make an establish ment in the Illinois country. During the autumn La Forest came again to Fort St. Louis, to pass the winter with his fellow captain in the Iroquois war. December 20th two Frenchmen arrived at the post and reported that they had left at Checagou three canoes loaded with merchandise and ammunition which the canoemen, who had brought them from Montreal, could not proceed further with, because of ice in the river. Tonty at once arranged with the chief of the Shawanoes to send thirty of his people to bring these supplies to the fort. Joutel says they employed this tribe because of their fidelity, and that they could go among the whites and through the storehouse without anything being missed. The Illinois, on the contrary, he says, are naturally rogues, and it is very necessary to keep watch of their feet as well as their hands when anything is within reach of either. One of the two men who brought advices of the canoes at Chi cago was the Sieur Juchereau de Saint Denis, a distin guished Canadian, Durantaye's second in command at Mackinac, whom Tonty as he passed that station on his homeward voyage had invited to make him a visit at the Illinois to enjoy the good hunting there. Game was abundant well through the winter, and in good condition as there were plenteous supplies of nuts and acorns for i8o CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY food. Merry companies sallied forth upon the frozen river at daybreak, drawing light sledges which they brought back to the fort at nightfall laden with deer.'" "Of our living," says the chronicler, "there was no com plaint to make, except that we had nothing but water to drink. " The winter passed swiftly with hunting parties by day and pleasant gatherings at night around cheery log fires in the snug quarters of the fort. Within, soldier and priest, trapper and native, mingled together and related tales of foray and ambuscade, of stormy ocean voyages and weary journeys through the wilderness. Without, the snow lay deep on all the land of the Illinois, and the nearest white men were at the little mission at the head of the distant Green Bay. There was occasional excitement, moreover, at the departure and return of the savage war parties which kept up the contest with the l)loodthirsty Iroquois. In the month of January alone the Abb6 Cavelier saw thirteen such expeditions of Illi nois Indians set out from Fort St. Louis, two of forty and eleven of twenty warriors each, or three hundred in all. The Miamis put in the field one band of eighty and sev eral smaller ones, while the Shawanoes sent several num bering one hundred and fifty in all. One at least of the Illinois parties returned to the fort with Iroquois pris oners of whom six were made slaves, and six were burned at the stake. During that winter and spring the Illinois furnished tangible proofs, presumably scalps, that they had put to death two hundred and forty persons among the Iroquois in their own land.'" Tonty relates that the Five Nations attempted to make reprisals, but were val iantly withstood by the Illinois, who had greatly improved in the art of war under French guidance and so harried the Senecas that this tribe was obliged to remain in its THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS i8i villages all winter and refrain from raids upon the Canadian settlements. Furthermore, he says, "our Illi nois have captured and brought to Fort St. Louis eighty Iroquois slaves. ' ' And he adds with a ferocious exultation which we regret to see in him, but for which his times were in a measure responsible, "we have made a good broiling of them. " '»* Apprehension lest some of the fnen at the Arkansas settlement should come to Fort St. Louis and reveal the truth concerning La Salle, spurred Cavelier to as early a departure as the season permitted. But his anxiety was surpassed by that of AUouez, who set out a week or more before him.'"' One feared the arrival of the living La Salle, the other the receipt of the news of his death. Cavelier produced an order which La SaUe had given him when his return to France by way of Canada was first planned, directing Tonty to give Cavelier what he needed for the expenses of the party, and 2,652 livres in payment of La Salle's indebtedness to his brother."" The unsus picious Tonty honored the draft, never dreaming that the maker was no longer in the land of the living, and gave Cavelier four thousand livres in beaver, and a canoe."' Thus provided, the unscrupulous priest made ready to resume his course, with his five associates and five sav ages whom he added to his party. Of these two were Illinois, two Shawanoes, and the fifth a young captive from one of the Missouri River tribes who had been given to La Salle. "This one," says Joutel, "had learned to speak French and had been baptized, but he was no better Christian for all of that. ' ' Boisrondet, who had concluded to go to Prance, and Juchereau, who wished to return to his post at Mackinac, joined the departing com pany, who bade farewell to Fort St. Louis on March 21, 1 82 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 1688. It was doubtless a grief to Tonty to part with Boisrondet, the tried comrade who had been faithful among the faithless in the Crevecoeur mutiny, and brav est of the brave at the time of the Iroquois invasion. This loyal and gallant soul deserves honorable remem brance among the pioneers of Illinois. A hard journey of eight days, during which they were often compelled to wade in icy water over the rocky bot tom of the stream, drawing the heavy canoes by main force against the current, brought the travelers to Chi cago. Joutel pushed on in advance to the cache by the lake shore, and found some articles abstracted, as he believed, by a Frenchman who had been sent there dur ing the winter by Tonty to see whether any canoes had arrived or savages gathered at this place. The garrison of Fort Checagou had apparently been withdrawn to take part in the Iroquois campaign of 1687, and the buildings of the post were occupied only by occasional parties of Indians. Severe weather delayed Cavelier and his com panions here until April 8th, and their hunting yielded but little game. They eked out their scanty larder with a species of manna which they thought Providence had provided to make their Indian com more palatable. This was the sap of the maple tree abounding in the vicinity, boiled into sugar, which seemed to be almost as good as that bought in France. Great quantities of garlic and of another herb like the chervil were also gathered and found very good."* The observant Joutel describes the situation of the place called Checagou, and its river, formed by the water flowing from a prairie, which, he says, discharges into the lake, as well as the stream flow ing from the other side of that prairie which goes to join the Illinois River ; so that, whether one is descending or THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 183 ascending, it is necessary to make a portage, sometimes a quarter of a league, at others half or three-quarters of a league, according as the waters rise or fall. He formed the same opinion which Jolliet had come to at the same place, that it would be easy to make a junction between the two rivers which we know as the Chicago and the Des Plaines, since the intervening ground was flat and readily excavated. But Joutel says that it would require a con siderable settlement there to justify such an expense.'" The travelers embarked upon Lake Michigan and after a ten days' halt at the Pottawattamie village, midway to Mackinac, landed on the loth of May at the latter place, where Juchereau remained. Cavelier and the others were delayed here by fear of the Iroquois, who were taking every opportunity to revenge themselves for Denonville's attack of the previous year. "* This very spring a gallant soul, whose name stands high among the early explorers of Illinois, had fallen a victim to their arms. The Sieur d'Autray, the same whom La Salle described as "always very faithful and very brave," after his adventurous jour neys had established himself upon the concession granted him at Fort St. Louis. When the summons came to march against the Senecas in 1687, he accompanied Tonty and did good service in that campaign. The fol lowing winter he passed in Canada, and set out in the spring to return to his Illinois "house and seignory." He escorted a convoy to Fort Frontenac and proceeding thence, probably almost alone, while en route for his western home was set upon and slain by the merciless Iroquois.'" The return to Quebec of the Sieur de Portneuf, who had just brought dispatches from Denonville to the West with a small force, gave Cavelier's people protection for i84 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY their further journey. Four canoes conveying twenty- nine persons set out June 20th, and by the route of the French and Ottawa Rivers came to Montreal without mis hap. Cavelier's party met here the Governor and the Intendant, Champigny, to whom they told their tale of hardship, but still concealed La Salle's death ; and passed on to Quebec, whence they sailed with their five Indians, and disembarked at Rochelle, October 9, 1688. Eight een months had elapsed since these few men, illy equipped for such an undertaking, left the Texas coast to go by the way of the Mississippi, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic, and to cross to the shores of France. Joutel well said that God had aided them to accomplish this journey. Boisrondet went to his native city of Orleans, taking with him the young Indian from the Missouri. Father Douay set out alone for Paris; Joutel and the two Illinois Indians stayed at Rouen, whence Cavelier proceeded to Paris to inform the Mar quis de Seignelay of all that had happened to them, having pledged his comrades td secrecy as to the death of La Salle, until he had made this official report.'" Tonty meanwhile kept anxious watch at Fort St. Louis hoping each day to see La Salle's canoe ascending the stream. But on September 7th, while the men who had concealed their leader's fate were tossing on the Atlantic,^ Couture, with two natives, arrived at the fort, and revealed the sad truth as heard from the lips of Cavelier at the Arkansas post. Tonty's generous heart burned with indignation at the injustice to himself, but more at the wrong to the luckless persons left on the gulf coast. He resolved to rescue them, and at the same time strike a blow at the Spaniards in Mexico with the aid of the southwestern tribes, who had urged Cavelier to lead THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 185 them against that people. He only needed the authority of Denonville to undertake the expedition, and sent Couture to Mackinac to obtain the latest dispatches from the Governor. A hundred leagues from Fort St. Louis, the messenger was wrecked on the shore of Lake Mich igan, and losing everything, with difficulty made his way back. In the meantime, however, Tonty received a letter from Denonville informing him that he was to do nothing against the Iroquois, and that war had been declared with Spain. This relieved the Illinois commandant from the duty of making forays upon the Five Nations and the danger of reprisals by them, and left the way open to carry out his plan. Once more he prepared to descend the Mississippi, and set out on December 3d in a pirogue, or canoe hollowed from a tree trunk, with five Frenchmen, one of the faithful Shawanoes, and two native slaves. His cousin had pre ceded him hunting in advance of the expedition, which he was to accompany. La Forest was expected at Fort St. Louis about this time, and Tonty intended to leave him in command. But as he did not appear, Tonty was obliged, when he overtook his cousin, to send him back to take charge of the post.'" This young commander of the Illinois country, the Sieur Greysolon de La Tourette, is described in the correspondence of the time as "an intelligent lad. ' ' That he was of the same stock as his famous elder brother is evidenced by the fact that in the preceding year he led a trading expedition far to the north of Lake Superior, and on hearing of the outbreak of the war with the Iroquois, came all the way from Lake Nipigon to the Niagara River with a single canoe to join the army, a feat considered most hazardous by those engaged in that campaign.'" i86 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Tonty encountered on the 17 th of the month a band of the lUinois at the mouth of their river, who during the cessation of Iroquois warfare had been carrying on hos tilities with the Osages of the Missouri. They were returning from one of these conflicts in which they had lost thirteen men and taken one hundred and thirty prison ers. Amid the noisy farewells of these redoubtable war riors Tonty pushed out into the strong current of the Mississippi. Three months or more of arduous travel by river and through forest brought his little party to the villages of the Caddoes on the Red River, where four of his Frenchmen refused to go farther. They defied his authority, and he was compelled to leave them behind, while with one white man and the faithful redskin he made his way to a village eighty leagues away, where some of the conspirators against La Salle were reported to be. Arriving there Tonty soon satisfied himself that they had met the fate they deserved at the hands of the natives. These refused him guides, and his ammunition was nearly exhausted. For these reasons he found him self obliged to abandon his project at a point eighty leagues distant from La Salle's post on the Gulf, and three days' journey from the place of his murder. Of this dastardly deed Tonty obtained further particulars which are preserved in his Memoir addressed to the Min ister Pontchartrain, in 1693. From this and from Joutel's journal, it appears that after La Salle had by mistake gone beyond the mouth of the Mississippi in his attempt to reach it by sea, and had located his post on the Texas coast, loss of supplies through the shipwreck of a vessel, and other misfortunes, compelled him to set out for the Illinois country by land, with a small party to bring back aid to the others. Two of his men, disaffected because of THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 187 the failure of the enterprise in which they had a pecun iary interest, and falsely charging La Salle with having caused the death of a comrade, plotted their leader's life. "And as," to use Tonty's words,"in long journeys there are always discontented persons, they easily found par tisans." They determined to dispatch also La Salle's nephew, Moranget, who was likewise obnoxious to them, and an opportunity occurring when he, with La Salle's devoted Shawnee hunter Nika and his servant Saget, were encamped apart from the others, these three were murdered in their sleep. At daybreak the villains heard the reports of pistols which were fired as signals by La Salle, who was coming with Father Douay in search of the rest of the party. The wretches laid in wait for him, placing one of their number in sight. When La Salle came near he asked where his nephew was. The man, keeping on his hat and showing no sign of respect to his commander, answered that Moranget was behind. As La Salle advanced to remind the insolent fellow of his duty, those in the ambuscade discharged their pieces, and the great explorer fell dead with three bullets in his brain. With ferocious exultation the assassins rushed to the spot, their leader repeating again and again; "There thou liest, great bashaw, there thou liest." They stripped the corpse, dragged it naked among the bushes, and left it exposed to the ravenous wild beasts, refusing the request of the Abb^ Cavelier that he might go and bury the body of his brother. Tonty closes his brief and feeling account with this noble tribute to the man whom he had served so well, which Margry has fitly made the motto of his great volumes relating to La Salle: "Behold the fate of one of the greatest men of the age ; of wonderful ability, and capable of accomplishing any enterprise.""" i88 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY On May loth Tonty with his two faithful followers reached the villages of the Caddoes, and thence shaped their course towards the Mississippi. After forty leagues march and crossing seven rivers, they came to one which had burst its banks and overflowed the whole country. They crossed flfty leagues of flooded land on a raft, finding only one little island of dry land on which they killed a bear and dried his flesh. It rained day and night ; they were obliged to sleep on tree trunks placed side by side, to make their fires on these platforms, to build new rafts again and again, to eat their dogs, and to carry their equipage on their backs through interminable cane brakes. "In short," says Tonty, "I never suffered so much in my life as in this journey to the Mississippi, where we arrive.d the nth of July." The last day of that month they came to the haven of rest near the mouth of the Arkansas so providentially established by Tonty on his preceding Mississippi voyage. He was detained here by a sudden fever, but rose from his sick bed on the eleventh day of August, and pushed onward until he landed once more at his own Illinois post in the month of September, 1689."" It was while Tonty was absent on this expedition, if at all, that the readable but untrustworthy author. Baron La Hontan, visited the land of the Illinois. This young Gascon came to Canada in 1683, as an officer in one of the companies of troops sent to take part in La Barre's abortive campaign against the Iroquois in the following year. He served also in Denonville's more successful expedition, and afterwards, as we have seen, accompanied Tonty to Fort St. Joseph, at the foot of Lake Huron, and relieved Duluth in the command of that post. In April, 1688, he went to Mackinac, and was there when Cavelier, THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 189 with what La Hontan calls his "parti-colored retinue" of Frenchmen and savages, disembarked at that place. The Baron shrewdly surmised that La Salle was dead, because he did- not return with the others, although they asserted that he was alive and well. From Mackinac La Hontan professed to have made a journey beyond the Mississippi, and to have discovered there the remarkable Long or Dead River, with singular tribes on its banks, by which canoes could go to the Rocky Mountains, and thence, by a stream flowing westward, to the Pacific. His account is entertaining, but has been long since wholly discredited. After making this mythical expedi tion he alleges that he descended the Mississippi to the Missouri, and made a three days' journey up that stream and returned, continued his route to the mouth of the Ohio, and then ascended the Mississippi to the Illinois River, which he entered April 10, 1689. Six days later he says he arrived at Fort Crfevecoeur, where he met with Monsieur de Tonty, who received him with all imaginable civility.'*' But Fort Crevecoeur had been abandoned and burned seven years before, and Tonty at this time was far away in the southwest journeying towards the gulf. La Hontan goes on to recount that he arrived April 20th at the village of the Illinois, engaged four hundred men to transport his baggage, and on the 24th reached "Chek- akou, ' ' which place he left the next day for the river St. Joseph.'*' The falsity of his preceding statements pre vents our giving full credence to these. The fact, furthermore, that his map places Fort Crevecoeur upon the wrong side of the Illinois River, and entirely omits the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers, which he must have traversed to make such a journey, makes his story still more doubtful. The probability is that this part of his igo CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY book was carelessly made up from the accounts or writ ings of others, and that Baron La Hontan should not be included among the early visitors to the land of the lUinois.'*' Fortunately we have more reliable accounts of matters concerning the land of the Illinois during this period. The relations of La Salle's colony at Fort St. Louis with the government of Canada were not altogether pleasant under the administration of Denonville. Soon after he took his seat in 1685 he complained to the Minister that Tonty would not permit the French to trade in the direc tion of the Illinois, and asked if the King had granted the whole of that country to Sieur de La Salle. Seignelay replied with some asperity that this was a ridiculous pre tence on Tonty's part, and he should write him sharply on the subject, as it was the King's intention to preserve to the French the liberty of going to the Illinois to trade.*** The preparations for the Iroquois war seem to have pre vented any action in this regard, but after peace was declared, Denonville returned to the charge, and in his letter of August 25, 1687, complained that La Salle had made grants at Fort St. Louis to a number of Frenchmen who had resided there several years without desiring to return, that they were all young men, who had intermar ried among the Indians, and pretended to be independent and masters of those lands, and had even planned to join the English. The Governor recommended that all those distant grants should be revoked by the King, the garri sons to such posts changed every two years, and better discipline introduced under commandants having more authority.*** The King replied from VersaiUes, March 8, 1688, that the concessions made by La Salle in the neighborhood of Fort St. Louis, since they caused such THE LAND OF THE ILLINOIS 191 disorders, might be revoked, and such power given to the commanders of fortified posts as might be needed.**' A certain jealousy of La Salle, perhaps because of the royal favor he had won, seems to be evinced by the Canadian official in this correspondence, and Tonty falls under his censure, chiefiy by reason of his loyal devotion to his absent leader's interests. Denonville apparently took no further action in this matter, possibly in consequence of the border troubles with the colonists of New England, which soon engrossed his attention. His term of office, moreover, was drawing to a close, as a firmer hand was needed at the helm. The King could find none so fit as that of the bold soldier who had once ruled the destinies of New France. Although now in his seventieth year, he accepted his old position at his sovereign's request, and on October 15, 1689, Denonville was relieved by Count Frontenac, who proudly resumed his former duties, amid the acclamations of the people of Quebec.'*' NOTES I. DISCOVERY 'Carte de la Nouvelle France. "Champlain's Voyages" (Prince Society Publications), cited as "Champlain's Voyages," vol. i, p. 305. '"La Salle, and the Discovery of the Great West," by Francis Parkman, eleventh edition, p. 450, cited as "Parkman's La SaUe." '"Discovery of the North West, by John Nicolet" (C. W. Butter- field), cited as "Discovery of the North West," p. 70, n. 2. "Relation de Henri de Tonty" (1684), Margry, i, p. 582, "(Le Pays des Illinois) est ou I'on trouve les premiers boeufs sauvages." This Relation, cited as "Tonty," 1684, is printed in "D6couvertes et Etablissements des Frangais dans I'ouest et dans le sud de I'Am^rique Septentrio- nale," 1614-1698, par Pierre Margery, Paris, Maissonneuve," cited as "Margry." 'Champlain to the Queen Regent. "Champlain's Voyages," ii, p. xiii. ^ Ibid,, iii, p. 158. '•Ibid., iii, p. 159. ''Ibid., iii, p. 215, note. "Discovery and Exploration of the Mis sissippi Valley," cited as Shea's "Mississippi," p. xx. "Discovery of the North West," pp. 4oseq. "Relations des Jfeuites," ii. I'Ann^e 1643, p. 3, Quebec Edition, 1858, cited as "Relations des J6suites." ' For argument to show that Nicolet 's visit to the Wisconsin country was in 1638, see "Wisconsin under French Dominion" (S, S. Heb- berd), p. 14, note a, " "Relations des J6suites, i, I'Annte 1640, p. 35. '""Discovery of the North West," p. 70. " "Relations des Jfeuites, iii, I'Ann^e 1656, pp. 38, 39. " Ibid., p. 39. 1' Ibid., iii, Table Alphab^tique, p. 17. ^* Ibid., iii, I'Annde 1658, p. 21. '5 "Relations des J^suites," iii, l'Ann6e 1660, p. 12. " "Wisconsin under French Dominion," p. 22. "Radisson's "Voyages" (Prince Soc. Pub.), Preface. ^^ Ibid., p. 167. "Wisconsin under French Dominion," p. 20. 192 NOTES 193 " "Relations des J&uites," iii, I'Annde 1667, p. 12; p. 21 "^ Ibid., pp. 21, 22. 21 Cf. Projets d'extension sous Jean Talon, Margry, i, pp. 75 seq. 22 Margry, i, 96. Parkman's "La Salle," ch. iv. 23 "Proces Verbal," Margry, i, p. 97. ''¦^ Ibid., i, p. gg. 25 "Relation of Father Dablon," August i, 1674. "Historical Mag azine," vi, p. 237. 28 "Dictionaire G6n6alogique" (Tang^uay), v, p. 14. 2' Parkman's "La Salle," p. 48. 28 Letter of Archbishop Tach6, Chicago Historical Society MSS. "Discovery of the North West," p. 96. Parkman's "La Salle," pp. 48, 49. "Journal des J6suites." "Shea's Mississippi," Ixxix. Kingsford's "Canada," i, p. 400. 2' Association de Jolliet et al pour les Otahak. Chicago Hist. Soc. MSS. * The R^coUet friars, Ribourde, Hennepin and Membr6, who accom panied La Salle in Le Griffon in i67g, named the body of water between lakes Erie and Huron Lake Sainte Claire, of which the present name. Saint Clair, is a corruption. Margry, i, p. 445. Parkman's "La SaUe,'' p. 139, note i. " Lettre du Sieur Patoulet k Colbert, Margry, i, p. 81. Relation de l'Abb6 Galinfe, Margry, i, pp. 143, 144. Parkman's "La Salle," p. 16. Kingsford's "Canada," i, p. 400. '2 "Relation de I'Abb^ Galin6e," pp. 144-146. ^ Ibid., p. 166. '* Dablon, 1674. Margry, i, p. gg. '5 Shea's "Mississippi," p. 5. '* Dablon, 1674. *' Lettre de Frontenac k Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672, Margery, i, p. 255. '^ Dablon, 1678 in Shea's "Mississippi," p. 5. " Lettre de Frontenac, supra, et lettre de Frontenac h. Colbert, Margry, i, p. 257. *" Kingsford's "Canada," i, p. 393. "Shea's "Mississippi," pp. 5, 6. *'^ Ibid., p. 5, note. ^ Dablon, 1674, supra. " It is related that to distinguish these armorial bearings from those of the city and from each other, the Provost was given three martlets without claws and with a beak, and the Alderman three with claws, but without a beak ; and the latter insignia were formally confirmed to the family of Marquette, as its coat of arms, by the French oflScial genealogists three hundred years after the original g^rant ("Devisme, 194 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Histoire de la Ville de Laon," i, p. 3gi). The martlets {merlettes, in French) were always considered the apanage of such genteel fam ilies as had taken part in the Crusades, like crosses or escallops (pil grims' shells). It is traditional that these little birds, which are a sort of small swallow, were found in large quantities by some almost famished Crusaders, who were thus saved from actual starvation. In a spirit of gratitude many of these warriors placed the representa tion of these birds in their coats of arms (Letter of Cte. E. de Val- court- Vermont, author of "America Heraldica"). *5 "Devisme Histoife," supra, i, p. 391 ; ii> PP- 23> 83, 356-358. ** Shea's "Mississippi," Life of Father Marquette, p. xlii. *' "Devisme Histoire," ii, p. 356. ^ Ibid., ii, pp. 130, 177, 356, 358. " Shea's "Mississippi," Life of Father Marquette, xliii. ™ Letter of Archbishop Tach6, Feb. 20, 1883, Chicago Historical Society MSS. Shea's "Marquette," supra, xlvi, seq. Kingsford's "Canada," i, p. 400. "Relations des J6suites," 1670, p. 87. '' Ibid. , p. 90. ^ Ibid., p. 91. '^ Ibid., p. 91. ^ Ibid., p. ga. ''^ Shea's "Mississippi, Life of Father Marquette," pp. Iviii, Ijti. ™ Ibid., Narrative of Father Marquette, Section i, p. 6. " Ibid, pp. 7, 8. »8 Ibid. 5' This positive statement of Marquette, whose attention had for years been directed to the subject, as to the extent of French explora tions in this direction, seems to show conclusively that Nicolet did not reach the Illinois country proper, and also that the assertion that two priests had reached that region before the journey of Jolliet and Marquette, is entirely without foundation. (See Parkman"s "La Salle," p. 72, n.) ^Shea's "Mississippi," Narrative of Father Marquette, p. 20. *' Ibid., pp. 21 seq. See Appendix A. ^2 Parkman's "La Salle," pp. 59, 431. 63 Narrative of Father Marquette, Shea's "Mississippi," p. 41. 6* Beck's "Gazeteer of Illinois and Missouri," p. 72. Reynolds' "Pioneer History of Illinois," p. 138. '= Narrative of Father Marquette, Shea's "Mississippi," p. 51. ^ Unfinished letter [of ; Father Marquette, Shea's "Mississippi," p. 258. "Shea's "Discovery," etc., p. xxxii. ™ N. & C. History America, iv, p. 179, n. NOTES 195 M Extracts from Memoir of Frontenac to Colbert, Quebec, Nov. 11, 1674, translated in N. Y. Colonial Documents, ix, p. 121 ; part of original text in Shea's "Mississippi," xxxiii, and Margry, i, p. 257. The original is in the Archives du Minist^re de la Marine, at Paris. '"Relation of Dablon, Aug. i, 1674 (Hist. Mag., v, p. 238), Details sur le Voyage de Louis Jolliet (Margry, i, pp. 259 seq.), in Biblio- theque Nationale, at Paris ; Relation de la Descouverte de plusieurs Pays situ6s au Midi de la Nouvelle France, faite en 1673 (Margry, i, pp. 262, 263, 268-270), in D^p6t des Cartes, Plans et Journaux de la Marine, at Paris. These are based upon oral accounts given by Jol liet. See also JoUiet's Letter from Quebec, Oct. 10, 1674 (Harrisse Notes, p. 322), in the Archives of the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris, and his letter to Frontenac, appended to JoUiet's smaller map (Mag azine American History, 1883 ; same published separately in Griffin's "Discovery of the Mississippi," and N. & C. History of America, i<7, pp. 2o8, 210). " Memoir of Frontenac, supra. " JoUiet's letter to Frontenac, supra. " JolUet's letter of Oct. 10, 1674, and letter to Frontenac, supra. ''Unfinished letter of Father Marquette, Shea's "Mississippi," p. 258. '5 N. & C. History of America, iv, p. 217. Historical Magazine, v, p. 237. '• Thevenot also; published it as an independent work, entitled ' ' Voy age et D6couverte de quelques Pays et Nations de I'Am^rique Sep- tentrionale." In the latter form it was reproduced by Rich at Paris in 1845 (Griffin's "Discovery of the Mississippi," p. 5). " N. & C. History of America, iv, pp. 219-220. The return route of the explorers is incorrectly laid down on this map, probably from the endeavor of the editor to make them again meet the Peorias on the west bank of the Mississippi, where they saw them on their south ward journey. He was not aware of the custom of these Indians to go in a body to hunt, and that thus they might easily have been found on the Illinois River (Shea's "Mississippi," Ixxv). '8 Shea's "Mississippi," pp. Ixxvii, Ixviii. Griffin's "Mississippi," p. 5. N. & C. Hist. America, iv, pp. 217, 219, 220, 315. The Ste. Marie text was reprinted for Mr. Lenox in 1855, with important annotations by Shea, under the title "R6cit des Voyages et des D^couvertes de R. P. J. Marquette," etc. Sheasays: "The narrative is a very small quarto, written in a very clear hand, with occasional corrections, comprising in all sixty pages. Of these thirty-seven con tain his voyage down the Mississippi, which is complete, except a 196 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY hiatus of one leaf in the chapter on the calumet ; the rest are taken up with the account of his second voyage, death and burial, and the voyage of Father AUouez. The last nine lines on page 60 are in the handwriting of Father Dablon, and were written as late as 1678." (Shea, supra.) The missing leaf was supplied from the print of Thevenot. (N. & C. Hist., supra.) '" Extracts from Memoir of Frontenac, supra. 8" JoUiet's letter of Oct. 10 1674, supra. 81 Margry, supra. 82 Ibid, i, p. 270. 8' Griffin, supra. 8*N. &. C. Hist., iv, p. 210. 85 Ibid., pp. 211-216. Parkman's "La Salle," pp. 45a, 453. 88 It is stated that Marquette also kept a copy of the lost report or journal of JoUiet (Dablon Relation, Aug. i, 1674; Hist. Soc, v, p. 238; Margry, i, p. 262), but these reports probably refer to Mar quette's own narrative. 8' Unfinished letter of Father Mai'quette, Shea's "Mississippi," p. 258. 88Dablon's Ivfarrative of Marquette's Second Voyage, Ibid., p. 53. 89 Proces Verbal, Margry, i, p. 99. '"N. Y. Colonial Documents, pp. 132, 804. Parkman's "La Salle, " p. 68, n. Dictionnaire G6n6alogique, i, p. 442. ''Unfinished letter of Father Marquette, Shea's "Mississippi," pp. 258-264. '2 It has been claimed that Marquette made this journey by the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers, and around the southern end of Lake Michigan, but this is not supported by the only contemporary author ity, the Narrative of Marquette's Second Voyage, by Father Claude Dablon. He says: "The Illinois Indians escorted Marquette more than thirty leagues on the way, and after they had taken leave of hirh he continued his voyage and soon after reached the Illinois Lake. " A little more than thirty French leagues by the Des Plaines and Chi cago would have brought the party to the lake, and Dablon would then have stated that they parted there. But his language plainly implies a longer river journey than by the Des Plaines. Again, he says that after Marquette reached the lake he had nearly a hundred leagues to make by an unknown route, because he was obliged to take the southern (meaning the eastern) side of the lake, having gone thither by the northern (meaning the western). We know that Mar quette went to the Illinois country by the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. Had he returned by the same route to the lake and then fol lowed its southern curve, Dablon would hardly have spoken of it as NOTES 197 utterly unknown, but rather as a divergence from the route which Marquette had followed to the Indian village. And although he had not traveled on the lake south of the mouth of the Chicago River, yet he had visited that point twice, and from it a part of this route was in sight at least. Moreover Dablon says the return route was on another side of the lake from that used in going. But if Marquette went south from the Chicago River, a large part of the journey on the lake would have been on the same side as his journey to the Illinois, and would have been so described. A still more conclusive argument is derived from Dablon's statement that Marquette had nearly a hundred leagues to make on Lake Michigan. This fairly represents the distance from the mouth of the St. Joseph to St. Ignace, but from the mouth of the Chicago to St. Ignace would have been forty leagues more, and Dablon could not have described the whole lake trip as nearly one hundred leagues when it would have been much more than this. '3 Dablon's Narrative of Marquette's Second Voyage, supra, pp. 55 seq. "'Shea's Mississippi," Ixxi, p. 63. '5 The river where Marquette died is a small stream in the west of Michigan, some distance south of the promontory called the "Sleeping Bear." It was long called by his name, which is now borne by a neighboring stream (Parkman's "La SaUe,", ^. 71, n. ; Shea's "Mis sissippi," p. 58, n.). An interesting account of the probable discov ery of Father Marquette's remains in 1877 wiU be found in "Missionary Labors of Father Marquette, Menard and AUouez," etc., p. 136. "8 Dictionnaire G6n6alogique, i, p. 324. Archbishop Tach6's letter, Chi. Hist. Soc. MSS. <" Ibid. "8 Lettre du Comte de Frontenac a Colbert, 1677. Margry i, p. 324. Lettre de Colbert 4 M. Du Chesneau, 28 Avril, 1677. Margry, i, p. 329. "" Margry, i, pp. 405-406-418. 100 Parkman's ' 'La SaUe, " p. 66, note. Contract du vendu par susses- sion de d6funt M. Bissot, 19 Avril, 1680. C. H. S. MSS. Dictionnaire G6n6alogique, i, pp. 56, 324, v. p. 14. "" Parkman's "La Salle, "p. 49, note; p. 66, note. Dictionnaire G6n- ealogique, i, p. 324, v. 14. Shea's "Mississippi," Ixxx. i''2 Dictionnaire Gto6alogique, i, p. 324. losNarrativeof Father Marquette, Shea's "Mississippi,"p. 14. Fron tenac's letters, Margry, i, pp. 255, 257. Dablon in Shea's Missis sippi, pp. 4, 5. Dictionnaire G6n6alogique. 198 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY "" For the views of modern writers as to JolUet's leadership of the Mississippi expedition, see "Narrative and Critical History of America," iv, pp. 178, 179, 180, 209. Cartier to Frontenac, p. 236. Parkman's "La SaUe" (eleventh edition), pp. 47, 48, 49, 53, 66. Shea's "Mississippi," xxvii, xxviii, Ixxx, p. 5 ; p. 5, note. II. EXPLORATION ' Dablon's Narrative, Shea's "Mississippi," pp. 53, 56. 2 Jesuit Relations, 1670, p. 87, Shea's "Mississippi," p. 69, n. 8 Margry, i, p. 59. ^ Ibid., i, pp. 59, 60. Kingsford's "Canada," i, pp. 240, 345. 5 Shea's "Mississippi," AUouez, p. 68, n. ; Jesuit Relations. 1664, pp. 28, 2g. 8 Jesuit Relations, 1665, pp. 8-g. 1667, p. 4. 'Ibid., 1666, p. 3. ^ Ibid., 1667, pp. 4, 5, 7, 8, g, 13, 25. ^ Ibid., p. 26. '"Shea's "Mississippi," AUouez, p. 6g, n. "Jesuit Relations, i66g, p. 17. "> Ibid., 1670, pp. 87, g2, 94, 96, 97, 100. "Missionary Labors of Mar quette," etc., p. 178. "Historic Green Bay," p. 162. "Jesuit Relations, 1671, pp. 42-44. "R. G. Thwaites' "Historic Waterways," p. 175. "Missionary Labors of Marquette," etc., p. 179. '5 Margry, i, p. 98. '8 Jesuit Relations, 1671, pp. 27-28. ^'' Ibid., 1672, p. 42. '8 Shea's "Mississippi," AUouez, p. 69, n. 1" Ibid. , pp. 70-73. ^ Margry, ii, p. 175. "Shea's "Mississippi," AUouez, pp. 74-77. '^ Ibid, p. 69, n. ; p. 77. Margry, ii, pp. 34, 41. Parkman's "La Salle," p. 222, n. 28 "Cavelier de La Salle de Rouen," Gravier, p. 11. Parkman's "La Salle," p. I. Margry, i. Introduction, xxix, p. 346. Kingsford's "Canada," i, p. 376. 2' Parkman's "La Salle," p. i. n. Kingsford's "Canada," supra. "Cavelier de La Salle de Rouen," pp. 11-12. 25 "Les Anciens Forts de Lachine," D. Girouard, pp. 11 and 12. Margry, i, p. 280. "Lac St. Louis," D. Girouard, pp. 10, 11 12 Parkman's "La SaUe," p. i, n. * Parkman's "La Salle," p. 4. Gravier's "La Salle," p. 14. Mar- NOTES 199 gry. i. P- 330- "Le Vieux Lachine," Girouard, pp. 13-17, 116. Abb6 De Galin6e, Margry, i, p. 114-116. 2' Parkman's "La Salle," pp. 21-27. "M6moire par Nicholas Per rot," pp. 119-122. Shea's "Bursting of Pierre Margry's La SaUe Bubble," pp. I, 9. 28 Margry, i, pp. 330-331. ^ Ibid., i, pp. 227-288, ^'^ Ibid., i, pp. 292, 437. 8' Ibid. , ii, pp. 75, 259. '^'^ Ibid., i, pp. 439, 337. 88 "Les Tonty," B. Suite, pp. 3-5. Parkman's "La Salle," p. 115. "M6moire de Henri de Tonty envoy6 en 1693, Relations et M6moires In^dits par Pierre Margry" (cited as "Tonty," 1693), p. 5. This Memoir is translated in "Historical Collections of Louisiana," by B. F. French (cited as French's "La."), vol. i, pp. 52-78. 8* Margry, ii, pp. 75-76. 8* Relation Officielle, Margry, i, pp. 440-445 ; Tonty's Relation, Ibid., pp. 571 seq. ; Parkman's "La SaUe," ch. viii. ^ Ibid., pp. 448-451. "Tonty," 1684; Ibid., p. 579. 8' Relation Officielle, Margry, i, pp. 451-455. ^ Ibid., pp. 456-459- 8"/*2i!/., pp. 45g-46i; cf Tonty's Relation, Ibid, -pp. 580 seq. and Shea's Hennepin's Louisiana, pp. 129 seq. *" Le Clercq says La Salle left four men at Fort Miami (Shea's "Establishment of the Faith," ii, p. 117), and this statement has been foUowed by a recent writer ("Cartier to Frontenac," p. 264). But it seems hardly credible — Le Clercq was not a member of the party, and is inaccurate especially as to numbers (see his statements as to La Salle's party leaving Green Bay, "Establishment of the Faith," ii, pp. 116-117). Hennepin, who was of the party, does not mention any men remaining at the fort, but says they left letters there hanging from the trees, which certainly they would not have done had any one stayed at that place. "The Relation Officielle makes the same statement (see Shea's "Hennepin's Louisiana," pp. 135 et seq., and Hennepin's "New Discovery," London, 1698, pp. 108 and III; also Margry, i, p. 463). " Relation Officielle, Margry, pp. 461-463. Tonty, 1684, Ibid., p. 581, *2 Relation Officielle, Margry, i, pp. 463-464. "Hennepin's Louisi ana," Shea (cited as "Hennepin La."), pp. 142, 152. Tonty, 1684. Maigry, i, p. 582. "Margry, ii, pp. 174, 175, 4i,gg-ioi. " La Salle says they arrived January ist (Margry, ii, p. 36), so also 200 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the Relation Officielle (Margry, i, p. 466), but Tonty (Margry, i, p. 582), Hennepin ("New Discovery," 1698 ed., p. 113; "La." p. 152), and Le Clercq (Shea, ii, pp. 117-118), all make the arrival the latter part of December or the last day, which seems more probable. *5 "Hennepin La.," Shea, p. 153- «8 Relation OfficieUe, Margry, i, pp. 467-468. La Salle a Thouret, Margry, ii, p. 36. A minot contains 39 litres; a bushel, 36 and a fraction litres. "Ibid., pp. 467-468. "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 118. "Hennepin La." 154-156. Hennepin "N. D.", pp. 121, 122. La Salle a Thouret, Margry, ii, p. 38. *8 Hennepin "N. D.,"pp. 122, 123, 124. "Hennepin La." pp. 157- r6o. Margry, i, p. 468; ii, pp. 38-39- '"Margry, i, pp. 468-470; ii, pp. 39-40. "Hennepin La.," pp. 159, 161-162. 50 Margry, i, pp. 470-471; ii, p. 100. "Hennepin La.," p. 165. "Cartier to Frontenac," pp. 265, 266. 81 This head chief, who was then absent, is called in different accounts Chassagoac and Chassagouasse. 82 Margery, i, pp. 471-473; ii, p. 43. "Hennepin La.," pp. 166-169; "N. D.," p. 126. 88 Margry, i, p. 473. ^ Ibid., i, p. 474; ii, p. 100. 88 Relation Officielle, Margry, i, p. 471. "Hennepin La.," p. 155. 88 Margry, u, p. 46. 8' Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 583. Tonty, 1693, French's "La.," i, P- 54. 4 88 Moyse Hillaret, Margry, li, p. 108. 8" Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 581. 80 Margry, i, p. 449. 8' Ibid., ii, pp. 46-47. 82 Ibid. , i, pp. 475, 476. 88 The exact location of Fort Crevecoeur has been a matter of con troversy. The early authorities are Relation OfficieUe, Margry, i, pp. 467, 476, 488; Lettre de La Salle, Margry, ii, p. 247; "Hennepin, La., "pp. i75n, 187; Hennepin "N. D.," p. 142; and Franquelin's Map, 1684. (Parkman's "La Salle, p. 294; "Cartier to Frontenac," pp. 308, 344.) A local antiquarian has held the place to be a projection of the bluff directly back of the village of Wesley City, three miles below Peoria ("Fort Crevecceur," by J. Gale, Peoria Journal, Jan. 11, 1890). Parkman at first adopted a similar view, saying in his "Discovery of the Great West," p. 168, ninth edition, "The spot may still be seen a little below Peoria" ; but he omits this sentence in his last edition of NOTES 2or the same work. Others think it stood in Fond du Lac township in Tazewell County above Peoria and a mile and a half below the narrows of Peoria Lake (Chicago Tribune, Nov. i6, i88g); but a very competent authority fixes the site farther to the north, and identifies it with a mound a little below Spring Bay in Woodford County (Hiram W. Beckwith in the "Land of the lUini," Chicago Tribune, Feb. 24, i8g5). This is probably the correct location. 8' Margry i, pp. 476-477 ; ii, pp. 48-49. "Hennepin La.," pp. 176-177, 187. "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 130. Hennepin "N. D.," p. 142. 88 "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 123. Hennepin "N. D.," p. 136. 88 "Hennepin La.," pp. 179, 180, 186. Margry, i, p. 583. French's "La.," i, p. 54- Margry, ii, pp. 31, 32, 49, 95.' 8' Shea's notes to "Le Clercq, ii, p. 123, and "Hennepin La.," p. 175. See "Cartier to Frontenac," p. 266. 88 Parkman's "La Salle," p. 168. 8" " Le Clercq, " ii, p. 123. "Hennepin La.," p. 188. Margry, ii, pp. 49-50, 103. TO Margry, ii, pp. 49-53. ''^ Ibid., p. 54. '''^ Ibid., p. 54. The Matoutentas were a Mandan tribe. "Lewis and Clark's Expedition," Coues, i, p. 182. The Chaa, an Algonquin name for the Sioux ("Hennepin La.," p. 189, n.). '8Membr6 in "Le Clercq," ii, pp. 133-140. "Le Clercq," ii, p. 123. "Hennepin La.," p. 140-143, i86, 258; "N. D.," p. 141. "Relations des J6suites," 1671, pp. 25, 45. "Relations Inedites," i, pp. 133, 138. Parkman's "La Salle," p. 207, n. " "Hennepin La.," p. 186-187; "N. D.," pp. 136, 142. "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 130. ''Hennepin "N. D.," p. 141. ''^ Ibid., p. 144. Margry, u, p. 54. "Margry, i, p. 478; ii, p. 246. "Hennepin La.," pp. 361-362, 371 Margry, ii, p. 55. '8 Margry, i, pp. 477-478; ii, pp. 54-55- '" "Hennepin La.," pp. 187-188, 189; "N. D.," pp. 142-143 80 "Hennepin La.," pp. 189-192; "N. D.," pp. 143-144- 81 "Hennepin La.," pp. r92-ig3; "N. D.," i6g8, pp. 145-146-147. .Margry, i, pp. 478-479- 82 Margry, i, pp. 478-479- 88 Ibid., n, p. 248. "Hennepin La.," p. 363. 8'"Hennepin La.," pp. igS-igg; "N. D.," i6g8, p. 148. 8» Margry, i, p. 488 ; ii, p. log. 8« Lettre de La Salle k Thouret, Margry, ii, pp. 51. 55, 56. Relation OfficieUe, Margry, i, pp. 488-4go. 202 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 8' "Hennepin La.," p. i66. Shea's "Mississippi," p. 259. 88 Margry, i, pp. 488-490. Marquette's Last Journal, Shea's "Mis sissippi," p. 259. 8" Margry, i, p. 491; ii, pp. 57-58- ""Margry, i, pp. 491-492; ii, pp. 58-59- "1 Margry, i, p. 492 ; u, p. 59. "2 Margry, ii, p. 59. Tonty, 1693, French's "La.," p. 55. Maigry, ii, p. 88. "8 Margry, i, pp. 492-496; ii, pp. 59-64- ' Margry, i, pp. 496-503 ; ii, pp. 64-65, 69-73, 103-108. "8 Margry, ii, pp. 73-74, 76- ""Chicago Tribune, January 24, 1883. "'Margry, i, pp. 501-502, 513-514; U. P- I25- "8 Margry, i, pp. 514-515; ", p. 127. ""Margry, i, pp. 515-516; ii, pp. 127-128. 100 Margry, i, pp. 516-518; ii, pp. 128-130. 101 Margry, i, p. 520; ii, pp. 131-133. 102 Margry, ii, p. 134. Le Clercq, ii, pp. 154, 155. 103 Margry, i, pp. 521-52/; ii, pp. 135-136. 104 Margry, i, pp. 523-524; ii. P- 137- 108 Margry, i, pp. 524-525 ; ii, PP- 138-139- 106 Margry, i, p. 525; ii, P- 139- III. OCCUPATION 1 La Salle left Fort Crevecoeur March i, i68o (Margry, ii, pp. 51, 55, 117), arrived at Fort Miami March 24th, and met there the two men sent to Mackinac the preceding autumn (Margry, ii, pp. 59, 60). These two men were La Chapelle and Le Blanc (Moyse Hillaret, Margry, ii, p. 109). Tonty says the two men sent to Mackinac in the autumn were sent to him with the order to build a fort (French's ¦"La." i, p. 55). As they left Fort Miami March 24th at earliest, even if they made as good speed as La Salle did the foUowing March from Fort Miami to the great Illinois viUage (Margfry, i, pp. 529-530), they would hardly have reached Fort Crevecoeur before April nth. 2 Membr6 as quoted by Le Clercq states that the flight and deser tion led by Le Blanc and La Chapelle took place "about the middle of March" ("Le Clercq", Shea, ii, p. 136), but this does not agree with his previous statement that these men were at the St. Joseph March 13th {Ibid., p. 131), whence they could not have reached Crevecoeur by the middle of the month, nor with the Relation Offi cielle (Margry, i, p. 520). He doubtless meant to write "about the middle of April." NOTES 203 8"Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 130-131. Tonty, 1693, French's "La.," i, p. 55- Margry i, pp. 496, 503-504, 520, 584; Ibid., ii, pp. 70, 103, 109, n8, 119, 133. 'Margry, i, p. 496; ii, p. 69. "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 132. Mar gry, i, p. 503; ii, pp. 70, 118, 119, 104-105. 8 Margry, i, p. 503; ii, pp. 119, 120. "Membra, "Le Clercq," Shea," ii, pp. 132, 133, 136-137, 138. 'Membr6, "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 133, 134, 137-138. "Hennepin La.," p. 166, n. 8 Margry, i, p. 584; ii, p. 297. Membr^, "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 136, 137, 138. "Membr6, "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 137. Margry, i, pp. 507, 584; ii, p. 121. 1" Margry, i, pp. 508, 584-585 ; ii, pp. 120, 121, 140. "Margry, i, pp. 508, 509, 585, 586; ii, pp. 121, 122. Membr6, "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 141. 12 Margry, i, pp. 509-510, 585-586; ii, pp. 122-123. Membr6, in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 142-143. French's "La.," i, pp. 55-56. ¦8 Ibid. 1' Ibid. 18 Margry, ii, p. 343. Parkman's "La Salle," p. 116, n. Suite's "Les Tonty," p. 4. 18 French's "La.," p. 57. "La Hontan," edit. 1735, i, p. 82. 1' French's "La.," i, p. 57. 18 Margry, i and ii, supra. Hennepin "N. D.," pp. 284-289. 1" Margry, i, p. 511; ii, p. 124. "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 145. 2" "Hennepin La.," p. 268. 21 "Le Clercq," Shea. Ibid. French's "La.," p. 57. Margry, i, p. 588. Hennepin "N. D.," p. 291. 2'Membrd, "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 145-146-147. Margry, i, pp. 511, 589; ii, p. 124. Shea "Hennepin La.," pp. 190, 270. Hennepin "N. D.," p. 143. Hennepin "N. D.," p. 294, says Ribourde was about sixty-five years old, but La Salle says he was aged sixty-three years in 1680. Margry, ii, p. 119. For Ribourde's character see "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 148. ^Membr6, "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. i4g. Margry, i, pp. 501, 511, 514, 58g; ii, pp. 116, 125, 128. French's "La.," i, p. 58. "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 145-150. 'i' Tonty, T693, French's "La.," i, pp. 58-59. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, PP- 589, 590, 592. Membr6 in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 147, 149-150. Relation Officielle, Margry, i, p. 512. '8 Ibid. Tonty and the Relation Officielle say that he wintered 204 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY among the Pottawattamies (Margry, i, pp. 512, 592, Relations Inedites, p. 13), as does La Salle (Margry, i, p. 532; ii, p. 144). Mem bra says he himself went to the bay of the Puants, where the Jesuit Fathers have a house, and that Tonty followed some time after with the Frenchmen ("Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 150). '''Margry, i, pp. 512, 517; ii, p. 124. Hennepin "N. D.," p. 288. "Le Clercq" Shea, ii, p. 144. "Hennepin La.," p. 259. " Parkman's "Jesuits in North America," Introduction, note, xlvii- xlviii. Margry, i, pp. 504-505 ; ii, p. 33. Du Chesneau on Western Indians, i68r, Paris Documents, ix (N. Y. Col. History), p. 162. 28 Margry, ii, p. 33. "'Membr^, in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 134. ^ Ibid., pp. 139-140. 81 Margry, ii, pp. 34, 99, 102; 115, 116,118, 119, 121, 145, 146; 216- 220, 297-298. ^^ Ibid., p. 226. 88 Ibid., pp. 144-145. 8' Ibid., pp. 297-298. 88 Relation OfficieUe, Margry, i, pp. 525-527; ii, pp. 139-141. 88 Margry, i, pp. 527-529; ii, PP- I4i-i43- 8' Margry, i, pp. 529-531 ; ii, pp. 143-144,, 146-147. 88/^zrf., i, pp. 531-543; ii, pp. 147-158. 8" Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, pp. 5g2-5g3. Tonty, 1693, French's "La.," i, p. 59. Meipbr6 in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 151, 151 n, 157, 159, 160. Relation Officielle, Margry, i, pp. 531-543. La SaUe, Margry, ii, pp. 147, 158, 163-164, 203. '"La SaUe, Margry, ii, pp. 164-165, 166, 169, 187; R6cit de Nicolas de La Salle, Margry, i, p. 549. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 593. Membr6 in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, pp. 161-162. Relation de la D^couverte de I'embouchure de la Riviere Mississippi, in "G6ologie Pratique de la Louisiane, " par R. Thomassy, p. 9 (cited as Thomassy). '1 R^cit de L'Enterprise, Jacques de La M^terie, Margry ii, p. 187. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, pp. 593, 595 ; ii, p. 169. Thomassy, pp. 9, 10. Membr6 in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. 163. " Membr6, supra, pp. 163, 164. Thomassy, p. 10. Margry, i, pp. 549, 550, 595; ii, pp. 187, 207, 243. "Tonty, 1693, French's "La.," i, p. 62. " Ibid. Parkman's "La SaUe," pp. 285-289, Margry ii, pp. 186 seq. *8 R^cit de Nicolas de La Salle, Margry, i, pp. 568-570. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, pp. 611-612. Tonty, 1693, French's "La.," p. 65. '8 Ibid. La Salle, Margry, ii, pp. 202-203. " Lettre de M. de la Barre k Colbert le 14 Novembre, 1682, Margry, ii, p. 303. "Le Clercq" Shea, ii, pp. 185, 194-195-196. NOTES 205 *8 Tonty, in his M6moire of 1693, says that La Salle ordered him to go to gather the French on the River of the Miamis, in order to build the Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, and that he set out with this design, and when he arrived there M. de La Salle, who had changed his mind, came to join him there (Rel. In^d., pp. i\-t2,). But Tonty also says in his Relation of 1684 that La Salle ordered him to go to have built a fort at the portage of the River of the Illinois, to maintain in security the viUage of the Shawanoes whom he had called to be near him and had joined with the Miamis (Margry, i, pp. 612-613). That this is the more correct of the two statements is con firmed by La SaUe's letter to the Governor (Margry, ii, p. 311), writ ten October 5, 1682, which says that he has caused a fort to be constructed at the portage of the River of the Illinois, and asks for supplies for it; and by his letter to one of his friends, written from Mackinac October, 1682, which says that he has built a fort at the portage of the River of the Illinois, where he has left thirty men with the Sieur de Tonty (Margry, ii, p. 294), and by La Barre s complaint that La Salle was going to build a fort at this portage, in his letter to Colbert of November 14, 1682 (M,, ii, p. 303). Tonty explains above (Margry, i, p. 613) how he came to go to winter on the Illinois River, and that La Salle came to join him on the 30th of December. Nicolas de La Salle says expressly that La Salle, on his way from the Mis sissippi Discovery, left eight men at Fort Crevecoeur, that he sent M. de Tonty from Mackinac with nine men to Crivecoeur to join the others, and that La Salle arrived there also after some time, made the French break camp, and led them opposite the place where the vUlageof the lUinois was (M., i, pp. 569, 570). La Salle, and Tonty, 1684, agree. Tonty, 1693, is therefore incorrect. '" Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 613. La Salle, Margry, ii, pp. 294. 303, 311- 80 La SaUe, Margry, ii, p. 248. 81 Lake St. Louis, D. Girouard, p. 25. " R6cit de Nicolas de La Salle, Margry, i, p. 57°- 88 Margery, i, p. 582. 8* Relations inedites, p. 19. French's "La.," p. 64. 88Membr6in "Le Clercq," Shea, ii, p. i86. 88 Margry, i, pp. 465-466. 8' Ibid. , ii, p. 174- IV. SETTLEMENT 1 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inid., p. 22. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 613. Parkman's "La Salle," pp. 293, 294, and note. Lettre de La SaUe, Margry, ii, pp. 175-176. Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 479. 495- La SaUe 2o6 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY calls this post "Fort Saint --Louis dans la Louisiane" — see his conces sion to Michel Dizy, Lake St. Louis, Girouard, p. 25, and Lettre de La Salle k Antoine Brossard, September i, 1683, Chicago Historical Society MSS. Tonty calls it "Fort Saint-Louis des Illinois" (Suite's "Les Tonty," pp. 15, 17), and by this title it was generally knowa ''Tonty, 1693, Rel. In6d., p. 22. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 613. 8 See names on Franquelin's map, Parkman's "La Salle," P- 2g5. 'Parkman's "La Salle," p. 2g7, and Franquelin's map, supra. Hebberd ("Wisconsin under Dominion of France," p. 50), thinks this claim of La Salle's fraudulent, because the Miamis are counted thrice. This mistake is made by Franquelin, and Parkman follows him, but it does not nullify La Salle's report. Tonty, 1693, supra, says 300 cabins came, i. e., of Illinois, Miamis and Shawanoes. Hen nepin ("La.," p. 153), says the great Illinois village had 460 cabins. made like long arbors, each with four or five fires, and each fire with one or two families. Allowing five persons to a family, each cabin might contain fifty people, and Tonty's 300 cabins would thus mean 15,000 persons from these three tribes alone, and the strange tribes would easUy supply the remainder. See Membr6's statement (Mar gry, ii, p. 304) that La Salle led 600 Shawanoes with him. This probably means warriors, who would represent 3,000 persons from this tribe. La Salle also says that 9 or 10 Shawanoe villages were abandoned to join the French (Margry, ii, p. 314). 8 La Salle a La Barre, Margry, ii, pp. 314, 315, 317; Kingsford's Canada, ii, pp. 31-32. La Barre a Colbert, Nov. 12, 1683, and Nov. 14, 1683, Margry, ii, pp. 302-303-304, 336-337- 8 ' 'Morel de la Durantaye," par A. C. De Leroy Macdonald, in "Le Monde," Sept. 30, 1893. ' Journal D'une Expedition Contre Les Iroquois in 1687, R6dig6 par Le Chevalier De Baugy . . . Lettres et Pieces Relatives au Fort Saint Louis des Illinois; Paris, 1883 (cited as De Baugy), pp. 159, 170. 8 La SaUe kha Barre de Fort Saint-Louis, 2 Avril (1683), Margery, ii, pp. 312-317. " La SaUe k La Barre, du Portage de Checagou, 4 Juin, 1683, Mar gry, ii, pp. 317-328. ^^ Ibid., p. 317. 11 Margry, ii, pp. 317, 323. "Ibid., p. 317. 18 Ibid., pp. 317, 321, 323, 327, 328. 1* Ibid. 18 Ibid. , pp. 329, 336. i^Ibid., p. 165. NOTES 207 " La Salle's letter from the Chicago portage to La Barre is dated June 4, 1683 (Margry, ii, p. 317) 18 FeuUles d^tach^es d'une lettre de La Salle, Marg^, ii, pp. 165-167. The date and first part of this letter are missing, but the context shows that it was written after the construction of Fort Saint-Louis, and probably in the year 1683. 1" De Baugy, pp. 161-168. 2" Ibid., p. 174. ^ Ibid., p. 175. 22 De. Baugy, pp. 177-178, 180-181. ^^ Ibid., pp. 177-184. 2' La Barre k Seignelay, Margry, ii, pp. 332-333. 28 La SaUe k Brossard et al, Sept. i, 1683. Chi. Hist Soc. MSS. "Lac St. Loui§," Girouard, p. 26. Jugements et Deliberations du Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle- France. Quebec, 1887, iii, p. 544. 28 Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 613. 2' La Salle a Brossard et al. Supra. Tonty, 1693, Rel. In^d., p. 22; 1684, Margery, i, p. 613. 28 Tonty, 1693, supra, says La SaUe departed (from Fort Saint Louis) in the month of September. But Tonty, 1684, says he departed thence in the month of August. And La Salle's letter to Brossard and others at Fort Saint Louis, written after leaving that place on this expedition and a journey of some days, is dated at Chicago, Sep tember I, 1683. He probably left the fort about August 26th. 29 Tonty, 1693, supra. ^ Ibid., and Tonty, 1684, supra. 81 H. W. Beckwith' s address to Chicago Bar Association. "^ Tonty, 1693, Margpy, i, pp. 613-614. Tonty, 1684, Rel. In^d., p. 22. 88 RoUand evidently was the famous trader of Lachine. See "Lac St. Louis," Girouard, pp. 71-74. 8' Boisrondet was Tonty's comrade in 1680 at the Iroquois invasion and La'Salle's commissary at Fort Saint-Louis (see Joutel, in Margry, iii, p. 478). 88 This letter was preserved by Brossard and his descendants for more than two hundred years, until 1895, when it came to sale in Montreal and was purchased by the Chicago Historical Society 88 Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 614. 8' La Salle's Memoir to Seignelay, N. Y. Col. Doc, ix, p. 215; and Extrait du Memoire, Margry, ii, p. 347. La Barre denied this charge (Margry, ii, pp. 34g-35o)- 88 La Salle's Memoir, supra, p. 214. 8" Margry, ii, pp. 338-344- 2o8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY '""Ferland's Cours d'Histoire," ii, p. 138. citing Belmont's "His toire du Canada," p. 16. ?1 Margry, ii, p. 343. *' Tonty, 1693, Rel. Ined, p. 22. '8 Ibid. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 614. "Tonty, 1684, 1693, supra. ?8 Lettre du Pere Nouvel a La Barre, de la Mission de Saint Frangois Xavier, dans la Bale des Puans. Margry, ii, p. 345- Tonty, 1684. supra. '8 Tonty, 1684, supra. "Margry, ii, pp. 344-345- '8 Ibid. '"Nouvel to La Barre, supra. Tonty, 1684, 1693, supra. 8" Tonty, supra. 8' Tonty, 1693, supra, says it was the 23d, but in a more formal statement (De Baugy, p. 190) he says the 22d. 82 Tonty, i6g3, supra. 88 La SaUe's letter to Brossard shows that Boisrondet was at this time at the fort. 8' Tonty, 1684, supra. 88 Nicolas de La Salle, Margry, i, p. 570. 88 La Salle to Seignelay, N. Y. Col. Doc, ix, pp. 213-215. 8' Ibid., p. 216. 88 De Baugy, pp. 186-187. For La Barre's campaigfn against the Iroquois see Kingsford's "Canada," ii, p. 54. 8" Parkman's "La SaUe," p. 32g. Kingsford's "Canada," ii, p. 120. 80 Parkman's "La Salle," p. 32g. Paris Documents, ix, p. 223. 81 N. Y. Col. Doc, ix, pp. 225, 233. Parkman's "LaSalle," p. 330. 82 N. Y. Col. Doc, supra. 88 La Forest was at La Rochelle July 17, 1684, when La Salle gave him an obligation there (Margp-y, ii, p. 418). He arrived in Quebec in time to go in autumn to Fort Frontenac (Tonty, 1693, Rel. Indd., P- 23)- 8' Tonty, 1684, 1693, supra. 88 De Baugy, p. 187. 88 Tonty, 1693, Rel. InSd., p. 23. " De Baugy, p. 189. \ ^^ Ibid., pp. 189-190. 89 Ibid. '» Tonty a M. Cabart de Villemont, Aug. 24, 1686, Margry, iii, p. 559. '1 Tonty, 1693, Rel. In^d., p. 23. Margry, iii, p. 559. '2 Tonty au ministre de la marine, Aug. 24, 1686, Margry, iii, p. 553. Proces Verbal, Tonty, April, 1686, Margry, iii, p. 554. Tonty k M. Cabart de ViUemont, supra, p. 560. NOTES 209 '8 Margry, iii, pp. 555, 560. Tonty, 1693, Rel. In6d., p. 23. " Kingsford's "Canada," pp. 46, 58. Tonty, 1693, Rel. In^d., p. 23. '8 Margry, iii, p. 560. Tonty, 1693, supra, says he learned at Mack inac that Denonville had relieved La Barre, and by a letter which he did him the honor to write had shown that he desired to see him. He does not say the letter was received there. This Memoire was not written until 1693, eight years later. In his letter to Cabart de Ville mont, written in 1686, within a year of the events, Tonty says he had to return to Fort Saint Louis from Mackinac, and search by another route for RoUand, who brought him the Marquis' letter. Yet he seems to have learned at Mackinac of La Salle's need, and of Denon ville's wish to see Tonty. The language of the text seems to be the reasonable reconciliation of the several statements. '"Rel. Inedit., p. 23, Margry, iii, p. 560. " FranqueUn's map, 1684, shows no fort at Chicago. Tonty found one there in December, 1685. '8 Joutel, Margry, iii, p. 500. De Baugy, p. 185. '" Joutel, Margry, iii, p. 500. Tonty, 1693, Rel. Ined., p. 23. 8" Lettre de La SaUe, 4 Juin, 1683, Marg^, ii, p. 317. Tonty, supra. 81 Franquelin's map of 1684, Parkman's "La Salle," p. 289. 82 H. W. Beckwith, Chicago Tribune, Feb. 24, 1895. 88 Treaty of Greenville, Aug. 3, 1795. American State Papers, vol. i, Indian Affairs, p. 562. 8* Margry, iii, pp. 555, 560. Tonty, supra. Paris Documents, ix, p. 273. Denonville to La Forest, June 6, 1686, in Francis Parkman's MS. in Mass. Historical Society. 88 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Ined., pp. 23-24. Tonty au ministre, Margry, iii, P- 553- Proces Verbal, Margry, iii, pp. 555, 558- "Lac St. Louis," Girouard, pp. 80-81. Tonty k Villemont, Margry, iii, pp. 560-561. «« French's "La.," p. 68, note. 8' Tonty, supra. Margjry, supra. 88 Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 74,79- N. Y. Col. Doc, ix, supra. 8" Francis Parkman MS. in Mass. Historical Society. "" Ibid. Lettre de DenonviUe a La Forest, 6 Juin, 1686. "'Tonty, 1693, Rel. Ined., pp. 24, 25, 26. 9^ Histoire du Canada, par M. L'Abbe de Belmont, pp. ,20-24, Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 7g-85- "8 Ibid. Ibid. "'Tonty, i6g3, Rel. Ined., pp. 26, 27. 98 Parkman's "La Salle," chapter 27, pp. 398-409, 1°^. •8 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 407, 436, 439. 2IO CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY '>''' Ibid, p. 45r- 98 Kingsford's "Canada," ii, p. i6i. ""Parkman's "La Salle," p. 341- 10" Kingsford's "Canada," supra. 101 Joutel, supra, pp. 469-473. •02 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 473-479- Father Anastasius Douay, Shea's "Le Clercq," pp. 229-282. Joutel does not speak of the Indian Tur pin, but Douay mentions his tribe and name, supra, p. 275. 108 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 479, 4go, 4g4- Douay, in "Le Clercq," ii, p. 276. 18* Joutel, supra, p. 505. 108 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 480-481, 484, 487, 489. ^'^ Ibid., pp. 482, 489, 490, 493, 4g5-4g6, 4g7-4gg- 10' Memoire de I'Abbe Jean Cavelier, Margry, iii, pp. 588-589. 108 Tonty k VUlemont, Margery, iii, p. 564. 109 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 488, 49g, 500. 11" La Salle k Tonty, Margry, in, p. 54g. CaveUer de Tonty, Mar gry, iii, p. 550. Ill Joutel, Margry, in, p. 4g9. ii»/J«Vf., pp. 459, 500, 507, 508-509, 510-511. ^^^Ibid., p. 511. ^^* Ibid., pp. 511, 513- 118 Suite's "Les Tonty," p. 21. 118 Joutel, Margry, pp. 517-534. 1" Tonty, i6g3, Rel. Ined., pp. 27, 28. 118 "Narrative and Critical History of America," iv, p. 194, La Hon tan Voyages, Lettre xiv, vol, i, p. 106, edit, k la Haye, 1704. 11" Tonty, 1693, Rel. Ined. , pp. 31-33. Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 330 and 331. French's "La.," pp. 142-144. Parkman, who has most worthily told the story of his life, pays him this matchless tribute: "It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not easy to hide from sight the Roman virtues that redeemed them. Beset by a throng of enemies, he stands, Uke the king of Israel, head and shoulders above them all. He was a tower of adamant, against whose impregnable front, hardship and danger, the rage of men and the elements, the southern sun, the northern blast, fatigue, famine, and disease, delay, disap pointment, and deferred hope emptied their quivers in vain. . . . America owes him an enduring memory, for in this masculine figpire she sees the pioneer who guided her to her richest heritage." 120 Tonty, supra, p. 36. 121 La Hontan, Lettres xiv, xvi-xvii, vol. i, p. 177, edit, k la Haye, 1704. ^''^ Ibid., La Hontan, vol. i, p. 177. NOTES 211 128 For La Hontan's unreliability see Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 59-60, note. 12* N. Y. Col. Doc, ix, p. 276. vs' Ibid., pp. 343-344- Margry, iii, p. 563. "'Margry, iii, p. 576. "'Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 198, zoo. Quebec Documents, i, p. 466. ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY I. Old Fort Chartres The marvelous growth of the Great West obscures all relating to it, save what is of recent date. It has a past and a history, but these are hidden by the throng of mod ern events. Few realize that the territory of Illinois, which seems but yesterday to have passed from the con trol 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 yet 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 the val ley of the Mississippi. Above the walls of old Fort Char tres, 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 West and South, was a favorite scheme of the French Crown at an early day. It originated in the active brain of the great explorer. La Salle, whose communica tions to the ministers of Louis XIV contain the first sug gestions of such a policy. These military stations were intended to be the centers of colonization for the vast inland territory, and its protection against rival nations. Spain had laid claim to nearly the whole of North Amer- ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 213 ica, under the name of Florida, by the right of first dis covery, and by virtue of a grant from the Pope, who disposed of a continent — which he did not own — with reckless liberality. France relied on the possession taken by La Salle for her title to the Mississippi Valley ; and a long altercation ensued. The ordinary state of feeling between their officers may be inferred from a corre spondence which has come down to us from the early part of the eighteenth century. Bernard de La Harpe estab lished 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 say that your arrival surprises me very much. Your Gov ernor 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 Frenchman : ' ' 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 vdll do me the favor to come into this quarter, I will convince 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 Illi nois country, the mission villages of Cahokia and Kas kaskia 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 encroaching English were building forts near the Ohio and the Mississippi. So the shadow of the coming power of her old enemy was 214 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY cast athwart the path of France in the western wilder ness, while Spain watched her progress there with a jeal ous eye. And the need of guarding the Illinois settle ments became more manifest when the discovery of valu able 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 1 7, John Law's famous Company of the West, after ward absorbed in that of the Indies, was ready to become his successor, and to dazzle the multitude with the glit tering lure of the gold and silver of Illinois. The repre sentatives 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 estab lished as a link in the great chain of strongholds, which was to stretch from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, realiz ing the dream of La Salle ; a bulwark against Spain and a barrier to England ; a protector of the infant colony, and of the church which planted it ; a center 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 ship, from France, Pierre Duqu6 Boisbriant, a Cana dian gentleman, with the commission of Commandant at the Illinois. He was a cousin of Bienville, then Gov ernor of Louisiana, and had already served under him in ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 215 that province. In October, of the same year, accompa nied by several officers and a detachment of troops, he departed for the Illinois country, where he was ordered to construct a fort. The little flotilla, 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 pre viously 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 village, 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 com mandant's house, and the storehouse and great hall of the India Company were built, and the cannon, bearing the insignia of Louis^XIV, were placed 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 victimized 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 2i6 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY were named in New Orleans and Kaskaskia, which are still thus designated. The first important arrival at the new post was that of Philippe Frangois 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. The 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 were 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 horsemanship 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 jour ney 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. Duqu^ de Boisbriant commands here for the Company to whom ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 217 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 anticipated 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 forth with established the parish of St. Anne de Fort Char tres. All that remains of the records of this parish is in the vmter'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 some thing in the nature of a manual of church etiquette. Reciting that His Majesty has considered all the ordi nances 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 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 2i8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY usher, and captain of the guard, with the Governor-Gen eral, yet behind him, but not on the same line with the council ; and similar minute directions cover all contin gencies. 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 1 7 21, the year in which the first entries seem to have been made in the parish registers. We may presume 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, principal 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 center of the civil government of the colonv. To this council applications for land were made, and its members exe cuted 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 conveyed to himself, beginning at the little hill behind the fort. He and his associates dispensed justice, regulated titles, and administered estates, and, in fact, established the court, which, for more than forty years, decided the cases 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 ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 219 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 tract, a large part was never sold by Renault, and to this day the unconveyed portion is marked upon the maps of Monroe County, Illinois, as the property of the Philip Renault heirs. About this time word came to the fort that the faithful allies of the French, the Illinois Indians, who dwelt about Peoria Lake, and the Rock of St. Louis, now called Starved Rock, were hard pressed by their ancient ene mies, the Foxes. Boisbriant sent a force to their relief which arrived at the close of a contest, in which the Foxes were defeated, but so greatly had the Illinois suffered that they returned with the French to the shelter of the fort, leaving the route to the settlements from the north unprotected. In the year 1725 Bienville, the Gov ernor of Louisiana, was summoned to France, and Com mandant Boisbriant became acting Governor in his stead, with headquarters at New Orleans. His old position was filled by M. De Siett^, a captain in the royal army. In the parish register in his administration appears the bap tism 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 Thdr^se, but does not say whether she consented, or what she thought about it. She apparently paid a casual visit to the fort, and he baptized 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 220 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 expedi ent, 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 adopted the views of the commandant at the Illinois, and the Marquis de Beauhamois, grand father 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, waylaid and destroyed so many of the persistent foemen that peace reigned for a time. This officer, M. de St. Ange de Belle Rive, who, 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 moldering papers, but' lately disinterred from the dust of at least one century, is the original petition addressed by St. Ange to the proper authorities for the confirmation of his title to cer tain land, not far from the fort, acquired "from a savage named Chicago, who is contented and satisfied with the payment made to him." During his term of office, in ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 221 1 731, the Royal India Company surrendered its charter to the Crown, which thenceforward had the exclusive government of the country. A few years before, the French warfare with the Natchez Indians, that strange tribe of sun-worshipers, 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'Artagui- ette, 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 connec tions, 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 governorship 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, transport ing 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 example will moderate the avidity for gain of some of our officers. " When everything was in readiness, D'Ar- 222 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY taguiette set forth from Fort Chartres with all his force, on a morning in February, making a brave show as the fleet of bateaux and canoes floated down the Mississippi. This first invasion of southern soil by soldiers from Illi nois, comprised nearly all of the garrison of the fort, a company 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 Ohio, the Chevalier Vinsenne joined the expedition, with the garrison from the post on the Wabash, and a number of Indians, includ ing 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 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 dur ance that he might redeem his fame, and many other offi cers, were slain, most of the Indians fled, and D'Artagui ette, Vinsenne, the Jesuit Senat, and young St. Ange, son of the Illinois commandant, 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 ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 223 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 favorite 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 Buissonifere, 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 domin ions, 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, with out loss or glory. Hardly had the Fort Chartres detach ment 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 wan dered through the woods for days, living on herbs, until, sore spent and ready to die, she chanced to reach an ele vation from which she caught a glimpse of the flag float- 224 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY ing over Fort Chartres, and, with new hope and strength, struggled onward, and came safely to the friends who had mourned for her as dead. Among the few original documents relating to this pe riod which are still preserved, is a deed executed at Fort Chartres by Alphonse de La Buissonifere, commandant at the Illinois, and Madame Thdrfese Trudeau, his wife. During his governorship were the halcyon days of the French settlers at the Illinois. The 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 vil lages 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, Langlois, who conveyed it by parcels to the settlers, reserving to himself certain seignorial rights according to the customs of Paris. And Renault, on a portion of his grant abpve the fort, established the village of St. Philippe, 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 provi sions 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 adventure in that distant land, and their names and titles appear' at length in the old records and parish registers. Among them was Benoist St. Clair, captain of a company detached from the marine service, who followed La Buis- sonifere in the chief command, and held it for a year or ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 225 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 commanding for the King, took charge in his stead. The parish register of Ste. Anne, in his time, is extant, and the title page of the volume, then newly opened, bears the following inscription : "Numbered and initialed by us, Principal Secretary of the Marine and Civil Judge at the Illinois, the present book, containing seventy-four leaves, to serve as a Reg ister of the Parish of Ste. Anne, of Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths. Done at Fort Chartres the ist of August, 1743- "Chevalier de Bertel, "De la Loire, "Major Commandant. "Flancour. " 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 con tain 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. Philippe, 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 chil dren, they granted a tract of land for each child. Ren ault made his last conveyance of a lot at St. Philippe by deed, executed in his rooms at Fort Chartres, September 2, 1740, and, three years later, returned to Paris, after a residence in the Illinois country of nearly a quarter of 226 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY a century. In the same season, Governor Bienville went to France, finally resigning his trust to the Marquis de Vaudreuil. And here a word may be spoken of the first royal Governor of the province, of which Illinois was a part, and in whose administration Fort Chartres was con structed. Le Moyne de Bienville, a Canadian bom, 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 representative 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 difficult part to play. France and England were at war, because Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa could not agree, and this dis turbed the settlements at the Illinois. Some English men, found on the Mississippi, were arrested as spies, and confined in the dungeon at Fort Chartres, and whis pers 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. ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 227 The old-time Indian allies were won over by the British, 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 epistle he addressed to his superior officers, assur ing them that it was only by great good fortune that he could hold his post, which must be reenforced and strengthened. The abandonment of the fort was at one time contemplated. This plan, however, was given up when the Marquis de Galissonibre, Governor-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 productiveness, and its connection with Canada and Louisiana must be maintained. ' ' The peace of Aix la Chapelle came in time to give both parties a breathing space, in which to prepare for the sterner con test soon to follow. Chevalier de Bertel, knowing that his wise counsels had borne fruit, transferred the com mand 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 Galissonifere 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 manufacto ries!" 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!" 228 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 skillful guidance of the tirained officer, whose Irish blood, as well as his French commission, made hos tile preparations against Britain a labor of love to him. You 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 across the little lake lying between. The finer stone, with which the gateways and buildings were faced, was brought from beyond the Mississippi. A million of crowns seemed to the King of France but a reasonable expense for this work of recon struction, 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, surprised the party of Jumon- ville 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 Wachenston," as the French dispatches call him, at Fort Necessity, which he surrendered on the 4th of July. The capture of this ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 229 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 pro visions from there, came up with a bateau 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 Alleghenies with his men, and captured Fort Granville, on the Juniata. The Marquis de Montcalm, writing to the Minister of War, thus pleas antly 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 Gran ville, sixty miles from Philadelphia." The next year, Aubry, another of the Fort Chartres captains, was sent by Makarty, with 400 men, to reenforce Fort du Quesne, then threatened by the British. The morning after his arrival he sallied out and routed Major Grant and his 230 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Highlanders, and, a few days later, surprised the British camp forty-five miles away, captured their horses, and brought his party 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 detach ments from Detroit and Michillimackinac, 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 bul letin 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 sor rowful news came back. Makarty writes to the Gov ernor-General: "The defeat at Niagara has cost me the flower of my men. My garrison 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-General replies, "I strongly recommend you to be on your guard." The surrender, at Montreal, of the Canadas, fol lowed upon the victory on the plains of Abraham, but still the Illinois held out for the King. Neyon de Vil- ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 231 Hers received his well-earned promotion, and assumed command at Fort Chartres. And the fine old soldier, Makarty, doubtless regretting that he had not had the opportunity to test the strength of the goodly stone walls he had builded, sheathed his sword, twirled his mus tache, made his bow, and departed. The village at the fort gate, which, after the rebuild ing, was called New Chartres, had become a well-estab lished community. The title records quaintly illustrate its ways of transacting business, as when, for instance, the royal notary at the Illinois declares that he made a cer tain public sale in the forenoon of Sunday, after the great parochial mass of Ste. Anne of New 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 com mon people, spares neither space nor words in the record of the weddings in the families of the officers at the fort. When Jean la Freil6 de Vidrinne, officer of a company, is married to Elizabeth de Moncharveaux, daughter of Jean Frangois Livernon de Moncharveaux, captain of a company, and when the Monsieur Andr6 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 com mandant, Buchet, the principal writer, Du Barry, a lieu tenant, 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 penman ship 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 232 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY appear in a separate volume, the last in date of the par ish books, entitled ; "Register of the Marriages made in the Parish of Ste. 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 sis ters, 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 neighbor hood, 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 possessions. Hence, like a thunder-clap, came the news that on the loth of February, 1763, Louis XV had ratified the treaty trans ferring them to the British government. The aged Bien ville, 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. With a stroke of his pen the weak King ceded to Great Britain the Canadas, the Illinois, and all the valley of the Missis sippi 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 representative of a company of mer chants engaged in the fur trade. Learning here of the treaty of cession, he at once decided to establish' a new ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 233 post in the territory, west of the Mississippi, supposed to be still French ground. Neyon de Villiers permitted him to store his goods and quarter his company at the fort, and Laclede, after an exploring tour, selected a fine bluff, sixty miles to the northward, for the site of his colony. He foresaw something of its future importance, and, returning to Fort Chartres for 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 shore, so great was their desire to live under their own flag. And terrible was their disappointment when the secret treaty with Spain was made known, by which their faith less King ceded all his dominions beyond the Mississippi to the nation which had so long disputed with France her foothold there. Many more of the unhappy 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 disappointed. 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 Vin- cennes 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 flag of the Bourbons 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. 234 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Major Loftus, ascending the Mississippi with a force to take possession of Fort Chartres, was greeted with a vol ley at the bluffs, still called Loftus' Heights, and retreated to Pensacola. Captain Pittman, seeking to find his way from Mobile in the guise of a trader, gave up the attempt as too hazardous. Captain Morris, sent from Detroit to arrange for the surrender of the fort, was met by Pontiac, who, squatting in front of him, opened the interview by observing that the British were liars, and asked if he had come to lie to them like the rest. Attentions much less courteous were received from indi viduals of the Kickapoo persuasion, and Morris turned back, while still several hundred miles from his destina tion. 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 daybreak shipped him to New Orleans 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 otherwise 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 Wil liam 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 Louisiana laughed at the British failures to reach a fort they claimed to own, and suggested that an important 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 IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 235 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 bat tles which we fought together against the misguided In dians 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 Highlanders, the famous Black Watch, under Captain Stirling, to whom St. Ange formally surrendered the fort on the 2d 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, appointed by M. de Gage, Governor of New York, Commander 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 platform above the gate, with a stair of nineteen stone steps, hav- 236 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY ing a stone balustrade, leading to it ; its walls of stone eighteen feet in height; and its four bastions, each with forty-eight loopholes, 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 guardhouse having two rooms above for the chapel and missionary quarters ; the gov ernment house, 84x32, with 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-eight 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 disputed the claim, but consented to leave those at the Illinois, with a promise of their restoration if his view proved correct. Hence the can non 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 Majesty of France, for that of His Most Catholic Majesty of Spain. They were speedily enrolled in the garrison of St. Louis, of which St. Ange was appointed to the command, to the great satisfaction of his comrades and his old neighbors from the Illinois. One tragedy ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237 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 Sunday 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 forty years after its occur rence, by an aged Frenchman, who was an eye-witness of the combat, to the chronicler who has preserved the account. With the departure 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 Ste. Anne, was written; "The above-mentioned church (parochial of Ste. 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 Prai rie du Rocher, which place continued to be occupied by the French, records the removal of the bodies of the Rev erend Fathers GagUon and Collet, priests of Ste. Anne of New Chartres, from the ruined cemetery near that church on the point in the river, and their burial in the chapel of St. Joseph, at Prairie du Rocher. The Illinois had now become a British colony, "in the days when George the Third was King. ' ' The simple French inhabitants 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 238 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the British occupation the officer in authority at Fort Chartres died suddenly, and there being no one compe tent to succeed him, the wheels of government 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 fidelity, 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 offi cer, commanding escorts through the wilderness, sta tioned at the different posts in the Northwest in turn, and for more than fifty years associated with the Illinois country, which became the home of his family. Bom 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 acceptance of a Spanish commission, were in the interest and for the pro tection 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 settle ment, 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 knew him, friends and foes, countrymen and foreigners, white men and red, alike bear testimony to the uprightness, the steady fortitude, the unshrinking courage, the kindliness and nobility of Louis St. Ange de Belle Rive, the. last French Command ant of the Illinois. ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 239 In December of the year of the surrender. Major Farmer, with a strong detachment of the 34th British Foot, arrived at the fort 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 commanded a regiment under General 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 business, Col. Henry Van Schaick, he says: "This country is far from answering my expectations in any other point than the soil. I have enjoyed but a small share of health since I arrived. I have been much deceived in the description of this country, and am deter mined to quit it as soon as I can. No comfort. Indians eternally about me." During his term of office Captain Philip Pittman, a British engineer officer, the same who had unsuccessfully endeavored to reach the Illinois dur ing Pontiac's rule, visited the fort in pursuance of his orders to examine the British posts in the Mississippi Valley. In his report he says: "The walls of Fort Char tres 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 Colonel Cole was followed by a Colonel Reed, who became so noto rious for his oppression of the people, that he was speedily relieved by John Wilkins, Lieutenant-Colonel of the i8th or Royal Irish, the former commander of Fort Niagara, who reached the Illinois with seven companies of his reg iment from Philadelphia, by way of Pittsburg, in September, 1768. From the correspondence of Ensign 240 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY George Butricke, an officer in this expedition, we learn that, on their way down the Ohio, they' killed so many buffalo iihat they commonly served out one a day to each company, 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." Colo nel 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 first court of common-law jurisdiction west of the Alleghen ies. 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 Kaskaskia, 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 interest ing and valuable to the antiquarian and the historian, have been used by veritable Illinois Vandals to light the fires in a country courthouse, 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, honor ing the noble red man, whom he had known long and well, brought the body to his fort and gave it solemn bur ial. 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 ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 241 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 differ ent 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 sol diers 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 Northwest. 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 Jolliet, of La Salle and Tonty, and their memories would not suffer it to rest contented with suc cessors of another race. So it rose in its might and assailed the fort, and on a stormy night in springtime its resistless flood tore away a bastion, and a part of the river wall. The British in all haste fled across the sub merged meadows, taking refuge on the hills above Kas kaskia; and from the year 1772 Fort Chartres was never occupied again. The capricious Mississippi, as if satisfied with this rec ognition 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, 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 of those passing upon the river, and the high road from Cahokia to Kaskaskia, which at first ran 242 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY between the fort and the river, was soon after located at the foot of the bluffs, three miles to the eastward. These changes, which left the fort completely isolated and hid den, together with the accounts of the British evacuation, gave rise to the reports of its total destruction by the river. Parkman, alluding to it as it was in 1 764, 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 Northwest, 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 build ings, but otherwise the solitude which claimed for its own the once busy fortress remained unbroken for many a year to come. Congress, in 1788, reserved to our gov ernment a tract of land One mile square, on the Missis sippi, extending as far above as below Fort Chartres, including the said fort, the buildings, and improvements adjoining the same. It would have been well to provide for the preservation 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 adventurous trav eler found his way thither. Quaint old Governor Rey nolds, who saw it in 1802, says: "It is an object of ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 243 antiquarian curiosity. The trees, undergrowth, and brush are mixed and interwoven with the old walls. It presented the most striking 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 growing in the houses which once contained the elegant and accom plished French officers and soldiers." And then, with a hazy idea of rivaling the prophecy of the lion and the lamb, he adds: "Cannon, snakes and bats were sleeping together in peace in and around this fort. ' ' Major Stod dard, of the United States Engineers, who took possession of upper Louisiana for our government under the treaty of cession in 1804, visited Fort Chartres and thus describes it: "Its figure is quadrilateral with four bastions, the whole of limestone, well cemented. The walls 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 inhabi tants have taken away great quantities of material to adorn their own buildings." Brackenridge, United States 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, 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 trtmnions broken off. In visiting the various parts we started a flock of wild turkeys, which had concealed themselves in this hiding place. I remarked a kind of enclosure near, which, according to 244 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY tradition, was fitted up by the officers as a kind of arbor where they could sit and converse in the heat of the day." In 1820 Beck, the publisher of a Gazetteer of Illi nois and Missouri, made a careful survey of the remains of the fort. He speaks of it then as a splendid ruin, "the walls in some places perfect, the buildings in ruins, except the magazine, and in the hall of one of the houses an oak growing, eighteen inches in diameter." Hall, the author of a book entitled "Romance of the West, " was at Fort Chartres in 1829. "Although the spot was familiar to my companion," he says, "it was with some difficulty that we found the ruins, which are covered with a vigor, ous 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 buildings were all razed to the ground, but the lines of the foundations could be easily traced. A large vaulted powder-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, no 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 process of demolition hastened by the increasing number of those who resorted there for building mate rial. Governor Reynolds came again in 1854, and found "Fort Chartres a pile of moldering ruins, and the walls torn away almost even with the surface. ' ' To one visiting the site but a year ago, the excursion ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 245 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 inter vene is as monotonous as a ride anywhere in Illinois may properly be. But when you reach the bluff, far overlook ing 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 Mississippi, a century since, and forgotten ; or as if a stratum of the early French settlements at the Illinois, a hundred years 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 nine teenth 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 246 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 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 work manship, made of solid silver, and a tabernacle of inlaid wood, all supposed to have belonged to the church of Ste. Anne of Fort Chartres. He had 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 discolored papers, fast going to decay, which he had found in the house when he took possession, but of which he knew little. Almost the first inspection revealed a marriage register of the church of Ste. Anne, with the autographs of Makarty and De Villiers, and a 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 prom inent feature of the old village plats and ancient maps of the region. Now, not even a path leads to it. The sim ple French people along the way could not believe that any one could really wish to visit the old fort, and with ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 247 kindly earnestness insisted that the intended destination must be the river landin'g, 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. Entering 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 scat tered 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 d6bris, under which, perhaps, the old can non 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 Britain, gazing from the cut-stone platform above the arch ; the little knoll in front where Boisbriant's land grant to himself commenced, the level 248 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY plateau dotted with clumps of forest trees, the gleam of the little lake in the lowland, add 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 Ste: 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. Philippe 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 surround ings and of the fort itself, it was an exceeding pleasure to find the old magazine, still almost complete, and bear ing 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 southeastern 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. Within, 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 ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 249 small apertures for light and air, curiously protected against injury from without. Here one may invoke the shades of Makarty, and De Villiers, and St. Ange, and easily bring back the past. For, as it is to-day, it has seen them all, as they went to and fro before it, or exam ined 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 gateway ; and past its moss-grown walls the bridal pro cessions of Madeleine Loisel and Elizabeth Montchar- veaux, and the other fair ladies from the fort, have gone to the little church of Ste. Anne. And gazing at it in such a mood, until all about was 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 Span ish march, the valiant leaders setting forth from its walls on distant expeditions against savage or civilized foe, the colonists flocking to its storehouse or council chamber, the dusky warriors thronging its enclosure with Chicago or Pontiac at their head, the gathering there of those who 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 unreason able 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 Port Chartres. 250 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY II. Col. John Todd's Record-Book The early records of "The Illinois," as the region including 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 Virginia, would be of exceeding value to him who shall properly write the history of Illinois. A large collection of such papers remained at Kaskaskia, once the capital, successively, of Province, 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 place, several boxes filled with these papers were then removed, and stood for years in the hall of its courthouse, until, by neglect or wanton misuse, their con tents were lost or destroyed. One, however, of these mementoes of the past, and not the least in worth among them, was recently found in an office of this courthouse, 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 the Chicago Historical Society. This is the original Record or Minute-Book of Col. John Todd, the first civil governor of the Illinois country. When George Rogers Clark had captured the British posts beyond the Ohio, under the authority of Virginia, that State was quick to act for the preservation of the rights thus acquired. Kaskaskia was taken on the 4th of July, 1778; the first surrender of Vincennes, or St. Vin cent, as it was sometimes called, occurred soon after; and in October, of the same year, the General Assembly of Virginia passed "An Act for establishing the County of ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 251 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 pro viding a suitable government for the immense territory thus added to its domain. The act recites the successful expedition of the Virginia militiamen 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 protected, 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 westem 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 Northwest Territory, and now divided into five States, then com posed 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 inhab itants were to be respected, and all civil officers were to be chosen by a majority of the inhabitants of the respec tive districts. The County- Lieutenant had power to pardon all offenders, except for murder or treason. The Governor was authorized to levy five hundred men to garrison and protect the county, and keep up communi cations 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. 252 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY . 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 or at the capital. Bom in Pennsylvania, and educated in Vir ginia, he had practiced law in the latter colony for sev eral 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 Kentucky, and he was very prominent in the counsels of its House of Delegates or Representatives, the first legislative body organized west of the Alleghenies. 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 m 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 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 the 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 repre sentatives of Kentucky in the legislature of Virginia, and went to the capital to fulfill this duty. The following year he accompanied George Rogers Clark in his expe- ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 253 dition to the Illinois, and was the first man to enter Fort Gage, at Kaskaskia, when it was taken from the British, 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 appoint County-Lieutenant of Illinois. At Williamsburg, then the capital of the Old Dominion, in the former man sion 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 appointed Coun ty-Lieutenant, or Commandant, there, and refers him to the law for the general tenor of his conduct. It contin ues 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 affairs of that remote coun try. The present crisis, 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 attachments 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 affections of the French and Indians. " . . . "Although great reliance is placed on your prudence in managing 254 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the people you are to reside among, 5'et considering you as unacquainted in some degree with their genius, usages, and manners, as well as 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." His relations to the military, under Colonel Clark, are next considered ; the necessity of cooperation with and aid to them, in defence against, or attack upon, hostile British and Indians, summing up with the general direc tion, to consider himself "at the head of the civil depart ment, and as such, having the command 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 Com monwealth, and that of slavery, to which the Illinois was destined, and that they are to have a free and equal rep resentation, 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 pun ish every attempt to violate the property of the Indians, particularly in their land. To the Spanish commandant, near Kaskaskia, he is to tender friendship 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 mat ters given him in charge "are singular in their nature and weighty in their consequences to the people imme diately concerned, and to the whole State. They require ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 255 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 affairs to right the wrongs of the helpless wife and children of his country's enemj'. 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 suffer 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 sup port them. ' ' And the letter concludes with a direction to send an express once in three months, bringing a general account of affairs, and with the mention of a contem plated plan for the appointment 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 military to the civil arm of the government, establishment of Republican institutions, administration of equal justice to all, an alli ance with friendly neighbors, encouragement of trade, and the exertion by the commandant of unwearied abil ity, diligence, and zeal, in behalf of his people ; such are the principal heads of this able and, for its time, extraor dinary 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 com petent 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 independ ence resting upon his shoulders, proscribed as a traitor 256 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 foun dations of another Commonwealth beyond the Ohio. This book, made precious by his pen, was entrusted to a faithful 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 February 24, 1779, 3.nd 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 Col. George Rogers Clark, who 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 Todd, appointed by Government for that purpose. I was anx ious for his arrival, and happy in his appointment, as the greatest intimacy and friendship subsisted between us; and on the day 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 of Republican institutions to a land and a people but just freed from the rule of a foreign king. And with him he brought this very book containing in the memorable let ter inscribed in its pages his own credentials, as well as ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 257 the best evidence these new citizens could have that they were subjects no longer. This was no ordinary arrival at the goodly French village of Kaskaskia. In the eighty years of its existence it had seen explorers and mission aries, priests and soldiers, famous travelers and men of high degree, come and go, but never before one sent to administer the laws of a peoples' government for the ben efit of the governed. We may imagine its inhabitants gathered at the river side to watch the slow approach of a heavy boat, flying 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, per chance, this book under his arm), they are ready to ren der him the homage exacted by royal governors, and here and there a voice even cries: "Vive le Roi." And, as they are reminded that they are under a free government now, and learn that the newcomer is their own County- Lieutenant, on their way back to the village, we may hear Frangois and Baptiste say to one another, "Who is it that rules over us now?" "What is this free gov ernment 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 peace ful, might mean more than appeared. Perhaps the very last solution of the mystery which occurred to them was 258 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 author ized him to appoint and commission deputy-commandants and militia officers, 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 Kaskaskia, dated May 14, 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 Lieut "Charles Danee, 2 Lieut. "Batiste Janis, Ensign." "17th May, sent a Com. of Command of Prairie du Rocher, and Capt. of the Militia to Jean B. Barbeau. "The District of Kohokia: "Frangois Trotter, Command't. "Tourangeau, Capt. i. "Beaulieu, Capt. 2. "Guradin, Lieut. "P. Marthir, Lieut. "Sanfaron, Ensign. "Comns. dated 14th May, 1779, 3d year of the Com monwealth. " This was the earliest organization of a militia force ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 259 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 signifi cance, 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, "«j elected by the people." 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 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 exercise of the rights of citizens of a republic, and the first exercise of such rights within the territory of Illinois. 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 appoint ments. Richard Winston, Deputy- Commandant at Kas kaskia, filled also the office of Sheriff of that district, and Jean B. Barbeau found no inconsistency between hi& 26o CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY duties as Deputy-Commandant at Prdirie 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, and at Cahokia, five of the seven judges held officers' commissions. This state of things may have been occa sioned 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 Iteft no descendants. No other of the name appears in any sub sequent 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 appointments 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 con troversy, which seem never to have been filled. Having organized the military and judicial depart- ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 261 ments 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 appfears a License for Trade, permitting "Richard M'Carthy, Gentleman, to traffick and merchandise, 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 Commonwealth. ' ' 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 sth June, 1779, in the 3d year of the Commonwealth. The financial question was the next to claim the atten tion of the busy County-Lieutenant, and he grappled with it sturdily. It was now the fourth year of the Rev olutionary 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 evil, and, at any rate, devised a plan for its correction. Within a month of his arrival at Kaskaskia, on the nth of June, 1779, I16 addressed a letter to the court of Kaskaskia, which appears on page 12 of his Record-Book. He informs it that "the only method America has to support the present just war is by her credit, which credit con sists of her bills emitted from the different 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 262 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY it, arises the complaint 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 requests the concurrence 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, continental 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 retire ment of a portion of that in circulation, and a kind of redemption of the public promises to pay. On page 14 is set forth at length, "Plan for borrowing 33,333^ dol lars 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 com modity 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 the Common wealth, shall be laid off on the bank of the Mississippi in the district of Cahokia, 1,000 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 two years, a title to his proportion of the land in said fund, or the sum originally advanced in gold and silver, with 5 per cent interest per annum. It is pmdently provided that the State shall ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 263 have the option of giving land or money, and to further protect a paternal government against any undue advan tage being taken of it by its sons, notice is given that a deduction shall be made for all money hereafter discov ered to be counterfeited. Then follow the commence ment 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, Com mander-in-Chief of the County of Illinois, in the penalty of $33,333^ for the safe keeping of the money, is next recorded under date of June 14, 1779. On the same date this energetic "Commander-in- Chief" addresses himself to the subject of the land under his jurisdiction, and the title thereto. He issues a proc lamation strictly enjoining all persons from making any new settlements on the fiat lands within one league of the Rivers Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, and Wabash, except in the manner and form of settlements as heretofore made by the French inhabitants; and every inhabitant is required to lay before the persons appointed in each dis trict for that purpose a memorandum of his or her land with their vouchers for the same. Warning is given that the number of adventurers who will soon run over this country, renders the above method necessary, as well to ascertain the vacant land as to guard against tres passes 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 264 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 i8 of his Record-Book is inscribed an entry, which reads very strangely at the present day. It is verbatim 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 con demned by the Court of Kaskaskia, after having made honorable Filie 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 execu tion 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 Commonwealth. " This is a grim record, and reveals a dark chapter in the early history of Illinois. It is not surprising that some ©ne has drawn heavy lines across it as if to efface it for ever. It is startling to reflect that barely one hundred years ago, within the territory now composing our State, a court of law deliberately sentenced a human being to be burned alive ! It is possible that the attempted can cellation 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 exists. But 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 vic tim, and the scattering of the ashes, all seem to indicate ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 265 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 upper hand of reason, and several poor African slaves were immolated at the shrine of ignorance for this imag inary offense. An African negro, called Moreau, was hung for this crime on a tree not far southeast of Caho kia. 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 errone ously 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 i5> 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. They 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."J. T." 366 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Nicholas Janis was, as we have seen. Captain of the first Company of Militia at Kaskaskia, and the Ca!ptain Placey mentioned is, undoubtedly, Joseph Duplessis, Cap tain of the Second Company at the same place. Kohos. was the familiar abbreviation of Cahokia, and the Mr. La Croix, who was to be consulted, must have been J. B. La 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 ques tioned, and give to old Cahokia the sad distinction of having been a western Salem. The different subjects thus far included in this interest ing Record-Book, were all dealt with by Todd between May 14 and June 15, 1779. He certainly was not idle, nor did he lack for important business during the first month of his administration. His duties appear then to have called him away from Kaskaskia, probably to Vin cennes, 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 suffi ciently interesting to be quoted entire. "Sir: During my absence the command will devolve upon you as commander of Kaskaskia. — If Colo. Clark .should want anything 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 prop erty — 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 ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 267 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 let ter, 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 pre vented 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 Colonel 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 27, 1779, the reso lutions of Congress concerning the issues of the conti nental money, dated May 20, 1777, and April 11, 1778, engaged his attention. And he put forth a short proc lamation in French 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 conti nental treasury, the money must sink on their hands, and that the vouchers must be certified by himself or some deputy-commandant of this county, and have refer ence to the bundle of money numbered and sealed. Whether this congressional plan superseded 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 a68 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 effective. On page 2 1 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 place of holding court within jrr District, any adjournment to the contrary notwithstanding. Provided that no suitor or party be compeled to answear any pro cess upon said Day unless properly summoned by the Clark and Sheriff. Given under my hand and seal at Kaskaskia. "John Todd." He was tender of the rights of parties, but proposed that the judges should attend to their work. Doubtless, Gabriel and his associates 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. Pleasure first and busi ness 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 unpre cedented hardship. But all the same, we may be very sure that they did "hold and constitute a court on Satter- ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 269 day the 2 ist of July, any adjournment to the contrary notwithstanding. " Mindful of Governor Henry's advice to cultivate a con nection with the Spanish commandant, near Kaskaskia, Commandant Todd sends a letter, in French, on August 9, 1779, to Monsieur Cartabonne, commanding at Ste. Gen evieve, and a letter to the same effect to Monsieur Leyba, at St. Louis. In these letters he proposes an arrange ment concerning the commerce of the Illinois country, for the mutual advantage of their respective govern ments. 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 provid ing supplies for the troops, which were soon expected from Virginia. And on August nth Todd enters, on page 22 of his book, a brief address, in which the inhab itants of Kaskaskia are, for the last time, invited to con tract with the persons appointed for provision, especially "Flower," for the troops who will shortly arrive. He says, "I hope they will use properly the Indulgence of a mild Government. If I shall be obliged to give the mili tary permission to press It will be a disadvantage, and what ought more to influence Freemen, it will be a dis honor to the people." It is evident that Baptiste, Frangois, and the rest, while willing enough to be "Free men, ' ' on their money still preferred a king. And the 270 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 machinery 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 Virginia, 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 stringent measures. And on August 2 2d he issued another proclamation laying an embargo upon the exportation of any provisions- whatsoever, by land or water, for sixty days, unless he has assurances before that time that a sufficient stock is laid up for the troops, or sufficient security is given to the contractors for its delivery when required. And the offender is to be sub jected to imprisonment for one month and to forfeit the value of such exported provision. This he records in Eng lish and in French, apparently having special reference to those of the latter race. And seemingly becoming weary of the delay of the people as to the surrender of the con tinental money, he gives notice, in both languages, that after August 23, 1779, no more certificates will be granted at Kaskaskia to persons producing the called-in emis sions. It does not appear whether this delay was due to the fact that the prudent French settlers really had no ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 271 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 7, 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 commanding 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, ^ 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 persons 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, accord ingly, John Todd, under his hand and seal, at Kaskaskia, proclaimed that after publicly calling any person or per sons to show any claim they might have to said lot, and no one appearing to claim the same as against the Com monwealth of Virginia, he declares and adjudges the said lot to belong to the said Commonwealth, and that all persons, whatsoever, be thenceforth debarred and pre cluded 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 Commis sioners appointed by Congress to examine the claims of persons claiming lands in the district of Kaskaskia, from 272 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY which it appears that many of the ancient evidences of title had been deliberately destroyed in the interest of speculators claiming under forged deeds or perjured tes timony. Som^ 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 serv ice on that expedition. He is described as a jovial Irish man, 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 hand writing. We know that he continued to hold his position as Commandant and County-Lieutenant at the Illinios for some three years more, devoting most of his 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 1 780 he was elected a delegate from the county of Kentucky to the Legislature of Vir ginia, and was married while attending its session of that year. In the fall he returned to Kentucky, and, having established his bride in the fort at Lexington, resumed his journey to Illinois. It is worthy of remark that the foundation of Transylvania University, the first institu- ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 273 tion 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 Jefferson, and in the summer of 1 781, Governor Thomas Jefferson appointed Todd, Col onel 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 Lexing ton 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 i8th of August, 1782, the enemy was overtaken, and the headlong 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 pris oners. And among the heroes who laid down their lives that day was Colonel John Todd. He was shot through the body while gallantly 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 274 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Todd's lifetime, 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 Govern ment, in favor of Monsieur Beauregarde, to the amount of $30,000, dated at St. Louis, September 14, 1779, the value thereof having, apparently, been received, one- third in paper currency and two-thirds in peltries. The account is credited with payments made for supplies for the garrison at Kaskaskia, purchased by Col. John Mont gomery, and for the garrison at Cahokia, purchased by Captain M'Carthy, probably that Richard M'Carthy, gentleman, to whom a "License for Trade" was granted, as we have seen. The principal item in these supplies seems to have been a beverage called "Taffia," which was laid in by the hogshead. On page. 2 8 is an oath of allegiance taken by one James Moore, at Kaskaskia, to the United States of America, on July 10, 1782, while the States were still under the articles of confederation, showing the form then used. He renounces all fidelity 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 treason ous and all traitorous conspiracies which may come to his knowledge to be formed against said United States, or any one of them. During 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 penmanship, which may indi cate that this individual was rather proud of his tem porary dignity. It reads, "Nota bene. Nous Thimoth6 Demunbrunt Lt. Comdt Par interim &c &c"; and it ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 275 seems as if Thimoth6 could not resist the temptation to see Ijow his name and title would look, and so wrote it out in a fine, 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, which, in pencil underneath, are said to be by Thimoth6 Demjinbrunt Lt. Comdt par interim, and, doubtless, this is correct. They read: "February 1782, Arived a small tribe of the Wabash Indians Imploring the paternal succor of their Father the Bostonians, having their patent from Major Linctot, in consequence I did on Behalf of the Common wealth 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 Dela- wars, Shawanoes and Cherokee nations of Indians Beg ging 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 276 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY 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 administration, and how he came to be super seded by this soft-hearted Thimoth6? 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 Jno. Dodge in despite of the Civil authority disregarding the l^ws, and on the mali- tious alugation of Jno. Williams and Michel Pevanfe as may appear by their deposition. I was confined by tyrannick military force without making any legal aplica- tion to the Civil Magistrates — 30th The Attorney for the State, La Buinieux, presented a petition to the court •against Richard Winston, 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 com mand, he advised him, by letter, by all means to keep up a good understanding with Colonel Clark and the officers, telling him if this was not the case he would be unhappy. We can only conclude that the unlucky Winston had at this time neglected this injunction, as his trouble seems to have been with the military, and in consequence was very unhappy. At all events, he had fallen into disgrace. ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 277 of course had lost his office, and was imprisoned, doubt less 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 up, perhaps 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 "tyrannick 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 5, 1787, to Feb ruary 15, 1788. During 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 Colonel Todd's peremptory order to their predecessors to hold a session, despite their order of adjournment. On October 25, 1787, they settle down to business, at what they call an extraordinary session, to try a case between our good friend Demunbrunt, and one Francis Carbo- neaux. It will be remembered that Thimothd bought the "Taffia' ' he gave to the Indians from Carboneaux, and per haps 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 extraor dinary session whenever it has a case to try (and it had 278 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY two, all told), until January 15, 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 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 plain tiff, and Thomas Green, defendant, and with a few similar minutes its record ceases, and this book comes to an end. Its OYm story is curious enough to entitle it to preser vation, 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 modem trip around the world, in use here in the infancy of the Republic, then cast aside and forgotten for almost a cen tury, and lately rescued by the merest chance from destruction, it has now, by the formal vote of the Board of Commissioners of Randolph County, Illinois, the lineal successors of our first County- Lieutenant, been placed, we hope permanently, in the custody of the Chicago His torical 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 Revo lution, that it is mainly filled with the handiwork of the first County-Lieutenant of the great Northwest Territory, that it contains the record of one of the first courts of common law in Illinois, and above all, that it is a sum mary of the beginning 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 histor ical memorial, worthy to be treasured by the people of Illinois with reverent care for all time to come. ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 279 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 Com monwealth, 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. ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION The region which is now Illinois has its own associa tions with the American Revolution, although so remote from the scene of the outbreak and of many of the events of that great contest. In 1763 the French King, in con sequence of the, victory of Wolfe over Montcalm on the plains of Abraham at Quebec, ceded it to Great Britain. An interregnum .of two years occurred before its new master could reduce it to possession. It was the western ¦ most of the lands to which George the Third claimed title under the French cession, and his representatives made repeated attempts to occupy it.. But these were foiled by the power and address of that sovereign of the wilder ness, the red King Pontiac, who really ruled Illinois from 1763 to 1765. But Pontiac ultimately yielded to the inevitable, and gloomily instructed his dusky hordes to leave the waterways to the west unobstructed. Thereupon a detachment of soldiers under young Cap tain Stirling, who was afterwards to win distinction as a general at Waterloo, came from Pittsburg by the Ohio and the Mississippi to old Fort Chartres. Here, on Octo ber 2, 1765, as the Highlanders presented arms and the British and French commandants exchanged the formal courtesies of the occasion, the white banner of the Bour bons was lowered never to float in Illinois again, and the meteor flag of England streamed in its stead. And thus Illinois, then inhabited only by Frenchmen and by Indians friendly to the Frencli, became a colony of Great Britain less than ten years before the beginning of the Revolution. 2 So ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION 281 Of the population of the new colony at the time it was thus occupied, various estimates have been made. After the cession many of the French inhabitants crossed the Mississippi and settled at what is now St. Louis, believ ing that to be still French territory. Their surprise and grief were great when they learned some time later that the French King had, by a secret treaty made at the time of the cession to England, transferred New Orleans and the whole country west of the Mississippi to Spain. This checked the emigration, for Spain was almost as hateful to Frenchmen as England. In a number of cases houses had been floated across the river, and two of the five flourishing French villages in Illinois, Ste. Anne of Fort Chartres and Prairie du Pont, were almost entirely depop ulated, and have since died out. The other three, Kas kaskia, Prairie du Rocher and Cahokia, still exist, and preserve many quaint French and Canadian ways and customs, but none of them in as prosperous a condition as formerly. At all events, when Illinois came under the English dominion, exclusive of the roaming Indians, its population did not exceed two thousand whites and one thousand negroes, the latter all held in slavery. Eng lish traders soon found their way ^ere, and among the few records we have of that period are the account, books of a post trader at Kaskaskia, which were found at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a few years ago, and throw curious side lights upon the history of Illinois just before the Revolution. The causes from which the Revolution resulted were at work on the seaboard, and, strange to say, produced an effect even among the handful of people in this wild region, so remote and so difficult of access. It was an exceeding surprise to the English officials in Canada and 282 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY the Northwest to find that the Frenchmen in Illinois, so recently relieved from the yoke of an absolute despotism, took as naturally to the new ideas of liberty as if they had been of English birth. These pioneers, living on the far- off frontier (for Illinois was then emphatically the Eng lish frontier in North America, all west of it belonging to another nation), practically said to the authorities of Eng land: "We have become Englishmen and we want the rights of Englishmen. ' ' At such demands the head of the British Colonial Office became irate, and said that he never had heard of such barefaced presumption in his life, that it could not be tolerated and that it must be put down and punished. But these sturdy lUinoisans were not one whit afraid. Every movement along the Atlantic for colonial rights and then for independence met a ready response and sympathy in this part of the interior. And the celerity and accuracy with which such news reached them is really marvelous. Fearless men, taking their lives in their hands, toiled over the Alleghenies, and paddled along the great rivers, by danger haunted pass and shore to bear the news to Illinois of the repeal of the Stamp Act and the successive steps of colonial independ ence, and hearty rejoicings went up from our prairies when these messengers of freedom arrived: In 1 7 7 1 the people of Illinois assembled in a general meeting at Kaskaskia and sent a demand to the English government for institutions like those of Connecticut, and the right to appoint their own governor and all civil magistrates. This shows a remarkable acquaintance with the affairs of the eastern colonies, for Connecticut alone among those of New England had preserved her ancient charter and it was the freest of them aU. This demand was forwarded through General Gage, then in command ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION 283 at Boston. In transmitting it to the home authorities he wrote: "A regular constitutional government for the people of Illinois cannot be suggested. They don't deserve so much attention." "I agree with you," rejoined Lord Hillsborough, then at the head of the Brit ish Colonial Office, "a regular government for that dis trict would be highly improper. ' ' His successor, Lord Dartmouth, took the same view, and described the ideas of the inhabitants of the Illinois district with regard to a civil constitution as very extravagant, and rejected their proposition to take some part in the election of their own rulers as absurd and inadmissible. He therefore prepared and forwarded to Illinois what he called, "A Sketch of Government for Illinois. ' ' It was very sim ple. It provided, in a few paragraphs, that all powers should be vested in officers appointed by the Crown, and none left in the people. Upon receipt of this precious document a storm of wrath arose in the prairie land. The people of Illinois again assembled at Kaskaskia, and under the lead of Daniel Blouin, a liberty-lo-ving Canadian of French descent, forwarded by him as their agent, to Lord Dartmouth, their indignant protest against the pro posed "Sketch of Government," which they rejected, to use their own language, ' 'as oppressive and absurd, much worse than that of any of the French or even of the Spanish colonies." And they boldly added, "Should a government so evidently tyrannical be established, it could be of no long duration. There would exist the necessity of its being abolished." There is something very fine about this action on the part of this little band of men of foreign birth transferred against their will to the British Crown, but determined to have all the rights which that transfer gave them. Though not bom free, 284 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY in the sense that Englishmen were, they at least resolved to die free. So spoke the mfen of Illinois, and so they bore themselves in the days just preceding the Revolu tion. Great honor is due to them and to their leader, Daniel Blouin, a "village Hampden," whose name deserves to be rescued from oblivion. No wonder that some of George Third's friends doubted the power of England to conquer the old colonies, when the new ones spoke the tongue of liberty as if it were their birth right. It is probable that attempts would have been made by the government to bridle the unruly colonists of Illinois but for the more urgent needs for troops elsewhere. At the commencement of the Revolutionary War the British regular garrisons were withdrawn from the Illinois posts to Canada and were enrolled in the forces operating from that country against the colonies. Their places were sup plied by the local militia under the command of British officials appointed by the Governor-General of Canada. Very soon expeditions began to be planned in Hlinois against the English forts to the eastward, regardless of these officials who were striving to maintain the author ity of the Mother Country in the rude, palisaded forts at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, within the present limits of the State of Illinois. The most important of these expedi tions were directed against Fort St. Joseph, which stood on the River St. Joseph within the present limits of Mich igan, and but a mile or so from the city of Niles in that State. It was garrisoned by a small English force, and was considered a very important post, being located on the great east and west Indian trail, not far from the port age to the headwaters of the Kankakee River, the most important tributary of the Illinois. ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION 285 In October, 1777, a jovial Irishman named Tom Brady, and a French half-breed named Hamelin, residing at Cahokia, in the Illinois country, organized a party of six teen volunteers. They crossed the prairies to Fort St. Joseph, surprised it at night, and defeated and paroled the garrison of twenty-one regulars. They captured a quantity of merchandise, burned what they could not carry away, and also fired the buildings and palisades of the little stockade. Returning flushed with victory, they were overtaken at the Calumet River, not far from the present South Chicago, by the foes whom they had just overcome and their Indian allies. The Illinois party, in their turn, were surprised and routed, and twelve were taken prisoners, including the redoubtable Brady. He was sent to Canada, escaped, found his way to Pennsyl vania, and thence by the Ohio River to the Illinois terri tory, where he afterward became sheriff of St. Clair County. His career illustrates the indomitable character of the Illinois office seeker. Warfare, imprisonment, exile, hardships, all were unavailing to prevent Tom Brady from returning to his bailiwick and securing an office. The failure of Brady's undertaking, and the death of some of his comrades and the capture of others, aroused a desire for revenue among the men of Illinois. In the summer of 1778 one Paulette Meillet, a Canadian French man residing near the site of Peoria, of which he was the founder, resolved to undertake the task of obtaining sat isfaction. He led a force of three hundred French and Indians from his place of residence, probably by the Illi nois and Kankakee Rivers, to St. Joseph. Rumors of his coming had caused the garrison to take some steps towards putting the fort in a state of defence, but these were of little effect. The impetuous mob of Meillet 's 286 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY force carried the palisades, though mounted with small cannon, and the English troops surrendered at discretion. They were paroled and sent to Canada, the goods col lected by the Indian traders were seized, and again the torch was applied. The victorious Illinois soldiers returned at their leisure, and no enemy dared to follow their trail. ^ Fort St. Joseph was destined to figure again in Rev olutionary annals and this time in connection with events of greater importance. In January, 1781, Don Francesco Cruvat, the Spanish commandant at Saint Louis, acting undoubtedly under orders from his home government, sent a force to capture this post. It crossed the prairies of Illinois in the dead of winter, captured the fort with out difficulty, and took formal possession of it and of all the region watered by the Illinois River and its tribu taries, in the name of the King of Spain. I have departed from the 'chronological order of Revo lutionary incidents associated with Illinois in order to present those relating to Fort St. Joseph in succession. After the Spaniards left it was occupied as a trading post, and nominally at least, came under the jurisdiction of the United States. It has had a remarkable history, and one hardly realizes that this now quiet spot, within a stone's throw of which we pass and repass on the Michigan Cen tral Railway, has been the scene of so many stirring events. It is the site of a fort founded by the French, ceded to the English, captured by Pontiac, twice taken by our troops in the Revolutionary War and again by Spain, Besides the banner of the great Republic, the flags of three sovereigfns have floated over it, and one may well say four, if the warrior crest of the red King Pontiac is included, as it should be, for he was the kingliest man of ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION 287 them all. One may truly say of him as Rufus Choate said of King Philip of Pokanoket: "I would not wrong his warrior shade by classing him with any of the so- called sovereigns who in his time sat upon the thrones of Europe. ' ' Before Meillet's force had set out from Peoria, another expedition was on its way down the Ohio, which was, perhaps, the first to fly the stars and stripes on western waters. James Willing, a young Philadelphian, whose brother was a partner of the famous Robert Morris, had been engaged in trading at the south when the Revolu tionary War broke out. He came north and formed a plan to wrest the Southwest from the British Crown. He was commissioned a captain in the Continental navy, crossed the Alleghenies to Fort Pitt with a company of marines, enlisted others, built an armed vessel and set sail from Pittsburg in January, 1778. The news of his approach caused positive terror among the English gar risons in the Northwest. He captured traders along the Ohio, skirted the entire southern boundary of what is now the State of Illinois, and at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi turned southward, to the immense relief of the English commandant of the Illinois country. This was M. Philippe Rocheblave, a Frenchman in the British service, and the last royal governor of the Illinois. Jt is very interesting to read his letters, now preserved in the British Museum, written from Kaskaskia to the Gov ernor-General of Canada. He alternates between hope and fear, as different accounts of Willing's progress reach him. He confounds him with George Rogers Clark, of whose expedition to the Illinois some floating rumors had reached him. And when at length he learns that Willing's vessel had really gone southward he utters 288 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY a pious ejaculation of thankfulness for his escape from the "Long Knives," as the Kentuckians were called. But on that very day, and probably soon after the dis patch of the Indian messenger who carried his letter to Canada, he found himself in the power of the leader of the "Long Knives," George Rogers Clark himself. Wil ling had a series of adventures at the south, and was ulti mately taken prisoner by the British near Mobile, and would have been hanged by them but for Washington's prompt notification that he would hang a British officer if Willing was executed. Some of his men found their way Tiorth ward, and joined George Rogers Clark in Illi nois. Willing remained a captive for years on a British prison ship, and was finally exchanged, broken in health and spirits, and reached his home, where he died soon after. He sleeps with his kindred in the vaults of an old church in Philadelphia. The great event of the history of Illinois in the Revo lution has been so often told as to need but brief mention here. George Rogers Clark's splendid campaign has become a household word. This young Virginian, with a handful of men, over great obstacles and through great privations, captured the British garrisons at Kaskaskia in what is now Illinois, and at Vincennes, in what is now Indiana. In his wonderful march to the latter place across the flooded prairies and the swollen streams of southern Illinois, he was accompanied by battalions com posed of the young Frenchmen of Illinois, who quitted themselves like men. The whole region now comprised in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, ' Illinois and Wisconsin was made a single county of Virginia, under the name of Illinois, and governed by officials appointed by the Old Dominion. Clark's campaign and Virginia's ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION 289 subsequent occupancy of the country turned the scale in our favor at the negotiation of the Treaty of 1783, when Spain strove hard to acquire all of this region by virtue of her expedition to St. Joseph, and France, our ally, but already jealous of the new nation, was quite willing that she should have it. George Rogers Clark, by deeds mainly occurring on the soil of Illinois, added to oiir country a territory of more than two-thirds of the area of ¦the original thirteen colonies. Clark's force was not sufficient for him to guard the whole of the conquered territory, and hence a large part of the Illinois region was still open to raids from the enemy. Major De Peyster was the British commandant at Mackinac. Under his orders an invading expedition was sent in the summer of 1779 to attack the trading post of Le P^, which was situated within the present limits of Peoria, Illinois. It had been an important fur-trading sta tion under the French regime, and it was still maintained by traders of that race, who were friendly to the Amer icans and rejoiced in Clark's conquest. They had built a stockade which De Peyster feared might be of advantage to the Virginian troops in case they moved further north ward, and therefore wished to destroy. The commander of the expedition was Charles Gautier de' Verville, a Canadian in the British service, who was employed dur ing the Revolution in recruiting Indian allies for the Brit ish in the Northwest. His soldiers were almost entirely Indians from various tribes. He undoubtedly came from Mackinac along the west coast of Lake Michigan, and by the lonely little Chicago River and the portage to the Des Plaines River, and thence down the Illinois. Many times this route had been followed by parties of Indians and of Frenchmen in the early days of the Northwest, 290 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY but this is the first time it appears in Revolutionary his tory. De Verville 's approach was so stealthy and so sudden that the startled French traders had no time to prepare a defence, and their stockade was taken and burned. But fear of retribution from Clark and his ' ' Long Knives' ' led De Verville to beat a hasty retreat, and he apparently returned as he came by the site of Chi cago, across which trooped these natives allies of Great Britain in their war paint, adorned with the spoils of Le Pe. A more formidable expedition menaced the Illinois settlements in the following year. Spain had declared war against Great Britain,, which prepared to attack the Spanish posts on the Mississippi, with a fleet and army to ascend that river. The British officers in the West were directed to cooperate with the expedition to descend the river. A motley horde of Indians was assembled at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and went down the Mississippi to St. Louis, where they attacked the outskirts of the town and slew a dozen or more peo ple, but were soon driven away. One of their bands crossed the river and did some mischief at Cahokia in Illinois, but was beaten off, and the expedition divided itself into various bands and fled northward, some return ing by the Chicago portage. The result might have been different had the traders awaited the arrival of Charles de Longlade, a famous partisan of Green Bay, who was leading a band of Indians by the way of the Chicago and Illinois Rivers to join them. But he failed to cooperate, and the whole affair amounted to nothing. Old Jean Baptiste Pointe au Sable, the negro trader then living alone at the Chicago River, saw them come and go, but was protected by his British commission, and suffered nothing at their hands. ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION 291 Another Revolutionary expedition in Illinois in behalf of the American cause was destined to an equally useless but more mournful conclusion. It is a sad and strange tale, and in some respects remains an unsolved mystery to students of Illinois history to this day. Early in the Revolutionary War a French officer named La Balme landed at Boston, apparently intending to offer his serv ices to the colonial cause. His journal, which has been preserved, shows that he was a man of refinement and education, and inspired with an ardent love of liberty. Why he did not enter the Continental army is not known, nor whether he ever obtained any commission or author ity from our government. But shortly after Clark's con quest of the Northwest La Balme appeared in Illinois with arms and money, and began recruiting a force to attack the British post at Detroit. He visited the French villages, and his appearance and earnest words created a deep impression. One of Clark's officers who saw him there could not learn by what authority he was acting, but writes that "the people run after him as if he were the very Masiah himself." With companies of young men from Kaskaskia and Cahokia he crossed Illinois to the old French village of Vincennes, where he enrolled other companies. A fragment of a song still exists which purports to have been sung by the girls of the vil lage in praise of those young Frenchmen who were going to march against the forces of "perfidious Albion," and doubtless was a patent aid to La Balme's recruiting. He left Vincennes with a well-equipped little force, ascended the Wabash, and attacked an English trading post near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and captured it with its stores. Flushed with success and sated with plunder. La Balme's troops kept little guard over their 292 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY night encampment. The enraged traders, summoning. their Indian friends, fell upon the unsuspecting French men before morning, slew La Balme, utterly routed his forces, and recaptured their goods. Some prisoners, including La Balme's adjutant, were sent to Canada,, and in the Canadian archives to-day are preserved La Balme's 'journal and French commissions, but no papers which throw any further light upon this affair. Had he succeeded in capturing Detroit, La Balme's name might have gone down in history with that of George Rogers Clark, whose dearest wish after the conquest of Illinois was the taking of that place. As it is poor La Balme is but a name and nothing more. Manuscripts and official documents and traditions pre serve the accounts of other expeditions less important or less striking, of forays and skirmishes, of interesting transactions, all associated with Illinois in the Revolu tion. But enough has been related to show that her peo ple had a part in the great conflict and performed deeds of which their successors upon Illinois soil have a right to be proud. THE MARCH OF THE SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS We do not realize at the present time that the early inhabitants of what is now Illinois had the Spaniard for a neighbor. Nor that the territory of ten free and sov ereign States of our Union lying beyond the Mississippi was once as hopelessly doomed to civil and ecclesiastical tyranny as any province of Old Spain. And His Most Catholic Majesty not only owned all the country west of what some early voyagers finely call "the Eternal River, ' ' ^ but soon laid claim to the exclusive control of its waters, and would not suffer the Mississippi to go unvexed to the sea. This is vividly illustrated by a single incident occurring in the latter part of the last century. Andrew EUicott, boundary commissioner on behalf of the United States of America, after encamping at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, embarked upon the latter stream, and writes as follows in his journal of the voyage : ' ' Left the shore at daylight, and proceeded down the river to the station of one of the Spanish gallies; the master behaved very politely, but informed us that it would be proper to remain at his sta tion till the next morning. (The next morning) we pro ceeded down to New Madrid . . . the commandant requested me to continue there two or three days. " ^ It was as if a representative of our government, leaving Cairo in Illinois to-day to visit New Orleans, should bq. ¦halted by a foreign armed vessel, taken into custody for" 293 294 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY several days, and only suffered to proceed at the will of a petty officer of another nation. Such was the situation during the American Revolution, after Spain had been induced by France in i77<9 to take part in the war against Great Britain. She soon made herself mistress of the English posts at Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile, and on these conquests based a claim to the region east of the Mississippi, at least as far as the River Ohio, and at the period now in question was preparing to strengthen her pretensions and to include in them what we know as the Northwest. The Spanish capital of what was afterwards known as Upper Louisiana was the little village of St. Louis, founded as a trading post by the French in 1764. The Spaniards enclosed it with a stockade and some stone fortifications, by reason of the attack made upon the place in 1780 by the English and Indians from Michilli mackinac' Its governor in the year of grace 1781 was Don Francesco Cruvat, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel of Infantry, Captain in the Regiment of Louisiana, Com mander and Lieutenant-Governor of the western part and districts of the Illinois, for His Most Catholic Majesty the King of Spain. And in the month of January of that year, under Don Francesco's auspices, and from his garri son, went forth the expedition whose fortunes we are to follo\y. It was the second day of the month when the dwellers on the few streets near the river bank which comprised the village of St. Louis might have been seen flocking to the long stone house, constructed by Pierre Laclede, the founder of the place, and then the official residence of the Spanish lieutenant-governor.* They came together to witness the departure of a force which all perhaps felt to be charged with an important mission, MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 295 though few knew its object. On the wide stone steps which led up from the street to the main floor of the government house, we may suppose that the Governor himself had taken his stand to give his last instructions and farewells to the chiefs of the expedition. There was Don Eugenio Pourr6, the commander, ranking as Captain in the Spanish line, the one man perhaps, besides the Governor who knew the real purpose of the undertaking ; near him was Don Carlos Tayon, the second in com mand, and a lieutenant in the royal service, perchance talking with a very important member of the party, Don Luis Chevalier, "a man well versed in the language of the Indians. ' ' And a little apart, regarding the white men with stolid indifference, were two sachems of the red race, whose names, as nearly as the Spanish account has preserved them, were Eleturno and Naquigen.^ The latter is probably identical with Nakioun, a chief of the Ottawa tribe bordering on Lake Michigan, with whom George Rogers Clark held negotiations after his capture of Kaskaskia.^ "Great Chiefs," they are called in the old chronicle, and great perhaps in some respects they were. At all events the journey on which they were going and for which they were specially selected required a combination of nerve, endurance and skill which amounted to greatness. In the snow of the village street, in front of the gov ernment building, were drawn up the little band whose leaders we have mentioned. There were sixty-five mili tia men, of whom thirty are said to have been Spaniards,' and the remainder probably of French birth or descent, but all of them sworn subjects of the Spanish sovereign, and fired with zeal to strike a blow against the nation now a foe of both France and Spain. Here and there 296 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY among them might have been a grizzled veteran who had fought for the King of Spain in other countries, and had come to this new land with Reilly, the subjugator of New Orleans, or as one of the bodyguard of Don Francesco, or one of his predecessors. Lounging near them were their allies, a band of sixty Indians, said to have been gathered from several tribes, the names of some of which have not fared kindly in the contemporary accounts. The "Sotus," for instance, are perhaps the Sioux, or the Sauks. It is possible that the "Otaguos" are the Out agamis or Foxes, or they may be the Ottawas. But there is something more familiar about the "Putuamis," as the Spaniard hath it, and we can hardly go wrong in identi fying them with our old acquaintances the Pottawatta mies, who doubtless, even then, by diligent attention to the principal business of their lives, were earning for themselves the same regard in which 'their memory is still held in Illinois. But the Governor and the com mander have exchanged their last words and parting salutes, the signal is given, and the long line moving in Indian file, winds down the bank, and across the frozen surface of the mighty river, and disappears in the forests of the Illinois shore. It was no ordinary journey which lay before them. Many marches far more famous have been of less extent and with fewer privations. Four hundred miles or more, by the route they followed, in the depth of winter, they were to toil through the snow and ice, amid forests and over prairies, to reach their destination. They were heavily laden, "each one with provisions for his own sub sistence, and with various merchandise, ' ' says one account of this march, "which was necessary to content in case of need the barbarous nations through whom they were MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 297 obliged to cross. ' ' ' For winter was not the only foe they had to meet. More than one savage tribe, owning at least a nominal allegiance to England, lay in their path. Well was it for them that they had on their staff Don Luis Chevalier, the man well versed in the language of the Indians, who was as useful to this expedition as ever the French savants were to Napoleon's army in Egypt. By seasonable negotiations and precautions, by timely gifts, and Don Luis' successful diplomacy with the ambassadors from the dwellers in the forest and on the prairie, the commander, says the report, "prevented con siderable bodies of Indians from opposing this expedi tion, for it would otherwise have been difficult to have accomplished the taking of the post.' And what and where was this post which was the goal of this strange and toilsome march? In brief, the party sought to cap ture the English fort of St. Joseph, situated within the limits of the present State of Michigan. In 1 761, after the capitulation of Montreal, a detach ment of the 60th British regiment, then called the Royal Americans, relieved the French troops and hoisted the English flag at this point. The post was soon to change masters again. Hardly two years had passed when the storm evoked by the mighty spirit of Pontiac burst all unexpectedly upon the young English ensign, Schlosser, and his command of fourteen men, who composed the garrison of Fort St. Joseph ; and in less than two min utes, as he declares, the fort was plundered, eleven men were killed, and the commander and three surviving sol diers were prisoners and on their way to Detroit.' This affair occurred eighteen years before the march which is the subject of this pape^ ; and among the French traders then at the fort was one M. Louison Chevalie, as he i& 298 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY named in a letter from an English trader whom he saved from being killed." This probably is the same person whom the Spaniards call Don Luis Chevalier, the diplo mat of this expedition, and if so his former residence at St. Joseph and acquaintance with the Indians there must have been of great service. It was a simple process in those days which transformed Monsieur Louison into Don Luis. The English were again in possession of the fort at the era of our story. It was the headquarters of the Indian traders for the region, and had been harassed before." It was one of the points from which Indian bands were sent forth to harry the American settlers in the valley of the Ohio. The exact site of the fort has been somewhat difficult to ascertain. The historians, from Parkman to quaint old Governor Reynolds, '^ locate it on the site of La Salle's fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph, or at the portage to the Kankakee, where South Bend, Indiana, stands. In the various accounts it skips back and forth with the celerity of a little hill, but Father Charlevoix' narrative of his visit to it in 1 721, ''and the French maps of Danville, 1746, Vaugondy, 1753, Bellin and Le Rouge, 1755, and the English map of E. Bowen, 1763, make it quite cer tain that it was on the south bank of the River St. Joseph, about one mile west of the present town of Niles, Michi gan, and nearly on the same site occupied in this century by the Carey Mission to the Indians. And it was at this time the nearest fortification to St. Louis which flew the English flag. This was the place which the Government of Spain, now vigorously engaged in the war against Great Brit ain, had resolved to capture, and to this end this march across what is now the State of Illinois was made. It MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 299 was not undertaken, like the attempts of the lUinoisans, Brady and Meillet," at the season when the rivers were open, and shore and stream furnished a bountiful supply of food. Nor was it against an unsuspicious enemy, but one doubly warned, and to all expectation on the alert against another attack. Nor could these bold fellows take the most direct route to the point of attack, as pre ceding expeditions had done, for no man might face the Grand Prairie in winter and expect to survive. For shel ter, and for water and fuel as well, they were compelled to follow the courses of the streams and the woods which bordered them, and so they journeyed patiently north eastward, pushing forward in the teeth of the wintry blasts which grew ever colder and more dreary. By day they plodded onward, laden with their heavy burdens, having before them only the ice-covered streams on the one hand and the straggling forests with glimpses of the vast white plains beyond, on the other. Now and then some light-hearted Frenchman from his place in the line breaks into song, or flings a cheery word to a comrade in advance, but for the most part we may imagine them silently and steadily marching on. By night around their campfires on some wooded point above the stream, the song and jest go round, and they exchange reminiscences of war and foray. And the Spaniards tell of their glori ous capture of West Florida, but two years before, when their able leader, Calvez, compelled the English colonel at Baton Rouge to lay down his arms, and surrender that post and Natchez, and stormed Mobile and attacked Pen sacola. And the Frenchmen speak of their fathers' deeds or their own at Braddock's defeat, or their unavailing efforts to save Fort Du Quesne or Niagara. The vireather was unusually severe, and their supplies but scanty. 300 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY "They suffered," says the account, "in so extensive a march, and so rigorous a season, the greatest inconven ience from cold and hunger." (Some years ago, in the valley where a large Indian village once stood, a few miles west of Danville, in Illinois, three cannon balls of European manufacture were found. The place was within range of a small piece of artillery planted on the hills near by, and it has been conjectured that these balls are relics of this expedition." If so, these afford the only clew to its exact line of march.) Not a sign or trace of civilized habitations greeted the eyes of these bold warriors, while they crossed the whole of what is now the State of Illinois, from southwest to northeast, and journeyed on into what is now Indiana (though they knew the whole region as "the Illinois"), and passed the port age from the Kankakee to the St. Joseph, at or near the site of the present town of South Bend. The Indian allies of the English, who must have met them in this part of the journey, were readily persuaded, by presents and promises of a share in the plunder of the fort, to regard the situation from an impartial point of view. They took the question of aiding their English friends under advisement, and kept it there until aid was need less. The short march along the St. Joseph River was quickly made, as the hardy band rushed onward to the fruition of their hopes. The few English traders and soldiers within the stockade, relying upon the vigilance of their savage spies, were totally unprepared for the sudden dash which made them prisoners, and transferred Fort St. Joseph to the King of Spain. He was the sixth sovereign who had borne sway there, if we include in the list La Salle and Pontiac, who in truth were kinglier men than any of the others. It must be admitted that prec- MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 301 edents were in favor of this capture. Fort St. Joseph had been so uniformly taken and plundered whenever any one set out to do it, that capture had become its normal state, and seemingly the object of its existence. An officer of our army once described our stone forts on the sea shore, after the modern improvements in marine artillery, as "places to get out of as soon as the enemy opens fire." The modest little post of St. Joseph antici pated this description, which was singularly applicable to it, by nearly a century. And, before leaving this topic, I cannot forbear to mention that in the Michigan Pioneer Collections it is stated that the United States early in this century determined to build one fort on Lake Michigan, and selected a site on the St. Joseph River. But the Indians in the vicinity, whose lands had not then been ceded to the Government, opposed its erection, and the commissioners thereupon went to Chicago and built Fort Dearborn in 1804. And, says the Michigan Pioneer, "we conclude that had the fort been built at St. Joseph there would have been no Chicago. ' ' " This matter of a fort seems to have been peculiarly disastrous to the St. Joseph country. When it had one it constantly invited capture, and caused the inhabitants to spend more or less of their lives as prisoners of war; and, when it did not have one, it thereby lost the opportunity of becoming the commercial metropolis of the Northwest. I know of no tract of land in all this section which has been so sin gularly unfortunate as the St. Joseph region! But to return to our Spaniards. Don Eugenio Pourr6 took pos session, in the name of his King, of St. Joseph and its dependencies, and of the River of the Illinois. He low ered the English flag, and raised in its place the standard of His Most Catholic Majesty, which was there displayed 302 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY during the whole time of his stay. His men plundered the fort, with system and dispatch, giving the greater part of the provisions and goods to their own Indians and to those who lived at St. Joseph, "as had been offered them," says the Spanish account, "in case they did not oppose the troops," and destroying the remainder, with the magazine and storehouses. They remained but a few days for rest and refreshment, and then commenced their homeward route, which was accomplished without inci dent. Don Eugenio took the English flag, and delivered it on his arrival at St. Louis to' Don Francesco Cruvat, in testimony of the successful execution of his orders; and with this ceremony the adventurous march concluded. We hear nothing more of Don Eugenio Pourr^, but it appears from the American State Papers relative to Pub lic Lands, that his second in command, Don Charles Tayon, who it is stated "had rendered important services to the Spanish Government from the year 1770, and was second in command at the siege of St. Joseph, which he contributed to take, ' ' afterwards received a commission for his merits, and was commandant of St. Charles of Missouri, from the year 1792 to the year 1804, and that ' a tract of land was granted to him in 1800 by Don Charles Dehault Delassus, Spanish Governor of Upper Louisiana. '^'' And now, what was the real object of this remarkable undertaking? It was not a mere foray for the sake of booty, since all that was captured was either destroyed or given to the Indians. Revenge for the attack upon St. Louis in the preceding year by the Mackinac trap pers and savages, would hardly account for an expedition undertaken at such an expense, and at such a time of the year, and which, moreover, was not sent against Macki nac. The true answer must be found in the wily schemes MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 303 of the Spanish Court, and if we change the scene to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean new light will be thrown upon it. Spain had been since June, 1779, at war with Britain, and nominally a friend of the colonies. This was not by reason of any interest in our cause, for the idea of American independence was extremely unwel come to her, but simply for her own purposes. It is now quite certain that France agreed to sacrifice to Spain, as a condition of her declaration of war, the interests of the new republic in the fisheries and in the West. And her successes against the English on the lower Mississippi enabled her to lay the foundation of a claim which ulti mately grew to portentous dimensions. The heart of the Spanish King was set upon the recovery of Gibraltar as a result of the war, and all of his conquests he pro posed to surrender at its conclusion, if need be, to obtain from Great Britain the key to the Mediterranean. Nat urally his ministers desired to make those successes as great as possible. With the aid of France they expected either to accomplish the desired exchange with England or to greatly enlarge the Spanish empire in America, regardless of the claims of the United States. At the outset they seemed to content themselves with the region known as West Florida. John Jay was our representative at Madrid, and on his first arriving there, in March, 1780, the Minister of Foreign Affairs practically conceded that the Mississippi was our boundary, north of the thirty-first parallel, or what is now the southern line of the western portion of the State of Mississippi. But a different tone soon prevailed, the atmosphere became more and more unfriendly to the United States, until it was apparent that nothing less than the entire valley of the Mississippi would satisfy the ambition of the Spaniards. Their con- 304 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY quests of Baton Rouge and Natchez were made to serve as a basis for a title to the whole eastern side of the lower Mississippi, as far as the Ohio. They needed something more, in order that they might include in their demands what was afterwards known as the Northwest Territory, and that was soon supplied. Jay, writing to our Secre tary for Foreign Affairs, Robert R. Livingston, from Madrid under date of April 28, 1782, says: "The Madrid Gazette of the 1 2th of March contains a paragraph of which you ought not to be ignorant. I shall therefore copy it verbatim and add a translation as literal as I can make it. ' ' Then follows the account of the capture of St Joseph, from which I have already quoted. And Jay adds: "When you consider the ostensible object of this expedition, the distance of it, the formalities with which the place, the country and river were taken possession of in the name of His Catholic Majesty, I am persuaded it will not be necessary for me to swell this letter with remarks that would occur to a reader of far less penetra tion than yourself. " " , Let me here call attention, for a moment, to the length of time required to transmit the news of this matter to Spain. We may suppose that Don Eugenio Pourr6 pre sented himself at the government house in St. Louis on his return from St. Joseph, and made his formal report early in March, 1781. The news was then forwarded by bateaux, which slowly drifted down the Mississippi, and in the course of time brought the dispatches to New Orleans. Thence by the next vessel that sailed, these were forwarded to the Commandant-General of the Army of Operations at the Havana, who was also the Governor of Louisiana, and by him they were doubtless sent to Spain in the next man-of-war that crossed the ocean. MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 305 From her port, by post horses, the papers went to the capital, and finally the account was published in the Madrid Gazette of March 12, 1782, a full year after the return of the expedition. The information reached France about the same time, and wise old Benjamin Franklin, our minister to Ver sailles, was quick to see its meaning. He writes to Liv ingston from Passy under date of April 12, 1782: "I see by the newspapers that the Spaniards, having taken a little post called St. Joseph, pretend to have made a conquest of the Illinois country. In what light does this proceeding appear to Congress? While they (the Span iards) decline our proffered friendship, are they to be suffered to encroach on our bounds, and shut us up within the Appalachian Mountains? I begin to fear they have some such project. ' ' ^' The treatment of the Span iards became exceedingly irksome to Jay, and the objects they aimed at were manifest to him. About this time he writes to Franklin: "I am pleased with your idea of pay ing whatever we owe to Spain. Their pride, perhaps, might forbid them to receive the money. But our pride has been so hurt by the littleness of their conduct, that I would in that case be for leaving it at the gate of the palace, and quit the country. At present such a step would not be expedient, though the time will come when prudence, instead of restraining, will urge us to hold no other language or conduct to this court than that of a just, a free, and a brave people, who have nothing to fear from nor to request of them." And to Livingston he writes: "France is ready for a peace, but not Spain. The King's eyes are fixed on Gibraltar. . . . Spain ought not to expect such a price as the Mississippi for acknowledg ing our independence. ' ' " Jay could accomplish nothing 3o6 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY at Madrid, and was soon transferred to Paris, there to negotiate with Franklin and Adams the treaty of peace with Great Britain. Further negotiation with Spain was also transferred to Paris, and was conducted there through Count d'Aranda, the Spanish ambassador at the Court of France. At their first conference the count asked Mr. Jay what our western boundaries were, and was informed that the boundary between us and the Span ish dominions was a line drawn from the head of the Mis sissippi down through the middle thereof to the thirty-first degree of north latitude. The count replied that the westem country had never belonged to, or been claimed as belonging to, the colonies. That it had once belonged to France, had been ceded by her to Britain, of whose dominions it remained a distinct part, until by the conquest of West Florida and certain posts of the Missis sippi and Illinois (alluding here to the capture of St. Joseph) it became vested in Spain.*" He kindly added that he did not mean to dispute about a few acres or miles, but wished to run the boundary line in a manner that would be convenient to the United States, though he never could admit the extent we claimed. Mr. Jay desired him to mark on the map the line he proposed, and to place it as far to the west as his instructions would possibly admit of, which he promised to do. A few days afterward the count sent his map with his proposed line marked in red ink. He ran it from a lake near the con fines of Georgia, but east of the Flint River, to the con fluence of the Kanawha with the Ohio, thence round the western shores of Lakes Erie and Huron, and thence round Lake Michigan to Lake Superior. That is, Spain modestly claimed the territory now comprising the States of Mississippi and Alabama, a large part of Georgia,^ MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 307 nearly the whole of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, por tions of North Carolina and Virginia, a large part of Ohio, and all of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wis consin ; but did not mean to dispute about a few acres or miles ! And the courtly nobleman further assured the ambassador of the young republic that he had nothing more at heart than to fix such a boundary as might be satisfactory to both parties. Mr. Jay and Dr. Franklin at once saw the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Comte de Vergennes, and pointed out the extravagance of this line, Franklin insisting as strenuously as Jay that the Mississippi was the western boundary, and they ought not by any means to part with the right to the free navigation of it. And Franklin, writing to Livingston on August 12, 1782, two days after this interview, says: "Mr. Jay will acquaint you with what passed between him and the Spanish Ambassador respecting the pro posed treaty with Spain. I will only mention that my conjecture of that Court's design to coop us up within the Allegany mountains is now manifested. I hope Con gress will insist on the Mississippi as the boundary, and the free navigation of the river, from which they would entirely exclude us. ' ' Again the Count d'Aranda was very urgent that Mr. Jay should mark on his map some line or other to the eastward of the Mississippi to which they could agree ; but Jay told him frankly that he was bound by the Mis sissippi, and had no authority to cede any territories east of it to His Catholic Majesty. They had thus, as Mr. Jay says, "clearly discovered the views of Spain, and that they were utterly inadmissible. " *' It was not long before he was satisfied that France and Spain were acting together, and wished to induce the American ministers 3o8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY to agree on western limits as a preliminary to negotiation with Great Britain, and to leave the country west of such limits to be adjusted between the French and Spanish ambassadors and the Court of London. The conduct of the representatives of the two countries convinced him that France and Spain intended either to secure the western country to themselves or yield it to Great Britain for an equivalent elsewhere. He divined the essence of the secret arrangement between France and Spain which secured the latter's entry into the war, which was, as Bancroft says, "that Spain was to be left free to exact from the United States the renunciation of every part of the basin of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, of the nav igation of the Mississippi, and all the land between that river and the Alleghenies. ' ' It was a trying moment for our representatives when it became clear to them that our allies were plotting to despoil us ; but they were equal to the occasion ; and by a master stroke, disregarding their instructions, which directed them to consult the French Court throughout, they entered into the secret negotiation with Great Britain which ended in the Treaty of Ver sailles in 1783. Well was it for this fair land of ours that its destinies were in the hands of Jay and Franklin and Adams. Counselors less wise or less firm than they might have yielded to the claims of Spain, certainly when supported by France ; and the whole Northwestern Ter ritory might have become Spanish soil, and the Ohio the western boundary of the United States of America. Spain in her treaty with England did not obtain the cov- -eted prize of Gibraltar, which the English ministers were inclined to yield to her, but the stubbornness of old George III prevented. He had lost the colonies and lost the Floridas, lost his troops and lost his ships, but he MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 309 drew the line at the Rock of Gibraltar, and that he would not lose. The Spaniards were forced to content them selves with the Floridas and Minorca, and they restored the Bahamas, which they had taken during the war. The Spanish minister, in 1784, notified our government that Spain did not recognize the right of Great Britain and the United States to settle boundaries of the country she had conquered before the treaty of peace. The recognition by Great Britain of the boundaries insisted upon by the American commissioners practically settled that question, and France acquiesced at once. The Span ish King, however, could not forgive his minister. Count d'Aranda, who, having full powers to negotiate, renounced in the name of his Sovereign his demands for Gibraltar and accepted the two Floridas, and the count was disgraced. But Spain did not abandon her alleged title to the westem country, and she continued, to claim both banks of the Mississippi, and to plot for the secession of some of the western States, until the treaty of 1795 put an end to her pretensions in that quarter. Spanish grants of land within what is now the State of Illinois, four in one county alone, show how determinedly the Court of Madrid clung to this region, and attempted to exercise sovereignty over it to the last.^" The policy and aims of Spain during the Revolution, and the use which was made of the expedition to St. Jo seph in support of the same, make it reasonably certain that the march of the Spaniards across Illinois was inspired and directed from Madrid, and for a weighty purpose. No official accounts exist in print, but it is believed that in the archives of the Government of Spain evidence upon the point is still preserved, which may one day be given to the world. The Spanish records kept at 3IO CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY St. Louis, which probably contained much relating to the subject, were all removed in 1804, when the cession from Spain to France, and from France to the United States, took place. They were shipped to New Orleans, and to Cuba, and were supposed for a time to have been lost in the Gulf of Mexico. In later years a portion of them were discovered in a forlorn condition in an old ware house in Havana, and it is said that these have since been sent to Spain. The information relating to this march is but meager, and must be gleaned from short and scat tered notices in many works. It is remarkable that it is not even spoken of in a single history of Michigan, gen eral or local, although the Fort of St. Joseph was situated within the limits of that State. It is alluded to in one history of Indiana, '' and in one history of Illinois,** although the latter gives the wrong date, and both dismiss it with brief mention, as of a matter unimportant. And yet it has seemed not altogether a waste of time to recall it from the forgotten past, and bring it into view once more. If only for the romance and picturesqueness of that daring winter journey, it might have a claim to have its story told. Then, too, it gives one of the early touches of life to the broad plains of the West. These had lain there for countless years, which concern us not at all, since no record of man in connection with them in these ages exists. But as soon as the forms of one of these pioneer bands appear upon their surface the prairies are humanized, and our interest in them begins. As a part of the early history of what is now a great State, the passing and repassing over its borders of these warriors bearing the flag of Spain deserves to be chron icled. And as an illustration of that crafty diplomacy which sought to control both the Old World and the MARCH OF SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS 311 New, it may repay study. How little did those light- hearted soldiers and their red allies know that they were but the pawns in the great game whereof the players were at Paris and Madrid I But above all, when we con sider how much was staked upon this expedition, and by what a narrow chance the policy of which it was the con summation failed of changing perhaps the whole future of the Northwest, there may appear to be reason suffi cient for the permanent remembrance of The March of the Spaniards across Illinois. NOTES > The Far West, vol. I, p. 78. "El^icott's Journal, p. 31. ' The Far West, vol. I, p. 123. * O. W. Collet in Magazine of Western History, vol. II, p. 321. ^Madrid Gazette, March 12,' 1782. " Butler's Kentucky, p. 75. 'Calendar Virginia State Papers, vol. I, p. 465. 8 Madrid Gazette, March 12, 1782. 9 Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. I, p. 274. ¦"Ibid., vol. I, p. 274, n. " Illinois in the Revolution, ante. '2 Parkman's Pontiac, voL I, pp. 59, 273 ; Reynold's Illinois, p. 68. ¦'Charlevoix Journal, vol. II, pp. 94, 184. \. "H. W. Beckwith, Danville, Illinois. '^ Michigan Pioneers' Collection, vol. I, p. 122. '' American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. V, pp. 779, 780. " Spark's Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. VIII, p. 76. " Works of Franklin (Spark's), vol. IX, p. 128. "Spark's Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. VIII, p 98. 2»Ibid., p. 150. 21 Pitkin's History of the U. S., vol. II, chap. 15. »» Letters of W. H. Green, Cairo, 111., Nov. 12, Dec. 12, 1885. 22 Dillon's Indiana, ed. 1843, p. 190. 2* Reynold's Illinois, p. xoi. Note. — For other mention of the Spanish expedition, see Annals of the West, 1846, Cincinnati ed. Pirtle's Introduction to Clark's Campaign in the Ills., pp. 3, 4 Secret Journals of Congrress, vol. II. 312 THE CHICAGO MASSACRE Early in August, in the year of grace 1812, there had come through the forest and across the prairie to the lonely Fort Dearborn an Indian runner, like a clansman with the fiery cross, bearing the news of battle and disaster. War with Great Britain had been declared in June, Mackinac had fallen into the hands of the enemy in July, and with these alarming tidings the red messenger brought an order from the commanding general at Detroit contemplating the abandonment of this frontier post. Concerning the terms of his order authorities have differed. Captain Heald, who received it, speaks of it as a peremptory command to evacuate the fort. Others with good means of knowledge say that the dispatch directed him to vacate the fort if practicable. But Gen eral Hull, who sent the order, settles this question in a report to the War Department, which has recently come to light. Writing under date of July 29, 1812, he says: "I shall immediately send an express to Fort Dearborn with orders to evacuate that post and retreat to this place (Detroit) or Fort Wayne, provided it can be effected with a greater prospect of safety than to remain. Captain Heald is a judicious officer, and I shall confide much to his discretion. ' ' The decision whether to go or stay rested theirefore with Captain Nathan Heald, and tmly the responsibility was a heavy one. Signs of Indian hostility had not been wanting. But the evening before the day of the evacua- 313 314 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY tion, the i sth of August, Black Partridge, a chief of the Pottawattamie tribe, long a friend of the whites, had entered the quarters of the commanding officer and handed to him the medal which the warrior wore in token of services to the American cause in the Indian cam paigns of "Mad" Anthony Wayne. With dignity and with sadness the native orator said : "Father, I come to deliver up to you the medal I wear. It was given me by the Americans, and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men are resolved to imbrue their hands in the blood of the whites. I cannot restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy. ' ' On that dreary day one gleam of light fell across the path of the perplexed commander. Captain William Wells arrived from Fort Wayne with a small party of friendly Miami Indians to share the fortunes of the imperiled garrison. This gallant man, destined to be the chief hero and victim of the Chicago massacre,, had had a most remarkable career. Of a good Kentucky family, he was stolen when a boy of twelve by the Miami Indians and adopted by their great chief, Me-chee-kau-nah-qua, or Little Turtle, whose daughter became his wife. He fought on the side of the red men in their defeats of Gen eral Harmar in 1790, and General St. Clair in 1791. Dis covered by his Kentucky kindred when he had reached years of manhood, he was persuaded to ally himself with his own race, and took formal leave of his Indian com rades, avowing henceforth his enmity to them. Joining Wayne's army, he was made captain of a company of scouts, and was a most faithful and valuable officer. When peace came with the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, he devoted himself to obtaining an education, and sue- THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 315 ceeded so well that he was appointed Indian agent and served in that capacity at Chicago as early as 1803, and later at Fort Wayne, where he was also the government interpreter and a Justice of the Peace. Here he heard of the probable evacuation of the post at Chicago, and knowing the temper of the Indians, he gathered such force as he could and made a rapid march across the country to save, or die with, his friends at Fort Dearborn, among whom the wife of Captain Heald was his own favorite niece, whose gentle influence had been most potent in winning him back from barbarism years before. It seemed almost as if he had resolved to atone for the period in which he had ignorantly antagonized his own people by a supreme effort in their behalf against the race which had so nearly made him a savage. He came too late to effect any change in Captain Heald's plans. The abandonment was resolved upon, the stores and ammunition were in part destroyed and in part divided among the Indians, who were soon to make so base a return for these gifts. At nine o'clock on that fatal summer morning the march began from the little fort, which stood where Michigan Avenue and River Street now join, on a slight eminence around which the river wound to find its way to the lake, near the present ter minus of Madison Street. The garrison bade farewell to the rude stockade and the log barracks and magazine and two corner blockhouses which composed the first Fort Dearborn. When this only place of safety was left behind, the straggling line stretched out along the shore of the lake. Captain Wells and a part of his Miamis in the van, half a company of regulars and a dozen militia men, and the wagons with the women and children fol lowing, and the remainder of the Miamis bringing up the 3i6 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY rear. The escort of Pottawattamies, which that treach erous tribe had glibly promised to Captain Heald, kept abreast of the troops until they reached the sand hills intervening between the prairie and the lake, and here the Indians disappeared behind the ridge. The whites kept on near the water to a point a mile and a half from the fort, and about where Fourteenth Street now ends, when Wells in the advance was seen to turn and ride back, swinging his hat around his head in a circle, which meant in the sign language of the frontier: "We are sur rounded by Indians." As soon as he came within hearing he shouted: "We are surrounded; march up on the sand ridges. " And all at once, in the graphic languge of Mrs. Heald, they saw "the Indians' heads sticking up and down again, here and there, like turtles out of the water. ' ' Instantly a volley was showered down from the sand hills, the troops were brought into line, and charged up the bank, one man, a veteran of seventy years, falling as they ascended. Wells shouted to Heald: "Qharge them!" and then led on and broke the line of the Indians, who scattered right and left. Another charge was made, in which Wells did deadly execution upon the perfidious barbarians, loading and firing two pistols and a gun in rapid succession. But the Pottawattamies, beaten in front, closed in on the flanks. The cowardly Miamis rendered no assistance, and in fifteen minutes' time the savages had possession of the baggage train and were slaying the women and children, Heald and a remnant of his command were isolated on a mound in the prairie. He had lost, all his officers and half his men, was himself sorely wounded, and there was no choice but to surren der. Such, in merest outline was the battle, and one of THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 317 its saddest incidents was the death of Captain Wells. As he rode back from the fray, desperately wounded, he met his niece and bade her farewell, saying: "Tell my wife, if you live to see her — but I think it doubtful if a single one escapes — tell her I died at my post, doing the best I could. There are seven red devils over there that I have killed. " As he spoke his horse fell, pinning him to the ground. A group of Indians approached; he took delib erate aim and fired, killing one of them. As the others drew near, with a last effort he proudly lifted his head, saying: "Shoot away," and the fatal shot was fired. The young wife of Lieutenant Helm, second in com mand of the fort, was attacked by an Indian lad, who struck her on the shoulder with a tomahawk. To pre vent him from using his weapons she seized him around the neck and strove to get possession of the scalping- knife which hung in a scabbard over his breast. In the midst of the struggle she was dragged from the grasp of her assailant by an older Indian. He bore her to the lake and plunged her into the waves; but she quickly per ceived that his object was not to drown her, as he held her head above the water. Gazing intently at him she soon recognized, in spite of the paint with which he was disguised, the whilom friend of the whites. Black Par tridge, who saved her from further harm and restored her to her friends. For this good deed, and others too, this noble chief should be held in kindly remembrance. It is difficult to realize that such scenes could have taken place in the Chicago of to-day; but history and tradition alike bear witness to that bloody battlefield. From the place on the lake shore where Wells' signal halted the column over the parallel sand ridges stretching southwesterly along the prairie and through the bushy 31 8 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY ravines between, the running fight continued probably as far as the present intersection of Twenty-first Street and Indiana Avenue, where one of our soldiers was slain and scalped, and still lies buried. Just over on what is now Michigan Avenue must have been the little eminence on the prairie on which Heald made his last rally, and at the eastern end of Eighteenth Street the skulking sav ages, who had given way at the advance of our men, gathered in their rear around the few wagons which had vainly sought to keep under the cover of our line. If the gaunt old cottonwood on the latter spot, long known as the "Massaci;e Tree," could speak, what a tale of horror it would tell. For tradition, strong as Holy Writ, affirms that between this tree and its neighbor the roots of which still remain beneath the pavement, the baggage wagon, containing twelve children of the white families of the fort, halted and one young savage climb ing into it tomahawked the entire group. A little while and this sole witness of that deed of woe must pass away. But the duty of preserving the name and locality of the Chicago massacre, which has been its charge for so many years, is now transferred to a stately monument, which will faithfully perform it long after the fall of the "Mas sacre Tree." Captain Heald's whole party, not including the Miami detachment, when they marched out of Fort Dearborn, comprised fifty-four regulars, twelve militiamen, nine women and eighteen children — ^ninety-three white persons in all. Of these,twenty-six regulars and the twelve militia men were slain in action, two women and twelve children were murdered on the field, and five regulars were bar barously put to death, after the surrender. There remained then but thirty-six of the whole party of ninety- THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 319 three, and of the sixty-six fighting men who met their red foemen here that day only twenty -three survived. These, with seven women and six children, were prisoners in the hands of the savages. We know of the romantic escape, by the aid of friendly Indians, of Captain and Mrs. Heald and Lieutenant and Mrs. Helm ; and three of the soldiers, one of whom was Orderly Sergeant William Griffith, in less than two months after the massacre, found their way to Michigan, bringing the sad news from Fort Dearborn. Hull's surrender had placed Detroit in the hands of the enemy; but the Territorial Chief Justice, Woodward, the highest United States authority there, in a ringing letter to the British commandant. Colonel Proc tor, under date of October 8, 1812, demanded in the name of humanity that instant means should be taken for the preservation of these unhappy captives by sending special messengers among the Indians to collect the prisoners and bring them to the nearest army post, and that orders to cooperate should be issued to the British officers on the lakes. Colonel Proctor one month before had been informed by his own people of the bloody work at Chi cago, and had reported the same to his superior officer, Major-General Brock, but had contented himself with remarking that he had no knowledge of any attack hav ing been intended by the Indians on Chicago, nor could they indeed be said to be within the influence of the British. Now, spurred to action by Judge Woodward's clear and forcible presentation of the case. Proctor promised to use the most effective means in his power for the speedy release from slavery of these unfortunate individuals. He committed the matter to Robert Dickson, British agent to the Indians of the western nations, who pro- 320 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY ceeded about it leisurely enough. March i6, 1813, he wrote from St. Joseph Lake, Michigan, that there remained of the ill-fated garrison of Chicago, captives among the Indians, seventeen soldiers, four women and some children, and that he had taken the necessary steps for their redemption, and had the fullest confidence that he should succeed in getting the whole. Six days later he came to Chicago and inspected the ruined fort, where, as he says, there remained only two pieces of brass ord nance, three-pounders — one in the river, with wheels, and the other dismounted — a powder magazine, well pre served, and a few houses on the outside of the fort, in good condition. This desolation apparently was not relieved by the presence of a single inhabitant. Such was the appearance of Chicago in the spring following the massacre. Of these seventeen soldiers, the nine who survived their long imprisonment were ransomed by a French trader and sent to Quebec, and ultimately reached Plattsburg, New York, in the summer of 1814. Of the women two were rescued from slavery, one by the kind ness of Black Partridge ; and the other doubtless perished in captivity. Of the children, we hear again of only one. In a letter written to Major-General Proctor by Captain Bullock, the British commander at Mackinac, September 25, 1813, he says: "There is also here a boy (Peter Bell), five or six years of age, whose father and mother were killed at Chicago. The boy was purchased from the Indians by a trader and brought here last July by direc tion of Mr. Dickson. ' ' Of the six little people who fell into the hands of the Indians this one small waif alone seems to have floated to the shore of freedom. The Pottawattamies, after the battle and the burning of the fort, divided their booty and prisoners and scat- THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 321 tered, some to their villages, some to join their brethren in the siege of Fort Wayne. Here they were foiled by the timely arrival of William Henry Harrison, then Gov ernor of the Indiana Territory, with a force of Kentucky and Ohio troops, and condign punishment was inflicted upon a part at least of the Chicago murderers. A detach ment which General Harrison assigned to this work was commanded by Colonel Samuel Wells, who must have' remembered his brother's death when he destroyed the village of Five Medals, a leading Pottawattamie chief. To one of the ruthless demons who slew women and chil dren under the branches of the cottonwood tree, such an appropriate vengeance came that it seems fitting to tell the story here. He was older than most of the band, a participant in many battles, and a deadly enemy of the whites. His scanty hair was drawn tightly upward and tied with a string, making a tuft on top of his head, and from this peculiarity he was known as Chief Shavehead. Years after the Chicago massacre he was a hunter in west ern Michigan, and when in liquor was fond of boasting of his achievements on the warpath. On one of these occa sions in the streets of a little village he told the fearful tale of his doings on this field with all its horrors ; but among his hearers there chanced to be a soldier of the garrison of Fort Dearborn, one of the few survivors of that fatal day. As he listened he saw that frightful scene again, and was maddened by its recall. At sundown the old brave left the settlement, and silently on his trail the soldier came, "with his gun," says the account, "resting in the hollow of his left arm and the right hand clasped around the lock, with forefinger carelessly toying with the trigger. ' ' The red man and the white passed into the shade of the forest; the soldier returned alone; Chief 322 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY Shavehead was never seen again. He had paid the pen alty of his crime to one who could, with some fitness, exact it. Such was the fate of a chief actor in that dark scene. Many others of the Pottawattamie tribe joined the Brit ish forces in the field, and at the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813, they were confronted again by Harrison and his riflemen, who then avenged the slaughter at Chi cago upon some of its perpetrators. PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY AND SONS COMPANY AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 01545 1348